Cranberry Trifle

1 package of lady finger cookies or vanilla wafers (you might not need all of them)
2  3 ounce packs of cranberry gelatin (Other flavors will work, too)
1 cup boiling water
2 cups cold water
2 8 ounces packages of mascarpone or cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar (optional)
1 teaspoon of pumkin spice or cinnamon ( up to 1 tablespoon if you like it spicier)
1 16 ounces tub of whipped topping mostly thawed
1 jar spiced apples (or a large can of pears) chopped into half inch pieces

Use the cookies to line the bottom and sides of a glass 9x13x2 dish or other fancy glass bowl.
Prepare the gelatin with 1 cup of boiling water until completely dissolved then ass the rest of the water.
Carefully pour the gelatin on the side cookies so they are soaked but do not fall down
Pour the remaining gelatin over the bottom cookies. Do not Refrigerate !!!!!

Put the cheese and the powdered sugar and the spices in a bowl and whip together until smooth. Sometimes mascarpone clumps, but mix well and move on.
Carefully fold in the whipped topping then the fruit.  
Spoon this mixture over the cookies.
Now refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Hints:
If you use soft lady fingers they will not have much texture.
Serve with extra cookies.
Try this with Mandarin orange slices and orange gelatin.

30 minute rolls

This sounded like such a great recipe for a quick and easy batch of homemade rolls. Imtook it from http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/30-minute-rolls 

1 C plus 2 Tbsp warm water

1/3 C oil

2 Tbsp yeast

1/4 C sugar

1 tsp salt

1 egg

3 1/2 C bread flour (seems to work better but all purpose flour will also work)

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

In your mixer bowl combine the water, oil, yeast and sugar and allow it to rest for 15 minutes.  Using your dough hook, mix in the salt, egg and flour.  Knead with hook until will incorporated and dough is soft and smooth. (Just a few minutes)

Form dough into 12 balls and then place in a greased 9 x 13 pan and allow to rest for 10 minutes.  Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees or until golden brown.

Fairy Gardens

 Today I spent a few hours at the local greenhouse store.  Friends of mine run the place and they maintain a beautiful nursery.  They had a class about fairy gardens.  The teacher told a cute story about the things garden folk like to see when they are looking for a place to settle down.  She talked about the shiny things and miniature items to help make a container garden enticing.  Turns out they seem to prefer re-purposed items as this is so good for the environment.  Of course, there were plenty of doll sized chairs, arbors, tools and such available for purchase just in case we had cleared our homes of such items after our kids had grown.  There were a few kids there, too.  They brought a few of their favorite things as garden themes.  A little boy had his tractor and he said he wanted to have a garden that he could share with his Mom when Mother's Day came along.  Some of the girls were more interested in the four week old kittens that were supposed to be in the other building and wondered if they could make kitty gardens.  It was fun to see how each garden went with the personality of its creator.

I used an old Tupperware container that had been left out through a few winters.  The base of it is cracked, rendering it useless.  Or, so I thought.  I drilled a few more drainage holes in the bottom and took it to class.     I have loved gnomes since I was little so this little guy became an easy first addition to the container.  I love  Thyme (I was told so do fairies) and I selected three varieties; Lemon, Woolly, and miniature.  To add color, I selected a mini rose, brass buttons, coleus, and sweet alyssum.   A wire vine for the arbor and  several elephant foot palms for vertical appeal and the plant selection was complete.The hardscape included gravel, the arbor and a few sparkly things. Since I did not use all of my supplies I made another dish when I got home.  I'll upload a picture in a few weeks to let you know how it goes.

Why did I include this on this blog?  I think this could be a cute way to grow a few herbs for your kitchen.  Thyme, chives, oregano, and several more go well in container gardens.  Just go to a small owner operator nursery and ask them to help you group some together.  Fairy gardens are supposed to have plants that are kept neatly trimmed, so you can use the trimmings for your dinner!

Mom's Mountain of Meatballs

This makes a large batch so you can use a few and freeze the rest for later.

You will need measuring cups and spoons, a small bowl (3 to 4 cups), a large mixing bowl, three 9x13 pans or two cookie sheets with sides that are at least ½ inch high, a fork (or whisk), a large mixing spoon, an ice cream scoop.

The Food

3 pounds of ground Meat. You may use just one type of meat but a combination seems to make a better meatball.  I usually use 2 pounds of lean ground Beef and 1 pound of ground Pork.  The pork really helps the flavor, so I think it is most important. You could also use lamb, chicken or turkey.

Dry Ingredients: In a large mixing bowl

1 cup dry bread crumbs

1/4 cup dry minced onions

1 tablespoon seasoned salt

1 teaspoon no-salt seasoning mix

1 teaspoon powdered garlic

 Wet Dry Ingredients: Mix in a small bowl

  3 eggs

  1 cup milk

Optional:  Adding 1 to 2 cups of shredded vegetables adds flavor and nutrition.  You can use left over rice (or quinoa) instead of the bread crumbs and decrease the milk by half for a gluten free option.  Try substituting Worcestershire sauce, BBQ sauce, Ranch Mix, or whatever for the seasonings and salt. 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Line pans with foil.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients in the large mixing bowl. 

Break the meat into smaller chunks and add to the mixture. Work this all together but don’t squish it too much or the final meatballs will be rubbery.

Use an ice cream scoop to get even amounts of the mixture to create the balls.  Arrange the balls 1 to 2 inches apart on the foil.

Place the pans in your oven on the two racks.  Switch the pans half way through the baking cycle.  

Bake 30 to 40 minutes until the meat is light brown and the internal temperature is 160 degrees. 

This recipe works well for meatloaf also.  Use 1 ¼ cups of milk to make a looser mixture.  You can form a loaf on a flat pan or use 2 loaf pans.  Loaves will have to bake at 350 degrees for 90 minutes. Wrap leftover slices and freeze them separately for later meals.

Quinoa! It's a Grain. It's a Protein. It's Yummy.

Many people are becoming aware of gluten allergies or intolerance.  Because of this, there are many more alternatives available.

Quinoa is seed from a plant in South America.  It is high in protein compared to rice or wheat. It also costs more.  But if it is used along with other protein sources, quinoa can really boost your nutrition dollar.  It has a nutty flavor and a texture like caviar.  For awhile this may be as close as you will get to that delicacy.

SINGLE SERVING

1/3 cup quinoa, rinsed in a sieve.

1/3 cup milk

2 Tablespoon of water

Mix together in a small sauce pan with a lid.  Bring to a boil.  Stir occasionally.  Turn heat down to a simmer and cover it.  Be careful because the mixture will foam up and may boil over.  That will make a stinky mess.

Let simmer about 10 minutes or what ever the package says.

I like mine a little under done.  It never really fluffs up like rice.

Serve warm with butter and pancake syrup.  I prefer Lyle's Golden Syrup.

Alternatives:

Use broth instead of the milk and add a few sprinkles of an herb mix for a savory dish.

Adding sesame seeds add some more flavor and, if you use black ones, a bit of color.  Be careful when using the black variety and add them just at the end of the cooking or you will end up with a grey mass in your bowl.

Marinated Asparagus

Marinated Asparagus

When we lived in northwest Iowa and later in Minnesota, spring was a time to celebrate the arrival of wild asparagus.  The people guard their patches as if they were mother-loads of gold.  I even heard of a farmer using his tree spade to transplant a patch to a "safer" location closer to the house.  I think this is my favorite vegetable. It figures it would be so seasonal and some what expensive.  I have gleaned a few recipes to share with you so you can take advantage of the short burst of abundance each spring. This is the easiest of all my recipes for "grass" as they call it in eastern Washington.

Ingredients:
 1 to 3 bunches of Asparagus spears
1 pack. Italian salad dressing mix (or your favorite in a bottle)
1/4 white wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup of water
Ice

Instructions:

If you have a steamer, fill with water to the indicator line.  If not, fill a large pan with an inch of water and please a steamer basket in it.  If you don't have a steamer basket, suspend a metal sieve or colander over the water.  Turn on the heat.


Rinse the asparagus  and break off the bottoms off the stems.





Arrange the stems in the steamer.   Cover.  Steam for about 10 minutes.


Meanwhile, take a large bowl and add 2 to 3 trays of ice and fill about 1/3 with cold water.







While the vegies are steaming:
Mix the dressing ingredients as directed but double the amount of water.



When the steaming is done, cool the asparagus in the ice water.









When the spears are cold, place them into a gallon Ziploc bag and pour in the Italian dressing.





Set in the refrigerator for several hours or even overnight.  They will stay good for several days and the flavor will improve.



The person I heard this from first said their family kept a tall jar in the fridge that they continually replenished with the stalks that came up in their garden.



This works for green onion stalks, celery, carrots, cucumber and many other veggies.  This is a good item to prep on the weekend and enjoy through out the week for lunch, dinner, or snacks.

Don't forget to garnish with chopped scallions!

Rescue cast iron for your kitchen

There are a lot of tutorials out there for seasoning your cast iron, but not a lot about getting rust off. (One I found involved oven cleaner. NO thank you.) The ones I did find used steel wool, which I didn't have handy and I don't much care for it anyway because I always manage to cut or scratch myself with it. So...I used what I had sitting around and got to it.

I got the following from  http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-clean-and-season-old-ru-151535

What You Need

Materials
The end chunk of a potato (enough to be able to hold firmly)
Course salt
A rusty cast iron skillet
A little vegetable oil (canola or olive will do)

Equipment
Gloves (optional, but recommended)

Instructions

1. Place your rusty skillet in the sink and sprinkle a couple tablespoons of salt into it.

2. Take your chunk of potato and start scrubbing. The moisture from the potato will be enough to help the salt dig in to the rust.

3. The salt will get dirty very quickly. You may choose to rinse out the pan to survey your progress. If there is still rust, add more salt and repeat Step 2.

4. Continue to the sides, edges, bottom and handle of your pan.

5. Rinse thoroughly and pat dry.

6. Place pan on stove burner, this will help dry any remaining moisture.

7. Once dry, put a small amount of vegetable oil in the pan and rub it in with a paper towel.

8. Keep pan over low heat for at least 30 minutes.

9. Let skillet cool. Make sure to wipe off any excess oil before storing your skillet. If you leave extra oil in the pan it can turn rancid.

10. Every time you use your pan, after you've cleaned it (I never use soap, but that's up to you), put the pan on a low burner and repeat the oil and paper towel step. It's best to store your pan in the oven, but it worked much better when stoves had pilot lights that stayed on (thus keeping ambient moisture away from your pans).

Ranch dressing mix

Homemade Ranch Seasoning Mix

Please follow the link to get more ideas

This is not my original idea.  I put the link here so you can see where I took it from.  There are other great ideas there also.  With a tiny packet of ranch dressing costing more than $2 per ounce and it's clear we need an alternative.  

Thankfully making your own ranch seasoning is not just an experiment for chemists.  You probably have all the ingredients in your pantry right now.  Well, maybe all except for dry buttermilk but it is easy to find.  A quick trip to the supermarket and you can make ranch seasoning for pennies on the dollar. 

Ingredients:

1/3 cup dry buttermilk
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes

1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dried dill
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon onion powder, or flakes
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

Directions:  Place all ingredients in your food processor and whirl for a minute just to blend and crumble those parsley and onion flakes.  Store in an airtight container.  Mason jars work great.

Light, garden-y and so easy

Now I warn you, the finished seasoning won't be the knock-your-socks-off salt bomb that most commercial ranch powders are.  But you can tweak the salt if you want that. This is a subtler, fresher, more garden-y and less chemical-y seasoning. Use it to season chicken breasts as a rub or as part of a marinade, add it to your own baked cracker recipe like I did, or mix it with mayo and milk for a fresh, sugar-free and gluten-free salad dressing. You're sure to enjoy it.

Nice rice for one

Nice Rice for one

This is the basic fried rice recipe that I made for years.  As the family grew so did the recipe size.  Now we use an automatic basket style rice maker for the simmering step.  Add seasoning mixes to the finished rice to "spice up" your meal.

Ingredients
1/2 tablespoon butter or oil
1/4 cup long grain white rice
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon chicken bullion granules

Instructions
Heat the butter (or oil) in a small sauce pan.   Add the rice and stir it (Like stir fry) until it starts to turn a light cream to tan color.  Carefully add the water and then the bullion granules.  When it starts to boil and then turn the heat to low.  Put a lid over the pan and allow the rice to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.  Fluff it with a fork and enjoy.

You can multiply this easily.  When you start to get over 1 cup of rice you may need to decrease the amount of water.

I also like to add raisins and omit the bullion.  Serve with butter and sugar. My Dad used to call that dish "Flies and Lice"

Mason Jar Salads!

Another hint to make ahead on your day off.  Then they will be ready to go to work for lunch or waiting for you when you get home for supper.
I Love Pinterest: Mason Jar Salads!

Green onions for shallots.

After, all what is a shallot?  It is a plant from the onion family. You seldom find them at the grocer.  I see them occasionally at the farmers' market, but that is only open a few months of the year in our town.  They look like funky onions or scallions that have been left in the ground too long.  (Scallions is the fancy name for green onions.) Their bulbs are usually not symmetrical (I've seen the shape described as frog legs) and they don't always have the green top. Leeks on the other hand, do look just like green onions only much bigger and though they may be useful (great in soup) they are usually more expensive.  If you have a bit of ground, you could grow your own shallots.  Look on line to find a source.  If you have a good specialty garden nursery store, they might have them or know where (or who) a local source may be.  Local garden clubs sometimes have  fundraising events or plant exchanges.  If anyone know about them it would be the one who brings food plants to the exchange.

My point is that in most cases substituting an easier, cheaper, available ingredient will still give you a reasonable result.  Green onions are almost always available at any grocery store.  I have even seen tutorials on line about keeping your extra scallions growing so you don't have to throw away extras or buy more.  You can use your bunch of green onions over several days if you keep them in the fridge.  They are even good simply dipped in your favorite salad dressing and eaten as you would carrots or celery.  Chopping the green part is a great way to garnish soups and other dishes.

So why the Mom rant?

When I was young there were several shows on PBS to teach cooking.  As today, many of these used exotic and expensive ingredients.  We didn't try many of the recipes.  I still love to watch the cooking shows but now I ask "How can I substituted things to make these dishes more affordable?"  Can we be more frugal?

The other kitchen challenge is the wide range of gadgets.  I go in those stores and think how cool these things are.  When I get them home, I find that I use them a few times then they just fill up the middle drawer.  Alton Brown set the bar when he refused to have any mono-functional gadgets.  So, which tools can multi-function and which really are worth the space?

When you're starting out you only need to cook for one, or two, or your roommates, or guests.  Getting recipes to divide or multiply and still taste right takes a bit of practice.  Budgeting for the different situations will also effect the end results.  Perhaps five "Ramen Nights" are worth one "Steak Night".  PLEASE remember to eat a balanced diet, at least within a week.  Bad nutrition will cost you more in the long run.

Then there is the whole "You save money by growing your own" situation.  It may be true if  you live on acres of land and you have plenty of time or help to take care of the garden.  Preparing and storing your crop may also be a problem.  Let's face it, frozen store brand vegetables are not very expensive and they are more reliable than the home version.  Fresh salad ingredients are expensive but you can grow some of them on a patio.

  Discerning what is practical for you is part of growing up.