November 8, 2013

November 8th!  The leaves are almost entirely off the trees, parent-teacher conferences are here (or around the corner) and Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away.  The weather is turning colder, in fact snow showers are predicted for the week ahead.  All this talk of fall would lead you to believe I had some great recipe for mulled apple cider, or a warm pot roast.  But you'd be wrong...instead I bring you taco hummus and banana muffins!

Yes, this week we tried a hummus recipe.  Hummus is so easy to make it is a shame to buy it if you have about 8 minutes to spare, and a blender or food processor.  A can of chick  peas (or garbanzo beans - same thing!) is very inexpensive, and you can flavor it with nearly anything!  I made some that had taco seasoning in it and we used it with veggies and tortilla chips during game night.  Quick and easy and delicious to boot!

As for those banana muffins, they came about because we had a fruit bowl with the last few bananas that were looking overripe, and no one was going to eat them.  Rather than wait for a fruit fly infestation, I found the most basic banana muffin recipe and went with it.  Seriously - there is barely anything in this recipe.  This then gives you a blank slate upon which you can add cinnamon, or walnuts, or streusel, but we just left ours plain.  The kids adored them!  Sometimes plain is the way to go!

Perhaps next week, if we really see the snow they are predicting, I'll have some of those more autumnal recipes for you.  But for now you'll just have to settle for taco hummus and banana muffins!

Happy cooking!

New Recipes
Nothing but Banana Muffins
Taco Hummus

Taco Hummus

Ingredients
* 3 tsp taco seasoning
* 15 oz can chick peas
* 1 tbsp lemon juice
* 2 tsp olive oil
* 1 clove garlic

Directions
1. Drain the chick peas and reserve the liquid.
2. Add the chick peas, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and taco seasoning to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.  Add chick pea liquid until you reach your desired consistency, 1 tsp at a time.
3. Serve with chips or veggies.

Notes
This was really easy and yummy!  I added quite a bit of the chick pea liquid, but did add it just a tsp at a time so I didn't go overboard.   Hummus is so easy to make, and there are so many recipes out there - give it a try!

Nothing but Banana Muffins

Ingredients
* 2 cups AP flour
* 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
* 1 tbsp baking powder
* 1 1/2 cups ripe mashed bananas (about 4)
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1/3 cup vegetable oil
* 1 egg

Directions
1. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, brown sugar and baking powder) in a large bowl.
2. Combine the wet ingredients (bananas, milk, oil and egg) in a second bowl.
3. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until moistened.
4. Fill greased muffin cups with batter and bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Let cool in the pan 4- 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Notes
These are very basic banana muffins.  Feel free to add cinnamon, or walnuts, or a streusel topping, but I was looking far a very basic recipe.  I had 4 bananas at the end of their lives on my counter, and needed to use them.  I saw this recipe, though the original called for 1 cup toffee bits in the batter, and another 1/2 cup bits sprinkled on the tops before cooking!  It is just after Halloween and my family is off the candy train, so I left that out.  My kids thought these were great!  The next time you have a few bananas on your counter and are looking for an easy outlet to use them in, try this recipe!

November 1, 2013

I sat down at the computer, got sidetracked for a few minutes, and then wondered what I was doing here...oh, that's right...the blog posting!  Ha!  I must be getting old; I'm already forgetting things.

Bummer, I have no new recipes to share. My chances weren't that great this week, however, as I only made one new recipe.  It was a recipe for yellow cake that I wanted to use as the base for Ryan's favorite pumpkin squares.   It was fine, but a fair amount of work and it called for A LOT of butter!  Given that the cake wasn't over the top amazing, I just don't think I can make this recipe again.  The pumpkin squares will definitely be eaten though so don't worry!

I wanted to make pumpkin squares because I processed two pumpkins so far, and have a lot of fresh pumpkin!  My family loves pumpkin anything and everything, so I process pumpkins and freeze it in one- and two- cup portions.  Then no matter what time of year we can enjoy pumpkin goodies!  You know fall has arrived when pumpkins are in my oven for a few hours.  Tomorrow we will probably roast the seeds.

Although I have no new recipes I did want to update you on our dilly beans (maybe we should call them Barney Beans)!  We made our first batch last fall and are just now finishing them up.  They are fantastic!!! Mine are spicier than the original ones even though I used the same recipe.  Not sure if it was the amount of time that passed between when we canned them and when we ate them, or if we just used more red pepper, but either way we loved them.  I suppose it is about time to put up a new batch.

Well, the week ahead may be a bit more promising in terms of recipes.  A new soup is part of the meal plan for sure so hopefully that will be a keeper.

Happy Cooking!

October 25, 2013

Are you ready for Halloween?  In our home the costumes are ready, the holiday plates and cups are in the cupboards, the pumpkins on the sideboard.  I had some women from the PTO over last night to cut and count BoxTops and decided to go with the Halloween theme for the snacks. The most "Halloween-y" treat was the monster cupcakes!!! I even made edible eyes and the cupcakes turned out really cute (though perhaps resembling Muppets more than monsters!).  You can buy edible eyes to use to decorate cakes, cookies and cupcakes but they are pretty pricey.  I decided it couldn't be that hard, so I looked for some guidance on line and learned that they are just made from royal icing.  Hmmm....should be easy enough to try!  I gave it a shot and it really did work!  I made a small batch of royal icing and oh my word...we have some eyeballs!  I think we will be having turkeys, reindeer and snowmen cupcakes in the future.

As for actual keeper recipes this week we only have one; it was a soup that we all loved.  The temperature has plummeted here and as a result soup sounded good to everyone early in the week.  Owen picked out the new soup recipe and he was very happy when it earned keeper rating from all of us!  It was called lasagna soup but we agreed this was a poor name.  With the exception of a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese in the individual servings at the end, there was no cheese in the soup.  When you think of traditional lasagna don't you picture cheese as part of the image?  Well, we renamed it spaghetti soup (though it doesn't call for spaghetti), and I know we will be making it again!

Have a fun time trick-or-treating this week!!!  Boo!

And, as always, happy cooking!

New Recipes
Spaghetti soup
Edible decorating eyeballs

Edible eyes for treats made from royal icing

Ingredients for Royal Icing
* 1 large egg white
* 1/2 tsp vanilla
* 1 1/3 cup powdered sugar

Directions
1. Beat the egg white and vanilla until foamy on medium-high speed.
2. Reduce the speed to slow and gradually incorporate the sugar.  Once fully incorporated, mix on high for approximately 6 minutes.
3. Add food coloring if desired, and frost your creation.

To make edible eyes
1. Using a small tip, pipe round white circles onto wax paper.
2. After letting the white frosting set for a short while (just a few minutes), follow with a black dot of icing piped onto the white.
3. Let the eyes fully set, 12-24 hours.  They will easily release from the wax paper when they are dry.
4. Use, or store in an airtight container in your pantry or cabinet until needed.

Notes
I used my stand mixer for this, but you can use a hand mixer as well.  The stand mixer was nice because it freed me up to do some other things while it went for the 5 minutes.  Gotta love when they appliance independently does the work for you!

I used a #5 tip for the white, and #1 for the black, but I think I could have gone with a slightly larger tip for both.   These were easy to make, and now we have eyes on hand for all sorts of creations!

I separated the frosting into 2 portions so I could tint one black.  I find the gel food coloring works much better then liquid. 

Spaghetti Soup

Ingredients
* 1 lb lean ground beef
* 1 large green pepper, chopped
* 1 medium onion, chopped
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
* 4 cups beef broth
* 1 cup tomato sauce
* 1/2 cup frozen corn
* 1/4 cup tomato paste
* 2 tsp Italian seasoning
* 1/4 tsp pepper
* 2 cups uncooked ziti or rotini pasta
* Parmesan cheese, optional

Directions
1. In a large saucepan cook the beef, green pepper and onion over medium heat for 6-8 minutes or until the meat is no longer pink.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute or until fragrant.  Drain if needed.
2. Stir in the tomatoes, broth, tomato sauce and paste, corn, Italian seasoning and pepper.  Bring to a boil.
3. Stir in the uncooked pasta and reduce the heat.  Cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until the pasta is tender.
4. Serve and pass the Parmesan cheese to be added individually.

Notes
I didn't have tomato sauce on hand so I substituted with pizza sauce that was in my fridge.  I also tossed in some leftover plain pasta at the last minute, and used a mix of ziti and rotini that were in my pantry.  Everyone loved this, but we had a hard time calling it by its original name - lasagna soup, so we renamed it spaghetti soup since it tasted like with pasta with sauce!