Monday, November 3, 2014

No one says "Tomato".

And you know which pronunciation I mean. So, here I am again, with a recipe that is sort of a recipe. I mean it is a recipe, but I just don't have the instructions. Let me explain.
Have you ever see "Julie & Julia"? Well, if you haven't you should. I got my copy from the $5 display of DVDs at Target. In one scene Julie is making Bruschetta. Every time I watch it my mouth just waters seeing the bread frying in a skillet on her stove and then she cuts up tomatoes that look great. And I don't even like tomatoes. Anyway, so every time I watch that scene, I think "I need to make that."
Well, here just see for yourself:



That's the scene. Doesn't it look fantastic? When I went to grocery shop I was determined to purchase the ingredients for it. The one thing though is that there is like, no set recipe for it. Its up to interpretation. But at the same time there are like, 4 ingredients. I though I could handle that. And I did! With no real recipe to guide me. Just what I saw in the movie. So, shall we get started?

Ingredients:
Tomatoes, olive oil, basil, and bread. In the movie they ate some sort of sausage and I thought that was a good simple protein to go with it.




I just followed the package directions for that, and aside from burning it slightly...It turned out fine.
I think the amount of tomatoes was a little too much for two people, but it turned out OK, my husband ate the leftovers that same day. I diced up the tomatoes and the basil (which was fresh-ish, but a step up from dried which is usually what I always use) and tossed them with a little salt.



Now for the part I was really looking forward too. Pan searing the bread! Or is it pan frying? Anyway, I just put some olive oil in the pan and set the burner to medium heat and patiently waited.



And look at that fantastic result! I mean, come on! It was perfect! Now the sausage...


It was just a little crispier than it should have been, it tasted just fine.


As you can see my second batch got just a little darker, but still tasted great!


Before you ask, yes I did eat this. I am not a fan of basil. I think I would go a little less on that and I would've liked it a lot more. Also I don't really like tomatoes. Yeah, I think I just wanted the bread. But my husband liked it plenty! He ate pretty much all of it, and the leftovers. Well, enjoy!

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Wonderful Peaches

Peaches for me.
So its a bit late in the season for peaches now, but that didn't stop me from wanting to make a peach pie! Going to a BBQ tomorrow, even though it will probably be inside, seeing as its supposed to SNOW tonight. Blerg.
Anyway, I am making this pie for a get together and I wanted to be impressive, so I made a pie from scratch. Look at all the impressiveness in this one blog!
Actually, I was going to use frozen but than my husband asked for fresh because he doesn't care for the premade stuff. Well, OK, change of plans.
First! I made a pie crust. I actually made 2 pies, one cherry. That was just premade filling since cherry anything is the worst. I am picky, but I am also selective. I like bananas, but no banana flavored candies. That kind of thing.
I CANNOT STAND ANYTHING CHERRY.
Its all terrible. But, cherry was requested, and I even thought of making that one from fresh cherries until I could't find any in the store. So premade for that one. Anyway, I made the crusts ahead of time, and I didn't take any pictures. Since its pie crust though, its not that hard and doesn't really need pictures. Here is the recipe I used:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1 1/2 tsps sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 stick cold butter cut into pieces, and 1/2 cup cold water

Combine flour, sugar, and salt into bowl.Mix in butter on low speed, until it looks like coarse meal. Mix in half the water on low speed, then mix in the rest, slowly. Pack the dough into a small ball and wrap with plastic wrap and set in fridge for minimum of an hour, max over night.


Now onto the main event...like no king was before....

Crumb Topped Peach Pie
Doesn't the name just sound scrumptious? I thought so, I may even try this one! I know, I know, get those jaws off the floor. I, the picky eater, will dare to try this pie. Maybe.

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar, 1/3 cup cornstarch, 1/8 tsp salt, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp almond extract, 6 cups peaches peeled and sliced
Crumb topping: 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar, 1/2 cup all purpose flour, and 1/4 cup margarine 


Directions:

First, how do you peel peaches with out wasting precious fruit? Never fear, I have an answer! Actually my recipe did. Submerge the peach in boiling water for 30 seconds. Then, take the peach out with a slotted spoon and plunge it into ice water. Take it out, pierce with pairing knife and it should peel right off!


A few notes on the peaches. I had no idea how many cups I would get out of how many peaches, so I bought 7. 2 were HUGE and I left them in the boiling water for almost a minute. That's another thing, I left my regular sized peaches in for about 45 seconds because I had left mine in the fridge over night so they wouldn't go rotten on me in the middle of the night. So they were super cold and took longer to "cook". Adjust were you see fit.


Shocking.


There they are. All peeled and sliced. It was really easy, and I will definitely do it again, it was no trouble as all. But rather messy. 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt and egg in a large bowl. Add peaches to bowl. Toss gently with sugar mixture.


Arrange peaches in pie crust. 


I got my crust out of the fridge and laid it down on my cool pie measuring sheet thing from Pampered chef. It helps me keep a somewhat circle shape to my dough. I think I will use it for pizza too, since my pizza's turn in to weird rectangles rather than circles.

For topping combine sugar, brown sugar,flour and margarine into a small bowl. Crumble together with hands (what I chose), pastry cutter, or fork until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of pie and place in oven for 30 minutes. Put aluminum foil under pie to catch drippings...Something I did not do...



And there we are all done! I looked in half way just to check up on it and found a big sploch on the bottom of my oven. This runs over a lot! It gets kinda soupy, I am sure it will taste fine, once it sits in the fridge for a few hours it should thicken up and not be hard to serve. It smells AMAZING. I even at some of the topping before it was cooked and that by itself was good. But its hard to go wrong with sugar.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Saucy is a Fun Word

Say it with me, "Saucy".
You totally said that in a British accent in your head, didn't you? Well, if you didn't, I did. Trust me.
Its been awhile, I know. But the last few recipes I've made have been bombs. And not in a good way.
Not like, "Wow, that dinner was the bomb!"
More like, "Wow, that dinner bombed."
See the distinction?
So I had to wait for sometime until I got a good one. Thus I present to you:
Saucy Beef Casserole
I got the recipe out of my Taste of Home 5 - Ingredient Cookbook. Its a super handy cook book that I got for Christmas a few years back.


It has tasty recipes(Like I would know), and they are quick and cheap, since there are only 5 ingredients. This recipe has been the first one in a while to get a "Please make that again!" from my husband. There isn't much to it, so I thought why not share?
So lets get right down to it shall we?

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef(not pictured), 1 medium onion chopped, 1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup undiluted, 1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed vegetable soup undiluted, 3/4 cup chow mein noodles


Ok, I am going to address the onion. Why does ever casserole have onion? Onion is terrible. But not only that is seems like all casserole recipes call for an extensive amount of onion. I don't know if I am just buying my onions too big or what but when I chop up a quarter of an onion it seems like A LOT. And I think, "They want me to put in a whole onion?! It would be like 2 cups of onions!" So I only used a half of a half. And that seemed just right. Now I know you can more or less onion depending on your taste preferences, but to me it always seems like the recipe asked for way to much onion. There, my onion rant is over.

Directions:
In a skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; Drain. Stir in soups



So the recipe didn't specify what kind of vegetable soup so I grabbed Vegetarian Vegetable Soup. That also had alphabet noodles. I guess vegetarians can have fun soups too.


Doesn't that look....gross?


OK, here is another place I deviate from the recipe. It doesn't call out for Cayenne Pepper but I added about a teaspoon or so. The reason is my husband. He likes flavorful food. Usually when I make something he says, "It was good, it just needed more flavor!"
And I, like the guy in Oliver Twist, would respond, "MOOOOORE?"
So, when I was making this I thought, "He wants flavor, well he is gonna get it!" 
And he really liked it. So I made a note of it in the cookbook so I wouldn't forget!

Pour into a greased 8in baking pan. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Uncover and top with chow mein noodles. Cook for 5 minutes.


There done! Told you it was quick, easy, and cheap! FYI, I used the whole bag of noodles to top it with. If I used the 3/4 of a cup it called for then I would have been left with a mouth full in the bag and I wasn't about to wrap that up and put in the the cupboard to go bad. I passed from partaking of this casserole. Are you surprised? But my husband loved it as usual. And his opinion is really the only one that matters since he is the one consuming the food. Ta ta for now!

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

2014 Already?

Hello!
Back at it! I have made other recipes since my last post, but I either forgot to take pics or was in a hurry and did not OR the recipe sucked.
Not much new here. My daughter is down for a nap so I have anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours until she wakes up. She is all over the place! Yesterday she was so tired and cranky but when I put her down for a nap it took like 2 hours to get her to sleep. She is a fighter.  Doesn't want to miss anything. She was awake when I made this dish during that 2 hour time period. At one point I just gave up, put her in her exersaucer and said, "You'll just have to cry it out in there."
And boy, did she. She was unhappy with me! So I am not sure if I will have to many amusing anecdotes for this recipe since my daughter was wailing because she was too tired. So tired that when I put her in her crib for a nap she was to exhausted to sleep. Kids. I find it so strange (maybe ironic is a better word)that as a kid all you want to do is stay up and not go to bed. But as an adult all you want to do is sleep. *shrug*
Well, I am getting used to the less sleep thing. I will have to if I am just going to add more children to my current 1 at some point. On with the recipe!
Jalapeno Beef and Corn Bread Pie
I got this recipe from my mom. About 15 to 16 years ago she signed up for this club were you get recipe cards every month. She was apart of it for like a year or 2 and canceled it because she noticed she hardly used them. She kept them anyway, since it was expensive. I just looked them up on ebay and all the cards are going for like 15 bucks. Ouch. Anyway, when I got married I ask if she had any cook books she didn't want and she gave me her set of cards. Its not a complete set since she cancelled the subscription but there are a lot. I took them, but also don't use them as much. But to make a long story short(too late), I am using one!

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef, 1 cup yellow cornmeal, 1 cup milk, 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 Tbsp melted shortening, 1 (8 oz) can creamed corn, 3/4 tsp salt, 1 large grated onion, 1 lb sharp shredded cheddar cheese, 5 canned chopped jalapenos

I searched, and I searched for whole canned jalapenos but I couldn't find them! So I bought the chopped ones and just guessed on the amount later. I also bought a whole new cornmeal, because I thought I didn't have any. I was wrong, there was a can in my pantry that I found when I got home. I looked at the expatriation date. June 2011. Yeah, I hadn't needed cornmeal for over 2 years.....Good thing I got new! 


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown ground beef on medium-high heat. Drain fat.


In a separate bowl combine cornmeal, milk, eggs, baking soda, shortening, corn, and salt. 


Action shots!


Grease a 10 inch ovenproof skillet or baking pan (If you have a skillet, that is super cool. I, however, do not own a skillet. So I chose my nice stone pie pan from pampered chef. Use whatever works best for you!). Spoon (I poured mine. I am such a rebel) half the bread batter mix into bottom of pan.


Spread beef over that, and top with jalapenos, onion, and cheese.


OK, so I tried grating my onion. It didn't really work. It sorta just, mushed into nothing. I have tried grating an onion before so I don't know if there was some sort of trick to it, but it did not work for me. I ended up chopping the onion, and only using half of it. 

Spread remaining bread batter over top, covering completely. Bake 50 minutes or until golden brown on top.


Ta da!!!! It turned out great! My husband really enjoyed it, but he said next time to add more spice to it. He likes spicy flavorful things. He really like it the way it was but said next time to add something else to it o make it really kick. I am not sure what though. Garlic? More jalapenos? If anyone out there has any suggestions let me know. I wouldn't eat it to see what could have made it better. Onions and jalapenos and creamed corn? Pass! I had a ham sandwich for dinner and I was very happy.