Test Kitchen Thursday - Raspberry Butter Braid

In the spring, one of our daughters' schools sold Butter Braid® products as a fundraising event. Because it took time to prepare, I had kept mine in the freezer until I had time to make it. In the end, it wasn't very difficult.

You remove the Butter Braid from the freezer and place it on a lightly greased 9 x 13 pan or  11 x 17 cookie sheet. Loosely cover in plastic wrap and allow to thaw and rise at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours.

Remove the plastic wrap and bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 22 to 27 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool, slice, and drizzle icing (packet included) over braid. I ended up drizzling the icing on before I sliced it.

This was absolutely delicious! Even my girls, who aren't big pastry fans, loved it. I choose the raspberry version, but they come in a variety of yummy flavors. These are only available through fundraisers, so if you're looking for something new and unique you might want to consider Butter Braids. If I knew they were this good, I would have ordered more.

Test Kitchen Thursday: Slow Cooker Beef Stew

As soon as the weather cools down around here, I began thinking about what soups and stews I can make. The girls aren't thrilled with too much. They like Lemon and Egg Soup that my mother-in-law makes and Chicken Noodle, but other than that it is hit or miss.

I had bought two large pieces of beef to grill up over the summer, but my brother-in-law told me I bought the wrong kind of cut for grilling. He suggested I make a stew with them. While the hubby doesn't care for stew very often, he said he loved this recipe. I grew up with beef stew once a week, and I loved it too.

I started out with this recipe for Slow Cooker Beef Stew I found on Allrecipes.com®.

2 pounds of beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes.
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 onion chopped
1 1/2 cups beef broth
3 potatoes, diced
4 carrots, sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped

I added in some fresh oregano, fresh basil, and fresh green beans. All of these were from our garden.

1. Place meat in slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together the flour salt, and pepper; pour over the meat, and stir to coat meat with flour mixture. Stir in the garlic bay leaf, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, onion, beef broth, potatoes, carrots, and celery. Add in oregano, basil, and green beans.

2. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 10 to 12 hours, or on High setting for 4 to 6 hours.

I've made this stew twice. It came out fabulous each time. The second time, I actually forgot to add the potatoes until it was almost done. I just chopped them and cooked them partially in the microwave, and then added them in for the last hour. It still tasted great.

Test Kitchen Thursday - Thai-Style Chicken

While we were in North Carolina, we ate at a couple of new restaurants. One of them was Thai Room Restaurant on Beach Road. I had the most delicious General Tao Chicken I've ever eaten. Definitely worth a visit if you're on the Outer Banks.

Since then, I've wanted to try making Thai food at home. Luckily I had thawed some chicken, so one night when I found myself with way too much to do and not a lot of time to spend in the kitchen, I made this Thai Chicken dish from my CROCK- POT® Best –Loved Slow Cooker Recipes cookbook.

• 2 1/2 pounds chicken pieces
• 1 cup hot salsa
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• Hot cooked rice
• 1/2 cup peanuts, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

I used around 2 pounds of split chicken breasts instead of chicken pieces. In addition, I used crunchy peanut butter instead of sprinkling 1/2 cup of chopped peanuts on the chicken at the end. I'm not sure my girls would have eaten the dish with the chopped nuts.

1. Place chicken in CROCK- POT slow cooker. Combine salsa, peanut butter, lime juice, soy sauce and ginger; pour over chicken.
2. Cover; cook on LOW 8 to 9 hours or on HIGH 3 to 4 hours, or until chicken is no longer pink in the center.
3. Serve chicken and sauce over rice; sprinkle with peanuts and cilantro.

This chicken was very juicy. It cooked in a little over 3 hours on HIGH, and the family loved it. The hot salsa blends nicely with the lime juice, soy sauce, and peanut butter to create a delicious sauce. We had corn as a vegetable before the main dish.

If you make this dish, I hope you'll let me know how it turns out.


Note: That's the Lil Diva (10) and Lil Princess (8) in my banner. As you can see, they have always loved cooking and eating.  :)