Tasty Tip Tuesdays

Anyone want to join in? I'm always up for learning new cooking tips, be them either cost saving, time saving or flavor enhancing!

Simply leave a comment with your blog post url that includes your tip or just go ahead and write out your tip in the comment section. Please include the above picture in your post.

Here is my tip today:

Make your own croutons! Don't settle for those stale, expensive croutons anymore. Here is what you can do to make your own.

Use your past prime bread, heels or whatever. Cut into cubes, I like to have about 2 cups cubes. In a skillet, heat 3 Tablespoons olive oil on medium high, throw in 1-2 tsps Italian seasoning. Go ahead and get crazy and add garlic powder if you want. Add 1/2 tsp of kosher salt. Heat the seasonings until you can start to smell them. Add the bread crumbs and stir. Stir until they are golden brown and toasty. Enjoy on salad or enjoy on your favorite soup. To store, place them in a airtight plastic bag in your pantry. Or freeze them if you will not use with in a few days.

Menu Plan Monday 10/13/08

Last week was a wonderful week where my dh and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. I did menu planning for the first couple of days and then planned and partitially prepared meals for the wonderful couple that watched our three little ones. It went pretty well! One night, we indulged in a full seven course meal. It was wonderful! We are truly "foodies" :) One of the dishes contained black truffles and I was super excited to try that risotto. However, although it did taste good, I didn't think the "hype" about truffles really panned out. It is my belief that a good porcini mushroom will give a similar depth of flavor but perhaps I'm off my rocker.

Here is this coming week's menu:

Monday: Broiled Salmon, Mushroom Risotto, and Green Beans
Tuesday: Chicken Fajitas, Refried Beans and Chips and Pico De Gallo
Wednesday: Hearty Beef Stew and Whole Wheat Biscuits
Octoberfest Thursday: Chicken Schnitzel, Braised Red Cabbage & Apples, Spaetzel
Friday: Vegetable Cheese Chowder and Salad
Saturday: Homemade Pizza & Salad

Thursday is an ode to my family's heritage. Time to celebrate Octoberfest!

Apple Pie Jam

You know that line in one of the Batman movies where Batman says "I am Batman"? Well, I spent the day on Tuesday peeling apples and the thought that kept going through my mind was "I am Apple Peeler." Obviously, mundane tasks allow your mind to wander into weird places.

So what did I accomplish? I made 6 half-pints of a delicious recipe called "Linda Lou's Apple Pie Jam" that I found on the Harvest forum on Gardenweb.com. It had received rave reviews so I decided to give it a try. So thank you, Linda Lou, for posting the recipe! I also made 3 quarts of frozen apple pie filling, so in the future all I'll need to do is defrost and put in a pie shell and call it a day (well, after it bakes anyway).

Here is Linda Lou's Apple Pie Jam recipe:

APPLE PIE JAM

4 cups tart apples, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
4 cups sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 box pectin
1/2 teaspoon butter

Add water to chopped apples to measure 4 cups.(This is NOT 4 cups each, but water placed on top of the diced apples to come up to the 4 cup mark.) Place apples and water into large, heavy saucepan. Stir in lemon juice, cinnamon and allspice.

Measure sugars. Stir pectin into fruit. Add butter. Bring mixture to full rolling boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Quickly stir in both sugars. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with metal spoon.

Ladle quickly into hot, clean jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands on finger tight. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Now, I would make one change, simply for appearance's sake. Allow the jam to sit for a few minutes and then stir to distribute the apple pieces throughout the jam. The apple pieces are less dense and float to the top otherwise (which is what happened to me). Not really a problem since once you open the jar, you can stir but it would just look prettier on the shelf being more "even."