Category Archives: Nico in the Kitchen

Aug 20

New Recipes with Nico: Crab Rangoon

I have been wanting to add Crab Rangoon to our dinner menu for quite awhile. I searched and searched for an easy recipe to try and I found a great one for Crab Rangoon that I modified just a bit.

Gather all of your ingredients, and get ready to go. First I drained the crab meat and picked through it to check for any missed shells.

Don’t forget to drain the juice into a bowl for your kitchen helper kitty, he’ll appreciate it…

I combined the Softened Cream Cheese,a few healthy dashes of Garlic Salt, and Crab Meat together. I set up an assembly line to start folding the Crab Rangoon.

Here comes the fun part… Fill the Wanton wrappers with a tiny bit of filling, about a teaspoon. Brush the edges with egg, and fold over, try to get all of the air out as you fold. I’ve kept mine in a Gladware container, with waxed paper between the layers. Let the Crab Rangoon chill in the fridge before they are ready to be fried.


Once your oil is nice and warm its time to fry the Crab Rangoon in small batches. Make sure and turn them over once or twice so they fry to a nice golden brown. Have plenty of paper towels ready to drain the Crab Rangoon on.

I served the Crab Rangoon with Chicken Chow Mien and Coconut-Orange Candies, time to see if the guys like the meal…

This was one delicious dish, and the recipe made so many Crab Rangoon. Everyone really enjoyed this tasty side, and I’ve had a few requests to make the Crab Rangoon again. Beware though, they are so tasty you might not be able to stop yourself at just 2 or 3 Crab Rangoon.

If you give the recipe a try, let me know how it turned out.

Aug 7

New Recipes with Nico: Coconut-Orange Candies

My Mom and I were on the phone and we were talking about cookies. I was getting ready to bake cookies for VBS. We were discussing a few of our favorites, and we both mentioned these amazing Orange cookie-candies that her Mom (my Na-na) made. I really wanted to make the Orange Cookies for my family, and my mom found a recipe that she thought would be pretty close to her Mom’s recipe.

The Coconut-Orange candies are light, cool, and delicate. Perfect for a simple Summer dessert or Tea.

The recipe is simple and calls for: Vanilla Wafer Cookie Crumbs, Butter, Powdered Sugar, Orange Juice Concentrate, Vanilla Extract, and Coconut or Powdered Sugar to coat. I’ve omitted the Pecans and added in a bit more Vanilla Extract.

I thought it would be fun to get the kids involved in the prep work. Thade had fun smashing and crunching the cookies, but Dylan was a little concerned that all of the cookies were going to be crumbs, so he had a few to munch on. Once Thade was finished with the smashing, I finished up the cookie crunching job with the pastry blender.

Blend in the softened butter and add in the Orange Juice Concentrate and Vanilla. I set up a little assembly line for the candies, so I could Roll, Coat in the Coconut, place in Gladware, and then off to the fridge to chill for at least 24 hours…

I tried to resist, but I had to sample a few, just to make sure that the candies would be super tasty!

The candies were delicious, and were almost as good as my Na-na’s cookies. I hope that you give the recipe a try, and let me know if you liked it.

Jul 30

Cookie Delivery Day

I’ve got another twelve dozen cookies baked, and ready to be delivered to this week’s VBS.  I have had so much fun baking, and the kiddos and my hubby have been happy with the extra treats too!

I’m taking the cookies to VBS later today and of course it is raining like crazy. I have a few other errands to run today too so it looks like we’ll be out in the rainy weather all day. At least the rain has brought along some cooler temps, so no complaints here.

Jul 23

With a Little Help from the Wiggles

Chances are if you have a toddler or grandchild (or not) you’ve probably heard of the Wiggles. Both of my kids are really into the Wiggles at the moment, and Thade and I have been watching their videos on You Tube. Well they have this great song all about making “Fruit Salad”, and just how yummy it is. Thade isn’t much of a fruit or veggie eater, but I thought that maybe with a little help from the Wiggles, he just might give it a try…

We watched the video a few (dozen) times, and I picked up all of the ingredients at the store. I did my best Wiggle impersonation as I cut up the cantaloupe, and Thade happily stirred in the Red Grapes. We placed our Wiggles Fruit Salad in the fridge, and waited until dinner time.

When dinner finally rolled around I got out our fruit salad, and sang the song one more time. Dylan dove into his fruit salad (every bite was in teeny tiny pieces), he loves his fruits and veggies. Thade wasn’t buying it, and told me just how yucky the fruit salad was, but he would eat the bananas. Oh well, I’ll give it another try, and maybe with a little more Wiggles motivation, Thade will eventually like it.

Do you have any tips or tricks that get your child or grandchild to eat their fruits and veggies?

Jul 21

The Cookie Caterer

My marathon cookie baking is finally finished, and it was a lot of fun!

I ended up baking (or no baking) just over 21 dozen cookies. There were plenty left over for snacks at home, but the Vanilla Iced Sugar Cookies made it just one day, they were so tasty.

I ended up taking the cookies this morning, and I loaded up my hubby’s car with 5 roasting pans of cookies. I lucked out though. My Mother in Law was visiting this morning, so she helped me carry in all of the cookies at VBS. My kitty was sad to see the cookies go, he loves baked goods… Dylan was happy to sample a new recipe, so no complaints from him.

I had so much fun baking, and I have signed up to bake another 10 dozen cookies for another local VBS. It looks like I’ll be spending more time in the kitchen, but I’m looking forward to it.