Can He Bake a Cherry Pie?

This is a guest post by Rem O’Donnelley, my sweetheart and partner of 15 years.  We’re a great team and the other day we made pie together.  I asked him if he would write a post about it and this is what he wrote:

Who doesn’t like a good cherry pie? I didn’t see any hands raised in internet land.

I had a box of pie dough sitting in the fridge. Originally, it had two pie crusts but I used one for a pumpkin pie. I was about to do the same thing when Dianne suggested making a cherry pie. She heard on the radio that there was a one-day sale at Whole Foods so I bought a two pound bag of cherries.

Since there was only one crust that meant that there was no crust for the top. Dianne had the idea of a streusel topping. I found an oatmeal streusel recipe here which we adapted.

Cherries on hand and we began to work. I washed and stemmed the little red gems.

Dianne pitted them.

That done, next the cherries were put in a large bowl with sugar, tapioca granules and vanilla. We decided to stick with just cherries and omitted crystallized ginger and almond extract from the original recipe.

It didn’t look like it was enough cherries so we added the other half pound to the mix. (Note: adaptions have been included in recipe here)

Once this was mixed, I spread out the pie crust in a glass pie dish. Then the cherry mixture was poured in.
Finally came the topping.  Again, we made some changes to the recipe. It didn’t seem to have enough butter and sugar to balance the oats and flour, so we increased the amounts a bit.

I mixed it with my hands until it was crumbly and then sprinkled it on the cherries.  Then it went in the oven.

Here is the recipe.

Cherry Pie with Oatmeal Streusel Topping

Adapted from Miri Rotkovitz at About.com

Baking time – 40 to 45 minutes

Yield: 1 9-inch pie

Ingredients:

1 9-inch unbaked pie shell, homemade or store-bought, thawed if frozen.  We used Pillsbury refrigerated pie dough

2 lbs. cherries, pitted (5 to 6 cups) If desired, cut cherries in half. This recipe called for “1 lb., (about 4 cups)” but we found it was more like 3 cups. Our pie had about 5 cups of cherries and it could have held 6 cups, no problem.

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons granulated (instant) tapioca or tapioca starch

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

For the Streusel Topping:

3/4 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400° F.

In a large bowl, toss together the cherries, sugar, tapioca, vanilla extract, and salt. Mix just until the cherries are evenly coated with the other ingredients.

Pour the cherry mixture into the pie crust.

Wipe out the bowl (or use another, smaller one) and mix together the oats, flour, sugar, and cinnamon. Rub the butter pieces into the dry ingredients with your fingers,until the butter is well incorporated and the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle the streusel mixture evenly over the top of the pie.

Place the pie on a parchment-lined baking sheet to catch drips. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the crust and streusel are golden and the filling is bubbly. Cool the pie in its baking dish on a rack.

Serve slightly warm or at room temperature. Store leftover pie, well covered, in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days.

(Editors note: Rem made the vanilla ice cream too!)

It turned out great. The only thing I would change is cutting the cherries in half so the cherries are in smaller bites.

Thumbs up!

Thanks, Rem, for writing a post about our pie-baking and for the great selfie.

Thank you for stopping by.

 

Corn Dog Mini Muffins

Have you seen these on Pinterest?  I’ve been wanting to try them but it wasn’t until I bought two mini muffin pans that I found in the housewares section of T.J. Maxx that I made them.  They are simple to make and if you like corn dogs, I think you will enjoy these.

I don’t eat hot dogs very often but every once in awhile I crave a corn dog.  Here I am with a giant corn dog at a street fair a few years ago.

This monster was probably the biggest corn dog I’d every had.  It was ginormous!

It was coated in a thick layer of cornmeal batter and deep fried to a deep, crispy brown.

It was delicious, but not exactly a guilt-free treat.

So the idea of a miniature corn muffin with a bite of hot dog in the middle was very appealing to me.  Baked, not fried and small enough to have a few and still be ahead of the game (or at least as compared to eating one of those fried street fair corn dogs).

Corn Dog Mini Muffins

Yield: 21 to 24 mini muffins

Ingredients:

1 8.5 oz box of corn muffin mix (makes 6 to 8 average-sized muffins)

1 egg

1/3 cup milk

3 or 4 jumbo hot dogs  (I used Hebrew National beef franks)

nonstick spray

mustard (to serve – optional)

Directions:

Combine muffin mix with egg and milk as directed on package of muffin mix.

Side note: Did you know that the President of Chelsea Milling Company, makers of Jiffy Baking mix, is named Howdy Holmes?

I didn’t either.

Anyway, back to the recipe.  Stir just until dry mix is moistened.  There should be some small lumps.

Spray the muffin pans with nonstick spray.  I used a paper towel to kind of spread it around in each cup.

With two spoons, drop about a rounded tablespoon of muffin batter into each muffin cup.  I made 21 muffins but could probably been a little more careful spooning it out and stretched it a bit.

Next cut a hot dog into pieces.  I tried cutting the first one into 6 pieces, not quite an inch each.  The hotdog was about 5.5 inches long.

I wanted a high ratio of hot dog to corn muffin. But after baking the first pan, I realized I could make the pieces a little smaller and still achieve the results I wanted.

I cut the next one into 9 pieces.  I think I could have cut each hot dog into 7 pieces to make it all even for 21 muffins, but if you stretch your batter to 24 muffins, you’ll want to cut each hot dog into 8 pieces.  Or use all four hot dogs in the package and cut each one into 6 pieces. Got that?

I experimented with the placement of the hot dog pieces in the batter.

Next time I make them, I’ll  scoop out a little dollop of batter, put the slice of hot dog in and only partially cover it with batter.  I liked how the ones with a little hot dog peeking out of the baked muffin looked.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes.  Serve warm.

Here are some that I baked with the pieces of hot dog turned on the side rather than with the cut side up.

Each muffin is about two bites and they are really tasty with a  bit of mustard.  One small warning: the second bite of the mini muffin is a little precarious as the tender cornmeal crust tends to crumble as you bite into the more resilient hot dog.

I took some for lunch to work on Friday and they warmed up very nicely in the microwave.  A toaster oven would probably be even better.

The best part is they completely satisfy my corn dog craving!

Rem calls them Wiener Dumplings.

Thank you for visiting.

 

 

 

Chicken, Spinach, and Pasta with Creamy Feta Sauce

I wanted pasta for dinner the other night because I’m still eating a bit cautiously after oral surgery last week and the idea of tender pasta was appealing.  Actually, I love pasta and I’m happy to eat it even when my mouth is fine.

We had a rotisserie chicken in the fridge and a box of spinach in the freezer, so I did a quick search online for recipes using chicken, pasta and spinach and found this recipe on Healthy. Delicious.  Of course you could cook up a chicken breast or two and start with a big bag of fresh spinach but for me this recipe is about a yummy and easy dish with stuff I had on hand.

Chicken, Spinach and Pasta with Creamy Feta Sauce

Adapted from Healthy Delicious

Ingredients:

8 ounces pasta – a big, chunky shape worked well

3 tablespoon butter, divided

3 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup half and half

1 1/2 cups milk – I used 2%  because that’s what we have in the fridge

4 ounces feta cheese

2 cups shredded chicken

1 10-ounce box frozen chopped spinach – thawed with moisture squeezed out

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

zest from one lemon

I was rushing with the photos so I completely forgot to show the butter, milk and flour.  Or the oregano.  Oops.  I wanted to share this recipe here because it looked like a winner, but I also wanted to get dinner made and to sit down and eat it. The lemon zest I decided to add later, so I don’t feel bad that I didn’t take a picture of the lemon.  Sorry.

Directions:

Cook the pasta as directed on the package.  While it is cooking, proceed with the sauce.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk in the flour and cook, stirring for a few minutes, so it is a nice, toasty color.

Put the half and half and milk in a microwave safe bowl or large, glass measuring cup and heat.  My microwave isn’t super powerful and 1 minute was enough so the mixture was warmish.  It could have used another 20 seconds.  You don’t want it to boil, just to warm it up before adding to the butter/flour roux.

Add the warm milk mixture to the saucepan and cook for 5 minutes or until it has thickened a bit, stirring frequently.

The pasta, meanwhile, should be about done.  When pasta is done, drain in a colander, and return to the pot.  Toss with remaining tablespoon of butter.

Stir chicken and spinach into pot with pasta.

When sauce is cooked, remove from heat.  Stir in crumbled feta cheese, oregano, chili powder, black pepper and lemon zest.

Pour sauce into pot with pasta and stir to combine.

Serve.

Delicious!

All the flavors and textures worked well together.  If I’d been a little more organized, I would have saved some of the lemon zest for garnish and made prettier pictures, but I wasn’t and I didn’t.  It was very good and something I’m sure I’ll make again.  I hope you give it a try.

Thanks for your visit.

 

 

Easter Birds Nests

Rem and I made these cute little nests last night.  I wanted to do a sweet treat for Easter and I wanted it to be easy.  I didn’t have the time or energy for these (real egg shells, dyed and filled with candy).

I found many different recipes for nests.  You have the nest material (variations include slivered almonds, shredded wheat cereal, coconut or these crispy chow mein noodles) and the sticky stuff to glue it together (melted white chocolate or butterscotch chips, melted semi-sweet chocolate chips, or this marshmallow mixture) and of course the eggs inside the nest.  I chose malted milk eggs but jelly beans would be great too.

The recipe that caught my eye, from FOLK magazine, used marshmallows and butter, much like Rice Krispy Treats, but added some peanut butter.  That sounded like a good combo.

Most recipes give the amounts in measuring cups.  In this case, when I followed the recipe the first time I ended up with partial bags of marshmallows and chow mein noodles, things I’m not likely to use up in another recipe very quickly.  I decided to try adapting the recipe slightly to just use whole bags of these items.

Rem did some research for the project and found most bags of marshmallows are 10 oz. but Safeway brand mini marshmallows have 10.5 oz. in a bag. Similarly, the chow mein noodles by Safeway are in a 6 oz. bag and the La Choy brand chow mein noodles are in a 5 oz. can, so for a recipe like this, I think you can get the slightly larger or slightly smaller size package and make it work.

Easter Birds Nests

Yield: About 18 Nests

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter

3 tablespoon creamy peanut butter

1  (10 or 10.5 oz. ) bag mini or regular marshmallows

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 bags or cans (5 or 6 oz. each) crispy chow mein noodles

nonstick spray

Tools:

muffin tins

ice cream scoop (optional)

Directions:

Put the butter, peanut butter and marshmallows in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on high for 30 to 45 seconds.  Stir mixture then microwave as needed in short bursts of about 20 seconds each, stirring after each time, until the mixture is smooth and combined.

Add vanilla and stir until combined.

Stir in chow mein noodles.

Spray muffin tin with nonstick spray.  Spray hands with nonstick spray.

Portion chow mein mixture into muffin tin, grabbing a loose ball of noodles, a little larger than a golf ball and dropping it into each space in the muffin tin.  You may need to spritz your fingers with more nonstick spray.  The mixture is very sticky.

Spray the back of the ice cream scoop or soup spoon with nonstick spray and press the mixture into the muffin cup to form nests.

I think the nests look best when they are somewhat irregular and not too perfect.

If you don’t have muffin tins (or don’t have enough for your mixture) you can shape the nests on parchment paper on a baking sheet.

It’s ok if you hear some crunching of noodles.  You want to find that place where you have a nest shape that isn’t too compact and neat, but not so loose and free-form that it will fall apart.

Set the nests into the refrigerator to set.  Once they’re firm, add the candy eggs.

Store them in a cookie tin with some wax paper so they don’t stick together.  Or put them in individual cellophane bags.

If I was hosting a sit-down Easter Brunch or dinner, I would add names on little tags and slide them on the ribbons with these cute, edible nests for place tags.

Happy, Hoppy Easter to you.  Thanks for the visit.

 

Everyone’s Irish on March 17

Shamrock’s at Muir Woods.

Here’s a little round-up of some of my previous green-themed posts.  It includes links to recipes – just click on the underlined headings.

Rem and I had our St. Patrick’s day dinner a little early over at my mom’s, and enjoyed a sodium-nitrate-free corned beef from Whole Foods.  Happily I have enough leftovers so I could leave some for mom and still have some for tomorrow night’s dinner.

This is a a post about Roasted Root Vegetables which is how I did the vegetables we had this year.  The corned beef and cabbage cooked in the slow cooker.

These two salads are both green and both delicious: Baked Feta with Greens and Avocado…

And Emerald City Salad with nutritionally dense kale and chard, brown rice, fennel, apple and craisins.

A pre-spring hike in early March 3 years ago was the source of some pretty green pictures.

This last post includes a recipe of Irish Soda Bread, a redhead, and a lovely blessing.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Birthday Recipes

I wanted to do some cooking while we were at Sea Ranch.  I like to cook but cooking dinner from the fridge after work with limited time and energy is different than planning a recipe, having an open-ended time frame and nothing else to do!

We made a batch of macaroni and cheese from The Mac + Cheese Cookbook that Rem got for Christmas and it was good but I didn’t make the best choice in the cheeses I bought.  The cheese I picked out was pretty mild and the overall dish was rich and creamy but fairly bland.  But good, as my dad used to say!  We’ll try it another time with different cheese and maybe some other tweaks.

This Sunset magazine was in the magazine bin and when I saw the recipe for Dutch Baby, that was my choice for my birthday breakfast.  It is baked in the oven and should puff up rather dramatically, but our smaller version didn’t get that puffy.  It was very good and I’ll try it again in a different baking vessel, perhaps a round pie plate.  I didn’t add sugar to the batter but I suggest you do if you try it and I’ll add it when I make it again.  I looked at several other recipes and some had sugar in the batter.  I’ve added it to the ingredient list.

Dutch Baby

Adapted from Sunset Magazine

Note: This is for a 2-3 qt. baking dish, ours was 2 quart – Sunset suggests a shallow, oven-proof pan, no more than 3 inches tall – see recipe link for a larger version.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk

3/4 flour

2 tablespoons sugar

Toppings:

Powdered sugar, lemon wedges, honey, and fruit as desired.

Directions:

Pull out oven rack(s) so only lowest rack remains. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Put butter in 2 to 3 quart baking dish (see note, above) and set in oven to melt.

While butter is melting, mix batter.  Put eggs in a blender or food processor and whirl on high speed for 1 minute.

With motor running, slowly add first the milk.  Then, still slowly, add the flour and the sugar.

Continue to process for 30 seconds. (If you don’t have a blender or food processor, you can mix the batter in a bowl, beating eggs until blended and frothy; gradually beating in the milk, flour and sugar.)

Remove the baking dish from the oven, the butter should be melted by now, pour in the batter and return pan to oven.

Bake until puffy and well browned, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Dust pancake with powdered sugar.  Cut into wedges and serve with lemon wedges, more powdered sugar, fruit such as blueberries and a drizzle of honey.

I expect to try this dish again and will post if I create a more puffy pancake.  It really was a delicious treat with a side of apple sausage and some beautiful blueberries on top.

For dinner I concocted something that was good but a little quirky and not really quite what I had in mind.  I don’t have a recipe because I was throwing it together. Rem had enjoyed ravioli for our anniversary dinner and I thought we could make giant ravioli using won ton wrappers or skins, like my niece Miriam used when she was on The Sam Livecast cooking contest.

The filling was a combination of pork sausage (I would have picked plain ground pork if the grocery store carried it), minced fresh ginger, finely chopped cilantro, green onion and arugula and some soy sauce.  It ended up being fairly salty (we had a little leftover filling and I made some small meatballs that we cooked up and ate), but with the pasta, it wasn’t too much.

Each ravioli was made with two won ton skins and sealed with egg white.  We made them in the afternoon and lay them out on baking sheets covered in foil sprayed with non-stick spray. I put them in the refrigerator until we were ready to cook them.

For the sauce (this is really where I got off base), I sauteed some diced vegetables (onion, carrot, celery and fennel) until they were nice and caramelized, then added some red wine and cooked it until it was reduced by about half.  I strained out the vegetables and wasn’t really delighted by the resulting sauce.  I ended up adding some brown sugar and some soy sauce and made it into a terriyaki-type sauce.  It was pretty tasty but didn’t work that well with the pasta of the ravioli/won tons.

I also roasted butternut squash, carrots, onion and fennel and Rem sauteed kale.  We boiled salted water to cook the giant ravioli about 5 or 6 at a time, each took about 5 minutes to cook, maybe a little less.  I drizzled the sauce over the won ton and the roast vegetables, and added a spoonful of the diced veggies I’d strained out of the sauce to the kale.  Green onions garnished the won ton.

I had some leftover won ton for my lunch.  A few splashes of soy sauce and toasted sesame oil were delicious and exactly the right sauce for the dish.  I’ll look up more recipes using reduced wine sauces and see if I can come up with a better combo for future kitchen adventures

The biggest success of the day was dessert.  I thought about different things I might make: chocolate souffle and chocolate lava cake were two ideas that came to mind.  But for the two of us in super-relaxed Sea Ranch mode, I wanted something more simple.

Back to the Sunset Magazine 25 Best-Ever Recipes article. This one looked pretty wonderful: Coffee Sundaes with Salted Peanut Butter Caramel.  I love coffee ice cream and I don’t have it very often.  When we have ice cream at home we almost always get vanilla because we both like it.  But for my birthday I decided I wanted coffee ice cream!

The recipe in the printed magazine had a side-bar recipe for caramel sauce.  The online recipe has you start with purchased caramel sauce.  But I did a little searching on the Sunset Magazine site and found the caramel sauce that is the starting point for the Salted Peanut Butter Caramel.  They call it DIY Caramel Sauce.

Since I came home, I’ve looked at quite a few other caramel sauce recipes online and there are many to read. In fact, I’ve made another caramel sauce that is different than the one I used for this sundae and it is also wonderful.  But it makes a thicker sauce and since our end result includes peanut butter, it is better to start with a thinner sauce.

That said, when I make it again, I think I will try it with a little less heavy cream because it was a pretty thin sauce. Thin but good. This is the recipe, from Sunset Magazine.  You may want to try it with 3/4 of a cup whipping cream.

DIY Caramel Sauce

Ingredients:

2/3 cup sugar

3 tablespoons butter

1 cup whipping cream

Directions:

Put sugar and butter in a heavy saucepan and cook over high heat, stirring until is has an amber hue, 2 to 4 minutes.

Slowly stir in whipping cream.  It will bubble up.  Cook, stirring until it boils.

My mixture was somewhat separated and I noticed some of the caramelized sugar and butter mixture wasn’t emulsifying with the cream to form a cohesive sauce, but was in hard lumps.  I was able to get most of the lumps out with cooking and stirring, pressing lumps with the back of a wooden spoon.  I ended up pouring the sauce through a fine mesh strainer to remove a few lumps that didn’t seem like they were going to come out.

Keep leftover sauce in the refrigerator. (If you are anything like me, you won’t have leftovers for long).

Let the caramel sauce cool,  and then go on to transform it into the luscious sundae topping.  Actually, let me be very clear: it is luscious and sundae-worthy as is.  But if you like peanut butter, you will probably want to go all the way with this recipe.

Coffee Sundae with Peanut Butter Caramel Sauce

Adapted from Sunset Magazine

Note: The original recipe is called “Salted Peanut Butter Caramel;” I tasted the sauce before adding salt and didn’t think it would benefit from a teaspoon of salt.  However, if I’d been at home, I would have sprinkled on a few flakes of Maldon or other sea salt over the sundae (before the whipped cream).

Ingredients:

2/3 cup caramel sauce (homemade from recipe, above, or good-quality store bought)

1/3 cup chunky old-fashioned peanut butter

1 pint coffee ice cream

1 cup sweetened whipped cream

1/4 cup salted, roasted peanuts

Optional: A pinch of Maldon or other sea salt

Directions:

Heat caramel sauce in a small saucepan over medium heat until sauce is warm but not boiling.

Stir in peanut butter until incorporated.

Scoop 1/2 cup of ice cream into each bowl.

Top with 1/4 quarter cup peanut butter caramel sauce, a sprinkling of sea salt flakes (if desired), 1/4 cup whipped cream,  and 1 tbsp. peanuts.

This combination of flavors and textures had me scraping the bottom of the bowl.  I had a second (smaller) sundae the next day after lunch.  We were heading home and the coffee ice cream wasn’t coming with us.  Before the end of Birthday Month, I’ll buy another pint and make another batch of Peanut Butter Caramel Sauce.

Thanks for your visit.

Baked Kale Chips

I think these crispy seasoned Baked Kale Chips are my response to all the Thin Mint cookies I’ve been snarfing down.  As soon as I open one of those sleeves, it is really only a matter of time before I consume all the cookies in it.

I’ve tasted some commercial kale chips before and they were really good. I tried making them myself and had really uneven results.  The mixture to coat the chips was too heavy, the chips were too crowded on the baking sheet so some were soggy and limp. The ones that were crisp were good, but I was disappointed and didn’t want to share the recipe.

After reading a few different recipes (many use a dehydrator, but I don’t have one), I blended two for my hybrid recipe and made a batch of blog-worthy Baked Kale Chips.  They aren’t very beautiful, but they are crisp and tasty.

Baked Kale Chips

Adapted from A Spicy Perspective, and Oh She Glows.

Ingredients

1 large bunch Tuscan (or Lacinto) Kale (I think curly Kale would work too but might be a little more difficult to dry and then to coat with the cashew butter/olive oil and spice mixtures.

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons Cashew Butter

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon each smoked paprika, garlic powder, chili powder and cumin

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Wash the kale and dry it well. I don’t have a salad spinner but that would be a great way to get as much moisture off the leaves as possible.  I rolled the leaves between two dish towels and still blotted some water off with paper towels.

Pull the thick stems from each kale leaf.  If you fold the leaf in half along the length of the rib or stem and hold the leaf with one hand, you can pull the stem with the other hand and zip it right out of the leaf.

The leaves will shrink, so you can tear them into pieces, but keep them fairly large. Put the pieces of kale in a large bowl.

In a small bowl, combine cashew butter, olive oil and lemon juice.

Scrape the cashew butter mixture over the leaves and massage the leaves so all the leaves become well coated.

In another small bowl, combine the nutritional yeast flakes, salt, smoked paprika, garlic powder, chili powder and cumin.  Sprinkle this mixture over the kale leaves and toss together to coat.

Arrange leaves on two large baking sheets so they are not overlapping or wadded up and stuck together with the cashew butter mixture.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes, checking after about 10 minutes.  If leaves aren’t completely crisp but still seem limp or soggy, bake another minute or two.

When kale leaves are finished baking, let them cool than carefully remove from baking sheets and store in an airtight container.  I found my metal dough scraper to be an excellent stand-in for a spatula when I was removing them from the pan.  They will crumble and shatter fairly easily so use care.

I served them when crafting with friends and got some nice compliments but I admit that when someone brought out the guacamole and tortilla chips, the Kale Chips were relegated to second place.  Guacamole is hard to compete with.  I did feel better about snacking on Baked Kale Chips and managed to avoid the Thin Mint cookies for an afternoon.

Thank you for visiting.

Minestrone: A Pot of Comfort

I’m going to share a recipe for Minestrone (my dad’s recipe) but I don’t have any pictures of the ingredients or even a finished bowl.  It is still simmering on the stove and I just didn’t bother to slow down to take any photos. When it’s done, I’ll put some in the freezer and I’ll still be eating it for lunch all week.

But I do have some nice pictures to share because Rem and I took a lovely stroll this afternoon around the campus of Dominican University here in San Rafael and in the unseasonably warm weather we’re enjoying, (high 60’s, low 70’s), things are just starting to bloom.

Why, you may ask, are you simmering soup (and cooking beef in the slow cooker and baking muffins) when the weather is so mild? It is a reasonable question and one I’ve been thinking about this weekend.

After borrowing my mom’s dog, Molly, every Saturday morning and walking with my sister Kathleen and her dog, Ruby, I usually fix lunch and eat it with my mom.  We both enjoy the visit and she likes a break from cooking for one.  I open the door of the fridge to see what I might find and usually put together a salad or something quick and easy, maybe chicken quesadillas.   This weekend I found some leftover kidney beans, and saw all the veggies used in minestrone.  The recipe calls for bacon but turkey ham was a good substitute.  Even on a spring-like day, it was delicious and it reminded me of my dad.

His recipe makes a giant pot – or as it says up at the top “for a crowd – makes 4 gallons!” By the time you add the macaroni, the liquid in the pot all but disappears.  If you add a little more water or broth next time you heat it up, you can keep that pot going for awhile!

Anyway, I put that soup together pretty quickly and didn’t let it simmer “for an hour or two,” but the familiar flavor was still there. It tasted pretty much like the minestrone I grew up with.

Maybe I just need a little extra tenderness for myself this week and baking muffins and simmering soup is one way I know how to provide it.  I’m having some dental work midweek that I’m not looking forward to.  I really dislike going to the dentist and this is a long appointment (I’m getting a bridge: essentially it is like the prep work for two crowns) with another appointment in two weeks to finish the procedure.

A nice bowl of minestrone, thick with vegetables, macaroni and beans will be soft, nutritious, and easy for me to eat.  It will also make my lunch prep a cinch.

My pot tonight isn’t quite a half recipe.  It calls for a can of kidney beans and a can of garbanzo beans.  I had cannellini (white kidney) beans and no garbanzos.  I also just don’t have room in the pot for more broth.  I’m going to share a half recipe here because it’s still pretty generous, but by all means double it if you are cooking for a big crowd!

Minestrone

Slightly adapted from David Faw

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. bacon ends

3 quarts beef broth – dad used bouillon cubes or “Better Than Bouillon”

1 large onion

4 stalks celery

1 tablespoon flour

4 carrots

1/2 head green cabbage

1 can kidney beans

1 can garbanzo beans

1/2 of a small can (6 oz. size) tomato paste

1.5 cups macaroni

dry minced parsley (I don’t have any and didn’t miss it)

season with salt and garlic powder (I didn’t find it needed additional salt with the bacon, and I forgot about the garlic powder)

Directions:

Cut up bacon pieces (I bought thick sliced bacon and it worked beautifully – my dad used to get bacon ends and pieces and this was a great use for them) into small bits. Brown the bacon over medium heat until fairly browned.  Drain the bacon on a plate lined with paper towel and pour off all but about 1 tablespoon of bacon fat.

Chop the onions and celery and saute in bacon fat on medium heat.  Sprinkle flour over onions and celery and cook for a minute or two, this will absorb fat and thicken the finished soup – like it needs to be any thicker!

Peel the carrots and slice them into thick coins. Chop the cabbage into “soup” size pieces.  Add the carrots, cabbage, beans, broth and tomato paste to the pot.  If you want, you can put the tomato paste and some of the broth into a jar and shake it well to thin the paste and blend it more quickly into the soup.  Bring it to a boil  and then turn the heat down and let it simmer for an hour or two.

Add the macaroni 10 to 15 minutes before serving so it has time to cook.  Stir and watch the soup so the macaroni doesn’t stick and burn.

To stretch, add additional broth and tomato paste.

Once I get through my appointment on Wednesday, I’ve got two nice things on the weekend to look forward to: breakfast with an old friend on Saturday and making Valentines with three old friends on Sunday.

Speaking of Valentines…I’ve been very busy making a bunch and will be sharing pictures soon.

Thank you for coming on by.

Pumpkin Muffins

Ever since I wrote my 3rd Anniversary blog post the other night and mentioned how I didn’t write about making 2 Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins, I’ve been thinking about pumpkin muffins.  I’m so suggestible!

Sitting in bed this morning with my laptop, I browsed the Smitten Kitchen site and sure enough, she has a recipe for Pumpkin Muffins.  In my minds eye, I could picture the can of solid-pack pumpkin I was fairly certain we bought the other day and I was ready to bake.  But when I checked (I asked Rem, because he is planning to make pie one of these days) I learned it was pumpkin pie filling.  Drat!

Luckily, I’ve had a perfectly good Delicata Squash on the counter for some weeks and I knew it would be just fine in place of the pumpkin puree.  In fact, Deb Perelman at Smitten Kitchen suggests making the muffins with cooked sweet potato, another good option but I didn’t have any sweet potato.

I poked some holes in the squash with the tip of a knife and microwaved it for 10 minutes while I gathered the other ingredients. When it was cooked, I cut it in half, scooped out the seeds and then scooped out the cooked flesh.  The recipes calls for 1 to 1 1/3 cups of pumpkin and I had a generous cup.

No, it is not Two Ingredient Muffins.  It is so much better than that.

Pumpkin (or Delicata Squash or Sweet Potato) Muffins (makes 12 average-size muffins)
Barely adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole what flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon fresh nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ginger

pinch of ground cloves

pinch of allspice

(or use 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice)

1 to 1 1/3 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)  or same amount of cooked and mashed Delicata or Butternut squash or sweet potato – mine were made with 1 generous cup of cooked, mashed Delicata squash

1/3 cup vegetable or another neutral cooking oil (I used what I have which is olive oil and the muffins were delicious)

2 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

Topping:

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put cupcake papers in 12 standard-sized muffin cups.

In a medium bowl, stir together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.

In a larger bowl, whisk together pumpkin (or squash or sweet potato), oil, eggs and sugar. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until just combined.

Fill muffin cups each about 3/4 full.

Stir together sugar and cinnamon for topping and sprinkle over each muffin.

Bake until puffed and golden brown and wooden pick inserted into a muffin comes out free of batter, 25 to 30 minutes.

Cool in pan on a rack five minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

The sugar and cinnamon topping makes a nice little crunch when you bite into a fresh, warm muffin.

They’re very good plain and delicious with butter.

Rem and I each ate two.

Thank you for your visit.

Three Years of Blogging

As my third anniversary of blogging approached, I’ve been having a nostalgic meander through old posts.  I’m very pleased to report that I’m still happy with what I’ve published.

This blog, which I started after a big nudge from my friend Carson, continues to be both a creative and emotional outlet for me.  It is a way to share not only recipes for food and crafts but to write about the things that make me feel.

One of the things I feel when I write and post here is connected.  Sure, I’d love it if I got more comments, especially from some of you folks far away from California. Aside to Sam: thanks for all the great support from Australia: you’re certainly holding up your end of things, and a shout-out to one of my newest subscribers who is from Trinidad and Tobago.  But I don’t need to hear from all of you.  I can look at my stats to see where my readers are.

When I write, I have friends in mind and some readers that, though we’ve never met, I feel I’ve gotten to know from their own blogs and from their comments. So I feel connected to you when I hit send.  I’m just thrilled more than I can say that YOU, my readers, are all over the world! This year I had visitors from 165 countries!

The most comments I received in the past year were for my post about the delicious Chocolate Nutella Fudge and Truffles.  Have you tried this recipe out yet?

Sometimes I feel frustrated that something didn’t work as planned.  Or annoyed at myself for creating big messes and not cleaning up after myself so that when I want to craft I have no place to do it.

I’ve shared some of the failures and some of the creative detritus.  There are other posts that never made it to publication.

For example, I went without shampooing my hair for 9 months.  A post was planned.  I kept thinking about pros and cons of the “No ‘Poo” method I was using (baking soda to wash, apple cider vinegar to condition).  I did wash my hair, I just didn’t use shampoo to do it.  Sometimes I loved how my hair looked.  Other times I didn’t.  I gave it up, returned to shampoo (although I don’t use the same bargain brand I’d been using) and never wrote about the experience.

I tried so called “Two Ingredient Muffins” which are a combination of a box of cake mix and a can of pumpkin.  Have you seen how many ingredients there are in a box of cake mix?  I thought I would make a quick “from scratch” pumpkin muffin to compare and contrast, but didn’t get around to that either.  I can’t say that I recommend the Two Ingredient Muffins.  But here’s a picture and by all means, give them a try if you want.

Oh, yeah.  I thought if you started with cake mix, let’s just be honest and call them cupcakes  So I piped some buttercream on top.  I still don’t think they were very good.

Another recipe that hasn’t made it to print on this site is for Kale Chips.  I’ve made them twice but haven’t achieved what I’m seeking.  It may still work out some day, but I don’t whip them up every weekend.

There are crafts that I’ve made when I haven’t taken the time to get photos (or it was night, and with lousy lighting I got lousy pictures) or crafts that I have taken pictures of but haven’t written a post…yet.  Did I ever tell you how to make a needle felted heart pin?   I don’t think so.  Maybe this year.

This has been a place where I could write about feeling sad and helpless and heartbroken when my dad was diagnosed with cancer and after fighting for a year, when he died.

Twenty months later, seeing this picture of his and my moms hands clasped together is still enough to bring tears to my eyes and an ache in my chest.  I’m grateful for the love and support that I’ve received from you, through this channel.

I published 122 posts in 2013 for a grand total, over the three years, of 350 with this very post. In 2013 I had 89,000 views.  To put that another way, I had the equivalent to four days of visitors to the Louvre Museum in Paris, one of the world’s largest museums, view MY blog.  How cool is that?

Although I started my Art Journal before 2013, I did my first blog post about Art Journaling in the past year.  It has been and continues to be a wonderful and creative outlet for me.

In fact, after two years of doing 30 Days of Creativity (30DOC) for the month of June (something creative every day for the month), and deciding I wouldn’t do it again (to save my sanity),  I changed my mind from skipping it entirely to doing 30 Art Journal entries in the month and posting every few days.

I shared what I ate for a week.  What I ate for a week when I was eating MUCH better than I am these days, thank you very much.

Sigh.  I need to be eating like that again.

In the meantime, I’m thinking of Valentine cards I’ll be making and sharing with you. I decided to join a Handmade Valentine Swap at Pine & Plum.  Remember that friend who urged me to blog?  Check out her blog and maybe even join her Valentine Swap.

I’d like to do a few Valentine clothespin dolls.  Maybe I’ll make another needle felted heart pin and blog about it!

Thank you all.  I’m having a grand time.