Cakes & Cooking

This recipe has a very tangy, flavorful sauce that works well on chicken or pork cutlets. It’s an easy but relatively low-fat recipe.

4 chicken breast cutlets or boneless pork chops
olive oil
1.5 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 yellow onion, chopped fine
pinch of dried parsley
2 tbsp chilled butter
1 tbsp minced garlic
splash of red wine

Heat oil in a skillet over med-high heat. Salt and pepper the meat on both sides and add to the hot skillet. Cook 4-5 minutes on each side, remove from skillet and keep warm under foil.

Add chopped onion to the skillet with minced garlic. Sautee until soft. Add broth, vinegar, and red wine to the skillet, simmer until liquids have reduced by half. Remove from heat. Add cold butter and stir into sauce, then add the meat and juices to the pan, coating the chops in sauce. Serve finished with the pan sauce, or over rice.

November 23rd, 2008 | Category: poultry |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Nothing says “fall” like the smell of baking things with apples. Apple pie, apple crisp, apple compote, anything. The bad news is that they are all full of fat and sugar, you just can’t go right with flaky pie crust or cripsy oatmeal topping. But you CAN go right with homemade spicy applesauce – all the warm cinnamon apple goodness without any added fats or sugars. All you need is a crockpot.

Apples – peeled and sliced (I use 8lbs of apples to fill a 7qt crock pot, adjust as needed)
Cinnamon – 1 tsp for every 4-5 lbs of apples or so
Sugar (optional) – 1/8 cup for ever 4-5 lbs of apples

Peel and slice the apples. Toss with the cinnamon and sugar. Put everything in the crockpot with 1/4 cup of water. Cook on low heat for 6-7 hours (overnight works wonderfully), stirring towards the end. Serve for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

October 21st, 2008 | Category: comfort food, sides |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

Nothing says summer like a fresh lemon cake! Super easy and super lemony, make a regular white cake from recipe or mix, but replace all the water with freshly squeezed lemon juice, and then fold into the batter the zest of 3 lemons. For lemon buttercream icing, beat as normal and replace the milk with lemon juice, and a drop of yellow food coloring if it’s not quite yellow enough from the butter. Garnish with candied lemon slices. Voila! This is can be to the table in an hour or less if you use thin 6 inch cakes (3 layers) that cool quickly.

June 5th, 2008 | Category: cakes |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

This is a super-tasty, rich, and easy cobbler type dessert. It can be made with virtually all kinds of canned fruit, so it’s excellent for mixing and matching and using whatever you have! I’ve used peaches, apricots, pears, mandarin oranges, pineapple, and cherries in different combinations and all to pleasing results.

• 1/2 c sugar
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 can (1 lb, 13 oz) sliced peaches – drained, juice reserved
• 1 can (10.5 oz) apricot halves, drained, juice reserved
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 c flour
• 1/2 sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp NaCl
• 2 tbsp butter, softened
• 1 large egg

1. Preheat oven to 400. In a medium saucepan, mix together sugar and cornstarch. Stir in 1/2 cup each of the reserved fruit juices. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils and thickens, 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Stir in butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add peaches and apricots. Spoon mixture into a 1.5 qt casserole.
3. For the topping, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, and egg. Drop in small chunks or spoon topping over the fruit mixture.
4. Bake cobbler until slightly golden, 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
5. For a nice garnish, beat up some heavy cream with 2 tsbp of honey and a pinch of cinnamon. Serve over the warm cobbler!

April 5th, 2008 | Category: baking |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

With fondant roses. Simple but pretty.

March 15th, 2008 | Category: cakes |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

This buttercream on white cake feeds approx 150.  Roses are fondant. 

March 6th, 2008 | Category: cakes |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments Off

I like this tasty recipe as part of our meatless meals plans – it’s filling and hearty without meat or beans. Taken from an original recipe in Cooks Country, I made a few changes that I think punch things up a little bit (though the changes probably knock it out of the 30 minute meal category into a 45 minute meal).

8-10 no boil lasagna noodles
15 oz. container ricotta
1 block mozzarella, shredded 8 or 10 oz. (approx 2 cups?)
1.5 cups grated parmesan cheese
1 cup cheddar, shredded
1 large egg
1/2 cup chopped basil (or 1/4 dried basil)
1/2 tsp salt
1 can, 20 oz, crushed tomatoes
2 onions, chopped
3 tsbp olive oil
2 tbsp minced garlic

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place the noodles in a microwave safe dish with hot tap water, enough to cover noodles. Microwave until noodles are softened, 3 to 6 minutes. Discard water. Dry noodles on clean towel.
2. Combine ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella, 1 cup cheddar, 1 cup parmesan, egg, salt, and half the basil in a bowl.
3. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until onion is soft. Remove from heat, add crushed tomatoes and remaining basil. Spread half the tomato sauce in a 9×13 dish, set the other half aside.
4. With the short side facing you, dollop 1/4 cup of the ricotta mixture on each noodle, roll up. Arrange seam side down in the dish. Pour the remaining tomato sauce over all.
5. Sprinkle remaining cheese over top the rolls, cover with foil and bake until heated through, 10-12 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 5 additional minutes, or until cheese is browned. Let stand 5 minutes and serve.

This makes a pretty hefty portion…but it freezes and reheats well, and makes great leftovers for lunches.

January 14th, 2008 | Category: pasta, vegetarian |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

This was a post-Thanksgiving recipe, but I just tried it out now – I made the stock from just the carcass of a turkey breast I had roasted, rather than doing a whole turkey (a breast is like 1/20th of the work!) and the stock came out just fine. For 2 or 3 people I cut the recipe in half…anything more than that and go for the full recipe. It reheats well.

1. For the broth – melt butter in a large dutch oven over med high heat. Cook onions, celery, and carcass until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add wine and broth and simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Strain broth, discard solids.
2. For the soup – wipe out the dutch oven (or if you have 2, lucky you!) and toast the rice over medium heat until it begins to pop, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in turkey broth, carrots, celery, thyme, and baking soda, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until rice is tender, about 1 hour.
3. Whisk flour and cream in a bowl until smooth. Slowly whisk flour mixture into the soup. Add turkey and simmer until slightly thickened, 10 mintues. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

If you find it easier to make in two steps – broth first, refrigerate, then soup the next day – that works too.

January 10th, 2008 | Category: poultry, soup |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

This is a tasty, sweet and spicy, soft and crunchy warm salad. I’m not a huge fan of salmon but this would be excellent alongside chicken made in the same honey-lime marinade….someone pointed me to this recipe in a Rachael Ray cookbook, and I am always up for new salads and sides.

The red pepper in this recipe kicks it up quite a few notches – if you don’t like spicy things cut the red pepper flakes in half, or omit all together. If you like spice, then flame away!

• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (divided use)
• 1 medium red onion, chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin (1/3 palmful)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Juice of 2 limes
• 3 tablespoons honey (3 gobs)
• 1 teaspoon chili powder (1/3 palmful)
• 4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets
• 1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
• 1 (10-ounce) box frozen corn kernels, defrosted
• 1/2 cup chicken stock or broth
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 to 3 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
• 6 cups baby spinach

1. Preheat a medium skillet over medium heat with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil (twice around the pan). Add the onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, cumin, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes. (this will be your salad skillet)
2. While the onions are cooking, preheat a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
3. In a shallow dish, combine the juice of 1 lime, honey, chili powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Add the salmon fillets to the lime-honey mixture and toss to coat thoroughly. Add the seasoned salmon to the hot skillet and cook until just cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes on each side. (if you are not for salmon, use the marinade to cook chicken or other fish – shrimp would be good too- however you like)
4. To the cooked onions, add the bell pepper and corn kernels and cook for 1 minute.
5. Add the chicken (I use vegetable) stock and continue to cook for another 2 minutes.
6. Add the black beans and cook until the beans are just heated through.
7. Remove the skillet from the heat and add the juice of the second lime, the cilantro and the spinach. Toss to wilt the spinach and then taste and adjust the seasoning.
8. Serve the lime-and-honey-glazed salmon on top of the warm black bean and corn salad.

November 1st, 2007 | Category: seafood, sides |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment