Hey Amy!

All of you are aware that St. Valentine’s Day is Sunday (and those that pretend they ‘forgot’ are usually the cheap humans who don’t want to spend a dollar on a valentine).  Every year I try to find something new and sweet to send to those I love.  Not just my partner in crime (he gets treats all year) but also to my dear girlfriends, my mom, and the other ladies of my family.  I thought this week I will share my favorite ideas, recipes and ‘finds’ as we countdown the day to excitement, anticipation and unfortunately for some, disappointment.

For the sake of ordering and delivery time, today I am featuring my favorite sites from which you can order a treat (and most have all levels of financial commitment).  In no particular order…

Fat Witch Babies–Fat Witch is a great bakery in Chelsea.  I have been ordering her babies (a small petite bite-size brownie) for several years prior to making NY my home.   Each are $1.50 and you can put together a lovely assortment and ship for right around $20.

Good Karmal–Enjoy the most delicious candy caramel with a Valentine’s sample for only $10.  Each piece of caramel is wrapped in a “fortune” inscribed with a quote of wise words from sages ranging from Gandhi to Maya Angelou.

Zoe’s Chocolates–Zoe’s offers their heavenly traditional chocolates in several special packages for the lover in you.  Lot’s of choices for less than $20.

Cookie Sandwich Company–These sandwich cookies are truly the size of sliders.  They are sandwiches!  I have been able to soften the hardest individuals with these cookies.  They have a special cookie for Valentine’s with a strawberry filling.  You cannot go wrong here.

I would be overjoyed to be the recipient of any of these specialty items.  You will feel the same sending them.  Get off the site now and go place your orders in order to get the most reasonable shipping charges.

xo–me

1 Comment | In: Just Amy | tags: chocolate, cookies, gifts, Just Amy. | #

It’s here!  Thee most important day of the entire football season–Super Bowl Sunday.  If you are having people over or going to a friend’s home and need to bring something, I hope you will find a great recipe here to share with your loved ones.

Today’s recipe can be swapped for spareribs if you have a chicken wing recipe you love.  We all know that no Super Bowl party is complete without wings.  You could use your recipe and mine to showcase two entirely different flavors of wings.

Ingredients:

1 10-oz. jar plum preserves
1/3 c. dark corn syrup
1/3 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. chopped green onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp. ginger
2 1/2 lbs. chicken wings, separated at the joints

In saucepan, combine preserves, corn syrup, soy, onions, garlic and ginger.  Stir constantly while you cook until melted and liquid.  our into 11 x 7 baking dish.  Add wings and turn to coat entirely.  Cover and refrigerate overnight, turning once.  (If you don’t have overnight, you can reduce it to several hours).  After marinated, remove from pan and place on a baking sheet.  Bake at preheated 350 oven for 45 minutes, basting with marinade throughout baking time.

If you want to make chicken bites, follow the same recipe only baking for only 30 minutes.

xo–me

No Comments | In: Cooking | tags: hors d'oeuvres, snacks. | #

I have been waiting for weeks for tomorrow to arrive–Super Bowl Sunday.  Not because I am a huge football follower, but because the other half is and his team has always been the Indianapolis Colts.  Each week I would sit here wondering if they would continue to win thus further stalling our Sunday open house visits.  Tomorrow is a game changer.  Next Sunday we will be attending every open house from Brooklyn to the Bronx!

I have plenty of football viewing snack recipes on the site.  Search hors d’oevres or snacks and you will find plenty to share tomorrow at your party.  Today’s is a simple and very flavorful bean dip with just enough kick.

Ingredients:

1 16-oz. can black beans, drained and mashed
1 c. shredded Monterey Jack or Cheddar cheese
1/3 c. mayo
1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. chopped garlic or 1/4 tsp.garlic powder
bag of tortilla chips
bag of pretzel rods
fresh veggies

Preheat oven to 375.  In medium bowl, combine beans, 1/2 c. cheese, mayo, jalapeno, cumin and garlic.  Put into casserole and top with remaining cheese.  Bake uncovered 20 minutes or until heated.  Serve with chips, pretzels and veggies.

I try to have most of the ingredients around the house in case I get unexpected company.  Since I rarely have a spare jalapeno pepper, I change it up with other spices I have around.  Changed the flavor slightly and makes for a great surprise.  Go Colts!

xo–me

No Comments | In: Cooking | tags: hors d'oeuvres, snacks. | #

I love spending a Saturday in the kitchen making as many kinds of cookies I can possibly dream up.  I challenge myself to think about the colors and shapes as well as the flavor of each batch.  It’s a great day if I can accomplish many different flavors and shapes and colors on the perfect cookie plate.  Not always a success but I try with all my heart.  Today could very well be one of those days.  Let’s all stay in our PJ’s, put on a pot of coffee and bake the day away, shall we?

This is a public recipe that has floated around the Internet for a few years.  I thought I should add it to my cookie collection here on Hey Amy! because it is rich and delicious and well, I like it!

Ingredients:

2 c. butter
4 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 c. sugar
5 c. blended oatmeal
24 oz. chocolate chips
2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
18 oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
3 c. chopped nuts (optional and your choice)

Preheat oven to 375.  Place oatmeal in blender and blend to a fine powder.  Cream the butter and both sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda.  Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar and nuts.  Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes.

I will add some of Nany’s best cookie recipes and bake my heart out today.  Hope you choose to join me in your kitchen.

xo–me

No Comments | In: Baking | tags: cookies. | #

We have come to the last day of the tribute to the recipes of Mom.  I am hopping on a train today to go spend the weekend with her and celebrate her special day.

I leave you (before I throw a few things in my bag) with her harvest potatoes.  It’s a perfect compliment to a Sunday brunch or a potluck meal at the office/church/bridge club.  It also carries the title of easy because if we have learned one thing this week, Mom does not do complicated.

Ingredients:

2 lbs. (32 oz.) frozen hash browns
1 c. melted butter divided
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 c. chopped onions
1 can cream of potato soup
1 pint sour cream
10 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
2 c. crushed corn flakes

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix everything but 1/2 c. butter and corn flakes together well.  Put into sprayed baking dish.  Mix together remaining 1/2 c. butter and corn flakes.  Sprinkle over top of dish.  Bake for 1 hour.

Treat your family to a lovely brunch this weekend.  Search the site for lots of brunch related dishes!

xo–me

No Comments | In: Baking | tags: brunch, potato, vegetable. | #

As we march through this week of Patsy’s hand me down recipes, today I share an easy way to use leftover chicken (or turkey or ham).  This is a fast meal (maybe 15 minutes of prep) and a one so simple, a teen could begin it for you while you are making your way home from the office.  And even though it is a solution for leftovers, it also is a delicious leftover!

Ingredients:

1 can cream of mushroom soup
3/4 c. water
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
4 c. cooked spaghetti (8-oz. dry)
1 1/2 c. chopped chicken/turkey (or cubed ham)
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Combine soup, water and cheese over low heat and cheese is melted, stirring occasionally.  Add spaghetti, chicken, and parsley.  Heat throughout and serve.

Sometimes I toss in some peas or carrots.  You know what Mom says “we all need our vegetables!”

xo–me

No Comments | In: Cooking | tags: chicken, pasta. | #

Today I am sharing Mommie’s quickest meal. It also is her favorite. Pick up the phone and order take out!

Seriously Mom is not the biggest woman in the kitchen but she is in every other arena of life. She raised two kids on her own with a modest income. We never knew the struggles she had privately. We thought it was fun to have a wood stove heat the house instead of firing up the furnace in the dead of winter. She made everything fun. We had great birthday parties and the best book bags in which to begin the school year. There was nothing we went without. We had everything we believed as children to be important, everything we ever asked for but most of all we had laughter and love.

She is truly a special woman in a sea of not so special. She gives without boundaries and loves without reason. She is the most thoughtful person I know. One year she discovered a waitress at a pizza joint she frequented had never known her father. He was an officer in the military and stationed in the waitress’s country (this woman was from a Caribbean island). Her mother and father had a love affair and he was shipped out to another nation before knowing the mother was pregnant. For whatever reason, the father never knew his daughter. She had since immigrated to our country and our little town. She shared her story with mom and my mother realized this father lived in a town near my step-father’s family in England. Not here in the states but in England. My mother spent her next trip researching and finding this girls father. I am sure by now you have figured out the rest of the story. She connected these two strangers and gave them one of the greatest moments in their lives. That’s my mom.

And I am proud to be her daughter.

Happy Birthday Mommie!

xo–me

No Comments | In: Just Amy | tags: Just Amy. | #