Fall Food

Fall is already half over here in Alaska.  The leaves have changed and have fallen. I'm already craving all my favorite fall dishes.  I have to get them in before the snow comes.  Here is one of my favorites...

Apple Apricot Stuffed Pork Chops

6 Loin Pork Chops, 1 Inch Thick

½ Cup Chopped Onion

½ Cup Chopped Celery

1 Tbsp. Butter

½ Cup Soft Breadcrumbs

½ Cup Chopped Apple

1/3 Cup Golden or Dark Raisins

1 Tbsp. Brown Sugar

½ Tsp. Ginger

¼ Cup Apricot Preserves

Cut deep pockets in each pork chop.  In a skillet, cook onion and celery in butter until crisp-tender.  Add breadcrumbs, apple, raisins, brown sugar, ginger and 2 Tbsp. preserves and mix well.  Stuff each chop with about ¼ cup stuffing mixture.  Place in a un-greased 9x13 pan and cover.  Bake for 45 minutes at 325 degrees.  Uncover and spread top of chops with remaining 2 Tbsp. preserves.  Bake uncovered an additional 15-20 minutes or until pork chops are tender. Serve with smashed potatoes and green beans.

This recipe reminds me of my Grammy.  I think most of you have met my Grandma Laine.  She always makes her applesauce cakes at Christmas with cherries on top of the loaves.  I made her recipe into cupcakes this week and they turned out splendidly.  I'm not a huge fan of raisins, nuts, or cherries in my cupcakes, so plain with a little cream cheese frosting was heavenly to me.  Make them however you like!  They are also good with a caramel filling, with caramel and nuts sprinkled over the top (like a caramel apple cupcake)!  Yum.

Applesauce Cake – Grandma Elaine

2 c sugar (1 c white, 1 c brown)

1 c butter

3 ½ c flour

2 tsp baking soda (mixed in applesauce)

3 c applesauce

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

½ tsp allspice

2 eggs

1 c nuts

2 c raisins

1 tsp vanilla

Cherries for top

Bake in loaves or a cake pan for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.  If making cupcakes, fill tins 2/3 of the way full and bake at 350 for 19 minutes.  Freeze or refrigerate cakes if not serving immediately or before frosting with cream cheese frosting.

Happy fall everyone!

Em 

Mock Jam

Okay, this is awesome! A friend of mine gave me this recipe because her garden was exploding with zucchini and didn't know what to do with it other than zucchini bread. This Jam is made from zucchini and JELLO! Yes, jam made from zucchini! Now she feels guiltless feeding her kids pancakes because she puts this jam on it. Her kids love this jam so much, they call it ice cream jam.

Ingredients:

5 cups peeled, shredded, then blended zucchini. Be sure to peel it, so you don't have green flecks in your jam! Also, make sure you blend the zucchini so you don't have stringy jam! Ew!
5 cups white sugar, my friend uses less sugar, and she says it's fine
3 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
2 (3oz) pkgs Jello any flavor, the best are the berry flavors and peach

Stir the zucchini together in a pot over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture begins to boil, about ten minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and gelatin, and continue simmering 5 minutes more.
Ladle the hot jam into six sterilized, half pint jars. Process in a canner as you would any other kind of jam. Refrigerate any jars that do not seal.
Instead of canning the jam, my friend froze it in six containers, and she said it turned out just as yummy. In fact, she caught her little boy sneaking it out of the freezer and eating it right out of the container! Now, isn't this a great way to eat zucchini?

Love you ladies!
Di

Creamy Crab Quiche

This is one of my favorite quiche recipes ever, and I have a boat load of them.  I have one in my fridge right now.  It's perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner.  I LOVE this recipe.  For lunch or dinner I eat it with a bitter green salad (with lots of tomatoes) and a simple red wine vinaigrette.  It reheats great!  One of the best things about quiches are that you can pretty much add whatever you want to them and they will always turn out great (once you have a good base recipe).  So feel free to add sauteed green peppers, mushrooms, or whatever else you fancy.  But I love this one cheesy, creamy, and perfectly delicious. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk (or heavy cream if you really want to treat yourself)
• 1 cup crab meat (lump is clearly optimal but I've done the cheap canned kind and it taste fabulous)
• 1 cup diced Swiss cheese (regular Swiss or it will be too salty)
• 1/2 cup chopped green or yellow onion
• 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust (Pillsbury is my favorite)

Things I add that make it extra delicious (and I won't make it without):

• Cream Cheese
• A couple dashes of Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce
• Minced garlic or garlic powder
• 1+ tablespoon Old Bay seasoning (and sprinkle the quiche with extra as soon as it comes out of the oven)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Beat together eggs, mayonnaise, flour, and milk until thoroughly blended. Stir in crab, cheese, and onion. Pour into pie shell.
3. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Lunch ideas for Adrianne

Here is my favorite link for lunch ideas:
http://www.funkylunch.com/gallery.htm

I can see you and Jed having a lot of fun with that.

Seriously though, we mostly eat leftovers for lunches.  If I do make something to go, it's probably a chicken salad sandwich wrapped in a pita and chopped vegetables for snacking.  Hope that helps!

-Em

Easy lunch ideas

So, Jed and I no longer live 3 blocks from campus, and pretty much we will be leaving home between 6-8:30 a.m. and getting home anywhere from 4-11pm. What I am looking for is good ideas for lunches/snacks that are filling, easy to carry around, and yummy. I cannot go an entire day without eating, and I definitely don't want to get in the habit of buying fast food or yucky BYU pre-made food. Any ideas? Thanks!