Just some pics. :)

Matthew loves taking pictures like this now. He would throw his arms around me and smile for the camera. I was eating it up.

I took this to show how pateint our cat is with Matthew, he is playing cars on her.

This is anti-nadia defense. Nadia keeps jumping on the couch and bothering Matthew when he watches his favorite show, so in an ingenious move, Matthew put his stool on the seat next to him to keep Nadia off. I was impressed, I never thought of that. He has pretty good problem solving skills for his age, or at least it seems like it. :)

My Favorite Egg Bake

I have tweaked this recipe quite a bit to fit our tastes. You can put any breakfast meat or vegetable in this egg bake. I make this quite often and admittedly eat the whole dang tray by myself in about a 2 day time span. MMMMMmmmm cholesterol ;) It may sound like a lot of work, but it really isn't. It's delicious! TIP: use a foil stuffing pan so you don't have to wash cooked cheese out of a casserole dish.

INGREDIENTS
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 small yellow onion
1lb maple sausage
3 or 4 whole fresh mushrooms
1 tsp ground mustard
salt
pepper
2 pieces of bread (wheat, white, doesn't matter)
1 tomato (or 3 roma tomatoes)
8ozs of shredded cheddar

Preheat the oven to 365F. Thoroughly cook the sausage, breaking it up into pretty small pieces. Place on plate with paper towels to absorb some of the grease. Tear the bread into stuffing-size cubes and line the bottom of the casserole dish. Add the sausage on top of the bread. Dice the pepper, onion, and mushrooms. Set them aside. (All the vegetables are optional, of course)

In a large bowl beat together 2 cups of milk and 8 eggs. Add salt, pepper, and ground mustard. Mix well. Add the diced vegetables and mix a bit more. Pour the egg and veggie mixture into the casserole dish, over the sausage and bread. Let the bread soak some of the egg mixture up while you slice up the tomato. Cover the top of the casserole with thin tomato slices. Cover it all with the shredded cheddar.

Bake for 45 minutes. The cheese will be slightly brown and the center of the casserole should have baked up into a little mound. If it hasn't baked up, leave it in for another 10 minutes. When you cut into it there will be a little water, but it should be pretty firm. Let it cool for 5-10 minutes if you can handle the wait. Enjoy! :)

Sweet Potato Caramel Twist Coffee Cake

Most of my cooking lately has been for breakfast or brunch. I found this recipe that is very good. However, it uses pecans on the topping and I know that some of my family do not like nuts very much. One time, when I made some cinnamon rolls that called for pecans, I subsituted chopped apples, and it was a hit with the non-nut eaters. I haven't tried it with this recipe yet, because my husband likes it so much like it is.

Sweet Potato Caramel Twist Coffee Cake

Part I

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Place 1/3 cup butter/margarine in 9" square pan, and melt the butter in the oven.
• Stir in 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I use dark) & 1/3 cup of Corn Syrup.
• Sprinkle with 1/2 cup chopped pecans (see above note about apples).

Part II

• In medium bowl mix 2 1/2-cups of Bisquick, 1/3 cup of milk & 2/3 cup of vaccuum packed sweet potatoes, mashed. (I buy a 15-oz can of sweet potatoes and divide it in half, you can use it twice, or make a double batch out of 1 can. If there is extra syrup, I save it and use it as liquid in another recipe.)
• Mix until dough forms a ball
• Turn out onto board or pastry cloth* that is dusted with flour or bisquick.
• Lightly knead 10 times.
• Roll or pat dough into a 12-inch square
• Spread dough with 2 tablespoons of softened butter or margarine (I don't measure, I just get a knife and soft margarine and spread it like making a sandwich).
• Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of brown sugar over butter (adjust to your personal taste).

Part IV

• Fold dough into thirds and seal the edges by pinching them together. (it looks kind of like a strudel at this point).
• Cut into 12 one-inch strips.
• Twist ends of each strip in opposite directions.
• Arrange on top of pecans in pan. (It may not seem as if they will all fit, but they do, just push, twist, etc, until the pecans are no longer visible.

Part V

• Bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
• Immediately turn upside down on heatproof plate. (I usually use parchment paper over a plate for easier clean-up, today I am trying aluminum foil, so I can wrap up the leftovers and re-heat).
• Leave pan over cake for 1 minute.
• Serve warm. I really like it with butter

Tip: Immediately wash your pan and utensils after using them as the sticky stuff is hard to get off if you let it set.

* In case someone doesn't know about a pastry cloth, they have cloths that you can slip over your rolling pin & ones that you can spread on your bread board instead of putting the dough directly on the board. It makes for a much easier clean-up. I have lost mine, so I just use an old dish towel, the kind that doesn't have any nap on it. For the rolling pin sleeve, you can use an old clean sock (nap-free) that is cut to fit your rolling pin. I usually just use the dishtowel for the board. It used to be so hard to take the board outside to shake off the flour and wash the board, etc.

If anyone tries the apples for this recipe, please let me know. Also, let me know of any other substitutions that might be good.

homemade granola

YUMMY!

I will never buy granola again. Once again this is a take on a foodnetwork recipe. I got the idea from good eats about 2 years ago... So I looked up the recipe, I changed it alot though, to fit what I had available in my cupboard.

My adaptation:

3 cups oats
1/3c. steel cut oats
1/3 c. flax seeds
1 c. shredded sweetened coconut
1/4 c. slivered almonds
1/4 + 2 tbls D. brown sugar
1/4 + 2 tbls Maple Syrup
1/4 canola oil
3/4 salt

Preheat oven to 250.

In a large bowl mix together oats (steel cut and rolled), flax seeds, coconut, almonds, and brown sugar. In a separate bowl mix together oil, maple syrup and salt. Mix the two bowls together until the dry is nicely coated. pour onto 2 baking sheets and bake for 1 hr 15 mins, mixing every 15 minutes.

This was sooo easy! I love to hike, and this will be perfect in a trail mix for the family, and over fruit and yogurt.

Since we are talking about vegetables...

The day before yesterday, I took frozen green beans (uncut) and defrosted them a bit. Then I tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper and then put them in the oven at 425 for like 20 minute until they were kinda carmelized and a little crispy. They were delicious, like french fries but good for you. Matthew dipped them in ketchup. This is great with shredded carrots too!

What to do with Beans!

I am a big fan of Alton Brown's "Good Eats". They aired an episode last night on lentils and I was very grateful. We are on WIC and in a household full of boys it's hard to convince them to eat a healthy pound of dried beans or peas. We tried using red beans in chili, which will work next time once I get the amount right! I've done black beans and rice, which is fine but no one wants to eat a pound of it. It's hard to find ways to get rid of these beans! Being German, I have a great recipe for split pea and ham soup (which my husband refuses to eat). I've also found a great recipe for Fakes (Greek lentil soup, pronounced fah-kess), and now another Lentil soup to add. Here's the lentil soup Alton Brown shared in his episode.

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 pound lentils, picked and rinsed
1 cup peeled and chopped tomatoes
2 quarts chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground toasted cumin
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground grains of paradise

Place the olive oil into a large 6-quart Dutch oven and set over medium heat. Once hot, add the onion, carrot, celery and salt and sweat until the onions are translucent, approximately 6 to 7 minutes. Add the lentils, tomatoes, broth, coriander, cumin and grains of paradise and stir to combine. Increase the heat to high and bring just to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook at a low simmer until the lentils are tender, approximately 35 to 40 minutes. Using a stick blender, puree to your preferred consistency. Serve immediately.

Another great site is www.allrecipies.com. I visit that site probably once or twice a day. Here's a recipe I found that sounds even better (to me) than Alton's soup, but very similar. What will probably end up happening is some kind of conglomeration of both recipes into a different soup. I have never owned grains of paradise so bay leaves sound like a better fit for me. Anyway...

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 large onions, cubed
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 3 carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 3 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups lentils - soaked, rinsed and drained
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup white wine
• 2 bay leaves
• 7 cups chicken stock
• 1 sprig fresh parsley, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. In a large stockpot, saute the onions in oil until they are glossy. Stir in garlic, paprika, celery, carrots, and saute for 10 minutes.
2. Once the vegetables have sauteed for 10 minutes stir in tomatoes, chicken stock, lentils, bay leaves, salt, and pepper. Stir well, then add the wine and bring the mixture to a boil. Slowly reduce the heat and cook for 1 hour on low to medium heat; or until the lentils are tender.
3. Sprinkle the soup with parsley and Parmesan (optional) before serving.

Last night's dinner.

Last night was a great dinner. It was one of the few where I was able to sneak in vegetables. I took a page from ol Rachel Ray's book and made smashed cauliflower with cheese. I was hoping it would be as good as it sounded. And it was better. I followed her recipe, but I changed the cheese from extra sharp vermont white cheddar, to a mix of extra sharp cheddar and glouchester. I kept the parmasean in also. It was really good, and Russell dislikes cauliflower. He loved this though!

I also made BBQ ribs. This is my first genuine attempt at grilled ribs, and it came out wonderfully. I call these my mocha ribs, becuase coffee and cocoa were in the recipe. I dry rubbed the ribs, then baked them at 350 for 2 hours. I then cooked them on the grill at a low heat for about 40 minutes turning and basting with my bbq sauce often. I was nervous they would be over done, but they weren't! We also had canned yams :( becuase I forgot to pick some up at the store.


Ribs: 1 and 1/2 racks of babybacks.

Rub:
3 tbls of unsweetened cocoa power
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
3 turns of black pepper from a grinder
about 2 tsp of salt

Basting (BBQ sauce) :
1 cup ketchup
1/4 of molasses
1 cup coffee
2 tbl brown sugar
1tsp smoked paprika
a few dashes of cinnamon
pinch of ginger
1 tbl balsamic vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice


Basically followed the Rachel Ray recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/london-broil-with-steak-sauce-gravy-smashed-cauliflower-with-cheese-ham-and-red-chard-recipe/index.html, but subbed the cheese as mentioned before.
Today is an adventure in Jam making. Wish me luck!