This blog post could also be called "I Finally Had To Put On Long Pants!"  This weather is so crazy!  It's true what is said about weather in the South in January; it's warm one day, raining the next, and we're preparing for a blizzard the next!  The thing I don't like the most when we have severe weather (besides tornadoes, of which we have a lot), is the power going off. I prepared for that by buying Bojangles chicken and biscuits.  Those are good at any temperature! 

     Let me start by sharing my contribution to eating healthy.  These are black bean burgers, and guys, they are really good!  Click on the picture above for the recipe.  They're easy to make and inexpensive!  Sis and I had them with a couple of veggies, but I can't wait to try them as a cheeseburger!  I can't wait for home grown tomatoes!! 

     One of my favorite dishes, in cold weather or anytime, is this chicken and tomato soup.  Let me tell you why!  I shared with you previously how much I love shredded chicken for freezer cooking!  When I got ready for this soup I just pulled the shredded chicken out of the freezer (thus the frozen chicken) and popped it in the slow cooker with whole, peeled tomatoes that I cut up with my handy kitchen scissors.  I added a can of Rotel because I love the chile peppers, and it cooked on low for 5-6 hours.  Delicious!  Even better topped with diced avocado!  If you want to cook it on the stove just take it out of the freezer and defrost the chicken in the refrigerator, or in the microwave.  You can use the new great search feature I love so much at the top right of this page to find the shredded chicken recipe.  It's all so easy!

     Aren't those red onions pretty?  I made these for a picnic at our friend Karen's lake lot last Summer and her husband Ronnie really liked them, so I made them again!  This time I preserved them by canning them and they will have a shelf life for a year.  Ronnie has already told me they will not last a year.  Click on the picture above for the recipe and methods for preparing these.  The only thing I did differently from the recipe is I used cilantro instead of bay leaves.  That's how I made the onions before because I saw Bobby Flay use cilantro, and I love cilantro.

     Random Pictures!  These are some beautiful items I just want to show off because I bought them in thrift stores.  I have a picture frame for a picture of Sawyer, and lots of planters for my herbs, and a beautiful glass pitcher for Sangria.  Yellow is my favorite color.  I'm sure I've mentioned that before!

     Speaking of yellow, or rather, lemons, these are some tasty "Mini Lemon Pound Cakes" I made for my Sis and her co-workers at Read, Martin & Slickman, CPA.  It's tax season and they are working some long, hard hours! 

     I did not make these from scratch, they are made from a combination of two recipes.  One is the Limoncello Pound Cake Mix I bought at Sam's, because I love Limoncello, a lemon liqueur.  The other is a regular cake mix recipe.  I added the eggs, vanilla pudding mix, and sour cream from that recipe, mixed it all up and put it in mini muffin pans.  If you look closely, the muffins are three different sizes because I have three different sizes of pans.  They also cooked at different times because of their sizes.  Just make sure your toothpick comes out clean!

     I used the glaze that came with the Limoncello Pound Cake Mix, but there is a glaze recipe attached to the recipe I'm going to show you.  Just click on the picture above for the link!  My sister asked me why I glazed them upside down.  So they would look like mini pound cakes! 

     Here is a wonderfully "cozy" cold weather dish, made from one of the easiest most satisfying dishes, ever!  Spaghetti!  I knew how to cook spaghetti when I didn't know how to cook!  Pasta is not a great dish for those of us watching carbs, but I used Dreamfield pasta, which has low net carbs, and tastes like our favorite store bought pastas.  After we had spaghetti a couple of times, I took the leftovers, added parmesan cheese and an egg, a few crushed red peppers and extra garlic powder, covered it with foil, and baked it at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Then top it with mushrooms and Mozzarella cheese and bake uncovered for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted. Even though we did not have any major blizzards we did have wind and ice advisories to stay in the house, so we ate pretty good for a few days!

     Lastly, for now, here's an all-time favorite, Turkey Chili!  Hearty, delicious, nutritious, and perfect comfort food for cold weather!  Use the search feature and type in turkey chili for the recipe!  While you're add it, look up the jalapeno cornbread that is delicious with it!

     To close out, and to make you smile, here is a recent picture of Sawyer, being held by her daddy and smiling at her mother!  She's a heart breaker.  These are her pets, Callie and Chloe!

     I'll be doggie sitting and cat sitting for friends next week, and also getting ready for an annual Super Bowl party a week from Sunday!   I will be sharing pictures of my furry friends.  I'll also share the party goodies with you on my Dished With Love Facebook page.  I'll tell you now, they don't fit into the nutritious, healthy food category.  But hey, the Super Bowl comes but once a year!

     It's also the one time a year I'll pick a favorite NFL team!  I am very torn.  Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers is from College Park, Georgia, and he plays for a Southern team, but this is Peyton Manning's last year to play and I'd love to see him go out in a blaze of glory!  

     Stay warm, Friends, stay busy, love life, and dish with love!

     Denise!

It's still a new year, so Happy New Year again, Friends!  Now I'm going to share with you some of the great food we had for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, while listening to and watching the college football playoff games!

These Apple Pie Cookies were beautiful and tasty and the kitchen smelled like Fall again!  If you want the cookies to look like the picture on the original recipe, you need to dice those apples a lot smaller than I did and use smaller scoops of the apple mixture to make the cookies!  Click on the picture above for the recipe and a video.  Easy and delicious!  Great with vanilla ice cream, too, but we were too full for that!

I have been wanting to make these forever! I've never made chicken wings except frozen, fully cooked ones from Sam's.  I am sure now I will make them over and over again!  I saved some money by buying fresh chicken wings and sectioning them myself.

Kim, a friend from culinary school, introduced me to Gochujang, a Korean red pepper paste.  It is spicy and delicious.  Click on the picture above for the recipe.  As you can see from the picture of the recipe, I forgot to toast and use the sesame seeds.  I think I was in too much of a hurry to eat the wings, or sometimes I just forget things! 

The cucumbers are drizzled in sesame oil and kosher salt.  I want some right now!  The texture on these wings is perfect; they have just enough bite on the outside and they're moist and tender on the inside, and they're baked!  It was all a big hit with the family!

Here is one of my lifetime favorites, Mexican food!  The first picture is of diced onions, just because they're in almost every savory dish I cook.  The third picture is of the ingredients used in the guacamole.  I forgot to take a picture of the guacamole, because I forget things (I think I said that already), and it had diced onion in it, also.  My Cousin Jeff liked the guacamole and he usually doesn't!  It had avocados, diced grape tomatoes (the best looking ones in the store right now), finely diced jalapeno, lime juice,  and chopped cilantro.  If you're not going to serve the guacamole right away, make sure you have added the citrus juice.  Press Saran Wrap directly onto the guacamole when covering the bowl and refrigerate.  It might turn a little brown anyway, but if it does, just stir it up, it'll be back to it's bright green again!

These enchiladas are considered "Mexican restaurant style" rather than authentic Mexican.

Here's what I used to make the enchiladas:

• Flour tortillas
• Refried black beans
• Shredded Chicken (recipe below, includes onions and peppers)
• Salsa (if you have to have a jar salsa, we all like On The Border brand)
• Mexican restaurant style cheese dip (White American cheese)
• Green onions, diced for garnish

I used flour tortillas in the above recipe, but my sister and I like a tortilla found at Publix that is a combination of corn and flour.  I am very, very picky regarding salsa and I prefer homemade, but I will admit, I have not mastered that yet.  It's just hit and miss.  So I was happy to find one I could purchase that I like a lot (not counting the salsa from my favorite Mexican restaurant, Los Portales).  My friend Kendall introduced me to this.  Then I covered the enchiladas with white cheese dip, which is American, but we love it very much!  Then I sprinkled chopped green onions on top to make it even prettier!

Now, let me tell you about the shredded chicken filling!  This is a recipe that is made in the Crock Pot, and is great for freezing!  Then you just pull it out to make many delicious dishes, such as soup, chili, enchiladas, tacos, sandwiches, and the list goes on and on!    Here's how to do it!

Take 3 - 4 pounds of chicken breasts, season all over with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Place it in a Crock Pot, add small diced onions and peppers, and cover with low sodium chicken broth.  Cook on low for 6 - 8 hours.  If you want to cook it faster, cook on high for 3 - 4 hours.   When it's done, place the chicken on a cutting board and shred it with two forks.  The sooner you shred it while the chicken is still hot, the easier it is to shred!

My Cousin Amy came in and helped me assemble the enchiladas, and my sister Janise, was helpful in making the Sangria.  It is nice to have help in the kitchen when you're trying to do several things, especially in the cleaning up!   So, first lightly spray a glass baking dish with cooking spray; lay out the tortilla and spread refried beans down the middle.  (If using canned refried beans, heat them up on the stove with a little water first, just a little bit of water; this will make them smooth and easy to spread. )  Then top the beans with the shredded chicken.  Fold the tortilla over the beans and chicken and then roll the tortilla.  Place it in the greased baking pan with the seam down.  Top with salsa and cheese dip and bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  Sprinkle with diced green onions for garnish.  These were also a big hit! 

I made a Sangria a few months ago for a friend.  That recipe is on an earlier post, and you can find it by using the new search feature at the top right of this page!  My sister requested Sangria for our little New Year's Eve gathering, so I decided to "winterize" it!  We still had several bottles of wine from our friend June's collection, so I gathered two bottles of merlot, a bottle of Applewine, and a bottle of sparkling wine (you can use champagne, or even sparkling water if you want to)!  I then bought some red pears, some Asian pears when I thought I couldn't find red pears, and diced them all up.  They taste so good!  I wanted blood oranges, because they are pretty and they are supposed to be available in December, but had to use regular navel oranges, and I sliced those.  I had Granny Smith apples in the house which I wish I had remembered to use, but I didn't.  Mix it all up, except for the sparkling beverage, and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.  Before you're ready to serve, add the sparkling wine!  Beautiful and delicious!

As you can see, these was no measuring in this recipe.  Just take what you like and mix it up!

Because we were going to be staying up late with friends, I made a breakfast  bread pudding for the next morning that I put in the fridge and it was ready to pop in the oven!  I went ahead and cooked it on New Year's Eve so Jeff and Amy could take half of it home with them for their breakfast the next morning.  I love breakfast!  This has butter, ground, hot sausage, eggs, cheese, onion, half & half, bread, and a little parsley for freshness, everything you need for breakfast except for the coffee!  Click on the picture above for the recipe!

Now for the finale! Southern cornbread, collard greens, black-eyed peas in the Crock Pot, and spiral sliced Honey Baked Ham that was a Christmas present from one of my sister's clients!  See previous posts of these by using the search feature (I love that thing)! 

I really love collard greens!  I made them to accompany Veal Scallopini in a practical I had in culinary school!  If you ever go to culinary school, don't make collard greens with Veal Scallopini, especially if your instructor is from Chicago.  I should have used an "Italian" vegetable.  I guess they don't have greens in Italy.  The only thing I did differently with the greens and peas recipes is that I don't use ham hocks or pork in them.  Most of the time I am a food "purist" (I learned that from Michael Symon), so most of the time I'm happy with just salt, pepper, onions, and garlic!

The black eyed peas were cooked in the Crock Pot with low sodium chicken broth (always on hand), salt, pepper, garlic, bell pepper and onion.  Cover the peas with the broth by about two inches and cook on low all day!

Whew, Friends, this post was lengthier than the rest of them, but you know, it was the holidays and there was LOTS going on.  I enjoyed every minute of it.  I love prepping and cooking the food, but my favorite part is watching friends and family enjoy eating it!  It's almost the middle of January now, and I'll be looking for healthier, delicious recipes to share to get back on a healthy eating track!

I would love to have your comments and feedback on the blog and on the different recipes! 

Until next time, Denise, @ Dished With Love!

     Hi, Friends!  It's a new year and I haven't posted in a month!  I really let December get away from me!  My twin sister and I went on vacation, something we do for our birthday every December, and of course there is always lots to do between Thanksgiving and Christmas!  I hope you all had great holidays!  

     There are some funny stories behind my baking adventures.  I made a couple of dishes for my sister's Christmas office party, and also for our Christmas dinner at our friend Gail's house.  This could be a learn what not to do blog, or, how to make something out of a big mess!  I had a lot of fun, regardless, while baking, cooking, and learning new things.  I share the stories with the appropriate pictures.

     I also got to spend a couple of days with Sawyer, so there are a few pictures her parents took and some I took.  She gets more beautiful every day!

     These are my first "crackle" cookies.  These are key lime cookies I found in the Christmas Food Network magazine.  Last year I saved a red velvet version off the internet, so I had this grand idea to make lots of these red and green cookies for everyone I loved.  But life gets in the way.

     I began prepping for these cookies and then I had to put them off for a couple of days.  It turns out that zest doesn't keep it's flavor very long; the cookies didn't have enough key lime flavor after the delay.  So, I took an idea from The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond.  It was something she did when making Pretzel Turtles.  I melted white melting wafers (I like Ghiradelli White Melting Wafers) and mixed in lots of fresh key lime zest, put dollops on a sheet pan layered with wax paper, and placed the cookies on the dollops and let them set.  I must say, those were some beautiful, delicious cookies, with lots of citrus flavor!  I think I'll keep that idea.

     Click on the picture for the basic Key Lime Crackle recipe.  As a bonus, here's the link to The Pioneer Woman's Pretzel Turtles recipe.  http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/pretzel-turtles/  I haven't made these yet, but they are in my "mental queue".

     These beautiful glittery cake pops were a delicious surprise!  I had in my mind for a while that I wanted to make a fudge and praline cake, and I found this 2005 recipe from Southern Living: New Orleans Double Chocolate Praline Fudge Cake.  Could that sound any better or more delicious?

     Now let me say, I don't do a lot of baking.  The last layer cake I made was in culinary school and I had a wonderful chef instructor in baking class (it was a devil's food cake with dark chocolate icing; it was delicious, too!  I'll share that recipe another time).   I like Bundt cakes, because you use only a couple of bowls, one pan, pour or drizzle icing on top. Done. Well, almost.

     I put a three, 8" inch layers cake recipe into a 10" Bundt pan.  I'm not sure if I didn't grease the pan well enough, or I didn't allow the cake to cook long enough because a Bundt cake will take almost twice as long, or I didn't allow it to cool long enough before I tried to take it out of the pan.  It looked good and it pulled loose from the sides of the pan, but unfortunately, only the part I could see. Fortunately, I had seen a baker on television make cake pops from scraps of layer cake she had in her bakery, so this failed attempt at a Bundt cake did not go to waste!  See, it's not bad to watch hours of Food Network! 

     So, whatever I did wrong (I think it was the cooling part because I'm not the most patient person in the world), it resulted in delicious and beautiful cake pops.  Here's what you'll need:

• Cake for crumbling (whether made on purpose or by accident)
• Frosting - I used this recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/355400/dark-chocolate-frosting
• Melting Wafers - I used Ghiradelli Dark and White
• Lollipop sticks (in the baking and candy section)
• A tall, narrow, microwave safe mug for melting and dipping cake pops
• Whatever you want to coat your pops with: here I used colored sparkling sugars and pieces of peppermint candy
• A piece of Styrofoam to hold your finished Cake Pops

1. Crumble the cake up and add frosting just until it's enough to form the cake into rounds.  I used a cookie scoop to try and make the pops the same size and then rolled them in my hands to round them.  I'm sorry I don't have illustrations, folks.  I will include photographs when I have more leisure time to make these and some of my other dishes.
2. Melt your melting wafers in your mug.  Start out at 30 seconds in the microwave, stir the wafers, and add 10 second increments, as needed and stirring after each, until the consistency is where you can dip your cake pops.  Don't let it overheat or burn!  Before you dip your cake pop, dip about 1/4 inch of your lollipop stick into your melted wafers, then stick it into your cake pop. 
3. Now dip the cake pop into the melted wafers just until it is covered.  Pull it out, tilt it to let the candy drip off some, and IMMEDIATELY sprinkle with sparkling sugar, peppermint, chopped nuts, whatever you're coating it with.  If you wait at all the wafer can dry and your "fixings" will not stick to it.  If you need to, dip your pop again but it's going to be thick, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

     And now, for the main attraction!  I took the same cake recipe and the same Bundt pan.  The only two things I did differently was I greased and powdered (with cocoa powder) the Bundt pan even more thoroughly, and when the cake came out of the oven I left it in the pan on top of the baking rack to cool and didn't touch it until the next day.  

     Click on the picture for the printable recipe.  It looks lengthy and it's in a Word document, but it actually has a lot of commentary, because I adapted the recipe from Southern Living so I noted my adaptations.  I also noted my experiences that you may learn from if you're interested and I will have made this recipe a lot easier for you the first time than it was for me.  It was worth all the effort, believe me!  You will have a lot of happy people on your hands with this one!

     Isn't that a beautiful red dish?  Here's a little bit of tanginess (sounds better than acidity) to offset all of the sweetness in this post, even though it does have sugar in it.  Taste the cranberry sauce as you go along to make it sweet to your liking.  Add toasted pecan pieces to make it a truly elegant dish!  I made this for Christmas at our friend Gail's. 

Ingredients:

• 4 cups whole cranberries
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch
• 2 Tablespoons of cold water
• 1/8 cup orange juice
• ⅔ cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans (optional)

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine cranberries, 2 cups water, the sugar and salt. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. 
2. Stir the cornstarch and cold water together to make a slurry; add the cold slurry to the simmering cranberry mixture. Let the sauce simmer until it thickens; in addition to the slurry, the cranberries have natural pectin which will help the sauce thicken. Let it simmer for at least 10 minutes, and up to 25 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Stir in juice, then cover sauce well and chill after it has cooled. A few hours before serving, stir in the pecans, if using.

And now, as promised, Sawyer!  Her pets are on here, too.  Callie has the darkest ears.  Chloe looks huge in her picture, but she's not, she's small like Callie.

     I still have more holiday goodies to share with you, Friends!  My sister, Janise, and my cousins, Amy and Jeff, celebrated New Year's Eve together.  Stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog to see and read about all the goodies we had to celebrate, including my new favorites, Korean-Style Hot Wings!

     The blog has some new features but I don't know what all of them are yet.  One of them is a search feature.  If it works you can find the dressing I made for Christmas because I posted it on the Thanksgiving blog.  I also made some Jumpin' Jack Jalapeno Cheese for Sawyer's parents.  That recipe is in a previous post.  If the search feature doesn't work I'll have to figure it out, but I hope it works.  The box is at the top right of the page.

     Happy New Year from Dished With Love!

     Denise

     P.S.  There's not much healthy about this post, but that comes along after the holiday blog, Part 2, is finished!