Monday, November 17, 2008

Mundane Monday

Hmm, I think I gave up on Thirty Minute Thursdays in the middle of the A-Z marathon. Forgive me, I beg you! I could do Mundane Mondays, because you've now started a new week. Tricky Tuesdays to give each week a challenge. Wordless Wednesdays with pictures of delicious food (likely not prepared by me). Thrifty Thursdays to find new ways to bring frugality into our lives, whilst preparing food for armies (ie: families). Fiesta Fridays to incorporate the spice of life into what we cook. Seafood Saturdays for all the is fishy and fun. Sweet Sundays (Sundaes) for all that is known as desserty goodness...

Give me ideas people... PLEASE!!! :) I'm not going to do all of them or you will see a fast end to this blog. However, I could incorporate several of them. I need some direction. This includes about what to cook for tonight...I'm thinking Swedish Meatballs...mmmm.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

PEARS

I think if I had to I could eat all fresh fruit and nothing else. I could be a fruitivore or a fruititarian. Don't get me wrong, I love vegetables, I enjoy bread, I enjoy seafood, and I love me a good slab of steak. However, every time I eat fresh, juicy fruit I really think I could live off of nothing more than fruit. I love fresh fruit, I love it with milk and sugar, I love fruit smoothies, fruit crisps, fruit cobblers, fruit ice cream, fruit on ice cream...(I love ice cream too).

We had a recent visit from my mom, who graced us with not only her presence, but with a whole bunch of pears. Fresh...picked...pears...mmmm. Ok, I will concede, pears don't top the list of favorites, they hover around number three, but still, they are in the top five favorites. I've eaten my share of pears since they came in to our lives, but frankly the family wasn't helping a whole lot, so there were a few pears that desperately needed some help yesterday. Since I love them, and don't want to waste their existance, I found a couple of really good recipes to try. Perfect! We had a 'pear dinner' yesterday. What a great way to integrate fruit into two new recipes!

PEAR BRUNCH CAKE (originally written for rhubarb)

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
3 cups pear, cut into 1/2" pieces

Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg to mixture. Add milk and vanilla. Mix flour, salt and soda together. Combine the two mixtures together. Fold pear into cake mixture. Pour into a greased 9" x 13" cake pan. Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes (edge will pull away from sides of pan). Pour hot sauce over cake immediately after removing from oven.

Sauce:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup evaporated canned milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine all ingredients in saucepan. Boil for 3 1/2 minutes, stirring constantly. Serve cake warm or cold.

KOREAN BBQ BEEF

1 pound beef top sirloin, thinly sliced (I used thinly sliced pork which was great!)
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 pears - peeled, cored and minced
2 green onions, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tbsp. white sugar
1 tsp minced fresh ginger (I had to use powdered ginger)

1. In a large reselable plastic bag, combine beef with garlic, pear, green onions, soy sauce, sugar, ginger. Sear and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.

2. Cook in preheated pan over high heat until meat is cooked all the way through. Very good served over steamed rice.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Slacking or just busy...?

I could go into paragraphs worth of excuses, trying to resolve any guilt I'm still feeling from not posting in so long. I could mention the rounds of colds that my family has been sharing. I could mention the family visits. I could mention the stinkin' Halloween holiday, the costumes to get ready, the parties to attend, the party to plan, host and clean up from. I could mention it's football season and sometimes that does take precedence. I could mention the fact that I just posted 26 days in a row, without break, and maybe was a little tired...but I'm not going to. I'm going to simply post another recipe. Because I can.

However, to prove that there was a Halloween party, and I did serve food, and I did prepare it and try to make it creative, and I did once again forget to take great pictures...you get the idea, there are some pictures, they are not great but the food was fun and yummy. We served Mummies in a blanket, Pizza Mummies, Deviled Eyeballs, Chips with queso, salsa, and guacamole, rainbow jello, breadstick bones, and creepy punch. YUM!





Now, for today's recipe. I'm still in the mood for pumpkin, and technically it's still pumpkin season. It's time to eat them rather than carve them. I've already shared my favorite pumpkin recipe, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, so we'll have to settle for another good one.

PUMPKIN BREAD

4 eggs
3 c. sugar
1 c. corn oil
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. canned pumpkin
5/8 c. buttermilk
2 tsp. baking soda
3 1/2 c. flour
1 c. nuts, chopped
1 c. raisins
1 tsp. cloves (opt.)

Mix together all ingredients. Bake in 325° oven for one hour in three loaf pans.