Before school

School days are taking on tween drama in this house. The bus, scheduled to come at 7:29, really comes at 7:21. 

Child has started refusing our typical breakfast options or making those lovely faces of disgust. Plus she's now having dizzy spells-- something she inherits from her father-- from not drinking enough. It's always been a struggle to get her to drink in the winter. She's not hot & sweaty so she doesn't think she's thirsty.

Today, I let her have a bowl of Rice Krispies (leftover from making Christmas candy) and skim milk (which I bought to make myself matcha lattes). I served this on the side:

Apples with peanut butter, raisins & mini chocolate chips.

Update: Christmas dinner 2014

I haven't posted in a while because... Oh, does it matter? 

I cooked another Christmas dinner. This time for 12 and I kept the menu simple. I bought nearly 8 pounds of pork loin since the butcher at Wegmans suggested that would be cost effective and lead to leftovers. I'm glad I did because my family devoured close to seven pounds.

The only reason they didn't finish it is because I could only fit about 7.5 pounds in the crockpot.

The recipe was a variation of my standard pork with apples. I tossed the loin (or perhaps I jammed the loin) into the crockpot with most of a bottle of unsweetened apple juice. I sprinkled brown sugar over the top and tossed some apple slices and pear slices over that.

We cooked it on high about 5 hours and turned it down until dinner.

Meanwhile, because the crock pot was so full, I made the glaze in the skillet. I cooked about two cups of apple juice with about 3+ cups of mustard, various half used bottles from my house and my stepmom's. So I had equal parts brown mustard, yellow mustard, honey mustard and Dijon mustard. Added equal amounts brown sugar. Then when that dissolved into a sauce added slices of several apples (red delicious and Granny Smith) and pears.

When we sliced the meat, I poured this over top to serve. It all disappeared.

Sides included sweet corn that my mother-in-law purchased on a local farm this summer. My family thought it was the best corn ever and all I did was heat it. Buy local! It makes a difference!

I made two of my sweet potato pecan crunch casseroles, the same amount I did for last year's dinner for 20. They devoured those too. I experimented with one, adding dark brown sugar instead of light for the crumb topping and swirling blackstrap molasses over the topping. I love blackstrap molasses and it tasted like candy! 

My other vegetables were my roasted cauliflower that was a hit last year and I decided to make my roasted Brussel sprouts. I know Brussel sprouts are an unpopular choice but they are one of my favorites and I was the chef after all.

I wanted to make my "Buffalo style" sprouts for my dad because, like me, he likes spicy things. I think he took half the bowl. I also made a bowl of sprouts that weren't spicy.

A bowl of salad never seems to be popular in the midst of a big holiday meal so I made a tiny iceberg wedge salad for each person: a few carrot ribbons, radish slices and cashews on each, sprinkled with white sesame seeds, and topped with my homemade peanut-sesame dressing.

Pork with apples, generation 2

Since my mom broke her hand so i’m the nine year old chef in the house .My dish for today is pork with apples.

First,my father put the skillet on the stove and put some oil and butter in it. I put the stove on medium.I put four thin boneless pork chops (my mom got them on sale at target)in the skillet. I browned them for about three minutes on each side.

Next , we made the sauce .We put all the ingredients right in the skillet.

Ingredients:

- one cup water 

- 1/4 cup homemade applesauce  

- 1/2 cup brown mustard (If you aren’t a fan of mustard like me use1/4 cup or less)

- one cup home canned sliced apples

Cook until it is hot and stir periodically . serve  and enjoy!

Simple dinner tonight

I went for a simple dinner tonight. I broke up some chicken breasts and mixed them with the leftover turkey. Served with some potatoes, home canned apples and cranberry clementine relish and a taste of store bought cranberry sauce for comparison.

Apple Butter 2013

I slept until 9 this morning, but that didn't stop me from having apple butter assembled in the crock pot by 10.

The family starting peeling and chopping and we had the crock pot full of apple chunks.

My daughter scooped about a tablespoon of local raw honey into the pot with some cinnamon and ground cloves. I poured in some lemon juice. We set it on high, put the lid on, and stirred it every hour.

At 1 p.m. we had applesauce and I scooped it out to have with lunch.

The whole house smells like apples and the flavor was delightful but a tad tart. We used Jonagolds from a local farm.

By 4 p.m., the applesauce had turned a lovely caramel color and I removed the crockpot lid so more liquid can evaporate. As soon as the liquid boils off, I can process in a hot water bath.

After about seven hours, the last hour with the lid off, I loaded the dishwasher with my Ball jars and got the hot water bath ready.

It's been about eight hours now and the dishwasher is approaching the rinse cycle and the apple butter looks like this:

My daughter is getting so adept at filling jars, I couldn't keep up! She also ate the last jar-- you know the one that wasn't quite full enough to process?

Apple Custard

My husband is whipping up a variation of his mother's dinner in one dish and I'm attempting an apple custard dessert.

I buttered a Pyrex dish and layered about 4 Macintosh apples on the bottom. Sprinkled them with sugar, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Made a sauce of melted butter and triple sec. Poured it over them.

I whisked three eggs, some sugar, vanilla and almond milk and poured that over the apples.

Topped with lots of sliced almonds and put in the oven at 350 to bake for about 40 minutes.

Apple nut butter crêpes

Crêpes:
- 1 large tablespoon local raw honey
- 1 cup vanilla almond milk
- 3 tablespoons coconut flour
- 2 tablespoons ground flax
- 1/4 cup sourgum flour
- 2 eggs

Cooked in a cast iron skillet in coconut oil.

Filling:
- chopped gala apples, skin still on
- tablespoon of quince jam
- teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon
- teaspoon local raw honey
- dollop coconut oil for the bottom of the saucepan

Cook until soft but still crisp.

Spread some nut butter on each crêpe before filling with apples.

My nut butter was homemade almond-cashew butter.

My daughter makes pork with apples

This is a family favorite, 30 minutes to the table even with an 8-and-half year old doing the cooking.

Adapted from Recipe Zaar. Submitted by Lorac.

Heat 2 tablespoons coconut oil in large cast iron skillet.

Brown pork chops. I used 5 thin boneless.

Add:
- 2 cups apple juice
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- about 1/3 cup brown mustard
- 4 small apples chopped
- 1 teaspoon Italian herb seasoning

Today we added 1 cup diced butternut squash.

Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.

Apple butter, part 2

So if you read Saturday's post, you know I left off with a crock pot full of local apples.

Three hours later I had the best applesauce ever.

Five hours later I had runny apple butter.

At that point, I transferred it to the stove to boil off some of the liquid for an hour.

I processed in a hot water bath for ten minutes and have the equivalent of four pints of apple butter.

Really incredible stuff.

Today, I filled half the crock pot with apples with the same basic honey/spice recipe to get some more apple goodness.

Some spiced apples. Maybe applesauce. If some remain, apple butter.

Yield: 2 pints spiced apples and turkey sausage with apples in the crockpot for dinner.

Apple Butter, part one

I have wanted to make my own apple butter for a long time. My daughter loves the stuff. I occasionally like it. My husband is not real fond of it. So if I buy it, it often goes moldy.

We have awesome apple orchards locally so the idea of canning our own apple butter makes sense.

We can preserve the butter in smaller jars that won't spoil before we use it.

I found a recipe online using the crock pot, from Simply Canning, a canner I also follow on Facebook: http://www.simplycanning.com/canning-apple-butter.html

My Better Homes and Gardens canning book also has a standard on the stove recipe, but that one requires lots of liquid. The crock pot version has no liquid.

We overfilled the crock pot with chunks of fresh apples. 6 pounds seems to be the estimate provided on the recipes. I added a few splashes of local apple cider, a few splashes lemon juice, some local raw honey (about 1/4 cup) and spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and just a pinch of ginger.

The Simply Canning web site says to cook on high one hour, stirring, and leave on low overnight. By morning you should be able to whisk instead of stir.

We've almost done loading the crock pot.

Ginger candy chicken and swimming cookies

After working on my economics homework for an hour and a half, I took a break to prepare dinner.

Once again I veered from the candy chicken recipe, but let's hope it works.

In the crockpot:
- 3 chicken breasts
- about 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- about 1/2 cup apple raspberry juice
- about 4 tablespoons spicy teriyaki sauce
- 2 tablespoons lemon lime soda syrup
- about 1 cup seltzer
- about 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- about 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon diced crystallized ginger
- about 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 small apples, cored and quartered

For the swimming cookies dessert:
In a glass casserole dish
Layer eight lemonade girl scout cookies
Prepare one package instant vanilla pudding with 1-and-a-half cups whole milk and pour over cookies. Chill.

Spinach salad with fruit and seeds

Mix in proportions that make you happy:

- spring mix
- spinach
- mandarin oranges
- dried cranberries
- dried blueberries
- raisins
- unsalted roasted sunflower seeds
- unsalted pumpkin seeds
- sliced honey crisp apples
- dehydrated peas

Top with Newman's Own Light Raspberry & Walnut Dressing

Grilled cheese with apples

Simple but hearty and flavorful. That was tonight's dinner.

Ingredients:
- butter
- wheat bread (two slices per person)
- one large apple, sliced
- two slices Morningstar breakfast strips (vegetarian bacon)
- extra sharp cheddar
- mozzarella
- Market pantry sweet potato fries

Put the fries in the oven.

Heat the Le Creuset skillet with a generous tablespoon of butter. Add the apples and cook until soft. Move to plate.

Heat vegetarian bacon.

Butter one side of bread, place in pan, layer with cheddar, then apples, then bacon, then mozzarella. Top with another slice of bread and make however you normally like your grilled cheese.

I burned mine, but they were so good my seven-year-old didn't care.