Pinot & Pineapple

My mother makes this recipe in the winter although I think it is great all year round.  I guess she makes these muffins in winter time because they are so hearty and soul-warming.  They are a yummy grab-and-go breakfast, perfect for eating at your office desk while checking your overflowing email inbox.

One of my favorite food bloggers, Diva at Beach Eats, once asked me why these muffins are called “6-Week” Raisin Bran Muffins.  A very good question, Diva.  Here is the answer: this recipe makes such a large amount of batter and the batter stays fresh for up to 6 weeks in the refrigerator.  Of course, I’ve never managed to keep the batter around that long as I bake a small batch of muffins every night so that my and my husband’s breakfast is fresh and ready to go to work with us every day.

6-Week Raisin Bran Muffins

1 (15oz.) box Raisin Bran cereal
3 cups granulated sugar
5 cups all-purpose flour
5 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. Kosher salt
1 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs, beaten
1 quart buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix cereal, sugar, flour, baking soda and salt in an extra large bowl.  In a separate large bowl, combine oil, eggs and buttermilk; mix well.  Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix well.  Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 25 minutes.  Remove muffins from pan and cool on a wire rack.

Store unused muffin batter in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator until ready to use.  Batter will last up to 6 weeks in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

One of my favorite dishes to make for a potluck supper is a rice casserole that my Grandmother Alexander used to make for large get-togethers.  I don’t really know the name of it, I just always refer to it as “my rice casserole”.  The name (or lack thereof) does not really do it justice, though…

This delicious side dish is a real crowd pleaser.  I’m always especially amazed at how much the men-folk enjoy it.  This recipe is extraordinarily easy to make and can be doubled, tripled, quadrupled as necessary.  The recipe may seem to require a lot of butter but keep this in mind — I’ve actually reduced the amount of butter by half; my grandmother used to use a whole stick!  If you make sure to always have the ingredients in your pantry, you can whip up this dish anytime you please.

Rice Casserole

4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1 cup long grain white rice
1 10.5 oz can condensed French Onion soup
1 10.5 oz can condensed beef consomme (not broth)
1 4 oz can sliced mushrooms, drained

Preheat oven to 350F.  Combine all ingredients in a 2 quart casserole dish.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Enjoy.

Happy Holidays!

I was not able to enjoy my favorite cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving as my in-laws were in town and they took my husband and I on a Chinese food bender for the entire weekend.  So, this MSG-free weekend, I made my favorite condiment of all time:

Tracy’s Homemade Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

1 (12 oz.) bag of cranberries, rinsed and drained
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
Zest of 1 medium navel orange, finely grated

Put all ingredients in a large saucepan; stir to combine and loosely cover.  Cook over medium-high heat until the liquid starts to boil and the skins of the cranberries start to pop.  Stir, loosely cover and lower heat to medium and allow mixture to bubble for about 10 minutes.  Stir yet again, and turn heat to low.  Simmer 10 more minutes or until mixture has thickened.

Cool, cover and store in the refrigerator.

Note: I make this sauce the day before I want to start using it as it seems to be one of those dishes that tastes better the next day.

This sauce is delicious with pork, poultry, brunch and dessert.  I even sneak a spoonful of it and enjoy it all by itself.  I love the ruby-red color, the chunky texture and the way it smells and tastes like the holidays.

Enjoy!

Hello to my formerly loyal readers and to the new readers whom have recently found my blog.  I am so, so, so sorry to have been MIA for so long.  It’s been a month and a half since I’ve written and I do apologize if you’ve felt neglected.  I assure you, I have an excellent reason for my absence…

My husband and I are expecting our first baby!!!

As this is my first pregnancy, I was completely caught off guard as to how incredibly sick I would be during the first trimester.  I mean SICK.  I could not look at food, smell food or even think about food the entire first trimester.  UGH!  Basically the only food I could keep down was pizza, pasta and the occasional taco.  For the first time in my entire life, I could not eat vegetables.  Me, a former life-long vegetarian, could not eat/look at/think about vegetables.  It was insane.  I couldn’t even visit my favorite food blogs because I couldn’t read about food much less look at the photos.

The last 5 Farm Share deliveries were divvied up amongst my co-workers who were so excited to receive farm-fresh organic vegetables they never even questioned why I didn’t want them.  Which is good, because I wasn’t prepared to tell them my news yet.

My appetite is slowly coming ’round although it still isn’t what it used to be.  I still can’t eat barbecue sauce and I still can’t bear to smell curry.  But, I can eat *most* vegetables now.

My husband and I did not take many photos of food these past 6 weeks because I’m not a fan of torture, but here is an interesting vegetable that I wanted to show you.  This is a Delicata Squash.  It is an heirloom variety of winter squash that we received through Farm Share.  It has a delicious, mildly sweet and nutty flavor and a creamy smooth texture when baked.  I simply sliced it in half length-wise, seeded it, put it in a baking dish, salt and peppered it, put a couple of dabs of butter in each half, put some water in the pan so it could cook gently, covered the pan with foil and baked it til very, very tender.   Then I put more butter on each half and ate the flesh right out of the skins.  Yum!  I do enjoy squash!  Especially when it’s double-buttered!

I hope you are all well.  I promise I will try to write more often now that I am feeling better.  And I’ll try not to bore you with pregnancy stories

I’m super busy these days so I am going to have to let these fine photos speak 1000 words for me…

Wow! Is it Week 16 already?? Holy Moly, that means we only have 6 more deliveries to go before the end of the Farm Share season!

Well, today we received some really nice peppers. I’m not sure what variety they are but they smell like they’ve got a kick to them. We also received some beautiful red onions, tomatoes (1 smooshed), a Napa cabbage (yay!) and some yellow Swiss chard. I’m really excited about the Napa cabbage as I really enjoyed them earlier this summer.

Here is a photo of our beautiful peppers, onions and tomatoes…

Good Morning All! As promised, I got my rump off the couch this week and did something with the vegetables we received. I made a really yummy, soul-warming Cream of Potato-Celery Soup with the potatoes, celery, 2 of the onions, thyme, chicken stock, butter and half-and-half. It was a great way to use multiple vegetables in one dish and a great way to get my husband to eat celery! Here are some photos:

As far as the other vegetables are concerned… I donated the beets to a friend who is recently on a beet-kick; the lone surviving tomato went into lasagna; and the mixed baby greens were donated to yet another friend just because I was feeling extra generous. Ah, yes, giving does feel good.

That’s all for now, folks. Check back tomorrow to see what goodies we receive.

Good Morning Farm Share fans! Let me first acknowledge the fact that I did not do a wrap-up post yesterday telling you what I did with last week’s farm share. The reason is that I felt like total ca-ca last week and I did absolutely nothing inspired with the vegetables. Sorry, but it’s true.

This week, I’m sure I will find the energy and inspiration to do something fun with our delivery. Today we received a bag of mixed baby greens, 2 tomatoes (1 smooshed, 1 intact), beets, potatoes, onions and celery.

I was tired of the box shots, so I let my husband take artistic liberties and shoot his choice of vegetables any way he saw fit. I think the shots are very artistic, actually. I think I hear the MoMA calling…

Good Morning! Our box this morning reminds me of Christmas, with all the shades of red and green. This morning was a bit chilly too, which really puts me in the spirit!

Today we received red Swiss chard, a bag of baby arugula, carrots, 2 red bell peppers, 3 red onions, and 3 red tomatoes (2 of which have been abused, as you can clearly see in the bottom photo).

Poor tomatoes. They didn’t stand a chance at the bottom of the box. I guess I have to accept my fate of receiving abused tomatoes. That doesn’t mean I have to like it, though. These careless box packers are standing between me and my Lycopene!

Well, this week’s farm share ended better than it started. As you may recall, my red tomatoes were smooshed beyond use and had to be sacrificed to the compost gods. Very sad. It took me a couple of days to get over the loss. But, I moved on to give the surviving vegetables the attention they deserved…

The yellow plum tomatoes were used to make yellow gazpacho. Of course, I had to go to the market to get a yellow bell pepper, a cucumber, cilantro and literally everything else necessary to make gazpacho, but the soup was really delicious. The mixed baby greens became a really yummy salad with sliced apples, walnuts, red onion and homemade honey-mustard dressing. The beets were thinly sliced and deep-fried to make chips and were served with a goat cheese/chive dip. Oh my, I am still dreaming about that dip. The Swiss chard was used in an impromptu dinner of shrimp and orzo all cooked separately then tossed together in a large saute pan with garlic butter. I don’t know what to call it, but it was super tasty. Last, but not least, the carrots and green bell peppers were used to make my Great-Grandma Hollingsworth’s carrot relish. Grandma used to always make this relish for big family meals and I always looked forward to it. It has a sweet and tangy dressing and is a great way to get kids to eat their vegetables. Here is the recipe (as well as a photo). I hope you’ll give it a try.

Carrot Relish

2 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed tomato soup
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 small green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped

Boil the carrots in salted water until they are tender-crisp. Drain and cool.

In a medium saucepan, combine the tomato soup, oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and keep hot.

In a large bowl, combine carrots, peppers and onions. Pour hot sauce all over, cover and marinate for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Serve cold.

This relish will keep for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!