That's Sweet!: Pinopsicle

Pinopsicle (first I is long, name chosen by Caleb)

1 whole pineapple
8 popsicle sticks

Cut of top and bottom of pineapple, shave off outer layer. Cut in half lengthwise and then cut each half in half. Shave off the core, then cut the quarters into eighths and stick a popsicle into the bottom. Eat as you would a popsicle, but no drips.

Interesting things about pineapples:
1. You should never eat pineapple cores. They are not poisonous, but are indigestable and will form fiber balls in your colon - fun.
2. Really like pineapples? Save the top, you can use it to grow a whole new plant. You can even grow them indoors.
3. Pineapple plants are bromeliads - and the only edible ones.

September 22 - October 5, 2009

Back to the 2-weekers, and lotsa links this time. Most of them link to Taste of Home, so if there is a recipe you'd like to have and it is "subscriber only", let me know and I will email it to you.

T 22 – Wild Rice Chicken Dinner
W 23 – Kids’ Favorite Chili, Corn Muffins, Potato Salad
R 24 – Chili Dogs, Baked Beans, Carrot Sticks
F 25 – Veggie Beef Casserole
S 26 –Black Bean Burgers, Broccolini
U 27 – New Orleans Style Chicken
M 28 – Stuffed Pork Chops, Spicy Sweet Potatoes, Steamed Peas & Carrots
T 29 – Broiled Fish, Garden Medley, Mary Poppins Rolls
W 30 – Harvest Ham Steak, mashed potatoes, broccoli
R 1 - Vegetable Delight (A throwback from Rob's bachelor days)
F 2 - Teriyaki Mushroom Chicken, Corn, Zippy Potato Chunks
S 3 - Tomato Basil Orzo Soup, Asiago Bread
U 4 – Spaghetti Casserole
M 5 – Ham & Cheese Pizzas, Salad

That's Sweet!: Doughnut Bread Pudding

The proof to me that doughnuts are actually not that bad is that they are not that good the next day - but stale doughnut owners need not despair! Behold: DOUGHNUT BREAD PUDDING!



All you need is:
4-6 stale doughnuts (any variety)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup evaporated milk (sweeter) or buttermilk (tangier)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Grease a square baking dish. Cut or tear stale doughnuts into small pieces and place in dish. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over doughnuts. Refrigerate overnight (or wait at least 15 minutes for the doughnuts to absorb the liquid.)

Preheat oven to 350. In a pan large enough to hold the square baking dish, lay out a dish rag where you plan to set the dish, then put the dish on the rag and pour water into the larger pan - enough to come up about 1/2 inch or so on outside of the dish.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until it "tests" done with a knife.

We used about half and half chocolate cake doughnuts and glazed doughnuts.

Daily Bread: Asiago Bread

I realized I'd gotten distracted by my 2009 goal of learning to make yeast breads, so I planned a couple of homemade breads into this week's meal plan. One was this loaf:

Asiago bread - and it's a pretty basic bread except it has cheese in it, namely asiago cheese, except I forgot that what I had in my cheese drawer was swiss and had to use that, but the recipe actually noted that you could use swiss instead of asiago. It turned out nicely with a very crispy, crusty crust, and it went great with the spicy bean soup, which is very tomatoey, so it was kind of an upscale grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup night.

Asiago (or Swiss) Bread

3 1/2 to 3 3/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 package regular or fast-acting dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1 1/4 cups water (bottled or filtered)
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
2 teaspoons dried rosemary or thyme leaves, if desired
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups Asiago, Swiss or other firm cheese

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and water and mix well, cover tightly and let rest for about 1 hour. Then stir in oil, salt, rosemary and enough flour to bring the dough together (I needed a little over 3 cups total). Knead about 5 minutes on the dough hook then knead in about 1 cup of the cheese - the original recipe called for small chunks, but all I had was shredded, next time, I think I'll try chunks to see how it changes things). Form into a ball and place in large greased bowl, covered in a warm place until doubled (45 minutes to 1 hour).

Shape dough into a footlong football shape, place on a greased cookie sheet, cover liberally with flour and then loosely with plastic wrap - stick in a warm place for another hour (or until doubled).

Then spritz the loaf with water, sprinkle with flour, slash it longways and put the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese down the middle. Bake in a 450 oven for 10 minutes, then drop the heat to 400. Bake another 20-25 minutes or until the inner temp is between 200 and 210 degrees (mine took only 20 minutes). Allow to cool for 30 minutes before cutting.

This loaf turned out really good considering I forgot to add salt and oil. :)

September 15-21, 2009

oof, I'm out of the habit of posting these things!

15 T - Crab Cakes, Couscous, Uglyripe Tomatoes with cottage cheese
16 W - Spicy Bean Soup, Asiago Bread
17 R - Asian Chicken Noodle Bowls
18 F - Black Bean Pie, Broccoli
19 S - Meatloaf, Fried Okra
20 U - Roast Chicken, Buttered Noodles, Steamed Peas & Carrots
21 M - Spaghetti, Salad, Garlic Rolls

Caleb's Birthday party is Saturday, and fish cake is on the menu, but not this kind of fishcake :)

September 8-14, 2009

Back in the saddle again, so to speak...I've decided to resume the tailored meal plans after a summer of eating from the revolving meal plan. My reasoning is tri-fold:

1. I'm tired of eating those foods.
2. I have worked into our schedule 2 periods of in-their-room playtime for the kids to give me a chance to get housework done. Now that Annalise is almost 2, this works really well. Consequently I don't feel quite as much craziness and I think I can think creatively about food again.
3. It really didn't save a substantial amount of money.

In fact, I finally resigned myself to raising our bi-weekly budget to $170. I was overspending way too often and now that I've given myself an extra $20, I have been better able to keep things in check. The bottom line is we eat food, food costs money, to feed 4 people costs more than $150 over a 14 day period...at least this year. I am hoping to grow some veggies during the dry season.

Monotonous recipes aside, I do think that it saves some money to eat the same things over and over again, but since the most expensive part of each meal is meat, the way to get around the monotony is to plan different recipes, but use the same meats (chicken on Mondays, fish on Tuesdays, etc.)

For now, I'm going to do single weeks, life isn't as crazy as it was before, but I do still have 2 small children and need to think in smaller chunks of time for a little bit longer.

September 8-14, 2009

T 8 - Chicken Pot Pie
W 9 - Beef and Barley Stew
R 10 - Smoked Sausage with Egg Noodles and Veggies
F 11 - Curry Chicken, Rice
S 12 - Mushroom & Steak Linguine, Salad
U 13 - Pizza, Corn
M 14 - Chicken Tortilla Bake, Salad

That's Sweet!: Little Black Cupcakes

A church potluck gave me the excuse to try one of the gourmet cupcake recipes Taste of Home had in their special cupcake issue. Their official name is Texas Chocolate Cupcakes, but the lady said her husband called them Little Black Cupcakes. They are totally homemade - no cake mix required and they are super moist!

Texas Chocolate Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup butter, cubed
2 eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix flour, sugar, salt and soda, set aside. In a heavy saucepan, combine cocoa, water, oil and butter, bring to a boil. Slowly add cocoa mixture to the flour mixture, mix well. Combine eggs, buttermilk and vanilla and slowly add to the mix. Mix well, pour into muffin cups (3/4 full, batter is very loose) and bake at 350 for about 10-12 minutes. The tops will look wet when they are done, so poke one with a toothpick to check for doneness.

Eat as is...or cool completely and ice with caramel icing:

Caramel Icing
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1/4 cup milk
2 to 2-1/4 cups confectioners' sugar

In a heavy saucepan, combine brown sugar, butter and milk, stir over low heat until the sugar is all dissolved (it does not matter if the butter is melted or not), then cook over medium without stirring for about 3-5 minutes or until it starts to bubble in the middle. Remove from heat, pour into the bowl of your mixer and allow to cool to room-temp before adding confectioners' sugar, beat well.

The caramel icing is part of the original recipe, but I liked the cakes better than the icing and I think when I make them again, I will skip the icing altogether.

(Note: I recommend using cupcake liners to bake these in, but I ran out, so the one I took a picture of had a homemade, parchment paper liner that fell off when I took it out of the pan.)

Daily Bread: Easy Doughnuts

In no time at all, I made these doughnuts yesterday:

I used a soda bottle cap to mark the hole in a counter-whop biscuit, cut it out with kitchen scissors, fried in hot oil for about a half minute per side (until golden brown), drained, glazed, and served. It was fast. And while they didn't taste exactly like the ones from the Publix bakery, they average about $.06 each (compared to $.67 at Publix) and you can eat them nice and hot.