Hello Again!

I've missed you! But, I am back with a fun and simple, super tasty recipe that is PERFECT for the holiday weekend! Fruit Salsa. My SIL Christine LOVES it when I make this and it's been years since I pulled it out, so it's time again. Enjoy your holiday and please be safe!


Apple Berry Salsa
from The Pampered Chef

2 granny smith apples, sliced thin, then chopped
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh strawberries
2 kiwi, peeled and chopped
1 small orange
1 tsp zest
2 tbsp juice
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp apple jelly

Gently stir together fruit. Mix rest of the ingredients in a small bowl and then pour over fruit and gently toss together. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve with cinnamon tortilla chips.


Cinnamon Tortilla Chips

1 pkg flour tortillas
cinnamon sugar
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400*. Cut each tortilla into wedges. A pizza cutter works really well for this job. Arrange on a cookie sheet. Spray tortillas LIGHTLY with cooking spray and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned and crisp. Cool and store in an airtight container.

Dulce de Leche

How did I ever go 31 years without trying dulce de leche?? Apparently that's a side effect of growing up in Wisconsin, eh? :) Anyway, you need to try this. Serve on ice cream or head to Joy the Baker and check out her February 27,2011 recipe for Dulce de Leche cupcakes. You'll thank me and you'll love her! here's how to make super yummy dulce de leche...take 2 cans sweetened condensed milk and pour them into an 8x8 glass pan, top with foil. Set this pan inside a larger pan like a 9x13 pan and fill it with water so the smaller pan has water halfway up the sides. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 for 1 1/2 hours. Check occassionally to keep the water level up. Cool completely. When cool, whip until smooth and enjoy!

Garden update and a recipe!

Hi! I didn't realize until today that I didn't update or post anything here since June. I'm so sorry! Our garden is in full swing now. I'm gathering more cucumbers that I can pickle, a ton of sweet corn and I will soon be up to my eyeballs in tomatoes! It's all a very good thing! I love watching my pantry and freezer fill up with the fresh fruits and veggies that we preserve for winter use. It's a ton of work, but there's nothing like toast in the middle of winter with jam that tastes like fresh strawberries or having some juicy sweet corn with our dinners!

The recipe I'm going to leave you with today is kind of a cowboy/Texas caviar, but super simple. I made this today using mostly garden produce! (* denotes that it came from my garden)

*3-6 roma tomatoes, depending on size and preference, chopped
*1/2 red onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
*3-6 tbsp cilantro, chopped
*2 ears sweet corn, cut off the cob and blanched
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 lime, juice and zest

Mix together and serve with pita or tortilla chips. Enjoy!

Frosted Rhubarb Cookies

I know! Right?! Totally yummy rhubarb in a cookie! Don't have much time right now, but know that these do freeze well so you can make a ton of them and pop them in the freezer. How easy is that?! Enjoy!

1 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups diced fresh rhubarb

3/4 cup flaked coconut

In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening and brown sugar. Beat in eggs. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture.

Stir in rhubarb and coconut. Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Top with Brown Butter Icing found here or even a cream cheese icing would be good!

Rhubarb Slush

Tim made some rhubarb slush while I was in the hospital with Rugby. It was good, but super tart. Good thing it was a small batch. He tweaked his recipe and made one that is super good! Enjoy!


Tim's Rhubarb Slush

2 quarts rhubarb sauce (if you don't have that, see the note at the end)
1 envelope sugar free raspberry jello
1 can frozen lemonade concentrate

Blend together in a blender or food processor and freeze in an ice cream pail. Serve with some Sprite or Sundrop like you would for an alcoholic slush.

**Don't have rhubarb sauce? It's super easy to make! For this recipe, put 6 cups chopped rhubarb in a saucepan with 2 cups water and 2/3 cup sugar. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until rhubarb is tender. COOL COMPLETELY before using it to make this recipe.

Coming soon!

New recipes!

It was brought to my attention that I never posted the recipe for the rhubarb cookies that I made last year, so I'll post that soon. Also, we made two different kinds of rhubarb slush this weekend and I'll post at least one of them, too!

We're going to try out a new recipe or two for chicken wings today, also, so be on the look out for LOTS of new recipes soon!!

Rhubarb

Last night we had family here for cake and ice cream to celebrate my oldest sons birthday that was earlier this week. I made an old favorite recipe and wanted to post the link again as a reminder for my mom and for all of you new readers of Cafe Jessica! So here it is: Chocolate Chip Rhubarb Cake. It's Soooooooooooooooooooooo good!! Enjoy!

Construction Zone

Hello all, please excuse my dust while I'm remodeling Cafe Jessica.

I hope things don't get too wonky around here, but you never know. I really need to redo the header or find a way to center it. But, I'm working on that and hope to be back with some great new recipes for you soon!!

Giveaway winner

The winner of the planner giveaway is


#3...Suzy Neal

Congratulations!!

(Please contact me with your address and I'll get that mailed out right away!!)

Hello Lovelies!

Good morning! It's so nice that you could stop on over and say hello! Cha Cha was kind enough to send you all over, so please make yourselves comfortable and look around. I love to play hostess, though I am very much the shy and quiet type (until you get to know me, anyway!).

I found her blog through the Pioneer Woman and I love checking in to see all the fabulous projects she whips up on top of being a super busy homeschooling mom! She's amazing!

If you are a regular Cafe Jessica reader, please pop on over to Sit Relax and Read....I'm featured there today! Very exciting!!

Giveaway!

Good morning! We've got some friends coming from out of town today to spend the night, so I was doing some cleaning and found a planner calendar like I use for menu planning, so to tie in with my last post, I'm giving it away!! The planner is December 09 until January 2011, so there's LOTS of time to still use it.

If you are interested, please leave a comment letting me know your favorite thing to bake. That's it!

For an extra entry, post to your facebook or blog about the giveaway and come back and leave another separate comment for that.

For a third entry, post my button to your sidebar and leave a separate comment for that. Simple!

I'll let this post run until midnight, March 31st and on April 1st, I'll announce a winner! Good luck!!

Menu Planning

Good morning! Lately, it seems that I'm crazy busy. Between meeting friends for walks and hauling kids around and grocery shopping and everything else, I don't feel like I've gotten much accomplished. My house shows it, too. We had unexpected guests for dinner last night and it was fun, but my bedroom door was securely closed and that room was not part of the tour. :) We all do that, right? I certainly hope I'm not the only one that throws the mess into another room so that it APPEARS that I'm an awesome housekeeper and that my house is company ready in 20 minutes or less. lol! But, nights like last night are why I LOVE menu planning. I had most of the stuff in the house for a nice meal and just had to pick up a few veggies for the salsa and salad. I made Corn and Black Bean Salsa, grilled steaks, sauteed mushrooms and onions in plenty of butter, and made custom salads for all four adults and even TJ asked for a salad. The adults had romaine, spinach, carrots, tomatoes, green onions, Parmesan, sunflower nuts, and/or bacon bits. One even added cottage cheese to his. (I think it's a little weird, but he swears it's good....I'm not sure I'm curious enough to try it, though.) So, anyway, back to the menu planning. Everything was here. It was so nice to have a meal that I could fancy up a bit to be fit for company.

I know not everyone does menu planning and those who do, all do it differently, but I'll tell you what works for me. I use a purse sized calendar planner. You know the kind. JCPenney's gives them away in the salon at Christmas time, banks have given them out. I got mine as a package deal with my yearly appointment planner. I know I shop on Tuesday afternoons, so I plan Tuesday through Monday each week unless there's a reason I know I'm going to go to town a different day, then I can plan accordingly. I also only plan our evening meals. I make sure that there is cereal, eggs and sausage/bacon, flour, etc in the house so we can make breakfasts. Tim loves to make pancakes on the weekends and I make our own syrup (it's just a simple syrup of 1 part water to 2 parts sugar with a little maple flavoring). The little ones and I are the only ones home for lunch and we have sandwiches or leftovers depending on what's here. Sometimes I'll make corn dogs or chicken nuggets if I have them. Weekend lunches are cardboard pizzas or leftovers. Every Sunday I ask what everyone wants for the next week and try to plan accordingly.

So, that's how I do it. It's nice that I can look back at the past weeks and see what we ate and get ideas that way and to not repeat things to often, too.

Here's our menu for the next week:

Tator tot hotdish
Pheasant casserole
Venison steaks with salad
Hamburgers
Grilled Italian Chicken Breasts

That gets us to Monday and Sunday we'll plan for the next week. I also plan to have things in the house for unexpected meals. There's always the fixings for pizza in the house, I have baking supplies so I can make bread or buns or cakes, etc.

So, that's what's on my mind today. Our weather is turning warmer so I'm trying to remember all the warmer weather, lighter foods that I make and getting the heavier, comfort foods out. Happy Thursday!

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

Last week, I had my oldest two boys help me plan the dinner menu for the week. I don't let them get away with chicken nuggets, hot dogs, etc so they knew they had to choose "real" food. Rugby asked for Chicken Enchiladas and I have this great recipe that was in my Gramma Carol's church cookbook (I think) and it's become a family favorite over the years. When Tim was working over the road, I'd make it in two smaller pans instead of the one bigger pan and take half to my grandparents because they like it, but the two of them can't eat a whole pan of it and R&R were small enough then that the three of us couldn't eat a whole pan, either so it was win-win! This week when I had Rugby and Riley help plan meals, Rugby asked for this again! Enjoy!

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

12ish tortillas (I use whole wheat ones)
1 1/2-2 pounds cooked chicken, chopped
1 cup sour cream (I use light with no trouble)
2 cans cream of chicken (do not substitute cream of mushroom, trust me. But, feel free to use a lower sodium version if you wish.)
2 oz can chopped green chilies
Shredded cheese...cheddar or a blend of orange and white cheeses


Preheat oven to 350.

In a small pan, heat the soup, sour cream and chilies until warmed through.

In the center of each tortilla, place 1/4 cup (ish) chicken and 2 tbsp of the soup mixture. Roll up and place in greased 9x13 pan. Continue until your pan is full. Top with remaining soup mixture doing your best to cover all the tortillas with the mixture because any area left exposed will get dry and hard. Top with cheese. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

Almost BBQ venison

I'm LOVING having this fresh venison in my freezer! We took the two front quarters and made burger with it. It only made 5 pounds, but since I mix it half and half with ground turkey, it goes a long way. Last night, though, I sliced one of the roasts (while still partially frozen to make that job TONS easier) and did this Venison Hurry deal that I found on allrecipes. It's SUPER easy and ALL of my kids ate it. Out of a 4 pound roast, there was NOTHING left...just the juice it cooked in! I love making suppers like that!! So, here's the recipe. Enjoy!

Venison Hurry

2# venison chops (I have also made this with a whole roast and that's been good, too)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 packet onion soup mix
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water (if I empty out a ketchup bottle to make this, which I usually do, then I put the water in the ketchup bottle and shake it to get all the ketchupy goodness out of the bottle, then pour that over the meat)

Put the venison in the crockpot, put the rest of the ingredients over the top and cook on low for 6-8 hours and your meat will fall apart! YUM!

I served this last night with mashed potatoes, but buttered noodles would be good, too.

Linked up with The Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap! Go there for more great recipes!

Tex Mex Lasagna

Good Morning! Last night was a long one for us over here. My in-laws called on their way home from Indiana that they were about 20 miles south of our house and had hit a deer. Thankfully, they were fine and their van was still driveable, but what were they going to do with that meat?! They didn't have time to take care of that and they knew my hubby hadn't gotten a deer in a couple years, so we were running dangerously low on venison. We took it. My dad came over to help cut it up enough to get it in the house where it was warm and we cut up what meat was still good into steaks and roasts. WOOHOO!! They called right after we finished dinner, so the timing was pretty good, too! I made this tex-mex lasagna thing that was pretty good, but a 9x13 pan of it was too much for the 6 of us, especially since 3 of the boys decided they didn't like it before they even tried it! So I sent some home with dad for their lunches today and kept some for my lunch today and still have leftovers. Tim is convinced that since he liked it, I'll never make it again since I have a tendency to make so many new things and rarely get back to making something we liked. Maybe I'll surprise him (it was from the TOH Guilt Free Cookbook my MIL got for me, so it's pretty good for you, too!) with it again sometime soon! Anyway, here it is. Enjoy!

Tex-Mex Lasagna
(As usual, there are a few modifications that I made....you can ignore them if you like.)

1 pound lean ground beef**(See note below)
1 can (16 oz) refried black beans (I skipped this, I can. not. stand. refried beans!)
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup frozen corn (totally not enough! Use 1 full cup or maybe a little more)
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped (I skipped this since I used homemade salsa and there's enough jalapenos in there to make it have some zip)
1 envelope taco seasoning (I make my own, here's the recipe for that!)
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce (I made the mistake of not writing down what size can I needed when I went to the store, so I bought too small of a can. Oops! I mixed in the 8 oz can that I bought with a 15 oz can of tomato soup and it worked fine. Use the whole can of tomato soup if you do it this way, it won't hurt anything and then what's left isn't going to waste.)
2 1/2 cups salsa (I used homemade and used 2 pints{equivalent of 4 cups}...2 1/2 cups just wasn't saucy enough for me!)
12 no cook lasagna noodles (took me 15, 5 on each layer)
1 1/2 cups reduced fat shredded monterey jack or fiesta blend cheese
1 1/2 cup reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup fat free sour cream (optional)
1 medium avocado, peeled and cubed (optional)
4 green onions, thinly sliced (optional)

In a large skillet, brown the hamburger until no longer pink; drain. Stir in the beans, corn, jalapeno, taco seasoning and 3/4 cup tomato sauce. Set aside.

Combine salsa and remaining tomato sauce. Spread 1/4 cup (I used about 1/2 cup) into a greased 9x13 pan. Lay down one set of lasagna noodles, top with half of the meat, 1 cup salsa mixture, 1/2 cup of each of the cheeses. Repeat. Top that with the remaining noodles, salsa mixture and cheeses.

Cover and bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until edges are golden and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting. Serve with sour cream, avocado, and onion, if desired.

**A note about ground beef....I was listening to something on public radio and they said that if you buy the cheaper ground beef (73/27 or whatever) and drain it, then rinse it with hot water, the fat content is similar to if you buy the more expensive lean ground beef. Just a tip for you. Or, you can use half a pound of lean ground beef and half a pound of ground turkey to save more fat.

One serving= 1 piece (12 servings per pan): 381 calories, 13g fat, 5g fiber, 25g protein. You can use no salt added tomato sauce and beans to lower the sodium, too.