The Summer of Ganache

I think this is quickly becoming the Summer of Ganache.

Such a simple, elegant way to add a beautiful richness to a dessert. And so easy to screw up. ;)

Today I was winging it. Through an odd set of circumstances, I ended up not having all of the ingredients I needed to make what I wanted. I was topping a Banana Cream cake.

~This mixture was much thinner than I expected, if the pan didn't have sides, I could not have poured it on until it set up some. Oops.
~I wasn't crazy with how the white chocolate melted. Some of it really didn't want to melt, and I it looked grainy. But I had a lot of other factors, so I'll reserve judgment. But I might use Ghiradelli next time.
~I was out of vanilla (how did that happen?) and the unsweetened chocolate really needed flavor. I've never used rum in it before, but I thought the flavor would work.

So, here's what I did...it tasted good, but we'll see how it sets up.

In a glass bowl:
4 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped
8 oz. white baking chocolate, chopped

In a sauce pan:
2 oz. Rum
1/4 C raw sugar
1 C heavy cream

~Heat cream over medium heat, stirring regularly to keep from scorching.
~When it begins to boil, remove from heat, and pour over chocolate.
~Stir the mixture continuously, until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth.
~Pour over cake or into a container for later use. (Like an after work snack.)

I'll report back how this turned out. *fingers crossed*

Cheesecake with Chocolate-Orange Ganache

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated my son-in-law's birthday. He and I share a love for cooking/baking and overall good food. Really good. So given his love for cheesecake, I decided to step it up a notch and not only make the best cheesecake ever, but to try out a new recipe for ganache.

As you can see from the picture, my cheesecake got so tall, I didn't have a lot of room for ganache. I didn't use a spring form pan, so I couldn't take it out and let it run down the sides. Therefore, I had a lot of ganache left over, which was a good problem to have!

This is not an every day cheesecake. (Is there such a thing as and every day cheesecake? There should be.) I'm just saying, you might look at this recipe and start to calculate the calories. STOP! Just enjoy the cheesecake. I promise, it's worth every calorie.

The cheesecake is a modification of an old Amish recipe, the ganache is my own version. I do hope you enjoy it!

Leni's Notes:

~I had a chocolate-orange ganache in mind, so I went looking for ways to accomplish this. In the end, I decided on some premium chocolate with orange peel in it. (Linked below.) The orange peel had a wonderfully crispy crunch to it that went perfectly with the creaminess of the cake.

~I bake mine in a silicone pan, which makes it deeper, so if you use a wider pan, reduce the baking time. It will need at least one hour.

~Save any leftovers of ganache for a quick chocolate pick-me-up or stir into hot milk for cocoa. ;o)

Ingredients:
Crust
12 graham crackers
1/2 C butter, melted

Cheesecake
5 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, room temp
1 3/4 C sugar
3 T flour
1/2 t. vanilla
7 eggs, unbeaten, room temp
1/2 C heavy whipping cream, room temp

Chocolate-Orange Ganache
8 oz. semisweet baking chocolate, chopped
2 (3.2 oz) Chocolove Orange Peel in Dark Chocolate, chopped
1 C heavy whipping cream

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 250. (Not a typo, 250)

~Pulse graham crackers in a food processor until completely reduced to crumbs.
~Drizzle melted butter in, continue to pulse.
~Press mixture into silicone cake pan (on top of a cookie sheet, so you can move it around.)
~Place in fridge until ready to fill.
~In mixer, combine cream cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla.
You want this to be well combined and smooth, but do not overbeat!!
~Beat in eggs, one at a time.
~Stir in cream.
~Bake in 250 oven for 2 hours, then turn off heat and leave pan in oven for one hour.
~Cool at room temperature.
~Place chopped chocolate in a bowl.
~Heat cream until just about boiling, stirring so it does not scorch.
~Remove from heat, pour over chocolate, and stir until chocolate is completely melted.
~Allow to cool a bit before pouring over cheesecake.
~Pour slowly and allow for puddling of the ganache.
You might not use it all, so don't flood your dish!
~Chill cake before serving.

Blessings from my busy home to yours,
Leni

Glory Be, A Day At Home!

Today I had a very rare day at home. I mean completely at home. The kind of day where you only get dressed in case someone comes to the door.

I had a good kitchen day.

Crock pot:
2 pork tenderloins with baked potatoes
8 qts of bean dip (started from dry beans)

Oven/Stovetop:
Double Blueberry Rhubarb Crisp
4 pans of taco casserole for the freezer

I intended to make granola, also, but I ran out of steam!

I'm trying to grab pictures here and there to post later, but it's one of those seasons in life where I'm too busy living to take time to write about it. I'm ok with that. ;o)

Sloppy Joes for the Freezer

Currently Mondays are turning out to be the worst possible day for me to post recipes. Or to cook. To be fair, I don't really have a good day to cook, unless I get to it on the weekends. So I've gone back to my old practice for stocking the freezer. Once a week, I pick one meal to make in bulk and I put 3 of them in the freezer. Right now, my deep freeze has a nice stock of lasagna, enchilada casserole, chicken in gravy and sloppy joes.

Thankfully, my family is willing and able to help out. This goes really well, right up until I get distracted while writing down a recipe. My husband got a huge kick out of today's recipe calling for a good measure of black powder. You know, to give it some kick! lol. It would be fair to say my brain is a bit muddled. 

Today's recipe is a crock pot recipe that freezes well. Two of my favorite things. Not a lot of notes on this one, it's simple, yummy, and makes the masses happy. 

Leni's Notes:

~This recipe serves 3 meals for my family, with leftovers for lunches.

~Tater tots are the traditional side dish in our household. 

~Freeze the leftovers quickly, or your family will eat more than you intended and it won't stretch as far!

~This is also a great meal for kid's parties.

Ingredients

6 lbs ground beef, browned and drained

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 T. paprika

1 1/2 T chili powder

3/4 C brown sugar or raw sugar

6 tsp cumin

6 tsp salt

6 tsp corn starch

3 tsp garlic powder

1 1/2 tsp dry mustard

1 1/2 tsp pepper (not black powder!)

29 oz can plain tomato sauce

Instructions

~Dump everything in a large crock pot (I used my 8 quart.)

~Cook on low for 5-6 hours or high for 3-4 hours.

~Serve over split rolls, with slices of cheddar or colby jack cheese.

~Freeze extras in gallon ziplocs. 

Easy Hot Fudge

Whether you're looking for a simple, yummy gift to give for Christmas, or just having a serious chocolate craving, this hot fudge will do the trick. 

Many years ago, when Steve and I were dating, he introduced me to the best holiday treat ever. Peppermint Stick Ice Cream with Hot Fudge. How I had never come across this before is beyond me, but now it brings about the happiest memories for me. I was grocery shopping recently, and to my delight came across the coveted ice cream! There was nothing to do but grab some hot fudge and head home for a feast. Then I saw the price of a jar of hot fudge! Crazy! Especially when it's full of nasty stuff that does not make chocolate taste better.

So I detoured to the baking aisle to grab a couple of ingredients, and high-tailed it home to whip up some fudge while dinner was finishing up. 

Leni's Notes:
~Easy to dress up with some peppermint extract.
~This recipe will fill a one quart canning jar, with left overs. For gift giving, use jelly jars and dress up with some ribbon. Warms well in a water bath.
~Use this for one of the layers of an ice cream cake. I think I need to post that recipe too. Haven't made it in years. Yum...

Ingredients:
2 cans of sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 - 2 bags of good quality chocolate chips

Instructions:
~Place the chips in a glass bowl.
~Warm the sweetened condensed milk over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
~When milk starts to steam (best not to let it boil) remove from heat, and pour over chips.
~Stir gently until chips are all melted.
~If you're going to add any extracts, now would be the time to do so.
~Ladle over ice cream or whatever your little heart desires.
~Pour extras into canning jars and cover.
~Store in fridge, warm in a water bath.

Blessings from my kitchen to yours,
Leni

Sunday Before Thanksgiving

The turkey is brining!

My friend Briggie reminded me to take my turkey out of the freezer days ago. I was so glad, because I never take it out soon enough! Well, today is brining day and that 27 pound gobbler is still frozen solid! This is where I get creative in ways that Butterball would never approve of. But I digress.

I went ahead and started the process while it's still frozen. I've done it before, it works just fine. We're hoping to roast it on Wednesday and save ourselves some work on Thanksgiving!

I think this is the biggest bird I have ever roasted!

Shredded Chicken for the Freezer

My life has been hectic lately. Crazy, even. As much as I love to cook, I am rarely home to do so, and it makes me long for my stay-at-home-mom days. Honestly, I love having a day to spend in the kitchen. Probably why I love Thanksgiving so much. One day of the year set aside for  cooking more food than a house full of people could consume in one day! Bliss!

With my free time so very limited I've been challenged to find ways to still put home-cooked meals on the table with about 30 minutes to prep. The real challenge has been to find a way to pre-prep the food without losing any of the quality. Some veggies lend themselves well to pre-slicing, some side dishes can be made ahead and warmed, but the real stinker is meat.

I'll admit, I am picky about meat. I like a good cut of meat to begin with, and I can't stand meat that has that 'old' taste to it. Whether it's from sitting in the fridge or from freezer burn...I just can't stomach it. So what's a girl to do when she does not have the time to stop by the market every day to get fresh meat?

I have finally found my answer when it comes to chicken! It's been a lot of trial and error, but I found the method that produces a good post-freezer result.

I started off by getting four good roasting chickens. In the picture below, you'll see all four in one pan, but for roasting, I split them into two pans, so they weren't crowded.

We cooled them completely, and then I set Noelle to work on getting every bit of meat off of them that she could. (She has requested that next time we do two chickens at a time. ;o)

Once she had all the meat off the bone, I started making gravy. Now you could just do chicken broth, and if you're going to use the chicken in something non-gravy based, that's a good option. But for quality purposes, I really prefer the gravy method. Broth freezing was ok, but the meat texture was better with the gravy. (Gravy recipe below.) 

I made enough gravy to just cover the chicken, mixed it up and let it cool down a bit. Then we packaged it up in gallon size freezer bags. (Be sure to label and date your freezer food...no one wants to play the "How Long Has This Been In Here?" guessing game!)

Here's what we use this chicken for, usually in the crock pot.

Chicken and biscuits

Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Noodle Soup (add more broth) 

Chicken/broccoli/stuffing casserole

Chicken and Mashed potatoes

Chicken Stew (with dumplings, yum!)

Gravy Recipe (May take more than one batch, depending on how much chicken you have)

1/2 C Butter

3 Tbsp bouillon concentrate (Better than Bouillon is my favorite)
1/2 C Flour
2 Quarts water

Melt butter and bouillon, slowly incorporate flour until smooth.

Cook, stirring constantly for about one minute.
While whisking, begin to drizzle in water, pouring slowly until all water is added. 

Continue to whisk til smooth, stir until it starts to thicken.

Remove from heat, and it's ready to use.

Hope this is useful for you. I have been delighted many times to open the freezer and find that my dinner issues were solved because I'd already done the work!

Blessings from my kitchen to yours, 

Leni

Spicy Citrus Grilled Corn

Let me start by apologizing for the dark picture. By the time I realized how much we loved this new recipe, there was one ear of corn left and I had to get a pic quickly before it got devoured!

So I'm in Sam's with my daughter and her fiancé a week or so ago, and while we're looking at other items, I can hear the dialog on the televisions in the next section over. Now I cannot see the tv, so I have no idea who the chef was, or any specifics. But the recipe he mentioned sounded worth trying.

I tried to find the recipe, but found TONS of recipes for it. None of them agreed on the seasonings. All of them involved leaving the corn husks on (because apparently, that's how you grill corn.) Well my dad always did it that way too, but I hate messing with charred corn husks. So, in true Leni fashion, I threw out the rule book and decide to try it my own way. This was a collaboration between me, my husband and so-close-to-the-wedding-we're-almost-giddy-son-in-law. They did the cooking, I gave direction and advice. We make a pretty amazing team, let me tell you!

Suffice it to say, I don't think we'll ever eat regular corn again. We're already preparing for cold weather, trying to figure out how we could make a similar dish in the oven with frozen corn.

Leni's Notes:
~We used Extra Hot Indian Chili Powder. It's hot. So if you use regular chili powder, you won't get the same kick, but that might be a good thing. ;o)
~Extra lime juice will cut down the heat of the chili, so keep some on the table for folks to adjust the spiciness of their corn.
~Don't shy away from that charred look on the corn. It gave it some amazing flavor.
~This has a little kick, but is not overwhelming. Young children might not like it. (Though mine would have liked it at a young age.)
~Might I suggest putting out some wet washcloths on the table? This is a messy one, which is a sign of a good food in our house.

Recipe:
12 ears of corn

3/4 C salted butter
3 tsp. chili powder (see note above,) adjust to personal taste
1 Tbsp lime juice, plus extra for the table


Instructions:
~Peel all of the corn, place in a large enough stock pot to allow you to cover it with water.
~Cover with water and turn on high. The idea is to get it good and steamy, not necessarily boiling. I suggest turning it on and then going out to get the grill ready, we cooked the sausage while the corn heated up.
~In a small pan, melt butter and mix in the chili powder and lime juice.
~When the corn is good and hot and soaked, (maybe 20-30 min) pull out with tongs and place on grill over low flame.
~Immediately start basting the corn with the butter mixture. Turn, baste, wait, repeat.
~When it starts to get charred, you're about done. The amount of time it takes will depend entirely on how hot your flame is. ;o)
~Let cool slightly before serving, it improves the flavor.

Enjoy!

Brine is My Friend - And Yours Too!

Let's talk a little bit about brining meat, shall we?

Back in 2006, I posted quite a bit about brining turkeys, but have since found a much easier way to do so. Dry brining has to be the the most brilliant thing to ever happen to a piece of meat or poultry. Makes for a moist, tender final product.

So on my meat recipes, I will always note if I have brined the meat, because it impacts how much salt you'll want to add to the rest of the recipe.

Wet Brine 
There are two ways to do a wet brine.
Slow Brine: Dissolve a lesser amount of salt in water, good if you have a longer time to let it sit.
Quick Brine: Higher amount of salt in the water, especially good for if you need the meat quickly.


Either way, when you're ready to cook, you need to rinse the brine off before cooking the meat.

Dry Brine
Place meat in bag, add salt, leave it alone until you're ready to cook.

Much easier, and much less messy.


You do NOT need to rinse the salt off of this meat before cooking.


Essentially, you are putting the salt on the meat and allowing it to draw the moisture out, then allowing the meat to reabsorb the moisture. Ideally, this is a three day process. Remember, salt helps preserve the meat, so you don't need to be concerned about raw meat in the fridge for three days.

For a turkey, roaster bags work wonderfully for the brining process (though you don't need the bag for roasting!) You can start the process when the turkey is still frozen, but it tends to take longer than three days, so plan accordingly.

When we bring a package of meat home, we divide it up into large tip-top plastic bags, and sprinkle it with kosher sea salt. When you're doing a turkey, it's a tablespoon of salt per five pounds of meat. When I'm working with smaller amounts, I kind of eye-ball it. A teaspoon or two of salt per bag. If we're eating it in the next 24 hours, I leave it in the fridge. If not, I throw it in the freezer as is, and it will brine as it thaws.

Brined meat tends to cook faster, so you'll want to check it a little sooner, and possibly lower your cooking temp.