Cinnamon Roll Cake

 "Spiced Applesauce Cake"

A Chicken in Every Pot

A crock pot, that is. Making this slow cooker meal is incredibly simple, but the results are so good! It works great for a Sunday meal. You'll need a whole chicken - not the little fryer kind - the bigger ones are better. We get a 2-pack at Sams Club and freeze one for later. Just make sure the bird will fit in your slow cooker, with some room to spare for the veggies. This isn't really a recipe in the sense that you can add whatever you like. Por ejemplo, we don't love potatoes so much so I only add about 3 when I make this for just us. But I love carrots, so I put in at least 6 or so.

Supply List:

a whole chicken

potatoes, peeled if desired & cut into large wedges

carrots, peeled and cut into large pieces

onion and/or old apple scraps

anything else (maybe you like celery chunks, pearl onions... or turnips?)

poultry seasoning

sea salt & pepper

1 chicken bouillon cube*

1/2 cup chicken broth (or water & more bouillon)

Okay, here's how I do this:

1. Turn the crock pot on to high and add the chicken broth.

2. Put all those potato pieces in the crock pot next and crumble the bouillon cube over them. If your crock pot is oval shaped, or larger than your chicken, go ahead and put all the veggies in right now. Our slow cooker is not, so I save the carrots and any smaller veggies for step 4.

*If you are adding lots of veggies to serve more than 4, you may want to crumble 2 bouillon cubes over everything.

3. Take your chicken out of its plastic wrap and get ready to season it. I like to do this in the sink. It's easier to clean up all the nasty raw chicken stuff. If your chicken has giblets stuffed in the hole, get those out and toss them in the trash. Yuck. Stuff the empty cavity with onion wedges or even old apple wedges. Just so it's not empty. Now simply season the bird with the salt & pepper and that poultry seasoning. Season it heavily, especially with the poultry stuff. When it's ready, put it in the cooker, with the breast side on the top. That makes for easier cutting later.

4. Next it's time to stuff any remaining nooks and crannies with the rest of your veggies if your cooker is tight on space. If you have room to spare, let's move on.

5. Put the lid on and walk away for 3 hours. DO NOT TAKE THE LID OFF during the cooking. Just don't.

6. After about 3 hours on high (we've gone up to 4 hours with good results, if you can't make it back), turn the crock pot down to low. DO NOT TAKE THE LID OFF. Leave it on low for at least 3 more hours. 3 hours alone with get you wonderfully soft, succulent chicken that more or less holds its shape when you cut and serve it. If you leave it in for 4+ hours, the meat will fall apart much, much more. Which is fine, if you like that.

That's it. We like eating ours with some gravy on the table. Enjoy!

Awesome BBQ Chicken Chili

INGREDIENTS

2 cans black beans

2 cans kidney beans
2 cans chili beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 bottle bbq sauce (my bottle is probably like 16 oz or so...) - honey bbq is good
1/2 bottle ketchup (again...not the gigantic bottle...probably 16 oz.)
2T sugar
cayan pepper (I hardly do any)
4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts

DIRECTIONS
Dump all cans into crock pot UNDRAINED, and other ingredients except chicken. Mix it all together and then taste a bit of it, so you know if you want to add more of anything. Then add the chicken ( add it after I taste it so I don't get salmonella). Cook on high in crock pot for 4 hours. (I put the chicken in frozen, but you can do thawed chicken too.)

Once the 4 hours is up, you take the chicken out and shred it up, and then put it back in and mix it all up. I like to add a plop of sour cream on top and shredded cheese, and you MUST eat it with fritos. YUUUMMMY!!!

Pumpkin Pie Milkshake

this is sooo good. pumpkin pie is just a'ight for me, but this is glorious. topher....its just like a pieshake from sammy's.

1/3 C pumpkin, canned or homemade
1/4 - 1/2 C milk
1/4 t vanilla
1/2 t cinnamon
1/16 t cloves (just use a 1/8 t measure and fill it half way, or do a pinch)
1/16 t nutmeg
2 T brown sugar
2 C vanilla ice cream
1-2 graham crackers

pop everything but the ice cream and graham crackers in a blender. start with 1/4 C milk and then slowly add more if needed to make the blender process it all. i like to mix all the powders to make sure they blend then add the ice cream.

once its blendeded you can sprinkle on some grahams and enjoy.

its sooo good.

buffalo chicken crescent puffs

INGREDIENTS

12

oz cream cheese (from two 8-oz packages), softened

2

tablespoons Louisiana hot sauce or other red pepper sauce - we added more for more pronounced flavor

1/3

cup crumbled blue cheese (1 1/2 oz)

1/4

cup finely chopped celery (i, of course, omitted this - yuck)

1

cup finely chopped cooked chicken breast - we added between 1/12 - 2 C

2

cans (8 oz each) crescent rounds (16 rounds) or 2 cans (8 oz each) crescent dinner rolls

1/3

cup Unsalted or Salted Butter, melted

1

cup plain or chicken-flavored panko-style bread crumbs

DIRECTIONS

• 1 Line cookie sheet with sides with waxed paper or cooking parchment paper. In medium bowl, mix cream cheese and pepper sauce. Stir in blue cheese and celery. Stir in chicken until well blended. Shape mixture by tablespoonfuls into 32 (1 1/2-inch) balls; place on cookie sheet. Refrigerate 20 minutes.

  2 Meanwhile, heat oven to 350°F. If using crescent rounds, remove from package, but do not separate rounds. If using crescent rolls, remove from package, but do not unroll. Using serrated knife, cut each roll evenly into 16 rounds; carefully separate rounds. Press each round to 3 inches in diameter. Place chilled chicken mixture ball on center of each dough round; shape dough around ball to cover completely.

  3 In shallow dish, place melted butter. In another shallow dish, place bread crumbs. Dip dough balls into butter, then roll in bread crumbs. Place 2 inches apart on large ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 17 to 22 minutes or until golden brown.

Creamy Mexican Chicken Soup

I don't know about the rest of you, but it's getting colder here and time for warm recipes. Hooray for crock pots and things being super easy to make!

INGREDIENTS

1 lb. chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 - 16 oz. can of corn with peppers, drained

1 - 10 3/4 oz. can of condensed potato soup

1 - 4 oz. can of diced green chile peppers

3 C. chicken broth

1/2 taco mix packet

8 oz. sour cream

1/2 8 oz. block of pepper jack cheese cut into cubes

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine chicken, corn, potato soup, undrained chile peppers, taco mix, and chicken broth in crock pot. Mix well, cover. (duh.) Cook on low for 4-6 hours, or on high for 2-3 hours.

2. Put sour cream in a bowl and add some of the hot broth to mix. (so the sour cream blends in better.) Pour back in and add in the pepper jack cheese. Cover and let stand 5 minutes, and then devour with fritos!

Crisp Rosemary Flatbread

i have this food site that i LOVE. i have tried many of the recipes there and am almost always so glad that i did. Smitten Kitchen go there.

so naturally, my first recipe post should be from its archives. the following is straight from the site. also, i just made this for the second time in three days. the first time, these "crackers", as we call them, lasted mere hours. they are so simple and so good.

Crisp Rosemary Flatbread
Adapted from Gourmet, July 2008

Nothing could be easier than making this cracker, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tell people you slaved all day over it because they’re going to be impressed, really impressed, and I see no reason not to milk it.

I think you could easily swap the rosemary for other herbs, such as thyme or tarragon, or punch it up with black pepper or other spices, but personally, I like it just the way it is here.

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary plus 2 (6-inch) sprigs
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup olive oil plus more for brushing
Flaky sea salt such as Maldon (has anyone seen this stateside?)

Preheat oven to 450°F with a heavy baking sheet on rack in middle.

Stir together flour, chopped rosemary, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Make a well in center, then add water and oil and gradually stir into flour with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. Knead dough gently on a work surface 4 or 5 times.

Divide dough into 3 pieces and roll out 1 piece (keep remaining pieces covered with plastic wrap) on a sheet of parchment paper into a 10-inch round (shape can be rustic; dough should be thin).

Lightly brush top with additional oil and scatter small clusters of rosemary leaves on top, pressing in slightly*. Sprinkle with sea salt. Slide round (still on parchment) onto preheated baking sheet and bake until pale golden and browned in spots, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer flatbread (discard parchment) to a rack to cool, then make 2 more rounds (1 at a time) on fresh parchment (do not oil or salt until just before baking). Break into pieces.

Flatbread can be made 2 days ahead and cooled completely, then kept in an airtight container at room temperature.

*here are my changes: i didn't brush the top with more oil. i felt the dough had plenty. on the other hand, if you have a good oil i suppose the more the merrier? i dunno. i also used kosher salt in the dough, and sprinkled (just a bit) more on top. oh yeah, and i also also also have a thing with big pieces of dried rosemary, so i had a bottle of dried, crushed rosemary that i used. our fresh stuff is getting woody.

More Advice: if you remove the flatbread from the oven, just as the edges are beginning to brown, the texture results in more of a chew than a snap. i liked that. ammon, however, wanted his crispy & snappy, so i left one in just a litttttttle bit longer. and there you have it.