Addendum to the Green Bean Casserole

I forgot to add 1/2 cup of sour cream with the mushroom soup.  
Sorry! 

My Garden and the Spinach

This is the picture I was not able to post before about my little garden by my house.  The spinach is still growing beautifully but the basil was nipped to the ground by the freeze we had several days ago. :(

Since we have had such warm weather for this time of the year, the ground is still warm enough to germinate the spinach.  I don't know if this would happen if the temperatures were what they should be. Anyway, I'm thankful to have the spinach!

Scrambled Eggs with Spinach and Mushrooms

This has become one of my favorite dishes for a quick meal.  I take care of my grandson a couple of days a week and it is past dinner time when I get home.  This is something I love to fix, it always hits the spot and it's quick and light for a late dinner.  This summer when I was in Portland, Oregon I had this for breakfast at a restaurant called Mother's.  I fell in love with the restaurant and this dish was exceptional.

3 eggs

4 mushrooms, sliced

2 cups of fresh spinach

Gruyere cheese

Put a couple of tablespoons of butter in a large skillet with about 3 tablespoons of olive oil.  Sautee mushrooms until they are tender and add spinach and sautee it until it is almost wilted.  Take 3 eggs that have been wisked add salt and pepper to taste and add to the spinach and mushrooms and stir this into the mixture until the eggs are cooked.  Put this on your plate and grate Gruyere cheese over the top.  I love a piece of sour dough toast with this and a cup of hot tea. 

Apple Dumplings

I keep working on this recipe to improve it.  I have wanted to make a sauce for the dumplings to cook in that thickens that can be spooned out with the dumpling and I finally came up with something that works great and taste wonderful.  In a couple of posts back, I mentioned that we celebrated our son's birthday.  Apple dumplings is what I made for dessert.  He is not a dessert person so he didn't care what we had.  The dumplings were a big hit.  Our youngest son said, "it was the best dessert I've ever made and he wanted me to make these for Thanksgiving."  It was also the consensus of the rest of the family that I finally came up with a winner.  And, I didn't make these for Thanksgiving.....too much work for that day!   :)

I've posted apple dumplings before so consider this as a revision.  Have your pie crust ready.  I peeled and cut up five apples in cubes and put the juice from half a lemon over the apples, about 1/2 cup of sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon.  I tossed the apples until they were covered in this mixture. Roll out your pie crust and cut squares that are about 7 inches by 7 inches.  I would rather have the square too big than not big enough. I just spoon the apples onto the square.  I brush a little water around the edges of the pie crust to hold it together.  I bring up the sides of the pie crust and pinch them together.  I then put the dumplings in a greased 9 x 13 casserole dish.  In a small pan over medium heat I melt 1/2 stick of butter, 1 cup sugar, one 12 ounce bottle of apple juice, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. I stir this until the sugar has melted and then I ladle this over the apple dumplings.  I bake the dumplings at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes.  Watch the dumplings, if they start to get too golden brown, cover the pan with foil to finish the cooking time.

When the dumplings are done, remove them from the oven and put one in a bowl and drizzle this caramel sauce over the top.
2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of white Karo syrup
2 tablespoons of flour
1/2 can Milnot
2 tablespoons of butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Mix sugar, syrup, flour and Milnot .  Bring to a boil and cook about 3 minutes stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla and stir until butter is melted.  Then let cool.  When it is cooled beat until it is thick and creamy.
Now, to this you can add vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream. 
This is so rich and so good.  It will become your favorite dessert for a while!

You could also substitute the caramel sauce for a rum sauce.  I also wanted to mention that you can peel and core the apple leaving it whole.  Set the apple in the middle of your pie crust square stuff  a little butter down the core opening and also put the sugar and cinnamon mixture down the opening.  Bring your pie crust up over the apple and seal the edges.  Some people like this better than the cubed apples.  I have tried both and I prefer the cubed apples.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Muffins

I had been wanting a good moist pumpkin muffin.  I found this recipe and it is wonderful.  You swirl in cream cheese and cream cheese makes everything better.  ;)

1 3/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-15 ounce can pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 tablespoon vanilla

Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 375
In a medium bowl which flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt until well combined.  Set aside. 
In a large bowl whisk pumpkin, sugar and brown sugar.  Beat in eggs, oil and vanilla.  Slowly whisk in flour mixture until there are no lumps.  Put muffin cups in a muffin tin and fill 3/4 full.
In a medium bowl beat cream cheese until smooth and add egg yolk, sugar and vanilla and mix well.  Top each muffin with 1 tablespoon of cream cheese mixture.  Then use a toothpick to swirl into the batter.  Bake for 18-20 minutes and store in an air tight container in the refrigerator.

A Fresher Version of a Green Bean Casserole

For years we had broccoli and rice casserole at Thanksgiving, then I started making Brussel sprouts and not all of the family likes Brussel sprouts so I was thinking about making a green bean casserole.  As I thought about it, I knew I didn't want to make the traditional green bean casserole.  I had in my mind how I wanted to do it and this is what I did and it turned out a winner.  I had great reviews at Thanksgiving.  If you want to try something new for Christmas dinner you will have to give this a try.  It's a little more work but worth every bite.  :)

I used the French green bean (it is very thin) called Haricot verts.  I get them at Sam's and I think they come in 2 pound packages but I'm not sure.  You could use regular fresh green beans but I think these are the best.  I used 1 1/2 pounds but you could use the whole 2 pounds. I put about 2 tablespoons of butter and about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large cast iron skillet. I let the butter melt then I added 3 cloves of minced garlic and added the green beans (the beans had the ends removed, washed and patted dry and I cut the bean in half) and salted the green beans to taste.  I sautéed the green beans for about 3 minutes until they turn the bright green then I added a small package of chestnut mushrooms sliced very thin and let them cook with the green beans.  To this I added  1 1/2 cans of mushroom soup and 1/2 cup sour cream.  Mix this together well and cover with a lid over medium low heat for maybe 5-6 minutes.  Watch it because the soup will thicken and it can burn.  Then put in a casserole dish.  I covered mine with saran wrap after it cooled and kept it in the refrigerator over night.  The next morning I used my mandolin on medium thin and sliced two onions.  I used a paper towel to pat them dry.  I then heated vegetable oil until it reached 325 degrees and fried the onions until they were golden brown.  Drained them on a paper towel.  When they were cool I scattered them over the top of the casserole.  You don't have to keep the casserole in the refrigerator over night, I did it to save time Thanksgiving morning.

I covered the casserole with foil and baked at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until bubbly.

A Wish for a Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you and your family a happy Thanksgiving.  May it be filled with family, friends, thankfulness, happiness, lots of fun, and great food!

T-Shirt Quilt

We celebrated our son's birthday on Wednesday.  He was going to be out of town on his birthday so we all got together to celebrate him a little early.  I've had these t-shirts saved for a long time.  There are t-shirts from when he was a little boy (his first soccer team) to when he played basketball in college.  Little did I know what a task this would be.  I cut new neuro pathways on this one. LOL  It's not like you have a square and all the squares are cut the same size and then you put them together.  I'll make a long story very short, I started this the first of September thinking by the end of September I could have it done. By the end of September, I was ready to pull my hair out.  I have a wonderful friend who is a wonderful quilter.  I called her and she graciously has been helping me.  As you can see, I'm still not finished but I hope to have it quilted and totally complete by the end of January.

My son was totally surprised and he really loved it.  He couldn't believe that I had saved all those t-shirts.  And I was even able to put some pictures of  him playing basketball and soccer on some of the t-shirts, with the help of my daughter.  You have to use the computer to do that.  Anyway, a great birthday for a wonderful son who has always been a blessing to our family.

Spinach

I'm ready to fling my computer through the window!!!!!!

I have pictures of my spinach breaking through the ground after a week and the basil is growing.  So until I can figure this out.  There are NO PICTURES!

So, I wouldn't hesitate to plant a few vegetables.  Maybe some arugula or a variety of lettuces. I have some arugula seeds left from the spring and I think I'm going to plant them.  I'm going to check some green houses for more herbs.  I saw the 7 day weather forecast this morning and by the end of next week or before we are back in the 70's again.  I will say this is wonderful weather to be gardening in, in fact, it's ideal. 

Looks like another beautiful fall day.  Will we still be calling it "fall days" when winter arrives in December? 

Fall Garden

Earlier in the week, I planted a fall garden.  I've been trying since the end of August to get this done.  This is a small flower bed on the south east side of our home.  I planted two basil plants and four rows of spinach.  I normally wouldn't plant this late but after my daughter gave me the weather report for the winter or I should say we really won't be having any winter weather.  I decided to give it a try.  She heard where the average temperature for the winter would be in the mid 60's.  I don't like that forecast, I like it cold so we can enjoy the wood stove.  Who knows it may really turn off cold but if it doesn't we will be enjoying fresh spinach all winter.  Oh, and basil.  :)