Halloween Homemade

I *gasp* make homemade treats at Halloween.  I only offer them to kids who are with thier parents, and ask if it is OK for their child to have a homemade treat.  I have never had someone turn me down.  We can't possibly make enough homemade treats for all the kids who come on Halloween, we have several hundred trick or treaters, but I do make some just the same.
I always make homemade hot cider, too.  It isn't so much about the drink itself, but it is the smell of the cider that makes it seem like Halloween.  I  have an old glass stovetop percolator that I fill with cider and add five or six cinnamon sticks, five or six cloves, and five or six allspice berries to it.  Once it comes to a simmer, I turn it down on low and leave it on the simmer burner.  It is a wonderful welcoming smell for our visitors.
We made Grandma Jenny's caramel corn this year.  It is a simple brown sugar caramel poured over popped corn.  I added some dried fruits and nuts, and we packaged it in zip lock bags and put a glow in the dark Halloween sticker on it.

Grandma Jenny's Caramel Corn
2 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C water
2 T oil (I used grapeseed oil, but any light oil would do)
Combine all three ingredients in a large saucepan.  Don't stir, just put on high heat until it boils.  Let the mixture boil for fifteen minutes on high heat, and then pour over corn.  Spread out onto nonstick baking sheets to cool and add dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds.  After it cools and hardens, bag it up.  Grandma Jenny said to use it for a large bag of popped corn.  She bought hers already popped, but we popped our own in our Whirlypop.  It is a stovetop popcorn popper that has a crank handle on top to keep the corn stirred while it pops.  It is great fun to use.  I have seen similar models at the Big R store for less than ten dollars.  It sure beats having to buy microwave popcorn, and put up with all the salt and preservatives.
We also made caramel apples.  I haven't made caramel apples in years.  We put one of my glass mixing bowls over a pan of water that was boiling on the stove to heat the caramel.  I ended up adding water to the caramels to get them to a consistency that would coat the apples.  They sort of slumped, and were too sticky to give out to the kids, so Don will end up taking them to share at work.  We had bought some cut little Halloween sprinkles to decorate them in.

Bandito Pie, Roasted Jalapeno Peppers Stuffed with Feta

This is a quick recipe that made an awesome lunch today!  Taco like filling with smoky chipotle pepper, and topped with a cornbread crust made from a mix.   I keep Jiffy cornbread mixes on hand to use for muffins along with soup, or as a topper for this pie.
I always have chipotle in adobo in my fridge.  I keep it in an old glass refrigerator container with a glass lid.  It only takes one or maybe two chipotles for a recipe, so it takes a long time for us to use up one little can.  When I open the chipotle in adobo, I always add enough cider vinegar to the container to keep the chipotles covered in liquid.  If they start to get dried out, I'll add more vinegar.  They stay usable for a very long time this way.  As an added bonus, I get more of the tasty adobo liquid to use in cooking that way!

Bandito Pie
1 lb ground meat (I used lamb, because it was thawed out, but equally good with beef or even turkey)
1 large onion diced
2 minced cloves of garlic
2/3 quart/large can of diced tomatoes
1 chopped chipotle in adobo
1 tsp adobo liquid
2 T Mexican chili powder
1 tsp cumin
salt and pepper to taste

*Preheat oven to 350*F. 
In a large cast iron skillet, brown ground meat with onions on the stovetop.  Add garlic, tomatoes, chipotle and spices.  Adjust seasoning to taste. 
In a medium sized mixing bowl, mix cornmeal muffin/cornbread mix according to directions.  Mine called for milk, but I prefer buttermilk for baking.  It might require a little more liquid than the directions to make a medium soft dough spreadable enough to top the taco filling above.  Spread over the skillet full of taco filling, and place in preheated oven.  Bake for twenty five minutes, or until cornbread is golden brown.

Roasted Jalapenos Stuffed with Feta Cheese
We had some leftover fresh jalapenos that needed used up, so I split them down the middle, cut out the seeds and ribs,  and filled them with feta cheese.  These went on a baking sheet and roasted while the pie baked.  Mild jalapenos pair well with the salty feta, and they were a great accompaniment to the Bandito pie.   

Insomnia, or Canning in the Stinkin' Dark!

I could not sleep last night.  To compound my troubles, our satellite tv is not working due to the snowstorm we've been having the last two and a half days.  I have watched every movie on the shelf, so I was going through my cookbooks to try and get sleepy.  I had to do something, and Lord knows I wasn't going to do anything like clean for heaven's sake!  Well, I didn't find anything interesting in reading material, so I wandered up to the kitchen to see what I could whip up.
They had beautiful tomatillos at the store when I had my last shopping day, and really nice green onions.  I had several pasilla peppers that needed used, and a whole bag of limes, so after wasting a half hour sharpening every knife in the kitchen, I put together this salsa.  It is a small batch, but made two pints I canned, and almost one more for the fridge for immediate consumption.  I will use it up quickly, as it is great served hot over eggs for breakfast huevos, awesome with chips as a snack, and the flavor tang for tasty posole.  It is great served over broiled fish in a fish taco, too!

Mean Green Salsa
8 large tomatillos, husks removed, rinsed and diced
4 pasilla peppers, diced and seeds removed
2 jalapenos diced
8 scallions diced
2 C diced white onion
zest from 2 limes
juice from 4 limes
1/3 C cilantro
2 tsp cumin seeds, crushed in your palm
1 tsp agave nectar
1/2 tsp canning salt
Bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer.  Cook until tomatillos soften and start to break down.  Pack in hot sterilized jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace, and process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.  Makes 2 2/3 pints

Potato Tomato and Bacon Salad, Some Homemade Dressings, Homemade Custard and a Hamburger Potato Casserole

We got home late last evening from a wonderful weekend away.  I had figured that we might be home late, and knew we would be too tired to really cook, so I had ready a package of minute sirlion steaks, and had my son bake a bunch of potatoes in the oven earlier in the week.  It took no time to grill the steak, and put together this tasty salad.  I used feta cheese, but I think it would be delicious with gorganzola or some other kind of bleu cheese also.

Baked Potato, Tomato and Bacon Salad
4 slices cooked bacon (I used turkey bacon left over) diced in small squares
1/2 red onion thinly sliced
4-5 potatoes that have been scrubbed, greased with Crisco and baked in foil for 1 hour.  Cool and dice
4 fresh tomatoes cut in wedges
1/4 C feta cheese crumbled
In a large bowl place salad ingredients.  Top with dressing and toss.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
Mustard Viniagrette
2 T Mustard
1/3 C red wine vinegar
3 T olive oil
2 tsp grill seasoning
1 tsp dried basil
Whisk together until emulsified, and pour over above ingredients.

I am totally out of dressing for salads, so that is my restocking task today.  Often I make a quick oil and vinegar based dressing right before the meal, but I do like to put salad in Don's lunch, and so I need to have something on hand for that.  If you put the salad dressing in the bottom of the tupperware, a salad stored for lunch will stay fairly crisp, instead of putting the dressing on the top, and having the lettuce wilt. 

Ruby Dressing
1/4 C sugar or splenda
1/4 C cider vinegar
3 T catsup
1 T Worcestershire Sauce
1 medium onion
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
Chunk up the onion, and in a blender or with an immersion blender, combine the above ingredients.  Stream in 1/2 C oil and blend until smooth. 
This dressing is bold enough to serve with a steak salad.  It is also good served over spinach topped with hard boiled eggs and crumbled bacon. This also makes a good dipping sauce for kebabs. 


Orange Avocado Dressing
1/4 C red wine vinegar
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
juice from one lemon
juice from one medium orange
1 whole avocado chunked
1/4 C plain yogurt
1/8 tsp dry mustard
pinch of salt and ground pepper
In the blender, or a quart jar with an immersion blender, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth.  Store covered in the refrigerator with a tight lid.  You can substitute mayo for the yogurt, and if you don't have, or like avocado, you could use zucchini, spinach or even cucumber. 

Tequila Lime Dressing for Fruit Salad
2 T good Tequila
juice from 2 limes and their zest
1 C fresh mint leaves chopped
1/4 C fresh basil (optional)
1/4 C agave nectar, or honey

Mix together dressing and top a salad of watermelon, honeydew melon, or cantaloupe.  You can make it with watermelon, and jicama peeled and cut into small dice.

I need to make snacks for Don's lunch and for the babies during the week.  This is one of my snacks for this week's lunches:

Vanilla Custard
1/4 C sugar or splenda
2 T cornstarch
1/4 T salt
1 raw egg
Mix together in a double boiler.  If you don't have one, place a glass or stainless steel bowl over your saucepan that you have 1 inch of water simmering in.    Gradually stir in 2 C of whole or 2 % milk with a whisk.  Cook over medium heat until mixture boils.  Let it boil 1 minute, and then add 1 T butter, and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and remove from the heat.  Let cool and cover top with a piece of saran right on the custard.  This keeps it from developing a pudding skin.

I lack any real motivation to cook today, as I am tired from my trip.  I love this easy casserole.  I have leftover mushroom gravy, so I will use that, but you could use a can of store bought mushroom soup instead.  I love that you don't have to brown the meat ahead of time in this casserole!

Hamburger Potato Casserole 
1 pound ground meat
1 large onion sliced
1 can/pint of green beans drained of their liquid
2 large potatoes scrubbed and sliced in thin slices
1 1/2 C gravy (I have mushroom) or 1 can cream of mushroom soup
salt and pepper to taste.

In the bottom of a 9x13 pan, or covered casserole, crumble raw burger and season with salt and pepper. Layer green beans, sliced potatoes and onion slices over the beef.  Top with mushroom gravy, and cover.  Bake at 375*F for one hour.   
You could make this with diced butternut squash, sliced eggplant, frozen peas and carrots, or a can of drained stewed tomatoes in place of the green beans. 


 

More of the Week's Menu at a Glance: Caldo y' Pollo, BBQ Lamb Meatballs, Bisquick Pizza, Lamb Dardanella, Chicken Wings

Here are the rest of this week's recipes.  The main lamb dishes, a soup, and my version of chicken wings with less fat, and not fried. 
It has been a great week, as we are down to one ewe left to lamb, and she isn't going to do that for a while yet.  It has been really warm, so it was a trick to get the hay delivered to the pen, as it was soft and muddy from all the snow melt.  I was happy to go get hay, as it meant a rare meal out at the Bull Steakhouse.  They have an awesome prime rib sandwich!
As kids, we all loved it when we had pizza.  Now, I'm not talking about Pizza Hut, or Dominoes.  We didn't have such things here then.  I mean thick crusted hamburger pizza made with bisquick.  We missed having this for eating out, but here is the recipe:

Bisquick Pizza
2 1/4 C bisquick baking mix
1/4 C cornmeal
2/3 C milk
Mix together, and press into a baking sheet  that is coated with oil. Dock, or use your fingers to dent the dough and bake at 450*F for 8 minutes, or until it starts to brown.  Take it out of the oven, and top with tomato sauce sprinkled with a tsp of dried basil, a pinch of red pepper, and coarse salt and pepper. Add your favorite toppings.  Traditionally, we ate this with browned hamburger, onions and mozzarella cheese. Put it back in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

BBQ Lamb Meatballs

3 pounds ground lamb
1 C buttermilk
1 C dry oatmeal
1 C cracker crumbs
2 eggs
1/2 onion grated
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp chili powder
In a large bowl, mix all ingredients lightly.  Form into small meatballs, walnut size, and place in a large roaster, or casserole that has been greased.  Cover with sauce.
Sauce:
2 C catsup
1/2 C brown sugar, I use splenda brown sugar
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
1 T minced garlic
1/2 onion grated
1 chipotle chili in adobo finely chopped
In a saucepan, combine above ingredients for sauce, and bring to a boil.  Pour over lamb, and bake at   350*F for one hour.  Great leftover for a meatball sandwich!  Yes, you can substitute beef or ground turkey for lamb. 


Lamb Dardanella
1 large eggplant peeled, diced, salted, and drained
1 large onion diced
2 T olive oil
1 1/2 pounds ground lamb
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp fresh rosemary chopped
1 pint/can of stewed tomatoes
2 tsp dried parsley
1/4 C feta cheese
Heat oven to 350*F.  The original recipe called for American Cheese.  If you like it, go ahead and substitute it for the feta.  After salting, and draining the eggplant, dry it with a paper towel.  This removes any bitter flavor, and keeps it from becoming slimy and too wet in the cooking process.  Brown the eggplant and onion in the oil.  Remove to a casserole, and drain off the oil.  Mix lamb with salt and pepper and rosemary, and form into six patties.  Brown in the skillet, and remove to the casserole.  Top with tomatoes and parsley, and sprinkle cheese over all.  Bake uncovered for 45 minutes.  Serve with flat bread, or potatoes. 

My version of Chicken Wings uses boneless breast and thigh meat instead of the wings.  It is more of a poaching method, and results in very moist morsels without all that fat from frying!

Chicken Wings
2 pounds boneless, skinless breast or thigh meat from chicken
1 C Frank's hotsauce
2 T butter or chicken broth
In a casserole dish with a lid, place chicken meat that you've cut into bite size pieces.  Melt butter in the microwave and mix with hotsauce.  Pour over chicken meat, and season with salt and pepper.  Bake at 400*F for thirty minutes.  You can uncover this, and keep them hot on a low burner on the stove, if your casserole dish is safe for that.  Otherwise, keep uncovered in the oven on low.

Caldo Y Pollo
This soup can be made quickly from leftover cooked chicken.  You could poach the chicken, and shred it to make it from raw chicken also. This is my favorite soup when we go to Sheridan, and eat at Los Agaves.  Here is my version:

2 C shredded  cooked chicken
1 box/quart of chicken stock
1/4 of a yellow onion finely diced
2 tomatoes finely diced
juice of a fresh lime
1 C fresh cilantro leaves
2 Avocados cut in thin wedges

In a stockpot, combine the stock, chicken and vegetables.  Simmer, and adjust for seasoning by adding salt and pepper.  Just before serving, top soup with cilantro, and squeeze  the lime juice.  Add Avocado slices to everyone's bowl. 
 

 

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Junk Food

Even though I plan my meals, and shop from my list, I often am left with food that didn't get used.  It is a common occurrence when you try to shop for an extended amount of time, like a week or two, or a month.  There will be more in a package than what I need for a meal, or I will have food that is starting to not be so fresh, and needs used up before I lose it.  So, I would say to live this way, you must be creative, and flexible in what you do.  Better to change your planned meal, than to lose some produce that is starting to get wilted.

Oven Roasting Vegetables

I overbought broccoli and cherry tomatoes recently.  We had a night out with family unexpectedly, so my planned meal didn't get served.  We are very fond of oven roasted vegetables, so on my last turbo cooking day (see previous post), I cut up the broccoli and roasted it with the cherry tomatoes, and an onion that was threatening to go soft.  I sprinkled them with Mrs. Dash garlic and herb seasoning, but could have just used italian herb blend, and salt and pepper, and drizzled them with 2 T olive oil.  After tossing them to coat them all, I roasted them for 15-20 minutes in a 450 F oven.  After cooling, they went in a sealed container in the fridge, for later in the week.  On the day we ate it, I heated the vegetables and oil  in a skillet, and tossed them with whole wheat pasta, and some Parmesan cheese.

Homemade Tortilla Chips

I could not find a small package of fresh white corn tortillas last time I shopped, so I was left with a substantial bunch of them, and no plan for their use.  Today while the little babies napped, Bridger and I made homemade tortilla chips.  We fried them in LARD  and seasoned them with Tajin spice blend.  If I didn't have that on hand, I could have just used salt, chili powder and some lime juice.  Bridger's contribution was to oversee the operation, and do quality control on the chips cool enough to eat.  He says they are pretty good, which is high praise from a two year old!

Happy Birthday Joel, Ole`!

Joel's birthday was earlier this month, but we finally got around to having his party yesterday.  He picked Mexican food as his theme, and I will be sharing the dishes we prepared this week.  It was a big success, and we have lots of yummy leftovers for the week's lunches!
I love to use Mexican food to entertain, as it often is make ahead, and there aren't a fussy lot of ingredients in the dishes.  I am still kind of slow moving, and have to rest often, so I made most of the dishes the day before.
We had a taco bar set up, and served a marinated slaw salad, and a fruit and panela salad, but the main dish was the beef ancho chile (see earlier post for the recipe for Spaghetti Western).  My good friend Mel brought a crock pot of green chile from the Laredo in Rawlins (YUM!) so people had a choice between the spicy green and the milder red.
At Joel's favorite Mexican restaurant, they always serve a marinated cabbage slaw as a condiment.  We all really love it, and I think I've finally nailed down the recipe.  It is definitely a make ahead, as it needs to develop in flavor, as does the fruit and panela salad.

El Sol Slaw

1/2 head green cabbage, thinly shredded
3 large grated carrots
1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/3 C rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Combine all the ingredients, and put in a sealed container to store in the refrigerator.  Much better the second day, so make ahead!

Panela is a hard white cheese with a very mellow flavor.  It pairs really well with fruit, and with the color contrast of mango and honeydew melon, it was a pretty addition to our buffet.
Tajin seasoning can be found in your grocer's fresh produce section.  It is a blend of chile, lime and salt.  If you can't find Tajin, you could substitute a sprinkle of chile pepper, and salt.
Agave nectar is a syrup that has a low glycemic index, so doesn't cause the spike of blood sugar common to other sweeteners.  It could be replaced with sugar or splenda. 

Mango, Melon and Panela Salad
4 ripe mangos peeled and diced
1 honeydew melon peeled and diced
1 pkg panela cheese diced
zest from one lime
juice from 2 limes
3 T agave nectar
1/2 tsp tajin seasoning
In a large salad bowl, add all ingredients and toss.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.  Toss again before serving.   

Jalapenos can be very mild and tasty if roasted in the oven.  I stuff mine with Queso Fresco cheese mixed with Neufchatel cheese,  but we have also made them with cream cheese mixed with parmesan.
The hardest part of making these healthier version of Jalapeno Poppers is splitting and cleaning the chiles.  You need to split them length ways and cut out the white membrane and remove the seeds for stuffing.  We have family that shy away from anything spicy, so I also stuffed smaller sweet orange and red chiles.
These poppers are an easy do ahead recipe, and can be either served hot from the oven, or at room temperature.

Jalapeno Poppers

6 large firm jalapenos
2 pkgs small sweet red and orange peppers
1 pkg Queso Fresco cheese crumbled by hand
2 pkg Neufchatel cheese softened
1 tsp garlic Mrs. Dash seasoning
Split chiles and remove membranes and seeds.  In a medium bowl, mix together remaining ingredients, and stuff into chiles.  Place on baking sheets and bake in 350 F oven for twenty to thirty minutes, or until peppers have softened, and cheese is slightly brown.  Serve either hot or at room temperature.