Fun in the kitchen

Well tonight is the night. For making and baking that is. I absolutely LOVE creating things in the kitchen...cleaning up the mess, not so much. So tonight, I decided to try some new recipes. Then after I spill all my secrets on those, I'll tell you all about some OTHER new ones I have tried that have been complete hits.

Tonight, I found a recipe for chocolate covered popcorn. When we lived in Washington, the scouts sold this chocolate covered popcorn that was simply awesome. Since then I have been on the lookout for recipes...but either haven't looked hard enough (most likely), or they just aren't out there. I finally found one on allrecipes.com. Naturally, I had to try it. I air-popped the corn, then followed the recipe, putting in cocoa, butter, corn syrup, some other ingredients I don't remember off the top of my head because I'm too lazy to get the recipe that is 10 feet away. And YUCK. Wow. What a complete flop. Kimball, who will eat ANYTHING chocolate, won't even touch these if they were the last thing on earth. (I'm actually guessing on that one because Kimball has already been put to bed and I'm not waking him to taste them and have him tell me how disgusting they are, and then have to eat something else to get the gross taste out of his mouth, rebrush his teeth and THEN go back to bed.) I put them in the oven, (like the recipe said) and well it's like burning chocolate, and then pouring that all over popcorn. Oooh, pinch me. So, onto the NEXT one.
It was either rice krispie treats with chocolate/butterscotch filling, or caramel popcorn. After the chocolate incident, I was NOT going to go with a new one on caramel. Shawn voted for the popcorn, so I fell back onto a trusted old friend...Courtside Caramel Corn from Taste of Home. I have made this quite a few times, sometimes I bake it, and sometimes not. It has consistently turned out addicting and wonderful. For those of fitness fanatics, it gives motivation. The only problem I have found with this particular caramel corn is that you simply cannot stop eating it. There were nights when I would make this as an after school snack for kids, and then eat so much of it, I wouldn't be hungry for dinner. (Those were hot dog nights) You can even shape these into balls too--I personally haven't tried that as I don't like burning the skin off the palms of my hands, or even through plastic bags. Just a preference. Now, pumpkin has been one of my favorite desserts since I can remember...and for all you smarty pants out there, I CAN remember quite far back despite my advancing years.
This is where it gets fun. Kimball LOVES pumpkin anything and so I have been experimenting with various recipes. The one I fall back on every time is Pumpkin Chocolate Loaf from allrecipes.com. When you first read the ingredients, you will have a heart attack, your cholesterol will go up, and your blood pressure will skyrocket. There is more sugar in the original recipe than I put in 3 dozen rolls! Being the health conscious fitness fanatic, I decided to "health" it up. Or down. I decreased the sugar by 1/3--you can do this in most recipes and it won't affect the taste. Any oil in the recipe gets automagically subbed out for applesauce. This tends to work in quick breads, I don't think it works well in yeast breads. And flour, well, the all-purpose stuff is not optimally nutritious, so I grind some wheat, and stick the freshly ground whole wheat in for all the all-purpose flour. Seriously, my kids cannot tell the difference...and then I feel better when I eat half the loaf too. I also put chocolate chips in...and instead of melted chocolate, I add 1/3 cup cocoa to the dry mix. This too cuts calories (how much I don't know). It yields 3 loaves, and every time, I don't get a chance to freeze them before they are gone. Like I said, Kimball will eat anything chocolate; and if you add chocolate chips to things, the others will try them.
This brings me to another recipe that I tried and modified. It's called Peanut Butter Banana Bread from allrecipes.com. Only when I first tried it out, it was getting close to nap time and I didn't want to wait around for the bread to finish cooking. Here comes the change--I put this in muffin cups (with liners) and baked it half the time. Now, I keep mentioning Kimball because he really enjoys helping out--and of course trying new things that look good. Cameron, Trent and Sam all love banana bread, and even like bananas. Kimball HATES bananas. He was one of those babies who would eat the veggys and spit out the fruits. When I tried this recipe, I was sure if Kimball would try one, he would spit it out and tell me how horrible they are and why can't I make something that he likes? Never happened. He didn't even realize there were bananas in them. In fact, when he found out, he was shocked. I substituted apple sauce for the butter, did 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar, used 4 med. bananas, and whole wheat flour. I naturally put in 3/4 cup chocolate chips too...and 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 cup fat-free sour cream (makes it moist). YUM YUM. I'll post the recipes at the bottom if I remember.
I also tried a new pumpkin dessert too. Not sure if I like it yet--its for a party and if I bring the pan with one or two cut out, that just doesn't look good. I'm constantly on alert for new tasty, workable recipes. I love breads (if you didn't know) and have lots of good ones for those too. Even Pumpkin Knot Rolls--you can't even taste the pumpkin in them. (Cameron doesn't car for pumpkin one bit and even he admitted that he liked the rolls.)
Well, if you have any proven recipes you and your family enjoy, please send them my way. And maybe even one day you can be my taste tester!

Recipes:
Pumpkin Chocolate Loaf
3 3/4 cups flour (I use whole wheat, you can use whatever you like)
3 1/2 cups sugar (I only use 1 1/2 cups sugar and tastes fine)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon (I up this to 2 tsp. because I love cinnamon)
1 to 1 1/4 tsp. gr. cloves
1/2 tsp. gr. nutmeg
3 eggs
1 can (29oz) solid pack pumpkin
1 1/4 cups canola oil (that sounds gross to me so it's applesauce all the way!)
3 oz melted chocolate, cooled (again, I just sub in 1/3 cup baking cocoa added to the dry mix)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg (and cocoa if you are using it). In another large bowl, whisk eggs, pumpkin, oil (or applesauce), chocolate (skip this if using cocoa), and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients until just moistened. Fold in chips.
Pour into 3 greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before removing to racks. Wrap and freeze up to 6 months. Makes 3 loaves.

If you want the other recipes, log onto allrecipes.com. Look for: Pumpkin Knot Rolls, Peanut butter banana bread. If you want the Courtside Caramel Corn--go to tasteofhome.com. I don't feel like typing it all out. Try them and let me know how you like them (or hate them--I'm not picky.)