22.12.11

Fudgey Goodness

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I'm not normally a big fan of fudge.
It's usually just too sweet for me.
It seems like it is just pure, unadulterated sweetness with not much flavor, that gets stuck in my teeth and makes them hurt.
Sometimes I can stand a little bit if eaten alongside a large cup of black coffee...
but then I have a sugar rush AND a caffeine high, alongside my normally excitable personality, and well... that is just a combination that most of my friends want to avoid.
You should probably trust my friends on this one.
Right, friends?
BUT, this fudge worked its way right past my natural fudge-liking defenses, directly into that little place in my heart where sweet things reside.
You know... the sweet-things spot?
The place that pulls me back to the kitchen over and over and uses up copious amounts of sugar, flour, and butter.
The place that I've never heard my friends or family complain about as long as I share.
Yeah, that spot. 
This fudge is now there.


It is indeed very sweet, but it also has a hint of saltiness, and a hint of sour cream. It's good stuff. Really good stuff. Besides, with these ingredients, how can you possibly go wrong?



And because I love you, I'm going to tell you how to make this fudge without even using a candy thermometer!
Also because I'm too lazy to use a candy thermometer...
But that is totally beside the point, and not what we are discussing right now.
We are discussing fudge.
Stay on topic, please.


For the candy base, mix the sugar, margarine, and sour cream in a saucepan. Heat this to 234 degrees. OR, to "soft ball stage." What this means is, you let it boil for a very long time, stirring constantly. Check the mixture by taking a small spoonful on a metal spoon, and dunking it into a bowl of cold water. If it immediately swirls off of the spoon into the water, it is not done. If it sticks to the spoon completely, it's getting close. It is done when you can pull the candy off of the spoon in a little soft ball after dunking it in cold water. Hence, the name "soft ball stage."


See? Soft ball. Now turn off the heat.


Add the white chocolate.


And the marshmallow cream. Melt this yumminess in completely.



Then add the nuts.


And the dates. Mix them in well, then pour this yummy goop into your buttered pan, and let it cool.
No really, let it cool. 
Before you try to eat it. 
It's really hot. 
Burns your mouth. 
And fingers.


When it hardens into fudge, cut into cubes and eat it. With a big cup of black coffee. 


White Fudge

2 c sugar
3/4 c sour cream
1/2 c margarine
12 oz white chocolate (almond bark)
7 oz marshmallow cream
3/4 c chopped nuts
3/4 c chopped fruit (I used dates)

Mix sugar, sour cream, and margarine in saucepan and heat to 234 degrees, or soft ball stage.
Turn off heat and add white chocolate and marshmallow cream. Melt completely, then fold in nuts and fruit. Pour into buttered 9x9 pan and cool completely. Cut into pieces and serve. 


21.12.11

Bread Pudding

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Hey guess what?
It's almost Christmas.
Hey, don't look at me like that. I'm just saying.
And offering the proximity of Christmas as a sort of explanation of my choice of recipes for today. Because everyone knows that bread pudding is a Christmassy sort of food.



So, have mercy on that loaf of stale bread and redeem its existence by making this nommy bread pudding. And vanilla sauce. Please don't forget the vanilla sauce.


Two loaves of bread, chopped up into cubes.
Drizzle melted butter over the bread, and toss together. 
In another bowl, mix milk, eggs, sugar, spices, and vanilla.


Add the milk mixture to the bread, along with raisins. Toss together until all the bread cubes are wet, then let sit for 10 minutes to soak.



Put in greased pan, bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until when you press on the top, it feels firm.


Bread Pudding

Ingredients
2 loaves bread
6 lg. eggs
7 c. whole milk
1 1/2 c sugar
2 t. vanilla
1/3 c melted butter
1 c raisins
3Tb cinnamon
2Tb nutmeg

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9x13 dish, or a pie pan, or a bread loaf pan (whatever you like).
Cube bread, drizzle with butter. Toss together.
In another bowl, mix eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Add milk mix and raisins to bread. Toss together, let sit for 10 minutes.
Pour into buttered pad. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour if in a loaf pan, or about 45 minutes in a shallow pan.




Vanilla Sauce for Bread Pudding

1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 Tb cornstarch
1c water
2Tb butter
2 tsp vanilla

Mix sugar and cornstarch in small saucepan. Add water, bring to a boil. Stir constantly, allow to simmer until it begins to thicken. Add butter, stir until melted. Add vanilla. Simmer until correct thickness.

23.11.11

On the Virtues of the Humble Persimmon

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Have you ever eaten a persimmon? Have you ever heard of a persimmon? Well, before moving back here to the states, my only exposure to the persimmon was reading about them in a Little House on the Prairie book. Well, it wasn't exactly a Little House on the Prairie book, it was on of the next series, about Laura's daughter, Rose, I think they are called Little House in the Ozarks? Maybe? But that's not the point. The point is that I read about them once in a book, as a weird fruit that grows up in the backwoods of mountain america and that is very, very, very nasty until fully ripe.

But upon moving to the states, and marrying a country boy from Oklahoma, I actually tasted a persimmon. Sure enough, they are a weird fruit that grows wild in America and is very, very, very nasty until fully ripe.
Why am I telling you this, you ask?
Well, persimmons grow wild. That means, you can go pick them for free. No cost.
They also, although very, very, very nasty until fully ripe, are also quite good when fully ripe. They kind of taste like a date. And you can bake with them! Free baking fruit!
I'm in. Seriously, three of my favorite words, right there: free. baking. fruit.

So this fall, Morgan and I went to a park nearby where persimmons grow and we picked ourselves a few bushels of persimmons.


So I don't know how big a bushel is, but we did pick a lot of persimmons. Maybe not a bushel. Because I don't know.

But we picked three wal-mart sacks full, and they weighed 20 pounds when we were done! That's a lot. But I don't know how that compares to a bushel.




Morgan climbed up in the trees and shook them to make the ripe persimmons fall.


Only pick up the squishy ones. They need to be really ripe. They should feel kind of like a date. Squishy. Very squishy.


What do you do with persimmons, you ask?
Well, you have to enjoy getting messy to enjoy persimmons. Because, you see, you have to squish them to bake with them. And you squish them through a colander to get the seeds out of the mush.
And come on, guys, you know me. The best way to do that is with your hands, of course!



We squished them all up, and put the mush into bags for baking. I've made a few things with them, but I haven't taken any pictures while I'm at it... so I'm going to have to make them again and take pictures for here. The main idea is that you can use it wherever you would use any other fruit mush. You can use it in place of bananas in banana bread. Or make persimmon butter like you would make apple butter. Or make pudding out of it.
Just experiment and have fun! It's yummy.

14.11.11

Taming a Jalepeno Into Yum.

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If you are like me, the word "jalepeno" scares you a little. When I first heard of this recipe, I looked at Morgan with that "you-are-joking-right?" look that I give him sometimes.
Ok, a lot of the time.
I use that look a lot.
He is usually joking. But this time he wasn't.
Seriously, there is something you can do with jalepeno peppers that will make them into little pockets of juicy, creamy, awesome yum.
Not hot.
Cross my heart.


See, all (or the vast majority) of the heat of the pepper is in the seeds and the membrane. Remove that, and you have tame peppers!
So begin this recipe with removing the seeds and membrane of the peppers. You really want to get it all if you aren't a fan of hot. I promise.

I used a grapefruit spoon to scrape all the membrane out, and rinsed it out with warm water. 


Now comes the good part. Take cream cheese. Mix it with small chunks of garlic. For my six jalepenos, I used one block of cream cheese and three cloves of garlic chopped up really small, and a dash of garlic powder.


Now, stuff the cream cheese- garlic mixture into the peppers. You really want to be careful to try to not break the peppers, or while they are cooking all the cream cheese will run out, and then what will have been the point of stuffing them? Hm?



Now, wrap each jalepeno tightly with a strip of bacon, and secure with a toothpick.


Space them out on a cookie sheet, and bake them at 350 F until the bacon looks pretty cooked. Not crispy, just cooked. Then turn on the broiler on high just long enough to crisp the bacon.
Pull out jalepeno packets of goodness.
LET THEM COOL.
No really.
Let them cool.
You really really want to let them cool.
That cheese inside is really, really warm.


Now. Eat them all.
All of them. Nom nom nom.
I recommend a glass of milk. If you didn't get quite all the membrane, it can get a bit spicy up toward the stems. It's not bad. Especially with a glass of milk.


On a side note, just imagine for a moment being my long-suffering husband. Every time I pull something out of the oven, all yummy and ready to eat, when he is all hungry and ready to eat it up... I stop him... and spend a good long while taking pictures of it for my blog.
He is a good sport about it.
But poor him.


He stopped to take a breath between inhaling peppers, so I took a picture while he wasn't paying attention.
Aren't I sneaky.


It didn't take us very long to wipe out the peppers. All gone. I even mopped up all the juice on the plate with a piece of bread.
 It was yummy.

12.11.11

Peach Pie

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They were there, sitting at walmart, in all their peachy glory. They looked lovely. They felt soft and juicy. I could just imagine biting into their goodness and eating a peach with juice dribbling down my chin, periodically sprinkling the sweet, juicy fruit with salt. ...

Ok, so I'm weird and eat my fruit with salt. Take it up with my mom. But don't get distracted by the salt, pay attention, stay with me. I'm telling a story.

Anyway, so there I was and there they were and I gave into temptation. I bought four big, plump, juicy, bright peaches. I brought home my bounty.
I eagerly opened the bag and pulled out a peach.
I pulled my salt sprinkler over beside me.
I was nearly drooling, so ready was I for Peachness.
I opened my mouth and took a big, giant bite....
and....
nothing.
Disappointing blandness.
Yucky graininess.
Devastating averageness.
Definitely NOT what I was craving.

I was disappointed.
Disenchanted.
Disconcerted.
Disheartened.
Disgruntled.
Disillusioned.
Dissatisfied.
Not. Happy.

So, I decided to rectify this grave error in the taste of the peaches. I decided to redeem them and make them into a pie. Now, by this point in my blog journey, oh wonderful readers of mine, you should know me well enough to know that I often do not carefully measure my ingredients.
Or use a lot of fancy ingredients.
Or carefully use all the correct equipment.
In fact, usually, my cooking consist of mixing what looks good in the amounts that seem right, and mostly with my fingers. Because mixing with fingers is awesome, lets just admit it.

So, true to form, I did not really measure anything for this peach pie. But I did take pictures! So here you go.... and I'm just sure you can make your own little package of peachy goodness wrapped in buttery crust wrappings. I believe in you.



Make sure to cut your peaches really thin, so that plenty of juice comes out and mixes with the sugar and spices. 








Maybe about a cup and a half of sugar, depending on how many peaches you have? Enough sugar that every piece of peach has a little glaze on it when you mix it up. Cinnamon and nutmeg are the spices, quite a bit of each. Don't be shy. Add lots of spices. It's good, I promise.




I have found my new favorite way to crust pies. It avoids the mess and hassle of a top crust, and I think it looks better than when I try to pinch and prettify a top crust. I always end up with tears and dimples and hollow spots and burnt edges when I try to do a regular pie crust. 
So, this way, you just roll out an extra large bottom crust and put it in the pan with the edges draping over. Then put in the filling, and take those edges and pull them up over the top, wrapping your little pie package up all nice and cute!

 
 
Bake at 400 degrees F, for about 40 minutes. 

So, funny story. As I served up my peach pie, Morgan happened to be talking to his dad on the phone. It was 6:30, by which time Morgan's dad is usually home from work, at their house about 40 minutes away. Morgan mentioned what we were eating, and that there was more, and it was too bad his dad wasn't here to eat any, and his dad thought that was too bad as well. After Morgan hung up, I remarked that his dad should have come by on his way home from work. As the last word left my mouth, there was a tapping on the kitchen window behind me. I looked up to see Morgan's dad looking hungrily in the kitchen window! He had stayed late at work and had been on his way home when Morgan called, and had turned around and come by for a piece of the pie. 

He seemed satisfied with the results. 

I must say, this was indeed a good peach pie. I was happy that I got my peach goodness after all!