Pecan Toffee to Die For

During the holidays, I received two huge bags of pecans from a friend. I had no idea what to do with them until one day I Googled "pecan recipes" and found this amazing toffee from Southern Living. I made it once for Christmas, just to see how it went over. Then I took some to work. Everyone wanted to know where I got the recipe and when I would make it again! So I decided that I needed to post it here so that I could share it with everyone! I would recommend that if you do not have a candy thermometer to get one, because I think that it is one of the most important things in making this properly. Other than that, it is a super easy recipe and great for any occasion.

Enjoy feeding your sweet tooth! :)

-Kym's Kitchen


Pecan Toffee 
(From: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/pecan-toffee-10000000410629/)
  
Ingredients

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans, divided
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened 
1/3 cup water
5 (1.55-ounce) milk chocolate bars, broken into small pieces *Or 1-2 Bags of Milk Chocolate Chips*

Preparation 

1. Line a 15- x 10-inch jellyroll pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil; lightly grease foil. Sprinkle with 1 cup pecans to within 1 inch of edges.

2. Bring sugar, butter, and 1/3 cup water to a boil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, 12 minutes or until a candy thermometer registers 310° (hard crack stage). Pour over pecans; sprinkle with chocolate pieces. Let stand 30 seconds.

3. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup pecans. Chill 30 minutes. Break up toffee using a mallet or rolling pin. Store in an airtight container.

** I added some of the Heath Bar Toffee Bits to the top which really added a nice touch! **

Super Simple Spicy Chicken Sandwich

It has been so long since my last post! I apologize! The other night we wanted to make a quick and simple meal for dinner. We always have some frozen chicken breast in the freezer, so I pulled out some and decided to make my own spicy chicken sandwiches. I took very easy ingredients and was able to make a sandwich that my dad is still talking about.

The nice thing is that these sandwiches aren't fried, but baked! So they are little healthier for you than the fried sandwiches! I made sure that I coated each chicken breast with a lot of Panko, so that it still had a little crispiness to it. I chose to double coat the chicken with the Panko to help with the crispiness as well.  I also made sure that I took some extra sauce and poured it on top! That added a nice kick to the sandwich!

It was fun to try something new and to truly make it my own! I hope you enjoy and try to make it your own too!

Enjoy!

-Kym's Kitchen

P.S. There is no picture because there wasn't any left to take a picture of!

Spicy Chicken Sandwiches

Ingredients:

1 tsp. red pepper (Cayenne), divided*
4 chicken breast
2-3 cups Plain Panko breadcrumbs
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 egg
1 cup water
1 bottle of hot wing sauce (I used Ken's)*
Hamburger buns
Blue Cheese or Ranch

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
2. In a small pan or plate, combine 1/2 cup of wing sauce, egg, water and 1/4-1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper. Wisk together until well blended.
3. In another pan or plate, mix together Panko with the remaining cayenne pepper.
4. Grease a 9x13 pan.
5. Dip 1 chicken breast at a time in the "egg wash" or liquid mixutre. Then dip it in the Panko mixutre and coat it well.
6. Then repeat one more time to double coat the each chicken breast.
7. Cook for 10 minutes then flip the chicken and cook for another 10-20 minutes.
8. Let the chicken cool slightly before pouring extra sauce on top.
9. Take a hamburger bun and build your sandwich however you want it!  Enjoy!

**If you find you want more heat, you can always add more red pepper or hot sauce to any of it**

Jack Daniel's Chocolate Cupcakes Part 2

After making the Jack Daniel's cupcakes the first time, I knew that they were going to be something that I would make many more times! I decided to make them again for a friend's birthday the other day.  I decided that I would make a simple change, so instead of making the chocolate icing, I would make a vanilla buttercream. I searched the internet to find a good buttercream frosting with pretty good reviews from people. Amazingly, that was a fairly difficult task, but I finally found one.

Anyone who makes cupcakes or knows anything about cupcakes, has heard of a place called Sprinkles Cupcakes. Well, I stumbled upon their vanilla buttercream frosting recipe and everyone seemed to be pleased with it. So I decided to try this recipe and all I have to say is that it was AMAZING!! I had leftovers, so I put the rest in the fridge and my mom and I have been eating spoonfuls of it! I have heard horror stories about buttercream frosting, but this was actually a very simple recipe that anyone could do.  I used a piping bag with a round tip and simply swirled the icing on top. Then I took a dark chocolate chip and sat it in the middle for a little decoration. I am excited to make these again this week for a Jaguars football game. I'm going to make a teal buttercream and make paw prints on top!! :D

For the Jack Daniel's Cupcake recipe, look at my very first blog post (Jack Daniel's and Chocolate? A Perfect Combination).

Enjoy!

-Kym's Kitchen



Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
(http://www.food.com/recipeprint.do?rid=222188)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

Directions:

1. In a bowl/ mixer, combine butter, sugar and salt. Beat until blended.

2. Add the milk and vanilla and beat for an additional 3-5 minutes or until smooth.


** Kym's Touch:  Add fun food coloring to make different colors **

Healthy "Fried" Shrimp with Spicy Green Beans

Have you always wanted to find a way to turn something fried, into something healthy? Well look no further than Lisa Lillian or a.k.a. Hungry Girl. She has a great show on the Cooking Channel and Food Network (I would highly recommend watching it). She takes ordinary recipes, your favorite snacks or the most delicious desserts, and turns them into something a little healthier.

I recently bought her book simply titled "Hungry Girl."  There are so many delicious recipes that I can't wait to try, so I had to choose one to start with.  I decided to try the "Swapcorn Shrimp" a.k.a "healthy fried shrimp." There is a secret ingredient that makes it healthy. Wait for it... Fiber One Bran cereal. Yeah I said it Fiber One! Let me tell you, I had my dad fooled the entire dinner thinking that it was a new breadcrumb mixture that I made up.  It was that good! This was a meal that I would definitely make again and again! I would encourage you to at least try to shrimp and not the let that fact that Fiber One is used scare you! It really is very tasty!

Healthy "Fried" Shrimp

As one of the sides for the shrimp, I made the homemade coleslaw that I blogged about in my post "A Great Summer's Night Meal." Check it out! This time I cheated a little and bought the pre-shredded cabbage, which worked a lot better! To quote my dad, "This is the best coleslaw I have ever had!"

Spicy Green Beans

One of our favorite places to eat out is P.F. Changs, and my dad's favorite side is the Spicy Green Beans.  After a little "googleing",  I found a recipe for them! I thought that the spicy green beans would work nice with the coleslaw and the shrimp.  If you like hot and spicy, then this is the perfect recipe for you! I bought 1.5 pounds of green beans, so with a little math I had to figure out the correct amounts of ingredients. The one ingredient that really determines how spicy the beans are, is the hot pepper flakes. If you like real spicy, then add what the recipe calls for. If you like a more mild heat level, then I would maybe cut it in half. Either way these beans tasted just like the ones at P.F. Changs.

It was nice to have a really good meal and know that it was good for you! I can't wait to make this meal again!

Enjoy!!

-Kym's Kitchen



Swapcorn Shrimp
(from Hungry Girl cookbook, by: Lisa Lillian)

Ingredients:

1 lb of shrimp, peeled and deveined
2.5 cups Fiber One Bran cereal
1-2 eggs
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degree.

2. Wisk 1-2 eggs in a bowl.

3. Use a food processor or blender to grind the cereal to a breadcrumb consistency. Pour the cereal into a big Ziplock bag.

4. Dry the shrimp with a paper towel. Place a few at a time in the eggs and then into the Ziplock bag. Shake.

5. Place the shrimp on a greased baking sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes flipping them about halfway through.

6. Serve with cocktail sauce and tarter sauce.  



Homemade Coleslaw


(see post "A Great Summer's Night Meal)



P.F. Chang's Spicy Green Beans
(from: http://www.food.com/recipe/pf-changs-spicy-green-beans-462084)

Ingredients:

1 lb green beans 

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated 

2 tablespoons garlic, thinly sliced 

2 tablespoons cooking oil 

1/4 cup water 

 

Sauce 

2 tablespoons soy sauce 

1 tablespoon rice vinegar 

2 teaspoons sugar 

2 tablespoons szechuan hot chili flakes 

 

 Directions: 

1. Rinse and trim green beans, set aside. 

 

2. Mix sauces in a bowl well.

 

3. Pour water in wok, heat over high heat until bubbling, boil green bean for 3-5 minutes until crispy tender. Remove and drain. 

 

4. Heat cooking oil hot in wok over high heat, stir in ginger and garlic until aromatic, combine green bean, stir constantly until beans are soft about 2-3 minutes. 

 

5. Combine sauce mixture, stir around until the sauce is thicken and glazes the bean.

 

6. Transfer and serve spicy green bean with cooked rice.

A Great Summer's Night Meal

Buffalo Chicken Skewers

Homemade Coleslaw

The summer is usually the time for friends, family and of course grilling. One of the easiest things to do on a grill is skewers. There are meat skewers, vegetable skewers and seafood skewers. I found a great recipe for buffalo chicken skewers. I wanted to add some shrimp to my meal, so I decided to do buffalo shrimp skewers too. The skewers have vegetables with them like celery and tomatoes. Our family likes onions so I added onions to the skewers. I marinated the chicken in the buffalo sauce  overnight in the fridge and the shrimp 30 minutes before i put them on the grill . These were such good skewers that my dad keeps asking me when I am going to make them again!

As I researched side items for buffalo style foods one of the sides that was mentioned in almost everything I read, was coleslaw.  So I found an easy homemade coleslaw recipe. The recipe just called for cabbage, not a specific kind. So I used Napa cabbage which worked just fine, except I decided to drain it a little before mixing everything together. It was a really good coleslaw! Even if you don't like coleslaw, I would encourage your to try this one! It was a mix between sweet and salty. Just try it!!


What is a meal without dessert!?! For dessert, I made a super easy crock pot cherry cobbler! Now you can choose whatever fruit you want, just in case you don't care for cherries. It was so simple that it is something we made last for a couple days! It was perfect with a scoop of ice cream! This was a great dessert to make late morning or mid-afternoon and enjoy that night! One of the things that I had to adjust was we did not have a 5 qt crock pot, but a double crock pot that had 2, 2.5 qt pots. So it was easy to split the recipe between the two pots.

Crock Pot Cherry Cobbler

 Now this sounds like a perfect summer evening meal! Next up on the blog post lineup, blueberry angel food cake bars!

Enjoy!

-Kym's Kitchen

Here are the recipes:


Buffalo Chicken Skewers 
(from Jamie Dean; foodnetwork.com)

Ingredients:
1 pound chicken tenders, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/3 cup Buffalo wing sauce
Cooking spray
About 30 bite-size pieces celery (about 5 stalks)
About 30 grape tomatoes
Blue cheese dressing, for serving

Directions:

1. Combine the chicken and Buffalo wing sauce in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

2. Spray a grill rack with cooking spray and preheat the grill to medium high.
3. Thread the chicken, celery and tomatoes onto skewers.
4. Grill, covered, until the chicken is cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes per side.
5. Serve with blue cheese dressing.

** To make the shrimp skewers, follow the same directions except only marinate them 30 min before grilling them **



Homemade Coleslaw

Ingredients:
6 cups cabbage, shredded
1 cup carrots, shredded
1 cup mayo
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1 tsp celery seed
1/4 cup sugar
Salt and Pepper (to taste)

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, combine the carrots and cabbage.
2. In a smaller bowl, combine: mayo, sugar, vinegar, salt, pepper, and celery seed.
3. Toss cabbage with dressing and serve. 



Crock Pot Cherry Cobbler 
(from: http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-cherry-cobbler-49912) 

Ingredients:

2 (21 ounce) cans cherry pie filling 

1 (18 1/4 ounce) package yellow cake mix, dry 

1/4 cup butter, soften 

1/2 cup chopped pecans 

Directions: 

1. Pour pie filling into 5 qt crock pot; spread evenly.

2. In a large bowl, combine dry cake mix with butter until it is crumbly. 

3. Sprinkle cake mix over pie filling. 

4. Sprinkle with nuts. 

5. Turn on crock pot to low and cover and cook 3-4 hours. 6 Serve warm.

** The nuts can be optional if you would like**

Attention Tailgaters and Sports Fans of All Sorts: Quick N Easy Salsa

Here you go avid tailgaters.... football fanatics... and sports fans of all sorts! This is a quick and easy recipe for an amazing salsa! It is a simple recipe that can be made the night before or even the day of a big game! A few ingredients and a food processor makes for one perfect tailgating snack!

I used the tortilla scoop chips, but you can use all sorts of chips for this. I also used tortillas and dipped those into the salsa. The recipe calls for a can of Rotel tomatoes. I had no idea what these were until my mom showed me. They have about 3 or 4 different "degrees of heat" that you can choose from. I chose to use the mild, which adds just a little kick to the salsa. If you like a lot of heat, then I would use the hot Rotel tomatoes. This was a fun recipe to make and one that was so simple even the least experienced tailgater could make it!
Enjoy!

-Kym's Kitchen

Quick N Easy Salsa

Ingredients:
14 oz can of diced tomatoes
10 oz can Rotel (any "degree of heat")
1/2 onion chopped
1 clove of garlic
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and chopped (optional)
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cumin
small handful of cilantro
juice of lime

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to a food processor and pulse for 30 seconds

*If you do not have a food processor, try using a blender*

Quick N Easy Cinnamon Rolls

I realized that I have not done a breakfast post, so while I was in North Carolina, I tried a new cinnamon roll recipe. I had seen a version of this recipe on a website, but I decided to try and make it my own! This is the perfect recipe for that time when you maybe only have 20 minutes to make a breakfast.

To make the rolls you simply take a crescent rolls, sprinkle with cinnamon and roll! Drizzle with a little icing and you are done! It really is that simple! One thing that I would try the next time I make these, is sprinkle the cinnamon while I roll them. I think they would taste better because the cinnamon would be a little more spread out. Another little idea I would like to try is stuffing the rolls with something like apple, to make a cinnamon apple roll.

This was a short and sweet post, but next up.... quick n easy salsa! We are getting ready for football season!

Enjoy!

-Kym's Kitchen


Quick N Easy Cinnamon Rolls
(Kym's Kitchen Version)

Rolls:
1 package of crescent rolls (I used the big and flaky)
Cinnamon Sugar
Ground Cinnamon
2 tbs. butter, melted

Icing:
Powder Sugar
Water

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. After opening all of the rolls, brush each one with melted butter
3. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon and cinnamon sugar.
4. Roll up like a normal crescent roll and bake for 12-15 minutes
5. To make the icing, take a small amount of powdered sugar (probably about 2-3 tbs.) and add a small amount of water until desired consistency.
6. Once the rolls are cooled slightly, drizzle with icing
7. Enjoy!!