baking day

Sunday I was in a baking mood. I had two things I wanted to use up. One was a jar of Concord Grape pie filling that I had purchased at the Farmers Market and opened up a few weeks ago only to use a tablespoon on my pancakes. The other was the remaining canned pumpkin from the souffle I made.

I got out my old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, the one with the red and white plaid cover. The pages are old and yellowed now just like my mom's cookbook that I used to use when I was young. I had mastered the pie crust recipe in this cookbook years ago. Although I haven't baked a pie in years the crust to this grape tart I made turned out light and flaky.



And there was a little dough leftover to make pie crust sprinkled with cinnamon sugar just like my mom used to make for me with the leftover dough. B had this for dessert. I brought the pie to work today. I had a tiny piece and it was delicious but so far the Sour Cream Pumpkin Coffee Cake that I also made yesterday with the leftover pumpkin was the bigger hit.



I had a little piece of both.

pineapple-teriyaki chicken

pineapple-teriyaki chicken in the pan


pineapple-teriyaki chicken on my plate with brown rice and carrots/snow peas

Ingredients
1/3 cup dry sherry
1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 can pineapple rings, plus 1/3 cup juice from the can (I used fresh)
4 large boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon butter

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Directions
1.Whisk sherry, soy sauce, brown sugar, and the 1/3 cup pineapple juice in a large bowl. Add pineapple rings and chicken and gently stir to coat. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. I refrigerated for several hours.
2.Remove the chicken and pineapple from the marinade and pat dry; reserve the marinade. Here the directions call for you to grill the chicken but I put it in a glass pan and broiled it in the oven until it was cooked through.
3.Whisk the reserved marinade and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook, whisking, until reduced and thickened, 2 to 4 minutes. Stir in butter. Serve the chicken and pineapple drizzled with the sauce.

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note to self

I downloaded a new app to my phone called Note to Self. You can record messages to
yourself and email them. So I'm trying it out and I recorded a lengthy message to myself reminding myself not to forget to love yourself. When I looked to see the message it recorded, all it recorded was the word "doc". So I tried again with a briefer message. I recorded simply" Don't forget to love yourself". When I looked to see what it had picked up I saw these words..."Don't forget to wipe yourself". I suppose that is an equally important message.

pumpkin souffle

ready for the oven

Although today was not too fall-like, fall is coming. I love the foods and flavors associated with fall. I bought some canned pumpkin yesterday and while I was walking I was thinking of what to make with it. I'm going to try cousin Carla's pumpkin cookies. But I also thought a souffle might be good. I Googled pumpkin souffles and found an easy recipe that I made for dinner tonight.


fresh out of the oven

Pumpkin Souffle

4 eggs
3/4 c pumpkin
3 T maple syrup
a dash of salt
a dash of nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 375.
Mix the egg yolks, pumpkin, syrup salt and pepper. Beat the egg whites til soft peaks form. Mix a dollop of the whites vigorously into the pumpkin mixture and then gently fold the rest of the whites into pumpkin mixture. Place 4 6-oz ramekins on a rimmed cookie sheet and fill the ramekins with the mixture. Place in oven and immediately turn it down to 350. Bake 25-30 minutes.


my yet to be tossed salad

I served with one of my favorite salads....greens, chopped apple, chopped celery, chopped onions, cheese cubes(I used Colby-jack this time, chopped pecans and poppy seed dressing.



asparagus with Bearnaise sauce and cod

My cod was just a tiny bit disappointing. I had haddock at Cracker Barrel that was outstanding. It had been dredged in cornmeal and flour and grilled. This cod I dipped in a mixture of beer, egg and milk and dredged in cornmeal and flour. I thought I'd save calories by baking but I should have just lightly fried it to a golden crispy crust. It wasn't bad though and the souffle and asparagus made up for it.

dahlias

My dahlias are doing fine. They are the only flower that the deer don't seem to enjoy eating.

swamp walk

It was a beautiful sunny low humidity mid-seventies day. I'm afraid we won't have too many more of these. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy. So I walked through Great Baehre Swamp to Margaret Louise Park today....about an 8 or 9 mile trip.



a really swampy part of the swamp



Some highlights along the way were goldenrod



a Catalpa tree heavy with beans



a brand new shiny white Peterbuilt truck hauling three more brand new shiny white Peterbuilt trucks



an industrious spider's web



a kid's zucchini stand



and the two zucchini that I bought for a dollar

I'll buy that for a dollar!

s-a day 10

The secret of self acceptance is.... not expecting too much of others, for only thereby do we learn not to expect too much of ourselves. I don't think I do expect too much of others. But what is wrong with expecting too much of ourselves? Doesn't that help us strive to be a better person? I have relaxed some in this area but I don't want to relax entirely. I don't want self-acceptance to give me license to not try.