Monday, 1-09-2012 - The big college football game day. Undefeated LSU plays No. 2 Alabama in Allstate BCS National Championship Game. Alabama had only been beaten once this season and that was by LSU. Expecting a great game (although we rarely watch college ball), we geared up with the family and some game food. The game turned out to be a big disappointment, but the game food was great. I fixed stuffed bell peppers for the first time (I do believe), and they were fabulous. We had sliced apples with caramel dip, strawberries, pizza, boneless chicken wings, cheese dip w/ chips, pimiento & cheese sandwich bites and chocolate fudge cookies and sour cream muffins.
For the stuffed bell peppers, I washed, cut in half and deseeded the bell peppers. Then on the stovetop, I browned ground deer meat in some olive oil, chopped onion and garlic. Our deer meat has such little fat added to it that it does not have to be drained. Then I added Swansons all natural beef stock to it, some water, rice, Worcestershire sauce and salt. Let cook till rice is done and most all juice is gone and add one can of cream of mushroom. Stir. Scoop into bell pepper halves. Bake till peppers are tender. Then top with shredded cheddar cheese and bake just until cheese is melted. These were good the first day, but second day they were very, very good. The pepper and filling flavors needed to marry. The filling was really good. My kids loved the filling but would not eat it in the pepper. These are a definite make again, even if we make the filling without the peppers.
Chocolate Fudge Cookies. These were very easy to make. My little girl loves cookies and chocolate cake, so I figured she would love these being they are made from a Devils Food Cake mix. Well, much to my surprise she didn't like them, and my picky little boy thought they were great. These were like the stuffed bell peppers. They were good the first day, but so much better the next day. These will be a make again cookie (I used milk chocolate Hershey's chips in them. Hershey's runs their plain chocolate chips on a dedicated line so they will be safe for people with nut allergies.)
The week at work was great. We had some slow days, so we got home early everyday. One evening I made Angel Biscuit Rolls. These tasted good, and I will remake. I was not in the mood to get out the ole rolling pin and roll & cut them out, so I thought I would give another try to rolling them by hand. HA!HA!HA! I should be outlawed from this. My mom has always rolled her biscuits by hand. She makes it look so simple, and they always turned out beautiful. Well, I do not have this talents. I could only cut a few to get jelly inside. The rest fell to pieces. But then again, this is what has happened with any other biscuit I have tried to roll by hand. I also did not let these rise any since the recipe says they do not need to, but one review said she lets hers rise for 30 - 45 minutes. I believe I will do this next time.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/angel-biscuit-rolls/detail.aspx
Another night, I thought it might be fun to make some corndogs since the kids love them. I found a recipe. Mixed them up almost according to directions. It calls for yellow cornmeal. Of course, I just didn't have that on hand, but I did have some Jiffy corn muffin mix. Decided to use it. Which may have been fine, if I would have just been thinking that it may have been a wise idea to not add the baking powder and salt and such since it was already in the Jiffy mix. The batter was nice and thick and coated the hotdogs perfectly. I did not have any sticks. So, once they were put in the grease, they puffed up rather large. Ha!! They tasted ok. I do believe I will make them again, but not with Jiffy mix. The pictures on the recipe link that were posted by others looked beautiful, but they did not look at all like mine,
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/corn-dogs/detail.aspx
Thursday evening, mom rang up. She needed a loaf of bread for a couple of friends who were fixing to take a road trip. Love, love the Amish white bread. Got in the kitchen and whipped her up two beautiful loaves. Will be making some more for our house this weekend.
The side pictures are some of the cakes & desserts that were made at The Broadway Deli this week.