Jiffy Pineapple Upside-down Cake

     It's winter in Michigan and it's cold. That's all I can say. We try to keep busy to keep the circulation going in attempt to stay warm and most weekends I choose to bake up something to help warm the house. Today was no different. We were up and moving early and while Shawn went and did a quick Kota clean-up in the yard, I hopped on the treadmill. About 40 minutes later, he was warming up, I was cooling down, and we met in the middle with oatmeal and an episode of Z-Nation on Netflix.
     I played on my tablet for about 20 minutes, took a shower and thought maybe a nap was in the near future. As it turned out, I did cuddle on the couch and we started watching The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp. It didn't take long before I was hitting the pause button and headed to the kitchen to whip up a cake.
Jiffy Pineapple Upside-down Cake:

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 20oz can chunk pineapple drained  (reserving 1/2 cup of juice)
1box Jiffy yellow cake mix
1egg

     What's not to love about the way butter looks sitting in a well-cared-for cast iron skillet? (9 inch)

     Melt that baby up in the oven then top it with the brown sugar and pineapple. You can use crushed pineapple instead. I like little chunks so I actually take my chunks of pineapple and cut them in half again to make them more petite. Actually, Shawn did the chopping. He's a great chopper.

     Set that aside and beat the cake mix, reserved pineapple juice and egg for 4 minutes. Gently pour that on top of the mixture sitting happy in the cast iron.

     Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Today for me it was 40 minutes exactly. My oven varies since it's older than me so I have to watch when using it. The cooking time will fluctuate for me. I keep saying if I ever get a working oven, I'm not going to know how to cook.

     Let it cool 2 minutes then flip it over on to your serving dish.

     Ta-da!

     I usually opt out of the cherries on a pineapple upside-down cake. I love cherries. It's just a personal preference here. You can add them if you like at the same time you add the pineapple and brown sugar topping.
     This was the dessert on a night we made a great sweet and sour chicken stir fry, using canned zucchini pineapple. Boil chunked zucchini in pineapple juice and process. Get that fabulous recipe and stir fry dinner here: Sweet and Sour Chicken Stir Fry
     Incidentally, we did eventually finish watching The Lone Ranger. I loved it.
Chat soon!
Penni

When Life Gives You Zucchini

     We usually catch and annual sale at Kroger when they sell fresh pineapples for a dollar. That's an amazing price, at least for where I am. Well either I missed that sale in the beginning of the summer, or else they didn't have it. I'm guessing that even though I checked weekly, I missed it somehow. But what we did have, was a very abundant supply of local zucchini. You'd be surprised what you can do with zucchini and when it comes to canning we've attempted quite a few science projects that have led to great successes. Some not so much, but we won't mention that here.
     I work with 100 Horticulturalists and in harvest season the amount of free fresh picked garden vegetables that get offered at work can mean you don't have to use what little real estate you might have to grow some things. We grew 20 tomato plants, jalapenos and plenty of basil this year. All things we use the most. Last season, I shared mine and in return I gained a freezer full of fresh garden green beans and more zucchini than we knew what to do with.
     This year we dehydrated some for the first time. We do enjoy zucchini bread and sometimes it's difficult to come by in the middle of winter. Rehydrate and there you go. It can be used just like fresh in breads and sauces. We also made our annual batch of sweet relish and also bread and butter pickles. Yes, I said that. For the last 3 years our bread and butter pickles have been made from zucchini instead of cucumbers. The secret is out now to those of my son friends who come over requesting to take a jar home. It's a popular item here.
     The new discovery we tried this year made up for the missed pineapple sale, and we made pineapple chunks from zucchini instead. It's quite simple and can be used however you would normally use canned pineapple. Personally, the texture isn't spot on enough for me to top my cottage cheese with, but it is so close that when used mixed in a recipe I don't notice at all that it's an impostor.

     Get the recipe here: Pineapple Zucchini

     It's a very easy process. Boil in some pineapple juice and can it up.

     Tonight this zucchini was going into sweet and sour chicken. I don't have measurements when I do any type of chicken stir fry. I don't even have a set ingredient list. It's a great time to open the refrigerator and dump whatever veggies you have on hand into the pan. Tonight was carrots, broccoli, onion, cauliflower and a little green bell pepper. Fry up some chicken that's been cut to bite size, add the veggies and keep stirring until everything is as cooked as you like.

     I've learned to move like a ninja in the kitchen, stealth and light on my feet. You have to when there is a beast that forever feels the need to lay right in the middle of the floor when I cook. He's not sleeping. Don't let him fool you. He's waiting in his own stealth mode for the moment chicken might hit the floor.

     Then for the sauce, which was amazing. I found the recipe on Allrecipes.com. I gave it 5 stars.

Wow! Sweet and Sour Sauce          

Recipe By:Nana Nat

"This is great sauce. Use for dipping or poured over rice and chicken."

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1 (8 ounce) can pineapple tidbits, with juice (this is where I used our canned pineapple zucchini) 
• 2/3 cup distilled white vinegar

• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon steak sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper hot sauce
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch

Directions

1. Stir water, sugar, ketchup, pineapple, vinegar, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, steak sauce, and hot sauce together in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove 1/2 cup of the sauce to a small bowl; whisk cornstarch into the sauce in the bowl. Bring the sauce in the saucepan to a boil, stir the sauce with the cornstarch into the boiling sauce. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before using.

     This little picture doesn't show you how amazing the recipe is. I cut the recipe in half, unsure if I'd like it, and this is what's left after covering my stir fry. We loved it so much that were going to break down the recipe and determine if it's safe to can and if it is, look out. There will be quite a few jars of this on the shelf if things go right. There is cornstarch in this recipe, but if I remove that and thicken after opening a jar, we might be good to go.

     See that chunk of zucchini in there? You'd never know it wasn't pineapple...

     If you like sweet and sour, you'll like this sauce. I give it 2 thumbs up.

Chat soon!

Penni

Thanksgiving dinner

     Oh what fun Thanksgiving is. We host Thanksgiving every year and I always get so happy being able to spend so much time in the kitchen prepping to feed family. I'm not sure what the bigger compliment is, seeing the plates come out one by one so full that food is stacked on top of food, or the way everyone leans back when they're finished because their full belly prevents them from leaning forward for another second. Either way, I've always been a firm believer that good times happen around good food.
     This year, I took the home made stuffing up a notch and started with home made bread. We made a couple loaves, starting a few nights before Thanksgiving. The bread was nothing out of the ordinary, just simple white bread.

     The night before, we cubed it so it could dry out just a little. I've made the same stuffing for years and mine actually calls for soft bread cubes, but I don't like them pillow soft, so cubing them and leaving them in a loosely covered bowl over night is usually perfect. When you're ready to stuff the turkey, melt 3/4 cup butter and soften 2 sliced celery stalks and a chopped medium onion. As soon as this starts cooking on the stove, Shawn already starts to inhale deeply. The smell is amazing. To the 9 cups of cubed bread, add approx 2 teaspoons of ground sage, mix it around real good, then toss in the butter, celery and onion mixture. Just stir it until it's all coated real good and start shoving inside that beautiful bird. This recipe can be used inside any bird, turkey, chicken or even Cornish hens. Because it's such a basic stuffing, no sausage or berries, etc., it's very versatile.

     This is before we tied up the legs, but I wanted you to be able to see the stuffing inside. This bird was so big that all the stuffing fit inside, but normally I have some left over. Anything that doesn't fit inside, just put in an oven safe casserole dish, cover it and place in the refrigerator. After the turkey comes out of the oven and is resting, I can usually bake the left over stuffing and rolls at the same time so everything is nice and hot for dinner.
     Unfortunately, since we were juggling so much with company coming in, turkey coming out and a hundred other fun kitchen things, I didn't get a picture of the finished bird. I didn't do anything special seasoning this years turkey. It was a simple butter and salt and pepper bird, but I've done quite a few variations from herbs to brine to pumpkin pie spice rubbed, which was amazing. We did expect a bigger crowd this year, hence the large bird, and since some of the family doesn't care too much for out-of-the-box ideas, I just stayed with simple. The flavor of the turkey and stuffing is going to be fantastic no matter what you do.

     This picture was actually taken the next day during our day of watching movies, cleaning up and pigging out on left overs. I don't do black Friday shopping. I do sweats, movies and enjoy my husband. My sister does the sweet potato casserole every year and if she were to ever decide not to bring it, I'd be lost. It's the sweet that cuts through the savory on the plate. It's almost a dessert in itself. So this was almost all of our meal. Not pictured is the cranberry sauce and the rolls. Why didn't I show the rolls? Because that's tomorrow's blog. The rolls were so amazing and so easy that I'm going to share that entire recipe with you.
     We also took the turkey carcass, some celery and a few other vegetable odds and ends, put it in a large stock pot, covered it with water and simmered it very slowly for hours. It was at least 3 hours, but I can't say for sure because I went more by eye than time. This yielded 5 quarts of amazing home made turkey stock. On Saturday, with 4 cups of that turkey stock, we made a mashed potato topped turkey pot pie. It's another one of my traditional after Thanksgiving meals, though normally with pie crust. This year I decided to try it with the mashed potatoes. It was good, but I think I missed the pie crust on top of this.

     It was still a great comfort food kind of evening and with the temperatures beginning to drop, I don't complain at all about the oven being on.
    Tune in tomorrow when I share the best roll recipe you've ever seen, and who I copied the recipe from!
Chat soon and I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving!
Penni

Recipe success!

     It's been a wonderful few days of recipes, old and new. I did tell you the next time I made our usual weekly loaf of bread that I would be sure to post pictures and the recipe, so here it is!

Place in your bread machine in this order:
3/4 cup Water (80 degrees approx.)
1 Tbsp. oil or butter
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. powdered milk
1 3/4 cup bread flour (I actually only use your standard all purpose flour)
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
Add 1 Tbsp. of sunflower seeds if desired. We've been using maple toffee covered sunflower seeds. So all ingredients into the machine.

I set the machine for a one pound loaf on wheat setting and it's good to be left alone for 3.5 hours. Set it and forget it. I do love my bread machine.

     I have such a great husband. I text him from work and said, "Do me a favor and snap a picture of the loaf of bread for our blog BEFORE you eat it all." I couldn't help but giggle when he text back, "Uhhhhh...." I knew it was too late. He did still manage to impress and set his sliced bread down with the left over loaf, included our jam and took the best picture. This was his breakfast. This bread toasts up so nice. Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. We now make this bread at least once a week, but sometimes more because it doesn't last through the week. You can certainly make a larger loaf. My machine will go up to a 2 pound loaf. I choose to make them smaller because I'd rather make another loaf than make too much and be wasteful throwing it out.

     We tried another bread this weekend. And it too will be added to the regular rotation. It's a Portuguese sweet bread and I found it right on Allrecipe.com.



Portuguese Sweet Bread I

Recipe By:Jennifer Houde

"This recipe is for the bread machine. It is similar to homemade grandmother's sweet bread."

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons margarine
• 1/3 cup white sugar

• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups bread flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Directions

1. Add ingredients in order suggested by your manufacturer.
2. Select "sweet bread" setting.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2015 Allrecipes.com

     And this is what it looks like... Yes, again, I only get a picture of a slice because this was cut pretty fast. We sliced it up and used it that same night to make stuffed french toast with sausage for dinner. Who doesn't love a breakfast dinner, right?

     We just stuffed it with whipped cream cheese, made french toast with it and we topped it with our peach syrup. It was so amazing. Shawn said it tasted like he ordered it from a gourmet restaurant. I think he likes when I experiment in the kitchen. He seems to be reaping the rewards. He liked this one so much that he requested it for breakfast again the next morning. He doesn't request breakfast. It's not my strong suit. The cooking is, but the getting up and moving early is not. Hence, breakfast dinners. :)  But I didn't hesitate. He asked for it, he gets it. It's kind of my rule with him.

     We had a wonderful productive weekend. Finally sat down Sunday night in a spotless house, lunches ready for the next day, and amazing weather for November in Michigan. Oddly amazing, thanks be to El Nino. So why not take advantage of the rare Michigan fall? Shawn made a pot of coffee and we sat on the deck in the dark watching the stars because the sky was completely clear. This is unheard of this time of year. No coats, winds or shivering. Just a mug of coffee, my husband, dog at my feet and ending a productive weekend with a perfect night. I love my weekends with Shawn and one of these days when I hit the lottery, I'm calling into work sick!

Next post I'll be sharing the recips we've tried for home cleaning supplies. I'll give my take on some of the Pintrest recipes I've made. Some have been around for decades and some are new. You can find the carziest ideas on Pintrest and not all of them are legit and a success that they claim. We've tried some and the reviews are in! Tune in.

Chat soon

Penni