Canning Plum Jam and Making Plum Liquor from "FREE" Plums

I never turn down free food!

The outlaws gave me three sacks, full of red plums Friday,

today I made plum jam, plum liquor and plum cordial.

My plum trees are producing but ther're still young,

the outlaws have a gigantor tree!!!

I did a traditional plum jam recipe "twice" and still had plums
left over. Nineteen jars of jam later I had to get creative.

There's only so much jam a person needs so...

I was "forced" to make other stuff.

Who doesn't enjoy a cordial every once in awhile?

This isn't the first time I've made spirits and I'm sure it wont be the last!

I have a vintage cookbook that covers cordials, brandy, wines, weird pickles,

and all kinds of old school recipes, it's pretty cool!





The old school cookbook had me layering 

sugar and plums (stones too) starting and ending with the sugar. (first jar)

I cut the plums in half just to get more surface area exposed to the sugar.

Six months from now I shall have plum cordial.

Second and third jars are the rum plum.

Second jar is a half gallon, second hand store score!

Plum brandy in my sun tea jar



Googled plum liquor and got this recipe.

Plum Liquor

Ingredients

16 cups plums

4 cups sugar

3 cups dark rum

Instructions

Wash and quarter plums and place in a mason jar.

Add the rum and sugar, turn once a day to dissolve the sugar.

Filter out the fruit after 15 days and enjoy.

I halved the recipe, had a bit of dark and light rum so I mixed them.

Did a quarter batch with brandy.
The rums and brandy have been sitting around for awhile so what better way to move them out?
I did save the bottles to decant into though.

Old school cookbook!

I love this cookbook, there's even a recipe for watermelon rind, sweet pickles.

Pretty tasty!

Are you getting creative with your canning?

If so please share:-)

Till next time,

Bonjour

Turkey And Dressing In March? Why Not?

Been mostly puttering around today.

 Finished off a few painting projects, did laundry, housework, read a few blogs,

looked at more decorating ideas at BHG.com

You know...day off stuff.

I've been thinking about making turkey and dressing

 so I decided today is the day.

Now don't misunderstand, I'm not cooking the full blown turkey day meal.

I have some leftover turkey in the freezer,
even found a couple 1/2 pint mason jars of turkey stock,

 so I'm going to improvise.

What I'm going to do is make the dressing and add chopped turkey to it.

Trust me...I've made this before.

The turkey is thawing and the freezer bag of veggie ends

(onion skins, celery ends, garlic peels) are in a pot with water, gently simmering.

Crap.... only found a few slices of bread in the freezer and no cornbread.
Texans need cornbread in their dressing!

OK...

I made some foccacia dough in the bread machine,

whipped up a double batch of cornbread batter and both are in the oven baking.

The extra cornbread will go great with beans and rice

and the extra bread is good all by itself!.

The slightly wilted celery, an onion, a couple of pepperoncini and some garlic

are chopped and waiting to be sautéed.

OK, breads are out of the oven, lets get this done!
(I oiled the foccacia bread and added herbs to the top).

1. Drain the solids off the veggie stock,

add the turkey stock to the veggie stock and set aside.

2. Cube up about 5 cups of the two breads, put in a large bowl and set aside.

(I usually do equal amounts of each bread).

3. Cube the turkey and set aside.

4. Sautee the chopped veggies.

This is where it all comes together.

5. Throw a handful of dried herbs into the bread bowl, your choice.

Add the sautéed veggies and mix.
Add the cubed turkey and mix.
Add the stock to your desired wetness, I like mine on the wet side.
Pour into an oiled 9 x 13 baking dish.
Bake uncovered at 325° for 1 hour.
You could even sprinkle on some grated cheese
in the last 15 minutes of baking, but
I think I'm going to make gravy with the leftover stock.

There you have it, turkey and dressing with very little fuss!

I'm off to Canton Trade Days tomorrow,
I don't need anything but you never know....

Till next time,
Bonjour

Seeking, Searching - Finding

Sorted & labeled

Well...

I've been searching for a good muffin recipe and google was not being very helpful.

I kept getting sweet muffin recipes, what I wanted was savory.

I guess it helps if you put savory in your search criteria.

 Cheese, bacon, corn, all very good

but not what I wanted either.

It finally hit me, try herb.

Better, but not great.

Then I found a plain muffin recipe at all recipes.com with suggestions on fillings.

They were mostly sweet suggestions but at least I had a place to start.

They're called Best Ever Muffins, and I have to agree.

They baked up more like a biscuit than a cupcake or muffin,

but were still moist and light.

I did five variations, two with herbs and three with sweets. All mini muffins.

1. dill & red pepper flakes

2. rosemary, onion flakes & parmesan cheese

3. poppy seeds & raspberry jalapeño jam

4. nutmeg, cinnamon & carrot cake jam

5. nutmeg, cinnamon & quartered, large gumdrops

Numbers 3,4,5 - I put a small amount of batter into the cups first,

then the jam/gumdrop, then filled with more batter. I only used a scant

 teaspoon of the jams, or at least tried to.

Here's the recipe if you're interested.

Best Ever Muffins

2 cups flour                                                                                                 1 egg
3 tsp. baking powder                                                                                1 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt                                                                                                 1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar (I cut the sugar to 1/4 cup on all variations)

1. Preheat oven to 400° 
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt & sugar in a large mixing bowl (add herbs if using).

Make a well in the center. Set aside.

3. In a glass measuring cup add the milk, oil & egg. Blend together.

(I added the milk first to the 1 cup measurement, then the oil till  the liquid was at 1 1/4 cups then the egg.

Saves washing so many utensils)!

4. Pour the wet into the dry & mix lightly, should be lumpy.

5. Spoon batter into oiled or paper lined muffin cups.

6. Bake for 25 minutes for regular size, 20 minutes for minis.

7. Remove pan from the oven onto a sturdy wire rack, let sit for 5 minutes, 

 then remove muffins from pan to a cooling rack.



In progress

The jams were made by my friend Loretta, (traded soap).



If you happen to be on my Christmas list....

 I guess you know what you're gettingJTJTJ

Till next time,

Make some expresso and taste test!
Bonjour

P.S. Was meeting someone at What-A-Burger

to deliver soap & saw this in the backseat of a guys car.

Giant piñata?

He was from Michigan.

WHAT???

What Have I Been Up To?

This!!!

Product

Well let me just say, I've been a very busy bee.

The last few months I've been ramping up soap production

in anticipation of our fall shows. That done, next on the list

was all the of the other products.

I've finished the bath oils, lip balms and bath teas

now all I need are the body butters.

The jars came in yesterday so I'll be tackling those on Saturday.

I try to time everything out so that when I go to the shows

everything is as fresh as possible.

 Our first show is October 8th which is just around the corner!

We've been doing a bit of canning too.

Darn dial up, kicked me off, where was I?

Oh yeah, canning.

Sunday we pressure canned about 8 -1/2 pints of cooked beef

and at least that much or more of corn.

When the sweet potatoes go on sale at thanksgiving

I plan on making sweet potato butter.

Beverly, at Beverly's back porch posted a recipe

that really sounds yummy!

Here's her link.

http://beverlysbackporch.blogspot.com/2011/09/sweet-potato-butter.html

Time to make more business cards and all the other paperwork

that goes with doing shows.

Till next time,

Bonjour

I killed The Mailbox

Yesterday my local market was advertising

chicken thighs and legs for .69 a pound and pork roast for $1.68 a pound,

both great prices so I was all over it.

Steve and I headed into town to take advantage.

We made it to the store, loaded up on the deals and

proceded to the checkout.

OOPSIE!!!

No checkbook, no ATM card, no cash.

Crap!

I explain the circumstances to the clerk and ask,

 "can you wheel our cart into the cooler till we get back"?

"No problem she says".

Well....

We get back home and hubby says

"just pull in the drive and I'll walk to the house so we don't have to open the gate".

10 minutes later...

Checkbook in hand, he hops back into the truck and I back out.

Let me just say,

I've never backed out of the driveway before.

Seems there's a mailbox right behind the driveway!

I know it only brings bills but let's have a little respect!

So what we ended up with was,

what should have been a 24 mile drive turned into

a 48 mile drive and one dead mailbox!

I guess we paid a little more for the "deals" than we expected.



Till next time, be kind to your mailbox,

Bonjour

Pancake Zingers

Pancake Zingers

?????

You might be asking,

what are Pancake Zingers?

Well, I'll be glad to tell you!

They're a full meal deal.
 Meat, veggies and sometimes cheese,

all combined to make a yummy disk shaped treat!

No syrup needed!

I'm always searching for food to go.

I have to leave for work early in the AM

so on the road food is my only choice.

I try not to do the fast food places,

not good for my health or my pocketbook.

So here goes.

These are delicious.

Pancake Zingers

Ingridents for the filling:

1 small onion, minced

2 ribs celery plus some leaves, minced

1 small bell pepper, minced (any color)

1 small roma tomato, minced
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup cooked ham, minced

oil for sautéing

Ingredients for the batter:
1 cup flour
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
2 tbsp. cooking oil

Directions for the filling:

Heat oil in a sauté pan, (about two turns of the pan)

add onion, celery, bell pepper and tomato.
Sauté  till limp, then add the garlic clove and ham.
Warm through.
Remove from the heat.

Directions for the batter:
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Mix well.
In a large measuring cup, measure milk first, then add the egg, then the oil. Blend.

Add the liquid to the dry, lightly mixing. Now add your sautéed veggie/meat mixture.
At this point you can add any grated cheese of your choice, about 1/4 cup.
Use a light hand to incorporate.
Let the mixture sit a few while you're heating your griddle.

When a few drops of water dance on the griddle you're ready to go.
I use a small gravy ladle to spoon out my batter, and I can fit three cakes on my griddle.
(I have a seasoned cast iron griddle so there's really no need to grease the pan).
When bubbles form on the top of the cakes, flip and cook for another a minute or so.
Remove to a platter and continue on.
Makes about fifteen cakes.

You could sub cooked ground pork, diced cooked chicken or any meat of your choice.

I package these up three to a baggie and eat them cold.

Sweet and savory!

If you have any suggestions for one handed, on the road food, let me know.

I'm always looking for something different!

I mean it!!!

Till next time,

Bonjour

No Rain, No Problem! Farmer's Market To The Rescue!!!

So....

Since we had to quit the garden
 due to the  no rain issues/fines for using too much water,

a trip to the farmer's market on Friday was in order.

There was no arm twisting involved, I love to go,

only,
 I would rather not have to buy my produce.

Oh well,

the bright side is,

 I'm helping out a south or East Texas farmer.

(Gotta take the positive notes where you can)!

Anyway...

We scored about 20 lbs of roma tomatoes for $8.00

4 giant, red bell peppers for $1.00

okra @ $3.oo a pint (got 2)

green beans @ $3.00 a pint ( got 2 also)

new potatoes @ $2.00 for 2 pints

and, 2 fairly large cantaloupe for $5.00

Some of the goodies

Not too bad, especially compared to the supermarket!

We canned some of the okra yesterday for Steve's mom

and saved the rest to fry.
We'll do that on Sunday.

My Steve does enjoy his fried okra!

He also enjoys green beans and new potatoes,

Sunday on that one also.

Today I got started on or meals for the week.

First up was spinach/lasagna roll ups from Rachel Ray's kid cookbook.

Rachel Ray's cookbook

Naturally, I put my own spin on the recipe using ingredients I already had on hand.

Here's my take!!

Mince, mince, chop!

Ingredients:

1 small onion, minced

3 ribs celery, with some leaves, minced

1 red bell pepper, minced
1 roma tomato, seeded and minced

1 package spinach, drained and chopped (about one lb.)

(I had a package of blanched mixed greens in the freezer, swiss chard, spinach and beet greens)

about a 3/4  lb. of queso fresco, divided use (fetta or ricotta would work)

medium thick rue, about 1 and 1/2 cups  divided use (made with turkey broth)

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

6 lasagna noodles, cooked, rinsed and drained

olive oil for sautéing

Directions:

Sautee first 3 ingredients in heated olive oil about 7 minutes.

Add spinach/greens, 1/4 lb. queso fresco, 1/2 cup rue and nutmeg.

Stay with the skillet at this point.

Cook, stirring until queso fresco starts to melt.

Remove from heat.

Lay out your cooked lasagna noodles on a cutting board.

With a rubber spatula coat the noodles with your spinach/queso fresco mixture.
I added extra, crumbled, queso fresco at this stage, a little for each roll up.

Fill and roll up all noodles and place seam side down in a casserole dish.

Time To Roll!!!

Spoon extra rue over the rolled noodles, sprinkle with extra queso fresco or parmesan cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree oven till cheese melts and noodles heat through. About 15 minutes.

When I make these in the summer I stop at the baking step. I just cover the casserole dish with plastic wrap and pop in the fridge. When ready to eat just spoon out a noodle or two and microwave.

Great for gourmet, lunch box treats !!!

Yummo!!!

I'm curious...

Have you been restricted on your water usage,

fined for using too much?

Do you  recycle your water when possible?

Tomorrow we'll be canning the tomatoes,

frying okra and making the green beans and new potatoes.

Till next time,

Bonjour

Crispy Breakfast Tacos To Go

Have some leftovers?

Need a good breakfast meal?

Good, because I have one!

I was watching PBS a few weeks ago

and they were featuring Pati's Mexican Table.

If it's Mexican, I'm in!!!

This is the original recipe,

POTATO, SCALLION, & CHORIZO CRISPY TACOS

Naturally, I only had a few of the ingredients,

 but hey, I can improvise!

OK, here goes...

Filling Ingredients:

3 medium potatoes, boiled. Cool, and cut into cubes (skins on or off, your choice)

about 1/2 pound cooked pork roast, minced

1 small onion, minced

3 or 4 ribs of celery, minced (use some leaves too)

2  roma tomatoes, seeds removed and minced

(after mincing I put them into a strainer to drain off the liquid)

oil for sautéing  (3 turns of the pan)

oil for frying ( about 1")

about 12 corn tortillas

Seasonings, I used salt, lemon pepper, mexican oregano and cumin

Directions:

Sautee onions, celery  and tomatoes in oil about 5 minutes.

Add pork roast.

Heat roast/veggie mixture about 4 minutes.

Add potatoes.

Mash everything together with your potato masher or a large spoon.

You now have something that resembles hash.

Remove from heat.

Fan your tortillas on a plate, dome with another plate and warm in microwave for about 4 minutes.

Now we're ready to roll!!!

Spread a few tablespoons of the potato, veggie, meat mixture on the tortilla and roll up cigar style.

Secure end with a toothpick.

Securing, safety pin style

Patti suggested picking 2 together. I tried that the first time.

Second time I ran a tooth pick through them each individually.

This time I used the toothpick like a safety pin, worked much better!

Frying, cast iron style



Fry them up in about 1' of hot oil, (about 350 degrees), turning once, until they're lightly browned.

Use tongs to remove from pan.

When you're removing them from the pan, tilt slightly to drain off  the excess oil.

Place on a paper towel lined platter.

Draining on vintage platter

You can also bake these.
Temps here are still in the 100's plus, so baking is not an option right now.

These are yummy hot or cold.

I package them up 3 to a zip baggie, makes 4 breakfast meals.

If you are eating these at home, try dipping in some sour cream and salsa, even better!

Tomorrow I'm off to get this hair cut.

17" of ponytail is more than enough for Locks of Love!

New do in the works!!!

 

Nathan says "hi" to everyone, he's missing our cooking together!

 

The next Iron Chef?

Till next time,
Bonjour

Sue's Cabbage Slaw And Thievery!!!

So.....

I'm hearing Rambo First Blood in my background,

(Steve)

while I'm thinking about tomorrow's agenda.

My daughter Ginger, her son Nathan and I have plans

to garage- sail tomorrow.

We need to replace his bicycle that was stolen.

Hopefully we can find one that's not to expensive.

 I also need to school him on the proper security of said bike!!!

Where and when I grew up this was not an issue, times have sadly changed.

Anyway...

Sue, here's the recipe.....

Jerry's Ramen Salad

Ingredients:

1 small head cabbage

1 diced bell pepper (any color)

3 stalks diced celery

4 chopped green onions

1 cup toasted nuts (any variety)

2 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

2 packages ramen noodles, lightly smashed

4 Tbsp. sugar

6 Tbsp vinegar (any variety)

1 cup oil (any variety)

salt and pepper to taste

2 ramen spice packets

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Sometimes I add grated carrots, raisins, chopped apricots ETC... Use your imagination.

Till next time,

Bonjour

Time For Me?

Oh My, Busy, Busy Bee....

Soap shows are over till fall, no more late night product making....

I'm out of, or near out of several soaps but that can be rectified in a day or two!

(Like Tomorrow and Sunday).

Time to concentrate my energies on other endeavors!!!

Cooking, painting, redoing?

Let's start with cooking.



Nathan holding his cookbook



As I've had time Nathan and I have been working our way

through the cookbook 

Rachel Ray 30- Minute Meals For Kids.

A gift from his Aunt Heather.

We've done several recipes in the book but Nate keeps going back

 to the Shrimp Scampi recipe.

Nathan, shrimp is $6.99 a pound, let's try it with chicken!

OK then!

Today we tried altering the recipe to use chicken.

The original recipe goes like this.

RECIPE

1 pound angel hair pasta/ we used thin, whole wheat spaghetti

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tbsps EVOO

3 tbsps butter/ we just used more EVOO

1 lb. shrimp/ we used 1 lb. cubed chicken breast 

1 cup chicken stock/ we had canned turkey stock

4-5 blades fresh chives, snipped/ we used dried, ground rosemary, dill, lemon balm and chocolate mint

A hand full of fresh parsley/ we used fresh lemon balm

tablespoon or two of flour, (not in the original recipe)

Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Bring a pot of water to boil, add pasta.

Cook pasta aldente. Drain.

Heat oil in saucepan and add dried herbs.

Sautee herbs about 2 minutes then add cubed chicken.

Cook chicken until almost done then add chopped garlic. 

Sautee about 2 minutes.

Add flour and cook for another 2 or so minutes.

Add the stock and  raise heat up to a boil.

( May need to add some water to mixture depending on how thick or thin you want your sauce to be).

Remove the pan from the heat and add the drained pasta.

Stir/toss to incorporate.

Garnish with fresh snipped/chopped lemon balm.

Serve with toasted, buttered herb bread.

YUMMO!!!!!

Chicken was $1.97 lb., boneless, skinless.

Pasta was $1.00 lb.

Surprisingly inexpensive for several gourmet lunch box treats.

What do you think, would you make this recipe?

Would you change anything?

I think we'll make chicken toes next!

Till next time...

Bonjour

Mock Fried Meat Pies

Let me tell you....

Texas is starting to warm right on up, which means no turning on the oven.

My husband Steve AKA  the fruit tree guy, has been selling fruit trees like crazy.

Not just your normal ones either,

customers are looking for things like Quince, Mulberry, Persimmon, Pomogranate....

He's been doing a lot of Goggling and phone calling to find these unusual

(at least around here) types of trees.

He's a very busy guy in the spring.

Did I forget to mention he works at a nursery?

What does this have to do with ovens and meat pies you might ask?

There's no time for him to eat....

I'm not kidding, no sitting down with a plate or fork.

He needs portable food, something he can eat on the go.

So on my days off I've been making him big batches of meat pies, fruit pies and fajita rolls.

I package them up into meal size portions and freeze them.

They need to be done now because in a few weeks there will be no turning the oven on.

I can do the fajitas on the grill but not the meat or fruit pies.

Anyway, that's what I've been doing instead of blogging, (oh yeah, I've been making soap too).



FRESH BAKED PIES



 I call them mock fried pies because I bake them instead of frying them.

I lightly oil the cookie sheet, lay down the pies,

brush the tops with oil, bake for 10 minutes,

flip and bake for another 10 minutes.

They come out nicely browned on both sides.

All they consist of is meat mixed with veggies and gravy in a pie crust round.



CUTTING ROUNDS WITH A CEREAL BOWL

 I do a double pie crust recipe times 4, roll it out, cut it into rounds,

then fill, fold in half, seal. and bake.

Basically I'm doing  hand held pot pies.

(I add chopped herbs to my pie dough for added zing)

The fruit ones are made from canned fruit preserves that are heated

and thickened with corn starch.

This last batch of fruit pies was made with papaya/cantaloupe preserves.

The fajita rolls are cheese, sautéed meat and veggies rolled up

in a flour tortilla and packaged the same as the meat pies.

(Forgot to photo those).

About 45 sec. in the microwave and he's good to go.

A lot of work but worth it.

Nathan helped me make these,

he's learning how to stay away from the fast food places.

After we finished our baking,

Nathan and I took a walk down to the creek for a little R&R.

The scenery was nice as was the quiet.

 (As much quiet you can  get with a 12 year old anyway)!





NEIGHBOURS COW





CHECK OUT THE BARBED WIRE REFLECTION ON THIS COW



NATHAN CLEANING HIS FOUND SHELLS



NATHAN EXPLORING

We found shells and some cool rocks at the creek.

Nathan and I are big rock collectors.

We stayed for about an hour or so at the creek then it was back to the Casa

to fry up some fish and hush puppies.

I'm telling you, we are some food cooking fools here.

It was a lovely day spent working and playing with my grandson.

Hopefully he will know something other than fast food and video games!!!

WELL,

It's way past my bed time, so......

Till next time,

Bonjour

G Is For Good Food

Well....

 I'm not poisoning anyone just yet.

Friday was market day, my local AD  featured

boneless, skinless chicken breast for $1.99 per lb.

and whole pork loin for $2.50 per lb.

Where is the chicken breast I ask the meat guy?

OH, we don't have "that here" he says.

Well, I got the "AD here" I say...

Humm, he says.

Humm I say.

Now he's lost!

What do you have that's comparable I ask?

(I'm not afraid to ask the tough questions.)

After a little hide and seek we worked it out!!!

Came home with  2 1/2 lbs of chicken breast

 and about 7 lbs. of center cut pork loin.

They also advertised a 5 lb. bag of flour for $1.79,

the shelf was empty but....

the 25 lb. bag was $7.42,

$1.49 per lb. not a bad price, but not great either.

Also bought a whole chicken for $.89 per lb.

Cut  the pork loin into roast size pieces and wrapped for the freezer,

cut and wrapped a few less thick pieces for steaks on the grill.  

The chicken breasts were sautéed for fajitas,

the whole chicken, one of the pork roasts 

along with potatoes and carrots, were baked in my electric roaster.

Most of it was packaged (in meal size portions) for freezing.

 The rest  was to be filling for fried meat pies for Steve's lunches.

And since it's almost 9:30

on a school work night, I'll tell you about the

fake, fried meat pies later.

No poison involved!



Till next time,

Bonjour

DIY Sweetened Condensed Milk

So....

I love myself a good cup of coffee.

 Not black, a good caramel color suits me.

I've probably been drinking coffee since I was about 5.

Mom and Dad were big coffee drinkers, they liked theirs with cream and sugar.

So, naturally that's how I like mine...... sort of.

I prefer the flavored coffee creamers as I've mentioned before.

Way too expensive... with ingredients I can't pronounce!!!!

A while back I posted a homemade coffee creamer recipe that is quite tasty.

But, me being me, I pondered, can I make this any cheaper less expensive?

Google was employed once again.

"How to make sweetened condensed milk?"

Success, I found a few recipes.

One was based on dry milk, another on whole milk.

I went with the whole milk recipe.

So I did the math,

is it really cheaper less expensive 

to make your own sweetened condensed milk?

Oh yes!!!

The Math...

Milk-$1.88 per gal. = .0146875 per ounce x 6 cups (48 oz.) = .705

Sugar-$1.94 per 4 lb (9 cups per bag). = .2155555 per cup x 4 1/2 cups = .9699997

Total per batch = $1.6749997

YIELD 4 1/2 cups total  (36 oz.) = .0465277 per oz.

Market price for 14 oz. can $1.36 = .0971428 per oz.

This doesn't factor in the electricity $$$ (Way too much math!!!)

So, if your interested here's the recipe.

Yield 4 1/2 cups

6 cups whole milk

4 1/2 cups sugar

Heat milk and sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat stirring to incorporate.

When the sugar is dissolved raise the heat to medium high and hold at a simmer, stirring frequently.

(Don't let it stick to the bottom of the pan)

Cook for about 1 hour. The milk will thicken and turn to a beige/light tan color. Strain and cool.

(I didn't have any lumps so I don't know why they included the strain step??)
This will keep in the fridge for several weeks.

I wonder, if you used a double boiler, would it be less needy?

Also found a recipe for making homemade lemon pepper seasoning.

Nathan loves lemon pepper!!!

Till next time,

Bonjour

Rosemary and Parmesan Madeleines



ROSEMARY AND PARMESIAN MADELEINES

 

Don't Panic....

I got the butter scraped up and
the oven is as good as new!

Another vacation day, can't get out, icy and freezing in north Texas.
Some baking is in order.

I saw this picture on Lorrie's blog a few weeks ago and thought
this sounds good, maybe I'll give it a try.
She didn't list a recipe so today
 I googled and found one at Williams - Sonoma along with the picture.
I don't have a madeleine pan but
I do have corn stick pans, just as good I'm thinking.

So....I'm going over the list of ingredients,
have everything except the cake flour.
What's the difference between cake flour and all purpose flour I ask myself?
Another trip to the computer.
Seems cake flour has less protein (8% or less)  and is made from the softer endosperm of the wheat.
 All purpose (10% protein) is a mix of hard and soft wheat. Bla, bla, bla.
Humm...
Is there a substitute?
More googling!
Why yes, there is.
For 1 cup of cake flour you can substitute
7/8 cup all purpose flour with 1/8 cup cornstarch.
Ok then.
Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

1 cup cake flour

3 tsp. finely minced fresh rosemary

(I am not going outside to clip rosemary, dry, smooshed is good enough.)

1 tsp. fleur de sel (very expensive salt, normal sea salt will have to do!)

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper (I used lemon pepper instead.)

4 eggs

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

2 Tbs. sugar

1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°

Brush two madeleine corn stick pans with 2 Tbs. of the butter, set aside.

Sift the cake flour into a bowl and gently stir in the rosemary, salt and pepper, set aside.

In your mixing bowl wisk the eggs until fluffy. Add the cream of tartar and sugar. Wisk some more.

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the flour and cheese, then fold in the remaining butter.

Spoon the batter into the buttered molds so the batter is even with the rims.

(Keep in mind, I'm using corn stick pans so there was no spooning, I had to scrape it off the spatula then spread it with a  table knife. Very thick batter!)

Bake for about 12 minutes. Immediately remove from the pans and cool on a wire rack.

Sounds easy enough, right?

WRONG!!!!

BUBBLING, BUTTERY MESS!!!

I'm sitting on the kitchen stool waiting, I hear sizzling, I see a flash in the oven.

What the hell heck?

Open door of oven, butter is dripping everywhere, trying to ignite the element, crap darn.

Smoke alarm goes off!!!

Quickly get the cookie sheets out and put the stick pans on top of those.

Back into the oven they go. (gotta keep that smoke contained)

Smoke alarm stops.

After about 15 minutes total I guessed they were done,

it was hard to tell with all that butter floating on top!

There was no quickly transferring to a wire rack happening,

more like wait a few till all that butter stopped bubbling.

Meanwhile I'm waiting for the oven to cool so I could scrape up the butter.

They taste ok, a little heavy, and suprisingly, buttery.

Probably would have been better if I'd used cake flour.

After more googling I found that cake flour is better able to absorb fats,

maybe I should have paid attention to the bla,bla,bla?

Steve faired better with his Confetti Corn Bread.

CORNBREAD WITH GRATED CARROTS, CHOPPED ONION AND JALAPENOS

I will try this recipe again, only next time, WITH cake flour.
Hope your day is going better than mine.

Till next time,
Bonjour

Thanksgiving Menu

Yummy O...



BURST BABY BURST



BERRY GOODNESS



I love the holidays, family, food, fun and frivolity. (My favorite F words)

We are having our feast at my house, as the trip to Louisiana didn't quite work out.

I thought I might share our menu and a recipe.

Appetizers

Deviled Eggs

Raw Veggies With Dip

Meat

Turkey

Ham

Veggies  & Sides

Mashed Potatoes

Gravy

Broccoli, Rice Casserole

Corn Pudding

Dressing (Texas style)

Cranberry Jelly ( Made that yesterday)

Mashed Sweet Potatoes (Don't like candied)

Dessert

Banana, strawberry Cobbler

Squash Pie

Beverage

Iced Tea

Cool Aid

Coffee

I know it sounds like a lot of food but everyone takes some home. I swear.

This recipe is my mother-in-law's, she makes it every holiday and it's a big hit.

Baked Corn Pudding

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter (melted)

1 (8 1/2 oz.) box cornbread mix

1 can (about 15 oz.) whole corn, drained

1 can (about 15 oz.) cream style corn

1 cup sour cream

Directions: Preheat to 350

Brush a 3 quart baking dish with some of the butter and set aside.

In a mixing bowl combine the remainder of the butter with the rest of the ingredients.

Mix well, pour into the baking dish.

Bake @ 350 for about 50 to 55 minutes.

The top will be golden and crusty, let it rest for about 10 minutes then serve.

Super good!!!

What are your favorite holiday recipes?

Please feel free to share as I am always looking for new eats!!!

Till next time,

Bonjour