Tried and True Recipes From Our Families

One of my passions is learning about my family - the heritage, photos, stories and recipes. My blog is a great way to share all of the things that our families have to offer.

Here are the rules:

1. Link up a family recipe or craft
2. Please follow my blog - I'll follow you back
 3. Please link to this post in your blogs
4. No spam, contests or giveaways please
5. Please note that by linking up your posts and projects you are giving me permission to use your photos in the featured posts and possibly on my social media outlets. All photos will be linked back to your sites and your posts
6. Visit at least two of the links and comment on the page so the blogger knows you visited

At the end of the week, I will pick out a few of my favorites! Spread the word - there are so many great blogs out there. Let's learn from each other!

Surprise Recipe Swap

I am so excited for this post!  I signed up to do a Surprise Recipe Swap.  One blogger gets paired with another and they each pick a recipe from each other's blog.  Thanks goes to Jutta at Hungry Little Girl for organizing this recipe swap.

I was paired with Elizabeth from The Law Student's Cookbook.  When I received my match, I immediately went to the blog.  I began scouring for recipes that I wanted to try.  After a while, I got lost in the blog (in a good way!) and began to learn about many different ethnic foods.  Elizabeth is a worldly cook, as evidenced by her Around the World in 52 Weeks posts.

If you want to learn about different foods from around the world, check out her blog!


Ultimately, I knew I had to narrow down the recipes and decide what a Sicilian girl like me was going to cook.  I decided upon Lentil Soup.  At this point I must confess that I have NEVER tried lentils!  I've always wanted to try them but haven't gotten around to it.  This soup recipe was quick, easy and a great introduction to a new staple in my house.

Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrot
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 cup, plus 2 tablespoons lentils
1 can diced tomatoes

Begin by chopping the vegetables.  Saute the chopped vegetables in the olive oil 3-5 minutes.  Add the canned tomatoes, lentils and vegetable broth.  Let that simmer for 35 minutes or so.  Take 2 cups of the soup and put in the food processor.  Return that to the soup.  This serves as a thickener.


This recipe is quick and healthy.  If you haven't tried lentils, you need to!  It is easy to find yourself in a food rut.  When that happens, find a recipe that will inspire you to try different things.  Thank you Elizabeth for helping me discover something new!

Chicken Picatta

Tonight I had dinner with my Uncle Vince and cousins Ginny and Joe.  Since I lost my father, I have had a huge hole in my heart.  Tonight, Uncle Vince filled that hole a little bit.  He has the same sense of humor as my father and looks like him.  In a way, having dinner with him was like having my dad back, even for a little bit..................

Uncle Vince is almost 90!  He still drinks wine at every meal.  A true Italian!

Tonight, I made Chicken Picatta.  I love this dish!  Here are the ingredients:

Chicken breast

Butter

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 pounds mushrooms

2/3 cup lemon juice

1 cup flour

Salt

Pepper

Capers

Parsley

To begin, take your chicken breast and put it in a Ziploc bag.  Pound the chicken thin.  Take the cup of flour and add a little salt and pepper.

In a large saute pan, heat up 1/2 stick of butter.  Dredge the chicken in the flour and brown on each side.  Keep warm while you make the sauce.

In another saute pan, add 1/4 stick butter, 1/4 cup olive oil, garlic.  Add the mushrooms and saute 5 minutes or so.

 Take some lemons and squeeze out 2/3 cup lemon juice.

When the mushrooms are done, add the lemon juice, capers and parsley.  Cook another 5 minutes.  Pour over the chicken and serve.  YUM!

I served the chicken with fresh, sauteed broccoli and pasta with oil, butter, and garlic sauce

Phil, Mom, Uncle Vince, Cousin Joe and Ginny

Family is everything.  Savor every moment you have with your family.  Cherish them, and thank God for them everyday.

Cousin Ginny and I

Mangia!

Mozarella Cheese

In my quest to learn new things, I have become obsessed with making things myself instead of buying it at the store.  One of the things I wanted to try was to make cheese.  I bought a cheese making kit to make my first time a bit easier!

This kit made it very easy!  It had everything I needed to make mozzarella cheese.  To begin, I bought some fresh cows milk.  You can use pasteurized milk, but not ultra-pasteurized milk.  However, I wanted to see what it was like, making cheese, straight from the source!

The cheese making kit contained the following ingredients:  citric acid, salt, and rennet tablets.  I dissolved 1 1/2 teaspoons citric acid in 1 cup water.  In 1/4 cup water, dissolve 1/4 rennet tablet.

In a non-aluminum, non-cast iron pot, add the citric acid water and 1 gallon of milk.  Stir and heat to 90 degrees.  Remove the pot from the burner and add in the rennet water.  Stir for 20 seconds and then put a lid on the pot and let that set for 10 minutes.

The curd will be separating from the whey.  The curd will resemble custard.

After that has set, take a long knife and cut into the curd.  Make long slits in the curd.  Put it back on the stove and cook to 105 degrees.  Slowly stir as your curds heat back up.

Take off the burner and stir for another 2-5 minutes.  Drain the whey from the curd - save the whey!  This can be used for a variety of things!  Do some research before discarding the whey.  It can be used for shakes, pet food, baking bread, making cakes, making ricotta cheese, etc.

In another sauce pan, heat water to 185 degrees.  Put the curds in a strainer and dip into the hot water.

This will allow you to stretch the cheese.  Dip it in the hot water a few times and then put some rubber gloves on.  Take the cheese and stretch the cheese.  It should pull like taffy.  If it doesn't put it back in the hot water.


Add 1 teaspoon of salt and work it into the cheese.  Form the cheese into a log, braid, ball - whatever shape you want.

Put the cheese in cool water for 5 minutes and then in ice water for 15 minutes.

Caution!  1 gallon of cheese does not make a lot of mozzarella!  It makes 2 small logs................Some people may think it isn't worth it, but I got a lot of satisfaction from making this product all by myself!   I don't like to think about all of the chemicals that are put into the things that I buy at the store.  If I can keep food in an organic state,  the healthier my family will be!

Mangia!

Chocolate Cake With Cherry Filling and Buttercream Frosting

Chocolate...........cherries.............cake...............YUMMY!  Today, I decided that I needed to make chocolate cake, and then I remembered that I had some cherry preserves that I had canned:

Cherry Preserves on Rediscovering Lost Arts From Our Mothers

I used 2 half pints of cherry preserves.  If you do not want to make your own cherry preserves, you can buy 2 jars at the store.  Use one jar for each of the two bottom layers.  I also added a little of the preserves on the top of the cake.

To make the chocolate cake, assemble the ingredients:


2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda and baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water, boiling
1/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup cocoa
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups sour cream
3/4 cups vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Assemble the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  Set aside.

In a small sauce pan, boil the water.  When the water is boiling, turn off the heat and add the butter, cocoa, and chocolate chips.  Stir to make a chocolate sauce. 

In your mixer, add sugar, oil, sour cream, eggs and vanilla.  Mix completely.  Add 1/2 of the flour mixture, then 1/2 of the chocolate sauce.  Mix thoroughly.  Add the remaining flour and chocolate.  Mix again.

Put into 3 cake pans and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. When the three cakes are finished cooking, remove from the oven and let cool.  When cool, turn the cake pans upside down to remove the cake from the pan.  Allow the cake to sit on a wire rack, cooling completely.

For the bottom layers of the cake, poke holes using a toothpick.  Take the cherry preserves and spread on the cake.

At this point it is time to make the butter cream frosting.  Here are the ingredients:

1 cup softened butter
3-3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla
3-4 tablespoons milk or cream

Put the butter in the mixer and cream.  Add 3 cups of the powdered sugar - don't forget the shield on your mixer or the powdered sugar will go all over the place!  Cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the vanilla and milk.  If the frosting isn't the consistency you like, add more powdered sugar.

Add the top layer of the cake.  Start frosting!

This recipe is listed on Foodie Friends Friday and Totally Tasty Tuesdays
 

Crab Cakes With Mustard Aioli

I love seafood.  When I go on vacation to the coast, my husband gets frustrated with me because I always have to go to a restaurant that has fresh seafood.  He hates the smell and the taste!  He's weird, I know.

Thinking about dinner tonight, I remembered that I had King crab legs in the freezer.  Yes, I know that if by chance an Iron Chef is reading this, they are cringing.  I have one word for them:  Missouri.  We don't get fresh seafood!

Here are the ingredients for the crab cakes:

1 pound fresh crab meat
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Salt and Pepper
1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
1 1/2 cups Panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
8-10 butter crackers, crushed
2 tablespoons butter, melted

The first thing I did was steam the crab legs, sprinkled with Old Bay Seasoning.

When the crab legs are steamed, I took the crab meat out of the shells.  Next, add the onion, celery, salt, pepper, Old Bay, crushed crackers, lemon juice, butter, mayo, egg, and 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs.

If the mixture is too wet, add some more crushed crackers.  Mold the mixture into a patty and dredge in the remaining Panko bread crumbs.  Heat up a little olive oil in a saute pan and fry the crab cakes.


While the crab cakes are cooking, assemble the ingredients for the mustard aioli.  Here are the ingredients:

2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoons stone ground mustard
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon each:  salt and pepper

Mix all of those ingredients together.  Time to turn the crab cakes!

Enjoy!

Black Bean Soup

In my quest of learning how our grandmother's cooked, I have been trying to use less canned items and cook more with what they had.  This soup uses dried beans, that have been soaked overnight.  Of course, if you don't want to use dried beans, you can always open some cans of beans!

Here are the ingredients for this soup:

1 onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
2 cups dried black beans
2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon Cumin
Salt
Pepper

The night prior to making the beans, soak them overnight.  The next morning, throw them in the crock pot and cook them on high heat while you are at work.  When you come home take the diced vegetables and saute them in a soup pan.  Saute the vegetables for 5-10 minutes.

While that is sauteing, take the cooked beans and put them in the food processor with the chicken broth.

Add the cumin, salt and pepper to the vegetables and add in the bean puree.  Let that simmer for 45 minutes or so before serving.

Enjoy!