The Freshman Cook: October 2017

http://www.thefreshmancook.com/2017/10/candy-corn-cookies-sundaysupper.html

Author: The Freshman Cook

Candy Corn Cookies

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups Butter
2 cups Sugar
2 Eggs
2 teaspoon Vanilla or Almond Extract
2 1/2 cups Flour
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
Candy Corn Cookie Cutter
Orange Food Coloring
Chocolate Jimmies

Royal Icing

3/4 cup Warm Water
5 tablespoons Meringue Powder
1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
2.25 pounds Confectioners Sugar
Yellow Food Coloring

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and extract and mix well. Mix dry ingredients together. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, a little at a time. Mix until flour is incorporated and dough comes together. Add orange coloring and incorporate into dough.
Divide dough into small batches that will fit between a large piece of parchment paper. Roll out dough to desired thickness. This recipe will take approx. 6-7 pieces of parchment paper. Stack the parchment paper covering the cookie dough on to a baking sheet, cover tightly with saran wrap, and let it chill in the fridge. Repeat the process until all dough is used, and all the sheets of parchment are in the fridge. By the time you are done, the first sheet you put in should be cold. If not, wait about 30 minutes.
Take out the first sheet, cut out, and start baking at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. The best thing is that you are not adding any additional flour to your cookies. When you have used all of the dough from one sheet that you can, re-roll it and place on the same parchment paper again. Refrigerate like when you started. Keep cooking until all cookies are done.
Use a whisk to mix together the warm water and meringue powder in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer. Mix for 30 seconds. Add Cream of Tartar and mix for 30 seconds more. Add confectioner's sugar and mix for 10 minutes on low speed. Take some of the icing and tint it a yellow color like the candy corn color.
Use the white color to outline and fill in the top tip of the candy corn cookie. Use the yellow to fill in the bottom area of the candy corn cookie. Add chocolate sprinkles, or whatever type of decorative sprinkle you want.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Celebrate It! Blog Link Party!

Thanks for joining us today! Link up what you want to share!

We can't wait to celebrate with you!

Last weeks three features:

Hasselback Fried Green Tomatoes

from

Housewife How-Tos

Decorative Gourds~Make A Knotty Pumpkin

from

The Country Chic Cottage

Halloween Meringue Cookies

from

Rae's Books and Recipes

An InLinkz Link-up

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Buffalo Chicken Naan Bread Pizza

If you like pizza, you will love this homemade Buffalo Chicken Naan Bread Pizza. It is easy to make, using purchased naan bread and pizza sauce, and when you don't feel like making dinner and want to order a pizza instead, you will be glad you made this! I am part of a group of great bloggers all sharing pizza recipes today Find them at the end of this page!

Buffalo Chicken Naan Bread Pizza
(printable recipe at end of page)
(makes 2 pizzas)

1 Large raw Chicken Breast
1 tablespoon Butter
1 teaspoon minced Garlic
1 tablespoon Butter
Medium Onion
2 pieces small Naan Bread
1 cup Pizza Sauce
2 tablespoon Hot Sauce
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Fresh Mozzarella Cheese
Ranch Dressing

Butterfly the chicken breast, trimming off any fat, and taking out the middle vein.

Pan fry the chicken in a tablespoon of butter and a teaspoon of minced garlic.

Chop approx. half of the onion into small diced pieces. Saute in tablespoon of butter. Chop approx. half of the onion into small diced pieces. Saute in tablespoon of butter.

Once chicken has cooled enough to be handled, pull the chicken apart into shredded pieces.

Mix together the pizza sauce and the hot sauce with a tablespoon of butter. Add more hot sauce if you like it hot! Heat in microwave to melt the butter and mix together.

Add shredded chicken to bowl. Soak chicken for a few minutes, then drain sauce from chicken.

Spread pizza sauce on the naan bread. You can see that these pieces are both very different. I like a lot of sauce, so the one on the right is mine, but my husband likes a bit less sauce and his is on the left.

Add a sprinkle of the shredded mozzarella cheese to each bread.

Top the cheese with chicken and onion.

Add more shredded mozzarella and then small chunks of fresh mozzarella .

Bake for 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted.

If you like a crispier pizza, stick the pizza under the broiler for 5 more minutes, but watch so it doesn't burn.

Cut pizza and drizzle with ranch dressing if desired!

Thanks for joining me today! Scroll down and find more yummy pizza recipes to keep you in pizza ideas for quite some time! Happy Pizza Day!

Follow The Freshman Cook here:

Don't these pizzas all sound amazing?!
Check 'em out!

Buffalo Chicken Naan Bread Pizza by The Freshman Cook

Italian Beef Pizza by Cooking With Carlee

Margherita Pizza by Making Miracles

Mediterranean Flatbread Pizza by Everyday Eileen

Pizza with shaved brussels sprouts and bacon by Simple and Savory

Shrimp Prosciutto and Mushroom Pizza by A Day in the Life on the Farm

Spinach, Pancetta and Fontina Pizza by The Redhead Baker

Stovetop Skillet Pizzas by Culinary Adventures with Camilla

White Pizza Mini Tarts by Take Two Tapas

World Series Tortilla Pizza by Amy's Cooking Adventures

Saturday, October 21, 2017

"Make It Your Own" Soup Bar / #SundaySupper

If you enjoy entertaining, a "Make It Your Own" Soup Bar may be something you would like to try. It is a lot of fun! It's fun to plan the ingredients you will use, the way you will serve them, and the decor for the serving area. Once you get started in the planning, you will find you that there are a lot more decisions to make than you thought.
The first thing I did when putting this Soup Bar together was to make a list of all the ingredients I wanted to have available for my guests. Once I was done with my list, I looked at it and knew I had to cross off a lot of items. I had way too many to choose from!They would all be very tasty in the soup, but this was one of those times, when less is more. So I scaled down my list to popular soup ingredients that I felt everyone would enjoy.

"Make It Your Own" Soup Bar
(printable recipe at end of page)

Chicken Broth
Chicken Breast
Shrimp
Red Onions
White Onions
Corn
Broccoli
Carrots
Celery
Mini Farfalle
Udon Noodles
Chow Mein Noodles

The first thing to do is to heat your broth. Heat it on the stove, or in the crock pot. I used a packaged broth, and I doctored it a little. After I peeled and deveined the shrimp. I deglazed the pan, and put the drippings in the broth. Then I pan fried a chicken breast. While it was cooling, I deglazed the pan and poured the chicken drippings in the broth. Doing this gives the broth a deep, unique flavor.

I boiled the farfalle pasta. To prepare the udon noodles, brown some butter in a small frying pan. Let the butter come to a brown color, then add the noodles and a teaspoon of soy sauce and toss them as they are cooking. They will become covered in a delicious, nutty flavor that you will love. In between frying, deglazing, and deveining you will need to cook some broccoli, corn and carrots. Cut the carrots in to slices, then into quarters. Place in a bowl covered with water and microwave until done, about 1 minute. You can microwave the broccoli and corn, or cook them on the stove.
Chop the celery into tiny pieces and shred the chicken breast. Take the shrimp and cut it completely in half lengthwise. Then cut each piece in half.

To set up your bar, use serving dishes that are similar to establish a look of cohesiveness.I like using clear serving dishes for all the ingredients, except the broth. The clear dishes give a clean look.

As your guests go through the line, have them fill their bowl with all the items they want in their soup.

When they get to then end of the line, they can add their broth, which will heat all the other ingredients. Don't forget to add your hard noodles at the end of the bar. They are a great garnish for the soup. Place napkins and utensils at the end of the line. There is no reason for your guests to have to worry about carrying them until they are done, and need them.

That is pretty much all there is to building a "Make It Your Own" Soup Bar. It is easy to do, just be organized and you will have a great soup bar your guests will love.
A soup bar would be great for football parties, or birthday parties. You can substitute any type of soup as a base, like cream soup, or you could use a beef broth or a seafood broth. There are so many other ingredients to add also, like bread or cornbread. Just have fun!

We have lots of soup and stew recipes today! Scroll down to find some yummy ideas!

Comfort Food Soup and Stew Recipes #SundaySupper

Superb Soups

“Make it Your Own” Soup Bar by The Freshman Cook
Baked Potato Soup by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
Cabbage and Kielbasa Soup by Our Good Life
Chicken and Dumplings by Palatable Pastime
Easy Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup by Pies and Plots
Gnocchi, Sausage & Spinach Soup by Bottom Left of the Mitten
Habitant Pea Soup by What Smells So Good?
Instant Pot Mexican Chicken and Rice Soup by Sunday Supper Movement
Meatball and Orzo Soup by Fantastical Sharing of Recipes

Stupendous Soups

Milchnudeln (German Milk Noodles) by Tara’s Multicultural Table
Mushroom Fennel Soup by Caroline’s Cooking
Pasta Fagioli Soup by Soulfully Made
Slow Cooker Black Bean Chili by Cricket’s Confections
Crock Pot Chicken Posole by My Imperfect Kitchen
Slow Cooker Smoky Chicken-Potato Soup by The Weekend Gourmet
Spicy Lentil Soup with Swiss Chard by Cooking Chat

Join the #SundaySupper conversation on twitter on Sunday! We tweet throughout the day and share recipes from all over the world. Our weekly chat starts at 7:00 pm ET. Follow the #SundaySupper hashtag and remember to include it in your tweets to join in the chat. To get more great Sunday Supper Recipes, visit our website or check out our Pinterest board. Would you like to join the Sunday Supper Movement? It’s easy. You can sign up by clicking here: Sunday Supper Movement.

Follow The Freshman Cook:

http://www.thefreshmancook.com/2017/10/make-it-your-own-soup-bar-sundaysupper.html

Author: The Freshman Cook

"Make It Your Own" Soup Bar

INGREDIENTS:

Chicken Broth
Chicken Breast
Shrimp
Red Onions
White Onions
Corn
Broccoli
Carrots
Celery
Mini Farfalle
Udon Noodles
Chow Mein Noodles

INSTRUCTIONS:

The first thing to do is to heat your broth. Heat it on the stove, or in the crock pot. I used a packaged broth, and I doctored it a little. After I peeled and deveined the shrimp. I deglazed the pan, and put the drippings in the broth. Then I pan fried a chicken breast. While it was cooling, I deglazed the pan and poured the chicken drippings in the broth. Doing this gives the broth a deep, unique flavor.
I boiled the farfalle pasta. To prepare the udon noodles, brown some butter in a small frying pan. Let the butter come to a brown color, then add the noodles and a teaspoon of soy sauce and toss them as they are cooking. They will become covered in a delicious, nutty flavor that you will love. In between frying, deglazing, and deveining you will need to cook some broccoli, corn and carrots. Cut the carrots in to slices, then into quarters. Place in a bowl covered with water and microwave until done, about 1 minute. You can microwave the broccoli and corn, or cook them on the stove. Chop the celery into tiny pieces and shred the chicken breast. Take the shrimp and cut it completely in half lengthwise. Then cut each piece in half.
To set up your bar, use serving dishes that are similar to establish a look of cohesiveness.I like using clear serving dishes for all the ingredients, except the broth. The clear dishes give a clean look.
As your guests go through the line, have them fill their bowl with all the items they want in their soup.
When they get to then end of the line, they can add their broth, which will heat all the other ingredients. Don't forget to add your hard noodles at the end of the bar. They are a great garnish for the soup. Place napkins and utensils at the end of the line. There is no reason for your guests to have to worry about carrying them until they are done, and need them.
That is pretty much all there is to building a "Make It Your Own" Soup Bar. It is easy to do, just be organized and you will have a great soup bar your guests will love. A soup bar would be great for football parties, or birthday parties. You can substitute any type of soup as a base, like cream soup, or you could use a beef broth or a seafood broth. There are so many other ingredients to add also, like bread or cornbread. Just have fun!

Created using The Recipes Generator

Friday, October 20, 2017

Chocolate Mini Waffles / #Choctoberfest

Chocolate Mini Waffles are really more dessert than breakfast, and they are so tasty and fun! They are easy and quick to make, and they are perfect for holiday parties, caterings, kids parties, and celebrating special days! They are easy to customize to various themes, and honestly, I've never met someone who didn't love waffles!

Chocolate Mini Waffles
(printable recipe at end of page)

1 1/2 cups Flour
1/4 cup Cocoa Powder
1/2 cup Imperial Sugar
1 tablespoon Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Salt
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups Milk
1/2 cup Cooking Oil
Whipped Cream
Sprinkles

Add the Flour, Cocoa Powder, Sugar, Baking Powder and Salt to a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of the mix. In another medium size mixing bowl, beat the eggs slightly. Add the milk and the oil to the eggs . Add wet mixture to the dry mixture. Stir just until moistened. It will be a bit lumpy.

Add batter to mini waffle iron. Follow your manufacturers direction for using the waffle iron. The waffles will cook within minutes.

Stack waffles on plate, drizzle with melted butter. Add a dollop of whipped cream and sprinkles!

Thank you for joining me today! I hope you enjoyed the last week of Chocolate recipes as part of #Choctoberfest! Don't forget to enter the #Choctoberfest Giveaway!

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