Here are my apples post baking
And post mixing...soooo yummy!
I was so excited to see a huge stash of apples in this week's basket. I can't wait to make the applesauce again! Or maybe I'll give this recipe a try.
Showing posts with label Recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recipes. Show all posts
Homemade Applesauce
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We've been getting lots of apples in our Baskets over the past few weeks, and we just can't eat them fast enough. At least not before they start to soften up beyond our liking. I had been wanting to make some applesauce, but kept forgetting about it until I was well into the dinner prep. Finally one night this week I made pork spare ribs, and decided applesause would be the perfect pairing. I found this recipe and thought it was worth a try since it couldn't possibly be any easier. I didn't even measure anything. Just dropped shakes of brown sugar and cinnamon, and voila! I tasted the baked apples before adding the sugar and cinnamon, and they were yummy just as is, but Andrew insisted that I add the extra ingredients. Even better!
Here are my apples post baking
And post mixing...soooo yummy!
I was so excited to see a huge stash of apples in this week's basket. I can't wait to make the applesauce again! Or maybe I'll give this recipe a try.
Here are my apples post baking
And post mixing...soooo yummy!
I was so excited to see a huge stash of apples in this week's basket. I can't wait to make the applesauce again! Or maybe I'll give this recipe a try.
Cooking Fool
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Recipes
Ever since Andrew lost his job about a month ago, we've obviously been trying to cut back our spending. This means that our awful habit of eating out somewhat frequently had to go. I really missed my Chick-fil-A and Chipotle during those first two weeks, but since then we've made some really great changes and I'm quite happy!
It all started a few weeks ago when a few of my friends told me about Bountiful Baskets, a fruit and vegetable co-op. For $15 (or $25 for organic), you get TONS of fruits and veggies. On the site they estimate that you get $50 worth of grocery store produce. I had actually first heard of this site a few years ago, but since Andrew is a veggiephobe, I didn't think it was worth it. Enter Caleb who would choose a vegetable or fruit over meat any day of the week and twice on Sunday, and we were starting to think that it might be worth a try. So three weeks ago, on a Tuesday, I made my first contribution to the co-op. I was so excited for Saturday morning (pick-up day) that I didn't sleep well Friday night. I arrived at our pick-up site about 15 minutes early to see rows and rows of baskets lined up in the park. It was a beautiful site. After checking in with the woman in charge, I was led to my gorgeous organic fruits and veggies, which included HUGE red potatoes, broccoli, apples, celery, mango, oranges, cucumbers, onions, turnip, romaine lettuce, pears, tomatoes, and more. I was inspired and decided to check out a local Farmer's market on Sunday morning to pick up some proteins. That was a little disappointing, but I did come home with some buffalo ribeye steaks, eggs, carrots, and some herbs. Then came the fun part, meal planning for the week. Let me just say that I hate grocery shopping and meal planning, but somehow meal planning in reverse (i.e. once I have all the ingredients in my kitchen) has been really exciting.
I picked up our second round of Bountiful Baskets last Saturday in which we received zucchini, asparagus, tomatoes, onions, garlic, pineapple, apples, asian pears, AMAZING bananas, a head of some kind of lettuce, two kinds of mushrooms, basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley, cauliflower, 6 ears of corn, mandarin oranges (I had never seen these unless in a can), and again much, much more. I also checked out another local Farmer's Market that was much more to my liking. I will definitely be going back. Not only are we getting TONS of fresh produce, but it is all SUPER tasty. Andrew has started eating more veggies, we've all started eating more fruits, we're able to purchase local, hormone and antibiotic free meats, and the best part is that we're actually SAVING money and having a ton of fun in the process.
Here are some of the recipes I've tried so far.
Balsamic Roasted Tomatoes
Asparagus with Parmesan
Herbed Roast Chicken
Marinated Buffalo Steaks (just used salad dressing as a marinade)
Buffalo burgers (from Trader Joe's seasoned with Mrs. Dash)
Pepper and Onion Brats (from the Farmer's Market)
And later this week I'm planning to try out Roasted Cauliflower when I cook my Farmer's Market find grass fed beef tip steaks marinaded in olive oil, lemon juice, and some of my fresh garlic and herbs!
I never thought I'd get this excited about food that isn't chocolate!
It all started a few weeks ago when a few of my friends told me about Bountiful Baskets, a fruit and vegetable co-op. For $15 (or $25 for organic), you get TONS of fruits and veggies. On the site they estimate that you get $50 worth of grocery store produce. I had actually first heard of this site a few years ago, but since Andrew is a veggiephobe, I didn't think it was worth it. Enter Caleb who would choose a vegetable or fruit over meat any day of the week and twice on Sunday, and we were starting to think that it might be worth a try. So three weeks ago, on a Tuesday, I made my first contribution to the co-op. I was so excited for Saturday morning (pick-up day) that I didn't sleep well Friday night. I arrived at our pick-up site about 15 minutes early to see rows and rows of baskets lined up in the park. It was a beautiful site. After checking in with the woman in charge, I was led to my gorgeous organic fruits and veggies, which included HUGE red potatoes, broccoli, apples, celery, mango, oranges, cucumbers, onions, turnip, romaine lettuce, pears, tomatoes, and more. I was inspired and decided to check out a local Farmer's market on Sunday morning to pick up some proteins. That was a little disappointing, but I did come home with some buffalo ribeye steaks, eggs, carrots, and some herbs. Then came the fun part, meal planning for the week. Let me just say that I hate grocery shopping and meal planning, but somehow meal planning in reverse (i.e. once I have all the ingredients in my kitchen) has been really exciting.
I picked up our second round of Bountiful Baskets last Saturday in which we received zucchini, asparagus, tomatoes, onions, garlic, pineapple, apples, asian pears, AMAZING bananas, a head of some kind of lettuce, two kinds of mushrooms, basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley, cauliflower, 6 ears of corn, mandarin oranges (I had never seen these unless in a can), and again much, much more. I also checked out another local Farmer's Market that was much more to my liking. I will definitely be going back. Not only are we getting TONS of fresh produce, but it is all SUPER tasty. Andrew has started eating more veggies, we've all started eating more fruits, we're able to purchase local, hormone and antibiotic free meats, and the best part is that we're actually SAVING money and having a ton of fun in the process.
Here are some of the recipes I've tried so far.
Balsamic Roasted Tomatoes
Asparagus with Parmesan
Herbed Roast Chicken
Marinated Buffalo Steaks (just used salad dressing as a marinade)
Buffalo burgers (from Trader Joe's seasoned with Mrs. Dash)
Pepper and Onion Brats (from the Farmer's Market)
And later this week I'm planning to try out Roasted Cauliflower when I cook my Farmer's Market find grass fed beef tip steaks marinaded in olive oil, lemon juice, and some of my fresh garlic and herbs!
I never thought I'd get this excited about food that isn't chocolate!
Jacob's Coffee Cake - The Whole Story
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Y3W
2003 was NOT a good year for me. I was in my last semester of college and applying to grad schools. My first interview was at the University of Pennsylvania's BGS program, which took place at the end of January. The first night there I woke up in the middle of the night with my right foot "asleep" and tingling with pain. It didn't go away for three months. The second night there, I noticed that my top, front tooth was pink. I ended up needing a root canal. I think this must have resulted from my delayed reflexes during a volleyball match in the Fall of 2002 in which I was hit directly in the face with a volleyball following a ridiculous hit from one of (perennial national powerhouse) Juniata's star players. I spent the next month driving back and forth from school so that I could have the tooth whitened back from the awful pink color it had been stained.
As you can see...things weren't going well. By March of 2003, the numbness that I had developed in my right foot had now spread to my other foot and to both hands. I couldn't feel it when someone touched the side of my foot. I was bleeding from the nose consistently, constantly exhausted, and coughing up blood. I had been to doctor after doctor, had bloodwork and nerve conduction studies done by a neurologist, and still had no answers. Of course, being my usual bullheaded self, I was determined not to let this mystery illness slow me down.
Over spring break I travelled to AZ to visit Andrew even though ASU was not on Spring Break at the time. I ended up spending a lot of time at school with him while he worked on an INSANE project for a psycho professor. Because of said psycho professor, I got to meet some of the great people that A had been spending all of his time with that semester. One of those people was Jacob. The last weekend that I was in town we travelled, with Jacob and a few of Andrew's other friends, to LA to go architecture sight seeing (ooohhhh, did you catch the sarcasm?). I didn't care, I was going to CA where I had never been before. Now remember, at this point I could barely walk for more than 5 minutes without feeling like I needed to sit down. The trip was brutal, but by the end of it I was actually feeling a bit better and was starting to think that the warm weather and walking outside were good for my mystery illness. Afterall, this was the year we had the blizzard of the century in PA.
I returned home thinking that things would be getting better soon. Boy was I wrong! Things just started getting worse rapidly! I was finally starting to think that I was dying (no kidding here). A week later my mom called me and said, "stop taking your acne medication." She had looked it up online (in a last ditch attempt to determine what was wrong since no doctors seemed to be helping) and read about its ability to cause Drug Induced Lupus. The symptoms matched mine almost exactly. So I stopped taking the stuff and within a week I was feeling much (although not 100%, more like 50%) better. So what happened during that week I was in AZ when I started feeling better...I had forgotten to take the medication with me on the trip! When I returned I was "rechallenged" with the drug, which is why the symptoms came back so much worse.
So, what does all of this have to do with coffee cake? Well as I mentioned, that was the first time I met Jacob. A year later, Jacob moved in with Andrew, and when I moved in a year after that, we all lived together until for two years until a few months after Andrew and I got married. During that time, we got accustomed to having Jacob, the master chef, in the kitchen. This boy was ALWAYS cooking something, and he's good at it. One of our favorite things that Jacob would make was his coffee cake. We always joked that we needed to make two at a time because after it would come out of the oven, we would just stand around in the kitchen cutting off little chunks and eating them as the cake cooled. Before it was even fully cooled we'd have 50% gone. By the next morning after breakfast, another 25% was gone. Factor in after work snacks for each of us, and the cake didn't even survive 24 hours. However, on those rare occasions where the cake would get to sit for a little longer, we noticed that this thing is like a good bottle of wine...it just gets better with age. So, if you make this recipe (and I highly recommend that you do), make 2 at a time!
Neighborhood Coffee Cake:
Filling:
1 cup Margarine/Butter
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
½ teaspoon Salt
1 cup Sour Cream
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
2 cup Flour
Topping:
¼ cup Sugar
½ cup Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
Mix Butter and Sugar. Add Eggs and Sour Cream
Mix Flour, Soda, Salt separately
Combine dry ingredients into wet and add Vanilla
Mix Topping in separate bowl
Place about 1/4 to 1/3 of the batter in the bottom of a 9X11 baking dish and spread (I recommend using clean hands as the batter is THICK). Then sprinkle 1/2 of the topping on top of this layer.
Spoon remaining batter overtop of the layer of topping and spread (again, use your fingers and be careful not to mess with the topping layer too much).
As you can see...things weren't going well. By March of 2003, the numbness that I had developed in my right foot had now spread to my other foot and to both hands. I couldn't feel it when someone touched the side of my foot. I was bleeding from the nose consistently, constantly exhausted, and coughing up blood. I had been to doctor after doctor, had bloodwork and nerve conduction studies done by a neurologist, and still had no answers. Of course, being my usual bullheaded self, I was determined not to let this mystery illness slow me down.
Over spring break I travelled to AZ to visit Andrew even though ASU was not on Spring Break at the time. I ended up spending a lot of time at school with him while he worked on an INSANE project for a psycho professor. Because of said psycho professor, I got to meet some of the great people that A had been spending all of his time with that semester. One of those people was Jacob. The last weekend that I was in town we travelled, with Jacob and a few of Andrew's other friends, to LA to go architecture sight seeing (ooohhhh, did you catch the sarcasm?). I didn't care, I was going to CA where I had never been before. Now remember, at this point I could barely walk for more than 5 minutes without feeling like I needed to sit down. The trip was brutal, but by the end of it I was actually feeling a bit better and was starting to think that the warm weather and walking outside were good for my mystery illness. Afterall, this was the year we had the blizzard of the century in PA.
I returned home thinking that things would be getting better soon. Boy was I wrong! Things just started getting worse rapidly! I was finally starting to think that I was dying (no kidding here). A week later my mom called me and said, "stop taking your acne medication." She had looked it up online (in a last ditch attempt to determine what was wrong since no doctors seemed to be helping) and read about its ability to cause Drug Induced Lupus. The symptoms matched mine almost exactly. So I stopped taking the stuff and within a week I was feeling much (although not 100%, more like 50%) better. So what happened during that week I was in AZ when I started feeling better...I had forgotten to take the medication with me on the trip! When I returned I was "rechallenged" with the drug, which is why the symptoms came back so much worse.
So, what does all of this have to do with coffee cake? Well as I mentioned, that was the first time I met Jacob. A year later, Jacob moved in with Andrew, and when I moved in a year after that, we all lived together until for two years until a few months after Andrew and I got married. During that time, we got accustomed to having Jacob, the master chef, in the kitchen. This boy was ALWAYS cooking something, and he's good at it. One of our favorite things that Jacob would make was his coffee cake. We always joked that we needed to make two at a time because after it would come out of the oven, we would just stand around in the kitchen cutting off little chunks and eating them as the cake cooled. Before it was even fully cooled we'd have 50% gone. By the next morning after breakfast, another 25% was gone. Factor in after work snacks for each of us, and the cake didn't even survive 24 hours. However, on those rare occasions where the cake would get to sit for a little longer, we noticed that this thing is like a good bottle of wine...it just gets better with age. So, if you make this recipe (and I highly recommend that you do), make 2 at a time!
Neighborhood Coffee Cake:
Filling:
1 cup Margarine/Butter
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
½ teaspoon Salt
1 cup Sour Cream
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
2 cup Flour
Topping:
¼ cup Sugar
½ cup Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
Mix Butter and Sugar. Add Eggs and Sour Cream
Mix Flour, Soda, Salt separately
Combine dry ingredients into wet and add Vanilla
Mix Topping in separate bowl
Place about 1/4 to 1/3 of the batter in the bottom of a 9X11 baking dish and spread (I recommend using clean hands as the batter is THICK). Then sprinkle 1/2 of the topping on top of this layer.
Spoon remaining batter overtop of the layer of topping and spread (again, use your fingers and be careful not to mess with the topping layer too much).
Place in preheated oven and bake 30 mins @ 350 degrees.
Another Delicious Meal
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We've been really into making soups lately. It's great because I can make a large batch on the weekend and then we'll have leftovers for lunches (here I go again) for a few days during the week. Earlier this week I made a this recipe for Italian Chicken and Vegetable Soup. I started it out on the stove to brown up the chicken and cook the veggies a bit, and then I transferred it to the crock pot since I was headed to work. We had to doctor it up a bit just before serving as it was a little light on seasoning, but ultimately it tasted great! We added salt, black pepper, and Italian seasonings (basil, oregano, red pepper flake). Next time I think I'd season the chicken and veggies at the start and then I'd add garlic before adding the tomatoes and stock. This is definitely a recipe that we'll be adding to our soup rotation.
Only 9 Days
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Here we are only 9 days in to my NaBloPoMo challenge, and already I'm having to blog about what I ate for lunch. The So today my lunch consisted of leftovers. I know what you're thinking, "Oh my gosh, not only is she going to talk about her lunch, but that lunch was leftovers?!" Have no fear. I promise it will be worth your while! So my leftovers lunch was wonderful. More on that later.
A few days ago I noticed that Eye Roasts were on sale at the grocery store. Since I know how great these are for making my all time favorite crock pot meal, I picked one up. Crock pot meals are the working mom's best friend. You can throw a few things in the pot before heading to work, and when you come home it's like you have your own personal chef who cooked for you all day. The house smells wonderful and you have a fully cooked meal ready to be put on the table! Could there be anything better?
So exactly what is my favorite crock pot meal, you ask? Roast beef with potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and onions. Why do I love it so much? Let me count the reasons:
1. It is sooooo yummy and makes my house smell awesome!
2. It is possibly one of the easiest recipes ever! Simply brown up the roast on all sides in a skillet with a little oil (you can skip this step but it won't be as tasty!). Peel the carrots and potatoes (lots of them...as much as your crock pot can hold in addition to the roast and other ingredients) and cut them into pieces about 1" square(ish). Throw these into a single layer on the bottom of the crock pot. Put roast on top of that and fill in the area around the roast with remaining carrots. Sprinkle the top of the roast with grill seasoning (a la Rachel Ray). Then chop up one onion in large chunks and sprinkle over the top. Finally dump one 28oz can of diced tomatoes over the whole thing. Cook on high all day (6 hours). When I come home I usually turn it off and then it cools a bit before we eat it. Easy Peasy...anyone can do it!
3. The leftovers are just as yummy as the meal itself! Which brings me back to my lunch today...
One of my favorite sandwiches was a kid was always my mom's homemade roast beef sandwiches which consisted of leftoever roast beef on bread with a touch of mayo (Hellmanns or Best Foods only!...same mayo, different name...there's a story for another time). So today's lunch was just that, a leftover roast beef sandwich with a bit of those leftover yummy carrots and potatoes I was telling you about! Mmmmmmm...delicious!
See...that wasn't too bad, now was it? Let's hope that some more interesting blog ideas come to me for the remaining days this week!
A few days ago I noticed that Eye Roasts were on sale at the grocery store. Since I know how great these are for making my all time favorite crock pot meal, I picked one up. Crock pot meals are the working mom's best friend. You can throw a few things in the pot before heading to work, and when you come home it's like you have your own personal chef who cooked for you all day. The house smells wonderful and you have a fully cooked meal ready to be put on the table! Could there be anything better?
So exactly what is my favorite crock pot meal, you ask? Roast beef with potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and onions. Why do I love it so much? Let me count the reasons:
1. It is sooooo yummy and makes my house smell awesome!
2. It is possibly one of the easiest recipes ever! Simply brown up the roast on all sides in a skillet with a little oil (you can skip this step but it won't be as tasty!). Peel the carrots and potatoes (lots of them...as much as your crock pot can hold in addition to the roast and other ingredients) and cut them into pieces about 1" square(ish). Throw these into a single layer on the bottom of the crock pot. Put roast on top of that and fill in the area around the roast with remaining carrots. Sprinkle the top of the roast with grill seasoning (a la Rachel Ray). Then chop up one onion in large chunks and sprinkle over the top. Finally dump one 28oz can of diced tomatoes over the whole thing. Cook on high all day (6 hours). When I come home I usually turn it off and then it cools a bit before we eat it. Easy Peasy...anyone can do it!
3. The leftovers are just as yummy as the meal itself! Which brings me back to my lunch today...
One of my favorite sandwiches was a kid was always my mom's homemade roast beef sandwiches which consisted of leftoever roast beef on bread with a touch of mayo (Hellmanns or Best Foods only!...same mayo, different name...there's a story for another time). So today's lunch was just that, a leftover roast beef sandwich with a bit of those leftover yummy carrots and potatoes I was telling you about! Mmmmmmm...delicious!
See...that wasn't too bad, now was it? Let's hope that some more interesting blog ideas come to me for the remaining days this week!
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