Pineapple Squares

I do not care for pineapple, but my mother came across this recipe in the box and immediately became nostalgic for her childhood.  She told me how grandma used to make these all the time when she was a girl.

So off we went to my mom's to make pineapple squares.  Joey was thrilled about the prospect of making cookies, but did not enjoy the taste of pineapple.

This was a relatively simple cookie to make.  It is comprised of a two layers of dough with a layer of crushed pineapple in the middle.  The dough is a cross between a shortbread and pie dough.

When all is said and done, you add a few chopped walnuts on top.  After a little baking, here is the result.

Once they cooled, my mom tried one and said that we were on the right track.  They need a little tweaking, but all in all the flavor was there.

So for now, I will refrain from publishing the recipe until it is perfect.

Impossible Cheeseburger Pie

 Yes, I actually made something called cheese burger pie.  My husband came home from work and saw the recipe sitting on the counter and said "Why?!? Why are you doing this to me?" 

This recipe probably came from the 50's where featuring specific products in recipes was popular.  This one called for good old Bisquick.  Apparently it is not just for pancakes.

It was a very simple dish to put together.  You brown a pound of meat (it called for ground beef, I per usual used turkey) with an onion.

You put it in a pie dish.  Then you top with a mixture of Bisquick, milk, and eggs.  Bake and then top with cheese until it melts.

The result was different.  It was was quiche like.  The pie was very fluffy and tasty I think I need to add to this into our regular dinner rotation. Despite what my husband thinks.

Impossible Cheeseburger Pie

1 pound ground beef
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 tablespoon oil
1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 cups Bisquick baking mix
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tomatoes, sliced, opitional
1 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 10" pie plate. Heat a skillet over medium heat.  Saute onions in oil. Add meat.  Cook and stir until beef is brown.  Drain and spread in the pie plate. Beat milk, baking mix, eggs, salt and pepper until smooth. Bake 25 to 30 minute. Top with tomatoes and sprinkle with cheese.  Bake 5 to 8 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before serving.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Our first baby free vacation in more than two years and we went to Minneapolis.  Yes, Minneapolis!  Not my first choice for an excited vacation spot.  But my husband needed to go there for some business and I decided to tag along for some child free fun.

And fun we did have.  Soon after we arrived, we sought out some lunch. We happened upon a little pub called Brits Pub.

This was a good find.  We ended up returning there for happy hour, late night happy hour and late night drinking every night.  Can you tell that we have not been baby free in more than two years? 

The highlights from our trip included a Twins game.  We saw the Twins take on the Detroit Tigers.  The Twins lost, but we still had a great time at the newly built Target Field.

We also made a visit to the Minnesota State Fair.  It was a sight to be seen.  It was more crowded than Disneyland.  We were entertained by the parade, featuring large animals and fried food.
The Twins also stopped by for a photo op.

Keeping on the sporting theme.  A Vikings game was in order in the newly fixed Mall of America Field.  I have never been to an NFL game before.  I did not realize that they were so campy.  The songs and the flag boys celebrating every touchdown.  The Vikings lost.  We were two for two on the home teams losing.

The last stop on our tour was the Mall of America.  I was unimpressed.  Perhaps if it had been 20 below outside, I would have had more of an appreciation for it.  So we went to the movies, something we cannot do with Joey, unless we want to see a cartoon.

While I missed our little guy, it was lovely to sleep in and stay out late.

Staying Above Ground

The last two nights have featured ground turkey as the star. On our trip, I picked up a copy of Family Circle magazine.  Yes!  It is official I have turned into a mom and I read Family Circle.  It was a great magazine.  Good enough that I brought it home with me so that I could try a few of the recipes.

I found feature on 10 different ways to make ground beef.  Now I do not keep a lot of ground beef in the house, but I do keep ground turkey.  I figured they were one in the same.

Last night we had Jamaican Beef Patties.  They were really like little beef pies.  I thought they were super yum. Now, I have the picture from the magazine here, mine however did not look so pretty. But they tasted just the same.

 

Want the full recipe, check out this link: http://www.familycircle.com/recipe/jamaican-beef-patties/

Tonight, I thought I would continue the theme and make Korean Rice Bowls.  I was a little wary of putting ground turkey in a rice bowl.  But I thought I would give it a whirl.  I am not much of an Asian cook, but this recipe really made me think that I could do it.  I am sure some purist would cringe at this idea.  But I have to say the results were pretty good for the amount of time it took me.  I am not sure that I would make this again with ground turkey, but would probably be super yummy with chunks of chicken. 

 

Want the full scoop?  Here you go: http://www.familycircle.com/recipe/korean-rice-bowl/

We will see what I make with ground turkey tomorrow night.

What's for dinner?

This question is posed to me almost nightly by my husband.  Some days, I have a great plan, other days, not so much.  I always want to have an answer to question, but some days get out of control and I cannot think about dinner or fail to take something out of the freezer.

Last night, I actually had an answer and had spent part of my afternoon getting the elements ready for that long simmered taste.  So, what's for dinner you ask?

Pasta and Meatballs.  No not just any pasta, but pasta with fresh tomato sauce.

Hey, I had to use up the rest of the Tanaka farms tomatoes before my crop of tomatoes is ripe.

The first step in making the sauce to is to remove the skins from the tomatoes.

I have to say this is one of my least favorite kitchen tasks.  Once the skins have been removed you crush them by hand, which is fun.  Come on, don't you love to play with your food.

The sauce consists of the deskinned tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil and white wine.  You can leave the sauce chunky with the tomatoes.  My husband prefers his sauce to be a little smoother, so I look my immersion blender to the mix.

The recipe called for the sauce to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. I personally like long simmered sauces if you have the time.  So I let mine simmer for 2 hours.  I periodically taste tested to ensure it was not becoming over reduced.  I salted it toward the end of the cooking time.  I also added a tablespoon of sugar to bring out the naturally sweetness in the tomatoes.

I served it over pasta.  It was delish.  I brought some to my neighbors and they returned the empty dish and asked that age old question "What's for dinner tomorrow night?"Unfortunately, I did not have an answer for them.  I suppose I should think about it.

Now, I could not just serve pasta. So I paired it with some yummy meatballs.  I used ground turkey, since it was what I had on hand.  But it is really up to you on the type of meat.

Ground meat, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, garlic, and eggs.  What could be better?  I baked them in the oven and served them as a side dish.

You could throw these into the sauce and let them simmer away, that is what grandma would have done.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

3-5 lbs fresh ripe tomatoes
1 bunch basil leaves (removed from the stems and finely chopped)
1 tablespoon oregano leaves (finely chopped)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion (finely chopped)
8 to 10 cloves of garlic (minced)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon sugar
salt and pepper

Place tomatoes in a large pan with water to cover. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until the skins crack, about 4 to 5 minutes. Drain in a colander. Rinse with cold water.  Then squeeze the pulp out of the skins (or just peel) into a bowl. Crush by hand and set aside.

Heat a heavy-bottomed sauce pan over high heat Add the onion, garlic, basil and oregano and saute 3 to 4 minutes. Add the wine and cook 1 to 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and sugar.  Salt and pepper to taste. Continue cooking over moderately high heat for 10 to 15 minutes.

Meatballs

2 lbs. ground chuck (or turkey or pork, any meat of your choice)
2 eggs
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 cloves minced garlic

Mix all ingredients together and form into round balls. Put on a greased cookie sheet. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees. NOTE: If you use a lower fat meat like turkey, add a tablespoon of olive oil.

Bruschetta

On our visit to the farm, we bought some awesome looking tomatoes. 

Now what to do with such fabulous tomatoes.  Bruschetta of course.  And it was the perfect app to take to Movies in the Park.

The fresh tomato and basil came out perfect.  This recipe is a mixture of two different ones I found in the box.  And it came out perfect.

So the time has come for me to share my first recipe with you.  Use it wisely.


Bruschetta Pomadore

4 ripe tomatoes
2 tablespoons fresh basil
1 clove minced garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
1 loaf french bread

Cut the bread into 1/4" slices. If desired, broil until golden brown on both sides.

Seed and dice tomatoes. Mix tomatoes with garlic and oil.  Chop basil.  Add to tomatoes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, spoon tomato mixture over the sliced bread.

Watermelon Tour

I wanted to have a family outing.  We have been spending a lot of our family time at home working on the yard.  While that is fun and rewarding, I thought that we need to have some family time away from the house.  I had read about a watermelon tour and thought that sounded great.  Watermelon after all is one of our favorite summer time treats. 
So off we went to Tanaka farms in Irvine.

We did not make the 9:30 tour, so we had a little time to kill before our 11 o'clock tour.  They have an awesome farm stand, with the freshest produce around.  We decided upon sunflower seeds for now and wanted to shop for produce after the tour.

The tour was incredible.  Joey loved that we were on a tractor riding through the farm.  The tractor stopped at various points on the farm and they give you fresh picked produce.  Since they are an all organic farm, you can eat the produce directly from the field.

The first stop was carrots and tomatoes.

The most surprising thing about this tour was that Charles actually tried all of the produce that was presented to him. 

Joey was not as into the veggies, but he was only a Watermelon Picker in training. So he has a little ways to go.

  

Joey favorite part of the tour was the fresh watermelon.  It was so sweet.  Did you know that watermelon is 92% water and 8 % sugar?  That is a fast fact from out tour.

The most surprising produce was a yellow watermelon.  I have never seen anything other than red watermelon.

The final element of the tour was a walk through the watermelon patch and then you get to take home a watermelon. 

 

This was a great way to spend our family time and introduce ourselves to some fabulous produce.

Wanna visit Tanaka Farms: http://www.tanakafarms.com/   

Stay tuned we will go back for their pumpkin patch in October.