.The Castro Family.: Food

Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts

Gingerbread

>> Friday, December 07, 2012 – Food, Holidays

My favorite gingerbread recipe, we make almost every year. This year we made a batch to hang from the tree and of course a few to eat!

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons ginger

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup butter, melted

½ cup evaporated milk (Can use ½ cup regular milk)

1 cup unsulfered molasses

¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ teaspoon lemon extract

6 cups stone-ground or unbleached flour, unsifted

Combine the sugar, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Mix well. Add the melted butter, milk, and molasses. Add the extracts if desired. Mix well. Add the flour one cup at a time, stirring constantly. The dough should be stiff enough to handle without sticking to fingers. Knead the dough for a smoother texture. Add up to 1/2 cup additional flour if necessary to prevent sticking. When the gough is smooth, roll it out ¼ inch thick on a floured surface and cut it into cookies. Bake on floured or greased cookie sheets in a preheated 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. The cookies are done if they spring back when touched. If using for decoration, it's good to cook an extra minute or two.

Our Thanksgiving

>> Friday, November 30, 2012 – Family, Food, Friends, Holidays

We left for Maryland long before the sun was up and arrived in by 10:30am

The kids played hard all day!

Kelly amazingly got all 16 of us in her tiny dining room! She's such an amazing host.

Love this boy!

Hailey wasn't too fond of Kelly holding her despite all the sugar efforts. But Addie loved the attention...most of the time.

One of the challenges of living far away is coming back and having so little time to see so many we love and miss. We managed to fit in a few visits, among them Kristen and Caleb. Love those two newlyweds! And love the little hat she gave Hailey.

We all bundled up on Saturday morning and trampled through our favorite Christmas place, Gaver's tree farm, to find a tree for the Ploons.

Another visit. This time to see friends from our old neighborhood, the Wallenmeyers. Our time was wonderful but way too short. They have cared for us so much through the last few years and always are incredibly generous with some of the kindest gifts to our family. We love and miss them! Here is Catherine giving Addie an apron and hat set.

Birthday time! We celebrated Addie, Mckenna, Wyatt, Dad and Dave's birthdays.

Addie put on this dress + headband she got from K. She thought she was the perfect princess. And she was.

On Sunday we spent the afternoon with Dave's family at Aunt Sheri + Uncle Victor's house. Aunt Sheri, she's the perfect host, serving the most amazing food, full of joy and grace. It was Aunt Carmen's birthday. We celebrated and had such a great time together.

Early Monday morning we headed back to Tennessee. I drove back relishing the wonderful memories we shared this Thanksgiving. A gift indeed.

Thanksgiving baking

>> Tuesday, November 20, 2012 – Food, Holidays

My sister assigned me desserts this year. I've had fun the past few weeks dreaming of what I was going to make. Two requirements - travel friendly + yummy! Here is what I decided on:

Pumpkin roll
Cranberry white chocolate chunk cookies
2 Apple pies
1 pumpkin pie
hmm...and maybe some salted pecan chocolate pieces (if I have time).

Pumpkin roll was a disaster the first round. Made it a second time and looks yummy. I tripled the cookie recipe and I can't wait to try them. Dave gave the thumbs up! Pies come tomorrow.

Then we'll finish packing up and hit the road around 3:30am Thursday morning. Can I get some sympathy yawns? You're probably wondering what in the world would compel us to leave then. Well, quiet car + sleeping kids + 4 hours of trip out of way = happy mom! And it's not as bad as driving all night with no sleep. At least we get some! I'm hoping we'll just have to stop once. I know, I'm a hard core mom. Maybe twice if it's not going so good, but then hopefully it will just be a 8 hour trip.

Kel, have a pot of coffee going for us around noon!

Here is the cookie recipe I used/tweaked. I tripled the recipe and got about 6 dozen.

Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 - 3/4 cup real white chocolate, cut into small chunks
1 cup fresh cranberries
chopped Pecans, to desired amount

Preheat oven to 250. Rinse cranberries and place in a glass dish and cook for about 10 minutes to soften up.

Increase oven temperature to 350. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour and baking soda; stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in the white chocolate and cranberries, then pecans. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto cookie sheets or stones.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. For best results, take them out while they are still doughy. Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to
cool completely.

Black bean soup

>> Saturday, November 03, 2012 – Food

I'm always on the look out for good meals that don't require meat, but provide protein. It's hard to find good bean recipes that aren't blah! I came across a soup last week that looked good. I tweaked it a little bit, using dry beans instead of canned, my own stock and adjusting ingredients based on what I had on hand. Here is what I came up with. It was very good.

Black Bean Salsa Soup

1 bag black beans

1/2 stick butter

3 carrots, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

11 or so cups of chicken stock (I made mine, but you could use about 2-3 cartons of good quality store bought stock)

2 - 14.5 oz. diced tomatoes

1/2 cup sherry or cooking sherry

3 cloves minced garlic

2 tsp. ground cumin

3 tsp. chili powder, more if you prefer.

Salt to taste

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

Soak beans the night before. About 2 hours before starting soup, simmer beans on stove until tender.

Melt butter in large pot. Stir in carrots, onion and garlic and cook 15 minutes. Pour in chicken stock. Mix in diced tomatoes, sherry and black beans. Season with cumin, chili powder and salt. Bring to boil and reduce heat to low, and simmer about 20 minutes. Mix in cilantro for last few minutes of cooking.

I served it with shredded cheese and sour cream.

Pumpkin Soup

>> Thursday, October 25, 2012 – Everyday life, Food

Everyone, even Addie, enjoyed this easy soup. A perfect dinner on a cool, autumn evening. Pair with some warm bread and/or salad. We enjoyed it with buttered raisin toast.

Pumpkin Soup

1 cup chopped onion

1 chopped red pepper

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

8 cups chicken stock
3 1/2 - 4 cups cooked pumpkin
2 teaspoons fresh parsley
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. pepper
3/4 cup cream
few dashes of nutmeg
salt, to taste (if you use homemade stock you will need more)
sour cream

Sautee the onion, garlic, and pepper in olive oil. Add the stock, pumpkin, parsley, thyme, and pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the soup from the heat and blend. I used a hand held soup blender which makes this very easy. If you don't have one, you can use a blender. I left a few chunks in. Simmer for an additional 20-30 minutes. Add cream. Then add the nutmeg, one dash at a time until it leaves just a hint of flavor to the soup. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve with a dollop of sour cream. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

>> Monday, October 22, 2012 – Everyday life, Food

A baked goodie that we made last week. I tweaked it a bit to add a healthy spin on the recipe. They were super yummy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

4 eggs
2 cups sucanat
1 cup coconut oil, melted
1/3 cup water
2 cups cooked pumpkin
3 1/2 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
few dashes of nutmeg
few dashes of allspice
12 oz. chocolate chips

Beat eggs. Add sucanat. Stir water and pumpkin. Then add oil. Combine dry ingredients and add to liquid. Fold in chips. Line muffin pans and fill 3/4 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 min.

Our gingerbread house

>> Wednesday, January 11, 2012 – Family, Food, Friends, Holidays

One December evening, while Daddy was away, the girls and I (and our friend Michelle) put together and decorated a gingerbread house. We never did get around to eating it. But it proudly decorated our kitchen island all during the holidays until it was too stale to eat. I think my candy loving girl, Selah, probably asked every night when were going to eat it. However with all the sugar they had all month, I purposed to keep this just for pleasing the eye, not the palate this year!

Lemon Bread

>> Thursday, September 08, 2011 – Food

For Jerusha and Kelly....

Modesty aside, I really did forget to mention that, yes, I did get a Grand Champion big 'ole purple ribbon for a lemon bread that I made. Mckenna made some cookies and I, last minute threw this together, per my mom's suggestion. So, credit goes to her for the suggestion. I was completely surprised when Jerusha texted me a few days later to tell me it actually won Grand Champion. First, I was in such a hurry when I made it, that I set the oven to the completely wrong temperature. The bread came out looking too brown on the outside and I was convinced probably too dry on the inside. Then I put the glaze on wrong and was trying to fix that right before taking it to the fair. Anyway, for those who are interested, here is the recipe I used:

Lemon Bread

1/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
gated peel of 1 lemon (reserve rest of lemon for glaze)
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat until smooth. In small bowl, mix 2/3 cup mlk, grated lemon rind and almond extract. In another bowl, mix flour and baking powder. Alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture to butter-sugar mixture. Pour into greased bread pan and bake for 50- 60 min., until done.

Glaze

Mix 1/3 sugar, juice of 1 lemon and 1 tsp. grated lemon for glaze. It should be fairly thick but thin enough to pour on top of the warm bread when it comes out of the oven. Using a toothpick, I poked holes on top of the bread before pouring so the glaze would soak into the bread.

Enjoy!

Blueberries!

>> Tuesday, July 12, 2011 – Food

I love this time of year! In my opinion, farm fresh blueberries are one of the best parts of summer.

We just arrived back from vacation early evening on Sunday. We hit home running yesterday with unpacking, school, grocery store, laundry, blueberry pick up (I order bulk blueberries from a farm) and getting ready for a homeschool meeting here last night for a number of ladies. And of course, I had to make some kind of blueberry treat. I found these bars online and they were delicious! Not overly sweet, so you could take in the full blueberry taste. A hit!

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup shortening
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 pinch ground cinnamon (optional)
4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons cornstarch

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and cinnamon, if desired. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the shortening and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Our Thanksgiving Day

>> Sunday, December 05, 2010 – Family, Food, Holidays

Backing up a number of days to our Thanksgiving preparations and celebration. For me, it started a number of days before Thanksgiving arrived. We had the privilege to host a number of my relatives (18 in total, including kids). It was a team effort of mother's helpers and even help from my girls when they could to get ready. The day before, on Wednesday, was by far the busiest day and I overestimated how much I could do in one day (as usual)...and of course, I am always coming up with last minute ideas to squeeze in.

I took a few pictures the night before, of my kitchen while I was making pies...most of which came out terrible...Addie was into my spice cabinet and pulled out a number of bottles and dumped their contents all over. At that point I really didn't care because she was happy and occupied as I finished up. Once in the oven she went to take a peek...

The girls helped me with the centerpiece, by searching for long twigs which I used in a vase, as well as tried to salvage some of our gourds which were on their last leg {i.e. rotting!}. They made it through the weekend. Mckenna helped me set each place setting and made each of the name tags...

I borrowed an 8 foot table, which came in so handy. I covered it with burlap (which was also a table runner on our main table) and used it as our appetizer table and later to put all the main meal food on. I've had this old window that I picked up at a tag sale about 7 years ago and...well...Dave never really liked it. I could never part with it all these years and have had it in storage. I pulled it out, roughed it up some more and used it on the appetizer table to hold the cups and paper products and silver ware...and also to say, "Happy Thanksgiving!" {by the way, I'm loving my window markers I got a few weeks back. See more about them here}.

I am not the pie maker in our family...my sister is! She is an ahhh-mazing baker. I'm not sure how many times I called her and even ran over to her house to borrow something. But, I'm happy to report that my pies did come out. I made 2 apple pies, 2 pumpkin and a cranberry cake. We also had pecan/cranberry pie {my sister}, biscotti and rice pudding {my mom}. It was quite the spread.

We had our main table set up for adults and a little table for all the cousins...and Addie and Wyatt sat next to each other in their little boosters. Here is everyone...

Fair preparations

>> Sunday, August 15, 2010 – Everyday life, Family, Food, Mckenna, Selah

My girls love the fair! It's probably one highlight of their summer when they get to go and see all the animals, ride the ponies and enjoy lemonade.

This year we decided to enter a number of things in our county fair. Last week was very full of preparation...very full! So full that I realized when Thursday rolled around (the deadline for entering) that I had not planned well. I figured 2-3 days was sufficient for finishing up artwork, cutting out foam board for mounting, baking and filling out forms. What I failed to consider is just everyday life - tired girls, fussing and arguing, my big girl having a hard time deciding which picture to enter, a baby who was throwing up numerous times a day, trips to the grocery store for cake supplies we didn't have, a tired mind who tried to cut out foam board and talk on the phone at the same time...and then had to recut foam board. Yes, I should have allowed 2 weeks for this, but nevertheless, we got it all done, I was completely exhausted, but it was well worth it.

Today we go to see if we received any ribbons from our endeavors - 6 drawings, 8 photographs, 2 cakes and one jar of applesauce. Here are a few shots from last Wednesday.