Posts tagged ‘raisins’
The Message Said – Bring Cookies
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Teresa's Oatmeal Cookies
Just before I left for my very brief trip to NJ a couple of weeks ago I got a message from my brother-in-law to bring some “finger food” desserts for a family gathering. I don’t know about you but I would prefer larger desserts as they take less time and effort to make. Biting the bullet I decided on some very good brownies, chocolate macaroon jam tarts, some individual fruit tarts and at the last minute some of these cookies.
They are called Teresa’s Oatmeal Cookies, named for a friend and fellow cook, who gave me the recipe. These are without a doubt the best oatmeal cookies you will ever try. Very easy to make and the best part is they travel well; unlike my individual tarts that arrived in NJ looking more like individual tartlets. Make these, stand back and watch them disappear.
Teresa’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
| Complexity: | Medium |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Dad’s in charge???? (Share-a-Meal Plans) |
| 3 | large | egg |
| 1 | cup | raisins |
| 1 | tsp | vanilla |
| 16 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 1 | cup | sugar, brown |
| 1 | cup | sugar, granulated |
| 2.5 | cup | flour, all-purpose |
| 1 | tsp | salt, table |
| 1 | tsp | cinnamon. ground |
| 2 | tsp | baking soda |
| 2 | cup | oats, old-fashioned rolled |
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine beaten eggs, raisins, and vanilla and cover with plastic wrap. Let stand for one hour. Cream together room temperature butter and both sugars. Add flour, salt, cinnamon, and soda to sugar mixture and mix well. Blend in egg-raisin mixture and oatmeal. Dough will be stiff. Drop a heaping tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned.
Delicious: Soaking of the raisins is the secret!
More of Teresa’s and my recipes at emealsforyou.com.
Recipe of the Week – Seared Scallop Small Plates
From the Fish Entrée Collection at emealsforyou.com
Seared Scallops
My sister-in-law dropped in for a weekend visit on her way home after a visit to the East Coast. As she doesn’t eat meat but enjoys seafood; we had to come up with a menu plan that fit our schedule as well as provide an interesting and palate pleasing treat. We decided on small plates; our version of several great recipes prepared as partial recipes. We usually make about 4- 5 different entrées to choose from.
To make sure the scallops are fresh, buy only those from a vendor who moves a lot of product daily. The scallops should be off-white to creamy in color and not sitting in the white milky substance you sometimes see them sitting in. Avoid those that are “swimming” in this fluid. As we were having 5 small plate entrees I made 2 large (10 -20 count) scallops per person. I also added a few golden raisins to the brown butter sauce for an added touch.
Our other small plate entrées included Grilled Steelhead Trout on Cucumber Slices with Hollandase Sauce, Cantaloupe with Crab Salad, Individual Yellow Tomato Caprese Salad, and Toast Points with Goat Cheese and Fig Jam.
Pan-roasted Sea Scallops
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 2 |
| Category: | Fish Entrée |
| Meal: | Dinner in the Round (Distinctive Dinners) |
| 8 | large | scallops, sea |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
| 4 | Tb | Panko breadcrumbs |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
| 1 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 1 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 8 | leaves | sage, fresh |
| 2 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 0.5 | medium | lemons |
Note: This recipe takes very little time to make and therefore be sure to have the rest of the meal ready to go before starting the scallops.
Dry scallops thoroughly on a paper towel. Salt and pepper both sides of the scallops. Place Panko breadcrumbs in a shallow dish, salt and pepper breadcrumbs. Dip one side of scallop in breadcrumbs. Place butter and olive oil in pan; heat pan until oil begins to smoke. Place scallops, breadcrumb side down in pan and cook until light brown (about 3 minutes); flip scallops and cook for three minutes on reverse side. Remove scallops to a side plate. Lower heat to medium, place sage leaves and butter in pan and swirl, cooking for three minutes. Plate scallops and drizzle brown butter sauce over scallops, serve with a lemon wedge on the side.
Shown here with baby Yukon Gold potatoes and peas.
More small plate ideas at emealsforyou.com.
Recipe of the Week – Kentucky Dark Fruitcake
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Kentucky Dark Fruitcake
Frequent readers will recall that I try to create recipes that mimic what people tell me they had and liked. It has become a game for me to take a description of a cake or cookie or meal that I have not had and probably not even seen and make it. This is how I got the “urge” to try to re-create this dark, moist fruitcake that my mother-in-law has mentioned on recent trips back to New Jersey. She tells me she had it as a child and didn’t think back then to get the recipe. Researching all the options on the internet and asking my neighbor for any she has from growing up near Lexington, KY, I came up with a few that looked promising.
My instructions from my mother-in-law were that the cake was very dark, very moist and had some seeds in it. My first try came out really good tasting but a little dry and too light in color to pass the test. The second try came out just right, or just right as far as I think. The proof will be after my m-i-l receives her pieces in the mail (going out today) and lets me know how I did.
If you haven’t had this as a child you should give this recipe a try. It is about perfect for those lazy coffee and morning-bread summer breakfasts on the deck or as dessert with a little cinnamon ice cream on the side.
Kentucky Dark Fruitcake
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 0.5 | cup | raisins |
| 0.5 | cup | Dates, dried, chopped |
| 0.5 | cup | figs, chopped |
| 2 | Tb | bourbon, Jack Daniels |
| 1 | cup | butter, unsalted |
| 1 | cup | sugar, brown |
| 2 | large | egg |
| 0.33 | cup | molasses |
| 1 | cup | blackberry, jam |
| 8 | oz | apple sauce |
| 1.75 | cups | flour, all-purpose |
| 0.5 | cup | flour, whole wheat |
| 0.5 | tsp | baking soda |
| 2 | tsp | cinnamon. ground |
| 0.5 | tsp | allspice, ground |
| 0.5 | tsp | cloves, ground |
| 0.5 | tsp | nutmeg, ground |
| 1 | cup | pecans, toasted |
| 2 | oz | bourbon, Jack Daniels |
Combine raisins, chopped dates and chopped figs in a bowl with the bourbon; allow to sit for an hour, stirring occasionally. Cream butter with brown sugar, beat eggs and combine with jam, molasses and apple sauce. Add slowly to the butter mixture and mix. In a separate bowl combine the flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda and the spices and add to wet mixture. Mix to combine, add the raisins, dates and fig along with the toasted, chopped pecans and stir to blend. Spoon into a greased and floured bundt pan, bake at 375 degrees for 60 to 70 minutes; until a toothpick comes out clean.
Allow cake to cool prior to serving. You may sprinkle additional bourbon on the top at this time.
More breakfast ideas and some bourbon ideas at emealsforyou.com.
Recipe of the Week – Sticking with an Old Favorite – Carrot Cake
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Carrot Cake
We are off again this weekend for our quarterly trip to New Jersey so this week I will be making the desserts that we will freeze and take with us. I try to mix it up and make different desserts each time but somehow I always get a request for carrot cake. So along with a chocolate cake and probably some tart shells to fill with peaches cooked in brown sugar and bourbon; I was in the kitchen this morning putting together this never-fail, always appreciated cake. Just 15 minutes shredding carrots and mixing the batter in the food processor and into the oven and I have a classic dessert that freezes and travels well. I make the cream cheese icing once I get there and I am then prepared to present a great finish to the meal even after our 9 hour drive.
They say carrots are good for the eyes but I think this one is great for your stomach.
Carrot Cake
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | You’re Something Special (Celebration Meal Plans) |
| 1.5 | cup | oil, vegetable |
| 2 | cup | sugar, white |
| 4 | large | egg |
| 2 | cup | flour, all-purpose |
| 1.5 | tsp | baking soda |
| 1.5 | tsp | baking powder |
| 2 | tsp | cinnamon. ground |
| 1 | tsp | salt, kosher |
| 3 | whole | carrots, fresh, whole |
| 1 | cup | walnuts, chopped |
| 0.5 | cup | raisins, golden |
Cream sugar, eggs and oil.
Mix in flour, baking soda and powder, cinnamon and salt. Add grated carrots, nuts and raisins.
Bake in greased tube pan or (2) 9 inch cake pans for 40- 50 minutes at 350 degrees.
Cover with cream cheese icing. *
Cream Cheese Icing
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Other (General) |
| 8 | Tb | butter, unsalted |
| 1 | lb | sugar, powdered |
| 1 | Tb | vanilla |
| 8 | oz | cream cheese |
Blend together in food processor until smooth.
Find the tart recipe and more at emealsforyou.com
Recipe of the Week – Tilapia with Golden Raisins
(From The Fish Entrée Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Tilapia with Golden Raisins
My wife likes fish and I don’t. I try to make fish for her about once or twice a week , so I am always looking for a quick and easy recipe that is both good and easy. Something that won’t make me feel as though I just slapped it together. Tilapia is a light and fairly inexpensive fish that is getting more and more common in the grocery stores. Ideally suited for a summer dinner, served with rice and a small salad this is both satisfying and great for those who are watching their weight.
For those of you who are regular readers of this blog you know I like to add raisins to almost any dish. Golden raisins add a surprising sweet and moist touch to the dish. The sweetness offsets the acidity of the wine and the pine nuts add some crunch. Start to finish in less than 10 minutes; you would be hard pressed to come up with a better meal, good and good for you.
Tilapia with Golden Raisins
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 2 |
| Category: | Fish Entrée |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 3 | Tb | rice flour |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
| 8 | oz | tilapia |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 2 | Tb | pine nuts, toasted |
| 2 | Tb | raisins, golden |
| 2 | oz | wine, dry white |
| 1 | Tb | butter, salted |
Mix salt and pepper with rice flour. Dredge Tilapia filets in flour, shaking off excess. Heat oil in pan and sauté filets for 3 minutes per side. Remove filets from the pan, keep warm. Add raisins, pine nuts and wine, simmer for 2 minutes, add butter, remove from heat and swirl until melted. Pour over filets and serve.
Recipe of the Week – Old Fashioned Raisin Pie
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Old Fashioned Raisin Pie
I got into a discussion with a friend about the cakes and pies we remembered from our long gone youth. I grew up on the East Coast and she grew up in the Midwest. This may not seem like a big deal now; when the grocery stores are full of every produce known to man, and some unknown to most of us, but not too many years ago what you had stored in your pantry is what you used. This is especially true for those who grew up on the Great Plains. So my friend, Mary, tells me she remembers one of her mom’s favorites, Raisin Pie.
Curious to see what a Raisin Pie was, I hit the Internet… type in raisin pie and get hundreds of recipes, stories and some things I can’t go into now. Anyway, I picked the one that I could see, from the recipe, would work out well and made the pie. Being an East Coaster I think the closest we have to this pie is the mincemeat pie my mom would make at Christmas.
I made the pie, froze it and sent it off with Mary to see if we could bring back some of the past to her mom. If you want to try this great dessert from Christmases past I have included the recipe below. Remember, you must wear an apron when you serve it, just for old times sake.
Old Fashioned Raisin Pie
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Other (General) |
| 2 | cup | raisins |
| 1.66 | cup | water |
| 0.33 | cup | bourbon, Jack Daniels |
| 0.5 | cup | sugar, brown |
| 2 | Tb | cornstarch |
| 0.5 | tsp | cinnamon. ground |
| 0.25 | tsp | salt, kosher |
| 1 | Tb | vinegar, cider |
| 1 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 1 | recipe | Pie Dough |
| 1 | Tb | water |
| 1 | Tb | sugar, white |
| 1 | medium | egg |
Combine raisins and bourbon in a pan, let stand for 10 minutes. Pour water in with the raisins and bring to boil slow boil for 5 minutes. Combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt and stir into raisin mixture. Cook for 3 minutes more. Remove from heat, add vinegar and butter and stir. Roll dough into a pie plate, pour mixture into pie plate and cover with a top crust. Brush top with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.
Recipe of the Week – Teresa’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Teresa's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Chef Teresa sends us this wonderful, and I do mean wonderful, cookie recipe. Now I must be upfront with you and say that I really didn’t like oatmeal cookies before I tried one of these. We were doing a demo of our website at a local Learning Center, each of us brought a couple of things for the moms and dads to try. Teresa showed up with several dishes, among them these cookies. As I said, oatmeal cookies were not my favorites, but Teresa prevailed and I tried one, then another; then Teresa had to move them away from me to protect some for the guests.
These cookies are great at getting your kids to eat oatmeal. It is an easy transition from these sweet, chewy cookies, that they will love, to eating a good hot bowl of oatmeal in the morning. Make a batch and see how fast they disappear. The secret, just like the recipe says, is soaking the raisins before putting them in the batter…
Teresa’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
| Complexity: | Medium |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Dad’s in charge???? (Share-a-Meal Plans) |
| 3 | large | egg |
| 1 | cup | raisins |
| 1 | tsp | vanilla |
| 16 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 1 | cup | sugar, brown |
| 1 | cup | sugar, white |
| 2.5 | cup | flour, all-purpose |
| 1 | tsp | salt, table |
| 1 | tsp | cinnamon. ground |
| 2 | tsp | baking soda |
| 2 | cup | Quaker Oats, old-fashioned rolled |
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine beaten eggs, raisins, and vanilla and cover with plastic wrap. Let stand for one hour. Cream together room temperature butter and both sugars. Add flour, salt, cinnamon, and soda to sugar mixture and mix well. Blend in egg-raisin mixture and oatmeal. Dough will be stiff. Drop a heaping tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned.
Delicious: Soaking of the raisins is the secret!
Extra Recipe of the Week – Pan-roasted Chicken Breasts
(from the Chicken Entrée Collection at emealsforyou.com)
I guess if you write a Rant about taking a small amount of time to prepare a good meal for your family you should at least post a quick chicken recipe to go with it. The Pan-roasted Chicken Breast was a last minute idea one night when my wife said “do something different”. We like garlic, I mean we really like garlic in our house, so the natural thing to do was make sure I put lots of garlic in the pan. I added a few gold raisins, who doesn’t like golden raisins, some mushrooms and there you have it… a new house favorite.
Have your butcher, excuse me, have the guy behind the meat counter, bone out the chicken breasts but leave the skin on. I actually prefer to do this myself, tossing the bones into a pot with olive oil, a piece of carrot, onion and celery, add a can of chicken broth and you have some really good chicken stock to make the dish that much better. (want to learn how to bone out the chicken? send me a comment and I will give you the easy instructions)
I serve this chicken with creamy polenta but it is just as good with quick pasta tossed with some lemon juice. Round out the meal with a mixed lettuce salad and you have a $17 restaurant meal for about a third the price.
Pan-roasted Chicken Breasts
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 4 |
| Category: | Chicken Entrée |
| Meal: | Wednesday Night Bistro (Celebration Meal Plans) |
| 2 | Tb | oil, olive |
| 4 | medium | chicken , breast, boned with skin on |
| 3 | cloves | garlic, chopped |
| 8 | medium | mushrooms, baby portabella |
| 1 | 14 oz. can | chicken broth |
| 2 | Tb | capers |
| 0.25 | cup | raisins, golden |
| 0.5 | medium | lemon, juice of |
| 2 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 1 | pinch | salt and pepper to taste |
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat olive oil in an oven-proof pan. Sauté chicken skin side down for 4 minutes, repeat on the other side. Add mushrooms and garlic, sauté for 1 minute. Add raisins, capers, lemon juice and broth. Place in oven for 12 minutes. Remove from oven, remove chicken to a plate. Swirl butter slowly into pan juices, add salt and pepper to taste. Plate chicken and spoon on sauce.
Suggestion: Serve over creamy polenta, add some fresh tomatoes and it’s time to eat.
Meal Planning – Desserts
WARNING: The following post is decadent and I don’t apologize in advance.
(from www.emealsforyou.com/Desserts/Croissant Bread Pudding)
The other day my wife told me that it was about time I got busy and filled the freezer with some desserts. I couldn’t talk about meal planning without adding my two cents on how to handle desserts. We usually don’t have dessert with our meals, can’t afford the calories, but on occasion the urge does hit. I have several great dessert recipes that I can always count on to work. I make these when we need a dessert for company. Well, a little confession here; I make several desserts for company, I think people should have a choice if they are going to indulge; besides I enjoy making them. This usually leaves me with leftovers.
In our house each dessert has it’s own following. Each kid or friend has their particular favorite. What I do is take the leftover desserts and cut them into individual serving sizes, wrap them in plastic wrap and store them in the freezer, they are just as good thawed as when they were made. When we feel like a dessert or have company I usually have 4 or 5 different desserts, frozen, to choose from. Simply “nuke” them and serve. An added benefit is that I find that our friends’ kids don’t mind coming over for dinner when they can choose their dessert Seriously, this method actually saves me time and money as I make them when I have the time and it certainly beats stopping off at the bakery for a quick dessert for dinner.
I have attached the recipe for Croissant Bread Pudding, this really is easy to make, freezes well and is usually a hit; besides this is a favorite of my wife. On our website emealsforyou.com we have many dessert recipes that will fit the bill for this method of Meal Planning: Profiteroles, Carrot Cake, Flourless Chocolate Cake to name a few. Drop in and take a peek, try making everyone happy tonight!
Croissant Bread Pudding
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | New Neighbors (Share-a-Meal Plans) |
| 3 | large | egg |
| 8 | large | egg, yolks |
| 5 | cup | cream, half and half |
| 1.5 | cup | sugar, white |
| 1 | Tb | cinnamon. ground |
| 1.5 | tsp | vanilla |
| 1 | cup | raisins |
| 2 | oz | bourbon, Jack Daniels |
| 6 | large | croissants |
| 1 | spritz | PAM |
Slice croissants and leave on counter overnight. Mix all remaining ingredients in large bowl. Dip croissants in mixture, place in large, greased, oven-proof pan, and pour remaining mixture over the top. Bake 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven, or until lightly brown.
Decadent Note: For a quick sauce; melt vanilla ice cream and mix with a shot or so of bourbon, drizzle over bread pudding.
From the New Neighbors Meal Plan (Share-a-Meal Plans) at emealsforyou.com
Recent Comments