Apple Butter!

Because I know how you were all hanging on the edge of your seats to find out what the mystery "meal" was (my last post JUST got a comment), I give you....

Apple Butter

Makes approx. 1 1/2 pints

3 lbs. Granny Smith apples
2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1. Peel the apples, don't be meticulous, if a little peel gets left on it's all for the better. Core the apples. Chop into fairly uniform chunks.

2. Combine with water in 6-8 quart pot. Bring to a boil, cook until apples are softened.

3. Add sugars and spices, stir to thoroughly coat apples.

4. Using any random type of blender you happen to have, puree apples until completely smooth.

5. Lower temperature to medium-low. Adjust to keep at a constant simmer.

6. Stir, scraping bottom, every 10-15 minutes - depending on rate of simmer - for 4-5 hours.

7. Apple butter is finished when color has turned to a dark, deep brown and the flavor has turned from sugary sweet to caramel-like.

This particular butter was even more exciting to make than the potato butter was, mainly because I knew what apple butter tastes like.

It was less of a gamble that way.

I took the apple peels and dehydrated them. I thought maybe they'd be good on a salad (insert the word 'Hank' everywhere you see an 'I' in this paragraph), but I was somewhat mistaken. They taste more like apple flavored-paper, which is no surprise, I guess.

But the apple butter did not disappoint. It tastes like a million bucks, but really was only more like 3 (bucks, that is).

Now-does anyone here have some knowledge to pass on to me about how/when/where to can something like this? Water canning sounds easy. I have no idea if there is another way. My memories of canning when we were young consists more of the smashing of the tomatoes into the jar and the getting bit up by the bugs in the bean patch than the actual canning part. Mom?!? Help!

TEXAS SHEET CAKE

This was always a quick and easy dessert which the kids would gobble up.  We never get it now cuz it's just Robert and me.  But for Cody's Eagle Scout refreshment, we made 2.  I loved having it again and decided to make a half sheet cake for us when we got home.  Realized that MY recipe wasn't on our blog (when we were at Cara's) so I thought I'd post it now.  Cara used the Pioneer Woman's recipe.  The only difference is Ree uses 1 cup of butter, not half butter and half oil.  You decide.  Either are great.

SIFT TOGETHER 2 cups flour 2 cups sugar 1 tsp salt BRING TO A BOIL 1/2 cup oil 1 cup water 1 stick margarine ADD 4 Tbs cocoa MIX WELL AND ADD 1/2 cup buttermilk 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla POUR INTO 11X16 JELLY ROLL PAN AND BAKE AT 425° FOR 20-25 MINUTES ICING-START 5 MINUTES BEFORE CAKE IS DONE MIX AND BOIL 1 stick margarine 4 Tbs cocoa 6 Tbs milk REMOVE FROM HEAT AND POUR OVER 3-3/4 CUPS POWDERED SUGAR BEAT WELL AND SPREAD OVER CAKE WHILE STILL HOT originally received from Michelle Cox, Kirtland

Mystery Meal

GUESS WHAT I'M MAKING.

It involves, as the picture indicates, apples. and some other stuff.

Ode to 809: Crockpot Paprika Pork

This is what dinner looks like at my house. Simple, edible,and meaty. I made this paprika pork today in honor of 809 Warwick Drive, our home sweet home, that is changing hands today. I have such sweet memories of eating Mom's delicious dishes in that wonderful kitchen...and of sneaking back in the kitchen to check on the leftovers, especially if the dinner was pork chops!

This dish has a nice light, refreshing taste....a good reliable recipe.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 7 hours

Ingredients:

• 3 to 4 pounds country style pork ribs, boneless
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons Hungarian paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Dash pepper
• 1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, halved, sliced
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Preparation:

Wash pork and pat dry. Combine flour, paprika, salt, and pepper in a food storage bag. Toss pork in the bag and coat thoroughly.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork and onions; brown for about 5 to 6 minutes, turning pork ribs once to brown both sides. Arrange the browned pork and onions in a 5 to 7 quart slow cooker. Pour chicken broth in the hot pan and scrape up browned bits; pour over the pork.

Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours. Remove pork and keep warm.

Pour juices into a saucepan and place over medium heat. Simmer for 5 to 8 minutes, until reduced by about 1/4 to 1/3. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream; serve the sauce with the pork.
Serves 4 to 6.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

Wondering what to do with your newly-brewed batch of sweet potato butter?

Make sweet potato pancakes, of course!

Sweet Potato Pancakes

1 1/2 c Bisquick

1/2 t cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

1 c Sweet Potato Butter

1 egg

3/4 - 1 c buttermilk (You may need a few Tblspns more of this-and I'm not so sure this ingredient was really necessary. It was a thick batter. I wonder how it works out with water in place of buttermilk.)

1/4 t vanilla


Mix it all up, pour onto a griddle in the shape of Mickey Mouse, or Sirius Black, or the shape of your hand. These pancakes take longer to cook than your usual pancake. I guess that's from the fiber (?) of the sweet potatoes. Don't eat too many--they're delicious, but rich. Your bowels will thank me later.

You're welcome.

I found that I almost didn't need syrup for this. The first time I had sweet potato pancakes, there was a luscious coating of what I'm guessing were lingonberries on top, which worked nicely with the pancakes. Then again, motor oil would probably work nicely with these bad boys.

Tacos in Pasta Shells

Note: This is mom's recipe. I've taken this to many people who have needed a meal and it has warmed their hearts and filled their tummies during tough times. It's also easy to double. Thanks, Mom.

18 jumbo pasta shells (1/2 box)

2 tbsp melted margarine

1.25 pounds ground beef

3 oz cream cheese with chives (buy it or make it yourself)

1 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup taco sauce (mild)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese (I usually just double the cheddar and apply generously)

1-1/2 cups crushed tortilla chips

chopped green onions

canned corn

fresh tomatoes diced

Cook pasta shells as directed. Drain and toss with margarine. Brown ground beef, stirring to crumble; drain. Stir in cream cheese, chili powder and salt. Simmer 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 350. Fill shells with beef mixture. Arrange in greased 9x13 pan. Spoon taco sauce over shells (especially inside shells). Cover and bake 15 minutes. Uncover, top (generously) with cheese and chips alternating between the two. Bake for 15 minutes longer. I let each person add their own toppings -- green onions, corn, and tomatoes -- it reheats better that way.

Chicken Tetrazzini

1 can (4oz) sliced mushrooms, drained

2 tbsp chopped green pepper

2 tbsp butter

1 can (2 c.) chicken gravy (I generally use cream of chicken soup and milk)

1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

1 c. diced cooked chicken

2 c. cooked spaghetti

1.2 c. chopped tomato

In saucepan, brown mushrooms and cook green pepper in butter until tender.

Stir in gravy and cheese; heat until cheese melts. Add chicken, spaghetti and tomato

Heat through; stir now and then.

Serves 4. (Be sure to double this one...it is delicious and your kids will love it! Make a a second batch to freeze for a quick and easy dinner when in a pinch.)

Chicken Cashew Casserole

Chicken Cashew Casserole

1 C. Cooked rice
1/4 C. Chopped Onions
1 C. Finely Chopped Celery
2 Tbl. Butter
2 Cans Mushroom Soup
2/3 C. Chicken Broth
1 Tbl. Soy Sauce
6 drops Tabasco Sauce
Dash Pepper
4 C. Diced Cooked Chicken
1 Can Chow Mein Noodles
2/3 C. Cashew Nuts, split
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saute onions and celery in butter. Add soup and broth and stir together. Add seasonings, soy sauce,
tabasco sauce, pepper and diced chicken; simmer together for a few minutes. Pour over rice into
casserole dish and sprinkle chow mein noodles and nuts over top. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Note: I got this recipe from my SIL Dixie. It is always so very tasty and I really only make easy meals...so this fits that bill just fine! I have been asked by my friends in playgroup for this recipe as I've taken it to women after they have babies. It's easy to double. It's best fresh because of the chow mein noodles, but it's good as left overs, although there rarely are leftovers! My kids love it as well...

slow cooker lasagne

1 lb. ground beef

1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce

1 cup water

1 container (15 oz.) BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Ricotta Cheese

1 pkg. (7 oz.) KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Mozzarella Cheese, divided

1/4 cup KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese, divided

1 egg

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

6 lasagna noodles, uncooked

BROWN meat in large skillet; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and water. Mix ricotta, 1-1/2 cups mozzarella, 2 Tbsp. Parmesan, egg and parsley.

SPOON 1 cup meat sauce into slow cooker; top with layers of half each of the noodles, broken to fit; and cheese mixture. Cover with 2 cups meat sauce. Top with remaining noodles, broken to fit; cheese mixture and meat sauce. Cover with lid.

COOK on LOW 4 to 6 hours or until liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses; let stand, covered, 10 min. or until melted.

Sweet Potato Butter

SUHHHHH-WEET!

Think apple butter. This stuff is going in our next batch of pancakes to make sweet potato pancakes. Stating the obvious.

Sweet Potato Butter

(above photo shows the stuff in its very early stage of simmering)

3 large sweet potatoes, about 3 cups mashed
2 c apple cider (not sweetened)
1 c sugar
1 heaping t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground allspice

Preheat oven to 400 F. Poke a few holes in the sweet potatoes & bake for about 1 hour or until soft.

Peel the roasted potatoes, put them in a large pot & mash them with a fork, or a mixer. Add the cider & sugar & bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the cinnamon & allspice. Reduce the heat to low & allow to simmer for about 2 hours stirring from time to time. The mixture should thicken to a thick mashed potato-like texture as the liquid cooks out. Use a blender to get all the lumps out & get a perfectly smooth texture.

Makes about 3 cups

Sweet Potato Butter should be stored in the refrigerator. Or in your stomach.

Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries and Friday Night Leftovers

Let me begin by making a quick confession:

I like Southern cuisine (as long as there's no seafood involved).

And the sweet potato seems to be quite the staple in Southern dishes. That and okra, which tends to have a slimy, weird texture that I'd rather not think about. People down here seem to find many, many uses for sweet potatoes, a delicacy I had not encountered until college... in a dining hall, no less. Since that fateful day in 1999, I have done my homework on this fabulous root vegetable.

I present to you a few fun facts on the sweet potato (whose color just so happens to go well with the color scheme of my favorite holiday-guess which one):

--Sweet potatoes are native to tropical parts of South America and were domesticated there 5000 years ago!

--Sweet potatoes were grown before Western exposure to the Polynesian Islands, possibly by travelers in airtight boats (I added that last part)

-The genus that contains the sweet potato is manifested in flower form as Morning Glories.

see Wikipedia for more exciting info on the Sweet Potato (c'mon, you know you want to!)

Tonight, we needed some Friday Night food, so rather than elbow our way through Atlanta's notoriously bad traffic, we stayed home, we took our leftover London Broil meat
(see Yorkshire Pudding Post), we made sandwiches similar to Phillies, and we topped it off with

Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. kosher salt, plus extra for sprinkling
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil greased with cooking spray.

Halve the sweet potatoes lengthwise and cut each half into long spears. (Soak in cold water for 20-30 minutes before continuing for crispy texture outside. Drain well and pat dry.) Place the potato spears on the sheet pan and toss with olive oil. Spread them in a single layer. Combine the brown sugar, salt, and pepper and sprinkle on the potatoes. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn with a spatula or tongs. Bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Sprinkle lightly with kosher salt and serve hot.

As for the Philly-ish Subs, I took some London broil meat, turned it over to Hank to chop with his meat cleaver, sauteed some mushrooms with a dash of lemon juice to make it pop, along with some onions to keep Hank feeling stable, toasted the inside of a couple of sub rolls, tossed Muenster cheese in the mix, and then ATE THE TAR OUT OF IT!

It was good, so good. And this post has grown long, so long...

Yorkshire Pudding

Oops....I did it again.

Tonight, I made Yorkshire pudding. There were other foods involved, but in the face of the Almighty Yorkshire Pudding, do they really matter?

These are great because they're individual puddings, made in a muffin pan. You get more fluff for your buck that way.

Check 'em out.

Ingredients:

• 4 large, fresh eggs, measured out
  
• Equal quantity of milk to eggs
• Equal quantity of all purpose/plain flour to eggs
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp lard, beef dripping or vegetable oil

Preparation:

Serves 6

• Heat the oven to a random high temp, however, do not exceed 450F or the fat may burn.
• Pour the eggs and milk into a large mixing bowl and add the pinch of salt. Whisk thoroughly. Leave to stand for 10 minutes.
• Gradually sieve the same volume of flour (as the eggs) into the milk and egg mixture, again using an electric hand beater or hand-whisk to create a lump-free batter resembling thick cream.
• Leave the batter to rest in the kitchen for a minimum of 30 minutes, longer if possible - up to several hours.
• Place a pea-sized piece of lard, dripping or ½tsp vegetable oil in a 12-hole muffin tin and heat in the oven until the fat is smoking. Give the batter another good whisk, adding 2 tbsps of cold water and fill a third of each section of the tin with batter and return quickly to the oven.
• Leave to cook until golden brown approx 20 minutes. Repeat the last step again until all the batter is used up.

To the Queen!

(In case you're itching to know, we ate it with mashed potatoes and London Broil-- pan-seared, baby! If you couldn't care less what we ate with it, but are still experiencing an itch, well...you might want to get that checked out.)

Pesto Pasta Salad and Homemade Pesto

This past Labor Day, as I was recovering from what, on paper, sounded suspiciously like the Swine Flu (known around these parts as the Black Death, Part 2), Hank and I decided to celebrate the swirling cesspool of germs that currently inhabits my body and make food! Lots and lots of food! We made: banana bread, pesto, pasta, vegetarian stuffed peppers, a mess, mac n cheese, baked beans, a bigger mess...

It was the culinary equivalent of a shooting spree.

Here is my favorite recipe from the day:

Pesto Salad Pasta Recipe

Ingredients:

8 oz box of penne pasta

1 cup of homemade pesto or store bought.

1/3 cup of mayonnaise (hank made the mayo, homemade)

1.5 cups of frozen sweet peas

1 cup of artichoke hearts, quartered

*Optional: 1/2 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

In a small bowl, mix pesto and mayo. set aside.

Cook pasta to al dente, drain, put in large bowl.

Add frozen peas and toss with pesto/mayo until everything is well mixed and coated.

Gently fold in drained artichoke hearts. Smile over how awesome and freaky artichoke hearts are.

Refrigerate for 20, 30 minutes, then proceed to snarf it all down. Well, not all.

Hank and I made the pesto from the basil plants we've been trying to cultivate on our back porch. I am beginning to suspect that I do not have a green thumb. All signs are pointing in that direction, so I think we did the basil a favor by ripping ALL their poor leaves off and putting them out of their misery. They weren't THAT bad, but the poor plants can only do so much when they've been as traumatized as ours were, moving so much in and out of "pots", which half the time were plastic dixie cups that kept tipping over in quiet desperation, sometimes laying sideways for hours before one of us came home to hear their cries. Poor basil leaves. Such a short, difficult life lived, only to end with the violent chopping of a knife...

Here's the pesto recipe:

cups of fresh basil, packed

2-4 cloves of garlic (more of less depending on how spicy you like it)

1/2 cup of pine nuts

2/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

A pinch of salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Pretty much, mix it all together and chop. If you're lucky, you have a food processor. If your life has been an uphill battle with luck, you don't have said food processor the day you make the pesto, and then get one in the mail on loan from your mother in law...5 days after you chopped the heck out of those poor basil leaves.

We learned the long way that a regular blender does not do the trick. We moved on with our lives. The pesto was still A-MAZ-ING!