Results of Deer Hunting Opener

Frank was fortunate to get a big 11 point buck this past weekend. That means tonight we will be having grilled venison heart!

I will simply season it with garlic salt and pepper with a little olive oil. As a side I will make North Dakota potatoes made into a gratin with spinach and havarti cheese.

Sounds like a wonderful fall meal to me.

Enjoy!

Deer Hunting Opener This Weekend

This weekend is deer hunting opener and strangely enough for me that means that I cook 2 of my favorite guilty pleasures.....Chicken tenders and mac and cheese. Now over the years this has changed alot I admit I used to get the boxed mac and cheese and buy the frozen chicken tenders! Now I either find new and interesting recipes to make these things or I create my own recipe.

If you are looking for something food related and different to do this weekend-check out a couple of these food related movies.

Julie and Julia
No Reservations

Not sure if you will like them? Check out this blog where both of them are reviewed as well as a short trailer for you to watch! cineplexed.blogspot.com

Enjoy

Favorite Cookbook in Use Today

For some reason it felt like a great day to make some type of gumbo or deep rich soup-so I pulled out one of my favorite cookbooks-Justin Wilson's Homegrown Louisiana Cookin.

Decided on Mock Turtle Soup with a Cajun Bread for dunkin!

One hour and 15 minutes in and my roux is just about done-man I can't wait until it is time to eat as I just know this is going to be another tasty dish from Mr. Wilson. Only 5 more hours of cooking and we will be eating!!!!

Happy Halloween all-Enjoy!

Halloween Treat-Bacon Toffee

This weekend being Halloween I decided that I would pull out a recipe that I have been wanting to try for awhile now-Bacon toffee! Frank is very suspect but what is there not to like-bacon, butter and sugar sounds fantastic to me.

Recipe wouldn't be simpler either:

1/2 pound bacon
1 stick butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
salt

Fry bacon-cool on paper towels to remove excess grease and then chop into small pieces.

Put water, butter, sugar and pinch of salt in saucepan over medium high heat. Stir constantly until water has boiled off (the mixture will get very bubbly/frothy first)and the mixture turns a deep golden tan color.

Remove from heat stif in bacon pieces and quickly spread toffee on a silpat or well oiled baking sheet.

Let cool and break into pieces.

I will most likely add some chili pepper flakes to mine!

Enjoy

Horseradish harvest 2010

Today was the day we set aside to dig our horseradish, clean it, grind it and get it in jars! Wow what a bumper crop we had this year 14 pints!

I am sharing some pictures with you in case you aren't familiar with the process. The big pile of green leaves is what the plant portion grows like, the blue bin is full of the root end that gets thrown back in the dirt along with all the leaves and tiny roots. The yellow bowl is filled with our roots that will get ground up!

It is great to have this project done as the grinding gets very very potent smelling-it is like the strongest onion times 100!

Our initial taste test gave wonderful results-I would say our most flavorful harvest to date!

Uncle Bill would definately be jealous of this harvest if he were still with us!

Fun Night Tonight!

Tonight I am having my girlfriends from highschool over. This weekend is our 25th class reunion and we decided that we needed to get together to honor this and also to catch up!

I am very excited to share with them the following menu:

Autumn Sangria-Thanks St. Paul Grill for this creation-I only hope mine is as good!
Cheese and crackers
Asian Pork Sliders
Roasted Pepper and Tomato Soup
Fruit Salsa with cinnamon chips
Creme Catalana

All of this sounds so good-but I gotta get to work making it!

Enjoy

P.S. tomorrow is horseradish harvest day-will be lots of tears shed! More on that tomorrow

This is a good one!

Had to share this recipe creation with everyone as if I do say so myself this is one that is a keeper!
Chocolate Banana cake with Peanut Butter Frosting
1 ½ cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
½ cup Crisco-butter flavored
2 eggs
1 ½ cups mashed bananas
2 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp honey
¼ cup cocoa
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9 x 13 pan. Mix together sugar, sour cream and Crisco. Mix in eggs. Next add mashed bananas and vanilla. Scraping the sides of the bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients mixing to be sure all in incorporated. Spread into the prepared pan. Bake 25-35 minutes until the middle of the cake is done. Set aside to cool.
FROSTING
¼ cup margarine
¼ cup peanut butter
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
3 tbsp milk
In a small saucepan melt the butter and peanut butter. Whisk in the sugar until incorporated. Slowly add milk only adding what is needed for the consistency that you want.

Poke holes in cake with toothpick or metal skewer making sure holes are evenly distributed. Pour the frosting over the cake making sure frosting soaks into the holes.

Enjoy this one!