Around the House - It's Apple Time!

Hi all!

We are finally starting to feel (and look) like fall around here and that means APPLES.  Now I realize apples are freely available all year yada yada but fall is supposed to be apple time.  I think there are even places around here where we could go and pick our own apples but we have never done that before.  Recently my buddy Suzanne posted pics of homemade apple chunky apple sauce and I had to give it a try! WHY I have not done this before is beyond me since I have always loved to cook!  So my first go 'round I took 3 kinds of apples (Fuji, Gala, and Golden Delicious) - using several kinds adds depth AND some break down more while others stay chunky so it depends on what you want.  And no I do not know which ones break down and which don't but I THINK the Golden Delicious stay the firmest.....Anyway, I cut them up, threw them in a crock pot, sprinkled with cinnamon, apple pie spice and sugar and let the crock pot do it's thing.  A HUGE hit with everyone!

Of course, it led me to thinking of apple pie because I LOVE PIE.  Hubby brings me flowers AND PIE as treats:

He had been out of town and this is what he came home with for me!

But you know what goes good with apples y'all???

Red Hot Cinnamon Candies!!!

One of my fave pies as a kid was my mom's red hot cinnamon candy apple pie.  Yup.  Apple pie that had red hot cinnamon candies in it.  So I decided I needed one!

SO so good.  And then I was thinking what if I made the applesauce WITH the red hots....

So I went and got some more apples - 3 kinds remember - and cut them up and threw them in my crockpot.  I had maybe 7-8 apples.  Then I mixed about 1/4 sugar (probably not needed though) and 1/4 tsp. or so of nutmeg - sorry I don't measure anything.  I mixed that in to coat the apples and then poured in somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 cup of red hot candies (Red Dye #40 be damned!)

And we got this:

OH SO GOOD!  Especially when you do this:

On top of vanilla ice cream it is dee-LISH!!!  I put half in the freezer for later and we have half in the fridge for now.




AND for those that want it - the pie recipe.  I have NO idea where this came from originally - I got it from my momma!

Deep Dish Apple Pie

• 1/3 c. red hots
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. water
• 6 c. apples
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/3 tsp. salt
• 1 tbl. lemon juice
• 2 tbl. butter
• pie crust

Melt candies and 1/2c. sugar in water.  Combine apples, flour, other 1/2c. sugar, nutmeg and salt.  Add lemon juice to red hot syrup and then pour over apple mixture.  Blend until coated and pour into pie shell.  Dot top with butter.  Bake at 450 for 10 minutes and then at 350 for 40-50 minutes until apples are tender.

I have mixed success with this pie filling thickening and it frustrates me no end!  But either way it sure does taste deeeeeeVINE!

Around the House - Stuffed Peppers!

Hi all!

Yesterday We headed out to a birthday party here in our neighborhood.  The coolest part?  It was a Cuban party!  Why is this exciting to me?  A couple weeks ago I told y'all about meeting a Cuban family at the bus stop - first time I have met any Cubans outside of my own family (and I have barely met any of them!)  Well their daughter turned 6 and they threw a party - and let me tell you Cubans LOVE to party!  So it was not the traditional sort of birthday party you generally think of - in some ways it was.  There were several neighbors but mostly other Cuban families - they have managed to find each other and stick together but they do not all live close.  One family came from as far as North Carolina!  We had kids running amuck, balloons, brithday cake and a bouncy house.  But we also had fantastic Cuban food - Croquettas (hubby's fave) and Ropa Vieja - YUMO!  But the best part was getting to hear about other Cubans' experiences and hearing more of Cuba, especially recent Cuba (my family left in 1959 & 1961.)  It is an interesting experience to suddenly realize you are not alone.  I am looking forward to more parties and also happy that Pezza finally seems to be getting along with Rebecca!  They had a bit of a falling out when Rebecca was insisting Pezza HAD to like Barbie's because she is a girl.  Pezza DOES NOT like Barbies.....

Now let's get to my post for today!  On Sundays I like to do a post outside of the normal crafty stuff.  Mostly cooking but I will be adding in other things as I get to them!  Today I wanted to share my Stuffed Peppers with you as well as ways to get more done at once to save time later!

Technically these are my fabulous stepmom's peppers because of one key change - she layers cheese in there!  DEE-LISH!  I use the colored peppers - Hubby doesn't like the green ones and these are just so darn pretty!

Remember that post a ways back where we chopped up loads of seasoning vegies to freeze and cut prep time while cooking?  If you missed it head back and check it out after reading this one!  Anyway, we start with those.  I melt some real butter with some olive oil - about half and half to cover the bottom of the pan.  Throw in several handfulls of the seasoning vegies and saute.  We are making some for now and some for later so we need alot!  You could also throw in some minced jalapeno or other spicy peppers but I did not have any on hand.  Also begin bringing a big pot of salted water to a boil AND get some rice started - I made 3 cups of rice.

Once the vegies are soft remove 1/3 of them and set them aside.  Add your ground meat - about 1 1/2 pounds or a little more (though I thawed 3 pounds and you will see why in a minute.)  In my case I have half lean ground beef and half ground turkey.  You could also add sausage for a different taste.  Add your seasonings - I have an Italian Spices grinder I used.  Another good one is Emeril's Bam Burgers seasoning mix.  Continue cooking until the meat is browned.  I "chop" it as I go with my wooden spoon too.

While your meat is browning and once your water is boiling drop your cleaned pepper halves into the boiling water for about 3 minutes and then remove.

Arrange them in your baking dish and layer some cheese in the bottoms.  I used 2 layers of Havarti and one of Colby Jack.  Pepper Jack would also work really well here.  It was at this point that I found myself lamenting at the quality (or lack of) in produce now that I am not in southern California.  My peppers are so SMALL!!!

By now your meat should be browned or close to it.  Once it is add a can of stewed tomatoes and a can of tomato paste.  Mix it in well.

When it is heated through turn off the stove and add your rice - I have about 2 cups in there but adjust it to your families' taste - some may like more rice some more meat. 

Now fill those babies up and add a swirl of ketchup to the top.  Pop them in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes or so - keep an eye on them because you aren't really COOKING anything, mostly just melting the cheeses and browning the tops a bit.  You will only use about half of the mixture to fill the 6 peppers.  Which is great news because now you have leftovers to freeze to make life easier on another day and it didn't take any more time and energy to cook a double batch!  You can either freeze the filling alone (what I did) or assemble additional Peppers and freeze those.  The frozen peppers will make GREAT individual meals for someone to grab or  use them all at once to make a second meal for everyone.  Make ahead meal #1 done.

Remember the cooked vegies and the other 1 1/2 pounds of ground meat we set aside?  Once the vegies are cooled we add the remainder of our UNCOOKED ground meat - the other 1 1/2 pounds I thawed.

We are going to make a meatloaf to freeze right quick!  Throw in an egg, some bread crumbs and spices and form into a loaf.

Wrap in foil, place in a freezer ziplock and you have your second easy freezer meal done.  All you will need to do is thaw it, mix up a tomato sauce and bake.  Throw together some mashed potatoes and a vegie and done!  Make ahead meal #2 done!

We also have some leftover rice.  That's because we are also going to do an easy rice pudding for dessert!  OH how I LOVE me some rice pudding and this one doesn't involve standing over the pot stirring to make your custard.  For that I turned to Paula Dean (I know I know she has been is trouble lately and we won't get into that here - the woman CAN COOK.)  Get the Recipe.

This rice pudding is baked - much like my bread pudding (which is to DIE FOR.)  BUT when you bake a custard type dish you need to set your baking dish inside of another larger dish of water like the pic above.  Throw it in the oven - easy peasy!

I did not add the raisins to mine but here it is - let me tell you it disappeared FAST!  When I make rice I usually make a 1/3 white to 2/3 brown ratio.  It worked perfectly in the pudding.

So there you go - without spending but a TINY amount of extra time in the kitchen you have made dinner and dessert PLUS two additional short cut meals to stash in your freezer (for those days when you realize you have spent way too long in your craft room!)  Now I have to get that Ropa Vieja recipe from Lourdes........

Mmmmmm White Chicken Enchiladas!

Hi all!

The first week of school went fantastically!  (Knocks on wood.)  Pezza likes her class and her teacher.  She even likes SCHOOL FOOD!?!?!  WTF????  Kid throws a fit about everything I serve her here at home and comes back with these glowing reports of cafeteria food - whatever.  It may wear off eventually.  I am not overly thrilled with her eating cafeteria food - not sure I am convinced of it's quality and nutritional value but.....I can't fight EVERY battle.  For now it means less work for me right?  I had an interesting experience at the us stop too.  I am Cuban - my dad was born and raised in Cuba.  My mom is Cajun so I guess really I am half Cuban to be exact. My dad was sent here right about when Castro took over - my grandparents finally made it out sometime after that and they lost everything.  The details are fuzzy as it was not something open for discussion with my dad.  Anyway, I have never met another Cuban other than family members.  We didn't live in Miami and I guess I haven't actively searched them out or anything. So I am hangin' at the bus stop one morning with my coffee - in my fave great big Cuba mug - and a couple comes up and asks me if I am Cuban.  Turns out they came here about 10 years ago so I thought that was really neat!  And their daughter is in 1st grade just like Pezza!

UNfortunately I WILL be spending my freedom tomorrow sitting in urgent care as I have been sick for a month and just can't kick it.  Now I have been running a fever all weekend SO I guess I am not going to get out of it.  I have some hideously bad allergies, especially this time of year.  Couple that with some scented garbage bags I bought on accident and tried to use anyway because I didn't want to waste the money and yea - I am hurtin'

BUT before I head up to the easy chair I have been sleeping in for weeks because I can't lay flat I wanted to throw up another cooking post with some time saving ideas.  Last week I told y'all how I do my seasoning veggie prep and chicken stock.  So let's do some cooking with it!

I made white chicken enchiladas.  NOW if you used a whole chicken in the stock like I did you can then turn around and de-bone it for the enchiladas OR you can grab a rotisserie chicken like I did OR just bake chicken for dinner one night and make extra, then the next night make enchiladas.

 

Here is my stack of ingredients - yes it looks like a lot BUT you will make three meals HOME MADE - so that's less work later, tastes better and it's better for you!  I have:

• Chicken
• Seasoning vegie mix
• 2 cups chicken stock
• Poblano pepper
• Cubanelle Pepper (add in hotter peppers if your family likes it hotter!)
• Spices - Cumin, Chili Powder, Paprika, Nutmeg (yes- nutmeg is fantastic when paired with chicken!)
• Flour
• Butter
• Olive Oil
• Cream Cheese (I use low fat)
• Green Chilis
• Corn
• Cilantro
• Tortillas (I prefer four but you can use corn if you like the traditional style)
• Colby Jack Cheese
• Pepper Jack Cheese
• Green chili sauce/ green enchilada sauce  (some prefer red sauce)
• Avocado
• Tomato
• Lime
• Sour Cream
• Salsa mix (I will tell you how to do that and prep it ahead of time at the end)

 This actually goes together pretty easily since you have done the seasoning vegies all chopped!  Start by putting butter and olive oil in the bottom of a large pot and heating it on medium or so.  Now I should warn y'all I cook like I live - by the seat of my pants!  So that means I don't measure anything but I will try to give you a close estimate.  I would say 1 1/1 - 2 tbl each of butter and oil - enough to saute AND make a roux to thicken your sauce.  While that warms up chop up your peppers.  Once the oil is ready throw in two good handfuls of your frozen chopped seasoning vegie mix and your peppers.  Saute until onions are clear.  Then sprinkle in enough flour to cover the bottom of the pan (about 3-4 Tbl) and cook this mixture, stirring, until it has browned slightly.  Now slowly add the broth while stirring so your mixture thickens.  Shake on your seasonings - go light on the nutmeg and heaviest on the cumin.  If you are unsure if you have added enough of a certain seasoning taste it, add a bit ore and notice how the flavor changes.  This way you start getting a feel for how each one changes the flavor.  Heat for a few minutes and then add 3/4 of the block of cream cheese.  Stir occasionally on medium low until the cream cheese is melted. 

Now add the chicken, corn and green chilis and heat through.  Throw in the Cilantro last and cook a bit longer - 5-10 minutes.  I used half a bunch of cilantro - just leaves - chopped up.

You're ready for assembly!  See how quick that was?  Here is how I set up for assembly.  Tortillas, filling, two cheeses all nice and dhredded in my food processor I just treated myself too :), and a pan.  SHRED YOUR CHEESE YOURSELF.  It tastes SO much better!  Now pans - if you look in the pan section in Target or Walmart you will find foil pans with lids - these are AWESOME for preparing meals ahead!  you may need bigger ones if you are feeding more people - these will hold 5 enchiladas (they are a little over-stuffed in my house!)  lay out a tortilla, a spoon or two of filling, some cheese, roll it and stick it in the pan.  I make a pan for now, a pan for later and still have enough filling for a third round which I freeze too (because I get tired of rolling them up.)  You now have 3 meals - 1 for now, 1 super easy re-heat for later and 1 pretty quick slight-assembly-needed one for later. 

Once they are all in the pan you need sauce - I like green sauce.  I used to buy Old El Paso in a can but at Harris Teeter I discovered this one:

And after reading the ingredients and the nutritional facts I decided it looked MUCH better - and it tastes better too!  So look for it or get the can if you can't find it.  Either works.

Pour on the sauce and top it with more cheeses.  Now Pezza won't eat the sauce or the pepper jack cheese so I make hers with colby jack only and then I leave off the sauce.  Pop it in the oven on 350 - you are really only melting the cheese since the inside is warm.

While they cook make up some salsa.  This is another item I prep ahead.  The container on the right was pulled out of the freezer - I just chop up some tomatoes and throw them in.  So what goes in it?  Jalapeno peppers, green onions, red onions, salt, lime juice, cumin, chili powder and cilantro.

Boom - instant salsa! 

YUMMMMMMMMMMY!!!!!!!

What's cooking? A time saver...

School starts tomorrow!  I am a mix of feelings - the part of me that is jumping up and down screaming "Freedom sweet freedom!!!!"  And the other part freaking out that I didn't enjoy every minute of being a SAHM and having her all to myself and OMG she is growing up fast.  It's funny how it didn't feel fast WHILE IT WAS HAPPENING!

I think y'all know I have 2 grown boys in their 20s in addition to Pezza.  I raised them alone.  They went to their dad's house every summer and I swear I couldn't wait for the break - it's HARD doing it ALL all by yourself!  I worked - sometimes close to full time, while putting myself through college full time plus raised them and I was ALWAYS outnumbered - 2 of them and 1 of me.  As summer approached and they were heading to their dad's I imagined the LOADS of things I would be able to do while they were gone.  And then they would go and I would be tremendously busy...for about 4 days.  And the rest of the time I was miserable without them!  I feel like it will be a little bit of that same experience with Pezza off in school full time.  BUT one thing I did learn was to make the most of the time I had while the boys were gone instead of spending it crying (which I did for the first several years.)

Alot of things have fallen by the wayside having a young child around - I hope to be able to get back to keeping up with things a little better and have loads of plans for stuff I will be doing around the house.  I thought I'd share them once a week on my blog with all of you.  I know this is a crafty blog and I considered for a brief moment that perhaps I should start a different blog but that sounded like too much work and HEY y'all all have homes and probably families and all that too SO I am just going to share it here.  I also thought about doing it on a specific day each week but then I thought "Let's not get ahead of ourselves!"  I may OR MAY NOT get back to being organized like I once was!  A friend posted a plea on FB a few days ago about how to get meals on the table with school and school activities under way and it got me thinking about the things I do to help with dinner dilemmas.  So for today here is a post about cooking - time saving cooking to be exact because we're ALL busy!  But pre-packaged or processed foods are horrible for us to eat. 

I am from the South - South Louisiana to be specific.  And down there folks COOK, from SCRATCH.  And that is how I was raised so it is how I have always done it.  But I know it can be tough to take the time out for it.  School is starting which means school activities are also underway - for us it's cheerleading.  Others may have have sports, clubs, extra work for the PTO OR maybe you work full time and you come home tired!  It's easy to grab something pre-made.  Here is one way I make the dinner time crunch a little easier (and healthier).

In Cajun country (and most of the south) every dish starts with 3 things - chopped seasoning vegies, broth and a roux.  Lots of dishes start with the need to chop a bunch of onions, celery, bell peppers, garlic....It may vary by recipe but usually only slightly and really you can use the same mix for all of it - gravies, spaghetti sauces, meatloaf, stews.  So here is what my Momma taught me.

 

 

Gather your vegies, chopping mat and a good chef's knife or whatever you like to chop with (my mom prefers a paring knife but I like this big one from Cutco - the BEST.)  I keep mine pretty basic - A 3lb bag of onions, the whole bunch of celery (technical term???), 2 bell peppers (I use ones OTHER than green - hubby doesn't like the green ones and it makes it more colorful), and a whole thing of garlic.

Chop it all up and throw it in a big bowl and then grab a little helper if you can snag one....

and mix it all up!

I fill a gallon ziplock freezer bag, freeze it and now it's ready for me at a moments notice.  I grab a handful or two and throw it in the pot!

Now the second thing on my list - broth.  For years I have taken the shortcut and used bouillion cubes.  Occasionally I will use the cans - LOW SODIUM.  But it's not hard to make your own and probably WAY better - both taste and health - wise!  When you are doing your chopping DON"T throw away the "trash" parts of the vegies.

I have carrot tops in there (I made something last night with carrots JUST because I knew I was making a huge pot of broth today), onion tops, celery tops and bottom and the smaller cloves of garlic cut in half.

Throw them ALL into a pot on top of a whole chicken and cover with water - I have a HUGE stock pot for this.  It has about 20 cups of water in it.  I threw in some sprigs of thyme and oregano frm my garden and a few bay leaves.  Another way to do this is to have a bag you toss the vegie "trash" into and keep it in your freezer.  When you have enough you can make your broth!  This will simmer all day long and then I will cool it off, skim off the fat, put it into 2 cup tupperware containers and freeze.  As for the 3rd thing - a roux - maybe that will be another post!

There is my tips for ya - let me know what you think!  Does anyone else do this?  Do you have any good tips to share???