Category Archives: Food

Foodie Friday ~ Inside Picnic…

This hasn’t been a typical week for us and we’ve eaten off our usual track. Last night we decided on a picnic in front of the T.V. Being empty nesters who moved away from their nest to get to an empty one, no relationship was harmed by eating in front of the T.V. Dear and I have plenty face to face meals with lots of meaningful conversations!

 

We had hard cheese, soft cheese, smoked cheese. My favorite was the Stilton with apricots. A fresh small loaf of bread and crackers. Genoa Salami, avocado, grapes and peaches. To drink I made a White Sangria. Here’s the recipe.

3-1/2 cups dry white wine (your typical bottle is just enough)
1/2 cup Cointreau or Triple Sec
1/4 cup sugar
ice cubes
1 10-oz. club soda
1 orange
1 lemon
2 limes

Combine first 3 ingredients and stir till sugar is dissolved. If you are going to serve it right away add the club soda now and the sliced citrus. Fill glass you choose to use with ice and pour the sangria over and enjoy. You could use some of the fruit for garnish if you’d like.  If you plan to make it ahead refrigerate the first 3 ingredients and then add the rest of the ingredients just before your company arrives. (I go ahead and add the citrus ahead of time because I like the added flavor)

Be sure to visit our hostess Gollum at Designs by Gollum on Friday to see more Foodie Posts!

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Foodie Friday ~ Cherry Platz

It’s time to get your cooking on for Foodie Friday. Gollum at Designs by Gollum is our trusty hostess for this event. Oh I forgot the theme this week is cakes but this can qualify as a big sheet cake or we’ll call it coffee cake!

 

I decided to try Betty R.’s recipe for Cookie Sheet Cherry Platz for my treat for our Women’s Bible Study this Friday. To see the whole recipe and Betty’s pretty Platz click on over to the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog. Here are my collages from my prep and the results…

 

I should have followed Betty’s lead and used a can and a half of the filling. I felt mine was a little short.

 

This recipe makes a nice large cookie sheet of Platz to cut up and serve a crowd. I hope the ladies like it. It sure looks good enough to eat!

For more Foodies visit Gollum at Designs by Gollum.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Foodie Friday ~ Cinco de Mayo

Our theme for this Friday’s Foodie is Cinco de Mayo! Odale! Gollum at Designs by Gollum is our trusty hostess for this event. I’m sharing a collage of a Mexican table and food we made when my SIL and brother were visiting us in Washington over Thanksgiving.

 

Letty made the Mexican Rice and she uses whole pinto beans and then mashes them herself and reheats them to make the refried beans. I really enjoy them better than getting the already refried in a can. For our soft tacos we used the slow cooked pork with garnish of cilantro, green onions, cheese, and salsa. The Salsa was homemade by Letty, too.

Today I made Tex-Mex chili for dinner.

I cooked the chunky ground beef with onion and some seasoning. I added the packets from the ready made chili spice mix some chopped tomatoes, a can of pinto beans with jalapeno added, and a can of kidney beans.

 

When I serve it I have shredded cheese, fresh tomato chunks, cilantro, avocado, and green onion to add as desired. I usually also bake some corn bread to go along with!

Happy early Cinco de Mayo to all you Foodies!

To see more Foodie posts visit Gollum at Designs by Gollum!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Foodie Friday ~ Artichoke

Spring Fling is the Foodie Friday Theme this week. Everyone at my house loves artichokes and for Foodie Friday I’m going to share the fast easy way we choose to enjoy this Springy looking vegetable! Gollum at Designs by Gollum is the hostess of this weekly Blog Food Event.

 

First find nice firm artichokes. Cut the stem off so you have a flat base. Cut the top say up to 1/2 to 1 inch straight across. Snip each leaf at the top to get rid of the sharp prickly part. Rinse really well and lay upside down with some of the liquid in a microwavable dish. Cover the dish and microwave on high for approx. 5 minutes for one. I did these for 10 minutes for the two and they were perfect.

 

Put the artichoke on any plate (be careful it will be very hot) Aren’t these artichoke plates Springy looking that I got from Goodwill for cheap?!  Next choose your dip of choice. Dear likes mayonnaise, I like Ranch Dressing, the rest of my family likes Italian dressing. Put a little  on the plate in the nifty section made just for it. Peel off one leaf at a time and dip the end that was most connected then scrap off the goodness with your teeth. (I love that soft focus you can fix photos with cuz now you can’t see all my wrinkles on this close up of me with the leaf) As you get farther into the center the leaves are more delicate and you can scrap off more goodness to eat, or even eat the whole leaf except for there always seems to be a little prickly part you need to avoid. Now here’s why they call it a Artichoke (maybe)…

 

See that fuzzy feathery part of the choke. This is the part you need to discard because you will probably choke on it. We use a spoon to scrape off all the fuzziness to get to the very best part the heart of the artichoke, you’ll need to apply a little pressure to remove the fuzzies from the heart but be careful not to scrape away the heart. After scrapping off the fuzz, sometimes I even rinse this part off to make sure I got rid of all the fuzzies, yep I’m a little paranoid that way. Now you can eat the heart and it’s solid artichoke yumminess. Make sure you add a little more dip if you got low in the eating process at this point :0)  This is a fun appetizer that we always enjoy at our house!

Now to see more Foodie Posts visit Gollum at Designs by Gollum!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Foodie Friday

One of my favorite signs of Spring is when the Local Strawberry stands open selling Strawberries straight from the fields.

 

This was a fun dessert I put together for my kids one evening. I bought the Belgium Chocolate cups from the local grocery store. Then I whipped up some instant vanilla pudding. I filled the cups with the pudding and flared a strawberry for the top of each cup. Fun, fast, easy dessert. Enjoy…

Oops! Just found out this is suppose to be an Irish Foodie Friday so I’m adding this last minute Irish.

 

To see lots of Foodie posts visit Gollum at Designs by Gollum by clicking the Foodie badge.

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Mount Rainier Chili ~

This recipe comes from one of my favorite cook books, Simply Classic – The Junior League of Seattle. Every recipe I’ve tried from this book is a success and is tasty.

Ingredients:

1 pound Great Northern white beans, rinsed and picked over
2 pounds boneless chicken breasts
1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
2 cups onions, chopped
4 medium garlic cloves, minced
2 – 4oz. cans chopped mild green chiles
2 tsp. ground cumin
1-1/2 tsp. dried oregano, crumbled
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. cayenne
8 cups chicken stock
1 – 12 oz. beer
3 cups Monterey Jack cheese shredded and divided
sour cream
salsa
fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

* Place beans in a large, heavy pot. Add enough cold water to cover by at least 3 inches. Cover and soak overnight.

*Place chicken in a large, heavy saucepan. Add cold water to cover and bring to a simmer. Cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and cool. Remove skin and cut chicken into cubes.

* Drain beans into large colander. Heat oil in same pot. Add onions and saute over medium-low heat until translucent, about 10 minutes. Stir in garlic, green chilies, cumin, oregano, cloves and cayenne. Saute 2 minutes. Add beans and stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until beans are very tender, stirring occasionally, about 3 to 4 hours. Add additional water if necessary. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and bring to a simmer before continuing.) Add chicken, beer and 1 cup of cheese. Stir until cheese melts. Ladle chili into bowls. Serve with remaining cheese, sour cream, salsa and cilantro leaves to sprinkle on top.

Serves twelve to fourteen…

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and demanding a ransom for me to access them. I’m slowly cleaning up many of my posts where PB have added ugly black and grey boxes where my photos used to be. So frustrating!

 

Pumpkin Praline Trifle

I found this great recipe in the Thanksgiving Special bon appetit November 2008. Bon appetit describes this dessert as a cross between a trifle and tiramisu. You should make the trifle at least one day ahead, 2 days preferably to let the flavors meld or as I say “moosh”.

The most time consuming part of the recipe is making the praline. The praline recipe yields enough to make 2 trifles. The creamy layers and pumpkin layers are very simple to make and the whole trifle once the praline is successfully completed is very easy to do.

Praline

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 cup packed golden brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup half and half
1-1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-2/3 cups pecan halves (about 6 oz.) (I used pecan pieces because that’s what I had)

Mascarpone Cream

2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream
1 8 oz. container chilled mascarpone cheese (I found this at Trader Joe’s)
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling

1 – 15 oz. can pure pumpkin
1/2 cup packed golden brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (I used already ground)
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. salt
1-1/2 – 3 oz. packages of soft ladyfingers. (I bought a 4.75 oz. box of soft lady fingers at Trader Joe’s and it was enough for 1 trifle)
4-1/2 tablespoons of dark rum, divided

Praline/ Spray baking sheet with nonstick spray. Bring both sugars and half and half to boil in heavy medium saucepan over medium high heat, whisking to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat ot medium-low and simmer 5 minutes, whisking constantly. Add butter, vanilla, and salt. Attach candy thermometer to pan. Simmer without stirring until temperature registers 260 degrees F, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat; immediately mix in pecans. Transfer to prepared sheet, spreading in a single layer. Cool completely. Chop into 1/4 inch pieces.

Mascarpone Cream/ Using electric mixer, beat all ingredients in large bowl until firm peaks form. Set aside 1/2 cup mascarpone cream for pumpkin filling.

Filling/ Whisk pumpkin, brown sugar, cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and salt in large bowl to blend. Whisk in reserved 1/2 cup mascarpone cream.

Spread 1/3 cup mascarpone cream over bottom of 8×5 inch trifle dish (12-14 cup capacity). Place layer of lady fingers over cream. Sprinkle 1-1/2 Tablespoons of rum over. Spread 1/2 cup pumpkin filling over ladyfingers, spreading to edges. Sprinkle 1/3 cup praline over. Spread 1 cup mascarpone cream over. Cover with another layer of lady fingers. Sprinkle with 1-1/2 tablespoons rum, then spread 1 cup pumpkin filling over. Sprinkle 1/2 cup praline over. Repeat 1 more time with 1 cup mascarpone cream, lady fingers, rum, 1 cup pumpkin filling and 1/2 cup praline. Spread remaining mascarpone cream on top. Cover and chill overnight. DO AHEAD. Can be made 2 days ahead.

Uncover trifle. Sprinkle 1 cup praline decoratively over top (reserving any remaining praline for another use)

My guests really enjoyed this trifle and I will make it again!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and demanding a ransom for me to access them. I’m slowly cleaning up many of my posts where PB have added ugly black and grey boxes where my photos used to be. So frustrating!

Bavarian Apple Torte

 

I copied this recipe from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog. Anneliese posted it with her recipe and instructions that you can find by clicking here.

This was not difficult to make and it is so pretty on a cake plate on the table. I loved the different layers of crust, cream cheese, apples and nuts. Yummy…

 

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and demanding a ransom for me to access them. I’m slowly cleaning up many of my posts where PB have added ugly black and grey boxes where my photos used to be. So frustrating!

Crock Pot Dilly Beef Sandwiches

We are having an open house Saturday and are expecting about 20 people to come through so I’ll be away from the computer all day. I wanted to give you this easy recipe that would be great to make ahead for Sandwiches for a lazy Sunday afternoon after church or on Saturday while you watch College Football.  Enjoy! Now I’m off to the kitchen to make a Bavarian Apple Torte!

 

I saw this recipe on Boo Mama’s Souptacular deal and then couldn’t find the person who posted it so I googled Dill Pickle Beef Crockpot recipes and found this one to try. This is a very simple crockpot recipe and the beef comes out very tasty.

Ingredients: 4 lbs. Boneless Chuck Roast, 1-16oz. Jar whole Dill pickles -undrained, 1/2 Cup Chili Sauce, 2 cloves garlic minced, 10 hamburger buns split. If you don’t have anything else to use the chili sauce for just dump the whole bottle in.

Cut roast in half and place in slow cooker. Add pickles with juice and chili sauce and garlic. Cover and cook for 8-9 hours on low setting.

Discard Pickles, Remove Roast, Shred the beef and return to sauce in crockpot and heat through on the high setting. Use slotted spoon and fill each bun with about 1/2 cup meat. Bon Appetit.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and demanding a ransom for me to access them. I’m slowly cleaning up many of my posts where PB have added ugly black and grey boxes where my photos used to be. So frustrating!

Pasta Puttanesca ~ Rachel Ray

Round Robin Challenge ~ Food Glorious Food!

I’m having computer issues that are zapping my ability to post much and to get around much. My computer keeps shutting down on me. Please bear with me.

 

 

The only thing I did different in this recipe was to use my husband’s favorite olives instead of black olives. (Kalamata and Green) You can also add artichoke hearts to this dish. My husband always orders this if it’s on the menu at an Italian restaurant and many times they have artichoke hearts included in the sauce.

 

Boy did the condo smell good all night long after I made this!

To see more Round Robin Challenge Food entries click here.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and demanding a ransom for me to access them. I’m slowly cleaning up many of my posts where PB have added ugly black and grey boxes where my photos used to be. So frustrating!