Daeji Bulgogi

Daeji Bulgogi is the pork version of what most people think of as bulgogi, which is made with beef. We first encountered this recipe on Serious Eats, where it no longer seems to be posted, so I have linked to a new source, but it is the same recipe. My copy calls for pork tenderloin instead of pork shoulder; I’m sure it is delicious with either. There are multiple ways to cook the pork that don’t involve actual charcoal as called for in the recipe. Sometimes we drain the marinade off and cook it on a flat griddle. Other times we stir fry the marinade and the pork together in a wok. The latter does have a tendency to intensify the spice. Both cooking methods make this a simple weeknight meal if you can put together the marinade the day before. However we cook it, we serve it with steamed white rice made in our rice steamer and sliced fresh cucumber for a cooling effect.

This is a good dish for people who like spicy food to make at home. Actually spicy food can be notoriously difficult to get in restaurants. I like this recipe because it’s a little bit exotic, calling for both gochujang and mirin, but not so exotic that the ingredients can’t still be found locally in most places. All of the ingredients called for in this recipe are standard pantry ingredients at our house.

When I was in college, one of my roommates was from Japan. At the time, I didn’t appreciate what an opportunity it was for me to live with someone from another country, another culture. Now, I am grateful for the experience. One of the things she taught me was to keep fresh ginger in the freezer. Straight out of the freezer, you can grate it into your recipe; in contrast to what many food experts on television say, you don’t even need to peel it. Use a microplane and you’ll never know the difference.

Chess Pie

Chess Pie is a newer discovery and has quickly become my oldest daughter’s favorite pie. It is, in fact, the only pie that she likes. Over the years, she has felt left out since she doesn’t care for any of the other homemade pies we have made for her. Trying and liking this pie proved to be a revelation, and provided a pathway for her to enjoy a slice of pie with the rest of the family. This pie is thick, rich and sweet. Satisfaction can be achieved with just a small slice.

Use Easy Wesson Oil Pie Crust for your crust. The hardest part of making this pie correctly is figuring out when it’s done. As it bakes, a shell develops on the top, making it difficult to tell when the center is completely set. My advice? Practice makes perfect! The best way to learn how to make something correctly is to give it a try, and then adjust your process slightly as needed the next time. But this pie is absolutely worth it! 

Grandma’s Nachos

Grandma’s Nachos wasn’t called that when I was growing up; they were just nachos. They became Grandma’s Nachos after my husband and I started having kids of our own. My mom made this recipe for my dad and herself for late night weekend dinners after we kids had been put to bed. She always made extra so we could have some of the leftovers for lunch the next day. It’s fantastic reheated. At that time I didn’t realize that to most of the world, nachos are chips covered in melted cheese and other toppings sprinkled on top. This is more of a thick and rich dip although it isn’t as loose as dips typically are. Mom always uses ground beef for this. Here, I call for ground turkey since that is what we usually use at our house. My kids love this as much as I always have.

Ingredients

1 lb. ground turkey
1 recipe Taco Seasoning (or 1 packet store bought)
1 16oz can Rosarita Traditional refried beans
1 16oz jar Pace Chunky Salsa, medium spicy
1 C grated cheese (cheddar, Monterey Jack, pepper jack, gouda etc.)
Tortilla Chips, for serving
Optional: chopped fresh tomatoes, sliced black olives, sour cream and pickled jalapenos all make nice garnishes.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a shallow, wide skillet on medium-high heat, brown the ground turkey and add the taco seasoning according to recipe (or package) directions. When the turkey meat is cooked through, add the refried beans and salsa and cook until thick and bubbly. Transfer to a 9 x 13 rectangle Pyrex pan. Sprinkle with the grated cheese.

Put into the oven and bake until the cheese is melted, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately with the tortilla chips and other garnishes.

Warrior Pumpkin Bread

Warrior Pumpkin Bread is a recipe that comes from a volunteer for my daughter’s high school marching band. The entire band loved it! I don’t know where the recipe came from originally. Oddly, this is my daughter’s favorite pumpkin bread recipe because it doesn’t taste overtly of pumpkin; it’s very subtle. You still get the pumpkin and the warmth of the baking spices, yet you aren’t overwhelmed by them. The amount of batter this recipe makes is a little bit awkward. It’s a little too much for the Pyrex loaf pan that I use. Fortunately, the batter also makes fantastic muffins. Bake muffins for about 17 minutes. If you use the small disposable loaf pans, you could probably push it to two whole loaves. The original recipe called for 1 full teaspoon of both nutmeg and cloves; I have reduced them here to one half teaspoon of each. The full teaspoon seemed like a lot to us so we’ve never had the bravery to try it with the full teaspoon.

Makes one loaf

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients

4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 C granulated sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 of a 15oz can pumpkin puree
3/4 C canola oil

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together all dry ingredients and set aside.
In a large bowl mix wet ingredients with an electric mixer for two minutes.
Continue to mix while slowly adding in the dry ingredients, about two additional minutes.

Grease sides and bottom of a loaf pan. Pour prepared mix into loaf pan. Bake in the center of the preheated oven for 70 minutes.

Cool in the pan for ten minutes. Gently turn out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Best Hummus

Best Hummus is one of a family of recipes that runs the gamut from starts-with-dried-beans-soaked-overnight to its-ok-to-sub-peanut butter-for tahini. It falls somewhere in the middle. You use a can of garbanzo beans (confusingly also labeled chickpeas sometimes), and you must buy the tahini. Even though tahini falls in the pricier range, the good news is you only use a little bit for each batch of hummus, and it lasts in the refrigerator for a really long time. Nobody who owns a food processor should be buying pre-made hummus at the store. A blender would probably work as well, but in full disclosure I’ve never actually tried that myself. Hummus recipes are honestly a dime a dozen on the Internet. Most have very similar ingredients, as they should. It’s just a matter of choosing one as a starting point and then figuring out what you like.

We enjoy a fair amount of acid in our food so when I make this hummus, I use some extra lemon juice, maybe as much as a tablespoon and a half extra. I also mix in about a half teaspoon or so of paprika instead of the “pinch” to sprinkle on top, and throw in maybe a half teaspoon of salt. I’m not sure why this particular recipe doesn’t call for salt; it probably should. Making hummus is just a matter of experimenting with the basic ingredients and deciding what appeals to your palate and to that of those for whom you cook. When it’s delicious, it’s done!

Hummus can be enjoyed with warmed pita bread, pita chips, crackers, pretzels and crudite’. Fair warning, once you start making it yourself, you can never go back to the dense pre-made store-bought kind. With a lusciously smooth and creamy texture and flavors that you can customize to suit your own style, there is simply nothing available in the refrigerator aisle of your grocery store that comes close.

Emily’s Honey Lime Coleslaw

Emily’s Honey Lime Coleslaw has bright flavors of cilantro and lime so complements main dishes consisting of similar flavors, like Thai-Style Chicken Legs . With an oil-based dressing instead of mayonnaise, it is also lighter than traditional coleslaw, in taste if not in calories. We usually make this with green cabbage instead of the red cabbage described in the recipe. I’m sure it is good with red cabbage too; I just find green cabbage to be more versatile so I’m less likely to have leftover cabbage that I won’t use. Leftover green cabbage makes a nice addition to stir-fry and fried rice and is also tasty braised. For those who are cilantro-averse, you can leave out the cilantro and/or serve it on the side. I sometimes like to add half of a jalapeno, minced, for a spicy kick. We grow jalapenos in our garden in the summertime, and put some into the freezer for use throughout the rest of the year.

Turkey Lettuce Wraps

Turkey Lettuce Wraps is a simplification of a copycat recipe we found for P.F. Chang’s Lettuce Wraps. I have renamed it here because I sort of think our simplifications take it away from still being a copycat recipe. It is still their recipe in a basic sense, however. If you are really looking for the restaurant experience, then follow the link for their full instructions. The best place to buy the dried shiitake mushrooms is any mom-and-pop Asian grocery. Many sell great big bags of them for the same price that you pay for a little tiny bag at a regular grocery store. That goes for many of the ingredients in this recipe, including the wok. If you don’t have a wok, please just go buy a cheap one from that same mom-and-pop Asian grocery. We use ours so much it hardly ever even gets put away. The recipe as I have reproduced it here serves four people as a light-ish dinner.

Ingredients

8 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 tsp table salt
1 Tbs dark soy sauce
5 Tbs water (divided)
1 Tbs hoisin sauce
1 Tbs oyster sauce
1 Tbs rice wine
1 tsp cornstarch
4 Tbs canola oil
1 lb. ground turkey
1/4 tsp pepper
1 Tbs minced garlic
1/4 C chopped scallions

For serving:

1 head of lettuce, separated into leaves (green leaf, butter lettuce, even multiple heads of endive would be nice)
1 cucumber, peeled, seeds removed and chopped
salted roasted shelled peanuts

Directions

Rehydrate the mushrooms by filling a medium saucepan about halfway with water and add the salt. Bring to boil over high heat, then turn off the heat and add the mushrooms. Let the mushrooms soak for 30 minutes or until they are soft. Use a smaller pan to push down on the mushrooms to ensure they are completely submerged in the water.  Once the mushrooms are fully rehydrated, mince them finely.

Mix together the dark soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of water, sugar, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce and rice wine in a small bowl. Dissolve the cornstarch with remaining 3 tablespoons of water in a small container with a lid, shake with lid on until cornstarch is dissolved and add the resulting slurry to the bowl and mix to combine.

Preheat a wok with the canola oil over very high heat. When the oil begins to smoke, add the ground turkey and season with salt and pepper. When the turkey begins to brown, give it a stir.  Once the turkey is nicely browned, add the garlic and let it cook for about 20 seconds, and then add the mushrooms and cook for two additional minutes. Add the sauce, and continue to cook until the sauce reduces and the turkey is completely cooked through. Remove the wok from the heat, add the green onions and toss together.

Serve the individual components (lettuce leaves, the filling, chopped cucumbers and peanuts) as a make-your-own lettuce wraps bar. 

Taco Seasoning

We originally found this Taco Seasoning recipe in the cookbook Even More Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur. I don’t think I have bought already-mixed taco seasoning at the grocery store since. I have long believed that a well-stocked pantry is superior to a pantry stocked with hundreds of different mixes. The flexibility it brings comes in handy during winter snowstorms when everyone on social media is wishing aloud that they had muffin mix to make muffins on a snowy day, and you already have all the ingredients you need on hand. It’s also handy for last minute menu decisions. Do you feel like eating tacos or chicken tikka masala? A well-stocked pantry makes either a possibility. Unlike some copy-cat recipes that I have tried, this one really does fit the bill. I don’t miss pre-mixed grocery store taco seasoning at all!

This recipe calls for ground beef, but I have found that I really prefer ground chicken or turkey. The heavier flavor of beef hides the spices in a way that poultry doesn’t.

Grape Juice

The purpose of this website is multi-faceted. I wanted to collect my favorite recipes on-line as a kind of back-up. I wanted a way to easily share my favorite recipes with friends. And I wanted to be able to share a few family recipes with the rest of the family. This recipe falls into the latter category. My grandmother taught my brother how she makes her home-canned grape juice, and then he taught my sister and me. I told my sister that I would share my notes with her . . . a year ago. I guess late is better than never, right?

While we were growing up, Sunday breakfasts were often enjoyed at my grandparents’ house. On the menu was always waffles cooked by Grandpa, sausage, and Grandma’s home-canned grape juice, made with grapes they grew themselves.

Grandma told me that she planted the grapes on their property sometime in the 50’s. I think she said a neighbor gave her a plant from their property so she didn’t know what variety it was. This means her grape arbor is 70 years old! Her grapes are huge, dark purple and have a seed in the middle. They taste so rich that you can’t eat more than one or two at a time or it’s too much; they really are better for making juice.

As far as the Internet is concerned, grape juice is made by pressing the juice out of the grapes and then canning the product. That isn’t how Grandma does it, however. I don’t know the history of her process, or where she learned it; I’m not sure she remembers. Basically, she puts washed grapes into clean jars, fills the jars with water, and then processes them with water-bath canning. If this is your first go-round with water-bath canning, then follow the aforementioned link and read my previous article on the basics.

We know the jars need to set . . . for a while . . . before they become juice. All anybody really knows for sure is they’re always ready by Christmas.

Grape Juice

What You Will Do:

1.) Pick your grapes.

2.) Rinse grapes & put in quart jars about half full.

3.) Put 1/4 C granulated sugar in each jar.

4.) Fill each jar with hot water, about 1/2″ below the rim.

5.) Wipe the jar rims with a clean wet towel.

6.) Top each jar with a sterilized lid & screw on a ring until just finger-tight.

7.) Wipe jar with a towel, turn the jar upside down and shake vigorously so the sugar doesn’t stay stuck to the bottom.

8.) Put jars in boiling water so the jars are just covered. Adjust the water level if necessary.

9.) Turn the heat up to high and wait until the water is just barely boiling.

10.) Reduce the heat to keep just barely boiling. Adjust if necessary as needed to maintain a consistent temperature. Process for a full 20 minutes.

11.) Remove jars from water bath, transfer to a counter lined with towels and spread more towels over the top of the jars.

12.) Leave in place until completely cool, 24 hours or even more.

When ready to enjoy, strain the grapes out of the juice; they have done their job. Drink chilled. It can make life easier to invest in a mason jar pouring spout, which I don’t think existed while I was growing up.

Tomato Salsa (for canning)

Tomato Salsa (for canning) was a wonderful way to preserve our garden tomatoes, jalapenos and onions last summer. The recipe calls for 10 pounds of tomatoes and we had only 6, but we were able to scale it down successfully. I prefer salsa in half pints instead of pints as called for in the recipe because you can consume the entire jar in one sitting and not have more going bad in the back of the refrigerator. Out of 6 pounds of tomatoes, we got 14 half pints of salsa. It makes a nice salsa, not too spicy for those who are adverse to such things, such as our children.

If this is your first go-round with water-bath canning, then follow the aforementioned link for my article on the basics.