Recipes: Week 24

 My recipes this week are definitely not a good mix of the food groups! I am still just going through my food and recipe photos in the order that I took them over the past few months. From the looks of these recipes, we didn't eat much protein at some point! Or, I just re-made a lot of the previous recipes for meals for a while. Anyways, to get started, this week's recipes include...

Bread

In a previous post, I shared a bread recipe that I had been using for quite a while. It worked, we liked it OK, so I kept making it. I finally decided to try my sister Sally's bread recipe one day. Sally has worked quite hard in figuring out the science, and method, behind making good bread, and is quite famous among family and friends for her home-made bread. She stands firmly behind her bread recipe, and has highly recommended it to me in the past. I'd even go so far as to say, in all sisterly loving kindness, that Sally is a bread snob. (Hey, if I'm peanut butter snob, than Sally can be a bread snob!) While I enjoy, and like, home-made bread, I've never been the connoisseur that Sally is, so I didn't expect to have my earth shattered when making a new bread recipe. So far, I have only made the basic white bread version of the recipe, and none of the variations.

The Honest Review: I was surprised with the reviews I got on this specific bread recipe! Jason immediately commented that he quite liked this bread over the other recipe I used. I did notice that the texture was different- softer and less crumbly. I don't know that the taste was that much different (we haven't tried them side-by-side), but the texture was definitely much better. Sally's recipe does contain more specifics, such as how long to knead the dough, and such, so I suspect some of the texture difference comes from that. (I am not a patient bread kneader, and I think that is kind of important!) Jason requested that I please use Sally's recipe for my future bread making because he liked it so much better. I will say that the recipe says to make it into two loaves. I found that it was making gigantic loaves that would not fit into the toaster. I have since started making one batch into three loaves, and it comes out much nicer. This recipe is staying in our collection.

The Best Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich

I don't have a photo of this recipe, because it is not written down. It is my very own peanut butter and jelly sandwich making method. Which, interestingly enough, in one of my job interviews in the past, one of the questions asked was: How would you tell someone to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? (Or something along those lines. It definitely involved giving instructions on how to make a PB&J sandwich!) And this is the recipe I gave them: Lightly toast two pieces of your choice of bread in the toaster. (I personally like a home-made light whole wheat bread.)  On one side of one piece of toast, spread a nice layer of your favorite jelly. (I prefer home-made jam, but any jam or jelly will work.) You can almost always perfectly clean your knife of jelly by scraping it on the edge of the toast so that you can re-use the knife for the peanut butter, but if you don't like to contaminate the peanut butter, use a separate knife. Then spread a nice layer of your favorite peanut butter (mine is Adam's Natural Crunchy Peanut Butter - it's the best!) on one side of the other piece of toast. Place the peanut butter toast face down on top of the jelly toast. Cut in half, and enjoy while still warm from the toaster!

The Honest Review: I know I have made these for Jason, and for Little Pumpkin, but I'm not sure Jason has ever specifically given me feedback on this meal. Little Pumpkin and I definitely enjoy them! Eating the sandwich while it is still warm from the toaster just adds a delicious element to dining experience. I don't remember when I started toasting the bread for pb&j sandwiches, but I've been doing it for a few years and I definitely prefer it. But, it has to be a light toast! Not a full-on, solid, dark brown toast! The light toast allows the bread to be a little crunchy, but still a little soft which is perfect for the sandwich. I highly recommend giving this peanut butter and jelly sandwich recipe a try! This recipe is staying in our collection.

Banana Nut Muffins

This is one of my old, cook-book insert, recipes that I have no clue when or where I acquired it. I have looked at it a few times and finally decided to try it one time when I had some ripe bananas to use. I sometimes like when the recipe includes a picture of the finished product, because then I have an idea of what it's supposed to look like.

The Honest Review: Well, as you can see, my muffins looked nothing like the ones in the recipe photo! It has been a while since I made these, and I did not keep a written record on any of the recipes for a while. I do remember that they were quite soft and spongy. They were almost kind of cake-like, and not quite what I was expecting for this muffin. While it had a nice flavor, it wasn't an overly grand banana nut flavor that made us really like them. Jason said they were "enh." He's not a big fan of banana flavored things anyway, and these muffins didn't really impress him. I did wonder if I over-mixed the batter, or why the muffins looked so different from the recipe photo. I still have the recipe, but not sure that it merits a re-trial. This recipe is tossed from our collection.

Texas Sheet Cake

Texas Sheet Cake, cont.

This recipe came from my Grandma, and I remember when she started making it. I was still a kid (10?), and I remember her Texas Sheet Cakes always looking so silky and smooth, with the miniature marshmallows on top just so. And, we all loved the cake, if I remember right. Personally, getting the marshmallows with the cake was exciting to me! (I kind of liked sugary, sweet things when I was growing up.) While I definitely remember Grandma making this recipe, I also remember Sally, my sister, making it, too. And, it almost always had the same sleek, shiny, beautiful finish. When my birthday came about in August, I pored over my cake recipes trying to decide what cake to make. I finally settled on the Texas Sheet Cake as I wouldn't have to go grocery shopping for anything. Or so I thought. After I stuck the cake in the oven, and set about mixing up the icing (which you are supposed to put on the warm cake right out of the oven). I quickly found out that I did not have enough powdered sugar. Drats! I told Jason that I had to go fast, and could he please take the cake out when the timer beeped. I hoped to get back in time, but....I didn't. The cake was still warm, but not fresh out of the oven when I iced it.

The Honest Review: As you can see, the icing did not apply into a smooth, sleek, beautiful finish. It looked rather rough, to be honest. Personally, the cake did not taste quite like I remembered it. I almost didn't like the flavor of it. The cake part was a bit dense, too, which I don't think was quite right. It was also super sweet. Jason, on the other hand, was rather fond of the cake. He really liked the flavor, and said that the hint of cinnamon really added to the cake. Little Pumpkin, of course, will eat almost anything sweet. So, we had mixed reviews on this cake. I have not decided if this recipe is staying, or tossed from our collection. Any thoughts from those that are familiar with this recipe?

Pumpkin Pie Cake

This recipe comes from Jason's cookbook. I had looked at it a long time ago, and purchased the ingredients for it and put them in the cupboard. I did have to has Christine what Milnot was; I had never heard of it. Turns out it was a brand of evaporated milk. I believe I did buy just a generic brand of evaporated milk for this recipe, or I just used regular milk.

The Honest Review: Not the prettiest piece of cake/bar ever, but it was the best photo I had! This recipe was extremely sweet. The overall flavor was almost over-powered by the sweetness of it. The cake turned out very moist and sticky, but had a nice crunch on top. After I tasted it that I realized that I have had something similar before, but I wasn't that huge a fan of the recipe. I think Jason liked it ok, but wasn't the biggest fan. It really was super sweet to the point that you couldn't eat very much at one time. This recipe is tossed from our collection.

Blueberry-Strawberry Shortcake

Somewhere along life's journey, I copied this recipe out of a magazine. I believe it was because I saw the photo of the food on the front of the magazine cover, to be honest. And I never made the recipe until this summer. I was fortunate to be able to use fresh blueberries and strawberries for the recipe.

The Honest Review: This recipe turned out beautiful! And, it tasted pretty beautiful, too! The shortcake was not too sweet, and the fresh fruit with whipped cream was delicious! The only downside to my creation was that the shortcake discs were a little crisp/crunchy. So cutting through them kind of squashed the middle fillings out. But, we managed to cut it and it still tasted good! We were all a fan of this recipe, although it was a bit of a large amount for three of us to eat before it started getting soggy. This is definitely one recipe I'd recommend trying! This recipe is staying in our collection.

Italian Grilled Burgers

On the rest of the magazine page that I had copied for the shortcake recipe was a grilled burger recipe. I had never looked at it before, but decided hey! Why not try a new burger recipe? It did call for a few ingredients that we didn't have, and that I couldn't locate. Such as Greek Oregano. And pancetta. And Gorgonzola cheese that I could slice. I ended up using regular oregano, bacon, and a mixture of blue cheese and crumbled Gorgonzola. Also, instead of buying ciabatta rolls, we just used hamburger buns.

The Honest Review: These burgers smelled delicious! And they didn't look too bad, either. The flavor of eating it all together, though, was different. It wasn't bad, it was kind of good in a way, but it was definitely different. We kept going back and forth between, "They smell so good! But they don't quite taste as good as they smell! Yet, there is something about them that tastes good!" I think Jason finally determined that the blue cheese may have been a bit too strong for him, and that he liked the burger plain; no extra cheese or bacon. For myself, I liked the burger, but it was also that different flavor combination that kept making me question if I liked it. If you're looking for a different burger recipe, definitely try this one! I need to check with Jason on this recipes "keep" or "toss" verdict. I think it may be tossed from our collection.

Well folks, there you have it: some more of my new recipe trials and successes. While it may seem like all we did was eat cake and desserts for a while, I promise you that we didn't have all these recipes in the same week!! And, we did have those burgers!

Are you familiar with any of these recipes? How about the Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich- what is your favorite way to make them?