Raposas Kitchen

Non-Dairy Banana "Ice Cream"

2011-07-10T19:12:00.001-04:00

My goodness it's been a while since I've posted.
But it's because I've been very busy and working on losing weight.

Making a cooking blog & losing weight tend to cancel each other out.
But now that I've lost just about 20 lbs I can kind of start eating normal food again.

As long as it's low cal, anyway.

So here is my newest creation I found at Freestyle Farm and I'm in love!

And thankfully so is my family.

Here's what you'll need:

3 ripe peeled bananas frozen overnight or all day
Honey or Agave Nectar
A food processor

Yep, that's it.

Chop the bananas into 3 parts each.
Put them in the processor with some honey
Chop.

The consistency of chopped frozen bananas is just like ice cream and it's OMG good!

I made 2 batches each a little different than the basic recipe.

For the first one, I added a bit of almond extract and some lactaid milk just to mellow the overwhelming banana flavor. And that was very good.

For the second batch, I used almond milk, almond extract and about half a cup of strawberries. This was also super yummy, but has a slightly different consistency.

While the first batch is ice cream like, the second batch is more frozen yogurt-ish because the strawberries thinned out the thickness of the bananas a bit. However, it's still really good.

The food processor is super loud, and you may have to stop it a couple of times to stir the mixture to make sure everything gets chopped evenly.

The container on the right is the plain banana and the one on the left is the one with strawberries. You can see the difference in texture.

If you want something more yogurty then you could add all kinds of fruit to it, but if you really want that thick ice cream like feel to it, then I'd recommend sticking to just bananas.

Of course, if you're dieting, keep in mind that a banana is 100 calories and factor in the calories of whatever else you put into this. For me, this is something strictly for dessert or when something to satisfy my sweet tooth. Although, since I've started dieting, I've given up sweets and so I've gotten to the point where I don't even really crave them anymore.

In other news, since it's summer i've been enjoying the weather & avoiding my kitchen

Second Beach, Newport, RI

Celebrating Independence Day

Ninja chillaxing

Have a nice summer!

biscuits of love

2011-02-21T12:01:00.000-05:00

this is what i'm doing on my day off.
making homemade buttermilk love biscuits
and working on my quilt

i'm not going anywhere today.
in fact, i may even read a book.

Monkey Bread

2011-01-17T11:39:00.000-05:00

isn't it beautiful?

it was most delish, too.

of course, The Picky Hubby wouldn't eat it beause "any food with the word 'monkey' in must be dirty"
sigh.
but me & my daughter ate it and love it.

i found this at Gimme Some Oven and have only made it once. It came out really good, however, I found the measurements to be a little off.

i had a LOT of butter and sugar left over, and let me tell you, i really coated the heck out of the dough bits. So i think that the next time i make this, i'll half the butter and sugar amounts, and it should be just fine.

Cinnamon Muffins

2010-06-27T12:36:00.001-04:00

I used the same recipe for these as I use for the Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2/3 cup milk (regular or plain almond milk)
1 stick of butter melted and cooled (1/2 cup) (earth balance)
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup of cinnamon chips (more or less to taste)
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 tsp of nutmeg
pinch of ground clove & pinch of vanilla bean

Preheat oven to 400 and line muffin tin with muffin cups. In a large bowl mix together flour, white sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, spices and salt.

In another bowl stir together eggs, milk, melted butter and vanilla extract until well blended. Make a small well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet mixture. Stir until combined and then add the cinnamon chips

Spoon mixture into the muffin cups. Bake for 15-20 mins until ligthly brown on top. Allow to cool before eating or storing.

Vegan Quinoa breakfast yumminess

2010-05-01T18:47:00.001-04:00

Recently, my family has fallen in love with Quinoa

I've made Tabuleh for my husband (which I will post a recipe for later) that he LOVES, and today I made this little concoction which both my daughter and I adore.

This is basically this recipe for Breakfast Quinoa and this recipe for Vanilla Roasted Walnuts combined into sweet perfection.

I changed the recipe to my liking and this way it's totally vegan.

Ingredients:
2 cups vanilla almond milk
1 cup of quinoa
pinch salt
3 Tablespoons of agave nectar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp vanilla bean
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 c. Vanilla Roasted Walnuts (recipe for that is in the above link)

Directions:
1. Bring the almond milk to a boil in a small saucepan. The almond milk works just like cow milk so keep an eye on it. It will boil and bubble over if you don't keep a close watch on it. Add the quinoa and salt, and return to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, covered, until three-quarters of the almond milk has been absorbed.

2. Stir in agave nectar and spices. Cook covered, until most of the almond milk has been absorbed.

3. Stir in cranberries and walnuts and serve.

Blueberry Cake

2010-03-23T20:04:00.000-04:00

blue berry cake

from Smitten Kitchen of course

i just used blue instead of rasp.

light fluffy

low on sugar

high on yummeh.

Classic Sandwich Bread

2010-03-15T20:16:00.002-04:00

I found this recipe on the back of the bag of King Arthur Flour and it's fantastic!

The critics (meaning my husband and coworkers) have deemed this bread to be righteous.

The recipe looks a lot more complicated that it actually is, and there are only 2 things I did differently.

1. The recipe calls for 3 Tablespoons of sugar, but that was too sweet for my husbands pallet, and really, I just think thats too much sugar for bread. So I reduced it to 1 Tablespoon and he liked that much better.

2. I have to make this bread while I'm cooking other things in the oven because my house is too cold for the bread to rise naturally. So I leave the loaf on top of the oven to rise before I bake it, and right before I pop it into the oven, I brush the top gently with a little bit of olive oil

The bread is dense, but not too heavy and it's very tasty. It really is perfect for sandwiches and grilled cheeses.

Eat My Tattoo aka I Love Shortbread

2010-02-14T07:09:00.002-05:00

My husband & I don't really do anything for each other for Vday now that we're married. It just seems silly & a waste of money. We get our daughter Valentines but that's pretty much it. So I decided to make some Valentines day cookies for her with my heart cookie cutters.

Then, I realized that I have black food coloring I've never used.

And thought it would be great to make black heart cookies for my husband and red ones for my daughter. Then I thought I would use some gel frosting to add a little red heart to the black heart cookies.

Then I realized that I had a bat cookie cutter.

This meant I could make edible versions of my tattoo!

I was so excited!

So, I used my shortbread recipe I posted earlier, with a couple of Tbsps of milk added and used 1 Tbsp + 2 tsps of black food coloring and baked.

They came out great! I made heart ones too, and plan to ice "WWJJD" onto those later today.

I gave my husband a tattoo cookie and he laughed his butt off!

Blackeyed Pea Soup with Sage and Lemon

2010-02-10T08:08:00.000-05:00

let me tell you

this soup ROCKS!

and?

it's really easy to make!

i'm going to be really lazy and just post the link to the site where i found it, because there's not a darn thing i would change about this!

Blackeyed Pea Soup with Lemon & Sage at Integral Living & Eating

enjoy!

Vegan Chilli

2010-01-18T15:11:00.002-05:00

1 bag of Red Kidney Beans soaked overnight
1 onion
garlic to taste
1 cup of TVP
2 stalks of celery
1 yellow bell pepper
salt
pepper
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp chili poweder
4 cups veggie broth
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 small can of tomato paste

1. cook onion & garlic in pot on medium heat until soft
2. add celery & pepper
3. add beans & stir well
4. add veggie stock
5. add spices
6. add diced tomatoes & paste
7. still well

allow to cook for about 45 mins while stirring occasionally

8. add TVP

cook on medium until it's thick.

serve with brown rice or crackers and freshly chopped green onions on top.

enjoy

Spice Cake Sammich Cookies

2010-01-18T14:49:00.001-05:00

Spice Cake is the one box-cake that I lovelovelove. really. srsly. LOVE.

Then, while browsing around the foodie blogosphere, I ran across recipes for Spice Cake Cookies!

OMG Good!

SWEET!!

but GOOD!

I found the one I liked best on The Crepes of Wrath

I liked it the best because it was so simple.

Ingredients:

1 Box of Spice Cake Mix (do not follow directions on box. disregard them entirely)
1 stick of softened butter
1 egg at room temperature

Mix everything up

Roll into balls & then flatten the balls a little

Place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 8-10 mins (depending upon the size of your cookies)

Cool on a rack.

When they are completely cooled, spread butter cream frosting on the bottom of one cookie & stick to the bottom of another cookie.

voila!

Butter Cream Frosting :

(bear in mind that all recipes for butter cream frostings are merely guidelines. there's no exact science to it & what you put in it and how it comes out really depends upon your preference. the following is my general preference, but that's subject to change as well. )

1 stick of butter
a bunch of powered sugar (roughly 2 cups)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 Tbs of milk

beat with electric mixer until smooth. add sugar & milk until you achieve the consistency that suits you best.

Sunday Cinnamon Rolls

2010-01-17T11:36:00.003-05:00

Bread has been working well for me lately & this is my latest project.

I found the recipe I liked at Epicurean Escapism and modified it just a little.

Buttermilk Cinnamon Rolls * now with flour!

Ingredients:

for the dough:

2 tbsp sugar
2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1⁄4 tsp baking powder
1⁄2 tsp baking soda
3⁄4 tsp. salt
1 1⁄4 cup buttermilk
6 tbsp melted butter

For the filling:

2 1/2 tbsp. melted butter
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla

For the glaze: (i don't always follow this exactly. sometimes i add cinnamon to this as well. also, i make enough to cover the rolls & the extras)

2 tbsp. water
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 425°F

2. In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt to form the dough.

3. Stir in the butter and buttermilk.

4. Mix well. The dough will be thick and gooey, so at this point I usually knead it right in the mixing bowl to incorporate all the ingredients and little dry morsels, before placing on the floured surface of my counter.

5. With floured hands, gently knead the flour into the dough until smooth.6. With a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a square of approximately 1⁄2 inch thick.7. Spread the surface of the dough with 2 tbsp melted butter, then sprinkle on the cinnamon and sugar.

8.Go to the edge of the dough with the filling as much as possible, then trim off the edges of the dough so that you have a perfect square & the cinnamon filling is right at the edge of the dough. set the extras aside.

9. Gently roll the dough into a log shape with the filling inside. Trim off the ends if they're not even. Then slice off about 2 inches thick

10. Place the rolls in a lightly greased pan, and bake for about 20mins, or until the edges have turned golden brown.

10. Pour prepared glaze onto the rolls while they’re warm, but have cooled for just a few minutes.

After I've removed them from the oven, I roll the extra dough in a separate dish & bake and glaze those as well as I don't like to waste anything.

sorry! i totally forgot to add the flour when i originally posted this! blogger has a new interface i was fighting with & got totally distracted.

Pizza!

2010-01-05T20:50:00.009-05:00

Pizza is one of the precious few things that I can get both my husband and daughter to eat reliably.

And since we're not wealthy, we cannot afford to order out very often, so I usually get the frozen variety.

We've spent years sampling various brands of frozen pizza, and although some are better than others, none have really made all 3 of us happy.

But since I had a smashing success with the pretzels, I decided to have a go at home made pizza.

I was not disappointed.

I used a dough recipe I found at Once Upon A Plate and tweaked it a bit to suit my pallet, and for the sauce I used a portion of my Tomato Bisque recipe, but with a little extra flour added to thicken it up a bit.

Pizza Dough

Yields 1 large, 2 medium, or 4 small pizza crusts

Preheat oven to 500

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon active Quick Rise

Pinch sugar

3/4 cup very warm (not hot) water

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon dried oregano

¼ teaspoon dried basil

salt and pepper to taste

½ teaspoon garlic powder

In a small bowl or glass measuring cup dissolve the yeast and sugar in warm water, stir and set aside for 10 minutes.

Mixture should begin to bubble and foam at the end of the time

While the yeast is dissolving, in a medium bowl, combine flour and salt, pepper and herbs and set aside.

Add the liquid yeast mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.

Flour a work surface and knead dough for a couple of minutes until smooth and elastic.

Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into 1 large, 2 medium, or 4 small pizzas.

After the dough is rolled out, gently lay on a pizza pan and add sauce, fresh herbs of your choice, cheese and toppings

Bake in hot oven until as crispy as desired. Usually about 10 minutes in my experience.

Serve and enjoy!

This is something that is actually very quick. Once I had the sauce made up and the toppings I want, the whole process takes about 20 minutes from dry ingredients to on my plate. It takes no more time than a frozen pizza does to cook, and it's much healthier .

So, now, my fam wants this all the time and I'm happy to oblige.

The Best Shortbread Cookies Ever.

2010-01-03T16:04:00.005-05:00

That's a pretty strong statement, I know.

But I feel that strongly about these shortbread cookies.

I'm not normally a fan of the stuff, more my mom's thing than mine, but these are good and easy.

I found the original recipe at TSG, and made them the first time as recommended with Nutella.

And they were good.

But then, I thought that they would also taste good with a little strawberry jam instead. So I tried them that way last night, and I actually like that way even better.

Ingredients:
2 sticks of butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt

Preparation:
In a separate bowl, sift flour and salt together. In the mixers bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer.

Beat in the vanilla extract.

Gently add the sifted flour and salt mixture into the creamed butter and sugar, and mix on low until well blended. When the mixture is dry and crubly, add 2 teaspoons of milk to the mixture, until everything comes together.

Form the dough into a disk, then wrap it in plastic wrap, and chill it in the refrigerator for about an hour (or until the dough has firmed-up).

Preheat oven to 350º. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Take the dough out of your refrigerator and roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to ¼ of an inch thick. Using the cookie cutters of your choice, cut out the cookies & place on the lined baking sheets.

Bake cookies for about 10 minutes or until the cookies have lightly browned. Cool for 5 minutes on baking sheets before proceeding to cool the cookies on a cooling rack for about 15 minutes.

After the cookies have cooled, spread Nutella or the jam of your choice on half of the cookies, and sandwich the cookies together.

Irish Creme made at home

2010-01-03T15:53:00.004-05:00

This requires a good deal of whiskey.

Just putting that out there right off the bat.

My husband got a bottle of Jameson's from his work crew for Christmas, but he never touches the stuff any more. He pretty much sticks to Bass Ale & he's good.

However, I couldn't allow it to just *sit* there. All alone. By itself. Doing nothing. Going to waste. But I sure wasn't planning on doing shots of it any time soon either.

And that's when I ran across this recipe from Cupcake Project. Perfect!

The post's label is 'You'll Never Buy It Again', and I totally agree. This recipe is so simple and quick, that I see no reason to ever buy it from the store ever again. The most expensive ingredient is the whiskey, but this will make enough to last you a while.

I altered it a little bit from the listed recipe, but you can go to that blog to see what the difference is.

1 Cup light cream
14 oz Carnation brand sweetened condensed milk
1 2/3 C Irish whiskey (I used Jameson's and you can use more or less to taste.)
2 Tablespoons of coffee
2 T Hershey's chocolate syrup
1 t vanilla
1 t almond extract

Combine all ingredients in a blender and set on high speed for 30 seconds.
Bottle in a tightly sealed container and refrigerate. Shake before using.
Will keep for up to 2 months.

voila.

Couldn't be easier & it's good. STRONG. but GOOD!

Holiday Treats

2010-01-02T13:11:00.005-05:00

First and foremost, I would like to thank my mom & stepdad for giving me this beautiful mixer for christmas. I was so excited about it that I started to hyperventilate. My mom didn't know if that I was happy or upset, so my husband had to translate that I was in fact, very, very happy.

Needless to say, I've already used it & it's magical, wonderful and splendid. My mom took the opportunity to point out that she never thought I'd be so excited over a kitchen appliance & that she was pretty sure this meant I was a 'grown up' now. well. really? it's just a big toy for big kids.

And besides, cooking and baking is playing to me anyway.

My second thank you goes out to my MIL (mother in law) for bestowing upon me a full set of Anchor Hocking Fireware Lusture mugs, custard bowls and a baking dish!

She found them in her basement. They were leftover from the last family that lived there & in perfect condition. So perfect, in fact, they're like new. They were obviously never used very much. And that will change in short order. But she didn't want them. Can you believe it?! She didn't want them!

She is aware of my secret love, no, obsession with vintage dishes ( i can correctly identify make, style and patten of depression glass at 30 paces) so she asked me if I wanted these. OF COURSE I WANTED THEM! I'm in heaven! Tonight, I'm making homemade pizza with dough and sauce from scratch. Then, for dessert, I'm going to use these beautiful little custard dishes to make individual chocolate puddings with a recipe I found at Chat and Chew.

But before I get to that, I do want to post what I made for myself for my birthday with my new mixer.

Home made soft Pretzles!

I found this recipe at Picky Cook and didn't alter a thing about it.

It's labor intensive, and eats up a chunk of my day, but goodgod, it's well worth it. My husband wolfed down four without stopping to breathe.

So here it is, try it & you won't be sorry, I promise!

Makes 16

2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon + 2 tablespoons sugar
1 packet active dry yeast
5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/4 cup baking soda
1 large egg
sea salt

Vegetable-oil cooking spray

1. Pour warm water and 1 tablespoon sugar into the bowl of the electric mixer. Using the dough hook to combine. Sprinkle with yeast, and let sit 10 minutes; yeast should be bubbly.

2. Add 1 cup flour to yeast, and mix on low until combined. Add salt and 4 cups more flour, and mix until combined, about 30 seconds.

Beat on medium-low until dough pulls away from sides of bowl, about 1 1/2 minutes. Add another 1/2 cup flour, and knead on low 1 minute more. If dough is still wet and sticky, add 1/2 cup more flour. Knead until combined, about 30 seconds. Transfer to a lightly floured board, and knead about ten times, or until smooth.

3. Pour a small amount of oil into a large bowl; swirl to coat sides. Transfer dough to bowl, turning dough to completely cover all sides. Cover, and leave in a warm spot for 1 hour, or until dough has doubled in size

4. Heat oven to 450 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. ( i used oil greased foil for one batch & they didn't come out very well, so I would recommend the parchment paper)

Set aside. Punch down dough to remove bubbles. Transfer to a lightly floured board. Knead once or twice, divide into 16 pieces

5. Roll one piece of dough at a time into an 18-inch-long strip on an unfloured board. Twist into pretzel shape & transfer to prepared baking sheet. Cover and continue to form the rest of the pretzels; eight will fit on each sheet. Let pretzels rest until they rise slightly, about 15 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, fill large, shallow pot with 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil. Add baking soda (and step back, it foams up quickly) and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Reduce to a simmer; transfer three to four pretzels to water. Poach 1 minute on each side. Use slotted spoon to transfer pretzels to baking sheet (I used a drying rack with paper towels underneath - then once they were dry I put them on the baking sheets). Continue until all pretzels are poached.

I'm honestly not sure what this step is about, but every pretzel recipe I've seen calls for this.
7. Beat egg with 1 tablespoon water. Brush pretzels with egg glaze. Sprinkle with salt. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on wire rack, or eat warm.

Pretzels are best when eaten the same day, but will keep at room temperature, uncovered, for two days. Do not store in covered container or they will become soggy. Seriously. I tried to store them in a container later that night & they were immediately soggy. So, I ended up keeping them in the fridge, but the next time I make these, I will absolutely leave them out for at least 24 hours.

Serve & enjoy! I like them as is, but my hubs covered in spicy brown mustard.

Earl Grey Apple Sauce with Roasted Vanilla Walnuts

2009-12-28T07:25:00.004-05:00

This is a combination of two new recipes I tried over the holidays.

I didn't intend for them to go together, but once I had them both made, combining them sounded good. And I was right. They're great together!

First, I found the applesauce recipe at FoodMayhem a few months ago, but haven't had the chance to make it. It's quick, simple and satisfying. I didn't find the Earl Grey overpowering, either. I'm a big fan of Earl Grey tea, so I would've been OK with it if it did add a strong flavor, but it turned out subtle and tasty.

4 Apples, peeled and chopped into slices
1 cup of water
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 bag of Earl Grey tea with the tag and string removed.

1. Combine apples, water, sugar and salt in a pot & bring to a boil
2. Submerge the tea bag in the water, stir so that the apples cover it
3. Reduce to a simmer & place lid on pot for about 15 mins or until most of the water has simmered off.
4. Discard tea bag.

At this point, you can mash if you'd like, but I didn't. I left the apple slices whole.

Roasted Vanilla Walnuts

I found this recipe at Elana's Pantry & it's wonderful.

Since we have 2 cars in the shop & the one functioning vehicle we have is tempremental and cranky, we weren't able to give the kind of gifts we really wanted to give this year. we're broke. so I made muffins and cookies for our families. After our daughter opened all of her presents, I was browsing on foodgawker & came across this and it was perfect! I, amazingly, had all of the ingredients in my pantry & whipped these up in 5 mins flat! I added some to each gift bag along with the baked goods & a jar of home made tomato soup.

Ingredients:

2 cups raw walnuts
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Agave Nectar (honey could probably be substituted for non-vegans)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 -2 vanilla pods, split and scraped, or about 1/2 a teaspoon of the beans
dash of cinnamon

1. pour the olive oil in a skillet & turn on high.
2. add the walnuts & stir so that they are coated
3. when they start to sizzle, turn down the temp to med/low
4. add agave nectar & stir until nuts are coated.
5. let the nuts sizzle slightly for a couple of minutes, then stir in the salt
6. add the vanilla beans and stir until walnuts are coated
7. add dash of cinnamon & stir

transfer to a plate & allow to cool.

I'm so in love with this recipe and I keep thinking of all the ways I could eat these. Mostly, I've just been eating them by the handful, but they're great added to the apple sauce. I'm pretty sure they'd go well with sweet potatoes and oatmeal too.

Holiday Preparation

2009-12-20T08:30:00.002-05:00

Currently, my husband and I have 2 cars in the shop because they are dead. And the one remaining functional car we have now has a semi-working ignition because someone tried, unsuccesfully, to steal it by jamming a screw-driver in the lock. The mechanic told us that it would be $1,000 for parts and labor (since it's an import) or he could grease the crap out of it for $25 and we'd just have to 'jiggle' it a little & pray.

Obviously, we went the jiggle and pray route since it's the week of the holiday and our shopping isn't done.

This means I will be making cookies to give to our friends and families for the holiday.

Thankfully, a number of cookie recipes that I've posted recently are of the "do-ahead-and-store-in-the-fridge" variety.

Currently, I have 3 batches of chocolate cookie dough in my freezer (although one of those batches may not work. I tried to use a diabetic friendly sugar substitute and it didn't work as well as I thought it would)

And today, I've got to make 3 batches of sugar and at least 2 batches of chocolate chip.

That way all that my husband & I have to do is roll them, bake them & bag them.

In between all of this, I also have to make the chocolate chip muffins my husband is in love with.

I just hope I have enough ingredients for all of this because it's snowing here. REALLY snowing here. From the reports I've heard, most of the east coast is blanketed with a ton of snow right now.

So if you're getting snowed on, stay warm & take care and have a happy holiday!

Cocoa Crinkle Cookies

2009-12-13T11:19:00.002-05:00

I found this at "Behind The Skillet" and they are divine!

We hosted a dinner party last night & I made these for our guests and ohmygod they went fast!

They're simple, elegant, moist and petty.
who could ask for more?

Ingreidents:

3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup good quality unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1stick)
1 1/4 cup sugar, plus another 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Step 1: In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and sal. While you're doing this, Melt the butter in a saucepan. Once the butter is totally melted, set it aside and allow it to cool for a few minutes.

Step 2: In a separate bowl, mix the 1 1/4 cup of sugar, eggs and butter. Whisk well until it has a smooth, creamy cconsistency and then add the vanilla. Whisk until well blended.

Step 3: Stir the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir well until combined.

Step 4: Wrap and chill in your refridgerator for at least 2 hours or overnight

Step 5: Preheat oven to 350, and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Shape dough into small balls and roll ina bowl with 1/2 a cup of white sugar. Place balls on the parchment paper and flatten slightly with a spoon.

bake for 12 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

2009-12-13T11:00:00.002-05:00

The Picky Hubby wanted something different for breakfast.
but he wasn't sure what kind of different.
he was just sure that he was tired of corn muffins and banana muffins.

So, I came up with this little recipe and it was a big hit.
He likes the texture & density of the muffins, they fill him up
and most importantly
they go well with his morning coffee.

The Little One loves these as well, so I usually end up making 2 batches of this so there's enough for everybody.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2/3 cup milk
1 stick of butter melted and cooled (1/2 cup)
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup of chocolate chips (more or less to taste)

Preheat oven to 400 and line muffin tin with muffin cups. In a large bowl mix together flour, white sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl stir together eggs, milk, melted butter and vanilla until well blended. Make a small well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet mixture. Stir until well combined and then add the chocolate chips

Spoon mixture into the muffin cups. Bake for 15-20 mins until ligthly brown on top. Allow to cool before eating or storing.

the original recipe calls for an entire 11 oz package of chocolate chips to be added, but personally, that's a bit much for breakfast. And my husband really loves the dough the best in this muffin. the chips are just secondary.

Cookies For Breakfast!

2009-09-20T08:42:00.004-04:00

I found this recipe at Hippie With a Minivan and decided that I must try it.

I made it two different ways. One way for me and one way for my daughter.

For my daughter I stuck to the exact recipe and she loved it!

This is it:

In a medium sized bowl, mix the following:

1 1/3 cup Oatmeal
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup flour
1 cup non-fat powdered milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup pecans

once that's mixed, add in

1 cup Apple Sauce
1 tsp vanilla

Mix it all together & spoon medium sized mounds of the dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

bake at 350 degree oven for about 15 min.

I got 6 good sized cookies out of this recipe & they were fantastic!

Now, what I did for my version of this was the following:

In a medium sized bowl, mix the following:

1 1/3 cup Oatmeal
1/4 cup dried pineapple
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup flour
1 cup non-fat powdered milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup macadamia nuts
pinch of vanilla bean

once that's mixed, add in

1 cup Apple Sauce
1 tsp vanilla

and follow the same baking instructions as above.

These were a big hit & me and my daughter

* * * note: i've been playing around with this & have used different sauces besides apple sauce. i most recently used a sweet potato sauce i made and added cranberries, pecans and used orange extract instead of vanilla & it was even better!

This recipe lends itself to creativity & i try to mix it up every so often.

Peaches

2009-09-07T21:51:00.003-04:00

pie
cake
torte?

lets just stick with 'thing'

thing works.

so this is a Peach Thing

that is delish!

i found the recipe here at Whitneyinchicago and modified it a bit.

i've seen this exact recipe on a couple of different sites, and it's one that works for me since it's low on the dairy and high on the simplicity.

Technically it's called Peach Tea Cake.

and it's dang good.

Here's what you'll need:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 sticks of butter
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

In a separate bowl, mix the following or the filling:

4 sliced peaches
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of ginger
1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean
1/2 teaspoon of brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
2. Cream the sugar & butter until light and fluffy
3. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla extract
4. While mixing, slowly add the flour mixture and stir just until smooth dough forms.
5. Preheat the oven to 375F and pat a portion of the dough into the bottom of pie or casserolle dish. i sprayed it with butter flavored non-stick spray, but you could use pats of butter instead. The bottom layer of the dough should be about an inch thick & it should go up the side of the dish just a bit.
6. Pour the peaches on top of the dough in the dish & spread it evenly.
7. Use he remainder of the dough in spoonfull size portions & cover the peaches
8. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until lightly golden and firm. Cool for 30 minutes before serving.

This came out really well & my daughter loved it so it's definitely a keeper!

Rosemary Infused Lemon Spritzer

2009-07-12T16:58:00.003-04:00

I love Rosemary.

I also love anything citrus.

So, when I found this recipe for Rosemary Infused Lemon Vodka Spritzers on Brownies For Dinner, I just couldn't resist.

And besides, it's so easy!

However, I wasn't sure how I would like it because I'm not a big fan of plain Vodka & I've never had Rosemary as a drink before.

But let me tell you, this little recipe here is the bomb-diggedy!

The Rosemary is more for scent than actual taste. That is, it tastes mostly like lemons, but it smells like Rosemary.

And with a little ice? Absolute perfection.

here's how to make the rosemary lemon syrup from "Brownies For Dinner"

"Rosemary lemonade simple syrup

(adapted from Gourmet via The Bitten Word)
1 cup lemon juice
1 cup sugar
4 four-inch sprigs of rosemary

1. Place lemon juice, rosemary, and sugar in a medium pot.
2. Bring to a boil, stir to dissolve sugar.
3. Allow to simmer for about 2 minutes, then remove from heat.
4. Let it cool completely (about 1 hour), then remove the rosemary.
5. Use the syrup and enjoy!"

I did a shot of the syrup, a shot of vodka, 2 ice cubes & filled with spritzer.

Perfection!

Coconut Steamed Rice with Fruit

2009-06-28T19:34:00.003-04:00

This is one I kind of just made up as I went along, and although no one else in my house hold likes, I like it. A LOT. REALLY A LOT.

In fact, I see this becoming a new summer staple.

I inherited a Panasonic Rice Steamer a few years back, when a friend of my husbands upgraded his. It's the best thing in the whole world & I don't know how to make rice any other way now. So all of my rice is steamed to absolute fool proof perfection every time.

So please pardon my directions here as they are kind of sketchy & not exactly precise.

cover rice with an equal mix of water and Calahua Coconut Cream and steam.
when it's done, set it out to cool down to room temperature
top with slices of fresh pineapple and raspberries.

and enjoy.

it's seriously ohmygodgood. sweet but really good!

once it cooled completely I covered with the raspberries & stored in the fridge, but when I want to have it, I'll slice the pineapple at that time.

Potato Salad

2009-06-28T19:22:00.003-04:00

I found this recipe at Seasaltwithfood and thought my husband would like it.

He doesn't normally eat potato salad, but there are enough of the things he does like in this, that I thought I'd take a chance.

And happily, he loves it!

Ingredients:

Yukon Gold Potatoes
1 small Red Onion, chopped
3 ribs Celery, chopped
3 Tbsp chopped fresh Chives
6 Tbsp Sour Cream
1 Lemon, juiced
5 Tbsp Prepared Horseradish
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Sea Salt to taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste

Method

"Boil the potatoes until just tender. Drain and cut the potatoes into quarters or halved if smaller.

In a separate dish, combine red onion, celery, chives, sour cream, lemon juice, and horseradish and mix well. Add olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Combine the potatoes with the dressing and mix thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate for about 1 to 2 hours before serving."

or devour immediately like we did. either way, really, but I'm sure it will be even better in tomorrows lunch.

Orzo and Vegetable Confetti Salad

2009-06-27T15:18:00.009-04:00

This is one of my most favorite things to eat in the summer.

I found it years ago in a Williams Sonoma cookbook and fell in love.

Unfortunately, the cookbook belonged to my then-step-mother. And when her & my dad divorced, I didn't get the opportunity to copy down the recipe. So for years, I didn't have it. And then after much digging, I found it online at the Williams Sonoma website. And let me tell you, I was VERY happy! You can find the actual recipe here, but I don't really change much about it.

Ingredients:

1 box orzo
olive oil
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
12 radishes, diced*
3 carrots, peeled and diced*
8 green onions, green and white portions, thinly sliced*
2 Tbs of capers, drained
1 lemon, cut into 6 slices

Directions:

In a large pot over high heat, bring the water to a boil. Add the 2 Tbs. salt and the orzo and cook until tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Drain the orzo and immediately toss it with 1 Tbs. of the olive oil. Cover and cool completely. You can put it in the fridge for this, but I usually don't. I toss it with the olive oil & just let it sit out on the counter to cool, stirring occasionally while chopping the veggies. By the time the veggies are chopped, the pasta will be cool enough to add them to the mix.

In a large bowl, whisk together 4 Tbs. olive oil, the lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add the radishes, carrots, green onions, capers and orzo. Toss to mix well.

It's pretty easy and straight forward, and best of all, it has a very fresh and light flavor.

*note: the quantity of carrots, onions & radishes may vary according to taste & size of said vegetable. I get my veggies from a local farm where they grow outrageously huge, so I only had to use a carrot & a half & 6 radishes & 6 onions. The whole thing is pretty much to taste anyway. It's a pretty flexible recipe.

Pesto Penne

2009-06-25T07:14:00.005-04:00

This, my friends, is my new favorite summer dish.

EVER.

This is the most awesomest & most brilliant and delicious thing I've eaten in quite a while.

And the best part about it, is that it's super quick and easy!

Recipe:

1 box of penne pasta - boiled
1 package of pesto sauce - prepared
1 box of cherry tomatoes
fresh mozzeralla
kosher salt

boil the pasta until it's al dente, splash with a little bit of olive oil & set aside to cool
prepare the pesto & set it aside to cool a little bit, then pour over the pasta & toss well.
while that's cooling, chop the fresh mozzerella into bite sized pieces. put it in the pasta & pesto & toss well again. this time, add some kosher salt
half the cherry tomatoes, add to the mix & toss well again.

and that is it!

it's so good i almost cried. seriously.

i will give you this piece of advice on this:
be sure that the pasta & pesto have cooled well before adding the cheese, or it will melt. not that that's a big deal, but this is a cool to room temp served dish & the cheese really shouldn't be all melty for this.

i see myself eating this all summer.

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

2009-06-20T16:50:00.006-04:00

simple, really.

i had a massive craving for chocolate. and decided to make the peanut butter cups.

the problem, however, was that my need for chocolate was immediate.

the chocolate was melting

my husband was eating mini pretzels.

you do the math.

i left them to cool on waxed paper & then kept in the fridge over night.

they were mighty good.
mighty good.

and i'll bet they'd be even better with some popcorn.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

2009-05-19T07:42:00.004-04:00

On Mothers Day I attempted to make White Chocolate dipped strawberries & failed miserably. I'd never worked with white chocolate before & quickly discovered that it doesn't behave the same way that regular chocolate does.

When I make the peanutbutter cups, I melt the chocolate & then take it to the dining room table where I fill the cups. This cannot be done with white chocolate apparently. The minute I took it off of the burner, it solidified & would not melt again. I tried to microwave it & it still wouldn't melt again. It just burned & filled the house with a disgusting smell.

So in order to salvage the project, I just dipped them into regular chocolate & then melted a new batch of white chocolate & drizzled it over the berries. And that worked out just fine.

However, I was undaunted & wanted to try the white chocolate dipped experiment again. So this weekend, I did it.

Here's what I learned:

Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler.
While the white chocolate is still on the stove, dip the strawberries in & give them a good twist or two to make sure they're totally coated.
Once they're coated, place on wax paper & put them in the fridge.
Once they've cooled & completely solidified, drizzle melted chocolate over the top.

Like the peanutbutter cups, they're pretty easy & make a good impression. And my mom loved them!

Seth's Banana Cake Muffins

2009-05-17T14:47:00.005-04:00

When I moved away from home, my mom made a cookbook for me. It was my very fist cookbook ever, before I had ever even tried cooking or baking, before I even had my first pot or pan.

She made it by hand on a word processor and taped family pictures to each recipe. The recipes were her's that she had made over the years, and each one was put into a clear sleeve and each sleeve was put into a 3 ring binder. On the cover she put a picture of me & my brother at Christmas time when he was about 3 years old.

She made this back in the early 90's before Shutterfly and other such sites where you can create your own book. Every little bit of the book she did by hand for me, and I treasure it dearly. The only problem I have with it, is that my mom eats meat. I do not. So unfortunately, most of the main course recipes are meat related. But I have made numerous recipes from the desserts and veggies sections & they are all wonderful.

The best part is that because it's a three ring binder, I've added my own favorites to it & so has my husband. So it's something that has become an heirloom and a family project. One that I will pass on to my daughter one day as well.

I haven't tried every recipe in the book, but today, I wanted to try one of her recipes. So I tried the banana cake one since my husband loves anything banana & I figured it would be a big hit.

I made it, and as predicted, my husband loves it.

So here's the recipe unaltered:

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 ripe bananas

Mix the flour, baking soda & spices in a small bowl and set aside.

Mash the 3 bananas in a small bowl and set aside.

Cream butter, oil and sugar until creamy.
Add the beaten eggs
Add the dry ingredients alternating with the mashed bananas.
Mix well.

If making cupcakes, pour batter in cupcake liners and cook for about 30 mins until golden brown.
If making as a cake, bake for about 45 minutes.

It's basically banana bread, but a little more cakey.

The reason it's called "Seth's Banana Cake" is because when Seth, who is my little brother, (and I use the term "little" loosely here since he's 20 & taller than me) was 2 he stomped on a bunch of bananas on the kitchen floor. They weren't ruined, but they were too mushy to eat. So my mom decided to whip up this cake for him out of the trod upon bananas & it came out so good, she's made it ever since.

Rhubarb and Oatmeal.

2009-05-16T16:08:00.007-04:00

Ok, so I know that in the last post, I promised chocolate covered stawberries would be next.

However, I became totally distracted by this Rhubarb and Oatmeal recipe from Omnomicon.

I made it today & it was awesome! I'm in love!

Rhubarb is the bastard love child of an unholy union between a beet and celery.

There's really no other way to describe it.

They're tart, crunchy and cook up BRIGHT RED. They're most commonly used in crisps and pies along with strawberries, but personally, I like their tartness & find the addition of strawberries to be distracting.

So when I came across this recipe I had to make it. NOW. It took about half an hour combined of prep & cook, and as an added bonus, it's pretty to look at.

So here's what I used:

3 medium sized stalks of Rhubarb
1/2 cup of sugar
oatmeal prepared per directions on box
vanilla yogurt.

Cut the rhubarb into small chunks
toss with sugar and place into a pan and cook on medium heat until the chunks become jucy and syrupy

Turn the heat down to low, make oat meal the way you like it.

(I like mine with brown sugar and cinnamon so that's how I made it)

When the oatmeal is done, serve with the rhubarb & yogurt and enjoy.

The three ingredients here are so lovely together I tried to eat this a little bit at a time with the intention of keeping the aestetics intact.

However, it was so delish that I finally gave in & just stirred the whole mess together & devoured.

Black Beans & Rice

2009-05-10T21:25:00.005-04:00

This is easy, vegan, fat-free & one of my favorite things to make

Plus, it's really pretty to look at.

What you'll need:

2 cans of black beans, drained & rinsed
cilantro
1 cubanelle pepper
1/2 a yellow vidalia onion
green onions
several cloves of garlic
olive oil

in a pan, pour enough olive oil in to coat the bottom & heat.
add minced garlic & onion & saute until barely brown.
then add the finely chopped pepper & green onions
then add the black beans & cilantro
saute for a couple of minutes
salt & pepper to taste

serve over rice.

voila.

up next: chocolate covered strawberries

Cole Slaw

2009-04-19T17:19:00.005-04:00

This is for The Picky Hubby. He's slightly tactile defensive so everything he eats has to have a particular texture. That is to say, it must have resistance. If you want to get astrological about it, he's an Aries, so he likes it when even his food fights back.

Cole Slaw is the perfect food for him.

crunchy & fights back? -check
raw veggies? - check
salty & vinegary? -check
he doesn't have to heat it up at work? - check

So I decided to have a crack at it. It only has a few ingredients; so how hard could it be?

Here's what I used:

1/2 head of green cabbage, shredded
1/2 head of red cabbage, shredded
3 large carrots, shredded
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 1/2 cups of mayo ( personally, if i were making this for me, I would have used Vegonaise to veganize it. but this is for him & he's very fussy about his mayo.)
1/2 tsp of salt
pepper to taste.

mix it, chill it, eat it.

volia.

Carrot Cake Cookies

2009-04-19T16:40:00.002-04:00

Like my reto diner plates?

I found them at an antique store in Nashville many years ago & I love them dearly. If I could find more dishes just like it, I'd probably sell a kidney to get them if I had to. Grandmas china? Bah! Gimme good old fashioned pink & black diner plates & I'm happy.

Anyway, I'd been nosing around online for a good, yet fairly easy carrot cake cookie recipe, and I found this one at Gastonomy & it's wonderful!

I did modify it a bit since the recipe called for raisins. (see the oatmeal cookie recipe for my feelings on those nasty little buggers)

Also, I made the filling per the directions, but found it way too ... runny, yet lumpy? it was bizzare. I couldn't get it to the right consistency even with a pound of powdered sugar. And at that point it was just gross. So I skipped the filling. And that's just fine, because these cookies are so good, they can stand alone. I think the filling would be too distracting, anyway.

Carrots are eaten on a daily basis in our household. I swear my husband would be dead if it weren't for carrots. We probably all have that nice orange glow you get when you eat a lot of carrots. I don't care. So aside from the failed filling attempt, these came out fantastic!

You will need the following:

1 1/8 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons white sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup coarsely grated carrots (2 medium)
1 cup of chopped walnuts

In a small separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, spices and baking soda and set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat together the butter, both sugars, the egg and vanilla in a bowl until completely mixed. About 3 mins.

Add carrots and nuts at low speed. When that's completely mixed, add the flour mixture a little bit at a time. Keep the mixer speed on low to medium.

Drop large spoonfuls onto a parchment lined baking sheet & bake at 375 for about 15 mins or until they're just golden brown.

This recipe makes about a dozen. But because these were supposed to be sandwich cookies, I made two batches. And even though I'd planned on taking some to work, 2 dozen cookies is a little much. Especially when you consider I had already made oatmeal & honey cookies this weekend too.

So I enlisted the aid of my taste testers. The neighborhood kids. 4 out of 5 liked them and I like them, so this ones a keeper too.

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies

2009-04-19T08:17:00.007-04:00

So I got a random craving for oatmeal cookies.

But not just any oatmeal cookies. I'm very picky when it comes to oatmeal cookies.

I don't like them with raisins because raisins are an abomination, and I don't even like them with chocolate chips. I don't like them with anything but oatmeal and cookie.

Finding a recipe to fit this criteria was more difficult than I had imagined.

But, happily, I did locate one that suited my pallet at Thibeaults Table & they're perfect!

They're low on the oats, and heavy on the cookie but not so heavy that you'd miss the oats.

Perfection!

Recipes From Thibeault's Table

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 2/3 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
dash nutmeg
1 1/2 cups rolled oats

Preheat oven to 350

In a small separate bowl, combine flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

In a larger bowl, cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.

Add egg and beat until smooth.

Add vanilla and beat on low

Stir the combined flour, soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into butter mixture.

Add rolled oats a little at a time & beat on low with each addition

Roll into medium sized balls

Bake 12-15 minutes or until bottoms are golden.

Cookies should not get brown.
Remove from oven & cool on rack

A dear friend came by just as I was taking these out of the oven & we sat on the back porch in the sunshine nibbling on these beauties. It was a very good day!

Awesome Asparagus

2009-04-19T08:04:00.009-04:00

Since it's been Asparagus season, I've been eating these little bad boys like crazy.

I hated them as a kid, but i love them now and so does my daughter. My picky husband? mmmnot so much. But that's ok because my daughter would eat nothing but Asparagus all day if i let her.

I think the reason I didn't like them when I was a kid was because of the way my mom cooked them. They were limp, soggy and a nasty shade of green. So, Mom, take notes!

But the way I cook them is fantastic! I'd love to be able to tell you where I found the recipe, but because it was so simple, I didn't save it & have totally forgotten where I saw it

Anyway, here's what I do:

1 bunch of Asparagus
1 lemon
1 Tbs Olive oil
cracked sea salt to taste.

Wash the Asparagus and chop of the bottom portion.

Arrange in a baking dish & drizzle the olive oil over them & toss gently with a fork

Add sea salt & toss again. After the second tossing, add more sea salt.

Cut the lemon into thin slices, but leave the ends of the lemon as wedges. Squeeze the juice from the wedges over the Asparagus, then discard the wedges. Place the lemon slices over the Asparagus.

Bake in oven at 350 for 20 mins then serve (add more sea salt if you're a salt addict like me)

Heaven, I tell you. Heaven. My child will devour these faster than I can keep them on her plate!

Also, Asparagus are incredibly healthy. There's all kinds of good info on the Wikipeida article on them. Follow the jump to read up on Asparagus.

"Asparagus rhizomes and root is used ethnomedically to treat urinary tract infections, as well as kidney and bladder stones.^{[citation needed]} In Ayurvedic medicine (a traditional medicine of India) a type of asparagus (asparagus racemosa)called Shatavari in Sanskrit is widely used as a tonic, and for women's problems. Shatavari means "Plant of the 100 roots". Because of it's reputed aphrodisiac properties it is also known as "lady with the 100 husbands".

hm! interesting!

The Apple Pear Conflict

2009-04-19T07:36:00.006-04:00

actually, it's Apple Pear Compote

but every time I said it to my husband, he kept hearing Conflict instead of Compote. So it's officially been named The Apple Pear Conflict.

And it's dang good!

I found this at The Picky Cook
and it's now become a staple in our household.

It also helped that I found vanilla beans on sale & bought up as many as my little cart could hold.

This is the first recipe I've used fresh vanilla beans with & although there isn't a noticeable difference in taste, it does make for a good presentation.

The Ingredients are as follows:

2 cups apple cider
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp unsalted butter, divided
3 medium (about 1 lb total) Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, small diced
3 medium (about 1 1/2 lbs total) pears, peeled, cored, small diced
(Bartlett pears were recommended, but I just red anjou & it came out great)
1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise

Combine apple cider, cider vinegar, and brown sugar in medium saucepan. Simmer on medium-high, uncovered, stirring occasionally until reduced for about 10 to 15 mins.

Melt the butter in a pan on medium. Add apples, pears and cook for abotut 5 minutes until softened.

Using a sharp knife, split the vanilla bean pod length wise. Using a butter knife or a spoon, scrape tiny seeds from vanilla bean into fruit mixture. This can get messy & the seeds can stick to your hands, so be careful. When all of the seeds are out, discard the pod.

Stir in the reduced cider glaze and simmer until there's no more liquid in the apples. It should have a sticky, glazed consistency.

Remove from heat & allow it to cool some before serving. I eat this over fat-free vanilla yogurt, but my daughter likes it with vanilla bean ice cream.

The best thing about this, is that it's easy to make & it's really tasty and versetile. You could serve this on cake, ice cream, yogurt, or just eat as is.

Honey Cookies

2009-03-29T17:00:00.008-04:00

When I was a kid, my family always got our baked goods at a local bakery outside of Nashville called Beckers Bakery. The cakes were wonderful but their cookies were the best! Especially their Honey Cookies. When we moved away, I was never able to find another bakery that had these kinds of cookies, so I pretty much gave up trying & only have them on the occasions I go back home.

Today, however, I had a mad craving for honey cookies. So I looked up recipes for them. I didn't really expect to find any good ones, but I did come across this one called Honey Bee Cookies from cooks.com. I made it today (with minor alterations) and they came out great! They almost taste just like the ones from Beckers! They are however, very sweet. Even for me & I love sweets. I don't remember the ones from the bakery being quite so sweet, but then, it's been a good 10 years since I've had theirs. So it's hard to judge. But my little one liked them too, so I'll make them again.

Now that I'm on a a cookie making roll, I will only send my home made cookies in her school lunch. I really don't want her to have all the preservatives & junk that are in store bought pre-packaged cookies. Cookies are not meant to have a year long shelf life. They are to be eaten and enjoyed immediatley. But she wants cookies, and my husband likes to have one with lunch too, so I usually end up making big batches on the weekends.

And although I don't think my husband will like these, I think they came out pretty good.

here's the recipe:

Honey Cookies

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 stick of butter, softened
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Beat butter, brown sugar, honey and egg in a medium bowl on medium speed, scraping bowl constantly, until smooth. Stir in remaining ingredients.

3. Drop the dough by Tablespoon fulls onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

4. Bake until set and light brown around edges 8 to 12 minutes. Let stand 3 to 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet, then remove from cookie sheet with metal spatula onto a wire rack. Makes 12 cookies.

Spiced Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

2009-03-22T15:36:00.009-04:00

I was so excited when I found this recipe here at Foodess, that I absolutely HAD to make it THIS weekend. It simply couldn't wait another week. Finances be damned! We MUST have Guinness Cupcakes!

I've been eyeballing a lot of variations on chocolate Guinness baked goods, but this one seemed to be the most simple & straightforward recipe that didn't require me to purchase new kitchen equiment.

And unlike just about every other recipe I make, I didn't alter this one little bit.

Ok, well, not the cupcake part anyway. I did use my own butter cream frosting though.

So here it is:

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cups cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
2 eggs
1 cup soy milk (alright, so i altered that one little thing. the original calls for regular milk)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup Guinness beer

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees and line two muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, and spices.

2. In a separate bowl, blend together eggs, soy milk, melted butter*, beer, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and beat on medium speed of electric beaters for 2 minutes. Fill cupcake liners to three quarters full. Bake for 25 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

*be sure to use beer that is at room temperature. I would recommend leaving a bottle out overnight in fact. I had left a bottle out for about an hour before making this, but it was still cold. Which meant that when I added it to the melted butter, it immediately solidified the butter. Somehow, I don't think this was the desired effect. But it worked out anyway.

I used the same frosting from the Vanilla Rum Spice Cookie recipe.

Personally? I think these ROCK! It's a perfect blend of Guinness & chocolate without one overpowering the other. I will totally make these again. And again and again..

But, that is just me. If you're not a Guinness fan, then these probably wouldn't do it for you. I, however AM a fan & these DO work for me very well!

I'm so glad I didn't wait to make these! Yum!

Vanilla Rum Spice Cookies

2009-03-22T14:59:00.006-04:00

These are SO good!

When I took them out of the oven last night, I gave my husband a small bite. Just to see if he'd like them.

And I swear to you, I thought his eyeballs were going to roll back in his head, and all he could say was "MORE OF THOSE!!"

Yep! That's what I was going for! Now, I gave him the un-frosted variety because he doesn't like frosting at all. But they're really good either way.

The funny thing about these, is that they're not what they're supposed to be. They're supposed to be Root Beer Cookies. I found this great little recipe here at Makes and Takes. And thought that was a brilliant idea!

Unfortunately, I couldn't get my hands on any root beer flavoring. But I did have some rum flavoring hidden in the back of my spice rack & it's been begging me to use it for over a month now. So, I thought, what the heck? I'll give it a shot.

And y'know what?

They're divine! I don't think I'm even going to try the root beer version now!

Here's what I did:

Makes about 2 dozen

1 cup vegan butter
2 cups light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp imitation rum extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Cream butter and brown sugar until very light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the rum & vanilla extracts. Whisk dry ingredients together. Add a little at a time to the creamed mixture. The dough should be slightly sticky

Chill for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease several baking sheets, or line them with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. Roll into balls & place on cookie sheet. With a spoon, press down on the top of each ball, so it's flattened a little bit.

Bake for 6-8 minutes. More if you're cookie balls are a little bigger. When done transfer to a plate or paper towels to cool.

My frosting is a little free-form and I make it a little differently depending upon what it's going on. For these cookies, this is pretty much what I did:

1 stick of earth balance butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
a whole lot of powdered sugar

mix all ingredients together well and keep adding the powdered sugar until you get a nice stiff consistency.

Then I filled the little spoon sized depression on top of the cookies with the frosting, and volia!

I suppose you could cover the whole cookie with frosting, but in my personal opinion, the flavor of the cookies is subtle and delicate and too much of the frosting would be overpowering. Plus, they look pretty with just a dab of frosting.

Everyone in my household LOVES these, so this recipe is definitely a keeper!

2009-03-21T16:13:00.004-04:00

Wow!

I haven't posted in a long time.

It's been busy in my house & I haven't had a lot of computer time in the past few weeks. And on the rare occasions I can get to the computer, I've spent catching up with an old friend I haven't talked to since 7th grade!

facebook is an amazing thing.

So, in the past two weeks I've still tried new recipes, but I did the quick and dirty versions of them to save time and a little money. Eventually, I'm sure I'll do them the slow and clean way, but since I'm pretty happy with the results I got, I think I'll stick to my way for now.

The first thing I tried was Dragon's Rice Pudding.

Now let me say, my mothers rice pudding is a wonderful thing. This is total comfort food for me & it's what I want to eat on the occasions I need my mama.

However

my mothers rice pudding recipe is...difficult. It requires kitchen equipment I don't own
(ie: corning wear and/or a casserole dish. since i'm vegetarian i don't own such things) and although I do love rice pudding, it's really not worth going out & buying these items I'll never use for anything other than rice pudding.

So, I had been searching around for a rice pudding recipe I could do on the stove top. And Voila! Dragon had one posted that's perfect! (have i mentioned how much i love Dragons blog? No? Well, I do! Great recipes there!)

Unfortunately, the craving for it was high, and resources were low. So I made do with what I had.

And this is what I did:

Cranberry and Lemon Rice Pudding by Dragon

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups water
2 cups soy milk
3 strips of lemon rind
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup short-grain rice
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 large egg, beaten

Directions:

1. In a saucepan combine water, milk, lemon, cinnamon and salt. Cover and bring it to a boil, over medium heat.

2. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the rice. Cook the rice, uncovered for about 25-30 minutes or until the rice is almost tender. Stir often.

3. Add the sugar and cranberries. Cook for another 5 to 10 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove the pan from the heat.

4. Stir in the egg quickly until well combined. Return the pan to the heat until the rice is slightly thickened. Stir constantly. Remove the lemon rind. Cool the rice to your desired temperature.

Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with ground cinnamon and/or lemon zest.

Let me just say that this is sinfully good. No, really! It's seriously that good! I brought some to work to share with my friend there & those were her exact words!

The pudding is on the left in the picture up there. That's my little wanna-be bento box. I spend way to much free time oogling bento sites. some day i'll go there. some day...

on the right hand side of the picture is the other new recipe I tried.
Again, this is the quick and dirty version of the origianal which you can find at Buff Chickpea

YaYa's Potatoes

1/2 a bag of red potatoes
2 onions, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup vegetable broth

1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
Sea salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place the cut up potatoes in a greased baking dish Set aside while you make the lemon dressing.

In a medium bowl, combine olive oil, lemon juice, broth, oregano, garlic, and a little salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the potatoes, and give everything a good toss.

Sprinkle with additional kosher salt and cracked black pepper 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.

Personally, I really liked these. Never, thought they were ok. He didn't hate them, and he ate them, but he said he likes the crash potatoes better. But I made them again anyway for me, because they're fast, yummy, filling and re-heat really well!

Peanut Buttercups

2009-02-22T21:01:00.007-05:00

By total accident, I happened to run across "How To Make Homemade Peanutbutter Cups" at The Hungry Mouse.

And i couldn't resist. She made it look so simple and wonderful and I had to go out to the store that very minute and get the ingredients to make this.

There are four. yes FOUR ingredients to this amazing creation.

They are:

Chocolate Chips (2 medium sized bags)
Peanutbutter ( 1 cup )
Powdered Sugar (1/2 a cup)
Vanilla. (1 tsp)

(Plus cupcake liners.)

That's it! I swear!

For the filling:
mix the peanut butter & sugar well. Add the vanilla & set aside.

For the chocolate shell, melt the chips in a double boiler, mircowave, or like me, go all ghetto & put one small pot with the chocolate in it , resting on top of a slightly larger pot with boiling water inside.

I don't have a double boiler, and this was the first time I've worked with chocolate. But hey, it worked! I set the water in the larger pot on high & once it got to a good rolling boil, I placed the smaller pan of chocolate chips on top & turned down the heat a little. I stirred it constantly until it was totally melted

Once the chocolate has melted, spoon a little bit into each cupcake liner. Then, spead the chocolate up the sides of the liner & leaving a healthy dolop of chocolate in the bottom of the liner. It should look like this:

Once all the liners are totally coated, place the muffin tin in the refridgerator for about an hour until the chocolate has become solid again.

Then remove the shell-filled muffin tin from the fridge & fill each shell at least half way full of the peanutbutter mix. More or less depending upon how you like your peanutbutter to chocolate ratio.
Then start the water boiling again & put the chocolate back on to get it warm and soft again. And at this point, if you're like me, you'll need to add more chips so you'll have enough chocolate for the covering.

Then spoon the warm chocolate over the peanutbutter in each shell. Be sure the peanutbutter it totally covered & that the chocolate completely touches the edges of the cupcake liner so that a seal is formed over the peanutbutter.

Then put the muffin tin back in the fridge so that it all becomes solid.

Technically, I suppose you should probably wait at least a good 2 hours for it to totally solidify. But i just couldn't wait that long. I waited for about 45 minutes & just couldn't stand to wait one more minute.

They were mostly solid. Solid enough.

And this is what it looked like when I took a bite.

Now, please note, these are NOT for diabetics. In fact, about half way through, I thought was going to go into a sugar coma. Even my daughter couldn't finish a whole one. My teeth hurt. But, dang!! It was worth it! And yes, ohhh yes, I will be making these again!

Rosemary Garlic Butter

2009-02-22T19:00:00.005-05:00

I found this idea over at Feed Yourself, bookmarked it & promptly forgot all about it.

Until this morning. I was sifting through my bookmarks & came across this & thought, 'yeah i could totally do that right now!'.

So i did. And it came out great! Two thumbs up from my husband. We're both big fans of rosemary, so pretty much anything involving rosemary will be a hit in our household.

The best thing about this, is that it's so unbelievably easy and versatile and yet so incredibly good.

Here's what I used:

1 stick of earth balance left out to soften
a bunch of rosemary, minced
some garlic poweder
a pinch of kosher salt (yes, i DO put it in just about everything)

mix all the ingredients in a bowl

Then spread into the shape you want onto a sheet of waxed paper & wrap.
Place in the fridge until it's solid again
Then spread on toast & enjoy

As you can see, the toast didn't last long enough for me to get the picture. My husband attacked it before I could grab my camera.

In his words "That butter is the bomb!"

ie: it's very good.

since it is caturday...

2009-02-21T19:58:00.003-05:00

this is my well-fed feline friend, Tiggs curled up with my apron.
technically, he's a stray. maybe. my daughter says that someone in the neighborhood told her that he belongs to a house a couple of streets over.

but he decided he likes our house better, apparently, and has moved in with us. i'm a sucker for strays, so i've fed him & let him have the run of the house.

he's super sweet, docile & extremely affectionate. and he likes to be carried around like a baby. which i do, frequently.

Righteous Tomato Soup

2009-02-21T16:52:00.008-05:00

I was inspired by Pink Peppercorns tomato soup a week back and have been toying with the idea of it ever since.

Then one day I went to grocery store & the clerk accidentally rang up 2 cans of diced tomatoes that belonged to the person behind me. I didn't notice until I got home & figured this was some sort of sign to go ahead and try the tomato soup.

I dug around online to find a recipe that included all of the ingredients I had in mind and came across this little beauty from The CD Kitchen.

And let me tell you

This soup is the bomb diggity! I'm in love & it's my new favorite, and best soup I've made yet. hands down! It's definitely in the OHMYGOD THIS IS SO GOOD!! category.

I make all my soups in my crock pot because I'm busy & have a very short attention span. So it's better for me to make soup slowly when I don't have to constantly keep watch on it. So I could smell this one cooking all day & I could barely stand it! As soon as it was done, I poured my self a big bowl & dug in.

And I ate every last drop. It was *that* good. Seriously.

So here's what you'll need:

1 stick of unsalted butter
1 medium onion, diced
2 stalks of celery chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons unbleached whole wheat flour
4 cups vegetable stock
2 cans (14.5 oz size) tomatos
1 can of tomato paste
1/4 tsp of dried red pepper
2 bay leaves
fresh orgeno to taste
2 teaspoons of fresh basil
¼ cup of soy milk (totally optional. i usually leave it out entirely & don't notice a difference)
1/2 tsp of lime juice
kosher salt & cracked black pepper to taste

Put the crock pot on the "High" setting.
1. cut the butter into pats & place in the crock pot on to melt
2. While it's melting, chop up the onion, garlic & celery & add them to the pot.
3. Stir well & to coat the veggies with the butter
4. While they are simmering, chop of the fresh Oregeno & Sage and add to the pot.

This was the first time I've used fresh oregeno & it was wonderful.

5. Stir all ingredients well and add the red pepper, kosher salt & black pepper to taste.
6. Still well & cover pot. Switch the crock pot setting to "Low" and allow to simmer for 15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.

At this point, the mix already smelled so good I was practically drooling. I was very seriously considering eating this as is. Maybe over pasta or on bread. It smelled that good.

It should look something like this. All veggies should be coated in the butter and simmering .

7. Add the flour and stir well
8. Stir in the canned tomatoes
9. Stir in the can of tomato paste, and you'll have a nice happy mixture like this.
10. Add the vegetable stock and lime juice. Stir well and place lid back on pot.
11. Leave this to cook for about 4 hours, stirring occasionally.
12. Put the soup in a blender until it comes out with a creamy consistency.
13. Pour in the soy cream and stir well.
14. Serve and devour!
I put some of this in containers in my freezer for work. But I also set some aside in my fridge because I know I'm going to want another bowl tomorrow.

Or maybe even later tonight...

Spinach Potage with Dill And Lemon

2009-02-15T20:43:00.004-05:00

This is one of my new favorites. And yes, at first glance, the ingredients in this sound like an odd combination, but trust me, this really is delicious.

The best thing about this recipe, is that it's easy and versatile. You can play around with the consistency, the amount of spinach, lemon, and you could even add cheese if you were of the lactose tolerant kind.

I've made this both soupy and very thick with a whipped potato-like texture & have gotten rave reviews either way. Personally, I like this to be soup-like, because I don't liked my potatoes whipped. I found the original at BetterRecipes, and have of course, modified it to my own liking.

Ingredients:

1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced

olive oil

6 cups vegetable stock

1/4 cup lemon juice

5 medium red potatoes, peeled and diced

8 ounces washed and ready to use fresh baby spinach

1 cup soy milk

1/2 of an 8 oz container vegan sour cream

kosher salt & cracked black pepper

Method:

Turn the crock pot on to HIGH and cover the bottom with the olive oil.
Add the chopped onions and garlic and sprinkle with cracked black pepper and kosher salt to taste. While the onions & garlic are simmering, wash, peel & chop the potatoes and add to the pot. Add the lemon juice and let this simmer for about 10 minutes stirring every few minutes.

Add the vegetable stock, and turn crock pot on the LOW setting, and let simmer for about 5 hours, stirring occasionally.

When the vegetables have softened, put the contents into a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth.

Stir in the vegan-sour cream and soy milk

Garnish with fresh dill and lemon zest & serve.

perfect biscuits

2009-02-08T12:32:00.002-05:00

As I've mentioned before, I'm not the best baker in the world. But, I try.

Specifically, I've been trying biscuits for about a year now. With no success until today.

Last week I found an old recipe card for "Sky-High Biscuits". The card is probably from the early 70's. Way back in the day when my mom collected these things & even had a little holder for them and everything.

Some of the recipes on these cards were pretty good.

Most, however, were fairly horrific. Monstrous combos like 'Coffee Jello' and 'Tomato Frappe', 'Tongue Aspic' (i don't even want to know what that involves) 'Poached Trout' and 'Ox Tail Ragout'. Those were some of the more tame ones. I am eternally grateful to my mother for NOT making these trauma-causing creations.

But, the recipes that are keepers are the basic, old fashioned kind that you can't really screw up. Too badly, anyway.

And again, my picky hubby issue comes into play for this. He loves biscuits, but they have to be made just so or he can't eat them. The kind from fast food joints are too heavy, and the ones from the store-bought cans are too oily for him.

So today, I decided to put on a brave face & try this recipe.

And, you know what? He LOVED them! W00T!!

They're light, fluffy, and dry without being too dry. We were all very pleased with how they came out.

So here it is, the 1970 biscuit recipe from my moms collection

Prep Time: 15 min.
Baking Time: 15 mins
Oven Temp: 450

For about 20 you will need the following:

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour (King Arthur Preferably) (because it's the best)
1 Cup Whole Wheat Four
4 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
1 Cup of milk

1.) In a bowl combine the flours, baking powder, sugar, salt and cream of tartar.

2.) Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. (ie: dry and crumbly)

3.)Add egg and milk, stirring quickly and briefly. Knead lightly on floured board.

4.) Roll or pat gently into 1 inch thickness. Cut into 1 - 2 inch biscuits. Place in a greased 10 inch iron skillet (not) OR (as I did) on tin foil brushed with olive oil on a cookie sheet.

5.) Bake at 450 for about 15 mins.

Both my husband & daughter loved these. We had them with scrambled eggs & meat-less veggie sausage.

Sunshine Soup

2009-01-24T09:16:00.005-05:00

I made this recipe for Carrot Ginger soup last weekend and it was good. But not perfect. It tasted fine, but it didn't have the creamy-like consistency that I had wanted.

I figured out what I did wrong, and made it again last night.

But this time, I did it right and it came out great!

As previously mentioned, my motivation for this is to have something quick, easy & healthy to eat at work. But I made it again this week so I could bring some to my stepfather. He, unlike my mother is NOT pathologically picky eater & likes really spicy foods. However, since my mom cooks for him, he hardly ever gets to eat anything he truly enjoys. So when I make something good and spicy, I like to bring it to him to enjoy. And to irritate my mom. Because she won't eat it.

However, right now my mom is on a missions trip with her church to a remote village in Malawi and won't be back home until next week. So my stepfather & bro have been left to their own devices & to fend for themselves.

So later today or tomorrow I'm going over to visit them & bring them some soup they'd never have otherwise.

And I must say, I'm pretty pleased with myself on how this came out.

I found the original at Andrea's Recipes and most of it sounded good.

Except for the whole curry part. I hate curry. It smells like dirty gymsocks to me. So I switched up the recipe a little & it came out really well. Plus, this is totally vegan & fat free so it's about as healthy as you can get.

One bowl of this stuff clears my sinuses, boosts my energy and warms me up all over. It's good stuff!

So without further ado, here's the recipe the way I made it:

Ingredients:

1 whole stick of butter (or, like me, I used 2 half sized Earth Balance sticks)

1 yellow onion, chopped

1/2 cup fresh minced ginger (no, the powered stuff will NOT work. fresh only)

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 small red bell pepper

6 cups vegetable stock

6 big carrots

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 tsp chili poweder

salt & ground black pepper to taste.

Directions:

Turn the crock pot on high & put in the butter. While it's melting, chop the onion & add it to the butter & stir. Then chop the garlic & add that. While they are simmering, peel the ginger & mince. Add it to the crockpot. Then chop the pepper into small pieces and add to the pot. Let this simmer for about 30 mins stirring often.

While the veggies in the pot are simmering, wash & peel the carrots. Chop them into very small pieces and add them to the mix & stir. Let simmer for another 15 mins. Then add the vegetable stock, lemon juice, chili poweder, salt & pepper. Still well.

Turn the crockpot setting on to low & leave overnight.

In the morning, pour into a food processor or blender & blend until smooth.

Interjection: Be very careful for this part! Hot liquids will expand in the blender/processor! So I've found it's best to add a little bit at a time & hold the lid down while blending. Otherwise, the lid will fly off, you'll get soup all over your kitchen & probably sustain burns. So please! Be cautious!

If serving fresh, garnish with a scoop of vegan sour cream & fresh chopped green onions. If freezing, pour into containers & allow it to cool for several minutes before lidding & putting in the freezer.

As I said, this stuff is fantastic. It's wonderfully healthy & I felt so much better after having a bowl, that it was like having a bowl full of warm sunshine.

After posting this, I realized that I eat a LOT of orange food! I usually have a clementine every day and orange juice too. And yes, I love pumpkin food too.

Eggplants

2009-01-20T06:47:00.001-05:00

I do not like them.

I've officially declared that I do NOT like eggplants as they are oogy.

That is all.

Smashed Potatoes

2009-01-19T17:55:00.006-05:00

This is one of my husbands favorite things to eat ever. ever. ever. ever. Like my daughter, he has 'texture issues'. He eats foods based on texture first, taste second. I think he's tactile defensive. So a lot of the cooking I do for my fam is done with texture in mind.

And this little recipe has it all for him. Four stars for texture & four for taste as well.

I ran across this at The Pioneer Woman and thought 'ah-ha! yes! Never will love this!' and I was right! It's ingenious, really. Back in the day, when Never still ate meat, I made chicken thighs dang near exactly like this & he loved those. So when I saw the same thing done, but vegetarian style I was psyched.

I'm awfully fond of these too, so I usually make it every weekend. And I cannot tell you how amazingly wonderful they are. You're just going to have to experience them for your self.

Ingredients:

Red Potatoes
A lot of olive oil
Garlic Powder
Fresh Rosemary
Kosher Salt. (regular salt will NOT do)
Cracked Black Pepper

And as an added bonus, they're really easy.

1. Boil red potatoes until the are soft. Drain them.

2. While they are boiling, you'll want to prepare the pan. In a large baking dish/cookie sheet / caserolle dish / whathaveyou / whatever you use line with aluminum foil. With a pastry brush, coat the foil with a healthy layer of olive oil. This is so that when you put the potatoes down on them, they won't stick to the pan after they've been cooked. After they're done cooking place them on the prepared pan.

3. Using a masher or slotted spoon of preference, slightly squash down the tops of the potatoes so they split like above. It usually takes two smashing per potato to get them just right. Then let them cool. While they are cooling, chop up enough fresh rosemary to cover the amount of potatoes you cooked.

4. After the potatoes have cooled, use the pastry brush and liberally coat each potato with olive oil. Then sprinkle with garlic powder, then the kosher salt, the pepper and rosemary to taste.

Personally, I love all of these things so I lay it on thick.

5. Bake in the oven at 450 until golden and crispy. Usually about 20-40 mins depending upon your oven & the size of the potatoes.

And Voila
For non-vegetarians, I suppose this would be a side dish, but for my household, it's the main course and they usually don't last long enough to get cold.

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Butter

2009-01-19T12:14:00.005-05:00

I found this recipe over at "A Good Appetite" and have been dying to try it.

I love sweet potatoes & can't seem to ever get enough. My daughter likes them too, but only baked. She has a hard time getting anything with the mashed texture down. The last time I made her eat mashed potatoes she lost it right on her dinner plate. At Thanksgiving at my moms house. It was rather unpleasant all around.

However, she's teeny tiny thin as a rail and so I've been trying out different recipes that I think she'd like. As well as expanding her texture & tastes horizon. She can be picky about certain food items as well, which drives me to tears because all my life I've been surrounded by people who are pathologically picky eaters. My mother, grandfather, daughter & husband combined will willing eat a total of about 20 items.

The Sweet Potato Butter looked like something my daughter would like the taste of, if she could get past the texture. So I made it per the instructions, but DID NOT put it through the blender & it came out just fine. A little chunky, but she will eat it that way & not barf. So it worked out well.

3 large sweet potatoes
2 cups apple cider un-sweetened
1 cup sugar (white or brown your preference)
1 heaping tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Preheat oven to 400 F. Poke a few holes in the sweet potatoes & bake for about 1 hour or until soft. I always bake them wrapped up in aluminum foil so they'll retain all of their juices .

Peel the roasted potatoes, put them in a large pot & mash them with a potato masher or fork. Add the cider & sugar & bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add all of the spices.

Reduce the heat to low & allow to simmer for about 1 hour stirring from time to time. The mixture should thicken to a thick mashed potato-like texture as the liquid cooks out.

If you want to give it a smooth buttery texture you can use a blender, but I left it lumpy for my daughter.

Makes about 3 cups

Sweet Potato Butter should be stored in the refrigerator

White Bean Soup

2009-01-18T09:21:00.007-05:00

Sorry, no picture.

Again, it's yummy, but fugly.

Since the Cuban Black Bean Soup was a success, I decided to try a white bean soup recipe.

Plus, I'm now officially on a soup kick. For several reasons.

It's cold and has been snowing. A lot. So, I need something warm and comforting & filling but not fattening.

My team at work is moving to a new facility, which does not have a cafe. Not that I ever eat there very much, but when I do, I can at least get something healthy & vegetarian. The facility that I'm going to only has sub shops and fast food joints in the area. Neither or which are healthy nor vegetarian.

Try going into Subway & ordering a sandwich, but hold the meat please, and see what kind of nasty looks you get.

I am NOT HAPPY about going to the new place. Really. Not. Happy. But, it's a job, and considering I'm in the financial industry, I'm just thankful I still have a job at all. So, I'm trying not to complain.

My solution to this little problem is to make several batches of soup, freeze it, and bring it into work for lunch.

Yesterday I made White Bean Soup, but I'm planning on also making a batch of Spinach Potato Soup & Ginger Carrot Soup this weekend as well. That way I'll have about 2 weeks worth of soup ready to go. And the best thing about it, is that soup is super cheap to make. Generally speaking, the ingredients are stuff I already have in my kitchen & usually only need to get one or two things. Plus, it makes several meals, so I feel like I'm really getting my moneys worth. It's definitely cheaper than buying a can of soup or two for the same price. Also, I know exactly whats in it. I made it, so everything in the soup is something good. No preservatives, no meat products and made totally to my own liking.

So heres the recipe I used & it came out great. Its a mish-mash of several different recipes but it came out very tasty. I made this in my crockpot & let is simmer over night. Then put it all in the blender when I got up this morning.

Ingredients:

2 Tbs Olive Oil
1/2 a yellow onion
1 shallot
5 cloves of garlic
4 cups vegetable stock
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 stalks of celery
1 bag of dried white beans
1/2 cup water
salt, black pepper and red pepper to taste.

Turn the crockpot on High & cover the bottom with the olive oil chop the onion, shallot, garlic & celery and put into the crock pot add the red pepper and cook until translucent, stirring occassionally.

Add the vegetable stock and white beans.

Stir occassionally.

Cook until beans are soft, add the water, lemon juice, salt and pepper then blend on low
(if you have a food processor, then you can probably do this all at once, but I just have a blender so I had do it in small batches)

Garnish with thyme and serve
(or put into containers and freeze)

the ginger snap saga continues

2009-01-14T07:14:00.003-05:00

Ok, so I think they taste good. But, I like anything with ginger & since I made them, it was hard for me to tell whether or not they were actually good. And based on past experience, I assumed they were not good. But I put a couple in my husbands lunch bag yesterday, just to get him to try one to see what he thought of them.

And now, they have officially been given two thumbs up.

Yesterday my phone rang & it was my husband:

Never: "DOOD!! Who made these ginger snaps?!"
Me: "...uhhm..me?"
Never: "NOWAY! REALLY?!"
Me: "Yeah, really. Those were the ones I made on Sunday. Why? What's wrong with them?"
Never:"NOTHING is WRONG with them! They're AWESOME!"
Me: "For real? You like them?!"
Never: "Yeah!! These are the bomb! YOU made them?!?!"
Me: "Yes!! I made them! I'm glad you like them! So...this recipe is a keeper then?"
Never: "Hell yeah it is! I love gingersnaps, but I hate how hard they are. But these are all nice and soft and moist! They're so good! Send more in my lunch tomorrow!"

So there you have it. The Chewy Ginger Snaps are a success. Who knew? I actually baked something that came out good!

Chewy Ginger Cookies

2009-01-11T19:41:00.006-05:00

Let me start by saying that I am not a baker. I've never claimed to be. Baking isn't exactly my forte. However, I do enjoy eating baked goods.

A lot.

So, I continually attempt to bake. And consistently fail. I put forth a valiant effort, but no matter what I make, it never tastes the way it should. Give me an onion, garlic, a potato & salt and I can make something fantastic. But can I make a cookies? oh hellno.

I went through a Red Velvet Cake-from scratch phase several years ago and have since totally given up on that one. I don't speak of it much. The pictures have been destroyed. I pretend it never happened. Now if I want Red Velvet Cake I do the Betty Crocker thing. Betty's my buddy. We go way back.

I'm also a sucker for punishment. Which meant I, once again attempted to bake today. I love Joy The Baker's site. She has so many wonderful things and it's so inspiring. One of the things she posted was Chewy Ginger Cookies. And I couldn't resist. I love ginger. Really love ginger. So I gave it a shot.

And well, they don't taste, bad, per se. But I'm pretty sure they don't taste the way they would if Joy made them. Or any one else who is capable of baking.

But, here's the recipe anyway. I didn't change a thing. I just suck at baking.

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1/4 cup molasses

about 1/2 cup turbinado sugar (Sugar in the Raw)

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, brown sugar and spices until smoothly blended, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Add the egg and molasses and mix until blended and an even light color, about 1 minute. On low speed, add the flour mixture, mixing just to incorporate it.

Interjection #1: I did this part by hand because I don't have a mixer. The last 2 that I had, my husband blew up making chocolate chip cookies. Smoke even came out of the last one. He's a very good baker & makes the best chocolate chip cookies. But since he only bakes in December & I hardly ever bake, we can't justify springing for a Kitchenaid and really, anything less just won't do. )

Spread the turbinado sugar into a small bowl. Roll 2 Tbs of dough between the palms of your hands into a ball

Interjection #2: The dough is very gooey. It helps if you pat your hands in flour before attempting to roll it into balls. This is something that might be obvious to anyone else, but I figured this out through trial and error.

Roll the ball in the sugar to coat it and place on the prepared baking sheet. Continue making cookies, spacing them about 2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm but they are still soft in the center and there are several large cracks on top, about 12-14 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes

This is the final product.

My daughter had one (and only one) and said they were ..good.. but she was making a face while eating it. And she didn't ask for a second one.

I really don't know what I did wrong. Other than trying to BAKE at AT ALL!

*sigh*

***edit***

ok so maybe they aren't that bad. several people have tried them now (my co-workers are my guinue pigs) and they all said they were good. one person said 'they're missing something..' but when i asked her what it was she thought they were missing she said she didn't know.

Never's Nasty Pasta Salad

2009-01-11T16:48:00.006-05:00

My husbands nick name is "Never". Don't ask. So hence forth, I will refer to him as such. He's a VERY picky eater. Generally speaking, we very rarely like the same foods, and more often than not, we both find that what the other one is eating is totally disgusting.

This pasta salad is an example of that.

Since I'm the kitchen wench, I make it, but to his liking.

Other people who've tried this say they like it, but I tell you, this is NOT something I'd put in my mouth on purpose. So, maybe someone out there will like this, but I'm just saying, this is something strictly for my husband. I DO NOT eat this. It's pretty to look at. As far as pasta salads go. It's just not yummy.

This is typically a summer dish, but he had a random craving for it & wants to take it in his lunch this week, so I made it again.

Ingredients:

4 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
1 cup mayonnaise (or vegonaise to make it vegan)
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons SPICY yellow mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup sliced black olives
2 green bell peppers
radishes to taste
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Step 1: Cook the macaroni. (duh.)
Step 2: When the pasta has cooled add the vinegar, mustard & mayo
Step 3: chop up the bell pepper, olives and the radishes & toss them in. Salt and pepper to taste.
Step 4: Stir well & chill in the fridge

serve cold.

enjoy (even though I think it's oogy)

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

2009-01-11T13:55:00.009-05:00

In the category of OHMYGOD THIS CAME OUT SO GOOD is the new recipe I tried today.

I found it on Coffee & Vanilla and have been dying to try it out ever since. Every single item in this is something I love. Plus, I've been looking for a new way to eat Portobellos. I ususally just saute them in soy sauce, but that's getting kind of old and I don't need the sodium.

So, here's what you'll need:

4 Portobello Mushrooms
1/2 a yellow Spanish onion
2 cloves of garlic
Fresh Mozzarella balls
Baby Spinach (to taste. I used about 15 leafs)
8 Cherry tomatoes
freshly ground black pepper
kosher salt
shredded cheddar/colby mix

Step 1: Wash all vegetables very well. there's a salmonella scare going around, so don't take any chances. Remove all stems from the mushrooms & the spinach.

Step 2: Spray non-stick baking pan with cooking spray and place the mushrooms in, stem side up

Step 3: Slice the mozzarella balls into thin strips and layer them on top of the mushrooms

Step 4: Mince the garlic & the onion half and saute in pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle with black pepper to taste. Then chop up the spinach into small pieces. When the garlic & onion just begin to brown, add the spinach and stir until there is no moisture left in the pan.

Step 5: Spoon the onion, garlic & spinach mix onto the mozzarella slices. Then slice the cherry tomatoes and layer on top of the mixture. (yes, the pan is clean, it's just very old and very well loved)

Step 6: Sprinkle the shredded cheddar/colby cheese on top of the tomatoes and bake in oven at 300 for about 20 minutes. When you take them out, they should look like this. (Please, ignore the hideous counter top. I have The Worlds Ugliest Kitchen. It was probably last updated circa 1974. Which is why there are no pictures of it & I try to keep shots of the counter tops to a minimum.)

Step 7: Lightly sprinkle with the kosher salt. Serve & enjoy. In the photo below, you can see the layers of yummy goodness.

It's snowing like a biatch here & I dug out my car while these little babies were cooking. By the time I came back in, they were done, and they smelled so good, I wolfed down two of them without even stopping to breathe.

Unfortunately, I'm not the most lactose tolerant person in the world, so I'm sure to suffer for this later. But, dang yo! It was worth it!

And again, this was made by me, for me, since no one else in my house will eat this. oh well. more for me!

This was the first time I've used fresh mozzarella balls, and I can definitely tell a difference between the fresh & the pre-packaged shredded stuff. The texture is different and the flavor is much more delicate and subtle.

Butternut Squash & Thyme

2009-01-11T10:14:00.008-05:00

This is a recipe I found at Kaylins Kitchen & loved! Her recipe calls for parmesan cheese, but when I make it, I sprinkle it with Kosher salt instead. I've been making this every week for a couple of months now, and I'm still not tired of it!

Ingredients:

2 whole & peeled halves of butternut squash
3 Tbs of olive oil
3 Tbs of lemon juice
2 Tbs of Thyme

Preheat the oven to 350

In a separate bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon juice & thyme. let it sit & marinate while you chop the squash into bite sized chunks.

After the squash is chopped, pour the mixture over it and stir well until it's completely coated the squash.

Spray a non-stick baking dish with olive oil & pour in the squash. Sprinkle the top with Kosher salt to taste.

Place in oven & cook for about an hour, or until the squash is tender

Remove from oven & serve.

For the original recipe, please visit Kaylin's Kitchen

I really love cooking with herbs, but I had never used Thyme before this. So I did a little research on Wikipedia and this is what it had to say about how the herb has been used historically :

"Ancient Egyptians used thyme in embalming. The ancient Greeks used it in their baths and burnt it as incense in their temples, believing that thyme was a source of courage. It was thought that the spread of thyme throughout Europe was thanks to the Romans, as they used it to purify their rooms and to "give an aromatic flavour to cheese and liqueurs".^[1]. In the European Middle Ages, the herb was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep and ward off nightmares.^[2] In this period, women would also often give knights and warriors gifts that included thyme leaves as it was believed to bring courage to the bearer. Thyme was also used as incense and placed on coffins during funerals as it was supposed to assure passage into the next life."

also

"Thyme is a good source of iron and is used widely in cooking. Thyme is a basic ingredient in French, Greek, Italian, Lebanese, Persian, Portuguese, Spanish, Syrian, and Turkish cuisines, and in those derived from them. It is also widely used in Arab and Caribbean cuisines.

Thyme is often used to flavour meats, soups and stews. It has a particular affinity to and is often used as a primary flavour with lamb, tomatoes and eggs."

And all this time, I had no idea! It has an interesting aroma that, to me anyway, improves with cooking. So I've defintiely been encouraged to use it more in my cooking.

Unfortunately, my husband doesn't like cooked vegetables (he only eats them raw) and my daughter doesn't like anything with herbs on it. So this is something I pretty much make for myself. Since it makes quite a bit, I bring it to work & share it with my friend Nancy. But it's not expensive to make, it makes enough to last for several meals, and it reheats well.

enjoy!

Vickie's Sweet Potatoes

2009-01-06T20:15:00.009-05:00

This is my moms signature sweet potato recipe that she makes every year at Thanksgiving.

Every year except for this year. This year, for the first time in something like 30 years, she made a different recipe. And you know what? I hated it! I won't get into how nasty it was, but suffice to say milk and sweet potatoes should never be used in the same recipe. yuk!

So next year, it's back to the old tried and true. This is traditionally served at Thanksgiving in my family, but it's a good cold-weather-comfort-food kind of side dish. And like everything else, I've modified it slightly to my own tastes. This isn't the healthiest of ways to eat sweet potatoes, but it's a good way to get the little ones to eat them.

(Unless you have a little one like mine who can't stand the "mashed texture". )

Ingredients:

8 medium sweet potatoes (yams as they're called up north)
1 stick of earth balance cut up (or butter or margarine )
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbs orange juice
2 Tbs of cooking sherry
1 package of marshmallows. (these are really pretty optional. if you don't want the sweets or don't like marshmallows, feel free to leave them off. the sweet potatoes are still very good naked)

Pre-heat oven to 325

Peel sweet potatoes and cut in into halves
Boil until done and then drain well
Mash with butter and sugar
Add orange juice and sherry & stir until it's well blended

Put into 2 quart baking dish and top with marshmallows

Bake at 325 until marshmallows are golden brown on top (about 30 mins)

Seves 6-8

Vegan Margarita Cupcakes

2009-01-05T08:03:00.012-05:00

1/2 cup lime juice
1 1/2 tsp lime zest (1 lime)
1 cup soy milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp Margarita Mixed Drink
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Fill a 12-cup muffin tin with liners. In a large bowl, mix together lime juice, lime zest, soy milk, oil, tequila, vanilla and sugar. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to lime mixture and stir until just combined. Divide evenly into muffin tins. Bake for 20-24 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Tequila Lime Frosting :

1/4 cup Earth Balance
1 tbsp soy milk
3 tbsp lime juice
1 Margarita Mixed Drink
2+ cups confectioners’ sugar
coarse sugar and salt for “rims”

The original recipe calls for Tequila. I used Margarita Mixed Drink instead because
1. my daughter was going to be eating these & that has less alcohol.
2. Jose Quervo is damn good, but too damned expensive.
3. Jose & i had to part ways many years ago. I love him, but he does horrible things to my stomach.
4. i took these into work for a cross section taste test. And although I know the tequila is less than a shot in the entire recipe, I do work at a Financial Institution and my husband would murder me if i got fired for bringing "booze" in any form into work. These are tough times and i really didn't want to risk my job for it.

But they came out far better than I expected & they taste fantastic! In fact, they get 2 thumbs up. And that's from people who don't normally eat vegan. I took some to my work & sent some in with my husband to his work & everyone who had them loved them.

I apologize for the poor quality of the picture. My kitchen doesn't get much natural light. But I do so love my little vintage diner plates!

here's a link to the original:

Crumbs and Pixels

Purple Cabbage Salad

2009-01-05T07:59:00.004-05:00

½ head purple cabbage
4 Clementines, peeled and sliced into ½ inch segments
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
dash chili powder
dash of ginger

1.Slice the cabbage as thinly as possible
2.Place cabbage in a large bowl, add the orange segments
3.Toss with olive oil, vinegar and lemon juice then sprinkle with chili powder & ginger
4. Mix & serve

I found this little gem here: Elanas Pantry

and it's definitely a keeper. I've changed it up a bit to suit my own tastes. But this is one my daughter really likes. It's sweet and crunchy and super healthy.

Cuban Black Bean Soup

2009-01-05T07:52:00.007-05:00

My mother in law gave me a crock pot for Christmas, so I decided to break it in this week end. I've been dying to try to make my own soup utilizing a crock pot, but finding good vegetarian + crock pot recipes = difficult. I finally found a good black bean soup recipe which made me very happy. I love Progresso's black bean soup, but I really don't love the $4 a can price tag. And when I'm sick, that's the only thing I want. So I figured I could probably make it at home & have enough to last a month for the same price. And happily, I was correct.

So, I made soup for the first time yesterday & it came out great! yaay!

I don't have a picture for this one because...well...it's not pretty. even with garnish, it's pretty ugly. But it tastes good! Although, next time, I plan on spicing it up a little more. I like my black bean soup to be good and spicy.

here's the recipe :

Cuban Black Bean Soup

1 Tbs olive oil
1 yellow onion
1 red bell pepper
7 cloves garlic
1 pound dry black beans
5 cups water
3 cup vegetable broth
1 7-oz can diced green chilies
1 Tbs cumin
1 Tbs thyme
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cayanne seasoning
2 bay leaves

Method:

Add olive oil to crock pot and turn on highest setting. Chop yellow onion and stir into olive oil. Cover and let cook while you chop bell pepper into 1 inch chunks. Stir in bell pepper.

Using a garlic press, crush garlic cloves directly into crock pot. (i don't have a garlic press. so i minced the garlic into tiny pieces & this worked just fine)

Stir and cover.

Rinse black beans in a colander. Add to crock pot along with water, broth, chilies, cumin, thyme, salt, pepper, cayanne seasoning and bay leaves. Cover and cook on high at least 8 hours.

Before serving, partially puree soup with a blender.

Mix until thick, but still with chunks of beans, onions and peppers visible. Ladle into 6 soup bowls.

Optional Garnish:
Top each bowl with a dollop of sour cream (about 1 Tbs), 1 tsp diced red bell pepper, 1 tsp diced white onion, and a sprinkling of finely chopped, fresh cilantro (about half a tablespoon).

Personally, I just sprinkled a little bit of taco flavored shredded cheese.