Pumpkin Cranberry Orange Pancakes with Caramelized Pecans, Cheesy Eggs and Bacon

Yes another pumpkin thing. You'll live. It's fall. I like pumpkin. So there.

I had some leftover pumpkin and cranberry sauce from the pumpkin cinnamon rolls and cranberry pancakes made about a week ago and they needed to get used.

I decided that pancakes would be a good idea. I was tired of my fried egg on toast that is the usual morning breakfast. Along with coffee. Must have coffee.

And its Saturday, which means for some odd reason I need to make a real breakfast. Something from the kids about since I'm home and they are home and we have no place to go, I should make a real breakfast...vs cereal or toast. Whatever.



What you will need:

• Pumpkin
• Cranberry sauce
• Flour
• Eggs
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Sugar
• Vanilla
• Orange extract or frozen orange concentrate (if you use concentrate, eliminate the sugar)
• Vinegar
• Salt
• Pumpkin Pie spice
• Eggs (1-2 per person), salt and pepper, milk (1tbs per egg more or less)
• Bacon

So this is super simple. These are fat fluffy pancakes so therefore are filling. 

Get your bacon started now, get eggs mixed up with a pinch of salt and pepper and little milk. Use paper towels (or we have a cloth towel dedicated for draining grease to be more environ friendly) to sop up grease as bacon gets done. You can also cook the bacon in the over on a baking sheet with edges. This makes them all done at once.

In a medium mixing bowl, mix together with a fork, flour, soda, powder, sugar, spice and salt. Add vanilla and orange extracts, 2 eggs, 1c pumpkin, 1/4c cranberry sauce, 2tbs vinegar (to make baking soda all fizzy and happy. This is why they are sooooo fluffy!) Mix together with dry ingredients.

Warm up 2 skillets, one large for your pancakes, unless you have one of those electric griddle thingy's, then use it. The other skillet is smaller, for pecans. MMMMM pecans. If you made bacon, you can use some of the grease to coat your pan for pancakes and for eggs. Just makes for added yumminess.

In the smaller skillet melt 1Tbs butter, 1/4c crumbled/chopped/not whole pecans. When butter is melty, coat pecans and add 1Tbs of brown sugar. 

Coat your big skillet/griddle with butter (hold a stick by the wrapper and with open end, rub all over pan. Hands stay clean, no excess of butter.)

Cook until edges look dryish. Sorry, no bubbles on these. Flip and cook on other side for a few seconds.

Keep pancakes warm in oven at 250 on an oven safe dish. 

Turn off the pecans, and let them cool.

Finish off bacon/sausage (if you didn't use oven method) and use same pan for eggs (minus a lot of the grease). To get rid of the grease, I keep a tin can or jar with lid next to stove. Sometimes I am lazy and run it down the garbage disposal (gasp) with hot water. You can keep bacon warm with pancakes in oven, as the get cold fast.

When pancakes are ready sprinkle with pecans and drizzle with syrup. Make the kids set the table and enjoy!

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Pumpkin Cranberry Orange Pancakes____________________________________

1c flour

2t baking soda

1T baking powder

2t pumpkin pie spice

1t salt

2T vinegar

1t vanilla

1t orange extract or 2tsp orange juice concentrate

2 eggs

1c pumpkin

1/4c cranberry sauce (canned)

Pecans:

1/2c pecans

1T brown sugar

1T butter

Mix dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients and mix gently with a fork. Heat pan of griddle to medium-high heat. Drop pancake batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto greased pan. Cook until edges start to look dry and pancake puffs. Flip and cook for a 1-2 minutes on opposite side.

Pecans: Heat butter in small skillet over medium heat until melted. Add chopped pecans and brown sugar. Heat until glazed evenly. 

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Tonight is soup night. When the weather turns chilly and the leaves start drifting down quietly from the trees...when the wind blows a little colder, the sun sets a little earlier, the light is more golden, the acrid smell of burning wood melds with the sweet smell of damp leaves... it's fall. And fall means Thursday soup nights, my son's favorites.

This was actually, despite my deep love of mushrooms, my first attempt at cream of mushroom soup. No resource altered or guidance used. This is 100% me.

Ok, I know, the picture is terrible. My camera's battery decided to die right as I was being a genius, and ye old smart phone has only 8 megapixels. My bad. 

This is in no way, shape, or form fat free. It is lower in fat that the crap in the can and much yummier. 

Start with a bunch of different kinds of mushrooms. I used something like close to 2 pounds. 

See, mushroom-a-holic. 

I used Oyster, button, crimini and shittake. These were what was available at the local produce market. It's not mushroom season till March, so I make do.

You will also need:

1/2 and 1/2

Chicken stock or Better than Bouillon

Onion

Celery

Carrot

Garlic

Bay Leaf

Rosemary

Salt and Pepper

Butter

White wine

Milk 

Cut the onions into tiny bits, shred the carrots, chop the celery, rough chop the garlic, rough chop the mushrooms. 

Melt 2 Tbs of butter into the bottom of your stock pot (10 qt) on medium-high heat. Saute onion and garlic until onion is translucent. Add carrot and celery and cook for a few minutes. Add mushrooms mix gently so butter coats them. Add 1/2 c white wine, 4 cups of chicken stock, and 2 c milk. Add 1/2t rosemary and  2 bay leaves, Reduce heat to medium and watch carefully so the milk doesn't separate. Add 1 quart of 1/2 and 1/2. Heat through. Salt as needed (I used a lot). Soup should fill the stock pot about 3/4. 

Serve warm with bread and butter or a salad. 

And that's it. Super easy. Moderately healthy. Deliciously yummy. 

BBQ Pork Tenderloin with potato salad and baked beans

Lately there has been a great influx of pigs jumping of cliffs, running in front of cars, and hanging themselves or other means of suicide. Due to this terrible tragedy, prices on large cuts of pork tenderloin have dramatically dropped at the grocery stores. I mean really dropped....1.50 a pound kind of dropped.

So, to do my duty as a good, sympathetic citizen, to aid the ranchers in their time of mourning over the loss of pigs to suicide, I have been regularly purchasing said cuts of meat.

What the hell do you do with a 15 pound pork tenderloin?

So there I sit (or really, stand, because sitting in front of the freezer on a stool the tall is just silly), staring at this long, tube-like thing in my freezer, wandering a) Do I have a pan big enough for this thing b) how do I season it and cook it and c) do I have a platter big enough to hold it when its done.

Well...hmmm...its still nice outside...the grill is huge so could do that...I could season it like I do ribs and such, and make potato salad (which, btw the way the roommates were beside themselves excited about...), baked beans and devilled eggs and we could have ourselves a big ol' barbecue. Hell, I may even invite my friend from across the street, because goodness knows, there is enough for half the neighborhood...(and between my house hold and hers, we do, have, literally, half the neighborhood)

Now for the pan...how am I to lay this thing out and actually get it seasoned...?

Oh yes! That's right. Granny bought me that set of baking sheets and one was ginormous...you know, the size you use when you don't want to make 47 trips to the oven to bake cookies so you use the largest pan available and squeeze the cookies as close as you dare to try to get the entire batch on one pan.

Don't act like you don't know what I mean. I know better.

So... what do we need?

Seasoning:
Brown sugar
Salt
Garlic powder
Cumin
Oregano
Coriander
Thyme
a little olive oil

Glaze: 

Bbq sauce -  ok we have to get into this discussion. Bbq sauce is like...wine. Some good, some great, some amazing, many different flavors, and some is well...just don't buy it. Like Kraft... Get a good bbq sauce. If you need to do cheap, do cheap well like KC masterpiece, or Sweet Baby Ray's. Locally made tends to be the best. My personal fave is Cookies. 

Yes those cookies too, but Cookies is one of the few that has NO corn syrup, just good old-fashioned ingredients, and boy can you taste it. Jack Stack is another fave, but its a midwest local only. Teag's is good as well as Jack Daniels. No matter what you choose, please, for the respect of the pigs who committed suicide, do not use 98 cent or less bottles of bbq sauce. That's just, well, not yummy. 

liquid smoke
garlic

Potato Salad:- The link here will give you the portions and recipe. 

Potatoes

Sweet pickles (I use 14-day pickles mom makes and sends to me)
Hard boiled eggs (funny, we are going to make those too)
Onion
Mayo ( I use either half real, half miracle whip, or use miracle whip's olive oil mayo which tastes about like half and half)
Apple cider vinegar
Sugar
Dill
Garlic

I have a weird thing for crunchies in my potato salad, therefore, no celery or peppers. Add them if you are not odd like me. It's all the better.

Beans:

I am lazy most days, and buy Bush's Beans, Homestyle 'cause they are sweet and need little doctoring.

I do have a recipe for the real deal, but in the essence of time, canned is ok here. 

To Doctor pork n beans or other canned beans...(trust me on this, no canned bean is perfect out of the can, and if you think so up to now, just try it my way and then make judgement!)

Brown Sugar
Ketchup
BBQ sauce
Onion
Sweet Peppers
Garlic
Chili Powder
Bbq sauce

Deviled Eggs:

Eggs
Mayo
Mustard
Salt
Pepper
Apple cider vinegar
Sugar

Whew! Lots of stuff, but most should have these things on hand. Let me know if I should do a mini post on what spices to keep in your cabinet or basics to keep on hand. I try to aim this blog to the not so proficient in the kitchen all the way up to the usual home cook. I am sure restauranteurs or pro's look to, but doubtful. They have their own vibe.

Let's start

Mix the dry rub ingredients together (see below for measurements)

Place loin on giant pan and drain off the liquid. Trim off any overly excess fat. You want some for tenderness.

Rub the loin down with olive oil.

With your fingers, take take a handful of the spice rub and rub it into the meat, pushing down gently. Rub it all over front, back, sides and ends. Cover and toss in the frig for a couple of hours to get happy.

Cut and boil your potatoes. Boil your eggs, peel, and devil them. They are better when they have set and mellowed for about 30 minutes or so. While everything is boiling cut the necessary amounts of onion, pickles etc into your bowl for the taters and for the beans too, in another bowl.

Eggs: Let cool so you can handle them. Room temp is good. Cool by dousing in ice water (which also makes for an easy peel, and stops the cooking which causes the yolks to turn that funny color on the outside). Cut in half and gently squeeze out yolks into a bowl. Squish them to crumbles with the back of a fork or a pastry blender. Add, for every dozen eggs, 2 Tbs mayo, 2 teas mustard, a pinch of salt and pepper, and a teaspoon each of vinegar and sugar. Mix together and taste. You want it to have a zip but slightly sweet and slightly savory.

Dump taters into bowl and throw in frig to get cool.

Go...do laundry. Or whatever.

In a couple of hours, start the grill. Get it all happy.

Happy=gray and ashy but red coals. For non coal users, shame, shame, shame. Not the same. But nevertheless, use your temp gauge thingy on the grill. Wait till its about 450.

Drag out your loin and olive oil. 

Spray, brush or otherwise lube up the grill. Caution: spraying with mister will cause flammage, and where it is pretty and cool to look at, just be careful k?

Lay loin on the cooler part of the grill, not directly over the coals. We will do that later. Right now we want to cook it, not burn it. Close the grill lid.

Go back inside and mix up the bbq sauce with some liquid smoke and garlic. If you are using the cheap stuff like we discussed not to, add a couple tablespoons of brown sugar, a pinch of cumin and coriander too.

After about mmmm...8-10 mins, go flip your loin and glaze the cooked side with bbq sauce.

Go assemble the rest of the potato salad. Get the beans to heating. Saute the onions, garlic (yes real garlic) and peppers in a little olive oil. When onions are translucent, add the mix to the beans then (for large cans or 2 cans of pork n beans) add 2 Tbs brown sugar, 1/4 c bbq sauce, 2 Tbs ketchup, 2 teaspoons of chili powder. For the ketchup, I just give the bottle a hefty squirt. Trying to get it out of a measuring spoon is...fun.

Go flip the loin again and coat the other side. (about 8-10 mins)

At this point the loin should be cooked through. Sear it directly over the coals on both sides for a minute then take off grill and let it set for 5 or 6 mins to let the juice inside stay inside. If you cut it straight off the heat, all those yummy juices will come spilling out and we want yummy juices.

Mix the sauce up for the tater salad. Its always best fresh. Pour over and mix gently! Potatoes break easy and we don't want squished potato salad. That is another recipe :-)

Slice the tenderloin into thick slices. 

Take your hard work to the table and enjoy!

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Recipes

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Pork Tenderloin:
10-15lb Pork Tenderloin
Olive oil

Seasoning - 2 T brown sugar
1t each garlic, cumin, coriander, thyme, pepper and oregano
1 T salt

Glaze - 1 bottle of barbecue sauce
1/2 t liquid smoke
1 t garlic

Mix seasoning ingredients together. Drain liquid from pork loin and trim of excess fat leaving a thin layer. Place on large pan and rub with olive oil. Massage spice mix into loin flesh by gently pushing and rubbing. Cover all sides. Wrap and set aside for a minimum of 2 hours.

Heat grill to 450 or until coals are gray and ashy. Brush olive oil on grill and place loin over indirect heat. Cook 8-10 mins on each side, depending on size of loin.

Mix Barbecue sauce with garlic and liquid smoke. Glaze loin after each turn.
When cooked through, place over direct heat to sear for 1 minute. Remove from grill and let rest for 5-6 mins. Slice.


Potato Salad - click link above.

Deviled Eggs:
12 eggs
2 T Mayo
2 t mustard
1 t apple cider vinegar
1 t sugar
pinch of salt and pepper

After eggs have cooled, halve and squeeze out yolk. With the back of a fork or a pastry blender, crumble the egg yolks. Add rest of ingredients and mix. Stuff eggs. Garnish with paprika, chives, dill or parsley. 

Honeyed Apricot-Peach Cream Cheese Tart

Yesterday I kept toying with the idea of whether I was really in the mood to make something or not. I have these lovely apricots and peaches and pears I bought last week at the produce market that are in need of being used before they go bad.

Gorgeous right?

So, this morning, I made a tart for breakfast. With scrambled eggs and sausage of course, because, well, it's Saturday which means I have to make a decent breakfast before running off to work. Any other day of the week would be an egg on toast. Weekends, working or no, I feel the need to make breakfast.

Maybe I should have waited until Sunday. I'm off Sunday. Oh well.

Assemble thine ingredients:

Fruit (I ended up using 3 apricots and 2 peaches very thinly sliced)

flour

sugar

1 stick butter

1 block cream cheese

honey

ginger

coffee. It's saturday morning. Coffee is a necessity.

Get out your handy dandy food processor. Attach normal blade that can take off your fingers and the flat top with the hole in it. Grab the cap too, because we are playing with flour and well, the whole kitchen does not need to be dusted...unless of course you want the family to think you slaved all morning, then by all means, dust away.

 Throw in butter(cold) and 1 1/4 c flour and 1/3c sugar. Keep the butter wrapper. 

Why?

Why, why, why. SO many questions!

Prepare for history lesson... commencing in 3-2-1...In the depression era, there was little money and little food. You had to *gasp* make use of every tiny part of the things you had because there was no room for waste. Think pinching pennies to the max. Using things like the part of veggies you trimmed off for broth, water for boiling used for bread or other meals, and butter wrappers are excellent for lubing up pans and dishes before baking in them. 

Keep you butter wrappers in a plastic baggy and use them, instead of a cooking spray to lube up your bakeware. Not only are you saving money, but the environment (less waste).

..End of lecture for today...

Turn on food processor and make lots of noise until it is blended and crumbly looking and the butter stops clunking around. No clunking is usually a good sign.

 Turn off noisy machine. Add water through the top hole 1 Tbs at a time, pulsing between each. Wow. That sounded dirty.

Keep adding water until it just barely comes together to form a dough.

Drag out a small baking sheet or jelly roll pan. Lube up with butter wrapper. NOW you can recycle it. It is paper after all.

Turn dough out onto pan and scrape together and fold once or twice, just enough to make it into a solid dough. 

You are supposed to chill the dough for an hour before using it. I spread it out onto the bottom of the pan and threw it in the freezer for 10 minutes while oven was heating.

If you have some extra butter (or wrapper), baste over top of dough. Toss in oven for 5-10 mins just enough to get the dough to harden a little. The butter will make it a pretty pale goldenish color.

While dough is in oven, thinly slice your fruit. And I mean thinly, or it will take too long to cook and you'll have burnt dough and raw fruit. No good.

Nuke your cream cheese in a microwave safe bowl for about 30 seconds. Enough to make it squishy enough to work with. Add 1 Tbs honey and 1/8t (pinch) of ginger. Mix.

Pull dough out of oven and dump on cream cheese mix. Spread evenly over crust with back of spoon. Layer on your fruit slices in whatever arrangement is aesthetically pleasing to you. 

I did rows... because I did. 

Toss back in over on TOP rack for 15-20 mins or until fruit is starting to shrivel a little. Using your fancy basting brush, baste honey (heated works best) over top about 10 mins into cooking.

While in the oven, scramble your eggs and fry up your sausage. And have more coffee. We need coffee.

And you are done. This one takes about an hour start to finish, so if you are working, make sure you start it more than an hour before work so you actually get some. 

Damned computer. Always get sidetracked...

Penne with Pesto Cream sauce and Stuffed Mushrooms

I have made a decision regarding the food blog.

I originally started posting as meals, because everyone usually makes a meal. Then I went to the individual recipe thing as that seemed to be the format many liked. Then I realized that everyone who writes a blog is doing the same thing as everyone else. They are either copying the Pioneer Woman's format on their food blogs or just post individual recipes.

I have decided that most of us make more than just one thing when we cook, and a good majority of people who look at recipes and new ideas are women or parents or people who cook for more than just themselves.

This makes things easy on me as well as my readers. You guys get a one page meal with multiple recipes and how to get everything ready in sequence, AND I don't have to make a million posts for individual recipes. This saves us both time in our busy, hectic lives.

There is a search option, so I am guessing people will use that if they are looking for something specific.

That being said, here is the next meal-like recipe. Jill, I made the stuffed mushrooms just for you so I could fulfill the request for the recipe :-)

I needed something to go with the Stuffed Mushrooms and pasta or steak is always a good option. As steak is not in my budget, this became a vegetarian meal.

Now, before you run off, adding steak or chicken is a cinch and is very yummy. That makes this meal easy for split households as well. Cut your meat up into strips and saute with some olive oil and garlic and serve over the top of the noodles. Or grill/fry/bake your meat of choice and serve off to the side. The steak with blue cheese butter is a good meat dish to go with this.

Looks totally yummy right?

So... Grab your ingredients. You'll need 8-10 large mushrooms, frozen spinach, bread crumbs, an egg, cheese of choice,  medium sized onion, noodles, alfredo sauce, pesto sauce and capers if you have them. Also grab some chicken or vegy bouillon or better than bouillon if you have it. 

Ok. Now. Micro-nuke the spinach. My 8 mushrooms took about 1/2 c of thawed spinach. 

Stem the mushrooms and clean out the fluffy white flesh the stems leave on the inside while the spinach is getting de-icy. Chop 1/2 the onion and the mushroom stems into tiny bits. 

Get out your cheese and shred if needed or in my case, using goat cheese...

I crumbled it. 

Like this. Amount is up to you. I used about 1/2 c.

Mix the ingredients together. Spinach, onion, stems, cheese, 1/4 c bread crumbs, 1 egg, 1 tbs garlic powder and a pinch of basil. 

Oh yeah, forgot to mention those. 

Spoon stuffing into mushrooms and mound. Yes, your hand will get dirty 'cause you have to kinda mold the stuffing to the top a bit, but its ok. That's what sinks are for. 

Mushrooms stuffed, pop in oven at 350 for maybe 20 mins.

Meanwhile, as the mushrooms are getting all happy boil some water and get the pasta going. Pop in a couple of teaspoons of bouillon to make it taste even better.

Mix half the pesto and half the alfredo together in a microwave save thingy.

Get a salad made or whatever veggie you intend on making.

Check the mushrooms. Now top with some more cheese, and put under broiler for about 2 mins. 

When they come out they should look like this. Ish.

When the noodles are done cooking, drain them and nuke the sauce.

And then you are done. Plate the noodles, top with sauce.  

And see what the beautiful mushrooms look like inside... MMMMMM.

Stuffed Mushrooms
8-10 large mushrooms
1/2 c spinach, thawed
3/4 c goat cheese crumbled or mozzarella shredded plus 1/4 c.
1 Tbs garlic powder
1/4c bread crumbs
Mushrooms stems, minced
1/2 onion, minced
1 egg

Stem the mushrooms and clean out cavity or any remaining stem parts. Mix together rest of ingredients except 1/4c of cheese. Spoon into mushrooms and mound slightly over top. Bake at 350 for 15 mins. Top with other 1/4 c of cheese. Broil until cheese melts and is slightly browned. 

Penne with Pesto Cream Sauce
1 lb Penne
Jar of pesto
Jar of alfredo sauce
3 Tbs capers

Boil pasta. Mix 1/2 jar pesto with 1/2 jar alfredo. Drain pasta. Add capers. Top with sauce. 

Serve with salad, bread or other vegetable. 

Banana Butterscotch Streusel Muffins

You know those bananas you bought last week, 'cause you were craving bananas? You bought a bunch because it feels weird to buy just one or two, right? And then you ate only one or two and the rest just sat... and sat...and sat...

and now....

They are perfect for banana bread!

But wait! Banana bread so Boooooorrrriiinnnngggg. Snore.

What's that? You have other random baking stuffs in your pantry?

OOOOHHHHHH!

Well then, let's snazz up banana bread, shall we?

Stop licking the screen. You don't know where it's been.

No seriously. Stop.

So, how abouts we do butterscotch banana bread, maybe even with some coconut thrown in?

Yeah, see that's what I thought!

Let's start with those poor pathetic bananas.

They need a little squishing. But, I'm lazy, as we have found throughout our cooking journey together. I let my kitchen aid mixer do the work.

Generally, you should cream the butter and sugar together first, but, I got carried away. Toss the bananas in a bowl, peeled of course.

Now laugh. 'Cause they look like light yellow poop.

See?

Ok. now throw in 1/2 stick of butter and 3/4 c sugar.

Mix to get all mooshy. Don't worry, it'll be liquidy.

While it's doing its thing (if you are using a stand mixer), measure out 2 cups of flour, 3/4 teas baking powder and 1/2 teas salt. Mix together with a fork.

Add 2 eggs to butter-sugar-banana mix as well as 1/3c sour cream and a splash of vanilla, rum or almond extract. Any of the extracts are good, but each brings a different flavor. Coconut extract is yummy too.

Once it is all mixed well, add flour mixture and blend well.

Now add butterscotch chips and coconut if you so wish. I added coconut later, not to the mix, because I have non-coconut lovers in my house.

I know. Shameful.

Anyway. Grab out your muffin tins. These make roughly a dozen small or 6 texas muffin sized muffins. Spray them down with some sort of lubrication. Pam, butter, or whatever is in your misto bottle is fine.

Fill your cups almost to the top, a little more than 3/4 full to get that store-bought muffin top. If you want, sprinkle some coconut in the bottom of some of the cups before adding batter and a little to the top after, to mark which ones you did that to. This is how I got coconut into select muffins for my split house.

Pre-streusel topping.

Ok. Now. Before you put it in the oven, mix 2 Tbs butter, 1/4c oats, 1/4c brown sugar and if you have them, a few sliced almonds or pecan bits.

Note. Almonds are a superfood, so this addition makes the muffins healthy. :-P

Spoon topping over the top mounding it slightly.

Toss the pans in the oven for maybe like... mmmmm... 15-20 mins.

Go play on Pinterest or in my case, start dinner while they were cooking.


When the buzzer reminds you that there is something in the oven, remove them and let them sit until you can touch them and not receive 2nd degree burns.

Enjoy your caramelly, butterscotchy, banana-y goodness.

MMMMMMM.

Creamy Coleslaw

Among the summer yummies that we think of is, of course, coleslaw. Imagine KFC style coleslaw or better yet, your favorite BBQ place's slaw. Creamy and melt in your mouth good right? Well, if veggies could melt.

This one is it's match, let me tell you.

And so simple.

Sigh.

So simple.

I promise you will not be able to resist taste testing... multiple times. This ended up being my dinner before dinner. 

And then half the bowl is gone, and you remember you had the family to share with... oops.

Oh, well. Make some more.

So we start with a head of cabbage. One small whole head will feed a bunch of people. Medium for a family reunion. Large for a family reunion plus all the in-laws.

Shred the cabbage however you feel is easiest. I used my handy dandy Cuisinart food processor with the shredding plate for mine. Made it nice and fine, kinda like you'd get at a restaurant. A plain old hand held grater works too, or cut it by hand.

While your shredding, grab an apple, zucchini, 2 carrots, 1/4 onion sliced, and if you are feeling adventurous, some red cabbage or radicchio.

Now for the magic. The sauce.

Ready for it?

Ready?

Mayo, sugar, apple cider vinegar, and a pinch of salt.

Yes, that's it. 

Told you it was simple.

Actually the magic is in the apple and zucchini you put in the salad. A little sweet, a little soft, makes it all the yummier. 

Mix all your ingredients together.

That's it.

No seriously.

Chill it 'till your ready to serve... and to keep from eating the whole thing!

Mom's Famous Potato Salad

This is Mom. Mom and Granny have taught my sister and I well when it comes to cooking. 

Remember those home-ec cooking classes you had to take in middle school? Ya, my sis and I rocked those classes. And we of course owe it all to the 2 amazing women that raised us. Granny has forgone cooking unless it is her famous pumpkin and pecan pies at xmas and on occasion cookies and cake. 

Sometimes biscuits. 

Mom still forges on, always coming up with new alterations to recipes she has tried. This one, however, is an original.

SHHHHHH. Family secret here.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

GO take the computer into the closet to view this most secret recipe k? Cause once you try it and if the restaurants see it, they will forgo that nasty stor bought crap and go to this. AND then it won't be a SECRET anymore. 

Wait what?

Everyone can see the internet?

Seriously?

No, for real?

Well Shit. Fine. You can leave the closet then. 

So for this yummy-ness, you will need potatoes. 

DOH!

Any type will do. I am cheap today so it's good all russets for me.

Oh! Eggs! You need to start a pan of water and eggs to boilin' 'cause eggs are yummy in potato salad. I use about 2-3 per 5 mid-size potatoes. See above for my idea of mid-size.

Wash all the dirt off of your taters. If you are against skin, then by all means peel. As I said, I'm lazy. That and skin has all the nutrients, so it gets left on.

Chop potatoes into chunks. 

If you are confused about how to get them more or less the same size, I'll post a how-to later. New page and all with how-to basic stuff for those new to cooking. Even size is important so the cook evenly and you don't have half mashed half chunks. 

EWWWWWW.

Drop your chunks into water. 

In a pot. 

'Cause you have to cook them. 

Let them boil until just barely fork tender. This means you use a fork and stick it into the potato. If it goes in easily, fork tender. Get it? 

Good.

While they are getting boily, chop some onion into bits. You can also add green pepper and celery chopped into bits if'n you want. I dislike crunchy stuff in my potato salad so I refrain. 

Also, if you have some sweet pickles, chop those up too. I happened to have some of mom's famous 14-day pickles made the old-fashioned way in a big ceramic crock. So I chunked those up and mmmmmm. They are like candied pickles. So yummy.

If you have only sweet relish, that's fine too. A couple of tablespoons should be enough.

Dump all of the above into a bowl and set aside until the taters and eggs are ready.

Now for the sauce. The all important, bring it all together ingredient in every salad. And my specialty. 

Sauces. Sauces are my specialty.

Grab out the mayo, apple cider vinegar, sugar, salt/pepper and if'n you like, some dill. 

For the 5 said mid-sized potatoes and other stuff, you will want about 1c of sauce. 

This is the hard part, because I don't actually measure any of the sauce ingredients, I just dump in what looks right, so, by all means, adjust for your taste. 

Mayo type will alter taste too. I use Miracle Whip's Olive Oil Mayo. It is slightly tangy but not like regular Miracle Whip and is creamy like real mayo.

SOOOOO.... For my mayo...and for real mayo too...

1/2 c mayo

3 T apple cider vinegar

2t sugar

pinch of salt and pepper

pinch of dill.

That's it. Whisk or mix with fork until smooth. Taste. Make sure that it is a good balance of acid and sweet and salt. In other words, your taste buds should sing and you should want to continue eating the sauce by spoonfuls. Yes, it is THAT important.

If you are using regular Miracle Whip, reduce amount of sugar to 1t or add a little sour cream (1 or 2 Tbs) to the mix to make it the right flavors. 

By now your eggs and taters should be done. Drain and rinse taters in cold water. I let them sit with the sprayer on them while I play with the eggs. Drain and cool off eggs with cold water. If you add ice to the water, it shocks them and they peel super easy. 

Chop eggs into bowl.

Add potatoes. 

DO NOT MIX YET!

This is important. The potatoes are in that delicate, if-you-screw-with-them-too-much-they-will-fall-apart stage. We want to mess with them only once, with exception of taste testing... 

repeatedly.

Dump sauce on top, and with a giant spoon, gently mix by bringing the bottom yumminess to the top in an up-and-over motion. Do this on all sides of the bowl until it is mixed evenly-ish. It will never be perfect, but will be darn close. 

And TADA! Potato salad. 

Be warned. It is addicting. You can't get enough. 

And it may not ever make it to the dinner table.

Mine was half gone within about an hour of making it and setting in the fridge. 

Damn gnomes. 

Download Recipe Card Here

Shepherd's Pie with Homemade Mashed Potatoes

It has been an interesting week, my morale has been at an all time low. My computer is being stupid, or rather some of the software is and I am seriously ready for a vacation. It's always times like these that you need some serious comfort food. No meals tonight, but something simple.

Homemade Mashed Potatoes (the best way) which will go on top of a bunch of veggies and stuff to make Shephard's Pie.

The key to amazing mashed potatoes is...

Nope not butter...

Nope not cream...

It's....
...
...
Potatoes!

See you would never have guessed! The type of potatoes you use will determine the wonderfullness of the taters.

Yukon Gold are my personal fave followed closely by red.

Russets are nasty. Stop buying them.

Yes, Yukon's are slightly more expensive but when you taste there natural yummy, creamy, melt in your mouth texture without the need for a bunch of extra stuff... You will be hooked. I promise.

Yes, I will pinky swear too.

So to start off, figure out how many people you are feeding. Most people (except my son) adore mashed potatoes so plan on 2 potatoes per person to chop into bits.

So for a family of 5=10 potatoes. add a couple more if you want leftovers to make potato cakes with later... mmmmmm potato cakes.

So...
10 potatoes, chopped into bits (they cook faster this way)
1 tbs butter
1/2-1c milk
salt and pepper
ginormous pot with salted water

Dump the taters you chopped into the water and cook at boiling until just fork tender. My stove has issues so it takes about 30 minutes. Yours may be fabulous and take 10. Just keep checking them every few minutes, 'cause you don't want them squishy.

While potatoes are cooking and getting all happy, pull out your frozen veggies. Generally I stick to corn, peas, green beans and carrots... maybe add some onion and green pepper.

1 onion
1/2 green pepper
all of the leftover bits and pieces of frozen veggie bags.

Get the onion and pepper happy in a skillet with a little olive oil. Oooooh! Throw in some mushrooms! That would be awesome!

MMMMMM Mushrooms!

Whip out a packet of french onion soup mix, or if you HAPPEN to have some leftover french onion soup from a meal, use that.

Heat it up in a pot, add some cornstarch.

Brown hamburger or veggie crumbles.

Dump all of the veggies, soupy stuff and burger bits into a 9x12 pan or a casserole dish. Casserole dishes work best, but use what you have.

By now potatoes are ready for smooshing.

Drain them. Please do not burn yourself.

Steam is hot. I know right? Amazing!

Pour 1/2c milk and 1 tbs butter into the pot the potatoes were in. Get the butter all melty and the milk nice n warm.

Why? Because I am telling you too and I am the boss right now!

No, really, because the cold of the milk and butter cause the happy starches of the taters to seize up and become gluey. We don't like gluey.

Pour the taters in.

Get out you smoosher.

NO! Do not use the hand blender! Geez!

Get out you great great grandmothers rusted, bent, mangled smoosher and smoosh.

The one with a long handle and funny looking holes or squiggles in the bottom.

Ya that thing. No it's not a branding iron.

*Sigh*

Ok, sorry, I will get the pictures in, I promise...Computer... Stupid...remember?

Squish taters until nice and creamy. If they are being uncooperative, add a little more milk and keep going. They will become creamy without electronic devices, trust me.

Conserve energy and all that.

With a spoon, put taters on top of soupy stuff. Do not push it down or try to spread it. This does not work.

Throw the...

Stop eating the potatoes. You need them for...

I said stop it.

See I told ya so.

Would you put the darn pan in the oven please, before they are all gone...?

Ok. Good. 350. 15-20mins or until warm.

Add cheddar cheese on top. Shredded of course. (Although squishy plastic cheese is good too)

When nice and warm pull out of oven and serve. If ya want to get all fancy, chop some green onions to throw over the top and nuke some rolls or bring out the bread so you can sop up all that soupy goodness.

Or heck, serve it over the bread. I won't tell.

Simple, easy and relatively fast.

Maybe tomorrow I will tell you my secret potato pancake recipe... 'cause it's really yummy with scrambled eggs and bacon....

Mmmmm bacon.

Sunday Breakfast - French Toast with Apple Compote

Sunday's are my day. Well, ok not ENTIRELY mine, I do have to share with my monkeys.

My Monkeys.

Anywho, so sundays are my day to clean the house and do other mommy stuff.

This morning, I happened to have some used bread left over from spaghetti night, so I decided french toast would be a good use for it before it became dry enough for bird food.

Of course, if you have french toast, then you have to have apple goo to put on top. Its required. No really. It is. If you don't have any apples to make your french toast happy then I suppose fresh berries are a good substitute.

But then you have to add whipped cream.

Sigh. Whipped Cream.

*shakes head*

Ok, back on track.

Today's breakfast's name...French Toast with Apple Compote, Tori's famous Macaroni and Cheese Eggs, Bacon and sausage.

The Bacon and sausage, if you so desire it, should be in the pan first. It takes the longest. If you are not vegetarian, you can use the greasy pan of their cookin's for your eggs for some extra yumminess.

If you are, or have a vegy person in your house, throw the bacon on a baking sheet line in foil and throw in oven. This allows it t all cook evenly at once, and doesn't risk contaminating the other food with grease splatters (and keeps cleanup of stove easier too)

I generally cook them at abou 300 or they will be done before everything else.

You could totally do the sausage this way too, but i use turkey sausage so it doesn't splatter.

Pour yourself a cup of coffee. Nectar of the gods...an all day sunday thing.

Ok, the apple compote takes the next longest to do.

You will need:

2 apples, cut into chunks (remember chunks are bigger than bits)

2 Tbs butter

squirt of maple syrup

2-3 Tbs brown sugar

dash of cinnamon

splash of vanilla

Melt butter into skillet, you'll want non-stick, trust me.

Saute' apples for a few minutes. Add rest of ingredients and get all melty. Turn heat to med-low. Let do its happy melty thing while you move one. Don't forget to stir every now and then.

Next prep the bread by cutting in 3/4 to 1" thick slices.

Then mix together

2 eggs

2 c milk

2 tsp vanilla

1/2c sugar

dash of cinnamon, and nutmeg if you want.

Whip up eggs first then add the other stuff, stir until it feel like sugar is mixed well in. You will have to mix off and on (between soaking slices) to keep sugar in place.

Damn sugar. Never stays where you want it to.

Get your pan all nice and warm. Cast iron is good for this. LOVE cast iron.

Stir the apples. You forgot.

Get a stick of butter out and schmear all over the bottom of the cast iron. If it is well seasoned, then you only need to do this once. If you are using nonstick (ugh) then every batch will need re-greasing.

Ok, so there are 2 ways to cook the french toast. There is the speedy, I am starvingm the kids are whining, way and the I have to do the dishes and clean the kitchen while cooking way.

Way #1. Soak bread in goo for a few seconds on each side. Oooh look BUBBLES!

Throw them in pan as is, and move on.

Way #2 Soak them in goo until all the bubbles are gone mostly.

*Sniff* No more bubbles.

Lay them in foil lined pan and let them sit for about 10 mins, then throw in over for another 8-10 mins on 325. (Or 300 is ok if your doing the bacon, although, if you are using way #2 to make toast, you will want to put bacon in after the toast is out 'cause it'll be done before toast and that mean cold bacon. Yuk.)

Ok. Take it out and NOW put it in greasy, buttery pan to fry it up.

Stir the apples. You forgot again.

What does this do you ask? It makes the insides stay soft and gets a crisp on the outside but makes sure everything is cooked through. If you do the pan way, you usually dry it out and overcook to get it cooked all the way through and you lose the creaminess of the innards.

Creamy innards=good and yummy. Got it? Ok.

Moving on.

Hang on, getting walloped by a pillow wielded by the perpetual toddler puppy.

.

.

.

.

Ok back.

Tori's Mac n Cheese Eggs

So whilst the toast is getting toasty, crack some eggs into a bowl and whisk.

Yes a fork works if you don't have a whisk, but seriously, get a whisk. It has multiple, non-egg uses.

Assume 2 eggs for each person unless they are 11 year old growing boys, then about 6 :-)

For our family of 5 (1 normal kid, 1 eat everything boy, myself and 1 overgrown eat everything boy and my sis- both who don't partake in eggs very often) we go through about 10.

Add a little salt and pepper to taste. Yes, before you cook them. Add some more after too. This is called LAYERS of flavor.

Very Important. Remember that.

Cook eggs in your yummy baconey (is that a word?) grease or a little olive oil.

Flip the french toast. Get out the plastic squishy cheese (velveeta or its generic)

Yes this is required as well. Real cheddar cheese does not work correctly for tori's mac n cheese eggs.

Cut 3-4 slices into chunks. The smaller the chunks, the faster it'll get all melty and happy.

When eggs are to correct doneness, add cheese and turn heat to low. If you don't you'll have a lot of clean up to do with burnt on cheese. YUK!

By this time everything should be getting done-ish

Assemble. Apples should be all happy, bacon and sausage done, french toast waiting, eggs just done.

(If you need to make large quantities of french toast, cover with wax paper and put in micro-nuker without turning on to keep warm. A towel over top of top of wax paper helps too.)

Ok your done. Yummy Sunday morning breakfast.

Signature Dish- Noodles in lemon garlic cream sauce, salad with raspberry vinaigrette, steak with blue cheese butter, foccacia

On occasion...I say that a lot it seems...On very RARE occasion I take the time to make my signature dish.

Why is it signature you ask? Well, this is 100% mine. No altered recipe, all mine. And it was my very very first recipe like that. There are a couple of others. When I make them, I'll post them.

So earlier I posted about Alfredo sauce and said in the once in a great while that I made it, when I did again, I would post pics.

Tonight is one of those nights.

On the menu tonight is Steak with blue-cheese, roasted garlic and herb butter, Homemade noodles with garlic lemon cream sauce, Salad with apples and blue cheese with raspberry vinaigrette and foccacia.

Ok so the foccacia I bought this time because I didn't get home early enough to make making bread feasible. I'll give you the recipe anyway. It's pretty easy.

Let's start with that because it takes the longest.

No. Wait. No. Nevermind.

Oh. Get out the butter so it can warm up. You need it kinda squishy.

The Bread. Although when you bake it, throw in the garlic head covered in olive oil wrapped in foil to bake with it. You'll want it to cool before you squish it.

Foccacia - This is mom's recipe. Again, I don't alter baked goods, usually.

If you have a bread machine, this makes this a million times easier. I don't bake in my bread machine, I just make the dough. I have this thing against bread that is rounded on the end and not length wise. It bothers me.

1c Lukewarm water

1 pkg yeast (2 1/4 teas if you do bulk like we do)

Mis these together. Let them get all happy in the warm bath.

In mixer dump...

1 1/2 c flour

1 Tbs Rosemary

2t salt

3T oil.

Pour in the water mix. Use your dough hook for this it work best. If using the bread maker, liquids first, then dry.

Mix until soft ball forms.

If needed, add more flour.

I always end up adding more flour.

Knead dough until its stiffish.

Get a pan that is a good size at. Err baking sheet. Technicalities sheesh!

Roll dough out into flattened circle of about 1 foot. (12") ONTO THE PAN. Seriously, you don't want to pick it up afterward. No more nice roundish bread...

Stick your fingers in it lightly. Ok act like you are a concert pianist and play the bread. You want little pockmarks, its ok. Really.

Brush top of dough with oil and sprinkle with pepper. Fresh cracked or course, silly. Geez!

Let it rise for 30 mins in a warm but not HOT place.

Bake at 400 fo 20-25 mins. Brush top with oil again and some kosher salt when out of oven.

Don't forget to throw the garlic into the oven.

Next is making the noodles. No it is not hard, so shush. Its very, very easy. And doesn't take forever, just longer than what a quick evening meal requires.

It takes a million ingredients too.

Ready?

You sure?

Ok. Here goes. *Deep breath, cracks fingers

6 eggs

3 C Flour

Whew! *wipes brow* that was tough.

Now what do you do?

Put the flour in a bowl or on a flat surface. Yes, flat. Because a non-flat surface causes gravity issues, that's why.

Fine.

Make a hollow in middle of your pile of flour. Crack in the eggs.

Get a fork. Whisk egg and grab a little flour from the edges as you do, working it into the eggs. Keep grabbing flour until the fork is no good anymore. Then get your hands in there and fluff in flour and squish together.

Now you have enough in there its time to start kneading.

Knead the dough until everything is incorporated together and it makes a stiff ball.

Wrap in oiled plastic wrap and set aside away from heat to rest for 30 mins or so.

If its gonna be longer, throw it in the fridge. No don't literally throw it! Ok. Go clean up the milk you just spilled.

When you are ready to boil the noodles, get the dough out and warm it up to room temp. Roll out so its about 1/16 to 1/8" thick. If you have a fancy pasta attachment for your mixer, use it. If you have a manual machine (like I do) us that.

Cut noodles into desired width. Powder with flour to keep them from sticking together, because trust me, they will. Like glue on.. well whatever. Like glue.

To cook, boil water with a little oil and salt. Salt is important.

They take like 2 seconds to cook. Well maybe 60, but not very long.

DO NOT COOK UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO EAT! They will become glue if not served fresh.

Ok. Now that that is clear as mud.

Next course errr, part.

Get out the steaks. Throw on some seasoning. Salt, pepper, garlic.

No really. That's it.

I like using strip steaks but my fave is ribeye.

Get out the butter. Warm it up if you forgot to get it out earlier. 20 secs in micro-niker is fine.

You will also need...

2 Tbs blue cheese, crumbled. Or however much you want to put in. I use half of one of those little pre-crumbled cartons.

your head of now very happy roasted garlic.

Pinch of basil

Pinch of thyme

Throw butter in bowl.

No, don't actually throw it! Geez now look at that mess!

Poor counters. Never saw it coming.

Now that you have scraped it off the counter and wall, put it in the bowl. Better.

Add the blue cheese and herbage and then squish the cloves of garlic tip to base to squeeze out all that good squishy stuff inside. Squish. Squish.

Ok now, get a fork. Squish all of your ingredients together. Good job!

Now that your butter is all happy and content, dump it out onto a piece of plastic wrap or wax paper. (To keep mother nature happy, wax paper is better!)

Roll the paper around the butter and help it make a log by pushing it outward a little as you roll. Twist the ends tight until a solid log is formed.

Toss in freezer or fridge. If you like you steaks medium to rare then freezer is better, well done, fridge should be ok.

The steaks can now go into the oven on broil or on the grill. Also if you are going to fix a veggie, like asparagus, then get that to cooking too. (Water, plate, wax paper, microwave for 5 mins)

Get out your alfredo ingredients.

Cream, lemon, cheese, garlic, salt and pepper.

Remember to not add the cheese and lemon juice until the VERY end k?

See recipe for alfredo sauce

I made a salad with mine just 'cause.

If you like the looks of this I used

Lettuce, blue cheese, apples, onions, cucumbers and generally top with a raspberry vinaigrette or other vinegar based dressing.

Yes, apples. Cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, oranges, these are all very yummy in salads. So are nuts...I especially like almonds or pecans caramelized with it. MMMMMMMM.

So in about 5-10 minutes, 15 if you like your steak extra crunchy, dinner is done.

I told you this was a long haul. This is a special, once every now and then, takes a few hours to do kinda meal. Plan ahead. Anticipation is everything.

Now assemble and enjoy!

Oh, ya. I have a serious thing for mushrooms. So i added mushrooms. These are baby bella's 'cause in the PNW we have LOTS of mushrooms for cheap.

Ok. I'm done now :-)