Almond Mandarin Salad

We've been having salad more often for dinner, so this seemed like a good choice.

1/2 pound bacon
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons honey
1/2 teaspoon dry hot mustard
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon ground paprika
1/4 cup olive oil
1 head red leaf lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
1 (15 ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained
1 bunch green onion, diced
3/4 cup slivered almonds

Directions

In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, cook bacon until evenly brown. Drain, cool, and crumble.
To make the dressing, thoroughly blend the vinegar, honey, dry mustard, celery salt, paprika, and olive oil.
Place lettuce, oranges, green onion, bacon, and almonds in a serving bowl. Toss with dressing and serve.

This was good. I like fruit in salad, and the salty bacon went well with the other tastes. Plus, the almonds added a nice crunch. The dressing was kind of like a vinaigrette. The only problem was that I felt like it wasn't a full meal. The only picture I have is on my phone, and I don't know how to get it off without paying the $.20 to send it to Brian.

Williams-Sonoma Cheddar-Bacon Biscuits

What are the secrets to making tender, flaky biscuits? When cutting the butter into the flour, work quickly so it doesn't melt too much before you put the biscuits in the oven. And when adding the milk, don't overmix the dough; stir until the ingredients are just combined.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
8 Tbs. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter
1 cup finely shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 cup chopped fresh chives
6 bacon slices, finely chopped and fried
until crisp
1 1/2 cups milk
Directions:
Position a rack in the lower third of an oven and preheat to 400ºF. Lightly spray a biscuit pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in the butter until it resembles coarse meal. Add the cheese, chives and bacon; using a fork, stir until evenly distributed. Add the milk; using a rubber spatula, stir until just combined. Divide the dough among the wells of the prepared pan.

Bake until the biscuits are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of a biscuit comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes. Invert the pan onto the rack and lift off the pan. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Makes 7 biscuits.

My biscuits

Williams-Sonoma's Biscuits

These seemed like they would be really good. They were okay. I had a few problems with them. First, I don't know what a biscuit pan is, so I made them like drop-type biscuits. Maybe I should have used a muffin pan because they spread out a ton. I made seven like the recipe says, and they were gigantic. I might have a slight problem with my oven where it turns off in the middle of baking, and that may have had to do with why they spread out huge and took closer to an hour to cook.

They tasted good, but it was weird to be eating a tender, flaky biscuit and run into a piece of chewy bacon. If I make them again, maybe I'll use turkey bacon, so it can get really crispy.

I noticed that Williams-Sonoma has an updated version on their website. Maybe it's better.

I hope this recipe was for bread...

I made yet another recipe with no name and no directions. I guessed it was bread due to the ingredients, and I also guessed that Mom mixed it up in the bread machine and then baked it in the oven.

1 c. water
2 T. butter
1 egg
3 1/4 c. bread flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 t. salt
3 t. yeast

I baked it @ 350 degrees and didn't time it. I just guessed when it was done.

 

My troops enjoyed it. Once again I used my smaller bread pan and it really mushroomed up while baking.  It was very soft bread and was delicious. I had some this morning toasted with peanut butter on it.

Lemon Pudding Souffles

I've never made a souffle before. In fact, I had to double-check how to spell it because I'm not very familiar with souffles at all. We wanted a dessert one night, and I've been trying not to make massive amounts of food and then eat most of it myself over the following days. Sometimes a day. So instead of making 5 dozen cookies or an entire cake, I thought this would be a nice light dessert, and it was. I also got to use the custard cups that we generally use for ice cream bowls. This recipe is from Taste of Home, February and March 2008.

Ingredients

• 1 egg, separated
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup 2% milk
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• Dash salt
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• Coarse sugar, edible pansies and fresh mint leaves, optional

Directions

• In a small bowl, beat egg yolk until slightly thickened. Gradually add sugar, beating until thick and lemon-colored. Beat in the milk, butter, flour and salt. Stir in lemon juice and peel.
• In a small bowl, beat egg white until stiff peaks form. With a spatula, stir a fourth of the egg white into lemon mixture until no white streaks remain. Fold in remaining egg white until combined.
• Divide between two ungreased 6-oz. ramekins or custard cups. Place in an 8-in. square baking dish; add 1 in. of hot water to dish.
• Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until tops are golden brown. If desired, sprinkle with coarse sugar, and garnish with pansies and mint. Serve immediately. Yield: 2 servings.

Editor's Note: Verify that flowers are edible and have not been treated with chemicals.

I liked these. Apparently, so did Brian, because he was disappointed when he went back for seconds, and there weren't any. Except for having a lot of sugar, they aren't too unhealthy either. We ate them right away, and the pudding was pretty watery, but still good. The only other grievance I have is that it made a lot of dishes for two little souffles. Oh, and I opted not to include pansies and mint as a garnish, edible or not.

Santa Fe Pasta

This is a back of the box recipe from Velveeta. If I knew how expensive Velveeta is, I don't know if I would have made this.

Santa Fe Pasta 

3/4 pound Velveeta Pasteurized Process Cheese Spread
2 tablespoons milk
1 can (8 3/4 ounces) whole kernel corn, drained
1 can (8 ounces) kidney beans, drained
2 cups (8-ounces) mostaccioli noodles, cooked, drained
1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies, drained
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 cup corn chips


Cube 1/2 pound Velveeta. Combine with milk in saucepan. Stir over low heat until Velveeta is melted. Add corn, beans, noodles, chilies and chili powder. Mix lightly. Spoon mixture into 1 1/2-quart casserole. Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes. Top with chips and remaining Velveeta, sliced. Continue baking until Velveeta begins to melt.

Makes 6 servings

I thought this recipe sounded pretty good, and I was excited about it, which is why I bought the Velveeta anyway and went ahead making this. I was pretty disappointed because it was a lackluster recipe. I didn't know what mostaccioli is, so I guessed it was a spiral pasta. It is apparently more like penne, but it doesn't really matter. The recipe was just okay. Brian liked it, and C liked it, although she mostly just ate the beans. I thought the sauce was too soupy, and it didn't have a ton of flavor. I probably won't make it again, but if I do, I'll be adding something to the recipe. Just so you all know, Velveeta is made from real milk, and it has less fat than cheddar cheese. And now I'll have to find something to make to use up the rest of it.

Edited: I did have a picture after all.

Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

We finally had some bananas that were past the ripeness we eat them at, so I could finally make this recipe for us to eat for breakfast this morning.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/3 cups mashed ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients.
2. In a small bowl, combine bananas, oil and egg.
3. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
4. Fold in chocolate chips.
5. Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups three fourths full.
6. Bake at 350 deg F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done.

They were pretty good. I'm not a chocolate baked goods for breakfast person, but I'm sure these won't last too long. My only complaint with the recipe was that I had to cook them about 26-27 minutes. 

And, they aren't healthy so I purposefully left the nutrition facts off.

Meatless Mexican Lasagna

This is from one of the Taste of Home issues in a section about light meals.

This is the Taste of Home photo. Mine looked pretty much exactly like this except it didn't have that little lime star on top. And we don't have a  fancy camera.

Meatless Mexican Lasagna Recipe

Ingredients
2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes with basil, oregano and garlic, undrained
1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
3 green onions, sliced
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons ground cumin
4 corn tortillas (6 inches)
1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded Mexican cheese blend
6 tablespoons plain yogurt


Nutritional Facts
1 piece equals 291 calories, 11 g fat (6 g saturated fat), 25 mg cholesterol, 781 mg sodium, 38 g carbohydrate, 6 g fiber, 14 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 2 starch, 1 lean meat, 1 vegetable, 1 fat.


Directions
In a large bowl, combine the first seven ingredients. Place two tortillas in an 11-in. x 7-in. baking dish coated with cooking spray. Spread with half of the corn mixture; sprinkle with half of the cheese. Repeat layers.
Bake, uncovered, at 400° for 15-20 minutes or until heated through. Let stand for 5 minutes. Garnish each serving with a dollop of yogurt. Yield: 6 servings.

This was a nice, light dish. Unfortunately, it was light enough that Brian and I each had two servings. C had some too, but the green chilies were a little spicy for her. I added in two extra tortillas because four small tortillas for six servings didn't seem like very much. And it wasn't. I figure that even though we had two servings, it was still much healthier than a typical meat and potatoes meal.  Bonus: Since there is no meat, it is a relatively frugal meal. If you want to make it more filling, add more tortillas.

Cranberry Coffee Cake

I remember often having coffee cake before the morning session of conference, so I thought this would be a good choice for breakfast this morning. The recipe was written on one side of those tiny Nor-Am (or was it AgrEvo?) notebook papers, so it doesn't have a separate ingredient list. I'm just going to type it as written.

Cranberry Coffee Cake

Blend 3/4 c butter w/ 1 c sugar. Add 1 c sour cream and 2 eggs. In separate bowl, mix 2 c flour 2 tsp baking powder. Stir into batter. Spread 1/2 batter in greased bundt pan. Top w/ 1 c. cranberry sauce. Top w/ remaining batter. Swirl. Bake 350 degrees - 40-45 min.

There were some issues. Yet again, I just realized that I failed to read the directions correctly. It says 1 c. cranberry sauce, and I put in 1 can, which is probably more like 2 cups. Oops. That mistake is kind of reminiscent of the strawberry bread disaster, but I don't think that is why this coffee cake had problems. The taste and texture were actually very good. The problem was that the batter was the consistency of cookie dough, so I basically had to press it into the pan. That made it difficult to put the second layer of batter on top of the cranberry sauce, and it was near impossible to swirl. So when I took it out of the oven and tried to flip it out onto a plate, there really wasn't much binding the top layer and the bottom layer of batter together. The top layer came out first, covered in cranberry sauce, then I had to loosen the bottom layer and lay it over the part that already came out. It made for horrible presentation, but it still tasted just fine.

Overall the taste was good, the ingredients were relatively normal (I specially bought the cranberry sauce), and I liked the sweet cake mixed with the tart cranberry.  In my opinion it's worth making. I think Brian liked it, but I always have to convince him that coffee cake is okay to eat and doesn't have coffee in it. Maybe it could be put into a different pan, so you could cut it and take out a piece rather than inverting the pan to get the cake out. And it would probably be even better with a cream cheese swirl, but most things are better with cream cheese.

Dinner and dessert: Creamed Tuna on Toast and Cinnamon Cream Cheese Bars

I have a whole packet of eating healthier while spending less from NDSU. It has pretty simple recipes in it and plans out the meals with a grocery list and equipment list for each recipe. I knew we were going to be in a time crunch, so I decided to try one out and get it our of the way.

Creamed Tuna on Toast

Equipment you will need
-knife
-vegetable peeler
-measuring spoons
-measuring cup
-can opener
-saucepan with lid
-mixing spoon
-bowl
-toaster
-cutting board

Ingredients
2 tablespoons margarine, melted
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cups lowfat milk
1 carrot, sliced
1 stalk of celery, sliced
1 cup peas
1 7-ounce can tuna, drained
8 slices bread for toast

1. Wash and slice the carrot and celery. Cook them in a saucepan with a 1/2 cup water until soft. Drain and set aside in a small bowl.
2. In the same saucepan, melt margarine. Add the flour, salt, and pepper and stir until it looks like paste.
3. Add the milk and stir while it cooks until the sauce gets thicker. Do not boil.
4. Add the carrots, celery, peas, and tuna.
5. Stir and cook until the mixture in hot.
6. Make toast and serve the creamed tuna over it. You can also serve it over biscuits or noodles.

We both agreed that we aren't having this again. It didn't have much taste. Big Chub doctored it up some which made it marginally better. If by some small chance we have to have this again, we'll probably eat it over noodles, kinda like tuna noodle casserole. Little chub gobbled it right up.

The next recipe is from Pam. I don't know which of the Pams, but I'm guessing Conkle because it looks like it would be her handwriting? Any way, super easy recipe. I had the ingredients to make a half recipe so that's what I did and good thing, too! We don't need that many calories around here.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Bars
2-pkg crescent rolls
2-8 oz cream cheese
1-cup sugar
1-tsp. vanilla
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
Cinnamon and Sugar for topping

Oven temperature: 350 degrees  Time: 30 min  Serves: 10-12

Spray bottom of 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray. Put down layer of crescent rolls and flatten.
In a bowl, beat together cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla and spread on layer of rolls in pan.
Put down 2nd layer of crescent rolls.
Top with melted butter-(I spread with a brush.)
Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar (blended together).
Bake and cool completely before cutting.
Enjoy!

These smelled so good baking and cooling, and I had to resist trying them before Big Chub got home. They are delicious! I could have eaten the whole pan myself. We stuck the leftovers in the fridge and they are just a good chilled overnight.

 

It is definitely a keeper recipe. Thank you, Pam!

Nameless recipes

Somehow I managed to get a whole bunch of recipes that Mom copied off of the internet (I'm guessing) and they have no name and some have very few instructions. Luckily, this recipe had a cooking temperature and time, but I have a few that only have a list of ingredients slightly blurred by oily substances that got on the 3x5 card or half sheet of computer paper (that had a list of car repair shops I could take my car to when it wouldn't shift out of park back in December of 2009 or lists of important things that have happened to remember to write about in the family paper).

I guess I'll make up names for these recipes and do my best to make some directions to go along with them. My made up stuff will be in pink and Mom's copied down stuff will be in black.

Orange Cranberry Nut Muffins
2 c. flour
3/4 c. white sugar
3/4 t. salt
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. soda
1 c. cranberries
1/2 c. nuts
1 T. orange zest
1 egg
2 T. oil
3/4 c. oj

350 degrees 50 min

Mix dry ingredients together. Add egg, oil, oj, nuts and cranberries. Bake in greased loaf pan (8"x4" is what I used and it seemed right). Done when toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. For me that was 53 minutes.

It was great to eat for breakfast. It isn't very sweet at all and with butter spread on top while it was warm, it was really yummy. I did realize as I was typing this in that I forgot to put in the 1 1/2 t. baking powder, but it seemed to turn out fine for me. It would probably be a little lighter with the baking powder. I also used what ever nuts I had on hand (almonds) and chopped them up. I bet it originally asked for walnuts or pecans because those or typical baking nuts. Luckily, Mom's version didn't specify what type of nuts were needed.

Be prepared for all my other no-name-no-direction recipes.