Homemade Grape Juice

This weekend mom and I were each given a giant bucket of concord grapes from our friends, Eddie & Janet Baker. We knew exactly what we wanted to use the grapes for...Grammy's homemade grape juice. I am currently visiting my parents, so we decided to make the juice together. As an added bonus, Grammy came over to teach us how to made the juice.

One of the buckets of grapes

Grammy washing the grapes

The washed grapes

 Once the grapes were washed we added water to the pot. Just enough so that we could see the water.

 Then we cooked them all until they were mushy.

 Then we put the grape mush through a strainer and smashed the juice through with  a masher.We put the juice through a strainer once more, just in case.

Next we measured the amount of juice we had and added 1 cup of sugar for every 4 cups of juice.

 Then we brought the juice to a boil and then simmered it for 20 minutes.

Finally, we put the juice in sterilized jars .

Bottling the juice

Mom & Grammy making sure the lids are on tight!

Mmmm, smells like communion!

Apple Rhubarb Muffins

Last week I discovered that I have TWO rhubarb patches in my backyard. I strongly dislike any sort of waste, so I immediately started looking into recipes with rhubarb in them.

I came across this one for

Apple Rhubarb Muffins

Wet:
1 egg
½ cup milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups apples, coarsely grated

Dry:
½ cup sugar
2 cups flour (I use a combination of 1 ½ cups spelt and ½ cup unbleached white)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
1 ½ cups rhubarb, diced

The completed batter

 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line/grease 10-12 muffin cups.

Combine all wet ingredients. Combine sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in rhubarb. Pour wet ingredients into dry and blend until flour mixture is just moistened.

Fill muffin cups. Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown and tester comes out clean. 

 

I enjoyed these muffins. They weren't the best ever, but still a good use for the rhubarb. I also made an apple-rhubarb crisp, which was AMAZING, and prepared a bunch of rhubarb and stored it in the freezer for future use.

 

 

If you try this or any other recipes on my blog, send me your rating and review!

 

Bec's Rating: 3.25

Mom's French Bread

This is one of the recipes that I am frequently asked for. This is my mom's homemade French Bread.

French Bread:

You will need 3 bowls.

In bowl one: 1 tbsp yeast, 1/2 cup warm water, and 1 tsp sugar.



In bowl two: 3-4 cups and 1 1/2 tsp salt. I usually start with 3 cups of flour and add some more later.



In bowl three: 1 cup of water and 1 tbsp of oil.


Mix bowls two and three together:


Add the last bowl:



Kneed the dough. I do it right in the bowl. Why dirty the counter? If you find the dough a little too sticky, this is where you can add up to another cup of flour. I usually don't use a full cup.



Cover with a tea towel and let it rise for a few hours in the bowl.



Divide the dough into two equal parts. Kneed each section again. Shape into long logs. I usually hold it up, allowing gravity to help, and squeeze the dough downward. Place on greased cookie sheet. It should end up looking like this:


Cover with tea towel again and let it raise again for a couple hours.


Take a sharp knife and make some slits across the top of the bread.



Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.


Let it cool for a few minutes so that it will cut easier.

Rebecca's Rating: 4.75/5

Parmesan Corn Chowder

I love this recipe! I found it in the Times & Transcripts newspaper about six years ago. It is perfect for a cold, snowy, or rainy day. My all-time favourite chowder.

2 cups Chopped Potato
1/2 cup Chopped Carrot
1/2 cup Chopped Celery
1/4 cup Chopped Onion
2 cups Water
2 cups Milk
1/4 cup Flour
1 Can Corn
1 Can Cream-Style Corn
1 Cup of Real Parmesan Cheese
1/4 Cup Margarine
Dash of Salt & Pepper

Cook carrot, potatoes, celery, and onion in water for about 20 minutes (or until cooked) on Medium High.


Whisk together flour and milk.


Add to pot. Stir continuously until it reaches desired thickness. The longer you stir, the thicker it becomes. Reduce heat.


Add both cans of corn (including the water in the can) to the pot.


Add cheese, margarine, salt & pepper to the pot. Make sure cheese and margarine have melted completely before serving. (Note: I use about 1/2 of the cheese shown the the image below)


Serves:4-6


Rebecca's Rating: 5/5

This is another one of my favourite recipes from KraftCanada.com. It's pretty easy but looks impressive.

Creamy Broccoli-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

1 Pkg. (120 g) Stove Top Stuffing Mix for Chicken

1 cup water

4 small boneless skinless chicken breasts (1 lb./500 g)

3 cups frozen chopped broccoli, thawed, drained

1 can (10 fl oz/284 mL) 50% less fat condensed cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup skim milk

1 tsp. paprika

2 Tbsp. Kraft 100% Parmesan Light Grated Cheese

Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine stuffing mix and water in large bowl. Let stand 5 min.

Meanwhile, pound chicken to 1/4-inch thickness using meat mallet.

Add broccoli to stuffing; mix lightly. (I cooked mine slightly first)

Spread evenly onto chicken breasts to within 1/2 inch of outer edges.

Roll up each chicken breast from one of the short ends, enclosing the stuffing mixture. (I seal mine with toothpicks. Make sure you tell everyone before they eat this though. Don't want them to eat a toothpick!)

Place chicken, seam-sides down, in 13x9-inch baking dish. Mix soup and milk; pour over chicken. Sprinkle with paprika and Parmesan cheese. (I put the extra stuffing and broccoli on the sides.)

Bake 30 min. or until chicken is cooked through (170ºF).

We had broccoli and mashed potatoes with our chicken. I also poured some of the leftover sauce over the chicken and potatoes.

I think this is my favourite chicken recipe. It was very moist and I loved the flavour of the sauce. I did make a few substitutions. I used Cream of Mushroom Soup and 1% milk.

Rebecca's Rating: 5/5

Mitchell's Rating: 4/5

Mom's Rating: 4.5/5

Dad's Rating: 4.25/5

Overall Rating: 4.44/5

Peanut Butter Cup Cake

Yesterday was Mitchell's 25th birthday! His favourite chocolate bar is Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I found this recipe on Pinterest. I was going to write this blog, but then it was not turning out very well, so I stopped taking pictures; however, in the end I think it looked nice and was VERY delicious. Everyone said that I needed to make it for their birthdays. Lesson learned= don't doubt myself.

Recipe found at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pamelawynne/3598206627/

Rebecca's Rating: 4.75/5
Mitchell's Rating: 4.9/5
Raquel's Rating: 5/5

Overall Rating: 4.88/5

Honey Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin

Pork Tenderloin is one of the choice meats in the Moore house. Mostly, because it is frequently on sale and it can feed a crowd if we have company or want lots of leftovers. In the past, the only thing I ever did to it was "shake n' bake" it, so today I went on a hunt for a new recipe.

One of my favourite cooking websites is kraftcanada.com. On the right hand side of the home page there is a section where you can enter three ingredients that you have and then the site will generate recipes with those ingredients. This is how I found today's recipe.

Honey Spice-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin

1 pork tenderloin (1 lb./450 g)

1/4 cup Kraft Catalina Dressing, divided

1 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. dry mustard (I used 1Tbsp of prepared Mustard)

1/2 tsp. paprika

1/4 tsp. dried thyme leaves

1 Tbsp. honey

Heat oven to 450ºF.
Mix together chili powder, garlic powder, mustard, paprika, and thyme.


Brush meat with 2 Tbsp. dressing,

then rub with combined seasonings. Let stand 10 min.

Place meat in shallow pan. Bake 15 min. Mix remaining 2 Tbsp. dressing and honey; brush lightly onto meat.

Bake 10 min. or until meat is done (160ºF), turning and brushing occasionally with remaining dressing mixture. Remove from oven; cover with foil. Let stand 5 min. before slicing.





We were very pleased with this dish. We both agreed that we like it better than our typical "shake n' bake" method. The meat was very moist and there were nice bursts of flavour, but I would have enjoyed it more if the flavour had been a bit more consistent. There was lots of juice in the pan so I poured some it on the potatoes.

Rebecca's Rating: 4/5
Mitch's Rating: 4.75/5

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

If you try any of my recipes please send me a review and a rating so I can include it in my blog.

Slow-Cooker Chicken Curry

One of my resolutions for the New Year was to try more new recipes. I love cooking and baking, but I found myself making the same things all the time.

I thought I might blog about the new recipes I try. Today's is from Jean Paré's "Company's Coming-Slow Cooker Recipes" cook book page 128.

Slow Cooker Chicken Curry

1 Cup Chopped Onion
2 Diced Medium Tomatoes
1 Chopped Medium Green Pepper

4 Cups Hot Water
3 Tbsp. Curry Powder
4 Tsp. Chicken Bouillon Powder
1 Tbsp. Ketchup
1 Tsp. Salt

1 1/2 lbs Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast Halves

Step 1: Add first three ingredients to Slow Cooker



Step 2: Mix next five ingredients in a bowl then pour into Slow Cooker





Step 3: Add Chicken and cook on Low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 hours. Ideally, this dish should be served over rice.




This was a tasty dish. I thought the flavour was nice, especially with the rice. The chicken was nice and moist. The cook book suggests putting the broth in a gravy boat and pouring it over the rice and veggies. I found this made it a bit too watery. I would have liked the broth to have been thicker.

Rebecca's Rating- 3.5/5
Mitch's Rating- 4.25/5

Overall: 3.875/5

If you try any of my recipes please send me a review and a rating so I can include it in my blog.