Cooking with KP

Kay's Sweet Potato Cake with Pecan Topping

I love sweet potatoes. I love pecans. I love upside down cake. So, I decided to combine these three things into one simple but mega delicious cake.

Cake:
1 cup sweet potatoes (I used leftover roasted sweet potatoes), mashed
2 cups self-rising flour
2 large eggs
2/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1 Tablespoon orange peel
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger

Topping
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, blend together mashed sweet potatoes, eggs, milk, both sugar. Slow add flour 1/2 cup at a time. Add a bit more milk if batter is too thick. Add orange peel, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Mix until well-blended. Fold in chopped pecans.

Mix all topping ingredients in a small bowl. Pour into the bottom of a bundt cake pan (or 9x13 bake pan). Spread so that the entire bottom is covered with mixture.

Pour cake batter over topping mixture and bake for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle of cake comes out clean. It will take longer in the bundt pan than the 9x13 pan to fully cook cake.

Once done, remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes. Place heatproof serving plate upside down over pan; turn plate and pan over. Leave pan over cake a few minutes so brown sugar mixture can drizzle over cake; remove pan. Serve warm.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Walnuts and Onions

Years ago, the cajun chef Justin Wilson made a recipe very similar to this. I made it a couple of times and then forgot about it until the other day. I can't find his recipe online, but this is what I recall and do to make mine now. Even Brussels sprout haters will eat these.

2 pounds of Brussels sprouts, rinsed, loose leaves removed and the end cut off and then sliced in half
5 slices of bacon cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup of walnut pieces (not finely chopped)
1 medium onion. thinly chopped
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
3 Tablespoons honey
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a cast iron skillet, fry bacon pieces for about 3 minutes. Bacon will not be completely done. Add onions and cook for 3 more minutes, stirring frequently. Place sprouts in a large mixing bowl and add garlic powder, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, honey, olive oil, and mustard and toss well. Add walnuts to skillet with bacon and onions, mix well. Add Brussels spourts and saute for about 5 minutes over minute heat. Place in oven for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes, so that sprouts roast well.

Green Bean and Artichoke Casserole

Most people have a traditional green bean casserole, but if you are looking for an alternative to the mushroom soup, French onion and green beans casserole, here is a wonderful recipe. I found the original version on allrecipes.com, and made a couple of changes. It is wonderful. My husband loves it.

3 cans of French cut green beans or if you can find Double Luck brand
small diced green beans, they are better. Drain green beans.
2 14 ounce cans of artichoke hearts, drained and then quartered
1 6 ounce jar of marinated artichoke hearts, undrained

1 can of cream of mushroom or cream of celery soup
2 cups Italian bread crumbs
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups of Provolone and Mozzarella blend shredded cheese (divided into 1.5 cups and .5 cup)
1 cup of fresh grated Parmesan cheese (not the kind in the green can), divided into 3/4 cup and 1/4 cup)
juice of half a lemon\

1/3 cup of Italian bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9x13 casserole dish. In a large bowl, add green beans, bread crumbs, canned artichoke hearts, garlic powder, pepper, 1.5 cups of Provolone/Mozzarella blend, 3/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, soup, lemon juice, and the marinated artichoke hearts with most of the liquid. Mix with hands. Mixture will be slightly dry, but if too dry,add the rest of the marinated oil from artichokes. Put in casserole dish. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and top with remaining cheeses and then 1/3 cup of Italian bread cups and bake 15 more minutes.

Sweet Potato Pie

My sister Mary Ellen made some of the best desserts in the world. Her coconut cakes always put smiles on my father's face; he often asked that he have one for his birthday. Her carrot cake was moist and decadent. Her baked Alaskas were little clouds of pure delicious heaven. But, it wasn't Thanksgiving without her sweet potato pie. This is her recipe and I am proud to share it with you.

1 nine-inch deep dish unbaked pie crust
1 1/2 cups of cooked sweet potatoes . Don't use canned. Use 2 medium to large sweet potatoes that have been either boiled and peeled or baked until very soft and scooped out, so you will need to prepare the potatoes first and let them cool.
1 cup of sugar
3/4 cup of butter, melted
1 cup of evaporated milk, slightly warmed Do not use regular milk.
2 large eggs, separated
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Put pie shell on top of baking pan. In a large mixing bowl, put in sweet potatoes and mash until smooth. Add sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, and milk. Whisk until well blended. In a glass mixing bowl using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until stiff. Fold stiff egg whites into potato mixture until well incorporated. Pour into pie shell.
Bake 50-60 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean and pie filling is firm.

Crock Pot Pork Chops in Gingersnap Gravy

Sauerbraten beef in gingersnap gravy has always been a favorite of mine. Today, I had some slightly frozen pork chops to put in the crock pot and on my counter top was a bag of gingersnaps. The chef light bulb went off and this recipe was born.

4 large bone-in pork chops (1/2 inch thick)
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1 Tablespoons parsley flakes
1 large bay leaf
5 pickled pepperonchini peppers
2 Tablespoons pickle juice from peppers (you could use vinegar)
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Seasoned salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 package Au Jus mix (I use McCormick)
1 cup water
1/2 cup finely crushed gingersnaps

Spray the crock pot with cooking spray or use a liner. Place onions, bell pepper, parsley flakes and bay leaf in the bottom of the crock pot. Season both sides of pork chops with seasoned salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Lay pork chops on top of seasonings. Sprinkle pickle juice and Worcestershire sauce on top of chops. Place the pepperonchinis on top of chops. In a mixing bowl, mix mushroom soup, Au Jus mix and water. Pour on top of chops and cook on low for 5-6 hours. One hour before serving, remove chops from crock pot and add gingersnaps. Stir well and return chops to crock pot. Continue to cook on low. This will make a wonderful gravy to serve on rice, mashed potatoes or noodles.
I plan on using this same recipe with stew meat or chuck steaks.

Cranberry Applesauce Muffins with Orange Butter

If you are looking for a great breakfast muffin for Thanksgiving breakfast or anytime, you need to try these.

2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
2 Tablespoon sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 12 muffin cups in muffin tin. In a large bowl, mix with a spoon the applesauce, 1/2 cup sugar, oil, egg, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well blended. Slowly add flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well until blended. Add nuts and cranberries and mix well. Spoon into muffin cups. Sprinkle tops of muffins with the 2 tablespoons of sugar. Bake for 18-20 minutes until light golden brown. Serve warm from the oven with orange butter. Recipe below.

Orange Butter

6 Tablespoons softened butter (not margarine)
2 Tablespoons confectioner's sugar
1 Tablespoon of fresh orange juice
2 tsp. of fresh orange zest
dash of cinnamon

Combine ingredients in bowl and mix with mixer for 2-3 minutes until whipped and lightly fluffy.

Big Momma's Mexican Stuffed Jack O 'Lanterns

There are many recipes online for stuffed bell peppers and there are several stuffed Jack O'Lantern recipes as well. I decided to make my own. Here it is. It is a perfect treat for Halloween!

4 orange bell peppers (get the ones with 4 bumps on the bottom; they sit better in the pan for stuffing)
1 1/2 pounds of ground beef or ground turkey
1 jar salsa
1 cup cooked rice (I used instant rice)
1 dry seasoning packet for fatijas (I used McCromick)
1 small onion diced
1/2 green bell pepper diced
1 cup shredded taco blend cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rinse bell peppers in cold water. Remove the tops (but keep them), scrape out seeds and membranes. Rinse again and turn upside on a paper towel to drain. Cut eyes and mouth to make a Jack O'Lantern. Dice the pieces from the eyes and mouth and mix with the green diced bell pepper. In a large skillet, brown meat with diced onions and bell pepper until the meat has no remaining pink. Drain off any fat/grease. Add salsa, rice and seasoning packet. Mix well. Add cheese and stir. Place bell pepper bottoms in casserole dish and fill with meat mixture. Place tops of pepper on top of meat mixture. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. The bell peppers will still have a bit of crisp to them; if you like them softer, I would bake them 10 more minutes.

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Cheaper Cuts of Beef Don't Have To Be Tough

Most people avoid the cheaper cuts of beef because they tend to be tough. With 8 children and three adults in our home, my mother had to find ways to tenderize the cheaper cuts of beef. One way to cook "down", as my mother used to say, a tough cut of beef steak is to season both sides of the steak with garlic powder, seasoned salt and pepper. Lightly brown the steak in a large skillet and on top add a diced green bell pepper, medium onion, a bay leaf, parsley flakes, a few dashes of Worchestershire sauce, and a can of diced tomatoes. Cover with lid. Let the steak simmer for 30-50 minutes. Remove lid and thicken juices by cooking 5-10 more minutes. You can also do the same with a cheap beef roast in a crock pot. Add all the ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. The flavor is simple, amazing and great with mashed potatoes.

Fall Vegetables for a Healthy You

As the fall approaches, we will all start to stay indoors more hours. This will lessen our vitamins, such as vitamin A, D, and K, which are enhanced by sunlight. Below are a few vegetables you might want to increase in your diet as the fall and later winter days approach. Besides, they are very tasty. In fact, in the next few weeks, I will be posting recipes that incorporate many of these delicious veggies.

Sweet potatoes and yams are very rich in carotenoids, vitamins A, B6, C, potassium, iron and fiber and are delicious when baked and eaten plain (without butter) or used in soups, casseroles or stir-fries.

Bell peppers are great sources of potassium, manganese, fiber and vitamins A, B, C and K. These sweet peppers are flavorful additions to salads and healthy stir-fries. You can choose from a rainbow of colors, including: green peppers,yellow peppers, orange peppers,and red peppers.

Summer and winter squash are rich in carotenoids, vitamins A and C, potassium, magnesium and fiber and can be served alone or added to many dishes.

Just a few tips for you...

Spray your Tupperware with nonstick cooking spray before pouring in tomato- based sauces. No more stains!

Use lifesavers candy to hold candles in place on your next birthday cake! Kids love them.

Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugarcone to prevent ice cream drips!

Zap garlic cloves in the microwave for 15 seconds and the skins slip right off!

If your celery begins to wilt in the fridge, fill a large cup half full of water and place celery in the cup. Put back in the fridge for two hours--it will be crisp. (Learned this from my mother).

Cooking Myth Busted

A Potato Can Save a Salty Soup or Stew. True or False? False. "This is an attractive idea, but it doesn't work because potatoes are not particularly absorbent," says Wolke, who conducted his own soup-and-potato experiment for his Cooking Myth Busters book. "There is no reason they would attract salt." If you remove the raw potato from the soup, the potato will taste salty, but so would a sponge — it has simply soaked up some of the salty liquid. Still, there is hope for salty stews: Adding a bit of vinegar or sugar can "cancel out" the saltiness by giving your taste buds competing flavors.

Super Moist Turkey

If you are looking for a way to get a moist turkey, you might try one of these family hints:

1--bake the turkey upside down--breast down for the first half of the cooking time. It will help the darker meat cook more thoroughly and the fatty juices of the darker meat will drip down to the breast and add moistness. Use a deep roasting pan for this.

2--bake the turkey with the breast up, but rub it with butter, garlic powder and pepper only. Do not salt the skin. Instead, mix salt in a cup of warm water and pour that cup of salted warm-not hot-water inside the cavity of the turkey. The salt water will steam up into the turkey, making it very moist.

3. bake the turkey with the breast up and slice two lemons and one orange in halves. Place the halves inside the seasoned turkey and the juices will steam into the meat, adding moisture and flavor.

Hint of the Week

Here is something I learned from my wonderful Mother, the greatest cook I have ever known. When you have just a small serving of cooked vegetables leftover from dinner, don't throw them away. Keep a large plastic container in the freezer and put the vegetables in the container. Mix them--carrots, corn, green beans, broccoli, etc. When the container is full make a pot of soup or stew. Also, if a recipe calls for 1/2 a chopped onion, chop the whole onion and add the half to the freezer container. My mother made the best vegetable soups from this idea.

Hint for the Week

With Fourth of July quickly approaching, you might be thinking of making Deviled Eggs. If you want perfectly boiled eggs, place eggs in a large pot and completely cover with cold water. Do not layer eggs on top of one another. Bring water to a rapid boil for 2 minutes, reduce to simmer and let eggs simmer 8 minutes, return to boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and empty hot water and fill pot with cold water. Let sit for 5 minutes. To peel easily, slightly crush shell in your fist and roll on counter with a firm grip. Of course, you don't want to push through the egg, but by making the shell crack in many small pieces, it is easier to peel. My father saw this on a cooking show years ago and taught me this. It truly works.