Cooking up a storm

Thankfully, no thunderstorms have rolled through our neck of the woods today. It has been busy, though, and the tomato plant in the front yard is growing well from all the water that's been coming.

Since this is a free weekend for me, I've been in the kitchen cooking. We had a Sunday dinner on Saturday, because...well, I felt like making it today!

Here's what we had:

Herbed Pork Chops

Dave got this hog from rural Missouri with a guy he worked with this winter. Very, very tender pork.

I dredged four rib pork chops in flour with salt, pepper, and spices (dried marjoram, thyme, and fresh sage and parsley from our patio pot). I seared them in a skillet in two pats of butter and then put them in a casserole (covered) in a 350 degree F oven for a half hour.

Scalloped Potatoes

I used my old standby recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (2000-70th anniversary edition) and as usual, they turned out great. For one little boy, I usually use cheddar cheese, but since we were out, I used the Swiss (Gruyere) the recipe cites.

Here's the recipe below:

1/2 cup chopped onion (1 medium)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons margarine or butter (I use butter)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Dash salt
1 1/4 cups milk (I use skim)
3 medium potatoes (1 pound) such as long white, round white, round red or yellow, such as Yukon.
3/4 cup shredded Gruyere cheese (optional)
NOTE: I used this one, and you can also use cheddar without issue)

Grease a 1 1/2 quart casserole and set aside

For sauce, in small saucepan, cook onion and garlic until tender, but not brown. Stir in flour, pepper and salt. Add milk all at once. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Add cheese and stir until melted.

Thinly slice potatoes. Place half the sliced potatoes in the prepared casserole. Cover with half sauce. Repeat potato and sauce layers.

Bake covered in a 350 degree F oven for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes more until potatoes are tender. Makes 4-6 servings.

Raspberry salad

2 cups washed and torn Romaine lettuce
1/2 cup fresh raspberries, washed and divided in two
1/4 cup Maple River Farms raspberry vinagrette
2 tablespoons toasted sunflower kernels, divided in two
crumbled Feta cheese to taste (approximately 2 tablespoons per salad, add as you desire)

Add cleaned Romaine to individual bowls, one cup per bowl. Add raspberries, sunflower kernels, vinagrette and Feta cheese to taste. Vary as you like.

Garlic bread

1 French baguette, split lengthwise
Drizzle with olive oil, add one minced clove of garlic among pieces (I cut mine in thirds for approximately 6 smaller pieces) and dust with parmesan cheese.

Add to broiler and watch for approximately 5 minutes or until brown.
NOTE: Remove before the smoke detector goes off!

Serve with your favorite drinks and desserts. We had ice cream and coffee.

If you prepare this meal, hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

A quick batch of pot luck cakes

Here's the scenario:

I get home from the grocery store, put everything away, and at 1800, Hubby tells me he needs something for the pot luck dinner at work. Another important thing...make sure it doesn't have to be refrigerated, since that will probably be full of other important stuff.

Hmm...I ask him about what to bring, and thankfully, this site does not assign dishes by last name or anything, so I head to the cookbook and cabinet to see what happens. Since I had all the ingredients on hand, I decided to make an upside down cake.

The recipe below for yellow cake comes from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, 2000. I use this cookbook frequently because it has a nice form factor (is small and fits on the shelf I want it on in the kitchen) and it has a lot of fairly basic recipes you can build on easily.

Note: there is a pineapple upside down recipe in this book on page 137, but I use the Yellow Cake one instead for a couple of reasons--it makes two cakes from one batch.

Yellow cake pineapple upside down

Cake:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter or margarine
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
2 teaspoons finely shredded lemon peel (optional)

Note: this cake above will produce enough batter for two cakes (9 inch round cake pans)

Topping

NOTE: items below are per cake--double ingredients below (by type) if making two upside down cakes!

pineapple upside down
1 can pineapple slices
8-10 maraschino cherries (I use 8 --one whole one in the center of each pineapple ring)
1/2 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup brown sugar

or variation--
apricot upside down
2-15 oz. cans apricot halves
1/2 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Grease 2-9 inch round pans with shortening or cooking spray (i.e. Pam).
Place pineapples and cherries in bottom of pan.
Add chopped nuts atop the cherries and pineapples to cover.
Add brown sugar to cover. Pat down if needed.
Set aside.

Combine flour, salt and baking powder in separate bowl.
In large mixing bowl, beat butter or margarine on high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and vanilla and beat until well combined. Add lemon peel here (optional).
Add eggs one at a time, beating for one minute each.
Add dry mixture and milk, on low speed, slowly until just combined.

Pour batter carefully to cover fruit in each pan. You should have enough batter to cover two cakes.

Bake at 375 degrees F, or until golden and tested with wooden toothpick (comes out clean when poked near center of cake).

Loosen cake around edges of pan and let sit on cooling rack for five minutes. Invert cake onto heat-safe plate and cooling rack and let sit another five minutes. Cake should come out of pan easily.

NOTE: some pineapple or topping may stick to pan. Remove pineapple and/or topping promptly and place back on cake very carefully!

Serve warm or when cooled. Makes approximately 8 servings per cake.

Our results: one pineapple and one apricot upside down cake.