South African Peanut Stew

                                                                               

Yes, I know this is so NOT a Pa. Dutch dish but if our dutchified neighbors would taste this they would say, "Yup this eats real good!" Oh boy does it ever ! Thick & hearty this just might be your GO TO comfort food on a cold frosty evening. I make this as a stove top dish but you may easily adapt this for the crock-pot! Just stir everything together & let it cook all day just making hot rice to serve it over & you have a very delicious dish indeed!
INGREDIENTS:
1 T. Olive Oil
1 Large Onion chopped
1 Large Green Pepper chopped
2 Carrots peeled & chopped
2 Celery Ribs chopped
3 Garlic Cloves minced
2 tsp. Ginger dry powder or fresh chopped
2 tsp. Curry Powder
1 Large Can Chopped Tomatoes include the juice
1 Bay Leaf
1 Large Yam peeled & chopped
1 LB. Chicken Boneless Skinless cut into bite sized pieces
1 32 OZ. Can Chicken Broth
1 Bag Frozen Edemame ( soy beans shelled)
3/4 Cup Peanut Butter ( I use my own home made but your favorite brand is ok).
1 small box Frozen Spinach

Saute onion, peppers, celery, carrots & garlic in olive oil. Do not let garlic brown. Cook until veggies are soft. Add spices & cook for 1 minute. Add tomatoes & chicken Cook & stir about 3 minutes until stew is bubbling. Add broth & yam & cook on medium low until yam is soft , I like to let this stage cook about an hour so flavors blend. Now stir in peanut butter & edemame stirring & cookingon medium heat  until stew thickens & bubbles. Add spinach & cook 10 more minutes. Remove bay leaf. Spoon stew over hot cooked rice & DIG IN ! This is just SO AMAZING you will want to eat the pot empty ( just so it SOUNDS Dutchy)!

Caramel Apple Crisp, Cookie Bars

CRUST
1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Oatmeal
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tsp. Cinnamon   
1/2 Cup Softened Butter
1/2 Tsp. Salt
Mix all dry ingredients together & cut in butter to make fine crumbs. Press firmly into approx. 9x9 inch pan. Bake 350 degrees or 10 minutes remove from oven and add your next 2 layers.

FIRST LAYER
3 Large apples tart cooking apples work best, peeled & diced into small thin dice.
3/4  Cup Smucker Caramel Ice Cream Topping.
1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon
Stir these together & spread evenly over your baked crust. Now top with your next layer.

SECOND LAYER
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Oatmeal
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1/4 Tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
5 TBS. Softened Butter
1/4 Cup Smuckers Caramel Ice Cream Topping

                                                                             

Mix the dry ingredients together & cut in butter until you have fine crumbs. Sound familiar? Spread evenly over apple layer. Drizzle top with the caramel sauce. Bake 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve warm for dessert or let cool & chill then cut into bars for cookies. SO YUMMY!





Mix all dr                                          

Marzetti a hearty comfort food Casserole

1, lb. Ground Beef ( I use turkey burger)  
1, Large onion peeled & chopped
2, Ribs celery chopped
2, Cloves garlic minced
1, Green pepper chopped
1, 6 oz. Can tomato paste
1, 10.75 oz. can tomato soup
1, 10.75 oz. can cream of mushroom soup
1, 4 oz. can sliced mushrooms ( drain)
1, 1 lb. egg noodles cooked ( I used crazy mixed up trio tri-color pasta for this dish)
2, cups shredded cheese blend ( I use Darrenkamps cheese blend)
 Brown ground beef, if using turkey burger brown in 1 tbs. olive oil, drain beef & return to pan. Add celery, onion, green pepper & garlic & cook until all are soft. Add tomato paste & soups cook & stir until blended well& bubbling. Stir in cooked noodles & cheese cook & stir until cheese is melted & blended throughout the dish. This is an old comfort food from the 60's & SO GOOD!



2
                                                                        

Ooey Gooey Shoofly Pie !

                                                                            

                                                                              


Crust
2 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar
2/3 cup  cold butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
4 to 5 tbs. cold water
Mix all dry together, cut in butter until you have fine crumbs. Add cold water & stir only until dough holds together. Turn out on flour surface & roll out to fit a nine inch pie pan. Fold dough gently in half & lift into pie pan. Unfold & fit dough into pan. Crimp edges of crust. Line crust with a sheet of foil. Fill with about 2 cups of raw rice. Bake in 350 degree oven for 10 minutes to blind bake the crust. This allows crust to stay crisp & not get soggy for your finished pie. I do this with all my crusts & it makes a HUGE difference! Once crust is baked for 10 minutes remove from oven & carefully remove foil  & rice. This should easily come out with foil cradling the rice. Now prepare filling & topping. SIDE NOTE : Rice used for blind baking may be saved & used for many blind bakings. Crust trimmings may be used to make Roly Polys found on this Blog & ALWAYS made with crust trimmings if you are a GOOD Pa Dutch Baker !

OOEY GOOEY filling & topping
1 cup flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbs. shortening
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup molasses ( I use Brer Rabbit Mild) but use your favorite.
1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup hot water
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix flour, salt, brown sugar & cinnamon together. Cut in shortening to make crumbs. Take out 3/4 cup of crumbs for topping. Now add molasses & vanilla, mix hot water & baking soda together & add all of these wet ingredients to the dry. Best the egg add it to the wet. Now stir well until everything is nicely blended. Pour into your pie crust that you already blind baked & removed foil with rice. Sprinkle the crumb mixture evenly on top of batter. Now sprinkle the top with more cinnamon. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. Let pie cool & serve warm or cold with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream if you desire! I like it cold just so. THIS PIE HAS A DEEP GOOEY BOTTOM with about 1 inch of crumbs on top. This is for a friends birthday & I will try to get a photo of a slice so you can see but it truly is a " WET BOTTOM" pie just the way we like it in Pa!                                              

                                                                              

Oatmeal Creme Pie Ice Cream

                                                                              
                                                                              

1, 48 oz.  Turkey Hill Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
8, Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie, cookies ( Chopped into small pieces).
3, TBS. Smuckers Caramel Ice Cream Topping

Soften the ice cream in a large bowl until you can stir. Add chopped pieces of the Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie. Swirl with a heavy spoon or spatula so pieces are distributed throughout the ice cream.  Next squeeze in 3 good squeezes of the caramel topping about 3 TBS or so. Swirl that through using a marbling technique. Spoon mixture back into the ice cream container & refreeze.

                                             

Rustic Caramel Apple Tart

Crust
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp. sugar
2/3 cup butter (cold)
4 to 5 tbs. cold water
1/2 tsp vanilla
Combine all dry ingredients blending well. Cut in butter until you have fine crumbs. Next stir in cold water & vanilla just until you have a dough that holds together. Turn out onto a floured surface & roll out until you have about a 15 inch circle. Lay parchment paper onto a large flat baking sheet. Fold dough in half & then carefully transfer onto your parchment sheet. Unfold dough but crimp the edges to make a nice high edge for the tart so it will hold your filling. Next prepare your filling.

Filling
5 large apples ( tart baking apples like Granny Smith work best) peeled sliced & coated with lemon juice so they do not brown.
4 heaping tbs. sugar
2 tbs. flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Stir together dry ingredients & then dump into apple slices. Toss apple slices with dry mix until well coated. Arrange this mixture into your crust. Top with following caramel sauce.

Sauce
36 unwrapped caramels
2 tbs. water

2 tbs butter
3 tbs heavy cream
Melt caramels in the water in a deep heavy saucepan. Once melted stir in butter & heavy cream & cook over medium high heat stirring until you get a nice caramel sauce about 6 minutes or so. Pour this over your apples that are already in the crust. Bake the tart at 400 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Check at 20 minutes & if edges of tart are dark brown cover them with foil to prevent them from burning. If not dark brown you do not need to do this step. Position tart in center wrack to help prevent the crust from over browning. Once baked remove from oven & let tart cool. Slide tart onto a dish that you wish to serve from. Slide parchment paper out from under tart after you have tart on the serving platter. Top each serving with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream if you so desire.



                                                                             

Kitchen Tip for Today

TRY USING FRESH BABY SPINACH as an alternative for lettuce! This crisp healthy green not only adds more delicious flavor but more vitamins in every bite! Plus this versatile veggie stores longer and stays crisper than regular head lettuce. Give it a try I think you will LOVE the switch!
                                                                              

Homemade Deep Pan Pizza

                                     

                                                                           
Crust
4 cups bread flour ( regular flour is ok but bread flour is best)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
2 tbs. olive oil
1 packet yeast
2 cups warm water
Stir flour, salt & sugar together. Stir warm water & yeast until yeast is dissolved . Add oil & stir. Dump all of the water mixture into your dry & stir until combined. Cover bowl with a clean towel & let rise in a warm place until doubled in sized about 1 hour.  Sprinkle corn meal about 1 tbs over the bottom of the pan you choose. Dump dough  into a 9x13 stone edged baking sheet or a regular cookie sheet with a inch deep edge. You could divide dough into 2 regular pizza pans for 2 thinner crusts pizzas. Sprinkle flour over the top of your dough & press or roll out to edges of your pan.

Sauce
For this pizza I used 1&1/2 cups of A.J. Cunninghams ( I like it smooth) sauce. You may use that because it is SO VERY GOOD or use your favorite sauce fresh or a canned pizza sauce.I have made this with our favorite Prego sauce & that works nicely.
Toppings
I used 1  fresh sliced green pepper , 1 can mushrooms sliced, 1/2 thin sliced Vidalia onion. Use your favorite toppings to please your self.
Cheese, I used 2 cups Italian Style shredded cheese. Sprinkle over the top of your sauce & toppings. Sprinkle the top of cheese with Italian seasonings & parsley flakes. Bake 425 degrees for 20 minutes. check bottom of crust for browning. If bottom is not brown continue to bake until it is evenly brown. My oven takes about 28 minutes but it is a slow oven. Check often so you do not burn . This pizza eats like a meal !




                                                                              

A.J. Cunningham's "because I like it smooth" Spaghetti Sauce!

                                                                              

2 TBS. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Cloves of garlic minced
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
2 Heaping TBS. Dried Chopped Onions
Dash or 2 of Crushed Red Pepper
1 tsp. Onion Powder
Salt, Pepper & Sugar to taste ( I used about 3 TBS. sugar & left out salt & pepper) do what suits you.
1 TBS Parsley Flakes
1 12 oz. Can Tomato Paste
1 29 oz. Can Tomato Sauce
1 15 oz. Can Italian Herb Tomato Sauce, ( I used Contadina for all my cans )

In my large dutch oven I put in the olive oil in with garlic & cooked over low until garlic  was soft. I then dumped in all my cans & then all the seasoning except the sugar. Cook over medium stirring often. After about 1 hour I tasted & then started adding sugar a little at time stirring & tasting until I had it where I wanted it to be. DELICIOSO !!!! I let this simmer on very low for another 2 hours. I think you could easily mix this up the night before, place in a crockpot in the morning on low & let it turn into magic while you go about your day. At first it took all I had to NOT add chopped onions, chunky tomatoes, mushrooms & peppers but I really wanted to try A. J.'s special sauce that people at work were RAVING about. So I refrained & SO GLAD I DID! This sauce is just AMAZING! It is so thick unbelievably thick & loaded with flavor! It also makes a big pot so you can have it again & with time I think the flavor can only be over the top! I still LOVE my chunky thick sauce but this sauce is so different from what I normally make & it is a wonderful change! A.J.'s sauce just SCREAMS for you to dip in a chunk of crusty bread & taste it & you bet I answered it's call!  I served this over spaghetti ( multi grain) & with the meatballs from my Bangin' Balls recipe February 2011 on this blog. I am sure you will find many other uses for A.J.'s masterpiece sauce ! THANK YOU FOR SHARING A.J.!

Tart Cherry Crumb Tart!

                                                                               
For crust
1 egg yolk
1 tbs. sour cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 & 1/4 cup flour
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick butter
milk
Beat egg yolk, sour cream & vanilla together. Sift all dry together then cut in butter that you add a teaspoon at a time. Cut in until you have fine crumbs. Add your egg mixture. Add only enough milk until batter comes together. Dust surface with flour & roll out crust. Line your 9"  tart pan  & flute edges. Blind bake, just line crust with a large tinfoil sheet, fill gently with about 3 cups of raw rice or dried beans, bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees turning pan in oven after 15 minutes of baking time. Remove from oven & remove your foil & weights return crust to oven for another 5 minutes of baking. Remove from oven & let cool. While crust cools make filling & leave oven on for crumb topping baking.

Tart Cherry Filling
3 Cups washed & pitted FRESH PICKED SOUR PIE CHERRIES ( do as recipe directs using 3/4 cup water instead of juice!
OR
3 cups canned sour cherries, water packed,  ( drain but reserve 3/4 cup of the juice)
IF you are using commercial cherries add 1 TBS lemon juice to add tartness. If using your own sour cherries do not add lemon juice!
1 & 1/2 cup sugar
4 tbs. cornstarch
1 tbs. butter
1 tsp. almond extract
red food coloring ( as much as desired until you achieve the color you like).

Stir 3/4 cup sugar & cornstarch  together, Pour cherry juice in deep pot. Turn on  heat to medium high. Stir in sugar, cornstarch mixture & cook until thick & bubbly. Add rest of the ingredients & continue to cook until cornstarch has cleared & you have a nice thick bubbly filling. Remove from heat & pour into tart crust. To with the following crumbs.
Crumb topping,
1 heaping cup flour
1 & 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 heaping tbs shortening
1 tsp cinnamon
Sift all dry together. Cut in shortening until you have crumbs. Spread into a glass baking dish & bake 30 minutes stirring crumbs every 10 minutes to get a nice browning. If crumbs are browned nicely NOT TO DARK remove from oven even if they have not been baking the full 30 minutes. If they are to light in color leave in longer but check often as these brown quickly when they start to turn. once brown remove from oven & spread evenly on tart. Chill & serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream !

                       The one piece I managed to get a picture of before they ate it !                                                            

How to home dry Jalapenos Peppers

Oven Drying Instructions

1. Wash your jalapeno peppers thoroughly after picking to remove any dirt.
2. Cut them in half, lengthwise to expose the pepper innards.
3. Arrange the jalapenos over a baking sheet.
4. Bake at low heat, about 100 to 135 degrees.

There is no set time to bake the jalapeno peppers for drying. Keep an eye on them, turning every few minutes or so. You can leave the oven door cracked for some air flow. Keep in the oven until the moisture has been baked out of them. Use as desired!
Drying Jalapenos Peppers Without an Oven - Air Drying

1. In this case, dry your peppers whole. Do not slice.
2. String them together on some strong thread with a few inches between each jalapeno peppers.
3. Hang the peppers in direct sunlight. Be sure it is dry and warm.

It can take several weeks for the jalapenos to completely dry with this method, but it'll be worth it!

Bacon, Eggs, Cheese Florentine Bagel Sandwiches

  1 Bagel per person split & toast
2 eggs per person
1 tbs. butter
2 to 3 pieces of bacon cooked per person
1 slice of your favorite cheese per person
6 pieces of baby spinach for each sandwich
mayo for spreading on bagels
salt & pepper to taste
Toast & split each bagel.   Cook bacon , I lay my bacon of sheets of paper towel & cover with another sheet of paper towel. Lay on plate & microwave about 1 minute 45 seconds per each slice of bacon. Microwaves vary so watch bacon carefully so not to burn. You want nice crispy brown bacon! In frying pan melt butter on medium heat, crack eggs into pan 2 eggs per sandwich. Fry until soft set , cover each serving with the baby spinach. Flip eggs & spinach over, season & cover each person serving with one slice of your cheese. Cook until cheese is melted & eggs are cooked to your taste. We like the yolks still a little runny ! Spread bagel with mayo on bottom slice place eggs with cheese & spinach on top of mayo then top with your crispy bacon. YUMMY BRUNCH for Holidays & my kids insist on these Christmas morning because you can eat & open gifts at the same time. They have become one of our holiday traditions. I do not always use spinach but it adds a nice healthy feel to a not so healthy breakfast sandwich!                                                                   

If you love Rivels, Rivels

1& 1/3 cups flour
1 egg
1 cup whole milk
dash of salt
Beat egg & slowly add some of the flour then the milk until all is combined. Hold a colander over your simmering soup & pour batter thru the colander & let it plop into your soup. Cover pot with a lid & let simmer. You will get little dumplings ( rivels ) that you can then stir thru your soup. I HATE little dough balls in my soup put it is a PA. Dutch delight!

Real Lancaster County Chicken Corn Soup

                                                                               

1 whole Perdue Oven Stuffer Roaster at least 5 Lbs.
1 LARGE cooking pot
Put chicken in pot & cover with water at least 2 inches over chicken. Add 1 tsp. salt. Bring to a boil, lower heat & cook about 1 & 1/2 hours or until chicken is done. Remove chicken from pot & let cool. While cooling put into your chicken broth from the above step add the following.

2 large onions chopped
4 Ribs of celery chopped
3 tbs. chopped FRESH parsley
4 dozen ears of corn cut from cobs.
Simmer in the broth, meanwhile remove chicken from the bone . Use only the meat & dice meat into small bite size pieces. add to your soup. Season with salt & pepper as desired. Once corn is tender & celery soft you have SOUP ! Some will want to add chopped hard boiled egg or Pa. Dutch Rivels, that recipe is right on this archive September 2011, or noodles but we love the basic recipe as given. If you need more broth during cooking process just add more water as the Perdue chicken gives a very rich broth. Once soup is done I skim off as much grease off the top as I  can. My Grandma use to add tablespoons of butter to her soup to add to the richness but I leave mine PLAIN !

Rub for Luck Chicken

                                                                                                                                                        

2 Split Chicken 1/2's

1 Tsp. Adobo  Seasoning
1 Tsp. Paprika
1 Tsp.Garlic Powder
1 Tsp. Onion Powder
1 Tsp. Ground Sage
1/2 Tsp Sugar
1/2 Tsp Red Pepper
1 TBS. Parsley Flakes
Mix all of the Seasoning together & rub well over the skin side up chicken 1/2's. Let marinate at least 4 hours but 8 would be great! Heat BBQ grill to medium heat & then turn off one side of the grill. Place chicken on side of grill that is turned off. Grill for 45 minutes on medium low heat. Then brush with a large coating of your favorite BBQ Sauce. I use good old Krafts Original but use your favorite. Continue grilling for 15 minutes. Moist juicy chicken that is spicy & sweet. PERFECT  & OH SO GOOD ON THE CHICKEN as well as your FINGERS!