Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls

Hey Folks!

I'm still here--just not photographing that same corn chowder I've now made about 100 times.  =)  

I had a brainstorm the other day I wanted to share in case anyone else wakes up at 7:30 am and wants to make a quick delicious breakfast in half an hour so his/her spouse can enjoy it before leaving for work!  Got that?

And it worked!  My brainstorm.  Fast cinnamon rolls made with biscuit dough instead of a lengthy-process yeasted dough. 

They were really delicious.  All I did was add a little sugar to a regular biscuit recipe, then rolled the dough out, spread a little oil on, sprinkled cinnamon and sugar, cut and baked.  In my toaster oven!  I love my toaster oven!  I'd say the whole process took about 20 minutes start to finish.

Then methinks to mineself: "hmmmm. . . this would be yummy as a savory roll too with scrambled eggs and cheese or ham and cheese!"  That's when I noticed this getting shared all over facebook.  Crazy, right?  

Well, I made my own biscuit dough from scratch, so there!  =)

Enjoy the not-so-original-brainstorm idea anyway!

Chocolate Snow Cream

I remember eating snow cream as a kid. We used a big mixing bowl to gather clean (hopefully) snow that Mom would add pudding mix to. For some reason, I especially remember pistachio snow cream, though it seems likely that we had other flavors too. 

So far this year, we haven't gotten enough snow for me to feel we could gather enough of it that seemed clean. Having free-range chickens means that most parts of the yard are suspect if you accidentally scrape snow too close to the grass. But I thought a recent five-inch snowfall was thick enough to finally make snow cream for my kids. 

I don't usually have pudding mix on hand, but I had recently made chocolate pudding and figured the same ingredients could be stirred into snow. Cocoa powder, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and a little salt have produced a delicious snow cream that the kids and I have devoured until our tongues are tingly cold. YUM! 

I'll write out my "recipe" below though I didn't really measure anything at the time. These are guesses at amounts, but I'm sure a little variation won't make too much of a difference in the final product. There are other recipes floating around out there on the interwebs too, if you want to compare.   Anyone else tried other variations?  I thought it would be easy to do vanilla by just leaving out the cocoa powder and upping the vanilla.  Or add maple flavoring.  Coconut milk could be yummy too.  Or crushed fruit.  We need more snow so I can try some of these out!  

But for now, it's chocolate.

Chocolate Snow Cream 
 Yield: 4 generous servings

2 quarts clean snow (fluffy snow is good!)
2 TBSP cocoa powder
2 TBSP powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk (or evaporated milk or cream)
dash salt

Instructions:  Sift cocoa and powdered sugar over snow in a large bowl (sifting helps avoid powder lumps).  Stir in, then add vanilla, milk, and salt to taste and stir until incorporated.   Eat immediately!  This does not re-freeze well as it just gets hard.  I tried it.  Today we ate the whole bowl instead of saving some for Papa.  Sorry, David!

My Mushroom Gravy

The first deer of the season.  It's tradition: fresh deer steaks for supper.  And it seems I'm always wondering how to cook it and trying something new.  The mushroom gravy I made this year turned out so yummy that this might just have to become part of the tradition too.  =)  I seared the steaks on both sides, then removed them from the skillet, made the gravy recipe below, and returned the steaks to the gravy to simmer.  Wish I'd had them in all day.

My Mushroom Gravy 
yield: about 3 cups gravy


2 cups sliced mushrooms (I had button mushrooms)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium onion, diced
2 TBSP butter
2 TBSP flour
2 cups broth (I had vegetable bouillon)
splash of wine or balsamic vinegar
1 bay leaf
1/3 cup yogurt (or sour cream if you like)
salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:  Melt the butter in a pan and saute mushrooms, garlic, and onions over medium to low heat until soft, stirring occasionally.  In the meantime make broth or warm it up if you have canned broth.  Add a splash of wine or vinegar (about 1 TBSP) to the broth for extra flavor.  Set aside.  When the mushroom/onion mixture is soft, sprinkle flour all over and stir in.  Cook a minute or so.  Over medium heat, add the warm broth, stirring to reduce clumps.  If the broth is warm, this will thicken up right away.  Add bay leaf and simmer a while.  Stir in yogurt and add salt and pepper to taste before serving.  Remove bay leaf.

We thought this would be good with ground meat added in, served over biscuits, or in any other way you like to eat gravy.  We had it with mashed potatoes on the side, which was delicious too.

Pears with Blue Cheese

It's not rocket science.  It's just a simple, fast, delicious fall treat if you like blue cheese.  An un-peeled pear half with a dollop of blue cheese where the seeds have been scooped out.  Warm for 20-30 seconds in the microwave.  Eat with your hands.  Elevate with a drizzle of honey and/or a few broken pecan pieces.  

Greens and Beans

NOT green beans.  Sorry for the capitalization there--just wanted to be sure to clarify that the post title was not a typo.

Okay.  So we did buy a house, and it is a bit of a fixer-upper (oh, and way out in the country/mountains with somewhat unreliable internet service) so I haven't been doing a lot of new cooking around here or finding time to post about anything to this blog.  Disclaimers.  Check.

BUT, I was just snacking on some leftovers in the fridge, and thought this little recipe might be worth recording and sharing.  Use kale, spinach, chard, what have you . . . 

Greens and Beans

glug of oil
Handfuls of fresh greens, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
chopped tomato (fresh or canned)
2 cups black beans

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:  So simple, you probably don't even need this part.  Heat up the oil, toss in the greens and a little water and fry/steam them a bit before adding the garlic and cumin.  Stir and continue to cook a few more minutes.  Add tomato and finish cooking greens to your desired tenderness.  Stir in the beans and warm.  EAT THIS UP! 

I guess it's just a capital day.

Hope you ENJOY!

Egg Salad Cheat

No, this is not "mock" egg salad (I'm generally afraid of a recipe that uses that term).  It uses real eggs, but cooks them in a different way if you don't feel like hard boiling and peeling them or just don't have the time.  And no one will know the difference.  *smile* 

So what's the cheat?  Poaching.  

Simmer some water in a skillet, crack the eggs into it, cover the pan, and gently steam until you can tell (with a gentle prod) that the yolks are cooked.  This takes about five minutes.  Slip the eggs onto a plate and cool in the fridge or freezer if you want to use them immediately.  NO PEELING NECESSARY!  Just chop the eggs on a cutting board and make your salad.  Easy, wasn't it?

Peanut Butter Dip

Here's a quick, easy recipe for peanut butter dip that is not too sweet and tastes great with apples.  A great any-time-of-day snack.  I think it could also be a great spread in a sandwich--the yogurt "lightens" the peanut butter and makes it more spreadable.  I use Zimmerman's Natural peanut butter which has no sugar and just a little salt.

 Peanut Butter Dip

1/2 cup plain (or vanilla) yogurt
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 TBSP sugar (or less if using sweetened yogurt or peanut butter)
splash of vanilla
pinch cinnamon


Whip ingredients together in a bowl until incorporated and fluffy.  Dip!

Hummus, My Way

As if we all needed another recipe for hummus.  But after so many times of  randomly throwing hummus together and getting such varied results I finally started keeping track of what I did and got the recipe down the way I like it.  By the way, I costed this at about $1.65, most of that being the chickpeas.  If you cooked your own from dried beans, it would be even less!

Anita's Hummus
(servings:  ummmm . . . depends on the day!)

 1 16-oz. can chickpeas (1 1/2 cups), drained with juice reserved
1 clove garlic
2 TBSP tahini
2-4 TBSP lemon juice (towards the higher end if using fresh lemon)
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of cumin, pinch of black pepper
1 TBSP reserved liquid from chickpeas


Instructions

Place all ingredients except for the reserved liquid into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the standard chopping blade and whiz it smooth.  This is one food I can't seems to make the way I like it except in a food processor. With blenders, I seem to have to add too much liquid to get the texture I really want.  In the food processor I pulse and scrape, pulse and scrape a few times, and then let it whiz for quite a while until it is very smooth.  If you add too much liquid early on, the chickpeas will always stay a little lumpy/grainy, which is fine if you like that texture.  I like mine creamy, so I add the extra liquid (usually about one TBSP as written) at the end just to thin it a little.  You could also add olive oil to loosen it up if you like.  I like my hummus creamy and pretty thick, so that it is easy to scoop up on a pretzel.

Taste and correct the seasonings as you like it.  I like a bright lemon flavor, which is why my recipe has such a wide range of acceptable amounts.  Since it's cheaper and easier to always have on hand, I often use the bottled juice (forgive me!) which seems to take less to get the brightness I like.  Also, not all tahini is created equal.  I start with 2 TBSP and then add more if I have a mild tahini.

Speaking of tahini, it is the reason I costed my recipe.  It can be pretty pricey but if you tend to use it just for hummus, it will last a long time and the cost per batch isn't too bad (about 50 cents).  

I like to serve our hummus swirled about with olive oil and za'atar (a Mediterranean blend of herbs, salt, and toasted sesame seeds--I found a great source at Ten Thousand Villages in downtown H'burg) and scooped up with mini-pretzles (since Gibbles has been sold my new favorite is Utz Wheels) or flat bread.  YUM! 

p.s. and if you've figured out how to make thick, creamy hummus in a blender, let me know!

Thai Squash

I came across this recipe for Thai squash some time ago and have enjoyed making it a lot recently.  It's fast, flavorful, and simple to put together once your squash or pumpkin is prepared.  I've been using butternut squash (clearing out the last of last year's crop!).

Here's the how-to:

Peel, seed, and slice two cups-worth of squash (we will understand from here on out that "squash" means "squash or pumpkin") into roughly domino-sized pieces.  See, I always want to make a bit more . . .

locate 30 peppercorns (trust me!) and 2 cloves of garlic

crush them!

Heat up one tablespoon of oil in a wok or skillet and add the garlic/peppercorn mixture.  Cook until the garlic begins to brown.  Add squash and one cup of water.  Stir and cook until squash is just soft (5-10 minutes).  When there is still a little water left add 2 tablespoons of fish sauce (trust me!) and one teaspoon of sugar.  Let sit a few minutes until ready to eat.  Serve with rice or on its own as a side dish.  We've eaten it a few times alongside sticky rice and laab.

If you don't have fish sauce in your pantry, you could try substituting soy sauce (I have not tried this) or just go buy the bottle of fish sauce and make more Asian food!  Besides using fish sauce in Thai and Vietnamese recipes I also add it to soups for a bit of saltiness and depth of flavor (like bouillon).

Buttery Sauteed Cabbage

I made this cabbage (with spinach) to go along with my St. Patrick's Day meal of Irish stew and soda bread (see previous post).  I really liked how it turned out and thought it complemented the stew nicely.  Plus, it was a cinch to throw together.  And it was buttery.

Buttery Cabbage

1/2 head cabbage, thinly knife-shredded
few cups spinach, washed and roughly chopped (optional)
2 - 3 TBSP butter
generous pinch ground nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

In a hot skillet, steam cabbage in a little water--covered--until tender (about 10 minutes).  Remove lid, add spices and butter and spinach if using.  Cover again and let sit a few minutes for butter to melt and spinach to wilt.  Stir, taste, and add additional salt and pepper if desired.  That's it!  Serve in a pretty bowl.

P.S.  My taste-tester (the adult one) really enjoyed this too!

Frittata

A simple and delicious dish for any meal of the day, especially if you want quiche but don't feel like fooling with a crust (or the baking element in your oven just went out, which is what happened to me right before Thanksgiving!). Like quiche, you can fill your frittata with any combination of ingredients that suits your fancy: bacon and cheese; asparagus and ham; spinach; onions; potatoes. And so on. Once you have your fillings prepared (sauteed, cooked, wilted, fried, etc.) you pour your egg/cheese mixture over them in an oven-proof skillet and cook on the stove until the eggs are mostly set but still wet on top. Then transfer to the oven and broil until the top is lightly browned. That's it! 

For this frittata, I used sauteed spinach and onions and boiled potato slices. I mixed in some needing-to-be-used cream cheese with the eggs and then sprinkled feta on the top just before it went under the broiler. YUM! I was trying to conserve cookware, so I sauteed the spinach and onions right in the cast iron skillet that I cooked the frittata in. However, I think I would do them in a separate pan next time so that I could layer the frittata with the potatoes on the bottom of the pan, then spinach, then eggs poured over all. That way the potatoes could get crispy on the bottom instead of the spinach. Make sure there is some butter or oil under all that too, by the way! 

For this frittata, I used 6 eggs and a dash of milk, salt and pepper. It took longer to cook on the stove than I thought it should, but that may have been because I was using a cast iron skillet instead of a non-stick making it hard to lift the edges and let the eggs on top run down underneath to cook faster. 

Whatever your method, this is simpler and faster than quiche and just as tasty. As a main course, this fed two adults and a toddler with two slices left over. Enjoy experimenting!

Pop!

Well, I'm not entirely sure it was worth the time and effort, but I wanted to try out a collage sometime, and here it is!  (Don't look too close at the edges--Atticus is about to wake up, and I don't feel like going back into the project and changing it again!)

I made some peach yogurt pops last week to freeze in my cheap-o mini pop molds.  As you can see, I like to eat mine by scraping my teeth down the sides.  The yogurt melts slowly, allowing you plenty of time to enjoy the creamy fruity goodness as you take a break from washing dishes or sneak outside to satisfy a mid-afternoon food craving.  Who, me?

Once I'd worked my way down to about a 1/3 of pop's original size, I stashed it back in the freezer for someone else's afternoon craving.  It was well-enjoyed both times.

Really, these pops are just yogurt, peaches, a teensy bit of sugar, and vanilla.  So there's no harm in eating one for breakfast and no need to feel sneaky about eating one any other time of day!  Plus, mine are small.

Yogurt Fruit Pops

Equal amounts:

fresh or frozen fruit

yogurt

sugar to taste

dash of vanilla or other complimentary flavoring

Do it!  Whiz all together in a blender and pour into molds.  If you don't have popsicle molds, just use a cup or small yogurt container, cover with foil, and put a popsicle stick in it.  Freeze and enjoy!

Grits: Take 1 & 2

Nothing makes me feel so southern as making a bowl of hot, buttery, cheesy grits for breakfast (except maybe frying green tomatoes!).  A little fresh-ground black pepper on top, and you need nothing more.

When we'd eaten all we wanted--baby LOVED the grits!--I put the leftovers in a small loaf pan and into the fridge.  The next morning I sliced the grit loaf up as you would for fried cornmeal mush and fried it gently in a skillet with some butter.  Topped with homemade syrup or fruit sauce, we enjoyed it as much the second day as we did the first.

Grits: Take 1 & 2.  Simple.

Hot, Blistered Corn on the Cob!

Have you maxed out your corn on the cob eating capacity for the summer yet?  Well, I was getting there.  We had eaten it fresh a few times, processed two big batches for the freezer (I'm not even sure how much corn I ate while cutting it off the cob!), and had about a dozen ears in the fridge, cooked and ready to eat.  If we could.

Something had to get me re-energized.

How 'bout a bottle of sweet chili sauce?  

In Israel, where they apparently don't grow sweet corn, a little sweet, spicy chili sauce and a few minutes on the grill made even field corn-like stuff go down yummly.

I had to try it.

Here's what you do:  Take cooked corn on the cob, slather with sweet chili sauce (like this--I had a homemade concoction I put up last year), and place it on a cookie sheet under the broiler of your oven until nice and blistery, turning as needed.  

Yep.  That's it!  Of course, if you have the grill all fired up you might as well throw them on that.  But the broiler works just as well.

Watch out lips!!!!  Wowza, I made some hot chili sauce last summer!  It gets all caramelized and gooey as it heats and just sticks to the lips--you know with corn on the cob it's hard to avoid lip-to-food contact.  But yum, yum!  Even my taste-tester (who normally doesn't offer up feedback) volunteered, "this is really good."  He liked it cold the next day too.

So if you're getting a little tired of corn already, try this to spice it up a bit.  Or a lot. 

Corn Chowder

A great dish for when you might be low on supplies and low on time. Luckily, we have plenty of sweet corn in our freezer right now, but I'm sure this would taste good with canned corn too. I'll leave off the amounts as I trust you experienced cooks can figure out how much is good for you!

Simple Corn Chowder

Onion, diced + a little butter for sauteing
Potatoes, diced (I like to use redskins and leave the jackets on)
Corn
Water
Milk or half-&-half or cream
Salt/Pepper to taste

Yep, that's the whole ingredient list! I even resisted any urges to add garlic. =) Saute your onions in butter (or oil if you like) until nice and soft. Add potatoes, corn, and just enough water to cover. Cook until potatoes are done to your preferred softness. Add milk, etc. and salt/pepper to taste. How easy was that?! All of the following make excellent garnishes: shredded cheddar, chives, cilantro, or bacon.


Cook's Word: The first time I made this I had some half-&-half sitting around (not being used!). The half-&-half made the soup incredibly silky and delicious, but the flavor was still good with plain old 1% milk another time around. I think a bit of celery sauteed with the onion would be yummy too.

Fall Fare

Quick, before winter officially begins!

I made this a few weeks (okay, probably two months) ago and it was an absolutely delicious fall meal! Mashed potatoes (and turnips--could've done without those, actually) with spicy sausage and tatsoi. I sauteed onions, then browned the sausage and seasoned it with cayenne pepper, sage, and hickory smoked salt. Just before serving, I added some chopped tatsoi cabbage and cooked it just until it wilted a bit but hadn't lost its color.

Yum, yum!

Lavender Vanilla Soda

I was craving some soda a few weeks ago while doing some regular grocery shopping. Having agreed not to purchase items with high-fructose corn syrup in them, I was at a bit of a loss as to how to satisfy this craving. Then it came to me. Dry soda. We sell it at the restaurant I work at--a product developed by a pregnant lady to be able to enjoy a good tasting dinner beverage without feeding baby lots of sugar. I bought a bottle of club soda and determined to make my own.

I started with lavender, steeping 2 tsp. of the flowers in a cup of hot water.

When it had steeped for 10 minutes, I added 2 tsp. sugar, a pinch of salt, and a 1/4 tsp. of vanilla flavoring. Into the freezer for about 15 minutes to cool.

After chilling, I mixed the syrup with an equal amount of club soda, and that was it!

It could have been sweeter, less lavender-y and more vanilla-y. But overall I found it refreshing and simple to make. I tried adding whipped cream to make it like a cream soda, but found I didn't care for the effect.

Other flavor ideas: plain vanilla, orange, ginger, cherry . . . Got any to share?

Fish Soup

I found a recipe in a Mediterranean cookbook I have for fish baked in a tomato-olive sauce that looked really good. Great way to finish off those two last fillets in the freezer. Um. Make that one fillet in the freezer. No problem. I turned the "sauce" into broth and when the fish was cooked, I flaked it into pieces for a fish soup! I loved the combination of flavors! The broth consisted of sauteed onions, tomato paste, pepper paste, and water. After the fish was cooked, I added chopped black olives, fresh cilantro, and salt & pepper to taste. Just writing about it is making me hungry! And now that I've bought more fish . . . could be anytime!

Long Beans

Here's one from the "archives" (of pictures I hadn't sorted and made use of yet). Long beans which I found at our local farmers market back in November. And cooked shortly thereafter. They were too beautiful to resist (though they look a little snake-y in the pan)!

I didn't want to break them up, because that would make them look just like normal green beans. So, into the pan with a little oil, then pesto. If you remember my post a while back on pesto, I had forgotten to mention that one of my favorite ways to use it is on green beans.

Sprinkled with a bit of parmesan cheese and served up with some steaming "black bean-butternut-rice-etc. casserole" and mixed greens.

Cook's Word: A bit crunchier than your normal green bean--I kept cooking them but they never got truly soft. Which is okay, because I don't mind an "al dente" bean. The length definitely made them a bit of a choking hazard, though, so I would probably cut them into small pieces next time. The flavor combination of beans with pesto? Winner!

Broccoli Soup

Don't think I haven't been cooking just because I've been lax about posting here. I have so many little pieces of paper with scribbled notes and lots of photos floating around. Making time to grab hold of the right notes and the right pictures together just hasn't been at the top of my "To Do" list recently. My list from this morning--for example--included: calling a massage studio, cleaning my bathroom, putting canning jars away, and collecting money from a few people. But it said nothing about blogging (or laundry, which desperately needed putting away--see how that was past tense? I actually did that even though it hadn't made the list!).

Well, this isn't a blog about my life. It's about cooking. And I was able to find the scrap of paper that goes along with these pictures, so here you have it . . .

Creamy Curry Broccoli Soup

3 cloves garlic, smashed open
1/2 onion, chopped
glug of olive oil for sauteeing
1 TBSP butter (or just use more olive oil if you want vegan)
2 chicken and one vegetable bouillion cube (or all veg again)
4 cups water
5 cups broccoli pieces (I use stems too, since it will get pureed)
1/2 tsp. green curry paste

Method: Saute onions and garlic in olive oil/butter until soft. Add remaining ingredients and simmer until broccoli is tender. Process in blender or food processor until smooth. YUM!

Here's a picture of the curry paste I used. I suppose you could use red or yellow paste too with similar results. Sorry it's a bit blurry.

Cook's Word: I love pureed soups! So easy to throw everything in a pot and not worry about chopping just so since it'll all get whizzed to oblivion anyway--and I love the way the flavors meld when you blend a soup! I definitely like adding curry paste to this to make it a bit more interesting than a classic broccoli cream soup, and I'm thinking of doing this with pumpkin too. Beware, it gets hotter each day!

Special thanks to Mr. Froggy for helping to stir the soup!