Jellied Pineapple Rings

I have an odd fondness for Jell-o, considering that I didn't grow up in a household where Jell-o was made frequently (the one time I remember making it with my dad as a kid, it didn't set up!), and I've never really cared for the texture of plain Jell-o without anything added to it, but the fondness is there nonetheless.  It's no surprise, then, that I decided to make these pineapple rings right after I came across the recipe on Joy of Jell-o.

  

This is seriously one of the quickest, easiest recipes a person could ever make and is about 1/2 a step up from just making a plain box of Jell-o.  It's been around for quite a while, as evidenced by the cute 1960s style ads describing how to make it.  My one change was to use the drained pineapple juice in the Jell-o instead of just dumping it and using water.  I've included that in the directions below, because the added pineapple juice really punched up the flavor.  My husband and I both really enjoyed them, much more than I expected.  

  

As adorably tacky as these pineapple rings are, I'll probably make a can with lime Jell-o and a can with cherry Jell-o for Christmas.  How cute would they be arranged in alternating colors in a spiral on a platter?

  

Quick Note:  I suggest using name brand pineapple vs store brand.  We tried it both ways and liked the name brand better.  We also tried both strawberry and lime Jell-o and preferred the lime.

  

 

Jellied Pineapple Rings

 

20 oz can pineapple slices

3 oz box Jell-o powder (I used lime)

 

Drain pineapple juice from can into a measuring cup.  Add enough water to it so that you have 1 cup total liquid.  Bring liquid to a boil in a small sauce pan, remove from heat, and stir in the Jell-o powder until completely dissolved.  Pour Jell-o mixture over the pineapple rings.  You will have some Jell-o mixture left over, just pour that into an extra bowl to enjoy as a snack.  Place the can of pineapple rings and bowl of extra Jell-o in the refrigerator to solidify.  This will take several hours.

 

When you're ready to eat the pineapple, dip the can into a bowl of hot water for about 10 seconds.  Flip it upside down over a plate and open it from the bottom with a can opener.  If the can is the traditional style that you had to open with a can opener, you can just gently push/shake the pineapple out of the top of the can.  If the can is the newer style with the pull tab, flip it right side up again and gently push/shake the pineapple slices out the bottom of the can onto the plate.  You want the pineapple to come out the bottom of the can because they will get mangled if they come out the top, since pineapple cans have the pull tabs and are slightly narrower at the top.

  

Gently slice the rings apart with a knife, and serve.

Old Fashioned Sour Cream Donuts

My husband and I made these donuts a few months ago after I saw Tasty's short video showing how to make them.  It was the first time we'd made donuts, and they were a lot of fun.  These are cake style donuts, not the typical yeast dough based glazed donuts.  Someday I'd like to try yeast donuts, but this was a good recipe to start with and very yummy!  They're awesome either glazed or rolled in cinnamon sugar, I actually couldn't decide which I liked better.  Even nicer, they keep very well.  After the first day, they're softer, but pleasantly so and the flavors are very well melded together.  

   

For the glaze, feel free to use whatever type of extract you want.  I've mentioned it before on this blog, but I despise the flavor of powdered sugar.  I think it's the cornstarch.  Whatever it is, powdered sugar has a very overpowering, unpleasant flavor to me, so I had to use a lot of lemon extract to cover it.  One of these days, I'll buy a bag of powdered sugar that only has sugar as an ingredient, but it's so expensive!  If you don't want to use glaze, you can either leave them plain (not as sweet of course, but really tasty), or roll them in cinnamon sugar.  Or how about lemon sugar, or allspice sugar?  So many possibilities!

   

One last thing, you can fry the donut holes along with the donuts, they just won't need to cook as long.  If you don't want donut holes, just squish the holes together and roll them out to make more big donuts, but we think donut holes have their own charm.

   

Quick Note:  The original recipe says to score the donuts so they puff properly while frying, which you are free to do- just make 3 shallow cuts forming a large triangle.  I forgot to do that for the first half of the donuts and they didn't suffer any ill effects.  They puffed up and split around the outside, but I thought they looked cute that way.  

  

  

Old Fashioned Sour Cream Donuts

 

For the donuts:
2 1/4 cup (255 grams) cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sour cream
about 2-3 Tbsp milk
Canola or vegetable oil, for frying (about 2 C)
 
For the glaze:
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
about 2 tsp lemon extract, or to taste (or use a different flavor extract)
1/3 cup hot water
  
Stir together dry ingredients (cake flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg) in a smaller bowl. Set aside.
 
In mixer bowl, combine butter and sugar on a low speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and mix together on medium speed. Add half the dry ingredients, blend. Add the sour cream, blend. Add in the rest of the dry ingredients and blend until the dough is well-combined, add enough milk for dough to come together. Place dough in greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Chill for an hour or overnight.
 
Place chilled dough on a floured surface. Roll out to about 1/3 inch thickness. Cut the donut shapes with round cookie cutters or use a larger glass and a shot glass.
 
Pour oil into a large skillet so it's about 1 inch deep.  Heat oil to 325°F.  Carefully place the donuts in the oil with heat safe tongs and cook until golden, then flip and cook until golden on the other side. Remove donuts to cookie cooling racks set over paper towels.
 
After all the donuts are done frying, make the glaze by combining the powdered sugar, extracts, corn syrup, and hot water until it becomes smooth.  Dip the top of each donut in the glaze and set on a drying rack to allow glaze to dry and any extra to drip off.  Double dip if necessary.  Alternatively, you can roll the hot donuts in cinnamon sugar.

Pizza Sticks

This is an easy and yummy recipe, even for adults!  I found it on the I Wash, You Dry blog, and changed it by using homemade pizza dough instead of dough from a can, and I added parmesan.  Not much to the recipe.  The pizza sticks are similar to something called pizza rollers sold at our favorite pizza place, but these are undeniably better.  Next time I make them, I'm going to try freezing a bunch of them before baking so I can see how they do when baked from frozen.  Talk about a convenient, quick dinner or lunch!

 

Quick Note:  Use part skim mozzarella.  I made half of these with regular string cheese, and half with lactose free cheese sticks (not specifically mozzarella).  Every single one of pizza sticks made with the full fat lactose free cheese burst open in the oven and leaked their cheese everywhere, I think because of the extra fat.

 

  

Pizza Sticks

 

13 oz pizza dough (1/3 of this recipe)

40 slices pepperoni

10 mozzarella string cheese sticks, or a brick of mozzarella cut into 1 oz sticks

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp dried parsley

3 Tbsp parmesan cheese

optional: pizza sauce and ranch dressing for serving

 

Preheat oven to 450 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Set aside.

 

Roll out pizza dough into an approximately 11 by 16 inch rectangle.  Make one long cut lengthwise, then cut the two strips into 10 rectangles total.

 

Line up 4 slices of pepperoni on each rectangle of dough, then top with a cheese stick.  Wrap the dough around the cheese sticks and pepperoni, sealing the seam and the ends.

 

Arrange pizza sticks on the baking sheet.  Melt butter and stir in garlic powder and parsley.  Brush over pizza sticks, then sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

 

Bake until golden, about 10 minutes.  Let cool a couple of minutes before serving.

  

Yield: 10 pizza sticks

Copycat Frito Lay Bean Dip

This is just a really tasty, easy, and CHEAP recipe for bean dip.  We think it's better than the canned stuff from Frito Lay.  It has more flavor, as well as a definite spicy kick.  You could also make two batches of this for the price of one tiny can of bean dip!  I found the recipe over at Food.com and it's basically perfect exactly as written.

Copycat Frito Lay Bean Dip

1 can refried beans (check the ingredients if you want to make your dip vegetarian or vegan!)
2-5 jarred jalapeno slices (depending on how spicy you want it)
1 Tbsp brine from the jar of jalapeno slices
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Blend all ingredients in a food processor, or alternatively, place everything in a smallish bowl and blend it with an immersion blender until smooth.  Serve with corn chips or tortilla chips, or you can make a quick lunch by spreading some on a flour tortilla, sprinkling with a bit of shredded cheddar, and rolling it up.

Yield: About 8 servings

Cheese Straws

Okay, yesterday I said I'd sit on this recipe until I make them again next year since I didn't have the cayenne pepper amount quite right.  They turned out less hot than I wanted (though extremely flavorful!) so I sprinkled cayenne pepper on some of them before baking.  My plan was to up the amount of cayenne pepper in the actual dough next year and then post the recipe here with that amount included.  However, many of the cheese straws went to work with my husband and he returned home with feedback that his coworkers (all guys who usually like spicy stuff) preferred the cheese straws without the extra cayenne on top.  Also, I'm pretty sure the ones without extra pepper would be fine for kids and people who don't like hot things.  Decided to just go on ahead and post the recipe as is with the recommendation to either add more cayenne pepper in the dough or sprinkle some extra on top if you want them hotter.  My in-laws are visiting for Christmas and I'm actually glad I made the cheese straws as I did, because they'll be able to enjoy the less spicy ones while my husband and I eat the ones with extra cayenne.

Until I made these the other day, I'd only had cheese straws once in my life.  On one of the Christmases I spent with my dad in Louisiana as a teenager, lots of neighbors and friends gave him tins of treats.  One of those tins contained cheese straws!  Neither my dad nor I have all that much of a sweet tooth, and the cookies all went neglected because we only had eyes for the cheese straws.  They were so cheesy, crunchy, and very spicy.  I don't have an especially high tolerance for hot things, but loved those cheese straws.  Yum. 

A few nights ago, I got to thinking about how good they were, and decided to try to make some myself!  Basically picked this recipe from the Food Network because it had the highest cheese to flour ratio of all the recipes I saw, and cheese is of course what it's all about.  I then halved the recipe but kept the amount of cayenne and black pepper the same and added some other spices.  I also used my cookie press with a flat extruder plate to make long, rectangular crackers, then cut them in half down the middle and slightly separated them on the cookie sheet, but you could roll the dough out and cut it into long, skinny strips instead.  Lucky for me, the cheese straws turned out extremely well and basically just like I remember, especially the ones with the extra cayenne sprinkled on top!  My husband loved them just as much, if not more.  They're very similar to a cheese cracker, but richer, cheesier, and just all around better.  I can't promise these will be made every Christmas from now on because there are so many other recipes we love and still others I want to try, but they will definitely appear frequently.

Update: I made these again for Christmas 2014, and we somehow forgot about them after a few days.  The tin was in the pantry for a solid month and the cheese straws were still very good and quickly eaten!

Cheese straws with extra cayenne on top, and plain on the bottom!  This is a very small tin.



Cheese Straws

15 oz sharp cheddar cheese, freshly grated, then covered and allowed to sit out until it reaches room temperature (not the bagged, shredded cheese, it won't combine with the butter properly- also 15 oz is an odd amount, but you can just take care of that extra ounce by having a little snack!)
1 stick salted butter, at room temperature (needs to be quite soft)
1 1/2 cup white flour, plus a bit more
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried mustard
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (you could try 1/4 t cayenne if you want them spicier!)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat your oven to 325 and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, place the cheese and butter.  Attach the paddle and beat on low until the mixture is very soft, about 15 minutes (you could try this with a hand mixer as well, make sure your ingredients are very soft to start with).  You'll need to scrape down the sides of the bowl frequently.  While that's happening, whisk together 1 1/2 cup flour and the spices.  Add to the cheese mixture about 1/3 cup at a time and beat in each flour addition thoroughly.  When all the flour has been added, add more flour 2 or 3 tablespoons at a time- up to 1/2 cup total- until the dough comes together and is no longer sticky, but still pretty soft.  I only needed about 3 tablespoons more.

If you're going to use a cookie press, fill the press according to the manufacturer's instructions and choose an extruder plate that will allow you to make long, skinny crackers.  If they're still fairly wide (mine were about an inch wide), cut them in half down the center and separate slightly.  The dough doesn't spread much, so you can put them fairly close together.  If you don't have a cookie press, you could just roll the dough out directly on the parchment paper lined cookie sheet, cut into skinny strips, and separate them.  If you'd like, you can sprinkle extra cayenne pepper on top of the cheese straws, but remember that a little goes a long way!

Bake the cheese straws until they turn light golden and are crunchy, about 20 minutes.  I confirmed they were done by taking one out of the oven and sticking it in the freezer so it would cool quickly.  They're good while still soft, but are more like a cheese cookie than a cracker!  Let the cheese straws cool completely, then store them in an air tight container. 

Yield:  Lots!  I failed to count, but got 3 large cookie sheets full.  Guessing about 100 cheese straws.

Ham & Cheese Hedgie Bread

I've seen this type of bread around the internet under the names hedgehog bread, bread pulls, and blooming bread.  Whatever you want to call it, one thing is certain:  it is DELICIOUS!  I mean really, really good; perfect for an occasional treat or a fun appetizer for a small group. The bread has interested me ever since I saw it over at The Girl Who Ate Everything, and this is my spin- I kind of combined her Bloomin' Onion Bread and her Ham and Cheese Sliders recipes.  Even though I made this back in May and just hadn't posted it yet, looking at the picture makes me want some RIGHT NOW!

Ham & Cheese Hedgie Bread

8 oz mini sourdough bread boule (California Goldminer Sourdough is what I used)
4 oz shaved ham, cut into 1 inch squares (I used sundried tomato rosemary ham)
4 oz thinly sliced cheddar, cut into 1/2 inch strips
3 T thinly sliced green onions
4 T butter
1 1/2 t poppy seeds
2 t dijon mustard
1/4 t Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 350 and place a large piece of aluminum foil on a baking sheet.  Cut bread to look like a hedgehog, going first one direction, then the other, and being sure not to cut all the way through the bottom crust.  A serrated knife works best for this.  Place sliced loaf on the baking sheet.  Stuff in cheese (you may need to break the pieces more), then ham, then sprinkle on green onions, then spoon on butter mixture.  Wrap with the foil.  Bake covered 10 minutes, then unwrap and bake 10 minutes more, or until cheese is melted and bread is light golden.  Serve immediately with lots of napkins, but watch out for burned fingers!

Yield: about 6 servings

Chocolate Cherry Drop Cookies

As of yesterday, I am completely finished with all things school related until August when I begin my student teaching at a local elementary school.  The application process for the program began back in December and was pretty involved.  I won't go into it, but the last hurdle to jump before being officially accepted was passing my classes this semester.  While it pretty much goes without saying that I passed my classes (A's all around), things were rather stressful with one of  my Elementary Education classes because of a huge final project that was worth 40% of the grade.  Plus it was up for the instructor of that class to decide whether or not we're all ready for our internships and that decision was not necessarily related to the grade the student earned.  For example, last year a student got a B overall but was failed from the class and had to take it again this year.  There are others that have not been allowed into the student teaching program either because of this instructor's decision.  I wasn't REALLY worried that things wouldn't work out, but it was a concern, you know?  Thankfully, I got 99 out of 100 points on my project, the go ahead from the instructor, and am now officially accepted into the program.  PHEW!  And YAY!  It will be an extremely busy year, but I'm really looking forward to it!

So, why did I tell you all this?  Well, I needed an excuse to bake cookies and figured this was as good as any :oD  This particular recipe is called Chocolate Cherry Drops and is from the old Betty Crocker's Cooky Book from the 1960s and is a variation listed for the plain Chocolate Drop.  It is the third recipe I've made from the book.  First was Canadian Honey Drops back in October, and in December I made the Candy Cane Cookies but kinda sorta forgot to post about them so am waiting until this Christmas.  I really liked those two cookies and am happy to say that Chocolate Cherry Drops are definitely a success, too!  Way to go, Betty!  The cookies turned out fantastically and are everything I hoped they would be.  On their own, they are nice and fairly chocolaty and the cherries are really wonderful.  The chocolate frosting spread on top really punches them up though and turns them into winners!  If you have the book, I used Marie's Chocolate Frosting, which was one of the three frostings suggested for this cookie. I did have to make a couple small changes based on what I had, but nothing significant, and I noted my changes in the recipe.

The texture of my cookies is kind of "different" though.  They're similar to chocolate chip cookies in that the edges are a little crisp and they're soft and chewy in the center, but they're also kind of cakey and kind of brownie-ish.  The thickness ended up being pretty interesting.  Mine turned out on the thin side (though not ridiculously so) and are fairly fragile.  I did some internet snooping and found photos of the Chocolate Drops other people produced from the same recipe.  Some turned out thin like mine, others turned out very tall- almost spherical- just like in the picture in the book, and some turned out in between.  I really have NO idea why we there are so many different results, but I'll bet they're great in all forms!  My mother-in-law really wants to try the Chocolate Cherry Drops so I plan to make them again when they visit this summer and if I get different results I will update this post.

Chocolate Cherry Drop Cookies

Cookies
2 oz unsweetened chocolate (I used 2 1/2 oz by weight of bittersweet chips)
1 C sugar
1/2 C butter, softened
1 egg
1/3 C buttermilk (or 1/3 C milk combined with 1 t lemon juice and allowed to sit for 10 minutes)
1 t vanilla extract
1 3/4 C flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 C maraschino cherries, drained (keep the juice) and chopped roughly (I just used a 16 oz jar)

Frosting
2 T butter
2 oz unsweetened (or bittersweet) chocolate by weight
3 1/2 T cherry juice from the jar, warmed
2 C powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.  The parchment paper is very important, if your cookies turn out like mine they will be fragile and they come off the parchment paper very easily!  In a medium sized microwave safe bowl, microwave chocolate in 15 second increments, stirring thoroughly between heatings, until chocolate is melted.  Be careful not to cook it too long!  Set chocolate aside to cool to room temperature for a few minutes.  Stir in the sugar, butter, and egg until smooth, then stir in the buttermilk and vanilla extract.  In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and salt.  Stir into chocolate mixture, then stir in cherries.  The dough will look like chocolate frosting, yum!  Drop the dough by teaspoons onto your lined cookie sheets, leaving 2 inches between cookies.  The dough will probably spread so plan accordingly and don't make them too monstrous.  Bake until set, 8 to 10 minutes.  These cookies need less baking time than the average cookie.  Allow cookies to cool on sheets until you can pick them up easily, then move them to a cookie rack so they can cool all the way.

When the cookies have cooled, make the frosting.  Place the butter and chocolate together in a medium sized microwave safe bowl and microwave in 15 second increments until butter is melted, about 30 seconds in all.  Stir until chocolate has melted completely and the mixture is smooth.  Stir in cherry juice, then stir in powdered sugar.  Add a little more cherry juice or powdered sugar if necessary to get a spreadable consistency.  Spread frosting on cookies.  Don't pile on too much or it will cover the cherry flavor!  Let cookies sit until frosting is firm, about 30 minutes to an hour.  Store them in a tin with wax paper between the layers and keep them refrigerated so the cherries don't get funky.

Yield: 3 to 4 dozen depending on how big you make them

Allspice Apple Crumb Muffins

Continuing the muffin bender I seem to be on, here is another fantastic muffin recipe!  This one comes from the blog In Jennie's Kitchen.  I was already trolling for my next muffin fix when I came upon the recipe and immediately knew I had to try it.  Although I'm an unrepentant cinnamon fiend, I also appreciate allspice and always put lots of it in my apple butter and applesauce so it made sense that it would do great in the leading role of apple muffins.  Usually I'm not wild about soggy pieces of fruit in my muffins, but you grate them for this recipe so they just add sweetness, moisture, and a bit of texture without any sog.  The muffins themselves don't have all that much sugar- not even the topping- but the overall effect of spicy, soft, apple sweetened muffin with mildly sweet, crunchy topping is nothing less than delightful.  In the past I have tried apple crumb muffins and not been terribly impressed, but these bad boys are not only wonderful, they're also the best muffins I've made.  Maybe even the best ones I've ever had and that's saying a lot!  In short, make these muffins!

Quick note:  The original recipe does not contain vanilla or applesauce.  I tossed in vanilla as a force of habit, and added applesauce because my batter was so thick and dough like that I could have rolled it out and made biscuits with it.  I measured carefully so I'm not sure what happened there, but the applesauce addition certainly did not harm the flavor or texture!  Even with it, the batter was very thick.  Also, I assembled my batter slightly differently from Jennie.  A little more dumping of ingredients and a little less adding in small increments.  You can check out her recipe if you want to do it the right way.  And last of all, I got 20 muffins out of this recipe rather than the 12 it's supposed to make.  Not sure what happened there, but my muffin tin is the standard size that's also used for cupcakes.

Allspice Apple Crumb Muffins

Muffins
1/2 C butter, softened
1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla extract
1 C sour cream
1/2 C applesauce
3 C flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t allspice
2 C grated peeled apples (this was 2 largish Fuji apples for me)

Topping
2 T butter
2 T brown sugar
1 T white sugar
1/2 C flour

Preheat oven to 375 and grease 2 muffin tins or line with muffin papers.  Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in eggs until smooth, then vanilla extract, sour cream, and applesauce.  In a medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients.  Stir dry ingredients into wet mixture, then stir in grated apples, being careful not to over mix.  Batter will be quite thick.  Spoon batter into muffin tins, filling each about 2/3 full.  To make the topping, melt butter in a small bowl, then stir in sugars and flour until well combined.  Crumble evenly over muffins.  Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes.  Serve immediately or else let them cool completely, then cover and store in the refrigerator.  They stay delicious for several days but are best fresh as the topping softens after being stored.

Yield: 20 regular sized muffins

Chocolate Chip Muffins

There are two kinds of muffins: the healthy, not too sweet kind (like the wonderful bran muffins I made recently), and the kind that are basically cupcakes without frosting.  My husband loves muffins and he tends to prefer those of the cupcake variety.  Several days ago I got it into my head that I should make chocolate chip muffins.  Found a recipe on AllRecipes, whipped it up, and ta da!  Delicious muffins, and definitely the "dessert for breakfast" type that my husband likes so much.  We both really enjoyed them while they lasted, which sadly wasn't that long since the batch only makes 9.  The original recipe says to make mini muffins and I think those would be really good and cute too, but last time I sent him to work with cute food (the manatee cookies!) he kind of belly ached about it.  No complaining happened with these muffins though because they're really good and I suppose the size is adequately mannish.  They're packed with chocolate chips, as you can see, and they have a flavor like chocolate chip cookies which isn't surprising since the ingredients are the same.  They are a tad denser than your standard muffin and I doubt the batter would be particularly tasty sans chips, but it stands up nicely to the chocolate and, well, no complaints here!

Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 C flour
1/2 C sugar
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
2/3 C mini chocolate chips
1/4 C butter
1/2 C milk
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a muffin tin.  In a glass measuring cup, melt butter in microwave.  Set aside to cool while you mix up the batter.  In a medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients, including mini chocolate chips.  Pour in slightly cooled butter (cooled so it doesn't melt the chocolate chips), then use the same measuring cup to measure the milk.  Pour that in, then crack the egg into the measuring cup and beat it until mostly smooth.  Pour into bowl with the rest of the ingredients.  Stir batter just until everything comes together, being careful not to over mix.  Spoon batter into muffin tin.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes.  Good warm or room temperature.  The muffins stay nice for a few days but are best served within a day or two.

Yield: 9 muffins (or approximately 18 mini muffins according to the original recipe)

Bran Muffins

 I decided to make bran muffins so my husband would have something reasonably healthy to take to work for breakfast.  Originally I was going to make a recipe from AllRecipes, but there was a recipe on the bag of wheat bran (Bob's Red Mill brand, I found it in the organics section rather than the breakfast or baking section) so I just went with that!  Of course I ended up changing it slightly because I didn't have honey (or at least not honey I was willing to sacrifice to muffins- I do not use the $20 a pound raw local honey from the farmer's market for cooking!) and I left out the raisins but added more salt in an attempt to make a somewhat savory muffin.  Anyway, they turned out GREAT.  I mean, really good.  We just finished the last of them this morning and they were still perfect after spending the past week in the fridge.  They're flavorful, soft, moist, and a tiny bit sweet, but not dessert like.  Bran muffins sound like an odd thing to get excited about, but these are just so good.  They actually remind me of a nice honey wheat bread.  Great spread with a little butter, jam, or apple butter.  We had them for breakfast several days, but I also heated some up to go with dinner a couple of nights, because why not?  Most definitely a repeat!

Bran Muffins

1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 C wheat bran
1/2 C brown sugar
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 C raisins (optional- reduce salt to 1/4 t if you use them)
1 egg
2 T vegetable oil
1 1/4 C milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a muffin tin.  Stir together dry ingredients in a medium bowl.  In a small bowl, beat egg lightly.  Stir in oil and milk.  Add mixture to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened.  Batter will be quite thick.  Spoon into prepared muffin tin and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 15 minutes.

Yield: 12 muffins

Asiago Garlic Herb Popcorn

For a variety of boring reasons, my husband and I didn't get around to having dinner until very late last night. Late enough that making the corn chowder I'd planned seemed ridiculous. Bare cupboards meant our options were pretty much oatmeal or popcorn. I remembered this amazing looking popcorn recipe from Our Best Bites (and am not the biggest fan of oatmeal anyway), so popcorn it was! It turned out very yummy and even rather gourmet, or at least as gourmet as popcorn can be. We sat on the couch and devoured it while hunched over the big plastic mixing bowl with a movie in the background. We may or may not have this popcorn for dinner again (no promises!), but I definitely plan to make it for the occasional treat!

Quick note: Grate the asiago with a micro plane grater (like this) so it's very fine and will melt onto the popcorn quickly. Also, make sure you have the butter mixture and grated asiago ready to go before you pop the popcorn because you want to add the cheese right away so it has a chance to melt. The cheese probably won't all melt on, but that's okay! If the popcorn cooled too fast and the cheese fell to the bottom of the mixing bowl instead of melting, you could try spreading the whole shebang on a large rimmed cookie sheet and baking it for a couple of minutes so the cheese will melt.

Asiago Garlic Herb Popcorn

1 T butter
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 t dried thyme
1/4 t dried basil
3/4 C very finely grated fresh asiago cheese (not packed into measuring cup)
1/2 C popcorn kernels
salt to taste

Melt the butter and olive oil together in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until beginning to turn golden, a minute or two. Remove from heat and stir in thyme and basil. Pop popcorn and catch it in a large mixing bowl. As soon as popcorn has popped, drizzle over butter garlic mixture and sprinkle with asiago. Toss immediately to coat using a large mixing spoon, then add salt to taste and toss again.

Lime Green Smoothie

We love smoothies. I used to make them almost every day for breakfast, but then we moved into an apartment and I worried that the sound of the blender would wake up the neighbors in the morning. Plus, my husband and I don't usually get up at the same time during the week so we couldn't share. Normally my smoothies would consist of a banana, a cup of sweetened yogurt (vanilla, strawberry, whatever), some fresh or frozen chopped fruit, and juice to thin it. Yum indeed. This past week I decided to start making smoothies again for lunch, but with added spinach because it's good for ya and you supposedly can't taste it in the finished product. Guess what? You really can't taste it! The smoothie tastes great (I love the lime) and the only indication that it contains spinach is that the smoothie is a frightening shade of olive green and looks like nothing you would ever want to put near your mouth. EVER. For that reason, I decided not to post a photo because my goal here is to encourage people to try my recipes, not send them screaming into the night.

Quick note: You can take a lot of liberties with the recipe and use pretty much any combo of fruit that you want. This week I used frozen chunks of mango, strawberries, and pineapple, but next week I think I will try a berry blend. You can use fruit from the freezer section at the store (which is what I do because come on, it's February in Interior Alaska and there aren't many likely fruit choices in the produce aisle) or fresh fruit, frozen or not. You can even toss in a second banana instead. As for the liquid: milk, juice, almond/rice milk, or probably even water would work. Of course, if you use juice, the finished smoothie will be sweeter. I've been mostly making them with milk and find that the added lime juice helps the smoothie seem sweeter, which is probably just my wacky tastebuds. I make my own Greek yogurt pretty frequently and plan to do a batch in the next couple of days so I'll try using that for 1/2 C of the liquid and will let ya know how it goes.

Lime Green Smoothie

1 banana, peeled (obviously)

1 big handful of fresh baby spinach

about 1 C chopped fruit (about 5 ounces by weight)

3/4 C milk

2 T lime juice

Place all ingredients in a blender, cover, and blend until completely combined.

Yield: about 2 1/2 C, which makes 1 big smoothie or 2 little ones.

Monkey Bread from Scratch

I love cinnamon rolls and other cinnamony things, but my husband might love them even more. He's a great guy, so I decided to surprise him with monkey bread for breakfast. If you've never had it before, monkey bread is little balls of dough coated in butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon, and baked in a bundt pan. Eating monkey bread is basically like eating the inside of a cinnamon roll, which we all know is the best part! In the past when I've gone out of town, I've made him monkey bread with canned biscuits, but I wanted to do it from scratch this time and this Martha Stewart recipe looked like a great one to try. Along the way I made a few changes to streamline the method, I had to make more of the cinnamon sugar mixture coat all of the dough, and I changed the glaze to something I thought would taste better. The monkey bread turned out amazing! Really, truly excellent, if I may say, and without question better than the kind made with canned dough. The bread part was soft and tender, the brown sugar-cinnamon-butter part was gooey and wonderful, and the glaze was creamy and flavorful. My husband said it's better than cinnamon rolls and we may or may not have been reduced to licking our plates a little bit. I really, really hope someone will feel inspired to make my version of this great recipe, because you will not be disappointed!

If you're afraid of working with yeast, this is probably a pretty good recipe to start with since the dough will be coated with cinnamon sugar and let's face it, most things would taste good like that. My best advice for the dough is to make sure it rises enough (before baking it should have approximately doubled in size), but don't let it rise too much or the dough will fall and the texture will be funky. Regardless of the time of year, I always have my dough rise in the oven. I pop in the bowl of dough, turn the oven to 300, count to 45, and turn it off. All ovens are different, but for mine, this provides a perfectly warm environment for the yeast to do its magic! If you open the oven door a lot, you'll probably need to warm it more than once.

Quick note: As much as we like how this turned out, it is admittedly impractical to make for breakfast because of the rising time. I tried to be smart and stuck the bundt pan in the fridge overnight, thinking it could rise in there and I'd be able to just stick it in the oven in the morning, but that didn't exactly pan out. The dough only rose a little overnight, and because it was cold, it took two hours to finish rising in the warm oven! So, don't do what I did or breakfast will be very late and you'll end up fixing scrambled eggs while you wait. Next time I make it I'm going to try completing the entire recipe up through the last rising and stick it in the fridge when it's almost doubled in bulk. Hopefully it will be ready to go in the oven immediately in the morning. If this works out, I will update the recipe with what I did!

Also, sorry about the not-so-pretty picture, every time I make this recipe a little bit sticks to the bundt pan.  Doesn't compromise the flavor, though!



Monkey Bread from Scratch

for dough:
1/4 C warm water (about 105-110 degrees F if you want to get specific)
1 t sugar
1 packet yeast (2 1/4 t)
2 T butter
3/4 C milk
1/4 C sugar
1 egg
1 t salt
about 3 3/4 C flour

for cinnamon sugar:
1 stick butter
1 1/4 C brown sugar
1 T cinnamon

for glaze:
2 T butter
2 C powdered sugar
1/4 C milk
1/2 t vanilla extract

Proof the yeast in 1/4 C slightly warm water with 1 t sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer for 5-10 minutes. Yeast mixture should look creamy. Melt the butter in a glass measuring cup in the microwave, then add 3/4 C milk and microwave until slightly warm (again, between about 105 and 110 degrees F). Stir into yeast mixture along with sugar, egg, and salt. Stir in 3 C flour by hand, then add 3/4 C more and knead with dough hook until a nice, barely sticky ball of dough has formed. You can add additional flour 1 tablespoon at a time if it's too sticky, or water 1 teaspoon at a time if it's too dry. Once dough is ready, form it into a ball and pour on about a teaspoon of oil, turning to coat. Cover the bowl and put it in a warm spot to rise for 20 minutes, it's okay if the dough does not rise a ton.

Melt butter in one bowl and stir together brown sugar and cinnamon in another. Grease a 10 inch (12 cup) bundt pan and sprinkle about 4 T of the sugar mixture in the bottom. Tear off walnut sized pieces of dough, roll into balls, dip in butter, and roll in brown sugar mixture. Place balls in bundt pan. To make things faster, I roll about 8 dough balls, then put them all in the butter then all in the sugar mixture. Do this with all of the dough, then sprinkle any remaining sugar mixture on top of the balls and pour butter on top. Cover the pan with greased plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, which should take about 30-60 minutes, but may take longer if your kitchen is cold.

When the dough has doubled in size, preheat the oven to 350 and bake the bread until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. Let bread rest in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a serving plate.

To make the glaze, melt the butter in a glass measuring cup in the microwave, then whisk in the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. You can pour it on the entire loaf of bread, over individual servings, or pour it in tiny bowls for dipping.

Yield: About 8 to 12 servings

Hummus Without Tahini

Look at that, another hummus post! I decided this one was worth posting too because some people can't find tahini or won't buy it because of the price. Sometimes I can get it at the grocery store but about 3/4 of the time, there's none to be found. If the health food store has it, it's about $15 for a jar and I just can't bring myself to spend that much on a jar of sesame seed paste. That's when I turn to this recipe, which I also made up! It's pretty similar to the other recipe except it uses canned garbanzos (for the sake of convenience) and it has more olive oil (for flavor and fat that the tahini would add) and more coriander (for flavor- I love coriander). So if you don't have tahini, I suggest you give this recipe a go. It will still be yummy.

Hummus Without Tahini

2 cans garbanzo beans, drained and liquid reserved
6 T olive oil
5 T lemon juice
4 T bean liquid
3 garlic cloves
1 t salt
1 t dried ground coriander seed
1/8 t dried ground cumin
1/8 t cayenne pepper

Combine everything in the bowl of a food processor or heavy duty blender.

Yield: about 4 cups

Hummus

I've never really cared for garbanzo beans and wasn't expecting much when I first tried hummus about 8 years ago, but I was hooked after the first bite! And my husband hadn't tried it until he met me and we bought a container, but he was won over immediately, too. Unfortunately, it's very expensive at the store. Good news though! It's super easy to make if you have a food processor or heavy duty blender and much, much cheaper. My food processor is basically a hummus machine because that's what it's used for 90% of the time. Here's a recipe that I made up and have fine tuned over the past few years. We think it's perfect! You can also add a small jar of oil packed artichoke hearts and replace the olive oil with oil from the artichokes.

Hummus

1/2 lb dried garbanzo beans, sorted, soaked overnight and drained
1/2 C cooking liquid from the garbanzo beans
3 cloves minced garlic
4 T tahini (sesame seed paste)
5 T lemon juice
4 T olive oil
1 1/2 t salt
1/2 t dried ground coriander seed
1/4 t dried ground cumin
1/8 t cayenne pepper

Place garbanzo beans in a slow cooker with 6 cups of water and cook until tender, about 4 hours on high or 8 on low. Or just cook them in a pot on the stove. When the beans are tender, drain them and reserve 1/2 C of the cooking liquid. Place the beans, reserved cooking liquid, and remaining ingredients in a food processor or heavy duty blender and blend until smooth. Serve warm or chilled with pita bread, tortilla chips, or raw veggies or make a sandwich with pita bread, hummus, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and olives.

Note: The hummus will thicken after being in the fridge. If you want it thinner, you can stir in more olive oil or even water.

Yield: About 4 cups

Deviled Eyes

These spooky eyes are a yearly tradition for us. Mostly because we love any excuse to have deviled eggs and these are really cute! You can use your favorite deviled egg recipe. Normally I put dill in mine but I don't when I make these because I don't want little flecks of dill in the eyes.

Deviled Eyes

6 hard boiled eggs
4 T mayonnaise
1 T dijon mustard
1/2 t salt
1/4 t onion powder
4 drops green food coloring
for garnish: sliced olives

Cut the eggs in half and place the yolks in a shallow bowl. Mash with a fork. Add the mayonnaise, mustard, seasoned salt, onion powder and food coloring and stir to combine. Alternatively, you can mix it all up in the food processor so you won't have any little bits of yellow yolk showing in your green filling. Scoop the mixture into a small plastic bag and snip off the tip of one corner, then pipe the filling into the egg halves. Press one sliced olive into each egg half and arrange on a plate to look like pairs of angry eyes.

Yield: 6-12 servings

Brown Sugar Banana Cake

I'm not a fan of bananas. The flavor and texture are just unpleasant. That doesn't stop me from occasionally buying a bunch to snack on at school- darn them for being so healthy and portable- but they're definitely not my favorite fruit. A week or so ago my husband bought a bunch to take to work in the mornings but as of today, there was one lonely looking brown banana sitting on our counter. Usually I would feed it to my bunnies because they love bananas (one once got into my bag and ate an entire banana, peel and all), but the other day I ran across the Banana Snack Cake recipe at at the Tried-and-True Cooking with Heidi blog right here.

Backstory: Shortly after I graduated from high school I babysat a pair of adorable two year old twins and their mom made the only banana bread I've ever enjoyed. I've held out hope all these years that I might find another recipe like hers (she just threw some ingredients together so couldn't tell me what exactly she did) so decided to give Heidi's Banana Snack Cake a whirl. The verdict? Delicious, with a light banana flavor! Who would have thought that vegan banana bread was the best? I wholeheartedly look forward to having this for breakfast the next few days.

Of course I had to change the recipe a tad. First I added a wee bit of salt, then 1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring because I had some in the pantry and thought it might be good. You could probably leave it out if you don't have any. The original recipe calls to top the cake with powdered sugar after baking, but I don't really like the flavor of powdered sugar and it's messy. There WAS however a measly 1/4 cup of brown sugar left in the bag and I felt morally obligated to add some cinnamon (I love cinnamon) so I just mixed them up and sprinkled them on top of the cake before baking. The brown sugar melted and ended up tasting like the bottom of a cinnamon roll! So much better than banana bread baked in a loaf pan because you get a much higher ratio of topping to cake :oD


Brown Sugar Banana Cake

1 2/3 C flour
1 C packed brown sugar
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 small overripe banana
1/2 C water
1/3 C vegetable oil
1/2 t vanilla extract
1/2 t butter flavoring (optional)

Topping:
1/4 C packed brown sugar
1/4 t cinnamon

Grease an 8 by 8 pan and preheat the oven to 350. Stir together dry ingredients. Mash the banana with a fork in a small mixing bowl. Stir in water, oil and extracts. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Spread in prepared pan. Stir together remaining brown sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkle over batter. Bake 15 minutes, then cover with aluminum foil (shiny side up) to prevent the topping from burning. Bake about 10 more minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Note: The brown sugar topping will make the cake look uncooked so be sure to test it anyway! Serve warm or cooled.

Yield: 9 small squares

Green Tomato Salsa

Look, my first recipe to share! This year I grew a little container garden for the first time. Everything was planted in kiddie pools and I grew 4 kinds of lettuce, zucchini, peas, a couple herbs, and 4 kinds of tomatoes. Oh, those tomatoes! Everything did well except for them. It wasn't until after I planted all 8 plants that I learned tomatoes don't do well here because it's too cold. In spite of having a particularly chilly and wet summer, I did get about 15 delicious ripe tomatoes but that left me with a few bajillion green ones.

After making fried green tomatoes (good but only used up 2 of them) and rotini with green tomatoes and feta (very good tasty!), I was able to use up a few more of them in the Mexina Salsa Verde recipe from Allrecipes.com. The recipe needed a good amount of tweaking but we're happy with how it turned out. Definitely different than both regular salsa and salsa verde made with tomatillos, but still tasty and a great use for those millions of unripe 'maters! My version of the recipe makes a lot so we gave some away, ate some with chips, put some on taco pizza, and put the rest in the freezer for later. I'll probably make the rest of the tomatoes into green salsa too.

A few things to note: First of all, this recipe uses one of my favorite convenience products. Frozen diced onions! I hate chopping onions because the eyes on fire sensation really detracts from my enjoyment of cooking, so I buy the frozen ones most of the time. This salsa recipe uses an entire 12 oz bag. Also, you can either dice the tomatoes if you want chunky salsa or just chop them roughly if you want to put the salsa in the blender and get a smooth sauce (which is what I did this time around). You could also put the onions in after cooking the tomatoes if you want a stronger flavor. I guess you could try not cooking the green tomatoes at all but if you take a bite of a raw one, it makes your mouth feel really weird and dry which isn't something I want when I'm trying to enjoy salsa. Lastly, you could use lime juice instead of vinegar and I'm sure it would be delicious. My husband doesn't like too much citrus flavor in foods that aren't dessert so I only put in a little since I need him to help me eat the truckload of salsa I made.


Green Tomato Salsa

about 2 1/2 lbs green tomatoes, diced or chopped roughly
12 oz frozen diced onions (about 2 diced fresh onions)
1 C water
3 cloves minced garlic
2 T minced jarred jalapeno
1/2 bunch cilantro, stems removed
3 T lime juice
2 T white vinegar
2 t salt

Cook tomatoes, onions and water in a covered pot about 10 minutes or until tender. Let cool. Stir in remaining ingredients and pulse in blender until smooth or else leave chunky.

Yield: About 7 cups