Cornbread gone WRONG!!

I don't know what happened with this recipe but it didn't turn out at all. It's quite similar to the one I usually make, a little more salt and baking powder, a little more oil and one egg instead of two. The batter was thick and airy, not airy in a good way. Other recipes I've made for corn muffins have had a similar texture but they've smoothed out while they've baked. This turned out dry and the top was lumpy. I won't be trying this one again.

Jamaican Beef Dumplings

Here's another appetizer I made for New Years Eve. We don't eat appetizers often, really only on New Years Eve. Then we have a whole meal of finger foods. I knew if I didn't make them this year that I would have to wait another year before I could try them.

I was most interested in trying them because I've never tried curry powder before. I was honestly hoping they would be more flavorful than they were. It wasn't bad but I didn't think it was good enough to make again.

The recipe is here at The Given's Chronicles.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

I saw this dip at From Laptop to Stovetop and thought it looked great. I'm not usually one for spicy things like buffalo chicken but the picture on her blog looked so appealing and we had all the stuff already in the house so I figured it would make a good dip for New Year's.

I halved the recipe because I didn't want to waste all that stuff if no one liked it. The general consensus was that it was good, not hot but it tasted a bit to strongly of the hot sauce.


Franks's Redhot Buffalo Chicken Dip

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup blue cheese or ranch salad dressing
1/2 cup Frank's RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce OR Frank's RedHot Buffalo Wing Sauce
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese OR shredded mozzarella cheese
2 cans (9.75 oz each) Swanson White Premium Chunk Chicken Breast in water, drained

Preheat oven to 350.
Stir cream cheese till smooth and mix in the remaining ingredients.
Bake 20 minutes, stir and bake till heated through.
Garnish and serve with veggies or crackers.

I used the ranch dressing and mozzarella instead of the blue cheese. Cheese with visible streaks of mold running through it has never appealed to me. I added extra mozzarella to the top before baking. I served it with wheatables and club crackers, the club crackers were a little light and airy and didn't really stand up to the dip well.

Lemon Bars

My mother requested lemon bars for New Year's Eve and I thought I would try the one I found at Dinner with Julie because it had way less butter than most recipes. The crust was crisp but it wasn't all that great. The filling was a bit stickier than other recipes I've tried. I used bottle lemon juice, I think it might have been better with fresh juice. I don't think I'll be making it again especially for my mom, she didn't like it at all. If you're looking for a less fatty version you might want to try it any way.

Haystacks

I think I've already failed at my New Year's resolution to blog more because I'm just now getting around to posting the things I made for New Year's Eve.

Haystacks are quick and easy to make. I guess you would categorize these as cookies at least that is what I'll be tagging them as. I usually make these for Christmas but we had plenty so I held off on making them. I don't know why I only make these for holidays even if I don't want to have to eat them all myself I know I can count on my sister to eat half of them herself.

Easiest recipe ever.

1 bag of butterscotch chips
half to 3/4 bag chow mien noodles

That's it! Melt the butterscotch and mix in the noodles. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool.



I like a thinner coating of butterscotch on mine so I add a lot of noodles, if you like a thicker layer of butterscotch add less. I've also seen versions with nuts added and there's no reason you couldn't use chocolate chips instead of butterscotch. I did have a little trouble getting my chips to melt smoothly. Does the weather effect melting things like it does making candy? Because it was raining.

Paula's pajama party onion burgers

I completely forgot to take pictures of this one, but it wasn't liked enough in my family to matter. It wasn't bad but it wasn't fantastic either. It was similar to SOS except extremely oniony, maybe too oniony. The filling stayed in better on toast than hamburger buns. I made the sandwich the way Paula suggested with mayo and mustard and topped with onions, I didn't think the mayo flavor came through so you could skip that and save on fat.

If you want to try it the recipe is at the Food Network site.

Happy New Year!

I'm not a big fan of new year's resolutions but I would like to make more of an effort to blog on a regular basis.

The first thing I did this year was to sleep in. Well I made it to about 8:30 before the cat decided I needed to get up and since I didn't go to bed until about 1:30 I would've been happy with a couple more hours. I also joined cookeatshare.com this morning. They were already indexing some of my recipes so I figured I'd get more people coming here if I actually joined up.

I hope everyone has a fantastic 2010 full of love, luck and laughter!