Hot Mustard Recipe

We're huge fans of spicy food around here. There are myriad condiments in our refrigerator, but very rarely do we have the standard ketchup and yellow mustard. I decided recently that I wanted to try to make my own mustard rather than buy some of the specialty mustards that we tend to like. This recipe is definitely worth repeating! It reminds me a lot of the Asian Hot Mustard that you'd put on an eggroll.

Hot Mustard

1 C dry ground mustard
1 C apple cider vinegar (we prefer the raw, unfiltered variety)
2-3 T Truvia or 1/4-1/3 C honey
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan; whisk to blend. Simmer over medium heat for 5-10 minutes. Pour into a clean jar. This will last for several weeks.

The hot mustard flavor comes through VERY strong initially, but it mellows out a bit over the next day or two. If it's still too strong for you, add a bit more sweetener to balance it out. It took a few adjustments to get it just where we liked it.

Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cheesecake

Last week, ricotta cheese was on sale with extra money off for gas. It was a pretty good deal, so hubby picked some up. We also had a couple boxes of lasagna noodles in the cabinet, so it was good timing to make a lasagna. However, the ricotta was a larger container than what I needed to make the lasagna, and I wanted to make sure that the extra wouldn't go to waste. So I suggested that hubby look up a recipe for cheesecake or something so we could use it up before it went bad.

He found nothing. Not to be deterred, ingenuous man that he is, he created a masterpiece recipe.

Doesn't it just look delicious?

So here's your recipe:

Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cheesecake

Ingredients:
16 oz. ricotta cheese
1/4 cup plain yogurt (vanilla would work, too)
4 eggs
2/3 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 prepared chocolate pie crust

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Beat ricotta, yogurt, eggs, and sugar. Add vanilla. You can mix in chocolate chips now or save to sprinkle on top.
Pour mixture into the prepared shell. Do not overfill the shell -- it rises slightly when baking.
Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Let pie cool, then refrigerate to set; the pie will become creamy and dense. Serve cold.

Enjoy!

Green Smoothie

We've been enjoying our smoothies lately for a good quick breakfast. We recently got a huge container of spinach, and since we all really like it I figured I'd throw some into the smoothies.

He had lots of fun watching the blender turn green, though he had some reservations about whether or not it would taste good. It was a success!

Our Green Smoothie Recipe
1 1/2 C chocolate milk
1 T peanut butter
1 large handful spinach
1 frozen banana
3-4 ice cubes

Throw it in the blender until well blended. Enjoy!

When I make a batch for all three of us, I adapt it a little:
3 C milk (chocolate, coconut, plain, or any combination)
3 T peanut butter or almond butter
2-3 frozen bananas
2-3 handfuls of spinach
5-6 ice cubes

Do you have favorite smoothie ingredients?

German Chocolate Brownies

My hubby is a huge fan of German Chocolate Cake.

When I came across this recipe for German Chocolate Brownies, I knew I had to try it for him.

It's a three step recipe, but the final product is totally worth it. Want to try it?

German Chocolate Brownies

Crust:
12 oz. pecans halves
2/3 C brown sugar
1/2 stick butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13" baking dish.
Chop pecans in a food processor until very fine. Dump into another bowl and mix with brown sugar, melted butter, and vanilla. Spread and press down in baking dish. Bake for about 15 minutes (it will probably come out of the oven still bubbling and smelling delicious!).

Brownie layer:
9x13" boxed brownie mix
eggs, water, and oil as directed on package

While the crust is baking, mix together the brownie batter. Pour over baked crust and return to oven; bake as directed.

Topping:
3 egg yolks
1 C sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter, softened
1 C heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 C pecan pieces
2 C shredded coconut

In mixer, combine egg yolks, sugar, and salt. Mix in softened butter until combined. Slowly add the heavy cream; stir in vanilla. Pour into a saucepan and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes, stirring often, until you reach about 180 degrees. It should coat the back of a spoon. Pour into a bowl to let it cool, then stir in the pecans and coconut. Allow brownies and topping to cool; spread topping on brownies.

Beautiful, delicious, decadent, glorious, rich, sweet, crunchy-gooey, not for those with nut allergies...

Hubby's verdict: Everything there is to love about German Chocolate cake without having to endure the really dry cake. =)

Try it and tell me how it turns out. It's a repeat recipe for our house.

Chicken Rice Soup

For several reasons, I decided to throw together some Chicken Rice Soup the other day.
- We've all had those nasty mid-summer colds hit us.
- We had leftover chicken from our camping trip that hubby had prepared to perfection on the smoker, and it needed to get used up before it was wasted.
- Our refrigerator is slightly possessed and has a tendency to freeze things at random times. That left us with a partially frozen bag of celery that needed to be picked through to find and use what was still fresh.

We recently got a Rice Cooker with a gift certificate, and we've LOVED using it. Make yourself a batch of about 4 C (dry) of rice. I ended up spooning my soup over the rice every time we ate it rather than ever mixing them together and letting the rice soak up all the broth. It worked for me.

For the soup: Start with the standard carrots (2), celery (whatever was useable), and onion (one large or two small). Saute that in a bit of olive oil, then add some herbs. We used what we had on hand that was given to us fresh by a friend: lime basil and parsley.

It already looked and smelled amazing!

Add 5 C. of water (or whatever seems proportionate to the amount of veggies and chicken you have available). I added pepper (a lot), but since the chicken was already seasoned, I left it at that.

Toss in your chicken, and cover to simmer for as long as you can. At this point, when I lifted the lid, I was blown away by the amazing smell of that smokey chicken.

Lastly, spoon some rice into your bowl and ladle some of that good-old-fashioned cold cure over top. Perfection!!

Recipe Feature

There was a lot of good feedback on our Reuben Pizza recipe (probably because if you like Reubens, you'll like the pizza, and if you don't, you didn't look at it ;-), it's true, right?!).

Lyuba at Will Cook for Smiles did a "Copycat Feature" of the recipe! It looks really good as a thin crust variety, too!

Go check out all her amazing recipes!!! Seriously good stuff over there--you'll thank me later. =)

Reuben Pizza

Yum. Yum. YUM!!!

This was some seriously good pizza. Please try it. You'll thank me later.

Ingredients:
Pizza dough
Thousand Island dressing
Corned Beef, thinly sliced
Sauerkraut, well drained
Swiss Cheese
Shredded Romano Cheese

Directions:
Roll out pizza dough to size of pan. Spread with Thousand Island dressing in whatever thickness you like your sauce. Layer on Corned Beef and Sauerkraut. Break Swiss Cheese into smaller pieces, if desired; spread on pizza. Sprinkle with Romano Cheese and bake until crust is golden brown. It doesn't take long, and everything is already cooked, so just let it go until the cheese and crust are the consistency you like.

We're back to "spring" today at about 48 degrees as I type...

Recipe - Pasta with Artichoke and Olives

Thursday night supper was delicious!

I snagged a recipe from Mika's Pantry that sounded so simple and tasty. She has 5 easy meals listed there--check them out!

What you need:
8 oz. pasta, cooked and drained (I had an open box of large elbow noodles, Penne works, too)
14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes with oregano and basil
6 oz. jar marinated artichoke hearts, including marinade, diced
2.5 oz. can sliced olives, drained (or do what I did: 1 whole can olives, slice them 1/2 of them, munch on the rest...)
1/2 C. Parmesan cheese (oops, we forgot to buy that...it would have been SO good...)

In a saucepan, combine tomatoes, diced artichoke hearts with liquid, and olives. Bring to a boil; lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Pour over cooked pasta, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, and serve!

Leave a little space on your plate for a slice of bread.

We all LOVED this meal! Even though a cold has been messing with his flavor-tasters lately, kiddo stamped his approval, too!

Thanksgiving contributions

We missed out on hosting Thanksgiving this year, so I only have a small list of items that we'll be making.

Honey Wheat Rolls (hubby found the recipe and might still be changing his mind...I'll update later)

Pilgrim Hat Cookies (these are SO adorable that I just have to try them... unfortunately, I'll have to eat more than my fair share of them because my mother-in-law thinks that chocolate and peanut butter combined comes straight from the devil)
Here's how mine turned out:

Cranberry Sauce (made this for Christmas last year, it's already a favorite)

my "famous" Cranberry Tea. This recipe is so easy and so delicious, you have to try it!

Ingredients (I'll be doubling it)
4 tea bags
2 C. boiling water
32 oz. cranberry juice (or cranberry + another flavor juice--Cranberry Raspberry is really good)
1/3 - 1/2 C. dried cranberries (optional)
1/3 C. sugar
1 lemon, sliced 1/4" thickness OR a healthy squirt of lemon juice
4 cinnamon sticks (depending on how large they are)
If you'd like to go for the "mulled" flavor, add 6 whole cloves.

Directions
Place tea bags in Crock Pot. Pour boiling water over tea bags; cover and let steep for ~5 minutes. Remove and discard tea bags. Stir in cranberry juice, cranberries (if desired), sugar, lemon, and cinnamon sticks. Cover and cook on low for 2-3 hours or on high for 1-2 hours.
Remove and discard lemon (if using slices) and cinnamon sticks.

The cranberries will plump up as this warms. I like having the bits of fruit in the tea. If you have leftovers, chill in refrigerator. This is also VERY good cold! I don't enjoy the cranberries as much in the cold tea, but you might like it.

This is a great recipe to throw together after supper before you go out for a crisp fall walk. Walk in the house with the rosy cheeks and nose and have a warm pot of tea waiting for you and filling the house with delicious aromas. Ahhhh! (Can you tell we've done this more than once?)

Make your own Refried Beans

My new found love is dry beans.

Inexpensive. Good protein. Good fiber.

...bad reputation.

I love to save time and money, and I understand that canned refried beans are super cheap. But when a huge bag of beans is even cheaper and the flavor is so much better, it's worth a try, right?

Here's how:
2 C. Pinto beans. Sort through the beans to remove any dirt (or, as I found one time, popcorn kernels...true story!) Rinse thoroughly. Soak overnight in 6 C. water. They'll come out with the water looking a little cloudy. Rinse thoroughly. This soaking process is part of getting rid of that bad reputation...

Add beans to a large pot and add ~6 C. fresh water. Simmer with lid tilted for 2 hours (preferably more) stirring frequently to get the beans to start breaking down.
Add 1 C. salsa. I really liked Dei Fratelli, but any salsa will do.
Continue cooking another hour or two to allow flavors to blend and water to cook down. Keep stirring!

You can see that my salsa is in and my beans are breaking down. At this point, it was a little too watery. I should have turned up the heat and let a little more of the water cook off, but oops! I just did it later.

Time for the stick blender.

Getting creamier!

Here it is all blended.

Time to check for thickness. This is where I decided to cook it down some more.

Ah, that's more like it!

This recipe works really well as a double batch, then freeze half for later.

How to Make a Cake without Eggs

Last week, I was about to make a cake when I realized that I didn't have any eggs in the house. There was too much on my "to do" list to add a grocery run, so it was time to adapt.

A friend of mine suggested substituting applesauce for oil in a cake or brownie mix (1:1 ratio, in case you're interested in trying it), but I didn't want to go substitute crazy. So I looked up some substitutions for eggs, and here's what I found.

Start with a box cake mix (because when they're on sale as cheap as what we found, it's not worth making it from scratch). Add the amount of oil called for on the box. Instead of adding water and eggs, add one can of soda. If it's chocolate cake, you can use a dark cola. If it is lemon cake, try lemon-lime soda.

I wasn't sure if it would be possible to overmix and make it not rise properly, so I only mixed it until it was all combined. Pour into a greased cake pan and bake for about 5 minutes longer than recommended on the box.

It's a much more moist cake, but it was the most evenly baked cake I've ever seen come out of my oven!

Ummm...forgot a before picture. We were hungry.

You can see it was also a bit more crumbly than normal, but it tasted SO good!

Black Bean and Vegetable Soup Recipe

It doesn't look like much yet, but it smells *really* good! It's still cooking...

Here's my inspiration.

My adaptation:
Ingredients
2-3 T. olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 med. yellow onion, diced
1/2 bag baby carrots or 3-4 large carrots, chopped
5 stalks celery, chopped
2 tsp. chicken bouillon granules
1-2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
28 oz. crushed tomatoes
2 cans water
black pepper

Warm olive oil in large pan or stock pot; add garlic and onion. Add carrots and celery; allow to cook for a couple minutes. Stir in chicken bouillon, black beans, tomatoes, and water; sprinkle on pepper. Bring to a rolling boil; cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for as long as possible.

Our time is starting to run short today, so we'll see if we're able to have it for lunch or not. If it doesn't work out, I'm going to put it in the Crock Pot before church tomorrow or warm it up for Monday's supper. It will be a great and warm dish for a rainy day like today!

I'll report back if I have any changes to the recipe after we taste it.

CrockPot Brat/Sausage with Ginger Ale Recipe

We love using the CrockPot around here.

This is a favorite recipe of ours. If you're a crazy one that doesn't like brats (sorry, Moe, I couldn't resist it! =) ), then you can use Polish Sausage or anything similar in this recipe. I have not tried it with Italian Sausage, but it might work.

Ingredients:
4-6 sausage links (We've used venison brats, and they are usually frozen when I put them in.)
1 can Ginger Ale (12 oz.)
1 med. onion, cut in half and thinly sliced
2 T. packed brown sugar
2 T. red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar

Throw (or "gently place" depending on how daring you are that day) everything into the CrockPot. Cover; cook on low for 4-5 hours.

This is what it looks like at the beginning:

This is what it looks like afterward:






Oh wait, we were too hungry, and I forgot! Well, just imagine a bun, brat, cooked onions, and a little spicy brown mustard. Yum!

Edit: We got one!

With a touch of freshly made Pico de Gallo. Oh. My. Yum.