This is a recipe review, which means this is a recipe that I did not personally come up with, but that I tried out and am giving my opinion on how the recipe turned out. For legal reasons I cannot post these recipes, but I can tell you where you can get them yourself.

I watched Alton Brown’s episode of Good Eats entitled “Don’t Be Chicken Of Dumplings” when it first aired a couple months ago. But since it was entering summer time I wasn’t quite ready to drink down some chicken broth. But with the sore throat I have been dealing with lately, I thought the time is now. So I ran off to the supermarket to get what I needed. Here are my notes from this recipe:

Click here to open up the recipe.

1. I only have a 4 qt pressure cooker. Thus a 5 to 5 1/2 pound stewing hen isn’t going to fit. I could barely squeeze in a 4 pound roasting chicken. But it worked just fine. It still produced a flavorful meal.

2. Alton strained his broth with a colander and cheesecloth because he likes his broth clean. He said his mother would say this step isn’t necessary. I agree with his mother. I left my broth as is. I just transferred to another a wide pot for the cooking of my dumplings.

3. The dumplings were easy to make. I had no problems whatsoever. Using a gallon size bag with a corner cut out is the perfect way to dispense the dumplings into the hot broth. Also the dumplings tasted great!

4. My wife originally wanted to add carrots and celery thinking the broth would not be flavorful enough with just salt added. But with one taste of the broth, the vegetables remained in the fridge! The broth is very flavorful.

This was an excellent dish, that I look forward to using on cold winter evenings and for guests. It’s easy to make and delicious.

Recipe Grade: A

When you go to the grocery store and are walking down the aisle that contains the applesauce, you will see an array of flavors. Today the shelves are stocked with cinnamon, wild berry, strawberry, peach, chunky, just to name a few. But how many people actually make their own flavored applesauce?

Since apples are generally mild in flavor, it is easy to add other fruits to it, to add another dimension of flavor. And since it was peach season, I decided to make some peach applesauce. The apples I use were apples that were available during peach season. Of course you could use whatever combination you like. Here is what I used.

1 extra large Glowing Star Peach
2 Jersey Mac apples
2 Ginger Gold apples
3 Paula Red apples

Peach selection: Use whatever peach variety you like. I used Glowing Star. They are large so I only had to peel one peach. They are a mid-season variety, so they are available the same time as early apples. If you buy your peaches at the store you aren’t going to know the exact variety (read about shopping for peaches). I wouldn’t recommend white flesh peaches as they are less acidic and you want some acidity.

Apple selection: Jersey Mac, Ginger Gold, and Paula Red are all early season apples. They each have a nice sweet/tart balance and have a soft texture that allows them to break down well for applesauce. These same apples I wouldn’t recommend for pies. You can use any of these apples in any combination or mix is some other varieties. It’s a matter of learning what you like.

Instructions
1. First off, I think applesauce making is not an exact science. Instead of following a recipe, let your tongue do the testing. If it needs more sugar add it, if it needs some spice, add that to. You can also adjust the apples you use based on whether you want it more tart or more sweet.

2. If you have a food mill, I recommend making your life easier as well as adding flavor and vitamins to your sauce and leave the skins on. You can remove them with the food mill when done. So now all you have to do is slice them up to remove the pits in both the apples and the peaches.

3. For cooking them you can either use a pot on the stovetop or a slow cooker. You can get good results either way, but with a slow cooker your chance of burning the bottom of one of your pans are gone. I add a little bit of liquid to get started. I use 1/4 cup of apple juice. The apples will release plenty of liquid on their own.

4. Cook your sauce until it is the consistency you desire. I let mine cook all afternoon. Then run it through a food mill or you can use a immersion blender if you already removed the skins. If your sauce comes out too runny (mine did) then place it back in the slow cooker, turn up the heat to full blast, and wait until it’s the right consistency. Add sugar to taste (white or brown it’s your choice). Serve warm or refrigerate.

The other day I got the Niman Ranch Cookbook from my local library. I was looking at the recipes, when I spotted one for cider-glazed pork chops and thought that would be a great fall meal. I then was looking for something to make for dinner on this summer night, I remembered I had pork chops in the fridge. So I thought, why not try out a different glaze on some pork chops. So after reading a few recipes, I created this recipe for honey-mustard glazed pork chops.

Whenever I cook pork with a dry heat method I always brine it first. This makes the interior of the meat both juicy and flavorful. The brine is basically the same one that Alton Brown used on an episode of Good Eats to make a slow cooked pork dish. It is also the same brine I use when making a pork loin roast.

Ingredients for the Brine

4 bone-in pork chops

2 cups vegetable broth

1/4 cup kosher salt

1/2 cup light brown sugar

2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns

Combine all the ingredients into a saucepan over high heat. Cook until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Then remove from the heat and add about 1 pound of ice to cool the brine down. Give it a good stir and set it aside. Now take your chops and place them in a gallon sized plastic bag and dump the brine into the bag. Seal the bag well, place it in a container just in case the bag leaks, and place it into the refrigerator for 1-2 hours. Even just an hour will make a difference.

Ingredients for the Glaze
olive oil or canola oil
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup chicken broth or stock

Start by placing about an inch or so of canola or olive oil (not extra virgin) in the bottom of an electric skillet (or you can use a skillet on the stovetop). I turn my electric skillet to 300 degrees (about medium high on the stovetop). In the mean time, remove the chops from the brine and pat them dry. Season them with black pepper and kosher salt. When your skillet is ready, place them in, so that they do not touch each other. Cook for 4-5 minutes until the chops are golden brown, then flip and cook for another 4-5 minutes until the other side is brown. Remove the chops from the skillet.

Now add your chicken broth and scrap anything that stuck to the bottom of the pan. Then add the honey, mustard, and cider vinegar. Stir constantly until your glaze is nice and thick, should only take a minute or two. Return the chops to the pan and coat them in the glaze. Then enjoy! If you have leftovers eat them within 1 days as pork does not last long in the fridge after being cooked.

If you are a meat lover there are two things that will make your live even better – buying Niman Ranch products and purchasing the Niman Ranch Cookbook. This fabulous book shares the history of Niman Ranch farms and how they went from a single family to over 500 independent farms all following the Niman Ranch philosophy. This book will teach you where their philosophy is – how they raise their cattle and why, to what they eat. All of these help produce some of the finest quality meat you will find on the market. The book has chapters on beef, pork, and lamb as well as a section on tips on how to prepare these meats. There is also pictures of each animal to show you where you get certain cuts from. These are the best pictures I have seen anywhere of this.

If this all wasn’t enough, there is also a ton of recipes for many delicious meals from Cider-Glazed Pork Chops to Grilled Leg of Lamb to Carne Asada Steak. Many of these recipes are from restaurants that use Niman Ranch meat.

I highly recommend buying this book for all it’s useful information and wonderful recipes. Anyone that likes to cook meat would benefit from this book.

Click here to check out one of my favorite Niman Ranch products – BACON!

Do you have a bunch of blueberries on hand and are looking for something to do with them? A great idea is to use them in some homemade lemonade. Adding blueberry flavor to lemonade, gives it an extra note of flavor that is pleasing to the tongue. It’s a very simple process to make this lemonade. It starts with making the lemonade itself and then making a blueberry puree to add to it.

For the basic lemonade
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup sugar
6 1/2 cups good tasting water

Add all these ingredients together in a 2 1/2 quart pitcher. Stir well to combine.

For the blueberry puree
6 oz fresh blueberries
sugar

Add sugar to the blueberries just to coat them as if you were going to eat them as in. Then take the blueberries for a spin in a blender or food processor. Pour the puree through a strainer to remove the skin.

Now add the puree to the lemonade and stir to combine. Taste it and add more water or sugar based on your preference. Chill your lemonade and enjoy!

This is a recipe review, which means this is a recipe that I did not personally come up with, but that I tried out and am giving my opinion on how the recipe turned out. For legal reasons I cannot post these recipes, but I can tell you where you can get them yourself.

A couple months ago, I had the assignment to make some cookies for a church service at a local evangelical home. I didn’t have much on hand. No chocolate chips, so no chocolate chip cookies. I needed a cookie that I could make without having to add anything like chips or nuts to. So I searched online and came up with ginger cookies. Not just any ginger cookies, ones created by Food Network personality, Paula Deen. Below are my notes from this recipe.

Click here to get the recipe for Paula’s cookies.

1. These cookies have a nice soft texture. I would not call them ginger snaps because they don’t really “snap”. But that is totally fine by me, I love a soft cookie.
2. I use a plunger cup to measure out both the molasses and the shortening. It makes that sticky job so much easier.
3. The cookies have a nice bite to them without being overwhelming.
4. My baking time is typically 12 minutes, exactly what Paula said.
5. I take whole cinnamon sticks and whole cloves and grind them in my spice grinder to get the best spice flavor. I use pre-ground ginger, since it’s a little (in which I mean a lot) difficult to grind your own ginger at home.

This is a wonderful recipe that I keep going back to. The people at the evangelical home were happy to have a ginger cookie, most of said it had been years since they had one. So maybe it’s time for you to have one yourself.

Recipe Grade: A

Click here to get the recipe for Paula’s cookies.

Have you bought yourself some Kerrygold Kilaree Cheddar Cheese and wondered what it would be good for? (besides just slicing and eating, which is good in itself) I think a classic baked macaroni & cheese dish would be a great use of this cheese. If you haven’t bough this cheese before maybe this is a good reason to go out and get it. The following recipe is NOT an official Kerrygold recipe. This is a recipe I have been using for years and I thought this cheese would work well with it.

Ingredients
8 oz pasta of your choice (pasta made with bronze dies are best)
8 oz Kerrygold Kilaree Cheddar Cheese, shredded
2 oz or 1/2 stick butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon mustard powder
2 cups whole milk
kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pour about a gallon of water into a large pot with a couple heavy pinches of kosher salt. Pasta should always be cooked in a large pot that has been heavily salted. Bring to a boil. When the water comes to a boil, dump in the pasta and cook until it is almost al dente, but still a little bit chewy, so it will be perfect when it comes out of the oven. Drain the pasta in a colander and place into your favorite baking dish.

Here are your direction for making the cheese sauce. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. When the butter is completely melted whisk in the flour, black pepper, mustard powder, and a pinch of kosher salt. When the flour is fully incorporated, pour in the milk. Turn your burner to medium, stir often, until the mixture comes to a boil. Let the mixture boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Now slowly pour in the shredded Kilaree cheddar and whisk to combine. Pour the sauce over the pasta, mix to combine. Now place the entire thing into your oven and bake for 25 minutes. This will allow the cheese to thicken and brown. Browning the cheese will bring more flavor to the dish. Remove from the oven, let cool for at least 5 minutes and enjoy!

It seems like there are a thousand names for steaks, and it can be difficult sometimes to pinpoint what you got. It took me a little bit of searching to discover what a petite steak was. The petite steak as it names suggests is a small steak that is cut from the chuck primal (or the shoulder of the cow). The chuck is known for producing some of the most finger licking food you could imagine, but not normally a tender steak. But the petite steak is an exception. The only problem is that there is a laying of connective tissue that won’t go away even if you burn the thing into ashes. But around that connective tissue is come pretty flavorful meat, you just have to cut around it. Because of this “defect” you should be able to find the steak at a low price, thus it’s a great value. The Nibble.com ranked it as the best value steak. (Click here to see a list of their top 10 value cuts of beef).

Not finding a petite steak in your store? It might also be under the name blade steak or top blade steak. I think it depends on the size of the steak. The smaller version of a blade steak is a petite.

Do you own an Amazon Kindle Are you looking for some good cookbooks or food related books to purchase for your Amazon Kindle? If you have one it is a great way to rid your kitchen of the clutter of piles and piles of cookbooks. Some people think it can become a must have “kitchen appliance” like a toaster or a food processor. Below is list of some of the best books that I recommend that you can currently buy the Kindle version. Clicking on the title of book will bring you to it’s Amazon Kindle page.

1. How to Pick a Peach: The Search for Flavor from Farm to Table

This is a wonderful guide on how to choose fruits and vegetables to get the best quality. Find the history of each item, from apples to peaches to green beans. Also find out where these things are grown. The best part of the book is that you learn why certain types of produce are found in today’s supermarket.

2. I’m Just Here for the Food: Version 2.0

This is THE book for learning how to cook written by Alton Brown of Good Eats fame. It goes through every type of cooking from grilling to roasting. It also include many great recipes and tips.

3. BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent Recipes

This is THE book for learning how to bake. It containing many fabulous recipes, and each one the author explains why she is using certain ingredients. The science behind each recipe is explained, so that you know what is really happening in your oven.

4. Home Cheese Making

Want to learn to make your own cheese? This is the source for all things cheese making related. Tons of recipes are included from easy ricotta to more difficult cheddar.

5. The Ultimate Brownie Book: Thousands of Ways to Make America’s Favorite Treat, including Blondies, Frostings, and Doctored Brownie Mixes

Are you a brownie lover? Then this is the book for you. This book will keep you busy turning our different variations on this chocolate treat. It’s good for both those who love cakey brownies and those who love fudgy brownies.

6. The Ultimate Ice Cream Book: Over 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas,

This book contains a ton of ice cream, sorbet, and granita recipes. It’s not my favorite for explanation, but it’s great just for the wide range of recipes.

7. Making Artisan Gelato: 45 Recipes and Techniques for Crafting Flavor-Infused Gelato and Sorbet at Home

Want to make your own gelato? Then this is the book you need. The author provides tips and tricks to help turn whatever fruit, nut, or other flavoring into a sweet, cold delight.

8. Bob’s Red Mill Baking Book

Bob’s Red Mill is known for making some of the highest quality whole grain products on the market. I regularly use their corn meal. This book contains recipes to make some of the best and healthy baked goods and breads you have ever turned out.

What is a tip sizzler steak? After much research online, I am still asking myself this question. I could not find anything with the exact name tip sizzler steak, except for the Meijer store web site, which is where I purchased this cut. So maybe they are the only ones using this name. With my research I believe I know about where this cut of beef comes from. By looking at pictures of other cuts, I believe that this steak is from the round area of the cow. It is from the area of the round that is close by to the tenderloin section of the animal. This mean that even thought it is a round steak, it may be one of the most tender round steaks. As you move towards the back of the cow, the meat gets tougher. Since it’s more tender, I can get away with using a dry cooking method (pan-searing), as long as I start off with a marinade.
Now when it comes down to fat. There isn’t a whole lot of marbling with this cut, but there was an area of fat that I found after pan-searing was hard to deal with, so I ended up with a little piece that I didn’t eat.

Click here for my recipe for pan-seared tip sizzler steak.