Jill Can Cook: Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

I don't have a long, boring story to go along with this recipe. The house was clean. I didn't feel like reading. It was too cool to go outside. In general, there was just nothing to do. So, I had the kids come help me make something in the kitchen.

We had a lot of peanut butter on hand and the kids like cookies, so I spent about 3 seconds searching for a peanut butter cookie recipe and found this gem.

Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients:

I wanted to get the kids in on the cookie making. The sooner they learn to make cookies for me, the better!

•  1 cup peanut butter
•  1 cup white sugar
•  1 egg

Directions:                                 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Combine the peanut butter, white sugar and egg. Mix until smooth.
3. Drop spoonfuls of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 6 to 8 minutes. Do not overbake! These cookies are best when they are still soft and just barely brown on the bottoms.

The kids were in kid heaven getting to help me in the kitchen since they don't get to help very often. I don't like the kids "helping" in the kitchen, mainly because I worry they'll die of salmonella or burns or something. I know, I know, I'm a worry wart. I'm working on my fears and slowly accepting their help. 

They did all the prep:

Stirring the egg.

Stirring the egg and sugar.

Stirring in the peanut butter. Lefty Mitch switched sides with righty Quinn.

They mixed for like 10 minutes and made me really proud. They were actually helping and not making a mess!

I rolled the balls. I'm good at ball rolling.

And then I fork pressed them. I'm good at fork placing, too.

Then my kids played in the kitchen while I cleaned up. You'd think that waiting 10ish minutes for cookies to bake would be easy, but it's the knowing that another batch will have to go into the oven when you take them out, thus starting the waiting cycle all over again  that sucks. 

But cookies are worth it.

These were actually pretty yummy.

I love that there were very few ingredients and prep time was quick.

I may have overcooked them slightly, but I like crunchy cookies sometimes, too.

Joe came home and ate 5 of them while he cooked dinner.

I like peanut butter cookies with a lot more ingredients and I like these with just a couple of ingredients. I think I might admit that I just like peanut butter cookies overall. Joe liked them a lot, too. A+ all around, especially from the kids that loved getting to make them as well as eat them!

Jill Can Cook: Bacon Wrapped Tater Tots

My family has been having tons of parties and hang out sessions this past year. I absolutely love any excuse to get together with family. And being able to cook something for the occasion is a nice bonus, too!

I've added Bacon Wrapped Weenies to the rotation of delicious appetizers I bring along with me. They are always a hit and every time my niece hears of a party coming up, she makes sure to beg me to make them. I love her, but I don't always want to bring the same thing. So, I made a compromise the last time around. Instead of weenies, I'd use tater tots! Let's see how these came out...

Bacon Wrapped Tater Tots

Adapted from: Damn Delicious

Ingredients:

Market Basket brand represent!

• tater tots, room temperature
• bacon, uncooked, quartered
• brown sugar
• cheese, cut into squares

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat; set aside.
3. Working one at a time, wrap each tater tot and cheese square in a piece of bacon. Repeat with remaining tater tots, cheese squares and bacon pieces. 
4. Place tater tots seam side down onto the prepared baking sheet. 
5. Sprinkle with desired amount of brown sugar.
6. Place into oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, using metal tongs to turn at halftime.

I was making this appetizer for a large group of people, so I just kept making them until my pan couldn't fit any more or until I ran out of something. But if you go to the original blog page, you have the capability of following more specific directions.

Joe's grandmother got me this pan. I love it for parties since it has a sturdy cover!

As it is with bacon wrapped appetizers, they're petty easy to put together. This probably took me about 20 minutes to get together, including finding all the ingredients.

With the brown sugar on top, along with a last minute sprinkle of chili powder!

That's it for prepping pictures. 

I put this together the morning of our get together and placed it back in the fridge. About a half an hour before we left for the party, I popped the pan in the preheated oven and kept it there for about 5 minutes less cooking time than it needed. I pulled it out, brought it to the party, and popped it back into the oven for 5ish minutes, mostly just to heat it up since it was pretty well cooked.

You know I had to eat one before I took a picture. Hahaha

These were good and just as easy as the bacon wrapped weenies, but they were a lot harder to eat. The weenies could be easily eaten with toothpicks whereas these needed a fork. I think that maybe if you precooked the tater tots for 15 minutes ahead of time, then cooked them with the bacon, they might not have been so mushy. Oh well,I'll know better for next time and you'll know better for when you make them.

Also, since I've made these, I've seen them made by putting the cheese on top of them during the last 2-3 minutes of baking, making them more like loaded bacon taters. That might not be great for a party, but might work if you made these like a side dish. 

A+ for taste, B for overall grade considering they weren't too party friendly. 

Jill Can Cook: Baked Brown Sugar Chicken Thighs

I'm going to complain about this recipe a little bit before I get going.  I had some leftover, uncooked chicken thighs and checked around on Pinterest for a new way to season them, since we ran out of our favorite chicken seasoning and I'm looking for some good recipes to replace it.  That's when I came across this recipe on someone else's blog.

I read through the blog and it really seems like the blogger has her act together and knows how to create a recipe from scratch. Well, that's how it comes across when you read it anyway. So, blah, blah, blah... I make my chicken using this recipe. Then I get to the end of it and realize, she adapted it from some other blog which I hoped was the orginal.

I wanted to link to the original blog so I searched around and realized that the recipe was all over the web, submitted to websites and shared all over the place and the credit was always given to the blog I first found and not the actual original blogger. 

I don't know why, but that makes me feel crappy. I guess I just don't like the idea that the original author isn't getting the credit. Anyway, original lady, here's your credit right here: I've adapted this recipe from: Domestic Fits

Baked Brown Sugar Chicken Thighs

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 2 tsp dried minced garlic
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbs olive oil
• chicken legs, wings, thighs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. In a bowl, combine the first 7 ingredients. Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and rub to coat. Sprinkle  dry rub on chicken and pat to coat. Can also be done by mixing dry rub in a bag and adding chicken to bag in order to coat chicken. 
3. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 45-55 minutes for chicken thighs and drumsticks. Wings can be cooked for 30 minutes, and flipped over once during baking.

So, I know that I probably don't have the cooking skills to eyeball my ingredients instead of measuring and re-measuring, but c'mon, this is a dry rub I'm putting together, I'm not building a rocket ship.

Anyway, I eyeballed the ingredients. We were busy all morning and I started lunch late. I knew the chicken would take a long time to cook and I just couldn't be bothered to find all the measuring spoons. You'd be surprised at how I didn't screw this up at all (first time that phrase has ever been on this blog!)

My dry rub ingredients before mixing.

My dry rub ingredients all mixed together.

As usual, I rubbed the seasoning directly on the chicken, plus on the skin.

Ok. That's it for prep! When you're rushed like I was rushed the day I made this, I was elated that the prep time was less than 10 minutes, including taking all the pictures and washing my hands a million times.

Off to the oven they went. And then...

They almost didn't last long enough to take a photo. 

They were so awesome! 

My eyeballing of the ingredients didn't lessen the deliciousness of thic chicken at all! In fact, it probably enhanced it. For once I can say that my laziness benefited my tummy.

I cant wait to make these again!

The flavors were on point. It was a good balance of sweet and spicy. I think I might use this exact recipe for when Joe and I make ribs and pulled pork. I can't talk this recipe up enough. It was fabulous... The only issue... You know how I've been complaining about not being able to find Joe's and my favorite Mediterranean chicken seasoning for several months? Well, we found some the day after I made this chicken. We ended up purchasing 4 bottles of it! We never want to run out of it again. Lucky for you guys though, because I'll calm down on the chicken thigh recipes for a bit. Woo hoo!

Oh and one more thing. For the first time in my life, I actually cooked noodles with pesto sauce. Don't get me wrong, I've eaten noodles with pesto sauce. I've even made other recipes with pesto sauce. But for some reason, I've never put the two together in my own kitchen. I decided that would be the perfect accompaniment to my supah fly chicken and I was right, like I always am! (I'm not but don't tell my husband. I think I have him convinced I'm always right!!)

The kids love mini shells

People, eat this food! Eat it now! Eat it before you start dieting for the holidays! Eat it before other people realize how delicious it is and other people eat it all on you!

A+, A+, A+   I finally didn't ruin mealtime!

Jill Can Cook: Forgotten Chicken

I might be a Stay-At-Home-Mom but that doesn't mean I spend all day at home. Half the week I spend running errands or catching up on house chores. The other half of the week I spend hanging out with my peeps (mostly my mom/dad, but sometimes other family members/friends). Oh, and of course, I spend a lot of time hanging out with my kiddos.

Regardless of if I've spent the day out and about or in and invested in other projects, most of the time I want something easy to make for dinner. I love anything that I can put together in the crockpot and just forget about. I also love casserole type recipes that I can just throw in the oven and forget about. 

So, you can imagine the love that I initially had for this recipe that sells itself as a recipe you can forget about!! I want to cook that! Me! That recipe is for me! And I cooked it and here it is!!

Forgotten Chicken

Adapted from Darling Doodles Design

Ingredients:

• 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 2 c. uncooked rice
• 1 pkg. onion soup mix
• can of cream of chicken soup
• can of cream of celery soup
• water
• pepper to taste

Directions: 

1. Mix together “cream of” soups, 1 can of water, and 2 cups of rice (uncooked.)  Pour into a buttered casserole dish.
2. Lay chicken breasts on top of rice mixture and sprinkle onion soup mix on top. Cover with tin foil.
3. Once you have it in the casserole dish you can put it in the oven and forget it!  You can either cook it at around 250 for three hours or you can cook it at 350-375 for one to one and a half hours.  

I'm not usually a fan of cream of stuff soups, but this one seemed all right. Plus, I usually keep most of these ingredients on hand at all times, so I thought this might be a great recipe to add to my repertoire. I love recipes that I don't need to stock specific items for. That way, I can make them in a pinch if needed.

All the cream of soups and water mixed together.

I added in the rice.

Added in the chicken.

Onion soup on top.

At this point, I have high hopes for this dish. I love rice. I love chicken. I love those onion soup packets. This recipe did live up to it's name. I spent a few minutes throwing all the ingredients into the pan and once it went into the oven, I forgot about it.

As the kids and I were playing and waiting for Joe to get home from work, the house began to smell pretty good. I couldn't wait to get this out of the oven and gobble it up!

This is what it looked like when it was all plated up.

This dish definitely had a strong smell. It hit Joe the minute he opened the front door. The coloring of the dish wasn't extremely appealing, but I've eaten and enjoyed ugly looking food before. 

Yeah, it's a little ugly. 

I took a couple bites and was disappointed. This dish is super salty. The only flavor that came through to me was salt. There was salt from the 2 cans of soup, plus the salt from the onion soup packet. It was just too much for me. I love flavor, but I'm not a fan of salt. I only put salt on cucumbers, otherwise, I only use salt in cooking.

I don't know why I keep showing you pictures. They're boring as heck!

My kids also hate this dish. Mostly just because of the way it looked... Well, and the fact that they're picky little eaters! Lol.

Joe actually found no fault in this dish. He didn't think it was pretty, but he wasn't as turned off by the saltiness of it as I was.

I would normally try to give you guys pointers on how I might jazz up a dish that wasn't up to par, but I don't think I'll make this dish again. Also, it would need a lot of jazzing up, to the point that it might become an entirely new dish. Like, I'd add some colorful veggies to it, like peas, or broccoli (well, you can put broccoli in it. I don't like broccoli!). I'd also cut out one of the cans of cream of soup and possibly cut back on the onion soup mix, too. Maybe changing out the white rice for wild rice might add some flavor back. I don't know. It's up to the both of you, my loyal followers, to use your best judgement when attempting this recipe for yourself! Good luck!You'll need it.

I'd like to forget I ever made this chicken!! It gets an F from me! And possibly a C from Joe since he didn't put up a fuss when I said, "Never again!"

DIY: A Refashion Anyone Can Do With One Little Tool!

Believe it or not, I did this "refashion" (I use the term loosely since I barely did anything) before I started blogging. In fact, it was several months before I was even close to starting this blog. I had forgotten that I had done it until I recently found a misplaced SD memory card. You can imagine my surprise when I found this refashion fossil! Here's a little history lesson.

Back when I was going to the thrift store near my parents house and back when that thrift store still had a $0.50 rack (see how long ago this was!!), I saw this cute argyle sweater:

I loved it. It was a great color and had a cute pattern. The only issue was that the beading detail was coming apart in a few sections. I almost gave up right then and there but I remembered that somewhere in my house I had a seam ripper. How hard would it be to cut the thread holding the beads and just take that detail off entirely in order to transform this cardigan? I decided that I could do it. It would be painstakingly tedious and boring, but I could do it.

And don't forget, this was the first time I ever really did anything like this. That's why the pictures suck. I was just trying to do a before and after so I could send to my mom's e-mail since she was with me when I bought the sweater.

Anyway, if I remember correctly, this took less than 30-40 minutes. I am pretty sure I did it while I waited for dinner to cook. I have no idea what I made but I don't usually cook stuff that takes longer than an hour.

And that's that. I don't recall if I ever took more pictures to show my mom, so this might actually be the first time she sees this as well (Hey mom!! Let me know what you think!).

I love refashions like this because anyone, creative or not, can do something like this, all you need is a seam ripper. Seriously people, they only cost a couple bucks and they are pretty useful! I originally bought mine because sometimes new jeans have their tags sewed onto them and seam ripping them is a pretty easy way to detach the thread. Go buy one. Go buy one now!

One more thing:

I have been having issues for the past few months with internet/computer stuff. You all know that I bought a new computer a couple of months ago because my last computer was killed by viruses. Everything was going along perfectly, until I decided to download Window10 on my new computer. My blog operating system does not like Windows10 for whatever reason and it's taken me a couple of weeks to figure out how to make them work together. I hope to start blogging on a regular basis again, as long as nothing else ridiculous happens!!

Jill Can Cook: Wowza Baked Chicken

Joe and I have been eating a lot of chicken drumsticks and thighs for dinner these past few months. This is because they are a very cheap option at the grocery store.

Is anyone else noticing how ridiculous meat prices are lately?! Did the cost per pound for hamburger double in the last year or what?! And don't even get me started on  steak tips! It's awful.

So, chicken drumsticks and thighs are on the menu at least once a week, if not more. Several months ago, Joe found this flippin' delectable seasoning for chicken. It was some kind of Mediterranean spice rub thing and we used the crap out of it.

And then we finished the bottle and threw it away (bad idea!!).

And then we were never able to find that particular spice rub again.

We found another spice rub to use in it's place, but it's just not the same. So, I looked to Pinterest (as usual) to spice my chicken up (get it? It's a pun. I'm super hilarious. Love me).

Wowza Baked Chicken

Adapted from: Kitchen With Mommy

Ingredients:

• chicken drumsticks/thighs
• olive oil
• paprika
• garlic powder
• salt (I used sea salt)
• fresh ground pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Place drumsticks in a 9x13 baking dish, and rub the drumsticks with enough olive oil to lightly coat them on all sides.  Sprinkle the drumsticks with paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper until coated.
3. Bake drumsticks at 375 degrees for 45 mins

I love that whoever put this recipe together didn't specify amounts for the ingredients. I'm not the best chef (or even a chef at all, really) by any means, but sometimes, it will be fine if you just eyeball it! Amirite?!

Look at that chicken thigh goodness!

OK, so maybe it's just me, but I have no plans on eating that skin. It's probably not good for you, although my main reason is that it will never get crispy like turkey skin (which I DEFINTELY eat! My dad is like a ninja when it comes to stealing and offering me turkey skin on the down low before Thanksgiving dinner is served! I have a rock star dad!)... So yeah, I grabbed a spoon to help maneuver the skin away from the meat.

Even if you do eat the skin, you should put seasoning on the meat. It makes it that much more flavorful!

For all you skin lovers, season up the skin, too!!

Sometimes Joe has an "I'm not worried about cholesterol or heart disease" day, so I season the skin, too. As you can see, I thoroughly doused everything in seasoning. I ain't shy and I don't plan to make any kind of sauce or gravy to go along with this, so it needs to stand on it's own!

So far, this is going swimmingly. It's easy enough to grab spices that I always have anyway and throw them on some chicken and wait 45 minutes until it's ready. But, there's always some doubt, like, "Did I put enough paprika on there?" or "What the heck does paprika taste like anyway?!"

And then you pull that baking dish out of the oven and you're hit with the most savory scent and you know that you didn't royally screw up your cheap chicken thighs!

Look at how beautiful and brown that skin looks. It almost made me want to eat it (but I didn't).

Joe did. He said it was great and that I should eat it, too. But I held strong.

I'm not going to lie and say that this recipe is just as good as my lost Mediterranean bottle of spices, because, well, nothing could be as good as that. But it was good. It's nice to not have to depend on a bottle of prepackaged spices to make dinner.

Are my pictures coming out more delicious looking or am I just hungry right now? Anyway, these were pretty good. Quinn was all like, "Can I have more chicken!?" She's not usually so happy about eating the chicken/meat portion of the meal. I mean, she eats it, but she's not begging for more helpings, so I know she really liked this.

Let's not talk about Mitchell and his pickiness during this blog post. He'll ruin the positive vibe!

A+ from the rest of us! And unless I find that snappy Mediterranean spice again, expect to see more chicken drumstick and thigh recipes!

The Kids Half Year Photo Shoot

It's fall, so it's the time of year that I start taking insane amounts of photos of the kids. The start of photography season is usually early September for the kids "Half Year Photo Shoot."

You're probably wondering, "why do you care about half year?" For a few reasons:

1. We take tons of pictures on the kids' birthdays in March already.
2. The weather is usually better in September than it is in March.
3. We have hardly anything going on in September, but we usually have tons of stuff going on in March.
4. Schools usually take students pictures in September, so it's nice to stay on track.
5. I love all excuses to take pictures of the kids.

That about covers it.

Anyway, there's always something that goes wrong with our photo sessions and this one is no different. I prefer to take the photos outside, usually in our backyard because we have a lot of open space. We don't really have any kind of devoted photo studio in our house, although I'm looking to possibly work something out in the basement, if I can de-clutter it enough!

I waited a little too long this year to do photos. What I usually make time for in early September was pushed back until almost October. Early September is preferable because it's still warm or at least mild. But on an almost-October morning, we started the day around 50 degrees. The sunlight is perfect in the morning, but the cold was not. So, we waited until afternoon, when it was nearly 70 degrees out, but the sun cast too many shadows.

Waah waahh waaahh.. I just like whining. I don't think the pictures came out horribly, but I wish they'd come out better. Here they are:

Aww smiley headed kids!

I usually start by taking pictures of just Quinn. Mitchell almost always needs about 10 minutes to get out his energy before he'll, possibly, stay still for pictures. But not today! Today he came right over and stood next to Quinn and yelled "Cheese pizza!!" LOL.

I love the hugging photos. Expect one from every shoot.

For the first time ever, Mitchell wanted to participate. He took direction. He smiled. Quinn loved not having to hold her smile for an hour while I tried to get Mitchell to smile.

That's not to say that I didn't catch a few random shots, because, well, I always do.

This reminds me of a Norman Rockwell painting or something..

I just click the shutter. I don't always direct. Hahah

Quinn had a jumping fit in the middle and I wasn't set up for it! Boo hoo!

I think Mitchell hated his shirt. He kept playing with the hem.

I think this is my favorite picture of the entire day!

I think we have a few issues at work, now that I've checked every photo out and edited them. This is where I went wrong:

1. I cut Mitchells hair too short. As cute as it looks in person, it's maybe just a tad too short and reflective of the sun.
2. Quinn's dress has really cute bows on the shoulders and in order to show them off, I pulled her hair up. I'm just not used to it, maybe?
3. Obviously, I shot at the wrong time of day. Even though the kids were in the shade, I sometimes ended up with awful highlighting and shading.
4. And the more I look at it, Quinn's dress is not very photogenic. It is super cute in person. She looks like Neapolitan ice cream with her vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate dress but it washes her out while simultaneously being washed out by the sun.

Mitchell's too short hair.

Quinn's white dress with boring hair.

Thank goodness that I got a few good shots so that the entire thing wasn't a bust. But I hate having lost this opportunity.

Probably the best picture of the dress!

So, those were the best and cutest of the whole bunch. Luckily, Halloween is coming up, so I'll have a second chance at photos of the kids.