English Muffins...so easy!

One of my all time favorite shows to watch (when i happen upon it, very rarely) is Good Eats with Alton Brown. I like Paula Deen, Barefoot Contessa, and others, but the one who inspires me to get up and cook something new, every single time, is Alton Brown. There is something no-nonsense, scientific about the way he presents things. So Friday night while Dennis was out in his woodshop, I was folding laundry and watching Food Network. At 11:00 Good Eats came on, and at 11:30 I was in the kitchen :)

I am not going to retype his recipe here, because I followed it exactly. Only difference is I made up the dough, covered it, and put it in the refrigerator to slow rise overnight so I could make up the muffins in the morning for breakfast. In the morning, I got out the dough and let it sit on the counter to come to room temp for about 1 hour while I got everything else ready. I could have just as easily made up the dough in the morning, but I wanted to get in the kitchen right after seeing the show.

Anyways, the only special thing you need to have is 4 large biscuit cutters (metal rings) or as he uses, empty tuna cans with the bottoms cut out.

My family ate these for breakfast (all but one...that is the one in the picture) toasted with butter and jelly. I ate the last one for lunch. The recipe made 11. They were delicious and just as easy as pancakes. You should try them!

Delightful Surprise

Sometimes the best things come that way by surprise. Such is the case with these

Banana Cheesecake Bars. They are not really cheesecake at all (since I don't like cheesecake) but for some reason they are called that. Call them what you want, they are delicious. So delicious that I forgot to take a picture and this is literally the last one before it goes on the plate to be eaten! The recipe is from Kraft, but i altered it a bit just out of necessity because of lack of ingredients. If you haven't noticed, that happens to me quite frequently! So this tastes kind of like banana pudding in a cake.

Recipe below.

Banana Pudding Cake ( my own name for it)

1 pkg. white cake mix

4 eggs

3 T. oil

2/3 cup sugar

3 bananas

1 pkg. (8oz) cream cheese

8 oz. sour cream

1/4 cup flour

2 T. lemon juice

1 1/2 cups milk

cool whip for topping if desired

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Set aside 1 cup of cake mix. Mix with fork remaining cake mix with egg, oil and 1/3 cup sugar. (mixture will be crumbly) Press onto bottom and 1 inch up sides of greased 9x13 baking pan.

Slice bananas and lay them out neatly on top of the crust.

Beat cream chese, sour cream and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in mixer till smooth. Add reserved 1 cup cake mix, flour, remaining 3 eggs and lemon juice. Beat 1 min. Blend in milk. (Batter will be thin). Pour into crust on top of bananas.

Bake 45-60 min. or until center is almost set. I increased the baking temp to 350 the last 15 min. to help speed this up. Serve warm or cooled in the fridge. Either way. Dollop with cool whip if desired.

Turkey Meatballs in Cream Sauce with Spinach Salad

Made this dinner last night...my friend Amy emailed me the recipe (at the bottom of the post)...it sounded delicious. I really think it was...the turkey meatballs were not so heavy in the stomach as ground beef and I really like turkey burgers anyways. However, NO ONE else in my family liked it. Dennis ate a polite amount and whispered behind his hand to me across the table, "don't ever make this again!" the kids tasted the sauce and ate the noodles only. no meatballs. darn. i really liked it. i guess that was the last time i'll get to eat it unless you try it, like it, and come to my house, i'll make it again for us and send my family out for pizza!
The base for the meatballs: 1 egg, 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, 1/2 cup parmesan, 1/3 cup milk, finely chopped onion and garlic, salt, pepper and basil (it called for parsley, but i didn't have any)
Meatballs in the oven...it made 37 smallish meatballs. Very squishy to make, but they came out solid.
Out of the oven after 30 minutes at 350 degrees and nicely browned. The recipe calls to boil them in the sauce, but i prefer my meatballs cooked in the oven, and then warmed in the sauce. I usually make up a batch of meatballs, use what i want and freeze the rest to take out and use in another recipe. In this case, i made the meatballs earlier in the day, refrigerated what i wanted for the night and heated them in the sauce when i made the sauce up right before eating.
The sauce, with about 15 meatballs simmering in it. Yummy!

I ended up taking the leftover sauce and meatballs to my parents...they will like it i'm sure!

The recipes:

TURKEY MEATBALLS AND PASTA IN CREAM SAUCE

3T olive oil
1 c. scallions, finely minced and divided
1 ¼ t. salt, divided
¾ t. freshly ground pepper
8 oz. white or shitake mushrooms, sliced (mine were finely chopped)
2T. all-p. flour
2 1/2 c. chicken broth
¼ cup fine, dry breadcrumbs
1/3 c. milk
1c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 large egg
1 pound of ground turkey
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 T. minced fresh flat-leaf parsley ( I used fresh basil)
2/3 c. half and half (the recipe calls for heavy cream, but this is just as nice)
1 lb. of dried pasta (I use bowtie, or corkscrew)


HEAT oil in a large skillet over med. Heat. Add ½ c. of scallions, ¼ c. of salt, ¼ t. of pepper, and mushrooms, and cook, stirring occasionally…5 minutes. Add flour, and cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes more. Add broth; cover and simmer 10 minutes.

COMBINE breadcrumbs and milk in a small bowl, and let soak 10 minutes. Combine 1/2c. Parmesan, remaining ½ c. scallions, remaining 1.t. salt, remaining 1.2 t. pepper, and next 4 ingredients in a separate bowl. Stir in breadcrumb mixture, and form into 1 ½ inch meatballs.

Add meatballs to sauce; cover and simmer 20 minutes more. Add half and half, and return to a simmer. Add remaining ½ c. Parmesan, and stir until sauce is slightly thickened,
. Add drained cooked pasta and sauce to pot , and toss gently to combine. Serve with additional Parmesan.

INSALATA DI SPINACI (this is extremely easy)
Spinach salad with pine nuts

2/3c. of toasted pine nuts (I used slivered almonds because that is what i had on hand)
4 T. of red wine vinegar
Pinch of nutmeg
zest of one lemon
2 t. of salt
1. t. of pepper
½ c. of extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ pounds of baby spinach

**I also added 1 tomato and 1 avocado cut up***

In a small bowl, whisk the vinegar, nutmeg, lemon zest, salt, and pepper. When the salt has dissolved, whisk in the olive oil.
When ready to serve, whisk the dressing again. Toss with the spinach, top with the pine nuts and serve.

Successful Camping Meals

Despite the unsuccessful cake experience while camping, the rest of our meals are usually big hits. Nothing like spending the day biking to work up a good appetite! We do have some standbys that always go camping with us, so I thought I'd just share our meal plan for the week for inspiration for any of you campers out there! Nothing fancy, just what works for us.

Meal #1

Grilled Chicken and Foil Packet Veggies

cut up and refrigerate before you leave:

carrots and celery (diced)

chicken breasts into thin strips (cook faster on the grill) and put in marinade in ziploc bag, then freeze

When ready to eat, place veggies on 2 layers of heavy duty foil and dot with butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Fold up foil lengthwise, then fold up ends. Place on grill over hot coals for 30-40 minute or till veggies are tender. You may need to check them occasionally.

The chicken just needs to be slightly defrosted and then grilled till done. These cook up pretty fast since they're so small, so I usually cook the veggies till they're done, then do the chicken right before we're ready to eat. This is the only meal I took pictures of, but I will share the rest below.
Meal #2

Corn chowder and cheesy corn cakes.

I made ahead corn chowder and froze it in a ziploc bag. It heated up nicely in a large pot or you could use a crock pot if you have one. I mix up a box of Jiffy Corn Bread mix as directed (1 egg and 1/4 cup milk or water) and add in about 1 cup of shredded cheese. These I drop onto a hot oiled griddle over the fire and cook up like pancakes. They are delicious with a little butter or not on top.

Meal #3

Burgers and applesauce. Simple and yet delicious. We have a very limited number of courses in our camping meals, usually the main dish and one other thing.

Meal #4

Spaghetti. Sometimes I make this up ahead of time at home and freeze it, other times I boil the noodles at the campsite and dump sauce on them once cooked. Sometimes I will brown some ground beef or sausage at home and then freeze it and add to the spaghetti. I serve this with a bagged salad on the side. The best part of this meal is the bread, buttered and toasted over the fire. Don't forget the parmesan, i did!!!

Meal #5

Chili Mac

Make a box of Kraft or Velveeta Mac& Cheese (with the cheese in the foil pouch). Dump in a can of chili (we like it with NO beans). Mix up and eat. We ONLY eat this when camping, all other times it just doesn't sound good at all, but we love it when outside!

Dutch Oven Recipe Gone Bad!

We celebrated Dennis' birthday while we were camping and decided to try and make him a birthday cake in a dutch oven in the coals of the fire. I researched and found what seemed to be the best recipe for cooking a cake in a dutch oven over coals. Pretty much we mixed up the cake, poured it into a foil lined dutch oven, put on the lid and put it in the hot coals with coals heaped up on top (see above picture). The recipe said to keep it nice and hot and leave it in for an hour and then check it. I dont' know what size cake they were baking (it must have been monstrous!) because we took ours out after 45 min. because it was smoking. Good thing we did...the cast iron dutch oven was literally glowing red with heat. The cake inside was not only burnt to a crisp, but it had actually turned into hot red embers itself! I wish you could have seen it... I didn't take any more pictures because we were so worried the kids would come in contact with the cast iron. I think it could have cooked for 10 minutes and have been done!

Alas, no birthday cake for Dennis!

The next night I tried out a brownie mix and left it in for about 20 minutes and did not put it in coals that were any where near as hot, and it still came out burnt on the bottom. Either cakes in a dutch oven are lousy, or we are doing something wrong. Anyways, it was fun experiementing!