whatcha cooking/baking today?

[katygirl]

I just pulled a batch of Val's whole wheat chocolate cookies out of the oven. Scumptious! Dinner tonight is going to be Southwestern Veggie Hash Topped with Fried Eggs, which is a new recipe for me. Today is 58 degrees in my area, and it FINALLY is making me feel like cooking again!

[AzAnne]

Earlier this morning I threw together a tuna/pasta salad, just pulled Marbled Banana Bread out of the oven. Getting ingredients together to make Oatmeal Breakfast bars.
Then for dinner it's Spicy Basque Chicken, roasted brussel sprouts, and some type of rice.

Now that our weather is under 100 I'm definitely back in baking/cooking mode :D

[helene]

Baking a delicious banana bread today;)

[Terri_A]

When the weeone gets home from her dad's I'm hoping she and I will have time to make the Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies that Pony made for the Houston Klatch, that I believe were originally posted by slknight. They're tastey and I've been craving them!

[mishquilt]

Hello all.
Today I made the Vanilla Pear Muffins from the Williams Sonoma Cookbook called Muffins. I posted a question about what might happen if I decide to add a bit of melted white chocolate to the batter. I wanted to make these a bit more decadent than a muffin because they are a substitute for a birthday cake. Best laid plans...
As suggested, I only added a bit of white chocolate melted with a tablespoon of butter. It didn't seem to change the batter's consistency any so, I had hight hopes. I followed the rest of the recipe exactly. I suppose it should have been a red flag when I read reviews about the muffins sticking to the pan. I purposely used a product I've been satisified with called "Cake Release" by Wilton. The recipe suggested a cooking time of 20 to 25 minutes. I pulled these from the oven at exactly 20 minutes and although they looked great, they were darkly browned on the bottom and some were slightly burned. I was wondering if this could be one of two things (of course, I suppose there is always the possiblilty that the recipe isn't perfect, but I'm more inclined to blame myself). Perhaps the addition of white chocolate/butter caused these to burn??? I only used 1/2 cup of white chips with 1 TBS melted butter combined. OR...I cheated a bit because I was in a rush and I put both cupcake pans side-by-side in my oven. As I was placing these into the oven, I had that thought that I should probably bake only one pan at a time, but I was afraid to leave the other batter out for that long, since it was already in the muffin tins.
Do any of you ever bake your pans side by side? I can't use my upper and lower racks because one of them always seems to burn that way. I usually bake everything in the center of my oven.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Despite the mishap, the muffin tops were delicious. Now, back to the recipe book...


Mishquilt

[gabbyh]

Just getting ready to make Alton Brown's Roasted Vegetable Spread posted by Bob last September...I always bought the Kraft light veggie cream cheese until I tried this recipe...very yummy.

Also baking Apple-topped Gingerbread with Maple Cream also posted by Bob in 2003...it's been on my to-try pile since then...I have several cans of custard to use, so I'll forgo the maple cream, and serve this topped with custard.....hmmmm...2 recipes from Bob....I'm seeing a theme here:D

I also want to try Nutella Cookies that I saw made on the Today Show by the Scottos Family...finally found nutella!

And if I get really ambitious, I'll finish with Whole-Grain Blackberry Spice Muffins from CL Jan 2006...have a bag of frozen blackberries hangin' out in the freezer.

Taco Salad for dinner tonight to use up some odds and ends...

~Gail

[Canice]

Obviously, I'll take half that question as purely rhetorical! :D

But I bought a tin of Ghirardelli's unsweetened cocoa a few weeks ago to make the Bailey's Brownies and I loved the taste and texture as something different, so I thought tonight I might make a Fr'angelico version, with toasted hazelnuts.

[Hammster]

Today is supper club and I teamed up with one of our members and together we are bringing Vegetables a la Grecque. We did the poaching yesterday and she took 2 of the veggie home and I kept the other 2. Today we reduced the poaching liquid to a syrup and poured it back over the veggies. They get served cold. Sure smells good around here.

[RecipeGirl]

I just put Classic Banana Bundt Cake in the oven from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking" cookbook. I want to surprise the boys when they return from camping in a few hours!

For dinner tonight it's Grilled Orange-Ginger Chicken Thighs (SL), Butternut Squash & Rosemary Gratin (CL) and Baked Mushroom Rice. (Banana Cake for dessert!)

[heavy hedonist]

Hello all.
Today I made the Vanilla Pear Muffins from the Williams Sonoma Cookbook called Muffins. I posted a question about what might happen if I decide to add a bit of melted white chocolate to the batter. I wanted to make these a bit more decadent than a muffin because they are a substitute for a birthday cake. Best laid plans...
As suggested, I only added a bit of white chocolate melted with a tablespoon of butter. It didn't seem to change the batter's consistency any so, I had hight hopes. I followed the rest of the recipe exactly. I suppose it should have been a red flag when I read reviews about the muffins sticking to the pan. I purposely used a product I've been satisified with called "Cake Release" by Wilton. The recipe suggested a cooking time of 20 to 25 minutes. I pulled these from the oven at exactly 20 minutes and although they looked great, they were darkly browned on the bottom and some were slightly burned. I was wondering if this could be one of two things (of course, I suppose there is always the possiblilty that the recipe isn't perfect, but I'm more inclined to blame myself). Perhaps the addition of white chocolate/butter caused these to burn??? I only used 1/2 cup of white chips with 1 TBS melted butter combined. OR...I cheated a bit because I was in a rush and I put both cupcake pans side-by-side in my oven. As I was placing these into the oven, I had that thought that I should probably bake only one pan at a time, but I was afraid to leave the other batter out for that long, since it was already in the muffin tins.
Do any of you ever bake your pans side by side? I can't use my upper and lower racks because one of them always seems to burn that way. I usually bake everything in the center of my oven.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Despite the mishap, the muffin tops were delicious. Now, back to the recipe book...


Mishquilt
extra sweet stuff will certainly make anything brown faster. extra butter melted with the chips was probably not good. but the best thing would probably be to melt a little butter and a lot of white chips and frost the muffins, instead, making it more decadent but not hurting the muffin. sorry your experiment didn't work!

[pilgrim719]

I made some pancakes for the freezer because I needed to use up some milk. I also made a couple soups to eat during the week...Korean Vegetable Noodle Soup and Cream of Green (I used zucchini) Vegetable Soup, both from Moosewood Lowfat Favorites. If I feel like it in a bit, I might make some cookies, or dough at least.

Kari

[SugarNSpice]

I've been simmering a pot of Grandma's spaghetti sauce all day. I'm thinking of using it over big shell pasta, just to mix things up a bit...I won't tell grandma that part, she would have a cow :)

And of course garlic bread!

[etawalker]

This afternoon I'm making EF's Classic Meatloaf (Oct 07--made it last week and it was a hit), mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob... DH's cousin's wife was just diagnosed with Lyme disease and isn't feeling very well. DH and I thought it would be nice to bring them something for their freezer.

I have pizza dough in the bread machine. We're going to have sausage, pepper, olive and sundried tomato pizza for dinner tonight (well, 3/4 of the family will... I can't eat sausage, as much as I would love to), along with some leftover cabbage/coleslaw.

This has been a fun thread to read.

[newsomz]

This morning I made cherry scones for breakfast (from the Joy of Cooking). I will probably marinate some tofu in a minute for the griddled tofu with bok choy that floated around last week's Inspired Vegetarian thread. We're going out to dinner tonight so I won't be making anything for supper.

[badunnin]

Made a HUGE batch of stuffed cabbage soup today and delivered it to various family members! :D

[CookieCarol]

I baked a lemon pound cake to take to church (none came home with me).
We had shepherds pie and cornbread for lunch and I've just finished baking oatmeal cookies and pumpkin bars. My grandson is here from college and he needs sustenance to get him back to school. I just hope there are some left to take back to school.

[karen w]

Badunnin,

I'd be very interested in seeing a recipe for that stuffed cabbage soup. Love stuffed cabbage!

As for me, I also made some soups for the freezer to use up some ingredients in the fridge as well as some garden veggies. To use up some kale from the garden, I made a pot of Lentil Soup. It was a modification of several recipes. To use up half a head of cabbage, I made a half batch of Cabbage, Ham, and Bean Soup from Maryanna Volstedt's soup book with (as usual) a few changes. The main one being the ham since I don't eat ham. I used some diced and browned flavored chicken sauages. Looking forward to alot of good soups this winter!:)

Karen

[badunnin]

Karen - here you go! My grandfather really liked it because it was a flavour familiar to him, but he can't see anymore, and didn't have to deal with cutting up the big cabbage leaf. ;)

Stuffed Cabbage Soup

2 lbs ground beef
2 large onions
Brown the above and drain well
Add to the above:

1 lbs cabbage chopped
1/2 c white sugar
1/4 c lemon juice
14 oz can beef broth
2 large cans tomato sauce
1 large can diced tomatoes
2 large cans water
1/2 - 3/4 c of white rice

Bring all to a boil and simmer until rice an cabbage are done. This makes alot of soup, but then you can freeze it.

[karen w]

That was FAST!! And it looks like it is just what I was looking for. Thanks so much!

Karen

[badunnin]

That was FAST!! And it looks like it is just what I was looking for. Thanks so much!

Karen

Just did a C&P from the soup thread. ;)

[lisas3575]

Katygirl, can you please point me to the veggie hash recipe?

[nan/mo]

for breakfast i made orange cranberry muffins, for dinner I made a big pot of veggie beef soup and a pecan praline cheesecake ( SL)

[Julzer]

I had a whole meal planned out for tonight but we weren't that hungry so I made this up after reading it on the Butternut Squash thread. It was posted by MaryMac. It was pretty tasty and made the house smell so good!

Butternut Squash and Apples

1 small butternut squash
2 baking apples (McIntosh are good)
½ cup brown sugar
1 tbl flour
½ tsp salt
3 tbl butter
Nutmeg

Slice squash in ½” rings then peel. Remove seeds and pulp. Slice and core apples. Apple peel may be left or removed. Layer squash and apple in greased baking dish (9x13”). Top with blended mixture of sugar, flour, and salt. Dot with 3 tbl butter and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 for about 1 hour.

[katygirl]

Katygirl, can you please point me to the veggie hash recipe?

Sure! It was really good. I wish I put some aside and spiced it separately for my 2.5 year old. She usually has an iron belly but this was a little too spicy for her. This was one of those recipes that I ended up subbing a ton of stuff, only because I wanted to use what I had in the cabinets.


Southwestern Hash
Copyright, 2007, Ellie Krieger,

1 pound small red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes -used regular potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, diced (about 1 cup)
1 green pepper, diced (about 1 cup)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin (I subbed Penzeys southwestern seasoning for the cumin and oregano)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ancho chili powder or other chili powder (used Penzeys Chipolte)
3 medium tomatoes, diced (about 2 1/2 cups)
1 can no-salt-added black beans, drained and rinsed (used pinto)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
4 eggs
Hot pepper sauce, for serving



Instructions
Place the potatoes in a large non-stick skillet. Cover with water, bring
to a boil and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 8 minutes. Drain and set potatoes aside.

Dry the skillet with a paper towel. Add the oil and heat over a medium-high heat. Add the onions and
peppers and cook until vegetables have softened, about 6 minutes. Stir in the potatoes, garlic,
cumin, oregano, and chili powder. Add the tomatoes and beans and simmer for 5 minutes or until
heated through. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in cilantro.

Transfer the hash onto serving plates. With the heat off, wipe out the pan again. Spray it with
cooking spray, turn heat on to medium-low and cook the eggs, sunny-side up, or over-easy. Put an egg
on top of each mound of hash. Serve with hot sauce.

[DIANE T]

Breakfast were eggs benedict (I was so happy my hollandaise didn't break) and dinner was bratwurst and german potato salad, in honor of of our town's Oktoberfest celebration. Dessert was rice krispy treats, made with extra marshmallows so they were really gooey. I was going to make funnel cakes, but I used all my eggs on breakfast, so they will be tomorrows dessert. We skipped lunch due to the fact that we ate a ton of junk at the Oktoberfest - ice cream, caramel apples, habanero pistachios - oh my tummy hurts thinking of all the stuff we ate today!

[Delanl]

Even though it was in the 80's here today, I was in the mood for soup. So I made CL's Pasta e Fagioli. It was delicious and I have leftovers for the rest of the week! I just took out of the oven, my mom's Apple, Cranberry & Oatmeal Bake. My nighttime snack will be that with some vanilla ice cream. Yum!

[HealthyinMN]

We did a road trip today (http://desertculinary.blogspot.com/2007/10/road-trip-to-pick-some-apples.html) into Wisconsin with my family to do some apple pickin'. We ended up getting home a little late and after unloading all of the pictures so we could post them on the blog tonight, I was a bit too tired to make anything ambitious. So, I ended up making this quick Apricot-and-Cheddar melt for us to snack on.

http://bp3.blogger.com/_J-s7w5-Rv84/RwmJkaFfh_I/AAAAAAAACg0/GjIRnBTshm8/s400/ApricotChickMelt-2.jpg

[pilgrim719]

So I wound up doing a little baking this evening to go along with the cooking I did earlier today. I made the Sparkling Candy Corn Cookies from the Land O Lakes Harvest Baking magazine that I picked up a month ago. Very cute and very tasty little cookies! No candy corn in them, they are made to look like candy corn. These will be fun to share!

Kari

[cumulus]

Two baked items came out of my kitchen today: Buttermilk pancakes for breakfast (Joy of Cooking recipe, DF's favorite), and the Buttery Apple Loaf Cake from the recent apple cake thread and Joe's Blog.

I love when my apartment ends up smelling like fall :)

[Sheila in MD]

Made a HUGE batch of stuffed cabbage soup

Any chance of you posting this recipe? Thanks in advance!

Sheila in MD

[crockpotmom]

Was gonna have baked potatoes but twins have been bugging me for biscuits and gravy..so I switched up the menu...Add a poached egg on top of the gravy and making some Applesauce muffins right now..yummo...I love Breakfeast at dinner time..its easy and supposed to be hot today...be glad when the 60's hit on wednesday..have fun all....Donna

[badunnin]

Any chance of you posting this recipe? Thanks in advance!

Sheila in MD

It's posted above!

[Tashakcooks]

I made several lasagnas. One for tonight and a couple for the freezer. Christmas is almost here and will get hectic, I like to have some things in the freezer to help out.
Tomorrow I'll be putting back a few chicken pot pies.

[CompassRose]

I made Shirley Corriher's Real N'Awlins Pralines this morning at 1:30 after my photography expedition (don't ask). :p It seemed necessary at the time. They are all gone. (I ate perhaps a quarter of them.)

Just pulled a kind of layered polenta thing out of the oven, with a filling of spinach and basil, fresh and sundried tomatoes, and tofu. With it, red cabbage with some pomegranate syrup (that also seemed like a good idea at the time and I think it was; the bit I tried was very tart and fruity).

There's an apple crisp with dried tart cherries in the apples and walnuts in the crisp in the oven now. Will be eaten later with vanilla goats'-milk ice cream.

[blrn1]

A Wolfgang Puck Margherita Pizza. It's still awfully hot here and my husband is off playing volleyball so I just wasn't inclined to exert myself. :)

[kimmer99]

Just got a new cookbook, Dolce Italiano (http://www.amazon.com/Dolce-Italiano-Desserts-Babbo-Kitchen/dp/0393061000/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-0091219-6155172?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191937182&sr=8-1) last week. So Sunday night I made a Fresh Fig Tart

http://www.slowtrav.com/blog/kim/fig_tart_1.jpg

Today I'm going to bake the Lemony Semolina Cookies.

Oh - and I even converted the fig tart to WW points (6 for 1/16 of the tart), in case anyone is interested.