You are here: Home / Archives for recipes

Cherry Kuchen Bars: Big Delicious, Small Effort

February 18, 2012 by 10 Comments
Cherry Kuchen

Cherry KuchenI picked up one of those “Holiday Desserts” magazines available at the grocery store checkout back in December.  It turned out to be a more ambitious baking season than usual.  I made up baskets with mini date-nut loaves and four different varieties of cookies for my loved ones.  Consequently, I never got around to making these bars and the magazine stayed folded open to this page for a month on my kitchen counter, calling to me as I went on my January juice fast.  I mentioned in the last post that I’ve been on a health kick since then, so the all-purpose flour and the sugar canisters have been very lonely in my cupboard for almost two months.  It might have remained that way a while longer, but as any good church-going lady will tell you, pot lucks will just mess you up! Last Monday, when my ladies bible study small group was charged with bringing desserts, I knew it was time to make these bars and indulge in a bit of reward for all my discipline.

Although the cherry pie filling peeks through and the bars are finished with a confectioner’s sugar glaze, they are easy to cut, serve, and eat as finger food without creating messy fingers (difficult to manage at a pot luck where everyone is standing and balancing a paper plate). The dough is a light shortbread-like consistency, so the eating experience is more reminiscent of a cookie than a cake. I cut my 9×12 pan into 32 small bars, which made perfect bites.  Most importantly, the flavor is just amazing.  The almond extract in the glaze is a must, in my opinion.

Since these are bars, I bought this commercial baking pan that has square corners rather than using a glass baking dish with rounded corners. This way, there are no odd-shaped corner bars.  I found metal works best for this recipe and suggest you use an aluminum pan without a non-stick coating.

I suspect you’ll have the same difficulty limiting yourself to just one as I did!  Let me know in the comments how yours turned out.

For the Bars
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened (I used unsalted)
1/2 cup shortening (I used Crisco butter flavor shortening)
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 20-oz can cherry pie filling (I used Comstock Lite)

For the Glaze
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract (I used slightly more, but definitely go easy here)
3-4 TBS milk

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat together butter and shortening with an electric mixer on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Add the sugar, baking powder, and salt and beat until combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl, then add in the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. Reduce speed to medium-low and add the flour half a cup at a time until well combined.  If your mixing bowl is too small, you can stir in any remaining flour with a wooden spoon.

Set aside about 1 3/4 cups of the dough and press the rest into the bottom of an ungreased 9×12″ baking pan. Bake for 12 minutes. Spread the cherry pie filling over the crust evenly.  Make sure at least a little syrup covers every bit of crust, but don’t worry that there won’t be a whole cherry in every bite. The flavor is most important and we’re not going for a gooey bar. Drop the remaining dough in roughly tablespoon-sized mounds on top of the filling, leaving some gaps between the mounds.

Bake about 30 minutes more until the top is light brown. Cool the bars in the pan set on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. While cooling, mix together the confectioner’s sugar, almond extract, and just enough milk to make a thick (but smooth) drizzling consistency.  Pour over the bars.  Cool 10 minutes more, then score the top into the size bars you desire with a serrated knife. Don’t cut all the way through. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Carefully cut bars along the scored lines. If necessary, run your knife around the edges of the pan to loosen. I served these right in the pan as shown in the photo, but you can arrange them on a dish if you like. Leftovers can be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Note: You may substitute any flavor pie filling and use vanilla extract in the glaze instead of almond.

Your Daily Bread

Exodus 22 Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. 24 And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” 25 And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log,and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, 26 saying,“If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

 

 

 

Filed Under: Recipe Box Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Crispy Kale: Salty Crunch Minus Carbs

February 12, 2012 by 2 Comments
Crispy Kale Chips

We’ve been on a long hiatus, but our analytics tell us there are a bunch of you who still stop by to peruse our recipes here and on our Facebook page.  THANK YOU! Crispy Kale ChipsWhile our blogging may have taken a nose dive, our cooking most certainly has not!  In addition to our long-standing love of ethnic cuisines and just super-delicious food, we’ve been exploring the healthier side of eating in the last several months.  We splurge on the weekends with beef and some carbs, but the weekdays are all about fresh green juices, green tea, super-green salads, a smattering of whole grains, and lean fish or poultry at dinner.  That will not make things boring around here!  To prove that to you, we make our grand re-appearance with Crispy Kale Chips!

Scratching your heads?  I did too, at first.  But, trust me, these are so very delicious, you will want to sit right down and eat the whole bowl.  I first heard about crispy kale while watching Rachael Ray coach Lou Diamond Phillips on her Celebrity Cook-Off reality show. It caught my ear because I’ve only recently discovered the wonderfulness of kale and have incorporated it into my diet almost daily.  It is a key ingredient in my morning super-nutritious juice and it goes into almost every soup I make these days.  With all the liquid and leaves going into my system during the week, I often feel I’ve just gotta have a crunch of something in the middle of the afternoon.  Since I’m trying to keep the carbs to a minimum (and mostly whole grain to boot), the idea of a crispy kale snack intrigued me.  Ms. Ray mentioned it was “so easy” to make, and that sealed the deal for me; I went googling to find recipes.  I found that some people make it more complicated than it needs to be.  I tried the simplest version (and the most popular) and my first batch was almost perfect.  It’ll take you about half an hour to whip this up.  I’m telling you right now: Make a double batch! If you have kids, these will disappear from the bowl in a flash!

IngredientsFresh Kale

1 bunch fresh kale
Olive oil
Kosher salt

Instructions

Thoroughly wash and dry the kale in cool water. It is important to dry the kale completely so it crisps rather than steams.  Remove the stems easily by circling your thumb and forefinger around the base and pulling the stem through.  Tear the leaves into pieces about 1 1/2 – 2 inches wide.

Put the leaves in a large bowl and drizzle with about 1/4 cup of olive oil (just enough to lightly coat the leaves) and sprinkle with about 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt (use just a little more if you have a large bunch of kale, but you don’t want these to be over salted).  Gently massage the oil into the leaves so that each leaf is completely coated.

Coated KaleSpread the coated leaves in a single layer on a baking sheet – preferably one without a non-stick coating.  Don’t let the leaves overlap at all.  You may need 2 baking sheets.  Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 20 minutes until the leaves are about half their size and the edges are just beginning to brown. When you remove them from the oven, they should be extremely delicate. Carefully scoop them up with a plastic spatula and drop them into a clean bowl or basket lined with a paper towel.

Here’s the most important thing to remember:  Keep your portion set aside before you call anyone else to the table! The papery crispiness is so satisfying and the salt seems to just make that automatic hand-to-mouth reflex kick in. We have the best-fed dog on the planet who was also very pleased that we were willing to share.  You can leave the bowl on the counter or the table all afternoon and they won’t get stale or soggy.  That is, if they last longer than 5 minutes.  I’d like to tell you how to store the leftovers, but I have no idea! Mine disappeared.

In truth, my first batch was a bit over salted, but they were still such a treat we just drank some more water with them.  That happened because I decided to sprinkle additional salt over the leaves before baking.  Since I couldn’t see the salt when I spread them on the baking sheet, I thought I hadn’t added enough.  Go lightly with the oil, too.  Remember these will be about half their size after baking and you don’t want them to be greasy.

If you try this, I would love to know what you thought of them!  Please leave a comment!

Your Daily Bread

23 The desire of the righteous ends only in good;
   the expectation of the wicked in wrath.
24 One gives freely, yet grows all the richer;
   another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.
25 Whoever brings blessing will be enriched,
   and one who waters will himself be watered.
26 The people curse him who holds back grain,
   but a blessing is on the head of him who sells it.
27 Whoever diligently seeks good seeks favor,
   but evil comes to him who searches for it.
28 Whoever trusts in his riches will fall,
   but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf.
29 Whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind,
   and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.
30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
   and whoever captures souls is wise.

 

Filed Under: Recipe Box Tagged With: , , , ,

Thanksgiving Desserts – Spoon Bread & Bread Pudding

December 2, 2008 by 3 Comments
spoon_bread01

Our kitchen was so full of hustle bustle this year (hey, let’s face it…every year!) that I just couldn’t even think about taking pictures of the cooking process for most of our dishes.  I did manage to sneak in a few shots of the bacon-wrapped brussels sprouts, but I’ll do that as a separate entry.  Here, I’m going to focus on the bread-like dishes.  These pictures are just mined from the interwebz. All of these recipes were tried for the first time and all turned out so good I simply have to share the joy!  Go and make them…then come back and tell me how your family liked them!  By the way, comments making any reference whatsoever to calories, fat content, or weight gain will be immediately deleted!  Other than that, comment away!  LOL!

I’ve tried at least a half dozen recipes for spoon bread and have been disatisfied every time.  Then, my stepson Matt mentioned he’d had the perfect spoon bread at a Thanksgiving table several years back.  He got the recipe for us and we made it this year to RAVE reviews!  The key…and I am telling you this is key…is the use of Jiffy Corn Bread Mix.  From scratch recipes and other corn bread mixes just didn’t come out with the intense flavor and texture that reminds me of my favorite Mexican restaurant’s spoon bread.  This one is da bomb!

Kentucky  Spoon Bread

Ingredients
1 Box Jiffy Corn Bread Mix
1 stick of butter, melted
1 8 oz. can of whole corn, drained
1 8 oz. can of cream style corn
1 cup sour cream (I prefer Daisy brand)
2 eggs, slightly beaten

Instructions
Melt the butter and combine the Jiffy mix, corns, sour cream, and beaten eggs in a large bowl.  Pour into a 1.5 quart greased casserole and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes, until center is firm.  Serve warm.

I doubled this recipe and used a 9×13 glass baking dish with outstanding results.  The bread will be dense, very moist, and utterly delicious!

For our follow-up Thanksgiving dinner Sunday evening with a different group of family, I tried a bread pudding recipe from Penzey’s One magazine.  If you haven’t yet discovered the amazing world of Penzey’s Spices, I encourage you to go visit their website, subscribe to their magazine, and…most importantly…throw away every dried herb and spice in your cupboard and replace them all with Penzey’s.  You will be astounded at the difference in your tried and true receipes.  The magazine always has great receipes…many from readers…and I have never, ever, had a bad result using their recipes and spices.  Going Penzey’s has transformed our kitchen and our culinary life!

This recipe is over 100 years old and was contributed by a Penzey’s One reader whose family has passed it down.  I can see why it has endured, though I have modified it slightly to round out a few ingredients. It calls for a whiskey sauce, which I made the first night, but then made a non-alcoholic vanilla sauce the next night.  Both versions are included below.

Bread Pudding

Ingredients
16 day-old hamburger buns, torn in large pieces
(Leave them exposed to the air, opened up and spread out on a baking sheet overnight. You want most of the moisture out of the bread. Big pieces yield lots of texture, smaller pieces make a smooth, wet pudding.  I prefer the large chunks.)
1 14-oz can evaporated milk (not sweetened, not condensed)
4 cups milk (lower fat milks are okay, not skim)
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
3 tbs cinnamon (oh, yes…go heavy here)
2 tbs plus 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup melted butter

Whiskey Sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/8 – 1/4 cup whiskey

Non-alcoholic alternative is to substitue 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp imitation rum extract for the whiskey, or 1 tsp vanilla extract and leave out the rum extract altogether.

Instructions
Preheat over to 400 degrees. In a large bowl (I needed a punch bowl as my largest mixing bowl was too small), combine the ripped up buns, canned milk and evaporated milk and let soak for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, stir together the sugar, eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla to make a gorgeous goop! Add to the bread and milk and mix well with a wooden spoon. Take care not to mash the bread chunks too much.  Pour into an  ungreased 9×13 pan and drizzle the melted butter over the top.  If you have a larger one, you may want to choose it, or else place the pan on a lipped cookie sheet.  This will rise high in the oven. and some of the butter may spill out.  Bake until lightly browned and no longer wiggly, about 50 minutes.  Carefully remove from oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes.  Bread will settle and melted butter that may be pooled on top will soak in.

To make the whiskey sauce, combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan and bring to a rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Pour 1-2 tablespoons over individual servings of warm bread pudding.

Well, there you have it.  That oughta keep you away from the scale for a while!  I must confess, I’ve been going back for midnight snacks of this bread pudding…and I never do that!  Something about the warmth and the texture and the cinnamon flavor tastes even better snuggled in bed in front of the tv!  Note that I am not officially recommending that to you…it’s more of a confession, really.

Please comment…they are my favorite snack food of all!

Your Daily Bread

Deuteronomy 16:14 And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates. 15 Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.

Filed Under: Recipe Box Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Cold Sesame Noodles: They Don’t Sell It Here, So I Had To Make It!

October 24, 2008 by 2 Comments
coldsesamenoodles01

I’m a New Yorker, born and raised.  There, if you walk into just about any Chinese take-out restaurant, you can order Cold Sesame Noodles (sometimes called, “cold noodles with sesame sauce,”).  In my single years, a pint of that and a pint of roast pork fried rice made a perfect dinner for me.  I could pick it up on the way home, walking from the subway to my Queens apartment and it filled me up for very little cash.  In fact, that Chinese place on 108th Street in Forest Hills at about 65th Avenue made the best cold sesame noodles anywhere!  I wonder if they’re still doing that.

Since we moved to Jacksonville three years ago, not only is it really tough to find good Chinese to begin with, but my husband and I have never seen this culinary delight on any menu.  Three years is a long time to go without that kind of taste sensation.  So, I just got fed up about six weeks ago and decided I’d figure out a way to duplicate that flavor, by hook or by crook.  I knew I needed peanut butter and something with sesame flavor that was dark in color.  But what?

At Publix (the coolest supermarket in the universe, IMHO), I browsed the “Ethnic Foods,” aisle – the Chinese section in particular.  Soy sauce…terayaki sauce…chili sauce…fish sauce…AHA!  There is was, and I don’t know why I’d never seen it before.  Sesame Garlic sauce by “Iron Chef.”  Who knew that was a brand (then again, of course it is).  I read the ingredients and they sounded like exactly like what I’d need to make the famous, yet elusive sauce.  I picked up 2 bottles and headed home.

I already had angel hair pasta (a nice, big, 16-oz box from Mueller) and Jif creamy peanut butter in the pantry.  Seemed like I was set.  I put on my white lab coat and got busy (not really ;-) ).  I figured about 2/3 cup of peanut butter was right.  A full cup would be too much.  I started light, but ended up pouring about half the bottle of sesame garlic sauce in.  Then, I added a few tablespoons of HOT water until the consistency was thick, but not gummy.  Meanwhile, I cooked the angel hair in salted water with a little olive oil (this only takes about 4 minutes, so don’t get distracted!) after breaking it in half.  I drained the pasta and ran cold water over it to stop the cooking process and cool it off.  That’s why the sauce can’t be too gummy…you’re gonna try to evenly distribute it in the cold noodles without making mush out of everything.

Two tablespoons worked well for me to get the stuff properly mixed.  I don’t recommend using forks.  The pasta is delicate while still a bit warm and you don’t want to shred it.  Once mixed, I covered it with plastic wrap and put the whole bowl in the freezer for about 45 minutes.  Serve it in the bowl with bean sprouts and slivers of cucumber on the side or piled for guests to put on top.  I didn’t have any cucumbers when I made this for the second time last night, so we’ve just got the sprouts in this picture.

I also made Pad Thai using noodles and sauce from a box.  The shrimp goes with the Pad Thai, but since my stepson is allergic, I served them on the side.  It was certainly a noodle-intensive meal, but the hot dish with lime and cilantro flavors complimented the cold dish with peanut and sesame flavors perfectly!

Once again, the pictures are clickable to view full size.  I’d love to know if you make this.  I know if you do, you’ll be back here thanking me.  This stuff is heavenly!  If you want my Pad Thai receipe, just say so in the comments and that will be my next cuisine post, though I mostly follow box directions and enhance, enhance, enhance.


Your Daily Bread

Genesis 19:1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. 2 And he said, “Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” And they said, “No, but we will spend the night in the open square.” 3 But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

Filed Under: Recipe Box Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

One Awesome Meat Loaf Recipe

October 18, 2008 by 9 Comments
Ingredients and Assembly

This is what I made for dinner last night.  My mother always made an excellent meat loaf when I was growing up.  I stuck to her recipe faithfully until I became vegetarian in my 20s.  Let me just say right now that most vegetarian alternatives to meat loaf are to be avoided at all costs unless that’s all you have in the vaccuum-sealed bags in your bomb shelter and the alarm has sounded.  Seriously.  However, I did make a few interesting discoveries during that decade of my life that carried over to my kitchen life when I climbed back on the meat wagon.  One such thing is using oats in meat loaf rather than bread crumbs.  Of course, using oats when the other ingredients are tofu and sunflower seeds and…well…NO MEAT…doesn’t make for a very tasty dinner.  But, just swapping the bread crumbs for some oats works really well!And, I’m led to believe it may help reduce cholesterol if used for 30 consecutive days! ;-)

Truth be told, I had not done this for several years.  My meat loaf was still widely appreciated, so I stuck with Mom’s recipe most of the time.  But, yesterday afternoon I was hanging out with Rhett & Link on UStream during their live broadcast and I mentioned my dinner plans.  Link noticed my comment in the chat window and said, “Meat loaf?  Don’t use bread crumbs…use oats.”  And, I figured, hey…why not use oats?

So, here’s my recipe, which is mostly Mom’s, slightly modified over the years, and most notably modified by the use of Quaker 1-Minute Oats,

though, you can use long-cooking if that’s what’s in your pantry. (Images are clickable for full-sized view.)

Ingredients and Assembly

Ingredients and Assembly

Ingredients
2 lbs fresh meat loaf mix
(I use 2 parts ground chuck to 1 part ground pork)
2 eggs (beaten)
1-1.5 cups coarsely chopped onion
(I used Vidalia here)
1/2 cup worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
(nothing labelled “catsup” has ever been in my pantry…who knows what that stuff is?)
2 cups dry rolled oats, very briefly processed (like, 2 pulses)
1/4 cup dried parsley (or 1/2 cup chopped, fresh, flat-leaf)
salt, pepper

Instructions
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.  I start with the meat, add the wet ingredients, then the dry on top, though I have no idea why.  Wash your hands well, remove rings and watches, then get in there with both hands and SQUISH, SQUISH, SQUISH until everything is uniformly blended.  Really, it’s the only way.  Then, pick up the whole meaty mess and slap it between your hands a few times to remove any air pockets that might make crevices in the loaf during baking.  Form it into a loaf and place on a prepared pan.

Voila! Gorgeous!

Voila! Gorgeous!

Here, you can see I’ve used my broiler ban with the bottom portion lined with foil for easy cleanup later and the top portion prepared with cooking spray.  I made a double recipe here, so there are 2 loaves shown.  I like to shape the loaves with squared ends and a flattened top because then all the slices come out about the same height and width except for the very ends.  I have found I get more bang for the buck that way.  I never use loaf pans.  I find the loaf is difficult to extract and all the fat is trapped on the bottom.

Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 50-60 minutes until nicely browned.  Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
I served mine with mashed potatoes last night.  We ate very late, so there was no veggie, but I usually serve this with broccoli first steamed, then tossed in some olive oil with a little garlic and oregano.   I eat my meat loaf with ketchup which offends my husband nearly to the point of distraction.  If I haven’t remembered to heat up some jarred beef gravy, he will use A-1 Steak Sauce on his.

Please comment!  Let me know if you like meat loaf, if you have a cool meat loaf recipe, or of you think you might try this one!

Your Daily Bread

Acts 10:9 The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. 10 Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance 11 and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 13 And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” 15 And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.”

Filed Under: Recipe Box Tagged With: , , , , ,