Sunday, November 28, 2010

Breaded Mushrooms


I saw this some where in cyberspace, can't remember where but it stuck in my head so I had to try it. Yep, breaded mushrooms. There were really great but one must be very careful not to end up with great balls of grease. I found fresh hot oil at about 1/4 inch worked well (next time I will try a spray of Pam). also the mushrooms should be about 1/8 to 1/4 inch too thick and it just does not cook right.
2 or 3 portobello mushrooms, sliced 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick
1 egg
1T milk
1 cup bread crumbs
oil for cooking
salt
beat eggs with milk in a shallow dish for dipping the mushrooms. in another shallow dish put bread crumbs to dip the mushrooms. heat a pan, add oil up to about 1/4 inch, wait for the oil to ripple and place in mushroom slices that have been first dipped in egg mixture and then bread crumbs. Fry mushroom slices on one side until golden and turn and fry other side until golden. remove from pan onto a paper towel and season with salt.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Squash Bread


This is just wonderful bread and it was my 6 year old's idea. One day we had some very ripe bananas and my 6 year old thought it would be a good idea to make banana bread with them. I got online and found a recipe that was simple and easy for a 6 year old to follow.

She did a good job, with a little coaching, and made a good batch of banana bread. As we were eating our fresh warm bread she looks up at me and said this would be so good made with pumpkin. What a great idea so we went to the kitchen the next day and steamed up some sweet potato (it was the closest thing I had to squash or pumpkin in the house that weekend). That sweet potato made some killer bread too.


Since that day, a few months back now, we have worked out our squash break recipe to be something that we find outstanding.


1 to 3 butternut squashes, enough to make 6 cups of puree.


cut the squash into chunks, with skin on, and steam until tender. let cool and the remove the skin from the meat and mush up the squash meat to use in bread.



  • 6 cups squash or pumpkin puree (do not used canned stuff, I could tell you stories that would make you want to wash out your mouth with a toilet brush, yes that bad)

  • 2/3rd cup butter, melted (I will try to replace half of this with apple butter next time)

  • 2 cups brown sugar

  • 2 teaspoons vanilla

  • 2 eggs

  • 2 teaspoons Cinnamon

  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

  • 1/8 teaspoon cardamom

  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

  • 2 teaspoons baking soda

  • 3 cups flour.

  • 1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350F


mix flour, spices,baking soda and nuts in a bowl and set aside.


mix the squash, butter, eggs, sugar and vanilla until well blended. pour in the flour mixture and mix until all the white flour is just combined. pour into 2 oiled (I use cooking spray) loaf pans and bake for 1 hour.