Wild Mountain Foods

SOUTHWEST STYLE QUINOA (MODIFIED)

2011-03-23T09:23:00.002-06:00

This is vegan, and at our emergency prep fair I realized it is all food storage items. Very good and EASY

SOUTHWEST STYLE QUINOA (MODIFIED)
This is my modified recipe (I'm a very lazy cook) and then I'll put the 'real' recipe
1 cup quinoa
2 c water
2 bullion cubes (I used chicken)
1 15 oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 15 oz jar salsa
1/2 cup toasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds (I had a seed trail mix I just picked the raisins out ;0)

Dry toast quinoa 3 min in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add water and bullion, increase heat to high and bring to a boil.
Stir, reduce heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes or until quinoa is tender and nearly all liquid is absorbed.
Add beans, salsa and stir gently to combine well.
Cover and cook 1 minute. Fold in sunflower seeds and serve.

SOUTHWEST STYLE QUINOA (ORIGINAL) (adapted from The Most Effectie Ways to Live Longer Cookbook by Jonny Bowden and Jeannette Bessinger)
1 cup quinoa
2 c chicken or vegetable broth
1 15 oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 15 oz jar salsa
1/4 c chopped chives
1/2 c cilantro
1/2 cup toasted sunflower or pumpkin seeds

Dry toast quinoa 3 min in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add water and bullion, increase heat to high and bring to a boil.
Stir, reduce heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes or until quinoa is tender and nearly all liquid is absorbed.
Add beans, salsa, chives and cilantro and stir gently to combine well.
Cover and cook 1 minute. Fold in sunflower seeds and serve.

per serving: 263 cal, 12 g protein, 7g total fat (1g sat fat), 41 g carb, 0 mg chol, 815 mg sod, 11 g fiber, 6 g sugars

Yummy Almond Coconut bars

2011-02-07T18:32:00.004-07:00

I altered a recipe the other day and made these for our park day. We all thought they were pretty tasty so here is the recipe. I love how the coconut got slightly toasted and crispy. Very sweet and similar to seven layer bars.

ALMOND COCONUT BARS

Crust
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c brown sugar
3/4 c cold butter ( I used 2 T less)

Combine in food processor until it turns into course crumbs. Press firmly into a 9x13 pan then bake in a preheated 350* oven for about 15 minutes.

Layer two
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
1 tsp almond flavoring
1 c slivered, slice or chopped almonds
1 c chocolate chips ( I added some white choc chips as well)

Combine well and pour over warm crust. Generously sprinkle coconut over the mixture. I only did half the pan because not everyone around here likes coconut (crazy, I know.) I also didn't measure but do as much as you like. Bake about 25 minutes longer. Watch near the end. My edges were a little darker than I like. Cool and cut into small bars.

Pumpkin Goodies

2011-01-13T08:09:00.006-07:00

I've been meaning to post this recipes for a while but it's just been to crazy with Christmas and all. Anyway, you gotta try these two recipes. They are really tasty.

Pumpkin Donut Muffins- SOOOO delicious! I made these a few times. It's from that little Martha Stewart magazin, Everyday Foods. I like them as mini muffins, thinking it would be better than big ones but I might eat just as much because they are bite-sized. Here's a LINK but here the recipe is as well.

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 1/4 cups pure pumpkin puree (from a 15-ounce can)
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs

SUGAR COATING
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 12 standard muffin cups. Make batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and allspice. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl as needed. With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions pumpkin mixture, and beat to combine.
Spoon 1/3 cup batter into each muffin cup and bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine granulated sugar and cinnamon. Let muffins cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Working with one at a time, remove muffins from pan, brush all over with butter, then toss to coat in sugar mixture. Let muffins cool completely on a wire rack. (Store in an airtight container, up to 1 day.)

This is what happens when Scott has the one can opener we've got on a camping trip.
Pumpkin Pancakes. Yummy. These are homemade but my awesome friend, Erika bought me a box of pumpkin pancake mix from Trader Joes and they were fabulous! This is what made the pancakes even awesome-er. ("My eyes! He's too awesome!")

Apple Cider Syrup-

3/4 cup apple cider
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
2 tablespoons butter or 2 tablespoons margarine
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

In a saucepan, combine the syrup ingredients.
Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes or until slightly thickened.
Let stand for 30 minutes before serving.

So come next fall, whip these up. So yummy.

Potato/Black Bean Veggie Burgers

2011-01-06T15:54:00.004-07:00

I'm going to try a bunch of veggie burger recipes.
I made these for lunch and they were so good I made them again for dinner. Zac had 2 helpings. I'll post the original recipe first. It had some weird amounts (like it used 1 cup of corn which is 1/2 a can or 1/2 an onion. Then you have the other half to hang around)So just double the recipe to start with and you'll be all set! Also, they are very liquidy so I just squeezed it really good to get a lot of the moisture out. I got to use a new kitchen tool I have never used in my entire life- a potato masher! Hot cha!

They are a lot like fancy latkes. I ate them on a plate with a fork. I think they would be good on toast with lettuce and tomato but I didn't want the extra carbs of the bread. Abby said she wished she had not added ketchup.

Potato Veggie Burgers (original recipe from HERE)
1 cup canned black beans
1 carrot, grated
1/2 onion, diced
3 potatoes, grated
4 scallions, chopped (I didn't have scallions, I left them out)
1 cup corn
salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying
Mash beans. Add remaining ingredients (except oil) and mix until well combined. Shape mixture into patties, cook about 3 min on each side

Potato Veggie Burgers (doubled and tweaked)
1 can canned black beans (mashed)
1 onion diced
6 potatoes grated
1-2 carrots (or not) grated
1 can corn
Mix and shape into patties. Fry 5 min on each side, sprinkle with garlic salt

Indian Dal

2011-01-05T09:13:00.001-07:00

DAL

I will tell you that my vegan new year actually started on Jan 2. The first day of the year was spent with me sick with a sore throat and fever, mostly sleeping and wandering into the kitchen to see if anything grabbed me.

So, here is the first recipe I tried, which was vegan and also met the 'learn to cook Indian food' on my list

My ex-neighbor who is Indian kindly offered to teach me to cook 'Dal'. She called them lentils but the bag said "toor dal" and they look a lot like the yellow split peas I had bought awhile ago and didn't know what to do with. I'll post the recipe she showed me first and then my next day attempt to make it again.

Dal
cook 1/2 c yellow lentils about 40min, mush slightly with potato masher
in a pan on med heat in olive oil add:
mustard seeds & cumin seeds, cook until mustard 'pops'
curry leaves (4-5)
green chilis (2- one cut up and one visible for her picky kid to pick out, lol)
dice the following vegetables and saute for maybe 7 minutes:
onion, potato,green pepper,carrot,eggplant, green beans, tomato
add pinch of tumeric powder and 1/2tsp corriander powder (or garam masala)
add to dal, salt as needed
boil 5 minutes
add asian parsley (she called it corriander leaves or cilantro)

It was very good- I served it with rice and Zac and Abby liked it

So, the next day I tried it with my limited ingredients I had
cook yellow split peas 30 min
in pan saute onion, can of 'mixed veg' (inc green beans, carrots, peas) from food storage that is about to expire, also a can of potatos)
add garam masala
add to lentils
Pretty good, but it definitely needed SOMETHING- salt?

Scrambled Tofu

2011-01-05T09:12:00.000-07:00

This is from the book Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Surprisingly, I make it almost exactly as the recipe states (except I had no cumin). Serve on a baked potato with salsa. Yum! Abby likes this recipe and requested I make it

Scrambled Tofu
1T olive oil
1 med onion chopped
2 c mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
1 pound extra firm tofu, drained
1/4 c nutritional yeast
juice of 1/2 lemon
i carrot, grated (added at end for color)

spice blend:
2t cumin
1 t thyme
1 t paprika
1/2 t tumeric
1 t salt

Heat oil in skillet, saute onions 3 min; add mushrooms saute 5 min; add garlic saute 2 min. Add the spice blend, add 1/4 cup water, scrape the pan to get all spices.

Crumble in tofu and mix well. Don't crush tofu, just lift and mix around. Cook 15 min. Add water if necessary to keep from sticking. Add lemon juice. Add nutritional yeast and mix it up. Grate carrot into mixture and fold. Serve with guacamole and salsa and potatos and toast and tempeh bacon

Fran's Picnic Cake

2010-12-14T17:42:00.003-07:00

Remember how mom would make batches of this (like thirty!!) at Christmas time growing up?? I didn't realize this was such a Christmas recipe for me until I made it last night for a get together. I love it. It seems old fashioned are reminded me of being a kid at Christmas.

Everyone is a little hesitant to try it at first. Let's face it. It is a little ugly. And if you tell people there are dates in it? Well, they usually, politely decline. I never tell people there are dates in it until they eat it. So funny! Here it is. Eat it up. Just tell people it is a delicious moist picnic cake with the best topping ever!

Fran's Picnic Cake

Combine:
1 cup cut up dates
1 1/2 cup boiling water
1 tsp baking soda
Let cool to room temp.

Beat together:
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Add cooled date/water mixture to shortening mixture.

Sift together:
1 1/2 cups plus 2 Tbl Flour (weird, I know)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
Stir into wet mixture. Spread into a greased 9x13 pan. Cover with topping. Bake about 40 mins. in preheated 350* oven.

Topping:
Stir together 1 cup each of brown sugar, chocolate chips, and pecans or walnuts. sprinkle over the batter before baking.

Sisters Dinner November 2010

2010-11-20T06:40:00.006-07:00

Here's our spread from our November 2010 Sisters' Dinner.

I made Boston Brown Bread, and a Bohemian Vegetable Soup (and pumpkin muffins, but not from the Sisters Cookbook, so recipe later). Emily made a Beer Bread and Nick made Sweet and Sour Shrimp. Nancy and Robert were "tired" so they didn't come. Just kidding, Nanc-:). But we did miss you, though. December's dinner is at your house.
Okay, first that Boston Brown Bread (pg. 62) on the far left...it's brown...duh.

1 c. white flour
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. molasses
1 c. raisins

Sift the first 4 ingredients together and set aside. Dissolve soda in milk. Add molasses. Dump into sifted dry ingredients; beat. Add raisins. Place batter in 2 greased loaf pans. Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 45 to 55 minutes.

First of all, what SIZE pan? Apparently, two little ones not big ones cuz that's what I used. Scott called this bread a brick. Oh! Yer so mean! It was okay, I would have liked to taste more of the molasses and less raisins so next time I wouldn't put them in. I probably won't make it again, though.

Next, Bohemian Vegetable Soup (page 17). I chose this recipe because I had a turnip to use. Why did I have a turnip to use up, you might ask? What? Turnips aren't a staple at your house? What kind of person are you? Well, I had a baby food recipe to make and, while I was at the store, I couldn't remeber if the recipe called for a turnip or a parsnip so I guessed and got the turnip. Wrong. Shows you how much I know about turnips...or parsnips. Anyway, so I wanted to use it and that's why I made this recipe.

Also, something that's funny about this soup is that it's called a vegetable soup but the second ingredient is BACON. I guess I could be a vegetarian if I could eat bacon too. :)

Emily also thought it was funny that the handy "tip" at the end says "to reduce fat, use less bacon and substitue 1 cup milk instead of cream." Duh. But also, it calls for half and half NOT cream.

Anyway, I won't make this again. But now I know more about turnips. It really wasn't that bad. For the leftovers, I put cheese on top and more bacon and that was tasty...but really, you could put cheese and bacon on cardboard and it would be good, right? I mean, cheese and bacon...good.

1 large onion, chopped
1/2 lb bacon, cut in pieces
1 med. potato, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 white turnips, peeled and chopped
2 to 3 c. chicken bouillon
1/2 c. half and half
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Brown onion and bacon; drain off grease. Add vegetables and bouillon and cook until vegetables are tender. You may need to add water (up to 2 cups). Season with salt and pepper. Puree and return to cooking pot and add cream and nutmeg. NOTE: To reduce fat, use less bacon and substitute 1 cup of milk intead of cream.
Fishermen's Oriental Sweet 'N' Sour Shrimp (pg. 90). This was the star of the night. Nick did a great job. Yummy! I would make this. Nick said that he would add some more cornstarch, though to thicken it up. I loved the almonds in the rice, too.

1 1/2 c. apple juice
1/2 c. vinegar
1/3 c. sugar
1/4 c. catsup
2 T. oil
1 T. soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c. carrots, diagonally sliced
1/2 c. green peppers, cubes
1/4 c. green onions and tops, sliced
2 T. cornstarch
1/4 c. apple juice
1 lb. shrimp, cooked, peeled and deveined
1/2 c. slivered, blanched almonds, toasted
2 c. hot cooked rice

Combine 1 1/2 cups apple juice and the next 3 ingredients and bring to boiling point. Add carrots and simmer for 15 minutes. Add green pepper and onion and cook 5 minutes longer. Dissolve cornstarch in 1/4 cup apple juice and add gradually in hot sauce, cooking until thickened, stirring constantly. Add shrimp; heat. Add almonds to rice. Serve shrimp sauce over rice. Serves 6.

Love this photo of Nick holding Seth with Zoe right there. So cute.

Beer Bread. (pg. 70) WE DON'T DRINK BEER! Emily had to go find a place that sold them individually and we didn't even know you could do that till she did. Did you wear a fake mustach and sunglasses and a big floppy hat when you got the beer, Emily? :) The fact that this recipe only has 3! ingredients, Emily had to try it. It didn't rise at all, though. Have any of you made anything like this? The recipe is very simple, too simple. We needed more details.

3 c. self-rising flour (Hey, Emily, did you use self-rising flour or just regular flour?)

2 T. sugar

1 bottle beer

Mix together and pour into a loaf pan. Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 1 hour. After the first 1/2 hour, brush top with melted butter.

Over all, very fun. It's fun just to experiment and try stuff we wouldn't. And it's so fun hanging out with each other!

Pumpkin Seeds

2010-11-02T06:59:00.004-06:00

We had some freaking huge pumpkins to carve this year, plus I made a dinner-in-a-pumpkin so we had a TON of seeds to roast. I did half salty and half sweet. The sweet are SO yummy. I got the recipe from a friend of mine. Here's a LINK to the recipe but I'll put it here too.

Sugar and Spice Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds, rinsed and dried
6 tablespoons white sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Spread pumpkin seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet. Toast for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until dry and toasted. Larger seeds may take longer.
In a large bowl, stir together 2 tablespoons of white sugar, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pumpkin seeds and sprinkle the remaining sugar over them. Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar melts, about 45 seconds. Pour seeds into the bowl with the spiced sugar and stir until coated. Allow to cool before serving. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Savory Pumpkin Seeds

Happy Halloween!

shrimp & spinach with polenta delight

2010-10-20T20:23:00.003-06:00

I wanted shrimp tonight and I had some spinach I needed to use, and I wanted polenta, because I've developed a wheat allergy (did i tell everyone that?), so I made this tonight. I just googled shrimp polenta to find it and it was totally delicious. I added chopped yellow onions (sauteed in a lotta butta), a few fresh tomatoes (i didn't use any canned) , some fresh spinach, and some white cooking wine, and totally loved it. Berrett had it over rice. So, if you're looking for something new, with shrimp, spinach, and polenta in mind, totally try this. Yum! And super easy. Sorry no picture.

Sushi and Roux Frosting

2010-10-15T20:10:00.006-06:00

Nancy and I went to a Sushi-Making Class in DC a while ago. I made a bunch of sushi the Sunday afterwards. Fun! I need a lot more practice but man, I made like $40 worth of sushi! No fish or anything fancy. Maybe next time. But here's the recipe for the rice.

SushiRice

2 c. Sushi Rice

2 1/2 c. water

1/3 c. Rice Vinegar

2 Tbsp Sugar

2 tsp Salt

In a sauce pot, bring the vinegar, sugar and salt to a simmer. Whisk until the sugar is dissolved. (This smells a bit icky. fyi) Cool this liquid. In a strainer, rinse the rice in cold water until the water runs mostly clear. This will take a few minutes. Place the water, rice in either a pot with a lid or in a rice cooker. Let sit for 15 minutes and then bring to a simmer. Simmer on low heat for 20-25 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender. Or prepare in a rice cooker. Once the rice is finished cooking, turn the rice into a glass or wooden bowl. Using a wooden spoon, gently fold in the vinegar seasoning. You want to spread the rice out evenly to allow to cool without breaking the grains. If not using immediately cover with damp paper towels.

Here's are sweet Sammy on his 5th birthday. He wanted a lemon cake so, with Stephanie's suggestion, I made the Tina's awesome Lemon Bundthead cake in to 2 circular pans, did the glaze on the two cakes. I used this great frosting to cover it. I just made it a second time just yesterday. This frosting I could stick my face in and lick the bowl clean. It's SO good. It's from Pioneer Woman. Here's a link but I'll put in on here as well. She calls it "The Best Frosting I've Ever Had" but I'll call it a Roux Frosting because you cook some flour and milk for it like a gravy or macaroni and cheese.

Roux Frosting

5 Tbsp Flour

1 c. Milk

1 tsp Vanilla

1 c. butter (2 sticks)

1 c. granulated sugar (not powdered sugar)

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be very thick, thicker than cake mix, more like a brownie mix is. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. (If I’m in a hurry, I place the saucepan over ice in the sink for about 10 minutes or so until the mixture cools.) It must be completely cool before you use it in the next step. Stir in vanilla.

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. You don’t want any sugar graininess left. Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat the living daylights out of it. If it looks separated, you haven’t beaten it enough! Beat it until it all combines and resembles whipped cream.

*Some personal notes: I'm still not good at coloring any frosting. I think I'm going to try powered coloring. Also, this frosting gets firm in the refrigerator so you'll want it at room temperature when using or serving. I tried to soften some leftovers in the microwave and heated it up too much. It totally messed up the texture but still tasted good so don't heat it up.

Homemade Enchilada Sauce

2010-10-12T14:11:00.003-06:00

This is such a simple recipe I found. It is also super fast!

Enchilada Sauce

Put all ingredients in blender and puree

1 14.5 oz can dice tomatoes (mine had garlic too)
1 4 oz can of green chiles (with juice)
1/2 c chopped onions
2 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 clove garlic (or garlic powder if that's all you have)
1/4 tsp pepper

Place sauce in sauce pan and bring to boil for about 5 minutes. Add salt to taste. You might want a little more chili powder before boiling as well, if you like it spicy. Now it is ready to use any way you like!!

I dip corn tortillas in the sauce then place in a casserole dish. I have layered them with taco meat, beans, cheese and rice lasagna style. I only did them with rice once. I think I really just love them with refried beans and cheese, but every way so far have been yummy.

I would double the recipe next time because I think it barely makes enough sauce for a 9x13 pan and I would like to layer some sauce on top too. Try it! All my kids love it and that is amazing!!

so yum!

2010-09-27T19:18:00.002-06:00

I don't have pictures, but I made a delicious dinner tonight. Here's the "recipe":

saladfest thing of love
cook up some chicken breats in the oven. (season with salt/pepper/seasoning salt)
cook up some bacon.
chop it up small and add some mayo and grainy mustard (just a little) and some salt/peppa.

separately, saute lots of red onions and red peppers in olive oil until the red onions are very well cooked and brown. add some sliced zucchini and saute it a little, too. add salt/peppa.

then, on the plate, layer torn red leaf lettuce (or some spring mix or something), then the sauteed veggies, then some sliced (cold) tomatoes, then the chicken salad. you could add some balsamic dressing or something, but it was great just like this. let me know if you try it.

love you!!!

Sister's Dinner August

2010-09-20T20:24:00.004-06:00

Welcome to Sister's Dinner in August! We had almost all of us here! Fun Stuff. Here are the photos that I have. I must have not had my mind on picture-taking because I don't have very many and not of everyone there. Sorry! Here's a cute one. Funny faces. Check out Jane. She totally makes me laugh! Why so sad, Jane?Some of our delicious food: Nancy and Robert made West Virginia Corn Bread. (Why "West Virginia"? Hmmm, whatever. Still good.) I love corn bread. You just can't beat yummy cornbread.

West Virginia Corn Bread

pg. 67

1 c. flour

1/2 c. yellow cornmeal

1/4 c. sugar

1 stick butter, divided

1 c. buttermilk

2 eggs

1 T. baking powder

In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, cornmeal and baking powder. Add eggs and buttermilk. In a 8" skillet (ovenproof), melt butter. Pour 2/3 of the butter into the batter. Stir well and pour back into pan with remaining butter. Don't stir after it is in the pan. Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 30 minutes.

Nick and Emily made Chicken Artichoke Casserole. I love me some artichokes! Thanks, Nick.

Chicken Artichoke Casserole

pg. 120

3 lbs. chicken

2 small jars marinated artichoke hearts, drained

1/2 c. breat crumbs

2 T. butter

1/8 tsp thyme

Sauce:

1/4 c. butter

1/4 c. flour

3 c. grated mild cheddar cheese
2 c. chicken stock

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Simmer chicken until done. Cool and bone. Cut into bite-sized pieces and arrange in a large (3 quart) baking dish. Cover with artichokes.

Sauce: Combine butter and flour in a pan and heat. Greadually add chicken stock and cook slowly until thickened, stirring constantly. Add cheese and nutmeg. Pour over chicken. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and thyme. Dot with butter. Bake in a preheated 350 over for 30 minutes.

This dessert, I have to say, was my thing favorite of the night. Man, SO GOOD and I think it's so interesting that you pour boiling water OVER the whole batter layer and it creates such a delicious crispy, moist topper. YUMMY! Stephanie made it for us. I'm making this again, fo' show!

Fruit Cobbler

pg. 147

3 c. fruit (can be fresh berries, peaches, a combination of fruits or canned fruit)

Batter:

3/8 c. sugar (huh? 3/8? Steph, is this right?)

Pinch of salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 c. butter

1/2 c. flour

1/4 c. milk

Topping:

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 T. cornstarch

pinch of salt

1/2 c. boiling water.

Place the fruit in a 8X8 pan. Any fruit you choose, seasonal or canned, will do well in this recipe. Throroughly mix all of the batter ingreadients and pour (or spread) over the fruit. The batter will be quite stiff. Combine dry topping ingredients and spread evenly on top of the fruit/batter. Do not mix it in. Carefully pour the boiling water over it all. Bake in a preheated 375 over for 1 hour. If you pick your own huckleberries (yeah, cuz I do this all the time), you will want to use more sugar. Instead of 3/8 cup, try 1/2 or 2/3 cup, depending on your sweet tooth.

Not pictured: The Mandarin Salad. I think we've all made this. A salad that's always great. I think those candied almonds totally make the salad.

Mandarin Salad

pg. 29

1/4 c. sliced almonds

1 T. plus 1 tsp white sugar

Cook above together in frying pan until sugar is melted and almonds are coated and very lightly browned. Watch carefully because almonds tent to get too brown. Cool on wax paper and break apart. Can store at room temperature (but be careful of hungry kitchen thieves [that's what the recipe said, not me]).

1/4 head lettuce, torn

1/4 head romain, torn

2 stalks celery, sliced

2 green onions, chopped, tops and all

1 can (7 oz.) mandarin oranges, drained

Almonds as prepared above

Sweet and sour dressing (recipe below)

Place all salad ingredients in you serving bowl. Add dressing just before serving and top with the previously prepared almonds.

Sweet and Sour Dressing:

1/4 c. vegetable oil

2 T. white sugar

2 T. cider vinegar

1 T. parsley, finely minced

1/2 tsp salt

Dash pepper

Dash cayenne pepper

Shake all ingredients together in a bottle. Refrigerate before serving.

Here's Mom and Zac (or "Zachy" like 5 years ago...or if you are Max.) Love the hair cut, Zac!

Here's Emily dipping into what Mom made...whatever it was called because it can't be found in the bookcook...which we were supposed to get the recipes from. TOTALLY NOT from the Sister's Cookbook! Really, Mom. You can't change/alter 80% of a recipe and claim it's the same. We know you missed cream of chicken soup in Denmark, but C'mon! :) Still tasty, though. But good luck replicating it. (Jane! Yer still sad! Why? Why do you hate us? :))

Sweet cousins.

Sweet couple.

Well, I had a great time with great food and best of all, with all you guys here! You're always invited...except one of you...and you know who you are...

I love doing these dinners. They make me laugh at the food and it's a great excuse to get together with whatever family is closest. Love you guys!

Lemon Eggs/Lemon Things/Gateau Au Citron

2010-09-16T21:34:00.005-06:00

Do we really not have this recipe on here? I wanted to make it tonight and I couldn't believe that it wasn't here. So I had to put it on.

For those of you who are not Wilbergs (which probably isn't many) this recipe is one Tina would make when she was still at home (Steph, did you make this too?). But she didn't make the recipe in a regular cake pan but in an egg shaped tin. The story that I know is that Tina couldn't find the right cake bunt-type pan nor could she find a decent muffin tin but there WAS an Easter egg shaped one. And that's why these are egg-shaped at our houses. (Is that right?)

Last year, Stephanie found one of these tins at a thrift store, bought it for me and mailed it out to me because she knew I didn't have one. Ahhhh, so sweet.They really do taste better as individual cakes. The outside texture is just better than a cut regular circle cake, especially with the lemon glaze. So here it is. Yummy. Thanks, Tina, for making us tasty treats when we were young and thanks, Mom, for having all that regular ol' boring stuff hidden away so it couldn't be found and egg shaped lemon deliciousness could be born.

French Lemon Cake or Gateau Au Citron

2 lemons
1 cup sugar
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
4 large eggs
1 ¾ cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
Juice of ½ lemon

Adjust oven rack to the center position. Butter and flour a 6-cup ring mold (7-1/2 x 3 - inch Bundt) or loaf pan (8-1/2 x 4-1/2 x 2-1/2 - inch), or two 3-3/4 cup loaf pans (7-3/8 x 3-5/8 x 2-1/4 - inch). Preheat oven to 325°F.

Remove peel (yellow part only) from lemons using a vegetable peeler; cut peel into 2 - inch pieces. With the metal blade in place, combing the lemon peel and sugar in bowl of food processor. Process until peel is finely chopped, about 60 seconds. Add butter and process until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add eggs and process until smooth, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with spatula as needed. Stir flour and baking powder together; add to work bowl. Pulse on and off only until flour just disappears. Do not over process.

Transfer batter to prepared pan or pans. Bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 to 55 minutes for ring mold and small loaves. Allow 10 minutes longer for the large loaf. Let cool slightly in pan. (If using the egg tin, [or I guess muffin tin...but you really WON'T do that, will you? You really must have these in egg form.] bake at 325 for 20 minutes.)

Mix together confectioners' sugar and lemon juice until blended. Remove cake from pan and place on wire rack over waxed paper. Spoon some of the glaze over the cake. Repeat as cake cools until all the glaze is used. When cool wrap in plastic wrap or foil and refrigerate.

Sister Dinner-Independence Day Style

2010-08-10T19:09:00.003-06:00

In July we did our Sister's Cookbook Dinner on the 4th of July at Nancy and Robert's house. These strawberries are NOT from that cookbook, but from some craft blog that I frequent. Aren't they SO cute? I'm totally going to do them every year on Independence Day or for anything that requires a patriotic flare. Strawberries dipped in white chocolate then dipped in blue sugar. Yum!

We had a bunch of stuff from the Sister's Cookbook and also not from the cookbook. Nancy made the dip in the wooden bowl, Creamy Salsa Dip (pg. 5) It was very tasty and I usually have all these ingredients in my pantry. Yum!

1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. sour cream

1 1/2 c. chunky salsa

Tortilla chips

In a medium bowl, beat softened cream cheese until smooth. Stir in sour cream and salsa. Cover and refrigerate several hours. Serve with tortilla chips.

See those funny yellow balls in the front on the right? Those are Baked Cheese Balls (pg. 10). I had to try this crazy recipe. Not bad. Not worth it, though. I was hoping for more of a cheese ball that you would buy in the potato chip isle at the grocery store (or as Emily would put it, "the grocery." :)), but they were more like a cheesy mini biscuit. I had to guess what was "1 sm. jar cheese with bacon". I could only find that cheese-in-a-aerosol-can cheese. This recipe was totally not worth the $3.50 for the canned cheese but fun just to try.

1/8 lb. butter (what?! Can't you just say 1/2 a stick of butter? Who says 1/8th of a lb of butter?!)

1 sm. jar cheese with bacon (good luck finding this.)

3/4 c. flour

Mix butter with cheese. Mix in the flour. Form into balls, about 1 tablespoon of dough for each. Place balls on a cookie sheet and refrigerate several hours. Baked in a preheated 350 over for about 10 minutes and serve hot. These can be made up and kept in the freezer until you need them.

Nick is much more of a chef then I thought he was! He made the Mediterranean Tart on page 114. It was very tasty!

3 T. butter

1 onion, chopped

1 c. mushrooms, sliced

2 tomatoes, chopped

4 oz. can black olives, halved

2 T. flour

1 c. chicken broth

2 whole chicken breasts, boned, parboiled, cubed

1 lb. sausage

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 c. fresh parsley

1/2 c. grated Parmesan

1 pkg. Pepperidge Farm puff pastry (freezer section)

Brown sausage. Brown onions, mushroom and chicken in butter. Add olives and tomatoes. Add flour and broth, basil, pepper. Put above ingredients in casserole, approximately 8x12". Top with parsley and Parmesan. (At this point you can put in refrigerator to bake later.) Before baking, cover completely with puff pastry; brush with beaten egg. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, or until pastry is puffed and golden.

Here's Nanc- showing off those beautiful strawberries. Can you see the one lone cheese ball on the strawberry Jell-O? Nice.

I've made this Jell-O delight many, many times. I love it! Emily made it back when we had a thousand feet of snow fall in the DC area and couldn't share it with all of us. But she's already typed it up. RECIPE. I always laugh that this is called Strawberry Pretzel SALAD (page 31) and that it's in the "Salad" section of the cook book even though there's not one single thing that's green or salad-like in it. When did anything with Jell-O in it get to be called "salad"? Anyway, I still LOVE this dessert. You should make it too!

We had a lot of fun at this dinner! Afterwards, I drove a bunch as close as possible to the DC mall to see the fireworks there then I drove home and had a pleasantly quiet evening watching the fireworks on tv. :) That bunch came home on the metro and Scott, Jake, and Sam stopped by our closest 7-11 for a midnight slurpy or, as we all now like to call it, a sloppy. :) Good times!

Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin Eater Banana Cake

2010-07-01T21:16:00.004-06:00

With summer, comes the piles of overripe bananas sitting on the counter that everyone refuses to eat! Today I had ten!!! Ten... Thanks to Vaughn and his over zealous trip to Sam's Club.
Anyway, I didn't want banana bread so I looked for a cake recipe. I found a few that looked good then I decided I was too lazy so I found this one instead! It uses a cake mix. (That's the cheating part.) It is good but what makes it GREAT is that I paired it with a salted caramel frosting recipe. Yum.

By the way, there is no pumpkin in the cake. Sorry. That's just how the rhyme goes, just so you knows.

Banana Cake
Mix together:
one yellow cake mix
3-4 ripe bananas (I used 4 smallish ones)
3 beaten eggs
1 C sour cream
1 tsp baking soda

Spread in greased 9x13 pan. Bake about 30-40 minutes in 350* oven.

Salted Caramel Frosting
Heat in medium sauce pan:
4 T butter
4 T milk
1/2 C brown sugar
Boil for one minute.
Then add:
a heaping 1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp vanilla
Gradually whisk in 1 C powdered sugar.

Add milk if you think it's too thick. Immediately spread over cake. My cake was still slightly warm. I think it would be pretty with a sprinkle of kosher salt on it but my kids wouldn't go for it. The whole thing is quick and easy to make.

Margaret's Norwegian Summer Cream Cake

2010-06-17T14:55:00.004-06:00

This was Gretta's Birthday cake!

This recipe came from our lovely cousin Margaret, and it is easy, unusual and really delicious. I made this one gluten free by using rice flour and it turned out great! I wasn't sure how much fruit to put in it so I just did a layer of strawberries. We all agreed it needed more fruit but was still wonderful. I am making another one next week for a friend's birthday lunch. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Norwegian Summer Cream Cake

Cream together:
5 oz. butter
1/3 C sugar

Then add:
3 egg yolks
2/3 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 C milk

Spread batter in 9x13 pan, sprayed with oil. Then spread the meringue on top of the batter.

Meringue-Beat 3 egg whites and 2/3 c sugar until stiff and shiny.

Bake cake at 325* for about 20-25 minutes. Once cooled, cut cake in half. On the bottom half top with whipping cream and fresh fruit/berries. Carefully pick up the other side and place on top, meringue side up, of course! We then just decorated it with a few strawberries.

Puff Pancakes & Our Sisters Dinner

2010-06-13T16:51:00.006-06:00

I hate to move down Steph's yummy chocolate bar! but here are a few recipes from our end. We don't have the Puff Pancake Recipe here so I thought I would put it on (mostly because Nancy's been hounding me to do it). Scott's our master puff pancake maker and bakes it quiet often. We love it and Scott grew up enjoying it too.

Puff Pancake
1/2 cube butter
6 eggs
1 c. milk
1/4 c. orange juice
1/2 c. sugar
1 c. flour
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 425. Melt butter in a 9x13 pan in preheating oven while mixing batter (make sure it doesn't burn, though). Pan should be hot when batter is poured. Mix and beat together (do not overbeat) all ingredients. When butter is melted, pour mixture into dish and bake 20 minutes. It will puff high so don't put it on top shelf. Serve immediately. Makes 4-6 servings.

Here are our latest creations from our Sisters Dinner. If you don't know, (which I think all of you do but for those of you not in our family) we get together about once a month and each make a recipe for the Sisters, Oregon cookbook that Grandma gave us like 5 years ago. And I just realized that Nancy has my cook book so I can't write the recipes here just yet but here's what they were:

Nick made these super yummy Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas. page 116 Very tasty!

2 chicken breasts, baked, boned and cut into cubes
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can (4 oz) green chilies, chopped
1 pt. sour cream
3 green onions, chopped
12 flour tortillas
2 c. cheddar cheese, grated

Mix together chicken, soup, sour cream and onions. Put a large spoonful of chicken mixture and a small spoonful of cheese on 1 tortilla and place in a greased baking dish. Repeat, using all the tortillas. Spread remaining chicken mixture on top of rolled up tortillas. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 15 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Nancy made these Cowboy Coffee cakes (page 69) not to sweet but sweet enough. I think it wasn't hard, either. Right, Nanc-?

2 1/2 c. flour, sifted
2 c. brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 c. shortening
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 c. sour milk
2 eggs, beaten

To make milk turn sour, squeeze lemon or add vinegar to the milk and set aside. Mix flour, sugar, salt and shortening until crumbly. Reserve 1/2 cup of this mixture for topping. To remaining crumbs, add baking powder, baking soda and all spices; mix well. Add milk and eggs and mix well. Pour into 2 greased and floured 8x1 1/2" round pans and top with reserved crumbs. Bake in a preheated 375 oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm. Makes 2 cakes.

I made this peanut Thai sauce. (page 53)The recipe was just for the sauce and it had a very strong flavor so I didn't put a ton of it in the pasta. I should've put it all in because I did in the leftovers and it was SOOOOO good. I'll make it again for our family but you really have to like this sort of flavor.

Put into blender and process 1 minute:
1/4 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. rice wine vinegar
6 T. cold water
1 T. sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp minced, peeled fresh ginger
1 tsp minced garlic clove

Add and process 1 minute:
6 T. smooth peanut butter

Combine and drizzle into blender while on low:
3 T. peanut oil
3 T. sesame oil
1/2 tsp chili oil

Use over bow tie pasta or spaghetti. You can add snow peas if you like. Can be served hot as a main dish, or cold, as a salad. You can also use with stir-fry. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for a week, and can be frozen.

These Sisters nights are SO fun! We have a blast. Next month I'm going to make the Cheese Puffs and the Pretzel Jell-O "salad" which is really a dessert but because it has Jell-O in it, it qualifies as a salad and is in the salad section of the cookbook. Can I put Snickers and candy canes in Jell-O and call it a salad? Anyway, we have a good time. Tina, Steph and Mom, you are always invited. :)

Freakin' Delicious

2010-06-11T03:05:00.003-06:00

Vaughn brought this home the other day (from WholeFoods) and I nearly ate the whole thing in one sitting. Amazing! Really. I love their orange peel one and raspberry one, but I always thought that the crystallized ginger was my favorite. Not anymore. Snap! I used to be so good at eating just one or two squares at a time.

Two BEST Recipes

2010-05-02T23:08:00.003-06:00

Here are two of my most loved recipes of late! I have made them both several times and they always work and seem especially delicious! Just a little better than the other recipes around.

So Enjoy! (I cant say this without thinking of Tina saying this....in a quick, bossy and shut up-y way! So funny!)

Pot Roast

Thinly slice about 4 cups of onions. (my notes say 6 onions but I had less which equaled about 3-4 cups. I know this seems like a ton but they nearly desolve into tasty goodness.)

Coat 4 lb. roast with kosher salt and peper and brown all sides in 2-3 T. hot oil in large pot.

Combine:
1 cup water
2 T. vinegar
2-3 cloves crushed garlic
1-2 T. flour
1 bay leaf

Place sliced onions over the browned meat then pour liquid over meat. Cover with tight lid and simmer about 3 hours or until meat is tender and pulling apart. Check it regularly to make sure there is enough liquid so it doesnt burn. Add more water if necessary. (I always have to add water).

This makes the best gravy and is so, so simple! One of my favs!!

Big Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Now You're Cooking by Elaine Corn
This is my friend Debbie's recipe and they really are such addicting cookies. It is a standard Chocolate Chip Cookie but the amounts are slightly different which seems to make all the difference. I have decided it is the large amount of salt that makes them so much more than just a tole house. They really are amazing.

2 sticks butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1 1/2 baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips [I think 2 to 2 1/2 c. were plenty]

DO THIS FIRST:
1. Take the butter out of the refrigerator to soften. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, with an oven rack in the middle.
2. Get out your portable mixer, or if you have one, a big tabletop mixer.

DO THIS SECOND:
1. Put the butter, both sugars, the eggs, and the vanilla in a big mixing bowl. Beat until very creamy and smooth, about 2 minutes.
2. Using your measuting cups and spoons to make level measurements, combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
3. Add the flour mixture in three helpings to the buttery mixture. Stop the mixer for each addition and mix on low speedonly until just blended each time.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips with a big spoon. (clean up now, and arrange a place to set the cookie sheets, and get out a cooling rack for the cookies).

DO THIS THIRD:
1. Scoop the dough with an ice cream scoop onto ungresed cookie sheets. Leave two inches between cookies. Don't use black bakeware! [I dont make them this big]
2. Bake for 10 minutes. Leave the cookies on the cookie sheet for 5 mintues after you remove them from the oven.
3. Lift the cookies from the cookie sheet with a spatula to a cooling rack. When totally cool, pack them in a favorite cookie jar.

WHat's Cooking in Sisters, March Edition

2010-03-30T07:44:00.003-06:00

Kathy made some mexican lasagna recipe, pretty good. She'll have to say what she thought

LAYERED RASPBERRY DESSERT (page 153)
Angel food cake mix (prepared as directed)
i pks (3oz) raspberry gelatin
1 C boiling water
1 pkg (10 oz) frozen raspberries
i carton (8oz) low fat raspberry yogurt

Cut cake vertically in 1/2. Freeze 1/2 for future use. Tear the other half into bite size pieces. Pour water on gelatin in bowl and stir until dissolved. Add raspberries, breaking apart with a fork, saving several for garnish. Chill until thickened but not set, about 10 minutes. Layer 1/2 each of cake pieces, gelatin mixture and yogurt in a 1 1/2 quart bowl. Repeat. Garnish with raspberries and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Serves 4

(Emily says: I doubled this recipe because there were so many of us but also because it cracked me up that they suggested freezing half the cake. I bought a store made angel food cake. After the squishy strawberry dessert from Feb I didn't want to use frozen berries. This gave me two problems. First, raspberrys are dang expensive in the winter. Second, the jello didn't thicken up. I waited as long as I could (about an hour) but finally poured it all together because we had to leave for church. This meant the cake soaked up the jello like a big sponge. Not bad, but weird texture. I should have thrown a few icecubes in to set up the jello. I'll have to make this again during the summer when I can do the 'right' way and berries are less expensive)

CHICKEN ADOBO
chicken thighs
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 C vinegar
1/2 c soy sauce
1/2 c brown sugar
3 bay leaves
1/2 c salad oil
1/2 tsp whole peppercorns
1 tsp MSG (left this out, ha ha!)

Mix all ingredients with chicken and cook until done. This can be done on top of stove in nice big pot. Serve with steamed rice. Nice on a cold day (we cooked it in the crock pot and then I put it with rice- thumbs up! says emily)

Latkes (Nancy made these, yum!)

What's Cooking In Sisters- February Edition

2010-03-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

We had planned to get together 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, AND SKILLET MAC & CHEESE

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.

Clam Chowder

2010-01-19T19:57:00.003-07:00

I just made this for an Enrichment Night and some friends wanted the recipe so here it is! It's yummy and easy and I can't take the credit.

Bratten's Boston Clam Chowder-Maria Wittwer

2-6 1/2 oz. minced clams
1 c. onion, chopped
1 c. celery, chopped
2 c. potatoes, diced
3/4 c. butter
3/4 c. flour
1 quart half and half
1 1/2 t. salt
a few grains of pepper
1/2 t. sugar

Drain juice from clams and pour over vegetables in med. saucepan. Add enough water to barely cover and simmer, covered, over med heat until potatoes are tender. In the meantime, melt butter, add flour and blend and cook a minute or two. Add cream and cook and stir until smooth and thick, using a whisk to blend. Add undrained vegetables and clams and heat through. Season with salt, pepper and sugar.

Monkey Bread

2010-01-01T07:13:00.004-07:00

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.

Day One, Page One, Recipe Number One

2010-01-01T06:59:00.003-07:00

I thought it might be kind of fun to cook our way through the What's Cooking in Sister's cookbook that Margaret Richins had given me a long time ago. It 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
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

Thanksgiving Eve

2009-11-25T23:30:00.003-07:00

We are very excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I wanted to post what we've done so far. The kids have helped with most of it.

Things made or are still making today:
*Grandma's cranberry jello (in a star mold no less!!) *Artichoke spinach dip (to be heated tomorrow) * Ice shapes with cranberries and berries in them (by Gretta) *Boiled eggs for Deviling tomorrow *2 Pumpkin pies (one Gluten free) *Creme Brulee

Things to be done tomorrow:
*Turkey *Stuffing *Mashed potatoes *Asparagus *Brussel sprouts *Gluten free cornbread *Cranberry ginger ale punch *Veggie plate

Purchased: *Shrimp and cocktail sauce *Homemade rolls from the Russian market (hot when I got them!)

What my friend Darla is bringing: *Banana Cream pie *Chocolate cream pie *Yams *Butternut Squash *Cheese and crackers

What are you having?!

Hawaii food

2009-08-21T21:22:00.005-06:00

I realized how many photos I took of food or restaurants while in Hawaii. Some really cool ones. Also, I'm pretty hungry right now so let's go on a walk down my food memory lane:

Really yummy hawaiian salad my aunt ordered; I didn't taste it

This excellent vegetarian/vegan restaurant. We were making fun of the name (Ruffage) but then had a veggie burger and stopped laughing- it was fantastic. If you go there go before 6 because that is when it switches over to a sushi restuarant. Weird.

Every night my mom went either to Coldstone Creamery or Haagen Dahz. All good stuff.

Did not try this but it made me laugh

Shrimp trucks shrimp- garlicy and good

Mixed plate at the Hukilau cafe. This cafe was in the movie '50 First Dates' but only the name because the place itself is a real dive. But so good. This is mac salad, rice, teri beef, fried shrimp and mahi mahi

Hukilau Burger- a hamburger with teriyaki beef on top and a fried egg. SO GOOD

Shave Ice- very famous and super yummy. You can get icecream and azuki beans inside- delish! There are other flavors besides blue but we happened to get blue hawaiian and vanilla which are blue.

These cool tropical sodas which I did not sample

I had a veggie burger every day at a different restaurant. This one was just ok. I forgot to take photos of them all. Every restaurant does it differently- this one was kind of like a carrot and potato hashbrown. The one from Ruby Tuesday is more like rice and beans. Surprisingly Burger King's veggie burger is excellent. My favorites were from Ruffage (vegan restaurant in Waikiki) and the one at the Grass Skirt Cafe in Haliewa

Sour Cream Blueberry Pie

2009-07-30T10:34:00.004-06:00

Earlier this week, Jane (Emily's Mom) came over to my house and watched the little babies so Sam, Max and I could hit Butler Farms for some of the last blueberry picking of this season. I LOVE blueberries...well, I should say I love blueberry baked goods. I'm not one that would eat a bowlful of fresh blueberries, although Sam, Max, Jake and Zoe are.
Sam and Max were willing to be my slave laborers in picking the blueberries....but not for very long. They where pretty much done after a little while.
When they decided they were ready to leave, I told them to sit in the shade and I would finish filling our bowls.

The result of my "hard" work. I don't think we were there for more than an hour and half.
I found a blueberry pie recipe but I was more interested in a Sour Cream Blueberry pie. And this has a shortbread crust. I guess I have a major sweet tooth. I prefer sweet pies, like pecan and chocolate, rather than straight fruit pies like apple or cherry....I should just pour the sugar down my throat but this is much better and there really are a lot of blueberries in it! I found the recipes on Recipe Zaar. Here they are:

Sour Cream Blueberry Pie
Easy Shortbread Tart Crust

Delicious! I could eat it all day! Now I think today we'll be making blueberry muffins....yum....

Fun with Fondant

2009-06-18T14:04:00.007-06:00

I recently read about Marshmallow fondant and wanted to try it! So for Gretta's birthday she picked this crazy giant cupcake pan mom had and I thought I'd try the fondant. I made the fondant the night before. It was super easy to make and made me long for my clay wedging days [how I would love a wheel and kiln!!] anyway... Here is the cake!

I think it turned out nice but I literally threw it together! I never give myself enough time for this stuff so I was working on it right before her party started. It took me about an hour but I could have used about 20 more minutes to get the lines straight on the bottom.

I had A LOT of fondant left over so the girls and I made several colors and played with it like clay to make little do dads to top cupcakes for Sasha's last day of pre-school. Here are some of the colors...

...And the girls helped knead the color in. It is pretty sticky so lots of powdered sugar and buttered hands helps.

Here is the final product. Cute, huh? Gretta did great. It was a little tricky for Sasha but I think I had the most fun. I did several after the kids were in bed and I had some quiet. Jonah made a really great monster and skull and bones but that was after these cupcakes.

Here is Sasha with one flower she made, that survived the making!
I think I made this little lady bug. The eyes and antennae are sprinkles.
And the last of the fondant was used to make this for Gretta's baptism! I think it turned out great.
Definitely try this marshmallow fondant. I really enjoyed everything about it!!

Strawberry Freezer Jam

2009-06-08T10:35:00.002-06:00

Emily and I went to this great farm to pick strawberries last week! Yum! And we got a ton so we had to make freezer jam. I've never done it before but it was super easy and delicious! You want some? Come get it!
Here's some of the mess.
The results! Isn't it puuurdy!?
There's a million easy recipes. Here's the one we used. LINK
Lovely.....

Rustic Sugar Cookie Strawberry Tarts

2009-05-26T12:18:00.006-06:00

The other day we needed a treat. I had some leftover strawberry glaze and lots of strawberries, so I came up with these simple, tasty tarts and then I made them again the next day, they were so good.

Rustic Sugar Cookie Strawberry Tarts

1. Make your favorite sugar cookie dough. Roll into simple balls and slightly flatten on the cookie sheet. Bake according to recipe.

2. Puree a handful of strawberries with powdered sugar to make a thick glaze. Let it sit for a bit. You don't want it too liquid-y. Then combine the glaze with cream cheese to make a strawberry frosting. Add sugar to taste but I like it a little tart since the cookie is sweet.

3. Spread the strawberry frosting on the bottom, flat side of the cooled cookie. That is the little secret. They are perfect to hold this way.

4. Top with fresh sliced strawberries. No extra sugar needed!

I could eat the whole tray! Really.

Country Pork Ribs & Cheesy Potatoes

2009-05-19T13:10:00.003-06:00

I was talking to Mom about a dinner I made and had Nick and Emily come over. She wanted the recipes so here they are. They are good and easy...but don't burn the cheesy potatoes under the broiler like I did. :(

Country Pork Ribs

3 lbs. country pork ribs
1 c. ketchup
1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce (I like mine less sweet so I add more Worcestershire & mustard)
2 Tbsp Yellow mustard (not the spice)
1/2 c. brown sugar (more if you like it sweet)
garlic salt

Put ribs in a baking dish. Sprinkle lightly with garlic salt. Mix the rest of the ingredients and pour over ribs. Cover with foil and bake at 300 degrees for 3 hours.

Cheesy Potatoes

1-2 lb. bag of frozen potatoes (shredded or cubed) thawed (or as I like to say "unthaw" :))
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 c. sour cream
10 oz. cheddar cheese
cornflakes, crushed enough to cover top
1 cube butter, melted, divided in half
salt, pepper to taste
dried parsley (optional I add this for looks)

Mix all ingredients together, except half of the butter and all the cornflakes. Put in lightly sprayed casserole dish (8x11 or 9x12). Put cornflakes on top and drizzle with remaining butter. Bake for 1 hour at 300 until lightly browned.

This is Why You Are Fat.

2009-03-13T18:29:00.003-06:00

THIS has got to be one of the funniest things I've seen in some time. And I thought it would be appropriate to put on our food blog. Seeing stuff like this makes me understand why Nancy's a veggie, I mean vegetarian. :)

Top Foods People Love or Hate

2009-03-07T16:48:00.002-07:00

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

I thought it was interesting because I know your mom is a cilantro hater. 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

Cinnamon as Savory

2009-02-27T19:45:00.005-07:00

Butternut Bisque

I HAVE to put this soup recipe in! It was SO delicious. You all must make it! I think it was the first savory thing I've made that called for cinnamon. But it wasn't the last. I just made Emily's Butter Chicken, another savory recipe with cinnamon. It was fabulous! You all must make it too!
I'll give you the recipe as I had it (from the mini magazine Everyday Foods) but also a tip from Stephanie that makes the recipe a lot easier.

Okay, Steph's tip: The hardest part about this recipe is the stinkin' peeling of the butternut squash so instead of doing that Steph suggested cutting it in halves, flipping the cut sides onto a baking pan and roasting it. That way you can scoop out the flesh from the squash shell. MUCH EASIER! I'll do that next time. Thanks, Steph!

3 Tbp. butter
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 to 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
coarse salt
1 large butternut squash (about 4 lbs.), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1" cubes
1 can (14.5 oz.) reduced-sodium chicken
1 c. half and half
1 Tbp. fresh lemon juice
sour cream, for serving

1. In a large saucepan, heat butter over medium. Add onions, garlic, thyme, cinnamon, and cayenne. Season with salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened, 5 to 7 minutes.
2. Add squash, broth, half and half, and 3 cups water. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer, and cook until squash is tender, about 20 minutes.
3. Working in batches, puree in a blender until smooth. Stir in lemon juice; season with salt. Serve bisque with sour cream, garnished with cayenne, if desired.

I tortured my family tonight...

2009-01-29T19:33:00.003-07:00

Well, our dinner was pretty funny tonight because I tried an experiment and failed miserably. I was making a beef stroganoff of sorts--not a favorite of mine--but fast and easy. It was nearly done and I thought I'd try and sneak in some veggies...you know, trying to get healthier for our big challenge starting next week. I was going to put in some diced, frozen spinach but then got the really bright idea of pureeing some of the spinach in broth before putting it in the meat sauce. Holy smokes!! That was a mistake. I should have known! What was I thinking. It cant be that bad, right? Well, I only put in a little of the broth mixture which turned my creamy stroganoff sauce into a putrid, chunky green sauce. uggg....

To make it worse I was serving it on toast since I didn't make any noodles. Do you just ever make a meal you know if going to be really, really bad, no one will like, and you kind of don't care anyway? Numerous times as I was dishing up our gag-y dinner, I kept laughing out loud. It is still making me laugh, actually.

I kept thinking of some of the ways mom hid really...uh... crappy dinners. I even tried adding some cheese and that made me laugh more. I felt like such a "mom" (not our Mom, just a mom.) I even said, "you're lucky you even have food," when there were complaints. But secretly it made me laugh! It sort of felt liberating for some reason. Why do you think that was? Strange, don't you think?

We just noticed that Sweet Sasha finished every bite!! Vaughn and I gave her a round of applause and declared that she wins the prize!! Now I have to go find one!

Bay Scallop flop & Roasted Chicken success

2009-01-02T18:22:00.004-07:00

So you've all got to help me. A while ago, I wanted to try a recipe with bay scallops. If you don't know (like I didn't), bay scallops are little tiny scallops. Anyway, the recipe said to pat dry the scallops (they contain a lot of water) and coat them with bread crumbs with some spices. I did that and started to fry them up and ended up with bread crumb-less scallops and a totally bread crumb coated frying pan (shown above). What happened? Do any of you know?Also, a while ago, I made this very pretty roasted chicken. It called for forty (yes 40) cloves of garlic but just in the pan along with some herbs under the skin. It tasted alright but I think the garlic should go under the skin and inside instead of just in the pan. It was pretty tasty though. And so pretty!

new and improved raspberry cream pie

2008-11-30T19:30:00.003-07:00

this is my perfected version of sister wooley's pie, for those of you who know her. you could also make these into bars in a 9 x 13 pan if you double everything. i haven't actually tried that, but i'm sure it would work, since the crust is just a lemon bar crust and the berries and cream part aren't baked...

crust:
1/2 c butter (cut into 8 bits)
1 c flour
1/4 c sugar
1/4 t salt

pulse it all together in a food processor (or by hand with a pastry blender thing), until all crumbly. press into pie pan. bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes, until just a little brown on the edges. let cool.

cream cheese layer:
3 oz cream cheese
1/2 c pwd. sugar
1 t vanilla
3/4 c heavy cream

whip cream until stiff. in a separate container, blend cream cheese, pwd sugar, and vanilla. fold cream cheese mixture into whipped cream. put into the baked and cooled pie crust.

berry layer:
1 c sugar
3 T cornstarch
1 c water
2 1/2 c raspberries (fresh or frozen)

mix sugar, cornstarch, water, and 1 c raspberries in saucepan. bring to a boil until thick and clear. pour over the rest of the raspberries and stir gently. spoon onto the whipped cream layer.

delicious! sorry-no picture.

2008-11-28T04:57:00.001-07:00

Totally stole this from a site bigredkitchen.com. So easy! So good! and gluten free, right? They also suggested you could use chocolate cake mix.

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.

Taco Ring

2008-10-27T14:47:00.002-06:00

I stole these photos and recipe 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

Butter Chicken

2008-10-18T11:00:00.005-06:00

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)

Cake Balls!

2008-10-18T10:51:00.005-06:00

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- I don't know if I've posted them here before

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!

and another thing!

2008-10-15T08:10:00.004-06:00

also, if you have delicious apples right now, which we always do in the fall, try this easy caramel dip for them. way too tasty! i couldn't stop eating it with our perfect honeycrisp appples. (do you have those in your areas? we only get them in the fall, and they look less delicious than the other shiny apples, but they are really sweet and tart at the same time. they actually almost taste like that artificial jolly rancher apple. but natural. YUM!)

sorry, no picture.

Caramel sauce
1 1/2 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

Bring sugar, cream, and butter to boil in heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat, whisking constantly until sugar dissolves. Boil until caramel thickens enough to coat spoon thickly, whisking often, about 10 minutes.

quick treat

2008-10-15T08:03:00.004-06:00

i made these last night and remembered how easy and delicious they were the first time i made them. they are a little like english toffee with a graham cracker in the middle. and you don't have to have a candy thermometer to make them. go try them right now!

(i got the recipe from epicurious.com. i skipped the nuts.)

chocolate caramel graham crackers Gourmet | January 2003

Makes about 1 3/4 lb.
ingredients
12 (4 3/4- by 2 1/2-inch) graham crackers
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (9 1/2 oz)
1 cup walnuts, pecans, or almonds (3 to 4 oz), chopped

Special equipment: a small metal offset spatula
preparation
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a 15- by 10- by 1-inch baking pan with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang at each end.

Line bottom of pan with graham crackers (it will be a tight fit).

Melt butter in a 1 1/2- to 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, then add brown sugar and salt and cook, whisking, until mixture is smooth and combined well, about 1 minute. Pour over crackers, spreading evenly, and bake in middle of oven until golden brown and bubbling, about 10 minutes.

Scatter chocolate chips evenly over crackers and bake in oven until chocolate is soft, about 1 minute. Remove pan from oven and gently spread chocolate evenly over crackers with offset spatula. Sprinkle nuts evenly over chocolate and cool crackers in pan on a rack 30 minutes. Freeze until chocolate is firm, 10 to 15 minutes.

Carefully lift crackers from pan by grasping both ends of foil, then peel foil from crackers. Break crackers into serving pieces.

Honey Soy Chicken & Mom's Mediterraniean Pilaf

2008-10-13T10:05:00.003-06:00

This is the 3rd or 4th time I have made these drumsticks and I love them. A friend recommended it. Steph has made them a bunch of times too. Try them out. The first time I made them I forgot to put the salt and pepper on the legs before the sauce. Ya need the salt and pepper. This last time I forgot the water it calls for and I liked it even better! Here's a link to the recipe. LINK I don't put the foil in because the pan gets all sticky anyway.
This is a recipe Mom gave me years ago that I really like. You might have had it. She does put the golden raisins in it but I don't. Not a fan. But the rice is really great. I usually have all the ingredients on hand. Tina hadn't heard of it from Mom so I thought I'd post the recipe.

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.

Birthday Cakes

2008-10-08T08:33:00.003-06:00

We have two birthdays close together, too (like Emily). For Jake's Batman cake, I used Steph's chocolate cake and frosting recipes. Yum!
After some chatting, Sam decided he wanted a Halloween cake. (Probably because I had just put up our Halloween decor.) I just used a box chocolate cake, then on top is a cream with CoolWhip, cream cheese, chocolate pudding and powdered sugar. Then on top of that, crushed Oreos for the "dirt". I dipped NutterButters and graham crackers in two different shades of tinted grey white chocolate and made those into headstones then put all that other goofy stuff on it. It was fun but sugar on top of sugar with more sugar on top of that is sort of overload, but Sam seemed to like it.

"Dump" Cake

2008-10-07T03:45:00.003-06:00

This ain't fancy.. maybe some of your kids will like to know about it. But my favorite thing is that all the ingredients are easily stored in your cupboard until you start wondering.. "I wish I had some kind of desserty treat" It is really yummy with vanilla icecream but does just fine on its own.

You need:
1 box cake mix (yellow or white works best)
2 cans cherry pie filling (or 2 cans of peaches, or probably any kind of canned fruit)
1 can crushed pineapple
1/2 stick butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 350. Open all the cans. Dump 2 cans cherry pie filling in bottom of
9x13 pan. Dump pineapple on top. Use a spoon to spread it around (don't need to mix it) Sprinkle dry cake mix on top. Cut butter into pieces and drop on top. Cook in oven for 30 minutes. Voila!

It is kind of like a crumble. I used too much butter last time and the top was kind of soggy but still pretty darn good. It is hard to go wrong with this one. For gluten free.. I dunno. Do they make gluten free cake mixes?

A New Look

2008-10-06T15:02:00.001-06:00

What'd you all think of this template?

And I went back and put labels on everything so it would be more organized when we are looking for something specific. So don't forget to put a label on the next post you write. It's on the bottom of the box where you write your post called "Labels for this post."

Once A Month Cooking

2008-09-22T20:08:00.003-06:00

You all might not be interested in doing this but I wanted to post a link to it, for me in the future. It's a few "Once A Month Cooking" menus. I think it would be pretty awesome to have a bunch of meals that you don' t have to worry about; that you have on hand. I think that I would still like to make other stuff too, that wasn't so casserole-y but it would be great to have on the many nights that I don't want to make anything. Here's the LINK.

K Dub's Tamale Pie

2008-09-11T23:18:00.004-06:00

Well, I made Kathy's Tamale pie this week and Vaughn and I loved it. It was yummy and I love having left overs for lunch instead of pbh with Sasha. So, here it is. Try it tonight! (My picky kids on the other hand, picked out what they liked from it. Man, kids are the biggest food snobs! Way bigger than the rest of us!).

KWB's Tamale Pie (with some slight alterations)
Brown:
1 lb ground beef
1 diced onion
1 minced clove garlic
(I added some taco seasoning here)

Stir in:
1 can corn
1 can diced tomatoes
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 can green chiles
1 small can olives
1 1/2 c. cheese (I didnt add this because I dont think I noticed it before)

Pour into a 9x13 pan and cover with cornmeal layer.

Cornmeal layer: So yummy I was eating it plain.
In saucepan bring to boil:
1 1/2 c milk
1 tsp salt
2 Tb butter

Remove from heat for a few minutes then stir in:
3/4 c cornmeal
2 beaten eggs
1 c grated cheese
1 can creamed corn (optional. I didnt use it)

Spoon onto meat layer and bake at 350* for about 40 minutes.
Thanks Kath. We really liked it. Vaughn wants it once a week.

"L" is for love

2008-08-29T17:50:00.003-06:00

These are two of my very favorite tools in the kitchen. I use both of them almost every day. I have a couple of different sizes of scoops which I use for cookies, muffins, measuring Jonah's food (especially rice) and lots of other ways. Every time I use a scoop I think "I love this scoop!"

A silicone brush is the must have of must haves!!! I use this often more than once a day. I have two of them, luckily. I use it for greasing pans, basting meats, bbq-ing and for all frying pans. It works well with shortening, butter and oil. I usually pour a little oil in a custard cup and use the brush to oil skillets while making pancakes, crepes, waffles, eggs etc. I really can not tell you how much I love this little tool. Who whould have thought? It is made for high heat but the very, VERY best thing about it is that it goes into the dishwasher. It comes out perfectly clean every time! Not greasy or anything. It is wonderful.

I know I am a geek, but I really love kitchen tools--the ones that work well, I mean. So do you have any favorite tools?

Panna Cotta and Mom's Pear Chutney

2008-07-18T08:54:00.004-06:00

Hi all!

Well, I wanted to post about two recipes that I made this last week. I told Tina and Steph that I was going to make a Vanilla Panna Cotta (sp?) recipe from EverydayFoods and I did. My kiddos and Scott loved it. It suggested putting maple syrup on it and I didn't like that but it was good and easy. But I sort of felt like I was just eating Jell-o. I think I'll just make Creme Brulee or Flan next time. But it was still yummy and super easy.

I also tried Mom's Pear Chutney with pork chops and it was so DELICIOUS! That one was super easy too! And I really loved the flavor of the pear chutney. Yummy. I'll make this one again. I was concerned about the cooking time for the chops. Can pork be a little pink in the middle or are we thinking chicken and no pink? Let me know. I have no idea.

Anyway, thanks Mom!

crock pot squirrel recipe, and more!

2008-06-25T07:04:00.006-06:00

i've been having a hard time figuring out my work/work out schedule since my kids have been home from school. and our dinners (since we're going to the pool everyday) have been a little rushed and late. so, i was looking to ease things up a bit with some crock pot recipes. i googled 'crock pot recipes' and found lots of random disgusting things. but, i trusted 'all-recipes.com' because there are lots of reviews and i've heard good things about it. BUT, look at some of these recipes:

SLOW COOKED SQUIRREL
ingredients:
* 2 squirrels - skinned, gutted, and cut into pieces
* 4 large potatoes, quartered
* 1 pound carrots, chopped
* 1 green bell pepper, chopped
* 4 onions, sliced
* 2 cups water
* 1/4 medium head cabbage
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

directions:
1. In a slow cooker, place the squirrel meat, potatoes, carrots, green bell pepper, onions, water, cabbage, salt and ground black pepper.
2. Cover and cook on low setting for 8 hours.

SHREDDED VENISON SANDWICHES
ingredients:
* 4 pounds boneless venison roast
* 1 1/2 cups ketchup
* 3 tablespoons brown sugar
* 1 tablespoon ground mustard
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1 tablespoon soy sauce
* 1 tablespoon liquid smoke flavoring (optional)
* 2 teaspoons celery salt
* 2 teaspoons pepper
* 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
* 1 teaspoon onion powder
* 1 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 3 drops hot pepper sauce
* 14 hamburger buns, split

directions:
1. Cut venison roast in half; place in a 5-qt. slow cooker. In a large bowl, combine the ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, lemon juice, soy sauce, Liquid Smoke if desired and seasonings. Pour over venison. Cover and cook on high for 4-1/2 to 5 hours or until meat is tender.
2. Remove the roast; set aside to cool. Strain sauce and return to slow cooker. Shred meat, using to two forks; stir into sauce and heat through. Using a slotted spoon, spoon meat mixture onto each bun.

DELICIOUS BEEF TONGUE TACOS
ingredients:
* 1 beef tongue
* 1/2 white onion, sliced
* 5 cloves garlic, crushed
* 1 bay leaf
* salt to taste
* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 5 Roma tomatoes
* 5 serrano peppers
* salt to taste
* 1/2 onion, diced
* 2 (10 ounce) packages corn tortillas

directions:
1. Place the beef tongue in a slow cooker and cover with water. Add the onion slices, garlic, and bay leaf. Season with salt. Cover and cook on Low overnight or 8 hours. Remove the tongue and shred the meat into strands.
2. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook the tomatoes and peppers in the hot oil until softened on all sides. Remove the tomatoes and peppers in a blender, keeping the oil on the heat; season with salt. Blend briefly until still slightly chunky. Cook the diced onion in the skillet until translucent; stir in the tomato mixture. Cook another 5 to 6 minutes. Build the tacos by placing shrehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifdded tongue meat into a tortilla and spooning salsa over the meat.
~~~

And I loved some of the reviews for the squirrel:

"This is just the way my mom used to cook squirrel"

"Y'all should try this! The hard part is skinning it, but once that's done, its easy as apple pie!"

"This is the first time i tried squirrel w/cabbage,it was pretty taisty,this is a good recipie" (love the spelling!)

And, while I was looking for a photo to go with this post, I discovered an this exciting website where I can buy freeze-dried, canned squirrel, bone in or bone out. I'm thrilled! Now I've got my summer menu all planned!

Really, really good Chocolate Torte (Gluten Free!)

2008-06-22T16:22:00.005-06:00

I think I have talked to some of you about this really good, dense chocolate flour-less torte or cake. I found the recipe on line but I can't remember where. It reminds me of a flour-less cake I made years ago as well as one Tina makes. They had a pound of butter in them with lots of eggs and they were really fattening. This one is delicious and if I fed it to you, you would never guess the secret ingredient in it!!! It doesn't have a pound of butter... but it does have protein and fiber in it which is a bonus as well as being gluten free for the J-man! woo-hoo!

Chocolate Torte

1 1/2 C Chocolate chips

1 15-19 oz can of drained garbanzo beans

4 eggs

3/4 C sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350* and grease and "flour" a spring form pan with coco powder.

2. Melt the chocolate chips.

3. In food processor, combine eggs and garbanzo beans until completely smooth.

4. Add sugar, baking powder and vanilla. Then add in melted chocolate while processor is going.

5. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

6. Let cool about 15 minutes before removing from the pan. The center will sink down a bit.

The original recipe did not call for any topping but I think it is a must. I made a simple chocolate frosting the first time (in picture). I think chocolate whipped cream would be delicious as well as a ganache poured on top. Vaughn doesn't love really dense chocolate things so the second time I made it, I used half white chocolate chips and half semi sweet, topped with cream cheese frosting and it turned out great. I thought the frosting was a little over the top but V loved it. I guess milk chocolate could be used as well instead of semi sweet chocolate.

Anyway, give this a try. I think you will be surprised, but please don't tell my kids what is in it!

Father's Day Food

2008-06-18T09:30:00.003-06:00

This is what we had for Father's Day this year. Grilled steak sandwiches, Twice baked Potatoes, sauteed Brussels sprouts, and my favorite, Creme Brulee! Yummy! I could eat Creme Brulee everyday! I used my friend's recipe that's on my friends' food blog. When I told Tina I used this recipe instead of hers she said, "Why? Do you hate me?" So next time, I'll have to use Tina's recipe. It was soooo good! And I couldn't believe how easy it was.
This steak sandwich was...okay. That's goat cheese and arugala on a baguette but you just couldn't take the greatness of the steak! I love the flavor of arugala but Scott and I agreed that we both would have just liked to eat the steak. It was fun to try, though.

How We Eat Fruit (and its GF)

2008-06-16T23:27:00.006-06:00

You all know how some of my children (one to be exact) have an extremely difficult time eating fruit and refuses all veggies...ALL! So I try to get things down any way I can. So we have these fruit smoothies at least once a week but usually more. I try to pack as much fruit in it and as few carbohydrates as possible.

FULL OF FRUIT SMOOTHIES

1. First use about 12 to 16 ounces of frozen fruit. I usually use a whole bag of mixed berries from Trader Joe's but in this one I only had part of a bag so I put in frozen mango also. If you let it sit in the blender for about 5-10 minutes it will be easier to mix, but I really rarely do that.

2. Add one cup of milk and then start blending. I usually stop a bunch and loosen it up.

3. This is my secret...I add one 12 ounce can of Diet 7up or diet Sprite or Diet Squirt or Diet Hansens Soda (Pomegranite was really good). Then keep blending.

4. Once it is mostly the thickness you like, taste it. Sometimes I add splenda if the fruit is not sweet enough. I will also add a titch of almond or vanilla flavoring if it seems to be lacking something. (And sometimes you need a little more liquid if it stays too thick.)

5. It seems to divide perfectly into five of these kids Ikea cups. We all love them, but all my kids have decided a straw is a must. It makes it fancy.

2008-06-11T21:38:00.003-06:00

I have made this recipe from the food network with a few adjustments and we were surprised. It would be a good "having the missionaries over" meal. I was surprised about how short the cooking time was for the pork chops. They were very tender..even when they are thick. You may need a few more minutes but try the short cook first..then taste to see if done.
The greens and strawberry were picked from our own garden by Sasha and Gretta. This meal is also good the next day..

Pork Chops with Pear Chutney

main meals

Servings: 4 Course: main meals

Ingredients
· 1/4 cup shallot(s), chopped- could use onion
· 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
· 2 1/2 Tbsp packed light brown sugar
· 1 Tbsp unsalted butter,
· 1 tsp curry powder
· 1 tsp ground cinnamon
· 2 1/4 tsp kosher salt
· 1 cup canned pears, packed in light syrup, approximate
· 4 Tbsp Ocean Spray Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce or more
· 8 Bone-In Pork Chops, center cut is good
· 1 tsp black pepper
· 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Instructions

Pear Chutney
1. In microwave bowl stir together the chopped shallot, vinegar, brown sugar, butter, curry powder, cinnamon, salt, and a touch of red pepper.
2. Cover and seal with plastic wrap and heat in the microwave (or on stove) on high for 1 minute.
3. Remove the plastic and chop in the canned pears (drained) leaving them chunky. Add the cranberries leaving chunky. Heat all together.

Pork Chops
1. Heat a large skillet (I use cast iron) over medium high heat.
2. Dry the pork chops well and season with salt and pepper.
3. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the pan and heat until shimmering.
4. Lay 4 chops in the pan and sear until golden brown, on one side- about three minutes.
5. Turn the chops over and cook an additional 1 or 2 minutes.
6. Remove from the pan and set aside in a warm place- repeat with the rest of the chops.

Finish the sauce:
1. Add the pear chutney to the chop pan and use a wooden spoon to scrape any brown bits that cling to the pan.
2. Simmer until slightly thickened. Pour over the chops and serve rest of the sauce with a little extra cranberry sauce on side.

Chocolate Truffle Swirl Ice Cream, Oh my! and of course, It's Gluten Free

2008-06-08T23:51:00.005-06:00

We decided yesterday we wanted homemade Ice cream today. Jonah said he wanted chocolate which we've never made before. Vaughn and the kids voted if they wanted a light chocolate ice cream with a fudge ripple or if they wanted a rich chocolate ice cream. The fudge ripple won out so, I had to figure out how to make it. I didn't have an actual recipe at this point when I offered, but I ended up altering one that came with the ice cream maker. Oh my, it turned out so delicious that I wish I could sneak some right now but I am trying to save the rest for FHE dessert tomorrow night. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures. Maybe I'll end up with a picture tomorrow.

Chocolate Truffle Swirl Ice Cream

Heat on stove:
2 C heavy cream
1 C half n half
1 C milk (you could use 2 C milk instead of the half n half but I wanted to use it up)
4 T cocoa powder

[Stirring in the cocoa was very fun for Jonah and me. The powder sits on top of the cream and when you stir it with a whisk, bubbles form that look like a bunch of marbles. The bubbles are coated with powder, bumping into eachother, and you can practically pick them up--very cool, but they will stir together eventually. I notice a lot of little weird things like this while cooking.]

While cream is heating combine in a bowl:
3/4 C sugar
1 egg yolk (you could use 2 or more but I already had the extra fat from the half n half)
1-2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

Stir in about a 1/2 cup of the heated cream and milk to the egg mixture. Once it is warm you can add the rest of the cream mixture to the egg mix. Strain and refrigerate from 4 hours up to three days.

Truffle swirl:

I made a ganache and didn't measure precisely but this is a guesstimate.
Heat 1/2 C heavy cream
Remove from heat and stir in about 1/2 C chocolate chips until shiny, luscious and smooth. This needs to be completely cool but not hard.

Make ice cream in your ice cream maker once mix is chilled. (Real cookbooks always say here "according to manufacturers directions", but I say "DuH!") When it is done pour or scoop ice cream into a plastic container than make two lines of ganache on top of the ice cream and swirl it in with a knife. I did this a few times until I thought it had enough added ganache. (I used all the ganache but about two tablespoons that will be a delicious treat tomorrow after lunch with maybe some strawberries or a banana. yum.)

Freeze in freezer until firm. I think it should be a least a couple of hours but we ate ours about an hour after. It was still pretty soft but oh so tasty. So far I don't think I have ever had anything bad that included ganache in it. I better keep trying new things though because you never know...

but seriously, you need this ice cream tonight!

The BEST Peanut Butter [brittle] Cookies Ever

2008-06-04T17:02:00.004-06:00

I found this recipe on Kill the Gluten blog when Jonah was first diagnosed with Celiacs. They really are the best P.B. cookies I have ever had. (I made them in Albuquerque for Kathy--what do you think Kath?) We make them about once a week. We almost always use chocolate chips in them but they are delicious plain as well.

I love experimenting, even on something that is near perfect anyway, so last week I added about two handfuls of mini marshmallows and oh my......let me tell you, they are now more amazing cookies. We have named them Peanut Brittle Cookies because some of the marshmallows melt on the sheet and caramelize to a crispy brittle while other marshmallows melt into the cookie leaving a chewy caramel like texture. I am all about texture in food and these have it all. They may not be perfect round cookies now because you never know which way the marshmallow melts but they are worth it anyway. We will still make them just PB but if you want extra special try the "brittle"!

Peanut Butter [Brittle] Cookies

1 C peanut butter (I use crunchy and it should be Jiff or Skippy type)

3/4 C sugar

1 beaten egg

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 C chocolate chips (or more or without)

about 1 cup mini marshmallows (optional)

Combine the PB, sugar, egg, baking soda and salt together. Mix in chocolate chips and marshmallows. I then use a cookie scoop to put dough on a cookie sheet lined with a silpat or parchment paper. You could also roll in balls as well. I always flatten just a bit. Bake in a 350* oven 10 to 14 minutes. If you make them with the marshmallows, let the melted marshmallows turn a golden color before removing, and use parchment or a silpat. I think the cookies would be hard to remove from the cookie sheet without it.

Tina's Creme Brulee... Oh my.. (and it is gluten Free..yippeee)

2008-06-02T14:42:00.004-06:00

Here is Tina's requested recipe. I have read lots of Creme Brulee recipes (mom even gave me a small cookbook of all CB recipes) and I still love this recipe the best. It is simple and so yummy.

3 C Heavy cream (I admit I have used half n' half before)
1-2 tsp vanilla
6 large egg yolks
1/2 C sugar
more sugar for brulee-ing the top

Heat oven to 350*. Bring cream to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from burner and add vanilla.
In mixing bowl, whisk yolks and sugar until thick, pale yellow. Stir the hot cream in slowly, drip by drip until combined. Don't whip it or you will get it to foamy. Strain mixture and pour into eight 4 oz ramekins in a baking pan. Pour hot water into baking pan, coming up half way up sides of ramekins. Bake in water bath for 30-35 minutes, until the tops are set, but the custard in the center is still quite soft to the touch. Carefully remove the ramekins from the hot water and let cool. Refrigerate til ready to use.

Sprinkle tops with 1-2 T of sugar in an even layer. (I dont think I use this much). Light torch and melt and carmalize the sugar with torch. You want it a golden amber color not just clear but dont burn it because that tastes yucky. (duhh!) Let sugar rest about 1 minute to harden. Eat up!

Creme Brulee

2008-06-02T09:41:00.004-06:00

Hey ya'll

Right after Cameron was born a friend of mine made me some delicious creme brulee. Man, Scott and I could have eaten that EVERY DAY ALL DAY!! It was fabulous! When I told Mom and Stephanie about it the both asked me "Haven't you had Tina's Creme Brulee?" No, I have not. What's the deal, Tina!! :) Just kidding. I put the recipe on our friends' food blog which is that Bear Canyon Good Eats link here. Check it out. Tina, is your's like this one? I've got to make it soon. I totally crave it! But, alas, I have some poundage to loose so I'm waiting for a special occasion.

Last Week's Menu

2008-05-28T22:50:00.004-06:00

I decided to stop trying to be fancy when making my weekly dinner lists. I had all these grandiose plans of weekly lists and recipes together and they would be all neat and orderly, but that never happened. I kept waiting to start it. You know how it goes. I decided to simplify and so far it’s working. I wrote out a bunch of regular meals we like in categories of chicken, fish, beef, vegetarian, soups, salads and breakfasts. (We often have breakfast for dinner because they are so fast). Then I just quickly picked five of those meals and decided what I needed to buy. I usually only pick five meals because there is often leftovers or last minute changes. I try to have lots of fruit and veggies, even canned, for the sides to the main courses. So here is what we ate last week. I’m putting in the Teriyaki salmon recipe that Jonah begged for. It is really easy. Isn’t it funny that a boy who will eat barely anything loves salmon like crazy? What did you eat?

1. Teriyaki Salmon with lemon rice
2. Baked Potato Soup
3. Breakfast- scrambled eggs, bacon, berry smoothies, and gluten free apple muffins.
4. Chicken tacos with homemade black beans
5. Soybean spaghetti with alfrado sauce and salad. We also ended up with potato skins with marinara sauce and cheese this night.

Teriyaki Salmon from the Moosewood Cookbook
6 Salmon, monkfish or tuna steaks

½ C soy sauce (GF)
2 tsp fresh grated ginger (but I used about ½-1 tsp of powdered ginger)
½ C rice wine vinegar (calls for rice wine but I used this)
1-2 T sugar (I used brown sugar)
2 cloves minced garlic

In a glass bowl combine the marinade ingredients then place fish in it for at least half an hour, turning once or twice. Broil on a foil covered cookie sheet about 5 minutes then turn and broil about 5 minutes more. It will be opaque and flakes when done. It may also be grilled which sounds delicious but I haven’t done that yet.

Lemon Rice
2 C water
1 C rice
2-3 T butter
1 tsp salt
Zest of one lemon
Juice of one lemon

Combine all ingredients in pan. Bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer until done.

I love soup

2008-05-25T23:40:00.006-06:00

Well, I have decided to revive the food blog since my life so revolves around food and now that I am getting the hang of gluten free eating, I thought I would post some of those recipes as well. I am writing the recipes gluten free and putting (GF) for gluten free when necessary. Just ignore that if you don't care about gluten.

These are two of my most favorite soups of all time. I find that soups are generally fast and tasty at the same time so I try to make them once a week. My kids don't love the Hot and Sour Soup but Vaughn and I think it is fantastic and way better than any restaurant's! It makes great leftovers.

Hot and Sour Soup

1-2 pork chops
3-4 mushrooms
3 C chicken broth (GF)
3 T. cider vinegar
2 tsp. soy sauce (GF)
½ tsp. cayenne pepper
¼ C sliced bamboo shoots, cut into shreds
4 water chestnuts, chopped
½ pound firm tofu cut into ½ inch cubes
2 T. corn starch
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ tsp. pepper
Salt

Cut pork into thin strips. Slice mushrooms. Bring broth to a boil. Add vinegar,soy sauce and cayenne then add pork and stir to cook and separate. Add bamboo, chestnuts and tofu. Bring to a simmer. Combine cornstarch with ½ cup water and add to soup. Bring to a boil to thicken. Drizzle in the beaten egg then stir the soup gently to break up the egg. Add salt and pepper to taste.

You can add as much or as little of the pork, bamboo, water chestnuts or tofu that you want. Since you don't use the whole cans of bamboo shoots and water chestnuts I freeze them for later and they seem to be just fine.

Baked Potato Soup

While I was poking holes in the potatoes with a fork to bake them for this soup, I wondered does it really make a difference. I found out about an hour later when I heard a big boom. I went searching through my house to see if anybody knew what it was but nobody did so I gave up. It wasn't until I checked the potatoes later that I realized one had exploded in the oven. Bits of burning potato were stuck on the walls and floor while the smoke set off my fire alarm. The funny thing was I thought I had poked them all anyway! I guess it is necessary to poke the potatoes before baking.

4-10 baked potatoes
1/4-2/3 C butter
2/3 C flour (or Rice flour)
6 C milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Chicken broth or more milk

Toppings I like:
Chopped bacon
Sautéed mushrooms
Shredded cheese
Green onions
Sour cream

Bake potatoes in 400* about an hour, or until done. This can be done ahead. When they can be handled, cut in half and scoop out the insides and coarsely chop. Discard skins or use later for filled potato skins. In large pan melt butter and stir in flour cooking about 1 minute. Whisk in milk a little at a time stirring until thickened. Add potatoes and salt and pepper to taste. I have added poultry seasoning (rosemary, marjoram, thyme) and often need chicken broth to thin the soup. I like to really mash the potatoes so sometimes it gets too thick. I always dish up the soup and let everyone add their favorite toppings themselves. You can tell from the picture I like a lot of toppings.

Potato Skins

Brush with olive oil or butter. Top with marinara sauce or pesto and top with shredded cheese. Bake in 400* until crisp and golden. Other topping ideas that sound good to me are olive oil, rosemary, kosher salt, pepper, crumbled bacon and shredded cheese. Or garlic butter with cheese. Or maybe just some plain blue cheese.

Chocolate Ganache Tart

2008-02-15T09:51:00.005-07:00

So here's a tart that I made for Valentine's day. I saw it made on the PBS show Everyday Foods. I don't have cable. It is very easy and pretty and if you just want a creamy bite of dark chocolate this is perfect. Here's the recipe. LINK. Before I made it I read the reviews and most said that the crust was to hard and thick so I tried to alter it. I added more butter and less flour. But does that just make it harder and crustier? It WAS very hard, like a dried shortbread cookie. The filling was delicious and there seems to be lots of ways you could alter it but I want to know how you would change the crust. A regular pie crust? A graham cracker crust? What do you think? Fill me in because is easy to make and pretty and yummy. What's your advice?

Haunted Halloween Tricky Treats

2007-11-17T17:22:00.002-07:00

I know that there are alot of photos here but just describing these foods with words just doesn't cut it. Here are the Mummy Calzones that I made. Fun stuff but I should have made like 2 more!
Guacamole dip with carrot fingers! Can't get enough of guacamole dip!! made by Natalie H.
I bought these fabulous jell-o creepy hand molds this year. So fun! I put sour cream and crushed pineapple in green jell-o but it was too pastel-y green so I added a few drops of yellow food coloring in it to make it more...slimy color. EECK!
Aren't these super fun spider web cupcakes? But who made them? Who gets the credit? Sorry! I can't remember!
Finger bread sticks. YUM!! Made by Kristin
Pumpkin dough nuts. Cute, cute! Made by Maria
I made (made?! they were really frozen. So I guess I re-heated) these mini corn dogs cut in half with the intent to be eye balls but I don't think that was achieved but there were still tasty. You can't really screw up corn dogs, huh?

yum!

2007-10-21T19:50:00.001-06:00

i tried to post this on friday, but blogger was down or something because i couldn't upload my pictures. i posted it on my blog, too, so sorry if it's a repeat.

i found a decent recipe for pad thai about 2-3 months ago and i keep making it every other week or so. i'm sure it isn't very authentic, but it makes me happy to eat.

i don't use a recipe now, but here's what i do:

soak rice noodles for about 30 minutes, then drain.
saute shrimp (usually) until pink, then add broccoli, carrots, other veggie friends.
add a potion of about 3 T. fish sauce, 3 T. sugar, 1/3 c. soy sauce. i'll usually add some red peppers, too.
add the soaked noodles and saute until they are soft.
sprinkle chopped peanuts on top.
en-joy.

No Bake Noddles, Mango Salsa, Asian Meat Ball Soup

2007-09-13T08:49:00.001-06:00

This picture is a couple months old but I thought I stick it with Emily's lasagna. It's made with those no bake noddles, too. I have used two types of no-bake noddles: Barilla, in a blue box and American Beauty in a red box (recipes on the back of the boxes). For your info, I like the American Beauty best. Barilla has separate directions for a 2 inch pan rather than a 3 inch pan to protect against spillage. (It seems like most people would have 2 inch, but whatever.) But it still spills! And I have made it twice with Barilla and both times it spills over and I've made lasagna a ton of times using American Beauty with no problems. ANYWAY, my advise just use American Beauty no-bake lasagna noodles.
This was the first time that I've made a mango salsa. YUM!! I loved it! I made it for fish tacos which were pretty good except for the fish part. I hate to admit this but next time I think that I'm just gonna buy frozen fish fillets and use those with the same recipe (in the Better Homes, & Gardens Cookbook).
One of my favorite soups: An Asia Meatball Soup. I double the meat balls and add more broth but I also always add too many noddles.

Meatball and Spinach Soup

Meatballs:

1 large onion, divided
½ lb lean ground sirloin
3 T. seasoned bread crumbs
¼ t salt
1 large egg, beaten
2-3 T. milk

Soup:

1 T. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 quarts chicken broth
4 oz vermicelli or angel hair pasta (I use more)
2 small yellow squash, sliced
1 bag spinach, very clean
1 T. Red wine vinegar (This is what gives it an Asian-type flavor.)

Grate 2 T. onion with beef, bread crumbs, salt, egg and milk. Dice remaining onion. In a 4 quart sauce pan, heat oil over medium high heat. Add onion cook for 8 minutes. Add garlic. Pour chicken broth and bring to a gentle boil. Shape meat mixture into meat balls and gently drop them into the soup. Cook meat balls for about 5 minutes. Add pasta and cook till tender. Add spinach and let wilt. Then add squash and vinegar. I like the squash al dente so I don’t cook the soup for much long after adding in along with the vinegar. If you like a more Asian flavor, add more vinegar.

2007-09-06T16:13:00.001-06:00

First step: get a crockpot. I bought one at my neighbor's yard sale for $3.

Get your ingredients together: onion, garlic, jar of spaghetti sauce, some sort of meat product (I used italian sausage), box of noodles (uncooked), and your 3 cheese combo- motzarella cheese, parmasian cheese (please not the stuff in the green sprinkle can) and cottage cheese (or ricotta for you richy riches).

In your frying pan brown your meat and throw in your chopped onion and garlic. Drain it; add jar of spaghetti sauce.

In a bowl mix your cheeses

Get ready to layer-

sauce, noodles (3-4 broken into pieces to fit in crockpot), cheese, sauce, noodles, cheese, sauce, noodles, sauce.

Cook on low. The recipie said 4-6 hours but mine was done after about 2-3.

Easy! And it doesn't heat up your whole dang house.

Lemon Layered Cake

2007-08-28T16:07:00.003-06:00

So my friend is having a small shower/dinner for another friend of mine. I asked what I could bring and she said a dessert. I've been wanting to make this cake that's from the Cook's Illustrated Magazine from March/April 2007. This photo above is the lemon curd filling.
Here is the cake partly assembled with the icing on the side. It was like a Swiss Meringue icing: egg whites, sugar, flavoring, heated up a bit then beaten.
Ta-da! Doesn't it look purrdy! After I did a crumb layer and after dumping then spreading the rest of the icing on the cake, I took the back of a spoon and made these fancy peaks. It's not as sharp as the picture in the magazine and I still don't know what it tastes like but I do like the way it looks.

If you would like the recipe let me know. I can't set up a link because you have to have a user name and password to get onto the Cook's Illustrated web site but I do have it to send to you via email if you want.

What do you think of the cake?

Kimpob, baby!

2007-08-27T15:44:00.002-06:00

This is the Korean version of sushi called Kimpob. My friend, Jocelyn, showed a bunch of us how to make them months ago and I have been too busy this summer to try them but here are the final results! They don't look to bad, huh!?
This kimpob had all the stuff you see labeled in the photo below, like stir fried beef, spinach and omelet-like eggs. Stuff not in Japanese sushi. Jocelyn actually makes her kimchi (fermented cabbage with other stuff) but I felt at my beginner level I should just make it as easy as possible.
It was super fun to make and now I have the confidence to make more stuff like this and sushi! Click on the photo above to see all that I used. Mmmmm...I can't get enough sushi! Or kimpob!
Sam and Jake even at them and wanted seconds! Exhibit A is above.

You guys should try this!

p.s. If you really want the recipe make a comment on this post. It's a long one so you better really want it!

Yummy Veggie Eggplant Dip And Tina's Bundt

2007-08-24T14:36:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I had lunch at my friend's house. We try and do it fairly regularly and all make delicious things to contribute to the meal. I made the Barefoot Contessa's Eggplant Dip which I saw her make a few days ago on her TV show. So very tasty and healthy too! What a bonus.
I also had bookclub at my house last night and served the spread as well as Tina's Lemon Bundt Cake with added blueberries. So very yummy! Everyone died over the cake and had seconds. The funny thing is that both recipes are so simple I actually had to read the dip one a few times to make sure I wasn't missing anything. It just seemed to easy! Here are the recipes.

Roasted Eggplant Dip -Barefoot Contessa
1 medium eggplant
2 red peppers (I used one red and one orange)
1 red onion, peeled
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon tomato paste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Cut the eggplant, bell pepper, and onion into 1-inch cubes. Toss them in a large bowl with the garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread them on a baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes, until the vegetables are lightly browned and soft, tossing once during cooking.
Cool slightly.

Place the vegetables in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, add the tomato paste, and pulse to blend. Taste for salt and pepper.

Serve with olives and feta cheese. I served mine with crisp flatbread crackers and tortilla crackers. The dip was good plan but I loved the added extra olive and feta on top!

Tina's a Bundthead Lemon Cake--this recipe came from my lovely sister Tina!
Everyone always thinks it is made from scratch but I always say it is a souped up cake mix because I am a very bad liar.

1 box lemon cake mix
1 box lemon jello
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup oil
4 eggs

Mix all ingredients. [I also added lemon zest and a little over a cup of fresh blueberries]. Bake at 350* in a well greased bundt for 40 minutes. Cool 10 minutes then invert and glaze while hot. All the glaze will eventually be absorbed.

Glaze
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar ( I think last night I only used 1 cup and it turned out great)

camp food

2007-08-10T10:02:00.001-06:00

We had some delicious food, including this peach cobbler. The recipe is a little WT, but it was perfectly delicious for camping and it's great for attracting bears.

Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler
3 cans peaches (drain about 1/2 of the juice)
1 cake mix
1 12 oz. can of 7-Up
lots of butters

Spray the dutch oven with cooking spray or butter it all over.
Pour in all the peaches.
Sprinkle the cake mix all over the top; spread evenly.
Put pats of butter all over the top. (I think I used about 1 cube of butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pats. don't you love the word 'pats'?)
Pour 7-Up all over the whole thing. This activates the baking soda so it doesn't taste yucky.)
Using hot hot coals, place the dutch oven over about 20 brickettes and put about 15 on top. Keep it cooking for about an hour....
dutch oven cooking isn't an exact science, so this will work about 1/2 the time, burn about 1/4 of the time, and be too raw the other 1/4. Makes you want to try it, doesn't it?

Raspberry Coffee Cake, Brownies, Cheesy Bread and Salad oh, my!

2007-07-19T13:56:00.002-06:00

So this cake I actually made about a month ago. It's really yummy! It's suppose to be a breakfast coffee cake and I really like the flavors. This is the same cake that I made last year and I was impatient and tried to get it out of the tube pan before it was totally cool (but the recipe does say to only "cool slightly") and I dumped the whole think out into a pile. A yummy pile but you couldn't serve that mess! Good thing that wasn't for something specific. Here's the Martha Steward recipe. Next time I make it, I want to add a little almond extract to the actual cake (it's only asked for in the topping) and I would use less blackberry jam for the filling.

I have some friends that are moving from ABQ and heading for Texas. They're a military family. I thought since they are in the middle of packing I would invite them over so they don't have to have sandwiches or cold cereal for dinner. We had steak, chicken, grilled asparagus, chips, Mom's Cheese Topped French Bread, a tomato salad (pictured on the bottom) and some delicious brownies with ice cream and hot fudge sauce on top (naked ice cream-less brownie above. Duh.) The brownie and this last bite of salad are the only things that remained in my house so you only get to see them. But I will give out the recipes for a few things.

This was the first time that I made Mom's cheese bread so I had to call Steph for the details. In case you don't have it and you would like it here it is:

Mom's Cheese Topped French Bread

1 Loaf French Bread cut lengthwise
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 c. Parmesan Cheese
1 c. Mayonnaise
2 tsp Paprika (optional)
Shredded Cheddar Cheese (about 1-1 1/2 cups)

-Preheat oven at 450 degrees
-Warm bread for about 5 minutes in oven
-Mix garlic, Parmesan cheese, mayo, and paprika in a bowl
-Spread mixture on warmed bread
-Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top
-Toast at 450 for about 10 minutes or longer just check frequently
-For easy cutting, when done, cut with kitchen scissors on one side like a comb and then complete the cut on the other side of the bread. (Did that make sense?)

Double Chocolate Brownies-Maria W.

Maria is a good friend of mine here in Albuquerque. She's a great cook and I love these brownies! The are chocolaty and, with the vanilla, has a great taste. I doubled the recipe and it baked for about +/- 50 minutes. Thanks, Maria!

3/4 c. flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 c. butter
3/4 c. sugar
2 Tbps water
1 12oz package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 c. nuts (obviously optional)

Heat oven to 325. Combine flour, soda and salt in a bowl. In a sauce pan, combine butter, sugar and water and bring just to a boil. Add 1 c. chocolate chips and vanilla. Stir until smooth. Add eggs and then the flour mixture. Let cool and add the rest of the chocolate chips (if you add them too soon, they will melt into the batter). Place in a 9 in. well greased pan and cook 30-35 minutes. You can double this and put in a 9X13, but you have to increase the baking time slightly.

"It's all Greek to me" Tomato Salad

C'mon! Do you think that I would name a salad that?!? I tried this new recipe from a free magazine that was sent to me by Cook's Illustrated. Maybe you guys got it too. It was very good! I love kalamata olives. I have a big ol' container of 'em that I bought at Costco. Alot cheaper than at the grocery store. (Or as Emily puts it "the grocery":)) I didn't put the green peppers in the salad though because a.) I don't really like green peppers and 2.) (hee, hee) green peppers don't seem very Greek to me. I didn't core the tomatoes and I should have. It made the salad have a lot of liquid, so I would core them and let them drain for a while.

2 Tbps olive oil
1 Tbps red wine vinegar
1 Tbps lemon juice
1/ 2 tsp dried oregano
Salt and pepper
1 pound tomatoes, cored and cut into 1 inch chunks
1/2 seedless cucumber, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1/4 inch slices
1/2 green pepper, seeded and cut into thin slices
3/4 c. kalamata olives, chopped
1 1/2 c. crumbled feta cheese

Whisk oil, vinegar, lemon juice, oregano, and salt and peppa to taste in a small bowl. Place tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, and olives in a large bowl. Add vinaigrette and toss until evenly coated. Gently toss in cheese and adjust seasoning.

So those are the fun things I have been making and eating recently. What do you think?

Today's Lunch Special!

2007-07-03T14:08:00.001-06:00

I just had one of my favorite simple little lunches. Toasted wheat english muffin, a little butter then broiled with chedder cheese. I topped it with garden tomatoes (from dad), avacado and plenty of kosher salt and pepper. Add a side of cut up mango with nectarines and it is a completely satisying and delicious lunch eaten quietly alone after the kidlets left the table! I probably didn't need both toast halves though, because I am a little full.

This is especially yummy with a crusty italian type bread but I don't always have that on hand.
Eat it tomorrow!

How we do it in Maryland

2007-06-30T08:09:00.001-06:00

I finally have some food to post! There is a guy with a trailer selling crabs on the side of the road about a mile from our house (sound tempting?). Occasionally we will get a big bucket and then Nick feasts for a week. We had bought these for my sister's visit to show her some local Maryland chow. Served with corn on the cob, french fries with old bay and watermelon. To make it more authentic you should have plenty of beer but we substituted diet cokes and keep 'em coming!

Is this Heaven?

2007-06-28T12:58:00.001-06:00

Pavlova with lemon curd, berries and whipped cream

I made this most delicious dessert for Mother's Day for Mom of course! But I also made it for a girl's night out the same weekend. It is so simple! I made individual meringues as well as a big one in a pie shell. (I can't decide which I liked better.) Then I made homemade lemon curd all the day before. All you have to do is cut the berries, add a titch of sugar and whip the cream. Assemble when ready to eat and I tell you it is pretty much a perfect dessert! I wish I had one right now. If you beg I will put the recipes up but all the different parts are in the standard Better Homes and Garden plaid cookbook. Make it tonight.

PASTA all’ ARRABBIATA

2007-06-27T11:21:00.001-06:00

This is a dinner that has become my backup dinner because it's fast, because I have all the ingredients all the time and because it's delicious! The recipe that's here doesn't have any meat in it but I have added chicken and bacon to it before. I can't take credit for the recipe, it's from my good friend, Heather, that now lives in California. I love it!! Thanks Heather!

PASTA all’ ARRABBIATA

3 quarts water

4 T olive oil

4 garlic cloves sliced or

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

2-8 oz cans tomato sauce

1 cup chicken stock or water

¼ tsp salt

3 T fresh chopped parsley

1 lb penne of ziti pasta

1. Pour the water into a large pot and cook according to package directions.

2. While water is heating, pour the oil into a large sauté pan set on medium heat and cook the garlic and red pepper flakes until the garlic starts to sizzle about 2-3 minutes. Be careful not to let it burn. Add the tomato sauce, chicken stock-or water, salt, and 2 T of the parsley, bring to a boil, and simmer for 5 minutes.

3. Drain the pasta and return to the pot. Add the sauce, turn the heat up to medium-high and toss until it’s well coated. Sprinkle w/ the remaining parsley and cook stirring for 1 minute.

4. *Cooks tips: Chicken stock will make the flavor a bit more intense and the finish more savory. If you do not want to use chicken stock you could add about ½ cup of the pasta-cooking water during the simmering process. The finish and flavor will be just as good. Prep-time about 30 minutes. Serves 4-6.

Father's Day Foods

2007-06-17T20:57:00.002-06:00

Here are the Father's Day foods that we had at our house today. Marinaded chicken, corn bread (or as Scott likes to call it "cone bread"), watermelon and veggie kabobs with my favorite kabob veggies: zucchini, green peppers (which I don't really like but put on because it seems like most everyone likes 'em), boiling onions (just really small onions) and my all time favorite kabob vegetable: mushrooms. I could eat those all day! When we grill veggies we just brush olive oil on 'em, then generously sprinkle garlic salt and lemon pepper on them. YUM!

This here is Tina's Chocolate Tart. So delicious and so easy! In case you wanted to know the difference between a tart and a torte here is what the all knowing, always 100% correct Wikipedia says (...that's sarcasm just in case you can't tell):

A tart is a pastry dish, usually sweet, that is a type of pie, with an open top that is not covered with pastry.

A torte is a cake with many layers. The bottom layer is made of chocolate or vanilla cake, surrounded by a sugary or unsweetened icing. A thick layer of icing is placed between it and the second cake. They can be anywhere from two to five layers high.

So there you go! What did you feed your fathers for Father's Day?

Here's the recipe for:

Tina's Chocolate Tart

CRUST:
1/2 c. butter, melted
1/2 c sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs

Mix together and press into two pie pans. No cooking needed

FILLING:
1 lb. semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Melt have the chocolate and all the butter in microwave in 30 second increments. Then add other half of chocolate. Stir till melted. Stir in sugar. Add eggs till incorporated well. Pour into crusts and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Let cool for 1 1/2 hours. Serve with whipped cream. Serves about 16.

2 for $5 Blueberries

2007-06-09T09:23:00.002-06:00

Last week blueberries were on sale, 2 tiny boxes for 5 bucks, which, as fruit goes is kinda expensive for me but whatever. I indulged myself and threw them in the shopping cart. And later made these blueberry muffins. They were yum, yum. It calls for coarse sugar on the top and that is Scott's favorite part. We has someone over helping us do some yard cleaning (he has a truck to go dump yard stuff, well, to the dump). While Scott and he were working I said I'd put some in his truck cab for them when the drive off. He was surprised that the blueberries where, in deed, actual blueberries and not the crappy berry bits you get in the Jiffy mixes. He loved the sugar crystals, too. Here's the recipe.

Also, don't you love my new IKEA stripped hot pad?

chocolate deliciousness for me.

2007-05-30T10:54:00.002-06:00

i've discovered the most delicious spreadable truffle goodness. it's basically a chocolate ganache, but just perfectly spreadable. delicious on rice crispie treats (which is the original reason i invented this), but it would be a nice rich chocolate frosting for any cake and i eat it daily (almost) on graham crackers.
so, you'll probably all get fat now, but here's the recipe:

chocolate deliciousness

1 1/2 c. heavy cream
2-3 cups chopped delicious dark chocolate (you can use chocolate chips, if they are made from really good chocolate)
titch of good vanilla
1/2 c. unsalted butter

(i'm writing this from memory, so sorry if it's too thick or thin for you. i think i'm getting it close.)

Bring the cream and butter to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate. Mix it (maybe even use a whisk) until all the chocolate has melted. Add vanilla. You can pour it at this point onto anything delicious, then let it firm up a little in the fridge. Or, you can pour the whole lot into a container and refridgerate it until it's firm (it will be too firm to spread at this point.) Then, take it out and bring it to room temperature for easy spreading.

yum.

Margarita Pizza

2007-05-10T15:22:00.001-06:00

I new favorite easy and fast dinner: Margarita Pizza. I hadn't ever heard of it before until I was cruising on a blog recommended on Design Mom. I this it was "What's on your Plate"...maybe. I still can't remember. But it's so simple and addictive because it doesn't feel as fatty Mr. Regular Pizza. Ingredients: home made crust, Parmesan cheese, fresh basil, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and salt and peppa. YUM!!
Before entrance into el orno. (oven)
AFTER! This is Golden Delicious! NOT an apple!

Fast Sunday Food

2007-05-10T15:03:00.001-06:00

These are the things I made after church this last fast Sunday. What did you guys make?
Yeah, it's a casserole and it's not beautiful in a conventional sort of way but it sure is tasty! This is a Breakfast Casserole, the recipe of which, came from a good friend of mine here. It has sausage, yum, cheddar cheese, yum, and Monterey Jack cheese, yum AND green chilies, YUM, YUM!

Just a basic chocolate chip cookie but they were very delicious! They have ground up oat meal like Stephanie uses in a Neaman Marcus chocolate chip cookie recipe. I want to try hers to see if it's mo' betta. Good food!

Oh baby, can't get enough of CAKES!!

2007-05-04T12:49:00.001-06:00

You all know how much I love making cakes. I'm not great or even good at it but I love doing it and getting better and figuring out what I like and what I don't like and what I could improve on.
This is a Texas Sheet Cake. Pretty common and everyone who makes this say they LOOOOVE it so I thought I give it a try. It was good. I need to make it again for better performance. It was hard to take out of the pan. Maybe I didn't bake it long enough. Have any of you made this cake? Any tips?
Made this one a while ago. The Heaven and Hell Cake. TOOOO sweet, too much work, too messy to cut, too feo and just toooo sweet.
Chocolate Crepe Cake. Oh baby, this was yummy! Chocolate crepes with a almond Swiss Cream (?). The first time I made it I thought that the crepes were too thin and hard to make. So the second time I made them thicker, too thick. The cake was hard to cut. So next time, I want a good in between. The presentation is soooo great I love it! Everyone oooo's and ahhhh's because it displays so well. RECIPE
Chocolate Ganache Cake. You CAN'T beat this cake!! I LOVE IT! I wanted to make Scott a Princess Cake for his birthday but he didn't want to be a princess and really wanted me to make this one again. The original MS recipe is here LINK but this first time I made it I didn't know that there was a difference between all-purpose flour and cake flour. DUH. Therefore it was a TOTAL DISASTER! I made those cakes twice that day with crappy results on the cake but yummy goodness on the ganache. But really, how can you mess up ganache? So I used Stephanie's AWESOME-amazing-can't-go-wrong chocolate cake recipe with the original ganache and now it's pretty much near perfect!

Stepi's Chocolate Cake

3 c. flour ALL-PURPOSE! Not cake flour
6 Tbs. coco
2 tsp baking soda
2 c. sugar
1 tsp salt
3/4 c. oil
2 Tbs. vinegar
2 tsp vanilla
2 c. very cold water

Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients and add to dry mixture. Mix till just moist. Grease and flour (or use coco) a 9x13 or 2 9" inch circular pans or cup cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-50 minutes, depending on your pan. Check frequently.

Tortilla Pie Mmmmmmmmm

2007-05-04T12:39:00.001-06:00

Hello Everyone!

Here is a picture of a dish I like to make Tortilla Pie. Here's a link to the Martha Steward recipe. Tortilla Pie. I modify it slightly by using wheat tortillas and I add chopped chicken for more protein and I probably use more cheese then it calls for. Who couldn't use more cheese, huh? But I love and so does Scott and my kids chow down on it too!

Wild Mountain Foods Not So Grand Opening!

2007-04-29T17:04:00.000-06:00

Welcome to all Wild Mountain Fans! And Happy Birthday to Wild Mountain Foods!

I thought it would be fun to start a blog where we could specialize in all the wonderful (and maybe not so wonderful) foods that we make. That way we can find recipes, share tips, mistakes, photos of foods and favorite food websites right here.

You don't have to do this if you don't want to, but I'll end up putting a bunch of stuff on it.

Here's a website that I just came upon today. I typed in the questions "why do cakes fall?" into Google and this was the first website to come up. I was stuck on the website for a super long time. Diana's Dessert

Anyway, I've been thinking about doing this for a while now so I hope you like the idea.
love,
Kathy