Made From Scratch Tuesday 3/15

This Friday, my bloggy and IRL pal Ott,A is launching the third round of Iron Chef. This month's theme ingredient is canned tomatoes and is sponsored by Red Gold.

Red Gold sent me a "welcome" package a couple weeks ago full of some great Red Gold products. I heart Red Gold. Here's some info from their website which really captures the spirit of Red Gold:

"A good harvest begins with strong roots, and we can trace ours back three generations. Red Gold began in 1942 when Grover Hutcherson and his daughter, Fran, rebuilt a Midwest cannery to provide fresh-tasting canned food products for the war effort. More than half a century later, we remain a family-owned business based in the heart of Tomato Country."

Anyway, since you gals all know how much I love spending time in the kitchen, I'm going to share the early bird version of my entry to Ott,A's Iron Chef Challenge-Canned Tomatoes.

Red Gold Bruschetta

What you'll need:
1/2 loaf Italian bread, cut in half lengthwise
1 can diced tomatoes (drained)
olive oil
fresh mozzarella
fresh basil
garlic salt
pepper

Brush a light coat of olive oil on each half of the bread. Add the tomatoes to each side. Sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper. Add a layer of basil leaves, then top with mozzarella. Put each loaf on a baking sheet and place in the oven on the "high broil" setting. (You'll want the rack to be about 4 inches from the heating element.) Broil about 5 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly. Or...Red Gold has tomatoes canned with garlic and basil already in the cans. Now, I still prefer to add the fresh basil leaves, but really...could they make it any easier?

Back to last week's linky...WOW! I was so impressed with all the recipes everyone shared last week!! I had so many favorites, I'm not even sure where to begin. As I've said before, I'm still trying to work on my relationship with Twitter. I admit, I didn't try hard last week. I promise to make an effort this week. I'd like to feature some of your great recipes, so if you're in the twitter world, be on the look out for some tweets coming from @MessHall2Bistro.

What goodies have you been cooking up this week?
Here are the rules:
1. You can link up as many posts as you'd like.
2. My only content rule is it has to be made from scratch.
3. If you want to put my button somewhere, that'd be cool. You can grab the code on the top right of my sidebar.

Fondue for Two

Since Borders is closing, we did some shopping lately and found some things we didn't necessarily need, but definitely wanted. That's where I found this cute fondue set. It came with a little book of fondue recipes, but I figure why go with someone else's creation when I can make my own, right? Now a while back, I joined up with Coffeemate and the Brew Crew. Cute, right? Anyway, the Brew Crew hooked me up with a sample pack to share coffeemate with my friends. I had planned on sharing all my goodies with my bloggy pals, but the weather happened and I couldn't make it to my January meeting, so I shared with another group of pals.  But never fear! I will be sharing recipes created using coffeemate on here for you all.

National Maple Syrup Festival

What happens the first two weekends in March in the tiny town of Medora, IN? The National Maple Syrup Festival! Last year, we didn't go due to the cold, rainy weather. This year, the second weekend was perfect weather. We spent the day taking in the beautiful scenery during the 2 hour drive and learning about all things Maple.
The festival starts out with a bus ride to the farm. They played a tape of the history of Indiana, the settlers, and the Burtons along with a brief introduction to syrup and sugar.

We pulled up to the farm and were surrounded by maple trees with buckets hanging all around. You see, not much has changed since the native americans processed the deliciously sweet sap hundreds of years ago. Now obviously they didn't have the metal buckets, but same principle.

Our first stop on the walking tour was the settler reenactment.

It was so neat to see how everything was prepared from sap to sugar. It was truly amazing to see how the clear sap turned into a product that was used for not only a sweetener, but also as a means of preservation in the days before refrigeration. We even got to sample the sugar they had worked so hard for the day before.

After the tour, we had certainly worked up an appetite. Off to the food tent!

Pancakes with lots of ooey gooey syrup and sausage, yum! Didn't want breakfast? No problem! They also have a pork chop dinner consisting of 2 barbecue/maple syrup chops, potatoes, maple ham and beans, and a roll. Amazing!!
There were tons of kids activities as well. If you haven't made it down before, be sure to check it out next year. It's always the first two weekends of March. A great time for the whole family to learn about a great Indiana product and see history in action.

Make sure to visit the fantastic blog parties on my sidebar, and of course, link up all your made from scratch recipes on my Tuesday linky-Made From Scratch Tuesday!



Made From Scratch Tuesday 3/8

We had some awesome links last week!  Since the husband has been working evenings for the last week, I was a little lazy with my cooking. My biggest accomplishment was the mini angel food cakes. So, instead of giving you gals one of my recipes, this week I'm going to feature some of my favorites from last week. If you didn't get a chance to see them before, head on over and check them out! In no particular order, here are some recipes I found interesting:

See this pizza from Cranberry Morning? It looks great, right? Well, here's the coolest part....she made her own mozzarella!

This honey mustard chicken from Hun...What's for Dinner? made my mouth water!

Now for this next one, I was all in at the word "cookie". But Olympic Cookies from Joy in My Kitchen? Yes please. I'll take two...dozen!

Thanks to everyone for linking up all your fantastic dishes! I can't wait to see what you all come up with this week!




What goodies have you been cooking up this week?
Here are the rules:
1. You can link up as many posts as you'd like.
2. My only content rule is it has to be made from scratch.
3. If you want to put my button somewhere, that'd be cool. You can grab the code on the top right of my sidebar.

Mini Angel Food Cakes

 I did something I swore I would never do. I used a Martha Stewart recipe. I don't know why, but that woman truly irritates me. But, when I googled "mini angel food cake recipe" that was the first thing that came up.

It all started because I was shopping with my mom and found mini angel food cake pans. Now really, how can you resist these? Especially when I'm making something for just me and the husband. If I make a full cake, we end up throwing half of it away. I used the Martha Stewart recipe and scaled it down to make 2 instead of 12.



 Here's the recipe from Martha Stewart's website:

 

 

 

Old-Time Favorites: Mini Angel Food Cakes

Though it's not often served at weddings, angel food cake never disappoints. Guests will be delighted by these individual versions of the heavenly confection; each one is glazed and then topped with a single sugared flower (an edible rose, viola, or primrose), making them elegant enough to present either in lieu of a classic wedding cake or as part of a dessert buffet. Cake stands dusted with pale pink sanding sugar give them the stature they deserve.

Ingredients

Makes 1 dozen

• 1 1/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 12 large egg whites
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Poured Fondant Glaze

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with rack in lower third. Sift flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Beat egg whites on medium-low speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk until foamy, about 2 minutes. Mix in cream of tartar and vanilla. Raise speed to medium-high; beat until medium- stiff peaks form. Reduce speed to medium-low; add remaining 1 cup sugar in a steady stream. Beat until stiff (but not dry) peaks form; transfer to a large bowl.
3. Sift one-third flour mixture over egg-white mixture; gently fold in with a rubber spatula. Repeat to incorporate remaining flour mixture. Gently spoon batter into a large pastry bag without a tip. Pipe batter into 1-cup angel food cake molds so each is 2/3 full.
4. Bake, rotating molds halfway through, until cakes are pale golden and tops spring back when lightly pressed, 15 minutes. Let cool in molds on wire racks 30 minutes.
5. Invert molds, and sharply rap them on a towel-covered work surface; gently release cakes from molds. Spoon poured fondant glaze over top of each cake, letting it drip down sides.

 I didn't do the fondant glaze. Instead, I made a berry syrup.

To make the syrup, put 2 cups of mixed berries (mine were frozen) into a small sauce pan and simmer until the berries cook down. How simple is that? No sugar added to this; just the sweetness of the berries. So maybe Martha isn't so bad, well except for that whole insider trading bit.


Make sure to visit the fantastic blog parties on my sidebar, and of course, link up all your made from scratch recipes on my Tuesday linky-Made From Scratch Tuesday!

Made From Scratch Tuesday 3/1

What a week! Have you guys been a busy as I have? In all the craziness of last week, I had a few chances to whip up some meals that were pleasing to everyone. The fish tacos went over great, as did my Tetrazzini.
I followed the recipe below from www.leftoverchicken.com, with my changes in italics.

Turkey Tetrazzini

Note: May be made 1 day ahead.

1 T. flour

1 T. butter

1 c milk

¼ t salt

¼ t pepper

¼ t paprika (sometimes my stomach doesn't like paprika, so I cut this out)

¼ t sage

¼ t dry mustard

Few drops onion juice (onion juice? I diced one small onion and sauteed it with the mushrooms)

1 t. lemon juice

2 c. cooked chicken, cut in pieces (I used turkey, chopped into pieces, didn't measure, but it was enough to serve 5 in the end)

¾ c cooked spaghetti (I cooked some angel hair pasta, again didn't measure)

½ c chopped fresh mushrooms (I used 2 portebella mushroom caps)

2 T. butter

¼ lb. grated Parmesan cheese (I used about 1/4 c.)

2 c. chopped spinach

Sliced, fresh mozzarella

¾ c butter bread crumbs

Make a medium white sauce of the flour, butter, milk and salt. Add the pepper, paprika sage, mustard and onion & lemon juices to the white sauce and heat to the boiling point. Add chicken turkey, spaghetti, spinach, parmesan cheese, and mushrooms and onions which have been sautéed in the butter. Fill 2 individual greased casseroles or one larger casserole with the mixture and top with mozzarella cheese and bread crumbs. Bake in 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until the crumbs are very brown and ingredients are warmed through.

What goodies have you been cooking up this week?
Here are the rules:
1. You can link up as many posts as you'd like.
2. My only content rule is it has to be made from scratch.
3. If you want to put my button somewhere, that'd be cool. You can grab the code on the top right of my sidebar.

Fish Tacos

Fish tacos are something I've been curious about, but had never tried. So when Meijer had tilapia on sale last week, I figured this was the perfect time.

I started out by cooking the fish on the stove in the juice of one lime. At the same time, I heated the tortilla shells in another pan. Now, for the toppings!

I love lime juice on my tacos, so I sliced up one lime in addition to the juice I used to cook the fish in. For the onion, I wanted the flavor, but didn't want it to be overpowering, so I went with green onion. Instead of lettuce, I picked up some arugula. I really like the flavor of arugula and thought it would be perfect with these. Keeping with the unintentional green theme, I chopped up one avocado.

Now, to give them the taco feel, I decided to use a bit of the Philly cooking cream on the shells. I went with the Santa Fe style. Have you guys tried this stuff yet? OMG AMAZING! Love it! The first night I used it, I followed the recipe on the container, but we didn't use all of it. It had just enough spice to give the fish tacos the right flavor without taking over the fish. Here's the finished result:

 

Unfortunately, the husband didn't like them. That's too bad for him; I thought they rocked. I guess next time I make them he'll be eating cereal for dinner. 

Make sure to visit the fantastic blog parties on my sidebar, and of course, link up all your made from scratch recipes on my Tuesday linky-Made From Scratch Tuesday!




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