October 19, 2012

So close...so close, but no cigar.  Most of the recipes this week were very close to being keepers, but most didn't make it.  I have high hopes that the three that missed the mark will make it into the keeper realm.  A slow cooker pork roast had fabulous flavor, and made a great gravy, but I didn't like the cut of pork that was called for in the recipe.  A casserole to use leftover ham was great, and the family devoured it, but I think the sauce needs to be doubled, so I will be making it again to test that theory.  And, finally, I made homemade granola.  Some of it tasted amazing, but some tasted bitter and burnt.  After I made it I read a tip about granola on another recipe that says it crisps up as it cools.  Oh my, I wish I had read that before I made it!  I cooked it way past what my recipe called for because it wasn't getting hard - so, I overcooked it.  I will definitely make it again, though, because when the kids and I got some good parts of the granola mix, it was fantastic.

It was book club this week, so I made a dessert to bring and it was the lone keeper of the week.  My candy corn cupcakes were a hit with the ladies, and they were easy.  They are really cute and fun for the autumn.  I can hardly call these a recipe, but cute decorated cupcakes.  You family will love these.

We have a crazy and busy week ahead, so who knows what recipes will even be tried and tested, let alone earn the keeper seal of approval.  We'll just have to see what happens!

New Recipe
Candy Corn Recipe

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Ingredients
* White cake mix
* White frosting
* Yellow and red gel food coloring
* 2 candy corn per cupcake

Directions
1. Make the white cake mix per the box directions. Set the oven to the suggested temperature, and ready your muffin tins with either spray, butter, or cupcake liners.
2.  Dye the batter yellow with the food coloring.  Put half the amount of cupcake batter into each muffin cup.
3. Dye the remaining batter with red food coloring to change it from yellow to orange.  Spoon the orange batter onto the yellow.
4. Bake the cupcakes for the directed amount of time.
5. After the cupcakes have cooled, frost with white frosting and place one or two candy corn on each cupcake.

Notes
When the cupcakes are opened the yellow and orange batter with the white frosting resemble candy corn.  Very cute!  I use gel food coloring because I find it gives vibrant colors to the food it is added to, rather than the results achieved with liquid food coloring.  But, I am sure you can use whatever kind of food coloring you have on hand.

If you have a scratch white cake recipe, or a scratch frosting recipe, feel free to use it here.  I actually tried a new frosting recipe for these, and it was terrible!  So, I ended up at the last second having to go with store-bought frosting.  That was a disappointment, but the cupcakes were still very fun! 

October 12, 2012

Last week one of my sisters asked that I work on finding some new slow cooker keeper recipes.  Well, ask and ye shall receive (most of the time) - celery seed brisket turned out flavorful and moist!  Leaving the brisket whole while cooking definitely aided in keeping the meat from drying out.  I have gone through my basket and binders of recipes and have found other slow cooker recipes to experiment with in the upcoming weeks - hopefully a few others will be keepers as well.

Now that it is fall, we are back to our "soup once a week" routine.  We have been eating some of our favorites, but this week I tried a new one.  Ryan loves minestrone soup.  To be honest, I had never tried it before.  I decided to look up the recipe and found out that there isn't a standard recipe for this kind of soup.  In general, minestrone soup seems to be thick soup that contains primarily vegetables and beans and typically, though not always, has the addition of rice or pasta.  I found a couple that interested me and mixed and matched and came up with a soup that everyone loved and thought tasted terrific! Ryan, our household minestrone expert, didn't think it tasted like the minestrone he is used to, but he still really enjoyed it.  5 votes for keeper status on this one!  I didn't want the beans to overwhelm the soup; one recipe called for pureeing them.  Ryan and Owen love beans, so I pureed half and left the other half intact.  This allowed it to act as a slight thickener for the soup, and we got all the nutritional benefits of the beans!  Win-win in my book, and I will definitely make this soup again. 

My canning obsession continued this week - I made applesauce!  No real recipe for this one, but it was great!  Basically cook a mix of apples with just enough water so they don't stick together or to the pot - then puree.  Easy!!!  6 jars of applesauce made.  I would have made more, but I had to give back the pot I was borrowing! 

Friday night is pizza-movie night around here, and this week I tried a cauliflower rice crust pizza. Everyone else used our usual crust (so easy and fantastic), but I was branching out and looking for a pizza recipe that would fit the primal diet.  It was decent, but I think I need to make a few changes.  I will be trying it again, and hope to have it earn keeper status in the coming weeks! 

New Recipes
Minestrone Soup
Celery Seed Brisket

Celery Seed Brisket

Ingredients
* 1 beef brisket  (3-4 lbs)
* 28oz can crushed tomatoes
* 1 large red onion, chopped
* 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
* 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
* 4 garlic cloves, minced
* 1 tbsp brown sugar
* 1 tsp celery seed
* 1 tsp pepper
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/2 tsp ground cumin
* 4 tsp constarch
* 3 tbsp cold water

Directions
1. Place the brisket in your slow cooker.
2. Mix all the remaining ingredients (except the cornstarch and water) in a large bowl. Pour this over the meat. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours.
3. Remove meat to a serving platter and keep warm.  In a large saucepan, mix the cornstarch and water until smooth.  Gradually stir in 4 cups of cooking liquid.  Bring to a boil; cook and stir for about 2 minutes until thickened.
4. Slice the brisket across the grain and serve with the gravy.

Notes
This had a great flavor! I think you could use about any cut of meat for this recipe, so see what is on sale and what sounds good to you.  It was the flavor of the sauce and subsequent gravy that made this recipe a keeper for our family.

Minestrone Soup

Ingredients
* 2 tbsp olive oil
* 1/2 onion, chopped
* 1 cup carrots, chopped
* 2 celery stalks, chopped
* 1 small to medium zucchini, chopped
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 1 tsp Italian seasoning
* 15oz can of beans, drained, rinsed and divided
* 3 cups chicken broth, divided
* 28oz can diced tomatoes
* 1 oz chunk of Parmesan cheese rind
* salt and pepper
* 1-2 cups dry pasta

Directions
1. Heat the oil over medium to medium high heat.  Add the onion, carrots, celery, zucchini, garlic and Italian seasoning.  Cook until soft, about 12 minutes.
2. Puree one cup of the beans with 1/2 cup of the chicken broth.
3. Add the bean puree, remaining broth, tomatoes and cheese rind.  Season with salt and pepper.  Bring this to a boil.
4. Once boiling, add the remaining beans and pasta.  Reduce the heat and cook until the pasta is done.  Serve and enjoy!

Notes
I combined ideas from 2 minestrone soup recipes to create this one.  The great thing about minestrone soup is that there is no official recipe - just some basics: vegetables, beans, broth.  All of us loved my version!  Pureeing some of the beans helped thicken the soup and little, and still gave us all the benefits of the beans in the soup without them overpowering each bowl.  The cheese rind added a nice flavor to the soup, and you can serve this soup with fresh grated Parmesan if you'd like!  We went a little heavier on the pasta (closer to 2 cups dry pasta) because I knew the kids were going to love that part of the soup.

October 5, 2012

It is definitely fall.  There is a chill in the air that actually made me turn on the heat...and it takes quite a lot for me to do that (just ask my dear husband!).  Soccer has no longer "just started" but rather we are mid-season.  Notre Dame is undefeated (Go Irish!).  I have a paper and a project due for my class soon.  So yes, the autumn is upon us.

In my quest for new keepers for the dinner menu, there was but a single success this week.  However, depending on your family, you can cook once and eat twice.  A take on Chicken Pot Pie from one of my favorite resources, America's Test Kitchen, went over fabulously well here at our home, and I hope it will be a hit on your dinner table as well.  I didn't realize ahead of time that it was going to be a good idea to split this into 2 meals, so instead I ate leftovers for lunch all week.  Thankfully it made for a few tasty lunches!  When I was working full time outside the home I planned leftovers into the dinner so that I could take it to work for lunch.  This week reminded me of those days.  There were a few other new dinners tested but none I would make again, let alone give out the recipe!

Fall is the season for quick breads - and I have a great one for you!  Do you find yourself tossing bananas in the freezer when they've started to speckle?  No one likes the look of them, no one is slicing them into cereal bowls or putting them into lunch boxes.  When the bananas are getting judged by their looks, you toss them in the freezer to use in smoothies or banana bread at some later date, right?  I do that, but man - does one of my best friends do that!!!  She had so many frozen bananas she called me to take some off her hands.  I kid you not when I say that I took 10 off her hands one afternoon, and then an additional 6 about 2 days later!  And I don't think she was free of frozen bananas after I pulled out of her driveway!  I had found a banana bread recipe that called for 6 bananas, so we made it, we loved it, and we made it again!  The first time we made it the bread was instantly voted a keeper.  The second time we added walnuts and it was even better.  So, if your freezer is overflowing with frozen bananas who have lost their beauty, this is the recipe for you.

Finally - I tried a new cooking technique this week: canning.  It is the fall, so farm stands are full of pumpkins, apples, mum and freshly canned produce.  While I don't want to jar jam or chutney, I did really want to pickle some green beans!!!  You read that right - pickled green beans.  See if you can follow this one: my sister's husband's mother's boyfriend makes the most fantastic pickled green beans ever.  Of course, I have only ever tried his dilly beans, but Ryan, Owen and I were hooked.  When the market had beautiful green beans at a ridiculous price I reached out and got the recipe, and this week I have for you Part I of the Dilly Beans Experience.  I could have called it the Dilly Bean Experiment, but I am really hoping to not change any of the variables, so in my opinion experience was more appropriate. Today I have for you the recipe and pictures fresh from the canning bath.  In 2-4 weeks I will be back with the taste results, and then perhaps another month or 2 down the line revisit it again to talk about how the flavor deepened.  The Dilly Beans I had probably had been pickling for months, so I don't know how mine will compare, but I have high hopes.  Canning - definitely new and uncharted territory for me, so we'll see how this works!  I am keeping my fingers crossed and will keep you posted.

One of my sisters did ask me to try some new slow cooker recipes so I'll be working on that for the next few weeks.  If you have one you love or want me to test out for you (so you don't have to), let me know by dropping me a line at monkeysinthekitchen@gmail.com

Happy Cooking!

New Recipes
Chicken "Pot Pie" with Biscuit Crumble
Six Banana Banana Bread
Dilly Beans

Chicken "Pot Pie" with Biscuit Crumble

Ingredients for filling

*         1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts 

*         3 cups chicken broth 

*         2 tbsp vegetable oil 

*         1 medium onion, chopped fine 

*         3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped into slices 

*         3 small celery ribs, chopped fine 

*         8 oz white mushrooms, washed and sliced 

*         1 tsp tomato paste 

*         4 tbsp butter 

*         1 cup milk 

*         1/2 cup all-purpose flour 

*         2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice 

*         3 tbsp minced fresh parsley leaves 

*         3/4 cup frozen baby peas

Ingredients for crumble topping 

*         2 cups all-purpose flour 

*         2 tsp baking powder 

*         3/4 tsp salt 

*         1/2 tsp ground black pepper 

*         1/8 tsp cayenne pepper 

*         6 tbsp butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes, chilled 

*         1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated 

*         3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp heavy cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450.

2. Bring the chicken and broth to a simmer in a covered Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook until chicken is done, then transfer chicken to a bowl. Pour the broth through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl and save.

3. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper in a large bowl. Sprinkle the butter pieces in and incorporate with your fingers until it resembles coarse cornmeal. Stir in the Parmesan, then add the cream and stir until just combined. Place on a lined, rimmed baking sheet and bake 10-13 minutes until becoming fragrant and browning. Set aside.

4. Heat 1 tbsp oil in the empty Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper and stir well. Cook until vegetables are tender, and while they are cooking,  shred the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Transfer cooked vegetables to the bowl with the chicken and  set aside.

5. Heat the remaining oil in the pot and then add mushrooms, cover and cook until mushrooms have released their juices, about 5 minutes. Remove cover and stir in the tomato paste. Cook, stirring until the liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms are browned. Transfer the mushrooms to the bowl with  the chicken and veggies.

6. Heat butter in the pot, add the flour and cook for one minute, stirring. Slowly whisk in the reserved chicken broth and milk. Bring to a simmer, scraping the bottom of the pan to get those browned bits up. Simmer about a minute. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and parsley. Stir in chicken and vegetable mixture and peas into the sauce. 

7. Pour into a greased 13×9 baking dish and sprinkle crumble topping evenly over the top, or pour 1/2 the filling into a greased 8x8 baking dish and save the other half to freeze for a future evening.  Bake until filling is bubbling and topping is well browned, about 12-15 minutes.

 
Notes

If you have leftover chicken, this is a perfect meal to use that.  And to be honest, it is tough to call this a "pot pie".  It is made in casserole dish and there is no pie crust! You can use any combination of chicken meat, or turkey for that matter!  Perhaps mark this and make it after Thanksgiving.  We used only thigh meat and it was delicious.  If you are going to make this into two meals, only make a half batch of the topping.  Then when you pull the other filling half out of the freezer all you will need to do is make the biscuit topping.  A note about the topping. It called for heavy cream, which is probably to make sure it was a light and fluffy texture.  I used the milk we had on hand, and it still turned out great!