OK -
Seriously y'all...I have fallen completely head over heels, infatuated, all I can think about, in LUV with "America's Test Kitchen".
It airs on my local PBS station (yes, I enjoy public broadcasting. So there!) every day, and is totally amazing.
Basically, they take a recipe go through every possible variation of technique, advice, and make all the mistakes, and find all the best ways to do things!
Last time I watched it all the way through, they were doing pepperoni pizza...not a difficult thing to make right?
Did you know that to cut down on the grease from things like sausage, pepperoni, or any other meat that you can cook it on a paper towel, in your microwave for about 1 minute? That cooks it enough to release most of the grease, absorb it in the paper towel, and it cuts your cooking time down, making sure your crust isn't too crunchy?
To check it out... go to America's Test Kitchen
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Hint for Putting up Sweet Corn
I was watching the Today show this week & they had a guest chef. He was cutting fresh corn off the cob. He took a Bundt pan, stood the corn cob up on the hole in the middle of the pan, and cut the corn off into the pan. The hole keeps the cob from slipping around & the pan catches all the corn to keep it from rolling off on the floor.
I thought this was brilliant & fully plan on trying it out in a few weeks when the 8,000,000 stalks of corn my husband planted start coming in! Maybe I can use it as an excuse to get a new fancy Bundt pan (No, honey, I can't use the corn pan to bake cakes in for pot-lucks! What are you, some kind of barbarian?!).
Toffee Crunch Cookies
Yield: 3 Dozen (see hint below)
1 1/2 Cups sifted flour
1/2 Tsp baking soda
1/2 Tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 Tsp vanilla
1 cup finely chopped Heath Bars (Heath Bits 'o Brickle may be substituted, but you lose the chocolate flavor from the candy bars)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Combine flour, soda, salt
Cream butter, ad sugar, egg, and vanilla; mix until creamy
Stir in dry ingredients, blend in chopped candy bars and pecans.
Drop tablespoons full 2" apart on greased baking sheet
Bake in 350 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes
Hint: If you promised to supply 2 dozen cookies for an event, you should double this recipe to make up for what you eat while baking them.
~Inkling, these are the cookies my dad made for G'ma & G'pa M&M's anniversary party last summer.
1 1/2 Cups sifted flour
1/2 Tsp baking soda
1/2 Tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 Tsp vanilla
1 cup finely chopped Heath Bars (Heath Bits 'o Brickle may be substituted, but you lose the chocolate flavor from the candy bars)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Combine flour, soda, salt
Cream butter, ad sugar, egg, and vanilla; mix until creamy
Stir in dry ingredients, blend in chopped candy bars and pecans.
Drop tablespoons full 2" apart on greased baking sheet
Bake in 350 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes
Hint: If you promised to supply 2 dozen cookies for an event, you should double this recipe to make up for what you eat while baking them.
~Inkling, these are the cookies my dad made for G'ma & G'pa M&M's anniversary party last summer.
Potato Pizza
5 C. peeled & thinly sliced potatoes (I used my slicing blade on my food processor for this)
Pepper
1 1/2 lbs. hamburger
1/2 small onion chopped
1 can (10 3/4 oz) Cheddar Cheese Soup
1 C. milk
4 oz melted cheddar cheese (OK, so in reality I use 2 full cups....there is no such thing as too much cheese)
1 can (10 3/4 oz) tomato soup
1 C. shredded mozzarella cheese.
Grease 9x13 glass Pyrex dish. Lay potatoes out flat in pan in layers. Sprinkle generously with pepper. Brown ground beef and onion. Drain. Stir cheese soup, milk, and melted cheddar cheese together until smooth (works best if cheese and soup are warm. In fact, I do this in a sauce pan over heat as I melt the cheddar cheese). Mix ground beef and cheese mix, spread over potatoes. Bake @ 350 for 1 hour or until potatoes are done.
Top with tomato soup and mozzarella cheese. Bake 5 more minutes or until cheese is melted.
Pepper
1 1/2 lbs. hamburger
1/2 small onion chopped
1 can (10 3/4 oz) Cheddar Cheese Soup
1 C. milk
4 oz melted cheddar cheese (OK, so in reality I use 2 full cups....there is no such thing as too much cheese)
1 can (10 3/4 oz) tomato soup
1 C. shredded mozzarella cheese.
Grease 9x13 glass Pyrex dish. Lay potatoes out flat in pan in layers. Sprinkle generously with pepper. Brown ground beef and onion. Drain. Stir cheese soup, milk, and melted cheddar cheese together until smooth (works best if cheese and soup are warm. In fact, I do this in a sauce pan over heat as I melt the cheddar cheese). Mix ground beef and cheese mix, spread over potatoes. Bake @ 350 for 1 hour or until potatoes are done.
Top with tomato soup and mozzarella cheese. Bake 5 more minutes or until cheese is melted.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Om Nam nam
As a thanks to all those who gave me such great recipes for freezing/easy fixing, I thought I would come by - since there hasn't been a post in a while - with a fabulous dessert my MIL made and passed the recipe on to me. It is so super easy, and so very very yummy. Not healthy. But very yummy.
So without further ado:
Cream Cheese Yummy Bars
2 pkgs cream cheese
2 pkgs Pillsbury or other brand Crescent rolls
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. butter or margarine
Cinnamon
Brown sugar
Press the first package of crescent roll dough into a 9x12 pan
in a separate dish, combine the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla and mix thoroughly.
Spread over crescent dough in pan.
Lay the other package of crescent dough on top of this.
Melt the butter or margarine and pour over the top.
Sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar
bake at 350 for 20 minutes
So without further ado:
Cream Cheese Yummy Bars
2 pkgs cream cheese
2 pkgs Pillsbury or other brand Crescent rolls
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. butter or margarine
Cinnamon
Brown sugar
Press the first package of crescent roll dough into a 9x12 pan
in a separate dish, combine the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla and mix thoroughly.
Spread over crescent dough in pan.
Lay the other package of crescent dough on top of this.
Melt the butter or margarine and pour over the top.
Sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar
bake at 350 for 20 minutes
Friday, June 13, 2008
Zucchini Bread
Ingredients:
3 Eggs
1 C Oil
2 C Sugar
3 tsp Vanilla
2 C Peeled ground, drained zucchini
3 C Flour
3 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 C raisins (or coconut, chocolate chips, or chopped nuts)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350
Sift together flour, cinnamon, salt, soda, and powder. Set aside in a bowl. Beat eggs, add oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. Add zucchini and mix. Add dry ingredients slowly. Bread batter should be closer to "stiff" than "cake-like". Add flour 1 Tbsp at a time if too runny. Add raisins (chips, etc). Grease loaf pans heavily. Bake 45 - 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
This is my all time favorite version of zucchini bread! I enjoy it with chocolate chips more than raisins, as it makes it more dessert-like, and a little more special as a breakfast bread.
This one is lucky to make it through a week, unless I hide the 2nd loaf in the freezer before the family sees it...even Captain Chaos enjoys it, running around shouting "Ma-nummy!" and stealing your piece off your plate if you don't look!
3 Eggs
1 C Oil
2 C Sugar
3 tsp Vanilla
2 C Peeled ground, drained zucchini
3 C Flour
3 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 C raisins (or coconut, chocolate chips, or chopped nuts)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350
Sift together flour, cinnamon, salt, soda, and powder. Set aside in a bowl. Beat eggs, add oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. Add zucchini and mix. Add dry ingredients slowly. Bread batter should be closer to "stiff" than "cake-like". Add flour 1 Tbsp at a time if too runny. Add raisins (chips, etc). Grease loaf pans heavily. Bake 45 - 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
This is my all time favorite version of zucchini bread! I enjoy it with chocolate chips more than raisins, as it makes it more dessert-like, and a little more special as a breakfast bread.
This one is lucky to make it through a week, unless I hide the 2nd loaf in the freezer before the family sees it...even Captain Chaos enjoys it, running around shouting "Ma-nummy!" and stealing your piece off your plate if you don't look!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
My First "You Really Don't Have to Eat That!" Experience
I first met BB almost 9 years ago...and we've been together now for 8. I started out as many of us ladies do...by trying so hard to impress him...
Needless to say, about 4 months after we started dating, I decided I'd had enough of his bachelor ways, and decided to clean his house from top to bottom while he was out of town on business. I was staying to house sit and take care of his cat, and decided after I'd cleaned the whole place (there must have been an inch of dust, and at least 10 loads of laundry and towels...not to mention that the pantry had stuff in it from his house in college!)
He was coming home the next night and I thought to myself "What better way to welcome my sweetie home than with a home-cooked meal?"
I tried the recipe below, but somehow, managed, instead of opening the "Sprinkle" side of the seasoning, I opened the "Spoon" side...and dumped almost 1/4 C of it into the mix...and then I had the stupidity to think to myself "He'll never know!"...OY! Needless to say, I have not used Lowry's Seasoning Salt again...ever.
Ingredients:
1 Family Size box of Rice A Roni (match to your meat choice)
2 Lbs meat, cubed (stew meat, pork loin, or chicken, your choice)
Lowry's Seasoned Salt
Oil
Butter
Directions:
Cook the Rice A Roni according to the package
In a skillet, heat oil and butter, cook meat thoroughly, seasoning to taste.
Mix with Rice A Roni.
Now this is NOT a terribly difficult recipe right?!?!?! Hence my total humiliation upon ruining it by not paying attention...UGH!
Needless to say, about 4 months after we started dating, I decided I'd had enough of his bachelor ways, and decided to clean his house from top to bottom while he was out of town on business. I was staying to house sit and take care of his cat, and decided after I'd cleaned the whole place (there must have been an inch of dust, and at least 10 loads of laundry and towels...not to mention that the pantry had stuff in it from his house in college!)
He was coming home the next night and I thought to myself "What better way to welcome my sweetie home than with a home-cooked meal?"
I tried the recipe below, but somehow, managed, instead of opening the "Sprinkle" side of the seasoning, I opened the "Spoon" side...and dumped almost 1/4 C of it into the mix...and then I had the stupidity to think to myself "He'll never know!"...OY! Needless to say, I have not used Lowry's Seasoning Salt again...ever.
Ingredients:
1 Family Size box of Rice A Roni (match to your meat choice)
2 Lbs meat, cubed (stew meat, pork loin, or chicken, your choice)
Lowry's Seasoned Salt
Oil
Butter
Directions:
Cook the Rice A Roni according to the package
In a skillet, heat oil and butter, cook meat thoroughly, seasoning to taste.
Mix with Rice A Roni.
Now this is NOT a terribly difficult recipe right?!?!?! Hence my total humiliation upon ruining it by not paying attention...UGH!
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