Free Cookbook from SeaPak Seafood

Click on the link below for a free cookbook from SeaPak.

We love their jumbo shrimp so I am looking forward to trying some new recipes.

Plus...... make sure you look for coupons in the newspaper and magazines.

http://www.seapak.com/index/easyseafoodmeals

Quick & Easy Taco Salad

I love this recipe. It is the kind of recipe that you can fine tune for your likes and dislikes. Plus, it is fast AND easy. Excuse the paper plate but I felt like minimal clean up tonight.Ingredients

Doritos Taco chips
lettuce (shredded)
shredded cheddar cheese
diced fresh tomatoes
diced white onion
sliced black olives
1 can dark red kidney beans washed and drained
1 bottle Russian or Catalina salad dressing
taco mix
1/2 C water
1 lb ground beef
sour cream optional

Brown ground beef in a skillet. Once the meat is fully cooked, drain as much of the fat as you can from the ground beef. Place meat back in skillet. Add 1/2 C of water, kidney beans, and taco mix to cooked ground beef. Cook until the majority of the water is gone. Remove from heat to cool slightly.

While meat cools, dice the veggies. Once the meat is barely warm add the dressing of your choice (I prefer Russian). Use 1/2 bottle for 1 pound of ground beef.

Crush a large handful of Doritos, place on a plate. Place the following items in this order on top of the Doritos, shredded lettuce, large scoop of cooked taco mixture, diced tomatoes, diced onions, sliced olives, and shredded cheddar. Finish off with a dollop of sour cream.

Some people mix all the ingredients including the Doritos together in a large bowl and then serve with a small bowl of sour cream. I don't prefer this method because once all the items are mixed together they get soggy and cannot be refrigerated as a left over. Yuk, who wants soggy Doritos?

KitchenAid Stand Mixer Sale at Target

I found this information about a KitchenAid Stand Mixer sale at Target. Looks like quite the savings and you don't even need to leave the house or get out of your jammies!!! Now that's my kind of sale.

Info found at A Thrifty Mom blog.

KitchenAid Ultra Power Stand Mixers

Target has a temporary price cut on their KitchenAid Ultra Power Stand Mixers. It looked like not all of the colors are on temporary price cut, but several of them are. The Ultra Power Mixer has a 4.5-qt. bowl and boasts 300 watts of power for mixing double batches.

The list price is is $249.99 temporarily marked down to $199.99. There is an automatic $20 taken off for spending over $100. Use egift card code: URTYJLI8 to take off another $20.

Your total will come to $160 plus tax.

Shop through Shop At Home and receive 5% ($8.00) cash back on your order! Did I mention that shipping is FREE?!

Christmas Cherry Pie with Decorative Crust

For Christmas dinner, the last two years, I have baked a cherry pie. It is not just a cherry pie but a cherry pie inspired by an apple pie recipe that I saw on the Anton Brown show.

How did an apple pie recipe inspire a cherry pie recipe? Well, not so much the recipe but the technique. Anton Brown used a deep tart pan so that the pan could be removed from the pie and the pie could stand alone.

Ingredients
2 cans of cherry pie filling (I used Comstock Country Style)
2T tapioca granules
pie dough from scratch or otherwise (I used Pillbury's frozen pie crusts)
Decorative sparkly white sugar

Utensils
Deep dish tart pan (I had to order mine off the Internet)
Decorative pie crust cutter

First I empty one can of pie filling into a bowl. Then add just the cherries from the second can of filling. Add the 2 T of tapioca granules, this will help thicken the filling so the pie can stand on it's own without a pan for support.

Spray the tart pan to make pan removal easier. Place the bottom layer into the tart pan making sure to press it into the fluted sides of the pan. Pour the filling into the pan. Sprinkle the top of the cherry filling with the decorative sparkly white sugar.

Next roll out the top layer of crust. If dough is starting to get soft place it in the fridge on a cookie sheet for 5 minutes. It is important that the crust not be too soft for the next step.

The decorative pie crust cutters have two patterns, one on each side. This is the two patterns on mine. I used the second pattern for my pie.
Lay the top crust on a flat surface. Center the decorative crust cutter on the pie crust. Press down firmly. I used a rolling pin to make sure it cut the entire pattern into the crust. Lift the cutter directly up. The crust will be very delicate so I wrapped mine around the rolling pin and place onto the pie. Press the top crust and bottom crust together. Cut off the remaining crust that is hanging over the edge of the pan.Bake according to the filling's instructions.Cool completely (overnight in the fridge is best) before removing from the tart pan.

Sorry, I don't have any photos of the entire pie. We started nibbling before I thought about taking a photo.

Chicken Salad Wrap with Cream Cheese and Raspberry Jam

If you read my other blogs you will know that my sister, my niece, and I ate at the French Laundry in Fenton, Michigan last week. We all ordered the same delicious wrap sandwich called a Freudian Slip.This weekend I attempted to recreate this wonderful delesh wrap. Enjoy!!

You will need the following items....

Chicken either fresh or in a can (I used can chicken)
Red onion diced thinly (for one wrap I used one slice of a med size red onion)
Mayo
Seedless red raspberry jam
Cream cheese (I used whipped cream cheese)
Flat bread to wrap chicken salad (I used Mission brand Garden Spinach Herb Wraps)

Make chicken salad (chicken, onion, mayo) remembering to keep salad slightly dry. I made mine too runny and it dripped out of my wrap too easily.Lay out one wrap on a flat surface. Spread with a very thin layer of cream cheese. Now spread a very thin layer of seedless red raspberry jam. Think thin. You do not want either one of these flavor to overwhelm your chicken salad. Using an offset knife makes spreading a lot easier.Place chicken salad in the center of wrap. Fold each side toward the middle.Now starting at one end, roll sandwich making sure to keep all the goodness inside the wrap.Place on a plate and cut on a angle. Add a dill pickle and chips.Well, what do you think?

Here is a close up of the wrapping instructions on the back of the package. Sometimes diagrams are easier to understand.

Saltine Cracker Toffee with Pecans

I first read about this recipe on the Front Porch Indiana blog. I just had to try it for two reasons. First..... I love toffee and second......I had to see how saltine crackers could taste like toffee.

Unbelievable....these taste just like Heath bars. They are also easy easy easy to make.

Saltine Cracker Toffee with Pecans

1 sleeve of saltine crackers (1/4 of a box)
2 sticks butter (I used unsalted)
1 cup packed brown sugar
12 oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I used pecans chopped fine)

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Line with foil and spray the foil. Cover with saltine crackers to fit size of cookie sheet. Set aside.In a saucepan, melt 2 sticks of butter. Add 1 cup packed brown sugar and stir until melted and mixture starts to bubble. Simmer over medium heat and allow to bubble for 3 minutes. Spoon evenly over saltines.Bake in 375°F oven for 8 - 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle with 12 oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chips. Return to oven another minute or until all chips are soft. Then spread softened chocolate chips evenly over toffee with knife. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup chopped pecans.Place cookie sheet in freezer or fridge until set and chocolate is hard. Break apart.

This is what the toffee looks like on the bottom side.Enjoy.

Angela Lansbury's Walnut Date Bread

I found this recipe online on several different recipe sites. I do not know if this is the Angela Lansbury of Murder She Wrote fame or not. But I will say that I have baked this bread on three different occasions and unlike Jessica Fletcher friends, no one died. Seriously, who would want Jessica Fletcher for a friend? All her friends or friends of friends end up dead. My suggestion would be to stay the h e double hockey sticks away from that b@%ch!!! And whatever you do....do not take a vacation to Cabot Cove, Maine. Also I could never understand how she could be an English teacher and solve all these murders. When was she in school? Would you want your kid around Jessica Fletcher? She also wrote best selling murder mysteries. I think Jessica was bumping off people just so she could write a book about it. Her next novel could very well be The Killing Breads, or To Kill a Date Loaf, or Mystery on Walnut Date Loaf Lane.Angela Lansbury's Walnut Date Bread

2 T unsalted butter
1 t baking soda
1 C boiling water
1 C chopped and pitted dates
1 C sugar
2/3 C walnuts chopped
1 egg yolk
1 3/4 C flour
2 t vanilla extract

Makes 1 loaf

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Place butter, dates, baking soda, and boiling water in a heat proof bowl. Allow to cool. Mix walnuts, sugar, egg yolk, flour, and vanilla in a bowl. Add cooled date mixture. Stir until mixed. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Cool 10 minutes and then invert loaf pan to release bread. Place on cooling rack tented with aluminum foil until cool. Keep bread wrapped in foil so bread does not dry out.

This bread is very moist, not too sweet, and just plain deleesh!!!