Monthly Archives: February 2015

Easy Country Apple Dumplings * (Not IC Safe)

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apple-dumplings-crescent-roll-feb

 

I halved and slightly edited this recipe, because I had to.  First I’ll post the original recipe, and beneath it, I’ll post the changes I made.

It’s absolutely delicious and doesn’t taste anything like the sum of its ingredients.  It’s a super delicious recipe that my son loved (he ate two), and all of us adults loved!  A+!  It’d be even better with a scoop of real vanilla ice cream, but we didn’t have any!

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

    • 2 (10 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent roll dough
    • 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
    • 1 1/2 cups white sugar
    • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon **
    • 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle Mountain Dew ™  **
      • **Known IC irritants, tread carefully!

MY RECIPE:

  • 1 (10 ounce) can refrigerated crescent roll dough
  • 1/2 cup butter (1 sticks) (I used about 7 tablespoons).
  • < 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon**
  • 12 oz. 100% pure apple juice (without high fructose corn syrup, just has apples and ascorbic acid).
  • **Since I halved the recipe, I put it in a small glass dish which was half the size of a 9×13″ dish.  The baking time remained the same.  

 

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×13″ inch baking dish.
  2. Cut each apple into 8 wedges and set aside. Separate the crescent roll dough into triangles.
  3. Roll each apple wedge in crescent roll dough starting at the smallest end. Pinch to seal and place in the baking dish.
  4. Melt butter in a small saucepan and stir in the sugar and cinnamon.
  5. Pour over the apple dumplings. Pour Mountain Dew(TM) over the dumplings.
  6. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

Marie’s Easy Slow Cooker Pot Roast

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marie-slow-cooker-pot-roast-feb

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com posted by Marie Thomas.  It’s really great!  It took only about five hours, but slow cookers vary considerably with temperatures and settings.  With my onion problem, I halved the dry onion soup mix amount and omitted the raw onion (and upped the other veggies).  We both think it turned out just spectacular even with those changes.  The veggies were insanely good, flavorful, and fork tender!  With the price of chuck roast, I used a 2# roast, but left the other ingredients mostly as is because we like a lot of juice.  The recipe below is for the full 4# recipe and ingredients – not halved.  It was a PERFECT Sunday meal and we will have many leftovers!  Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 4 pounds chuck roast

  • salt 

  • 1 packet dry onion soup mix* 

  • 1 cup water

  • 3 carrots, chopped

*(see how you tolerate this and check the ingredients in the mix!)
*Onion can be flaring, it’s usually on the try-it list.

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Season the roast with salt and pepper to taste. Brown on all sides in a large skillet over high heat, about 4 minutes per side.
  2. Place the roast in the slow cooker and add the soup mix, water, carrots, onion, potatoes, and celery.
  3. Cover and cook on Low setting for 8 to 10 hours.  *Your time may vary; check after 5 hours, I’d say.
  4. Remove meat from cooker, loosely tent with foil, and let rest at least 10-15 minutes before slicing.  (While the meat was resting on the cutting board, I left the veggies and juice in slow cooker on the “warm” setting and let them remain heated.)

 

ATK’s Zucchini Bread *

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americas-test-kitchen-zucchini-bread

This photo is courtesy of America’s Test Kitchen -Cook’s Illustrated.  My bread turned out slightly under-cooked and wasn’t as presentable as I normally like so I’ll just use a stock photo until I can re-make it again.  It’s very delicious bread.  I never knew zucchini could work so well into a dessert type bread!  I cooked it for the full time and even followed the directions for the toothpick coming out with just a few crumbs attached, but it tricked me.  So later, I had to cut it into slices and re-bake on a baking sheet, which helped.  I think the problem was I could only twist and drain so much moisture out of the shredded zucchini.  Next time I will use an orange squeezer to get more moisture out.  My 8 year old loved it – but then again, it is more desserty vs. a hard sell.  Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 1/2 lbs. zucchini shredded
  • 1 1/4 cups packed (8 3/4 oz.) brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups (7 1/2 oz.) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup (2 3/4 oz.) whole-wheat flour
  • 1 T. ground cinnamon**
  • 1 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
  • 2/3 cup walnuts (toasted and chopped), optional
  • 1 T. granulated sugar
  • Chocolate chips are a great addition (optional)**

**Known IC irritants, tread carefully! You can make this IC safe by omitting the cinnamon and choc. chips. 

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325* F.
  2. Grease 8 1/2 x 4 1/2″ loaf pan.
  3. Shred zucchini with either the large holes of a box grated (or use your food processor shredding disc like I did.)
  4. Place shredded zucchini in center of dish towel.  Gather ends together and twist tightly to drain as much liquid as possible, discarding liquid (you should have 1/2 to 2/3 cup liquid).  This method didn’t work well for me, next time I will use an orange squeezer (click here) to remove even more liquid from the zucchini.
  5. Whisk brown sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla together in medium bowl.  Fold in zucchini.
  6. Whisk all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and nutmeg together in large bowl.
  7. Fold in zucchini mixture until just incorporated.  Fold in walnuts, if using.  Fold in chocolate chips, if using.
  8. Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle with granulated sugar; it makes a nice crust.
  9. Bake until top bounces back when gently pressed and toothpick inserted in center comes out with few moist crumbs attached – 65-75 minutes.
  10. Let bread cool in pan on wire rack for 30 minutes.
  11. Remove bread from pan and let cool completely on wire rack, serve.

 

Lazy Day Braised Pot Roast * (Not IC Safe)

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Lazy Day Pot Roast Slow Cooker 3-13

 

I found this recipe in one of my giant cookbooks for slow cookers entitled, “Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook” by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann.  It was super simple to make, extremely moist (see photo), and had rich flavor.  Serves 6-8 people.  🙂

 

INGREDIENTS:

  • One 4-LB. boneless chuck roast, trimmed of as much fat as possible and blotted dry
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper**
  • 4 large carrots, cut into 3″ lengths
  • 4 large potatoes, peeled and quartered
  • 1 large onion, quartered (I used flakes)**
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 3 cups water
  • 1/2 cup cider vinegar**
  • 3 T. unsalted butter, softened
  • 3 T. all-purpose flour

**Known IC irritants, tread carefully!

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Put the roast in the slow cooker and sprinkle with the salt and pepper.
  2. Add the carrots, potatoes, onion, and bay leaves.
  3. Pour the water and vinegar over the meat and vegetables.
  4. Cover and cook on LOW for approximately 6-8 hours (you be the judge of how quickly your slow cooker cooks).
  5. Transfer the meat and vegetables to a heated platter and cover with aluminum foil.
  6. Turn the cooker to HIGH. You will have about 3 full cups of liquid remaining in the slow cooker.
  7. In a small bowl, mash together the butter with the flour to make a beurre manie.  Add to the hot liquid in the cooker and stir with a whisk until melted and the liquid thickens.
  8. Ladle some sauce over the meat and vegetables and serve the remainder in a bowl.