Butternut Harvest Stew

2 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 pounds boneless pork, cut in 1/2-inch chunks
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups chicken broth
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp rubbed or ground sage
1 bay leaf
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and chopped in bite-size chunks
2 medium apples, peeled and roughly chopped

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan.  Add pork, onion, and garlic and sauté until meat is no longer pink; drain off fat.
2. Add broth and spices (including bay leaf).  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Add squash and apples and simmer, uncovered, until squash is tender.  About 20 minutes.
Discard bay leaf and serve.

Note: Does not freeze well.

Source: Let's Eat!

I made this several times this fall/winter and loved it!  A delicious soup.

Pumpkin Apple Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice)
3/4 baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cup peeled and chopped apple

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly grease 12 muffin cups or use paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt.  In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, pumpkin, and oil.  Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stirring just to moisten.  Fold in apples.  Spoon batter into prepared cups.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

Source: adapted from Allrecipes

Try #??:

I halved the amount of sugar (to 1/2 cup), and used some brown sugar because I had run out of white sugar. 

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips (use mini chips for mini muffins)

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

2. In another bowl, combine the egg, oil, applesauce, yogurt and vanilla. 

3. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. 

4. Fold in bananas and chocolate chips. 

5. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 22-25 minutes (10-12 minutes for mini muffins) or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Source: Let's Eat!

Try #1 - October 24, 2014

Yummy!  

Peanut Butter Chicken in Crockpot

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken, cut in chunks *
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (creamy or chunky, your choice)
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 lime, juiced
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth

*Note: Double sauce for a whole chicken.

1. Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Put the chicken into the bottom of your pot and add the peanut butter. 2. Toss in the vegetables and cumin. Squeeze in lime, and add soy sauce and chicken broth. Stir as well as you can to combine (the peanut butter will be clumpy, and that's just fine).

3. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for about 4 hours. Serve over rice or quinoa.

Source: A Year of Slow Cooking

Try #1 - October 24, 2014
This was good, although I have to remember that with many crockpot recipes, they are better after they've sat for a little while.  In this case, this would have been better if I had turned off the heat and let it sit for a while to let the sauce thicken up.  It was definitely better as leftovers the next day.  I used drumsticks and thighs.  After we had eaten all the chicken, there was still quite a bit of sauce left so I froze the leftover sauce to serve over rice (and perhaps add some more chicken) for a future meal.

New England Clam Chowder

1/2 pound bacon, cooked and diced
1 (6.5-ounce) can minced clams, drained
5 small red potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 cup sliced celery
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons dried thyme (I used 8 sprigs fresh thyme)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 cups chicken broth (I used fish broth)
2 cups half-and-half or heavy cream (I used 1 cup whole milk)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Brown the bacon on the stovetop, and drain the accumulated grease.
Put the bacon into your crockpot, and add clams. Add all the vegetables and spices and pour in the broth. Cover, and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, or until the onion is translucent and the potatoes squish easily with a fork.
2. Use a hand-held stick blender and pulse a few times to naturally thicken the soup. Stir in half and half and shredded cheese. Ladle into wide-mouthed bowls or bread bowls.

Source: A Year of Slow Cooking

Try #1 - October 21, 2014
I made this with some leftover salmon Nathan had cooked over the weekend.  I omitted the bacon (and clams, since I was using salmon instead).  So I guess I should call this salmon chowder.  Either way, it was delicious!  A great use of leftover salmon.  I used the salmon bones to make the broth a day or two before I made this soup (just added water and some herbes de provence to the bones and cooked it in the crockpot for several hours).  There was quite a bit of salmon meat left on the bones so I picked it off and added that to the chowder.  I will definitely make this again!

General Tso Chicken in Crockpot

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken, cut in 1-inch chunks
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried ginger
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1 (16-ounce) package stir-fry vegetables (to add later)

1. Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Put the chicken into the bottom of your crockpot and then add the garlic, brown sugar, ginger, soy sauce, and red pepper flakes. Toss the chicken to fully coat with the sauce ingredients.
2. Cover and cook on low for 5 to 6 hours, then add the frozen vegetables. Re-cover and cook on high for an hour, or until the veggies are fully hot and the chicken has reached desired tenderness.
3. Serve with white or brown rice.

Source: A Year of Slow Cooking

Try #1 - October 16, 2014
This was pretty good, but not really General Tso Chicken. So as long as you don't expect what you might find in a Chinese restaurant, you should be happy. Really easy dinner. Instead of chopping chicken into pieces, I used whole boneless/skinless chicken thighs, and just broke it up into pieces at the end. I added a bag of frozen broccoli. Definitely needed a full hour on high to get the broccoli hot enough. The kids seemed to like it.

Homemade Brownies

2 large eggs
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp espresso powder (optional)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly grease a 8 x 8 inch pan.
2. Crack the 2 eggs into a bowl, then beat them with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, melt the butter in the microwave.  Add the sugar and mix well.  Alternatively, combine the butter and sugar and heat on the stove over low heat, stirring, until the butter is melted.  Continue to heat briefly (in microwave or on stove), just until the mixture is hot, but not bubbling; it'll become shiny looking as you stir it.  Heat the mixture to this point will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.
4. Add the butter/sugar mixture to the egg/cocoa mixture, stirring until smooth.
5. Add the flour and chocolate chips, again stirring until smooth.  If you want the chips to remain intact in the baked brownies, rather than melting in, let the batter cool in the bowl for about 20 minutes before stirring in the chips.
6. Spoon the batter into lightly greased 8 x 8 pan.
7. Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack before cutting and serving.

Note: You could double this recipe and put it into a 9 x 13 pan, same baking time (30 minutes).

Source: adapted from www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/fudge-brownies-recipe

Try #1 - September 29, 2014
I wanted brownies today.  We had no box mixes.  But we did have cocoa and chocolate chips, so I went searching for a brownie-from-scratch recipe and came up with this.  Not bad, especially for my first ever brownies not from a box!  Not as sweet as the box mix, but that's ok.  I didn't heat the sugar with the butter as recommended in step 3, so my brownies did not have the shiny top crust.  I will try this in the future.  The smaller 8x8 pan was a more reasonable size for our family.  If we were having guests or I were making this for small group I would double it and use the 9x13 pan.

Try #2 - October 9, 2014
Good news!  These can be made by mixing the dry ingredients separately and adding them to the wet ingredients.  The only caution is not to accidentally scramble your eggs when you add the melted butter.  I avoided it by making sure the melted butter was not scalding and adding it a little bit at a time while continually whisking the egg mixture.  It might be my imagination, but this batch seemed even better than my first try - I also had them warm and ooey gooey out of the oven so that always helps.

Try #3 - November 2014
Can also make these with whole wheat flour. Also tried it with heating the butter and sugar together in the microwave and the top did come out shinier!