While working the other day, one of my co-workers, Debi, mentioned that she likes to cook... so I instantly got excited to swap recipes! She sent me her mom's sweet and hot mustard recipe which I will now call "Debi's Sweet & Hot Mustard" ;)
I made it yesterday and it was so easy and yummy! I hope she doesn't mind me posting the recipe here... I halved the recipe mostly because I had exactly enough ingredients on hand to make half. This is the halved recipe.
2oz Coleman's dry mustard (one box)
1/2 c vinegar
I should pass along that she told me you HAVE to use Coleman's dry mustard....no other brand will do.
Mix mustard and vinegar together and let sit for 2 hours. Debi told me that the longer you let it sit the hotter it gets.... I went and ran errands which ended up being 3 hours.
Whisk in 3 eggs, one at a time. Add 1/2 c sugar. Set over double boiler (I improvised!) and cook on medium high until thickened.
Let cool and jar.
Mine is really spicy! I think next time I might stick with the 2 hours.... but it is very good! I dipped chips in it all afternoon.
Hope everyone gives this a try for 4th of July barbecues!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
pickle crazed....
Sorry I haven't been online in a while--things have been so hectic! Last week Dano and I celebrated our six year anniversary and the week before that his cousins came to visit. But I have a lot to update on so stay tuned!
Last week I came home to find that we got our first cucumber of the season from the CSA so I got right to pickling! Since it was only one I decided to also pickle our salad turnips even though I had never tried that or heard of it before.... but I figured anything crispy would make a good pickle ;)
The general recipe I follow is this... although sometimes I halve it/just eyeball it/etc
You want to start out with two 1-quart sterilized jars which you can do either running them through the dishwasher or boiling in water.
1 small onion, sliced
2 lbs cucumbers, sliced
1 T mustard seeds
2 t whole peppercorns
1 T dill seed
2 peeled cloves of garlic, halved
1 1/2 c vinegar
1 c water
3 T kosher salt
1 t sugar
Boil the vinegar and water with salt and sugar until dissolved, about 5 minutes. Add in spices. Divide slices of onion, cucumber, and garlic into jars. Pour spice-vinegar mixture into jars over vegetables. Let sit open until room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Enjoy!
You should really try to eat the pickles within a couple weeks and do NOT use old cucumbers--pickling cucumbers need to be totally firm and crisp. And feel free to experiment with the recipe.... I have added and removed sugar, added red pepper flakes, added green pepper, etc. Make it your own!
Also here is a quick photo update on our patio garden...
I ended up buying starts for a lot of the plants... I think I attempted growing from seeds too early and there just wasn't enough sun. I replanted some lettuce seeds again later in the spring and look how gorgeous they are now! Now we have: lettuce, parsley, lavender, container tomatoes, oregano, and rosemary. It's great!
Last week I came home to find that we got our first cucumber of the season from the CSA so I got right to pickling! Since it was only one I decided to also pickle our salad turnips even though I had never tried that or heard of it before.... but I figured anything crispy would make a good pickle ;)
The general recipe I follow is this... although sometimes I halve it/just eyeball it/etc
You want to start out with two 1-quart sterilized jars which you can do either running them through the dishwasher or boiling in water.
1 small onion, sliced
2 lbs cucumbers, sliced
1 T mustard seeds
2 t whole peppercorns
1 T dill seed
2 peeled cloves of garlic, halved
1 1/2 c vinegar
1 c water
3 T kosher salt
1 t sugar
Boil the vinegar and water with salt and sugar until dissolved, about 5 minutes. Add in spices. Divide slices of onion, cucumber, and garlic into jars. Pour spice-vinegar mixture into jars over vegetables. Let sit open until room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Enjoy!
You should really try to eat the pickles within a couple weeks and do NOT use old cucumbers--pickling cucumbers need to be totally firm and crisp. And feel free to experiment with the recipe.... I have added and removed sugar, added red pepper flakes, added green pepper, etc. Make it your own!
Also here is a quick photo update on our patio garden...
I ended up buying starts for a lot of the plants... I think I attempted growing from seeds too early and there just wasn't enough sun. I replanted some lettuce seeds again later in the spring and look how gorgeous they are now! Now we have: lettuce, parsley, lavender, container tomatoes, oregano, and rosemary. It's great!
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Blog number 20!
I came home for my "weekend," which is now Tuesdays and Wednesdays to find that Dan had picked up our first CSA! We had a ton of carrots and I instantly thought of making carrot cake!
I discovered a website called SparkRecipes that lets you analyze the nutritional information of your recipe so I decided to see how some substitutions on the carrot cake recipe I usually use would affect the nutritional value. So instead of all that oil, I used 3/4 c applesauce and 1/2 c oil. I also omitted one egg yolk and reduced the sugar to 3/4 c. white sugar and 3/4 c brown sugar. I also left out the pecans because we didn't have any. Then instead of tons of frosting I made a cream cheese icing. I used 3 oz of cream cheese, a couple tablespoons of softened butter, and then just added powdered sugar and milk until it was a good consistency. Overall I think I saved myself about 228 calories and 15 grams of fat per serving! I made one loaf and about 9 cupcakes that Dan took to work and he came home with rave reviews.... I don't think anyone missed the extra oil!
Then for dinner I wanted to try to use a decent amount of spinach and we had some portobello mushrooms that were getting old so I decided on..... whole wheat pasta with spinach pesto and chickpeas, topped with roasted portobello mushrooms.
The spinach pesto is pretty easy and I used chickpeas since we didn't have tomatoes.
Then for the mushrooms I just sprayed a pan with cooking spray and topped the mushrooms with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and cooked for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees. I topped the pasta with the mushrooms and sprinkled some cheese on top! Yum!
I discovered a website called SparkRecipes that lets you analyze the nutritional information of your recipe so I decided to see how some substitutions on the carrot cake recipe I usually use would affect the nutritional value. So instead of all that oil, I used 3/4 c applesauce and 1/2 c oil. I also omitted one egg yolk and reduced the sugar to 3/4 c. white sugar and 3/4 c brown sugar. I also left out the pecans because we didn't have any. Then instead of tons of frosting I made a cream cheese icing. I used 3 oz of cream cheese, a couple tablespoons of softened butter, and then just added powdered sugar and milk until it was a good consistency. Overall I think I saved myself about 228 calories and 15 grams of fat per serving! I made one loaf and about 9 cupcakes that Dan took to work and he came home with rave reviews.... I don't think anyone missed the extra oil!
Then for dinner I wanted to try to use a decent amount of spinach and we had some portobello mushrooms that were getting old so I decided on..... whole wheat pasta with spinach pesto and chickpeas, topped with roasted portobello mushrooms.
The spinach pesto is pretty easy and I used chickpeas since we didn't have tomatoes.
Then for the mushrooms I just sprayed a pan with cooking spray and topped the mushrooms with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and cooked for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees. I topped the pasta with the mushrooms and sprinkled some cheese on top! Yum!
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