Pampered Chef Party Pages

My husband took a ton of pictures at my Pampered Chef Party the other day.  We really had a great time and I'm glad he captured it.  Especially the pictures he got of Chris, I liked them enough to go ahead and make a whole group of pages just of them. Some of them will be used in the weekly My Memories challenge, I'm supposed to use a template (feels like cheating) and I get bonus points for using templates or kits from Albums to Remember.

Tasty little bites

I'm getting ready for my party tomorrow and tried out a couple new recipes for it.  Both come from Pampered Chef's Season's Best for spring/summer 2012.  I changed up one of them to make it *slightly* better for you. 

First up is the Bourbon Pecan Tarlets:

Ingredients:

1 cup pecan halves, divided

1/4 cup bourbon (one of the airplane bottles)

1 package (15 ounce) refrigerated pie crusts (two crusts)

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 light corn syrup

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 egg

Preheat the oven to 375. Set aside 24 pecans, finely chop the rest of them.  Mix them with the bourbon and let it sit. 

Roll out the pie crust and cut 12 three inch circles from each crust.  Press them into a greased mini muffin pan and try to make the edges pretty (I failed on this part).  

Mix the brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and vanilla in a glass bowl.  Microwave for about a minute, stirring every 15 seconds, or until everything is melted together.  Add the chocolate and stir until melted, then add the egg and pecan/bourbon mixture until it's well combined. 

Fill each of the pie cups with about a tablespoon of the mixture and bake for 11-13 minutes.

Press a half pecan into each one.  Let them cool on a cooling rack.

Next up is a Bacon, Jalapeno, Pepper Pizza Bite (in the book they are called Jalapeno Popper Pizzas, but I like my name better).  I changed up the ingredients a little bit (adding more bacon and leaving off the extra cheese).  I also changed up the directions a little bit.

Ingredients:

1 package refrigerated pizza crust (11 ounce)

8 slices of bacon

1 small red pepper, finely diced

2 jalapeno peppers, finely diced (with or without seeds, depending on how hot you like it)

4 ounces softened cream cheese

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 425. 

Leave the pizza crust rolled up and slice into circle (ish) shapes.  Baked for about 10 minutes.

Put the bacon on a towel lined plate and microwave for about three minutes.  Let it cool a couple minutes, then chop into small pieces.  Put in a pan with the diced peppers and jalapenos, saute for three or four minutes. 

Place the cheddar cheese, cream cheese and bacon/pepper mixture in a bowl, mix until well combined.

Using a tablespoon, press a slight depression into the pizza crust rounds and fill them with a tablespoon of the mixture. 

Bake for another three or four minutes.  Move onto them onto a cooling rack.  Let them cool a little bit before eating them



Bacon Stuffed Meatloaf

Tonight's dinner is one of my husband's favorites, bacon stuffed meatloaf. Of course the challenge is making it work for me :-) If possible, use the ground turkey that comes in a styrofoam tray instead of a tube. The tubes of ground turkey seem to be soggier than the other type. If this is all you can find (like at the commissary here in Germany), you may have to add a little more bread crumbs to it.

I also reattempted the zucchini fritters. They weren't too bad, I need to add a little salt to them (I added it to the recipe). I know there's a lot of garlic and onion powder in these, but we like stuff garlicky and oniony. I also add some chili powder to them too, because I know Don (my husband) likes things spicy.

Bacon Stuffed Meatloaf

Ingredients

6 slices center cut bacon, diced
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 pound ground turkey
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 can stewed tomatoes, drained
4 tablespoons bbq sauce
1/2 tsp onion powder
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup cheddar cheese

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Saute the onions and bacon together until onions are soft and starting to carmelize. Set aside to cool.
In a bowl, combine the ground turkey, bread crumbs, tomatoes, bbq sauce, onion powder and garlic. Press half of the mixture into a loaf pan, making a depression the length of the loaf.
Fill the depression with the bacon, onions and half of the cheese. Cover with remaining meat mixture, making sure to seal in the bacon mixture.
Sprinkle the top with the remaining cheese and additional bbq sauce, if desired.
Bake for 50 minutes or until fully cooked.

If you have the Deep Covered Baker (one of my favorite things in the kitchen), then you can make this in the microwave and it's much quicker. Follow the same directions as above, but use the baker instead of a loaf pan. Don't sprinkle on the cheese or additional bbq sauce yet. Cover it and microwave for 14-17 minutes. Remove and add the cheese and extra bbq sauce. Cover and microwave for an additional 3 - 5 minutes. Let it sit for about ten minutes before slicing.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 4
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 426.6

• Total Fat: 16.8 g
• Cholesterol: 106.1 mg
• Sodium: 983.7 mg
• Total Carbs: 35.4 g
• Dietary Fiber: 2.9 g
• Protein: 34.4 g

Zuchinni Fritters

Ingredients

2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 egg
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine all of the ingredients together. It will be very thick and seem to fall apart. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup and scoop out heaping cups of the mixture and drop on a greased cookie sheet. Flatten it out using the bottom of the measuring cup. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes. Turn on the broiler for a few minutes and allow the fritters to become golden brown.

Servings Per Recipe: 6

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 86.6

• Total Fat: 1.4 g
• Cholesterol: 30.8 mg
• Sodium: 406.2 mg
• Total Carbs: 16.5 g
• Dietary Fiber: 2.7 g
• Protein: 3.4 g

Online Shopping

I'm starting to get ready for my first official (meaning with people I don't know) Pampered Chef party.  Luckily I have someone to go with me to answer questions about the products that I haven't had a chance to play with yet.  I love that I can order from them because I love my kitchen stuffage and the PX here in Germany just doesn't have what I'm looking for.  I've noticed that I've done a lot of shopping online since I got here, especially around Christmas time.  The best thing about online shopping (aside from being able to do it in my pjs without the funny looks) is the idea that I can search out the combination of promotion codes that give me the best deal.  They're like coupons I don't have to cut out (not my favorite task, I usually ask my husband to do it for me).  In my search for website that have the best working codes I stumbled upon Shop at Home.  You sign up for the website and search for the store you want to shop at.  It pops up with a list of promo codes and a link to the store.  If you click the link to get the website instead of just typing it into your browser they will give you a little percentage of your purchase back.  It's usually less than 10%, sometimes only 2% (like at Victoria's Secret), but it's better than nothing, right?  After you have $20 in cash backs, they'll ask for your mailing address and send you a check.  Click here to go check it out.

Anyways, back to trying to round up all of my Pampered Chef stuff for the party tomorrow.  I'm pretty excited (and a little nervous) because it's my first one.  Last weekend I did a tested out the recipe with some friends and can I just say YUM!  It's a Rocky Road Brownie made in the microwave.  It's amazing warm and with a little vanilla ice cream on top.  Definitely not part of a low cal diet, but you gotta have a little treat every now and then, right?

A video for the recipe can be found on the Pampered Chef website.

Rocky Road Brownie

1 c walnut halves, toasted
3/4 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c butter (1 1/2 sticks)
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 c sugar
3 eggs
16 large marshmallows
20 milk chocolate kisses, unwrapped
Vanilla ice cream (optional)

1. Coarsely chop walnuts using Chef's Knife. Place walnuts in 1-cup Prep Bowl; set aside. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in Small Batter Boal. Cut butter into pieces and chop unsweetened chocolate; place butter and unsweetened chocolate into Classic Batter Bowl. Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH 1-2 minutes or until mostly melted, stirring every 30 seconds.

2. Add sugar and eggs to chocolate mixture; whisk until smooth using Stainless Whisk. Fold in flour mixture and 1/2 cup of the walnuts until incorporated using Small Mix 'N Scraper. Pour batter into Deep Covered Baker, spreading evenly. Microwave, uncovered on HIGH 5-7 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean and edges are firm. Carefully remove baker from microwave using Silicone Oven Mitts.

3. Meanwhile, wnip marshmallows in half crosswise using Professional Shears. Top brownie with marshmallows, chocolate kisses and remaining 1/2 cup walmuts. Microwave, covered, on HIGH 1-2 minutes or just until marshmallows start to soften. Remove baker from microwave. Let stand, covered, 5 minutes. Spoon onto plates; serve with ice cream, if desired.

Yield: 12 servings

Cook's Tip: To toast walnuts, place walnuts in Large Micro-Cooker; microwave, uncovered, on HIGH 3-5 minutes or until toasted, stirring every 30 seconds.