Category Archives: recipes

pumpkin rice pudding

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Oh yes I did. I took my rice pudding recipe, subtracted two eggs and some sugar, added a can of pumpkin, maple syrup, a little honey, and tweaked it all a bit more and well….it worked.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups cooked white rice (I used leftover Chinese food white rice)
4 cups 2% milk (I really wanted to use whole milk but I didn’t have any)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract- pure not imitation
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
puree
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground mace
1 teaspoon cardamom
2/3 cup raisins
3 eggs
3 tablespoons honey

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat an oven to 350°.

Add rice to a cooking pot and add the milk, salt, and cardamom. Bring the milk to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer (uncovered), stirring frequently, until the rice is very soft and absorbs most of the milk, about 15 minutes or so. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and stir in the sugar. Set aside. It needs a few minutes to cool off.

Grease a 2 quart baking dish. (Use butter).

Whisk pumpkin, maple syrup, 1/2 of the cinnamon called for in recipe, mace, nutmeg, ginger, all eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 3 tablespoons of honey – use large bowl

Pour half of the rice pudding mixture into large bowl with pumpkin mixture. Add the warm milk and rice mixture a little bit at a time and very slowly since you don’t want to cook the eggs in the pumpkin mixture. Spoon the pumpkin rice pudding into the prepared baking dish.

Mix the raisins into the remaining rice pudding milk mixture, and spoon it over the pumpkin rice pudding. Swirl the two liquids slightly.

Bake, uncovered until firm, about 50 minutes. A knife should come out of custard clean and it is cooked through. Serve warm or cool and refrigerate leftovers.

YUM.

apple maple pie

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After watching the Food Network television show “Farmhouse Rules” the other day, I was inspired to bake a pie. So I decided to bake a homemade apple maple pie. I have baked this pie in the past, but this is the first time I have written down the recipe.

(Okay here is hoping that I have the proportions correct to give you for this recipe.)

9 inch vintage deep dish pie plate

Filling:
Four or five large apples peeled, cored, sliced
Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, mace to taste
1 1/2 tablespoon of butter in little pieces
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup of flour
1/4 cup sugar
Couple tablespoons of apple cider

Crust:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoon sugar
8 tablespoons butter
6 to 7 tablespoons water

Assemble crust using pastry blender and wrap dough in Saran wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour.

While crust is chilling, assemble filling.

You will have enough dough for a rolled out bottom layer crust and strips for lattice top. I’m using a slightly smaller than normal but deep pie plate. Use a pastry brush to brush the lattice strips with a little milk and sprinkle with sugar.

Tip: I roll my piecrust out between sheets of Saran wrap or parchment paper.

Tip: after I have rolled my crust to the desired thickness and I have put it in my pie plate, I throw into the freezer for a few minutes to firm up before I fill with pie filling.

Heat oven to 425°. Bake pie on a cookie sheet to catch any spills. Bake 12 to 14 minutes at 425°, reduce oven to 350° and keep an eye on it and bake approximately 50 minutes more, or slightly less depending on your oven.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or thin slices of a good local cheddar cheese.

The vintage pie plate came from the Smithfield Barn.

Enjoy and happy baking!

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quince-apple butter

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I don’t do much jelly and jam making (yet), but I love “butters”. Pumpkin butter, apple butter, peach butter, pear butter, and now quince-apple butter.

My friend Meredith had given me a lovely basket full of quince the other day, and I had a bowl full of apples sitting on the kitchen table.

So after I peeled, cored ,and chopped everything I threw it into a crockpot with a scant couple cups of apple cider three cinnamon sticks a couple chunks of peeled and slightly smashed ginger (to release the flavor), sugar, juice of one lemon and lemon peel , a little mace, and two days worth of cooking…and the end result is here.

In the end I think I used close to 3 cups of sugar because quince is so tart. And quince is a very hard almost prehistoric looking fruit and halfway through cleaning the quince I wondered if it would be worth it. It is.

It smells and tastes delicious! The butter is thick and velvety, and it is a coral meets red sort of color. It looks very pretty in the canning jars. I had started cooking this yesterday afternoon but then we went out for dinner so I turned off and unplugged the crockpot. This morning I turned the crockpot back on low for three more hours of cooking and this is the end result.

I realize my method of preparing this must be maddening to serious jam, jelly, and preserve makers because I’m a little of this and a little of that in the pot. but it works! I used a couple of recipes as a guide to make sure my proportions were right, but that is about it.

Thanks for stopping by!

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pie plates

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Yes I roll out my own piecrust. I don’t like a lot of the modern pie plates. I use vintage pie plates.

Yes, here again is my pitch for the vintage kitchen: The glass pie plates that were made by Pyrex and Anchor Hocking are terrific . I have a bunch that were probably produced in the 1950s and 60s. One was my grandmother’s.

My favorite of these pie plates are the deep dish variety – the edges are sort of ruffled and the pie plates have little handles. I also have the plain glass ones that are more shallow, and a couple of the Wear-Ever aluminum pie plates. And you can find them in different sizes too.

These pie plates are everywhere. Thrift shops, church sales, barn sales, your neighbor cleaning out their kitchen cupboards.

These pie plates are not expensive, and I think pies bake better in them. I know pies look better in them. You can easily put a pre-made roll out piecrust into one of these plates as well if you don’t make your own crust.

I tend to pick these up when I find them because a lot of times when I take pies to other people’s homes for dinner or holidays the pie plates don’t come back. I have been finding a lot of these pie plates at the Smithfield Barn in Downingtown. I also found one last year at Angel Fest at St. Paul’s in Exton which is coming soon! (See this link for further information)

Anyway, I am really not a 1950s housewife in disguise. It’s just that some of these vintage kitchen items are better made than what we have today. Besides, a little kitsch in your kitchen never hurt anyone!

Enjoy your day!

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coffee talk: gourmesso

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So I am an Espresso maniac. I make it old school in the stove top pot, but I do love my Nespresso machine. I am a purist and I do not drink flavored coffees or espressos. The flavored coffees and espressos leave a metallic taste in my mouth. I like the straight bean varietals.

What I do not like about my Nespresso machine is how expensive the name brand Nespresso capsules are. So I have been trying different brand compatible capsules again. I have discovered yet another brand. It is called Gourmesso.

Gourmesso describes themselves as “Italian passion for coffee, combines with German Ingenuity”. At first that made me giggle as I had visions of an Alpha Romeo with a Mercedes Benz engine. However, I had their espresso yesterday for the first time and oh my, it’s not just good. It’s excellent.

The capsules arrive in little boxes and are vacuum packed in little foil packets, a few to each packet. Yesterday I had “Bolivia Pura Mezzo“. My first cup was a straight shot of espresso (pictured above). It was deep and rich and smooth and flavorful. It had that real espresso taste.

And the Gourmesso capsules fit the machine well. I had a second cup that was more my normal Café au lait or cappuccino style – I admit it I have a milk frother and warmer too- Nespresso Aeroccino Plus. (Normally I only have one cup of coffee, this coffee is good enough to tempt me to two!)

I haven’t decided what flavor I am trying this morning. You can order straight from their website www.gourmesso.com and their capsules are on Amazon.com as well. Their capsules start at around $0.45 per capsule. That is a much better deal than Nespresso brand capsules which start at $0.65 per capsule for the traditional capsules.

Ok well I am off to find coffee! Try Gourmesso and let me know what you think!

Thanks for stopping by!

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baking powder breakfast biscuits

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baking powder breakfast biscuits

Preheat your oven to 450°

In a bowl blend 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, 1/2 cup sugar.

In a second smaller bowl whisk together 3/4 of a cup of buttermilk, 1/2 cup canola oil, one beaten egg.

Work the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients. Stir together lately. Do not overwork your dough.

To the dough add 1/2 cup of seedless raisins dark or white your choice, and a little less than half a cup of low-fat granola without fruit in it. The granola that works best for the ones that are just flavored with cinnamon and not much else and not huge pieces of nuts. This time I used Woodpecker low-fat granola that I purchased at Pete’s produce on 926.

Use a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. This recipe yields 12 to 14 biscuits, so break off pieces of dough accordingly and shape into a quick ball and then flatten somewhat and lay on the cookie sheet a couple inches apart.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes depending on your oven.

Serve with butter, honey, apple butter, pumpkin butter, or your choice of jelly.

(The plate the biscuits are sitting on in the top photo came from the Smithfield Barn)

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grow your own salad

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I must admit I find it just as much fun now as I did when I was child to literally grow my own salad! My tomatoes are finally starting to come in properly. I had an issue with blossom end rot earlier in the season but corrected it with Epsom Salts. Some of the tomatoes pictured below have been turned into a delightful summer salad with cucumber, onion, fresh basil, and a simple vinaigrette.

The lettuce I bought in started packs a couple of weeks ago when my friend Sara and I made our last journey up to Black Creek Greenhouses in East Earl, PA. I plant my lettuce in pots and it’s a combination of arugula and romaine.

Thanks for stopping by!

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peach and ground cherry galette

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I purchased a pint of forgotten fruit at the farmers market yesterday. Ground cherries. They were in little papery husks almost like a tomatillo. They are a very old-fashioned fruit that you see once in a blue moon at farmers or local organic markets.

Preheat your oven to 400°F

Get out your frozen two sheet package of puff pastry – Pepperidge Farm or whomever and allow it to thaw at room temperature. If it’s really frozen it can take over half an hour.

First make the Frangipane (almond cream):

In a large mixing bowl whip together with your mixer the following:

3 tablespoons butter, preferably unsalted

One large egg

1/3 cup granulated white sugar

One half teaspoon pure vanilla or almond extract

One half a cup of almond flour or almond meal (I order mine from nuts.com)

1 tablespoon of regular white flour

Beat together until fluffy and set aside.

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In another bowl, put your ground cherries (after removing the little husks from them) in with a 1/3 cup of light brown sugar and a couple dashes of cinnamon. (I had purchased a pint’s worth of this fruit.) To this I add 2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice. I then take a hand potato masher and macerate slightly the ground cherries and the sugar and cinnamon and lemon juice.

Next take out a jellyroll pan – otherwise known as a cookie sheet with an edge and line it with parchment paper

Take one sheet of puff pastry and gently unfold it and put it in the center of the pan on the parchment paper.

Next take an icing spreader or spatula and spread the almond cream/Frangipane evenly on the bottom layer of puff pastry.

Next slice two to three medium size peaches in thin slices. Arrange neatly on top of the cream. Next spoon the ground cherry mixture evenly on top of the peaches.

Take the other sheet of puff pastry and unfold it and lay evenly on top of the fruit mixture. Crimp the edges of both sheets of puff pastry together all the way around.

Cut quite a few vent holes in the top of the path pastry. You can do it in a pattern if you want. Take one egg yolk and add a tablespoon and a half of water and whip it together. Use a pastry brush and brush the egg yolk lightly over the top of the pastry. Dust this with sugar. (egg yolk acts like a glue for the sugar)

Bake at 400° for about half an hour. My oven wasn’t doing something right today so I might have even taken longer baking. This is something you have to keep an eye on or you will burn it.

When everything is all golden and caramelized brown pull it out of the oven. It will also smell really amazing!

Cool before moving to a serving platter. I have a large round plate I picked up at a church sale years ago that I love for desserts that are a different than normal size.

You can serve this warm or cold. A little dollop of whipped cream should accompany each serving.

Refrigerate the leftovers.

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buy fresh, buy local, cook deliciously

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Sundays invariably become a cooking day for me. I often get things lined up for the week ahead. Today I made another batch of fresh Gazpacho and put a small beef roast and chicken breasts into marinades for cooking over the next couple of days.

I toss the meat and chicken into their own (as in individual) ziplock bags with either a homemade or semi-homemade marinade which includes fresh herbs out of my garden, garlic cloves peeled and sliced.

Marinades are easy. There are tons of recipes out there, or you can use a prepared one and tweak it. I like Stubb’s marinades and Pete’s Produce has their own line of marinades too which are very good, and KC Masterpiece has a couple which aren’t bad. I seem unable to use these marinades on their own, I tweak them to what I want. I never add more salt, but I might add herbs, spices, lemon juice, lime juice, fresh ginger, and so on.

We buy our meat and poultry from a local Chester County butcher who in turn buys from a lot of local farms. We use Worrell’s Butcher Shop on King Street in Malvern (Borough). You can’t beat the quality, and truthfully their prices are competitive with supermarket chains. If you have never tried them, you should. They will prepare custom freezer orders for customers too.

Since I have moved to Chester County I have made an effort to source our food locally. I love the East Goshen Farmers Market and West Chester Growers Market, but am becoming increasingly fond of Pete’s Produce on 926 because they pull in from a bunch of local farms, including for dairy products. Also on my list is Sugartown Strawberries and Strattons’ Wynnorr Farm. Also to be included in the rave category is the Phoenixville Farmers Market.

The locavore movement is continuing to grow in this country and there is more than a little truth in local food is better on so many levels. In Chester County we are lucky to have so many farms and farmers markets, so why not support the local farm economy?

Buy fresh, buy local, cook deliciously.

Thanks for stopping by!

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fresh pasta sauce with eggplant and mini meatballs

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1 can chopped Italian tomatoes – 35 ounces

2 chopped fine large fresh tomatoes

1 6 ounce can of tomato paste

1 eggplant peeled and diced (if you use a traditional deep purple eggplant, choose a medium-size one)

1 large onion diced

1/2 head of garlic diced

fresh herbs to taste – basil and oregano and parsley

2 small hot peppers, diced. Mine are from the garden, and are cayenne peppers. This is not a recipe for jalapeno peppers. I would say little fresh cayenne, which are skinny red hot peppers. My hot peppers were maybe an inch and a half each, if that. So if you have one hot pepper and it is about 2 inches long, you’re good with that.

Salt-and-pepper to taste

1 bell pepper diced preferably any color but green

Toss into a crock pot on high for 3 hours and switch to low for 3 or 4 hours and stir once an hour and be gentle especially when you add the meatballs.

Put the lid slightly askew the last hour to hour and a half that you cook so the sauce cooks down properly. I put a splatter screen for a frying pan on top of the open cooking sauce and put the lid on top of that slightly askew.

Here is how you make the mini meatballs:

The mini meatballs consist of a pound and a half good ground beef , a half cup of breadcrumbs, a few dashes of milk, and one egg, four garlic cloves minced, two shallots minced, a third of an onion minced, tons of fresh herbs minced (parsley, oregano, basil).

Mix all the meat together and form into tiny meatballs a little over an inch in diameter.

Roast in a preheated 350° oven on a baking pan that has an edge (like an industrial baking or jellyroll pan) to catch any extra grease that might run off on parchment paper for about 35 minutes.

Allow meatballs to cool about 15 minutes on plates lined with paper towel to catch any extra grease, then toss into the crockpot and continue cooking.

You can serve the sauce over whole-wheat pasta, or mini ravioli. We used whole-wheat penne last evening. We dusted the top of each plate with shaved fresh Parmesan.

Enjoy!