Artichokes...

Cooked Artichokes

Artichokepg19:  The bud of a plant from the thistle family; (that's a funny word, thistle)  has gray-green petal shaped leaves with soft flesh that can be dipped in a sauce, and an inedible choke cloaking the tender center (heart) that's considered the prize of the artichoke.

My husband Shawn actually introduced me to whole artichokes when we first met.  It was one the first things he ever cooked for me.  I remember when he first made them I'm pretty sure I looked at him like he was crazy.  I think I look at him like that most of the time anyway.  Ha ha.  But I was like, "You want me to eat what?  The leaves?  For real?"  It was obviously a California thing (FYI, he's from California).  So I was surprised to even see them in the Southern Living cookbook.  He cooks them a totally different way then this cookbook says, and his way works really well, it's a little messy of course.  Everything he does in the kitchen is messy.  Delicious, but MESSY!  Aaaaanyway....You boil them in a pot large enough to cover them with water and add a little lemon juice to keep them from browning.  Is this really necessary?  Shawn's never get brown.  He also steams them in the microwave.  Be careful when you take them out.  They are extremely steaming and hot.  You might just give yourself an artichoke facial!  (There's a new one boss lady!  Ha ha!)  So eating them is the fun part!  Shawn wasn't home when I ate mine, so it wasn't as fun. :-(   You pull off the leaves, dip the bottom in a sauce (Shawn always uses butter and mayo.  I know it sounds icky, but it's not, I promise) and then scrape off the flesh with your teeth.  OK, now that I'm hearing myself say that, it sounds a little carnage like.  Hmmm, I don't know how else to describe it though.  Now I haven't quite mastered the art of getting the heart out of the bottom.  I butchered it to be frank.  (Again with the carnage, I must be low on iron or something.  Sheesh).  There's a fuzzy part of the choke that your supposed to cut out.  You really don't want to eat that part, trust me, it's gross!  But I can never cut it out for some stupid reason.  Shawn usually does that for me, and well, I just didn't have him at me disposal this time. So I put my big girl panties on and gave it a go...and...fail.  No artichoke heart for me.  Oh well.  Better luck next time.

Southernism:  A Carolina favorite, "hearty chokes" were popular from 1811 and were cheap enough in those days that only the bottoms were used, never the leaves.  

It's Kinda Like Crack...

Puppy Chow!

...Not that I've ever had crack before, but this stuff is uber addicting!  It's called Puppy Chow, and no, it's not for dogs.  They cannot and certainly should not eat it.  I've been contemplating on changing the name because every time I tell someone what it is, their response is, "like dog food?" and then proceed to wrinkle their nose in disgust, or something  along those lines.  But then, it just wouldn't be the same.  It wouldn't stick even if I did change the name of it.  It's been that for so long.  This recipe is not in the Southern Living cookbook, but in lieu of the upcoming holidays, I made like 3 freaking batches of it and thought it worthy of blogging about.  I had to do one batch at a time because I didn't have a bowl big enough for it all.  I made a big mess too.  I had to wipe down the counters like 6 times!!!  Puppy Chow has been a long time holiday tradition in my family. More like a staple.  Every year someone asks, "Where's the Puppy Chow?"  Momzy taught me how to make this long before she let me start baking.  I mean seriously, I was probably like 3.  When I was little she started me a cookbook, which was only a spiral notebook mind you, but it was still mine.  She had me write down all the recipes we made together and ones to try too.  I still have it to this day!  And Puppy Chow is one of the first recipes in it.  It's the only place I have the recipe written down.  Because it's Christmas and I feel all cheery and giving, I thought I would share it with all of you.  However...I have made a few changes over the years as I have become more adventurous in my baking and candy making, not that I've ever been a chocolatier or anything, but I'm giving you the recipe as is, and fill in where I've made substitutions and additions.  So Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Ho Ho Ho!!!

The original recipe

 Puppy Chow
1 18oz box Honey Grahm Cereal
1 15oz box Golden raisins (I substitute pretzel rods chopped into 1/4in pieces)
1 12oz can mixed nuts
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 12oz jar chunky peanut butter
1 tsp Vanilla
1 lb bag confectioners sugar
1 stick margarine (butter makes it too greasy, trust me on this)
*this year I added cinnamon almonds yum!

In a very large bowl (the biggest one you can find) combine cereal, raisins, and nuts (and pretzels).  In medium sauce pan, melt together chocolate chips, peanut butter, and margarine.  Stir in vanilla and pour over cereal mixture.  Put confectioners sugar in a large, unscented kitchen garbage bag.  Add the mixture, twisting the top closed, and shake up until all is coated. (Use hands for most of the mixing to separate all the pieces).  After mixed, even out into pans to cool completely.  Store in airtight container.  *side note:  store in individual serving sizes so you don't accidentally eat the entire batch all at once.  Don't say I didn't warn you!  :-)

My house smelled like Christmas!

OK so early last week I made some Apple Butter!  I made two different batches.  One from the book, and the other, one of my personal recipes.  I altered the one in the book mainly because of one particular food natzi in my family, well she's more like a sugar natzi, who will remain nameless.  But you know who are.  Ha ha!  So I will blog about that one.  

Oven Baked Apple Butterpg18  In my recipe, I cook mine in slow cooker.  This one, however is baked, which worked pretty well, except for the fact I felt like I had to keep adding liquid to the baking dish.  I feel if I had just left it in the dutch oven I cooked the apples down in, with the lid on, it wouldn't dry out as much.  The only thing I changed in this recipe is I switched out the sugar for Spenda.  It tasted pretty good if you don't mind artificial sweetener.  I did noticed the color of the butter wasn't as dark as I would think it would be had I used the real deal.  Notice the difference in the two jars in the picture?  The one on the right is full of sinful, delicious sugar, and the one on the left is the more figure friendly imposture version.  Both so deliscious, I decided to can them and give them as gifts this year for Christmas.  Oh, and BTW, apple butter is best when served on hot, fresh out the oven biscuits!  Yummy!!!
Canning:pg82  Preserving food by heating jars of food hot enough and long enough, and, with some of food, under enough pressure to keep food from spoiling.                        

I made a big mess in the kitchen

I swear, I hate dredging!!!  I always end up with a counter covered in flour, not mention I'm covered in flour!  I even got a little in my hair.  Ewe.  OK, so tonight's menu...Classic Trout Amandinepg13 (um, OK, first Publix did not have any trout, fresh or frozen for that matter, so I went with tilapia instead) so, I guess really it was Classic Tilapia Amandine which I served with steamed green beans and for dessert, Granny Smith Apple Piepg17

Tilapia Amandine

Amandine (AH mahn deen)  A French term for a dish garnished with Almonds.pg12  Let me start off by saying this dish was pretty tasty.  The fish was amazing, flaky and light and great flavor.  It was lightly dredged in flour and pan fried.  Hence the mess I made in the kitchen.  You would have thought I had got in a fight with the Pillsbury dough boy!  However the sauce, although good, called for 2 sticks of butter!!!  2 Sticks!!!  It's like Paula Dean wrote this recipe and just added an extra stick just because she wanted to.  It was so incredibly rich, that I almost didn't even try the apple pie.  (yeah, right, who are we kidding).  I think I may have browned the butter a little too much anyway.  I will definitely be modifying this recipe.  It certainly doesn't need that much butter.  Really only enough to toast the almonds.

Granny Smith Apple Pie

I think I may have heard little birds sing when I took a bite out of this pie.  OMG  I mean really!  It didn't come out looking like a blue ribbon prize winner but it seriously taste amazing!  Not to shake my own little wooden spoon or anything, but I think this pie here might give my sister-in-law, Jenn's apple pie a run for it's money.  (BTW, she makes a bomb ass apple pie).  The only thing that would make this any tastier is a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
A La Mode (ah la MOHD)  A French term that has been "Americanized" to mean pie topped with ice cream.pg10   Those French are so smart.