Nurturing my inner... small cookie, long name

Here's a quick Christmas "cookie" I whipped up this year for a last minute gathering at my house.  Ending 2011 on a sweet, and salty, note!

Caramel White Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzels

50ish mini pretzel knots
1 cup of Kraft caramel bits
1 8 oz bar of quality white chocolate
3 tbsps PB2 powdered peanut butter  (I know, weird, right?)

I really need a shorter name for these.  Before you get all caught up on the powdered peanut butter stuff you're suddenly super curious about, let's just start at the beginning.  This is a super simple way to make an easy treat that just looks hard.  It also happens to be all of my mother's favorite snack flavors in one location.  So I tailored these just for her.  (I know.  I proudly accept my daughter of the year award.)

There is a reason to buy the traditional pretzel knot.  I knew I needed some compartments.  Chambers to hold the next item.

Okay, so I happened to buy a really
huge bag, but they are a good
snack choice plain.

Not sure if they have these everywhere, but my mom had picked me up a bag.  Pea-sized caramel bits.  They are actually soft, if you tried to squish them between your finger and thumb.  (I did.  Just so I could tell you that.)

Good for tossing on top of brownies before
you cook them as well.

I suppose I could have bought the squares and diced them up, but this is what I had which inspired the idea anyway.

No chopping.

I put down a Silpat silicone mat on my baking sheet because I was afraid of the caramel sticking.  Into a 350 degree oven for about five minutes or until the caramels melt into the holes.

One bit per chamber. They fit perfectly.

As for the next part, buy high quality chocolate.  Do not attempt to use chocolate chips because they have a stabilizer added that changes how they melt and withstand heat.  (Hey, that's news, huh.)

It was on sale.

Use a sharp knife and shave up the chocolate for easy melting.

Smaller pieces melt faster.

Place a glass bowl on top of a pot of boiling water, but not touching the water.  The steam will heat the bowl and melt the chocolate.  Do not add any cream or you'll create a ganache that won't reharden.

Stir until all is soft.

Remove the pretzels from the oven.  Let cool for a few minutes so the caramel sets.

That was just long enough for the caramel to
adhere to the pretzel.

Okay, you've been so patient.  Now for the odd stuff.  Powdered peanut butter.  Yep, that's right.  It's peanut butter without the oil.  Which means it's 85% less fat.  Less fat = less you!  (Not that I don't like all of you, but if there was 5% less of you, I wouldn't miss it.  Unless it was the really awesome 5% of you.  Fat is not awesome.  So, I think we'll be fine.)

Comes in regular peanut and also chocolate
peanut. Makes for a fun gift too.

You can mix it into tons of things like smoothies, pancakes and even cereal. Or sprinkle on ice cream, yogurt, apple sauce or bananas. It tastes amazing and heck, you've saved yourself a lot of unnecessary fat grams without losing the nutty flavor.

Yep, looks just like cocoa or powdered sugar.

Once the pretzels with caramel have cooled a bit, take the melted chocolate and spread some on top with a small, flexible spatula.  Neatness does not count.  (At least not in my case.)  I suppose you could drizzle the chocolate as well.  You could also use more than one type of chocolate for even more contrasting flavors.  Then take a small sifter and with a spoon, quickly dust the peanut butter powder on top of the soft, warm chocolate.  So it has the best chance of adhering.

Assembly line. But don't do all the chocolate
at once or it will harden before you can get
the powder to stick.

I took the entire sheet and put it in the fridge to cool faster.  When the chocolate was set and I wasn't worried about them sticking to one another, they were ready to serve or stack in a container.

A lot going on in one little snack!
(I did try to choose the prettiest ones for you.)

My mom LOVED them.  Well, of course she did.  It was all her favorite sweet treats in one bite.  That is like toffee, pistachios and dark chocolate to me.  (Trader Joe's has that candy, BTW.  No need for me to brush up on toffee making skills quite yet.)

It's nice to get a custom made, everything you like, edible Christmas gift, no?  I have a feeling mom will be asking for these again next year.

Nurturing my inner... shake and quake

Such a busy, busy time of year.  Good busy.  But short for free time nonetheless.  Amidst all the cookie exchanges and holiday parties, who says you want to give up cooking dinner for yourself though.  (To be fair, maybe you. Yet, not me.)  So I found a great little helping hand from Wegmans.

Chicken Stuffed Peppers

2 large sweet peppers
1 premarinated chicken breast
1/2 a container of small button mushrooms, quartered
2 tbsps chopped onion (I have some in my freezer)
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 cup of cooked black rice
1 cup of pepper jack cheese, shredded
1 tbsp butter

Let's do this assembly line style and get everything prepped and ready so we just have to build them later.  First thing, slice and unseed (deseed? exseed? Just take the seeds out.) of the peppers.  Throw in some boiling water for about 20 minutes to par cook.

Yellow was what they had. But you can get
them in green, orange and red too.

Here's where it gets easy and this is one of my favorite new items from good, old reliable, Wegmans.  Individually, vacuum-packed marinated chicken breasts.  So handy.  I just throw them in the freezer as is and take one out as needed.  Today I used the mojo-flavored one.

I just slice down the middle of the package to
make individual portions.

Into a baking dish then a 400 degree oven for about 30 min. 

Stoneware is handy.

While you're baking up the chicken, you'll have plenty of time for your other tasks.  Like sauteing up some mushrooms and garlic with a bit of butter.

On medium until they become soft.

I also make lots of rice ahead of time and then freeze it in smaller containers, so I can pop it in the microwave and have it ready in minutes.  (Because it takes like 40 minutes to cook the first time!)  I love black rice, so I chose that for this dish.

Black is the new white this season. When
it comes to rice, that is.

Pop out the grater, 'cause you're gonna need some cheese.  Somethin' with a little kick!

Pepper jack in peppers. Irony? Perhaps.

Use the large shred side.  I'm not even sure if I've ever used the smaller side.  Well, maybe once for fresh Parmesan.

Piles of cheese are just the bestest.

And we're going to need some finishing flavors for when we plate it up shortly.

Topping

1/2 cup sour cream
2 tsps adobo sauce and chipotle
1/2 avocado, sliced

I really do love the chipotle pepper. I need a
tshirt that says that.

Into the blender go the sauce and the sour cream.  Give it a whirl.  Tip: Add less sauce to begin with, blend, taste and add more slowly to suit your own level of heat tolerance.  If you go all out at first, you may hurt yourself.  (I cannot be responsible for that.)

Hot and cold together. Balance.

Before I go any further, I must tell a quick tale.  I actually made this a few months back on August 23rd and just haven't posted until now.  It was during the time we had a freak earthquake here in DC.  About a 5.8.  Enough to shake our houses for about 90 seconds, but nothing broke at my place.  Well, nothing - until this freak occurrence...

How in the...

Back to the quake.  It was such an odd sensation.  I thought my above neighbors were having new furniture delivered, as is common to hear rumblings of that sort in condos because we're all attached.  But when I looked outside, there was only one other car.  Not theirs.  And the duration was much longer than any couch delivery should be, even when movers are slogging a sectional up four flights of stairs and into a living room.

Oh yes, at 1:51 pm that day, things in my place definitely shook, including me when I stood up, but nothing fell, nor broke.  Then later that day I go and make dinner and I hear a loud *bang*.  I realized it came form my oven.  I flung open the door and saw it.  A clean split of my baking dish!  Lucky for me, it was at the end of the cook time.  I pulled it out, removed the chicken immediately and looked at it totally in shock.  All I can think of, because these dishes can safely go up to much higher than 400 degrees, was that there must have been a weird flaw in the materials.  And when the heat agitated it, boom, the crack.  Somewhat like an earthquake.  On a very small scale.

Never to be deterred by a little natural disaster, inside or outside of my oven, I forged ahead.  I took the parboiled peppers and laid them in a different, and hopefully heartier, baking dish.  I had sliced up the chicken, that I rescued earlier, and placed a few pieces in the bottom of each pepper.

Pepper boats.

On top of that, a spoonful of the mushroom, onion and garlic mixture.

Gotta have a veggie. Mushrooms are packed
with such great flavor once cooked.

Next up, the rice.  Heat in microwave if frozen or use fresh while hot.  Hefty spoonfuls of that next.

Something about layers really makes a dish
turn into an adventure.

Seriously, you had to know I was going to top this with cheese.  Who wouldn't?!

I tried not to go overboard with the cheese. 
I was exercising a seldom used trait I
 do possess - self control.

Bake in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes covered with foil.  All the ingredients are already cooked and warm, so it won't take long.

Just until cheese is melted.

When hot, it's ready to plate.  That simple.

Gooey. That's a good word. But not unhealthy.

You could eat it just as is.  But it's more fun to dress it up a bit with a little sliced avocado and the chipotle sour cream we made earlier.  Makes you feel like you could have your own feature in Food Network Magazine.

Please.  Enough awesome flavors to punch you
in the face and knock you out!

I really have to thank the good practice of being prepared for this one.  Having precooked rice in my freezer (a fantastic time saver) and then Wegmans premarinated chicken breast made this SO super easy.  Baring the seismic activity of the day and the broken dish, things went rather smoothly.  Some people's earthquake kits include batteries and water.  I guess mine had chicken and rice.