What's For Dinner

Bean Salad

2011-12-19T09:12:00.005-05:00

This bean salad is AWESOME! My parents made this while we were visiting for Thanksgiving and they raved about how good it was and that I had to try it. I was not excited, but after awhile decided I had better give it a try. One bite and I was hooked, I couldn't stop eating it! This recipe makes a big vat of bean salad because each ingredient is 1 can. It will be loved by all, but I wouldn't make it just for 2 people unless you have someone to share it with.

This salad is good after 24 hours, better after 48 hours and perfect at 72 hours.

Ingredients

1 can green beans
1 can wax beans
1 can light kidney beans
1 can dark kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 can lima beans
1 can chick peas
1 can green peas
1 can corn
Or any combination of canned beans
1 green pepper, sliced or chopped (I use yellow peppers)
1 onion, sliced into rings
4 celery stalks, sliced or chopped
1 pimento, sliced or chopped (I found a small jar of pimento at the grocery and tossed in a couple tablespoons)
1 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper

Directions

Drain beans and rinse. Drain peas and corn. Combine with green pepper, celery, onion and pimento. In a separate bowl combine vinegar, oil, sugar, salt and pepper. Pour over vegetables. Marinate overnight in refrigerator.

Shortbread

2011-09-09T20:45:00.003-04:00

Last night was Cultural Cooking and the theme was a food from your dream vacation. I've always wanted to go to Scotland so here is a delicious recipe for Scottish Shortbread. I used the recipe below for simple shortbread but I also had some fresh raspberries that needed to be eaten so I took some extra piece of dough, rolled them into balls, squished them into a mini muffin tin leaving a depression for 2-3 raspberries, sprinkled with vanilla sugar and baked until lightly brown. These were delicious!

This comes from the Joy of Baking website. There is an extensive set of instructions on the website, but here are the basics.

Shortbread Cookies:

2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt

1 cup (2 sticks) (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup (60 grams) powdered (confectioners or icing) sugar

1 teaspoon (4 grams) pure vanilla extract

Shortbreads: In a separate bowl whisk the flour with the salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter until smooth and creamy (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until smooth (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated. Flatten the dough into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill the dough for at least an hour or until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) with the rack in the middle of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough into a 1/4 inch (.6 cm) thick circle. Cut into rounds or other shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter. Place on the prepared baking sheets and place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. (This will firm up the dough so the cookies will maintain their shape when baked.) Bake for 8 -10 minutes, or until cookies are very lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

For Chocolate Dipped Shortbreads: Place 3 ounces (90 grams) of the finely chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over a saucepan of simmering water. Once the chocolate has melted, remove it from the heat. Add the remaining chocolate and stir with a wooden spoon until it has completely melted and is smooth and glossy. Taking one cookie at a time, dip one end of each cookie in the melted chocolate and place it on a parchment lined baking sheet. Once all the cookies have been dipped in the chocolate, place the baking sheets in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes, or until the chocolate has hardened.

Shortbread cookies with keep in an airtight container for about a week or they can be frozen.

Makes about 20 shortbread cookies.

Whole Grain and Nut Pancakes

2011-02-13T13:48:00.005-05:00

Around here we have pancakes one day a week, on Sunday. I cannot tolerate my children wigging out on white flour and sugar regularly so we started this weekly ritual and the kids really look forward to it. We use to have pancake Saturday because our church was at 8:30 on Sunday morning, but this year church starts at 12:30 so we have extra time on Sunday morning to indulge and then someone else gets to tolerate their wigging out on Sunday :) Just kidding, of course!

Anyway, I cannot eat regular pancakes. Before losing 70 lbs last year I was pre-diabetic and would go into a massive sugar crash after eating pancakes. Between the white flour and sugary syrup I would feel awful! So I stopped eating pancakes and just made them for everyone else.

Well, I've finally found my pancake answer and it is TASTY! These pancakes are made with whole grains and nuts, the only questionable component that I haven't worked out of them is the oil, but I'm okay with that because it isn't the oil that causes problems for me, it's the fluff (white flour and sugar) that makes me feel icky. So here is my new Sunday morning ritual!

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats, ground into flour
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (or read my buttermilk alternative note at the end)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup whole almonds, ground
1/4 cup walnuts, ground

Directions:

1. Grind the oats in a food processor or small grinder like a coffee grinder - this works well for grinding the nuts, too. Mix the dry ingredients - ground oats, flour, ground nuts, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar in a medium size mixing bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, mix your wet ingredients - buttermilk, oil and egg. Blend well with a wire whisk.

3. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and blend well with your whisk, but do not over mix.

I found that the pancakes I made towards the end of the batch were fluffier and looked nicer so I would suggest letting your batter rest for 20-30 minutes if you have the time. The first ones were not bad, they just did not hold together as well but this could have also been from using a lower heat setting.

This is one of the last pancakes.

Cook the pancakes in a dry, hot, non-stick pan/griddle on medium heat until brown and slightly bubbling (these will not bubble like regular pancakes do). I use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to scoop out the batter and this makes for perfect sized pancakes and gave me 9 pancakes. Since I'm the only one eating these pancakes, I let the extra pancakes cool with parchment paper separating them, then placed 2 pancakes per quart sized freezer bag for 3 more Sundays of pancakes!

NOTE: Butermilk alternative. I love buttermilk pancakes, but I rarely use buttermilk and never have it on hand. I learned a little buttermilk trick years ago and use it regularly in all kinds of recipes. Add 1 1/2 tsp of cider vinegar to the 1 1/2 cup of milk, stir and let sit for 5 minutes.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream

2011-01-30T21:10:00.003-05:00

I know it has been a long time since I've last posted, but I really do not get around to much cooking these days and if I do make something super yummy, I always think I should post it to my blog but then I cannot find the time to sit down and write it all up and I usually forget to take pictures.

But these cupcakes were so good, I HAD to take the time to post and I even took pictures!!! Here is the origin of the recipe but the below recipe will reflect my minimal changes. These cupcakes had all of the best parts of the cookie and then added buttercream! They are buttery, sweet and cinnamony...they were also an all around hit. Add these to my keeper list :)

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream (yields 2 dozen)

What to gather:
For the Frosting

•1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
•1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
•1 tablespoon baking powder
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

•1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
•1 3/4 cups sugar
•4 large eggs, room temperature
•2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
•1 1/4 cups milk

For the Buttercream

•1/2 cup unsalted butter
•2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
•1 teaspoon cinnamon
•1/8 teaspoons salt
•1 pound powdered sugar
•4 Tablespoons milk

What to do:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together both flours, baking powder, salt, and 1 tablespoon cinnamon.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating until combined after each.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes.Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored for up to 2 days at room temperature, or frozen for up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

To finish, combine remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 2 tablespoons sugar. Using a small, fine sieve, dust peaks with cinnamon-sugar.

To make the buttercream, cream the butter, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt together. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk until creamy. You may need to add in some more milk or sugar until you get the consistency you want. Then pipe on the icing with a fun tip.

Cupcakes are best eaten the day they are frosted; keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

NOTE: My alterations included reducing the amount of cinnamon in the buttercream....absolutely needed to be reduced! The original recipe also suggested dusting the tops of the iced cupcakes with cinnamon sugar...this would have been cinnamon overload for me.

I was able to get 48 mini cupcakes and 12 regular cupcakes from this batch. 1 batch of icing was enough to cover all of the mini cupcakes, but would not have finished out the regular size cupcakes, well maybe it would have been close. This was not a problem for us though because have a son that does not like icing (I know! we should probably consider genetic testing to determine who he really belongs to because he certainly couldn't be mine) so I left some of them plain which resulted in just enough icing with no left overs.

Butternut Squash Risotto

2010-12-30T22:13:00.004-05:00

½ Large Butternut Squash (or one small)
4 Cups Chicken Broth
2 Tablespoons Butter (divided)
½ Cup Finely Chopped Onion
1 Cup Arborio Rice
¼ Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
1/8 Cup Whipping Cream
Salt to Taste

1. Cook Squash in Microwave for 10 minutes remove and scoop pulp out of skin.(reserve (the pulp not the skin)).
2. Bring broth to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat; cover and reduce heat to low. Keep warm
3. Meanwhile melt 1 Tbls. butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, add onion and saute until translucent. Add rice and cook until just beginning to brown. Stir in ½ cup stock; cook 1 minute.
4. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low; add ½ cup of hot broth, stirring constantly until liguid is absorbed. Repeat procedure with remaining broth, ½ cup at a time. Total cooking time should be around 30 minutes. Stir in cooked squash, stirring to smooth out.
5. Stir in Parmesan Cheese and Cream along with remaining butter. Season with salt to taste.

Serve Immediately (serves 6-8 sides)

Revised from Southern Living, Dec. 2008

A New Diet

2010-10-17T14:01:00.007-04:00

The middle of August found my wife and myself checking into a new diet, well actually an old diet just not one we had done. It's called counting calories. Well needless to say I just had to have a new cookbook (any excuse I can find) we looked and settled on the "Weight Watchers in 20 minutes" following is just a few recipes that I have used and have found to be wonderful. Since "Weight Watchers" included the nutritional values I thought I would pass them along as well. Some of the recipes I do as is and some I change after I have made it at least once their way.

Feel free to experiment with them as you see fit,I am sure you will enjoy.

NORTH AFRICAN-STYLE BURGERS

1 pound lean ground beef (7% fat or less)
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
4 whole wheat hamburger buns (split)
4 tomato slices
4 sweet onion slices
4 green lettuce leaves

1. Combine the beef, tomato paste, cumin, cinnamon, salt, and pepper in a bowl. With damp hands shape the mixture into 4 (½-inch-thick) patties.
2. Spray a large nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and set over medium heat. Add the patties and cook until an instant read thermometer inserted into the side of a burger registers 160 degrees, about 4 minutes each side.
3. Put a burger on the bottom half of each bun and top with 1 tomato slice, and 1 lettuce leaf. Cover with the tops of the buns.

Per Serving (1 garnished burger): 280 calories, 8 g Fat, 3 g sat fat, 1 g trans fat, 64 mg chol, 735 mg sod, 22 g carbs, 4 g fib, 29 g prot, 79 mg calc.

We enjoy the burgers as is but have found that if you add a few chopped mushrooms and a little chopped onion to the mixture, it adds a whole new dimension. Hope you enjoy

BUFFALO-STYLE CHICKEN STRIPS

1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
¼ cup Louisiana-style hot sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 pound skinless boneless chicken breast halves, cut on the diagonal into 1-inch wide strips
3 carrots cut into ¼ inch matchsticks
4 celery stalks cut into ¼ inch matchsticks
½ cup fat- free blue cheese dressing

1. Combine the pepper sauce, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce in a small saucepan and set over medium heat. Bring to a boil; reduce the heat and simmer 1 minute. Remove from the heat and add 1 teaspoon of the butter, stirring until melted.
2. Melt the remaining 2 teaspoons of butter in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook, stirring, until browned and cooked through, 8 – 10 minutes. Add the hot sauce mixture and cook, tossing, about 1 minute longer. Transfer the chicken to a serving bowl and serve with the carrots, celery, and blue cheese dressing.

Per serving (1 chicken breast half, about 1/3 cup carrot sticks, and ½ cup celery sticks, and 2 tablespoons dressing); 231 cal, 7 g Fat, 3 g sat fat, 0 g trans fat, 77 mg chol, 805 mg sod, 15 g carb, 3 g fiber, 26 g prot, 71 mg calc.

We enjoy as is but feel free to adjust for yourself.

FRUIT AND CHEESE- STUFFED FRENCH TOAST

2 tablespoons light cream cheese (Neufchatel), softened
4 slices whole wheat bread
2 tablespoons strawberry or raspberry all-fruit spread
1 large egg
2 egg whites
3 tablespoons fat free milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch nutmeg
1 cup hulled and sliced strawberries

1. Spread the cream cheese evenly on 2 slices of the bread, leaving a 1/8 inch border. Spread the strawberry spread on the remaining slices of bread, leaving 1/8 inch border. Put the slices of bread together to make 2 cream cheese-fruit sandwiches.
2. Beat the egg and egg whites in a large shallow bowl or pie plate; whisk in the milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add 1 sandwich to the egg mixture; let stand until evenly soaked, about 20 seconds each side. Repeat with the other sandwich
3. Spray a large nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and set over medium high heat. Add the sandwiches to the skillet and cook until browned, 2-3 minutes on each side. Serve with the berries.

Per serving (1 sandwich and ½ cup strawberries) 321 cal, 96 g fat, 0 g trans fat, 118 mg chol, 427 mg sod, 44 g carb, 7 g fib, 17 g prot, 141 mg cal.

My wife and I love this, and I am not a big fan of French toast, we do not even have the strawberries with it and it is great as is. Be sure to experiment with other flavors of fruit spread.

Lemon Curd Ice Cream

2010-07-07T11:26:00.004-04:00

YUM!!!!

This could just be called lemon ice cream, but it reminded me so much of lemon curd, which I love, love, love! A friend had a BUNCH of lemons she didn't want so when a friend gives me lemons, I make ice cream (I don't care for lemonade-although I did have some delicious homemade lemonade this evening).

I used my favorite vanilla bean ice cream recipe and altered it to incorporate the lemons.

1 cup whole milk
A pinch of salt
¾ cup vanilla sugar *
1 tbsp lemon zest
½ cup lemon juice
4 large egg yolks
2 cups heavy cream

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan until warm. Cover, remove from heat.

2. To make the ice cream, set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2l) bowl in a larger bowl partially filled with ice and water. Set a strainer over the top of the smaller bowl and pour the cream into the bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, lemon zest and lemon juice. Gradually pour some of the warm milk into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Scrape the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan.

4. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.

5. Strain the custard into the heavy cream. Stir over the ice until cool, then refrigerate to chill thoroughly. Preferably overnight.

6. Freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

* Used vanilla beans can be rinsed and dried, then stored in a bin of sugar to infuse the smell and flavor of vanilla into the sugar. I use vanilla sugar to add a hint of vanilla without the overpowering effects of vanilla extract and beans. This ice cream is a perfect example of how vanilla sugar can be used to compliment a flavor without being dominant. You could use regular sugar and add a drop or two of vanilla after the custard has been cooled in the cream.

Peach & Blueberry Galette

2010-06-30T21:15:00.006-04:00

One of my favorite parts of the the hot, humid and miserable summer is glorious fresh berries! We had the most perfect day (only in the upper 70's while we were out in the fields and the bushes were full of big, fat, sweet, delicious (Okay, I'll stop) blueberries.

With a bucket full of fresh blueberries on my counter, I began to plan what I was going to make over the next couple of days. First thing that came to mind was homemade cottage cheese (Oh, how I love homemade cottage cheese and fresh blueberries...it may be the most perfect summer meal). Next was this peach and blueberry galette! I happened to see peaches on the counter beside the blueberries and I thought they would make a perfect pair.

This galette is so pleasing because you're indulging in excellent pie crust and lots of it (my favorite part!) but you also get to truly enjoy the sweet and delicate flavors of the fresh fruit without being overpowered with sugar or cornstarch that you find in the filling of traditional pies.

I used my favorite pie dough from Cook's Illustrated. I rolled it out thin and then placed it on a buttered cookie sheet.

I cut 2 peaches in half, removed the pit and then made very thin slices, I would say thinner than an 1/8 of an inch. I fanned the peaches in a single layer then piled on the blueberries, leaving an inch or two of crust to fold up. I worked the crust up and over the edge of the fruit and brushed the crust and fruit with melted butter. I then sprinkled 1/4 cup of vanilla sugar (I keep a container of sugar with a used vanilla bean ---I removed the inner bits for making ice cream and then dried the outer bean and stored it with the white sugar) over the fruit and pie crust.

Baked at 400 degrees for 35 minutes and then cooled for 15-20.

The only thing I would change...I would sprinkle 2 tblsp of the sugar directly onto the peaches before piling on the blueberries then finish with the rest of the sugar on the crust and blueberries.

I take that back...I would change one more thing. I would sprinkle the tiniest bit of salt over the top of the peaches to contrast the sugar and maybe even add a touch more salt to the crust since there is sugar on top of the crust. I don't care for sugary sweets, but when nicely balance with a bit of salt then I'm a happy camper :)

Grilled Portabello Mushroom Burger

2010-06-09T13:03:00.003-04:00

I use these in place of hamburger meat when our family grills burgers and dogs. My husband prefers the beef, but I'm happier not having it.

Remove the stem and lightly drizzle or brush olive oil on both sides of the mushroom. To the underside of the mushroom, I sprinkle salt, onion powder and garlic powder then grill top side down to start. You're looking for the mushroom to start releasing it's liquid, which will take some time....but wait for it! If you take it off before it's had a chance to get soft and juicy it won't taste good and the center, where it's thickest, may not be cooked through. I give it a good 6-7 minutes per side and maybe more if it's thick. Add a slice of cheese before you take it off the grill and stack it on a bun with lettuce, tomato and mayo (or your favorite burger toppings).

It's meaty, without all the fat and the heavy feeling in your gut after a burger.

Grilled Mahi Mahi

2010-05-27T14:55:00.007-04:00

I've been working to incorporate more seafood into my diet...I hear it helps to trim the waist :) This recipe has won a spot on our regular menu. And what Mormon family doesn't love a main dish that can be served with rice!

3 tbsp honey
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp ground ginger

2 cloves minced garlic
2 teaspoons olive oil
mahi mahi filets (I use this recipe for 6 filets)
Pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients except the fish in a gallon size zip lock bag or a 13X9 baking dish. Add the fish, coat with marinade and let sit for at least 20 minutes and even up to 1 hour. I use the frozen filets from Sam's Club and often forget to thaw my fish ahead of time. I rinse them in cool water to break off the outer layer of ice, add the fish to the marinade and then let them thaw on the counter while they're soaking up the marinade goodness. If your filets are thawed ahead of time, let your fish marinade in the refrigerator.

I choose to pepper after the fish has marinated as I have non-pepper eaters in the house. This way the pepper doesn't contaminate the marinade. I also think this would be awesome with fresh ginger, but I'd use less than the ground ginger as fresh can have quite a bite.

These can be pan fried, but I prefer the grill. If you pan fry, use a little oil or spray in a non-stick pan. Cook until fish flakes (about 5 minutes per side depending on thickness of filet).

You may also reserve some of the marinade before adding the fish then reduce the extra marinade in the same pan you fry your fish in to make a sauce to top your fish. We've found the extra sauce isn't necessary but can be a nice addition.

Last night, I only had 4 mahi mahi filets and I knew that would not feed my family so I threw in a couple handfuls of jumbo shrimp to marinade for 10 minutes or so. Grilled these up and they were a hit! Although, I have to admit...I think the only shrimp my family wouldn't eat is shrimp that's still frozen, but that's even questionable.

Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream

2010-05-16T21:21:00.006-04:00

Picture compliments of Joythebaker

I finally bought an ice cream maker and we're having so much fun! I'm having to exercise more as my restraint is weakening. I've never been a person to eat much ice cream because I just don't care much for it. But when you make it yourself and you can customize the taste and texture, boy oh boy, I'm a sucker for ice cream now!

Here is the first recipe we made and so far, our favorite. I found it on this website and fell in love the description the author penned for it. I was hooked from the words. Unfortunately, I had used all our cornstarch for diaper rashes and had none for ice cream at 10:00p.m. and wasn't willing to go to the store. I substituted unflavored gelatin (I used 1.5 tsp, but should have used at least 3 tsp or maybe even more). It did not set up while in the ice cream maker, but froze beautifully and was nice and soft when it came out. We made it again with corn starch and the texture was better in the ice cream maker and a nice scoopable yet firm texture once frozen.

Double Chocolate peanut Butter Ice Cream

2 1/2 cups whole milk

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

double pinch of salt (I like a bit more salt with my chocolate so I doubled from the original recipe)

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup smooth salted peanut butter

In a sauce pan over medium heat, stir together 2 cups whole milk, sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Heat until the milk start to steam, but before it starts to boil.

In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 1/2 cup of whole milk and the cornstarch. Stir until no lumps remain.

Add the cornstarch mixture to the heated milk and chocolate mixture and bring to a low boil. Boil until thickened. The mixture will look the consistency of chocolate pudding. Remove from flame.

In a small sauce pan, heat 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Once boiling, remove from heat and pour over the chocolate chips. Let sit for 1 minute, then stir the cream and chocolate mixture until incorporated.

Stir the cream and chocolate mixture into the cooling chocolate ice cream base. Place in a bowl, covered with plastic wrap or a lid, and put in the fridge until cool.

Once cool, follow the manufacturers instructions on the ice cream maker to churn ice cream. Once the mixture has chilled and thickened in the ice cream maker, slowly drizzle in 1/4 cup of peanut butter (we nuked the peanut butter for 15-20 seconds to make it nice and thin for a lovely pouring consistency). Don’t over mix. You want a nice ribbon of peanut butter running through the ice cream.

Transfer the ice cream into a freezer safe container and fold in the remaining 1/4 cup of peanut butter (we drizzled in 3/4 cup while the ice cream maker was running and did not stir in any at the end). Cover and freeze until solid.

Birthday Shrimp

2010-05-16T14:10:00.005-04:00

Today is my husband's birthday and I made him a surf and turf lunch. Here is a fast and tasty way to prepare shrimp:

1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
pinch of cayenne pepper (we don't do spicy so use as much as you would like for a spicy kick)
2 tbls butter
2 tbls oilve oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup ginger ale
2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 lbs shrimp - peeled and deveined
salt, to taste

In a small bowl, stir together your dry ingredients - garlic, onion, thyme, sugar, basil, rosemary, paprika and cayenne.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, add olive oil. When the oil is hot add minced garlic; cook about 1 minute. Add the shrimp and cook for 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle shrimp with the spice mixture-use as much or as little as you like-and continue to cook and stir until shrimp is pink all over. Pour on the ginger ale and balsamic vinegar; simmer until shrimp is cooked through, about 1-2 minutes more. Taste and season with salt before serving.

Turkey Cutlets

2010-03-09T20:57:00.003-05:00

I've recently discovered the key to tasty poultry is brining. It works well on pork too, but I've mostly been using it for turkey and chicken which tend to dry out once it is thoroughly cook. Basically, a brine is a salt (and sometimes sugar) solution with the liquid usually being water. The meat is then placed in the solution where it then absorbs the water as the salt relaxes the muscle structure allowing it to retain more moisture during the cooking process thereby resulting in moister end product.

WOW, I sort of felt like Alton brown for a minute---but not completely. I did not go into how there are two positively charged ions in table salt and how they interact with the positive and negative protein molecules in meat (hence the relaxing of the meat structure).

So brining is awesome and you should try it! If you only have 20 minutes, brine! It will help.

On to the turkey cutlets....

1 package turkey breast cutlets (about 1 1/2lbs 1/4-1/2 inch thick)
1/4 cup table salt
4 cups cold water
gallon size ziplock bag

1 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs (approx 1 cup dried bread crumbs)
3/4 cup flour
2 eggs
1 tbsp olive oil, plus olive oil for frying

Add cold water to ziplock bag and dissolve 1/4 cup salt into the water. Add turkey cutlets and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Or if you're like me and wait to the last minute to thaw your meat, you can leave your bag on the counter top for the 30 minute period to finish thawing while brining.

While waiting for my turkey, I make my bread crumbs. I take 4-5 slices of white bread, cut into 1/2 inch cubes then put in the food processor and pulse a few times. You may certainly use dried bread crumbs (I've used both), I prefer the taste of fresh.

Prepare 3 dredging bowls-
1 with flour
1 with 2 eggs and 1 tbsp olive oil
1 with bread crumbs

Remove the turkey from the bag and place onto an absorbant cloth or paper towels. Press firmly to remove as much water as you can then allow to air dry for 10 minutes. Once they are dry, season with pepper if you would like (we don't) and prepare to dredge.

Add oil to your pan, you're looking to have enough oil to fully cover a cutlet halfway up the side. So if your cutlets are 1/4 thick then you need a smaller amount of oil than you would need for a 1/2 thick cutlet (this would be more like a flattened chicken breast). I usually start with 1/2 cup. Heat the oil over medium-high heat until rippling begins.

Now dredge lightly. The order is flour, egg, bread crumbs. Shake off any excess flour, you want a very thin coating. Use tongs to remove cutlets from egg and bread crumbs or you will quickly find that your fingertips are unusable.

Once oil is hot, add 3-4 pieces to the pan...don't overcrowd! leave plenty of room for each edge to brown. Once you see a deep golden brown color inching up the side of the cutlet, turn it over. This should only take a minute or two for very thin cutlets.

Continue to use the oil if you do not see dark brown bits adhering to your cutlets. I usually find I can get two batches out of 1/2 cup of oil. Beyond that, the bits in the pan are burning and don't taste so good on your turkey. If you need to do more than two batches or you're working with thicker cuts of meat, pour off the oil, wipe pan clean with paper towels and start again.

Beef Stew (aka Carnivore Euphoria)

2010-03-08T16:59:00.004-05:00

This is one of my most favorite dishes, ever! Do I say that a lot? :) But really I mean it this time. This is so good. I gave some to a friend and her husband and she sent me a thank you note telling me that is was so delicious, it was like carnivore euphoria. I thought that was the perfect explanation for this rich, meaty beef stew.

You will need a Dutch oven or a large overproof pot at least 6 quarts in size, but 8 quarts is preferable.

3lbs beef chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes
salt and pepper
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken broth
2 cups (approx 1 can) beef broth
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
4 medium red potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
4 large carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 cup frozen peas, thawed

Adjust your oven rack to accomodate your Dutch oven on the lower middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Thoroughly dry the beef with paper towels (this is crucial) then season generously with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tbsp oil in the oven-proof Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add half the meat so that the individual pieces are close but not touching, this allows you to perfectly brown each piece without stewing your meat.

Cook the meat until side touching the pan is well browned, 2-3 minutes. Using tongs, turn each piece and continue cooking until most sides are well browned, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer the beef to a medium bowl, add another 1 tbsp of oil to the pan and brown the remaining beef in the same manner, transfer to the bowl once brown.

Reduce heat to medium, add the remaining 1 tbsp oil to the Dutch oven. Add the onions and 1/4 tsp salt. Cook stirring frequently and vigorously, scraping the pot bottom with a wooden spoon to release the brown bits. Cook until onions are softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Stir in flour and cook until lightly colored, 1 to 2 minutes. Add 1 cup beef broth scraping up the remaining brown bits and stir until liquid is thick. Gradually add the remaining beef and chicken broth, stirring constantly and scraping the pan edges to dissolve all the flour. Add bay leaves and thyme, bring to a simmer. Add the meat and juices from the bowl, return to a simmer. Cover and place the pot in the oven. Cook for 1 hour.

Remove the pot, add potatoes and carrots, cover and return to oven. Cook until meat is just tender, about 1 hour. Remove the pot from the oven. Add peas, cover and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Serve immediately. If you're not serving immediately, omit the peas and refreigerate for up to three days. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, then add peas as instructed above.

Cherry Coulis

2010-03-08T13:58:00.005-05:00

My wonderful husband often runs errands for me and often brings back surprises that make me smile...usually food related :) One evening he brought home 6lbs of cherries. My children suddenly decided they did not like cherries and so I had to think quick! Cherry coulis came to mind. I first thought it would be nice over vanilla ice cream, then I was faced with planning a dish to take to cultural cooking with an Italian theme and Panna Cotta came to mind! I made this cherry coulis for a lovely sweet and tart resting place for the cold, creamy panna cotta.

1 cup fresh cherries
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons sugar

Cook fresh cherries in water to cover over medium heat until they are falling off the pits; drain.

Place in a small saucepan with water; add orange and lemon juices. Heat until warmed through.

Press through a fine sieve into a bowl. Stir in sugar while still hot. Stir until dissolved.

Panna Cotta

2010-03-08T13:08:00.005-05:00

This is my kind of recipe...simply, few ingredients and delicious!

This recipe comes from my New Best Recipes Cookbook that I have come to love and not be able to live without. My husband had purchased 6lbs of cherries and they were not pie cherries and I didn't know what to do with them. I decided to make a cherry coulis and panna cotta to serve with it (I think you would normally choose the panna cotta and then determine what to serve with it, but in this case I had too many cherries about to go to waste so my thought process was a bit backwards).

1 cup whole milk
2 3/4 tsp unflavored gelatin
3 cups heavy cream
1 piece vanilla bean, 2 inches long or 2 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt

Pour the milk into a medium saucepan; sprinkle the surface evenly with the gelatin and let stand for 10 minutes to hydrate the gelatin.

This is what hydrated gelatin looks like.

While waiting for your gelatin to hydrate, place 2 trays of ice cubes into a large bowl and add 4 cups of cold water.

Measure cream into a large measuring cup or pitcher. With a pairing knife, slit the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the vanilla seeds into the cream; place the pod in the cream along with the seeds and set the mixture aside.

Set eight 4 oz ramekins on a baking sheet. (I can count and I do know this is 12, not 8---I was taking this to a party where we were sampling a lot of Italian food so I opted for smaller portions in more ramekins)

Heat the milk and gelatin mixture over high heat, stirring constantly, until the gelatin is dissolved and the mixture registers 135 degrees on and instant read thermometer, about 1.5 minutes. Off the heat, add the sugar and salt; stir until dissolved, about 1 minute.

Stirring constantly, slowly pour the cream and vanilla into the saucepan of milk, then transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and set the bowl over the ice-water bath.

Stir frequently until the mixture thickens to the consistentcy of eggnog and registers 50 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 10 minutes.

Strain the mixture into a large measuring cup or pitcher, then divide it evenly among the ramekins. Cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic does not mar the surface of the cream; refrigerate until just set (the mixture should wobble when shaken gently), about 4 hours.

To serve, spoon some berry coulis onto each individual serving plate. Pour 1 cup boiling water into a small, wide-mouthed bowl, dip a ramekin filled with panna cotta into the water, count to 3, and lift the ramekin out of the water. With a moistened finger, lightly press the periphery of the panna cotta to lossen the edges. Dip the ramekin back in the hot water for another 3 count. Invert the ramekin over your palm and loosen the panna cotta by cupping your fingers between the panna cotta and the edge of the ramekin. Gently lower the panna cotta onto the serving plate with the coulis. Serve immediately.

What's Cooking in Sisters- February Edition

2010-03-03T12:06:00.001-05:00

We had planned to get together with my sisters-in-law the first Sunday in February and try recipes from the What's Cooking In Sisters Cookbook that Nick's grandma had given me years ago, but the Snowmagedden Twin Blizzards crushed that idea. We got 3 feet of snow in 5 days. Crazy! However, as I was snowed in with the ingredients and a lot of time on my hands I gave it a go. So here are the 2 recipes I tried: STRAWBERRY PRETZEL SALAD (PAGE 31), AND SKILLET MAC & CHEESE (PAGE 53)

STRAWBERRY PRETZEL SALAD (Nancy suggested 'salad' might be a stretch)

Layer 1:
2 1/2 C crushed pretzels (don't crush too finely)
3/4 C butter, melted
3 T sugar

Mix all intredients and put in the bottom of a 9x13" pan. Bake in preheated oven 400 for 8-10 minutes.

Layer 2:
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 C sugar
9 oz Cool Whip

Blend Cream cheese and sugar and fold in cool whip. Spread on cooled crust

Layer 3:
2 sm pkgs strawberry jello
2 C boiling water
2 pkgs (10 oz each) frozen strawberries

Dissolve jello in boiling water. Stir in frozen strawberries. When partially set, put over second layer. Refrigerate until set.

I've had this a zillion times at my moms house, but the addition of the frozen strawberries was new. I didn't like them- they were kind of a squishy texture, plus added quite a bit of expense. Leave out the strawberries and you'll be fine. And please serve as more of a dessert.

SKILLET MACARONI AND CHEESE
1/4 C butter
2 C uncooked elbow macaroni
1/2 C onion, chopped
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp oregano, dried
1/4 tsp dry mustard
2 C water
1 1/2 T flour
1 can evaporated milk
2 C sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 T minced parsley, dried.

Turn electric skillet to 200 and melt butter. Add macaroni, onion, salt, pepper, oregano and dry mustard. Turn heat to 260 and cook, stirring occasionally for 5-7 minutes, or until onion looks clear. Add water and bring to a boil. Cover the mac and simmer at 200 for 6-12 minutes or until the mac is tender. Sprinkle flour over the mac mix and stir to mix well. Stir in the evap milk and shredded cheese. Simmer 5 min longer at 200 or until the cheese completely melts. Stir occasionally while it cooks. Sprinkle with parsley and serve. Serves 6.

First, I never put parsley in any recipe, ever. So I don't know if that adds anything or not. I didn't have dry mustard so used yellow mustard,and I threw in about twice what it asked for (I figured, heck! I like mustard!). That did make it have a mustardy flavor which wasnt' bad, but was there. And I think the sharp cheddar made it too zippy- I'd go more mild next time. I didn't have oregano so used italian seasonings.

Be aware this might be best served on paper plates as it hardens into a cementy glue that is impossible to remove unless it is severely scraped. I didn't have a electric skillet so just used a frying pan on top of the stove. We thought it was ok on a snowy afternoon.

Cream of Tomato Soup

2010-01-19T20:59:00.003-05:00

I received a fabulous Christmas gift and have been using it a lot. The New Best Recipe Cookbook is my new favorite toy. It is 1000+ pages of recipe goodness, but it goes beyond the recipe---they do all the testing for you and explain why they use particular methods, which brands worked out best and how to shortcut without sacrificing flavor and texture. It's like Alton Brown in text and without all the goofy themes and gadgets.

This cookbook has become my go-to for anything! You'll be seeing lots of recipes based off this book (I still change things, slightly...it's my nature).

Cream of Tomato Soup
Serves 8

4 (28oz) cans whole tomatoes packed in juice (NOT in puree), drained, 6 cups juice reserved
3 tablespoons brown sugar
8 tablespoon (1 stick) butter
5 large shallots, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
pinch ground allspice
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
salt, to taste

1. Heat oven to 450. Prepare tomatoes for roasting. With your fingers, carefully open the whole tomatoes over a strainer set in a bowl and push out the seeds, allowing juices to fall through the strainer into the bowl. Arrange seeded tomatoes in a single layer on two foil-lined rimmed baking sheet.

NOTE: The foil is essential; it keeps the tomatoes from scorching and sticking to the baking sheet.

2. Once seeded tomatoes are on the foil-lined baking sheets, sprinkle evenly with brown sugar. Bake until all liquid has evaporated and tomatoes begin to color, about 30 minutes. Let the tomatoes cool slightly, then peel them off the foil.

3. Heat butter in a large pot over medium heat until foaming. Add the shallots, tomato paste and allspice. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook, stirring occasionally until shallots are softened, 7-10 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds. Whisking constantly, gradually add chicken broth; stir in reserved tomato juice and roasted tomatoes. Cover, increase heat to medium, bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Strain the mixture into a bowl, reserving the liquid and putting solids and about 1 cup of liquid back in the pot. Using an immersion blender, puree until smooth. Add remaining strained liquid back to the pot and combine. Add the cream and warm over low heat until hot, about 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

May be refrigerator for up to 2 days, warm over low hear until hot, do not boil.

Original recipe called for:

(1) 3.5 cups of chicken stock and 6 cups of reserved tomato juice. I happen to have 3 cups of chicken stock on hand and did not want to open another can for only 1/2 cup. So when my tomato juice measured out at 6 3/4 cups I just threw it all in. I would say use 2 (14 oz) cans of chicken stock for ease of use.

(2) dark brown sugar, but I had light brown sugar on hand...no biggie.

(3) cayenne pepper was optional, as you probably know, my family doesn't do spice so I left this out. Kick it up however you'd like. I add fresh ground black pepper to my bowl so that I'm not contaminating the entire pot.

(4) 4 tablespoons Brandy or dry sherry was to be added after adding cream and removing from heat. I don't cook with these so I omitted.

(5) 8 shallots were called for, but after chopping up 5 large shallots, I was done! 5 was more than enough, unless you really enjoy mincing up these little eyeball burners.

Monkey Bread

2010-01-01T09:31:00.000-05:00

Monkey Bread by Jackie Gerland
page 57 What's Cooking In Sisters cookbook

I'm not even going to post the real recipe. It was not a hit for me. It is a yeast bread and involves letting it rise twice. The dough was so sticky I couldn't roll it in sugar so kind of put little parts in the pan and sprinkled the cinnamon sugar on it. Results were not nearly sugary enough.

This is the tried and true recipe I've had a zillion times that is so much easier (compliments of the good folks over at Pillsbury)

2 cans refrigerated biscuits
1/2c sugar
1t cinnamon
1 c brown sugar
3/4 c butter or margarine, melted
1/2 c chopped walnuts and/or raisins if desired

Heat oven to 350. Lightly grease a bundt pan with cooking spray. In large plastic bag mix white sugar and cinnamon. Cut biscuits into quarters, place in bag and shake to coat. Arrange in pan adding raisins and walnuts among biscuit pieces. In small bown, mix brown sugar and butter, pour over all. Bake 28- 32 mintues until golden brown. Cool in pan 10 minutes, turn upside down onto serving plate. Pull apart to serve; serve warm.

Italian Stuffed Mushrooms

2010-01-01T09:24:00.003-05:00

Ala Julie and Julia I thought it might be kind of fun to cook my way through a cookbook that my husband's grandma had given me a long time ago. It was put together by the Friends of the Library in Sister's Oregon and is kind of kitchy. She died recently, so I thought it would be a good way to remember her and then also my sisters in law are all foodies so thought it would be a fun way to be closer to them, as well.

The What's Cooking in Sisters cookbook has some funny recipes (How to Catch A Cowboy, page 98) and some old classics I already know (Strawberry Pretzel Salad page 31). Some of the recipes have funny comments (in a vegetable soup recipe the instructions include "to make this recipe low fat, add less bacon)

We started last night with the first recipe on the first page. One thing you will find about me is I never follow a recipe exactly. I either don't have all the ingredients or I think I can improve it somehow. I'll put the correct recipe first and then my variations to follow.

Italian Stuffed Mushrooms (Funghi Imbotitti) by Steve Prince
What's Cooking in Sisters page 1

6tsp butter or margarine
1/2 C unseasoned bread crumbs
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
6 tsp onion, finely chopped
2 tsp. parsley, finely chopped
4 tsp parmesan cheese, grated
olive oil
24 fresh mushroom caps

Melt butter in pan. Add bread crumbs and garlic and mix. Transfer to a bowl. Add onion, parsley and cheese; mix. Fill mushroom caps.

Lightly oil bottom of a glass casserole dish. Put in filled mushroom caps. Bake in preheated 325 oven approx. 30 minutes. IF you have put too much oil in dish and they are oily place on paper towel before serving. Will serve 6 people 4 caps apiece.

Buon appetito!

(Emily's variations- I used Pam instead of olive oil and left out the parsley. I didn't do the transfer to a bowl and ended up with maybe 30 mushrooms since some were real small)

We thought this was pretty good! We served them at the New Year's Eve gathering at Brooks house last night. I do have a photo but my card reader isn't working right now so I'll post it later

Turkey Pie

2009-12-18T20:51:00.009-05:00

Even though we weren't home for Thanksgiving and did not even have turkey on that day, my father-in-law ensured we would have turkey leftovers. God bless him! He put three plates of turkey meat in the freezer and I decided to make a turkey pie from one plate. DELISH!

I wish I could provide exact amount for you, but I was working with what I had and it was at the last minute so here are the basics.

about 3 cups of turkey meat chopped

1 carrot, thinly sliced

1 stalk of celery, thinly sliced

1/2 small onion, finely chopped

salt and pepper, to taste

dash of garlic powder

4 tbsp butter, separated

2 tbsp flour

3/4-1 cup milk

1 tsp dried thyme

1 small can of turkey gravy

pie dough for top and bottom crust (see my quiche recipe for basic dough and notes before for added touches)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare pie pan or casserole with half of the pie crust dough. I added 2-3 tbsp Pecorino Romano cheese, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp thyme, and 1/2 tsp marjoram to the flour before making the pie crust. I would have liked to add rosemary, but I was out.

Heat 2 tbsp butter in a large pan. Add onions, carrot, celery, garlic powder salt and pepper and cook over medium heat until veggies begin to become tender.

Add turkey and remaining 2 tbsp of butter.

When butter has melted, sprinkle 2 tbsp of flour over the entire mixture and stir to incorporate.

Let flour cook for 1-2 minutes without burning, then add milk and stir quickly. Add thyme and 1/2-3/4 cup gravy. You're looking for a thick consistency, but not too thick so add more gravy if necessary.

Put turkey mixture into prepared pie crust, cover with pie crust and add 4-5 slits in the top crust to vent steam.

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then drop oven temperature to 350 and bake for 20-30 minutes until top crust is brown. I keep a baking stone in my oven to help ensure the center of my pie crust is not soggy and raw, but crispy and brown just like the sides.

Things I would change

My husband missed having potatoes in the pot pie. I did not. If I were making this for my husband, I would add a bit more gravy or make more sauce and add some cooked potatoes to the pie. I actually took my first bite and thought, "This is missing peas...not potatoes" I like the meatiness of the pie and that it wasn't all sauce and veggies. But if you really like sauce and veggies, adjust for your tastes. I would have probably used chicken broth if I had had it instead of the gravy. I just wanted to make sure there was plenty of flavor as turkey can be a bit bland when paired up with strong flavors like onion and celery.

Kathy's Karamel Korn

2009-12-16T20:33:00.006-05:00

When I delivered the Peanut Butter and Chocolate Rice Krispies to our friend John, his wife Kathy lent me her air pop popcorn machine so I could make her famous Karamel Korn. This is delicious!

6 quarts popped popcorn
2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
2 sticks butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Heat oven to 200 degrees. Mix all the ingredients besides the baking soda is a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring constantly. Boil and stir until mixture reaches 260 degrees (about five minutes). Remove from heat and thoroughly but quickly stir in baking soda. Pour syrup over popped corn and stir until all corn is coated with mixture. Pour on two cookie sheets sprayed with no-stick PAM. Bake at 200 degrees for 1 hour, stirring two or three times. Turn out and let cool completely. Break apart and store in a tightly covered container.

You can also use this recipe for popcorn balls. Omit baking step and form balls of syrup coated popcorn (but don't burn yourself!)

Enjoy!

Thanks Kathy, this was GREAT! My husband requested that I put some almonds in the next batch, which I think was an excellent suggestion. I'll probably toast them beforehand. I've even considered drizzling a little chocolate on it.

Peanut Butter Cup meets Rice Krispie Treat

2009-12-15T14:52:00.004-05:00

I heard our friend John really likes Rice Krispie Treats and since we've been baking treats for all of our friends all month I wanted to make something he liked. However, I'm not a fan of Rice Krispie Treats. I can eat them, but I don't love them.

I found a recipe for peanut butter krispie treats with chocolate chips. This sounded like something I would like as I adore peanut butter and chocolate together. However, I do not like chocolate chips unless they're melty and soft so I changed the recipe a bit and this is what it resulted in:

Ingredients:

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

8 cups Rice Krispie cereal

1 - 1 1/2 cups of chocolate for melting

Directions:

Measure cereal into a large bowl with plenty of room for stirring.

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine peanut butter, sugar and corn syrup. I did not bring this to a full boil, but there were bubbles on the side of my pan. I cooked long enough for the sugar crystals to dissolve.

Pour peanut butter mixture over cereal and mix completely. Spread into a 13X9 pan coated with cooking spray.

Melt chocolate and drizzle or evenly spread over the peanut butter krispies.

Now, I must admit....I looked in my pantry and was stunned to find I was out of chocolate chips. This never happens! So I went to the shelf with the chocolate stash and found a Kron Bunny that was missing his tail and part of an ear and decided it was perfect for chopping up and melting down. I LOVE Kron and if you've never had it, you should try it. The truffles are my favorite! We keep them in the freezer and then pull them out one by one as a little treat. Anyway, I've used bits and pieces of different Kron sculptures we've had for melting and dipping because you can't buy this kind of chocolate at the grocery and it sure is tasty.

We used a gingerbread boy shaped pan and using royal icing we decorated him with m&m's.

This was perfect for me! It tasted like a peanut butter cup, one of my favorite sweets, but this really fulfilled my love for something to chew on. I love sweets, but I'm picky about the sweets I eat because I like texture and part of my enjoyment from food comes from being able to chew it. I love pastries versus candy because of it's texture.

Bottom Round Roast with onions

2009-12-14T11:22:00.006-05:00

This is quick, easy, few ingredients and tasty!

For roast
1 tbsp olive oil
1 (4 pound) bottom round roast
salt and pepper to taste
2 -3 large onions, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup red wine vinegar

For gravy
2 tbsp flour
1 cup cold water

In the bottom of a large pot with a lid, add 1 tbsp olive oil and heat over medium high heat. Season your roast on all sides with salt and pepper and add to the hot oil. Brown all sides of the roast...be patient, wait for it to brown. You can't recreate the flavor from browning later in the cooking process so do it right in the beginning.

Once the roast is brown all over, remove the roast from the pan and add onions and garlic (I just hold the roast up with tongs and have my husband add the onions and garlic from my cutting board). Place the roast on top of the onions. Sprinkle dried thyme over the roast and onions, add bay leaf and vinegar to the bottom of the pot. Place a tight lid on the pot and simmer until roast is done...avoid removing the lid! The onions are create a lot of moisture which can eventually be made into a gravy, but if you take the lid off the steam/moisture leaves the pot and you end up with a dry roast and burnt onions.

Done is a relative term and could take varying amounts of time so what I do is use my digital oven thermometer (click link to see the type of thermometer I'm referring to). I run the thermometer probe through the steam vent on my pot lid and set the alert for 145 degrees. Once the alarm goes off (in this case about 2 hours), I remove the roast and onions then cover with foil to keep warm.

For Gravy:
Add 2 tbsp of flour to 1 cup of cold water and stir completely. Slowly add this to the juices in the pot, bring to a boil then simmer until desired thickness.

What I would change?
Not much would I change about this roast. However, I would like to try balsamic vinegar next time and we love onions so the more onions the better, in my opinion.

Potato and Ham soup

2009-12-03T12:12:00.009-05:00

I'm back on a roll! I am cooking again and it feels so good. Yesterday I made cinnamon rolls and yeast rolls from the beauty of bread post and then made a lovely potato soup with the ham bone from Thanksgiving.

Usually if I have a ham bone then I make a pot of beans but since the baby and I are usually the only ones to eat them, I thought I would try something different with the ham bone. This turned out great.

1 ham bone
water
5 potatoes, peeled and diced
2 medium onions, chopped into large sections
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 carrots, diced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup heavy cream

olive oil

salt and pepper

ground nutmeg

In a large pot I placed the ham bone, about 2 tbs olive oil, chopped onions and salt. I sauteed the onions and ham to get some of those nice brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Once the onions became translucent I added 12 cups of water, brought to a boil and then simmered for 2 hours.

Remove the ham bone, pull off any meat and chop into bite-size pieces. Discard ham bone and add ham back to pot. Add celery, carrots, potatoes, salt (remember the ham will be salty so don't over salt) and pepper. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer for 40 minutes.

Mix flour and 1/4 cup water then slowly pour into the soup while constantly stirring soup. Cook for another 5 minutes, add cream then remove from heat. Sprinkle a little nutmeg on each serving.

This was a thin potato soup so in the future I would consider removing some potatoes, mashing them and then returning them to the pot. However, I would also like to add some cut up cabbage that would serve as a filler and my husband added some shredded cheddar which also thickened it a bit. I think for personal taste I would add some thyme and maybe even some coriander, you know how I love the combination of these two!

Cranberry Pecan Pie

2009-12-02T16:36:00.008-05:00

This is my favorite pie. I even adapted it to make a bar cookie with a shortbread base when I didn't want pie but wanted the cranberries and pecan goodness.

1 9 inch pie crust
1 1/2 cup cranberries
3 eggs
2/3 cup white sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup pecan halves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Finely chop cranberries in food processor or by hand. Spread into bottom of pastry-lined pie pan.

In a large bowl beat eggs until frothy. Add sugar, corn syrup, melted butter or margarine, vanilla, allspice, and salt. Mix well.

Pour mixture over cranberry layer. Neatly arrange pecan halves on top of sugar mixture.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, until golden and set in center.

Perfect Pie Crust

2009-12-02T16:27:00.005-05:00

I wish I could express how flakey and delicious this pie crust is and there is no picture that can capture how delightful this crust is in your mouth, but here is a picture of the pie crust being used for my pumpkin pie.

I've never made good pie crust...I don't understand baking very well. So I did what any smart cook would do, I asked my friends for help :) My friend Sarah really came through for me on this one! She shared this recipe from The New Best Recipes.

Enough for double crust

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 T sugar
1/2 cup shortening, chilled
12 T cold unsalted butter cut into 1/4 inch pieces
6-8 T ice water
(I put everything in the freezer for about 40 minutes, including the flour)

In food processor: flour salt sugar, until combined.

Add Shortening. Process until like coarse sand. (10 seconds) scatter butter over mixture. Cut the butter in until pale yellow and coarse crumbs. (No bits larger than small pea - 10, 1 second pulses).

Put in med bowl. Sprinkle 6 T water over mixture. Fold in with rubber spatula. Press down on dough with spat until the dough sticks together. Add up to 2 T water as needed.

Divide dough into balls and flatten into 4 in disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour up to 2 days.

The key I found to all of this is COLD everything.

I used powder sugar instead of granulated sugar and after rolling out the dough and putting in the pie plate, I put the crust in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes before baking. This crust turned out beautiful! It was flakey and buttery and just delicious.

Pumpkin Pie

2009-12-02T16:12:00.003-05:00

I know it has been a long time since I've posted anything, but we've been sick since September and we've been living on macaroni and cheese from a box and chicken nuggets from the freezer. I'm not proud of it, but it is reality.

I did make 2 pies for Thanksgiving and I must say, they were outstanding! The first of which is pumpkin pie from a fresh pumpkin. This makes the most perfect pumpkin pie! And even though you're suppose to refrigerate overnight, ours was eaten within hours. It was a little soft and I could definitely see that it firm up overnight, but we couldn't wait.

UPDATE: I made this again tonight and only had 1 cup of cream instead of 1 1/2 cups. This fixed the firmness issue and allowed me to eat it a few hours after making it rather than having it set up in the refrigerator overnight. So I'm adjusting the recipe to reflect the change in cream.

I'll add the recipes for the pie crust that I used and for making your own pumpkin pie spice.

1 sugar pumpkin
1 9 inch pie crust
2 eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 cup heavy cream

1. Prepare pumpkin - Cut pumpkin in half and remove seeds. Place cut side down on a cookie sheet lined with lightly oiled aluminum foil. Bake at 325 degrees F for 45 minutes, or until the flesh is tender when poked with a fork. Cool until just warm. Scrape the pumpkin flesh from the peel. Puree in small batches with an immersion blender.

2. Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees F.

3. In a large bowl, slightly beat eggs. Add brown sugar, flour, salt, 2 cups of the pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, and heavy cream. Stir well after each addition.

4. Pour mixture into the unbaked pastry shell. Place a strip of aluminum foil around the edge of the crust to prevent over browning.

5. Bake 10 minutes at 450 degrees F, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake an additional 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Remove the strip of foil about 20 minutes before the pie is done so that the edge of the crust will be a light golden brown.

6. Cool pie, and refrigerate overnight for best flavor.

Slow Roasted Tomato Soup

2009-08-27T10:17:00.008-04:00

We have an abundance of fresh tomatoes popping up in our garden. My large heirloom tomatoes are not doing well, but the cherry tomatoes are sort of like weeds, they're everywhere! With bowls upon bowls of cherry tomatoes, I decided to make a roasted tomato soup. I found this recipe at Alexandra's Kitchen. She has gorgeous pictures of this soup and a new website if you would like to see what she is currently working on. This is simple, delicious and easily tweaked for your own tastes.

Ingredients
Tomatoes - large or small
onion, cut into quarters or eighths
head of garlic, broken and peeled
baby carrots
olive oil
salt (I prefer kosher)
black pepper
dried thyme
chicken stock or broth
coriander
loaf of french bread

Directions
If using cherry tomatoes you may leave whole but quarter your large tomatoes. Remove as many seeds as you can, as the seeds are bitter. With cherry tomatoes, you can cut a small hole in the top of the tomato and gently push on the bottom of the tomato to remove seeds easily.

The ingredient quantities are based on your supply and personal tastes. Spread tomatoes on sheet pan (I had enough tomatoes to fill two sheet pans). Add onion cut into quarters or eighths and cloves of garlics. Add a handful of baby carrots to each pan of tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, thyme and drizzle with olive oil. Toss to coat everything in oil.

Roast veggies in the oven at 300 degrees for 3 hours until everything is brown and caramelly. Dump contents of the sheet pan into a large pot, add about 2 cups of chicken broth or stock, approximately 2-3 tsp of coriander and 2-3 slices of dried french bread broken into small pieces (you can slice it and dry it on the counter or for quicker drying you can lightly toast it in the oven or in a toaster).

Using an immersion blender, blend everything together. Taste and adjust for your personal preference. Add salt, more coriander, black pepper, fresh basil, etc. You can leave a little chunky or make it smooth.

Last night, I served this with a spoonful of sour cream and a piece of toasted french bread. However, I like it with a bit of basil pesto stirred in, as well. My husband enjoys a little heavy cream in his to mellow the tomato flavor. And what isn't enhanced by some shaved Parmesan?

Once I purchase a new camera, I'll take pictures of the process to show you how easy this is and how delicious it looks!

Herbed Salmon Fillets

2009-07-28T18:25:00.002-04:00

2 tbls lemon juice
1 tbls Worcestershire sauce
6 (4 oz.) salmon fillets
2 tbls bread crumbs
2 tbls grated Romano cheese
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried oregano
½ tsp dried tarragon
½ tsp dried marjoram
Cooking spray
1 tbls butter

Combine lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce in a small bowl. Place fillets in an 11-x7-x2-inch baking dish; pour lemon juice mixture over fillets. Cover and marinate in refrigerator 1 hour.

Combine bread crumbs and next 5 ingredients in a small bowl; set aside.
Remove fillets from marinade; discard marinade.

Coat a large non-stick skillet with cooking spray; add butter. Place over medium-high heat until butter melts. Add fillets, and cook 1 to 2 minutes per side or until lightly browned.

Transfer fillets to an 11-x7-x2-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle bread crumb mixture evenly over fillets. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.
Transfer to serving dishes accompanied by your favorite side (I served ours with fettuccine alfredo).

Hawaiian Turkey Burgers

2009-07-27T08:47:00.003-04:00

1/2 CUP RED OR GREEN BELL PEPPER, CHOPPED
1 TEASPOON FRESH GINGER ROOT, CHOPPED
1/2 CUP THINLY SLICED GREEN ONIONS
1 POUND GROUND TURKEY
1/2 CUP DRY BREAD CRUMBS
1 CAN (8 OUNCES) PINEAPPLE SLICES, RESERVING JUICE
1/2 TEASPOON SALT
1 CUP TERIYAKI SAUCE
4 HAMBURGER BUNS

FINELY CHOP RED PEPPER AND GINGER ROOT. IN A BOWL, COMBINE RED PEPPER, GINGER ROOT, GREEN ONIONS, GROUND TURKEY, BREAD CRUMBS, 1/4 CUP PINEAPPLE JUICE AND SALT, MIX GENTLY BUT THOROUGHLY. FORM MEAT MIXTURE INTO FOUR 1/2 INCH THICK PATTIES. GRILL OVER MEDIUM COALS 10-12 MINUTES OR UNTIL MEAT IS NO LONGER PINK AND INTERNAL TEMPERATURE REACHES 165 DEGREE F. TURN BURGERS ONCE DURING COOKING. BASTE WITH TERIYAKI SAUCE USING PASTRY BRUSH THE LAST 2 MINUTES OF GRILLING. GRILL PINEAPPLE SLICES 5 MINUTES, BASTING WITH TERIYAKI SAUCE GRILL BUNS TO WARM, SERVE BURGERS ON BUNS, TOP WITH PINEAPPLE SLICE.

TO BROIL, SPRAY BROILER PAN WITH VEGETABLE OIL SPRAY. BROIL 4-6 INCHES FROM HEAT 10-12 MINUTES OR UNTIL MEAT IS NO LONGER PINK. BASTE WITH TERRIYAKI SAUCE BEFORE TURNING FIRST TIME, BASTE TOP AFTER REMOVING FROM THE OVEN.

SLOW ROASTED CAROLINA PULLED PORK

2009-07-21T07:23:00.002-04:00

This is Amandas Aunt Junes recipe. It is really a great meal.
The slaw is a must for great BBQ. It must be a North Carolina thing because you don't see it (or at least I haven't) anywhere else.
I hope you enjoy.

SLOW ROASTED CAROLINA PULLED PORK

1 – 8 1/2 LB. PICNIC PORK SHOULDER (WITH BONE) BOSTON BUTT
1/4 CUP BETTER THAN BASIC BARBECUE RUB

PUT PICNIC PORK SHOULDER IN A LARGE ROASTING PAN. RUB ALL OVER WITH BETTER THAN BASIC BARBECUE RUB AND LET STAND AT ROOM TEMPERATURE FOR 1 HOUR.

PREHEAT OVEN TO 300 DEGREE AND INSERT A MEAT THERMOMETER INTO THICKEST PART OF ROAST. COVER PORK SHOULDER AND PAN SNUGLY WITH FOIL AND COOK UNTIL TEMPERATURE OF PORK REACHES 180 DEGREE ABOUT 5 HOURS.

REMOVE PORK FROM OVEN AND LET STAND UNTIL COOL ENOUGH TO HANDLE. RESERVE ANY PAN JUICES.

REMOVE AND DISCARD PORK SKIN. USING 2 LARGE FORKS, SHRED MEAT AND THEN TRANSFER PULLED PORK TO A LARGE POT. POUR RESERVED PAN JUICES INTO POT ALL OVER PULLED PORK.

BETTER THAN BASIC BARBECUE RUB

IN A SMALL BOWL, STIR TOGETHER
1/2 CUP SUGAR,
6 TBSP. KOSHER SALT,
1/4 CUP SWEET PAPRIKA,
2 TBS. HOT PAPRIKA,
2 TBS.CHILI POWER,
1 TBS. DRY MUSTARD,
1/2 TSP. CAYENNE AND
1/2 TSP. BLACK PEPPER

BLEND WELL. STORE IN A GLASS JAR UP FOR TO 6 MONTHS. ( I USE McCORMICK GRILL MATES PORK RUB).

BARBECUE SLAW

3/4 TSP. SALT,
1/4 TSP. RED PEPPER,
1 TSP. BLACK PEPPER,
6 1/2 TBSP. SUGAR,
2 LBS. CABBAGE (1 MED. HEAD),SHREDDED
1/4 C. KETCHUP,
3 TBSP. CIDER VINEGAR.

MIX TOGETHER SALT, RED PEPPER, BLACK PEPPER AND SUGAR. TOSS WITH THE CABBAGE. ADD KETCHUP AND VINEGAR AND TOSS AGAIN.

Layered Fruit Salad

2009-07-20T21:00:00.004-04:00

I know I'm being a slacker with my recipe posts lately but it's the summer and I'm barely cooking these days. However, I've been using some delicious recipes and felt I should be sharing them so you can get great reviews at your summer parties, too.

I made this fruit salad for 2 cook outs in the month of July and it was a hit at both. Once again, my father-in-law is dieting so I wanted to make a fruit salad he could eat but allow other people to dress it up a bit if they weren't watching the scale. So here is my layered fruit salad:

Seasonal fruits and berries of your choice cut into bite size pieces
I used different fruits for each salad, but cantaloupe was a favorite in both

Creamy topping
8oz cream cheese softened
2 cups vanilla, low-fat yogurt
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tblsp brown sugar

Crunchy Topping
2 1/2 cups crispy rice cereal
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the cereal and nuts onto a baking pan. Stir in the brown sugar and butter. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until toasty. Stir occasionally. Set aside to cool.

Mix cream cheese, yogurt, brown sugar and flavorings in food processor until thoroughly combined. (I was never able to get it completely lump free, but was not a big deal).

When preparing fruit, be sure to coat apples and pears in a little lemon juice or pineapple juice to prevent browning and add sliced bananas just before serving.

To serve place cut up fruit into individual serving bowl, top with cream then sprinkle with crunchy granola like topping.

NOTE: I used a plain puffed rice cereal for one batch of the crunchy topping and although it was tasty, the airy cereal soaked up a lot of butter. I would suggest sticking with the crispy rice (such as Rice Krispies brand).

1 Pan Cubed Steak Meal

2009-07-20T20:39:00.005-04:00

My mother-in-law bought some cubed steak and threw it in the freezer. I decided to give it a whirl...not a cut of meat I would normally purchase, but I figured it can't be that hard to use, right? I also had a zucchini our neighbor brought over from his garden and I definitely did not want to waste homegrown goodness!

Growing up in the south we breaded and fried everything. I ate lots of cubed steak growing up....dusted in flour, salt and pepper then cooked in a pan full of butter or vegetable oil until tender and soaked in oil. And then it gets even better when you make a pan gravy from the drippings and pour right on top of that fried cube steak, YUMMY! But not so good for my waist line so that is the real reason I don't purchase cubed steak.

My father-in-law is on the Scarsdale Diet and since I do the cooking around our house I decided to find a diet friendly way to prepare this meat....he's a meat eater, BIG fan of meat so this meal pleased his tummy.

2 portions of cubed steak (my package was about .8 lbs)
small onion, sliced into rings
zucchini, diced in 1 inch cubes
Worcestershire sauce
Dijon mustard
salt and pepper, to taste
cooking spray

I lightly sprayed the bottom of a non-stick fry pan with a touch of cooking spray, heated the pan to medium high and seasoned both sides of the meat with salt and pepper. Placed my meat into the hot pan and browned each side (only browned, you're not trying to cook it through). Once brown, remove steak from your pan and place on a plate that can collect the juices that will pool while the meat rests.

After removing the steak from the pan, add onions and zucchini and season to taste with salt and pepper. Since we're not using a fat to cook the veggies, you will need to add some water to keep your pan and food from becoming a charred mess. While your veggies are cooking, slather 1 tsp Dijon mustard on each steak (this will help to evenly distribute the mustard when you add the steak back to the pan). Cook until onions and zucchini are just becoming tender.

Place steak in the pan and add all juices from the plate. Add 2tsp Worcestershire sauce to the pan and cook until veggies and meat are cooked through (5 minutes or so depending on thickness of steak). You may continue to add water here to ensure even mixture of sauce.

I served this with a side salad and it made a quick, easy and tasty dinner! I was happy to find another diet dish to add to my favorites menu.

Flank Steak

2009-05-10T07:46:00.005-04:00

The flank steak is probably my most favorite cut of beef. It is super lean, always tender (when cooked and sliced properly) and can be cooked inside the oven or outside on the grill. The flank steak comes from the belly muscle of a cow; it should have a bright red color and lean as this is a well-exercised part of the cow. You should always cut across the grain when serving! Your flank steak should be rectangular in shape so cut down at an angle on the short side of the meat to ensure easy chewing. You should be able see the long lines in this cut of meat. Do not cut along those lines, cut perpendicular to them on diagonal. You can also help tenderize it by using an acid in a marinade (vinegar, lemon juice, tomato, pineapple).

Speaking of marinades, here is my favorite marinade for flank steak, of course I do not follow this recipe exactly so here is how I use the recipe.

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1/3 cup soy sauce

• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

• 1 heaping tablespoon Dijon mustard

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

• 1 1/2 pounds flank steak

1. In a medium bowl, mix the oil, soy sauce, vinegar, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic, and ground black pepper. Place meat in a shallow glass dish. Pour marinade over the steak, turning meat to coat thoroughly. Cover, and refrigerate for 6 hours.

2. Preheat grill for medium-high heat.

3. Oil the grill grate. Place steaks on the grill, and discard the marinade. Grill meat for 7-10 minutes per side, or to desired doneness.

For increased tenderness and less marinating time I vacuum seal about half the marinade with the steak and only need to marinade about 3 hours. If marinading in a zip bag or covered container use the full 6 hours and consider as much as 8 hours. You can also broil this in the oven when grilling is not an option.

Thinly sliced flank steak makes an excellent protein for salad, fajitas and our favorite is to coarse chop and put in two tortillas with monterey jack and cheddar cheeses and carmelized onions, cook in frying pan on both sides to crisp tortillas and melt cheese...YUM!

Spaghetti Bake

2009-04-24T22:00:00.005-04:00

My family really likes this and I love it because it's super simple and few pots/pans to clean.

There's no real measurements nor necessary items, put in your favorites with a few shelf staples and viola!

1 small box of spaghetti noodles, cooked
1lbs ground beef, cooked and drained
1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce
3/4 cup sour cream (MUST have this ingredient or substitute with some cottage cheese)
various shredded cheeses (sharp cheddar and mozzarella make a good combo)
1/2 tsp dried marjoram

optional items
sliced mushrooms
onions
diced pepper
black olives

Cook noodles, drain and set aside. Cook ground beef , with diced onion and sliced mushrooms if you would like and you may season with salt and garlic powder. Mix sauce, beef, noodle and sour cream together. Stir in shredded cheddar (1.5 cups or so) and some Parmesan if you have it on hand. Pour into a 9X13 pan, top with marjoram, shredded mozzarella (1 cup or so) and additional Parmesan if you would like. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

Easy peasy and tasty!

Ham Leftovers

2009-04-12T23:34:00.003-04:00

I believe ham may be one of the two most popular meats on the table at Easter (lamb being the other). With so many having ham on this most special of holidays, I thought we could share our favorite ham leftovers.

So please share your favorite use for left over ham...here are a few of mine. I have previously provided my favorite use of a ham bone and another favorite for leftover ham is quiche. We had quite a bit of left over ham today so my husband requested ham salad....YUM!

Here is my not so specific ham salad recipe:

Put into to your food processor -

2 handfuls of ham chunks (I used plain smoked ham, not glazed or spiced ham)
1 slight tblsp diced onion
6 small gherkins and a bit of the pickle juice
3/4 cup mayonnaise or to taste
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

Process until desired chunkiness and thoroughly mixed. Leave in the refrigerator overnight for superb flavor!

Banana Muffins

2009-04-08T12:03:00.004-04:00

We had some overripe bananas that needed to be used so I made some deliciously moist and dense banana muffins! These muffins have a delicious banana flavor without being overpowered with spices. And because they're so moist, no need to slather with butter or cream cheese.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup bread flour
1 cup grounds oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups mashed overripe bananas (about 4 bananas)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease muffin pan (makes approximately 18 muffins).

Process oats for 30-45 seconds in your food processor to a course flour. Then combine in a large bowl with flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in vanilla, eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Could be made into a loaf, just adjust pan size to 9X5 loaf and baking time to around 1 hour. If you like nuts, toss in some chopped walnuts or chocolate chips. But in my opinion, these are perfect as written!

I don't have a camera as my husband has it at work taking pictures for his portfolio. If the muffins last until the end of the day when he gets home I'll try to snag a pic for you.

Chicken Parmesan

2009-04-01T20:14:00.004-04:00

This recipe comes from Bon Appetit magazine. A friend made this for us and my husband could not get enough. He's been asking for me to make this for some time, now. He even used one of his special dinner coupons that I gave him for our anniversary.

This recipe actually comes from Otto, Mario Batali's NY Pizzeria. It is so delicious, as is! This might be one recipe I'll never tinker with.

Ingredients

Basic Tomato Sauce
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 3/4 cups chopped onions
4 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 cup coarsely grated peeled carrots
3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
2 28-ounce cans peeled whole tomatoes in juice

Chicken
10 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
3 cups fresh breadcrumbs (from crustless French bread ground in processor)
2 large eggs
1 cup (about) all purpose flour
6 tablespoons (or more) olive oil, divided
3 cups coarsely grated well-drained fresh water-packed mozzarella,* divided
1 1/4 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 1/4 cups freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese, divided
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh marjoram

Preparation

basic tomato sauce

Heat olive oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic; sauté until onions are soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Add carrots and thyme; sauté until carrots are soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes with juice; bring to boil, coarsely crushing tomatoes with potato masher or fork. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until sauce thickens and is reduced to generous 5 cups, about 1 hour. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper. DO AHEAD Sauce can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly. Chill uncovered until cold, then cover and keep refrigerated. Rewarm sauce before using.

chicken

Place chicken breast halves between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Using meat mallet or rolling pin, pound chicken breasts to 1/3-inch thickness. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with salt and pepper. Spread breadcrumbs on plate. Whisk eggs to blend in medium bowl. Spread flour on another plate. Coat both sides of chicken with flour, then eggs, then breadcrumbs.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add chicken to skillet and cook until brown, about 2 minutes per side, adding more oil as needed (chicken will not be cooked through). Transfer chicken to platter. Spread 1 cup sauce over bottom of 15x10x2-inch glass baking dish. Arrange 1 layer of chicken over sauce. Spoon 2 cups sauce over. Sprinkle half of mozzarella, Parmesan, and Pecorino over. Repeat with remaining chicken, sauce, mozzarella, Parmesan, and Pecorino. Bake until cheeses melt and chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley and marjoram and serve.

*Available in 1/3 -ounce, 1-ounce, and 8-ounce balls at many supermarkets and at specialty foods stores and Italian markets. Regular mozzarella can be substituted.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

2009-03-31T11:10:00.002-04:00

4 skinless, boneless Chicken Breast
1 slice of Deli Mozzarella cheese (processed cheese melts to quick) ¼” thick, cut into 4 strips. Block cheese works well just have to cut it to fit pocket in chicken.
1 package Budding type Ham
Flour for Dredging
Beaten Egg for Drenching
Italian seasoned Bread Crumbs for Dredging

Pre-Heat oven to 350 degrees

Cut pocket in thick side of chicken breast. Roll 1 strip of cheese in ¼ of the ham slices.
Place ham and cheese into pocket of chicken, close pocket and secure with toothpicks
Dredge breast in flour then drench in egg and finally dredge in breadcrumbs, coating completely
Place in a casserole dish sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
Bake chicken for 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Optional:
Pour 2 Tablespoon lemon juice into ½ stick melted butter.
Spoon a little of lemon butter on plated chicken.

I serve this with Pasta Alfredo

Slow Cooked Carnitas

2009-03-28T17:47:00.003-04:00

I had a 9.5 lbs pork shoulder in my freezer and felt the need to break it down into a couple of meals. I started with the BBQ Pork, which was tasty! Then I still had a lare chunk of meat left but was looking for a way to use the avocados on my counter. So this is what I came up with:

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon crumbled dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 - 4 pound pork shoulder roast (mine was bone in & I trimmed all the excess fat off which was a LOT)
3 bay leaves
2 cups chicken broth

DIRECTIONS
1. Mix together salt, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, coriander, and cinnamon in a bowl. Coat pork with the spice mixture. Place the bay leaves in the bottom of a slow cooker and place the pork on top. Pour the chicken broth around the sides of the pork, being careful not to rinse off the spice mixture.
2. Cover and cook on Low until the pork shreds easily with a fork, about 10 hours. Turn the meat after it has cooked for 5 hours. When the pork is tender, remove from slow cooker, and shred with two forks. Use cooking liquid as needed to moisten the meat.

We used this on tortillas with rice, sour cream, shredded cheese and avocado. It was really good! We ate the left overs just as meat, not added to anything and the flavor was really nice.

I goofed and added 1/2 tsp cinnamon instead of 1/4 tsp, which is why I put the amount in bold text. I did not mind the extra cinnamon...however, next time I make this, I will add much more corriander and half again as much cumin than in the original recipe. I also added smoked paprika.

Caponata

2009-03-26T23:15:00.004-04:00

Tonight was cultural cooking group and our theme was Mediterranean Cuisine so I grabbed my favorite Sicilian recipe and hit the store...well, my husband went to the store for me as he was already out and he'd much rather be out shopping than taking care of our 4 rambunctious kiddos at dinner time :)

The recipe calls for a zucchini so my husband calls me to say there is no zucchini at the store. So I asked for yellow/crookneck/summer squash instead and the light bulb went off and he says, "Oh, is zucchini green squash?"

"YES! get the green squash," I request.

When he arrived home, he actually had a cucumber so this was made without squash which is no big deal, this recipe is one of those refrigerator specials...clean out your need-to-use produce for this dish.

2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
1 Medium Eggplant, diced (peeling is optional)
1 Zucchini, diced
1 14oz can artichoke hearts, rinsed & drained
1 3.8oz can sliced black olives, rinsed & drained
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
1 15oz can tomato sauce
2 Tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 tsp salt (to taste)
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes (place in palm of one hand and use thumb of other hand to rub flakes together. Releases oils and flavor! Just be sure to scrub hands immediately afterward.)
2-3 sprigs of fresh Thyme

Heat a deep 12" skillet to medium setting add olive oil and saute garlic and onion for about 2 minutes. Add red pepper and saute for about 5 minutes more. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Turn up the heat a little and cover. Stir often to combine flavors. After about 20 minutes, bring heat back down to medium or a little lower. Cook for another 15 to 20 minutes or until veggies are tender.

Serve over toasted baguette slices, pasta or by itself. Top with grated Parmesan and enjoy!

I'll try to get a picture tomorrow...I had to rush out the door to get to cultural cooking on time :)

Raw Applesauce

2009-03-24T18:11:00.004-04:00

My friend Wendy had this recipe listed on her blog and I had to try it!

5 small apples, cored and sliced - peeled or not (your choice - I peel some and leave the skins on some)
1/3 c pineapple juice - or you could use lemon juice...just use less
2 T honey
1 t cinnamon

Blend it all together on a really low setting. I use "2" on my blender, you could pulse it on a food processor. You want there to be really tiny chunks, not liquefied.

My Version
I used 3 medium golden delicious apples, 1 of which I left the skin
1/3 cup pineapple juice
no honey
2 shakes of cinnamon, maybe 1/2 tsp

I added this to my blender and used the ice crusher setting and left the apples just a little chunky. This is super delicious and you don't lose ANY nutrients through the cooking process.

The apples were really sweet naturally so I wanted to taste this before adding honey and there was no need for it!

BBQ Pork Sandwiches

2009-03-20T21:56:00.003-04:00

Today was a hectic day and I did not have time to fuss with an hour or so in the kitchen preparing and serving dinner. So I opted for something that could sit in the pot for a couple of hours (or slow cooker for even longer) and serve quick on sliced rolls. I was born and raised in North Carolina where they know BBQ pork. Please note, this is NOT Carolina BBQ Pork. This is quick and easy pork that beats the heck out of store bought BBQ pork, but I don't think I'll ever be able to match Carter Brothers in High Point, NC.

3 lbs pork shoulder
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tsp prepared mustard
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

Combine all ingredients except pork in large pot, dutch oven or crock pot. Add pork shoulder and coat with sauce.

If using stove top, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 2-3 hours until pork is falling apart and sauce it to desired thickness. Stir occasionally.

If using crock pot set on low temperature and cook for 6-8 hours stirring occasionally.

Pull the pork apart with a fork, stir into the sauce and pile on top of a sliced roll or hamburger bun. May top with coleslaw as I like it or chedder cheese as my husband likes it. The kids like the meat itself served with rice.

Corned beef & cabbage

2009-03-18T21:40:00.004-04:00

I was a day late making this St Patrick's Day favorite however it's star power was not diminished by my delay.

3lbs corned beef brisket (brined with seasoning packet)
4 medium sized red potatoes, diced in large chunks (about 2 inch X 1 inch)
1/2 lbs baby carrots
1 medium onion, cut into large chunks
1/2 medium head cabbage, cut into small wedges
water

Remove corned beef from package, discard brine and rinse meat under cool water. Place meat in large pot, cover with water and add seasoning packet. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 50 minutes per lbs of meat (per package directions).

15 minutes before meat is done add carrots, potatoes and onion, bring back to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes or until veggies are fork tender. Remove beef, cover with foil and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Add cabbage to pot with veggies, bring to a boil and cook over medium low heat for 15 minutes.

Remove veggies from pot, straining liquid. Thinly slice beef against the grain and serve over veggies.

DELICIOUS!!! The 3 kids loved the meat and kept asking for more :) I had to eat quick so I could feed the baby. Before I finished feeding the baby anything that resembled corned beef was gone so no pictures this time...will have to make again, soon.

Cajun Shrimp Alfredo

2009-03-16T18:10:00.002-04:00

2 tblsp Olive oil, divided
2 tblsp of Cajun seasoning
½ lb Shrimp, Peeled and Deveined
½ Onion, chopped
1 Garlic Clove, minced
½ small Red Bell Pepper, diced
8 oz Pasta
8oz Heavy Whipping Cream
5 Tblsp Butter, divided
¾ cup Parmesan Cheese

In a bowl lightly coat shrimp with 1 tblsp of oil then coat wth Cajun seasoning, let set in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
Cook Pasta according to package directions.
In skillet heat olive oil and 1 tblsp butter over med. High heat, add onion, garlic and pepper.
Sauté until onion has become translucent, add Shrimp and cook until color changes (pinkish)
In saucepan melt remaining butter over med heat and add cream, when mixture just starts coming to a boil add cheese a little at a time, stirring until incorporated.
Top pasta with cheese mixture, then with Shrimp.
Top with extra Parmesan cheese if desired.
Serves 2

Chicken Stock

2009-03-11T15:20:00.003-04:00

One of our followers asked, "What is chicken stock?" and I felt this was the perfect opportunity to discuss the difference between chicken stock and chicken broth as well as link you to my method for creating a delicious stock. In my previous post for homemade chicken noodle soup, I begin with how I make stock for the soup so if you choose to make your own stock please reference the above link.

What is chicken stock?
Chicken stock is a heavily concentrated reduction of bones and bony parts along with a lesser (if any) amount of breasts, thighs, and legs. Fresh vegetables and seasonings can be added for richer flavoring. After straining, stock will turn gelatinous when cooled (as opposed to broth, which remains in a mostly liquid state).

To create a true stock, the liquid and chicken carcass – plus added ingredients – must simmer for a minimum of six hours. This results in a darker concentrate that is then added to recipes. Many cooks refer to a stock as the “foundation of the kitchen,” which translates into the French “fond de cuisine.”

Buying Tips
• Good quality chicken stock can be purchased at gourmet and health food stores as well as through on-line retailers. Always read the label if purchasing in a standard grocery; be sure that it is true stock and not broth.
• Some specialty markets will save chicken carcasses upon request.
• Bony wing tips, necks, and backbones are excellent for a thick stock. Any type of chicken will work (i.e., roasters, fryers, stewing hens).

Storage Tips
• Refrigerate stock as soon as it cools. It should remain good for about three days. To “freshen,” re-simmer for about fifteen minutes, cool, and return to the fridge.
• Since stock is concentrated, it can be frozen in ice cube trays, then popped into freezer bags. Remove a cube or two as needed for soups and stews. It will be good for several months in the freezer.

Usage Tips
• Remember: stock can be used to create a broth, but not the reverse.
• When boiling a chicken for salads or cooked dishes, remove the meat and return the bones to the liquid. Continue simmering for the perfect stock.
• The most common vegetables used to make stock are onions, celery, and carrots (mirepoix).
• Use stock for deglazing; broth will not work.
• Mixed with flour to create a veloute, one of the “mother sauces.”

Substitution Tips
• Chicken broth can be used in many recipes, but the flavor will not be as full.

Thank you Big Oven for the informative article on chicken stock.

What is chicken broth?
Chicken broth is technically a reduction of liquid from the various meaty parts of a chicken that are simmered in water. Vegetables are often added to increase flavor. The breasts and/or legs and thighs are removed after approximately three hours of cooking and used in other dishes.
Broth tends to be more liquid and lower in fat, especially when allowed to cool and the top layer is skimmed. At this stage, a thin broth can be strained, seasoned, and consumed as soup.

Varieties
• Homemade broth has better flavor than commercially canned products.
• Canned and carton broths are convenient and will keep for a very long time unopened. Reduced sodium and organic versions are available.
• Bouillon cubes and granules (also available in reduced sodium) are handy and have an even longer shelf life.

Buying Tips
• Look for “stewing” hens for making broth (as opposed to roasters).

Storage Tips
• Fresh broth can be kept in the refrigerator for about three days. It is easily frozen and will keep for several months.
• Freeze in small quantities that can be thawed – as needed - slowly in the microwave.

Usage Tips
• To keep fresh broth clear, bring the chicken parts and water to a boil and reduce the heat. For about twenty minutes, continuously skim the surface to remove proteins.
• If it does cloud, simmer for a few minutes with an egg white and strain to turn it into a clear consommé.
• Broth – fresh or canned – can be substituted for water when cooking rice.
• When making broth, do not include the heart or liver, which will darken the liquid. Also, use seasonings and other additives sparingly; these can be included when the broth is used in a recipe.
• Because broth is lighter than stock, it can be used as a partial water substitute in many milder recipes.
• To tenderize and add flavor to a tough onion, chop and simmer for two hours in a saucepan filled with broth. Strain and reuse the broth at a later time.

Substitution Tips
• Chicken stock with water added.

Thank you Big Oven for the informative article on chicken broth.

Parmesan Risotto

2009-03-11T12:03:00.003-04:00

(2 large servings)

1 Cup uncooked rice (I use regular long grain)
½ small onion
3 cups chicken stock
3 tbsps grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp butter
3 tbsps olive oil
Salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)

Peel and finely chop onion, place onion in sauté pan with the olive oil over medium heat. Sauté until onions become transparent.
Without washing the rice add it to the saucepan with the onion. Sauté the rice for 30 seconds.
Add ¼ cup of the stock, simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed.
Pour half the remaining stock into the saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Once it comes to a boil, lower the heat so the surface bubbles gently and continues to simmer. When the stock has mostly simmered off, add three-fifths of the remaining stock and simmer over medium heat. Turn the heat down slightly when it comes to a boil stirring the rice gently to prevent it from becoming too sticky. When most of the liquid has evaporated add the remaining stock. If the rice seems to have already absorbed a lot of water you can reduce the amount of stock you add. Continue to simmer over medium heat until the rice is cooked but still slightly firm in the center. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Turn off the heat and remove the pan from the stove. Add the butter and the parmesan and stir until they are completely mixed in with the rice.

Risotto is now ready (Enjoy)

Top Foods People Love or Hate

2009-03-07T18:57:00.003-05:00

Someone showed me this article on yahoo: http://food.yahoo.com/blog/edlevineeats/22683/the-top-foods-people-love-or-hate/

The links to the recipes didn't come through when I cut-and-paste so go to the original link to get those

The Top Foods People Love or Hate
Posted Mon, Mar 02, 2009, 3:55 pm PST

Certain foods are as polarizing as hometown sports teams and politics. Here at Serious Eats, we've put together a list of eleven love-or-hate foods. If you love them, be proud. We've included a recipe highlighting each controversial flavor.

1. White Chocolate: The "chocolate" part trips people up. It's really just a sweet confection (no cocoa involved). Moving on from terminology, when good, it's creamy and vanilla-y, but like "normal" chocolate, when bad, it's just waxy calories.
Recipe for white chocolate bark with fresh mint, almonds, and dried berries

2. Cilantro: Soapy, rotten, or just plain vile are popular complaints from cilantro haters. Did you know Julia Child hated the leafy herb? But behavioral neuroscientists would argue that America's food darling had no control. It's all about genetics. Studies have linked liking cilantro to being able to detect the "pleasing" chemicals in the leaf.
Recipe for white beans and cilantro

3. Eggplant: For some, it's an old purple sponge and others, the soft-firm texture is what makes a veggie sandwich or an Italian pasta dish. Raw is never good, but fried, grilled, or roasted (always doused with gobs of olive oil), eggplant deserves another chance. Or, the vegetarian sponge will always make you nauseous -- and the roof of your mouth mysteriously itch.
Recipe for eggplant lamb lavash wrap

4. Coconut: The smell in shampoo and sunblock is one thing. But the sawdust-like shreds of real coconut can mean chewing and chewing forever until you eventually swallow the darn lump. Sprinkled on pies, cakes, and chicken, coconut either adds a mild tropical zing or a vile, never-ending chewing party. That's when it comes out that a lot of coconut haters don't even know about young fresh coconut which is as soft as a Hawaiian baby's bottom.
Recipe for coconut domes

5. Tomato: This one really comes down to texture. Slimy and gritty is never good for the tomato world. The cooked, soft version brings in a few fans. Others are only in it for the vine-picked version during their peak season in August (cut to romantic images of Italian countrysides). Others can only bear them on pizza or completely masked inside ketchup.
Recipe for marinated tomatoes with linguine

6. Anchovies: Cat food or human food? A small whiff can make you seasick or have you loading them on pizza and Caesar salads. Whether fresh or in flat metal cans, the salty little fish has some so obsessed, they'll eat the bones.
Recipe for roasted sardines with bread crumbs, garlic, and mint

7. Black licorice: Even the red licorice-tolerant may draw the line here. Black licorice gum, jelly beans, tea, Good n' Plentys, and Jägermeister—get it out. Along with any herb, like anise or fennel, that resembles the flavor. Out. Lovers say it's an acquired taste, but I think the little kids have it straight here. Not a real candy.
Recipe for baked fennel with prosciutto

8. Stinky cheeses: If this smell came from something else (a shoe or dog), I might take issue, but knowing it's from a dairy gob, growing moldy in a controlled environment, I'm fine with the pungent aroma. When others sniff Gorgonzola or Roquefort, they're convinced that feet or laundry were actually involved.
Recipe for tortellini with Gorgonzola cream sauce

9. Mayo: Whether Hellmann's or even Miracle Whip, does the creamy off-white slime strip the taste off food or magically make anything better? Haters have been told to try it homemade, but for many, this won't make a tuna or egg salad look any less scary.
Recipe for avocado mayonnaise

10. Bell Pepper: To some, all those colorful strips are a mouthful of crisp freshness. To others, they're the backseat driver of vegetables. On a pizza or in pasta, they're supposed to be one of many veggie passengers, but no. The bell pepper's always got to be the loud guy telling your taste buds where to go -- and green, he's the loudest. Green is actually unripened, picked from the vine before its more sweet (and edible) brethren.
Recipe for angel hair pasta with red pepper pesto and basil

11. Beets: Despite all my white T-shirts you have stained purple, I still love you, beets. People fear you from an early age, but roasted or pickled, you take on a whole new form. The other camp thinks that the beet smell is such a toss-up between ick and gross and that the beet taste is so much like a metallic vitamin that it's just not meant to be.
Recipe for roasted beet salad

Sauteed Pork with Mustard

2009-03-06T15:05:00.005-05:00

4 7-oz pork loin (I have used regular bonless pork chops)
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)

Mustard Sauce:

2 1/2 tbsps butter
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tbsps whole-grain mustard
2 tsps lemon juice

Pound the pork to uniform thickness, then score the fat around the pork slicing partway into the meat.
Sprinkle salt and pepper on the pork.
Pour 2 tbsp of oil into panover medium heat.
Saute' pork until golden brown on both sides, once browned turn heat to low and cook until done.
When pork is finished remove from pan and reserve.
Wipe pan with paper towels.

Put the 2 1/2 tbsps butter in pan over medium heat, Once the butter has melted add the 2/3 cup of cream. Mix the Mustard and the Lemon Juice with the cream.
Bring the sauce to a boil and cook until it slightly thickens, then place the sauteed pork back in the pan and coat it with sauce.

Serve with veg. of your choice.

Pizza, part II

2009-02-09T21:12:00.003-05:00

My family enjoyed last week's pizza so much that we had pizza again tonight. I made a really yummy cheeseburger pizza and wanted to share it with you.

I followed the dough recipe found in the original pizza post. I made a thicker crust, approximately 3/4 inch thick, uncooked. I then topped in this order:
pizza sauce
garlic powder
dill relish
prepared mustard
parmessan
Wisconsin sharp cheddar and mozzarella cheeses
cooked ground beef
caramelized onions.

IT WAS FABULOUS!!! I made one without mustard and pickles for my picky husband and he told me it was the best pizza he had ever had. The caramelized onions really add depth to the pizza...I think the only thing that could have made this particular pizza better would have been a bit of bacon.

Pizza

2009-02-05T16:04:00.015-05:00

I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner since I did not plan ahead and put anything out of the freezer. I thought about the scanty ingredients I had; I rarely get to the grocery these days, with 4 kids it's hard to find room in the cart for the food.

I realized I had everything I needed for pizza and this is a kid favorite. It's mostly a kid favorite because they get to help build the pizza. So I searched for a quick pizza dough and found this one. I used a bit more flour (1/4-1/2 cup) than the recipe called for and I added 1 tsp garlic powder and onion powder, 1/4-1/2 tsp dried parsley, thyme and oregano directly to the dough.

I divided the dough in half so I could make two pizzas. I was able to stretch the dough working it by hand and never used the rolling pin. I put down a flexible cutting board, put a piece of aluminum foil on top of that and put the dough right onto the foil. This allows me to heat my stone in the oven so when I put my pizza on it is already hot. The foil also allows me to remove my pizza from the oven without having to take the stone out. This is helpful when making multiple pizzas. I can build a second pizza while the first is baking and not need additional pans.

I lightly dressed one side with pizza sauce and left one side with just olive oil on the crust...two of my children don't like red sauce and one does. I added some grated parmesan and fresh grated mozzarella. Since I divided the dough I only baked for 15 minutes at 400 degrees rather than the recommended 20 minutes at 350 degrees in the recipe.

When making a pizza for myself I love to add chicken, fresh brocolli, black olives, cooked ground turkey, fresh tomatoes, spinach, bacon...well just about anything! Tonight I caramelized onions added fresh mushrooms and black olives.

The only thing I would have changed would have been to add garlic powder on top of the pizza sauce, otherwise the herbs in the crust flavored the pizza beautifully!

Chicken Noodle Soup

2009-02-01T10:12:00.003-05:00

I love chicken noodle soup, but do not like it made with chicken broth so I take the time to make chicken stock so my chicken noodle soup is rich and delicious. This is time consuming, but worth the effort in my opinion.

For Stock

5 pounds chicken pieces, wings, backs and necks. (If you purchase whole chickens to cut up for a recipe, you can always remove these parts and freeze them until you have enough to make stock.)
4 quarts cold water
2 onions
3 carrots
3 celery stalks

For Sachet:
2 bay leaves
6 sprigs of fresh parsley
12 whole peppercorns
1 teaspoon fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried

Place the chicken pieces and vegetables in a sturdy roasting pan. You may want to apply a thin layer of oil or spray Pam to the surface to prevent sticking. Roast the chicken and vegetables until the chicken pieces are brown. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a large stock pot.
If there is a lot of fat floating on the surface of the roasting pan, remove it with a spoon but leave the wonderful caramelized juices that are a result of roasting the ingredients. Put the roasting pan on your stove top and add 1 quart of the water. The pan is already hot so be careful and be sure to use your oven mitts.

Using a wooden spoon, scrape any brown bits of chicken or vegetables that may be stuck to the bottom of the pan and mix them into the rest of the liquids. Pour the combined water and juices over the chicken and vegetables in the stock pot.

Add the rest of the water to the stock pot and bring the heat up to high. You want to watch this closely at this point because as soon as the water comes to a boil, you want to reduce the heat to a nice gentle simmer. You will find impurities floating to the top in the form of fat or foam. Remove it with a spoon.

Make your sachet and add it to the pot

Gently simmer for 3 to 4 hours removing any impurities as they form on the surface. When done, remove the sachet and strain the stock through a fine meshed strainer. Let the stock cool and then transfer it to airtight containers and store in the refrigerator for up to a week. You may find a thin layer of fat that has congealed on the surface of the stock after you have refrigerated it. Just scrape it off with a spoon. You can also freeze your brown chicken stock up to 3 months.
You now have a rich, flavorful, important ingredient that you can use to make all sorts of soups and stews.

If your chicken stock does not taste as rich as you would like, put back in to a pot and reduce until you get the delicious flavor you're looking for. And don't add salt!!! If you are saving your stock for use in multiple recipes then you can add and adjust salt with each recipe rather than in the stock.

Now for the chicken soup:

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
2 lbs chicken cut into one inch cubes (skinless dark or white meat)
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 lbs carrots, chopped
2-3 leeks, sliced into 1/2 inch rings
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
5 black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried parsley
salt to taste
approx. 4 cups chicken stock
12 oz package egg noodles

In a large pot add olive oil and heat over medium high heat. When oil is hot, add chicken pieces sprinkle with salt. Cook chicken until brown on all sides, add garlic, onions, leeks, carrots, celery, thyme, poultry seasoning, peppercorns, parsley and bay leaves. Continue to cook for 3-5 minutes stirring often. Add chicken stock, bring to a boil then cover and cook for 90 minutes. Check level of liquid, you need enough liquid to add your egg noodles. If you do not have enough liquid, add more stock or water if the liquid is very concentrated. Add egg noodles, cook for 5-10 minutes (depending on size of your noodles).

Homemade Oreo Cookies

2009-02-01T09:53:00.004-05:00

Posting this recipe was inspired by my blogging buddy Crash. She had this odd dream about eating fruity oreos and I instantly started thinking of how to make fruity oreos. So I'm taking a favorite recipe and putting a spin on it.

My friend, Tsugumi, joined in a cookie exchange I hosted a few years ago. She brought the BEST oreo cookies. The cookie is soft, cakey and chocolaty. Here is the recipe:

Cookie Ingredients

2 Devil's food cake mixes
1/2 cup flour
1 cup butter, softened
4 eggs

Filling Ingredients

8oz package cream cheese
1/2 c butter, softened
6-7 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions

For cookies - Combine all ingredients, mix well.
Roll into 1.5 inch balls and place on greased cookie sheet
Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool completely.

For filling - Combine all ingredients, mix well.
you may add milk to thin or powdered sugar to thicken to the correct consistency.
Spread or pipe filling on bottom side of a cookie and top with another cookie to create a sandwich.

Now for the fruity part! You can make fruity oreos by adding orange extract to the filling or you could add fresh fruit or jams. Thinly slice strawberries, bananas, apricots and layer with the filling or mash fresh raspberries and smear a bit on one cookie with cream filling on the other cookie and then sandwich together! You could even add dried cherries. There are many options for fruity oreos :) If the post to Hawaii were not so lengthy I'd make some and send them to you, Crash :)

ABC Salad

2009-01-28T03:57:00.002-05:00

My mother-in-law recently discovered this salad and I loved the textures as well as the sweet and sour taste of the dressing. Super simple and all ingredients that I normally have in the house, This recipe is courtesy of Taste of Home.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice, divided
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried cranberries
3 large red apples, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 cups fresh broccoli florets
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk the oil, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, sugar and salt. Add cranberries; let stand for 10 minutes. In a large bowl, toss apples with remaining lemon juice. Add the broccoli, walnuts and cranberry mixture; toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until chilled. Toss before serving. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Trail Mix Cookies

2009-01-18T06:55:00.006-05:00

When my in-laws were fighting over the last cookie, I knew this was a recipe I needed to post! This cookie originally started as an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, but I've adapted it to suit my family's tastes. I put the oats in a food processor to make a sort of meal or coarse flour instead of using the whole rolled oat. I prefer the chunky part of the cookie to be from dried fruits and nuts rather than the oat itself. You can add in anything you like or use the dough plain to make a smooth oatmeal cookie, this is how my husband really likes it.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 1/3 cups rolled oats (processed into a coarse flour)
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Optional ingredients-
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4-1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets.
Thoroughly cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then mix in vanilla and egg.

Add oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt then mix just until dough is formed. Stir in raisins, cranberries, pecans and chocolate chips.

Use a two inch cookie scoop to shape cookies and place 1-2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake 10-11 minutes let cool on pan for 2 minutes then transfer to wire racks to cool.

NOTE:
Do not over baked these cookies if you want them soft!!! The cookies will appear under cooked when removed from oven but will continue to cook on the pan. If cooked for more than 10-11 minutes you will have a crunchy cookie.

If you're using the plain dough, place cookies 2 inches apart on pan.
Substitute mini M & M's for the chocolate chips or walnuts for pecans or dried cherries for the cranberries...do whatever sounds good to you!

Crepes

2008-12-29T19:19:00.004-05:00

My husband and I were in the kitchen this morning when I opened the fridge, noticing how many left over ingredients we had from Thanksgiving and Christmas fixings. I hate a cramped fridge so my first thought was, "What can we make with oranges and cool whip or whipped cream?" My husband's eyes lit up as he exclaimed, "Crepes!" Brilliant idea, honey!

So we'll start with the crepe batter and then discuss some sweet and savory fillings.

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 egg
a pinch of salt

Mix ingredients thoroughly then cover and place batter in the fridge overnight (if you planned far enough in advance). By morning all those little lumps of flour and air bubbles will have dissolved and you'll have a smooth batter. Remove from fridge and let come to room temperature, you may need to add a touch of milk to thin the batter. You're looking for a very thin batter (slightly thicker than water) so it will quickly and easily coat the bottom of your skillet or crepe pan if you own one.

Some prefer to add sugar and vanilla to their batter if they are making sweet crepes, but I like this recipe for both sweet and savory.

Once batter is at room temperature and the correct consistency, heat a medium-sized, nonstick skillet over medium heat and spray lightly with cooking spray. You'll have to play with the next step a bit to adjust for your pan size but start with 1/4 cup of batter. Hold pan in one hand and batter in the other. Pour batter to one side of the pan and at the same time begin to rotate pan to cover the bottom with batter...this may take practice.

You can see in this picture that I did not wait for the batter to settle overnight, there are lumps but you would never know once it's cooked.

Let cook for 30 seconds - 1 minute. Using the edge of a spatula, lift the edge of the crepe to check for doneness...a tiny hint of brown is good, then flip. Cook for another 30 seconds - 1 minute or so and remove from the pan.

Now is the fun part...dressing your crepe. Here are some of my favorite ways to dress up a crepe:

Orange and Sugar - this is a very simple topping but by far a fave! Lightly sprinkle crepe with granulated white sugar then squeeze a fresh orange wedge all over the sugar...not too much or it will feel soggy and dribble. Fold in half then fold in half again to resemble a pie wedge. These don't last very long, we just pick up and eat by hand :) These are equally as delicious with fresh lemon juice.

Strawberry, Pomegranate and Balsamic - I made a lovely strawberry preserve mixture out of frozen strawberries, balsamic vinegar and pomegranate syrup. Slather the preserves onto the crepe and top with fresh whipped cream, roll and eat! Sooo yummy.

Lemon Curd, Mascarpone and Fresh Fruit - Mix equal parts lemon curd and mascarpone cheese, thinly slice apples, pears or strawberries. Slather on lemon cheese mixture, stack on fruit and top with whipped cream. This is particularly lovely because of the textures if using apples or pears. You get a nice crisp bite from the fruit, a slightly tart taste of lemon with a silky, creamy feel from the mascarpone....mmmmmmm.

Chicken, Baby Spinach and Feta - Sweat onions and garlic in olive oil, add chicken strips cut from the breast meat and some red pepper, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. You can add your spinach in this mixture to wilt it or layer it on the crepe if you prefer more texture. Put chicken mix on crepe, sprinkle with crumbled feta and roll.

Tonight we're having a Hawaiian inspired pork crepe. I sweated some onion and garlic then added pork chunks...I only had bone in pork chops in my freezer so I cut the meat from the bone before cooking. Seared the pork, then added soy sauce, brown sugar and crushed pineapple. Top with grated cheddar and viola!

Get creative with your toppings. Try bananas and chocolate, blueberries and whipped cream, the sky is the limit!

Orange Balsamic Chicken

2008-12-26T09:28:00.007-05:00

We're not fancy schmancy people so no goose or duck for our Christmas feast just basic everyday chicken for us, please. Well, not everyday chicken, this chicken was truly tasty and a surprise to every one's taste buds.

I've been watching more TV than normal (normally I watch none) since I have hours each day to sit around and nurse my new baby. So I turn on the TV to entertain myself while I'm forced to sit still for so long. I'm not normally a Rachel Ray fan and avoid watching the show, but on Christmas Eve I was positioned in a manner that I could not reach the remote without disturbing the nursing baby....so I suffered through. Turns out I found this lovely recipe while being tortured...er, forced....er, stuck watching Rachel Ray.

Here is the original recipe for Orange Balsamic Rock Cornish Game Hens but I altered it a bit and here's my version:

Ingredients

1 cup orange juice concentrate
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dried rosemary
2 tsp grated orange zest
1/4 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and cracked whole cloves
1 whole chicken, butterflied
1 oven stuffer roaster (see note below)

I mixed all ingredients, except the chickens, in a bowl and then poured the mix over the chickens in a plastic bag. I marinaded the chickens overnight, then butterflied the whole chicken and placed on baking racks over sheet pans. Sprinkled with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.

I baked on 425 for 15 minutes then reduced to 375 until chickens were done according to my thermometer.

So here are my notes:

The oven stuffer roaster appeared to be really large bone-in breasts, I believe it probably had some sort of salt solution injected into it to create moister chicken...not my favorite choice in chicken, but it was what I had in the freezer and I was too sick to head to the grocery on Christmas Eve to get anything different.

To butterfly a chicken, use kitchen shears and cut right up the back of the chicken then flip it over, press lightly on the breast bone to flatten and tuck the wings back to secure them.

Use aluminum foil to line your sheet pan, this sauce is sticky and I may end up throwing away one of my pans rather than continuing to try to scrap and soak it. When I turned the heat of the oven down after 15 minutes, I transferred the chickens to a new pan because the drippings had burnt so severely in the first pan after only 15 minutes. In the new pan, I added all the marinade over the chicken and let it pool in the bottom of the pan. Once the chicken was done, I poured the drippings into a sauce pan and reduced to make a sauce. My brother-in-law really liked the strong flavor of the sauce whereas I found the balsamic too overpowering in the sauce. If I had felt better, I would have doctored the sauce with some honey to sweeten it or maybe even more orange juice concentrate and orange zest to bring out the orange flavor that was sort of lost in the balsamic.

My husband, who won't eat chicken breast because it's dry, found the marinade kept the breast very moist and he really enjoyed the flavor of the chicken...he nibbled a lot as he was cutting up the chicken breast :) I used the chicken on a salad and found the meat to be moist and flavorful without being too overpowering.

Buckeyes

2008-12-18T21:07:00.005-05:00

My Aunt June use to make these when I was a young girl; these may have started my love for all things peanut butter and chocolate! I don't know that a more perfect combination of flavors exists, peanut butter was just made to go with chocolate...mmm I can taste these already! Buckeyes are small round balls of sweetened peanut butter dipped in melted chocolate with the top of the peanut butter ball exposed so it resembles a buckeye.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups peanut butter
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 cups confectioners' sugar
4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
1. In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, butter, vanilla and confectioners' sugar. The dough will look dry. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet.
Press a toothpick into the top of each ball (to be used later as the handle for dipping) and chill in freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.

2. Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler or in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir frequently until smooth.

3. Dip frozen peanut butter balls in chocolate holding onto the toothpick. Leave a small portion of peanut butter showing at the top to make them look like Buckeyes. Put back on the cookie sheet and refrigerate until serving.

I have used the ghiradelli dipping chocolate you can pick up at Sam's during the holidays. I've also used Kron that has been given to us in holiday themed forms, I just chop it up and melt it down. The ghiradelli and Kron are superior to toll house chocolate chips and defintiely enhance the quality of the candy, but there's nothing wrong with toll house, either.

You can take the toothpick or skewer used for dipping and smooth over the hole for a more finished appearance.

NOTE: I increased the amount of peanut butter from the original recipe. I used a full 18oz jar of creamy peanut butter which is just over 2 cups.

Mexican Wedding Cakes

2008-12-18T20:51:00.005-05:00

This is another long-standing favorite Christmas cookie around our house. These take a little bit of time, but are really worth it in taste and presentation. The recipe suggests several nut options, but I use almonds. I love the toasted almond flavor in this cookie and I must insist you take the time to toast the almonds. The cookie itself has a bit of crispness for texture combined with a silky feel from the powder sugar coating. Enjoy!

The original recipe and photo come from Joy of Baking.

Recipe:

2/3 cup (65 grams) toasted nuts (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts)
1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup (30 grams) confectioners' (powdered or icing) sugar

1 teaspoon (2 grams) pure vanilla extract

2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping: 1 cup (110 grams) powdered (icing or confectioners) sugar, sifted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

2. Toast Nuts: Place nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 5- 8 minutes, or until lightly brown and fragrant. Cool. Once the nuts have cooled completely place them, along with 2 tablespoons (25 grams) of the flour from the recipe, into your food processor, fitted with a metal blade, and process until they are finely ground (but not a paste). Set aside.

3. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the remaining flour and salt and beat until combined. Stir in the nuts. Cover and refrigerate the dough for about 1 hour or until firm.

4. Form the dough into 1 inch (2.54 cm) balls and place them 2 inches (5 cm) apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for about 12 - 15 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies start to brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 5 minutes.

5. Line another baking pan or tray with parchment or wax paper. Sprinkle about 1/2 cup of the confectioners' sugar on the bottom of the pan and then place the slightly cooled cookies on top of the sugar. Place the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar in a fine strainer or sieve and then sprinkle the tops of the cookies (or you can just roll the cookies in the sugar).

Store in an airtight container. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Gooey Butter Cookies

2008-12-18T20:41:00.004-05:00

I decided I had the energy to do some baking this Christmas and asked my husband what he would like me to make. His response was, "MMMM...the butter cookies!" We first had these cookies when I was investigating the LDS church and a set of sister missionaries were coming over for regular visits. The sisters made these cookies for us and my husband was hooked! These cookies have become his favorite!

INGREDIENTS

8oz cream cheese

1 stick of butter, softened

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow or butter cake mix

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Stir in the egg and vanilla. Add cake mix, and stir until well blended.

3. Roll into 1 inch balls and roll the balls in the confectioners' sugar. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake for 10 to 13 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.

I have one cookie sheet that gets really hot so I only cook them for 9 minutes on this particular pan. Watch them closely as they're best if you get them just as they start to barely turn brown.

Ham and Beans

2008-12-16T17:22:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the long stretch with no posts...I've not been cooking since having the baby. Last night was my first official meal post-partum. We had a spiral cut ham in the freezer so I stuck it in the oven, made honey carrots and oven crisped potatoes (dicedwhite potato, Lipton onion soup mix packet and a little olive oil baked in the oven) for my husband and father-in-law who adore white potatoes. The real treat of this meal was the ham bone, which I saved for tonight's dinner!

So on to my ham and beans! I don't measure, sorry. But I've found it always comes out delicious so I can't imagine being able to mess this one up.

I quick soak my beans - 1 lbs navy beans (or small white beans) in a pot covered with water. Bring to a boil for 3-4 minutes. Turn heat off, put tight fitting lid on pot and let sit for one hour. Drain the beans, add to a large pot with the ham bone, several hands full of baby carrots, 1-2 tbsp dried minced onions, garlic powder, salt and coriander (2 tsp or so). Add enough water to cover the beans by an inch (does not have to cover the ham bone). Bring to a boil, cover and simmer until ham is falling off bone and beans and carrots are tender; 3-4 hours. Remove lid to boil out any excess liquid and remove bone and any unwanted miscellaneous pieces from the bone.

UPDATE: I've been usuing Goya's Salvadorian Red Beans instead of white and I like it soooo much better!

Sugar Cookies

2008-12-03T01:13:00.006-05:00

We love this recipe for sugar cookies. My husband found it a couple years ago and it's perfect for our tastes! These are great for rolling out and using fun cookie cutters with the kids. Our kids most enjoy decorating them with icing and sprinkles when they come out of the oven. A confectioner sugar and milk icing tinted food coloring is quick and easy or you can use a can of premade vanilla icing as a quick topping.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

1.In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Pumpkin Cake

2008-11-28T06:53:00.001-05:00

I totally stole this from the site bigredkitchen.com! It was a big hit yesterday. They also suggested you could use a chocolate cake mix. So easy!

One Cake mix- I used yellow
1 -15 ounce can pumpkin filling

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl mix cake mix with pumpkin filling using a hand mixer or a stand mixer. Beat on medium for 2 minutes. Pour batter into a greased 7 x 11 inch baking dish. Bake for 28 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting. Serves 8.

Apple Cider Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2 T. apple cider
1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice

In a small bowl blend all ingredients until smooth. Pour over Pumpkin Cake letting it drizzle down the sides of the cake. Let set before covering.

Cassoulet

2008-11-24T19:19:00.005-05:00

This recipe was presented at one of our Gourmet Night meetings almost 2 years ago. The recipe comes from Cooks Illustrated, which is a favorite recipe source for the lady who hosted this particular gourmet night. Although I do find this recipe to be more complicated than most of the dinners I put together, I highly recommend making it and I do so as often as I can because it's soooo delicious!

Simplified Cassoulet with Pork and Kielbasa
1/2000

This dish can be made without brining the chicken, but we recommend that you do so. To ensure the most time-efficient preparation of the cassoulet, while the chicken is brining and the beans are simmering, prepare the remaining ingredients. Look for dried flageolet beans in specialty food stores. If you can't find a boneless blade-end pork loin roast, a boneless Boston butt makes a fine substitution. Additional salt is not necessary because the brined chicken adds a good deal of it. If you skip the brining step, add salt to taste before serving.

Serves 8

Chicken
1 cup kosher salt or 1/2 cup table salt
1 cup granulated sugar
10 bone in chicken thighs (about 3 1/2 pounds), skin and excess fat removed

Topping
6 slices high-quality sandwich bread , cut into 1/2-inch dice (about 3 cups)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted

Beans
1 pound dried flageolet beans or Great Northern beans, picked over and rinsed
1 medium onion , peeled and left whole
1 medium head garlic , outer papery skin removed and top 1/2 inch sliced off
1 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
6 slices bacon (about 6 ounces), chopped medium
1 pound boneless pork loin roast (blade-end), trimmed of excess fat and silver skin and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 small onion , chopped fine
2 medium cloves garlic , minced or pressed through garlic press
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes , drained
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Ground black pepper
3 1/2 cups chicken stock or canned low-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 cup dry white wine (you can sub more chicken stock in pace of the wine)
1/2 pound kielbasa sausage, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4-inch slices

1. Brining the Chicken: In gallon-sized zipper-lock plastic bag, dissolve salt and sugar in 1 quart cold water. Add chicken, pressing out as much air as possible; seal and refrigerate until fully seasoned, about 1 hour. Remove chicken from brine, rinse thoroughly under cold water, and pat dry with paper towels. Refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Preparing the Topping: While chicken is brining, adjust oven rack to upper-middle position; heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix bread crumbs and butter in small baking dish. Bake, tossing occasionally, until light golden brown and crisp, 8 to 12 minutes. Cool to room temperature; set aside.

3. Bring the beans, whole onion, garlic head, salt, pepper and 8 cups water to a boil in a stockpot or Dutch oven over high heat. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the beans are almost fully tender, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Drain the beans and discard the onion and garlic.

4. While the beans are cooking, fry the bacon in a Dutch oven over medium heat until just beginning to crisp and most of the fat has rendered, 5 to 6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, add half of the bacon to the pot with the beans; transfer the remaining bacon to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside. Increase the heat to medium-high; when the bacon fat is shimmering, add half of the chicken thighs, fleshy-side down; cook until lightly browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Using tongs, turn chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned on second side, 2 to 3 minutes longer. Transfer chicken to large plate; repeat with remaining thighs and set aside. Drain off all but 2 tablespoons fat from pot. Return pot to medium heat; add pork pieces and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add chopped onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Add minced garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, thyme, bay leaf, cloves, and pepper to taste; cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in chicken broth and wine, scraping up browned bits off bottom of pot with wooden spoon. Submerge the chicken in the pot, adding any accumulated juices. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer about 40 minutes. Remove the cover and continue to simmer until the chicken and pork are fully tender, 20 to 30 minutes more.

5. Gently stir the kielbasa, drained beans and reserved bacon into the pot with the chicken and pork; remove and discard the thyme and bay leaf and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the croutons evenly over the surface and bake at 425, uncovered, until the flavors have melded and the croutons are deep golden brown, about 15 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes and serve.

Crock Pot Ham

2008-11-24T19:07:00.002-05:00

Is your oven going to be full of turkey and pies tomorrow? Consider slow cooking your ham to free up some oven time. Or this is perfect for cooking ham in the summer without heating up the house!

For a delicious, no-fuss ham that is juicy, good and does not monopolize your oven time, try this slow cooker sensation with only two ingredients or dress it up with your favorite additions – whole cloves, pineapple rings or plain if you don’t like a sweet glaze.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 (8 pound) cured, bone-in picnic ham

DIRECTIONS:
1. Spread about 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar on the bottom of the slow cooker crock. Place the ham flat side down into the slow cooker - you might have to trim it a little to make it fit. Use your hands to rub the remaining brown sugar onto the ham. Cover, and cook on Low for 8 hours.

Moroccan Veggie Stew

2008-11-24T19:06:00.003-05:00

Stew
6 cups water
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups 1 1/2-inch carrot chunks
2 cups 1 1/2-inch peeled sweet potato
2 cups 1 1/2-inch onion chunks
2 cups peeled 1 1/2-inch turnip chunks
2 cups shredded green or white cabbage
1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup chopped celery
2 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste
3 tablespoons dried parsley

Couscous
2 cups dried couscous
4 to 5 cups boiling vegetable broth

To make the stew: Combine all the stew ingredients in a crockpot and cook on HIGH for 6 or more hours. Adjust seasonings.
To make the couscous: Pour the boiling broth over couscous in a medium bowl and allow to sit for 5 minutes before fluffing with a fork.

Serve stew hot over couscous.

Cranberry Pecan Bars

2008-11-24T18:59:00.004-05:00

This is my special holiday recipe that I created a couple of years ago for a cookie exchange; VERY few people have this recipe (until now, that is). I hope you enjoy this as much as I have!

Cranberry Pecan Bars

Ingredients:

Shortbread base

1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour

Cranberry pecan filling

3/4 - 1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped
1 egg
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
3 tbls butter, melted
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp allspice
pinch of salt
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Base - Combine butter and sugar in mixing bowl and beat at medium speed until well mixed. Reduce speed to low and add flour. Press dough into ungreased 8 inch square pan. Prick with a fork and bake for 18-20 minutes until lightly browned.

Filling - Lightly beat egg in mixing bowl and add sugar, corn syrup, butter, vanilla, allspice and salt. Stir after the addition of each ingredient.

Chop cranberries and spread evenly onto the baked shortbread. Pour egg mixture over the cranberries and sprinkle with chopped pecans.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the filling looks set and is brown on top. Cool completely before cutting.

Overnight Oatmeal

2008-11-24T18:51:00.005-05:00

A hot, filling breakfast with no work in the morning!

Ingredients:
1 cup EACH: Barley, Steel Cut Oats, Wheat Berries
10 cups water
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
1 handful dried cranberries
1 handful pecans
1 tablespoon butter
brown sugar and cinnamon to taste

Directions:

Put in crock pot just before bedtime, cook on low all night. Serve with milk. Reheats well in the microwave.

NOTE: If you like crunchy nuts you might want to toss in the pecans in the morning.

Stir Fry Chicken with Snow Peas

2008-11-22T20:30:00.006-05:00

Here is another single serving meal using my frozen chicken chunks to create a fast and filling healthy meal.

Ingredients

1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup snow peas
1 cup spinach, fresh
1/2 cup water chestnuts
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 cup alfalfa sprouts
1/4 cup kidney beans
1-2 oz chicken chunks
1.5 tsp safflower oil
1 clove minced garlic

Optional
Cooked brown rice

Chop veggies and set aside in a bowl.

Add oil to skillet, saute garlic and onions for 1 minute, then add all other ingredients and simmer until everything is hot. Serve over brown rice.

NOTE: I forgot to mention, I have high blood pressure and usually avoid adding salt to most dishes so please feel free to add in favorite flavorings and spices. I think this would be great with some crushed red pepper flakes or spicy szechuan sauce, but my husband would never touch it as black pepper is too spicy for him.

Avocado and Tomato Scramble

2008-11-22T20:15:00.008-05:00

This is another healthy family favorite which packs in 16 grams of protein and only 215 calories and 7 grams of fat! It's very filling, which is why my husband loves it.

Ingredients

1 tbls diced avocado
1/2 cup mushrooms
1/4 cup diced onion
1 medium tomato
3 egg whites
1/2 tsp safflower oil
1 slice of rye, pumpernickel or flourless bread

Optional Spices
black pepper
dried parsley
paprika

Slice and dice tomato, onion, avocado and mushrooms, set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites and desired spices.

Add oil to non-stick skillet, add onion and cook for 1-2 minutes, add in mushrooms, cook for one minutes, add in tomato, cook for 1-2 minutes, toss in avocado and egg mixture and scramble over low to medium heat until eggs are cooked.

Pile this on your toasted slice of rye or eat with bread on the side.

You can attempt an omelet with this, but I find there's way too many ingredients and I end up making a scramble, instead :) However, if you prefer your veggies uncooked, an omelet is ideal. Cook the eggs, layer veggies on one half of egg, fold over and serve.

Chinese Chicken Salad

2008-11-22T19:59:00.003-05:00

Another super simple and refreshing salad! It's also healthy, which is a bonus when it tastes so good :) This recipe is for a single serving salad.

1-2 oz chicken
2 cups lettuce
1/4 cup mandarin oranges
2 tsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 - 1 tsp safflower oil
1 tbls slivered almonds
1/4 cup bean sprouts

Optional croutons - 1 piece of rye or pumpernickel bread twice toasted and cut into pieces.

I love to buy those super huge packs of chicken breasts when they go on sale (I'm a thrifty cook!), cut the entire package into approximately 1 inch cubes, cook in a non-stick skillet with a squirt of Pam and a heavy layer of Mrs Dash Herb & Garlic seasoning. Once the chicken pieces are cooked through, I drain off any excess liquids that did not cook out and then place in a freezer safe container and store in the freezer. This way I can pull out small quantities of cooked chicken as needed for various recipes (and the Mrs Dash seasoning goes well in so many of my recipes).

So for this salad, I would snag 1-2 oz of frozen chicken pieces from the freezer place in the microwave for 30 seconds and my salad is well on it's way to being made in less than 5 minutes.

Once chicken is warmed, you mix the oil, vinegar and soy sauce to make your dressing. Place lettuce in your serving dish, layer all other ingredients, drizzle with dressing and VIOLA - quick, healthy, delicious salad.

Sweet Pecan Apple Salad

2008-11-22T04:07:00.004-05:00

About 5 years ago, I was asked to bring "something red" to a church dinner as we were having a Valentine's Day party. This was definitely the first time I had ever thought of food based on it's color. I agreed to bring something red, having no idea what I was going to prepare.

I love the earthy flavor of beets (my husband says they smell like dirt and won't touch them) and combined with the slightly, crispy crunch of a sweet apple and caramel coated pecans this is a simple, colorful salad full of fun textures.

1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp butter
1/3 cup pecan halves
3 tbsp oil
5 tsp cider vinegar
1 can (14.5 oz) sliced beets, drained
1 medium golden delicious apple, cored and diced

1. Melt sugar and butter in skillet; add pecans. Cook and stir over low heat 3-4 minutes until caramel colored; cool.

2. Combine oil and vinegar; toss with beets and apple. Add pecans just before serving and serve oer lettuce, if desired.

NOTE: The color of the beets will bleed onto the apple. If you want to keep the colors separate for presentation, toss apples and beets in oil and vinegar separately then layer on your serving plate.

Orange Pie

2008-11-21T09:39:00.003-05:00

I've been eating this cream and refreshing pie for more than 20 years and it's still a favorite that I never get tired of. This orange pie is great for a light and cool dessert in warm weather, but I am craving it now because I have a sore throat and I was thinking of how soothing it would be.

So here is the orange pie:

CRUST
1/2 cup self rising flour
2 tbsl butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup oil
1 cup chopped pecans
2 small packagaes of instant french vanilla pudding (you can use regular vanilla, coconut cream, whatever suits your fancy)

Mix the above items and press into a 9X13 pan and bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool completely.

FILLING
1 can sweetened condensed milk
8 oz Cool Whip
1 pt sour cream
1/2 cup Tang

Mix the filling ingredients in a large bowl and put in cooled pie crust. Chill for 24 hours. Keep and serve cold.

My mom likes to make these even easier by using graham cracker crusts. The filling is enough for two 9 inch pie crusts.

Brown Sugar Pound Cake

2008-11-20T17:22:00.003-05:00

I LOVE this cake!!!! It's one of my all-time favorites for simple and tasty desserts. I took it from a Cooking Light magazine many years ago.

Cooking Spray
3 tbls graham cracker crumbs or plain bread crumbs
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 tbls vanilla
3 large eggs
1 cup fat free milk

1. Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 10-inch tube pan with cooking spray; dust with graham cracker or bread crumbs.

2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and stir well.

3. Beat butter in a large bowl on medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add the brown sugar and vanilla, beating until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time beating well afer each addition.

4. Add flour mixture to the sugar mixture alternately with milk, beating at low speed, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

5. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour 5 minutes or until wooden pick comes out clean.

6. Cool in pan for 10 minutes on a wire rack then remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

Raisin Nut Bar

2008-11-20T17:14:00.002-05:00

As I am preparing for our new baby to arrive (nesting), I found a stack of recipes I've not used in awhile and decided to share them. This is a healthy snacking favorite! My father-in-law loves how filling (and LARGE) these are and I like how quickly they can be made. This is a single serving size but is really large enough for 2 snacks, in my opinion.

1/4 tsp vanilla
5 tbls uncooked oatmeal
1 tsp raisins
4 egg whites
1 tsp safflower oil
1 tbls slivered almonds
1/4 cup applesauce, unsweetened
1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon, to taste

You could add a packet of splenda or use sweetened applesauce if you wanted to make a bit sweeter. I use homemade unsweetened applesauce and my applesauce tends to be sweeter than store bought unsweetened applesauce.

Combine all ingredients, spray microwave safe bowl with cooking spray and add mixture. Microwave on high for 5 minutes. Continue cooking in 30 second increments until done. Let cool and eat. I would make larger batches and store in the refrigerator.

Please remember, this is health food...not a decadent dessert :)

Lemon Bars

2008-11-20T13:31:00.003-05:00

These are to die for.

Recipe courtesy of Alice Medrich (from her book Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies)

Ingredients:

Crust:
8 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

Topping:
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
1.5 tsp finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup strained fresh lemon juice
2 to 3 Tbsp powdered sugar for dusting

Directions:1. Line an 8-inch square pan with foil on all 4 sides. Preheat oven to 350 F. Position a rack in the lower third of oven.

For crust: melt butter in medium saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add the flour and mix just until incorporated. Press the dough evenly over the bottom of the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the crust is well browned at the edges and lightly browned in center.

For topping: while the crust is baking, stir together the sugar and flour in a medium bowl until well mixed. Whisk in the eggs. Stir in the lemon zest and juice. When crust is ready, turn the oven down to 300 F and slide the rack out without removing the pan. Pour filling over hot crust.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until the topping is puffed at the edges and no longer jiggles in the center when pan is tapped. Set on a rack and cool completely in pan. When cooled, lift the foil liner and transfer to cutting board and cut into 16 bars. Sieve powdered sugar over bars just before serving.

Jane's Cake

2008-11-18T20:15:00.004-05:00

That is not the official title, but it should be :) My mother-in-law, Jane, loves this cake and I had hoped to make it for her on her birthday, but I couldn't get to the store to purchase the mixes it called for (I'm usually a 'from-scratch' kind of person so I don't stock these sort of items). However, the cake is so good it's worth planning for.

This is super chocolately and brownie like. The reason I like this recipe is because it's thick and rich like a brownie, it still holds itself like a cake! It's easy to put together and never a piece goes to waste...at least that's true in our house.

INGREDIENTS
1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan. Have all ingredients at room temperature.

2. In a large bowl, stir together cake mix and pudding mix. Make a well in the center and pour in eggs, sour cream, oil and water. Beat on low speed until blended. Scrape bowl, and beat 4 minutes on medium speed. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pan.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Taco Soup

2008-11-11T12:53:00.008-05:00

1 lb. hamburger
1 med. onion- chopped
1 can of Pinto Beans (Do not drain)
1 can of Kidney Beans " "
1 can of Hominy " "
2 cans diced tomatoes " "
1 can Rotel tomatoes " " (we use mild, but feel free to go with hot)
1 dry pack of Taco Mix
1 dry pack of Ranch dressing
1 tsp. chili powder
1 cup water (if needed)

Brown Meat with onions

Mix all ingredients together in a slow cooker (yes everything is already cooked, this just helps the flavors meld)

Add hambuger mixture and stir well

When this has had time (at least 2 hours on low) to meld; serve with Fritos cornchips in the bottom of bowl and top with your favorite cheese. (sour cream is a good addendum to the cheese).

Strawberry Cheesecake Trifle

2008-11-11T12:51:00.003-05:00

2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese
2 C. powdered sugar
1C. sour cream
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract (divided use)
2 T. plus 1/4 t. almond extract (divided use)
1/2 pint whipping cream
4 T. sugar (divided use)
1 angel food cake, torn into bite-size pieces
2 quarts fresh strawberries, cleaned, stemmed and thinly sliced

In a large bowl, cream together cream cheese and powdered sugar. Add sour cream, 1/2 teaspoon of the vanilla and 1/4 teaspoon of the almond extract. Set aside.

In a small, deep bowl, whip the whipping cream, 1 teaspoon of the vanilla and 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture. Fold in cake pieces and set aside.

Combine strawberries, remaining 3 tablespoons sugar and remaining 2 tablespoons almond extract.

In a large glass serving bowl, layer ingredients in this order: one-third of the strawberries, one-half of the cake mixture, another third of the berries, remaining cake mixture, remaining strawberries.

Cover and chill well before serving.

So-Easy Cherry Fudge Cake

2008-11-11T12:38:00.006-05:00

1 (18.25-oz) package devils food cake mix
1 (21 oz) can cherry pie filling
2 large eggs
1 tsp. almond extract
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup milk
5 Tbsp. butter
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat first 4 ingredients at low speed; increase speed to med and beat 1 minute.
Pour batter into a greased and floured 13x9 pan

Bake at 350 for 27 to 30 min. or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool cake on wire rack for 10 minutes

Bring sugar milk and butter tio a boil in a heavy 2-qt. saucepan over med-high heat, stirring occasionally; boil 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in chocolate morsels until melted and smooth. Quickly spread frosting over warm cake. Cool completely(about 1 hour) Enjoy

We're missing desserts

2008-11-11T12:36:00.002-05:00

We seem to be slim on desserts...do you have any yummy, easy favorites to share? I know my parents have a new favorite chocolate cake that gets better every day it sits. I am waiting for that recipe *hint, hint for my dad*

I do not often make dessert and I do not enjoy baking very much so I have few desserts in my recipe collection. And the one I make the best is made with strawberries which aren't very tasty or cheap this time of year. However, I'll post it anyway just to get you thinking about tasty treats you enjoy :)

Balsamic Chicken

2008-11-09T08:15:00.003-05:00

This goes right along with the Dijon chicken as it is super simple and quick with minimal ingredients.

Chicken Breasts
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Cut chicken breasts into 4oz portions (a lot of chicken breasts found in the grocery are 11-12oz which is 3 full adult size portions per breast). Salt and pepper each chicken piece. Spray saute pan with cooking oil and and heat over medium high heat. Once pan is hot, add chicken pieces and cook until brown on each side and almost cooked through. Add balsamic vinegar and chicken broth to the pan and reduce. Careful not to over cook the chicken while the broth is reducing, if necessary remove the chicken from the pan and return to sauce once thickened.

I also double this sauce as my family loves the sticky sweetness of the balsamic.

Dijon Chicken

2008-11-09T08:07:00.002-05:00

Super simple and quick with minimal ingredients.

Chicken breasts or tenderloins
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 cup chicken broth
salt & pepper

Cut your chicken breast into 1-2 inch strips or use tenderloins as is. Salt and pepper each chicken piece. Spray saute pan with cooking oil and heat to medium high. When pan is hot, add chicken pieces and cook on both sides until chicken is brown and almost cooked through. Add chicken broth and Dijon mustard to saute pan with chicken. Stir until smooth and reduce until sauce thickens.

I actually double the sauce as my family loves this served over rice. This is a basic recipe that has good flavor but you can add your favorite herbs and spices to dress it up for your taste buds.

Yummy Salmon!

2008-11-07T10:52:00.010-05:00

I've been using this simple recipe for years and it always receives great reviews, even from people who do not like fish. Have any of you met my mother-in-law? She has a saying that covers everything she will not eat....it goes something like this:

"I will not eat anything that speaks another language, swims in the ocean or is blue."

Technically, Italian foods like spaghetti and pizza are perfectly ok but she will not eat Mexican, Chinese, Indian, the list goes on and on. Seafood is really off her list, she can not stand to be in the house when I'm cooking seafood. HOWEVER! I did get her to try this salmon once and she even said, "It's not bad." That's HUGE!

So anyway, on to the recipe. My dad just called and wanted the recipe so we decided this was a good place to share it. When you cook this, take a picture for me so we can post one :)

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 pounds salmon fillets
lemon pepper to taste
garlic powder to taste
salt to taste
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS

Season salmon fillets with lemon pepper, garlic powder, and salt.

In a small bowl, stir together soy sauce, brown sugar, water, and vegetable oil until sugar is dissolved. Place fish in a large resealable plastic bag with the soy sauce mixture, seal, and turn to coat. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat grill for medium heat.

Lightly oil grill grate. Place salmon on the preheated grill, and discard marinade. Cook salmon for 6 to 8 minutes per side, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

NOTES:
I have used frozen salmon fillets (4-6oz each) and large fresh salmon fillets weighing 2 lbs or so. I do not use the lemon pepper as my husband does not like pepper, but when he's not around, I do use pepper. I also just add the pepper and garlic powder to the marinade in the bag. I cut back on the oil a bit, I think salmon is a fairly oily fish and does not need a lot of extra oil. I do not typically add extra salt as soy sauce is so salty to my taste buds so experiment and see what works for you. I've also broiled this in the oven when it's too cold to grill.

Mediterranean Rice

2008-11-03T19:34:00.003-05:00

Once again, totally stolen from Wild Mountain Foods. It was simple, flavorful and we did not use the golden raisins, but could definitely see how the raisins would compliment the rice and I'll use the raisins next time. I've not found a flavored rice my kids would eat, but all three of them cleaned their plates tonight!

Mom's Mediterranean Pilaf
3 c. chicken broth
1 1/2 c. uncooked rice
4 Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp curry
1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 c. golden raisins (optional, duh.)

In a 1-quart saucepan, bring chicken broth to a boil. In a medium saucepan, mix dry rice, oil, turmeric, curry, soy sauce, and raisins. Pour in broth. Cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.

Honey Soy Chicken

2008-11-03T19:19:00.007-05:00

I totally stole this from another food blog that my sister-in-law belongs to. It was SOOOO yummy and super simple! My kids could not get enough, Connor asked for thirds, the girls asked for seconds and Lillee is not a fan of meat.

We served this with Mediterranean Rice, sauteed cauliflower and roasted Brussels sprouts.

From: Everyday Foods magazine

Serves 4
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 40 min

1/2 cup honey
2 Tbsp soy sauce
8 skinless chicken drumsticks (3 lbs.)
course salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 475. Line a shallow roasting pan or 9X13" baking dish with foil. In a large bowl, mix together honey, soy sauce, and 1/3 cup water. Add chicken, and toss to coat; season with salt and pepper.

2. Bake chicken, basting with juices from edges of pan every 10 minutes, until well browned and a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the drumstick (avoiding the bone) read 165, about 30 - 40 minutes. Serve chicken drizzled with pan juices.

Changes we made: we doubled the sauce as we were feeding 9 people, did not line the pan with foil and used boneless skinless chicken thighs and breast tenderloins. Cooked for 10 minutes, flipped each piece rather than basting and cooked for 10 minutes more. You could use less water, or none at all, for a thicker sauce but we found that the consistency as stated in recipe was perfect to add some sweetness to the chicken without having a really sticky sweet sauce.

Quiche

2008-11-01T21:19:00.004-04:00

Now I'm thinking about breakfast foods that can also be used for any other meal. I've never eaten quiche and really liked it until I went to a baby shower a few years ago and had quiche made by my very french friend, Agnes. It was a simple cheese quiche but I loved it! The flavor was light yet sharp, the texture of the crust was tender yet substantial enough to handle the filling and the egg was so fluffy and perfect.

I'm not a baker; I don't have the patience nor the ability to be precise with ingredients, it's just a stretch for me. However, Agnes showed me how to make pie dough and she didn't measure a thing! She actually tried to measure ingredients just to make everyone else comfortable :) I've slightly altered the dough recipe over the years, but I still credit it all to Agnes!

So here is the basic dough:

Approximately 2 cups all purpose flour (cold! I put in the freezer for 15-20 minutes)
1 stick butter cut into small pieces (I cut the pieces then place in the freezer with the flour)
salt (I guess about 1/2 tsp - 1 tsp depending on whether you're butter is salted)
about 3/4 cup cold water

Put flour into a food processer, add salt and pulse to mix. Add the butter and pulse until you have chunks of butter about the size of small peas.

Begin adding the cold water (I would start with 1/2 cup and add more as needed) then pulse just until dough begins to form. You can bring it all together by hand.

Turn onto a floured work surface, knead as little as possible (adding a bit of flour if dough is too wet) then roll gently with a rolling pin.

Transfer to a greased pie plate (I prefer a deep pie plate for a quiche).

Now for the filling! Our favorite is simply ham and cheese, however we really like bacon and mushroom and I love spinach and tomato.

I thinly slice Gruyere cheese with a vegetable peeler and make a thin layer across the bottom of the pan with dough; you don't need a lot of Gruyere as it has a strong flavor. I add ham chunks, cooked and crumbled bacon, fresh mushrooms, baby spinach or whatever I want to add in, but always use Gruyere cheese!

Using my pampered chef measuring/mixing/pouring bowl I crack 4 eggs and add enough milk to reach the 2 cup line (Agnes insists on whole, but I have used 1% and skim, but the result requires longer cooking time as the eggs are more watery and less creamy). Whip eggs with a fork, add salt and pepper (and/or garlic, onion powder, whatever works for you!) to taste then pour over the cheese and other ingredients. Bake at 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes until eggs are set.

If I'm making tomato and spinach quiche, I thinly slice the tomato and place on a paper towel. I then salt them to help draw moisture from the tomatoes. After letting them sit for a few minutes, I wipe off the salt, pat dry then flip the tomato and repeat the process. I then layer the tomatoes on top, after adding the eggs.

Get creative, have fun and enjoy quiche the way it's meant to be enjoyed!

Peanut Butter Pancakes

2008-11-01T16:13:00.004-04:00

I took this from my parents who saw it on the Food Network, I believe.

Mix up your favorite pancake mix (for these pancakes I use an easy mix that you just add water to - Krusteaz Brand - and follow package directions) then add peanut butter. I don't measure, I just scoop a cup or so into a microwave bowl, nuke until thin to make for easy stirring then pour into already mixed batter. You may need to add extra water to thin the mix a bit, incorporate it all then cook as a normal pancake.

Now comes the really special part, top with your favorite jelly for a yummy treat! You can smear it on or soften some in the microwave and pour on like syrup. Grape jelly is REALLY good warmed and poured on, but my kids like them smeared with strawberry jelly, honey and even syrup.

Buttermilk Pancakes

2008-11-01T16:06:00.005-04:00

This is more What's For Breakfast but I was thinking about these pancakes and felt I needed to share them.

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons white sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups buttermilk (see NOTE below)
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together buttermilk, milk, eggs, vanilla and melted butter. Keep the two mixtures separate until you are ready to cook.

2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. You can flick water across the surface and if it beads up and sizzles, it's ready!

3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, using a wooden spoon or fork to blend. Stir until it's just blended together. Do not over stir, lumps are ok, "just walk away," in the words of Alton Brown! Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/2 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

NOTE: I don't keep buttermilk in the fridge so I make buttermilk as I need it. Use 1 tablespoon of vinegar - I've used white and apple cider for this - to one cup of milk, let sit for 5 minutes to thicken.

Stahle Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2008-10-28T09:59:00.003-04:00

This recipe comes from Paul's family and it is awesome! It's the cookie recipe we make most often.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 to 2 cups flour (eyeball this)
3 cups oats
As many chocolate chips as you want

Mix beat the butter and sugar until well blended. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix.

Mix the baking powder, baking soad, salt, and flour in a separate bowl. Add to the butter, sugar, and egg mixture. Mix in oats. Add in chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes (eyeball this too).

Yum!

When I make these, I like the batter to be a bit stiff so the cookies are a little thicker. If you like a flatter cookie, stay on the lower end of the flour spectrum.

Chili

2008-10-27T19:46:00.003-04:00

It was cold today and even though I'm not a huge fan of chili, it seemed appropriate. We had meat loaf for dinner on Sunday so I decided to utilize the leftovers.

In a large pot I sweat some onion in olive oil, salt & garlic powder. I added the cold meat loaf cut into 1/2 x 1/2 inch chunks. Two cans of diced tomatoes, 1 can of tomato sauce, 1 can of drained kidney beans, 1 can drained navy beans about 1 tsp cumin and chili powder (we like chili pretty mild so feel free to spice it up for your family), 3/4 tsp smoked paprika, 1-2 cubes beef bouillon and about 1/2 cup water. I simmered for about an hour, made a pan of cornbread and had a warm and delicious dinner!

Taco Ring

2008-10-27T16:35:00.002-04:00

Another recipe stolen from my sister- my kids are eating this as we speak, so I thought to post it

2 cans of crescent rolls- layout with the base of the triangles touching as shown in the photos

For the filling, make taco meat with whatever recipe you like. I used:
ground beef
diced tomatoes
package of taco seasoning
can of corn

You can also layer refried beans and add cheese (to be honest, I usually leave out the cheese and it tastes just fine)

Bake 350 for about 20 minutes

Easy Breezy!

2008-10-25T14:23:00.002-04:00

The other night I looked in my pantry wondering that famous question "What's for dinner?" I had some frozen chicken, some cubed butternut squash, some red onions, and some red potatoes. I cut up all the vegetables so they were the same size and then tossed them with olive oil, dried rosemary, and a couple of chopped garlic cloves. I defrosted the chicken, put some salt and pepper on it then placed it in a 9x13 pan and covered it with the vegetables. I baked it at 350 for about 35 minutes and it was so delicious and so easy!!!!

You could use any root vegetable for the roasting...carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, etc. Enjoy!

Amy

Mock BBQ Chicken Breasts

2008-10-22T20:14:00.002-04:00

I used this recipe a couple years ago while I was cookig for a client who was on a diet called The Fat Flush. I truly love this diet and really enjoy the food, as well! This recipe is for Chicken breasts, wonderfully spiced, minus the ketchup, brown sugar, corn syrup, etc found in most BBQ sauces. So once again, a healthy alternative with all the flavor!

Chicken breasts, skinless (and possibly boneless)

Chicken broth

Cayenne, cumin, garlic and onion powder (I mix these in a small bowl rather than applying each one individually, but play with the mixture to suit your tastes, we don't do spicy so I have to go psaringly with the cayenne and light on the cumin). I would also add in some smoked paprika for a sweet smokey flavor (this spice wasn't available when I first started making this dish).

Sprinkle the cayenne, cumin, garlic and onion powder on both sides of the chicken. Place chicken in non stick pan, add broth to the pan until the breasts are half covered. Cover with a tight-fitting lid on medium to medium-low heat for about 10 minutes. Turn chicken pieces, cook until done.

Sometimes I have to add more broth to keep from burning the chicken if the pan gets dry. If you're not counting fat and calories, you could certainly use some olive oil.

Lamb and mashed root veggies

2008-10-22T18:35:00.004-04:00

This is not a regular dinner for us as lamb is pretty expensive, but it is my husband's favorite and this is such a yummy and simple way to prepare lamb!

1 (3-4 pound) boneless leg of lamb
3 cloves garlic, cut into slivers
3 teaspoons dried dill weed
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

Puncture the leg of lamb with the tip of a knife just far enough to insert slivers of garlic into the holes. Mix together the dill, salt and rosemary, and rub over the leg of lamb. Place the lamb, fatty side up, on a rack in a shallow roasting pan.
Roast uncovered for 2 to 2 1/2 hours in the preheated oven, to an internal temperature of 155 degrees F (68 degrees C) for medium. Tent with aluminum foil and let stand for 15 to 20 minutes before carving. The lamb will continue to cook a little bit, and the juices will set up better for carving.

My favorite addition to this lamb is mashed root veggies, as opposed to mashed potatoes. These root veggies are so healthy and do not scream for cream and butter like starchy mashed potatoes.

2 medium celery root (celeriac), peeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes
1 large parsnip, peeled and chopped into 1 inch cubes
4-6 large cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 of medium onion, chopped
1 cup beef broth
1 T. parsley

1) Bring broth to boil in sauce pan. Add in everything but the parsley and cover. Simmer for 25 minutes or until veggies are soft.

2) Pour off any broth and hold onto it. Mash the veggies until they are consistency of mashed potatoes. Add back a little broth if veggies are too thick to mash well.

3) Garnish with parsley. Enjoy

Peanut Butter Pie

2008-10-20T20:01:00.005-04:00

My dear friend, Julie Trent, made this pie for a church dinner and my husband fell in love with it. We had some family visiting this evening so I decided to make this pie as a special treat...boy did it get rave reviews! Grandma Ros even requested it for our family's Thanksgiving Eve Pie Night. Thanks Julie, we sure love this pie and you can't beat a good dessert made from ingredients that are always in the pantry!

Julie uses a standard flour and shortening pie crust, but I really prefer a different one; more like a sugar cookie crust.

Pie Crust

1 egg
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces

1. Grease a 9 inch pie pan.
2. In a small bowl, mix egg and sugar together. In a separate bowl, combine salt and flour. Cut in butter. Stir in egg mixture, then knead dough into a smooth ball.
3. Keep refrigerated for 15 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
5. Pat dough evenly into pie pan, no need to roll.
6. Bake in oven for 20 minutes.

Pie Filling

3 eggs, separated
3/4 c sugar, divided
3 T cornstarch
1 T Flour
1/8 t salt
3 c milk
2 t butter
1 t vanilla
3/4 c powdered sugar
1/2 c peanut butter (I use crunchy)
1/4 t cream of tartar

Separate eggs. In saucepan combine 1/2 c sugar, cornstarch, flour, & salt. Add egg yolks & milk. Bring to boil over med. heat. Cook, stirring 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add butter and vanilla.

Cut peanut butter into powdered sugar. Sprinkle 1/3 peanut butter crumbs over bottom of crust. Spoon 1/2 filling over crumbs. Sprinkle 1/3 crumbs, top w/ remaining filling.

Combine egg whites and cream of tartar. Beat until foamy. Beat in remaining sugar until peaks form. Spread meringue over pie. Sprinkle on remaining peanut butter crumbs. Bake 8-10 minutes @ 375 until meringue is light golden. Cool completely.

The Cool completely. step is actually the hardest part of the whole process.

I was able to get a picture, but not before half the pie was already missing. And even though I warned everyone that it should cool more, the compliments kept flooding in about how good it was, even a bit warm. The peanut butter flavor really comes through once it's cool, though.

Shepherd's Pie

2008-10-20T17:27:00.008-04:00

Paul loves shepherd's pie. The first time we made it together was when we were engaged. We followed Paul's family's standard recipe that consisted of green beans in tomato soup, topped with ground beef and mashed potatoes. Not bad. But when St. Patrick's Day came around the following year, I decided to make sheperd's pie but searched for a more authentic recipe in honor of the holiday. I'm not sure how truly authentic this recipe is, but it has now become our standard. We love it and hope you will too!

Sheperd's Pie

Ingredients

2 lbs ground beef
1 tablespoon oil
2 onions(finely chopped)
6 large carrots (sliced in rounds)
2 tomatoes(chopped)
1 cup beef stock or bouillon
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried sage
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper(to taste)
5 large potatoes potatoes (boiled and mashed)
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Brown the beef in oil. Remove from pan and set aside.
3. Drain most of the accumulated fat from the pan.
4. Sauté onions and carrots in reserved beef drippings until tender, and then add chopped tomatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add broth and stir in herbs and seasonings.
6. Add beef to the broth and vegetable mixture and continue cooking for 5 minutes.
7.Transfer all ingredients to a 9x13 inch ovenproof casserole.
8. Top with mashed potatoes and sprinkle cheese on top.
9. Bake uncovered in 375-degree oven for 30-40 minutes, or until cheese is melted. We like to turn on the broiler for the last few minutes to get a nice, bubbly cheese crust on top.

Cake Balls!

2008-10-18T13:15:00.003-04:00

I totally stole this photo off of http://therecipegirl.blogspot.com/2008/10/pumpkin-cake-pops.html but this is a variation on my famous cakeballs

Here's how you make them:
Bake a cake (any kind)
Get a can of frosting (any kind)
start melting your almond bark (or chocolate chips work fine)

Crumple the cake into a bowl, add 2/3 can of frosting and squish all together. Roll into little balls of cake. Put on a cookie sheet and freeze for a while. Dip them in the melted chocolate, sprinkle with tiny chips or sprinkles.

I've used chocolate cake/chocolate frosting/melted chocolate chips and also yellow cake/white frosting/melted white almond bark. It's all good! They are ESPECIALLY good if you make them from your sister-in-law's leftover raspberry wedding cake! Delish!

Butter Chicken

2008-10-18T13:12:00.003-04:00

1oz butter
1 onion chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 large boneless chicken breasts
1t ginger
1t chili powder
1t tumeric
1t cinnamon
1t salt
¾ c cream (I use whole milk just fine)
1T tomato paste
½ t garam masala (I usually forget this and it is fine)

Saute onion and garlic in butter. Cut chicken into bite size pieces. Combine spices and salt and toss chicken until well coated. Saute chicken until golden brown. Stir in cream and tomato paste. Cover pan and simmer 10 min or until cooked through. Sprinkle with garam masala. (I serve with rice)