Recipes

Here are the recipes from all the good food we ate:

This first recipe came from my very most favorite "food storage" cook book called "Dinner is Ready". You can buy it in paperback or CD software at http://www.30mealsinoneday.com/. The first half of the book gives you all sorts of trick on how to prepare foods to freeze. The second half is all recipes for oven, crockpot, stovetop and assembly. I really ought to own stock in the company by the number of copies I have sold. My only recommendation is to double or triple the sauce in most of the recipes. (Which I did for you here.)

Polynesian Pork
3 to 4 lbs Pork Roast or whatever size Sam's Club/Costco sells
2 c apricot jam
1 c brown sugar
2 cloves minced garlic (2 heaping tbls)
1/2 c apple cider vinegar
1 c soy sauce
1/2 c molasses
4 c chicken broth
Corn starch
Frozen green beans
2 cans pineapple chunks with juice
White rice

Place pork roast (frozen or thawed), apricot jam, brown sugar, garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, molasses and chicken broth in crock pot. (I will often use chicken bullion as my chicken broth. A portion of the liquid for the broth I get from the liquid in the pineapple chunks and the rest I get as water from the tap.) Cook on low for 7 to 8 hours.

After cooking, make a mixture of corn starch and cold water to pour into the boiling/bubbling liquid in crock pot. This will thicken the liquid into a sauce. Once it is thickened, I add the pineapple chunks and frozen green beans. Let sit 5 minutes for green beans to warm up in mixture. Serve over white rice and freeze the rest.

Del’s Dessert (Chocolate Pie)

1 square butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
2 squares melted unsweetened chocolate
(over hot water)
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup whipping cream
Graham Cracker Pie Crust

Beat butter, sugar melted chocolate and vanilla until smooth. Add one egg beat 5 minutes, add other egg beat 5 minutes. Don’t skimp on time. Fill graham cracker crust shell and refrigerate several hours or overnight. Cover with whipped cream flavored with almond extract and sugar. Top with slivered almonds. Yummy! Sometimes I either double for a large pie pan or 1 ½ for more filling.

Baked Beans
This is one of Derek's favorite. It was acquired from two world famous Dutch Oven cooks by my mother and is now a staple in our family.

3 pounds ground beef
½ pound bacon, cut in 1 inch pieces, cooked.
2 onions chopped
2 tablespoons dry mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 larges B&M Original Baked Beans
1 cup brown sugar
1 green bell pepper, chopped in small pieces
1 cup water
2 cups ketchup

Brown beef with onions, and green bell peppers. Drain. Add brown
sugar, dry mustard, Worcestershire sauce, cooked beacon and ketchup. Cook ½ hour. Add beans bake 1 hour. If you plan to freeze, omit beans. Add the beans in when ready to serve.


Sweet Corn Spoonbread
America’s Test Kitchen, Best of 2010
Louise High

1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 ¾ cups milk
2 cups fresh or frozen corn
4 T unsalted butter
1 t sugar
1 t salt
1/8 t cayenne pepper
3 large eggs separated
¼ t cream of tarter

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 1 ½ quart soufflé or 8 inch square baking dish. Whisk the cornmeal and ¾ cup of the milk together in a bowl; set aside.
Melt butter in 3 quart pan over medium high heat. Add the corn and cook until beginning to brown, about 3 minutes. Stir in the remaining 2 cups milk, the sugar, salt and cayenne and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and let the mixture steep for 15 minutes.
Transfer the corn mixture to a blender and puree until smooth. Return the mixture to the pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low and add the cornmeal, whisking constantly, until thickened, 2 to 3 minutes; transfer to a large bowl and cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes. Once the mixture is cool, whisk in the egg yokes until combined.
With an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat the egg whites and cream of tarter until frothy, about 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes. Whisk one-third of the whites into the corn mixture, then gently fold in the remaining whites until combined. Scrape the mixture into the prepared dish and transfer to the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake until the spoonbread is golden brown and has risen above the rim of the dish, about 45 minutes. Serve immediately.

Variation – Individual Spoonbreads
Follow the recipe for Sweet Corn Spoonbread, dividing the batter among 6 greased 7 ounce ramekins. Arrange the ramekins on the rimmed baking sheet and bake as directed, reducing the oven time to 30 to 35 minutes.

Apple Crisp
By The Lion House (improvised by Emily)

2 quarts canned apples in apple pie filling
1 c butter, cold
1 c brown sugar
1 c flour
1 c oatmeal
1/4 t baking powder

In a large bowl (food processor) mix butter, brown sugar, flour, and baking powder just until ingredients are mixed. Add oatmeal. Mixture should be crumbly.

Place apples in 9 x 13 inch pan. Crumble crisp topping on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until liquid is bubbling on sides of pan and top is brown. Serve warm or cold with whipping cream or ice cream.

Soy-Honey Barbecued Flank Steak
Makes 6 servings

4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup ginger minced
½ cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon olive or salad oil
2 pounds beef flank steaks
Lime wedges


Mix marinade in food processor in order above. Place flank steak and marinade in Ziploc bag overnight.
Drain steak. Discard marinade. Lay meat on hot grill. Cook until
medium rare about 10-12 minutes. Slice in one inch strips across grain. Garnish with lime wedges.

Orange glazed carrots

See progressive dinner post here. 
 or...
Orange-Glazed Crock Pot Carrots (Emily Style!)
2 – 5lb bags of carrots divided into 3 medium crock pots set on low. This meant each crock pot was about 2/3 full.
3 sticks of butter melted
1 ½ cup water
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper (or less!)
1 can of orange juice concentrate
Cinnamon to taste
½ cup cold water and 2 T cornstarch mixed

Directions:

Mix butter, water, brown sugar, salt, pepper and orange juice well, spoon over carrots. Lightly dust carrots with cinnamon. Cook on low in crock pot for 7 hours, stirring once or twice. The sugar in the glaze will pull out the liquid in the carrots so you will end up with a lot more liquid in the carrots. Just before serving, pour in the cornstarch mixture to thicken the sauce.

I chose 4 different cheese cakes for desert. Lisa was kind enough to make one of them for me at the last minute since they can be a bit time consuming. 2 were fruit based and 2 were chocolate based. Next time, I think I will do 3 cheese cakes instead of 4 and make 2 chocolate and 1 fruit.

Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake

Oreos stripped of cream and crushed
6 T butter melted

Combine crumbs and butter, press onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan.

1 14oz bag of Caramels
1 5oz can evaporated milk
2 8-oz packages cream cheese
1/2 c sugar
1 t vanilla or almond extract (I prefer almond)

2 eggs
1/2 c semi sweet chocolate pieces, melted

In sauce pan, melt caramels with milk over low heat, stirring frequently, until smooth. Pour over crust. Combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla, mixing at medium speed on electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, miing well after each addition. Blend in chocolate, pour over caramel. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.


2 cups sour cream
2 T granulated sugar

Increase oven temperature 425. Combine sour cream and granulated sugar, carefully spread over cheesecake. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes.

Loosen cake from rim of pan; cool before removing rim of pan. Chill. Garnish with whipped cream and finely chopped almonds if desired.

Fajitas
5lbs chuck roast
2 large onions
2 bell peppers
4 packet of fajita seasoning
2 to 4 cans of black beans
Frozen corn

I made this recipe up with the help of my mom. It turned out fabulous and everyone raved about it, so I think it is a winner.

Take the chuck roast, onions, bell peppers, and fajita seasoning packets and place them in a crock pot overnight, or for 6 to 8 hours. Pull the meat apart after the long cook to make stringy meat. Add the black beans, and corn. You could hold the bell peppers out and add them a little later too if you want them more adente.

Serve over a tortilla with lettuce, tomato, guacamole, salsa, sour cream, and shredded cheese.

Emily's Pork Tenderloin
Forgive me, I don't follow a recipe, but if you feel comfortable "dumping" things in a mixing bowl, you should have fun with the marinate:

1/2 cup to 1 cup of brown sugar
maybe 2+ teaspoons of Salt (to taste)
large heaping spoon of minced garlic
1 teaspoon or so of black pepper (to taste)
Worcestershire Sauce-enough to just barely liquefy mixture. It goes runny fast and the sugars bring out the juices in the meat. The more it coats the better.

Marinate the meat for several hours a head of time. I like to do this in a 9x13 pan or my 8x9 pan, however, marinating in a zip-lock bag or food saver bag works nicely too.

When it is time to cook, brown meat on high heat on the stove top. Don't throw away juices from marinate. Once browned, put meat back in original pan with juices and cook at 350 degrees until internal temperature reaches about 142 F. I think this is about 20 minutes cooking (longer if cooking two rolls). Pull out and let rest for another 10 minutes.

Often with this meal, I under cook the meat. I think it is because I will frequently cook both rolls of Tenderloin from Costco instead of just one. So, my advice is, let it go a bit on the hotter side to get the inside properly cooked. My meat thermometer says to cook Pork at 160 F, but rare meats at 145. The meat continues to cook while it is resting for the 10 minutes too. My definition of "cooked meat" is red in the center, but not raw. Keep in mind that if you end up with a nice red-centered meat for the first time you eat it, the second time you eat it for leftovers, you will be re-cooking it and it will be a bit more stiff from cooking it the second time around. So, you don't want to over cook it the first time!

Chocolate mousse trifle

Ghiradeli brownies cut into bite size pieces
Chocolate mousse
Whipping cream
Raspberries

Layer in a trifle bowl or large bowl.