Cherry Crisp

The other day I was dreaming of Tiger's Blood--you know, that slushee flavor that was everyone's favorite.  I learned once that it was cherry mixed with coconut, and my what a delicious combination.  That thought led to me thinking about another great cherry combo, that being the cherry-almond mix that was the original scent of so many liquid handsoaps.  I thought, I would love a cherry dessert that incorporates coconut and almonds!  And this is the brainchild of my reminiscing.  It is to die for, and will create lasting memories of its own!

Cherry Crisp

 Cherry Filling Ingredients:
1 16-oz can cherries, packed in water
1/2 cup sugar
1 T cornstarch
2 tsp. butter
1 tsp lemon juice
3 drops red food coloring

Drain the cherries, reserving the juice.  Mix together sugar, cornstarch, and reserved juice in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil and boil 1 minutes, stirring constantly.  Turn heat to medium and stir in butter, lemon juice, and food coloring.  Remove from heat and add cherries.  Keep in hot pan while you make the topping.

Topping ingredients:
6 T flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 T shredded coconut
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup chopped almonds
6 T butter, chilled and cut into 1/2" pieces


Preheat oven to 400F.  Mix all dry ingredients, then cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives until evenly distributed throughout.

To assemble:
Pour cherry mixture into an 8" or 9" square pan.  Spread topping evenly over cherry mixture.  Bake at 400F for 20 minutes.  Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

French Bread

I was looking through all my old cookbooks and found a series of little cookbooks called "Confident Cooking."  I decided to browse the bread one and found this fantastic recipe for French Bread.  I was amazed how much it was like a real baguette, and I was in heaven with memories of my sister and I sitting in Paris and eating freshly made baguette. Yum!

French Bread

Ingredients:
2 1/4 - 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour (if you don't have this you can use all white)
1 t salt
1 packet (1 T) yeast
1 cup warm water
1 egg white
1 T water

1.  Oil your largest baking sheet.  In a small bowl, soften the yeast in the 1 cup warm water; let sit 5 minutes.  Mix together the 2 1/4 cup white flour with the wheat flour and the salt in a large bowl.  Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour the yeast mixture in.  Using a wooden spoon, mix the dough into a rough sticky ball.
2.  Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead for 10 minutes, incorporating up to 1/4 cup more flour if necessary, until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Place dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl and brush surface of dough with oil.  Cover tightly and set in warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled.
3.  Punch down dough and then turn onto lightly floured surface.  Knead one minute, then roll or flatten dough into an 18"x7" rectangle.  Roll up firmly into a long sausage shape.  Taper the ends, then place diagonally on your prepared baking sheet.  Cover tightly and set aside in a warm place for about 40 minutes, or until well-risen.
4.  Preheat oven to 425F.  Pour 2 cups of water into a shallow baking dish (like a pie tin) and place on the lowest rack in the oven.  This helps make the crust of the bread.  Combine the egg white and 1 T water, then brush gently over the loaf.  Slash the loaf diagonally with a sharp knife at regular intervals about 2 inches apart.  Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.  Lower the oven temperature to 350F, re-brush the loaf with the egg wash, and bake for another 15 minutes.
5.  Remove from sheet and cool on a wire rack.  Best if eaten same day.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

When I was a kid and we would go to a Chinese restaurant, the only thing I would ever order was Sweet and Sour Chicken.  Years ago, when my brother and sister-in-law lived in Hawaii, they got me a Hawaiian cookbook.  I was delighted to find this recipe in it, which is a more Hawaiian version of sweet and sour chicken.  Their directions were terrible and their quantities and cooking times were also pretty off, so I revamped the recipe a few times, until I came up with this version. I love it!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs boneless skinless chicken (breasts, tenders, thighs, whatever you prefer)
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 T oil
1 red or green bell pepper, sliced in 1/4"-thick rings
1 (10 oz) cans of pineapple in juice (rings or chunks), drained, reserving juice
OR 6-8 fresh pineapple rings

Sauce
3/4 cups pineapple juice
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 T corn starch
1 t ground ginger
1 cup sugar
1 cube of chicken bullion

Preheat the oven to 350F. Cut the chicken into 1" cubes.  Place flour, salt, and pepper in a large Ziplock bag.  Add chicken and toss to coat.  Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add floured chicken and cook about 5 minutes, turning once, or until very lightly browned.  Remove chicken from pan and place in a 9"x13" pan.  Arrange peppers and pineapple on top of chicken and put in oven for 25-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the sauce.  Put all ingredients in medium saucepan.  Heat over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil.  Boil for 2 minutes, still stirring, until sauce has thickened slightly. Remove from heat and pour over already-baking chicken.  Continue to cook chicken with sauce until fully cooked.

Serve over rice.

Serves 6.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

I made this for dinner on Sunday, and we did an impromptu invite of another family from church, which meant that there weren't a ton of leftovers.  Like, not enough for a weeks worth of meals like I was hoping.  And then I ended up taking the leftovers to a friend who just sprained her ankle, which meant that there weren't ANY leftovers for me.

I've been thinking about it non-stop since then, so when I was at Costco today I bought the meat to make it again.  Really, since it was Costco, I bought enough meat to make it again tonight as well as three more times in the future.

This is so easy, and sooo delicious.  Just thinking about it now is making me drool.  Really.  My keyboard is slippery with slobber. Try it.  You'll thank me.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Ingredients:
1/2 pork shoulder (even half of it is a huge chunk of meat)
1 packet dry onion soup mix (I use Lipton)
1/2 cup water

Sandwich buns (I like whole wheat with poppy seeds)
Barbecue sauce (your favorite brand)

Spray a 5- or 6-quart slow cooker with cooking spray, then put in the meat.  Sprinkle the onion soup mix on top, then pour in the water.  Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours, or until meat falls apart when touched with a fork.

Using two forks, shred the meat, removing fatty bits as you go.  Spoon about a half a cup onto a sandwich bun, then top with a good drizzle of barbecue sauce.  Enjoy.  Finger lickin' good.

Serves about 8, unless everyone goes back for seconds.  Which they will.

Irma's Raspberry Dessert

For me, this dessert is the best part of Christmas!  The recipe is my grandmother's, and I think it's one that will be passed down forever.  It's just that good. 

Make this the day ahead, and be prepared to use every bowl in your house for the making of it!

As a note, Danish Dessert is made by a company called Junket, and can be purchased on Amazon.com.  I can't find it in the stores here, but in Utah they do sell it in the grocery stores.

Grandma Irma's Raspberry Dessert
Makes one 9x13" pan and one 9" square pan


Crust Layer:
1 stick butter, melted
2 sleeves graham crackers, crushed
1/2 cup sugar

Mix all together and press into bottom of one 9"x13" pan and one 9" square pan.  Refrigerate to set.

Raspberry Layer:
3 cups frozen raspberries
2 packages raspberry flavored Danish Dessert

Thaw and drain the raspberries, saving the juice.  Set aside.  Mix the Danish Dessert according to the package directions for Pie Filling, substituting the raspberry juice for part of the water.  After cooked on stove, put in fridge to cool slightly, then stir in raspberries.  Set aside to cool.
Cream Layer:
2 8-oz packages of cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
1 large carton of Cool Whip OR 4 cups sweetened whipped cream (whipped, of course)

Whip cream cheese until smooth, then add sugar.  Mix with whipped cream or cool whip.

To Assemble:
Spread cream layer on top of crust layer, then spread cooled raspberry layer on top.  Refrigerate overnight.  Cut into squares to serve.

Carmelized New Potatoes

This is my mother-in-law's recipe, and I LOVE it.  After watching her do it a hundred times I think I finally have the technique down.  There are two tricks that you must do or it won't work. The first one is to rinse the potatoes right before you put them in the sugar so they are wet.  The second one is to keep cooking past the time when the sugar hardens a bit; it will melt again and stick to the potatoes.  Let me know if you have questions!

Ruth's Carmelized New Potatoes

Ingredients:
10-12 new white potatoes (the small ones), or as many as will fit in a large skillet
1 cup white sugar

The morning before you want to eat these potatoes, boil the potatoes in salted water until they are very tender, about 20-30 minutes.  Try not to poke them too much when testing to see if they're done.  They should remain as whole as possible.  After they're fully cooked, drain them and set them aside to cool. 

About 15 minutes prior to eating, peel the skins off the cool potatoes.  Throw the skins away and set the peeled whole potatoes aside. 

In a large, heavy-bottomed skillet, heat the sugar over medium to medium-high heat.  For awhile it won't do anything, then it will begin to melt.  You don't need to stir it.  When it's fully melted, give the potatoes a quick rinse in water, then carefully transfer them to the skillet.  BE CAREFUL!  Melted sugar can cause serious burns, as my right ring finger can attest!

Once all the potatoes are in the skillet, start stirring them gently with a heat-proof spoon or stiff spatula.  The sugar may crystalize or harden a bit, but keep on stirring.  If it looks like the sugar is burning, turn the heat down a little, but not below medium heat.  After about 5 minutes the potatoes should be coated in the melted sugar, and there won't be much left over in the pan.  Remove from heat and serve.

Mandarin Pork Tenderloin

This is what we had as the main course for Christmas Dinner.  It's a recipe I got from a church dinner a long time ago, when J and I had just gotten married, and its been one of my favorites ever since.  Here it is:

Mandarin Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients:
Pork tenderloin (two sections)
2 t salt
1 t season all
1 t orange zest
1/2 t minced garlic
1/2 t dry mustard
1/2 t ground black pepper
1/2 t dried thyme
1 T oil
1/2 can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
3 T honey

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix salt, season all, orange zest, garlic, mustard, pepper, and thyme in a small bowl.  Pat onto all sides of meat. 

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Brown the meat on all sides, then transfer to a baking dish (I use a 9x13" pan). 

In a small bowl, whisk together the orange juice concentrate and the honey.  Pour over the meat in the baking dish.  Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes at 350F, or until meat reaches an internal temperature of 170F.  Can baste periodically while cooking if desired.

We served this with carmelized new potatoes, steamed green beans, salad, and rolls.