Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker Rice. Mistake? Not really.

Last night I tried my Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker for the first time. I used it to make brown rice. It quite possibly was human error, but there was some excess water in the cooker after the cooking time was up. The pressure cooker worked very well, and the non stick inner pan wiped out clean.
It's going to be a great kitchen tool.

UPDATE: It was human error. In my rush to see the cooked rice I used the Quick Pressure Release method to get the steam out of the cooker, I should have been patient and waited letting the Natural Pressure Release do it's thing. That would have allowed the needed time to finish cooking the rice.  I'm happy I found this out, but just as happy I took it out early!

The rice was slightly under cooked, so I removed it from the pressure cooker and put it into the braising liquid that I used to cook the pork chops. Wow, did that work out well! The rice was absolutely soooooo delicious.  I will  definitely make it this way again. Definitely. The rice takes on the flavor of the cider and A1 sauce. The chops were moist and flavorful.
Sometime mistakes can work out to be better than the original plan!
Recipe, products and pictures below.

Brown Rice, Pork Chops, & Applesauce

Pork Chop braising broth:
1 1/2 cups apple cider
2 Tablespoons A1 sauce

Pork Chops
4 center cut chops (you can use bone in)
Salt & Pepper

Season chops, sear in a hot cast iron skillet (with a drop of oil on the bottom, if needed).
Once seared, add braising broth.
Cook to internal temperature of 155 for medium doneness.
Remove chops and add rice until cooked to desired doneness.

Brown Rice
1 cup of brown rice
2 cups water

Cook the rice until "al dente".  Pour the rice and the remainder of the liquid (not more than 1/4 cup) into the pork chop braising broth. Add cider if needed until rice is completely cooked.

Serve with applesauce.
(Our applesauce was made from our apples, cut up with skins, and cooked in Crock Pot with cinnamon.)

Mystery Solved: How To Clean Cast Iron

First:    Happy New Year!

Second, The question as to how to clean cast iron was brought up on a kitchen gadget forum.  This question comes up a lot.

When I read this question I happened to read it just as I was getting ready to clean my Lodge cast iron skillet. I used it to brown and season hamburg for tacos.  

I'd thought it would be a perfect opportunity to share my technique for cleaning cast iron.  This kitchen gadget is too handy not to have just because you're not sure how to care for it.

Cooks are hesitant to get cast iron because they feel they are too much work to maintain. Not true.
For the many, many years I've owned and cooked with cast iron I've never felt it was a bother to go through these few steps.  The reward is to be able to cook with these amazing pots & pans. They also make for a pretty presentation for meals and hot dips.

Here is the sequence I use to cleaning cast iron cookware.
Hope this encourages some of you to get a pan or two to try out.
Below is the Amazon link for the one used in the photos below:

Dirty skillet

Warm, soapy water (I use Dawn). If you prefer not to use soap, just use warm water.

Cleaned skilled, just before getting final rinse.

Rinsed skillet, over heat to dry out all the water.

Add a dab of oil (or you could spray with Pam)

Spread the oil evenly in and around inside of skillet. Let it absorb with the heat still on.

Warm, Clean, dry, oiled skillet

Old schoolhouse desk  & basket is my cast iron storage area.

Corn Muffins in Cast Iron Skillets

Happy New Year's Eve day!

I got up this morning  in a baking mood.  I found a bag of Bob's Red Mill Old Fashioned Stone Ground Cornbread Mix & Cornmeal Muffin Mix in my freezer. Corn muffins sounded good.   I haven't used my Lodge cast iron wedge cornbread skillet yet, so I thought I'd try the mix and the skillet.  The results were perfectly delicious! The skillet worked beautifully, and the mix was delicious.
Recipe called for 1 1/4 c water, 1/4 c oil, 1 egg. I baked these at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
I sprayed each wedge with Pam. One of the wedges I filled with water..I ran out of mix.
Makes 15 wedges or 12 muffins.  Old Weight Watchers Points: 3

The mix says "Friend of the Heart".
 Below are the nutrition facts:
Nutrition Facts
1 Muffin
130 calories        Calories from fat 50
Total Fat  6g               9% daily value
Saturated Fat .5g         2%
Trans Fat  0
Cholesterol  20mg        7%
Total Carbs  17g          6%
Dietary Fiber 2g           8%
Sugars 0
Protein 3g
Vitamin A 0
Vitamin C 0
Calcium 4%
Iron 4%

Almost New Year's Day, Time to Reflect

 After a wonderful Christmas holiday filled with  friends, family and lots of food it's time to reflect on healthier eating.
The snack shown below helped me satisfy my sweet tooth this summer that allowed me to lose a few unwanted pounds.
It's time to to get back on track for the new year, so the apples, are making a come back.
This snack makes me feel like I'm eating apple pie but without all those calories.

The gadget I use is the Borner V Slicer. There are more expensive ones out there, but this does the job and is far less complicated to operate. I have two of these Borner V Slicers. They both do the same job, but are designed differently. The two listed below come with different slicer attachments.
I can't say I prefer one over the other.  Borner also sells slicers that have specific types of cuts, you can find them on Amazon.com.  Some of these are eligible for Amazon's Four for Three Promotion.

A simple, delicious, healthy snack:

"Baked" Apple Slices with Cinnamon - Zero Weight Watchers Plus Points; 116 Calories

 Put the medium insert into the V slicer. Place apple slices shingle style on a pretty plate or platter, dust with cinnamon through a fine mesh colander. Microwave covered for one minute. Serve warm. If your apples are too tart for your taste, you could add liquid or powdered Stevia.

Below are the different inserts, and the slices they produce.

 Very small julienne 

 Medium Slice

 Thin Slice

 Thicker Julienne

 Thickest Julienne (could be used for french fries)

Waffle Slice

 Raw apples, dusted with ground cinnamon (above)
Cooked, warm apples (below)

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas Pizzelles!

It's Christmas time, so it's time to make Pizzelles!

Today I literally dusted off my pizzelle makers.  I have three. One is an inexpensive Salton, the others are a Villaware Quattro and a Toastmaster combo waffle/pizzelle machine. (Salton - black machine with two shapes, Villaware - rectangular machine with four small shapes, Toastmaster - square machine with four larger shapes).

I made one batter, and use the three machines. The results were delicious, but varied.  The Salton made "potato chip" thin cookies. I didn't care for those. I did like the results of the Villaware and the Quattro. The pizzelle came out more like the pizzelles you would get at a bakery. They were crisp but still thick enough to have some texture.  I made more from the Villaware machine because I liked the petite size. 

In one of the photos, you will see I used a wooden gadget to make one of the pizzelles into a cone shape. You have to work fast, and I just barely made it. These cookies harden quickly.

Right after my Pizzelles were done, I had a surprise Christmas visit from some folks who had purchased a West Highland Terrier from me 15 years ago.  Since that time, we've always kept in touch and they've continued owning Westies even though there dear Harley that they got from me has passed.

I was able to see their two beautiful Westies, Zoe and Harley II, and I was able to share my Pizzelles with them.  They left me with a beautiful Westie calendar (featuring Zoe & Harley II), that I have come to look forward to receiving. 

The lasagne is done, and the pizzelle machines are cooling.  Below is the recipe for the Pizzelle cookies.

I usually double this recipe, but was simultaneously making my Christmas lasagne with my Mom, so a "three egg" batch is all I did.  

You'll see a couple lasagna photos below. If you want the recipe, just ask.

After heating up your Pizzelle maker, lightly spray with vegetable spray - only once, you will not need to spray each time you make a cookie.  Drop batter by kitchen tablespoon, or mini scoop  in the center of each rosette,

close the machine tightly, set your timer for two minutes, and immediately remove pizzelles with a fork to a flat dish or cooling rack. If they look darker than you'd like, adjust your cooking time.  Once they are cooled, you can store them in a zip bag or airtight container.  When serving, you could dust with cocoa powder, or confectionery sugar.

Merry Christmas from my kitchen to yours!
I hope I've inspired you to try some of the recipes and gadgets these past few months,
and hope to share more with you this coming new year.
Cheryl

Basic Pizzelle Recipe 

(not quite sure how many it makes, depends on your machine)

1 stick softened butter

3/4 cup sugar

3 large eggs (beaten in a separate bowl)

1 Tbsp. anisette extract (anise)

1 3/4 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

A little less than 1/4 tsp. salt

Beat with a mixer or by hand butter and sugar, add beaten eggs, anisette.

Add the dry mixture of flour, baking powder and salt.

Mixture will be sticky. 

 We did have more of these, but they were eaten. :)

 Toastermaster machine. Cone gadget.

 Villaware Quattro. The darker cookies were left in longer.

 A peek at the process of assembling our Christmas lasagna.

Completed lasagna, just need to add sauce to the top and bake on Christmas day.

Layers of goodness!

I'm not sure if Villaware's name has been changed, but this looks exactly like my machine:

A Fun "Must Have" Item In My Kitchen

So many times I've used this gadget and had not thought to post it here.  Today, I will give it it's due.

I've had this for a couple years, and love it.  I gave my daughter my under cabinet electric can opener and pretty much use this all the time.  I do have a Zyliss hand crank one that I use if I can't locate this one.
I bought this item at a Tuesday Morning store when I was visiting family in Texas. After watching my sister in law using this, I knew I had to have one.
Amazon has it for about the same price I paid for it.  The ratings don't do it justice.  I've had no problems with this little wonder.  As you'll see in my video, I was able to do use it with one hand!
Without further adieu, here is the humbly named "Handy Can Opener".

The Handy Can Opener

This is exactly the same design as the Zyliss, but Amazon did not have the Zyliss.

Christmas Bread Baking - A Tale of Two Breads

Yesterday I baked two cardamom breads.  I feel a bit guilty saying that I baked them. Actually, I assembled them, the breadmakers did all the work.
The loaf of the left was made in the Sunbeam, the Oster baked the loaf on the right.  The Oster loaf  had a crispier crust, the Sunbeam loaf had a more chewy crust.  I accidentally reset the Oster, so the loaf was kneaded twice. That might explain why it is a higher loaf.
I also noticed that even when selecting the exact bread settings, the Oster had a longer baking time. It might be that the Oster has a lower voltage heating element.
Both breads were delicious.
The recipe was from a poster on allrecipes.com  If you make it, be sure to increase the cardamom to 1 1/2 tsp, and reduce the flour to 2 3/4 cups. If you like a sweeter bread, you could add more honey or a touch of sugar.  
The two breadmakers and cooling racks are listed on this site under the "Featured Kitchen Gadgets" section.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/bread-machine-cardamom-bread/detail.aspx