Baked Chicken Pakistani Style

No photo of this dish, and I do apologize.  But boy did it smell wonderful cooking and it tasted soooo good!  John almost always thanks me for the meals I make, usually at the end of eating, but if he compliments a meal WHILE he's eating it, it's something special.  Apparently, this is one of those something special dishes because he complimented the food twice while eating and then thanked me for the meal too. 

I found the recipe in 1958 January issue of Woman's Day magazine and it sounded good then.  I had to buy the Cardamon used in the recipe.  It calls for whole seeds crushed, but I substituted ground.  Because I was reducing the other ingredients to 1/4 (I just used two boneless skinless breasts, I used 1/8 tsp.  I'd say 1/2 tsp should do, but if you're more familiar with cardamon pods you can adjust it.)

Baked Chicken Pakistani Style



1/4 cup soft butter
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp crushed dried red chili pepper
2 cardamon seeds, crushed
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1 small piece fresh ginger, finely minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium onions, chopped
1 fryer chicken, cut into pieces


Mix all but the chicken.  Place chicken in baking dish, spread mixture over top.  Bake at 400F for 1 hour.


**I didn't have cloves, so used allspice instead and used chili powder (ground chili pepper).  I had sliced almonds on hand but did chop them to mix with the other ingredients.  Served with a pilaf type rice this was very good.  The aroma that filled the house as it baked was awesome.

Penny's Super Easy Apple Cake

*Penny's Super Easy Apple Cake

I've looked and looked for an apple cake recipe I got from an old Family Circle Recipe Magazine in the early 1980's.  No luck.  Then I tried to find a Carrot Cake recipe similar to one in my 1980's copy of Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.  No luck.  Finally, I decided to use my head and make up my own recipe.  This one turned out quite good and my family was well pleased.
2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup cooking oil
2 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
3 cups grated apples
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Dump all ingredients in mixing bowl.  Beat on medium speed about 2-3 minutes.  Pour into greased and floured 9 X 13 pan.  Bake at 350F for about 35-40 minutes, until pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Frost with Caramel Frosting.

An easy caramel frosting is made of:

4 tbsps. melted buter
4 tbsps. packed brown sugar
2 - 4 tbsps milk
2 cups confectioners sugar

This mixture should be thin enough to spread so more milk may be added in one teaspoon increments.  On the other hand if this seems far too thin, add a little more confectioner's sugar.  Humidity will determine how thick or thin this comes out, so not precise measurements are necessary.

Monkey Butter Muffins

I bought bananas last week and as usual we had leftovers...Those few that turned freckly and sweet prior to our eating them all.  I snuck one into pancake batter earlier this week while John was home, but there were two left.  I was determined not to put them in the freezer, because I've got plenty of them in the freezer these days.

So this afternoon as I worked about the house, those bananas kept insinuating themselves into my day.  I'd walk by the counter and smell their ripeness, reminding me again and again that I needed to use them and soon.

I put them on the baking counter thinking I'd not pass that way too often, but there they were all the same.  Come supper time, I didn't want much of anything.  But there were the bananas.  I peeled them and mashed them and then began to dig about in the cabinet for other baking ingredients.  As I reached into my baking spices box, I found my hand upon the almost empty bottle of Butter Nut flavoring...And inspiration hit me hard.  Here's what I came up with.  These babies are wonderful!
Monkey Butter Muffins

2 bananas, mashed
1 egg
3 tbsps sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp butter nut flavoring
1/4 cup oil
1 cup milk

Mix well.  Spoon into muffin tins.  (Mine made 9).  Bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool on rack.

Glaze:
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 tsps butter nut flavoring
2 tbsps milk
walnuts

Mix first 4 ingredients.  Spoon onto cooled muffins.  My glaze was a bit thicker than glaze, less so than frosting.  Top frosted muffins with finely chopped walnuts.

Corn and Cheese Enchiladas

 

Nutritional Information

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• Amount per serving
• Calories: 457
• Fat: 25g
• Saturated fat: 13g
• Protein: 20g
• Carbohydrate: 41g
• Fiber: 5g
• Cholesterol: 64mg
• Sodium: 323mg

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Outstanding

• YIELD: 4 Servings
• COOK TIME: 31 MINUTES
• PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES
• COST PER SERVING:$1.98
• COURSE:Main Dishes

Ingredients

• 8 6-inch corn tortillas
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 5 scallions, white and light green parts, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups fresh corn kernels (from 2 medium ears)
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• Salt
• 2 cups grated pepper Jack
• 1 10-oz. can enchilada sauce

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Stack tortillas, wrap in foil and bake until softened, 8 to 10 minutes.
• While tortillas are baking, oil a 7-by-11-inch glass baking dish. Warm 1 Tbsp. oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add scallions and garlic, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in corn and milk and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 7 to 10 minutes. Season with salt.
• Remove tortillas from foil. Set aside 1/2 cup cheese. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of corn mixture in center of a tortilla. Sprinkle with a heaping tablespoon of cheese. Roll up tortilla and set in dish, seam side down. Repeat with remaining tortillas, overlapping them slightly. Pour enchilada sauce over tortillas and sprinkle with reserved 1/2 cup cheese. Bake until bubbling, about 20 minutes.

All You
JULY 2008

Banana Poundcake

Tried and True - Banana Poundcake

Banana Poundcake A few weeks ago when I posted the Chocolate Poundcake recipe, I came across this one. Per the dated notations I'd made it in 2001 and hadn't made it since. Because this year I determined that I would either use the recipes I'd collected or toss them, I set this recipe aside, along with the Chocolate Poundcake recipe, to make in the near future. Well I never did get the Chocolate Poundcake made at all. However, this past week I had three very ripe bananas on my counter and no clue what I'd be making for our weekend dessert. After dithering about in the kitchen, looking up recipes, discarding them and looking up more, I found myself turning again and again to the Banana Poundcake recipe. The ultimate decision came from Chance. Still unable to make up my mind, I explained my dilmena. "So you choose," I told him. "I can make a Banana Pudding or a Banana Poundcake." To be honest, I couldn't have been more surprised with his answer. I was that certain he'd choose the Banana Pudding, but he said "Poundcake, by all means!" with such enthusiasm and readiness that I had no doubt at all he meant it. So Banana Poundcake it was. I got out the ingredients and measured them out and then left them to sit at room temperature for a couple of hours. I read through the instructions twice (remember I told you how tricky poundcakes can be?) to be certain I understood all the steps involved. Then I read my own notes.   The recipe called for a 10" tube pan. I have none in my possession at this time, and apparently hadn't then either. I noted that I made it in a bundt pan and the cake 'cooked out and ran over the edges'. Hmmmm. I decided I'd use two loaf pans to bake the cake this time around (since I no longer have the bundt pan either!). That involved still more searching because I had no idea how long the loaves should bake.   I found three other recipes in various cookbooks and among my saved recipes that called for loaf pans for poundcakes. One involved baking the cakes at 300F, which wasn't at all the temperature recommended for the recipe I planned to use. I looked a little further and found that the average baking time for loaf poundcakes was about an hour. I was careful not to check my loaves until the first hour was up. I found the cakes not quite ready, so set the timer for 10 minutes more. Still finding them a little damp I went five more minutes. That was just right for one pan and just a little too much for the other, which had a slightly darker tint than the other. The edges were just a tad scorched on the darker pan. I made sure to note this on my recipe so that in future I won't have the same troubles. And just for the record the one other difficulty I ran into: I carefully mixed all the ingredients in the exact order as stated. Just before removing the beater from my KitchenAid mixer, I noted the jar of eggs sitting by the mixer...Yes, I'd forgotten to add my eggs! So I beat them in, one at a time at the end, and prayed the cake would turn out well. Overbeating is as common a mistake with poundcake as underbeating. My mistake didn't seem to hurt the poundcake a bit, if the end results tell anything at all, but I do not recommend forgetting the eggs and tossing them in at the end of the mixing! The cake is delicious the first day (we waited until evening to sample it). I stored my cake in a zippered bag on the counter and found that the cake became a little more moist after storage. We ate one loaf cake this weekend (with extra slices going to Mama's for her enjoyment) and I wrapped the other well and put in a zippered freezer bag and placed it in the freezer for a future time. By the way, this recipe is from Southern Living magazine. I can't begin to tell you what month or year, but suffice it to say that my copy was dated 10-01-01 in my own handwriting, so either October 2001 or any time prior to that was it's publication date.

Banana Poundcake

1 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 cups sugar

5 eggs

3 ripe bananas, mashed

3 tablespoons milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

Beat shortening and butter at medium speed with an electric mixer about 2 minutes or until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating 5-7 minutes. Add eggs, one at time, beating just until yellow disappears.

Combine mashed bananas, milk and vanilla extract.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk until blended.

Add flour mixture to shortening mixture alternately with banana/milk mixture. (I found it helpful to add 1/3 of the flour mix followed by 1/2 of the banana mixture, so that I began and ended with the flour.) Beat at low speed after each addition and mix just until blended. Pour batter into greased and floured pan(s). Bake at 350F.

For 2 standard sized loaf pans bake for 60-75 minutes checking periodically after cake has baked at least 55 minutes.

For a 10 inch tube pan: recipe recommends 1 hour and 20 minutes or until pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool cake(s) in pan(s) on wire rack for 10-15 minutes, then turn out and allow to complete cooling on wire rack.

Recipe makes 2 standard loaves or 1 10-inch tube pan.

Easy Strawberry Jam

Easy Strawberry Jam

3 pounds Strawberries, topped and sliced
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsps lemon juice

Add all ingredients to 5 quart sauce pan.  Bring to boil and then reduce heat to medium low to simmer.  Stir occasionally for 45 minutes.  Allow to cool and then pack in sterilized jars.  Keeps in fridge up to 1 month.

**You know me...always changing things up.  I had only 2 pounds berries on hand so I used what I had.  I figured 1/4 cup per pound of berries, and reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup.  I didn't decrease the lemon juice and wish I had, but the jam is not too tart.  Per the recipe (Country Living or BH&G?) blurb, strawberries have enough natural pectin that it's not necessary to use boxed pectin.  I like that I could use just what I had on hand without purchasing anything extra.  It tastes very good!  I don't know yet if it will gel like commercial jelly, because it's too warm yet to tell, but it is nice and thick and syrupy the way warm jelly usually is...

Homemade Egg Rolls

While the photos for this post are pulled from my Xanga archives, Egg Rolls were made in my home today.  I thought you'd like to see how it's done and share in my recipe for these tasty treats.

In the above photo you see many of the ingredients: slaw mix, onion, garlic, ginger root (on the cutting board in the foreground) soy sauce and egg roll wrappers.  Today I also included some frozen chopped oriental vegetables and red and yellow bell peppers that I'd diced. 

Cook slaw mix, vegetables, garlic and ginger over low heat until tender.  I don't add water but do add about 1 tbsp olive oil and then clamp on the lid and steam cook. When tender add about 2 tbsps soy sauce. Allow to cool.

Separate egg roll wrappers and lay about 2-3 tbsps of cabbage mix on the diagonal of the wrapper.

Roll the first corner up over the vegetable mix, then tuck in the corners like this:

and continue to roll away from you until you have a neat little packet.

Place on a greased cookie sheet and brush with oil.  Bake at 400F for about 20 minutes until lightly browned and crisp.  The end photo here shows a batch I made without the oil and baked on parchment.  They were good, but the ones brushed with oil have less tendency to break open and have a light crisp texture. 

1 bag of slaw mix generally will make about 20 egg rolls.  These freeze well after baking and may be reheated in the microwave for 1-2 minutes depending on the wattage of your microwave.