Blogs can be a great source for recipes!

Looking for something different to do with sweet potatoes? I came upon a blog with a description of a great sounding sweet potato apple bake. A lack of exact quantities notwithstanding, the dish turned out very well.

Sweet Potato Apple Bake
3 large or 5 medium sweet potatoes
2 tart cooking apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
Butter
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Several tablespoons dark brown sugar
Orange marmalade (The kind with the peelings left in the preserve - Kroger has a good one if you are in the Southeast.)
Pinch of salt
Granulated white sugar

Boil the potatoes until they are about half done to put them on a par with the apples as to baking time, and slice them a bit thicker than 1/4 inch. Make one layer in a 2-quart, deep, oven safe dish.
Over the slices sprinkle a couple of tablespoonfuls of dark brown sugar, plus a little salt, dot this with bits of butter, add a generous dusting of cinnamon and nutmeg and a few dabs of orange marmalade.
Next add a layer of sliced apples, with the same brown sugar butter spice and marmalade garnish.
Repeat these two layers, then add a final layer of potatoes.

Over the top add more sugar, more butter, more spices, more dabs of marmalade, and a sprinkling of granulated white sugar for a glistening finish.

Bake at 350 deg F, about 30 mins to brown and heat through.

I need a list of synonyms for delicious! This is a tasty alternative to the standard casserole with all those marshmallows.

Awesome cream cheese appetizer

Published in the Atlanta Journal Constitution a while back, this fresh take on the cream cheese and preserves appetizer is yummy!

Unwrap one box of cream cheese and put it in the middle of your serving dish. Over it pour
6 oz mango chutney (chopped if necessary), then
1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/3 cup chopped dry roasted peanuts, and
1/3 cup sweetened, flaked coconut

Serve with your favorite crackers.

Give a greyhound a new home for Christmas

Greyhounds are the best! They are wonderful, gentle, sweet natured, beautiful, thoroughbred dogs who love nothing more than a soft place to lay their heads. No, they do not require any more exercise than any other breed and they do not have to run. That doesn't mean they don't love to run given the chance.

My Greyhound Adoption Persona for Firefox users is now available on their site. If you would like to wear it, you'll find it here:
Firefox Persona - Greyhound Adoption

The Korean pancakes, greyhound Persona

No, there are no pictures. They didn't look as pretty as I hoped. They tasted good though they were a little thick. I'm anxious to try them again with some modifications to the recipe. Next time I'll post step by steps. Korean food always has steps. Lots of preparation, little cooking time.

I'm working on a Persona for Firefox about Greyhound Adoption.  Here is what I have so far:

Its a greyhound, bag packed, making his way to his forever home. I'm going to submit it to Firefox for approval. I'll keep you posted.

Experiment day

When we lived in Korea, we often went to a certain restaurant near our home. It was situated on the slope of a hill, and consisted of multiple little houses, all decorated in the traditional Korean style, with the traditional heated floors. The kids love it - they would bring their blankies and snuggle on the warm floor. The parents loved it too, both for the food and for the fact that the kids would fall asleep, snuggled on the warm floor!

One of the menu items was Pindaetok, a pancake made of mung bean powder, topped with green onions, beef, kimchi, bean sprouts, and whatever other ingredients of the day. They were delicious, and we always ate too much of this appetizer to fully do justice to the wonderful Korean bbq that followed.

So today we are going to try and make Pindaetok, or Bindae Dok with spicy soy dipping sauce. Report to follow.

P.S. Being a transplant to the south, I never thought I would like grits, until I tried garlic shrimp grits. Today I am adding the best cheese grits I have ever eaten to the list of Grits Likes. If I can persuade the maker to share the recipe, you can try it too.

Ami Simms Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative Priority Quilts

Ami Simms is a well known quilter whose mom had Alzheimers. Ami decided to do something about it, and the Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative was born. Quilters everywhere are helping the effort by constructing small quilts (fit into a Priority mailer) that Ami sells by auction on her website, or that serve as your "receipt" when you make a suitable donation to the AAQI at any the quilt shows Ami attends.
I am so thrilled that the three little quilts I sent were among those taken to the show in Houston, and that they were deemed worthy of $50, $50 and $65, by those willing to make a donation to the cause.

You can read more about Ami and her project here: Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative

Rain = Comfort Food

It's pouring with rain here in Georgia today. Definitely a day to make something hot and full of carbs! Here's a recipe for a delicious corn casserole from allrecipes.com. You know I cannot leave a recipe alone, so I've added some optional ingredients for your tasting pleasure. I have tried all of them - even some combos of them - with great success.

RAINY DAY CORN CASSEROLE
(Good for any other day too)

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 (8.5 ounce) package dry corn bread mix
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained (or about 1 1/2 cups frozen, thawed under running water.)
1 (14.75 ounce) can creamed corn
1 cup sour cream

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and lightly grease a 9x9 inch baking dish.
In a medium bowl, combine butter, eggs, corn bread mix, whole and creamed corn and sour cream. Spoon mixture into prepared dish.
Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top is golden brown.

You can add stuff if you want -  a can of chopped chilies, or some pimiento, or a handful of cheese, or sauteed onions and green peppers, or bacon. It’s very forgiving.

I'm developing a quilt pattern to teach paper piecing skills. Here is "Hut Hut", a simple paper pieced block, 8". It and it's reflection will make a cute little wall hanging. Am trying to decide if I want to control the colors a bit. Will make a couple more blocks to see how it looks.

After Thanksgiving Food Report

Lots of new recipes made their way into the kitchen this week. Here's the menu:

Rachel Ray's Roast Turkey Breast (with some modifications)
Corn Bread Stuffing with Chorizo
Slow Cooker Southern style green beans
Sweet Potato and Apple bake
Apple cider gravy
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Cheesecake/pumpkin/pecan pie
Crispy Creme Bread Pudding!
Multi Grain Bread Rolls from Bon Appetit 11/09

Here are Hubby and I with our beautifully browned turkey breasts.


p.s. Credit to #1 son + girlfriend for the yummy desserts :)

Teaching is Fun!

Well, that was a first for me - I taught "Intro to Machine Applique" at a quilt store in Buford, GA called Georgia Sewing and Quilting. There were three students, and one was a guy! It was so much fun. The students were all accomplished sewers who wanted to brush up on machine applique skills. They could have taught me a thing or two!

Only one item of culinary news this week:  Made a roasted pork tenderloin with herbs and garlic. Started by browning it in a pan, then finishing in the oven. Deglazed the pan with white wine and then stirred in some Hoisin Sauce. The combo of hot and slightly sweet was delicious.

Planning the Thanksgiving menu. Hubby wants turkey, Son #2 wants stuffing...it's looking too traditional for me. Will have to come up with something to raise it into the "intersting" category. More to follow...

No boring chicken this night!

Defrosted chix breasts awaited some magic transformation into dinner. Don't you sometimes just get tired of chix breasts? It's a good thing they provide lean, high quality protein, or I would have forsaken them long ago. We seasoned them with fajita seasoning, but still, the meal needed something to make it more intersting. Hadn't had rice for a while - maybe a pilaf of some sort? Light bulb moment! Fajitas = Mexican.

So here is my version of Spanish Rice.


Spanish Rice
Serves 4 normal eaters.

In 1 Tablespoon olive oil, saute 1/2 diced onion, 1 clove garlic till fragrant. Add 1 cup dry rice and stir till coated. Add one chopped tomato, salt and freshly ground black pepper (aka fgbp) to taste, a good pinch each of cumin and oregano and two cups water. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer till rice is done.

Less sodium and cheaper than the box variety.

Very cute idea for spagetti and hot dogs

Here's what they look like

and here's where to find the recipe:
Spagetti dogs

Delicious 12 layer dip

I must be one of a handful of Americans who doesn't like sour cream. But, I do love plain yogurt. Yesterday while ripping the top off a new tub of Dannon Fat Free Plain, I noticed a recipe for this dip. Made with yogurt. Not sour cream.

Well, there's no time like the present to try a new recipe! It struck me that yogurt is runnier than sour cream, so I decided to strain the yogurt for a while to thicken it up. While that was happening, made a quick trip to Publix for the olives and refried beans.

The dip was delicious, and to save you the trouble of looking up the recipe, here it is:

2 1/2 cups ff plain yogurt, poured into a cheesecloth lined strainer and left for a couple of hours.
1 cup each sliced olives, shredded sharp cheddar, finely shredded lettuce, chunky salsa
1 can refried beans.

Mix beans with 1/3 cup salsa. Then layer in a glass pie plate or other flat dish:
1/2 the bean mixture
1 cup strained yogurt
1/2 cup olives
1/3 cup salsa
1/2 cup lettuce
1/2 cup cheese.
Repeat the layers.
Cover with plastic wrap and chill.

Serve with corn chips.

Lesson learned: Buy More Fabric Than You Think You Need

Especially when you don't have a plan for it yet.

This weekend I finally started working on the sashing for my Hawaiian quilt. I've been working on the applique on and off for several years. Now there are 48 paper pieced sashing pieces to make. 14 are complete and I am wondering whether I will have enough fabric to finish my design. I'm going to sew all the strips together so I can use every last inch from now on.

Last week I paged through an OLD Southern Living cookbook, and found an interesting sounding recipe for Wholewheat Spice Cake. It was delicious - more of a cookie bar than a cake. Ingredients include dates, raisins, cinnamon, honey, pecans and chocolate chips! Now don't you want some?

I forgot the picture! Guess I'll just have to make it again.

#2 Son's birthday dinner - finally!

The college kid finally had time to come home so we could celebrate his September birthday. 21 years old. Time sure does fly.

He requested Low Country Boil, one of my favorite dishes. It seems like a strange combination of ingredients, but they are just delicious together. In case you need a recipe, here is an easy one:

For 4 hungry eaters:
Scrub 8 medium white or red potatoes and put in a large saucepan with 1 package smoked sausage or kielbasa cut into one inch pieces. Add water just to cover, 1/2 a lemon, at least 1 Tablespoon of Old Bay seasoning and some cayenne pepper if you like things hot. Bring to a boil and cook 10 mins. Add 4 or more cleaned ears of corn and cook another 10 mins, or until the potatoes are soft. Add one pound of shrimp (I think they taste better if the skins are left on, but peeled is OK too) and cook a couple of minutes more.

Drain off the water, then pile everything onto a big platter, or onto some clean newsprint right on the table! Dig in and enjoy.

Corn bread, crusty bread and butter, salad or a green veg make it into a balanced meal.

Tomorrow I'm trying a cake from an old book I found in a friend's cupboard: Whole Wheat Spice Cake. Pictures to follow.

Birthday treats

This week was the Hubby's birthday, so a grand meal was in order. He requested lamb chops grilled over charcoal, a favorite thanks to the time spent in South AFrica. Well, in S.A. you can't have lamb chops without boerewors, usually just called wors, which means sausage. (Pronounce it "vorse") This is not just any sausage, but a local recipe made from beef, pork, pork fat, coriander and other spices. Simply delicious. There is nothing like it here in the States.

Never being afraid of spending a few hours in the kitchen, I decided wors was in order for the birthday boy. Usually the casings come from the local specialty food store, where for some unknown reason they charge a hefty chunk of change for them. What do you suppose the demand for sausage casings is? So this time, the sausage was made middle eastern style, wrapped around a skewer. Son #1 grilled them on the bbq. What a treat. They were mm, mm, good!

New Cat Toy

Bought some veggies today and left them lying on the counter for a while. Came back later to find the bag of green beans open. No one, repeat no one, in my family would choose to snack on a raw green bean. (Except me, of course), so I was wondering what happened. Guess who provided the answer? Angus!   So the next time you want to treat your kitty to a new toy, head to the green grocers!

Delicious Fish for dinner

Tilapia with Artihokes.
Serves 4

4 Tilapia fillets
2 cloves garlic
1 bag Kroger PS frozen artichoke hearts
(works better than canned)
2T olive oil

Press or chop garlic and saute in olive oil. When you can smell it, add artichokes, stirring to coat with oil.
Season fish with Lawry's seasoned salt (or whatever your fave is) and freshly ground black pepper.
Push veggies aside and lay fillets in pan. Cover with veggies then add a lid to the pan.
Steam for a few minutes on side one, then turn fish over and finish steaming side two. Total time about10 mins, depending how thick the fillets are.

Sad day in the household

Sad day in the household today. We had to say goodbye to sweet Chloe, our 20 yr old kittie. She was a rescue from a cat shelter near where we lived in Pittsford, N.Y. Youngest son Brian was just a toddler when we got her, so he can't remember life without her. Now we'll all have to get used to that idea.

Mystery Revealed

Here is the paper pieced top of Paper Panache's Nativity Advent Quilt.

25 blocks, at least 2.5 hrs each = 62.5+ hours invested to date. Call me crazy.  22" by 34"

In my opinion, there are two publisher errors in the pattern. With something this complicated, the only errors should be mine.

He's a superb cook!

I'm braggin' on #1 son and his girlfriend. We ate delicious gumbo (Paula Dean's Seafood Gumbo) and roasted broccoli, followed by koeksisters! Koeksisters are a South African confection, a kind of a braided doughnut steeped in syrup. Difficult to get just right and time consuming to make. They were delicious! I am thoroughly impressed.

When I was living in the dorm at my university in South Africa, we were instructed not to "koeksister", which meant we should not entwine ourselves with, but keep a respectful distance from any amorous young man! I wonder if they still instruct the young ladies about that.

Mystery update: 24 done, one to go. Picture to follow.

Mystery and the mystery of cornbread.

23 down, 2 to go.

No good food news today. My oldest son is turning 28 tomorrow. He has invited us to dinner for the first time ever! He is a good cook, so I am looking forward to our get together. He asked me to bring one thing - cornbread. Simple? Apparently not. I decided to pit Alton Brown against Jiffy. Alton was a little softie at heart and Jiffy got sunburned. Oh well, it will do the son good to know his mom isn't perfect :) Updates on the protege's efforts tomorrow.

Mystery and Mash

22 down, 3 to go.

We had bangers and mash for dinner. Tried a recipe from Guy Fieri - "Adam's Apple Mashed Potatoes."
Garlic mashed potatoes with chopped apple. The hubby and I both liked it. Maybe you will too.

Mystery

21 down, 4 to go.

Angus the scrounge

Chloe, our 20 yr old gal, needs food several times a day, cause she only eats a little at a time. Angus, who doesn't need one single extra calorie, wants to help Chloe clean her plate. So he sidles up to her and acts all coy, thinking no one will see him. But of course we do and shoo him off. Occasionally he gets to lick the spoon, but only if he holds it himself :)

We tried Southwestern Shepherds Pie from last Sunday's Parade magazine for dinner last night. It was pretty good. Seasoned with cumin, cinnamon, jalapeños and garlic of course, studded with corn and tomatoes (didn't have the black beans on hand) and sweet potatoes i.s.o white. It was prettier before we dove into it, but then you wouldn't have been able to see the inside!

A walk in the park plus ice cream.

It was such a beautiful day, we took the dogs for a walk in Webb Bridge Park. There is a pond there. Knowing that Donna likes to paddle, we took her to the waters edge. She immediately waded in and next thing was up to her neck in water. Poor thing looked rather surprised. When we looked closely, we saw that they have a ledge of stones under the water that drops off. Not immediately visible especially with sunglasses on.
Afterward, we all wanted ice cream, so went to a new place recently opened by friends of friends. It's called "Ice Cream Social," on 141 just west of 400. Delicious coffee ice cream with chocolate pieces for me and the hubby, and vanilla for the pups. The pups' wasn't free like at Brusters. 

Here's a picture of Donna on a different day showing how much she likes the water. Unfortunately it had rained. And by the time we got home, the inside of the van looked like it had been given a mud pack spa treatment!

Easy Cheesy - not!

Being all inspired by the Kroger cheese lady telling me they now make their own fresh mozarella, I think "well, if they can do it, so can I." I've made soft fresh cheese before - my feta was pretty good and labneh really is easy cheesy. But, the first attempt at mozzarella turned out to be a "no, I can't." The result would be suitable for the inside of golfballs. I guess I'll have to try again when I feel motivated.

A more successful culinary venture is some chicken salad I concocted at the last minute. We had 2 leftover cooked breasts, which I diced. Added some diced celery, onion, dried apricots, a bit of salt and some freshly ground black pepper, plus about 1/3 cup HLM. (Hellmans Lowfat Mayo - the best mayo on the market in the reduced calorie department) Mixed it all up and let it sit in the fridge till dinner time. Served it with my favorite
Green Bean Salad:
Clean some beans, steam or boil them till crisp tender. Meanwhile slice an onion and put it in a sieve or colander. Crush a garlic clove and put it in a serving bowl with 1/4 cup Paul Newmans Light Balsamic Vinegar Dressing and some black pepper. When the beans are done, pour them and their cooking liquid into the sieve on top of the onions. Add drained beans and warmed onions to the dressing. Refrigerate till cooled.

Everyone is remembering this day in history. It still seems unbelievable. Here is a quilt I made to commemorate 9/11. It is called "Rising Above" - a tribute to the indomitable spirit of the American people.

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life - music and cats."

Albert Schweitzer.