Pumpkin Mudslide

It's finally fall! My favorite season! Hmmm... maybe my favorite season is winter... I'm not sure, I just know that I love fall! Gone are the hot humid sweaty sticky days of summer and they're replaced with cool days, cooler nights, leaves changing color and the smell of fireplaces burning in the evening.

It just makes me want to inhale deeply, close my eyes and say "ahhhhhhh".

My sister, Jeannie has a cocktail for every occasion. She made Pumpkin Mudslides this weekend... what sounds more perfect for fall than a Pumpkin Mudslide?

Pumpkin Mudslide
Equal parts
Pumpkin Spice Schnapps or Fulton's Harvest Pumpkin Pie Cream Liqueur
Kaluha
Vanilla Vodka
Splash of milk (however much or little as you like)

Shake with ice and enjoy!!

The first one I tried had Pumpkin Spice Schnapps.



The second one had Fulton's Harvest Pumpkin Pie Cream Liqueur.



These are both wicked good!! But if you make it with Fulton's Harvest Pumpkin Pie Cream Liqueur, it really does taste just like pumpkin pie!

I highly recommend you give this a try in the very near future!!

Happy Fall!!

Root Beer Cookies

Hey look who it is! I'm back twice in one week!

I bookmarked this recipe about a year ago. It's been just sitting in my favorites, patiently waiting for me to finally decide it was time to make them.

I'm not sure how I happened to browse to it. But I found it on a Betty Crocker blog, who noted it was from the Minneapolis Star Tribune Food Section.

My son Bobby LOVES root beer. He drinks gallons of the stuff. So when I saw this recipe, I knew I had to make them.



Root Beer Cookies slightly adapted
Cookies
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup flat root beer
2 large eggs
2 teaspoon root beer extract or concentrate
1 teaspoon vanilla

Icing
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons flat root beer
2 teaspoon butter, softened
1 teaspoon root beer extract or concentrate

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
Cream together, butter and sugars. Add eggs and mix. Add root beer, root beer concentrate and vanilla. Beat in flour mixture, until just combined.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls, about 2 inches apart, onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake at 375F for 9 - 11 minutes. Cool on rack.

For icing, whisk together all ingredients and spread over completely cooled cookies.

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok, first what you wanna do is make the root beer flat.


I poured it into a glass and just stirred until most of the bubbles were gone.


Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.


Cream butter & sugars, add eggs, then rootbeer, rootbeer concentrate & vanilla.



Mix in flour until just combined.


Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets.


Bake for 9 - 11 minutes at 375F.


Cool on racks.


To make icing whisk together all icing ingredients and spread over cookies. I think next time I might leave out the butter. I think the icing would look a little smoother without it.



These cookies were really good! I wasn't sure what to expect from a root beer flavored cookie. I've only had root beer or root beer flavored candy; but never a baked good.

For the concentrate... since I was having a hard time finding it, I was going to just cook down some root beer until it was a thick sticky syrup, but since I had never seen the concentrate, I wasn't sure if that would work. Now I think it would have been totally fine. So if you're having trouble finding the concentrate, you could try to just cook it down from root beer.

Before icing the cookies, I tasted one. I wanted to see how much root beer flavor was in the cookie itself, because I was thinking they might be better with a vanilla glaze to make them root beer float cookies. The cookie itself had a mild root beer flavor, so you do definitely want to use the root beer icing. I was a little nervous about the icing too. I tasted that on its own and it was really strong. I was afraid it would ruin the cookies, but it was really perfect! They totally taste like root beer cookies!

If you wanted to try to make a rootbeer float cookie, I think maybe you could swirl the root beer icing with a vanilla icing. I'll have to experiment with that the next time.

But everyone really liked these. At first I was thinking.... "yeah, they're good, but I probably won't make them again." It was mostly the novelty of them. But they really are good! And they're really different. They're be great for a cookie exchange. Something than the same old sugar/chocolate chip/butter cookie.

If you like root beer, I highly recommend you try these!

Hotdogs & Beans aka Saturday Night Supper

Hiya! I know last time I was here, I said I'd be around more, then I promptly fell off the face of the Earth! As it turned out I had an unexpectedly, unbelievably hectic summer and did almost no cooking at all. Just ask my family... they'll totally back me up on the no cooking thing!

Anyway, I'm back! I think. I kinda hesitate to say that again. But well, here I am!

Soooo.... I was out on Saturday at Market District in Robinson to see FoodTV's Aarón Sanchez do a cooking demo and get him to autograph his new cookbook. He's totally my favorite Chopped judge.



That was a fun time. Aarón commented on how well stocked the grocery store was. While I was in line waiting for an autograph, I noticed they do have a very well stocked meat department.



I wasn't looking for Python... but if it hadn't been $30 a pound, I definitely would have tried some!

But after the demo, I figured in this extremely well stocked grocery store, it would be easy for me to find Root-beer Concentrate and Malted Milk Powder. I needed them for a couple of new recipes I wanted to try over the weekend. Those aren't really unusual ingredients. But do you think they had either of them? No. They didn't.

But on my way out of the store, I noticed they had B&M Brown Bread!


That instantly made me think of Saturday night suppers growing up. I say suppers, because back then, that's what we called it. I don't think I really use that word anymore, now it's always dinner.

Anyway, growing up just outside of Boston, hotdogs and beans was a very common Saturday night supper in our house. I don't really remember actually having Brown Bread... but definitely remember the hot dogs & beans. Mum always boiled the hotdogs. I know many of you are totally cool with that... but I don't ever want to eat a boiled hot dog again. Fried, grilled, baked, microwaved, just not boiled. I really have no reason for this, other than boiling meat just seems wrong.

But not being able to actually recall consuming the Brown Bread prompted me to give Mum a call this morning to ask if we had it. She said that she never made it, but that my sister and I probably had it at Grammy's house. When we were little, Saturday night was date night for my parents, so we spent most Saturday nights with Grammy & Grampy. I only remember steamed clams (drool), HeeHaw, Lawrence Welk and All in the Family... so I emailed Jeannie to see if she remembered the Brown Bread. She didn't either. But Jeannie's not a big bread eater to start with. So I have no idea why Saturday Night Suppers popped into my mind at the first glimpse of B&M Brown Bread, but it did!

I snatched the can off of the top shelf and headed over to the baked bean section. Of course I had to have some B&M Baked Beans to go with the Brown Bread. Do you think they had any B&M Baked Beans? Nope! Not a single can! So I grabbed a can of Giant Eagle brand and headed for the checkout.

I opted to fry the hotdogs in butter. Definitely no boiling of hotdogs in my house!


Then browned the buns in butter too.


Meanwhile, I heated up some of that B&M Brown Bread in the toaster oven.


Serve it with a bowlful of baked beans and a nice warm slice of brown bread and it's dinner supper time!


Yum...


Beans on brown bread! My favorite part of dinner supper!


So it was a nice nostalgic Saturday Supper, followed by a movie night.

I had leftover beans & brown bread for breakfast on Sunday too!

Are you from New England? Did you have Saturday Suppers of Hotdogs & Beans & Brown Bread?

Sonic Fritos Chili Cheese Wrap

Hey there! Remember me? Spryte... from Spryte's Place...? I mostly post about what's going on in my kitchen? Yes!! THAT Spryte! I knew you'd remember me eventually!

Sorry for my long absence.

While I've been gone, we bought a new (to us) house and moved up the hill from our old house. So I have a new kitchen. There's great light for pictures. But I'm still kind of getting used to it.

We're also fixing up our old house to rent. So that takes up a lot most of our spare time. And in addition to that, I started a new job! Unfortunately, I work a later shift that gets me home more than an hour later than I used to. Plus I take the bus to work, so I can't stop at the grocery store on my way home anymore. Now I have to plan my menus a week at a time and only go grocery shopping once a week. Dinners haven't really been very blog-worthy, mostly quick meals, that I've already blogged about.

So that giant pile of reasons excuses is why I've been MIA.

Anyway... my posting will be a bit sporadic for a while longer, but I'm hoping to be back on track in the kinda near future.

So anyway.... here I am, with a nice customer service story and a quick delicious copy-cat recipe!



I use a lot of flour tortillas, as you've probably noticed. I used to mostly use Mission Flour Tortillas. But my local Giant Eagle grocery store stopped carrying them and now only sells their own brand. I gave them a try, mostly because they were the only ones available. But I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I liked them as much or more than Mission brand. They are thinner and more pliable. But, there was a problem. The plastic zipper that closed the bag malfunctioned. It pulled away from the plastic, so there was no way to reseal it. And it didn't just happen with one package, it happened with several. So sent an email to company and let them know.

A couple weeks later, I got a phone call from their rep. He said that they had done some testing and couldn't duplicate the problem. I told him I understood and actually, even though I'd had 5 or 6 faulty packages, the package I had at the moment was working just fine. He asked if it was ok if he sent me some gift cards. What was I gonna say? No?? So of course I said, "yes". Then he said he'd also like to send me a few packages of tortillas for my trouble. I also accepted that offer.

In a couple of days, I got $20 in Giant Eagle gift cards. That was cool and very quick. Then a few days after that there was a package on my front porch (cuz I have a front porch now!) I had forgotten all about the tortillas and was impatiently waiting for some used paperbacks I ordered from Amazon. The box was a little big for paperbacks, but I figured there must be packing in there. When I picked up the box, it was WAY too heavy to be two paperbacks and I couldn't imagine what was in there.

I opened it up and discovered a whole case of Giant Eagle Flour Tortillas!


A case is 18 packages of 6 flour tortillas each!! That's a lot of tortillas!

I don't want to freeze them, because I think frozen bread products never come out of the freezer as good as they went in. I know many disagree and they are free to try to trick me with thawed bread products, but until that day, that's how I feel about freezing that kind of stuff.

So first thing, I gave away a bunch!

The day before the tortillas arrived, I made Easy Skillet Chili, so Tawny suggested I make Sonic Fritos Chili Cheese Wraps!

I LOVE those things!!!

In addition to these.


You'll need these.


Your favorite chili, Fritos, and shredded cheese. I used Colby/Jack.

Warm your tortilla in the microwave for a few seconds.

See how thin it is!


Place some shredded cheese on the tortilla.


Add some Fritos.


Then some chili.


Now roll it up!



Enjoy!


Normally I would never neatly cut a Fritos Chili Wrap... but a picture with a big bite out of it is just not very pretty!

What would have made this Fritos Chili Cheese Wrap better?

A Route 44 Cherry Limeade of course!!!

Giant Eagle, thanks for the awesome customer service!!!

Chocolate Guinness Cake with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting

I've been wanting to make more cakes from scratch. Jon likes cakes from a box mix. They are his preference. So when there's an 'occasion' I typically make what he requests.

But we had friends over for dinner this past weekend and it just happened to be Drew's birthday. So I decided to make them my cake guinea pigs. Actually, there really is no shortage of volunteers for this position, but it's easier when they come to my house.

With St Patrick's Day coming up, I went with the Guinness Stout Chocolate Cake and frosted it with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting.

This is a Nigella Lawson recipe. I used a different frosting than the one included with the recipe, so I've left out that part. The Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting recipe is from Food.com



Chocolate Guinness Cake
1 cup Guinness stout
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/8 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups superfine sugar (I used granulated)
3/8 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Preheat oven to 350F
Pour the Guinness into a large sauce pan. Add butter and heat until melted. Whisk in cocoa and sugar. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Add to sauce pan and mix well. Add flour and baking soda and whisk until smooth.
Pour into a greased, parchment paper lined 9 in springform pan. Bake for 45 - 60 minutes. Cool completely in pan on rack.
Move to cake plate and top with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting.

Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
4 TBLS butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
3 - 4 TBLS Bailey's Irish Cream

In a medium bowl, blend together cream cheese, butter, and Bailey's. Gradually add powdered sugar, mixing well until it's all incorporated. Use immediately.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First you need some Guinness. Jon doesn't care for Guinness, so it's not something we keep on hand. We picked this one up at Smokin' Joe's.


Even though he doesn't care for Guinness, he took one for the team and finished it for me, since I only needed a cup.

Pour one cup of Guinness into a large sauce pan with the butter. Heat until butter is melted.


Turn off heat when butter is melted.

Whisk in cocoa


I used Dutch Process Cocoa from Penzey's.

And sugar


I didn't have superfine sugar, so I used granulated. It seemed to work out fine.

Whisk together eggs, sour cream & vanilla



Whisk that into the chocolate stout mixture


Then whisk in the flour and baking soda until smooth



Line a 9 in springform pan with parchment paper and butter the sides


Pour cake batter into prepared pan


Bake at 350F for 45 - 60 minutes

Cool in pan on wire rack until completely cooled


No worries about the grand canyon around the edge, it will get covered with frosting.

Move to cake plate and top with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting.



If you look at the two previous pictures, you'll notice that the middle of the cake has sunk a bit. It probably could have cooked a few more minutes, but the pick came out dry, so I took it out. I'm pretty new to this cake from scratch thing.

Anyway...

A few tablespoons of Bailey's from a mini and you still have a little left for later.


Beat butter, cream cheese & Bailey's until well combined. Beat in powdered sugar.


Top the cake with a generous covering of the frosting.


I have to say... this frosting is amazingly delicious!
LOVE LOVE LOVED IT!



So the middle definitely could have been done more.


I typically don't care for chocolate, but I had a small piece and it's delicious!

You get just a hint of the stout flavor.

Very thick, rich, moist decadent cake.

I really can't recommend it enough. Everyone really loved it!