Recipe Archives - Page 3 of 5 - 10 Cents of Dates

November 21, 2017

Sauerkraut In A Hurry

I have this friend that has an amazing German heritage. Her family speaks German and sometimes when trying to talk “secretly” in front of people they will speak in German. Her grandma forgets that I understand German also, which is why I found out that her grandma lost her teeth on the way to the birthday party. “Ich habe meine Zahne verloren!” She exclaimed upon entering. I tried to stifle my giggle, but tend to have a very expressive face.

I wish I had made this dish when she was coming over, but instead I made it when my brother was here. We also have amazing German heritage, but our celebration of the culture has a lot more to do with sausages and beer than it does language. (That might also be the Wisconsin background. It’s pretty indistinguishable, really.) Regardless, it’s an excuse we didn’t even need to eat brats and sauerkraut.

You are going to have to excuse these terrible pictures. They are from the time where I was still learning how to use the basics of my camera.

The sauerkraut here is not something you do in a hurry, regardless of what the recipe says. To get it to the point where I felt it was done, it took at least a half hour, maybe longer. Maybe their idea of a hurry was different than mine? I mean, they are making Jell-O salads that take all day. These are not things that a working mom can do on a limited schedule.

Ok, so taste. Have you had a French choucroute garnie? Because it’s like that. I’m sure that doesn’t help a lot of you. Here’s what Wikipedia says about it. If you don’t feel like clicking over, it’s sauerkraut, sausages, potatoes, onions, and beer all cooked together for a nice long time and best served with mustard (not the yellow stuff, the good stuff). The long cooking time mellows the bite of the sauerkraut and everything sort of melts into each other. This has amazing similarities to that dish, but much quicker. It’s kind of like sauerkraut for beginners.

When you have time to make this “in a hurry” dish, you may want to put on your leiderhosen, put on some polka, make some spaetzle, and indulge. Even if it wasn’t my brother’s favorite, I thought it was pretty darn good.

November 14, 2017July 10, 2018

Ham Loaf with a Cheese Crust

Picture this. You are cleaning up from your Sunday dinner. Your family has devoured the Skillet Potatoes Au Gratin. They have eaten all of the Cooked Cranberry Salad. Their bellies are now full of Mama’s Apple Pecan Pie. The Bread and Butter Pickles are back in the fridge, but what are you going to do with all that leftover ham?

With everyone already planning for Thanksgiving (and the holiday that comes after that that I don’t want to mention because it’s just too soon), now is a good time to start working on menu planning and leftover planning. So let’s sharpen up our home economist skills and put those leftovers to work for you.

I know, I know. There are ham sandwiches that can be made, both hot and cold. Everyone has been yammering for scalloped potatoes. (Not at my house, but my mom did make some especially for a classmate of mine once in high school. She is amazing about things like that). The bone can be used for bean soup or thrown into greens or made into red beans and rice (my kids’ favorite option). At some point, however, you always end up with these little pieces that no one wants to eat because they are the wrong shape or size, they are too thick or thin. They languish there in your fridge and cry out to you when you open the door. You know that you should do something with them, but you aren’t sure of what. I have (or rather my great-grandma and other brilliant home economists have) a solution for you. Ham loaf in a cheese crust.Just say those words aloud. It’s ok to alternately smile and gag. It’s not something we are used to seeing in our menu rotation. There are reasons for why this recipe has fallen out of fashion. My kids would argue that taste was one of those reasons, but I think they were having an exceptionally picky day. Side note: I mentioned to Nick what I was writing about and he said “Oh, right, that weird stuff.”

When I looked at the title of the recipe, the images of what this recipe would be was something more like a meatloaf with a thick coating of cheese and breadcrumbs surrounding it, so that every slice looked like a drawing of rock layers from elementary school science class. As I read through the recipe I realized how wrong I had it. This was going to be a pie. A pink pie with an orange crust. A study in contrasting colors and textures. I’m never sure about the texture of ground ham.When this recipe was originally published, there were not the variety of cheese cracker options that are available today. I’m not sure if this qualifies as progress. I stuck with Cheez-Its original flavor. Getting out the blender or food processor seemed like dishes I didn’t feel like doing so crushed the crackers with a combination of the potato masher and my hands. It makes lovely pictures, but a crumbly crust.

All in all, this was not a bad recipe. A little on the salty side, but it’s ham and cheese crackers, so you’d expect as much.

The Recipe:

November 9, 2017

Tweedle Beetle Banana Bread Battle

When I shop at a certain grocery store, they almost always have bananas in their reduced produce bin. I can get an enormous bag of bananas for 99 cents. There is never anything wrong with them except that their skins have some brown spots. The bananas inside are perfectly lovely and ripe. However, we can only eat so many bananas in a day or two. The rest of them find a nice home in my freezer until I’m ready to take them out and do something amazing with them. Unfortunately, I’m not always very creative and that something is almost always banana bread. I have a delicious recipe that I normally use from Todd English’s Olives Dessert Table Cookbook. This blog is not about Todd English or the incredible recipes he has published, though…

In my collection of hand-me-down recipes, I was blessed with a number of banana bread recipes. My normal process for recipes is to scan them all in and rename them all then do a quick comparison to see if the recipes are exactly alike. You would think that with the thousand or so recipes I have that there would be more repeated recipes than there actually are. I had a long debate with myself about how to handle repeated titles and variations on recipes. There are some cases where it makes sense to do a taste test and figure out which recipe is actually better. But in the case of things like ham loaves or egg foo yung recipes, I’m not sure I’m up to making more than one version at a time. If we have to do things like compare which gingersnap recipe is better, as long as I have enough molasses and time, I’ll gladly make 20 versions and try them all. In this case, I made the banana breads a few weeks apart. I made small loaves and froze some of them for eating later on.

Ok…Banana Bread #1.

Banana Bread

1/2 cup margarine
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3 cups flour
1/2 cup sour milk
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup nuts
3 mashed bananas

45-50 minutes at 350

Banana Bread #2

Banana Bread 2

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
3 small or 2 large bananas
1 tsp baking soda
2 TB sour milk
2 cups flour
1/2 cup nuts

1 hour at 325.

These are others of those recipes where you have to know how to make it in order to follow the recipe. Basic method for quick breads, cream the sugars and fat together, add eggs and bananas, mix the dry ingredients on the side and alternate adding them and the milk. Add the nuts at the end.

So which was better?

#1 is textured more like a sandwich bread. It’s a bit dryer and very much unlike other banana breads I’ve had. It has a definite crust. There was nothing wrong with it, but butter or cream cheese made it much better.

#2 is similar to most of the banana breads I’ve eaten before. The texture is moist and cake-like. There is no discernible crust except on the very edges. It reminded me of watching Julia Child at my grandma’s house when she was making some muffin or something and said “It’s so good, it hardly needs butter” as she slathered an enormous amount of butter on whatever it was she was eating. My kids definitely preferred this one.

In the battle of these two banana breads, #2 is #1.

November 2, 2017

Chicken New Boston

I Googled Chicken Old Boston just to see if there was a reason that this recipe was called Chicken New Boston. Even searching for Chicken New Boston yielded nothing on the first search page. So this recipe may be new information for everyone.

So what do we think of when we think of Boston? Some people think of sports (we try not to acknowledge those teams). Some people have the experience of Matt Damon’s Boston or the Boston of the New Kids on the Block. There is the Boston of baked bean fame and the Boston of the Tea Party. Boston clam chowder. Ivy League Colleges covered in actual ivy. Then there is the Boston in Cheers. Let’s talk about that Boston because we’ve been watching that on Netflix sometimes and it helps make my metaphor better.You know how on Cheers there are the people like Norm and Cliff? They are that gritty side of Boston. The working class people from working class neighborhoods. Old Boston, if you will. If you were to imagine dinner at their houses, you’d imagine a roast that has been simmering all day. Maybe a nice plate of spaghetti. Food that is practical more than pretty. Food that will keep you going in cold weather.

And then there is Diane. There is no way she would sully her insides with that sort of food. She’s lofty and above it all. She represents that other part of Boston. The part of Boston that embraces new food and new culture. Chicken New Boston is something that Diane may whip up in her kitchen while wearing a ruffled apron. I did not wear a ruffled apron while making this dish. I think I was barefoot…

Chicken New Boston is a breaded chicken in a creamy sauce with mushrooms, artichokes and sherry. Conceptually, it’s delicious. Realistically, I had a hard time keeping the cornflakes on the chicken. It might just be a me thing. The sauce was amazing (even with the cream o’soup). It’s the sort of sauce that you’d want to mop up with bread or eat on top of noodles. It’s sophisticated enough to make me feel like I should’ve put on my pearls.

October 31, 2017

Halloween Treats: Popcorn Balls

“John, do we have any pumpkin left in the freezer?” I called from my secure place on the couch. Unless it had somehow turned into something that resembled apples, he was pretty sure we didn’t. “Maybe downstairs?” he suggested. I decided that was WAY too much effort. Instead, I just scrolled through all of the recipes searching for a perfect Halloween treat. We were about to have a group of tweens and early teens descend upon our house for pumpkin carving and bonfire, so I figured it was the perfect time to test out one of 4 popcorn ball recipes.

: My friend’s mom made the pumpkin in the background. It’s handmade paper.

Does anyone even still eat popcorn balls? I remember getting the ones as a kid, they were rock hard, but at the same time were sort of like Styrofoam. Maybe making my own would be better.
Now for the scary stuff before we get into this too far. Sugar syrup is HOT and STICKY. This means, if you are not careful, not only could you burn yourself, but it’s hard to remove the heat from your skin quickly. If you don’t remove the old maids (unpopped kernels) from the popcorn, you may run into some pain. If you have dental work, the syrup will harden and stick in your dental work.

The mechanics of this are simple. Pop the corn and have it in a large bowl. Boil the syrup ingredients together until they reach the hard ball stage, 260 degrees. Pour the syrup over the popped corn and mix thoroughly. Before the syrup becomes hard, but after it’s cool enough to handle, grab handfuls of the popcorn and pack it like you would a snowball. If you have never packed a snowball, then maybe like a really large meatball. If you haven’t done that either, then I’ll explain. First you need to stand on one foot. Now take that other foot and slowly place it behind your head. As you are spinning in a circle, put enough popcorn in one hand to fill it. Then take your other hand and place it on top of the hand with the popcorn in it, covering the popcorn. Now, as you say the magic words, “Pop, pop, until you stop, stop. I’ve got to hop, hop” pat your hands together. Magically a ball will form. (and if you do this, please post a video in the comments)

This photo was really just to show off the needle felted acorns I made.

Popcorn Balls

1 cup Karo Syrup (Corn syrup)
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 t. vinegar

Boil together until the temperature reaches 260 degrees (hard ball stage). Add 2 TB butter, Stir until butter has melted, Pour over about 4 quarts of popcorn (about 2 batches in our air popper). Mix until coated and form into balls.

September 28, 2017October 6, 2018

Deviled Hot Dogs

I just saw a chart the other day for how hot dogs are eaten in other places. Probably unsurprisingly to you, this recipe didn’t appear on the list.

This recipe also sparked a lot of discussion about what makes something “Deviled”. Is it the addition of mustard? I mean, deviled eggs and deviled hot dogs have that in common. But then I ponder about things like any “Diablo” recipe and those tend to include chilis. Is there actual criteria when naming something “deviled” or is it just an adjective that people assign willy-nilly?First of all, you should know that this recipe scared us. I suggested to my brother that we make this recipe for his kids when they came to visit, he declined. He’s such a chicken.

Since the recipe was in my head, I made it.

What is it? Deviled hot dogs are hot dogs braised in a cream sauce seasoned by pickle relish and onions and green pepper.

Well, we think it’s green pepper.

Technically the recipe says “gr. pepper”. After adding the 3 TB of green pepper, I realized that “gr pepper” is also “ground pepper”. It’s weird to measure green pepper in tablespoons. However, in Iowa, where my mom grew up, ketchup/catsup was considered spicy. 3 TB of ground pepper is a lot of black pepper for any recipe (with the exceptions being something HUGE or something like pastrami) and most of the other recipes that have “gr. pepper” make it obvious that the reference is to green pepper. Surprisingly, this recipe was better than expected. It was actually kind of good. I think it depends on the quality of the hot dogs, but use what you like.

In hindsight, butter toasted the buns would improve the meal. Toasting prevents the sauce from soaking deeply into the buns. It adds a little crispy element. Untoasted buns are sort of white and squashy and like the comfort food you never knew you needed. Because we didn’t know the correct way of proceeding, we served these with our normal ketchup and mustard on the table, but this is an up to your taste sort of thing.

For a fun variation, add cheese to the cream sauce. It’s like a cheddarwurst. Add beer to the cheese sauce and you really have something special.

We had a lot of sauce left over. I secretly used it in a creamy pasta dish later in the week.

Don’t tell the kids.

The Recipe:

If you like this recipe, check out Devilish Behavior and Deviled Green Beans, Devils Food Cake with Marshmallow Frosting, and Buried Treasure Delicious Hot Dish.

September 26, 2017October 6, 2018

Applesauce Date-Nut Bread

After months of blogging, I decided it was time for a post that includes dates. I named my blog after this “common” ingredient, but never used it. Applesauce Date Nut Bread. (See About Page for further details).

Dates have fallen out of favor as a normal ingredient except in things like energy bites. I have so many “new” recipes that call for them, that I was excited to see a large resealable bag of them at Costco. Oat flour often coats dried dates to prevent them from sticking together. I use caution when buying dates since I am allergic to oats.Quick breads are great. They are easy to make, they are easy to store. Warm them up and spread with butter, jam, or cream cheese. My kids eat them, but only if I’ve sliced the loaf for them.

My husband commented that when bread is unsliced, he feels like it has another purpose. Then went on to say something about “It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread because when the bread is sliced you know you can eat it.” Maybe I should leave “Eat Me” signs around my kitchen like in Alice in Wonderland?

But the thing is, I get caught in the banana bread/pumpkin bread/zucchini bread loop. There are so many other great quick breads out there. If you don’t want to eat a loaf of bread, make mini loaves or muffins instead.

Adjust cooking time when changing pan sizes, of course. When I deviate from the size pan specified by the recipe (usually from larger to smaller), I set the timer for the oven for 20 minutes and evaluate from that point. Use a toothpick/cake tester or judge by sight how much more time is needed for a proper bake. I used mini loaf pans and got 3 loaves. I have the other ones in my freezer. They took about 45 minutes to bake.

Appropriately the dates for the applesauce date nut bread recipe came from my grandma’s house when we moved her a year ago. They have been sitting in my freezer just waiting (along with fruit for fruitcakes, but that’ll be closer to Christmas). The applesauce I used for this came from my apple trees. It’s slightly cinnamony and not heavily sweetened. It’s very much a personal preference or what you have on hand sort of thing.

You do not need to make your own applesauce for this recipe. But there is no reason not to.

A couple of other things about applesauce date nut bread. It is very dense and very moist. Toast the nuts before using them. It makes a difference. Substitute whole wheat flour for the white flour, if you choose. It still makes great bread.

And really, isn’t this a lovely loaf?

The Recipe:

If you like this recipe, check out Tweedle Beetle Banana Bread Battle, Flash Flood Drop Doughnuts, and Sally Lunn and Hot Brandy Sauce.

September 19, 2017October 6, 2018

Supper In a Bread Loaf

There are days where making supper is just hard. I am crap at following recipes (before this). I am a reforming bad meal planner and never seemed to have the right combination of ingredients in the house to make the meal that I really wanted. I’d have to scour cookbooks and the internet in order to find something that I was in the mood for using the ingredients I had on hand.

If you don’t already realize it, this is a very bad, time consuming way to go about meal prepping and planning.

It can result in creative and tasty dishes, but ends up being very frustrating. Take out seems much easier than going through that stress every night. It also doesn’t help when you ask the family what they want to eat and either no one has an idea or everyone has different ideas. Making these decisions after a long day of making other far more important decisions is hard. It’s a lot of pressure. Making the decision to go through these recipes and make them all has taken a lot of pressure off. I still don’t always have the right ingredients, but meal planning is significantly easier. Enter Supper in a Bread Loaf.

This recipe is the poor man’s version of Beef Wellington. It is because of this recipe that I had frozen bread dough in the house for the French Apple Coffee Cake.

Had my house already been clean, my children all in school, etc, I might have taken extra bread dough to make beautiful decorations on the roll. I might’ve egg washed it, made gorgeous cuts to make this into a work of art. Instead, I just did the most basic version of this dish.

Well, sort of.

The directions say “season to taste”. For those of you that know me well, you know that my brain automatically shot in infinite directions. “Oh, this could be good seasoned with taco seasoning.” “Ooooohh, what about using my Krakow Nights seasoning?” “I have some fresh herbs in the garden, but I think those might be the wrong choice.” I settled on adding a bunch of Fox Point Seasoning. I thought it would add flavor, but keep it true to the original intention of the dish. It worked! The kids inhaled the meal.

My husband took leftovers to work. His co-workers asked about it. He said it was good reheated. In order for busy people to make this dish in time for supper, there is some pre-planning that needs to happen.

Put the bread dough from the freezer into the fridge the night before you want to make this dish. It will start the thawing process. In the morning, move the bread dough into a container on the counter. Cover it with plastic wrap. (Speaking of plastic wrap, my husband told me that environmental concerns means plastic wrap no longer has the coating on it that allows it to stick to anything. It now only sticks to itself.) Leave this on your counter until it’s time to actually make supper.

For this purpose, a lengthy rising time is not going to affect your end product. It may even allow some of the bread dough flavors to develop a little more.

If you cook extra ground beef, throw it in your freezer for something else. It’s much easier to do dinner in a hurry when at least part of it is already cooked. Substitute chicken, turkey, pork, or whatever for the meat. For a vegetarian version, use mushrooms, cooked lentils, or eggplant as your filling, add some sauteed greens.

This is one of those unapologetic dishes that is basic and filling. It’s open to all sorts of interpretation. Open up your fridge, your pantry, and your spice cabinet, get creative. If you have a great version of this dish, please feel free to let me know about it.

The Recipe:

If you like this recipe, check out 7 Make Ahead Dinners For Busy Moms and Other Important People and Freezer Meal: Tuna Burger Casserole

September 14, 2017October 6, 2018

Apple Butter Cake with Caramel Icing

I have this friend who has become quite the cook since I first started talking to him. Continue reading “Apple Butter Cake with Caramel Icing”

September 12, 2017October 6, 2018

Apple Walnut Cookies

It’s the time of the year for the Festive Fall Bucket List.

The time of the year when moms like me start to cringe about all of those moms that have more time, energy, and money who enthusiastically put on their mom uniforms and with their PSL (that’s code for Pumpkin Spice Latte) in one hand and their camera or phone in the other hand, pack their kids into their perfectly clean vans or SUVs and head out to do ALL the fall things. Every weekend is a corn maze, an apple orchard, or a pumpkin patch. There are hikes in the woods to collect leaves to make the perfect wreath for the front door.

And then there is me.

I love fall, I really do. I manage to get the kids out to a corn maze or a pumpkin patch or an orchard once before Halloween. We usually meet my brother’s family and do something apple and pumpkin-y. (We need to do something more corn or pumpkin-y this year, though, I don’t need/want more apples.) But I don’t have time to spend every weekend that way. Planned fun isn’t always fun anyway. Sometimes it’s those spontaneous moments, the random stops, and even the car trip there that are the most fun moments. As I was raking apples from under the trees the other day, I realized that I am very much in the ant portion of my life. You know the fable of the ant and the grasshopper? The ants spend all summer (and probably fall) collecting food and storing it away while the grasshopper spent all summer playing in the grass and doing silly things. When winter hit, the ants had food, the grasshopper had none, the ants invited the grasshopper in to share what they had.

This is where I could start to lecture about enabling grasshoppers, but I’ll refrain. My point is that I am very aware that this is the part of my life where I need to be putting in the time and effort. And I’m good with that.

When I was growing up, we used to go to the Bayfield Apple Fest. I remember watching the apple peeling contest one year. When I peel apples now, I think of that. I try to see if I can get the peel off in one single ribbon. When I dawdle, I try to make it as long and thin as possible. I’m in a contest with no one but myself, but I compete anyway.

I peeled and chopped my way through 3 apples before I had enough to make these cookies. I had spotted this recipe a while back and wasn’t sure I’d ever get around to making it this year, but I’d had enough of making applesauce for a while and was ready for something different. It was time to have some cookies in the house again because it had been a while. After they were completed, I nearly cursed myself for waiting so long. I tucked 2 dozen into the freezer for later consumption.These apple walnut cookies are autumnal and amazing. They are soft and spicy and sweet. I thought that the large amount of clove may be overwhelming and slightly numbing, but it wasn’t. The cinnamon was warm and perfect. I used some orange salt that I made last year instead of regular salt.

This is the sort of cookie you want with you on fall adventures. If you want a healthier cookie, this is one that could stand up to the addition of whole wheat flour without detracting from the overall texture of the cookie. Substitute another nut if you don’t like walnuts. However, mom suggested toasting the walnuts for a few minutes before adding them and I think it made a big difference. If you are like my kids and don’t like raisins, I think you could leave them out without affecting the quality of the cookie. These cookies would be excellent dipped in a brown butter frosting.

Because there are no real instructions on how to make these, as with most cookies, sift the dry ingredients together. Beat the fat and the sugar, add the eggs. Alternate additions of the dry ingredients and the milk. Fold in the apples, raisins, and walnuts at the end. I found that in my oven 11-14 minutes at 400° wasn’t quite right. I had better success with 14 minutes at 375°.

Update: I froze some of these apple walnut cookies and pulled them out of the freezer a few months later. They were still amazing!

Tag: Recipe

Sauerkraut In A Hurry

Like this:

Ham Loaf with a Cheese Crust

The Recipe:

Like this: