Cooking Question

Okay... there's one area of cooking that's COMPLETELY new to me.... and that's make-ahead cooking.  I love my freezer and I freeze a lot of things other people (read Frog Prince) think are strange, like cheese and butter. 

But, despite my relationship with my freezer, I am new to the make a whole meal, stick it in the freezer and just reheat thing. 

So, I'm going to attempt to make something ahead!  Here's where I need your help. 

I'd like to make this delicious creamy spinach dish ahead of time.... but, I'm leery of freezing a cream sauce. 

Have any of you frozen a "cream sauce" dish?  Or, should I prepare the pasta and spinach/mushroom base, and make the sauce fresh before I cook it? 

And, do I need to "dethaw" the dish, or can I just stick it in the oven to cook (albeit a little longer than normal)? 

Any advice you can offer this cook would greatly appreciate!

4th of July Cherry Berry Dessert

Two Three years ago on the 4th of July, Frog Prince and I wanted some festive dessert to celebrate. We had cherries and blueberries. Red and Blue. All we needed was some white cake...!

4th of July Cherry Berry Dessert - Finding Joy in My Kitchen Original
{Print Recipe}

~1 C cherries, fresh
~1.5 C blueberries, fresh

Dough
1/4 C butter
1/4 C applesauce
3/4 C brown sugar
2 C flour (I used 1 C whole wheat)
1 1/2 C milk
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt


Topping
~ 1 C sugar
2 T corn starch
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
1/2 C boiling water


Melt butter and then cream in the sugar and applesauce.





Mix together dry ingredients and add them to the wet ones; stir until moist. The dough will resemble a thicker pancake batter.





Spread dough in a greased 9x13 glass baking dish.



Sprinkle the cherries and blueberries over the dough and top with cinnamon and nutmeg, to taste.





YUM





Mix together the sugar and cornstarch. Sprinkle over the berries. Yes, this seems like a lot of sugar -- you can likely cut it down to 3/4 C, depending on the tartness/sweetness of your berries.



Boil 1/2 C water and carefully pour the water over the top of the cake mixture. Strange, I know -- trust me. It's good.



Bake at 350 for 1-1.5 hours, or until cake is set in the center. This dessert will be gooey... just make sure the center is set before serving.



Serve with white whipped cream and you have a red, white and blue festive dessert!





This recipe is linked to:

• Tasty Tuesday
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday 
• Ultimate Recipe Swap
• Tuesday Tastes
• Tasty Tuesdays 
• Tuesdays at the Table
• Delicious Dishes
• Mouthwatering Monday

What's going on in my kitchen?!

My apologies for being a "slacker" cook over the past week or so. With Frog Prince being gone last week, I ended up eating a bunch of leftovers rather than cooking a bunch of new things. But, I have not abandoned my kitchen... in fact, I am looking forward to a cooler week to do some bulk baking!

Here's what's cooking this week:

Snacks
Fruit Leathers
Dried Fruit
Granola
Cheesy Crackers, and maybe some Animal Crackers!
Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels


Dinners
Red Pepper Tortellini
Pepper and Spinach Pizza
Mushroom and Pepper Pizza
Spaghetti
Crockpot Apple Bacon Pork Chops


Desserts
Homemade Ice Cream with Cherry Sauce
Brownies (made with black beans -- shhh, don't tell anyone)
4th of July Red, White and Blue Dessert


Breads
Honey Whole Wheat Bread
Whole Wheat Tortillas (for freezer)
Orange Cranberry Muffins


That's a hefty cooking week... I guess that's what happens when your family comes into town!!

Here's to a week of joyful cooking!

Warm Delights

I've never yet tried Betty Crocker's Warm Delights, but I've heard people enjoy them very much. Last week, I found a recipe at Frugal Antics of a Harried Housemaker for making your own warm delights. Since we all know how much I love warm cake with no frosting (yes, this is my favorite birthday cake), these are my new downfall.


Seriously. Cake in less than 1 minute = danger. Warm cake = bigger problem. I have to set a limit -- I cannot make and consume an entire cake mix box of warm delights in one sitting... or in a week for that matter!

But, these things are great for a sweet treat when you need a little pick-me-up. I've only make them without fillings, but Kristen has tried a whole bunch of fillings :)

Warm Delights - from Kristen

1/8 C water
1/4 C cake mix (any kind you want)
1-2 tsp. filling

In a microwavable safe bowl, mix together water and cake mix (batter will be lumpy).




Place the fillings in the center and then microwave on high for 1 minute.

Carefully remove from the microwave (the dish will be hot)...

And, enjoy! You can even add a small scoop of ice cream to the top -- yum.

Some center fillings you might enjoy:

-hot fudge
-caramel
-cherry pie filling
-Oreo cookies (broken up and mixed in the batter)

Yum. Thanks, Kristen... i think....

Smoothies

Last night, the girls from my life group came over and we had a girls smoothie night.  The smoothies were delicious, the conversation excellent, and the movie funny!  Oh, we also had some other "girly" treats ... M&Ms, cream puffs and popcorn!!


Thus, in honor of smoothie night (which, might have to become a regular thing....), I have a few smoothie recipes to share with you!

Pineapple Smoothie
~4oz of pineapple, with juice
3-6 ice cubes
1/ C milk
a heaping spoon full of cool whip

Combine in a blender, and enjoy!


Dairy Fruit Smoothies
1/2 C milk
4oz plain yogurt
1 C fruit

Blend and enjoy!


Lemonade Smoothie
1 C lemonade
1 C ice
1 C berries (strawberries, raspberries)

Mix together the ice and lemonade in a blender.  Then add in the berries! 

Serve in a tall glass. 


Fruit Juice Smoothie
1 C fruit juice of your choice
1 medium banana, sliced and frozen
5ish ice cubes
handful of frozen berries (whatever goes well with the juice)

Add to a blender and mix away!


Cherry Smoothie
1 C cherries (frozen is fine)
1/2 C ice
1/2 C yogurt
1/4 C honey (or >1/8 C sugar)


Combine all and blend until smooth.


Orange Julius
6oz OJ concentrate
1 C water
1 C milk
1/2 C sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
10 ice cubes

Mix well until smooth.


Basically, when making smoothies, it all comes down to the ratio of fruits, thickeners, and liquids + a little flavor kick!

A good rule of thumb is...

1 part fruit
2 parts thickener (e.g., yogurt, frozen juice, frozen fruits -- like bananas, ice)
2 part liquid (e.g., milk, juice, water)
+
flavor (try cinnamon, vanilla or a sweetener, like honey)

These are a great way to Fight the Heat... we enjoyed cooling off from 90+ degrees!

Chicken Sausage Stromboli

It's been leftover week here with Frog Prince out of town.  But, this meal was so delicious we'll make it again, even when it isn't leftover night!

Chicken Sausage Stromboli

2-3 Spinach and Asiago Chicken Sausages*
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 orange bell pepper
8 oz fresh mushrooms
1/2-1 C Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 recipe no-rise quick pizza crust

Make pizza crust according to directions.  While crust rests, slice the chicken sausages, peppers and mushrooms.  Saute the sausage and peppers in a pan until chicken sausages are slightly browned and peppers are tender. 

Roll out the pizza crust into a big rectangle and top half (filling just one side of the rectangle) with chicken sausages mix, freshly sliced mushrooms (alternatively you can saute them with the veggies if you wish), and Mozzarella cheese.

Fold the other half of the dough over the fillings and seal tight.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until the Stromboli is lightly browned. Cool for just a few moments, slice and serve.

*I found these chicken sausages at Sam's Club.  They are the Member's Mart brand and are delicious!  To top it off, they are low in fat and sodium!!

No-Rise Pizza Crust

This pizza crust has quickly become our favorite!  It goes together so quickly, and with a little additional resting time, we can stretch it to make two giant sized pizzas/calzones!!

No Rise Pizza Crust - From Amy at The Finer Things in Life

1 T yeast
1 C really warm water (but not too hot that it kills the yeast -- that is, not boiling!)
1 tsp. sugar or honey
1 tsp. salt
2 T olive oil
1.5 C whole wheat flour
1 C white whole wheat flour

Prepare the crust by mixing warm water, sugar and yeast in a small bowl. Allow yeast mix to sit while you mix the dry ingredients together. Then add oil and salt to the yeast mixture and stir.


Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, and stir to combine. Knead the dough (about 5 minutes) on a lightly floured surface until firm.



Cover and set dough aside for 5-10 minutes while you prepare the veggies. Setting the dough aside for a few minutes helps make the dough easy to roll out into a pizza.



Roll out the dough and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet.  Top with desired toppings and bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes, or until toppings are browned.

In-Season Swap: Cherries

Cherries are my husband's favorites. He loves all types in all things. Kind of like me and blueberries. So, we have lots of recipes with cherries:

Cherry Apple Crisp
Berry Cherry Crisp
Cherry Cake
Trail Mix (with dried cherries)
Dark Chocolate Cherry Granola Bars
Cherry Pineapple Dump Cake
Cherry Ice Cream Sauce
Cherry Ice Cream
Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake
Crockpot Cherry Cobbler
Dark Chocolate Cherry Cobbler
Cherry Blueberry Pie
Dark Chocolate Cherry Muffins
Cherry Chocolate Bark

But, Frog Prince's favorite recipe is Cherry Coffee Cake! This recipe is perfect with fresh tart cherries made into your own pie filling....




Cherry Coffee Cake - Modified from the Sellnows

1/2 C butter (or, 1/4 C butter, 1/4 C applesauce)
3/4 C sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 C sour cream (fat free works just fine)
2 1/2 C (1 C of this can be whole wheat)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
16 oz cherry pie filling
1/4 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Cream together butter and sugar. Beat eggs and add sour cream to the eggs; stir well. Add this to the butter and sugar mixture and cream. Mix flour, salt and soda together and add to the dough mix. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl for topping.

Layer half of the dough in the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan. Pour pie filling over the bottom dough layer. Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon-sugar mix. Top with remaining dough. It works best to plop the dough over the cherries and carefully spread to fill in the holes. Top with remaining dough and sugar mixture. 



Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. 

This post is linked to:

• Tammy's In-Season Swap
• Life as a Mom's URS: Fruit

Cheesy BBQ Pork Open Sandwiches

Talk about a delicious way to use up leftovers! We had a little bit of BBQ pork left from our pulled pork sandwiches, and also some French bread.... With a little cheese and a toaster oven, we had a quick meal that didn't require heating up the kitchen!

Cheesy BBQ Pork Open Sandwiches

Shredded pork (with BBQ sauce)
Extra sharp cheddar cheese, sliced
French bread

Slice the French bread into rounds and arrange on the rack/pan of your toaster oven (or on a cookie sheet, if you want to broil them in the oven).

Top with warmed BBQ pork and cheddar cheese slices.



Toast for ~7 minutes until cheese is bubbly and bread is toasty!



Enjoy with green veggies for a quick, clean-out-the-fridge recipe. 

Pasta and Zucchini

Don't you just love Pioneer Woman's recipes? I always seem to browse her site when I'm hungry. Mistake #1. Then, I think -- oh, lets make that for dinner. Mistake #2. Why is it a mistake? Well, I usually don't have exactly everything on hand to use to make her delicious dishes....thus, I improvise.

Tonight, we struck gold. This pasta is delicious. Not quite like Pioneer Woman... but, it will work for us!

Pasta and Zucchini - Modified from Pioneer Woman

1/2 lb. pasta (we used mini Penne)*
2 medium zucchini, quartered
14 oz. diced tomatoes (fresh cherry tomatoes, or canned)
8 oz. mushrooms, quartered
1/2 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 T olive oil
1/2 C light whipping cream
2/3 C chicken broth
1 T flour
salt and pepper, to taste
chives and basil, to taste (PW recommends fresh)

*you may need more pasta, up to 1 lb.

Start by cutting the veggies into quarters. Then, heat oil over medium heat and add zucchini. Sprinkle with salt.



Cook until zucchini is just starting to get tender -- you don't want it to get mushy. Then, remove from the pan and set aside.



Then, start the water for your pasta.



In the same skillet, add garlic, onion and mushrooms, and saute.





Then, add in the tomatoes, and 1/3 C broth. Add 1 T flour to the remaining 1/3 C of broth and mix well. Then, add to the tomato mix.



Add in 1/2 C whipping cream. Stir until slightly thickened.



Then, add back in the zucchini.



Season with pepper and allow to simmer for just a few minutes.

Drain the pasta and pour into a serving dish.


Season with herbs, to taste.



Pour the sauce over the top....



Then toss, adding more herbs as desired.



To serve, top with Parmesan cheese.



Yummy. Next time, I think we'll be adding grilled chicken to this great and quick pasta.

And, note to self -- continue to browse Pioneer Woman's recipes .... they'll be great even if you don't make as directed.

This recipe is linked to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.