Cold Winter day...Hot bowl of soup

It's a cold and deary day so naturally I'm craving soup. Not just any soup but Loaded Bake Potato Soup. This is one of my favorites and it is so easy to make. But seriously there is nothing better on a cold winter day than a big bowl of homemade soup

Ingredients:

1 small onion diced
2 T minced garlic
2 T butter
6-10 russet potatoes, cleaned and cubed (peel optional)
4 cups chicken stock (homemade preferably)
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups shredded cheese
4 strips of crispy bacon crumbled
salt & pepper to taste
chives for garnish

Saute the onion and garlic with the butter until the onion in translucent.
Add chicken stock and potatoes (you can add a many or as little potato as you want. I tend to like mine potato heavy so I normally add about 10 good sized potatoes. I leave a little peel for flavor)
Cover and cook on medium low until potatoes are fork tender. You don't want to over cook them or they will turn to mush.
Add heavy cream and heat through. Be careful not to let it boil.
Slowly add shredded cheese, stirring to make sure it melts all the way through. (You can use any type you like...colby jack is a good standard. My favorite is applewood smoked Gruyere and  applewood smoked Gouda - about two to one ratio)
Once cheese is melted add salt, pepper and 3/4s of the bacon.

Serve with a sprinkling of chives and remainder of the bacon.

Trust me you'll love this soup!

Cookie Adventures!

The past few years I have been helping my mom bake cookies to give out as gifts. Last year it was my sister, her and I doing the mad cookie experiment. This year it was my mom, my aunt and I. it was fun, tiring but fun. And we made a lot of cookies...like 33 dozen or so.

We started around 7:30 am and my aunt and I left at 4, leaving my mom to finish baking the last few remaining trays. It is always an adventure baking with my mom. She does a few things like her rum cake really well but then it gets interesting. Like last year thinking one box of butter and one 5 pound bag of flour was going to be enough butter for the 10 different types she wanted to make.

This yeas she was a little bit better. I had warned my aunt ahead of time so we came with extra flour, butter, sugar and eggs. So when we arrived, my mom is already flustered with the sugar cookie dough as it is incredibly sticky. She didn't want to wait so she made a package of sugar cookies (I despise the package cookie mix but I digress). She was trying to roll out cookie dough on wax paper. Yes you read that right. Gotta love her. So I take over and the dough is really sticky...too sticky but I make it work and get about 3 dozen star shaped cookies cut out for her. Found out that she used tub margarine instead of stick butter for the recipe...which was the culprit.

See you never want to use tub margarine for baking if you can help it. If you have to use margarine always go for it in the stick form. It's the consistency in the tub stuff that makes it more sticky and spread more. 

It became apparent at that moment that I was going to be in charge of making the cookie doughs, especially since I brought my KitchenAid mixer with me. That baby can whip through making cookie dough like there is no tomorrow. I swear I love my KitchenAid. I whip up a batch of vanilla wafer cookies and as we are baking them my mom brings out all these bags of chips that she wants to use in the cookies. The three of us start talking flavors and then my aunt and I talk Mom out of putting the butterscotch and peanut butter chips in the same cookie...see this is why I was in charge of making the dough.

By the end of the day we made:
3 dozen sugar stars
6 dozen vanilla wafer cookies
5 dozen chocolate chip, walnut and heath bar cookies
5 dozen chocolate chip and toffee cookies
4.5 dozen peppermint white chocolate cookies
4.5 dozen oatmeal butterscotch cookies
5 dozen peanut butter cookies with peanut butter chips

I like the oatmeal butterscotch cookies the best. I got the dough just right so they spread out lovely and came out almost like the oatmeal lace cookies.

I'm Baaaaack

I'm fickle and I know this. I forget to update for a bit and then it starts to seem overwhelming...so I put it off a bit longer and longer and before I know it a full season or two has passed us by. 

BUT...I'm going to make a concentrated effort to update this a lot more often.

The most thing of note has been that my jam making has really taken off. I've made another batch or two of strawberry jam since my first attempt. I've also made strawberry peach and a citrus marmalade. The strawberry peach tastes so good but I didn't add enough pectin so it is still on the thinner side. My husband loves this one. The citrus marmalade was interesting. My husband likes it but I don't think it is quite sweet enough (but that is what he likes the most about it). But that turned out much thicker...the draw back was the sugar caramelized a lot more so it was darker than what I'm used to seeing in the store.

I did get a jar funnel and a jar gripper. Those two little tools have made a world of difference! No more burnt fingers! Yay! No longer is it such an ordeal when it comes to the sealing process.

I plan on making a make of strawberry peach for the husband this afternoon as soon as my fruit is thawed out enough for me to chop. It was going to be plain peach but I realized that my last set of mason jars where not the half pint size. And we are giving half pint jars as our Yule gifts to our friends. So maybe the peach will happen next week. I still have a large about of whole peaches in my freezer from the summer...not to count my countless bags of strawberries. Come next spring I want to get some raspberries and blackberries to combine with my strawberries for a triple berry jam. Now that sounds so yummy.

Go to recipes

Go to recipes…everyone has at least one. I have a couple as well as my husband.  Some are based off of childhood favorites while others are of my own creation.

There is one in particular that my husband absolutely loves. I found it in one of those little cookbooks put together by a family and my mom bought it for me. (I have a love of cookbooks) it’s called Supper on a Bread Slice. When I first read it, it made me tilt my head and ?? as it was different. But one day on a whim I made it and over the years I’ve tweaked it to the way we like it.

The great thing about this recipe is that it is easily expandable, it’s great for leftovers and you can easily change it up but putting different vegetables in it. We’ve tried many variations but the one we like the best is below:

1 loaf of French bread (wheat French bread is our favorite for this)

1 pound of ground beef

1 small can of sliced olives, drained

1 green bell pepper diced

1 red bell pepper diced

6-10 white button mushrooms sliced

1 egg

1 T yellow mustard

5 oz evaporated milk

1 1/2 cup shredded Colby Jack cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Pre heat oven to 350. Brown ground beef with salt and pepper (can use ground turkey instead if you want). Add vegetables and cook until bell peppers are slightly tender. Drain grease and put back into pan to stay warm.

In a bowl, add the egg, mustard and evaporated milk and whisk until combined. (I know you are probably looking at the screen like O.o but trust me…the sauce really does work with this even as unusual as it is.) Add the egg mixture to the beef and vegetable and mix well. You want to be careful and make sure that the meat mixture is not over a hot burner. You don’t want the egg in the sauce to scramble.

Take the French bread and slice it open lengthwise. Then cut each half into pieces. (I recommend to cut the bread into the serving sizes you want because it’s a pain and messy to cut after it’s done.) Place bread on a cookie sheet crust sides down and spoon the mixture evenly over the bread. Top the pieces with the shredded cheese and bake for 20 minutes.

It is so yummy! As I said as strange as the sauce is it works really well. If you decide you try it with firmer vegetables like broccoli, I recommend staggering the vegetables when you add them to the beef. After all you don’t want your mushrooms to be completely soggy and limp but your broccoli barely done.

If you try this recipe…I would love to hear what variation you came up with and what you thought about it. I’ll post more of our go to recipes soon.

What Was Paula Deen Thinking?

So I survived Easter and I didn't kill anyone. Bonus! I did want to strangle a cousin and their wife for being incredibly rude but that's a story for another day.

The baked french toast turned out pretty good if I say so myself. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of it. I did play with the recipe slightly. The egg mixture I did the same except for adding an 1/8t of clove. It was the topping that I made a major adjustment on. Instead of 2 sticks of butter I only used one. And trust me it really didn't need that other stick. (But it is a Paula Deen recipe and we all know of her love for butter) I also took out the corn syrup. And I only spread it on 2/3 of the pan. I left a portion without the pecan topping as my grandma is diabetic and really shouldn't have all that brown sugar.

A couple of things I learned from this recipe...

• make sure your french bread gets stale. It helps soak up the egg/milk mixture.
• be careful about the overlapping in the pan. It looked pretty but it was a pain in the butt to cut.
• the topping wasn't as crumbly as I thought it would be so it is a bit messy to spread out. And add the pecans AFTER combining the brown sugar and butter. It's easier to mix that way.

But all in all the recipe got thumbs up from everyone. It was sweet but not overly so. You didn't need syrup on the pieces that had the pecan topping. It's definitely one I'm going to try again.

Now my mom made a different Paula Deen breakfast casserole with potato chips, ham, cheese, egg soaked bread and bananas. yes you heard me right...BANANAS. Once you picked out the bananas it wasn't bad. But yeah with them in it...it was a bit strange. But that's Paula for ya.

Hand Me Down Recipes

Do you have any hand me down recipes? You those that seem to get passed down from generation to generation? I have a few of those in my family passed down from my grandma. I think one of the best things about them are the stories that my grandma and mom told me in regards to those recipes.

You see...my grandma grew up very poor in the mountains of Northern California. So every recipe comes with a story about how resourceful or in my grandma's case how conniving she was. Hey this is a woman at the age of 7 would pour warm water down snake holes and wait by with an axe so she could chop their heads off in order to sell the rattles. See what I mean?

One of the recipes that I absolutely adore are stove top ribs. It's a quick and easy recipe and the ingredients are fairly inexpensive. It's easy to make a little or a lot of. Throughout the years I've adjusted and tweaked the recipe to suit both my and my husband's taste. Every friend I have made this for have loved it as well. My poor husband never has a chance at the leftovers. MINE! I do not share them. 

Since I don't have children, I don't have anyone to pass these recipes down to along with the stories so I'm going to share it with you.

Stove Top Ribs

1 - 2 pounds of Country style pork ribs (I prefer boneless. You can use beef if you really wanted but the sauce is more suited to pork ribs.)

1 29 oz can of tomato sauce

1 T of mustard

1/2 t of Worcestershire sauce

1/2 t Mexican oregano

Maple syrup to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the ribs into large bite size pieces, liberally season them with salt and pepper (lemon pepper is a nice little variation to use as well). Cooke them over medium heat until 3/4ths of the way done.

While meat is cooking, combine the tomato sauce, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and seasonings in a large bowl. Give it a good whisk to combine. Now comes the syrup. Add as little or as much as you want. I do suggest to add it in small quantities. I make mine slightly on the sweet side because I find the seasonings as it cooks will balance it out.

Take a dutch oven with a lid. After draining the grease from the ribs, add them and the sauce in the dutch oven. Cover and let simmer for a minimum of one hour, stirring occasionally. This will allow the ribs to braise in the sauce and literally become melt in your mouth tender. The longer you let it simmer the more tender they will be and the thicker the sauce will become.

Traditional we serve it with either mashed or baked potatoes and a side of vegetables along with biscuits. I always spoon extra sauce onto my potatoes. So yummy!

Guess what I'm making for dinner tonight?

I'm doing what now?

I love my family I really do but in small doses. I like being able to go over to visit them or attend family functions with the ability to leave when I want to. It’s been a perfect setup until now.

So far with the exception of a 4^th of July the year we bought our house, my husband and I have managed to avoid having family functions at my house. The family tends to rotate houses for holidays so it is not always one person hosting. Thanksgiving is at my Aunt and Uncle’s house, Christmas is at my mom’s…traditionally another aunt has held Easter. This year Grandma decided that I should have Easter at my house. And she wasn’t taking no for an answer.

“I really can’t afford to host it…” Nonsense…we’ll all bring food you just tell us what was her response.

“But my dogs…most of you aren’t comfortable with bigger dogs…” (This is normally my ace in the hole as my two dogs while not overly large and very loving are a bit on the excitable side and my family is more of a small dog group.) We can deal with them or you can put them in the back yard for the afternoon came her retort.

Nothing I said could sway her so I texted the husband to let him know that it’s going to be a major spring cleaning weekend as we are now hosting Easter.

Sigh.

So now I have to figure out an Easter Brunch menu. Of course there will be refried beans and tortillas. We always have them at any family holiday meal. And there should be eggs, some type of meat, potatoes, fruit…hmmm I also have to keep in mind the cooking abilities of said family as well.

I do know one recipe I want to try…

French Toast Casserole

Ingredients

·         1 loaf French bread (13 to 16 ounces)

·         Butter, for pan

·         8 large eggs

·         2 cups half-and-half

·         1 cup milk

·         2 tablespoons sugar

·         1 tablespoon vanilla extract

·         1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

·         Dash salt

·         Praline Topping, recipe follows

Directions

Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch thick each. Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9 by 13-inch flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly. Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Spoon some of the mixture in between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 45 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden.

Praline Topping:

·         1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter

·         1 cup packed light brown sugar

·         1 cup chopped pecans

·         2 tablespoons light corn syrup

·         1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well. Spread over bread as directed above.

It sounds yummy and not too hard to make. I’ll be sure to post up my results and how well it goes over!

Adventures in Jam Making

Recently I had to take my grandmother to an optometrist appointment. After the appointment, I dropped her off at her church where she and my grandpa help run the local food basket. She asked me to come inside as she wanted to introduce me to some of her friends. So I did as there is almost nothing I would not do for that woman.

So she is introducing me around and before I know it I have a whole crate of strawberries in my arms. Grandma is grinning at me and sends me on my merry way. I stop by my house to drop off the strawberries before heading into work. All the while I’m wondering what in the sam hell am I going to do with a whole crate of strawberries. Obviously I am going to have to freeze some of them or give a good portion of them away. There is no way the husband and I could eat that many strawberries before they went bad.

Then it hit me…I’ll make some jam! The fact I have never made jam before in my life didn’t faze me in the slightest. Come on where’s the adventure in that? I had a big stock pot I could use to boil the jars and I had 6 pint jars left over from some project in my pantry. What else did I need? I took a third of the strawberries, freezing the rest, and set aside my Sunday morning and afternoon for the great jam experiment.

After looking at various recipes I found one that didn’t use additional pectin and that intrigued me.  It called for 3 cups of strawberries to 1 and a half cup of sugar to the juice and zest of one lemon.  It sounded pretty good and I decided that was the recipe for me. See to make jam you need three things besides your fruit: Pectin, sugar and acidity. Pectin is a natural substance found in most fruits. Additional pectin is normally added to help in the gelling process. And sugar is also a natural thickener when it cooks down. So I get everything together and decide let’s rock this.

I happily chop strawberries into bite size pieces when I come to my first decision. 3 cups barely put a dent into my gallon bag of cleaned and hulled strawberries. The recipe makes 2 pints and I have 6 jars. Let’s triple the recipe! It made perfect sense at that particular moment. I go about my merry way and chop 6 more cups of strawberries, thankfully using all I had out. I mash the strawberries slightly, add the sugar and lemon juice/zest and set it to slowly cook.

It took FOREVER to get to a boil. And then once at a boil, to get to the prerequisite 225 degrees. While the berries were cooking, I run all the items needed through the dishwasher to sterilize everything.  Then I get my stock pot filled with water and set that to heat, knowing it will take a while to get to a boil. Finally the berries reach 225 degrees and after much trial and error and spilling of hot jam on my fingers I get 4 jars filled. So much for the 6 but that’s okay, I think to myself. The lids get put on and rings tighten. Now I come to an issue. How am I going to get the jars filled with HOT jam into the boiling water? Hmmmm.  I grab a pair of tongs and slowly lower the jars into the pot.

Whew. That was nerve wracking. I set the timer and let the jars process. This is the part I’ve been nervous about. What if I don’t get a good seal? How will I know? Can I reseal if it doesn’t work the first time? And blast it I have to get these jars out of the pot now! Again carefully and burning my fingers again, I get all 4 jars out and onto my counter. And now the hardest part for me. The waiting…yep you have to wait for a good while the sealing process happens, like a good 12 hours after you boil them. 

I cannot begin to tell you how many times I looked at the jars throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening. I press down on the lids and they didn’t move. Yay! That is a good sign and I impatiently wait until the next morning to finally crack one of those bad boys open.

The seal is good. It took me a good two minutes trying to open the jar. But then I’m slightly defeated. The jam is slightly runny. It tastes delicious though. The lemon is such a nice touch. It cuts through some of the sweetness and adds a depth of flavor to the jam. The husband and I both enjoy it even though it is not a thick as we prefer.

It’s been a few weeks since my great jam making adventure and the jam has thickened up considerably. Here is what I have learned and gleamed from my experience and subsequent research:

1. I need to invest in some more equipment like a jar holder to easily lift them in and out of the boiling water and a jar funnel. The burnt fingers were not so fun to deal with the next day.

2. Do not try to make such a large batch at once. One it will not take as long and I think that might have had something to do with it not gelling enough.

3. Make sure to try a gelling test. One such test is to put a plate in the freezer when you start cooking. When you think you the jam is done or close to, drop a small spoonful of the liquid on the plate. It should gel and if you run your finger through it, it should not run back together.

4. Be patient. Jam/jellies/preserves take time to cook and break down. Patience will always be key.

Now will I do this again? Absolutely! My mom loves the jar that I gave her and has informed me that she is no longer going to buy strawberry jam as I am going to make it for her.  The husband and I are thinking that jams may be the Yule gifts this year. So now I am thinking of flavor combinations I would like to try to make. I’m also beginning to eye marmalades….after all it can’t be too hard can it?

An Introduction of Sorts

This blog will be dedicated to my mad forays into the culinary world. Recipes, cooking/baking adventures, and the occasional product review will make it's way here. 

I love to cook and to bake. I went to school to get my baking certificate about 4.5 years ago. The certificate was  only a nice side bonus but the major thing I got out of it was knowledge. There were things I always knew one should do in cooking and baking but now I know the whys behind it. 

I cannot always guarantee I'll update this often but I will try.