Southern Baked Corn Casserole

In the past couple weeks, I've grilled probably a fields worth of corn on the cob! This time we had some leftovers, so I wanted to try a new recipe. I was going to make everyone's favorite, creamed corn, but decided on this corn casserole instead. I thought it was great! Mr. ate more than one serving and said he liked it, but the kids didn't really touch it. Check out my tip below on how to get the kernals off the cob.

Southern Baked Corn Casserole
adapted from here

2 cups fresh grilled corn (see tip for removing kernals)
¼ cup onion, diced
½ cup red bell peppers, diced
2 TBS butter
2 TBS flour
1 tsp salt
½ tsp paprika
¼ tsp ground mustard powder
1/8 tsp black pepper
¾ cups whole milk
1 egg (beat lightly)
1/3 cup Ritz cracker crumbs
1 TBL butter
1 TBL dried parsley

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put 2 TBS butter in skillet and melt. Stir in onion and bell peppers and cook until the onion is cooked and clear looking.
Take skillet off burner and mix in flour, salt, paprika, mustard powder, and black pepper. Stir well and put back on burner until the flour/seasoning mixture is lightly bubbly.
Slowly add milk while stirring. Continue stirring until the mixture boils and keep stirring constantly for one minute.
Remove mixture from heat and stir in corn and egg.
Put the corn mixture in a one quart baking pan or casserole dish.
Melt 1 TBS butter and blend with cracker crumbs and parsley in a small bowl.
Sprinkle the cracker mixture on top of the corn casserole.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F or until the crackers are lightly browned.


*I once saw this tip on Michael Chiarello's show, how to get cut the corn off the cob. Place the cob in the bundt pan hole and slice away. It worked great!



enjoy,

Chinese Chicken Salad with Mom's Egg Rolls

I bet you all are just starving, huh? I haven't posted a recipe in ages it seems. Well I'm trying to get back into the swing of home cooking since we are moved now, and ate too much fast food in the last couple weeks (we did find a great pizza place nearby though!).

So here is a great salad I tossed up last night. It's more about what ingredients you like so I didn't add quantities here (plus I made a ton, since we had 2 dinner guests). Prep time takes up most of this meal, since it's cooking chicken, slicing veggies and frying up won ton strips. Tossed all together and drizzled with some of the toasted sesame dressing makes this a great family style salad. I then took more time to make my mom's homemade egg rolls. I was in the kitchen 2 hours making all this, until we were eating, and that is why I will not have a cafe. Dinner would always come late. lol. So plan ahead slice and cook what you can ahead of time, I got a late start in the day so I was pressed for time. Everyone loved it and I have lots of leftovers!

Chinese Chicken Salad ingredients

Chicken breast, roasted and shredded
Romaine lettuce, finely shredded (TIP: use your serrated knife!)

Sugar Snap peas

Carrots, shredded

Baby corn (found in a can in the Asian aisle of the grocery store)

Green onions, sliced

Mandarin orange slices, drained

Fresh garlic, crushed

Fresh grated ginger

Fried Won Ton wrapper strips

Soy Vay Toasted Sesame Dressing and Marinade

I did season the chicken with garlic powder, salt & pepper and roasted in a 425' oven for 20 minutes. Shredded when cooled. Then I tossed it with a little of the dressing along with some fresh garlic and ginger.
For the egg rolls, I did add some fresh garlic and ginger to the mix as well and served them with a sweet and sour sauce or soy sauce.

as you can see, my (new) kitchen is not together yet, but here's a sneak peek of it so far! I love the long prep counter in front of the window!

enjoy,

Beef Stroganoff

When I'm too lazy to dig through my cookbooks for a recipe, I'll go online and find another, if it's not on my blog. So I found this version at Tina's Mommy's Kitchen blog. It was slightly different than my mom's, she doesn't use a gravy in hers. Sounded good to me! With a few more adaptions to her posted recipe I think this came out pretty darn good. One thing I did not add, was I ran out of pepper (I know huh!) so I used a packet of garlic pepper seasoning I had. Use whatever kind of steak meat you like, something tender, since it's little cook time. Next time I'll use fresh cremini mushrooms and mushroom gravy, mmm. *tip: freeze your steak meat for a couple hours, it'll be much easier to slice thin.

Beef Stroganoff
adapted from Mommy's Kitchen

1 - lb. beef steak, thinly sliced
1/2 C flour (seasoned w/salt & pepper)
3 Tbl oil
1 small onion, diced
salt & pepper (to taste)
1 Tbl crushed garlic
1 - small can sliced mushrooms or 1 C. diced fresh mushrooms
1 - can cream of mushroom soup
1 - packet brown gravy mix, made as directed (mushroom gravy would be good too!)
4 oz - sour cream
3 Tbl parsley
1 bag Wide egg noodles

Combine seasoned flour and toss with sliced steak to cover, tap off excess flour. Brown & cook steak with chopped onion, salt, pepper, garlic and mushrooms in a skillet with a little oil. While the steak is browning, Start the noodles to cook. Add cream of mushroom soup and gravy, mix together and simmer over low heat about 10 minutes. Add the sour cream and parsley, mix until thoroughly blended. Serve over cooked noodles.

enjoy,

Tuesdays with Dorie: Quick Classic Berry Tart

Cristine of Cooking with Cristine picked Dorie's Quick Classic Berry Tart for TWD this week. Heads up, there is a tart shell to bake and pastry cream to cook and chill, both can be done ahead of time! Find your freshest fresh berries and pile them on! Don't have a tart pan? Use a spring form pan instead, works just as great, gives the tart a rustic look, I think.

For my tart, I used fresh raspberries, blackberries and strawberries (yay! for sales). I goofed and chilled my tart dough before pressing into the pan (lol) so I had to let it sit out before I could use it, but then I just decided to roll it out and lay it in my pan. It gave me taller sides, so I was able to use all the pastry cream.

TIP: Also, if you use egg whites for another recipe, don't throw away the yolk! Freeze it in a baggie, and when you need yolks for a recipe like this pastry cream, just thaw it in cool water (still in the baggie) and whisk away! It'll seem like a weird consistency at first, but it'll smooth out and be perfectly OK.

I loved this recipe, we all did! I love pastry cream and with the fresh fruit and buttery crust....perfect for the warm weather we're having!

my little helpers


enjoy,

Buttercream Frosting Treats

I forgot to mention these treats in my chocolate cake and buttercream post... My mom used to do these for us kids. Use your leftover frosting and spread it on graham crackers to make sandwiches! She used to keep them in the fridge, but I didn't.

Tip: I read that you can keep a frosted buttercream cake out for a few days and it'll be ok to eat. Something about there being enough fat in the frosting it won't spoil. I did so with the Dino cake, because it was so big, and it was fine.



enjoy,

Dark Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting

Our little boy just turned 3 and this is the cake I made for him. I knew I wanted to put Dinosaurs on top, but when I realized the ones I found would be too big for a 9" round cake, I had to rethink a little. I found 2 chocolate cake recipes, the other one only made 2 rounds, this recipe here makes 3 rounds (in the original recipe).

Well I wanted a good thick layer cake large enough for the Dinos, so I used a 9x13 pan, it really makes a full pan worth too! I also doubled the chocolate frosting recipe (4 C) so I would have plenty to pipe and frost with but ran out anyways, so I made some white buttercream frosting so I could color it also.

Going back to my bakery days in decorating style, I used crushed graham crackers for the dirt/sand and food colored writing gel for the water. Since I couldn't find trees that would look decent with the size of the Dinos (I didn't plan on using big ones), I found this stem of leaves in the faux floral dept. (Better Homes & Gardens) that would work.

This cake was great! It's a very rich moist chocolate cake, I think I'll keep this recipe!

click photo collage to see better

Dark Chocolate Cake
adapted from allrecipes

2 cups boiling water
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cups white sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
See more at "Mommy? I'm Hungry!" http://ldylvbgr.blogspot.com/
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F for darker pan (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13x2 pan, lined with parchment (for easy removal).
In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa, and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 58 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean), may have to cover with parchment to prevent darkening.
Allow to cool 10 minutes in pan, then flip cake out onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.
*TIP: Can freeze cake before using, makes slicing into layers easier (let thaw out for 20 minutes or so) and much easier to frost.

"Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting
found here

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. Allow to cool to thicken.
About 2 cups frosting. (I doubled this and it gave me enough to frost and fill a 9x13 size cake)

Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Recipe by Gale Gand

3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream (I used milk)
*food coloring if desired

In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency. Add food coloring if desired.

enjoy,

Cherry Crumb Pielets for Pi Day!

Right? Pielets? Like tarts are tarlets, mini pies are pielets. Who cares, they're good! March 14th is National Pi Day! So this is my part to celebrate.

I have this Pillsbury 2010 calendar and each month is a feature recipe with a pretty picture to go along with. Well February's feature kept calling my name, so I finally went ahead and made my version of it combining another recipe. They called for ready made biscuits, but I used Dorie's pie crust I had stashed in my freezer (♥ her recipe, see below). I already had the cherry pie filling and the crumb topping was a cinch to put together. This recipe was easy as...PIE!

Cherry Crumb Pielets
3/4 cup all-purpose or unbleached flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup Butter
1/2 cup Chopped Nuts, if desired (I used sliced almonds)
1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling
1 recipe for pie crust (below)

Heat oven to 425°F.
In medium bowl, mix flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. With pastry blender or fork, cut in butter until mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Stir in nuts.
Roll pie crust dough on lightly floured work surface. With 3 1/2- or 4-inch round cutter, cut 12 rounds from each crust. (*save scraps for little cinnamon sugar treats, just bake the scraps till golden, when done roll in cinnamon sugar!)
Fit rounds into ungreased regular size muffin tins, pressing in gently. Spoon about 2 tablespoons pie filling into each crust-lined cup.
Add a little topping to each pie (about 2 Tbl)
Bake 14 to 18 minutes or until edges are golden brown and filling is bubbly.



Good For Almost Everything Pie Dough
-reprinted with permission from Dorie Greenspan, Baking From My Home to Yours
makes one 9-inch crust

1 1/2 cups all·purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) very cold (frozen is fine) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces
2 1/2 tablespoons very cold (frozen is even better) vegetable shortening, cut into 2 pieces
About 1/4 cup ice water

Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor fitted with a metal blade; pulse just to combine the ingredients. Drop in the butter and shortening and pulse only until the butter and shortening are cut into the flour. Don't overdo the mixing—what you're aiming for is to have some pieces the size of fat green peas and others the size of barley. Pulsing the machine on and off, gradually add about 3 tablespoons of water—all a little water and pulse once, add some more water, pulse again and keep going that way. Then use a few long pulses to get the water into the flour. If after a dozen or so pulses, the dough doesn't look evenly moistened or form soft curds, pulse in as much of the remaining water as necessary, or even a few drops more, to get a dough that will stick together when pinched. Big pieces of butter are fine. Scrape the dough out of the work bowl and onto a work surface.

Gather the dough into a ball, flatten the ball into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour before rolling. (If your ingredients were very cold and you worked quickly, though, you might be able to roll the dough immediately: the dough should be as cold as if it had just come out of the fridge.)

*My note for mini pies: After this step, roll out on a lightly floured surface and use a 4" cutter (*use a drinking glass!) and cut out 12 rounds to fill your muffin tins. You may have to re roll leftover dough scraps to get more rounds.

To Roll Out the Dough: Have a buttered 9-inch pie plate at hand. You can roll the dough out on a floured surface or between sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap or in a rolling slipcover. (I usually roll this dough out on the floured counter.) If you're working on a counter, turn the dough over frequently and keep the counter floured. If you are rolling between paper, plastic or in a slipcover, make sure to turn the dough over often and to lift the paper, plastic or cover frequently so that it doesn't roll into the dough and form creases. If you've got time, slide the rolled-out dough into the fridge for about 20 minutes to firm up.

To Make the Crust: Fit the dough into the pie plate and, using a pair of scissors, but the excess dough to a 1/4- to 1/2 inch overhang. Fold the dough under itself, so that it hangs over the edge just a tad, and flute or pinch the crust to make a decorative edge. Alternatively, you can finish the crust by pressing it with the tines of a fork.

*To my surprise, these were also featured at The Kitchn! Thanks guys!

enjoy,

Tuesdays with Dorie: Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart

I'm so glad Beryl of Cinemon Girl picked Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart for TWD this week, but more so that I made it. I wasn't going to because maybe just 2/5 of us like coconut, I love it. After reading the rave reviews in the P&Qs I just had to.

I decided to use my 9" spring form pan* for my crust since I do not have a tart pan, and it came out perfect! I love Dorie's crusts, they are the only ones that have ever turned out for me. I was also happy that I could finally use the frozen egg yolks I had leftover from previous recipes using egg whites. *Yes, freeze your yolks in a freezer bag, and thaw in cool water and they are perfectly fine to use, they may be a different consistency at first, but they'll incorporate fine.

Because we're not liqour people I left out the Rum and also the Coriander (thought I had some, but honestly I would not have added it, seems weird). I just added some extra vanilla.
When making the custard, be warned that once it starts to thicken, it goes quick! Mine took maybe 10 minutes from start. I toasted my coconut on the stove, because I always burn it in the oven. This way I could control the toasting of it. Also, please ignore my over whipped cream, it still tasted good!



I really loved this tart! Dorie is right the ratio to cream to custard in this tart is much better than a big pie. It was perfect! Even day 3 was great. This is another Dorie recipe I will be making again. I would definitely make this for company or potluck, and if you like/love coconut, this recipe is one to try! Head over to Beryl's site to get the recipe.



sharing a piece of this over at Tina's



enjoy,

Tortilla Chicken Soup

From Mommy I'm Hungry

I recently found a lovely blog Honey and Jam, with beautiful photos and yummy recipes. She posted about this Tortilla Soup, and for some reason, I wanted to finally make it for my family! Yeah! I 've never made it before, or even never had it before. I added some more spices and veggies to it, of course. This was great! Everyone liked it (the kids thought the tortilla chips were fun to have with it). I actually got about 7 servings from this.

I poached some chicken breast tenderloins in seasoned broth for about 7 minutes, cooled and shredded into small chunks. For the final photo, I forgot the avocado! I almost forgot the tortilla strips too, haha!

From Mommy I'm Hungry

Tortilla Soup -Adapted from honey and jam

6 (6-inch) corn or flour tortillas

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 medium jalapeño chile, chopped (seeded, veins removed for less heat) (I used 1/2 )

4 cups less sodium chicken broth

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can of Rotel diced tomatoes and green chiles, drained

1/2 can black beans, drained, rinsed (freeze extras!)

1/2 can corn, drained, rinsed (freeze extras!)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Pinch Chili powder

Pinch Ground Cumin

Juice of 1 lime

2 cups shredded cooked chicken

1 ripe avocado, sliced

1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Chopped fresh cilantro, divided

Cut tortillas in half; cut halves into 1/4-inch strips. In 3-quart saucepan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Fry strips in oil, 1/3 at a time, until light brown and crisp. Remove from pan; drain on paper towels. Reserve. *Be sure to watch them, they brown fast!

Heat oil remaining in saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook onion in oil 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add garlic and chile; cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring frequently, until vegetables are crisp-tender. Stir in broth, tomatoes, beans, corn, cilantro, salt, chili powder and cumin. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 15 minutes. Add chicken and lime juice; heat until hot.

To serve, peel and pit the avocado. Cut into 1-inch slices. Divide half of tortilla strips among individual serving bowls; ladle in soup. Top with avocado and cheese; garnish with remaining tortilla strips and cilantro. Serves 4-7.

From Mommy I'm Hungry

From Mommy I'm Hungry

enjoy,

Flan

From Mommy I'm Hungry

I have had Flan one other time, and it was a coffee flavor but I didn't know it. It was also a little mushy which totally turned me off on it. I decided to try again when I found this easy recipe. It came out great! Nice and thick, great density and flavor.

1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt sugar until liquefied and golden in color. Carefully pour hot syrup into a warm* 8 inch round glass or ceramic baking dish, turning the dish to evenly coat the bottom and sides. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat eggs. Beat in condensed milk, milk and vanilla until smooth and well combined (another tip I saw was to use a blender*). Pour egg mixture into baking dish.
Bake in preheated oven 60 minutes. Let cool completely. Store in fridge for at least 3 hours or over night to firm up.
To serve, run a knife around the edges and carefully invert on serving plate that has an edge. The caramel syrup will drizzle the flan itself.




From Mommy I'm Hungry

Caramel topping Tips:
-Heat the sugar until it melts. Don't stir, which promotes crystallization--the caramel will seize up and be grainy, not clear--but you may swirl the pan slightly to help redistribute any sugar that's starting to brown.

-*Tips from allrecipe user: Keep your baking dish warm/hot in the oven while you make the flan, so that when you do pour your caramel (melted sugar) into it, the caramel doesn't harden as quickly. When melting sugar, be patient and keep the heat LOW because the sugar may brown too dark. Don't fret if you still have small lumps of sugar in the end.. they will desolve when you bake the flan. As for the flan mixture, blend everything in a blender (adding the condensed milk last because its thicker) for the most effective and fastest way of mixing.

-I found these tips until after I made mine. Mine took forever to dissolve, and my recipe said to keep stirring it! It was not so pourable, but I did my best, and it sort of came out ok. The sugar caramel will dissolve from the moisture of the Flan once it's cooled in the fridge.

-adapted from Ralph's flyer and allrecipes





From Mommy I'm Hungry
enjoy,

April Cookie Carnival: Toasted Almond Lemon Bars

This month's Cookie Carnival cookie is Toasted Almond Lemon Bars and is being guest hosted by Holly of Phemomenon http://phemomenon.blogspot.com/. Yum! Perfect for the start of Spring. They're pretty much a shortbread crust, with a tart and tangy lemony custard like layer on top, then dusted with powdered sugar. I made lemon bars before for my blog, take a look here. These come from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy.

Just up! Go check out the round up and see everyone's lemon bars!

For this recipe I decided to add in the lemon zest too (next time I'll dice it fine, wasn't fun eating a string of zest, lol). They had those bags on sale 2/$3 so I had extra juice and zest, that I froze for a later use. For the crust you add in almonds, which adds a nice subtle nutty flavor and texture.

I've always wondered, Could you use other citrus instead of lemon? Like orange? I think I saw lime bars before -gasp- from a box. Have you had non-lemon bars? I'm curious to try another citrus for these.

enjoy,

Chicken Manicotti

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 pound boneless chicken breasts (could use Italian ground sausage)
1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, cooked and drained
1 (8 ounce) package manicotti shells (12 shells)
15 oz ricotta cheese (2 C)
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups spaghetti sauce, divided (homemade recipe)

White sauce
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon chicken bouillon granules (less or more, to taste)
2 cups half-and-half (473 ml)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

*Please note, there is prep time and precooking times to consider! Better yet, make it ahead of time and bake when needed! Just don't start this at dinner time. ;) For me, it was about 2 hours until we sat down to eat.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and cook until golden on both sides and is no longer pink in the middle. Set aside to cool, then dice. Saute onions until translucent. Saute garlic for 1 minute and stir in chicken, set aside to cool.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add manicotti shells and parboil for half of the time recommended on the package (4 minutes). Drain and cover with cool water to stop the cooking process and prevent the shells from cracking (some of mine cracked anyways).
To the chicken mixture add the cooked spinach and ricotta cheese. When the mixture is cool, add the beaten eggs.
Spread 1/4 cup spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a sprayed 9x13 inch baking dish. Gently drain the manicotti shells and carefully stuff each one (using a pastry or large Ziploc bag works great!) with the meat and cheese mixture; place shells in prepared dish. Lightly cover the dish with plastic wrap or a clean, damp towel to prevent shells from cracking.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Prepare the white sauce by melting the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and chicken bouillon. Increase heat to medium-high and cook, whisking constantly, until it begins to bubble. Whisk in half and half and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Cook for 1 minute, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and stir in parsley. Pour or ladle the sauce evenly over the stuffed shells.
Stir the basil into the remaining spaghetti sauce. Carefully pour or ladle spaghetti sauce over the white sauce, trying to layer the sauces without mixing. (I poured each sauce on each half of manicotti)
Cover and bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven, uncover and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes more.
-adapted from allrecipes

TIP: easy to fill with a pastry bag!

enjoy,