Discovery that I'm pretty sure anyone could have told me

Last week, Hotty was out of town all week. Because I'm lactose intolerant and he's not, he made sure all the milk was gone before he left, like a good husband. Unfortunately, that meant that when I went to make Hamburger Helper on Tuesday, there was no milk to be found. I've already discovered the hard way that Soymilk is NOT an acceptable substitute, but I remembered reading (or hearing?) somewhere that evaporated milk would work. Lo and behold, it tasted exactly the same! Hooray!

Aebleskiver Update

Today I mixed the jam with cream cheese for the filling. A-MAY-zing. XD

Aebleskivers

Hotty and I got an aebleskiver pan for our wedding, and I've never really thought to use it. But a few weeks ago we picked up some pancake mix at the store, and today I thought, dang. I should give it a whirl.
Turns out it's pretty darn easy. On a scale from "trained monkeys (without the training) could make it" to "people who have gone to school for ten years to learn to make it still ruin it every time" it lands at a very solid "it's insanely simple, if you're not lazy." I looked online for a couple of recipes, and none of them really called for pancake mix. This made me sad, for I had been told it was possible. So I persevered and found a way to make it delicious. :D
For your pleasure:

Before you do anything, put the aebleskiver pan on the stove and turn the burner onto medium heat. This way you don't have to concern yourself with waiting for the pan to heat up later. Make up the pancake mix according to the directions, except leave out the egg(s). The mix I used called for one cup mix, half a cup milk, one tablespoon oil (if you're imagining me reading this aloud, you might want to pronounce "oil" southern-style; it sounds kind of like "ol'" as in "good ol' boys") and one egg. Instead of putting the egg(s) in, take one or two more than you need and beat the whites with a hand mixer until it looks delicious and fluffy like marshmallows and it holds its shape when you take out the beaters (you know, until peaks form). I used two egg whites. *tip: It helps if you have an egg separator, or if you just happen to find separating whites from yolks easy. Like I do.* Then you fold the whites into the pancake batter, to make it nice and fluffy. Now is the fun part. Spray each cup with cooking spray, then put a little batter in the cup. Spoon a little jam or jelly (or whatever; there are lots of possibilities) onto the batter, then put a little more on top. If you go one cup at a time, by the time you're done with the last cup, the first aebleskiver should be ready to flip. You flip them using something long and skinny, preferably pointy. I used a metal chopstick, and others have used metal kebab skewers or toothpicks. You cook it a minute to a minute and a half on each side. Then you take them out and enjoy.

I found it was easier when: 1) the jam didn't touch the pan 2) I didn't put in too much batter; too much made it overflow and look silly when I tried to flip it.

The jam I used is a kind Hotty and I were given for Christmas; we went over to our friends' house on New Years and forgot to take it home. We finally got it back when we went back over the other day, so today I decided to use it. It's called Anne Made: Golden Trio, and it's AMAZING.

The only drawback I see to these delicious pastry-like breakfast confections is that they're a little time-consuming to make and take practically no time to eat. Only a drawback if you're trying to feed a lot of people with them, I suppose.

Easy Chicken Bake

From 101 Things To Do With A Slow Cooker

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) cream of mushroom soup, condensed
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup parsley, fresh chopped, optional

Place chicken in greased 4 to 6-quart slow cooker. Mix together soup, milk, and seasonings. Pour mixture over chicken. Cover and cook on high heat 4 hours or on low heat 8-10 hours. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley, if desired. Makes 6 servings.

I didn't have chicken breasts; I have chicken tenders. Using a very scientific substitution method (1 chicken breast is about 3 tenders, right?) I simply used what I have. My nifty book says that if you're using frozen meat to add some time to the cook time; I think they over-estimated, though. I probably should have just thawed the chicken before putting it in the croc pot. Cooking it for too long made the sauce a little lumpy, but it was ok once I stirred it.
I also didn't have garlic salt and used regular salt instead. It still tasted delicious.
I served it over white rice, and it was good. Hotty said so.

Creamsicle Shake

This evening I needed some motivation to do homework. And I said, Hey. There's still some ice cream in the freezer.
Don't look at me like that... I needed a reward for doing the dishes. And I didn't use too much ice cream... there wasn't that much left. ^_^

2 scoops ice cream
a little mandarin orange juice

combine; stir until delicious.

Hotty and I went to the Asian food market the other day and picked up some mandarin orange juice, among other things. I'd never had it, and upon trying it I discovered it to be like regular orange juice, except that it tastes good. :)

Tagalongs

I used a recipe I found in a blog; to avoid getting anyone mad at me (hopefully) I'll just post the link, as opposed to the recipe.

http://bakingbites.com/2008/01/homemade-girl-scout-cookies-tagalongs/

It went... ok. I was hindered by the fact that I didn't have any wax paper, as well as the fact that there's apparently an art to "dipping" that I just haven't mastered. In the end, I just spread the chocolate on top, like frosting. It seemed to work, although I ended up not having enough chocolate. There were a few naked ones.

Were I to try again, I think I'd melt the chocolate in the microwave (I used a double boiler; didn't really do it for me) and be sure to buy wax paper before I start. It probably makes a difference in how easy it feels, if nothing else.

Happy note: I got to use my KitchenAide while making these cookies. That always makes me happy, especially as this one appears not to be broken.

Cola Roast

Taken from 101 Things To Do With A Slow Cooker, by Stephanie Ashcraft and Janet Eyring.

3-pound beef roast
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
2 cans (12 ounces each) cola (Diet soda cannot be substituted)

Place roast in greased 4 to 5-quart slow cooker. Sprinkle with soup mix. Pour soda over all. Cover and cook on low heat 7-8 hours. Makes 4-6 servings.

It worked out pretty well. The recipe is easy enough. I felt like my meat was a trifle dry, but that might be because we left the slow cooker on for too long (closer to 8 hours than 7) or because I didn't put any of the juice on it.
The coke gave it an interesting sweet flavor. I rather liked it.