Skillet cornbread

  • 1 cup masa harina
  • 1/2 cup cornmeal
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1-1/2 cups milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 tbsp butter, melted
  • 1 tbsp of butter
  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place 10” or 12” cast iron skillet in oven to preheat. If you don’t preheat the pan, it’s okay. It will still work fine.
  2. Whisk masa, cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a large bowl.
  3. Whisk milk, eggs and 4 tbsp melted butter together in a small bowl. Pour the melted butter in slowly while whisking so as not to cook the eggs
  4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir until all is moistened. Do not over mix.
  5. Place tbsp of butter in hot pan and swirl to coat all sides or if pan is cold, use paper towel to grease pan with butter. Pour batter into skillet and use spoon to level top.
  6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes for 10” pan and 12” pan for 15-20 until the edges are browned and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan slightly before serving.
Whisk dry ingredients together.
Batter poured into pan.
Done!

I used a 12” skillet because that’s what I have. The cornbread is thinner but cooks quicker. I actually baked this one on indirect heat in our grill at between 400-425. Next to it I had boneless skinless chicken breasts which take 10 min per side to cook on direct medium flame. On the other direct flame I had thick sliced summer squash. (My grill has three burners with this cooking in the center with that center burner off)

Vinegar Pie

  • Single pie crust (store bought or homemade basic pie pastry)
  • 3 tbsp cider vinegar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup melted butter, cooled
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 cup water
  1. Preheat oven to 400.
  2. In small bowl, hand beat eggs until combined and lemony looking
  3. In large bowl combine sugars, flour and nutmeg with whisk until no lumps remain
  4. Stir in vinegar, eggs, water and melted butter. Mix well.
  5. Pour into prepared pie shell and bake 30 minutes. Pie will be set and slightly jiggly with a thin golden brown crust on top. Let cool completely before slicing.
Homemade pie crust that I totally botched.
Sliced.

I love making this pie for Thanksgiving. My father in law can’t stop eating it.

It’s a recipe that dates from when fruit was scarce and eggs were plentiful. The first time I made it I cringed when I tasted it expecting it to be nasty, but I was pleasantly surprised. The pie tastes lemony, not apple-y. You can blind bake the crust for a crisper crust as well.

Still cooking

I’ve cooked a lot over the last few weeks, but keep forgetting to take pictures of all the steps.

I’ve made chocolate cream pie, vinegar pie, oven cooked burgers, Mexican sweet corn cake, mashed potatoes with leeks, gluten free coffee cake, chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, almond joy cookies and more. I have END pictures but not process pictures.

I’ll post recipes anyway and update the next time I make them with process pics.

Chicken in Rustic Tomato sauce

  • 2 bell peppers cut into strips
  • 1 onion chopped coarsely
  • 1 carrot diced
  • 1 large celery or 2 small celery diced
  • 1 medium summer squash, diced (yellow or zucchini)
  • Kalamata olives to taste (I used about 1/4 cup)
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp concentrated tomato paste (in the tube)
  • 2 14-15 oz cans diced tomatoes
  • 6 bone in skin on chicken thighs
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Olive oil
  • Freshly grated Parmesan for garnish.
  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. Heat tbsp of olive oil until shimmering in large skillet. Add all the vegetables except garlic. Cook on medium, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking, until soft.
  3. Add tomato paste and garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Be sure to not brown the garlic as it will taste bitter.
  4. Add tomatoes and their juices. Stir to combine. Do not add salt to sauce. It will evaporate and may get too salty in the oven. Pour into 9×13 casserole dish.
  5. Sprinkle chicken lightly with salt and pepper. Arrange chicken thighs on top of vegetables.
  6. Bake 90 minutes (I know that seems excessive but the chicken is almost impossible to overcook and everything gets super yummy in that long cooking time)
  7. Serve with pasta, roasted potatoes or risotto. Garnish with freshly grated Parmesan.
All the veggies in the pan. Not soft enough yet.
All cooked down and in the pan.
See how dark and rich the sauce gets. And the chicken just melts when you eat it.

With all the home cooking I’ve been doing I find myself in a rut of the same old things, and I’m tired of expending effort to make new and exciting things. I wanted like a chicken cacciatore, but I didn’t want to work at it.

This was very low effort, and the long time in the oven meant I could clean what little needed to be cleaned (pretty much the cutting board and the skillet. And I got to use my favorite carbon steel pan since cast iron and tomatoes don’t get along). This is cooking for people who don’t cook.

Since pasta is so hard to find these days (during COVID19 lockdown), I’m saving the normal pastas for nights that I’m not available to cook. So tonight I cooked one sheet of lasagna noodle per person. (DeCecco lasagna no. 1 which are short). That was about 11 minutes to cook until done which I tell you because the package only tells you how to parcook it for making lasagna.

Roasted potatoes would also be an excellent gluten free choice for this.

Bunny cake

  • 2 cooked layers of cake. Any flavor any style but must be two round layers. Before I started baking I liked Duncan Hines yellow cake mix
  • Frosting to cover two cake layers. Preferably white. Canned is fine. This is not about being gourmet but having an easy festive dessert
  • Red food coloring and any other color you like
  • Sweetened shredded coconut
  • Licorice laces
  • Jelly beans
  1. Cooks and cool layers. Leave one layer uncut and frost with white frosting. sprinkle with coconut. Set on the bottom of a foil covered baking tray as shown in second picture.
  2. Cut ears out of second cake. The middle will be the bow.
  3. Frost ears with white frosting. Sprinkle coconut along the sides leaving a middle section without coconut.
  4. Tint remaining frosting with a couple drops of frosting to make pink. Frost the inside of the ears with pink. Frost the bow with pink icing or add some blue to make purple or yellow to make orange.
  5. Outline bow with licorice laces.
  6. Give the bunny licorice lace whiskers, jelly bean eyes and nose and teeth.
Finished

This is simple and festive for spring. I’ve tried making the bunny cake that sits up but well, it turned out very ugly. Your kids can also help decorate, and you can skip the coconut. We’ve had bunny cakes decorated with jelly beans, White chocolate chips, frosting that’s been swooped up to make it look more furry. I’m posting some of our other years below.

The cut layers.
Very bad drawing of the cut.
Swoops and sprinkles and couldn’t find licorice laces. Also this was peanut butter frosting.
Keeping it basic.
Coconut ears, white chocolate chip face, sprinkled bow. Something for everyone.

Slab apple pie

  • 1 sheet puff pastry thawed.
  • 2 cups diced apples
  • 1 tsp cinnemon
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 tbsp sugar (brown or white)
  • 1/2 tsp lemon juice.
  • 1 egg beaten with a tbsp or water
  • 1 tbsp turbinado sugar (optional)
  1. Preheat oven to 400. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Roll out puff pastry per package directions.
  3. Meanwhile heat butter in small pot until melted. Add sugar and stir until dissolved.
  4. Stir in cinnamon and add apples and lemon juice.
  5. Cook on low for 10-15 minutes until apples are soft.
  6. Spoon on one side of the pastry lengthwise leaving an edge. You’re going to fold the pastry over it.
  7. Fold pastry over. Use a fork around the pastry to seal it.
  8. brush with egg. Slash diagonally about every 2 inches. Doesn’t have to be perfect. You can also sprinkle a course turbinado sugar on top of you’d like. I didn’t this time.
  9. Bake 15-20 minutes until beautifully golden.

I had leftover puff pastry so threw this together. It’s very easy if you use frozen puff pastry. The picture shows two because I had two sheets so just double the amount of apples. I did not sprinkle the sugar on top because I like it best without it.

This is a good recipe for those who don’t bake.

Beef with Barley Stew

  • 1 tbsp oil (or leftover bacon fat)
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 celery stalk, diced
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1/2 bell pepper, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 London broil, cut into 1 inch chunks
  • 1 cup red wine
  • 6 cups beef broth (or 6 cups water and two tablespoons of Better than Broth boullion)
  • 1 can diced tomatoes with juice (14.8 oz can)
  • 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4 cup parsley
  • 1/4 tsp thyme
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/2 bell pepper cut into 1/2 pieces
  • 3 carrots sliced into 1/4 inch slices
  • 1 cup pearl barley
  • 1 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
  1. In Dutch oven, heat oil on medium high. Brown beef in batches. Don’t cook through, just get a crust. Set aside.
  2. Sauté onion, carrots, celery, diced bell pepper until soft and translucent. Add garlic and cook 30 seconds.
  3. Deglaze pan with wine scraping any fond (brown bits) off pan. Add broth. beef, and cooked vegetables, canned tomatoes, parsley, thyme and bay leaf. Cook covered for 2 hours on low. Stir occasionally.
  4. Add 1 cup pearl barley, remaining bell pepper and sliced carrots. Cook covered on low for 45 minutes. Stir in vinegar.
  5. Serve with salt and pepper to individual tastes.
I didn’t have celery today so I skipped it.
Browned beef.
Done.

This is an easy one using a cheap cut of meat (it was $3.50/pound when I bought it) and pantry staples. It feels very medieval, so it’s kind of fun to make and imagine you’re in a castle or a hovel. Serve by candlelight with homemade bread for extra fun.

Lacey style chocolate chip cookies

  • 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 sticks softened butter (1 cup)
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 2 tsp vanilla extracr
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. Line baking sheet with parchment.
  3. Stir flour, baking soda and salt together.
  4. Beat butter and sugar on medium speed until creamy
  5. Beat in eggs one at a time (add egg, beat until incorporated then add next egg) then beat in vanilla
  6. Add flour mixture on low speed. Stir to combine.
  7. Add chips and stir to combine.
  8. Spoon 1tbsp batter into prepared pan spaced well apart (3 inches. These cookies spread)
  9. Bake 9 minutes
  10. Let set on cookie sheet 2-3 minutes before CAREFULLY moving to wire rack to cool.
All mixed. Very light and fluffy
Finished cookie

These were a mistake last week when I forgot a cup of flour, but we loved them so much we wanted to replicate it. They seriously spread, so you may get cookies that fuse together. Your kids won’t care. They break apart easily.

We found we feel less yucky after eating these than eating the cookies with all the flour. Maybe that isn’t a good thing…. 😉

Southwest succotash bowl-no grain updated 8/31/21

  • 1 15.5 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 cup frozen corn
  • 1 7oz can green chilis. (La Preferida is my Brand because the mild are actually fairly hot)
  • 1 red or orange bell pepper diced
  • 1 jalapeño (or 2) diced with seeds and veins removed for milder heat.
  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 tsp Olive oil
  • Optional: Corn tortillas or flour tortillas
  • Optional: green chili chicken see below
  1. In a deep frying pan, heat the olive oil and cook bell pepper and jalapeño until soft. Add frozen corn, beans, green chilies and spices. Stir and cover until hot. Salt to taste.
  2. That’s it. Serve as a side dish or main meal with tortillas.

Green chili chicken in an Instant Pot

  • Four boneless skinless chicken breasts (can be frozen. Don’t thaw)
  • 1 cup salsa verde (Herdez is best for this)
  1. Pour salsa in instant pot. Lay chicken on top.
  2. Cook 25 minutes on high pressure if thawed, 40 if frozen.
  3. Release pressure when time is up.
  4. Shred.
  5. Serve a scoop on top of succotash and eat with tortillas, if desired.
All ingredients in the pan
All done!
Served with optional chicken

With the stores ransacked due to COVID19, I needed something I could make with ingredients I had in hand. I love the combo of black beans, corn and bell pepper, so I created this southwest succotash. There are a lot of recipes for a southwest spin on succotash, but this is mine. I do think the green chili brand matters. Ortega are just too mild.

The chicken I had in hand was in the freezer, so I just added fifteen minutes on the instant pot, and it was super soft. I’m not a big instant pot user but this is a great use for it.

You can probably serve with cheese (Monterey Jack or queso fresco if you want it to be a little more rich.

This dish is great leftover and reheated.

Non recipe update plus tip

So I haven’t made anything easy to post about because I’ve just been throwing things together. However I did learn one tip. For chewy crispy Lacey style chocolate chip cookies, forget to add a cup of flour.

I couldn’t figure out what I did wrong until a reddit user suggested I forgot flour. A picture of the resulting “mess” is below. When I replicate it, I’ll post the recipe and prettier pictures. They were delicious.

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