Food Friday - Spring Colors!

from Tracey G

I love lemons, and I love pound cake - but literally pound cake adds on the pounds that I just don't need. So, when I saw this recipe for a lower fat version in my new issue of Taste Of Home (can be found here:Makeover Lemon Pound Cake), I KNEW I had to try it! But I will be honest here, this didn't work out too well for me this go around - and I'm not sure why. Not sure if it was something I did or didn't do, or that I used a glass loaf pan and so forth. I'm just not sure, seems like it could have been the perfect storm of things combined that affected the cooking/outcome of it, because mine did NOT look like the beautiful cake in the magazine! LOL But that's just how it goes sometimes isn't it? Kris and I are always saying that we think the making of the recipe and what we deal with is the better story of them! And we have some pretty funny ones to too!

But I must say, it was very yummy and got thumbs up from my guys, so that's good enough for me. I will definitely be making it again, and trying out a different baking pan. I do believe it was in the way it cooked somehow, the upper 2/3 of the cake was fine, but the bottom third seemed like it didn't rise - and I know my baking powder was good too. It could also be my oven's cooking/temperature affecting things as well. So, try try again, right? And you can bet I will be trying again because it was REALLY tasty. They garnished theirs with candied lemon slices,(which I'll include the recipe method for as well as the recipe) but I made up an impromptu lemon buttercream to garnish it with and added the strawberries I happened to have in the fridge - they were a great combination!!  

Lighter Lemon Pound Cake

Recipe courtesy of Taste Of Home, can be found here:Makeover Lemon Pound Cake

1/4 c butter, softened

3/4 c sugar

3 large eggs

2 tbsp canola oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp grated lemon peel

1tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp poppy seed, optional

11/2 c all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 c fat-free vanilla yogurt

1) Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9x5-in. loaf pan with cooking spray.

2) In a bowl, beat butter and sugar until crumbly. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in oil, lemon juice, lemon peel, vanilla and if desired, poppy seeds. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with yogurt, beating until just combined.

3) Transfer to prepared pan. Bake 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely. Garnish with candied lemon slices if desired.

Candied Lemon Slices:

Bring 3/4 cup sugar and 3/4 cup water to boil; stir until dissolved. Add one thinly sliced lemon and simmer 5 minutes or until tender. Drain; cool slices on a wire rack. 


from Kris B.

Last week it was what to do with all of those hard boiled eggs after their coloring and hunting; this week, it's a suggestion for what to do if by the time the Easter Bunny gets to your house he is full and leaves behind the snack of carrots you left out.  Now that my girls are adults, I can't decide whether I miss the Easter traditions of dying eggs,  the early morning egg hunt and leaving those few carrots out for The Bunny, or whether I'm relieved.  As a church musician, Holy Week and Easter are extremely busy, so on one hand, I am glad to have one or two less things to do, but I do miss those smiling faces as the little ones scurry around trying to find every last egg.  Oh well...

Served warm, this carrot soufflé can be a sweet side; or, if you chill it, because of its spices, it is reminiscent of sweet potato or pumpkin pie.  At my house, it is a hit served either way.  

And a bonus…it is easy to make!

INGREDIENTS

1 lb peeled and steamed carrots.

3 eggs

1/2 cup butter at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

3 TBS flour

1  tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla

Steam or boil the carrots.  Then mash them.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Using a mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs.  Add all of the ingredients and whisk together until well combined.  You may still have small pieces of carrots. 

Pour the mixture into a greased 8x8 glass baking dish or comparable vessel.  (You can also use ramekins.)

 Bake for 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cooking times will very depending on your oven.

Serve hot or cold.  Garnish with a dusting of powdered sugar and/or a peeled carrot curl.

Happy Spring!

Food Friday - Soup-er Easy Meals for Busy Days!

from Kris B.

Seven days and counting....this time next week, Christmas morning will be over.  And after that, just as quickly it will be 2016!  How is it that some days it feels like the days drag on and on and then all of the sudden you have no idea where the time went?  I wish I understood this phenomenon.

Our big sit-down family meal on Christmas is brunch.  Food service later in the day is usually limited to a big pot of chili or soup that I made ahead, brunch leftover, and/or whatever  anyone would like to fix for themselves.  As a church musician, I sing for two services on Christmas Eve, the second being midnight Mass.  By the time I get home and finish up the last Christmas chores, it is very late when I get to bed.  I always look forward to a nap on Christmas afternoon.  No cooking for me!

This week's recipe is a simple and hearty vegetable beef soup.  As is the case with many soups, it tastes better on the second day so it works perfectly with my make-ahead plan.

INGREDIENTS

2 lbs. ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
4 carrots, sliced
4 ribs of celery, sliced
4 potatoes, any kind, cut into 1" cubes
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 14.5 oz. can cut green beans, rinsed
1 15.25 oz can kernel corn, rinsed
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste
water

Slice and dice the potatoes,  onion, carrots, and celery.

Place the vegetables and ground beef to your soup pot. Cook until the beef is browned and cooked through.  Drain off any fat.  Add to the beef the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, green beans, corn, and potatoes.  Mix well.  Add the bay leaves and desired seasonings.  Add 1/4 - 1/2 cup of water to the soup mixture.  This soup is thick, almost like a stew.  If you want more broth, either add more water or some beef or vegetable broth to achieve your desired consistency.

Simmer the soup covered until the potatoes are done, about an hour.

If you are making this soup ahead, let it cool and then refrigerate.  Reheat on the stove when ready to serve.




from Tracey G

Pea soup was a nemesis of mine for ages, and I'm not sure why, it's a super easy soup to make. I think part of my trouble was I tried to make it more complicated than it is! LOL It's taken me years to finally get it the way I want it - and it's based on an Ina Garten recipe, that I then tweaked a few things here and there to my own taste. But it has finally gotten me the recipe for split pea soup that I've always wanted and it comes out consistently every time for the flavor I'm looking for! It does make a large batch, so usually we have it for dinner one night, then there's enough to freeze for another meal and sometimes I can get a couple lunch portions frozen out of it too. :-) It is one of those things that does the miracle crazy thickening so I make sure to have extra chicken broth/stock on hand for the left-overs and to thin down as needed as it's cooking - water works well too, but I like to use the broth or stock as it adds a little more oomph to it all the way around. Serve it with some yummy bread and a nice salad and it's a great fall or winter meal - or if you're like me it's an any time of the  year meal! :-)

I usually lighten up on the salt in recipes, out of habit from when I was taking care of my mom and her special dietary needs - and it's just one I've continued with. And that let's everyone season their individual servings to their taste.

Split Pea Soup

Serves 10-12

1 to 1 1/2 c chopped yellow onions (1-2 onions)

1 tbsp minced garlic (3-4 cloves)

1/4 c olive oil

1 tsp dried oregano

1-2 tsp kosher salt

1-2 tsp pepper

4 c diced carrots

2 c diced potatoes

2 lbs dried split green peas

16  cups chicken stock or water

In an 8-qt stock pot or Dutch oven on medium heat, saute the onions and garlic with the olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano until the onions are translucent, about 12-15 minutes. Add the carrots, potatoes, 1 1/2 lbs of split peas and chicken broth/stock or water. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered about 40 minutes. Skim off foam while cooking. Add the remaining split peas and continue to simmer for another 40 minutes or until all the peas are soft. Stir frequently to keep the solids from sticking and burning on the bottom. Serve hot. 

Food Friday - Pass the Salad, Please!

fromKris B.

I don’t have many memories of family Thanksgiving meals and the ones that I do have, are not particularly good ones.  First of all, my mother was one of those who dragged out all of the china for the Thanksgiving meal, no matter who was or was not coming to eat, and then made me dress up for dinner.  Needless to say, particularly as a teenager, this “tradition” made me less than happy.  All that, topped with the fact that I really didn’t care for traditional Thanksgiving food, made the fourth Thursday in November a most miserable day all the way around for me.  I have never cared for roasted turkey; it has never tasted good to me.  That is not a commentary on my mom’s preparation of the holiday turkey, but rather on roasted turkey itself.  It doesn't matter who prepares it, I just don’t like it.  My mom always served Brussels sprouts and cole slaw as side dishes with the turkey, neither of which I liked as a kid.  And, the sweet potatoes were always the candied kind which were and still are way too sweet for me.  Basically, I ate mashed potatoes and dressing as my Thanksgiving meal.  My carbohydrate addiction started young!  Lol. 

I am happy to report that I have evolved a bit as an adult.  I still don't care for roasted turkey, but  I do like smoked turkey.  Thankfully, I have a husband who will now smoke our Thanksgiving turkey.  I also have discovered that I love both Brussels sprouts, preferably roasted with garlic, and cole slaw.  Once I changed my attitude about cole slaw, I tried to find my mom’s recipe.  She had many cookbooks and lots of recipes written on many scraps of paper, but I was never able to find her cole slaw recipe.  All I can remember is that it had lots of sugar and mayonnaise in it.  This most certainly was not enough information to go about trying to replicate it.  So, I was left to search for and try recipes on my own.  Fortunately, because I never actually ate my mom’s cole slaw, I was not up against some expectation that the recipe had to taste just like mom’s.  It just had to taste good to me now.  After a few failed attempts and some others that were so-so, I have finally settled on what I think is the perfect cole slaw recipe.  It is from Ginny Callan’s cookbook, Beyond the Moon Cookbook.  She calls the recipe  “Zesty Cabbage Salad.”  Whatever its name, it is pretty darn good!  I like this recipe a lot because it gets its sweetness not from the cup or more of sugar that I know my mom’s recipe used, but from the natural sweetness in carrots and red bell peppers as well as a tiny bit of honey.

INGREDIENTS

6 cups sated shredded green cabbage

2 cups grated carrots

6 scallions, sliced

1/2 cup minced fresh parsley

1/2 cup currants

3/4 cup chopped fresh red bell pepper

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

1 TBS hot dijon or horseradish mustard

2 TBS fresh lemon juice

1 TBS vinegar

1 tsp honey

1/2/ tsp salt

Toss the cabbage, carrots, scallions, parsley, and currants together in a large bowl.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the ingredients for the dressing - yogurt, mayonaise, sour cream, mustard, lemon juice, vinegar, honey and salt.

Pour the dressing over the salad.  Toss well. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

by TraceyG

When I was a kid we used to go on little getaways - my mom, dad and myself. My dad loved doing that, we'd stay at a Holiday Inn, make sure they had a Holidome or at the very least an indoor pool for me to play in during our stay. If it had an in-house restaurant it was even better!! :-) I wish I could remember how old I was, I want to say I was in the 8-10 range, and we were over on the west side of the state, on a mini break at the Holiday Inn in Traverse City, when, mom discovered this salad. It was on the salad bar in the in-house restaurant, and she fell in love with it. And what I remember from that point on was her mad search for the recipe, lol. Once she found it, it became a staple for her to make around special occasions and potlucks etc. I remember her making it for Thanksgiving quite a few times, but back then I was not a fan of it. I now, as an adult, love this salad - I make it whenever I want it, it's so easy, and so yummy, that, for me it's an anytime-I-want-not-just-for-a-special-occasion salad, lol. And it's pretty too :-)

I've made it with all the vegetable ingredients and I've made it without some of them too - as long as I have carrots and the dressing, I'm a happy girl, lol. So, feel free to make it even if you don't have all the vegetables! Honestly, I can't remember the last time I used celery - not that I don't have it on hand, I just don't care for it in the salad, lol.

Copper Penny Salad

2 lbs cooked carrots (cut in rounds)

1 small green pepper, chopped

½ c diced celery

1 medium onion, sliced

1 can tomato soup

1/2 c vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

¾ c vinegar

Combine soup, oil, sugar and vinegar in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil, stir while cooking to dissolve sugar. Pour over vegetable mixture. Refrigerate 24 hrs.