Tip Of The Day: Quick Cinnabon Frosting

The next time. You feel the urge to make easy Cinnabons out if that tube of crescent rolls in the fridge use this easy frosting tip. I always keep a can of store ready frosting in the fridge. Warm the frosting in the micro for 30 seconds stir and drizzle over your pastry! 

Enjoy ;)

Buttermilk Biscuit Egg Cups

Make these delicious easy breakfast cups your family will love ❤️. You can make a large batch and if there's any left you can refrigerate or freeze and pop in the microwave.

Ingredients:

Frozen Biscuits

Eggs 

Polish Sausage - cut into cubes pre-cook

Cheddar Cheese

Cooking Spray

Salt and Pepper

Chives

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray jumbo muffin tins with cooking spray.

Place one biscuit in each tin. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Top with one tablespoon cheese, the sausage then crack one egg on top. Season with salt and pepper.

Bake an additional 15 minutes or until the egg is cooked to your liking. run a knife around edges to remove from tin.

Serve with honey.

Enjoy 😀

Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Guess what we're doing today! We took some cherry tomatoes fresh from harvesting in Fenton Michigan and started to oven roast them. They are so sweet by the time there done you will eat them the like candy.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half, toss on

a oiled cookie or baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, toss and bake for 3 1/2 hours at 350. After they have cooled store in a jar in the fridge. 

Use on salads, sauces and pastas. Trust me they won't last long and they taste so much better than sundried you get from the store. 

Hearty Beef Barley Soup

  

I thought about making soup for dinner. My Daughter was feeling under the weather and we always have chicken soup. Running ideas through my head I decided to make a beefy vegetable type soup. I knew What I wanted to make I just couldn't remember the name of the little pearly grain that was sitting right on the tip of my toungue!

Off to the store I went. Retrieving all the fresh vegetables I needed, still no name came to mind. So I headed towards the grain isle. New store, where's the grains?  Two steps further down the cereal isle it comes to me "barley"!

A really healthy grain with a slight nutty flavor that stands up to a hearty soup.

I had the Butcher cut up a boneless chuck roast into 1 pound pieces. He wrapped them separate so I have the extras on the freezer. I wanted a nice and tender melt in your mouth cut when the soup is finished. Stew meat tends to get tough. 

Ingredients:

6 cups beef stock

1/2 large yellow onion chopped

3 carrots diced

3 stalks celery diced

3 cloves garlic diced & smashed

1 cup barley

1 sprigs thyme stem stripped

1 sprig Rosemary stripped & chopped

1 handful fresh Italian parsley chopped

2 bay leaves

1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes 

Salt/pepper

1 Lb boneless chuck roast cut into cubes

Olive oil

Season your chuck roast pieces with salt and pepper. 

In a large Dutch oven add 3 tablespoons olive oil and heat to medium high. Sear your chuck on all sides until it's nice and caramelised. Remove from pan.

Lower heat to medium. Add the onion and cook for 4 minutes, add carrots and celery. Season with a little salt and pepper. Cook an additional 10 minutes stirring often. 

Add the chopped garlic stir for one minute. When you start to smell the garlic aroma add your crushed tomatoes. 

Cook five minutes stiring careful not to burn the tomatoes. Add the beef stock to deglaze the pan. 

Add the chuck roast and fresh herbs back into pan.  Bring back to simmer cover and reduce heat to low. 

I let it cook for one hour, stirring occasionally. Add the barley and cook another hour until barley and meat are tender. The soup will thicken once you add the barley. 

Serve with crusty olive oil grilled bread.

Enjoy!

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Bacon Egg N Cheese Pop Ups

Making breakfast now that school is back in session can be a stressful thing. You want the kids to get a healthy start to their day with some protein not just sugar from cereal.  

These Bacon, Egg & Cheese Pop Ups are easy can be made ahead and warmed up in a snap.

You will need:

 A muffin tin

Sliced bread

2 eggs per person

1/4 cup half & half per person 

One tablespoon bacon bits per person

Cheddar cheese shredded

Chopped chives or scallions 

Salt/pepper

Butter

Heat oven to 375.

Combined eggs and half and half in a bowl whisk, season with salt and pepper.

Spray muffin tin with non stick spray. 

Butter one side of the sliced bread. Place in muffin tin buttered side down like you would a cupcake liner.

Sprinkle in your bacon bits, onion and cheddar cheese.

Fill cups with egg mixture. The bread will absorb some of the liquid. 

Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes until eggs are puffed up and done. 

To remove take a butter knife and run around sides to loosen from pan. 

These can be made ahead, place in container cover and refrigerate. Pop in microwave to

warm.

You can also substitute half and half with whole milk. I used whole wheat bread in the photo.

Enjoy!

Pan Roasted Garlic

Roasting garlic in the oven can take forever! Try this easy much quicker tip.

Pan roast it on the cooktop. I cut the bottom of the head so the garlic can easily break apart. Place in heated oiled pan (I like my cast iron) turning when the skin turns brown. When the garlic gets soft remove to cool on a cutting board. 

Remove the skin or pinch at the tip and it should pop right out! It's sweet and has a roasted flavor!

Enjoy ;)

Dessert Apple Roses

I just saw the most amazing dessert video just now! Of course I had to share! Apple roses. Click the link below to view the video by Cooking with Manuela. It's sooooo easy!!!! Enjoy.

https://www.facebook.com/easymealsforeveryone/videos/750650991723139/

Indoor Marshmallow S'mores

Who says you can't bring the out doors inside? Here is an easy party fav for the indoors.

Marshmallow S'mores in the Winter or anytime.

Take marshmallows stick a tooth pick in the center and dip in melted chocolate and roll in crushed graham crackers. 

Melt your chocolate in a double boiler, a bowl set on top of a sauce pan with water added. Or use the microwave (stir frequently).

Place Graham crackers in a plastic zip lock bag and roll with your rolling pin to crush or toss in your food processor, pulse until desired consistency.

You can ad some espresso powder to make more of an Adult treat! 

Enjoy ;)

Tip Of The Day! Par Boil Sausage For Meat Sauce

Here is a great healthy change for your meat sauces. I par boil my Italian sausage long enough to cook out the fat.   I then strain, rinse off the fat and continue with my recipe as usual. 

Whether it be mild or spicy sausage it still gives your recipes plenty of flavor without all the fat!

Enjoy ;)

Herbed Goat Cheese Appitizer

I made these "amazing" Herbed Goat Cheese balls for a gals night out shopping party.  They were a huge hit and didn't last long on the table.

You will need:

A log of goat cheese chilled well

Fresh chopped herbs (parsley, chives, thyme, basil, dill, mint) 

Smoked paprika - (pour in a thin line on a board and roll the ball down the line)

1/2 cup olive oil

One teaspoon red hot pepper flakes

It's so easy.  I cut my goat cheese log into one inch pieces. 

Roll the cheese in your palms into a ball. Roll the balls into prepared chopped up "fresh herbs" place on a cookie sheet and chill until needed.

I slightly warmed 1/2 cup olive oil and added a heaping teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Let it sit for a couple hours. Stir every so often.  

When your ready to serve pour the oil mixture onto the serving dish. Insert a tooth pick into the cheese ball and place in the oil like shown.  The oil gives it a finished touch and will not disappoint!

Enjoy 😄

New Twitter

I've got a new Twitter! Follow @karenbscooking my other Twitter account is now my personal account, I wil still tweet from the account but not as frequently and as well put together as my new one! Happy Early Thanksgiving!

Halloween Devilled Eggs

This is great! Cut a black olive in half for the body and strips for the spooky leggs! Piled the eggs on your platter so it looks like a nest of creepy spiders!

Happy Halloween :)

Tip Of The Day!

I made the best pork chops last that I have ever made! After giving up and several attempts at perfecting the moist juicy chop ever I had quit.  

Walking into the market passing the meat isle my eye caught a glimpse of the thick very yummy looking chops.  I couldn't resist so I thought I'd try one last time. 

I then grabbed a loaf of roasted garlic Italian artisan bread.  After cooking the chops to perfection thanks to Alton Brown via Food Network, I tossed some olive oil and herbs on the sliced loaf and put in the oven.  The smell was amazing. We sat down for dinner so excited to eat and Hubby says "do we need to turn off the oven?" And he did.  We left the loaf in the oven to move on to the after life of burnt bread.

The next morning getting the kids ready for school for what ever reason I opened the oven. And there it was, a very pretty perfect loaf of garlic herb bread. Dried as hard as a rock.  The bread actually wasn't hard as a rock unless it's burnt it's the perfect candidate for bread crumbs, croutons for salad, stuffing and home made bread puddings.

I nibbled on a piece and started to dunk in my coffee. It was very tasty like a herb biscotti.  :)

Croutons from bread:

Cut bread slices up into 1 inch size pieces.

Place in large mixing bowl.  Drizzle with olive oil to coat. Toss in your favorite herbs.  Make sure you use Rosemary! That is the key!   My forgotten garlic loaf already had garlic flavor and I had added Rosemary, salt and pepper. 

Toss to mix ingredients well. Place on a large baking sheet and bake in 350 oven until light golden brown. Don't forget about them!  You may not be so lucky! 

Enjoy! :)

Cooking Tip Of The Day!

Tip of the day, ad a dab of butter to maple syrup, put in a microwave proof pitcher or gravy boat. Heat for 30-40 seconds in the microwave before serving your French Toast or Pancakes!

You will never go back to using syrup out of the bottle!  Adding the butter to the syrup makes it taste even better!

Enjoy ;)