Dutch Oven Cheddar Cheese Bread

I am not great with being a team player, I never have been. Growing up I was naturally drawn to running, swimming, and dance. If I did well it was me doing it, not me relying on numerous other people to have success. Yes, they were team sports, but only in the larger sense, your team could lose and you could still medal. Awesome. My lack of ability to play well with others was readily apparent when I started work. At first I thought it was all in my head, until we had one of those horrible team building days. One of the activities was to find your personality type and break into groups based on them. I was the only one in my group. All the other groups had bunches of people. Not me, my personality type was just me. While many people would be upset by this finding, I was ecstatic. It wasn't all in my head, I really am not great working with others. So I blame my lack of cooperation on my personality, and I blame my personality on my mother who was the oldest of 12 kids. Being a natural born leader is in my blood, I learned quickly growing up to get out ahead of the pack before the chaos ensued. Sometimes being in front isn't so bad, even if it means you aren't part of the group.

Before I got married I had never made homemade bread. My mother never made it and I had no idea where to start. It took me many failed attempts until I learned that making bread has to start with a  great recipe. Over the last 10 years I have tried so many recipes that failed to live up to my expectations. The following recipe has worked every single time I have made it. I make it at least once a week to go with soups and it is delicious!

Dutch Oven Cheddar Cheese Bread

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups bread flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 3/4 cups water (70-75 degrees)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon cornmeal
• 4 ounces diced or shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Cooking Directions

1. Dissolve yeast in the warm water.
2. In another large bowl mix the flour and salt.
3. Add the yeast/water to the flour.
4. Using a plastic spatula or wooden spoon mix dough until smooth (do not knead).
5. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise at room temperature for 1 hour.
6. Uncover and punch down dough.
7. On a lightly floured surface pat the dough into a 9 inch square.
8. Fold the dough into thirds creating a 9 by 3 inch triangle.
9. Fold the rectangle in thirds to form a 9 inch square.
10. Turn the dough over (so the seam is on the bottom) and place into a greased bowl.
11. Cover and let rise at room temperature for 1 hour.
12. Punch dough down and repeat folding process above.
13. Return dough to greased bowl, cover, and place in fridge overnight.
14. Oil the bottom of a dutch oven and dust with 1 tablespoon cornmeal.
15. Sprinkle cheddar cheese over dough and knead until incorporated (8-10 times).
16. Shape the dough into a 6 inch round loaf and place into the greased dutch oven.
17. Cover and allow to rise at room temperature for 1 1/4 hours.
18. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.
19. Make a 1/4 inch slash across the top of the loaf.
20. Place lid on dutch oven and bake for 25 minutes.
21. Turn oven down to 450 degrees F, remove lid, and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes.
22. Let completely cool before slicing.

Tips: 

• This bread can also be made with dried cranberries. Omit the cheddar cheese and in step 15 add 1 cup dried cranberries and 4 teaspoons grated orange peel. The cranberry bread is great for turkey or ham sandwiches, my family loves it! 
• The cheese bread makes delicious grilled cheese sandwiches. The cheese in the bread makes for a cheesy and gooey sandwich! 
• This recipe can look a little intimidating with all the steps, but trust me it's actually pretty easy. Most of the time involved is when the dough is resting, the actual hands on work is minimal. 
• This is a good base recipe to experiment with different mix ins. Just add whatever combination you desire in step 15 or leave out the cheddar cheese completely for a great plain rustic bread. 

Roasted Beets and Garlic Sautéed Beet Greens

I hate adults this time of  the year. It's the beginning of the "when I grew up" stories. You know what I mean, the stories that start with a phrase about school never closing when they grew up and they walked 12 miles in the snow. Good for you, do you want a cookie for your efforts? I too grew up in a school district that never closed. Until I was in grade school and we had a severe storm on the middle of the day. The school district decided to wait it out, it was just a little bit of snow. Finally at 1 pm in the afternoon they let released the school district. Bad idea. I was one of the kids that actually made it on a bus (a lot of my friends ended up staying at various schools with little food and blankets to go around). The bus took until 9pm to get to my house. Well mostly to my house. I was let out three blocks away, across a very busy intersection. I walked across that busy street, while watching accident after accident happen in front of me, but I did make it home. 8 hours after we left school. My poor father had to leave our car on the side of the road and walk part of the way home. He got home at almost midnight. I never talk about my experience as a reason that my kids are soft and need to suck it up and go to school. I do talk about my experience as a reason that sometimes it's better to be in school until June instead of being stuck alone crossing a busy street in a snowstorm. People that like to tell about how kids are soft, keep it to yourself. Honestly, I for one don't care, let the schools close.

Now that my rant is done (trust me it really is one of my big pet peeves), on to the recipe! I love roasting vegetables. We eat a ton of roasted veggies in my house, especially in the fall and winter. The following is an easy way to prepare beets (I promise beets are really delicious when prepared correctly).

Roasted Beets

Ingredients

• 1 pound beets, scrubbed

Cooking Directions

1. Wrap beets in foil packets (2-3 beets per packet).
2. Place on a baking sheet and cook at 425 degrees for 50-60 minutes.
3. After beets have cooled rub off skins (they should come off easily, if they don't use a small knife).

The beet greens can also be used and they are a great source of vitamins (and delicious). Just heat a small amount of olive oil in a skillet, add one or two sliced garlic cloves. Let cook over medium heat until garlic browns. Remove garlic and add greens. Cook until the greens are wilted, approximately 3-4 minutes. That's it, so easy! 

Tips: 

• Roasted beets are great by themselves or with a small amount of salt and sour cream. 
• They also make great salad additions. I love adding roasted beets and sunflower seeds to salads, yum! 
• Finally, you can add them to smoothies. It sounds a little strange, but they are a great source of vitamins and don't add a root taste to smoothies, the taste is barely noticeable amongst the other smoothie ingredients. They are great with strawberries, I make beet/strawberry smoothies about once a week to help with my potassium levels. 

Southern Skillet Cornbread

When my husband and I first got married my mother-in-law gifted me a set of cast iron skillets. I had no idea what to do with them. Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest the only cornbread my mother really made came from a box or we ate at restaurants. So not knowing what to do with them, I washed the skillets and let them sit to dry. Never, ever, do that to your cast iron skillets. They rust; really, really, rust. In order to hide the evidence I stuck the skillets in a drawer. Then after a few years had passed I decided to take out my skillets and see if they could be saved. After a lot of seasoning they look awesome now. They never get washed, just wiped out and then wiped again with a bit of oil. Cast iron skillets are great, they never stick if you season them correctly and they last for years. My kids are already fighting about who will inherit mine when the time comes.

The best thing about cast iron skillets is cornbread. You really can't compare cornbread made in a cast iron skillet with cornbread made in a regular pan. The skillet makes a delicious golden brown outside crust that is so good! The following is a recipe for skillet corn bread. This recipe has a small amount of sugar, my husband prefers no sugar whatsoever in his cornbread, but my kids like a small amount so this is the compromise. If you want true southern cornbread leave out the sugar.

Adapted from here.

Classic Southern Skillet Cornbread

Ingredients

• 2 cups yellow cornmeal
• 3/4 cup all-purpose or bread flour
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs, beaten

Cooking Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Place 1-2 tablespoons of oil (or bacon fat) in a 10 inch cast iron skillet and place on the center rack of the oven.
3. Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
4. Mix until well blended.
5. In another bowl combine the oil, buttermilk, and eggs.
6. Make a well in the middle of the bowl with the dry ingredients and add the bowl with the wet ingredients.
7. Do not overmix or your cornbread won't taste as good.
8. Remove the preheated skillet from the oven and turn the skillet in order for the sides of the skillet to be coated in oil.
9. Pour batter into skillet and bake for 15-20 minutes.
10. Let sit for 5 minutes and then run a knife around the edge to pop the cornbread out of the skillet.
11. Serve with butter, honey, or sorghum.

Tips: 

• If you don't have a cast iron skillet this recipe can also be made in a 9 inch pyrex or metal pan. Don't pre-heat the pan. 
• I do not recommend changing the oil to anything other than canola. Olive oil and coconut oil do not work for cornbread. Trust me I tried once just to see and it was pretty much horrible. Bacon grease works great, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one with a giant cup of bacon grease in my fridge (my husband insists on bacon grease to oil the cast iron skillet). 
• You can add jalapeños and cheddar cheese for a variation on this recipe. I have done it many times and it's great to go with chili! 

How to season your cast iron skillet: 

• To season your cast iron skillet. scrub with soapy water. Then scour with coarse salt. This will get any of the dried food bits and dullness off. Rinse and dry well, do not let the skillet air dry this will lead to rust. Rub the skillet with vegetable oil using a paper towel. Place skillet upside down in a  350 degree oven and bake for one hour. Let skillet cool in oven. 
• Once your skillet is seasoned it just need to be wiped out and then oiled after every use. You only need to re-season your skillet if it rusts or the surface looks dull or starts to stick. I haven't had to season my skillet in years, I just wipe it out, rub with oil and then store. 

Irish Soda Bread Muffins

My mother kept a ton of papers, including a large amount of my school work. She had stacks and stacks of drawings, report cards, and work sheets. I am the opposite. I keep my kids report cards and a few great pieces of art work, but everything else goes in the trash. Don't worry I do look over every paper that my kids bring home, I just don't keep them. I'm a neat freak and the idea of stacks and stacks of papers makes me want to clean. I have a filing cabinet which holds all my papers, all nicely organized. It doesn't hold all my kids papers. Honestly, they bring home 10 papers each a day and I just don't have the room for all of them. Also I never looked over all the papers my mother kept. I'm just not sentimental about papers from my childhood. My kids are the same way, once I've seen the papers and art work they're happy and into the trash they go. I'm hoping I'm not the only one that doesn't keep a ton of school papers, I just don't see the point.

Irish soda bread is very popular in my house. My husband absolutely loves it and will only eat it the traditional way with no added raisins or sugar. My kids love it anyway I make it, traditional or not. The following is a recipe for Irish Soda Bread Muffins that are baked in a muffin tin, making for an easy dinner side.  This recipe is non-traditional since it contains sugar, but still yummy.

Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes.

Irish Soda Bread Muffins

Ingredients

• 3 cups bread (or all-purpose) flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup sugar

Cooking Directions

1. Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl.
2. Using a knife cut the butter into small pieces and add to the bowl.
3. With either your hands or a fork press the butter into the flour mixture until it makes a coarse meal.
4. Make a hole in the center of the flour mixture and add buttermilk.
5. Stir using a wooden or plastic spoon until a dough forms.
6. Add more buttermilk if necessary.
7. Do not overmix the dough, it will make for tough muffins.
8. Grease a muffin tin.
9. Add dough to twelve muffins cups.
10. Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.
11. Let cool on a wire rack.

Tips: 

• You can add 1/2 cup raisins and/or 2 teaspoons of caraway seeds. My husband prefers the caraway seeds and no sugar, so experiment until you find a combination you like. 
• If you don't have buttermilk you can make your own by adding 1 tablespoon of white distilled vinegar to 1 cup 3 tablespoons milk. 

Cheddar Pepper Drop Biscuits Made with Homemade Baking Mix

Today was a day off from school for my kids. My kids were hyper from the time they got up and got worse as the day wore on. I would love to say that my nerves aren't fried this evening, but they are. I never realized when I was young just how loud and destructive two boys could be. Honestly, I never really though I would have two boys. Don't get me wrong I love my two boys, but I was totally unprepared for being the mom of only boys. In my mind I always thought I would have a boy and a girl. When my second son got old enough to move around I quickly realized being the mom of multiple boys and only boys is a feat. They are loud and very physical. Boys don't sit down and read, or daydream. They do fight, and throw rocks to see if they can break, try to kill bugs, get dirty, really, really, dirty, and generally don't sit still. It's even funner when one of your kids has ADHD and so does your husband. There are days where my house might actually resembles a madhouse. Tonight I'm just glad that tomorrow is a school day. I love my kids, but one day off was enough for my sanity. I'm also thinking that my kids will be spending a lot of time at camp this summer, as much for me as for them.

The last month I have posted a couple of times about the Homemade Baking Mix that I have been using. It's really great and tonight I'm going to share a third recipe that utilizes the mix. This recipe is for Cheddar Pepper Drop Biscuits and is great recipe as a side with meals.

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living Magazine.

Cheddar Pepper Drop Biscuits Made with Homemade Baking Mix

Ingredients

• 3 cups Homemade Baking Mix
• 4 ounces extra-sharp cheddar, grated
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Cooking Directions

1. Combine baking mix, cheese, and pepper in a bowl.
2. Add milk and cream to mixture until a wet dough forms.
3. On a parchment lined baking sheet drop dough into 8 biscuits.
4. Add grated cheddar cheese to the tops of each biscuit.
5. Bake biscuits in a preheated 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.
6. Serve warm or reheat when ready to eat.

Tips: 

• Since everyone has slightly different measuring cups the amount of heavy cream can vary. The original recipe used 1/3 cup. I found that that wasn't nearly enough. I have made this recipe a number of times and the total amount of cream needed has ranged from 1/3 cup to over 1/2 cup. Basically add cream until the dough forms and is moist. Additionally, if you want to save on fat you can add 1/3 cup cream and then slowly add additional whole milk until the dough is the right consistency. 
• I have used low fat cheese with this recipe and it worked fine. I accidentally bought low fat cheese and was worried that it wouldn't melt etc, but it was a fine substitute. 
• Make sure to store your homemade baking mix in the fridge, it will go bad since it has butter in it. 

Perfect Homemade Hamburger Buns

While I love fall, I have a strong dislike of holiday decorating. The worst part is that I have a closet full of decorations that I put up every year like clock work when my oldest was little. Then I had my second son and things got a little less fun. Now I am lucky if I get the table top tree up for Christmas. I always make big holiday meals and my table looks great, but decorations annoy me. I think they look great in other people's houses. In mine they spell dust, sifting through closets, and generally too much effort. I don't mind the putting up as much as the taking down. One of the funniest memories I have growing up was my dad wrapping yards and yards of christmas lights around a wrapping paper tube to put away. After the 10th one he just threw the rest away and decided to get new ones the year. My mom got mad and decided that we wouldn't decorate the next year. Instead of being upset, my dad and I remember it as the best Christmas ever since we were always the ones that had to do all the decorating and putting away. Luckily my kids are happy with lots of food and just one decorated table top tree. I am happy that it literally takes seconds to put everything away after the holidays. So at Halloween my house won't be the one with the decorated pumpkins, ghosts, and witches. It will still be full of laughter, fun, and food just with a little less decorating than the other houses.

I try to make everything I can from scratch, including almost all breads and baked goods. For years I tried to find the perfect hamburger bun recipe with mixed results. I found one that was quick, but the shape and texture just weren't perfect. Then about a year ago I tried a new recipe and loved it. It was perfect and I have been using it ever since. Here is the recipe, it makes the perfect buns!

Adapted from the Food Network.

Fluffy Homemade Dinner Rolls

Perfect Hamburger Buns

Recipe Type: Side

Preparation Time: 4h, 30m

Cooking Time: 0h, 40m

Ingredients

• 1 cup warmed milk
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 large egg, room temp
• 1 large egg yolk, room temp
• 5-5 1/2 cups bread flour

Cooking Directions

1. Heat the milk and 3 tablespoons butter on the stove, just until the butter melts.
2. Pour the mixture into a bowl and add the 1/2 cup warm water and the remaining 3 tablespoons butter.
3. Add the salt, sugar, egg, and egg yolk.
4. Stir to combine.
5. Dissolve the yeast in the 1/4 cup warm water.
6. Wait until it foams (about 5 minutes) and then add to the bowl.
7. Add flour until the dough comes together.
8. You may not need the full 5 cups.
9. Turn dough onto the counter and knead for 5-8 minutes.
10. Adding more flour (or warm water) as needed (you want a soft, but not sticky dough).
11. Place dough into an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 2 hours (or until double in size).
12. Punch down dough, re-cover bowl and allow dough to rise for another hour.
13. Punch dough down once more.
14. Make dough into 10 pieces.
15. Roll each piece of dough into a smooth ball.
16. Cut each ball through the center (like you would if you were cutting a bun to place a hamburger within) into two pieces.
17. Place the two pieces back together (the same way they were before you cut them) and pinch the seam close.
18. Tuck the pinched seam under the ball.
19. Place the finished bun on a parchment lined baking sheet and slightly flatten the bottom.
20. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
21. You should end up with 10-12 total buns.
22. Cover and allow the buns to rise for 30 minutes.
23. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.
24. After rising brush the tops of each bun with melted butter.
25. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
26. Brush the buns once more with butter.

Tips: 

• This recipe may seem daunting at first with all the steps, but it really isn't. Once you have made it once it is very easy and it takes me less than a 1/2 hour of actual work. 
• If you have a bread maker the steps up until the second rise work great in a bread maker. I normally use my bread maker on the dough cycle to prep bread, it's so much easier. 
• If you have instant or bread maker yeast, you can skip the step of proofing the yeast in water. I just combine my yeast with the flour and then add it to the wet ingredients. I only proof my yeast about once a month to make sure it's still active. 
• These also make great sandwich buns, so don't just limit yourself to burgers! 

Fluffy Homemade Dinner Rolls

I am becoming more sensitive as I age. For the most part I can let things go and other people's actions or words don't bother me. However, when they do bother me they tend to bother me more than they did in my 20's. I think part of it has to do with the fact that as I've gotten older there are more things to worry about, my kids, my husband, my father. When someone then does something that is mean or hurtful I have no more room to want to deal with the aftermath. So I tend to cut ties. I let friendships last through bad patches a lot more 15 years ago. Now honestly if someone is hurtful more than a few times, I let the friendship naturally end. I allow myself to be the number one priority in the relationship. My sense of worth is high enough in my middle 30's to know that the people that care the most are not the ones that are hurtful. I also understand that as a society the birth of the internet and a connected world has made us all more jaded and oblivious to some of the behaviors that we all exhibit. I have to watch myself from saying things that I would have thought hurtful before we started sitting behind computers instead of face to face. At the end of the day I try to surround myself with people that make me feel better just by being in their presence. In my 30's that circle has gotten smaller than it was in my 20's, but the bonds are much stronger and I cherish the relationships I have forged.

I have been offline for a while. My youngest started kindergarten this year and has managed to bring home every sickness known to man, including a nasty case of hand, foot, and mouth (yuck). So I have been cooking and baking, but not taking many pictures due to time. No pictures means a lack of blog posts, but I will eventually get back into the grove (hopefully before my kids leave for college). There is one recipe in my house that came from my mother-in-law that makes the rotation in my kitchen at least once a month and at every holiday gathering. It's delicious and works perfectly every time. So without further babbling here is my mother-in-law's recipe for Fluffy Homemade Rolls.

Fluffy Homemade Dinner Rolls

Fluffy Homemade Dinner Rolls

Recipe Type: Side

Preparation Time: 2h, 20m

Cooking Time: 0h, 40m

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 tsp yeast
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 6-7 cups all-purpose or bread flour
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 1/2 cups warm water
• 6-7 cups water

Cooking Directions

1. Measure sugar, salt, oil, and water in a bowl.
2. Add yeast and 2 cups flour and beat.
3. Knead in additional flour to make a soft elastic dough and continue kneading for 5-8 minutes.
4. Place dough in an oiled bowl and let rise until double in size (about 1 hour).
5. Punch dough down.
6. Divide dough into 20 rolls.
7. Make rolls by rolling each piece into a round ball and tucking the ends under the bottom.
8. Place rolls into one greased 13x9 inch pan and one 8x8 (the 8x8 is normally only half full of rolls).
9. Instead of rolling the second pan into rolls the dough also works well for cinnamon rolls or sweet buns.
10. Let rolls rise until doubled (about 1 hour).
11. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes.

Tips: 

• This recipe also work wells when done on the dough cycle in the bread machine. Then you just have to shape the rolls and do the second rise. 
• I have tried these rolls with half white whole wheat and half bread flour and they worked well. You could try increasing the amount of white whole wheat even more, but you would also need to increase the amount of yeast. 
• I am determined sometime in the next year to make pepperoni rolls with this recipe. I think they would be delicious, so stay tuned eventually I will get around to it! 

Fluffy Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

I seem to have an unstable neighbor. She was somewhat normal until she had her kid, now it's a 180 degree turn. Yesterday she felt the need to throw eggs at our 12 year old dog with arthritis. I heard our dog whimpering and found eggs in our backyard. Needless to say I wasn't happy. She has also forgotten to pick up her kid at the bus stop multiple times forcing me to walk him home so he doesn't get hit by a car. I feel bad for her since I think she might have post partum depression that isn't treated. However, I also am beginning to lose my patience with the entire situation. At the bus stop in the morning she allows her kid to stand in the street and push my children, while I calmly try to explain to my own kids that there is a difference between raising your kids to survive to adulthood and raising your kids to be successful members of society. I miss the 80's when I was growing up. If I acted up at the bus stop my mother would have gotten phone calls from all our neighbors and I would have been grounded or had my tv privileges taken away by the time I got home. Apparently modern parenting isn't something that I do so well with.

One thing that I have learned to do well is to make biscuits. Growing up my mother never made biscuits, we ate them at restaurants, but even those were few and far between. When I moved to WV it was a whole different story. There is a whole breakfast chain that just serves biscuits (and a few other items). Over the years I have learned that there is a right and wrong way to treat your biscuit dough. The following is a recipe for Fluffy Southern Buttermilk Biscuits.

Fluffy Southern Buttermilk Biscuits

Fluffy Buttermilk Southern Biscuits

Recipe Type: Side

Preparation Time: 0h, 15m

Cooking Time: 0h, 12m

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup buttermilk

Cooking Directions

1. Combine first 4 ingredients.
2. Cutting the butter into small pieces add it to the flour mixture.
3. I use a small knife and cut off chunks above the bowl and then add the chunks using either a fork or your hands.
4. Add buttermilk to the mixture and stir just until the dough comes together, any longer and it will be tough.
5. Pat the dough into a circle approximately a 1/2 inch thick.
6. Using a 2 inch biscuits cutter cut out the biscuits.
7. Make sure not to twist the cutter in order to get the biscuits out, it will lead to tough biscuits.
8. Place the biscuits a couple of inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet.
9. Bake for 10-12 minutes in a preheated 450 degree oven.

Cabbage, White Bean, and Potato Soup

Cabbage, White Bean, and Potato Soup

Somehow my two kids just ate six bananas. I don't even understand how it's possible for two boys to eat six bananas in ten minutes. When I went to the grocery store today I bought myself a bunch of fruit for smoothies. Apparently that was not a great idea. I bought two big banana bunches and my kids have already eaten an entire bunch. Now I get to go back to the store tomorrow to buy more. They also ate the entire can of smoked almonds I bought myself for snacks. My husband and I joke that we need to get our own cupboard and put a lock on it, I'm beginning to think it's not such a bad idea. I dread the thought of having two teenage boys, I think I throw in the towel already.

With it being the middle of winter I have been making a lot of soups and stews. I love having a hot meal when the weather is cold outside. Last week I tried a new recipe for Cabbage, White Bean, and Potato Soup from the January 2014 issue of Southern Living magazine.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 10 cups. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First, I used small red potatoes cut into fourths instead of fingerling potatoes. Fingerling potatoes were overpriced at my local grocery store and would have cost 2 1/2 times as much as the red potatoes I bought. For the chicken broth, I used homemade. I have discussed many times about the benefits of homemade stock, it's cheaper, tastes better, and you can control the amount of sodium. I chose not to add Parmesan cheese as a topping for my serving, but my husband and two boys did.

If you are serving this soup for dinner it needs a sandwich served with it in order to be filling. Alone it doesn't have enough protein or fat to be filling for most adults. It would be great with grilled cheese or a grilled (or not) turkey sandwich. The flavors are great and with a sandwich it would be a quick evening meal.

For the recipe go to Cabbage, White Bean, and Potato Soup.

Leftover Herb Pesto

Leftover Herb Pesto

It seems to be bug season in my back yard. I made the mistake of going out to trim my tomatoes this evening. Very bad idea. I literally came in and had to take a benadryl since I had so many bites. Cicadas are the other fun visitor my yard now has. They arrived a couple of weeks back. In previous years they have arrived earlier, but this year they didn't arrive until August. Growing up in Seattle I had no idea what a cicada was when I moved here. The first night I tried to fall asleep in my new apartment I was driven crazy by a deafening noise. I had a giant tree outside my window and between the train that went through at 2 am and the cicadas I decided I would never sleep again. Over the years I have gotten used to their deafening noise, but they still aren't my favorite summer sound. Apparently we aren't even supposed to have cicadas this year, wrong. They are in my front yard and they are huge. Plus I don't trust any insect that is part of a horde. It just sounds wrong. So I am avoiding my yard for a couple of days until the bugs leave me alone. Yesterday I had to venture into my yard to cut back my herb garden. It has gone crazy in the last week and I am swimming in basil, so time to make pesto. I tried a new recipe for Leftover-Herb Pesto from Martha Stewart Living.

Virginia Point Park, Kenova, WV

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 5 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 3/4 cup of pesto. For the pesto I used basil and tarragon from my garden, pine nuts for the nuts and an extra clove of garlic. I prefer my pesto to have a pretty strong garlic taste. I also added part of the cheese to the food processor and then added the other half to the finished pesto. I prefer the texture with this method. Plus the flavor of the cheese come through better.

View From Virginia Point Park, Kenova, WV

I love making quick and easy recipes. Pesto is a great way to use herbs that you have leftover in your fridge or garden and the taste can be easily adapted based on what ingredients you have on hand. In addition to serving with pasta, this recipe would be great with chicken or fish. I love using pesto with grilled salmon, it's wonderful.

For the recipe go to (video form) Leftover Herb Pesto.

Leftover Herb Pesto

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

A very simple 7 ingredient pesto recipe. Can be made with any leftover green vegetable in your fridge and a variety of nuts.

Preparation Time: 0h, 5m

Total Time: 0h, 5m

Yield: 3/4 cup

Is Your Herb Garden Overflowing? Try Homemade Tarragon Vinegar

Homemade Tarragon Vinegar

I have been recruited into making dinner for the 4th of July. Normally I plan far ahead, this year is a little different. The 4th of July is my mother-in-laws birthday and I honestly forgot that it was already July this week. This summer seems to be flying by. So I spent yesterday afternoon brainstorming and finding recipes. My husband spent his time going to the store to find supplies to fix the rust on his big charcoal grill. Hopefully I don't end up having to finish his project, he has a habit of starting projects and then I end up finishing them. That's why I have a fall back plan of making ribs in the slow cooker, so even if the grill doesn't work out we still will have a delicious meal. My kids are more excited about the baked beans and macaroni and cheese for sides. They are big fans of southern comfort foods. In preparation for all the cooking I am doing this week I spent last week doing a little prep work. In preparation for making potatoes and potato salad I made homemade Tarragon Vinegar from Taste of Home.

This recipe has two ingredients. It takes 10 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 32 servings. I made this recipe exactly as written. The only difference I did was to use an old wine bottle for the vinegar. I let the bottle sterilize in a water bath for 10 minutes and then made the vinegar. In order for the vinegar to pour easily I topped the wine bottle with a vinegar spout.

 I love having homemade vinegars on hand. They are great for adding flavor to potato salad, roasted veggies or any recipe calling for savory vinegar. This recipe with only two ingredients is beyond easy. The flavor turned out great and will make delicious potato salad later in the week.

For the recipe go to Tarragon Vinegar.

Don't Know What to Do with Fresh Sage? Try Savory Feta and Sage Muffins

Gluten Free Feta Sage Muffins

I have started to hate eating at restaurants. When I was younger I ate at restaurants, once or twice a week. Now I eat out maybe once a month. A large part of it has to do with my expectations on food. In my 20's I was happy with any food that I didn't have to cook myself. Now that I am in my mid-thirties my expectations are much higher. If I am going to spend 10 dollars on a burger, it better surpass any burger I can make at home. There lies the problem. It rarely is as good as I can make at home. Now my expectations might be higher than most people. I cook daily and can adequately cook most recipes and dishes. There are also some things that I like more at restaurants that cooked at home, french fries is the best example. They always taste better at my favorite fast food restaurant. Baked goods can be split down the middle, there are some baked goods that taste perfect at a bakery such as donuts, but for the most part I prefer to make them at home. Muffins are an example of a baked good that I think tastes better homemade. Last week I tried a new recipe for Feta Sage Muffins.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, 10 minutes of which is active and makes 12 muffins. I made a significant amount of changes to the original recipe. First since I eat gluten free I substituted gluten free all-purpose flour for the whole wheat pastry flour. Since I cook gluten free there needs to be eggs or something equivalent to rise the muffins or they will end up very flat. Therefore I added one large egg to the recipe. Finally, I was out of muffin liners so I used ramekins instead. I ended up with a total of 7 ramekins.

I served these muffins as a side to a bean recipe. They were perfect and created a nice savory side dish. The combination of the feta and sage was perfect. These would make a nice compliment to a pork or chicken recipe or a bean soup. Converting the recipe to being gluten free worked perfectly and serving them in ramekins made them the perfect size to serve as mini breads to go with the beans.

For the recipe go to Feta and Sage Muffins.

Looking for a Great Homemade Gift Idea? Try Blackberry Sage Vinegar

Blackberry Sage Vinegar

I grew up in a family that made everything from scratch. My mom was the oldest of 12 kids and my grandfather, great grandfather and aunt were all artists. I thought it was perfectly normal to make candles and soap by hand and when we celebrated the holidays at my aunt and uncles we made pottery and all sat around watching the raku firing. I think my love of making as many foods from scratch comes from this upbringing. We grew up with very little money, but I never really knew. I knew that my mother was a beautiful seamstress and for one of my birthday parties we went to the beach and made sand candles. My friends talked about the candles that they made for years to come. The idea of not spending money on things that you can make or re-purpose is something that I have passed on to my kids. My kids can't wait until their tomatoes are ready to eat and helped me to plant all my flower and vegetable posts. As many of you know I grow my own herbs. My new herb garden is doing great, so much so that I was swimming in sage last week. I decided the best thing to do with the abundance was to make Blackberry Sage Vinegar.

This recipe has three ingredients. It takes 2-3 days total (including time for the berries to soak into the vinegar) and makes one quart sized jar. I followed the recipe almost exactly as written. I did make two jars so I used a total of 14 sage leaves and two containers of blackberries. I filled the blackberries full in the canning jars since I wanted lots of flavor. Make sure to sterilize your jars before making the vinegar. Vinegar shouldn't grow bacteria, but I try to be as safe as a I can with any food prep. I let my jars boil for ten minutes to ensure that they were fully sterilized. After the vinegar was complete I made a funnel out of parchment paper and poured the strained vinegar into a cleaned and sterilized wine bottle.

I love how pretty this vinegar looks in the bottle once completed. Making homemade flavored vinegar is a great way to use garden herbs and makes a beautiful gift as well. I also made a batch of tarragon vinegar that I will post about later this week. Herbs can be used in a variety of ways and this recipe is a great one!

For the recipe go to Blackberry Sage Vinegar.

Absolutely Swimming in Homegrown Cherry Tomatoes? Try a Marinated Cherry Tomato Salad

Marinated Cherry Tomato Salad

Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream. My two-year-old has been chanting this phrase most of the day. It's definitely ice cream season in my household. Every member of my household has their favorite flavors: my kids love anything with chocolate, I prefer frozen yogurt, and my husband always loves weird mix-ins like potato chips. We can all agree that no matter how it's made ice cream spells summer. During the colder months ice cream rarely makes an appearance in my house. It can get very cold here in the middle of winter and when I'm freezing the last thing that I want is something to make me even colder. In the summer it's a different story. I roast in the humidity and ice cream is a great way to cool off. Another of my favorite summer foods is tomatoes. This year I am growing my own, they are growing like crazy and by next week they should be ready to pick. In the meantime I have been relying on store bought tomatoes. Last week I tried a new recipe for Marinated Cherry Tomato Salad from allrecipes.com.

This recipe has 8 ingredients. It takes 2 hours 10 minutes, 10 minutes of which is active and makes 6 to 8 servings. I did make a few modifications. First I only had two cups of cherry tomatoes, so I cut the recipe in half. Second, I substituted olive oil for vegetable oil. I prefer cooking with olive oil when possible. Finally, I allowed the salad to sit 4 hours to ensure that the tomatoes fully absorbed the flavors.

My oldest son thought these tomatoes were spicy. The vinegar taste is definitely adult orientated. As an adult I really like the taste of the apple cider vinegar. It blended very nicely with the tomatoes and the recipe made a nice light side for the pasta dish that we ate it with. Overall, a great way to use summer tomatoes.

For the recipe go to Marinated Cherry Tomato Salad.

Recipe for Sweet and Hot Baked Beans

Sweet and Hot Baked Beans

My family loves beans. Three times a day my husband eats some type of beans as part of his meals. He is great about eating an array of beans every week and has lost over 30 pounds due to his good eating habits. My son and I try to eat beans at lunch every day, he loves black beans with feta and could eat them every day if given the chance. Since we live in West Virginia we also eat a ton of pinto beans, we love them. Given that beans are such a large part of our weekly diet I try to come up with new recipes and bean dishes so we don't get bored. Last week I tried a new recipe from the April/May 2013 issue of Taste of Home magazine for Sweet and Hot Baked Beans.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 5 hours and 20 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 12 servings. I didn't make too many changes to the original recipe. For the beans I used cannellini beans since they were the type available. I allowed the beans to cook for 6 hours on low and used sweet onions for the onions called for in the recipe.

These beans turned out really well. They were a nice combination of sweet and spicy and made enough for three separate meals for my family of 4. My husband and I enjoyed the recipe the most since the spice from the jalapenos was a little more geared towards adults. However, my youngest decided to eat the beans over rice the next day and loved them. The only complaint I heard in my house was that my husband would have preferred if the onions were sauteed and caramelized before being added to the crock-pot.

For the recipe go to Sweet and Hot Baked Beans.

Recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Mushrooms

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Mushrooms with Ramps

My two boys love Brussels sprouts. At the grocery store this morning my oldest spotted Brussels sprouts on sale and got very excited. He then commenced to beg me to buy some for dinner. Of course I said yes, who doesn't love a child that begs for vegetables. Growing up my mother only knew how to make Brussels sprouts one way, boiled. While my mother was lucky in that I loved
Brussels sprouts regardless, all my friends hated the vegetable. After getting married I tried a recipe for roasted Brussels sprouts and my husband and I fell in love with the cooking method. Now I make roasted Brussels sprouts a lot in the spring and my whole family loves them. Tonight I made roasted Brussels sprouts and mushrooms, here is the recipe.

• 1 pound Brussels sprouts, ends cut off and cut in half lengthwise
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2-3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 8 oz button mushrooms (or the mushroom of your choice)
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• If desired you can squeeze fresh lemon juice over the roasted veggies before serving

 Toss all ingredients together in a bowl. I added 3 diced young ramps for flavor, shallots would also work (however, this isn't a necessary step). Place on a baking sheet and roast in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 20-30 minutes. Toss the vegetables every 10 minutes to prevent burning. If you want a bit of extra flavor you can add cooked crumbled bacon over the vegetables before serving.

That's it. Roasting vegetables is a great way to get kids to eat vegetables and my whole family loves it. It also works well with asparagus or green beans.

Spicy Maple Baked Beans

Today was my annual after Christmas cleaning day. After the gifts are all unwrapped comes the fun part, finding room for everything. So I spent the day cleaning, organizing and moving new toys etc. into their proper places. Luckily I had already spent the Sunday before Christmas taking an entire carload of items to donate, so I had made lots of room for new toys. I have always been adamant with my kids that in order for them to receive new gifts they have to donate some of the toys that they don't play with anymore. That way my house stays organized and they understand that donating toys to those in need is a good thing. The one task that I don't enjoy is all the laundry and dishes from guests and cooking. I don't have a dishwasher so everything has to be washed by hand. On a normal day it isn't a big deal, but on the holidays it can be a little overwhelming. Luckily I am on the last load of laundry and then I plan on allowing myself to relax and read a book this evening. I have definitely earned it. Last week I made a number of dishes to freeze for meals this week so I could cut down on my after Christmas cooking. One of the new recipes that I tried was for Spicy Maple Baked Beans from the January issue of Food and Wine magazine.

This recipe has 19 ingredients. According to the recipe is takes 3 hours and 30 minutes, 45 minutes of which is active and makes 8 to 10 servings. First things first I do not understand how this recipe states that it takes 3 and a half hours. If you follow the directions it should take no more than approximately an hour and 45 minutes. Maybe they are taking an additional almost two hours to slice the hot dogs, or I am completely missing something. I did have to make a few modifications. I have never been able to find canned navy beans in my area. So instead I used plain white beans, which while slightly different worked just fine. Since I eat gluten free I made sure that the Worcestershire sauce that I bought didn't include wheat. Additionally I used gluten free beer, since regular beer has gluten.  I used a dutch oven to cook the beans which worked very well, especially keeping the lid half open. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

These beans were very popular in my household. My husband thought that they were the best baked beans that he had eaten in a long time and ate multiple bowls. Since the dish had hot dogs, my two boys were quite excited and ate a number of leftovers the next day. The best part was that since it made 10 servings I had enough for a meal last week plus leftovers for an entire other meal after Christmas.

For the recipe go to Spicy Maple Baked Beans.

Stewed Beans

As I have talked about before we eat a lot of beans in our house. I love that beans can be used in so many different ways and that they are a great source of protein. It doesn't hurt that they are also inexpensive and make for numerous leftovers. When I first met my husband he had really only eaten pinto and black beans. Pinto beans are very popular in West Virginia and almost any home cook has a recipe. Having grown-up in Seattle I had never really made anything other than chickpeas and kidney beans in vegetarian chili. Luckily after we got married I learned that there are a vast array of beans that can be used in so many different recipes. One of my favorite ways to prepare beans is stewed, it is easy and delicious. Last week I tried a new recipe for Stewed Beans from issue Number 152 of Saveur magazine, which looked like a great vegetarian meal option.

This recipe has 17 ingredients. It takes 2 hours of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 10-12 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. I did adjust some of the cooking times on the recipe. I cooked the onion mixture for a full twenty minutes to ensure that the onions fully caramelized before adding the spices. Additionally, my total cooking time was 1/2 hour longer than suggested. I tasted the beans as the recipe was written and I felt that the chickpeas needed a longer cooking time so I put them back on the stove for an additional 30 minutes. Finally, this recipe will need a lot of salt added once it is completed. The flavor is delicious, but it definitely needs salt to bring out the flavors fully. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

While this recipe takes a bit of planning and cooking time the results were worth the time spent. The beans were very flavorful and my whole family, including my two boys enjoyed them. My husband added hot sauce to his serving and it really did make the beans taste even better. I would suggest this addition if you like spicier foods as it really did bring out the taste of the beans. Overall a great vegan recipe full of protein and makes enough for multiple meals. 

For the recipe go to Stewed Beans.

Thanksgiving Recipes - Crustless Pumpkin Pie, Gluten Free Cushaw Pie and Individual Mashed Sweet Potato Casseroles

I love cooking for the holidays. Growing-up our house was always busy during the holidays with my mother cooking, cleaning and hosting. I never really understood how big my mother's family was until I went to other people's houses. My mother was the oldest of 12 kids and I have so many cousins that I would have to sit down and count it out to figure out the exact number. Needless to say, our house was always busy and even though I was technically an only child that was more in theory that actual practice. Every weekend there was either family at our house or we were visiting someone. Growing-up this led to a lot of jealousy on my part. I never really understood why I had to share my mother with so many other people. Now that my mother is gone and I have gotten a lot older I realize that some of my best memories involved growing-up in the constant chaos of a very large extended family. There was never a question of what to do, just who to do it with. You were never alone, which now that I have a family of my own and live far away from home I miss more than I would ever think possible growing-up. Baking and cooking is one way that I keep the spirit of my mother alive and well with my own family and this Thanksgiving I tried new recipes, mixed in with recipes I make every year. Here is a break-down of how Thanksgiving at my house looked.

I hate turkey. I know that sounds horrible, but I think I may be one of the few Americans alive that hates turkey. I have tried to grow to love the poultry over the years, but I just can't do it. It's doesn't help that the leftovers last for days and I have never been a fan of turkey pot pie (I know I seem to not like any quintessiantal American food). So this year I decided to go outside the box. I made individual cornish game hens and my kids absolutely loved them! Here is a pic of the finished product:


The game hens went over very well and my youngest child ate a whole game hen all by himself. Plus the leftovers made for two great pots of homemade stock the next day.

For side dishes I made garlic buttermilk mashed potatoes, seen here:


And Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Apples (link to recipe in text).


And last minute I had extra sweet potato puree so I made individual sweet potato casseroles:


I modified a recipe found here. I added extra marshmallows since my kids love them and slightly reduced the amount of orange juice to approximately 1 tablespoon.

For dessert I made two pies the day before Thanksgiving. I was kind enough to be given over 20 pounds of sweet potatoes and cushaw squash from a friend of my husbands. Thanks to this generosity I was able to make two pies and a side dish without spending any money, which I love! For the first pie I made crust-less pumpkin pie. I can no longer eat gluten so this was an easy way to make the pie gluten free. I followed this recipe and here is the photo:


I did let the pie cook longer than the suggestion, I would say closer to an hour. Part of the longer cooking time was due to the fact that I made one deep dish pie and a series of mini pies in small souffle pans.

The second pie I made was a gluten free cushaw pie. I combined two recipes to make this pie. The first recipe was for a gluten free pie crust. Here is the link. Be very careful when working with this crust. It takes time in the freezer to fully set, do not try to over knead it or it will be tough. Additionally, make sure to follow the directions where the crust is set between two pieces of parchment this is an important step and the only way that you will be able to move your crust from the counter to the pan. For the actual pie filling I followed this recipe.

That was my Thanksgiving. I was happy that all my recipes and dishes turned out delicious and I was surrounded by my family. I hope all my readers had a great Thanksgiving!