Tex Mex Cookbook Giveaway!

Another great giveaway from Foodie Giveaway Blog. Be sure to head on over, check it out for 4 chances to win this great cookbook. http://foodiegiveaway.blogspot.com/2009/06/foods-and-flavors-of-san-antonio.html

Hurry! Contest ends Thursday, June 25th.

Gnocchi

Another great way to use potatoes... and potatoes are always budget friendly. We paired this up with a simple salad of mesculin greens from my garden and a fresh pesto sauce that left my little basil plants a wee bit bald. Oh, well... so worth it!

If you haven't given gnocchi a try, it is so easy! Just boil or steam some potatoes... rice 'em... make a dough with egg, flour and cream... roll and boil the little beauties!

Gnocchi
1 lb. potatoes (steamed or boiled till soft)
1/3 c. grated cheddar (or cheese of choice... but also optional)
1 large egg (beaten)
1 TBSP. cream
1 c. flour (plus extra for rolling)
2 tsp. salt

Steam or boil potatoes for about 15 minutes. Either mash or rice the potatoes and allow them to cool slightly before making dough. Gently mix in cheese, egg, cream & salt. Add flour 1/3 c. at a time. Do not overmix but make sure the dough is not too sticky.

Roll out "snakes" of dough. Cut similar sized portions off and then either roll over the tines of a fork or on a gnocchi board. (Available at King Arthur Flour.com) As a hint, flour the board before rolling. If you will not boil the gnocchi right away, cover with a towel or refrigerate till needed.

Boil in salted water. Gnocchi will float to the surface when it is done. Skim off with a spider or slotted spoon. Toss quickly with sauce so they don't stick together or dry out. Enjoy!

Diner-Style Strawberry Pie

What great thing can you make with vodka and strawberries?

Well, Diner-Style Strawberry Pie, of course! This recipe comes from the June/July 09 edition of Cook's Country Magazine. If you haven't seen this magazine, now is the time to pick one up. With all the fresh farm strawberries around, I am always looking for another good recipe using strawberries. This one took a while to make... not difficult, just time consuming!... but, it was definitely worth the work. I will be making this recipe every year at least once or twice. So, on to the pics!

The vodka goes into the crust to keep it super tender, keeping gluten strands from forming. For this pie the crust was up to the reader and I used this crust recipe from the Cook's Illustrated November & December edition for Better Pumpkin Pie. That is another pie I suggest everyone try at least once. The flavor is amazing! The crust is super simple to make, but very wet and must chill for an hour our more and then again between each time it is handled. I suggest making it the day or evening before.

But, back to the pie! Pretty simple, really. Frozen strawberries are simmered down to a jam like consisitency for about 30 minutes or so. Then add in the lemon juice, water and unflavored gelatin. Then add the sugar and salt and simmer till it is all smooth.

This cools as you slice up more fresh strawberries to fold into the mix. Then put them into the pre-baked (blind-baked) pie shell of choice and let it cool for 4+ hours. With the gelatin I was worried about weeping, but 24 hours later it was still holding strong. Give yourself plenty of time to chill this so it sets up properly. I think we cut into it at 4 hours and it might have needed another hour or two. Then top this beauty with a mixture of cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and heavy cream. Yum!

Another Giveaway!

The Foodie Giveaway Blog is running another giveaway folks! This time for a cookbook - Martha Stewart's Everyday Food: Great Food Fast. There are three ways to enter this giveaway, so be sure to go on over and check it out. I haven't had a chance to look through this cookbook yet, but I am sure it is full of good recipes. I get the Everyday Food Magazine and have found many family favorites over the past 2 years in there.

http://foodiegiveaway.blogspot.com/2009/06/everyday-food-great-food-fast.html

Jam-ing away the night

Yes, it is that time of year again! This year I was determined not to miss out on the short window to get fresh strawberries at the farm and make jam. Only two batches made so far, though with a toddler that is quite a feat! This one was just strawberry and we also made a strawberry-rhubarb batch. This next weekend I plan on getting more berries to freeze so we can make some strawberry-combo jams later on this summer. I was thinking strawberry-blueberry or strawberry-appricot sounded yummy. My husband thinks that 2 batches of jam are a lot... about 17 jars total... I think he will be surprised how fast those get eaten.

Rhubarb meet Strawberries...

I love rhubarb! It is always hard for me to buy it in the supermarket. It is so small and beat up by the time it hits the shelves. Well, that and it is so hard to find. Shoved in a tiny space, just a few pitiful stalks displayed. I wonder if most people know the pleasure of some nice tangy rhubarb. If I had a yard I would grow my own. I have wonderfully fond memories of my Mother's monster plants and the lovely aeroma of rhubarb simmering in the kitchen. In pie or over shortcake, I love it alone and with it's good friend the strawberry. So, I was excited when I saw the recent edition of Everyday Food Magazine which featured rhubarb recipes. The recipe for rhubarb crumb bars caught my eye. I decided to try it with half rhubarb and half strawberries (though I was overly generous with the fruit), but still found it lacking. It was good, not too sweet, but more like a coffee cake than a bar cookie. I think I could have added even more fruit to give it more flavor. I never like to be lacking fruit...

Rhubarb Crumb Bars
For the streusel:
6 TBSP unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the pan
1 c. a.p. flour, plus more for the pan
1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt

For the cake:
1/2 lb. rhubarb cut into 1/2-inch pieces (for strawberry-rhubarb go half and half with the fruit)
1 TBSP. light brown sugar
1 c. a.p. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. unsalted butter at room temp.
1 c. confectioners' sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350, butter and flour an 8-inch square pan. Tap out excess flour.
Make streusel: Whisk together melted butter, brown sugar and salt. Add flour and mix with a fork until large crumbs form. (I found my mixture a bit wet, so I added a 1/2 c. of quick oats) Refrigerate till ready to use.
For the cake, in a medium bowl combine fruit with the brown sugar and 1/4 c. flour. In another medium bowl whisk the remaining flour, baking powder and salt. In your mixer bowl cream the sugar and butter till fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time till incorporated. Then, with the mixer on low, add the vanilla then slowly add the flour mixture. Spread this batter in the bottom of your prepared pan. Top with the fruit and flour mix and then top with streusel.
Bake cake unitl golden and a tooth pick comes out clean, about 45 to 50 minutes. (I had to cover mine with foil for the last 10 minutes to get the cake done) Let it cool completely in pan before cutting.

**You can also line the pan with parchment paper, then grease and flour that. This can make the bars easier to pull out and cut. I usually skip this step because my guys don't really care about presentation and I try to cut back on extra supplies when I can. :)

Meatloaf Tonight

This is my all time favorite meatloaf recipe. It might have something to do with the nostalgia of childhood, but I have never turned my nose up at it. Never dry and definitely flavorful, this meatloaf is full of goodies to stir up the taste buds!

Meatloaf
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
2 eggs
1 8-oz. can of tomato sauce
1/2 c. of cracker crumbs or rolled oats (I prefer a mixture of Ritz and oats)
1/2 c. chopped yellow onion
1 apple finely chopped (roughly the size of the onion peices)
2 cloves of garlic diced
1/2 c. cubed sharp cheddar
salt & pepper as desired

Combine all ingredients except for beef. Mix well. I like to mix it by hand, I think it goes faster. Then add the beef and incorporate all the ingredients. Shape the mixture into a loaf shape in a 12x7.5x2-inch baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes. Take loaf out of the oven and top with ketchup as desired. Return to the oven for 15 minutes. Makes 6-8 servings.


This dish goes very quickly in my house! I have to appologize for the picture, we gobbled it down so quickly I forgot to set up pic to show it off! This was the left over half as I was putting it away in the fridge. Not nearly as pretty as when it first came out of the oven. But, really taste and enjoyment are far more important than looks any way!

I served this with some good 'ole fashioned mashed potatoes and some of our home canned green beans. Sometimes it is nice to go with a classic for Saturday dinner.

Go to Dinner!

Another Giveaway! Here is my go to meal. I try to always keep the ingredients handy because it is such a nutricious meal. The beans and rice help to make a complete protein, so this is a fabulous vegetarian option. This idea comes from the great Cafe Yumm! found in Oregon. The sauce, which really makes this dish, is also available in grocery stores throughout Oregon and some locations in Washington. There is a recipe for making it yourself, and I will try to post that soon. For more info on Cafe Yumm! visit http://www.cafeyumm.com/index.html

Rice Bowls

Layer ingredients as you like, but this is the order I usually use:
Brown or Jasmine rice first
Black Beans
Grated Cheese (your choice)
Yumm! Sauce
Tomatoes
Salsa
Sour Cream
Avacado
Olives
Cilantro

Really the order doesn't matter because it is best to mix it all up before eating! Yum. I promise you will be full after having a bowl of this.

Okay, the Giveaway is again from Foodie Giveaway, this time for Pace Salsa. So, you could try my recipe or one of your own. Be sure to visit the site and check out the giveaway details.
http://foodiegiveaway.blogspot.com/ Good luck!

Giveaway!

Here is a contest to enter! I love this blog and the sister food blog Taste and Tell. I am sure once you check out this blog you will be as hopelessly hooked as I am!

The current giveaway is for a 17 ounce bottle of Gaea Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil. And who couldn't use some free, good olive oil? Think of all the glorious possibilities! If you can't, well, check out the company's website for some scrumptious possibilities. I am rather partial to Caprese Salad myself. Here is the site: http://www.gaea.gr/index.htm

Then be sure to hop on over to the Foodie Giveaway site to enter this good stuff. http://foodiegiveaway.blogspot.com/

Good luck!

No peanut peanut butter!

My son can't eat a lot of things, and nuts are a big no-no! So, we found a wonderful pea-not butter from the Medical Food company Cambrooke... but, now they are not making it any more. What is a Mom to do? So, I found a recipe for this faux peanut butter called Steve's Peanut Butter in the Low Protein Bread Machine Baking for PKU book. I was thinking our friends with peanut allergies might also enjoy this one. I didn't have quite enough flavoring, but other than that it is pretty good!

Steve's Peanut Butter
1/4 c. cornstarch
2 1/2 Tbsp. water
2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1/2 c. non dairy creamer
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar (or up to 1 Tbsp., to taste)
2 Tbsp. peanut butter flavoring (or more to taste)
molasses as need for color. Make it darker than normal as it will lighten as it sets up.

Add water to cornstarch and stir till all lumps are dissolved. On low, heat the creamer and butter till melted. Next add the cornstarch and continually whisk till it thickens. Once it begins, it will be fast and whisking will prevent it from clumping up. Once it is nice and thick, remove from heat and add the remaining ingredients. Start with a 1/4 tsp. of molasses and work up from there. Keep this refrigerated and it sill last for about a month. If it seperates, just give it a good stir. Enjoy!