Gingerbread Popcorn

I am not sure if I like this or not. I love popcorn, I love gingerbread, but put them together and I am not sure about it. I have a ton of recipes that I have collected over the years from magazines or ones that I have printed from places while web surfing. I have had this one for a couple of years, but I am not sure where I found it.

Making it was pretty simple, but I think that it needs to be tweaked some. I think next time, I will add a little cloves and maybe a little more brown sugar to it. Here's the recipe in case you want to try it out, and let me know if you make any changes to it and how it turns out.

Gingerbread Popcorn:

15 cups popped popcorn
1 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 Tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 250 degrees.

Line 2 large baking dishes (I used a 9x13 inch) with foil and coat with cooking spray. Fill each with 7 1/2 cups popcorn.

Combine butter, brown sugar, molasses, corn syrup, ginger, cinnamon, and salt in a large, heavy bottom saucepan. Heat over medium heat until mixture boils. Boil for 5 minutes; stirring frequently. Remove from heat and add baking soda. Pour over popcorn; toss to coat.

Bake at 250 degrees for one hour, carefully stirring the warm mixture about every 15 minutes. Cool completely.

Trim the Tree Thursday

Yes, I am a total slacker this week! I completely forgot about this weeks Trim the Tree. You know when you have one of those weeks when you know that you need to do something on a certain day, and think that you still have time? But, then it is brought to your attention that this is the day to post? (Yes, you know who you are) Well, this is one of those weeks. So head on over to The Southern Hostess and check out her list of blogs to check out.

Ma Tanta Minnie's Chocolate Peanut Butter Blossoms

I am starting to think that Megan and I should call this cookbook project, Chocolate with Marcel instead. For the last 3 weeks, we have chosen recipes from this book. There are so many more that I want to make, and it is sure to cure the chocolate craving.

This weeks recipe was Megan's choice and she picked a great one. But then, there hasn't been one that I haven't liked. This is a great one right here at the holidays. Who doesn't like a good cookie?

I think that Megan was going to get a little fancy with these cookies, go and check out her take on them too! Next up, is my choice of recipe. Not sure what it will be yet...

Ma Tanta Minnie's Chocolate Peanut Butter Blossoms
By: Marcel Desaulniers


1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1 Tbsp pieces and softened
4 oz. semi sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 large egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
16-18 Miniature Reese's Peanut butter cups, unwrapped




Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or wax paper.

Place the flour, butter, chocolate, 1/2 cup of the sugar, the peanut butter, egg, milk, baking soda, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of a stand electric mixer fitted with a paddle. Mix on low for 1 minute, until combined. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle, then beat on medium for 10 seconds, until a dough forms (it does not take very long) and comes off the bottom of the bowl. Remove the bowl from the mixer. (At this point you will notice this dense dough exudes and amazingly seductive aroma of peanut butter and chocolate, giving you an indication of the good things to come. But due to the presence of raw egg in the dough, please refrain from nibbling any.) Just for the record, I did not pay any attention to this little warning! :)

Portion 3 level tablespoons or 1 level #50 ice cream scoop of the dough for each Blossom. Use your hands to form each portion into a smooth ball. Roll the balls in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, lightly coating each.

Place the balls on the baking sheets, about 4 inches apart width wise and 2 inches apart lenghtwise. Place the baking sheets on the top and enter racks of the oven and bake for 10 minutes, until light golden brown, switching the sheets between top and center and rotating each 180 degrees halfway through the baking time.

Remove from the oven and immediately top each Blossom with a peanut butter cup, pressing down so the cup is positioned about halfway into the cookie and creates cracks around the edges (it now resembles a flower blossom). Cool on the baking sheet until room temperature. Store in a tightly sealed plastic container.

Chewy Granola Bars

My two youngest kids are allowed to bring a small, healthy morning snack to school. It really makes no sense to me, because when I was in school, we were not allowed to bring snacks. Well, I guess alot has changed since then too, but back to these bars. Blake and Abby really like granola bars. They like the peanut butter and chocolate chunk ones. Week after week, I buy them for more than $2 for a box of 8. That really isn't that bad, but when I came across this recipe from Make and Takes, I just had to try. I made a couple of minor changes, but you could change them up however you would like. The verdict on these? Great. My kids loved them, and the hubby loved them too. I made them into an 8X8 baking dish, and got 12 bars. I will definitely be making these, instead of buying them in a box from now on.

Chewy Granola Bars Recipe:

2 1/2 c. Oats - quick rolled oats
1/2 c. Rice Krispies
1/4 c. coconut (I did not add this)
1/2 c. M&M minis (I used peanut butter and chocolate chips here)
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/4 c. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla


Add all of the ingredients and mix together until combined. Press into a square 8×8 pan. Bake at 350° for 18-20 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and score into bars. Let it set completely and then cut into bars. For thinner bars, press mix into a 9×13 pan. They seem to set a little better in the 9×13 pan.

Have a great weekend!

Trim the Tree Thursday!

Here we are again for Trim the Tree Thursday, hosted by Brett from The Southern Hostess. My house is all decorated so for this week, I thought I would share with you my gingerbread kitchen.

I have a 4 foot tree in my kitchen decorated in only gingerbread or candy land decorations...



Here is the tree topper....

And next are some ornaments....

Oh, and let's not forget my little Christmas frog, he is even holding his own gingerbread man!

This little guy greets me by my stove.

And this is my new favorite thing. I found it at Cracker Barrell! It is fiber optic and the top spins. You can plug it up or it has a place for batteries. Love it!

Hope you enjoyed my kitchen, don't forget to check out everyone else's Trim the Tree Thursday!

Coconut Chocolate Chunk Macaroons

For this edition of the cookbook project, it was my choice of recipe. Now, I know that the whole point of a cookbook project is to cook out of different cookbooks until you have used every book that you have. Well, I have a little problem with that, when Megan sent me this book I read it from cover to cover and there are so many that I want to make now. And since we have no rules on this cookbook escapade, two recipes, from the same book, in 2 weeks in a row, was completely fine.

You see, I don't really care for coconut. I think that the older I get, the more it grows on me and flipping through this book these macaroons just stuck in my head. They were easy enough to mix together and a little bake in the oven for 15 minutes, and they were ready to be sampled. My first thought was, well, I really don't know what I thought. They were ok, but not great. Probably won't make them again. They are a little crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. But, when I came home and sampled them again, they changed my mind. I think that they are better the next day. Still crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle. So, with that said, I may make them again. I haven't written them off completely, yet.

Coconut Chocolate Chunk Macaroon
By: Marcel Desaulniers

2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup tightly packed light brown sugar
4 large egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
6 oz. semi sweet baking chocolate, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat 2 baking sheets with some of the melted butter. Line the sheets with parchment or wax paper, then lightly coat the paper with more melted butter.

In a sifter, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Sift onto a large piece of parchment or wax paper.

Place the almonds and the sugars in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse for 10 to 12 seconds until combined and the almonds are coarsely chopped.

Place the egg whites and the cream of tartar int eh bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a balloon whip (the bowl and the whip need to be meticulously clean and dry, otherwise the egg whites will not whisk properly). Whisk on high until stiff peaks form, about 2 1/2 minutes. Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a rubber spatula to fold in half the almond mixture. When combined, fold int eh remaining almond mixture. Fold in half of the sifted dry ingredients, when combined, fold in the rest. Now fold in half the chocolate and coconut, and when incorporated, fold in the rest until thoroughly combined.

Using 2 slightly heaping tablespoon or 1 heaping #50 ice cream scoop of the dough to portion 9 macaroons, about 2 inches apart width wise and 3 inches apart lengthwise, on each of the baking sheets. Place the baking sheets on the top and center racks of the oven and bake for 15-16 minutes, until light golden brown, switching the setts between top and center and rotating each sheet 180 degrees halfway through the baking time. Remove from the oven, and immediately transfer from the paper to a cooling rack to cool to room temperature (if the macaroons are not removed from the baking sheets within moments, they will stick to the paper). Store the cooled macaroons in a tightly sealed plastic container.

Barbie Cake For Saylor's 3rd Birthday!!!

This is Saylor. She is my good friend Megan's daughter, who just turned 3 yesterday. This little chick will be the next Ms. Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart, she knows exactly what she wants!

Happy

Birthday

Saylor!!!

Just for the record, this was my first Barbie cake. I can't wait to make her again! She wasn't as hard as I thought she would be. :)