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Peanut Butter Popcorn {Secret Recipe Club}

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It’s Monday and time for Group D’s reveal for the Secret Recipe Club. My assignment this month was Anne Jisca’s Healthy Pursuits. Anne loves to cook and bake, but doesn’t care for washing the dishes that are a result of it. My sentiments exactly! She’s mommy to two boys who are cute as can be, and her and her husband are missionaries. Even with that busy schedule, she still finds time to cook delicious recipes, as her blog shows.

As I browsed around, one of the first things that caught my eye was her recipe for Peanut Butter Popcorn. I knew right then and there that was what I was going to make for my assignment. Every week at our house we have a family movie night, with pizza and popcorn as a snack. I couldn’t wait to add a little variety to that, by trying a fun flavor twist on our usual buttered popcorn.

There’s peanut butter involved, naturally. I used all natural because that’s just how we roll in my house, : ) and with a few more simple ingredients, Bam! I had some seriously yummy and addictive popcorn on my hands. This stuff was amazing, and we finished off the entire bowl before the first movie was over.

Peanut Butter Popcorn

3/4 cup popcorn kernels
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
Peanuts (optional)

Pop the popcorn, and remove unpopped kernels. Stir honey and sugar together in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil for one minute. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Be careful! This is super hot! Immediately pour mixture over popcorn and stir to coat. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet and spread evenly. Using your hands (carefully) break apart the popcorn. This way there are individual pieces. Let sit for 5 minutes to set and enjoy!

To see other great recipes from the Secret Recipe Club, click on the blue frog below.


Sweet Potato Crepes {Secret Recipe Club}

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It’s time for April’s installment of Group D’s Secret Recipe Club reveal! If you haven’t heard about it, it’s a fun blogging club that several hundred people participate in. Each month you are assigned a blog and your mission is to go and find a recipe, make it, blog it and reveal it on a certain day along with everyone else. Thing is, it’s a secret all month. So you can’t tell your blog assignment that you have them or it will spoil the surprise.

I’ll admit I was a bit hesitant when I first seen what blog I had as my assignment for this month. I’m not a very adventurous cook, and Shirley’s blog at Enriching Your Kid is full of Indian recipes. I had always thought that Indian food was spicy, and made with ingredients I had never heard of, but boy was I wrong. After browsing through her blog, I found a wonderful selection of foods that I could make, that weren’t spicy at all. And while some of them did have a few ingredients that are hard for me to find in my small, southern town, a quick search online led me to some easy substitutions. Shirley is a Clinical Psychologist, who decided to become a stay at home mom once her children came along. That, along with trying to feed her kids healthy, but tasty foods drew me to her right away, since I to have the same food philosophy. Thanks Shirley for opening my eyes to just how delicious Indian food can be.

Sweet Potato Crepes

1 cup sweet potatoes, cubed and boiled
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp grated jaggery (I live in a small southern town, with no specialty stores in sight. So after a quick internet search, I found I could substitute brown sugar)
3 cardamom seeds ground (Again, no specialty stores, so I used 1/3 tsp ground cardamom)
1 tbsp salted butter (I used unsalted because that’s what I had, and just added a pinch of salt)

Sift the baking powder and flour together and set aside.
Mash the sweet potatoes and add the egg, mixing well.
Alternately add the flour into the mixture and half of the milk, stirring well after each addition.
Add the rest of the milk and mix well. It should be a pouring consistency. Add more milk if necessary.
Add the brown sugar, ground cardamom, and melted butter. Mix well.
Preheat a nonstick skillet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray over medium heat. Hold the skillet at a slight angle and use the other hand to add 1/4 cup of crepe batter. Tilt and swirl the skillet in a circular motion until the batter is evenly spread over the pan. Cook the crepe until the outer edges begin to brown and loosen from the skillet (about 2-3 minutes) Carefully flip the crepe over and cook for about 30 more seconds.
Serve hot with fresh whipped cream. (I used my recipe for Brown Sugar ‘n Spice Whipped Cream. Recipe Below)

Brown Sugar ‘n Spice Whipped Cream:

2 cups heavy cream, well chilled
1/3 to 1/2 cup brown sugar (Depending on how sweet you like it)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Beat together all ingredients until soft peaks form. Refrigerate until needed.

To see other great recipes from Secret Recipe Club members, visit the links below!



Fresh Strawberry Pie with Shortbread Crust {Secret Recipe Club}

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After a short break for the holiday’s, the Secret Recipe Club is back! Hundreds of food bloggers take part in this fun monthly event, where we’re assigned a blog to feature a recipe from. The blogger doesn’t know who’s been assigned their blog until the designated reveal day. This month I was assigned, Fearless Homemaker. A blog owned by Amy, a delightful woman from Nashville who is a self-described, “foodie, cocktail lover and entertaining enthusiast.” Her recipes and pictures are excellent, and I highly recommend a visit to her blog.

As soon as I seen her recipe for Strawberry Pie, and that it was baked in a cast-iron skillet, I knew it was what I was going to make. The rustic look of such a sweet dessert had me hooked. She further ups the ante by using a shortbread crust. Perfect for me, since I had a recipe for a gluten-free shortbread crust. The finished product didn’t disappoint. The crust was rich and buttery, while the strawberry filling was like a mouthful of Spring Time. We tried it alone, as well as with some fresh whipped cream. Both ways were delicious. (My adaptions’ to the recipe, so I could make it gluten-free are in red)

Fresh Strawberry Pie with Shortbread Crust

For The Crust: (I used a homemade gluten-free shortbread crust. Recipe further below}
1 (5-ounce) package shortbread cookies
2 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

For The Filling:
2 pounds strawberries, hulled (see cooks’ note, below)
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 envelope unflavored gelatin (2 1/4 teaspoons)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in middle.
Pulse cookies in a food processor to fine crumbs, then pulse in sugar and butter until combined. Press crumb mixture evenly onto bottom and up the sides of 2 mini cast iron skillet’s. (I used 1 - 9-inch skillet instead) Bake until golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool. (A 9-inch pie plate may be used as well.)
Select 10 large strawberries as close to same size as possible, set aside. Cut remaining berries into 1/4” dice and toss with sugar and lemon juice. Let stand, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes. Drain berries in a sieve set into a large glass measuring cup. Add enough water to measure 2 cups. Transfer liquid to a medium saucepan and reserve berries.
Sprinkle gelatin over strawberry liquid and let soften 1 minute. Bring to a bare simmer, stirring until gelatin has dissolved. Add diced berries, then transfer to a metal bowl set into an ice bath. Stir frequently until mixture begins to mound, 20 – 30 minutes.
Spoon filling into pie crust and arrange reserved whole berries, stem ends down, on filling. Chill pie until filling is set, at least 4 hours.

Gluten-Free Buttery Shortbread Pie Crust

1 1/2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour mix
1/2 cup, (1 stick) butter, melted
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a medium bowl with a fork, mix butter, vanilla, flour and powdered sugar until crumbly. In a 8-inch or 9-inch pie plate, pat crumb mixture evenly being sure to come up the sides to the edge. Crimp the dough with a fork or fingers. Bake for 25 minutes. {If using a cast iron skillet like I did, I recommend greasing the pan with butter before putting the crust in.}

Cooks’ Notes:
-pie crust can be made 2 days ahead and kept (covered once cool) at room temperature.
-filled pie can be chilled, loosely covered, up to 1 day.
-while not as dramatic as whole large berries, if you find juicy small berries, cut them into quarters or halves. it may take longer for mixture to set, but pie will taste just as good.

Secret Recipe Club