Kitchen Update

Hi all!  So being a consistent blogger is a lot harder than I thought it would be.  But I'm really going to keep trying, really.  I have still been cooking a lot and learning a lot.  The past weekend I took a cooking class with Essen and learned how to do hot water canning.  We made apple sauce and cooked salsa.  I am going to be attempting to make and can more salsa on my own this Friday.  I'll let you know how it goes.
So what else have I been cooking?
Crock Pot Chili 
Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese


Recipes and Pictures coming soon! 

Deception and a little love

Along with all the pears we got from Momma A, we also got a ton of summer squash(or yellow zucchini, I really don't know the difference).  My boyfriend and I don't really like summer squash too much, so I wasn't really sure what to do with it all and I didn't want to let it all go to waste.  So I pulled out my Deceptively Delicious cookbook and my food processor.  Deceptively Delicious uses vegetable purees in everyday cooking.  The idea behind it is that kids(or picky boyfriends) will get their veggies without even knowing it.  Ok, so I'm not really trying to deceive my boyfriend, I just love him and want him to be healthy, right?
Deceptively Delicious recommends making up big batches of purees and then freezing 1/2 a cup in a freezer bag.  Then when you want to make a recipe, just thaw out the puree and start cooking.  I also had some carrots on hand, so I made up a carrot puree as well.

Summer Squash Puree
Ingredients:
summer squash, however much you want to make

Start Cooking:
1.  To prepare the squash, cut off the ends and then cut into 1 inch chunks.
2.  Steam for 6-8 minutes.
3.  Puree in the food processor or blender for about 2 minutes.  You might have to stop and scrape down the sides.

Carrot Puree 

Ingredients: 

Carrots, however many you want to make

a few teaspoons of water

Start Cooking:

1.  If you are using whole carrots, peel them and trim the end, then cut into 3 inch chunks.  I had shredded carrots on hand, so I just used them as is.  You can also use baby carrots as is.  

2.  Steam for 10-12 minutes.

3.  Place in food processor or blender and blend for about 2 minutes.  You will need to add some water here in order to get a smooth creamy texture.  You might also need to stop and scrape down the sides.  

Tips and Hints:

1.  When I made the summer squash puree, not all of the squash fit in the food processor at once.  I needed to make the puree in batches.  

2.  Make sure you label the freezer bags with what is in them!!!  

3.  Freeze in half cup portions; most recipes call for 1/2 cup of whatever puree you are using.  

I ended up with 9 bags of summer squash puree, 1/2 cup each and 3 bags of carrot puree, 1/2 cup each.  So what am I going to make with all this puree?  

Applesauce Muffins with Carrot 

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins with Carrot

Blueberry Lemon Muffins with Summer Squash

Burgers with Carrot

Favorite Fruits

Pears are my favorite fruit, always have been.  My wonderful boyfriend's wonderful mother gave us a ton of fresh pears.  

This is only about half of the pears.  I couldn't eat them all before they went bad, so my boyfriend suggested cooking something with them.  I pulled out some cook books and got online and started looking.  I found a few recipes that I liked that went along with what I had on hand.  I sort of put a few recipes together and came up with the one that I will share with you.  

The best part of this recipe:  my boyfriend wanted to cook with me!  We had a great time in the kitchen together.  Fun "date" thing for us to do together.  

Look at him peeling pears!

So here it is:  my pear crumble

Ingredients:

5 pears(or however many you have or wants)

1 tablespoon white sugar

5 tablespoons packed brown sugar

6 tablespoons oats

4 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon 

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 tablespoons butter, melted

4 tablespoons chopped nuts 

the boyfriend got a picture of me

Start Cooking:

1.  Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees, grease baking pan.  Peel and slice pears and place in greased backing pan.  

2.  In a medium bowl, combine sugars, oats, flour, cinnamon, ginger, and nuts.  Then mix in the melted butter.  

3.  Pour the topping mix over the pears in the baking dish, then mix in a little bit with the pears. 

4.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.  You will see that it is browning a little.  Serve warm. 

 

Tips and Hints:

1.  Serve warm.  This is also great with vanilla ice cream.

2.  Keep leftovers in the fridge.  

3.  If you are feeding a lot of people, double the entire list of ingredients.  Bake in a large, flat baking pan.  

Enjoy!

Cauliflower and Mashed Potatoes

I hate cauliflower.  My boyfriend hates cauliflower.  So I decided to make cauliflower.  Well, sort of.  My new favorite cookbook is Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld.  All of these recipes hide fruits and veggies in yummy food to try and get kids to eat healthier.  I read their recipe for mashed potatoes, using a cauliflower puree, and thought that I'd give it a try.  I love mashed potatoes.  My boyfriend loves  mashed potatoes.  So why not throw in some cauliflower?  I made the mistake of telling my boyfriend, not a big veggie eater, what I was making before I started.  He didn't like the idea very much.  But I went ahead and made it anyway.  Turns out that you can't taste the cauliflower at all; just tastes like normal mashed potatoes.  Final result:  this recipe is boyfriend approved!

In order to make this recipe, you will need to make a cauliflower puree first.
Ingredients:
cauliflower
water


Start Cooking:
1.  Put the cauliflower in a food processor with about 2-3 tablespoons of water.  Puree for about 2 minutes until a creamy paste forms.  You might need to stop the food processor and scrape down the sides.  You also might need to add more water to get the right texture.

Now that you have the cauliflower puree, you can make the mashed potatoes! 

Ingredients:

1 pound potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cauliflower puree

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup milk

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon oregano(my addition)

Start Cooking:

1.  Put the potatoes and salt in a large pot, with enough water to cover the potatoes.  Boil over high heat for about 15-20 minutes.  You should be able to easily pierce the potatoes with a fork when done. 

2.  Drain potatoes and return to pot.  Use a potatoes masher to begin to mash the potatoes.  Then add remaining ingredients and continue to mash, until the mixture is smooth and creamy.  Serve warm.  

Tips and Hints:

1.  I served mine with some cheese on top for a little extra protein.  You can add all of your favorite potato toppings.  

2.  Nutrition info: Deceptively Delicious says that 1 cup of cauliflower has 25 calories and may help fight off some types of cancer.  It can also help resist infection because it is high in vitamin C.  

3.  Make extra!  Mashed potatoes make great left overs!  

Enjoy!

Blueberries!

Get ready for the best blueberry muffins ever.  Yes, they really are the best.  My boyfriend and I both love blueberry muffins for breakfast, so I decided to make my own this time.  We got the blueberries at a local farm and orchard.  I looked around online and found a recipe that looked good, so I went for it.

Muffin Ingredients:

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened 

1 egg, beaten

2 1/3 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup blueberries

Topping Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/4 cup butter

Start Cooking:

1.  Pre heat oven to 375 degrees

2.  In a large mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter.  Then add the egg and mix.  

3.  In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Then add the creamed mixture a little at a time, alternating with the milk.  

4.  Stir in vanilla, then fold in blueberries.  

5.  To make the topping, combine all dry ingredients and then cut in the the butter.  

6.  Spoon into greased muffin tins, or use paper liners.  Then sprinkle the topping evenly on the muffins. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Tips and Hints:

1.  Fresh blueberries are the best, but if it is out of season, or you don't have any, frozen blueberries will work.  

2.  Don't over mix!  Over mixing is the worst thing you can do to muffins!

3.  Can't eat them all before they go bad?  Freeze them!  

4.  They are best when served warm. 

Enjoy!

Potatoes!

Before I get to the potatoes... I have decided that I need to be a more consistent blogger.  School is almost done for this term, so I will have some more time to blog.  And then school will start up again come end of September, and who knows what will happen then.  But I'm going to try!

Ok, so now to the potatoes.  I don't think that I've ever met someone who doesn't like potatoes.  My boyfriend and I both love them, and I'm always looking for new ways to cook with potatoes, just to spice it up a little bit.  I found a recipe in a cooking magazine for grilled potatoes with rosemary.  Well, we don't have a grill(yet).  So I changed the recipe around a little and made it work for roasting in the oven.  This recipe has fresh rosemary in it, and my boyfriend isn't much of a rosemary fan.  But he tried the potatoes and loved them, as did I.  This is the recipe from the local foods post.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pound small new potatoes, or red potatoes.  DO NOT PEEL
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 sliced green onions(optional)

Start Cooking:
1.  Cut the potatoes in to quarters.  Then parboil in salted water until just tender.  You should be able to poke a fork into them easily.
2.  Meanwhile, heat oven to 400 degrees and mix all remaining ingredients in a small mixing bowl.
3.  Drain the potatoes and place in a baking dish.  Pour the oil mixture over the potatoes and make sure they are all evenly coated.  Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, until a little bit browned.

Tips and Hints:
1.  Fresh rosemary can be hard to find and is a little pricey.  The fresh herbs will make the best potatoes, but if you can't get them, use half the amount dried.
2.  I served the potatoes with chicken and green beans and it made a great complete meal!

Enjoy! 

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

I remember my mom making this bread when my sister and I were little.  I think she thew in the chocolate chips to get us to eat the bread, but it's really yummy :)  Zucchini is going nuts this time of year, and after awhile, there is only so much that you can do with it.  This recipe is a great way to use up all that zucchini. You could make it into muffins, or in a loaf pan.  You can also freeze the bread or muffins and have great bread after zucchini is out of season.
This is now officially boyfriend approved!  When I told him what I was going to make, he said "that sounds nasty."  So I made it anyway, and had him try it.  And he said "That's really good"  : )

Dry Ingredients:
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup white flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
1 egg white
1 whole egg
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup zucchini, finely grated
1 teaspoon vanilla

Extra Ingredients:
2/3 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts(optional)

Start Cooking:
1.  Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  I always start by grating the zucchini.  Use a hand grater, as this allows the natural moisture from the zucchini to be added to the batter.

3.  You will now need two large mixing bowls for this recipe.  In the first large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together with a wooden spoon.  Then in the second large bowl, mix all of the wet ingredients together.  

4.  Next you need to pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients.  Mix just until everything is incorporated.  Now you can add the extra ingredients: chocolate chips and nuts if you want.  

5.  Pour batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes.  

Tips and Hints:

1.  This is very straight forward.  But the most important thing about making breads is to only mix as much as needed. Don't over mix!  

Enjoy! 

Dessert Quesadillas

The other week I had a bunch of tortillas that I needed to use up.  So the boyfriend and I had quesadillas for dinner!  I still had some tortillas left and I didn't know what to do with them before they went bad.  You can only eat so many quesadillas :)  So the crafty Angela, the boyfriend's mom, suggested making dessert quesadillas.  I had never heard of dessert quesadillas before, so I went for it.  Basically, it's a s'more on a tortilla.  And it was great!

Ingredients:

2 tortillas

chocolate chips

mini marshmallows 

Start Cooking:

1.  You will need a large non-stick skillet to make this recipe.  It is up to you how much chocolate and marshmallow you want to add.  

2.  Set the pan on medium heat.  Place one tortilla in the bottom of the skillet, then put the chocolate chips and marshmallows on top of the tortilla.  Then place the 2nd tortilla on top.  

3.  Cover the skillet with a lid and cook for about 2 minutes.  Check the tortilla to make sure it's slightly browned and the chocolate has started to melt.  Then flip the quesadilla and cook on the other side.  

Tips and Hints:

1.  Serve warm!  

Enjoy!

Local Food

Summer is great for so many different things.  One of my favorites: cooking with local produce.  There are so many different fruits and veggies in season right now, why not take advantage of it?  So this summer I decided to explore some different local farm markets.  This past week, we went to Paulus Farm Market in Mechanicsburg, PA.  They also have a stand in Dillsburg, PA.  This was a little bit of a drive for us, but well worth it.
My boyfriend and I really enjoyed our day out at the farm.  We are a young couple, still in college, and money is tight.  We used our day at the farm as a "date."  Pick your own is a cheap way to get great produce and it's something we can do together.  Then we go home and cook together =)
This farm market has a pick your own flower field.  We picked two buckets of flowers, then arranged them all over the apartment.  The cats really liked them too :)

We were going to pick our own blueberries, but were too late... the pick your own closed at 1 PM and we were there around 3PM.  So I just bought blueberries already picked.  I also got some potatoes and zucchini.

So what am I going to make?  

Blueberry Muffins

Roasted Potatoes 

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

I'll be posting the recipes soon!  

Peaches

A few weekends ago, the family had a cook out for my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary.  It was really cool to celebrate an amazing, long lasting relationship.  Everyone was given some part of the meal to bring, and I was given dessert.  I like to cook with in season food as much as I can, so I went out and bought some local peaches and blue berries and make a cobbler.  The cobbler was a big hit and everyone loved it.  I found this recipe online.

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water
3 cups fresh peaches- peeled, pitted and sliced
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons coarse granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Start Cooking:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2.  In a medium bowl, stir together flour, 1/2 cup white sugar, and baking powder.  Mix in milk and 1/4 cup butter until smooth.
3.  In a medium saucepan, stir together the brown sugar, cornstarch, and water.  Mix in the peaches and blueberries.  Cook and stir over medium heat until thick and bubbly.  Mix in 1 tablespoon butter and lemon juice.  Continue cooking until the butter melts.  Pour into a ungreased 9"x13" baking pan.  Evenly spoon batter in mounds over the hot fruit.  In a small bowl, mix the coarse sugar and nutmeg,  and sprinkle over the batter.

4.  Bake cobbler for about 35 minutes, or until bubbly and a toothpick inserted into the crust comes out clean.  

Tips and Hints:

1.  We served the cobbler warm with vanilla ice cream.  It was great!  

2.  This one is really easy, I didn't have any trouble with it at all :)

Enjoy!

Green Beans!

I love green beans.  They are probably my favorite vegetable.  I found this recipe for a two bean salad and had to try it.  This is served cold, so it's not boyfriend approved(he "doesn't like cold green beans").  But I loved it, so I thought that I would share.

Ingredients:
12 oz green beans, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup thinly sliced sweet onion
1 tablespoon fresh oregano
1 can (15.5 oz) white beans, drained and rinsed

Start Cooking:
1. Boil green beans until just tender, about 8 minutes.  Drain, then rinse with cold water.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, pepper, mustard and salt.  Slowly whisk in oil.  Stir in onion and oregano, then let stand 10 minutes.
3.  Add green beans and white beans to dressing, toss to coat the beans.
4.  Serve at room temperature.

Tips and Hints:
1.  The original recipe that I found called for tomatoes.  No one in my house likes tomatoes, so I left them out.  If you would like, add 1 1/2 cups halved cherry tomatoes when you mix in the beans.
2.  This makes 6 (1 cup) servings.

Enjoy! 

Brownies

I'm sorry, I didn't get a picture of these brownies before they were all gone, but I wanted to post the recipe anyway.
My sister and I have been making these brownies for years now, and we haven't been able to find a better recipe.  We haven't ran into anyone who didn't like them yet!
This recipe is from Kids Cooking: a very slightly messy manual and is titled Disgustingly  Rich Brownies

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
4 eggs
3/4 cup coco
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt

Start Cooking:
1.  Pre-heat oven to 350.  Grease 8x8 baking pan.
2.  Stir coco and sugar together.  Then add melted butter, eggs and vanilla: stir together.  Add flour and salt, mix until smooth.
3.  Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Tips and Hints:
1.  Don't like plain brownies?  Add 1/2 cup chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, nuts, anything you like to put a different twist on your brownies!

Enjoy!

Beat the Heat!

This summer has been soooo hot and humid here, yuck!
Back during strawberry season, my boyfriend and I picked strawberries at a local farm.  Pick your own is a lot of fun and a cheap way to get good berries.  We couldn't eat all the berries that we picked before they went bad, so I decided to make frozen pops and beat the heat at the same time!  And these are boyfriend approved!

I found this recipe in the cookbook Deceptively Delicious, titled "Frozen Yogurt Pops."

Ingredients:
2 cups plain lowfat yogurt
2 cups berries
1/2 cup sugar

Start Cooking:
1. Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
2. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.

Tips and Hints:
1.  You will need plastic popsicle molds for this recipe.  I found mine at five below, but I'm sure that you can find them at any number of stores.  If you don't have popsicle molds, you can use paper dixi cups and popsicle sticks.
2.  Nutrition Info: these pops are only 100 calories each and loaded with good stuff!  lots of calcium and fruit!

When life give you lemons...

So life gave me lemons, and I didn't make lemonade.
I don't even know when the last time I posted was... oops!  Life has been kinda crazy, but I've still been cooking!
New recipes and pictures will be posted within the nest day or two.  Thanks for your patients :)

Breakfast of Champions

No, not cold pizza.  Really yummy coffee cake!  I learned how to make this recipe at an Essen cooking class.  Don't know Essen?  Check them out!  This is a coffee cake with rhubarb filling.  My boyfriend and I went to pick strawberries earlier this week and the farm we went to had other homegrown produce, so I picked up some great rhubarb.  Recipe is boyfriend approved :)

Big Crumb Coffee Cake With Rhubarb


Ingredients:
Filling -
1/2 pound rhubarb, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Topping - 
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

Cake - 
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sour cream

Start Cooking:


1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 8 inch baking pan.
2. Filling: combine all ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

3.  Topping:
a.  In a medium bowl, whisk sugars, spices and salt into melted butter until smooth.
b.  Gradually mix in flour with a wooden spoon.  Leave pressed together and set aside.

4.  Cake:
a.  In a bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy.
b.  Add egg and yolk, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, and then vanilla
c. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.
d.  Alternate adding sour cream and flour mixture to butter mixture, beginning and ending with sour cream.
5.  Put it together:
a.  Spread cake batter in pan, smoothing top.  Scatter rhubarb over batter, leaving accumulated liquid in bowl.

b.  Break topping into big crumbs and sprinkle over cake.  Bake for 45-55 minutes.

No Sugar Added

After watching cooking shows last week(when I was supposed to be writing a paper...) I decided to try to make something without any sugar.  So I made mini apple pies. And I have to say that I wondered where the sugar was.  Overall, it was good, but it could have been sweeter.

First, you have to make a Basic Pastry


Ingredients:
2 and 2/3 cups all purpose flour
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup ice water

Start Cooking:
1.  Use a metal blade in a food processor.  Put flour, butter and salt in the food processor and pulse until butter is chopped and evenly spread throughout the flour.
2.  Add water and pulse until dough forms.
3.  Separate into 3 balls, wrap in plastic wrap and flatten into discs.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.


When the dough is refrigerating, prepare Apple Filling

Ingredients:
4 apples, whatever kind you like
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons honey
1-2 tablespoons cinnamon(how every much you like)
1 egg

Start Cooking:
1.  Cut apples into bit size pieces.  Melt butter in large sauce pan, add apples to melted butter, over medium heat.  Add honey and cinnamon, stir well.
2.  Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes on medium heat.  After 5-7 minutes, you will see that the apples are soft and all the flavors have mixed together.

3.  After the pastry dough has been refrigerated for at least an hour, roll the dough out flat.  The flatter the better!  Put a cereal bowl upside down on the dough and cut around it, making a circle.  Place circle of dough on a baking sheet, brush egg around dough, used to help seal the dough together.  Put a scoop of apples in center of dough, then fold over and press edges together.

4.  Cut small slits in top of dough to vent air and bake for 17-23 minutes at 350 degrees, until dough is firm and flakey.  

Tips and Hints:

1.  Make sure you roll the dough really really flat.  My first batch, pictured above, was too thick and you tasted more dough than apples(not so good).  The second batch, with thinner dough was much, much better.

2.  I tried to roll out the dough before refrigerating for 1 hour, and it was really hard to roll out.  I would say refrigerate for more like 90 minutes.  

Enjoy!  And share your sugar free recipes! 

Marshmallow Sticky Buns

I found this recipe online, and LOVE them.  I have to say that I'm not a big fan of marshmallow, but these are great, and the marshmallow is not the dominating flavor.  This recipe uses the same technique as the pizza poppers.  

Ingredients: 
1 can refrigerated biscuits
2 tablespoons butter, melted
enough marshmallows to fill biscuits
cinnamon and sugar(however much you like)

Start Cooking:
1.  Pre heat oven to 350, well grease muffin tin.
2.  Separate biscuits and flatten as much as you can.  Sprinkle some cinnamon sugar in center of biscuit, then fill with marshmallows.

3.  Pull sides up to cover marshmallows and form into a ball.  Roll biscuit in melted butter, then in cinnamon sugar.  Place in muffin tin.

4.  Bake for 15-17 minutes.  Serve warm.

Tips and Hints:
1.  Make sure to WELL grease the pan.  They will stick!
2.  Put the muffin tin on a cookie sheet while baking.  The marshmallows in mine oozed out and I ended up cleaning a puddle of sticky marshmallow off the bottom of my oven.
3.  Can't eat them at all once?  Re-heat in oven until warm!  I tried re-heating in the microwave; they we OK, but better in the oven.

Enjoy!

Iced Tea

Since I will not be home much this weekend, I decided to scrap the 8 hour iced tea recipe and make one that doesn't take so long to make.  I decided on Wild Berry Iced Tea.

Ingredients:
4 cups water
3 tea bags(plain Lipton tea works great)
1 can frozen wild berry juice, prepared per directions on can

Start Cooking:
1.  Put 4 cups of water and 3 tea bags in a pitcher.  Set in the sun for about 2 hours.  After two hours, remove tea bags.  If you have an iced tea  maker, that will work fine, just use 4 cups of the finished tea.
2.  Measure out 3 cups of the prepared wild berry juice and mix with the prepared tea.  Serve cold, with ice cubes.

Something Special:
For a special treat, freeze a few fresh raspberries in ice cubes.  Serve with the tea.

 
Hints and Tips:
1.  Make sure you put the water and tea bags in the SUN, it will brew much faster.  I made mine this evening, and it wasn't in the heat of the day, and it seemed to take longer to brew.

Enjoy! 

Pasta Salad

drum roll please...  I did it, I made real pasta salad!  I know, not that exciting, but I've never done it before.
I did a combination of suggestions that I received and recipes that I found.

Ingredients: 
pasta(whatever shape you like, I used bow tie)
cucumbers
red peppers
carrots
tomatoes(if you like them, I don't)
chick peas
Italian dressing

Start Cooking:
1. Cook pasta per directions on box/bag.  Let noodles cool.
2. While pasta is cooking, chop all veggies into bite size pieces.  Drain and rinse chick peas.
3. Put veggies and chick peas in whatever container you will be serving or storing the salad in.  Add cooked pasta and Italian dressing, then mix well.

I then made english muffin pizzas to make a complete meal.

Ingredients:
whole grain light english muffins
reduced fat mozzarella cheese
reduced fat cheddar cheese
pizza sauce

Start cooking:
1. Lightly toast plain english muffins.  This prevents the bread from getting soggy.
2. Place toasted english muffins on a baking sheet.  spread pizza sauce on english muffins.  Top with 2 parts mozzarella cheese, 1 part cheddar cheese.
3. Bake until cheese is melted and crispy around the edges.

Hints and Tips:
1.  add chicken to pasta salad and pepperoni to pizzas for you meat eaters out there.
2.  To mix pasta salad: put a lid on the container and shake it!
3.  Line the baking sheet with tin foil for pizzas, makes for easy clean up!

Enjoy!

National Iced Tea Day

So today is National Iced Tea Day!  I never knew there was such a thing, but I'm pretty excited about it.  In honor of the holiday, I found a recipe for frosty raspberry iced tea.  I don't have all the ingredients on hand, and you have to freeze it for 8 hours, but it looks great!  I will be making the drink within the next few days, and I'll let you know how it goes!
What are your favorite iced tea recipes?  

Cooking Shows

While I'm avoiding writing my final paper for History of American Business, I'm sitting here watching The Cooking Channel.  I haven't watched a cooking show on TV in ages and I'm really enjoying them(maybe too much considering that paper I have to write...).  I'm learning a lot of new ideas and recipes to make(will post some soon).  My take away from today's TV time:  use honey instead of sugar whenever you can.  It is less processed, less calories, and less bad stuff.  Also, it tastes really good :)  So, my new goal(after I make real pasta salad) is to make something with honey instead of sugar.  

What are your favorite cooking shows?  

Pizza Poppers

I love pizza.  It's probably my favorite food.  Next to tacos.  So today, I made my own pizza poppers.  I found this recipe from Pillsbury, but didn't like some stuff, so I changed it to make it better!  I'm posting my version of the recipe.

Ingredients:
Refrigerated buttermilk biscuits(as many as you want)
1 inch cubes of mozzarella cheese(one for each biscuit)
2 tablespoons melted butter
Italian seasoning, to taste
Pizza sauce for dipping

Start Cooking:
1.  Heat oven to 375 and grease pan(any size that will fit all your pizza poppers)
2.  Separate biscuits and press flat so they are about 2-3 inches.  Put 1 cheese cube on each biscuit and pull dough around cheese, shaping into a ball.

  3.  Roll in melted butter and place in baking pan.  Sprinkle with Italian seasoning.

4.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.

I had mine for lunch, with pizza sauce for dipping and a salad for a complete meal.  Very yummy and the boyfriend said to make them again :)

Hints and Tips:
1.  Make sure you WELL grease the pan... mine stuck.
2.  Stuff the biscuits with pepperoni or sausage for you meat eaters out there.
3.  Money saving tip:  there are often coupons for refrigerated Pillsbury products.  I found one that was $1 off 3 refrigerated dough products.  Unless you a making a ton of pizza poppers, buy the little cans with 6 biscuits each for $0.55 each.  With the coupon, you will pay $0.65 for 18 biscuits, which turn into 18 pizza poppers!

Enjoy!

Strawberry-Walnut Galette

First, what is "gelatte?"  I didn't know either.  Gelatte is a French flaky pastry dessert.  And a very yummy dessert.  
I found this recipe in a Pilsbury cookbook, but didn't like some things in it, so I changed it around a bit.  I'm posting my version of the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 refrigerated pie crust(or you can make your own)
1 1/2 cups walnuts
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 cup strawberry preserve(or jam)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Start Cooking:
1.  heat oven to 400.  Put the pie crust in a ungreased 9 or 10 inch pie plate.

2.  Put walnuts and sugar in a food processor and pulse until nuts are finely chopped.  Add egg and milk, process until thick paste forms.  Spread in bottom of pie crust.  Wipe out food processor.

3.  Put preserves, lemon juice, ginger and cornstarch in food processor, pulse until smooth.  Spread over walnut mixture.

4.  Fold edges of pie crust over the filling.  Bake 20-30 minutes, until crust is golden brown.

Hints and Tips:
1.  Don't like walnuts?  Use almonds!
2.  Don't like strawberry?  Use another flavor of jam!
3.  Ground ginger tip:  get some ginger root from the grocery store and freeze it. Then use a micro plane to ground the amount you need.  Freezing the ginger makes it easier to ground up with the micro plane and also keeps it fresh for longer.

Enjoy! 

Graduation

My littler sister graduated from high school a few days ago, and we had her family graduation party yesterday.  We were all instructed to bring a dish to share.  I offered pasta salad.  Pasta salad has always intimidated me; not sure why, but it has.  So I made it from a box.  Make the pasta and mix the seasoning with mayo and milk.  Easy.  Really easy.
My goal for this week:  Make real pasta salad, as in, not from a box.  I'm looking up recipes, but would like some input.
What are your favorite pasta salad recipes? 

Strawberry Season!

It's strawberry season!!  What are your favorite strawberry recipes?
This year, I tried something a little different.  We had a dessert recipe exchange at work, and I made a 3 layer pie.  First is a brownie layer, second a cheese cake layer, third a layer of strawberries :)

We all decided that there was too much brownie and not enough cheese cake, so I tweaked the recipe a little to account for that.

Recipe:
Brownie layer -
boxed brownie mix and the ingredients listed on that box

Cheese cake layer -
16 oz regular cream cheese
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Strawberry layer -
enough strawberries to cover the top of pie
hot fudge topping

1 refrigerated pie crust(or you can make your own)

1.  Heat oven to 325.
2.  Roll out the pic crust in a greased 9 inch pie plate
3.  Make brownie mix as directed on the box
4.  Pour about 1/3 of the brownie mix on top of the pie crust and bake for about 25 minutes.
5.  Meanwhile, prepare cheese cake layer.  Blend all cheese cake ingredients until smooth.
6.  Pour cheese cake mix on top of brownie mix.  Bake for another 20 minutes.
7.  Let cool completely in the fridge.
8.  Cut the strawberries in half and put them on top of the cooled pie.  Garnish with the hot fudge topping.

                                  

HINT:  I noticed that after a day or two in the fridge the strawberries got a little soggy.

Enjoy!  

Early Morning

I've been thinking about starting a blog for awhile now, and today I'm finally doing it.   Cooking is now one of my favorite hobbies, and I my goal is to share that with everyone.  I want to share recipes, tips, ideas...  


Today's recipe starts with breakfast, and one of my favorites: Baked Oatmeal. 

I'm not much of an early morning person, and cooking a big, healthy breakfast at 7 AM before work.  This recipe is my easy out - make a pan on the weekend and have a healthy breakfast for the rest of the week!   

Ok, so it's not very pretty looking...  but is oatmeal ever pretty?  


Ingredients:  
3 cups oats
1 cup brown sugar 
2 teaspoons cinnamon 
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup(1 stick) melted butter
2 teaspoon vanilla 
3/4 cup fruit (apples, cranberries, bananas, dried cherries...)
1/2 cup nuts (almonds, walnuts...)


1.  heat oven to 350
2. In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients.  
3. Add wet ingredients and mix well.  
4. Add fruit and nuts. 
5.  Pour into a greased 8x8 or 9x9 pan.
6. Bake for about 40 minutes


You will see that the oatmeal is set and the edges are golden brown.  In this one, I used dried cherries and almonds.  I store it in the fridge, cut a square each morning and heat it up in the microwave.  I serve with milk.  A yummy and healthy breakfast that gives me energy for the work day!  


Enjoy!