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food gawker

Kevin found this website for me. Dangerous. There's too many good pics of food on there...

Agua Fresca

We got a ton of leftover watermelon from a work function. We're not really big fans of watermelon, so I wasn't sure what to do with it. I remembered a recipe for Agua Fresca, so decided to try it.



I loosely followed this recipe & this one. It was pretty good. I liked it much better w/o club soda.

Next up I'll try the cantaloupe agua fresca.

bounty

I went to a local farm, Carver Farms, last Friday to pick some goods. I'd been there earlier in the summer for strawberries, and they had corn and beans, which were the main things I wanted.

However, after looking at their website, I had a few more items to at least check out once I was there. It was a beautiful afternoon, not too hot. I started with corn. But I found tomatoes & peppers along the way to the beans. So I stopped and picked some. Then I got the beans. And I found onions, so I picked a few. Then wait, there were sweet peppers, and MONSTER size cabbage, and strawberries, and another kind of corn, and and and...

It was about 3 minutes to closing time and I decided I should go. As I kept hauling produce out of my car, I realized maybe I'd gotten too much. Too much to eat and too much money-wise.

Here's what I got:

20 ears of corn
2 pints of strawberries (even better than the ones in June!)
1 purple cabbage, average size (I seriously had to look for one that was smallish)
1 green cabbage, average size (again, the cabbage was larger than my head!)
2 red peppers
a handful of basil
5 red onions
3 large yellow sweet onions
3 large zucchini
5 small/average size zucchini
an ice cream pail overflowing with beans
5 poblano chiles
7 medium size tomatoes
4 stems of beautiful gladiolus



and the best part - it cost only $22.42! Twas awesome!

I came home, pulled it all out, and showed Kevin my bounty. He was impressed.

Summer smoothie

I bought a few too many cantaloupe lately, and needed to use them up. I started putting them in my morning smoothies. Made one today that was really yummy.

About 3 peaches, sliced, peeled if you like
About 3 cups diced cantaloupe
About 1 cup plain yogurt*
2 tsp cinnamon
2 TBSP sugar or honey, optional

Throw into blender and blend until smooth.



*I found Silk plain flavor soy yogurt, 32 oz, for $0.99 at the grocery store on the clearance aisle. Never had soy yogurt before. Maybe it's just because it's plain flavor, or maybe it's because it's close to it's sell by date, but it's pretty gross eaten by the spoonful! I bought it with smoothies in mind, so no big deal, and it doesn't affect the smoothie negatively. Anyone else have experience w/ soy yogurt?

Olive Cheese Bread

Definitely not healthy, but yummy on occasion. Found this recipe for Olive Cheese Bread on the Pioneer Woman website.


We've enjoyed it with soups, pastas, on it's own... Pretty much can't go wrong with it.

Veggie burgers

I had collected way too many magazines, and had not read through them all. As I was sorting them the other day, I came upon a Martha Stewart Living from last July. I can't just sort the magazines, but have to browse them too (make sure I'm not missing something good!). I came upon a recipe for Veggie Burgers. These don't actually have a lot of veggies in them, and they don't have fake meat products either. Both were impressive to me, as I'm not really into chopping up a zillion veggies to make a burger, and I get tired of the fake meat recipes. I'm a cheapo, so don't buy the fake meat, plus, I don't really believe it's any better for me than real meat.

So, got the ingredients, and yum! They turned out fabulous. They take a little extra time, but definitely a keeper. Recipe says it makes six burgers, but I got 10 or so out of it. Depends on how thick you want them, and how large your buns are. Also, I would cut down on the salt next time. Seemed a little strong. And it says to fry them in oil. I just fried them on my electric griddle, and they didn't stick.



Veggie burgers
Serves 6

Ingredients

* 2 portobello mushrooms (8 ounces), stems removed, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
* 1 small zucchini
* 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
* 1/4 cup minced shallot (1 large shallot)
* 1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
* 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
* 3/4 cup quinoa, cooked according to package directions (2 cups cooked)
* 2 teaspoons coarse salt
* Freshly ground pepper
* 1 large egg, lightly beaten
* 1 1/2 cups fresh whole-wheat breadcrumbs
* 6 whole-wheat buns, split

Directions

1. Pulse mushrooms in a food processor until finely chopped, and transfer to a bowl. Shred zucchini, place on paper towels, and squeeze to remove excess moisture. Add to mushrooms.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add shallot and red-pepper flakes, and cook until softened, about 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and zucchini, and cook until tender, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, and add Parmesan, quinoa, and salt. Season with pepper. Let cool completely, then stir in egg and breadcrumbs. Cover, and refrigerate until cold and firm, about 1 hour.

3. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Shape mixture into six 1/2-inch-thick patties, pressing firmly. Cook in batches until golden brown and cooked through, about 3 minutes per side.

Original recipe found here

Combine chocolate & peanut butter - I'm there!

So, even if it's 90 degrees out, it is TOTALLY worth it to turn on your oven and make these cookies.


oh, and you'll need a glass of cold milk too! (and you may want to have a few people over, so you don't end up eating them all yourself!)

lemons

A few weeks back I wanted to make lemon meringue pie. Since I didn't know how many lemons I needed, and the price seemed right, I decided to just buy a big bag of (13) lemons at Costco. Then for sure I'd have enough lemons. Turns out the pie only needed 2 lemons...

So, I started searching for recipes using lemons to help use the lemons before they went bad. I found quite a few that sounded good, so I weeded out those that sounded best and started making them.

The first was Meyer Lemon Gnocchi. I'd wanted to try making gnocchi for awhile, and had actually found a recipe recently, but then lost it. I'm not sure it would have been better than this. I didn't have Meyer lemons, just your plain old lemons, but man, this was so good!



The other recipe I made was Lemon Blueberry Bread. Unfortunately, it was so good that we ate it all before I got a picture of it!

I made another recipe, Lemon Ginger muffins. They looked good, and sounded good, but something isn't right with them. They ended up kinda mealy, and just not good texture. The taste is great though.

I used a few lemons this week for hot lemon honey water to try to kick this stupid cold I have.

I'm thinking the rest of the lemons will go into more lemon blueberry bread and lemon pound cake. Yum yum!

Our super yummy supper this evening consisted of Buffalo Chicken tacos, Cornmeal Crunch, and Chile Lime Tequila popcorn.

Cornmeal Crunch and Chile Lime Tequila popcorn recipes came from 101cookbooks.com. The Cornmeal Crunch is fantastic, though I'd next time choose a smaller pan, or not cook it quite so long. Still delicious though! The Chile Lime Tequila popcorn is addictive! The two of us ate almost the full 4 quarts last night. Had to make more today it was so great...

Buffalo Chicken Tacos came from a little weekly paper we get. I don't know where they got it. I tweaked it a bit, since they seem to have not quite completed the recipe.

Buffalo Chicken Tacos
serves 3-6

11 oz packet taco seasoning
2 TBSP cooking oil
1/2 c water
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 avocado
1/2 c ranch dressing, prepared
2 oz blue cheese, crumbled
3/4 c carrots, shredded
1/4 c cilantro, chopped
6 flour tortillas, warmed
hot sauce, to taste

Combine taco seasoning, oil & water. Place chicken in resealable bag and add marinade. Marinate in refrigerator for 30 minutes or longer.

Mash avocado into small chunks and mix with ranch dressing until smooth.

Remove chicken from marinade and discard used marinade.

Grill chicken over medium-high heat about 8 minutes per side or until thoroughly cooked. Remove chicken from grill & place on cutting board. (alternately, you can bake the chicken in the marinade in the oven, 25 minutes, 400F)

Slice chicken into thin strips and serve hot in warmed tortillas, with blue cheese, carrots, cilantro, and avocado ranch dressing.

NOTES: I'd go easy on the ranch dressing, adding more as I went. I got a little too much. I'd probably make my own taco seasoning also, as the taco seasoning I had was super salty. Next time I may add a cabbage mix and some lime juice also.

Chocolate Cherry Cake

When I was little, my best friend´s mom made this cake. As I got older, I really loved it. She would make it for me whenever we´d see her. It´s a really easy cake to make. A bit rich, but goes down well with a cold glass of milk. Time for a piece right now...

Chocolate Cherry Cake

Cake ingredients

1 devil´s food cake mix
2 eggs
1 can cherry pie filling
1 tsp almond extract

Mix well. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Icing ingredients

1/3 c milk
1 c sugar (can use a bit less (2/3- 3/4) if you don´t want it quite as sweet)
1 c chocolate chips
5 TBSP margarine

Heat to boiling. Boil one minute. Spread onto cake.

Springtime Vegetable Quiche

Again, going through all my recipes, and found my quiche recipe that we´ve enjoyed before. It´s from Taste for Life, but I can´t seem to find the recipe on their site.

Lately eggs have been on sale here, so I´ve quite a few to use, and quiche is a great breakfast food that keeps us going through the morning.

Springtime Vegetable Quiche
Serves 4

Pastry for a 9¨ pie crust
1 to 1 1/2 c fresh peas or broccoli florets or asparagus or spinach
1 c grated Swiss or Jarlsberg cheese
4 eggs
1 c milk or half-and-half
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 TBSP chopped fresh chives
1 small tomato, seeded and diced



Preheat the oven to 425. Prepare the pie crust. Bake for 5-10 minutes until light golden brown. Remove to a wire rack to cool and reduce the oven temp to 375.

Place peas, broccoli, asparagus or spinach into the crust. Then sprinkle the cheese on top of the vegetable.

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour mixture evenly over the dish. Sprinkle chopped chives and diced tomato on top.

Bake 40-45 minutes, or until the eggs have set (knife inserted comes out clean) and it´s lightly browned. Serve hot or at room temperature.

NOTES: I´ve used mushrooms, onions and broccoli as a filler, and it´s yummy. Also used green onions or dried chives in place of fresh chives. Used cheddar, or other cheeses instead of swiss or jarlsberg. It´s kind of a throw whatever in, and it generally turns out really good.

Curried Rice Salad

I found this recipe who knows when in a Country Living magazine. I was going through my plethora of recipes recently, and decided it sounded good enough to try... So I made it for potluck today, and it was well worth it.

Curried Rice Salad
8 servings

1 can (20oz) pineapple tidbits
2 c cooked rice, cooled
2 c cubed cooked chicken
1/2 c chopped celery
1/3 c slivered almonds, toasted
1/3 c raisins
1/4 c chopped green onions
2/3 c mayonnaise
1 TBSP Dijon mustard
3/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp salt
Lettuce leaves, optional

Drain pineapple, reserving juice; set aside 1 cup pineapple and 3 tablespoons juice (refrigerate remaining pineapple and juice for another use). In a large bowl, combine the rice, chicken, celery, almonds, raisins, green onions and reserved pineapple.

In a small bowl combine the mayonnaise, mustard, curry powder, salt and reserved juice. Gently stir into rice mixture.



Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Serve in a lettuce-lined bowl if desired.

NOTES: I used Fri-Chik, two of the small cans. That was more than 2 c chicken, but whatever. I added a bit more mayo, curry powder and pineapple juice. It covered it well. I think one could easily substitute fresh grapes for raisins too.

Ummm,

I don't think even this calculator can help improve these math skills...

Homemade Granola - camp-style

Each summer we have a worker´s retreat at our summer camp, Camp MiVoden.

This last year they served us granola as one of the breakfast cereal options. I´m not usually a big fan of granola - it´s always too crunchy, multiplies in my bowl of milk, and just isn´t that great. This granola looked a little different, a little softer, so I took a little bit, added some raisins, and ate it. I had it each day for breakfast, and then craved it two weeks later! It was so yummy. I asked a coworker, and she told me they made it there, and she had a request in for the recipe. She finally got it, and shared it with me. The first batch I made I ate within a week, though I think I screwed up the recipe, but it was still great.

Granola - MiVoden
(I translated it from pounds & ounces to cups)
Makes about 14 cups

7 c rolled raw oats, old fashioned
2 c coconut flakes
2 c wheat germ
1 1/3-1 1/2 c brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 c slivered almonds
about 10 oz vegetable oil
2/3 c water
1/4 c vanilla or maple extract

Mix dry ingredients together.

Combine liquid ingredients into another bowl, stir to combine, then add liquid ingredients to dry and mix to distribute evenly (do not overmix).

Divide evenly between 2 baking sheets.

Bake 350 for 25-30 minutes. Do not stir.

Remove from oven and cool thoroughly on pan. Break apart gently and store in an air-tight container.

OPTIONAL ADD-INS (I´ve added the following with success): cinnamon, various nuts, dried cranberries, raisins, sunflower seeds, oat bran instead of wheat germ. You'll want to add things like raisins, dried cranberries, dried other fruits after baking.)

Date Nut Brown Bread

Relish Magazine had a great recipe for Date Nut Brown Bread. I finally got around to making it, and both Kevin and I loved it. The article said to serve it with cream cheese, but we loved it plain.




Ingredients

2 cups finely chopped pitted dates (about 10 ounces)
1 cup 2% reduced-fat milk
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg, at room temperature
2⁄3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup toasted pecan halves, chopped

1. Mix dates, milk, butter and molasses in a medium saucepan over medium heat; stir until butter melts and mixture begins to simmer. Remove from heat, transfer to a large bowl, and cool to room temperature.

2. Preheat oven to 325F. Butter and flour a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.

3. Stir together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl; set aside.

4. Whisk the egg, sugar, and vanilla until blended well. Add to date mixture; stir well. Add pecans and flour mixture to date mixture; stir until well-blended. Spoon into prepared loaf pan.

5. Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center of loaf comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack 15 minutes.

Cranberry relish

This is the best cranberry relish. My grandma & my mom made it every year for the holidays. This year I made it. I had some leftovers, and made just a plain cupcake recipe and added in some of the relish. It made a great apple-cranberry-orange muffin.

one 12oz package cranberries, fresh or frozen
4-6 oranges, washed & cut into slices (leave peel on)
4-6 apples, washed & cut into slices, core removed
sugar to taste

side note: More oranges and apples make it less cranberry flavor. Kind of test it out, taste as you go, see how you like it.

Combine all fruits using a grinder. My KitchenAid came with a grinder attachment (yay!). I suppose you could use a food processor, but you don´t want mush, you want it kind of finely diced like.

Add about 1/2-1 cup sugar, depending on how sweet you like it. Let it sit overnight. You can always add more sugar if it´s not sweet enough for you.

This will make around 10-12 cups. Usually my family makes a half recipe and if it doesn't seem like enough make the other half, or add a bit more of each until it´s seems sufficient.

Yummy orange cranberry muffins

I made Sunshine Cake for potluck, and I was hungry for some yummy muffins. I remembered my recipe for Copycat Costco muffins and found a yellow cake mix then added in a can of mandarin oranges (drained) and about 3/4 cup frozen whole cranberries.

These muffins were so good, I only got one and a half of them!

Classic Pimiento Cheese

Found this recipe in Relish Magazine. I´ve made it at least 3 times now, and we love it. Usually eat it on bread, but it would be great as a dip for tortilla chips or crackers. I never get it quite as creamy as they suggest, and I don´t have extra sharp cheddar, but definitely still worth eating.

Ingredients

2 cups finely shredded extra-sharp Cheddar
½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (preferably Parmigiano-Reggiano)
1/3 cup mayonnaise, divided
1 small garlic clove, crushed
1 tablespoon grated shallot or yellow onion
1 (4-ounce) jar diced pimientos, drained but liquid reserved
Ground cayenne pepper
English-style dry mustard

Instructions
1. Combine half the Cheddar and half the Parmesan cheese in a large bowl. Mix together lightly. Knead in 4 tablespoons of mayonnaise until mixture is creamy and very smooth.

2. Work in remaining cheese, garlic, shallot, pimientos, 1 tablespoon of reserved pimiento liquid, a dash of cayenne and a small pinch of dry mustard. Knead just enough to mix well: it should still have plenty of texture. Add remaining mayonnaise, if necessary—just enough to make it spreadable.

3. Let stand 30 minutes. Serve cool or at room temperature.

Makes about 2 1/2 cups.

Good books to listen to/read

During my christmas vacation, I listened to/read about 5 books. All were pretty light reads.

The first one was The Christmas thief, by Mary Higgins Clark. I got it on cd, and listened to it as I cooked. Synopsis: Years ago Packy Noonan stole and hid diamonds in a huge spruce tree. He´s now out of jail and ready to go collect his diamonds. However, the spruce is now to be the Christmas tree for Rockefeller center. Doesn´t take much to figure out what´s going on and what will happen.

The next 4 were The Christmas Shoes, The Christmas Blessing, The Christmas Hope, & The Christmas Promise, all by Donna VanLiere. You could read each book alone, but each book did have characters from the prior book. You kind of got to watch them grow and expand. These are all Christian books, reminding us of God´s love and care for us, and His hand in our lives.

The Christmas Shoes is about Nathan, whose mother is dying on Christmas Eve, and Robert, whose family life is crumbling. Their chance meeting changes the course of both their lives. The song The Christmas Shoes by Newsong is what prompted the writer to create this story.

The Christmas Blessing follows Nathan as he´s a third-year med student. Through his interactions with Meghan and Charlie, heart patients in the hospital, he finds his path in life.

The Christmas Hope is the story of Patricia & Mark Addison who unexpectedly spend one Christmas with a little girl who helps them come to terms with each other, and bring peace with their son´s death.

The Christmas Promise is of Miss Gloria, who has devoted her life to helping those in need. Through helping her cranky neighbor Miriam, and a young woman in need, she unknowingly helps her lost son find his way back home.