Here in Texas we are wrapping up a mild winter. We’ve been blessed with a lot of 70-degree days with a few chilly days mixed in. Last week’s chilly day (which I hope is our last) left me craving chicken and dumplings.

This recipe is for my mother’s chicken and dumplings which consist of homemade chicken broth filled with big chunks of chicken and giant fluffy dumplings. The dumplings and the broth are seasoned with garlic powder and sage. So delicious.

You may be reading things and thinking “that is not how I eat my chicken and dumplings!” But it seems to me that there a few recipes in life that are only edible when prepared the way your mother makes it; chicken and dumplings tops this list for me (followed by nachos and hot chocolate). If this is not your mama’s I suggest you try it because I think it is pretty dang good!

To prepare it cut a whole chicken into eight pieces: breasts, legs and thighs, wings, back, and neck. Place all of this into a large pot and cover with eight cups of water. Add in one diced onion and season with sage, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer on low for about 40 minutes or until meat is cooked through.

Remove chicken from pot and remove skin and shred the meat. Discard any bones, skin, fat, and the neck. Skim any fat from the top of the broth. Add shredded chicken back to broth.

In a medium bowl add Pioneer Baking Mix (don’t ask me why but it must be Pioneer, Bisquick doesn’t come out the same). Be careful to get the baking mix and not the pancake mix, I’ve made that mistake before! Add to this milk, salt and pepper, garlic powder, and sage. Stir until well combined. Slowly add more milk if needed and stir until a wet dough forms. Drop large spoonful’s of dough into the simmering broth. Cover and let cook for about five minutes.

This is one of my favorite cold day meals and always makes me think of home. Even the way it makes the house smell when cooking is comforting. I have to admit that I don’t eat much of the chicken and go straight for the fluffy dumplings. Even if this isn’t your Mama’s recipe I think you will still be pleased!

I’ve always been a fan of a good chocolate and coffee pairing. When I was in junior high a Baskin Robbins moved into my small town bringing with it my new vice. If you’ve ever tried this chocolate and coffee combo you know exactly what I am referring to (you are probably addicted as well).

Yes, I love Mocha Cappuccino Blasts.

These are similar to Frappuccino’s, but so much better. Unlike the Starbucks’s drink, the Baskin Robbins treat is made with ice cream. So amazing.

My sister turned 16 about the time Baskin Robbins came to town so we made many afternoon trips to get a treat. We’d often be asked to bring one to someone else only to scarf down half of ours and part of his or hers. We didn’t make very good delivery people.

Baskin Robbins closed a few years later, despite us doing our best to keep them in business, but I still get to revisit my favorite treat every couple of years.

The Mocha Cappuccino Blast secured my coffee chocolate love to which I rekindled in this delicious Chocolate Coffee Cookie.

These cookies are very chewy and delicious with rich chocolate flavors and a hint of coffee.

To prepare these cookies I beat together butter, brown sugar, sugar, and an egg until well combined. I then stirred in cold coffee. Finally I added in flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa until smooth. I stirred in chocolate chips and dropped tablespoon size mounds onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

After only about eight minutes at 400 these delightful cookies were ready for me to devour after being tortured by the yummy coffee sugary smell.

These baked up chewy and delicious. They are the perfect balance of sweet and salty and deepened with cocoa powder.

If you are a coffee and chocolate lover like myself you will enjoy these. But be sure to keep them out of arms reach or, before you know it, the entire batch will be gone.

When I was in high school my mother and I would stock up on food from Sam’s Club that I could heat up fast. We would buy things like frozen waffles and Hot Pockets. One summer we bought a giant box of chicken potpies. A week later my Mom went to eat one and noticed they weren’t in the fridge. She asked me if I had already managed to eat the entire box.
“What chicken pot pies,” I asked.
“The ones we bought last week,” she replied.

We both stood there and stared at each other for a moment and then realized what we had done. We ran out to the hot car to find an entire box of chicken potpies. We were very sad to have wasted an entire box of food, but also a little concerned that it could set in the car for a week and never smell. Preservatives do amazing things!

I was telling my hubby this story the other night to which his only response was “why don’t we ever eat chicken pot pie?” I decided to make him some but my favorite part is the crust. I decided to make a version that would give me ultimate crust consumability so I made Chicken Pot Pie Pockets.

To make these I sautéed half of a yellow onion in olive oil until they were browned. I then sprinkled in flour and cooked it till brown so that the flour wouldn’t give my gravy a raw flavor. To my onion mixture I slowly added in skim milk. When the mixture would get thick and bubbly I would add a little more milk until all three cups were used.

To my gravy I added in 1 ½ cups of frozen mixed veggies that included corn, carrots, peas, and green beans. I also stirred in 1 ½ cups shredded chicken breasts. When the veggies were cooked through I removed my pan from the heat to prepare my crust.

To prepare my crust I rolled out each sheet of puff pastry to be slightly thinner so that it wouldn’t puff as much. I then cut each sheet in half with a pizza cutter. I placed ¾ cup of the chicken mixture into each piece of crust, folded one end over, and pressed the edges sealed with a fork. I placed my pockets onto a lightly greased cookie sheet and baked it at 425 for 15 minutes.

These came out of the oven light and flaky. They tasted delicious! I got to have buttery, yummy crust in each bite. I could even eat it with my hands like a Hot Pocket! This recipe made four pockets, but I only needed one to be full.

I know the majority of my recipes here are healthy and the filling inside this is very healthy. But, the crust is full of butter so eat in moderation, which might be tricky because these are tasty!

Some ideas are just divine inspiration. You don’t know where they come from but you know they are good. Well, this recipe is one. I was trying to come up with something different to take to a party. I thought of making seven layer dip but that gets old, and then it hit me….. What if I could make seven layer dip with mashed potatoes!

If I were going to add toppings to my potatoes what would they be? There are the classics like sour cream, bacon, and cheese. But what else would be good? So I decided to also add chili, sautéed onions, and mushrooms. Yum!

To make my seven layer dip I used my left over healthy mashed potatoes and spread a few cups in the bottom of a 5×5 pan. I then topped it with chili, sour cream, sautéed onions, sautéed mushrooms, bacon, sliced green onions and sprinkled  a little garlic powder and salt and pepper on top. I baked it for twenty minutes, topped it with fat free cheese, and baked it for ten more minutes or until bubbly and hot.

This was a really quick dinner to cook up especially since I had leftover mashed potatoes and chili already in the fridge. The flavor was great! I used crispy bread to dip into it or just ate it with a fork. The flavors all mingled together well and tasted delicious!

I used all fat free or reduced fat ingredients, but I’m sure the flavor would be even better if you used the full fat ingredients. You could also substitute chopped beef for the chili.

Try making this for your next party and I’m sure everyone will go crazy for it!

There are many rules in life that cannot be broken. I can think of ten off the top of my head that are written in stone. In the kitchen, rules may not be written in stone but they are written on your heart. One rule is to always taste food before serving it. Another, and much more important rule I always follow, never peel potatoes.

I know that not everyone likes mashed potatoes with the skin on but these same people have never spent an hour hunched over a trashcan with a paring knife and a bag of potatoes. The skin also adds more flavor and nutrients to your mashed potatoes. So you have no excuse!

Well, for today’s recipe I have some really delectable low calorie mashed potatoes. These potatoes are not made with cream and butter, but with a few low calorie substitutes.

First off we start with red skin potatoes. These potatoes have move flavor and color than typical baking potatoes. The texture is a little smoother as well. To make our potatoes rinse and cut them into small pieces and bring them to a boil. Once the potatoes are soft drain them reserving ¼ cup of the boiling water.

The drained potatoes are placed into a large bowl to be whipped. I prefer to make my potatoes in my stand mixer. It is much faster and my arm doesn’t get such a workout! Plus, the skins kind of stick to the paddle so if you don’t love the skin you can easily remove some of them.

To the bowl I add in the reserved water, milk, a Swansons Flavor Boost package (this stuff is awesome at adding in low cal flavor), fat free sour cream, garlic powder, and salt and pepper. Beat this on medium until your potatoes are the desired consistency. Taste and season to your preference.

I always kind of dread making mashed potatoes but this recipe comes together rather quickly. Not peeling the potatoes and using a stand mixer makes things go much faster.

The flavor of these potatoes rivals many restaurants. The sour cream gives it the creaminess that many mashed potatoes have and the garlic adds a lot of flavor. These were really delicious and reheated really well the next day.

Give these a shot at your house and I think everyone will be surprised to learn they have no butter or heavy cream.

My sister and I have been cooking together for many years. Put us in the kitchen together with our mother and we seem to have our own dance. We know where one another is going and what each other needs. One person  will get out an onion, someone else will cut it, and yet another one of us will clean it up; all without saying a word (except for rapid talk of movies, books, and life in general). There are occasions when this backfires and one of us throws away half of a tomato before its been cut because we are so deep in conversation.

None of us can ever seem to follow a recipe either. We have always found a recipe, combined it with another, and added in a few other things that just sound good.

In high school my sister and I saw a cooking show where they made candied orange peel. Without having a recipe we decided to make our own and immediately jumped up and got cooking. They turned out pretty good.

I was thinking of that story recently and decided that I should try and make candied orange peel again. Except I would try it a little differently and use cuties and grapefruit. I think this would be great with most any citrus though.

To prepare the candy you start by cutting your peel into sticks. This is best done by cutting the top and bottom off of your fruit and then making thin slices into the peel. Then you can simply peel off each section.

To prevent the bitter taste that orange peels have you will need to blanch the peels in boiling water. Simply drop the peels into water, let boil about three minutes, then drop into ice cold water. Drain and rinse the peels and blanch and rinse one more time.

To candy them you need to combine one cup of sugar and one cup of water in a medium pot. Bring this to a low boil and drop in rinsed peels. Cover and let simmer on low for one hour. When finished remove from pan and place onto wire rack to cool.

You can then finish your candy one of two ways. You can either dip it into melted chocolate or roll it around in sugar. Both ways are good but have a completely different flavor. Give them both a try and see what you think.

This recipe may sound like it has a lot of steps but it is really easy. I think you will enjoy eating these and serving them to your friends. They are very tasty and a great substitute to your typical candies. And now is the time to make them while citrus is in season.

BTW: I’ve had a recent schedule change so I’ve decided to change my posts to every Monday and Thursday. Just thought you might want to know:)

Tis’ the season to eat citrus,
Yum, Yum, Yum, Yum, Yum
Yum, Yum, Yum, Yum!

That’s right. This time of year many of the great citruses are fresh and at their sweetest. It’s a nice break from the typical winter veggies that have been in season like Brussels sprouts and broccoli.

But what’s a girl to do with so much citrus goodness? Well, this week I’ve set out to give you a few new yummy ideas for all you citrus lovers. First up, Grapefruit Angel Food Cake.

Everyone knows and loves angel food cake, but have you ever tried making one? They are surprisingly easy. Not only that, but they are very low in fat. This angel food cake is lightly flavored with a hint of grapefruit.

To make angel food cake you need to start with fresh egg whites that are room temperature. This recipe calls for 1 ½ cups which is about 10-12 eggs. Be careful when separating from the yolk. Just the tiniest drop of yolk will prevent your whites from whipping up. I suggest separating your eggs into a bowl and then adding them one at a time to the measuring cup.

For your juice you’ll need to strain 1/3 cup of grapefruit juice. Place it into a small cup and microwave it for about 15 seconds. You need it to be lukewarm. Add juice and cream of tartar to egg whites and whisk on medium low until frothy. Slowly add in ¾ cup of sugar. Turn mixer up to high and whisk for about five minutes, or until medium peaks form.

In a small bowl sift together one cup of sugar, flour, and salt. Add flour mixture in very small batches to the egg mixture and fold together very carefully. Continue adding in flour until all has been added. Spoon mixture into an ungreased tube pan or Bundt pan. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Set entire pan onto wire wrack to cool for about one hour.

To remove cake from pan gently scrape the sides of the pan with a knife. Give cake a good shake then turn out onto serving plate. Serve with grapefruit, whipped cream, or candied grapefruit.

I think you’ll really enjoy the subtle flavors of this cake. It is not too sweet, not to rich, and not over powered by the citrus flavors. Make up a cake for your guest and they’ll be very impressed you took the time to bake your own angel food cake. Come back Wednesday to see what other citrus goodies I have ready for you.

Recipe adapted from here.

I have a good friend who is a true southern cook. Everything she makes is really amazing and tasty from her corn bread to sweet potato fritters.

One night I had her over to my house for dinner and I was making corn chowder. It was coming together really well, but something was missing. I knew that my soup was lacking that certain something. When my friend got there I asked her for her opinion and do you know what she said, “have you tried adding cream cheese?”

I quickly added in a few ounces of cream cheese (I always keep a few boxes in the fridge because you never know when you’ll need to whip up a batch of cream cheese icing).  And what do you know; it was amazing. The cream cheese added a little richness and depth.

Now, whenever I’m trying to jazz up a recipe that lacks a little je ne sais quoi I add in a little cream cheese and it does the trick. Cookie dough not quit right, add cream cheese. Pasta need a little something, add cream cheese. I do at least use fat free cream cheese to keep the calories down.

To make my southwest corn chowder with cream cheese first roast a couple of poblano peppers. They are not spicy like jalapeno peppers but have a nice smoky flavor. To roast them I stick them on a cookie sheet under my oven’s broiler for about four minutes per side or until the skin is blackened. When the skin on both sides is black I remove them from oven and place into a zip lock bag. I let them set for about five minutes or until cool enough to handle. I rub the blackened skin off of each pepper with a dry paper towel then remove seeds and stem and chop up the remaining meat of the pepper.

In a large soup pot heat olive oil and add chopped onions. Cook until onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Add in chicken pieces, green chilis, and chopped peppers. Stir until heated through. Pour in cream corn and drained corn kernels.  Add in broth and milk. Bring soup to a simmer. Add cream cheese and stir until combined. Add in thyme, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

Let soup simmer for about 30 minutes to an hour (or whatever you have time for). The longer it simmers the move the flavors will evolve. When ready to eat ladle into bowls and top with bacon and green onions.

This soup is a great balance between sweet and salty and spicy. I usually try not to go back for seconds but I did have two bowls of this! It’s the perfect soup to slurp on during the cold winter months.

Do you have a favorite go-to ingredient like me and my cream cheese? Leave a comment and let us know!

I recently visited a local coffee shop, The Boiler Room, and found a great surprise. They were selling these super cute popcorn cakes. They had taken popcorn and candy and shaped it into a cake. “Genius idea,” was my first thought. “I can make that,” was of course my second.

To figure out a way to make a popcorn cake I revisited my recipe for Halloween Chex Balls to see how I had previously made those.  After reviewing that recipe I decided that I would make this using popcorn and marshmallow fluff and to spice it up I would add in M&M’s, Butterfinger pieces, and salted peanuts.

To make this I popped two bags of popcorn in the microwave and removed any unpopped kernels (you don’t wanna chip a tooth). I added the popcorn to a bowl and let cool. I then added in peanuts, M&Ms, and Butterfinger pieces. You can buy small pieces of Butterfinger but I couldn’t find any at my grocery store so I cut candy bars into smaller pieces. I tossed all this together so the candy wouldn’t get stuck together when I poured the fluff over it.

In a large saucepan I melted the butter over low heat and then added in my marshmallow fluff, vanilla, and vegetable oil. I stirred this until the mixture was smooth and well combined. When this mixture was ready I removed it from the heat and stirred it continually until it had cooled slightly, about three minutes. If it is too hot it will melt the chocolates; too cool and it won’t mix well with the popcorn.

When my mixture was the right temperature I poured it over the popcorn and stirred well until every pieces was coated. Feel free to use your hands if it is easier. I greased a Bundt pan and poured the popcorn mixture into it. I wanted to make sure that my popcorn took the shape of the pan so I pressed it firmly.

I then covered it with plastic wrap and placed it into the fridge to firm up for about thirty minutes. When ready I popped it out of its pan onto a platter.

I was actually planning to take this to a party the next day but I wanted to get some good pictures for you guys to see so I went ahead and cut out a slice and then gave it a taste. It turned out really well. It has a great balance of sweet to salty. And it is a very versatile dessert. You can easily mix in whatever ingredients you like. I needed my recipe to be gluten free so I was a little restricted as to what I could add but this mixture was great! You could also color coordinate your M&Ms with the holiday (like red and pink for Valentine’s Day).

This is a great substitute to your typical full fat dessert or cake. If you wanted it to be even lower in calories you could take out the candy and use raisins or a sugar free candy.

Do you remember the episode of the Cosby’s when Dr. Huxtable cut a piece out of a chocolate cake and didn’t want Claire to know so he filled in the hole with paper towel and covered it with icing? Well, with this cake you don’t have to go to such lengths to hide your removed slice. Since I was taking this cake to a party and had removed a piece for pictures I was able to bend the cake together enough and mold it back into a Bundt shape. No one will ever know I snuck a piece. This cake just keeps getting better!

Since completing my upholstery class at Spruce I have been going all over town buying up every chair I can get my hands on. Currently I have a two wing back chairs and an armchair that I am planning to reupholster. But, I thought you might enjoy seeing the step-by-step process I went through recently to reupholster this great looking ottoman.

My sister got me this ottoman at a garage sale for $2 knowing I would want a project to work on. The wood was scratched and the fabric was all ripped up. So, I removed all of the old fabric, foam, and webbing and stripped the ottoman down to the bones. The frame of the ottoman was in perfect shape. I just scrubbed it all down a little bit.

To spruce it up I gave it a fresh coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Duck Egg Blue. When the paint dried I used an extra fine sand paper to buff off the pain in a few areas to give it a nice distressed look and to highlight the ornamentation. I then used a clear coat of paint to seal and protect.

To start the upholstery process I put down a fresh layer of webbing making sure to keep it tight for extra support and basket weaving each strip. Webbing is the foundation of the ottoman so I made sure to make it extra secure with two rows of staples.

To protect the webbing and to add a barrier for the foam I stapled on a layer of burlap. To do this I laid the burlap flat, stapled it on and folded the edges over and stapled it once again for strength.

Over the burlap and around the frame went edge roll. Edge roll is a round cotton filled tube that you put onto the edges of chairs and ottomans. Over the years as seats are used the edges of the foam tends to break down. An edge roll will help to prevent this and help the seat keep its nice shape.

To fill in the gaps under the edge roll I placed cotton batting. I then put down a layer of cotton batting covering the entire burlap layer. Then, to create a nice crown in the seat, I added a few extra layers of batting that increasingly became smaller. This will make my ottoman look extra fluffy and give it a nice round shape.

Over this I put my foam that had been cut to the shape of the ottoman. To attach it and round out the corners I glued on strips of burlap to the edges of the foam and stapled the burlap to the frame.

This was late at night. I'm not sure what I was wearing. But this is the ottoman with edge roll, batting, and foam.

Removing excess burlap after attaching foam.

Over the foam went a layer of Dacron. Dacron is made from polyester into sheets and is used to give your upholstered items a nice finished look and increased softness. This is stapled onto the side of the frame and any excess fabrics are cut away to the staple line.

Then comes the fabric! I started by stapling the fabric onto the frame in the front and back. When I was sure that the lines were going straight I then stapled on the sides. When everything looked straight I stapled all around. Any excess fabric was cut down to the staple line using a razorblade.

I then needed to create a double welt cord to cover the staples. To do this I cut my fabric on the bias in three inch thick strips. I sewed these strips together to make one long piece. I then used two pieces of piping and a piping foot to sew this all together with one seam. I’ll try to get a post up soon that shows more detailed directions on creating a double welt cord.

To attach the welt cord I used a super hot glue gun. I applied the glue in small amounts to the back of the welt cord and placed a few inches at a time onto the ottoman covering the staples. I know it sound weird to use a hot glue gun but this is industry standard.

Once the glue dried I had a beautiful new ottoman! Every time I walk by it I am surprised by how pretty it is. I love the delicate blue paint and the distressing. The cream colored linen textured fabric is so hot right now and looks very pretty with the blue paint. All the lines look smooth and even. I am really sad to see it go.

That’s right. I did all this hard work but I don’t have a place for it in my house! So, this gorgeous ottoman can be yours! Visit my Etsy Store for more information on how this lovely ottoman can adorn your home!

I’ll be sure to keep you updated on any new projects I am working on and when this ottoman finds a happy home that will love and care for it!

Oh, and by the way. The lovely folks at Annie Sloan Chalk Paint recently contacted me to let me know that Annie Sloan herself is doing a small US tour. This isn’t just any tour either. There will be hands on demonstrations where you will learn to do all sorts of finishing techniques. The price is $350, but when you consider you get to meet Ms. Sloan herself, have her teach you new techniques, you get all the materials, and lunch it is a great deal. They will also be donating a portion of the funds to breast cancer research. Sounds like a win, win, win!

If you would like more information on this event visit their website at http://www.anniesloanunfolded.com. If any of you attend let me know how it goes!