Easy Fruit Tart

This is Marks FAVORITE dessert. He loves it! I am sure he has probably had a more fancy tart in his life but he seems to appreciate my efforts. I made this for his birthday this year. It is super easy so give it a try!

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Crust Ingredients:
2 Cups Crushed Graham Crackers
1/3 cup sugar
6 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

I used a rolling pin to crush my crackers

Then mix everything together..

Press into a pie pan.

Bake at 350 for 7 minutes. Ta da yummy crust!

Pastry Cream Ingredients:
2 cups half and half
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
5 Large egg yolks
3 Tablespoons corn starch
4 tablespoons cold butter (you can use light!)
2 tsp vanilla extract

First mix your egg yolks with 4 tablespoons of sugar.

Add corn starch and mix until well combined. 

In a medium saucepan mix the half and half and 6 tablespoons of sugar over  medium high heat until simmering. (Make sure you keep stirring to dissolve the sugar)

Once it has reached a simmer turn off the heat and slowly add the egg yolk mixture constantly whisking.

Turn the heat back on and whisk until it is thickened and glossy. This should take like 30 seconds.

Remove from heat again and add the butter and the vanilla. Stir it all up.

Put in a bowl and then put plastic wrap over it directly on top of the pastry cream. If it is touching the cream it will prevent a film from forming.

Cool for at least 4 hours.

Put cream in crust and add whatever fruit you like to make it pretty! :)

This is probably the prettiest dessert I have made. I was proud :)

I got the recipe from a few different recipes and kinda combined them! I would like to try some more variations on the cream over time I think experimenting with flavors besides vanilla would be fun.

Tips from KJ:
You can get fancy and use a real pastry crust. I have tried to make this before and have yet to perfect it…maybe one day I’ll be able to make it like my grandma she makes the best pie crust in the world I think. (the crust is actually delicious and melts in your mouth!)  For now I make graham cracker crust. You can never go wrong with it! but after talking my grandma up so much I think I’m going to call her for some lessons.

A lot of recipes say to take the cream and strain it through a mesh sieve before you cool it. I am unfortunately not a proud owner of a mesh sieve…maybe one day. For now we just skip that step and I am almost 99.9% sure the cream tastes the same! :) Maybe it is just not quite as smooth as it could be. So if you own a sieve…strain away my friend.

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Soft Peanut Butter Cookies-Delux Style!

So the fact that I made these cookies is a big deal. You see, I am married to a man who DESPISES peanut butter. like literal hate I think. The smell, the taste, the appearance…all make him sick. Funny thing is that peanut butter is my absolute FAVORITE thing. (except during pregnancy I cannot eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…something about the peanut butter on bread. Weird. haha) But, anything else peanut butter is fair game and makes me happy. I have always wanted to make peanut butter cookies and due to the large amounts of Christmas spirit in our home my husband agreed to let me! I decided that if I was going to make them I was going to go all out and add reeses peanut butter cups as well :) That is why they are “delux” style.

Here is what you need:

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup softened butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour

18 Reeses mini peanut butter cups (or more depending on how many chunks you want in your cookies)

First cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar.

Next, add the peanut butter.

Then add the eggs one at a time. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and vanilla.

Chop up your reeses peanut butter cups into tiny pieces.
Add to the dough.

Freeze the dough for 30 minutes.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Smash with forks or a potato masher or a spoon with a pattern to make your cookies look pretty. (I just chose a random spoon)

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes and then remove. Let them sit on the baking sheet until they are cool.

Eat with a nice glass of milk!

Tips From Kj:

If you like your peanut butter cookies crunchy than you can just bake them a little bit longer! I like them to be soft…but I guess I will forgive you if you are a crunchy fan :)

I think these would be yummy with reeses pieces too.

I have realized it is good to make cookies when you are pregnant. It gives you the willpower to not eat the dough. Then you have room for more cookies after!

Make your loving husband (who as you remember hates peanut butter) some chicken nuggets after the cookies are done to help him forgive you for the smelly house :)

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Chicken Alfredo with Zucchini and Mushrooms

Happy Christmas break! I guess probably not for everyone but for me it is and I plan to take full advantage! Normally Sunday night is full of stress and worry trying to plan my next week at school, when really I would like it to be filled with baking culinary masterpieces. Lucky me for the next 2 weeks I have nothing to do but what I want and one of those things is to bake and cook my little heart out!

Lucky you if you don’t like washing dishes this uses 1 pan for boiling noodles and then the same pan for cooking everything else! 2 pans…easy peasy to clean up :)

Ingredients:
Mushrooms
Zucchini
Chicken Breast
Milk
Butter
Flour
Garlic Cloves
Noodles
Garlic Mrs. Dash
Seasoning Salt
Cooking Wine or Chicken Broth

First: Start some water boiling and boil your noodles!

Next, you will cook everything in this order:
Vegetables
Chicken
White Sauce

First for the vegetables. You will need to chop up 2 zucchinis and 3 cups worth of mushrooms.
In a large skillet pan melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Then add the zucchini and mushrooms.

Sprinkle with a bunch of Garlic Mrs. Dash and season salt. (don’t skimp!)
Put on medium heat and cover for about 10 minutes (stirring occasionally) until the zucchini is soft.

Remove Vegetables from pan leaving as many of the juices as you can. Chop the chicken into pieces and add to the pan along with a little bit of cooking wine. (or chicken broth but just like 2 tablespoons)

Cook through on Medium high heat and remove from pan. Again leaving juices (don’t clean your pan yet!)

Melt 2 more tablespoons of butter and add 3 tablespoons of flour one at a time whisking to make a paste.

Add 3 cloves of garlic minced or shredded to the paste and stir around for a minute over medium heat.

Then add 2 cups of milk (I used 2% because it is what I drink now that I am preggo!) Bring to a boil and whisk over medium high heat until all the flour chunks are gone.

Add all of the vegetables and chicken back to the sauce (get every single ounce of sauce out of the bowls they were in and dump that in too) Sprinkle some parsley , salt, and a little more garlic Mrs. Dash over the top and stir it all together.

Somewhere during this process take your noodles out and drain them! Then mix some butter in so they don’t stick together. Put your noodles on the plate and add the sauce mixture on top. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top of that and enjoy!

Tips from KJ:
Don’t let your husband make this. If you make it you can sneak bites of mushrooms while you are cooking everything else and he will never know.

Be careful because if you sneak too many mushrooms they will be gone before you can mix them into the white sauce. Then you will be sad when you eat your pasta(Really those mushrooms are so good!)

You can use cream or whatever else you want for the sauce but I like milk especially 2% it is so creamy.

Add any veggies you want to this! Other squash, broccoli, peppers etc.

This would be good too on actual fettuccini noodles…I just like linguini better.

My secret favorite spice to use is Garlic Mrs. Dash. I love it, I use it a lot when I need a quick garlic flavor. It is better than garlic salt or powder I think. My husband laughs at me because of my love for it…it is that strong.

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