Pink Saturday - Berry Sorbet & Flowers

Pink is my favorite color! Interesting how our taste in colors changes, as a kid yellow was my favorite color. Pink is fun, happy color and makes me smile.

I am linking this post to the group Pink Saturday's. Check it out, there's some fun posts there!!!

Recently, I found some great bargains on berries. How can you pass up a bargain on berries in winter. There's so many delicious things you can make with berries not to mention how wonderful they are delicious by themselves. I decided to make Berry Sorbet. What a fantastic late Winter treat.

Berry Sorbet
1 quart

4 cups strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, or raspberries, or a combination
(I used strawberries, raspberries and blackberries)
3/4 cup cranberry/raspberry juice
3/4 cup agave syrup
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
pinch of salt
grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons vodka

Blend the berries with the juice in a blender or food processor. Strain the mixture through a fine-meshed strainer into a bowl, to remove the seeds. Stir in the agave syrup, lemon juice, salt, lemon zest, and vodka. Chill several hours or overnight. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Let the sorbet sit in the freezer for a few hours before serving.

My husband surprised me with these beautiful flowers. Just because!

Foodie Friday - Chicken Enchiladas Suiza

Do you sometimes feel like you're in a rut when it comes to dinner? I know I do. I have those old stand by recipes that we have a lot. We love Mexican food but don't make it very often at home. When I saw this recipe for Chicken Enchilada Suiza at Always Eat On The Good China, I decided to give it a try.

An easy way to have chicken ready to use when you get home is to cook the chicken in the crock pot while you are at work. I used chicken thighs and they worked great.

Chicken Enchilda Suiza

•2 pounds boneless chicken breasts (or bone in if your prefer)
•1 teaspoon garlic salt
•1 teaspoon white pepper
•1/2 cup sour cream +
•1 4 oz. can chopped green chiles, drained
•1 bunch green onions, chopped
•1 can Rotel mild original tomatoes with green chiles, drained
•1 14 oz. can mild enchilada sauce, green
•2 cups finely shredded jack and cheddar cheese
•tortillas

Place chicken in stock pot with enough water to cover, salt and pepper. Bring to a low rolling boil until chicken is cooked through. Cool, de-bone if necessary and cut into bite sized pieces, preferably shredded.

In a large bowl mix together the chicken pieces, Rotel tomatoes, green chiles, 1 cup of the cheese and 1/4 cup of the sour cream. Mix well.

I like to slice off the major portion of the arc of the tortilla so I have a large rectangle to work with. Lightly spread a thin layer of sour cream on each tortilla. Divide the chicken mixture amongst all the tortillas and roll them securely. Place each one seam side down, side by side in a lightly sprayed rectangular baking dish. Pour the sauce evenly over enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.

Bake foil covered for 30 minutes at 325 degrees. Uncover and bake another 15 minutes until cheese is melted and crisp.

I am linking this to Foodie Friday. If you haven't been to Michael's blog, Designs by Gollum, take time to visit. Her blog is amazing.

Oven Roasted Broccoli

Do you like broccoli? It's one of those veggies that sometimes gets a bad wrap. Which president was it that went public about his dislike of broccoli? I think it was Bush. I love roasted vegetables! When I saw this recipe at Savoring Time in the Kitchen, I knew I had to make it. This recipe uses bread crumbs, a key ingredient in my favorite brussels sprouts recipe. Even my husband, who's not a big broccoli fan liked this recipe.

Oven-Roasted Broccoli
Recipe adapted from Alton Brown, 2007, Food Network
4 servings

1 pound broccoli, cleaned and trimmed
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 425F.

Cut the broccoli into bite size pieces. Trim the dark green from the stalk and cut into 1/8-inch thick, round slices. Place the broccoli into a large bowl and toss with the olive oil, garlic, kosher salt and pepper and set aside.

Spread the panko into a 13 by 9-inch metal sheet pan and place into the oven for 2 minutes or until lightly toasted. Remove the panko from the oven and add to the bowl with the broccoli mixture. Toss to combine. Return the mixture to the cake pan, place in the oven and roast just until the broccoli is tender, 8 to 10 more minutes. Remove from the oven, toss in the cheese and serve immediately.

Grilled Pineapple

Finally the snow is gone and we can grill!! We love to grill veggies and fruits. Grilled pineapple is so pretty and tasty. It's simple to make and yummy to eat.

Grilled Pineapple

Slice the top and sides off of a whole pineapple. Slice the pineapple into 1 1/2 inch slices. You dont' want to slice it too thin or it will be hard to turn on the grill. Remove the core from the slices. If you have a small biscuit cutter, it works great for this.

Mix together 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup honey. Combine to make a paste. Oil the grill. Grill pineapple, over medium heat, 2 minutes on both sides. Using a BBQ brush, spread the brown sugar mixture on the pineapple. Grill 2 additional minutes on each side.

Enjoy!

I am linking this to Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam! If you haven't been to Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, it's worth your time to check it out!

Caramel Apple Crisp - SMS

This week's Sweet Melissa Sunday's is hosted by my blogging pal, Susan at Baking With Susan. Susan and I joined Sweet Melissa Sunday's about the same time and became blogging friends. It is because of Susan I became involved in Operation Baking Gals. If you haven't been to Susan's blog, stop by and check it out. She's creative, funny and shares great recipes.

Things have been a bit hectic this weekend at our house. We spent all day yesterday looking for a new car. It's painful and exhausting. I compared it to trying on swimsuits. Ugh! After a long day of shopping and negotiating, we're the proud owners of an Escape Hybrid.

I am not good at making pie crusts. I've never made many and when I have they've always been a disaster. Of course, as is pretty normal for me, I am baking Sweet Melissa Sunday's on Sunday. I decided to try and make a double pie crust and get everything else done I needed to do today would be mistake. I would be frustrated and cussing like a sailor, not a good way to spend Sunday afternoon. Since it's Susan's week for hosting, I really wanted to participate, so I decided to make a Caramel Apple Crisp instead.

I made the filling pretty much as the recipe called for, with a couple of exceptions. I used Fuji apples and I couldn't resist, I added a little cinnamon. Since I didn't have any heavy cream. I decided to give the caramel sauce a try using evaporated milk. It worked pretty well, although I think I heated it too early and it developed a skin on the top. I made the standard crisp topping using oatmeal, brown sugar, flour and melted butter.

I baked the crisps at 350 for about 30 minutes. I took them out of the oven and they were beautiful, puffy and nicely browned. I guess I never realized crisps fall as they cool.




I love the addition of the caramel sauce to the apples. The cinnamon adds just the extra flavor needed to make this a great pie (crisp).

Check out the other Sweet Melissa Sunday's bakers here. I know you'll find some beautiful apple pies.

First Day of Spring?

Baking Gals

This is my second month baking with Operation Baking Gals. I baked along with Team Sweet Treats. We shipped cookies to Tim, who's in the Air Force in Afghanistan.

I did some searching for recipes that travel and keep well when shipping overseas. I found a couple of great sites with recipes. This month's recipe came from Laura's Best Recipes. In keeping with my "Use It Up" theme, I chose this recipe because I had several bags of dried cranberries in the pantry.

These cookies were delicious! The cranberries make a nice addition to oatmeal cookies.

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
Recipe courtesy of Chef Amanda Kerfoot-Guess
Makes approximately 6 dozen cookies

Sift

3 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 tsp. Baking Soda
2 tsp. Baking Powder
2 tsp. Salt
4 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Allspice

Set aside

In mixer with paddle attachment blend:
1 1/2 Cup Shortening
1 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar

At medium speed until light and creamy, about three
minutes.

Add, one at a time, mixing well after each

4 large eggs

Scrape down bowl after each addition

Beat in
2 tsp. Pure Vanilla

Dump in entire flour mixture at once, blend until just combined.
Add

3 Cups Old Fashioned Oats
3 Cups dried cranberries (or anything that amuses: dried cherries, raisins, nuts)
It's a good idea to let the dough sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before baking. This lets the oats puff up a bit.

Scoop on to baking sheets in 1/4 cup heaps.
Shape with hands to rounds.

Bake at 325 for 14-17 minutes.
Cool on rack.
After they come out of the oven, they may need a bit of reshaping. Use your spatula to gently adjust the cookies into rounds

I am linking this to Foodie Friday's at Designs by Gollum.