Sugar Cream Pie

Happy Fourth of July!

only one piece? : ( 

I hope that everyone has been having a great time celebrating and eating lots of delicious foods today!  My family and I were invited to a cook out at another log cabin across the lake from ours.  We had a great time with friends and the sugar cream pie that I made, which got rave reviews.


This was not a new recipe to me.  I found it in the pages of Country Living a year or two ago, maybe longer.  I have made this before, to the delight of my family, and since it is so good, I wanted to share it with you.  


The pie could not be easier.  Combine ingredients, stir, pour into crust, and bake.  Simple!  I did find that the liquid was a bit lumpy after the flour was added, but I don't think it affected the outcome at all.


The recipe called for a store-bought pie crust, but I used a homemade crust.  I used a pate brisee recipe from the Martha Stewart magazine, which uses a bit of sugar and butter instead of shortening.  I had actually made extra pie dough a while ago and froze half.  I was interested to see how the crust would hold up after being frozen for about a month.  I defrosted it in the fridge overnight and then put it out on the counter for about half an hour before I rolled it out.  I would have never known I was working with dough that had been frozen!  Someone at the party commented to me about how good the crust tasted which alleviated any doubts about freezing dough.


Enjoy this recipe with whatever kind of dough you use.  It is a big hit!


PS- if making pie dough is intimidating, here is a link to a pate brisee tutorial.  It is with Martha, also intimidating, but its not too bad.  ; )

Lemon and Garlic Pasta with Arugula

I have an article from an old issue of Martha Stewart Living hanging on my fridge that lists "super veggies." These are veggies that are packed full of vitamins and minerals that you don't find in many other vegetables.  I try to buy the veggies from this list as often as I can. 


Happily, one of the veggies, arugula, was in my box that I received from the Dancing Hen Farm. I did a search for arugula with pasta online and Garlic and Lemon Pasta with Arugula from epicurious.com was the first to come up. It didn't seem like too much trouble so I made it for dinner. 


This recipe is so easy and delicious. I used the garlic scapes that I received from the farm and added some onions. I had bottled kemon juice and used that instead of fresh.  I also added the fresh basil right at the end instead of sautéing with the other ingredients. It was very tasty; I couldn't stop myself from having seconds! I would definitely recommend making this dish.

Burritos with Bok Choy

Sorry for the month-long hiatus, Log Cabin Kitchen followers!  But I'll be getting back into the swing of things with the following recipe for Pork Burritos from rachaelraymag.com.

delicious, with pork or ground beef

On Tuesday, I received my first delivery from Dancing Hen Farm.  This is the second year I have signed up with a CSA (community supported agriculture) and couldn't wait for it to get started.  I knew I would be getting bok choy in my first delivery and wanted to try it in this burrito recipe.

There are a few things  I did a bit differently when making this.  First, since I didn't have shiitakes, I diced up the stalks from the bok choy and sauteed them with some garlic scapes that I received from the farm.  Once they had softened, I added the bok choy leaves and cooked as directed.  Even though it looks like a lot of leaves, they will be cooked down. I didn't have ground pork so I substituted ground beef.  Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly.


I loved it! The bok choy stalks added a bit of crunch and the leaves with the soy sauce were great.  The sour cream and Thai chili sauce really made the burrito; it was like a slightly sweet, slightly spicy, cool, combo.  Now, my husband said it was good, but it was not something that he'd really want or order from a restaurant menu.  Oh well, too bad for him!  I thought is was great and a terrific recipe for bok choy!

Pork Medallions with Pear

I pulled the recipe for Pork Medallions with Pear from February's issue of Good Housekeeping and tucked it away in my recipe binder.  While looking for a pork recipe this afternoon, I came across it and decided to try it out.  Although after re-reading the recipe I wasn't too sure I'd like it; it seemed too plain or something... but I went ahead and made it anyway.

This dish turned out to be a quick,
 tasty, and healthy weeknight meal!

Instead of using a 1 lb. tenderloin, I used a thick boneless pork chop sliced in half (it was probably only 6oz. total).  After sauteing the pork and removing it from the pan, I added the fennel and toasted for 30 seconds.  The aroma was so fantastic!  Since I didn't have green onion, I added about half an onion diced, a little more olive oil, and the garlic.  I let it cook for a few minutes, then deglazed the pan with the water.  I added the pear (I just had one pear that I sliced), lemon juice, and salt and let cook according to the directions then returned the pork to the pan.


Instead of cutting the recipe in half since I only had half the amount of pork, I decided to keep the same amount of each ingredient of the sauce.  That way, I would have lots of extra sauce to add to the quinoa side dish.


I was happily surprised with this meal!  I really thought that it would be a bore and the pear and fennel combo wouldn't work but it was delicious.  Gordy really liked it and Baby Gordy enjoyed the quinoa with the sauce on it.  I'll put this recipe in the rotation!

Pizza! Pizza!

I have always used frozen pizza dough or a pre-made crust and canned or jarred pizza sauce to make my own homemade pizza.  I know, it's so unlike me!  Well after seeing this recipe in the February 2012 issue of Better Homes and Gardens I made myself make my own homemade dough and sauce.  I've been kicking myself ever since. How much time and money have I wasted buying the ingredients for pizza when it is sooooo easy to make it at home!

really good homemade pizza
is so easy to make!

First I made the dough.I used my mixer and didn't need to add any extra flour or water.  After letting the dough sit for 30 minutes, I divided it into four sections.  I took three and wrapped them up and froze them for later.  It says in the directions to refrigerate the dough overnight.  I was having pizza for dinner that night, so I just left it out.  I did not find that the dough doubled in size at all.  It puffed up a bit after a while and I punched it down to let it rise again.  But it never really doubled. Maybe if I had put it in the fridge... but I really didn't think that it affected the outcome.


I made the sauce according to the directions except instead of garlic powder, I used raw garlic.  I tasted the sauce and thought 'hmm, where is the flavor?'  So I added an extra 1/2 t basil, oregano, thyme and 1/4 t pepper.  Now I had sauce!  


The dough was easy to roll out and the pizza was easy to assemble.  Overall, so simple, so easy and so tasty!  My husband and son really liked it a lot.  If you make it at home, let me know what you think of the sauce and if you added more flavor to it.  I'll let you know how the defrosted dough turns out!


Scroll down through the Pizza article to get to the All-Purpose Sauce and All-Purpose Dough recipes.  Enjoy!!

Honey-Soaked Quinoa Salad

I have been dying to make something with quinoa!  I have been hearing and reading about it for some time and just bought some at Wegmans (they sell organic quinoa in bulk and it is much better value than buying prepackaged).  I saw this recipe, Honey-Saoked Quinoa Salad with Cherries and Cashews, next to the honey mustard pork in April's Better Homes and Gardens and knew it was meant to be. 

I LOVED the quinoa in the salad!!

Well, maybe not meant to be exactly.  I had some of the ingredients so I figured I'd use the recipe as a guideline.  Well, I made the vinaigrette as directed, using ginger powder instead of fresh.  The spice jar I have gives a conversion of fresh to powdered, something like 1/4 t powdered equals 1 t fresh.  I thought that the ginger flavor was a bit over powering at first but then I really liked it.  I added my cooked quinoa to the lettuce and that's where I stopped following the recipe. Instead of cherries, I used blueberries; instead of red onion, I used scallions; instead of cashews, I used walnuts; and instead of apricots, I used avocado.  


I loved this salad and even my husband who was "unwillingly eating salad" liked it a lot.  I saw him have seconds!  This is a great guideline for a salad recipe.  I can't wait for my next quinoa recipe!

Crispy Honey Mustard Pork Chops

This morning I was leafing through April's Better Homes and Gardens looking for a pork recipe.  Crispy Honey Mustard Pork Chops sounded perfect for dinner tonight.  


I had boneless pork chops so I used that instead of the bone-in.  I didn't had stone-ground mustard, just whole-grain Dijon. I really didn't see much difference in the cut of pork of the mustard choice.  It was very easy to prepare.  I used my cast iron skillet since I was only cooking two pork chops and was able to transfer that to the oven to finish off.  I almost forgot to add the panko bread crumbs at the end (since I was chatting away on the phone).  I didn't have onion powder or marjoram, so I just sprinkled some panko on by itself.


I thought this recipe turned out very well.  The pork chops were a little dry, but I will blame chatting on the phone for that.  The recipe does call for a half-inch thick chop and that is what I used tonight, but I really think that it should have been thinner.  Next time I will slice the meat in half to make two thin chops instead of one thick one.  I think that the onion and marjoram would have been nice, but I couldn't tell they were missing.  Two thumbs ups for this dish. 

Crustless Leek Quiche

my quiche didn't look this good

The recipe for Crustless Leek Quiche was in last month's Everyday with Rachael Ray and (since I'm trying to make more meat-less dishes) I thought it would be a good dinner when paired with a hearty salad.  


I did not follow this recipe exactly, I kind of just loosely followed it.  First, I thought that four leeks was really a lot. I used one and a half leeks and that seemed to be plenty.  Also, I decided to use up the last of my mushrooms and sauteed them along with the leeks.  I omitted the goat cheese for two reasons: a) I can never seem to taste cheese when it is baked in an egg dish and b) I didn't have any. I just used skim milk instead of the heavy cream and milk.  I didn't have scallions, so I sprinkled some of the dark green leek steams on top. Did I mention that I didn't follow this recipe exactly?


Even though its not exactly the same I think that it turned out really well.  My husband told me he really liked it a lot.  Baby Gordy seemed to like it a lot too. The leek flavor was a delicious combination with the egg.  I liked the little bit of mushroom in it as well.  It was quick to prepare and came out well although the cheese on top didn't really melt too well.  Maybe I should have left it in the oven longer but my rush to get dinner on the table prevented that from happening.  There were also varying opinions about the Brie on top.  My husband loved the Brie, loved it.  My mother, on the other hand, didn't think that the Brie complimented the quiche well.  I think that when I make it again I would leave the Brie out.  And maybe when I make it again, I would actually follow the recipe.

Make These Blondies!

so good you can't have just one

I saw this recipe in Martha Stewart Living as an alternative to the traditional St. Patrick's Day desserts.  I thought I'd try these out for something but I can't remember what!  I know that I did take them to my in-laws house where they received RAVE reviews.  These blondies were so good.  I made them a second time to take to my friend Colleen's house because I wanted to eat them again!  Making this was really easy since the butter is melted and you can stir it by hand.  I loved the coffee flavor.  I didn't make the glaze since I didn't have whiskey and I thought it was great with out it.  Please try these Chewy Irish-Coffee Blondies out and let me know what you think!  Better yet, let me know when you are making them and I'll be over to help you try them out!

Deviled Eggs

 Happy Easter to my Log Cabin Kitchen followers!


To celebrate this year, I invited my family to my house for a pre-Easter get together on Saturday.  We had a lovely time with great people and really great food!  I thought that eggs would be an appropriate dish to make and decided upon deviled eggs as an appetizer.  Usually I make deviled eggs with Miracle Whip, honey mustard, and a sprinkling of paprika and they turn out just ok.  I saw in last month's Everyday with Rachel Ray an article titled 'Deviled Eggs 10 Ways' and used the first recipe.  

Mmmmmmmm...

I really liked this recipe because I had all the ingredients in my cupboard and fridge. Since I didn't feel like grating an onion, I used a chopped scallion instead.  I used the Dijon mustard instead of the yellow and just a little bit of hot sauce.  I actually could have put in a few more drops too because the hot sauce and sweet pickle combination was really, really good.


I used my DIY pastry bag to fill the eggs too.  There was no mess and they looked so good.  My mother could not believe how easy it was.


These deviled eggs were sp-egg-tacular!  I am so glad I followed a recipe to make them instead of winging it. I will absolutely make these egg-ain and egg-ain!  

Asparagus Tuna Casserole, updating a classic

looks good but I'm not sold on it

Not too long ago, I had some of my friends and their children over for a playdate. I wanted to make an easy casserole for lunch and saw this in Better Homes and Gardens and tried it out.  Now, usually, I am not a fan of tuna noodle casserole, but this recipe seemed to be tweaked a bit to make it more fresh and tasty.  Instead of a can of soup there is asparagus and olives and a creamy cheese sauce.


It was pretty easy to assemble, although it did feel like it took a while.  The cream sauce never really got thick and bubbly (but my cream sauces never do).  I just used regular tuna, not the kind packed in garlic oil and didn't add any garlic.  I thought it might be better to omit the potatoes and just use only penne, maybe the whole box instead of just one cup. 


Overall, this got some good reviews from the moms.  I think that if you like tuna noodle casserole you'd like this, but it still didn't change my opinion of tuna noodle casserole.  I don't think I'd make it again but if you do, let me know what you think!


Asparagus Tuna Casserole

Soup's On!

I saw this recipe for Sweet Potato soup in February's issue of Women's Day magazine.  It looked easy enough and I love to have a bowl of soup with my lunch, so I jumped right in.  Well, I should have read the recipe before I started because it is a slow cooker recipe; not good since lunch was in about forty five minutes.


So I decided to make it a fast cooker recipe.  I only had two sweet potatoes so I thought I'd cut the recipe down a bit.  I chopped up one onion, two carrots, and two sweet potatoes (a bit less than what the recipe called for) and sauteed them in about 1 1/2 T of olive oil.  I let that cook for about 10 minutes covered on medium heat, stirring frequently.  I then added four (not six) cups of vegetable stock (not water), the ginger (3/4 t dried ginger), 1/2 of a cinnamon stick, and 1 T curry powder and let that simmer over medium heat for about 15 minutes.  Last, I took the pot off the heat and pureed the soup with my immersion blender. 


This soup was so good!!!!! It had a great warm and spicy curry flavor and the soup was thick and creamy.  My husband really enjoyed it too.  We did not add the yogurt or almond garnish (I didn't think it needed it).  I will definitely make this soup again, maybe even in the crock pot!

Molten Chocolate Cakes

This is just what mine looked like!

Last night I hosted a lovely little dinner party for a former co-worker and her husband and son.  I was going to make an easy cake recipe but then saw the recipe for these cakes in my binder and remembered how much I wanted to try them.


I was a little nervous because they seemed so fancy but they were easy to make.  I didn't have bittersweet chocolate, just milk chocolate, and it tasted just fine.  Actually just fine is an understatement.  These little cakes were so delicious.  I put them in the oven just as we were sitting down to eat.  We were still eating when the timer went off.  I took them out of the oven and let them cool on the stove top but I worried the chocolate in the middle would harden or just not turn out right.  


Happily, they turned out fine.  It was ooey and gooey on the inside and had a great chocolate taste and texture.  They popped right out of the ramekins too and looked so good with the powered sugar on top.  If only I had some raspberries or a mint leaf to garnish them with... next time.  Because I will be making these again and again.  They are that good!


Molten Chocolate Cake  

Spinach Cheese Swirls

I saw a picture for these spinach cheese swirls in a Pepperidge Farms magazine ad.  I checked out the web site, found the recipe, and have made them twice.  I really enjoy working with the frozen puff pastry because it makes the dish seem a bit more fancy. 

This was not too hard to make.  I used feta cheese instead of the Munster and used some dried oregano too.  The hardest part was slicing it.  I tried a serated knife first but  I just made a mess.  So I ended up using a very large and very sharp knife.  It was easier to cut with that knife and not too much filling fell out.

I thought the spinach, feta and oregano combination was a good one and these appetizers were a hit!  The swirls would good with any kind of filling too, so be creative when you try these out.

Here's the link to Spinach Cheese Swirls

Braised Chicken with Prunes and Cream

I found this recipe in one of my back issues of Everyday with Rachael Ray.  I was not really thinking about using it for my blog (hence no pictures) but after tasting it I had to write about it. 

The recipe was easy to follow.  I did not have sherry vinegar to soak the prunes in so I just used my cooking sherry.  Also, the prunes I had weren't dried but I used them anyway.  The two cups of broth did seem like a lot to put in, but I let it simmer away with the lid off the pan for a while and the liquid did reduce.

I served the chicken over rice and it really was a fantastic recipe.  The combination of cream, prunes, and chicken may not sound that great but it really works!

Here's the link to Braised Chicken with Prunes and Cream

Sour Cream Pancakes

In the last issue of Country Living there was a nice little article about a Vermont maple syrup farm and the family who has been running it for generations.  The article also included many maple syrup infused recipes.  Do you think that the family is like Buddy from Elf, putting maple syrup on the spaghetti?

I saw the recipe for sour cream pancakes and immediately whipped out my griddle.  Now you may remember I just found a new pancake recipe that replaced my old Bisquick standby.  Well I may have a recipe to replace that one.

I cut this recipe down to a third when I made it.  Even when I did that, the recipe still called for a cup of sour cream, which I thought was a lot.  I did not cook them in butter but just used some cooking spray instead.  But the pancakes were so, so good!  There was not much of a sour cream flavor but they were buttery and tender but thick.  I gave Baby Gordy some pancake (his first ever) and he loved it!

This will be my new go-to pancake recipe, as long as I have enough sour cream!

Here is the link:
Sour Cream Pancakes
Note: I did not make the maple-pecan butter but I'm sure it would be delicious.
pics to follow

Chocolate Peanut Pave Cake

Dear Readers,
I have to apologize for not writing since last month! I will blame it all on my nine month old who refuses to nap!!  I have still been trying new recipes and making some mental notes on each so I can create new entries.  Here is the fist of a few:


In the pages of February's Good Housekeeping I saw a picture for this cake and HAD to make it.  It is a Chocolate Peanut Pave Cake.  Check out the link- the cake is gorgeous!
So I made it two nights ago for Valentine's Day.  The recipe was easy, although a bit time consuming.  I liked spreading the batter out on my jelly roll pan to make a thin cake that would be cut into layers.  I had never done that before.  


The batter was easy to make but when I folded in the chocolate into the egg mixture it was a speckled brown.  Maybe I needed to stir it more?  But the cake came out a non-speckled brown color, although not the dark chocolate color in the picture.  The cake was surprisingly easy to assemble.  The frosting was easy to make and I liked using the semi-sweet chocolate to make a fabulous ganache.


While spreading the frosting over the cake I got crumbs into the frosting and was cursing myself for not doing a "crumb layer" of frosting.  Not that the directions called for it, but Martha would have done it.  Next time.


I did not however make the pave topping.  I just used some peanut butter to make hearts all over the top of the cake. It was a little more festive for Valentine's Day (actually I snipped the hole to big in the bag and a huge glob of peanut butter came out so I turned it into a heart).


So everything up until now was fine.  When I tasted the cake, I was disappointed. I thought that the cake was dry and it did not have that great chocolate flavor I was expecting.  I wasn't crazy about the chopped peanuts in each layer, maybe that just added to the dryness of the cake.  On the other hand, the frosting was delicious! I mean really delicious and I'm not a frosting lover.


I think that if I do make this cake again, I would use a boxed cake mix for the cake, skip the chopped up peanuts and just frost between the layers and the outside of the cake.  Or maybe I'll just make the frosting and eat that right out of the bowl...


Here is the link:
Chocolate Peanut Pave Cake


ps- pictures to follow!

DIY Pastry Bag

I made mini cupcakes to satisfy my little sweet tooth.  I wasn't going to make the cupcakes because I hate trying to put the batter into the cupcake liners, no matter what size the liners are.  So I thought I would make myself a pastry bag to pipe the batter into the mini liners.  This worked like a dream! 

I took a large zip lock bag and poured all the batter in.  Then I snipped one corner and was able to squeeze the batter so easily into the liners. There was hardly any mess or drips.  

easy does it: piping in the batter
I don't see any drips, do you?

I don't think that this is anything new and I certainly had seen this somewhere, but it made making cupcakes so much easier and more fun for me.  The only thing that wasn't good was the fact that I was eating two at a time... 

Hoisin Pork Roast

Thursday's swim class was approaching and I wanted to find another crock pot recipe to use. I went back to Martha's web site and searched for crock pot recipes but didn't see one I was interested in.  So I went to my favorite, rachaelraymag.com and found this recipe.  

I was a bit skeptical about the recipe, Asian cuisine is not typically one of my favorites, but it called for cilantro and I had some in the fridge that needed to be used.

I mixed the ingredients together, using hoisin sauce and not the duck sauce.  I also used powdered ginger instead of fresh.  I was beginning to worry about the sodium content of this recipe with all the prepared sauces that it called for, but I had already started to make it and there was no turning back.  I cut the recipe in half (as usual) and set in in the crock pot to cook on high for three hours.  I made basmati rice and chopped the cilantro and scallions before I left for swim.

yum?

When I got home, I took the pork out of the crock pot to let it rest and it was a little more cooked than the picture on the recipe page.  So I decided to shred it and mix it into the sauce and have a sort of Asian pulled pork.  I was going to add the cilantro and scallions to the rice and serve the pork over it, but I just mixed everything together.  I also added some sauteed red cabbage too.

pulled pork, Asian style

The result was very good.  It was not overly salty and I really liked the shredded pork and rice mixed together.  I think that I would make hoisin pork roast again.

Shepherd's Pie

there are the parsnips, in the right of the bowl

Over the holidays, my Aunt Mamie and I were talking about parsnips and I told her that I have a really good recipe for shepherd's pie with parsnips in it.  This recipe isn't new to me but I do love it, so thought that I would include it in the blog.


This recipe comes from the Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine (one of my favorites).  When I made it, I cut the recipe in half and used ground turkey instead of ground beef.  I then cut the ground turkey in half (1/2 lb. total) and substituted some frozen peas and pearl onions.

Shepherd's pie, out of the oven and ready to eat

This is such a good dish, and so easy to make.  I put it together earlier in the day while Baby Gordy was sleeping and then put it in the oven about a half hour before dinner (20 minutes at 350 degrees and then 10 minutes at 450 degrees).  


If you are not crazy about the horseradish flavor, I'm sure it can be omitted.  This is a great meal to serve during the long cold winter!


Horseradish mashed potato shepherd's pie

Easy Cream Biscuits

As I was re-reading last month's issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray I came across this recipe.  It had only three ingredients: butter, heavy cream, and self rising flour.  I'm not joking when I say that I had been thinking "what am I going to do with all that heavy cream and self rising flour that I have?"  I bought the items for other recipes and only used a bit and now they were just waiting to be used again.


I poured the cup of heavy cream into the flour and started to mix. And mix. And mix.  The two were not combining.  So I added the rest of the cream (another 1/2 cup) and it was still too dry.  So then I got out the skim milk and just poured some in.  And wouldn't you know it, it was too wet.  So then I had to add more flour, about a 1/4 cup, and it was fine.


I put the dough down on a floured counter and patted it into a rectangle, then folded it in half.  Pat, fold, pat, fold.  So easy.  Took out my brand new biscuit cutters, which were also waiting to be used, and made 14 biscuits.  When it came down to the last biscuit, I just put the dough inside the cutter to make the round shape.  I used the melted butter to grease my  cake and pie pans and then brushed the tops of the biscuits with the rest.  They baked up so quickly and were delicious.  You can not even compare these to the ones that come out of the can.  Those don't even taste like a real biscuit.  While making these I thought, "these are the kind of biscuits Paula Deen would be proud of."


This was worth the extra adding of cream, then milk, then flour to get the consistency right.  I froze the leftover biscuits for next time.  (Next time actually came already and they defrosted so easily and still tasted great!)


Two dough covered thumbs up!


Easy, delicious, homemade biscuits

Fresh Winter Fruit Cake with Caramel Glaze

During the holidays, my husband and I had our dear friends, from Montana over for dinner.  We had a wonderful time with Zach and Holly and I had the opportunity to try out a new recipe from Rachael Ray's website rachaelraymag.com.  I thought that a Fresh Winter Fruit Cake sounded festive and would be a great dessert. 


My mother-in-law had gone on a trip to the Finger Lakes in New York.  She bought me a bag of pastry flour from The Birkett Mills company.  I used that flour for the cake.  You can find out more about Birkett Mills on their website, TheBirkettMills.com  


The recipe was pretty easy to follow although I didn't find that the batter became "thick like honey;" the batter looked liked regular batter even after letting mix for a while.  I don't think it made a difference that it wan't like honey.  The caramels were a pain to unwrap, I don't know if there is anything easier than unwrapping the candies.  I also omitted the Jack Daniels from the caramel glaze.  

The cake turned out wonderfully.  I loved the pear and cranberry combination and the caramel topping was a perfect compliment.  My friend Holly said that the cake was so good, "not just grocery store bakery good, real bakery good."  My husband may have even seen her husband take a second slice, the ultimate compliment to the chef!






Two thumbs up!!!!  Below is the link to the cake recipe:
Fresh Winter Fruit Cake

Way to Go Martha- pt. 2

You may recall my New Year's Resolution was to use my crock pot more often.  I thought that Thursday would be the perfect day to do so.  Baby Gordy and I had a Mommy and Me Swim class in the late afternoon so a crock pot dinner seemed in order.

I didn't take any pictures of dinner but here I am
with Baby Gordy on our first day of swim class during
our last session.  He is super excited.

I was on marthastewart.com looking around and saw a slow cooker recipe for Chicken Curry.  This was another Martha recipe that seemed so easy and not hard at all.  I made half the recipe, putting the chicken, spices, garlic, and onions in the crock pot and cooked it on high for four hours.  I did peel and cut up at large potato and add that too.  When I came home from the YMCA.  I added the coconut milk and peas.  A whole bag of peas seemed like a lot, so I only used half a bag (which is one quarter of what the recipe called for).  I added a whole can of coconut milk and thought that it needed more, so I added another can.

I had made rice earlier to serve with the curry and added cilantro for a garnish.  It was very good but under seasoned.  I went back and added the full amount of seasonings (to only half the chicken called for) and I thought it tasted much better.

This was very good and yielded a lot.  I'm going to freeze the leftovers to have again another time.  This was so easy and tasty but just experiment with the right amount of seasonings for your taste buds.

Great work again Martha.  Your recipes made great back-to-back dinners!


Follow this link to get the recipe:

Martha's Chicken Curry

Way to Go Martha- You're Two for Two!

Oh Martha Stewart, you're so fantastic and wonderful.  You're magazine is beautiful and I love to look through the pages and get inspired.  I want to try to make all your recipes but then I look at the list of ingredients and the instructions and think, "um...no." I don't really want to cure my own bacon just so I can have a BLT.

deglazing the sauteed onions, bacon,
and thyme- I wish you could smell it

But, then on Wednesday, I saw a recipe in this month's issue of Martha Stewart Living.  It was a French recipe for Pork Sausage and White Beans.  It just so happened that I was defrosting sausage for dinner that night.  I read through the method and it was surprisingly easy.  I cut the recipe in half and used Italian sausage instead of the French garlic or bratwurst that was recommended.


This recipe was very easy to make and follow (I even made my own bread crumbs, but I'm sure store bought would work just fine).  When I reached the step where I added the thyme, I knew from the fabulous smell that I was going to have a great dinner.

almost ready for the oven

plated with a side of haricot verts

And a great dinner it was!  The dish was really fantastic!!! REALLY!!!!  The Italian sausages were good in it, but I think next time I'd like to try the French garlic sausage.  This is a great comfort food dish but can even be served for a more upscale meal.  

Tres Bon Martha!


Follow this link to the recipe:
Pork Sausage and White Beans

Tuesday Night Dinner

Some of the risotto ingredients and recipe

Tonight for dinner I tested out two new recipes.  The main entree was maple-walnut chicken thighs (from Everyday with Rachael Ray website) with a side of butternut squash risotto (from January's Better Homes and Gardens) and peas.  

The chicken thighs simmering away

The maple-walnut chicken was very easy to make and I even toasted the walnuts this time.  Also, it was quick to prepare.  I liked it, but it was sweet.  It was almost like maple-walnut candy.  I let the sauce cook down for a while so it was pretty thick; maybe if it was a little less thick it wouldn't have been so candy-like.  I would have it again but I don't think my husband cared for it too much.

The risotto as it absorbs the broth

I had high hopes for the butternut squash risotto since I love both.  I didn't have fresh sage so I used powered, about 3/4 tsp (fresh sage would have been better).  The risotto turned out very creamy and had a great squash flavor.  I liked it but don't think that I would make it again.  I wasn't crazy about the squash/ risotto combination.  But if you like those two flavors together, then I think that you would really like the recipe.  






So all in all, a pretty good dinner but not one that I would repeat.


Maple-Walnut Chicken Thighs

Butternut Squash Risotto 

Egg Nog Pancakes- the 10th Way?

The December issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray has an article called Pancakes, 9 Ways.  Now, I usually make my pancakes from Bisquick (or the store brand equivalent of Bisquick) and honestly did not see the point of making them from scratch since I was put off by the long list of ingredients and the step where I had to beat the egg whites.  Is this really worth it?!!?  But I was intrigued by this article and thought I would give it a shot.

A bowl with a spout makes pouring easy!

I made the pancakes the first way, which is just the basic recipe and Wow!!!! They were so delish (to use a Rachael Ray word).  The pancakes were tender and buttery and fantastic.  It was worth the extra effort, which was hardly effort by the way.  Even beating the egg whites was not hard at all (and I did it by hand too).  My only complaint was that the pancake batter was runny which produced thin pancakes.  

So when I made them again this morning, I decided to add 1/4 cup extra flour to thicken them up and make a fluffier pancake (please note that I only made half the recipe so the total amount of flour was used was one cup). I was inspired by the many different variations of the basic recipe and substituted egg nog for the milk and added a few extra dashes of nutmeg. The result was Yum-o (to quote RR again).  Actually better than Yum-o; these were really, really great.  


My husband really liked them saying, "they are very good and the egg nog flavor doesn't 'nog' you over."  Such a bad joke... but I will certainly make these again with or without the egg nog.

So delish!

Here is the link to the basic pancake recipe:
Fluffy Pancakes

Here is the link to the variations of that 
recipe:
Pancakes 9 Ways

New Year's Resolutions

Old Crocky- dusted off and ready to go!

My culinary resolution this year is dust off my crock-pot and use it more often.  I used to make dinners in my crock pot fairly often but have not in a long time.  These one pot dishes are very easy to make and are usually hearty and filling.  I hope to find, use, and write about some great slow cooker dinners this year.