A Happy Hive

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Curried Corn and Cheddar Chowder

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Yum! I give this Curried Corn and Cheddar Chowder recipe three thumbs up. I think it’s the perfect winter soup. This is the kind of soup you want to make at the beach, wrap up in a blanket, sit on the patio and watch the waves. That’s what I think. It just makes you all warm and fuzzy inside.

It was relatively inexpensive! Without meat, soups can be super affordable -and with the flavors in this one, I didn’t miss the meat.

I should add – it only took me about 30 minutes to make – so take that Rachael Ray!

Curried Corn and Cheddar Chowder
 
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Recipe type: Soup
Ingredients
  • 4 cups hot water
  • 6 oz softened cream cheese
  • 1 15 oz can creamed corn
  • 4 teaspoons curry powder - Buy this in bulk at Winco – super affordable there!
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • ½ cup chopped onion
  • 1½ pounds frozen corn kernels - I love Costco’s bags of organic frozen corn
  • 2 stalks chopped celery
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 3 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1 cup cubed cheddar cheese, tossed and shaken in the bag with 2 Tablespoons flour
Instructions
  1. In a soup pot – whip together the hot water and softened cream cheese.
  2. Add creamed corn, curry powder, black pepper and chopped onion. Heat to a slow boil.
  3. Add frozen corn kernels and chopped celery. Bring back to a slow boil, then reduce heat and simmer.
  4. Make a roux of 3 Tablespoons flour and 3 Tablespoons melted butter (basically melt the butter and whisk in flour). Stir into mixture.
  5. Gently stir in 1 cup cubed and floured cheddar cheese. Heat through until cheese melts.
  6. Ladle into soup bowls, garnish with grated cheese.

Serves 6-8 people. I think this would freeze really well if you made a double batch. You might have to add more hot water when you reheat.

This soup recipe was sent in from Patrice. This recipe is from the Colophon Cafe in Bellingham, Washington!

What’s your favorite soup to make? 

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Cheesy Potato Casserole (easy, inexpensive!)

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Cheesy-Potato-Casserole-Recipe

This Cheesy Potato casserole recipe is sooo easy to make and relatively inexpensive. My mother-in-law makes this and brings it to family events and it’s kid-friendly and enjoyed by adults. And it’s a total comfort food.

Cheesy Potato Casserole
 
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Recipe type: Potatoes
Ingredients
  • 1 package (2 pounds) frozen hash browns (cubed)
  • 2 cans condensed Cream of Potato soup (undiluted) - I used Cream of Chicken, because it’s what I had on hand. I think any cream soup will work.
  • 2 cups (8 oz) shredded cheddar cheese - If you can, I recommend using Tillamook cheddar cheese.
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
  • ½ tsp garlic salt (optional)
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl combine the soup, sour cream and garlic salt. Add hash browns, cheddar cheese and mix well.
  2. Put mixture into a 13in x 9in x 2in dish.
  3. Top with parmesan cheese.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees for about 55-60 minutes, uncovered.
  5. Enjoy!

What’s your favorite comfort food to make? 

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Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies

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These Cream Cheese Spritz cookies are so delicious and as far as Christmas treats go – they are really frugal!

Cream cheese is on sale for $0.99 or less this time of year and you only need 1/3 of a block for one batch, the dough makes a lot of cookies and they don’t require a lot of extras – just some sprinkles and they look beautiful, thanks to the shapes you can make with the cookie press.

This recipe does use a Cookie Press, which I have from my days of selling Pampered Chef, but you can use any brand of cookie press. Amazon carries quite a few brands and styles of cooke presses, but the reviews seem to be so-so. Do you have a favorite brand of cookie press?

Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 1 cup of butter (softened at room temperature)
  • 3 oz of cream cheese (also softened)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon almond extract
  • 2½ cups flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Using mixer blend together butter and cream cheese until creamy.
  3. Add sugar and mix well until light and fluffy.
  4. Mix in eggs yolks, vanilla and almond extract.
  5. Slowly add your flour and salt, mix well.
  6. If you want to add food coloring, you can take a small part of the dough or all the dough and add food coloring for desired color.
  7. Shape dough into a small log and add it to your cookie press.
  8. Press cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet (sometimes if you freeze your cookie sheets first the cookies will stick better).
  9. I recommend adding sprinkles before you bake – otherwise you’ll need to frost them to get the sprinkles to stick.
  10. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until they start turning a light brown around the edges.
  11. Let cool and eat!

My 5-year-old son helped me make the cookies. He has a “field journal” (a notebook) he has been doing lately and he copied the recipe into his book. It’s good practice writing and learning how to read a recipe.

We hope you enjoy this recipe! The elf in the photo is Jack Jingle, our Elf on the Shelf (Amazon link).

Inspired by this Wilton recipe.

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Muddy Buddies

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MuddyBuddy

Muddy Buddies are an addicting snack dessert perfect for the holidays because they look like they’re covered in snow.  These are so easy to make because you only need a microwave to make these up.  But the best part is these will be super cheap to make if you watch the sales!

Muddy Buddies
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 9 cups Chex Cereal
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • ½ cup peanut butter
  • ¼ cup butter or margarine (butter will taste better)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1½ cups powdered sugar
Instructions
  1. DUMP Chex into big mixing bowl
  2. MICROWAVE the next 3 ingredients (morsels, peanut butter, butter) uncovered in a microwave safe bowl for about 1 minute. Stir – then microwave another 30 seconds or until stirred smooth.
  3. MIX in vanilla with melted chocolate mixture, then dump it over the Chex and gently mix until evenly coated
  4. POUR the mixture into a 2 gallon sized locking bag and add the powdered sugar. Seal and shake until everything is covered in powdered sugar (this is what makes them “melt” in your mouth, yum!)
  5. Serve once cooled, store in ziploc bag or an airtight container.

Gift Idea: Put these in jars with ribbons around the neck with a recipe card attached for a cute gift.

Recipe from Betty Crocker

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Almond Tarts

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Almond-Tarts1

Oh my. Oh my. This Almond Tart recipe is trouble. I challenge you to make them and only eat one, I think it’s actually impossible. They are super delicious. And super easy to make. You can’t really tell from the photo, but they are mini bite size tarts, so great for platter of treats.

Almond Tarts
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 1 cup real butter
  • 1 egg
  • ½ tsp. vanilla
  • 2 ½ c. flour
  • 1 ¼ c. powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp. almond extract
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • Almond paste
Instructions
  1. Cream butter and sugar; mix well. Add the egg, extract, vanilla, and salt; mix well. Add flour. Line mini muffin pan with petit cups. Place ¼ tsp. rounded dough into cup. Place paste on top. Top paste with ½ tsp. rounded piece of dough. Press top even in cup and sprinkle with red or green sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 6 – 8 minutes. Tops should be light brown.

Enjoy!

What’s your favorite cookie recipe?

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How to brine a turkey before you roast it {perfect Thanksgiving turkey recipe}

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I was wondering how to brine a turkey – so I called Alton Brown. Well not really called him, more like a digital dial-up through Google. I knew he’d steer me right. And he did. Best. bird. ever.

Why should you brine a turkey? Brining a turkey adds about 10% of moisture to your bird BEFORE you start roasting, so when it loses a bit of moisture in the oven, it will still have plenty to keep it moist.

Do brined turkeys roast faster? I think so. I can’t explain it, but everything I’m finding online says that you need to shorten the roasting time when it’s been brined.

Can you make gravy with a brined turkey? This is one disadvantage to brining a turkey – the turkey drippings are going to be much saltier than if you had roasted a non-brined turkey. So you can’t make gravy the traditional way, but I did find a video on how to make gravy using a brined turkey and I tried this using beef broth and it worked like a charm!

Do brined turkeys taste salty? Nope. I didn’t think so. The Pioneer Woman has some great tips for reducing salty flavor when brining – simple things you can do (like rinsing well or soaking in water before roasting) that will help!

How to brine a turkey before you roast it {perfect Thanksgiving turkey recipe}
 
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Recipe type: Turkey
Ingredients
TURKEY BRINE INGREDIENTS
  • 1 cup kosher salt
  • ½ cup light brown sugar
  • 1 gallon vegetable stock (I used chicken broth, because that’s what I had)
  • 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
  • 1½ teaspoons allspice berries
  • 1½ teaspoons chopped candied ginger (found in produce section, near fresh ginger)
  • 1 gallon heavily iced water
Ingredients for the AROMATICS
  • 1 red apple, sliced
  • ½ onion, sliced
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 cup water
  • 4 sprigs rosemary
  • 6 leaves sage
  • Canola oil
Instructions
  1. -4 days head of time – start thawing your bird. The Butterball Turkey Website has a good thaw your bird calculator. I checked for a 16 pound turkey (what I have) and it said 4 days in the fridge.
  2. -3 days ahead of time – make your brine. Yes, you need to plan ahead. Yes, I *might* have just made my brine the night before, but that’s how I roll and it still worked. Just make sure it’s cooled completely before you put your bird in there. For obvious food safety purposes you don’t want your bird sitting around in luke warm brine.
  3. How to make your brine: Get a big pot and throw in your stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries and candied ginger. Turn to medium-high heat and stir until you’ve disolved all the solids and you bring it to a boil. Remove brine from head and cool to room temperature. We put ours on the back porch to speed down the cooling process (with a lid, so we didn’t end up with extra seasonings). Refrigerate.
  4. The night before or the morning of the day you want to cook your turkey – Take your brine out of the fridge.
  5. Combine the brine, water and ice in a big bucket. Make sure it’s in a big enough container to fit your brine and your turkey (I hear you can get food-safe buckets from the bakery at your local grocery store, possibly for FREE!).
  6. Wash your bird (NOT with soap, haha!), pat dry, pull out any inside pieces. Plop the bird into the brine. Breast side down. If you need to, weigh down the bird so it’s fully immersed. Cover and put in the fridge (we put an old towel under it to keep raw poultry juice from spilling in our fridge). Keep it cool for 8 to 16 hours. You can turn the bird half way through. I didn’t bother.
  7. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Take your bird from the brine and rinse it well with cold water – both inside and out. Toss the brine, it’s done it’s job!
  8. Place bird on a roasting rack. Alton recommends using a half sheet pan, I used my roasting pan (here’s a great deal on a roasting pan from Amazon: Cuisinart 7117-16UR Chef’s Classic Stainless 16-Inch Rectangular Roaster with Rack). Pat it dry with paper towels (I read somewhere that this is good for poultry because if there is moisture on the surface it will dry out the bird when cooked.)
  9. Combine apple, onion, cinnamon stick and 1 cup water in microwave safe bowl and microwave on high for five minutes. We don’t have a microwave, so I did this on the stove top. Add this to the inside of your turkey, with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings under the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.
  10. Roast turkey on lowest level of oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. This caused our fire alarm to go off due to the smoke of the high-heat. I recommend doing this for maybe 15 minutes then turning it down, but try it out. After you’ve had it at the high heat, insert probe thermometer (we have this one from Amazon!) into the thickets part of the breast, then reduce oven temp to 350 degrees F
  11. Set your thermometer alarm (if it has one) to 161 degrees F. Alton says that a 14-16 pound turkey should be done in 2- to 2½ hours of roasting. Let your bird rest after you take it out, covering it lightly with foil.

Enjoy! 

I’d love to hear your turkey brining tips – do you brine your turkey?

(I take absolutely no credit for this recipe it is all from my best friend Alton Brown’s Turkey Brining Technique)

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Holiday favorites: Juju’s Cake Cookie

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This cookie recipe is so easy and you probably already have all the ingredients on hand. And we should be seeing cake mix on sale for under $1 soon! This recipe was sent in by reader Judy D as one of her holiday favorites and I can see why!

Holiday favorites: Juju’s Cake Cookie
 
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Recipe type: Dessert
Ingredients
  • 1 box chocolate cake mix - Any flavor will do, Judy has tried white and yellow cake mixes and they also work great
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • 2 cups chocolate chips
  • Variations: ½ cup chopped nuts, ¼ cup coconut flakes, ¼ cup Heath chips. We had M&M candy in our Halloween stash, so that’s what we used.
Instructions
  1. Combine cake mix, oil and eggs in large bowl. Stir in morsels (or whatever you want).
  2. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheet.
  3. Bake in pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
  4. After they cool, you can frost or put zig zag of melted chocolate across the top or leave plain.

My son and husband made these cookies. It didn’t take long at all to whip them up and my son definitely approves.

What your favorite type of cookie to bake during the holidays? 

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Holiday Favorites – Spicy Sausage Pecan Stuffing

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If you’re looking for a creative and DELICIOUS stuffing recipe for your holiday celebrations – I’d like to suggest Spicy Sausage Pecan Stuffing!

I’ll admit, we haven’t been big stuffing fans in our house. But this one isn’t your regular ole stuffing – we LOVED it and we can definitely see this being part of our holiday meal routine.

Holiday Favorites – Spicy Sausage Pecan Stuffing
 
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Recipe type: Holidays
Ingredients
  • 1 (16-ounce) package ground pork sausage
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2 jalapeños, chopped - We used only one whole jalapeno and it was plenty spicy for us.
  • Basic cornbread, crumbled - Because we know nothing about making cornbread, we used Jif cornbread mix, you can get it for $0.40-$0.50 a box.
  • 1½ cups coarsely chopped pecans
  • ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
  • 1¾ cups chicken broth
  • ¼ cup milk
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ to ½ teaspoon pepper
  • ½ teaspoon dried thyme
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
  1. Cook sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring until it crumbles and is no longer pink. Remove sausage, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings in skillet. Drain sausage on paper towels.
  2. Sauté onion and jalapeño in hot drippings over medium-high heat until tender. Remove vegetables with a slotted spoon.
  3. Combine sausage, vegetables, cornbread, and remaining ingredients in a large bowl, stirring gently until moistened. Spoon into a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish.
  4. Bake, covered, at 350° for 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
  5. Enjoy!

Recipe originally from Southern Living magazine and adapted by Crista

What do you like in your stuffing? 

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Slow Cooker Turkey Minestrone Soup

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Here’s an easy crockpot minestrone soup made with ground turkey and lots of vegetables. You can’t really mess this up – you can add more of what you like and less of what you don’t. You can leave out the turkey if you prefer to make it vegetarian style.  You could probably also change out the turkey for a beef minestrone soup.

Slow Cooker Turkey Minestrone Soup
 
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Recipe type: Soup
Ingredients
  • Chicken broth, 5 cups
  • Ground turkey, pre-cooked, 16 – 20 ounces
  • Oregano, 1 Tablespoon
  • Carrots, 1 Cup sliced
  • Celery, 1 Cup sliced
  • Garlic, 2-3 cloves chopped
  • Onion, ½ Cup chopped
  • Beans, 3 cans, red kidney and/or white northern beans
  • Tomatoes, 1 can crushed
  • Pasta, 1 pound, cooked
Instructions
  1. Pre-cook your ground turkey.
  2. Toss the turkey and ALL the ingredients, except the pasta, into the slow cooker.
  3. Cook on high 4-5 hours. Add cooked pasta and serve.

Do you have a favorite Crockpot Minestrone recipe? What do you like to add to your minestrone soup?

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Slow Cooker White Bean Turkey Chili

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This is a delicious, and relatively healthy, easy slow cooker chili recipe. I think it’s my favorite chili recipe. . .okay, I admit, it’s the only chili I’ve ever made. ? This time around I made enough to make two additional meals for the freezer!

Slow Cooker White Bean Turkey Chili
 
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Recipe type: Chili
Ingredients
  • 2 pound(s) uncooked ground turkey breast - I just put in two of the 20 oz turkey packs
  • 1 large onion(s), chopped
  • 2 clove(s) (medium) garlic clove(s), chopped
  • 32 oz fat-free chicken broth
  • 1 tsp ground cumin (or more to taste)
  • 1 tsp dried oregano (or more to taste)
  • 1 tsp chili powder, chipotle variety
  • 30 oz canned white beans, drained and rinsed - I like more beans and I just throw in whatever ones I have. This time around I used three additional cans of black beans.
  • 3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
  • ¼ cup(s) cilantro, fresh, coarsely chopped (plus extra for garnish) - This is a key ingredient in flavor – don’t leave it out.
Instructions
  1. Cook up ground turkey, onion and garlic over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until turkey is browned, about 10 minutes; drain off any fat.
  2. Add turkey mixture and remaining ingredients to a 3½ quart or larger slow cooker.
  3. Cover and cook on low heat setting for at least four (4) hours.
  4. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream and chopped cilantro.

This makes a great freezer meal – so make enough for extras. This way you only have to do dishes once. When you cook it later you might need to add a little chicken broth to get the right consistency.

I’d like to try this with dried beans. Purchased in bulk dried beans are a lot more frugal than canned beans and they’ll have less sodium/additives.

Kid-friendly adaptation – My son turned up his nose to the concept of chili but wrap this in a tortilla, add some cheese and sour cream and call it a burrito – you might have more interest from the little kids!

Recipe credit: Adapted from a Weight Watchers recipe

Do you have a favorite chili recipe? I’d love to branch out and try a new variety. ?

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