Recipe Journey

Chocolate Chip Cake

May 16, 2013No comments

Spring has arrived in Ohio and everywhere you look is green and beautiful! Wishing to take advantage of the cooler temperatures, I pulled out my Pillsbury Complete Book of Baking. The glue in the binding of the book gave way years ago, and everything is held together with staples and a big rubber band, but it is still one of my favorite cookbooks.

My birthday is this week and I have cake on the brain, so it is Chocolate Chip Cake to the rescue. This cake is very easy to put together, and will turn out beautifully as long as you remember two things: 1. Grease your Bundt pan well, or the cake will stick. 2. The butter and cream cheese must be softened (not liquid, though) to achieve a nice fluffy batter. I leave mine out on the counter the night before I’m going to bake and it is perfect in the morning…so I guess about 8-10 hours before I want to bake. You can also leave it out before you go to work in the morning, and then it’s ready for some after-dinner baking.

For the glaze, the recipe suggests that you melt canned, ready-to-spread frosting. It would also be easy and convenient to use the ice cream topping sold in the squirt bottle. If you’re not really a chocolate lover ( or you went on a binge and ate the last of the chocolate chips ), the recipe can be modified and flavored so many ways. Just substitute whichever flavor extract you wish for the vanilla, and add a little of that same extract to a plain white glaze for the top of the cake. If you are making a citrus flavor, you can also add the juice of the fruit to the glaze, and the zest of the fruit to the cake and the glaze. Enjoy!

Recipe and photos are here.

Chocolate Chip Cake is courtesy of The Complete Book of Baking, Pillsbury Publications, ©The Pillsbury Company 1993

Published by Viking and The Penguin Group, New York, N.Y.

Super Berry Crisp

May 11, 2013Comments: 2

If you are looking for a quick and easy dessert that not only tastes great, but is also pretty…this is it! And just in time for Mother’s Day, graduation, and bridal showers ( I know… I’m cutting it pretty close for Mother’s Day). I usually think of a fruit crisp as a Fall dessert, because I almost always make them with apples. However, this recipe is a nice twist on that classic. The fresh blueberries in this recipe balance out the cherry pie filling and keep this crisp from being overly sweet. There is a nice tart after-bite, perhaps it would be a little less tart with riper berries, but I really liked that about it.

This is another fantastic recipe from Gooseberry Patch’s 101 Farmhouse Favorites. The chapter entitled Blue-Ribbon Desserts has many tasty-looking recipes; Candy Apple Cheesecake, Perfect Peanut Brittle, Cranberry Cake, Chocolate-Raspberry Brownies, and Hucklebucks, just to name a few. Gooseberry Patch is an award-winning publisher of cookbooks, and is known for down-home recipes, submitted by folks like you and me. Easy recipes that use grocery store staples, are the reason their cookbooks are so popular. For more of these tasty offerings, check out their Recipe Collection. Gooseberry Patch is sponsoring a giveaway of this book for one of my lucky readers. Check out my last post (Maple Pork Chops) for all the details and how to enter the drawing. Happy Mother’s Day Ladies…Enjoy!

Recipe and photos are here.

Super Berry Crisp by Sandy Widdows is courtesy of Gooseberry Patch’s 101 Farmhouse Favorites

Check out the Gooseberry Patch Blog, and “like” them on Facebook

Maple Pork Chops and a Gooseberry Patch Cookbook Giveaway

May 9, 2013Comments: 137

I am so excited to announce that Recipe Journey is hosting it’s very first Giveaway! Thanks to the fine folks at Gooseberry Patch, a copy of 101 Farmhouse Favorites will be going to one of you lucky ducks. I bought my first Gooseberry Patch cookbook about 15 years ago ( Old-Fashioned Christmas Favorites) and after that I was hooked, I’ve collected them ever since. The nostalgic artwork, easy recipes, and personal stories contributed by readers, make their line of cookbooks one of my favorites.

The recipes are submitted by readers from all over the U.S. (and I noticed some, including this one, are from Canada, too). Funny thing, just when you think a particular dish is regional and only found in your neck of the woods, there it is in a Gooseberry Patch Cookbook, submitted by a lady who lives 5 states away, and it has been in her family for generations. It’s very comforting to flip through the pages of their cookbooks and realize how much alike we all really are, especially when it comes to feeding and nurturing our families

101 Farmhouse Favorites is broken down into 5 chapters; Break of Day Breakfasts, Garden-Fresh Soups & Salads, Family Dinner Favorites, Blue-Ribbon Desserts, and Classic Country Canning. There are so many great recipes in this book that it was hard for me to choose which one to make first. I finally decided on the Maple Pork Chops because the weather has been so gorgeous here, and Mark is itching to BBQ again.

As I said before, one of you lucky ducks will receive this great cookbook, and all you have to do to enter is;

1. Read the following question.

Why do you like Gooseberry Patch Cookbooks?

~~2. Leave your answer in the comment box below~~.

~~3. Enter only 1 time please.~~

4. The drawing will be held on Thursday, 16 May 2013.

5. I will contact the winner and announce their name in this post. …… Be sure and stay tuned because my next post will also be from this book. Enjoy!

The contest is now closed. Thanks everyone for the great turn-out on Recipe Journey’s first ever giveaway. The winner is : Kitsi Eakins

Recipe and photos are here.

Maple Pork Chops by Emma Brown is courtesy of Gooseberry Patch’s 101 Farmhouse Favorites

Visit the Gooseberry Patch Blog for more great recipes, and “like” them on Facebook

Rice Pilaf

May 1, 2013No comments

Happy Spring Everyone! Yes, Spring has finally come to Ohio. The weather has been so gorgeous that Mark has been manning the BBQ grill for the past few nights. Tonight he will be grilling chicken breasts that I marinated earlier today, and I am going to serve them with this great rice pilaf. Rice-a-Roni is our favorite rice pilaf, but recently I ran out of it and turned to one of my favorite websites, All Recipes.com, for assistance. I found this simple recipe that was submitted by Sarah. I read through a bunch of the reviews, and gave it a whirl. It tasted just like Rice-a-Roni, only better. So now I just make my own using her recipe as a guideline.

The recipe lists orzo (pasta, usually in a small box) as one of the ingredients, but the first time I made this rice pilaf, I did not have any orzo on hand. I substituted thin spaghetti for the orzo, snapping the long spaghetti into small pieces, and it was fine. I also added a pinch of red pepper flakes to this recipe for a little zing.

So sorry that I have been absent from the blog lately. Mark and I have been busy with helping my Mom find a place to live here in Dayton. Last November my step-Dad passed away and my Mom has been going through the process of grieving and preparing herself for a new beginning. Later this summer she will be making the big move from Tennessee to Ohio, and we are very excited for her fresh start. Enjoy!

Recipe and photos are here.

Sarah’s Rice Pilaf is courtesy of All Recipes.com

Cauliflower Steaks with Roasted Pepper and Tomato Salad

April 17, 2013No comments

When I first moved to Greece (29 years ago), I would go down to the fresh-air market and buy heads of cauliflower the size of small watermelons. These came straight from the farmers, and were not cleaned and shrink-wrapped like what you see in the grocery store today. Because I am squeamish, after I brought the cauliflower back to my dorm room, I would go over to the men’s dorm and have one of my guy friends come and check it for unwanted creatures before I would even touch it.

My roommate Sherri, loved fried cauliflower and I would make it for her as a treat, and as a form of payment to the guy who cleaned the cauliflower. It’s funny, to this day, I still remove the green leaves connected to the stem with a bit of apprehension, half expecting to find something that I don’t want to find ( and of course I never find anything except cauliflower).

We usually just eat it raw, but when I saw this recipe being made on the Martha Stewart Show, it reminded me of Greece and how great that fried cauliflower tasted. This version is cooked in olive oil and garlic, and has a wonderful roasted pepper and tomato salad to accompany it. Enjoy!

Recipe and photos are here.

recipe adapted from Cauliflower Steaks with Roasted Pepper and Tomato Salad

courtesy of The Martha Stewart Show

Pan-Fried Cheese, Tomato, and Onion Sandwich

April 12, 2013No comments

Doesn’t this look great? It sure did taste wonderful. This homey and simply sinful sandwich, as well as the colorful salad are from the beautiful new cookbook, Food, by Mary Mc Cartney. The author of this book is also an acclaimed photographer, and it is her photographs that really suck you in; the sweet and somewhat nostalgic images of produce, farm stands, the outdoors, and the prepared food are captured with her gifted eye. Mary has conjured up simple, quick, and casual meals that not only taste great and look pretty, but also allow us to spend more time hanging out at the table with our family and friends.

Mary learned to love vegetarian cooking from her Mum, Linda Mc Cartney. Mary worked with her mother on several of Linda’s books, and is a consultant with an active role on the food development team for the Linda Mc Cartney brand. Her website is www.marymccartney.com

This is a vegetarian cookbook, but the recipes would keep a carnivore happy for a long time. From “Breakfast and Brunch”, there is Granola Bar To Go , Deep-Filled Omelette, and French Toast. From “Snacks and Sandwiches”, there is Hummus, Avocado, and Chili Jam Sandwich, Warm Eggplant Sandwich, and the delicious number pictured above. From “Soups, Salads, and Starters” there is Roasted Butternut Squash and Rosemary Soup, Easy-Peasy Soup, Lip-Smacking Minestrone, Watercress, Radish, and Feta Salad, and of course the yummy salad pictured above. “Mains” include Cheesy Quiche, Asparagus Summer Tart, Black Bean, Sweet Corn and Feta Tacos, Winter Warmer Hotpot, and Shepherd’s Pie. From “Basics and Sides”, Pesto Sauce, Yorkshire Puddings, Cream Cheese Pastry, and Toffee Sauce. Then last, but not least, “Desserts and Baking” include, Brownies, Linda’s Lemon Drizzle Cake, Plum and Pear Crumble, Creamy Chocolate Mousse, and Ice Cream Celebration Cake. These are not all the recipes, they are just the ones that I will be trying first.

I’m including the recipe for the sandwich as well as the salad above. The combination of the Blue Cheese, walnuts, and red grapes are fantastic in the salad and the sandwich just melted in my mouth. I barely had time to lick my fingers and it was gone. Enjoy!

Recipes and photos are here.

Recipes courtesy of Food, by Mary Mc Cartney

Published by Sterling Epicure, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10016

Protein Smoothie

April 9, 2013Comments: 2

Check out what I ‘m having for breakfast. It looks like, and tastes like, a milkshake; however, it is so much better than that. I was never a smoothie lover before because they just tasted like watered-down fruit and milk to me. The addition of the Greek yogurt in this smoothie acts as a thickener and binder, so the smoothie did not separate before I could finish it, and it was very filling. Usually I eat Greek yogurt for breakfast with some chopped fruit, so this isn’t straying very far from that. I used raspberries, and they can be a little bit tart, so I sweetened the smoothie just a tad with Splenda Nectresse.

I’m very excited about a new book I received, FOOD by Mary Mc Cartney. It has so many wonderful recipes and I will be reviewing it in my next post. I’ve been very busy lately trying to get Recipe Journey’s Facebook page up and active. If you click on the Facebook link (over on the top right) it will take you to the Recipe Journey page. Enjoy!

Recipe and photos are here.

Recipe courtesy of Woman’s Day Magazine

Hearst Communications, Inc. New York, N.Y.

Baby Spinach and Tortellini Salad

March 29, 2013No comments

This salad is so good! At first you may be thinking…fruit in a vegetable salad? Believe me, the taste is incredible. My friend, Carol, makes this wonderful salad often when we ladies get together to sew or chat. I think that she feels a little guilty making this recipe because it is so easy, however, we all beg her to bring this salad because we love it so much.

Carol is a big Taste of Home fan and she got the original recipe from one of their books, and then she added some goodies to it. I substituted Pomegranate Vinaigrette for the poppy-seed dressing that the recipe uses. The recipe for the vinaigrette is provided below and comes from that wonderful cookbook by Terry Walters, CLEAN FOOD. It is the perfect touch for this tasty salad. With Easter, Mother’s Day, and graduations coming up, this is a pretty salad to serve for brunch. Happy Easter Everyone. Enjoy!

Recipes and photos are here.

recipe adapted from Tortellini and Spinach Salad by Janet Du Bau

Taste of Home’s 2004 Quick Cooking Annual Recipes

5400 S. 60th St. Greendale, Wisc. 53129

Pomegranate Vinaigrette courtesy of CLEAN FOOD by Terry Walters

Sterling Epicure, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10016

Hot Cross Buns

March 27, 2013No comments

A traditional Lenten food, Hot Cross Buns are a spicy yeast bread with candied fruit and an icing cross on top. I bake them every year during Holy Week. The recipe that I’ve used for years comes from A Continual Feast by Evelyn Birge Vitz. It is a great cookbook that promotes family and faith, with recipes and suggestions for foods that celebrate the Christian year.

According to the author, Hot Cross Buns were originally eaten only on Good Friday. A monk, Father Rocliff, and the cook at St. Alban’s Abbey in Hertfordshire, England in 1361 made these special buns, marked with the sign of the cross, to give to the poor with a bowl of soup. The custom continued and they became very popular during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in England. Good Friday bread was considered blessed, and people believed it provided protection against disease and danger.

These buns are perfect for Easter brunch and they also freeze well. You can make them ahead of time, without the icing cross, defrost them on the kitchen counter, and then add the crosses before serving. These buns are denser and heavier than the ones you might buy in the store. If you wish to make a lighter bun, I suggest you use the Dinner Rolls recipe and add the spices and fruit to it.

The recipe calls for raisins (or currants) and candied orange peel. We weren’t always stationed where I could find good candied peel so I learned how to make my own. What a difference ! It is somewhat time-consuming, but the flavor is so fantastic. I’m including the instructions for making the candied peel so that you can try making your own if you’d like, or you can simply use orange zest. Enjoy!

the recipe and pictures are here

recipe adapted from A Continual Feast by Evelyn Birge Vitz

published by Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., New York, now being carried by Ignatius Press

*Update-Dr. Evelyn Birge Vitz and I had a very nice web chat. When I initially wrote this post, I discovered that the author was a Professor of French, and an Affiliated Professor of Comparative Literature, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Religious Studies at New York University. I did not want to link her professional information in this post, but she has given me permission to do so. Check out this fascinating lady at her NYU Homepage. You can also check out the cooking blog , A Continual Feast…Continued, a collaboration of her work, as well as her daughters’ and her daughter-in-law, which begins where the book leaves off.

Fat Stout Onion Soup

March 20, 2013No comments

After St. Patrick’s Day I was going to post a recipe for hash, using leftover corned beef. However, as usual, we killed it! Danielle came home and by the time the three of us were done celebrating, there was nary a string of beef left. Then I started thinking about what else may be left over from our dinner that I could roll in to a post. Turns out the only thing we had left was; 2 pieces of cabbage, 3 red potatoes, and some Irish Soda Bread (I’ve eaten the bread every day and it’s gone). So the only salvageable thing we had left from our dinner was some Guinness, and it’s not really left over from dinner because we stock it all year-long.

But for those of you out there that do not drink Guinness very often, I have located a terrific website that will help you use up what’s left in the fridge. Gigfy.com (Guinness is good for you), has the “largest, and growing, compilation of genuine Guinness food and drink recipes online”. There are recipes for everything from soups and stews, to beef and lamb dishes, veggie dishes, cakes, drinks, and even Guinness Stout Ice Cream, which I will be trying next.

This recipe is similar to French Onion Soup in that the onions are softened before adding the other ingredients. Instead of just using a hearty beef stock, this soup has the added flavor dimension of 2 bottles of Guinness. Wow! I used chicken and beef stock and sweet onions. Next time I will probably go with yellow onions because the soup was very sweet. Part of the reason for the sweetness is the addition of the Guinness. The recipe says to add a little vinegar when the soup is done and I thought that was a tad bit weird the first time I read it. However, a little vinegar (about 1 teaspoon) in each bowl of soup was the perfect amount. Fight the urge to use large croutons and swiss cheese ( like you would in French Onion soup), stick with the Blue Cheese, it offers a silky pungent bite that counterbalances the rich soup. Enjoy!

Recipe and photos are here.

Recipe courtesy of Gigfy.com (Guinness is good for you) - and I might add…yes it is!

« Previous Entries

Chocolate Chip Cake

Super Berry Crisp

Maple Pork Chops and a Gooseberry Patch Cookbook Giveaway

Rice Pilaf

Cauliflower Steaks with Roasted Pepper and Tomato Salad

Pan-Fried Cheese, Tomato, and Onion Sandwich

Protein Smoothie

Baby Spinach and Tortellini Salad

Hot Cross Buns

Fat Stout Onion Soup

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