A Case of Unexpected Yumminess (Go SUNS!!!)

Every day I drink a fresh fruit smoothie for breakfast.  I usually put an apple in it, 1/2 a pear,  whatever fruit is on sale that week, like strawberries, raspberries, or grapes, and orange juice.  Every once in a while I'll buy a branch of fresh ginger to add in. 

This morning, nearing the end of my fruit stash for the week, I had one apple and one pear left, along with some ginger, so that's what went into the smoothie.

What a surprise!  It was refreshing and delicious!  Here's the recipe:

SMOOTHIE WITH FRESH GINGER

One apple
One pear
A one-inch piece of ginger, peeled
Orange juice - enough to cover the fruit

Place everything into the blender and blend it up until it's smooth.  Pour it into a Phoenix Suns glass and drink it!

Vegetarian Biscuits and Gravy???

I had a dentist appointment this morning, but it wasn't until 9:45, which meant I had some time to kill after dropping the kids at school.  So I decided to search for something yummy to eat, like a breakfast burrito.  As I drove past Whole Foods Market, I remembered that they have a salad bar there, so I stopped to see if maybe, just maybe they also have an eggs and bacon bar.  Sure enough, they also have a hot breakfast buffet for something like $7.99 a pound.

While browsing my choices, I noticed a pan of "Vegetarian Gravy" next to the homemade biscuits.  I decided to give it a try, even though I had never heard of vegetarian gravy before, and could not imagine what it was made out of.  It looked just like gravy.

It was pretty good!  It tasted like.... gravy!

So that's my story.  I sat down and had vegetarian biscuits and gravy and a lovely cup of coffee from the other part of the store.  That was a nice way to start my morning, and well, I survived the dentist chair.  :-)

Easy Cheesy Cheese Straws Please!

When we were little, my mom used to make these cheese crackers that me and my brothers and sisters could make the dough into whatever shapes we wanted.  After she baked them we could eat the crackers we made.  They were cheesy and yummy, but I have no idea where her recipe came from.  I thought she may have consulted Joy of Cooking, but no cheese crackers there!

I was inspired to try making them last week after the Supreme Court struck down the laws banning same-sex marriage.  Don't ask me why my mind went there because I have no clue!  I went ahead and got a recipe off the internet, and me and the girls sat down and made many heart shape cheese crackers.  They're yummy with broccoli cheese soup!  I suppose if you want lovely crackers like the ones pictured above, you should probably pipe them out of a pastry bag with a star tip.  Otherwise you might end up with something like these:   :-)

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

In a food processor, add the butter, cheese, flour, salt and cayenne and process until a smooth dough is formed. Scoop it into a cookie press, fitted with a flat ridged tip. Pipe the dough in 2-inch strips onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. (Alternatively, refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes and roll on a lightly floured surface into a 1/4-inch thick rectangle. Cut into smaller rectangles, about 2 by 3-inches, with a pizza wheel or sharp knife.) Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to racks to cool.

Recipe courtesy of Paula Deen

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/zesty-cheese-straws-recipe.html?oc=linkback

Breaking News: Salad Haters Like Salad

Vegetables are good for us.  Grown folks know that and we want the kids to eat them.  But what a waste of time, money and food to serve up vegetables that they refuse to eat.  I recently decided that after school gets out, I would not give them anything sweet, including fruit or juice.  So what is left?  Vegetables, bread, cheese, and water!  And plain nuts!  Luckily they were receptive to things like celery with cream cheese, carrots, and cucumbers with salt (the small yummy ones).


Yesterday I decided to try giving them lettuce spears with ranch drizzled on them.  Guess what, they liked it!  They asked for more of them today!  I cut the romaine lettuce leaves in 2 down the middle (along the center vein) so they can eat them with their fingers.   That's all.  :-)

Hiding Vegetables in Plain Sight

When I used to read about moms hiding vegetables in their food to get their kids to eat them, I used to think to myself, “Haha, that’s silly!”  Now I’m doing it.

It was easy to chop up a couple extra tomatoes and add them to the spaghetti sauce.  Then I thought, let’s see if they’ll eat the vegetables if I hide them in plain sight.  They actually loved it!  Now they ask for Alfredo with spinach!

These girls only ever want noodles.  Ramen, yakisoba, spaghetti, pasta, and of course, Alfredo.  I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten these for 69 cents in the past, on this day they were on sale for 89 cents.  Still not a bad deal for a side dish that everyone can share.

SPINACH WITH ALFREDO SAUCE PASTA

1 package Alfredo pasta

4 cups fresh spinach, lightly chopped

Make the Alfredo pasta according to the directions on the package.  This one, you have to add water, milk, and butter.  (I guess you can make your own Alfredo sauce from scratch, if you know how to).

Boil the spinach for a few minutes in a little bit of water till it’s completely cooked.  Drain and rinse the spinach in cold water, then squeeze all the water out of them.  You should end up with a nice handful of cooked spinach.

Add the cooked spinach to the prepared Alfredo pasta.   Mix it in pretty good.  Enjoy!

The Best Cup of Coffee

Dispense with the cream and sugar; add a heaping spoonful of sweetened condensed milk instead, it will make your coffee SOOO YUMMY!!!!!

Zwetschgendatschi... a German style plum tart

I was driving home a few days ago and I heard this food story on NPR about a plum cake with a ridiculously long and complicated German name, "zwetchgendatschi".  I was intrigued and tried to google it but I had no clue how to spell it, and my phonetic spelling of it was WAY off.  I eventually found it by adding "NPR" to my google search....

So yesterday I went to Fresh and Easy to get my $3.99 salad for lunch, and I saw a 2 lb. bag of plums for 89 cents!  I love fruit and I love bargains, so I bought the plums.  Then I remembered the NPR plum cake story and looked up the recipe.  It's all stuff I already have in my kitchen -- flour, sugar, butter, corn starch.  So the baking adventure was on!  It turned out pretty good!  It has LOTS of fruit and the pie shell is really yummy and sweet.

Recipe: Zwetschgendatschi

Courtesy of Gesine Bullock-Prado

 

Makes one 8-inch tart

Crust
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, very cold, cut into small pieces
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling
3 pounds Damson/Italian prune plums (I used the 2-lb. bag of regular plums from Fresh & Easy and I could barely stuff all of them in)

To Finish:
1 tablespoon raw sugar (I had brown sugar)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. For the crust, using the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment, pulse together the flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Slowly add the egg yolk mixture to the flour mixture while pulsing; continue until the dough just begins to come together.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently knead it until the dry ingredients are fully integrated and the dough holds together, being careful not to overwork it. Press the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Spray an 8-inch fluted tart pan with nonstick cooking spray. Crumble the majority of the dough into the tart pan and gently press onto the bottom and up the sides so that you have at least 1/8 inch of crust all around. If you have extra dough left over once you've completely covered the tart pan, set it aside.

For the filling, split each plum along the natural seam and remove the stone, leaving the plum still hinged on the backside like a little book. (This was the hardest part of the recipe, getting the seed out)

Arrange the plums upright on the uncooked dough, flesh side facing in. If you have any leftover tart dough, crumble it evenly on top of the plums. Sprinkle the raw sugar over the plums as well.

Bake the tart until the sides of the dough are golden brown and the plums are tender, about 45 minutes. If the plums begin to brown before they are tender, carefully cover them with aluminum foil and continue baking until the juices of the plums start running.