INSIDE STEPH'S KITCHEN: January 2015

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

These are one of my favorite cookies. Obviously they are great during fall, but these are so good that I don't care what time of year it is, they are just so delicious.

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cup butter, softened (NOT melted)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
15 oz can of pure pumpkin (not pie filling)
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2 TBS cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
4 tsp. baking powder
4 cups flour
1 bag chocolate chips
Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium size bowl combine flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder, mix with a spoon, set aside. Cream butter and mix in sugar. Add eggs, then vanilla and pumpkin. Slowly mix in dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips. Scoop the dough by heaping tablespoon onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 13 minutes. Let cool and frost.

Mmmmmm....

Chicken tater tot casserole

This is an easy, tasty recipe given to me by my sister-in-law. It makes a lot and it's great as leftovers.

Ingredients:
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. salt
32 oz. package of frozen tater tots
16 oz. package of frozen mixed vegetables
1 large chicken breast, cooked and shredded
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine soups, water and salt, mix well. In a greased 9x13 pan, layer a third of the soup mixture, half of the tater tots, half the veggies and half of the chicken. Repeat layers. Top with remaining soup mixture and sprinkle with cheese.

Cover with foil and bake 60-70 minutes. Uncover and bake 5-10 minutes until golden brown.

Perfect bacon

I hate frying bacon. It's messy and sometimes it hurts when it pops. So we cook our bacon one way, in the oven. It's easy to do, easy to clean up, and it tastes so very good.

Line a baking sheet with foil. I use the extra wide foil so that the grease doesn't seep under to the baking sheet, remember easy clean-up right?

Bake for 12-15 minutes at 400 degrees. If your oven doesn't cook evenly, you may want to turn the pan 180 degrees half way through cooking, but be careful not to spill the grease in the oven. Depending on the thickness of the bacon you may want to cook longer. We usually set the timer for 12 minutes and check it every couple minutes after that until it looks done.

Place bacon on a paper towel to dry.

Let the cookie sheet sit until grease solidifies. It usually takes a few hours depending on the temperature in your house. The cooler it is, the faster it will solidify. Then toss the foil. No grease splatters all over your stove and very yummy bacon. It's perfect for BLTs because it doesn't curl in the oven.

Chicken Pot Pie

This is one of our favorite meals. We started a tradition that the Saturday before Thanksgiving we invite close friends over for "Pie Night" which is a chance to enjoy the best part of Thanksgiving before the actual day. We eat pie and well... pie. We invite a small group to dinner before the grand event and we service this very chicken pot pie. Then everyone else comes and we eat lots of different dessert pies. Seriously it's the best.

So here is the recipe that we use. I got it from my cousin Trish, but I tweaked it a tiny bit to suit us.

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast cooked and shredded
2 carrots, sliced
3 ribs of celery, sliced
1 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp celery seed
Thyme
1/3 cup butter
1 3/4 cup chicken broth (1 can)
1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup milk
2- 9 inch unbaked pie crusts

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Melt butter in a large saucepan and saute celery, carrots, onions and green peas until the veggies are soft and the onion is translucent. Add flour to coat vegetables. Add broth and milk a little at a time. Add salt, pepper, celery seed and thyme. Stir and simmer over low heat until thickened.