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A few months ago I purchased an Instant Pot. If you don’t know what this is, it’s like a pressure cooker and a crock pot combined. I can cook chili in 45 minutes and it tastes like I had it in the crock pot all day.

Today I made chicken soup for the first time.

I used this recipe, which is for the Instant Pot. I’m sure you could use it for a crockpot, but, I have no idea what settings or times you would need or even if you would have to adjust the water.

Ingredients
(for about 5 quarts of soup)
1 small whole chicken (4-5 lbs)
1 whole bulb of garlic
2 stalks celery
2 carrots
1 bunch parsley (about 5 stalks)
1 thumb-sized knob of ginger
2 tablespoons salt
6 cups water

Directions:

Place the chicken in the Instant Pot on the trivet.

Cut the carrots and celery diagonally into large pieces. Cut the parsley into 2 inch long sections, stems and all. Cut the ginger into thick slices. Separate the garlic bulb into cloves and peel the skins off each clove.

Add all the vegetables into the Instant Pot.

Add the salt and the water.

Place the lid on the Instant Pot, set the pressure valve to ‘seal’ and select ‘Poultry’, which will give 15 minutes of pressure cooking. (It will take about 15 minutes for the liquid inside to come to a boil and build up pressure, then it will pressure cook for 15 minutes. Total cook time 30 minutes).

After the Instant Pot has worked it magic on the ingredients you placed inside it, fish the chicken out and set it on a large plate to cool a bit. Then pull all the meat off the bones. Return the meat to the soup as large chunks, or after chopping into smaller pieces, depending on what you prefer).

I leave out the garlic and the ginger, but, I do use everything else.

I’m going to freeze this and heat it up when I want it vs. using canned soup!

This is the best buttercream frosting I’ve ever had.

INGREDIENTS:
5 tablespoons salted butter
5 tablespoons shortening
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons milk

DIRECTIONS:

Beat butter and shortening together with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Beat the vanilla extract into the butter mixture. Add sugar, one cup at a time, beating on medium speed until fully incorporated. Add milk, one tablespoon at a time, beating on high until fully incorporated and you have frosting.

Hubby wanted a strawberry cake for his birthday. This will make either a cake or cupcakes. I took some frozen strawberries that we picked a few months ago and used my Vitamix to make them into a powder. They were a little too wet, so the cake turned out dense. Next time I will use the freeze dried strawberries from the store.

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/4 ounces freeze-dried strawberries
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups white sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup whole milk, room temperature

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line muffin tins with 20 cupcake liners (for mini cupcakes, line 72 mini muffin tins).

Grind strawberries into a fine powder using a coffee grinder or food processor. Whisk strawberry powder, all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl.

Beat butter and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mixture should be noticeably lighter in color. Add room-temperature eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into butter mixture before adding the next. Beat in vanilla extract.

Stir flour mixture, alternately with the milk, into butter mixture until just incorporated. Fill lined tins with cupcake batter.

Bake in preheated oven until cupcakes spring back when gently touched with a fingertip or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 16 to 18 minutes for regular cupcakes, 8 to 10 minutes for mini cupcakes.

I love this recipe. It’s by Tiffani Thiessen and she has a cooking show on the cooking network now.

This is the best friend chicken recipe I’ve ever used. I use skinless and boneless breasts and they turn out really well.

INGREDIENTS
4 cups buttermilk – 32 oz.
2 tablespoons hot sauce
10 pieces bone-in chicken (white and dark meat

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup panko
1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Peanut oil, for frying

DIRECTIONS

Whisk together the buttermilk and hot sauce in a large bowl. Submerge the chicken pieces in the buttermilk mixture and refrigerate overnight.

Take the chicken out of the fridge, remove it from the buttermilk and drain on a rack set over a baking sheet to catch any excess brine. Set aside. Whisk the flour together with the panko, salt and pepper. One by one, dredge the chicken pieces in the flour mixture, tapping off excess breading. Set the breaded chicken back on the rack and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Pour enough peanut oil into a Dutch oven so that there is 2 inches of oil but it does not go higher than halfway up the pot. Heat over medium-high heat until the oil registers 350 degrees F on a thermometer.

Fry the chicken in batches of 3 or 4 pieces, turning every 1 to 2 minutes, and watching the oil temperature closely. The chicken should be cooked to a deep golden brown and an internal temperature of 165 degrees F, about 10 minutes for wings and 12 minutes for breasts, thighs and legs. After taking the chicken out of the oil, set it on a baking sheet, immediately sprinkle with salt, and then place it in the oven for 5 minutes to finish cooking through. When done, place the fried chicken on a clean rack with layered paper towels on the bottom to absorb grease. Let cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

A few months ago I wanted to bring in a thank you to a auto body shop and I decided on cupcakes. You can use this recipe for either. This is a super easy recipe. I did get around 20 cupcakes out of it…so if you want more, you need to adjust it.

Ingredients

Cake

2 cups  all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, melted, cooled
2 eggs

Fudge Frosting 

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup shortening
3 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
2/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

– Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour bottom and sides of 1 3x 9-inch pan, two 9-inch round cake pans, or three 8-inch round cake pans. In large bowl, beat all cake ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan(s).

– Bake rectangle 40 to 45 minutes, rounds 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool rectangle in pan on cooling rack. Cool rounds 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely.

– In 2 1/2-quart saucepan, mix all frosting ingredients except vanilla. Heat to rolling boil, stirring occasionally. Boil 1 minute without stirring. Place saucepan in bowl of ice and water. Beat until frosting is smooth and spreadable; stir in vanilla. Frost rectangle or fill and frost layers with frosting.

Recently I purchased a bread machine. I had one AGES ago and I never could get great bread that was evenly baked or even totally risen out of it.

This one is amazing though. I consistently have perfect, white bread that rises super high.

We are FANCY around here with our masking tape label. 😉 This Rubbermaid container is made for holding bread. As this loaf is so tall, I have to lay it down to put it away.

I used this recipe to make it. I add all liquid first, then, the flour, sugar and salt. I then take a spoon and gently make a well for the yeast. I use the quick rise yeast. Even though I shouldn’t according to the manufacturer of the bread machine, I do. Why? Because the four loaves I have made in the past, didn’t rise when I used just active yeast.

That being said, I have put the recipe below as it was written. Just make sure your yeast doesn’t touch any of the liquid and you’ll be okay.

 

I just purchased a Vitamix last week and I wanted to try a recipe using it. This is from the recipe book that they sent me with my Vitamix.

They turned out really good actually! Don’t they look yummy?!

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 ripe medium bananas, peeled
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup rolled oats

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400?F, line 24 muffin cups with paper baking cups.
Place flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl and stir by hand to combine.
Place milk, eggs, vanilla, bananas, peanut butter, butter and sugar in the Vitamix container in the order listed and secure lid.
Select Variable 5.
Switch  machine to Staart and blend for 15 seconds.
Pour wet mixture into dry mixture and mix by hand to combine.
Spoon into lined muffin cups. Sprinkle oats over batter. Bake 20 minutes or unit toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. cool on wire racks.

**I use a gas oven and the normal sized muffins were completely baked in 15 minutes. The mini muffins were completely baked in 10 minutes.**

Calorie count: 150 per muffin! Total fat 2.5 g, Saturated Fat 0.5g, Cholesterol 15mg, Sodium 110mg, total carbs 29g, Dietary Fiber 1 g, Protein 4 g.

I recently went to a church event and brought something I had never made before. A trifle is so good and I love eating them, but, I was a little nervous making one for the first time. Well, this one is so easy, it was ridiculous.

Here’s the recipe I downloaded from All Recipes!

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Ready In: 4 Hours 15 Minutes
Servings: 12

INGREDIENTS:
1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla
pudding mix
3 cups cold milk
1 (9 inch) angel food cake, cut in cubes
4 bananas, sliced
1 (16 ounce) package frozen
strawberries, thawed
1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped
topping, thawed
DIRECTIONS:
1. Prepare pudding with milk according to package directions. In a trifle bowl or other glass serving dish, layer half the cake pieces, half the pudding, half the bananas, half the strawberries and half the whipped topping. Repeat layers.

Cover and chill in refrigerator 4 hours before serving.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter flavored Crisco shortening
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
2 tbsp milk
1/2 tbsp vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup white choc chips
1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup dried cranberries (Craisins)

Directions:
Heat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine all wet ingredients plus brown sugar in bowl (Crisco, brown sugar, milk, vanilla, egg).
Combine in a separate bowl dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda)
Gradually add wet mixture to dry mixture, stirring as you do.
Add blueberries, cranberries, and choc chips. DO NOT OVER STIR!
Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-13 minutes.

Ingredients:
4 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, combine the sweet potatoes, sugar, eggs, milk, salt, 1/3 cup butter and vanilla. Mix together and pour into a greased 13×9 inch baking dish.
2. To prepare the topping, combine in a separate bowl the brown sugar, flour, 1/3 cup melted butter and pecans. Mix together and crumble over sweet potato mixture. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for 35 to 45 minutes.