Dessert-o-rama

This Week's New Recipe: Peanut Butter Cup Pie

From: Kraft Food & Family

Result: As Mark's grandmother said, "It's sinful." Kraft, you may have redeemed yourself. The pie was fantastic! And it looked professional, too...always a plus. The pie certainly claimed it's place next to my chocolate trifle, pumpkin bread, and spiced cider, and Mark's mini pumpkin cheesecakes. Yea, Thanksgiving!

Another Crock Pot Dish

This week's new recipe: Slow Cooked Tex-Mex Chicken & Beans

From: MarthaStewart.com

Result: Delish. I know I've said before how much I love crock pots, but I totally love crock pots. It deserves saying at least twice. And, a new fave...chipotle peppers in adobo sauce..sooooo good. Although the recipe called for chicken thighs, I don't cook with chicken thighs as a rule (bad experience in the past), so I made it with chicken breasts. And actually, used yellow onion and green pepper rather than red onion and red pepper. (Why are red/yellow peppers like twice the cost of green peppers anyway???) So it turned out like a thick stew of shredded chicken and pinto beans in a spicy sauce. Really good. And today we'll be eating the leftovers wrapped in tortillas while we watch Alabama win!

Garlic Overload

This week's new recipe: Pasta Primavera Alfredo and Garlic Bread

From: Kraft Food & Family

Result: There is a reason that pasta alfredo is good. And there is a reason that pasta alfredo-ish is not as good. This recipe was mostly light cream cheese and skim milk, rather than mostly cream and real cheese. As a side note, I don't remember ever eating so much garlic in a meal that the next morning, all I can taste in my mouth when I wake up is garlic, even after brushing my teeth twice and downing a bunch of water and iced tea. (But this was due mainly to my homemade garlic bread rather than the extra garlic I added to the recipe.) Anyway, decent pasta with good vegetables, but didn't quite live up to it's promising title. No thanks, Kraft.

Slow Cooking Saturday

This week's new recipe: Italian Sausage and Zucchini Soup

From: All Recipes

Result: Delicious! Mark actually drank the broth in his bowl...and he never drinks soup (as a personal rule for himself)! I think there are 2 kinds of crock pot dishes...the kind that you can do on a work day (where you just toss everything in the pot in the morning) and the kind that are best on weekends (where you actually have to do stuff to the ingredients before you toss it in). This one was the latter kind, but perfect to make before kickoff and eat after Alabama clinches the division! I totally heart crock pots (and husbands who clean them).