Homemade Mayonnaise

I am often thankful that I have a very do-it-myself kind of mindset. When I wanted my kitchen remodeled, I gathered as many details and tutorials as possible, the dug in and did it myself. I also have a I'll-finish-it-later mindset at times, which is why my kitchen still isn't finished, after a year and a half, but that's beside the point...

Sometimes this do-it-myself-ness applies to food, which is always fun. Making my own bread has become second-nature. I recently started making my own pasta. Occasionally I do homemade tortillas. There are lots of things that are typically purchased at the store that can actually be made pretty easily and inexpensively at home.

Today, I wanted to make sandwiches for lunch. I got out the (deliciously homemade) bread, lunchmeat, cheese, pickles, and lettuce. Then I looked for the mayo, only to find that there wasn't any! What to do?! We never run out of mayo! Well, I was too lazy to put away all the sandwich fixings and come up with something else for lunch. But not too lazy to look up a recipe and make my own mayonnaise.

It was super easy. Mayonnaise basically just needs egg, acid, flavor, and oil. For the oil, I used mostly extra-virgin olive oil (store brand, of course) combined with some vegetable oil. It made for a very strongly olive oil-flavored mayo. I thought that might be a problem, as I have been raised on store bought mayo with its mild flavor, but on the sandwiches the flavor was diluted enough to be quite pleasant. Still, if the flavor is too strong, light olive oil could be used, or just less olive and more vegetable or canola. All in all, my homemade mayo was a successful venture.

Super yummy with some ground black pepper

Homemade Mayonnaise
(from What's That Smell?)
1 egg
2 tbsp. vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dry mustard (or whatever seasoning you'd like)
3/4 cup oil (I used 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil and 1/4 cup vegetable oil)

Place all the ingredients except the oil in the blender and blend on high for 10 seconds. Reduce speed then slowly pour olive oil in through the top and blend until thick. Store in refrigerator. Mayo will last 2-4 weeks.

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My Kitchen My World - Israel

It seems that all I'm posting lately is my monthly submission for My Kitchen My World. I need to get on the ball and post other things! Especially since MKMW is going to be taking a break for a while. Participation has not been very high for the past several months. My family and I have really been enjoying the opportunity/excuse to make something fun from a different country each month, we've tried a lot of things we otherwise wouldn't have.

Israel was originally assigned for April, but due to lack of participation it was moved to June to give everyone a chance to try again. The funny thing is, I actually made this meal back in April, but never got around to blogging it. Now here it is all the way into July, and I'm finally putting these delicious recipes up onto the blog. I might be a little bit of a procrastinator...

I chose to make falafel, a popular Israeli street food. We served it with pita bread, yogurt sauce, and fresh tomatoes, cucumber, and lettuce. Super yummy! The whole family liked the little fried balls of seasoned chickpeas, the pita bread was soft and delicious, the yogurt sauce brought it all together. All in all a great meal.

Falafel
(from This American Bite)
2 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup parsley (used 2 tbsp. dried parsley)
6 cloves garlic (used equivalent in bottled minced garlic)
4 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. coriander
2 tsp. za'atar (substituted thyme)
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. salt
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 egg

With the exception of the flour and egg, put all of the ingredients into the food processor. Rather than running the food processor continuously,  pulse the ingredients three or four times until the ingredients are minced, but not pureed.

Transfer the falafel mixture into a non-metallic bowl and add 1/4 cup of flour and one egg to bind the mixture.  Mix the flour and egg well so you don’t get any flour pockets.

Using a teaspoon, scoop 1.5 tsp of the falafel mix into your hands then use the spoon to mold them into a ball shape.  Press the mixture so that it is firm – this will prevent them from disintegrating when you fry them.

Using any pot or dutch oven, fill it with a neutral oil, like canola, vegetable or grapeseed oil and use a chef basket. If you have a candy thermometer, wait until the oil reaches 350 degrees before frying putting the falafel balls into the hot oil to fry. If you do not have a candy thermometer, you can put one of your falafel balls into the oil, if it’s not hot enough it won’t cook and it may start to disintegrate.

When you are sure the oil is hot enough, gently place the falafel balls into the hot oil. Don’t crowd the falafel, let them swim in the oil for two minutes, until golden brown. If the top of the falafel float above the oil, turn them with a spoon then fry for another minute. The falafel will cook quickly at this size, so be ready with a plate covered with a sheet of paper kitchen towel to soak up excess oil once cooked.

Best served fresh from the oil, but you can reheat them in a warm oven (no hotter than 250 degrees).

Pita Bread
(from Annie's Eats)
3 cups flour, plus 1/2-3/4 cup more as needed
1 ½ tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar or honey
1 packet instant yeast
1 ¼ to 1 ½ cups water, roughly at room temperature
2 tbsp. olive oil, vegetable oil, butter or shortening

Mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the olive oil and 1 ¼ cup water and stir together with a wooden spoon. All of the ingredients should form a ball. If some of the flour will not stick to the ball, add more water.

Once all of the ingredients form a ball, place the ball on a work surface, and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes. If you are using an electric mixer, mix it at low speed for 10 minutes. As the dough is mixing, continue to add flour, a tablespoon or two at a time, until the dough clears the sides of the bowl and is tacky but not sticky.

When you are done kneading the dough, place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil. Form a ball out of the dough and place it into the bowl, rolling the dough around so that it has a light coat of oil on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.

When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down to release some of the trapped gases and divide it into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel, and let them rest for 20 minutes. This step allows the dough to relax so that it will be easier to shape.

After the dough has relaxed for 20 minutes, spread a light coating of flour on a work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin or your hands to stretch and flatten the dough. You should be able to roll it out to between ¼ – 1/8” thick – 6 inches in diameter. If the dough does not stretch sufficiently, you can cover it with the damp towel and let it rest 5-10 minutes before trying again.
Place discs on a lightly greased baking sheet or parchment paper and let rise, uncovered, until barely doubled in thickness, about 30-45 minutes.

While the discs are rising, preheat the oven to 450°. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a baking stone, turn a cookie sheet upside down and place it on the middle rack of the oven while it is preheating. This will be the surface on which you bake your pitas.

Open the oven and place as many pitas as you can fit on the hot baking surface. They should be baked through and puffy after 3 minutes. You may need to let the baking surface reheat for a minute or two between batches - if the surface isn't hot enough a pocket will not form. If you want your pitas to be crispy and brown you can bake them for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, but it isn’t necessary.

For the yogurt sauce, I remember that I used elements from various recipes to create it, but it was two months ago and I don't remember exactly how I made it! So this is sort of a guess about the general ingredients and quantities...

Yogurt Sauce
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 tsp. dried mint, crushed
1 tsp. dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine in a small bowl. Chill for at least a couple of hours.

Serve falafel inside pita pockets with yogurt sauce, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, and shredded lettuce. Enjoy!

Linking to Tatertots and Jello

Green Tomato Relish

Next in my series of green tomato recipes is this deliciously tangy relish. After cooking this up this morning, I was left smelling strongly of cider vinegar, but I think it was worth it. The relish has a really wonderful flavor, and will be a great accompaniment to lots of future meals! I used this recipe, but instead of refrigerating and then serving right away, we put it in jars to freeze.


Green Tomato Relish
1/3 c. salad oil
3 lg. onions, diced
1 lg. garlic clove, minced
8 lg. green tomatoes (about 4 lbs.), cut into bite-sized chunks
4 med. green peppers, cut into 1/4-inch wide strips
4 med. red peppers, cut into 1/4-inch wide strips
3 c. cider vinegar
1 1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger

About 4 hours before serving or up to 1 week ahead: In 8-quart Dutch oven or heavy saucepan over medium heat, in hot salad oil, cook onions and garlic until tender, stirring occasionally. Add green tomatoes and remaining ingredients; over high heat, heat to boiling. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook, uncovered, 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens.

Ladle into jars or freezer containers, cool to room temperature, then freeze. Or ladle into sterilized jars and process in a boiling-water bath for 30 minutes.

Homemade Salad Dressing

I love salad dressing. Ranch and Italian will always be favorites of course, but I also really enjoy "fancy" dressings. When they go on sale for super cheap we usually pick up several varieties of vinaigrettes and creamy dressings - red pepper, balsamic, bacon ranch, avocado, Greek, Asian sesame, creamy Italian - my mouth is watering.

But these sale-and-stock situations are pretty rare for us. So what do I do when we run out of all our fun salad dressings and I want to have a delicious salad? I make my own salad dressing, of course!


This particular recipe was originally titled Buttermilk & Onion Salad Dressing, but I didn't have buttermilk powder or dried minced onion. So this is basically just a yummy, creamy dressing without a real name.

Homemade Salad Dressing
1/2 cup dry milk powder (or use dry buttermilk powder)
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. dried minced onion (if you've got it, use it)
1 tsp. monosodium glutamate (optional, I didn't add this)
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. dried parsley leaves (yikes, we're out. I substituted Italian seasoning)
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
2 cups mayonnaise
1 tsp. lemon juice (omit if you're using buttermilk powder)
1 cup water

In a large bow, combine all dry ingredients. Add mayonnaise, lemon juice, and water, and blend thoroughly with a wire whisk. Pour into a 1-quart container with a tight-fitting lid. Refrigerate overnight (skipped this step, we used it right away!). Makes about 3 cups.

This makes a somewhat thin dressing. If you prefer thicker dressing, start with about half the amount of water and add more until you get the desired consistency.

I only made a half batch of this, because we really didn't need a full 3 cups of dressing. Then I served it over a salad made of pasta, green leaf lettuce, tomato, carrot, olives, pepperoni, and Colby Jack cheese. Delicious!

Buttercream Syrup

Here's another delicious and unique pancake syrup. We've been having cranberry syrup almost every time we have pancakes, ever since Jeff came up with it. I still love it, but I was starting to get cranberry-ed out. Time to try something new!

I came across this recipe for Buttercream Syrup a while back, and thought that it looked absolutely delicious. After all, a recipe with nothing but butter, sugar, evaporated milk, and a bit of vanilla has to be good, right? So when Jeff made chocolate chip pancakes this morning, I knew it was the perfect time to try it out.

I admit that my pictures of this are not nearly as lovely as the pictures on Jamie's post with the original recipe. But I was in a hurry to get the picture-taking over with, and dig in!


Buttercream Syrup
1 stick butter (1/2 C)
1 cup sugar
1/2-3/4 can evaporated milk (can be substituted with buttermilk for a different, yet yummy taste)
1 tsp vanilla

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add the sugar slowly and stirring until it is creamy and thick.

Add the milk a little at a time while stirring. Add the vanilla and let it simmer for about 5-10 minutes while it thickens further.


Rich? Check. Buttery? Check. Delicious? Check. Diet? .... Not so much. :-)

Lime Cheesecake with Strawberry Sauce

Our Easter meal yesterday was so yummy. Jeff and I made Pork Chops with Apples and Stuffing (last time we made it we did it in the crock pot, this time we baked it according to the original instructions, it's delicious either way!), Jeff's sister and her family brought homemade rolls and a relish tray with olives and other marinated goodness. It was all wonderfully tasty, but for me the crowning jewel was the dessert.


I'm a HUGE fan of cheesecakes, and this one was great. The cheesecake was rich but not too rich, and the flavors were light and fresh, perfect for springtime. I used this recipe from Southern Living, but used regular lime juice instead of Key lime.


Lime Cheesecake with Strawberry Sauce
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 (8-ounce) container sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lime rind (skipped this, Jeff hates any kind of citrus rind)
1/2 cup lime juice
Strawberry Sauce
1 1/4 cups fresh strawberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lime rind (substituted lime juice)

Stir together first 3 ingredients, and firmly press on bottom and 1 inch up sides of a greased 9-inch springform pan.

Bake at 350° for 8 minutes; cool.

Beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy; gradually add 1 1/4 cups sugar, beating until blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in sour cream, rind, and juice. Pour batter into crust.

Bake at 325° for 1 hour and 5 minutes; turn oven off. Partially open oven door; let stand in oven 15 minutes. Remove from oven, and immediately run a knife around edge of pan, releasing sides.

Cool completely in pan on a wire rack; cover and chill 8 hours.

Just before serving, make strawberry sauce - process all sauce ingredients in a food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides. Spoon sauce over each slice.

Yummmmmm......

Cranberry Syrup

This has become my absolute favorite syrup for pancakes. It tastes delicious and has yummy chunks of soft, juicy cranberries. Plus, it's really simple to make. Jeff created this syrup several weeks ago, and now I force him to make it again every time we have pancakes, because I love it so much!

Jeff: Yup, I'm awesome. (Jeff hacked into my post and added that. Silly guy.)


Jeff's Cranberry Syrup
1 cup water
2 cups sugar (can be white, brown, or combination)
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
Dash each cloves and cinnamon (optional, but very yummy)
1 tsp. Vanilla (also optional, but also very yummy)
1 tsp. maple flavoring

Combine water, sugar, and cranberries in saucepan. Heat on medium high until water is boiling gently and cranberries begin to pop. Use a fork to mush the cranberries slightly, enough to release the juice, but leaving the cranberries mostly whole. Simmer for about another minute.

Remove from heat and stir in cloves, cinnamon, and maple flavoring. Serve over pancakes, waffles, French toast, etc.


I think this would also be fabulous as a topping for ice cream or angel food cake or other light dessert foods. Maybe with some whipped topping. Mmmmm....

Our Anniversary Dinner, Yummy!

Yesterday Jeff and I celebrated five years of marriage. Then today we celebrated more by closing on our house - we get the keys on Tuesday and are so excited!!!!

Anyway, we like to do special homemade meals for special occasions. Yesterday was no different. We had an absolutely delicious dinner of Pork Chops with Apples and Stuffing, salad with Basic Vinaigrette, and Anniversary Pie for dessert. It was the same pie I made for our anniversary last year, but I changed it up to include chocolate, teehee. The whole meal was absolutely wonderful.


Pork Chops with Apples and Stuffing


This recipe was based on a recipe I got from my sister a long time ago. The flavors of the pork, the stuffing, and the apple pie filling are absolutely wonderful together. It's delicious just the way it is on her blog, Fabulous Food, but I wanted to give it more of a homemade touch, so I made the apple pie filling from scratch. This is what we came up with.

4 pork chops, about 3/4 inch or thicker
6 apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
1 tbsp. lemon juice (only if the apples lack tartness)
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp. flour
1/2 to 1 tsp. cinnamon
Dash nutmeg
1 box stuffing mix

Combine the apples, lemon juice, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Spread in the bottom of a crock pot.

Quickly sear the pork chops over high heat on the stove, just until they're lightly browned on the outside. They shouldn't be cooked through. Place on top of the apples in the crock pot. Cover and cook on low until the pork is thoroughly cooked. In our crock pot it took about 8 hours.

Just before serving, prepare stuffing according to directions on the box. Serve with the pork chops and apples.

Next time I might add a bit more flour to the apples - it made a whole lot of syrup because it was in the crock pot instead of the oven. But as is, it was still absolutely delicious.


Salad with Basic Vinaigrette


For the salad, I just mixed together some green leaf lettuce with a bunch of veggies - mushrooms, shredded carrot, tomatoes, fresh chives (from the garden of a wonderful elderly gentleman in our church). Then I topped it with this simple vinaigrette.

1/4 cup oil
2 tbsp. vinegar
2 tbsp. water
1 tsp. mustard
1/8 tsp. each sugar, salt, and pepper

Combine ingredients and mix well. Store unused dressing in the fridge.

This recipe is really easy to customize and make it however you want. Use flavored oil or vinegar, specialty mustard, or add herbs and/or spices along with the salt and pepper. I made it very basic last night, but it's fun to change things around and make it your own.


Anniversary Pie


Last year I made this with butter pecan ice cream and a plain graham cracker crust. This year we changed it up a bit. I used vanilla ice cream and brown sugar instead of white. I also made a chocolate graham cracker crust, and we topped the pie with an easy chocolate sauce. It was divine!

Crust:
18-20 graham cracker squares (9-10 full sheets)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
6 tbsp. butter or margarine, melted

Crush graham crackers in food processor. Add sugar and cocoa powder, process until mixed. Add melted butter and process again until thoroughly mixed. Empty into a 9-inch pie plate and press onto bottom and sides. Set aside.

Filling:
1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
1/2 cup eggnog
1/2 cup vanilla ice cream

Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggnog and ice cream. Pour into crust and freeze until firm. Remove from freezer 10 to 15 minutes before slicing to soften the pie.

Chocolate Sauce:
1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk (approximately)

Melt chocolate and milk slowly, either in the microwave, in the top of a double boiler, or on the stove over very low heat. Add additional milk if it's too thick (I don't really know exactly how much milk I used, I just eyeballed it and stopped adding when it was a good texture). Drizzle sauce over individual slices of pie (I admit that I might have drizzled a bit more on after taking the pictures).


Well, by the time we were done eating, my stomach was very full, but I sure was happy! This was definitely a very good meal for our anniversary. May Jeff and I continue to have many more years of cooking beautiful and delicious meals together.

Salsa Verde

Tomatillos were on sale really cheap a while back, so we picked up a whole bunch of them and decided to make green salsa, or salsa verde. We started with a fairly basic recipe from allrecipes.com, adjusting it based on how many tomatillos we had and adding/subtracting a few things. The resulting salsa tasted so fresh and tangy - we really liked it a lot! We didn't have any jalapenos or anything, so substituted hot pepper sauce. But a jalapeno or two would have been a really awesome addition.


Salsa Verde
3 lbs. tomatillos, husked
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tbsp. parsley
1 tsp. hot pepper sauce (adjust according to how spicy you want it, or use jalapenos)
Salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in food processor (we had to do two batches, we had a lot of tomatillos!). Using the pulse setting, coarsely chop. Cover and chill in the refrigerator until serving.

This salsa is delicious served plain with tortilla chips, or used on anything you would use regular salsa for. I made some simple fajitas and we topped them with the salsa verde. It was so good!

Easy Curry - Freezer Meal

This is the second freezer meal I've chosen to work on (the first being the burritos for which I made those refried beans). I really love curry. I grew up on the boxed curry, where you cook the meat and vegetables, then add water and those squares of curry paste. It's so yummy, but those boxes are so expensive! I do think that the boxed curry will always be my favorite, but this recipe is a very delicious and inexpensive substitute. It came from the More-with-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. I love using this book for yummy, inexpensive, practical recipes.


I doubled the recipe and it made enough for three freezer meals for my family. I cooked it up after dinner last night, so I wasn't heating up the apartment by simmering the food during the day. I try to avoid doing anything that will heat up the apartment in the middle of the day - it's already too hot!

Easy Curry
1/4-1/2 lb. chicken or other meat (raw or cooked), finely cut
2-2 1/2 cups water
2 medium carrots
3 stalks celery
1 green pepper
1/2 medium onion
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 tbsp. curry powder (this makes a medium spiciness - for spicy use more, for mild use less)
1 cup tomato sauce
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp. cornstarch

Brown meat in small amount of fat. Add water. Chop and add vegetables. Add salt, pepper, and curry powder. Blend tomato sauce, milk, and cornstarch, and add.

Simmer 45 minutes or until vegetables are tender and sauce is thick and glossy. Stir frequently. Serve over rice, noodles, or biscuits.

Sorry for the bad pic, the lighting in my kitchen is terrible! But here you can see all the delicious veggies and the thick, glossy sauce.

Freezer Meal: Once curry is finished cooking, let cool and separate into meal-sized portions, into freezer containers, ziploc-style freezer bags, or canning jars. Freeze. To use, thaw completely in refrigerator, and heat in a saucepan over medium heat until heated through.

If you put it in freezer bags, flatten it out to freeze. You can stack the frozen bags easily so it takes up less freezer space, and it thaws faster.


I was going to wait and do the curry another night, but we had chicken last night for dinner and there were several drumsticks left. Opportunity knocked, and I used the leftover chicken to make the curry after we had dinner. I had planned on boiling some separately for this recipe, but why do all that work when there was already cooked chicken available! ;-)

Later today I'll be making a nice big batch of chili, and possibly tortillas for the burritos. Stay tuned!

Fresh Salsa

I love making my own salsa - I never buy it anymore because it's really quick and easy! I posted a while back about making salsa in the blender with canned tomatoes. I love that recipe because, like I said, it's quick and easy and always turns out very yummy.

But sometimes I like a good fresh salsa as well. Tomatoes were on sale for $0.33 a pound when we did our grocery shopping this week, and we got a LOT of them! We also got jalapenos, because they were also on sale. I have a recipe for fresh salsa that my sister gave to me a long time ago. It uses essentially the same basic ingredients as the other salsa I make, except fresh tomatoes instead of canned and you just chop everything instead of using the blender. I hadn't made this salsa in quite a while, but decided that this would be the perfect time! Oh, it turned out so good! We ate the whole batch in one sitting.


Fresh Salsa
2 cups seeded and finely chopped tomatoes (about 4 to 5 small)
1 stalk green onion, finely chopped (I used about 1/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion)
1 to 2 hot peppers (green, red, serrano, jalapeno) seeded and finely chopped
2 tbsp. lime juice (or lemon)
2 to 3 tbsp. fresh cilantro, snipped into small pieces (substituted dried parsley)
1 small green pepper, seeded and finely chopped (didn't have, didn't add)
1 large or 2 small cloves garlic, minced

Stir all ingredients together and cover, then chill for 2 hours or up to 2 days.


We served this over Cheesy Chips: Spread tortilla chips in a single layer on a baking sheet. Sprinkle liberally with shredded cheddar, then sprinkle with chili powder. Heat in hot oven (about 450 degrees) until cheese is hot and melted.

Sweet and Sour Spam

Okay, let's just get this right out into the open - I am fully aware that some people don't like Spam. Well, I and my family happen to enjoy it so we do buy and use it on occasion. Deal with it. :-)

I've had this idea floating around in my head for a couple days. Call it a weird pregnancy craving or whatever, but I really wanted to try making a Hawaiian Haystack-like dish using Spam instead of chicken gravy, and cooking the Spam in a sweet and sour sauce. So today I did that for lunch. And we really liked it!

The sauce came from a recipe for something called Sweet-Sour Fish Bake. That actually sounds really gross to me, but the sauce itself is a fantastic basic sweet and sour sauce that can be used for a variety of things - s&s chicken, s&s pork, and this s&s Spam!


Sweet and Sour Spam
1 can Spam
1 can pineapple chunks, drained with juice reserved
3 tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp. soy sauce
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
Red and yellow food coloring, optional (This wasn't in the original recipe, but Jeff liked colorful food; he added 3 drops red and 1 drop yellow)
2 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tbsp. cold water

Dice Spam into bite-sized chunks. Saute in a small amount of oil until browned. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add enough water to reserved pineapple juice to measure 1 cup. Heat pineapple juice, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, salt, and garlic powder to boiling in same pan that you cooked Spam in. Mix cornstarch and water; stir into sauce. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in pineapple chunks and Spam.


We served this kind of like Hawaiian Haystacks, by layering rice, the sweet and sour Spam, tomatoes, celery, peas, and cheese. Other additions that would have been nice if we had them on hand would include: bell peppers, chow mein noodles, olives, etc. The cheese is in chunks instead of shredded because it's fresh mozzarella - it was a manager's special, marked down to $1.50 per pound. Score!

Tartar Sauce

I was just thinking today that it was about time to post another recipe. Then tonight as we were eating our delicious dinner of salmon patties and tartar sauce, it hit me that I had a great recipe to post! So here it is.

A few years ago, my sister Michelle gave me a binder full of some of her favorite recipes. I use several on a regular basis, and this is one of them. Before she gave me this recipe, I didn't realize how easy and inexpensive it can be to make your own tartar sauce. It turns out deliciously creamy, and perfectly compliments a variety of seafood dishes. We served it with the salmon patties that I have posted about previously.


Tartar Sauce
3/4 cup mayonnaise or miracle whip
1/4 cup drained dill or sweet relish (if you don't have any relish, just finely chop a bunch of pickles like I did tonight)
2 tbsp. finely chopped onion
1 tbsp. parsley
2 tsp. capers, drained (I've never added these)

In a small bowl stir all ingredients together. Cover and chill at least 2 hours before serving. Cover and chill leftovers for up to one week.

See how simple that is? A few basic ingredients and some chilling time and you've got yourself some incredibly delicious tartar sauce. Yum!

Creamy Alfredo - the Cheap Way

My husband and I love Alfredo sauce, but it can be a bit more pricey than we prefer. Making it calls for things like heavy cream and fresh Parmesan, which we never buy. And I just can't get myself to buy jars of pre-made pasta sauce when I know I can make it at home.

We've made do by making a mock Alfredo sauce, by adding Parmesan and garlic powder to a basic white sauce. But this always had a slightly gritty/chalky feel to it. Today I altered our mock Alfredo recipe by substituting corn starch for the flour in the white sauce, and that made it super creamy. I also used fresh garlic instead of powdered (we have a super cheap source of fresh garlic), which gave it a wonderful flavor. I'm thrilled with how it turned out, and this is how we'll be making it from now on.


Creamy Mock Alfredo Sauce
2 tbsp. butter or margarine
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced (or you can use 1-2 tsp. bottled minced garlic)
1 tbsp. corn starch
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup Parmesan (the cheap powdery stuff, of course)
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and saute for a couple minutes. In a separate container, combine corn starch and milk and mix thoroughly - I used a container with a tight-fitting lid and just shook it up real good. Pour into the saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the sauce thickens. Add Parmesan, salt, and pepper. Heat through and serve with pasta.

We stirred in some small shell pasta (shells are so fun!) and topped with additional Parmesan. Yum!

Hot Fudge Cheesecake - Finally!!!

I finally made it! Yippee! And it's just as super wonderfully delicious as I remembered. Man, I love cheesecake!

Hot Fudge Cheesecake is rich and chocolaty, though quite small. It is served at room temperature with a creamy Hot Fudge Sauce. This cheesecake is baked in a 7-inch springform pan, which, though fun and cute, is not a very common size. If you don't have a 7-inch, I would try baking it in an 8-inch pan and reducing the baking time.


Hot Fudge Cheesecake
1 cup crushed saltine crackers (about one sleeve)
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
6 tbsp. butter or margarine, melted
3 tbsp. sugar
6 (1-ounce) squares semisweet chocolate (I use chocolate chips)
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs

Hot Fudge Sauce:
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup half-and-half (I use evaporated milk)
1 tbsp. butter or margarine
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine first cracker crumbs, walnuts, 6 tbsp. melted butter, and 3 tbsp. sugar; stir well. Firmly press into bottom and 2 1/2 inches up sides of a lightly greased 7-inch springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Set aside. Here's a picture of this step, so you can see how cute and little the 7-inch pan really is. Isn't it tiny?


Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees. Combine chocolate squares and 3/4 cup butter in a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat until mixture is melted and smooth, stirring often. Remove from heat, and cool.

Beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add 3/4 cup sugar; beat well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in cooled chocolate mixture. Pour into prepared crust.

Bake at 300 for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until almost set (Almost set means there's still some jiggle in the middle, but not too much. My oven runs slow, it took about an hour and fifteen minutes). Turn off oven. Let cheesecake cool in oven 30 minutes. Remove to a wire rack; cool to room temperature.


Gently run a knife around edge of cheesecake to release sides of pan; carefully remove pan. Another size comparison - the little hand belongs to my 3-year-old. Kids just can't keep their hands off yummy food, ya know?


Prepare Hot Fudge Sauce: Combine chocolate chips and half-and-half in a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth, stirring often. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla.

Serve cheesecake with warm Hot Fudge Sauce. Store leftovers of both cheesecake and sauce covered in refrigerator. Leftover sauce can be served over ice cream or pound cake. :-)


Just a little side note: If you, perchance, accidentally buy milk chocolate chips instead of semisweet, just reduce the sugar to 1/2 cup. You can also use the milk chocolate in the sauce, it will just be sweeter than usual. Still yummy. Not that I, uh, speak from experience or anything. Because of course I would never do anything like that.

I'm on a Layered Salad Kick

Lately I've been enjoying salads. Not just plain lettuce-and-tomatoes salads, but funner salads that are layered together in a bowl (how I wish I had a clear glass trifle bowl, these salads would be so much prettier) with the sauce spread on top and all the ingredients fresh and crisp. Delicious!

I didn't take pictures of this, but it was so tasty I thought I'd post it anyway so I remember for future reference. Today's lunch salad was sort of a taco salad, but using leftover turkey meat. We bought and roasted a turkey this week because it was on sale for really cheap. We're keeping a tally of how many meals we get out of the entire bird, and are already up to three, with plenty of meat and broth left. We definitely know how to stretch our meat around here!

Anyway, back to the salad. First I prepared a simple guacamole (avocados were on sale for 50 cents each this week) by smashing up two avocados with some lemon juice, garlic powder, onion powder, and salsa. This is my favorite way to make guacamole, and it turns out delicious every time! Then I set that aside to work on the rest of the salad. I layered these ingredients in this order:

Torn leaf lettuce
Chopped tomato
Chopped turkey
Guacamole
Sour cream
Shredded cheese
Crushed tortilla chips

It was extremely simple (very important during early pregnancy) and very delicious. Next time I make a salad like this I'll try to remember to snap a picture. Just take my word that this was a pretty salad with lots of bright colors and wonderful flavors!

Roasted Potato Wedges with Alabama White Barbecue Sauce - Sweet Hallelujah, This Stuff is Good!!

Christy from Southern Plate posted a recipe for Alabama White Barbecue Sauce way back in October. It looked delicious to me, but I never did make up my mind to actually try and make it. Sometimes I'm like that - I'll fall in love with a recipe and want to try it, but it gets pushed to the back of my mind and just doesn't end up happening. Well, this evening I decided that I would try it! I made some roasted potato wedges for dinner with the express purpose of serving them with the white barbecue sauce.


And Oh Lawdy, my life will never be the same.

Alabama White Barbecue Sauce

2 C Mayonnaise
1 1/2 T salt
2 T black pepper
6 T white vinegar
6 T lemon juice
4 T white sugar

Mix all ingredients together and stir well. I did 1/4 this recipe because it was just me and the kids tonight.


What did I think of this sauce? Well, I'll just copy and paste my comment on Christy's post:

"So I finally got around to trying this sauce. And let me tell you, I CAN’T BELIEVE I WAITED THIS LONG TO TRY IT!!! This stuff is incredible! It’s vinegary, it’s lemony, it’s peppery, it’s mayo-y, it’s deliciously flavorful, it’s indescribable! I made it to go with some roast potato wedges (which are actually still in the oven right now!) and tasted a bit on my finger. Then I went crazy looking for things around the kitchen that I could dip in it because I suddenly couldn’t wait until the potatoes were done. I dipped popcorn and saltines and they were great! Then I dipped my fingers some more. ;-)

And all this was before realizing that I had forgotten the sugar. I added it, and wouldn’t you know it was even better than before!

Yeah, long story short, you have made an Alabama White Barbecue Sauce lover out of this Idaho/Utah gal."

And a short while later I wrote:

"Mmmmm… I’m eating it with the potato wedges now… I’m in heaven…"

So yes, the Alabama White Barbecue Sauce was a total success. Despite (or perhaps because of) its distinct and powerful flavor, both Zaylee and Thomas loved the sauce. Zaylee even kept asking for it "I need more white!" It was cute. They ate their potatoes with the sauce and some ketchup as well. I kept mine purely unadulterated - just the potatoes and the perfection, er, I mean, white sauce.


Oh yeah, the potatoes. Really easy - I cut up three potatoes into large wedge-like chunks. Then I tossed them with oil, and a bit of salt and pepper, and put them in an 8-inch baking pan. Baked at 425 for 30 minutes, turning with spatula after the first 20. Super easy and uncomplicated. After all, I only made them to complement the white barbecue sauce. :-)

Pears Helene (the cheater tightwad version)

Today, Mar. 15, is National Pears Helene Day. I'd never heard of Pears Helene before I saw it come up on my little calendar of upcoming national food holidays (left sidebar). But it sounded intriguing so I looked it up online. I found lots of recipes, and the common thread among them is that Pears Helene is cooked pears with chocolate sauce, usually served over ice cream and topped with almonds. Well, we don't have ice cream or almonds, but since those are optional and we did have pears and chocolate, I decided to forge ahead and create a cheap and easy version of this delightful looking French dessert.


Pears Helene, the easy way
1 large can pear halves in light syrup
1/2 cup chocolate chips
3-4 tbsp. sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp. shortening
1/4 cup milk

Empty pears and syrup into saucepan and heat over medium heat (I chose to quarter the pears instead of leaving them in halves). Don't boil, just get them good and hot. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate chips with the sweetened condensed milk. I did this in the microwave, and the texture didn't end up the way I wanted, so I reheated the chocolate with some shortening and milk until it reached a smooth and syrupy consistency.

To serve, place 3 or 4 pear quarters on each plate and drizzle (liberally, heehee) with chocolate sauce. Or spoon some pears over vanilla ice cream and top with chocolate sauce and sliced almonds. Eat and enjoy!!


Yum, doesn't it just look delicious! I think we'll be making this quick, easy, scrumptious dessert many times in the future. This is one of those things I want my kids to grow up asking for. "Mom, can we have Pears Helene for dessert tonight?" "Of course, honey! Go grab a can of pears and some chocolate chips!" Ah, it just rolls off the tongue! :-)

As a bonus, the chocolate sauce would also make a good fondue-like dip for things like bananas, strawberries, pound cake cubes, graham crackers, etc.

National Tortilla Chip Day

Did you know that Feb. 24 is National Tortilla Chip Day? It's also National Pancake Day but we had to pick and choose which to celebrate and tortilla chips won out.


What better way to celebrate National Tortilla Chip Day than to build up some super delicious nachos!!!! And we did it the only way we know how - cheap!

We started with the tortilla chips - purchase on sale for $0.89/16 oz. bag at Rancho Market (a local Hispanic market/store with incredible sales prices on stuff like chips and produce)


On top of the chips went the delicious cheesy sauce. We made this by heating up a jar of pasteurized process cheese sauce (we usually use a slab of generic Velveeta-like stuff, but they were out, so the jarred generic stuff it was). We added a can of tomatoes and green chilies (commonly called Ro-Tel, of course we used generic) and some bean flour (dried beans ground up in a wheat grinder), as well as chili powder and cumin for a hearty and flavorful cheese sauce.


Next up was some homemade guacamole, made from avocados that were purchased on sale at Rancho Market for $0.33 each. I mashed three avocados and added some lemon juice, parsley, minced onion, garlic, hot sauce, and salt.


After the guacamole came leaf lettuce, purchased at Ream's for $0.69 per bunch, and tomato - 4 lbs for $0.99 at Rancho.


Lastly came the cheese, $2.50 per pound on sale. Now, I know that somehow, somewhere I can get cheese for cheaper than that, but I'm having trouble finding it. Meanwhile, this was the cheapest we could get, and believe me, it's cheaper than we could get at Wal-Mart.


This fun, delicious meal cost us under $3, plus we have plenty of cheap ingredients left for other great foods later!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for homemade chocolate truffles here. Giveaway ends Friday evening. :-)