Good Cook Archives

Good Cook Summer Fresh Fruit Salad & Margarita Mellon Recipes #freshfuitbowl and #BBBProduct

June 23, 2014 by Momstart 1 Comment

To start off with my brand new Good Cook fresh fruit bowl, the ProFreshionals Cut Fruit Bowl, I made the kids a summer fruit salad with fresh organic cherries. Actually all the fruit was fresh and organic but the cherries are in season in Washington right now and OH So good. This recipe can be changed according to the fresh fruit you may have on hand or that your family prefers.

My new bowl is so big, I had no idea it would be so big, but it’s amazing because it’s two bowls in one. It is a large bowl and then inside it fits a slightly smaller bowl with a collarnder build into it. This keeps the fruit liquids off the fruit making your salad or other fruit creation last longer. Keep your eye out for the bottom recipes, it’s for adults only!

Our Fresh Fruit Salad Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 pint fresh cherries
2 oranges
3 pears
2 apples
1 melon
1 plum
3 nectarines

2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons sugar

Directions:

Pit the cherries, add to bowl

Peel the oranges add to bowl

Chop the pears and apples and place in bowl

Cut the melon and remove the skin add to bowl

Cut up the plum and nectarines and add to the bowl.

Toss the fruit, sprinkle the sugar and lemon juice and toss the salad some more. Store in the fridge in the ProFreshionals Cut Fruit Bowl which is available at Bed Bath and Beyond.

The best thing about being able to store a fruit mixture in a bowl like this in the fridge is that it will be ready to put on top of ice cream or a chocolate torte. So you are adding healthy fruit to your bite of decadence.

Now for an adult summer fruit recipe:

Margarita Melon Bites/Tequila Soaked Melon

Ingredients:

1 Melon (green/orange/cantaloupe) Chopped into bite size pieces

1 – cup sugar
3/4 – cup water
1 – cup tequila
3/4 – cup Triple Sec
2 – limes, halved or cut into wedges
Margarita salt or coarse salt

Directions:

Mix up all the ingredients except fruit and salt. Place in the bottom green bowl.

Add the fruit

Let soak in the fridge for an hour.

Then place the fruit in the top bowl and enjoy. The excess alcohol will drain off and you have a fun summer treat.

Add the salt to taste!

An InLinkz Link-up

Good Cook Leftover Recipe: Orange Turkey Pot Pie

December 1, 2013 by Momstart 3 Comments

I’ve got a couple of quick and easy leftover turkey recipes to share with you over the next few days. And as one of the Good Cook Kitchen experts I have quite a few great ideas to share with you too. Not only do I have my recipes but I have recipes from the other Good Cook Kitchen Experts to share with you. Growing up with my mom we had simple recipes, like Turkey burritos, with is just a burrito with cheese and turkey and a tortilla. Turkey is much more versatile than more people think. Here is an orange turkey pot pie recipe and it’s one of the 101 Thanksgiving Leftover Recipes on The Good Cook blog.

Orange Turkey Pot Pie Recipe:

Ingredients:

3 cups chopped turkey|
8 tablespoons butter, divided
1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
8 tablespoons flour
1 cup Florida orange juice
1 cup cream
2 cups whole kernel corn, frozen
1 cup peas, frozen
1 cup carrot, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1 teaspoon orange zest, chopped
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
1 sheet puff pastry
2 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons milk
Florida orange slice, for garnish
Fresh thyme, for garnish

Directions:

For Florida-Orange Turkey: Place Turkey in large stock pot; add orange juice, onions, carrots, celery, garlic and cumin.

Add enough water to just cover chicken; bring to a simmer, then lower heat to a light simmer. Cook until reheated. Remove stockpot from heat; cover and let stand for 45 minutes.

Remove Turkey from stock; cool slightly. Shred meat into 1-inch pieces.

For Corn Pot Pie: Place leeks, 2 tablespoons butter and garlic in large saucepan over medium heat. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, until leeks are tender and garlic is fragrant. Add remaining 6 tablespoons butter; stir until melted.

Add flour; stir to form a paste. Add reserved stock one-third at a time, stirring well after each addition. Cook for 15 minutes over low heat, stirring often. Add orange juice, cream, reserved chicken, corn, peas, carrots, cranberries, thyme, rosemary, orange zest, nutmeg and cloves; cook for additional 15 minutes. Remove from heat; remove bay leaf.

Place 8-inch round casserole dish on top of puff pasty. Cut puff pastry in circle 1 inch wider than casserole dish on all sides. Spoon pot pie filling into baking dish; cover with puff pastry circle. Fold pastry dough down over outside rim of dish; press to seal. Whisk eggs and milk together; brush puff pastry with egg mixture.

Bake at 375° F for 20 to 25 minutes, until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven; cool slightly. Garnish with orange slice and fresh thyme. Using large spoon, place filling and some crust into serving dishes.

Find more recipes for your Thanksgiving leftovers.

Don’t forget to follow Good Cook on Twitter!

Good Cook Sweet Creations Pumpkin Banana Loaf Bread Recipe #Thanksgivingtips

November 23, 2013 by Momstart 1 Comment

I love working with Good Cook, because they have the best kitchen products. I even told my husband that all I want for Christmas this year is more baking and kitchen products. But for more kitchen products I need more storage too. I never thought I would be a collector of anything again, but I am, I’m a collector of kitchen products. And with that comes a kitchen full of baking! Check out the Sweet Creations Mini Loaf Pan that allows baking enthusiasts like me to make 4 loaves of bread at once! For more Good Cook Sweet Creations fun don’t forget to join our twitter party: Also, if you are one of the first 500 people to RSVP and follow @GoodCook and @TheFrugalMom, you will receive a free set of Turkey Lifters!

And here is the recipe we used:

Pumpkin Banana Loaf Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

3-4 mashed regular-sized bananas
15 ounces pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1 cup honey
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350oF. In grease a 5×7 baking dish.

2. In your Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer combine all ingredients on stir mode using your flat beater attachment. Pour mixture into greased dish.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes. Then cover with foil and continue to cook another 10 minutes. Bread should be golden brown and an inserted toothpick should come out clean. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm, or allow to cool and serve.

If you’re so inclined, make your own pumpkin puree to include in this recipe; I did I made it last year and just got it out of the freezer.

Good Cook Cupcakes Carrier & Pumpkin Cupcake with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Icing Recipe

October 26, 2013 by Momstart Leave a Comment

I decided to spend the day making some last minute Halloween goodies and at the top of my list was a pumpkin cupcake with Pumpkin cream cheese frosting.

Here is another Pumpkin cupcakes recipe including our Cream Cheese Frosting and we’ve included a photo of the GoodCook Cupcake carrier we received from GoodCook.

This recipe is found at GoodCook.com.

Pumpkin Thor Dark World Cupcakes Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground ginger
1/4 tsp Ground allspice
1/2 cup Unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup Pumpkin puree
1/2 cup Buttermilk, at room temperature
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 cup Pecans, chopped

DIRECTIONS:

1. Tools needed: Good Cook Nonstick Muffin Pan, 12 cup

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners and set aside.

3. Place flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and allspice in a large bowl, whisking to combine.

4. Place butter in the large bowl of an electric mixer. Add sugars and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add pumpkin puree, buttermilk and vanilla, beating to combine.

5. Gradually add flour, beating until batter is smooth. Add pecans and stir just to combine.

6. Spoon into prepared muffin pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 16-20 minutes.

7. Remove from heat and let cool on wire racks to room temperature before glazing.

Recipe created by Food Fanatics exclusively for Good Cook

The Cream Cheese Icing Recipe

Ingredients:

8 ounce cream cheese (room temperature)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spices

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients together.

Good Cook Creative Creations: The Gingerbread House How To by Zoe & Coupon Code

October 21, 2013 by Momstart Leave a Comment

Good Cook sent us some really awesome products for us to use this Halloween. The most fun out of the products they sent us was the Good Cook Creative Creations Haunted Halloween cookie Cutters.

About The Haunted House Cutter Set:

Haunted House Cutter Set makes a chalet that’s fun to decorate. It tastes delicious, too, when you use the gingerbread recipe on the back of the box. Kit includes three cutters (one each for front/back, sides, and roof), plus two rollers and two stamps to make imprints in dough.

Cutters make it simple to build the house; no complicated pattern pieces to trace.
Fun purple, green, and orange plastic color scheme.
Small parts not for use by children under three.

Sweet Creations By Good Cook is their delicious product line designed especially for baking, dessert making, and holiday parties.

This particular set was very fun for the kids and me. I didn’t want them to help me because I’m a perfectionist, however, cooking should be a family event and perfection should be out of the equation because spending time as a family in the kitchen should

The recipe is included on the box and for the icing I had to do a Google search. I wanted something that I knew would be stiff and I found a recipe that called for 2 egg whites beaten added to 2 cups of white powdered sugar. It worked great, but my gingerbread house had an accident and turned out like this as this is our experience with the Hunted House Cookie Cutter Set.

We decided that it makes a great snack holder. Ours is filled with popcorn, candy corn and peanuts.

Zoe did a video on how to decorate the Gingerbread house:

You can’t have a Halloween Haunted Gingerbread House without a dead man. Winking smile We had a lot of fun working together and using the products provided by Good Cook Creative Creations. I have a 25% off coupon to goodcook.com for any Sweet Creations Halloween product you would like to purchase just . Use CODE: HUNTED23

Good Cook Sweet Creations Hidden Surprise Caramel Cupcakes Recipe #goodcookcom, #goodcookkitchenexprt, #sweetcreations

October 15, 2013 by Momstart 2 Comments

I’m working with GoodCook.com and they send me products that I use in the kitchen to make amazing treats for my family. This month they sent me a TON, yes a TON of different things from the Sweet Creations line to use to create a Halloween Party of treats and over the next few week and a half I’m going to be pumping out recipes and posts of things I created. One of the things I created was these Hidden Surprise Cupcakes.

I haven’t been able to use my Frankenstein cookie cutter yet, but that’s because I had to make these cupcakes first. Here is my recipe for these hidden surprise cupcakes and remember, you can pretty much hide any kind of candy or cookie you want inside your cupcake.

That middle monster cupcake ate an Oreo!

I will be posting our experience with the Hunted House Cookie Cutter Set and how we tried to make a Gingerbread house and try to take a picture of the Hunted Cupcake Display as well. And one day I hope to use the Halloween Cake Pops as well. So much to do for Halloween set up and not enough time before my trip this week. Good thing I have more time this coming weekend.

Hidden Surprise Caramel Cupcakes Recipe

Ingredients:

1 box Pillsbury Chocolate Cake Mix (and ingredients required on box)

Or your favorite chocolate cake mix

Chocolate Cake by Jan Moon’s Big Book of Cupcakes presented by Southern Living.
1 cup Dutch process cocoa
2 cups boiling water
1 cup butter, softened
4 large eggs
2 ¾ cups all-purpose soft-wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tap salt
1 tsp. chocolate extract
Paper baking cups
Vegetable cooking Spray

1. Combine cocoa and 2 cups boiling water in a large heatproof bowl, stirring until blended and smooth; cool completely.

2. Beat butter with a mixer until creamy; gradually add sugar, beating until blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition.

3. Combine flour and nest 3 ingredients; add to butter mixture alternately with cocoa mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in chocolate extract.

4. Place paper baking cups in 2 (12-cup) muffin pans, and coat with cooking spray; spoon batter into cups, filling two-thirds full.

5. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans, and cool completely. Makes 24 cupcakes.

1 package of Werther’s originals Caramels

Directions:

Follow the directions on the box for creating the batter or

1. Combine cocoa and 2 cups boiling water in a large heatproof bowl, stirring until blended and smooth; cool completely.

2. Beat butter with a mixer until creamy; gradually add sugar, beating until blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition.

3. Combine flour and nest 3 ingredients; add to butter mixture alternately with cocoa mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in chocolate extract.

4. Place paper baking cups in 2 (12-cup) muffin pans, and coat with cooking spray; spoon batter into cups, filling two-thirds full.

5. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans, and cool completely. Makes 24 cupcakes.

Then use a decorative pan with shapes like pumpkins, a mini cupcake pan or monsters to create some fun shapes.

Fill them to a 3/4 full and add a caramel. The cupcake will rise around the caramel creating a hidden surprise.

OR you could use the Halloween Cake Pops with the cake after you bake it in a regular pan, then mix it with your favorite icing and roll it into enough dough/icing mixture to squish into these fun Monster shapes, just don’t forget the sticks!

I have a 25% off coupon to goodcook.com for any Sweet Creations Halloween product you would like to purchase just . Use CODE: HUNTED23

Banana Nut Chocolate Popcorn Balls Recipe #GoodCook

September 24, 2013 by Momstart Leave a Comment

I’m working with Good Cook and they sent me some samples to use to create popcorn balls. I decided to make some healthy popcorn balls, well mostly healthy if you take out the butter, marshmallows and chocolate. LOL, these are full of protein.

I thought I had some caramels around the house but it turns out that I couldn’t find them or I didn’t ever buy them. So what I did was I used some marshmallows butter and chocolate, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and walnuts. Oh and of course I used popcorn and the Good Cook Jolly Time popcorn baller.

I had to fill it very tightly because my recipe was off just a bit, (my marshmallow bag wasn’t quite full).

Banana Nut Chocolate Popcorn Balls Recipe

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Toasted Pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup Toasted Sunflower Seeds
1/4 cup Toasted walnuts
2 bananas
4 unsweetened chocolate baking squares
1 12 ounce bag of mini marshmallows
8 cups cooked popcorn

Directions:

Melt the butter, chocolate and marshmallows until well mixed.

Then mix all the seeds, popcorn and walnuts into the chocolate mixture

Let cool just a bit (about 2 minutes)

Then start baling with the Jolly Time popcorn baller.

Countdown To Good Cook Touch Treasure Hunt Giveaway

April 2, 2013 by Momstart 79 Comments

I love cooking in the kitchen and working with Good Cook is a natural relationship. Good Cook sells excellent in the kitchen tools and we’re going to be hosting a Treasure Hunt with them in two weeks and I wanted to share the details with you.

What is the Good Cook Touch Treasure Hunt?

Each of the participating bloggers will be given more specific details, as the hunt gets closer. The Good Cook Touch Treasure Hunt is for you my readers. Participates will search goodcook.com to find random Touch icons that have been posted on select products. Participants will visit my site along with the other blogger’s sites to find more Touch icons. Participates who find the most or all of the 112 codes will be entered to win one of three Good Cook Touch grand prize gifts.

To Get you excited I have a giveaway too!. You have the chance to win one of two Good Cook Touch gift packs (value $15.00)

Enter to Win:

chance to win one of two Good Cook Touch gift packs (value $15.00)

To Enter:

Leave a comment telling me what you use most in the kitchen

Extra Entries:

Use the rafflecopter and leave a way for us to verify it.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Count down to the hunt.

The hunt is coming and you are a part of the search. The Good Cook Treasure Hunt starts April 16, 2013. Let’s get your readers excited about your involvement and the upcoming hunt by posting the countdown clock and offering a pre-giveaway of Good Cook Touch products.