Scam Revealed

So you might be on to me by now, I'm trying outrageous titles in the hopes to get more readers to my blog. I know, it's dubious! But if you read on, the pay-off will be a delicious recipe. To all you non-foodies, feel free to bail on this blog post now. Go ahead, leave. No guilt.

Let's talk about the scam of the week, involving Self-Rising Flour! Sounds exotic, doesn't it? I don't know why, but I grew up on All-purpose flour, so when I recently found a recipe that required this, it threw me for a loop. I have heard of it. I have seen it at the store. I have never bought it - I didn't really understand it, and I do not recall ever even having a recipe using it. One thing I love about my little Cooking Show business, is that I'm always trying new recipes and the one I will describe to you is from a recipe book called: Cookbook For a Cause Vol 2, TLC's Stars share favorite recipes to benefit Feeding America.

Libby Nims' Momma's Chicken Pie is what intrigued me. As I read through this chicken-pot-pie-type of recipe, what grabbed me was that it only had 4 ingredients. So I had to try it! I love recipes that have few ingredients! But one of the four listed, was the very intriguing Self-rising flour, so I added it to the shopping list! As I made it again last night, Jake says to me, "Chicken pot pie again, mom? Isn't that about the 4th time we have had it this week?" "Yes Jake, but isn't it really good?" ...  Don't ask why, but this last time I was doubling and ended up quadrupling the batter.  I had a good 2 cups of batter left over and I was trying to decide what to do with it. It oddly resembled pancake batter! So I got out the griddle and LOW and BEHOLD, it is FREAKING pancake batter! I made up a batch, and they are only lacking a subtle sweetness, which will soon be restored as I drench it in syrup!  Today, my friend, Amy came by and as we were discussing this amazing product, we decided that maybe this mysterious flour is also known as BISQUICK....???? As I researched it, Bisquick also contains 20% fat in the ingredient ratio list - so my idea is to add a little butter or oil, and presto, you have your biscuit mix too.

Now if you don't have this fancy flour at home, I did also find a recipe for it. See below. But frankly that just completely ruins the whole idea of OWNING this magic flour, in my opinion.

**Buttermilk Substitute
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon White Vinegar
Let it sit for about 5 minutes.

Self-rising Flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder.

Libby Nims' Momma's Chicken Pie
3 large chicken breasts
1 can of cream of celery soup
1 cup SELF-RISING FLOUR
1 cup buttermilk
(optional - small bag of mixed veggies)

I'm going to dumb-down this recipe a little to save time, but basically what you do is take your skillet or pot and boil the chicken breasts. I used my skillet and added a cup of water and cooked it that way. You are saving 1 1/2 cups of the water (also now called broth) that it creates to mix into the cream soup. Get your pan (I use the Deep Covered Baker - but 7x11 casserole works too) and add the combined cream soup/broth mixture, cut up the chicken (I just chopped it right in the skillet with the Mix-N-Chop)  and then I threw in a bag of mixed veggies. Meanwhile in a separate bowl, mix together the buttermilk and the self-rising flour and pour over the top. It is REALLY thin, and do your best to spread it over the top - but it kind of sinks in. Don't worry! It rises to the top and makes a beautiful crust. Bake at 400 for about  45 minutes or until crust is golden browned.

Taken and Altered from: Cookbook For a Cause Vol 2, TLC's Stars share favorite recipes to benefit Feeding America.

Can anyone guess what the prize this week will be for FAN of the WEEK? You bet, Cookbook for a Cause Vol. 2! Hope you win!  But you can't win, unless you LIKE my Confessions of a Direct Seller page on FB, sorry. I'm mean like that.

When life gives you crumbs... Make a Trifle

My friend Amy says this is a good saying for a T-shirt. And I have to agree with her! As I mentioned on my Facebook page, before Christmas I was making mini-bundt cakes and they all broke and i had a bunch of cracked, broken cakes. So if it should ever happen, that YOU mess up a cake, cube it up and put it in a freezer bag and save it for a later date ... or make it right then into a Trifle. A trifle is by definition a layered dessert, and rhymes with RIFLE. I don't know why but it is often mispronounced. A typical trifle layers cake, with custard or cream, often incorporates fruit and the cake is sometimes soaked in rum, or another type of liquor. 

A Trifle dish  is a deep clear dish because the beauty of a trifle is seeing the layers. Also love to use my trifle dish as a centerpiece for holidays - you can fill it with anything holiday themed, or candles, or potpourri, or whatever the heck inspires you. 

As I am back "on the dieting wagon"... I would make over these trifle recipes using sugar free pudding, lite or f.f. cool whip and you can always skinny up a cake or brownie by making with yogurt or applesauce instead of oil. Another beautiful "trifle" to make is just layering fresh fruit. Sliced strawberries, blueberries, kiwi fruit, grapes, orange or peach slices... sounding really good right now. 

I have added a few of my favorite recipes for some trifles that I have made at home and at my demonstrations... enjoy! OH YA... and if you like funny stories - or great recipes - be sure to click in the right hand corner of this blog on my facebook page for Confessions of a Direct Seller. If you "like" that page, you might be FAN of the WEEK - and I do have prizes I will be giving away!   

Chocolate Banana Cream Trifle

The layers of graham crackers soften into a cake-like layer, if you let this sit in fridge for a few hours before serving. 

Ingredients:

18  whole graham crackers (5 x 2 in./13 x 5 cm), divided

3/4  cup (175 mL) semi-sweet chocolate morsels

1  container (12 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided (4 cups/1 L)

1  pkg (3.4 oz/102 g) banana cream or vanilla instant pudding and pie filling

1  cup (250 mL) milk

1  lemon

4  large bananas

Directions:

1.  Finely chop half of a graham cracker using Food Chopper; set aside. Coarsely crumble remaining crackers into Stainless (2-qt./2-L) Mixing Bowl.

2.  For ganache, place chocolate morsels and 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) of the whipped topping into Small Batter Bowl. Microwave on HIGH 45-60 seconds or until melted and smooth, stirring every 15 seconds. Combine pudding mix and milk in Stainless (4-qt./4-L) Mixing Bowl; whisk until mixture begins to thicken. Fold in remaining whipped topping using Small Mix 'N Scraper(R); set aside.

3.  Juice lemon using Juicer to measure 2 tbsp (30 mL) juice. Peel bananas and cut into 1 1/2-in. (4-cm) pieces using Paring Knife. Slice pieces into Classic Batter Bowl using Egg Slicer Plus(R). Add lemon juice and toss gently. Set aside 12 slices for garnish.

4.  To assemble trifle, place half of the crumbled graham crackers over bottom of Trifle Bowl. Place half of the bananas over the crackers and top with one-third of the ganache. Spread half of the banana filling over ganache, spreading to edges. Repeat layers one time. Decorate with remaining ganache. Sprinkle top of trifle with chopped graham cracker. Arrange reserved banana slices around edges of trifle.

Yield: 16 servings

Nutrients per serving: (about 1/2 cup/125 mL): Calories 240, Total Fat 9 g, Saturated Fat 6 g, Cholesterol 0 mg, Carbohydrate 39 g, Protein 3 g, Sodium 200 mg, Fiber 2 g

Pampered Chef Recipe

Easy Chocolate Trifle

 1 pkg. (2-layer size) chocolate cake mix or box brownie mix + ingredients to make cake/brownie

4 cups cold milk
2 pkg. (4-serving size each) Chocolate Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling

8 oz cool whip, thawed
4 pkg. (1.4 oz. each) chocolate-covered English toffee bars, crushed 

*Baileys or Kahlua optional - you can either have it in your coffee, or brush about 1/4 cup over the cooled cake before you cube it. (yum)

PREPARE cake batter and bake in 13x9-inch baking pan as directed on package. Cool completely on wire rack. Cut into 1/2-inch cubes.
ADD milk to dry pudding mix in medium bowl. Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes or until well blended.
LAYER half each of the cake cubes, pudding, whipped topping and crushed chocolate bars in large glass trifle bowl. Repeat all layers. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

All American Trifle

2 – 12oz cool whip, thawed                                       

2 pkg. (4-serving size each) Vanilla Instant Pudding            

1 whole angel food cake, cut in 1 inch cubes            

sliced fresh strawberries and blueberries

Slivered almonds                                                       

4 cups cold milk

Prepare instant pudding according to package directions. Layer ingredients as follows from bottom of trifle bowl to top; 1/3 Cool Whip, 1/2 of cake cubes, 1/2 of pudding, strawberries, 1/3 Cool Whip, cake cubes, pudding, blueberries, remaining cool whip and top with slivered almonds