Iron Chef Bake-Off

As you know Ott, A from A latte with Ott, A has kept me on my toes this year in the kitchen with her monthly secret ingredient Iron Chef Challenges.  It has been a lot of fun to work with some familiar and some new ingredients in the kitchen with these challenges.

Much to my surprise, I was named the winner of not only one, but two of her monthly Iron Chef Challenges.  I actually won the artichoke Iron Chef Challenge in October and the turkey Iron Chef Challenge in November which led me to this month's Iron Chef Bake Off.

Instead of a secret ingredient, the monthly winners are competing in a Bake-Off sponsored by Taste of Home.  Each of us were asked to make the exact same recipe of Cinnamon Raisin Bread and then take that bread to the next level by incorporating it into another recipe.

Believe it or not as soon as I saw the Cinnamon Raisin Bread recipe, I knew what I was going to make.  My mother-in-law makes a bread pudding that puts most others to shame so I thought it would be the perfect thing to make for this bake-off challenge.

Aunt Nettie's Famous Bread Pudding 
Ingredients
French bread to cover the bottom of 9x13 pan or 1 loaf of Taste of Home Cinnamon Raisin Bread
1/2 cup melted butter
8 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 t. salt
5 1/2 cups milk

Directions
Tear up bread and cover the bottom of a 9x13 pan.

Pour 1/2 cup melted butter over the bread.

Beat 8 eggs well.

Add sugar, vanilla, and salt and beat well.

Add 5 1/2 cups milk and mix well.

Pour over the bread and let rest 15 minutes or until bread is soaked.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until center is set.

Serve warm with the whiskey sauce.

Whiskey Sauce
Ingredients
1 cup melted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 eggs
2 T. whiskey
1/4 cup toasted chopped pecans (toast pecans at 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes)

Directions
Melt butter on the stove top.

After butter is melted, remove from heat and whip in powdered sugar and eggs.

Add whiskey and pecans.

Drizzle over the bread pudding.

Enjoy!!!

I hope you not only enjoy the bread pudding, but also the cinnamon raisin bread as by following the recipe for it, you will end up with 2 loaves... one for the bread pudding and one to enjoy for breakfast or a snack.

Thanks again to Ott, A for all of her awesome Iron Chef challenges in 2011!

Grilled Garlic Artichokes

I've decided that my kitchen must have been pretty boring before I met Ott, A and she decided to start challenging me with her monthly Iron Chef Challenge.  Let me tell you for October, she did not disappoint as the secret ingredient was artichokes.  Now I love me some spinach and artichoke dip and my mother-in-law and Uncle M make a good one, but I had never ever worked with a fresh artichoke until now.

After searching on allrecipes.com, I stumbled upon a couple of different recipes and decided to try out the Grilled Garlic Artichokes recipe for a Latte' with Ott,A's October Iron Chef Challenge.

Grilled Garlic Artichokes
Ingredients
2 large artichokes
1 lemon, quartered (I had to substitute with lemon juice as I forgot to pick up a lemon at the store.)
3/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Directions

• • Fill a large bowl with cold water.  Squeeze the juice from one lemon wedge into the water.  

  
  

  Trim the tops from the artichokes.
  
  

  

  
  

  Cut in half lengthwise.  

  
  
  

  

  
  

  Place halves into the bowl of lemon water to prevent them from turning brown.  (Hint:  I dip my apple slices in lemon juice or Sprite before serving at a party to prevent them from turning brown.)

  
  
  

  

  
  

  Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Meanwhile, preheat an outdoor grill for medium high heat.

  
  

  Add artichokes to boiling water and cook for about 15 minutes.

  
  
  

  

  
  

  Drain.

  
  
  

  

  
  

  Squeeze the remaining lemon wedges into a medium bowl.  Stir in the olive oil and garlic, and season with salt and pepper.

  
  
  

  

  
  

  Brush the artichokes with a coating of the garlic dip and place them on the preheated grill.  (My kitchen adventures usually involve family, but these artichokes involved the whole family as my mother-in-law helped me with the grilling and Big Sissy took the pictures so I could run Bubby to football practice.  Remember, there is never a dull moment at this pigpen.)

  
  

  Grill the artichokes for 5 to 10 minutes, basting with the dip and turning frequently until the tips are a little charred.

  
  
  

  

  
  

  Serve immediately with the remaining dip.  

  
  
  

  

  
  

  Now I must admit, we weren't quite sure how to eat the artichokes, but thanks to our friends at Ocean Mist Farms and their website, we got a great tutorial.

  
  
  

  

  
  

  And thanks to the great tutorial and a yummy recipe, the artichokes got two thumbs up from Big Sissy which is not an easy feat and my mother-in-law used the leftover dip as a marinade for grilled potatoes the next day.  

  
  

  All in all, I'd say we conquered the artichoke with lots of help and will be trying them again at this pigpen.  
  
  

Is it possible?

As you know my pal Miss Ott, A likes to keep me on my toes in the kitchen with her monthly Iron Chef Challenges.  From duck to lamb to canned tomatoes and more, we've tried it all thanks to her.  Thankfully, this month's challenge fell a little bit closer to home as the secret ingredient for July is flour, but not just any flour, King Arthur flour to be exact.

We love to bake at this pigpen so we use a lot of flour around here; however, we don't normally buy King Arthur flour so I was very excited to have a reason to try it for this challenge.  (My mother-in-law bakes with King Arthur quite frequently so I am familiar with its goodness.)  And to even sweeten the deal, I received a coupon from King Arthur for a free bag of flour so I was pretty pumped to get baking for this challenge.

Truthfully, the big challenge for me was finding the time to actually bake as it's been a little crazier than normal around this pigpen.  Well tonight, Bubby decided we needed to make some chocolate chip cookies so we thought we would see if it was possible to make the Original Nestle' Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies even better with King Arthur flour.

Bubby can be a tough critic at times, but I'll let you be the judge on if the cookies were a hit or not.

The recipe we used was straight off the chocolate chip cookie bag, but in case you don't have one handy, here it is:

Ingredients
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 c. butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 large eggs
2 cups Nestle' Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 c. chopped nuts (optional at this pigpen)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.

Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla in a large mixer bowl until creamy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Stir in morsels and mix.

Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets (we lined ours with parchment paper).

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes ; remove to wire racks.

Enjoy and Thanks again to King Arthur flour!!

Ham - 2 Ways: Recipes #3 and #4 Sunday Dinner at Grandma's

As a ham farmer AKA pig farmer, we love to eat pork so I was very excited when Ott, A announced ham would be the secret ingredient for her May Iron Chef Challenge.

From the beginning, I had a little bit of an internal conflict in trying to decide if I should make a half ham or some sort of diced ham casserole.  To make the decision even harder for me, my cookbook of choice, Gooseberry Patch's Sunday Dinner at Grandma's had a recipe for both which intrigued me.

Cheesy Ham Potatoes caught my attention as my sister-in-law made us a yummy ham and cheesy potato concoction when Little Sissy was born.  Farmstyle Ham & Gravy definitely caught my eye as it called for brown sugar and ginger ale.  My normal go-to ham recipe uses brown sugar and Coca-Cola.

So since I had both smoked ham cubes and a smoked half ham in my freezer, I decided to make both.




Cheesy Ham Potatoes

Ingredients
30 oz. pkg. frozen diced potatoes
10 3/4 oz. can cream of potato soup
10 3/4 oz. can cream of celery soup

 8 oz. container sour cream
1 c. milk
1 lb. cooked ham, diced
2 green onions, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
8 oz. shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, divided

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients, reserving one cup cheese for topping.

Since potatoes are still frozen, be sure to break up any large clumps.

Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for one hour.  Then, sprinkle reserved cheese on top.  Cook, uncovered, for an additional 30 minutes.

Let stand for a few minutes before serving.

This was quite popular at this pig pen with no leftovers to speak of.


Farmstyle Ham & Gravy

Ingredients
8-10 pound fully-cooked ham, boneless or bone-in
whole cloves to taste
3/4 c. brown sugar, packed
2, 12 oz. cans ginger ale

Place ham in an ungreased roasting pan.  (From my coke and brown sugar ham recipe, I have learned to use a disposable roasting pan.)  Insert cloves, a few inches apart on top and partway down sides of ham.

Pat brown sugar onto top and sides of ham.  Gently pour ginger ale over ham without rinsing off all the brown sugar.  (I purchased a 2 liter bottle of ginger ale as opposed to cans.)

Pour remaining ginger ale into roasting pan.

Cover and bake at 325 degrees for one to 1 1/2 hours, until a meat thermometer inserted in center of ham reads 140 degrees.  (This pigpen had some issues with the cooking time and our meat thermometers.  After over 1 1/2 hours of cooking and two different meat thermometer readings, we thought it was done.  Truth be told, it probably could have cooked a little bit longer to get it completely heated all the way through, but we weren't worried since we started with a smoked/fully-cooked ham.)

Remove ham to a serving platter, reserving drippings.  Let ham stand for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing.

 Let ham stand for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing.

Serve with Pan Gravy.

This ham was so moist and delish.  I didn't even think it needed the pan gravy it was so good, but if gravy is your thing, here's the recipe:

Transfer drippings from roasting pan to a sauce pan; bring to a boil over medium heat.  Whisk together 1/2 cup cornstarch and 1 cup cold water.  Slowly add mixture to pan drippings, whisking well.  Cook and stir until gravy thickens.  Use more or less of cornstarch mixture, depending upon quantity of drippings.

So depending on how you like your ham, here are two easy and yummy recipes with high remarks from the pigpen.

Enjoy!

Special thanks to Gooseberry Patch for providing me with this great cookbook to try and share with you. If you would like to purchase this or other cookbooks, please visit their store. If you would like to see other great recipes, check out www.realfarmwivesofamerica.com .