Bogieblog

Tasty Pork Chops

The Weekend Pundit notes that he uses his George Foreman grill mostly during the summer, when he can't use the outdoor grill.

Even though it is winter, I'm really liking the George Foreman grill. Last night I cooked up pork chops that came out fabulously tasty - thought I would share the recipe (as usual, I started with a supplied recipe, and made it a little differently):

Whisk together, then marinade pork chops in:

• 1/4 C lite Soy Sauce (or low sodium - why can't they make low sodium lite?)
• 2 tsp Ginger
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• Chopped garlic cloves (or I use the canned chopped garlic - about 1 tsp)

Cooked on the GF grill for 8 minutes and voila, it was done.

The pork chops came out with lots of taste, nice and tender, and very juicy. Tonight it will probably be burgers on the GF grill. The middle of the week will probably be chili in the crockpot - it is supposed to be down in the single digits at night, so we will definitely need some rib sticking warmth!

Food for the Season

While we were on vacation, we had lots of good food that was homemade. Along that vein, Cop Car directed me to a relative's food blog. She has had TV cooking shows and is an author of a pastry book. I am delighted that she is sharing recipes, and am trying one that uses produce for the fall season. I won't lie, I tweaked a bit to account for what I had on hand (canned squash instead of fresh - presentation suffers; cooked fresh cranberries with sugar instead of canned).

More food goodness was found at WS's family get together. WS's sister had a wonderful stew hearty soup for which she was happy to share the recipe. I, in turn, will share it with you.

Sante Fe Soup

• Brown 1 pund Hamburger, drain and place in crockpot then add rest of ingredients
• 1 Can Corn (do not drain)
• 1 Can Chili Beans
• 1 Can Green Chilis
• 1 Can Rotel (diced tomatoes as far as I can tell)

Heat up in crockpot and simmer at least 1 hour. Add Velveeta Cheese until mixture has desired consistency.

So there are plenty of places to ad lib, but not many ways you can screw it up. I would think using sausage 1/2 pound of meat would be a good change. Adding hotter peppers than the chilis is another place for substitution. Also, there are no sizes of cans. I'm guessing that the corn and beans are 15-16 oz cans. the green chilis are 3.5-4.5 oz cans and the tomatoes 26-28 oz.

Tis the season for eating all kinds of stomache fillingfoods, and you can't go srong with either the Sante Fe Soup or pickings from the Ardant Cook!

Corn Bread

This morning, I started 16 bean soup (with Ham, of course) in the crockpot.

This evening, I fed the dogs, and gave them the last 2 eggs with their kibble.

My plan was to have cornbread with the ham and bean soup.

This may seem like unorganized rambling, but does anyone see a problem that ties them all together?

If you thought that I needed some eggs to make the corn bread, DING, DING, DING, you win a prize (of no consequence, no color, no smell, no feel, I'll send it by air mail).

So thinking I couldn't have been the first idiot to have given the eggs that were for the corn meal to her dogs, I got on the internet. Although no one fessed up to having fed ingredients meant for their evening meal to their pets, there were plenty of people that had no eggs, had a hankering for corn bread, and were to lazy (broke, out of time, other) to go to the store. here is the recipe I decided to go with, along with my modifications:

• 1 1/2 cups soymilk (I used 2% milk)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vinegar (I cut back to 1 TBL after reading some of the comments)
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour or 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I used 2 TBL of soy flour and the rest of the cup filled with rice flour for a gluten-free bread)
• 2 tablespoons raw sugar or 2 tablespoons other artificial sweetener (I used 1 1/2 TBL of Splenda Baking Mix)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt (I used 1/2 tsp)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons oil (I used 2+ TBLS of bacon grease)

1. Preheat the oven to 425F.
2. Blend the milk and vinegar (see, you want sour milk) and set aside.
3. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Add the milk mixture and the oil (grease), and stir until just blended.
5. Spread the batter into a nonstick or lightly oil-sprayed 9-inch square baking dish.
6. Bake 25-30 minutes (25 for me).

Test for doneness by the toothpick method, in the center.

It came out very good for use with bean soup (or chili). The taste is low key and won't compete with the soup. If you are looking for something that is more toward eating with just a bit of butter on it, up the sugar content and use butter instead of oil or bacon grease.

Thanksgiving Feasting

Thanksgiving has come and gone and the fridge is groaning under the load of food still in it.

Monday, WS invited Jimmy over for Thanksgiving, though he usually has several places to go on this day, this year his only choices were too far away. So instead of the small ham and mashed potatoes that I was planning on fixing for the two of us, I had to plan on at least 4 (Jimmy eats for two every day).

The small ham I had previously gotten truly was not enough to feed the three of us, so Tuesday I went to the store and got a turkey breast to make sure we had enough meat. I also decided that a pie was in order along with some dinner rolls. I had sweet potatoes and fresh cranberries already, but was unsure if I would use them.

Wednesday evening I mixed up the green bean casserole so all I would have to do is place it in the oven. I also made a chocolate pecan bourbon pie.

The big day came and while WS raked and mulched leaves, I vacuumed and did some cooking. I woke up thinking that a pumpkin pie was also needed, so I made that while the bread machine was beating up the dough for the rolls. We had 2 bananas that were very ripe, so next I made banana bread. Next the turkey breast went into the oven, then it all came down to timing.

Jimmy arrived in early afternoon and we kept him from starving to death by bringing out a shrimp ring (WS had found it for 1/2 price - nice!), cheese and crackers (WS had cut up the cheese Wednesday night) and chips with onion dip (which WS had also prepared the night before). While we were eating, we watched Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back. Jimmy has only seen the first Star Wars (okay, the 5th in the series, but the first out on the big screen). We had been itching to watch the movies again since going to the concert, so it all worked out.

About 5, I peeled potatoes and started cooking them; while they were cooking, I did up the rolls and got them and the green beans cooking. The last thing was to make up gravy (I decided against sweet potatoes or cranberries). WS cut up the turkey while I was pulling everything out of the oven and mashing the taters.

At half-time the end of the movie (which coincided nicely with the readiness of the food), we piled our plates high with food and started in on the 6th, um 3rd, oh to heck with it, Return of the Jedi. About half way thru the movie, the neighbor came over to chat for a while. After he left, we broke out the deserts which had waited patiently in the back room (everytime I went in there for something, I gained 10 pounds from the wonderful aromas) and watched the rest of the movie. Did I mention that Karen had stopped on her way to her daughter's to drop off a carrot cake? We certainly didn't lack for sweets!

The meal was declared as delicious by everyone. The movie night was a success (although we still have the next 3 movies to go). Jimmy was encouraged to come back for another night of feasting and lightening of the load on the fridge.

Hope everyone else's Thanksgiving was spent with good company and good food. Next up Black Friday and buying an exercise machine to help compensate for all the calories!

Autumn Cereal

It's been pumpkin and squash season here for quite a while. I got a pumpkin last week and made up some "cereal" that I take to work and heat up for breakfast instead of my usual oatmeal. As usual when I make up a recipe, I didn't measure anything, but really, I don't think you can really mess this up too much.

• 1 small pumpkin (I used a small, non-sweet, decorative type but you could use a sugar pumpkin). If using a sugar pumpkin, the amount of maple butter might need to be reduced.
• Couple of pats of butter or margerine (don't substitute olive oil for this)
• Maple butter - I used about 2 TBL for the whole pumpkin. You could probably use a bit of maple syrup (the real stuff please) or if on a strict diet some maple flavoring and Splenda (or sugar substitute of choice)
• Dollop of Vanilla
• Dollop of imitation Rum
• Almond slivers

Cut the pumpkin in half and scrape out the seeds. I leave stringies in there, but that is a personal choice.

Place in a baking dish and add about 1" of water.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or so

Remove from the oven and let cool for a bit then scrape the meat out of the hull

Combine all ingredients and stir until the butter and maple butter is melted and everything is well combined.

Eat a bowl of it while it is still warm! This makes 5-6 hearty bowls full.

Make sure to eat leftovers warm - the heat brings out the taste of the vanilla. Some people would be tempted to use pecans instead of almonds. I strongly suggest staying with the almonds - they keep it lighter tasting so it is more appropriate for breakfast or a snack in the afternoon.

For nutrition / calorie reference click on the following links: Pumpkin (raw), Maple butter,

Jammin

Somehow, instead of making something with the sweat pumpkins that came out of the garden, I canned 20 jars of pear butter yesterday. After perusing some recipes on the 'net, I made 3 different variations (none of which actually followed a recipe - that's the way I ususally do things). Anyway, I will share what I actually did use with you. Mind you, these were all placed into clean 1/2 pint jars and put in hot water bath for 12 minutes after the boil re-started (most places say 5-7 minutes is plenty, but I always boil longer).

Ingredients (per batch):

• 5-6 ripe pears (I used Anjou for two batches and bartletts for one batch)
• 1 apple
• 1 cup sugar
• 2-3 tsp lemon juice
• Spices (see variations below)
• Pectin (optional)

Variation 1:

• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp dired orange peel

Variation 2:

• 3/4 tsp Cardamom

Variation 3:

• Substituted Brown Sugar for white
• 1 tsp nutmeg (this spice was a little on the old side (all others were fresh), so you may want to use less and add as needed).
• 1 tsp almond flavoring.

I had originally planned to use Splenda baking mix (which I would have used 1/2 the amount of sugar) for the butters, but didn't have enough and the local Shaws doesn't carry it. So I had to buy regular sugar (no, I don't stock it) and used it for all the batches.

I cored and pealed the pears, then ran them thru the food processer with about 8 ounces of water to 3 pears (or 3 pears and 1 apple). After processorizing a batch of fruit, I dumped it in a pot, added the other ingredients, brought to a boil, boiled for about 10 minutes, added 1 tsp of Pectin (Sure-Jell, because that is what I happened to buy), boiled for another minute, turned off the fire, then filled the jars and continued canning as usual. This netted me right at 7 - 1/2 pint jars of butter (except the batch with 5 pears).

If you don't want to use pectin, you will have to boil down the mixture a bit (most recipes said 50 minutes) and will net more like 6 - 1/2 pint jars. Another interesting idea that I found on the 'net, was to use a crock-pot / slow cooker to heat and boil down the mixture. That would take 4-10 hours, but would reduce the chance of scorching the butter.

Now for the obligatory fall pictures - taken late yesterday afternoon:

  Firethorn berries - didn't get many this year (haven't gotten many any of the years, but hey, I planted them in a totally unsuitable spot (they get lots of winter wind).

  A group of leaves that caught my fancy - well, the red one did anyway.

Maybe today I will make pumpkin butter - or not, as my whims dictate.

Fall is in the Air

Tomatoes have been ripening at a fast and furious pace. Unfortunately, even with the help of spiders and frogs, insects have caused a lot of damage this year so I haven't gotten as many usable tomatoes as I should have. However, the scene in the kitchen yesterday was something like this:

  Freshly washed canning jars

  Canning and stock pots

I managed to eek out 17 pints of salsa and should get a few more pints next week. So far I have controlled myself and made fairly mild stuff.

The next thing on my list was to get a bit of fruit that we have an abundance of this year. Now, remember that we took out all the fruit trees so this is a bit different fruit than I have dealt with in the past:

  See way back in the distance, in the middle of the photo, some tall "weed". This is below the corner of the fence, and I have designated that a "naturalization" area. And boy did it naturalize.

  See that tall stuff back behind the hostas? That is my destination to get at the bumper crop of these:

  Luscious wild blackberries. The bushes are loaded and I only spent a couple of minutes to get enough to fill a cookie sheet for freezing them. I heard more drop than I actually picked, there were so many! I may actually take a stab at making some jam, but the wild kind have massive amounts of seeds, so may just content myself with keeping a couple of jars of frozen berries around. Besides, I don't know how long before the bear will discover that they are ripe and wipe out the remaining crop!

Another sign that fall is well on its way:

  This pumpkin came from a volunteer so I don't know what variety its parents were. It is sitting in full sun and is the only one that has turned orange. The rest of the pumpkins we have are on 2 plants that I actually planted, but the gourds are shaded so they are still a dark green:

  This pumpkin is actually quite large (much larger than the orange one), just that everything around it is on a grand scale, so it looks smaller.

The vegetables and fruits are keeping me busy. I also have to pot up the 10 roses I got the other day. On top of that, I still have a whole bunch of shrubs that still need planting (I have made progress, but have at least 12 more to go, plus the roses that are already potted up on the deck). In my spare time, there is pet-sitting - just to keep me out of trouble LOL!

Yuck

I made fish for dinner last night, as I do every couple of weeks (WS is not a big fan, but I have come up with an un-fried recipe that he will eat). I have dicovered that there is no more disgusting-tasting fish than Tilapia. I bought it instead of cod because I had heard that it was becoming really popular. The sause was great, the fish disgusting (not fishy or gone bad - just naturally horrible). My bad!

Uggh!

Flowery Sweets

I think one can get fat just looking at these creations!

Link sent by one of the S-I-L's

Squash Rum Bread

Yesterday, the upstairs smelled like baking sweetbread. I had squash left over (I cook up an acorn or buttercup squash, add a tinge of brown sugar and vanilla, and take it to work for mid-morning snacking) and had to find something to do with it. I went thru several cookbooks before I found a recipe that I could adapt to what I had. That recipe was in Judy Gorman's Bread of New England. The bread came out great even with the substitutions I made.

• 2 C all purpose flour - I use unbleached, unbromated flour from King Arthur. (The spellcheck sugested inebriated to replace unbromated - maybe that would help - ha).
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon (fancy that, I just realized I missed adding this ingredient)
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 C butter or margarine (I used diet butter and melted it in the microwave)
• 1 C sugar (I used a bit less since I had some brown sugar in the squash already)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 C rum
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (I used a bit less since my squash already had some in it)
• 1 C acorn or butternut squash  - cooked and mashed (if needed)
• 1 C chopped pecans (the recipe actually called for walnuts, but I thought pecans would be better, and they worked very well). The recipe also only called for 1/2 C, but also called for raisins (which I didn't use).

I didn't follow the mixing directions at all. I was going to, but misread about the 3rd word in, so just did it my own way after that. Originally, the recipe calls for softened butter, which would have worked if I had followed the mixing directions, but I melted mine - so here is what I did:

• Add all the dry ingredients together and blend thoroughly
• In a separate bowl, beat together the rum, eggs, melted butter and vanilla (I used a mixer on low speed)
• Slowly beat in the dry ingredients - toward the end I had to use a "burst of power" to keep the motor from bogging down
• Pour into a greased loaf pan (I used Pyrex - other materials may need a different baking time)
• Bake at 350F for 50 minutes
• Cover with foil to keep the top from burning and bake for another 10-15 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean)
• Remove to a rack and cool for 10 minutes
• Dump out of pan and leave on rack as long as you can stand it before cutting off a piece or two.

I think the walnuts would have lent too much of a bitter taste to the bread, and the pecans worked out perfectly. I honestly didn't miss the cinnamon taste in the bread until I was typing out the recipe and will probably omit it the next time I make this type of bread.

I had Squash Rum Bread yesterday for a snack and this morning for breakfast (with a bit of egg that WS scrambled up). I could easily have more for a snack later.

Hmm, maybe I should warn you to make sure you have plenty of people around to help eat it so you don't eat it all yourself!