Category: Food and Drink

It’s 8 o’clock on Easter morning and I’m up tidying the house and continuing last night’s baking in preparation for dinner with my sister and her family.

The meal is going to be somewhat traditional: spiral-sliced ham, twice-baked potatoes and Aunt Edith’s Dinner Rolls. However, I’ve been picking up ideas for other dishes from my fellow bloggers for the last week and three of them will be featured at this afternoon’s meal.

My veggie dish today is Slow Roasted Asparagus from Kalyn’s Kitchen. I love the sound of the combination of olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette to roast the asparagus.

One of my desserts is Thumbprint Cookie Nests from Nosheteria. Mine aren’t as pretty as hers – I ended up making them a bit too large. However, they’re still very festive and I’m looking forward to eating one…perhaps for breakfast.

Continuing the nest theme, I also made Scribbit’s Easter Peeps Treats. They’re basically a Rice Krispies Treats nest with a Peep in it. I used pastel M&Ms as the "eggs" in mine.

I’m having an egg hunt in the back yard for my niece and nephew, even though the weather forecast calls for a high of 45 degrees. Last night I dyed a dozen eggs using food coloring, hot water and vinegar, rather than the fancy kit I’d purchased earlier in the day. It turned out that the kit needed to be used when the eggs were still warm and I’d refrigerated mine already, so…nevermind. I think the old school method worked out pretty well, don’t you?

I’ll go ahead and hide the real eggs along with the ones the kids get to keep: plastic ones filled with candy, eggs made of sidewalk chalk, and the gold and silver plastic eggs that each contain a slip redeemable for a "Special Easter Treat" (a stuffed bunny).

I haven’t hosted a holiday at my house for a long time. This is going to be fun!

The online reaction to the recent recall of peanut butter makes it sound as though none of us will ever enjoy a nice PB&J again. At my house, peanut butter consumption continues as usual. Why? Because I make my own peanut butter.

You can, too! It’s easy and far tastier than the stuff that comes in a jar. Here’s the list of ingredients: peanuts.

Buy a can of cocktail peanuts and pour it into a blender. Blend on one of the low settings, stopping often to push the peanuts down onto the blade with a rubber spatula. It takes a little while, but eventually the whole batch gets smooth enough to blend without assistance.

As soon as the peanut butter is an acceptable consistency (don’t over-blend – that can cause the oil to separate), scrape it into a container with a lid and store in the refrigerator.

If the thought of cleaning all of the sticky peanut butter residue out of the blender makes you despair, just take it apart and put the pieces in the dishwasher.

Enjoy your fresh peanut butter! I predict that you’ll never go back to the jar kind with all of the extra sugar and oil.

I went to a lovely Super Bowl party last night hosted by Cagey and her family. Also in attendance were Dorothy and her family. Before the game began, the men talked about work, the kids played and the bloggers discussed plans for attending the various BlogHer conferences this year.

It was a good game and I was glad the Colts won. However, as someone who works in the advertising business, I found the commercials rather disappointing. I didn’t take notes, so I’m finding it hard to think of more than a handful that stood out in any way.

So how about a recipe? My contribution to the game day snackfest was a plate of:

Coconut Lime Bars

Crust:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened, large flake coconut

Filling:
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
2 limes, juiced
Zest of one lime
1 drop green food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cream together butter, 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar and coconut flakes. Press evenly into 9" x 13" pan (I used my BakersEdge pan). Bake for 15-20 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk together 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour, lime juice and zest, eggs and food coloring. Pour over baked crust and return to oven to bake an additional 20 minutes. After the bars have cooled, sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut into 2" squares.

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Everyone seemed to really like this variation on lemon bars. I’m sure I’ll make them again.

So how was your weekend?

I mentioned earlier that I'd made pomegranate salsa at Christmastime. It is one of the most delicious things I've eaten in a long time. I first had it at a party before Christmas and I had to have the recipe. It turned out that my friend K. and her husband had invented the recipe themselves, but she told me the ingredients and approximate proportions.

This makes a lot, but I don't think you'll mind having extra.

Pomegranate Salsa

2 pomegranates
2 cans mandarin orange slices packed in water (drained and chopped)
1 red onion, chopped
1 fresh jalapeño, minced
1 tablespoon pickled jalapeño, minced
1 bundle cilantro, minced
Juice of one lime
A pinch of ground cumin

Cut the tops off the pomegranates, pull them in half, and submerge them in a large bowl of water while picking out all the seeds. The white pith will float and the seeds will sink, making it easy to retrieve them. Update: Here's a way easier method.

Put pomegranate seeds in a large bowl and add other ingredients. Mix together, cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Serve with tortilla chips (I like using the Tostitos Scoops because they hold a lot of the chunky goodness).

A little clarification: I can’t prepare you for the actual giving of thanks. You’ll have to come to your own conclusions about that.

However, I can tell from my traffic stats that many of my old recipe posts are getting beaucoup Google hits. I figured I could make things easier for everyone by pulling all the links into one post to help you plan ahead for dinner.

• Perfect Pumpkin Pie
• Pumpkin Cake Roll
• Aunt Edith’s Dinner Rolls
• Fresh Cranberry Sauce

Enjoy!

My aunt used to make big batches of granola and give it to everyone as Christmas gifts. If you've never had homemade granola, you don't know what you're missing! It's delicious by itself or eaten with milk as a cereal.

There are a LOT of ingredients and you'll find that it is not inexpensive to make, but it's very tasty.

Granola

Mix:
4 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut shavings
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup roasted soybeans
1/2 cup bran
1/2 cup flax seeds
Anything else that sounds good (I like pumpkin seeds!)

Heat:
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and spread on oiled cookie sheets. Bake for 15 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit, turning every 3 minutes. After granola has been removed from the oven, add 1 cup of raisins.

In celebration of Halloween and the beautiful leaves, I thought I’d share the recipe for one of my favorite autumn desserts. In our family, it takes a place of honor next to the pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving dinner (and sometimes Christmas, too).

Pumpkin Log

Cake:
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. lemon juice
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup walnuts (finely chopped)

Filling:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 – 8 oz. packages cream cheese
4 tbsp. butter
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Beat the eggs on high speed for five minutes, then gradually beat in sugar. Stir in pumpkin and lemon juice, then fold in flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Spread in a greased and floured jelly roll pan. Top with walnuts. Bake for 15 minutes then turn out onto a towel that has been sprinkled with powdered sugar. Roll in towel and cool. In the meantime, make filling by beating powdered sugar, cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth. When cake is cool, unroll it, spread with filling and re-roll. It’s not unusual for the cake to crack slightly. Keep a little extra filling aside to fill in the ends of the cake roll and any large cracks.  Chill for 3-4 hours or overnight before serving.

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I haven’t made this or pumpkin pie yet this year, but I’m looking forward to them both. Let me know if you try either of my recipes!

Last night, The Cowboy stayed with us on his way to a rodeo in Chicago.  He’s a far better cook than I’ll ever be, so I wanted to be sure to make a decent dinner. For deliciousness and ease of preparation I chose:

Chicken Creole

2 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tbsp. oil

Cut chicken into 1-inch pieces with kitchen shears.  Toss with salt and pepper.  Heat oil in large skillet, add chicken and cook over fairly high heat until chicken is opaque and just beginning to brown lightly.  Remove chicken and juices and set aside.

3 tbsp. oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely sliced celery
1/2 cup finely diced green pepper
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1 – 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. salt
Cayenne pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 tbsp. cold water

In same skillet, heat oil.  Add onion, celery, green pepper and garlic and saute until tender.  Stir in tomatoes and their liquid, add 1/2 cup water, paprika, salt, cayenne and bay leaf.  Bring to a boil, cover and simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes.  Stir in chicken and juices.  Mix cornstarch with 1 tablespoon water and stir into chicken mixture.  Simmer, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes.  Serve over steamed rice.

I somehow ended up timing dinner perfectly – it was ready about 10 minutes after The Cowboy walked in the door, even though I didn’t know exactly when he was going to arrive. I have enough food left that I’ll be having it for lunch today, too.

After dinner, I finally made an apple pie with the apples my sister gave me last weekend.  So far, only my husband has had any of the pie (he launched into a paean to its awesomeness), but I’ve packed a piece in my lunch.

Okay, this post sounds frighteningly like a letter from someone’s elderly aunt ("and then for breakfast we had…")  I’ll try to come up with something a little more interesting to discuss next week.

As you head into your weekend, here’s another free download from "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Don’t Download This Song."  Enjoy!

The people who fill our vending machines at work were determined that I must eventually try one of the new Tab Energy Drinks.  They demonstrated this in no uncertain terms by filling two whole rows of the machine with it and failing to refill the Red Bull this week.  They’ve been putting the Tab Energy Drink in the machines for months and as far as I can tell, nobody has ever bought one. 

As someone who grew up in the 1970s, I completely understand why this would be.  Here are the things that leap to mind when I hear the Tab brand name:  my childhood neighbor lady chain-smoking cigarettes and drinking Tab, and studies that involve force-feeding carcinogenic quantities of saccarine to lab rats.  Mmmm!  Refreshing!

Today I walked to the vending machine with my $2.25 of Red Bull money for the day and, denied a Red Bull, decided to go ahead and try the Tab.

Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew! 

My first warning was that it had no discernable odor whatsoever.  The fake sugar – whatever it is – was gaggingly sweet and there was really no flavor except for the sweetness.  Perhaps some mild fruit flavor lingered, trapped beneath the heavy blanket of artificial sweetener, but I have no idea what fruit it was supposed to represent.

I tried to drink it.  I really did.  After about two ounces, it started giving me a stomachache and I had to stop.  I threw the remaining two dollars’ worth away.

Thus, I finished out my day without the help of artificial stimulants, poorer but wiser.  I wonder if I have time to swing by Costco on my way home to get a fresh case of Red Bull?

I finished "The Mermaid Chair" in plenty of time for Saturday’s book club meeting.  In the book, there was frequent mention of benne wafers, so I decided to bake some to bring to the meeting. 

It turns out they’re a chewy, sesame-seed filled cookie that’s almost like a candy.  They were absolutely delicious:  brown sugar, butter and toasted sesame seeds.  I brought about three dozen to the meeting and they were all gone by the time I left. 

I’ll definitely make them again, but I never could figure out a way to keep them from sticking to the cookie sheet.  I started out with greased baking stones, then tried a regular greased cookie sheet and finally tried baking the last batch on a baking stone covered with waxed paper.  No matter which method I chose, the cookies still stuck firmly enough that I lost a good percentage of the bottom center.

For the wine tasting portion of our evening, we were to bring a pinot grigio.  I selected a bottle of Voga, based solely on the beautiful bottle design.  Everyone loved the bottle, even though we all admitted that it looked like perfume or hair spray, and the wine turned out to be one of the top two favorites of the evening (I liked it the best).

Another interesting wine tasting experience of the weekend was sampling the new Niebaum-Coppola Winery Sofia Mini Blanc de Blancs.  It’s sparkling wine packaged in small cans with extendable straws stuck to the sides.  My company gave them out at our monthly staff meeting last week to illustrate change and innovation.  I took two cans home and my husband and I tried them on Friday night.

They were…not so good.  I should have taken a cue from some of my co-workers and made a mimosa out of mine on the way out of the meeting.  Drunk by itself, it had a rather bitter aftertaste.  My husband gave up about halfway through his. 

The winery deserves credit for breaking new packaging ground, but they’ll have to come up with a better product inside before I’ll take some on my next picnic.