Tortillas and Oranges

Sugar Cookie Bars

admin — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 20:47:54 +0000

These delightful creatures taste like one of my favorite Provo bakery’s cookies. I won’t say which bakery.

1 cup butter
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
5 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp coconut extract

Mix everything together in a bowl. Dough will be surprisingly dry. Spread evenly in cookie sheet pan (11×13). Bake in 350 degree oven for 12-14 minutes. Cool for at least 1 hour. Frost with frosting listed below. Cut in small squares and serve.

Frosting:
1 cup butter, softened
5 cups powdered sugar
3 oz cream cheese
1 tsp coconut extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-4 Tablespoons heavy cream or evaporated milk, to achieve desired consistency
Pink food coloring if you are feeling creative, or leave white and sprinkle with multi-colored jimmies. So cute.

Caramelized Onion Tart

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 20:14:17 +0000

The morning I gave birth to may daughter Grace, I missed a brunch. My good friend Jo brought brunch to me. This tart was included. I was famished. It was perfect.

4 large Bermuda onions, sliced
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons fresh thyme, picked
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
4 whole eggs
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1(9-inch) parbaked pate brisee tart shell
Saute onions in oil and butter until caramelized and golden brown, then add thyme and a pinch of salt. Remove from pan and allow to cool. In a bowl, add heavy cream, eggs, nutmeg, and onions, season with salt and pepper. Pour mixture into tart shell and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until center does not jiggle.

Potatoes Scalloped in Cream (Ellen)

admin — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 20:11:31 +0000

2 cups heavy cream
6-8 large, waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into even 1/8-inch thick slices
1 clove garlic, peeled
Salt and fresh ground pepper

Preheat oven to 375. Butter a shallow casserole and set aside. In a large, heavy saucepan, heat the cream to boiling. Add the sliced potatoes and garlic an simmer until the potatoes are tender, 10-15 minutes. Spoon the potatoes, garlic, and cream into the casserole and season to taste. Bake until the top browns slightly and the cream thickens, about 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Rum Cake (Jennette/Danny’s favorite cake) Cake

admin — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 20:01:56 +0000

1 box vanilla cake
½ cup oil
½ cup rum
4 eggs

Combine ingredients and bake cake at 325◦ for 50 minutes.
Sauce:
1/8 cup water
½ cup sugar
1/8 cup rum
¼ cup butter
Boil water, sugar, butter for one minute, add rum and continue boiling (until you are comfortable with amount of alcohol burned out, at least one minute). Double sauce recipe if you want the cake to be soggy. Pour sauce over cake.

Pork and Green Chili Burritos

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 20:00:42 +0000

1 medium pork roast
3 small cans of chopped/peeled green chilies
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
2-3 bullion cubes (chicken or beef)
2 cups water
salt to taste

Bake roast until very tender (wrap in tin foil and bake at 250, or in a crock pot on high for about 6 hours). Shred baked roast and add all the ingredients. Simmer for several hours (at least 3) in oven or crock pot, and add more water if necessary. If you cook it long enough, it should become very tender and shred into bite size pieces.

Roasted Green Beans

admin — Sat, 01 Feb 2020 08:36:26 +0000

Today I’m taking roasted green beans to my friend Elizabeth’s house.
Preheat oven at 400.
Spread fresh green beans on cookie sheet.
Pour 1 Tablespoon olive oil into my hands.
Massage green beans with olive oil.
Roast in 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.
Sprinkle with Trader Joe’s Everything But The Bagel Seasoning.
Done.

Cooking School: Tomatoes in their Natural Habitat: Bruschetta and Caprese

admin — Sat, 12 Oct 2019 01:43:51 +0000

Please be humane and keep
TOMATOES IN THEIR NATURAL HABITAT
There are a lot of ways to consume a tomato. Eat it like an apple, in a sandwich, tossed with pasta, or on a pizza. But there are two truly perfect dishes that show you what the misunderstood tomato is really supposed to taste like: Caprese and Bruschetta.
Caprese Salad:
3-4 tomatoes, any size; sliced to ¼-½ inch thick
1 pound (or roll) fresh mozarella; sliced to match the thickness and shape of the tomatoes
10-15 basil leaves (depending on how many times you repeat the pattern below); kept whole and washed and dried carefully

On a large platter lay out the following items as those they were fallen dominos:
Tomato slice, mozarella slice, basil leaf–in that order until you are out of ingredients (if you run out of one thing and not the other, just keep alternating or slice more tomatoes until you are finished). Set platter aside. In a glass, combine 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, and a dash of salt. Stir ingredients together vigorously with a fork. Drizzle dressing over entire platter.
Serve.

Bruschetta:
4-5 tomatoes
fresh basil, chopped into teeny tiny pieces
1 ½ Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
dash of garlic powder (just one or two shakes of the bottle)
salt to taste
Crusty Bread, sliced (small baguettes are best)
(I’ll keep it real here and tell you I use Costco baguettes. I buy them, freeze them, and thaw them when I need some decent bread.)
More Olive Oil
Place a colander on top of a dinner plate. Dice tomatoes and place in the colander (the plate will catch anything that falls out). Tomatoes are really juicy (sometimes too juicy) and need to lose a bit of their juice so they don’t overwhelm the other ingredients. Sprinkle a bit of salt on the diced tomatoes and set aside.
Chop basil into teeny tiny pieces. Place the colander of tomatoes over the sink. Shake the diced tomatoes around until you see a bit of juice come out. Next, in a large bowl, combine diced tomatoes with basil, garlic powder, olive oil, and vinegar (may need a bit more salt at this point. Totally up to you. Toss together and set aside).
Slice bread in 1/2″ thick slices. Using pastry brush, brush each slice of bread with olive oil. Brush both sides.
In largest fry pan, toast bread slices over medium heat (with additional olive oil in pan, just enough to cover surface)until both sides of toast are golden brown. Or, put oven on broil setting. Place slices of bread on cookie sheet, oiled side up. Broil 5-6 inches from top heating element until toast is golden and toasted. Keep oven door ajar and watch carefully. DON’T WALK AWAY FROM BROILING BREAD! It will turn black before before you can say “bruschetta”.
When pieces are adequately browned, top with bruschetta tomato mixture and serve immediately (or your toast will get soggy).

Cooking School: Macaroni and Cheese

admin — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 11:42:10 +0000

Cooking School/ Macaroni and Cheese
Ingredients:
1 cube butter (or the equivalent of ½ cup of butter)
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. chicken bullion (or 1/2 cube Knorr’s chicken bullion cube)
2 cups milk
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
1 1/2 tsp. lowery’s seasoned salt
dash of pepper
dash of nutmeg
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (or shredded Mexican cheese from Costco)
2 cups gruyere (I’ve also used jarlsberg in a pinch and it was magnificent.)
½ cup breadcrumbs (optional)

1. Make sure your cheese is shredded. If it’s not, shred your cheese right now. Mix the two types of cheese together in a big bowl.
2. Put large pot of water on high heat. Sprinkle 1 heaping Tablespoon of salt in the water.
3. Make your breadcrumbs. (you do this by tossing torn bits of 2 pieces of bread and 3 Tablespoons of butter into a pan over medium heat. Toss the butter and bread bits around and around until they are a beautiful golden brown. Set aside.)
4. Start your white sauce (which you now know is really béchamel). In a medium sauce pan over medium low heat, melt 1 cube of butter. Don’t burn the butter! Stay by the butter! Don’t leave the butter!
5. Once butter is completely melted, add ¼ cup flour. Whisk for two minutes so the flour can absorb the butter.
6. Add 2 cups milk, ¼ teaspoon dry mustard, 1 ½ teaspoons lowery’s seasoning salt, a dash of pepper and a dash of nutmeg. With a wooden spoon or whisk, continue stirring béchamel over medium heat until sauce is thickened. You will know it is thick enough when it can coat the back of a spoon. This will take about 15 minutes and you CAN’T walk away from the sauce or it will burn. You have to stand by the sauce and stir it constantly.
7. Once your pasta water is boiling, add pasta and stir. Boil pasta until it is al dente. (At this point you will have two pots going: one with the béchamel and one with the boiling pasta)
8. Set up an assembly area that consists of: béchamel, shredded cheese, cooked pasta, and bread crumbs.
9. In a casserole dish that can be any shape or size (assuming you can fit everything in there!), layer the pasta and cheese (NOT the sauce and bread crumbs) in this order:
half of the pasta/ half of the shredded cheese
Repeat:
The last half of the pasta/ the last half of the shredded cheese
10. Pour the béchamel over the top. Sprinkle 1/2 cup bread crumbs on top.

11. Bake for 35 minutes at 350 or until you see the béchamel bubbling and the cheese completely melted. Oh my.

Jen’s Perfect Asian Spinach Salad

admin — Sat, 10 Sep 2016 01:43:41 +0000

I thought I’d share one of my most favorite salads with you. I’m making it this week for a luncheon. This salad is a WINNER. It is super yummy, it feeds a lot of people, and it is healthful. Heck, my kids even eat it (including the Spinach part). Anyway, tuck this away for when you really need a safe bet. One thing to remember–do NOT add the spinach until just about ready to serve; otherwise it wilts.

Jen’s Chicken, Pasta, and Spinach Salad
1 pound gemelli pasta-cooked, drained, cooled
3 cups cooked chicken, shredded
1/4 sesame seeds, toasted
8 cups clean fresh spinach (COSTCO’s baby spinach)
1/4 cups chopped flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup green onions, chopped

dressing:
1 cup olive oil
2/3 cups rice vinegar
6 Tblsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 cup soy sauce

mix pasta and chicken and toss with half of the dressing. let sit overnight or several hours. serve with spinach, don’t STORE with spinach. just before serving–add spinach and rest of dressing. if you think there will be leftovers, exclude spinach. this makes a deceptively large amount of food.

Green Chili and Chicken…Chili

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 21:53:19 +0000

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder or 2 cloves fresh garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon oil
2 cans (15 1/2 ounces each) Great Northern Beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) chicken broth
2 cans (4 ounces each) chopped green chilies (if you like less kick, add just one can)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whipping cream
Fresh cilantro, for garnish (optional)
DIRECTIONS

In a large saucepan, saute chicken, onion and garlic powder (or fresh garlic, if using) in oil until chicken is no longer pink. Add beans, broth, chilies and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in sour cream and cream. Garnish with fresh cilantro, if desired. Serve immediately. This is especially good served with tortilla chips.