Caramelized Onion Chevre Crostini with Balsamic Reduction

I don't know if the name I gave this appetizer is gastronomically accurate, but that's what I'm going to call it. What ever you want to call it, you'll like it. I served it on Christmas Eve at my little party. My sister-in-law asked for the recipe, so here you have it.

1 large onion thinly sliced
1/2 cup golden raisins
2 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons water
1/4-1/2 teaspoon thyme
salt to taste
chevre
crostini toasts

Melt butter in saute pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook for 15 minutes, stirring often. When onions are very soft and golden brown throughout, stir in balsamic vinegar, water, raisins, and thyme. Cook until sauce is reduced a bit. Salt to taste.

On each crostini toast, place approximately 1 teaspoon of chevre, and top with onion mixture. Serve at room temperature.

Crostini Toasts

1 French baugette
olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 F. Slice baugette into 1/4 inch thick slices. Place on cookie sheet and brush with olive oil. Bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly golden and pleasantly crunchy. Over baking will make them tough.

Raspberry Truffles Anyone?

I'm having a little get-together on Christmas Eve so I'm making some tasty things. Today I made some Raspberry Truffles. The recipe is unbelievably simple. The ingredients aren't very expensive. There is nothing to stop you from making your very own truffles for Christmas. The recipe says to scoop out the chocolate once it has cooled. Don't scoop it my friends. You will just end up with hard chunks of chocolate that will not roll into nice smooth balls. You should scrape the top of the chocolate with a spoon until you get enough to make a truffle ball. And if the cocoa powder is a bit lumpy like my picture. Let them sit or a minute or two. Then coat your hands in cocoa again, and then roll them in your palms quickly again and it smooths out beautifully and covers all of the bare spots. I substituted 1 teaspoon of raspberry extract for the raspberry liqueur.

Here's the link to the recipe.
Raspberry Truffles

Pioneer Woman's Favorite Cookies from Childhood and Beyond!!!

Ok people for anyone who doesn't know. This is pioneer woman and her cooking blog. I have tried a few of her recipes, and they've been great! A couple of nights ago we tried her sugar cookies. They were easy and delicious. I really like how the cookies are soft and not too crunchy. They also are very delish. The addition of citrus makes them a little different from the average sugar cookie. I only changed the recipe by making my icing way to runny oops! and adding 1/2 teaspoon almond extract. I really like the almond flavor. I'm not a big maker of sugar cookies. My kids enthusiasm gets too overwhelming. They eat the flour, and usually end up wearing more than we use in the whole recipe. The contest to see who can smash the most cookie cutters into the dough. And this time, I really lost my marbles and let them paint with egg yolk paints too. Wow, I'm losing it. In the end though, it is always pretty darn fun. That is until somebody has to clean the kitchen.

Hey mom, can we paint yet???

We love painting these cookies.

Oh no something is amiss. Perhaps someone painted her cookie.

The finished painted product. No, my kids did not paint these.
With the runny, gooey, almondy, icing, that went everywhere.

The carnage at the end. Does anybody want to help clean my kitchen?

Zucchini Rice Casserole

I know it's not zucchini season. But I couldn't help myself. This casserole is just too good and warming, and delicious. It tastes like you should eat it on a cold day. It comes from my mother-in-law's family. They've been making it for years. It doesn't look like much. Especially when you take a photo of it, but it is so comforting to eat. I'm not a big casserole fan, as I've said before, but this one, is awesome. You could even substitute pink banana squash or acorn squash, or any more appropriate winter squash for the zucchini if you prefer. You might just need to extend the cooking time a tiny bit. Be sure to use the cream of celery soup, even if you've never tried it and you find creams of green vegetables scary. The taste is essential.

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Zucchini Rice Casserole

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1 lb ground beef
1 medium chopped onion
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 cup uncooked rice
zucchini (The amount is so subjective. Be sure to get enough to cover the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan as deep as you want your squash. I prefer to have a thick squash layer.)

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 F. Brown beef and onion. Drain off fat and salt and pepper to taste. Add creamed soups, rice and ¾ cup of water. Stir to combine. Spray 9 x 13 rectangular baking dish with cooking spray. Peel zucchini if skin is tough or squash large. Slice in half lengthwise to make long pieces. Scoop out seeds if large. Line baking dish with layer of zucchini and salt and pepper them to taste. Spread beef rice mixture over squash. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour removing foil in last 15 minutes to brown. Casserole can also be baked at 350 for 1 ½ hours.

Chocolate Roast Beef

Did I say chocolate and beef together? Why yes I did! This recipe came about as I was trying to find a new crock pot recipe for roast beef besides my standard onion soup mix and condensed mushroom soup recipe. I found an interesting enough recipe in my Southern Living Slow-Cooker book. One of the main ingredients was coffee, and I don't do coffee. So I decided that unsweetened cocoa powder would probably be a good substitute. And wouldn't you know it, it was delicious! The sauce is very rich and dark. You can't taste the chocolate though, but it adds depth to the flavor that is just delicious. Please please try this. You will amaze and impress your family, just like I did mine! Be careful with the salt in this recipe, it can get pretty salty. I use Nature's seasons for my season-all for meats and my cottage cheese sprinkle.

Chocolate Roast Beef

3 lb sirloin tip roast cut in half
Morton's Nature's Seasons (or your favorite season salt)
olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
1 cube beef bouillon
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons dried basil
all purpose flour

Sprinkle the roast pieces with Nature's Seasons. Brown in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. Remove roast and place in slow cooker. Saute onion and garlic in skillet until soft. Stir cocoa powder into water and stir into onion mixture in skillet. Add bouillon, salt, and basil. When bouillon is dissolved, pour mixture into slow cooker, over the roast. Cook on high for 6 hours. Remember, don't lift the lid, or your slow-cooker will have to reheat, and your cooking time will be extended. When roast is done remove to a platter. To make gravy measure drippings. For each cup of drippings add 1 tablespoon of flour to 1/4 cup of water. (You only need 1/4 cup of water total.) Strain drippings into a sauce pan, stir in flour-water mixture and heat to boiling. When gravy is thickened, serve with the roast.

Zucchini Goat Cheese Pizza

This recipe comes from a book called "The Little Guides Pizzas" It's a great pizza. I like to make my crust homemade, but lately I've been having technical difficulties with my baking. Maybe it's the weather?

Zucchini Goat Cheese Pizza

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1 pizza crust

julienned zucchini

thinly sliced white or yellow onion

chevre

1/2 lemon

oregano

olive oil

salt and pepper

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Preheat your oven, preferably with a pizza stone to 500 F. Rub or brush a small amount of olive oil on your pizza crust. Sprinkle with oregano. Add zucchini strips in a random but tasty pattern. Add a layer of thinly sliced onion. Put a fork in the chevre and twist over the top of the pizza allowing the delicious goat-cheesiness to rain down, again being as random as possible. Salt and pepper to taste. Place pizza on the pizza stone and bake for 10-12 minutes. Squeeze lemon half over pizza and enjoy.

Don't Be Afraid of Wal-mart store brand

I think people can be put off by store brands. When I feel adventurous, and the picture looks oh so yummy, I get sucked in, and I try it. Sometimes I am frightened and the other times I rejoice at the inexpensive deliciousness that I have discovered. This lasagna was delicious! The chicken really was white meat chicken. And it didn't have any gross parts attached either. The sauce was luscious and creamy. I would serve this to company. I really would.

There were a few things I didn't like. The sun-dried tomato pieces were virtually non-existent. There were a few. A very few. The sauce was really runny. I think if I had not been so completely ravenous and let it sit for a about 10 minutes before serving, it would have sliced more nicely. The pan is extraordinarily deep and it makes extracting a piece very difficult. Actually, I don't think it is possible to get the lasagna pieces to look like the picture.

But the flavor, delicious! Try it try it! You will like it. I promise.

Did Somebody Say Sushi?

I love sushi! Who wants to make sushi with me? You do? Great! This recipe makes a ton of sushi rice. If I'm gonna make sushi, I'm going to make lots for everyone. The chopping and rice prep take some time, so I want to make it worth it.

Lets start with the sushi rice. This recipe will make sufficient rice for about 6 California rolls and a whole lot of inari sushi. Please use Japanese rice such as Calrose, to make your sushi. Rinse the rice several times before cooking it. You will lose some nutrients doing this, but it is necessary for the proper texture.
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Sushi Rice
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5 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Mirin
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
8 cups hot cooked Japanese rice
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Combine first 4 ingredients and stir until sugar and salt are dissolved. Place the hot rice in a large plastic tub or flat bottomed bowl. Don't use metal as the acid in the vinegar will cause an off taste. Sprinkle some of the vinegar mixture over the rice and slash through the rice lifting it, with a rice paddle. Continue sprinkling and slashing, tasting occasionally, until you are satisfied with the taste. It is not necessary to use all of the vinegar mixture. The rice should be cooled once you are finished.
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Inari Sushi
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Inari sushi is so sweet and delicious. I don't know how many Westerners eat them, but you can be sure that Japanese people do. I was introduced to them by my husband who grew up in Japan. When I visited his parents there, I would plead with him to go down to the sushi shop on the corner of their apartment building to buy them for me for breakfast. I would have gotten them myself if it weren't for that darn language barrier. Now I just make them myself. Yum!

You need a can of these.
These are inari wrappers made of fried slices of tofu. Remove them from the can and carefully open each one with your fingers. Be careful to not rip through the sides as they are a bit fragile. Stuff them gently with sushi rice, and sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds on top of the rice. Fold over the top and place them seam side down on the serving dish.

California Roll

nori sushi wraps
prepared sushi rice
julienned strips of cucumber
sliced avocado
imitation crab (preferably in sticks, not chunks like the photo)
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Spread a large sheet of cling wrap over your work surface. Place one sheet of nori on the cling wrap. Wet your hands and get a handful of sushi rice and carefully spread in a very thin layer over the nori leaving a 1/2 inch border at one end. Place the remaining ingredients in a stack on one end of the nori as illustrated in the picture, on the opposite end of the 1/2 inch border.


Grab the edge of the cling wrap, press your fingers against the filling and roll the sushi towards yourself. Use the cling wrap to press the roll tightly together and your fingers to push the edge in tightly and then lift up the cling wrap and continue to roll up the sushi. Be sure to not roll the cling wrap up in the roll. Slice and serve with wasabi and lite soy sauce.