Category / recipes

by princesshotflash

Be careful what you ask for

Haha! I wrote I that I wanted to make mango jam and banana bread but I either missed the season or all my frozen bananas were all gone. Now I have a bunch of mangos and bananas waiting for me to do some thing with.

My girlfriend read my post and asked her friend that has a mango farm is she had any more mangoes left and look what I got. There were two people in my house that were so happy to see these. They couldn’t wait to eat one.

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Mangoes to eat

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A boxes of mangoes to jam

And maybe some mango sweet with the rest of the mangoes.

Then a family friend came by to share some bananas that she got.

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Bag of Williams Banana waiting to be made into something

May try batch of monkey butter with the bananas.

Well, I’ll be busy in this coming week. Pray to the weather gods for cool dry weather for jamming and baking.

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by princesshotflash

The first meal

The humidity is lower this week and I decided I can work in the kitchen with out being dreanch in sweat. So I decided to do a crock pot meal for Monday’s dinner. The first meal I making is Crock Pot Chili and I’m using Slow Cooker Taco Spice Chili recipe from sally’sbakingaddition.

[hahaha! When I started this post the humidity and heat had lowered and it was bearable to do some cooking in the kitchen. But today as I patiently wait for our meal to be done, the only place I can find to be cool is in front of the front jalousie window laying on the wooden floors like my cats in an afternoon fog of sleepiness because of the heat and humidity]

I picked this recipe because the different ingredients in–sweet potatoes, corn, bell pepper and black beans. [I slipped in some mushroom to just to use it up before it went bad] I wanted to give my parents a little more diversity in their diet. Change it up. I hope they like it.

Made some slight adjustments in the recipe as I found out that Mom’s crockpot is smaller than I thought it was. I just put 1 can of diced tomatoes and I didn’t add quinoa because there was no more room in the pot. We were having “hapa” rice [half brown and white rice] so that filled in for the quinoa.

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Right before I turned it on low for 7 hours.

Very easy and delicous. I can see with the addition of quinoa at the end it would be extremely hearty. Love all the veggies and black beans in it. I would most definitely make it again.

Next up, mango jam. There are mangos waiting in the fruit bin to use them up.

by princesshotflash

What I want to make : two

Since I got back haven’t had a chance to cook or back. One, lazy and still not in sync with my work schedule and living schedule. Two, it’s too hot and humid for me. I’m just melting. But I need to start and suck up being a sweaty mess.

Meals for Mom and Dad

Looking for meals that I can cook for my folks. A few food restrictions to adjust to–Diabetic and blood thinner. I think they need a bit of more spice in their diet. I’ll try a couple of the meals I made for friends in the past year: Fish Stew and Spicy Lentil soup

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The Fish Stew I made for the Hawaii girls

I want to try out some new recipes but it’s so hot in the afternoon. I decided to use mom’s crock pot while awaiting the arrival of my favorite kitchen appliance–my electric pressure cooker. Thought chili in a crock pot would be easy and plentiful so we can share what we made with a few of mom’s friends. Found this recipe that I’d like to try https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2017/01/11/slow-cooker-taco-spice-chili/. I like this recipe because it has sweet potato, corn, and black beans with an added bonus of quinoa. I’ll think I’ll try it this week.

Jamming

I’d like to try out that mango jam recipe again but I think I missed mango season. I will just have to make what in season or what my parents want to have. First up, Kiwi Apple jam as requested by my mom. It’s her favorite.  I’ve been making this recipe so long that it kind of morph into my own. I’m having my parents do the prep on the kiwi and apple and I’ll do cooking up.

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The spices make this jam-cinnamon, ginger, and clove

I’m also getting some Calamansi limes from a friend so I think I can make up a lime curd soon. Calamansi is a little lime with orange inside. It’s tart and fragrant. I use  Ina Garten recipe that I’ve made 100s of time change out the flavor from lime to lilikoi to grapefruit to raspberry. Just a slight adjustment to the sugar depending on how sweet the fruit is. I think adding the zest of the citrus makes the jam taste so good. This is mom’s favorite. I love the grapefruit and turn into a grapefruit curd tart.

Sweet Breads

My parents like a little snack in the evening. I always had bananas in my freezer so I could whip up a smoothie or a loaf of banana bread on short notice. Here it’s a little different. No bananas in the freezer because they eat almost every day. Also, they eat apple bananas which are firmer and tastier. Not sure how it will influence the texture but flavor will be great. Might need to look for another type of sweet bread. Carrot? Zucchini? Hmm. Need to think about it.

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chocolate marbled banana bread. Delicious

Here’s one that I made this year. Everyone liked it. And it looked great. A smittenkitchen recipe.

by princesshotflash

​onelastshindig

onlastshidig, the last party I would have at the house. A casual affair, people coming and go from 1–9pm. Food that I made from the ingredients I have left in my cabinets or recipes I just wanted to try. My last foodie experience at my Edgebrook home.

The Menu

Lots of prep goes into throwing a party. And I needed to be creative with my menu because I tried to use up as much of my supplies as I could.

lentil fritters
roasted tomato salsa
Oat’s Chicken marinating

Left to right: lentil fritter ready to be fried, salsa ready to served, Oat BBQ chicken marinating.

The morning of the party I had a late start because I had to wait for the Chimney guy to show up. Got stood up and I was behind schedule by 2 hours. And the menu shows it.

  • Gyoza–forgot to make
  • Hawaii Mac Salad–no time to mix up, a giant bowl of macaroni, potatoes, and hard-boiled egg sat in my refrigerator for the party
  • Lentil Fritters–like the Mac Salad, it sat in my freezer waiting to be fried up
  • Beef Salad
  • Asian Chopped Salad
  • Kale Salad–add the Asian dressing, no time to make the sunflower seed dressing
  • Carrot Harissa and Feta–forgot to add the feta
  • Kalua Pork–forgot to serve up
  • Oat’s Chicken
  • Assorted Burgers–veggie and fish
  • Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
  • Lilikoi Coconut Pie
  • Thai Tea Cupcakes–too hot to make up

 

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from top to bottom: Carrot Harissa Salad, Kale Salad with roast carrots and pasta, Asian Chopped Salad

 

I felt that there wasn’t enough food but I didn’t remember the other items. It was the heat and the humidity [stupid AC] plus lack of sleep. I wish I could have made more.

Party Rules

I created party rules, mostly because I wanted help with help with cleaning out my house.

  1. Bring nothing
  2. If you must bring something, bring your favorite drink
  3. You must take one thing home with you
  4. bring a folding or lawn chairs if you have it available

Most people followed was #4. We had more than enough chairs. The rule that most people broke was to take one home with them. At least a few people took things and that all I can ask for. One thing I learned in this past year is to be thankful for what you have and not to expect anything more.

The Event

It was a hot and humid day only made worst that my AC didn’t work. But all my friends were troopers and stuck it out with me and had a nice time.

My large yard came in handy for kids at my party. Running around, chasing each other, kicking and throwing a ball. It was so nice to see it being used for what it was made for.

Most of the food went. Had a lot of beer and wine left, which my neighbors were happy to take off my hands. I think my foodie experience was a success with many requests for recipes. I added links to the menu above for all the request recipes.

I wanted to make up takeaways for people but once again I ran out of time and gave into the heat and humidity. I made up one batch of harissa, sugar plum jam, and Princess Hot Flash Healthier Banana Bread. Not enough for everyone but a few people got some. Here’s the recipe for the Banana Bread. I adjusted a recipe from my old blog. It most definitely is better than before.

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Princess Hot Flash Healthier Banana Bread

Bake: 350º
Time: 1 hour 15 minutes or tester comes out clean
Pan: 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pan [5 mini loaves adjust bake time]

3/4 c butter, soften
1 1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 c non-fat greek yogurt, plain (I use full-fat vanilla greek yogurt for the bread at the party)

Dry Ingredients
2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c grounded coconut, unsweetened
1/4 c grounded golden flax seeds

1 cup ripe bananas, mashed [I throw my ripe bananas in my freezer, I used 3 medium size ones]
1/3 cup golden raisins *

Grease pan with oil and flour, set on the side. Sift together in a separate bowl dry ingredients and set on the side. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a ​time, mix in well then add vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients alternating with yogurt in 3 addition, starting with flour, don’t over mix. Fold in bananas and raisins.

Watch your bread as it got really dark at the end. I tented it with foil for the last 1/2 hour so it wouldn’t burn. I tested it with a bamboo skewer to see if it was done.

*I threw the raisins into the flour mixture so they were coated with the flour so they didn’t sink to the bottom.

 

by princesshotflash

Using up my supplies

I’m off to a 4th of July party today and I’m bringing blueberry apple crumb pie and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Pie ready for the oven

Cookies waiting their turn in the oven

This is a perfect way to get rid of whatever supplies I have left in my kitchen. I know it’s hot out but that’s what central air is for. I’m going to miss central air. And since I was in the mood I decided to make a batch of granola. I have way TOO much oatmeal.

Pre-bake granola

It all started with apples. I bought them to make apple bread pudding for some friends. That didn’t happen. Then I found some nice looking organic blueberries. I’ve been making a blueberry custard pie, which everyone loves. So I thought maybe I can combine the apples and blueberries with the custard filling and crumb top.

2 Golden Delicious slices for the pie

What I would do without the internet. I found this recipe as my guide. I added 1/2 cup extra blueberries and changed out the sour cream for plain yogurt. And eliminated the pecans because some at the party have nut allergies.

Tah Dah! Finish product right out of the oven.

Onward to the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Using my trusty hand mixer for the time being

This is the King Arthur recipe, supposedly it should be a little chewy. This sentence made me choose this recipe,

“Bake the cookies for 12 to 17 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown, with slightly darker edges. Their middles may still look a tiny bit shiny; that’s OK, they’ll continue to bake as they cool on the pan

Haha! The designer in me wanted to make this a pulled quote.

Their middles may still look a tiny bit shiny = chewy center. So this was the recipe. I remembered to take out the butter so creaming the butter and sugars was quick. 1/2 cup less of chocolate chips and my handy scooper to make the cookies equal size and even.

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dough

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done!

28 cookies later, ready for the party.

The last of the how to use as much oatmeal bonanza: Granola. Alton Brown’s Granola recipe with a few changes. Added walnuts, figs, cherries, and golden raisins plus cinnamon and turmeric. Remember this is an exercise in using up all my supplies.

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combining the dry ingredients

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wet ingredients

Two trays later, I guess I have a breakfast for me. Maybe I’ll give some of it away.