Recipes #6 and #7

On Thursday, the guys in my lab and myself got together for a potluck lunch. One of the guys brought in his grill and we all pitched in some money for steaks. We grilled them and chicken breasts. Along with the meat we all brought in one side including mac-n-cheese, baked potatoes, potato salad, squash casserole, and fruit salad. And I was in charge of the desserts.


At 7 pm on Wednesday night i still had no idea what i wanted to make. Finally i remembered I had Lynn's cookbook. So I opened it up and was again stumped... on which pies to make. I finally picked the triple chocolate mouse pie and the blueberry banana creme pie.


Both were amazing. I got rave review on both. The bigger hit of the two was the blueberry banana cream pie. Everyone loved unique yet obvious combination of flavors. Both are definite hits that i will make again.


For the recipe.... See her newer cookbook (the one we got at Grandma Nell's 100th b-day party). I did have to slightly modify the recipes both nothing that would drastically alter the taste. (My pans were too small and I had to reduce the amount of blueberry pie filling on top)



Side Note: Our lunch together was great and we ended up with a ton of leftovers. We could easily have a second meal with all of the food present. We are already planning out next luncheon together.

Recipe #5 Oatmeal Raisen Cookies

I think I finally found an easy amazing oatmeal cookie. I always find it hard to get the perfect mixture of crunchy and chewy in an oatmeal cookie.

Again, I found this recipe on recipezaar.com. If you want to look it up search or recipe#35813

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

2c flour

1t baking powder

1t baking soda

1t salt

1c butter, softened

1c sugar

1c dark brown sugar, packed (you must use dark brown sugar. I think its why they are so good)

2 eggs

2t vanilla

3c oats (not instant)

1 2/2 raisins

In a medium bowl, mix four, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. In a large bowl mix butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla together. Mix on med to high speed to cream. Add dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Fold in oats and raisins.

On a greased cookie sheet scoop 2T worth of dough into mounds spaced ~2 inches apart. Bake 11-13 minutes at 350 until the cookies are a nice brown. Let them cool on the sheet for 2 minutes before removing onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Note: I used my large scoop which is probably ~1T. It made 3 1/4 dozen cookies that were a nice size. They took ~9-10 minutes to bake.

Recipe #4 Key Lime Bread

I was looking through my frig and found a partially used bottle of key lime juice that i wanted to use up. I was in the mind set of making bread that could be frozen for quick breakfast, so looked online and found this recipe. It was on my favorite recipe website http://www.recipezaar.com/

I hope you all enjoy. If you want to look it up on recipezaar, it is recipe #249793.



Key Lime Bread



2/3 c butter, softened (i used margarine)

2c sugar

4 eggs

2T lime zest (because i only had juice, i skipped this)

2 T key lime juice (I added 3 to make up for zest)

1t vanilla

3c flour

3t baking powder

1 t salt

1c milk (we were out so i reconstituted some dry milk)

1c chopped nuts



Glaze

2/3c confectioners sugar

1-2T key lime juice



In a large bowl cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix well. Add lime peel, juice, and vanilla and mix well. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add to creamed mixture alternating with milk. Fold in nuts

Pour into 2 greased 9x5 pans and bake for 50-55 mins at 350 or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes and then remove from pan and place on wire rack to cool completely. Make glaze and top when cooled.



Notes: I did not remove my from the pan (it was late) and they turned out fine.

We ate this one quickly. The second one is in the freezer with glazing instructions waiting to be eaten another day.
I loved the bread. Aaron liked it. Hannah only at the top part with the icing. I will definitely make this again. Its great if your in the mood for key lime.

Recipe #3 Grapefruit Bread

We were bless with three bags of wonderful grapefruits from a guy I work with. He has 30+ grapefruit trees in his backyard and had to pick all of the fruit because of the extremely cold weather. I am planning on making grapefruit marmalade, but found this recipe and was intrigued. The bread turned out really good. Its a dense bread with a light citrus taste. I took a loaf into work and everyone loved it.





Grapefruit Bread

3c flour

1/2t salt

4t baking powder

3/4t baking soda

2/3c honey

1/4c margarine, softened

1 2/3c rolled oats

1 egg

1 1/4c grapefruit juice

1 walnuts, chopped



In a medium size bowl mix the dry ingredients. Set aside. In another bowl cream margarine and honey. Add egg and mix. Add oats, juice, and flour. Mix together. Fold in nuts. Pour into 1 9x5 loaf pan and bake for ~1 hour at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean.



Note: When I made it, I added the oats to the liquid mixture (honey, margarine, egg, and juice) and let it sit for a minute to soften them. I then added the flour mixture.



Note: If you let the dough sit for a minute before baking (like while waiting for the oven to heat up), your dough will get really big. The texture will seem a little funny too, but don't worry it's still good. It's just all the baking powder working.

Recipe #2 Albondigas Soup

The second soup Aaron made for me was a recipe I copied 3 years ago. I do not remember where I got it. Albondigas soup is basically a mexican meatball soup. The recipe is below and i highly suggest everyone try it. It is amazing and makes a nice big pot. Also, it reheats really well and is just as good if not better the next day.

Albondigas Soup

1lb lean ground beef

1/2lb pork sausage (we used 1 lb accidentally)

1 onion, chopped

1 egg, beaten

1/2t salt

1/4t garlic powder

1/4c milk

1/4c fresh basil, chopped

1/2c corn meal

6-14oz cans beef broth (we used beef bullion to make the equivalent)

1-8oz jar salsa

1 onion, chopped

2-14.5oz canned peeled and diced tomatoes

1/2t basil

1/2t oregano

1/2t black pepper

1/2 white rice (not instant)

Mix together beef broth, salsa, 1 onion, tomatoes, dried basil, oregano, and pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 mins.

Mix together the ground beef, sausage, onion, egg, salt, 1/2t pepper, garlic pepper, milk, fresh basil, and cornmeal. Mix well. Form into tiny bite-sized meatballs.

Add the meatballs and rice to the broth. Simmer covered very slowly for 1 1/2 hours.

Note: I would add the rice for the last 30 minutes instead of the entite 1 1/2 hours. Its was a little mushy for my taste.

This is great with corn bread, day old bread, and cheese quesadillas.

Recipe #1 Tomato Soup

Last week, Aaron made two wonderful soups. The first was a tomato soup. It was absolutely wonderful. I had asked Aaron to make tomato soup. I was planning on just pureeing a can of Italian diced tomatoes and heating that up. But Aaron found a recipe on line that was slightly more involved and a hundred times better.



So, here is the recipe as found online with our changes in the parentheses.

Creamy Tomato Soup
4c chopped tomatoes (2 cans diced tomatoes. We used one regular and one Italian)
1 sliced onion
4 whole cloves (minced garlic)
2c chicken broth
2T flour
2T butter
1t salt
2t white sugar

In a pot over medium heat, add tomatoes, onion, garlic, and chicken broth. Simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the tomato mixture and put through a food mill. (We pureed it in the blender and then ran it through a fine mesh sieve to remove the chunks).
In the empty pot melt the butter. Add flour and mix until a light brown. Slowly add the tomato puree into the pot. Season with salt and sugar.

Enjoy!