Simple Seasonal Brownie Recipe

OK- it's not really a " brownie recipe" as much a tip to make a great batch of brownies with a seasonal twist. We needed to bring a dish to Chellie's annual Halloween bash and were short on time and inspiration. Since we had a couple boxes of brownie mix in the cupboard, that was the dish. But here's the fun part...

In order to spruce them up a bit, we drizzled caramel on the top of each brownie and put a candy corn for decoration. And it was so easy, the kids had a great time doing it too.

The real trick for this easy recipe was not only using the boxed brownies but using the caramel apple wraps for the caramel. You know the ones that are already flattened and stretched to the size of an apple? (love them for the apples too!) We cut those into about 16 pieces per box of brownie. Once the brownies were cooked, cooled and cut, we placed the caramel pieces on top and put under the broiler for about one minute. Then while the caramel was still sticky, we placed the candy corn in the middle. So cute, so easy and so immediately gobbled up by party gremlins big and small. Try it!

Chicken 2 Ways - Chicken Noodle Soup and Baked Chicken

Now that the weather has turned, I'm back to cooking homemade easy comfort foods in the oven and crock pot. I love to come into the house when there is something slowly cooking in the kitchen. It feels like mom is cooking for me.

One of the quintessential comfort foods is baked chicken. It is so popular they sell it already cooked at just about every grocery store in the land now. If you don't have time to make one, you can buy it and it will taste great to you because someone else cooked it!

I find that the pre-cooked ones are usually on the small side (... like a good sized cornish hen!) so I try to cook my own if time allows. Plus, you can often get a good sized whole roaster chicken on sale for about $5 whereas the pre-cooked smaller ones are closer to $8.

There really is nothing to it. Two main tips - one, remove giblet bag!! and two, when in doubt, over cook it. Nothing worse than raw chicken.

Baked Chicken Recipe
Ingredients:
1 unstuffed whole chicken (giblets removed)
2 T. favorite seasoning
2 T. butter

Baked Chicken Recipe Instructions: Remove giblet bag. Rinse the inside cavity of the chicken. (Gross part is now over). Sprinkle the outside of the chicken with your favorite seasoning (mine is italian seasoning) and then spritz with spray butter. Bake, breast side up, in a shallow roasting pan. Ideally, you should put on a rack in the pan so the chicken doesn't stew in it's juices - but I just drain it regularly. (Keep the juices for your soup though).

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes per pound. A meat thermometer in the thickest part should read 185 or the juices should run clear when you cut the thickest part.

Homemade Easy Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe
Ingredients:
Chopped cooked chicken (leftovers from the baked chicken)
1/3 of a 16 oz. bag of egg noodles
Juices from the baked chicken
2 15 oz. cans chicken broth (or chicken bouillon and water)
20 mini carrots chopped (or to taste)
Magi liquid seasoning - about 20 squirts or to taste

Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe Instructions: Combine all ingredients except noodles. Bring soup to a boil and add noodles. Cook about 10 minutes.

This is so easy to make that you can cure your own cold. I have many times bought the pre-cooked chicken simply to make this soup for myself. Almost as good as having mom make it...