February's recipes

For February, I made No Peek Stew for my cookbook recipe, Cuban-Style Yucca for my something new recipe, and Lemon Mug Cake for my Pinterest recipe.

I used the same cookbook (gluten-free deliciously by jennifer cinquepalmi).  I used the dutch oven my mother and her husband gave me for Christmas.  This was a new thing for me too, I don't remember ever cooking with a dutch oven before even though I had one years ago.

My beautiful red dutch oven

Finished No Peek Stew

No-Peek Stew

4 lbs lean stew meat
6 large carrots, chopped into bite-size pieces
1 - 2 onions, sliced
1 1/2 cups celery, chopped
9 medium red potatoes, cut into large chunks
2 (28-oz) cans diced tomatoes
Use the empty can to add 1/2 can water
3 Tbsp dry tapioca granules (to thicken)
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
5 tsp salt
4 tsp pepper

Combine all ingredients in a large dutch oven, stirring well.  Cover and bake 250 degrees for 5 - 6 hours; no need to stir or peek!

Serves 10.

I used only 2 lbs stew meat - I generally try to have less meat and more veggies.  I used regular potatoes.  This was very good, but way too much pepper.  I love black pepper, but next time will only use 2 teaspoons or maybe even 1.  I also seared my stew meat before adding the other ingredients.  That was the reason I asked for a dutch oven, and I've heard it seals in the juices.  I do know the meat was very tender in my stew!

I Googled yucca recipes and the first result sounded good - so that's what I made.  Here's the link to the recipe:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cuban-style-yucca/

Buying yucca at Harvey's

This month I had no idea what I wanted to do for my new thing, other than maybe something in the produce section.  So, I hunted around the produce aisle while in Harvey's.  I saw the Yucca and Googled recipes from my iphone.  It said it was like potatoes and had a recipe with olive oil and garlic - so I decided to give it a try. My daughter figured it was named yucca for a reason.  She did not want me to buy "yuck - uh" and make her eat it!  It is coated in a very heavy layer of wax.  I had no idea how to decide which yucca to buy, so I just found what would weigh the 2 pounds called for.  I followed the recipe basically except that I cut them crosswise (in circles).  The picture didn't look like it was in sticks, so I wasn't sure what they meant by lengthwise.  I think it would have been better diced.  I was concerned about the heavy wax, so I tried to peel it with a paring knife, but that didn't work well.  I switched to my regular potato peeler and that worked very well.  The recipe didn't really give a description of how to cut it up and peel it.

Finished Cuban-Style Yucca

I wasn't sure what would be the good and bad parts.  I did cut out some brown places that looked sort of like peel on the inside.  I later read elsewhere that you should cut out the woody parts.  The yucca had a fibrous texture similar to fresh ginger.  both of them had a very white streak through them that should have been cut out.  When I cooked them the creamy, almost beige parts were the softer, better tasting parts.  The bright white spots did get tender enough to eat but were not very good. I didn't have lemon juice, so I used lime.  This recipe called for fresh garlic, so I was able to use another Christmas present kitchen tool, this one given to me by sister and her etceteras - it's a silicone tube you place the garlic in and roll it around to remove the peel.  It worked really well.  The yucca was pretty good, but needed more salt - so we added that at the table.

My Pinterest recipe can be found here:  http://pinterest.com/pin/210824826278646897/.

It is gluten-free, but could be made with regular flour, I'm sure.  It called for almond flour, but I used my usual flour mix because I didn't have almond flour.  So my version was not low carb.  I got my flour mix recipe from a chicken and dumpling recipe I found on Pinterest a while ago.  I mix 2 1/2 cups of rice flour, 2/3 cup potato starch, and 1/3 cup tapioca starch.  I used stevia instead of the sugar alcohol used in the recipe.  I put in 3 of the little spoons that come in my stevia.  It is pure stevia  extract, so I am able to sweeten a gallon of tea 

with just 1/2 teaspoon of stevia.  Again, not having lemons or lemon juice, I used lime.  The cake was very good.  I didn't have whipped cream, which it did need.  I had some canned cream cheese frosting, so I added a spoonful of that to the top of each and let it melt in.  I have been quite taken with the brownie in a mug recipe I found on Pinterest, so this was another variety to add to that one.  This one is definitely a keeper!

Cooking Challenge

Last year my sister and I challenged each other to make recipes from our many cookbooks sitting on the shelf collecting dust.  We made a few recipes, but it quickly went by the wayside.  This year I decided I wanted to try again, but make it a little more interesting.  I am challenging myself to cook 1 recipe from my cookbooks, 1 from Pinterest, and 1 from anywhere that either uses an ingredient or technique I've never tried, or is just very different from anything I've cooked before - something to broaden my horizons.  So, for the month of January - here are the 3 recipes I tried.

1.  This fell into my something new category.  I have never made any kind of homemade chip before.  My son was still home for the holidays and all 3 of us were craving chips of some kind.  We were getting kind of desperate because he had eaten just about everything I had in the house.  So, I went on Google in search of tortilla chips recipes since all I had in the house were corn tortillas and seasonings.  It actually wasn't quite that bad, but it felt like it to me.  When he went off to college in the fall, I quickly got used to buying food and still finding in the cabinet or refrigerator when I went to get it.  This is what I found through Google - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-tortilla-chips/  They are amazing, both my kids loved them, and they disappeared very quickly - no leftovers.  They aren't from scratch (I started with tortilla shells not cornmeal or cornflour), so you may not agree with me calling them homemade - but I felt adventurous cooking them!

INGREDIENTS:

1 (12 ounce) package corn tortillas 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 3 tablespoons lime juice

1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.	Cut each tortilla into 8 chip sized wedges and arrange the wedges in a single layer on a cookie sheet.
3.	In a mister, combine the oil and lime juice. Mix well and spray each tortilla wedge until slightly moist.
4.	Combine the cumin, chili powder and salt in a small bowl and sprinkle on the chips.
5.	Bake for about 7 minutes. Rotate the pan and bake for another 8 minutes or until the chips are crisp, but not too brown. Serve with salsas, garnishes or guacamole.

2.  This recipe is in my cookbook category.  I got this book for Christmas in 2011.  Last week, I flipped through it and found a lot of great recipes.  I didn't notice any really weird ingredients.  Most recipes substitute sorghum flour for wheat flour.  I did purchase some sorghum flour, but I haven't tried it yet.  If you are interested in cooking gluten free, I recommend this book.  It does have some recipes that call for gluten free breads or rolls to be purchased, but most recipes are things you can make yourself.  Here is a link if you wish to buy the book: http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Gluten-Free-Deliciously/Jennifer-Cinquepalmi/9780977847419.

The recipe I chose is Tomato Ricotta Pie.  It was very easy and I thought it was incredible.  My daughter did not like all the fresh basil in it, but she did a whole piece of it - I cut it in eighths.  I would like to make this again, but I think I might chop the basil a little finer for her sake.  She ate the smaller pieces of basil and picked out the larger.  The recipe called for mint also, but that sounded weird to me, so I didn't use any.  I used the Romano cheese and grated it with the fine grater blade in my Pampered Chef hand held grater - a tool that I can't live without.  If you want one of these you can purchase it at this link: http://www.pamperedchef.com/our_products/catalog/product.jsp?productId=157&categoryCode=CE

Crustless Tomato-Ricotta Pie

1 (15-ounce) container part-skim ricotta cheese
3 large eggs
1/4 cup freshly grated Romano cheese or Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup low-fat milk
1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves, chopped
2 medium ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly coat the inside of a 10-inch cast iron skillet with olive oil.

In a large bowl, whisk ricotta, eggs, cheese, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper until blended.

In a measuring cup, stir milk and cornstarch until smooth; whisk into cheese mixture.  Stir in basil and mint.

Pour mixture into the prepared skillet.  Arrange tomatoes on top, overlapping slices if necessary.  Bake pie 35 minutes or until lightly browned and set around the edge.  Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

PS - I'm not getting paid to advertise nor will I be compensated if you decide to buy these products - I'm just sharing about things I am glad I own!

3.  My last recipe is from my Pinterest category.  I have it repinned onto my board "Pinterest things I've tried" but the original post was from this blog:  http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2009/09/football-kickoff-buffalo-chicken-dip.html.  This was very quick and easy.  I omitted the blue cheese crumbles (since I didn't have any).  If I make it again, I might try with blue cheese dressing instead of the ranch.  It was pretty good - but very rich.  My daughter didn't like it much, saying it was too cheesy.  What?!!  This from the girl who gobbles cheese - including chunks of extra sharp cheddar?  I'm thinking it was the cream cheese that disturbed her, the dip was very thick and rich.  She did eat some, but not tons.  I wasn't able to eat as much as I usually do of other dips because I got full quickly.  (Good thing?)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cooked and shredded chicken or 1 (12 ounce) can chunk chicken, drained

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup Ranch dressing

1/2 cup Buffalo wing sauce (such as Frank’s Red Hot, not to be confused with their pepper sauce. Start with less if you want and add more to your desired hotness.)

3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

blue cheese crumbles (optional)

Instructions:

Heat chicken and Buffalo sauce in a skillet over medium heat, until heated through. Make sure to break up the chicken so there are no big chunks. Stir in cream cheese and ranch dressing. Cook, stirring until well blended and warm. Mix in shredded cheese.  Pour into a shallow dish or pie pan and sprinkle with blue cheese crumbles and microwave it until the cheese melts. We usually only sprinkle blue cheese on half of it for those who aren't blue cheese fans. Serve with chips for dipping.

Okay Donna!  The gauntlet is thrown down - what are you cooking?