Texas Mustard Potato Salad

4 russet potatoes, wash, dice in bite size pieces (leave on the peeling), boil until done, but don't overcook.
2 hard boiled eggs, diced,  high simmer for 30 min, pour off hot water and add cold water (this trick makes the eggs easier to peel, 
1 small white onion, peel and dice small
1 cup celery, chopped small
1 red sweet bell pepper, remove seeds and membrane, chop small
1/2 cup Mayo (not salad dressing(
1/4 cup Mustard (plain ole yellow mustard)
sea salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup dill pickles chopped small
1 tablespoon vinegar (taste and see if you want your salad to have a bit more zing)
small jar of green olives stuffed with pimentos, or ripe olives or both

You gotta love potato salad!  I like to combine the veggies and seasoning into the cooked potatoes and serve warm.  If you want cold potato salad, cool the potatoes prior to combining all ingredients

Black Bean and Mango Salad

Black Bean and Mango Salad

1 can Black Beans, rinse and drain
3 ripe mango's, peel and dice
6 green onions, cut in small slices
1 jalepano, remove seeds and membrane, dice
l red sweet bell pepper, remove seeds and membrane, cut in small pieces
1/4 cup fresh cilentro, remove leaves from stem and chop small
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
salt to taste
1 tablespoon sugar, if you like the sweet/tart flavor

Directions above.  This is a yummy salad that will bring a smile to your family and impress your friends.

Tunnel of Fudge Bundt Cake

•  Decadent

Isn't it ironic?  Last night my husband was reading a new book I bought, "Bottom Line's Healthy Heart, The Breakthrough Program to Prevent, Halt and Even Reverse Heart Disease", and after only one chapter requested I make a chocolate cake!  Reading all the things he needed to cut from his diet made him crave chocolate sweets.  I am always up for cooking so I searched my recipe's and decided to make as old favorite I hadn't made in years. 

Why did I stop making a fovorite recipe?  Well I couldn't find the ingredients.  Betty Crocker used to make a powered chocolate fudge icing mix and then stopped!  The icing mix was a key ingredient and I could not find it.  On the internet, Betty Crocker admitted they stopped making the icing mix and many people had requested it, so they came up with a substitute recipe for The Tunnel of Fudge Cake.  It was a flop!  I just wrote off the cake, but kept looking for powdered icing mix as I went on with life and baking.  Recently, I moved to San Antonio and the closest organic store to me is Sun Harvest and they carry a chocolate powdered icing mix made by Cherrybrook Kitchen.  Ironic isn't it?  About the time you give up on something you loved, it comes right back into your life.  So the moral of this story is:  Be happy, be healthy, never give up and eat more chocolate!


Tunnel of Fudge Bundt Cake

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (3 sticks) room temperature

6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour (not sifted)
1 cup sugar
1 package Cherrybrook Kitchen chocolate frosting mix
1 teaspoon vanilla
 1/4 teaspoon salt
Mix butter, sugar and vanilla until creamy approximately 2 min. with stand mixer. mix in sugar and frosting mix and beat about 1 minute, add flour and mix well as slow speed until flour is not visable.  Bake at 350 degree oven for 1 hour in a greased and floured bundt pan.  Cool 2 hours on rack in pan, flip onto serving dish and ice with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting 

1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2 tablespoon heavy wipping cream
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups confectioners sugar
2 squares (o ounce each) unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled

In a small bowl with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, milk and vanilla until smooth.  Add confectioners' sugar and continue beating until frosting is smooth.  Add melted chocolate; mix well.  If necessary, add a little more cream until frosting is of spreading consistency.  Frost cooled cake.

Mothers Cinnamon-Pecan Coffecake

Comfort Food







As cold-fronts push their way down into Central Texas, the weather becomes very heavy.  The South doesn't have the pleasure of a brisk, invigorating fall just gray skies and lots of rain.  Of course, after a long drought the rain is welcome by all, especially Mother Nature.  She is very busy spreading pollen everywhere and in great abundance.  Thus an epidemic of seasonal allergies.


Seasonal allergies, depression and just plain going crazy from being indoors.  How do you fight Mother Nature?  You try lots of vitamin C, lots of fluids, and the dreaded allergy medications. Medicine does go down easier with a teaspoon of sugar, but sugar doesn't do a thing for the side effects.



I hate medication of any kind.  I seem to always have additional symptoms on top of the allergy symptoms, caused by the medication's side effects.  I went out to my grandsons soccer practice yesterday afternoon; big mistake.  I ended up sneezing and hacking my way home to a hot shower.  Central Texas weather in the fall is:  90 degrees, very humid, and lots of pollen, mold spores and mildew!  How do you fight Mother Nature?  Bake a cake!


I chose to bake, "Mother's Cinnamon-Pecan Coffee Cake".  While preparing this wonderful soul fulfilling coffee cake I listened to, "Frank Sinatra, Christmas Carols", while drinking Chia tea with a cinnamon stick.  I felt much better.


Mothers Cinnamon-Pecan Coffeecake
from "Southern Cakes" by Nancy McDermott

Cinnamon-Raisin Filling

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar (packed)
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups golden raisins
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, melted


Coffee Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and grease and flour a 13" by 9" pan.


For the filling, in a medium bowl, combine the light brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon and stir with a fork to mix everything well.  In a second bowl, combine the raisins and pecans in another bowl and toss to mix them.  In a third bowl, microwave the butter until melted.  Set all three bowls aside.


For the coffee cake batter, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl, and stir with a fork to mix them together well.  Stir the vanilla into the milk.  In a large bowl, combine the butter and the sugar, and beat with a mixer at high speed, stopping to scrape down the bowl, until pale yellow and evenly mixed, about 2 minutes.  Add the eggs and beat for another 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl now and then, until the mixture is smooth and light.


Using a Large spoon or a spatula, add about a third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and stir only until the flour disappears.  Add about a third of the milk and mix it in.  Repeat two more timers with the remaining flour and milk, stirring just enough each time to keep the batter smooth.


Spread half the batter evenly over the bottom of the prepared pan.  Sprinkle half the cinnamon mixture over the batter, followed by half the melted butter.  Scatter half the raisins and nuts over the batter.  Spread the remaining batter all the way to the edges of the pan.  Top with the remaining cinnamon mixture, butter, and nut mixture, covering the cake evenly.


Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes, until the cake is golden brown, fragrant, and beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan.  Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes on a wire rack . and then serve in squares right from the pan.  The cake is delicious hot, warm, or at room temperature.  You can reheat individual servings for approximately 10 seconds in your microwave.  Note:  if the raisins and nuts begin to get too brown, you can cover you pan with a foil tent the last 15 to 20 minutes of baking.

Baked Chicken Parmesan

Inspiration as defined by "word monkey" dictionary:  a noun - 1) arousing to a particular emotion or action, 2) arousal of the mind to special or unusual activity or creativity.

The baked chicken Parmesan inspiration came from peering into my freezer and refrigerator just long enough to take an inventory of items available and most importantly needing to be used in my preparation of dinner this day, or used to make dog food tomorrow, or thrown out (an option I prefer to avoid).

I love going to Central Market and purchasing organic vegetables.  Often purchasing more than I can easily use within their shelf life resulting in cherry tomatoes and bell peppers past their time to be included in a salad.  So, I thought, what can I do with tomatoes and bell peppers?  I could make Chili, but I did that last week.  I could make soup, but I am going out of town in a couple of days and I don't want a lot of left overs.  Hm, what else do I have available to me?  Whole wheat pasta, 5 cheese tomato sauce, Parmesan cheese, I have inspiration!  Do I want to follow a recipe or make it up as I go?  Make it up!  Now off to the store to get a few more items.

The meal was put together while listening to Jazz streaming from KKJZ,  Los Angeles public radio and drinking a cup of toffee flavored coffee with honey and cream.

Baked Chicken Parmesan

1. Healthy
2. Quick-n-Easy
3. Main Dish

2 pounds (bone in, organic) chicken breast
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons roasted garlic flavored extra virgin olive oil (Garlic Gold)
1/2 cup onion diced
1/4 cup red bell pepper diced
4 cloves fresh garlic
1 cup tomatoes diced
Whole wheat spaghetti
1 jar Bertoli 5 cheese tomato sauce
1/2 cup Italian flavored bread crumbs
Parmesan cheese, grated

Prepare pasta per instructions.  Wash and dry chicken breasts, lay aside.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a baking dish with foil.  Preheat iron skillet 1 minute, add butter and both olive oils, melt butter and stir together then add chicken breasts and cover.  Saute chicken breasts for about 5 minutes, turning as needed.  Keep heat low enough to not burn the butter.  Remove skillet from heat.  Cover the breasts with Italian bread crumbs, place on foil pan and bake in oven 20 to 40 minutes.  I always slice into the breasts after 20 minutes, if they are juicy but not pink they are done. If you need to return them to the oven, cover them with foil so they can continue baking while retaining their juices.   While the chicken breasts are in the oven, prepare your veggies.  Reheat skillet with oils, add veggies (except the spinach) and saute for about 3 minutes, then add the spinach and saute for one minute, add the tomato sauce and simmer until the chicken is done or about 5 minutes.  Debone the chicken breast by cutting making 1/2 inch slices straight down the chicken breasts to the bone, then run your knife along the bone and you end up with 5 or so strips of meat.  To serve, place the spaghetti on a plate, put your chicken breast on top of the spaghetti then cover both with your sauce mixture.  Sprinkle with cheese and enjoy.

Baked Chicken Breasts

I am on a 6 month sojurn to San Antonio, TX.  I visit my husband every couple of weeks to hold him tight and fill the freezer with food.  On my current visit, he suggested I post some recipe's that he can follow when he wants to cook for himself.  His goals:  taste's great, prepare in 20 minutes, easy clean-up.  So here is the first of many (he hopes).

This chicken is:

1. Quick and Easy
2. Healthy
   

• 2 whole chicken breasts (thawed, rinsed and dryed with paper towel)  Please note:  Do not thaw in the microwave as the chicken will end up tough.  It will not cook properly if you do not dry it.

• large grain sea salt (please not table salt with iodine)

• fresh ground mixed pepper corns to taste

• fresh basil

Think about dinner as you prepare your breakfast and lay out your frozen meat early in the day.  Set your alarm for 2 hours so you can put the unfrozen meat in the refrigerator until you are ready to prepare dinner.

Wash and dry the chicken breasts.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a baking dish with foil.  Place the chicken breast on the foil and place butter in pats on top of the chicken.  Sprinkle with sea salt and ground pepper.  Place basil leaves on top.  Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.  At the 5, 10, 15 minutes points during cooking, baste the chicken with the melted butter mixture from the baking pan.  Cut the breasts in the thickest point to check that it is not pink.  Yes, it should be juicy, just not pink.  Do not overcook.  Overcooking chicken is a sure fire way to make a delicious chicken breast barely edible.  Serve with salad or open a can of black beans.

Pinto Beans

1. Healthy
2. Comfort Food
3. Economical
4.  

Down home Soul food required Etta James and Beer.


Pinto Beans

• 1 pound pinto beans
• water
• sea salt
• ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter
  
• garlic
• onions
• 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
  

• Put the dry beans in a large pot, cover with 2 inches of water and bring to rolling boil. Remove from heat and let soak for one hour. Rinse well in colander, put back into the pot and cover with 2 inches of water again. Bring to rolling boil, remove from heat, let soak for 1 hour. Rinse well in colander. Put beans back into pot, cover with 2 inches of water, bring to rolling boil, cover with lid and reduce heat to med low. Cook for several hours until beans are soft, checking approximately every 30 minutes to see if you need to add water. In a separate saute pan, melt butter and add garlic and onions and cilantro, saute on med low heat until onions begin to turn clear.  Add to beans the last hour of cooking, salt and pepper to taste. When your beans are soft, if you want a thicker juice, just get out a potato masher and mash a few beans right in the pot. This will make your beans thick right away. Great garnished with cheese, sour cream and blue corn chips.
  

Baked Tilapia with Lemon Basil Cream Sauce

1. Healthy
2. Quick-n-Easy
   

I love fish fillets of all kinds. Tilapia (perch) have long been a staple of my diet. They are inexpensive, especially when you can talk your children into catching a large group of them. My musical accompaniment tonight was Tony Bennett and I am still in the mood for wheat beer. I served the fillets with fresh tomatoes in a basil, balsamic vinegar dressing and sauteed yellow crook neck squash with onions and garlic, two of my favorite side dishes.

• 1 pound tilapia fillets (wash and dry)
• 1 teaspoon garlic flavored olive oil
• 1 teaspoon citrus dill salmon rub (Colorado Spice, available at Central Market)

Wash and dry the fish fillets, wet with oil, lay on foil lined pan, cover with salmon rub and bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

• 2 cups thinly sliced yellow crook neck squash
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 3 cloves garlic, presses or diced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

melt butter until golden on med low heat, add oil, garlic onion saute for 5 minutes, add squash and saute another 5 minutes, cover and set aside.

• for sauce, 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1 tablespoon fresh basil, sliced thin
• 1 teaspoon fresh lime or lemon juice

melt butter in small saute pan, add flour and saute on low for approximately 5 minutes. Do not brown, just saute for awhile, this will get rid of the pasty taste of the flour. Add the basil and half and half and simmer until mixture thickens, add lemon juice and remove from heat.

• dice three fresh medium ripe tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon fresh basil diced
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• sea salt to taste

combine ingredients above, let set for about 10 minutes and serve.

Butter Tarts

Tiny bite size buttery tarts that are easy to prepare and well worth the trouble. I listened to Brooks and Dunn and drank a cup of herbal tea with my husband and dog hoovering about impatiently anticipating the timer going off.

Butter Tarts, adapted from Stephanie Jaworski's recipe

• 1 1/4 all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon granulated white sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch pieces
  
• 1/8 cup ice water
  

The Crust - In a food processor, place the flour, salt, and sugar and process until combined. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal (about 15 seconds). Pour 1/8 cup ice cold water in a slow, steady stream, through the feed tube until the dough just holds together when pinched. If necessary, add more water. Do not process more than 30 seconds.

Turn the dough onto your work surface and gather into a ball. Flatten into a disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about one hour before using.

Remove from the refrigerator, place on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough and cut into 12 - 4 inch rounds. Gently place the rounds into a muffin tin. Cover and place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to firm up the dough. Next, make the filling.

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup light cream (half and half)
  

Filling - In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar, beat in the eggs one at a time, and then the vanilla extract. Stir in the cream. Fill each crust with approximately 1/8 cup filling and bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack for 5 minutes, then remove from pan and continue cooling. Serve warm or cold.

Coconut Curry Thai Pork

The evening called for "Spicy", so out comes the Thai Seasonings. Chris Botti and I made a great one pot/one dish coconut curry that satisfied everything we wanted it to. Our drink of choice was beer (surprise).

• Comfort Food
  
• Healthy (not too much rice)

Coconut Curry Thai Pork

• 1 1/2 cups pork tenderloin cut into bite size pieces (remove membrane and fat)
• 1/4 cup safflower oil
• salt
• pepper
• 1 cup diced sweet potatoes
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 2 garlic cloves pressed
• 1/2 cup celery diced
• 1/2 cup broccoli bite size
• 1 cup snow peas, strings removed
• 1/2 cup bell pepper
• 1 container Coconut Curry Sauce
• 2 tablespoons Garlic, Pepper Sauce
• 2 cups cooked rice

Prepare all ingredients ahead of time. In wok, stir fry pork in oil for approximately 5 minutes (high heat), drain oil add 2 tablespoons butter, melt and return meat to brown on medium heat (do not overcook pork) about 5 minutes. Pork and Chicken will become tough when overcooked. Add all of your pre-cut veggies to the meat and butter mixture and stir fry on high to med high for 5 minutes. Add your coconut curry sauce and your garlic pepper sauce, cover and simmer until warm. If mixture is too thick for your liking, add some chicken broth. Serve over rice in bowl. Makes 4 servings.