Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Delicious Endeavors Recipe Carnival, Fourth Edition!



Welcome to the March 30, 2010 edition of delicious endeavors recipe carnival.  This edition has been modified quite a bit by me... and I'm sorry to have to say that I've had to modify the rules of the carnival a bit.  From now on Delicious Endeavors will be a RECIPE and COOKING carnival.  If I read a submission that doesn't either tell us how to cook something, or give us specific food uses then I will not include it.  Please forgive me for the technicality but I've received sooooo many submissions from week to week that are not applicable for a recipe carnival.

Now on to the party!!!!!  There are some great submissions this week!

 

Ishtar presents » The world of solar cooking Esther Garvi: The Garvi Family Chronicles posted at Esther Garvi.  This post is positively fascinating.  She's cooking with a solar slow cooker and although the idea of liver stew doesn't ring my bell (I'm not a fan of liver) I love the idea itself and the method.  Now if only I could do this in NY, lol!


Tabitha Bee presents a recipe for a quiche in To Market posted at eats of eden.  I have to say that reading this post made me want to visit a fresh market so badly.  We aren't quite to that season here yet, but I'm so excited to be able to get some farm fresh ingredients on the table this spring.

Sarah  presents Company Worthy Side Dishes posted at NH Mommy of 3.  These side dishes are all fairly healthy and could easily be used for entertaining, or even just as a weeknight accompaniment!

Christy presents Chocolate Chip Pancakes posted at Well, bless your heart, 'eh?. Talk about a delicious breakfast!


Don't they look yummy?

We eat a lot of Mexican food around here so I was excited to see that Lisa submitted Crock Pot Refried Beans posted at 4-Ricks.

And last, but not least, Granny here at Granny's house submitted her Veggie and Barbecued Onion stuffed Pitas

And that concludes this week's Delicious Endeavors Carnival!  Be sure to join the fun and submit a recipe for next week's edition.  (I know that the Blog Carnival program has not been keeping my dates for scheduled carnivals but I'm trying to make this a weekly event, even if the dates don't seem to jive on the submission form.. don't be afraid to submit anyway!)

Submit your blog article to the next edition of
delicious endeavors recipe carnival
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page
.



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Veggie and Barbecued Onion stuffed Pita Pockets

The combination of all the flavors in this healthy filled to the brim sandwich recipe I found in a magazine over 20 years ago makes for a very yummy sandwich indeed . The barbecued onions give it a great twist. This includes many summer time veggies and worth the effort to prepare and keep ingredients at the ready in the fridge.

Ingredients:
steamed chopped tender - crisp broccoli florets
steamed chopped cauliflower florets
grated carrot
yellow squash
red cabbage

1 sliced onion
barbecue sauce
avocado slices
mayonnaise
thin slivers of dill pickle
finely shredded lettuce
alfalfa sprouts
wheat pita or tortillas
oil for cooking onions

Put a small amount of oil in a pan and cook onions slowly until cooked.
Stir in small amount of barbecue sauce to coat onions.

Spread the pita or tortilla inside lightly with the mayonnaise.
Add the cooked veggies.Stuff with tiny amounts all other
veggies ending up with barbecued onions in the middle and avocado
on the top..These can be put together in plastic wrap
and refrigerated for 2 to 3 days.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Delicious Endeavors Recipe Carnival, Third Edition!




Welcome to the March 23, 2010 edition of delicious endeavors recipe carnival.  This post is a little lackluster, because after spending a lot of time at the doctor's office today it was easier to use the blog-carnival template and just edit it some.  **Once again, note that only one post can be submitted, per blog, per carnival.  Also, if I read your blog and it looks like your post is either just junk or an attempt to increase traffic without offering anything nutritional or an actual recipe I reserve the right to remove it from the carnival.**

That said... read on and enjoy some informative and delicious posts!



Cooking Tips

Kristin Conroy presents 5 Vegetable Tricks From Professional Chefs, Part 1 posted at Words Are Food, saying, "You can view Part 2 by clicking the link at the top of the post."


Wallet Blogger presents Quality Cookware To Save You Time and Energy posted at The Smarter Wallet, giving interesting input about cookware and gadgets.


Naturally Food Team presents Easy pasta | healthy for your kids and for you! posted at Cook's Blog at Kids Recipes, sharing, "Some ideas for simple and fast pasta dishes."

Nutritional Information


Maureen presents 10 Disgusting & Delicious Breakfast Sandwiches Destroying the Country’s Public Health posted at Online CNA Degree Programs.  This isn't a typical post for this carnival but I liked having the caloric numbers pointed out to me... or maybe I didn't like them.  But I needed to read it anyway, lol!


Organic Eating Daily presents Eating Organic on a Budget | Organic Eating Daily posted at Organic Eating, saying, "How to eat organic foods without breaking the bank"

Recipes


Lori presents Garlic Baked Potatoes posted at Two Southern Girls.  This is one of those recipes with the simplest ingredients that sounds like it would be a great accompaniment to so many meals.


NHEZ presents Gluten Free Lemon Pasta Recipe posted at Natural Health Ezine, saying, "This is a fantastically simple recipe that tastes great and is gluten-free to boot!"


axel presents The Healthy Salad posted at axel g.


Zhu presents French Cuisine | Correr Es Mi Destino posted at Correr Es Mi Destino, saying, "French food, from crêpes to quiches!"


Matthew  presents Mulled Pear Frangipane posted at Desserts.  It sounds insanely good.


Lisa presents Microwave Caramel Corn posted at 4-Ricks.  This recipe is so easy and everyone knows that caramel corn is a great snack so anything that makes it faster or easier to make definitely is an improvement right?



That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
delicious endeavors recipe carnival
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page
.



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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Delicious Endeavors Recipe Carnival, Second Edition!!!!

This post is a little later in the day than I'd intended it but when I started creating it it came to my realization that there were a few submissions that were clearly spam... so I had to take care of that first and edit the post some. 

Also, it does state in the rules that there should only be one submission, per carnival, per blog.  Which means that y'all who submitted five or six different recipes will have to wait for other weeks to submit them.  I can only accept one at a time here.  (although I will admit that many of them looked delicious, so please resubmit them later!)

Remember:  the due date for the next edition is Monday March 22nd!

Now without further ado....



Welcome to the March 16, 2010 edition of delicious endeavors recipe carnival.



Ruben Berenguel presents (do ( ) (( ))): Gluten,dairy,egg-free dark brown cane sugar biscuit posted at (do ( ) (( ))), saying, "A delicious recipe, apt for almost everyone. Don't be shy and try it!"

 

We here at Granny's House submitted this Strawberry Shortcake Cake that was delicious!



Wallet Blogger presents Organic Food: Healthy Food Ideas For The Ordinary Shopper posted at The Smarter Wallet.

Cathryn shared this recipe for Chicken Tortellini Soup on her blog, Lucky 10 Thirteen.


Christy presents Mama's Potato Salad posted at Well, bless your heart, 'eh?, and it looks like a no-fail recipe!


tosin presents Mushroom Onion Pork Chops posted at life, in a nutshell.  These chops sound so easy and can be made with stuff that's always on hand.



Sarah - presents Chocolate Mint Brownies posted at Sarah - NH Mommy of 3 - crazyredhead.  I had to include her picture of these.  Aren't they spectacular? 



Jennifer presents Appelkoek! (Dutch apple cake - a la my mother!) posted at Momof2GreatCats's Xanga.


Lisa presents Tortilla and Butternut Squash Soup posted at 4-Ricks.


Matthew  presents Lemon Tart posted at Desserts.


Lori presents Chocolate Cherry Candy Cakes posted at Two Southern Girls.


Jeff  presents Chipotle BBQ Chicken Sandwich posted at Andrea's Daily Dish.



That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
delicious endeavors recipe carnival
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page
.



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Sunday, March 14, 2010

A Strawberry Shortcake Cake for Grandpa!

Recently my father had a birthday and I wanted to make him a cake, a cake that I was sure that he'd like.  My father likes fruits, and in the summer he really likes strawberries in the form of pies and shortcake.  Well February just isn't really the time for those desserts.  So I started scouring the internet for strawberry cake ideas that were a little more seasonally appropriate.  If you're familiar with the Pioneer Woman, she has a recipe for a strawberry shortcake cake that looked... well it looked like it would taste ok.  But her icing seemed rather sweet for my taste and the cake itself just didn't scream birthday to me.  Plus it was clear that her strawberries were probably much riper than mine from Wegmans would be.  So I decided to improvise, and this is the cake that I made.

The recipe that follows includes her cake layers (they seemed appropriately firm and absorbant which would give the testure of a shortcake) and let me tell you that they did turn out deliciously.

Then from that point I revised everything.  I added a package of frozen sweetened strawberries, along with 2 16oz packages of fresh berries.  (I do not think you would need the sweetened strawberries if you were making this with the fresh berries of summer... but in the winter it's necessary, not only for flavor but also because out-of-season berries tend to be dry and not give off the juice.  The juice is necessary because it should be absorbed into the cake layers, giving you that moist straight-off-the-picnic-table-strawberry-shortcake texture.

(Believe it or not the picture below was the lonely last remaining slice that was scooped up and eaten before I could even finish taking its portrait... so it's not the most photogenic but still as delicious.)

And the frosting was all my own concoction based on my love of cream cheese and all things fluffy.  Try making this cake, it's definitely worth your time.  Trust me.  It took all of 40 minutes for 4 adults and 2 little people to devour this.  It's that good.  Like better than any professionally made strawberry cake that I've ever tasted.  That good.  And you might question my use of both Cool Whip and Heavy Cream.  I know it seems redundant, but the Heavy Cream is there because of the flavor and richness, while the Cool Whip is there for texture and structure, not to mention sugar content.

Strawberry Shortcake Cake

Cake:
1-½ cup Flour
3 Tablespoons Corn Starch
½ teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
9 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Softened
1-½ cup Sugar
3 whole Large Eggs
½ cups Sour Cream, Room Temperature
1 teaspoon Vanilla

Strawberry filling:
1 package (mine actually came in a little tub) of frozen sweetened, sliced strawberries, fully thawed.
1 16oz package of fresh strawberries for the filling
1 16oz package of fresh strawberries (for the top)


Icing:
1 8oz block of full fat cream cheese, softened
1 8oz container of thawed Cool Whip
1 Tbsp sugar
3/4 c. heavy cream
1 tspn vanilla

Instructions:
Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and corn starch.
Cream 9 tablespoons butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until combined. Add sifted dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just barely combined.

Pour into greased and floured 8-inch round cake pan. IMPORTANT: If you do NOT have an 8 inch round cake pan that is at least 2 inches deep (mine aren't) then split between 2 round cake pans instead. Cake rises quite a bit so you don't want the batter to fill in any more than halfway to the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes, or until no longer jiggly. They get to be a nice golden brown, so don't panic and think that you're burning them like I did, lol! Remove from cake pan as soon as you pull it out of the oven, and place on a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely.

Berries
Either while waiting for cake to bake or cool you can start the strawberry filling. Wash, hull and slice one package of the fresh berries. Combine the thawed sweetened berries, with their syrup and the fresh sliced berries in a bowl and mash them roughly. This will mix their juices, which is very important. Refrigerate berrie mixture until your cake is cool.

Wash, hull and half the remaining package of fresh berries and set aside.

When cake is cooled you can slice it in half and lay with the sliced sides facing up on a baking sheet. If you had to split them into 2 pans then just flip them out of their pans carefully and slice the rounded tops off so you have a cut flat surface on top and lay them on the baking sheet.

Take your berry filling mixture that should be nice and juicy and spread it across the two cut sides of the cake. It should make a nice juicy layer of filling on top of each. Then put them in the freezer for about ten to fifteen minutes while you mix up your icing.

Icing
Beat cream cheese, sugar, Cool Whip and vanilla until smooth and then add in heavy cream and beat that through also. The mixture should be a little thick but still spreadable and delicious. (You can taste it, I give you permission)

Pull the two cake layers out of the freezer. Place one of them on your cake plate and spread a thin layer of icing on top of the strawberry layer, carefully. Set the second cake layer on top of that and frost the entire cake with the remaining icing. It doesn't have to be perfect coverage, in fact it looks pretty darn tasty with a little strawberry showing through here and there.

Then take the remaining halved berries and arrange them evenly on top of the cake. Chill for 2 hours and serve!  (Try really hard not to eat the whole thing yourself)



And if you were wondering, yes it is possible to stand outside in 8 inches of snow holding a cake in your left hand while snapping a picture with your right hand... all with the purpose of good lighting, a snow white back drop and keeping prying fingers from dipping in before you can carry it in the house and set it down to take the picture....  The things I do in the name of blogability.



Simple Muffins

Here is a recipe for a delicious basic muffin to accompany any meal. This is my go to muffin when I am looking for one I can make right out of my cupboard with basic ingredients and serve warm with a little butter. A Tbs. of orange zest and 1 cup fresh halved cranberries can be added for variation Yum !

1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1+1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 level tsps. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease bottom of 12 medium muffin cups. Beat egg; stir in milk and oil. Mix in remaining ingredients just until flour is moistened. Batter may be lumpy but if you over beat they will peak to a point.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake about 18 to 20 minutes until light golden brown. Remove from pan and serve. Makes 12 muffins

Friday, March 12, 2010

Marinated Vegetables

Combine these healthy vegetables in a clear glass bowl
for a pretty presentation.

1/2 head cauliflower, cut up
2 sliced carrots
2 sliced stalks celery
1 sliced green pepper
1 4oz. jar drained stuffed green olives
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbls. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup water


Combine everything in a large pan and bring

it to a boil stirring occasionally.

Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.

Cool and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Drain before serving.

Makes 3 cups.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Delicious Endeavors Recipe Carnival, First Edition!!!!


Welcome to the first ever edition of delicious endeavors recipe carnival!  I'm so excited that there were such great submissions, and so many!  Y'all have reinforced my opinion that this would be a good idea.  Please be sure to check out all the posts because there surely are some great ones!


First of all, here are a couple posts with some great meal planning, pantry stocking and money saving tips!

Cooking Tips

SVB presents Cheap Meals and Easy Dinner Ideas: Recession Dining For Under $10 posted at The Digerati Life, saying, "Thanks!"


TSW Blog presents Cheap Meals You Can Cook At Home To Save Money! posted at The Smarter Wallet.

Megan submitted this great post on Cheats for Ethnic Cooking and she includes a list of pantry must-haves in order to complete some great recipes!

 

And then here are some fantastic recipes!


Recipes

30 Minute Meals Blog submitted a great Taco post, saying, "The Recipe Blog is my way to keep you informed about new and exciting ways to use the secret ingredient in your 30 minute meals. Coyote Trail Sauces-make everyday gourmet."


Next there was a recipe from Lori for Sauvignon Beef Stew posted at Two Southern Girls, which not only sounds great but from wandering around on her blog I found a cupcake carnival that she's trying to get started! 


Jen submitted a recipe for  Moist Molasses Bran Muffins posted at Momof2GreatCats: furballs and other mysteries of life, and they sound great!

Karen (aka Granny here at Goodies From Granny's House) submitted her Pumpkin Square recipe... and it's out of this world, from experience.


Cathryn presents a Hearty Corn Chowder Recipe in Got Soup? posted at Lucky 10 Thirteen,

Sarah at NH Mommy of 3 submitted this fantastic sounding recipe for Mounds Bar Cake... I can't begin to tell you how good this sounds.  I'm going to have to try this one right away.

If you wander over to Life in a Nutshell you'll find a recipe for Ranch Dressing that sounds just out of this world.

Christy over at Well Bless Your Heart eh? has shared a post with a brownie post that I can personally attest to because I have tried her deep dish brownies and love them!


Anne-Marie presents Slow cooker recipes: homemade onion soup mix and a venison shoulder roast posted at This Mama Cooks! On a Diet.  It's actually 2 recipes in one post!!!


Naturally Food Team presents Home Style Baked Beans | Naturally Food posted at Naturally Food, saying, "A wonderful recipe for baked beans so you can cook yours at home. Homemade baked beans have more flavor and are healthier."


Then Lisa shared this recipe for her family meatloaf in the post Junk in the Trunk, posted at 4-Ricks.


Check out this recipe for Homemade Gluten-Free Oreo Cookies; Seriously, Delicious! posted at Parenting Squad.



That concludes this edition of the Delicious Endeavors Recipe Carnival!  Please feel free to play along with us next time!!!  We'll be doing it once a week on Tuesdays, with the deadline being Monday evenings!  Submit your blog article to the next edition
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page
.

Pumpkin Squares

Here is a recipe for cream cheese frosted pumpkin bars. These are cake-like moist bars perfect for snack time or gatherings. Keep them covered in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Mix;
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups flour

Add;
4 eggs
1 cup canola oil
1 15 oz can pumpkin(approx. 2 cups)
1 tsp vanilla

Beat until smooth and pour into a large jelly roll pan.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes at 350 degrees and cool.

Beat with mixer until creamy;

1 softened Philadelphia cream cheese
3/4 cups confectionery sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 stick softened butter

Frost bars and place in the refrigerator to set frosting.
Keep leftovers in the refrigerator in covered container. Makes 15 generous servings or can be cut smaller for a party.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Introducing The Delicious Endeavors Blog Carnival

We've recently decided that while we love participating in the Make it From Scratch Carnival (and will continue to do so) we the owners of this blog (that would be Traci and Karen) would like to get together with some of our blogger buddies and create a food specific carnival of our own, which welcomes recipe posts or other how-to posts regarding food.

Which brings us to the new Delicious Endeavors Recipe Carnival.  We hope that our readers out there will enjoy the assortment of recipes that this will promote and that they will feel encouraged to jump in and submit posts.

The submission dates will be Mondays at 5pm.  Here is a link for this week.  The carnival itself will be hosted here on Tuesdays.  Please link back to the carnival so your readers can check out all the recipes.

And if you have a recipe or food related post please be sure to submit it!