May Recipe: High Plains Steak with Peas and Pods

Wow, so it has been a busy week! We are in process of renting out our condo and I am still finding some time to make some new recipes! Yay me!

I was thumbing through Cooking Light July 2008 and ran across two different recipes: High Plains Steaks & Peas and Pods. They were noted as recipes for the July 4th holiday. So, it's a few days past, but I am also over a month past due on my May "Beef" recipe. Luckily I had a piece of London Broil in the fridge and some snap peas my dad had gotten me Upstate (as I love these peas - you can eat the outside and inside!).

High Plains Steak(s)
Cooking Light - July 2008

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
3 (8-ounce) sirloin strip steaks or 1 lb. London Broil
Cooking spray

Directions:
1. Prepare grill.
2. Combine first 4 ingredients in a small bowl. Rub mustard mixture over both sides of steaks. Cover with plastic wrap; let stand 30 minutes.
3. Place steaks on a grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 3 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 3 ounces)

Nutritional Information:
CALORIES 155 (30% from fat); FAT 5.2g (sat 2g,mono 2.2g,poly 0.2g); IRON 2.2mg; CHOLESTEROL 67mg; CALCIUM 10mg; CARBOHYDRATE 0.7g; SODIUM 427mg; PROTEIN 24.6g; FIBER 0.2g

Weight Watchers Points: 4

Peas and Pods
Cooking Light - July 2008

Ingredients:
3/4 pound sugar snap peas, trimmed
2 cups fresh or frozen petite green peas, thawed
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons finely chopped
fresh mint (or basil)

Directions:
1. Steam snap peas, covered, 2 minutes. Add green peas to pan; steam 2 minutes.
2. Combine peas, butter, and salt in a large bowl; toss gently to coat. Sprinkle with mint (or basil).

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 2/3 cup)

Nutritional Information: CALORIES 87 (29% from fat); FAT 2.8g (sat 1.8g,mono 0.7g,poly 0.1g); IRON 1.3mg; CHOLESTEROL 7.5mg; CALCIUM 42mg; CARBOHYDRATE 10.7g; SODIUM 105mg; PROTEIN 3.4g; FIBER 3.4g

Weight Watchers Points: 1

Review: I cooked a 1" thick steak for 5 minutes on each side and it came out perfectly medium. The steak was very good with just a hint of mustard. Next time I think I will try the horseradish mustard or maybe even just horseradish to kick the taste up a notch. The peas were soooo good - I think that's partially due to the fact that they were straight from the farm stand, but even the frozen peas that I defrosted were tasty. Very quick and easy meal! Yum!

Happy 4th of July!!

I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July. I had a great time at my family summer house in upstate Ny. Its an annual tradition to head to Shinhopple each 4th and I look forward to it each year. This year was no different. We had a great group of people this year, a bunch of my cousins and of course Heidi and Mike. I thought I'd post our wonderful BBQ we had. It would have been delicious if the chicken was cooked just a little more, but what can I say, theres not talking to guys when it comes to grilling & bbq'ing ( right Heidi!! )








I think the charcoal grill was way too hot to put the chicken on, but everyone was hungy and the guys figured it would cook. Most was ok, but some of the pieces needed to be cooked a little more. Overall it wasnt too bad. Maybe next year the guys will leave cooking to chicken to Heidi and I =)

Zucchini, Onion, & Basil Pizza

The inspiration for this recipe came from William Sonoma's June 2008 catalog. One of their featured items is the Beehive Pizza Oven. It's way over my price limit, but now that I have my Pampered Chef Bar Pan, who needs a pizza oven?! =)

Anyhow, the farm stands have also opened upstate and although I have a ton of veggies growing in my garden, they aren't quite ready for the picking. Well, not entirely true, the lettuce is ready and we have a few cukes that are small but very edible! We made our first salad the other night!

Zucchini & Basil Pizza - my modified version below

Ingredients:
1 green zucchini, sliced 3/16 inch thick
1 Vadalia Onion
1 Tbs. EVOO
Olive Oil Spray
4 tsp. Parmesan cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
One store bought pizza dough
4 oz. mozzarella cheese, grated
6 large fresh basil leaves, torn

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a bowl, stir together the zucchini, 1 Tbs. oil, salt (1 Tbl) and fresh ground pepper. Let stand for 5 minutes, then drain off the excess liquid. Place pizza dough round on a sprayed Large Bar Pan from Pampered Chef. Lightly spray the dough with olive oil and sprinkle parmesan cheese over the dough. Sprinkle the mozzarella on the dough and top with the zucchini and onions. Transfer the pizza to the oven and bake for 18 minutes and then low broil for about 5 minutes (to ensure top of crust is cooked through). Place torn pieces of basil on top. Cut into slices and serve immediately.

Review: Another wow! I really enjoyed this and kept saying it over and over to Rocco. A perfect summer pizza with just the right amount of flavoring. The zucchini and onions were sweet and just a delight. My only downer is that I used store bought (fresh) pizza dough and the last time I made pizza I got it down on Arthur Ave. at Madonia Brothers Bakery and you can actually taste the difference in the dough!

It is So CUTE!!

A little while back I posted about our vegetable garden that we are growing with my neighbors. It is very exciting stuff to grow something from a tiny little seed. We even had a little scare of it all washing away after a really really heavy rain storm. Thankfully we built the mounds/hills and the plants weren't hurt. After the same storm I spotted two little bunnies eating around our garden. It was a good thing we put up the fence because otherwise I think they would have eaten our plants.

Yesterday I went out to check on the garden and see if everything was ok. We were getting a little concerned about our zucchini plants because a bunch of the blossoms were falling off. After a little Internet research I found out that it was the male blossoms that tend to just fall off after they pollinated the female blossoms...hmmmm. Then I found our first little zucchini growing under those giant leaves. I am happy that we will get at least one zucchini out of all this and hopefully I will be posting later this summer that I am totally sick of the green stuff.

The garden just after it was planted (sorry for the fuzzy picture)

Picture of the garden from a couple of days ago.

My two little bunny friends

The great flood of 2008

Our first Zucchini spotting.

June Recipe: Strawberry Cream Pie

Every year in June, I LOVE to go strawberry picking at Bohringer's in Middleburgh, NY. It is this tucked away fruit farm in the valley. I don't always get there, but when I do, the strawberries are like candy. So sweet, super juicy and just perfect.

From the strawberry fields you also get an amazing view of the valley. This year, I wisened up. Kneeling on the hay and ground for an hour while picking does a number on my knees. So, I brought a chair pad, you know, the kind that you sit on at the dining room table and covered it in a plastic bag, so the strawberry juices didn't change the color. It may have looked silly, but it was the best strawberry picking experience ever! haha

So, after heading toward the field to pick (by myself may I add as the elders sat in the car and watched - hehe), the first several rows of strawberries were extremely slim pickings and I thought, well, I must have missed the season this year. As I walked further down the rows where no one was, well, let's just say GOLD MINE!
So I get them home and it's like, hmm, what do I do with all of these strawberries?! Originally I thought that I was going to make jam. Nothing like homemade jam, but when I read the recipe and it first said 2 cups of sugar, I thought, that' isn't sooo bad, but then kept reading and it says add another 6 (yes 6!!) cups of sugar, I just couldn't do it. The berries are so sweet, why the heck do you need 6 cups of sugar?!

My grandmother had suggested Strawberry Cream Pie and although it sounded good, while watching my calories, I thought "can't do it." Until I opened up the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook and saw that the "cream" is actually made with milk! So, I was very exciting as figured well, I can use skim milk! I was also worried about the crust, because my crust is usually made with a large amount of shortening, so I looked for an alternate and made it with Vanilla Wafers instead - Graham Crackers was another option, but the crust recipe called for more butter, so I skipped that one too. So, here is the recipe I made with my substitutions. I tell you the pie was amazing (more on my review below)!

Strawberry Cream Pie

BH&G 1965

Ingredients:
1 9-inch baked pastry shell
1/2 cup slivered blanched almonds, toasted (optional)
1 recipe Cream Filling (below)
2.5 cups fresh strawberries
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
Few drops red food coloring (optional)

Cream Filling:
Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons cornstarch, 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Gradually stir in 2 cups of (skim) milk.
Stirring constantly, bring to a boil; reduce heat and cook and stir till thick (consistancy of warm pudding). Stir a little of hot mixture into 1 slightly beaten egg; return to remaining hot mixture. Bring just to boiling, stirring constantly. Cool, then chill mixture.
Beat well; fold in 1/2 cup (Fat Free Cool Whip) whipping cream, whipped, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
Directions:
Cover bottom of cooled pastry shell with nuts. (I opted not to do the nuts, but think it would have been better to keep the crust less moist.) Fill with Cream Filling. Halve 2 cups of the strawberries (reserve 1/2 cup remaining). Pile atop filling.
Crush remaining 1/2 cup berries; add water; cook 2 minutes; sieve (strain strawberry juice, keeping the juice and squeezing everything out of the crushed berries). Mix sugar and cornstarch; gradually stir in berry juice. Cook and stir till thick and clear (mine never got clear, which was fine by me! =). Tint to desired color with food coloring (didn't need this step since it never was clear). Cool slightly; pour over halved strawberries. Keep refridgerated till serving time. Pass (Fat Free) whipped cream, if desired.

Vanilla-wafer Pie Crust:
Combine 1 1/4 cups fine vanilla-wafer crumbs (about 38 wafers) with 1/3 cup melted butter. Press firmly against bottom and sides of buttered 9-inch pie plate. Chill in refridgerator till set.

Review: Like I said, this pie was delicious! So, I made a few mistakes, like I didn't butter the pie plate and it was hard to scrape the crust off the bottom of the pan. I didn't add the almonds (didn't have any), but I think that would have kept the crust more firm. The cream filling was delicious (and I am not the Boston Creme kind of girl). The "gelatin" like topping that went over it was good - sometimes in the bakery, this is kind of jello-ish, was happy that this one stayed softer and just brought the whole pie together. I absolutely loved it and would definitely make it again. I'm not sure if I would serve it for company as it kind of fell apart - maybe because of the skim milk and fat free Cool Whip?! Or maybe I just need a stronger crust. Either way, so good! Enjoy! (All items in italics are what I changed in the recipe.)

Side note: A cousin, Gene Yazzetti, of mine passed away on Monday unexpectedly. May he rest in peace and look over dear Celeste and his kids and grandkids. Gene was a great person and I am thankful to have know him.

Heidi's July Recipe(s)

Mike had an aunt that use to live up in Buffalo that would buy a bushel of corn when they would have family parties. He would say she would make every and any kind of corn dish there was possible. That's how I felt when I bought 3 pints of blueberries. Blueberries were on sale a few weeks ago and I needed 2 cups of blueberries for my July recipe. I didn't realize that 2 cups of blueberries is about 1 pint. So I had 2 pints left. I guess I could have frozen them but I decide to make a few addition things. My intended July recipe was Blueberry BBQ Sauce. Then I knew we were going away for the 4th so I decided to make some Blueberry Muffins to bring for breakfast and the last thing I decide to make was Banana Blueberry Pancakes.

Blueberry BBQ Sauce on Chicken

Blueberry Muffins

Banana Blueberry Pancakes

My Review: All the recipes were easy to make. The bbq sauce was different, but good. I don't know if I would make it again, but it was fun try something out of the ordinary. The blueberry muffins have been on my baking wish list for a while. I was excited that I finally got to make them and the came out great. I received rave reviews. Kathleen's boyfriend told me he couldn't stop eating them. As for the pancakes. I took the banana recipe I make often and just added blueberries to the batter. It was a nice touch. I forgot how much I love blueberry pancakes. The warm gooey blueberries are soooooo good. I'm now keeping an eye out for another sale.

June's Recipe - Strawberry

This month was our strawberry month and below are the recipes that were made:

Jenn - Strawberry Cream Pie
Michelle - Strawberry Bread

Daring Bakers Challenge: Danish Braid

I know that I am super late on posting this challenge on the blog. I had an insane week getting ready for our trip down to Delaware to visit family. Also my son got into an accident and we had to rush him to the doctors...he is 110% better now. I had all these plans to make the dough and bake the braid during the week but that all had to change.

I was really excited when I heard of the challenge was going to be making our own danish down and then braiding it. Something that I have been wanting to do for a while now but just was never up for the challenge. I was even happier when blueberries when on sale and I knew what I wanted to fill the danish with.

I don't know what happened I thought everything was going well and then it just all failed. I made the dough put it in the frig for it's rest. I prepared the butter for the butter block and started to spread it on the dough (which at first I thought was going to be a challenge). I folded it put it in the frig again...and then when i went to roll it out thin...the butter when every where. I knew this had happened to other so I didn't panic and folded it again and repeated it the process. To make a long story short the butter just keep coming out...I think it was just to hot in my kitchen and the butter never set into the dough. I also ran out of time and had to put it in the freezer...

So my post is To Be Continued but I am also going to attempt making the dough again when the weather is cooler and my kitchen isn't so hot. I am trying to save a little and not put the AC so fast...but in the name of good danish dough I might just have to do it.

Today is the deadline for the Daring Baker's challenge of a Danish Braid. I was really busy this month with parties to attend and other family functions. I had plan to bake the danish this week but because of little situation I could not do it. I made the dough and froze it which I will hopefully bake next weekend. I will keep you posted...

Please visit the other Daring Bakers blog's to see some awesome successful completed challenge.

Homemade Onion Rolls!!

I have been wanting to make more bread recently but didn't know what to make. It might be because the weather has been so nice and to me perfect bread baking temperatures. Or just the fact that I bought 10lb bag of King Arthur Flour at BJs. Then saw the post on Bakers' Banter on 6/20 about onion rolls.

Tomorrow we have a little thing for Jacob because it is the last day of gym and they do a show. The grandparents are all coming to see him run around like a mad man. So I figured these rolls would be perfect to serve with some cold cuts or a burger. I thought about it early enough that I was able to time it that when I needed to put them into to oven Jacob was taking his nap.

Here is a picture of them rising after I cut them into the rolls.

Half I left plain & the other half has the artisan seed mix on them.

Here is a close up of a bun with seeds.

Please visit the Baker's Banter blog for an even better step by step instructions on how to make these. I actually posted a comment on the blog about a question I had making them and they responded to it so fast.

Review: These rolls were so easy to make and oh my they smelled so good from the start. Since I am saving them for tomorrow I haven't tried one yet but once I do I will update my post. To be honest just from how easy they were to make I would do it again right now...even with 8 hot fresh rolls sitting on my counter.

Update: I had a piece of one last night and it was just like I imagined....super yummy! Why ever buy onions rolls from the store again!

BBQ - Wedding Cake and Cupcakes

When the planning started for the BBQ I had volunteered to make a cake. Mike's mom wanted the cake to look like a wedding cake. She then called a few weeks later and said she was going to combine it with her husband (and his twin brother's) birthday. So she than asked me to make a second cake. I said sure and then volunteered to make more desserts. Only a week went by before I was having my "what was I thinking" moment. I mean I've never really decorated a cake before, let a lone one that's suppose to be a wedding cake. But I search and read a bunch of frosting recipes to prepare myself. I'm also glad I decided to practice once before actually doing it for real. The practice round didn't come out that great so I found a different recipe to try. I also read a How to Guide from King Arthur Flour on cake decorating. I think the tip that helped the most was to leave the butter out for 2 hours to soften. The end result were great and I received a lot of compliments.

The Wedding Cake

Top Layer - Yellow cake with green buttercream
Bottom layer - Checker Board (chocolate and vanilla cake) with green buttercream in between layers (left over from the cupcakes, see below)

Since the wedding was in Disney I decided to decorate the cake in a Mickey Mouse Theme. I don't know if you can tell, but on the bottom layer there are Mickey heads all around it.

Sorry no pictures of the inside, it went quickly

I'm happy with the way the cake turned out, but I wish I could have gotten the frosting a little smoother.

Birthday Cupcakes

Cupcakes - Devil Food Cake
Golf Balls - White chocolate made from a mold

Now for the finishing touches

You might be asking yourself why a golf theme. The birthday boys are big golfers so what better then a solid chocolate golf ball.

The Candy Tower

Top - Chocolate Covered Pretzels
Middle - Rainbow Cookies (Store bought)
Bottom - On the left Chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookies and on the right chocolate covered mini Oreos.


My very pleased with the way everything turned out. There was so much food at the party that I wasn't sure if people would eat the desserts, but who doesn't have room for cake! By the end of the night there was not one dessert left.

Oh, wait!! I just realized I didn't tell you about another dessert I made. I had made key lime tarts, too. I forgot to take a picture of those. But the recipe made 24 mini tarts and by the end of the night only about 10 were left. That's it!! Wa-hoo!!