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Recipe Thread #2
Teresa wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "K, so, when my mom died I inherited both her recipes and the task of putting them into some usable format for my siblings. We tried one of them this weekend and it's both simple a..."Great idea because I'm one of those people who gets shaky if I don't have protein with breakfast, so if I want coffee cake I also eat eggs and wind up with twice as many calories as I really want. This idea would make that unnecessary!!
Jennifer, I will give a pointer or put it this way, a tip. ANY Recipe that ask for Sour Cream you can exchange Plain Greek Yogurt for it. It has GREAT taste, saves you fat grams, calories, but it adds Protein, something we all need. I hope this is helpful. If you or anybody else has a question about recipes ask me, please. I do a LOT of cooking and I MIGHT have the answer.
Jennifer, that recipe sounds wonderful! I've been working on a recipe for strawberry muffins but may abandon that for the coffee cake. Funny that i never thought of that. I suppose i thought the strawberries would weigh the cake down. THANK YOU!And, before i forget, i salute you & your family for wanting to create a cookbook of your mother's recipes. My family would like such a compilation of recipes for both my grandmothers, as well as our mother. Yet, no one can find anything, mostly because they cooked from the recipes in their brains. DH has an aunt who compiled her recipes for the family a few years before she died. And my MIL used recipes, passing the best on to me. Most of those, however, are of more recent addition to her repertoire, as she entertained more often.
Teresa, i'm with you. For years now i usually substitute yogurt for sour cream &/or buttermilk. Now with the protein Greek yogurt, i feel even better about it. I mix my GY with parmesan & pepper for baked 'taters. Thus far, i haven't had any problems or differences in texture.
deborah
Has anyone ever had peppadews? http://www.amazon.com/Peppadew-Pepper...I think they are tasty and delicious. I make them as an appetizer by putting a small scoop of boursin or cream cheese in each pepper OR chopping the peppadews and mixing them with cream cheese, serving with chips or crackers. They are always a hit.
http://www.amazon.com/Peppadew-Pepper...
TOMATO GRAVYI only make this once a year. When you read the recipe you will see why..... quantities are flexible...
I use ripe tomatoes and slice them thick then sauté them in butter. Salt and pepper lightly. I then take them off the stove, take the skins off and let them cool. Mash them as much as possible so that there are no large chunks. Then add milk (how much?? a couple of cups) and sprinkle with WONDRA flour. Mix well, Bring to a boil, constantly stirring and sprinkling more flour till it gets kind of thick. It will thicken up.
Serve over BUTTERED WHITE BREAD. Cut into bite sized pieces and enjoy!
What is WONDRA Flour? Never heard of it. Is it Gluten-Free?
Teresa wrote: "What is WONDRA Flour? Never heard of it. Is it Gluten-Free?"=================
I've only used it to thicken sauces. I don't know if it is gluten free.
http://bakingbites.com/2008/05/what-i...
Wondra flour is an ingredient sometimes called for in baking recipes, mostly in some pie crust and tart crust recipes that promise a flaky and tender crust. It is actually a brand name for a type of instant flour and, because the brand is so widespread, the name Wondra tends to be used in recipes.
Instant flour is low protein, finely ground flour that has been treated so that it will dissolve instantly in water and not require the same long cooking process as non-instant flour to dissolve in a liquid and thicken it. The process is called pregelatinization, and it involve heat a starch (flour) with very hot water and/or steam, then drying it out, so that it has essentially been cooked already. Because of this, instant flour also very unlikely to form lumps when mixed with a water or other solution. Wondra also has some malted barley flour mixed into it, which acts as a dough conditioner in many breads.
While all purpose flour, pastry flour and cake flour can all be substituted for each other reasonably well when you make a few adjustments to the amounts you need, you cannot really work out a similar substitution for instant flour. Cake flour, with its low protein content, will be the closest you can get, but unless only a very small amount is called for in your recipe, it is worth either (a) trying to find some Wondra or (b) trying to find a different recipe.
Alias Reader wrote: "Teresa wrote: "What is WONDRA Flour? Never heard of it. Is it Gluten-Free?"=================
I've only used it to thicken sauces. I don't know if it is gluten free.
http://bakingbites.com/2008..."
I saw someone posted what you can do substitute so you can virtually make your own Wondra Flour.
All I do is measure 1 Cup of Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour and 1/2 teaspoon Cornstarch, then sift. I use it as I go along as needed for a thickener.
JoAnn/QuAppelle wrote: "TOMATO GRAVYI only make this once a year. When you read the recipe you will see why..... quantities are flexible...
I use ripe tomatoes and slice them thick then sauté them in butter. Salt and..."
How many ripe tomatoes?
I used 6 medium-sized tomatoes. The rest was just guessing. My mother was a wonderful cook and there was only one ingredient for which there was NO substitute....WONDRA flour!
Our tomato gravy was GRAND!!! Delicious. Laura had 6 slices of bread. I had two. I may have some for breakfast.
JoAnn/QuAppelle wrote: "Has anyone ever had peppadews? http://www.amazon.com/Peppadew-Pepper...I think they are tasty and delicious. I make them as an appetizer by putting a small scoop of bour..."
So funny that you mention this, JoAnn. My nephew & wife have moved to Africa for a year. At present they are in Kenya. They blog as they travel & mentioned peppadew salad in a meal they had. Well, now i can't recall if they called it that kind of salad or i figured it out with the photo. ANYway, it was new to me & now to learn i can have some. How about that? Thanks.
We never had Wondra flour, as it was just out of my mom's budget. I suspect she didn't realize how long a canister lasts, as i've had mine over a year. Still, Teresa, it's nice to have a substituted, particularly for those who have gluten-free flour on hand.
Jennifer wrote: "K, so, when my mom died I inherited both her recipes and the task of putting them into some usable format for my siblings. We tried one of them this weekend and it's both simple and good (always a..."We finally got a bit of cooler weather come through, so this morning was the perfect time to try your mom's "Strawberry and Cream Bread" recipe. It was fantastic, eaten warm out of the oven. I love cinnamon so I kicked that up to 1/2 teaspoon, but otherwise made it as you posted. (I would like to try making the recipe with blueberries sometime.) Thanks for sharing the recipe with us.
We were poorer than poor but always had Wondra in the pantry.
I have found peppadews in jars, but also in the salad bar section of some groceries.
Connie wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "K, so, when my mom died I inherited both her recipes and the task of putting them into some usable format for my siblings. We tried one of them this weekend and it's both simple a..."I'm so glad you liked it and I was also thinking about blueberries-- or maybe a blueberry/strawberry/raspberry mix.....
My blueberry muffins call for lemon yogurt, so i'd try that if i were to alter the coffee cake recipe. I like the lemon-blueberry flavors together. I even have a sort of bar/cookie which combines the two. Yum!
That sounds delicious, Deb. My husband loves to go blueberry picking, and he has so many berries in the freezer now that there's hardly any room for anything else. Maybe I'll make blueberry bread the next time we get a cool day.
Connie, your post had me smiling with a memory of our blueberry days when we lived in Oregon. DH planted a dozen blueberry bushes our first year there. One year even friends were hiding from us when they saw us bringing those berries to them. When 2 guys came to replace our deck, they left with a quart of blueberries. Our freezer was bulging and STILL we had bushes full of the gems. We didn't get tired of them, just ran out of energy to prepare them.Vaguely i recall a blueberry sauce for grilled chicken, which was good. I must have dumped it once we left blueberry world. For some reason, though, i saved my raspberry sauce for chicken. Hmmm.
I follow Fruits Vegetables on Twitter. They posted this.For Meatless Mondays
Butternut Squash Stuffed Shells with a Lemon Sage Brown Butter Sauce
http://prouditaliancook.blogspot.com/...
Sounds good. Last Christmas we made a Squash & Black Bean Enchilada dish which went over better than the Pork Carnitas Enchiladas. Butternut squash is one of my mainstays from October through February or so. For years i only used it for soup, if you can believe it!I like the idea of a browned butter sauce. Here's my recipe for a sage butter i've been making to serve on squash--
Warm Sage & Garlic Butter
2 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped sage or 1 tsp. dry
2 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
S&P to taste
Heat the butter and oil in a small skillet over high heat. When bubbling, add the sage and fry for about 30 seconds. Add the garlic and cook until it has perfumed the oil. Remove from heat, stir in parsley, and season with S&P.
Serve over winter squash or ravioli.
As an aside i'll add that in the past i've sauteed the sage leaves until they are crisp. Drain, dry & eat. Yum! I like my sage leaves.
That sounds good, Deb.I have ground sage. Could I use that in place of the leaves?
This makes enough for two people. You can add diced chicken if you don't want meatless. It came from cooking light magazine so it is calorie conscious.
Alias Reader wrote: "That looks delicious !"It is. Use a GOOD salsa, though, because that makes a big difference. I use one of the Fronteras, usually. If I use cheapo salsa, I add chipotle powder to give it a smoky flavor. It's an inexpensive dish, though, so I don't mind springing for a bottle of the good stuff.
Alias Reader wrote: "That sounds good, Deb.I have ground sage. Could I use that in place of the leaves?"
Yes, you can. We have a healthy plant here, so i tend to use them but the recipe states dried can be used. I am a huge fan of sage, particularly in my turkey stuffing. I suppose this is sage season, in that sense. Has anyone else noticed that everything is pumpkin &/or apple this year? Pumpkin yogurt, even.
Jennifer, that lasagna sounds easy. Heck, the toughest part would be cooking the noodles first!
The Tex-Mex Lasagna looks yummy. I printed the recipe to try.
Madrano wrote: I suppose this is sage season, in that sense. Has anyone else noticed that everything is pumpkin &/or apple this year? Pumpkin yogurt, even. -------------
Just the other day I noticed two seasonal breads by Pepperidge Farms. Swirl Pumpkin Spice and Apple Carmel.
Madrano wrote: "Jennifer, that lasagna sounds easy. Heck, the toughest part would be cooking the noodles first!"Gotcha, though-- it uses no-cook noodles!! (never underestimate my laziness and impatience!)
Since we talked about pumpkin here, yesterday in the store I saw the Pepperidge Farm Pumpkin Spice bread. I bought it and tried some yesterday. It's pretty good with a nice cup of tea. I saw that Thomas English Muffins also had a Pumpkin Spice flavor. And Eggo Waffles has Pumpkin Spice frozen waffles.
Pumpkin is quite nutritions. It is loaded with Vitamin A. Though probably not so nutritious in the above processed items.
A side tip. When you make oatmeal, put a tablespoon or so in it. Buy the canned 100% pumpkin. (not the pumpkin for pies). My niece puts the canned pumpkin in a ice cube tray, freezes it, then pops them out and puts them in a freezer bag. Then it's all proportioned out and ready for her when she makes her oatmeal.
Neat idea, Alias. The frozen portion could even be used to help cool the grain. Yesterday we opened some pumpkin butter i bought last year. I also found some frozen pecan bread from a nearby bakery, which has lingered in our freezer too long (it was hiding behind some spaghetti sauce i made & froze last spring. ANYway, they were a tasty combination, too. Today i'm going to stir some into my Greek yogurt. I don't think i'll buy the pumpkin butter again, as it's rather a jelly, when just canned pumpkin will do the same trick & i can control the sweetness. I think i bought it because i used to have a recipe for pumpkin butter cheesecake but not only can i not find the recipe, i realized i didn't really want it.Jennifer, i should have thought of the no-cook noodles. I've only used them once. My regular lasagna recipe calls for regular noodles, which aren't pre-cooked, so i've rarely had to tangle with the cooked pasta first. When i did, i couldn't stand it--too fragile.
Madrano wrote: "Neat idea, Alias. The frozen portion could even be used to help cool the grain. Yesterday we opened some pumpkin butter i bought last year. I also found some frozen pecan bread from a nearby bakery..."No-cooks are the only kind of lasagna noodles I use, because like you, my regular lasagna uses just normal noodles, so ivenever had to cook and then deal with the big flat kind.
Madrano wrote: "Alias Reader wrote: "That sounds good, Deb.I have ground sage. Could I use that in place of the leaves?"
Yes, you can. We have a healthy plant here, so i tend to use them but the recipe states ..."
Re everything pumpkin-- Yes, and I love it. I got pumpkin soup (delicious cold), pumpkin spice chai and pumpkin ice cream from Trader Joe's today.
Shomeret, it was Trader Joe's online ad where i first saw the numerous pumpkin products. Then, at a soap shop i saw they had both pumpkin & apple scented soaps & candles. I guess it all caught on. The soup sounds good, as pumpkin makes a fine soup. I've never tried it cold but will have to now.
Oh, I forgot to name another use for the canned pumpkin if you freeze it in ice cube trays. You can pop a cube in a smoothie. It boosts the vit A in the drink and with the fruit it really doesn't change the taste of your drink.
Good idea. When my kids were little i froze all sorts of fruits & vegetables for throwing into soups, pies, any dish that looked dry, too. It's handy & keeps my from throwing away "perfectly fine food", as my mom might have called that last spoonful in the pot.
What's on your plate for Meatless Monday ?Here is one that sounded good to me.
Sweet Potato Soup w/ Walnut Pesto
http://shewearsmanyhats.com/2010/10/s...
They have escarole on sale at my local veg store, so I think I will make escarole and white bean soup.
I forgot about meatless Monday, nonetheless I'm having Morningstar farms tomato basil pizza burgers with salsa for dinner, and three slabs of publix breakfast bread with melted butter. So I'm unintentionally meatless.
I also went meatless unintentionally since I had a half of an eggplant parm grinder left from eating out over the weekend.Meatless Monday sounds like a good idea. I've got a vegetarian cookbook that I should pull out more often.
Plus I have a piece left of the carrot cake bars recipe I tried, loaded with jumbo crimson raisins, and frosted with orange/grand marnier frosting...... This meatless thing has its points!
I don't do Meatless Monday, but I have at least one meatless meal every day. Today it was breakfast. I had oatmeal with flax seed. This is not what I always have for breakfast. I had meat for breakfast on Sunday. My meatless meal on Sunday was lunch. I had miso soup with noodles,seaweed and soy sauce.
DH makes a good pasta dish, which we had last night. Red peppers, onions, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, feat and other goodies served over pasta with Parmesan. Very little pasta for me, as i'm not a fan. He created this dish after having a similar one in New Mexico years ago. Love it! And it helps clear out the vegetable drawer.Like others here, we weren't meatless intentionally. Indeed, it only happened because we forgot to thaw any meat. Although, if i had Jennifer's incentive dessert, i would have planned it all!
I made the escarole and white bean soup.Measurements vary according to taste and how much soup you are making.
Spice: bay leaf, fennel seed, oregano, garlic and pepper
Saute: 2-3 onions or can also put in raw.
I start it off with a little oil then add water to saute to cut down on oil.
Wash and chop escarole.
When done, add 1 head of chopped escarole on top of onions and water and steam the escarole until tender but still bright green. Maybe 7 minutes.
When done, transfer to a bowl.
To pot add 1 can low sodium veg or chicken broth and/or no sodium bullion and at least 2-4 cups water. I used both the canned broth and 1 packet bullion.
In blender: one 14 oz can of tomato sauce. Use half if don't like the taste of tomato. Add the above spices except the bay leaf. blend and add to the broth. The reason I use the blender is I use Delmonte no salt diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano. I don't like whole pieces of tomato. If you do, don't blend it.
Add: sliced carrots and celery
1 can of small white beans or large if you prefer.
Rinse the beans well before adding.
Cook until done to your preference. I cooked it about an hour.
In another pot of bubbling water make some small type pasta. I like Orzo. You have to make it in another pot or it will use up all the broth in your soup.
When you carrots, celery, beans are done to your taste, add the cooked escarole and onions back into soup. Cook maybe another 5 minutes. Add the cooked pasta. Cook maybe 5 minutes on low flame.
Serve with grated Parmesan cheese on top. ( if you save Parmesan rinds in your freezer like I do, you can add a bit to the soup when it is cooking)
Here you go Deb! Very easy. This was the first time I made these-- I'm on a "finally try it or toss the recipe" kick with all the long-stored recipes lying around. Only thing I'd do differently that isn't in my handwritten notes is I'd chop the raisins-- whole, they tended to drift to the bottom of the batter and although I could flour them to prevent it, I think the overall recipe would benefit more from more even distribution. 
Alias Reader wrote: "I made the escarole and white bean soup...."Thanks for posting this. I have been looking for ways to try other kinds of greens like escarole and I love soup.
Ditto that Alias! And it's coming up on soup season!
It's soup season here in NYC. It was a dreary, cool, and misting day. Your welcome for the soup recipe.
I love greens. I usually steam them in water or broth. Then I add just a touch of extra virgin olive oil and garlic. Sometimes I'll also add onion. And saute it for a few minutes. The key, for me, is not to overcook it and make mush. I also like to keep the vibrant green. If you have cherry tomatoes you could also add that for a shot of color.
This works for collard greens, dandelion, kale and escarole.
I see my local store as dandelion out, so I think I'll make that next. Though kale seems to be the current superstar in greens right now.
The greens are great with a baked potato. Have it with a cup of applesauce and you have a meal. (sweet or white) or as a side dish.
Jennifer, I love how you can scan your recipes for us to see. Thank you !
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I'm SO POSITIVE that this Recipe is WONDERFUL,Jennifer. And I am going to try it for sure.I'm on Gluten-Free, so I can very easily substitute the flour for Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour. I was writing you to give you advice, not bad advice though. I substitute Plain Greek Yogurt for my Cornbread recipe so it will add Protein. My advice to you, that is if you want Protein you can substitute the Sour Cream for Greek Yogurt, too. You don't have to, though. Just thought I would point that out, that's all. :-)