Recipes Archives - Upstate Ramblings

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A bowl of fruit salad with strawberries and mint.

Tropical Fruit Salad

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #EasyAsPotPie #CollectiveBias

Now that it is January cold weather is really settling in around here! It is the perfect time to warm up with comfort foods like Marie Callender’s pot pies, which deliver a true sense of homemade.

And to counteract the weather I like to pair my pot pies with a Tropical Fruit Salad – an excellent reminder that warmer weather will come, eventually! It is easy to put together a fresh fruit salad while the pot pies are baking, and the fruit provides a nice sweet accompaniment to the toasty warm pot pies.

Asian Inspired New Year’s Eve Party

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #TaiPeiGoodFortune #CollectiveBias

New Year’s Eve is one of the best days of the year to have a party! This year I put together a plan for an easy Asian Inspired New Year’s Eve Party.

While we are celebrating on January 1st, the traditional Chinese New Year isn’t until February 19th, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to include some Chinese New Year’s traditions in our celebration.

Meatballs with gravy and toothpicks on a plate.

Sweet & Sour Meatballs

Cranberry Pistachio Cereal Bars

Jalapeno Crab Bites

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SeasonedGreetings #CollectiveBias

Holiday season is all about parties! We always host a big family party on Christmas Day and have lots of appetizers and finger food for everyone to eat until Christmas dinner. This year one of the appetizers I am planning to make is these Jalapeno Crab Bites, a delicious party food.

I like to have a large variety of food for our Christmas Day, because it is one of those days many people don’t each much for breakfast! The excitement of presents means breakfast tends to be rushed, if it is eaten at all. Everyone in my family loves seafood, so I try to include some every year. A few years ago I made a squid appetizer, and that was not a big hit, so I figured I’d stick to something more traditional this year and make crab cake bites. This recipe uses Tabasco Green Jalapeno sauce to enhance the flavor of the crab meat.

Cranberry Sangria

Peppermint Pretzels

Chocolate covered pretzels are one of my favorite treats, because the combination of sweet and salty is perfect. So for the holidays it made sense to me to make some chocolate pretzels and cover them with peppermints instead of sprinkles!

These are simple to make, and lots of fun for kids to do too. My kids’ favorite part is taking peppermint candies and hammering them to break them apart. Just make sure you double bag the candies before hammering, or there will be peppermint dust everywhere.

Pepperoni & Tomato Frittata

Chili-Lime Shrimp with Rice

Fast and easy meals are a necessity for my family! There are many nights I only have half an hour to get dinner on the table before rushing off to Scout meetings or sports. This recipe for Chili-Lime Shrimp over Rice, made with the reformulated I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!, is perfect for those busy nights.

The original recipe was for Chili-Lime Shrimp Over Quinoa, but my husband won’t eat quinoa, so I changed the recipe to use rice instead. The meal is ready in about 30 minutes, and I made a quick salad while the rice cooked for a complete quick and easy meal. I usually just serve rice plain, but adding the I Can’t Believe Its Not Butter Spread! to the rice along with some cilantro was a big hit with my family. It adds a delicate flavor to the rice, and makes it taste much richer.

Cranberry Orange Cookies

I love the tangy taste of cranberries! These Cranberry Orange Cookies are a nice seasonal treat, and a deliciously different ways to use cranberries.

A friend of mine gave me this recipe last year, and I couldn’t wait to try it. Unfortunately I couldn’t find cranberries at the grocery store until the beginning of November, so I had to wait a while! The recipe uses orange juice concentrate to add a hint of citrus to the cookies, which really brings out the flavor of the cranberries.

Creamy Lamb Stew

Fall just seems to lend itself to soups and stews, and one of my favorite meats to use in stew is lamb. So when I was asked to create a lamb recipe by the American Lamb Board I made this rich and creamy lamb stew, inspired by Indian flavors.

One of my college roommates was of Indian heritage, and she taught me to how to use traditional Indian spices and ingredient to make tasty meals. This dish uses the spices ginger, cardamon and coriander to subtly flavor the meat and vegetables. In addition, braising meat and vegetables in yogurt is common in Indian cooking.

Pecan Tassies

Pecan Tassies are one of my favorite cookies, for Christmas or anytime of the year. They are like eating mini pecan pies, with a rich buttery crust, brown sugar and crunchy pecans. They are easy to make too, and much less intimidating to make than a pie. Instead of rolling out the dough in a big pie pan you simple press little balls of dough into a mini-muffin tin, and fill them with pecans and topping.

Orange Fanta Trifle for Halloween

Cyclops Pretzel Rods

Chocolate covered pretzels are the perfect combination of sweet and salty! To celebrate Halloween I topped off some pretzel rods with eyeball gumballs for cute and creepy Cyclops Pretzels.

One of my favorite things about Halloween is all the weird and creepy desserts! It is just fun to make treats around a theme. especially when a theme involves monsters, blood and other scary thing. My son is reading the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey in his literature studies this year, and one of the most famous stories in that poem features the one eyed Cyclops, Polyphemus. So it just seemed to make sense to make a Cyclops treat this Halloween. I am sure this is not exactly how Homer pictured the monster 2800 years ago, but it works for us!

Halloween Snack Pack Pudding Cupcakes

Apple Fennel Salad

I have been making lots and lots of apple desserts, but this weekend I need a side dish to take to a pot luck picnic. I wanted to bring something healthy and seasonal, so I made this Apple Fennel salad.

This salad uses fennel, which pairs well with apples because it has a nice licorice taste. The sweet blueberries and tart apples make a nice contrast to the crisp fennel, and the secret ingredient – salad turnips.

Pan Seared Salmon with Mustard Sauce

Salmon is one of the tastiest fish, and it is healthy too! One of the great things about salmon is that it is so quick and easy to prepare, which makes it perfect for busy days. This recipe for Pan Seared Salmon with Mustard Sauce is ready in less than 15 minutes from start to finish.

It is made by simply searing the salmon in a frying pan while making a simple sauce using Dijon Mustard and Maple Syrup. The flavors blend together perfectly with the mild flavor of the salmon.

I used wild caught salmon, because I love the more delicate flavor compared to farm raised salmon. But wild caught is quite a bit more expensive, and I am sure it would taste great with farm raised salmon. Adding a salad makes this a fast and tasty complete meal!

SNICKERS Pretzel Snack – Football Fun

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

Football season is just about underway! Whether it is a club, college, high school or professional teams are practicing and getting ready for another exciting season. My family loves to watch football. This year we are making an effort to see more games in person, instead of just watching on TV, and we are planning to attend our first game this week. Of course football also means snacks, so to go along with our first game of the season I created this portable SNICKERS Pretzel Snack with cute little football bags.

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