Spooky Boo-tiful Halloween Treats

Those who know me well know that I don't dig on blue food. In fact my distaste for it caused Percy Jackson fans to turn on me in droves.

But this Halloween, I actually cooked with a blue (ish) food. I made a delicious Halloween treat with Boo Berry cereal. Though like most allegedly blue foods, Boo Berry is purple. There are some blue marshmallows in there.

Count Chocula, Frakenberry and Boo Berry cereals were a staple of my childhood and my husband gets excited every year at Halloween time when they make their return to the cereal shelves. 

This year for my Halloween party, I decided to turn all three of these childhood favorites into cereal bars. I did not really eat Boo Berry as a kid, I leaned towards the Count and his chocolatey goodness.

This would work with about any of your favorite cereals. It's the basic recipe for Rice Krispies treats. Sub the cereal of your choice or mix and match at will.

This dish consists of three ingredients: cereal, marshmallows and butter.

You'll need six cups of cereal, a 16 ounce bag of marshmallows (about 40 marshmallows) and 3 tablespoons of butter.

You can either butter or spray a 13 x 9 pan with cooking spray. You could also line it with parchment paper, which I find to be a neater solution.

Put 3 tablespoons of butter in a large pot to melt.

Dump in the bag of marshmallows and melt together over low heat, stirring constantly.

Measure out 6 cups of cereal. Make sure to use dry measure cup.

It should only take a few minutes for the butter and marshmallows to melt nicely.

Turn off the heat and add the cereal.

Mix it together thoroughly.

Immediately dump the mixture in the greased or parchment-lined pan.

You can press it down with a greased spoon, thoroughly greased hands, plastic wrap or wear thoroughly buttered food service gloves like I did to press it all down.

Leave this to set for a few hours. In this case, I did the exact same thing with the Frakenberry and Count Chocula.

 

You could also stir in nuts, dried fruit or coconut. I'd be careful with things like chocolate chips or peanut butter. They could melt and change the consistency of the bars.

Once they are set, I pull out the parchment paper and cut the bars with a serrated knife.

I served these bars on platters in front of the cereal boxes for my Halloween party. I like how it looks like the characters on the boxes are reaching for the treats.

Who can blame them?  The chocolate ones are still my favorites. And the blue ones.... well even through they are purple... they are still blue.

I will leave those for my husband to enjoy.

Coming soon - American Goth

 

 

When her grandfather dies mysteriously, Trinity Goode heads home to the family farm and life in small-town Ohio. Her neighbors in Himmel don't think that a New York City artist with a decidedly Goth style will stick around for long - but the country-girl-at heart has other plans.

 

Country life suits the church-going, quilt-making, pie-baking girl dressed in black just fine, but suspicions about her beloved grandfather's death are growing faster than the corn crop and it's clear that someone has spent nearly two decades destroying her reputation in her hometown.

 

Fortunately, she's got help in unraveling the web of lies from childhood friend, Deputy Bobby Grace. Her late grandfather spent years trying to fix her up with the straight-laced lawman and it's starting to look like grandpa knew best as they work together to find out if his death is connected to a strange cult-like group that's set up business at the farm next door.

 

Can a gal in black lipstick find justice, love and maybe a blue ribbon for her jam at the county fair? Answers, action, mystery and romance are waiting for you in American Goth.

Preserving the taste of summer - how to freeze fresh herbs

I've written before about how the hearty herbs in my garden hold up over the winter.

But there are tender herbs like basil and tarragon that are done at the first frost. Fresh basil is expensive and I have absolutely zero luck at trying to grow them inside in pots. While shopping over the weekend, I noticed something in the freezer case. There were frozen pureed herbs sold in tiny cubes for three bucks a package. I knew I could do better than that.

 
So I grabbed bunches of fresh, basil, tarragon and chives and pulled out the food processor.

I pulled the leaves off the tarragon and basil. The chives I snipped up with scissors.
 

To make the cubes, I put the tarragon leaves in the food processor.

Then gave it a few good pulses until the leaves were chopped. Then I put the chopped herbs into ice cube trays.

I covered the herbs with water. I used bottled water to avoid any chlorine-type taste from tap water.

Put the tray in the freezer. I used the same process with the basil. For the chives, I skipped the food processor.  After a few hours, you'll have solid cubes of herbs.

Pop out the cubes and store them in labeled freezer bags.

You can drop a cube into a soup, stew or sauce to give it a pop of fresh herb flavor all winter long.

Slow Cooker Korean Pork Tacos

These tacos are my take on Korean barbecue. They certainly aren't authentic Korean food, but they do incorporate a lot of the delicious sweet, salty and spicy Asian flavors in an easy-to-make slow cooker recipe. These are delicious topped with sweet pickles, so I suggest making my refrigerator pickle recipe a few days out to have them ready to top these tacos.

Let's start with the ingredients.  You'll need a pork loin along with soy sauce, rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil, Sriracha brown sugar, cornstarch, black pepper, fresh ginger and garlic.

Add half a cup of soy sauce, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, pinch of black pepper any where between half a teaspoon and a tablespoon of Sriracha (depending on how hot you like it.) to your slow cooker.

I highly suggest buying the toasted sesame oil. It's not cheap, but if you keep it in the fridge it lasts a long time. It is great in so many Asian dishes.

I like to use a rasp to grate about a teaspoon of fresh ginger and three gloves of garlic into the slow cooker. You could also chop it finely.

It sticks on the bottom of the rasp, but you can easily scrape it into the slow cooker.

Fresh ginger can be kept in a freezer bag and you can pull it out to grate as needed. 

Stir the mixture together and put in the pork.

Cook on low for 5 to 6 hours until the pork pulls apart easily with a spoon.

For serving, we'll use flour tortillas. You can use another type of flat bread if you prefer. I like to use matchstick carrots and fresh cilantro or parsley to top. If you'd prefer, you can grate or julienne the carrots yourself.

Fill the tortillas with the meat and sauce.

Get out those pickles we made earlier.

Add the pickled cucumbers, peppers and shallots to your taco. You could also have the topping raw, but I really think it needs the acid from the pickles.

 

Now let's add the carrots for crunch and a sprinkle of cilantro or parsley.

 

If you like, spoon a little more of the cooking liquid on top. Now serve.

 

You may not have some of these Asian ingredients in your pantry just yet, but it's worth it to get them. Having them on hand opens up a whole new world of cooking.

Bread & Butter Pickles In Minutes

 
Here's a quick way to make a version of delicious bread and butter pickles. No bread or butter involved in making these babies and you can have a whole jar of delicious homemade pickles in less than 30 minutes. They are sweet and sharp and delicious.
 

 
Let's start with the ingredients. I used a cucumber from my garden, some little sweet peppers and shallots.  You could also use hot peppers if you want a spicier pickle.
 

 

You'll also need salt, sugar, rice vinegar turmeric, mustard seeds, pickling spice and celery seed.

 

 

Put half a cup of water and half a cup of vinegar (you could also use cider vinegar. I like rice vinegar because it has less of a bite.)

 

 

Now add 3/4 cup of sugar and a pinch of salt.

 

Then 1/4 teaspoon each of the spices. Dump it all in the pan and bring to a boil.

Now slice the cucumber thinly.

Then the little sweet peppers.

Now slice the shallots.

Take a jar and we're ready to start layering. We aren't canning here. These are just going the refrigerator. You don't need to heat the jar or seal it.

I like to start layering the veggies in the jar. You don't have to, it will pickle all the same. But I think it looks prettier layered.

Once they are nicely layered, you should be ready to add the pickling liquid.

Place a funnel in the jar. Preferably a better funnel that the one I have here. It's sort of falling apart.

The pickling liquid should be boiling by now. Give it a stir to make sure everything is combined.

 

Either line the funnel with cheesecloth or use a strainer to pour the pickling liquid through.

If the liquid doesn't quite cover the veggies, you can add a little water. All you need to do now is let them cool, put on the lid and let them wait in the refrigerator for about a week.


Congratulations, you have just pickled!