Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Oh my word. Am I excited about this recipe. It just screams fall... and its delicious!! I think my favorite part is smelling it while its baking. Amazing!! You just have to try it!! Its compliments of my friend Kate - she said it is a recipe from her mother. I can tell you - it is now a Watts family recipe as well!

Ingredients
1 large can pumpkin
1 cup milk
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. ginger
1/8 t. cloves
1/2 t. salt
1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1 stick butter, melted
3/4 c. chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Directions
Mix eggs, milk, sugar, pumpkin and spices.
Pour into a 9 X 13 buttered baking dish. Sprinkle cake mix over the mixture.
Drizzle melted butter over top. Sprinkle nuts on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.
Can serve with whipped topping.

Baked Orzo with Chicken and Vegetables

Sorry for my long absence! Sam said its because we can't ever get home to have a meal! Well, finally we did the other night and I tried out a recipe which needed to be all of these things: cheap, tasty, convenient. (Meaning I can keep the ingredients on hand - since I get home late lots of evenings its nice to have recipes where I have non-perishable ingredients so I don't have to stop at the store! Although I do love fresh ingredients!) This is kind of my take on a chicken and rice bake, but I thought the orzo would be a fun, Italian touch!

I hope I didn't forget anything! Sam really liked this, so I was glad. Because that is the true test of whether I will make a recipe again or not! He didn't even notice the vegetables.



Ingredients

2 cups chicken stock
1/2 pound orzo
small onion, chopped
1 can of chicken
tbs. olive oil
breadcrumbs (can use dried or I used 2 slices of bread shredded in my food processor).
2 tbs. butter
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 can of vegetables (I used peas and carrots)
1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

Bring the chicken stock to boiling. Once its boiling, add the orzo and turn heat to medium. Let simmer until orzo is al dente and most of the liquid is absorbed.

While that is cooking, saute onions and chicken over medium heat in a saute pan. If the chicken is in large chunks, I like to break it up so it is more shredded. Once the onions are softened a bit, remove from heat.

Saute breadcrumbs and butter until they are toasted.

In a large bowl, mix the orzo (no need to drain - a little extra stock is good!), chicken and onions, soup, can of vegetables, and Parmesan. Mix.

In a 9X9 pan, spray with non-stick cooking spray. Pour the mixture in the pan. Cover with breadcrumbs. Put in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, just until it is bubbling.




Enjoy this warm, gooey, cheap, convenient recipe!

Baked Potato Soup

I had potatoes that I really had to use up before they got bad, and $1 bunch of chives from the farmer's market... what's a girl to do? Potato soup of course!!

Now I hope I can remember everything I put in - I just used things in my kitchen that sounded like they would be good in a soup! And be warned - measurements are VERY approximate!!

Ingredients

4 potatos, peeled and cut into cubes
2 tbs. butter
salt
1 cup water
1 cup chicken stock
3 slices of bacon, cut into pieces
1/2 onion, diced
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. oregano
pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic seasoning (I used Garlic Garlic from Tastefully Simple)
1/3 cup of velveeta, cut into small pieces
chopped scallions
sour cream

Directions

Put potatoes into a large pot with water, stock and butter. Add some salt to season the potatoes (but not too much - the bacon will add a lot of salt later). Boil the potatoes over medium high heat.

While that cooks, saute the bacon until almost cripsy. Add onions and saute with the bacon a few minutes. Remove from heat.

Once the potatoes are soft, use a fork to mash up about 1/4 of them. Lower the heat to medium low. Add the bacon and onion mixture. Add cream, oregano, pepper to taste, garlic, and velveeta. Heat until velveeta melts. Lower heat to "low" and let the soup simmer a few minutes to let the flavors develop. Add some scallions to the soup.

Dish up, top with sour cream and more scallions for garnish. Enjoy!!

Flatbread with Bacon, Onions and Pesto

This is the first recipe I've tried from my new Food Network magazine that my mom got me for a present! I love the magazine and was really excited to try this dish which looked like it would make a delicious and beautiful appetizer.

It is beautiful (as you can see) and was good, although I would tweak a few things next time. That is - I would not put lemon zest in the sour cream - it was a little too lemony. Also, I would not use parsley for the pesto - I think a nice basil pesto would be a little more tasty. But because those are just hypothesises (sp?) I will post the original recipe! If I was you, I would trust a professional chef over Britt any day! :)



Ingredients
4 thick strips bacon, cut into pieces
1 large white onion, sliced
pinch of sugar
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
6 scallions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon capers
1/2 cup fresh parsley
grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
1 pound frozen pizza dough, thawed

Directions
Preheat oven to 450. Cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat until browned and crispy. Transfer to a plate with a paper towel, keep warm. Add the onion slices to the drippings in the pan. Sprinkle with sugar and season with salt and pepper. Cook on low heat until light brown, tender and caramelized.

Combine the scallions, capers and parsley in the food processor. Add salt and pepper to taste and half the lemon zest. Pulse gently to chop and blend. Gently stream in olive oil. Transfer scallion pesto to a bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk creme fraiche and remaining lemon zest until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

Roll pizza dough onto sheet covered with non-stick spray or flour to keep from sticking. Drizzle with olive oil. Place in center of oven and cook for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

Spread creme fraiche mixture on the crust. Dot with onions and sprinkle with bacon and pesto. Slice into pieces and serve.



Might also be fun to try some mayo instead of sour cream and add some tomato slices for a more BLT themed flatbread. I think this is a fun recipe because you can change it to whatever you like! My favorite part was the onions - they were so good!!

Ever feel this way while watching cooking shows?

I love Ina Garten - one of my top 3 favorite shows to watch is Barefoot Contessa. But this is just too funny - anyone else feel this way when watching cooking shows sometimes?



I got it from foodnetworkhumor.com. Some of it gets a little mean and tasteless, but for the most part its just a funny website that pokes fun at our favorite food network chefs. Although folks can say almost anything they want about Bobby Flay in my opinion- he's just a jerk.

:)

My favorite Mac-and-Cheese

Mac and cheese is my favorite comfort food. Absolutely!! We have this at least once every two weeks. I always have the ingredients on hand - its fast, easy and cheap so it's my "go-to meal" when I'm too lazy to cook anything (and we're not in the mood for Subways!). My mom would always make it this way - and even during college when I went home it was the thing I asked for most.

Now I make it for myself (a lot), so much so that Sam said he would like some box mac and cheese - but when its this easy, why settle for a box? The great thing is I can heat up the tuna and peas for me and Sam can just have the noodles and sauce.

All I do is cook some fun-shaped noodles in salted water. In another pot, heat up a tbs. butter, cubed velveeta and heavy cream (add as much cream and velveeta as you want until its the thickness you like). Then I heat up tuna and peas in the microwave. Mix pasta, tuna & peas, and sauce together. YUM! The best mac and cheese you'll ever have.



I'm curious - what's your go-to meal? You're favorite, easy, never gets old, comfort food?

Jambalaya and Red Lobster Biscuits

This is a jambalaya recipe I got from my friend Angie who served it at the Oscar party last year. It has a tremendous amount of flavor - plus it cooks for so long you get to wait and get more hungry!

A few notes - I made half a recipe and we have enough to feed a small mid-sized army. So unless you are the mother of the Duggar children, chef for a high school cafeteria or clinically insane really hungry, just half the recipe and plan on leftovers!

Also, the recipe says to let it cook in the oven. Angie made hers on stovetop just by simmering if I did the same. I think I might have cooked mine a little on the long side because my rice was pretty soft by the end. But still yummy yummy!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter
1 large onion, diced
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
3 bay leaves
3 tablespoons Creole Seasoning Blend
4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 (28 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, chopped
7 cups chicken stock
3 cups chopped cooked ham
3 cups cooked andouille sausage, sliced (I used chorizo because it was way on sale)
3 cups cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces (I used canned chicken)
3 cups frozen cooked shrimp
4 cups uncooked long-grain white rice

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt butter in large stock pot. Saute onion, green pepper, celery and garlic until tender, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add tomato paste and cook to brown slightly, stirring constantly. Stir in bay leaves, Creole seasoning blend and Worcestershire sauce. Pour into a large roasting pan. Squeeze tomatoes to break up into pieces, and add to mixture in pan. Stir in juice from tomatoes, chicken stock, ham, sausage, chicken, shrimp and rice. Mix well. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.

Bake in preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours, stirring once halfway through baking time. Remove bay leaves before serving.

CREOLE SEASONING

2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons dried basil
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon white pepper
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
5 tablespoons paprika
3 tablespoons salt

Before....



And after 1 1/2 to 2 hours - viola! :)







And now for the Red Lobster Biscuits! I was at a Tastefully Simple party where they had delicious looking mix for these cheddar biscuits. I was pretty sure I could save some $$$, and have an unlimited supply, if I could just figure out my own recipe. Turns out, there is a ton of recipes on google - and BONUS - they are EASY. Like ridiculously easy. They were delish with the jambalaya.



INGREDIENTS

2 cups bisquick
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup grated cheddar
1/2 cup melted butter (What?!?!)
1/4 tsp. garlic salt

DIRECTIONS

Mix bisquick, milk and cheddar till soft ball forms. Beat vigorously for 30 seconds.

Drop by balls onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Mix garlic salt and butter. Brush on rolls while still hot.

Enjoy!