Great Snacks--Little Turtles

I found this sweet little recipe on a blog that I just found--and already love--the other day.  The blog is called The Luckiest Mrs. and I actually found her blog through her mom's blog, Personalized Sketches & Sentiments.  Both blogs are phenomenal and these ladies are beautiful and truly inspirational and so talented...so you should check them out.

In any case, The Luckiest Mrs. said that her mom used to make these for her when she was younger, and send them to her while she was at college.  When I saw them, they looked so delicious and so easy to make...I just had to have them. 

Try them...you'll find that you can't have just one, two or three.  You can be like me and eat in upwards of thirty!  But hey, I like to tell myself that it's okay...I'm pregnant!

~Little Turtles~

(compliments of The Luckiest Mrs.)

Ingredients:

Snyder's of Hanover Pretzel Snaps

A bag of Rolo's

A bag of Pecan Halves

1.  Assemble the pretzel snaps on a cookie sheet.  I lined the sheet with parchment paper.

2.  Unwrap and cut a whole bunch of Rolo's in half.  I LOVE Rolo's!  Doesn't this bring you back to your childhood?  I used to eat them all the time!

3.  Top each pretzel snap with a Rolo half.

4.  Place in a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes or until chocolate is softened/melted.  Top each with a pecan half to make the "turtle shell".

5.  Let them sit for about 5-10 minutes to let the chocolate and caramel set.

Now aren't they just darling?  Oh, and they're so good.  My handsome test-taster wholeheartedly agreed.

We packed a bunch of them and gave them to my friend Jennifer, just because!

Thanks to The Luckiest Mrs. for sharing the recipe!  I'm definitely going to be making these for years to come!

~Chicken Chili Recipe: Ina Garten~

Back in May, I went to Fort Bliss' Armed Forces Day Celebration and they were holding a chili cook-off.  I went crazy trying out all kinds of chili.  I think I'd have to rank chili up there with my top 5 comfort foods. 

So like I said before, with Malu home, we're doing a lot more cooking in the house.  A few weeks ago, I had a mad craving for Ina Garten's Chicken Chili.  I've made it several times before and it's just delicious--especially for those of you that like another twist on chili. 

It's packed with delicious chunks of chicken breast, has no beans, but has sweet red and yellow bell peppers in it.  It's literally to die for.  It takes a while to make, but it's well worth it!

Chicken Chili
by Ina Garten

4 cups chopped yellow onions (3 onions)
1/8 cup good olive oil, plus extra for chicken

1/8 cup minced garlic (2 cloves)
2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded, and large-diced
2 yellow bell peppers, cored, seeded, and large-diced

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for chicken

2 (28-ounce) cans whole peeled plum tomatoes in puree, undrained

1/4 cup minced fresh basil leaves

4 split chicken breasts, bone in, skin on

Freshly ground black pepper


For serving:


Chopped onions, corn chips, grated cheddar, sour cream


1.  Cook the onions in the oil over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the bell peppers, chili powder, cumin, red pepper flakes, cayenne, and salt. Cook for 1 minute. Crush the tomatoes by hand or in batches in a food processor fitted with a steel blade (pulse 6 to 8 times). Add to the pot with the basil. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

adding the peppers after sauteing the onions

don't you just love the colors?  it smells great too!

2.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

3.  Rub the chicken breasts with olive oil and place them on a baking sheet. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Roast the chicken for 35 to 40 minutes, until just cooked. Let cool slightly. Separate the meat from the bones and skin and cut it into 3/4-inch chunks. Add to the chili and simmer, uncovered, for another 20 minutes. Serve with the toppings, or refrigerate and reheat gently before serving.

yum!  chicken!

Some of my notes:

I don't know about you guys, but I like my chili to have a sweetness to it.  So I added two tablespoons of sugar to the sauce in step 1.

If you're looking to cut down on time for this one--which I've had to do before--I use an already-prepared rotisserie chicken from Walmart or any grocery store, chop it up, and put it right in the pot!  Good thing I had a worker bee to help me do the messy work!

The recipe already suggests eating the chili with corn chips, but I highly recommend the Tostitos Scoop chips...they're great for getting the right amount of chili all into one bite!

And this chili is even better as leftover!  Enjoy!

~Pina Colada Freeze~

Nothing says summer to me like a pina colada--or anything with coconut and pineapple in it, for that matter!  On the 4th of July, my friend Maddie hosted a get-together at her house and she loves the combination of coconut and pineapple as much as my hubby and I do.  So....to help curb the El Paso heat and satisfy our palates, as well as finding something easy to whip up...I made a Pina Colada Freeze!

Literally, with three easy steps and just a few ingredients, you've got a nice, easy and tasty dessert that your friends will ooh and ahh over. 

Oh yeah...the dessert is supposed to be served frozen, but I found that it was just as wonderful--with a cheesecake-like consistency--as it sat out on Maddie's dinner table for a while.

Pina Colada Freeze
from Kraft Foods Food & Family (Summer 2010), kraftfoods.com

1 cup finely crushed pretzels
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter (melted)
1 pkg. (8 oz) Philadelphia Cream Cheese (softened)
2/3 cup sugar
2 cups thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping (divided)
1 can (8 oz) Dole Crushed Pineapple in juice
1/4 cup toasted Baker's Angel Flake Coconut

1.  Mix pretzel crumbs and butter.  Press onto bottom of plastic wrap-lined 9-inch round pan.  Freeze until ready to use. I think next time around, I'll be using a springform pan just to make it easier.  Getting the plastic wrap off was a pain.

2.  Beat cream cheese, sugar, pineapple and toasted coconut until well blended.  Whisk in 1 1/2 cups Cool Whip; spoon over crust.

3.  Freeze 4 hours.  Use plastic wrap to remove dessert from pan.  Top with remaining cool whip.

Enjoy!!!

Shrimp Wonton Cups & Coconut Pineapple Bars

Wow! This is my first cooking/baking post in, like, over a year. I can't believe it. It's just that I've been so busy since I moved to El Paso a year ago, that I kinda just stopped cooking/baking. This weekend, I was invited to a friend's house for dinner and I decided to get off my butt and make something. And I thought that I'd start of nice and simple just to ease back into everything. And I hope it doesn't stop here. With the baby coming in two months, I'll have to start cooking more!

First off, I wanted to make an appetizer. So I made these Shrimp Wonton Cups. They're so easy to make and delicious. Now, I'd rather deep fry wontons any day, but I suppose baking it, like this recipe calls for, makes it just tad bit healthier. Only, I found that the shells soften up a little to quickly for my taste. And, these cups taste best when served immediately out of the oven. By the time I got to my friend's house on the other side of town, not only had the wonton cups softened, but the cheese was no longer hot and stringy. Apparently, no one else noticed. They were practically all gone. I'd consider this a hit!

Shrimp Wonton Cups
(taken from the Pampered Chef Celebrate! Cookbook)


24 square wonton wrappers
1 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted
10 oz. shelled, deveined, cooked, medium shrimp, chopped
2 green onions with tops, finely chopped
1/3 cup grated carrot
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 garlic clove, pressed
1/2 Tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded mozarella


1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray a mini-muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. Using a pastry brush, brush one side of each wonton square with melted butter. Press each wonton, butter side up into muffin cup. Bake 8 minutes or until edges turn golden brown. Remove pan from oven to cooling rack.

2. Finely chop green onions and grate the carrots. Combine cream cheese, pressed garlic, and worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Blend well. Stir in chopped shrimp, green onions, carrots and mozarella cheese.

3. Using a small scoop, fill each wonton with a rounded scoop of the cream cheese mixture. Bake 5 minutes or until wontons are golden brown and filling in bubbly around the edges.

Enjoy! See how easy that was? Now for dessert...you guys know that being from the islands and all, I love anything with pineapple and/or coconut. So I made these yummy Coconut-Pineapple Bars that were to die for! Now the bars have a cake-like consistency. I think I'm going to have to come up with a good frosting for this. Anyone have ideas?

Coconut-Pineapple Bars
(from Simply Better, Easy Potlucks, May 2006)

1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1 20-oz. can drained crushed pineapple
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 c chopped nuts toasted (if desired)
1/2 c shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 325. Grease 3-quart rectangular, baking dish. Set aside

2. In large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, and baking soda. Add eggs, pineapple, and butter. Stir until combined. Fold in nuts and coconut. Spread mixture in prepared baking dish.

3. Bake about 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in dish on wire rack. Cut into bars.

And there you have it! Again, I'm going to try to post more recipes here in the future. Hope you guys stop by again!

Will Be Cooking and Baking Again...

...once I get more settled in. However, I will be posting on our family blog so that I only have one blog to update. It's hard for me to keep up as it is! Visit me at http://michelleandmaluaetonu.blogspot.com.

Slacking

I had every intention of participating in this week's TWD recipe challenge, but alas, I never found the time. Between me working late and just wanting to lounge out over the weekend, I just couldn't get it done. I do, however, plan on making the World Peace cookies sometime this week, so stay tuned! Sorry for being such a slacker!

Panipopo--A Tribute to My Hubby (Revised)

My husband, Malu, is from American Samoa, an unincorporated U.S. territory and a cluster of islands located in the South Pacific Ocean just southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa (formerly Western Samoa), where my father is from (so I guess this is a tribute to my daddy too). The picture of Malu (above) was taken during my first visit to American Samoa over two years ago. Anyway, all of us have wonderful memories eating panipopo--both Malu and my dad eating it while they grew up on the islands and me getting a taste of it while moving from Army post to post where we were part of numerous Samoan communities. Panipopo (I've also seen it spelled pagipopo) translates into coconut buns. They are hot, steamy buns baked in a pool of sweet coconut cream sauce and they are delicious beyond words.

I had honestly been craving this recipe, since it has literally been years since I had it--more like over a decade. I thought I would find a recipe and master it so I can make it more regularly when Malu returns. He's deployed right now and when he called, I explained to him that I was going to learn how to make it with a recipe I found online. He said that if I was able to make it, then I'd finally be the perfect wife. He's crazy-funny like that.



So I made the buns and they came out great. I personally like to drown the buns in the coconut cream sauce so that they are sticky and somewhat soggy. Apparently, my dad likes them that way too because this pan you see above had less coconut cream than another batch I made and he rated them 4 out of 10. The other batch (shown below) received raved reviews from him and my cousins at the party I took them to. I tried to find the recipe that I used and for whatever reason, can't find it. So I am posting another recipe that I found that should turn out the same wonderful coconut buns that I made. So here's to you honey....your own pan of panipopo will be waiting for you when you return!




Panipopo
(Samoan Coconut Buns)


5 3/4 to 6 1/4 cups All-Purpose flour
1 Package Yeast
2 1/4 cups milk
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon shortening, margarine, or butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 cans coconut milk (can be found in the international section of the grocery store, typically near Thai food ingredients)
1 cup sugar

1. Mix 2 1/2 cups of flour and yeast. In a saucepan heat and stir milk; sugar; shortening, margarine, or butter; and salt till warm and shortening almost melts. Add to flour mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Using a spoon, stir in as much remaining flour as you can to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and easy to pull - 6-8 minutes.


2. Put some Crisco shortening on your hands. This will add moisture to your rolls and make it easier to handle. Shape in a ball and put in a greased bowl. Turn it on both sides to grease the whole ball of dough. Cover and let rise in the oven on the top rack and below it in a pan put some hot water. (The steam from the hot water will help it to rise) about 45 minutes. Punch dough down. Roll 18 balls and cover for 10 minutes while you make the following milk mixture.


3. Mix 2 cans of coconut milk with 1 cup of sugar. (Add more sugar if you like it sweeter.) In 2 13x9x2 pans, pour in half of the milk mixture in each pan, put in 9 bread rolls on top (or you can make the rolls smaller to make more rolls). Bake at 375 degrees in the oven for 20 minutes or until bread tests done.

OR

You can do this the easy way (which Malu clued me into) and buy a package of the premade dinner rolls from the freezer section of your local grocery store. Let them rise from 3-5 hours. Pour a little over half of the coconut milk mixture over the rolls and bake until golden brown. Baste with remaining coconut milk at least two times during baking. Top with as much sauce as you desire, wait about five minutes and eat warm. Yummy!