food – Five Acres with a View

Slow Cooker General Tso Chicken | The Recipe Critic

Source: Slow Cooker General Tso Chicken | The Recipe Critic This recipe turned out very well when we made it.

Hello Fresh Spice Blends

Here is a handy list of spice blends used by Hello Fresh. Hello Fresh is a meal delivery service like Blue Apron. The recipes seem to be a little easier than those we used to get from Blue Apron.

Sour Cream Raisin Pie

Last night a friend invited me to her porch for a slice of pie. I had never even heard of Sour Cream Raisin Pie before. It was delicious.

Many years ago, my grandmother gave me a cast iron dutch oven which I loved. Unfortunately, it failed to follow us on one of our early moves. For years, I looked for a replacement at thrift stores and garages sales. Unfortunately, people don’t seem to get rid of cast iron dutch ovens.

Jack gave me one for Christmas. I am using it to make beef stew in the photo. The purplish things are not sausage, but purple fingerling potatoes. The stew was delicious.

One of the things I like about this pot is that the top can be used as a skillet. This makes it easy to brown the meat in two batches, before using the top to cover the pot.

Cutting 101

Cutting 101 gives a photographic definition of common food chopping terms, such as slicing and dicing.

Braided Onion Bread

For some time now, Jack has been making bread using the bread machine for the first step, then finishing the loaf by hand. This is the first time he has made a braided loaf. Halfway through the process he was predicting disaster. Each strand of the braid is filled with an onion mixture. As you can see, his pessimism was unfounded. This recipe came from Bread Machine Bounty, a bread machine cookbook that we’ve had for many years.

Crock Pot White Bean and Sausage Soup

For supper, I made Crock Pot White Bean and Sausage Soup from the Year of Slow Cooking Cookbook. I substituted a pound of bulk Italian Sausage (which I fried first) for the sausage and used black beans and kidney beans. I had some frozen chopped green peppers and frozen chopped spinach which I defrosted before putting into the pot. It turned out very well and has gone into the keeper recipes.

Slow Cooker Pork and Bread Machine Italian Bread

Inspired by $2 a pound pork loin roasts last week, I found this recipe for Slow Cooker Brown Sugar Pork Roast. My usual method of cooking Pork Roast in a crock pot involves dumping a bottle of barbecue sauce over it, but I wanted to try something a little different this time. The pork roast turned out very well. We had it with Italian Bread Using a Bread Machine that Jack made. Last night, the Italian bread was starting to get a little dry, so I made it into french toast. I was concerned that the slight garlic flavor of the bread might taste peculiar, but it actually blended quite well with the maple syrup.

Make It Fast, Cook It Slow

My sister sent me Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking for Christmas. This is a cookbook written by Stephanie O’Dea, who challenged herself to use the slow cooker every day in 2008, and documented the results at her web log, A Year of Slow Cooking. I handed the book and a notepad to Jack asking him to write down the page numbers of a few recipes he would like me to try making. He filled the sheet of paper with page numbers.

So far we have had Beans and Rice, Tortilla Soup, Bread Pudding and Fish Chowder. All the recipes have been good, and the Fish Chowder is outstanding. (I used cod as the white fish.) I have increased some of the seasonings from what was recommended in the book, but have otherwise followed the recipes pretty closely. I like cooking, but tend to like doing it early in the day, so using a slow cooker is ideal for me. Not only do I recommend this cookbook, I plan to buy the sequel.

Category: food