Junie Moon: recipes

Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Celebrating Autumn: Hobbits and Muffins

In addition to today being Autumn Equinox, it is also the birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins! To celebrate, I participated in the Hobbit Day 5K. September is also World Alzheimer’s Month. As I honor hobbits, part of my race fee goes to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund where 100% of donations goes directly to research towards a cure for Alzheimer’s.

Next up was King Arthur Flour’s Monthly Bake-along Challenge. The recipe this month is Inside-Out Pumpkin Muffins.

There’s ingredient (boiled cider) that needed to be made ahead of time as it takes a few hours, so I did this step last weekend in preparation for today’s baking effort. Here is a recipe card I made using "The Washington Post’s" recipe.

I could have skipped the boiled cider ingredient, but if I’m going to the trouble to participate in a challenge of any sort, then I try to do so as authentically as possible.

The finished results were photographed by looking down the top of the Mason jar where I let it cool before storing in the fridge. The picture reminds me of the mosquito in the amber depicted in the Jurassic Park movie.

The rest of the recipe was pretty simple and did not take long at all to make and assemble. Here is how it looked coming out of the oven.

These yummy muffins are perfect for saying hello, autumn!

I wish you happy autumnal days full of hobbits and yummy muffins.

Saturday, September 17, 2016

National Apple Dumplings Day

The National DayCalendar says today is a bunch of celebratory days, but I’m honoring National Constitution and Citizenship Day as well as National Apple Dumpling Day.

I made apple dumplings using King Arthur Flour’s recipe. Here they are fresh out of the oven.

The napkin is one of a set I made years ago to go with a quilt throw for picnics. My homemade vanilla bean ice cream goes perfectly with the dumplings. Here’s to standing up and honoring our citizenship and our Constitution!

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Homemade Potato Chips

The only time I’ve had made-from-scratch potato chips was at our local yacht club. Crispy and delicious, those chips made an impression on me. I decided to give it a try myself yesterday.

I followed Williams Sonoma’s very easy recipe. After cleaning and peeling the potatoes, I sliced them thinly using my mandolin.

Small batches were friend In my deep fryer so they would crisp evenly.

Seasoned with sea salt, my tasty treat was ready to taste.

My assessment: very yummy—this is something I’ll definitely do again.

Sources:

de Buyer Mandoline
Potato Chips Recipe
Sea Salt: bought during my recent trip to Bonaire

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Orange Zest Madeleines

Along with some sewing projects, new recipes have made their way on my must-do-right-away list. One of those recipes is for madeleines. While I’ve made these little cakes before, I thought I’d try yet another recipe version.

Dry, dense, heavy madeleines do not excite me; however, the particular recipe I used this time resulted in a cake that was moist and delicious with a lovely, light flavor as the result of using just the right amount of freshly-zested orange.

I learned three things when trying this new recipe:

Do not over-mix the batter.
Chill the batter in the fridge for at least an hour.
Bake your madeleines the same day they will be served.

Source: Amazon.com

The recipe was published in The New York Times and is an adaptation from one found in The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts.

A batch was made for my knitting group and another for my mother-in-law’s bridge group’s game day. Both batches were eaten in what seemed one heart beat of time.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Boxty Cakes for St. Brigid

By propping myself up on one foot Tuesday evening, I managed to try a new recipe to celebrate St. Brigid’s Feast Day on Feb. 1, a day also known to most everyone as Groundhog Day. However, since St. Brigid was born in Ireland around A.D. 451 or 452, a long time before groundhogs were celebrated for their shadows, she’s the one I honored.

You can find all sorts of Irish recipes online honoring St. Brigid, but I chose Boxty Cakes using a recipe from fish eaters.

Boxty Cakes

½ pound hot cooked potatoes
½ pound grated raw potatoes
2 cups flour (see my note below)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1½ cups buttermilk
Butter for frying
Salt and pepper

Drain, peel and mash the hot potatoes. Stir in the raw potatoes, flour and baking soda. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well with enough buttermilk to make a stiff batter. Shape into 3 inch patties about ¼-inch thick and fry on hot, greased griddle until crispy and golden on both sides.

Note: I carefully followed the recipe, but the end result tasted more like flour than potatoes. Next time, I’ll try Rachel Rappaport’s recipe posted on Coconut & lime. Her version calls for only ¼ cup of flour.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Sangria Pie

Kristie came over Monday evening, bringing my favorite Chinese food and her effervescent cheerfulness. We like to get together now and then to catch up on all the happenings in each other’s life.

Since she brought supper, I made dessert in the form of Williams-Sonoma’s Sangria Pie. I’ve been looking for an excuse to try this recipe after having enjoyed it at Paula’s a couple of weeks ago. I added bits of fruit to make it pretty. Note to self: practice patience and let the pie chill/set in the fridge longer and then it wouldn’t be mushy causing the pretty fruit arrangement to slide off.

Yesterday I went to Williams-Sonoma to get something I needed and was telling the manager about the great Sangria Pie recipe I tried from their store. She got really excited and told me she was the one who actually invented the recipe by mistake when the store ran out of Margarita mix for a demo pie and she substituted Sangria Blanca.

I made a recipe card to share with you and added the instructions for making a homemade graham cracker pie shell. Right-click on the picture to save to your computer for printing.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Minh’s Vietnamese Pork and Shrimp Egg Rolls

I appreciate everyone’s help yesterday with my knitted slippers dilemma. I shall overcome the problem and make the slippers work. Once done, I’ll let you know how it worked out.

Today I want to share a cooking project I enjoyed working on with some friends. My friend Minh is Vietnamese; she generously offered to teach a group of us how to make her family’s pork and shrimp egg rolls. Janel offered to host this event at her house and helped Minh translate the recipe to English for us.

First thing is to wash your hands really well. Actually, I took this picture during our preparations and thought it was really nice so I just want to show it to you.

Janel had tables everywhere because there were so many of us crowding her house. In this picture, Margie (on left) and Dena (her daughter on the right) are working with the egg roll wraps. Both of them are also members of my UFO crafting group. They’re a riot and make me laugh a lot.

We made two versions—pork and shrimp which was quite considerate of Minh since I’m allergic to the shrimp component. Everything was carefully segregated so I didn’t fall over dead from contact.

Once the egg rolls were ready, it was time to cook them in the fryers we all brought. Living in Tucson means you can do lots of activities outside, so we lined up our electric fryers on Janel’s back porch.

Here are some of the egg rolls frying their little selves. Minh taught us a trick for this; you add a teeny bit of vinegar to the hot oil and it keeps the oil from boiling over when you put in the egg rolls. Another trick was to stand the egg rolls up on one end around the pot as you can see in the photo.

In this photo, Minh demonstrates how to prepare an egg roll for eating by wrapping it in lettuce with some mint leaves. Naturally we all had to eat a few egg rolls right away.

© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

We spent the whole day making hundreds of egg rolls. Every participant went home with large bags of each version. The shrimp egg rolls were pounced on by my shrimp-loving husband.

Minh kindly said I can share her recipe with you. Since it’s quite involved and too much to post, I’ve converted it to a PDF document you can access here or via my Tutorials section in the right-hand column.

This was a wonderful day learning a delicious recipe and cooking together with friends. Thank you, Minh and Janel!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Drinks on the House

When we went on our Caribbean cruise last October, my friend Peggy told me about Baileys Banana Coladas (popularly known as BBCs). Our big plan was to have one while we cruised the islands, but we never got around to actually doing it. Peggy kindly emailed the recipe so I could try it at home.

Back at home I was telling my friend/neighbor Cindy about BBCs. She surprised me at Christmas with a beautifully decorated basket filled with a bottle of Baileys Original, Baileys with a Hint of Caramel, a bottle of rum, bags of Ghirardelli chocolates—even bananas.

Other than Peggy’s recipe, I had no idea what concoctions to make with my new bounty. I started looking online, collecting ideas here and there. Then I hit the jackpot at the Baileys web site—lots of different recipes and even desserts are provided. Naturally this meant I needed to make a little Baileys recipe book to hold my new-found collection.

A miniature cocktail shaker Christmas ornament found on clearance ($1) at Jo-Ann’s seemed meant for me, so I tied it on the recipe book with a ribbon. Now I’m ready for any Baileys occasion.

Here’s Peggy’s BBC recipe for you (click to enlarge for printing)—drinks are on the house.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Oven Hand Mitts and a Recipe

My Creative Every Day 2010 project for Saturday was sewing oven hand mitts—always useful in the kitchen.

I used an easy tutorial created by Amy of The Idea Room blog to make starfish oven hand mitts. I paid careful attention to Amy’s edited note about doubling up on the Insul-Bright to ensure protection from the heat.

My friend Paula, a Creative Memories consultant, hosts a monthly scrapbook crop day at her house and feeds us a delicious lunch. Yesterday’s crop was another example of her gracious hospitality.

I took along my new oven hand mitts to show her and we gave them a test run when Paula took her entrée out of the oven. The mitts worked great.

Paula kindly said I could share the recipe she used.

Click on picture to enlarge for printing.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Recipes and Sewing Mrs. Claus’ New Bag

Holiday Recipes

All my Christmas preparations are done and all I’m doing now is having some fun in the kitchen, baking a bit here and cooking a bit there. I’m having a lovely, relaxing time.

On a recent trip to Michaels to get some craft supplies since there’s still at least one tiny nook in my house not yet inundated with creative tools, I found holiday recipe boxes on sale. I could make such a box as I did for Halloween a couple of years ago, but the ones at Michaels were cute, cheap, and ready to go.

Packages of gaily-designed recipe cards were tucked in the $1 bins, so I grabbed a bunch of those along with two of the recipe boxes. One box and packages of recipe cards will go to my daughter Lindsay. Now I’m pulling out holiday recipes from my computer archives to put on my card set to store in my new box.

Here are a few recipe cards I’ve made in the past in case you’re seeking to add to your own collection. This card was put in use yesterday to make Yule Bread in honor of Winter Solstice.

Pfeffernuesse—German peppernut cookies are one of my all-time favorites. After living in Germany twice and being spoiled by the glorious Weihnachten traditions there, I cannot survive without these delectable cookies each year.

Shortbread is my husband’s favorite, so he’s now stocked up with this treat for awhile.

Mrs. Claus’ New Bag

Mrs. Claus (that would be me) needed a new red-and-white bag, so I’ve made one exactly like the Japanese Knot Bag I made last year for a blog giveaway using the free tutorial at Show Your Workings.

I’ve been thinking about that bag since my giveaway and wanted one for myself; thank goodness I still had some of the same fabric in my stash. I love that the bag is reversible, so Mrs. Claus can enjoy whichever side makes her happy on any given day.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Christmas Kitchen Fun

Don’t forget about my One Yard Wonders book giveaway—here’s the link if you want to get your name entered into the drawing. The deadline is Thursday night and the winner will be announced on Friday.

Christmas goodies are in the works at my house. So far, I have the divinity and peanut brittle made for my mother-in-law who requests these treats each year.

I packaged them in decorative boxes found in the baking section at Jo-Ann’s (Michael’s also stocks such things). The recipes I used are as follows.

Source: Recipe card purchased from The Vintage Workshop, text added by me.

Today I’m making Cinnamon Toast Pecans and Pretzel Logs (dipped in chocolate and colorful sprinkles). The pecans are going to be a hostess gift and the pretzel logs are going to be my neighbor gifts this year.