Cream To Butter To Shortbread
December 23, 2012 - Written by DianaIf you want to do a project with your child to make a gift for their grandmother or other relatives or their class at school, this would be a great bonding experience. I’ve had a lot of fun lately making butter from whipping cream. I use Snowville’s Whipping Cream from grassfed cows because I like the way they do things. Then I take the butter and use it to make Shortbread Cookies. I did it with a food processor which can make it safe and quick to work with their attention span.
Let the cream sit at room temperature until it comes up to around 55 deg Celsius.
Pour into the food processor up to the liquid line and let ‘er rip.
The cream will become thicker and thicker turning into whipped cream, keep going.
It will be thicker and then start to separate into buttermilk and butter – it’s amazing, but pretty cool.
The food processor will rock a little as the butter sticks to the blade and separates from the buttermilk….
Eggs and Tatsoi in a Sweet Potato Nest
December 15, 2012 - Written by Diana
Lately, I’ve been experimenting with three ingredients and my cast iron pan. I like that I can stick the pan under the broiler and bake some eggs, after I’ve partially cooked the other ingredients on the stove top. Cast iron is really great for even heat and works well even on my glass top, too. Trying the same dish over and over in different ways should give you perfection sooner or later, but I’m always thinking what if I did this, or this, or this. Don’t be afraid to experiment.
This combination of sweet potatoes, greens and fresh eggs has become family favorite. These aren’t the only ingredients I’m using, because often I add luna burgers broken up and I also use onions, shallots or leeks. Fresh herbs are good to sprinkle over top, and a little bit of chevre and swiss ( two of the lowest sodium cheeses my husband can eat). The greens are whatever I have on hand, sometimes spinach or chard, but this week tatsoi was in the market bag. Tatsoi …
Zesty Cabbage, Macaroni and Cheese
December 5, 2012 - Written by Diana
This is my way of dealing with my husband’s new low sodium diet – by coming up with new ways to eat without using salt or high sodium ingredients. Macaroni and cheese was out, because cheese has too much sodium unless it’s something a little on the bland side like lower sodium Swiss. So, I kicked it up with a Hot Sweet Pepper Relish and Kapow it was tasty without much sodium. This casserole had plenty of veggies, the creaminess of a good mac n cheese, and a nice kick to it. My husband had trouble backing away from the bowl even after eating two plates of it.
This is a much lower calorie version since we can’t use a lot of cheese, and it’s not as thick as a lot of other macaroni and cheese recipes. I like to add a veggie to my mac and cheese too, so this one had sauteed cabbage and leeks. I found a low sodium brown rice bread. The bread was too dry and bland for a sandwich, but toasted, ground up and sauteed in a little butter …
Farm Market Frittata
September 20, 2012 - Written by DianaEggs are a lovely protein, don’t you think? We often turn to eggs when we want something quick and delicious for breakfast or dinner. I made this frittata the other day using eggs, farm market veggies and a vegetarian burger(okay, it’s a Luna Burger – anything tastes good with a Luna Burger in it) crumbled up, plus some cheese. My husband took a bite and told me it wasn’t right, because his eggs don’t taste this good, and aren’t this filling when he makes them. The end of summer is bittersweet because the fresh locally grown veggie supply starts to wane, but at the same time they have their best flavor. Get’em while their fresh.
Farm Market Frittata
Farm Market Frittata Print Prep time 15 mins …
Spring Blossoms & Chevre Spread for your Easter Hors D’ouevres
April 3, 2012 - Written by Diana
This spread is an incredibly easy, but so tasty and pretty and very springy. My idea came from two places – one from my sister in law who uses violets on spread for crackers almost every year for Easter when the violets are in bloom. The first time my brother in law asked if he could remove the yard from his cracker before he ate it. The second from Hounds in the Kitchen’s Rachel who recently reposted about redbud blossoms being edible.
I didn’t have a recipe but had an idea and ran with it. I found most of the herbs in my herb beds, nice new little leaves of thyme, mint, chives, parsley – all plants that come back every year. The flowers were violets and redbuds . I use the flowers out front away from the dog run, she doesn’t climb trees, so I don’t worry about that as much. I zested lemons and limes, …
Butternut Squash under a Swiss Cheese Crust
April 21, 2011 - Written by Diana
I still have butternut squash in my basement, but as the basement warms up, the squash will be in peril. I’m glad they lasted as long as they did, since this is the first year we tried basement storage. Last year we kept the winter squash upstairs, and they didn’t last as long. I’m going to make this dish for our family Easter gathering. I made it for dinner one night and my husband was really impressed, so impressed he wants me to make it for our Easter dinner.
I used curry in the dish to keep it from being too sweet, but also added nutmeg and cinnamon because I love the taste with butternut squash and I also added nutmeg to the cheese sauce. The swiss cheese was hand delivered from Wisconsin. A friend of my husband’s brought us back cheese from a recent trip. Isn’t it cool to have a friend like that?
My favorite prep method for butternut squash is to slice it down the middle, scooping the seeds and pulp out, but leaving the meat behind. Then …
Chocolate Mousse with Berries – Quick Valentine’s Dessert
February 14, 2011 - Written by DianaHere’s a Chocolate Mousse recipe that’s so quick, easy, delicious and perfect for Valentine’s Day. For the Superbowl I made vegan cupcakes that were delish. I thought the glaze tasted like pudding, but it was thick and sweet. I took that recipe and changed it into a mousse. This dessert is pretty fast and easy to make.
The microwave was used to melt the chocolate and goat cheese together before putting it into the magic bullet to combine it and add air (to moussify). That’s really all it takes, pour the mousse red raspberries and sliced strawberries in ramekins and then decoratively top with one of each and refrigerate. This is a dessert you can make after work and cool while dinner is being devoured. I loved it and so did my husband. One for us tonight, and another for tomorrow (no kids, oh well).
Ingredients:
- 8 ounces silken tofu
- 4 ounces semi sweet chocolate
- 2 tsp chevre (goat cheese – plain)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 tsp agave
- 4 strawberries
- 12 raspberries
Use a paper towel or cloth to drain and pat dry the …
Campanelle and Pancetta in a Smoky Cheddar Goat Cheese Sauce
December 21, 2009 - Written by Diana
I made this to go with the barbecued ribs we had for dinner the other night. Macaroni and Cheese is a classic meal to go with barbecued ribs, but I had Smoky Cheddar Goat Cheese, so I thought I’d put in a few little twists. The campanelle is a nice sturdy pasta that holds cheese well and the pancetta ups the smoky factor nicely. The Smoky Cheddar Goat Cheese looked and tasted drier than I expected, so adding a little extra milk or cream was necessary. However, in a sauce it was terrific tasting. The cheese is Misty Creek Goat Dairy Cheddar Goat Cheese Smoked from U.S. Wellness Meats. I didn’t want a thick creamy sauce because I thought it would overpower the pancetta, so it was more of a light cheese sauce – at least for me.
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Ingredients: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Instead …
My husband and son would declare every night sandwich night if it will get them out of cooking. Some nights I make Panini though I don’t consider it sandwich night then, it’s real food. My husband asked what the difference is between grilled cheese and Panini; my daughter said, “it’s the grill marks”. Yes, grill marks make all the difference – and the cheese. I’m not a big American cheese food fan, I like delicious flavorful cheese. Sargento’s has some nice cheese in the dairy case to try out in your Panini. Panini is actually the plural of panino. According to Wikipedia -A panino (Italian pronunciation: [paˈniːno]) is a sandwich made from a small roll or loaf of bread, typically a ciabatta or a rosetta. The loaf is cut horizontally and filled with salami, ham, cheese, mortadella or other food, and sometimes served hot after having pressed in a grill. I cheat because I don’t own a Panini grill. I use my grill pan and put a pot on top of the sandwich. When it’s done, I turn it over and put the pot on …
Sausage & Chard Crustless Quiche
August 24, 2009 - Written by Diana
I like quiches a lot, but more without the pie shell. I’m that way with pies too, I like the insides the most. This was our breakfast this morning. I used some herb garden chevre in it that we got from the cheese guy at the farmer’s market and some gouda (because it’s good-er that way). Quiches are fun because you can change it up a little – put in a different meat, or a different cheese, use some other veggies and it changes the taste for a whole new type of quiche.
August is National Panini Month
August 6, 2009 - Written by Diana
