Coconut Rice & Peas

It has been over a month since I have last posted. I haven't quite got down how to balance a job with family and hobbies. Honestly next month I will have been employed for 1 year and I am not sure if I will ever have it down. One of the Secretaries at the office commented to me that I always looked rushed and harried when I am coming and going. I laughed, a pretty good description of me...

This recipe is a great way to have rice and beans. The addition of coconut milk makes all the difference in the world. When I first learned about using coconut milk, I was worried because I do not like coconut in general..but I have put those worries aside and have become a big fan! In fact I was able to find coconut milk at the store the other day for $.99 a can and lets just say my food storage is becoming quite unique and exciting.

Here is the recipe:

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

This is the chocolate frosting that I used to decorate a volcano cake this week. It was so good! I really had a hard time keeping my fingers out of  it for a taste.

Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 2/3 cups powdered sugar, softened

1/3 cup half and half or milk

1 1/2 t. vanilla

choose one of the following:

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder,  (for light)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder,  (for medium)

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder,  (for dark and rich)

Cream the butter in a small bow. Blend in the cocoa powder, vanilla, powdered sugar, alternating with the cream. Beat with mixer until the desired texture is achieved. *The more cocoa powder that is added, might mean an addition of more cream for the right consistency.

Makes 2 cups.

Green Chile Cheese Puff

A crustless quiche that is light and airy, but rich in flavor. This comes together quick, as long as you have roasted the poblano peppers ahead of time. Add your favorite salsa, serve with a warm tortilla and fresh fruit. I loved this, it is what hard to stay true to just having one serving.

Green Chile Cheese Puff

1/4 cup flour

3/4 t. salt

1/2 t. baking powder

6 large eggs

2 T. unsalted butter, melted

1 cup cottage cheese

8 oz. Monterey Jack Cheese, shredded

4 green poblano chilies, roasted and peeled, cut into 1/4 in. dice*

Preheat oven to 350 and set rack in the middle of the oven. Spray a 9 inch glass pie plate. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, salt and baking powder. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the eggs until doubled in volume, about 3 minutes. Add the butter, flour mixture and cheese and beat well. Stir in the chilies and pour the mixture into the pie plate. Bake until the top is puffed and golden brown and a tester comes out clean 35 to 45 minutes. Serve with salsa.

*to roast and peel the pablanos, arrange them on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet and broil until blistered and blackened, turning frequently. Wrap in the foil and set aside to steam for 10 minutes. Open the foil. When the pablanos are cool enough to handle, peel them; the skin should come off easily. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

My New Toy

This is it! I am so excited! I have always wanted an electric wheat grinder, however I didn't want to purchase one unless I really knew that I would use it. I have several hundred pounds of wheat in my food storage and a hand crank grinder for an emergency but that has been it. I have usually purchased whole wheat flour at the store in 25 lb bags when I needed it and felt like making bread. Now I can actually use the wheat. I can also grind popcorn and make my own cornmeal and all kinds of dried beans etc.. But really I would use it mostly for wheat. 

What I am really excited about is that I can make my own whole wheat pastry flour now. It's just a matter of having the right kind of wheat. Flour made from Hard White Wheat is ideal for breads, but for cookies, biscuits, cakes, muffin etc., one needs to mill Soft White Wheat and that still gives you the healthy whole wheat yet gives the tenderness and lightness that these kind of recipes need. 

I am ready to play!

Freezer Biscuits

This is my favorite recipe for biscuits! First of all it is so easy to make second, the recipe makes two dozen biscuits and third you can make them ahead of time and freeze the uncooked biscuits and pull out what you need. You can also freeze them after you bake them as well. But the best part is that they taste great- so light and tender. It is the only biscuit recipe that I make now. I need to find one that is more food storage friendly but for now this is it!

To even take this recipe to higher levels substitute half the flour with pastry flour, but no more than half.  The biscuits will just melt in your mouth.

Freezer Biscuits

6 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for counter

2 T. sugar

2 T. baking powder

1 1/2 t. salt

4 1/2 cups heavy cream (I use 1% milk for the last half cup)

Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in the cream with a wooden spoon until a dough forms, about 30 seconds. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and gather into a ball. Knead the dough briefly until smooth, about 60 seconds, adding extra flour as needed if the dough is too sticky. Pat the dough into a ¾ inch thick circle. Cut out the biscuits using a 2 ½ inch round biscuit cutter. Lay the biscuits on prepared baking sheet, placing each biscuit about ½ inch apart. Gather up the scraps of dough and reknead them briefly to combine, then pat the dough again into a ¾ inch thick round and cut more biscuits; repeat this process for a third time. You can either discard any remaining bits of dough or gently pat them into rustic hand-formed biscuits.

 

To store: Wrap the baking sheet tightly with greased plastic wrap and freeze the biscuits until frozen solid, about 6 hours. Transfer the frozen biscuits to a large zipper-top bag and freeze for up to one month. To serve: Adjust an oven rack to the upper middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Lay the biscuits in parchment lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart, and bake until puffed and golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. If you have to use two baking sheets for a large amount of biscuits only cooking one baking sheet at a time.

 

To serve right away: After cutting out the biscuits, spread them out over 2 parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake the biscuits one sheet at a time, at 450, reducing the baking time to 15 to 20 minutes (12 minutes if cooking before freezing).

Stir Fry Chicken with Coconut and Lime

I made this recipe the other night for the first time and my kids loved it! In fact they requested that I make it again tomorrow night. I loved it too! It's all about the sauce! In fact there was not enough sauce for our liking and I will try doubling it next time. We pretty much love anything thing with coconut milk. Coconut milk does not taste anything like coconut flakes- I can't stand coconut-but we love anything made with coconut milk. The other ingredient that might be a turn off is Fish Sauce (Cindy!). Yes, it smells bad, but when you cook with it you can't smell anything and it adds great taste- a little goes long way. I personally have added coconut milk and fish sauce to my food storage, we use it that much.

Stir-Fried Chicken with Lime and Coconut

3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts halves

juice of 2 limes

4 t. olive oil

2 red Serrano chilies, seeded and finely chopped

1 (14 oz.) can coconut milk (find lite if possible)

4 t. fish sauce

8 scallions, chopped

2/3 cup chopped cilantro

cooked jasmine or short grain rice

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces. In a medium bowl, combine the chicken and lime juice. Stir well and let marinate for 1 hour( I did about 15 minutes and it was fine).

In wok or large skillet, heat the oil over high heat. Add the chicken and stir fry the chicken 3 to 4 minutes or until golden brown. Add the chilies and stir fry 1 minute more. Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, half the green onions and half the cilantro. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes more. Serve with rice, sprinkling the remaining green onions and cilantro over top.  Serves 4

Spicy Macaroni and Cheese Soup

This is a soup we make when Michael goes out of town. The other non-cheese person just has to make do with something else. We love it! It's easy and spicy depending on the kind of Rotel tomatoes you buy. "Original" flavor works just fine for us and delivers the right kind of heat. Don't scoff at the Velveeta cheese, it's perfect for this soup.

Spicy Macaroni & Cheese Soup

2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni or other short pasta

4 cups chicken broth

2 (14 oz. cans) Rotel tomatoes

1 lb. Velveeta cheese, cubed

salt and pepper

Bring water to a boil and cook pasta. Drain. Meanwhile heat the broth and the tomatoes to a simmer in a large saucepan over medium heat. Gradually add Velveeta cheese and stir until melted. Stir in the cooked past and heat through. Season with salt and pepper. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Banana Bread

A couple of weeks ago we had a Banana Bread Bake-off at work. Adrian, the head Horticulturist had got a bunch of bananas for real cheap and on a whim passed them out challenging everyone to a Banana Bread Bake-off. I was game, I had a good recipe to share. I thought this was just a fun diversion. When I showed up three days later within my banana bread I was stunned. It wasn't what I thought, they were serious. The Conference room was set up with about 3 long tables, with tablecloths and charger plates. We had to fill out papers and our loaves of bread were assigned numbers.  Gulp...I should of known that competing with Food Consumer Science Agents, Master Gardner's and 4-H staffers would of taken on a more serious tone. They even brought in outside judges, three county employees for judges. Anyway needless to say I did not win..but that is okay for now I have walked away with some good banana bread recipes- can't have enough of those.  Here is the winning recipe:

First Place Banana Bread

3 eggs. beaten

2/3 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup applesauce or pear sauce

4 ripe bananas mashed

1 t. vanilla

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 1/2 cups sugar

2 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1/2 - 1 t. cinnamon

1/2 - 1 t. nutmeg

Preheat oven to 325. Spray two 8 x 4 loaf pans with vegetable spray. With mixer, combine eggs,  yogurt, oil, applesauce, bananas and vanilla. Sift together in a different large bowl- flours, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir into banana mixture. Combine well, but do not over mix. Pour into prepared loaf pans.

Make a topping of 3 T. sugar, 3 T. finely chopped nuts, 1 t. cinnamon and generous dash of nutmeg. Press into the top of the unbaked loaves.

Bake 1 hour and 20 minutesor until cake tester comes out clean(when I cooked it is was done in just over an hour-so check) .

Marie's Granola

I am so glad that over the past few years that my kids have changed their desires for sweet cereals over to better healthy cereals, even without much prodding from myself. Oh sure, who doesn't love Lucky Charms once in awhile, but I love to see them make better choices. I have tried a few recipes for granola over the years, but this one seems to be the best. The secretary Marie, at my office shared this with me and we love it. I worried at first when she told me that the wheat flakes in the granola were "Total" cereal. We are not big fans of "Total", but they work just great here and the kids have no idea. The first time I made this I added dried cranberries, but one kid wouldn't eat it because of it, so this time I left out dried fruit and decided to let everyone add their own dried fruit whenever they decide to eat it.

Marie's Granola

6 cups regular oats or "old-fashion"

1 (12 oz.) box or Total cereal

3 cups each: Rice Krispies, Puffed Wheat, Puffed Rice

1 cup sliced almonds

In a very large bowl, mix cereals together.

Syrup:

1/2 cup honey

3/4 cup canola oil

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup water

1 T. vanilla

2 t. salt

Mix syrup ingredients in medium bowl and heat in microwave 3 minutes until sugar is dissolved. Pour mixture over cereal. Stir to moisten the cereal.

Spray 2 large cookie sheets (with edges) with vegetable spray. Bake 1 1/2 hours at 225. Remove trays from oven; stir mixture and return to oven. Bake another 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and stir. Leave on cookie sheets until cool, stirring occasionally. Make sure granola is dry and cool before storing.

Eat as a snack or pour milk over for cereal. Very good!

*Marie told me that she triples the amount of cereal, mixes it and then bags it and uses her food saver machine to seal multiple bags. When she is ready to use it, she will then make the syrup and then add to it.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

Balsamic Vinegar is a favorite condiment at out house and  we all love balsamic vinaigrette on salads. Last night I just threw together a spinach salad for dinner and as I was making it I realized that I seldom buy salad dressing in a bottle anymore.  We do love a light ranch that I buy at certain store where we live from time to time, but really I just make vinaigrette's. This recipe is from Real Simple magazine. The honey makes it a kind of thicker vinaigrette that the family really enjoys. I double the recipe listed below.

Real Simple Balsamic Vinaigrette

2 T. extra virgin olive oil

2 T. balsamic vinegar

1 T. honey

1 T. coarse-grain dry mustard (I just used my Grey Poupon Dijon out of the frig)

1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper

2 garlic cloves, peeled and halved.

Whisk in a bowl or place ingredients in a small jar with tight fitting lid. Cover and shake vigorously. Leave the garlic in the dressing until ready to use, then remove and discard it.

Quick Rise Whole Wheat Bread

I consider myself to be a pretty good bread maker, not that I do it as often as I wish. I am pretty picky when it comes to "healthy" type breads. I don't want it to taste "healthy", I want it to taste great and be healthy. Is that too much to ask?! I have been searching for the best whole wheat bread recipe. I have made some good ones, but I wasn't super crazy about any of them. This recipe is from a class I took at our local extension office. What I like about this bread is of course, it tastes great, and it's soft and squishy like white bread..you close your eyes and texture feels the same as white bread and not hardened brick like some. The other great thing about this recipe is that it is so easy, just dump all the ingredients in and go. 

Now you do have to have a good mixer that can do bread. I always used my Kitchen Aid until the end of last year.  The Kitchen Aid was great, but I could only do two loaves at a time. I wanted to make 4 or 5 at a time so I could freeze some and pull them out when needed. I splurged and bought myself a Bosch mixer. It is the best!! Expensive? Yes...but this is a high quality home bread mixer and so far as been worth every cent! I love it!

Quick Rise Whole Wheat Bread

2 3/4 cups hot water (about 120 degrees)

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup vegetable oil or lecithin

1/4 cup honey

1 T. salt

1 1/2 t. lemon juice

7  to 8 cups whole wheat flour

1/3 cup vital wheat gluten

1-2 T. instant yeast

Add ingredients in the order listed to bread mixing bowl. Using a dough hook, mix well and add more flour if needed so that the dough cleans the sides of the bowl. Knead for 10 minutes. Shape into 2 or 3 loaves depending on the size of your bread pans. Spray bread pans before adding dough. Cover with a tented plastic sack or cloth and let rise 1 hour. It is ready to go in the oven when double in bulk. Preheat oven to 400, when ready to put bread in oven turn down to 350 and bake 25 to 30 minutes.

If anyone is interested in how to make four loaves out of this recipe or tips or questions on bread making techniques please let me know. If not, ENJOY!

Teriyaki Chicken (attempt #1)

We love to eat Teriyaki Chicken when we go out to eat. At home, my attempts over the years have been unremarkable. In effort to renew this quest I tried the following recipe. This recipe is made with bone-in, skin-on, chicken thighs. That might sound awful to some, but chicken thighs in general stay moist (dark meat) compared to a breast (the white meat) and leaving the skin on helps keep the meat from drying out. Just pull the skin off before you eat and no worries.  I liked this recipe, but the kids told me that they want it boneless and in bite size pieces like you find at the restaurants. Okay, that will be the next try. 

I am also trying to move the family over to brown rice. We love rice at our house, in fact I have probably 100 pounds of long grain and 100 pounds of short grain in my food storage and we eat rice at least once or twice a week. Converting them to brown has not been easy, but I have been slowly trying to do so more and more. I don't think you can tell in the picture above, but the rice is half white short grain and half brown short grain. Last time I used only 1/4 of brown rice, now I went with half. Of course only 1 child noticed, the one that always does and was not thrilled. A friend of mine told me that she learned to put a whole bunch of different rices and certain grains in a pressurer cooker together and let it go, so I am very inspired.

Teriyaki Chicken-Stovetop (Attempt #1)

8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 5 oz. each), trimmed of excess fat and skin

black pepper

2 t. vegetable oil

1/2 cup soy sauce (I use low-sodium)

1/2 cup sugar

2 T. mirin*

1/2 t. freshly grated ginger

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 t. cornstarch

Rinse and pat chicken dry with paper towels, then season with pepper. Heat oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just beginning to smoke. Place chicken skin side down in skillet. Cook until skin is seep brown and very crisp 16 to 20 minutes, checking browning after 10 minutes and adjust heat if needed. 

Meanwhile, whisk soy sauce, sugar, mirin, ginger, garlic and garlic together in a small bowl.

Remove chicken from skillet; using tongs flip chicken thighs. Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook until second side is brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center of thigh (not touching bone) registers about 175 degrees. 

Pour off fat from skillet. Add soy mixture, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer. Turn chicken to coat with sauce and simmer until sauce is thick and glossy, about 3 minutes. Place chicken on a platter, transfer sauce to a small bowl and serve, passing sauce separately. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

*Mirin is a sweet rice wine vinegar readily found in the ethnic part of your grocery store. Mirin is the key component of teriyaki .

Sweet and Spicy Kielbasa

thanks Alyssa for taken a pic why mom was gone!

We love kielbasa at our house, pork, turkey, smoked sausage, you  name it, we love it. This is one of our favorite ways to prepare it. This is even a crock pot recipe. For my family I have to almost double the recipe or there will be a fight. We serve this with a broccoli salad and my oatmeal rolls.

Sweet and Spicy Kielbasa

2 lbs. kielbasa, cut into 2 to 3 inch chunks

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

6 T. spicy mustard

1 onion, sliced

Put kielbasa and onions in sprayed crock pot. Combine brown sugar and mustard and pour over kielbasa. Cook for 3-4 hours on HIGH, stirring occasionally. Suppose to make 6 servings.

Broiled Ham Steak with Mustard Glaze

The first time I made this recipe I could not find traditional ham steaks at the store and ended up buying 2 (22 oz.) packages of Hillshire Farm Brown Sugar Ham Steaks, each package had 4 thick slices of bone-in ham and it worked perfectly for our family. This year I could not find either, so I remembered Sue from church told me that the best ham was a Hormel Cure 81 ham.  So I bought a small bag of presliced ham for almost $6 a pound..ouch..but you know what? It is good!  Anyway these were thin slices so I knew I had to be careful. But what is great about this recipe is that you put the glaze on, put it under the broiler for a minutes, turn them over, glaze again, cook for a few minutes and voila they are done. Easy, Easy! Every time I make this Michael and the kids exclaim that this is the best ham ever. Okay I will take that.. easy and great- that is what I am all about!

Broiled Ham Steak with Mustard Glaze

1 center cut ready to eat ham steak

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

2 t. dry mustard

2 T. vinegar

Place ham in a sprayed shallow pan. Combine brown sugar and mustard. Mix in vinegar; spread over ham. Broil ham under moderate heat until slightly browned; turn, baste and brown second side until lightly browned. Serves 4

Hoppin' John

Eat poor that day, eat rich the rest of the year.  
Rice for riches and peas for peace.
- Southern saying on eating a dish of Hoppin' John on New Year's Day.

Hoppin' John?! Mom always made us eat Hoppin' John on New Years Day. She said it was tradition and if we wanted good luck for the new year than we had to eat it. Now I have to say, for me growing up, uh..Hoppin' John was not my favorite..sorry mom.. that was before I liked peas and beans stage. Of course as an adult I have reformed my ways and love peas and bean with rice of all kinds. This is the recipe that I fix for my family and thank goodness they are not like I was...

Hoppin' John

1 T. olive oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 red bell pepper. chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 cups cooked black-eyed peas

1 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

1 cup uncooked long grain rice

6 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled

Tabasco sauce (optional)

Heat oil in a large saucepot over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper and garlic and cook until translucent. Add the black-eyed peas, stirring to combine. Add 1 1/2 cups water, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Add the rice. Bring back to a boil, cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, then remove from heat and let stand covered for additional 5 to 10 minutes. Uncover, taste and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper. Add dashes of Tabasco and crumbled bacon on top. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread

For New Years Day, I made Broiled Ham with Mustard Glaze, Hoppin' John, sauteed cabbage and the BEST cornbread on the planet! The cornbread stole the show for me! I am typically a "sweet" cornbread kind of gal but I decided to break out of my box and try something different for a change. This recipe comes from celebrity chef Ina Garten, who I happen to be a big fan of and love trying all of her recipes. This one has been in the file for awhile and I thought I would give this one a try. Oh my...moist, rich, light in texture, melt in your mouth kind of good - I do declare- "Heaven on a Plate!"

When I made this recipe I was a bit nervous, like I said I am "sweet" cornbread kind of gal and I only put one jalapeno it- wrong! Next time full jalapenos!! And I used regular cheddar cheese and not extra sharp because that is what I had on hand. Ina stated that if you actually want to taste the cheese to use extra sharp and she was right we could only taste the cheese on top. Extra-Sharp next time.  

Now I would say that this recipe for cornbread would be a special occasion cornbread for the amount of calories it unfortunately contains- but if you really want to impress someone and knock their socks off this is it! Use it! It's easy too. Can one really dream of cornbread....?

Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread

3 cups all pupose flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1/4 cup sugar

2 T. baking powder

2 t. kosher salt

2 cups milk

3 extra large eggs, lightly beaten

2 sticks unsalted butter, melted

8 oz. aged extra-sharp Cheddar, grated, divided

3 scallions, chopped- plus extra for garnish

3 T. seeded and minced fresh jalapeno peppers (2 to 3 Peppers)

Combine the flour,cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In a seperate bowl, combine the milk, eggs and butter. With a wooden spoon, stir the wet ingredients into the dry until most of the lumps are dissolved. Don't overmix! Mix in 2 cups of the grated cheese, the scallions and jalapenos and allow the mixture ot sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top and sprinkle with remaining cheddar and extra chopped scallions. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool and cut into squares. Serve warm or at room temperature.

New Year Eve

This year we had planned to share New Years Eve with friends, but as most of you know Alyssa is in the recovering stage of pneumonia and the doctor advised us from having anyone over. It was a bummer, especially for Alyssa. Even though it was not as we planned we still enjoyed a nice quiet evening together. When I thought we were having company we were planning to have Tiny Spicy Chicken, Fried Rice, Simple Lo Mein, Asian Salad and Egg Rolls.  I stuck with the menu for the most part, but made just enough for us. 

I am including the recipe for the Tiny Spicy Chicken and the Lo Mein, but I do not have pictures of the Lo Mein and Fried Rice. I had used the rest of a bottle of premium Japanese dark soy sauce and I forgot that using the dark soy really turns everything a dark brown. They still tasted great, but did not look too appetizing. The Fried Rice recipe is just something I throw together, so there is no real recipe, but I did learn years ago that if you mix soy sauce with oyster sauce you get a nice deep flavor to the fried rice that you would not get if you just use soy sauce. Delicious!

The recipe for Tiny Spicy Chicken comes from my good friend Brenda. I have adapted it to fit my lazy way of cooking at times. Sort of tastes like Boneless Buffalo Chicken wings. This is a family favorite and the kids would eat it all the time, but really we eat it about every other month.  I just can't cook too repetitiously ..I don't know why...

Tiny Spicy Chicken

1 large bag of frozen batter dip chicken nuggets (not the bread crumb kind)

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing sauce

Bake frozen chicken nuggets according to package directions. Meanwhile combine brown sugar and wing sauce in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer until sugar is dissolved. When chicken is done, place the chicken in large sprayed baking dish. Pour wing sauce over top and stir to combine. Return to oven and cook 10 more minutes stirring half way in between. This helps the sauce to adhere and coat the the chicken thoroughly.

Soo good!