My Lime Green Kitchen

Archive for August, 2010

We never had rhubarb when I was growing up and it wasn’t til just a few years ago that I tasted Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. It was love at first bite! Pies are my favorite dessert. Cakes and cookies aren’t bad but they don’t come close to pie for me. Almost every pie I make, I say “This is my favorite pie!” Vince always says “You say that about every pie you make!” Men! Really, though . . honest . . this could be my favorite pie (at least for the day!). Add a little Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream and . . who needs dinner? I’m sure I know the answer to that question!

Ingredients:

Double pie crust
2 cups chopped red rhubarb, fresh
2 – 3/4 cups de-stemmed, washed and cut strawberries into quarters
1 – 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons minute tapioca (Plus another 1 Tablespoon for spreading in the bottom of the pie shell)
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 tablespoons butter, cubed small

Directions: Note: You may want to sit the pie in a large cookie sheet with sides. Mine always bubbles over a bit.

Spread pie crust in pie plate. Sprinkle 1 T. tapioca in the bottom of the pie shell.

Combine the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, remaining tapioca, flour, zest and juice of lemon, cinnamon, and almond extract. Mix well in a large bowl and pour into crust. Dot the top of the filling with the butter. Add top crust and seal edges. Cover the edges with foil and bake at 425° for 15 minutes. Reduce temp to 375° and continue baking for an additional 45 to 50 minutes.

Let cool before serving. (Dang it . . I always forget this part!)

This is the cake I made for my birthday and it was so good! Chad loved it and Vince said it tasted “professional” . . whatever that means! So easy and so good. I’ll definitely make this cake again .. maybe today to send to work with Vince tomorrow.

Ingredients:
1 (18 ounce) package yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1-1/4 cups orange juice
1/3 cup oil
1 (3 ounce) package orange flavored Jello
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water
1 (3 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1-1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar (I used a little more)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare cake mix as directed on package, using eggs, orange juice, and oil. Spray 13×9″ pan with baking spray and add cake batter. Bake at 350º for 30-40 minutes until cake starts to pull away from sides of pan. Cool cake completely on wire rack.
Using a wooden chopstick (or knitting needle), poke small holes in the cake.
In a small bowl, place 1 box orange gelatin. Pour boiling water over gelatin and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved. Add cold water and mix well. Slowly pour this mixture over the cake, making sure that the mixture gets into all the holes. Cover and chill for 2-4 hours.
In medium bowl, combine the pudding mix, milk, and vanilla and beat well. In small bowl, combine heavy cream and the powdered sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold the cream mixture into the pudding mixture and spread over cake. Cover and refrigerate for 4-8 hours before serving.

We had a few peaches that were getting too ripe so I used them to make a peach cake.

Since I used one of my smaller cake pans, I was able to make some mini-cakes too and will send those to work with Vince tomorrow.

Chad isn’t a big fan of peaches so when I told him I was making a peach cake, he kinda turned up his nose. Then he said he’d taste it before making a final decision. He tasted it and loved it!

Here’s the recipe:

Peach Cake

2 sticks butter
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2-3/4 cups all purpose flour (plus 1/4 cup)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups peaches, peeled, pitted and chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a Bundt or tube pan and dust with granulated sugar.

2. Cream together butter and sugar til light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

3. Sift together the 2-3/4 cups flour, baking powder and salt. Stir into the creamed mixture.

4. Coat peaches with 1/4 cup flour. Stir into the batter but do not beat or over mix.

5. Pour into pan. Bake for one hour or until tester comes out clean. Allow to cool 10 minutes in pan. Turn onto wire rack to finish cooling. (Or, we served ours warm with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream).

Peach Chutney

4 quarts peaches, pitted, peeled and chopped
3 cups brown sugar
2 cups white sugar
1 cup raisins (I don’t like them but I use them for this recipe)
2 cups chopped onion
1/4 cup mustard seed
4 – 6 Tablespoons finely sliced, peeled fresh ginger
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
4 – 10 jalapeno peppers, sliced (remove seeds if you want less heat . . we leave them in)
4 cups cider vinegar

Combine all ingredients in a pot that’s plenty large enough that it won’t boil over.  Simmer til thick, stirring real often.  It tends to want to stick if you get the heat too high or if you don’t stir it enough.

Fill hot jars, leaving 1/4″ head space.  Remove air bubbles.  Adjust lids and rings.  Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Pesto:

2 cups as full as you can fill them of washed basil leaves (mash them down and get as many as you can in the cup)
1/4 – 3/8 cup olive oil
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 T. chopped garlic
1 T. Fruit Fresh or lemon juice

In a food processor, chop/blend the olive oil, cheese, pine nuts and garlic.

Add the basil leaves and Fruit Fresh and process til desired consistency. I like mine just barely chopped up.

Put into small containers and freeze. I often freeze mine in ice cube trays but they seem to have disappeared. Once it’s frozen, dump them into a zipper freezer bag. For this batch, I filled the little 1/2 cup containers I had and then I sprayed Pam on plastic wrap and wrapped up 1/2 cup amounts.

Then the little packets went into the freezer bag.

Blueberry Chutney

4 cups blueberries
1 onion, chopped
1-1/2 cups cider vinegar
3 tsp. mustard seeds
1-1/2 cups brown sugar
3 T. chopped or thinly sliced ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
2 jalapeno peppers, thinly sliced (more or less to suit you tastes)

Add all ingredients to a large pot. Make sure the pot is large enough for the ingredients to simmer without boiling over. Simmer, stirring often til as thick as you’d like it. I simmer mine for about 1-1/2 hours.

Put into jars as you would for any canning procedure. Process in water bath for 10 minutes.

Candied Jalapenos

* 3 pounds fresh jalapeno peppers, sliced about 1/4″ thick
* 2 sweet onions, sliced about 1/4″ thick
* 2 cups cider vinegar
* 6 cups granulated sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
* 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
* 3 cloves garlic, chopped

I do not remove the seeds from the jalapenos but I slice them, then put them in a colander and rinse them, using the sprayer on my sink so it has a bit of pressure. This rinses some, but not all of the seeds away.

In a large pot, bring cider vinegar, sugar, turmeric, and celery seed to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 7 minutes. Add the pepper, garlic and onions. Once they begin to simmer again, set the timer for 5 minutes. Once the timer goes off, using a slotted spoon, remove the peppers/onions to canning jars. Fill to 1/2″ from top. You should get 5 pints.

Raise the heat under the syrup and boil for 8 – 10 minutes. Pour the syrup over the peppers, to within 1/4″ of the top of the jar. Clean the tops of the jars, and use the 2 piece lids to seal. Process in water bath canner for 15 minutes (for pints).