Whenever I use my crockpot, I think the same thing: I need to use this more often. It’s such a time saver! Prep, toss it in, walk away, & check back a few hours later, cut & serve.
Ingredients:
1 (1.65 lb) turkey breast, skin removed
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp seasoning salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried Basil
1 tsp dried Thyme
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp paprika (I used smoked paprika)
1/2 tsp black pepper
Preparation:
Allow turkey breast to come to room temperature on counter for 2-3 hours before placing in the cooker.
In a small bowl, whisk together all the seasonings/ spices. Add three small balls of aluminum foil at bottom of crockpot. Coat turkey breast with olive oil & rub spice mixture all over. Place breast on top of foil.
Cover & cook on low for 3 – 4 hours or until a thermometer inserted in the middle reads 155°
Remove from the cooker, cover loosely with foil, & allow to rest for 15 – 20 minutes. Slice & enjoy.
I made these yesterday for the first time & they were fantastic!
Ingredients:
2 lbs chicken wings
2 tbsp canola oil
3 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
4 tbsp unsalted butter
4 cloves of garlic, grated
3 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
1/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
Using paper towels, pat the wings dry & place in a big bowl. Drizzle in the oil. Add the baking powder, S & P, onion & garlic powder, & toss to coat evenly.
Transfer to the baking sheet & bake for 45 minutes, flipping halfway through.
When there’s about 5 minutes left of baking time, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Once melted, add in the garlic & parsley.
When the wings are done cooking, transfer them to a clean bowl, drizzle garlic butter mixture over the wings, add in the Parmesan cheese, & toss to coat evenly.
At the beginning of last year, I posted the following picture & requested friends to submit their favorites. The only exclusion i implemented is that it couldn’t be one that I had already read. I enjoy recommendations & while only one ended up on my list of favorites this year, I’m reminded books impact us differently for a myriad of reasons.
1. Lessons In Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
2. Listening In The Dark, Amber Tamblyn
3. The 100 Years of Lenni & Margot, Marianne Cronin
4. All The Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr
5. In The Dream House: A Memoir, Carmen Maria Machado
6. Lucy By The Sea, Elizabeth Strout
7. What My Bones Know, Stephanie Woo
8. The Storyteller, Jodi Picoult
9. Erotic Stories For Punjabi Widows, Balli Kaur Jaswal
10. Ma Qui: The American Phantom of Vietnam, Len Hudson
11. We Are Not Like Them, Christine Pride & Jo Piazza
12. The Marriage Plot, Jeffrey Eugenides
13. The Art of Racing In The Rain, Garth Stein
14. In The Wild Light, Jeff Zenner
15. All The Missing Girls, Megan Miranda
16. How To Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told, Harrison Scott Key
17. You Shouldn’t Have Come Here, Jeneva Rose
18. Good In Bed, Jennifer Weiner
19. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
20. Unmasking Autism, Devon Price, PhD
21. Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts
22. The Secret Life of Secrets, Michael Slepian
23. A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle
24. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin
25. Nightcrawling, Leila Mottley
26. The Woman In Me, Britney Spears
27. The Grieving Brain, Mary-Frances O’Connor, PhD
28. Finding Me, Viola Davis
29. The Guncle, Steve Rowley
30. Day, Michael Cunningham
31. I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes With Death Maggie O’Farrell
32. Counting The Cost, Jill Duggar
33. The Body Farm, Patricia Cornwell
34. Group, Christie Tate
35. The Courage To Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness, Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
36. The Gift: 12 Lessons To Save Your Life, Edith Eger.
My favorite five (in order of when I read):
Fiction
I found this book utterly delightful, lol funny, & a testament to how far we’ve come in sexism & glaringly how much more progress we have yet to make.
“Because while musical prodigies are always celebrated, early readers aren’t. And that’s because early readers are only good at something others will eventually be good at, too. So being first isn’t special – it’s just annoying.”
Fiction
This book also made me lol several times over. I enjoy learning about different cultures & practices & this book certainly opened my eyes to the Indian culture.
“It would be easier to be a criminal fairly prosecuted by the law than an Indian daughter who wronged her family. A crime would be punishable by a jail sentence of definite duration rather than this uncertain length of family guilt trips.”
Fiction
I started & ended this book the same: crying. A book narrated by the dog from his perspective. If you’ve ever had a connection to a dog, I’d be hard pressed to say you’ll make it through dry eyed.
“It’s so hard to communicate because there are so many moving parts. There’s presentation and there’s interpretation and they’re so dependent on each other it makes things very difficult. I didn’t want him to feel bad about this. I wanted him to see the obvious, that it’s okay for him to let me go. He’s been going through so much, and he’s finally through it. He needs to not have me around to worry about anymore. He needs me to free him to be brilliant.”
Memoir.
The only two people who know what goes on in the marriage is the two people in it & even then there are times you’re left wondering. So many quotes in this book, I couldn’t decide on just one.
“I used to think only the deviant or unlucky, addicts, swingers, abusers, drunks got to the tortured point in marriage where divorce obtains. Nobody ever told me that marriage comes to this cataract in the river many times over. That every marriage goes over the falls. The two of you go tumbling across the smooth mossy rocks of time & down you go & some couples die & some don’t, but everybody goes toppling.
“Love is never a bad call. It might seem impossible; it might even seem silly when every atom in your body screams for blood. But how else other than with love can a broken thing be made whole again. The book of Ezekiel says God likes to work on broken things, to build up the ruined places & plant the desolate land.”
“Whatever your feelings about Christ being the bridegroom & the church being the bride, here’s what I’ve come to see: Rome slaughtered Jesus & that’s what marriage will do. It will slay you. Crucify, and burn, and behead you & everything you thought you knew about yourself. And the thing that is left, after all is burned & plucked away, that is the real you.”
Memoir.
Powerful & gripping.
“It’s futile to ask why. Instead ask yourself, ‘What did I learn from this?’ What have I learned from all of it? There is absolutely no way whatsoever to get through this life without scars.”
It’s a tradition of mine that with the baking extravaganza I embark on every December, I try at least one new Christmas cookie. This year, I wanted something a little different, a bit unexpected.
These cookies nailed it!
As I went through the ingredient list, I did pause & speculation set in when I read chili powder. You know, chili powder that includes garlic & onion powder. But, I shook my head & said aloud, “trust the process.” I did & couldn’t have been more pleased with the outcome. The only alteration I made was to increase the cayenne pepper from a 1/4 tsp to a 1/2 tsp, maybe a smidge more. It’s subtle & so worth it!
Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter, 4 oz
4 oz good quality unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325° F.
In a small saucepan, melt butter & unsweetened chocolate, until glossy & smooth. Remove from heat & allow to cool until room temperature.
Beat together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, & eggs on low speed until well combined. Pour in cooled chocolate & mix until evenly distributed.
In a medium size bowl, sift together the flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, cinnamon, chili powder, baking soda, salt and cayenne pepper. Add dry ingredients to cream mixture & beat on low until just combined with no visible flour remains.
Fold in the chocolate chips.
On parchment lined paper, using a cookie scoop, add cookie dough balls, leaving a 1 1/2 inch of space between each cookie. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 14 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.
Remove from oven & transfer cookies to a cooling rack to cool.
Typically, I’ve been a fortunate person who doesn’t get sick very often, but a few weeks ago out of nowhere, I developed a cough. Nothing else: no sneezing, runny nose, fever, aches, etc. I felt fine. My dad told me he had made a hot toddy for a friend of theirs who had the same thing & it worked wonders.
My husband & I are aren’t really drinkers so we have a small assortment of liquor in the house, usually received as a gift, or for a recipe so off to the liquor store we went.
The cast of characters:
I’m happy to report it worked like a charm & tasted far better than the memory I have of shots taken during a camping trip many moons ago.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp Whiskey
Juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp honey
6 – 8 oz boiling water
Cinnamon stick, or dash of cinnamon
Preparation:
In a mug, add Whiskey. Squeeze half a lemon, add honey, pour hot water & stir together with a cinnamon stick & allow to sit for a minute.
These were a big hit with the fam this morning & I redeemed myself from the borderline burnt breakfast last weekend. Such is life – you win some & you lose some. Today was a win.
Ingredients:
1 pkg Hawaiian rolls, 12 count
3 cups shredded Colby Jack cheese, divided
8 strips thick cut bacon, cooked & chopped
10 eggs
Splash of cream/ milk
S & P
1 green onion, diced
3 tbsps butter, divided
1 tbsp maple syrup
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
Beat eggs, whisk in a splash of cream/ milk, season with freshly cracked S & P, & add diced green onion.
In a medium sized skillet, over medium heat, melt 1 tbsp butter & cook eggs until lightly done. It’s okay if they’re slightly undercooked/ wet looking because they’ll bake in the oven.
While the eggs are cooking, Remove rolls from package & slice horizontally through to separate the top half from the bottom half. Place the bottom half into a 9×13 baking dish. Spread 2 cups of cheese over the rolls.
Transfer the scrambled eggs & spread over the cheese topped rolls. Add the chopped bacon & sprinkle remaining 1 cup of shredded cheese. Add the top half of the rolls. In a microwave safe bowl, add the 2 tbsps butter & maple syrup & melt until combined. Stir & brush the mixture over the top of the rolls.
There’s something to be said about dishes that have an element of simplicity with few ingredients & are superb in taste. This is one of those dishes.
Ingredients:
1 lb spaghetti
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Fresh ground pepper
Pasta water, reserved
Preparation:
Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil & add salt. While pasta is cooking, take a large bowl & combine the ricotta & freshly grated Parmesan together. Once mixed, add a generous amount of freshly cracked pepper. As the pasta nears its al dente stage, take some of the pasta water out, and slowly start to pour into the cheese & pepper mix until it makes a creamy sauce. Once the pasta is fully cooked, transfer noodles to bowl & stir to incorporate.
It’s happened before where I’ve wanted to try a recipe & for some reason or another, dragged my feet in making it. This is one of those recipes. These were so good I’m now kicking myself for not trying it out sooner. Even my husband, a tried & true chicken wing connoisseur said, “I’m pleasantly surprised by how good these are.”
Ingredients:
1/2 large cauliflower, cut into florets
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp paprika
1 egg, + 2 tsps water
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
3/4 – 1 cup Frank’s RedHot Wings Buffalo Sauce
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 450° F. Line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper; set aside.
Add the florets into a bowl & drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil, toss to coat evenly.
In a gallon size bag, add in the flour, garlic powder, & paprika. Seal & shake to mix. Add in the florets, seal, & shake to coat evenly; remove any excess flour.
In a bowl, whisk together the egg with 2 tsps water. Add egg mixture into another gallon size bag, add in seasoned & floured florets, seal & shake to coat evenly.
In the bag you used to flour the florets, add in the panko bread crumbs, transfer the egg coated florets into the bag, shake to coat evenly. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes on the middle rack.
In a liquid measuring cup, pour in the Frank’s RedHot Buffalo Wing Sauce. Once the florets have baked for 20 minutes, remove from the oven & using tongs, coat each floret with sauce, be sure to shake off excess & return to baking sheet.
Bake for an additional 15 minutes. Serve with Blue Cheese or Ranch dressing.
It’s not uncommon my husband will stumble upon a recipe on social media & requests I make it. They were super easy to make & the family raved about them.
Ingredients:
for the brownies:
1 box Strawberry cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup salted butter, melted (or 1/3 cup oil)
1 tsp strawberry extract (I omitted this)
for the glaze:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp strawberry preserves
1 1/2 tbsp milk
Preparation:
for the brownies:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray a 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 inch pan with nonstick spray, line bottom & sides with parchment paper, spray paper with nonstick spray; set aside.
In a bowl, mix together the cake mix, eggs, butter or oil, & extract, if using. Stir until well combined. The batter will be very thick. Pour into prepared pan & bake for 18 – 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven & allow to cool completely.
for the glaze:
In a small bowl, add the powdered sugar, strawberry preserves, & milk & whisk together until well combined. Spread evenly over the top.
Note: While I followed the instructions for the glaze & applied it after it had cooled, in the future, I may add it while it’s still warm so it soaks in better.
TheCompanySheKeeps 