Lemonade

I made myself a glass of lemonade by juicing two lemons, added five crushed spearmint leaves from my garden, water, ice, and 3/4 tablespoon sugar.

Trail Matzo

Gayle suggested slathering my leftover matzo with butter, adding chocolate and walnuts and baking it in the oven for a Girl Scout style trail snack.

I made a sauce of 3.5 ounces intense dark chocolate, 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, one stick butter, and one cup peanut butter. I added about 3 tablespoons dried strawberries and about half a cup candied ginger, torn into chunks.

I put the matzo on cookie sheets and added the chocolate, then I added walnuts and baked at 350 for five minutes.

I should have sprinkled the strawberries and ginger on top with the walnuts instead of in the sauce. I didn't use enough. If I did it in the sauce thinking it would allow the ginger to blend into the chocolate. We'll see.

It worked well, but next time, I'm going to spread the chocolate and the goodies more evenly.

Ginger Pork

Today's experiment is Ginger Pork. I'm expecting company at an unknown time, so I wanted to make something I could keep warm in the oven (with a loaf of homemade bread, of course.)

So in the Le Creuset skillet, I put three large pork chops, about 1" thick each. I put:
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- about 3/4 teaspoon four color pepper
- about 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground garlic salt
- about 3/4 teaspoon dried basil
- about 1 tablespoon grated candied ginger
- one tablespoon white grape juice.

I cooked over medium about five minutes each side. When I flipped them, I drizzled
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Then I made a sauce of
- one tablespoon white sugar
- one cup white grape juice
- one tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

I poured that into the skillet and put the whole thing in an oven preheated to 300 degrees.

The recipe is inspired by Venir Dîner, C'est Prêt, a French cookbook. I plan to serve with a Dole Spring Fling Salad and my bread. I'm debating whether or not to add cooked baby carrots. I'm thinking yes.

Soup and Matzo

My husband came home the other day with a box of Matzo. Today for lunch, I took a can of cheapo vegetable soup and dressed it up. Added a cup or so of soup vegetables, about 1/2 cup peas, 1 cup french cut green beans. Diluted with the requisite can of water AND added about a cup of beef vegetable stock from the roast last week. Yes, I freeze everything.

The original soup came from Aldi.

Dried Beans in Crock Pot

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/cooking-dried-beans-in-crockpot.html

Peanut Butter and Blueberry Muffins

For lunch today I served my daughter two of my super-duper blueberry-banana-walnut muffins with peanut butter, and a side of chocolate soy milk.

cheesy bread

I found myself hungry with no real plan for what to do for breakfast. So, I took a big slice of homemade bread, topped it with shredded Jarlsberg, velveeta and white cheddar and toasted it under the broiler.

Wegmans Pesto Ravioli

We had Wegmans pesto ravioli, from the frozen food aisle, for dinner. One bag feeds the family for a light dinner. I usually get florentine ravioli for the extra "vegetable" content. They really do have some green vegetable vitamin equivalent. Reading the label on these pesto raviolis, they also have green vegetable matter.

They were delicious. We had simple red tomato sauce, and added some asiago cheese on top.

Then we sopped up the extra sauce with homemade bread. And in the child's case, some butter.

Five minute chocolate cake

From Instructables.com


o coffee mug
o 4 tablespoons flour - make sure you measure it right - or the cake is a lie!
o 4 tablespoons sugar
o 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
o 2 tablespoons whisked egg - 1 egg is too much, 1 egg white is too eggy, 1 yolk is too dense, but 2 tblsp is just right!
o 3 tablespoons milk
o 3 tablespoons oil
o 3 tablespoons chocolate chips
o splash vanilla or other flavoring - try peppermint or cinnamon

For a fudgier version, omit egg!

Cake Wrecks posted this to Facebook. It cooks in 2.5-4 minutes in the microwave.

We made ours with chocolate soy milk instead of milk.

We also discovered one of our eggs made two cakes.

I made mine with chocolate chips, pecans and chopped caramel candies to make a turtle cake.

tuna boats

I've been struggling with my iron levels lately so I haven't been doing too much serious cooking. Leftovers and simple food. Breakfasts of cream of wheat, raisin bran, and/or yogurt. Snack sandwiches of those veg. sausages on biscuits.

A few meals out. Pizza with a friend Monday. Lunch with in-laws yesterday. Dinner with my Dad.

So for lunch today, I sliced my homemade French country bread (last loaf from the freezer), toasted it, and made some tuna. Topped with shredded Jarlsberg and served with a side of mandarin orange slices.

Nachos

For a late lunch yesterday, we used the leftover browned hamburger from the "Daddy Pasta" my husband made the other day (I don't think I blogged about that), added some cheddar and Velveeta on multigrain chips and some Wegmans mango salsa and sour cream leftover from my cake.

Shrimp with broccoli

A friend bought a bag of shrimp for us to help celebrate my birthday. Tonight I made a shrimp, broccoli and egg noodle dish.

I sauteed the shrimp in butter, 3/4 clove garlic, and lemon juice. Sprinkled with it's a dilly.

Sauteed broccoli in olive oil and a touch of butter. Added that to the cooked pasta, added some extra virgin olive oil and a tad more butter. Mixed.

Added the shrimp. Mixed.

Added shredded asiago.

served.

Roasted Red Pepper veggies

So my daughter requested leftover chicken shawarma for lunch, part of the birthday feast we had from Forks Mediterranean Deli. Last night's feast was a near vegetarian delight, chicken shawarma being the only meat on the menu.

We had that seasoned bread that my former boss loved, hummus, cucumber yogurt salad, roasted red pepper dip, mini pitas, mango nectar and four different mediterrannean sandwiches: the falafel, tabouleh and feta, feta with black olive and cucumber (my new fav) and the shawarma.

I took some frozen cauliflower, carrots and broccoli and melted the following in a skillet to use the roasted red pepper dip as a sauce:
- one tablespoon butter
- one tablespoon olive oil
added:
-one heaping teaspoon red pepper dip
let that simmer and broke it apart so the flavors could get into the oil and butter
added:
- one heaping tablespoon fresh parsley from the garden
- one half teaspoon chives from the garden

added about two cups vegetables

Strawberry Crunch Cake

Darrell's delightful cake:

Strawberry crunch cake

Guest blogger Darrell Parry

Today, is Angel’s birthday. So… with the help of our 5 (almost 6)-year-old, I made a birthday cake. Which comes to us from About.com. http://southernfood.about.com/od/berrycakes/r/bl30607q.htm

.

Strawberry Crunch Cake

Strawberry cake is made from scratch, with frozen strawberries, sour cream, a pecan topping layer, and strawberry sauce

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 (10 ounces each) packages frozen strawberries in syrup
• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

.

Pecan Layer and Topping:

• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

.

Sauce:

• Reserved strawberry syrup
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

Preparation:

Drain thawed strawberries, reserving syrup; set aside.

In a mixing bowl cream butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs; beat well. Blend in sour cream. In another bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture, blending well.

Spread half of the batter in a greased and floured 13x8x2-inch baking pan. Spoon drained strawberries over the batter.

Combine pecan layer ingredients in a small bowl; sprinkle half of the nut mixture over the layer of batter and strawberries. Spread remaining batter over all, then sprinkle with remaining nut mixture.

Bake at 350° for 30 to 35 minutes.

In a small saucepan, combine reserved strawberry syrup with 4 teaspoons cornstarch. Heat, stirring, until thickened and bubbly. Add 2 teaspoons lemon juice. Cool and serve over warm or cooled strawberry crunch cake. Serve with whipped cream or whipped topping, if desired.

Okay...

Putting our skills to the test, we thawed, measured and mixed. Everything was perfectly smooth. My helper thought the batter tasted great. I put the fist layer in the pan. It seemed thick, but not impossibly so. However, this led me to spread a little more batter than the ½ suggested be the recipe. Uh-Oh. After mixing the nutty part and adding the drained strawberries there wasn’t enough batter left to cover the top. Oh crap! So now what?

Quick, more batter! Channeling the spirit of my Pennsylvania Dutch Grandmother who grew up on a farm baking 10 pies a day since she was 6-years-old, I grabbed handful of thi9s and spoonfuls of that and haphazardly threw them into the mixture, following no recipe but my gut. When it was done the consistency was about right and the flavor was a pretty good match, so we threw it in the oven and headed upstairs to put the little one to bed.

After the 35 min. to cook the kid was settled in and I checked the cake. RAW! I put it in for 5 more minutes…. still raw. Okay 10 MORE MINUTES! Panic time. Was my mixture not cooking because I messed with the balance of ingredients?

Those of you who actually have baking experience can probably see this coming. Angel comes home. I explain the problem and she says, “Did you double the recipe or something? That looks like a lot of cake. Maybe that’s why it’s taking longer.” My extra batter! Should have figured that one out myself, really.

In the end the cake baked through although It took a looong time.) This morning we cut up pull n’ peel Twizzlers and spelled “Happy Birthday Angel” (the little one’s idea) and added gummy bears and candles. In the end it was a great success!

Salads with beef

The beef last night, for my first roast, came out admirably. I have a few thoughts on how to improve it should I repeat the experiment.

For breakfast today, we had big bowls of cream of wheat made with soymilk and served with lots of sliced strawberries.

Lunch was salads of romaine, iceberg, beef, peppercorn ranch with no MSG, carrots, broccoli, raisins and for me, some hot wasabi bar mix. Washed it down with apple-raspberry juice. And we're finishing off the guacamole with some multigrain tortilla chips.

Quesadilla

I wanted to make cheddar and bean quesadilla with my homemade guacamole last night but I didn't get there... We had salads with guac and chips instead.

Today for lunch I made the quesadillas: cheddar, velveeta, black beans and black olives, garnished with romaine lettuce, homemade guacamole, and mango salsa. And a side of strawberries.

The little one loves it, and while she insists at restaurants she does NOT like guacamole, she sure loves mine.

She even said to me when I served her, "This is guacamole?"
And I replied yes.
"But I don't like guacamole, but I love this!"

The Intimidating Round Roast

Uggh.

I am faced with a three pound bottom round roast that, thus far, has kicked my ass.

Let me preface this tale.

For most of my adult life, I have been a vegetarian. I probably spent eight years as such. I even spent about six months as a vegan. I do not like to cook meat. I do not feel meat is a daily necessity. I think it general Americans consume too much meat, and too much processed foods, and too much flat out junk. As this blog documents, I do eat meat.

It started toward the end of my pregnancy with the occasional turkey sandwich. I was on a gestational diabetes diet and after several months of eating protein six times a day, the vegetarian options were starting to get old.

Then, when my daughter was 18-months old, I got a high stress job and starting craving bacon cheeseburgers, even though I hate bacon. So once or twice a month I would eat one.

But all this time, I ate vegetarian at home. And occasionally I'd eat a tuna sandwich. I took vegan cooking courses. And, thanks to the gestational diabetes diet, I was very cognizant of mixing our foods to get protein, calcium, green veggies, orange veggies, fruit, etc. That's when my husband starting calling me the nutrition nazi.

I ventured into cooking some meat while working on the manuscript of my second (yet unpublished) novel. I had the main character cooking. And he's French. And they eat anything they can catch. In order to make the scenes work in the novel, I had to test the recipes. So I did. And I tried to put myself in my main character's shoes. And that's how, even today, I force myself to cook meat.

Now, someone I know who is concerned about us brought me some pork and a three-pound bottom round roast that he found on sale. (A $14 roast for $6) He read my blog entry about my last trip to Wegmans and I guess he feared we were too poor to buy meat (due to my recent unemployment).

I called my mother-in-law and asked how to cook it. She said put it in the crockpot with liquid and carrots. I thought I could handle that.

So my daughter peeled carrots, I got some water and some Wegmans vegetable stock, and the roast was WAY too big for the crock pot.

A facebook poll of my friends led to me cutting it. I added a cup of water and a cup of stock and a hearty few grinds of garlic salt. IT FILLED THE CROCK POT. No room for carrots. I sliced them and put them in my skillet, with stock and water, thinking about 30-40 minutes before dinner, I'll put some meat in there and roast in in the oven.

This better taste damn good. Because it took an hour to get this far.

Yogurt and crumbs

Now, I realize there's a fine line between frugal and being over-the-top cheap, but when I make homemade baked goods I hate to waste.

I froze a good portion of the oatmeal bars, and I scraped all the crumbs out of the bottom of the pan. I sprinkled those on vanilla yogurt this morning for breakfast. We like stuff in our yogurt and this did not disappoint.

Guacamole

Opened my big recipe book today, the volume where I keep all my favorites. I think it's been three years since I made guacamole, but the recipe still lingers in my head... though not complete enough to be memorized and followed without a recipe.

The recipe wasn't there.

I couldn't imagine where else it would be... turned out to be from the Betty Crocker 25th Anniversary Cookbook.

Mix, cover, and refrigerate for at least one hour. Do not use a metal bowl.

• 2 large ripe avocados, mashed
• 2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped (about 1.5 cups) *I used one tomato, about 5/6 of a cup)
• 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup) *I only used about three tablespoons of red onion
• 2 jalapeno chilis, seeded and chopped (I didn't have, tossed in a pinch of cumin instead)
• 1 clove garlic finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro (I used parsley from the garden. I know, it's nothing like cilantro but I figured why not)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
• two tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice. (My lime was small, I used the whole thing)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used sea salt)
• dash pepper (I used my four-color organic pepper)
  

Wegmans

I went to Wegmans with my family and didn't even bother keeping track of the cost as I went through the store. I spent $58.93, which brings my total for the month to about $200.

• Coffemate creamer, the 64 ounce bottle I think, in Italian Sweet Cream flavor, $3.09
• Eggs, 99 cents
• Wegmans vanilla yogurt, 32 ounces? (the big bucket) $1.99
• 2 boxes of Wegmans spinach feta peorogies, $1.69 each
• frozen green beans, French cut, 99 cents
• Wegmans frozen jumbo pesto cheese ravioli, $2.99
• 2 cans sliced potatoes, 69 cents each
• Diced tomatoes, 59 cents
• petite diced tomatoes, 2 cans at 59 cents each
• white grape juice, 1.99
• Cream of Wheat, $3.29
• Multigrain tortilla chips, 2.50
• Wegmans natural applesauce no sugar added with calcium, $1.19
• Wegmans sesame ginger vinaigrette dressing, $2.50
• mango salsa, 2 jars at $2.99 each
• Juice boxes, Minute Maid 100% juice mixed berry, 10 boxes, $2.79
• Chunky pizza sauce, 2 jars at 99 cents each
• toothpaste, $2.39
• one fresh lime, 67 cents
• one green pepper, $1.29
• one small red onion, 40 cents
• Organic spring mix, for the tortoise, 60 cents
• romaine bagged salad, $2
• iceberg/romaine bagged salad, $2
• 2 broccoli crowns, $1
• orange tomatoes on the vine, 4 small, $2.04
• 2 hass avocados, $3.33
• big batch of bananas, $1.48
• BIG container of strawberries, $2.99