BIZZY BAKES

My husband now gets home before me.  I used to get home, check my email and sit for a few minutes, even read a book or magazine.  This was important time because it gave me the opportunity to unwind.  Teaching can be overwhelming if one puts her heart and soul into it which I usually do.  I find it difficult to walk away and forget the kids and sometimes even the classwork.   It was easy when we would eat about 7.  Even with errands, I am home about  5:30.  This leaves time for some restful moments and dinner preparation.  (On good days, I cook in the morning.) Before, I go on.......I must make a disclaimer"  Hubby is not a selfish or impatient man.  He is quite respectful of me and my time. That put aside, I will describe my homecoming.  I walk in the door and after a  brief greeting, he asks what is for dinner.  I glare at him and say something like, "Let me put my books down."  He is agreeable. I put my books down and he stares at me.  Since my mind is a m

Cassoulet with Lots of Vegetables - Food of the World The name of this recipe appealed to me, immediately, because I thought, it had no meat in it. I was wrong. It calls for a choice Italian sausage, bone-in pork chops, comfit duck legs or duck breasts. No, no, Mr. Bittman - not for me and I don't believe we missed anything without the meat.  Of course, I found out, after the fact that a cassoulet usually does have meat in it. I like what Mark does put into it - that is Mark Bittman, the author of Food Matters. I left out the meat and will ask, "Who needed it?" This totally vegetable dish was filled with flavor and we cleaned our dishes. We like this cassoulet and I would be happy to make this again. It was filled with veggies, which we love and the combination was one, both hubby and I enjoy. I pretty much followed the recipe but I turned it, into a soup by adding some organic vegetable brot

Margaret has a new fan - my husband.  She selected this week's recipe for our WWDH, Wednesday with Donna hay group.  Hubby took a bite and I thought I had better hide the rest of these muffins.  He liked the texture and flavor.  He has never mentioned texture before.  So, kudos to Margaret and Donna Hay. This recipe is found on online right here. We are a known "muffin family" and I am always ready to bake muffins but I don't always get such accolades.  I think the combination of the oats, yogurt and blueberries gave it the extra boost.  I do recommend this recipe.  It is not only good but easy to make.  I used one bowl and it is measuring, mixing and baking --- nothing complicated. I made these gluten-free by subbing in a mixture of tapioca flour, brown rice flour and potato starch.  (could have added guar gum). Please stop by the rest of our members sites and see their creations.      Kayte   Gaye   Sarah Margaret I f you want to be creat

When I make rice, I usually make enough for a minimum of two dishes and often for three. This time, it served the purpose of a yummy side and a salad. My side was based on a search through my freezer and refrigerator. I found an eggplant in the refrigerator that was not going to last much longer and found a fabulous tomato sauce, in the freezer. Unfortunately, I have no idea what was in the sauce other than diced tomatoes. All I know, is that it was well flavored. Brown Rice with Eggplant 1 eggplant, peeled and diced 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce 2 cups brown rice, cooked according to package directions. Microwave eggplant and sauce 4 minutes or until soft or firm enough for your liking. Place rice into a lightly greased casserole. Add eggplant and sauce and mix well. I heated it together for about ten minutes. * If you want to add cheese to this, I would top it with shredded mozzarella before baking and bake until cheese is melted and slightly browned. ** This would be even better

When you need an easy recipe that does not take a great deal of time, Taste of Home, is the place to go. I was looking through the Simple and Delicious and found this chicken recipe. A pricot Honey Chicken (adapted from Simple and Delicious magazine) 4 sevings Ingredients: 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves 1/3 cup honey mustard 3 tablespoons apricot preserves 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger Dash each salt and pepper Method: Flatten chicken to 1/4-inch thickness.  In a small bowl, combine the mustard, apricot preserves, ginger, salt and pepper.  Place the chicken on a greased foil-lined baking sheet. Spoon half of the mustard mixture over chicken. Bake for 24 minutes. Linked to See Ya in the Gumbo

When, I went to make two salmon fillets, I didn't have a plan which means, no recipe in mind. I had some non dairy whipped topping that I wanted to finish and these days, I seem to be using up, anything that is not brand new. What an amazing moment, when I looked into my refrigerator and it looked half empty. I hate a cluttered refrigerator but mine is that way, most of the time. That is because of the leftovers. There is always a little left and it usually sits and does not get eaten. Despite that, we hope we will make it disappear, until the moment, it gets thrown out. It hurts to throw out food. From the refrigerator, we look at the cabinets. Another puzzle is how I have so many cans when I don't use cans for anything except pumpkin, beans and diced tomatoes and I guess a can of this and a can of that. It is the this and that, that take up the room. I love by baking cabinet but it is filled with so much. I stand there and stare and wonder how long, I have some

This is a good recipe to multi-task. While the potatoes cook, chop and brown your vegetables. Everything can come together at about the same time in that way. These were a success and I am going to make them in smaller tins for my grandchildren. I think, they will enjoy, their own little potato cabbage cakes. Cabbage Potato Cakes Ingredients: 1 cup cabbage, shredded and then chopped smaller 3 potatoes, peeled and boiled and mashed 2 carrots, peeled and diced 1 large onion, diced 1 egg 1 tablespoon olive oil salt and pepper to taste 1/3 cup potato starch 1/2 teaspoon baking powder Method: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray muffin tins with cooking oil. Chop onions and carrots in a food processor. I used my mini processor from my immersion blender to get small pieces, not as tiny as in my full sized food processor. If you do not have this option, I suggest, chopping by hand. Peel potatoes and cut into quarters. Place in a boiling pot of water. (carefully) Cook for 15 - 20 minu

Tonight was leftover night. I have been making a new item whenever we have leftovers. It means little work but a spark for the meal. The only requirement tonight was to use cauliflower while it was still nice and fresh. I opened up the Pioneer Woman Cooks, looked up cauliflower and found a soup and roasted cauliflower. Since, I was matching this with the leftovers, roasted cauliflower was my choice. Instead of Panko, I used tortilla chip crumbs. The prep time was short. The hardest part was breaking the cauliflower into small pieces and that really is not a challenge. Roasted Cauliflower - adapted from the Pioneer Woman Ingredients 1 cauliflower, cut into pieces spray olive oil salt and black pepper, to taste 2 teaspoons onion powder or any spice 1 cup tortilla chip crumbs or Panko crumbs 2 tablespoons butter Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a baking sheet with olive oil. Spread cauliflower over the baking sheet and spray the top of the vegetable. Sprinkle with salt and

Makes these and they will speak for themselves. Brownie Cupcakes: adapted from Joy of Baking 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, shredded 2 cups margarine, cut into pieces 1 1/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 3 large eggs 3/4 cup flour 1/4 teaspoon salt Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and place rack in center of oven. Line 12 muffin tins with paper or foil baking cups. Melt the shredded chocolate and margarine in microwave. Once the chocolate is melted and smooth, remove and let cool for a few minutes. Then stir in the sugar. Add the vanilla and then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the flour and salt until well blended. Evenly divide the batter between the muffin cups. Place in the preheated oven and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake has moist crumbs. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. Makes 12 cupcakes. For the frosting recipe, go to Joy's site. Linked to  Recipe

could not wait until we made this soup.  First of all, we love soup, almost any kind will do.  Secondly, a creamy soup always wins in this house.  To top it off, including Spring veggies is a bonus.  I did leave out the asparagus since Hubby has had an aversion to them, since childhood.  Kayte selected this wonderful recipe and it comes from Modern Classics 1, page 18.  It called for only salt, pepper and parsley and I think it would benefit from another spice or two.  Otherwise, it was delicious. It amazes me, week after week, how easy it is to make Donna Hay's recipes, yet how good most of them are.  This soup took time to chop the vegetables and that is it.  The cooking of the soup was thickening the liquid with flour and butter and adding the cheese and vegetables plus spices.  In a few minutes, we had our soup. Prep time is where I find the pressure of cooking even though I find dicing and slicing restful.  It is a blessing to have "too much to do" and always

We had about 15 teens in and out of our home on the Sabbath.  You can call them grandchildren.  It is overwhelming to see so many people who are FAMILY.  It is wonderful.  It is wild.  It is wacky.  We also had two babies my daughter and son-in law.  On top of that, we had my son-in law's brother and parents.  Yes, it was crowded. We were celebrating the newest child in our family and the engagement of one of my grandsons.  Having a fantastic daughter and a fabulous granddaughter, a lot of the cooking came over with them.  At that, I didn't stop for two days straight baking and cooking.  The favorite dessert was a cinnamon chocolate chip cake.  It disappeared all too soon.  I also made a yummy chocolate pie using Rosemarie chocolate bars. These blondies were the gluten-free contribution for hubby.  Finally, I made caramelbars.  My friend brought over a huge fruit salad and we got non dairy ice cream. There was very little left although I thought it was much too much.  Dess

Daily life can go along following a pattern, one that is pleasant but perhaps a bit uninspiring.  It can also be quite exciting with us seeing the beauty in the world and the purpose in what happens. I think, I have gone through both of the above, living a good life in a steady normal way and had times that brought the real world and good in it into focus.  When my daughter died, other than a tragic feeling of loss, I experienced so much good.  Our family bonded and became closer.  Sharing such an experience with honest emotion striking us with full force, we saw how much we really had.  We all knew, we had to make the best of what we were given and we all want to be what would make my daughter happy where she is now. We felt the emptiness without a person who changed life for each of us but we also talked and learned from her life.  She suffered the last few years but despite this, she managed to lead a full life.  Four of her children got married during this time and except for t

It has been a long while since I participated in the Improv Cooking Challenge and I hope, I remember what we are supposed to do.  We will find out together.  Thanks Kristen for your welcome back and your leadership in the Improv Challenge.  You can find Kristen at the Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker. I don't think that I am a citrus person but in truth when I use any citrus flavor I enjoy the food.  Therefore, at first, when I heard that it was Lemon and Lime, I was not excited.  Adding to this, I found this out on Monday and had to come up with something, all in the middle of report cards, company, babysitting for my precious granddaughter and life in general.  I did come up with an interesting cake which I still plan to make.  It used a lemon-lime soda in the ingredients and that sounds like fun. I ended up with a salmon and vegetable dish with the main flavors as lemon and lime although I added a little orange juice as well.  The recipe is from Taste of Home althou

This week Gaye selected these sweet treats.  I made them without what is probably the best part, the cinnamon sugar coating but hubby prefers them that way.  I used slightly more than the one teaspoon of cinnamon to compensate for the missing coating.  As usual, these are easy to make and worth making.  Cinnamon and maple are two of my favorite flavors a winning combination - in my opinion. ******Please check out the other WWDH bakers and see what they are sharing with us.******* Kayte        Gaye        Sarah       Margaret Cinnamon sugar-coated Maple Apple Cakes adapted from donna Hay  (Gluten-Free) Ingredients: 2½ cups gluten-free 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 cup butter, melted 1 cup  brown sugar ½ cup maple syrup (Costco has a large bottle for a good price and it is kosher) 4 eggs 6 apples, peeled and grated Method: Preheat oven to  (355°F).  Place the flour and cinnamon in a bowl and mix to combine.  Add the butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, eggs and app

To continue on in my"use it up" approach to cooking that package of lox (smoked salmon) was just sitting in the refrigerator not being pursued. It is not that we don't like it; we most certainly do. It is that, thankfully, the refrigerator and cupboard are full and there is always something delicious to make. I decided, it was the turn of the smoked salmon to be created with. Actually, Cooking Light did the creating. I was more like a sub-contractor, doing the detail work to make it better. I added the red bell pepper and spinach to the mix and used sour cream instead of whipping cream. I also did not use butter and only used olive oil. We have lots of chives in the garden so that became part of this soup. Whatever I did and whatever the recipe said, the results were astounding. My husband who has been for stopping soup until next Fall, could not stop raving. Smoked Salmon Chowder (adapted from Cooking Light) Ingredients: 1 tablespoon oil 2 medium potatoes,

It is good to be back.  Having been away from blogging since January, I came back with a different point of view as to what I expect from blogging and what I want to give to blogging.  This has changed greatly.  I am not sure why but I do know that before I had to take a break, I was thinking about how to change the blog and evaluating the time I put into it.  These changes may be a continuation of that or perhaps, having such a big change in my life caused me to re-prioritize. This time, I will not allow myself to feel pressured to get a recipe on the blog.  I had made up mandatory obligations for myself and if I ask why, I don't have a sensible answer.  I do have to meet my commitment to the groups I am in and that is my pleasure to do.  On the other hand, if for some reason, I can't accomplish this, I am not going to beat myself up.  Of course, this does not include any group where we cook from another blog.  That is not negotiable barring an emergency. I love my

I have missed the Secret Recipe Club .  I love looking through other foodie's blogs and finding out how they approach cooking and eating.   The approach of Jen's Journey  is to make recipes that are doable.  You can get the ingredients easily and the recipes, in most cases, are easy to make and look delicious.  I had no problem finding something to make.  At this point, I am stressing baking so that hubby has snack food.  When I saw the scrumptious sounding muffins, I knew this would be the ones to make. We love muffins and I have made quite a variety over the years.  One year, I made a different muffin each week and we loved every moment, eating them and planning the next variation. Jen is a family person with hubs and two teens, one gal and guy.  It seems, they grew up overnight and she is enjoying every moment of this growth.  Anybody else wonder where they years have gone?  Tucker isJen's beloved Chihuahua and it sounds to me like that makes five in the family.  A

Ingenuity is called for when Passover arrives.  There are plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables that can keep one satiated and happy for days but there is still that craving for the "good stuff".  Cakes, noodles, muffins, pancakes and the likes, suddenly turn into the important foods in your life.  If you can't have them, you want them, and most of us have come up with ways to make all of these without any flour.  Potato starch is the secret ingredient and I make brownies, pies, blondies, sugar cookies, cakes and candy from this wonderful ingredient. As the wife of one afflicted with celiac, potato starch is a staple in our lives but during the year, it is mixed with a variety of flours.  We use rice flour, sorghum, almond, coconut, nut, tapioca, etc.  There are too many to name. For Pesach, it is potato starch and fortunately, it works just fine.  I am not saying, the finished product is the same; it is not.  What it is, is delicious. Pesach (Passover) Egg Noodles

I should give this blog s new name.  It has become a blog to answer the question, "What do I do with the ..._________________ on the shelf or in the freezer or refrigerator.  No matter my plans, no matter the recipe, I tend to spot a box of something that I want to use up and the recipe changes, on the spot. As a result, my cupboards are clearing out and my refrigerator is neater than usual.  My upright freezer is a dream to use with its designated shelves that are remaining in good order. I had bought mushrooms for another recipe which I decided not to make.  This meant a package of beautiful mushrooms with no where to go.  Waste not - want not.  I had to use the mushrooms and I had a desire for potatoes.  Now I have mushrooms and potatoes and there are always onions around .  I pulled a large one out and came across the recipe below which was now going to happen. This is another easy recipe if you don't mind mashing potatoes and browning vegetables.  I use my masher a

I have mentioned, several times, how much I love minis.  I turn many dishes into minis, anything from muffins to meatloaves.  Thus, it is not surprising, I did the same with these delicious mini spinach kugels.  This is another Pesach recipe. I love my Passover cookbooks and manage to buy a new one each year.  Good thing, the Jewish publishers accommodate my wants and publish these almost annually.  This particular book has been sending a paper booklet to homes across the country for a number of years.  The recipes have been proven and I mean by me.  They are some of the best Pesach recipes, I have come across.  When I found out, a book was being published with those recipes and more, I immediately ordered it.  The book was not out yet but it could be pre-ordered and that is what I did. I couldn't wait for it to arrive and when it did, I found a quiet place and checked out each page and wrote down page after page or dishes, I just had to make.  Although, I have some excellen

I made some unique and fabulous dishes over the Passover holiday.  I had no time to post them, at that time , but now I would like to share them with you.  They can be made all year and certainly flour can be subbed in for potato starch.    It is amazing how good the food is considering our limitations.  There are some different customs amongst groups of Jews and ours is not to use rice, beans, peas and corn along with any of our usual flour.  Sephardic Jew use these. Some of us don't wet matzah which means no matzah balls.  I know there are some who make these with potato starch.  I tried one year and we did not like them.  The truth is we eat kneidlach (matzah balls) throughout the year so we don't miss them for a week. My kitchen is filled with fresh fruit and vegetables.   It seems like we peel and chop for the entire week.  Fortunately, I have a food processor which does make a major difference in the work load.  We so get some good mulch at this time. I think, we

Grandchildren are adorable.  I was talking to my three year old granddaughter who was telling me that her Mommy planted berries today.  I asked if I could have some.  She told me, "no, they are at home."  I asked her where I was.  She answered, "in the phone."  Who would have thought? I bake a lot over Passover but there is no kidding oneself that all the cakes turn out as good as those made with flour.  The brownies, blondies and nut cookies are the real deal and I would bet, it would be difficult to tell that they are for Passover.  I don't use matzah meal which means potato starch is the bulk of each.  I made some great apple desserts using this. After the holiday, I could not wait to bake something and pulled out the Cooking Light book which has appealed to be since the day, I got it.  When I look through baking books, I must take into consideration which will be made gluten-free with ease and effectively. Walnut Coffee Cake adapted from Cooking