Showing posts with label dessert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dessert. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Crock Pot Challenge Meal #3: Sugared Pecans & Walnuts

Day #3 of my personal Crock Pot Challenge was a little bit different from the first two nights.  The "meal" I cooked wasn't started in the morning to cook all day.  It also wasn't a dinner, it's a snack.  I thought it was important to try a variety of recipes in the crock pot, so night #3 I went with Sugared Pecans & Walnuts.

The start of the cooking process - nuts in the crock pot with melted butter
I originally found the recipe on Pinterest and it linked me to the recipe on Food.com by user Gingerbear, added in 2003.  There are only two reviews of the recipe, one was positive, so that gave me a little bit of confidence.  Based on the smell that floated through the house halfway through the slow cooking process, they were going to turn out great.

Powdered Sugar added to the crock pot
You'll notice that the recipe calls for either Pecans or Walnuts.  Since I had some walnuts on hand, I doubled the recipe and used both the Pecans and Walnuts.  (Pecans were part of my grocery list for the challenge.) Yes, I have 2 pounds of sugared nuts.  Sometimes I act like a 10-year-old boy, and that sentence makes me laugh.  Read it again, doesn't it make you laugh?

They're done!  The spices have been added and stirred to coat the nuts
The whole process from start to finish is about 3 hours.  I started after our evening run and it was done before we went to bed.  While the pecans and walnuts were cooking it gave me time to prepare for the Stuffed Green Peppers that I'll be slow cooking tomorrow.

MMMM - so delicious.  I wish you could scratch and sniff the screen so you can smell what I'm smelling
On our very official Stephen Scale, these Pecans & Walnuts are absolutely Keepers and will be shared immediately with friends and co-workers.  These would be fantastic as a hostess gift or as a snack for Thanksgiving and Christmas house guests.  We'll definitely be making these again. And again.  And again.

I had to share this picture with you.  While I'm chopping veggies in the kitchen, it doesn't matter what veggies, and to be honest, I could just make a chopping noise in the kitchen, the dogs come running and wait for me to drop something.  They don't eat human food.  The closest they have come is a bit of carrot and they've never had that IN the kitchen.  I have no idea what Goose thinks I'm doing on the counter, but he's beyond excited to see if something drops.  At this point I was taking the caps off the green peppers and removing the ribs and seeds.  Silly puppies.  This is how they travel around the house, attached at the hip.

Goose and Mabel (in red) watching me chop green peppers.  Can you tell how fast their tails are wagging from this picture?
Goose is officially 8 months old now!  He is such a good boy.  It's cute to see how tired and cuddly he gets after 9pm when he wants to go to bed.  10pm Goose is a different dog than 6pm Goose.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Penzeys Spices & Dessert

We were going to have a small dinner part last night so Stephen made some pork shoulder in the crock pot.  His recipe is pretty simple.

  • Rub meat with spices
  • Place in crockpot
  • Pour in one or two bottles of dark beer, depending on the size of the shoulder
  • Turn on low for 8-10 hours
  • Enjoy!
For Christmas, my dad got Stephen a really great variety of rubs from Penzeys Spices, a great specialty store in Winter Park, FL.  Typically I would just walk past such a store, but Dad knows better.  They have stores all over the US (one in Sandy Springs, GA!) or you can order through a catalog or order online.  

For dinner last night we went with the Adobo Rub.  Penzeys is great because they give you a little info on the rub and what you can make with it.  Most of the rubs Stephen got from my dad were for beef, this one was good for pork, seafood or chicken.  You can even put some of it in guacamole!  



The main dish came out delicious.  I didn't take a picture because, let's be honest, a big slab of meat isn't a pretty picture.  Trust me, the house smelled amazing when we walked in the door from work and the meat just fell apart.  It was so tender and juicy.  


For dessert we had orange sherbet topped with fresh berries, peaches and honey.  It might have been the best non-chocolate dessert ever made.  

We have so many leftovers, we'll have the same meal tonight for dinner.  I can't wait!