Spicy, Healthy Meatloaf ~ page 171, Make & Freeze!

We have so many people ask about freezing recipes--well, we freeze most anything, though there are some things that are more "freezer-friendly" than others. This meatloaf is a classic for the freezer. I often make this  just to divide up in portions, package, and freeze.

Today, this loaf was divided 3 ways--half to freeze for a meal to take to someone, then 2 double serving portions for my own use. Oh, and I had to cut one slice to taste, of course...This recipe has a generous amount of sauce, so when I package up each portion, I add a little more sauce to each one.

I want to pass on a little trick I learned today--this meatloaf has some good veggies in it--carrots, celery, onion--and the recipe says to chop them small in the food processor (or by hand), then sauté in 2 tablespoons butter. I was in a hurry today, so I decided to skip this step, thinking those veggies are so small, they should cook just fine in the meatloaf--and the added bonus, is this deletes 2 tablespoons of fat! I gave it a try and found it made no difference at all. So feel free to skip the last half of step 1 in this recipe.

Here is a close up of this flavorful, healthy meatloaf--even chock full of vegetables, it has good texture and stays together nicely when sliced. I used half turkey/half beef this time, though it usually just depends on what I have on hand.

Apple Cider Salad ~ page 59

This "salad" can double as a light dessert, a morning breakfast, a healthy snack...it fits just about anywhere in your day! The fresh simplicity of this is what makes it so delightful. But forget about artificially brightly colored Jello salads--this is just the natural color of fresh apple cider, so the color is not going to wow you, but I promise you, the flavor will!

I only make this salad in the fall, because that seems to be the only time I can find fresh apple cider in the graocery store. Good cider is crucial to this recipe. Basically, this is fresh, bright, tangy apple cider with unflavored gelatin added to make it set up and form a base for crisp apple dices and chopped walnuts.

Unflavored gelatin  is dissolved in a small amount of warm cider. Just a touch of sugar sweetens it up, and some fresh lemon juice brightens the flavor.

The gelatin is then refrigerated for 1 1/2 hours or so, to barely set up.

Then apples and walnuts are stirred in--then back in the fridge it goes.

You can eat this in a couple more hours for a soft-set, or wait till the next day for a firmer gelatin salad. This will last for several days in the refrigerator--if you restrain yourself from eating it all the first day...

Date-Filled Baked Apples ~ page 252

This is one of my mom's recipes in the cookbook...and it was YUMMY! Knowing that it didn't have any fat in it besides the walnuts made it taste even better! We had some friends over for dinner and she couldn't eat anything with dairy in it. It is hard to find a dessert with no butter, cream, or chocolate in it.. but this was perfect.
Here are the kind of apples that I used...I think they were Gala, but I can't remember. If you don't already own an apple corer..this recipe would be a good excuse to get one. They are fun and easy to use. I slipped this in the oven as we sat down for dinner and they were ready as soon as we were ready for them!
The only thing I would say about the recipe is that I served mine in a bowl with a spoon, the peel on the lower half was a little hard to cut with a spoon. My mom serves hers on a plate with a fork and knife, so the skin isn't an issue. I might peel the whole apple next time, although the peel did taste great too. Lillian (the 5 year old) gobbled hers and half of another one right up!

Random Cooking Hints

I just thought I'd pass on a few random cooking tips for you. I have tried all sorts of things to keep my eyes from watering while I am chopping onions up. I finally found the perfect thing! Unfortunately it only works if you have a gas burner...this is almost reason enough to get a gas stove installed....that is just how great this method works!! Put your cutting board right next to a burner that is on high. The flame pulls / sucks the surrounding oxygen towards the flame taking along with it all the tear causing onion fumes! It works every time!
The other tip is one I just read in a cooking magazine the other day. How many times have you toasted up some bread or maybe a bagel then tried to slice rock hard butter to spread on your delicate toast?? Well, if you just use a cheese slicer it is PERFECT! The slicer makes nice thin slices that melt as soon as they hit the hot bread. Where was this tip my whole life?? I have torn many slices of toast trying to spread cold butter.

That is all for now...I hope everyone has a good weekend! --Carissa

Cinnamon Rolls ~ page 293

Here they are, hot from the oven and oozing with a buttery cinnamon filling. Oh yes, these are very good. I always have a little pan of the ends and extras that are up for grabs right out of the oven when they are warm, yeasty, and good all by themselves.

Evelyn was around for the out-of-the oven tasting...yes, these yummy rolls will make you smile.

So here is how they are made: After the dough has risen once, it is rolled out, ready for its hidden topping.

A slathering of soft butter goes on first.

Brown sugar and cinnamon are spread on--I like to use dark brown sugar for the slight molasses flavor it has. Then I add some stuff for my hubby, 'cause this is how he likes cinnamon rolls--with pecans and raisins wrapped up inside.

Roll up tightly from the long side.

Turn the seam side down and you are ready to cut. We highly recommend that you use dental floss to cut the rolls with--it works SO much better than a knife will.

After you place the rolls in their pans, pat the tops down till they are all even, then cover with plastic wrap to rise.

This yeast bread is only lightly sweetened, which is why you can splurge on the wonderful cream cheese icing. Make the icing up and keep it in your fridge to have ready when you serve these. I like the icing so much, that after I smother the warm rolls in it, I put a container of extra icing on the table just in case I come across a bite that doesn't have enough of this creamy white delight on it! It is that good.

These cinnamon rolls freeze nicely. I usually put the whole batch in the freezer and just take out a few at a time. Simply thaw, then warm in a 325 degree oven about 8 to 10 minutes. The cream cheese icing will keep for a month or more in the fridge.

Remember, you must guard these while they cool if you want to get them into the freezer...   ~Janice

Shrimp Bisque ~ page 55

This is what you could call a pantry meal...meaning you can always have these ingredients on hand. I keep frozen shrimp in my freezer, below are the two jars of sauce I used. The recipe calls for 1/2 jar of Alfredo, I ended up using all of it. My 5 year old took one bite, then put both thumbs up. The 3 year old wouldn't even try it, so poor thing went to bed without dinner!
I served this with deluxe grilled cheese sandwiches.... pepper jack cheese on sourdough bread with tomato slices stuffed inside...YUM!

Homestyle Bread Bowls for Soup ~ page 281

These bowls are an easy way to make dinner fun! I made these a week ago and then froze them till I needed them. They were perfect with beef stew tonight!

Evelyn gobbled up her stew....

then gobbled up her bowl!

Sorry this picture is a little blurry. Here the "bowls" are slipped out of the baking dishes.
Above are the bread bowls before rising and below is obviously after rising...just wanted to show you what they look like before and after. I dropped the stack of ramekins that I had and broke all but 2 big and 2 small ones! So I made 2 free form bowls to see how that would work if someone didn't have ramekins. I thought it worked out just fine, the bowl was just fatter and shorter, but still held soup well.
Hot out of the oven!

Boneless Chili Short Ribs ~ page 155

I have eaten this at my mom's house before, but I had never made it myself. It was quite easy to throw in the oven around 3 in the afternoon, then dinner was ready at 6:00. Below you can see them all lined up ready to brown on the stove top.
Here is Evelyn anxious to flip them.
The recipe says to cut onions in half and lay on top...this is what it looks like, they roast up and melt almost into the ribs. The only issue I had with this recipe is that I had just bought a brand new jar of cayenne pepper and a brand new jar of chili powder. New spices can be much stronger than older ones! I learned that the hard way! This was quite spicy, it cleared up all of our sinus problems! Unfortunately it was too hot for the little girls. So give your spices a sniff before you measure them out, you may just need half the seasoning. I served this with mashed potatoes, and green beans. Yum!

Olive Oil Granola with Fruit and Nuts

This recipe is under the New Recipes tab and I've been meaning to make it for a while, since my husband is such a big cereal fan. It was definitely tasty... I almost felt bad pouring milk all over it because it stands so well on its own. This is the kind of granola that if you eat too much your jaw will start to ache from all the chewy fruit and nuts... but that's a good thing!

I bought lots of my fruit and nuts in the bulk section at our grocery store because I wanted to have some good stuff in there... usually I find the unsweetened coconut there but they didn't have any so I took a glance in the baking aisle. This bag was only $1 and I found the granola didn't lack any sweetness. The recipe didn't really specify, so now you know you can use whichever.

And this is my granola in the vintage Tupperware container that Janice recently passed down to us in their effort to downsize. Now I'm a true hippie granola mom!

Good Ole Taco Soup ~ page 48

My granddaughter, Lillian, ate 3 bowls of this soup for supper--it was a big hit with her, though not so much with her little sister...oh well, who can figure kids out! I am going to blog about this soup that I did not make, but that I enjoyed very much when Carissa made it for me after my 9th day of recovering from pneumonia. I am so happy to be back in the world of the eating again! (Don't get pneumonia--it will spoil your appetite for good food, or actually, any food.)

Carissa mixed this soup up, browning the meat and onions first, then put it in the slow cooker for about 5 hours to simmer. The recipe calls for a combination of 3 beans--kidney, Navy, and pinto--but feel free to use any combination you like. This one had black beans instead of the kidney beans. The hominy is my favorite part of this soup--where else can you enjoy hominy? I think this soup is the only recipe I have that calls for hominy. The nice thing about hominy, as opposed to corn, is that it can hold up to long cooking times and still taste great.

We like taco soup served with grated cheddar cheese, tortilla chips, and diced avocado. If you want, a dollop of sour cream would be nice too.

This soup just makes you feel happy--whether you have been sick or not.  ~Janice

Cranberry Walnut Cookies ~ page 209

I just baked one pan of these and froze the rest of the dough for sometime when I need a last minute dessert. I only had 1 cup of cranberries instead of the 1.5 cups the recipe called for. I think 1.5 cups would have been better, they felt a little skimpy in the Crasin department. Other than that they were delicious! For those who weight your flour...I used 465 grams, and like all my dough I patted it into a "disk" then wrapped it up in plastic wrap, then refrigerate the dough for up to several days. Give them a try.

Perfect Roasted Carrots

This recipe isn't in the cookbook, but it is one I have been making regularly since we printed the cookbook. It is a yummy way to get carrots in your diet. You roast the carrots till they get slightly caramelized on the edges, they get super sweet as they roast. I got this recipe from Ina Garten and changed it slightly, though the method is the same.

Tonight for dinner we had spaghetti, I had a handful of these roasted carrots leftover from dinner last night, so I diced them up small and added to the spaghetti sauce, the kids never knew what hit them! They got veggies and didn't even know it, and it added great flavor. For the recipe go to the tab at the top of the blog labeled "NEW RECIPES". Enjoy! --Carissa

Oh, in case you are wondering why you haven't seen a post in a while from my mom....she is in Tyler sick with pneumonia. So, not much cooking going on in her kitchen right now! Pray that she can get better fast. She is getting tired of just laying in bed all day. Some Get Well Emails might be nice.....

Seafood Caesar Pasta Salad ~ page 72; Avocado Quesadillas ~ page 90

Yesterday was Carissa's birthday, so I made a light outdoor lunch for her in my back yard--which as of two months ago, is right next door to her house! (Living next door has been very convenient for working on recipes--not to mention how nice it is to be near all 8 of our grandkids here in Houston!.) I know Carissa likes this salad a lot, so I put it all together the evening before to let the flavors blend.

Carissa and I often brainstorm the recipes from the cookbook to see how they might could be made even better. I had the idea, after I made my salad, that it would be nice to double the imitation lobster meat in this recipe. I was thinking as we were eating that I might try that next time, so that you get a delicious chunk of lobster with each bite of pasta.

I served the pasta salad with the Avocado Quesadillas (page 90) and their spicy dipping sauce.  These were wonderful and went well with the salad.  I crisped up the flour tortillas on a griddle instead of broiling them in the oven like the recipe says. That works well if you don't want to heat up your oven. (In August I blogged about these quesadillas when I made them from corn tortillas.) Add some ice tea and you have a very nice end-of-the-summer meal. I always think of Carissa's birthday as being the last day of summer. Now...I'm in the mood to start cooking up some fall recipes! ~Janice