Well, Jack was born on Sept 18th, and then Caiden (my nephew) arrived on November 7th, and all in all, I've been kind of busy. :) However, this week I had a particular success making peach-mangosteen jelly!
A mangosteen, for anyone who's wondering (everyone, in short) is a fruit that looks like a garlic bulb encased in a small eggplant, and tastes like peaches and strawberries with some light tartness thrown in. I had some peach-mangosteen hippie juice from Starbucks (where I work) that had just reached its expiration date. I threw 4 cups of the juice and 4 cups of water into a pot and did the whole jelly-making thing.
What do you know, it jelled! I can't believe it! And it tastes really good! I'm beginning to think that the secret of great jellies and jams is to include peaches in some form. :D
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
apple pie a la mode
....without the boring "pie" part. :)
I just chopped up apples and made the spiced sugary filling out of them, then baked them in a covered dish instead of bothering with a pie crust. It produced a REALLY delicious, syrupy apple-pie-insides kind of thing. I took one taste and realized it has to be dumped over vanilla ice cream for best effect, so I am getting some of that later tonight. :D
I just chopped up apples and made the spiced sugary filling out of them, then baked them in a covered dish instead of bothering with a pie crust. It produced a REALLY delicious, syrupy apple-pie-insides kind of thing. I took one taste and realized it has to be dumped over vanilla ice cream for best effect, so I am getting some of that later tonight. :D
Monday, September 8, 2008
a quick catch-up
I did trick almost all the family into going "apple picking" at the farm near us. (Amy couldn't come because her parents in law were up for a visit that weekend.) We ended up picking raspberries and blueberries, and buying apples, peaches and corn from the farm stand because I was a bit too tired to keep going on with the pick-your-own. We also got some ridiculously yummy feta, tomato and basil dip which is just perfect on veggie crackers!
Since starting maternity leave, I have made soda bread, strawberry-peach jam, quiche, beef stew, apple pie, many pancakes, and a bunch of more regular meal stuff. The jam came out especially tasty. A bit thin, since I didn't put a lot of sugar in, but who doesn't want low sugar, seedless strawberry peach jam? I usually share my jams with the rest of the family, but Alex has pretty much forbidden me to do that this time!
Since starting maternity leave, I have made soda bread, strawberry-peach jam, quiche, beef stew, apple pie, many pancakes, and a bunch of more regular meal stuff. The jam came out especially tasty. A bit thin, since I didn't put a lot of sugar in, but who doesn't want low sugar, seedless strawberry peach jam? I usually share my jams with the rest of the family, but Alex has pretty much forbidden me to do that this time!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
farmer's market
I know I've written about the farmer's market before, but I just went yesterday and got inspired all over again.
I got two ears of fresh corn (picked that day) and two of the tastiest white peaches I can recall eating, for a heaping total of $1.50. All these goodies were from a farm about 10 minutes down the road from us called Applecrest Orchards. I am right in the middle of planning an apple-picking trip there with the rest of my family--and of course, I will be visiting their farm stand while we're there. :D
I got two ears of fresh corn (picked that day) and two of the tastiest white peaches I can recall eating, for a heaping total of $1.50. All these goodies were from a farm about 10 minutes down the road from us called Applecrest Orchards. I am right in the middle of planning an apple-picking trip there with the rest of my family--and of course, I will be visiting their farm stand while we're there. :D
delicious dish
Ripped off from my beloved Mommie, of course--who better to steal tasty recipes from???
1 link (1 lb) of turkey kielbasa (just as yummy as the pork stuff but MUCH less fatty)
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 cup rice
about 1 tomato can's worth of added water (at least for my rice, which is proving to be somewhat incorrigible about water quantities and cook times)
Throw it all in a skillet and simmer it until the rice is tender.
DONE!
And it's ridiculously good. You wouldn't even believe it. Bo was feasting delightedly on the grains of rice I gave him, because they were so tasty he thought they must be meat.
1 link (1 lb) of turkey kielbasa (just as yummy as the pork stuff but MUCH less fatty)
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 cup rice
about 1 tomato can's worth of added water (at least for my rice, which is proving to be somewhat incorrigible about water quantities and cook times)
Throw it all in a skillet and simmer it until the rice is tender.
DONE!
And it's ridiculously good. You wouldn't even believe it. Bo was feasting delightedly on the grains of rice I gave him, because they were so tasty he thought they must be meat.
Friday, August 22, 2008
check your ingredients list
I was VERY offended to find that some pudding mix that I bought had aspartame in it! This was after I had specifically chosen the "regular" one that was sitting right next to the "sugar-free". WHY would you use artificial sweeteners in the one that's already sweetened with sugar?? (It's probably cheaper, one would assume.)
Anyway, aspartame is one of the items that pregnant ladies are specifically not supposed to eat. Good thing I read pretty much everything that's in front of me, and my eyes wandered over the ingredient list while I was mixing up the pudding!
Anyway, aspartame is one of the items that pregnant ladies are specifically not supposed to eat. Good thing I read pretty much everything that's in front of me, and my eyes wandered over the ingredient list while I was mixing up the pudding!
Saturday, August 16, 2008
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