Hot Cocoa Crispy Treats

I've been holding this recipe waiting for a photo far too long so I'll go ahead and release it (adding the photo later). I'm a sucker for desserts of almost any kind. I got the inspiration for these wintry treats from a parenting blog. Who doesn't love hot chocolate in the winter? Now you can enjoy hot chocolate as part of your rice crispy treats. This recipe is for a family-sized batch (8 or 9 good-sized portions) so you don't eat yourself sick like I would if I had a full batch.

Hot Cocoa Crispy Treats
3 cups puffed rice (cheap local one makes these affordable)
1/4 cup butter
14-18 marshmallows (Haribo Pink and White)
3 Tablespoons hot chocolate powder (aka drinking chocolate)

Place the puffed rice on a baking sheet and toast at 120 for 5-10 minutes. I just do this while I'm prepping the rest and take them out when the other stuff is ready. If you have a microwave, melt the butter and swirl around the bowl. Add in the marshmallows and chocolate powder. Heat in 1 minute bursts, stirring in between, until the marshmallows are melted into a chocolatey syrup. If doing this on the stove top, follow the same sequence and stir until everything is melted together. Remove from heat. Stir in the puffed rice until completely coated in the chocolate mixture. Press into a greased dish. It helps to oil the spatula to keep it from sticking as you press. Cool for about 30 minutes, cut, and enjoy the deliciousness!

Note: It really is a good idea to toast the puffed rice. Using the local ones is a huge price difference, but straight from the bag, they taste a bit stale. To me the price difference makes these less of a luxury and something we can enjoy more often. Toasting them makes them taste almost like the real thing in this form. If you use a Miracle Oven, just pour them in to toast for 5-10 minutes over low heat.

Another Meal Plan

I hope you all (at least those of you who celebrate it) had a great Thanksgiving. We did. I ate way too much, and it was glorious. Yes, I am even guilty of packing a couple rubber bands in my pocket to allow for the fact that I might pop a button on my pants after all that eating! We leave for a short trip to the U.S. in a week, but here's what's on our menu for the coming week. Some will be first time experiments, but mainly I've aimed at relatively simple meals that will consume the ingredients we don't want sitting around for a month.

Wednesday
Lunch: Poori Masala from Padhus Kitchen
Dinner: Toad in the Hole (what?!?), Sauteed Greens, and Fruit Cocktail

Thursday
Lunch: Veg Fried Rice
Dinner: Fried Chicken, Potato Salad, and Steamed Broccoli

Friday
Lunch: Egg Curry with Roti from ABCD's of Cooking
Dinner: Vegetarian Chili

Saturday
Lunch: Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Veggie Platter and Dip
Dinner: Miso Soup, Jasmine Rice, & Korean Pancakes

Sunday
Dinner: Loaded Baked Potatoes

Monday
Lunch: Rice with Lentils and Vegetables (Sounds so appetizing, doesn't it? Ha!)
Dinner: Tacos

Kitchen Staple: Cornmeal

Since I've called for this in a previous post, I thought I'd share how I make it. Here you can get something called corn flour (not to be confused with the "corn flour" name on the corn starch box in the baking aisle). It's flour made with corn and is usually sold near the rice and other grains. In my opinion, it's a little too fine to be cornmeal. There's also something called corn grits here, which is a little too rough to be called cornmeal. So...the happy medium is a balance of the two.

Photo Credit: Louisiana Pride Grist Mill

Cornmeal
2-4 cups finely ground corn
2-4 cups corn grits

Place the corn grits in the dry cup that comes with most blenders (or a coffee grinder also works). Grind until it's a medium to coarse consistency. Mix the ground grits with the finely ground corn to get a good cornmeal consistency.

Alternatively, take dried corn to one of the shops that grinds spices and flours and explain what you want. I had a friend do this and get perfect results a couple years ago. I also read that popcorn seeds make cornmeal with a really nice flavor. Try grinding these in the grinding cup to make cornmeal.

Simple Celery Dressing

When I first moved overseas, I thought someone needed to send me a box of Stove Top in order to enjoy stuffing. After some trial and error in India as far as bread types, I figured out it's not so hard to do after all. This recipe makes about 10 servings.

Stuffing before baking

Simple Celery Stuffing
1 loaf day-old bread (we use half white half brown for texture)
3/4 cup butter
1 onion, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped (8 small ones)
2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
Salt and pepper
1 cup broth (1 cup hot water + half an Asian bouillon cube)
1 egg, beaten (optional)
1 cup mushrooms, sliced (optional)

Lay the bread slices out overnight to dry. Cut into cubes. Preheat oven to 170C/350F. Melt butter over medium heat and saute the vegetables in it. If using mushrooms, cook until mushrooms have given up a lot of their liquid. Add the poultry seasoning and salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Toss the bread cubes in the butter mixture to coat evenly. Moisten with vegetable or chicken broth. If you like tightly bound dressing, add a beaten egg to the broth before pouring over the bread. This will hold it all together. Pour mixture into a greased casserole and press down lightly to pack the dressing together. Bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes or until top becomes golden. Alternatively, you can microwave it on high for 6-7 minutes, depending on your microwave.

If you don't have poultry seasoning, this is what I use to make mine:

2 1/4 tsp dried sage, crumbled
3/4 tsp dried thyme, crumbled
3/4 tsp pepper

Works as a rub for the buttered/oil skin of chicken, too. If you can't get sage, try using rosemary instead.

Corn Casserole

Okay. I've never been a huge fan of corn casseroles, but I know some people really like them. Last Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law Pam made one that's really simple and delicious. To be technical, where I come from this is called cawn puddin'. The original recipe calls for a box of Jiffy cornbread mix, which we obviously don't have here. You could probably be lazy and just dump everything into one container without any problems. To be safe, I still mix the Jiffy bread separately in case there's some binding that naturally happens in the box that might be missed.

Corn Casserole
1 can cream style corn
1 can plain corn (or about 2 cups frozen), drained
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

Cornbread mix:
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons oil

Preheat oven to 170C/350F. In a bowl mix the 2 cans of corn, butter, and sour cream. In a separate bowl combine the cornbread ingredients and stir to thoroughly mix them. Mix the dry bowl into the corn mixture. Pour into a greased casserole dish. At this point, some people top with cheese so you can do that if you like. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the top is golden and it does not jiggle much when shaken.

Note: If you're not so happy about adding another 1/2 cup of butter to your holiday diet, you could reduce the amount to 2 Tablespoons butter and add 2 eggs to the batter. Use the 2 Tablespoons of butter to dot the top of the casserole before baking.

Thanksgiving Link Love

Ahhh, just a few more days before Thanksgiving, one of my favorite American holidays. The nice thing is if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, most of the recipes are still perfect for Christmas. I think one of the times overseas workers have the most struggles dealing with being away from home is the winter holiday season. The food isn't quite the same. Often the temperature isn't quite the same. Smells are different. And you're away from your family. Depressed yet?

We've figured out that making our home a really inviting holiday place is key in making this home away from home feel more like our real home. That means making lots of fall decorations and eating warming seasonal foods. At Thanksgiving, our house should smell like the real thing. To make Thanksgiving happen with little ovens and iffy power, you definitely need to do prep ahead of time...like days ahead of time if possible. This week I'll be posting some of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes that work where we live. Today's recipes are some of my go-to links during this season.

Main Dishes
"Turkey"
So, unless you're going in as part of a large group, it's not all that economical to get a turkey here. It works out to be upwards of $4.50 depending on the size of the bird. Sooo... in our house it's usually roasted chicken, but you can dress it up to taste like a turkey and not have any of the dryness of a turkey. Honestly, if you've got a lot to go in the oven, it seems worth it to just order out cooked chickens due to limited space.

If you're cooking it yourself, here's my favorite roast chicken-- Ina Garten's Perfect Roast Chicken. Just leave out the fennel since I've never seen that in bulb form here. In lieu of fresh thyme, I rub the outside and season the inside with both dried rosemary and thyme.

Vegetable Sides
Michael Chiarello's Green Bean Casserole
Years ago, I gave up on ever having Cream of Mushroom soup at the right time to make Green Bean Casserole. Then, I saw an episode of Easy Entertaining when Chiarello did remakes of old potluck classics. This spin on the casserole is totally doable in our context. I don't use the arborio rice on the onion rings though, just onions dredged in flour and salt and fried. I just use chicken stock as a sub for most of the liquid.

Other green bean side variations: Bacon Braised Green Beans, Sauteed Green Beans and Mushrooms, Best Ever Green Bean Casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole
Okay, so I've tried various versions of sweet potatoes here, none of which come out quite right because the potatoes are white and not very close to the real thing. So...really I just do a fake version consisting of a mixture of pureed pumpkin and carrots or just carrots. I like Ellie Krieger's version (with my subs including also subbing walnuts for pecans) because it's lighter than the traditional gooey sweet version, but still very flavorful. Use roughly 3-4 cups of the puree.

Other takes on sweet potatoes you can make "faux": Carrot Souffle (it's delicious!) and Old School Sweet Potato Souffle

Desserts
Claire Robinson's Ginger Pumpkin Tart
This is about the easiest pumpkin pie recipe ever--and crazy delicious! If you don't like ginger, just make a regular pie crust or shortbread crust to press into the tart pan. For this recipe's local adaptations, I use a sleeve of the Gingernut biscuits crushed, 1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree, and add some pumpkin pie spices like grated nutmeg, cinnamon, and a pinch of cloves. Follow her directions, but bake at 170 C.

If you don't know Claire Robinson from Food Network, you should check out her recipes. She uses only 5 ingredients or fewer (minus things like S&P) for the recipes. While some have ingredients we don't have, most are ridiculously simple, inspiring, and delicious.

Other takes on pumpkin pie to check out: Faux Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie Bars

Feeling like it's fall yet? I hope these recent pumpkin-y posts have inspired you. If you hate pumpkin, I promise I'll be done soon! These pumpkin pie bars are designed to give you the goodness of a pumpkin pie without the fuss of a pastry crust. I'm honestly not sure it makes the process any easier, but the end result is delicious. I'll leave the choice to you because I, personally, would prefer these with the pastry crust. I am one who has never really made a great pie crust until I got a food processor so now that I can do it well I don't dislike the process so much. If you do pastry well, go for it. If not, opt for one of the easier crust variations. Also, the pan sizes are relative. Just use whatever you have on hand that it will all fit into or break it into small batches.

Pumpkin Pie Bars

Crust 1: Single Pie Crust
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup cold butter
4 to 5 Tablespoons cold milk/water

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture looks like a coarse cornmeal. Add the water, starting with the 4 Tablespoons and adding more until you get the right consistency. It should look like a shaggy dough and with minimal kneading turn into something relatively smooth. To make rolling easier, wrap in plastic and chill for 15 minutes. Roll the pastry dough to a 9x13 or tart pan size and press into the pan.

Crust 2: Oatmeal Shortbread
1 cup flour
1/2 cup oats/porridge, uncooked
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter

Combine the flour, oats, and brown sugar. Cut in butter until it resembles coarse bread crumbs. Press into the bottom of a 9x13 or tart pan. Use a flat-bottomed drinking glass to press.

Crust 3: Gingersnap Crust
1 1/4 cup gingersnap crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
6 Tablespoons melted butter

Mix altogether in a bowl. Press into a 9x13 or tart pan.

Preheat the oven to 170C. When preheated, place whatever crust you have chosen into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes or until just starting to turn golden.

Pie Filling:
1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree
1 can evaporated milk
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (omit if using gingersnap crust)
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine the filling ingredients and pour over the cooked crust. It will sizzle, but it still turns out fine. Bake the filling at the same temperature for 45 minutes.

Crumble:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1 Tablespoon melted butter

Mix ingredients for the crumble and place on top of the bars. Cook for another 15 to 20 minutes. Cool the finished bars at least 20 minutes, cut into squares, and serve.