Grandma's Kitchen Table

TWD Dorie's Cookies: Cabin Fever Banana Bars

        The Dorie's Cookies group has a rewind this week…make any recipe you missed along the way. This week I chose to make Cabin Fever Banana Bars (p. 65).
        Ingredients list:  butter, brown sugar, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom, banana, sour cream, sugar, egg, vanilla, walnuts, and chocolate.

        Thanksgiving has come and gone.  Our refrigerator and pantry, probably much like yours, have all sorts of partially used bags and containers of ingredients just hanging out looking for ways to be useful…a bit of brown sugar, the last of the bag of flour, a forgotten ripened banana thinking no one is going to call it by name, exactly the correct amount of sour cream for this recipe at the bottom of the carton, the end of the bag of walnuts, and those teeny tiny chocolate chips that someone accidentally bought because they did not read the writing on the bag (why are there so many bags of chocolate chips, who needs this much chocolate?)…and I found this recipe as I was looking through the book with the list of Cookies Already Made on the TWD DC site.    

        This is a bar cookie, seems more cake-like to me, like a brownie always seems more cake-like than cookie-like to me. Bar cookies are really easy as you just mix everything together, scrape it into the baking pan, and slide it in the oven, none of this moving cookie sheets back and forth and front and back and such. This one baked 25 minutes and just needed a couple minutes to melt the chocolate on top and sprinkle on the walnut pieces.  After cooling it was not that easy to cut into the 16 bars, those little nut pieces make cutting straight lines difficult, in hindsight, I'm thinking those nuts should have been chopped in much smaller pieces...next time. Husband-approved as absolutely delicious, repeat worthy. 

       The Tuesdays with Dorie group is baking from Dorie Greenspan's book, Dorie's Cookies.  The posts are the first and third Tuesdays of the month and can be linked at the main Tuesdays with Dorie website here.  You can also find the information on joining in and/or see the posts from those in the group baking along at this location.  I don’t publish copyrighted recipes, so if you’d like to bake along, buy the book, it’s well worth it. 

Wednesday with Donna Hay: Sloppy Joe Sliders

        My 158th recipe with the Wednesday with Donna Hay group is Sloppy Joe Sliders.  The recipe can be found in Donna Hay’s The New Easy (page 103).

       The ingredient list: olive oil, onion, garlic, ground beef, tomato puree, Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, salt, pepper, black beans, and buns, lettuce, and sour cream for serving.

       Donna Hay is Australian…when I saw this recipe I wondered what an Australian take on Sloppy Joes would be so I decided to make it and see for myself, Sloppy Joes are ballgame night food here every now and again. The picture in the book showed the sandwich with lettuce and sour cream, not exactly American style for Sloppy Joes.  Then there was the addition of black beans, again, not in any Sloppy Joes I have ever made or eaten.  The tomato puree was an interesting addition, and while my regular recipe does use a tomato based sauce, this one had a different texture from the puree that my husband didn’t quite like the looks of…not to mention he isn’t the biggest fan of black beans so this was not a recipe that will get extra play time here in the future.  

        I liked it just fine.  It was something new and different and the ingredient getting the most joy from me was the apple cider vinegar, a whole quarter cup of it. I happen to love vinegary things…I am a Vinegar Girl, a reference that Gaye, who is Australian, will totally get, (she sent me a Vinegar Girl necklace for my birthday a couple of years ago and you can search for the reference on the internet if you like or click here), enjoying a splash of vinegar in anything, let alone a quarter of a cup. So while not a repeat for the household here, I did like it and that vinegar addition was marvelous. 

       Participants: Gaye at Laws of the Kitchen, Margaret at Tea and Scones, and Peggy at Pantry Revisited.  You can check the Wednesday with Donna Hay category in their blogs to see the recipes they have made and are making.

       NOTE: In our posts, we do not publish the recipes from Donna Hay’s books as those belong to her, we like to honor that and encourage you to buy her books to get the recipes. There are also many of her recipes at her site here.  We know you will enjoy using Donna’s books again and again, as we all do, and that your money will be well spent.

TWD: Baking with Dorie - English Muffins

       The third recipe I made with the Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Dorie group is English Muffins and can be found in the Baking with Dorie book on page 24. 

       English Muffins ingredients:  water, milk, oil, flour, sugar, salt, yeast, cornmeal, and a little butter.

       Homemade English Muffins are so superior in taste to the ones you buy packaged at the store, and they are so easy to make, I don’t know why I don’t always make them from scratch.  Every single time I make them I promise myself that I will never buy the packaged ones again, and yet I find myself buying them more often than making them.  But really, never again, I’m always making them from now on. They are so easy and so satisfying to make, very little hands-on time to complete the process. 

       The recipe has you making the dough in a stand mixer but you don’t even really need to get out the mixer as you can mix them easily by hand and the kneading time is just a joy with this dough.  It takes less than ten minutes until you have it rising for an hour, punch it down, and let it rise another three hours, form, and bake. I baked mine this time, usually I make them on the griddle so I already knew what that was about but Ulrike was making them on her pizza steel and I thought that maybe I would bake mine as well just to see how that went.  It went just fine.  I don't have a pizza steel, but I have a pizza stone so I used that, preheated it with the oven to 400 degrees and baked them on each side ten minutes.  They are a lovely golden color, I may do that again at times.  I made half a batch as two people can only be responsible for just so much English Muffin eating here so six muffins rather than twelve seemed the better part of discretion.  Give these a try, you will love the whole process and be amazed at the superior taste and texture, absolutely delicious…you can take credit for every nook and cranny.

        If you would like to join in, just make it, bake it, and leave a link to your post at the Tuesdays with Dorie website:  click here.  At the website you will find the postings for the current recipe, the list of recipes chosen each month, and some baking chit chat that is definitely helpful as well as fun.  Currently there are two groups baking at this website:  this one, Baking with Dorie (BWD), and one that is in its final year, Dorie’s Cookies (DC), which uses recipes from that book.  We don’t publish Dorie's recipes here, but you can buy the book and have them all at your fingertips, what a deal! 

GFGF: Season of Thanksgiving - Carrot and Kale Vegetable Saute

      This week in the Good Friends Good Food theme of Season of Thanksgiving, we all chose whatever we liked as a new dish for our Thanksgiving tables this year.  I chose Carrot and Kale Vegetable Saute. Here is the recipe I used for it if you would like the recipe to make it for yourself: click here.

       The ingredients:  bacon, carrots, butternut squash, poblano pepper, red onion, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, plum tomatoes, and kale.

       This past week I was able to get carrots, butternut squash, peppers, onions, a few lingering tomatoes, and kale at my local farm CSA…all fresh… all featured in this recipe, a match just waiting to be made.  This is such a great dish, it does not take long to make and has so many vegetables in a wonderful combination.  In a big dish it all just looks like a bountiful Thanksgiving, perfect for the Thanksgiving table, although I’m not just saving it for Thanksgiving as this is something we would enjoy regularly. I love all the bright colors, each vegetable shines on its own, and the smoky taste from the paprika and bacon brings a warmth to the season.  It's a tasty side to have at hand.  Definitely on repeat status.

       To see what the others made with their Season of Thanksgiving theme, you can click on the members’ blogs listed here:  Peggy, Margaret, Ulrike.

 

       Next up is Season of Advent (pick a new recipe that reflects the coming of the holidays and celebrations, it can be absolutely anything you like), posting date on December 3rd.  If you would like to join in, just leave a link to your post in any of the comment sections of the participants and we will come and see what you made.

Eating with Ellie: Roasted Salmon with Ginger-Soy Broccolini, Mushrooms, and Edamame

      The 94th recipe I made with the Eating with Ellie group is Roasted Salmon with Ginger-Soy Broccolini, Mushrooms, and Edamame, and can be found in Ellie Krieger's book Whole in One, on page 87. 

      Ingredient list: Salmon, oil, soy sauce, honey, ginger, garlic, toasted sesame oil, sriracha, mushrooms, broccolini, edamame, salt, and pepper.

      This is one of the sheet pan dinners in the book and it comes together quickly, easily, and is very time-friendly on busy days, if you spend more than 30 minutes total on this meal, you are doing something incorrectly. The only thing I changed was that I used broccoli instead of broccolini as while broccolini may be easy to score in NYC, in Indiana it does not have a wide audience, and therefore, it is difficult to find. That, and my husband thinks broccolini is bitter and doesn’t care for it but will happily eat broccoli as many nights as I care to serve it. It’s always good to play to your audience.

       The flavor is Asian-forward with the seasonings but in a nice light sort of way, just really pleasant.  We do not care for things dripping in sauce so I appreciated that the amount of sauce specified to make and use was spot-on for us.  Just a nice little extra bit of flavor to jazz it all up a bit. That roasted broccoli was really lovely, so warm and inviting with those little crusty bits.  This recipe is definitely a repeat. Often.

       Eating with Ellie participants: Margaret at Tea and Scones, Peggy at Pantry Revisited, and Gaye at Laws of the Kitchen.  You can check the Eating with Ellie category in their blogs to see the recipes they have made and are making. (If you would like to join us, just leave a link at one of our blogs.)

      Note:  In our posts, we do not publish the recipes from Ellie Krieger's book as those belong to her, we like to honor that and encourage you to buy her books to get the recipes.  

Wednesday With Donna Hay: Honey and Almond Hasselback Pumpkin (Butternut Squash)

         My 157th recipe with the Wednesday With Donna Hay group is Honey and Almond Hasselback Pumpkin. In Australia, pretty much all squash is called pumpkin.  This one uses Butternut Squash.  The recipe can be found here.

       The ingredient list: butternut squash, olive oil, honey, malt vinegar, bay leaves, almonds, salt, and pepper. (The only change I made was to leave out the bay leaves and use thyme leaves, we prefer the taste of thyme to bay.)

       After seeing the photo of this recipe, I decided to search no further this week as I knew this was The One to make.  I have been making Hasselback potatoes since our early married years after finding the recipe in a Swedish cookbook gifted to me, so to see this adapted to a butternut squash just warmed my heart and taste buds.  While the potato version is usually savory, this one works well with the sweeter aspects of the butternut squash.  It was definitely sweet, but not too sweet, a lovely side with roasted chicken and cranberry sauce. (The photo is a salad size plate in case you were wondering how big that squash was that we were able to eat half of one each...it was a very small butternut, just perfect for this.) Definitely a repeat. 

       Participants: Gaye at Laws of the Kitchen, Margaret at Tea and Scones, and Peggy at Pantry Revisited.  You can check the Wednesday With Donna Hay category in their blogs to see the recipes they have made and are making.

       NOTE: In our posts, we do not publish the recipes from Donna Hay’s books as those belong to her, we like to honor that and encourage you to buy her books to get the recipes. There are also many of her recipes at her site here.  We know you will enjoy using Donna’s books again and again, as we all do, and that your money will be well spent.

TWD Dorie's Cookies: Pecan Butterscotch Shortbreads

       The Dorie's Cookies group recipes for November are Coco-Almond Thumbprints (page 288) and Pecan Butterscotch Shortbreads (page 194).  This week I chose to make the Pecan Butterscotch Shortbreads.
        Ingredient list:  flour, cornstarch, butter, brown sugar, confectioner’s sugar, salt, Scotch whiskey, vanilla, pecans, white or milk chocolate (I used half of each because it seemed like one less thing I would need to make a decision about, a good thing in my mind).

        This recipe is easy enough but does take a bit of planning and figuring.  It needs to spend time cooling off in the frig or freezer for one thing, you can’t just whip up a batch of cookies, bake, and sample them in the space of a half hour.  That said, nothing is difficult, and it was fun getting to roll out dough, use a cookie cutter (albeit a fairly boring plain circle one), and bake them off in muffin tins.  New things to learn and do in baking are always more interesting.    

        This was a delicious cookie, nice caramel-ly buttery sugary crunchy tastes going on to make it onto the Let’s Do This Again List. I debated adding the Scotch but when I asked Mark if he would like a full batch of these cookies (40 of them) or a half batch (a much more reasonable 20 of them), he said a half would be fine until he heard me list the ingredients and then he thought maybe a full batch would be best.  He also suggested that if the cookie was not quite Scotch-forward enough for you, you could dunk them in said Scotch. We wouldn't tell anyone but by itself, Scotch talks. 

       The Tuesdays with Dorie group is baking from Dorie Greenspan's book, Dorie's Cookies.  The posts are the first and third Tuesdays of the month and can be linked at the main Tuesdays with Dorie website here.  You can also find the information on joining in and/or see the posts from those in the group baking along at this location.  I don’t publish copyrighted recipes, so if you’d like to bake along, buy the book, it’s well worth it. 

Eating with Ellie: Smoky Black Bean and Pork Stew

      The 93rd recipe I made with the Eating with Ellie group is Smoky Black Bean and Pork Stew, and can be found in Ellie Krieger's book Whole in One, on page 183. 

      Ingredient list: pork shoulder, salt, pepper, olive oil, onion, garlic, smoked paprika, bay leaf, cayenne pepper, black beans, chicken broth, dried chorizo, sherry vinegar, tomatoes, red onion, and cilantro (I used parsley). The only changes I made were to add a few carrots as it just needed a bit more color, and we really like carrots in stew.

      We’ve had an exceptionally long autumn weather-wise, here it is the second week of November and the trees are still bearing their lovely fall colors...the weather has been warm and uncharacteristically glorious for this time of year.  That said, there is a change in the air and today marked our last day of outdoor grilling until spring, the grill has been tucked away and the soup pot has been given its place of honor close at hand. It’s one of the great pleasures of winter…that warm mug or bowl of soup while the weather carries on by itself during the blustery days and long dark early nights.

       This is a hearty stew with all the heavy ingredients but the broth is thin so it is lighter than a traditional thick stew, we both liked it a lot.  I made half a batch and it was plenty for several meals throughout the week, one bowlful at a time with a couple of baguette slices will suffice for lunch or dinner.  The flavors were all interesting and tasty, a little spicy, a lot of depth from the various seasonings, and definitely a repeat sometime over the winter.  Winter lasts a long time here.

       Eating with Ellie participants: Margaret at Tea and Scones, Peggy at Pantry Revisited, and Gaye at Laws of the Kitchen.  You can check the Eating with Ellie category in their blogs to see the recipes they have made and are making. (If you would like to join us, just leave a link at one of our blogs.)

      Note:  In our posts, we do not publish the recipes from Ellie Krieger's books as those belong to her, we like to honor that and encourage you to buy her books to get the recipes.  

 

WWDH: Roast Tomato Soup

      My 156th recipe with the Wednesday with Donna Hay group is Roast Tomato Soup.  The recipe can be found (click here).

       The ingredient list: tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, chicken stock, and a tiny bit of sugar.

       I was able to score some vine-ripened end-of-the-season tomatoes from my CSA farmer this past week.  They were delicious but they were quickly going to go beyond ripe so I grabbed some to roast and make this tomato soup recipe for lunch, I love tomato soup lunches, they remind me of my childhood where I think I mostly ate tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for every single lunch for years and years and years. Things have changed these days regarding lunch, but I still never turn down an offer for tomato soup and grilled cheese.  Tomato soup with roasted tomatoes is a whole new ballgame, I think I will always roast my tomatoes for this from now on.  I’m calling it the fall version…a little past summer.  Call it what you like, it’s delicious.  

       Participants: Gaye at Laws of the Kitchen, Margaret at Tea and Scones, and Peggy at Pantry Revisited.  You can check the Wednesday with Donna Hay category in their blogs to see the recipes they have made and are making.

       NOTE: In our posts, we do not publish the recipes from Donna Hay’s books as those belong to her, we like to honor that and encourage you to buy her books to get the recipes. There are also many of her recipes at her site here.  We know you will enjoy using Donna’s books again and again, as we all do, and that your money will be well spent.

TWD: Baking with Dorie - Apple Pandowdy

       The second recipe I made with the Tuesdays with Dorie: Baking with Dorie group is Apple Pandowdy and can be found in the Baking with Dorie book on pages 257-259. We had the choice of this recipe or the one for English Muffins on page 24, I’ll post the English Muffins next time.

      Apple Pandowdy ingredients:  apples, sugar, lemon, butter, flour, and salt.

      As described in the book, an apple pandowdy is a sort of apple pie with only a top crust.  I had never made, or even eaten, one of these before, so I was happy to learn some new things with this recipe.  The recipe gives a great deal of freedom in your choice of how you would like to present the crust on the top of this pie…anything from a full crust to bits and pieces of leftover dough, to shapes and designs.  I wanted to see the apples beneath so I just went with a simple round of cut out dough to let the apples peek out all around the edges of the pie.  This was good in that we loved those bits of crusty tops on the apples peeking out, but maybe not as attractive as would be hoped.  I missed the cinnamon flavor associated with an apple pie, but we did love the lemon, such a surprise of deep lemon flavor.  This pie dough recipe tastes more like sugar cookie dough than pie crust to me, and I had to bake it much longer for it to get any color at all despite the brushing of milk and sprinkling of sanding sugar on top.  

       All in all, it was a delightfully delicious desert and worthy of my time and efforts.  I did enjoy learning new things with this recipe and I’m probably going to make it again at some point. Lemon Apple Pie, what a deal.

 

       If you would like to join in, just make it, bake it, and leave a link to your post at the Tuesdays with Dorie website:  click here.  At the website you will find the postings for the current recipe, the list of recipes chosen each month, and some baking chit chat that is definitely helpful as well as fun.  Currently there are two groups baking at this website:  this one, Baking with Dorie (BWD), and one that is in its final year, Dorie’s Cookies (DC), which uses recipes from that book.  We don’t publish Dorie's recipes here, but you can buy the book and have them all at your fingertips, what a deal! 

GFGF: Rainbow Chard - Chard with Bacon-Citrus Sauce

        This week in the Good Friends Good Food theme of Vegetables, we all chose whatever vegetable we could find fresh at the end of the season, I chose Rainbow Chard. Here is the recipe I used for Chard with Bacon-Citrus Sauce if you would like the recipe to make it for yourself:  click here. 

 

       The ingredients:  bacon, rainbow Swiss chard, orange juice, butter, orange zest, salt, and pepper.

 

       We can get fresh chard in the spring and a second planting in the fall here, it’s one of my favorite greens so I cook with it a lot, and believe it or not, I usually eat it with an egg more times than not for breakfast. This looked like a fine idea for breakfast…you know, egg, bacon, orange juice…chard.  It was everything I hoped, absolutely delicious and easy as well.  Definitely a repeat. 

 

       To see what the others made with their Season’s End Fresh Produce, you can click on the members’ blogs listed here:  Peggy, Margaret, Ulrike.

 

       Next up is Season of Thanksgiving (pick a new recipe for your Thanksgiving table, it can be absolutely anything you like), posting date on November 19.  If you would like to join in, just leave a link to your post in any of the comment sections of the participants and we will come and see what you made.

 

Eating with Ellie: Apricot-Ginger Glazed Pork Loin and Carrots Over Napa Cabbage

      The 92nd recipe I made with the Eating with Ellie group is Apricot-Ginger Glazed Pork Loin and Carrots Over Napa Cabbage, and can be found in Ellie Krieger's book Whole in One, on page 193. 

      Ingredient list: apricot preserves, tomato paste, soy sauce, ginger, rice vinegar, sriracha, garlic, carrots, canola oil, salt, pepper, pork loin, pineapple juice, chicken broth, Napa cabbage, and scallions (I left out the scallions as Mark does not care for raw onions in things).
      Sheet pan dinners are all the rage right now, easy enough for a weeknight dinner and appreciated for the flavorful aspects of all kinds of recipes out there for them. I really haven’t done justice to Ellie Krieger’s latest book, Whole in One: Complete, Healthy Meals in a Single Pot, Sheet Pan, or Skillet, although I have had it since it came out in 2019, so that is going to change now while I work my way through it here. 

      The first recipe I’m making came about for three reasons, the first of which is that my husband loves pork roast, the second of which is that I happened to have one on hand when I was going through the book deciding which recipe to make first, and the third reason was that I only needed a quick stop for Napa Cabbage to complete the recipe as I had everything else on hand. 

      One of the main observations about Ellie’s recipes is that there are always a lot of ingredients.  Healthy ingredients, but more than many recipes.  She does this to build flavor.  It means one needs to keep on hand various things from the flavoring sections of the store that one doesn’t always keep on hand, but truly, once you have them on hand, she tends to use the same ones often so you don’t just buy an ingredient and never use it again.  Also, once I have an ingredient, I tend to see it sitting there and think of my own ways to use it in other recipes.  This recipe is like that with the flavorings, but they were all things I had on hand and the flavor combination was excellent, it really enhanced the flavor of the pork loin, which can be rather bland and boring. This recipe is very tasty.

       We liked this recipe a lot and I will be making it again.  I made it the way she suggested in the recipe except for one aspect…the amount of liquid suggested was going to be too much, I could tell.  So instead of 3-4 cups of liquid, I used only 1 cup and skipped the addition of the rest of the liquid.  It was plenty and I was happy with the result. Everything else was spot on, including the cooking times.

      We have taken a break from posting in this group but we are resurrecting it as we enjoy cooking together so much and we all love Ellie Krieger’s recipes, we’ve made probably close to 200 of them between this group and the old CEIMB Ellie group.  Eating with Ellie participants: Margaret at Tea and Scones, Peggy at Pantry Revisited, and Gaye at Laws of the Kitchen.  You can check the Eating with Ellie category in their blogs to see the recipes they have made and are making. (If you would like to join us, just leave a link at one of our blogs.)

      Note:  In our posts, we do not publish the recipes from Ellie Krieger's book as those belong to her, we like to honor that and encourage you to buy her books to get the recipes. She is also very generous and has many of her recipes online.

 

Wednesday with Donna Hay: Vanilla and Coconut Baked Apples

         My 155th recipe with the Wednesday with Donna Hay group is Vanilla and Coconut Baked Apples.  The recipe can be found in Donna Hay’s book Off the Shelf, page 160. 

       The ingredient list: apples, coconut, flour, butter, sugar, vanilla bean.  

       While I am always reluctant to post recipes developed by others, I can share a little of what happens in this one…wash the apples, core them, scoop out some of the center, add the filling, and bake them. It is all easy, quick, and very tasty.  I baked them beside the main course while I had the oven going and they were a perfect end to the meal. The apple skin gets paper thin and crispy as it bakes, the filling is absolutely delicious, and the apple itself is soft and creamy. Definitely worthy of a repeat.

 

        We have taken a bit of a group break, my last post was February 15, 2017.  I’ve missed making Donna Hay recipes with my friends here, and although I still chat weekly with Gaye, Margaret, and Peggy, there is still nothing like cooking together, so we are resurrecting the old Wednesday with Donna Hay group. Participants:  Gaye at Laws of the Kitchen, Margaret at Tea and Scones, and Peggy at Pantry Revisited. You can check the Wednesday with Donna Hay category in their blogs to see the recipes they have made and are making. 

 

        NOTE:  In our posts, we do not publish the recipes from Donna Hay's books as those belong to her, we like to honor that and encourage you to buy her books to get the recipes. There are also many of her recipes at her site here.  We know you will enjoy using Donna's books again and again, as we all do, and that your money will be well spent. 

TWD Dorie's Cookies: Coco-Almond Thumbprints

        The Dorie's Cookies group recipes for November are Coco-Almond Thumbprints (page 288) and Pecan Butterscotch Shortbreads (page 194).  This week I chose to make the Coco-Almond Thumbprints.
        Ingredient list:  almonds, coconut, sugar, egg whites, and chocolate. 

        This is one of the easiest cookie recipes ever.  You only need to toss the first four ingredients in the food processor and form little balls with the dough, make a little indent in the middle of the ball, bake them, and then put melted chocolate in the little indent after they are cooled.  What a deal, fast, easy, and husband-approved.   

        Three chocolate cookie recipes in a row…my husband is very happy, he says they are delicious and worth repeating as he liked the combination of coconut and almonds with the chocolate. 

       The Tuesdays with Dorie group is baking from Dorie Greenspan's book, Dorie's Cookies.  The posts are the first and third Tuesdays of the month and can be linked at the main Tuesdays with Dorie website here.  You can also find the information on joining in and/or see the posts from those in the group baking along at this location.  I don’t publish copyrighted recipes, so if you’d like to bake along, buy the book, it’s well worth it.