Strawberry Balsamic Freezer Jam

I found this recipe on the Ball website, http://freshpreserving.com/  It is attributed to Barbara H. of Park Hills, Missouri.  And it is fabulous!

I am adding it to my fruit preserving/harvest repertoire, as well as sharing it with you.


Enjoy!

Strawberry Balsamic Freezer Jam

Makes about 5 (8 oz) half pints

1 cup balsamic vinegar
4 cups crushed strawberries
1/2 cup honey
5 tablespoons Ball^® RealFruit^® Instant Pectin

Pour balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until reduced to 3/4 cup. Chill until cool.

Mix strawberries, honey and cooled balsamic vinegar in a large mixing bowl. Let stand for 10 minutes. Add pectin. Stir 3 minutes.

Ladle jam into clean jars to fill line. Twist on lids. Let stand until thickened, about 30 minutes. Refrigerate up to 3 weeks or freeze up to 1 year.

Chile Con Queso

Was inspired to try this recipe after a good friend make public her addiction to mass-produced chile con queso eaten straight from the jar. After reading the ingredients on one of those jars, I can't imagine going any other route than using the recipe below when a craving hits.

Chile  Con  Queso

Serves 8

2 tablespoons butter

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup half-and-half

1 pound grated sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup or 7-ounce can diced green chiles

16 ounces tortilla chips

1. Melt butter in medium saucepan.

2. Sauté onion and garlic in melted butter over medium heat.

3. Add flour and cook 1 minute.

4. Add half-and-half and stir until somewhat thickened.

5. Add grated cheese and stir until melted.

6. Stir in green chiles.

7. Serve hot in chafing dish or in 2-quart Crockpot with bowl of tortilla chips.

NOTE: Easy, quick, and delicious! I didn’t bother to drain the canned green chiles when using them.

             Reheats well.

Crab Rangoon

This month, my assignment for Secret Recipe Club was:

Morsels of Life

Somehow, I ran across her recipe for Baked Crab Rangoon.  I have been in love with Crab Rangoon since I first learned how to make them in college.  I have always deep fried them, and they are fabulous.  I was intrigued by this baked version so there was no question about my recipe choice.

I did do a few things differently.  First, I sprayed the muffin tin with olive oil spray, put the wonton wrappers in, then sprayed the wrappers and crossed my fingers.  It worked just fine.  I did pull them out after just 5 minutes in the oven.  They were browning quickly on the corners and I was concerned about warming them up again with the cream cheese mixture.

I don't have access to much crab meat in the small desert town where I live, so I picked up some canned.  I used more cream cheese, because I couldn't see how 1/4 cup could possibly stretch to fill 20 wonton skins, (wonder if it's a typo?) and stirred in the green onion because that's how I make mine.  I was interested to see what the lemon juice and Worcestershire brought to the rangoon, because I don't add them to mine.  I chose to omit the sour cream, no real reason other than it was optional.

The first batch turned out okay, but I lowered the oven temperature for the second baking as I was concerned about burning and 3 minutes wasn't really enough to warm the cream cheese very much.  I guess we just prefer the deep-fried version with the melty cheese!  Don't get me wrong, we still ate them all!!

For the second batch, we decided to put the cream cheese mixture in before baking the wontons at all.  I baked those for 7 minutes, and the result was good.  The cream cheese mixture was hot and creamy, but the wontons were a bit less crispy on the bottom. 

I'd say you could do it either way, really.  These would be a good appetizer to make ahead for a party if you didn't want to be standing around deep-frying, just have them made up and pop them in the oven (or not) right before the party starts, but just know they're not exactly what you'd expect from a crab rangoon.

Please follow the link if you'd like to see the original recipe.  My version is listed below. 

P.S. Next time I will omit the Worcestershire as well. 

They are pretty little things!

Crab Rangoon
Adapted from Morsels of Life

24 wonton skins
1 can of crab meat, about 6 ounces
2 teaspoons lemon juice
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce (omit)
4-5 green onions, sliced (3 stirred in, 1-2 reserved for garnish)

Spray muffin tin with olive oil, press wonton skins gently into tins, then lightly spray skins.

Bake at 375 degrees F about 5 minutes, and wonton skins should be crispy.  *(see above for alternate baking option)

Meanwhile, combine remaining materials (except crab) and mix well. Gently mix in crab. Spoon filling into wonton shell, about 1 tablespoon per wonton.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 3-5 minutes to warm up entire Crab Rangoon, if desired, keeping a close eye on them so they don't burn. Garnish with reserved green onions.

Brown Sugar Brownies (Chocolate)

The last thing I need is another tried-and-true brownie recipe, but I tried this one on Sunday, and the recipe qualified as true and is especially easy to make.

Brown  Sugar  Brownies

Serves 9

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

½ cup butter at room temperature

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

2 eggs at room temperature

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup all-purpose flour

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, optional

Powdered sugar, optional

1. Melt chocolate in a custard cup in the microwave at less than full power.

2. In medium-large mixing bowl, beat butter.

3. Add dark brown sugar and beat well.

4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

5. Beat in melted but cooled chocolate as well as salt.

6. Remove beaters. Stir in flour and, if desired, walnuts.

7. Spread into greased 8x8x2-inch baking pan.

8. Bake in 325°F. oven for 25 to 30 minutes.

9. Let cool. Dust with sifted powdered sugar if desired. Cut into ninths.

Cuban Roast Pork Loin

Cuban Roast Pork Loin

Serves 4

4 large garlic cloves

1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled

1 teaspoon coarse salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2-pound boneless pork loin roast with a thin layer of fat, optionally tied

½ cup fresh orange juice

¼ cup fresh lime juice

2 tablespoon olive oil, divided

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1. Using a large heavy knife, mince and mash the garlic to a paste. Add oregano, salt and pepper and mash together. Rub mixture all over pork, tied if desired.

2. Put orange juice, lime juice, and 1 tablespoon olive oil in gallon-sized, resealable freezer bag and shake to combine.

3. Add pork to marinade in bag and seal. Refrigerate, turning occasionally, for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours.

4. After marinading pork, lift it from marinade and pat it dry with paper towels. Reserve marinade.

5. In 3- to 4-quart heavy ovenproof pot with lid, heat butter and remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over moderate heat until foam subsides.

6. Brown pork on all sides, about 8 minutes total. Remove pot from heat and pour reserved marinade around pork.

7. Cover pot and roast at 325°F. until thermometer inserted diagonally at least 2 inches into center of pork registers 145°F, about 45 minutes.

8. Transfer pork to a plate and let stand, loosely covered with foil, for 10 minutes, during which time its internal temperature will rise 5°F to 10°F.

9. Bring cooking juices to a boil and boil until reduced by half, 5 to 10 minutes.

10. Slice pork and serve with sauce.

NOTE: I used a pork top loin roast successfully though original recipe specified center-cut. The combination of orange and lime juices mimics the tang in a marinade of bitter oranges, which would be used in Cuba. May want to serve with rice and black beans and a tossed green salad.

Possibly the Best Meatloaf

My old favorite meatloaf is Holly Hobbie's Meatloaf.  I'm not kidding, I have loved it since I was a kid and cooking from the Holly Hobbie Cookbook!  I also love that it has carrots in it and a secret ingredient that I use instead of bread crumbs:  oats!

Last year, this Swedish Meatloaf became a pretty close second to Holly Hobbie's.  Today, I planned on making a meatloaf for dinner.  For some reason, I thought about combining elements of the two recipes:  the vegetables in Holly Hobbie's with the spices of the Swedish meatloaf.  I decided to use enough meat to make two meatloaves, one for the freezer, and made note of the ingredients I wanted to use.

Everyone in the family loved the results!  My youngest son, Sawed Off, even said that this meatloaf knocked hamburgers down to third place on his favorite foods list! Number One is looking forward to meatloaf sandwiches.  H-Bomb cleaned his plate!

Sorry I didn't take a picture, but without further ado, here we have:

Possibly the Best Meatloaf
makes two loaves, each loaf serves 4-5 hungry people

2 pounds ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 medium onion, diced (about 1 cup)
3 carrots, peeled and grated
2 eggs
1 cup regular, "old-fashioned" oats
1 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine all ingredients gently in a big bowl.  (I use my hands to mix it)  Mix until combined, but don't be too rough with it or overwork it.

Divide mixture in half, and put each half in a loaf pan, smoothing the tops.  I wrap one loaf pan with plastic wrap AND tin foil, label it and freeze it for later use.

The other loaf pan into the oven.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.  Let cool slightly, then slice and serve.

Delicate Nut Crescents

Made these for the first time today. The dough was delicious and so were the cookies, made with toasted pecans. I sprinkled the cookies with powdered sugar, but sometime I want to try my idea of dipping the ends in chocolate.

Try the recipe and see what you think. I'm thinking these would be a good cookie to take to a holiday cookie exchange or to a tea but would not be a good cookie to send in a care package to a college student. Enjoy!

Delicate  Nut  Crescents

Makes about 60

1 cup butter at room temperature

½ cup granulated sugar

1 egg at room temperature

½ teaspoon vanilla extract or ¼ teaspoon almond extract

¼ teaspoon salt

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup ground pecans, hazelnuts, walnuts, or almonds

Sifted powdered sugar or melted semisweet chocolate

1. In a medium-large mixing bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for 30 seconds.

2. Add the sugar and beat until combined.

3. Beat in the egg, whichever extract goes best with the nuts you are using, and the salt.

4. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer.

5. Stir in the remaining flour and the ground nuts with a wooden spoon. Do not chill the dough.

6. Shape dough into short cigars, maybe ½ inch in diameter and two inches long. Curve into tight crescents as you place on ungreased baking sheets about an inch apart. Even without leavening, cookies will expand during baking.

7. Bake in 375°F oven for about 8 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are lightly browned. Remove cookies from pans and cool on a rack.

8. When cookies are cool, either sift powdered sugar over them or dip one or both ends of each cookie in melted chocolate and allow chocolate to set completely while cookies rest on rack or waxed paper.

NOTE: Rich, shortbread-like cookies. Dough handles beautifully. May want to toast ground nuts. However, if you do, stir constantly over dry heat and take care not to burn them; burning can happen in a blink of an eye and make the nuts unusable in cookie dough. Allow toasted ground nuts to cool completely before adding to dough.

Taste & Create: Profiteroles

***Taste & Create is a fabulous monthly blog event 

in which participants are randomly paired off 

to choose and prepare a dish from their partner's blog. 

 If you'd like to join us, please email me at 

cowgirlmin07 [at] gmail [dot] com for more information!  

We'd love to have you.**

For the December/January Taste & Create event, I was paired with Hannah of Bright Palate. It didn't take me long to decide on her Profiteroles with Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream and Butterscotch Sauce. However, it did take me a long time to make it!!  Sorry, Hannah.

I fell in love with Profiteroles in France, and ate as many of them as my stomach could handle after sumptuous dinners and bottles of wine.  Each time, they were served with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

I originally planned to make Hannah's Vanilla Pastry Cream, but the Butterscotch Sauce just didn't appeal to me at all, so I planned to substitute some type of chocolate sauce.  After mixing up the choux pastry for the profiteroles, I sort of lost my ambition for mixing the pastry cream, (and washing all the pans and bowls associated with it!), so I decided to use vanilla ice cream instead.  If you're feeling ambitious, by all means follow the link above or below and make her vanilla bean pastry cream, or you could make Julia's Crème Pâtissière, which likely has the same amount of stirring but perhaps less dishes.  ;-)

My husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary the other night, and I had made some chocolate-orange liqueur truffles, which we all know is just ganache that's slightly shaped and coated with cocoa.  I decided I'd use some of the ganache I hadn't gotten around to shaping, microwave it gently to soften it and use it as a topping for the profiteroles.  I added a little more cream before microwaving to loosen it up a bit, next time I'll just make it specifically for the profiteroles and a thinner mixture from the start.

My dough scoops were a little bigger than golf balls, so my profiteroles were generously sized.  I accidentally turned the timer off during the baking at 425 degrees, but they turned out just fine.  I ended up baking them for 20 minutes at 350 degrees at the end, and they were perfect, just keep an eye on yours.

Profiteroles

From Bright Palate, who originally adapted it from Ratio 

Choux pastry
Yield: About 20 profiteroles

1 cup water
1/2 cup/1 stick unsalted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 scant cup flour
4 large eggs

Note: The choux pastry can be baked immediately once it’s cooked on the stovetop, or refrigerated for up to a day before baking.

Preheat oven to 425. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, tin foil, or silicone liners.

 In a medium saucepan over high heat, bring the water, butter, sugar, and salt to a simmer. Turn down the heat to medium, add the flour, and stir rapidly. As you stir, the dough will pull away from the sides of the pot. Continue stirring for another minute or two to continue cooking the flour and cook off some of the moisture.

Take the pot off the heat and let it cool slightly, a few minutes - it should still be warm to hot. Stir in the eggs rapidly, one at a time. It will take a few seconds of vigorous stirring for each egg to be incorporated. You can also use a standing mixer or electric mixer: transfer the dough to a bowl and mix in the eggs one at time.

Spoon golf-ball-sized portions of the dough onto the baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn oven down to 350 and bake for 10 to 20 minutes longer.

Taste or cut into one to judge its doneness: it should be airy inside and not too moist.

To assemble:
Slice each profiterole in half. Place a dollop of ice cream or pastry cream on the bottom half and sandwich with the top half. Spoon chocolate sauce over the top.

***Visit Taste & Create to see what everyone else has made this month!***

 

Pineapple Cake

This month my assignment for Secret Recipe Club was:

Dagny of Whisked Away.

Right away Dagny's Breakfast category pulled me in.  I noticed lots of cakey things...coffee cakes, muffins, fruit breads...and quickly decided to make this Pineapple Cake.  And I only needed two ingredients from the store!


This is a fairly quick and easy cake to pull together, I was interested to see how cooking the pineapple before adding the cake batter affected the outcome.  I didn't seem to have a ton of cake batter, so was a little concerned how it would all turn out (not too easy to spread over the pineapple/brown sugar liquidy mixture).

I should not have worried!  The cake crept over to the edges while baking and covered all the pineapple.  I was surprised given the butter and my nonstick pan that any pineapple stuck to the pan at all when I turned it out, but it did.  I just smoothed it back into the cake, which I suppose is easier than fitting the round slices back into their places on the cake.

This is a beautiful cake, different than a traditional pineapple upside down cake, but with similarly delicious flavors.  I know I will be making it again! 

Pineapple Cake

Via Whisked Away, originally adapted from Food and Wine Magazine

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup crushed pineapple, juices drained

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla
 1/2 cup sour cream
 

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter an 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pan.  Sprinkle the bottom with 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar.

In a large skillet, combine the remaining 3/4 cup of brown sugar with the 1/2 stick of butter and the vanilla  and cook over moderately low heat until the butter is melted. Add the pineapple and cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and pour mixture into bottom of the pan.

In a bowl, beat 1 stick butter with the granulated sugar.  Add the eggs and vanilla, then the sour cream.  In another bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add to the wet ingredients and beat until smooth.

Spoon the batter over the pineapple mixture and spread it evenly. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the cake is deep golden. Let cool for 5 minutes on a rack. Run a knife around the edge of the cake, invert it onto a plate and remove the pan. Replace any pineapple that may have stuck to the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Sesame Chicken

I decided since we don't have a Chinese restaurant in town (I know, I can't believe it either!), I would search for a good recipe for Sesame Chicken.  I decided to try a recipe posted on about.com.  I didn't change the marinade for the chicken, which turned out fabulous.  I did make a few changes to the sauce, which I will note below, namely reducing the sugar by HALF.  Of course I couldn't find chili paste, so I had to improvise.  Please follow the link above for the original recipe.  I feel like the sauce needs a little something extra, not sugar!  When I identify it, I'll let you know.

For now, this recipe satisfied the cravings of three out of four family members.  Unfortunately, Sawed Off is the one who LOVE LOVE LOVES Sesame Chicken, and he did NOT love this rendition.  So the work continues to bring you a Sawed Off-approved Sesame Chicken.

However, if you're in the mood for Chinese, and don't have delivery, make this instead.

Sesame Chicken
Adapted from about.com
Serves 3-4

3 whole boneless chicken breasts  (ours were about 1 pound each)

Marinade: 
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry
a few drops of sesame oil
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Sauce: 
1/2 cup water
1 cup chicken broth
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons chili sauce
a few drops hot sauce
1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
 3 1/2 - 4 cups peanut oil for deep-frying

Lightly toast the sesame seeds and set aside.

Cut the chicken into 1-inch cubes. Mix the marinade ingredients and marinate the chicken for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, make the sauce.  In a saucepan, mix together all of the sauce ingredients. Bring sauce to a boil, stirring constantly. Turn the heat down to low and keep warm while you are deep-frying the chicken.

Heat the peanut oil.  When oil is hot, add the marinated chicken pieces a few at a time, and deep-fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Repeat with the remainder of the chicken. Just before you are finished deep-frying, bring the sauce back up to a boil.

Place the chicken on a large platter and top with the sauce. (I didn't use all the sauce)  Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve with rice, if desired.