Apple Craisin Muffins

Kellie is certainly baking up a storm here at home for us. She found this recipe using my iTouch All Recipes' Dinner Spinner App. Wow is that thing fun. You pick ingredients, then you spin for recipes and the thing comes up with all these great sounding recipes. Lots of fun and helpful for getting out of a cooking/baking rut! 


As a side note- a boy that has an iTouch should really download this free app for his mom to use! (hint, hint)


So here is Kellie's version of their Apple Raisin Bread.


Kellie's Apple Craisin Muffins


1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup oats (quick or regular is fine)
1 1/2 cup chopped apple
1/4 cup craisins
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line regular or mini muffin pans with paper liners.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, brown sugar and oats. Add apple, craisins, eggs, milk and oil. Mix until dry ingredients are moistened.

Bake for 15 -18 minutes. 
This makes 36 mini muffins.

For a printable recipe click here .

Sweet Cornbread

Sweet Cornbread
1 cup flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup cornmeal (I like using the white corn)
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/3 cup oil


Mix all together. Fill muffin pan or 9 inch square pan.
400 degrees for 18-20 minutes.


We usually make it in a square pan and serve it with butter and a fork. 

Chili with Kellie

A goal we have for our family is that our children would cook one meal per month for the family. Well, it sorta, kinda worked but starting with January we are enforcing :-) this goal. 

So tonight is Kellie's night. She has a delicious smelling Chili simmering away on the stove while she plays in the snow outside. That's right, my girl is a multi-tasker all the way!

This is an adaptation of the "Phone Lady's" Chili but here we go:

Kellie's Chili
1 lb. ground beef or chuck
2-3 carrots peeled, and chopped
2 cups cut up celery
1/2 - 1 onion cut up
1 cup green pepper cut up
In a large stock pot, brown off the ground meat, then add the remaining ingredients to saute' vegetables.

Add in:
2 large cans of V-8 Juice (tried to save money here by using generic brand tomato juice, it was okay but was certainly missing something in taste we were used to with the V-8)
2 cans of chili beans, do not drain
1 large can of pork and beans, do not drain


Stir together and simmer for a couple hours. Sometimes I'll throw it in the crock pot and let it go all day. But tonight Kellie put it together around 3:30 and it'll simmer until 5 or so. Perfect.


She also made Sweet Cornbread too. Can't wait for supper. My tummy's growling! grrrrrr!

 Don't forget the sour cream and cheese!

Sweet Cornbread recipe coming soon!

Tastes just like the Jiffy Box cornbread but homemade!

Tortilla Pizza's

These were Yum!
Tortilla Land Unbaked Shells from Costco
Pizza Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese


Bake the shells by cooking each side on a hot, dry skillet til lightly browned.
(I like to precook all the shells ahead of time and save in the fridge or freezer.)
Spread sauce.
Top with cheese and any other desired toppings.
Bake 425 degrees for 6-8 minutes.


Super Quick and Easy!

Best Pan-Fried Pork Chops

I tried something different for dinner tonight and it turned out great. This is from Cook's Illustrated Nov/Dec. 2010 Issue. 

I read their article "Improving Pan-Fried Pork Chops"- wow, those people over at Cook's Illustrated sure make a chemistry experiment about food. Very interesting reading. I was curious if all their tedious instructions to breading a meat item would really make that much difference. 

Well, the family was pleased so that's enough confirmation for me.

Here is what I did tonight:

3 pork loins (I had A LOT of breading mixture and milk left over could definitely cover much more)

2/3 Cup cornstarch

1 cup buttermilk (I NEVER have this on hand so I did 1 cup milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice, stir, let sit 5 minutes)

2 tbsp. dijon mustard

1 tsp. garlic salt

3 cups cornflakes crushed

vegetable oil for frying

Place 1/3 cup cornstarch in shallow dish. In another dish/bowl whisk buttermilk, mustard and garlic til smooth. Process cornflakes, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper and 1/3 cup cornstarch in food processor. (putzy! you could just crush cornflakes in a bag with a rolling pin and mix in the other ingredients...kind of a pain to clean out the food processor for that little bit...but to each his own!)

So you have a dish of cornstarch mixture, one dish of the milk mixture and one dish of your cornflake crumb mixture. 

Cross hatch your pork loin with a knife, both sides. Then dredge in cornstarch (the feel of the cornstarch on the meat really gave me the willies- like cotton or nails on a chalkboard kinda thing). Then dip in milk mixture, then coat with breadcrumbs.

Place on a plate until all pork is coated.

Get your skillet or fry pan nice and hot with some oil in it and fry these about 5-6 minutes each side. 

The breading was very nice and crispy- not soggy at all, which is what the chemist's over there said it would be. 

I did deviate some from ALL their instructions but I'm a Mama cooking for a family, not a test kitchen. 

Then this went in the frying pan, never to be seen again. No picture- but they were so nice looking, perfectly browned and dee-licous. 

I served this with Linguine with a red sauce and normandy vegetables.

If you really want to see the Cook's Illustrated Crispy Pan Fried Pork Chops you can head over here but, it looks like you have to sign up to see anything.

Head over HERE for a printable recipe. Scroll to the bottom to "print this page".

Luigi's Sunrise Scramble

Today is Luigi's birthday so it was time for some special cooking. Luigi joined us for a brunch featuring:

Luigi's Sunrise Scramble

Funkuchen

Luigi's Peaches Melba

The Funkuchen recipe can be found here.

For Luigi's Peaches Melba I used one of my premade frozen peach pie fillings. I baked it at 375 for about an hour when I set it out to cool I threw in 1 cup of frozen blueberries and mixed it all together.

(I'm not sure but I think Luigi might have put some whipped cream on top of his.)

And Luigi's Sunrise Scramble turned out wonderful! The kids all raved "it's a keeper!!" So here is my original all mine recipe. :-)

14 Eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 lb. Farmland Original Pork Sausage

1 large onion

1 Can of Dei Fratelli Italian Chopped Tomatoes, drained and rinsed

1 Cup Cheddar Cheese

In a large skillet brown off pork sausage. When nicely browned, lay a paper towel on a plate and transfer meat to plate. (to soak up grease) Set aside. Chop up large onion and saute' in same skillet. Transfer to meat plate, set aside.

Crack eggs into a large bowl add milk and wisk until smooth. Add to skillet and scramble them up. When scrambled add in meat and onion. Stir together. Then add in tomatoes and cheese and stir together until nice and hot.

This fed 6 with leftovers for 5 for supper. :-)

The taste is "mmmmm good".

For a printable recipe of Luigi's Sunrise Scramble click HERE