peanuts Archives - Aggie's Kitchen

Sea Salted Caramel Corn (…and a humble request)

Aggie Goodman — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:00:27 +0000

Are you all as big of fans of sweet and salty as I am? I don’t have the biggest sweet tooth…but something about combining flavors that have just a little touch of sweet, spicy and salty that I just can’t resist. It’s all about balance right?

My kiddies had their school Fall Festival last week and I was panicking at 7am that morning when I realized I didn’t make any treats for the party like I had planned. I’ll admit, I’ve been in this situation many times before…so the panic didn’t phase me all that much. I had to figure something out quick…or I would be stopping at the grocery store to pick up some cookies on the way to the festival. Thank goodness for my overflowing overstocked pantry…I was able to pull this together.

Last year, after reading this post, I was convinced I had to buy a hot air popcorn maker. I am so glad I did. You have no idea how many afternoons that popper has made an appearance on my kitchen counter…my kids love watching the popcorn pop and of course eating big bowls of it while watching afternoon cartoons. You can say it’s almost becoming a tradition. 🙂

In addition to providing an afternoon snack (as well as entertainment) for my kids…hot air popcorn is basically like a blank palate. You can turn it into so many sweet or savory creations…depending on your mood. In this case, it turned itself into a last minute party snack.

Check out these other popcorn ideas found around the web:

White Chocolate Popcorn

Cinnamon Sugar Caramel Popcorn

Marshmallow Popcorn Cake

Popcorn with Parmesan and Pecorino

Popcorn with Rosemary Infused Oil

Sea Salted Caramel Corn

Ingredients:

4-5 quarts popped popcorn, unsalted, unbuttered
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1 TB maple syrup
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup butterscotch chips
1-2 cups salted peanuts
a few good pinches of sea salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Place popcorn in large cookie sheet (or sheets), set aside.
Combine brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, maple syrup and salt in a thick-bottomed, 2-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a full boil. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until candy thermometer reaches 250°F (I used my regular digital cooking thermometer) or small amount of mixture dropped in ice water forms a hard ball (about 12 to 14 minutes). Remove from heat; stir in baking soda. The caramel will foam up a little and turn a lighter color when you add the baking soda
Carefully pour caramel mixture over popcorn. Top with cinnamon, butterscotch chips and peanuts and carefully stir with wooden spoon until all popcorn is evenly coated. Sprinkle sea salt generously over popcorn. Place in oven for about 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and gently stir, place back in oven for another 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately spread on wax paper. Let cool completely. Break into bite sized pieces. Store in air tight container.

Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes

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Some housekeeping…

I’m still working on updating my Recipe Index. I’ve also started going back through my recipes and adding a Printable Recipe link so that it’s easier for you print recipes without pictures and the extra stuff. Hope this helps! 😉

And also…

If you enjoy reading my blog please visit OrlandoSentinel.com and vote for Aggie’s Kitchen! I appreciate all of your support! You can find me in the Foodies Category as well as the Best Overall Blogs category…here are the details :

Contest begins Monday, November 2 and ends Friday, November 20 at 5pm

You may vote once per category per day. You may also vote once per day in the Best Overall Blog category. You must log in to your OrlandoSentinel.com account in order to vote. (You don’t have to be a FL resident to set this up…it’s by email.)

Winners in each category and for “best overall” will be notified by e-mail before 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 25. The winner in each category will receive an ad campaign of 20,000 impressions on OrlandoSentinel.com and a rockin’ certificate. If a blog wins in more than one category (it can win in up to three), the runner-up will receive the ad campaign. If there are not enough nominations within a category like categories may be merged or a prize may not be issued for that category.

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Cooking Light Week – Day One: Turkey Burgers with Peanut Sauce

Aggie Goodman — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Are there any Cooking Light fans out there? Well, you are in store for a treat. My sister in law Jamie and I are hosting a week of Cooking Light recipes this week! Jamie just started her very own food blog this month, Mom’s Cooking Club, and I am so excited for her! She’s been reading my blog since I started it almost a year ago and has been one of my most supportive and avid readers. She loves to cook like I do so we share lots of emails and conversations talking food. What’s extra special about her blog is that her two young twin daughters are going to be helping her in the kitchen, learning along the way!!Go give Jamie a visit over at Mom’s Cooking Cluband say hello!

Now back to the food…Jamie and I are both subscribers and huge fans of Cooking Light. We thought it would be fun to share with you a week full of recipes that we’ve chosen to cook found in magazines, cookbooks and online. Aggie’s Kitchen will feature a CL recipe on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday of this week. You will also find recipes at Mom’s Cooking Club on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

I came across this recipe in The All-New Complete Cooking Light Cookbook that I checked out from the library. This cookbook is great, it’s huge and has so many tasty looking recipes in it. The original recipe called for chicken, but since I had ground turkey on hand I decided to make the burgers into Turkey Burgers instead. They turned out really juicy and full of great flavor. We are always eating turkey burgers at our house so these were a nice alternative to our classic version. The sauce was delicious too, if you like peanut butter, you will love this!

Turkey Burgers with Peanut Sauce

Yield: Makes 4 burgers

Ingredients:

Sauce:

2 tablespoons peanut butter
2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
1 teaspoon water
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 garlic clove, minced

Burgers:

1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
1 heaping tablespoon chile paste with garlic
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh ginger
2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
good pinch salt and fresh ground pepper
1 lb ground turkey
Cooking spray
4 Arnold's Whole Wheat Sandwich Thins
1 cup alfalfa sprouts

Directions:

To prepare sauce, combine first 6 ingredients, stirring with a whisk until smooth.
Prepare grill or preheat your grill pan.
To prepare burgers, gently combine onions, chile paste, ginger, soy sauce, salt and ground turkey in a large mixing bowl. Divide mixture into 4 equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2-inch-thick patty.
Place patties on a grill rack or a preheated grill pan coated with cooking spray. Grill the patties for 4 minutes on each side or until done. Place rolls, cut sides down, on grill rack or grill pan for about 30 second or until lightly toasted and warmed. Place 1 patty on bottom half of each roll; top each serving with 1/4 cup sprouts, about 1 tablespoon sauce, and top half of roll.

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light

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Cooking Light Week Day 2 recipe can be found Tuesday at Mom’s Cooking Club…

Follow Aggie’s Kitchen’s board Sandwiches on Pinterest.

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White Chocolate Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

Aggie Goodman — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:10:00 +0000

I have been eying Ina’s Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars recipe for quite a while now.

Since I’m not one to bake unless I really have a reason to, I’ve been waiting patiently for the perfect occasion to make these. Well, my mom’s birthday is this weekend and we are going to surprise her with a visit tomorrow with the kids (hope she’s not reading this tonight!)…my mom loves peanut butter so I’m thinking these are a perfect birthday treat for her.

I just recently discovered a brand of peanut butter that I have totally fallen in love with…Peanut Butter & Co. They have the most amazing flavors…ones I’ve tried are Dark Chocolate Dreams, Cinnamon Raisin Swirl and White Chocolate Wonderful. I like adding a heaping teaspoon of these delicious flavors into a bowl of plain lowfat yogurt for dessert…mmmm. So good.

When I decided to make these bars today I had all the ingredients in the pantry…as far as peanut butter though, all I had was the White Chocolate Wonderful. This peanut butter isn’t the most inexpensive peanut butter so I cringed a little using up the whole jar for the recipe (actually 2 oz. less than the recipe called for), but I figured it would make the bars that much better.

I thought the bars turned out good…crumbly and buttery, but they held their shape well. My only complaint was that I thought there should have been more jam than what the recipe asked for. Next time I will just eye ball it and make sure to spread a nice thick layer of jam on them. Also, I think my pan might have been too small…my bars came out kind of thick, but that’s not really a bad thing.

If you are a PB&J lover, bake up a batch of these bars and grab a glass of milk…

(I’m loving my new Martha Stewart Collection plates from Macy’s…)

White Chocolate Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

Ingredients:

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups (18 ounces) creamy peanut butter (I used Peanut Butter & Co. White Chocolate Wonderful)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cups (18 ounces) raspberry jam or other jam (I used strawberry)
2/3 cups salted peanuts, coarsely chopped (I totally forgot to add these!)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch cake pan. Line it with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pan.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and mix until all ingredients are combined.
In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined.
Spread 2/3 of the dough into the prepared cake pan and spread over the bottom with a knife or offset spatula. Spread the jam evenly over the dough. Drop small globs of the remaining dough evenly over the jam. Don't worry if all the jam isn't covered; it will spread in the oven. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and bake for 45 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into squares.

Recipe by Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa at Home

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Happy Birthday Mom!!
xoxo

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Holiday Candy Mix

Aggie Goodman — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:39:00 +0000

Less than a week to go till Christmas, can you believe it?

Before I show you this awesome (and easy) candy mix, let’s get to the giveaway winner first. Thank you so much for all of your wonderful comments, I loved reading them all and loved discovering some “lurkers” out there!

Using Random.org number integrator…the winner of the Bon Appetit magazine subscription is…

Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen!

Email me your mailing address Mary Ann and I’ll get your subscription ordered! Congrats!

Ok, now on to the goodies. For those of you that are baking challenged, like me, this is the perfect holiday treat for you. There is nothing to it, everyone loves it and you’ll end up looking like a rock star for making it. I came across this “recipe” for the first time years ago at my first real job out of college. We were having a holiday pot luck and our receptionist brought this in. It was so good and so addicting! I have been making it almost every year since.

Tip: Chew gum while you make this…because if you are like me you will be constantly tasting it…the Chinese noodles are my favorite!! ; )

Holiday Candy Mix

Ingredients:

Pretzel twists
Peanuts (I prefer lightly salted)
Chinese noodles
M&Ms
Rice Chex cereal (subbed Cinnamon Puffins for this batch b/c it was all I had!)
Almond Bark (vanilla flavored)

Directions:

In large bowl, combine pretzels, peanuts, chinese noodles, m&m's, and cereal. It's best to work in smaller batches when making this so break up almond bark into squares and melt half of it in microwave for 45 seconds. Stir, then continue to melt in microwave for 10-20 seconds at a time until completely melted. Add pretzel mix into smaller mixing bowl then pour melted almond bark over mix, a little at a time. Stir very gently with wooden spoon until completely coated. Once mixed and coated, pour onto cookie sheet and spread flat. Continue with the rest of pretzel mix and almond bark. Let dry and harden for about an hour, then break up and package in festive tins or bowls!
I don't have exact amounts but I will tell you for this batch I made I used 1 1lb bag of pretzels, 1 bag of chinese noodles, 1/2 bag m&m's, 1/2 tall jar of peanuts, and a few cups of cereal. I also used 1 entire package of almond bark. This batch made 5 tins for gifts.
I've stored this in air tight containers for a week.

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Enjoy your weekend!!

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