Sweet and Spicy Peanuts

 

 

Out of all the recipes I feel guilty about NOT posting before Christmas, this one makes me feel the most like a skunk. Really, truly, this is an awesome recipe. These little peanuts are perfect tucked in a cute bag alongside your Christmas cookies, or tipped into a little bowl to set out with your pre-dinner nibbles. Seriously, I’m a skunk. I apologize. So the reasons you’re going to love this recipe are:

1) it’s cost. Peanuts are cheeeeap!

2) it’s simplicity. A four year old could (and in our house DID) make this recipe.

3) it’s versatility. You can use this procedure and spice mixture with probably ANY nuts. So far I’ve made it with peanuts, cashews, hazelnuts, and almonds and they’ve all tasted wonderful.

4) it’s allure. Unless you’re allergic to peanuts, you’re going to love these nuts!

Without further ado. . . . .

 

Sweet and Spicy Peanuts

¾ cup sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground allspice

Large pinch ground cloves

2 egg whites

2 tablespoons water

½ teaspoon orange extract

3 cups roasted, unsalted peanuts

 

In a large, zip-top bag, combine sugar, salt, and spices. Mix well and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg whites, water and extract.

Add the nuts and toss to coat thoroughly.

Drain in a colander for half an hour. The nuts should be damply sticky, but not soaking wet.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Add the nuts to the bag of spices and shake to coat.

Spread the peanuts onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 7 minutes.

Remove from the oven and stir up the peanuts. Bake another 7 minutes.

Remove and toss. Bake a final 7 minutes.

Remove from the oven and spread onto another baking sheet to cool.

Reindeer Chow!

 

 

You’ll find this recipe under many different names: reindeer chow, puppy chow, muddy buddies, crack. Oh wait, that last one is just in our house! Well, it’s white and powdery and TOTALLY ADDICTIVE! Oh, BABY! This stuff is just delicious! And so easy, your kids could make it. In fact, having your kids make it is a great way to get them out of your hair while you’re working on Christmas dinner. Just sayin’.

 

Crack Reindeer Chow

 

1 bag milk chocolate chips

1 cup smooth peanut butter

5 cups Chex

3-4 cups powdered sugar

 

In a large, microwave-proof bowl (preferably one with a lid), combine the chocolate chips and the peanut butter.

Microwave for a minute and stir together. Continue microwaving in short bursts (so you don’t scorch the chocolate) and mixing until the peanut butter and chocolate are thoroughly melted together.

Add the Chex and carefully stir until coated.

Add 3 cups of powdered sugar. Secure the lid onto the bowl and shake the dickens out of it! (you can do this part in a zip top bag if you don’t have an accommodating bowl.)

This next step isn’t necessary, but if you want it to look exceptionally snowy, this’ll do it!

Spread the chow onto a cookie sheet. Sprinkle a cup of powdered sugar over the top. Using your hands, gently turn the chow so that it is completely coated.

Now, it’s perfectly acceptable to dig into it at this point, but if you can stand to wait overnight it will be much sturdier. (If you’re going to be packaging it up, you’ll definitely want to wait.)

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Peanut Brittle

 

I made this peanut brittle several years ago to include in my Christmas cookie boxes and it is a TOTAL keeper! I described it once to a friend as the resulting lovechild of peanut brittle and a cinnamon bear, but that’s not quite it. It doesn’t have that sharp, smack-you-in-the-face hit of cinnamon that those yummy gummies have. It’s more of a warm, cinnamony note and it really complements the peanuts. I think it’s a great addition to a Christmas goody box because it’s beautifully festive looking, really easy to make and very inexpensive! Peanuts usually run what, $3 a pound in the bulk bins?

Oooh, pretty.

 

 

Cinnamon Peanut Brittle

2 cups sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

½ cup water

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon red food coloring

2 ½ cups salted peanuts (I’ve successfully used cashews as well.)

Butter a baking sheet.

 

In a large saucepan, bring the sugar, corn syrup and water to a boil over high heat.

Cook until a drop of the syrup hardens in a bowl of ice water (my favorite method) or until a candy thermometer inserted in the syrup registers 300 degrees, about 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat.

Stir in the cinnamon and food coloring.

Stir in peanuts and pour the mixture into the pan. Work quickly to spread the peanuts out as thin as possible.

Let cool, about 45 minutes.

Use your hands to break brittle into pieces.

Enjoy!

Sea Salted Caramels

 

Surprise! I’m actually posting something! I had some lovely intentions of posting during the holiday season but nothing ever materialized. And it’s such a shame too, because I have a really lovely collection of Christmassy recipes to share! (If I do say so myself.) Will you be totally annoyed with me if I inundate you with them now? I hope not, ‘cause they’re coming your way anyhow.

I’ve been trying different recipes of caramels for several months now. I wanted a nice, solid recipe with good flavor that wasn’t difficult to make. I thought I’d never find one until I tried a recipe from a blog I like, which shall remain anonymous. The recipe was a total fail, so I went back and read all the comments on that post. And it turns out that the diamond in the rough was waiting in someone’s reply! How funny is that!?

All I really did to it is add more salt. Mmmmmm, salt and caramel. There is this amazing fruit stand/gourmet nibbles shop/antique store I used to stop at on my way to Seattle (Thorp’s, anyone?) that sold the BEST salted caramels. And at fifty cents a pop too! Ouch! This recipe is just as wonderful and SO much cheaper! And it’s not terribly difficult. You do have to stand at the stove for 40 minutes stirring, but it’s not hard at all. I just parked myself to the side of my oven with the book I was currently engrossed in and half-heartedly stirred the pot for half an hour.

Before I give you the fabulous recipe I just wanted to add a quick note about candy thermometers. In my search for this recipe I came across many that called for the use of a candy thermometer. So I dutifully went out and bought one. (My old one was one of the only casualties of our cross country move!) And the dang thing was more trouble than it was worth. After several recipes that turned into rocky slabs of caramel toffee, I decided to check the darn thing in a mug of boiling water. Um, yeah. After sitting in the BOILING water, it only ever got up to 150 degrees. Stupid thing. Anyhow, I’m sure there are recipes out there that might need a candy thermometer, and if you have one that you trust, you can absolutely use it here. But for this recipe, all you need is a little cup of cold water. So much less stress!

 

Sea Salted Caramels

Adapted from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick unsalted butter)

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

Pinch of kosher salt (I use a slightly hefty pinch ;) Caramel + salt = awesome

1½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1-2 teaspoons sea salt for sprinkling, depending on how salty you are

Wax paper for wrapping, cut into 4 inch squares

Lay a long, wide strip of parchment in a 9-inch square baking pan, the long ends of the parchment will work as handles to help you remove the caramel from the pan later.

Combine all ingredients except vanilla in a small saucepan and turn the heat to low.

Cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves, about 10 minutes.

Continue cooking, stirring only occasionally, until a small piece of it will form a firm ball when dropped into a glass of cold water. (Or until the mixture measure 245 degrees on your reliable candy thermometer!) This should take about 30 minutes. ~~~ Basically, when you drop some into the water, it should feel like what you want your finished caramel to feel like, firm enough to form a ball but still soft enough to have a nice chew~~~

Stir in the vanilla, remove from heat, and pour into the prepared pan.

Sprinkle with flaky sea salt.

When the mixture has cooled to room temperature, use the parchment paper to remove the block of caramel from pan and use a sharp knife to cut it into small squares. (about 1x1") If your caramels are fussy about being cut neatly, heat the knife up under hot water, dry it carefully and try again.

Wrap each caramel in a square of waxed paper.

Easter Treat with FIBER!

No, seriously! Fiber! And chocolate! Does it get any better than that? I submit that it does not. You could even have these for breakfast. Am I right? Shredded wheat and eggs. Sounds like breakfast to me. Never mind that the shredded wheat is drenched in chocolate and the eggs are made of the same! Let me do my own justifying, mmmmmkay?

I made these chocolate nests with the kids last year after seeing them on Angry Chicken. They were fun and easy and the kids had a glorious time making a mess in the kitchen. We made them again this year. Man! What a difference a year makes! The kids were PROS at making these, and they turned out looking like actual nests! lol!

Anyway, these are SO quick you could definitely pop some out before Easter. If I was having Easter dinner at my house I’d like to use them for place markers! Wouldn’t that be cute? Just type or write the person’s name, cut it out and tape it to a toothpick or skewer before you get started and then just jam that in there with the eggs and let the chocolate harden! So fun!

Here’s all you need. Shredded wheat, 6 of the big squares, a bag of good milk chocolate, and most importantly, Cadbury mini-eggs. (I think those little babies have finally replaced the Cadbury Creme Egg as my favorite Easter candy. So yummy! And with a crunchy candy shell! Love them!)

Oh, and two little kids to do all the work for you. . . .

Here they are, busy at work shredding the Shredded Wheat. Huh. In the meantime, microwave the chocolate in 30 second bursts, stirring between zaps. Should take you about 2-2 1/2 minutes.

Pour the chocolate into the shredded wheat and stir until all the chocolate looks absorbed. This is best accomplished in hand-me-down Christmas jammies and with a ragamuffin hair-do.

P.S. This picture was taken at about 2pm and after the child had gone through about 37 wardrobe changes. Aaaaah, we’re at that stage. Yay for Laundry Fairies, right? *sigh*

This is a optional step. I do recommend parchment or wax paper, it makes getting the nests off the pan a billion times easier. But most of my nests were destined for little paper boxes (more on that in a minute). So I traced the bottom of the box onto the BACKSIDE of the parchment paper so that we would have a guide when we formed the nests.

Scoop the chocolate mixture onto the paper, form into a circle and press down in the center with a spoon to make a little crater for the eggs. Size doesn’t really matter here, you could go really tiny or make one giant one if you wanted!

Place eggs in the crater.

        

Let the nests harden, about 1 1/2 hours. Done! How easy was that???

I went a step further, because I can. Hehehe :) Have you been to The Toymaker? Gorgeous things on there, gorgeous! I printed out some of the paper dolls and my kids loved them to death! I just love the artwork, with it’s sort of vintagey feel. And Marilyn comes out with new stuff all the time! This little box is new for Easter. . . .

 http://www.thetoymaker.com/Holidays/Easter/Butterflybasket.pdf

I printed it out on cardstock, cut it out and taped it together, filled it with Easter grass, and popped a nest in. Cute! And easy!

Happy Easter!

Day Late and a Dollar Short

So, yesterday Jay sent me on a lovely, therapeutic, child-free shopping trip. He jokingly said, ‘ok, see you in 4 or 5 hours!’ as I was leaving. That sounded like instructions to me! So I took my time, driving slowly down the coast. I stopped in this small grocery that I’ve been meaning to visit since we moved here but never made the time to. (Plus, up until Saturday I didn’t have my own wheels, Jay had commandeered them while his car was still in NH.) French and Brawn is on the corner in Camden and looks very fancy. They have a little produce and all the basic groceries, but then you go to the back of the store where there is a LOVELY meat counter, deli and their bakery. I had an almond croissant and it was glorious!

I tootled (that’s what my grandma does when she goes out with nowhere particular in mind. She tootles.) down the road a bit more and stopped at The Market Basket. This Market Basket is not at all like the Market Basket I was used to visiting in Concord, NH. It’s a fancy little shop with all sorts of fun little extras to splurge on! Sauces and olive oils, jams and jellies, spreads and crackers, chocolate and more chocolate!  They have a bakery with just gorgeous looking loaves, I’m still kicking myself for not picking one up! In my defense, I was a little preoccupied with the chocolate, mmmmmm! They also have sort of a little bistro menu and a few tables. I can’t WAIT to take my mom there for lunch!

Then I stopped in Fresh From the Farm. They have wonderful, local and not so local produce. Meyer lemons! I’ve never seen Meyer lemons in a grocery! I can’t wait to try some! The have lots of natural and organic products and a large bulk section that I’m going to have fun playing in! There were honey roasted whole pecans in there that I have some serious plans for. I picked up some almond extract that made the grocery store bottle I had hang it’s little head in shame and go hide in the corner!

I needed to go to Wal*Mart and I had such a nice time just browsing at my own pace and not having to try and race my children’s attention spans through the store. Then I went to our TJ Maxx and picked up a few things and then finally hit the Shaw’s for groceries. It was about four and a half hours later when I got back home! Then there were groceries to put away and dinner to make and this and that so, um, I didn’t get my contest taken care of yesterday. Excuses, excuses!

But I did it just now and the winner is . . . . . . . . . Lisa (I think?) at Deer Hollow! Congrats! I’ll get the fudge whipped up today and in the mail tomorrow!

 

And for everyone else who didn’t win. . .  .here’s the recipe! It is absolutely to-die-for and embarrassingly easy!

Lemon Fudge

3 cups white chocolate chips

14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1 tablespoon lemon zest

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Prepare a small baking dish (8x8) by spraying it with Pam and laying two strips of parchment paper (going opposite directions) in the pan. You’ll use the paper as handles when the fudge cools to just pop it neatly out of the pan, so make sure they’re both as wide as the pan’s base.

Melt the white chocolate in a saucepan over medium heat. (You can also do this in the microwave, just go really slow so you don’t burn the chips. I’ve done that. It’s heartbreaking. Especially when you don’t have more chips!)

Pour in the sweetened condensed milk and stir to combine.

When your mixture is heated through, add the zest and the juice.

Pour mixture into the baking dish and let cool a while at room temperature before popping it into the fridge to ‘cure’. At least 4 hours.

When it’s nicely set up and firm to the touch take it out and use the paper to pop it out of the dish. Use a long knife or a bench scrape and cut into pieces. I wipe the blade off in between cuts to make cleaner looking squares.

Enjoy!