Chocolate Covered Pretzles

Last but not least...it's Paula's cookbook, Paula Deen's Cookbook for the Lunchbox the Set. Paula got some heat for this book by a few who claimed she was contributing to the problem of childhood obesity by publishing a book with a lot of high fat foods. Paula defended herself by saying that the book did have many healthy recipes also. She then pointed out that this is not an everyday cookbook, instead it's chapters are broken up into special event categories (such as "bake sale" and "family picnic")and is meant to inspire kids to make these recipes with their families.

I personally thought it was a little ridiculous that she was being attacked for not writing a more health conscience book. Hello?...This is Paula Deen....queen of southern style cooking and BUTTER. What did people really expect? Besides, the reason why I (and many others)love Paula has more to do with her personality than it does with her cooking. I enjoy her jolly disposition (she reminds me Santa), her kooky personality and her love of family. Her family is always front and center in her shows. She might not be promoting healthy eating but she is promoting the importance of family time and I appreciate that.

As for the cookbook itself, it's laid out nicely and the list of ingredients get a full page with coordinating pictures. This was great for my son, who is a beginner reader (level one books)because he was able to figure out what ingredients we needed without my help. I let him pick out the recipe and he chose these chocolate covered pretzels. No shocker here, these were yummy and had a lot of hands on steps for my son.

Fun and educational recipe. My son counting out the pretzel rods.

Adding the sprinkles.


Ingredients
1 12-ounce package milk chocolate chips
1 12-ounce package white chocolate chips
24 large pretzel rods (we used smaller honey wheat pretzel rods)
Assorted sprinkles

Directions
Place the milk chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and the white chocolate chips in another. Microwave one bowl on high for 1 minute. Remove and stir with a rubber spatula. (The chips should melt while you are stirring, but if they don't, you can continue to microwave for 15 more seconds, then stir again.) Wash and dry the spatula. Microwave the other bowl on high for 1 minute, and stir until the chocolate is melted.

Dip one pretzel rod into the milk chocolate; use a spoon or butter knife to spread the chocolate about halfway up the rod. Twist the rod to let the excess chocolate drip off. Hold the rod over a piece of wax paper and shake sprinkles on all sides. Place the pretzel on another piece of wax paper to dry. Coat another pretzel with white chocolate and sprinkles. Repeat until you've coated all the pretzels, half with milk chocolate, half with white chocolate, and let dry completely, about 12 hours. (Cover any remaining chocolate with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.)

Spicy Beef and New Orleans Red Rice Skillet Dinner

This recipe comes from the Deen Brother's cookbook, The Deen Bros.-take it easy. This dish was pretty good but didn't love it. However, BOTH my kids ate this up and I thought it tasted much better as leftovers the next day.

The cookbook, is a collection of "quick and affordable meals the whole family will love", but I was disappointed that for a family cookbook there were a lot of recipes high in fat, salt, and with too much spice. Also, some of the recipes were a bit unimaginative. For example, they have a quesadilla recipe that calls for you to put shredded cheese in a flour tortilla and the cook it in a skillet...hmmm, I don't know. I just expected a little bit more. I don't have any of their other cookbooks but I'm guessing those are better.

Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 pound ground beef
2 1/4 tsp salt (I only used 1 3/4 tsp)
2 celery ribs, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 cups chicken broth
1 14oz can tomato puree
1 1/2 cups uncooked long-grain rice
1 tsp sugar
2 teaspoons Tabasco, or other hot sauce (I only used 1)

Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat. Crumble the beef into the skillet and season with 1/2 tsp of salt. Brown the beef, breaking it up with a fork for 5-7 minutes, until it is no longer pink. Transfer to paper towel lined plate to drain.

Reduce the heat from high to medium and reduce all of the drippings but 2 tablespoons. Saute the celery, onion and bell pepper for 5 minutes or until tender. Add the browned beef, chicken broth, 1 1/2 cups of water, tomato puree, rice, sugar, the remaining salt and Tabasco. Bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to med-low and cook covered for 40 minutes or until the rice is tender.

Cookbooks!

Since my celeb chef stalking sessions, I have not opened one of the cookbooks that I purchased and had signed. Truth be told, I was more interested in meeting Paula, Alton, Giada and the Deen brothers than I was in their latest cookbook. However, I do now have 4 new cookbooks and my plan for this week is to try one recipe from each book. So check back to see what I cook up this week!

Jaime and Bobby Deen Book Signing

Here is my latest installment of celebrity chef stalking...Jaime and Bobby Deen (a.k.a Paula Deen's sons).

The little boy in the brown shirt will look familiar to some of you. He is Jack Deen, Jaime's son. He is in several of Paula's cooking magazines and cookbooks. He is also on the cover of the current issue of Good Housekeeping magazine with Paula.


The other little boy, is of course, my son. He seems to enjoy celebrity chef stalking as much as I do :)

Watch out Giada...I'm coming for you next!

Black Bean Salsa

Black bean salsa recipe from Paula Deen....yes, Paul Deen. No, don't worry it doesn't contain a stick of butter silly :) This is a classic black bean salsa with avacado, onions, tomato and lime juice. So easy, so good!

Great with chips

And over chicken


Ingredients
Makes 12 servings (I only made half)

2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (17-ounce) package frozen whole kernel corn, thawed
2 large tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 large avocado, peeled and diced
1 small onion, diced
1/8 to 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl. Cover and chill overnight. Taste and add salt, pepper or more lime juice as necessary.

Paula Deen Book Signing

Today I got to meet Paula Deen!! I found out a couple of weeks ago that she was going to be in my area doing a book signing for her new kids cookbook, Paula Deen's Cookbook for the Lunchbox Set. My son and I are both huge fans and we're so excited that we got the chance to meet her.

Paula was at a Wegman's grocery store here in northern VA and signed books for about 500 people in just 2 hours. They rushed everybody through b/c of the time constraint so there was no opportunity for posed pictures. However, my son did get to chat with her a bit (I think I just said "hi"). He told her that he loved her red velvet cupcakes (we had made them several weeks ago). She got such a kick out of this and turned to Michael (her husband) to tell him what my son had said. Paula then told my little guy that he should try her whoppie pie recipe.

It was great! Paula was just like she is on TV. Lots of fun and full of charm. It made our 4.5 hour trip at Wegman's totally worth it.


Me and my son. We were both so excited to meet Paula.

Meeting Paula

Paula listening to my son. He was telling her that he loves her red velvet cupcake recipe.

Paula telling him to try her whoppie pie recipe.

We ran into Michael after the signing.

He stopped to chat with my son.

They shook hands and did a high five.