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Showing posts from October, 2014

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