Shepherd's Pie Variation

Tonight was a 'food storage experiment' night for me. For those of you who are familiar with Shepherd's Pie (the hamburger-green bean-tomato sauce-mashed potatoes-cheese dish that's pretty popular in Utah), I always had a variation...I used cream of mushroom soup instead of tomato-whatever. Since we don't really do the cream of-- soups anymore, I was trying to think of another variation. This is what I came up with, and it was a BIG hit!

1+ lb hamburger
1+lb frozen veggies mix of some sort (I used a carrots, cauliflower, peas and green beans mix that we had in the freezer)
1 Box Mori-Nu Tofu
2 Tbsp Canola Oil
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 4oz can mushrooms
1 Tbsp beef bouillon
3 cups mashed potato flakes
2 Tbs butter
salt and pepper to taste

Cook hamburger in skillet. Pour frozen veggies into 9x13 glass baking dish. Add hamburger. In blender, blend tofu, oil, vinegar, salt, and sugar until creamy. Add mushrooms WITH liquid and beef bouillon. Blend until the mushrooms are the size you want--chunky or smooth. (Most of my family like mushrooms, but Claire does NOT...she didn't even know that she ate a TON of mushrooms tonight! Ha!) Pour the liquid over the hamburger/vegetable mix. Heat water for potatoes in a sauce pan. When it is boiling, remove from heat and add mashed potato flakes. Mix until smooth, then add butter, salt and pepper. Pour over the top of the other mix, like a crust. Bake at 375F until bubbly (about 30 minutes?). (The ingredients sound seriously gross, but it turned out SO good that Josh and Claire even had THIRDS and even Andrew and Peter ate everything on their plates!)

Lemon Blueberry Poppy Seed Muffins

I love experimenting! Woohoo! It's berry season here in Helsinki, and that means fresh blueberries, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, everywhere you look! So, we made muffins with our fresh berries this morning! :)

3/4 c liquid (milk, soymilk, water)
1/4 c oil
1 large egg
1 c whole wheat flour
1 c white flour
1/2 c sugar
1 Tbsp freshly grated lemon peel
1 Tbsp lemon juice (squeezed from the lemon by a little person...that makes it taste better...)
1 1/2 Tbsp poppy seeds
1 Tbsp flax meal (this is, as always, optional)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c fresh (or frozen or canned) blueberries

*Make your Streusel topping if you want (see below), and set aside.

*Beat egg, liquid and oil. Add all the remaining ingredients (except blueberries) all at once and whisk by hand with either a wire whisk or a wooden spoon about 10 times! (The batter will be lumpy--if you overmix it, it becomes hard and rubbery instead of light and fluffy!) Fold in your berries. Top with the Streusel Topping, if you wish. Bake at 400F/204C for 20-25 minutes! Yum!

Streusel Topping

1/4 c whole wheat flour
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp butter (firm: not melted, not super soft, but not rock hard...)
Mix together with a hand mixer, then sprinkle over muffins before baking.

Fresh wild blueberry picking! :)

Challah Bread

Another beautiful masterpiece of bread yumminess! And it's just so PRETTY!! :)


2 Eggs PLUS enough warm Water to equal 1 1/2 cups
1/4 c Canola Oil
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp Salt
2 1/2 c Whole Wheat Flour
2 c White flour
1-2 Tbsp flax meal
2 tsp yeast

Place all ingredients in your bread maker OR

Mix gently for 5 minutes until all the dough is in a ball. Let rest, covered, for 15 minutes. Mix for another 10 minutes--either by hand or using dough beaters on a mixer on low. Then, cover and let rise for 30-45 minutes, or until double in bulk.

After all of that (or when your bread machine finishes) pour the dough out on a lightly floured surface and divide into three pieces. Make them into about 13"+ long 'ropes' with tapered ends. Pinch all three together at one end, and braid them together on a greased and lightly floured cookie sheet. Pinch them together at the other end. Fold both ends under just a bit to make it look pretty:
Cover and let rise in a nice warm place for about 1 hour. Using a pastry brush, glaze the bread with:

2 Egg yolks, beaten
1 Tbsp Water

Then sprinkle with Poppy Seeds.

Bake at 350F/180C for about 25 minutes. I thought it was almost too pretty to eat, but the kids LOVED pulling it apart, and it was gone in a few minutes! :)

Ciabatta

I've been on an artisan bread kick lately. This was my kick-off. It takes a really long time to make, but it's not time consuming (if that makes any sense). The kids LOVED it and have begged me to make it again! :)

**The Biga Starter:

1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
3 cups unbleached flour

Mix the yeast with a little of the water. Sift flour into a bowl and slowly add the yeast mixture. Begin to mix by hand, and gradually add more of the water until you have a nice, firm dough. Knead on a floured surface for 5 minutes, until smooth. Return dough to the bowl and cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap. Let sit in a nice warm place for 12-15 hours.

**The Dough:

3 tsp yeast
1 2/3 c lukewarm water
1/4 lukewarm soymilk
5 c unbleached flour (half and half works well, too)
2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp Olive Oil

Mix yeast with a little of the water to make it creamy, then add the rest of the water. Add this yeast mixture to the Biga Starter, and mix well (again, by hand!). Mix in the milk, beating thoroughly, this time with a wooden spoon (hey, I was going for authentic here). Mix in the flour by hand for 15 minutes, lifting the dough, to make a very wet mixture. Add in the salt and olive oil. Cover with slightly oiled plastic wrapt and let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Transfer the dough to two or three floured cookie sheet. Use a spoon to do this, and try not to punch it down! Shape carefully into long loaves, about an inch or so thick. Sprinkle with flour, and let rise for another 30 minutes. Then, bake at 425F for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown. This stuff is so worth the effort!!

Italian Breadsticks

Another of my mother's famous recipes. I just can't have spaghetti without these! Absolutely the most fantastic breadsticks ever!

3 c warm water
1 Tbsp yeast
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp flax meal
4 c whole wheat flour
2-3 c unbleached white flour

1 cube butter
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2 Tbsp parsley
Parmesan Cheese

Combine first five ingredients in a bread mixer. Add flour and flax until dough leaves the sides of the bowl. Knead by mixer for 5 more minutes. Let rise until double. Punch down, roll out to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into about 1" strips (I use a pizza cutter. Makes for fast and accurate work!).



Melt butter in a 9x13 pan in the oven. Add garlic and parsley. Dip strips of dough into the melted butter/garlic/parsley mixture and twist strips. Lay down in pan and repeat with remaining strips. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. Bake at 400F/204C for about 25 minutes, until breadsticks are browned on top. Makes 1/2 to 2 pans of breadsticks!

(**I also use this recipe for Hungarian scones and pizza dough! For the scones, make exactly like the breadsticks, except you cut the strips shorter and thicker--2"x4" perhaps. Then, you deep fry it! Serve hot with butter, jam and/or honey, or roll in cinnamon and sugar! Fantastic stuff!)

Italian skillet chicken

This was one of those spur of the moment meals where I needed something fast and came up with this!

2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, pressed
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8-10 small white button mushrooms
Seasoned Salt or Garlic salt to taste
8-10 fresh tomatoes, finely chopped
Fresh oregano, basil, thyme, parsley, rosemary (you can use dried as well)

Saute onions in olive oil until transparent. Add garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes more. Add chicken and watch constantly until it is browned on all sides. Add mushrooms and salt. Stir until mushrooms are wilted. Add tomatoes and herbs and simmer on low heat until the tomatoes are to your taste. Sometimes I just let it simmer for a few minutes to get the fresh taste. Sometimes, I let it simmer for a while to get more of a 'sauce'. Serve with pasta (spaghetti or angel hair is yummy!) or rice, a side salad, and some fresh french bread!

(*If you want a quicker version, use one can mushrooms--6-8 ounces, and one can tomatoes.)

Quick Steak Marinade

This is a great marinade for a steak bbq or if you're planning to make beef jerky! Yummy either way.

Steak cutlets
2-3 cloves garlic, pressed
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp mustard
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp black pepper
2-3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2-3 Tbsp water

Mix everything together. I usually put it all into a Ziplock bag. It makes it easier to coat it all. Marinade for 3-4 hours or overnight. Then, do with it what you will! Great bbq night, or beef jerky if that's what you're after. SOOO tasty!

Teriyaki Chicken

This was originally my mom's recipe, and she uses it on turkey breast cutlets. I've tweaked it a bit and use chicken, but it's essentially my mom's recipe. And the BEST way to cook it is on the grill. You could probably do it by other means, but I refuse. It just tastes SO much better with that 'smokey' taste to it along with all the pineapple, garlic and soy goodness! :)

4-5 large chicken breasts (or 8-10 smaller pieces)

**Marinade:
1 c pineapple juice
½ c Soy Sauce
1/3 c Brown Sugar, packed
2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
3-4 Cloves Garlic, minced
1 Tbsp Ground Ginger (or 1 tsp minced fresh ginger)
1 Tbsp Olive Oil

Combine marinade ingredients in a ziplock bag OR a large bowl with a lid. Poke chicken with a fork a few times on both sides then put in the marinade. Let sit in marinade for at least 6 hours (in the fridge). Turn it over or mix it once in awhile to make sure all the chicken is coated evenly.

After the chicken has marinated for long enough, grill on the barbeque until it is no longer pink in the middle. (You can also do this in the oven: Put chicken in a 9x13 glass baking dish OR a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 425 degrees in the oven for about 45-60 minutes, until it is no longer pink in the middle of the thickest part of the chicken.) Serve with Fried Rice and Fresh Pineapple! :)

Strawberry 'Marvel' Cake

This is something Claire begs for pretty much every week. It's technically a marble cake with strawberries sort of like a strawberry shortcake idea. Claire started calling it strawberry marvel cake, and it stuck. We usually use frozen strawberries, as we can get them cheap. However, I once made this with fresh berries, and the kids are now spoiled.

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 c softened butter
1 1/4 c soy milk
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp almond extract
3 large eggs
1 Tbsp flax meal

Beat everything together with a hand mixer on high for about 3 minutes. Scoop out the 1 3/4 c batter for the chocolate part, then pour the rest into a greased 9x13 pan. Make the chocolate 'marvel' part:

1 3/4 c of the above batter
3 Tbsp baking cocoa
2 tsp baking powder

Mix together. Drop by spoonfuls onto the batter already waiting in the cake pan. (In this picture, I had added crushed chocolate chips to the batter. I thought it was pretty tasty, but funnily enough, the kids didn't like it!!!)



Using a butter knife, slice through to make pretty marble designs.



Bake at 350F/180C for 40-45 minutes. If you're using frozen strawberries, just pour the amount you want into a mixing bowl, add some sugar, and let it thaw. Stir it to make sure the sugar isn't all in one place! :) If using fresh, cut up your berries, add a little water and sugar (just for the syrup).

This is what happens when it's all gone...

Wheat Thins

These are SOOO fantastic! They're super easy to make and are a fabulous snack without any added preservatives! Hooray! I make this recipe (makes around 200+ crackers), and it doesn't last more than one day! :) My kids love them!

1 3/4 c Whole Wheat Flour
1 1/2 c unbleached Flour
3/4 tsp Salt
1 c Water
1/3 c Canola Oil

Sift dry ingredients together. Add liquids, and mix by hand just until you have a fairly smooth dough. Try not to mix too much! Break into two pieces. Place one on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Roll as thin as humanly possible! :) Using a pizza cutter, slice through to make desired cracker size. (I cut all the way through, as it seems to cook better that way, and you don't have to break them all apart afterward.) Prick each cracker with a fork. Sprinkle with salt. Bake at 350F/180C for about 30-35 minutes until light brown and crisp!

**For variation:

Add flax or other small seeds! Sprinkle with Garlic salt! Add onion or garlic powder to the dough! Or make it a treat, and use cinnamon and sugar! There are all kinds of things you could do with this! :)

Balsamic Vinaigrette

I'm SUPER picky when it comes to salad dressings. I DETEST dressings that are sweet. Can't stand it if there is any sugar in it at all. If I wanted a sweet salad, I'd eat a fruit salad. If I want a green salad, it needs to have a savory dressing. Really, one of the only dressings that I like is Ranch. However, I haven't had it for forever, because it's a US thing. So, I've had to get creative. I found this combination works well for me, so I thought I'd share.

1/2 c Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 c Balsamic Vinegar
The juice from one Lemon
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 tsp salt
dash white pepper

I put all of this into a glass bottle with a lid. Shake it before you pour it on! :) Keeps well in the fridge for a few weeks. SOOOOO good on fresh tomatoes and cucumbers!!