Getting Ready for Thanksgiving #3

There have been times, while cooking my turkey, that it’s browned too quickly. Today’s tip should help if you have that problem too. Tip #3 When your turkey is ready to go into the oven, position it with the legs pointing toward the back of the oven where it’s the hottest. If your turkey is large, the hot air may have trouble circulating and may create hot spots. If one part of your turkey starts browning too quickly, try rotating the pan during roasting or cover it with foil about 2/3 of the way through cooking to prevent overbrowning.

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Getting Ready for Thanksgiving #3

Baked Chicken Fingers

Most kids love chicken fingers and so do I, but I’ve found that most of the pre-packaged types are made from minced/chopped/pressed chicken pieces. I really prefer the more pricy whole pieces of chicken so I know exactly what I’m eating. It is convenient to just pull a bag out of the freezer and pop them into the oven. But there is also a simple way to make your own and still not spend much time in preparation. Now and then I find boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale and I usually stock up. As soon as I get home from the grocery store with my chicken, I lay it out on a cutting board and cut it into strips of about 1/2″ thick and 1″ wide. In small freezer bags I place an many pieces as I feel I would need for a meal. Lay them out flat in the freezer and I’m done until time to cook. When I want chicken fingers, I simply place a package in the refrigerator that morning to thaw. When it’s cooking time, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a shallow dish mix 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs and 1 Tbl. grated Parmesan cheese. In a small bowl mix 1/4 tsp. minced garlic and 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.. Dip the chicken fingers into the oil, roll in bread crumbs

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Baked Chicken Fingers

Daring Baker’s Make Bakewell Tart…er…Pudding

The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar . They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800’s in England. Bakewell tarts…er…puddings combine a number of dessert? elements but still let you show off your area’s seasonal fruits. Like many regional dishes there’s no “one way” to make a Bakewell Tart…er…Pudding, but most of today’s versions fall within one of two types. The first is the “pudding” where a layer of jam is covered by an almondy pastry cream and baked in puff pastry. The second is the “tart” where a rich shortcrust pastry holds jam and an almondy sponge cake-like filling. The version we were dared to make is a combination of the two: a sweet almond-flavoured shortcrust pastry, frangipane and jam. Well I survived…

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Daring Baker’s Make Bakewell Tart…er…Pudding

Toasted Oatmeal

Sometimes when I make oatmeal cookies I find I’m missing something in the texture. Try this. Toast oatmeal in the oven before adding to other ingredients when making oatmeal cookies. This really gives a wonderful texture to the cookies.

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Toasted Oatmeal

Soothing Vanilla and Cardamom Flan

I love the combination of vanilla and cardamom. It reminds me of a gentle chai-flavor that soothes even the most unruly nerves. Real vanilla beans are an incredible spice. It has a very ethereal flavor that smooths out and blends with many spices and yet it does not lose its own identity. I could eat this flan everyday because it is just so delicious and not too sweet… These days, I have been extremely busy. Busy with a new food-related project (I can’t wait to share it with you guys!) and busy with life in general. I just wish it would be more fun, hopefully when the weather clears and summer arrives I will be able to go for another vacation! For now, it will have to make-do with something flan-tastic like this vanilla and cardamom scented flan. It is very easy to do, as are most of my attempts at making sweet things. Here’s what you need: Vanilla and Cardamom Flan 1 Vanilla bean, seeds scraped and pods reserved 8 cardamom seeds, de-shelled and grind into a powder 1 cup milk 1 cup cream 2 tablespoon sugar 3 egg yolks 1 egg a very small pinch of kosher salt Caramel: 1/4 cup sugar Method: Pre-heat your oven to 350F. 1. Pour your milk and cream into a sauce pan. Stir to combine them well and throw in your cardamom powder, vanilla seeds and pods. Heat the milk and cream until it is *almost* boiling and let it steep for 15 minutes. It is important that you do not boil the dairy. 2. While the milk and cream is steeping with the…

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Soothing Vanilla and Cardamom Flan

Pistachio Cranberry Coconut Muffins

My mother lives in a senior community.  Whatever stereotypes you may conjure up when seeing that particular label, my mother doesn’t fit any of them.  Quite a few of the other residents fit the bill, however.  One of the great features of living in this particular senior community is the ability to have your very own garden plot, and since my mother has an abundance of green thumbs she figured out very quickly how to get one of those plots.  Not only did she get her own garden plot, but she met her Romeo in the process since he had a garden of his own as well.  I can just see them meeting over the Swiss Chard — or maybe it was that he left her a little note under a rock where she would find it while pulling weeds. Regardless, the romance is months and months new now, and the couple not only has two small gardens, but the largest corner garden in the community which is sure to have a few folks grumbling over the unfairness of it all.  Although many…

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Pistachio Cranberry Coconut Muffins

The Simple Woman’s Day Book . . .

FOR TODAY, March 23rd, 2009 … Outside My Window… The sun is well up and the birds are singing away. It looks to be a clear day so far. We have been really blessed with fine weather over this past week. I know that sooner or later the rain must come. Every day of sunshine we have over here is an extra blessing, as it does rain rather a lot. Back home if it rained, we stayed indoors. I soon came to learn upon moving over here, that people don’t melt in the rain . . . if I had stayed indoors every time it rained, I’d never have gone anywhere. My first year over here ended up being the wettest autumn/winter season in the UK for many years! I have come to appreciate the rain for what it is and I rather enjoy it from time to time . . . just not all the time. I am thinking… About the beautiful service we had in church yesterday for Mother’s Day. The primary children sang a song which was sweet and the Bishop and his son sang a duet which was beautiful. It touched my heart in a special way. They sang “Love is Spoken Here,” which is one of my very favourite of all the primary songs. It begins with the words . . . “I see my mother kneeling, with the family each day. I hear the words she whispers as she bows her head to pray. Her plea to the Father quiets all my fears, and I am thankful that Love is Spoken Here.” It’s a beautiful song and was so very beautifully sung yesterday. Here is a video you can listen to if you want to, but be sure to pause my play list before you do. It truly is beautiful. I am thankful for… I was sitting in church yesterday and I was thinking about how blessed I am to be a member of my church. I am so thankful for all the truths it has taught me and continues to teach me. That is what is so amazing about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is so simple, and yet . . . there are so many layers of understanding to it. The more I read, the more I study, the more I listen . . . the more convinced…

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The Simple Woman’s Day Book . . .

When You Don’t Use Steam in Bread Baking

Real quick, I just wanted to share with you a lesson I learned in bread baking. In Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day , it consistently instructs us to pour 1 cup of hot water into a hot broiler pan under the pizza stone.  This creates steam in the oven and helps the bread to have a crackling crust. Well the other day, I prepped two loaves of Bran Enriched White Bread to take to a dinner party.  I got distracted and completely forgot to use the broiler pan and hot water.  To my surprise, they came out with

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When You Don’t Use Steam in Bread Baking

Oven Dried Tomatoes

I have definitely been blessed this year with an abundance of tomatoes. The tomato plants that I planted in the fall have served me well (that is the tomatoes that great, big, huge mutt hasn’t eaten!) but my CSA has also been sending me some. As an added bonus when I visited Jaden from Steamy Kitchen I left her place with a bag of sweet little juicy tomatoes. Well, all of these tomatoes have been adding up on my counter and I had to do something with them before they rotted. The large ones were processed using my food mill and frozen for sauce and the little ones I had decided to dry them. I knew that sun drying was not going to work out but had heard that you could easily dry them in the oven. I consulted my favorite resource…Twitter! Follow me here ! and Sandy from Eat Real gave me exactly what I was looking for. I washed and dried the tomatoes. Threw out any of them with blemishes. I first did the Roma’s I had. Sliced them and tossed them in olive oil and salt and pepper. Placed them on a baking rack and turned my oven on to 225 degrees. And I cooked them…and cooked them. I checked on them about hourly and turned them over half way through. I think in total they probably cooked for about 3 hrs. The next ones I did were the cherry tomatoes. I halved them tossed them with the olive oil, salt and pepper and threw them in… Almost done… Done: These are so delicious! I am storing them in the fridge right

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Oven Dried Tomatoes

Whisk Wednesdays—Bar à la Normande (Sea Bass with Mushrooms and Cream)

Here is another fish dish with a creamy and delicious sauce that marks my 200th post! Fish Stock The first step for this dish is to make some fish stock. We covered this in Class 10. The recipe for the stock makes 4 cups and I only needed 1 cup for the fish, so I put the remainder in the freezer for another time. Fish The recipe calls for a whole sea bass, however, I had some leftover pieces from earlier fish classes so I decided to use them up instead. To cook the fish, I placed it in a roasting pan with 3 tablespoons of butter and sprinkled the fish with salt, pepper and the shallots. I poured the wine and water in and brought everything to a boil while waiting for the oven to heat up. Then, when it was boiling I covered it with buttered parchment and put it in the oven to finish cooking for about 20-30 minutes. Mushrooms I love… This is just a summary. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more!

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Whisk Wednesdays—Bar à la Normande (Sea Bass with Mushrooms and Cream)

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