My Favorite Show...Ever...

OK -

Seriously y'all...I have fallen completely head over heels, infatuated, all I can think about, in LUV with "America's Test Kitchen".

It airs on my local PBS station (yes, I enjoy public broadcasting. So there!) every day, and is totally amazing.

Basically, they take a recipe go through every possible variation of technique, advice, and make all the mistakes, and find all the best ways to do things!

Last time I watched it all the way through, they were doing pepperoni pizza...not a difficult thing to make right?

Did you know that to cut down on the grease from things like sausage, pepperoni, or any other meat that you can cook it on a paper towel, in your microwave for about 1 minute? That cooks it enough to release most of the grease, absorb it in the paper towel, and it cuts your cooking time down, making sure your crust isn't too crunchy?

To check it out... go to America's Test Kitchen

Hint for Putting up Sweet Corn

I was watching the Today show this week & they had a guest chef. He was cutting fresh corn off the cob. He took a Bundt pan, stood the corn cob up on the hole in the middle of the pan, and cut the corn off into the pan. The hole keeps the cob from slipping around & the pan catches all the corn to keep it from rolling off on the floor.

I thought this was brilliant & fully plan on trying it out in a few weeks when the 8,000,000 stalks of corn my husband planted start coming in! Maybe I can use it as an excuse to get a new fancy Bundt pan (No, honey, I can't use the corn pan to bake cakes in for pot-lucks! What are you, some kind of barbarian?!).

Toffee Crunch Cookies

Yield: 3 Dozen (see hint below)

1 1/2 Cups sifted flour
1/2 Tsp baking soda
1/2 Tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 Tsp vanilla
1 cup finely chopped Heath Bars (Heath Bits 'o Brickle may be substituted, but you lose the chocolate flavor from the candy bars)
1/2 cup chopped pecans


Combine flour, soda, salt

Cream butter, ad sugar, egg, and vanilla; mix until creamy

Stir in dry ingredients, blend in chopped candy bars and pecans.

Drop tablespoons full 2" apart on greased baking sheet

Bake in 350 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes

Hint: If you promised to supply 2 dozen cookies for an event, you should double this recipe to make up for what you eat while baking them.

~Inkling, these are the cookies my dad made for G'ma & G'pa M&M's anniversary party last summer.

Potato Pizza

5 C. peeled & thinly sliced potatoes (I used my slicing blade on my food processor for this)
Pepper
1 1/2 lbs. hamburger
1/2 small onion chopped
1 can (10 3/4 oz) Cheddar Cheese Soup
1 C. milk
4 oz melted cheddar cheese (OK, so in reality I use 2 full cups....there is no such thing as too much cheese)
1 can (10 3/4 oz) tomato soup
1 C. shredded mozzarella cheese.

Grease 9x13 glass Pyrex dish. Lay potatoes out flat in pan in layers. Sprinkle generously with pepper. Brown ground beef and onion. Drain. Stir cheese soup, milk, and melted cheddar cheese together until smooth (works best if cheese and soup are warm.  In fact, I do this in a sauce pan over heat as I melt the cheddar cheese). Mix ground beef and cheese mix, spread over potatoes. Bake @ 350 for 1 hour or until potatoes are done.

Top with tomato soup and mozzarella cheese. Bake 5 more minutes or until cheese is melted.