Saffron Rissoto

I have fallen in LOVE with Rissoto. My gourmet buddy Liz introduced me to the fine art of Rissoto a year ago and I learned it's actually fun to make and not as intimidating as it should be. It needs love. So while you're fixing your salad or preparing your side dish, just go back and stir the risotto often. If you love it, it will love you.

This recipe I just found from an email from Self.com, in my quest to get more healthy. We enjoyed it tonight and it was delicious! I'm convinced that pretty much anything cooked with wine is a fabulous. I added some marscapone cheese as well. Mmmm.

Ingredients

• 28 oz chicken stock
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1 cup white wine
• Large pinch of saffron
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus shavings for garnish (optional)

Preparation

Bring stock to a low simmer in a medium pot. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat for 1 minute. Cook onion until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add rice and a pinch of salt. Sauté until rice is translucent, 1 to 2 minutes. Add wine and saffron; bring to a simmer, stirring, until rice has absorbed most of wine. Add 2 ladles of stock to rice; simmer, stirring, until rice has absorbed most of stock. Continue adding stock, allowing rice to absorb it before adding the next ladleful. Cook until rice is al dente and mixture is a little loose. Stir in butter. Turn off heat. Stir in grated cheese. Cover and let sit 2 minutes. Divide among 4 bowls. Garnish each with cheese shavings, if desired.

Corn Bread

Mmmm MMMM. Nothin' says lovin' like a great slice of hot fresh corn bread. I like my cornbread to be more of a dessert and this recipe does the trick. Yeah ... bisquick. I don't really use bisquick for anything else except this recipe. Today I'm going to try using buttermilk instead of milk. Thanks to April for giving me this recipe back when I was first learning that cooking involved more than just going Costco.

CORN BREAD

2 Cups Bisquik
4-6 Tbs cornmeal
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup melted butter
put into a 9x9 greased pan and bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes.

Peanut Butter Kisses Cookies

This is a classic yummy cookie. I got it straight from Hershey Kisses themselves. Thank you!

Hershey Kisses (of course)
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 - 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
granulated sugar

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove foil from Kisses (do I really need to say that?)
Beat butter and peanut butter until well blended. Add sugars and beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla and beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt and add to peanut butter mixture.

Roll dough into small 1 inch balls (These are the one cookie that I actually seek out the smallest cookie to maximize cookie to kiss ratio). Place on UNGREASED cookie sheet.

Bake 8 minutes. You don't want to see them brown at all b/c then they are already too crunchy. SOFT is the key on these. Immediately press a kiss into the cookie and sorry to say you should wait a couple minutes before you dive in and try one.

Easy Chili

Very VERY easy chili and tasty. I got this from my friend Becca years ago when I was eager to find a new quick and easy crock pot recipe. It's been looooved many times since. And I change a little bit every time too.

The Base that never changes ...

1 packet of ranch dressing mix
1 packet of taco seasoning mix

I use a variety of canned this or that...

1 can of kidney beans
1 can of black beans
2 cans of chopped tomatoes
1 ca if corn

I saute lots of these

onions chopped fine
garlic chopped fine (never enough garlic)

Think I'll enter the Ward Chili Cook-off in two weeks with this one.

Crepes

Mmmmm ... Just the sound of the word brings me back to Paris almost 10 years when I was footloose and fancy free. I'd just look at the little crepe stands and stare in amazement at the beautiful art of swirling the thick batter around. The crepe makers thought I was staring at them and get a free crepe for being their eye candy for a moment. Fiiiiine by me. Free crepe doused in Nutella from an unknown French man? Ooooh, the intrigue. This was also the same trip that another French man told me he wanted to "paint me like the Titanic" (as in... in the buff) ... but that is a story for another night.

So Crepes ... From my dear French friend Lyna. The secret here is let the batter sit for at least an hour if not overnight. The longer it sits the thicker the batter.

Crepes

1 cup flour

3 eggs

2 Tbs sugar

1 ½ cup milk

Mix the first 3 and ½ cup of milk. Stir until blended and then add the remaining milk. Let batter sit aside for 10 minutes to an hour. The longer it sits the stronger the crepe will be. Turn on stove top to medium heat. Lightly grease a small 6-8 inch fry pan. Pour a thin layer of batter into pan and rotate pan around until batter evenly covers the bottom. When lightly browned flip and cook another minute.

My favorite toppings ... Nutella, of course. Strawberries n' whip cream. Butter and lots of it. And Lyna's Special Sauce which includes equal parts butter & sugar and a hint of almond extract.

Conference Drink

This is Charlie's favorite drink from his childhood. Grandma Kuch made this every General Conference (twice a year for those who read this and aren't LDS). He often spices it up with worchestershire sauce or tabasco. And of course it served with a big long celery stick.

Grandma Kuch's Spicy Tomato Drink
aka Conference Drink

1 cup celery chopped fine
1 can tiny shrimp
1 Tbs horseradish
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 cup ketchup
1 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 big can of tomato juice (Marilyn loved the Glorietta brand)

mix together and refrigerate.