Apple Cider Syrup

Oh, friends.  This is heaven.  Heaven heaven heaven.  We made if for breakfast this morning and oh my goodness.  This is going to be a fall staple in our house now.  It tastes like you’re eating an apple pie, minus the apples and crust.  We used it on waffles, but have plans to use it as an ice cream topping, and who knows what else.  SO GOOD.  Thank you Melanie at Sisters Cafe for the recipe.  She also has a pumpkin pancake recipe on the same post that I think it would be fabulous paired with.

3/4 Cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 TBs cornstarch
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 cups fresh apple cider (or juice would work)
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup butter

Mix sugars, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg well. Add apple cider, vanilla and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Store leftovers in the refrigerator, use within a week or two.

Michelle’s Pumpkin Cookies

These are really good – light, not overly pumpkin.

Mix together:
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin
Add in and mix
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 t soda
1 t EACH cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves (or 3 t pumpkin pie spice instead)
Add in and mix
2 1/2 cups flour

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes

They’re fabulous just like that, but you can add the frosting if you like
4 cups powdered sugar
6 T milk
2 T melted butter
2 t vanilla

Two Notes

1 – I know I’m not the only person sad that Cafe Johnsonia is closing up shop.  She is leaving her blog up for one week only so we can all copy those recipes you might have bookmarked.  Recipe index here. Hint: her ice cream recipes are incredible.

2 – Kraft Food and Family Magazine is no Gourmet, and not even on par with Taste of Home, but I’ve still found a few good ideas in there.  The best thing about the magazine has been that it is FREE  (because it’s all advertising).  I was surprised to get a note on my last issue I received a few days ago that this is my last “free” issue, and I can keep receiving it for something like $7 or $8 a year.  Not going to happen.  Do they think we’re going to pay real money for a “magazine” that is all advertising and includes recipes for grilled cheese sandwiches (and not the fancy variety – we’re talking white bread with American “cheese” here, friends).   Curious what you all think about this.  Silly, if you ask me.

Fluffy Apple Dip

I got this recipe from Real Mom Kitchen, who got it from Simple and Delicious, and I’ve made it twice since Halloween.  It’s yummy and different.

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I used 1 full teaspoon)
1 jar (7 ounces) marshmallow creme
Assorted apple wedges

In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, peanut butter and pie spice until blended; fold in marshmallow creme. Serve with apple wedges. Yield: 2 cups.

Avocado Salsa

I’d show you a picture, but when I opened the fridge this morning, the leftovers fell on the floor, scattered, and the dish broke, too.   Bummer, because this stuff is GOOD and was going to be lunch today.

2 cans diced tomatoes, mostly drained
1 can shoepeg corn (can substitute with any corn, but shoepeg is BEST), drained
1 small can chopped olives
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
2 avocadoes, chopped
4 green onions, fine chopped
1 envelope dry Italian dressing (original directions said “NOT Zesty!” but I used Zesty because it’s what I had and it was great)

juice of two limes

Toss and enjoy.

Soup Swap

I forgot to take pictures and I’m disappointed.  People brought yummy soups that I am so excited to pull out of the freezer, and we had a lot of fun visiting. I’m going to tell you what we did and what I’d do differently, if you want to plan your own swap. (and you totally should)

The directions were pretty simple: each participant needed to make 6 quarts (24 cups) of soup, and prepackaged them in 4 containers that held 6 cups of soup each (people can bring more if they want, everyone will go home with the same amount they brought). Some people brought the Ziploc type tupperwares, and a lot of people used freezer zip loc bags. Either is great. Have them label the containers clearly before coming, and bring enough copies of the recipe for each person who will be there.

After everyone gets there and you’ve all had a chance to eat some snacks and visit, we each went around and told about the soup we brought, then drew numbers to see who got to pick their soups first. We repeated the rotation until everyone took home as much soup as they brought.

What I’d do differently: Some girls suggested a great idea – have everyone bring enough soup for the swap, then extra in a container for everyone to taste before swapping. Genius. Use the mini Dixie cups for tasting. We’ll so do this next time. Also, we had some friends who wanted to come but couldn’t because of sickness, recovery from surgery – whatever. I think next time it would be great to have people bring an extra container of soup, if they can, so we can deliver it to the friends who were sick or recovering or just had a baby or fill in the blank, and couldn’t make it. Call it “Soup Swap and Service” or something. Oh – we had 10 people this week, but last time I think we had 15 or 16. I think 10-20 people works great, but you can do it with only 5!

I’ll be posting the recipes from this soup swap here. There was nothing that sounded just “fair” – everyone made recipes that I can’t wait to dig into, and there were some soups I didn’t get to take home that I was dying to try (I was #9 of 10 for picking!) that I’ll be making pronto.

Tomato-Basil Soup

My friend, Heidi, brought this soup to our soup swap this week and we LOVED it.  Nathan is a huge fan of tomato soup, but I can’t stand the stuff in the can.  This has a hint of orange that makes it more full flavored.  From the cookbook Fix, Freeze, Feast.  As written, this recipe makes 3 entrees, each which serve 4 people.

1/2 cup butter
3 cups chopped onion (about 3 medium)
1 t minced garlic (3 cloves)
3 lbs Roma tomatoes, chopped
8 c chicken broth
1 T lime juice
pinch sugar
3/4 c chopped fresh basil leaves
zest of one orange

Melt butter in stockpot over low heat.  Add onions and cook, stirring, until soft, about 15 minutes. Add garlic; cook, stirring, 2 minutes.  Add tomatoes, broth, lime juice and sugar; bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.  Stir in basil and orange zest.

Let soup cool slightly; transfer to a food processor and puree.  If you’re freezing for later, divide cooled soup into bags, seal and freeze.

 

My Recipe for Menu Planning

(reprinted from my main blog)

With my looney idea to go one whole month without eating out of any kind, I’ve needed to reaquaint myself with, oh, the kitchen.  Menu planning helps.  Last week I hadn’t planned, and one day I came oh too close to saying “forget it! we’re going out! it was a dumb idea from the start!” Nathan jumped in, suggested pancakes, and saved the day. (even though I didn’t want pancakes – I wanted BAJIO)

The next morning, I decided that getting back to planning menus would be a good idea, as it’s the only thing that keeps me from giving in.

My quick and easy recipe for planning menus right now is to have – every week -

one soup night
one pizza night
one freezer dinner night (take dinner out the night before or that morning to thaw, and just cook it that night)
and one crockpot night.

Yes, that’s only 4 nights, but it makes thinking about the other 3 so easy and planning menus anything but overwhelming. A lot of weeks, we’ll have a nice breakfast night and a taco night, too.  There – 6 nights done.

When I plan the meals, I make sure we have at least 1 vegetarian dinner, as well as 1 chicken, 1 beef and 1 fish. If I don’t think of that before hand, and go down the check list as I plan each week, we would eat chicken every single night. (or Rubios) (I wish)

I figured out a year or so ago that planning the main dish only got me into trouble every single night as I scrambled for sides.  So now I preplan side dishes for each main dish.  Usually we have 2, and this week it seems like most nights are a veggie and a bread.

Just thought I’d share what makes life easier over here.  If any of you post menus, I’d love to see and get ideas.  Leave your link in the comments.

I’ve gotten back in the habit again of posting our menu plans on this recipe blog.  I’ve found I really like going back to see what we ate at this time last year to get ideas for this year.

Pumpkin Pie Cake

We had this last night and most of us really liked it.  It’s very much like a pumpkin pie with a cake-like crust, which I like since I’m not a big fan of pie crusts.  I halved this recipe and baked it in an 8″ square pan.  When I halved it, I still used the same number of eggs in the full recipe (but  my eggs are medium sized from our own chickens).    If you do make the whole thing, it’s a lot of dessert!  I imagine it freezes well.

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow or spice cake mix
1 egg
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened

Set aside 1 cup cake mix for the topping. Combine remaining cake mix, 1 egg, and melted butter or margarine. Pat into a 9×13 inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, mix pumpkin, 2 eggs, spices, 1/2 cup sugar, and milk. Pour pumpkin mixture over the cake mix crust.

In a small bowl, combine 1 cup cake mix and 3/4 cup sugar. Cut in 1/2 cup softened butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle mixture on top of pumpkin mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 55 minutes.

Bacon, Onion and Mushroom Pizza

We really liked this.  I used a good white cheddar from Costco, and it made the pizza great.  I wouldn’t substitute with regular cheddar on this pizza.

one recipe pizza dough (OR 1 can refrigerated French bread dough, 11 oz)
2 t olive oil
2 cups vertically sliced onions (about 2 small)
1 (8 oz) pkg cremini mushrooms
1 1/2 cups (6 oz) shredded white cheddar
6 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

Stretch dough into a 12 inch round, transfer to pizza pan or large baking sheet.  Preheat oven to 425.

Add olive oil to a warm skillet and saute onion for 8 minutes.  Place onion in a bowl and add mushrooms; saute 8 minutes.  Add mushrooms to onion, toss.

Spread onion mixture over dough, leaving a 1/4″ border.  Sprinkle with white cheddar and bacon.  Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, sprinkle with parsley.

Yields 6 servings, each with 316 calories, 15 g fat, .9 g fiber (7.5 WW points)

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light, Oct 2009