Recipes Discovered

Nutty Pear Toast Recipe

For those of you who know Seth, it’s no surprise when I say that he gets bored easily. It holds true with breakfast as well. He would probably complain if I gave him cold cereal too many days in a row, so I try to keep my eye open for new breakfast ideas that are still quick. He loves pears, so I though nutty pear toast would be right up his alley. It’s simply a toasted bagel (or bread) topped with cream cheese, sliced pears, walnuts, and a drizzle of honey. I used the new bagelbread, which is a lot lighter than a traditional bagel. They taste pretty good as well. After putting everything together, I put the bagels under the broiler for a minute, just to warm up the pear and melt the honey. Although it sounded really good, something about the pear and the cream cheese just didn’t work for me. I’m not sure what it was, but I didn’t like the combination. Seth agreed, but he thought an apple would be better since it would have more crunch. Maybe I’ll have to try that next time.

While unpacking (still), I found an Irish cookbook that I had bought a long time ago. Seth’s family is very Irish, and I’ve always wanted to learn to cook traditional Irish food. I had Seth pick out recipes for a complete meal, and this is what he came up with.

We started with Mushroom Soup, which simply a lot of mushrooms cooked with potatoes, onions, garlic, and some stock. The recipe implies to blend the soup, but it leave it rather chunky, but Seth and I both prefer the soup blended smooth. It developed a very cream texture, similar to cream of mushroom soup. I used portobello, crimini, and white button mushrooms, which gave the soup great flavor. I served the soup with Brown Soda Bread, which is so incredibly easy to make. I mixed whole wheat flour with baking powder and buttermilk (I had to use more buttermilk than the recipe called for) together until a dough forms. I then kneaded the dough for a minute until it was smooth and baked until hollow. The bread was so good! It formed a nice crust on the outside, but was so soft and smooth on the inside. Seth wanted me to make it everyday. >> Read more

Update: New and Improved Recipe

Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage Recipe

Spinach Salad with Apples and Red Onion Recipe

As much as I love to cook, sometimes I don’t like to think about what I am cooking. Enter Rachael Ray. Now I know some people can’t stand her while others think she is the best thing ever, but I will say that usually, she has pretty decent recipes. What I really like about her is that she doesn’t just prepare a recipe, she prepares a complete meal that works together. The flavors compliment each other, and it’s well balanced. For dinner the other night, Seth and I had pasta with pumpkin and sausage along with a spinach salad with apples and red onion. All the ingredients worked together, and, best of all, I didn’t have to think about what I was cooking.

First, the salad, which is really simple. The dressing it simply olive oil, vinegar, grain mustard, honey, salt, and pepper. After whisking it together, I poured it over spinach leaves topped with sliced apples and red onions. >> Read more

Elderberry Cobbler Recipe

While walking with my mom, I noticed a lot of tiny berries along the road by their house. My mom told me they were elderberries, which happen to be my Uncle George’s favorite pie, although my aunt doesn’t make it very often. I don’t think I heard of elderberries before, at least not that I can remember. After some research, I found that elderberries are very popular for making wine and jam. More interest, the berries are actually mildly poisonous if eaten raw. My curiosity got the best of me, so I had my mom pick a bagful of elderberries.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to make pie, even though it’s an easy recipe to find. After a lot of searching, I found an elderberry cobbler recipe that I thought would highlight the berries. >> Read more

Banana Berry Muffins Recipe

My aunt had some late blooming blueberries that I picked the other day, and I thought they would be perfect in these Banana Berry Muffins.

The recipe first combines bran flakes and buttermilk. For the buttermilk, I substituted 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar and 1/2 cup of regular milk. I let it sit in a bowl for 5 minutes and then added the bran flakes on top. It didn’t seem like enough milk, but I mixed the flakes with the milk and after they set for 10 minutes, the flakes were pretty mushy.

For the batter, I creamed butter and sugar together and then added the eggs one at a time. To that mixture, I added mashed bananas and vanilla. The recipe calls for ripe bananas. My grandmother always used totally black bananas to make banana bread, and I still think that creates the best flavor. The bananas I used weren’t all black, but they were definitely a bit beyond good eating. Anyway, the batter looked pretty gross as this point, like it was curdled, but as I stirred in (by hand) the dry ingredients, the batter smoothed out. >> Read more