Cookin' With Cyndi

Migas - my way

2012-01-18T18:21:00.000-08:00

I've "discovered" - or maybe "created" a new breakfast for Don and me. In one of the novels I was reading last week, a character made some migas, and the dish sounded like something I wanted to try. The basic concept of migas is that it's made with tortilla strips, chorizo, and eggs, and some recipes add other ingredients such as cheese, salsa, green chilies, bell peppers, and onions. I like Jimmy Dean pork sausage, and have used it (with some chili powder added) as a tasty chorizo substitute.

I was given some thick, homemade corn tortillas by a friend a couple of weeks ago, and decided to use some of them in this recipe. (I keep them in the freezer, and take them out as needed.) The steps I used when Don and I had this for breakfast this morning had me blending everything together at the end, and that caused the tortilla strips to lose their crispiness. We both decided we wanted them crispy, so my solution is to cook them separately, plate them, and then put everything else on top of the tortilla strips.

Migas

2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil

2 corn tortillas, cut in 1-2" thin strips
4 oz. bulk breakfast sausage (I use Jimmy Dean)
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1-2 tablespoons chili powder (I used 1 this morning, and decided it wasn't enough.)
4 eggs
grated cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese

Heat oil in a medium skillet. Add the tortilla strips. Cook, stirring, until strips are crispy. Divide the strips between two plates. In the same skillet, brown sausage with the onions, breaking up the sausage as it cooks. When it's nearly done, sprinkle with chili powder and finish browning the sausage. Add the eggs - just break them right into the sausage mixture. Cook, stirring, until eggs are done. Divide between the two plates, putting eggs over tortilla chips. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Enjoy!

Variations: add bell peppers or green chilies to the sausage-onion mixture

Kitchen Stashbusting Days 6, 7, and 8. The end.

2012-01-16T18:01:00.000-08:00

I succeeded in getting rid of some more meat: pork chops, chicken breasts, and ground beef. On Saturday, we had one of my favorite "comfort food" meals - pork chops and scalloped potatoes. From scratch, the way my mother taught me. I've tried those dehydrated-nasty-boxed scalloped potatoes, and they are just awful. I also do not like any onion flavor in mine. So here's how Mother says you must make these - for two people.

Pork Chops and Scalloped Potatoes

Preheat oven to 350˚.
Peel and slice 2-3 large potatoes - about 1/4" thick.
Slice your boneless pork chops about 1/2" thick. I use ONE of the thick boneless chops you get at Costco, and I slice it into 4 pieces.
Put a layer of the potatoes in the bottom of a 3-quart baking dish (I use Corningware - the one with the glass lid). Sprinkle the potatoes with about a tablespoon of flour, some salt and pepper, and then dot with about a tablespoon of butter (cut in small pieces).
Repeat with another layer of potatoes.
Use the chops for the next layer, and finish with a layer of potatoes - each time sprinkling with flour and dotting with small pieces of butter. You should have 3 layers of potatoes with the chops underneath the top layer.
Pour in about 1/2 cup milk - you should be able to see it down in the layers of potatoes, but it shouldn't be as high as the chops. (How do I know this? Major mess in the oven from overflowing, burning milk!)
Bake, covered, for an hour and a half. I've tried it for an hour, but the potatoes don't get tender.

I used to try to eat ALL of this. But I would have potato overload, and I just don't need this any more. So we have leftover potatoes, which are wonderful fried up for breakfast the next day.

On Sunday, I tried a new chicken recipe, which I won't be sharing because it was AWFUL. I took about 3 bites, and the rest went into the trash. A bowl of cereal filled me up.

Tonight we had hamburgers - Don had his with a bun, and I ate mine without. I was just craving some beef.

I'm trying to decide how long I want to go with this. What's my goal? To use up some of the excess, I think. But as I've been doing these posts, I'm now wondering if it's a bad thing - to have the excess. So, I've decided to stop, and go back to just doing what I've been doing for years. This has been fun, but now it's over.

Kitchen Stashbusting Days 4 and 5

2012-01-13T20:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Don went fishing, and I wanted to spend most of my day sewing, so I put dinner in the crockpot. I made Hearty Italian Sausages - and we enjoyed the leftovers for lunch today. I'm going to add a note in my recipe to use the thicker slice setting on my mandoline. I used the really thin setting, and the bell peppers almost disappeared into the meat mixture.

Yesterday's breakfast was my big sister's recipe - a quiche made with sausage, mushrooms, and bell peppers. Since cream cheese is mixed in with the eggs and milk, the texture is creamy, and the taste is delicious.

My daughter came up to do her laundry today, and stayed for dinner. Now, what does a 30-year old request for dinner? Her favorite - with the fancy name Rice-a-Roni Stroganoff. I take a box of Beef-flavored Rice-a-Roni, and add ground beef, mushrooms, and sour cream. Sure, I know it's high in sodium - but I eat a small amount, and she and her father eat pretty hefty portions. We had this with some of those little soft rolls you buy by the bag at Costco.

I enjoyed my swimming and water aerobics today - though the knot in my back started hurting at the beginning of the water aerobics class. It was really painful - and the instructor recommended a massage and the hot tub. I tried the hot tub - and 15 minutes of a hot jet blasting that knot really helped. I was told that it means that there isn't a muscle tear - that if it was torn, the heat would not have helped. But it really made it feel better. I told Don when I got home that I wanted him to massage that knot with the heel of his hand - we'll give it a try later. But right now there's no pain.

I had my blood work done this morning, too - so I'm curious to find out next week how the swimming and water aerobics have affected my blood sugar.

Kitchen Stashbusting Day 3

2012-01-12T14:07:00.000-08:00

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and most Fridays (when I don't have my monthly quilt guild meeting) I go to the Drayson Center at Loma Linda University for a water aerobics class. I show up 45 minutes early, and with a classmate named Tony, "swim" laps. What we actually do is tread water while slowly moving. We do it in the deep water lanes, as both of us enjoy what it does to our backs. The extra swimming before class has really helped - my back is stronger and my blood sugar is slowly lowering.

On swimming days Don and I eat bagels with cream cheese or Nutrigrain Eggos with cream cheese and a small bit of jam.

Lunch was some chile con queso and chips. I had a craving to satisfy and it worked.

Dinner was going to be Chicken Piccata Potato Salad - but the green beans I'd gotten at the commissary had turned bad more quickly that I'd expected and I had to toss them. So I cooked the chicken in strips, breaded with corn flakes crumbs, and I roasted the potatoes. I had a new basket of cherry tomatoes, so I used half of them in a tomato salad.

For dessert, we finished up the cherry cobbler.

Kitchen Stashbusting Day 2

2012-01-10T18:30:00.000-08:00

Don and I went down the mountain today to pick up my old drafting table that I used to have in my classroom. I'd lent it to my friend Patrick - and now that he's succeeded me as YCEA president, he doesn't need it. It's now a perfect cutting and ironing table in my new sewing studio. We got down to Yucaipa early, so we went to the produce stand down the boulevard from the high school. I picked up some mushrooms, cabbage, tomatoes, and some lovely corn on the cob.

Breakfast - Eggs Goldenrod over toast.

Lunch - Don had corndogs, I had half a PBJ sandwich and some Fritos.

Dinner - Barbecue Bacon Keilbasa (take a piece of kielbasa, wrap it with bacon, and grill it. Brush it with barbecue sauce while grilling. Serve on a sandwich roll), cole slaw, and grilled corn on the cob.

Dessert - Cherry Cobbler

Kitchen stashbusting - Day 1

2012-01-09T19:32:00.001-08:00

I know that the first week or so is going to be easy--since there's so much to choose from.

Breakfast- Don had cereal and a banana since he was up before me so he could go fishing. I had two Nutrigrain waffles spread with cream cheese and tangerine marmalade.

Lunch - I ate some leftover blueberry pancakes from the freezer, topped with a sliced banana and some lite syrup. Don came back from fishing around 2 and finished off some whole wheat banana bread.

Dinner - I had 2 avocados that seemed to be perfectly ripe, so I made some guacamole and two grilled California Turkey Sandwiches: turkey, Swiss cheese, sliced avocado, and chopped green chilies (canned) on sourdough which is lightly buttered. We enjoyed the guacamole with some tortilla chips.

Dessert - Date Loaf Candy, made on Saturday. This batch should last another couple of days.

I went down to the basement this afternoon after swimming and discovered that I have a LOT of bread! Rolls, buns, baguettes, loaves, muffins, tortillas and more. I shouldn't have to buy any bread for quite a while.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Kitchen Stashbusting Challenge revisited

2012-01-09T08:48:00.000-08:00

Hello, my name is Cyndi, and I'm a food hoarder.

I think. I wonder if any of you are like me: I have way too much food in my refrigerator, my freezer, and my cabinets. I am challenging myself to use what I have on hand for two full months

We came back from a 3-week trip in our RV to New Mexico and Arizona, and I did what I always do: I went to the commissary and spent $200. I went to Costco and spent $100 - mostly on meat. Then I ordered produce from Washington Produce (a local wholesaler that recently opened a retail outlet) for $30. Then, I "took inventory." I keep a notebook - a list of all the meats and vegetables on hand, from which I make a master list of all meals, meatless as well, that can be made from what I have. I realized that I could probably cook wholesome meals for 3 months - 3 MONTHS - with everything I have, replenishing only a few items of produce.

Exactly a year ago I did this, but only posted 3 times about it. I don't recall why I stopped. I'll try to do better.

Now that I've made that statement, I need to decide the rules for my personal challenge. Here are my rules from last year:

1. I can buy milk, eggs, and butter/margarine when I run out.
2. I can buy the significant condiments (ketchup, mustard, etc.) when I run out, unless it's something I can make from scratch. And no, I'm not going to make ketchup from scratch. : )
3. I can buy lettuce, tomatoes, and other salad-related produce when needed. But I need to use up a lot of frozen and canned veggies, so no immediate purchases of other vegetables.
4. When the side dishes get very slim, I can purchase FRESH vegetables only.
5. I get to make up my own rules as I go along, since this is my challenge.
6. I will try to make healthy foods. TRY.

To those rules, I'm going to add coffee and creamer. Gotta have coffee and creamer.

I have a lot of items that have been in the freezer for months that need to be used before I buy more of them: mixed berries, cherries, peas, blueberries, spinach. Speaking of spinach - since I'm thinking out loud here - I picked up a bag of spinach balls at a Wal-Mart in Whitehorse, Yukon, this summer. One of those balls is the perfect size for mixing in 5 scrambled eggs for Don and me. I looked for spinach balls here in the states, but can't find them. Does anyone know where I can find them? It's not a big deal - I can use little slices from boxed frozen spinach - but those little balls are perfect.

I have nearly 10 pounds of flour on hand, my sugar canister is full, and there's plenty of butter in the fridge. So I have basics. I was going through my recipes the other day and realized that there are hundreds of dessert items that can be made just from basics - I call them "pantry desserts." One excellent example is Chocolate Cobbler. I always have flour, sugar, butter, and cocoa powder. (As a matter of fact, I bought a large bag of cocoa powder at a bulk food store last month. I'm set!) I also have a box of 10 Pilsbury pie crusts in the freezer - got them at Costco - and not only can I make pies, I can use some of them for quiche!

Breakfast: We currently have 3 dozen Panera bagels in the freezer downstairs, two boxes of Nutrigrain Waffles (I like to make a sandwich with cream cheese and some jam), and lots of breads and rolls. I'll replenish the eggs when they run out. As for breakfast meats - I have TONS. Bacon, sausage links, bulk sausage, little smokies, Spam, Canadian bacon - enough for what we call "big breakfast" for several months. (I make "big breakfast" about twice a week. The rest of the time we eat the bagels or have small breakfasts like egg sandwiches with some kind of meat.)

Lunch: I think I need to get creative here. I get tired of lunchmeat and cheese sandwiches, and we're not always in the mood for soup. Yes, we eat leftovers, since many of my favorite recipes are for 4-6 people, but I bet I have quite a supply of fixings for some different lunches. I recently subscribed to Eating Well and Family Circle magazines to assist a friend's daughter in a fundraiser, and I bet I can find great ideas there. Well, those and Google searches!

I will try to post every day or every two days with what we've been eating and how I'm doing on my personal challenge.

Special Morning Coffee Cake recipe from the Gorgeous Gourmet

2011-11-28T05:00:00.000-08:00

My assigned blog for this month's Secret Recipe Club was the Gorgeous Gourmet. Candice lives in Cape Town, South Africa. I've been enjoying perusing her blog, looking at some great ideas for breakfast along with some pretty yummy main dishes that are a bit different from mine - gammon, for example. I had to look up what it was, and my initial guess of some kind of fowl was totally off the mark. Gammon is ham. And I've put Candice's recipe for Gammon with Plum Sauce on my "must do" list.

But for today, I made a breakfast treat. I've been house-sitting for a friend who's off exploring the Galapagos Islands. She has a few dogs and a horse who need regular feeding, so I've been spending my evenings and nights at her house. Tomorrow I'll be coming home right after I feed the horse, and decided that this afternoon (I'm at my house) I'd make a coffee cake that can be reheated by my neglected husband in the morning. We just might sample this one tonight - as a matter of fact, Candice has a photo on her blog of this coffee cake with some ice cream.

Special Morning Coffee Cake
from The Gorgeous Gourmet

This is Candice's photo - it's too dark and dreary to take a decent photo here!

Ingredients:

For the topping

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the base:

1 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup milk

1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line and grease a cake tin, or square baking tin (about 20cm) .

In a small bowl, with a fork, mash together the softened butter, 1/4 cup flour, brown sugar, sugar, and cinnamon. Don’t worry about making fine crumbs, clumps are good here –they will be put on top of the cake, and sink in while baking.

In a small bowl combine the 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl beat the egg and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the melted butter, milk, and vanilla. Add the flour mixture all at once and stir together just until incorporated.

Pour into prepared pan and dot the surface with the brown sugar mixture. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until moist crumbs cling to a toothpick inserted in the middle.

The verdict: Great! We enjoyed our sample after dinner for dessert, and then reheated the rest of it for breakfast the next morning. This is similar to my mother's coffee cake but has more yummy cinnamon-sugar mixture. I'm now going to be torn as to which one I make!

First snowfall of the year means...comfort food!

2011-11-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

I live in the mountains of southern California - at 6,000'. So when a cold rainstorm moved into the area today, we got snow. When I left for water aerobics at 9 this morning, it was just drizzling. By the time I got to Loma Linda, where the pool is, it was pouring. I always get there early so I can do some laps, and I was one of only 3 people in the pool. (There were 3 others in the hot tub!) They cancelled the aeronibics class, but I didn't know that since they didn't put the sign up front until after I'd come in. No problem. I swam for 35 minutes - in the rain - then showered and went to JoAnn's for some needles and thread.

Driving home, I got to the ranger station at the bottom of the canyon, and noticed that the cars coming down were covered with snow. At the lowest part of Forest Falls, snow was sticking. Up at our house, we already had about 3 inches. It's been snowing steadily since, and is supposed to continue through the night.

The first thing I did after lunch was put a pecan pie in the oven. I used my grandmother's recipe - it seems to be the best - but I've always altered it by using half granulated and half brown sugar. I don't have any pictures, since there's no nice lighting for photography.

Nanna's Pecan Pie
Alma Morlan, my grandmother

1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1 tablespoon flour mixed in
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white or brown Karo syrup (I used white, since I use the brown sugar)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup pecans

Preheat oven to 400˚. Mix all the ingredients except pecans with a wire whisk or spoon. Stir in pecans. Pour all into an unbaked 9" pie crust. Cover edges with a pie crust shield or foil. Bake 10 minutes at 400˚, then lower temperature to 325˚. Bake an additional 35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Dinner was also comfort food of a sort - a nice Rachael Ray recipe. I saw her make this several years ago, and for about 5 years it was our Christmas Eve dinner. I had a craving for it NOW, so that's what I made.

Smoked Pork Chops with Apples and Onions
Rachael Ray

1 Tablespoon olive oil
3 slices bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, quartered then thinly sliced
1 green apple, cored and thinly sliced
6 thin boneless smoked pork chops (I used 2 large thick ones)
1 cup dark German beer

Heat a skillet over medium high. Add oil, give 1 turn of the pan and add chopped bacon. When the bacon renders its fat, add onions and sauté 3 to 5 minutes, then add sliced apples and sauté mixture another 2 or 3 minutes. Add smoked chops to the pan and caramelize meat on both sides, 2 or 3 minutes. Pour the beer into the pan and reduce heat to a simmer. Beer will reduce into a great-tasting sauce. Serve chops topped with onion, apple, and sauce.

We eat this with boiled new potatoes, to which I add butter and dill. Totally a comfort food meal!

Secret Recipe Club - Reveal Day!

2011-10-31T05:00:00.000-07:00

When I was assigned Dorothy's blog Shockingly Delicious for this month's Secret Recipe Club, I thought, as most of us do when assigned a blog, that it belonged to a stranger. But I already "knew" Dorothy! (She just didn't know it.)

My local newspaper is the San Bernardino Sun. Back in December of 2007, Dorothy was an editor for one of the papers in the Sun's group of papers, the San Gabriel Valley Group. She had a recipe for Baked P'Sketti Squares printed in the paper, and I made it and blogged about it back in January of 2008. You can see that post here. I also submitted it to Ruth's Presto Pasta Night roundup. Dorothy's recipe was a delicious and healthy take on baked pasta that incorporated shredded zucchini.

In The Secret Recipe Club, we are assigned another member's blog. We peruse the blog for something we'd like to make, and make it. We then blog about it, and we all post on the same day. We don't know who has our blog until after the "reveal." As I was going through Dorothy's blog, I kept in mind the ingredients I knew I already had on hand. When I saw her recipe for Quick Fresh Berry Streusel, I knew that was the one. I had to make a couple of changes, though. I like to keep lots of frozen berries on hand, and in my freezer was a giant bag from Costco. So frozen berries it was. Dorothy also used ground flax in hers - I omitted that, and added some oats to give the streusel a little heft. It came out a little like a berry crisp.

My daughter was visiting for the day, and since she has decided she needs to cook for herself more, offered to help make this dish. Here she's adding the streusel to the pan full of berries. When we were mixing up the streusel and got to the step where you add the almond extract, she nearly swooned over the the scent. (Yes, it smells like Jergen's lotion). We decided that it really made a wonderful addition to a streusel topping.

Right out of the oven, this looked soooooooo yummy!

We topped ours with vanilla ice cream.

Theresa wanted to pass on to everyone that she really liked this. We all did. This is now my go-to recipe for berries of any kind. Thanks, Dorothy, for another hit!

Check out the links below for more Secret Recipe Club posts!

A simple, quick, delicious "candy"

2011-10-26T17:58:00.000-07:00

I guess you call this candy - it's not cookies or cake or pie. And it definitely tastes like candy. It has only 4 ingredients, too. I don't know where I got the recipe - I've been making these since my college days. (So that's at least 35 years ago!)

Chinese Chewies

1 6-oz. can chow mein noodles
2 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 16-oz. bag butterscotch chips
3/4 cup peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)

Place chow mein noodles and marshmallows in a large bowl. In a small saucepan, melt the butterscotch chips and peanut butter over low heat until runny. Pour over noodles and marshmallows; stir to combine. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto wax paper. Chill until hard.

See? Simple. Quick. My daughter's favorite treat - so I have to be sure to save her some for when she comes up on Saturday.

Update on that "heck of a week" post:
- My hip quit hurting. I still go to water aerobics and have had no problems other than just getting plain old tired.
- My daughter does NOT have Crohn's Disease. She has some dietary issues, and nothing more than that. Hooray!
- Don's truck is fine.
- Theresa's truck is finer than fine, now that it has a brand new transmission.

I will survive the mini-crises along with major ones. Life is still good. : )

A heck of a week

2011-10-01T19:58:00.001-07:00

I'm so glad this week is over.
1. Sunday night I was awakened by severe pain in my lower right abdomen. It hurt any time I moved. By Tuesday it had migrated to my hip. I was pain free while lying or sitting down, in excruciating pain when I stood up, and then after walking 10-15 steps, the pain would go away. I went to the doctor on Wednesday, had my hip X-rayed, and got a tentative guess that it could be a bone spur. I was told to continue my water aerobics, so I did.
2. I took my daughter to a check-up at UC Irvine, where she learned some scary news. She had to go back the next day to see a different physician, and is now scheduled for two procedures next week, one of which will be under general anesthesia. The fear is that her initial diagnosis (6 years ago) of ulcerative colitis was incorrect and she actually has Crohn's Disease.
3. Don ran over a giant log in Lee Vining 2 weeks ago and ruined the spoiler underneath the front of his truck. He got that replaced this week, and it wasn't cheap.
4. Our daughter's truck needed to have its transmission replaced. We dropped it off on Wednesday, and picked it up Friday afternoon. $3K. Ouch.

I DID have a wonderful quilt guild meeting on Friday, and this afternoon my hip quit hurting. Texas Tech defeated Kansas this morning. So the week has ended with a couple of nice things.

I spent today at the sewing machine, except for a quick trip over to Oak Glen to see a small quilt show. That will be a separate post on Just One More Stitch. Dinner was Pioneer Woman's Cajun Chicken Pasta--and it was wonderful.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Retirement Rocks!

2011-09-25T18:08:00.000-07:00

It sure does. While I officially retired on June 3, it didn't really seem to be retirement until school started in mid-August. I've always had a summer vacation, so our trip to Alaska was just another summer vacation (as far as feeling retirement goes). Once my friends and colleagues returned to work, and I started seeing Facebook posts about it, I started feeling retired.

I've settled into a little bit of a routine now. My friend Betty, who also retired in June, invited me to join the Drayson Center at Loma Linda University and take some classes. (The Drayson Center is a state-of-the art recreation complex, complete with gymnasium, weight rooms, handball/racquetball courts, studios for classes such as yoga and aerobics, and two - TWO - swimming pools). Since I'm officially a senior at the ripe old age of 55, it only costs $18 a month, and I can come as often as I like and take any classes I want. Betty takes aerobics, water aerobics, and sometimes yoga. I'm just taking the water aerobics, and I go on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Class is an hour, and we get worked. It is strenuous but feels so good, especially since we're in the water. After class I can run errands - groceries, Costco, JoAnns, library, post office, etc. If I don't have errands I'm home by 12:30, leaving me the rest of the afternoon to sew. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays I rarely go down the mountain, and again can spend all day sewing and cooking.

Now that I have more time for cooking, we're eating a little better, and I even can take time to try new things. I joined the Secret Recipe Club, where once a month I'm assigned someone elses's blog, try a recipe from her blog, and blog about it. That'll be happening for the first time in October.

Right now I've got two new recipes. Last night I made soup - Don likes soup, and we both like the Pasta E Fagioli that you get at Olive Garden. I found a few copycat recipes for it on the net, and adapted them for myself. This one was easy and tasted really good.

Pasta E Fagioli

(sorry for the blurry photo!)

3/4 lb. ground beef
1 med. onion, chopped
3 med. carrots, diced
4-5 celery stalks, sliced thinly
2 14-15-oz. cans diced tomatoes
1 14.5-oz. can red kidney beans, drained
1 14.5-oz. can white kidney beans (cannelini) or Northern white beans, drained
6 cups water
2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules or 2 cubes
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 26-28-oz. can or jar spaghetti sauce (I used Hunts from a can, but you can use Prego, Ragu, Newman's Own, etc.)
1 1/2 cups macaroni (or any other small pasta)

Sauté the beef with the onion in a heavy stock pot until beef is browned. Add carrots, celery, and tomatoes, and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer until celery and carrots are tender, about 45 minutes. (Note: watch the bottom of the pan so it doesn't stick and burn.)

This morning we got up and went down the mountain to the Applebee's in Redlands. One of my former colleagues, Lisa, has a son who is playing Junior All-American football. Their team was having a "Dining to Donate" fundraiser - all you can eat pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, coffee, and orange juice for only $10. We like things like that! I then spent the rest of the day sewing, and decided on something quick for dinner. I always like this meal - it takes only 15 minutes to make. Seriously!

Quick and Easy Fish Tacos

10 fish sticks
5 small corn tortillas (4 1/2" - 5")
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/8 teaspoon chipotle chile powder (I use Penzey's)
1/2 - 3/4 cup grated cheddar
salsa or pico de gallo
shredded cabbage - about 1 1/2 cups

Cook the fish sticks in the over per package directions. While they are cooking, make the sauce: stir together the sour cream, mayonnaise, and chipotle chile powder. Grate the cheese, if necessary, and shred the cabbage.

To assemble: Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium-high heat. Place corn tortilla on the griddle, and top with a little grated cheese. Next, add about a teaspoon (I use three little dollops, pushed off the spoon with my finger) of the sauce. When cheese is melted and tortillas are soft, remove them to a plate. Add two fish sticks to each one, and top with salsa and cabbage. Enjoy! Makes 5. [Don eats 3 and I eat 2]. We serve these with pinto beans.

Cocoa Krispies Treats

2011-09-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

I've been making these for years, and have no idea where I got the recipe. It may have come off the back of a Cocoa Krispies box. But we like these better than regular Rice Krispies Treats. The addition of peanut butter makes them a little better, in my opinion.

Cocoa Krispies Treats

1 small box Cocoa Krispies (store brands work fine, too)
1 small bag miniature marshmallows
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/3 cup peanut butter

Pour the Cocoa Krispies into a large bowl. Lightly butter a 13" x 9" pan. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt together the marshmallows, butter, and peanut butter. When all the marshmallows have melted, pour the mixture over the Cocoa Krispies. Stir quickly to combine; pour out into buttered pan. Get your hands damp with water, and press the mixture down into the pan to even it all out. Let cool and then cut into bars.

Apple Turnovers

2011-09-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

I guess you could call these semi-homemade. I had a package of puff pastry in my freezer, and needed to do something with it. I have a great application on my ipad called "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bitman. It is probably the best cooking application I have, and I have 9 of them. I searched for any recipe with "puff pastry," and one of the ones that came up was apple turnovers.

Bitman's recipe uses homemade puff pastry - "1/2 recipe" of it - and would make twelve 6" squares once it was rolled out. I used one half of the box - one piece - and it made six 6" squares after I rolled it out. Therefore I used half of the apples and other ingredients.

Once the pastry was rolled out on the counter, I cut six 6" squares that fit nicely on the lightly greased cookie sheet.

I used two Granny Smith apples, and added some raisins since I like raisins in my apple turnovers.

The recipe said to bake these for 40 minutes, but they were well-done at 35. If I'd waited until 40 they would have been burned. What DID happen, which isn't mentioned in the original recipe, is that a lot of juice came out of the turnovers and burned on the bottom of the cookie sheet. Luckily it didn't cause the turnovers to burn.

Apple Turnovers
adapted from Mark Bitman's How to Cook Everything

2 tart apples, peeled and cored
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon minced or grated lemon zest, or more to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, or more to taste
1/4 cup sugar, or more to taste, plus more for the work surface and for sprinkling
1/2 of a package of puff pastry (1 sheet), thawed

Grate the apples in a food processor or on the coarse side of a box grater. Immediately toss them with the lemon juice. Add the cornstarch, lemon zest, cinnamon, and sugar. Taste and add more lemon zest or cinnamon if you like.

Use sugar to coat a work surface. Roll out the pastry sheet, sprinkling with sugar as you work, until the dough is less than 1/4" thick and measures approximately 15" x 10". Cut 5" squares of pastry. Sprinkle lightly with sugar. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Divide the filling evenly among the six squares; fold over the edges to form a triangle. Juices will be escaping - use them to help seal the edges. I had to even blot up a lot of juice with paper towels. Slash the top of the turnover with a sharp knife once or twice so steam can escape. Chill while you heat the oven or for up to several hours

Heat the oven to 350˚. Brush the tops of the turnovers with a little water and sprinkle with sugar. Bake until the turnovers are golden brown, about 33 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 6.

It's been awhile!

2011-08-08T18:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've posted, and it's been 28 years since I was given the recipe below. All these years, and I've never made it. Until now.

Back in 1983, we were stationed at Norton Air Force Base, and Don played soccer with a bunch of guys who were mostly military. One of them, Chris Poeppel, worked at the clinic. His wife Debbie brought this dessert to one of our parties, and it was so good I begged her for the recipe. I can't believe I've never made it. Since then, the government has gotten very concerned about using raw eggs in recipes, but I guess I'll just take that risk.

Pineapple Surprise Dessert

1 box vanilla wafers, crushed
½ cup butter
1 small can crushed pineapple, drained
½ cup walnuts , chopped
1 ½ cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
1 cup heavy cream, whipped

Butter 8x8" pan and sprinkle with half the crumbled wafers. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs. Pour mixture over crumbs and sprinkle with 1/2 of the remaining crumbs. Mix pineapple and whipped cream. Spread in pan, then add the rest of the crumbs and walnuts. Chill at least 12 hours.

A great idea for leftover roast beef

2011-06-19T09:42:00.001-07:00

Thursday June 16

Last night I made some quesadillas using some leftover roast beef. These weren't Mexican, but I still call them quesadillas because they had the basic filling-inside-a-tortilla.

Here's what I did:

First, I thinly sliced an onion, and slowly sautéed it in a small amount of butter. I think I used about a tablespoon. I would have added a small splash of balsamic vinegar, but since I didn't have any, I used soy sauce.

I took the leftover roast beef and shredded it.

I then used the caramelized onion, some roast beef, and some cheddar cheese as fillings for a flour tortilla quesadilla, and browned it on both sides until the cheese was melted.

You could try other kinds of cheeses--Swiss or Provolone come to mind. I made our quesadillas two ways: since Don was more hungry than I was, I made a sandwich with two tortillas and the filling inside. Once the cheese melts, it's easy to flip it over. I then cut it like a pizza with my kitchen scissors. For me, I just used one tortilla, put the filling on one half of it, and folded it over for grilling.

We ate this with a salad--making this a wonderful meal with leftover meat.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

French Quarter Potatoes

2011-06-04T18:02:00.001-07:00

Last night we were in the mood for something filling,since lunch had been snacks while driving. I had some Polska Kielbasa in the fridge, and some Yukon Gold potatoes that needed using up, so I borrowed a recipe from a blog called "What Did You Eat?" in Sher's recipe, she used Andouille sausage, but I thought the Kielbasa would work. Another change I made from Sher's recipe was using brown & spicy mustard instead of Creole mustard. But the garlic and cayenne made this spicy enough, so the changes still made for a tasty meal.

French Quarter Potatoes

1 T Creole mustard (I used brown & spicy)
2 t Worcestershire sauce
⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 Tablespoons olive oil
3 small red or white potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
freshly ground black pepper
1 heaping teaspoon chopped garlic
½ cups chopped red onions
3/4 cups chopped green bell pepper
2 andouille sausage links, quartered lengthwise and then cut crosswise into 1/2 inch chunks (I used 8 oz. Polka Kielbasa)

In a small bowl, combine the mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and cayenne. Set aside
Heat olive oil in a heavy nonstick skillet and cook the potatoes and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper over medium heat for about 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Cover the pan as they cook. When potatoes are tender, add the garlic, onions, and bell pepper and raise the heat to high and cook for about 6 minutes, stirring frequently. Then add the sausage and stir until heated through. Stir in the mustard mixture, then serve. Serves 2.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Trifle for Book Club

2011-05-27T21:13:00.000-07:00

My book club has started a fun thing - we try to eat food related somehow to the book we read. Last month, we read The Book Thief, which takes place during the Holocaust. There was mention of the soup being thinned over and over, so we had soup. Sharon made split pea, and someone else brought minestrone.

This month, our book was Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. Two cultures, the British and the Indian/Pakistani, are significant in this book, so we enjoyed takeout curry from a new restaurant in Redlands, Curry in a Hurry. I volunteered to bring dessert, so I brought a trifle. This was simple to make, especially since I used Sara Lee pound cake. I layered cubes of pound cake, sugar-free vanilla pudding, and strawberries, and topped it all with whipped cream. It was a hit - there were no leftovers!

Kim's Roasted Potato Salad

2011-05-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't made this yet. But the recipe sounds divine, so I'm going to write it down and make it this weekend. My Facebook friend Kim made this for Mother's Day and shared the recipe.

Kim's Roasted Potato Salad

2 lbs. red potatoes
1/2 c minced onion
6 slices bacon, cooked, crumbled
8 hard-boiled eggs
3/4 - 1 cup mayonnaise
cayenne pepper, salt and pepper to taste

Cut the potatoes into 1" chunks and toss with a little oil. Roast on a baking sheet for about 35 minutes at 400˚. Let cool completely. Mix with remaining ingredients. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Using up the Eggos - Overnight French Toast

2011-05-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

As we get closer to our big trip to Canada and Alaska, I'm trying to use up the things in the big freezer so we can turn it off for the summer. We had a big box of Eggos from Costco. Don has been eating them, but got tired of them and was going to throw them away. I decided to make a breakfast treat from them and looked through my recipes for overnight French toast. Here's what I came up with:

Overnight French Toast from Eggos

12-14 Eggo waffles, thawed
8 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup half & half
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 - 3/4 cups chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Layer the eggos in a greased 13' x 9' baking dish. Whisk together the eggs, milk, half & half, maple syrup and cinnamon and pour over eggos. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
In the morning, turn oven on the 350˚. Melt together the butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup. Sprinkle the Eggos with the nuts, then pour the brown sugar mixture evenly over all. Bake 40 minutes. Enjoy while it's hot.

Today's Organic Produce Share

2011-04-02T20:14:00.000-07:00

It has been so long since I picked up a produce share that I had to renew my annual membership and sign a new liability form. I'll try to get a few more before we leave for the summer in June.

Here's what was in this one: Tatsoi stir fry greens, Russet potatoes, snow peas, carrots, green onions, strawberries, Valencia oranges, Blood oranges, Bartlett pears, avocados, Heirloom tomato, bok choy, Chinese lettuce, and red leaf salad greens.

I thought the Tatsoi stir fry greens were some kind of spinach, so they didn't get used in the stir-fry I made for dinner. The bok choy and the snow peas went in the pan along with the rest of an onion, and were stir-fried until they were lightly browned. I marinated one chicken breast, cut up in small pieces, for about 15 minutes in some soy sauce, brown sugar, red pepper flakes, ginger, and garlic. I removed the vegetables from the pan and added the chicken; when it was cooked I put the veggies back in and added a little more soy sauce and water shaken with some corn starch. The whole thing cooked in less than 10 minutes. We ate it over this neat couscous mixture I got at Costco: it has Israeli couscous (larger size), red quinoa, two colors of orzo, and some Dal peas.

The pears and apples went into a wonderful pie - I peeled and cut them in small pieces, and tossed them with 1/3 cup of brown sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons of corn starch. Oh, and I added 1/2 cup of raisins. That mixture went into an uncooked pie shell. I then made a streusel - I used 3/4 cup Bisquick, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 3 tablespoons of cold butter, which I mixed until it was crumbly. I sprinkled that on the fruit, and baked the pie in two stages: 40 minutes at 350˚ and then 40 minutes at 275˚ (I didn't want the streusel to burn).

Now I need to plan what to do with the rest of today's haul! Feel free to make recommendations.

New recipes

2011-03-21T14:45:00.001-07:00

I decided to bring my crockpot along on this trip--I thought it would be nice to have a few things cooking all day instead of doing everything at dinner time. On St. Patrick's Day we had the usual corned beef, potatoes and cabbage, and yesterday I tried out a recipe for pork chops. I used pork sirloin, however--occasionally I can get them on sale at Costco, and since it's sirloin, it's much more tender than loin chops. I also tried a new way to eat cucumbers--I had some at an Austrian restaurant (Johannes) in Palm Springs and figured out how to duplicate them. (At least I like them just as much, whether I duplicated them or not!).

Slow Cooker Maple Pork Chops

4 boneless pork chops
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Place chops in bottom of slow cooker; add onion. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over chops. Cook on low 6-7 hours. Serve over rice with pan juices.

Dilled Cucumbers

3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1 medium cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced (if you're using an English cucumber, you don't have to peel it)

Whisk cream and sugar until frothy (but not whipped); add vinegar, salt, and dill weed. Stir; add cucumber. Let sit 15-20 minutes before serving.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Potato-Corn Chowder, and a recipe from Pioneer Woman for dessert

2011-01-03T17:53:00.000-08:00

I have only one more night after tonight to cook for Kenny, before he heads to New Mexico. So tonight I wanted to make something I knew he'd like, and started with some easy soup. Half of this soup comes from cans - one can of creamed corn and one can of regular. Kenny likes to add a little curry powder to his, so this is an option you can try.

Potato-Corn Chowder

2-3 tablespoons diced onion
2 tablespoons butter
1 large potato, cut in small cubes (about 1 cup)
1 1/2 cups water
1 15-oz. can cream-style corn
1 15-oz. can whole kernel corn, drained
3 cups milk
1 chicken or vegetable bouillon cube
salt and pepper to taste
Optional: bacon bits, curry powder

In a large saucepan, sauté the onion in the butter until tender. Add potato and water; bring to a boil. Simmer, uncovered, until liquid is nearly evaporated (potato should hold its shape but mash easily). Add remaining ingredients (except bacon bits and curry powder). Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Serve with bacon bits and/or curry powder, if desired. Serves 4 hungry people.

After dinner, Kenny said he wanted something for dessert other than cookies. I remembered seeing a recipe for "chocolate cobbler" on Pioneer Woman, and knew that I had one - though my mother called it Chocolate Pudding Cake. I couldn't easily locate her recipe, so I used the one from Pioneer Woman.

Chocolate Cobbler
(also known as Chocolate Pudding Cake)
from The Pioneer Woman

1 cup All-purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
¼ teaspoons Salt
7 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder, Divided
1- ¼ cup Sugar, Divided
½ cups Milk
⅓ cups Melted Butter
1- ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
½ cups Light Brown Sugar, Packed
1- ½ cup Hot Tap Water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. First stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, 3 tablespoons of the cocoa, and 3/4 cup of the white sugar. Reserve the remaining cocoa and sugar. Stir in the milk, melted butter, and vanilla to the flour mixture. Mix until smooth. Pour the mixture into an ungreased 8-inch baking dish. I prefer my small oval Corning Ware glass dish.* In a separate small bowl, mix the remaining white sugar (it should be 1/2 cup), the brown sugar, and remaining 4 tablespoons of cocoa. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the batter. Pour the hot tap water over all. DO NOT STIR! Bake for about 40 minutes or until the center is set. Let stand for a few minutes if you can hold yourself back. Serve with homemade ice cream using the gooey sauce to spoon over all.

* Err on the side of caution - I used an 8" stoneware dish - it all fit in it prior to cooking - but it has exploded all over the sides and is dripping on the bottom of the stove. Ah, the smell of burnt sugar! Use a larger dish.

Applause for Gina!

2010-12-22T11:56:00.000-08:00

One of the blogs I regularly follow is Gina's Skinny Recipes. I love the things Gina cooks! Recently she posted this recipe, which I adapted very slightly for us for this morning's breakfast. I think I could eat the whole pan!

Crème Brûlée French Toast
adapted from a recipe from Gina's Skinny Recipes

1 cup unpacked brown sugar
¼ cup Karo syrup
2 tablespoons butter
cooking spray
10 ounces Challah bread, sliced 1 inch thick (I used a Country Loaf from Panera)
6 eggs
1-½ cups 1% milk
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon, divided

In a small heavy saucepan melt brown sugar, syrup, and butter over moderate-low heat, stirring, until smooth and melted, about 1 minute, then pour into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.
Arrange bread slices in one layer in baking dish, squeezing them slightly to fit.
In a large bowl whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and salt until combined well and pour evenly over bread. Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350° F. and bring bread to room temperature.
Bake uncovered, in middle of oven until puffed and edges are pale golden, 40 to 50 minutes.
Top with cinnamon and powdered sugar.

Nine months since my last post? Wow!!!

2010-12-20T18:26:00.000-08:00

First of all, I can't believe it's been 9 months since I posted those pinto beans. I've really neglected this blog. Now that doesn't mean I haven't been cooking - I have - it just means that I've made things that I've already written about, or I've not been enthused about something new that I made.

Secondly, welcome to my followers! I didn't even know you existed until I added the "Followers" gadget to the sidebar. I have had this gadget on my other two blogs for a long time, and have kept up with the doings of my Wanderlust followers for about a year. I'll have to go visit your sites now that I know you keep up with mine - and I'll add you to my Google Reader so I can see what's cooking.

All that being said, here's a very brief summary of what's happened in my life since that March post:
1. Don and I took a nice Memorial Day trip to June Lake in the Eastern Sierras.
2. Our summer trip was to Colorado - for 62 days. We stayed in Lake City, Taylor Park, Ridgway State Park, and Priest Gulch Campground on the Dolores River. It was a great fishing trip for Don, and a wonderful quilting-reading-relaxing-renewing trip for me.
3. I began my 25th year in education - and my 8th year as the president of our local teachers' union.
4. Don and I took a Thanksgiving trip to Lubbock, Texas, to see my mother. We were surprised by my sister and her husband showing up (they live in Mesquite), and enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving feast.
5. We made the very important decision to keep our house after I retire instead of going full-time on the road in our trailer. We love our trailer, and we love to travel, but we also love coming home. If you're going to have to live in southern California, you live in the mountains like we do.
6. We signed the papers to refinance the house and knock $400 of the monthly payment. (More money for travel!)
7. I turned in my papers for retirement - I'm taking advantage of an early retirement incentive. My last day of work will be June 2, 2011.
8. Kenny came home from Japan - he's here for the holidays while he's in transit to his next base. He'll be going to Holloman AFB in New Mexico.

So now we're suffering through one of the biggest rainstorms to hit southern California in a long time - it's been raining since Friday, and is not supposed to quit until Thursday. Luckily for us, it's been rain instead of snow, though the predictions are for it to turn to snow tomorrow night and dump about 2 feet on us.

I've been making other people's recipes lately. Dinner tonight was Sweetnick's Lemon Parmigianno Chicken, and dessert is Joe's Butterscotch Brownies with Brown Sugar Butter Frosting (only I used half the frosting since it make so much).

Last night, I adapted a recipe for pork tenderloin and used it with pork sirloin. If you've never had pork sirloin, you should try it. It's much more tender than the pork in boneless pork chops, and is great for grilling as well. Here's the original recipe, which I think is from Taste of Home.

Maple-Glazed Pork Tenderloins

2 pork tenderloins, 3/4 lb. each
¾ teaspoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon butter
¼ cup maple syrup
3 Tablespoons cider vinegar
1 ¾ teaspoons Dijon mustard

Rub pork with sage. In a large nonstick skillet coated with nonstick cooking spray, brown pork in butter. Place in a foil-lined roasting pan. Bake, uncovered, at 425˚ for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the syrup, vinegar and mustard until smooth. Pour into the same skillet. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Brush pork with 1 T of glaze; bake for 5 minutes. Brush with another T of glaze; bake 3-5 minutes longer or until meat thermometer reads 160˚. Brush with remaining glaze. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing.

With Kenny here, I've had to have some good snacks around, and this one is now a new favorite. I doubled the recipe, since you can buy almonds from Costco or Sam's in large jars. If you do, then omit the salt in the recipe, since the almonds from Costco or Sam's are salted.

Candied Cinnamon and Sugar Almonds
from Melanie of My Kitchen Cafe

1 egg white
1 teaspoon cold water
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups unsalted almonds
½ cup packed light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line a large (11X17-inch) rimmed baking sheet with foil and lightly spray with cooking spray. In a large bowl, beat the egg white until stiff peaks form. Add the water and vanilla and beat again until stiff. Add the almonds to the mixture and stir gently to coat the almonds with the egg white mixture. In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. Add this mixture to the almonds and stir gently to mix well. Pour the almonds out onto the prepared baking sheet and carefully spread them out into a somewhat even layer. Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for about an hour, stirring/flipping every 15 minutes, until the almonds look and feel dry.

Mel says: To check to see if the almonds were done, I carefully picked one up in my fingers and when I pressed around it, I didn’t get any wet sugar on my hands. The coating on the almond felt hard and crunchy. Cool completely before serving or packaging.

I can't promise I'll begin posting regularly again - but I'll try to post more often. Thanks for reading!

Almost Meatless Monday

2010-03-29T18:45:00.001-07:00

This used to be a monthly meal for Don and me back when we were really pinching our pennies. It'll make a return, but perhaps not monthly.

Pinto Beans

1. Put 2 cups of pinto beans in the crockpot, covered with water, to soak overnight.
2. Drain, rinse the beans, and put new water in - I used 1 quart.
3. Add 2 pieces of bacon, diced, and about 1/8 cup chopped onion. Do not salt the beans before cooking them as it will make them tough.
4. Cook on LOW 8-10 hours.

Serve with salad and cornbread.

Roasted Asparagus - a first for me

2010-03-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

We finally had some warm weather here at home, and I asked Don to cook out on the grill. I made some pineapple salsa and curry rice, and then sprinkled the boneless chicken thighs with some jerk seasoning. While the chicken was cooking, I roasted the asparagus.

I have to admit that this was the first time I've EVER bought fresh asparagus. I've had it in restaurants and really enjoyed it; but I'd never bought it and cooked it at home. It was very, very simple:

1. Preheat the oven to 400˚.
2. Put 2 tablespoons of olive oil onto a rimmed baking sheet.
3. Break each asparagus spear at the "tenderness" point - it'll break naturally and you can discard the woody ends. Place the spears in the pan, and use your fingers to roll each one in the olive oil until coated.
4. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roll again.
5. Roast for 10-12 minutes.

Enjoy!

Lots going on elsewhere

2010-02-25T22:05:00.000-08:00

Go to my travel blog, Wanderlust, for more interesting reading.

Taking a Break From Food Blogging - Again

2010-02-12T12:57:00.000-08:00

Life events are just a bit overwhelming these days - it really sucks to be a teacher leader (I'm president of our local union) in California right now. Billions - no exaggeration - BILLIONS have been cut from public education, without any change in what is expected; so much sadness and so much fear among the members of my association. I hate to add that I'm also dealing with several member discipline issues where it is clear that the administration is overly-heavy-handed in its punishment. So with negotiations, budget cuts, bullies at the district office, 60+ pending layoffs (we only have 430 members) and abysmal morale, it's hard to go home and think about blogging about food.

I'm sure I'll be back. But right now my escape needs to be to quilting and stamping, where I don't keep gaining weight. : )

Update #3

2010-02-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

The power came back on Wednesday the 27th.
We still have no phone - though Verizon promised they'd be working on it today. There happens to be a 12-foot high snowbank below the pole they need to work on; Don's not sure they're going to be able to reconnect the line without a big truck and cherry picker. And there's no place to park one. Are we going to have to wait until the snow melts in April to get a phone again?

Without a phone, I have no internet access at home...disaster!

Today I came to work without my cell phone - it's on the kitchen counter. I can't call Don to bring it to me, since we don't have a working phone. I feel bereft. Lost. Floundering.

I'm still having to park next door - my parking place is under 10 feet of snow, dumped there by the plow as it cleared the street. I'm glad Tom isn't interested in coming up to his house any time soon.

The snow on our deck has compressed and melted, and is now only 3 feet high. One of these days we'll get to it and clear it off before the deck collapses.

But it's nice to have power - and to be WARM.

Snow Update

2010-02-02T13:51:00.000-08:00

This is a post from January 26

Today is day 5 with no power and day 4 with no phone. We have water - temporarily.

Here's what we know about the water: most of our town gets its water from a giant tank up in Snow Canyon above Spring Street. An avalanche took out the main line from the tank. We have a backup system, which we normally use during the summer if the previous winter wasn't wet enough. It utilizes a pump that draws water from an underground river. That pump needs electricity - there is none. So, we had no water while they searched for a mega-generator to run the pump. Last night around 9 pm we discovered we had water again. The pump is running. Now they need to fix the main line from the tank.

Our neighbor John came over around 8, excitedly telling us we had phone again - that is, until he remembered in mid-sentence that our phone line had been knocked down. So while most of the town has phone service again, Verizon says they won't come up to fix our line until February 2.

We still have no power, either. No telling how long that will take. No power means:
- eating your meals in the recliner so you can be close to the fireplace
- sleeping in sweatpants, sweatshirts, hats, and gloves (isn't that from a Dar Williams song? !)
- ice on the inside of the bathroom window
- making toast in a skillet

I'll be adding more as I think of them.

Post from Last week - Snow Report

2010-02-02T13:48:00.000-08:00

This is a post from January 25.

Today is day 4 with no power. It's day 3 with no phone, and day 1 with no water.

It started snowing last Tuesday; it didn't stop until Friday evening. The first few days were no big deal - we'd shovel the pathways to the woodshed and the street, and I'd parked my Jeep under the carport next door (my friend's house - he lives in the valley). But Friday morning we woke up to several more feet of snow.

I got a call from the District at about 6:15 saying school in Yucaipa was cancelled due to snow - they got several inches and the roads were slick, so it was a safety issue. (Yucaipa is about 2600' - we're at 6000'). I was on the phone with my friend Patrick at 6:30 when the power went out.

Okay, we can deal with the power being out - we have 2 generators. One is now hooked up to the light in the kitchen, the lamp in the living room, the fan in the fireplace stove box, the regrigerator, and the tv/satellite. (We actually got to watch the playoff games yesterday.) The other, smaller generator is hooked up to the freezer downstairs in the basement. We run each one a few hours at a time in order to keep the food cold and the living room above 60˚. We've gone through tons of wood, and eat our meals in the recliners since they're next to the fireplace. We sleep under several comforters, and I"m wearing gloves to bed since it's so cold in there.

On Saturday morning, we woke up to no phone service. No land line, no cell. Then around noon, while we were outside with our neighbors, the next little disaster happened. Don and John were in the street - John was using the snow blower - we all heard a loud c-r-a-c-k, and a giant limb (1.5 feet in diameter) fell off the huge cedar in our front yard. The two men were directly underneath it, and they ran for their lives. It landed in a cloud of snow and branches right behind them. As it fell, it took out our power and phone lines - stripped them off the main pole. They're still connected to the house, so they're dead lines. Later Saturday afternoon, after the road was plowed and we'd cleared the tree branch from the road, we drove down the mountain for food and gasoline for the generators. I called Verizon - who gave us an estimate of February 2 for the phone line. I called Edison, and we're on their list - there are dozens of power lines down all over town - some they can't get to until the 15-foot-high berms are cleared. It's like those old-time Christmas tree lights - every single line has to be connected in order for all the power to be turned back on. We'll probably be without power at least another week if not more.

So, I'm okay with no power, and I'm okay with no phone, since I can come to the office now and use my cell and the office phone.

But this morning we woke up to no water. The initial guess from our neighbor is that an avalanche took out the main pipe from the tank above Spring Drive. When we had water, we could cook, and wash dishes, and even take showers - we have propane to heat it up - but now we have no water. We'll use our fresh water supply from our earthquake supplies to drink and cook, and we have a few hundred gallons in the spa we can use to flush the toilet - but we're going to have to call upon friends down the mountain for showers.

The weather people on TV say this is the most snow in over 50 years. It's definitely the most we've seen in 20. The Big Bear Valley, further up Highway 38, is closed. All 3 highways in and out are shut down; the gas stations are running out of gas, and the stores are running out of supplies. Apparently thousands of ski/snowboard yahoos from LA went running up there midweek, and when the last storm dumped 2 more feet on top of the 3 already there, everyone got stuck. There are avalanches on Highway 18 at the Arctic Circle, and stuck cars all over the place blocking other sections of the roads. (Flatlanders....)

Well, here are the best of the pics I've taken the past few days:

This is a red Chevy Blazer. Really. It's across the street from our house.

This is our street - I'm standing at the bottom, on Valley of the Falls Drive, looking up Snowdrift. This was taken Friday around noon, about 10 hours before the plows came. The snow is about thigh deep - this was Thursday night's snow, since the road was clear before that.

This was Saturday morning, after the plow had come the night before.

This is our house. See the snow on the deck to the left?

This is my husband's truck, before he started to dig it out.

Yeay! We found the front bumper!

This is the branch that came down and almost killed Don and John, and took out our power and phone lines. That's our neighbor Barbara.

Our phone and power lines.

Don and John getting ready to cut the branch up.

This is looking out our sliding glass doors to the deck. The snow is up to my nose.

Signing off for now - powerless, phoneless, and waterless.

A Taste of Argentina: Empanadas Mendocinas & Chimichurri Sauce

2010-01-14T19:28:00.000-08:00

I first heard about discos on Lydia's blog, The Perfect Pantry. The very next day (last week, as a matter of fact) I went to the Ranch Market in Redlands where I get my tortillas and tortilla chips, and found that they carried them. All you do is thaw them out, put a filling in the center, stretch them just a little while you fold them over, use an egg white wash to help seal the edges, and press the folded-over edges with the tines of a fork. Bake. Eat.

Oh, the possibilities! I have rhubarb and strawberries in the freezer - I'll roast them with a little sugar and make dessert turnovers. I have apples and raisins. I have blueberries and lemon curd. But first, I needed to make a main dish empanada, and I needed to make them with ingredients I had in the house. So, after a little exploration in blogland, I decided to make Empanadas Mendocinas, or Empanadas Mendoza. These were simple to make - took a little time because of the need to work each one, but well worth it.

Empanadas Mendocinas are traditionally Argentinian, and with the chimichurri sauce we had a nice sample of some flavors of Argentina.

Empanadas Mendocinas

1 package (10-count) Goya Discos
1/2 cup diced onion
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
3/4 lb. lean ground beef
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon chile powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano flakes
1/2 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste
3-4 green onions, thinly sliced (including green part)
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
5 green olives, halved
1 egg, divided (yolk in one bowl, white in another)

Preheat oven to 400˚. Sauté the onion in the oil over medium heat about 8 minutes or until tender. Add ground beef, smoked paprika, chile powder, oregano, cumin, salt and pepper. Cook and crumble meat until all is evenly browned. Cool slightly.

Place discos out on a large work surface 5 at a time (they dry quickly). Distribute meat filling evenly among each one, topping with some chopped hard-boiled egg and half of a green olive. Lightly whisk the egg white, and then brush the edges of the pastry. Pick up the pastry, stretching it lightly in each direction (you form sort of a bowl when you do this) and then fold it over. Press the edges together, and fold them over a second time to seal. Use a fork to crimp the edges. Lightly whisk the egg yolk, and brush the tops of each empanada. Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown. Serve hot or warm with chimichurri sauce (below).

I heard about chimichurri sauce a few years ago - it's often served over steak. This sauce makes barely enough for the 10 empanadas, so you may want to double it.

Chimichurri Sauce

1 small bunch fresh parsley, stems removed
4-5 fresh basil leaves
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon dried oregano (I never have fresh!)
2 tablespoons white vinegar
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon chile powder
salt and pepper

Blend all ingredients together in a blender until fine and it looks like the photo above.
Note: I tried this in my full-sized blender, but there wasn't enough of it to work down into the blades. It kept sticking to the sides. I transferred it to my little rocket blender, and it worked beautifully.

Word of Warning: Don't Throw Cooked Turnips in the Trash

2010-01-10T15:21:00.000-08:00

We are still working on getting the stench to go away.

I cooked a turnip gratin on Saturday; put the leftovers in the fridge for Don to eat. By Tuesday, he still hadn't eaten it, so we dumped it in the trash in the kitchen. We don't have a garbage disposal. The kitchen trash can is covered, which might explain why we didn't notice a smell until yesterday.

By dinnertime yesterday, I told Don it smelled like cabbage in the house, but we didn't have any cabbage. After doing the dishes, the noxious smell had permeated the whole house, and both of us realized at about the same time that it was the turnips, who by now had gotten so rotten there in the bottom of the bag that the smell was just gross. Don took the trash out, sprayed the inside of the trash can, and then we lit three cinnamon-apple candles. If you went outside and then came back in, you noticed the smell immediately. Last night we slept with the bedroom door shut - and came out this morning to the smell - somewhat dimmed, but still there. Our next treatment was the linen-scented spray we use in the bathroom.

I think it's gone now - except for the little bit you catch as you walk in from the outside. Maybe tomorrow it will be totally gone.

Kitchen Stashbusting Update #2

2010-01-10T12:36:00.000-08:00

I've been able to make good use of leftovers - there was more fried chicken left from Wednesday, so we had that as our main course Thursday night. I pulled a bag of cooked brown rice from the freezer, and spiced it up: I added a couple tablespoons of orange juice concentrate, a little water, a handful of raisins, and a teaspoon of curry powder. I heated that up, threw together a salad, and there was a nice dinner.

Friday night we had the next-to-last bag of calico bass that Don caught in September. I made Crispy Oven-Fried Fish, along with a few fried potatoes (yeah, I know, I shouldn't - but it was just a few).

Last night, Theresa was here for dinner, and requested pasta and salad. I was glad to oblige -- I had the ingredients for Spaghetti with Ham, Peas, and Swiss Cheese, using Dreamfields spaghetti. There went the last of the frozen peas.

I've made breakfast and lunch this weekend out of the freezer, since it's so full I can't really find anything or put anything else in it! I have a lot of what I call "condiments" in it - list below - and they take up a lot of room.

Here are what I call "condiments" that are in my freezer:
1. bag of chopped bell peppers
2. 4 bags of chopped celery
3. bag of chopped onion
4. 5 chipotle chilies, each in separate small bags
5. 5 lumps of tomato past, each in separate small bags
6. walnuts
7. almonds
8. pecans
9. pistachios
10. pine nuts
11. orange juice concentrate
12. lemon juice ice cubes
13. orange zest
14. lemon zest
15. basil cubes (from Trader Joe's)
16. flour tortillas
17. corn tortillas
18. discos (for making empanadas)
19. shredded cheddar
20. shredded pepper jack
21. shredded mozzarella
22. almond flour
23. mixed vegetables
24. blueberries
25. rhubarb
26. strawberries
27. raspberries
28. Cool Whip

And that's just the upstairs freezer, which is part of the refrigerator. The downstairs freezer is full of beef, chicken, pork, sausage, bacon, fish, bread, rolls, corn dogs, and Don's Klondike bars (they were on sale).

Now for an update on my Ten in 10 challenge. So far I've done fairly well on the eating front - with the exception of the fried potatoes Friday night. It's continuing to be a challenge to eat both low-carb and low-calorie at the same time - usually my low-carb go-to foods are high in fat. Take the almonds I got last weekend, for example. They're a great snack, but high-calorie. They do have the good kind of fat in them, so I'll continue to eat those when I want something savory (there are no potato chips in the house any more!).

Kitchen Stashbusting Update #1

2010-01-07T11:45:00.000-08:00

I really haven't used a whole lot out of my kitchen yet. The night I made the first post about this (Tuesday), I made Cheesy Broccoli-Potato Soup, and served it with some homemade wheat toast I'd made in the bread machine.

Cheesy Broccoli-Potato Soup

1 small head broccoli, stems removed
2 cups water
1 medium potato (the size of an orange), peeled and diced
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 cup cubed Velveeta (yes, Velveeta - I use it all the time)
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper (you can use black if you don't have the white)
1/4 teaspoon ground mustard powder

Cut the broccoli into small pieces, and bring to a boil in the water. Cook for 10 minutes, then mash with a potato masher. Do not drain. While the broccoli is cooking, sauté the potato and onion in the oil until potato is tender. It doesn't need to brown much. Add to broccoli and water. Put Velveeta, flour and milk in a blender, and pulse until the cheese is in small bits. Add to broccoli-potato mixture, along with the pepper and mustard powder. Simmer over low heat until cheese has melted and soup has thickened. Serves 4.

On Wednesday, breakfast was a leftover Spinach-Artichoke Bread Soufflé, and lunch was leftover soup. My afternoon snack was a slice of the Breakfast Bundt Bread. I had a Rep Council meeting in the afternoon, and we had some fried chicken and vegetables - so that was dinner.

This morning was more of the Breakfast Bundt Bread, and lunch will be a canned pasta from my lunch stash here at the office. I haven't decided what to fix for dinner - I need to use up some lettuce, so there will be a salad, but I will decide on the main course later.

I took a little time yesterday to take an inventory, and I'm embarrassed about how much food I really do have. With the exception of milk, eggs, lettuce and tomatoes, I could probably feed us for 2 months. No kidding. Right now it's ridiculously easy since there's so much in the pantry, the fridge, and the freezer, but I know that eventually it will get a little more challenging. But stick with me.

Here are a few rules I've had to give myself for my challenge:
1. I can buy milk, eggs, and butter/margarine when I run out.
2. I can buy the significant condiments (ketchup, mustard, etc.) when I run out, unless it's something I can make from scratch. And no, I'm not going to make ketchup from scratch. : )
3. I can buy lettuce, tomatoes, and other salad-related produce when needed. But I need to use up a lot of frozen and canned veggies, so no immediate purchases of other vegetables.
4. When the side dishes get very slim, I can purchase FRESH vegetables only.
5. I get to make up my own rules as I go along, since this is my challenge.
6. I will try to make healthy foods. TRY.

A Challenge: Stashbusting in my Kitchen

2010-01-05T16:44:00.000-08:00

As many of my friends and family know, I'm a quilter, who used to be a cross-stitcher, who used to scrapbook and rubber stamp. In those crafty worlds, "stash" means all the supplies you have in order to create whatever it is you create. I often find "stashbusting" challenges going on in the quilting world, but have had no desire to participate since I like obtaining new fabric whenever I can.

But this evening I saw a piece on the local news about impulse shopping, and it focused on a mom who was challenged to go a whole week without ever going to the grocery store. I told Don that I'd often thought about doing something like that, because, honestly, I have an overstuffed pantry and freezer. He said, "So why don't you do it? You've got plenty already."

So here goes. I'm going to see how long it will take me to feed the two of us with only what I have in the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry. I think if I have to "cheat" at all, it will be next week, and I'll be wanting some fresh produce. But until then, I have a LOT, as my post below shows.

Anyone want to join me?

Fun Cooking Weekend (and back to work tomorrow!)

2010-01-03T15:03:00.000-08:00

My Saturday morning started with picking up my organic produce share, along with 5 pounds of raw unpasteurized almonds. Our share this week, and what I have used it or will use it for:
fennel - roasted fennel
blueberries - flash frozen and will go in pancakes or waffles
collard greens - sautéed and served with pinto beans and cornbread
spinach - in spinach-artichoke bread soufflés (below)
celery - will be sliced and frozen
broccoli - we like this steamed and buttered
mushrooms - had these sautéed and served with some chicken last night
cucumbers - cucumber salad and chopped in romaine salad
granny smith apples - out of hand, in the breakfast bundt cake (below), in pancakes
bananas - out of hand
onions - in various recipes
leaf lettuce - salad
oranges - out of hand
parsley - in some spaghetti sauce, maybe
carrots - in the breakfast bundt cake (below)

I had gone to Costco earlier in the month, and got 20 pounds of Eagle Mills Ultragrain All-Purpose Flour. It's made with white wheat instead of red, and has twice as much fiber per serving as regular all-purpose flour. What I really like about it is that it can be used cup-for-cup in place of regular apf. The first thing I did was make a loaf of bread with it in the bread machine. Since I was using up a couple cups of whole wheat flour, I used the whole wheat flour recipe that came with the machine. When that was finished and cooled, I used a couple of slices to throw together some little soufflés - though they're not technically soufflés. They're like the little egg pastries you get at Panera Bread - and I made mine with spinach and artichokes.

Spinach Artichoke Bread Soufflés

3 large slices or 4 regular slices whole grain bread, cut in small cubes
2 cups (about 2 large handfuls) spinach leaves (about 1/2 a small bag, if you buy it at the store), finely chopped
1 14-oz can artichoke hearts (not the marinated ones), drained, chopped
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt

Spray the insides of six 6-ounce ramekins with nonstick cooking spray. Divide the cubed bread evenly among the ramekins. Divide the spinach and artichoke hearts evenly among the ramekins, placing on top of the bread. Sprinkle each ramekin with cheese. In a small bowl, mix together the egg, milk, dry mustard, and salt. Pour evenly over each ramekin. Cover ramekins and refrigerate overnight. Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Bake at 350˚ for 25 minutes. Makes 6

In preparation for returning to work, I made Breakfast Bundt Bread, based on a recipe I saw on Being Cheap Never Tasted So Good. Moni had made hers with spelt flour, agave, carrots, and raisins. I made mine with the ultragrain flour, brown sugar and apple juice, carrots, dates, and apples. Since I used so much more fruit than Moni did, I increased the batter by half - resulting in a larger cake than hers. Don and I will have this for breakfast a few mornings this week.

Breakfast Bundt Bread
adapted from Being Cheap Never Tasted So Good

3 cups flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup apple juice
2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup chopped dates
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I used both)
1 medium apple, cored and chopped (no need to peel it)

Preheat oven to 350˚. Spray a bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray (for best results, use the kind mixed with flour). In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, oil, and apple juice. Fold in the dry ingredients. If the batter is dry, add a little more apple juice. Fold in the carrots, dates, nuts, and apple, and spread in bunt pan. Bake approximately 40 minutes. Cake is ready when the top springs back lightly when touched and toothpick tester comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan; cool another half hour before trying to slice it.

This next recipe is something I've had for years and never tried - and now I'm kicking myself for it since it's wonderful. You can use pecans or walnuts, too - they're all good for you.

Sugar and Spice Almonds

⅓ cup brown sugar
⅔ cup white sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pound almonds
1 egg white, room temperature
1 tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 300˚. In a medium bowl, mix together sugars, salt, cayenne, and cinnamon. Reserve. In a large bowl, beat egg white until frothy but not stiff; add water and stir until combined. Add almonds and stir to coat evenly. Sprinkle nuts with sugar mixture and stir until evenly coated. Spread sugared nuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet fitted with a Silpat nonstick liner or parchment paper. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally as needed. Remove from the oven and separate nuts as they cool. Let cool for at least an hour before serving.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T19:44:00.000-08:00

Note to self: make this again next year!

The soup above was made with the black-eye peas that we were going to just eat out of a can with our BLTs for dinner. (We always have black-eye peas on New Year's Day, don't you?) Kenny mentioned he wanted soup, so I came up with this.

Black-Eye Pea Soup

1 tablespoon bacon grease or oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 medium carrot, chopped (I used 5 baby carrots)
1 15-oz. can black-eye peas, UNdrained
3 cups chicken broth
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon Spike seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup orzo

In a heavy saucepot, sauté the onion and carrot in the oil until onion is tender. Add black-eye peas, chicken broth, thyme, parsley, Spike, and black pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer for at least 30 minutes (the carrot needs to get tender). Add the orzo, and bring heat up to medium-high. Cook until orzo is tender, about 8-10 minutes. Serves 3.

This is the whole wheat and rye bread we had our BLTs on. I made it in the bread machine with mostly whole wheat flour. I chose to leave the caraway seeds out since we had a bit with our breakfast and I'm just not into caraway seeds for breakfast.

Whole Wheat and Rye Bread
Bread Machine Recipe - makes a 2-pound loaf

1 2/3 cups lukewarm water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup molasses
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons dry milk powder
1 1/2 cups rye flour
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast *

Place ingredients in bread machine pan in the order listed. Use "whole wheat" cycle.

* I live at 6,000', so I use only 3 teaspoons yeast. Otherwise I get a "bowling ball."

And what's this? It's the 30-year-old spatter screen that I retired on Christmas day, since Don got me a new one.

Ten in 10 - I'm Taking the Challenge

2009-12-26T21:38:00.000-08:00

After choosing to just skim past the posts about this on recipe girl's blog, I slapped myself upside my head and realized that I really need to do this.

My goals:

1. Lower my blood sugar.
2. Lose a little weight.
3. Eat and cook "healthy" - which for me, means low carb.

I'm going to have to make Kenny and Don finish the holiday treats, right? Well, I know they were good.

If you're interested in joining in, go HERE.

Roasting pumpkins again

2009-12-21T12:11:00.000-08:00

This was in the bag of potatoes.

This is a Cinderella pumpkin, which is supposed to be one of the best varieties for roasting.

Very simple directions:
1. Cut open the pumpkin and scrape out the seeds and membranes. Cut the pumpkin in large chucks.
2. Place chunks flesh side down on a cookie sheet.
3. Roast at 350˚ for about 90 minutes.
4. Peel skin off.
5. Pureé in food processor until smooth.
6. Store in 1-cup or 1-pint plastic zip bags in freezer. (A 1-pint bag equals one small can of pumpkin.)

Ritz Cracker Pie

2009-12-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

First let me clarify that this is NOT the "mock apple pie" that some people have tried (not me). This is made in a pie plate, but could just as easily be made in a small cake pan or baking dish. I have seen variations, including one with chocolate chips thrown in that I might try soon, but this is the original.

Ritz Cracker Pie

3 egg whites
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sugar
20 crumbled Ritz crackers (no substitutes)
1 ½ cups chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla
cool whip, dream whip or whipped cream

Preheat oven to 325. Grease a 9 inch pie pan. Beat egg whites and baking powder until stiff. Blend in sugar and add crackers, pecans and vanilla. Pour into pie pan and bake 30 minutes. Cool completely and top with whipped topping of choice. I used real whipped cream, sweetened slightly with a little sugar. Chill in refrigerator.

Roast Beef Hash - almost as good as Mom's

2009-11-30T18:43:00.000-08:00

When I was growing up, Mom made roast beef at least once a month. She made sure to use lots of carrots and potatoes, since we loved the hash she made with the leftovers (if there were any!). I've had a craving for that hash, but didn't want to start with a roast and cook all day. So, believe it or not, I was able to recreate that same flavor using canned roast beef from Costco. There are two kinds of canned roast beef - one is hunks of beef in a brown gravy, and the other is what I used - hunks of brisket in beef broth. I added some burgundy, which Mom never did, but otherwise, this came out pretty close to how I remember hers.

Roast Beef Hash

carrots, diced (about a cup)
potatoes, diced (about 2 cups)
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
salt and pepper
1 12-oz. can roast beef in beef broth, undrained
1/4 cup burgundy
1/4 to 1/2 cup water or beef broth

In a small saucepan, boil the carrots in a cup or so of water for about 10 minutes, or until nearly tender. Add the potatoes and a little more water, and continue boiling another 10 minutes or until carrots and potatoes are tender. Drain. In a large skillet, saute the onion in the butter until tender. Sprinkle with flour, salt, and pepper, and cook another 2 minutes. Add beef and broth from can, burgundy, and 1/4 cup water or beef broth. Stir and cook over medium heat a couple of minutes until thickened. Add carrots and potatoes, and heat through. Serve over some soft bread. Remember Mom fondly.

Baked Cabbage and Braised Autumn Pork Chops

2009-11-30T18:33:00.000-08:00

I hauled a big head of cabbage to Lake Mead and back, and decided Sunday night I needed to use it before it went bad. We weren't in the mood for cole slaw or any other kind of salad, and since we were having pork chops, this recipe sounded like it would go well with them.

Baked Cabbage
from recipezaar.com

1 medium cabbage
2 eggs, lightly beaten
6 tablespoons butter, melted
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs

Preheat over to 375 degrees. Grease a 2-quart casserole. Cook cabbage in boiling, salted water for 10 minutes. Drain and let cool; chop finely. In mixing bowl, blend eggs, 3 Tablespoons butter, cream, salt and pepper; stir in cabbage.Turn into casserole dish. Blend remaining butter with bread crumbs and sprinkle over cabbage. Bake 30 minutes.

* Note: You might want to use some paper towels to dry the cabbage thoroughly before chopping it.

To go with the cabbage, I tried a recipe for pork chops that was in my old notebook - it sounded like something that was appropriate for Sunday. A cold winter storm had just come through southern California, and left several inches of snow behind.

Braised Autumn Pork Chops

2 boneless pork chops
¼ teaspoon salt
dash pepper
1 teaspoon canola oil
¾ cup thinly sliced onion (about 1 medium)
1 rib celery, diced
½ cup apple juice
2 teaspoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon sage

Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. In a nonstick skillet, cook meat in oil for about 3 minutes on each side or until browned; drain. Remove meat; keep warm. In same skillet, cook onion and celery for about 4 minutes or until tender. Stir in the apple cider, vinegar and sage. Return meat to skillet. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until meat is tender.

Brown Sugar Banana Bread

2009-11-30T18:14:00.000-08:00

(another recipe from the old notebook)

Don loves "sweet" breakfasts when I'm working and don't make time to cook - so I make him things like muffins, waffles, and quick breads that he can just grab and eat. This recipe is a bit different than other banana breads I've made since it's sweetened with brown sugar instead of white.

Brown Sugar Banana Bread

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 3/4 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 4 medium)
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons walnut or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 - 2/3 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Preheat oven to 325˚. Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon in a large bowl, and stir to mix well. Put the banana and brown sugar in a medium bowl, and stir until the brown sugar has dissolved. Add the banana mixture, oil, and vanilla to the flour mixture, and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in the walnuts. Coat an 8" x 4" loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray (I use the kind with flour in it ). Spread the batter evenly in the pan and bake at 325˚ for 50-55 minutes, or just until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes, then remove from pan to finish cooling on a wire rack. Refrigerate any leftovers not eaten within 24 hours.

Confetti Chicken

2009-11-30T18:05:00.000-08:00

I have two recipe collections - MacGourmet, which I use 99% of the time, and my old, typewritten collection, which is in a 3-ring binder in the kitchen. Several times I've gone through it and added recipes from it to MacGourmet, but this one slipped through the cracks. I used to make this often, and when I saw it recently I knew we had to have it so I could post it and then transfer it over to the computerized collection.

This recipe was one that I got through a mail-order cookbook - I don't remember what it was called, and I no longer have it. But you were given the binders for free, and each month you were sent sections of recipes for the binders. I still use a lot of the recipes that were in that cookbook. This one combines roasted chicken, which I now do with boneless breasts and thighs, and roasted potatoes, one of my weaknesses. I make sure now that Don eats 3/4 of the potatoes so I don't overdo.

Confetti Chicken

2 tablespoons oil
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 sweet red pepper, chopped
2 lbs. chicken pieces
2 ½ teaspoons lemon juice
6 small to med. red potatoes, halved
2 tablespoons white wine
salt, pepper, paprika
1 teaspoon dried rosemary

Preheat oven to 375˚. Mix oil and garlic. Arrange chicken and potatoes in a shallow roasting pan. Brush well with oil and sprinkle with half the rosemary, and salt, pepper, and paprika to taste. Bake 25 minutes. Remove from oven, turn chicken and potatoes; sprinkle with remaining rosemary, salt, pepper, and paprika to taste. Bake 25 minutes longer and check for doneness. Chicken should be crisp and lightly browned. Sprinkle green onions and red pepper over chicken, and bake 5 more minutes. Sprinkle lemon juice and wine over chicken. Place on hot platter and pour any pan juices over it. Serve hot.

Being Borderline Diabetic...

2009-11-09T12:22:00.000-08:00

...is really the same as being diabetic. I have to watch the carbs, cook and eat carefully, and test my blood sugar. The only difference is that I only check my blood sugar 2 times a week, fasting (in the morning before breakfast). (I made a big mistake on Saturday - I pricked my finger while sewing, and thought, "why not use this little blood to do a blood test?" It was right after lunch.... totally freaked me out how high it was! But this morning it was normal. Whew!)

I've learned how to "tweak" so many recipes, added so many new recipes to my repertoire, and continue to try new things - while I know I'm eating healthier, it just get so frustrating. I just hate it that so many good foods are so bad for me.

What does a diabetic eat for breakfast? I would love to keep working on this list - it's rather limiting, and you can't eat eggs all the time. I don't care that much for oatmeal, but I'll eat it just to have variety. What I really need is recipes for work mornings - things I can grab and take with me.

1. eggs - fixed every way you can think of
a. egg/cheese quesadillas on whole grain tortillas
b. migas (eggs scrambled with tortilla chips and salsa)
c. scrambled
d. "fried" (with nonstick cooking spray)
e. egg "muffins"
f. Huevos Rancheros
g. Sausage-Egg Breakfast Quesadillas
h. Mexican Soufflé

2. oatmeal - with additions like pumpkin purée or peanut butter
3. whole grain waffles - spread with cream cheese (Kraft makes some good flavors)
4. whole grain pancakes - with sugar-free syrup (Carey's tastes the best to me)

I started a list of general changes and tweaks - and will keep adding to it as I go. But it's been a long process, and continues to change every day. I fall off the wagon and climb back on all the time - you really have to take it one meal, one snack at a time.

Changes and Tweaks:

1. morning coffee - I use Splenda and sugar-free Coffeemate
2. white flour is no longer found in my kitchen - I use whole wheat, even for thickening gravy
3. Splenda granular - I now buy it by the "5-lb." bag, and the canister of sugar that used to be refilled monthly now gets refilled once a year.
4. fresh vegetables - we used to stock up on canned vegetables, which are still fine, but we rarely use them any more. I cook more fresh vegetables than ever before.
5. fewer potatoes - potatoes are my favorite "vegetable," and I've relegated them to an afterthought on most menus - if we have them, I deliberately make half of what I used to make, and serve Don the much larger serving.
6. substitutes for potatoes - I used to have potatoes as a side dish with nearly every meal (unless we had pasta - but that's another change). My mind still wants a white or yellow starch - so I use brown rice, turnips, cauliflower, okra, cabbage, sweet potatoes (sparingly), squash, corn, and other non-potato vegetables.
7. Dreamfields pasta - since it has a lower glycemic value (fewer digestible carbs), that's all we eat. I no longer buy any other kind. I wish, though, that Dreamfields made orzo or couscous.
8. If any ready-made product, such as ice cream, pancake syrup, or whipped topping, comes in a sugar-free version, that's what I buy. The only exceptions so far have been sweet pickles and jelly. The sugar-free versions of those were just nasty.
9. brown rice - I no longer buy any kind of white rice, with the exception of Uncle Ben's Converted - which, in addition to having a lower glycemic value than regular white rice, is good for making Spanish Rice.
10. fresh baby carrots as a substitute for potato chips - I have to have something with my sandwiches for lunch, and these give me that crunch.
11. popcorn as an occasional substitute for potato chips

This post will change often, as I learn more things about eating as a borderline diabetic. I'm open to all suggestions and ideas.

Roasting Pumpkins

2009-11-08T12:12:00.002-08:00

Two weeks ago, before Halloween, I saw various posts on different blogs about roasting pumpkin to make pumpkin purée. Ree on Pioneer Woman said to make sure that I had a "sugar pumpkin" instead of the normal jack-o-lantern type, so I went in search of one. The first place I went to, our local fresh vegetable stand, had lots and lots of orange pumpkins. When I asked about "sugar pumpkins," the gal at the front said they only had "those," pointing to the ones outside. Since I was short on time, I grabbed two that were about the same size and took them home.

They were both small, so I decided to roast them at the same time. As I was cutting them up, I noticed that one had darker flesh than the other - but the difference between the two was more noticeable after they'd been roasted. For these two, I followed Ree's directions of cutting them in quarters (or eighths, depending on the size of the pumpkin), scooping out the guts, and then roasting at 350˚ for about 45 minutes. Next I peeled them. The one with the darkest flesh was very difficult to peel while the other one had stringy flesh and had peel that came off easily. I decided to mix them together while puréeing, and ended up making 6 cups of purée. This I froze in 2-cup bags. I've already used that purée up - in pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin butter.

The pumpkin butter recipe comes courtesy of Kevin, whose blog is called Closet Cooking. It tastes like pumpkin pie! I'm glad I discovered his blog - so many wonderful recipes.

Pumpkin Butter
from Kevin of Closet Cooking

2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup apple cider
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cloves

Simmer everything in a pot until most of the liquid has evaporated and the sauce has thickened.

As it got closer to Halloween, I decided to go ahead and spend a bit more money on my pumpkins. I went to Live Oak Canyon Pumpkin Patch - not even 2 miles from my office - and asked for assistance in finding pumpkins meant for eating. They advertise that they have over 50 varieties of pumpkins - so it was quite fun to explore and try to pick out the "right" ones for me. These are the ones I got:

The large orange one is called a Cinderella. The gray-green one is appropriately called an Ironbark. The white one is a Casper.

Here's the Ironbark before I roasted it. This time, I followed the directions that were in a handout from the pumpkin patch and roasted it whole. I set the oven to 35o˚, put the pumpkin on a cookie sheet, and roasted it for 90 minutes.

This is the Ironbark after it was roasted and quartered. I decided I liked the other method better - where I cut it up before I roasted it. The flesh came out more evenly cooked that way. But this pumpkin had very smooth flesh that puréed easily without having to add any water.

Still down in the basement are the Cinderella and the Casper - they're supposed to last for months, so I'll do the next one in a couple of weeks.

How Time Flies!

2009-11-07T20:34:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe it's been over a month since I posted last! That's terrible; inexcusable - but I've been busy. I've been busy at work, since the California budget is in the tanks and our governor and legislators are idiots, and it's been affecting everything our district does. I've been busy at home - yes, I've been cooking - I even took pictures, but for a while I just didn't want to connect that little cord from the camera to the computer to transfer the photos. I DO want to share a fabulous new recipe I got from my friend Chris. He brought it to the Halloween party I went to; it was potluck and I brought my mom's macaroni salad. What Chris actually brought was a salad made with orzo, but since I need to lower the carbs, I made this today with brown rice. It has a lower glycemic value, and the salad still was yummy.

Debbie's Orzo Salad with Feta
from Chris Brunette

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons honey
1/2 cup olive oil
1 box orzo (alternately, you can use 2 cups of brown rice)
6 cups chicken broth/stock (I cheat and use powdered bouillon)
2 cups grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced (green parts, too)
1 cup chopped fresh basil
6-7 oz. crumbled feta (I used a 6-oz. container from Trader Joe's)
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

In a small bowl, make the dressing: Whisk together the vinegar, lemon juice, and honey. Whisk in the olive oil.

In a large pot, bring the orzo or rice to a boil in the chicken stock. Boil until tender (orzo - about 7 minutes; rice - 40 minutes). Drain and rinse with cold water. Add remaining ingredients and toss with the dresssing. Makes about 12 servings; keeps well several days in refrigerator.

Another Winner from Ruth

2009-10-01T18:11:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading my blog for several years, you'll remember that I tested recipes for Ruth as she was preparing for publication of her cookbook, Every Kitchen Tells Its Stories. Some of my favorites were her chili, her chocolate bark, and her sour cream coffee cake.

Last week, Ruth posted a recipe for roasted Italian sausage, along with some mushrooms and potatoes. It definitely sounded like something I wanted to try, so that's what we had for dinner tonight. Oh, MY! It's a keeper - and a new favorite. I've only recently started eating Italian sausage in ways other than my father-in-law's sausage and peppers, and I really like this way a lot.

I made a couple of small changes to Ruth's recipe - I had a half a basket of cherry tomatoes that we needed to use, so I tossed them in there, and I used hot Italian sausage instead of the sweet. I also cooked everything longer - 45 minutes did the trick for us. But the basic recipe is the same as Ruth's.

Italian Sausage, Potato, and Mushroom Roast

1-2 tbsp olive oil
4 Italian sausages (I used hot, but Ruth recommends sweet)
2 red onions, peeled and cut into wedges
1 8 oz. basket cherry tomatoes (not in Ruth's recipe)
4 small new potatoes, cut in eighths
8 oz. cremini mushrooms, (quarter large ones, leave smaller ones whole or halved)
Salt & freshly ground pepper
1-2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
1 heaping tsp fresh rosemary leaves, chopped (I used 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary)

1. Preheat to 400°F/200°C. Drizzle a little olive oil in the bottom of a roasting pan large enough to hold everything in one layer.

2. Toss all the ingredients in the pan and roast until done, stirring occasionally (Ruth's recipe said 30 minutes; I cooked mine for 45)

If you want to get Ruth's fabulous cookbook, which is also available on CD, go here.

Apple Blintz Pancakes

2009-09-27T11:47:00.000-07:00

I love pancakes. I love all kinds of pancakes, and when I saw this recipe in Real Simple magazine, I knew Don and I would like it. The cottage cheese adds some protein and cuts the carbs a bit, and since the only sugar is the little bit added to the apples, it's not as sweet as if we'd had syrup on our pancakes. The original recipe in Real Simple called for applesauce; I wanted to use some of the apples we got in our organic produce distributions. The filling is simple: dice up a couple apples (don't worry about the peel - I never peel apples in any recipes), and sauté them in a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of brown sugar (I used Splenda Brown Sugar Blend) until they're softened but not mushy.

Next, make the pancakes:

1 cup pancake mix (I used Trader Joe's multigrain baking mix, but any pancake mix will do)
* 1 egg
* 1/4 cup cottage cheese
* 1 cup whole milk
* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
* 3/4 cup sour cream

Place the pancake mix in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, cottage cheese, milk, oil, and ¼ cup of the sour cream. Stir the wet ingredients into the pancake mix and whisk just to combine. Let the batter rest according to the pancake-mix label directions (or for 5 minutes if you make your own mix). Place a nonstick griddle or skillet coated with oil, butter, or cooking spray over medium-high heat. Spoon or pour about 1/3 cup of batter for each pancake onto the griddle. Turn when bubbles rise to the surface and the edges look cooked. Repeat with the remaining batter. Before serving, spoon some of the apples onto one half of each pancake; fold in half and top with some of the remaining sour cream.

The ONLY way to cook fresh Bonito

2009-09-27T11:38:00.000-07:00

Bonito is a kind of fish very closely related to tuna. There are some places that even call bonito "skipjack tuna," but the two are not the same thing. Last weekend Don went fishing out of San Diego, and in addition to 10 nice calico bass, he brought back four bonito fillets. We eat bonito grilled, and of course, fresh. I put it in the marinade Sunday morning, and we grilled it that afternoon - not even 24 hours off the boat.

Here's Don all geared up for the grill - notice the requisite beer? He cannot grill anything without a couple beers to keep him company.

Grilled Bonito

1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup lime juice
four to six bonito fillets

Mix melted butter, Worcestershire, and lime juice in a gallon-sized zip bag. Add fillets, and marinate at least 4 hours. Remove fish from bag and grill in a grill basket until done (about 10 minutes on each side).

Pioneer Woman's Coq Au Vin

2009-09-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

I'm not EVEN going to post my photo of the Coq Au Vin I made last week. Mine looks pale and washed out. Do you want to see what it really should look like? Go HERE.

Regardless of how mine looked, it tasted fabulous. I've never tried the "traditional" version of Coq Au Vin, but when I saw Ree's version, I had to try it. So rich and tasty.

Coq Au Vin
from Ree Drummond - Pioneer Woman

1 whole cut up fryer chicken (this is a whole chicken the butcher has cut into pieces.)
4 slices bacon, cut into small pieces
½ medium onion, diced
½ cup roughly chopped carrots, washed and unpeeled
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons butter
1 lb. sliced white mushrooms
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups Burgundy wine
1 lb. pasta (egg noodles or fettuccine)
2 tablespoons butter
Fresh minced parsley
Salt and Pepper to taste
Sautee bacon pieces in a large skillet over medium low heat until fat is rendered. Remove bacon from the skillet and set aside. Increase heat to medium.
Salt fat site of chicken pieces, then place chicken, fat side down, in skillet and cook in bacon grease until both sides are nice and golden brown. Remove from pan and set aside in a 2-quart baking dish, skin side up.
Saute onions, carrots and garlic in bacon grease until onions are translucent, about 3 minutes. Remove from grease with slotted spoon and set aside.
In a separate skillet, saute mushrooms in 2 tablespoons butter until golden, about 3 minutes. Set aside.
Layer half of the bacon pieces, carrot/onion mixture, and mushrooms in pan with chicken.
Drain most of the grease from the large skillet, then place over medium heat. Add flour to make a roux. Pour in 2 cups Burgundy wine, using a wire whisk to scrape loose all the burned/brown bits. Lightly salt liquid and allow to cook for 3 minutes. Pour over chicken and vegetables. Cover and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 1/2 hours.
Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and toss with 2 tablespoons butter.
Serve chicken in a pasta bowl with noodles, sprinkling minced parsley over the top. Spoon juice from baking dish over the top of everything.

Chicken in the Crock Pot - a new (to me) recipe

2009-09-24T12:14:00.000-07:00

The best crock pot recipes, in my opinion, are those that don't require any browning or pre-cooking of the ingredients. I want to be able to just put things in the crock pot, turn it on, and come home to a finished dish. This recipes fits in that category, except for the rice that needed to be made when I got home.

Brown Sugar Chicken

2 lbs. boneless chicken pieces (I used 4 boneless thighs and 2 boneless breasts, which I cut in half)
1 cup packed brown sugar
⅔ cup vinegar
¼ cup lemon lime soda (this could probably be omitted)
2-3 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper

Place chicken pieces in your slow cooker. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over the top of chicken. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Serve with rice.

Note: If you'd like thicker sauce you could add a cornstarch-water slurry (1 Tbsp cornstarch + 2 Tbsp cold water) about 20 minutes before serving to the liquid in the crockpot.

Verdict: A definite keeper; a recipe we'll have again and again. The chicken almost fell apart - even the breasts are tender instead of dry and tough.

Another Donna Hay recipe: Chicken Roasted on Eggplant and Tomatoes

2009-09-18T19:06:00.000-07:00

I was first "introduced" to Donna Hay about 3 years ago when I participated in a Donna Hay cooking challenge. This recipe is from her book the instant cook, which has simple, quick recipes with very few ingredients. I spent this afternoon with my daughter at a car dealership (shoot me NOW) and needed something that came together quickly yet would feed my hungry hubby. With a green salad, this was a tasty, low-carb dinner.

Chicken Roasted on Eggplant and Tomatoes
from Donna Hay

1 small eggplant, thickly sliced
2 roma tomatoes, sliced
1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves
salt and coarse ground pepper to taste
2 chicken breast fillets, cut in half
½ cup grated Parmesan
½ cup grated mozzarella cheese

Preheat the oven to 350˚. Line a baking tray with baking paper (I used Reynolds' Parchment). Place the eggplant slices on the tray and top with the tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper. Top each pile with a chicken breast fillet and sprinkle with the parmesan and mozzarella. Bake for 20 minutes or until the cheese is golden and the chicken cooked through. Serves 2-3.

Sour Cream Cake - a childhood delight

2009-09-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

When we lived at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, when I was in junior high school, a woman named Carol Scott lived upstairs from us. She gave Mom this recipe - in 1971 - and this cake became a Floyd family favorite. Mom included the recipe in an album of recipes she gave all of us kids about 18 years ago - and I can't believe that I've never made it until now. It is, in Don's opinion, "the best pound cake I have ever had!" I guess it's a pound cake. But it's better than any pound cake you can buy or make. Really.

Sour Cream Cake
Carol Scott, Ramstein AB Germany, 1971

1 cup butter, soften
3 cups sugar
6 eggs, separated
3 cups flour, sifted
1 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 300˚. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time. Add flour, alternating with the sour cream, until all is well-blended. Wash the beaters well, and in a separate bowl, cream the egg whites until stiff. Fold the egg whites by had into the cake batter, and pour into a greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 300˚ for 1 hour (check at 50 and 55 minutes with toothpick). Cool on wire rack about 15 minutes, then turn out onto a plate. Store covered.

My Most Favorite Pie in the Whole Wide World

2009-08-23T14:42:00.001-07:00

I grew up eating and loving this pie. We always called it Lemon Meringue Pie. I was shocked in my teens to learn that most of the public think Lemon Meringue Pie has a transluscent filling, consisting of eggs, lemon juice, and cornstarch. Yuck. Nope, OUR Lemon Meringue Pie has a filling similar to the filling in a key lime pie. It's made with sweetened condensed milk, and if I didn't have a crust, I could eat the filling out of a bowl with a spoon.

I experimented with the crust this time. Normally I would make a graham cracker crust. This time, I added 1/3 cup of finely ground almonds to the ground graham crackers. Yum! We both thought it was a great addition.

Lemon Meringe Pie

Crust:
1 pkg. (about 9) graham crackers
1/3 cup finely ground almonds
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted

Filling:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 Tablespoon grated lemon peel
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
3 egg yolks

Meringue:
3 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/3 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350˚. Put graham crackers in a gallon-sized ziploc bag. Use a rolling pin to smash into fine crumbs. Add almonds, and sugar, and then pour into a small bowl. Add melted butter. Pour mixture into a 9" pie plate (or use a 9-10" springform pan). Bake 6 minutes. Cool 15-20 minutes. Combine filling ingredients in a medium bowl and then pour into pie crust. To make the meringue: in a small mixing bowl mix egg yolks and cream of tartar on high speed. When mixture is frothy, slowly add sugar, mixing until stiff peaks form. You want the sugar dissolved into the egg whites - to test this, rub a small amount between your fingers. You should not feel any sugar grains. Spread meringue on top of filling and bake at 325˚ until lightly brown, 15-20 minutes. Cool at room temperature for 1 hour, then chill until thoroughly cold

Quick-fix from frozen berries: Mixed Berry Pie

2009-08-23T14:34:00.000-07:00

I keep a bag of frozen mixed berries from Costco in my freezer - and pull some out for quick and easy desserts. We've had them over ice cream, with shortcake and whipped cream, in cobblers, cakes, and muffins, and in pies. Last week I made a pie. It's a simple fix: Preheat oven to 425˚. Take 5-6 cups of frozen mixed berries and put in a large bowl so they start to thaw. Toss them with about 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar or Splenda, 2 Tablespoons of melted butter, and 2 Tablespoons of tapioca (the tapioca helps thicken the filling). When they're partially thawed (or even totally thawed), pour into an unbaked pie shell and top with another crust. Use a shield or foil to protect the edge of the crust from burning. Bake for 10 minutes at 425˚, then lower the temperature to 350˚ and bake another 40 - 45 minutes.

More Take-Alongs: Breakfast in a Muffin

2009-08-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

Remember my Grab 'n Go Pumpkin Waffles and Take-Along Breakfast Pockets? Here's another great take-along breakfast. I've done some tinkering with a recipe I found on recipezaar (I think) and added fiber, lowered the sugar, and raised the protein. These were great warm, and are also fine eaten cold while I drive to work.

Breakfast in a Muffin
makes 22-24

6 eggs
¼ cup applesauce
1 cup flour
⅓ cup rolled oats
½ cup sugar
½ cup Splenda
1 Tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
2 Tablespoons bacon bits

Preheat oven to 350˚. Evenly coat 12 (3-inch) muffin cups with cooking spray. In a large bowl, beat together eggs and applesauce until well blended. Add flour, rolled oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and pepper. Beat until well combined. Stir in cheese, parsley, and bacon bits. Divide batter evenly among the 12 cups.
Bake until lightly browned, and toothpick comes out clean when inserted, about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

Sunday Visitor

2009-08-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

Don and I were watching the end of the golf tournament, and were startled by the crashing and ringing of our wind chimes that hang right outside the kitchen window. I said, "Must be a squirrel hanging on my chimes." They kept swinging and crashing, so Don got up to look. As soon as he got to the window, he saw the bear paw come down from the roof and swipe at the chimes again. He said, "Nope, it's a bear." I didn't believe him, and got up to look just as the bear jumped from the roof to the tree next to the house. As it clambered down the tree, we heard our neighbors yelling at us to come outside and look. They'd followed it down the street as it must have smelled the brownies I was baking. Since there were 5 of us outside at the front of the house, the bear tried to jump over the back fence - and as soon as he was on the other side, a dog chased him back over into our yard. Here he is slowly making his way towards me.

As he got closer, and saw several people in his way (yeah, we should have left him alone), he climbed up the big tree to the roof again and wandered around on our roof for a while.

Don went inside and closed the windows, fearing that the bear wanted the brownies I'd just pulled from the oven. After about 5 minutes of wandering around on the roof, the bear climbed down our chimney to the deck, then jumped off the deck and ran down the street.

Just yesterday, the Forest Service re-opened the picnic area and trailhead that are about a half mile from our house - they'd been closed since the 7th of July because people were feeding a bear there (probably this one). Don blames today's visit on Melanie's brownies.

And here they are - full of sugar and fat and evil gooey-ness. We are going to do our best to eat these sssslllloooowwwwwllllyyyy.

Deep Dark Chocolate Brownies
from Melanie of My Kitchen Cafe

2 sticks (8 oz) butter
8 ounces good-quality semisweet chocolate
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 large eggs
⅓ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 13×9 inch metal pan with foil and spray foil with cooking spray. Alternatively, you may use parchment. These are pretty sticky at first!

Melt butter and chocolate in a 3-qt heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring, until smooth. Add 1 cup of the sugar to the hot chocolate mixture. Remove from heat and let cool to lukewarm.

Whisk in remaining 1 cup sugar and vanilla. Whisk in eggs 1 at a time until mixture is glossy and smooth. Whisk in salt and cocoa powder, then add flour and stir until it disappears (do not overbeat).

Spread in pan and bake until a pick inserted in center comes out with crumbs, 25 to 35 minutes. Cool to room temperature then chill for an hour or more. Lift from pan, place on a cutting board, cut into squares.

Makes 1 13×9 inch pan (yield depends on how big you cut your brownies, but they are rich, so small is fine.

Recipe for Yucatan-Marinated Grilled Chicken

2009-08-08T18:52:00.001-07:00

1 cup orange juice
2 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 clove garlic, chopped
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in half, or 8 small boneless chicken thighs
Kosher salt to taste
8 leaves of butter lettuce
cilantro

In a pan or bowl, whisk together orange and lime juices, chile powder and garlic. Add chicken and turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate 4 to 6 hours or overnight. Remove chicken from marinade. Grill or broil about 4 minutes per side, or until cooked completely.

Serving idea: Place each piece of chicken in the center of a lettuce leaf; top with a sprinkling of cilantro. Roll and eat.

Lemon-Blueberry Roll-ups

2009-08-08T18:44:00.001-07:00

I have two inspiration sources for this recipe:
1) Sandra Lee has a new show, and while I'm not a rabid fan, I do like the concept of her show. She takes her "semi-homemade" touch and applies it to cooking inexpensively. I've watched two episodes, and in one of them, she made some apple "pies" using tortillas, peanut butter, and apple pie filling. (In my opinion, if I were to make them, which I probably will, I'll substitute some cream cheese for the peanut butter.)
2) I had some crepes at a food stand during the quilt show in Sisters, Oregon, last month, and they had this filling.

Here's the "recipe:"

1. Cook some flour tortillas (the kind you can get at Costco that are uncooked) until very lightly browned. I suppose you could use regular tortillas, and heat them slightly until they're pliable.
2. Spread each one with a couple tablespoons of canned lemon pie filling.
3. Top the pie filling with a small handful of fresh blueberries (thawed from frozen will do, too).
4. Roll up the tortilla, and top with some sweetened whipped cream. I use Sugar-Free Cool Whip.

Note: I bet these would be even better with some of the lemon curd you can get at Trader Joe's.

Two Rachael Ray Recipes: Chicken Salad PIccata and Jalapeño Popper Mac and Cheese

2009-08-08T18:25:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while I get some time to peruse the recipes on foodtv.com. My favorites usually come from people like Rachael Ray, since they're easy, they're made with ingredients I often have, and many times they're done in 30 minutes.

This one caught my eye because I love chicken piccata, and the idea of a one-dish meal sounded good. (I also think any kind of new potatoes are divine!). I had an Italian potato salad once at Matano's Little Italy (a deli in Yucaipa), and liked the fresh green beans that were in it.

When you make this, be prepared for the contrast between the warm chicken and the cold/cool potatoes and green beans. Once I was mentally prepared for that, it was wonderful. This will be a repeat in our house!

Chicken Salad Piccata
from Rachael Ray

1 ½ lbs. small red potatoes, quartered
½ lb. green beans, halved crosswise
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped capers
¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Grated peel and juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt and pepper
1 large egg
¼ cup flour
Two 6-ounce skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, lightly pounded
¼ cup chicken broth

1. In a large saucepan, add the potatoes and enough salted water to cover by 1 inch. Bring to a boil and cook until almost tender, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a colander. Add the green beans to the boiling water and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Drain in the colander with the potatoes; let cool slightly.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup olive oil, 1 tablespoon capers, 3 tablespoons parsley, the lemon peel and half of the lemon juice. Add the potatoes and beans and toss; season with salt and pepper.
3. In a shallow bowl, beat the egg. In another shallow bowl, season the flour with salt and pepper. In a large nonstick skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Coat the chicken breasts with the seasoned flour, then dip in the egg, allowing any excess to drip off, and coat with the flour again, shaking off the excess. Add to the skillet and cook, turning once, until golden, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and cut into strips.
4. Add the chicken broth to the skillet; cook over medium heat, scraping up any browned bits. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon capers, 1 tablespoon parsley and lemon juice. Top the salad with the chicken and drizzle with the pan sauce.

The next dish was one we had twice this week - once on Tuesday, with some turkey burgers, and then again on Friday with some fish. It makes a LOT, so we still have some leftovers. I saw this in this month's Everyday magazine, and since we like jalapeño poppers, we thought this would be good. It was. I wish it were "gooey-er" though. Don't skimp on the peppers - they might look like a lot when you chop them up, but the cooking lessens the intensity of the capsicum, and I wish I'd added an extra jalapeño.

Jalapeño Popper Mac and Cheese
from Rachael Ray

Salt and pepper
1 lb. hollow, ridged corkscrew pasta, such as cavatappi
Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
3 jalapeño chiles, seeded and thinly sliced
2 serrano chiles, seeded and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 ½ cups whole milk
8 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons dried minced onion
2 cups shredded monterey jack cheese

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and return to the pot. In a skillet, heat a drizzle of EVOO over medium heat. Add the jalapeños, serranos and garlic and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add to the pasta. Preheat the broiler. In a saucepan, combine the milk, cream cheese and onion over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring, until smooth, 5 minutes; stir into the pasta. Stir in the jack cheese; season with salt and pepper. Transfer the pasta to a baking dish and broil until browned, about 3 minutes.

Tinkering with Recipes: Applesauce Puffs

2009-08-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we get tired of eggs or pancakes for breakfast, so this morning I was looking for some muffins. I found this recipe in my files, and decided to tinker with it a little to make it a little healthier.

Here's the original recipe:

Applesauce Puffs

2 c. Bisquick
½ c. sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ c. applesauce
¼ c. milk
1 egg

Mix dry ingredients together. Stir in applesauce, milk and egg. Drop into well greased muffin tins. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes. While still warm dip into melted butter and dip in a mixture of 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Makes 24 muffins.

Now, while I have Bisquick, I hardly ever use it. I prefer using Trader Joe's Multigrain Baking Mix - and I've learned you can use it for any recipe that calls for Bisquick.

Here are the changes I made:

1. Substituted Trader Joe's Multigrain Baking Mix for the Bisquick.
2. Used Cranberry-Raspberry Applesauce + Fiber instead of regular applesauce
3. Used Splenda Granular instead of sugar
4. Added 1/2 cup chopped pecans

So here's my revised recipe:

Applesauce Puffs

2 cups Trader Joe's Multigrain Baking Mix
½ c. Splenda Granular
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ c. Cranberry-Raspberry Applesauce+Fiber
1/2 c. milk
1 egg
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Mix dry ingredients together. Stir in applesauce, milk and egg. Drop into well greased muffin tins. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes. While still warm dip into melted butter and dip in a mixture of 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Makes 24 muffins.

Potato Bundles from Pioneer Woman

2009-08-02T09:36:00.000-07:00

Don wanted steak last night; we hadn't had one in many months. So at the commissary, while I restocked my fridge, freezer and shelves after 6 weeks on the road, I picked up two ribeyes. Originally I'd planned on baking a large potato and sharing it, but I saw these potatoes on Pioneer Woman and had to try them. It won't be the last time - these are GOOD.

Go HERE for Bree's post, with pictures. Mine is much simpler, since I don't document every step with photos. She's a much better photographer. Plus, I forgot to take a picture of them after they were cooked.

Potato Bundles
from The Pioneer Woman

Russet potatoes, cut into chunks

Yellow or white onion, cut into chunks
Butter (regular, salted)
Heavy cream
Kosher salt
Paprika
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons minced parsley

Pile potatoes and onions on a square of foil. Add 2 tablespoons butter, splash on some cream, then sprinkle on salt, paprika, and black pepper. Wrap bundles tightly and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, or until extremely tender.

Imagine a photo of some yummy potatoes here!

Roasted Chickpeas

2009-08-02T08:59:00.000-07:00

Don't these look good? My first try. I made some Four Bean Salad, but the can of garbanzos/chickpeas was one of those double-sized ones. I used half of them for the salad, and made a good snack for Don and me with the rest.

Roasted Chickpeas

1 15-oz can. chickpeas/garbanzo beans
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt

Preheat oven to 425˚. Line a baking sheet with foil (otherwise, the chickpeas leave marks on your baking sheet). Rinse and drain the chickpeas, and dry on paper towels. In a bowl, toss the chickpeas with the olive oil and spread in a single layer on the baking sheet. Sprinkle evenly with cayenne and garlic powder. Don't salt them yet. Roast approximately 30 minutes - keep an eye on them, and when they're all brown, test one for crunchiness. You want them all crunchy, because when they cool, the ones that were still a little chewy become rubbery. When they're all brown and crunchy, cool on paper towels.

Found it! It's Dukkah

2009-07-28T14:16:00.000-07:00

Thanks to SarahKate at Abercrombie & Feast, the recipe I wanted has been found. It's called Dukkah, and I plan to make some as soon as I get back home (we're still on our long camping trip). I'll make some changes - the recipe I found called for, among other things, hazelnuts, fennel, and mint - none of which I like or were in the dukkah I had at Kokanee Cafe. I'll use almonds like they did.

Thanks, SarahKate!

Looking for a recipe

2009-07-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

We ate dinner on my birthday at the Kokanee Cafe in Camp Sherman. Before the meal, the waitress brought out a small plate on which she had placed a little pitcher of olive oil and a container of a mixture she called doha. I even asked her to spell it. It had roasted chopped almonds in it, along with some "middle eastern" spices (her words). We were also given some slices of crusty bread. We were told to put some of the olive oil on the bread, then some of the doha - the olive oil was to help keep it on the bread.

Has anyone heard of this? I would LOVE to get a recipe for it.
Thanks!

Banana-Stuffed French Toast

2009-06-22T19:58:00.000-07:00

Hello from Bridgeport, California, stop # 2 on our summer trip up through California, into Oregon, and back. You can get pictures and details on my travel blog, Wanderlust.

A couple of mornings ago, Don mentioned we still had 2 bananas left, and that they were at the perfect stage of ripeness. He was just going to eat one with breakfast, but I decided to use them IN breakfast. I forgot to take a picture, but trust me, this was wonderful.

Take some eggs and milk and mix them together in a shallow bowl.
Spread slices of bread (I used whole wheat) with some cream cheese. I used brown sugar-cinnamon flavored, but plain would work just fine.
Make sandwiches of the cream cheese-slathered bread with the bananas as a filling (keeping the cream cheese on the inside, of course).
Dunk several times, coating well, in the egg-milk mixture.
Fry on a buttered griddle until browned on both sides.
Serve with some maple syrup. Or not.

Spinach and strawberries on the menu tonight

2009-05-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

Since we got fresh spinach in our distribution Saturday I looked through my recipes for something to make that was different from the usual sautéed spinach. This recipe is from Cooking Light, though instead of using the egg substitute I used real eggs. We liked the flavor - but I felt the egg-flour part was a little dense. I was hoping for something along the Bisquick-type casseroles I've made in the past. I think I'll experiment in the future and try Trader Joe's Bisquick-type baking mix. It's whole grain and makes great pancakes, so it might be good for a dish like this.

Spinach-Cheese Casserole
from Cooking Light

1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 6 oz. packages fresh baby spinach
1 ¼ cups shredded lowfat cheddar cheese
¾ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups fat free milk
1 cup egg substitute (I used 4 eggs)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon ground red pepper

Preheat oven to 350˚. Pour the butter into the bottom of a 13 x 9" baking dish coated with cooking spray; tilt dish to coat. Place spinach evenly in bottom of dish; sprinkle evenly with cheeses.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and remaining ingredients in a medium bowl; stir with a whisk until blended. Pour milk mixture over cheese. Bake 40 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve immediately.

I also had some fresh strawberries, and after seeing this recipe on Kalyn's Kitchen, tried it using Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. It was FABULOUS!

Strawberries Romanof
from Kalyn Denny

1 pound fresh strawberries
1/2 cup sour cream (I used Fage 0% Greek yogurt)
1 T Splenda Brown Sugar Blend, or 2 T brown sugar (or to taste, depending on how sweet you like it)

Be sure to buy the reddest and ripest strawberries you can find for best flavor. Wash strawberries and cut off stems. Cut each strawberry into fourths. Mix sour cream and brown sugar and spoon over strawberries, or stir to coat strawberries. Makes 4 small servings.

I'll try anything once - roasted radishes?

2009-05-17T17:57:00.000-07:00

Yes! Roasted radishes. I saw that Kalyn had tried roasting radishes, using some soy sauce and sesame seeds to finish them, and have planned on trying them if I got radishes in my produce share. Today I got my chance. My share included a bunch of HUGE radishes - several of them were as large as golf balls. Don is eating the smaller ones raw, since he really enjoys them, but I used the larger ones for dinner tonight - along with some of the carrots and onions we received in the share.

Roasted Radishes, Carrots, and Onions

to serve two:
3 medium carrots, cut in 3-4" lengths, then sliced lengthwise
4-5 Mexican green onions, trimmed about 2" from bulb, then split lengthwise
4-5 large radishes, quartered
2-3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and cayenne pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450˚. Toss vegetables in a bowl with olive oil and garlic. Spread in a single layer on a metal cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt and then LIGHTLY with cayenne pepper. Roast in oven approx. 30 minutes (watch for burning). Serve immediately.

While the vegetables were roasting, Don did his thing at the grill - since I, being female, am utterly incapable of cooking anything on the grill. I'd marinated the chicken breasts all day and they maintained the flavor through the grilling.

Asian Grilled Chicken Breasts

1 6-oz. can pineapple juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Combine juice, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, curry powder, and red pepper flakes in a gallon-size ziploc bag. Shake/squeeze to mix. Add chicken, press out the air, seal, and marinate 4-8 hours in the refrigerator. Remove from bag, discard the marinade, and grill until cooked through.

Dessert was a low-sugar peach crumble, made a tad healthier by the addition of oats, oat bran, and pecans to the crumble mixture on top. We received 5 peaches in our share, and my volunteer share included an additional 5, so I had 10 peaches to use for this dish. I used a larger tart pan than a regular pie plate, so it turned out perfect.

Peach Crumble
adapted from a recipe from Nicole of Baking Bites
5 large, ripe peaches (white or yellow) (I used 10 small ones)
½ cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup oats
1/4 cup oat bran
3 tablespoons Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
3 ½ tablespoons butter, cold

Bring a small but deep saucepan of water to a simmer on the stovetop. Set a bowl of cool water next to it. Cut a shallow X in the bottom of each peach and submerge 3 or 4 at a time in simmering water for about 30 seconds. Dunk in cold water, then peel off skin. Repeat with all peaches. Slice peeled peaches into about 10-12 pieces each. In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Cut butter into 6 or 8 pieces and rub in to flour mixture to create coarse crumbs.
Place peach slices in a pie dish and distribute crumble topping over the top.
Bake at 375F for about 30 minutes, until the crumble browns at the edges and the peaches are tender. Let cool for at least 20-30 minutes before serving.

Our produce share yesterday included:

1 bunch large radishes
1 bunch Mexican green onions (the ones with large bulbs)
1 bunch carrots
5 peaches
5 bananas
2 cucumbers
5 lbs. russet potatoes
1 bunch mint
2 green bell peppers
1 head cauliflower
1 bunch spinach
2 mangoes
1 bunch chives

Cookbook Giveaway - A Winner!

2009-05-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

I had my husband draw a name from the 3 who commented, and the winner is.....Adrienne!
I'll be contacting you soon for a mailing address. I hope you enjoy the goodies in the book.

Grilled Pear and Cheddar Stuffed Pork Tenderloins

2009-05-13T18:33:00.000-07:00

I subscribe to dozens and dozens of food blogs on Google Reader. One that I have discovered lately is by Heather, a Canadian living in Bangkok, Thailand. She has some fabulous recipes on The Culinary Chase, and I tried this one tonight. I prepared it the night before, my first time to
butterfly a pork tenderloin. I almost totally messed this up, because I noticed one spot where the cheese was oozing through while it was grilling. It was nice to come home and throw it on the grill without having to do all the cutting, filling and wrapping up.

Grilled Pear and Cheddar Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

from Heather of The Culinary Chase

1 tablespoon (15mL) fresh rosemary leaves
3 tablespoon (45mL) extra virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 small pork tenderloins
1 Bartlett or Anjou pear, sliced thin
4 ounces (120g) 1-year-old cheddar cheese, sliced
6 slices prosciutto

Purée rosemary and oil in the blender and season. Cut tenderloins open lengthwise and brush inside with rosemary purée. Cover with overlapping slices of pear and cheddar. Close up tenderloins and brush outside with rosemary purée. Roll each tenderloin up in 3 slices of prosciutto, tie or close with big toothpicks that have been soaked in water. Season.

Oil the grill and preheat barbecue to medium-high. Cook tenderloins 4 to 5 minutes per side for meat with a hint of pink. Remove from heat, tent with foil and let stand about 5 minutes before serving. Slice and serve with grilled vegetables and herbed noodles.

Notes:
The Culinary Chase's Note: I stuffed the tenderloin with the prosciutto and the flavors coming from the pear and cheddar make this tenderloin absolutely delicious! Instead of making the purée, finely chop the rosemary and mix in a bowl. Use a pastry brush to slather this on the pork and enjoy a more rustic taste.

Cyndi's Note: I used ham, since I didn't have prosciutto, and served this with roasted potatoes (for Don) and turnip greens.

Thanks, Heather, for a great dish!

Mocha Budino di Ricotta (Cream Cheese Custard)

2009-05-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

This is nice low-carb dessert, as long as you eat a small serving at a time!

½ lb. ricotta cheese
2 packets Splenda
2 teaspoons espresso powder
¼ cup grated milk chocolate
¼ cup finely chopped walnuts
2 tablespoon heavy cream, (more, if needed)
Cream the ricotta with the Splenda and espresso powder. Add chocolate and nuts and blend thoroughly. Add cream as needed for desired consistency. Serve in sherbet glasses. Good topped with strawberries or raspberries.

The hills were on fire

2009-05-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

Luckily, only about 5 acres were burned in the Crafton Hills, but it was pretty scary at first. The flames came down to the back yards of the homes in Chapman Heights.

Take-Along Breakfasts for Work Days

2009-05-09T16:21:00.000-07:00

I used to be such a morning person - I'd get up at 5 for coffee and a light (carb-filled) breakfast before I'd go to my classroom. I'd also go to bed before 9 almost every night, so I have little knowledge of popular television shows during the 1990s and early 2000s. Now that I'm president, my day lasts longer, and I enjoy evening sports and television shows. So I stay up later and get up at 6 or 6:30. I don't make time to cook breakfast, so I like to find breakfast that I can either eat in the car during the drive down the mountain, or eat when I first get to the office.

These waffles are made to be eaten cold and without syrup. They're whole grain, high protein and high fiber, and are 160 calories apiece (with 21 g of carbs). I've packaged them in little bags of 2, so I can have a nice meal to eat while I drive to work.

Grab & Go Pumpkin Waffles

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
2 Tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend (or 1/2 cup brown sugar)

2 eggs
1/4 cup flax seeds, ground
2 1/2 cups buttermilk or sour milk
1 15-oz. can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup oat bran
1 cup raisins

In a large bowl, combine flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and Splenda or brown sugar. In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, flax seeds, buttermilk, pumpkin, oil, and syrup. Mix well. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until blended. Add pecans, sunflower seeds, oat bran, and raisins. Heat a waffle iron, and spray with nonstick cooking spray before adding batter. Grill waffles until browned and cooked through. Makes 24 4-inch waffles.

Our actual breakfast this morning was a pizza inspired by Jeff of Culinary in the Country. A couple of weeks ago he posted a recipe for Egg and Bacon Bread that looked really enticing. I told him I was going to give a try, using Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough, but when I started to gather everything together this morning, I realized I didn't have the hard-boiled eggs or the time to make them - we were hungry! So I took most of the ingredients from Joe's recipe, substituted Jimmy Dean sausage for the bacon, and made a pizza.

Breakfast Pizza

adapted from a recipe by Joe of Culinary in the Country

1 package Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough
5-6 oz. Jimmy Dean hot breakfast sausage (I use 1/3 of a 1-lb. package)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons diced onion
1 Tablespoon olive oil
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
5 eggs
2 teaspoons mustard
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup shredded mozzarella
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375˚. Spray a rectangular pizza stone with nonstick cooking spray. Remove dough from package and place on stone for 20 minutes. While dough is resting, prepare the toppings. In a medium skillet, cook the sausage, garlic, and onion, crumbling the meat with a spoon or spatula as it cooks. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels. Add olive oil and mushrooms to pan and cook until mushrooms are tender but not overcooked, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms to sausage mixture. Add eggs to skillet, and scramble until eggs are cooked. Turn off heat. Spread the pizza dough in the pan from edge to edge. Spread with mustard and sprinkle evenly with cayenne pepper. Distribute sausage and mushrooms over dough, then top with the cheeses. Bake 12-15 minutes until dough is done. You might have to check after about 8 minutes and top loosely with some foil to prevent the cheese from overbrowning. If you cut it into 8 slices, each slice has 385 calories, 25 g of carbs, and 2 g of fiber.

Cookbook Giveaway!

2009-05-09T09:47:00.001-07:00

Just post a comment below, making sure that you give me your email, or have your email within your profile. I'll draw a name on Wednesday, May 13, at 8:00 pm Pacific time.

This is Hershey's 100th Anniversary cookbook, with 230 pages of recipes for brownies, cakes, cookies, pies, breads, candies, and other treats. There's even a section on "Light and Luscious."

Triple C Steak

2009-05-04T19:04:00.001-07:00

No picture - it's all gone. You want a picture and a description of how to make it? Go to Jennifer's blog, Last Night's Dinner. It's got cocoa, chili powder, and coffee, along with lemon zest and salt - things I have in my pantry and freezer (the zest). Jennifer says you can sear it in a pan-so that's exactly what I did. Sorry about not having a picture, but hers is mouth-watering!

Chicken Marsala Casserole

2009-05-02T19:34:00.001-07:00

I recently started subscribing to Rachael Ray's Every Day magazine - I like the various ideas I see as well as the non-cooking-related articles. In the April issue was a "non-recipe" for a casserole that had many of these ingredients in it. I love Chicken Marsala - Don doesn't - but I thought I'd try this to see if he'd like it. He wanted pasta, so in his half of the casserole pan I used orzo. In my half, I used Uncle Ben's Converted Rice, which has a low gycemic index. You could use 1 cup of either one and it would turn out just fine.

Chicken Marsala Casserole
adapted from a recipe by Rachael Ray

8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 shallot, diced
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons flour
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup Marsala
2 cups water
1 cup long-grain converted rice or orzo
2 boneless chicken breasts, cooked and diced
2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350˚. In a large skillet, sauté the mushrooms and shallot in the butter until tender. Sprinkle with the flour and toss. Add milk and Marsala, and cook over medium heat until thickened. Add the water. (Yes, it seems weird to add the water, but you need it for the rice/orzo.) Sprinkle the rice or orzo evenly over the bottom of a 13 x 9" pan. Add the chicken, and top all with mushroom gravy mixture. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 35 minutes until bubbly. Remove foil and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake 5 minutes longer. Serves 4-6

Anaheim Scramble

2009-05-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

I like eggs, fixed almost every way you can imagine. Last fall, I had breakfast at a Corner Bakery in Orange County, and they had this dish on their menu. I fell in love with it, and have made it several times here at home. This time I had avocados and tomatoes still left from the produce distribution two weeks ago. Two weeks, and they're still good.

I'm sure you could make this a little healthier by using turkey bacon, but I prefer the regular pork bacon.

Anaheim Scramble

3-4 pieces of bacon
5 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tablespoons grated cheddar cheese
1/2 of a large tomato, diced
1 avocado, peeled and diced

Cook the bacon in a nonstick skillet until crispy; drain on paper towels. Chop coarsely. Drain the bacon grease from the skillet, and return to heat. Add eggs and cheese, and scramble until nearly done. Fold in chopped bacon, avocado, and tomatoes, and stir lightly to heat through.

Serves 2

This is what happens...

2009-05-02T19:19:00.000-07:00

...when you don't let the brownies cool completely before you turn the pan over.

I was baking a big batch of brownies to send to my son - who is on deployment in the middle of the Indian Ocean. (It was also so I could get the brownie mix out of the kitchen!) I let them cool for a while, loosened them all around the edges, and tried to turn them over on a board.

I was able to salvage 2 dozen pieces to send to Kenny, and Don is happy that he gets the rest!

Simple but delicious Hot and Sour Soup

2009-05-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

I love a good hot and sour soup. The best that I've ever had is from the little Chinese fast food place next to my office - and it's HOT. Theirs is truly authentic, with the wood ears, shiitakes, and other exotic ingredients. I like a bowl of that for lunch once in a while, and it's a bargain for less than a buck fifty. The worst that I've ever had is from Pick Up Stix - which usually makes great food (House Special Chicken, Lemon Chicken, and their fabulous cream cheese wontons, for example). I was so disappointed with the container I brought home last week, and then angrily surprised that it had shrimp in it. You see, Don's allergic to shrimp. I never thought to ask if their soup had shrimp in it, and he ended up having to leave the table and take some Benadryl.

After that episode, I decided to try making some hot and sour soup myself. I found a recipe from Cooking Light, made a few additions and changes, and we enjoyed it for dinner tonight. It's not authentic - but it's tasty and much better than Pick Up Stix's version.

Hot and Sour Soup
adapted from Cooking Light

1 boneless chicken breast
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 32-oz. carton vegetable broth
2 1/4 cups water, divided
2 teaspoons grated ginger (from the jar) or 1 Tablespoon fresh grated ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated black pepper
1/2 pound firm or extra-firm tofu, drained and cut into 1/4-inch cubes
2 1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
Chili oil for drizzling

In a small saucepan, cook the chicken breast in about a cup of water, covered, 15 minutes or until done. Cool; shred. Combine vegetable broth, 2 cups water, ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes in a large saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil. Add mushrooms. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add vinegar, soy sauce, pepper, chicken, and tofu; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Combine remaining 1/4 cup water and cornstarch, stirring with a whisk. Stir cornstarch mixture into broth mixture; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 3 minutes or until soup thickens slightly, stirring frequently. Slowly pour eggs into soup in a steady stream, stirring constantly but gently with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat; stir in onions and sesame oil. Drizzle each serving with a small amount of chili oil. Serves 4.

This soup has approximately 200 calories in a serving since I used chicken and whole eggs, but only 20 carbs! I don't know much about vegan cooking, but you could omit the chicken and eggs and make it vegan, right? So Bridget, let me know if this sounds good!

This post is for Debbie's Souper Sunday event. Go there tomorrow and see the roundup. Remember when I used to do Thursday Soup or Stew night? Now I have someone else I can send my soups to!

So, the monitoring begins

2009-04-30T18:50:00.000-07:00

I picked up my glucose monitor today. I've decided that the world is not going to end - I will accept this as a challenge, and look forward to getting rid of the monitor. I only have to check twice a week, unless things get worse - which I hope they don't - and if I can get the numbers back down I can stop. You see, while I've lost 35 pounds the last 2 years, and 11 the last 5 months, my blood sugar has gone up. It's because I have such a bad weakness for sugar and potatoes - especially fried ones - and while I was able to lose weight, I ate too many sweets and fries. That has stopped. I've had several good days - including today, even with the fried eggplant I'll be describing in the next post. Today I had a total of 104 carbs, spread out over all 3 meals, and I had good protein, fresh vegetables, fiber, and good fats. I figure if I write about this in my blog, it'll be hard to make excuses, and maybe I'll even have some support and advice.

And I thought I didn't like eggplant...

2009-04-30T18:48:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I received an eggplant in my most recent produce pickup. The last time I ate eggplant had to be 28 years ago, right after Don and I were married. I saw a cooking show (yes, there were cooking shows 28 years ago!) where the host breaded and fried the eggplant, and then placed it in a jar in some sort of marinade. It was pressed down, and refrigerated for a day or so before it was brought back out and eaten. It sounded wonderful. It wasn't. I don't remember exactly what was in the marinade, but it turned me off eggplant. I've believed ever since then that I didn't like it. WRONG!

I like it even better than zucchini!

All these wasted years.

I decided I really needed to use the eggplant, and not let it go to waste. I figured the easiest and "safest" way was to fry it. I did the 3-step process (flour, egg/milk bath, panko) and it came out light and crispy. When Don and I tasted the first piece that had cooled enough to eat it, both of us were surprised. His only experience with eggplant was in Eggplant Parmesan - and he didn't like that much at all. Both of us decided this tasted a lot like fried zucchini - only better - and the texture was lighter than zucchini.

Fried Eggplant

1 medium eggplant (aubergine)
salt
flour (I used white whole wheat because that's all I have, but all-purpose would be fine)
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 cup panko crumbs
olive and/or canola oil for frying (to fill skillet about 1/4")

Peel the eggplant and slice into 1/2" thick slices. Sprinkle both sides with salt and let stand for about 20 minutes. Use paper towels to blot the water that is forced out by the salt. Lay out 3 shallow bowls: flour, beaten egg mixed with milk, and panko. Heat the oil over medium-high heat. Dredge each piece of eggplant in the flour, then dip in the egg bath, and the in the panko so each piece is evenly coated on each side. Fry in oil until browned on each side. Drain on paper towels.

The eggplant was our side dish for some chicken thighs. I got the recipe out of Taste of Home's Simple and Delicious magazine, and will make some adjustments before I make it again. Here's the original recipe:

Applesauce Barbecue Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (I used thighs)
½ t pepper
1 Tablespoon olive oil
⅔ cup chunky applesauce
⅔ cup spicy barbecue sauce
2 Tablespoons brown sugar (I used 1 tablespoon of Splenda Brown Sugar Blend)
1 teaspoon chili powder

Sprinkle chicken with pepper. In a large skillet, brown chicken in oil on both sides. In a small bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; pour over chicken. Cover and cook 7-10 minutes longer or until juices run clear when cut with knife.

The verdict: too sweet. Next time I'll use unsweetened applesauce (the chunky was pretty sweet), add a little cayenne for spice, and omit the brown sugar. Since we use KC Masterpiece or Bullseye, the barbecue sauce is sweet enough. But overall, the flavor was nice.

Milk-Braised Pork Chops

2009-04-30T18:38:00.001-07:00

When I first saw this recipe on Kalyn's website, I though it sounded like pork chops with milk gravy. The ingredients are the same - sautéed pork chops, milk, flour. But since the dish is cooked for a long period of time, covered, and over low heat, the results are completely different. The chops come out extremely tender, and instead of a thick, milk gravy, the liquid is translucent with separated milk solids in it (sounds weird but tastes great).

Milk-Braised Pork Chops
from Kalyn Denny of Kalyn's Kitchen

4 boneless pork loin chops, about 1 inch thick
2 tablespoons flour or 100% whole wheat pastry flour (use whole wheat flour for South Beach)
½ teaspoon salt (or less if using Pork Chop Seasoning)
fresh ground black pepper to taste
½ teaspoon Penzeys Pork Chop Seasoning (I used Spike seasoning)
1 ½ cups milk
2 teaspoons butter
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Trim all fat from pork chops. Use meat mallet or something heavy to pound pork chops slightly until they are an even thickness and about 3/4 inch thick. Combine flour, salt, pepper, and pork chop seasoning in shallow bowl. One at a time, lightly dredge pork chops in the mixture, shaking off any extra. Wisk 1/2 cup milk into the flour left in the bowl. Heat oil and melt butter in heavy frying pan big enough to hold all the pork chops. Add pork and brown well, about 3 minutes per side. Pour out most of the pan drippings, add 1/2 cup milk mixed with flour, reduce heat to low and simmer covered 30 minutes, stirring a few times. Turn pork chops over, and add the remaining one cup milk, wisking to combine if needed. Cover and cook for 30 minutes more, again, stirring a few times. Uncover skillet and if there is a lot of liquid, cook a few minutes more until reduced to about 1/4 cup. (This will depend on how tightly your pan lid fits.) Serve hot, spooning the milk gravy over the pork.

We had this with brown rice - something I'll be eating more of as I wean myself off potatoes. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Kale and Egg Breakfast "Muffins"

2009-04-27T20:55:00.000-07:00

If anyone who reads my blog is NOT familiar with Kalyn's Kitchen, you need to visit her blog for a while. Not only is she a fabulous cook, and the queen of South Beach Diet recipes, SHE'S A TEACHER! And for a while, she was president of her local, just like I am. Any time I need inspiration for healthy recipes, and to use the produce I get from the IEOPBC, I go visit Kalyn's site.

I had some kale again from the last distribution, and have had the urge to make some portable breakfast "muffins." Kalyn's recipe called for red kale, since that's what she had in her garden, but she said you could use regular kale. I also changed the cheese to add some zing - I added blue cheese crumbles and used cheddar instead of the Italian mix she used.

Kale and Egg Breakfast "Muffins"

adapted from a recipe by Kalyn Denny

1 bunch kale
½ red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced (1/2 tsp. teaspoon minced garlic)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 cup grated cheese (I used a mixture of cheddar and blue cheese crumbles)
6 eggs, beaten well
½ teaspoon Spike Seasoning (I finally found some!)

Preheat oven to 350˚. Cut off kale stems and discard, then wash kale leaves and dry well. (I used a salad spinner.) Pile kale leaves up on top of each other and chop, turning them sideways to get smaller pieces.
Heat olive oil in large heavy frying pan, then add onions and sauté 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute about 2 more minutes, then add kale, turning over as it wilts and sautéing about 5 minutes, or until kale is significantly wilted.

Put kale and onion into large bowl and add soy sauce, cheese, beaten eggs, and Spike seasoning. Stir gently until ingredients are well distributed. Spray 12 muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray (I use silicone ones) and fill with egg mixture. Bake 20-25 minutes until eggs are well set and the top is lightly browned. Serve hot.

Kalyn suggests eating these with salsa or sour cream - so that's how I'll try them in the morning when I reheat a couple for breakfast. Tonight I just wanted to try one and ate it plain. Yum!

Sunday Cooking

2009-04-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

While we were on vacation last week, and Don was out fishing, I sat at my sewing machine and spent the day happily sewing and watching FoodTV. I watch it in cycles - depending on what else is on and whether I'm into the detective shows that week or not. This time, Bobby Flay was doing a great grilled chicken dish that I had to try at home. It called for tangerine juice. I couldn't find any, after searching 4 different grocery stores. So, since I had bought a tangerine for the zest, I used the juice from it along with some orange juice to make the required 2 cups.
I also decided to use boneless chicken thighs instead of thighs with bones. I quit buying bone-in chicken a while back - just decided I liked boneless breasts and thighs more.

Grilled Chicken Thighs with Tangerine-Maple Glaze
adapted from a recipe by Bobby Flay

1/2 small red onion, chopped
1 Tablespoon oil
juice of one tangerine, plus orange juice to make 2 cups
zest of one tangerine
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
4-6 boneless chicken thighs

In a medium saucepan, sauté the onion in the oil until soft. Add juice, zest, and thyme; bring to a boil. Lower the heat a little, but keep it boiling, and cook until reduced to about 1/4 cup of liquid is left (about 20 minutes). Remove from heat; whisk in the soy sauce and maple syrup. Cool. Grill chicken until almost done, then baste well with juice mixture.

Since I have a penchant for spicy glazes and sauces, I think that if i made this again, I would add some heat - perhaps some crushed red pepper? But we really liked the orange flavor in this dish.

I mentioned in the post below that we received cabbage leaves in our produce shares. But then I remembered one of the organizers mentioning that she was able to get some spinach. As I was going through these greens, I realized that about 2/3 of them were spinach leaves, and the rest were cabbage-like greens - I'm not sure what they were, but I think they were cabbage leaves. But I cooked them all together, anyway. This is a dish I learned in Germany and haven't made for years. Now that we've had it again, we remembered how yummy it really is.

Uberbackener Spinat mit Kase (Baked Spinach with Cheese)

1 large bunch (1 pound) spinach, trimmed of thicker stems and rinsed
2 Tablespoons butter
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons minced onion
1/2 teaspoon paprika
dash nutmeg
salt and pepper
1 cup grated Swiss cheese

Preheat oven to 350˚. In a large saucepan, boil some water. Plunge the spinach into it and boil for 5 minutes. Drain, dry, and coarsely chop the spinach. In a saucepan, melt the butter. Fry the onion and garlic until the onion is soft and transparent. Add the spinach and sauté lightly until most of the moisture has evaporated. Season and add nutmeg and paprika. Grease an ovenproof dish. Sprinkle the bottom and sides with half the cheese. Place the spinach in the dish, level the top, and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the cheese melts. Serve hot. Serves 4.

I still have tons of vegetables to use up - as for the fruit, I made Sangria Fruit Salad - and have enough left over to take with my lunch for tomorrow's hearing. The remaining strawberries have been flash-frozen, and are now ready to grab whenever I want them. The apples will be enjoyed in many ways, and I think I'll freeze the bananas that Don doesn't eat. (Since I got a volunteer's share, I came home with about 20 bananas!)

Does anyone know how to cook an eggplant for a non-eggplant eater? About the only way I could eat it would be fried, and I don't want the grease. Do you think I could do it in the oven like I do Crispy Oven -Fried Fish or the Zucchini Oven Chips?

Produce Distribution Day

2009-04-18T15:19:00.000-07:00

I volunteered to help distribute again, so in addition to my regular share, I got a LOT of extra goodies today. The regular share consisted of:

5 lbs. russet potatoes
5 lbs. Fuji apples
1 bunch celery
1 head butter lettuce
1 bunch mint
1 large eggplant
1 bunch cabbage leaves
3 beets with greens
1 bunch kale
4 zucchini
1 cucumber
1 bunch green onions
2 tomatoes
1 basket alfalfa sprouts
1 lb. strawberries
7 bananas

I have lot of extra, too, so we're going to be eating healthily, and I get to try some new dishes. Already today I made a batch of Kale Chips, I roasted the beets, and put 2 loaf pans of Zucchini Gingerbread in the oven.

If you have zucchini or banana recipes you think I should try, let me know - I have lots of extra of both. I know that banana bread will be next, but there will be more bananas after that is made.

First out of the oven were the Kale Chips. I found a recipe on recipezaar, which called for apple cider vinegar. Among the reviews was a comment that recommended trying it with balsamic vinegar to add a little sweetness - so that's what I did.

Kale Chips

1 bunch kale
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 350˚. Wash kale, and remove the leaves from the stems. Spin in salad spinner or dry as best as you can with paper towels. Whisk together the salt, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar in a large bowl. Add kale, and toss by hand until it is evenly coated. Place on a large baking sheet and bake about 20 minutes, or until crispy.

While the kale was cooking, I used my little toaster oven to roast the beets. I like roasting vegetables in my toaster oven because it's a convection oven - they come out nicely cooked on the inside and browned well on the outside. You need to know that I refuse to eat pickled beets. Hate 'em with a passion. And I've never, ever had fresh beets of any kind - red, yellow or whatever. So when we received beets in our produce share, I decided I was not going to be squeamish, and was determined to give them a try. I wanted them roasted - I love roasted red potatoes, so I figured that beets done that way might be all right. All of the recipes I found for roasted beets called for either roasting them in their skins, or peeling them and putting them in foil. I wanted the texture I get with roasted red potatoes, so I did them that way.

Roasted Beets

beets (however many you want - I used the 3 small ones we received today)
olive oil
Kosher salt

Preheat oven, preferably a convection oven, to 400˚. Peel the beets, and cut into uniform chunks no larger than 1 inch. Toss in a bowl with a little olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Sprinkle lightly with Kosher salt. Cook for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through (test tenderness with a sharp knife).

Some of the zucchini from this morning went into some zucchini bread. I knew that I'd be making banana bread tomorrow, so I made a zucchini bread that was a bit different than the basic kind. This one really tastes like gingerbread, and the texture came out perfect. I made two loaves, so one's going into the freezer so we can have it some other time.

Zucchini Gingerbread

2 c whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat flour)
2 c all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t ginger
1/2 t nutmeg
3 c grated zucchini
3 eggs
1/2 c applesauce
1/2 c oil
3/4 c brown sugar (I used 1/4 c brown sugar and 1/4 c Splenda Brown Sugar Blend)
3/4 c molasses

Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare two loaf pans by spraying with non-stick spray. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine wet ingredients including zucchini in a smaller bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined. Pour mixture into loaf pans. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

California Turkey Panini

2009-04-13T18:31:00.001-07:00

On the same day that I decided to make this sandwich for dinner, I discovered Panini Happy, a blog devoted to, guess what - paninis! Since April is National Grilled Cheese Month, Kathy is hosting the Grilled Cheese Pageant - a celebration of our favorite sandwich. This is one of our favorite versions - and I call it the California Turkey Panini since it has avocado and green chilies in it.

California Turkey Panini

8 slices sourdough bread
butter or margarine
16 slices deli turkey, smoked or roasted
16 slices Swiss cheese
1 4-oz can diced green chilies, drained, divided in fourths
1/2 ripe avocado, sliced

Butter lightly the 8 slices of bread. Layer on griddle or in skillet in this order:
1. bread
2. Swiss cheese
3. turkey
4. green chilies
5. avocado slices
6. Swiss Cheese
7. bread

Grill/press until bread is lightly browned. Makes 4.

Haupia - a traditional Hawaiian dessert

2009-04-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

I saw this yesterday on Pikko's blog, Adventures in Bento Making. I bought a can of coconut milk a while back for a recipe, and never got around to using it. When I saw Pikko's post, I decided to give it a try. The directions said to cook until thickened, but I didn't cook it enough. You're supposed to be able to cut it all in squares - but only the middle section of the pan could be cut. The rest stayed soft, like a custard.

I have to admit, we didn't care for this all that much. I think if I'd added vanilla, it would have been more like a pudding. The flavor just seemed a little off - and I'm sure it's because it was something so different from what we're used to. I'm told this is a traditional dessert at Hawaiian Luaus, but since I've never been to one, this was brand new to me. As I've always said, I'll try anything once!

Successful Experiment - Popovers

2009-04-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite breakfasts is my German Oven Puffed Pancake - topped with powdered sugar and toasted almonds, and served with raspberry jam. But it's the main course - and I wanted something similar to use as a side dish. It must have been serendipity when I stumbled across a recipe for popovers on Min's blog - The Bad Girl's Kitchen. While we were camped at Lone Pine last week, I tried them in our little oven in the trailer. This is what they looked like:

While they tasted wonderful, they were undercooked, I think, and a bit on the rubbery side. The recipe said to "prick them with fork to let the steam escape," but these had no steam inside. I think there were two problems - one was the inconsistency of the trailer oven. It cooks very hot underneath (even with a stone in there to deflect the heat), so I have to sometimes remove things before they're truly done. The other problem, I thought, was that the flour-to-milk ratio was wrong (for me).

So, this morning I decreased the flour by 1/2 cup and used 3/4 cup. Add to that the fact that I was using my home oven, which is much more reliable. Take a look at these! Not only are they a rich golden brown, they rose so nicely that each one has a huge cavern of air inside. Boy, these were just delectable!

So here's my recipe, adapted from Min's.

Popovers

butter-flavored nonstick cooking spray
2 eggs
1 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375˚. Spray the insides of 12 - 14 muffin cups with cooking spray. (I use free-standing silicone cups, so I can adjust the number easily). Break eggs into the mixing bowl, add milk and beat well with a whisk. Add flour and salt and whisk until blended. Using a small ladle or 1/2-cup measuring cup, fill muffin cups about 2/3 full. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve hot with jam, honey, or maple syrup.

Coconut-Pear Cake

2009-03-21T19:23:00.000-07:00

Three of the pears from this morning went into this cake - along with dates, coconut, and pecans. I tried to lighten it up a little, by using some Splenda for some of the sugar and cutting out a quarter cup of the oil. I also substituted whole wheat flour for half of the white. The original recipe was supposed to be in a bundt or tube pan, but I'm glad I did it in loaf pans since it came out a little crumbly. That's probably because of the changes I made, as well as the high-altitude baking.

But this is a wonderful, dense, cake - a little like a cross between a fruitcake and a quick bread.

Coconut-Pear Cake

1 cup sugar
¾ cup granulated Splenda
1 ¼ cups vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped dates
3 cups chopped pears
1 cup chopped pecans
In a mixing bowl, cream together sugar and oil. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift together flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda; add to creamed mixture. Add vanilla. By hand, stir in coconut, dates, pears and pecans (batter will be thick). Spoon into a greased and floured fluted tube pan. Bake at 325 degrees F for 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until cake tests done. Cool on rack until cake comes away from sides of pan; remove from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Will also make 2 loaf pans - cook for 1 hour and 20 minutes; check for doneness with toothpick and add another 5-10 minutes as necessary.

My Introduction to Kale

2009-03-21T17:56:00.000-07:00

I think this is the way to begin eating a new food - have it as a part of a recipe. Our basket this morning came with kale, and since I also got a volunteer's share, I came home with 2 bunches. Tomorrow we'll eat the two bunches, but I used a couple of leaves off of one of them for this dish. I was also able to incorporate the mushrooms and 2 of the zucchini from the basket as well.

Winter Vegetable Hash

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, diced
½ lb. fresh mushrooms, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 small zucchini, diced
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 pinch salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 cup chopped kale
4 sprigs fresh sage (I used 1 teaspoon of dried sage)

Place oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Melt butter and mix in potatoes, mushrooms, pepper, squash, and shallot. Season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Cook 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender. Mix kale and sage into skillet. Continue cooking 5 minutes, until kale is wilted. Serve and enjoy!

Don and I really liked this one. We've decided that it will go great with fish (tonight we had it with good ole hot dogs). Now I'm not afraid to try the kale in a recipe that will actually feature it. So tomorrow or Monday, I'll be making something new. Stay tuned!

Pick Up Day at the IEOPBC

2009-03-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

Today was pick up day for the Inland Empire Organic Produce Buying Club. Since I was a volunteer, I showed up at 8:45 to our "distribution center," which is really the outside front section of the Artisan Farm Restaurant in Redlands. We needed to set up for 82 shares - so we laid out the baskets all around where we could get to them easily. Around 8:55, a guy delivered 4 cases of avocados, so we went to work putting 4 in each basket. Right after that, the truck pulled up - a guy with a small UHaul trailer. It was crammed full, and it took us about 10 minutes (9 volunteers and organizers) to get it emptied out. Our first task was to go over to where some grates were and get rid off the ice that was keeping the kale and carrots cool. Next, we started putting all the fruits and vegetables in the baskets.

The take for today - one share:

1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch kale
1 bunch dandelion greens
1 head butter lettuce
1 bunch carrots with tops
1 bunch green onions
1 4-oz. basket alfalfa sprouts
1 8-oz. basket mushrooms
4 zucchini
4 avocados
2 tomatoes
6 pears
1 3-lb. bag Fuji apples
1 1-lb. basket strawberries
4 lemons

At 10:00, Jei and Joni start checking everyone in (they've been lining up since 9:30), and taking money for the next pick up.

Here are a few of the baskets, ready for pick up now that we've filled them up.

That's me on the left, with Kathy in the center and Susan on the right. I'm really glad I wore an old shirt - this one is filthy!

All produce that doesn't get evenly distributed to the shares baskets is divided among the volunteers - a super added benefit for volunteering. The basket on the left is my share, which I paid $22 for, and the basket on the right is my volunteer share, for which I worked 2 hours. I ended up with so much food!

What shall I do with it all? Let's see - I now have two Pear Coffee Cakes in the oven (recipe in another post), I cut up and flash-froze the green onions, and we're eating the kale, mushrooms, and some of the zucchini tonight in a Winter Vegetable Hash (recipe later). I think we'll eat one of the heads of butter lettuce, too. The cilantro is currently drying, so that I can freeze it. I spread it out on paper towels, and will put it on a cookie sheet and flash freeze it. Then it will go in a ziploc bag. The flavor will diminish, but that's fine with me - I don't like fresh cilantro anyway, and will just use this in homemade salsa.

St. Patrick's Dinner from the Crock Pot

2009-03-21T14:25:00.000-07:00

We always have corned beef around St. Patrick's Day - and this year we had it 2 days later. It's one of the easiest meals to make - put the unpeeled red potatoes in the bottom. Next is the meat, and then wedges of cabbage. Add 1 cup of water, and cook on low all day. Perfect. We eat one meal that night, and have enough leftover meat for sandwiches, as well as several days' worth of corned beef hash. The meat for the corned beef hash just goes right into the freezer.

Going Organic (Produce, that is)

2009-03-19T14:17:00.000-07:00

I've always bemoaned the fact that I didn't have a good farmer's market anywhere near where I live, and searches on the internet showed me the closest CSA farm is in San Diego (3 hours away). On Monday, the superintendent's secretary told me about the Inland Empire Organic Produce Buying Club. Not only did I join, I'm now a volunteer! On Saturday, I'll show up at 8:45, and help distribute this week's produce. I'll go home with a basket of my own - so you can start seeing pics of the produce I take home, as well as what I make with it. I hope to find some great recipes on my blogging friends' sites to use.

A new way to use ground beef

2009-03-18T19:12:00.000-07:00

I have about 80 blogs I follow on Google Reader, most of them cross stitch or quilting blogs. The other day, one of them (I cannot remember which one) mentioned loose meat sandwiches. Huh? I thought these were sloppy joes. Wrong! Sloppy joes have a tomato-ey sauce - these have no sauce at all. I did a little research and found several different recipes, and learned that loose meat sandwiches are common in Iowa and Missouri. With a little tweaking for my own tastes, and wanting to still stay as true to the recipes I found, I came up with this one. We will definitely be having this again!

Loose Meat Sandwiches

½ teaspoon salt
½ pound lean ground beef
½ small onion, chopped
1 ½ teaspoon prepared mustard
1 ½ teaspoon white vinegar
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
½ cup water
salt and pepper to taste
Sprinkle the bottom of a heavy medium skillet with salt, and preheat the skillet over high heat. Break the ground beef up into the skillet and add the chopped onion. Cook the meat, breaking it up into smaller pieces as you go. The meat must end up being cooked into small crumbles. When meat is browned, add mustard, vinegar, sugar, and water. Reduce heat to medium, and continue to cook until water has cooked off, about 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toast the hamburger buns if that's the way you like them, and prepare them with some mustard and dill pickles. Add a good amount of the meat (this recipe will make enough for three sandwiches) and enjoy.

Sausage Breakfast Puffs

2009-03-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

This has some my favorite flavors - Jimmy Dean sausage, eggs, cheese, onions, and mustard. I've made something this in a different form before - using an 8" round pan so it was like a casserole. I've been making a few things in my silicone muffin tins lately for two reasons: 1) each serving gets a tasty crunchy outside, and 2) I can make how ever many of them that fill up - rarely does every recipe I try come out to make exactly 12 of something. Now I have some leftovers, and I think they'll heat up just fine in the microwave at the office.

Sausage Breakfast Puffs

2 Tbsp. butter
1 sm. onion, chopped
6 slices bread
½ c. milk
2 eggs, unbeaten
8 ounces bulk pork breakfast sausage
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon mustard
1.Melt butter in skillet. Add onions and saute until golden brown.

2. Crumble bread into mixing bowl. Add milk and let stand until bread is moist. Add eggs and mix well. Add onion and salt; add meat, cheese, and mustard; mix well.

3. Pile mixture lightly into greased muffin pans. Bake in hot oven, 425 F degrees until nicely browned, about 30 minutes. Makes 12-14 puffs.

YaYa's Greek Potatoes

2009-02-28T18:03:00.000-08:00

This recipe appeared in my inbox courtesy of Tipnut. I subscribed to Tipnut for the craft ideas, and have come to enjoy the recipes I find, too. Last week one of the posts included 20 fabulous ways to make potatoes (my most favorite food in the whole world!), and I made this one tonight. It's from Buff Chickpea, who got the recipe from her Greek best friend.

YaYa's Greek Potatoes

2 pounds potatoes, peeled & cut into large chunks
2 onions, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup vegetable broth
1 teaspoon oregano
3 garlic cloves, minced or grated
2 lemons, zested & juiced
Dried parsley
Sea salt & pepper
Paprika powder

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place the cut up potatoes and onions in a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Set aside while you make the lemon dressing.

In a medium bowl, combine lemon juice, zest, broth, oregano, garlic, and a little salt and pepper. Whisk in olive oil, in a slow steady stream. Pour the dressing over the potatoes and onions, and give everything a good toss.

Sprinkle with additional salt (for crunch), paprika (for color), and parsley (for presentation), and put into your preheated oven.

Bake for 30 minutes, give the potatoes a toss, then bake for an additional 45-50 minutes, tossing every 20 minutes or so.