Butternut Squash Mac&Cheese

Every year the students of the Culinary Science Club volunteer their time to help at the Beer, Wine, and Food Expo at HyVee Hall in Des Moines.  In return for our help we get a free glass for tasting all the  alcohol we want to try.  It is a wonderful thing.

Me and my friends: Lauren, Krissy, and Celia at the Expo

Krissy and I got to spend our time volunteering at the Local Stage, where Kristin, a food, exercise, and travel blogger from IowaGirlEats.com  was presenting about Butternut Squash Gnocchi and paired it with a beer sauce.  It was incredible.  If you scroll to the bottom of this post you can see Krissy and I looking sharp in our Chef coats in the background.  For the most part we just stood there being in awe and excitement about getting to be around a beloved blogger...and the gnocchi, but sometimes we helped pass out samples.

After this event I have been constantly on IowaGirlEats.com getting tons of inspiration from her recipes.  One that caught my eye was Butternut Squash Mac&Cheese.  I've made pumpkin Mac&Cheese before, but with canned pumpkin, this Mac&Cheese was made with a fresh squash and retained some of the texture in the final product.  Sounds Good!!

This is my version:

Check out that beautiful 9x13" pan!  I got it for my birthday from a good friend and it is changing my life!

Look at all those chunks of butternut squash!!  DELISH!!

Butternut Squash Mac&Cheese

3 cups milk (because I'm lactose intolerant I made this with unsweetened almond milk, but whatever milk you have on hand is fine)

2 cups diced onion (I LOVE onion, so I used 2 cups, I won't be offended if you use less, but even with 2 cups, the onion flavor by no means overpowers the squash and cheese)

5 cups finely chopped butternut squash (about a 1.5# squash, peeled and deseeded will yield 5 cups)

8 oz. whole wheat pasta (about 2/3 of a 13.25 oz. box), boiled in water for only 8 minutes

1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt (Lawry's)

1/2 teaspoon salt free seasoning (Mrs. Dash)

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon thyme leaves

2 Tablespoons flour

1/4 cup water

8 oz. shredded sharp cheddar

8 oz. shredded pepper jack

Preheat oven to 400F and grease a 9x13", pour pasta (that has been boiled for 8 minutes) into the pan.  

In a large saucepan, preferably nonstick, bring milk, onions, and butternut squash to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer for 10-15 minutes or until squash is tender.  Use a potato masher to break down squash as much as you want.  

In a small plastic container add seasoning salt, salt free seasoning, garlic powder, thyme, flour, and water.  Close lid tightly and shake container until no flour clumps remain.  Stream flour slurry into milk, stirring constantly.  Stir and simmer for 2-5 minutes more or until sauce is thickened.  Stir in 6 oz. of each cheese and mix until cheese is melted.  

Pour the sauce over the noodles in the pan and stir gently to combine.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes until bubbly and the cheese is starting to brown.

Beef Shoulder Tenders

My good friend Krissy had an internship with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association this past summer and learned all kinds of wonderful things about beef.  When school started up again this fall Krissy paired up with Nancy Degner, Executive Director of the Iowa Beef Industry Council, to make a presentation for the Culinary Science Club about Umami, the 5th basic taste: savory. They gave us samples  of beef with sauces such as red wine mushroom and a balsamic reduction, which are all fully of the savory, brothy, and meaty flavors that are Umami.  But this beef was like nothing I had had before.  It was tender and flavorful and not over cooked, it was utterly divine.  It was a shoulder tender, also know as a shoulder petite tender.

Shoulder tenders are from, quite obviously, the shoulder, or the chuck.   Cuts from the chuck are not known for their tenderness, and need low, slow cooking melt the collagen between all the individual muscles that make up a shoulder blade steak or pot roast. Well the shoulder tender is just one muscle, teres major, that has some marbling and no collagen, so it is as tender as a Filet Mignon, without being so expensive.  The shoulder tenders are usually 7-10 oz. a piece and cost 5.99-6.99/pound. This cut is relatively new on the market, because it takes a lot of skill and know how to extract the teres major from the other muscles in the chuck (I could name all these muscles, because I am currently in the class Foods of Animal Origins where we have to memorize almost all the muscles in all food animals, but I won't bore you with that).  I can only get shoulder tenders at Fareway, a grocery store with knowledgeable butchers.  So if you can't find them in the meat case at your grocery store just ask one of the friendly meat department staff and they can probably order you some.

After Krissy and Nancy introduced me to shoulder tenders I have been obsessed.  They are simple to prepare and positively delicious.  I couldn't wait for my brother to come home for Thanksgiving so I could make them for him.  And boy did he love it.

This is how I prepare shoulder tenders:

2 shoulder tenders (about 1.5#)
2 teaspoons Lawry's Seasoning Salt
1 teaspoon course ground black pepper
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 onions, sliced thin

Preheat oven to 450F.  Liberally season all sides of shoulder tenders with seasoning salt and pepper. Melt butter in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat, add oil.  Place shoulder tenders in skillet and turn heat up to high.  Sear tenders on all sides, until dark golden brown, about 3-5 minutes.  Place skillet in oven and cook for 10-20 minutes depending on how done you want the tenders.  When desired doneness is reached (at least 145F) remove from the oven and place tenders on a cutting board and tent with foil (while they are resting the temp will rise ~5 degrees, just keep that in mind).   Add the onions to the skillet (don't drain the skillet!) and cook, stirring often, until onions are softened and browned, about 10 minutes.  When the onions are done, slice the tenders 1/2" thick and serve with onions.

Baked potato and homemade Apple Nut Rolls: optional.  Impressing whomever you make shoulder tenders for: inevitable.

Apple Nut Rolls

I love the holidays because I get to spend all day in the kitchen using pounds of butter and no one can give me the stink eye about it, because cooking with Paula Deen amounts of butter is what you're supposed to do during the holidays.

Apple Nut Rolls are my mom's go to yeast roll recipe, and for good reason, they are fabulous. She got the recipe from her college roommate's mother, Mrs. Zorn, who made them all the time, much to the delight of her family and friends.

For Thanksgiving tomorrow my family is heading to my Grandparents' in Ames, and my grandma put me in charge of the cranberry sauce, rolls, and a pie.  I was going to make a pie with tofu in it, but Fareway didn't have any tofu and I wasn't going to make a trip to HyVee just for tofu, so I ended up making a peanut butter pie with cream cheese instead.  Although Iowa is the leading producer of soybeans, we sure don't seem to be very hip on tofu. Bummer.

If you know me at all, you know I don't like to follow recipes...they are merely for inspiration.  So when making the rolls today I just made it up: some milk, yeast, sugar, salt, and flour.  Well I used too much whole wheat flour, evidenced by the picture below.  The rolls barely rose at all.  Bah humbug.  They still taste good (probably due to the inordinate amount of butter I brushed on them before baking) so I'll bring them to Thanksgiving tomorrow anyway, but I wanted my family to have quality rolls too, so I begrudgingly went to my mom's recipe box and pulled out the recipe for Apple Nut Rolls.

Mrs. Zorn's rolls always come out a little crusty on the outside and fluffy on the inside.  Applesauce gives them the perfect sweetness and walnuts add an interesting crunch, not to mention how beautiful they are, as evidenced by the picture below.

Apple Nut Rolls

by Mrs. Zorn

1 packet (2.25 teaspoons) rapid rise yeast

3/4 cup milk, scalded

1/4 cup water

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup melted butter

1 egg

1.5 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

4-5 cups flour

Whisk together yeast, milk, water, applesauce, sugar, butter, egg, and salt.  Stir in walnuts and flour by the cupful until a dough forms.  Pour onto your clean counter and knead in remaining flour until dough is firm and no longer stiff (knead at least 10 minutes).  Let rise in a greased bowl, covered with a tea towel until doubled in size, about an hour.

Punch down dough, and form into 20 rolls, place in a greased pan, cover with tea towel and let raise for 30 minutes more.  Bake at 375F for 20-30 minutes until golden brown on top.

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dip

The theme at the last Culinary Science Club meeting was peanut butter.  I wanted to bring something with peanut butter, but also pumpkin because it had just started to feel like fall.  So this is what I came up with.

1 cup peanut butter, melted

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1 (8 oz.) tub whipped topping, thawed

Whisk together peanut butter, pumpkin, spice, vanilla, and sugar.  Fold in whipped topping.  Refrigerate for at least an hour.  

I served this dip with gingersnap cookies.  This would also make a awesome mousse for filling a pumpkin jelly roll cake, or a trifle.

Butternut Squash Soup

 I love fall; how cool breezes blow through the trees as their leaves change from green to gold, how all the farmer's markets are brimming with squashes, and how my birthday is right in the midst of fall. :)

This recipe was inspired by a beautiful butternut squash I got from Table Top Farm
at the Ames Mainstreet Farmers Market.

1 butternut squash (about 2-3 pounds)
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 large apple, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 Tablespoon butter
½ teaspoon lawrys seasoning salt
1 teaspoon thyme leaves
½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 cups red wine ( I like the flavor of red wine better than white, but the red wine makes the soup a duller orange color, so if that is an issue for you, use white wine)
1 can coconut milk
1 cup vegetable broth

Preheat oven to 400F. Slice butternut squash in half lengthwise, and remove seeds. Use the teaspoon of oil to coat the flesh of the squash. Place squash on a baking sheet flesh side up and roast for 25-30 minutes or until tender.

Meanwhile saute onion, apple, butter, seasoning salt, thyme, and pumpkin pie spice in stock pot until onion and apple are golden brown. Add to food processor and puree til smooth, add back to stock pot. Add wine to puree and simmer until reduced by half.

When the squash is done: scoop flesh of squash into a food processor and puree until smooth.

Add coconut milk, vegetable broth, and pureed squash. Bring to a simmer for at least 5 minutes.

If you would like the soup thinner just add more wine or broth. If you have a hand blender eliminate the food processor steps and just puree the soup after all the ingredients are in the pot.

Breakfast Thumbprint Cookies

This semester I am in a class called Ingredient Interactions.  Throughout the lectures and labs we're looking at the affect different foods and compounds have in a recipe.

For lab this week we explored substitutions in muffins: applesauce for oil, soy flour for the egg, oat flour for the all-purpose flour, and Equal for the sugar.

Whether we make substitutions to make a recipe healthier, to avoid an allergen, or just for fun; these changes have affects on the success of the recipe.  The oat flour muffins were crumbly because the oats have no gluten, the applesauce muffins browned a little more because they had more sugar from the applesauce.

I had so much fun trying the muffins and discussing the differences with my classmates and professors.  I look forward to what I'm going to learn throughout the semester!

Today I set out to make Blueberry Cereal Bars.  Of course that's not what I ended up with.  Along the way I add a little of this, a little of that until  I have something completely different, but wonderful: Breakfast Thumbprint Cookies.  These cookies are  perfect with a cup of coffee for breakfast or an afternoon snack.  The cookie is tender and not overly sweet, it is well-balanced by the refreshing cherry blueberry compote accented with just a hint of orange zest.

Breakfast Thumbprint Cookies

based on Wonderland Kitchen's Blueberry Cereal Bars

Cookie Dough

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1 cup flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

6 tablespoons cold butter, cubed

3/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon almond extract

Compote

1/2 cup dried tart cherries

1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

1/3 cup apricot preserves

1/3 cup water

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

Preheat oven to 375F.  For the cookie dough: add oats to food processor and pulse until oats are coarsely ground.  Remove half the oats and save for later.  Add the flours, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder to the oats in the food processor and pulse until well mixed.  Add butter and pulse until mixture looks like cornmeal.  Pour in milk, vanilla, and almond extract and pulse until a dough ball forms.  Refrigerate dough for 15-20 minutes.

For the compote: add all ingredients to a small saucepan, bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes or until compote liquid is syrupy.  Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.  Add compote to a blender and puree.  

To assemble:  Form dough, by heaping tablespoons, into balls and roll in reserved ground oats.  Place balls on a greased or lined cookie sheet and press the center of the cookie down with your thumb or the top of a wooden spoon.  Fill the indentation with 1/4 teaspoon of the compote.  Bake on 375F for 12-15 minutes or until edges are golden brown. 

Extra compote is wonderful stirred into a bowl of oatmeal or plain yogurt, for dipping with cinnamon sugar pita chips, or on a piece of buttered toast.

Pecan Pie Brownies

This weekend we had some family friends over and I had a lot of fun planning the menu. 

I marinated pork chops with orange juice and some mesquite seasoning, chicken in a soy sauce and garlic marinade, mashed sweet potatoes with french onion sour cream dip, and made pesto swirl rolls  (the website is in Turkish, so I just took inspiration from the photos).  But the highlight of the evening was Pecan Pie Brownies.

How can you go wrong with pecan pie on top of brownies?  You can't.  Rich chocolate brownies topped with crunchy caramel coated pecans was the perfect ending to a fun filled evening with great friends.

The recipe comes from Dinners with Julie and I made relatively no changes, so I won't copy the recipe here. Instead of baking them in square pans, I did mine in a 9" pie plate.  2 cups of pecans seemed excessive, so I only used 1. 

Pecan pie brownies is a genius recipe and I will definitely be making them again, even without the pecan pie part the base is a simple and superb chocolate brownie recipe I'll keep close at hand.

Oh Pinterest

I really love pinterest.  People share their ideas on parenting, teaching, decorating, cooking, and getting in shape.  There are so many encouraging quotes and beautiful pictures.  I can swear I'll only spend 5 minutes on the site and then get lost in pinterest only to surface an hour later. Uff da.

There are currently a million and one pins about pull-apart bread.  I have not actually clicked through to any links to see the recipes, but I thought the pictures looked cool, so I created my own pull-apart caramel bread.

I made a simple whole wheat bread dough, let it proof once, punched it down, and rolled it out.  Then cut it into rectangles, dipped them in cinnamon sugar, and placed them in a greased pan (that I had already poured melted butter and brownsugar into), let them proof again and baked until golden brown.

Then I flipped them out and we pulled the bread apart, one layer at a time, and enoyed it immensely.  YUM. 

There are so many fun crafts on pinterest, it's almost impossible to walk away uninspired.  None of my projects here are directly based on one single project on pinterest, I've taken ideas from different crafts and made them my own.  If you're ever in a crafting rut, or need help to solve a problem: pinterest is there.  Have I mentioned how much I love pinterest?!?

For this one I cut out magazine pictures to make a flower and used a flour/water paste to adhere them to the canvas.  The flour doesn't dry clear, so the colors are muted and it leaves texture on the canvas.  I cut out a circle of newspaper and covered the flower then sprayed the canvas lightly with blue spray paint.

For this one I used tape to leave some areas of the canvas white and then painted with acrylics.  I removed the tape, let it dry then wrote on it with sharpie.

The base coat on this canvas is blue, silver, and white paint partially mixed on the canvas.  I let that dry and cut flowers out of cardstock and then taped them to the painted canvas.  Lastly I sprayed it with blue spray paint, removed the cardstock and let it dry.

I think I'll hang these 3 paintings with the melted crayon on canvas in my apartment this fall, that is if my roommates like them too.

Sermon for Sunday July 22nd

This summer at Lutheran Campus Ministry we are meeing on Wednesday nights to worship.  I signed up to preach this week, so this is the sermon I did on Wednesday using the alternate readings from the lectionary.  This weekend is my family reunion and our reunions always end with a worship service on Sunday, so I'll be preaching this sermon on Sunday too.

As Nadia Bolz-Weber says "Sermons are spoken art form," so I hope you enjoy this, but I'm sure it is better in person.

Readings for Sunday July 22, 2012 : Ruth 1:6-18, Exodus 2:1-10, John 20:1-2, 11-18

Many of you know that I work at Riverside; it’s a Bible camp just outside my hometown of Story City about 25 minutes North of Ames.  I’ve worked in the kitchen at Riverside for about 7 years and before that I was a camper there.  One of the most special things about Riverside is the mime.  Now I’m not talking about a “guy in a white and black striped shirt, red scarf, and beret pretending to be stuck in a box” kind of mime. The mime at Riverside tells the story of Jesus without words.  A different set of camp counselors practice the mime each week and perform it every Thursday night. They wear colorful face paint and clothes to correspond to the character they are playing—the God/Jesus character has white paint, Satan has dark paint.  There are many other actors that take on additional roles, from demons to disciples; and their faces are usually mixtures of colors varying in darkness depending whether their character is more good or evil.  There is also one character with no face paint and wears regular clothes, this character is known as “humanity.”  This person connects the viewer to the story; they are us and show how God had each of us in mind when God created the world.  So the mime usually starts with creation and then the entrance of evil in the story of Adam and Eve, God coming to earth in Jesus and then Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

I’ve probably seen the mime a hundred times, but there is always something different that sticks out to me each time I see it.  It’s basically the same story every time, but my heart is in a different place each Thursday I’ve witnessed the mime. 

One of my favorite mime moments was a few years ago when my friend Red, a charasmatic and joyful woman, was playing Mary Magdalene in the scene from our gospel reading from today. When I’ve read this gospel lesson or heard it in worship my first thought has usually been “Oh silly Mary—that’s Jesus not the gardener!!,” because I get to see the story from the viewpoint of the narrator.  It wasn’t until Red played Mary that I saw the panic and concern that Mary Magdalene must have felt in that moment.  How all her hopes and dreams died when her Lord was crucified and if that were not enough: it appeared someone had stolen his lifeless body.  She was desperate to find the body of Jesus and bring some order to the terrifying situation that all who had loved and hoped in Jesus faced.  She was blinded by her fear and panic and didn’t even see that what she was looking for was right in front of her.  When Red played Mary it was a revelation for me to see the countenance of her face change from utter defeat to complete joy as she came to the realization that this guy was not the gardener but her beloved Jesus.  Her immediate response was to run to him with open arms and embrace him—to feel the life in the one that she thought was lost forever.  Jesus then commissions her to go and tell the others about his resurrection and she obeys running faster than she’s ever run to share the best news she’s ever heard.

How often do we face situations of panic and fear and run to all kinds of things in our lives other than Jesus?  Psalm 73, verses 23-26 says: Yet I am always with you;
    you hold me by my right hand.  You guide me with your counsel, 
    and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? 
    And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, 
    but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

This psalm describes how God is right here with us, now and always—holding our hand, and sustaining us when everything else fails.  But then why do we feel alone sometimes?  Why when the darkness seems to surround us do we not always feel the reassuring hand of our Savior?  All of our readings point to the fact that God is there.   Sometimes, like Mary we are too blinded by our circumstances to see Jesus.  We reach out to other things and people to sustain us when Jesus is right there.  In our first reading from Ruth, Naomi is done: her husband and sons are dead and she just wants to go home, she is bitter, mad, and heartbroken.  Her daughter-in-law, Ruth, decides to follow Naomi and identify herself with Naomi in every way.  All Naomi wants is to move past the loss of her family and go home. Ruth coming with her is just another mouth to feed and a reminder of her suffering.  God is there through all of this and even though Naomi can’t see it at first, God goes on to do immeasurable good through Ruth, even bringing her into the lineage of Christ.

And the story of Moses, what a great example of God’s presence in a time of despair.  The Pharaoh of Egypt saw how numerous the Hebrew people were and worried about them gaining power so he oppressed the people with slave labor and instructed all the midwives to kill the Hebrew baby boys as soon as they were born.  The midwives did not follow the orders and the Hebrew people continued to increase, but families still feared for their sons’ lives.  When Moses was born his mother did her best to protect him, but after 3 months she couldn’t do it anymore so she sent him down the river in a basket. I’m sure his mother and most of the marinalized Hebrew people wondered where God was at this time.

            Somehow that basket that Moses was in ended up on the bank of the Nile where the daughter of Pharaoh just happened to be bathing.  Pharaoh’s daughter accepts this child from a basket into her family, and little does she know he will change the course of history for the Hebrew people.  No wonder this bible story was made into the film The Prince of Egypt.  This is a tale that we can get emotionally involved in, a hero arises from the direst of circumstances to lead his people to freedom.   Now the real story is not that triumphant.  Moses is not always willing to risk it all to be the hero and needed lots of encouragement from God to get the Hebrews out from under the oppressive rule of the Pharaoh. 

            I do not claim to be any expert in suffering.  I have lived a relatively pain-free life thus far, but even in my smallest struggles; looking back I can see the hand of God.  I think Naomi’s anger at God for all the tragedy she’s faced makes her more real.  Moses’s struggles to follow God’s call are relatable, and Mary Magdalene’s blindness to her savior’s presence rings true with my life.  The Bible is full of stories of real people who sometimes struggle to trust God when things get rough.  But just because we can’t see God in our current situation doesn’t mean God isn’t there. We may not see the good God will bring immediately or necessarily ever understand our circumstances.   But when we do see God may we run to him with open arms like Mary and rest in God’s presence.

Key Lime Pie

On Sunday my brother, John, turned 20.  He's not longer my little annoying brother who had to be coerced to take a shower every day.  He's 6'4" now, we have fun working together at Riverside, and he no longer needs encouragement to fulfill a personal hygiene routine.

For his birthday the best gift I could give him was a good meal.  My dad grilled some beautiful T-bone steaks, my grandparents brought sweet corn and I made a gratin with Gruyere, apple coleslaw, and key lime pie.

Melissa and I made this pie while she was visiting, and it worked out really well.  I just slightly changed this recipe from The Pioneer Woman, one of my favorite bloggers.   Ree says she likes lots of crust to contrast the super sweet filling, but from her pictures it looks like too much crust to me, so I cut down on the graham crackers.  I think salted caramel whipped cream makes everything better, so I added a lot of it to this pie.The hint of saltiness in the smooth whipped cream balances out the zesty sweet filling and the crunch of the crust pulls it all together,  This pie is a winner!

Yes, there is a lot of whipped cream.
This is a celebration pie, not a diet pie.

 Key Lime Pie

9 whole graham crackers
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 tablespoons lime zest
1/2 cup lime juice
2 egg yolks
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons caramel syrup
1 pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a food processor pulse graham crackers until they are fine crumbs, add sugar and butter, pulse until evenly mixed.  Press into a 9 inch pie pan.

Whisk together zest, juice, yolks, milk, and vanilla until smooth, pour into crust.  Bake for 20 minutes or until solid.  Cool to room temp, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Whip together cream, syrup, and salt until soft peaks form. spread over pie, cut into 8 pieces and serve.

Tangy Apple Coleslaw

Coleslaw is one of my favorite side dishes.  I love the crunch of the cabbage and veggies and the tang from the vinegar.  The best coleslaw, in my opinion, is served at St. Petri's Turkey Supper every fall.  The sauce for this coleslaw is made by boiling vinegar and dissolving jello in it. Yes, jello!  It gives the dish a bright sweetness that helps cut the richness of the turkey and other traditional thanksgiving foods at the Turkey Supper.

I took inspiration from the Turkey Supper coleslaw by using the jello in the sauce.  I wanted it to be creamy, but mayo grosses me out, so I used plain yogurt.  Then for a change of pace I added apples which bring a similar crunch to cabbage, but with an additional sweetness.

This weekend my good friend Melissa (http://www.triedinblue.blogspot.com - check her blog out!) came down to visit.  It was so good to see her and get to catch up.  We cooked up a storm: pea burgers with apple chutney ( http://www.vegalicious.org/2012/07/09/pea-burgers-with-apple-chutney/) which were fabulous, the flavor of the peas shine through and the apple chutney is a perfect compliment.  Raspberry Frozen Yogurt:  ( http://espressoandcream.com/2012/07/healthy-raspberry-frozen-yogurt.html )  a positively wonderful recipe and a quick, easy and satisfying treat.  We also made this coleslaw and a key lime pie I'll post about tomorrow.



I am not a good photographer, my apologies.

Tangy Apple Coleslaw

1 (3 oz.) pkg lemon jello
1/3 cup vinegar
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 (16 oz.) bag coleslaw
1 large green pepper, thinly sliced (about 1 1/4 cups)
1/2 large red onion, thinly sliced (about 1 1/4 cups)
2 apples: peeled, cored and julienned (about 2 cups)

In a small saucepan bring vinegar to a boil.  Turn off heat and whisk in jello until dissolved, let cool to room temperature.  Whisk in yogurt, paprika, pepper, salt, and onion powder.  Stir sauce into coleslaw, green pepper, onion, and apple. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Crayon on Canvas

This week Hobby lobby had 2 16x20" canvases on sale for $7.99.  Wahoo!  So I stocked up.  I have a lot of crafts pinned on pinterest that I've been meaning to try for sometime.  One of them is crayon art.  I don't like the look of the crayons glued to the canvas, but I found this other method that looked neat: http://jennaleighbrown.blogspot.com/2011/09/diy-wall-art-melted-crayons-on-canvas.html

It was super simple:

1. unwrap crayons, set canvas on newspaper, get a fork, and a hair dryer or heat gun

2. Use the fork to hold the crayon (or chunk of a crayon, depending on how much color you want) on the canvas where you want the color to be. Turn the hair dryer on high and aim at the crayon.

3. Let it melt for in place for 15 seconds or so to get a good puddle of melted crayon, move crayon around to get desired shape.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have all the color you want.

I tried to leave some areas very thick with wax and others thin to see the white through it.  The hot air from the hair dryer created some pretty cool waves of color and does an awesome job of mixing colors.

This was a super fun and simple project.  I did it in two 20 minute sittings so as to not over heat the hair dryer.  There were no brushes to clean up afterward:  I just threw away the newspaper, put away the hairdryer and scrubbed the fork clean. 

In this photo you can see the texture a little more clearly.

Chocolate Coffee Toffee Cookies

My hometown recently got a coffee shop.  It is small and located inside an repurposed drive through bank location near the interstate.  I had a superb latte there a few days ago. While there they had samples of coffeebark: toffee dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with coffee beans.  It was fabulous. I've been thinking about it ever since, so I stopped in today and picked up my own bag.

The second line reads: a stimulating union of coffee, toffee, and chocolate.

This coffee bark is really fabulous.  The buttery toffee crunch, melty smooth chocolate and the bitter and rich smell and taste of coffee combine perfectly into this tiny treat.

It kinda looks like potting soil was sprinkled on top.  Let me assure you it is coffee grounds

Each layer works together perfectly.

Instead of inhaling these goodies in one sitting I decided to make cookies with them.

Chocolate Coffee Toffee Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup wheat bran
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped coffeebark

Pre heat oven to 350F. Mix butter and sugars on high until fluffy, reduce speed to medium and add eggs and vanilla: mix until fluffy again (at least 1 minute). Stir in remaining ingredients.  Scoop by tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.  Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to cooling rack.

Yield: 5 dozen cookies

Note:  If you're not interested in using whole wheat flour and wheat bran just use IN TOTAL 2.5 cups flour.

Note 2:  If coffeebark is not available in your area use 1 cup milk chocolate covered toffee bits + 1 tablespoon finely ground coffee beans.

Coconut Pudding

Pinterest, foodgawker.com, and the general bloggersphere are blowing up with red, white, and blue ideas for 4th of July parties. I think it is fun to make a dish that goes along with a theme but some of these ideas are WAY to labor intensive for my taste.

I will not be making a cake with dyed layers to make each slice look like an American Flag. 

I won't be dying bread crumbs blue and red to make fancy colored stars on a dip. 

I won't be arranging strawberries and blueberries on a cheese cake to look like the flag.

For those of you who love that kind of stuff: go for it, more power to ya!  I'm just not that person.

What I am willing to do is make a coconut pudding and sprinkle blueberries and strawberries (in no particular pattern) on top.  It is a delicious, cool, and refreshing snack or end to a 4th of July cook-off.  This pudding isn't too thick, so it would be great spooned over angel food cake.  The coconut flavor comes through really well so it would also be delicious stirred into a tropical fruit salad and sprinkled with toasted coconut.

This is my kind of red,white, and blue dessert.

Coconut Pudding

1(13.5 or 14 oz.) can coconut milk 

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

In a small heavy bottomed sauce pan whisk together milk, sugar, and cornstarch.  Turn heat to medium high and whisk constantly til thickened, about 5 minutes.  It will not look as thick as traditional instant pudding, it will be similar in consistancy to yogurt and will thicken more a little more when cooled.  Stir in the extracts, cool to room temp and refrigerate.

Top with strawberries and blueberries or whatever floats your boat: toasted pecans and coconut, granola, mandarin oranges and pineapple, or crushed shortbread cookies and apricot preserves. 



Books I read on vacation

Drop Dead Healthy by AJ Jacobs:  AJ goes on a quest to become healthier so he can be a better dad and be here for his kids longer.  Each chapter is devoted to a different part of the body.  AJ wades through the health mumbo-jumbo on the internet and seeks help from medical professionals.  He tries plenty of  wacky activities and therapies but also many sensible ones.  Somethings he tries once and others he plans to stick to for a long time.  AJ is humorous while still being serious about his health.  It was a great read.

The Shack by William P. Young:  I have been told to read this book over and over, so I finally succumbed to reading it.  It is an incredibly painful book, I cried a lot.  The story focuses on a family whose daughter is kidnapped and brutally murdered.  The father struggles to figure out how God could let this happen and eventually he gets an invitation from God to spend the weekend at the shack where his daughter was killed.  God turns out to be a large African woman, Jesus a plain Middle-Eastern man, and the Holy Spirit a fast-moving Asian woman.  While kinda crazy and not very well written this book is very thought-provoking and attempts to answer the questions: Where is God when bad things happen? & Why does God let bad things happen?  I'm glad I read it.

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin:  This is one of my favorite books from early middle school.  I got it from Scholastic in 5th grade when they did their yearly book giveaway.  It is a great mystery of families in an apartment building being thrown together by a crafty old man to play a game of intrigue.  I reread this book every few years because it is just that good.

The Pinballs by Betsy Byars:  This is another easy reader book.  I read it in a hour and a half.   This book tells the story of 3 kids brought into foster care because of bad home situations.  When I was in elementary school this book taught me that not everyone has parents who meet their needs and a lot of their dreams.  I realized how blest I was because of this book.  It is another one that I like to reread.

One Day by David Nicholls:  While on vacation I ran out of books to read for our long journey home, so I ran into a store one day and just randomly grabbed this book.  Apparently it was made into a movie with Anne Hathaway, I guess I'll have to check that movie out sometime.  Anyway One Day is a bittersweet story of  Dex and Em who meet at the end of college and stay in touch for the rest of their lives.  The story opens on July 15th 1988 and each chapter is that same day the next year.  Their story is a lot more bitter than sweet.  Dex becomes an alcoholic, gets into drugs, and sleeps with random women like it is his job.  Em struggles to find her passion and ends up in dead end jobs like fast food for a long time.  It's well written but an overall very sad story, with a few very bright moments.

Cinnamon Raisen Beer Bread

Do you remember when Tastefully Simple Beer Bread was all the rage?  You just had to add a beer to it, mix it up and bake til golden.  Oh yum.  My mom ordered it a few times, but it was really expensive so she found a way to make beer bread from scratch:

3 cups self-rising flour  ( make your own self-rising flour: 1 cup AP flour, 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder & 1/4 teaspoon salt )
3 tablespoons sugar
1 (12 oz.) beer or carbonated beverage

Mix til moistened and pour into a greased 8" bread pan.  Bake on 350F for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown.

This beer bread is perfect with soup for supper and great toasted with butter and jam for breakfast the next day.  Even though it is a quick bread it smells and tastes a bit like yeast bread from the beer.

Yesterday I woke up to the most amazing smell coming out of our oven.  My mom had made a new version of her traditional beer bread: Cinnamon Raisen Beer Bread.  It smelled and tasted kind of like cinnamon rolls.  YUM.

Instead of beer my mom used Angry Orchard Apple Ginger Hard Cider and added cinnamon and raisens to the original mix.

Cinnamon Raisen Beer Bread

2 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 ginger hard cider

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup raisens

3 tablespoons butter, cut into thin slices

Preheat oven to 350F and grease an 8" bread pan. In a bowl stir, flours, cider, sugar cinnamon, and raisens together  until moistened. Pour into prepared pan.  Place butter evenly over dough.  Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden brown around the edges.



Smore's Bars

I love smore's.  There is something about the crunch of the graham cracker, meltiness and richness of the chocolate and the pure sugar sweetness of a golden brown marshmallow that just says summer.

But I have 2 issues with smore's:

1. I do not have enough patience to hold a marshmallow over the embers of a campfire and slowly roast a marshmallow to perfection.  I burn it every time.

2. My hands are always sticky after eating a smore, there is no way to avoid it, then I'm sitting around the campfire for another few hours with sticky hands.  Gross.

So I decided to make smore's bars in the oven.  No mess, no fuss.  My pinterest feed has been blowing up with smore's bars for the last few weeks, so I could hardly resist making my own version of smore's baked in an oven and served on a plate with a fork.

My version has dry roasted peanuts layered inside the bars, because this recipe needs something to cut the sweetness of the chocolate and marshmallow, they also add a great crunch. 

Smore's Bars

9 whole graham crackers (1 bag of the 3 bags that come in a box)

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 (7 oz.) tub marshmallow cream
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup dry roasted peanuts

Preheat oven to 350F and spray an 8x8" pan with cooking spray.  To a food processor add the graham crackers and pulse until you get fine crumbs.  Add butter, applesauce and vanilla, pulse until combined.  Press 2/3 of the crumb mixture in the bottom of the pan. 

Uncover tub of marshmallow cream and microwave for 20 seconds or until spreadable: cover crust with marshmallow cream.  Sprinkle evenly with chocolate chips and peanuts.  Sprinkle on remaining crumbs.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until marshmallow cream around the edges is puffed and just starting to brown.

Summer Reading 2012

The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins:  Wow, this series was intense.  I really couldn’t believe how much evil there was them, and how much the evil won.  This series is full of death for death’s sake and it made me really sad.  I really think that anyone 13 and under should be reading this and discussing it with their parents.  There is so much trauma, pain, suffering, huge moral dilemmas, and sacrifice that is way more than a young adult can handle alone.  This book is really quite scary, not just warfare-scary, but there-is-no-one-whom-I-can-trust-scary.  While I think this series is quite adult in theme, I am still glad I read it.  It really made me think about how the government works and what loyalty and family really mean.

Peter Pan by JM Barrie:  I thought this was going to be very similar to the Disney movie or even like the movie Hook, but man was it not.  Well I guess the story was mostly the same, but it was written  in England at the turn of the 20^th century so the language was confusing as well as some cultural aspects which I didn't understand.  It is a short read, but I think I’d rather watch the movies than reread it.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathon Safran Foer:  More like Extremely Heart-Breaking and Incredibly Poignant.  I really liked this book.  It tells the story of a peculiar 12 year old boy who lost his dad in 9/11 and how he goes on an epic adventure to try and reconnect with his dad.  Letters throughout the book tell the story of his paternal grandparents and how his father came to be.  There is an amazing amount of truth in this book, every character, especially the boy, has a whole lot of wisdom to share.

Spinach Stuffing Rounds with Cranberry Orange Sauce

This is another recipe that I developed for The Soyfoods Council.  It is based on a recipe for Spinach Balls from the family I stayed with last summer. I really enjoyed it and while developing recipes using Textured Soy Protein I thought of the Spinach Ball recipe and decided to modify it and add a sauce to it.  

Spinach Stuffing Rounds with Cranberry Orange Sauce

Serves 6

Thanksgiving feasts only happen once a year, but the flavors of Thanksgiving can be enjoyed all year long in Spinach Stuffing Rounds with Cranberry Orange Sauce.  Store bought stuffing mix, combined with TSP and spinach are baked to create a crispy exterior, while the inside is moist; just like stuffing.  The Cranberry Orange Sauce brightens up the Stuffing Rounds with tart cranberries and sweet orange marmalade, making a delicious and easy no-fuss meal.  This recipe has plenty of protein to be a main dish but it also works great as a side dish or appetizer, just form the rounds smaller.

 Stuffing Rounds

1 cup milk

¼ cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

2 eggs

1 cup TSP

1 (6 oz.) box stuffing mix

1 (10 oz.) box frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

Sauce

½ cup orange marmalade

1 (14 oz.) can whole berry cranberry sauce

1/3 cup vinegar

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a baking sheet with cooking spray.  In a large bowl a combine milk, butter, garlic and onion powders, Italian seasoning, and eggs, whisk until smooth.  Add TSP, stuffing mix, and spinach, stir until evenly distributed.  Form into 2 inch rounds, pressing each round together firmly, and place at least ½” apart on prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned on the edges.

Meanwhile in a small sauce pan over medium high heat; add all sauce ingredients, whisking often until cranberry sauce is melted.   Reduce heat to low and simmer until rounds are baked.

Serve sauce over rounds.

Yield: 6 servings (12 rounds total)

Calories:  440, Total fat:10g, Saturated Fat:5 g, Cholesterol:  90mg, Sodium: 610mg, Carbohydrates:73 g, Dietary Fiber:  6g. Sugar: 39g, Protein:  17g

Peachy Pork Chops

This summer I am living at home, commuting to ISU for the first part of the summer for my internship and working at Riverside for the rest of the summer.  It is really good to be at home.  I adore my family and getting to spend time with friends from Story City.  

I also love gettting to cook for my family.  Last week I had a lot of stuff going on in the evenings preventing me from cooking supper.  So I'm making good use of the slow-cooker and have made some really yummy meals from it this week.

After low and slow cooking for 9 hours these pork chops are tender and the peach onion sauce is really great over rice.  Your house will smell fabulous too, which is always nice.

Peachy Pork Chops

1/3 cup peach preserves
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 packet french onion soup mix
1 (16 oz.) bag frozen peaches
1 large onion, sliced
4 pork chops

Whisk together preserves, vinegar, water, and soup mix.  Layer peaches, onions, and chops in a greased 4 or 6 quart slow cooker.  Pour sauce over the top.  Cook on high for 3 hours, then low for 6.

Buffalo Chicken Sloppy Joes with Blue Cheese Slaw

Last summer, while working at the Pillsbury Bake-Off, my eyes were opened to the wonder of the flavors of buffalo chicken through this recipe: http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/kickin-chicken-sandwiches-with-cucumber-topping/517b0b17-3eb8-4f59-9d3e-bdd9b5618c85/  Holy yum.  I've been mildly obsessed with buffalo sauce since then. 

At my internship I am given the freedom to develop any recipe using TSP, so I decided to do something with buffalo sauce:


Buffalo Chicken Sloppy Joes with Blue Cheese Slaw

Buffalo chicken wings are a football game favorite especially if they’re served with carrots, celery and blue cheese dressing.  Buffalo Chicken Sloppy Joes with Blue Cheese Slaw combines all the flavors of the buffalo chicken wing experience into one sandwich.  TSP, ground chicken, and cayenne pepper sauce blend to make a mouthwatering base for the sandwich.  The slaw, filled with crumbles of blue cheese, cools down the spice of the sloppy joe while adding an awesome crunch to the sandwich.  All this piled on a hearty toasted whole wheat bun and dinner is served for game day or any day.   Using half TSP, half chicken in this recipe rather than a whole pound of ground chicken saves you $1.79 every time you make this recipe

8 whole wheat hamburger buns, toasted

Blue Cheese Slaw

½ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup white vinegar

1 teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

½ teaspoon salt

1, 16 oz. bag traditional coleslaw mix

4 oz. blue cheese, crumbled

Sloppy Joe

1 cup TSP

1 cup hot water

1/3 cup butter, divided

2 cloves garlic, minced

¾ cup diced onion

½ pound ground chicken

½ cup cayenne pepper sauce

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

¼ cup water

¼ cup ketchup

In a large bowl whisk together mayonnaise, sugar, vinegar, onion powder, black pepper, and salt.  Stir in coleslaw mix and blue cheese. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

In a small bowl add hot water to TSP and let sit for 1 minute.  Add 1 tablespoon of the butter to a large nonstick skillet and melt over medium heat, add garlic and onions and cook until onions are translucent, 2-3 minutes. Add chicken to TSP, mix well, and add to skillet, use a wooden spoon to crumble the chicken/TSP, cook until chicken is heated through, about 5 minutes.  Add remaining butter, cayenne pepper sauce, Worcestershire sauce, water and ketchup; cook 2-3 minutes more until sauce has thickened slightly.

To assemble scoop about 1/3 cup of the Sloppy Joe meat on the bottom half of a bun, add 1/3 cup slaw and cover with top half of the bun.