Salted Chocolate Caramel Crunch

Sometimes recipes comes to me in my sleep, and in this case it could very well be the best dream I've ever had. These Salted Chocolate Caramel Crunch clusters are stuffed with everything good – nuts, pretzels, crispy rice, marshmallows and caramel. They are so good, I have to hide them from myself!

These clusters make a great hostess or teacher's gift for the holidays. Place them in a box or tin lined with holiday tissue paper, or a cellophane bag tied with festive ribbon. I use Trader Joe's Belgian milk chocolate for it's creaminess, the same chocolate I use in my World's Best Chocolate Chunk Cookie. You can also switch out the almonds with pecans, peanuts or cashews if you prefer.

Salted Chocolate Caramel Crunch

Makes 12

16 oz. of your favorite chocolate, melted
1/4 cup almonds, coarsely chopped and toasted
1/4 cup puffed rice crisps
1/4 cup pretzels, broken into pieces
mini marshmallows (36 ct.)
12 individual caramels
Flaky sea salt, such as Maldon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Toast almonds in oven for 10-15 minutes, until lightly toasted and fragrant.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler, or bowl placed over a small pot of boiling water.

Line a 12-count cupcake pan with paper cupcake holders.

Mix almonds, puffed rice and pretzels in a bowl.

Pour a teaspoon of melted chocolate into the bottom of each  paper cupcake holder.

Divide the nut-pretzel mixture between the cups (about 2 teaspoons per cup), placing the mixture on top of the melted chocolate.

Top mixture with 3 mini marshmallows.

Place a caramel on top of each cup.

Place tray in oven for about 5 minutes to melt marshmallows and caramel.

Cover with another teaspoon of melted chocolate, and top with a pinch of flaky sea salt.

Cool in freezer for thirty minutes.

Remove clusters from paper holders, and allow them to come to room temperature before eating.

Enjoy!

Avgolemono

By now, you may have noticed that I love easy, quick meals. So when I realized I only had a few items in my refrigerator to make dinner with – eggs, chicken and lemons – and I was too lazy to run to the store, I had to get creative. I remembered the Greek, chicken lemon soup, called "avgolemono" my friend Kiki had brought over once when I had the flu, and called her for the recipe. I thought my Cream of Mushroom Chicken Bake was the easiest and best tasting recipe of all time, but this avgolemono soup has it beat! As Kiki says, "Greeks love making it because there is such a big return on the low effort."

Let's just say I was not expecting the response I got from a meal born out of laziness, that I threw together half heartedly with so few ingredients.

My husband demanded I make this soup every week, saying it was the one of the best things I've ever made. My kids ate it up and begged for more and we all fought for the last spoonful from the pot. They even asked me to make it again the next day (this is from a family that hates leftovers – my little one wanted to open a restaurant called "Leftovers", so we could serve them to customers and never have to eat them again).

Add plenty of black pepper to this soup. You can use brown basmati rice if you prefer. It's best to juice the lemons with a juicer, rather than by hand to extract all the juice. If you squeeze the lemon by hand, you may need to add more lemon. Best served with sliced bread on a cold night.

Avgolemono

4 whole chicken breasts with bone, skin removed

6 cups water

1/2 cup rice

1 large lemon (or 2 small), juiced thoroughly

2 large eggs

3 teaspoons salt

freshly ground black pepper

Take lemon out of the refrigerator. Crack the eggs into a large bowl and allow them to come to room temperature while broth cooks. Set aside.

Boil chicken pieces and rice in the 6 cups of water, until cooked. Transfer chicken to another bowl to cool.

Add lemon, salt and plenty of black pepper to the broth. Turn off heat.  

Whisk eggs, and while whisking quickly pour about a cup of hot broth into the eggs in a slow stream (this is to avoid cooking the eggs). Add a couple more cups of broth in the same manner, and then add the egg and broth mixture back to your soup pot as you continue to whisk the broth in the pot quickly. Failure to whisk quickly during this whole process will result in scrambled eggs! Shred chicken and add to the soup.

Serve hot with fresh bread.

Reheat gently... boiling will cause the soup to curdle.

Cheese Popovers

I thought long and hard about what recipe I could share with you that would be life changing as far as your traditional Thanksgiving menu. One item immediately popped into my head (excuse the pun)... cheese popovers!

Of course... biscuits are always good, but I swear once you make this cheese popovers recipe you will never go back to biscuits or rolls again! Once you fall in love with popovers (and you will), you will want to try all sorts of variations, i.e., crispy bacon or sausage and cheddar, gruyére and ham or a sweet option like butter with brown sugar and cinnamon.

I suggest doubling this recipe if you have more than 8 people to feed... no one will eat just one, and they are just as good wrapped in foil and reheated in the oven the next day. For serious popover lovers, popover pans are sold at Williams-Sonoma.

Cheese Popovers

Makes 12

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole milk
4 large eggs
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
Nonstick canola or olive oil spray

Place a 12-cup muffin or popover pan in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.

Mix flour and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.

Place eggs in a large bowl and whisk.

In a small pan, warm milk until hot, but do not boil.  Then add hot milk to the eggs in a slow and steady stream, while whisking quickly (this is very important to do, otherwise it will curdle).

Whisk flour mixture into the egg mixture. It will look lumpy, but don't worry.

Remove hot pan from oven and spray with oil to coat. Add enough batter to each cup to fill about 1/3 of the way.

Top each cup with about 2 tablespoons of grated cheddar cheese.

Bake for about 45-50 minutes until nicely browned and puffy. They will deflate soon after coming out of the oven... this is normal. The browner they are on the bread portion of the popover, the less they will deflate. To help reduce deflating, slit each popover with a knife immediately after you remove them from the oven to release steam. 

Remove popovers from pan with a metal spatula and serve warm.

Hurricane Beef Chili with Beans & Whole Wheat Cornbread

We had no power or heat for an entire week thanks to Hurricane Sandy, but with a small generator, a countertop electric burner and some determination I did manage to come up with a great Hurricane beef chili with beans and whole wheat cornbread recipe!

This is forever more my "go to" chili recipe... it's the perfect comfort food for the cold weather. It's flavorful, has just the right amount of heat, and is not too labor intensive.

I use ground beef for flavor, but ground turkey works well too. Serve over rice and/or with whole wheat corn bread (recipe follows), and top with cheese, sour cream and diced red onion. 

Hurricane Beef Chili With Beans

Olive oil for sautéing

1 lb. lean ground beef or turkey

1 medium onion, chopped

1 large green pepper, chopped

1 large carrot, chopped

5 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon tomato paste

3 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons salt

1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, chopped

2 28 oz. cans diced tomatoes

1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained

Shredded Mexican, Fiesta or cheddar cheese, sour cream and red onion for topping

Sauté ground beef in a dash of olive oil (you may need more if using ground turkey), until cooked. Add onions, green pepper, carrot and garlic and cook until translucent, about 10 minutes.

Add tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, oregano, coriander, salt and chipotle pepper and sauté for a few more minutes. Then add canned tomatoes and pinto beans.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and cook for at least an hour. If chili is too thick, add a little water or chicken stock.

Whole Wheat Cornbread

3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour

3/4 cup cornmeal
3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons honey

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Coat a 9" pan with a light coating of olive oil. 

In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients together. Then add wet ingredients to the dry, mixing gently. Pour batter into oil coated pan.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve warm.