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Posts Tagged ‘Cooking’

Pizza Puffs

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , on November 3, 2012| 6 Comments »

Since discovering Plain Chicken on Pinterest a few months ago, I have been finding more and more of their recipes that I would like to try.  This is one of them…I made these for supper one night with pizza sauce for dipping and a fresh salad on the side.  Mm, mmmm, yummy!

There was enough left over for lunch the next day and they were even great reheated.  Plain Chicken makes hers in a mini muffin pan and I used a regular one.  If you use a regular one also, add about 3-4 minutes of extra baking time.

pizza puffs

3/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

3/4 cup milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 pound Italian sausage

1/2 cup diced green peppers

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

pizza sauce

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Cook the sausage, green pepper, and onion in a skillet over medium heat until the sausage is completely cooked.  Drain on a paper towel lined plate and cool completely.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a muffin pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and garlic powder.

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Whisk in the milk and egg.  Stir in the cheese and sausage mixture.  Let stand for 10 minutes.

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Stir the batter and divide it among the muffin cups.  I was able to get 10 regular sized puffs.  Bake until puffed and golden about 20-25 minutes.  Warm the pizza sauce in the microwave for dipping.

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Salted Nut Squares

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , , , , on October 27, 2012| 2 Comments »

Here again is another sweet treat that I found on Pinterest.  The recipe comes from Taste of Home and was posted on the blog, Break Or Bake. It tastes just like a popular candy bar that is chocked full of peanuts and salty sweet goodness, but shall go nameless. 

The flavor is great and the only little problem I had was that the candy was a little gooey and didn’t set up quite as well as I would have liked.  That didn’t hurt the taste at all though!

peanutbars

3 cups salted peanuts, divided

2 1/2 tbsp. butter

2 cups peanut butter chips

14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

2 cups mini marshmallows

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Place half of the peanuts in a 13×9” baking dish and set aside.  In a large saucepan, melt butter and peanut butter chips over low heat.  Stir until smooth then remove from the heat. Add milk and marshmallows; stir until melted.

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Pour this over the peanuts and then top with the remaining peanuts.  Cover and refrigerate until chilled and firm.  Slice and enjoy!

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Sliders

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , on October 20, 2012| 8 Comments »

I love party food.  Mini versions of bigger dishes are fun to make and fun to eat.  This recipe from Martha Stewart’s website is no exception.  I made these for a Sunday afternoon meal at my Nanny’s house along with curly fries and everyone enjoyed them.  There was also enough left over for a couple of days’ worth of lunches for C & I.  You can’t beat that deal.

sliders

6 tbsp. unsalted butter

1/2 cup finely diced sweet white onion

2 tbsp. water

salt and pepper to taste

2 pounds ground beef

20 dill pickle slices

20 slices cheese (I used provolone and American.)

20 mini burger buns

Burger toppings of your choice.

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Melt 4 tbsp. butter in a small pan over medium heat.  Add the diced onion and cook until softened.  Stir in the water and season with salt and pepper.  Set aside.

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Form 20 patties using about 2 tbsp. of ground beef for each.  Place on a rimmed baking sheet and coat patties with remaining 2 tbsp. butter, melted.  Press a pickle slice into each patty.

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Preheat your broiler.  Season patties with salt and pepper.  Broil for 6-7 minutes.  Top with cheese for the last 30 seconds. 

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Lightly toast the buns then spread the onion butter on the bottom half of each.  Top with 1 burger and any other toppings you like.

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Lemonade Cake

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , , , on October 6, 2012| 10 Comments »

Back in the summer, C’s family held a reunion and it was a potluck meal.  Since it was so so hot, I wanted to fix a cake that was moist and refreshing, but not heavy.  When I found this lemonade cake recipe at Feeding My Temple on one of the link parties I participate in, I knew it was the one I wanted to try.

This is a scratch made, super-moist cake infused with lemonade concentrate with the most delicious lemonade butter cream frosting.  I could have eaten the frosting by itself!  In fact, I may have eaten just a little on the side, but you won’t tell, will you?  If you have a potluck to attend, give this recipe a try.  I think it will be a great success.

Lemonade Cake

For the cake:

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 1/3 cup sugar

3  eggs

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cup frozen concentrated lemonade, thawed

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cup buttermilk (I used the dehydrated buttermilk mixed with the dry ingredients and added water where the recipe called for buttermilk.)

For the frosting:

1/3 cup butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup frozen concentrated lemonade, thawed

1 teaspoon vanilla

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9×13” baking pan with non-stick spray.  Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside.

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Beat the softened butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each.  Then add the lemonade concentrate and vanilla.

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Add the flour mixture and buttermilk (or water) in portions, starting and ending with the flour mix. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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When the cake has cooled, prepared the frosting by beating the butter and one cup of the powdered sugar together.  Then add the lemonade concentrate and vanilla.  Finish with the final cup of powdered sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.  Spread it on the cooled cake and enjoy!
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Citrus Cole Slaw

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , on September 29, 2012| 4 Comments »

During the hot weather this summer, I craved some cool crunchy salad recipes.  I found this on Pinterest and the original recipe is from Family Fun Magazine.  I didn’t have any Granny Smith apples so I used carrots in place of them.  This slaw is really good, but the dressing needs a little something.  I think I will add a little kosher salt and more Greek yogurt next time and see if that will amp up the flavor.  

cole slaw

 

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup plain yogurt

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon celery seed

8 ounces coleslaw mix (I had a head of fresh cabbage from my co-worker’s garden so I used that.)

1 cup shredded carrots

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup red seedless grapes, halved

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Combine the first 6 ingredients to make the dressing.

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Shred your cabbage or use pre-shredded mix and combine that with the carrots, celery and grapes.  Pour the dressing over the veggie/fruit mixture and toss to completely cover.  The color of this slaw is really vibrant and pretty.  It just needs a little more flavor.

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Homemade Tomato Sauce

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , on September 15, 2012| 2 Comments »

I love tomato sauce and I use a LOT of it in my cooking.  This year I decided to grow paste tomatoes in the hopes of making my own.  Well, I grew them and I made this sauce.  It is wonderful…full of delicious tomato flavor with a beautiful color and texture, BUT, this took hours of my time and only made 3 CUPS of sauce.  You read that right, not 3 pints or 3 quarts, but only 3 cups of sauce.  Oh, no! 

I love it, but I’m not sure if it is worth all of the time involved to do it.  If I was home more and had more tomatoes to process at one time, maybe I could do it, but right now I just can’t justify it.  I’m kind of sad about that, too.

I started with this recipe from Smitten Kitchen and tweaked it to suit myself.  If you have a few hours to spare, give it a shot because it is tasty just time consuming.

tsauce

4 to 5 lbs. paste tomatoes

1 sweet pepper

1 small onion

3 cloves garlic

1 medium carrot

1/2 to 1 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. honey

1/4 cup olive oil

Italian seasoning to taste

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First you need to peel your tomatoes by shocking them.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil and prepare an ice bath in another large bowl.  Wash and dry the tomatoes and then slice a small “x” into the bottom of each one.

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Blanch the tomatoes in the boiling water for about 30 seconds or until the peel starts to loosen.  Immediately drop them in the ice water and the skins will come right off.

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Next, rough chop the remaining vegetables and put in a food processor.  Pulse until these are almost a paste.  Using the pot that you blanched the tomatoes in, cook the vegetable paste in olive oil for about 10 minutes, stirring often.

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While these are cooking, chop the peeled tomatoes and seed them if you are not planning on straining the sauce.  Add the tomatoes to the pot and lower the heat to medium-low to simmer.  Add the honey for just a little sweetness. Let it cook, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes. 

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Since I wanted my sauce to be smooth, I poured the cooked sauce back into the food processor in batches and processed until smooth.  Then pour the pureed sauce through a strainer and add the Italian seasoning at this point.  I think I used about 1 tablespoon.  Whew, now it’s done.  I put mine into freezer bags to freeze, but, if you have enough, you can also can this.

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Menu Plan Monday

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , , on September 10, 2012|

Wow, another week has rushed right past me and it is time for another menu plan.  I know I sometimes read like a broken record, but really, where does time go?  It seems like if you blink twice, another week has passed.  Last week was busy, but good for both C & I.  We had a nice cool, rainy weekend so we took the opportunity to catch up on our rest a little, but we still managed to get a few chores accomplished. 

I am hoping to get a little outside clean-up work done this week.  I want to sow some lettuce seed for a fall harvest and my flower pots need refreshing desperately!  You know, flowers don’t grow very well if you forget to water them.  Oops!  Oh, well, I think it is time to stick a few mums in there anyway.

I have one new dish planned for this week, plus I hope to try my hand at homemade salsa next weekend.  I love salsa and I have been planning to try Pioneer Woman’s recipe for quite a while so next weekend is the time!

Meatball Sub Casserole (new)

Cheesy steak sandwiches with oven fries (2 nights)

Sausage bake (a request from my dad)

Pizza night

Tacos

Oreo pie (a request from C)

Please join me at I’m An Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

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Dairy Free Blackberry Ice Cream

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , , on September 1, 2012| 9 Comments »

Today I am bringing you my latest adventure in dairy free ice cream making.  Last year was an amazing blackberry year so I still had a small bag in my freezer.  Since I had already made strawberry ice cream and I also remembered that the blackberry sauce from last years was so so good with ice cream, the decision was made to combine those berries with the dairy free vanilla recipe to make blackberry ice cream.  Mmmm, this was so good and the color was gorgeous!

BlackberryIceCreamPinterest

1 14oz. can full-fat coconut milk

1 1/4 cups soymilk or other nondairy milk

1/2 cup granulated sugar (or agave syrup)

1.5 tbsp. real vanilla extract

2 cups blackberries, fresh or thawed from frozen

Juice from half a lemon

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In a medium saucepan over low-medium heat, cook the berries and lemon juice until the berries release their juice and the juice simmers.  The berries should be soft and almost falling apart on their own.

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Next, using a fine mesh sieve and a potato masher, mash the berries to strain all of the juice and flesh into another bowl.  The sieve will catch those annoying little seeds.

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Combine the strained berries with the rest of the ingredients and chill for 2 to 3 hours then process in your ice cream maker according to package directions.

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Dairy Free Strawberry Ice Cream

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , on August 18, 2012| 7 Comments »

Around here, we love strawberries!  In fact, I can’t seem to get our little patch big enough.  Every year, I add a few more plants and we just keep on eating every one we can get our hands on.  C had requested that I try to make strawberry ice cream and it just so happened that the vegan ice cream book, “Lick It”, that I received as a birthday present last year, has a recipe.

C thought it turned out a little too sweet, so next time I will cut down on the sweetener, but it was so good and had such a strong strawberry flavor that I will definitely be making this again.

df strawberry

2 1/2 cups halved strawberries

14 oz. can coconut milk

1/2 cup granulated sugar or equivalent of agave syrup

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Note: I was out of vanilla.  I know…the horror!  Don’t worry though because I have since rectified the vanilla situation.

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Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.

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Cover and chill for at least 2 hours then process in your ice cream maker according to directions.

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Peach Freezer Jam

Posted in Cooking, tagged , , on August 11, 2012| 13 Comments »

There is something about jams and jellies made at home with fresh ingredients that just can’t be beat.  I had never tried to make any myself since I wasn’t very knowledgeable and, to be honest, just a little scared of using a pressure canner.  When I found this freezer jam recipe over at Southern Plate, I thought that it might just be doable.

There is a peach tree growing on a farm owned by my in-laws, and for some reason it produced a lot of peaches during this odd growing season.  My FIL mentioned that he would like some “preserves” so I went looking for a recipe and found the one I mentioned above.  This was so easy!  Before I started the process, I sanitized the jars by using the sanitizing cycle on my dishwasher.  So simple!

Peach Freezer Jam

2 lbs. peaches (enough to make about 3 cups mashed peaches)

4 1/2 cups sugar

1 box Sure Jell

2 tbsp. lemon juice

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Peel, pit and dice peaches.  Mash these with a potato masher or fork.  The potato masher is a lot faster and easier.  Leave a few small chunks.  Pour the sugar in the mashed peaches and stir until sugar is dissolved.

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In a medium sauce pot, place 3/4 cup water and add the Sure Jell.  Bring this to a boil while stirring constantly.  Boil for one minute then pour this into the fruit mixture.  Stir well until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Pour into the sanitized jars making sure to leave about 1 inch of empty space at the top.  Clean the edges of the jars so the lids will not stick to them.  Place the lids on the jars and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.  Then put what you are going to use soon in the fridge and freeze the rest.  This jam will keep in the refrigerator for about 3 weeks and in the freezer for 1 year. 

This had the most awesome sweet peach flavor I have ever tasted.  The peaches that I used were white peaches so mine didn’t have that bright vibrant peach color, but the flavor was out of this world.

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