Cream Cheese Mints

I've been seeing lots of recipes for making your own mint candy! I love after dinner mints, so I decided to give it a try! The recipes looked so simple! I'm not much of a candy maker but it just looked so easy and tempting!

The recipe called for powdered sugar. I didn't have powdered sugar but a fellow food friend showed me this recipe on how to make your own powdered sugar. Yes, you can make your own powdered sugar from regular sugar! Just put the regular sugar in a blender with some cornstarch and blend away until it becomes powdered! Well, this didn't work for me...it just became slightly less graulated! I was getting the feeling that these cream cheese mints just weren't meant to be for me!

I decided to continue making the mints. So I creamed the butter, cream cheese and sugar together and added in the peppermint extract. I tasted the mixture and LOVED it. It tasted very similar to a 'York Peppermint Pattie' minus the chocolate coating! It was very grainy though because I didn't use powdered sugar. But I didn't care because it still tasted great! My hopes were restored!

Then you're suppose to shape the mint mixture into some sort of candy shape. I chose to make small discs. The mixture was very sticky, so this was tricky...I love rhymes! I placed the discs on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet sprinkled with sugar to help keep the mints from sticking. This worked great! I also dipped the tines of a fork in sugar to make impressions on each mint disc, just to add a little design.

Then these mints need to air dry for 2 hours. It was difficult to keep from eating all of them before they were done drying! I think next time I will freeze them and then dip them in melted chocolate! YUM!

 Here is how I made the mints!

INGREDIENTS:

4 oz. cream cheese - softened

3 cups powdered sugar

1 Tbls. butter - softened

1/2 heaping tsp. peppermint extract

 

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl mix together cream cheese, butter and sugar.

Then add in peppermint extract.

Mix well.

If the mixture is too sticky add more powdered sugar.

Form into teaspoon sized balls and place on waxed paper lined cookie sheet dusted with sugar.

Dip the tines of a fork in sugar then press lightly into each mint ball.

Allow to air dry for 2 hours.

Makes about 8 dozen small mints.

 

This recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

Pretzel Rolls!

I am such a HUGE soft pretzel fan! I just love the thin, crunchy, outer layer with the very soft and fluffy center!

Flower Hot Dogs!

I found this cute way of making and serving hot dogs on Pinterest...I think I may have mentioned that site a few dozen times! And I knew I was going to try it because how often do you come across a new way to prepare hot dogs? 

Reuben Dip!

When I think of a really tasty deli sandwich my mind always goes to a nice, thick, messy, dripping with dressing, Reuben sandwich! But I like my Reuben on white bread...

I know, I know! It should be on rye bread!

Seriously Scrumptious Drunken Pork Chops

 I have LOTS of pork chops in my freezer, as I mentioned in this post about a recent pork chop recipe that I tried...'Cornmeal Crusted Pork Chops'. So, of course I just had to try the 'Drunken Pork Chops'!

That title really says it all! This recipe was so easy and tasted so good! The sauce in this recipe had an Asian flare to it! I thought it would taste like BBQ sauce, but nooooo, it was so much better than that! It always amazes me how certain combinations of simple ingredients, can come together and make flavors that you would never expect! That's what keeps me compelled to try new recipes! It's like a delicious science experiment every time!

Handy Dandy Brandy Cocktail!

I love a good cocktail from time to time, but I don't have a large selection of liquors in my liquor cabinet! I'm not a big drinker, I guess!  I do like a good glass of wine with dinner...or while I'm cooking dinner! So I'll always have some sort of wine in the fridge!

When I do want a cocktail it's usually the fruity kind! I came up with this next one while looking through the liquor cabinet. It turned out really well! It's fruity but strong at the same time! If it's too strong for you just swirl the ice around in
the glass and them melt a bit.  

This is a simple cocktail with simple ingredients that you probably have handy...hence the name 'Handy Dandy Brandy Cocktail'...

INGREDIENTS:

2 oz. brandy

1 oz. vodka

2 oz. fresh squeezed orange juice

1 oz. maraschino cherry juice

1 maraschino cherry

ice cubes

DIRECTIONS:

Fill a cocktail shaker half way with ice.

Add all ingredients except the cherry.

Shake, shake, shake and strain into a glass with ice cubes.

Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Remember what I said...if it's too strong for you, swirl the ice cubes around and let them melt a bit!

Sip and enjoy!

One Pan Baked Potato Casserole

 I love one pot meals! It's just so convenient not having to wash a lot of pots, pans and utensils. I also love potato recipes that do not require pre-cooking the potatoes in a separate pot. So I decided to create this baked potato recipe that has all the easy steps that I love!

Super Easy Poor Man's Mongolian Beef

My favorite dish to order when I go to my favorite Chinese restaurant ( P.F. Chang's China Bistro) is their Mongolian Beef. The beef is saturated in a thick, rich, dark, sweet and savory soy sauce glaze. And the flavor of the green onions and other veggies just go so well with the beef and sauce!

Cannoli Dip

Internet Photo

When I think of good Italian pastries, the first thing that comes to my mind is cannoli! It's found in every Italian bakery! And it's always served at important family gatherings in our house! My favorite kind of cannoli is the little mini ones! Sometimes the pastry shell is dipped in chocolate! The best!!! But a properly made cannoli, in my opinion, must contain mini chocolate chips!

The Sloppy Shepherd

 The Sloppy Shepherd

In my house we love a good Sloppy Joe sandwich! But I've always wanted to make a Shepherd's Pie! So why not combine the two?

Cheese Crisps

Anything with the word 'cheese' in the title, will usually get my attention when it comes to recipes! And when I saw that this recipe only contained 3 ingredients, I was even MORE interested!

Zucchini Souffle

I love to make vegetable recipes that my kids will actually eat! They don't like too many vegetables, but this one didn't seem to be a problem for them! So I was doing a happy dance after they ate this for dinner!

Eggs in Clouds

This was a very interesting recipe from the title...to the preparation...to the taste and texture! I had some concerns about if this recipe would work because I've come across many Internet recipes these days, that just look good in photos and are very popular on certain websites, but are totally fake and could never work in the real world! They just look cute on 'Pin' boards, if you know what I mean! This recipe had its share of problems from start to finish but it did taste very good! So all was not lost!

Here is how it went...

Zebra Cupcakes - Low Fat

I've been looking for a decadent chocolate dessert that has some substance, but is not too fattening! Is there such a dessert or am I just dreaming? Well if I'm just dreaming, then my dreams just came true!

I found this recipe called Root Beer Float Cake and decided it was the one for me! It had lots of positive reviews and one of the ingredients was root beer...which I had some that needed to be used up since my family hasn't been drinking it lately! I decided to tweak the recipe to make it lower in fat and calories!

It was a huge success! I didn't taste the root beer in this cake, but I loved the spongy texture and the decadent chocolate flavor! I made them into cupcakes and decorated them with a root beer drizzle (my own idea) The cupcakes were such a lovely dark chocolate color. The drizzle really stood out and resembled a zebra print, mainly because I have poor drizzling skills! The drizzle, just like the cupcakes, didn't take on any of the root beer flavor, but I thought I would use the root beer to continue the theme!

Here is my version of the recipe...

Thai Iced Tea

Me and my hubby...or is it, my hubby and I? Well, we went to a really good Thai restaurant that served iced tea. It's not the iced tea that Americans usually drink here in the U.S. It's a darker, richer kind of tea and they serve it with some sort of sweetened milk. Thai iced tea has such a unique flavor. I asked the waitress how it was made and she said it's just tea with milk! Well this didn't taste like tea with milk, so it must be some special kind of tea and some special kind of milk!

I did a little research recently because I've been wanting to duplicate that Thai iced tea.
I read lots of recipes on the Internet and found that some people like to use  Thai tea bags. And others use black tea like the black tea they serve in Chinese restaurants. Some recipes called for spices like star anise and cardamom. Also many recipes used sweetened condensed milk, sugar and/or coconut milk to sweeten the iced tea. My head was spinning trying to think of how to make Thai iced tea!

Then I just decided to take the plunge and try this

 Thai Iced Tea from a blog called

 Oh Abby Day 

It was very good, but I know it would have been better if I would have used Thai tea bags instead of black tea! I added 6 drops of red food coloring because Thai tea is much more red in color than black tea. I'll be trying this again with the proper tea next time!

 

Ingredients:

4.5 cups of water
4 tea bags of Thai tea (if loose leaf then 4 tablespoons). Must be purchased at Asian supermarket.
4 tablespoons of white sugar
4 tablespoons of sweet condense milk
ice
3-4 tablespoons of coconut milk

Instructions:

Bring water to boil and turn oven off.

Steep tea for 10-15 minutes and remove. (I usually steep for a much longer time because you need this strong!)

While this is still hot, mix in sugar and condense milk. Stir for three minutes until everything dissolve.

Allow tea mix to cool down to room temperature.

Pour mixture over a glass of ice

Topped with 3-4 tablespoon of coconut milk. No need to mix in the coconut milk. Let it sit on top of the drink.

Optional: Can garnish with mint leaves.

 

Recipe courtesy of  'Oh Abby Day'

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Update: February 26, 2013

 

I'm so happy to say that I have an update!

Cornmeal Crusted Pork Chops

 

I love to find new ways to prepare pork chops! I've been buying lots of pork chops these days because I've been finding great sales! I can never pass up a great meat sale! So now I just need TONS of recipes for yummy ways to prepare pork chops!

This recipe sounded very interesting because of the cornmeal. I've never used cornmeal to coat pork chops. This worked out really well!

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

 

I love Thai food so this was a no-brainer for me! The ingredients and direction were so simple, which enticed me even more! This recipe cooked up so quickly! It was done in less than 30 minutes!

Bak Kwa Cookies ( Bacon Cookies)

 

You know what? I'm so glad that I love to try unique recipes because the title of these cookies alone, might have scared me away! I'm very happy it didn't! These cookies were so very good! I thought they were going to be a very savory cookie, but they're not! These Bak Kwa cookies are very similar to a shortbread cookie. Slightly sweet and very buttery! The bacon bits just gives the cookie a little  hint of smokiness and a nice chewiness! This is a crisp but crumbly cookie. I truly enjoyed these and will make them again!

I found this recipe *here* on a blog called 'No-Frills Recipes'.

I'm posting the recipe below with conversion from metric, to make it easier for my U.S. readers.

Cran-Broccoli Slaw

This is such a unique and refreshing salad! It's perfect when you want something out of the ordinary to tickle your taste buds!

Key West Chicken

I'm not much of a griller! That's usually my hubbys job! But I can say that I really out did myself with this chicken! Look how juicy it is!




 And there was 32" of snow covering the BBQ just days earlier, from a freak NY storm! But I was not going to let that stop me! It was all worth it for that chicken!