Coffee time with Auntie E- HolidayTime with Gadget

So here we are heading into the Holiday seasons. Fall and winter are those seasons for special food and family. the food we think of as seasonal dishes and that comfort food we all so love this time of year.

Yesterday I made a Sweet chili. It was just that kind of weather and this weekend will be fall weather. I did get a new gadget for my Birthday. An All-Clad slow cooker.

While attending a Technique class,
they used this slow cooker to make a Stew.

What I liked about it was...
The ability to use the aluminum insert
to brown the meat on the stove.
What a time and wash saver.
Not to mention the flavors are kept in the pan.

Once the browning is done...
Just place it in the base...
add the rest of the ingredients...
set it to your setting of choice and leave it alone.

Dinner , Lunch or Breakfast ready for you in hours.
and you will not have to wash or slave over the stove!
The clean up was very fast.
Photos courtesy of Williams Sonoma

If you have never attended a class at Williams Sonoma, you should. They are free and you get to sample the food. I learn how to use new gadgets and occasionally I will buy a new one. I am considering getting a new one on Monday. I will be attending a holiday cooking class that day. Just go to Williams Sonoma and find a store near you. Call them and sign up. I think you will enjoy the experience. I just started going and now I am hooked! My whole family loves to go with me.
I will post the Sweet chili recipe soon, so check back. Or follow so you will know when it gets posted.

One more thing to mention. I am starting a Holiday Flare recipe Link. It is on Thursday's for the next eight weeks. This next Thursday it will be Holiday Desserts. Last week was Side Dishes, you can still link yours up (the link is in the side dish words).

How this works is each Thursday we will have a theme dish link, you can go back and link up on any theme dish post. There will be a Link to all the Holiday Flare recipe post on the top , just above the recent post, starting next Thursday. The link will take you to the correct place to link up your recipe, just in case you are not linking the one for the current week theme. This is great cause you can come back and post more later. There is no limit to how many you can link. The only thing is the recipe itself needs to be linked. All links will take the visitor to your site and the recipe mentioned. More traffic for you,as well as a long stay on your site!

I will have a voting on the best one at the end of the the holiday flare, around January the 4th. The winner will receive a great gift. More on that this next week. So spread the word, meet me here on Thursdays and link up your Holiday recipes.

The Rules For the Contest:

On the side bar is the Holiday flare icon you must place this on your blog for Thursday's Holiday Flare. Just copy the HTML in the box and paste it on your blog.(not on the bottom of your page). This is really the only rule for participating and being eligible for the prize at the end of the Holiday Flare contest.

That's it, Hope you will join in and share those Holiday recipes.

Disclaimer:I have not be paid or compensated for this review by anyone. This is solely my view on the place and item.

Thursday's the Potluck Club.-Side Dishes.

It is that time for Holiday Flare. We have four weeks until Thanksgiving, five weeks til Hanukkah, eight weeks before Christmas and nine weeks to New Years. Now where has the time gone? Before you know it we will be in full swing of the holiday seasons.
This year each week will be a theme week. Thursday's the PotLuck Club will be Thursday's Holiday Flare for the next nine weeks. I will start the week with a Thanksgiving side dish. Have one? Link it up below. For this one I will use a thumbnail link. You can post a photo with the recipe's name. For the whole holiday Season I will put a Recipe Holiday Flare link in the side bar. That way every one will be able to get to all the recipe Links in one click (I will start that next week). You can view it as a holiday resource page leading you to all the holiday flare recipes from around the world. I am so looking forward to trying some new dishes this holiday season.
So let's start sharing those recipes and have a marvelous a Holiday Feast!

Weekend Kitchen Gadget-Scrubbing Potatoes?

Oh the days of scrubbing potatoes....Remember those Brushes, we would run the water and brush them...Water spraying on us and scrubbing most of the skin off. Not to mention trying to clean the brush afterward. I do not know about you but my Brush bristles just fell off after a while. It was hard to get every speck of dirt off with those brushes!
Time for a New era of Potatoes scrubbers.

While at a cooking class they showed Potato gloves. I purchased a pair and came home to scrub my Potatoes. It was so easy and fast. The clean up was just to let the gloves dry. I hang them on a hook.
I can see my self using this for a kinds of root vegetables.

The Potato Gloves

They dry rather fast,
Can be washed in the dishwasher, if need be.

So here is it at work...
Put the gloves on...
under running water Rub the potato in your hands.

Now for the results...
the dirty PotatoNow the Clean oneYou know the good nutrients are in the skin.
By cleaning them this way you know it will be healthier skin.

I even learned they have ones for mushrooms. Oh I have to get that one! You know Running mushroom under water can make them tough. Having a mitt to scrub them would save on the towel stains.

I really like this gadget. Would make a great gift for that Chef in the family. The holidays are coming up. This item is under 10.00 at many stores. I purchased mine at Williams Sonoma

Your links:
You can view all the Mitts at the Skrub'a website
Williams SonomaWebsite

The Weekend Gadget Icon is of the Kitchen Chef that watches over my kitchen. He is on the wall and I have had him since the 1980's. He is a Genuine Bossons "Legend" figure head. Has been guarding my kitchen ever since. Bossons is no longer in production. Closed down in 1996. All the molds were laid to rest and will not be sold to any dealer, according to the heirs. I have several Bossons in my home. When I purchased this one I was told he would watch over the kitchen and keep it safe.

Coffee time with Auntie E-Time for New Things

Our Coffee maker has decided to not work for us anymore.
For years we have had Brew stations and love them, however the new designs are not user friendly when it comes to dispensing. Every time we try to dispense coffee it goes half in and half out of the cup. Making a mess on the counter! After being frustrated with it, we decided to get a new one and donate to old one to science.

Going back to the carafe style, we purchased a Cuisinart "Coffee plus". It has a water warmer, which my daughter will love. She like to have her instant hot cocoa. I might add I will also like the H2O warmer, as I like to have Green tea in the afternoons and evenings. It was a tough chioce with so many out there to choose from. I will let you all know how it goes with this one in a week. We are not being paid in any form from the company. This will be only my opinion on the product.

You know how I love my morning cup of Joe. So I will be interested to see how this one preforms.

So How's your Coffee time going? I am still having my Black Silk with an little amaretto cream.

Our new Coffee maker.
Cuisinart-Coffee Plus
Hot H2O system.

F.F.F.-Welcome to my Kitchen

Thanks for landing here. I hope you will look around and give me your opinion on this blog. I enjoy developing recipes and sharing some older ones made to be healthier. Here are some things going on in my kitchen.

I am trying to start a Thursday's the PotLuck Club meme, where folks will link the recipes they enjoy. This will be a great resource for those weekend meals or family and church dinners. The link will take the folks to your site to view more recipes. Isn't that what we all want, more interested traffic.

There is also a Coffee time post, in which I just talk , Like we are here in my kitchen have a cup of Joe. I love to do Around the Table. This is questions we ask each other and answer. I always loved those days of table talk. Weekend Gadget is coming back to my blog. This fall and winter I will begin to review and show kitchen gadgets. things that make life in the kitchen easier, but seems hard to the outside folks. Our little secrets. there are a few more things I like to post in this Kitchen.

Now as to my Blog look. The header is my actual trim in my kitchen. the table is our granite table,the hutch( on my link widget) is in my kitchen and the things on the hutch are stuff given to me by family.

So why not come into my kitchen a sit-a-spell and let's talk!

Friend finding Friday is sponsored by Supermom you can go over there are link up to find more friends and Grab the button and join in.

Almond Orange Chicken

This dish is one I designed from a Chinese restaurant we eat at recently. I really loved the flavors together. Trying to make it a healthier version, I created this one. Hope you enjoy.

Almond Orange Chicken

4 large boneless chicken breast. cut into 1/2 pieces.
2 Tablespoon Olive oil
1/8 teaspoon Cinnamon

4 teaspoon Cornstarch
1 Tablespoon Dark Brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground Ginger
1/8 Teaspoon Ground Korintje Cinnamon
1 cup Blood Orange Juice- without pulp.
1 Tablespoon Lemon juice
1(110z) can Mandarin oranges, drained.
1/8 cup unsalted and skinless Peanuts
1/8 cup slivered Almonds

Step 1. Place cut up chicken breast in a large ziplock bag. Mix the oil and 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon together. Pour into chicken bag and mix well. Set aside in refrigerator to marinate. (This step can be done in the morning before your day begins.)

Step 2. When ready to cook;
in a Large skillet, over medium heat, add chicken and cook, do not brown so adjust the heat as needed. Cook until no longer pink . turning the chicken over once. This well take about 10 minutes on Medium heat (5 minutes on each side). Remove chicken from pan and set aside in warm place( cover with Foil to keep warm.)

Step 3. This is the sauce.
Mix the cornstarch with the Blood Orange juice, stir well.
In that same skillet on medium high heat, combine Brown sugar, Cinnamon, Ginger, Lemon juice and Prepared Orange juice. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute.

Add the Prepared cooked chicken, drained mandarin oranges, and nuts, mix lightly and turn heat down to low continue to warm until heated through.

We serve this with converted rice. Try using Chopsticks, it makes it a family fun time. The best thing about using chopsticks is you eat less and feel fuller by eating slower.
Now join in this Thursday's the PotLuck Club. Just link up your favorite dish below.

Nutritional Info for "Almond Orange Chicken"

* Servings Per Recipe: 8
* Amount Per Serving (1/2)cup
* Calories: 197.0

* Total Fat: 8.5 g
* Cholesterol: 44.9 mg
* Sodium: 33.7 mg
* Total Carbs: 12.9 g
* Dietary Fiber: 0.9 g
* Protein: 18.1 g
Copyright 2010,"Auntie E CookBook/M Dubros"

Roasting Root Vegetables

Roasting Root Vegetables can be a great way to get your family to try Fall vegetables. I attended a class on cooking root vegetables last Sunday. I like to roast vegetables from time to time. One thing I learned is that they taste their best after the first cold night temps. That is because the cold forces the sugar out of the vegetable. Therefore they are harvested in the fall months.

The Instructor roasted beets. I never had them that way. Not really a beet eater either. My Mother liked to Pickles them, but I just didn't care for them. So, while at the class I tried the Roasted Beets and to my surprise I like them.

So I thought I would post the technique of roasting Beets.

First off, Beet stain everything! so use disposable gloves when peels them. peel them over a trash can or use a metal bowl. Do not use a cutting board to chop them. Unless you have, like me, a Red cutting board.
After peeling the outer skin. Place a piece for aluminum foil on a cookie sheet . Cut the beets into small chunks on top the the foil.(use the foil as your cutting board).
Now cut 2 more pieces of foil and place the cut beets in the foil on top off the 2 layers. what you are doing is making a roasting pan out of the foil. As I stated before you want to keep from touching the beets due to the dye. Add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and salt and pepper to the beets and toss them with your still gloved hands.
remove your gloves and dispose them.

Now preheat oven to 425F. Place the foil pouch on the middle rack and roast for about 45 minutes.

A Perfect Apple Cider Pound Cake

A perfect day for a perfect Pound cake. Now let's look at this day, today is the tenth day of that tenth month on a year that has an ending of ten. 101010 now how perfect is that! Oh I know there is a 20 in there just not in my numbers. Some time ago, I guess in the nineties, we decided to write our numbers of years with only the last two digits. That made this day a perfect day and might I add it is Sunday a most perfect day for perfection.

Now being October and fall time I got to thinking apples. Apples are now being harvested and at their peak. A pound Cake sounded great and to top it with a Carmel apple sauce makes for fabulous finish to a meal.

Perfect Ten Apple Cider Pound Cake

1 cup unsalted butter softened
1/2 cup Crisco shortening.
3 cups organic fine sugar
6 large eggs.
2 cup Organic all purpose flour
1 cup White whole Wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 Vanilla bean split opened and scraped. Used only the inside of the bean.
1 cup apple cider

Combine butter and shortening, cream together.
Gradually add sugar continue to cream.
Add one egg at a time creaming after each addiction.

Combine and sift together dry ingredients.
Add the prepared vanilla bean to the dry ingredients
Start adding to the cream mixture starting with the dry and alternating with the apple cider. You will end with the dry ingredients. (I start with about 3/4 cup of dry ingredients then add 1/3 cup of cider, and continue until all is incorporated you will end with the dry this way.)

Pour the batter into a well greased 10" tube pan.
Bake at 325F for 1 hour and 50 minutes or until a cake tester or knife inserted in the cake comes out clean.
Remove from oven invert pan into rack and let stand for 15 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on Rack.


Nutrition Facts for pound cake only=1/2 inch slice per serving

40 Servings

Amount Per Serving
Calories 167.4
Total Fat 7.9 g
Saturated Fat 4.1 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.6 g
Monounsaturated Fat 2.8 g
Cholesterol 45.7 mg
Sodium 10.4 mg
Potassium 28.2 mg
Total Carbohydrate 22.6 g
Dietary Fiber 0.3 g
Sugars 15.7 g
Protein 1.9 g


Apple Carmel sauce.

4 apples slices- cut thin long wise
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
About 1 tablespoon Apple Cider
1/2 cup Dark Brown sugar.

Put butter and apples in skillet. Cook down til apples are softened. Add brown sugar and a little cider. Continue cooking til sauce has thickened.

based on a 20 person serving about 2 tablespoon per person.

Nutrition Facts

Apple Carmel sauce

20 Servings

Amount Per Serving
Calories 53.2
Total Fat 1.3 g
Saturated Fat 0.7 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1 g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.3 g
Cholesterol 3.1 mg
Sodium 0.2 mg
Potassium 49.1 mg
Total Carbohydrate 11.3 g
Dietary Fiber 1.1 g
Sugars 4.8 g
Protein 0.1 g

Thursday's the Potluck Club.-Apfelstrudel

Continuing with the German food Month, I thought is is time for a Sweet. A Bavarian Treat called Apflestrudel. While living in the southern region of German I was given this Recipe.
We visited Bavaria Several times during our time in Germany. The region is so beautiful, nestled in the blackforest area, one can see the Swiss Alps as well as

Lake Königssee.

We loved to sit in the small town of St. Bartholomä.

One can only get to it by boat.

the town is located at the foot of the Swiss mountains.
I loved to eat their smoked fish and this apple strudel.

For this recipe the measurements and directions are very important:

APFLESTRUDEL

For the Pastry:
3 level cups Sifted Flour
2 level Tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
3 Tablespoons ice water
1/8 pound butter

For Filling:
3 lbs juicy apples
1 cup sugar
1 cup raisins
1/2 level teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon Rum

For Decoration:
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup Silvered Almonds.

• Sift the flour once, then lift carefully in to a Measuring cup with a spoon. Heap Slightly, do not pack down or tap cup, and level cup off with a knife.
• Add the sugar and salt and mix together.
• Add the eggs and mix together with wooden spoon.
  
• Add ice water one tablespoon at a time and knead together. Kneading dough about 5 to 10 minutes.
  
• The dough well be very stuff. Form into a ball and set aside, cover with towel for 30 minutes.
• Peel and core the apples. cut into very thin Lengthwise slices, about 1/16 inch thick

Step 1.
Take half the dough and roll out on a lightly floured pastry board, as thin as possible into a rectangle .
Make a fist of both hands,Pick up sheet of dough and drape dough over your hands. Pull your hands to the outside (this stretches the dough). Be careful not to tear. Continue this until the sheet is very thin, always work from the middle towards the edges. it should measure 18" by 14" (it sounds harder than it is).
Lay the sheet of dough on a well floured pastry cloth.
Melt butter and paint the sheet of dough with 1/2 the butter.

Step 2.
Take half the apple slices, mix with 1/2 cup Sugar, 1/2 cup raisins, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon rum.( note this is half the ingredients above, you will be using the other half in the second Strudel*).
Spread immediately on the dough. Roll together lightly to form a long roll. Tuck in the ends and press together to seal.

*Repeat the two steps above for the second Strudel.

Butter a oven tray that is a least 18" long by 12' wide with raised sides.
Preheat oven 475F.
Beat egg yolk and paint the strudels with it. sprinkle each one with, 1 teaspoon sugar and 1/4 cup slivered almonds.

these cooking instructions are very important!
45 minute total cooking time and keep the oven door closed during the cooking process time.
Bake 10 minutes at 475F, then turn down the oven to 400F, and bake 20 minutes, turn oven down to 300F and bake 15 minutes

Remove from oven. Remove strudels from pan and set on a large serving tray. Pour the juices from the baking pan over the strudel and set aside to cool.
You can serve them Hot or Cold.

Now these calories are worth the taste. Therefore I will not list them. Just enjoy this treat from Bavaria.

Now link up your Thursday recipes here.