excuse for not posting...

I haven't posted in awhile because I started a menu calendar and I have been using actual cookbooks not internet sites for cooking the last two months. I have found some real winners and I just need to spend some quality time with them outside of the kitchen and type up the ones that we really liked.

German Apple Cake

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 cup canola oil
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups apples-peeled cored and diced

How To:
Pre-heat oven to 350. Grease 9x 13 or I used a bunt cake pan, it didn't fill it all the way up but once it grew it was the perfect size. Beat oil and eggs until creamy with an electric mixer; add sugar and vanilla, beat well. Add in flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon, the original recipe said to do it in another bowl but it worked just fine this way and saved me from doing some dishes! The batter is super thick. Fold in the apples with a wooden spoon; pour into the pan. Bake for 45 minutes at 350. Put it on a cooling rack for a bit, they suggest powdered sugar or cream cheese frosting, personally it is just fine the way it is.

The cake is actually the best at room temperature because it gets a nice crunchy crust to it. I got this recipe from allrecipes.com submitted by Barbara and changed it just a bit for my liking.

Kickin' Corn Chowder

I got this recipe in an email newsletter yesterday from Ball (the canning people). I needed a quick dinner so I tried it, Phil even liked it though it was a soup.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
1 small onion
1 bell pepper (green or red)
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup Mild Salsa
1 can chicken broth
1 can whole corn
1 can creamed corn
1 can diced green chilies-I used a banana pepper because it is all I had and it was a hot pepper
1/2 cup milk
1/2 shredded 4 blend Mexican cheese
crushed tortilla chips

How to:
Melt butter in medium saucepan and saute onion, and bell pepper; cook until clear. Add flour and cook for 1 minute. Add salsa, broth, corn, creamed corn, chilies, and milk. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in cheese in the last 5 minutes. Serve topped with the tortilla chips.

Eggplant Parmesan

We found some eggplant plants at wal-mart on clearance this spring and decided to give them a try, now that they are producing this is what we are eating and the eggplant isn't slimy or overpowering. The tomato sauce looks orange in the picture because we ended up with some yellow tomatoes in the mix from our garden.

INGREDIENTS:

eggplant
iodized salt-I use regular iodized because there is a reason the government required table salt to have iodine added in, because nasty diseases happen without it!
4 cups tomatoes or 28 oz can
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
Olive oil
pepper
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
4 large eggs, beaten
mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
fresh basil leaves-I use whatever I can cut off my plants without killing them

How To:

1 Cut eggplants lengthwise into 1/4 inch slices. Don't use the end pieces with all of the skin-it gets chewy and gross in the end. Lay out the slices on paper towel, sprinkle with salt and let sit for up to 2 hours but as long as you can, it makes it less soupy in the end.

2 While the eggplant is draining, prepare tomato sauce. Combine
tomatoes, garlic and 1/3 cup olive oil in a food processor. Season with
salt and pepper to tasted and set aside.

3 When eggplant has drained, press down on it to remove excess
water, wipe off the excess salt, and lay the slices out on paper towels
to remove all the moisture. In a wide, shallow bowl, combine flour and
breadcrumbs. Mix well. Pour beaten eggs into another wide shallow
bowl. Place a large, deep skillet over medium heat, and pour in enough oil to fry the slices in. When oil is hot, dredge the eggplant slices first in the flour mixture, then in the beaten egg (yes do it in this order, trust me). Working in batches, slide coated eggplant into hot oil and fry until golden brown on both sides, turning once. Drain on paper towels.

4 Preheat the oven to 350°F. In the bottom of a 9x9 inch glass
baking dish, spread 1 cup of tomato sauce. Top with one third of the
eggplant slices. Top eggplant with half of the mozzarella or enough to cover it.
Sprinkle with Parmesan (enough to cover it) and half of the basil leaves.

5 Make a second layer of eggplant slices, topped by 1 cup of sauce,
remaining mozzarella, some more Parmesan, and all of the basil.
Top with the rest of the sauce and cheeses.

6 Bake until cheese has melted and the top is slightly brown, 30 minutes. Allow to rest at room temperature for about 10 minutes.

I got this recipe from simply recipes online. I switched a nice bit of stuff from the original for one it called for 2 eggplants I only used one to make 2 servings and only 2 layers. The original had a third layer and bigger dish.

whole wheat pie crust

We went to the farmers market on Saturday with Phil's family and I decided to buy a pie pumpkin because I love pumpkin pie and I've never actually made one from a real pumpkin and not a can. Sunday afternoon I decided to make my pie and I wanted a whole wheat pie crust for my pie so I found one.

Whole Wheat Pie Crust
1/2 Cup Shortening
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
dash of salt
3 Tablespoons cold water

Blend together flour, shortening, and salt with pastry blender until it is the size of peas. Mix in the water a Tablespoon at a time. Roll out to 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick.

It should make a 9 inch pie-crust for the bottom only. I don't know what the website was that I found this on, but you can find it after looking it up on bing.

Dutch Oven Recipes

All of the recipes that I used on the last post are from dutchovendude.com. It is an awesome site about everything dutch oven! I hope that you enjoy these and the rest of his recipes as well because that is where I plan on going from now on.

camping with a cook

It was vacation time for us this past week and so we decided to do the cheap thing and go camping. We drove down to Brown County Indiana and camped at the state park without electricity! We purchased a dutch oven set a few months ago while in the Smokies with some extra food storage money that came our way so we decided to only cook with that and boy did we eat!

Recipes:

Cowboy Stew Dutch Oven Recipe
Ingredients: 1 lb. ground beef
1 onion
2 potatoes
1 can peas
1 can green beans
1 can baked beans
1 can tomato soup
1 can corn
1 can diced tomatoes
Chili powder
Nutmeg
1 Bay leaf
Salt and pepper
Cut potatoes into 1 inch cubes.
Dice onion.
Preheat dutch oven to 325 degrees.
Brown ground beef and onion.
Add potatoes and all cans, undrained.
Cook until potatoes are soft.
Add chili powder, nutmeg, bay leaf, salt, and pepper as you
prefer and cook 30 minutes more.

Mountain Man Omelette Dutch Oven Recipe
Ingredients: 1 lb. country sausage
1 lb. bacon
1 large diced yellow onion
3 cloves minced garlic
1 chopped green bell pepper
1 chopped red bell pepper
2 cups chopped mushrooms
18 eggs
3/4 cup milk
3 cups grated Cheddar cheese
picante sauce
salt and pepper
Heat a 12inch Dutch Oven over coals until bottom is very hot.
Fry sausage until brown, then remove.
Cut bacon into 1 inch slices. Fry in D.O. until brown.
Remove excess grease from D.O.
Add sausage, onion, garlic, bell pepper, and mushrooms. Saute
until vegetables are tender.
Mix eggs and milk. Pour eggs into D.O.
Cover and bake at about 325 degrees, using 8 briquettes under
and 15 on top for 20 minutes, or until eggs are firm.
Spread cheese over eggs. Cover and let stand until cheese is
melted.
Serves: 8-10 using picante sauce as they choose.

Pizza Dutch Oven Recipe
Ingredients: 1 box Pizza dough mix
1 can pizza sauce
1/2lb mozzarella cheese
1/2lb pepperoni
1 aluminum pie tin
Prepare the pizza dough per mix directions.
Spread dough inside pie tin and up the sides.
Top with sauce, cheese, pepperoni.
Place 4 pebbles or wads of aluminum foil in d.o. to raise pie tin
off bottom.
Set pizza in d.o.
Put d.o. on top of 12 briquettes and cover d.o. with 14
briquettes.
Cook for 15-25 minutes.

Mountain Dew Chicken Dutch Oven Recipe
Ingredients: 1/2 lb. bacon
1 gallon zip-loc bag with 1 cup flour
5 chicken breasts
5 potatos
10 carrots
1 large onion
1 can Mountain Dew soda
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Preheat dutch oven by setting on bed of coals.
Chop bacon into 1-inch pieces.
Dice vegetables.
Cut chicken breasts in half lengthwise.
Fry bacon in dutch oven until crispy.
Remove bacon from d.o. but leave grease.
Shake chicken breasts in baggie of flour to coat.
Cook in bacon grease to brown, about 5 minutes, turning a
couple times.
Pour vegetables, bacon, and Mountain Dew on top of chicken.
Cover with lid and cook at 350° for 45 minutes with 3/4 of coals
on lid.

Fizzy Fruit Cobbler Dutch Oven Recipe

Apple pie filling
1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 can 7-Up
1 Tbsp. cinnamon

We used:

• Blueberry pie filling
• 1/2 can cream soda
• white cake mix

Any combination of flavors that sound good to you can be tried.
This example is apple, yellow cake, and cinnamon. Another
might be cherry filling, chocolate cake, and powdered sugar. Or,
blueberry filling, white cake, and grape soda.
Line the dutch oven with aluminum foil to make clean up easier
if you aren't adverse to doing that.
Pour the fruit filing into the bottom of the D.O.
Sprinkle the cake mix on top of the filing - do not stir it.
Pour the soda on top of the mix from a low height so it does not
splatter all over.
With a fork, mix the soda into the cake mix, being careful not to
mix it into the filling too much - a little is ok.
When the cake mix is stirred, sprinkle cinnamon on top.
Cook for 45 minutes at 325 degrees.