Sunflowers in my Kitchen

Crockpot Pudding Cake

2010-02-23T15:44:00.000-05:00

"Pudding cake" (also referred to as "hot fudge cake" or "chocolate dump cake") is a creation I had never heard of before meeting my husband. He swore it was one of his favorite desserts, so I gave it a try. This crockpot version is an even-easier, hands-off take on the recipe. It makes 6+ servings.

Ingredients:

2 cups packed brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
-----
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1.5 cup packed brown sugar
-----
3.5 cups boiling water

Preparation:

Spray the crockpot with baking spray.
Mix 2 cup brown sugar, flour, 3 tablespoons cocoa, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Stir in milk, margarine and vanilla. Spoon batter into bottom of crockpot.

In another bowl, mix together brown sugar and cocoa. Sprinkle evenly over batter. without stirring.

Pour boiling water over the top. Do not stir. Cover and cook on high for 2-1/2 to 3 hours.

I like being able to start this recipe before dinner guests arrive, and have it done just as we're ready for it.

Serve immediately with ice cream or whipped cream. YUM!!

Cooking with kids

2010-01-11T10:45:00.000-05:00

WARNING: When you let the 7-year-old top the pizza, the toppings may not be distributed evenly.

From the Archives: Wassail

2009-11-30T09:29:00.000-05:00

I'm asked about this recipe almost more often than any other. It will be making an appearance again this year at our holiday celebrations! Originally published in 2007.
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I had never tried wassail, but my husband insisted it was a holiday neccesity, to I was determined to make it. I was glad I did! Adapted from the Belgian Wassail recipe from MyRecipes.

6 clementines (or 2 oranges. I used what I had...)
2 lemons
1 gallon apple cider
1 C sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp whole allspice

Combine cider, sugar, and spices in slow cooker. Squeeze juice from lemons and oranges into mix, and let rinds float in the cider mixture. Cook on High for 1 hour, then keep warm until ready to serve. Strain out solids.

I let a lemon rind continue to float in the wassail as a colorful garnish. The fruity, citrusy warm spiced drink was perfect to share for Christmas dinner- and made the whole house smell good!

Get-Better Soup

2009-10-06T17:51:00.001-05:00

I was home sick today.

This is a rare occurrence for me. Like, I'm pretty sure it hasn't happened more than a couple times in the last 10 years type of "rare occurrence". I'm not good at sitting still at home, but today I slept & slept & slept. Between naps, I threw a bunch of stuff in the crockpot that I hoped would make me better, and then went back to sleep. Come dinnertime, the chicken noodle soup concoction was actually delicious. Here's the list of things thrown into the crockpot, and why:

Chicken broth: Homemade from local, free-range chicken. Homemade broth has less salt than the boxed or canned store-bought varieties, so I threw some in- but I was able to control how much salt was in the soup, making it healthier. From Wise Traditions: "Science validates what our grandmothers knew. Rich homemade chicken broths help cure colds. Stock contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily-not just calcium but also magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals. It contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons--stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain"
Carrots: Again, these are local, organic carrots, so no nasty pesticides in my soup. I grated the carrots to add to the soup. From World's Healthiest Foods, "Carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A. In addition, they are a very good source of vitamin C, vitamin K, dietary fiber and potassium." I need al the vitamins I can get, especially Vitamin C, to get better!
Celery: This was homegrown celery, which ended up being smaller than the typicalstalks, so when I harvested it, I cut it up & froze it for soups such as this one. Again, from WHFoods: "Celery is an excellent source of vitamin C, a vitamin that helps to support the immune system. Vitamin C-rich foods like celery may help reduce cold symptoms or severity of cold symptoms; over 20 scientific studies have concluded that vitamin C is a cold-fighter."
Kale: I through this in primarily because I had it on hand, and it is considered a "superfood" so I knew it couldn't hurt. Again, this is local, organic kale. From The Food Paper: "Just one cup of raw kale contains 15% of the recommended daily value of calcium and Vitamin B6, 40% of the magnesium, 180% of the Vitamin A, 200% of the Vitamin C and a whopping 1020% of the Vitamin K. The boost in immune support and antioxidant protection provided by these vitamins could help ward off the colds and flus of the season, not to mention more serious diseases."
Garlic: I added about 2 tablespoons of chopped garlic to the soup, knowing that it is specifically recommended for colds & flus. WHFoods explains why: "allicin, one of the sulfur-compounds responsible for garlic's characteristic odor, is a powerful antibacterial and antiviral agent that joins forces with vitamin C to help kill harmful microbes. In research studies, allicin has been shown to be effective not only against common infections like colds, flu, stomach viruses, and Candida yeast, but also against powerful pathogenic microbes including tuberculosis and botulism." I hate to admit it, but this was jarred garlic. I use what I have on hand.
Ginger: I know that ginger is another food suggested to help fight the flu, but I only had the powdered form. I sprinkled just a little, figuring it couldn't hurt, but I didn't want the taste to be overpowering.
Chicken and egg noodles: Obviously, "chicken noodle soup" needs these. Chicken provides protein and Vitamin B for energy. Egg noodles give the soup some heft, to fill me up.
Of course the soup is served hot: Sipping the hot soup and breathing in the steam helps clear up congestion.

What do you eat when you're sick?

Making Fresh Mozzarella

2009-09-09T14:54:00.000-05:00

Both Alisse and Becca have asked, so I thought I better hurry up and explain how I went about making fresh mozzarella, mostly based off this recipe.

It all starts with milk.

That seems obvious: Cheese = milk + mold + magic, or something like that? I don't think there was any mold in my process, but there definitely was milk, and the rest seemed like magic!

So, we start with the milk:

When looking for milk to make cheese out of, reportedly raw milk is best- but that's mostly illegal- and the next best thing is whole milk that is NOT homogenized and NOT ultra-pasteurized. To be on the safe side, I got whole organic milk that was as minimally processed as I could find. I bought a half-gallon because I wasn't sure how this was going to work, and I'm cheap.

The other critical supplies:

Rennet and Citric Acid.
I found both at a natural foods store. I had to ask where to look in the store- I had no idea. Luckily, I had a friend who WORKS in a natural foods store along with me on the trip, and he was able to give me some ideas. Hint: Rennet is refrigerated.

Dilute 1/8 tsp rennet in 1/8 C (2 Tbsp) water. Set aside.
In a good-sized pot, mix 1/4 C water with 3/4 tsp citric acid. Add the milk.
At this point, it looks like we have milk in a pot:

Heat to 88 degrees. I only had a meat thermometer, which is probably not the best tool, but it worked. Remove the pot from the heat and add the rennet solution. Use a wooden spoon to stir with an up-and-down motion for 30 seconds to a minute, then leave the pot alone for about 10 minutes. This is the "magic" part"

While you're stirring, the curd will start to thicken.

After 8-10 minutes, the pot will (hopefully) look like this:

The curd pulled away from the sides of the pot and is now one big mass. Using a knife long enough to reach the bottom of the pot, cut lines in the curd to make cubes. I found out this is not as easy as the instructions make it sound. Hopefully yours will be prettier:

It doesn't really matter, though, because when you scoop out the curd using a slotted spoon, it won't hold its shape anyway:

OK, Miss Muffet fans, what had we just done?? Separated the CURD from the WHEY. Watch for spiders.

As you scoop the curd, squeeze as much liquid as possible from the curd. This won't be easy. Once the curd's in the bowl, even more whey will drain out of it. Pour as much whey as you can back into the pot of whey. Form the curd into one ball or a few smaller balls.

Put the pot of whey back on the stove, and heat till not-quite-boiling. Dip a ball into the hot whey until heated, then take it out and knead or stretch it until it cools and ceases to be pliable. This motion is working out more whey from the curd. You'll have to do this 5 or so times. Rumor has it, this is where you'd salt your cheese. My directions didn't exactly say when to do it, and I forgot. I recommend adding some salt- the resulting salt-less cheese is kinda tasteless.

When you've finally reached "fresh mozzarella consistency," heat the ball one last time, and form it into a well-shaped ball. Dip in ice water to cool, and store in water or wrapped tightly in the fridge. A half-gallon of milk created a ball of cheese bigger than a tennis ball but smaller than a baseball.

As for me? The cheese didn't last long. Less than 24 hours, in fact. With fresh tomatoes around, that is to be expected.

Going Local Week 2009

2009-09-09T08:55:00.000-05:00

I've been on vacation half the week, so I'm late to the party, but it's Going Local Week 2009!

I kicked it off Sunday morning with a breakfast sandwich including eggs from a friends' farm and tomatoes from my backyard.

Over the weekend, I visited the Carmel cupcake shop Holy Cow Cupcakes that uses all local fruits in her cupcakes, as well as organic butter & milk.

Last night's dinner, though, was the Best Thing Ever: a Caprese salad with tomatoes & basil from my backyard, and homemade mozzarella cheese. This is what I've waited all summer for, seriously. I bought the cheese-making supplies in anticipation of it in early May.

What local foods have you enjoyed this week?

Month-long meal plan wrap up

2009-09-02T10:41:00.000-05:00

Last Month, I ate at home for more consecutive days than I have in as long as I can remember. It was a small feat, to be sure, since most normal people I know do this on a regular basis. I updated the meals list as the month went on to show what we actually ate (as opposed to the original plans I had)

Did we eat anything fancy? No. Could we have eaten healthier? Yes. Is any meal at home healthier than eating at a restaurant? I'd argue, most of the time. Portions at home are much smaller, and I eat less (almost no) fried food at home, and almost always have something fried when I eat out.

So what did I learn?
Part of the goal last month was to eat from our pantry and freezer exclusively. I ended up spending about $30 on groceries the entire month, replacing staples. This part of the experiment was a success. I also discovered it's almost impossible to plan ahead of time from what groceries I'll need- By August 31st, I was totally out of eggs and butter drinks, and the pantry and freezer were considerably more empty. That said, I was impressed how much food we keep on hand. This "clearing out" month was good for us.

I learned that the convenience foods were the first to go, and I had to increasingly cook from scratch more and more as the month went on. I guess I'm lazy- I took the easy way out many times early in the month.

I learned that, if we eat at home more and I'm cooking from scratch, I do a LOT more dishes. Luckily I have a wonderful husband who helped me out on this one. Canning projects also dirtied a good number of dishes, adding to the load.

The biggest thing is, I learned it can be done. Even in the midst of working and get-togethers and family events and church responsibilities and lessons, dinner can be on the table. It's not anything elaborate most nights, it's just simple and filling and good family time together.

Needless to say, September 1st, with an empty pantry and freezer and no meal plan to speak of, we ate out at one of our favorite restaurants. I felt it was deserved.

Perfecting pizza

2009-08-30T20:13:00.000-05:00

When I was a kid, "homemade pizza" meant buying pre-packaged, pre-cooked pizza crusts at the grocery store, picking our own toppings, and assembling the pizza ourselves. This was lots of fun, I'll admit.

As I started cooking for myself, I saw how expensive these crusts were, and looked for other options. We used the pizza crust "Just Add Water!" mixes for a while, but found them sub-par. Frozen pizza still tasted better than the bready crusts that the mixes made.

As I started to tackle yeast breads, I tried making crusts from scratch, kneading and waiting for them to rise and even making bigger batches and freezing the dough in crust-sized balls in hopes of making the process a little bit more convenient. I still wasn't 100% happy with the recipe, and to this day try to tweak it. I feel like I've gotten to the point that my crusts are as good as a marginal pizza place and better than frozen. I'm getting there. On the upside, making pizza at home costs way, way, way less than ordering out. Here's what I did tonight to make my best pizza crust yet:

Pizza Crust, modified from Crystal's recipe
1 Tbsp yeast
1 C warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp oil
1 C whole wheat flour
1.5 C white flour (plus more for dusting the counter while kneading)

Combine yeast, water and sugar in a medium-sized bowl. Let sit until the yeast is "activated"- a few minutes. Add salt, oil, and flour, and stir to combine.

When the dough comes together, turn it out onto a floured surface. Knead for 10 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl and let rise 1 hour. While it's rising, preheat the oven to 450. Punch down the dough when it's done rising.

At this point, you can make one BIG pizza or two smaller pizzas (or one smaller pizza, with one dough ball leftover to freeze for later) The big pizza will be 14 or more inches across. If you're making two pizzas, cut the dough in two right now.

Press the dough ball into a circle on a pizza stone. Brush with olive oil. Bake the crust for 8 minutes, and remove from the oven. Deflate any bubbles that popped up by poking them with a fork. Top the pizza as desired. (The above pizza is 1/2 pizza sauce-cheese-pepperoni, 1/2 cheese-tomato-basil) Bake for another 12-15 minutes, until cheese starts to brown.

Notes: Parbaking the crust tonight worked better than topping the pizza before it went in the oven- when I've put ingredients on the raw dough, the dough in the middle of the pizza stays soggy. This pizza had a more-crunchy crust, and that was a welcomed change. Also, I've overdone the whole wheat flour before, which results in the crust not rising much. Here, the whole wheat flour was about 40%, and it worked well.

Harvest Dinner

2009-08-19T13:44:00.000-05:00

My refrigerator is overrun with produce.

The cucumbers and green beans have taken over the produce drawer and a couple shelves. The broccoli is barely squeezed into a bag. The potatoes are being stored in the office, for lack of anywhere better. I'm out of space.

I admit, this isn't a bad problem to have.

I'm having to be creative to use up produce during dinners, and the other night, I hit on a particularly simple and tasty dish. To put it in perspective, I'm exceedingly critical of my own cooking - most nights, I discuss how the dish is marginal and could have been better- but I got halfway through this meal and said matter-of-factly, "This is really good!" My husband agreed.

Green Beans, Potatoes, and Bacon

1/2 lb green beans, trimmed
5 small potatoes, cut into fourths or eighths (bite-sized)
4 pieces bacon

Boil water, and add beans and potatoes. Boil until potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes, and drain. In the meantime, cook the bacon until crispy. Chop bacon into small bits and toss bacon and 2 Tbsp drippings with the beans and potatoes. Serve warm.

This can be served as a main dish or as a side. The beans and potatoes were our main dish, and I served them with a side of corn on the cob. Although this is an almost-all-vegetable meal, it is surprisingly filling.

My favorite part? The only thing in this dinner not from our yard was the bacon. Garden WIN!

Easy Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-08-17T14:08:00.004-05:00

The goal this month is to use what I have on hand, and I'm doing my best to stick to it, even when that means cooking for others. It's my turn to bring dessert for our bible study group- 8 adults and 5 kids. What's in the pantry that I can share?

1 box chocolate cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 C oil
1 C chocolate chips

Mix first 3 ingredients together, then stir in chocolate chips. Form into balls and flatten. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Let cool before removing from baking sheet. Makes about 4 dozen.

Notes: The recipe I had found called for 2 cups of chocolate chips, but the 1 1/2 cups I used seemed like too much, and I was afraid the cookies weren't going to hold together. This is a very oily dough.

The result: I made chocolate cookies from a cookie mix a while back and was VERY disappointed- they were tasteless! These, on the other hand are chocolatey and moist (but not cakey) and really tasty cookies. I will be making them again. Bonus? cake mix can usually be gotten for free or almost-free with combined coupons and sales at the grocery store.

Yes, they tasted as good as they look.

Raspberry Clafoutis

2009-08-14T09:22:00.000-05:00

I had guests coming Saturday for an early dinner, and I needed a dessert that I already had everything on hand for. This one looked delicious, and I wanted to give it a try. As an added bonus, I got to share my raspberries I harvested and still had in my freezer.

Raspberry Clafoutis
Adapted from Orangette

1 C fresh or frozen raspberries- enough to cover the bottom of a pie pan
3 large eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
A pinch of salt
½ cup unbleached, all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350. Spread the raspberries on the bottom of the pie dish, covering it completely

Whisk the eggs and sugar in a medium bowl until pale yellow. Add the milk, vanilla, and salt, and whisk to combine.

Add the flour slowly to the batter, and whisk until smooth. Pour the batter slowly over the fruit, trying to disturb it as little as possible. Bake the clafoutis until puffed and nicely golden around the edges, about 40-45 minutes. Remove the clafoutis from the oven, and allow it to cool for a half hour or so, during which time you’ll see it deflate and settle a bit. Serve it warm or at room temperature, dusted with powdered sugar.

Yield: 6-8 servings

Surprisingly, this wasn't super-sweet. It was a nice creamy-fruity flavor, just what I was going for. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but some parts of the dessert were a little rubbery, and that was disappointing, but there were no complaints!

Foodie vs Cook

2009-08-13T09:26:00.001-05:00

Saturday, I'm headed to my very first blogger conference, Blog Indiana. I'm a little apprehensive, since I feel like everyone else going is a much "bigger deal" than me in the blogging world, and I'm just a little hobbyist. Thing is, I've been at this blogging thing for 5 years, and I really do enjoy it- so I'm going to the conference to be around people who enjoy the same type of thing I do.

One of the panels I was particularly looking forward to is the Foodie Panel. A blog post asked for questions for the foodie panel, and I eagerly (OK, I admit, overeagerly) threw some out there, mostly about posting recipes and pictures. After taking a look of the list of bloggers on the panel, though, I realized my questions were mis-aimed. The fine bloggers on the panel aren't "food bloggers" like I read, like this blog- they're (for the most part) "foodies"- restaurant and food reviewers. I was discussing this confusion with my husband, and he said he always thought "foodies" were people who like fine restaurants and foods. I guess I had lumped all food blogs under the "foodie" label, but maybe that's wrong?

All that to say, I'm not the only one with this confusion. The kitchn is making the distinction as well, and asking which category we fall into... I'm a cook, for sure, especially if a foodie is "those who love the shiniest equipment and the newest ingredients, and follow the antics of top chefs the way others follow the NFL." Ha! Not me. You'll notice this blog is basically all comfort-food, simple recipes that can be whipped together with a bowl and a wooden spoon and not much else. I'm not into gadgets. I couldn't name a famous chef if you asked me to.

What I am into is experimenting- trying new concoctions with whatever I find in my pantry, keeping the price-per-meal down, and keeping the family's stomach's happy. So far so good. More recently, I've been conscious of finding ingredients locally, growing my own produce, and generally taking into account my meal's footprint on the earth. Does this make me a foodie, or just a conscious cook?

I've, just now, come up with even more questions for the foodie panel- they'll certainly have all the answers Saturday! What would you ask them?

Fettuccine Alfredo

2009-08-11T11:00:00.001-05:00

I mentioned I'm trying an experiment: meal planning for the entire month and eating out of my pantry and freezer and garden. We had guests over for dinner Saturday, and I needed to make something that would feed 5 mouths and used what I had on hand (and wouldn’t be too “boring” for guests!) Having a few scalable recipes has been useful for me. I prefer a ratio or approximate amounts of ingredients to exactly-measured instructions so I can easily make more or less of something without doing complex math. Another advantage of scalable recipes is I can use exactly what I have on hand rather than having little bits left over.

Fettuccine Alfredo

Equal parts heavy cream and Parmesan cheese, grated
2 Tablespoons butter for every cup of cheese

Fresh-grated parmesan is obviously best, but even the stuff in the green can will work for this recipe.

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add cream and mix with butter. Add cheese. Simmer until thickened, stirring occasionally. Add more cheese if desired.

Throw in some garlic, pepper, paprika, or whatever else you might like to spice it up, but just the basic formula will result in a great sauce- way better than what you’d get out of a jar!

Serve hot over fettuccine. Top with grilled chicken strips, if desired. I used leftover roast chicken to top this.

Healthy? Some would say no. I like to think, I’m using whole ingredients rather than ingesting the colorings and preservatives in the jarred sauce, so this recipe is better than the alternative. Some of the cream could probably be replaced with milk to lower the calorie count. I’m not sure if replacing the butter with margarine would work, but it’s worth a try, if you’re concerned about it.

And, Voila! Dinner! In no time!

Quick link

2009-07-30T11:42:00.000-05:00

Check out my recap of the "garden party" at my church last week, where we heard about and what an urban CSA is doing to support the local food movement, and I got to see all that is being grown for church members and local food pantries at my church.

Month-long Meal Plan: The grocery list

2009-07-27T10:00:00.001-05:00

Heather asked that I post a grocery list for this month-long meal plan. Many of the meals are on my list because I already have ingredients on hand to make them, and I need to start cleaning out my pantry and freezer. I did do a grocery trip this weekend, and spent $40 at Aldi and $10 at Meijer, and (theoretically) won't have to go shopping until September, except for perishables like milk, and maybe some lunch supplies.

For those of you playing along at home, however, here's a master list of what would need to be in your pantry/freezer to accomplish this dinner meal list. Not all of these items will be used during the month, but, for some of them, the smallest amount that can be reasonably bought is "one package". Some of the amounts I'm totally estimating, and hope they're in the ballpark. Do keep in mind, I'm only meal-planning for 2, your amounts may be different. Enough with the disclaimers:

MEAT:

1 package Pepperoni (Day 4, 30)
1 lb Ground sausage (Day 9, 18)
3 lb Ground beef (Day 1, 6, 15, 19, 23, 28) **
2 whole chicken (Day 3, 5, 7, 14, 20, 26, 27) **
3 lb Boneless skinless chicken breast (Day 10, 22, 31)
1 pkg Hot dogs (Day 8)
1 lb steak (Day 12)
12 slices bacon (Day 13, 25)

PRODUCE:

4 lbs Potatoes (Day 1, 12, 13, 20, 25)
3 pints (or equivalent fresh) Green beans (Day 3, 10, 22)
1 C Peas (Day 7, 20)
1 C Carrots (Day 7, 20)
1 Tomato (Day 27)
1 head Broccoli (Day 12)

PANTRY*:

1 can Pizza sauce (Day 4, 18, 30)
1 can Spaghetti sauce (Day 6, 19, 31)
1 pkg Rice (Day 5, 7)
2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup (Day 5, 14)
3 cans Refried beans or pinto beans (Day 15, 23, 28)
1 can Black beans (Day 27)
1 can Salsa (Day 27)
2 cans Tomato soup (Day 16, 29)
1 can Tomato sauce (Day 28)
2 pkg Spaghetti (Day 6, 14, 19)
1 pkg Fettuccine (Day 26)
1 pkg Macaroni (Day 8, 11, 21)
1 pkg Bread crumbs (Day 6, 10, 31)
1 pkg Hot dog buns (Day 8)
1 loaf Bread (Day 16, 29)
1 pkg Taco shells (Day 15, 23)
1 pkg Tortillas (Day 27)
1 pkg Tortilla chips (Day 28)
1/2 C (or 3 pkg) Taco seasoning (Day 15, 23, 27, 28)

FRIDGE/FREEZER:

6 C Mozzarella cheese (Day 4, 18, 30, 31)
10 C Cheddar cheese (Day 8, 11, 14, 21, 27, 28)
1 doz Eggs (Day 6, 7, 13, 25)
1 gal Milk (Day 8, 9, 11, 20, 21)
1 lb Butter (Day 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, 21, 29)
1 pkg Velveeta (Day 16, 29)
1 pkg Refrigerated biscuits or pie crust (Day 20)
1 pint Heavy cream (Day 26)
1 pkg Parmesan (Day 26, 31)

* I'm not including staples like flour, oil, salt, yeast, baking powder/soda, standard spices, etc. These are negligible, and will be replaced throughout the month if I run out, but I doubt I will...

** You'll notice a LOT of meals after these meat items. I' try to stretch my meats as far as possible- a whole chicken, for example, will be eaten one night as "roast chicken", and the remaining meat will be shredded and thrown into casseroles for another 2 or 3 meals. One pound of beef stretches to about 3 taco meals for the two of us.

My next step should be seeing how much this would cost if I was shopping for it all at once. Also, many of the things on the list are "convenience foods" that could probably be made at home, instead of buying pre-made pie crust or canned beans or breadcrumbs, for example. The cost of the menu could be lowered by cooking from scratch even more so, but I have the most likely (easiest) way I'll make the dishes listed.

Looking at this list, I realize how this looks like a really bad-for-us menu. I'll report on how I work more veggies into the meals, because I KNOW we eat more vegetables than what is listed. Also, we eat whatever is coming out of the garden, so I hope corn-on-the-cob and more tomatoes will appear on the menu, but I don't want to count my chickens, er, ears of corn, yet.

New experiment: Month-long meal plan

2009-07-23T10:20:00.013-05:00

Where is this summer going? It's flying by. If you haven't heard, I'm keeping myself plenty busy with the garden, in addition to typical family busy-ness. July is fast coming to a close (I can't believe it!) and August is upon us. For August, I'm going to try a new experiment: a meal plan. For the whole month.

This is kind of silly, since I have a hard time sticking to even a week's meal plan. When I try to plan for a week, I end up cooking Tuesday's meal on Monday because I didn't feel like Monday's meal Monday, and shuffling everything around, so that by Friday, we end up eating out because I've used up all my meal ideas or we didn't have something on-hand that I thought we did.

So why even try to meal plan? Well, for me, it makes mealtimes less stressful. Throwing together a meal is easy- it's figuring out what that meal will be that makes me stress out. If I have an idea of what's on hand, going home and putting it together is easy.

So now, drumroll please.... What We're Eating in August (subject to change)

Breakfasts:
Cereal (neither of us are big Breakfast Eaters, unless we go out.)

Lunches:
Homemade "Lunchables" - crackers, cheese, summer sausage, salty snack & sweet snack
Sandwich, salty snack & sweet snack
Leftovers
Quesadilla & salty snack

Dinners:

Leftovers
Family reunion (Made cole slaw to share)
Spaghetti & meatballs
Roast chicken & green beans
Pizza
Chicken and Rice
Hot dogs and Chips
Biscuits & gravy
Chicken alfredo
Chicken Tacos
OUT TO EAT WITH FRIENDS
OUT TO EAT AT STATE FAIR
Rice and chili
Burgers, grilled corn, and roasted potatoes
Sandwiches
Bean and cheese roll-ups, with chips & salsa
Green beans, potatoes, and bacon, and corn on the cob
OUT TO EAT (Birthday dinner for my mom)
Cheese & crackers picnic
Frozen chicken Parmesan (pre-packaged :-/)
Grilled cheese & tomato soup
Vegetable Soup & Broiled Fish
Baked Mac & Cheese (cookout potluck)
Leftovers
Tacos & refried beans
Chili
Eggs & bacon & hashbrowns
Pork chops & roasted potatoes
Brats & mac & cheese
Pizza
Leftovers

As I go through the month, I'll italicize the meals we've had, to see if I can actually cook for a whole month, and we can avoid going out to eat. Check back here to see my progress (once August starts!) No promises that I'll actually make these meals in order.

Full disclosure: I know this is a painfully boring list. We typically go out to eat 2-3 times a WEEK, so this will be a different pace for me, and I wanted to keep the meals easy. I think I can do it, but even if I reduce the amount we go out to eat, the experiment will be successful. Food made at home, from scratch, will always be better than eating out, with the huge portion sizes and questionable ingredients. Also, home is cheaper.

Now, to make a grocery list!

Berry Pudding Pies

2009-07-07T08:13:00.001-05:00

When in a pinch for a dessert, here's a recent creation I came up with:

1/2 C berries, fresh or frozen (I used raspberries)
1 graham cracker crust
1 package vanilla or chocolate pudding/pie filling

Make pudding according to pie filling directions. Spread berries on the bottom of the pie crust, and spread pudding on top of the berries. Chill until set. Garnish with more berries, if desired.

I made both a raspberry-chocolate and raspberry-vanilla pie. The vanilla pie had a light "berries-and-cream" flavor, while the raspberry-chocolate was the perfect blend of crunch, berry, and chocolate. I was craving a raspberry-chocolate dessert, so that may have skewed my view a little :)

Always Being Ready

2009-07-01T08:44:00.000-05:00

This holiday weekend, our plans never materialized. I mean, we'd probably try to do the traditional things we always do on the 4th of July- go to the hometown parade, visit family, eat grilled meat, watch fireworks. No concrete plans were in the works, though, and the burn pile out back had grown higher and higher over the last six months...

Let's have a bonfire with friends! I said to my husband yesterday.
When? he asked.
How about Thursday night? That shouldn't interfere with all the festivities already planned, I surmised.
Who should we invite? we wondered.

The list was made, friends were called, a lot of "Maybe" answers were received. If all the Maybe's turn to Yes's, we could end up with a party of 15 people. In less than two days. No forethought at all.

I love entertaining. I'm not a social person, but to welcome people into my home, with prepared food and kind words, is a joy to me. Which means a 2-liter and a bag of chips won't cut it. And I have very few hours until all these potential people start showing up at my door. What have I gotten myself into?!

I did an inventory while ticking off what we'd need for a proper bonfire & cookout: Hot dogs, hamburgers, condiments, a salty snack, a healthy snack, soda and non-soda drinks, and s'mores for dessert. We had 2 full packs of hot dogs in the freezer, as well as two full packs of hot dog buns. We have plenty of ground beef for hamburgers, and a pack & a half of hamburger buns. We have half a pack of graham crackers, no marshmallows, no chocolate. I just stocked up on drinks earlier this week, so both soda and non-soda is covered.

I love that I can whip up a good-sized party from what is in my freezer, and only need to go shopping for a few odds & ends (The list primarily consists of chips, marshmallows, and chocolate). A well stocked pantry (and freezer) is the biggest step toward drop-of-the-hat hospitality. And hospitality matters.

Bloggers and Cupcakes!

2009-06-01T06:59:00.002-05:00

I got together Saturday with a fabulous group of lady-bloggers from the Indianapolis area. These ladies are so far ahead of me in the blogging world, I was glad they let me tag along. We met Saturday at Paradise Bakery and talked for hours (well, until they kicked us out at 8pm, at which time we moved to Barnes and Noble until THEY kicked us out). Casey from moosh in indy, Stacy from Squirrel Chatter, Cherie from Queen of Free, and Jen from 4tunate all joined the party. All really cool ladies who can teach me a lot.

The Queen of Free organized the shindig and, even more exciting- she came bearing cupcakes!

The cupcakes were from a new Greenwood, Indiana cupcake shop called Our Bake Shoppe. I tried a coconut cupcake with feathery-light icing and a dense crumb, for a cupcake. Other flavors included banana-peanut butter, caramel, old-fashioned chocolate, and a host of others. The cupcakes are just the right size, too- bigger than bite-size, but small enough that you can justify going back for seconds! They are baked daily from scratch- if only I could get the recipe! Yum!

Follow @OurBakeShoppe on Twitter- tomorrow they are offering 50% off cupcakes for their followers!

Kale Chips

2009-05-28T21:55:00.001-05:00

Kale's a new food for me. When I first heard about it just a couple years ago, I had to look up what it was! I bought it for the first time just this year, and stuck it in the aforementioned green smoothies. I had some left over, and wanted to see what else tasty I could make with it, searched for recipes, and came upon this snack food that other food bloggers were raving about. With the few leaves left in my fridge, I had to try it.

Kale Chips

Olive oil (1-2 Tbsps)
Vinegar or apple cider vinegar (1 Tbsp)
Sea salt
Kale leaves

Tear kale into bite-sized pieces, about 1-inch pieces. Put in bowl with oil & vinegar; toss to coat. Spread on a single layer on a baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt to taste. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes, until crisp. Edges of leaves should be browned.

When I read a similar recipe, I didn't believe lettuce would get crisp, ever. I was highly skeptical. Amazingly, the leaves did get crisp, and were light and crispy and slightly salty like a good potato chip, but packed with good stuff, so I didn't feel bad eating all of them. In one sitting. Before dinner.

That picture is only half of the chips. I stopped eating long enough to record my experiment.

Fruit smoothie

2009-05-27T09:52:00.000-05:00

Some people just can't get past the green color of the green smoothies, but fruit smoothies are still packed with nutrients. Here's last night's creation:

1 C strawberries, stems removed
1 1/2 C bananas
1/2 C plain yogurt
6 ice cubes

Give all the ingredients a spin in a food processor or blender. I processed the fruit together, then added the yogurt and mixed, then finally added the ice, but I'm not sure this order was necessary.

This smoothie was plenty sweet without any added sweeteners, and was just as good as anything I'd get at Frulatti, and WAY better than anything at Orange Julius! I had it as a dessert, but would make an awesome breakfast as well.

Green Smoothie... finally!

2009-05-15T07:36:00.023-05:00

For a while, I was reading a lot about the raw food lifestyle (though I decided I could never do it, mostly because I like dairy too much). One thing raw food enthusiasts all raved about was the "green smoothie". Each person would include something different in their smoothie, but they swore by the drink as an energy booster and sometimes even a meal replacement. The idea stayed in the back of my mind but [confession] it's a rare day when I have BOTH green leaves like lettuce, spinach or kale AND fruit in the house. A few weeks ago, I did, and, wow, these crazy raw food people were right.

This picture here looks like a health textbook photo of how many fruit and veggies you should have in a day Instead, these are what went into my smoothie, plus more lettuce and another banana. The beaker came with my immersion blender, which was a birthday present from my husband who knows EXACTLY what I wanted!

So what does 2 bananas, an apple, and a bunch of lettuce look like together? Will It Blend??

Looks gross? I chose not to look at it, and put it in a plastic cup I couldn't see through. How did it taste? Like a banana-apple smoothie, obviously. The apple covers over many flavors, and the lettuce wasn't even perceptible. And, as promised, it totally filled me up and gave me lots of energy. The most difficult part was blending the apple pieces- I think I'll use me food processor next time (I don't have a blender). This smoothie was actually 2 servings- a breakfast AND a lunch. More filling than it looks! Later on, I used an apple and some canned peaches for another smoothie (not entirely raw, because of the canned fruit) with fabulous results.

I really need to start keeping both fruit and vegetables in the house at the same time, and make these more often and experiment with different additions! Totally worth it- yum!

Meeting our food

2009-05-11T20:22:00.000-05:00

Lately, a lot of lip service has been paid to "knowing where our food comes from". Some of this trend stems from the food recalls on green beans, spinach, peppers, tomatoes, peanut butter, and seemingly everything in between. In theory, if we know where our food comes from- whether it's down the street or across the country- we're safer.

While that point is arguable, I think it is important to know where our food comes from for a different reason. The closer I am acquainted with my food, the more I will appreciate it. The closer I am acquainted with my food, the higher the chance I'm eating food from whole ingredients rather than processed ones. I'm more acquainted, for example, with the Alfredo sauce I'm going to make tonight for dinner from scratch than the powdered mix that comes in the Hamburger Helper box. Although many health-conscious people would be appalled at the butter and cream on my pasta, I'm more comfortable it because I know what's in it: butter, cream, and Parmesan. That's it. What's in Hamburger Helper? No idea. Are there chemicals, preservatives, and unpronounceable additives for color and flavor that I'd rather not ingest? Without a doubt. The further I am removed from my food, the less I know about it, and the higher the probability that it contains something undesirable.

The most closely I can become acquainted with my food is by growing it myself. In this way, I can not only know where it comes from, I can control what goes into it- and can make sure it is pesticide- and herbicide-free. In my mind, gardening organically in my backyard is WAY more enjoyable and less expensive than looking for those same products marked Organic in the grocery store.

The next best thing to getting growing my own is actually knowing who did grow my food. By shopping at a farmers markets or sharing produce with friends, I can meet the grower and be assured the food is safe. This weekend, I had a whole new experience with "getting acquainted" with my food- I looked my food in the eye!

Meet the Chickens:

These are meat chickens owned by my friends, just a month and a half old- still "peep"ing instead of clucking. They've had a very happy month-and-a-half though- starting in a warm safe house, then getting the chance to scratch at the ground and eat grass and bugs and just be chicken-y in general. They look pretty happy, no?

The egg chickens just a little ways away are the same age:

Note the serious size difference. There you have it- selective breeding at work! The full-grown egg-laying ladies are a year old and gorgeous, wandering around on their own because they know how to find their way back to the coop at night.

Back to those meat chickens.

I was there on Saturday, "Harvesting Day." I started out on babysitting duty, and ended up on "tear the guts out of the chickens" duty. Awesome, huh? The other assembly (disassembly?) line stations included "kill the chicken" and "pluck the chicken". By the time the bird got to me, it looked much more like what I'd buy in the grocery store, and for that I was grateful.

I'll spare the gory details, but do want to highlight this cool invention, the Homemade Chicken Plucker:

Our friend's dad built the contraption off of plans he found on a blog (can't find the link right now. The drum with the rubber fingers spins around and beats the dead chicken until most all the feathers come off. By all of the guys' accounts who did the chicken processing last year, plucking by hand was the absolute worst part. This device made the whole process go MUCH quicker. Unfortunately, my part of the assembly line was still a very manual, very slimy process.

So, I came face-to-face with my food. Will I think differently about it now? I think I'm just glad to know that the chickens sacrificed for our meals were very happy, very healthy chickens that, as Joe Salatin would say, "only had one bad day" in their short life. I think more when I eat meat, knowing it had to come from somewhere. As my friend said, "Every carnivore should experience this once." McNuggets are too far removed from Real Food for me to remember where they start.

Becoming acquainted with our food matters.

For Earth Day

2009-04-22T11:38:00.003-05:00

Think about where your food comes from.
What it's doing to your body.
What it's doing to the place you live- Earth.
And what you vote for with your grocery dollars.

Right now, I don't see this coming to a theater near me, but I'm going to keep my eye out.
Where our food comes from matters.

Rice Krispies for Easter

2009-04-13T18:00:00.000-05:00

We had a crazy-busy Easter weekend. Between one birthday party, three dinners with family, and three church services, I barely had a moment to spare.

I wasn't responsible for much as far as the family dinners were concerned- just dessert and a vegetable at one of them. I wanted to keep the dessert simple, since it was just going to be for four people. What's simpler than Rice Krispie Treats? And yet, something had to be done to make them festive!

Attempt #1 involved shaping the Rice Krispie Treats into eggs, and dipping them in a colored sugar water and sprinkling with colored sugar.

While this resulted in not-bad looking eggs, there was a texture problem. As you might suspect (but I didn't at the time...) dipping crispy rice into water results in less-crispy rice. While these weren't exactly soggy, they weren't "Krispie" either.

Enter plan #2:

Rice Krispie Easter Eggs
4 Tbsp butter
1 10 oz bag marshmallows
8 C crispy rice cereal
4 colors of food coloring

Melt the butter on the stovetop.
Melt the marshmallows with the butter.
When the marshmallows are melted, have ready 4 bowls big enough for room to stir 2 C rice cereal in with 1/4 of the marshmallow cream. Also have the food coloring ready. Add 1/4 of the melted marshmallow to each bowl, add in desired amount of coloring and stir. Mix 2 C of rice cereal into each bowl until fully combined.
When the cereal and marshmallow is fully mixed and cool enough to handle, take ~1/3-cup-sized pieces of the mixture and form into eggs. (Tip: if your hands get to sticky, wet them slightly while handling the mixture) Set eggs aside to cool, not touching each other.

Serve these in an Easter basket (or, as I did, on a deviled egg plate) and enjoy!

Makes about 24 eggs.

Spice Rack Giveaway!

2009-04-02T09:46:00.000-05:00

It just occurred to me that the giveaway on my other blog is more applicable to this one, so I thought I probably should mention it... But first! My project!

I didn't cook anything, but I made something cooking-related- a spice rack! On my wall! Check it out!

While you're over there, enter to win the magnetic tins I used, to make your own convenient, space saving spice rack!

Homemade Lunchable?

2009-03-16T11:25:00.000-05:00

Still looking for non-sandwich, non-salad cold lunch ideas. Today's experiment: a homemade "lunchable":

Wheat Crackers
Sliced sharp cheddar cheese
Pepperoni slices
Summer sausage slices
Pretzels
2 cookies

... all packed bento-style in a plastic storage container.

It's a bit juvenile, but it accomplishes the goal of Providing Lunch, Breaking Boredom and hopefully holding him over until dinnertime. It's got to be better than eating out, right? We'll see what the verdict is after lunch today!

Poem from scratch

2009-03-14T07:50:00.000-05:00

God's people wander
in the supermarket
among chemical frozen pies
overprocessed skillet dinners
nutritionless snack foods
soft drinks in throwaway bottes.
Like manna in the wilderness
hold fast
vegetables from sun-warmed gardens
protein-rich beans
oven-fresh whole-grain breads
home-canned fruit in Mason jars.

— More-With-Less, 1976
HT The Kitchn

Lunch ideas!

2009-03-13T07:58:00.001-05:00

Every morning, I get up, get ready for the day, let the dog out, then make 2 lunches. My typical formula is [Lunchmeat Sandwich+Salty/Crunchy/Snack-y Side+Sweet Dessert]. Easy, mindless, and, while it's not the best nutritionally, it's way better than going to get fast food, so I've let it slide.

The problem: Both my husband & I are tired of lunch meat sandwiches. I got tired of them a long time ago, and got around it by packing leftovers or some other hobbled-together side dishes that will hold me over until dinner. Josh has more recently tired of them, and because I make his lunch for him, I wasn't aware of it. We talked about it last night and tried to brainstorm meal ideas and didn't come up with much.

Here are the requirements:

My lunch:
- A hot or cold lunch is fine. The only dilemma I have is keeping lunch ideas on hand. I cook for two most the time, so don't have leftovers but maybe once a week. Bread+Cheese+Lunchmeat was easy to keep on hand, but hot lunch ideas will probably take some pre-planning. I had started to keep produce on hand (fruit, carrots, celery, etc) for sides, but have found it tends to go bad before I get through the whole package. Once the garden gets going, hopefully this will be less of a concern. Last summer, I would go out and PICK my lunch in the morning. That was awesome.
- One more requirement for me: No super-processed meals. The Lean Cuisine freezer meals are popular, but I'm suspicious of something so packaged. I'll make the same thing from scratch thankyouverymuch.

Husband's lunch:
- A cold lunch requiring no prep is preferred. He likes to grab his lunch and ride along & eat with his coworkers that are going out to eat, just to get out of the office.
- No raw veggies. There aren't any he likes. Cooked veggies are great, but have to be heated.
- Fruits & fruity stuff are tolerable but not preferred. He's allergic to bananas, but it's the only fruit he really likes. Alas.
- Doesn't like granola bars.
- No peanut butter sandwiches. Allergic to nuts.
- Not keen on salads - pasta, potato, lettuce, etc

Cheese-and-crackers-ala-Lunchables were the only thing we came up with, and I know there must be something better!

What cold lunch ideas* are out there besides sandwiches?! I'm at a loss! Help!

* I told him I should start doing lunches Hawaiian-style & packing a spam musubi or two.... he rebuffed that idea due to the seaweed.

** I check out Just Bento periodically, and am inspired, but don't know if I want to spend that kind of TIME on my lunches. It may come down to that.

Coffee from the source

2009-03-04T09:33:00.000-05:00

I don't like coffee.

I'm a tea drinker, and usually scrunch my face up at the taste of a typical cup of joe. I can stand the super-flavored mocha drinks, but typical coffee makes me gag. While staying at the bed and breakfast in Kona, however, I felt obligated to try the coffee. Kona coffee is world renowned; I HAD to have some. Besides, it was free. If I didn't like it, it's not like I spent $4 at Starbucks for it.

I liked it!

It had a smooth flavor that was much better than anything I had tasted coffee-wise. I now understand what all the fuss is about. So, we were in Kona- did we see any coffee?

These short trees are coffee plants. Everyone had them in their yard. The bigger pieces of property were "farms" and sold, go figure, "Kona coffee." These farms were everywhere.

To get authentic, local coffee, we stopped in at the second farm there, the Sugai Kona Coffeee Company. We turned down the driveway, and drove up to what, seriously, looked like a duplex. The signs seemed to imply we should walk through a sliding screen door in the house. Sure enough, up the shaky steps & through the door, there was a "store", complete with bags of coffee. We were immediately offered a sample of the "extra-fancy" blend," which was great. We got an explanation of the coffee-growing process, and the grades of "extra-fancy", "fancy", and "peaberry".

So, here's what we learned:
Coffee plants get flowers the produces a coffee bean in the flower's place. The beans need to be hand-picked. The largest beans are labeled "extra fancy" and have the mildest, smoothest flavor with the least aftertaste. (I surmised that maybe I like Kona coffee because of the lack of strong aftertaste?) The next-biggest size is "fancy" and has a slight aftertaste. The peaberry variety is a little different- a flower is damaged and doesn't produce a full-sized bean, but all the plants energy still goes into developing that bean, resulting in a bean with a stronger flavor.

The beans are roasted after being categorized, and packaged for sale (or roasted, ground, then packaged) All the beans sold in a week are roasted at the beginning of the week, so they're still pretty fresh.

I love supporting local businesses and learning how they do what they do. This family's coffee farm had been around a long time, and they have done a good job, even winning awards. I was glad to meet them!

Vacation food!

2009-02-28T11:17:00.001-05:00

Hi there!

I'm in Hawaii right now, so have been out of the blogging scene this week. I only have access to email- not the web or Twitter or anything even remotely exciting- so I'm feeling a little out-of-the-loop.
One of the things I was most looking forward to in Hawaii was food I've missed very much. Here's a sampling of what I've indulged in the last few days:
- fresh fruit- papaya, mango, pineapple, banana
- poi- can't come to Hawaii and skip the poi!
- lau-lau - meat wrapped in an edible banana leaf, then a ti leaf, and steamed
- haupia- basically, coconut jello
- mochi - slightly sweet, gummy dessert, sometimes filled with beans, ice cream, or something else tasty
- manapua - steamed roll filled with meat
- kalua pork - basically, roast shredded pork
- Hawaiian Sun juice - I grew up on this stuff, and you can't get strawberry-guava juice on the mainland
- shrimp chips - snack chips with a totally different texture than potato chips.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to try these today:
- shave ice from the North Shore- because Hawaii shave ice isn't the same anywhere else
- rice cake - don't know how to describe this one either- sweet rice jello?

Lemme know if you find a mainland way to make ANY of these- because I can't afford to fly all the way out here to indulge!

Sent on the go from my Peek

Carnival Day!

2009-02-17T08:36:00.000-05:00

Check out the Make It From Scratch carnival today!

Fondue for Two

2009-02-10T19:22:00.060-05:00

Traditionally on Valentine's Day, couples buy each other watches and jewelry and big bunches of flowers, and go out to a romantic dinner. All of this seems to be invented by Hallmark and florists, and is all expensive. Our more modest plan will be just as romantic, and cost less than us going out to Steak 'n Shake!

Fondue for Two, in three courses ** Updated with actual costs **
First course - cheese & bread
No knead bread- flour, yeast, salt and water - 25 cents?
*Ended up buying crusty bread. $3.

Cheese fondue - Will probably cut that recipe in half, at least, so will end up costing about $2

Main course - Broth-based fondue with meat & veggies
1/2 lb steak - $2 (when you buy it from a local farmer!)
1/2 lb chicken - .50 (got bone-in chicken breasts for $1/lb on sale recently)
Potatoes - free, from my garden
Broccoli - $1.50
Mushrooms - $1.50
Broth- FREE - in the crockpot right now, using the leftover bones & meat from the aforementioned bone-in chicken breasts, plus vegetable cuttings and negligible spices.

Dessert course - chocolate with cookies, marshmallows, fruit
Marshmallows - .25
Graham crackers - .25
Banana - .25
Chocolate - $1
Heavy cream - $2

TOTAL: $14.25

While this is way more expensive than a typical at-home meal, it's way less than we'd spend while eating out, and WAY less than the $100+ meals at fondue restaurants. To make the night less rushed & stressful, I'll make the broth & the bread ahead of time this week. It will be a romantic evening and a leisurely dinner- I can't wait!

BBQ Beef Brisket

2009-02-06T18:34:00.036-05:00

I mentioned on my other blog we recently bought a 1/8 of a cow for our freezer. I don't cook a ton of red meat, so I figured these 50 lbs of beef would last us about a year, assuming I used one pound of beef a week. About a month after getting the DELICIOUS meat, I realized that I hadn't been using my planned 1 lb per week. I need to pick up the pace! Already!

I rummaged around the different cuts of meat for something interesting, and found a wide flat cut called a brisket. And, oh, am I glad I did!

For the meat:
1 C water, plus more to cover
1/4 C worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp vinegar
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 Tbsp brown mustard
2 minced cloves garlic
1 cube beef bouillon
1 cut beef brisket, trimmed of most fat and cut to fit in your crockpot, if necessary

Put the beef in the crockpot. Mix all the sauce ingredients together and pour over the beef. Add water to cover the beef. Cook on low for 12 hours or more. Shred with a fork and serve on buns covered in BBQ sauce*.

* I made my own BBQ sauce, but I'm not 100% happy with it yet- it was too sweet- so I'll post the recipe later when I'm content with the results

Party food: Cheese straws

2009-02-02T10:48:00.043-05:00

I got the aforementioned How To Cook Everything cookbook for Christmas. After I opened it, one of the first recipes that caught my eye was for "cheese straws". Why did such a strange recipe make me want to try to make it immediately? Because, in the description of the snack, the cheese straws were compared to Cheez-Its. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Cheez-Its. I don't let myself buy them because of the short time they're in the house. I devour them.

Anyway, back to cheese straws. I finally had an event where cheese straws would be an appropriate snack- a friend's weekend get-together & birthday party. Thanks to a busy morning, I had a very short time to get them mixed up, cut out, and in & out of the oven- and succeeded!

1/2 lb cheddar cheese
1/3 lb Parmesan cheese
2 cups all purpose flour
pinch Cayenne
1 stick cold butter
Ice water, if needed

Preheat oven to 450

Grate cheese in a food processor and dump it out into another bowl. Pulse flour and cayenne in processor. Add butter and process untill butter and flour are combined (until it "looks like cornmeal"). Pulse in cheese. Turn out on to the counter and knead by hand, adding a few drops of ice water if necessary (For me, it was necessary.).

Roll out into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 1/2 inch strips as long as you like. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake on a greased cookie sheet for 5-8 minutes until golden brown.

Yield: A whole lot. Enough for a party.

The most time-intensive part of the whole process was rolling & cutting, which I did in batches. The dough was fairly crumbly, and did take some water to even barely come together. Like a pie crust, the colder the ingredients and the less water you use, the flakier & lighter these snacks will be. These did mix up very quickly and bake very quickly. I wish I had gotten a picture, but, as I said, they were made in a rush before we got out the door- no time for photos! They are NOT as orange as Cheez-Its because they are without the food coloring, mainly. The ingredients aren't terribly different: flour, cheese, butter/oil, salt, and spice (cayenne/paprika).

I know when I make MY junk food at home, I feel better about it!

Black Bean Brownies

2009-01-20T08:58:00.001-05:00

1 box brownie mix
1 can black beans

Dump the brownie mix into a bowl. Pour the liquid out of the can of beans and fill can with water (with the beans still in the can, too) Dump the beans & water into a food processor and process until there are very few specks left. Dump bean mixture into bowl with brownie mix and stir until combined. Follow directions on the brownie mix box for pan size and baking temperature and time.

This was an interesting recipe- an experiment, really. There's definitely no perceptible "bean" taste, but the texture is affected. The first day, they were fudgy and sticky, and my husband described them as "light" tasting. The following days, they became more chewy and their stickiness subsided. On day three, a coworker described them as tasting "old", but he couldn't bee more specific. I'd say they were a bit spongy, maybe? They were definitely good the first day, and only marginal the following days. But, then, who turns down a marginal brownie? Chocolate is chocolate.

On the upside, these are the healthiest brownies I've ever made- I used a low-fat mix in addition to the beans.

Deception at Dinner

2009-01-08T09:18:00.000-05:00

My birthday is about a week after Christmas, so presents come fast and furious for one week on the year for me, and that's it.

I already mentioned a cookbook I got for Christmas- another came for my birthday. Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld was a gift from my sister. This was one I've heard rumblings about- it and The Sneaky Chef and their legal dispute , mostly. A blogging friend tried out some Sneaky Chef recipes with mixed results . I was ready to give it a try.

The premise of both cookbooks is making yummy, kid-friendly food healthier by including vegetable purees without affecting the flavor of the food. My husband is highly skeptical of this strategy, but says if I don't tell him about my experiments (and he really can't taste a difference), he's OK with it. So far so good.

The cookbook suggests making the purees in big batches and freezing them in smaller amounts. I made a weekend morning project of it and steamed and pureed like crazy with vegetables I had on hand. My husband's comments were "That looks & smells really gross" since, well, green goo made from pureed broccoli isn't pretty. I froze the purees in half-cup baggies, and started scheming. As a head-start, I already have plenty of squash/pumpkin puree in my freezer, remember?

My first experiment was on myself, since I was unsure about the strategy and skeptical that the vitamin-rich additives (the vegetable puree) would actually fail to be detectable in common dishes. I was in a hurry to eat dinner Tuesday night, and I'll admit it, I made mac & cheese from the Blue Box. I skimmed the mac & cheese ideas from the cookbook and while mixing up the "cheese" sauce, I added 1/4 cup real cheddar cheese plus a couple tablespoons of squash puree. When I couldn't detect any flavor change, I added more, at least a quarter-cup, probably more. Never was I able to taste it, and I felt a little better about my otherwise-unhealthy dinner.

With that success, I was bolder last night and mixed in about a quarter cup of squash puree to the beef stew. It tinted the broth orange a bit, but, with the carrots already in the mix, it wasn't noticeable. Again, no taste was detectable. I didn't say a word to my husband, and he declared that dinner was delicious.

The Good
We're getting more nutrition in our food! We eat way-too-few vegetables, especially in the winter when there's nothing fresh coming from the garden, so the bits of extra vitamins included by mixing in vegetables to established recipes is an added bonus.

The Bad
I am really uncomfortable with the "deceptive" part of it.

The I'm-Not-Sure
The whole philosophy of Eat More Vegetables By Not Realizing You're Eating Them seems sketchy. I mean, if I want my (future theoretical) kids to grow up healthy, they need to learn to eat their veggies, and, while this definitely gets more veggies into a kid's diet, it teaches them nothing about eating said veggies. It keeping their food nutritional but doesn't aid in developing habits when they're choosing their own food.

One solution may be including purees in dishes when appropriate AND having healthy side dishes on the table- last night, we had the squash-infused beef stew with a side of absolutely-awesome roasted broccoli (recipe forthcoming). Just because there's veggies hidden in the dish doesn't mean we can't have them as a side, too! I'm not sure I'll follow many of the actual recipes in the cookbook (because, honestly, I rarely follow a recipe) but I'll probably give a couple a try, and the concept of adding vegetables purees to taste is one I'll keep experimenting with.

How I Cook

2008-12-29T13:39:00.000-05:00

I'm not really that into recipes.

Go figure, I have a recipe blog, but really, I'm not into recipes. Typically, when I want to make a dish, I search food blogs, get an idea of the proportions and approximate ingredients to make the dish, then get home and maybe (or maybe not) follow one of those recipes. Sometimes these "experiments" turn out, sometimes aren't as stellar, but I pride myself for using what I have on hand to get the meal put together.

Enter my Christmas gift.

As a total afterthought, I put Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything on my Christmas list. Practically the only cookbook I use is Joy of Cooking , since it's more efficient to search the index of one book rather than 10 for a particular dish- the extra-thick cookbooks are more likely to have what I'm looking for primarily because they have more of everything. I'd been following Bittman's blog for a while, and liked the simplicity of the recipes and the explanations.

What I REALLY like about this cookbook however, is that it explains as I cook. I think it will make me a better cook. It does have recipes- and, as I stated, I'm not that into recipes- but the recipes are accompanied by a lengthy explanation of why we're doing it this-way-or-the-other. Also included with most recipes is 5 or more variations. This is what I really prize- ways to use what I have on hand to do something different. If I get an idea of how a recipe is put together- the "formula", the proportions necessary- and get an idea of what sort of things in what proportions can be added, I can fly by the seat of my pants with much more confidence. This cookbook is perfect for me.

Really truly, the reason I love to cook is that I'm a scientist at heart, and all these variations on recipes is just me doing experiments in the kitchen. Now if only I had it together enough to actually record what I'm doing, so I can cook something the same way twice- though, if I write it down, I'd be following a recipe, and I'm not so into that.

Make-ahead, One-dish Hashbrown casserole

2008-12-26T09:52:00.000-05:00

Make-ahead, One-dish Hashbrown casserole

5-6 C shredded potatoes (enough to fill the 13x9 pan)
1/2 C margarine or butter, melted (one stick)
1 can Cream Of Chicken Soup
3 C cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
Onion powder or Chopped onion, if desired

Combine all the ingredients in a 13x9 baking dish, and stir to mix up. (If making the night before this will be eaten, cover and refrigerate here) Bake at 350 for an hour, or until bubbly and browning on top. Turn the oven to Broil for a couple minutes to finish the browning.

Why I liked this:

Only got 1 pan dirty. I'd rather be visiting with family than doing dishes on Christmas.
I was able to assemble it Christmas Eve and pop it in the oven for brunch Christmas morning
It was yummy. I was afraid it would be way too wet, but ended up working out.

From Pumpkin to Pie

2008-11-28T16:18:00.000-05:00

All summer in my garden, I complained about this stupid squash plant that took more than its share of the garden. It was a couple squash plants, actually, and the vines tried to invade every other crops space. The somewhat-spiny stems and leaves were an annoyance, and, a little later in the summer, when squash beetles descended and started killing all the vines, I was more than a little annoyed. I put up with the massive plants because I had the expectation of harvesting a plethora of squash from it- after the bugs came, I got just one lonely squash. One. And it was kind of ugly.

It did help that it was pretty huge, and made an interesting decoration piece through the fall. It case you're interested, it was of the Queensland Blue variety. Visitors made comments like "Is it supposed to be that color?" and "Oh, is that real?". Great. I get just one squash and people think it's fake. Sigh.

Anyway, I saved the heavy, ugly squash, along with a couple pumpkins of different varieties given to me by a friend, for a total of 3 pumpkins/squashes to process for Thanksgiving pumpkin pies.

The "processing" took way longer than I expected, about 4 hours one Sunday morning. The pumpkins had thin rinds, and were easy to clean out, cut up, and get roasting in the oven. The taller pumpkin (middle of the picture) had seeds looking very much like what you expect pumpkin seeds to look like- white and mostly flat. Although it had a thin rind, it never cooked until soft, and the compost pile ended up with most of this pumpkin. I was disappointed.

The green-striped pumpkin on the right had flat, green, hull-less seeds and were the most delicious of the three after roasting. It cooked in a reasonable amount of time in the oven, and ended up having a very yellow flesh that was stringy like a spaghetti squash. After a whirl in the food processor with the rest of the cooked-pumpkin pulp, the stringyness wasn't a problem, and the yellow flesh blended with the rest of the orange from the squash.

Speaking of the squash: this was the star of my "pumpkin" puree project. Whie the other two had thin rinds, this squash had a LOT of flesh:

Its seeds were rounder than the typical pumpkin seed, but I decided to roast them anyway. The flesh was VERY orange- so much so that when I finally got the silly thing cut up, my hands were looking pretty orange, too.

The picture doesn't show all the chunks of pumpkin- at this point, I've put some through the food processor already, and there's more in the microwave softening. This process took a LONG time, mainly because the orange-skinned pumpkins were in the roasting pan in the oven, so I was having to try to soften the more solid chunks from the squash in my little microwave. As I got enough softened flesh to fill my food processor, I processed it and scooped it into 2-cup bags.

End of the day: 7 bags (14 cups) of pumpkin puree. Two for Thanksgiving, 5 for the freezer. I've threatened my brother-in-law with a pumpkin pie for his birthday in June. We'll see :)

And, in case you were wondering, the Thanksgiving pies were a huge hit.

Deep dish Chicago-style pizza

2008-11-26T10:32:00.000-05:00

It may not look pretty, but It's Tradition.

Chicago Style Pizza requires a deep-dish crust, topped with lots of cheese, then topped with toppings, and then a chunky tomato sauce. Call in backwards if you want, but that's the way they do it in the Windy City.

The deep crust and ton of cheese makes this pizza very filling- I usually can only finish a piece or two. I modified the recipe found here.
Dough:
3½ cups All-purpose flour
1½ cup (scant) Water
½ cup Canola oil
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 teaspoon Salt
2¼ teaspoons Active dry yeast

Sauce:
1 can crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon Italian herbs/seasonings

This recipe makes one pizza using a 15″ × 2″ deep dish pizza pan. I have no such pan, so I made 1 pizza in a 9-inch cake pan, and a pan of breadsticks (basically, pizza sans toppings, with herbs & parmesan sprinkled on)

24 Hours Prior to Baking

In a mixing bowl, add the water, sugar, yeast, flour, and salt.

Mix on low speed for a few minutes until the dough comes together, then slowly add the oil. Continue to mix dough for 7 more minutes.

The dough should be somewhat moist and smooth, not sticky, and should weigh about two pounds. Form the dough into a ball and place into a bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and then with a dish towel and place in the refrigerator for an overnight rise.
I LOVED this step- because I have to throw dinner together after work, the fact I can make the dough after dinner the night before is SO convenient.

One Hour Prior to Baking

Remove the bowl from the refrigerator about one hour prior to making the pizza. Set the bottom oven rack to its lowest position and preheat the oven to 450° F for at least 30 minutes prior to baking.

After resting for one hour, the dough is now ready to be placed into the baking pan. Coat the bottom of a deep dish pan with olive oil. Place the dough ball (or, half of it, if you're going my smaller-pan route) in the center of the pan and press it out until it covers the entire bottom. Then, using you fingers, pull the dough up the side of the pan.

Cover the dough with mozzarella cheese. Be generous.

Add your desired toppings. I recommend sausage. Top with crushed tomatoes spooned directly from the can.

Finish topping with Italian herbs/seasonings (chopped fresh basil and dried oregano flakes are favorites) and finally with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Place the pan in the center of the bottom oven rack and bake for 30 to 35 minutes (or longer), turning once half way through, until the crust is golden brown. Remove the pizza from the oven and allow to cool for about 3 minutes. Slice and serve.

To make breadsticks: use the other half of the dough, press into a pan, and top with parmesan cheese & herbs. Slice into sticks to serve.

Mini-Pies for the masses

2008-11-25T08:19:00.001-05:00

This weekend, I spent upward of four hours turning pumpkins into puree for Thanksgiving pies. I definitely had Pie on the brain, so when trying to decide what to make for dessert for friends Monday, I was convinced to make Pie. I mean, it's my favorite thing to cook!

The issue was, yes, I now have enough pumpkin for 7 pumpkin pies, but EVERYONE will be eating pumpkin pie this week. There was no reason to get an early start on it Monday. Also, I need my pie plates free & clean for the aforementioned pumpkin pies I'll be making for Thanksgiving, so having non-pumpkin pies in the plates on Monday would be inconvenient.

And then, the idea came: the mini-pie.

I used an embarrassing amount of pre-made ingredients for these, but they filled my requirement for being easy, relatively quick, yet something special before the holiday.

For the crust:

Unbaked pie crust, either homemade or store-bought. For each 2-crust store bought package (or, presumably, a 2-crust recipe) I got about 22 mini-pie-crusts.

Preheat the oven to 450. Spray cupcake tins with cooking spray. Spread the pie crust on the counter, and cut circles with a biscuit cutter or the top of a drinking glass. Press circles into cupcake tins and perforate with a fork. Bake for about 9 minutes, or until the tops of the pie crusts start to brown. Remove to a serving tray to cool.

Fillings!

So, now you have a whole bunch of little pies. I went with 4 fillings, but you could make them all the same and waste less of the filling ingredients. Some ideas:

Cherry: Canned cherry pie filling, topped with a dollop of Cool Whip. No need to bake. About 3 cherries fit in each crust.

Chocolate: Chocolate pudding (made from a mix) topped with s dollop of Cool Whip.

Coconut: Coconut pudding/pie filling (made from a mix), mixed with shredded coconut, topped with shredded coconut.

Pear: Canned pears, chopped and placed in the crust, topped with caramel. Could also use apple pie filling, or maybe even applesauce.

I also considered vanilla pudding, topped with cherry pie filling- The possibilities are endless!

I doubled this recipe (used 4 pie crusts instead of 2) and ended up with 45 mini-pies.

I liked this dessert because it was

cute
personal-sized
fairly easy
made enough to feed the crowd
provided variety for my guests- the one that didn't like fruit could have the chocolate pie, I could have my coconut, all the kids chose the pears, etc

Also on the upside, pudding mix is less than 40 cents, and, if I had made the pie crust from scratch, this would have been very inexpensive AND "fancy". As it was, it was both pretty and pretty cheap!

We Have Winners!

2008-11-22T07:16:00.000-05:00

We have winners! The 3 coupons for a free pack of Kraft Singles, now growth-hormone-free, go to:

One Frugal Lady, who likes grilled cheese with tomatoes (one of my favorites as well!)
Terri, whose family's favorite comfort food is chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes
Sue, who likes mac & cheese, but whose husband prefers griled cheese & tomato soup

Thanks for playing everyone! I liked to hear all the different comfort foods in your homes!

Comfort food for dreary days

2008-11-13T18:56:00.004-05:00

It has been a dreary week.

Cold and wet and windy and sunless, I've really hated the weather this week. It's amazing, though, how warm familiar food can make me warm inside and make me forget about the grayness outside.

And what's more familiar and comforting than a grilled cheese sandwich and bowl of tomato soup?

Really, when my husband got home tonight, he just grinned and thanked me for making his "favorite meal".
I countered, "I thought biscuits and gravy was your favorite meal?"
"It is, too."
Sigh. Next time we need a warm comfort food, I know what to make!

Well, tonight I made grilled cheese & tomato soup. I grew up with grilled cheese using 2 slices of Kraft Singles on each sandwich. Josh grew up with sliced Velveeta. I don't think Velveeta ever entered my home as a child, but since being married and trying it "his way", I'm sold. I mean, both Velveeta and Kraft sliced cheese make a good, melty, warm, cheesy comfort food for gray days, but the Velveeta wins out.

And, this just in! Kraft cheese (they make your typical sliced cheese as well as Velveeta) are now growth hormone free, so I can feel even better about using them in my sandwiches. Because, I mean, I've tried using sliced cheddar in my grilled cheese & it's just not the same. Homemade grilled cheese demands American cheese.

GIVEAWAY!
Want to make your own grilled cheese sandwiches for your family? I'm giving away THREE coupons for a free pack of Kraft or Velveeta Singles (newly growth-hormone free!). Leave a comment here with your favorite fall/winter comfort food and you'll be entered to win.
Do leave an email address or blog address that contains contact information so I can let you know if you win.

Good luck! This post will be at the top of the blog until next Friday, November 21st, when I will announce the winners!

Easy Chicken Parmesan

2008-10-28T11:05:00.000-05:00

Half the number of chicken breasts as number of servings desired
1 egg
Italian Breadcrumbs
2 Tbsp oil
Spaghetti sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in a large skillet. Slice chicken breasts horizontally (be careful!) so each is half the thickness it was. Break egg into a bowl & scramble. Spread breadcrumbs on a plate. Coat chicken with egg, then press both sides of each piece into breadcrumbs to coat.

Fry chicken on each side until nicely browned & cooked through (just a couple minutes per side). put pieces in a warm oven while the rest are cooking. When ready to serve, top each piece with the tomato sauce, mozzarella, and Parmesan and melt the cheese in the oven. Serve over spaghetti & sauce.

Pancakes from a Mix

2008-10-06T10:43:00.000-05:00

I never liked pancakes made at home.

They were always chewy- not soft and fluffy like the restaurant pancakes- and I could never get over that. Consequently, I haven't cooked them much. We had guests this weekend though, and one mentioned liking applesauce on pancakes. Since I had a huge amount of apples to use up, I made some applesauce and was determined to try to make some pancakes for her to put it on.

What I did:

Follow the directions on the package to add water and mix, then add water enough to make the batter much runnier. We don't want it to spread so thin we get crepes, but I didn't want to end up with thick pancakes uncooked in the middle, which has happened in the past. Add 2 teaspoons of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla to the batter and mix well. The mix I was using didn't have much flavor.

Make sure the skillet is evenly heated before starting to cook the pancakes- I didn't do this, and my first pancake of the batch was a failure. I also sprayed the pan to keep the batter from sticking.

What resulted wasn't a perfect pancake, but was definitely the best homemade pancake I've had. Next time, I'll try making them from scratch rather than from a mix, and see if that makes a big difference.

And, incidentally, my friend was right- applesauce on pancakes was great. Next time I might try my very-chunky applesauce in crepes- yum!

Instinct

2008-09-25T11:42:00.000-05:00

What is it, during this season, where the days get shorter and the nights get cooler, that makes me want to be a squirrel?

I sat in a meeting yesterday, and instead of taking notes, my mind wandered.

Tacos for dinner tonight- and we're having friends over tomorrow! I'll make the filling for the chicken pot pie tonight. And there are so many apples on my counter! We must have apple pie! But when I make apple pie filling, I might as well process all the apples and can the leftovers. Or should I freeze them? Or should I just dump all the apples & pears in the crockpot & make applesauce? And all that ground beef in the freezer that I got on sale. I should brown some of it & make taco meat. And meatballs! That will save me time later! The tomatoes I harvested a while back really need to be used. I should make marinara sauce and freeze it. Or pizza sauce! And the pizza crust recipe my friend just posted! I've been wanting to try that, too. I wonder if the recipe would double & freeze well...

And the thoughts go on...

Where does this come from? It wasn't until I got out of college that I started having this instinctual urge to bake like crazy when the weather turned colder. Last year I went through SO much flour and sugar. I made quite a few pies. Can't have too many pies, right?

Last year I attributed the motivation to cook to having a New Kitchen- cooking is just more fun in a new space, right? The year before, it was my first time cooking holiday dishes and treats, and I attributed the motivation to the novelty. But this year? Nothing novel, but the urge to bake and squirrel away food for the coming winter is still there.

I'll blame it on our new-to-us and still mostly-empty chest freezer, as well as my new skill at canning, and figure out where the urge comes from next year. No time to think! I must get back to the kitchen!

Pear Sauce in the Crockpot

2008-09-16T12:31:00.001-05:00

Taking inspiration from Stephanie, and having an abundance of pears ripening on my counter, I decided to try my hand at making pear sauce (think applesauce, only with pears!)

Amazingly, I started cooking this before dinner, then 15 people showed up at my house for a couple hours, and, after they left, I had a successful result- this goes to show how "hands off" this recipe is.

Pear Sauce in the Crockpot

Enough peeled, sliced, cored pears to fill the crockpot. (I used one of those peeler-corer-slicer things on my pears, but found that VERY ripe pears just kind of squished in the device and made a mess. I wasn't a fan of the mess, with the company expected and all.)
About 1 cup water
Sugar to taste

Put pears in the crockpot, and pour water over them. Turn the crockpot to High until the pears start to get soft, then cook on low. open the crockpot periodically to stir & break up the pears. Add sugar each time you open the crockpot to stir- but taste it first! I didn't need as much sugar as I added.

When the pears are very soft and mostly broken up, add cinnamon to taste (optionally) and use an electric hand mixer to finish breaking up the pears. Voila! Sauce!

If you prefer a less chunky sauce, run the sauce through your blender or food processor. I prefer the chunks.

From here you can can the sauce or freeze it. After discovering I don't have a pot taller than my pint jars, I froze it in sealed bags. The pear sauce can be used as a side in lunches or dinners, or served hot or cold over ice cream. Yum!

Thanks to generous friends with a pear tree, I have plenty more pears where these came from. I'll probably make another pear pie, then use the rest to make some more pear sauce, because this was so easy.

Brownie Mix - Gift in a Jar

2008-09-09T08:35:00.000-05:00

I have a couple weddings to attend this fall and, to make gift-buying efficient and painless, I went to Bed Bath & Beyond and got both couples' registries to knock out all my wedding shopping in one trip.

For the couple that got married last weekend, we saw that they had registered for a lot of mixing spoons. While I was amused at the fact they were going to be inundated with wooden spoons, I obliged because it is my favorite kitchen utensil. The box of spoons I ended up with seemed kind of dull for a wedding gift, so I wanted to throw in something a bit more personalized. What could be better than an opportunity to USE a mixing spoon?!

Brownie Mix in a Jar

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup vegetable shortening

PREPARATION:
Combine dry ingredients. Cut in shortening thoroughly with a pastry blender. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.
Makes 8 cups, or enough for 4 one-pint jars yielding 4 batches of brownies. Give with directions below:

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

In a medium bowl, combine 2 cups brownie mix with 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1/2 cup chopped nuts. Stir until just moistened. Spread in prepared pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until center is set.
Makes 16 brownies.

Of course I had to actually bake a batch of these to make sure the mix worked out... I was delighted at the results. I printed the directions on labels and hot-glued the label to the jars. All in all, I was pleased with the results, and am considering making these for gifts this holiday season as well!

From House decor

Fried squash blossoms

2008-08-25T16:33:00.001-05:00

WOW. Just, wow.

I had said I was going to try to make these, but didn't have high hopes. A fried flower? Off the plant in my garden that has been the bane of my summer garden, taking over every square inch of surrounding beds? And not really producing much? (Number of squash harvested to date: Zero)

So, I was mad at the squash plant. I was determined I'd cook something it produces, even if I get no squash. Enter Squash Blossom.

While picking tomatoes today, I grabbed 8 blossoms to try frying them up, as I had seen on some other food blogs. I didn't expect to actually stuff them with anything, as I was only going to use what I had on hand, and I don't have much. I went to my handy-dandy Joy of Cooking cookbook to see what it had to say. It suggested a stuffing for the flowers that involved mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, garlic, and basil, all ingredients I had on hand! So I decided I'd stuff some of them. Here's what I did:

Fried Squash Blossoms

Squash/zucchini/pumpkin blossoms
Flour
1 egg

Filling:
Shredded mozzarella
Parmesan cheese
1 garlic clove
Fresh basil

Cut garlic clove into tiny pieces. ear basil leaves into small pieces as well. Mix filling ingredients together.

Open each flower, check for bugs, and cut out pistil. Stuff filling (about a tablespoon's worth) into each flower and twist petals to seal.
Dip flower in egg, then flour, then fry in a pan with 1/2 inch of oil, until browned on both sides. Serve immediately as an appetizer or snack.

I loved the filling flavor in these, and the flower made a creative, convenient package for it all. Pretty cool use for all those useless male flowers on the VINE TAKING OVER MY GARDEN.

Sigh.

Ice Cream Pies

2008-08-13T12:47:00.000-05:00

My favorite food is ice cream. I never turn down ice cream. Ever.

So, when I got back from a camping trip Sunday afternoon and realized that I needed to have a dessert ready for the 16 people showing up at my house the following evening, what did I do? I fell back to ice cream. I also was looking for an excuse to use my new chest freezer, and, while flipping through my Joy of Cooking cookbook (sidenote: this is NOT the most effective way to find a recipe, at all. Joy of Cooking isn't exactly very "browsable") I got the idea for an ice cream pie. I mean, why not? Ice cream is my favorite food, pie is my favorite thing to cook, and I now have room in a freezer to let the dessert freeze properly!

Because I didn't trust myself to make a good crumb crust- I've had mixed results- I went out and bought 2 crusts, a half-gallon of vanilla ice cream, peanuts, and caramel & fudge topping. I was ready for this experiment!

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Pie
1 chocolate crumb pie crust (made from Oreos, or store-bought)
1/3 C chocolate chips
1/4 Gallon ice cream softened (I used vanilla, but cookies & cream or any chocolate/vanilla flavor would be good)
Fudge topping (NOT Hot Fudge topping.)

Spread chocolate chips on the bottom of the pie crust, reserving a few for garnish. Spread ice cream in the pie crust. Freeze until hardened (a couple hours). Spread fudge topping* on top of pie, garnish with remaining chocolate chips. Freeze until ready to serve. Refrigerate right before serving, for 30 minutes to an hour.

* If you heat the fudge topping before spreading it, it will melt the top layer of ice cream and will just slide around the top of the pie. The same thing will happen if you try to spread it on top of softened ice cream. I can speak from experience on both counts.

Not to be outdone, I made a second pie, because just one ice cream pie was not going to stretch among the 12 or so people eating it.

Caramel Nut Ice Cream Pie
1 graham cracker pie crust (homemade or store-bought)
1/2 C crushed peanuts*
1/4 Gallon ice cream softened (I used vanilla)
Caramel topping

Spread nuts on the bottom of the pie crust, reserving a few for garnish. Spread ice cream in the pie crust. Freeze until hardened (a couple hours). Spread caramel topping (see note above). on top of pie, garnish with remaining nuts. Freeze until ready to serve. Refrigerate right before serving, for 30 minutes to an hour.

* Because it was less expensive, I bought a can of unsalted peanuts and ran them through a food processor till they were sufficiently pulverized

I got compliments on both of these, and just have one lone piece left in the freezer after the get-together. Alas, it is the Caramel Nut variety, and my husband is allergic to nuts...

Roasted veggies

2008-08-12T12:32:00.000-05:00

I love eating seasonally.

This is a new discovery this summer- but, as I've gotten more and more food from my garden, I've fallen in love with fresh-from-the-garden or fresh-from-the-market produce. Can't be beat.

Here's the side dish I made last night. "Side Dish" may be an exaggeration- I probably ate more of this than the "main dish":

Ingredients:
Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 (or more) medium-sized squash, cut into 1-inch cubes
Carrots, cut into 1-2 inch pieces
Green beans, as many as you like
1 garlic clove, chopped into really tiny pieces
1 Tbsp vinegar or apple cider vinegar
1/4 C oil
Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Combine the veggies & garlic and toss with vinegar and oil. Spread onto large cookie sheet. Salt and pepper generously. Bake until dinner is ready (or about an hour). The time is very forgiving, but you just need to balance making sure the potatoes are cooked through, and the green beans aren't totally charred.

So easy. So yummy. The first time I had this, I was at a friend's house, and we picked the bite-sized vegetable chunks off the cookie sheet with our fingers. Couldn't even be bothered to put them on our plate.

One of the most satisfying things about this meal? The green beans, potatoes, garlic, and carrots were all from my backyard. The squash was from the farmer's market.

Frugal Food: Eggs

2008-06-12T11:00:00.004-05:00

Frugal Upstate is hosting a Frugal Foods series- and the first week is all about Eggs!

We do a frugal "breakfast dinner" about once a week, because it's easy, quick, filling, and fun. I'll make scrambled eggs or fried eggs or an omelette, bacon or sausage, and biscuits or toast or hashbrowns. On nights (or Saturday mornings) when I have a little more time and lots of milk on hand, we'll have biscuits & gravy instead. But those don't involve eggs.

For The Natural Mommy's recipe swap: ignore the Pope Cake and the prospect of making biscuits- these all involve the oven! Other than that, eggs are a great stovetop, oven-free summer dinner!

Egg recipes on Sunflowers in my Kitchen:

Pateta par Eeda - basically, eggs cooked on a bed of cilantro-seasoned hashbrowns. Very unusual, but good!
The Irresistible Omelette - this was actually one of the first things I mastered cooking. I don't strat easy.
Egg sandwiches - I love my breakfast in-hand.
Camping breakfast - Eggs & breakfast food are a great way to feed a crowd cheaply!
Pope Cake - This isn't exactly a cake, and the eggs aren't the star of the show, but it does involve half-a-dozen of them, so it made the list.

What's your favorite frugal meal involving eggs? Or summer meal that can be cooked without the oven?

Can't get it right!

2008-05-22T09:20:00.002-05:00

What is it you just can't seem to cook just right?

For the longest time, for me, it was Sweet Tea. I found an acceptable solution, but I'm still not 100% happy with the results. I'll take 85%, for now.

What I really haven't felt like I've gotten pinned down is how to make a good muffin. I end up with little hard-rather-than-fluffy balls of bread, that aren't any fun to eat at all. What's your trick or recipe?

Go over to the Natural Mommy and ask your own recipe question, or drop more tips to those of us who don't have the answers!

Chive Flowers

2008-05-16T10:53:00.002-05:00

This is the time of year when the ever-useful and ever-hardy chives begin to blossom their delicate purple puffs. Who knew that these purple flowers are not only beautiful but edible!

Some people pop them off the plant and use the flowers as garnishes for soups or salads. While I'm sure this would be a both beautiful and tasty way to add color to your plate, I went looking for a recipe to actually incorporate the flowers into a dish. Because how often do you actually get to cook a savory dish with something that's purple?

Chive Flower Butter
- 1 stick butter, room temperature
- a handful of chive flowers, rinsed and chopped.

In a smallish bowl, mix petals with butter. When the petals are evenly incorporated, put butter on plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze for future use.

This made the prettiest stick of butter I've ever seen, with a somewhat strong garlicy onion taste. I used it when making chicken nuggets this week, and the result was a very flavorful coating on the nuggets. I was pleased. And I don't even like onion flavors!

I made hashbrowns last night.

2008-05-09T06:54:00.001-05:00

I didn't do it like this.

Tortilla Pie

2008-05-08T07:30:00.002-05:00

I came across a recipe similar to this online, but, in my typical fashion, didn't write it down, then tried to recreate it at home. The resulting dinner was surprisingly good!

Tortilla pie

4 flour tortillas
1 C refried beans (use a can of refried beans or make them yourself)
3/4 C salsa
1 1/2 C cooked taco meat (seasoned ground beef or chicken)
1 C shredded cheese
Optional: corn, chopped tomatoes

Place the first tortilla in a pie plate. Spread 1/3 C beans (I didn't have a can or refried beans OR a can of pinto beans to make some. I settled on mashed kidney beans. No one knew the difference.) on the tortilla, followed by 1/4 C salsa, 1/2 C meat, 1/3 of the vegetables (optional) and 1/3 C cheese. Top with another tortilla. Repeat twice more, ending with a tortilla on top of the "pie".
Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until the top tortilla is crisp and the pie is heated through.
Slice into wedges to serve. Top with salsa or queso dip or enchilada sauce if desired. Serve with tortilla chips and queso dip.
Makes 3-4 servings.

Crockpot Whole Chicken

2008-04-03T08:30:00.005-05:00

Yipes, I'm neglecting my food blog like crazy. I apologize. I haven't been cooking anything new lately- and the new stuff (a couple of desserts) have disappointedly failed. One batch of cookies was salvaged by crushing into crumbs and using the crumbs to make a pie crust, but even that was embarrassing, because I ended up with a multi-colored pie crust (they were easter-egg cookies...). Last night, I finally had a dessert success with a batch of chocolate cookies. More on that later.

Today: Crockpot solutions!

I've mentioned before, I have a huge crockpot, so cooking for two in my crockpot is not an option. I've tried, and I end up with a dried-up mess. What it IS useful for, however, is cooking for parties, or cooking for leftovers. Cooking for leftovers? Let me explain.

If I drag out my crockpot to cook a meal for my husband and I, I plan a recipe that can be preserved (like freezing soups or chili) or used up in a reasonable amount of time. This week, my solution was "roast chicken".

I started with a whole chicken, 69-cent-a-pound at Aldi. I leave it in the fridge a couple days to thaw, then, the night before I plan to cook it, put it in a bowl and rub it with salt and italian dressing. The next morning, I get out the crockpot, put 5 foil balls on the bottom of the pot (to keep the chicken from sitting in all the juices), and put my chicken inside. It cooks on low 8-10 hours. This is the perfect timing for when I get home from work! A side-note: For us working folks, I need recipes that go 8-10 hours. The 4-6 or 6-8 hour recipes just aren't feasible, since I'm gone from home at least 9 hours a day.

So, I get home and have a fully-cooked chicken. I strip the bones of the meat and save the bones to make broth. What now?

Lots of chicken meals! With so little effort! So that we don't get sick of it, I freeze the meat so these meals don't have to be consecutive. These are the ideas I've had

Roast chicken, veggies & rice on the side. (I do this the first night, with teh largest pieces I get off the bird. Carving a bird is not one of my gifts.)
Chicken, broccoli & cheese casserole
Chicken Quesadillas (mix meat with some salsa or taco seasoning) with refried beans or rice
Chicken & rice casserole
Chicken noodle soup
Chicken fried rice

I expect one bird feeding 2 people to last through at least 4 of these meal options- we've eaten on it for 2 meals so far, with plenty left in the freezer.

What other chicken meals do you make when you have a whole chicken on hand?

Munchies without Guilt

2008-02-28T09:25:00.002-05:00

I love sandwiches in pitas rather on bread, but pitas tend to go bad on me faster than a loaf of bread, so it's rare I can finish a whole package. Thus, I don't buy pitas very often.

When I do have them around, if I fear I won't be able to finish all of them, I make myself a snack- pita chips!

What you need:
Pitas
Cooking spray
Salt & other seasoning (I used dried basil, garlic powder, rosemary- whatever you like.)

Preheat oven to 350. Separate each pita into two rounds. Cut rounds into wedges of desired size (6-8 per round, probably). Place the wedges rough-side down on a baking sheet, and spray with cooking spray. Turn over and spray the rough side too. Sprinkle seasonings over wedges. Bake until edges are brown and chips are crisp - 12-14 minutes.

Light, fairly healthy, and great for munching! I've also served them in place of garlic bread as a side with spaghetti. The next challenge: making my own pitas.

Check out more healthy snacks at The Natural Mommy's Recipe Swap!

Ordinary Days

2008-02-07T17:52:00.000-05:00

Christ moves among the pots and pans.
- Teresa of Avila

Hat tip: God's Politics

Baked Bacon

2008-02-01T08:48:00.000-05:00

Bacon is notoriously hard to cook. There's a just-so temperature and just-so cooking time that will get the strips to the just-so crispiness. Too crisp or too chewy, and the bacon is very undesirable. I've gotten it right a few times, but I've also managed to get it wrong.

Last night, I tried a different strategy.

While pulling the bacon out of the freezer, I noticed it had instructions for stovetop, microwave, and oven preparation. Oven? That was new to me. Here's what I did:

Baked Bacon
- Desired number of strips of bacon
- Rimmed baking sheet or pan, big enough to lay the strips out without touching

Preheat the oven to 400.
Lay the strips of bacon on the pan such that they aren't touching (They'll stick together!)
Bake for 15 minutes. There's no need for turning during cooking.
Remove from pan onto plate with paper towels to drain.

Make sure to use a cookie sheet or pan with sides- the bacon grease collects in the pan, and I think the results would be really bad if it dripped onto the hot heating element on the bottom of the oven.

Why I liked this method:

It was hands-off. When preparing a "breakfast meal" (which I do for dinner every week or two) The eggs need to be scrambled, the hashbrowns need to be turned, and the bacon needs to be watched closely to get it "just so". I only can do one thing at once, so the multitasking-to-serve-everything-hot is sometimes hard with this meal.
The results were consistent. All the pieces of bacon were the same crispiness- none had burned or, worse- chewy- parts
I only have 2 frying pans, so, with hash browns, eggs & bacon all needing one, the timing of the meal is hard to coordinate. I really hate cold eggs.
The 15-minute cooking time was about the same time as it took to prepare the hashbrowns, so everything was served hot.
No hot bacon grease to splatter all over the kitchen.

I'll try this method a few more times, and it may become my bacon-frying method of choice. The first try went very well!

Irresistible

2008-01-29T08:26:00.000-05:00

I don't know what got into me this weekend. I was very experimental- I wanted a challenge in the kitchen. I love it when my experiments turn out!

From the Joy of Cooking cookbook: A jelly roll filled with chocolate whipped cream, topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

Finally, sweet tea

2008-01-29T08:05:00.000-05:00

I'm ashamed to admit this, but I have never been able to make a good pitcher of sweet tea.

You'd think, being born in Georgia, with a mom with a Southern accent, growing up with tea in the fridge for as long as I can remember, that I'd be able to make the stuff. Everyone can do it, can't they?

Well, I tried a couple times, and was horrible disappointed. The tea came out cloudy, or too strong, or 'wrong' in one way or another. Finally, I gave up. I mentioned my difficulty to a few Southerners, and they all gave me advice on how to get the perfect pitcher of tea, but nothing seemed to work. The Family-Sized tea bags just sat in my pantry unused.

Well, I was particularly experimental this weekend, and I decided to give it another try. And, lo and behold, it worked! An amber, sparkling pitcher on tea! Here's what I did:

Sweet tea, Joanna-style

1 Family-sized tea bag
1 normal-sized green tea bag (I used jasmine green tea)
1/2 C sugar

Run the water from the faucet until it is as hot as it will get (which at my house is steaming hot). Steep the tea bags in 4 cups hot water for 30 minutes. pour into a pitcher. Fill the pitcher the rest of the way with cold water. Add sugar and stir. Refrigerate before serving.

The jasmine tea gave it a particularly good, unexpected flavor- that part of the trick I learned from my mom. The bit about using hot tap water rather than boiling water came from my aunt, and my friend's recipe accounted for the rest of the details.

I'm still embarrassed it took me this long to figure this out.

Homemade Refried Beans

2008-01-25T08:39:00.000-05:00

When I served these for dinner last night alongside tacos, my husband took a bite and then exclaimed "Wow!" They're good, really. And not so much more difficult than scraping the refried beans out of a can. Way more tasty & healthy!

Quick Refried Beans

1 can pinto beans
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbsp salsa (or more, if desired)
1 Tbsp oil

Combine everything in a food processor or blender and pulse until the desired consistency is reached. Store covered in the refrigerator or heat to serve.

Honey Mustard Salad Dressing

2008-01-23T08:15:00.000-05:00

Because I got free salad and free mustard.

3 T mustard (I used Grey Poupon, plus a squirt of yellow mustard for color)
3 T honey
3/8 C mayo
1 T lemon juice

Mix together. Serve over salad, or as a dipping sauce for chicken fingers.

Sweets for breakfast

2008-01-20T08:54:00.000-05:00

I love Saturday morning breakfasts. Nothing beats hot-out-of-the-oven, from-scratch cinnamon rolls.

WAY better than from-a-tube cinnamon rolls, hands down.
We even have leftovers for today!

Old-fashioned Christmas

2007-12-28T15:55:00.000-05:00

I was given a cookbook a while back by my mother or aunt or someone... The 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cookbook. It's by Fannie Farmer, and, as the story goes, my grandmother learned to cook by its pages. Well, I hadn't given it much thought- I had plenty of other cookbooks, and the INTERNET, so I hadn't cracked it open. While preparing ideas for Christmas, though, I thought a good old-fashioned gingerbread cookie would be fun to make. I looked for a gingerbread cookie recipe in the cookbook and found out the wonder (and challenge!) of the old book.

The cookbook isn't an updated version of an old recipe collection, like my Joy of Cooking cookbook- it is a word-for-word reprint of the Cooking-School Cookbook straight out of 1896, and even has sections that are more like an old textbook than a cookbook. All the recipes assume you're cooking over a fire. Lard is a common ingredient. No oven temperatures are given, and very few cooking times. Like I said, a challenge!
Here are the two recipes I tried; I'll copy what was printed in the cookbook, and, in italics, what I did:

Soft Molasses Cookies

1 C molasses - I had this on hand. So far so good.
1/2 C shortening, butter & lard, mixed. - Um, I don't keep lard around, exactly. I used 1/4 C each of butter & shortening.
1 Tbsp ginger - I didn't know whether this meant "fresh" or "dried" ginger, so I used a scant tablespoon of dried ground ginger.
1 Tbsp soda - Baking soda. Check.
2 Tbsp warm milk - In a very modern way, I heated the milk in the microwave.
2 C bread flour - I just had all-purpose flour on hand.

Heat molasses to boiling point, add shortening, ginger, soda dissolved in warm milk, and flour. (Invite your kids in the kitchen to watch this one. Apparently hot molasses + baking soda = cool chemical reaction) Chill thoroughly (Because of poor planning on my part, my dough was in the fridge for a week. I didn't tell those who ate the cookies that.) Toss one-fourth of the mixture on a floured board and roll as thinly as possible ; shape with a small round cutter, first dipped in flour. (I rolled to about 1/8" thickness, and used shaped cutters, not round ones. What fun are gingerbread CIRCLES when you can have gingerbread men?) Place near together on a buttered sheet and bake in a moderate oven. (What? no temperature? No time? "Moderate" means 350 degrees, and, I'm not sure I got the time right. My cookies weren't crisp, some were floppy-ish, and I don't know what they were "supposed to" be like. And I didn't write down how long I let them go. We'll say 8 minutes. And 'buttered sheet'? I modernized that & sprayed the cookie sheet with nonstick spray.) Gather up trimmings and roll with another portion of dough. During rolling, the bowl containing the mixture should be kept in a cool place, or it will be necessary to add more flour to the dough, which makes the cookies hard rather than crisp and short. (The 'crisp and short' comment is why I think I make not have cooked the cookies long enough.)

These were good gingerbread cookies- chewy and not crisp, as I mentioned. I let one cookie sheet crisp up & decided I preferred them chewy :) They had a good, dark color and a good flavor. Somehow, I've mysteriously lost my picture of the results. This is very disappointing.

Moving on... I tried one more (similar) recipe from the Fannie Farmer cookbook- this time, gingerbread muffins.

Soft Molasses Gingerbread

1 C molasses
1/3 C butter
1 3/4 tsp soda
1/2 C sour milk - That is, buttermilk- add 1 T vinegar to each cup of milk, mix, & set aside until needed.
1 egg
2 C flour
2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt

Put butter and molasses in saucepan and cook until boiling point is reached. Remove from fire, add soda. (This is the cool science-experiment-like part again. I made my husband come stir so he could see the results.) and beat vigorously. Then add milk, egg well beaten, and remaining ingredients mixed and sifted. (I got a sifter for Christmas! I could do this part!) Bake fifteen minutes in buttered small tin pans, having pans two-thirds filled with mixture. (Here, she gave me a time but no temperature? I baked the batter at 350 degrees in a greased muffin pan- also a Christmas gift!- for closer to 20 minutes. The recipe made exactly 12 muffins)

I topped the muffins with a simple icing made of powdered sugar & milk. Here's Fannie Farmer's version:

Confectioners' Frosting

2 Tbsp boiling water
Confectioners' sugar
Flavoring

To water add enough sifted sugar to make of right consistency to spread; then add flavoring. Fresh fruit juice may be used in place of boiling water. This is a most satisfactory frosting, and is both easily and quickly made.
I didn't follow these directions at all, I just loved the description and to-the-point instructions. It was cute. What I did: used 2 Tbsp milk and a little vanilla and added a bunch of powdered sugar. Turns out, 2 Tbsp was way too much, and I had a bunch of icing left over after drizzling a little on all the muffins.

What do I now love about this cookbook? I'm an engineer, and the cookbook treats this all as a science to be explored. It gives "scientific explanations" (or what was understood in 1896, anyway) of different cooking & food phenomena, and seems to allow for experimentation around simple short recipes- none longer than a paragraph. The lack of pictures makes it all very exciting and challenging as well- you never know what you're supposed to end up with.

Wassail

2007-12-28T15:45:00.000-05:00

I had never tried wassail, but my husband insisted it was a holiday neccesity, to I was determined to make it. I was glad I did! Adapted from the Belgian Wassail recipe from MyRecipes.

6 clementines (or 2 oranges. I used what I had...)
2 lemons
1 gallon apple cider
1 C sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp whole allspice

Combine cider, sugar, and spices in slow cooker. Squeeze juice from lemons and oranges into mix, and let rinds float in the cider mixture. Cook on High for 1 hour, then keep warm until ready to serve. Strain out solids.

I let a lemon rind continue to float in the wassail as a colorful garnish. The fruity, citrusy warm spiced drink was perfect to share for Christmas dinner- and made the whole house smell good!

Broccoli Chowder

2007-12-28T15:30:00.000-05:00

I got lots of compliments on this recipe! It's a fresh-rather-than-frozen version of Betty Crocker's.

1 package au gratin potatoes, including sauce mix packet
3 C milk
1/2 C frozen corn
1/4 C chopped celery
3 C water
2 chicken bullion cubes
2 bunches broccoli, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 C shredded swiss cheese

Steam broccoli to soften, 5-7 minutes.

Combine all ingredients except cheese and heat to boiling in a large saucepan. Reduce heat & simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

When ready to serve, stir in cheese. Simmer about 5 minutes, until cheese is melted.

Makes 10 servings.

This could be dinner or a side, and adding cooked, shredded chicken to the mix would make it even heartier.

Cornish Hens for a Crowd

2007-12-28T15:06:00.000-05:00

6 Cornish hens
salt and black pepper
1 lemon
6 garlic cloves
1/8 C tarragon
1/4 C oil
2 Tbsp rosemary
1 1/2 C baby carrots
3 potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces

Dry the birds and season inside & out with salt & pepper.

Cut the lemon in half. Cut one half into 6 slices and put one slice into each bird, along with 1/2 Tbsp tarragon and one garlic clove.

Mix the oil with the juice from the other half of the lemon and the rosemary. Pour over birds and turn to coat. Set aside to marinate for 1/2 hour at room temperature.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread the potatoes & carrots in the bottom of a turkey-roasting pan. Set the birds on top of the vegetables, breast-side up, along with the marinade. Roast 45 minutes, or until golden and the thigh pieces run clear when pierced & register 165 degrees.

When out of the oven, cut birds in half with kitchen shears. Serve alongside potatoes and carrots, and with wild rice, if desired.

Serves 12. ~$1.50 per serving

(This was inspired by Herb-Glazed Cornish Hens, except I didn't have time to make the sauce, or do all the basting. The result was still good.)

More cookie decorating

2007-12-19T08:32:00.000-05:00

This is truly quality family time.

Cookie party

2007-12-15T08:49:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, we had a couple friends over from a nearby town. I made lasagna and we talked and played Nintendo games and board games and had a good ol' time. It was much-needed catching up. The sweetest part of the evening? Decorating sugar cookies!

These were all promptly eaten, along with many others.

Today, I'll have my 3- and 5-year-old nephews here, and I hope to decorate gingerbread cookies with them. Hopefully I'll have pictures to post from that, too.

Baking Season!

2007-12-13T09:01:00.000-05:00

(The snickerdoodles in the middle of the plate I made. The other cookies were store-bought, because the snickerdoodle recipe made fewer than anticipated.)

I've got cookie tins to give away, and I can't wait to fill them! I'm at a loss- where do I start? What sorts of cookies do I make? The options seem so endless!

What are you baking this year?

Hot Cocoa Mix

2007-12-13T08:21:00.000-05:00

As these days have gotten colder, we've opted to do our best to keep the thermostat set as low as possible. This has resulted in finding other ways to keep warm- and usually means drinking a hot drink almost every evening. Usually we choose a tea we like to warm us up, but once every few days we crave something creamier and sweeter. When I noticed that we were going through our hot cocoa packets at an alarming rate, and I remembered a recipe for the mix I had seen on Amy's blog, I checked that I had everything on hand and decided to give it a try.

4 cups nonfat dry milk powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup non-dairy coffee creamer
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 (4 ounce) package instant chocolate fudge pudding

- Place all ingredients in large bowl. Stir together with a wire whisk. (I added a pinch of cinnamon as well- just a little for aroma!)
- Place mix in a sifter and sift to make a really fine powder. This really make sure everything is really combined. (I couldn't do this- but if you can, do it- I imagine it will help the mix dissolve better, especially the dry milk pieces. I've also read you can use a food processor on this step- something else I don't have)
- Store in a sealed container.

To serve: Add 1/2 cup of mix to a mug filled with water (If you don’t like a rich cup of cocoa, stick to 1/4 cup of the mix. I usually split the difference & go with 1/3 cup, which is plenty rich)

I packaged up some of the mix in a Christmas tin to give to a friend, and kept the rest around for ourselves- and it is still getting good use! This was surprisingly creamy. We enjoy it very much. Perfect for snowmen mugs and winter evenings!

Chicken Nuggets

2007-12-13T08:14:00.000-05:00

When I don't know what's for dinner, and have a little over a half-hour to have it on the table, one of my go-to meals is my mom's chicken nugget recipe. It's not fancy but it's easy, and my husband really likes it, so it works out all around. Because the meal is usually an afterthought, my recipe is very approximate. You can do what works well for your family.

Chicken Nuggets

You will need:
- Chicken breasts: 1 to 1 1/2 per person, depending on how hungry everyone is. I don't worry about leftovers, because these nuggets heat up pretty well the next day.
- Bread crumbs- I use the Italian-seasoned ones
- 1+ T Parmesan (optional) - to mix with the bread-crumb coating
- Butter or margarine, melted

Cut the chicken into 1-inch cubes. Preheat the oven to 400. Have a bowl with melted butter and a bowl with the bread crumbs (with Parmesan mixed in if you want) ready, as well as a cookie sheet. I set up a little assembly line in my kitchen with the chicken cubes on one side, then the butter, then the breadcrumbs, then the cookie sheet. This a great part for the kids to help with! Dip the chicken in the butter, then the breadcrumbs, then place on the cookie sheet. Bake for 20-30 minutes till the chicken is cooked through and the outside coating is dried (I don't like it when it is soggy.) While the nuggets are baking, I usually fix a side like green beans or mashed potatoes.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

2007-11-25T12:27:00.000-05:00

I've been scanning food blogs over the last week, and have seen recipe after recipe for what to do with leftover turkey. Well, leftover turkey wasn't a problem around here. My mom just cooked turkey breasts rather than an entire turkey, and the meat is gone. The dilemma was an unusual one to have- we had leftover pie. I made a pumpkin pie last weekend for just the two of us, and we ate a couple pieces here or there- but them I cooked another pie for the family Thanksgiving meal, and the pumpkin pie hasn't been touched since. What to do with most-of-a-week-old-pie in the refrigerator? I saw a recipe for Pumpkin Ice cream, and, after looking at the ingredients, decided I could use the old pie innards to make ice cream. (To be honest, I love ice cream, and had been looking for an excuse to use my ice cream maker.)

So, I did a rare thing: I went out & bought an ingredient specifically for a recipe: heavy cream (or "whipping cream". They're the same thing.) I never have this on hand, or, if I try to keep it on hand, it goes bad before I get around to using it. Lesson learned.

Anyway, here's my leftover-pumpkin-pie ice cream recipe. I'm probably the only person ON THE PLANET who has or ever will have leftover pumpkin pie, but, here it goes:

2 C heavy cream (whipping cream)
1 C milk
1-1 1/3 C pumpkin pie filling (Yes, I actually just scooped this out of the pie slices sitting in my refrigerator.)
1/2 C sugar

Mix all ingredients and dump them in an ice cream maker. Let it run for 20-25 minutes. If desired, in the last 5 minutes, pour chopped pie crust in the mix (I didn't do this, but thought about it. I think it would work.) Serve immediately or freeze for 2+ hours for a firmer consistency.

I was really excited about how this turned out. It looked like ice cream! And sometimes homemade ice cream doesn't! AND- it tastes like pumpkin pie! There were serious doubts voiced that it might not have very much flavor, since I totally made up the recipe out of (pretty much) nothing.

Buttermilk biscuits

2007-11-25T10:07:00.000-05:00

Once upon a time, when I blogged about making biscuits and gravy, a friend commented that their biscuits went "from good to great" when they started making a buttermilk biscuit recipe. Our biscuits were OK- certainly good enough to be drowned with gravy before eating- so I didn't change the tried-and-true recipe.

Well, in this new kitchen, I've been wanting to cook like crazy, and yesterday morning I decided to make the jump. These biscuits turned out not only gravy-worthy, but jelly-worthy, soft and fluffy and better than any biscuits I've made before. I was delighted.

First, as you may know, I don't cook anything if I don't have the ingredients on hand. It is very rare that I go out & buy something to complete a recipe. I have to really be craving it. Anyway, this was more of a spur-of-the-moment decision, so I used what was on hand- and that meant, no buttermilk.
How to make buttermilk:

1 T lemon juice (or vinegar. Basically, something acidic) for each cup milk. Let stand a few minutes, then stir and use in the recipe.

Now, on to the biscuit recipe:

2 C flour
1 T sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 C shortening, chilled, cut into 1/2 n pieces
3/4 C buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients. Cut in shortening until crumbly (I use my hands to do this, primarily because I've never figured out how to use a pastry cutter.) Make a well in the mixture and pour buttermilk in. Mix quickly, until a (very) sticky dough forms. Turn onto a generously-floured surface & fold over on itself 3 or 4 times (to make layers!) Roll to 3/4 in think. Cut biscuits. Put dimples in the tops of the biscuits to aid in even rising. Brush with butter (I forgot this part.)

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.

I made about 9 good-sized biscuits. Like I said, these are soft & fluffy- smother them with butter, jelly, gravy, whatever you prefer. Definitely worth trying, though.

Slacker Jo.

2007-11-19T14:32:00.000-05:00

Yipes, I've been neglecting things here. I blame NaBloPoMo, which I'm doing over at my other blog. Oh, and moving.

I've still got Sunflowers in my Kitchen, it's just a different kitchen- NOW WITH EVEN MORE SUNFLOWERS! And you thought it wasn't possible. Pictures to come, whenever I find the battery charger for my camera, thrown in a box somewhere.

But, in other food news, I've really enjoyed cooking in my new kitchen. To date, I've made no-knead bread, pumpkin pie, chicken pot pie, and a whole lot of chicken broth, among other things. Thanksgiving cooking later this week will bring green bean casserole and a pie of some sort.

I'll get back to posting when my camera battery charger shows up, promise. It's baking season!

Candy Corn Cookies!

2007-10-31T07:29:00.000-05:00

I made these cookies last year, but didn't give an explanation as to how, so, here it is, in pictures.

These colorful cookies are based on the Betty Crocker recipe. In the spirit of Irma, I did use the Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix to make the dough. You can make whatever sugar cookie dough you want- I'll skip that step in the recipe- but it's best to pick one that won't spread too much, so the cookies hold their approximately-triangular shape. If you want a from-scratch recipe, look for "cut-out cookie" dough. If you do use the Betty Crocker mix, I left out 2 T worth of butter, and added about a tablespoon & a half's worth of flour.

(Click for larger photos)

Make the dough. Divide dough into three equal balls, and set one aside (this will be the white part of the cookie. Knead yellow food coloring into one ball until desired yellow-ness is reached. Knead orange food coloring (or, as I did, red and yellow) into the third ball, until desired orange-ness is reached. (Caveat on giving food coloring to children) Find a small, rectangular container- a loaf pan, or, as you can see here, a plastic storage container. Line the container with plastic wrap and press the white dough into the bottom. Press the orange dough on top of it, then the yellow. Refrigerate 1-2 hours, until the block is firm. (I refrigerated mine 24 hours, because it was convenient, but this turned out to be too long, and the block got kinda dried out & too hard. Lesson learned.) Another view

Take out & unwrap the block of dough. Slice into 1/4 to 1/3 inch slices- just like you would with a tube of that refrigerator cookie dough. Not that you'd ever buy that stuff, of course.

THE MAGIC:
Slice each of those rectangular slices as shown, in a zig-zag pattern. Candy corn! Some will have white tops, and some will have white tips, and NO ONE WILL NOTICE. Place on a cookie sheet and cook per your cookie dough's directions- though watch them, they're probably smaller than the run-of-the-mill sugar cookies.

Happy Birthday Irma!

2007-10-30T07:48:00.000-05:00

From The Writer's Almanac:

It's the birthday of Irma Rombauer, born in St. Louis (1877). She wrote one of the most popular cookbooks of all time, The Joy of Cooking (1935), even though she was a terrible cook, according to her own family. But her lack of cooking experience was an advantage, because hers was the first cookbook aimed at women who did not have any experience making food from scratch. It was the first cookbook to endorse the use of convenient ingredients, like canned soup, and it was full of humorous advice for people who felt clueless in the kitchen.

I feel inspired to whip out the ol' white-and-red cooking bible tonight in recognition of Irma's 130th birthday, but its packed. Perhaps I'll find a recipe from it anyway. It just seems like the right thing to do.

Kitchen Facts!

2007-10-27T07:38:00.000-05:00

Ashley has tagged me for a kitchen meme. I have to name eight random things from my kitchen/cooking. This is re-posted from my other blog, keeping feet, where I was tagged- but it belongs here.

1. My favorite kitchen implement is the wooden spoon. I use it for whatever I can possibly use it for. It is indispensable.

2. I love sunflowers. My plates, bowls, bread box, recipe box, and anything I could get a hold of has sunflowers on it. Even my apron. I prefer designs with fall-colored sunflowers, with oranges and greens, rather than cheery yellow ones.

3. I really hadn't cooked much before getting married a year and a half ago. Since then, I have discovered I love cooking, and treat it as an experiment & an adventure.

4. I hate making a roux & white sauce. I burned it once, and have this fear of doing it again. Besides I think it takes longer than it is worth. I make it, but only when necessary.

5. My knitted dishcloth is my favorite thing to wash dishes or wipe up with. Right now, I have no sponges at my sink. The only thing that gets use is the dishcloth I made.

6. Pies are my favorite thing to bake. Apple, pear, peach, strawberry, sugar cream, chocolate pudding, chicken pot... you name it, I love making pies. Unfortunately, when I cook dessert, its usually for a decent-sized group, and pies will feed 6-8 people, but not many more. I make them anyway.

7. My favorite cookbook is the Joy of Cooking cookbook. It's classic, and I appreciate not only the fact that the recipes have been tested over 60 years, but that there's such a wide variety of them.

8. I cook based on what I have in the house. I don't like having to go to the store to pick something up for a planned meal- I'd much rather use the staples I have to throw something together. As I learn to plan menus further ahead of time, perhaps I'll be able to cook things not in the normal rotation- but currently the 'normal rotation' uses what's always stocked in the pantry.

More motivation!

2007-10-16T12:15:00.000-05:00

I've been demonstrating here lately the cost of eating at home. For me, it's motivation to cook- I know that I'm saving ridiculous amounts of money over eating elsewhere. For more great made-from-scratch goodies- food and otherwise- check out today's carnival. For more on saving money on food, check out a post that I probably should have posted here, but I put it at Keeping Feet instead.

That's all for now.

Refried Bean Casserole

2007-10-10T06:51:00.000-05:00

This is one of my husband's favorite meals from childhood. I got the recipe from his mom when we were dating, and first made it in his college apartment kitchen. Since then, it has made a regular appearance at our table. One caveat: it doesn't re-heat very well, so cutting it in half to minimize leftovers is what we try to do. A half-recipe yields 2-3 servings, a full recipe feed about 6.

The story: Last night I was going to make a half-recipe of this dish, and proceeded to brown a whole pound of meat, with the expectation I would freeze half of it, having a handy taco meal later on. We got a call just as I started this from 3 friends wanting to hang out. Because I had everything on hand, I decided to make the full recipe & feed everyone.
(Warning: I'm writing this from memory, rather than actually having the recipe in front of me)

Refried Bean Casserole

Tortilla chips
1 lb ground meat (beef is traditional. I used ground turkey)
taco seasoning(I used a packet, though next time I want to try this recipe.)
14 oz (or 2 8-oz cans) tomato sauce
1 can refried beans
1 C shredded cheddar cheese

- Preheat oven to 350
- Brown ground meat. Mix with taco seasoning & 3/4 the tomato sauce.
- Cover the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish with chips.
- Layer the meat mixture on top of the chips.
- Spread the refried beans on top of the meat mixture.
- Spread the rest of the tomato sauce on top of the beans.
- Bake 20-25 minutes.
- Top with chips & more cheese, and put back in the oven to melt the cheese (just a few minutes)

Cost breakdown:

ground turkey: about 90 cents
taco seasoning: about 30 cents
tomato sauce: about 80 cents
tortilla chips: $1 per bag- I didn't use an entire bag.
refried beans: about 50 cents
cheese: about 70 cents

Total: about $4.20
Per serving (6 servings): 70 cents

Tips:
Cutting the recipe in half is easy, except for using half of a can of refried beans. I will save the other half of the can, and have bean-and-cheese rollups or quesadillas for lunches.

Tacos for friends

2007-10-09T08:30:00.000-05:00

Our friends just welcomed a new baby into their home, and a group of us got together to bring them meals once every 3 or so days. The person who was scheduled to bring a meal last Friday wasn't feeling well, so at the last minute, I stepped up.

This was great- I was excited to serve my friends and provide relief for them as they care for their new little one. The catch: we had a meeting after work at 4:30. Starting to cook after the meeting wasn't an option- thanks to the Friday afternoon traffic between our place & theirs, even a quick meal wouldn't get there till after 7. I had to make a plan- and it sure wasn't going to be fancy, since I didn't have much time to plan. Also, I wanted to avoid the "casserole" route, since I've heard from others who have had new babies that casseroles brought by friends can get old quick. There's only so much pasta-based casserole you can eat.

So, what did I decide on? I took a quick inventory of what I had on hand, and decided on tacos and rice for our friends. I also tried to "package" the meal as nicely as possible- all the pieces in bowls rather than tupperware containers, to give the semblance of eating at home rather than take-out or leftovers.

Bowls:
- 1/3 lb ground beef, browned & mixed with taco seasoning & a little salsa (I made this the night before, and just had to heat it up after work)
- salsa
- 2 handfuls shredded cheddar
- chopped tomatoes (from my "garden"!)
- shredded lettuce
- mexican rice (this is where I really cheated- I bought a microwave-for-90-seconds pouch of rice, because, like I said, I was a bit strapped for time.)

I also included heated tortillas, though heated hard-taco shells were an option. I wasn't sure if this meal was a little bit more labor-intensive for the recipients than it should have been (having to assemble the tacos), but they said they didn't think so. I would have liked to include more salsa & tortilla chips, but didn't have them on hand.

The end of the story: I prepared all this before the 4:30 meeting and packaged it up. The meeting went shorter than expected, and they had dinner at home by 5:45! This is a quick meal we make for ourselves fairly often, too, when we need an early dinner.

Big Recipe: Pizza casserole

2007-10-09T08:10:00.000-05:00

Easy Pizza Pasta Casserole
20 servings 1 1/4 hrs 20 min prep

2 lbs ground beef or ground venison (about $4 - if I use ground turkey, it's healthier & would be <$2)
1 large onion, chopped (about 30 cents)
1 clove garlic, minced (about 30 cents)
1 teaspoon italian seasoning (negligible)
2 tablespoons olive oil (negligible)
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce (about $4)
16 ounces rotini pasta, cooked and drained (about 60 cents)
5 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (20 oz) (about $4)
4 ounces sliced pepperoni (about 80 cents)

1. Brown ground beef, onion, garlic and seasoning in oil.
2. Drain.
3. Stir in pasta, spaghetti sauce and 3 cups cheese.
4. Place mixture in 2 greased 9x13x2 inch baking pans or 4 square pans.
5. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella.
6. Top with pepperoni. (I'm not crazy about pepperoni. Without the pepperoni, this would be just as good, as a "baked pasta dish")
7. Cover and freeze up to 3 months.

To cook now: Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until heated through.
To bake frozen casserole: Thaw in refrigerator overnight and bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, till hot

The cost of the big casserole was $12 at Aldi. For 20 servings, that comes out to 60 cents a serving- and this is good! It was perfect for what we used the recipe for- cooking it in a big foil turkey-roaster pan and serving it to a large group, but I think it would be even better used as a once-a-month cooking recipe, divided into 4 square pans (the recipe's intended purpose). When I have a chest freezer, with room to store cooked-ahead meals, I definitely plan on including this one.

2007-10-07T07:16:00.000-05:00

I've been woefully neglecting this blog lately. Part of my excuse is, I haven't had much to say. I've been cooking some, but not trying lots of new recipes or anything. Here, taken last night, is proof that I have been in the kitchen some!

over the last about 10 days, I've cooked over 30 servings worth of food for other people- and there have been no big parties here! The meals have included chicken pot pie, chicken tetrazinni, tacos & rice, and (a huge, 20 serving) pizza casserole. Oh, and then there was the popular favorite, the s'mores bars. Hopefully I'll get around to posting about the last couple.

Garden Update

2007-09-28T06:12:00.000-05:00

Yes, my Roma tomato plants are still producing flowers and new tomatoes. No complaints.

The cherry tomatoes aren't producing new flowers, but there are still quite a few green tomatoes waiting to turn red. One by one, they're ripening.

The pole beans are still producing, slowly. These didn't turn out that well. I'm kinda bummed.

And the last picture has a story behind it. I planted broccoli in the spring, but it didn't do so hot. I think it probably had something to do with having three plants in one not-very-big pot. No broccoli was produced at all, and I just marked it off as a lesson learned. I didn't need the pot for any reason, so I let the three plants grow and watered then through the summer- no sense killing a living thing needlessly, right? Besides, the plants were kind of pretty. Well, fall began to show his head around here, and you'll imagine my surprise when I saw something growing in the middle of the broccoli plant!

I still don't expect to get any broccoli to eat, but it's exciting that these little plants that I've been faithfully watering, were able to hold on through the summer and grow a little more.

George Foreman Works for Me!

2007-09-19T08:58:00.000-05:00

Chicken & rice... Chicken tetrazzini... Quesadillas & tacos... Chicken alfredo... chicken pot pie...

What do these dishes all have in common? Obviously, they all have 'chicken' in the name. They are also all go-to dishes that are staples at our house, and they all call for precooked, cut up chicken breasts.

These are all pretty easy meals, but cooking the chicken is just one more step in the process (and one more pan to clean!). My solution: I use the lowest-maintenance way of cooking the meat, that requires the least attention, so that I can get the other ingredients for the recipe ready without worrying about the chicken. For me, that means flipping on the George Foreman grill (that we got for $5 at Goodwill last year!), plopping the not-quite-defrosted chicken breast(s) in it, and letting them sizzle while I prepare the rest of the meal. So easy. And my favorite part: the grill gives the chicken a flavor that goes particularly well in Chicken Alfredo or Chicken & Rice, as well as other meals. Grilling is healthier than sauteing in oil, or other options for cooking the chicken, so that makes me happy too!

Something I do less often, but am glad when I do: precook, cut up, and freeze the chicken, to make any of these meals really quick and easy. I do this more often with ground beef or ground turkey, to freeze taco meat for tacos, quesadillas, dips, and refried-bean casserole. I also will brown & freeze crumbled sausage for dishes like pizza, omelettes, or Italian Sausage soup.

Check out more tips at Works-for-me Wednesday!

Curly-Qs

2007-09-19T08:42:00.000-05:00

The curliness of the pole bean plant fascinated me.
More Wordless Wednesday!

Make It From Scratch #31

2007-09-18T07:03:00.000-05:00

Bloggers from around the world have been cookin', craftin', and makin' this week. Let's see what everyone came up with!

BREAKFAST
There were an unusual number of breakfast-related entries this week. No complaints from me- I'm always looking for new & tasty breakfast ideas!

From Sweden, the Hairy Swede at A Swedish American in Sweden makes Pannkakor- Swedish pancakes! The crepe-like creations were her first attempt at the dish, and sounded like a great experiment!

Terry at Mom on Wheels tried a new granola bar recipe- I love munching granola or granola bars for a quick snack or breakfast, and her recipe even includes chocolate!

Amy at The MomAdvice blog had cooked up some pumpkin waffles this week- which are the perfect breakfast for the impending Fall season! The honey butter she used to top them sounds heavenly as well.

DeputyHeadmistress at the Common Room offers up a variety of oatmeal recipes, including one involving a slow cooker the night before! I have never given oatmeal its due, I suppose- these look like healthy choices worth trying.

Sarah at The Patchwork of Life makes some classic buttermilk pancakes. She used to use Bisquick to make the pancakes, but then was won over by this delicious from-scratch recipe!

Delilah at The Miller Way completes the breakfast section with iced coffee- trying to take the "latte factor" out of her budget by making it herself!

I followed the trend and made a biscuits and gravy brunch Sunday morning- all from scratch, and much to my husband's delight!

NON-BREAKFAST FOOD
Like I said, there were a LOT of breakfast entries. There were about the same number of people out there who DIDN'T have breakfast on the brain, and were cooking food for the rest of the day:

Laura at Laura Williams' Musings gives us four great ideas for what to do with pumpkins- all edible! The soup, pie, butter, and rolls all sound yummy, and creative.

Lisa at The Frugal Momma makes pepperoni bread & pizza subs. I would never have thought to bake the cheese and pepperoni into the bread as well as using them for toppings!

Heather at The Fat-bottomed Girl made cocktail sauce from scratch this week, for her family to eat alongside fish caught in Canada on a fish trip!

Stephanie at Stop the Ride! tells us how she's saving some of the summer heat for the winter: she's pickling & canning homegrown hot peppers!

Melissa at A Penny Closer shares a frugal and tasty-warm comfort food, Chicken Tetrazzini. This is seriously one of my favorite easy meals to make, and I'm glad she shared her take on it.

Heather of HomeEc101 cooks up a black-bean soup. It looks like just the think to help us get through the cold temperatures that await us in a few months!

Silvia at Po Moyemu posted her daughter Emily's favorite chili recipe. As the weather gets cooler, chili is sounding better and better!

And, of course, we can't forget dessert. Karen from Balance in Diet came up with a chocolate-chip-cookie dessert that may be low fat, but doesn't appear to be low in sugar- not that's I'm complaining! It's a no-bake recipe, too, which makes it quick and easy!

Sewing, Crafting, and Growing
The "everything else" category this week has quite a variety- a testament to the creative participants!

Lori at I Will Learn to Sew is doing just that- and she finished her pink dress! She followed a pattern and did a fabulous job- she's way ahead of me!

HowToMe is doing some sewing as well- showing us how to create khaki shorts from slacks. Her step-by-step pictures make it look easy!

Joanie in the UK posts about reusing plastic packaging to make a cute and colorful window hanging at her blog Nini Makes. Looks like a great activity for the kids!

Stephanie at Adventures in the 100-Acre Wood shares how she has been watching grass grow in her yard- finally! Certainly she'll have a lush yard very soon- and then she'll have to worry about mowing!

Cindy at My Recycled Bags never fails with her crocheting-plastic skills. This week, she shares a pattern for a market bag that expands to accommodate all your groceries!

Delilah at junky love in freehand made potholders from old jeans! I have some old jeans I've been looking for crafting ideas for, and this may be just the thing!

Melanie at Bean Sprouts in the UK made a very-cute train quilt for her son. Although he's now grown out of his train-obsession, he still sleeps with it every night!

I, with the help of Matt & James, made a knitted blanket- for a new baby in the office. Check out all the blue over at keeping feet.

iamawahm at Working At Home Mom gives future MIFS participants a variety of crafty ideas for things they can make from scratch both for this carnival AND to sell!

Next week, participate! You can enter here. Look for the next MIFS carnival posted in a week over at And Miles to Go Before We Sleep.

Thanks for visiting!

Biscuits and Gravy

2007-09-17T07:04:00.000-05:00

Before meeting my husband, I had never eaten biscuits and gravy. Upon learning this, he was shocked, since, growing up, it was practically his favorite meal. Needless to say, I had to learn to like it and learn to make it, just like his mother does.

That said, I can't believe I've never posted our recipe here, considering the meal is a staple at our house, when we find time to make everything. The meals is always made from-scratch and feeds about 3 people (more, if you have other sides like hashbrowns, eggs, or bacon)

The Biscuits
- 2 C flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 - 1/3 C shortening
- 3/4 - 1 C milk
Mix dry ingredients. Cut in shortening with hands until lumpy (I squeeze the shortening into the flour until it all looks like crumbs). Use a fork to quickly mix in milk, with not too much stirring, just enough to get everything wet. If it is too dry, add a bit more milk. Dump the dough on a floured countertop, roll the dough to 1/2 inch thick, and cut into squares or use an upside-down cup to get round biscuits. (I think proper biscuits should be round. My husband is less picky.)
Cook at 450 for 10-15 minutes. Makes about 12 small biscuits

I've decided it is impossible to take a good picture of gravy, ever.
Gravy:
- 1/2 lb sausage
- 1/2 C flour
- 3 C milk
Brown the sausage. If the sausage doesn't have much grease, add a teaspoon of butter. Take the pan off the heat and mix in 1/2 C flour. Put back on the heat and add the milk 1/2 C at a time. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir occasionally until it boils. If the gravy gets too thick, add more milk.

These were recipe instructions I was given to recreate my husband's childhood home-cooked memory. Normally, he helps a significant amount,, and I may just tend to the gravy while he does everything else. This Sunday for brunch, however, I cooked the whole thing myself, and I think it turned out pretty well. Alas, no finished-product-on-a-plate picture because it was all gobbled up too quickly.

Makeshift meals

2007-09-17T06:53:00.000-05:00

There are some days when I don't have the time or energy to make something from scratch, and I believe that's OK. This week was fairly exhausting, and from-scratch meals didn't happen every day. Here are some examples:

Early in the week, my husband was craving dessert, with nothing sweet in the house. He said cookies weren't gonna cut it, so I made a cake from a mix, and used some leftover Cool Whip in the freezer as "filling" and "icing". Due to the Cool Whip, the cake had to be stored in the refrigerator all week, but it was very well appreciated. It wasn't pretty, but it hit the spot and served its purpose!

Thursday night, my husband & I went on a date- dinner & a movie. It was wonderful. Friday, I ate out with coworkers and had a big lunch, so wasn't that hungry come dinnertime. My lack of appetite combined with being pressed for time resulted in a Nachos dinner- leftover dips from an appetizer the night before and tortilla chips we had on hand. I put the dips in bowls rather than their take-out containers to make the meal a little more beautiful.

A Carnival is coming!

2007-09-14T06:59:00.000-05:00

Make It From Scratch Carnival! Here! Tuesday!
But you need to be entered by Sunday!
Get to it!

Macaroni Grill Rosemary Bread

2007-09-11T20:24:00.000-05:00

For those of you who haven't been to Macaroni Grill and had the bread they serve before dinner, I highly recommend it. My husband & I will go there, share a dish, and just eat bread until we are full, and it makes for a delicious meal. The bread is seasoned inside and out with rosemary, and sprinkled with sea salt, lightly crusty on the outside and soft within. Delicious!

Not so long ago, Amy posted that she found a recipe for this tasty bread, and tried it- even though she had never eaten the Real Thing at the restaurant. I couldn't pass it up, and since baking it on Saturday, my husband has repeatedly requested it, claiming it's better than the Macaroni Grill version. I don't know about that, but its a good substitution at home, for sure. I modified the Recipezaar recipe a tad to match what I had on hand, and it worked beautifully.

Macaroni Grill Rosemary Bread

1 scant tablespoon yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tsp dried rosemary (plus more to sprinkle)
2 tablespoons butter, divided, melted

1. Place yeast, sugar and water in large bowl and allow mixture to become bubbly.
2. Mix in 1 T butter, salt, and 2 cups of flour.
3. Add the rosemary.
4. Knead for about 10 minutes by hand until smooth and elastic.
5. Add more flour if necessary. (This was necessary. It was pretty sticky.)
6. Oil a bowl, put dough in it and cover with a towel.
7. Let dough rise in a warm place for one hour or so until doubled.
8. Punch down dough and divide in half.
9. Let dough rest about 5 minutes.
10. Spray baking pan or cookie sheet with cooking spray. (I used an ungreased pizza stone)
11. Shape the dough into 2 small rounded oval loaves.
12. Sprinkle rosemary over the loaves and press lightly into the surface.
13. Preheat oven to 375° F.
14. Let loaves rise again until doubled, about 45 minutes.
15. Bake for about 20 minutes, until lightly browned.
16. Carefully remove from oven, brush with remaining butter and salt if desired.(IMO, salt is necessary here for authenticity. I used ground sea salt.)

This is definitely getting cooked again very soon. Probably the next time I have 2 1/2 hours+ to get dinner ready- which I suppose might not be very soon...

Oh, and something I didn't mention: This bread is used for dipping into oil and herbs. We happen to have splurged a while back at Meijer on a bread-dipping oil that was the perfect compliment.

Comfort food

2007-09-11T19:42:00.000-05:00

Homegrown tomato soup (from Stephanie!) and grilled cheese.
Warm.
Inviting.
Cheese-y.
Can't go wrong.

Make It From Scratch: This week and next....

2007-09-11T19:18:00.001-05:00

Check out the Make It From Scratch carnival over at Heather's blog, The Fat Bottomed Girl, posted today! I've had a busy day and haven't had a chance to check out all the posts yet, but I'm headed to do that right now.

Next week, the carnival will be right here, so get cookin', craftin' or doin' whatever you do, and get a post submitted!

Peach cobbler

2007-09-06T05:28:00.000-05:00

I made this for a get-together Monday, along with Nestle Tollhouse cookies. The recipe is loosely based on this one.

1 cup sugar
2 TB. cornstarch
10 ripe medium peaches (~4 lbs), peeled and sliced
2 TB. lemon juice
1 tsp ginger

2 refrigerated pie crusts

1 egg white
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 TB. sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a 13x9-inch pan.
2. Mix sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl. Add peaches, lemon juice and ginger. Toss to coat and set aside for 15 minutes.
4. Roll out one of the prepared pie crust so that it's approximately oval (rectangular). Place dough in prepared pan, wrapping dough up the sides of the pan. The pie crust won't fill the whole thing, but do your best. Pour peach mixture on top of dough.
5. Cut remaining pie crustinto 1/4"-1/2" strips and arrange in a lattice pattern over peaches (diagonally is easiest). Squeeze edges of strips with bottom dough to seal, where possible. Mix cinnamon and sugar together. Brush strips with egg white and sprinkle with cinnamon mixture.
6. Bake about 45 minutes until bubbly and crust is golden. Serve warm.

Serves 8-12.

And, of course, the cookies:

Garden update

2007-09-05T20:14:00.000-05:00

I'm still getting both cherry and roma tomatoes. Not in the same volume as earlier this summer, but they're still producing nonetheless.

Some critters have somehow found my third-floor plants- a ladybug with inverted color, and a brown praying mantis.

The beans, I don't have high hopes for, because (I'm pretty sure) a fungus got them a while back, and they've been fighting it ever since. I figure, I'll get what I get, and hope for better next year.
They did grow as tall as absolutely possible. My husband has sworn we're doing bush beans next year- there's no way we're setting up something like this in a garden.

And, yes, they do have a few beans on them! finally!

Strawberry tuxes

2007-08-29T06:24:00.000-05:00

This is the groom's cake/birthday cake from a wedding I went to a couple weeks ago. The wedding day was also the groom's birthday, and the mother of the bride made and decorated both this cake and the fabulous wedding cake. My favorite part? The chocolate-covered strawberries wearing tuxes.

Check out more Wordless Wednesday!

Unrelatedly, have you entered my contest to win a baby sling yet?

Carnivals are up!

2007-08-28T07:36:00.000-05:00

Because I'm all about cooking frugally, for Real Life, here at Sunflowers in my Kitchen, I've found carnivals that talk about just that!

Check out Make It From Scratch at Summer's Nook. Next week is Challenge Week over at Stop the Ride!
The Festival of Frugality is up at FILAM Personal Finance. Lots of good tips, both food- and non-food-related.

And, as a shameless plug, hop over to my personal blog, keeping feet, and (if applicable, enter to win a baby sling!