Mermaids Treasures - Musings of an Antique Lil Girl

Pancakes - baked , and they are square!

2013-01-03T10:04:00.000-08:00

I've been really sick. But I'm still trying to cook some things, I have to. I cant eat everything right now so I cook what I'm able to get in me. I love pancakes and can have them but Ive been too weak to stand by the stove to make them one by one. I suck at flipping pancakes anyway lol.

And so one day recently I wanted them and thought , hmmmm maybe there's a way to bake them all at once. I did find one or two sites that showed them baked in a pan like I was thinking about. But they were too pale and just didn't look right. But like always I took the info and tweaked it my way.

When I make pancakes and bacon I usually bake the bacon in a 425 degree oven. We use thick bacon so this way I don't have to watch it and it bakes out lots of the fat and stays flat. So I decided to do that and while I was I made the pancake batter.

Now I use a recipe for copycat IHOP Country pancakes. http://mermaidstreasures.blogspot.com/2007/07/pancakes.html I fell in love with them and a few months later they took them off the menu. I was heartbroken but I did find a good replacement. But you could use any recipe, just watch the baking time because some might cook faster or slower depending if you use whole grains or just pancake mix.

butter melted in the pan
So you make your batter. When the bacon is half done, I turn the strips over. This is a good time to begin your pancakes. I take a lg. jelly roll type sheet pan, the kind with the lip around it. I put about a 1/2 c. butter in it and toss it in the oven a min or so to melt the butter. Don't let it brown cuz it will continue to cook more later on.

batter in the pan
Then pour the pancake batter in the pan and spread it all over the whole thing. The butter will well up in some corners and make it hard to do that but tilt the pan so the butter moves and spread it in the corners. My pans are old so the batter wont stay even but it really doesn't matter.

Put in oven while bacon is finishing and bake for about 10min. Check to see if its browning evenly , take out bacon anytime it has to come out. Turn the pan around so it will brown all over and put back in for 3-5min more.

finished baked big pancake ready for cutting and eating
When it looks done, stick a fork in the middle to see if it comes out clean....if it does , its done. Cut into as many pancakes as you want. I just cut squares the first time. I asked my bf if they were good and he said yes .......but they are square! Takes a little bit to get over that since we are all so used to round ones but they taste exactly the same . Saves time and if you have many to feed at once like for a brunch or party, its a fast way to get many done.

Also you could cut them to size to wrap around cooked sausages to make Pigs in the blanket or spread with jams and roll up too. Lots of things you could do. ...individual servings with the bacon rolled in the middle and more. And I freeze leftovers and love these. They stack nicely since they are squares.

My Version of Chocolate Bark

2012-12-18T14:53:00.000-08:00

(This was a picture of me making last years batch. I posted it to tease everyone who was getting some, they fought over the picture! lol)

Ive been sick awhile with some gall bladder issues so I haven't been cooking much....haven't been eating much either. But my daughter asked me for my recipe for the Chocolate Bark that I usually make each yr and send out. I searched all the places that I post my recipes and realized I never posted this one here ever. The original comes from here http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/three-chocolate-bark-with-spiced-pecans-and-dried-cherries-recipe2/index.html But I make a few changes to it based on what I like. So Ill post the recipe here but with my changes. Feel free to do it however you want. I just know I cannot make enough of it at Christmas, everyone wants to be on my list for this!

Three Chocolate Bark with Spiced pecans and Drunken Cherries

7 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups pecan pieces
Salt
Cayenne pepper
Pinch ground nutmeg
Pinch ground cinnamon
1 pound semisweet chocolate, cut into pieces
1 pound dark chocolate, cut into pieces
1 pound white chocolate, cut into pieces
2 cups dried cherries
Brandy
I soak the dried cherries in brandy earlier in the day. I heat the brandy up just a bit and pour enough over to cover. The cherries will plump up and absorb some of the brandy. I like to leave them whole but you could chop them first if you want smaller pieces. When ready to use drain and let sit on a paper towel till needed.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
In a large saute pan, melt 4 tablespoons of butter. Add the brown sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves and is bubbly. Add the pecans. Season the pecans with salt, cayenne, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar starts to caramelize and coat the pecans evenly. Cook for about 4 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and spread the pecans over a parchment lined baking sheet. Place the pan in the oven and roast the pecans for about 6 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and cool completely. Break the pecans into small pieces.

Sprinkle the pecans and soaked cherries in a lg. baking pan....like a jellyroll pan with edges. In three separate mixing bowls, add each type of chocolate into the individual bowls. Place the bowls over a saucepan half filled with water that has come to a boil. After about 2 minutes over the heat, the chocolate will start to melt. I do these in the order of what layer I want on the bottom, working my way up to white chocolate. This way I only need one pot. Stir each chocolate until totally melted. Remove the chocolate from the heat and stir 1 tablespoon of butter into each bowl of chocolate. Using a spatula, spread the mixture out evenly back and forth to about 1/4-inch thick. When you add the next layer of chocolate, swirl it thru the bottom layer if its still soft. In this way, with each chocolate type, you can see them all. Either place the sheet pan in the refrigerator or allow to sit out until set, about a couple of hours. Break the bark into medium pieces and serve.

I buy my chocolate from Traders Joes. Their one lb. bars are reasonably priced and its a very good chocolate. The better the chocolate you use, the better this is.

Tday and Buttermilk Pie Crust

2012-11-24T20:16:00.000-08:00

My kids were coming to visit this holiday. So mom got to cook the Tday dinner first time in a couple yrs. Sadly I haven't been feeling well lately so I fell way behind. I usually bake the day before and prep as much as I can so I can start right in on my stuffing Tday morning and get the bird in the oven early. That just didn't happen this time.

But I did manage to bake my pies. I made two pumpkin (my guys request) and one apple. I tried a whole wheat pastry flour recipe for the pumpkin. It was ok, better than the usual. But I'm not sure Ill make it again.

You see I really hate pie crust. Its a necessary evil to encase the filling to me. I may eat the top and sometimes the bottom but never the crimped parts. To me its just tasteless........until now. This recipe I believe will be my new heirloom family pie crust recipe. EVERYONE loved it. Heck I loved just smelling it after it baked. But eating it was even better. So here it is.

Buttermilk Pie Crust (double crust)

2 1/2 c. all purpose flour (I use unbleached, organic)
1 tb. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1c. butter, frozen (yes I said frozen)
1/2c. cold buttermilk
1-2 tb. cold water
1 lg. egg, beaten

Grate the frozen butter. Grating keeps it very cold and so makes a flakier pie crust. Once grated put in freezer till ready to use. Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Mix buttermilk and egg together.

Remove frozen butter from freezer and toss with flour mixture. Use a pastry blender to mix it in thoroughly but make sure its still cold. Add buttermilk/egg mixture and mix well. Add a tb. or so of water to moisten the dough enough to stick together. You may need more or less depending on the moisture in the air. You dont want it wet, just holding together.

Pat into a ball and cut in half. Roll one half out carefully and line pie pan with it. Roll out remaining half, fill pie plate with filling and top with second crust. Crimp and bake according to your filling recipe directions.

Smoked Sausage, Potato soup

2012-11-17T19:40:00.000-08:00

I saw a couple recipes for potato and sausage soup while wandering online. I thought Kielbasa would be yummy like this. And so today cuz its cold and raining out all day, I decided to make this. This is not the original recipe tho. As always I tweak things to make them mine. But it goes together fast and the only real cooking is the potatoes to get soft. So if your looking for a fast meal, this works good with a nice crusty bread with butter.

My bf said its really good. I asked him if its good enough to make again and he said yes. When that happens, then I post it here for all of you.......why? Cuz hes picky so if he likes it I know many others will too. Enjoy.

Smoked Sausage, Potato soup- Makes 2-3 servings.

1c. diced onions
1tb. butter
2tb. flour
5-6 small or med. potatoes, peeled and diced
1qt. chicken broth ( I used my own that I can)
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
S and P to taste
8oz. smoked sausage, diced or sliced ( I used Kielbasa)
1/3 of a bag of frozen spinach
1/2 tsp cajun spice
1/4 tsp. ground garlic
1c. half and half
Parmesan cheese

1. In a large sauce pot over moderate heat, saute onions in butter until very soft (about 10-15 minutes), stirring frequently. Add flour and cook for 3 more minutes.

2. Add potatoes, broth, bay leaf, thyme, and black pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are very soft (about 30 minutes).

3. Add sausage. Continue simmering for 5 more minutes. Stir in spinach, Cajun spice, and garlic. Add half and half and heat thru. Serve with Parmesan sprinkled on top.

Pumpkin Crumbcake

2012-11-08T10:46:00.000-08:00

I must say this turned out really good. My bf loves it and I gave some to a friend and she loved it too. Its from another recipe that I tweaked some to make my own. I found the original way too sweet for my taste.

Pumpkin Crumbcake

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
15 oz can pumpkin ( or 2c. fresh pumpkin)
3 large eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt

TOPPING:
1c. sifted all purpose flour
3/4c. light brown sugar ( I use dark brown since that what I have around), firmly packed
4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2c. butter

Make topping: Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and butter; blend till mixture is crumbly. I use a pastry blender to cut the butter in. Mix well.

When ready to top cake, take handfuls and squeeze gently together to make the crumbs stick together.

Gently break them up as you sprinkle over the top of the cake. You want to have some small and some lg. chunks of crumb.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Rub butter on the inside of a 9in. spring-form pan, set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until well blended.

Add the pumpkin and eggs and mix thoroughly. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, pumpkin spice and salt. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture. Mix on medium speed until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Sprinkle the streusel over the cake batter. Bake for 1hr or until a toothpick comes out clean. (I found mine needed about 15min. more.) (You may need to cover it at some point while baking if the streusel starts to get too dark. You do not want it to burn.)

Cool on a wire rack for about 15 minutes. Cool completely. Cover and store at room temperature. To serve you can sprinkle some powdered sugar over the top to garnish.

(For two round cakes: coat two 8-inch rounds with non-stick spray and place a circle of parchment in the bottom. Divide the batter between the two pans, top with the streusel and bake for approximately 35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.)
* I did make the 8in, pan recipe first using only half a recipe of this cake. If you want a quick one thats easier to do. A full recipe like I did in the springform pan takes awhile to bake. Its a very moist cake.

Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya, and my version

2012-10-26T11:45:00.003-07:00

(This photo is from the link for the recipe)

http://www.deepsouthdish.com/2009/11/oven-baked-cajun-chicken-and-sausage.html

This is the recipe I used and so I'm posting the link here. But as usual , I change things around. I read the recipe and it sounded really good. I am able to "taste" a recipe by reading the ingredients. I know it sounds weird but I have a good palate and knew this would be yummy. And it was....however, the picture here from that site.......turned me off. I almost didn't make it. IT just looked so pale and unappetizing.

And so I'm going to post here the changes I did with the recipe. And in fact since I made this, I see a few more changes I might do in the future. First I cut the recipe in half because there's only two of us here.

But as I read it , I saw browning the meats in the oven and then I noticed them using another fry pan to do the onions and such. Now Im always looking for shortcuts. And this dish is a good one if you want a yummy, fast, ez meal you don't have to watch much. And so I decided to use my lg. cast iron fry pan. I turned the oven on to the temp. and then put the fry pan in the oven while I was assembling my ingredients. When I was ready to cook the meats I put the oil and butter in it right there in the oven to melt. It called for chicken with skin and bones and I didnt have anything but boneless, skinless breasts here. So I used one of those and cut it in 2 chunks to cook faster. I had about a half lb. of kielasa sausage too. It just didnt look like much meat so I got a boneless pork chop too. I cut that in half also and then put the meats in the oil/butter mix in the pan, rolling them around to coat them. Then I let them brown forabout15-20min...checking them and turning them over to brown on the other side.
Ive decided next time to use whole chicken thighs and more sausage and no pork unless its a well marbled piece. This was too dry this time. It was tasty but just too dry for my own taste.

After the meats are brown , remove pan from oven and remove meats from pan. Toss in the onion and garlic. I used 1/2 red onion and two garlic cloves, minced. You don't even have to have heat under the cast iron pan since its so hot from the oven. Just stir so they don't stick and burn. Meanwhile cut the meat up into bite size pieces.

Once the onion/garlic mixture is almost done, toss in the spices. I used half the amt. since I was making half the recipe. Stir well to release some of the oils. Sure smells good about now too. I used one of my home canned qt. jars of chicken stock and poured that in. Now you can turn the heat back up to high. Stir a bit then add two c. of rice. When it comes to a boil, add the meats, stir and put in the oven and cover, to bake for about a half hr.

(This is what mine looked like, much darker than the original recipe. I like that much better)

I served this with an Italian salad and I'm glad I did. As I said this recipe is a bit dry. And so next time, I'm going to use fattier meats and ones that stay moist. Thighs I think would be much better for this than breasts, the dark meat doesn't dry out. And I didn't have enough sausage to make this but its really good with it. I also think I just might add a bit more chicken stock to this to make it a bit sloppy. But we did love this very much otherwise and doing it this way, the color was much improved. It took advantage of the meat juices that were in the bottom of the pan. If you did it the original way, those would be wasted.

You can buy Cajun spice if you wish but I make my own. Here's my recipe:

Cajun Spice Mix
2 1/2 tb. Paprika (I use Hungarian paprika)
2 tb. garlic powder
1 tb. ground black pepper
1 tb. crushed red pepper or cayenne
1 tb. dried thyme
1 tb. dried oregano
1 tb. dried onion flakes or powder ( I like flakes better)

Mix together and store.
I like to add some to my rib rub, and of course on blackened fish.

Elk Burgers

2012-10-05T08:47:00.001-07:00

A friend gifted me with some elk meat and so I searched around online for recipes. People that Ive talked to about game out here have said elk is even better than beef. Well of course in my mind, elk is game and beef isn't. So I'm figuring its gamey. Not that's not an issue with me, I love strong flavored meats. But I wanted to be sure how to handle this meat and not ruin it. Elk is very lean.

And so after wandering online and reading about it, I decided to just make burgers the first time using ground elk. I didn't want to mess with the flavor too much. I made tacos the night before and my guy asked me did you use the elk? I said no because I felt the spices would just change the flavor. I wanted to really taste it to find out if I would like it.

And so there's really no recipe. I mean most of us can make burgers. I took bits from a few and came up with this one. But I thought I'd post if for those who might one day get some elk themselves. Some said wrap with bacon because elk is very lean. I didn't have any bacon in the house so I cooked mine in a cast iron pan with some bacon fat. I save it to use for making my re-fried beans and cooking potatoes and onions to have with eggs and many other things. Just pour it in a container when its cool but still liquid and store in the refrigerator. It lasts forever.

My first bite was, wow, this is good!
My second bite I was amazed at how juicy it was and not greasy. When you make a burger that's what your used to.
My third bite and my bf was just sitting down to have his and asked how it is. I said.......I don't think Ill ever eat another BEEF burger again. The flavor is mild, not gamey and its a cleaner taste than beef.
My bf never said another word,,,,,,,just chowed down on his.......two of them :)

Elk Burgers Makes 6-8 depending on the size you like

about 2lb. ground elk
1 tb. Dijon mustard
2tsp. Worcestershire
1tb. A-1 sauce
1/2c. bread crumbs
S & P
Bacon Fat

Mix all ingredients except the bacon fat and shape into patties. I made 6 because I had large burger buns. I was stuffed after one tho so you could make them smaller if you don't eat much. This size and making 6 is perfect for guys tho.

Put a couple tbsp. of bacon fat in a cast iron frying pan on high and heat till it just starts to smoke a bit. Put patties in and fry for just a couple min. till it browns then flip over and do the same. At that point I put cheddar cheese on them but you don't have to. I shut the gas off and put a lid on the pan to finish cooking the burgers and melting the cheese. Better to under cook these than overcook or they could end up dry. They continue to cook awhile in the remaining heat in the pan while the cheese is melting......maybe 5 min. more. Toast your burger buns if you like to do that in that time. Then serve with whatever you like on them. I make a special sauce for regular burgers but this time I just wanted to be classic to taste the elk so I only used Ketchup.

I had a few burgers left that I knew I would end up with since theres only two of us here. So I took those out even sooner so they were not completely done and wrapped and froze them for another meal. Ill just thaw them later and heat quickly to serve.

Wild Lobster Mushrooms

2012-09-26T08:32:00.001-07:00

Last yr. I bought one of these monsters at the local farmers market. I didn't know a thing about them and just treated it like any mushroom I would buy in the store. I sauteed some in scrambled eggs for breakfast. It was awful, they were not soft at all. I swore I wouldn't waste my money on them again. That one mushroom cost me $3. That's a lot to waste.

Since then Ive been going mushrooming with a friend. Last yr. we got a few corals, lots of Chantrelles and some Boletes. I loved them. I dried them all last yr to use in winter soups and stews.

And so this yr my friend and I went early to see whats out there. I love wandering her farm, hiking thru the woods, finding all sorts of plants and tracking animals too. We went for Oyster mushrooms but I guess they are gone now.....but we found lots of Lobster mushrooms. I wasn't going to take any, remembering my experience with them last yr. But since we were out there I would get some to play with at least. I figure it was no loss if I didn't like them still.

That is my fist, to give a comparison of size.

And so I got quite a few in my basket and along the way back picked a bunch of wild blackberries too. I pick as many as I can of those too while the season lasts and freeze them for canning and baking thru the yr. I took these mushrooms home and was trying to decide what to do with them There's conflicting advice out there whether to saute and freeze or dry. But I had quite a few and just decided to dry them. It was getting late and I still had to make dinner. After I cleaned them, I sliced them about 1/4in. thick and dried them.

My bf decided he wanted Alfredo that nite for dinner since I mentioned it earlier to him. I had one chicken breast in the fridge. I had some reg. store mushrooms too and was just going to use that.......then I remembered the Lobster ones. I thought this would be a really good time to play with them. So I took about the equivalent of one big one out and re-hydrated it back to life.

There is no recipe for what I made, just a bit of this and that. But Ill post it here for those who wish to play. I put butter in a saute pan and cut up the chicken breast into bite size pieces. I sauteed that till golden. Then I tossed in more butter, this time much more because I know mushrooms absorb it. I drained the Lobster mushrooms and tossed them in. I let them saute very slowly in the butter while I sliced the store bought ones. I also sliced two garlic cloves very very thin. When the Lobsters were soft, I tossed the reg. mushrooms and garlic in with them and let it slowly absorb all the flavors of butter and chicken and cook and get all mellow.

I tasted them and they were heavenly, I could have eaten them just like that. I tossed the chicken in one more time. While all this was going on I had water for the pasta going. When the pasta was cooked, I drained it. I poured cream into the mushroom mixture and stirred it around. I added the pasta right to the pan with the mushrooms then and stirred it up again to coat well. Added a bit of s & p and some fresh chopped parsley. Put it on our plates and topped with Parmesan cheese.

Dinner was to die for.
For more info try these links:
http://www.mushroomexpert.com/hypomyces_lactifluorum.html
http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/

As with any wild thing........please do not pick if your not familiar with one that wont hurt you. Go with an expert, be safe!

Pumpkin Spice Donuts.

2012-09-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

Fall is on its way. The weather is changing here too. The glorious summer days we have had this yr are starting to disappear. Its been a dry summer for the PNW and the days have been so warm and glorious that I just don't want summer to leave yet. Its been hot enough to wear shorts, tank tops and bare feet, with big puffy white clouds and deep blue sky. But now the summer is going, Ive had to shut the windows most days lately and the fog has rolled back in. Today its raining again. I smell the falling leaves when I'm outside now, that earthy, moldy leaf smell. Fall is here and it makes me think of pumpkin. And so I wanted to make something with it for us.

These are baked. I have one donut pan so I pulled out a muffin top pan too. I figured they would bake in about the same time. Remember when muffin tops were the craze? I found both pans at Goodwill. And so I baked these and then cleaned the donut pan to finish the last batch.

They smelled the whole house up. It was a cool nite and the warm spices just reminded me so much of Fall. Perfect nite to do this. And so once they cooled a bit I rolled them in cinnamon sugar and set them on the rack to finish cooling. About a half hr. before bed......my bf said he wanted one. I decided to get one too even tho I was worried the sugar might keep me up. I'm glad I had it tho.........cuz OMG they were beyond awesome~!!! My bf liked it so much he went back for seconds. My mouth was thinking the same thing but I held back. They were moist and spicy and perfect. I will be making these again and again for sure. And so for anyone wanting to try them here's the link. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2012/09/07/pumpkin-doughnuts-baked-to-perfection/

I used my own home cooked pumpkin puree that I freeze each yr. Sometimes when thawing it gets a bit watery so I put it in a sieve over a bowl till it drained. You want thick puree, canned is fine. And I love that these are baked , not fried. I hate frying stuff. Watch the timing on these so they don't burn. For my oven I found 12min. to be perfect.

Homemade Yogurt

2012-09-05T09:42:00.000-07:00

A friend here online posted a recipe for making yogurt when we were discussing the price difference between buying it and making it. She posted a recipe with two different ways to make it ...stove top or crock-pot.

Now I have a huge crock-pot so I wasn't sure that would work for me. And warming the milk in there would take too long. I wanted results. So I decided against that version. Her other version had it cooked on top of the stove but put in a dehydrator. Mine is not set up for that sort of thing. So I looked online and many different ways people do this. I finally settled on stove top cooking and putting it in a cooler with hot water to sit over nite.

Some say add non fat powdered milk, some say you don't need to. I love Greek yogurt tho and the ones who added the powdered milk say it comes out thicker. Since I had some around here that I rarely use, I decided to do that. So here is my recipe.

*UPDATE: Ive since found that different yogurts you buy have different cultures so play around with the yogurts you like best to get the same homemade consistency you like. I used ZOI at first because I had that here in the house. It was good but when I added anything to it for flavor, it often broke down some. I love FAGE and bought some this last time to try it. The yogurt I made is awesome! Its thick just like FAGE is and tastes great too. And I added some homemade jam like I usually do and this didnt break down at all. So remember to use a yogurt you really love if you want to get great results on your homemade.

Homemade Yogurt

2 qts. whole organic milk
1 pkg. non fat dried milk powder (3.2oz)
4 tb. of yogurt with culture in it

Measure 2qts of milk into a pot. Turn heat on high. Whisk in powdered milk. Let heat in pot till temperature on a thermometer ( I used and instant one) reads 180 degrees. Ive read that this is the best temp. for this. Cooler may not thicken enough and hotter will kill the bacteria needed to culture the yogurt.

While the milk heats to temp. fill your sink with cold water. You want it to come up to the level the milk is when you put the pot in the sink. You may not have the right level when you put it in so add more, being sure not to get water in the pot. Cool this milk to 110-115 degrees.

While its cooling measure out the store bought yogurt into a small bowl. When the milk reaches the right temp...take about a cup of it out and mix it with the yogurt culture in the bowl to thin it down. Pour into the cooled milk and stir gently with a whisk.

I decided to do mine in jars. Some say put the whole pot in the refrigerator. Mine isn't that big plus I didn't want to disturb it once its done. So I chose to do mine in canning jars. This recipe filled two qt. jars and one pt. jar.

I chose to use a small cooler to keep the temperature even. I live on the coast and its hot during the day and cooler at nite. I put the filled jars into the cooler.

Then I filled two more qts with very hot water and put them in too. Then I filled the cooler with more very hot water up to the line where the smallest jar was filled. I didn't want to get water in that one since it was lower.

I put it on a counter where it wouldn't be disturbed. First a heating pad was turned on to Medium. Then the cooler was put on top, and finally I covered it all with a big towel.

I did this around 4pm. Because my heating pad has an auto shut off, I checked it a few times till I went to bed to make sure it was on. This is the other reason I did the hot water in the cooler and jars too. I felt the water would hold in any heat over nite, since I knew the heating pad would shut off.

This morning when I checked it, I had nice thick yogurt in the jars. While I may not need the powdered milk in it, I do like the thickness of the yogurt because of it. Today I'm having some with my own Blueberry/Cherry Jam (which I make low sugar) and I have to say its yummy. I don't think Ill be buying any more yogurt from the stores unless it is to restart a culture.

A gallon of milk cost me $4.99 for organic whole milk so half would be $2.50
I bought a box of powdered milk and I figure one pkg from it probably cost me $1.
A few tbs of store bought yogurt to start this didn't cost much because I already had one here I was eating. So figure at the most...maybe another dollar?
So for about $4.50 I made 2 qts and 1pt. and I still have milk left to make more if I want.

UPDATE: After being refrigerated, the yogurt was as thick as Greek Yogurt with very little whey separating out. I do believe it is because of the extra powdered milk. Making Greek yogurt, you usually just make yogurt and then strain it well to get it thick. And lots of whey drips out. You could do it either way but I am liking the addition of the milk powder since I'm not really losing much liquid as whey.

Baked Apple Dessert

2012-08-17T19:43:00.001-07:00

"We all have had Apple Cobblers.....and probably all have a great recipe to use. But I thought Id post this one that I use now and then. I like it because I don't have to fuss alot. When I'm getting last minute company or I want a quick dessert that I know everyone would like , this fits perfectly. Warm and topped with ice cream and nobody is complaining as it goes down. I have even used canned pie apples........but I really like this with fresh. It doesn't take that long to peel and slice a bunch up. And I always seem to have some sort of cake mix on hand so this goes together real easy.

I must confess I have eaten this for breakfast the next day. In fact it seems no one can stay away from this once its made."

Baked Apple Dessert 10-12 servings

6 tart apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
2 tb. fresh lemon juice
2 tb. cinnamon
1 (18.5oz.) pkg. yellow cake mix
1 stick butter (1/2c.), melted
1 c. chopped walnuts (I happen to love pecans with this too)
Vanilla Ice Cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 in. baking dish. Combine apples, lemon juice and 1 tb. cinnamon in a lg. bowl and toss well. Spoon evenly into baking dish. Sprinkle cake mix over apples, patting gently. Dust with remaining cinnamon and drizzle melted butter evenly over top. Sprinkle with nuts. Cover with foil and bake till apples begin to bubble, about 15-20min. Uncover and continue baking until top is browned and apples are tender, about 30min. Serve warm or chilled , topped with vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate Cherry Jam

2012-07-18T08:19:00.000-07:00

I bought some cherries when they were on sale last week. Ive been nibbling them on and off. But somehow I never finish a bag and I hated to waste them. My bf doesn't like cherries. I finally got around to pitting them tho and wasn't sure what to do with them. I was going to just freeze them and maybe use them for jam later on. But then I remembered seeing a chocolate/cherry type jam somewhere online. I couldn't find it so I decided to make my own with what I had. I was completely out of pectin tho and wasn't going to the store just for that. Jam doesn't need pectin of course but I like to use low/no sugar pectin because I try to reduce the amt. of sugar I eat. I often have it with my yogurt in the mornings.

But jam can just have sugar and be cooked down till thickened, that's the old fashioned way. Cherries are low acid fruit too so I knew I needed to add lemon juice. And I had cocoa powder here so I figured I had all I needed to make this. I got 3 half pts from this amt. I decided to can small jars since I'm the only one that would eat it. And I thought this would be heavenly on ice cream. I was right. I left the cherries whole which I love but next time I make this I think Ill chop them up just a bit. This way they would be spread more evenly thru the rest of it. But I really liked this and may make more just to keep on hand throughout the yr.

Chocolate Cherry Jam Made 3 half pts.

2 1/2 c. pitted cherries
2 tb. lemon juice
1 3/4c. sugar
1/4c. Ghiardelli cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. vanilla

I first pitted the cherries. I have a cherry pitter but it squirts juice and makes a mess so I tried a new way that I saw online. It works great. You get a narrow necked bottle like a beer bottle, one small enough that the cherry wont fall in and a chopstick. Put the cherry on top of the open empty bottle and stick the chopstick thru it. It should push the pit right out and into the bottle. (how cool is that, all the pits contained so you can just toss it out). It goes pretty fast and makes minimal mess.

Put the cherries and lemon juice into a pot and bring to a boil. Add the sugar and cook for about 20min. It should start to be getting thick.

Once it starts to get thick, add the cocoa powder and stir well to dissolve in the mix. Let cook another 10-15min. till as thick as you would like. Remember it will get thicker as it cools. Stir in the vanilla.

Pour into jars and water bath, 10min.

Garlic Scapes and Daddy

2012-07-03T09:03:00.001-07:00

Ive been away awhile, I know. First I was sick with shingles and could barely walk for two months, then my dad passed away and I was home helping mom awhile. But Im back now and hope to start posting much more.

My dad was the other chef in the family. No he didn't cook professionally as I did. But we often would talk about foods we tried and shared recipes. I would take one of his and add more to it and he would take one of mine and adapt it to cooking a different way. We were always experimenting and trying new things. Dad was limited as to what he could try since mom didn't like much. So in honor of my Dad, I decided to dedicate this blog to him. It was an experiment and I found out I love garlic scapes. I bet Dad would too.

I went to the Farmers Market Sunday and found garlic scapes. Ive been hearing so much about them. I never had them before and even when I picked one up and smelled it, it didn't have much smell. So I thought, whats the big deal with these? But I bought 3 bunches anyway. I read about garlic scape pesto so I thought Id try that. I figured if I didn't like it I would just add basil, which I also bought.

But I was in for a surprise! As you cut them they do smell heavenly ......of garlic and almost grassy. My whole house smelled of it while working on my recipes. I tasted it and OMG !!! and so now its my new favorite thing. I'm hoping to go back this week and get more cuz the season is very short for these things. For more info on scapes: http://gardening.about.com/od/herbsatoz/a/What-Are-Garlic-Scapes.htm

I did some research on them before I did anything with them and I'm glad I did. These funny looking things have a flower bud and apparently you cut those off and discard. When I wandered online for info, I never saw anyone say that in their recipes. So remember to cut off the flower head and trim the bottom of the stem. Some stems are quite tough. I found I would cut and it would be hard and pull a string on it like when your cutting celery. So keep cutting till its ez to cut. I found most stems only needed one or two cuts but there were a couple that needed more. You want the tender parts.

Then I cut them into about 1in. lengths. I did this because I was going to but them in the food processor to make pesto. I have a small processor. I chopped all of them in the processor and dumped it in a bowl, trying to figure out what to do with so many. I thought OMG I bought too much...........wrong! After I started using them, I thought OMG I need more! lol They are that good.

And so I made Garlic Scape bread to have with dinner. And then I got carried away with my chicken and tossed some chopped scapes on that too while roasting. Finally I made the pesto. ...two batches. I have just enough to make more Garlic scape butter and Ill freeze that.

Garlic Scape Butter for bread

1/2 - 3/4 c. chopped garlic scapes
1 stick of butter
1/4c. Parmesan cheese
Process all in food processor till blended. Taste (omg, yummy!) and add S & P if you like.

Spread this on some nice crusty bread. I had a nice Ciabatta bread from the market too. I bake mine at 400 degrees till it starts to get brown on the edges and crusty on top. This will make the greenest bread you ever saw and will confuse people......until they taste it! I like this better than regular garlic bread. Its much more mellow and yet has quite a garlic taste.

Garlic Scape Pesto Makes about 2c.
    1/4 cup pine nuts
    3/4 cup coarsely chopped garlic scapes*
    Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    A few generous grinds of black pepper
    1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
    1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
    *Or use half scapes and half herbs such as basil, dill and chervil

Toast pine nuts in a small fry pan if you want. Put all ingredients except oil and Parmesan in a food processor bowl. Pulse till mixed. Slowly add the oil while processor is running till mixed in. Remove from processor and put into a bowl, mix in Parmesan.

At this point taste it and see if it needs S & P. I froze mine in small jars to preserve till I need it.

(sorry about that, I started to cut the chicken apart and remembered I didn't take a pic of it yet!)
My 3 Garlic Chicken Serves 4

1 lg. roaster chicken
4 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
4 carrots peeled and cut into 1in. chunks
Garlic powder
Fresh garlic
Garlic scapes, chopped
Fresh thyme and parsley
1 stick of butter
2c. chicken stock
S & P

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add potatoes and carrots to pan. Sprinkle with thyme, parsley, garlic powder and S & P. Pour chicken stock over all.

Put chicken on top of veggies. Into the cavity stuff 1 stick of butter, cut into chunks, several sprigs of fresh thyme and 5 or 6 garlic cloves. These do not have to be peeled. Sprinkle chicken with S & P and some chopped garlic scapes, (a few tbsp.) and put in the oven.

You can baste the chicken with the stock in the pan now and then while baking. The butter will meld with the flavors in the bird and make a nice baste for it. Bake till veggies are tender and chicken is done about 1 1/2hrs. I cover it with foil for the first hr. Then I remove the foil and test the veggies. Return to oven to brown and crisp up chicken and veggies. I found at this point I usually need to raise the oven temp to 400 degrees.

This is a one pot meal I served with the garlic bread and it was soooooooooo good.

An Ez birthday cake and meatloaf

2012-05-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

With me not being able to stand long in the kitchen with this bad foot, Ive been using shortcut recipes and such, nothing too involved so standing time is minimal. And after being down for so long and not really being interested in cooking, I like that my desire for better stuff is coming back. So I decided to post these recipes anyway even tho they are boxed stuff or ez stuff. After all, sometimes we all need a good shortcut.

First is my bfs Birthday cake. This turned out sooooo good he ate two pieces that nite and asked for some in his lunch. I don't think this will last much longer as hes been doing that pattern daily. Yes it is THAT good. I wanted to bake from scratch and that didn't happen. I just couldn't stand very long. So I took a box of cake mix and made a pudding cake. Its a pretty standard recipe that many people know but for those that don't here it is...
Pudding Cake
1 box cake mix
1 small box instant pudding (pair flavor with cake)
1/4 cup oil
1 cup water
4 eggs
Mix all ingredients on med. speed for 2min. Pour into greased and floured pans. I used a bundt pan but you could use layer cake pans too. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55min. Cool in pan for 5min. then turn out on rack to finish cooling.

I used an orange cake mix. Its very hard to find these days. But we just love it and I only have one box left. Not sure where Ill get it then. And I used lemon instant pudding cuz its what I had here. I tasted the batter tho and to me it wasn't orange enough so I added about a half tsp. orange extract.

If you cant find orange cake mix you could still do this and add more extract and some food coloring if you wanted it to be orange.
Ganache
2c. chocolate chips
1c. heavy cream

I used 1c. semisweet chips and 1c. 60% dark chocolate chips so it wouldn't be real sweet. It was the perfect balance for this cake.
Heat the cream to boiling and pour over the chips in a bowl. Stir well to melt the chips. I added a bit of vanilla at this point. You could add other flavors or a bit of liqueur. You can chill it till its a spreadable consistency and frost the cake.

For my cake, I chilled it just till it began to thicken, then drizzled it over the cake letting it puddle here and there. The frosting will harden up in time. I found this ratio to be the perfect one for making ganache. Ive tried others and they often stay too soft when rm. temp. This is firm enough that you could make nice truffles and they would stay firm if not refrigerated. I like that cuz often you keep them chilled and they get too soft to handle when put out to eat. It thickened nicely on the cake too.

And last night I made a BBQ Meatloaf. Ive searched for yrs for a meatloaf recipe to really love. I have one I use alot that I like but its ok. I tried this one last nite and omg.......its awesome. The man requested the leftovers in a sandwich for work today so I know its good. I used Sweet Baby Rays BBQ cuz that's what I had on hand right now . Here is where I found the recipe.. http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/2011/03/09/honey-barbecue-meatloaf/ but Ill also post it here.

Honey Barbecue Meatloaf serves 4
1 lb 90% lean ground beef (I used what I had 80%)
1 slice white bread, ground to crumbs in food processor -or- ½ cup bread crumbs( I used reg. bread crumbs)
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
3/4 cup smoky barbecue sauce, divided
2 tablespoons honey, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
Toss one slice of soft white bread in your food processor and grind it into crumbs.
In a large bowl, use your hands to mix together the ground beef, fresh bread crumbs, 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, the spicy brown mustard, 1/2 cup of the barbecue sauce, 1 tablespoon honey, salt, and black pepper.
Shape the mixture into a long, thick log and place in an oiled baking dish. Be careful not to pack the meat too tightly or you’ll end up with a very dense, tough loaf.
In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup barbecue sauce, 1 tablespoon honey, and 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce. Spread half of this mixture evenly all over the meatloaf. Reserve the other half for serving.
Bake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Slice and drizzle with reserved honey barbecue sauce.
I used a bit more meat than she called for, maybe a 1/2lb more. Next time Ill add an egg to bind it better. I think that's why I had some trouble getting slices. But its ok. It was delish. I also screwed up and put all the Worcestershire in the meat mix. I was going back and forth to the computer and with my bad foot, it was starting to get to me. But I don't think it really made a difference. This is one I WILL make again.

Lots of Butterscotch

2012-05-14T14:56:00.001-07:00

This is an old blog from another site of mine that Im bringing here. Ive been sick with shingles the last few weeks and not cooking much at all. Comfort foods sound yummy right about now and I remembered my blog on my favorite comfort food. These are not my recipes and I dont recall where they are from. But since Im not cooking now, I felt like sharing at least this......

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Its a dreary rainy day here and it got me thinking about comfort foods. Awhile back someone talked about that on their blog and I made a note of it. She asked what our comfort foods were. Mine is butterscotch pudding. When I'm sick or just miserable I love to make a pkg. of it and eat the whole thing instead of a meal......shush you all do stuff like that. I know I'm not the only one! And mine has to be warm yet. I don't like it cold. So when I thought about that I went hunting online for Butterscotch recipes. So I decided today would be a perfect day to post my comfort food plus more.

GRANDMA'S REAL BUTTERSCOTCH PUDDING
1 c. dark brown sugar
3 tbsp. butter
2 egg yolks
4 tbsp. flour
1 1/2 c. milk
Melt together brown sugar and butter. Let cool. Add egg yolks and beat together. Stir in flour and milk gradually. Cook until thick, stirring often. Microwave on roast 5 to 6 minutes or until thick, stirring often. Can be doubled.

Butterscotch Pudding with Coffee-Caramelized Bananas
Excerpt from Ripe for Dessert by David Lebovitz
THE PUDDING:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons whiskey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
THE COFFEE CARAMELIZED BANANAS:
1 tablespoon butter
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
6 tablespoons dark brown sugar
3 bananas, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch slices
6 tablespoons strong coffee
To make the pudding: Melt the butter in a medium-size heavy-duty saucepan. Mix in the brown sugar and cook until the mixture bubbles vigorously. Remove from the heat and stir in the heavy cream, adding it 1 tablespoon at a time. Stir in the milk and salt.
In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and eggs until the cornstarch is dissolved. Whisk the egg mixture into the butterscotch pudding mixture.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk, until the pudding comes to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer, continue to stir, and cook for 2 minutes.
Pour the pudding into a container and stir in the whiskey and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
To caramelize the bananas: Melt the butter in a large skillet with the vanilla bean. Stir in the brown sugar, add the banana slices, and cook over medium-high heat, without stirring, until the bananas begin to sizzle.
Add the coffee and continue to cook until the juices thicken to the consistency of maple syrup, Avoid stirring the bananas. Instead, tilt the pan and spoon the sauce over the bananas as they cook.
Serving: Dish up the pudding in individual custard cups or in tall glasses with the banana slices heaped over it. Serves 6 .

Pumpkin Butterscotch Fudge Bars
COOKIE BASE
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup quick or old-fashioned oats
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, melted
FUDGE
2 tbsp butter or margarine
2/3 cup NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups (4 ounces) miniature marshmallows
1 2/3 cups (11-ounce package) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Butterscotch Flavored Morsels
3/4 cup chopped walnuts, divided
1 tsp vanilla extract
PREHEAT oven to 350° F. LINE 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan with foil.
FOR COOKIE BASE:
COMBINE flour, oats, brown sugar, nuts, coconut, baking soda and pumpkin pie spice in medium bowl; mix well. Stir in butter; mix well. Press into prepared jelly-roll pan. BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until slightly brown. Cool in pan on wire rack.
FOR FUDGE:
COMBINE butter, evaporated milk, sugar, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and salt in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, over medium heat. Boil, stirring constantly, for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat. STIR in marshmallows, morsels, 1/2 cup nuts and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously for 1 minute or until marshmallows are melted. Pour over cookie base; sprinkle with remaining nuts. Refrigerate until firm before cutting into bars.

Pumpkin Butterscotch-Chip Cookies
Pumpkin gives these soft, cake like cookies a gorgeous golden orange color. Using an ice cream scoop to form the cookies makes the tops nice and smooth. The mounds of batter bake into cookies that look like the smooth, round top of a cupcake.
Because oil is used for the shortening, the batter is especially easy to mix. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper and then butter the paper so the cookies release easily. You can substitute miniature chocolate chips for the butterscotch chips. Make sure that the label on the can of pumpkin says “pumpkin” rather than “pumpkin pie filling,” which has added spices.
Makes: 14 cookies
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola or corn oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup butterscotch chips
Powdered sugar for dusting

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and butter the paper.
Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl, and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. On low speed, mix in the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended. Mix in the flour mixture to incorporate it. Mix in the butterscotch chips.
Using an ice cream scoop with a 1/4-cup capacity, scoop mounds of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies at least 2 1/2 inches apart. Or use a measuring cup with a 1/4-cup capacity to scoop out the mounds of dough, then use a thin metal spatula to smooth the mounds.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, about 16 minutes. Cool them on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Dust the cooled cookies lightly with powdered sugar. The cookies can be stored in a tightly covered container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Coconut Butterscotch Brownies
Ingredients:
6 T Butter
1 c Dark brown sugar
2 Eggs
1 t Vanilla extract
2/3 c Flour
1 t Baking powder
1/4 t Salt
1/2 c Chopped pecans
1/2 c Shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350'F. Grease an 8" square baking pan. Combine the butter and brown sugar in a sturdy saucepan and set over moderate heat. Stir frequently until the mixture is bubbly and the sugar is melted, then set aside to cool slightly. Beat the eggs and vanilla into the butter and brown sugar mixture. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, then stir and toss them together. Add to the first mixture and beat just until thoroughly mixed. Stir in the pecans and the coconut. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the top is dry and a toothpick inserted in the center of the brownies comes out barely clean. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. Cut into 2" squares.

Orange Butterscotch Cheesecake
Ingredients:
1 1/4 c Old Fashioned Oats Uncooked
1/4 c Margarine, Melted
1/4 c Packed Brown Sugar
2 T Unbleached All-purpose Flour
24 oz Cream Cheese, Softened 3/4 c Granulated Sugar
2 t Grated Orange Peel 1 t Vanilla
4 Large Eggs
1/2 c Packed Brown Sugar
1/3 c Light Corn Syrup 1/4 c Margarine Melted
1 t Vanilla

Combine oats, margarine, brown sugar and flour; press into bottom of 9-inch spring form pan. Bake at 350 degrees F, 15 minutes. Combine cream cheese, granulated sugar, peel and vanilla, mixing at medium speed on electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition; pour over crust. Bake at 325 degrees, 1 hour and 5 minutes. Loosen cake from rim of pan. Chill. Combine brown sugar, corn syrup and margarine in saucepan; bring to boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Chill until slightly thickened. Spoon over cheesecake. Garnish with orange slice and fresh mint, if desired.

Butterscotch Pie
3 to 4 tablespoons butter
1-3/4 cups brown sugar (light brown preferred)
3 cups rich milk, light cream, or half milk and half evaporated milk
2 eggs
7 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Baked pastry or crumb crust for 9-inch pie

Melt the butter in 2-quart saucepan, add the brown sugar, and stir until the mixture bubbles up and looks slightly browner. Add 2 cups of the milk and stir to combine well. Stir the eggs with the flour and salt, then stir in the remaining milk. When the sugar mixture is hot but not boiling, slowly stir in the the egg mixture. Stir and cook over medium low heat until the mixture boils up. Turn the heat very low and stir and cook 1 or 2 minutes more. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Cool to room temperature and turn into the baked pastry, or crumb crust. Serve topped with whipped cream, if you like.
Variations: Butterscotch Meringue Pie: Use 3 egg yolks in the filling, top the pie with a meringue of the 3 egg whites*, and bake in a 350-degree oven until the meringue is lightly brown.
Butterscotch Nut Pie: Add 1/2 cup toasted pecans, walnuts, almonds,filberts, macadamia, or cashew nuts to the filling. Sprinkle a few over the top, or top with whipped cream or meringue sprinkled with nuts.
Date Butterscotch Pie: Use only 3/4 cup brown sugar. Cool the filling and fold in 1 cup quartered dates. If you like, also fol din 1/2 cup toasted pecans or almonds with the dates.
*Meringue for Pies Ingredients: 3 egg whites 1 teaspoon cream of tartar Pinch salt 6 tablespoons sugar Beat the egg whites till they form soft peaks. Add the cream of tartar and salt and continue beating till the whites are stiff but not dry. Add sugar, a little at a time, beating it in well. Spread the meringue over the pie, being certain to cover the surface completely, including the edge of the crust. If you are deft with the pastry tube, you may pipe the meringue over the pie, using a #6rosette tube. Bake the meringue at 350 degrees 15 to 18 minutes, or until it is lightly browned.

Butterscotch
1 pound brown sugar
4oz butter
juice of one lemon

Heat the sugar in a saucepan until it melts. Cream the butter and slowly add it to the sugar. Continue heating and stirring until a little of the mixture hardens when dropped into cold water. Add the lemon juice. Beat quickly with a fork. Pour into a buttered tin and mark into squares. Break into pieces when cold.

Best Butterscotch Brownies Ever
1 Lb Light Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Sticks Butter (3/4 Cup)melted
2 Eggs
2 C Flour
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Vanilla
1 C Nuts, Chopped
Melt sugar and butter together. Cool. Add eggs. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla and nuts together. Add to other mixture. Mix well. Bake in greased 9x13 pan at 350F for 30 minutes. Yields 25-30 squares.

Hot Butterscotch Cocoa
Scale ingredients to servings
3/4 oz butterscotch schnapps
3/4 oz coffee liqueur
5 oz hot chocolate
1 1/2 oz whipped cream
Mix ingredients in coffee mug, and top with whipped cream.
Serve in: Coffee Mug

Butterscotch-White Chocolate Biscotti
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (8-ounce) bar premium white chocolate, finely chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 egg white

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine vanilla with next 2 ingredients. Add to flour mixture; stir until well blended (dough will be dry).
2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly 7 or 8 times. Shape dough into a 16-inch-long roll. Place roll on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray; flatten to 1-inch thickness.
3. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool. Cut roll diagonally into 24 (1/2-inch) slices, and place slices, cut sides down, on baking sheet. Reduce oven temperature to 325F and bake for 10 minutes. Turn cookies over and bake for an additional 10 minutes (the cookies will be slightly soft in center but will harden as they cool). Remove from baking sheet, and let cool completely on wire rack. Yield: 2 dozen cookies.

Butterscotch Martini
1 1/2 oz. Vodka
1/2 oz. Butterscotch Scnapps
1/2 oz. Butterscotch Cream Liqueur
1 Butterscotch Lifesaver
Combine in a mixing glass with ice. Swirl ingredients gently and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with the Lifesaver (or just drop it in).

Butterscotch shortbread
4oz Butter (softened)
2oz soft dark brown sugar
5 drops of vanilla essence
5 oz flour
1 oz ground almonds
caster sugar (for sprinkling)

Set the oven to 300F or gas mark2. Grease a baking tray. In a separate bowl, cream the butter with 1oz of the sugar adding the vanilla essence. Gradually work in the flour and ground almonds to the mixture. Mix in the remaining sugar.
Turn the mixture out on to a floured flat surface and knead well. Press or roll out into a round shape approx 1/2 inch thick and place on the baking tray. Prick all over with a fork and bake for about 35 to 40 minutes. Before baking you may sprinkle the caster sugar over the top. This is a personal preference option. After baking, place on a wire rack to cool.

This is a copycat recipe of sorts for this . I love these Tastykakes. While you find them mostly on the east coast, I am beginning to find them here out west.

Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpets
4 Egg whites
1 Box golden pound cake mix -- (16-ounce)
2/3 c Water FROSTING
1/8 c Nestle Butterscotch Morsels (40 chips)
1/2 c Butter -- softened
1 1/2 c Powdered sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. 2. Beat the egg whites until thick. 3. Blend the egg whites with the cake mix and water. 4. Pour the batter into a greased 9x12-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool. 5. For the frosting melt the butterscotch morsels in a microwave oven on high for 45 seconds. If you don't have a microwave oven use a double boiler over hot not boiling water. 6. Mix the butter with the melted butterscotch. Add the powdered sugar. Blend with a mixer until the frosting has a smooth consistency. 7. Spread the frosting on top of the cooled pound cake. 8. Cut the cake into nine rows. Then make two cuts lengthwise. This should divide cake into twenty-seven equal pieces. Makes 27 cakes.

Blackberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

2012-04-24T11:11:00.000-07:00

I was wandering online and saw something for popsicles. I felt like making a dessert but wasn't sure what kind. There's lots of variations out there of course and we love cheesecake so I looked for that. But today most cheesecake popsicles call for already made cheesecake frozen into balls and dipped in chocolate. I didn't want that .

Ive had cheesecake flavor ice cream before and that's what I was searching for. I found one eventually that I liked. I had all the stuff in the house for it and it sounded much healthier too. And then I remembered I still have one bag of frozen blackberries left from my picking in the woods , end of last summer. Those are like gold and Ive been using them sparingly. I only use them if I think something will be exceptionally good.

The recipe called for popsicles but I decided after searching around for something to use as a mold .......to just make individual ice cream desserts instead. While I could have used these and stuck a stick in them , I had nothing around here to use like that. But these are actually freezer jam containers with lids. And I thought they would be good to store individual desserts in so when we wanted one , we could just take one out. It worked well except for one thing. I have to let them soften a bit first because I cant get the lids off otherwise! lol. I filled them too much. Next time Ill just cover them with foil. Live and learn. :) And here's my recipe....

BLACKBERRY CHEESECAKE ICE CREAM Make 6 8oz. containers.
3 c. non fat Greek yogurt
6oz. cream cheese
4 (3in dia.) snickerdoodle cookies
1/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Zap cream cheese in a microwave safe bowl for about 30sec. to soften, then whisk into the yogurt until smooth. Crumble the snickerdoodles into a bowl. A few chunks are fine. Add the cookie, honey, lemon juice, and vanilla, and stir.

( I used non fat Greek yogurt cuz its all I had in the house but honestly I think it works perfectly. Its a good spot to cut down on the fat plus its still creamy and rich. Also you could add more cookies if you want. This just added a touch of taste and crunch here and there. I just am not fond of graham crackers and we love snickerdoodles, it was yummy tho. I use local honey that I get at our farmers markets. I buy one that is called Blackberry honey. It doesn't taste like blackberries tho, I just happen to like this one better than some of the others he carries. Most likely it from bees that frequently blackberry flowers.)

2 cups blackberries (frozen or fresh)
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

Thaw blackberries a bit so they can break apart easier. Warm the honey for a few sec. in the microwave. Because the berries were frozen, if you don't do this you will get globs of honey in the berry mix that refuse to break down cuz its so cold. You could certainly use fresh berries and skip the heating step. Add the lemon juice and stir well.

I layered both in freezer jam containers to make individual desserts. I started with about 2 tsp. blackberry mixture on the bottom then about 2 heaping tbs. of the cheesecake mixture. Keep layering till you use it all up. Cover containers and freeze till solid.

We had some last nite....its rich and yummy. The tart of the berries is nice with the creamy cheesecake but none of it is too sweet. Next time Ill try different berries. I still have some blueberry in the freezer and raspberries. I was even going to put some finely mince crystallized ginger in it but I didn't want to add too many flavors yet since this was an experiment.

*This will get quite hard in the freezer so you might want to take it out a bit earlier than when you want to eat it or zap it a few seconds in the microwave...not too much tho, dont want to melt it, just soften it. :)

Peach Honey

2012-04-03T15:40:00.002-07:00

I read long ago about making something called Peach Honey from the peels of Peaches. And so since I can peaches each yr cuz they are my most favorite fruit, I saved the peels in the freezer till I had time to do something with them. Im glad I did. I'm still not sure what Ill use this on but its tasty. Would be nice on pancakes or waffles or used on ice cream or cakes. It does taste rather honey-like and it does taste of peaches too.

I compared some honey to this and honey does have a more distinctive taste but that could be the honey I use too. I buy a Blackberry honey from a local guy. But this is very similar and the texture if you reduce it down enough is just like it too. So I could see me doing this more often and with other fruit. I bet others would taste yummy too. However it does use sugar and if you dont use it.....you wont be able to make this. Its the reduction of the sugar with the liquid that makes that syrup consistency. (I read that you could use honey too but you would need quite a few cups of it so that makes it quite pricey for people to make.) Im not sure that it would work with anything else. But then this is a treat, not something you would use all the time so I figured some sugar wont hurt me.

There's not many ingredients and not much work. The hardest part is straining the juices.

Peach Honey (amount depends on how much juice you get)
Peach peelings saved from lots of peaches (I had about two cases worth of peaches these were saved from)
Water to cover the peelings + plus more to keep it covered if it starts to evaporate.
Sugar...half as much sugar as fruit juice.

Put peach peelings in a large pot and cover with water. You want them to cook awhile till they are very soft and the water has flavor. I tasted it as I cooked it. It wont taste great but it will taste peachy. I wanted to extract as much peach flavor as possible so I let it simmer till it reached a flavor I liked.

Don't be disappointed by what you taste, the sugar will improve it. In fact what I did was take a tiny bit of juice in a spoon and put a little bit of sugar in that same spoon and mixed it, then tasted it. It helped me decide when it had enough peach flavor and when it was ready. ...maybe an hr or so.

Strain the juices. First I strained all the lg. pieces out so there was only cloudy juice left. Then I strained it again in a strainer lined with coffee filters. This might take some time. I wanted as clear of a juice as I could get. But you do need some bits it in so dont think your making it like a jelly. Its ok to squeeze and push it thru. The tiny bits are what help it be more like honey and hold the syrup consistency.

Once its gone thru the final straining, measure it as you put it in a lg. pot to reduce. Put in half the amt. of sugar as juice. For instance, I had 5 c. of juice after straining so I added 2 1/2c. sugar to it. Bring to a boil and stir well till sugar is dissolved. Then let it go to a rolling simmer till it reaches the thickness of syrup that you need. I took some out on a spoon and put it in the freezer to get cold. Then I checked the thickness on the spoon.

The more juice you have of course the longer it will take to reduce. Watch it tho because you dont want it to burn. Sometimes as it reduces it starts to really foam up so lower the heat a bit then. But really its not hard.

When its the thickness you want, can it in some small jars and seal. Water bath for 10min. if you want. I didn't . I did an old fashioned way of turning the sealed jars upside down for 15min. or so then righting them again. The heat seems to seal them and I hear the tops pinging as it does. Some say this isn't good to do tho so which process you use is up to you. I feel there is enough sugar in there to preserve it but if your unsure.....then water bath it.

Fig/Orange Marmalade - low sugar

2012-03-12T15:29:00.000-07:00

I got a yummy Christmas present awhile ago but never had a chance to use it. Someone who knows me, knows I adore figs and sent me 3lbs of dried ones. Ive been wanting to make a fig jam with some orange in it for months now. But it wasn't until I made Orange Marmalade that I really felt what I wanted to do would work out good. I never made marmalade before that and always thought it was so complicated. And I never liked the bitterness of it, so I made my own which was not as bitter tasting. In fact it was so good , I'm on the last jar now.

And so I decided to make this like a Marmalade using the whole fruit and the zest from it too. But last time I made the marmalade it was the full sugar recipe. I really wanted to try to make a low sugar one as I often stir this into my morning yogurt or have it on toast. I don't want alot of sugar in the mornings. And so I did it with this recipe.

Fig/Orange Marmalade Makes 12 8oz. jars.
4c. dried figs
3 lg. oranges
6tb. low sugar pectin
3 1 /2c. sugar
Water
Extra Orange juice to even out the measurement when cooked if needed

Remove stems from figs and cut into pieces. I quartered mine but next time Ill chop them smaller I think. I still had lg. chunks of figs that didn't break down. They were soft and could be mashed tho. Toss into 8qt. pot.

Next cut off ends of oranges and zest all the skin off with a grater or micro-plane zester. Try not to get much of the white pith. Cut off all white pith on the remaining oranges. Cut in quarters and remove white membranes and hard pieces from the inside. (sometimes the navel looks like another orange growing inside and its hard) Cut the pieces smaller and toss zest and orange pieces into the pot with the figs.

Cover with water and put on stove. Turn heat to high and bring to a boil, then lower and simmer for an hr. The figs will swell and the water level will drop. Try to keep the fruit covered with water by adding more when needed.

When fruit is soft, check to see if the figs can be mashed and either mash them if you want smaller pieces in the mix or do as I did and hit it with an immersion blender a little bit. You don't have to do much, as you do not want it pureed, just breaking down larger chunks.

Measure fruit mixture. It should be about 8 1/2c of fruit and juice. If there's not enough add some Orange juice to make the full amt. (you could just add some water but the juice gives it more flavor) Bring to a boil and whisk in the low sugar pectin. Boil for 2 min. at a hard boil. (Hard boil is one that cant be stirred down.)

Add sugar all at once and stir in well. Bring to a boil again and simmer for 10min. more. Pour into hot jars and seal in water bath for 10min. ***This is sweet but not real sweet which was what I wanted. I figured the dried figs would be sweet enough. After cooking it I found they were good but not sweet enough so I added some sugar. Its a nice balance now. You get a tang of citrus but cant always taste it. It just enhances the figs. I think this would make a great filling for jam cookies or linzer type cookies too. And this would make killer Fig Newton type ones for sure.

Apple/Blackberry Hand Pies

2012-03-09T10:56:00.001-08:00

I've been making snacks for my bf's lunches lately. Last week was Zucchini Bread. But this week it was running out and I knew I had to bake something. I had a bag of Granny Smith apples around here that needed to be used up. I did plan on making Apple Jam but Ive been kind of busy lately so they have been sitting there. Now I know he loves apple pie and I know he loves blackberries. I picked alot of blackberries last year with my friend. This is the last bag of frozen tho so I'm using them sparingly. This yr. I hope to pick much much more. I'm just going to have to find some new patches.

But in the process of thinking of something different to bake I remembered seeing a recipe long ago for Hand pies. They are sort of like those Hostess pies you could buy years ago, individual little pies. Sort of like Pop tarts but of course much better. And so I decided to create my own. I didn't want to use plain old pie pastry even tho many recipes called for that. I just felt it might be a bit too fragile. And I don't much like pie pastry either. I also wanted the pastry to be a little sweeter. So I decided to use Pate' Sucree. Its lightly sweetened and much sturdier due to eggs binding it. Turns out it worked perfectly.

I didn't have a round cutter to make lg. pies. I was going to do square instead. And then I remembered a lg. heart cutter I had so I used that. Honestly while they are cute, it was a bit tedious so I think next time Ill just cut squares. After all these were just for his lunch. However a sweet thing happened due to them being heart shaped so you might want to do this. When I packed his lunch, I put two pies in since they are not real big and he works outside doing construction. I figured he would be hungry. And I stacked them at first on the plastic wrap, then thought, no I better not. He takes it in a paper bag and it might get crushed. So I laid them next to each other in a hurry and a bit of serendipity happened. The two heart halves made a whole heart which I decided to wrap just like that. I thought to myself.....aww how sweet.

And when he came home he told me about the heart, He thought it was so cute too. Who would have thought he would even notice? BTW he said the pies were really good. So here's my recipe and I'll be making these again. Also I just realized today that unless you take turns flipping which side of the heart over the filling, you wont get hearts. I only did a couple differently and didn't realize that. But of course I wasn't doing it originally to make hearts. But if you are then be sure to flip every other one over differently.

Apple/blackberry Hand Pies... Makes 16

Pate Sucree
Makes one 11-to 12-inch or two 8-to 9-inch or two 14-by-4-inch crusts or about 16 hand pies (depends on the size of your cutter)

    2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
    3 tablespoons sugar
    1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
    2 large egg yolks ( reserve whites to use for brushing on dough when baking)
    1/4 cup ice water

Measure flour, sugar and butter into a bowl. With pastry blender, cut butter into the flour until it looks crumbly and the size of small peas.

Mix egg yolks with the water and pour into the flour mixture. Toss with a fork till the dough begins to hold together.

Press some together to see if it holds the shape. If it doesn't, add 1 Tb. extra water at a time till it does. Take dough from bowl and make two balls, wrap with plastic wrap and put in refrigerator to chill for 1 hr.

Preheat oven to 375 or 350 if using a convection oven.

Filling:
2 lg. apples, peeled, cored and diced small (I used what I had Granny Smith)
2c. blackberries, mine were frozen, picked this summer :)
1/2c. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. fresh grated nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 Tb. flour

Mix well.

Roll half the dough out onto a floured board. (Keep the rest chilled and also chill any scraps to reroll.) I rolled mine on floured parchment cuz I didn't want the flavors from the board to get in the dough. (I use my butcher block daily for all kinds of things.) Roll thin but not so thin you can see thru it. I used a lg. heart shaped cookie cutter to do mine. You could use any size cutter or just cut into squares or rectangles.

Take the leftover egg whites from the dough and mix with a bit of water. Brush on each dough piece. This helps it seal. Scoop about a Tb or two of filling depending on the size of your dough pieces. For my heart shapes I used a scant 1/4 c. measure.

Fold dough over and bring edges together to seal. You might have to pull the dough and stretch it a bit to make it fit. That's ok. Use a fork to press the edges together and prick the top for steam holes. Brush with egg white mixture again.

Depending on the size of your pies, you could put 5-6 of them on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Juices will run out a bit so the parchment helps keep them from sticking. Bake about 20min. but check as you get closer to the end time. Depending on the size you make you might need less or more time.

Remove from oven and put on rack to cool. Sprinkle with some powdered sugar to serve. If you like them sweeter you could make an icing to drizzle on them.

*** I used Granny Smith apples cuz its what I had here but they were quite tart. If you want a sweeter apple taste use a sweeter kind of apple. I bet the Honey-crisps that come out in the fall would be awesome in these.

Loving Corn Pudding!

2012-02-27T20:29:00.003-08:00

I had some ham I wanted to make for dinner tonight. I often make a big ham with gravy and freeze slices with the gravy for those nights when I don't know what to make. Its an easy dinner then. I felt like having cornbread but didn't feel like making cornbread. I remembered seeing recipes for Corn Pudding. Now Ive never had that. So I wandered online to see what I could find.

Many are made with packaged corn muffin or bread mix. I didn't want that. I really wanted from scratch. There's not many out there that sounded good tho. So I took the one I thought was pretty good and of course tweaked it my way. My bf said it was yummy and I should make it again, I agree. While we liked it, we felt it needed just a touch of sweet to it so we drizzled a tiny bit of honey on our servings. It was perfect!

And so I used buttermilk in it because I love the flavor of that with cornmeal. And it calls for canned corn but this was really made from scratch tonight. I used a pt. of corn I canned this summer when I got a bunch fresh from the farms. It was a great combo. Here's my version which I bet is closer to what they used to make in the country many yrs ago.

I love this so much I'm going to have whats left for breakfast the next day or so. I think topped with fruit, warmed and then topped with butter and maple syrup it would be a yummy breakfast. I cant wait!

Corn Pudding Serves 6

6 tbsp butter
3/4 c cornmeal
1 c boiling water
3 lg eggs
2 c buttermilk (you could use reg. milk)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 can corn kernels (or one pt. of homemade canned)
Honey for serving (next time I may add some to the recipe)

Heat oven to 375F. Put 2 Tablespoons butter into 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Place in oven to melt.

Put cornmeal in a medium bowl. Add boiling water and whisk until smooth. Add remaining 4 tablespoons butter and stir until melted.

In another bowl beat eggs until blended. Beat in buttermilk, then stir in B.powder, salt, and pepper. Beat or whisk into cornmeal mixture, stir in corn. (mine was canned with the milk from the corn like creamed corn so you could just use a can of that if you want. It will be very moist)

Pour into melted butter in baking dish and bake 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350F and bake 35-40 min longer or until puffed and golden brown on top. Drizzle with honey when served.

Shepard's Pie

2012-02-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

I was trying to think of something to make for dinner that was easy last night. I wasn't feeling well, woke up hurting that morning. So dinner was one of those, oh geez, I have to do that again type things. I was at a loss. I remembered a recipe I had yrs ago for Shepard's Pie. I swear I wrote it in my own personal cookbook too. I searched everywhere for it and couldn't find it. I know that's weird and I know when I least expect it, it will pop up again. That happens a lot to me lol.

And so I searched online and found a few but I felt like they were missing something, so I chose the one I liked best and did what I always do....I tweak it to make it my own. Here's my version....not far off from others but I will say it was so yummy, I am looking forward to the leftovers for lunch today. BTW I forgot to take a picture of it so what you see is from online but mine did look like that.

Shepard's Pie 4 servings

    3 lg potatoes, peeled and cubed
    1/2c. sour cream or softened cream cheese
    1 large egg
    Salt and freshly ground black pepper
    1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
    1 3/4 pounds ground beef
    1 carrot, peeled, quartered and sliced
    1 med. onion, chopped
    1 lg. garlic clove, minced
    4 mushrooms, chopped
    2 tablespoons butter
    2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
    1 cup beef stock or broth
    2 teaspoons Worcestershire
    1/2 cup frozen peas
    1 teaspoon sweet paprika
    1/2 c. shredded Cheddar cheese
    2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Boil potatoes in salted water until tender, about 12 minutes.
While potatoes boil, preheat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil to hot pan with beef . Season meat with salt and pepper. Brown meat for 3 or 4 minutes. When meat has lost most of its color, add chopped carrot, mushrooms, garlic and onion to the meat. Cover and cook veggies with meat 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove lid and stir in peas, paprika and parsley. In a second small skillet over medium heat cook butter and flour together 2 minutes. Whisk in broth and Worcestershire sauce. ( I use Knorr Beef paste so I added a tsp or so of that to a cup of water instead) Thicken gravy 1 minute. Add gravy to meat and vegetables.

Drain potatoes and pour them into a bowl. Mix sour cream and egg together. Add the sour cream and egg mixture into potatoes and mash until potatoes are almost smooth.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Fill a small rectangular casserole with meat and vegetable mixture. Spoon potatoes over meat evenly. Top potatoes with cheese and bake until potatoes are evenly browned. Top casserole dish with more chopped parsley and serve.

*ground lamb can be substituted. I love lamb but the bf doesn't so I used beef. If there's too much grease left in the pan when browning, remove it before you add the veggies.

Simple but good: Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix

2012-02-16T14:27:00.000-08:00

I wanted hot chocolate one night but we ran out of milk. I decided that I wanted to find a mix that doesn't use milk so at least I could still have it when I want it. I searched online and saw so many, sort of the same. Most call for coffee creamer but I really was trying not to use that.

It calls for powdered milk but all I could find is nonfat. But if I could find a whole milk powder I think Id use that and skip the creamer. But since I don't plan on using this all the time I figured what the heck, coffee creamer it is.

These recipes all have different proportions for everything and its hard to know what is the best. I found one that called for equal parts of everything and she said she liked that the best. So I decided to put some mix together. This is what I came up with . This has a creamy taste and a nice rich chocolate flavor. Not too sweet. I don't like really sweet hot cocoas so I think the addition of dark chocolate chips with a high cocoa % was the perfect touch.Hot Chocolate Mix

1c. cocoa (I used Ghiardelli)
1c. dry milk powder (mine was nonfat)
1c. powdered sugar
1c. powdered coffee creamer
1c. dark chocolate chips (I used 60%)

Put the chocolate chips in a food processor and process till its powder like. Doesn't take long. Put all ingredients in a bowl. Mix well and store in a container. I heated some water in the microwave and added 3-4 tb of mix. Its pretty good for not using milk.

Also my version , I had some Italian Cream Coffee creamer powder in my cabinet. I loved the sweetened cream version of the liquid one so I bought this to keep on hand then promptly forgot about it. I thought it would add a much nicer and creamier touch to this. But this could be interesting trying out different flavors of coffee creamers.

Teriyaki Pork Chops with Chinese Sesame Peanut Butter Noodles

2012-01-28T12:12:00.000-08:00

I made spaghetti the other nite and ended up with some leftover pasta. I could have put the leftover sauce on it but when I do that nobody eats it. So I saved the sauce for another meal. I hated to toss out that pasta tho so I put it in a plastic bag with the intention of using it the next day or so. Then I remembered a Chinese noodle dish a friend made many yrs ago. I loved it.

And so I started looking online for something like it. I knew I could use this spaghetti in place of oriental noodles. And I knew it had some peanut butter in it, also veggies. I found one or two I liked but it had no meat in it. I wanted a whole meal. I searched in my freezer and found two pork chops. And so I decided to make Teriyaki sauce for those. But it was getting late and I had no time to marinate them.

I heated up the marinade to blend the flavors, then poured some over the chops. I decided to bake them in the marinade. I didn't have time to BBQ and I didn't want to watch the broiler or fry them on top of the stove. I figured baking them in the marinade would infuse them with the flavor and help evaporate it too, into a sauce. I still had to make the noodle dish and I wasn't sure yet how that would come about. Baking the chops left my hands free for the rest. It actually was a good idea. By the time the chops where half done, I had all the veggies chopped and figured out how I was going to make the sauce. And so this recipe will be for two but you could easily double it or more. I will say it was the bomb! And the heat from the pepper flakes was just right......you knew there was heat but it didn't overwhelm the other flavors.

Teriyaki Pork Chops with Chinese Sesame Peanut Butter Noodles   Serves 2.

First make the Teriyaki sauce:
    1/3 cup mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine) ( didn't have this but I did have my ginger preserved in a jar with dry sherry and used some of this liquid instead)
    1/2 cup soy sauce
    3tb. rice vinegar
    1 tb. sesame oil
    1 tb. honey
    3-4 cloves garlic, minced
    1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
    1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
    1/2c. orange juice

Put in a microwaveable container and heat for 2min. on high. You could also bring to a boil and simmer a few min. on the stove. This is to start to infuse the flavors into the liquids. Set aside.

I used two pork chops because its what I had on hand. You could just marinate pork or chicken strips in some of this marinade if you wish and stir fry quickly. Because I decided this late, I wanted a quick meal. So I put the chops into a baking pan, poured about 1/3 of the mixture over them and baked them in a 400 degree oven. By the time they are half done, you will be ready to make the noodle mixture.

While the pork is baking, chop up your veggies.

Noodle mixture:

About 2c. of precooked spaghetti (leftover is perfect for this)

As much of any veggie you would like to use. I used half of a broccoli crown, chopped, 4 mushrooms chopped, 1/2 of a small red onion , sliced thinly and one carrot shaved into strips with my veggie peeler. You could also add peas, snow peas, green onion, peppers, bean sprouts, or anything else you might have around. Its a good way to use up leftovers and bits of things. The ratio of noodles to veggies is about 1/3 veggies to 2/3 noodles. Its not meant to be a veggie dish but of course you could do that if you wish.

Also 1/4c. peanut butter. Recipes seem to call for smooth but I had organic crunchy here and I liked it. Little bits of nuts throughout the mix were delish. :)

First take remainder of marinade and add the peanut butter. Again put in microwave for two minutes to melt the peanut butter and make it easier to whisk into the sauce. Taste this. I found my peanut butter took away some of the sweetness so I added a tsp. of sugar to it to balance it. Since this was fresh organic butter that may have had something to do with it so taste and adjust to what you think you would like. However you don't want it really sweet, just a hint.

Then chopped veggies. Better to do this all at once so the stir fry goes quickly. Once these are chopped, check pork chops. They should be about half done by now and browning nicely. Take out of oven and turn them over and return to oven till the noodle mix is done.

Add a tb or so of vegetable oil in a pan. I have a stir fry wok pot but you could use a fry pan too. Get the oil really hot then add the broccoli. Stir and let cook a minute. Then add the carrot strips and cook 2 min. more.

Add the onions and mushrooms since these don't need as much time to cook. ( here's where you would add snow peas, peas, sprouts, peppers, etc. since they don't take long to cook). If it looks like it might need a bit more oil, add it. Mushrooms absorb it fast. Cook till mushrooms look like they are starting to shrink. Then add pasta and stir well to heat thru.

Put the rest of the marinade with the peanut butter on the noodle mix and stir in well and heat thru till sauce thickens. Check the chops, they should be done about now unless they were thick ones.

To serve, put some noodle mix on a plate and top with chopped cilantro (or green onion if you like). Top with pork chop and any juices in the pan.

Navy Bean Soup

2012-01-18T16:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I decided to make some soup......thought about what I had in the house tho. I love chicken soup but my bf isn't crazy about chicken. I was going to make my sausage minestrone but we just had sausage the night before. And so I remembered I had several bags of beans in the pantry and a couple of ham bones I need to use up. And this is what I ended up making.

I'm not real crazy about beans. And Ive never had bean soup in my life. In fact if you had asked me if I wanted this , I would have said no. But my tastes are beginning to change and I'm finding if there's enough flavor added, I like beans. And so this is my first bean soup......and I do believe there will be others now. I added more herbs than this called for and more garlic too. I'm not sure about why the carrot is in there except perhaps for color. But as I tasted this when it was cooking I was thinking some chard, spinach or some sort of greens would be excellent in this with the ham. And next time I think I'll use smoked sausage since ham is the common go to thing for this type of soup.

Navy Bean Soup 8 servings

1 pound navy beans, picked over, rinsed and drained
10 sprigs parsley
2 sprigs each of fresh thyme and rosemary
1 bay leaf
2 large smoked ham hocks, about 1 1/2 pounds or a lg. ham bone with some meat on it
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
8 cups of cold water
1 medium carrot, coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp. cayenne
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place the beans in a large saucepan and cover with cold water by about 2 inches. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes; remove from the heat, cover, and let sit for one hour. Drain and reserve. Tie the parsley, thyme, rosemary and bay leaf together with kitchen twine.

In a large soup pot or Dutch oven combine the beans, herb bundle, hocks or ham bone, onions, garlic, some salt and pepper, cayenne and carrot with the water. Bring to a boil, cover, and adjust the heat so the soup cooks at a gentle simmer. Cook until the beans and hock are completely tender, about 1-1/2 hours.

Turn off the heat and remove the hocks. Cool slightly. Remove the meat from the hocks, discarding the bones, fat, and skin. Cut the meat into small cubes. Remove the herb bundle and discard.

Puree about 3 cups of the beans with a some of the liquid in a blender. (For a smoother soup puree all the beans.) Stir the puree and diced meat into the soup. Heat the soup and adjust the seasoning as needed with salt and pepper.

Pour into heated bowls, place a small pat of butter on top of each soup, and serve.

*** I was going to add some Lil Smokies sausages to this but I guess I used them up and didn't remember. However some smoked sausage of any kind would be awesome added to this and next time I make it Ill do that. The ham bone I had didn't have much meat on it but did have lots of flavor. I had some ham meat frozen from that bone so I chopped a few slices up and added that to the pot.

I also used an immersion blender to make this soup. I didn't make it a fine puree but it was mostly pureed. I liked it like that, my bf wanted more beans. So next time Ill do that. I added extra herbs to this recipe because I wanted a lot of flavor and doing that didn't hurt it at all.

Unstuffed Cabbage.....

2012-01-15T12:55:00.000-08:00

My mom makes Stuffed Cabbage rolls and I love them. Ive made them over the yrs and they are close to moms but not quite. But it still tasted good. The part I hate tho is rolling each one. When I don't have a lot of time its tedious. I saw a recipe for a stuffed cabbage skillet dish that used most of the ingredients but was quick. I thought that was a great idea and maybe one day Ill adapt my own recipe a bit more to do that.

But since I grew up with this, I really feel the best cabbage rolls are the ones that take time to cook in the oven. One day awhile back I started to make this only to find that half of the head of cabbage I had, had these dark lines running on some of the cabbage veins. Well of course I don't know what it was, I thought perhaps it got too cold in the grocery store cuz it was weird..it really was only on half the head. So I didn't use the leaves that had that on it. But because of that I didn't have enough to make the whole recipe right.

It was then I remembered that skillet dish I saw and thought...hey I don't need all the cabbage. Ill just layer it and make it the same. It worked out great and honestly is faster to put together and easier to serve. I tweaked this recipe a bit more now and last nites dinner was the best Ive ever made. So sorry mom its not quite like yours, but its really good!

Unstuffed Cabbage Casserole 8 hearty servings

1. 1 lg. head of cabbage
     1c. white rice

Remove the core and put either on a plate to microwave or in a pot of water with some vinegar in it to boil. You have a choice here. Mom used to cook it on the stove and peel off the layers as they cooked. They do get cooked much more this way and are easier to roll. But to me they just take too much time. So I microwave the whole head for about 10min. Let it cool a bit so you can touch it and remove whatever leaves you can that are cooked.

Put back in the microwave and do another 5min. Keep doing this till the leaves are done thru. The center part doesn't matter too much where the leaves are small. You will use this chopped to top the casserole with anyway. While you are cooking the cabbage, cook the rice till done and set aside for the stuffing.

2. While this is cooking make the stuffing.
    2- 2 1/2lbs of ground beef
    1 onion, chopped fine
    3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
    1 tsp. salt or more
    1 tb. Hungarian Paprika
    2 tsp. dried parsley (feel free to use fresh if you have it)
    1 tsp. dried thyme
    1/2 tsp. cayenne
    2 eggs
    the cooked rice

Saute onion in a little butter, when soft add the garlic and saute a couple minutes more. Put meat in a lg. bowl, add all the rest of the list and mix a bit to distribute the spices a bit. Then add in the cooked onions and garlic and the rice from step 1. Mix well.

3. Layering
    Stuffing mix from step 2
    Cabbage from step 1
    8oz. sauerkraut
    1 28oz. can of crushed tomatoes with sauce ( or plain tomato sauce even a plain spaghetti sauce like Classico with basil)
    1/2 c. ketchup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour about 1/4 of the can of tomatoes on the bottom of a lg. casserole dish or 13 x 9 in. pan. Mix half the sauerkraut with that and make sure its spread pretty even across the bottom of the pan. This is to distribute the flavors top and bottom and to keep it from sticking.

Next make a nice layer of cabbage leaves. I cut out the thick main rib cuz it takes too long to cook. Then I just fit the lg. leaves across the bottom to cover. At this point assess how many leaves you have cuz you want a nice layer of cabbage for each. I had a very lg. head so this time I made 3 layers of cabbage to two layers of meat. But you can just put them on the bottom and the top if you don't have a lot and it will work too.

Then top with a layer of the meat. Remember if you are making two layers to just use half...otherwise put the whole thing in there. Top with more cabbage and repeat if your doing several layers, finishing with cabbage. Top with the chopped inner cabbage leaves you saved and the rest of the sauerkraut. Mix the ketchup in the remaining tomatoes and pour over the top of the casserole covering it all. If the sauce is thick you could add a bit of water to it before you bake it.

Cover with foil and bake for at least 2 1/2hrs. Check to see if it is drying out. It shouldn't with the meat juices and cabbage but if it does, add a bit of water and return to oven. You do not want this dry. I test the center to see if the cabbage there is tender. When it is, its done. Cut into lg. squares and serve. You could serve with a nice crusty rye bread and butter.

For those who want traditional tho here is moms recipe:

Moms Stuffed Cabbage Make about 26 rolls

1 head of cabbage (about 3lbs.)
(soften cabbage in lg. pot with water and 1 tb. vinegar)

1 medium onion , chopped
1/4lb. butter
(saute onions in butter)

In lg. mixing bowl:
2 lbs. chopped beef
1 1/2 c. rice (mom uses Minute rice, I hate that stuff)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. onion powder
2 (8oz.) cans tomato sauce (mix in well with above ingred.)

Fill softened cabbage leaf with meat mixture:

In lg. pot:
Cut up excess cabbage leaves and put on bottom of pot. Layer stuffed cabbages in pot.

Pour over cabbage:
2 (8oz. ) cans tomato sauce
1 can tomato soup
1 can water
1/2 c. ketchup
1/2 c. water or more to cover cabbage

(I also remember mom topping it with sauerkraut altho it doesn't say so in her recipe)

Cover and bake in oven 2 1/2hrs. in 350 degree oven or till done. (We use a lg. covered enamelware pot for this)

Next take that can of tomatoes and add a half cup of ketchup. (mom always does this and I like that flavor, you could however just add water instead if you like). Stir it well and pour it over the top layer, spreading it out all over.