Joyful Abode

This was a simple dinner I threw together one night out of things we already had. I didn’t follow a recipe, but here’s how things came together.

• 2 bell peppers
• 1 box of “dirty” rice mix
• 2 Cajun sausages, taken out of their casings and browned (like ground beef)
• Chili powder, paprika, garlic, salt (to taste)
• Cheddar cheese
• Frozen hush puppies

Basically, here’s how it went. Cut off the tops of the peppers and de-seed them. Then, stick them in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit in a glass baking dish. I put a little bit of water in and around them, and wrapped them with tin foil, so they could sort of steam and soften.

While those are in the oven, cook the rice according to package directions, and throw in the Cajun sausage pieces (You can brown them while the rice is cooking). I think I also had an extra bell pepper, which I cut up and added to the rice, though this really isn’t necessary.

By the time the rice mixture was finished, the peppers should be starting to get soft (but not too soft!). Take them out of the oven, and get rid of any extra water.  Fill them with the rice mixture and top with cheese. Pop them into the oven with some frozen hush puppies (on a cookie sheet on the other oven rack) and in about 10-15 minutes, everything is ready to go!

Mmmm……

If there’s one thing that says “summer” to me, it might just be corn on the cob. When my family visited my grandmother in Michigan every summer, “Doo-Dah” would bring us corn on the cob for the requisite family cookout. My dozens of cousins and second cousins (well, close to dozens) and I sat in the yard, shucking the corn and taking off as much of the silk as we could, happily anticipating the feast ahead.

A few short hours later would find us happily munching the kernels off of the cobs, which we had buttered and sprinkled with salt. Delightful!

My father taught me how to eat the corn neatly so it wouldn’t get stuck in your teeth, by popping the kernels off one row at a time using your bottom teeth, rather than digging in with a CHOMP! It works, and has the added benefit of a typewriter joke. Finish the line of corn, say “Ding!” and start over. Well, that’s what my dad does anyway.

He also taught me the delights of eating leftover corn, still cold from the fridge, with a sprinkle of salt. It’s one of my favorite summertime treats to eat corn this way, so I usually get extras so I can intentionally have leftovers.

Unfortunately, when I moved out on my own, I discovered that I wasn’t actually sure about the right way to cook corn on the cob.  I tried microwaving it, boiling it endlessly, seasoning the water with a variety of things… but nothing was ever quite right.

So after reading about a dozen “recipes” and formulas for corn on the cob, the guy and I settled on this method (which is a conglomeration of a couple different ones), which turned out to be a happy discovery.  THIS is how corn on the cob shoud be!*

• Fill your pot with water.
• Add 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of sugar.
• Drop in your corn.
• Bring everything to a boil, making sure the sugar is dissolved in the water.
• Boil for no longer than 8 minutes.
• Remove from the water and let it cool enough for handling and eating.
• Handle it and eat it.

It was perfect! Well, almost perfect. It was early-season corn and not the best I’ve ever had, but it was delicious and cooked properly! With just a smear of butter and a few shakes of salt, it was delicious with our dinner of tomato pie.

And I had my 2 ears of leftover corn reserved in the fridge for later, when I enjoyed them cold, and sprinkled with salt.

*Unless it’s grilled, which is equally as delicious, and always a special treat. I LOVE grilled corn on the cob. 

The first time I posted this recipe was back in September of ‘07. Two things have happened since then:

1. I figured out that I like this dish even better (if that was possible!) if I peel the tomatoes first, and
2. I have gotten much, much better at food photography.

So, here’s the same recipe, a second time around!

I make my own crust (the recipe is here), but store-bought should work fine too. If you have a pastry crust recipe you like though, feel free to use that!

If you’re using a commercial crust, you may want to pre-bake it for a few minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you’re picky like me, you might want to peel and de-seed your tomatoes before you slice them. If not, slice away. Lay your tomatoes on paper towels or cloth to absorb the excess water. No one wants a soggy pie! When your tomatoes are ready, fill your crust with them. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, basil and onion powder. Like I said in the original post, I am very liberal with the basil and salt.

Then, mix 1/2 cup mayonnaise with 2 cups of your choice of shredded cheese (this time I used mozzarella). Spread this over the tomatoes.

If you’re using homemade crust, you can add the top now, making sure to poke vents into it. If you’re using a commercial crust, don’t worry! It’s just fine without a “lid.”

Protect the edges of your crust with a shield. If you don’t have a pre-made one, aluminum foil will work perfectly.

Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, then remove the foil.

Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until your crust is goldeny delicious.

If you can wait, it’s good to let the pie sit for 10-15 minutes, so everything can congeal inside. I couldn’t wait this time, so the slices in these pictures are a bit oozy. (Mmm….) If you let it sit, it’ll slice into pieces that are actually triangular, rather than triangular-plus-oozage.

I missed some seeds I guess! But a few don’t bother me. Doesn’t it look delightful? Mmmmmm! Tomato Pie!

If you’re looking for a deliciously simple way to dress up a steak, a whole chicken, or any number of other things you might be cooking, this rub may just be the answer! Named “Ron’s Rub” after my dad, this is a yummy mixture of only four ingredients.

Equal parts:

• black pepper
• kosher salt
• brown sugar
• paprika

Rub it on a steak, throw it on the grill, and a couple minutes later you’ll have this! (Provided you already stuck your sweet potatoes into the oven about 45 minutes ago).

If you’ve done much reading on this blog, you know that I love to cook and eat delicious foods. Unfortunately, they’re not all the healthiest choices, so my husband and I have decided to make more of an effort to plan healthy, lower-fat, lower starch, higher fiber, more veggie-filled meals. I also made a list of healthful snacks we should try to have on hand.

On the list was granola bars.

But do you know what??? They’re not all healthy! Some of the granola bars you can buy in stores may as well be candy bars, with the amount of sugar and “fluff” they include in their ingredients. And most of them (except Kashi) also have high fructose corn syrup as a main ingredient. Disgusting. While I love Kashi granola bars, the guy and I tend to go through a bunch of those, so it gets pretty expensive.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands. After reading tons of granola bar recipes (and throwing out the ones that sounded like disguised candy), I came up with my own mixture that works deliciously well to create healthful, filling granola bars. If I eat half of one of these and a small piece of fruit, I’m good to go for several hours. And it makes me happy knowing that I didn’t eat anything disgusting to feel full.

So here’s my recipe. Let me know if you try it out!

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Gather your ingredients:

• 2 cups oats
• 3/4 cup wheat germ
• 3/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 cup peanuts, crushed
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
• approximately 8 oz. dried fruit

To crush your peanuts, put them in a plastic bag and smash them with a heavy mallet, measuring cup, or sauce pan.

Then, mix the peanuts, oats, wheat germ, and sunflower seeds in a baking dish with sides. Toast them in the oven for 10-12 minutes, stirring every few minutes so that they don’t get burned.

Meanwhile, prepare a glass baking dish (about 11 x 13 inches) for your granola by lining it with waxed paper lightly sprayed with a nonstick spray.

Put the brown sugar, honey, butter, vanilla, and salt into a saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. (I forgot to take a picture of this step, but it looks so pretty!)

By now, your  grains and nuts should be toasted, so mix everything together in a large bowl. The grains, the liquid “glue,” and the dried fruit. Oh, and turn off your oven, because you’re finished with it now.

Mix everything REALLY WELL  because you want to make sure the “glue” gets all over everything. Now, dump your granola mixture into your prepared baking dish.

Spread out the mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Now fold over the sides of the waxed paper or add a sheet on top, and PRESS HARD all over the granola. You want to compact it together so that your bars won’t fall apart when you cut them.

Wait 2-3 hours or until the granola has totally cooled.

Then, open the waxed paper …

And carefully turn the granola onto a large cutting board, peeling away the rest of the paper.

Now, firmly pressing down with a big knife (not sawing), cut your granola into whatever size bars you’d like.

I wrapped ours individually in plastic wrap, so that we could just throw one into our bag or lunch box in the morning. If you’d like to save on packaging though, you can store yours in an airtight container, between sheets of waxed paper (so they don’t stick together).

Enjoy!

Of course, you can mix up the recipe. I used peanuts because they’re what we had, but next time I’m going to make the granola nutless at first, but during the pressing-down part, I plan to press almonds into the top of the bars.

Another combo that would be fun to try is macadamia nuts, dried pineapple, and coconut flakes.

Or try dried cranberries, walnuts, and white chocolate chips (just a few).

I also plan to add flax seed to my granola mix.

Different flavors of honey would also probably change the final outcome too. Mmm…

So many options! Good thing we have time!

This recipe is so simple and quick, and will work perfectly no matter how many people you’re cooking for. I made it for just the two of us, but it would easily expand to serve a dinner party.
Ingredients:

• 1 taco seasoning packet (this will be good for 2-4 servings)
• 1 chicken breast per person - boneless and skinless
• olives
• cheddar cheese
• fat free sour cream
• salsa
• lettuce

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix the taco seasoning packet with the suggested amount of water.

Brown your chicken breasts in a pan, but don’t worry about cooking them all the way through. We just want to get a little color on them.

Bake the chicken in a little bit of the sauce (just drizzle some) for about 35 minutes, or until the chicken is done.

Simmer the rest of the sauce on the stovetop for about 10 minutes, with the olives mixed in (however many olives you think looks good).

When the chicken timer goes off, pour the rest of the sauce (with olives) over the chicken and sprinkle with a little bit of cheddar cheese. Return it to the oven until the cheese melts.

Slice the chicken and serve over lettuce. Top with fat free sour cream, salsa, and a drizzle of taco sauce.

Enjoy!

This is going to be part 1 in a 3-part series on perfect party dips. At first, I thought it would only be 1 of 2, but then I realized I have never posted about how to make homemade pita chips! Tortilla chips, yes, plenty of times, but not pita chips. So I’ll have to buy some more pitas and make another batch. Eventually.

Anyway, everyone loves party dips, but not everyone loves the “bad stuff” that can be in them. These two are relatively healthy, and while they do have some fat, it’s the “good fat” from olive oils.

The first dip we’re focusing on is the yummus hummus. Really, it’s just hummus, but it’s so delicious, I had to add the yummus part.

Here’re (is that a word?) the ingredients you’ll need to make my yummus hummus recipe:

• 2 cans of garbanzo beans, drained (reserve the liquid from one can)
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cloves garlic (or 3 Tbsp pre-minced garlic from a jar)
• paprika to taste
• basil, parsley, or other herbs to taste
• extra virgin olive oil

Basically, you just throw together everything except the olive oil into a food processor and blend until smooth. Add olive oil and the reserved bean liquid until it’s smooth enough for your liking.

It’s also really good with some red bell peppers thrown in and blended together with it. Mmm… or olives. There are tons of hummus variations, so try whatever you think would be good! It can’t hurt.

This is delicious with homemade pita chips, wheat thins, Triscuits, on carrots (or celery or other raw veggies)… in a pita with some alfalfa sprouts and a slice of tomato… the possibilities are endless!

This recipe is another “pantry-buster” (i.e., a recipe made completely of things most people will have lying around). It’s quick, easy, and so delicious. In hindsight, it probably would’ve been really tasty (and add some nutrients) to add frozen spinach in the cheese layer.

You will need:

• 3/4 pound of spaghetti
• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce (or equivalent of homemade sauce)
• 2 small cans of mushrooms (or fresh mushrooms if you have them)
• spices and herbs of your choice
• cheese of your choice (about 2 cups)

Boil spaghetti until al-dente.  (That means it’s still a little bit resistant/firm)

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and spray a 9″x9″ baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

Now you can start layering. Start with a layer of spaghetti.You should use half of your spaghetti at this time.

Then add half of your sauce. You can use homemade spaghetti sauce if you have some in the freezer, or if you don’t, a jar of store-bought junk is fine.

Add half of the mushrooms and some herbs to the sauce layer.

And top with half of your cheese.

Then repeat the layers. Pasta, sauce, mushrooms/herbs, cheese.

Top with more herbs and put the whole thing in the oven. As I was pantry-busting, I also chucked in a loaf of frozen garlic toast.

Bake it about 25 minutes, until everything is warm and melty. I switched to the broiler for the last 2-3 minutes, so that the top would get that lovely toasty color.

Serve it up, and enjoy!  The leftovers were even better. Mmm…

Yum, yum, yum! Blueberries are so delicious and delightful and all of those good things.

I invented a spur-of-the-moment tasty thing and don’t know what to call it besides blueberry muffin/biscuit thingies with streusel on top.

Here’s what I did:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix up some biscuit dough with more sugar than usual.

Plop some into greased muffin tins.

Nestle some blueberries in the center of each blob of dough, pushing down gently with my fingertips (although if you’re making it, you can use your own fingertips).

Mix up some streusel topping: cream together some brown sugar and butter, add cinnamon, a little bit of flour, and some oats. Crumble together with fingertips (mine or yours) until it’s combined and crumby.

Top muffin/biscuit things with streusel.

Bake until the muffin/biscuit part is done. I’m not sure how long it took because I kept checking and adding a couple more minutes.

They were really delicious eaten warm with a glass of milk.

 I posted about these amazingly delicious biscuits in September, but the post isn’t very complete, I didn’t give you my actual recipe, and the picture is somewhat lacking. So I decided to take pictures when I made them last weekend and give you a play-by-play with photos.

So here’s the copycat recipe for Cheddar Bay Biscuits (I think that’s what they’re called at Red Lobster, yes?) 

(One note, I doubled the recipe, so the pictures show twice as much stuff as what I’m telling you.)

Set your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and spray a cooking sheet with nonstick spray.

Dump into a bowl: 2 cups of buttermilk biscuit mix (like Bisquick or Jiffy mix), 1/2 a teaspoon of garlic powder, and 1 to 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese.

Stir everything together.

Pour in about 2/3 cups of milk. Stir until combined.

It gets pretty thick, and you can add a little more milk if you need to. But don’t add too much, otherwise it’ll get really sticky. See how my spoon is standing up straight by itself? I decided it would be easier to doff my rings…

And get my hands a little dirty. Hey… it works. And my hands were clean, I promise.

OK, now wash your hands and use the two-spoon method to drop lumps of the dough onto your cookie sheet.

Don’t they look nice, all lined up ready to be baked?

Stick them in the oven and set the timer to 10 minutes. Now, melt 2 Tablespoons of butter and stir in 2 teaspoons of oregano and 1 teaspoon of garlic salt.

When the timer goes off (10 minutes, remember?) brush some of the butter mixture over each biscuit. Then, pop them back into the oven for another 5-6 minutes.

Or until they’re lightly browned. If you’d like, you can brush them with the garlic-herb butter again and let it soak in before you serve them.

If you’re having people over, you’d better double the recipe. These will get snatched up like hotcakes. Or, you know, like… cheesy garlic biscuits.

These delicious and creamy potatoes are totally customizable … you can add cheese, broth, your favorite seasonings, whatever. It’s more of a technique than a recipe, so I’ll walk you through it.

Basically, this came about because I was having a lot of people over, wanted to make a lot of mashed potatoes, but don’t have a big enough bowl to actually mash them in (and I can’t use my metal masher in my nonstick pots). So I tried this out and it was so easy and amazing, I may just declutter my masher unless someone can tell me another great use for potato mashers.

Wash your potatoes. I like to leave the peels on, but if you want to peel yours, go for it.

Cut them in half, then chunk them. Is “chunk” an actual culinary term?

Throw them in a really big pot.

Then cover them with water.

When they’re soft enough to easily sink a fork into, drain them and put them back into the pot. Put in something creamy, like sour cream or plain yogurt or cream cheese or … something. I used sour cream. At this point, your pot should still be on the burner, which is set to low heat.

Pour in something liquid like milk, cream, or broth. Stir everything together with a big spoon.

If you still have a lot of lumps like mine, and you need more creaminess, add some more creamy/liquid stuff. This is also a good time to add seasonings, herbs, and cheese. I added more sour cream, a big splash of milk, garlic salt, and onion powder.

Stir again.

Doesn’t that look amazing? Creamy stirred (not mashed) potatoes! Easy schmeasy! (Oh, and you can turn off your stove’s burner now.)

AND my potato masher is so clean and shiny because I didn’t even have to touch it.

The blueberries in the store are starting to look so good. They were on sale recently and we bought a bunch.

Sometimes we like to have breakfast for dinner. You know, make all the fantastic breakfast foods that we don’t have time to make (or don’t feel like making) before we go to work in the morning,

Enter Blueberry Pancake. With sidekick, Bacon.

You know how when you stir blueberries into the batter, they break and turn the batter all blue? I didn’t do that. I poured some batter into the pan, then sprinkled blueberries on top. When the batter starts to cook, it puffs up around the berries.

Like so.

And then, like I said… bacon. The sweet blueberries in soft pancakes alongside the salty crunchy bacon? Fantastic.

The man likes this picture better:

And I think this one is nice. So I figured I’d use them both.

Here’s the basic pancake recipe. Mmm.

You will need:

• 3 cups of flour
• 6 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons of baking powder

Mix those together. Add:

• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
• enough milk and/or water to make it the right consistency

Pour it into your pan or on your griddle. Wait until it puffs, flip it, and cook the other side. (Just in case someone is reading this who’s never made pancakes before.)

Enjoy!

And the next morning, I topped my leftover pancakes with sliced strawberries and a drizzle of honey.  Excuse the smear on the fork. I was actually using it to eat with, not just staging a photo with it. hehe.

Country-fried steak is another dish that’s not quite so photogenic. But it’s so amazing. We hadn’t had it in a while, so we were both pretty excited about it. The recipe is so simple, and the meat is so juicy and tender. The gravy is quick and easy, and the entire meal is just… delicious. Can I go on a little more?

The recipe is here.

So, so, so yummy.

This pasta may not be terribly photogenic, but it’s really delicious. If I had had penne pasta, I would’ve used it, but I didn’t so I mixed some shells and farfalle (bowtie) pasta.

No recipe, but here’s an approximation:

4 cups of pasta, uncooked…. cook it

1 bunch of asparagus, steamed and chopped up

1 box thingie (about 2 cups) of sliced mushrooms, sauteed

A couple tablespoons of capers

Some chicken or tuna, either “real” or from a can. “Real” is better, of course, but I used canned white-meat-only chicken because I didn’t feel like making real stuff.

Toss all of it into a bowl, and sprinkle it with about 4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Add garlic salt to taste.

Then sprinkle about 2-3 Tablespoons of lemon juice over the whole thing, to taste.

Serve with parmesan cheese on top.

This is also really good with some artichoke heart quarters in it. But I forgo-ed (forwent? hehe) that this time.

So yummy! The capers are an important part, so don’t leave those out unless you hate them. But if you hate them, don’t blame me if this recipe lacks a certain “kick…” it was in the capers. haha.

I made a carrot cake. I took half of it to work, where it was hidden and hoarded like a treasure, until the coworkers who hid it had savored every bite. The other half? My husband ate it all. Except for the slice I cut in this post (which I ate).

It looks so pretty with the spices on top of the cream cheese frosting, and little carrot hearts decorating it.

Maybe I’ll just take a little slice…

There they are… mother cake and daughter slice. Was that too cheesy?

Maybe I’ll just have a little… tiny… bite.

So I know you want the recipes.

Carrot Cake Recipe:

You will need:

• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 3 1/2 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a 10″ tube or bundt pan.

Blend oil and sugar. Add eggs, beating well after each addition.

Sift together flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda. Add to the egg mixture. Stir completely.

Fold in carrots and walnuts.

Pour batter into the pan and bake about 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake.  Cool, then remove from pan by inverting onto a plate.

Cream Cheese Icing Recipe

You will need:

• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 4 Tbsp. butter, melted
• 2 Tbsp. vanilla
• 1 lb. powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Gradually add melted butter until absorbed. Add vanilla, then sugar one cup at a time, beating well after each addition.

I’ll admit it needs a shorter name… seriously. Any suggestions?

I threw this together one night on a whim… and it was so fantastically delicious, I just had to share my recipe.

So here’s the recipe:

You will need…

• a bunch of broccoli, cut into florets and steamed
• 2 onions
• 1 package of mushrooms (a couple cups), sliced
• 2 large chicken breasts, boneless skinless… cooked and cubed
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• about 1/2 cup of milk
• shredded cheddar cheese
• French’s fried onions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sautee the onions and mushrooms. When I do this, I put the onions (chopped) into a pan with a couple tablespoons of water, and cover it to let it steam for a while. Then, when the onions are a little bit softer, I uncover the pan, let the water evaporate, and throw in a couple tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Then I toss everything around till the onions are browning. Then I add the mushrooms and let them cook… I like my onions really really cooked.

In a casserole dish, combine the broccoli, onions, mushrooms, chicken, soup, and milk. Mix everything. Top with cheese and fried onions.

Bake covered for 10 minutes, then uncover and let the onions on top get crispy (about 5 more minutes).

Delicious. Unless you hate onions. Listen to “secret onions” and laugh like crazy. Then go listen to the rest of the album. (My older sister Jessica, her guy Ryan, and their roomie Stephen made it.)

The last time I tried to make homemade pizza, it resulted in a sad looking product that had my husband saying, “Well, it’s not totally disgusting.”

This time, emboldened by my bread machine (thanks yayanana) and armed with your advice, my trials were successful!

I used whole milk mozzarella (next time, I’ll probably slice it thinner) for the cheese.

For the sauce, I used a can of tomatoes mixed with a few tablespoons of regular spaghetti sauce and seasoned with garlic salt and Italian herbs.

The crust was this recipe:

Throw in the bread machine:
A little less than a cup of lukewarm water
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons white sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons active dry yeast (my machine has a separate compartment for this)

Set it on the dough cycle and wait till it beeps.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit

Take the dough out and stretch it onto a greased pan. Let it stand until the oven is preheated (about 5-10 minutes), then bake about 5 minutes.

Take it out, top it with the sauce, cheese, and other toppings (next time I’ll put the pepperoni on top of the cheese, because I like when it gets crispy). Bake another 10-15 minutes or until everything is melty.

PS. I also brushed the edge of the crust with butter and garlic salt. It was like breadsticks. mmmm.

PPS We enjoyed it with home-brewed beer (by the hands of my brother-in-law) called Christmas Conception (their “brand” is Conception breweries, so all of their beers have a “conception” name). It was a delicious caramely stout.

So it’s winter, and the produce at the grocery store is looking kind of sketchy…

But you’re dreaming of spring, and you want something light for dinner.

Enter the recipe for “Skip to Spring” Pasta Salad

Start with about 3 cups of tri-color rotini. Throw it into a pot of boiling salted water, and let it cook.

Meanwhile, get out three cans: a can of tomatoes (I love when people call them “tinned tomatoes”), a can of artichoke hearts (not marinated, and a can of black olives.

I cut up my olives and artichoke hearts, but you can leave them whole if you prefer. Drain everything and put it into a bowl.

Now, drizzle a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil over the ingredients. Then some garlic powder and basil or Italian seasonings. Sometimes I like balsamic vinegar too, but for this particular night, I left it out.

Now, your ingredients are melding flavors while your pasta finishes cooking. Drain the pasta and toss everything together.

It’s really good cold or hot (and topped with Parmesan cheese), and it’ll make you think Spring is already upon us.

Enjoy!

Mmm… does it get any better than this? Chewy cookies that are the perfect consistency for milk-dipping… Perfection!

I’m not a banana-eating person. I don’t like bananas at all. I can’t even stand the smell of bananas. I used to say that when I became a teacher, I would tell all of my students’ parents that I’m allergic to bananas (even though I’m not) and not to pack them in their kids’ lunches.

But bananas made into stuff? I love! Banana nut bread, banana pudding, banana candies, dried banana chips… delicious!

And these cookies delicious, too. I’m going to call them Curious George cookies, because when Curious George visited the chocolate factory, he got sick from eating so much chocolate. But I bet these cookies would be perfect for his little monkey tummy.

Recipe for Curious George cookies:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cream together:

• 1 cup white sugar (though I’m sure brown would be fantastic too)
• 1 cup butter

Stir in:

• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Sift in:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Stir until blended, then add:

• 5 ripe bananas, mashed (I just cut mine into big chunks, and my KitchenAid mixer mashed them as it mixed)
• 2 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Stir until you feel like stopping.

Then, drop dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. The cookies probably won’t look quite done when you take them out, and this is RIGHT… if they look done, they will not be deliciously chewy. So take them out when they still look slightly “wet” on top and let them cool on a wire rack. They’ll be perfect.

If you like pumpkin desserts, you’ll love this quick and simple pumpkin pecan crumble. It’s sort of like a crustless pumpkin pie with a soft cake-y topping. You CAN spoon some onto your plate and eat it with a fork or spoon (with vanilla ice cream. Mmm), but It’s also great served as a dessert dip. Use gingersnaps or nilla wafers to scoop hunks of the pumpkin goodness, and enjoy the crumble with an extra crunch.

For this recipe, you will need:

• 1 package of Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Yellow Cake Mix
• 1 - 16oz. can of solid pack pumpkin
• 1 - 12oz. can of evaporated milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup nuts (chopped or whole, whatever kind you’d like)
• 1 cup melted butter

And this is all you have to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Mix together the pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Pour it into a greased 13 x 9 pan. Except that the last time I made it, I poured it into 2 9″ pie dishes.
3. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over the top of the pumpkin mixture.
4. Top with nuts and drizzle butter all over.
5. Bake 50-55 minutes.
6. Enjoy however you like it! Vanilla ice cream? Gingersnaps or Nilla wafers? How do you think it would be best enjoyed?

My camera didn’t feel like focusing on the nilla wafer with a scoop of pumpkin stuff on it… but that’s what I’m holding.

Cabbage is really overlooked as a vegetable. I know I hardly think of it when I’m thinking of a side-item. Usually I think of green beans, broccoli, spinach, asparagus, or something like that. But cabbage is delicious and full of cancer-preventing stuff, and really low in calories (while being full of vitamin C, vitamin A, iron, and calcium).

Cabbage soup is one of those simple recipes that can be really fulfilling on a cool winter day when you don’t want something heavy like stew.

Here’s the recipe I put together,

• 8-10 cups of chicken broth (I used bullion to “make” it)
• Throw in an onion, chopped
• Add baby carrots, cut lengthwise
• Splash in some Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
• Dump in half a head of cabbage, chopped

Wait until the cabbage and carrots are tender, and then eat it.

So simple, and so yummy. The leftovers reheat well too, but don’t freeze this soup… cabbage gets weird if you freeze it.

Over the holidays, yayanana gave me her old bread machine, so I decided to try it out with a loaf of chocolate bread. It’s not a desserty brownie type thing. It’s more like a normal bread-texture with a cocoa flavor, not too sweet. It’s great warmed up, with a schmear of butter on it.

Next time, though, I think I’d use the “sandwich” setting on my machine, which supposedly makes a bread with a softer crust. The crust on this one was pretty crunchy, and didn’t match the flavor of the bread.

So here’s the recipe for ya!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Tablespoon yeast
• a little less than 2 cups flour (all-purpose, or bread flour)
• 1/3 cup of cocoa
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 Tablespoon (which is 4 1/2 teaspoons) oil
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cups water

Add everything into the bread machine in the recommended order. For most machines, I think that’s liquids, dry ingredients, then yeast. My machine has a little container for the yeast, and it releases it at the correct moment. Set your machine, and wait until it beeps, “I’m finished!!!”

It’s pretty yummy right out of the machine, but it’s a lot easier to slice once it cools.

Try it out and let me know how you like it!

A lot of times, pork recipes seem to include all sorts of sweet fruity flavors, incorporating apples and raisins, oranges and cranberries, apricots and ginger. And honey. And sometimes I’m not in the mood for that sort of dinner, even if I plan to cook pork chops or tenderloins.

So one night, I decided to bread my pork chops in a mix of half flour, half cornmeal, along with salt and pepper. After cooking them in a pan with a little olive oil, I drizzled a balsamic reduction over them and the spinach I served with them.

If you haven’t tried a balsamic reduction before, you should! All you do is dump some balsamic vinegar into a small saucepan, and simmer (stirring) until it’s thickened to your preferred viscosity. Then drizzle it over meat or veggies, and voila! A punch of flavor, aroma, and prettiness (even though you can’t see the prettiness in my picture up there. The pork wasn’t feeling photogenic).

Everything was yummy. The balsamic vinegar was fantastic with the spinach, and soaked into the breading of the pork. The next day, the man had a pork chop sandwich with a leftover piece, and it was amazing.

I cannot believe I haven’t already posted these! I was all ready to do a “I made these again, and here’s a link to where I put the recipe” type post… but I couldn’t! Because I’ve been keeping these a secret! So so sorry.

These muffins are best with homegrown fresh blueberries, but if you don’t have access to those (or a farmer’s market) then regular store-bought fresh or frozen will work fine.

You will need:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup orange juice (though once I didn’t have any and used apple juice… it was fine)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
• 2 teaspoons white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Mix the oats and orange juice together and let them soak while the oven preheats to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a different bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Then incorporate the oil and egg. Fold in the blueberries last.

Spoon the batter into a greased muffin pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick jabbed in the middle will come out clean.

Enjoy!

This meal was definitely a collaboration between me and the man… that’s how we roll.

He picked out the chicken recipe, which was certainly a winner! And I improvised on the side dish, which turned out to be full of perfect flavor.

For the chicken:

Marinate boneless, skinless chicken breasts for about 3 hours in a mixture of

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup soy sauce (only Kikoman!)
• 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1-2 Tablespoons liquid smoke
• 1-2 Tablespoons spicy mustard
• 1-2 teaspoons black pepper
• 1-2 teaspoons garlic powder

Then grill the chicken on a preheated grill for 6-8 minutes on each side. It will turn a beautiful orangey color.

For the pasta:

Spread on a cookie sheet:

• cubes of peeled acorn squash
• lots of cut-up onions

And sprinkle with:

• EVOO
• cumin
• coriander
• nutmeg

Then roast it in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, until the squash is tender, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, cook some spaghetti and toast some pine nuts in a pan (careful not to burn those!)

Drain the spaghetti and stir in sliced black olives, the roasted veggies, and the pine nuts. If you used enough olive oil and spices on the vegetables, there is no need to add anything. The flavor will convince you to never doubt my culinary word. If I say it’s good, it’s good.

Since finding this recipe, the man has cooked these ribs…oh…maybe 8 times. They’re that good. And just by changing out the barbeque sauce (which we buy lots of when it’s on sale), you can totally change the flavor… or should I say …flava’ of the dish.

Here’s how the man does it.

• A package of country-style pork ribs (6-8 ribs)
• 2 Tablespoons of garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon of black pepper
• 2 tablespoons of salt
• 1 bottle of barbeque sauce

First, boil the ribs in a large pot with the garlic powder, pepper, and salt. Boil them for half an hour or so.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

When the ribs are finished boiling, put them in a baking dish with about a cup of the water they were boiled in, and pour sauce over them. Bake, covered, for 2 hours. Try not to go crazy from the yummy smells floating out of the kitchen.

For the creamed spinach, just cook some frozen spinach. Then stir in a lump of cream cheese and some mozzarella. Salt and pepper to your liking, and top with shredded Parmesan cheese.

This is a difficult meal to carry on a conversation through, because of all the “mmm”-y noises you’ll both be making.

I like my roast beef rare and flavorful… I found a super-simple recipe and altered it so that it achieves both of those goals flawlessly AND sets up a great gravy base in the process. (In case you’re wondering about that fantastic bakd potato, I rubbed it with olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt before baking it. The skin was extra-crispy and flavorful.)

The recipe is basically a rub which you smear all over the meat. Then you put it in a roasting pan (the kind that has the rack so the juices can drip down) and bake it until it’s ready to eat. I used the drippings to make a simple gravy… just put the pan on the stovetop while the meat is resting, add a couple of cups of water, and a cornstarch slurry, stirring constantly. The gravy is so flavorful you’ll want to drink it on its own.

Oh, you say you want the recipe? Of course you do. I guess I’ll share it with you.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 tablespoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic or garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 tablespoons Frank’s red hot sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 (3 pound-ish) sirloin tip roast

Mix everything together (except for the roast of course) and let it sit for about 20 minutes for all of the flavors to meld together.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Smear your roast on all sides with the rub and place it on the rack in your roasting pan.

Dump about a cup of water in the bottom of the pan so that the drippings don’t burn.

Take the meat out when it has an internal temperature of about 140 degrees Fahrenheit (about an hour or so), or however you like it. Rare is better though.

Step 1: Get some fruit. Wash it and make sure it’s dry. In my case, the fruit was cherries.

Step 2: Dump some chocolate chips in a bowl. More than you think you’ll need. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir. Repeat until the chips are melted.

Step 3: Stir in a couple tablespoons of shortening, for smoothness.

Step 4: Dip fruit in chocolate and place on a wax-paper-lined cookie sheet or tray. If you followed my directions and melted more than you needed, find something else to dip. Cookies, pretzels, or in my case, Clementine wedges.

Step 5: Put the tray in the fridge, but not for too long because condensation will discolor your chocolate.

Step 6: Do not open the fridge and have the fruit fall all over the floor (or in my case, do this). If this happens, salvage the fruit that did not touch the floor.

Step 7: Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: chocolate, cherries, clementines, fruit, cooking, chocolate-covered, dipped, recipe, gourmet

This bruschetta-ish recipe is one I made up about a year ago, and it’s so easy and delicious.

You will need:

A can of tomatoes, diced

A can of black olives, sliced

Balsamic Vinegar

Italian herbs

EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

Italian or french bread, sliced

Cheese - Mozzarella or whatever you have (I used some sort of mix of cheeses for this one)

Brush the bread slices with olive oil and let them get toasty in the oven (370ish degrees Fahrenheit). While that’s happening, drain the tomatoes and mix them with the olives. Drizzle them with balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with Italian herbs. Everything is “to taste” so be sure to taste it!

When the toast is toasty, spoon on the tomato topping and sprinkle liberally with cheese. Pop it all back into the oven until the cheese is melted and everything is warm and gooey. Eat it warm. Or cold. With spaghetti. Or lasagna, or soup, or salad, or by itself as a meal… you know. However you like it.

And you WILL like it.

Sew, Mama, Sew! has invited all crafty bloggers to take part in the Handicrafters’ Holidays question-and-answer. I’m going to break mine up into two sections and do the Traditions part first, and then the Gifts part later.

Meg, if you’re reading this you may want to avert your eyes for this post, because it might spoil some of the surprises that are in your Holiday Traditions Exchange package!

What is your favorite family holiday tradition?

(Picture taken in 2005)

One favorite holiday tradition is making Zeppole, which are Italian fried doughnuts. Just about every year, we try a new recipe, because we haven’t found a favorite yet… but trying different recipes is almost as much of a tradition as making the zeppole!

Have you started any new traditions with your family that you didn’t practice growing up?

Last year, my then-fiance and I made a huge batch of gingerbread cookies to share with our families. We lovingly adorned each one with frosting, sprinkles, colored sugar, and other decorations. It was so much fun! This year we’re doing it again, and I hope it becomes part of our tradition repertoire.

What do you love most about the holiday season?

I love the holiday smells (gingerbread, spiced cider, cinnamon mixed with the scent of pine…). I love watching The Snowman curled under a blanket on the couch, snuggled with my sisters. I love guiltless mug after mug of hot chocolate, and seeing the look on someone’s face when they open the perfect gift I’ve given them (though, this doesn’t always happen… it’s awesome when it does).

What do you like least about the holiday season?

The lack of cold (I grew up in South Carolina, and now live in Florida). In general, that’s ok, but I think an actual “white Christmas” would be nice. Also, most of the holiday songs don’t make much sense without the snow, except for Mele Kalikimaka. Also, having so many families and such a small window of time leads to an insanely scheduled chaotic hubbub of visiting… which can be more stressful than I’d like.

Anyone close to your heart that you’ll be missing this year?

I’ll be missing my dear friend Meagan, who will be celebrating her holidays in Virginia. But it’s okay, because she’s visiting in the Spring!

What is your favorite holiday food?

Besides zeppole and all of the various gingerbread-ish spiced baked goods, I am in love with my mother-in-law’s artichoke stuffing. It’s so delicious… if artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes appeal to you, you must try this stuffing!

Do you have a great recipe to share?

If the ones above don’t tickle your fancy, try these.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Applesauce Spice Cake

Gingerbread Biscotti

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

(Not So) Simply Shorbtread

Or for a couple of hearty recipes…

Yorkshire Pudding

Green Bean Casserole

Tons more if you browse Joyful Abode, or use the search field on the left side to search for “recipes.”

I decided to make a yummy chocolate cake for my sweet husband.

I used the same cake recipe as always. It’s such an easy, delicious, and failproof recipe that there’s no reason to try another (for regular chocolate cake, that is). But this time, I tried a new frosting recipe and it worked! It stayed fluffy and tastes yummy. Though, I’m not really a frosting person in general (except for not-too-sweet buttercreams or something, but I haven’t attempted that yet). So I eat a little bit but mostly leave the rest on the plate.

Anyway, the frosting recipe is:

3 cups of confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)

1/2 cup of shortening

little less than 1/2 cup of water

a little bit of vanilla extract (which reminds me, I REALLY need to do an update on that.) Or you can use almond, lemon, or whatever else floats your boat.

Mix it all up together and whip it for a long time, so it’s fluffy. That’s it! I also added some cocoa powder to make it chocolatey.

Happy everything, everyone! I hope you had a fantastic Hanukkah, will have a super Christmas and/or Yule, and everything else you may celebrate or observe.

Shortbread is one of the simplest cookies you can make… the “cleanest” recipes only include three ingredients. Flour, Sugar, and Butter.

I’ve made many different shortbread recipes in my day (haha… my day), but this one is the clearest winner.

The World’s Best Shortbread Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup of REAL butter. No substitutions allowed.

1/2 cup of brown sugar, packed

2+ cups of flour.

Oven = 325 degrees Fahrenheit

Cream the butter and sugar together. I generally use the back of a fork, or my fingertips (not palms, or the butter will get too soft). If my butter is too cold and I don’t have time to wait for it to soften, I use a potato masher and a lot of arm muscle.

Add about 2 cups of flour. Mix well.

Sprinkle your table, wax-paper, or silicone baking mat liberally with flour. Turn your dough onto the floured surface and knead.

Knead, adding flour until the dough is smooth and not sticky.

Roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch thickness and cut. Rectangles with fork-pierced patterns are classic, but you can also do triangles or other shapes.

Bake for 20-23 minutes, until they’re done and delicious.

Now, there are so many things you can do to dress up shortbread. In the making-dough stage, you can add a bit of vanilla, almond, or lemon extract.

In the cookie-forming stage, you could choose to wrap Andes mints with the dough…

Or you could wait until after they’re baked to dress them up.

These cookies were just balls that I flattened and baked. After baking, I sandwiched an Andes mint between two cookies while they were still warm. As the mint melted, I twisted the cookies slightly to evenly-ish disperse the chocolaty mint goodness.

Or the simple route…

I made my mother some shortbread cookies for her birthday, and dressed them up another way.

Simply melt some chocolate in the microwave and stir in a tablespoon or so of shortening, so that the chocolate is really smooth. Then, when the cookies are cooled, dip one end in the chocolate and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Lay on a wax paper sheet to harden. Delicious!

Also, it’s fantastic plain.

Do you dress up your shortbread? What do you do?

A while ago I was posting about how we were using our cheap on-sale bottom round steaks.

I never ended up posting this one though… which might actually be the best incarnation of it.

Through the experimentations with this meat, I found that salting it (sprinkling liberally with kosher salt and letting it sit for about 30-40 minutes before rinsing all the salt off) helped make the meat a bit more tender. Also, cutting it into teensy pieces did something for it as well.

On this particular night, we were totally out of flour tortillas, but we had some corn tortillas. So I made corn chips out of them with the plan of doing SOMEthing a la chicken taco nachos.

I sauteed some onions and green bell peppers until they were soft, then added tiny cut up pieces of the meat and browned them. I’m pretty sure I also tossed it around with a bit of Worcestershire sauce and seasoned salt.

Add a side of salsa and one of sour cream, and this dinner was a hit.

The man piled his plate with chips, then smothered it with the sauteed mixture, salsa, and sour cream, while I preferred to scoop bits of the meat/onion/pepper stuff with a crispy chip, then top it off with the condiments. I don’t like my chips to get soggy!

Not really a recipe, but there you go.

Technorati Tags: bottom round steaks, recipe

I’ve created some recipe card sets with my illustrations just for you! Or, you know… your parents, siblings, friends, teachers, or co-workers. They’d make great stocking stuffers or additions to any kitchen or house-waming gift basket.

The illustrations came straight from my head and out of my pen. After some computer-manipulation, they became 4″x6″ recipe cards.

One thing I like about them (besides their unique cuteness) is that they don’t try to guess what sort of format you use. The recipe cards I’ve bought in the past say “Recipe:” and then have a place for you to write what it is the recipe is for… but how redundant is that? It’s already in your recipe book! Of course it’s a recipe! Then they also say, “Serves:” I never use that part. I tend to write my oven temp there. And I have no clue how you write yours!

So… Joyful Abode recipe cards don’t guess what your format is. They just give you the blank lines and darling illustrations.

(The Tummy Comforts picture was getting all weird when I re-sized it… so I had to use a smaller image. Sorry!)

Hop on over to Joyful Abode @ Etsy to pick up a few packages of recipe cards for this holiday season!

It’s getting cooler here in the Sunshine State, and that means yummy comforting foods like beef stew. The “recipe” is quite simple… Boil some onions in beef broth (4 cups) for a long time. Meanwhile, brown the beef in a pan (cut up in tiny pieces) … or should I say That Same Darned Meat.

Throw some veggies and potatoes into the pot with the onions, an