Baked Beans with Swiss Chard

 This is a delicious (if not somewhat unphotogenic) recipe found in the most recent issue of The Food Network's magazine.

This isn't your typical sweet and bacon-y baked bean recipe (although I do love that kind). This lets more of the bean flavor come through, and adds some swiss chard for a little extra nutrition.

We found it pretty yummy. I was making shredded pork the same night so used that instead of the lean turkey or ham called for in the recipe.


Here's how to make it....

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• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 1 small stalk celery, finely chopped
• 1 small carrot, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 small bunch Swiss chard or mustard greens, stems removed, leaves chopped
• 1/2 cup diced smoked turkey or lean ham (about 2 ounces)
• 1 15-ounce can whole tomatoes, crushed by hand
• 2 15-ounce cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 15-ounce can navy beans, undrained
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, carrot, garlic and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft and golden, about 7 minutes.

Add the chard, turkey and 1/4 cup water to the skillet; cook, stirring, until the chard wilts slightly, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juice, increase the heat to medium high and simmer until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Add the pinto beans, then add the navy beans and their liquid. Add the parsley, thyme and oregano and return to a simmer.

Coarsely mash about one-quarter of the beans in the skillet with a potato masher or fork to thicken the mixture; season with salt. Transfer to a 2-quart baking dish. Cover and bake 45 minutes, then uncover and bake 10 more minutes.

Champagne Cake with Raspberry Filling

Ever since I've known my husband he has talked about a champagne cake he used to get from a local bakery where he grew up.  All the time, 24/7, that's all he talks about.  After 14 years, I finally took a hint.

This cake was AWE-sum!  I made it for my husband's birthday, and because I was pressed for time, I made the layers a few days ahead, wrapped them tightly and froze them.  It worked out just great!  (thanks Monica :)

I'm not very good at the fancy frosting thing, but I put a thin layer on first, froze it just a tad, then put the rest of the frosting on.  It kept the crumbs from getting all over the place.

This cake was so flavorful, it was light and rich at the same time.  I seriously can't wait for an occasion to make it again.  In fact I'm a little sad right now thinking about it, since it's all gone. 

Here is the recipe I found at a site called Mixing Bowl.  The article is geared towards making it for a wedding cake, but don't worry, the proportions are just right for a two layer cake.

Ingredients:

Champagne Cake
6 eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup softened margarine*
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup good-quality Champagne

Raspberry Filling
3/4 cup frozen raspberries
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon good-quality Champagne
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Water

Champagne Frosting
2/3 cup margarine
6 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons good-quality Champagne
1 to 2 tablespoons water (plus more if needed))

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

Separate eggs, reserving whites and discarding all but one egg yolk. Set egg yolk aside. In a large bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

In a medium bowl stir to combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl beat butter and sugar together with an electric mixer for about 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in the reserved egg yolk and the vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and Champagne to the butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition until just combined. Fold 1/2 of the beaten egg whites into the batter to lighten. Fold the remaining beaten egg whites into the batter. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool on wire racks for 10 minutes. Loosen sides, remove from pans, and cool completely.

To make the Raspberry filling, combine the raspberries, sugar, Champagne, and water in a small saucepan. Stir and heat over medium heat until mixture is bubbling. Strain raspberry mixture through a sieve into a bowl. Discard seeds. Pour strained raspberries back into the saucepan and heat until bubbling. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and just enough to make a slurry. Whisk cornstarch slurry into strained raspberries (add slurry slowly and if raspberries thicken up before all the slurry is gone, discard remaining slurry). Remove from heat and chill completely in refrigerator.

Meanwhile, to make frosting, beat the margarine on high speed with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds. Beat in the powdered sugar until combined. Beat in the Champagne and vanilla. Beat in enough water to make frosting of spreading consistency.

To assemble cake, spread Raspberry Filling in the center of one cake layer (leaving about 1/2 inch border around the edges uncovered). Top with the second cake layer. Frost the tops and sides of the cake with the Champagne Frosting. If desired, use a pastry bag to pipe remaining frosting in decorative designs on the tops and sides.

I decided to use the frosting between the layers along with the raspberry sauce.

Honey Lavender Ice Cream

You know that smell when you go into a health food store or farmer's market (like Sprouts), near the lotions and beauty items aisle?  Kind of a strong, floral smell?  If you really really like that smell and wish you could have it in something to eat, this ice cream is for you.

I had seen recipes around with lavender in them, and wanted to give it a try.  When I bought my little dried lavender flowers and brought them home, after a thorough sniffing I was pretty sure it wasn't something I would enjoy in a foodstuff, but I proceeded anyway.   

This recipe is from Epicurious.   It starts out by making a custard, and really isn't difficult; and the consistency was definitely pleasing....

....this was after freezing overnight.  But it smelled and tasted more like a soap to me.  Maybe I should melt it down for Lavender Milk Bath :)

But if you are someone who enjoys that flavor, I do recommend this recipe.  Here it is for you.  

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup half-and-half

2/3 cup mild honey

2 tablespoons dried edible lavender flowers

2 large eggs

1/8 teaspoon salt

Bring cream, half-and-half, honey, and lavender just to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, then remove pan from heat. Let steep, covered, 30 minutes.

Pour cream mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and discard lavender. Return mixture to cleaned saucepan and heat over moderate heat until hot.

Whisk together eggs and salt in a large bowl, then add 1 cup hot cream mixture in a slow stream, whisking. Pour into remaining hot cream mixture in saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until thick enough to coat back of spoon and registers 170 to 175°F on thermometer, about 5 minutes (do not let boil).

Pour custard through sieve into cleaned bowl and cool completely, stirring occasionally. Chill, covered, until cold, at least 3 hours.

Freeze custard in ice cream maker. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

P.S.  I'll bet this recipe would be just dandy if you substituted some vanilla bean for the lavender. 

Twice Baked Butternut Squash

It's time for the butternuts again...looks like we've got a bountiful harvest for our little backyard.  Martha Stewart's recipe for Twice Baked butternuts looked like a good one to try.

pictures on aluminum foil are just a bad idea

And good it was,  and pretty darned easy too.  I was most surprised that the girl child even like it!  Give it a whirl if you get a chance...here's the recipe for you.

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• 6 butternut squash (about 9 pounds total)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, plus more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon nonfat sour cream
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 6 fresh chives, cut into 1/8-inch pieces
• 3 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs, lightly toasted

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees with the rack in center. Halve squash lengthwise, and remove seeds and fibers. Sprinkle squash halves with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Fill a roasting pan with 1/4 inch water. Place squash in pan. Cover with aluminum foil, and bake until squash is tender when pierced with the tip of a knife, 35 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven, transfer squash to a cool surface, and let cool enough to handle. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees.
2. Use a spoon to scoop baked flesh out of each half into a large bowl, leaving a 1/4-inch border around six of the halves so they will keep their shape. To the bowl, add sour cream, paprika, chives, and remaining teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Mix with a handheld electric mixer or potato masher until smooth and well combined. Season with salt and pepper. Fill six squash halves with mixture (discard remaining six empty halves). Sprinkle tops with toasted breadcrumbs. Bake until golden brown and warm throughout, 20 to 30 minutes. Serve.
   Things I did differently:
   I didn't use 6 butternuts, just one, so just decreased the other ingredients by eye-balling it.
   I nuked the butternut before the second baking to speed things up.  I added just a little butter and used store bought bread crumbs. 
   
   
   As a side note, I recently tried to make Jamie Oliver's recipe for homemade ketchup.  This sort of fell under the category of "what was I thinking?". 
   
   
   
    It started out promising with some lovely homegrown tomatoes and a mix of other lovely veggies (everything Jamie uses is lovely so I felt I needed to follow suit).  
   
   
   When he made this on TV it came together pretty quickly, but in reality there's a lot of "cooking down" time.  Where is my fast forward button when I need it?
   
   
   
   Smelled really great, but in the end, it never thickened up at all, it was more of a "runny tomato sauce".   I ended up using it to flavor some sloppy joes and it was really nice, but way more work that I am interested in investing for such a small result.  Probably yielded just shy of 2 cups.  Oh well, live and learn!

Monster Cookies for Dad

Hope everyone has had a great Father's day, be it showering your husbands or father's with attention, or if you are the dad and were the recipient of much praise and adoration. Or if it was a time of quiet reflection of the dad who's no long with you, hopefully with many happy memories left behind.

I don't talk in depth about the dad of my kids here on the ol' blog very much, other than a casual mention. He's kind of a private person and I'm sure prefers it that way.  (Thank goodness I'm not a well known blogger who scatters pictures of her entire family all over the place...ha!)  But I have to say he's a great dad and a great husband and we are blessed to have him.  Since I was feeling especially thoughtful with it being father's day and all, I wanted to do something extra nice and make some cookies that reminded him of his past.  He had recently got his hands on his grandmother's monster cookie recipe, so I decided to take a stab at making them for him.

No pressure there!  These cookies hold memories that are near and dear to him, and my hope was that even if they weren't just like grandma's, they would at least remind him of her cookies and bring back happy feelings of a simpler time.  

I had the pleasure of meeting his grandmother only once, she has since passed.

  We traveled to Iowa and stayed with her for a few days.  I remember  sitting at her kitchen table and watching in amazement while she made a pie completely from scratch, never once consulting a recipe, and chatting the whole time.  I'm sure that sort of thing was as natural to her as brushing her teeth.  

So how did the cookies turn out?  Were they just like grandma's or was there something lacking?  I'll never know of course, because my husband would be too kind to tell me they weren't up to snuff.  But they are definitely tasty!  I made the entire recipe and boy do they make a lot!

Here's a scan of the copy of Grandma Litwiller's recipe that I followed.

I was surprised after reading through the recipe more closely there was no flour!  I wondered if it was a mistake...but I decided to trust the recipe and go with it.  And I started to improvise and use butter, but then decided if the lady said oleo, I'd better do what she said.  We left out the coconut, and as far as a "bag" of m&m's, I just threw in however many made my skirt fly up.

I had Simon in the kitchen helping me each step of the way. He helped with  the m&m's by stuffing the majority of them into his face. 

okay, maybe I scatter a few pictures here and there, but I'm not well known so it's okay :)

White Beans and Cabbage

I saw this dish as made by Joanne at Eats Well With Others, and new I had to make it mine.  I adore cabbage and don't use it nearly as much as I should.  

I sauteed some brats first to go with this dish, then proceeded to prepare the cabbage in the same pan and liked the flavor it added.  I also added a little of the flipflop Chardonnay toward the end and think that was a great touch too :)

Here's the recipe...hope you'll give it a try if you get a chance.

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2 tbsp olive oil
4 oz potatoes, unpeeled, scrubbed and cut into tiny cubes
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
1 cup dried white beans, soaked and cooked (I used canned)
8 oz finely shredded green cabbage
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1. Pour the olive oil into a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the potatoes and a big pinch of salt.  Toss, cover, and cook until potatoes are cooked through, about 5-8 minutes.  Be sure to scrape the pan and toss the potatoes once or twice so that all sides get browned.

2. Stir in the shallot and the beans.  Let the beans cook in a single layer for a few minutes, until they brown a bit.  Then scrape and toss again.  Cook until the beans are lightly brown and crispy on all sides.

3. Stir in the cabbage and cook for another minute, until the cabbage loses its structure.  Serve dusted with parmesan.

We ended up having a bit of a multi-cultural meal this particular night. 

Along with the cabbage and brats, we had some Mexican Corn Cups I had seen made on the Food Network quite some time ago. (I loved these, I'll put the recipe below for you), and my attempt at fried green tomatoes covered with some homemade salsa.  Not a bad meal!

Mexican Corn Cups:

(from Food Network)

• 4 ears sweet corn, husked and silks removed
• 4 tablespoons mayonnaise or Mexican sour cream
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 6 tablespoons crumbled queso fresco or mild feta cheese
• Ground chili powder for sprinkling
• Salt, for sprinkling
• Lime wedges, for serving, optional

Directions

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the corn and cook until tender, about 5 to 7 minutes. Using tongs, transfer the corn to a platter and allow them to cool slightly. Using a serrated knife, remove the kernels from the corn. Divide the corn between 4 individual cups or small glasses. Put 1 tablespoon mayonnaise (I used sour cream) and 1 tablespoon butter in each glass. Sprinkle with cheese, chili powder, and salt. Serve with the lime wedges, if desired.

Cube Steak Sandwich and Flip Flop Wines

Of course this is really "Marlboro Man's favorite sandwich" from The Pioneer Woman.  But I just felt too silly to call it that.

It really is a butter-laden monstrosity wonderful sandwich that the whole family enjoyed.  I love the "au jus" that goes along with it...sorta like a kicked up french dip.  

Here's PW's recipe.  I'll admit that I didn't use quite as much butter as she did, I just toasted the buns instead of grilling them, and I added a little red wine to the final product and simmered it just a bit.  (If you feel the need for the 15 step tutorial on how to slice an onion you can click here for the recipe on PW's site)

• 1 whole Large (or 2 Small) Onions
• 2 sticks Butter (lots And Lots Of Butter)
• 2 pounds (to 3 Pounds) Cube Steak (tenderized Round Steak That's Been Extra Tenderized)
• Lawry's Seasoned Salt (or Similar Seasoned Salt)
• ½ cups (approximately) Worcestershire Sauce
• Tabasco Sauce, To Taste
• 4 whole French/deli Rolls 

Preparation Instructions

Slice onions and cook in 1/4 stick butter until soft and light brown. Remove and set aside.

Slice cube steak against the grain. Season with Lawry’s.

Heat 2 tablespoons butter over high heat (in same skillet) until melted and beginning to brown. Add meat in single layer. Cook one side until brown, then flip and cook until brown, about a minute on both sides.

Add 1/2 cup (at least) Worcestershire sauce, 5 to 6 shakes Tabasco, and 2 tablespoons butter. Add cooked onions. Stir to combine.

Butter halved French rolls and brown in skillet.

To assemble, lay bottom half of French roll on plate. Place meat mixture, followed by a 

spoonful of juice from the pan. Top with other half of roll.

So, speaking of wine, I was recently given the opportunity to try a variety of wines made by flipflop. 

 You know, I'm not much of a wine expert, but I have to say I really enjoyed the chardonnay....really light and refreshing.  I haven't had a chance to try the other two but am looking forward to it.  Not only are these wines tasty, and quite reasonably priced, they also take part in helping others through an organization called Soles4Souls. Since 2005,  Soles4Souls has distributed over 14 million pairs of new and gently used shoes to people in need.  And for each bottle of flipflop wines sold, Soles4Souls distributes a pair of shoes.  Sounds like a win-win to me!