Family Food Fight : Recipe

3 ingredient slow cooker recipe

Dawn Albrecht — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:20:35 GMT

Someone mentioned they like quick/easy slow cooker recipes with fewer ingredients - can't get too much easier than this one:

1.5 lb pork tenderloin (can be bigger or smaller, doesn't really affect the recipe)
approximately 8 oz of root beer soda (I usually get a 2 liter of Roundy's root beer)
1 bottle of your favorite bbq sauce

Put the pork tenderloin in the slow cooker. Pour enough of the root beer into the slow cooker to come approximately 1" up the side of the pork tenderloin - this will depend on the size of your slow cooker and your pork. Cover and let cook all day.

Remove the pork from the slow cooker with a fork, leaving the root beer. Place the pork into a larger mixing bowl. With two forks, shred the pork. Add as much of the bbq sauce as you like - for a drier sandwich, add less, for a juicy sandwich add more.

That's it - you're done. We had this last night on silver dollar rolls with some coleslaw on top. Yummy!

Slacker! (AKA quick meal)

Dawn Albrecht — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:10:00 GMT

That would be me - slacker when it comes to posting. I admit, I haven't been as wordy as I should be on this blog lately. I've been busy... no excuse.

For those of you who are "slackers" in the kitchen lately, I've got a couple of recipes that will help you make the ultimate "slacker" meals. Two words to start you out: slow cooker!My slow cooker broke (the ceramic bowl thingy cracked) probably from too much use. I used it for everything. So I watched for sales all through the seasonal sales and found nothing I liked that much. I finally cracked and bought one off of Amazon (if you don't have Amazon Prime - you've got to get it. Let me know if you don't know what it is and I'll post about it.)

When my new slow cooker arrived (it was on back order... grrrr), I washed it, read the manual, set it up and ran to the grocery store to get a pork tenderloin and the makings for Chili. My grocery store didn't have the pork tenderloin I wanted (no seasonings for me) so I went with the chili. I normally don't make my chili in my slow cooker, but the kids and I were going to Tae Kwon Do and I wanted something warm to come home to. So I put all of the ingredients in my slow cooker, gave it a good mix and covered it up.

The kids and I went to TKD and I had a great workout. Emily laughed when I had to be paired with one of the black belt instructors because there was an odd number of adults in class. She stopped laughing when the I kept up with the instructor :P (that's a smilie with the tongue sticking out). We came home sweaty and showered and changed quickly as we were all starving. Chad had gotten home from work by then and we sat down for dinner. The chili was great - HOT - but great. It was such a slacker meal - brown the meat, open a couple of cans, shake a couple of seasoning containers, stir. Then open a bag of salad mix and your good to go. Here's the recipe I used for the chili:

3 lbs of ground beef or turkey or chicken (go for the leanest you can)
1 lb of beef cut up for stew
2 cans of diced stewed tomatoes (I use the Roundy's brand - organic if it's on sale)
1 can of tomato paste
Chili powder
Ground Cumin
Ground Oregano
Onion Powder

Brown the ground meat. Strain the ground meat as you brown the beef for stew. (If you have time, chop up an onion and throw it in with the beef for stew as you're browning.) Open the cans of stewed tomatoes. If your family doesn't like stewed tomatoes, blend the two cans in the blender before pouring them into the slow cooker. Add the ground meat and the beef for stew. Stir together. A few shakes of the chili powder, ground cumin and onion powder and a couple shakes of the ground orgeano. Stir again. Cover and set on high for an hour, set on low for holding longer than an hour.

(if you're a measuring type of person, I would say 1/2 tablespoon to 1 tablespoon of Chili Powder, Cumin and Onion Powder, 1 teaspoon to 1 1/2 teaspoon oregano.)

Holiday Cookies

Dawn Albrecht — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:59:00 GMT

I’m not a Christmas Cookie kinda girl. I’ve never been into the cookie cutters (ok, there were those two Christmas’s I made cookies with my girl friend) and frosting. This year may be different…still no cookie cutters thought!

For a segment on Fox 6 I made Halloween ghost meringue cookies. I LOVE meringue cookies and had never realized how easy they were to make with a mixer. For a segment on the Morning Blend, I made pumpkin cookies… they were yummy! So now I’m thinking I may have to make Christmas cookies. Granted, this will not help me loose the five pounds I want to loose by Christmas, but I’ve found baking to be a great stress reliever for me recently.

All of the shiny magazine covers have drawn me in! I get a fair number of cooking/home magazines and decided to try making some of the cookies they’ve suggested. The first one I’ve made was a homerun! Actually, it was more like a grand slam at the bottom of the ninth to win the World Series. I picked the recipe thinking it might be a nice stocking stuffer for my father-in-law who loves coffee and biscotti.

Why not try it this weekend when we’re supposed to have *snow*? I'll try the other cookies in the picture and let you know how it goes. If you've got a great holiday cookie that doesn't involve cookie cutters, let me know! I'm looking for more recipes!

Cherry-Pistachio Biscotti

Family Circle Magazine

Makes: 2-1/2 dozen
Chill: 2 hours
Bake: 43 minutes total
Prep: 15 minutes
Ingredients
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup light-brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
1/2 cup pistachios, chopped
3 ounces milk chocolate, melted

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Beat butter, sugar in second bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla. Stir in flour mixture. Add cherries and nuts. Gather dough in a ball; divide in 2 halves.

2. With floured hands, roll dough into two 12-inch logs. Place on a large ungreased baking sheet. Flatten logs slightly so each is 2 to 3 inches wide.

3. Bake at 375°F for 23 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to rack to cool.

4. Lower oven temperature to 325°F. Cut loaves into 3/4-inch-thick slices (about 16 per log). Place, cut-side down, on sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Turn over; bake an additional 10 minutes. Cool on rack. Dip one end in melted chocolate; let dry on waxed paper.

Gluten Free Ideas and Yummy Dessert

Dawn Albrecht — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:40:00 GMT

We had some friends over this weekend and the husband/dad and the baby are gluten intolerant. Since the baby is only 5 months old, mom has to avoid wheat as well. Whenever we have this couple over I take it as a personal challenge to make something they can’t easily go to the store and buy or go to a restaurant and have. I’ve made them gluten-free baked ziti and Sicilian chicken before, not to mention the molten chocolate cake (yummy see the recipe below) and the brownies.

This weekend we had them over for the Packer game on Sunday. At 11pm Saturday night our TV died. Long story short, we had to go buy a new TV on Sunday morning. So instead of my original plans, I went with the backup – homemade pizza. I ran to the grocery store at 8:30am and was home by 9:30 so we could go to the electronics store by the time it opened.

As my husband was setting up the new toy – I mean TV – I went to work on the snacks and pizza crust. Namaste makes a great line of gluten-free products. I’ve made their chocolate brownies before – they take an extra long time to cook (much longer than the directions state). The pizza crust is pretty much the same way. I made it according to directions and ended up putting it back in the oven for an extra 5 to 10 minutes to get the crust a little less spongy. The pizza turned out OK, but our friends were touched that we had made the effort for them. As they played a little Wii with my kids, I whipped up a banana bread with some gluten-free flour I had gotten previously at Whole Foods. When they left, I sent a still warm banana bread home with them. I’m wondering if they had any left this morning!

Here are some common gluten-free snacks that are always crowd pleasers:

Veggies and dip

Fruit salad or kabobs

Taco dip with corn chips

Potato chips and dip

Cheese and sausage with rice crackers (try the sesame ones!)

Try this molten chocolate cake for a special occasion – or any day that ends in “y” :)

I use a cupcake pan lined with silicone cupcake liners instead of ramekins. It’s something I already have and works well. I also melt my chocolate in the microwave with short times and frequent stirring. If you have any questions about melting chocolate in the microwave, e-mail me.

Molten Flourless Chocolate Cake

Makes 6 servings (serving size: one 4-ounce cake)

From: Myrecipes.com

Ingredients

4 large eggs
1/2 pound (8 ounces) semisweet chocolate
2 ounces (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
Cooking spray
Powdered sugar for decorating

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. Place a saucepan of water on high heat. Heat to a boil, then reduce to simmer.

3. In a mixing bowl, crack eggs and warm them over simmering water for 1 minute (hold bowl directly over the water, using a dish towel to protect your hands), whisking constantly.

4. Remove eggs from heat, and whisk for another minute until eggs are very fluffy. Meanwhile, put the chocolate and butter in a large, heatproof, stainless-steel or tempered-glass bowl; set it over the simmering water, making sure the water doesn't touch the bowl. Let the chocolate and butter melt; remove from heat. Let mixture cool slightly by stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.

5. Once slightly cooled, fold the chocolate and butter into the whipped eggs until no more streaks show. Batter will deflate.

6. Spray 6 (4-ounce) ramekins or ovenproof dessert cups with nonstick cooking spray (or use foil cups, or even muffin tins). Fill them 3/4 of the way full and place on a baking sheet.

7. Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on how gooey you'd like the centers. Turn the cakes out onto dessert plates, and serve immediately with a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

Ewwwwe! Yuck! AKA Cooking with My Daughter

Dawn Albrecht — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 20:27:00 GMT

(This post was written on Sunday, but due to technical difficulties I wasn't able to post it until today. Thanks to Jeanne for her help getting my technical goof up fixed!)

My boys had a play date today and were gone for most of the afternoon. My daughter, feeling left out, wanted to make a cake. She got out a cookbook and found a recipe for angel food cake. If you’ve never made an angel food cake before, it can be a fun cake to make if you have the right ingredients and equipment.

Luckily, I had picked up 18 eggs at the grocery store yesterday. I felt like doing some baking next week when the kids were at school. I didn’t realize that Emily would use most of the eggs today!

She mise en placed (a French term) by getting everything she would need for the cake ready. I told her I would help when she got to the part of needed 10 egg whites… This is where the “YUCK!” part comes in.

I told her to break an egg into my hand. Ewwwe! She wasn’t sure about it, but did as I asked and cracked the egg into my hand. She watched as I let the white drain between my fingers while the yoke stayed in my hand.

She thought it was cool and disgusting at the same time. Grandma was on her way over for the Packer game and got to our house as we finished with the 10^th egg. Grandma is an Educator Chef – she teaches people to be chefs. Grandma was barely in the door when Emily told her what I had done with the eggs. Much to Emily’s shock – Grandma agreed that using your hand is one of the easiest and most successful ways of getting a yoke out of an egg.

After letting the yokes sit (and washing my hands very well) we started beating the egg whites. This is where the right equipment comes in. If you don’t have an electric mixer of some sort, I would not recommend making an angel food cake from scratch. I’ve tried making it with a whisk once and will NEVER do that again. Mixing yokes until the form peaks takes quite a bit of time with a whisk. Making angel food cake with an electric mixer is much more enjoyable.

After baking the cake, it looks pretty good. We still have to make the chocolate glaze she wants to put on it. The cake and chocolate glaze were YUMMY!

Here’s the recipe for Angel Food Cake that we made. It’s from the new Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book and can be found at their website www.bhg.com.

Angel Food CakeMakes: 12 servings

Prep: 50 minutes
Bake: 40 minutes
Cool: 2 hours
Stand: 2 hours

Ingredients· 1-1/2 cups egg whites (10 to 12 large) · 1-1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar · 1 cup sifted cake flour or sifted all-purpose flour · 1-1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar · 1 teaspoon vanilla · 1 cup granulated sugar

Directions

1. In a very large mixing bowl allow egg whites to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, sift powdered sugar and flour together 3 times; set aside.

2. Add cream of tartar and vanilla to egg whites. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form (tips curl). Gradually add granulated sugar, about 2 tablespoons at a time, beating until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight) . 3. Sift about one-fourth of the flour mixture over beaten egg whites; fold in gently. (If bowl is too full, transfer to a larger bowl.) Repeat, folding in remaining flour mixture by fourths. Pour into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan. Gently cut through batter to remove any large air pockets. 4. Bake on the lowest rack in a 350 degree F oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched. Immediately invert cake (leave in pan); cool thoroughly. Loosen sides of cake from pan; remove cake. Makes 12 servings. Chocolate Angel Food Cake: Prepare as above, except sift 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder with the flour-powdered sugar mixture. Honey Angel Food Cake: Prepare as above, except after beating egg whites to soft peaks, gradually pour 1/4 cup honey in a thin stream over the egg white mixture. Continue as above, except beat only 1/2 cup sugar into the egg whites.

Nutrition Facts

· Servings Per Recipe 12 servings · Calories 161, · Total Fat (g) 0, · Saturated Fat (g) 0, · Monounsaturated Fat (g) 0, · Polyunsaturated Fat (g) 0, · Cholesterol (mg) 0, · Sodium (mg) 51, · Carbohydrate (g) 36, · Total Sugar (g) 27, · Fiber (g) 0, · Protein (g) 4, · Vitamin A (DV%) 0, · Vitamin C (DV%) 0, · Calcium (DV%) 0, · Iron (DV%) 4, · Other Carbohydrates (d.e.) 2, · Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet