A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Halloween: Candy Witch's Fingers on Pretzel Rods

Started in 2009, these candy and pretzel rod witch's fingers have become a Halloween tradition at our house.  They look gruesomely cute and, even for adults, their pretty tasty: sweet, creamy, salty, and crunchy. What else could you ask for?

They aren't hard to make at all but they do take time so in assembling the ingredients don't forget the most important:  patience and a couple of free hours.  I've included step by step photos to show how it's done.   Happy Halloween!

Halloween Eve: My FAVORITE Cooking Day of the Year

Even though there are luscious pies to be baked at Christmas and crackling crisp browned turkey to roast Thanksgiving and savory eggs to be devilled at Easter...my very favorite cooking holiday of the year is Halloween! There are so many fun foods that can be made that I ALWAYS  make a list of food much to long to be consumed by the family, let alone, cooked by me even with help.

I've made my list and checked it twice...oops...wrong holiday.  Ack, what the heck, it will be good practice for Christmas. 

For Halloween tomorrow:

I've made my list

And checked it twice

Will be making lots of dishes

Both naughty and nice!

(Will post my progress later tonight.)

Happy almost Halloween to All!

Painted Bread: Fall Pumpkins

After painting bread for the 7th World Bread Day was so much fun I decided to play some more. Probably will even more--it's just too much fun!  Poor Gene will have painted bread for dinner for the next...whenever i get tired of painting bread, I guess. Poor, Gene.  Poor, poor Gene, getting home-made painted bread for dinner every night. It's a hard knock life, eh?

The recipe I used this time is my own basic large loaf (1 1/2 to 2 lbs) recipe that easily fills my Pullman Pan or my large Pampered Chef bread loaf crock, although in this instance and often, I simply formed it into a boule (big round loaf), painted it, and baked it without a form of any kind. 

Baked Ham & Provolone Roll-up

 Ham & Provolone roll up is one of my favorite weekend night meals.  Even though it takes a couple of hours to make, there's relatively little hands-on time so I can lay the dough out to defrost in the early afternoon, run errands, make the roll-up, and then do laundry or other household chores for the next hour while it raises again.  After that, it's only a matter of baking. By the time we eat, usually serving only a simple salad on the side, I barely feel like I've spent any time at all in the kitchen.  Magic!

It, and its pepperoni cousin, also make great party appetizers, almost always found on my family holiday menu list.

 

Cod (White Fish) Patties with Home-made Tartar Sauce

A couple of weeks ago, my cousin, Colleen, made salmon patties for her family for dinner and let me blog them. They were so inviting in the photo I suddenly had a craving.  Fish patties is one of those things that are quick, easy, and tasty, but I usually I forget to make them unless something reminds me. 

Thanks, Colleen!

I do have a can of salmon in the cupboard, along with a few cans of tuna and crab, but I also had some cod fillets in the freezer that sounded yummy too.  This is my recipe for fish patties or fish cakes as they're also called. Mine has a few more bells and whistles than Colleen's but only because I was playing with a much milder fish that needed a little kick in the gill to rev the flavor up.

Gene's Country-style Boneless Pork Ribs with Steven Raichlan Rub

 One of the great side effects of my illness(es) this summer is that Gene has been cooking more. It's not that he didn't know how to before, it's just that I always sort of held dominion in that room of the house that contains the stove and fridge.  With being responsible for so much of our household lately he's really come into his own in the kitchen, and for that, I'm very proud and very grateful for his enthusiasm.  Thank you, Hubby Man!

One of his areas of expertise these days, like a lot of men, is the side of the pig.  While a lot of guys like to grill, it's more of a handicap than a worthwhile endeavor to go to all that work dragging it out of the shed, setting it up, then cleaning it, and re-storing it all, all for just two people and one of them didn't eat much this summer.  Gene's become the grill master of our oven and he does a wonderful job.

He's experimented with types of meat and cuts thereof, rubs and marinades, dry and wet cooking, and fast and slow cooking temperatures.  He's come down to some favorites:  rub over marinade, dry over wet, and slow over fast cooking.   He's still perfecting his own sauce to serve with it but for the time being, we're very content with Gene's incredible ribs with a little Country Bob's on the side.

And as a shout out--Happy Birthday to Gene this week--Love you, Honey! 

The Best Ever Scalloped Potatoes Recipe

Scallopped Potatoes has always been one of our favorite dishes but as a cook it can be frustrating to make sure that the slices of potato are thin enough and get cooked long enough to make sure they're cooked through to nice and soft.  This recipe addresses so many problems with mediocre scallopped potato recipes.  The potatoes are cubed and pre-boiled on the stove top so the texture is that comforting soft, cheesy, richness that everyone loves.  Plus, by adding herbs to the mix instead of just cream and cheese, the flavor pops in a very 3-D way.  I've never served these potatoes that guests didn't ask for the recipe and tell me how much they love this dish. It is the best scallopped potato recipe I've ever made.

7th Annual World Bread Day: Primitive Painted Farmhouse Boule

Welcome to the 7th Annual World Bread Day, sponsored by Zorra Kochtopf.  I love the thought of breaking bread together, and if not all together, then at least baking bread together globally.

For my selection, I chose my favorite every day bread, Farmhouse bread, the recipe given to us and taught by Faith Brockoff during a class Auntie Miranda, Ann, and I took at War Eagle Mill for Auntie's birthday a few years ago.  It's a wonderfully crusty, eggy, bread that's easily adaptable by using all-purpose white flour, white whole wheat flour, or a 50/50 mix of white and whole wheat.

To decorate it, I simply took cake decorating colors and paint brushes from my cake decoating supplies and primitively painted on a deep red sunflower encircled by vines and leaves. I used the paste food coloring straight out of jars, occaisionally tipping my brush lightly into a small cup of water to thin it.

 I love the way the browning crust turned the colors from  bright and shiny to a deeper, more antiqued look on the bread.  And best of all, we have fresh warm bread to eat, slathered in real butter and sweet fall pumpkin butter, to devour with dinner.

After October 17th, click here to be linked to Pinterest to see all the breads baked around the world for this event:  7th Annual Wrold Bread Day

Redneck Auntie's Cape Codder AKA "Don't Judge Me, Princess"

What do you do when you only have moonshine soaked cranberries, off brand powdered no-calorie lemonade, and nary a clean glass glass in the house?  Make Redneck Auntie Cape Codder AKA "The Don't Judge Me"

Junior's Midnight Moon moonshine is a family business based on Junior Johnson's original North Carolina moonshine recipe from the mid-1800's.  The jar and label caught my eye at the grocery store the other day and demanded I bring it home to play.  Okay, I'm as friendly as it is, and it's happy in my home and tummy.

Just for the few people who may not realize it....while it is a delicious cocktail, my calling it "Redneck Auntie" is a joke so if you feel the need to take it seriously and be offended, I won't necessarily feel the need to publish your comment.   

My 17-year-old niece may give me hell on Facebook for using "HER"  princess glass, but my older niece, who's only months away from drinking legally is going to LOVE this.  I may even have to surrender the glass to her for her birthday (if Sydney will allow it).

Off to have another sippy cup of Redneck Auntie.

Sweet and Sour Mushrooms

 

 I've been making Sweet and Sour Mushrooms for years but I added one "secret" ingredient this time that made Gene say "Oh YEAH! THAT'S the stuff!"  The secret ingredient?  Country Bob's All-Purpose Sauce. We eat it on everything: steak, pork chops, chicken, meatloaf, and even toasted walnuts, but the Sweet and Sour Mushrooms are truly out of this world:  tangy, sweet, spicy, the taste trifecta.