Brussel Sprouts Salad

Took about 15-20 blanched Brussel sprouts and thinly sliced them

Had one roasted chicken breast to use up so chunked that (another time I might substitute cashews or some other nut)

Found about 1/3 dried craisins and mixed those in with the first two ingredients. 

Added about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of chopped purple onion

Made a dressing of a heaping half cup of DUKE'S mayonnaise and about 1 or 2 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. 

Finely chopped about a Tablespoon or two of sweetened, dried ginger slices and tossed those in with salt and pepper to taste.

YUMMY salad!

Cleaning that old silver

 Here's one link I found after my sister showed me what a great hack this was. Just got things shining for Christmas, including some silver ornaments. How to Polish Silverware in 5 Minutes or Less | Taste of Home

Roasted Cauliflower Soup

This was fantastic. I had a quart of fresh chicken broth in the refrigerator and I substituted it for the vegetable broth.

Later I mixed the leftovers with leftovers of theArtichoke Parmesan Chicken recipe  that we've discovered, added more lemon juice, a can of great northern beans, a cup of fresh frozen corn from the farm cob, and served it with chopped green onion and more parm cheese. Yum!

2017 Sardine Supper Salad

On heavy antibiotics for an infected finger, I'm trying to keep our diet high in probiotics. So this is the salad we just enjoyed for dinner and hope to repeat it. 

Shaved or shredded fresh cabbage--1 to 2 cups, each plate
Thinly sliced purple onion--just a dozen various sized rings, each plate
Sauerkraut--2 to 3 Tablespoons per salad
Vigo Imported Sardines in soybean & olive oil--1/2 to 1 4-3/8 oz. tin per plate
French Fried Onions--1/3 to 1/2 cup as garnish
Assorted olives

Dressing for two salads: 1/4 c sauerkraut juice, 1/3  c mayo, 1/3 c greek yogurt, one clove fresh garlic crushed, black pepper to taste

I layered the fresh cabbage, onion rings, and dressing twice before topping the salad plates with the sauerkraut, sardines, a garnish row of french fried onions, and the rest of the dressing. Garnish with olives.

Sweet and spicy cole slaw

Invented a delicious coleslaw to go with our fried cheese eggs and sausage-cheese muffins for last night's supper.

Finely shred a quarter of a cabbage. Add 1/2 finely shredded onion. Mix together about two tablespoons of pepper relish and two tablespoons of white vinegar into 3/4--1 cup of mayonnaise and toss with the vegetables. Drizzle sriracha sauce on each serving.

To be repeated!

Cheesecake waffles

This just in from Kilby. 

Twice-baked Kale and Cheddar Potatoes

Today's hit lunch. 

Took two formerly baked potatoes.
Halved them and scooped out the insides.
Set the skins upside down in a baking dish, covered them with a dab of butter and broiled until brown and crispy.
Roughly chopped one scallion and one large washed Kale leaf in the food processor.
Added the potato insides, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, handful of shredded cheddar and chopped a little more.
Mixed about 2 oz. soft cream cheese and about 1/3 c. sour cream, then gently blended with the potato mixture.
Turned the skin inside up and loaded the potato mixture in each skin, sprinkling a little more cheddar on each potato.
Returned to oven and baked at 350 for another fifteen-twenty minutes.

Served with wine soaked granny smith apple slices and seedless red grapes.

Strawberry Balsamic Bacon Pizza

Okay, Kilby sent me this link and I have to post it here so I can come back to it as soon as I can make it. Reports to follow.

Sweet Potato Casserole

So I was boiling sweet potatoes for use on the Super Food Salad which I was going to make for our lunch. But then I got doing Espanol con AJ y las olivde' and they boiled to mushy! Here's what I did. They're in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes and we'll see if it is good:

Mashed two medium large skinned sweet potatoes (bet there was a cup and a half to two of potato) with two tablespoons butter, 3 egg yolks, several shakes of sea salt, large shake of cinnamon (1/2 tsp?), medium shake (1/4 tsp?) of ginger, and small shake (1/8 tsp) of cloves.

Beat till peaked the three egg whites and stirred into potato mixture about a half cup of them. Then folded in till smooth half of what remained, then folded in the rest. Piled it in a 1.5 or 2 qt buttered baking dish.

Maybe I'll reheat Sunday's pork loin roast to go with a late lunch...

Quick "Baked" Custard

My favorite breakfast in the world is French toast. Ideally, that means stale bread soaked in just eggs and milk and fried on a griddle with butter. Then, of course, smothered in syrup. But today I decided I didn't have time to wrestle with golden syrup, the only stuff I have, so I went the sugary vanilla French toast route.

But that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the cold, smooth, firm custard, dusted with nutmeg, that Miss Craig brought our family every time we were sick. That could easily be my favorite dessert in the whole world. The nostalgia and comfort-food factors rocket it up above more sophisticated cakes and mousses on my list, and I have always regretted not being able to make it just right myself.

Well maybe this isn't "just right," but it's closer than any water-bath has gotten me yet.

After I'd made enough French toast this morning, I had just the right amount of egg mixture leftover to fit into a small oven-/microwave-safe ramekin, the same kind of service Miss Craig used for her custards. A (brilliant) thought occurred to me. I've been microwaving eggs for the last few months as a mid-morning protein snack with minimal cleanup requirement, so why wouldn't I microwave this? The milk would stabilize it, I imagined; my microwaved eggs are very touchy-feely about the amount of time and power they get. (Usually I drastically overcook them.)

So into the ramekin went equal parts beaten eggs and milk, a handful of castor sugar, a dash of vanilla, and a sprinkling of nutmeg. Into the microwave went the ramekin, for 2 minutes and 30 seconds at power level 3. Out came a slightly denser version of Miss Craig's custard, piping hot and still barely jiggling.

Try it! I didn't measure anything (except I used 6 eggs for the French toast) and I had to keep my eye on the microwave while it was cooking. Your microwave is probably different to mine; just make sure not to overcook it. When it puffs up over the rim of the dish, it's done, and when it comes out it should still be wobbly and probably a little runny underneath, but that's okay: just let it sit in it's super-hot bowl or ramekin until it settles down and finishes cooking to perfection in its own heat.

White House Crackers

First experienced these amazing crackers at the White House when my sister, working there for Mr. Meese's office, and whom I was visiting, brought me a bowl of soup with these crackers from the White House Mess for lunch. They are amazing. And a little tricky to make. The recipe reproduced here is from my memory.

Brush a cookie sheet generously with butter. Butter, not margarine.
Prepare an ice bath of water and ice-cubes.
Plunge a half dozen Saltine crackers into the cold water for 30 seconds and remove, letting the water drip off of them.
Treat these soggy things gingerly so they don't fall apart.
Place crackers on cookie sheet, gently and quickly, and return to dunk more crackers, repeating the process until the cookie sheet is filled.
Gently brush tops with more butter.
Bake at 325 for over a half hour or until dried out and golden brown.

I am not sure I have either bake time or temp correct. I'll hope to edit this post when I try them again. You're welcome to change it if you have access to this blog (that would be you, daughties all), or post a comment.

Enjoy!

Kipper Rice

In honor of Christopher Bush, current resident at Bag End, I invented this recipe this past Lord's Day. A delicious side dish for turkey (which we had) or chicken. Maybe even pork chops.

1.5 c uncooked brown rice, fried in a couple tablespoons of oil until toasty
1/4 c. chopped onion and
1 stalk diced celery, sauteed in the toasting rice
4 c. turkey broth (substitute chicken broth or water)
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 T. butter
black pepper to taste

Bring to boil, cover, simmer 25 minutes.

Add 1/2 c. craisins and continue simmering another 15 minutes.

Fluff and serve.
Was delicious topped with the turkey gravy.

Peanut Butter Crackers

Kilby has posted: PBaholics, this is for us! Snappy, tasty, high-fiber, low sugar crackers, or cookies, whichever way you'd like to view them. And SO easy! This is my invention, influenced by a recipe I saw a while back for sugar free peanut butter cookies, which never turned out so hot for me. So here's my superior twist, with fewer ingredients, less work, and better results.

2 over ripe bananas
1/4 c peanut butter
1 c oats
1 t baking powder
Note: these measurements are approximate! I used 3 apple bananas, which are about half the size of a normal banana, a few spoonfuls of PB, oats and BP till it looked right. Go with your instincts.

Preheat your oven to its highest temperature.

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend till they come together in an other-worldly ball of dough. Try not to consume all the dough before you bake it.

Roll or press it out into a thin layer on a large baking sheet. You can tell if your dough is right if the consistency is not too sticky or goopy to make this an easy process.

Bake in the upper third of the oven for 5 minutes. Then turn off the oven and remove the cracker dough, which by this time should be browned on the bottom, but still soft enough for you to cut into squares of your desired size.

Return the crackers to the hot oven and leave in for up to two hours, till thoroughly cooked and dried out. Let cool completely on the counter.

If you don't eat them all instantly, you could probably store them in an airtight container for a couple weeks.

Citrus Pork & Rice

David here... tonight we were debating what to make for dinner, and decided that rather than thaw chicken, we'd use the pork loin from the fridge. I was all prepped to do mom's standard pork loin with garlic, salt, pepper and rosemary, when Leigh asked if we could work in a bunch of limes that we had. Here's what resulted, and I think I can say that this was truly the best pork loin I've ever had.

Four good sized limes

Two medium lemons

Two small oranges or clementines

4-6lb pork loin

Salt

Pepper

Garlic (I used dried minced, but fresh would be better)

Zest all the fruit rinds, and set the zest aside.

Juice all the fruit, and place in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.

Place the loin in the dish, fat side down. Add a generous amount of fresh cracked pepper, fresh cracked sea salt, and minced garlic. Add half your zest, and vigorously rub it into the pork loin. Flip the loin over, so the fat side is on the top (you want to cook it with the fat on top to keep the roast moist and flavorful). Score the fat every inch or so with a knife to allow the marinade to get down through to the meat. Prepare this side just as the other, with a generous amount of salt, pepper, and garlic. Finish by adding the second half of your zest and rub it in well.

Place the pork in the oven at 375 for 1 hour, covered with foil.

After 1 hour, remove the foil, increase the temperature to 400, and bake for an additional 30-45 minutes (or until center has reached 150-160 F).

At an appropriate time before the roast is finished, start rice cooking (approximately 30 minutes, but some rice cookers cook rice more quickly than others, so do what you know to be best for your equipment).

After you take the meat out of the oven, let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Slice the roast in 1/2" to 1" thick slices, and serve with your rice. We topped the rice with a gravy made from the drippings in the roasting pan. Just add a tablespoon of flour to the sauce and whisk briskly until thickened.

Kilby Austin's Accidental Chocolate Banana Cake with Cheating Chocolate Ganache

The story of my kitchen is much like the story of my life: "Ooh, that would be interesting, I'll try that." Thankfully, as my life has thus far not run into too many irrevocable misfortunes, my palate has not yet been utterly ruined by the continual stream of accidents coming from my oven. (Though I can remember a few brick breads in the recent past…)

Today, it was my failure to look at a recipe first while attempting to cook from a recipe. And now you know why I hate cooking from recipes. I had seven black bananas to use up before we leave on holiday in a week, and the obvious choice was banana bread--lovely, moist banana bread, ideally, flecked with chocolate chips, but here I've found that I can simply split the batter, add cocoa powder to half, and marble it. Well, to make a long story short, let's just say I didn't look at the recipe and wound up with slightly off proportions…slightly off…with a slightly loose definition of slightly…

So my next thought was brownies, but it was too late: I'd already added the baking powder. When it came out of the oven, it had puffed into the loveliest, softest chocolate cake you've ever seen, but nothing even anywhere near akin to brownies, in all their gooey glory. I despaired.

But suddenly I remembered the four guests coming for dinner and the lame plan I had concocted of serving them the last stale oatmeal cookies for a farcical dessert in a thinly veiled attempt to use up the rest of the food I've got stored in the house before leaving. By a trick of imagination, the failed banana-bread-turned-banana-brownies-turned-banana-cake became chocolate cake simply by the addition of icing.

Here's where it gets good: I also had a little tub of sweetened condensed milk in the fridge, too little to use for any decent recipe, too much to just eat up with a spoon. Well, for any normal human being to eat up with a spoon. Anyway, I decided maybe I could just add cocoa powder to that caramelly sludge…

And miraculously, it worked. It took two tablespoons of cocoa, thirty seconds in the microwave, and my banana chocolate cake is covered with thick, creamy chocolate ganache, the biggest cheat in the history of cooking.

So here's what I'm pretty sure is the recipe.


Chocolate Banana Cake
7 ripe or overripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sugar
.5 cup butter, softened or melted
4 eggs
.25 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
pinch salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1.5 cups flour
Preheat oven to 400º and grease or butter a 9x13 casserole or cake pan. Mix together bananas, sugar, butter, and eggs till well combined; stir in cocoa powder. Sift together dry ingredients, then add. Pour batter into pan, bake for 30 minutes, or until risen and set.


Chocolate Ganache
6-12 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1-2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Microwave the sweetened condensed milk on high for thirty seconds, then stir in cocoa powder with a spoon. Spread over the top of any cake for quick frosting.