Upside Down Berry Cobbler

This recipe is so simple and fast and is SO good.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup shortening

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

2 cups fresh berries (I always mix raspberry and blackberry.  And don't be afraid to use a few more berries than this calls for.)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray eight inch round cake pan with cooking spray.

In medium bowl, combine shortening, sugar, flour, baking powder, egg, and milk.  Mix until well blended.  Pour batter into pan.  Spoon berries over batter.

Bake 45 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack.  Store in refrigerator.

Chicken and Veggie Chowder

I love love love this recipe.  I make it all the time.  It's from the Southbeach diet cookbook, so it's really healthy too.  ALWAYS double this recipe though, if you're feeding more than 2-3 people.  Ben and I eat the below just by ourselves.  It stores well and tastes even better the second day too.  You can serve it as a meal or serve smaller portions as an appetizer to a meal.

Ingredients:

3 cups chicken broth

2 carrots, chopped

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 oz mushrooms, sliced ( I always use more than this.)

1 clove garlic, minced ( I always add more than this too.)

1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves (Dried thyme works just as well.   Just use a third of the amount of fresh.)

1/4 tsp salt (Use a little more than this.  To taste.)

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 3/4" strips

2 T trans-free margarine (I just use real butter.)

3 tablespoons whole wheat flour

1 cup 1% milk (I use 2%.)

3 spears asparagus, cut into 1" pieces, or 1 cup broccoli florets (I've never use broccoli, I like the flavor the asparagus adds to much.  And...I ALWAYS add more asparagus than it calls for.)

1 T chopped fresh parsley (Again, just use 1/3 the amount of dried instead, if you want.)

1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

In a large pot, combine the broth, carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms, garlic, thyme, and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. Using a slotted spoon, remove half of the vegetable mixture to a food processor and process until pureed. Return to soup pot.

Stir in the chicken, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink.

Melt the margarine in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour until smooth and cook for 1 minute. Gradually add the milk and cook, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes, or until thickened. Stir in to the chicken mixture. Add the asparagus or broccoli, parsley, and pepper and cook for 5 minutes, or until heated through.

Mama Walker's Chili Ala Molly

FINALLY...I'm posting something on the food blog!  Here's the chili recipe Rachel wanted.  It comes from the mother of a good friend of mine.  I love this chili recipe because it's heavy on the beans while leaving out all the stewed tomato stuff I'm not such a big fan of.  This recipe is "to taste," so it's kind of Marilynn-style.  Just put in whatever sounds good to you.  This is just a guideline.

Ingredients:

1 lb lean ground beef (I use 4% lean, usually.  Use meat this lean so you don't have to drain it when cooking or else you lose all the garlic and onion flavor that's cooking with it.)

salt (to taste)

fresh ground pepper (to taste)

1 yellow onion chopped

minced garlic (To taste, I use two to three cloves.)

1 large can of tomato sauce (I think it's 28 ounces, but whatever is closest to that size.  Or just use two small 15 ounce cans.)

1 large can of red kidney beans (Again, I think it's 28 ounces, or do two small 15 ounce cans.  You can also sub in one small can of pinto beans--one 15 ounce red kidney beans and one 15 ounce pinto in that case--so this is four-bean chili instead of three.)

1 can of black beans (15 ounces)

1 can of great northern white beans (15 ounces)

1 pkg of chili seasoning

1/3 cup of ketchup

2 tsp chili powder

1-2 cups frozen corn (White or yellow or a mix of the two--however much you want.)

Instructions:

Saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil.  When the onions are getting tender,  add in the ground beef and cook till the ground beef is browned.  Mix in salt and pepper to meat as it's cooking.

Place meat mixture in crock pot.  Add in all the rest of the ingredients (including liquid from canned beans) and mix around.  Cook on low at least six hours.

*Goes really well with cornbread with honey and butter.  We also usually add cheese, sour cream, and sometimes chopped green onions on top when served.

Whole Wheat Waffles

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 TB baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
2 eggs
milk to desired thickness

*optional ingredients: cinnamon, nutmeg. and bananas

In a medium sized bowl mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Then stir in eggs,oil, and milk to dry ingredients. The amount of milk will vary depending on how thick you like your batter. Just add a little at a time. After batter is made, I usually add a generous amount of cinnamon and a little bit of nutmeg.

Some of my favorite toppings are berries and whip cream, or yogurt and syrup is really tasty as well!

Andrea's Wheat Bread

This recipe is from Garrett's sister Andrea. She has tweaked it and perfected it over several years and it is my favorite bread ever! I usually eat about a half a loaf in one sitting. The white flour makes it lighter and fluffier than whole wheat, but it is still mostly wheat flour. The thing I love about this recipe is that it only has to rise one time so it is much faster than most bread recipes. The other great thing about this recipe is that it makes three big loaves so you can give them away or freeze them for later use. Enjoy!

In a small bowl combine:
1/2 cup lukewarm water
2 Tbsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
set aside for 15-20 minutes

Mix in Bosch:
7 cups whole wheat flour
5 cups really hot water
Mix until blended well blended about 5 minutes.

Then add:
2 tbsp salt
2/3 cup oil
2/3 cup mesquite honey (you can find this at Trader Joe's, it's way better than regular)
mix until well blended, about 5-10 more minutes

Next add:
1 more cup wheat flour
yeast mixture from small bowl
mix well

Add:
3-4 cups white flour
Mix on high for 10 minutes

Place dough in three greased loaf pans (shape into loaves). Cover all three pans with a warm damp rag and let rise for 35 minutes or double in size. Cook 45 mins. at 350 degrees. Tip pans on their side and place on counter to cool, (this helps them to not fall while they are cooling). When they are mostly cooled but still warm rub each top crust with butter and serve.

Lobster Bisque

Marilynn Monson’s Original LOBSTER BISQUE
INGREDIENTS
• 1/2 cup butter plus 6 TBs
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tsp. pureed garlic
• Two handfuls baby carrots
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
. 1 or 2 LARGE lobster tails (I used 2, but it is expensive,so 1 would work too,it would just have less chunks of meat which is fine and many restaurant lobster soups don't have tons of meat chunks in them.)
• 1 cup cooking white wine, or white grape juice
• 1 quart canned tomatoes
• 6 cups LOBSTER SHELL stock
• 1 quart half and half
• 3 tablespoons parsley
• salt to taste, 4 TB flour, 1 TB Cheasapeake bay seafood seasoning
• ground black pepper to taste, 1 TB sugar, or to taste
First make the lobster stock by cutting the back of the lobster down the middle with scissors then slide your thumb against the shell and lift out the meat. Set aside the meat for later use. Cut out the yellow sack nearest the head; on the meat,not the shell, and discard. Put the shells in 6 cups of water with bay leaves and ¼ of the large onion and 1 tsp. pureed garlic. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low for 1 hour. This is the secret of this soup. Don’t shortchange the time and if you start earlier let it simmer longer up to twice as long. Not full boil, just simmering. Then add the meat and watch closely for when it just turns opaque throughout. About five minutes and then remove the meat to a plate and cool. Chop it in a food processor medium fine. Cover and set aside.
DIRECTIONS
1. Melt the butter (1 square) over medium heat in a large saucepan, add the onion, and carrot, that has been chopped fine in a food processor.. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens.
2. Add the wine and tomatoes. Bring to a gentle boil, and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, and simmer for 20 – 30 minutes more leaving the shells in.
3. Remove the bay leaves. Remove the lobster shells, picking off any meat they may still have on them. Discard shells. Add the thyme and seafood seasoning. Process until very smooth with a hand blender. Simmer at a low temperature.
4. Melt in a saucepan 6 TB of butter, stir in the flour till smooth, then add the half and half stirring constantly until very smooth. Add to the stock with the chopped lobster meat and heat through. Add remaining seasoning. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with fresh romano cheese sprinkled on top. Enjoy!
This is obviously soup for a special occasion since it is expensive! I had to make up a lobster bisque recipe after having and craving it from an expensive restaurant lately. It drew rave reviews from the company at our recent dinner party! They loved it! Dad wants me to sell it and make millions! Right!

I know many of you have heard me talk about my "martha stewart" friend Alisha. She is an amazing baker. This is one of her recipes. I took it to a party a few weeks ago and we sat around, eating them and pretty much crying (out of joy for our mouths:).

They are: Divine Chocolate Cake with Almond Butter Frosting

Warning: they are NOT lowfat! However, it isn’t quite as bad as it looks b/c the recipe is really

1 ½ times a normal one (it makes a 9 inch cake AND 12 cupcakes or 36 cupcakes). Enjoy!

Cake
3 sticks butter
1 cup dutch process cocoa
2 ½ cups flour
2 ¼ tsp bak soda
¼ tsp salt
2 ¾ cup brown sugar
6 eggs, room temp
2 cups buttermilk
1 Tb vanilla
¾ cup hot water

Preheat oven to 350
In a large mixer, cream butter and sugar together till light. Add in eggs, 2 at a time, till blended. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingred: cocoa, flour, soda, salt. In another bowl, mix hot water, buttermilk, and vanilla.

Mixing on low, alternate dry ingred with wet, till just blended. Don’t over mix. Scrape into pans.

Cupcakes: bake 18 min, till set but moist.
9 inch round cake: butter, flour, bake 60 min.

Almond butter frosting:
2 sticks butter, room temp
2 tsp almond extract
1 TB milk
1 pound powd sugar.

Beat butter, add extract, mix in powd sug, add milk if needed. Frost generously.