Tag Archives: Fruit

Very Pinteresting…Recipes I’ve Actually Tried

Posted on March 29, 2012 | 3 Comments

Unless you are being held prisoner in a basement or something, I’m sure you have either heard of Pinterest or have already started pinning your heart out.  I admit it, I’m a serial pinner.  Like a pin hoarder.  But, I am happy to report that I have actually made some things I’ve seen on there.  I’m even happier to report that I’ve only had one REALLY EPIC FAIL:  dehydrated strawberries in the oven.  Don’t believe the pictures, people!  Anyway, I thought I’d share a few of the ones I have tried and liked.  I’ve linked to the pin on my board so you can check out the recipes if you like.

LEMON BROWNIES

We really liked these.  Mr. Foodie doesn’t like brownies (I know, right?) so these really worked for him.  They are really heavy and rich, which, in this case, is a good, good thing…

MONKEY BARS

Let me just say that I’m ALWAYS on the hunt for the best banana bar/cake.  I think this is my favorite banana anything recipe.  I loved this and if you like banana stuff, you will too!  Try it, it’s a keeper!

EGG CREAM

Pictured is a strawberry egg cream I made for Mr. Foodie, which he loved.  I made a chocolate one for myself.  I personally think they are kind of weird.  It’s not that they taste bad or anything, it’s just a weird mouth experience to me.  I’m expecting creamy, milky goodness and am met with sparkly, carbonation.  It’s unexpected so I’m not sure how I feel about Egg Creams.  Mr. Foodie is sold on them, however, so they will be making appearances in the house!

GRANDS DONUTS

Donuts out of canned biscuits?  Say it ain’t so?  Oh, it is.  And they are really good!  We tried some dipped in sugar and some in cinnamon sugar.  We much preferred the ones dipped in plain sugar.  These make some tasty, light donuts.  Foodie Jr. and I gobbled them up.  They are a little reminiscent of malasadas to me, a Portuguese donut.

I’m sure I’ll be posting about more winning Pinterest finds in the future, I just wanted to share a few with you today.  Head on over and follow me – I’m on there as Foodie Interrupted!

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Dessert Three Ways

Posted on December 1, 2011 | Leave a comment

I really enjoy being a part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program.  I was recently picked to try out Duncan Hines and Comstock products for this go round.  I was given some coupons for myself and to share with others for free products.  All my friends and family were very happy!  I chose several products to try:  Duncan Hines Decadent Triple Chocolate Cake with the Amazing Chocolate Glaze, Duncan Hines Brownie Mix and the Comstock Lemon Pie filling.

I made the Decadent Triple Chocolate Cake with the Amazing Chocolate Glaze as- is for my mother’s birthday party.  This cake was to die for!  We all really enjoyed it.  I made it as a bundt cake and it was so moist and rich.  The Glaze was so, so easy to use and I personally think it is much more yummy than regular frosting.  This is definitely a must-try, even if you are partial to scratch baking.

I used the Brownie mix to make a peppermint mocha brownie by just adding one tablespoon of instant espresso powder and 1 cup of chopped white chocolate peppermint bark.  I based this around popular holiday drinks as I thought the brownie would lend really well to the flavors.  I used a lot more instant espresso than I normally would as I really wanted to drive the mocha flavor home and it worked!  The brownies were very easy and turned out just as I had planned so I was really happy with them.

For the Comstock Lemon Pie filling, I made a bread pudding.  It was my first time making bread pudding but I really thought that lemon would go well with the texture and mild flavor.  Again, I was really happy with the result!  It came out creamy with a mild lemon flavor, our family really enjoyed it!

I really urge you to try any of these products, whether to bake as-is or to experiment with putting your own twist on them!  Thank you to Foodbuzz, Duncan Hines and Comstock for giving me the opportunity to try these great products!

LEMON BREAD PUDDING

Ingredients:

12 Cups of Croissant or Butterflake Rolls, cubed

6 Eggs

1 Cup Sugar

2 Cups Whole Milk

1 Tsp Pure Maple Syrup

1 Cup All Purpose Flour

1 Can of Comstock Lemon Pie Filling

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Generously grease a 9×13 pan.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, sugar and maple syrup together.  Gradually mix in the milk and the flour until well blended.

3.  Add bread cubes to the mixture and stir until all bread cubes have soaked up the liquid.  Add half the can of lemon pie filling to the bread mixture and mix well.

4.  Add half of the bread cubes to the baking dish.  Spread half the can of the lemon pie filling over the entire the layer.

5.  Add the remaining bread mixture on top of the lemon pie filling.

6.  Bake for 45 minutes, toothpick inserted should come out clean.

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Cranberry Jalapeno Sauce

Posted on November 24, 2011 | 2 Comments

Or ‘cranapeno’ sauce?  Whether you go with the long drawn out name in the title or the cutesy nickname I gave it, it tastes the same – good.  I’ve known a lot of people over the years who make a version of this and I generally put my feet up and let someone else make the cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving but this year, I thought I’d give it a try.  (Frankly, I did not even start eating any kind of cranberry sauce until maybe five years ago, it never did anything for me.)  And though I now love my beloved can-shaped, congealed, whatever that is that graces family tables every year (I know, I know) this kicks butt on that.  I love the sweet heat of this sauce and can’t wait to try it with my bird tomorrow.  Confession?  I can’t wait to try in on my leftover turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving.  Even bigger confession?  I will probably dump this on cream cheese or ricotta and eat it with crackers before it even takes it’s place on the table next to that stinkin’ bird.  So, from my table to yours, I hope you have a really great Turkey day and relish is all the things you are most thankful for.  Oh, and if you need something to be thankful for – make this.

Okay, so once I threw the jalapeno in, I just loved the festive color of the dish.  It made me want to start playing Christmas carols, almost.  So, I wanted to share this photo because well, I thought it was pretty.

CRANBERRY JALAPENO SAUCE

1 12 oz Bag of Fresh Cranberries, washed

1 Cup Water

1 Cup White Sugar

1-3 Jalapeno Peppers, cleaned, seeded and chopped (This pepper amount is dependent on how big of a spicy kick you want your sauce to have.  I used one larger one and one medium one and liked it just fine.)

Juice from 1/2 a Lime

1/4 Cup of Cream Sherry

Directions:

1.  Add sugar and water to a sauce over medium-high heat and bring to a slow boil.

2.  Add cranberries and lower heat, simmer for 10-12 minutes.

3.  Add Jalepenos and lime juice and continue to simmer another 10-15 minutes, until you get the consistency you want.

4.  Add in Cream Sherry and simmer a few minutes longer.

5.  Remove from heat and serve either room temp or chilled.

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Blackberry Chipotle Glazed Pork Ribs

Posted on September 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

Since BBQ season is sort of coming to a close, I thought I’d post a rib recipe Mr. Foodie and I made recently after we found ourselves with a refrigerator full of blackberries.  (Oh, the sales!)  I actually got this recipe out of a local grocery store handout and was quite enticed by the picture and the word ‘glaze’.  This came out good, with a balance of sweet and smokey flavors.  Mr. Foodie liked it a bit better than I did, I thought there was a little bit too much tang but I suppose this would also depend on the berries used so this recipe could vary batch to batch.  It was different and a nice alternative to our regular rub with BBQ sauce.  Enjoy these last few weeks of summer and get out there and grill!

BLACKBERRY CHIPOTLE GLAZED PORK RIBS

Ingredients:

3 Racks of Baby Back Pork Ribs

For Spice Rub:

1/4 Cup Paprika

2 TBS Sugar

1 1/2 TBS Chili Powder

1 1/2 TBS Salt

1 TBS Ground Black Pepper

1 TBS Garlic Powder

1 Tsp Cayenne Pepper

For The Glaze:

1 TBS Olive Oil

1 Cup Diced Onion

3 Garlic Cloves, chopped

1 TBS Chipotle Chilis in Adobo, seeds removed and chopped

3 6 oz. Packages of Blackberries

1/2 Cup Balsamic Vinegar

1/2 Cup Sugar

1 Tsp Salt

Directions:

1.  Mix all spice rub ingredients in small bowl and rub mixture onto each side of rib racks.

2.  Cover ribs with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

3.  In a medium saucepan, over medium-high heat, cook the onion until soft, about 4 minutes.

4.  Add the garlic, saute for 1 minute and then add the chipotle chilies and stir constantly for 1 minute.

5.  Add blackberries, balsamic vinegar, sugar and salt and then stir until well blended.

6.  Bring blackberry mixture to a boil, stirring frequently.

7.  Reduce heat to low and simmer until reduced to 1 1/2 Cups, about 35 minutes.

8.  Remove from heat and place in blender and puree for about 2 minutes, until smooth.

9.  Strain to remove seeds.

10.  Grill Ribs about 20 minutes over indirect heat.

11.  Brush the glaze on both sides of each rib rack and turn to baste about every ten minutes.

12.  Repeat the basting process 2-3 times, until the ribs are cooked through.

13.  When meat pulls away from the bone, ribs are done.

14.  Take ribs off the grill and let rest about 1o minutes, covered in foil before serving.

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Easy Strawberry Trifle

Posted on July 9, 2011 | Leave a comment

We recently had a new grocery store open up close to us and they had a special on strawberries.  Never one to pass up a deal, I purchased a whole bunch of them!  Foodie, Jr. is a big lover of the strawberry but even with his voracious berry appetite, I still needed to find a use for the strawberries overflowing in my refrigerator.  Enter Fourth of July.  We were headed to a family get together and I decided to throw together something to bring, involving – you guessed it – strawberries.  I threw together this very easy trifle.  So easy, it will make your head spin.  Everyone really seemed to like it a lot, it was gone anyway.  So, if you find yourself needing to use a bunch of strawberries or hard pressed to bring a potluck dish, I highly recommend this!

EASY STRAWBERRY TRIFLE

Ingredients:

4 Cups of Fresh Stawberries, sliced plus a few whole for garnish

1 Box of Instant Vanilla Pudding

1 Tub of Whipped Topping

1 Angel Food Cake, cubed

Directions:

1.  Prepare instant pudding then fold in whipped topping until well incorporated.

2.  In a trifle dish, or similar, start with a layer of about 1/3 of pudding mixture.  Next a layer of angel food cake and then a layer of strawberries.  You should be able to repeat this twice and then end with a layer of pudding mixture on top.

3.  Garnish with strawberries, whole or sliced, as you desire.

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Bossa Nova Superfruit Juice

Posted on November 10, 2010 | 1 Comment

The good folks over at Bossa Nova were so kind as to send me a very generous supply of their Superfruit juices to try.  I was very excited  because I had never tried their product before and they used several fruits that I was not familiar with.  They sent me a wide variety of flavors:

  • Original, Acai Berry
  • Acai with Blueberry
  • Goji Berry with Tart Cherry
  • Mangosteen with Dragionfruit
  • Acerola with Mango
  • Mangosteen with Passionfruit
  • Acerola with Red Peach
  • Acai with Passionfruit
  • Acai with Raspberry
  • Acai with Mango

As a family we do not drink a lot of juice because of the sugar content, though Mr. Foodie and Foodie Jr. love juice.  We also never keep anything with artificial sweetener in the house.  I was pleasantly surprised to learn the Bossa Nova Superfruit Juices do not use white sugar but rather an agave nectar as a sweetener.  In comparison with some of the the other similar juices out on the market, these juices are considerably lower in sugar content – always a plus.  Our whole family loved them!  They all tasted wonderful and I personally really enjoyed the texture as some were thicker than others, especially noticeable with the juices containing mango.  These juices tasted like real fruit and tasted very fresh.  I loved seeing that the ingredient list only contained the fruit and agave nectar, no fillers or artificial anything.  As someone who is always looking for good things to serve her child, these juices made me happy!  Although they are available at some specialty higher end markets, I am happy to report that they are also available at my local Safeway grocery store so I do not have to go far to get them!  If you would like more information on the Bossa Nova juices, please visit them HERE.  Give them a try, you will not be disappointed!

I also created a little recipe using one of their juices that our family really enjoyed.  I hope you will too!

 

FURIKAKE CHICKEN WITH BOSSA NOVA ACEROLA MANGO SWEET & SOUR SAUCE

Ingredients For Chicken:

1 Lb Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into pieces

4 Eggs, beaten

2 Cups Flour

½ – 3/4 Cup Nori Komi Furikake Mix

Vegetable Oil for Frying

Ingredients for Sauce:

½ Cup Bossa Nova Acerola Mango Juice

¼ Cup Ketchup

¼ Cup White Sugar

1 TBS (Heaping) Cornstarch

1 Tsp Worcestershire Sauce

½ Tsp Garlic Powder

1 Tsp Yellow Mustard

1 Tsp Fresh Ginger paste

Directions for Chicken:

  1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat, oil should cover the entire bottom of the pan, about ¼ of an inch.
  2. Mix Flour and Furikake mix well and put on plate, for dredging.
  3. Pat chicken dry and place in egg wash.
  4. Remove excess egg from the chicken and dredge in the flour mixture.
  5. Fry chicken pieces in oil until golden brown and cooked through, turning only once.

Directions for Sauce:

  1. Place all ingredients in saucepan and combine well.
  2. Heat over medium high heat until mixture thickens and reduces a bit to your desired consistency.  Sauce should be on the thicker side.  Keep on low heat until ready to serve.

Serve chicken pieces with sauce for dipping.

 

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Plum Chicken

Posted on November 2, 2010 | 1 Comment

This recipe was adapted from one of my favorite food bloggers, The Noble Pig.  Her recipe for Tangy-Sweet Plum Spiced Chicken really caught my eye.  I love recipes that pack big flavor with minimal ingredients, especially when I have all the ingredients on hand!  This recipe could not be more simple, I can probably teach Foodie Jr. to make it – assuming I would ever let him be in charge of a heating element…

Remember my previous post on the Homemade Plum Jam that I made with my cooking club?  Well, the overabundance of jam had me on the hunt for recipes I could use it in because toast gets old after a while!  In her recipe, The Noble Pig used Chinese Five Spice.  Although I think it would go really well with the plum, I opted not to use it because I generally do not care for it.  My version still came out really good and suited our family well – very kid friendly.  It is a good answer to homemade take-out.  We ate ours with rice and broccoli but I am thinking that it would be fabulous in some homemade crepes, in a pseudo mu shu way.

PLUM CHICKEN

Ingredients:

3 Large Chicken Breasts, cut into large cubes

1 Tsp Poultry Seasoning (I used a Salt-Free version from Trader Joes)

1/2 Tsp Sea Salt

2-3 TBS Olive Oil

1/2 Tsp Chicken Boullion

1/2 Cup Water

1/2 Cup Plum Jam

2 TBS Balsamic Vinegar

Directions:

1.  Season chicken with poultry seasoning and salt, toss in bowl.

2.  Heat olive oil  in large skillet over medium-high heat and then add chicken.  Once chicken is browned and cooked through, remove from skillet and set aside.

3.  To skillet, add chicken boullion, water, plum jam and balsamic vinegar.  Mix with flat whisk until all parts are well blended.  Bring to a boil and reduce sauce until you get a nice, thick syrup consistency, about 5 minutes or so.

4.  Add chicken back into skillet.  Toss to coat with plum mixture, about two minutes.  Serve immediately.

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Happy Halloween – Snickers Salad

Posted on November 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

This recipe came out of Mr. Foodie’s family cookbook. But, from what I understand, it is popular in the Midwest.  Whatever it is, it is good.  We have traditionally made it for our Halloween parties.  We partied with friends tonight and it was our contribution to the dessert table, so ‘salad’ is a little misleading…  I read somewhere that whether you call it a salad or a dessert depends on which end of the table you put it on – pretty funny.  This is such a simple thing to throw together, great for potluck type events.

I opted to photograph the ingredients instead of the finished product because frankly, creamy white food stuff doesn’t photograph very well…

SNICKERS SALAD

Ingredients:

1 Tub Extra Creamy Cool Whip, thawed

1 Large Box Vanilla Instant Pudding, prepared per box instructions

1 Bag of Fun Size Snickers Bars, unwrapped and chopped

4-5 Green Apples, cored and chopped

Directions:

1.  Toss all ingredients in a large bowl until well combined.

2.  Chill until ready to serve.

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Cooking Club’s Plum Jam

Posted on October 6, 2010 | 5 Comments

(I was playing with the ‘boost color’ setting on my photo editor for this pic…)

A few girlfriends and I started a cooking club earlier this year.  We get together once a month, usually rotating houses.  The host will pick a general theme and either prepare the entire meal for everyone or everyone will make one course of the meal.   And of course, being a group of busy mothers, sometimes we pick a new restaurant or type of cuisine we would like to try and we go out!  Recently, we had been discussing canning – primarily because of the over abundance of plums on one of our members trees and also in an effort to cut down the sugar (and processed) foods our kids eat.  Sadly, none of us had done a whole lot of true canning.  We are lucky enough that one of our members has a mother who does know the ins and outs of canning.  She volunteered to spend the day with us, prepping the goods and teaching us how to do it, live and in person!  I know I had some trepidation going into the canning lesson but she was so clear and concise that it seemed like a breeze by the end of it.  We actually chose to can two things:  plum jam and marinara sauce.

I think we were really fortunate that the fresh plums were picked at their peak because this is some of the best jam I have ever had!  We used Mariposa Plums – some interesting information on these California plums can be found here.  You will see that the recipe does call for quite a bit of real sugar but with this jam, a tiny bit goes a long way.  It’s big on flavor and sweetness, we all really liked it.  I have used it for several different dishes, that I will eventually feature on this blog:  a filling along with cream cheese for dessert won tons, a plum sauce for mu shu pork  and plum glazed chicken.  Above, it is pictured on toast – a great way to eat it to get the true essence of the jam itself.

HOMEMADE PLUM JAM

Ingredients (per batch):

4 1/2 Cups of Plums, chopped and seeded (we kept the skin on)

1/2 Cup Water

7 Cups of Sugar*

1 3 oz Package of commercial, liquid pectin

1 Tsp Lemon Juice

*Yes, that is 7 cups of sugar!  We decided, to stick with a full, real sugar recipe for our first time at this.  We may try a lower sugar recipe next time.)

Directions:

1.  Sterilize glass jars and lids in canning pot of boiling water, 10 minutes.

2.  Remove jars from boiling water and place in warm oven (lowest setting) until you are ready to fill.  You do not want to let them cool completely as you will be filling them with the hot liquid jam.

3.  In a sauce pan over medium-high heat, add your plums, water and lemon juice.  Stir mixture often and bring to a boil.

4.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5.  Stir in sugar and return heat to medium high, bring to a boil.  Add pectin and return to a boil.  Continue to stir constantly for one minute then remove from heat.

6.  Let the mixture sit for one minute.

7.  Poor mixture into jars, leaving about a 1/4 inch of space at the top.

8.  Wipe any excess jam from the rims of the glass jars – this helps the lids to seal properly.

9.  Place lids on jars and put them in the large canning pot of boiling water for 5 minutes.

10.  Remove jars and let cool, you may hear a ‘pop’ when they seal.

11.  Label jars and store in a cool, dry place.

Note:  We made about 20 jars total, so we did this process 4 times.

 

Plum on Foodista

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