Fruit Leather

Fruit Leather - healthy, with no preservatives

Fresh fruit (apricots, peaches, berries, apples, pears,)

Water

Lemon juice or pineapple juice

(3 Tablespoons Lemon Juice or 1/4 C Pineapple Juice)

Wash the fruit. If you working with stone fruit take out the pits, chop the fruit. If working with apples or pears, peel and core them, then chop. Place the fruit in a blender or a food processor with the lemon juice or pineapple juice and puree. (Feel free to mix fruit – like peach/pear, raspberry/pear….etc) Note: when working with berries like strawberries and raspberries – strain the puree through a couple of layers of cheesecloth to remove some of the seeds.

Taste the fruit before proceeding. Note how sweet the fruit is. If very sweet you will not need to add any sugar. If still a little tart, you may need to add some sugar, honey or agave (another option is to use jam to sweeten).

The purée should be very smooth.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with sturdy plastic wrap (the kind that is microwave safe). Pour out the purée into the lined baking sheet to about an 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness.

Place the baking sheet in the oven; try to keep any plastic wrap from touch the sides of the oven or the oven racks. Also try to make sure that the plastic wrap hasn't folded back over on top of the purée. If this happens, the purée won't dry out. Heat the oven to a low 140°F. If you have a convection setting, use it, it will speed up the process and help dry out the purée. Let dry in the oven like this for as long as it takes for the purée to dry out and form fruit leather. We usually keep it in the oven overnight, so about 8-12 hours. The fruit leather is ready when it is no longer sticky, but has a smooth surface.

­ If you have a food dehydrator, follow the manufacturer’s directions. Some suggestions are to put the tray in a Barbeque grill, and leaving covered, in the sun all day. My Mom used to make it the traditional way of tenting the tray with a screen and leave it outside in the sun on a hot day.

When the fruit leather is ready, you can peel it up from the plastic wrap. To store it, roll it in its plastic wrap, put it in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator or freezer. My Mom used to cut them into 1” strips – the precursor to Fruit by the foot®

Yield: 3-4 cups of fruit yield about one baking sheet of fruit leather.

Have fun cookin'

Cyndi

Zucchini Orange (or Lemon) Bread

Zucchini Orange (or Lemon) Bread

As everyone knows zucchini's are easy to grow and one plant produces oodles of zucchinis and 1 zucchini can make lots of zucchini bread. Well Zucchini bread is yummy on it's own but I found this recipe via (you guessed it) Pinterest nancycreative.com - thought I'd give it a try - OH WOW, delish... 
Now the creative side of me thought Hmmmm Lemons - Oranges - why not spin it and try it with oranges - orange zest, orange juice - OH MY GOODNESS......

Here is my version - Check out the link for hers 

ORANGE-ZUCCHINI LOAF WITH ORANGE GLAZE

Makes one 9×5″ loaf

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

Juice of 1 Small Orange (or 2 Tablespoons Orange juice)

Zest of 1 Small Orange

1 cup grated zucchini (you don’t need to peel the zucchini before grating it unless you are trying to hide it.)

Preheat oven to 35o°. Grease and flour a 9×5″ loaf pan; set aside.

In large bowl, blend flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In your stand mixer bowl, beat 2 eggs well, then add canola oil and sugar, and blend well. Then add the buttermilk, orange juice, and orange zest and zucchini and stir until evenly distributed in mixture. Add the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl slowly and on low (or you’ll have a mess to clean up) and blend everything together, but don’t over mix.

Pour batter into prepared 9×5″ loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack and cool completely. While loaf is cooling, you can make the glaze…

ORANGE GLAZE

1 cup powdered sugar

Juice of 1 Small Orange (or 2 Tablespoons Orange juice)

In small bowl, mix powdered sugar and lemon juice until well blended. Spoon the glaze over cooled loaf. Let glaze set, serve.

 Adapted from NancyCreative.com

Have fun Cookin'

Cyndi

Peach and White Chocolate Chip Scones

Peach and White Chocolate Chip Scones

Ok, so being from Utah these are not your normal "Utah" Scones.

While shopping a while back I stopped at our local bread store and they had "lemon scones" they were sampling, they were amazing. So last week when we peeled what was left of the peaches my in-laws had given us, I stuck them in the fridge, and all week all I have thought about what to make with them and this has been in the back of my mind, scones with peaches, and white chocolate chips.

Ingredients:

3 cups Flour

½ cup Sugar

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Salt

Zest from one Lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

4 tbsp Butter

¾ cup Milk

½ cup pureed Peaches

1/2 cup Dried Cranberries

½ cup chopped Dried Peaches

1/2 cup White Chocolate Chips

Directions:

Pre-heat your oven to 375° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and lemon zest together it a mixer. Cut up the butter in small pieces and then add to the flour mix and mix it till it is in small pieces. In a blender  puree about ½ C canned peaches then add the milk, pour ½ of into the flour mix and mix together. Then add the rest and the cranberries, chopped peaches and chocolate chips and mix gently and only until it is all mixed, do not over mix it will make them tough.

Lightly flour a clean surface, split the mix in two and put the dough balls onto the floured surface. Flatten and mold them into two round discs, cut them into 8 slices.

Arrange on the baking sheet, you can get them close together, but make sure they are not touching. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until they are slightly golden. Take out of the oven, let cool on the baking sheet (this helps to keep them cooking) for 10 minutes then you can glaze them.

Glaze:

¾ cup Powdered Sugar

1-2 tbsp Lemon Juice- see below

Sift the powdered sugar into a small bowl, add 1 tbsp lemon juice, add a little if it does not run well,  mix with a fork, drizzle the glaze on the scones.  Wait a few minutes and drizzle some more, and repeat. If you put it all on at once you will end up with a puddle of glaze below.

I'm pretty excited to snack on these this week for breakfast. 

Hope you have fun Cookin'

Cyndi

Bacon Ranch Chicken Rolls

As I pondered today what to fix for dinner, racking my brain, what did I have in the freezer, pretty sure that I had chicken, that is where I started my meal.

Bacon Ranch Chicken Rolls

3 cans refrigerator biscuits
2 lbs chicken cooked and chopped into bite size pieces
1 C Parmesan cheese
1 C mozzarella
1 (8oz) pkg of Cream Cheese cubed
2 cloves of garlic minced (for ease I use the bottled pre-minced)
8 small green onions chopped
2 stalks of celery diced
2 Tbsp fresh (curly) parsley
1 envelope Ranch Dressing
1 lb Bacon cooked till crispy and crumbled

Combine all ingredients except the biscuits. Roll out biscuits till flat, place a scoop of filling in the center of the biscuit and seal. Place in 2 well greased 12" ovens, bake at 350 degree for 20-25 minutes

To take this outdoors - Pre-cook your chicken and bacon - or for that fact you could prepare your filling and just keep it in the cooler - when your ready to eat - flatten the biscuits, stuff and bake. These are a lot like hot pockets so.... experiment with the meats - try Ham instead of chicken.....

Left overs - if you have any are great the next day for lunch.

Have fun cookin'
Cyndi

Chocolate Banana Bread

So this morning I was sitting on the couch paying bills when my Dad came upstairs with 2 bananas that he bought yesterday that were too overripe for his liking - and I'm not one to eat bananas plain so I headed for the web to find something different to make with these - and came across this recipe Chocolate Banana Bread - and to top it off I had all the ingredients.

Chocolate Banana Bread

1/2 cup toasted walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch processed or regular)

1 cup granulated white sugar

1 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup white, dark, or milk chocolate chips

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

3 ripe bananas, mashed well (about 1-1/2 cups)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place oven rack to middle position. Butter and flour (or spray with a non stick vegetable/flour spray) the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. 

Place the nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 - 10 minutes or until lightly toasted. Let cool and then chop coarsely.  

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients until just combined and batter is thick and chunky. Fold in the nuts and chocolate chips.  Scrape batter into prepared pan and sprinkle the top of the bread with coarse brown sugar (optional). Bake until bread has risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 to 65 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature. Can be covered and stored for a few days, or frozen for longer storage.

Makes 1 - 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf.

Can I just tell you - when I pulled it out of the pan a little piece on the bottom stuck - and well I just had to taste it.... :o) yummy!!!! 

Have fun cookin'

Cyndi

Pumpkin Muffins

The other day I was craving Pumpkin bread , I searched the web and came up with this recipe Cream Cheese Pumpkin Bread which turned out fabulous, being one of the few in my house that will eat Pumpkin bread, I took some to work with me and shared with my Co-workers. One of them mentioned they still had 2 pumpkins from Halloween that they had not carved and asked me if I wanted them. Of course I couldn't turn them down. 

Saturday I cut them up and baked them (350°) with some water in the bottom of a pan and covered them with foil til they were fork tender (like a potato)(about 30-45 minutes), let them cool. I then scooped the meat out and pureed it in my blender by the time I was done with both pumpkins I had 8 bags with 2 cups each (pretty standard for pumpkin recipes). I also saved the pumpkin seeds from both pumpkins, Another one of my favorites is Roasted Pumpkin Seeds. wash the seeds and put them in a pan with some salted water and let boil for 5 minutes drain and place on a baking sheet and bake @ 350° for 2-3 hours til golden brown (roasted in color). As I finished up with the pumpkin, I saved the last bit and made these little bites of yumminess. 

Pumpkin Muffins

1 cup pumpkin
1/2  cup granulated sugar

1/2  cup brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil 
2 large eggs
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
½ tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
About 1 tbsp raw sugar for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 350° and grease the cups of a mini muffin tin very well.  

In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, all spices, baking soda and salt.  Then whisk in the flour until the batter is just smooth.  

Divide the batter among the greased muffin cups, filling each one just a bit more than 3/4 full. (I put mine in a gallon Ziploc bag and snip a corner off and pipe the batter into the cups.)  Sprinkle the top of each mini muffin with a bit of Raw sugar and bake in a preheated oven for about 10-14 minutes, or until they are golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.


If you want you could add mini chocolate chips to this.  

Cool the on a rack until cool enough to handle, remove them to cool fully.

Yes you can use "real" pumpkin to make the same recipes you can with a "can" of pumpkin. This time of the year pumpkin recipes are my favorite. As I stated earlier I am in the minority in my home when I make them, so my neighbors and co-workers benefit when I bake. I hope that you will give these a try and will enjoy them as much as I do. 

Have fun Cookin'

Cyndi

Yummy Chicken

 How many of us have bags of chips in the pantry that no one wants to eat for fear that they have gone stale?

With the way the economy is recently it's been hard for me to spend money on "convenience" foods. It is also hard for me to see food go to waste. The other day I was looking through my pantry and noticed I had 4-5 half eaten bags of chips, different flavors, potato chips, corn chips, flavored chips... again I hate to see these go to waste and I didn't feel like tossing them out to feed the ducks so  I got a wild idea Chicken strips and Potato Logs.

Chicken
I zapped the chips in a food processor, to make powder, pour in a bowl in a separate bowl mix a couple (2) eggs and 1/2 C milk.  Slice 4 Chicken Breasts into strips, dip them in the egg mixture then into the chip crumbs. Put a small amount (1tbsp) of oil in the bottom of a frying pan, and cook till golden brown. I did mine in batches because they don't all fit in the pan at the same time - I heated the oven to 350 and kept them in the oven to keep them warm. Note that the chips have some oil in them so sticking was not a problem. I'm also sure if you didn't want to fry them you could bake them @ 350 till golden brown. 

Potato Logs

Chop up the potatoes(small ones) into small logs, rinse, drain, put chopped potatoes into the crushed chips and toss. Bake @ 350 till potatoes are done. I sprinkled them with a little mozzarella and melted it. Then served it with some sour cream. 

I have a family of 6 and this fed us with plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day - much cheaper than going to McDonald's for chicken nuggets and fries - they warm up nicely. Also a great replacement for Shake n bake. 

Easy and re-purposed. 

Have fun Cookin' 

Cyndi

Melissa's Favorites

In celebration of my daughters graduation this Friday I thought I'd share with you some of her favorite dishes.



Melissa's Senior Pics.



This is a recipe that we have to make for Super Bowl Sunday - It's just not the same without it. I've also made this for different parties she has had.

Cereal Mix

3 C Rice Chex                                             6 C Golden Grahams

3 C Corn Chex                                            1 C Slivered Almond

1 C Chopped Cashews                              3/4 C Sugar

3/4 C Butter                                                 1 C Corn Syrup (light)

Boil butter, sugar, and corn syrup for 3 minutes. Pour over mixture.

More to come tomorrow.

Have fun cookin'

Cyndi

Thanksgiving w/ the Boyers

For years I have battled with trying to cook pies, rolls, ham, etc in one oven and failing miserably. Because, I have yet to own an Ultimate Dutch Oven and my deep 14 D/O out of commission. I remembered, years back when we cooked a turkey on a neighbors Weber grill, and how good it turned out. I searched out how we did it.

http://www.smoker-cooking.com/grilling-turkey-weber-kettle.html

This website is how I remember we did it – So Rod and I went to Home Depot and purchased a Weber One-touch Gold Grill, and the charcoal baskets.

I have friends who are in to BBQ competitions and smoking meats, I have heard them talk a lot about brining poultry before they cook it, so I soaked my turkey 20# in 6 quarts of 2-1/2 C salt water along with some onion (about 1 medium onion) and 1 head of garlic cloves, over night.

BBQ Turkey

At 9:30 in the morning, in 20° temperatures, I rubbed the turkey with olive oil and I sprinkled it with Mrs. Dash (Onion& Herb flavor) then I put the bird the grill, with 12 coals in each side, in the baskets. Each hour I checked the coals adding equally 6-10 coals as needed.  During the last hour I checked the temperature, when the thickest part of the breast read 165°, the turkey was done.

While carving it, it had the beautiful pink smoke ring, and outrageous flavor. This, is now our preferred way of cooking a turkey. It also freed up my oven so I could make my pies, rolls, and ham.

I was also grateful to spend the day with Rod’s parents, Traci and her family and Lee and his, as well as my dad. I am very thankful to have such a great family and friends.

As a side note, I have heard many times this holiday what is my favorite side dish on Thanksgiving. Mine has to be Onion Bombs, Green onions cleaned and trimmed to 4-5 inches, with a ball of cream cheese wrapped around the white end then rolled in shredded Colby Jack (or cheddar)cheese. To eat bite the cheesy end of the onion. It’s kinda like your own personal cheese ball.   

I would love to hear what your favorite side is.

Evening of Excellence

This past Tuesday was our Evening of Excellence for our Young Women’s group – our theme was an awards show. We had an MC who announced the program and as the leaders we were the presenters. Each girl got an award (a gold spray painted Kool-Aid Kool Burst) and Swag bag (with Shower Gel, Hand soap, and nail polish) as we read a short Bio about each of them. At the end we had desserts – finger food sized desserts – And my love of cooking earned me the honor of preparing them, and I am sharing them with you. These were fun and super simple and looked totally fitting for the occasion. These would be great for a Christmas Eve Party, or a New Years Eve party. I apologize I did not take pictures. If I find someone who did I will post them later.

Our menu:

Cinnamon Almonds, Apple pie bites, Peanut butter bars, Savory Parmesan bites, Cream Cheese tarts.

Savory Parmesan Bites

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 small red bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
2 (8-ounce) cans refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

Stir together softened cream cheese, 3/4 cup cheese, bell pepper, and parsley. Unroll crescent rolls, and separate each can into 4 rectangles, pressing perforations to seal. Spread 3 tablespoons cream cheese mixture on each rectangle. Roll up, starting at 1 short side, jelly-roll fashion. Cut each roll into 4 equal pieces, using a serrated knife. Place on ungreased baking sheets. Sprinkle bites with remaining ¼ cup cheese.

Bake at 350° for 13 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 32 pieces

Apple Pie Bites

1 Pkg. Refrigerated Biscuits (I like the flakey kind)

1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled and finely chopped

2 Tbsp sugar                                                     1 tsp cinnamon

½  tsp nutmeg                                                  4 ½ Tbsp butter melted

Preheat oven to 375°

Line your muffin tin with paper or foil liners and spray them with non stick spray. Flatten out each biscuit with a rolling pin into a 3” circle brush with melted butter avoiding the edges.  Mix apples with spices and place a small spoonful on to each biscuit. Bring the sides of the biscuit up to enclose the filling, pinch and twist to seal the top (or just gather and as they bake they open to look flower like). Place in liners brush the tops with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and bake for 13 minutes or until golden brown.

Cream Cheese Bites

1 Pkg. Fillo Dough shells (found in the freezer section)

½  pkg. Cream Cheese

2 Tbsp Butter

2-3 C Powdered Sugar

Mix, Cream Cheese, Butter and Sugar until frosting like consistency. Thaw shells, put filling into a gallon bag, and make a small cut in the corner of the bag, pipe filling into the shells. Refrigerate. Top with a berry or your choice.

Peanut Butter Cups

1 ½ C Peanut butter

1 C Butter / margarine

1 pkg Graham Crackers

1 lb. Powdered sugar

1 (1 lb Size) Hershey’s Bar

Cream butter and peanut butter; blend graham crackers to fine crumbs. Mix with powdered sugar. Mix crumb mixture with peanut butter mixture. Press into a 9 x 13 pan. Melt Chocolate in microwave 1 minute at a time stirring after each minute till melted, pour over peanut butter and let sit to cool. Cut into cubes to serve.

Cinnamon Almonds

2 C Raw Almonds

1 C Sugar

1 Tbsp Vanilla extract

1 Tbsp Cinnamon extract (not oil)

2 Tbsp Ground Cinnamon

¼ C Water

In a Cast Iron skillet, place Almonds, sugar, cinnamon, extracts and water. Stir over a medium heat until moisture has evaporated and nuts look dry. Remove from heat and let cool.

These can be made with other nuts.

Enjoy.