Naptime Blog

I was reading in line at the store the other day and the article was very interesting. Here are a few of the things that I learned and thought were helpful: 

1. When cooking put a thin layer of butter around the rim of the pan to keep the water from boiling over (which makes a huge mess depending on what you are cooking). 
2. If you run out of eggs you can substitute in two tablespoons of real mayonnaise for one egg (I have not tried it yet but I think it’s quite interesting). 
3. A common mistake people make when cooking meats is salting the meat before you cook it. This actually pulls the moisture out of the meat as it cooks, making it dryer. 

My new favorite cake to take places is:

DEVIL’S FOOD CAKE

• 1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. baking powder
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 1/4 c. boiling water
• 4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 c. cocoa powder
• 10 T. butter, softened
• 1 1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• 1 t. vanilla

1. Grease three 8-inch cake pans and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk boiling water, chocolate, and cocoa until smooth. 
3. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, 3-6 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until incorporated, scraping the bowl and beaters as needed. Beat in sour cream and vanilla. 
4. On low, bet in 1/3 of the flour mixture. Beat in half of the chocolate mixture. Repeat wth half of the remaining flour mixture, then the remaining chocolate mixture, and finally the remaining flour mixture. 
5. Give the batter one final stir using a rubber spatula. Divide batter evenly among the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake 15-20 minutes. 6. Let cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Flip onto wire rack, flip capes upright, and let cool completely before frosting, 1-2 hours.

PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING

• 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into chunks and softened
• 1 1/3 c. creamy peanut butter (don’t substitute chunky)
• 3 T. heavy cream
• 2 1/2 t. vanilla
• 2 1/4 c. confectioners’ sugar

1. Beat butter, peanut butter, cream, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl on medium high speed with an electric mixer until smooth, 1-2 minutes.
2. Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low, slowly add the confectioners’ sugar, and beat until incorporated and smooth, 4-6 minutes. Increase mixer speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, 5-10 minutes.

This recipe is straight from The America’s Test Kitchen Baking Book. Let me know what you think!

-Chrystal

A few weeks ago I wrote about Christmas shopping for food.  Wanted to share the official Christmas menu!

I am of Italian heritage.  Anyone who has ever eaten over our house growing up on holidays (heck, even on an average Sunday!) would think my family was NUTS!  The amount of food my grandmother, then my mother, and now I prepare and consume on a holiday can feed a small country.  This is the menu for Christmas dinner. 

The antipasto course is first.  We prepare provolone, soppressata, dry sausage, mozzarella, ricotta salata, pepperoni, and other cheeses and meats in antipasto trays.  Along with seasoned peppers stuffed with cheeses and prosciutto, seasoned artichoke hearts, and an olive salad, the cold trays complement the hot trays: stuffed mushrooms and warm Italian bread.  For many, this is a meal in itself (and really, it is!).  But this is only the beginning.  Enjoyed with red or white wine, the antipasto sets the stage for the rest of the afternoon.  Yes, dinner starts at about 3:00 PM.

The women clear off the antipasto dishes and check the pasta baking in the oven, while the men and children find their way into the living room for football and new toys.  And everyone gets a chance to digest the antipasto until the next course is served.

The pasta course is usually lasagna.  I personally would prefer a stuffed manicotti or baked ziti, but the traditional pasta for Christmas Day is lasagna.  Layers of pasta with ricotta, mozzarella, and teeny tiny meatballs are baked in the oven.  I spent last Sunday preparing the sauce (which I call ‘gravy’) and the ‘gravy’ meat, including the meatballs.  One hundred and twenty mini meatballs for the lasagna and 65 large meatballs along with sausage, a piece of beef, a piece of pork, spare ribs and braciole were cooked in the gravy in advance.  This Christmas I am expecting to serve thirteen people.  Luckily, the gravy and any leftover gravy meat can be (and will be!) frozen for future meals.  The lasagna and gravy meat are our second course. 

By this point, no one wants to eat anymore, but somehow everyone finds room.  This Christmas, we are cooking a 20 pound fresh ham along with a 5 pound roast beef.  Onions, stuffed artichokes (my personal favorite food!), candied yams, roasted potatoes, green beans, salad, corn, and red cabbage add to the fun (oh, joy!) of the meal.

Notice we still have not had dessert!  Dessert in itself is three different courses, maybe four.  We start with fruit and then nuts.  Winter fruits, including oranges, apples, pears, and finocchio (fennel, a fruit that tastes like black licorice) is served next.  Following the fruits are the nuts: walnuts, almonds, Brazilian nuts, hazelnuts, and baked chestnuts, we are now finishing up the bottles of wine, preparing for the liqueurs.  The after dinner cordials are served with boxed chocolates, including chocolate covered cherries, after dinner mints and jelly rings.

Finally (now that everyone has eaten enough food to last them for 6 more days) it is time for coffee and cake.  We serve the desserts our guests have brought, usually including pastries, cheesecake (my father usually makes his Italian cheesecake specialty) and a chocolate cake.  We made dozens and dozens of cookies to satisfy every palate: butter cookies, peanut butter cookies, butterscotch walnut cookies, anisette cookies (my grandmother’s specialty), and nut cups.  My parents will bring the tri-color cookies that took two days to prepare (rainbow cookies, and they are worth every minute!) and my aunts will bring the struffoli (honey balls).  All of these cakes and cookies are served with a choice of coffees (American coffee, espresso, cappuccino). 

And then, everyone rolls home!

Jennifer
Wife to Paul, Mom to Juliana (7), Anthony and Louis (1) and Joseph (2 months)
www.nevaland.com

My husband and I are cooking Christmas dinner this year.  We are hosting 15 or more family members.  Both my family and my in-laws are of Italian descent, and both families have kept the holiday traditions alive through the years with menus.  I cannot believe how much food is actually served at a holiday in our family!

First, we begin with an antipasto (appetizer) which consists of various cheeses and deli style meats.  These antipasto trays are served with bread and some salads, peppers, olives, sweet breads, stuffed mushrooms, and more.  (Hang on, I am FAR from done!)

Next is the pasta course.  Christmas is generally lasagna, with mini meatballs inside.  We cannot forget the “gravy meat”, which is meatballs and sausage among other meats served in the lasagna sauce.

Then comes the main course, which is either one or two of the following: roast beef, fresh ham, leg of lamb or turkey.  This is accompanied by various vegetables and starches, such as stuffed artichokes, green beans, broccoli, salad, baked potatoes, yams, more bread and other fixings that go along with the meats.  (And the meal continues, thank goodness this is only one day a year!)

Fruit and nuts come next, with various winter fruits and nuts, including my favorite, chestnuts.  I guess we use the excuse that there are all these fresh fruits and veggies in the meal, therefore we are eating “healthy”! 

If anyone still has room left (which most of us FIND room for dessert!), dessert is last, served with different types of coffees and liquors.  Oops, I forgot to mention the red and white wines that are served throughout the meal.  So yes, I guess my family is stuffed and drunk by evening!  Everyone who comes to dinner has either baked cookies, pies, cheesecakes, and/or purchased a variety of these as well as pastries for dessert.  Wow, I am getting a stomach ache just thinking about all this food!  But I believe everyone should experience this kind of meal if just ONCE!  Amazing!

Our supermarket hosts a special each holiday season, just before Thanksgiving, that if you accumulate a certain number of points from shopping in the weeks before Thanksgiving, you can earn a one time use 20% off coupon on a future purchase to be redeemed the week of Thanksgiving.  So my husband and I took advantage and managed to purchase any items for Christmas dinner that we could in advance with the discount coupon. 

Now just imagine how much money it costs to purchase all of these things?  The dry sausage and cheeses alone are a small fortune!  We decided to save wherever we could and buy generic.  Many of the food items above do not come in generic, however, I am proud to say that I saved a fortune on other items needed to prepare dinner!  For instance, instead of buying ‘Reynold’s Wrap’ at $6.99 a roll, I bought the store brand at $3.99!  I bought store brand baggies to wrap up the cheeses in and saved another small fortune!  And because I want to be able to toss after dessert and get some much needed rest, we got the store brand coffee cups and dessert plates as well! 

We will need to spend an afternoon the week of Christmas shopping for more groceries for Christmas dinner.  So while many people shop for gifts, this year I will be adding “groceries” to my Christmas shopping list!

Jennifer
Wife to Paul, Mom to Juliana (7), Anthony and Louis (1) and Joseph (2 months)
www.nevaland.com

My grandmother is in town from NY for Thanksgiving and everything has been wonderful. I offered to make a couple of dishes to help relieve some cooking stress her and my mom would have had if they had to make all that food. I made green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole. We called over to see if they had at least made some mashed potatoes, which they hadn’t. So my husband quickly whipped up homemade mashed potatoes which was delicious. He also made a really good dessert the nite before called “Chocolate Delight” and boy was it.

With the high chair up to the table at my moms, we said a prayer and dug in! Having a big spoonful of each dish we had, Shaughn also had on his plate some turkey, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and green beans. He was in food heaven! After we all stuffed our faces, it was time for naps! Well…. a nap for Shaughn and me! He very rarely naps past 4pm, but tonight he and I crashed out from 7pm til 9. Well, 9 is normally his bed time but that night we had to go visit our friends’ home who are pretty much our extended family. I’ve known my friend Peter for about 15 years through school so all of his family and siblings have become mine as well, and they are such wonderful people.

Before we left to go there, Shaughn was being silly and playful and all of a sudden just got up and stood up for the first time by himself! Now when you tell him to stand up, he does it for a couple of seconds before laughing and plopping down. We had helped stand him up in the past and he stayed like that. Then the other day he used a pillow instead of furniture to stand up, but on this day he didn’t need ANY help which was another “first”! Every new thing Shaughn learns is amazing and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

-Krystle

Cherry Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 (9-inch) graham cracker crust
• 1 (21-ounce) can cherry pie filling, chilled

Directions:

• In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy.
• Gradually add the milk; stir until well blended.
• Stir in the lemon juice and vanilla.
• Pour the filling into the crust and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.
• Top with the remaining pie filling before serving.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Inactive Prep Time: 3 hours
Ease of Preparation: Easy
Yield: 6-8 servings

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

We LOVE this recipe from Paula Deen! It is ridiculously easy…and it looks like you worked really hard on it when in fact you DID NOT:-)Now that’s my kind of cookin’! All though I’m sad it didn’t include butter. Just kidding. If you watch Paula you know she LOVES butter.
Ya’ll enjoy!

Chrystal

My post about family get togethers made me think about one of my favorite take along recipes. This time of year brings lots of family gatherings and holiday parties. Many times I am asked to bring my favorite side dish.

My favorite side dish is called Cheesy Potatoes. I was given the original recipe years ago by a friend, but I sometimes make it my own by adding in ingredients like finely chopped prosciutto or crumbled bacon. As with any recipe, I suggest experimenting with it to make it to your family’s taste.

Cheesy Potatoes

(This is super easy and a HUGE hit for any potluck, family reunion or other event you have to go to)
 
2 pounds frozen tater tots, thaw and break apart (Use your hands, it’s easier!)
1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 pint of sour cream
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
About 4 finely chopped green onion (
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
 
Mix the butter, soup, sour cream, onion, salt and pepper together with the smashed tater tots. Then mix in cheese and press into a GREASED 9×13 pan or a 3 quart casserole. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until bubbly and starts to slightly brown.

Every time I make this I have several people ask me for the recipe. Do you have a favorite recipe that is your “go to” for family reunions or other potluck events?

Shannon
Potamus Prefers
http://www.potamusprefers.com/

During the summer months, we did a lot of barbecuing. In the beginning of the summer, this was easy. Hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, steaks, London broil, pinwheels, sausage, spare ribs, even roast beef.  We would barbecue ears of corn, grilled vegetables, you name it, and we grilled it. But after a while, even barbecued foods got redundant.  As we started to see cooler weather, we were ready to start changing things up again with oven cooked meals.

So here we are, early fall, and I am already stumped on what to cook for dinner. I’m thinking of doing a meatloaf one of these days, which is something I haven’t made since the spring. I have a slow cooker/ crock pot, but never seem to remember to start something in the morning that could simmer all day.  And I would need to find good recipes my husband would eat.  I can’t let the thought of cooking beef stew in a crock pot sink in. To me, it belongs in a pot on the stove.  Regardless, I don’t have the time to cut up all the vegetables and watch a stew all day long.  And I cannot believe some people actually do dinner early in the morning!  All I can manage to do in the morning is take the meat out of the freezer to thaw!  The rest I need to do later in the afternoon.

Hmmm. Chicken soup sounds good.  And I must admit I can make a pretty good chicken vegetable soup from scratch.  And my Italian roots allow me to whip up any pasta also, something I am looking forward to making a lot of in the next few months.  But my favorite dish, my mother’s signature dish, is eggplant parmagiana. Yummy.  It just takes so long to prepare!

So there’s also grilled chicken, grilled salmon, stir fry (I love using my wok for chicken stir fry!), pork chops, lamb chops, veal cutlets… I can make a pork roast, turkey (although the husband only likes turkey on Thanksgiving), a Caesar salad, linguini with clam sauce, and I can even make pizzas with different toppings.

I like a variety of different side dishes as well.  I am lucky to have children that enjoy eating their veggies, so any meat/chicken/fish dish can be altered from one meal to the next by changing up the vegetable or other side dish.

So I have listed many different options here, haven’t I?  So can someone tell me why I am stumped about what’s for dinner?

Jennifer
Mom to Juliana (7), Louis (1) and Anthony (1)
Expecting #4 in September!
www.nevaland.com

When finished this is more like a thick soup with big potato chunks and Kielbasa! This was easy to make and very warming on these cool fall nights.

PREP TIME 15 Min
COOK TIME 1 Hr 30 Min
READY IN 1 Hr 45 Min
8 Servings

INGREDIENTS -

• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 2 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 pound kielbasa sausage, sliced thin
• 4 large russet potatoes, peeled and cubed

DIRECTIONS -

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). 
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together soup, milk, garlic, salt, and pepper.
3.  Stir in potatoes and kielbasa. Spoon into a 7×11 inch casserole dish. 
4. Place casserole on a baking sheet, and bake in the preheated oven for 90 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

 ENJOY!

-Chrystal

When was the last time you made S’mores with your kids??  Talking about a fun an INEXPENSIVE treat!!! My oldest son Jeromy caught the end of a movie on Disney and the kids were having a camp fire. He immediately ran into our room saying

“We have never made S’mores Ma!’ I replied, I know son,

He immediately rushed us to our local Wal-Mart Supercenter to get our supplies!! Well, I know it cost all of $5.00 to get everything we needed. My husband was very hype about finally getting to use his fire pit that we bought about 2 yrs ago.

It took a little while to get the fire going. We searched all over our small town for some skewers, uuuggggg (small towns)

Well, we finally got things going and they were GREAT!!! We all had chocolate and marshmallows all over our faces. Baby Jayce, with his FAST hands managed to grab a melted marshmallow and smash into his face. He was all sticky and loving every minute of it!!

Here is the easy recipe:
(1) Place Hershey bars on graham crackers.
(2) Toast marshmallows.
(3) Place toasted marshmallows on Hershey bars to melt chocolate.

Eat & Enjoy

~Shanta

Since Tristan is still under a year, I try to go by the no dairy rule. Here is a great alternative to frozen yogurt or ice cream on a hot day. Tristan loved it and it is super easy to make. I take 3 bananas and cut them up and put them in a plastic container. Then freeze over night. I keep some frozen for up to a few days at a time. Then when you are ready to use them Place frozen bananas in the bowl of a food processor. (NOTE: This doesn’t work with a mixer or blender, so you have to have a food processor.) Pulse several times to break into smaller pieces, then turn on and run for about five minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. The bananas will start to resemble soft serve in a few minutes. It will be chunky and gooey at first and will clump together, but after a few minutes, it will take on a pale yellow, fluffy texture. Transfer to a bowl and place in freezer for about 15 minutes, if you’d like, or serve immediately. (Makes four 1/2 cup servings) Each serving is about 100 Calories so this is also a great treat when counting your calories, plus a fun way to slip in a serving of fruit.

Chrystal
www.everydayoates.blogspot.com
www.everydayoatescooking.blogspot.com