Thursday, February 9, 2012
THE-WALL-O-SHAME!
Staples I can't Live Without
Angel choir begins to sing, the sun comes out from behind a cloud, and cast a beam on... Pureed Ginger.
O.K maybe it wasn't that melodramatic, but it was one of those AHA! moments. This is ingenious. Ginger is so tough and fibrous- such a pain to work with.
I love Asian food, so this is a Godsend for me.
I'm still experimenting, but I think you need only about 1/4 the ginger a recipe calls for- if you switch to pureed.
Love this stuff. I'm going to add a new tag -Staples I can't Live Without - and many will have recipes for that product.
Recipe for - Pureed Ginger @ Recipe 4 All
My all time favorite product is bottled minced garlic. I don't know what type of garlic is used for this, but it must be a better variety than most of the fresh garlic bulbs I've used.
I go through about 4 -5 quarts a year. So you might not want to stand too close. :) Anytime I try a new recipe, and think there's somethin' missin' ...PLOP! in goes the garlic, that usually fixes it.
It's touted as one of the "superfoods", also keeps vampires and unwanted relatives away! good stuff.
Once I discovered Chipotles in Adobo sauce, I was so intrigued by these smoked jalapenos, I started trying them in many of my existing recipes. If you want to add a southwest flair to a dish, try puree-ing 1 or 2 of these in the sauce. The flavor is truly unique. I also use the adobo sauce in the can for cooking. It picks up the flavor of the chipotle but not the heat.
I try to keep a container in the fridge at all times, but my husband finds them ( He eats them like candy-yuk) So I keep a can or 2 hidden behind my spice jars....shhhh.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Fried Chicken Salad, Cream of Broccoli Soup and Cream Puffs.
Whenever I make fried chicken salad, I always laugh, being reminded of my 3 boys, when they were growing up.
They would run a very effective scam on me while I was frying.
I call it the 'wolf pack'. One of them would walk in and ask me a question. Her I am, all excited because someone wanted my opinion, finally, my chance to give sage advise. Whilst I am distracted, giddy with glee, the other two wolves make their move.
They snatch a few handfuls of chicken, French fries, etc.. and stealthily make their way back into the bedroom, where they split up the booty. It took a few years, but I finally figured it out, after having spent 45 minutes making French fries, and the dish wasn't getting any fuller. Stinkers!
Cream of Broccoli Soup
Fried Chicken Salad
Cream Puffs
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Baking With The Grandkids-Cookie Day!
Baking with kids can be a lot of fun, Wide eyes getting a glimpse at the first batch of cookies being pulled from the oven. After that it's a mixed bag of "Are they done yet", Fingers poking the perfectly uniform dough (several of them) Fighting over who gets to use the red paint. But it was worth it in the end.
Yep, it was worth it! :)
I tried the recipe for vanilla almond sugar cookies from Kelly at Eat Yourself Skinny Really good recipe. Then I found a recipe for cookie paint at Food.com
I had to use about 4 times the corn syrup it called for but it turned out perfect.
The kids had a great time painting their cookies, I think we have a new addition to Cookie Day
Here are the recipes for:
Kolacky Cookies
English Toffee Cookies
Friday, February 3, 2012
Breakfast Horseshoe For Dinner
Aaron made me do it. He whined and cried until I made breakfast horseshoes for dinner.
Yep, it's all here Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Cheese, potatoes, gravy-plus- a biscuit to lighten it up a bit.
Move over Paula Deen....way over, dear.... there's a new fat lady in town.
I think I'll have a couple of biscuits and call it quits on this one. Too rich for me.
All kidding aside. I've taken pride in the fact that my family has extremely low cholesterol, normal blood pressure, blood sugar. Even though I post these kinds of recipes, we only have this kind of meal occasionally. Lots of veggies, that's the key to good health, but you don't need me to tell you that.
Ingredients:
biscuits or toast
1 recipe Sausage Gravy
1 recipe Bacon Egg And Cheese Scramble
1 recipe Breakfast Baked Potatoes
How to build a Breakfast Horseshoe
Sausage Gravy
Ingredients:
1lb. mild breakfast sausage- I use Bob Evans country mild
2tbl oil (omit this if you are using a sausage with a lot of fat)
1 can evaporated milk
6tbl. flour
3cups water
Preparation:
Brown sausage in a skillet. Don't drain meat drippings, you'll need it for the roux.
Add the flour and whisk for about 1 minute.
Add the milk and water and whisk until smooth .
Cook and stir (scraping the bottom) until the gravy just begins to boil.
The gravy will thicken as it cools. Add more water if needed.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
The Liebster Blog Award
I have only been a part of this amazing community for 3 weeks.
It would have been enough, that I have received such a warm welcome.
I've discovered so many wonderful bloggers and recipes.
To my amazement, Laura from The Art Of Cooking Real Food
Has awarded me with The Liebster Blog Award. What an honor, Thank You Laura!
The Liebster Blog Liebster is German and translates to "dearest" or "favorite" It is meant for up and coming blogs with less than 200 followers
Here are the rules:
-Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
-Link back to the blogger who presented the award.
-Copy and paste the blog award on your blog
-Present The Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed.
-Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog.
It was really difficult to choose only 5 blogs.