I’ve always bragged about how Leah has been my kitchen helper since almost day one. Each of my kids enjoy helping out in the kitchen, but Leah is the one who is always there, no matter what. At 2 she could crack eggs perfectly, could whisk and scrape a bowl quite well, and was continuously under my feet or by my side the second she’d hear my KitchenAid mixer turn on. That passion for being in the kitchen hasn’t changed… she still loves to help me do whatever I’m doing….

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My brownies must be soft and chewy and have that perfect, soft, top crust. I like gooey, but not so gooey I have smeared chocolate all over my hands and face when I’m done….

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I dropped my kids off at school today, got in the car and practically cheered. I love having my kids home, but for the past three days there has been nothing but bickering and meanness coming out of their mouths towards each other.

It’s funny how when you have kids, you have the first one and you think you have it all figured out, then you have another one and you realize, “hey… God sent me someone different!” I have four kids, as many of you know, and they are all about as different as can be. Jacob is my shy, goofy, smart, loving one. Kelly is my little mama… she is a nurturing, caring, sweet martyr. Ella beats to her own drum… she is so funny, spirited, snuggly and warmhearted. Leah is still growing into who she is going to be, but right now I would describe her as inquisitive, charming and spunky. 4 kids blended together in one family, all with completely different personalities. It’s no wonder they bicker so much. However, you know what? They have an equal number of days where they get along splendidly… best friends that can’t be separated. They want to sit by each other at dinner, sleep in the same bed, do everything together. Best buds.

Sometimes when you blend together certain ingredients, you would think it wouldn’t be good because the flavors are so different. Then you take a taste and discover that yes… as different as those ingredients are, they certainly blend well together.

This recipe for Triple Chocolate Malt Bread is kind of that way. Chocolate, malt, cinnamon…flavors that are certainly bold enough to stand on their own but blended together they create a beautiful medley of flavors that is so different, subtle and so unexpected you go back in for another bite just so your mouth can explore some more.

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Triple Chocolate Malt Bread

Triple Chocolate Malt Quick Bread

Author Dine & Dish

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups milk chocolate chips melted
• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/2 cups cinnamon applesauce
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup chocolate malt powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Glaze:
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate mini chips
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons half-and-half cream
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup chocolate malt powder
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

• In a microwave-safe bowl, melt 1 cup chocolate chips; set aside to cool. In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and cooled chocolate; mix well. Add applesauce and vanilla; set aside. Combine the flour, chocolate malt powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in the remaining chocolate chips.
• Spoon into four mini loaf pans sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing to wire racks.
• For glaze, melt chocolate chips and butter in a small heavy saucepan; stir in cream. Remove from the heat; stir in confectioners' sugar, chocolate malt powder, vanilla and salt. Drizzle over warm breads. Cool completely.

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This giveaway is now closed! The winners, chosen by Random.org, of the Cooking Light Magazines subscriptions were: Ria from Rias Collection, Megan from Megans Cookin‘, and Dana (Drsalbghir). Hilary Gercken won the Perfect Portions scale! Congrats everyone and thanks for participating!

The pumpkin biscuits with the orange-honey butter I made yesterday were certainly a big hit around my house. We gobbled them up in no time, and my kids were wondering “Pumpkin muffins one day, pumpkin biscuits after that…what’s next, mom?” Well, I couldn’t disappoint them. In fact, I had a half a can of pumpkin leftover because the biscuits only use 1/2 a can. What pumpkin treat could I make that would work with only a half a can of pumpkin?

Later in the day when I was thumbing through the November 2010 issue of Cooking Light magazine I happened across a recipe for Pumpkin Pie Pudding requiring only a 1/2 cup of pumpkin. I instantly knew what I would be making with my leftover pumpkin. Let me tell you, these little beauties did not disappoint. (Just found out that this recipe is from our very own food blogging friend, Susan from Food Blogga! I love seeing my blogging friends in print. Great recipe, Susan!)

Another thing that never disappoints me is Cooking Light magazine. As someone who writes for magazines, I know how hard it is to put a magazine full of great recipes together and they seem to hit the mark with each issue. Every time I open an issue of Cooking Light, I seem to run out of post-it note sticky flags because I have page after page after page marked with recipes that I want to add to my I Will Make This Someday List.

I’m giving 3 lucky readers the chance to win a 12 month subscription to Cooking Light Magazine. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post.

And, if you are into lighter cooking or just measuring out your food, I have a Perfect Portions Kitchen Scale to giveaway as well. I’ve been trying out the Perfect Portions scale for a couple of weeks now and I am a huge fan. If you are concerned about portion control, this handy scale needs to be a part of your kitchen. Read all about the Perfect Portions scale on their website. To win a Perfect Portions scale, leave a comment on this post as well.

So, my friends, you have the chance to win 1 of 3 Cooking Light 12-month magazines subscriptions and the chance to win 1 Perfect Portions kitchen scale. Leave a comment on this post by midnight CST next Friday, October 29th. Make sure to include a way for me to contact you. All invalid entries will be removed.

The folks at Perfect Portions have given me the opportunity to share their product with you since I love it so much. The Cooking Light magazine subscriptions are from me because I love their magazine so much!

Disclosure: This blog post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

The post Cooking Light & Perfect Portions Giveaway (Recipe: Pumpkin Pudding) appeared first on Dine and Dish.

ICBINB Farmers Market Event – Food, Friends and Fun from Kristen Doyle on Vimeo.

Please excuse my videography skills, or lack thereof. I have a new found respect for those of you who are masters of the video camera and putting these things together! Still, I hope you’ll take a moment to view the short video of our day at the Overland Park Farmers Market.

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to invite a few foodie friends on a shopping trip to the Overland Park Farmers market. The wonderful people at I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter gave us a total of $200, some handy shopping totes, a Flip video camera and some great ICBINB product coupons to get us started on our adventure.

Sandie from A Bloggable Life, Roxanne Wyss and Kathy Moore from Electrified Cooks and I met bright and early in the morning to check out what the market had to offer. I have to admit, I haven’t made it to the farmers market at all this year. We’ve had Door to Door Organics deliver us farm fresh food every other week. It wasn’t until I got to the farmers market and simply remembered how great it feels just to be there, that I realized having veggies delivered to your home is no substitute for a lovely morning at the market.

Surrounded by the freshest of berries, veggies and hand made goods, it didn’t take us long to pick out our food and head home for a day of cooking. Our challenge was to see how we can use I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter paired with our market goods. It turns out, the challenge was not a challenge of all. The three ladies I chose to cook with know their stuff and we created one of the yummiest lunches I’ve had in a very long time. We enjoyed:

Grass Fed Beef Kabobs with Farm Fresh Vegetables

Sliced Grilled Vegetables with Rosemary Sheep’s Milk Cheese from Green Dirt Farm

Grilled Rosemary Potatoes with Long Green Beans

Grass Fed Beef and Fresh Veggie Stuffed Q-Balls

Black and Blueberry Crumble

Homemade Bumbleberry Jam Pop Tarts with ICBINB Crust and amazing jam from Treehouse Berry Farm

We had so much great food, but even better was the fun time the four of us had together. I can’t wait to do it again sometime soon!

One of the biggest surprises of the day, for me, was how much I ended up loving the ICBINB pie crust we used for the Homemade Bumbleberry Jam Pop Tarts. I was skeptical, I’ll be honest with you, but this pie crust was seriously one of the tastiest, flakiest, delicious pie crusts I  have ever had. I know you don’t believe me, so you’ll just have to give it a try for yourself!

Thanks for sharing in our ICBINB Farmers Market event. Remember to get out there and support your local farmers and to get some friends together and cook up something delicious. There is nothing like friends, family and good food coming together.

Combine flour, sugar and salt in medium bowl. Cut in I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!® Spread with pastry blender or two knives until mixture is size of fine crumbs. Stir in water until dough forms with wooden spoon. Knead dough just until it forms a ball with floured hands. Shape into flat 6-inch circle, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Roll dough from center to edges, forming a 12-inch circle on lightly floured surface with floured rolling pin. Press into 8- or 9-inch pie plate or tart pan and crimp edges. Bake as directed in recipes.

Disclosure: This blog post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

The post ICBINB Farmers Market Event (Farm Fresh Recipes) appeared first on Dine and Dish.

QUICK UPDATE 4/14 1:30CST – Adopt-a-Blogger is officially closed to new bloggers. If any additional experienced bloggers come forward willing to mentor someone, I will update my Twitter status to announce that additional space is available.  Matches will be posted next week!

I clearly remember the first time I made this bread for a couple of friends of mine. We had a meeting at my house and I decided to make some homemade bread. I was fairly new to the whole bread making thing, so choosing to make homemade bread was a stretch for me. When they came over, I brought out my fresh loaf of Honey I’m Home Bread along with some whipped honey butter. They oohed and ahhhh’d and later insisted that I teach them how to make bread. A couple of weeks later, they came over again and I showed them how simple bread baking was.

They both have since become really, really great bread bakers (and unlike me, have stayed skinny, which kind of ticks me off!). That experience was the first time I remember really teaching someone how to do something that I once had thought was difficult to do. I couldn’t believe that I was the one teaching someone else how to make homemade bread!

Having a mentor to turn to when you want to learn something new, improve upon what you are currently doing, or just share an experience with someone is so important. That is why I created Adopt a Blogger in the first place a few years ago. It seemed like so many of us had talent and skills we could share with others, but there wasn’t any formal way for us to do that.

I’m excited to kick off yet another round of Adopt a Blogger. Thank you so much to all of you who have made this blog event a success! I appreciate your participation and commitment to making our food blogging community a friendly and helpful one.

Now for the details on how you can participate!

If you were adopted in one of the previous adopt a blogger events, consider adopting someone this time around. If you adopted before, you can adopt again. I am limiting the number of potential adoptees to 20 for this round. So, I am looking for 20 newbies and 20 experienced food bloggers. First come, first serve basis. If you miss it this time around, we’ll get you next time! (Note – I will increase the number of slots *if* I get enough interest from the experienced bloggers to adopt the newbies!)

• Newbies – Newbies are food bloggers who have a blog that has been up for a year or less. If you are just starting out, you must have had at least 1 month worth of consistent posting on your blog.
• Experienced Bloggers – Anyone who has maintained an active food blog for over 1 year. If you have a blog that is younger than a year old, but feel like you have the whole food blogging thing down and could provide some expertise to someone just starting out, then please feel free to sign up as a veteran.
• Newbies will commit to writing one post about their Veteran. Veterans will commit to doing the same. Trying a recipe out and posting this on your blog would count as well, as long as you are introducing each other and the blogs.
• You will each add each other to your respective blogrolls.
• At the end of the 3 month mentoring time, where the Veteran will help the newbie find their way, I ask that the Veteran write one post linking back to this Adopt-A-Blogger post with a piece of advice for new bloggers. I also ask that the newbies write one post about what they have learned about blogging during the 3 month mentorship. Please note that by three months, I don’t mean that you have to be in constant contact with each other. Just keep in touch with each other for the three months and be available to ask/answer any questions that might pop up.
• If you are interested in participating, please leave a comment on this post indicating if you are a newbie or a veteran. Please make sure you enter your website information in the form as well as an email address. If that information isn’t included, I can’t get a hold of you which means you won’t be able to participate!
• Once we have reached have reached 20 newbies and 20 experienced bloggers, I will carefully match you all up and the adoption will be official!

Now for the recipe:

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Honey I'm Home Bread

Honey I'm Home Bread (from Recipezaar)

Author Dine & Dish

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 1 large egg
• 3 1/4 cups bread flour
• 4 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

Instructions

• Put these ingredients in your bread machine as your model of machine calls for, and let the machine do the work to mix.
• Put in greased loaf pan to rise again.
• When raised as much as you want, put in 325 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes.
• Let Cool.

The post Adopt a Blogger #3 (Recipe: Honey I’m Home Bread) appeared first on Dine and Dish.

My mom is an excellent cook. She was when we were growing up and she is still today. Without trying too sound bratty, however, there were a few things my mom cooked when I was growing up that I just did not care for. One was Goulash… we seemed to have Goulash all the time and I could not stand it. I hated the big chunks of cooked or stewed tomatoes. She also made this nasty, nasty, nasty stuff – hamburger cream gravy on top of slices of bread. Just thinking about that meal today makes me want to gag….

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The post Moms Perogative (Penne and Chicken Tenderloins with Spiced Tomato Sauce) appeared first on Dine and Dish.

Minus the fried ice cream and funnel cakes, our family has been trying to eat a bit healthier lately. Since my kids love fresh vegetables, I have been trying to incorporate as much as I can into our evening meals. That is why, when I saw this recipe for Shrimp and Asparagus on All Recipes the other day, I decided to give it a try.

The problem was, I didn’t really look at the recipe closely before getting started on it. What started out as appearing to be a healthy recipe ended up calling for a massive amount of butter and olive oil! Seriously – 1 cup butter and 1/2 cup olive oil? When I ended up making the Shrimp and Asparagus, I cut down on both the butter and olive oil significantly and it was still very delicious….

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