Merry Christmas 2020

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!!

May your day be full of Feasting, Fun and loads of Fa la la la la, la la la!

 

Candy Cane Milkshake

Chocolate Cheesecake Candy Cane Bars

Christmas Sugar Cookies

Cinnamon Roll Christmas Tree

Decked out Deck the Halls Fudge

Hershey's Candy Cane Cookies

Oreo Cookie Ball Christmas Tree and Snowballs

Peppermint Bark Cookies

Reindeer Cupcakes

Rice Krispie Christmas Wreath

 

 

Copyright: All recipes, content, and images (unless otherwise stated) are the sole property of Kitchen Simmer formerly known as Curry and Comfort. Please do not use without prior written consent. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Green Bean Casserole with Fried Onions

There are a few dishes that are almost always on the Thanksgiving table.  My favorite is STUFFING!  Then there are dishes that I can totally do without like the dreaded green bean casserole.   I love green beans, but I do not like the mushy green bean casserole made with canned mushroom soup.  There is really no flavor and I find it boring and bland.

Boring and bland are two words that should not be apart of the Thanksgiving menu.  So I set out to make my own version of a green bean casserole from scratch.  I even attempted the fried onions- the only part of the dish that anyone ever likes from the traditional recipe.    My fried onion version only cost pennies to make compared to the expensive prepared fried onions that most people use. 

I also spiced my casserole up with flavors I love like cumin seeds and chilies.  This green bean casserole is definitely not boring or bland.  I really knew I had a hit on my hands when my son who claims to "hate" green beans ask for a portion of it and raved on how good it tasted.  So now that I know it's good,  it needs to be on the table a lot more often than just Thanksgiving.

Green Bean Casserole with Fried Onions

by Kitchen Simmer

Ingredients

Green Bean Casserole

• 1lb fresh green beans
• 1lb sliced button mushrooms
• 1 large onion chopped
• 1-2 chilies (jalapenos, serrano or fresno) sliced
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 4-5 Tbs canola oil as needed
• 2 Tbs flour (see tip in instructions)
• salt and black pepper to taste
• red chili flakes to taste
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 3/4 tsp granulated garlic (divided)
• 1 Tbs soy sauce
• 1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 1 up to 2 cups milk or half and half (as needed)
• 1/2 cup Monterrey jack or mozzarella cheese

Fried Onions:

• 1 large onion sliced very thin (mandolin slicer recommended)
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• salt to season flour
• paprika to season flour
• Oil to deep fry onions

Instructions

For Casserole

1. Clean beans then blanch in hot water until tender crisp, drain and set aside.

2. Heat 2 Tbs canola oil in large saute pan and add chopped onions and chilies. Saute for 2-3 minutes.

3. Next add cumin seeds, a little salt to season and turmeric powder. Saute for another minute.

4. Add blanched beans to pan and saute with 1/4 tsp garlic powder and red chili flakes for 2 minutes .

5. Place cooked beans into casserole dish. Set aside until later.

6. In same pan, add 2-3 Tbs more canola oil. Add clean and dry sliced mushrooms. Saute for several minutes until mushroom get deep brown.

7. Then add salt, black pepper, red chili flakes, 1/2 tsp garlic powder and thyme. Saute for 2 more minutes.

8. Add flour to pan and cook with beans. Once flour has cooked for a minute, add soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Stir well.

9. Then add milk and allow sauce to thicken. If sauce is too thick, add more milk as needed. Taste for seasoning.

10. Top green beans in casserole dish with mushroom and sauce. Then top with shredded cheese and bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes or cheese is bubbly.

For Fried Onions:

1. Slice onions and place on a paper towel in a single layer to dry our for 30 minutes.

2. Prepare seasoned flour and dredge onions in flour. Shake off excess flour and fry in hot oil (360 degrees) until golden brown. Drain on paper towel or newspaper. Season with a little more salt once onions are fried.

TIP: Use the leftover seasoned flour in your green bean casserole.

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Copyright: All recipes, content, and images (unless otherwise stated) are the sole property of Kitchen Simmer formerly known as Curry and Comfort. Please do not use without prior written consent. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Pumpkin Flan with Maple Syrup

 

After our Thanksgiving feast, most of us are craving something, something pumpkin.  This light and easy dessert can be made the day before and is best served chilled.  It takes only 5 minutes to prep and 1 hour in the oven.  Then just chill for several hours so making it the day before Thanksgiving is perfect. Check one thing you extra you have to do on the day of Turkey Day. 

Ingredients:
For the custard:
4 large eggs
2 cups of coconut milk
1 tsp of vanilla
1/3 cup  of sugar or splenda
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup pumpkin puree (fresh or canned)
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

For the syrup:
As needed- Store bought maple syrup (your favorite brand- not sugar free)

Directions:
Put all ingredients into blender.  Blend until smooth and well mixed.   Place 2-3 tsp of maple syrup at the bottom of each well of muffin pan or oven safe baking dish.

Pour custard to the top of each well.  Bake in a 325 degree oven in a water bath.  I pour hot water carefully to a much larger pan- be careful not to get any water into custard. 



Take out of oven and allow to cool.  Take a knife and slowly trace round the custard to loosen it from the pan or dish.  Chill for several hours.  To serve, invert over a plate or a platter.  The maple syrup should form a glaze/sauce for the flan.  

 

Copyright: All recipes, content, and images (unless otherwise stated) are the sole property of Kitchen Simmer formerly known as Curry and Comfort. Please do not use without prior written consent. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Pumpkin, Banana and Chocolate Chip Muffins

 

Here is a pumpkin recipe to start off the month of October.  These muffins were amazing.  It's another one of my cake box experiments and I actually wasn't even sure if would turn out okay because I added so much puree. I was so happy when they turned out light and incredibly moist.  The flavors of chocolate and pumpkin/banana were wonderful together. I had to call them muffin-cakes because they were soft and tender like a cake, but still had the full body feeling of a muffin. So I call that the best of both worlds.  My daughter made me promise to make a batch very soon so I know I will definitely make this recipe again.

 Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
2 ripe medium bananas mashed
1 (15oz) can plain pumpkin puree
1 bag (2cups chocolate chips)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
sliced almonds (optional) 

 Directions:
Mash bananas and pumpkin puree together.  Mix in spices and cake mix. Tip:  Make sure cake mix has no lumps by sifting it first).  Mix the cake mix  and banana/pumpkin mixture until it forms a batter.  The batter will be a bit stiff, but don't worry.  Fold in chocolate chip

cookies next.

Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray and top with sliced almonds.  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.  Allow muffins to cool in pan.   Makes 18 muffins.  Enjoy.

Tip:  I don't recommend using cupcake liners (unless they are aluminum).  I did a few with the liners and the liners did stick to the muffin.  

 

Copyright: All recipes, content, and images (unless otherwise stated) are the sole property of Kitchen Simmer formerly known as Curry and Comfort. Please do not use without prior written consent. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Cinnamon Ginger Apple Cake

 

Apples = September/Fall for me.  It's the start of the school year so everyone thinks of giving an apple to the teacher.. well they used to do that in the olden days. It's also apple harvesting time and you can find a beautiful bounty of apples to chose from these days.  My favorite apples are Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, McIntosh and Gala.  I got a good deal on Golden Delicious apples the other day at the grocery store so I decided to throw some into a cake.  This cake tasted like apple pie.  I was thrilled to bits because husband and mother both flipped for this cake.  I love when people react like that to something I make... especially something I baked.   I think I will have to make this easy cake recipe many more times to celebrate fall this year.

Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
** ingredients on box cake mix.  I always substitute milk for the water in the recipe.
2 cups (peeled and diced) golden delicious apples
1 Tbs ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

Topping:
sliced apples
1/4 cup brown sugar
2-3 Tbs cold butter

Directions:

 Mix cake batter and add ground spices.  The fold in the two cups of apples.   Grease or spray a bundt cake pan well.  If you decided to do the optional topping mix the cold butter and brown sugar.  Place the mixture on the bottom of the bundt pan. Arrange apples slices around bundt pan as shown.

Pour batter over apples in pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 45-55 minutes.  Mine was done at 50 minutes.  Test with a wooden skewer or a butter knife near the center of the bundt to check.  Allow cake to cook in pan for 30 minutes and then invert onto cake plate.  Enjoy.

 

Copyright: All recipes, content, and images (unless otherwise stated) are the sole property of Kitchen Simmer formerly known as Curry and Comfort. Please do not use without prior written consent. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Pizza Stuffed Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Pasta

 

This dish was a bit of an experiment.  I knew I wanted to make a stuffed chicken dish, but I also wanted to wrap bacon around chicken.  So I put all those steps into one dish.  I decided at the last minute to cook the chicken in the sauce and toss the pasta in the sauce.  That was pretty fabulous because it made a wonderful and flavorful side dish.  This meal got a thumbs up from everyone at the table. 

 

Ingredients:
5-6 boneless chicken breast
5-6 slices of good quality bacon
25-30 slices of pepperoni
5-6 slices fresh mozzarella
1 large jar spaghetti sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp garlic powder
red chili flakes to taste
salt and black pepper to taste
1/2 Parmesan cheese
1 box pasta cooked in salted water until al dente

Directions:

Butterfly chicken open by using knife to cut through the middle of the breast, but not all the way through.  Season inside of chicken with some salt and black pepper.  Layer some pepperoni slices and sliced mozzarella cheese.  Fold over and enclose the pepperoni and cheese inside the chicken.

 Take a slice of bacon and wrap around chicken.  Pour pasta sauce into baking dish with garlic powder, dried oregano, dried basil and red chili flakes.  Place bacon wrapped chicken into dish.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 55 minutes or chicken is cooked through.

Remove baked chicken from cooked sauce and toss cooked pasta in sauce with 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese.

** If you don't the bacon grease, use a spoon to skim out the grease (it will be floating on the top) before tossing the pasta.    

Eat stuffed chicken with pasta.  Enjoy.

 



Copyright: All recipes, content, and images (unless otherwise stated) are the sole property of Curry and Comfort. Please do not use without prior written consent. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Watermelon Kiwi Popsicles

Watermelon Kiwi Popsicles are just what we need to cool off during these hot summer days!  The weather is hitting the 100 degree mark these days and the humidity makes it feel even worse.   I love finding tasty ways to cool off and these popsicles are fun and tasty.

The kids and I made these watermelon pops one afternoon and we loved how they turned out.  They are just so darn cute!  We could not wait to try them and had our first pops right after breakfast.  It was already hitting 85 degrees so we needed them.  

We made our pops without any sugar or simple syrup.  Our watermelon was perfectly sweet enough and I loved the tartness the kiwi gave the "rind".   Now, if you have a less than sweet watermelon or you just love a sugary treat, add some simple syrup.

We will be eating a lot more popsicles in the upcoming days.  The temperatures are staying around the 100 degree mark so we are staying close to the freezer!

Watermelon Kiwi Popsicles


Ingredients:
5-6 cups seedless watermelon chunks
3 large kiwis
chocolate chips as needed (optional)
Simple Syrup to taste (optional)

Simple Syrup:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar

Special equipment:
popsicle molds
popsicle sticks


Directions:
 
Step1:  Cut watermelon into chunks and blend in blender until smooth.  Taste puree, if it is not sweet enough for your desired taste, pour in some simple syrup and blend.     To make the simple syrup, just add the sugar and water into a pot and boil until sugar dissolves and the syrup thickens.

 
Step 2: Then pour watermelon puree into popsicle molds and leave about 1/2 inch from the top.  Drop a few chocolate chips for the "seeds".  Place in the freezer and freeze for one hour so the watermelon has become slushy, but not frozen yet.

Step 3:  Prepare kiwi by peeling the skin and blending until smooth.  If you prefer the kiwi puree to be sweeter, add some simple syrup and blend.  Once popsicles have set for one hour, top with the kiwi puree.  Insert popsicle sticks and freeze overnight. 

Step 4:  Run warm water around popsicle molds and release frozen popsicles from the molds. Enjoy.

 

Copyright: All recipes, content, and images (unless otherwise stated) are the sole property of Kitchen Simmer formerly known as Curry and Comfort. Please do not use without prior written consent. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Very Berry Popsicles

 

These popsicles scream summer and since today is going to be 97 degrees.... they are a welcome treat too. 

Ingredients:
1 pint fresh or frozen blueberries (or about 2 cups)
1 cup fresh raspberries
1 cup fresh strawberries
1 cup simple syrup
juice of one lime

 Simple syrup:
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Heat both ingredients and bring to a boil.  Stir until sugar is dissolved.

Directions:  
Place all ingredient in a blender and blend until smooth.  Pour into popsicle molds, freeze overnight.  Unmold and enjoy. 

 

 



Copyright: All recipes, content, and images (unless otherwise stated) are the sole property of Kitchen Simmer formerly known as Curry and Comfort. Please do not use without prior written consent. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.