Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies #GlutenFree & Love Cooking Mrs. Fields Cool Bake Pan Review & Giveaway
A flour-less cookie? With... bacon?! Yup. These cookies whip up in a pinch, and they're great for anyone with a gluten allergy. (Not so great for the people with peanut allergies though.) I had the opportunity to test out a new baking pan from Love Cooking Company. The coolest part about this baking pan is that it comes in two pieces. The first is your regular cooking sheet, and the next is a removable try that allows you to transfer your cookies to a cooking wrack without actually having to remove them from the baking sheet. Ingenious!
Ingredients:
- 6 Slices - Fried Bacon (Chopped)
- 1 Cup - Peanut Butter
- 1/2 Cup - Granulated Sugar
- 1/2 Cup - Brown Sugar
- 1 Tsp - Baking Soda
- 1 - Egg
- Sugar for coating
Process:
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Mix together sugars and peanut butter in a mixer. (Approximately 2 minutes.)
- Add in baking soda and egg. Mix for another approximate 2 minutes.
- Fold in chopped bacon.
- Roll dough into walnut size balls and coat in granulated sugar.
- Place on cookie sheet lined with parchment and bake for 10-12 minutes.
I found the Love Cooking Company while browsing through a friend's blog, and I realized that I can't ever have too many baking sheets. They're great from everything from cookies and biscuits to bacon and warming up some smoked eel for sushi. But, that's the problem. I use my baking sheets for EVERYTHING, and have admittedly ruined several of them because I had nothing else to use. So, I've started dedicating what are my cookie sheets, and what are my "everything else but the kitchen sink" baking sheets.
When the Love Cooking Company offered to send me their new Cool Bake Pan for a review, I was thrilled. THIS would be THE cookie sheet in my house. I might have to cut someone if they use it for something else.
"The secret to great looking cookies is in the Mrs. Fields Cool Bake Pan. With this pan, you no longer need to transfer the hot cookies one at a time to a cooling rack and run the risk of ruining them. This unique pan has the cooling rack built right into it!" ~ Love Cooking
The Cool Bake Pan, made from non-stick carbon steel, is very sturdy, even with having two pieces that separate completely from each other. The two pieces fit perfectly together, which makes removal of the inner tray while wearing oven mitts super easy. Throw in the fact that there are extended handles out the side, and you'd have to be pretty klutzy to drop the sheet. (I'm pretty klutzy, so I'm sure it'll happen. But, if I didn't drop it during my initial run with the Cool Bake Pan.... just sayin'.)
I loved that the surface area, while probably standard, didn't feel all that cramped. I could fit 15 cookies on the tray. I also found cleanup to be a breeze. For this particular recipe I did line the baking sheet with parchment, which I'm sure aided in the cleanup process. However, I'm excited to use the baking sheet again without the parchment and see how it holds up. The little air holes make me nervous for a particular dough recipe I use occasionally. I think perhaps that one might not work so well since it's a bit soft.
Otherwise, I absolutely love this pan and I love the concept of being able to remove the ENTIRE pan to cool without having to take the cookies off one by one and risk breaking them. Awesome!
Love Baking Company is giving away a Mrs. Fields Cool Bake Pan to one lucky DealPeddler reader. Enter below on the Rafflecopter form.
Good Luck!
Crock Pot BBQ Pulled Pork
The crock pot is really a live saver, especially on those days where you either don't have the time to spend hours cooking, or you just don't want to spend the time on hours of cooking. Admit it. It's probably the latter option. My entire family loves pulled pork, and even though this isn't technically the right way to do it, it's the easiest way that still yields some of the best results.
Ingredients:
- 3 to 4lbs - Pork Butt
- 2 - Onions (roughly chopped)
- 1 to 2 Cups - Chicken Broth
- Brown Sugar
- Turmeric
- Salt
- Pepper
- Paprika
- Chili Pepper
Process:
- Pat dry pork butt and generously season with salt, pepper, paprika, chili pepper and brown sugar. (I save the brown sugar as the last dry rub layer.)
- Place onions in the bottom of your crock pot, then place your pork butt fat side up on top of the onions.
- Pour in 1-2 cups of chicken broth until the onions are fully covered and the broth reaches partial way up the pork butt.
- Cover, and cook on high 4-6 hours. Depending on the size of your pork butt this may take a little longer. Meat is ready for pulling when you can stick a fork in it, twist, and the meat easily pulls apart.
- Remove pork butt from crock pot when finished, and place in a large bowl. Shred.
- Add your favorite BBQ sauce in the quantity that you prefer.
*Note: I like to serve my pulled pork with coleslaw or a spinach and vinegar saute.
Smothered Pork Chops with Buttermilk Gravy
Admittedly I'm not really a fan of pork chops. It's not bacon, and it's not steak. It's a meat that's a little confusing to me. But, my husband came home with a huge package of boneless pork chops and told me to figure out what to do with them. After a little deliberation I decided that I love gravy, and gravy goes with mashed potatoes and just about any meat... which means gravy would go well with the pork chops and the mashed potatoes I served as a side. This is also a super simple recipe that allows room for any personal tweaks you'd like to make regarding the ingredients.
Ingredients:
- 4 to 6 - Boneless Pork Chops
- 1 Cup - All Purpose Flour
- 2 to 3 TBSP - Meat Tenderizer Seasoning (You can also use garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne to make your own seasoning mixture)
- 1/4 Cup - Olive Oil
- 1 Cup - Chicken Broth
- 1/2 Cup - Buttermilk (Use regular milk and add a teaspoon of lemon juice. Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes before using.)
- Salt & Pepper to Taste
- 1 Tsp - Parsley Flakes
Process:
- Combine flour and spices in a wide mouthed bowl, or deep square dish.
- Dredge pork chops through flour mixture making sure both sides and edges are well coated.
- Heat olive oil on medium high.
- Cook pork chops until golden brown on each side. Approximately 4 minutes per side.
- Remove pork chops and set aside.
- Add enough of the flour/spice mixture to soak up the leftover grease and oil. Stir continuously with a wooden spoon or whisk.
- Add chicken broth and continue to stir until fully incorporated.
- Remove from heat and add the butter milk. Stirr continuously until sauce thickens into a gravy.
- Replace meat, and spoon gravy over the pork chops. Heat over low until pork is rewarmed. If your pork chops were a little thick, you can also finish cooking them off in the gravy.
Simple Avocado Mayonnaise Recipe – March: Green Challenge
Sometimes regular mayo is just not good enough. And other times, your husband stocks you up on avocados and you need something to make with them before they go bad. This is a beyond simple recipe for Avocado Mayonnaise that takes maybe 5 minutes to whip together from start to finish. It's THAT simple. This is also 1 of 10 recipes you'll be seeing from me this month for the March Recipe Challenge. This month's theme is "green". There is a link at the bottom of the post to the other participating bloggers and their 10 "green" recipes too - so make sure you give them a look-see.
Ingredients:
- 1 - Avocado (Medium to Large in size)
- 1 TBSP - Lemon Juice
- 1/4 tsp - Salt
- 1/4 Cup - Olive Oil
- Add additional spices to suit your personal preferences. I however opted to leave mine plain.
Process:
- Scoop out the meat from the avocado.
- Add to blender with salt, lemon juice, and your spices.
- Blend together.
- Slowly add olive oil while blending. I only have a little bullet so I had to keep stopping. If you can do this with the blender still running, that would work best.
- Blend to a creamy puree.