Tasty Treat Tuesday: Picnic Macaroni

Hello all! I would like to apologize for my absence last Tuesday. I'm not going to lie, I honestly forgot to make something for Tasty Treat Tuesday. Oops! I have a special treat for you today! It's my absolute favorite thing to make/eat. I have been gorging on this dish for as long as I can remember. Picnic macaroni, that's what the family calls it.  It's a family favorite that has been past down through my mother's side. I am not sure who invented this recipe but I believe even my great grandmother use to make it!

Picnic Macaroni is a cheesy, gooey, delicious pasta dish with an interesting tomato sauce. My mother says it's an "acquired" taste but anyone whose tried it (except my weirdo boyfriend) loves it! He dislikes it due to it tasting too "tomato-y." The poor guy hates tomatoes. I can understand it since I hate condiments, like mayo and mustard to the same degree, but life without tomatoes would suck! If you are a fan of cheese, tomato, onion, bacon and pasta, then you will like this dish!

Keep reading to see how to make it!

Tasty Treat Tuesdays: Simple Brown Sauce/ Homemade Chinese Food

Hand-y Feats and Other Treats proudly presents: Tasty Treat Tuesdays!

A new segment that will take place every Tuesday!

Hello all and welcome to the very first Tasty Treat Tuesday. Since beginning my blog late last year, I have been randomly posting recipes for your enjoyment. I wanted to be more structured with my posting of treats and I think this way I will be more inclined to post more. 

I can get pretty lazy...especially when it comes to cooking. With that said, most of the recipes I plan to share with all of you will be simple and easy to make, this one included. For the first segment of Tasty Treat Tuesdays, I am going to do a recipe that I have tried out several times now and have altered several times. I hope you enjoy!

The recipe I have to share with you today is for my homemade Chinese food, that uses a simple brown sauce!

Sauce is essential to creating Chinese food and in my opinion, one of the most common sauces used is a brown sauce. Since I love Chinese food, I figured I should learn how to make it at home and so my research into recipes began. Just by typing brown sauce into Google, I found all sorts of recipes on how to make it. But I kept running into a problem. I didn't have all of the ingredients! So with some experimenting and combining, I developed an easy brown sauce recipe.

Simple Brown Sauce

4 and 1/2 cups of water

3 tsp. beef base*

3 TB. low sodium soy sauce**

7 TB. Worcestershire sauce

4 tsp. sugar

3/4 cup water combined with 6 TB of cornstarch (set aside)

1 tsp or more of red pepper flakes (optional)

*I use beef base because I feel it gives more flavor to the broth. Beef bullion cubes can be used if you have those, however I am not sure how many cubes you would need. 

**I suggest using low sodium soy sauce. The beef base and Worcestershire sauce already has enough sodium, you do not need more. 

Additional ingredients you will need:

What ever meat you desire, cooked and cubed

An assortment of vegetables.

 I used:

• 2 large chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
• 1 stalk of celery, finely chopped
• 2 medium carrots, finely chopped
• 1/4 of a very large zucchini, you can probably get a way with using 1 small one
• 2 cups of frozen broccoli 
• some olive oil

Using a large pan, saute the raw vegetables in some olive oil until they appear to be translucent. Set aside. If using frozen, you will add them in later. Begin by bringing the water and beef base to a boil. While waiting, combine water and cornstarch. Set aside. Once the liquid is at a boil, reduce to a simmer. Add soy sauce, Worcestershire and sugar. Mix well into the broth. Add in frozen vegetables. Once the frozen vegetables start to get tender, add in the other cooked vegetables and the chicken. If desired add red pepper flakes, this is to create heat to the sauce. If you want a lot of heat add more pepper flakes. Simmer for about 5-7 minutes. Remix the cornstarch mixture, add into the sauce pan. The cornstarch will thicken up the sauce. Cook for another 3-5 minutes and viola! Homemade Chinese food!

Best served over rice.

This recipe yields... a lot. I live with hungry guys so I am required to make a lot of food at once. This recipe is great for hungry lads and left overs. 

What I love most about this recipe is how versatile it is. I have made this using pork and chicken, with a variety of different vegetables, like brocolli, stir fry veggies, and even bell peppers. I imagine it would taste great with beef and even shrimp and you can add what ever vegetables you want! 

What combination will you try? If you try out this recipe, make sure to give me feedback! I hope it comes out delicious for you!

Until next time,
Erin

Blueberry Cream Cheese Crescent Rolls

Hello all! I have a treat for you today! It’s been a while since I have posted a treat and this one is so simple and so scrumdiddlyumptious, that I just had to share it with you: Blueberry cream cheese crescent rolls!

Now I must admit, this is not my original recipe. I got it from my mother, who got it from a Kraft magazine. We altered the recipe a little, so if you are curious, I was able to find the original recipe here.
 
So let’s get started! All you will need is four ingredients. That’s right, four.

What you will need:

• 2 packages of crescent rolls (I used Pillsbury but store brand is just as good.)
• 1 8oz package of cream cheese (I recommend Philadelphia brand.)
• 4 Tbsp. of sugar
• 1 cup blueberries

Directions
Preheat oven to 375ºF. While the oven is preheating, combine cream cheese and sugar. I would let the cream cheese soften, so it’s easier to combine.

Carefully unroll the crescent roll dough. Make sure to keep two triangles together, so it makes a square of dough. Press the seem of the two triangles together, this is to prevent all your yummy filling from falling out.

Place a spoonful of the cream cheese mixture into each of the squares. I spread my cream cheese mixture out a bit but you don’t have to (my mother never does.)

Add blueberries. I usually just add as many as I like.

 Fold opposite corners into the center, covering the filling. Repeat with the remaining two corners.

Place in the oven and bake for about 11 to 13 minutes or until it’s perfectly brown. It only took me 12 minutes to get a nice golden brown.

This recipe yields 8 pastries.

This recipe is so versatile, you can use any berry. Not to long ago, my mother used blackberries and it came out divine. You could probably use a number of different things for the filling, like apples or peaches. Something I will have to experiment with. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!

Until next time,
Erin

Yoshi Nails and Split Pea Soup!

Hello everyone! I was feeling especially nerdy today, so I came up with a Yoshi design. For those who don't know who or what Yoshi is, he is a dinosaur type character from the Mario games. He's a fun character. He's known for having a long tongue and shooting out eggs. So I wanted to make a design using his eggs and his face. I ended up doing the design a little differently then I have intended too but here was the final result:

Left hand

Right Hand

Here's my inspiration for this manicure. A Yoshi egg and Yoshi himself. He is such a cutie!

This was the first time I went all out on doing freehand. It looks enough like Yoshi, which surprises me haha. And oddly, I am right handed but the right thumb came out best, despite me painted with my left hand. Go figure! 

                 

Left Thumb

Right Thumb

The eggs were simple to do, just paint all of your nails white and use a light green polish and dotting tools to make the three dots for the yoshi egg.

What I used:

• Base coat: Essie ridge filling base coat
• Base color: OPI Alpine Snow (three coats)
• Dots for eggs and yoshi: Sinful colors Happy Ending
• Yoshi's tongue and spikes: Essie Really Red
• Yoshi's eyes: Sinful colors Black on Black
• Background color for thumbs: Sally Hansen Blue me away.

I also have a treat for all of you! The weather has been rather gloomy and cold here in Arizona lately and on days like these, I love to just relax and enjoy a nice warm bowl of soup. Most recently I made a crock-pot full of split pea soup. It was delicious!

What you will need:

• A decent sized crock-pot
• 1 (16 oz) package of dried split peas
• 2 cups of diced ham
• 3-4 medium cut carrots
• 1/2 of a medium sized onion, chopped
• Two stalks of celery, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tsp. parsley flakes
• 1/2 tsp. dried Italian seasoning blend (includes oregano and thyme.)*
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 6 cups of hot water

*If you don't have Italian seasoning blend, use 1/4 tsp. oregano and 1/4 tsp. thyme

Directions:

1. Layer ingredients in crock pot as listed above. 
2. Pour in water. Do not stir. 
3. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours (I cooked mine for 10) 
4. Remove the bay leaf.
5. Enjoy!

If you are curious, the recipe I used (but tweaked) can be found here. What kind of soups do you like to have on a cold, gloomy day? I hope you all enjoyed my post for today! 

Until next time,

☮Erin

Simple Leopard Print and Southwest Chicken and Broccoli pasta dish

Hello! Today is Friday the 13th! Ahh! I am a tad superstitious, so I try not to leave the house on Friday the 13th which means today is the perfect day for a new post! I felt like doing something simple, so I went with a classic leopard print. Out of all of my bundle monster plates, plate BM 221 is one of my favorites, simply because of the leopard print. Leopard print is a pattern I can use over and over again, I just love it. What pattern or design do you love and can use over and over again? Just an FYI, I'm still experimenting with my pictures and still haven't found the right look yet but enjoy.

Close up

Base Coat: Essie ridge filling base coat

Base Color: Essence Irreplaceable 

Stamping Color: Essence Date with the Night

Stamp: BM 221

Top Coat: Seche Vite Fast Drying Top Coat

I also have a treat for you all today. The other day I was struggling with the idea of what to make for dinner when I came across this recipe. I had almost everything to make it so I decided to use this recipe but to add my own twist to it. I had everything except for rotel, so I used 8oz of picante sauce.  I also omitted the dehydrated onions and added corn. Below is an outline of what I used and how I made it.

Before Cheese.

With Cheese!

What you will need:

• 2 cooked skinless chicken breasts, cubed
• 3 to 4 cups frozen broccoli or more 
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 3 cups of cooked tri-color pasta
• 1 can of corn (optional)
• 8oz of Picante sauce or salsa (or a can of rotel like in the original recipe)
• 2 hands cup of cheese (whatever kind you have on hand or your favorite) 
• salt and pepper to taste
• tsp of chili powder
• tsp of taco seasoning
• pinch of cumin

First off make sure to have the chicken cooked and cubed and set to the side, as well as the pasta before beginning. I cooked the chicken first and had the pasta cooking while I was preparing the rest. I started off mixing and heating (on medium high heat), the soup, milk and picante sauce. Once it began to thicken and slightly boil I added the frozen broccoli. I cooked and stirred the broccoli for about 5-7 minutes. Next I added in the corn and cooked that for about 2-3 minutes. Then I added the chicken and pasta. Once well mixed, I added the spices. Finally I topped the mixture with cheese and blended it in. And viola! Easy and delicious dinner. The original recipe was for a casserole and in hindsight I probably should have baked it but alas it still came out to be really tasty. The boyfriend especially liked it! So if you are a fan of southwestern flavor with chicken and broccoli then this is the dish for you. What kind of food do you make in hurry? I hope you enjoyed my post for today. 

Until next time,
☮Erin