splenda

So you don’t have to…

/ jeffreyw / 3 Comments

I made the pineapple stuffing and it tasted pretty good, but I just don’t see it as a side for ham.  As a dessert?  Hell yes!  Mrs J thinks it needs some ice cream or whipped cream.  This is way closer to bread pudding than a dish that “stuffing” describes.  Now I can imagine a chicken stuffed with this…

That said, it’s yummy!  I used 1/2 cup of Splenda and a wee bit of cane sugar with the 4 eggs and the can of drained pineapple.  Hmm…I have that pineapple juice–a pineapple glaze for the pudding?  I’ll let you know how that turns out.

[Edit] Pineapple sauce was pretty good, just take the juice drained earlier and set it to simmer atop a burner, add some sweetener-I used 1/4 c of Splenda.  Stir in a slurry made with 2 teaspoons of corn starch in a tablespoon of water.  Use just enough to get the sauce to the right thickness.  Pour the warm sauce over the warm pudding, serve immediately.

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BBQ Sauce

/ jeffreyw / 1 Comment

We were having an interesting discussion in comments here about BBQ sauces that might work with turkey.  I remembered a sauce made by the fellow that ran a now defunct BBQ pit in my hometown.  I half remembered the recipe and tried to describe the sauce in one of my comments.  I wasn’t too far off!  Mostly..

Anyway, Mrs J mentioned just a while ago, “I have a recipe for that sauce, we got it from one of your pipefitter pals, it’s in this big folder here”.  Kerplop

Now it would have been a miracle if the thing had flopped open to just what I was looking for.  It didn’t happen that way.  But I found it!

You can probally read that, but in case you can’t:

2 c each of vinegar and water

2 c sugar  (I used Splenda this batch)

1/3 c cornstarch in water (make a slurry-use minimal water)

1 t salt

3 t pepper  (I used white pepper, and added 1 more of black pepper)

1 t red pepper (ground cayenne)

8 oz can of tomato sauce   (I didn’t have any so I used a good dollop of tomato paste and whisked it in along with a little water-May have used too much as the end product seems a tad less translucent than I remember the original sauce.)

That’s pretty much it, mix everything but the cornstarch slurry in a saucepan over medium heat, bring to a good simmer, add the slurry and whisk it as it returns to the simmer.

It’s not a bad sauce, won’t be to everyone’s liking.  I think it’s pretty good, and I don’t think I would hesitate to dredge a slice of turkey breast through it.

I used cider vinegar but I can easily imagine this made with white vinegar or red wine vinegar.

Mmm…Blueberry Pie!

/ jeffreyw

Ahem.

Link goes to inspiration for the crust design.  The crust recipe was the same as for the cherry pie.  We did use the filling recipe at that link with very minor changes.  Splenda instead of sugar, some fresh grated cinnamon in there as was suggested by several other filling recipes we looked over.  I think we used closer to 5 cups of berries than the 4 mentioned.  Took a few tries before we were completely happy with the crust lay out.  There s an egg wash on it, and some sugar and ground cinnamon.

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Sweet ‘n Sour Chicken

/ jeffreyw

I thought I’d try a sweet and sour recipe for the chicken breasts I thawed this morning.  A quick search led me to this one. I pretty much followed the sauce recipe, swapping Splenda for the brown sugar.  Most of the recipes you see have pineapple as an ingredient but this one caught my eye because it didn’t.  I made a few additions, the shiitake mushrooms and the snow peas.

It was a decent dish, satisfying, but the sauce wasn’t quite what I had in mind.  I guess the store brand sweet and sour sauces with their day-glo colors had me conditioned to expect something different.

Used basmati rice for this dish-the new rice cooker did an excellent job on it, the grains were separate and it seems to me that basmati would make a really good base for fried rice.

Enjoy!

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Mandarin Orange Cake

/ jeffreyw / 5 Comments

I mentioned this to Mrs J the other night when I ran across it while idly googling some cake recipes.  She thought it sounded good. Today she asked for a printout of the recipe. No fool I, she got it promptly, and I enjoyed the aromas as she baked the cake.  Nothing like the aroma from the coconut as it toasted.  Mmmm  The coconut and the walnuts were a Mrs J addition to the recipe.  She substituted Splenda for the sugar, and used a Splenda blend of brown sugar for the glaze.

A big hand, please, for the lovely and erudite Mrs J!

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Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake

/ jeffreyw

I was afraid I used too much fruit and liquid in this thing, turned out OK.  I think the dump it in there concept admirable but next time I will do it a bit differently.  Pitted a pound of cherries and brought them to a boil with about a cup of water, I added a quarter cup of Splenda to sweeten them.  Dumped the cherries into the 13X9 pan and sprinkled the cake mix evenly on top.  Arrayed the butter as the picture shows, that was 2 sticks, each pat one tablespoon worth.  I then sprinkled Splenda over that.  Also put some cane sugar on there, too.  I wasn’t sure what the Splenda would do.  Popped it into a 350 oven for nearly an hour-it just wasn’t looking right so I pulled it and fired my torch and caramelized the sugar some.  It worked!  Yay!  The topping had some crunch to it.

Next time I’ll use a bit less water in the cherries, and will cut the butter and the sugar/Splenda into the cake mix in a bowl before putting it atop the cherries.  Oh, and I’ll try to remember the nuts.  The cherries-chocolate are the perfect flavor for this, but visually just not much to look at.  I have a white cake mix and more cherries for next time.

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Jam and Jelly

/ jeffreyw

Decided to try some crab apple jelly today.  Not a smashing success, but a good effort.  It didn’t set very well but the flavor was about what we expected.  Pretty tart.  Kept adding Splenda to the boiled juice until it was sweet enough.  We used a pectin that was supposed to be good for reduced sugar recipes, but still wasn’t what we needed.  Mrs J went to town and came back with some fancy jelly jars and the pectin that claimed to be good for no sugar recipes.  Oh, and some more fruit-peaches and nectarines.  Peach Jam!  We made two batches, the first was just the peaches, and the second was half peach and half nectarine.  The two batches of jam seem to be setting up a bit better.

I was having flash fun, so plenty of pictures!

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