Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray or line the cookie sheet with a silpat baking mat.

In a large bowl, mix the butter, white sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until creamy and smooth. Slowly beat in the eggs. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt together thoroughly. Slowly add the flour mixture to the egg mixtures until well blended. Add most of the M&M's and most of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and mix carefully.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls on cookie sheets. Add the remaining M&M's and Reese's Peanut Butter Cup pieces to the top of the cookies.

 The farmers market has been bursting with apples over the last few weeks and it was time that I got around to doing something with them other than just snacking on them. I have been getting into chutneys lately and I was thinking that a spicy apple chutney would be a great idea. After searching the web for apple chutney recipes I decided to just go with a variation of the recipe that I have been using for chutneys. One thing that I did notice about the recipes that I did find was that most of them called for the use of tart green apples. I thought it would be a shame to not use some of those amazing varieties of apples available at the farmers market and so I used a mixture of a few of them. From there I added some onion, garlic, ginger and a jalapeno for a bit of heat. Cider vinegar was the obvious choice for the vinegar component and I went with brown sugar for the sweet component. With this being an apple chutney I could not pass up on adding raisins and a few spices that I remind me of apples. The chutney was as simple to make as throwing everything into a pot simmering it on the stove until it thickened. My apartment was filled with an amazing aroma of apples and spice while it simmered. The apple chutney turned out great! It was sweet and savoury at the same time with a nice blend of spices and a touch of heat. I am now looking forward to using the apple chutney in other dishes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Coat a pie dish with olive oil cooking spray.

Let the dough rest on the counter for 20 minutes. Grab a walnut size piece of the dough, flatten it with your hand then place the desired ingredients in the middle of the dough. Seal dough around the fillings and place in the the pie dish seam side down. Repeat, placing 15-16 balls into each pie dish.

Coat each ball with olive oil cooking spray then sprinkle the basil, oregano, parsley, garlic powder, sea salt, freshly cracked pepper, and Parmesan cheese, to taste.

Bake for 16-18 minutes or until the pizza bites are golden brown. Serve with warmed pizza sauce or marinara sauce. Enjoy.

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Once the pot is hot, add ground beef and chorizo (casing removed) cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally then add onions, pepper, garlic and jalapeno. Sauté for about 3-4 minutes before adding tomatoes, tomato sauce, green chiles and beans. Add all spices and vinegar, stir then cover with a lid and place in the oven. Cook for 4-6 hours, stirring throughout the day if you can. Top with cheddar cheese, green onions and sour cream, if desired. Enjoy.

Recipe adapted from Delicious Meets Nutritious Cookbook

• 3 eggs, well beaten
• 1 1/3 cups of Xagave (vs. 2 cups of sugar)
• 2 cups raw, grated zucchini
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup of canola oil
• 3 cups of whole wheat flour
• 3 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup of mini chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup of walnut pieces

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Coat two 8x4 bread pans with cooking spray.

Combine the eggs, oil, Xagave, zucchini and vanilla in a large bowl then mix thoroughly. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Slowly add the dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well. Add the chocolate chips and walnut pieces and mix again.

Pour the batter evenly into the two prepared loaf pans.

Place in the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes before slicing. Slather with butter and enjoy!

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (you can also use stove top or crock-pot). Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add stew meat and onion then cook for about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds before adding tomatoes, seasonings and beef broth. Cover and cook in the oven for at least 3-4 hours, checking occasionally to make sure there is enough liquid. Remove pot from oven place on stove top over medium low heat.

While our family was in town we decided to head to Cannon Beach for the day. We stopped by a great little farmer's market while we were there and I found some plump and juicy raspberries and blueberries that I couldn't resist. I decided to make muffins with the last of the berries and a very ripe banana that needed to be used up. I used whole wheat flour and added low fat yogurt instead of butter. My husband and children LOVED these muffins. They were moist, flavorful and so delicious - they gobbled up the whole batch for breakfast.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a muffin tray with cooking spray. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda until well combined. In another bowl, mix the egg, oil, yogurt, vanilla, white sugar, brown sugar and mushed banana until mixed thoroughly. Slowly combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients without over mixing. Add half of the blueberries and fold them into the batter.

Cool muffins on a rack then serve slathered with butter if desired. Enjoy!

Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery; sauté for 5-6 minutes. Add the garlic, cook for an additional 60 seconds, stirring constantly.

Season the cooked vegetables with oregano, thyme, chicken bouillon granules, sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste. Add 5 1/2 cups of chicken broth and potatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer partially covered, 45 minutes or until the potato is tender.

Combine the cornstarch with the remaining 1/2 cup of chicken broth and mix thoroughly. Add cornstarch mixture, chicken, milk and egg noodles to the broth, and cook for 10 minutes or until the noodles are tender. Taste and re-season if needed. Enjoy.

One of the perks of having a food blog is getting to try new products. I was sent a couple of bottles of Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce recently and decided to marinate some flank steak in it. I lightly seasoned the steak with sea salt and pepper, rubbed some minced garlic into the meat then drizzled it with Country Bob's sauce. I let it sit in a large zip lock for 4 hours before cooking it in my grill pan. I have to say - I LOVE THIS SAUCE. It's really flavorful with a hint of sweet and spicy without being overpowering. The steak tasted amazing and we all loved it. My kids both asked for seconds and ate every last bite. I look forward to using this sauce with hamburgers, chicken and pork. Thanks for the great sauce.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice each squash lengthwise in half. Scrape out the seeds and rinse.Cover with tin foil and bake for 45 minutes or until fork tender. Take off the tin foil and turn the oven to broil so you can brown the tops of each squash - watch carefully so it doesn't burn. You can slice into chunks or scoop out the flesh and eat it like mashed potatoes - whatever suits your fancy. Enjoy.

I have to say that my favorite part of the roast turkey dinner has to be the leftovers. There are just so many different things that you can do with the leftovers and it is always fun coming up with creative new ways to use them. Before I start using the leftovers for creative things however I have to have at least one turkey and cranberry sauce sandwich. I had been thinking of mayo based 'salads' since I made the egg salad BLT and it seemed pretty obvious to try a turkey salad sandwich and I was a bit surprised that I had not thought of it earlier. Along with the turkey and mayo I went with some other classic chicken salad sandwich ingredients including celery and green onions. From there I went with some seasonal ingredients including some pecans, dried cranberries and sage and I finished everything off with some crisp and juicy apple. This sandwich was literally as easy as mixing all of the salads ingredients and assembling the sandwich. I really enjoyed the turkey salad sandwich and I will definitely be making it again! How can you really go wrong with a salad that is held together with mayo? The crunchy pecans and the crisp celery and apple added a really nice contrasting texture and the turkey, pecan and cranberry combo really reminded me of holiday flavours.

Chinese Hot and Sour Soup

With the really cold weather setting in I was in the mood for a nice warming soup and as luck would have it I had a lot of the Asian style chicken broth leftover from when I made the Hainanese chicken rice. (The Asian style chicken broth is basically the broth leftover from poaching a chicken along with some garlic, ginger and green onions. You can then simmer the chicken bones in the broth to give it an even stronger flavor.) Whenever I eat out at Chinese restaurants one of the things that I like to order is the hot and sour soup and I had been wanting to try making it at home. I figured that the Asian chicken broth would work well in Chinese hot and sour soup and that the hot and spicy soup would be perfect for the deep freeze that we were in.
http://world-supper-recipes.blogspot.com/
I found a bunch of recipes for hot and sour soup and used what I liked from each of them to come up with this one. I tried to keep the recipe as authentic as I could and that meant that there were a few ingredients that I was not familiar with including the tree ear mushrooms and the lily buds. Luckily it was easy enough to find them at a local Chinese grocery store. (I had previously used the black mushrooms and the Chinese black vinegar and I had found them at the same grocery store.)

Although the soup required a bit of prep work it was pretty easy and straight forward to make. As it was cooking I immediately recognized the smell and I was looking forward to the enjoying the soup. Chinese hot and sour soup is supposed to rely on the white pepper for the heat but when I taste tested it near the end I was not satisfied with the level of spiciness so I added a bit more heat in the form of some chili oil and chili sauce (already listed in the recipe below). With the additional seasoning the Chinese hot and sour soup ended up tasting just as good as it smelled! There was a nice balance of heat and sourness and the soup just tasted great! I really like the way the eggs were used in this soup and I will have to keep it in mind when making soups in the future. Luckily there are a lot of leftovers and they will help me through the next few really cold days.

Note: You could easily omit the pork and use an Asian flavored vegetable broth to make a vegetarian friendly version.

Honey Walnut Shrimp

Shrimp has to be one of my all time favorite foods and I am constantly on the lookout for tasty new shrimp dishes. A while ago I came across a really interesting one for honey and walnut shrimp on Rasa Malaysia. The name drew me in at first as I like both honey and walnuts in addition to the shrimp and then I saw that it also included mayonnaise and sweetened condensed milk. I would never have thought about a honey, mayonnaise and sweetened condensed milk combo for shrimp and I was really intrigued. The fun does not stop there though as the shrimp are deep fried with a crispy cornstarch coatinhttp://world-supper-recipes.blogspot.com/g and the walnuts are candied! There was no way that I could pass up on trying this dish even if it did not sound all that healthy. The honey and walnut shrimp were pretty easy to make with the only challenge being the deep frying. I was not really sure what to expect from this flavor combination but it worked out surprisingly well. The savory mayonnaise and the tart lemon juice balance the sweet honey and condensed milk and they tasted great together. The crispy coating on the prawns added a nice texture and provided a great surface for the sauce to cling to. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake Turtle Bread

 Pumpkins are in season and really cheap right now so I have a few of them on hand just waiting to be used. When I recently came across this recipe for a pumpkin caramel cheesecake bread on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody I knew exactly what I would be using one of those pumpkins for. How could I resist making this? With pumpkin, caramel and cheesecake all rolled up into one there was no way that I could. I pretty much just used the recipe as it was, though I cut back on some of the sugar and replaced half of the flour with whole wheat flour. One of the things that I really like about quick breads is that they are so easy to make. You pretty much just mix all of the ingredients ahttp://world-supper-recipes.blogspot.com/nd then bake it. This quick bread had the added step of mixing the cheesecake filling but it was still really easy to make. While the bread was baking my apartment was filled with an amazing pumpkin and caramel aroma and by the time that it was done I could barley wait for it to cool to try it. The pumpkin caramel cheesecake turtle bread was so good! The cheesecake layer helped keep the bread nice and moist and it went really well in the bread. The caramel and pumpkin flavor combo was simply amazing and of course it never hurts to add chocolate and pecans. I certainly am looking forward to having this for breakfasts this week!

Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake Turtle Bread

(makes 1 loaf)


Directions:
1. Mix the flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
2. Mix the pumpkin, vanilla, oil, eggs and sugars in another bowl.
3. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
4. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, syrup, caramel, egg and flour in a bowl.
5. Pour half of the pumpkin bread mixture into a loaf pan followed by the caramel cheesecake mixture and the remaining pumpkin bread mixture.
6. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until a toothpick pushed into the center comes out clean, about 60 minutes.
7. Let cool and then pour on the caramel sauce, chocolate sauce and pecans.

Mango, Avocado and Grilled Shrimp Salad with a Peanut Dressing


I had some tom yum grilled shrimp left over and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I had recently come across a recipe for a mango and avocado salad with a peanut dressing on Cara's Cravings that sounded amazingly good and it called for finishing the salad off with some shrimp. I really like the creamy avocado and juicy mango combo and that immediatly caught my attention with this salad. If the shrimp, mango and avocado weren't enough the salad was dressed up in a peanut and coconut dressing and I had recently tried and really liked a peanut dressing with coconut milk on the Thai green bean and crab salad. The shrimp are of course optional but if you have some already cooked shrimp on hand then this salad is a piece of cake to throw together and well worth it! The salad was nice and light and yet filling and packed with flavour. The peanut and coconut dressing was really tasty and it went well with the mango and avocado and the tasty tom yum shrimp finished the salad off perfectly.

Mango, Avocado and Grilled Shrimp Salad with a Peanut Dressing

(makes 2 salads)



Directions:
1. Mix the coconut milk, lime, fish sauce, peanut butter, chili, sugar and cilantro in a bowl and set aside.
2. Assemble the salad, toss with dressing to coat and serve garnished with chopped roasted peanuts.

Tomato Tart



This tomato tart made its way around the food blogging sphere not too long ago and while I did not get the chance to make it I did bookmark it. Now that the locally grown field tomatoes are looking nice and ripe it was the perfect time to make it. This tart is made with layered phyllo dough though you could easily use puff pastry dough. The tart is topped with some onions, mozzarella cheese and of course fresh tomatoes. Parmigiano reggiano is spread between the layers of phyllo dough for even more cheesy goodness. The tart is finished with a fresh herb and I went with some fresh thyme. I cut the size of the recipe down to half by folding or cutting the phyllo sheets in half. The phyllo tomato tarts were pretty easy to make. The phyllo dough came out nice and golden brown and crispy and buttery and good. The thinly sliced tomatoes on top roasted a bit concentrating their amazing flavour. The thyme added a really nice aroma to each bite of the tart.

Ingredients:
3 sheets phyllo dough (thawed and cut in half lengthwise)
3 tablespoons butter (melted)
3 tablespoon parmigiano reggiano (grated)
1/2 cup red onion (thinly sliced)
1/2 cup mozzarella (grated)
2 tomatoes (thinly sliced)
1 tablespoon thyme (chopped)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and grease the parchment paper.
2. Lay a sheet of phyllo dough on the parchment paper and brush the top with butter.
3. Sprinkle 1/2 tablespoon of the parmigiana reggiano on top.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with the rest of the phyllo dough.
5. Spread the onions slices on top followed by the mozzarella.
6. Place the sliced tomatoes on in a single layer.
7. Sprinkle the thyme on top along with the salt and pepper.
8. Bake in a preheated 375F oven until the phyllo dough is golden brown, about 20-30 minutes.

Cranberry Chutney




You just can't have a Thanksgiving turkey dinner without cranberry sauce and this year I wanted to change things up a bit. Last year I tried a jalapeno cranberry sauce and I really enjoyed it and I was thinking that this year I would take it one step further. I was thinking about a cranberry chutney. I generally start my chutneys off with some onion, garlic, ginger, jalapeno peppers, turmeric, sugar and vinegar. From there I add the main flavoring, in this case the cranberries and then some some spices and extras to try to round things off. Because the cranberries are tart I decided to add some sweet raisins to balance things out rather than increasing the amount of sugar. Cranberry sauce is more of a holiday dish so I swapped out the turmeric for some pumpkin/apple pie type of spices to give it that holiday feel. The cranberry chutney turned out really well. It was a nice balance of tart, sweet, spicy and hot and it did a great job filling in for the cranberry sauce in the Thanksgiving meal. I am now looking forward to seeing how I can enjoy using the leftover cranberry chutney.

Cranberry Chutney

(makes 2+ cups)



Directions:
1. Place everything in a large pot and boil until it thickens, about 10-20 minutes.