Sister's Choice Quilts

Channeling Pioneer Woman

I totally channeled the Pioneer Woman this weekend.  Mother's Day and Sara's birthday fell on the same day, so we did a dual celebration.  I have both of Ree Drummond's cookbooks, and have had pretty good success with her recipes.  The celebration dinner was at my house, so I elected to make Ree's recipe for chicken enchiladas for our entree.

I'm going to tell you something, and that is, I do not know how that woman manages to cook in those diaphanous blouses she always wears.  It is a total miracle she does not catch herself right on fire.  Since I was planning my menu around recipes in her second cookbook, I figured I needed to get in the mood and put on a new flowy blouse I had recently got. Flowy blouse, dangly earrings, a statement necklace, coordinating pot holders,  and I looked like PW herself.

 

Cute, right?  Well, I put it on and started in on my chicken enchiladas, and before I knew what was what, my right sleeve was weighted down by about half a pound of sour cream sauce.  And getting anywhere near the stove was a mission wrought with danger.

Happily, I did manage to put my casserole together without a trip to the emergency room.  Here is the chicken enchilada dish a la Pioneer Woman, just before I popped it into the oven.

And it was seriously yummy.

 

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

 

Here is an easy recipe you might enjoy--especially if you have a garden full of zucchini!  It is a pretty basic zucchini bread recipe with the addition of blueberries.  No nuts in this one, but don't see why you couldn't add them.  I ended up with five mini loaf pans, not the four the recipe states.  This was as good as the picture looks, maybe better.  Give it a try, you won't be sorry!  (From allrecipes.com).

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 2 cups shredded zucchini
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pint fresh blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 4 mini-loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared mini-loaf pans.
3. Bake 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Easter

 
Easter was a spendid success, with all the family getting together for our usual brunch.  We had a couple of young men contributing to the food and drink this year, which added an even more fabulous element to the party.  My nephew Eric made Bloody Marys and Grey Hounds, two very wonderful cocktails.  Eric also made some pull apart cinnamon rolls that nearly all disappeared when placed in my vicinity.  His friend and room mate Dave contributed a fruit salad that had to be seen to be believed, and real Yorkshire puddings, hot out of the oven.  Try putting a big spoonful of fruit salad on top of your hot Yorkshire pudding, and you are in for an incredible treat.  It was like a miniature Dutch Baby.  Who says guys can't cook?

The cupcakes above were made by my niece Stephanie (actually she is my cousin, or maybe my second cousin?  She is my first cousin Paul's daughter.  She feels like a niece).  Stephanie is an aspiring baker and cupcakes are her specialty.

 
These weren't from the garden, but they sure were pretty!  Tulips and daisies.

 
This is what IS going on in the garden.  Pretty spectacular!

Hope your weekend was as fine as mine!  Here's one little girl who got completely tuckered out and had to be carried out to the car at the end of the brunch.  She is Ruby, who belongs to my sister Trish.   She spent most of the brunch cruising around under the table or in the kitchen, hoping some sort of treat might fall out of the sky.  Ruby that is, not Trish.

 

Be sure to check out Monique's blog today for her Fat Quarter Winners quilt project reveal.  Her Spades quilt is amazing.

Blueberry French Toast

Blueberry French Toast

1 loaf French bread, sliced and cut into 1 inch cubes

2  8 ounce packages cream cheese, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed

12 large eggs

1/3 cup maple syrup

2 cups milk

Grease 13” pan.  Place half the bread cubes evenly in the pan.  Scatter cream cheese over bread and then scatter blueberries over all.  Arrange remaining bread cubes over the top.  In a large bowl, combine eggs, syrup and milk.  Pour over bread mixture.  Cover and chill overnight.

Next day, bake casserole at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, covered with foil.  Remove foil after 30 minutes and cook for 30 more minutes, until puffy.    While casserole bakes, make Blueberry Syrup.* Top blueberry casserole with some of the Blueberry Syrup, and pass the rest at the table.

Blueberry Syrup

1 cup sugar

2 T. cornstarch

1 cup water

1 cup blueberries

1 T. butter

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch and water over medium heat.  Cook 5 minutes until thickened, stirring.  Add 1 cup blueberries and simmer, stirring for 10 minutes.  Add butter and blend.

*You can make the blueberry syrup one day ahead if you wish.

Hoppin' John

 
It is supposed to be good luck to start the New Year off with a dish of Hoppin' John, a concoction of ham, blackeyed peas, rice and veggies.  It is a delicious dish, and deserves not to be relegated to just the New Year.  My version has red and yellow pepper, jalapeno, onion, garlic, and celery.  It is hearty, tasty, and feeds about 50 people.  (Seriously, maybe 10).

Since I have been working non stop lately and haven't had a chance to do any sewing, I thought I would share the recipe with you.

HOPPIN’ JOHN

• 1 pound dried black-eyed peas
• 2 small smoked ham hocks or meaty ham bone
• 2 medium onions, divided
• 3 large cloves garlic, halved
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup long-grain white rice
• 1 can Swansons chicken broth
• 1 can (10 to 14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes with chile peppers, juices reserved
• 1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 3 ribs celery, chopped
• 1 jalapeno or serrano pepper, minced
• 2 teaspoons Cajun or Creole seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 green onions, sliced

Preparation:

In a large Dutch oven or kettle, combine the black-eyed peas, ham bone or ham hocks, and 6 cups water. Cut 1 of the onions in half and add it to the pot along with the garlic and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer gently until the beans are tender but not mushy, 2 hours. Remove the ham bone or hocks, cut off the meat; dice and set aside.  Fish out the large pieces of onion and discard.

Add one can of chicken broth to the pot and bring to a boil. Add the rice, cover, and simmer until the rice is almost tender, about 10 to 12 minutes.   Stir this constantly so nothing sticks to the pan.

Mince the remaining onion then add to the rice along with the peas, tomatoes, and their juices, red and green bell pepper, celery, jalapeno pepper, Creole seasoning, thyme, cumin, and salt. Cook until the rice is tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the sliced green onions and the reserved diced ham. Serve with hot sauce and freshly baked cornbread.

 

Repeat After Me:

I am not a baker.  I am not a baker.  I am not a baker.

This unbelievable mess is the cheesecake I was making for Christmas dinner. 

How could such a thing come to pass?  Well, I'll tell you.  Someone put my spring-form pan back together after it was washed, and got the bottom section in upside down. 

And when I was putting it into the 350 degree oven, the bottom of the pan fell right out.  Sploof.

The person who put the pan together wrong spent about an hour and a half cleaning up this colossal mess, while I went to the store on Christmas Eve for more ingredients.  Which also took about an hour and half.

He actually had to *take the oven doors off* to clean up all the goo.  The sugary liquid not only went all over the upper oven, but leaked down into the lower one as well.  When it happened, I just stared at the disaster without a clue how to begin cleaning it up.  If I had been alone, I think I would have picked up my purse, gone out to the car, and driven away from the house, never to be heard from again.  I would have started up a new, baking free life some where in Middle America.

All's well that ends well, though.  Ovens got cleaned, cheesecake (and pumpkin pie, and a cranberry coffee cake) got made.

Lol.  All in all, this was a pretty memorable Christmas!

I Am Not a Baker

 
OK, yes, there are a few things I am pretty good at.  Skilled even.

But not baking.  I told you all I had given up Holiday Baking in an effort to make my life more sane during the Christmas season.  Well, that wasn't all of the story.  I gave up Holiday Baking because it was at the bottom of my priority list.  I don't care that much for sweets, they are way too fattening, and frankly, my baked efforts usually turn out horrible.  Easy sacrifice.

But this year...It may be the last Christmas I spend with my son, as he is moving to Ireland in January.  I felt the tug of nostalgia that we all feel under such circumstances, and wanted this Christmas to be truly special, and incorporate memories from his childhood.

One of these memories is of a special shortbread cookie that is rolled out and cut into Christmas shapes and then frosted and decorated.  They always turned out really homely looking, but I attributed that to "the kid factor".  You know, the kids were going hog wild with the frosting and the sprinkles, and the cookies always ended up looking like H***, but that was ok, because it was a kid project.

So, this year, I decided to trot out the old shortbread cookie recipe and make up a batch of those holiday cookies.

 
Well, it has to be said, my kids made better looking cookies than I did.  Mine remind me of sweets from a Mexican bakery--those little marranito or puerquito cookies in lurid shades of pink.

 

I tried.  I think I will go back to sewing. 

 

You Can't Have Zee Duck

Remember that line from the movie LA Story?  Steve Martin is having an interview with the Maitre D' at a posh restaurant to determine if his finances will allow him to have dinner at the establishment.  It was determined that he "cannot have zee duck".  He "can only have zee chicken". 

Well, we had our duck this weekend at a lovely autumn themed dinner at my daughter Sara's house.  That is her table scape above.  And this was our duck breast with wild mushrooms and fig sauce dinner.

And upside down pear tartin for dessert, courtesy of my sister Andrea.

Fabulous!

How Do You Keep Your Recipes?

This terrific recipe book was in the package from Mary Wood (Scottish Nanna)--as if the blue and white appliqued table cloth wasn't enough of a birthday present to me!  Her daughter in law makes them, and I think it is a fabulous idea.   How sweet and thoughtful a gift this is.

In fact, I have several of this type of notebook for keeping my recipes, and as you will see, I was sorely in need of a new one.

My first notebook is over 25 years old.  Well used, as evidenced by the splotches and grease stains on the pages.  This little book has held together pretty well, but all the pages are full.

My second notebook is about 15 years old, and is totally falling apart.  Not so easy to find the page I need when all the pages are falling every which way.  The chili recipe was stuck in with the salad section, so I never would have located it!  Obviously I need to recopy these recipes into a new book, and now I can do that.

The recipes in these two notebooks are recipes that I have found in magazines or online, or that were given to me by family and friends.  I have a third notebook where I jot down recipes that I love that are actually in cook books that I own.  I know that sounds weird, but  I can never remember if it was the Barefoot Contessa, Giada, Rachel, or Paula Deen who made that perfect cole slaw, pound cake, or shrimp pasta, so this helps me out a lot.  I just copy the recipe from the cookbook into my notebook and it is always right where I can find it.

I would love to know how you all store your recipes.  I started out as a newlywed with a little recipe box that held my recipes on 3 by 5 index cards.  Didn't like that system so well, as I could never find things fast enough.  I discovered the notebook idea many years ago, and liked it better, as things were organized in indexed sections.  So how do you keep organized?

 

Your Crock Pot Is Your Friend

Thanks guys, for all your kind words of support yesterday.  So I guess my boring life is actually entertaining to some of you...  I think some people forget that an individual's blog is a journal of sorts--a record of that person's interests and a diary of their activities.  If it ends up being enjoyable reading for some of you, that is terrific.  If not, for whatever reason, that's ok, but I do not plan on making any changes. 

No quilting going on right now.  I did so darn much sewing in the earlier part of the summer, I just seem to need a little break for now.  Plus, I have been feeling so lethargic since I returned from my trip.  I managed to spend two extra hours under my Elizabeth quilt on Tuesday morning.  What a luxury sleeping in can be on occasion.  My crazy dogs do not allow much sleeping in, but the stars must have been in alignment or something, so I grabbed the opportunity when it presented itself!

So, have you thought of using your crock pot lately?  I know, I know, it's summer.  At least where a lot of you live anyway.  Here?  It doesn't get much past 70 on a "hot" day.  63 seems to be the magic number temperature wise in my area.  That is due to our California coastal summer weather pattern.  Foggy and overcast until noon, then, with luck, the fog burns off and it gets up to 70.  Just wait 'til September and October.  It will be 100 then and these cool temps will be a distant memory.

Anyway, you may not be thinking crock pot dinners now that the temperatures are hot where you are.  But, you might want to reconsider that.  Hanging out at the pool all day long and don't have a clue what to do for dinner?  Dreading the mess and clean up and the hot kitchen?  Just think how wonderful it would be to come home at the end of the day and have dinner all ready on your clean counter top.  All you need to do is slice some French bread and toss a salad and your dinner is on the table.

I love using my crock pot during the summer.  I can throw things together in the morning before I head off for my quilting group, a day at work, or a day shopping or at the beach.  The prep is done when it is cool in the morning, and the mess is all cleaned up by the time I get home.  I have a couple of favorite crock pot cookbooks that I'd love to share with you.

Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger.  This book is a far cry from the two cans of salty Campbell's soup and some sort of meat concept of slow cookery.  The emphasis is on fresh ingredients and lots of wonderful flavor.  Watching your sodium?  The recipes in this book are very conducive to that aim.  Another feature of this book is that it tells you what size crock pot is appropriate for the recipe.  Have you ever cooked something for 8 hours in a half full crock pot?  After spending an hour trying to get the burned on stuff off the sides, you will appreciate that if the recipe had TOLD you to use your smaller crock pot, that would never have happened.

 

Make It Fast, Cook It Slow.  I love this cookbook!   The gal who wrote it, Stephanie O'Dea, is a blogger!  She started 2007 with a New Year's Resolution to cook a crock pot recipe *every single day* for a year, and blog about it.  Her blog, A Year of Slow Cooking, is simply terrific.  If you haven't ever been to her site, you must check it out.  She has posts on Holiday Slow Cooking, Favorite Fall Slow Cooker Recipes, Frequently Asked Slow Cooker Questions, and even The Slow Cooker Diet!  The author also includes a feature she calls "the Verdict", where her family (which includes young children) weigh in on how they liked the dish. 

Here is one of my favorite recipes from her book:

French Dip Sandwiches

2 T. butter

2 pounds top round, sliced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 yellow onion, cut in rings

3 cups beef broth

1 12 oz bottle of beer

¼ cup dry sherry

½ tsp black pepper

½ T. sugar

1 tsp Worcestershire

Bread rolls

Cheese slices

 

Use a 4 quart crock pot.  Put the butter into the bottom of the stoneware and turn the cooker on high.  Add the meat, garlic, and onion, and swirl around in the butter.  Pour in the broth, beer and sherry.  Add the black pepper, sugar, and Worcestershire sauce.  Cover and cook on low for 7 to 9 hours.  Serve on rolls.

Serve the sandwiches on plates with a small bowl or broth.  Dip the sandwich into the broth before each bite for a nice juicy flavor and consistency.

Enjoy!