I made the first bran muffin recipe, (posted here) and it was delicious! I made a batch for our dessert after supper one night, and not only did my kids love them but they were begging me for “just one more?” as I sent them off to bed. I was cruel and made them go to bed anyways, but redeemed myself by making them again for breakfast. I loved the slight banana flavor that came through, and I also loved knowing that there was honey and apple bits in there too. They were moist, and had a lovely flavor. My favorite part about making them was discovering that I could freeze the raw batter in paper liners, then toss the frozen “muffin” into muffin tins and bake them straight from the freezer, and the resulting muffins tasted exactly the same as the ones I had baked right after mixing up the batter. Brilliant. I still have two more recipes I intend to try, but I am making sure to keep this one in my rotation as it was so incredibly tasty.

I am currently in the middle of trying out several different bran muffin recipes. One recipe make a single batch, while the others make enough to last for 6 weeks. I will be trying them out along with putting them through some of my own fridge and freezer trials, after which I will post the results on my recipe blog in case anyone else happens to like bran muffins too. And if you have an awesome bran muffin recipe, or any hints you want to share, I would LOVE to hear it!

With Fall here and the weather quite chilly, I find myself making soup almost daily for supper. I love that you can make a seriously hearty, chunky soup with as few as 6 or 7 basic items from your pantry and freezer and toss it all into a crock pot where it can simmer all day so you don’t have to fuss with it or even think all that much about it until it’s supper time. Soup is also incredibly easy to make more or less of, without having to vastly increase your ingredients, which comes in especially handy since I am very often feeding several of my teenage son’s friends along with my own mass of hungry hordes. We very often go through about 8 quarts of soup in a single sitting without even trying and we rarely have leftovers. My favorites these days are Beef & Barley, Chicken Tortellini, Chicken Tortilla Soup, Chicken Noodle, Hamburger Soup, and Cabbage Patch soup. I have also been making the ‘Italian Hot Rolls’ every night to go with our meals since they are the perfect combination with a good hot soup on a chilly Fall day, and my family loves hot fresh baked rolls anyways. I ran out of parmesan cheese earlier this week so I have been making the rolls without it, and sometimes omitting the garlic salt and just using 1 tsp. of salt instead, with the same excellent results. Those hot rolls are so good any way you make them, and I love that I can get them on the table fairly quickly from start to finish. Here is my basic Chicken Tortellini recipe, which has long been a favorite, and even converted my previously soup hating husband over to my soup loving ways.

Chicken Tortellini Soup

1 large onion diced

2 cups carrots sliced or diced

1 heaping cup celery, sliced

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 TBSP. olive oil

3-4 quarts chicken broth (either canned or homemade is fine)

2-3 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed or shredded

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. thyme

2 bay leaves

Pepper to taste

2 (9-11 oz.) pkgs. frozen cheese tortellini

In a large stock pot, saute the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic in olive oil until onions are translucent. Add the broth, chicken, salt, thyme, bay leaves and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 20-30 minutes to let flavors blend. About 10 minutes before serving, add the frozen tortellini, and cook until they are done, or float to the top. Remove bay leaves before serving. Enjoy!

*all ingredients can be increased or decreased  as you like, this soup is easy to fiddle with as needed.

(pictures courtesy of Google)

Although I can’t remember where I got this recipe, it has long been a favorite of mine and one I have come to depend on when I need some delicious dinner rolls in a jiffy.

Quick Italian Hot Rolls

  3 1/2 - 4 cups flour

  2 TBSP. active dry yeast (instant yeast works too)

  2 TBSP. sugar

  2 tsp. garlic salt

  1 tsp. Italian seasoning

  1 cup milk

  1/2 cup water

  2 TBSP. butter or margarine

 1 egg, lightly beaten

 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

topping:

  2 TBSP. butter or margarine, melted

 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

   Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, yeast, sugar, garlic salt and Italian seasoning. Mix well. Combine milk, water and butter in saucepan. Heat until milk is lukewarm. Butter does not need to melt. Add to flour mixture. Add egg. Blend at low speed until moistened. Beat 3 minutes at high speed. Gradually stir in 1/2 cup parmesan and enough flour to make a firm dough. Knead for 3 - 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl, turning to coat top. Cover. Let rise about 15 minutes in a warm place. Punch dough down. Divide into 16 pieces. Form into balls. Dip tops into melted butter then into the 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Place in well greased muffin tins, with the butter side up. Let rise, covered, about 10 minutes. Bake @ 375* F for 20-25 minutes, or util light golden brown. Remove from pan to cool. Enjoy!

We had these rolls for dinner last night along with ‘this soup recipe’ my Auntie found on ‘Tasty Kitchen’ and posted on her blog. I made it as directed except I used 3 1/2 qts. of tomato juice instead of 3 qts. of V-8 juice, I used 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef because I don’t like my soup too meaty, and I used 2 (16 oz.) bags of coleslaw mix in place of the chopped head of cabbage because I’m all for shortcuts. The soup was delish and is a definite keeper. In fact when my friend stopped by in the afternoon, she couldn’t stop commenting on how amazing it smelled while it simmered away in the crockpot, and was asking for the recipe almost as soon as she walked in the door. Thanks for bringing that gem to my attention Auntie, I will be leaving a glowing review on the Tasty Kitchen site for sure!

Yesterday the temperature outside was somewhere in the 80’s. Not so today. It was somewhere in the 40’s. First it rained, then came the hail, which turned into snow. None of the snow was sticking, and it was gone just as fast as it fell. But it was cold, windy, wet and miserable outside, so there was no canning today. And with the cold came the end of our garden, so in the only 20 minute window of sunshine we had today, I grabbed the kids and we headed for the garden to pick every last one of the green tomatoes left out there. It was a very cold, wet, and muddy job and I had to bribe them with hot chocolate, but they stayed and persevered.

In the end we managed to fill the wagon with all of the green tomatoes that were left out there, so I had better get busy figuring out some recipes for canning and cooking with them before long. Thank heavens the apples still left on the trees will keep in the cold weather.

I did go ahead and make two batches of ‘Banana Jam’, which was super simple and smelled delicious, not to mention a great way to use up a lot of bananas.

Banana Jam

 2 cups mashed bananas

2 cups sugar

2 TBSP. bottled lemon juice

   Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan. Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Cook for 5 minutes at a moderate boil, still stirring occasionally. Ladle into jelly jars, secure lids, label, and store in the refrigerator. Use on toast, pancakes, waffles, or anything else you might think of. Yield- 2 jelly jars

Next on my list is ‘Apple Pie Jam’. It sounds fun and since I am drowning in available apples, it’s a perfect recipe fit. We are fairly certain three of our trees are golden delicious, but the other three, not a clue. They’re a reddish gold color, so I will just have to pick a few and make a pie and a batch of applesauce to see if that yields any clues as to what variety they might be.

And I managed to sneak in a little sewing time during the weekend, and even though it wasn’t much it was still heavenly, but more on that later.

I made a quick run to my parents storage sheds today to bring a load back in my Suburban of some of the canning jars and supplies we will be needing. I am going to try and work on getting a batch or two canned this weekend to try and save the tomatoes from my garden that we have been picking. They ripen at uneven rates, and I can pick enough to can 3 or 4 quarts at a time, so I will be working on that until next weekend, when Heidi and I (and anyone else that wants to join in) are planning on killing ourselves with boiling water baths and skinning fruit. How crazy am I for looking forward to that? Anyways, I came away with several boxes of quart jars, some pints, and some jelly jars, as well as grabbing five big water bath pots and some racks while I was at it, and basically just filled the back of my car with everything that I could reach that we might need until there was no more room to be had. There are still boxes and boxes of jars to be had there, but those will have to wait for another trip another time, most likely next week. I haven’t actually canned with a boiling water bath for over 10 years, so a lot of canning and preserving information and stuff will have to be re-read again. My memory about most of it is more than rusty. Thank heavens for ‘THIS SITE’, it has ALL of the information a Utah girl could ever want when it come to food preservation. And once again, another google pic. Still no camera to be found. *sigh*

I’m currently reading these cookbooks. I stole one from Heidi, and one from my Mom, and one I bought online.

I have a penchant for cookbooks, especially stolen ones. They make the best reading. Yes, I like to read cookbooks. Like a novel. It gets my brain going so that I have more dinner ideas throughout the week. It also unfortunately gives me far too many dessert ideas as well. Something I have been trying to steer clear from, without much luck it seems, because I made this today.

Although the fault for this treat actually lies with the movie ‘Pollyanna’, which we watched this afternoon. Remember the night of the bazaar, and Aunt Polly’s cook, gardener, and maid are hauling 6 huge cakes out of the kitchen for the bazaar to help build a home for the orphans? And later at the bazaar, Cook hands Pollyanna a huge slice from one of those cakes? Yes, that was what did me in. A cake I saw in a movie. I know, why am I obsessing about cakes in a movie?  I just am. So judge me. I used this recipe:

Butter Cake

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
3 cups cake flour
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350* F. Grease and flour three 8 or 9 inch round pans.
In a large bowl, cream butter and 1 cup of the sugar. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks well, then add to butter mixture.
Sift together flour and baking powder. Add alternately with the milk to the butter-sugar mixture. Beat well. Add vanilla.
Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Add 1 cup sugar to the egg whites. Fold into cake batter.
Divide evenly into three prepared 9 inch round pans. Bake at 350* F for 25 minutes. Place pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. remove from pans and let cool on racks. Once cooled completely, frost with your favorite frosting.

I baked the three layers as called for, but I only used and frosted two of the layers for the cake pictured above. I put the third layer back into it’s pan once it was completely cooled, frosted it, covered it really well, and tossed it into the freezer. I only need to thaw it and it’s ready to be served for dessert on another night. Which was perfect, since even with as many of us as there are, we still only managed to eat half of this cake after dinner tonight .

See, delicious buttery yellow cake with heavenly homemade chocolatey frosting goodness. This is not your average box-of-cake-mix kind of cake. It’s so much denser, and a lot more substantial. Something I love in a cake. Something I just can’t get from Betty Crocker or Pillsbury. Mmmm. Excuse me, I think there is a piece of cake that I need to be eating.

I hauled 6 of my kids with me to my Mom’s once again so that Craig could finish tiling the floor in the laundry room in some semblance of peace. I arrived bearing two giant baskets filled with a bounty of yellow squash and zucchini from my garden. Since I have no way to cook it or use it up fast enough right now, I have been giving it away to anyone unlucky enough to come withing squash tossing distance of me. My mom was just that unlucky person. With all of that zucchini at our fingertips, Heidi and I set about making a veritable zucchini carnival in the kitchen. First we made the ‘Chocolate Zucchini Cake’, then we made ‘Soft Zucchini Cookies’, and for dinner we made ‘Zucchini Casserole’. See? I told you. Total zucchini mania. Now, when I made the ‘Chocolate Zucchini Cake’ before, I topped it with the chocolate chips and nuts as directed in the recipe, which I thought was very tasty. But when we made the cake this time I asked Heidi to make her delicious chocolate frosting instead, which she did, and she frosted the cake with that. Well, let me just say that I will not be bothering with those lame chocolate chips and nuts again, because the chocolate frosting is where. it’s. at. Hands down. Bar none. Uber alles. No competition. The frosting is the the only way to go. Just in case you’re wondering that is. And Hedi shredded and sliced a ton of the zucchini and yellow squash for my mom to put in her freezer for later, so she is set for more zucchini love any time she gets a notion. Although after today, she just might be all zucchinied out.

I had several requests for this recipe, and since now is the best time for tasty zucchini recipes to be put to good use, well here you go! I hope you enjoy it as much as we have.

*note*-After making this cake again after I had already posted this recipe, I would now advise you to skip the chocolate chips and head straight for the chocolate frosting. You”ll thank me later. Believe me. It’s the only way to go with this cake.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake 

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cups Sugar
1 tsp.vanilla
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups shredded zucchini (unpeeled), drained
3/4 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped (optional)
1 (12 oz.) bag chocolate chips (semi-sweet or milk chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350* F. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add in eggs one at a time until well blended. Mix in the vanilla, applesauce, and buttermilk. Sift together flour, baking soda, powder, salt, and cocoa. Add to the butter mixture. Stir the dry ingredients gently but thoroughly into wet ingredients. Stir in zucchini until well blended. Spread batter into a 9? x 13? greased pan. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 25-35 minutes. Five minutes before the cake is done, evenly sprinkle the chocolate chips over top of cake. Return to oven. When done, remove from oven and sprinkle with chopped nuts. Let cool in pan on wire rack. Store any remaining cake in fridge.

*note*- like I said above, I recommend skipping the chocolate chips and nut as a topping and instead top baked and cooled cake with chocolate frosting. Seriously, it’s beyond delicious!

Today is “Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbors Porch Night”.

I am a serious fan of zucchini, and even I am overwhelmed with the amount growing my garden, so I can understand this reaction. But in all fairness, I am without a kitchen right now, so I have no way to keep up with what I’m picking in my garden, so the pile of squash on my table is growing without any way of reducing it for now. If I have to, I can resort to any number of suggestions given ‘here’ and ‘here’ for dealing with excess zucchini. But once I get my kitchen back, I will be making this recipe first.

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 egg beaten

1 cup sugar

1 cup finely shredded, unpeeled zucchini

1/4 cup cooking oil (canola or vegetable)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 35o* F. Grease the bottom and 1/2-inch up the sides of an 8×4x2-inch loaf pan; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder and nutmeg. Make a well in the center of flour mixture; set aside. In another medium bowl combine egg, sugar, shredded zucchini and oil. And the zucchini mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in the nuts if using them. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely on a wire rack. Wrap and store overnight before slicing. Makes 1 loaf.

Apple Bread variant: Prepare as above, except substitute 1 1/2 cups finely shredded peeled apple for the shredded zucchini.

(much as I would like to claim this recipe, I can’t. This recipe belongs to Paul’s wife. Paul works for my father and has brought in loaves of this bread that his wife has made, and the rave reviews about it are never ending, so this one is a definite keeper!)