Blackberry Jalapeno Jelly

Here you go Meghan.

Blackberry Jalapeno Jelly

• 1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped jalapeno pepper (next time I'll be more liberal with this maybe 1/2 c. my jalapenos weren't hot enough)
  
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 package pectin
• 1/2 package strawberry jello (or raspberry or blackberry)

Follow pectin directions. Boil 5 minutes, and Process. Serve over cream cheese with crackers.

New Recipes?

This week I was struggling with what to cook so I turned to my handy online cookbook. I figure if more than 100 people like said recipe it must be good.

This Indonesian Chicken recipe was absolutely wonderful. I added my own vegetables (what we had around) and took out the chile sauce (which I know Miss L wouldn't have handled, although I think my family would have loved it with). It was very good. My sis. Katie would've loved it.

This fruity curry chicken salad was also delicious, but Gary won't eat mayonnaise, so I took it to a play group, and then came home and ate the rest for dinner myself. It was very good too. The curry totally makes this.

Other than that I have been out of ideas. I am a limited in my cooking because Gary doesn't eat mayonaise, really fatty foods (like fried chicken), cream of mushroom/chicken soup, or any white milk products. If you haven't guessed he is lactose intolerant. Blah!!!!! At least he likes spices, and boy does my side of the family eat spices.

But I guess it makes me eat healthier. But it also throws me for a loop, when I'm out of ideas and want to throw together a casserole (no cream of chicken/cream of mushroom).

So got any ideas out there????

Cooking Fetish

Lately, I have had a fetish with cooking. I really like to eat really good food. And because of certain HDR (husband diet restriction) I have to be pretty healthy and very creative.

Rules with cooking:
1) I really like to make recipes really good which mean 10-12 times to perfect them (especially for baked goods
2) I utilize leftovers (because waste not want not)
3) I like to use things from my garden, which currently included chives, basil, beans, STRONG romaine lettuce, tomatoes, and green onions. (Just a side note, L and I planted the garden Friday with all sort of yummy fall produce aka. cilantro, squash, and sugarsnap peas. Now we just need a new tomato plant, zucchini plant, and acorn squash seeds, and we will be set.
4) I don't eat a lot of meat. I am not vegetarian, but I do like smaller meat portions the majority of the week.

Here are some things I made had recently:
1) Mushroom Pasta: with minor modification of losing the cheese, chicken, and half and half, and replacing with leftover roast beef and gravy with a little milk.

2) Won Ton Soup: Did you know won tons are pretty healthy and freeze really well. Good thing we have such a great chinese grocery store so close. For those who haven't been, warning there is a fish market in the back that smells like uh...fish. This recipe also utilized all the carrots left in my garden, romaine lettuce (which considering the variety I have taste a lot like bok choy)

3)Curried Squash Soup: Very gourmet, quite tasty, but a little thin (as you puree everything) However, L gobbled it up. Found some squash in the freezer.

4) Whole Wheat Sour Dough Pesto Pizza: I just found a recipe I actually liked for pesto to utilize the basil in my garden. I brought it to Gary's AMSA potluck last night, but sadly did not win the prize. I also put the basil on some leftover pasta for lunch. It was really good. Here is the pesto recipe from a friend:

Basil Pesto
1 cup basil
1-2 cloves garlic
2 T. pine nuts
dash salt
dash pepper

Blend the above in a food processor, adding olive oil until pesto consistency,

add 1/4 c shredded fresh parmesan, and 1-2 T. ricotta

cheese.

The cool thing is that you can freeze the pesto (before adding the cheese). We'll see if it tastes as good.


A project I am currently working on:

1) San Fransisco Sour dough bread: My good friend's husband who just moved to Utah, and is an avid experimental cook...gave me the starter. I have been working with it to get it to taste like the store.

I've tried a whole wheat sourdough recipe, which failed to rise after 15 hours, but tasted great, albeit dense. I did add a slightly larger amount of whole wheat flour than listed.

I've also tried a recipe that adds yeast. Actually I made rolls out of this which I took to relief society last week and were gobbled up, but still it didn't taste like sourdough. It did rise well, though.

This is currently sitting on my counter. Again it needs to rise 15 hours. We'll see if it works.

Any tried and true recipes for sourdough out there?