Well, that's just nuts!

My neighbor gave me another huge bag of plain almonds :) so I've been researching different recipes for flavoring them up.  Tonight I came across on that allowed for sweet and spice! The specialty spices have the links to the store, make sure you tell them Ms Fish sent you!

1 T Butter
1/4 c Sugar
2 T Corn Syrup
1/2 t McCormick Molasses Bacon Grillmates
1/2 t Garlic powder
1/4 t Applewood Smoke Powder (Spice Agent)
1/4 t Bold Smoked Salt (Spice Agent)
2 cups nuts (I used Almonds of course)

Preheat the oven to 350.  Meanwhile gather all of the ingredients...this goes quick, hence the lack of pictures!  Put all in a heavy sauce pot (except the nuts) and bring to a boil.  Dump in the 2 cups of nuts and stir to mix then put on a silpat mat on a cookie sheet and put in the oven!

Bake 12-15 minutes stirring once.  Once the timer goes off pull the silpat mat off the sheet an put on a wire rack for the nuts to cool, at least 45 minutes.

Then you can break apart the chunks and enjoy!

Sloppy Chicken

Today is a day for experimenting in the kitchen! After my earlier success I decided to push farther and make black pepper and molasses pulled chicken sandwiches. Click here for recipe.  It's an easy recipe, and a quick enough meal.  There is only my DH and I, so I only used two thawed chicken breasts, but this recipe could be doubled, or tripled for a party or office gathering.

Mix the 9 sauce ingredients together in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.

Add the chicken and stir

 Cover and reduce the heat to medium low and cook for 20-25 minutes until the chicken is cooked and tender.

Shred it by hand, or dump into a stand mixer and "mix" on low until the meat is shredded, yes this really works and is sooo much easier than doing it by hand.  although today I did it by hand...

Scoop onto a bun and enjoy!

Yes, I'm going back for seconds!

The things we do for...

Sauerkraut isn't my favorite food.  In fact I prefer to not eat it (yes I've tried it), or cook it, or be near it!  But my DH loves it. So today I am trying a new recipe, to see if there is a way.  I have realized that there is one brand of sauerkraut that isn't near as bad as the rest, the one in a jar, with the bird, that also sells pickles...

Today's meal also consists of polish sausage, brown sugar, onion and carrots.  But carrots don't last in my house because I eat them, so no carrots in my pictures. Click here for the recipe

As always prep the various components so it is easier to get cooking! I have wonderful color coded cutting mats so I don't cut raw meat and veggies on the same surface!  And they are flexible so I can dump the ingredients straight into the pot or pan!

I only used 4T of butter simply because I had 4T of butter in my fridge, no need to cut open another stick!

Mix then onion and potato with the butter and cook

Add the sausage and cook for 10 minutes over medium high heat

Drain the kraut and rinse before adding to the pan!

then add the brown sugar and salt and pepper

Allow to cook an additional 5 minutes then turn to a simmer until ready to serve!

This go-round with sauerkraut makes me ready to take a bite!  Smells delicious!!!

Nuts about bacon!

It's been a while since I created something, so tonight I was thinking about bacon, and nuts.  I've done bacon popcorn so why not bacon almonds?

I started with plain almonds

a bit of chopped bacon

and a cookie sheet covered with a silpat mat

I rendered the bacon down, and got it almost completely done before I added some brown sugar, smoked sea salt, sweet smoked paprika and a bit of garlic powder and of course the almonds!

I mixed it up all good and spread it out on the mat

and put it in the oven at 300, for 20 minutes (stirring every 5)

Once they are done, let them cool, and put in an airtight container, and enjoy!