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Showing posts from 2014

Baked Gingerbread Mini Donuts

It's beginning to look a lot like DONUTS!  Struggling a bit with my Christmas spirit this year.   I decided to play some cheerful music and bake a nice treat for breakfast.   I knew I wanted donuts, but I couldn't decide on a flavor- eggnog?  peppermint?  Nope, I wanted gingerbread and I had these on my donut Pinterest board from Pinch of Yum. No changes to this one, except that I cannot remember adding the maple syrup.  The minute I stepped into the kitchen, I was swarmed with people needing answers to urgent questions that apparently I only possess the answer to.   I know I did, the lid was off and I had a measuring spoon with remnants in it, but whether I added it to the batter or the glaze, I have no idea.     I let the kid go a little nuts with the sprinkles.   And they turned out delicious.  It's the holidays, and calories don't count til January, right?     Thank you so much to Lindsay at Pinch of Yum for the recipe, and for helping my Grinchy heart grow thr

Jack O 'Lantern Cheeseburger Pie

This was Jake's first year not Trick Or Treating, but I still wanted to make him something special.   I spent a week or so browsing Pinterest, and this recipe from Southern Living caught my eye.    Cheesy beef in a pie crust?  I'm in  :) I swapped the onion for dried onion and jarred garlic instead of fresh.   I also decided to add the mustard in with the beef mixture.  He's not a huge fan and if it was visible he might have balked.    I used a sharp shredded cheddar for my cheese.   Easy, fun and the grownups enjoyed it too!  Jack O' Lantern Cheeseburger Pie Print With Image Without Image Author: Jolene's Recipe Journal ingredients: 1 pound ground beef 2T dried minced Onion 2t minced jarred garlic 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/4 cup ketchup 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1 package refrigerated piecrusts -- (15-ounce) 1 tablespoon yellow mustard 3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese -- divided 2 tablespoons water

Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake

We're having unseasonably warm temps in New England the last few days.   I saw this recipe on Pinterest and despite that fact that it was going to heat up the house, I couldn't resist.  Instead of boiling the brown sugar/butter mixture on the stove, I put both into the cake pan and into the oven while it preheated.   By time I'd mixed the batter ingredients and sliced the apples, it was ready to go.    I had 2 nice sized honeycrisp, and I sliced them about 1/4" thick and overlapped them in a pretty design. My cake baked in exactly 50 mins, and and some point I realized that I'd forgotten to grease or spray the sides of the pan.    I got lucky, I ran a knife around the edge and I only had minor sticking.   I did not make the whipped topping, it was a fantastic cake without it.     Thank you to Alyssa at The Recipe Critic, this one is "I don't care if it's nearly 80 degrees out, I have to bake this cake" good.                         *

Cider Bacon Chicken

Fall is my favorite season.   Apple picking, cider, hoodies, comfort food.  But this is New England, and today summer decided to make a comeback.    I had this Cider Bacon Chicken on the menu and it turned out to be the perfect choice- it tasted like fall, but was quick and easy and didn't heat the house up.   I buy thinly sliced chicken breasts and that saved me the trouble of pounding and plastic wrap.   I only had a 1/2 cup of chicken broth, so I upped the amount of cider to make up the difference.   I used minced dried onion and dried herbs, it's what I always have on hand.     For a side, I made couscous, replacing the recommended amount of water with cider, and finishing it with some thyme.  This was a big winner here! One photo is all I got because I couldn't wait to sit and eat and there were no leftovers. Even my picky kid ate seconds.   Thank you Simply Scratch for this new family favorite! Cider Bacon Chicken Print With Image Without Image Author: Jolene's

Lasagna Rolls

I've been making variations on these lasagna rolls for a while.   I change up the ingredients based on what I have on hand.   Measurements are estimated, I rarely measure shredded cheeses or sauce.  I used about 1/2 of a 26 oz jar. Italian Herb Mix from Penzey's is my go to for this type of dish, you can certainly sub Italian seasoning or your favorite blend.   This also would be great with some browned ground beef or Italian sausage! A lot of the pictures I see out there show the majority of the roll uncovered by sauce.   I am always afraid of winding up with crunchy pasta that way. I ended up making sure that all of the edges were going to be covered by the sauce, and the result was perfectly cooked lasagna rolls, but not as pretty to look at lasagna rolls  :)  Lasagna Rolls Print With Image Without Image Author: Jolene's Recipe Journal Ingredients: 9 lasagna noodles -- cooked and drained 16 ounces ricotta cheese, part skim milk 1

Concord Grape Jelly

We took my son out over the weekend to shoot his bow, and my husband stumbled across a treasure trove of Concord grapes.   Luckily we had a little cooler, and he filled it up pretty quickly. I spent a while picking through, taking out the leaves, sticks, and critters, and then scurried to find a recipe.     I ended up going with this one from Sure Jell/Kraft.    It calls for a LOT of sugar, but  a good portion of the grapes we picked seemed to be under ripe, so I wanted to make sure the resulting jelly was edible. It was getting late, so I decided that I was going to get the grapes as far as juice, and then I'd complete the jam when I had some more time.      I added them to a large stockpot along with the water, mashing them with a potato masher.     It didn't take long for them to give up their juice, but I had no cheesecloth or jelly bag to strain them through.    I ended up using a very fine mesh colander, which worked, and is a total pain to clean.      I let the j

Tiramisu Treasure Cookies

This one is a blast from the past!   I submitted these as my entry in 2007 to the Derryfest Cookie contest.   I was narrowly beat by a very common cookie, and when I realized how much 'politics' was involved in the judging, I stopped entering.    I pouted about it for a while, and then I lost the recipe when my MasterCook program crashed.  The cookie came up in conversation today, and I put a call out on Facebook to see if anyone had saved a copy of the recipe, and my friend Lisa still had it!    The pictures aren't great, these were from a trial run and I went real light on the filling.       Thank you so much Lisa, I can't wait to make these again   :)                       * Exported from MasterCook *                         Tiramisu Treasure Cookies   Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method --------  ------------  --------------------------------   1              stick  butter -- softened      1/2             c  powdered sugar  

Quadruple Chocolate Soft Fudgy Pudding Cookies

I have been craving chocolate for a week, but we had a sudden surge in temperatures that killed any desire I had to bake.   Finally, the temps today were nice and I assembled my ingredients to make these amazing looking cookies.   FOUR kinds of chocolate?  Oh yeah, I'm in.    I doubled the recipe, cookies disappear fast around here and 17 didn't seem like a lot.     I ended up using Hershey's Special Dark chips for the dark chocolate and I didn't chop them.    I used a cookie scoop to keep them all uniform, and I flattened them with the glass after I pulled them from the oven. So deliciously, chocolatey good.  Both myself and my husband both think they'd be fantastic as an ice cream sandwich with some vanilla bean ice cream.    Thank you so much to Averie for satisfying my chocolate craving!                        * Exported from MasterCook *               Quadruple Chocolate Soft Fudgy Pudding Cookies   Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation

One pot Pizza Pasta Bake

Tim keeps craving pasta, I keep craving pizza and I ran across this recipe from Damn Delicious that was going to cover both of those cravings perfectly.     My husband doesn't eat breakfast and barely eats lunch, so I wanted to make sure that dinner was sufficiently hearty enough for him.    I used the entire package of Johnsonville Sweet Italian Sausage (19oz).   To account for the increased volume in the pan, I also added a second can of tomato sauce.   This led to increasing the spices, and I always toss in a pinch of brown sugar with any red sauce.    Life is too short to measure cheese, I just put a nice handful over the top.    After I took the dish out from underneath the broiler, I gave it a sprinkle of Penzey's Italian Herb Mix and on my own serving I used some crushed red pepper flakes. This is easy, filling and my changes made for plenty of leftovers.   Damn Delicious is absolutely the right name for her blog and most definitely this dish.     Thank you so much Ch

Cheeseburger Quesadillas

Meals have been a challenge since my son started back to school.   I think we've finally gotten into a groove now, going over the school lunch menu and my home menu and making sure there is some variety.    This week's menu had been planned, but wasn't quite right when my friend Sue shared she'd be making Cheeseburger Quesadillas for dinner.  That was my missing piece! A few tweaks.    I had a little over a pound of ground beef.    The guys will not eat real chopped onion, so I used dried and added to the beef while it cooked.    The recipe doesn't say to drain off the grease, but I did since mine had a pretty high fat content (85/15).     I used real bacon, microwaved til crisp.   When the hamburger mixture was complete, it was a lot.   I ended up doing two large quesadillas, and plan on freezing the leftovers for a quick lunch or snack.     I did not bake mine in the oven, I heated 2 griddle pans and lightly buttered them.    I browned them with a weight on

Tomatoes Stuffed with Couscous

My uncle's garden is going gangbusters with the tomatoes this year.  I've been looking forward to the start of school and being able to fix myself nice light lunches.     A little while back I made some Citrus Couscous and I froze the leftovers.  Combined with some ideas from a recipe from the Florida Tomato Committee, it made for a perfect meal!  My couscous already had the herbs, lemon juice and salt and pepper.  I don't have mint, so that was omitted.  I drizzled the inside with sriracha and olive oil, and next time I'd put a drizzle over the top as well.    I mixed the citrus couscous with some minced jarred garlic, the tomato pulp and orange bell pepper, diced very small.  After it was well combined, I filled the tomato shell and enjoyed my lovely lunch!   Tomatoes Stuffed with Couscous Print With Image Without Image Author: Jolene's Recipe Journal Ingredients 6 large tomatoes Salt 1 tablespoon olive oil Drizzle of Sriracha Filling Citrus couscous 1T minced