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Ginger Glazed Carrots
Originally posted December 2009.
I thought I’d post a few vegetable recipes this week. I often prefer my vegetables raw or lightly stir-fried, so I don’t do many fancy veggie recipes. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a bunch of those recipes in my arsenal! I use them a lot when having friends or family over for dinner. We’ll start with this one:
Ginger Glazed Carrots
- 1 lb baby carrots, washed
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
- 2 tsp to 1 tbsp butter
- salt as desired
saucepan and steamer basket
Place steamer in saucepan, add enough water to come to the bottom of the steamer. Add carrots, bring to a boil and steam until tender (about 5 minutes). Remove carrots and steamer, drain water from the saucepan, add carrots and remaining ingredients to saucepan and stir on low heat until carrots are coated with honey and butter. Serve immediately.
Thursday Recipe Exchange: Steak with Coffee Rub
JeffreyW’s Loaded Baked Potato would be great with Coffee Rubbed Steak
It’s another one of those Colorado weeks where it’s impossible not to want to be outside all day. Beautiful, warm spring weather, the flowering locusts are in full splendor making my evening bike rides fragrant and still cool enough at night to need a blanket…or a cat…or several. I’m halfway through my horseback riding lessons, I’m finally comfortable with my posting trot, but feel like my major accomplishment is being able to adjust my stirrups from the saddle. I also managed to get my deck flower pots planted, though I always want more than I have space for, I’m satisfied with what I’ve done for this season. It is definitely outdoor season here. What’s on your weekend agenda? Planning on grilling for Mother’s Day? What is your favorite food item to grill?
In honor of the great weather, I thought tonight should be about grilling. Steak to be specific. This rub is a favorite of a couple of readers, so I thought it was a good time to repeat it. This can be used with any cut of steak, though I originally had it on rib eye. It’s too heavy to use on poultry or white fish, but I would be tempted to try on swordfish or maybe salmon. Easy to do and adds a real dramatic flavor.
Steak with Coffee Rub
- 3 tbsp chili powder (talking the good stuff here, pure ancho or a blend)
- 3 tbsp finely ground coffee (espresso works best)
- 1 ½ tbsp paprika (again, you want a good one)
- 1 tbsp dark brown sugar
- 2 tsp dry mustard
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp fresh ground pepper
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 to 1-1/2 lb of steak (rib-eye, sirloin, NY strip, etc) in 4 thick pieces
Mix together all spices. Lightly rub each steak with oil and then coat liberally on both sides with coffee rub. Now you can cook in a pre-heated skillet on medium-high heat, 5 to 7 minutes each side for medium rare. You can broil in the oven, using the second slot down from broiler, for 5 minutes each side, again for rare to medium rare, longer for medium. You can grill them outside. Cooking times will vary depending on which steak cut you choose, so watch carefully and you’ll probably have to use a meat thermometer to really judge, because the rub makes it a little harder to eyeball it. Let rest for a few minutes before serving.
Thursday Recipe Exchange: Potato Soups
Cross-posted at Balloon-Juice.
JeffreyW's Awesome Potato Soup & Homemade Bread
This week I made a pot of Creamy Potato Soup and almost immediately knew what I really wanted was the Italian potato soup I usually make. So that is my plan this evening, to put together a pot of this:
Zuppa Toscana
- 8 oz ground beef or (4 0z ground beef & 4 oz spicy sausage)
- 6 green onions, chopped (including greens)
- 2 tsp crushed garlic, divided
- 6 -8 medium potatoes, sliced thin (do not peel)
- 3 cups chicken broth (or equivalent)
- 3 cups water
- 2 cups milk
- 2 tsp to 1 tbsp dried basil, crushed
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1 cup spinach or kale, chopped
- grated Parmesan
Large dutch oven or saucepan
Heat pan and brown ground beef, onion and 1 tsp garlic. Remove and set aside. Add chicken broth, water and potatoes to pan, bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are tender. Add meat mixture, spices and milk and let simmer on medium-low, stirring occasionally to makes sure milk doesn’t scald. Just before serving, add spinach or kale and let simmer 2 minutes. Serve with grated Parmesan.
Now hit the comments and share your favorite soups, potato or otherwise. Next week: Chicken & Vegetables
Thursday Night Before Christmas Menu: Christmas Morning Edition
I’ve decided this will be our traditional Thursday Night before Christmas Menu. One quick note, if you haven’t seen it, JeffW has a great shot our blog mascot and his hero here.
From 2009:
This is my traditional Christmas morning breakfast. These are simple to make and taste so good. And of course I’ve included a recipe for Santa’s cookies, ‘cause you know the better the cookies, the better the presents he leaves you, so you don’t want to be leaving any store-bought cookies. On the board tonight:
- German Pancakes
- Walnut Syrup
- Sliced Peaches
- Santa Cookies
German Pancakes
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 8 eggs
- 2 cups milk
- ½ cup butter
2 oven proof skillets, large mixing bowl & 2 large plates
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Place skillets in oven and heat.
You’ll need to cook these in two batches. Mix all ingredients together except butter, scraping sides of bowl frequently. Batter will be lumpy. Do not over mix.
Melt 2 tbsp of butter in each skillet, swirling around sides. Ladle ¼ of batter into each skillet. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Remove to two large plates, cut into each in half and serve. Top with syrup or powdered sugar.
Cook remaining batter. Add 2 tbsp of butter to pans, swirl, split remaining batter, bake for 15-20 minutes while everyone chows down on first batch. Serve with walnut syrup or powdered sugar and sliced peaches. Serves 4
Walnut Syrup
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼ cup light corn syrup
- 2 cups water
- 3 tbsp butter
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
saucepan
Heat sugars, syrup and water to low boil. Reduce heat, simmer until thickened, 10-12 minutes. Stir in butter & nuts. Great over ice cream, too
Santa Cookies
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 ¼ cup flour
- colored sugars or colored frosting
mixing bowl & baking sheets
Cream butter & sugar with electric mixer. Add sugar, baking powder, salt and mix well. Beat in egg, vanilla and 1 cup flour. At this point you’ll probably have to hand mix the last 1 ¼ cups of flour. Cover and chill for 1 hour. Divide dough in half. Refrigerate ½, roll out other half to ¼- ½ inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, bake at 325 degrees for 7-8 minutes (don’t over cook). Decorate with colored sugars immediately or with frosting after they’ve cooled. Repeat with remaining dough. Makes 36 cookies…enough for Santa and all the reindeer.
Shopping List
- Peaches
- 5 cups flour
- 9 eggs
- 2 cups milk
- 3 sticks (1-1/2 cups) + butter
- 2 oz light corn syrup
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- colored frostings and sugars, other cookie decorations as desired
Also: baking powder, salt, vanilla
Cinnamon Swirl Sour Cream Bread
I have made this bread for several years and tinkered with the recipe until I’ve gotten it to where I like it. It started out as cinnamon buttermilk bread, but last year I had an abundance of sour cream in my fridge and swapped sour cream for the buttermilk, but it turned out a little heavy, so the next batch I split them – 1 cup of sour cream, 1 cup of buttermilk. In case there is anyone who doesn’t know, there are a couple of tricks for getting the benefit of baking with buttermilk, but not actually having to buy any. The first one is to make your own. Actually what you’re making is sour milk, but can be substituted for buttermilk without making any difference in taste or texture. You add one tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk, stir and let it sit for 5 minutes. The other is to buy buttermilk powder. I get mine from King Arthur Flour, but I know there are brands that you can buy at your local grocery store. Just follow the directions on the package for proportions. You can also substitute plain yogurt for sour cream.
Cinnamon Swirl Sour Cream Bread
4 cups all purpose flour (17 oz)
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of canola or vegetable oil (3 1/2 oz)
1 cup sour cream (8 oz)
1 cup of buttermilk (8 oz)
1 1/2 cup sugar (10 1/2 oz)
2 eggs
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar (8 oz)
1/2 chopped nuts – optional
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
In a small bowl mix the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In another small bowl mix together the cinnamon and brown sugar, set aside.
In a mixing bowl cream the oil and sugar until fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time, mix in until incorporated. Add in the sour cream and buttermilk, mix until combined.
Add in all of the dry ingredients at one time, mix gently until just combined.
Stir in nuts if you are adding them.
Pour batter evenly into 2 – 9×5 in loaf pans or 4 – 3×5 mini loaf pans.
Sprinkle even amounts of cinnamon and brown sugar mix onto the top of each loaf and swirl with a knife or a chopstick.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-55 minutes for the large pans or 25-35 minutes for the little pans, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack.
I like to bake this bread in disposable foil pans, wrap them up in foil or plastic wrap, put a bow on them and give them for gifts.
