Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Triple Berry Crisp

Tim requested a crisp for Father's Day dessert. With berries reasonable and plentiful, a crisp seemed like the perfect dessert. You can use any combination of berries, I used blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. I served this with my favorite homemade vanilla ice cream, Alton Brown's Serious Vanilla Ice Cream.

Triple Berry Crisp
Adapted from All Recipes

1 1/2 cups fresh blackberries
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
4 tablespoons white sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups butter
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.In a large bowl, gently toss together blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and white sugar; set aside.
3.In a separate large bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cut in butter until crumbly. Press half of mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan. Cover with berries. Sprinkle remaining crumble mixture over the berries.
4.Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until fruit is bubbly and topping is golden brown.



I am linking this to Tasty Tuesday's, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday's and Tuesday's at the Table.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Gingersnaps - Sweet Melissa Sunday's

Today has been declared a day of prayer by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. Let's all take a moment today to pause and reflect in whatever way you feel appropriate for our friends in the gulf.

Do you like your cookies chewy or crispy? I like mine soft and chewy! I think that's why I am not a Gingersnap fan. Since I am going to miss next week's SMS, I decided to bake these despite my feelings about Gingersnaps.

As with most SMS recipes, I cut the recipe in half. These were easy to make and use ingredients most of us have in our kitchens. Having read a few of the comments, I set the timer to pull these out a few minutes early. Not sure what happened but I missed hearing the timer. Don't you just love it when you do that? So my cookies were extra crispy. I tried one and they do have a traditional Gingersnap flavor. Since none of us are big Gingersnap fans, I may freeze these for a possible future cheesecake crust.



How about this? Our SMS recipe this week was chosen by The Ginger Snap Girl. You can find the links to the other SMS gals here.

Does anyone have a recipe for Sour Cream Raisin Pie? It's my brother in law's favorite and I want to suprise him with one when we visit next week.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Pink Saturday

Happy Pink Saturday!

Last weekend Tim and I went to the antique show in Walnut, Iowa. It's a street fair of over 300 antique dealers from all over the United States. As we walked the streets in addition to lots of antiques, we saw beautiful gardens. Don't you just love these impatients in the old bathtub?




Couldn't resist sharing this one with you...there is a pair of pink pants on the back of the line :)





I am linking this to Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Throwed Rolls - Foodie Friday

Lambert's is a wonderful restaurant in Southern Missouri. As you travel on Interstate 44, you see signs about Lambert's being the home of Throwed Rolls. Everyone who's traveled Southern Missouri knows about Lambert's Throwed Rolls. The staff at Lambert's does just as the name would describe, throws the rolls.

A few months ago, I ran across a copycat recipe for Throwed Rolls on Dine and Dish. Kristin's recipe says you can make these in a bread machine. Having never mastered the art of kneading bread by hand, I decided to make them in my Kitchen Aid. They turned out great. Although we didn't throw any around, they were a wonderful addition to Sunday dinner.



Just Like Lambert's Throwed Rolls
SERVES 12

1 teaspoon sugar
1 (1/4 ounce) package dry active yeast
1/4 cup tepid water (105-110 degrees)
1 cup warm milk
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten (at room temp)
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
Combine sugar and yeast in tepid water.
Let stand 5-10 minutes until yeast begins to foam.
Thoroughly mix milk, butter, sugar, egg and salt in large bowl.
Stir in the yeast mixture and 3 1/2 cups of flour, adding a bit more if necessary to make a soft, pliable dough.
Turn dough out on floured board and let rest while you clean and butter bowl.
Knead dough gently 4-5 minutes, adding flour if necessary, until dough is smooth and silky.
Return to bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in warm place until doubled in size (1 1/2 hours appoximately).
Butter a 12 cup muffin tin.
Punch down dough.
Pinch off pieces that are about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, (enough to fill one-half of muffin cup), and roll into smooth spheres.
Place two such pieces in each prepared muffin cup- it will be a tight fit.
Cover dough loosely with plastic wrap for 45 minutes.
Bake rolls in preheated 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes, or until light brown.
Serve as soon as they are cool enough to throw.

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

In My Garden







Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Chicken With Beer

Is there a help group for cookbook addiction? If so, I think I need to join. I haven’t done a cookbook count lately but I know I have over 100. I started blogging so I would use recipes from my library of cookbooks. So what do I do? I just keep buying more cookbooks. I really like my recent cookbook purchase, Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker. I’ve made three recipes from this book and they’ve all been a hit. Beef Stew, which I liked and Tim thought was okay. A wonderful Chicken with Beans which I forgot to photograph. Sometimes we’re so focused on eating, we forget the camera until it’s too late. We forgot to photograph this recipe as well but snapped a quick shot of the one leftover thigh. Not the best picture but you get the idea.

I made a few changes to this recipe. Because it was cooking all day, I wanted to have plenty of liquid. I added a little more beer and some chicken stock. I also added potatoes and would have added carrots but I didn’t have time to peel before work. I found this recipe interesting because it used Herbs de Provence. I wasn’t sure exactly what that was so I did some reading. I found several recipes, some with lavender and some without. I like to cook with lavender but I wasn’t convinced the floral flavor was what I wanted for this chicken. My spice drawer contained everything except the savory, so I made my own version of the herbs. This chicken was delicious. It has a nice hint of beer and a beautiful herb flavor.





Chicken with Beer
Recipe adapted from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook

About 1/2 cup flour
4 boneless chicken breast halves, with skin on
(I used 2 breasts and 4 thighs)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup beer
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 teaspooon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried herbes de Provence
2 bay leaves, broken in half

Put the flour on shallow plate or a pie plate. One piece at a time, dredge the chicken in the flour, coating both sides and shaking off any excess.

Drizzle the olive oil into a large skillet over medium high heat. When it begins to sizzle, add the chicken, skin side down and cook until deep golden brown on both sides, 5 to 7 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to the slow cooker. Add the beer and chicken broth to the skillet and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits stuck to the pan. Pout over the chicken. Sprinkle with the salt, pepper and herbes de Provence. Tuck the bay leaves among the chicken pieces. Cover and cook on HIGH 8 to 9 hours.

Herbes de Provence
3 tablespoons oregano leaves
3 tablespoons thyme leaves
1 teaspoon basil leaves
1 teaspoon sage leaf
3 tablespoons savory
2 tablespoons lavender flowers
1 teaspoon rosemary
Combine and mix well. Store in a cool, dry place.

I am linking this to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday , Tuesday's at the Table and Tasty Tuesday's.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Chestnut Honey Madeleines - SMS

One of the few baking pans that isn't in my cupboards is a madeleine pan. In fact, I am not sure I've ever had a madeleine. Curious about the history of madeleines, I looked them up. They're a small sponge cake pastry which originated in the Northeast region of France. Seems there's a couple of stories as to how they began. If you want to read more, you can find the stories here.

Funny, I think I've passed up a madeleine pan several times at Goodwill. At the time, I think I wondered what the pan was used for. Of course, the past few weeks when I wanted to find one, there were none to be found. I decided to use a mini muffin tin and it worked great!!

These are delicious, beautiful bites. They'd be a perfect compliment to afternoon tea. I'm hooked, I will make these again. I'd like to experiment with other flavors of madeleines. Who know's maybe I will even find that pan.

Thanks to Debbie of Cafe Chibita for choosing this wonderful recipe. If you check out the other SMS bakers, I am sure you'll find at least one or two of them owns a madeleine pan.