Pie Time
14 Apr 2010 Leave a Comment
Even though I’m notorious for cooking misadventures, sometimes the heavens align and I cook something I’d serve to my momma. Growing up, Sunday nights were reserved for pizza and a movie. I don’t always get to recreate the ritual now that I’m out on my own, but I did manage to squeeze it in this weekend. Here’s how I made the pizza:
Crust
I followed the Pioneer Woman’s pizza crust recipe. It was simple to stir up, and I was able to let it “age” for a day in my fridge.
Sauce
I followed the Joy of Cooking’s Quick Tomato Sauce recipe, with some slight modifications.
Here’s the ingredient list:
- 1/2 small onion, minced
- 1 28 0z. can of whole tomatoes
- 1/4 cup of tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 2 teaspoons of McCormick’s Italian Herb Blends (You can use any type of Italian seasonings here, just be sure to make it 2 teaspoons.)
And here’s how to mix it up:
- In a large pan, heat the olive oil and saute the onion pieces until they are soft.
- Stir in the tomatoes (including their juice), the tomate paste, and all other dry ingredients.
- Bring the pot to a boil, stirring frequently.
- After boiling for a couple of minutes, bring the pot down to a simmer.
- Use the back of a spoon to mash the tomatoes. For thicker consistency, you can leave some of the tomate pieces. Because this was for a pizza, I crushed most of mine into smaller pieces. You can also put the sauce into a blender for thinner consistency, but I didn’t want to go that far with mine.
- Let the sauce simmer for 15-20 minutes.
After making the sauce, I rolled one section of my dough out onto a cookie sheet and one onto a pizza pan. I spread the sauce, sprinkled on grated cheese, and topped with Canadian bacon. I slid it into a 500 degree oven for 10 minutes. Yum!
Don’t let making a homemade pizza intimidate you. It’s as easy as pie.
Spring Break Sweet Tooth (Part II): Rice Krispie Treats
09 Mar 2010 1 Comment
Not only did my Aunt Grace make a mean Sock It To Me Cake, she could whip up a pan of insanely delicious rice krispie treats in a matter of minutes.
Here’s her recipe:
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup white Karo syrup
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 6 cups Rice Krispies
- 1 large mixing bowl and one lightly greased pan (can use 9X13 dish)
Directions
- Measure Krispies in very large pan or bowl.
- Bring sugar and syrup to a boil. Let boil for 1 minute.
- Pour syrup mixture over Krispies.
- Add peanut butter.
- Very quickly, mix well and pour in a large square pan lightly greased with margarine.
- Pat Krispies firmly in pan.
Spring Break Sweet Tooth: Sock It To Me Cake
09 Mar 2010 2 Comments
For many years during Spring Break, my Great Aunt Grace would make the four-hour trek from her home in Death Valley, ahem, I mean the hottest part of Oklahoma, to be with our family in the Texas Panhandle. I eagerly awaited her visits; not only did she shower me with attention, she cooked some serious treats during her stay. As the weather warms up and the middle of March rolls around, I remember all the fun treats we used to have when she’d be in town.
Here’s her recipe for Sock It To Me Cake:
Ingredients
- 1 box yellow butter flavored cake mix
- 3/4 cup Crisco oil
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup chopped pecans (optional)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 stick softened margarine
- 2 tablespoons sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon
- 1 tube pan (Bundt pan)
Directions
- Blend cake mix, oil, and softened margarine in large mixer bowl.
- Beat in 1 egg at a time in the large mixer bowl, and beat according to directions on cake mix box.
- Fold in sour cream and nuts.
- Pour 1/2 batter into greased and floured tube pan.
- Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar mixture over batter.
- Pour remaining batter in pan.
- Bake at 350 for 45 to 60 minutes. Let cake cool before removing from pan.
Tips
- Let the cake cool before trying to remove it; if you remove it too quickly, the cake will break.
- Don’t open the oven door for a peek during cooking–this can cause the cake to fall. (And you can’t sock it to your guests if the cake has fallen!)
- Add food coloring to batter for a fun look.
Lighter Blueberry Muffins
22 Jan 2010 Leave a Comment
in Cooking, Downloadable PDF, Food, Recipe
I’ve always loved muffins, and until recently, I defaulted to the Martha White mixes. A couple years ago, though, I started trying to cook more foods from scratch so that I could avoid preservatives and other artificial ingredients while using as many organic products as possible. When I found out how easy from-scratch muffins are to make (and how much tastier they are than the mixes), I vowed to never go back to the packaged stuff.
Unfortunately, muffins can be fattening and high in sugar. But, I’ve adapted several muffin recipes to bring you my own, healthier version of the blueberry muffin. It’s not too sweet, but it’s positively brimming with blueberries, and it’s so moist, it’s almost like having cake for breakfast.
With some of my muffin recipes, I substitute some whole-wheat flour for part of the white flour, but I use all white in this one to get that soft, sumptious taste that I just love in a blueberry muffin. Here’s the recipe.
And, if you’ve never cooked muffins before, from scratch, here are a few tips:
- Don’t overmix the batter. It should be slighly lumpy.
- Fill any empty muffin cups in your pan half-full of water while cooking.
- Don’t stir the batter too much after adding fruit. Try to fold the fruit in.
- Eat muffins while they are hot!
8-Minute Pork Chops for One
12 Jan 2010 Leave a Comment
in Cooking, Downloadable PDF, Food, Recipe
Maybe you are a fabulous single gal or guy. Or, maybe you are just in the mood for something different than the rest of the family. Or, maybe (like me), you have an ultra picky son who likes pork. Either way, here’s an 8-minute plan for a fantastic pork chop dinner for one.
1 minute: Cut a thick-cut pork chop into 1-inch pieces (to do this very quickly, use kitchen shears)
1 minute: Take a sandwich bag, adding 2 Tbsp of flour and some seasonings (a dash or so of garlic salt, paprika, and black pepper is YUM). Dump the pork chops into the bag and shake.
30 seconds: Heat 1 tsp oil in a small saucepan on medium-high heat. You don’t have to be exact on the amount of oil. Just add a big drop to the pan.
30 seconds: Add 1 tsp butter (no need to be exact, just slice off a pat and drop in the pan), and add pork chops from sandwich bag as soon as the butter melts. (You can just dump them in. It’s ok if a some flour falls into the pan.)
2 minutes: Wait while the pork chop pieces brown. Wait the full 2 minutes to get a nice, buttery, crunchy crust, but make sure they don’t start to burn. Then, turn the pork chops.
2 minutes: Wait while the pork chops brown on the other side. Wait the full 2 minutes to get a nice crust. Then, stir.
1 minute: Cook the chops for another minute, until they are done.
That’s so easy, eh? You can serve these bad boys with a sweet potato you’ve had roasting by its lonesome in the oven or with a premixed, prewashed salad from the fridge. These chops also go great with buttermilk biscuits. If you want the recipe on a card, I’ve got one for you. Download it here.
One Sweet Potato Was Harmed in the Making of this Post
08 Jan 2010 7 Comments
For dessert tonight, I decided to bake a sweet potato and add some butter and cinnamon to it. So, while I was eating my main course, I put the sweet potato in the microwave. I knew I could put it in the oven, but, really, all that work for one potato? So I opted for the microwave instead. After poorly ventilating the potato and putting the time way too high on the microwave, I sat the sweet potato on fire. Not a small burn or blemish, mind you, but a serious smoking-in-my-microwave-the-alarm-is about-to-go-off kind of fire. Secretly, I probably wanted the fire department to stop by, looking handsome in their bunker gear, just to ask me how things were going. And if I happened to say, “Well, the truth is, I’m searching for a healthy alternative to the family pack of Little Debbies, so I got out this sweet potato…” The firemen might reply, “Ah, yes, the classic sweet potato fire–tricky little starches.” But, alas, no big red truck pulled up to the curb. Instead, I wafted the smoke out via my garage and got down to the business of scrubbing my next victim, er, potato. I got out the Joy of Cooking, which, in my current situation, it felt more like The Joy in Not Burning Down All I Possess, and I turned to page 301, entry: “BAKED SWEET POTATOES. Preheat oven at 400F. Bake until soft, usually 45-60 minutes, depending on the size.” All told, I bet it takes less time in the oven than it did to clean the ash out of my microwave…
Why I Learned How to Cook
02 Jan 2010 1 Comment
in Cooking, Downloadable PDF, Food, Recipe Tags: Cooking, Downloadable PDF, Food, Recipe
My mother cooked almost every meal I ate growing up. The rest of the meals I ate, my great-grandmother cooked. They were true Southern cooks, working in a steaming hot kitchen with every iron going.
When I moved away for college, I realized I didn’t know how to cook much of anything. I guess I figured I would eat McDonald’s and Wendy’s because they were both near my apartment. And, I’ll admit, for a girl who didn’t eat out much while growing up, the thought of a McDonald’s less than a couple miles away from my apartment made my bones tingle. And, on the second night in my apartment, I drove down the steep hill to the Wendy’s drive-thru. It wasn’t really all I’d hoped for. I missed my Momma’s cooking.
I needed to learn how to cook something. One dish that I loved that my mom had made a few times, we called chicken and rice tacos. It’s now my go-to dish, the meal I make when I need something fast, the comfort food I crave in the winter, the sure-fire company pleaser. But, it took me a while to get to where I can make it with ease.
The first time I made it, I stood over a big pot, watching my chicken brown, with the phone at my ear, Momma telling me what to do next. After we thought I had it made, we hung up and I left the pot to simmer. It was simmering, all right, still on the medium-high temperature setting. A few minutes passed, and I smelled the burn. I furiously stirred and scraped at the bottom while making another phone call home. Momma was telling me, as I continued to furiously scrape to carefully avoid scraping the bottom. I notice the black bits littering my beautiful pot of chicken and rice. I had distributed the burn throughout. But, I learned something in that moment. Cooking is not easy. But, I could do it.
My next try was better, and each time I made it, I learned how to make it better. I learned many more things about cooking through my chicken and rice tacos. I learned that I didn’t need the recipe anymore. I also discovered that if I didn’t have something on the ingredient list, I could easily make substitutions. In fact, I’ve found some great takes on chicken and rice tacos. I think that’s part of the reason why I love this dish so much. I sowed my cooking oats on it. It gave me confidence to try new things in the kitchen. It’s been my friend.
I have recently been spring cleaning, and I came across the original recipe, written on an old “From Paula’s Kitchen” recipe card. Paula is my mother, and her handwriting was smudged a bit with a red fingerprint or two. They might be mine or hers. Chances are, they are both.
Download your own PDF Chicken and Rice Tacos recipe card: ChickenAndRiceTacos
–Amanda
