Yummy Two-Minute Apple Salad

I make this salad quite often. It's one of my favorites, not just because it's so easy, but because it's truly delicious. I didn't have any pears today, so I used a variety of apples--Golden Delicious, Gala and Royal Gala.

If you have all the ingredients on hand, this literally takes two minutes. I almost always have fresh lemons in the fridge (they last forever...and I read this great tip in an old issue of the Rachael Ray magazine that said to zest the lemon, let the peels dry, then store that zest in a canning type jar, to keep it on hand for whenever you need lemon zest).

I've run the recipe before on the blog (it's on the left, under favorite recipes on this blog) but it's so stinking easy, I posted it again here:

Two-Minute Apple Salad (aka Apple-Pear Salad)

Dressing:

1 Tablespoon honey

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

dash salt

Salad:

3 apples, cored and sliced

1-2 pears, cored and sliced

1 bag salad mix (or 1 head lettuce)

1/4 cup candied walnuts (or you can use any kind of nuts you want--okay, technically if you have to make the walnuts (recipe below) this takes longer than two minutes, but read the note on storing them in the freezer)

Whisk the dressing ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the apple and pear slices and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for one hour. Serve over the salad mix and top with candied walnuts.

Candied walnuts are really easy--just roast the walnut pieces in a small nonstick pan for a minute or two. Then toss with butter and sugar and a dash of salt. You can roast them in the oven if you happen to have the oven on, but you have to keep a close eye on them because they burn easily. Most of the time I just let it cook in the pan, then drain them on a paper towel. I store the extras in the freezer, and pull them out to add to baked apples or this salad. If you don't have walnuts on hand, you can make candied pecans or use chopped honey roasted peanuts. Whatever nuts you want :-)

Shirley

Orange Marmalade Experiment

I haven't canned a whole lot so far (my first big experiment was my mom's zucchini relish) so I'm still a bit nervous when I try it. Not that it's especially hard, but there are a lot of variables to worry about.

The other day, I made the marmalade carrots...and didn't realize until after I started that I didn't have any marmalade. Since the chicken has quite an extended cooking time, I figured I could make some marmalade. Not too hard, right? Well, it wasn't. And IMO, it turned out pretty good. A bit too sweet, but I think that was because I was trying to halve Alton Brown's recipe and I was a little rushed.

Here's what I did:
Orange Marmalade
3 medium oranges
1/2 lemon, zest finely grated and juiced
3 cups water
1.75 pounds sugar

Slice the oranges into 1/8-inch slices. (A mandoline is recommended but I couldn't find mine, so I just took my time with a very sharp knife). Stack the orange slices and cut them into quarters. Put them into an 8-quart stainless steel pot, add lemon zest, juice and water. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Then reduce to a simmer and cook for 40 minutes.

Once fruit is soft, return heat to a boil, add the sugar and cook until it reaches the "jelly" stage on a candy thermometer--about 222 degrees F. This will take another 15 to 20 minutes, Then it's ready to use or can :-)

I got two pint jars out of my halving experiment. Enough, because I'm the only one who really eats marmalade around here. I've got those tiny canning jars on my list, so I can start canning more fruits and jams and hopefully a lot of spaghetti sauce when tomatoes are everywhere this summer (I still have high hopes of planting a garden...every year, I say I will and then don't, LOL).

Speaking of Alton, I wanted to mention his "I'm Just Here for the Food" book. I think I've mentioned it before, but it's really one of my go-to books for basics. He explains the science behind WHY brining works well, etc., and I like that aspect. It's kind of like his show, "Good Eats," but on paper ;-) I also picked up the latest Food Network recipe book (the one that's the collection from the magazine) and Ina Garten's "How Easy is That?" I LOVE all of Ina's cookbooks--foolproof, easy recipes that are great for entertaining.

For Easter, I'm planning on making a cherry chipolte barbecue sauce to serve with the ham. If I have time, I'll make extra to can, too. I'm also going to be baking cupcakes this week...and trying to resist the temptation to eat them all before Easter, LOL.

Shirley

Lime-Coconut Granita

This one was SUPER easy, SUPER fast and very low in calories (1/2 cup is only 85 calories). That's my kind of dessert :-)

I've never made granita before but now that I know how easy it is, I'll try other combinations. IMO, this also has a great presentation and is the perfect follow-up to a heavy dinner, so I'm putting it on my party menu list.

Lime-Coconut Granita

2 1/2 cups water

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon grated lime rind (I use a microplane)

1/2 cup fresh lime juice (2-3 large limes or 4 small)

1/2 cup lite coconut milk

Put all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer 3 minutes or until sugar dissolves, stirring often. Remove from heat and cool completely. When cool, pour into a 9 X 13" pan. Cover and freeze for 8-10 hours, or until firm. Remove from freezer, let sit on the counter for 10 minutes, then scrape mixture with a fork until fluffy (it looks like sno-cone filler).

I had this as a snack...perfect light treat for those hot days that are still lingering! :-)

Shirley

Easy & Healthy Cherry Glazed Peaches

I bought the yummiest cherries and peaches this week, and when I was looking for a side dish to bring to a family get-together, these came to mind.

I made a super simple, healthy and yummy dish. The original recipe called for tossing with the peaches, but I chose to cook them a bit in the mixture to get them nice and soft and syrupy.

I had this as a side dish, and also want to make it again to serve over chicken. I think it'd be great on top of pancakes, too. It's a dessert in and of itself, so if you're looking for a low-cal option, try this!

Cherry Glazed Peaches

1/2 pound fresh cherries, pitted

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (this will NOT make it vinegary. When you cook it down, it becomes syrupy)

1 pound fresh peaches, sliced (nectarines also work)

In a large saucepan, mix the cherries, sugar and vinegar. Bring to a boil then simmer until syrupy, about five minutes. Add the peaches, and simmer another three to four minutes, just enough to soften the peaches slightly. Pour into a serving dish and sprinkle with additional sugar if needed (all depends on how sweet your peaches are).

That's it! Easy, and yummy!

Shirley

Sugar-Free Cherry Berry Jam

There's nothing like fresh berries in the summer. When my local market put all kinds of berries on sale--cherries, blackberries and raspberries--I knew I had to make something (with the ones I didn't eat first, LOL).

So I decided on jam. All these years I've been cooking, and I've never made jam. I have no real interest in canning (I'm sure it's easy and good, and I probably should be doing it to make my life easier on busy dinner nights...but it's one more thing I don't have time for, LOL).

This recipe doesn't make a ton--just a couple of cups--so that was enough to leave in the fridge for the kids and me and also maybe to dress up a pork recipe. You can substitute real sugar in this recipe for the Splenda--I was just trying to keep the sugar and the calories down:

Sugar-Free Cherry Berry Jam

1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries

1 1/2 cups fresh blackberries

2 cups cherries, pitted

1 1/2 teapoons fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup granulated Splenda (or sugar)

Put all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Heat on medium-high until it comes to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for about 1 1/2 hours. Chill and serve (or if you're like me, spread a little of the warm jam on some toast before you put it away ;-)

Shirley

Blackberry Glazed Ham

I love ham. Not so wild about pork chops, ironically, but ham, bacon, prosciutto --everything in that family is great. So when I bought a ham this week, I was excited to roast it with a root beer glaze, something I had tried with pork chops before with great success (I still need to post that particular recipe...sorry, folks).

Anyway, when I got up this morning, I found the last can of root beer on the table. Empty.

I could have run to the store, but honestly, just for a can of soda? Instead I decided to come up with another recipe. I didn't have any apple juice, either, so that eliminated a lot of things I came across.

Then I started thinking about what I did have--and liked combining. I came up with a Blackberry Maple Mustard glaze that smelled heavenly and tasted great. I glazed the ham during the last hour, baking it uncovered for that last bit of time, and also boiled the extra glaze, to make a thick, sweet dipping sauce. On the ham, the glaze was nice and thick and caramelized nicely.

Yummy :-) I loved it, and think I might do my Christmas ham this way, too. Or some variation (though I still want to try the root beer glaze on ham). It's very easy, and I am sure would work fine with other kinds of berry jam:

Shirley's Blackberry Maple Mustard Glaze

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon mustard powder (I substitute mustard itself when I am out of this)

1/2 cup blackberry preserves/jam

That's it! I tasted it as I mixed it, and adjusted the mustard a bit. Baste the ham in the last hour of cooking, then put any extra glaze in a pan and reduce it down for a dipping sauce.

I served this with homemade mashed potatoes, and creamed corn (we were out of other veggies too. Clearly someone needs to go to the grocery store around here, LOL). Thumbs up from everyone in the family for this one.

Shirley

A Favorite Salad

Today, I made one of my favorite salads--so perfect for those crisp fall days. I didn't have any pears (well, I *thought* I didn't have any pears, then finished eating my salad and remembered I just bought pears yesterday. Duh. I need more sleep or coffee or something, LOL). I love the dressing--an easy, quick mix of 1 tablespoon honey, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Couldn't be easier to make.

This is an older photo of this salad, and doesn't show the nuts I usually toss on it. The candied walnuts are something I use pretty often, and so I keep a batch in my freezer. They add that little bit of yummy crunch :-)

Shirley

Dinner Party Success :-)

I love having people over for dinner. For one, as DH pointed out, it's a reason for both of us to finally do a few of those pesky chores we keep putting off (like planting new flowers in the front planters, or putting away the suitcases from our CA trip), and for another, it's an excuse for me to go nuts cooking :-)

We had two couples over the other night, and considering I've been away most of the summer, I was pretty excited to get out all those pots and pans and make a nice meal. I went with a healthy Italian theme (and yes, there is such a thing; meaning none of that drenched in cream and butter sauce kind of thing). I served shrimp as an appetizer, because it was quick and easy, and put the time into the meal.

Caprese Salad--using Roma tomatoes that my friend Marci gave me from her garden (so fresh and SO good), and some chunks of fresh Mozzarella I picked up at the grocery store, I assembled a Caprese Salad. It's pretty darn simple--drizzle a good quality olive oil on the bottom of the dish, top with a layer of sliced tomatoes, some freshly ground salt and pepper, and a few chunks of fresh buffalo mozzarella (the white kind, not the yellow kind). Chiffonade some fresh basil, sprinke on top. Repeat the layers. Let it sit for a little while--half hour or so--to let the flavors marry.

Then I made Roasted Broccoli, which again is very, very simple. Heat the oven to 500 degrees. Slice the broccoli florets in half (so they'll lay flat on the cookie sheet) and peel the stalks. Toss the chopped broccoli with a little olive oil, a teaspoon of sugar and a half teaspoon of kosher salt. Then roast for about 10-12 minutes, turning halfway through. Keep an eye on it--if your stalks are tiny, it might take less time.

The two dishes that took the most time were the main course and dessert (I followed Ina Garten's rule of thumb of only having one or two time-consuming dishes and making the rest easy to make so you have more time and aren't feeling insane kitchen pressure).

Chicken Saltimbocca: I used an America's Test Kitchen recipe for this one. Although they called for chicken cutlets (or pounding out chicken breasts, one of my least favorite things to do), I used tenderloins instead, making sure to cut out that one little tough tendon. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan and put the oven on 200 degrees. Dredge the breasts in a mix of flour and a bit of pepper. Chiffonade two tablespoons of sage, and slice pieces of prosciutto to fit the breasts. Sprinkle the floured breasts with the sage, top with a piece of prosciutto, and fry, prosciutto side first, until golden. Flip and fry on the other side until cooked through, then put in a pan and keep the cooked pieces warm in the oven as you cook the others. (I apologize that some of my pictures aren't the best but I was trying to get dinner on the table, LOL).

When you're done, use the same pan to cook the sauce: Pour in 1 1/4 cups of white wine, and boil it down until it's reduced to 1/3 cup. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and 4 tablespoons of cold butter, one tablesoon at a time, stirring after each addition. At the end, add one tablespoon of minced parsley. Drizzle sauce over chicken and serve. This was REALLY REALLY good. Most of our guests had two servings, so I'm figuring they liked it too ;-)

My piece de resistance was dessert: Ina Garten's Mixed Berry Pavolva. I followed this recipe exactly EXCEPT for the sweetened whipped cream. I just used Cool Whip. ;-) Sue me ;-). This was AWESOME. AMAZING. So good, I would have eaten the whole thing by myself if it wouldn't have been completely rude, LOL (and if I could have stopped people from going back for seconds). I will DEFINITELY make this again. Highly recommend it. It also makes for a pretty stunning presentation, and is VERY easy to make (meringue isn't all that complex), so if you want to impress your friends, go for this dessert.

All in all, a great night. Makes me want to have another dinner party :-)

Shirley

Apricot Glazed Pears and a Great Wine

I'm what you'd call a wine wimp. Meaning, anything "dry" is off my list. I gravitate toward the sweeter wines--the dessert wines, like Moscato and Lambrusco. So for me to find an entire VINEYARD whose wines I like is a HUGE deal. The only problem? The vineyard is in Pennsylvania, and they can't ship to Indiana (silly state has a no wine across state lines law...seriously, folks, I'm trying to help the economy here if you'd just change the law ;-).

When I was in PA visiting friends, my friend Mel, the hostess (who is a PHENOMENAL baker) served Franklin Hill Vineyards wines with dinner. DH and I loved the selections, so much that we didn't go straight home the next day (and we had an 11-hour drive home ahead of us), but instead went to the vineyard to buy a few bottles to take back to Indiana.

Tonight, I'm enjoying the last of a bottle of "Fainting Goat," a mildly sweet red with a black cherry flavor. Yummy. If you're ever in the Bangor, PA area, you have to stop by Franklin Hill Vineyards. It's worth the trip. Very hospitable people, very good wines.

(and if you happen to be driving to Indiana after that, pick me up a bottle of Fiesta, and a couple of Niagara. I'll make you carrot cake cupcakes to make it worth your while ;-).

My kids are sick here, so I decided to make some healthy food for dinners this week. I made a Tortellini Tomato soup (which I haven't had time to take a picture of...I'm not feeling so swift myself) and for dessert, I made Apricot-Glazed Pears tonight

.

These were in the Rachael Ray Mag a while back. They're really simple. I had picked up Bosc pears earlier in the week for the Insalata Rustica, so I had the most important ingredient already.

[a side note: when I was a kid, we had a pear tree in our backyard. My grandpa cut it down one day (he was senile) and there went our pears. But boy, it was great to have them when the tree was there].

We're almost never without ice cream, so that was there, too [though trying to keep everyone's paws off the ice cream long enough to make this dessert was a challenge unto itself].

The recipe is here, but basically you peel the pears, cut them in half and scoop out the core. Place them facedown in a baking dish, then drizzle a mixture of half apricot preserves and half orange juice (I used fresh; just squeezed an orange) over the pears. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or so. The recipe says 20-25. I found my pears (and they were just average size, nothing huge) needed about 30, 35 minutes to be totally softened.

When they're done, you serve the pear with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, then drizzle the apricot sauce from the pan on top. The recipe says to sprinkle with cinnamon--I found that was too harsh, and used a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar instead.

These were a hit with the whole family. It looks really pretty, too, so I'd recommend this for a dessert for guests, too. Another one of those "great presentation" kind of desserts.

Heck, anything with ice cream on it has great presentation, if you ask me ;-)

Shirley

Apple Crisp Pizza

This is one I've been promising my friends ever since I made it for a party last weekend. The picture here is from the Taste of Home website (my photo didn't come out half that good ;-).

I had to go to a party and had to bring a dish, but didn't have anything handy (I know, me, not having anything handy in my kitchen?) but anyway, on the Taste of Home site, you can type in the advanced search box the ingredients you have and what you want (dinner, appetizer, dessert) and it'll spit back a bunch of recipes. This one came back when I popped in what I had.

I found one beef with the recipe, though. The apples part calls for WAY too many apples. I used a variety of sized apples -- one large, two small and one medium (I had two Honeycrisps and two Golden Delicious) and I had twice as much apple mix as I needed. So I ended up making two of these and freezing one for another thing I had to go to the next week. I just defrosted it, then rewarmed it at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Also, if you want to take this off the pizza pan and put it on a serving dish, be sure to BAKE IT ON PARCHMENT PAPER. The apples make the crust too heavy to move easily, and it crumbles, so getting it from pizza pan to serving dish is difficult. With parchment paper, you slide the paper off the baking sheet or pizza pan (apple crisp pizza on top), then onto the serving plate, and slide out the parchment, like a magician pulling a tablecloth off a loaded table.

Another tip -- when you put on the caramel topping (I used Marzetti's Caramel dip), warm it a bit first and use a fork, not a spoon. A spoon lays it in globs, no matter how much you try to be careful, but a fork lets you spread it thinner.

A yummy, easy treat!

Shirley

A Salad You'll Want Every Day!

A side note: I'm chatting online tonight, so be sure to stop by to win prizes and say hi!

I'm not a huge fan of the salad. I mean, I eat them. I have my favorites. Like Cobb. With lots and lots of bleu cheese dressing. And the Black and Bleu at O'Charley's. But most of the time when I'm eating salad, I feel like I'm being punished ;-) I'm a pasta girl, and I know pasta is the evil kiss of death for my hips, but I eat it anyway.

Then I came across this recipe, and after a few adaptations to make it more my own, because I wasn't happy with the dressing, I found a salad that I have eaten FOUR times already. And it's going to be my lunch today, too. :-)I've eaten it so often, and so quickly, that I kept forgetting to take a picture. Usually I have nice red Honeycrisp apples in it, but this day I had Golden Delicious in there instead, so you don't get to see the awesome contrast of colors as well. Honeycrisps are my favorite apples and they were all gone (because someone...er...me...ate them all). So I was stuck with my second favorite, the Golden D.

If you like apples and honey-mustard dressing, you have to try this. It was AWESOME. I highly suggest quadrupling the walnut recipe because I used them in other things, like my Candied Baked Apples.

Walnut Apple Feta Salad

Candied Walnuts:
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup walnut pieces
1 tablespoon sugar (or Splenda, that worked fine when I tried that, too)
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Salad:
3-5 cups salad mix of choice
1 apple, chopped
3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled

Dressing: (and a tip--make this in a mini food processor if you want to save time. It makes life SO easy)
6 tablepoons olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon sugar


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with foil. Then, in a small skillet, melt butter and add sugar, pepper, and walnuts. Stir until sugar is melted and walnuts are coated. Spread onto baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes.

Assemble salad--lettuce, apples and feta. Mix the dressing, either in a food processor or with a whisk, until all ingredients are well incorporated. Drizzle over salad, then top with candied walnuts. Serve. Makes two servings, or one for a very hungry salad eater ;-)

If you don't want to eat all that right now, just cut the salad ingredients in half, throw the extra dressing in the fridge, put some lemon juice on the cut half of the apple and wrap it up, and put the extra walnuts in the fridge. It'll all keep for a day or two. :-)

Okay, now I'm hungry. Seriously. :-)

Shirley
PS: Look for Christmas Weddings in stores this month!

Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Two Rockin' Side Dishes

All I can say about this dinner is...

I wish my stomach was bigger. I'm not usually a huge fan of pork, because to me, it's just one of those blah meats. But I now have two recipes that really kick butt. One is the ever-popular Roast Pork Tenderloin with Balsamic Ginger Sauce, the recipe that gets a hit every single day on this blog, and the second is this one.

I kind of stumbled on making this because I didn't have the right ingredients for another recipe, so I improvised. :-) And this I think turned out way better than the other might have (though I think I might still try the other...maybe.)

Glazed Pork Tenderloin

1 2-3 pound pork tenderloin
1/4 cup chili sauce
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 1/2 tablespoons honey

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix spices together, rub meat with half of dry ingredients and reserve other half to mix with honey. Set aside. Drizzle meat with chili sauce, then bake for 15-20 minutes. Baste with honey/spice mix, blending with the chili sauce as you do (otherwise, all that great baked chili sauce will just fall off the meat). Bake until meat is done and meat thermometer registers 160-degrees F. About 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven, let sit on a cutting board for 5 minutes before slicing.

This second recipe for penne rapini I got from the April 17th issue of Family Circle magazine. I didn't have any broccoli rabe, which is what the recipe calls for, but I found that buying the "premium" frozen broccoli gives you really tiny broccoli florets, and those seemed to work just fine. I also forgot to buy fresh mushrooms, and used canned instead, but they worked out fine. This was really good. Another one that everyone had seconds on, so I knew it was a hit :-). So click here for that one and see their much better picture, LOL.

Third is my yummier take on baked apples. I threw these in with the pork, for the last 30-40 minutes or so of the pork cooking time. I don't really remember exactly how long I cooked them, but it was around 30 minutes at 425 degrees F. I had the candied walnuts from another recipe for a salad that I haven't posted yet (I keep forgetting to take a picture because I'm always too hungry for lunch and end up eating it first!). FYI -- I usually quadruple the walnut recipe and make a ton of them so I have them for this kind of thing and for the apple-feta salad I've been eating for lunch.

Candied Walnut Baked Apples

6 tablespoons butter, divided
1 cup walnut pieces
1 tablespoon white sugar
1/8 teaspoon pepper
4 Gala apples
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in small saucepan. Add walnuts, white sugar and butter. Stir until sugar is melted. Spread on baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned, stirring every few minutes.

Meanwhile, core apples and scoop out centers. Set apples in small baking dish. Fill centers with half a pat of butter, evenly divided amounts of the brown sugar, then other half of pats of butter (basically dividing the butter and brown sugar between the four apples). Top with candied walnuts. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes, or until fork-tender.

The kids saw this as dessert, so that was great. Everyone loved the apples, and wished I'd made more. :-)

Shirley

Turkey Burgers & Macaroni with a Twist

I love to try and jazz things up a bit by twisting a recipe or finding a new twist on an old favorite. In a recent issue of the Rachael Ray magazine, they had a bunch of apple recipes, and a few ground turkey recipes.

Well, just in time for that, one of my local markets put ground turkey on sale. And since I'm on this "forcing the family to eat healthy" kick (I know, I'm an evil mother), I decided to try this, along with a new mac-and-cheese, so I could ease them into the healthy thing (kind of like serving an apple with a chocolate cake ;-). But I did use low-fat milk and low-fat cheese in the mac-and-cheese, and no one noticed.


I tweaked the recipe of the Apple-Cheddar Turkey Burgers a little bit. It called for English muffins, which I didn't have, but I did have an overabundance of hamburger buns from a recent cookout, so we had those instead. It also called for Granny Smith apples, which I despise, so I had Golden Delicious instead. And I forgot the lettuce on the bottom, but it was good without. Everything else I followed to the letter, and we ate EVERY single one of these (FYI, this recipe made 8 turkey burgers for me. They must have been massive burgers in the test recipe, because I have no idea how they only got four out of it). I also used a different mustard because I knew that grainy mustard wouldn't go over well with the kids. Too much kick to that one.

So my turkey burger layers were:

Honey mustard on the bun (I didn't bother following the directions of mixing it with the cranberry sauce)
Whole-berry cranberry sauce
1 slice Golden Delicious apple (the recipe calls for three, but they must have cut them super thin, thinner than I could get mine)
1 slice sharp cheddar cheese
turkey burger (made as directed in the recipe, with parsley, scallions, grill seasoning and poultry seasoning)
all on a toasted hamburger bun :-)


I served it with a bit of a twist on mac-and-cheese that I came across in one of those ads for cheese. This one was good, but not kick-butt. I think it was the cloves that pushed it out of the realm of really good. If you took those out of the mix, which I think I will next time, I'd give it two thumbs-up. Since they don't have it on their website, I'll put it here:

Kerrygold Mac and Cheese

1 pound macaroni (I used penne), cooked and drained
4 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 cup onion, diced
pinch of sugar
4 tablespoons flour
3 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream (I used half and half because that's what I had )
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup swiss, grated
1 1/2 cups Dubliner cheese, grated (I didn't have that, so I just used more cheddar)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup breadcrumbs

Over medium heat in saucepan, melt butter, add onions and sugar, and season with salt. Cook until onions are translucent. Add flour and cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Whisk in milk and cream, bring to a simmer, add bay leaf and cloves (again, I thought the cloves gave it a weird smell and taste, so I would skip them). Reduce burner to low, simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove bay leaf. Add all but one cup of the cheese, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix cheese sauce with pasta and spoon into a casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese, then breadcrumbs. Bake at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes or until bubbly and slightly browned on top.

That's it! They were both a big hit with my family (no one in my family said anything about the mac-and-cheese, and it was all eaten, so maybe it was just me on the clove thing). Anyway, the burgers were a huge hit. If you have apples you want to use, this and the upcoming recipes I have this week are a great option to use them up!

Shirley

Hazelnut-Crusted Chicken with Raspberry Sauce

This one was cool and different (another Bon Appetit recipe :-).

My adventure in looking for hazelnuts was one of those drive all over the city thing, but I did find them. You might need to go to a bigger market, or one that specializes in nuts, because apparently hazelnuts are a holiday thing. If you end up buying more than you need, FREEZE the rest of them. Nuts keep well in the freezer.

Anyway, this recipe was cool. I TOTALLY loved this one (I'm not going to copy it here, because I followed it exactly, so just click the link and the good folks at Bon Appetit have it posted). My family's reviews were mixed. Half loved the fresh raspberry sauce, half didn't. I thought it was awesome, and a nice change from the regular, but my family's big on the hot sauce for their meat kind of thing, so a cold raspberry sauce was like serving them cold cucumber soup, KWIM? The hazelnut crusted chicken, though, was a huge hit, and everyone loved that.

Like the reviewers said, the tablespoon of salt was too much (I figured it was a typo) and I only added a little bit. I mean, a TABLESPOON? that's like a heart attack on a plate.

I served it with a lemon zucchini pasta. When I get a chance, I'll do my review on that recipe :-)

Shirley
PS: Look for a new feature to the blog: WRITING ADVICE MONDAYS starting on...Monday! ;-) And another new feature...prizes!!!!!

Easy Plum and Peach Galette Dessert

I got this one from a past issue of Woman's Day. The original recipe called for nectarines, which I didn't have, but I did have peaches and white plums (from the local farmer's market), which I figured was close enough ;-).

I think it would be great with different kinds of apples, too. Hey, about any kind of fruit. It's SUPER easy.

I didn't really do a whole lot different from the original recipe, except changing the fruit. It does call for that "turbinado" sugar to sprinkle around the edge. If you go out to breakfast at all, just snag one of those "Sugar in the Raw" packets from the sugar holder on the table. That's basically the same thing, and it's just the right amount for this recipe. I have a motley collection of sugars from getting coffee at different places, and I keep them for those guests that only use Sweet-n-Low, or whatever.

My one recommendation with this one -- if you have a family larger than four, I'd make two of these. My family ate the whole thing and wanted more ;-)

Shirley

Apple Pear Salad and Peachy Pork Chops

I miss the Olympics already. Sigh. I have never watched so many sporting events in my life and now that the Olympics are over, it's like I don't know what to do with my TV. I ended up doing Pilates with Kathy Smith on my On Demand on Comcast this morning.

Now that's being desperate for sports. ;-)


Saturday night, I made Cola Barbecue Ribs from the Rachael Ray magazine. The ribs I had were not the best -- not sure what happened there because they sure looked good in the package and sure cost enough -- so the meal itself didn't turn out well, but the recipe was good. I do suggest, though, doing the sauce in like, half, because it took FOREVER to cook down. I found that taking half for the ribs for basting (it was thin, not thick), then using the other half to boil down into a syrupy sauce like you get in a rib place, was REALLY good. I just saved all the leftover sauce to put on a dinner later. Like on chicken or something.

I served the ribs with fresh corn on the cob (went back to the open-air market. YUMM-O) and an apple-pear salad.

Apple-Pear Salad

1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt

2 apples sliced
2 pears, sliced
lettuce

whisk dressing ingredients together. Toss with apples and pears, and refrigerate for at least one hour. Top with nuts if you like those (I do :-) but I didn't have any on hand).

The night before, I made peachy pork chops. I know I'd said I was going to make pecan crusted pork chops, but the peaches I'd bought were just about to go bad, so I decided to use those up instead:


Peachy Pork Chops

4-6 boneless pork chops
1 egg
1 cup Bisquick
2 tablespoons corn meal (or if you don't have it, it's no big deal
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup butter
4 large peaches (I used two, I wished I'd doubled the recipe), sliced
1/2 cup brown sugar

Mix Bisquick, corn meal and salt and pepper. Dredge pork chops in egg, then Bisquick mix. Heat oil in pan, then fry pork chops on both sides until cooked through (about 6-8 minutes per side, if you have thin ones).

In a separate pan, melt the butter. Add peaches and brown sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved, peaches are softened. Spoon peach mixture over pork chops.

My kids LOVED the apple-pear salad. So much that they were eating it before it even hit the table. One kid isn't wild about peaches, but didn't mind them in "syrup" with the pork chops, so that meal was a pretty good hit. I served them with Asiago Red Potatoes, which I'll try to get up in a day or two. I didn't follow that recipe exactly, and maybe next time I will -- the real recipe was more work than I wanted, LOL.

Shirley

The Anatomy of an Idea...and Raspberry Mojito Lemonade

If you ever wondered exactly HOW the Wedding Planners idea came about and how six authors managed to brainstorm and make a story work, here's the details of our collaboration! It was so much fun and such an energetic experience! I'd do it again in a heartbeat :-)

The other day, I talked about posting my Raspberry Mojito Lemonade recipe. When I was at Red Robin, I had something similar, and it was SO SO SO GOOD, I wanted to make the same thing at home. They offer it in both an alcoholic and non-alcoholic version (and I've made it at home both ways). It's great either way:

Raspberry Mojito Lemonade

3 raspberries
1 sprig mint
1 slice lime
1 jigger Rose's grenadine (at Red Robin they call it Raspberry Syrup...try finding that in a store. I finally figured out what it was. Duh)
8 ounces Minute Maid Lemonade (the low-cal version works well too; you can get this in the soda aisle)
1 jigger Vodka or Rum, whichever you use for your Mojitos (optional)

Put raspberries and mint in 12-ounce glass. Mush raspberries with spoon, with mint (don't break the mint, just press it enough to release the fragrance and flavor). Break up the raspberries all the way so they'll be little enough to drink. Squeeze lime juice into glass, and leave the lime slice in glass. Add all liquid and stir. Done...drink!

Shirley

Decorating and Gorgonzola Cranberry Walnut Salad

Normally, I do all my Christmas decorations on the day after Thanksgiving but that Black Friday 4 a.m. thing (an hour earlier than normal) wiped me out. We were busy Saturday, so I had to wait until Sunday. Sheer agony for a Christmas freak like me, trust me!



But we got the decorations up, and my house was transformed from blah to holiday. One new addition to the decorations this year is my mother's manger set. When I visited my dad last year, he gave me her set, and we shipped it back home. She made this back in 1976, and we had it up at my parents' house every year after that, until she got sick. Everything made it okay, except the stable buildings, which shattered. I spent a huge amount of time puzzling them back into place with Super-Glue, and managed to get them all back together. My husband said it looked so wonderful, we should leave it up all year.


Now, I'm starting the planning ahead for Christmas dinners and dishes. All those ooey gooey calorie stuffed meals that I usually deny myself all year. :-) But tonight, I think I'll have salad again--a preparation for the cookies, and the candy cane bread, and the banana bread for breakfast (hmm...I do have bananas in the freezer, ready to go!).


Gorgonzola Cranberry Walnut Salad


1 bag Dole Lettuce Mix (any one you like, I prefer the 5 lettuce mix)
1/4 cup gorgonzola cheese (or blue, if you can't find gorgonzola), crumbled
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup Craisins
Kraft Rasberry Vinaigrette dressing (the Lite version works great)


Just assemble the salad and drizzle with dressing. It's as easy as that. This was awesome, though if you want to save some for the next day, don't put the dressing on, because it doesn't store well if it's soaking in dressing. My husband had one like this at Pizzeria Uno, and then they closed the one near us (sob-sob) so I had to improvise :-).


Now, where ARE those chocolate chips? And the sugar? I've got caloric room for cookies!


Shirley

Dried Cherry Scones Recipe

Experimenting with recipes is one of those things that keeps me out of trouble ;-) I came across a recipe for Dried Cherry Scones and tried it the regular way then decided to experiment and make it even lower in calories and fat...

And it was still awesome.

Try this one:

Dried Cherry Scones

2 3/4 cups low-fat baking mix (like Bisquick)
1/4 cup Splenda
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 teaspoon Splenda
8 ounces cherry low-fat or fat free yogurt (I used Very Cherry Fat Free Yoplait)
1 tablespoon sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix cherries with 1/2 teaspoon Splenda. Let sit while you mix the Bisquick with the 1/4 cup Splenda. I mix it with a fork to get all the clumps out. Stir in cherries, add yogurt and mix until moistened. Turn out onto a floured (don't use Bisquick for this part, use flour) breadboard and knead four or five times by hand.

Spray Pam onto a cookie sheet. Spread dough out into a 9-inch circle on cookie sheet. Cut into 10 or 12 slices--without cutting all the way through the dough--just basically scoring it. Sprinkle with sugar and then bake for 16 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Yummy for breakfast

Shirley

Upside Down Pancake Recipe & The Three Important Things: Eating, Shopping...

And Family.

Bet you thought I was going to say shoes, didn't you? I will have you know that I did resist the shoes yesterday on Black Friday even though there was this REALLY cool pair at Kohl's that I REALLY wanted but didn't buy. Sigh. Now I wish I had. Not that I needed them in the sense that I'd go barefoot all winter without them. Not that I had some dress in need of a pair of black shoes and didn't own any black shoes.

But in the the oh-my-gosh, those are really pretty and wouldn't they look totally awesome with that black skirt I wanted and also didn't buy sense. Sigh.

I did buy myself a few things BUT I did get more for my family and the people on my list. So I was good. More or less ;-) Hey, my husband really shouldn't let me out alone with a JC Penney and Kohl's card on Black Friday. It's a pretty dangerous thing ;-)

I spent the last two days cooking, eating, and shopping. And with my family. It was great. Lots of great food, good wine and great conversation. We had fun. I stayed away from the computer, so if you e-mailed me and didn't get an answer...it's because I had pecan pie in my mouth ;-)

But to make up for it, here's my Christmas morning recipe. Well, one of two. I make either this or my friend Janet's Egg Bake, depending on my mood. Both are make ahead kind of things but I'm an early riser (I'm the one dragging the kids out of bed. Honest to Pete, I am PATHETIC on Christmas -- I can NOT WAIT for everyone to get up. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas) so I'm at the stove, singing "Rudolph" (you SO don't want to be there to hear me, especially when I hit the high notes; even the cat leaves) and cooking away.

Baked Apple Pancake

3 large apples (I am a sweets person, so I use sweet ones, but my favorites are Honey Crisp--if you haven't tried this kind, which are only available during the late fall, try 'em)
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
5 tablespoons confectioner's sugar, divided
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch nutmeg

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Peel and core the apples, then slice them thin (like you're making an apple pie). In a bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, oil, and vanilla. Add the flour, 3 tablespoons of the sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix just until blended.

Now, there are two methods for doing this. I prefer the pie plate method. You can either cook the apples in a 10-inch ovenproof skillet, then make the pancake on top. Or if you live in my house and can never find the silly skillet because someone put it away in the wrong place (even after living in said house with you for 10 years and obviously not paying attention to where the dishes go ;-), or if the skillet has gone AWOL because it is being used as a GI Joe fort or some other equally more important task, then cook the apples in the butter, sprinkled with the cinnamon and nutmeg, in a regular old non-stick pan, until they are browned and softened but still hold their shape (about five to seven minutes).

Arrange them in a circle on either the skillet (again if you don't live in my house) or if you live in a house like mine, in a pie plate, then pour the pancake batter on top. Put the pie plate/skillet in the oven and bake 13 to 15 minutes, until the batter is cooked and puffed. Loosen the edges with a knife, then flip it onto a plate (have you seen how Martha does that trick? She puts the plate on top of the pan/pie plate and then just inverts). Sprinkle with extra confectioners' sugar and syrup.

Sounds complicated, but it's actually really easy and good.

And impressive when you have friends over for brunch!

Shirley