some recent baking i have done

I've been doing some baking recently, and shockingly it has all been well received by the family!  This is something that I have been complaining about for years, that the family (kids) would rather have store bought baking than mine.  But I'm on a small roll right now.  Victory is mine.

The first and biggest win was some lemon bars I made that went so quickly I didn't even get a photo.  And now I can't find the recipe either.  But!  Everyone loved them.

I made these pineapple muffins because we'd opened a can of crushed pineapple for homemade pizza night  and I needed to use up the rest of the can.  These were quite light in flavor but nice and moist.

 These cheese muffins were also a pretty big hit.  I added some garlic powder to them and MMMMM!

 

Pineapple Cupcakes

I made these for work for a lady who was leaving - I hardly knew her, but felt badly that no one was going to make any sort of fuss on her last day, so I whipped these up the night before.

They are the sort of dessert I feel like maybe I should feel badly about - boxed mix with more prepackaged add ins - but frankly they were so freaking delicious I don't care.

The can of mandarin oranges whipped into the batter is a genius move, and one I would definitely use again. 

I left them un-iced with the frosting in a bowl for everyone to do themselves, and I swear, some people were eating it with a spoon.

SO good.

Recipe: Pineapple Sunset Layer Cake

Pineapple Muffins

I made these last weekend to get us going on Sunday morning.  We all like pineapple, and I like homemade muffins better then store bought for controlling size and sugar.

This is from my Notebook #10 and is from a book called Pop It, Stir It, Fix It, Serve It.  I whipped these up at 5am, while everyone snoozed away.  The ingredient list was short and the recipe came together super quick.  The only change I made was the pineapple - the recipe calls for you to use an 8 oz can of tidbits and puree the tidbits and juice.  I may have mentioned I was making these at 5am so there was no way I was turning on the food processor or blender and risk waking up surly boys.  So instead I used 8 ounces of crushed pineapple and juice.  And it worked perfectly!  

I love these muffins.  A new favorite.  As much as I liked them with raisins, next time I might try dried cranberries, or maybe some nuts?

Pineapple Muffins

Adapted from Pop It, Stir It, Fix It, Serve It

2 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup sugar

8oz crushed pineapple, including some juice

1/2 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp lemon juice

1 egg

1/2 cup raisins or other mix in

Preheat oven to 400'.

Stir all dry ingredients together.  Mix the pineapple, oil, vanilla and egg until well combined, then fold in the flour mixture and the raisins, or other dried fruit or chopped nuts.

Scoop the batter into 12 muffin cups lined with baking cups.  Bake for 15-18 minutes, until brown and cooked.

Hawaiian Christmas Dinner - Pineapple Coleslaw

This was one of my favorite things I ate in Hawaii when we were there in 2007, apart from anything from Maui Taco.

I vowed when we returned from our trip I would find a wonderful pineapple coleslaw recipe....but I guess I sort of forgot about it.  Until we were planning this meal and I knew it had to be added.  Luckily Paula at The Cookbook Junkie had the perfect recipe for Pineapple Coleslaw, from one of the Diners Drive Ins and Dives cookbooks.

My Mom made this and apparently we didn't take any photos, but it looks like...coleslaw, so I guess we'll all be ok. Anyhoo, my Mom said she increased the amount of carrot and decreased the sugar a bit. It was the best slaw I've ever ever had. Fo sho.

Hawaiian Christmas Dinner - Bacon Wrapped Pineapple

I have wanted to try bacon wrapped pineapple for years but it never happened.  In November when I was shopping for food for Pax's birthday dinner I decided to add an appetizer for the adults but couldn't think of anything.  Then I saw a pineapple and thought why not?  We had some at home, all I needed to buy was bacon.

They were delicious and so we added them as an appetizer to Christmas dinner.

Cut your pineapple into cubes, I was aiming for one good size mouthful. Cut your bacon strips in half lengthwise.

Preheat your oven to 400' and line a baking sheet with foil.

Wrap the pineapple in the bacon:

Place on the baking sheet and if you like, sprinkle with a little bit of brown sugar.

Bake until the bacon is crisp, 15-20 minutes. Start keeping an eye on them around 10, so they don't get too crispy.

These are so easy to make and so tasty!

Christmas Dinner 2010

3 ingredients - Pineapple Batido

Pineapple Batido

1 cup diced fresh pineapple
1/2 cup skim milk
1 tsp sugar

Place all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.

source unknown

FNCCC - Paula Deen

Paula Deen is the chosen Food Network host for this weeks Food Network Chef Cooking Challenge. Oh Paula. You crazy crazy woman you.

I went over to her own website pauladeen.com for inspiration and found a recipe for sweet and sour meatballs. I LOVE sweet and sour meatballs and as luck would have it, I had a bag of frozen meatballs in the freezer and all the sauce ingredients in the pantry, so I made it for dinner that very night.

I am a fairly frugal person in the kitchen. I don't like to waste food. I hate having to buy a big bunch of cilantro when I only need a teaspoon. Cause you know it's going to go bad before it all gets used up. I don't like recipes where you cook noodles in broth and then toss out the broth. I don't do it. I just cook them in water. So imagine my shock when I'm reading the recipe I've chosen, and it calls for 4 cups of ketchup. For one pound of meatballs. FOUR CUPS OF KETCHUP! Does that not sound just a wee bit excessive? Four cups of ketchup plus 2 cans of pineapple, and a truckload of other ingredients, for a measly one pound of meatballs? Four cups of anything is a lot and I just couldn't bring myself to use four cups (4!) of ketchup. So I halved all of the sauce ingredients, and also didn't pre-cook the sweet and sour sauce since everything was going to be in the oven for an hour.

And it looked pretty good when it was done cooking:

Aside from the day glow color of the photo, you'll see that there is p-l-e-n-t-y of sauce to go around for all those meatballs. I honestly can't imagine needing any more sauce. It was good, very good. I might make it again, but I am always on the lookout for new sweet and sour meatballs recipes.

Please visit Sarah at I Thank My Mother to see who else took part and what they made.

Recipe: Shane’s Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Presto Pasta Nights - Pineapple Basil Noodles

I've been doing lots of sorting and organizing lately, and the other night I spent some time going through some of my cooking notebooks. I started Sara's Cookbook #1 when I was 18 years old. I copied recipes from my Mom, my friends Moms, even my boyfriends Mom who was a bad cook. I pasted in recipes from Gourmet, Bon Appetit and Vegetarian Times. And then I started to add my own creations and ideas. I'm having so much fun looking through the early books. I can see the beginnings of my vegetarian time; when my roommate and I went through our bread making phase; which cookbooks and authors I was obsessed with at the time. And then when I had regular access to the internet? Holy Cow. I would spend entire evenings searching for recipes on the internet, and then copy them into my books. I am such a party animal!


The original recipe for this dish comes out of Cookbook #3 and looks like I cut it out of Gourmet magazine. The magazine version had veggies in it, but I was really just interested in the pineapple and basil. The cooking fairies (??) must have been smiling down on me when I came across this recipe again the other day. There were cellophane noodles in the pantry, a fresh pineapple on the counter, and basil outside in the garden.

I am crazy about this dish. The pineapple and basil are amazing together, and this is the perfect recipe to use up some of the cellophane noodles that seem to multiply in my cupboard.

And luckily for me Ruth considers any sort of noodle fair game for Presto Pasta Nights!

Pineapple Basil Noodles

3 oz cellophane noodles

1 tsp cornstarch
1/3 cup pineapple juice
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 cup chopped pineapple
1 tb finely chopped basil

Place the noodles in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Let sit at least 10 minutes, or longer, until the noodles are soft. Drain well and set aside.

Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Stir the cornstarch into the pineapple juice and pour into the pan. Add the soy sauce and simmer until the sauces start to thicken, just a minute or two. Add the pineapple and cook until the pineapple is hot. Add the noodles and toss to coat. Stir in the basil, and remove from the stove.

WCC #6 - Picnic Food

Tis the season for sunny days, warm nights, sunscreen, shorts, bug bites and eating outside. Well, maybe all those things if you don't live here in Calgary. Our weather has not yet decided if it should be nice our or not.

The sixth edition of Weekend Cookbook Challenge is all about picnic food. My criteria for the meal was 1. nothing too messy and 2. refrigeration optional.

So I chose 2 recipes from Happy Days with the Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver.


The Best Pasta Salad
I am always on the lookout for pasta salad recipes. I love them, especially in the summer, but have never been crazy about any of my attempts. This one is really, really good. I especially love that the dressing is oil and vinegar based. The fact there is no mayonnaise makes it ideal for picnics AND my waistline.

Serves 4-6

11 oz small shell shaped pasta (I used vegetable gemelli)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 pint yellow cherry tomatos (I used all red)
1/2 pint red cherry tomatos
1 handful black olives, pitted
2 tb chives chopped
1 handful fresh basil
1/2 cucumber
4 tb white wine vinegar
7 tb oive oil
salt and pepper

Boil pasta and garlic cloves until pasta is al dente. Drain and rinse with cool water. Set aside the garlic and place pasta in a large bowl. Chop the tomatos, olives, chives, basil and cucumber into pieces about half the size of the pasta. Toss with the pasta. Mush the garlic into a paste and whisk into the oil and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper and sugar if desired. Pour over salad and toss well.


Pukka Pineapple with Bashed-up Mint Sugar

This recipe is so tasty, you won't belive it. The mint and pineapple together are a wonderful pair. AND I got to use mint out of my garden!

Serves 4

1 ripe pineapple
4 tb sugar
1 handful fresh mint leaves.

Peel the pineapple and cut in quarters. Remove the core and slice the fruit thinly. Lay out on a plate.
Put the sugar and mint in a mortar and pestle and mash until the mint is quite fine. Sprinkle over the pineapple and serve.

Grilled Pineapple

I've seen lots of recipes for grilled pineapple, but most of them are dessert orientated with some sort of sweet sauce. I like my grilled pineapple plain, so I can do what I like with it. I made these slices to accompany some chicken fajitas I made. The leftovers were wonderful the next morning for breakfast.

Here's my $3.99 pineapple from Co-Op.

Cut off the top and bottom, so you have 2 stable work surfaces. Then start cutting off the rind from top to bottom. Don't worry about getting out all the eyes, you can go back for them later. Just make sure you get off all the outer peel.

When you have all the rind off, go back and cut out any remaining eyes.

Slice into rings 1/2 - 1 inch thick. You can cut the core out if desired.

Be careful when putting them on the grill. They may be a bit slippy.

Grill over medium heat until slightly charred and soft. Serve any way you like - sweet or savory.