Monthly Archives: November 2011

Apple Butter French Toast

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Did you make any apple butter at all this Fall? I did. I made a lot of it. I came across this recipe in the December issue of Martha Stewart’s magazine and thought it was a brilliant idea to put some apple butter in between two slices of bread and make some french toast out of it. It was even a healthy recipe too, and the nutrition info was posted on it. That’s always a bonus for me, because that’s one less step I have to figure out.

I was pretty proud of myself for not using any butter or oil to cook this recipe. See, recipes can taste good even with out butter. Usually, I’m all for the butter but have recently come to realize that I need to start watching what I eat again. :(

Ingredients from Martha Stewart

259 calories, 5 g of fat, 14 g protein, 38 g carbs, 4 g fiber

Points Plus: 6

1 cup low-fat milk
2 large eggs  2 large egg whites, slighlty beaten
1 tablespoon of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
8 slices of whole wheat bread
non stick cooking spray
1/4 cup of apple butter
2 teaspoons confectioners sugar

1. Preheat oven to 250. In a large shallow dish, whisk together milk, eggs and egg white, granulated sugar, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice.

2. Place 4 bread slices in milk mixture and let soak 1 minute per side. Coat a large non-stick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium. Add soaked bread to skillet and cook until golden brown about 8 minutes, flipping once. Transfer to a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet and place in oven. Wipe out skillet. Repeat with remaining bread.

3. Spread each of 4 slices with 1 tablespoon apple butter. Top with remaining slices and dust with confectioner’s sugar. Serve immediatly. Serves 4.

Kit Kat Cake

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My Mom’s birthday is tomorrow and I decided to make her a cake. This cake is so cool looking, I think it can be used for any occasion. Since her birthday falls between Thanksgiving and Christmas, she’s getting red and … Continue reading →

Candy Cane Blossoms

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It’s that time of year again. Time to hang up all the Christmas lights, and put up the Christmas tree, buy presents for loved ones and friends.  We were thankful for nice weather here and was able to do that when it was 45 degrees outside. My family is kind of boring about the Christmas gifts and all they ever want are gift cards. There’s nothing really wrong with that because you end up getting what you want. I’ve told my family this before but that’s all they want still. Oh well. Why can’t they ever want something fun like a new set of pots and pans, bake ware, spoons and spatulas, a diamond ring… etc.??

My favorite part about Christmas is baking cookies. Last year, I purchased a tiny catalog and it had probably 50 different cookie recipes in it to try. I think I baked about 10 of the recipes in that book. Since pinterest came around, I’ve been finding lots of cookie recipes to try on that website. This was one of them. I love those little peppermint Hershey kisses and when I saw this recipe, I wanted to make them right away. I didn’t have a bag of the kisses lying around at the time, until this weekend. The recipe says to wait 2 – 3 minutes before the cookies have cooled to place the peppermint kisses on them, but if you put them on right away and eat them they become all melted and gooey. I kind of like that. That’s why some of the peppermint kisses in the picture look like they’ve collapsed.

Candy Cane Blossoms Ingredients from Baked Perfection

recipe from Hershey’s
1 bag Hershey;s Kisses brand Candy Cane Kisses
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons milk
Red and Green colored sugar
Preheat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove wrappers from candies (approx. 35)
Beat butter, sugar, vanilla, and egg in large bowl until well blended. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; add alternatively with milk to butter mixture, beating until well blended.
Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in red and/or green colored sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 8 – 1o minutes or until edges are lightly browned and cookies is set. Remove from oven; cool 2 to 3 minutes. Press candy piece into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Yields approximately 35 cookies.

Bubble Up Turkey Pot Pie

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Looking for even more ways to get rid of that left over turkey? This turkey pot pie hits the spot. I think everyone seems to have some carrots, celery, and onion left over from making stuffing. And…. left over turkey lying around the day after Thanksgiving. The only extra ingredients you’d need to get is a can of biscuits.

I looked at a couple of different pot recipes including one I’ve made from Ina Garten and one that was in the Martha Stewart magazine and couldn’t figure out which one to make. They both looked good but Ina Garten’s recipe had a lot of butter in it (go figure) and martha stewart’s recipe had a lot of bacon in it (no offense to bacon). Either one is not very good. So… I decided to cut way back down on the butter and only use 2 tablespoons versus 3/4 cup of butter. Then I remember that there was a bubble up recipe for chicken pot pie, and I had a can of biscuits in the fridge. Walla, 3 different recipes combined into one. It turned out pretty darned good for just winging the recipe.  This recipe doesn’t even have condensed soup in it either, for all you people who don’t like to use that.

Servings 8

Points Plus: 9

Calories 336 | Fat 9.53g |  Carbohydrate 41.64g | Fiber 3.8g | Protein 21.75g

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 1/2 cups of low sodium chicken stock
1/2 cup of 1% milk
1 cup diced celery
1 cup of diced onion
1 cup of diced carrot
2 to 3 cups of shredded turkey
2 1/2 cups of chicken stock
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper
1 can of 16.5 oz low fat buttermilk biscuits
1 cup of cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions
Melt butter in large stock pot. Add in all the vegetables and cook until the onions are transparent. Sprinkle some salt, pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper on the vegetables. Cook for about 5-10 minutes. Add in flour and cook for 2 minutes.

Next, and in chicken broth and stir until the mixture becomes thick. Mix in 1/2 cup of milk and add the turkey. Pour the chicken and vegetable mixture into a 9 X 13 in casserole and layer on the biscuits. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Pumpkin Cake Roll

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It took me 3 times to get a pumpkin cake roll right. I don’t remember the first time very well. Just remembered that it didn’t turn out. 2nd time, it worked, but my pumpkin roll looked like the Bermuda triangle and it cracked on the top. The third time was a lot better because I had read some tips over at My Baking Addiction for making the perfect pumkin roll.

The second time, I tried rolling the cake when it was cooled down. Maybe that’s why it ended up cracking? On My Baking Addiction, one of their tips was to roll the cake when it was warm. This is why the parchment paper is a must, under making these types of cakes. You can just take it out of the pan right away. Also, make sure to discard the parchment paper when you put the cake on the towel to roll up. The towel helps you to roll the pumpkin cake really tight to get those pretty swirls. My swirls don’t look as pretty, but I’m satisfied and glad that the cake didn’t end up cracking.   3 times is always a charm.

When you’re tired of pumpkin pie, impress your guests at Thanksgiving this year, with one of these pretty rolled up cakes. The cake only takes 15 minutes to bake in the oven and you can make the cream cheese frosting while waiting for the cake to cook.  I don’t have to cook a big Thanksgiving dinner this year. I hope to one year though because I think it would be fun. My only job is to bring the Strawberry Pretzel Salad.

Pumpkin Roll from My Baking Addiction (link above)

Yield: 10 servings

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
For the Cake

1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup pure pumpkin puree (Libby’s)
For the Filling

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan with parchment paper and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle a clean tea towel with powdered sugar. Set pan and towel aside.

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat eggs, vanilla and sugar until thick. Add in pumpkin and mix to combine. Stir in flour mixture. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.

3. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

4. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract until smooth. Carefully unroll cake; remove towel. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.

*note if looking for a low fat pumpkin cake roll Gina over at Skinny Taste has one.

Turkey Taquitos with Cranberry Salsa

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I never used to like leftovers until I met Ben. There are some leftovers I will not eat like fried foods. Thanksgiving leftovers are the best because you can do a lot of different things with them.  This is from a turkey breast I made on Friday night. I had all the ingredients besides the stuff to make the cranberry salsa. I’m never really a fan of cranberry sauce, but this salsa changed my mind about cranberry sauce. It was delicious. Sweet and Spicy at the same time. It would make a great appetizer served with some chips on top of some cream cheese or just good over some turkey breast.

These taquitos were really good too. I decided to bake them instead of fry them. The only problem I had with them was the corn tortilla falling apart. I think next time I make these, I’m going to use wonton wrappers instead. The wonton wrappers seem to hold together better than corn tortillas do. You can make these with chicken even if you’re not a turkey fan.  A Mexican Thanksgiving sounds like a good idea to me? Doesn’t it. ;) Thanks Melissa. Another good recipe from you that I like. Oh Yah, if baking bake at 450 for about 15 minutes. Use Cooking spray to get the taquitos brown and crisp.

Right now I’m watching Food Network’s Thanksgiving special. I’m definitely going to ask for some leftover Turkey next Thursday to make leftovers with. :)

Calories 107 | Fat 3.51g | Carbohydrate 12.66g | Fiber 1.9g | Protein 6.7g

Servings 18 : 1 taquito

Points Plus Value: 3

Ingredients from Melissa D’ Arabian

  • 2 cups plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1/2 white onion, finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon minced jalapeno
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded turkey
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded jack cheese
  • 1/2 cup Mexican-flavored canned tomatoes, drained and chopped
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 18 white or yellow corn tortillas
  • Serving suggestion: Serve with Cranberry Salsa, recipe follows
  • Special equipment: toothpicks

Directions

Sweat the onion, garlic, and jalapeno in a saute pan with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Remove from the heat and add to a large bowl. To the bowl, add the shredded turkey, cheese, tomatoes and season with salt, and pepper, to taste. Mix the ingredients thoroughly.

Warm the tortillas in the microwave for 10 seconds so they are pliable.

Fill the tortillas with a tablespoon of filling and roll into a thin taquito, securing with a toothpick. Keep the taquitos covered with a damp towel before cooking otherwise the corn tortillas will dry out and crack. Heat 2 cups oil in a straight-sided pan to 350 degrees F. Place the taquitos in the hot oil in batches and shallow fry until crisp, rolling to cook all sides, about 3 minutes.

Drain the taquitos on paper towels and salt. Remove the toothpicks before serving.

Servings 18

Calories 16 | Fat 0.02g | Carbohydrate 3.72g | Fiber 0.3g | Protein 0.15g

Points Plus: 0 For Salsa

Cranberry Salsa

  • 1/2 cup canned whole cranberry sauce
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
  • Zest and juice of 1 lime
  • 1 jalapeno, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 white onion coarsely chopped, covered and microwaved for 1 minute
  • 1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
  • 1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
  • 1/2 cup Mexican-flavored canned tomatoes, drained and chopped
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place the cranberry sauce, cilantro, lime zest, lime juice, jalapeno pepper, onion, red pepper, green pepper, tomatoes, and salt, and pepper, to taste in a food processor and pulse until blended, but still chunky. Serve with Turkey Taquitos.

Pumpkin Pie

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Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin. That’s all people seem to be cooking with this time of year doesn’t it? I went to the grocery store and picked up 12 cans of pumpkin puree for .85 a can this weekend. Score! There’s so many pumpkin recipes, I want to try and make a low fat version of and this is one of them. Pumpkin Pie.

Who doesn’t like Pumpkin pie? I know of one person that doesn’t and that’s Ina Garten. She has come out on her show and said that she didn’t care for pumpkin pie as much. Can you believe that? Oh well she makes plenty of other pumpkin goodies on her show and I still love her anyway. I want to make her turkey roulade recipe one time here. I picked up another turkey breast at the grocery store today just to make that. Can’t wait.

This is a Weight Watcher recipe for pumpkin pie and I thought it was just ok. It requires beating egg whites until frothy and most pumpkin pie recipes I know just require mixing ingredients in a bowl. It’s kind of a time consuming recipe but in the end it’s worth it. I wish it almost was a thicker pie too. Ben looked at it and said that’s a pumpkin pie? Why is it so thin? Ha ha. It still tasted like a good pumpkin pie and on Weight Watcher’s website it says it’s only 5 points plus per slice.

PointsPlus Value:    5
Servings:  8

Ingredients from Weight Watchers

3 oz reduced-fat cinnamon graham crackers, about 5 1/2 sheets
1 Tbsp packed light brown sugar
2 Tbsp regular butter, melted
2 large egg white(s)
1 large egg(s)
1/2 cup(s) dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp table salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice, or less to taste
1 cup(s) canned pumpkin
1/2 cup(s) fat-free evaporated milk
1/4 cup(s) lite whipped topping

Instructions

Position rack in middle of oven. Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Place graham crackers and light brown sugar in a food processor; process into crumbs (or smash into crumbs in a sealed plastic food bag with a rolling pin). Spoon crumbs into a small bowl; add melted butter and combine with fingers into a coarse meal. Distribute crumbs evenly on bottom and up sides of an ungreased 9-inch pie plate. Chill for 30 minutes before baking. Bake until crust starts to turn golden, about 8 to 10 minutes; remove from oven and let cool.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, using an electric mixer, whip egg whites until frothy; fold in egg, dark brown sugar, salt, pumpkin pie spice, canned pumpkin and evaporated milk. Beat pumpkin custard until smooth and pour into pie shell. Bake until a knife inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 to 55 minutes. Slice into 8 pieces, top each piece with 1/2 tablespoon of whipped topping and serve warm or at room temperature. Yields 1 slice per serving.

Good Eats Turkey Brine

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Sorry, I don’t have a beautiful picture of a roast turkey. I had my Mom and Grandma over for a Turkey dinner last night and didn’t really get the time to take pictures of the turkey breast after it came out of the oven.

The only proper way to cook a turkey is by brining it. We watched Alton Brown do it on his show one year, and we’ve never cooked a turkey a different way since. This recipe on Food Netowrk has over 3,000 reviews for it! That tells you it’s good, right there.

Brining reminds me of another method of marinating. You soak the turkey for a day in the fridge with water, salt, and whatever spices/herbs you chose to add in there. It makes the best juiciest turkey ever. It’s also a healthy way of cooking a turkey, instead of slathering a ton of butter all over the outside of the turkey. I’m not really sure how to calculate the points for this since it’s just marinade and some of the salt/juices ends up not coating the whole entire chicken, so Sorry about that. For a turkey breast you cook the turkey at 325/350 for 20 minutes. For every pound add on an extra 20 minutes.

Ingredients from Alton Brown

  • 1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:

  • 1 cup kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 gallon vegetable stock
  • 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
  • 1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:

  • 1 red apple, sliced
  • 1/2 onion, sliced
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 cup water
  • 4 sprigs rosemary
  • 6 leaves sage
  • Canola oil

Directions

2 to 3 days before roasting:

Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.

Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you’d like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey’s cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

Mashed Potatoes with Garlic

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I think that once November hits, I start craving a Thanksgiving Dinner. Right on November 1st. It’s weird, I know…. Then this week the grocery stores started posting ads for turkey sales and I was so happy to go there and buy a turkey breast. On the Weight Watchers facebook page they started posting recipes for Thanksgiving and that made me very happy when they posted this recipe for garlic mashed potatoes.

These mashed potatoes are very garlic-y and that’s because when you boil the potatoes, you boil the garlic a long with the potatoes. The garlic ends up infusing the potatoes when you cook them. It’s nice when you bite into the potatoes and get a big chunk of garlic as well. This is a good recipe and I’m glad I found it. Potatoes are so carb loading they’re hard to make low fat.

Ingredients from Weight Watchers

Points Plus Value: 5
Servings:  8

4 large uncooked potato(es), Idaho variety, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
8 clove(s) (medium) garlic clove(s), peeled
1 cup(s) light sour cream
1/2 cup(s) buttermilk
1/4 cup(s) parsley, fresh, chopped
3/4 tsp table salt, or to taste
1/4 tsp black pepper, or to taste

Instructions

Place potatoes and garlic in a large saucepan; fill with enough water to cover them.

Set pan over high heat; bring to a boil. Boil until potatoes are fork-tender, about 8 minutes; drain and return potatoes and garlic to pan. Add sour cream to pan; stir and then mash mixture until almost smooth (or desired consistency). Stir in buttermilk. Fold in parsley; season to taste with salt and pepper. Yields about 3/4 cup per serving.

Food Photography

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I’ve decided, that I’m going to start giving photography tips on my blog since I love to take pictures of things other than food. But first, I’m going to try talking about taking pictures of food. My pictures never used to look good. I struggled with lighting and shadows. Take this picture of Bubble Up Enchiladas for example.. See what I mean?

Before…

After…

I like the second picture better because everything is sharp and in focus. I’ve struggled with trying to get pictures on foodgawker. A really popular food porn site. It frustrated me when a picture wouldn’t get submitted and some sites I see, get pretty much all their pictures submitted all the time. That made me want to learn more about my camera and the different settings that are on it.

Here are a few of my tips, that I’ll share about food photography.

1. Use natural light as much as possible. I live in North Dakota, and the lighting around here during the year, can be really weird. I have found that my pictures look better on a cloudy day rather a on a day where the sun is shining bright. On those days, where the sun is shining bright, my pictures get these weird shadows in them and will often times make the food look darker.

In the Winter time natural light becomes very limited so it’s hard to take pictures  after 3:30pm here. I often wish, I was a stay at home dog sitter so that I could take pictures of my food during the day. Most of my shots are taken at night using a light box.

2. If you’re limited to natural light, like I am, there are certain tools you can buy to help you with that.

- white cardboard from Wal-Mart

- day light flourescent bulbs

I use a set to something similar like this. Artificial Light Food Photography

- light clamps

2. Start a plate and napkin collection. I like to buy my dishes at Pier 1 imports whenever they go on sale. My Mom works there so I get a discount. Whenever I buy a new plate, she asks me where I’m going to put it. I really want to buy a shelf to put downstairs in our basement where I can store all my supplies at. Go to thrift stores and look for dishes too. Get different pieces of fabric for napkins.

3. Look at other pictures to see how they have their food laid out.This can be inspirational sometimes. I like to go to Martha Stewart’s website and look at the food pictures there. The stylists like to use matching dishes and napkins to correspond with whatever color the food is.

4. Use Garnishes. I always try to have some Parsley or Green Onions on hand to decorate the food with.

5. Over at recipe-girl.com, she has a really cool tutorial on painting different kinds of woods to make different colored table settings. I did this and got some cheap wood at Menard’s and different colored stains. It was a fun little project since we don’t have a fancy table that I can set my food on at all.

6. I hate it when I go to a food blog, and you can’t really tell what the picture is of. Don’t tint your pictures, or color them. It makes the food look unappetizing.

7. The lens I use to take pictures of my food is a macro lens. It cost me a good amount of money, but there are ways you can make your own macro lens and different filters you can buy. Sometimes, I’ll use my 55 mm lens because I can get an aperture setting of 1.8 to make it really bright if I need to, but mostly I use my macro lens.

- Reverse Macro Lens

If I can think of any more tips, I’ll keep posting them.