for Lenae...

I ran into a friend yesterday at the local farm stand and she told me to buy lots of strawberries and make something because she was sick of looking at the potatoes and sausage post :) Here you go Lenae!

No cooking involved, I didn't have time but farm stand strawberries and raspberries on spinach with side crunchies of farm fresh kohlrabi and radishes. I ate outside since I have been cooped up in the office all day and noticed how many butterflies are in the garden today. To see the butterflies go to my garden blog HERE.

Potato Kielbasa Skillet...

I'm married to a hunter so I have an abundance of venison sausage in my freezer. I found this recipe on the Taste of Home website for Potato Kielbasa Skillet and it looked good so I tried it tonight substituting vension for the kielbasa. It was a "keeper" recipe :)

Potato Kielbasa Skillet
from Taste of Home - original recipe can be found Here.
Ingredients

* 1 pound red potatoes, cubed
* 3 tablespoons water
* 3/4 pound smoked kielbasa or Polish sausage, cut into 1/4-inch slices
* 1/2 cup chopped onion
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 2 tablespoons brown sugar
* 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
* 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
* 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
* 1/4 teaspoon pepper
* 4 cups fresh baby spinach
* 5 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

Directions

* Place potatoes and water in a microwave-safe dish. Cover and microwave on high for 4 minutes or until tender; drain.
* In a large skillet, saute kielbasa and onion in oil until onion is tender. Add potatoes; saute 3-5 minutes longer or until kielbasa and potatoes are lightly browned.
* Combine the brown sugar, vinegar, mustard, thyme and pepper; stir into skillet. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 2-3 minutes or until heated through. Add spinach and bacon; cook and stir until spinach is wilted. Yield: 4 servings.

Marsha - Thumbs Up
Jeff - Thumbs Up

Lemon and Sage Chicken

It was a perfect evening to grill and eat in the garden tonight. The Miss Kim Lilac in the background of the second photo has the whole backyard filled with fragrance.
The menu included a new chicken recipe from Cooking Light magazine for Lemon and Sage Chicken...
served with grilled sweet potatoes and fresh fruit it was a perfect dinner.
The view wasn't bad either!

Lemon and Sage Chicken
from the June issue of Cooking light magazine and also their website.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 breast pieces or 1 leg and 1 thigh)
Ingredients

* 1 (4-pound) roasting chicken
* 1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
* 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
* 1/3 cup Sauternes or other dessert white wine
* 1/4 cup minced fresh sage leaves
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 teaspoon paprika
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 2 large garlic cloves, grated
* 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. Remove and discard giblets and neck from chicken. Cut the chicken into drumsticks, thighs, and breasts; cut each breast in half crosswise to form 4 breast pieces total. Reserve wings and back for another use.

2. Combine rind and next 7 ingredients (through garlic) in a small bowl, and stir with a whisk. Place juice mixture in a large zip-top plastic bag. Add chicken to bag; seal and marinate in refrigerator 1 hour. Remove chicken from bag, and discard marinade. Sprinkle chicken evenly with salt.

3. Prepare grill to medium-high heat. After preheating, turn the left burner off (leave the right burner on), or arrange charcoal on one side of grill for indirect heat.

4. Place chicken on grill rack covering right burner; grill over direct heat 15 minutes, turning every 5 minutes. Move chicken to grill rack covering left burner; grill over indirect heat 10 minutes or until a thermometer registers 165°. Discard chicken skin.

My Notes: I used chicken thighs instead of a whole chicken because that was what I in the freezer. I can't wait to try it again with chicken breasts, the meat was so tender and wonderful tasting. Jeff worked late so it marinated for 2 1/2 hours rather than one.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

Baked French Toast...

This recipe came from my sister, Renae. She emailed it as a "thumbs up" recipe so I knew it was one we had to try.

Baked French Toast

1 loaf French bread (13-16 oz size)
8 large eggs
2 cups half and half
1 cup milk
2 Tablespoon sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Dash of salt

Slice French bread into 1 inch slices
Arrange slices in a buttered 9x13 baking dish
In a large bowl combine eggs, half and half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and beat with a whisk or beater
Pour mixture over bread, Put extra mix in between slices
Cover with foil and refrigerate over night

Praline topping
2 tbsp butter
1 cup of packed brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoon of corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in med bowl and blend well.
Preheat oven 350. Spread topping over the bread and bake for 40-50 min until puffed and lightly golden and serve with maple syrup or fruit sauce.

Renae was right - this one received a thumbs up from 6 friends from church as well as Jeff & myself.

The raspberry/white chocolate scones pictured, I have blogged before. They are our personal favorite and you can find the recipe here from Ann of Thibeault's Table.

jam & toast...

My favorite breakfast is homemade bread toasted with homemade jam. Last week's bag of rhubarb was used in the previously posted muffins, rhubarb bread and rhubarb-raspberry jam. I know bread machines are not used by many bakers these days with the popularity of 5-minute breads but I still use and love mine. When I saw the Rhubarb Bread for the bread machine recipe on Beth's Favorite Recipes I knew I had to give it a try. The freezer jam is one I have made for years both in the raspberry and strawberry versions.

Rhubarb Bread for the Bread Machine
from the blog, Beth's Favorite Recipes

Rhubarb Bread for Bread Machine
1 1/2 lb loaf

1 C. chopped rhubarb
1 C. water
1/2 t. finely shredded orange peel
2 T. butter or margarine
2 C. whole wheat flour
1 C. bread flour
3 T. brown sugar
3/4 t. salt
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. active dry yeast

Procedure:
In medium saucepan combine rhubarb and water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 min. or till rhubarb is tender. Measure rhubarb-water mixture and add water if necessary to equal 1 1/3.C Cool slightly. Add ingredients to machine according to manufacturer's direction.

My Notes: this bread tastes wonderful especially toasted but I made it as posted and it didn't raise as tall as I would have liked. I have this happen with all the wheat flour recipes in my machine unless I add gluten which I didn't have on hand. Beth's notes say she used all white flour so I definitely will make this again using all white flour. If you have the same problem with your machine adjust accordingly.

Rhubarb Raspberry (or Strawberry) Jam
(written on a scrap of paper in my recipe collection - I have been making this for 30 years so I don't remember where it came from)

6 cups diced rhubarb
3 cups sugar
1 package raspberry or strawberry jello
1 bag frozen raspberries or strawberries (the individual flash frozen kind)

Mix the sugar & rhubarb together in a medium sized kettle and let sit for 1-2 hours so some of the juices from the rhubarb mix with the sugar. Heat to boiling and let simmer until rhubarb is cooked and breaking apart about 10-12 minutes. If using strawberries add them about 2/3 of the way through the cooking time and if using raspberries add them add them at the very end and reheat to boiling (you want the strawberries to break down a little and you want the raspberries to not turn to mush). Add the package of jello, stir until completely combined and then take off heat. The jam will thicken as it cools. Put into containers and store in refrigerator or freezer.

My notes: as all those old handwritten recipes go this one is vague on package sizes. I used the small package of jello this time and the jam is not as thick as usual. I do think I used a larger package of berries than usual so I should have used the larger package of jello. This is so good I would eat it with a spoon if I had to - but it is still spreadable consistency :)

Now I need to get another bag of rhubarb to try those bars on Beth's site and I still have to make my favorite rhubarb-pineapple sauce & Jeff's favorite rhubarb crisp! I did add a plant to my own garden this year but have to wait another year for it to get established for my first harvest.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

tea for one...

I got a bag of rhubarb today from a friend because I wanted to make my favorite rhubarb jam. Since I had extra I decided to try out a few new recipes including this one for Sticky Rhubarb Muffins from the Rhubarb Info.com website. It was the perfect opportunity to use one of my vintage fruit plates that I found in an antique store in Texas. The stamp on the back reads Bordallo Pinheiro LDA Caldas Da Rainha, Made in Portugal.


Sticky Rhubarb Muffins
from rhubarbinfo.com
Ingredients:

4 T Butter
6 T Dark brown sugar
1 c Rhubarb; cut in small dice

Dough:

4 T Butter, softened
1/4 c Sugar
1 Egg
1 1/2 c All-purpose flour
1 ts Baking powder
1/2 ts Baking soda
1/4 ts Salt
1/2 ts Nutmeg
1/2 c Milk
Grated rind of 1 orange

Using your fingertips or a pastry cutter, mix the butter into the brown sugar roughly. Stir in the rhubarb. Distrubute this mixture evenly into 12 muffin cups.

Cream the softened butter and the sugar together, then beat in the egg. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg together thoroughly, then add the butter-sugar mixture alternately with the milk. Do not overmix. Stir in the orange rind. Pour equal amounts of the batter into the muffin cups. Bake in a preheated 350 F oven for 25 minutes. Let cool in the pans 5 minutes, then invert the muffin tins and ease the muffins out so that the sticky glaze remains intact. Serve warm, with glaze topside.

Marsha - Thumbs halfway UP (the sticky tops were not as "sticky" as I imagined them to be - most of the brown sugar mixture bubbled up an over the edges of the muffin pan and I'm not sure they were worth having to clean out the oven).
Jeff - not home at tea time, he will try them later.

Looks like I wasn't the only one having tea for one today :)

Breakfast for one...

Recently, the Pioneer Woman posted about making cinnamon toast the right way and I knew I wanted to try it. Then yesterday, Beth (Beth's Favorite Recipes) posted it and said it was the BEST so this morning I just had to try it.
Let me just say...they are right! Without knowing it I have totally been making cinnamon toast the wrong way for many years. According to PW I have been using approach #3 which is the worst cinnamon toast on earth :) This tastes so good and had such a good crunch on top - just plain delicious.
I didn't have any mexican vanilla as PW suggests but used some "real" vanilla as well as the best cinnamon out there. I received some Penzey's spices as a gift from my friend, Jayne, we use a lot of cinnamon in our house and there is no comparsion to the store brands.

Cinnamon Toast - The Right Way
by Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman

Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 15 Minutes Difficulty: Easy Servings: 8
Ingredients

* 16 slices Bread (whole Wheat Is Great!)
* 2 sticks Salted Butter, Softened
* 1 cup Sugar (more To Taste)
* 3 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
* 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract (more To Taste)
* ⅛ teaspoons Ground Nutmeg (optional)

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Smush softened butter with a fork. Dump in sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg, if using. Stir to completely combine.

Spread on slices of bread, completely covering the surface all the way to the edges.

Place toast on a cookie sheet. Place cookies sheet into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil until golden brown and bubbling. Watch so it won’t burn!

Remove from oven and cut slices into halves diagonally.

Click HERE to see PW's post with step by step photos.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - poor guy wasn't home and missed it but I will be making it many more times in the future.