Apple Ring Pancakes

I spend just a little too much time on Pinterest these days.

And that’s kind of like saying the summers here get just a little too hot.

But that’s another issue entirely. This post is about something I saw on Pinterest that I actually did…instead of just re-pinning it.

At first glance they seem like cute little pancakes…but hidden inside is

an apple ring!  Genius.

The boys loved them. Well, let me clarify that. Lincoln loved them…Whitman loved the idea of them, but then was offended by the actual presence of an apple inside his pancake.  (His gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free pancakes…remember those?)

Apple rings, dipped in pancake batter…a super fun way to jazz up the Saturday morning stack of cakes.

Thanks Pinterest!

Have you made candles?

This was another holiday project…candles.  Which I had never done before and thought would be much harder than it was.

This idea is from Pinterest…and the link is here. The original tutorial makes the candles in adorable little tea cups. I couldn’t find any tea cups that I loved, but I did find a great assortment of cups and dessert dishes at a local flea market. I think they were 75¢ each.

Wicks into glasses.

Wax melted on stovetop.

Fragrance (cinnamon) and dye go into the melted wax.

Then you pour the wax into your containers…and let them cool. Really. That’s it.

I made these as gifts for our annual family “Holiday Hen Party” at my aunt’s house. We usually bring something to share…lots of baked things…but, this year I didn’t feel like cooking. It was fun to do something new and they smelled great – a big hit! Any candlemakers out there? Tips or ideas?

Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays…

 

 

Just in time for the holidays…

I’m back. Yay!

I still have presents to wrap and some cooking to do, but I wanted to drop in here and share some projects I did last week for Christmas.

Historically my Christmas tree has been a “no touch” affair. One of my favorite collections is my crystal tree ornament collection. For about 15 years now I’ve been collecting Christmas tree ornaments, mostly Waterford, but there are a few Swarovski in there. With white lights and silver accents I think they make a stunning tree. NEWSFLASH TO SELF: You have a 2-year-old and there is a train under your tree…you can NOT have an entire tree full of breakable things. Can. Not.

So this year, the ornaments stayed in their gorgeous, satin-padded box…and we covered the tree in (mostly) handmade ornaments and other not-easily-breakable things. I’m quite smitten with it.

One of the projects was making some big red and green ball ornaments to go on the tree.  Because, actually, I didn’t have very many kid-friendly ornaments outside of the ones they have made at school.

Yarn wrapped around small balloons, dipped in glue…hang to dry, pop the balloon. How fun are those?

I found the instructions on Pinterest. And if you aren’t addicted to that yet, by all means, click through and prepare to waste an hour or two. My boards can be found here. And the link to these ornaments is here.

A little tip: the more you cover the balloon with yarn the easier it is for the balloon to “pop” after it has been covered with glue…it will kind of stick to the yarn of course. I tried to use water balloons because I thought they would be the best size, but I couldn’t blow them up. Seriously. So I just used regular balloons, barely filled. And a pair of tweezers will come in handy to get the balloon pieces out.

Here’s my favorite handmade ornament – my oldest made it in his preschool class last year:

I’m pretty sure it is a plain glass ball covered with glitter and tissue paper. Lovely.

My youngest’s ornament from last year…hand-print snowmen. Those teachers are so clever.

Of course, we must have the requisite photo ornaments:

And there is always a selection of memorial ornaments:

Periodically we add a memorial ornament for our first son and last year our oldest wanted matching ones. He placed them on the tree this year insisting they be grouped "because we are brothers."

And our precious pups...one gone last year and one this. This is the first year in more than I can remember there won't be any rawhide under the tree!

As much as I adore my fancy-schmancy ornaments, I really loved having a tree totally decorated by my boys…and not caring that 90% of the ornaments were bunched on the bottom third of the tree!

If we make more of these yarn ornaments next year, I’m going to add silver yarn into the mix. And who knows, maybe we’ll string popcorn and cranberries, too. It might be awhile before my crystal sees a tree again.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Hiatus

Just logging in to let you know that I have some technology challenges these days.

A week or so ago, my laptop officially gave up. (I was able to revive it momentarily by hooking it up to the TV as a monitor.)

And then our house was burglarized.  As in someone-busted-in-our-front-door-and-stole-all-our-stuff kind of burglary.

So now, I’m without the computer and the TV that made it functional. They also took my brand new camera. All of which is replaceable, of course. And we’re grateful to have not been home when it happened…for that I feel fortunate.  I imagine I’ll have a replacement computer and camera at some point in the future – and then I’ll be back!

In the meantime, I’ll still be cooking and thinking about the pictures I wish I was taking.

I’ll be filling out insurance forms and trying to understand why we pay them money every month.

And I’ll also be mourning the loss of the stuff that is NOT replaceable…like my grandmother’s jewelry and the suite of pearls my husband created over the course of three pregnancies/deliveries. Among other things, of course.

And hoping that karma is real.

Hoping not to be gone for long….

PS – if you are local and feel like checking out the pawn shops, let me know…I’ll fill you in on what to keep an eye open for!

Eggs and Quiche…and more eggs

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile then you’ll know what I mean when I say that we have an abundance of “real” eggs in our house at the moment. My parents have a fabulous neighbor who keeps chickens (and reads this blog – Hi Jennifer!) so she knows about how many eggs my boys go through in a week.

Last week my dad called and told me he had some eggs for us and to “bring a cooler.” He wasn’t kidding. Four-and-a-half dozen!!

I immediately hard-boiled at least a dozen of them.  We had breakfast for dinner one night and used up a bunch more. My five-year-old loves that the eggs are all different colors and the double yolks are the biggest deal!

Even with all of that, there were still a lot of eggs hanging around. So I got busy formulating a mini-quiche my two-year-old could eat, since he is still on some dietary restrictions…it can get a little tricky.

But I was able to come up with these:

Onion and Spinach Mini-Quiche with a Manchego “Crust”

He can’t have cow’s milk products, but he can have goat’s milk and sheep’s milk. So I grated some manchego in the bottoms of the mini-muffin cups in hopes it would get just crispy enough to seem like a thin crust. Onions and spinach were sauteed in bacon grease and spooned on top of the cheese. Then the eggs…and instead of cream I used chicken broth to keep it a little moist.

You can sort of see the slight crispiness on the bottom of this one. They are flatter than a traditional quiche – partly because of the tiny muffin cups and partly because there’s no cream or cheese in the egg mixture.

But the two-year-old did not care. He ate twelve of them for breakfast. Yes, twelve. And then he finished off the rest of the batch later in the morning. I have it on my list of things to do for this weekend to make up several more batches so I can have them on-hand in the freezer. He loved them. And I loved sneaking all that spinach into him.

Since I didn’t want the rest of us to feel left out, I made a regular one, too.  Same basic process, but I used Monterrey Jack and Parmesan for the crust…onions and spinach, cream and eggs…tomatoes on top.  I had it for brunch several days this week and wondered to myself why I don’t make these more often. They are so versatile, easy to grab and go, freeze well…so more quiche is certainly on the list for next week’s meal planning.

The weird shadows on the food are due to the fact that I was taking these photos at sunrise...which means I wasn't awake enough at the time to notice them and reshoot shadowless ones. I trust you all can overlook my early morning deficiencies.

There are still plenty of eggs in my house so, I’m guessing there might be Buttermilk Pie and Angel Food Cake posts coming soon.  Maybe I’ll finally make it around to another try at the elusive macaron! Either way, a big *thank you* to Jennifer R. and her “real” chickens!! (I’ll send the empty cartons back soon.)

Crustless Onion and Spinach Quiche

1/2 cup each Monterrey Jack and Parmesan cheese, grated

1 onion, diced

4-6 ounces baby spinach, chopped

2-3 TB bacon grease (or olive oil)

2 cups eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cups cream

2 TB corn starch

salt, pepper

1 large tomato, sliced

Preheat oven to 425°. Spread the cheese across the bottom of an ungreased pie plate. Saute the onions and spinach in the bacon grease or oil until the onions are starting to brown. Spoon the spinach mixture evenly over the cheese. Mix the beaten eggs and cream and corn starch until well mixed. Add salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture through a strainer into the pie plate. Place tomato slices evenly around on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes (until center seems set and the edges have browned.) Let cool slightly before cutting.

 

Warning: The contents of this post may be habit forming

Have you had these??

I bought some of these several weeks ago…and they’ve been haunting me since. They aren’t available at my regular grocery store (Thank Heavens) so I only get them when I go to the fancy-schmancy grocery store, like I did today.

I don’t even really like marshmallows that much. I mean, sure, I eat the occasional s’more, but that’s about it. And I made my own marshmallows once for fun. But I’ve never tasted anything like these. Never.

They are SO flavorful and like a cloud. Last time I got the Triple Citrus flavor – and assortment of orange, lemon and lime – and I bet I checked the ingredient list like 100 times trying to figure out how they were so full of such natural deliciousness. That’s the best part – there’s nothing in these you can’t pronounce. Really.

I got these coconut ones for my husband. I’m not a coconut fan. However, these marshmallows are so good I was tempted to try one just to see if I would still like it in spite of the coconut! But I didn’t.

The label says they are in Katy, TX. So check your stores if you are near there. And if you live here, I get them at the Central Market on Broadway.

Have mercy.

And this is not an advertisement. Queen Bee has no idea who I am. I’m just a loyal addict fan.

Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce

I know we’ve already talked about the heat around here. So I won’t mention it again. And I won’t mention how I have heart palpitations (not the good kind) if I think I’m going to have to turn on the oven.

I’m currently obsessed with/addicted to sushi.

And lettuce wraps. I really crave lettuce wraps.

A good Caesar salad will make me swoon.

Yes, there’s a theme.

A no-heat theme that I’m really attached to here in Texas in late August where we’ve lost count of how many records have been broken by the endless string of triple-digit days. Don’t get me started on the need for rain.

These are pretty simple to make once you get an assembly line set up. The rice wrappers can be a little tricky, but with a practice roll or two, you’ll do just fine. Trust me.

Here is a poorly-lit photo of all the components for spring rolls

One of the fun things about these is you can customize to your heart’s content. I have made these before with basil and cilantro in them…avocado…crab or chicken instead of shrimp…rice instead of vermicelli noodles. Consider this a guideline rather than a recipe.

The rice wrappers come dry and brittle and don’t seem like something you would want to eat. After 5-10 seconds in some warm water, they are ready to roll.

Warm water in a shallow dish or plate…that’s it. After the wrapper has gotten soft it is ready to be filled.

These had a layer of baby spinach, cucumbers, carrots, vermicelli noodles (the mung bean variety) and shrimp. Then you roll it. Then you re-roll it. Then you throw the first wrapper out and start over. From there on, you’ll be just fine.

I always forget to leave enough room on the ends for the wrapper to fold all the way over…as evidenced by the peek hole here on the first roll. Which is not the end of the world, it just makes it a little messier. By the time I get to the last roll I’ve remastered the technique once again. Which I will forget by the next time I make them.

I wasn’t thrilled with this dipping sauce. I thought it was the same one I’ve made before which we really like…but it wasn’t. So I’m not going to bother you with the recipe. When we realized the sauce wasn’t right, I whipped up a peanut sauce to use instead…that was much better.

I will be eating these until it cools off a little. So, sometime right before Christmas I guess. Signing out for now…from my air-conditioned, no-oven-allowed house here in the seventh ring of you-know-where.

Peanut Dipping Sauce

from Martha Stewart

1 cup smooth peanut butter

2 TB dark sesame oil

3 TB soy sauce

1 garlic clove

1 teas sambal (chili sauce…or heat of your choice)

1 TB sugar

fresh lemon juice

coconut milk

1 scallion, chopped

In a blender or food processor, combine peanut butter, oil , soy sauce, garlic, sambal and sugar until smooth. Add splash of lemon juice (I used about 1/3 of a lemon.) With machine running, add coconut milk until sauce is desired consistency. Garnish with scallion, if desired. Sauce may be made ahead of time and stored in refrigerator for 2-3 days. Bring to room temperature before serving. (And I’ve put a batch in the freezer, so I’ll let you know how that works out.)

 

 

More menu planning…might be habit-forming?

 

Happy Monday evening…OK, technically it is Tuesday morning.

I just had to post that I was actually able to plan out another week and get to the store before Sunday night. It’s so very nice to have the little chalkboard in the kitchen with all the meals for the week on it.  Let’s see how this week goes…

Monday – Italian sausage with linguine and left-over Sunday Gravy from the freezer (mercy…it even freezes beautifully…there’s just nothing that Sunday Gravy can’t do!) and a Caesar salad

Tuesday – Turkey Tacos and fruit salad

Wednesday – Pork roast with rice and gravy and butter beans

Thursday – Breakfast for dinner

Friday – Chicken nachos and/or chicken taco salad

And don’t forget to check out the Organizing Junkies latest post for literally hundreds of other weekly menu plans from the blogosphere’s Menu Planning Monday ritual.

Cheers!!

Catfish with Jalapeno Tarter Sauce and Candied-Bacon Green Beans

You know I live in the South, right?

Well if you didn’t…you’d know now.

This is a meal from my highly successful week of menu planning (last week) and since I was just getting ready to post the menu for this week, I thought I’d better wrap up the last of the missing recipes.

I’ve been making fish this way for several years and I like it because, while it seems like it is fried, the coating is very thin and you hardly use any oil. The pan is practically dry…you’ll see.

You start with corn meal and bread crumbs, about 1/2 and 1/2, with salt and pepper.

Then it’s a very simple assembly line: fish (and any light, thin fish fillet will do), egg whites beaten until frothy, bread crumb/cornmeal mixture and a clean plate.

Something happens when you make egg whites all frothy like that…it really helps the dry coating adhere while still staying nice and light. No gloppy milk and egg mixture. It’s quite nice.

If you gently press the fish into the dry mixture, it will just adhere right to it. Flip and repeat…I try to make sure to cover all the edges and sides, too. And then set them on the clean plate.

Then you heat about 2 TB of olive oil and 1 pat of butter in a large (12″) skillet. It won’t seem like a lot – it’s not. That’s part of the beauty of this recipe. When the butter stops foaming, place 2-3 of the fillets in the skillet.  Cook about 3 minutes on one side and 2-3 minutes on the other.

Can you tell that the pan is virtually dry compared to how most pans look when you are frying something? I’m always a little amazed that it works out.

See? Crazy, huh?

And yet when you flip them…

crispity crunchity!

Now, let’s get to the green beans.

Start with bacon. And not just plain old bacon, but bacon that has been dredged in just a little bit of sugar.

God placed a lot of animals on this planet who bring tremendous pleasure to us humans. I consider the pig to be very near the top of that list. Can I get an “amen?”

Once the bacon is cooked/caramelized, remove it and then use part of the bacon drippings to cook some onions before you add the green beans. I like the green beans to get just a little bit of color on them before I turn the heat down and partially put a cover over the pan so they can steam just a bit. I will toss in a few splashes of chicken broth to get the steam going for a few minutes with the lid partly on and then let it cook off so the beans sauté and take on a little color. Then maybe a little more steam. It’s like a combination sauté/steam method…highly technical…can you tell? You toss the candied-bacon back on top right before you serve.

Here’s a helpful hint: when you set the bacon aside after it cooks, resist the temptation to drain it on a paper towel like you might always do. That thin sugar coating is a relative of super glue and if it dries on a paper  towel, you’ll have to come up with some way to explain all the tiny white pieces of “seasoning” on your bacon. (Also, turns out, you can partly rinse cooked bacon if you are really quick…it won’t mess it up and those little paper bits just come right off.)

The full fish recipe (with tarter sauce) is below…enjoy!!

Fried Fish with Jalapeño Tarter Sauce

from Cook’s Country

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 TB chopped, pickled jalapeños

6 T finely chopped scallions, divided

2 teaspoons lime juice

3/4 cup cornmeal

3/4 cup plain bread crumbs

lime wedges for serving

4 skinless trout, catfish, flounder fillets (5-7 oz each, thin)

5 TB olive oil, divided

2 TB butter, divided

salt/pepper

2 large egg whites

Combine mayonnaise, jalapeños, 2T scallions and lime juice in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. Place a heatproof serving platter in the oven at 200°. Combine the bread crumbs, corn meal, salt, pepper and remaining scallions in a shallow bowl or plate. Whisk egg whites until foamy. Season fillets with salt/pepper. One at a time, dip fillets in egg whites and then in bread crumb mixture, pressing down firmly to help coating adhere. Set aside in a single layer on a large plate. Heat 1 TB butter and 2-3 TB olive oil in a large skillet. When the butter stops foaming place half the fillets in the skillet and cook 3 minutes. Flip and cook the second side until the thickest part of the fillet flakes…another 2-3 minutes. Transfer the fillets to the heated platter. Repeat with remaining oil, butter and fish. Serve immediately with mayo and lime wedges.

Also: this fish freezes surprisingly well and the coating holds up to reheat in the oven or on the stove top. It’s a great way to have homemade, oven-ready fish sticks on hand if your kids like that kind of thing. Just cut the fillets in smaller pieces and follow the same method.

 

Whew! We did it.

It’s Friday.

And I stuck to the meal plan. I did. Can you believe it?

We’ll see what happens next week…

There were a couple of things on the plan that I haven’t ever shared before, so I thought I’d add them.

This is one of my husband’s favorite dinners: pot roast. Lucky for me it’s pretty simple.

Because it is still 1000° here in Texas, I can’t bring myself to turn on the oven. So this pot roast was done on the stovetop in a 12″ skillet, which is just as good as tossing it in the oven for several hours.

The veggies get browned a little to start. Then the roast. Then everything gets put back in, herbs and beef stock get added. Cover and let it get happy for 3 hours or so. That’s it.

The meat will fall apart when you put it on a platter…surround with carrots and onions, drench in pan juices…set it in the middle of the table and enjoy the mmmmmmms and aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhs.  We had left over mashed potatoes from the garlic chicken night, so I didn’t even have to cook potatoes to go with it. Which, I’m pretty sure, is required.

The other dishes…coming soon.

Pot Roast, on the stovetop

adapted from The Pioneer Woman

olive oil

salt/pepper

2 medium onions, in sections halved or quartered

6-8 medium carrots, roughly cut into 2-3″ sections

3-pound chuck roast

a few springs of fresh rosemary and thyme

2 cups beef stock

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat (this should be a large pot or skillet with a lid. You can also start this on the stovetop and move it to the oven… if turning on your oven doesn’t make you break out into hives.) Add the onions and carrots and cook until they just take on a little color  - several minutes. Remove veggies from pan and set aside. Let the oil reheat – add a little more if needed. Season the roast generously with salt and pepper. Brown the roast – a minute or two on each side. Remove to plate as well. Do you see all the little brown bits in the pan? You want those. Add about a 1/2 cup of the stock to the pan, on high heat, and deglaze with a whisk or spoon.  Add the roast back to the pan, then the carrots, then the onions, then the fresh herbs, the rest of the beef stock. Bring the stock to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to a slow, easy simmer for 3 hours…or until the meat is falling all over the place. Be sure to use the pan juices when you serve it…lots of great flavor there.