Make your Pie and eat it too! Happy Birthday to me!

Wow, after 3+ years of school I am nearly done with my Master's of Science in Nursing! This means I have more time to do the things I love, one of which is cooking and baking. I have explained to my husband that cooking is all about taste and baking is about science. You can play with ingredients when you are cooking but in baking you really need to keep things consistent, or at least understand some of the science before you start playing!
So most people like cake for their birthday, but after baking birthday cake for 4 kids through the year I had a craving for pie, lemon meringue pie to be specific. This year my birthday was preceded, by only a few hours, by the 40th baby I caught as part of my nurse-midwife training! Twice the celebration was in order!!! So after being up for a better part of the night I still insisted on attempting my first ever lemon meringue pie. I had researched the different recipes prior to selecting what I thought would be a winner. I choose a Land O' Lakes Recipe because it looked stable and had a lot of lemon flavor happening!
I HATE making pie crust, so I opted for a store bought type. Other than that I kept everything the same. http://www.landolakes.com/recipe/2503/creamy-lemon-meringue-pie
I think it turned out very well, with a nice balance of sweet and tangy! I would highly recommend this recipe and will use it the next time I make a lemon meringue pie!
Two pieces of advice: #1 let the pie cool and set up completely before cutting it will cut better and not run (but it still tastes good), #2 make sure the meringue covers the pie and seals the filling, I did this per advise of a midwife I was working with!
Enjoy!

They Can't All Be Great

The other day I made Lemon Chex. If you love lemon, you can understand why I would want to try this recipe. I love lemonade, lemon bars, lemon pound cake, Leeann Chin's Lemon Chicken, well you get the point. I also love any type of Chex mix I make, sweet and savory. So why not Lemon Chex. In fact, I even had a comment that someone make them and really like them. I used fresh lemons for the juice and zest hoping that great ingredients would make a top notch end product. On first taste I thought, "these are not very crispy". Okay, let them sit for a while and they might crisp up a bit. No, still "stale". How about having the kids try them? My two youngest ate a few with out protest but my oldest, who has my sensitive palate like me, says "Mom, these are kind of stale, there not very crispy". "Yeah, I know, I am not sure why" I told him. The only think I can think of is that I had too much lemon juice. I used the correct amount but that is the only thing that would make them soft. So, I am giving fair warning that I personally did not find the Lemon Chex a success.
No picture of my failure, sorry. I even removed it from my pinterest page so I didn't have it haunting me.

Beer Cheese Soup

The other weekend my sweet husband joined me in the kitchen to help me cook. He chopped, grated and poured. He cleaned up as we went, which was so nice. The reward for his work...Beer Cheese soup!
Have you ever eaten something at a restaurant and just had to figure out how to make it. Well this is the story of my Beer Cheese soup. For many years my husband and I would celebrate special days at the Calderwood, a restaurant in Luck, Wisconsin. The Calderwood has great food, especially their Beer Cheese soup. It had been quite some time since we have been there so I was getting a craving for the soup and I set out to replicate it. After much searching and only having tried one recipe, I came up with something we feel is very similar!
 
I adapted the recipe from Rachel Ray. As you will learn if you continue to read my blogs, I am a tweeker. This means I cannot help but change a recipe from it's original form. (With the exception of baking which I believe is a science.) So I looked at Rachel's recipe and took what I liked and changed it slightly from there. I also halved the recipe since it would be just my husband and me eating it.
I kept the base, sauteed leeks, celery and carrots. Then, I used part milk and part half and half to cut out a couple of calories. The other addition was broth powder. A note of caution, broth powder is NOT bullion. Broth powder is a soup base that is less concentrated then bullion and has much less salt. You can get it in natural food stores or you can just leave it out of the recipe.

Beer Cheese Soup

2 1/2 T butter
1 small leek chopped (white part only)
1/3 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup chopped carrot
1/4+1/2 tsp salt
5T flour
1 cup milk
1/2+1/4 cup half and half
6oz beer
1T Dijon mustard
1tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1T broth powder (optional; do not use bullion)
4oz sharp cheddar cheese-shredded
pepper
popcorn-popped

Saute the leeks, celery, and carrots with the butter and 1/4tsp salt; stirring often to prevent burning, allow to cook for 10 minutes on medium low using a spoon to break up the leeks as they cook.  Add the flour and cook for about 1 minute. Slowly, a little at a time, whisk in the milk, then add 1/2 cup of half and half. Then add the beer, mustard, Worcestershire, cayenne pepper, and broth powder. Cook until thick, about 10 minutes, stirring often. Slowly add the cheese stirring well until the cheese is melted. Add in 1/4 cup of half and half, a dash of black pepper, and 1/2 tsp of salt. Serve with popcorn on top!

 

Beer Cheese Soup

I think I need to go out and buy a leek so I can make this tomorrow! 

And next time I make this I will take a better picture now that my good camera is back from the shop, Yeah!!

Honey Sesame Chicken

I found this recipe off of Six Sisters' Stuff http://www.sixsistersstuff.com of which they adapted from Baby Center. I made this for supper tonight. The slow-cooker did most of the work, so it was easy to make. I had two concerns: the amount of honey, one whole cup and the 1/2 cup of soy sauce! I went forward and figured they know what they are doing. It smelled really good while cooking. By the time supper came around I was down to half of the family present for supper. My husband went to a funeral and sons 1&3 went ice fishing with grandpa. So the remainder of us has a quiet supper of Honey Sesame Chicken, brown rice, snap pea pods and raw orange pepper slices. My 8 year-old at it very well and my 2 year-old at the rice and peppers (a favorite). I would consider that a success. When my husband gets home he will be happy to eat about half of what is left.
I did not season the chicken like the original recipe said because I thought that the soy sauce had enough salt in it. I was wrong, I ended up adding 1/2tsp of salt at the end.
My only criticism of the recipe was that the sauce didn't thicken up like I thought it would. Next time I may try less water with the cornstarch. Even with that change I am not sure it will thicken like a traditional Chinese dish. The flavor is good but I would like a thicker sauce.

Honey Sesame Chicken for the Slow Cooker

1 1/2-2lb chicken breasts (about 4)
1 cup honey
1/2 cup soysauce
1/3 cup onion
1/4 cup ketchup
1T oil
3 cloves of garlic minced
1/4 tsp pepper flakes
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp cornstarch
2T water
Sesame seeds

Spray slow cooker with non-stick spray. Add chicken breasts. Mix honey, soy sauce, onion, ketchup, oil, garlic, and pepper flakes. Cook on high 1 1/2 to 2 hours or 4 hours on low, until chicken is cooked. Remove chicken from slow cooker. Mix water and cornstarch; add to remaining sauce in slow cooker. Allow sauce to cook for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile cut chicken into cubes. Add chicken back to sauce to coat. Serve over rice and garnish with sesame seeds.

This is how mine turned out, not too bad!

Pickle Roll-Ups

When I went shopping on Wednesday, I bought 3 jars of Claussen pickles for 1.99 each. These are my favorite pickles, as well as the other pickle eaters in my home. One of my most favorite things to make with them are pickle roll-ups. Now mine are a little different. I make them with the best-ever smoked dried beef from Nilssen's market. Slather on some cream cheese and roll the pickle up and enjoy. They are so simple and delicious! I have been eating these for so long I can't even remember who first taught me to make them. I also will eat the Nilssen's dried beef with cream cheese and no pickle. I use regular cream cheese for them because I don't like the taste of the light stuff in this recipe. If you are on a diet feel free to substitute light or fat-free for a low cal and low carb treat!
So, in the excitement of starting a blog this is my debut recipe I am sharing and documenting.
Caution: Just like with anything it is all in the quality of your ingredients. This recipe is not as good with Vlasics and Carl Budding (although this is what a certain family member of mine uses)!

Pickle Roll-Ups

Claussen Pickles
Nilssen's smoked dried beef or your favorite smoked meat
Cream cheese

  One slice of smoked dried beef

 Spread on cream cheese

Start on one end and roll the pickle up with the dried beef.

Pickle roll-up

We usually eat them whole but you can slice them into bit sized pieces. My husband prefers to eat his in two bites.