This section is an extension of my earlier efforts (on the sailboat) of documenting my favorite recipes plus general food management tips and tricks that I have learned over the years and employ in my kitchen.
Bear in mind, the lion's share of my recipes plus my earlier food and cooking tips reside on our old website at this web address;
s/v Dreamtime Food & Recipes Page
Be sure to take a browse through there. Here we go!
One morning, while the internet was down, I rediscovered my recipes folder on the hard drive and had a fun time reading and daydreaming about changing up the meal rotation around here by incorporating these "forgotten" recipes. Some of them are mine, some other people's but all are worthy of a write-up here on this page. Newest recipes at top.
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12/15/2024 - Pecan Pie Mini-Muffins
These tiny bites are so delicious, tender and full of pecans. I first tried these back onboard 'Dreamtime' when a fellow cruiser made them for dessert one evening. We loved them! Simple to make as well. I used gluten free flour in this case, (for a friend), and had no problems. I did 1 & a ½ sized batch and got ~ 50.
1 Cup roughly chopped pecans
1 Cup light brown sugar
½ Cup Flour
2 eggs
2/3 Cup melted butter
pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 350°, I sprayed the mini-muffin pan with baking spray, (I put a tiny square of parchment paper at the bottom of each muffin spot), and combine all ingredients. Pour into a greased mini muffin pan filling each cup 2/3's full and bake 12 to 15 min's. Let cool completely before trying to remove from pan.
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| A batch and a half made about 50 smallish treats for me. Perfect for the Christmas potluck along with the other goodies. |
11/02/2024 - Extra special Ginger Snap Cookies
I modified a recipe I found online to come up with our perfect ginger cookie. No, it's not a snap but rather a chewy cookie. What elevates this cookie is plenty of spice, plenty of finely-diced candied ginger, and plenty of chopped pecans. It's our favorite cookie by far.
1 cup packed brown sugar
¾ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup molasses
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2+ teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
Mix brown sugar, oil, molasses, and egg together in a large bowl.
Combine flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt; stir into the molasses mixture.
Drop dough 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake in the preheated oven until center is firm, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
03/16/2022 - Sautéed Roma Tomatoes
We make these quite often throughout the year. They are a very welcome companion to most grilled meat dinners adding not only a fresh bite but also a pretty pop of color. Very easy to make.
3-4 ripe Roma Tomatoes cut in half lengthwise with stem ends removed.
Seasonings: compound butter with garlic if handy, otherwise regular butter is fine. Onion powder, Herbs du Provence, brown sugar and Basalmic vinegar.
Season cut side of tomatoes with onion powder and Herbs du Provence. Using a frying pan with a lid, heat butter over med-low heat. Place tomatoes cut side down in melted butter and saute for 5 minutes. Flip tomatoes over and drizzle with a few drops of basalmic vinegar and top that with 1/2t of brown sugar. Cover and continue cooking over low heat for 3-5 more minutes. Uncover and let juices evaporate somewhat, then serve.
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| Prepped and ready to go into frying pan. |
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| Adding the basalmic vinegar and brown sugar, ready to cover. |
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| Softened and tender, lots of juice rendered out. |
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| Grilled pork chop, scalloped potatoes, asparagus and tomato. YUM! |
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01/29/2022 - Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole
This is one delicious breakfast casserole! First time making it and it was really well received around here, so I'm writing it up so I have all the measurements handy. I assembled it during the day, then refrigerated overnight and baked in the morning for about 1 hour or until it didn't jiggle in the center. It was moist but not runny and had nice proportions between the ingredients. I used an 9 x 13 deep casserole pan lined with foil.
1 regular-sized bag of tater tots, frozen.
1 lb breakfast sausage, fried and crumbled (I use Jimmy Dean)
1 medium onion, 8oz sliced mushrooms, 4 Roma tomatoes (chopped, seeded and squeezed dry). Dice and saute together until cooked. You can add sauteed bell peppers if you like. Season with salt/pepper, and let cool.
2 C shredded cheese, I used 1 C each of sharp cheddar and a mexican blend.
7 eggs, 1 C milk, 1/2 C sour cream and half of the shredded cheese - combine together and add salt/pepper, 1 t fine herbs (your choice, I used tarragon & egg herbs) and a pinch cayenne (optional). At this point I also added half a can of hatch chilies and a pretty big sprinkle of onion powder.
To assemble: Add tater tots, some of the cheese, the cooled sausage crumbles and veggie mixture to a large bowl and mix to thoroughly combine, then spread into a foil-lined 9 x 13 baking dish, and slowly pour the egg mixture over it. Finally, sprinkle over the rest of the cheese and dot with the other half can of hatch chilies, if using. It's best if it's allowed to sit overnight in the fridge to absorb the egg mixture before baking.
Bake at 350F for 1 hour + until it doesn't jiggle in the center. Let cool 10 min before serving.
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| Re-heat in the microwave and serve with a bowl of fresh fruit Can you say 'YUM!" |
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01/24/2022- 3 Ingredient Mayo Rolls
This recipe isn't one of mine, but I just tried it and it passed muster around here, so I'm going to share it here, mainly so I don't forget it.
Apparently, this is a rather ole-timey recipe likened to Grandma's everywhere; the mayo dinner roll cum biscuit. Quite dense and heavier than a dinner roll but lighter than a biscuit, it's a "just right", hot out of the oven accompaniment to a meal. 3 ingredients; 2 C self-rising flour, 3 heaping T's mayo, and a cup of milk. Stir until all ingredients are combined, then drop into greased muffin tin. This recipe makes about 6 large rolls. Oven temp at 375° for approximately 15-20 minutes.
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01/03/2022 - Cutlets a l'orange
When we were living aboard we used to end up with what we called mystery meat "cutlets". This recipe was created to make what ever meat you choose into a tender cutlet with a flavorful sauce suitable for serving over rice or wide noodles.
I still use it quite often for center cut pork loin chops, but you can use any white meat such as turkey, pork or chicken tenders. The one ingredient I use that is unusual is the "Chicken Curry" spice that I order from Market Spice, a tea/spice company out in Seattle, WA. This is an easy recipe that is very adaptable so don't worry about exact measurements.
Cutlets of pork, turkey or chicken - I usually just do 2 but you do what you need.
1/2 - Chipotle Chili- chopped, with Adobo sauce. (can increase or reduce according to your tastes).
1 C - chopped mushrooms, onion (can add other veggies too, such as bell peppers etc.)
1 small tomato - chopped
Equal parts Orange juice and white wine or stock
Rinse cutlets and pat dry. Sprinkle cutlets with salt, pepper, chicken curry and garlic powder, then lightly flour and brown in olive oil.
After browned, remove cutlets to a plate and add chopped mushrooms, onion and garlic to the pan, along with a good pinch of your favorite herb blend and continue sautéing.
Add meat back in, and add orange juice and white wine to create the gravy. Add medium amount of chilies, and the chopped tomato, and thicken if necessary, or if more gravy is desired, with a mixture of oj, white wine and cornstarch. The longer you simmer the meat in the gravy the more tender it becomes - 30 to 45 minutes is usually about how long I simmer them.
Can be served over noodles or rice with garlic toast.
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| Pork a l'orange |
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12/19/2021 - Beef Pot Stickers.
I put this recipe together while summering at the Bahia Redonda Marina down in Venezuela circa 2008 to take to a Cooking Class I taught. We took turns teaching our fellow cruisers how to make things like simple breads or appetizers. Each session was a demonstration (like an episode of the show 'The Kitchen') and included a printed recipe hand-out, followed by a Q/A period, and a tasting. Fun amusement to pass the time, and I got some great recipes out of the sessions too.
Here are a few shots of the making, frying and aftermath, lol (I always get excited after plating and forget all about photo-taking!) Medium effort but big reward in the eating, plus they're freezable. Enjoy!
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| Meat mixture in brown bowl, small water cup for sealing, dough log, rolling pin and filled dumplings |
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| Nearly finished, some to cook and some to freeze. |
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| Vegetable stir-fry over rice with dumplings. Shot of the leftovers for lunch (not the prettiest shot but a great meal). |
s/v Dreamtime's Asian Beef Pot Stickers
For dipping sauce
2
tablespoons soy sauce
1
tablespoon Dijon mustard
1
tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon
grated peeled fresh gingerroot
2 1/2 teaspoons water
For dough
1 3/4 to 2 cups all-purpose flour
For filling
3/4 cup ground beef (or a little more)
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons
Asian sesame oil
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh garlic, or ½
teaspoon powdered
1 tablespoon finely minced peeled fresh ginger
1/2
cup finely chopped onion, carrot & celery, (combined)
Make dough:
Put 1 3/4 cups flour in a large bowl, then add boiling-hot water, stirring with a wooden spoon until a shaggy dough forms. When just cool enough to handle, turn out dough (including any loose flour) onto a floured work surface and knead, incorporating some of remaining 1/4 cup flour if dough is sticky, until smooth, about 5 minutes. Form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Let rest at room temperature about 20 minutes.
Make filling while dough rests:
Stir together beef, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and ginger in a medium bowl, then stir in veggies. Note: Prepackaged coleslaw mix can be substituted, just dice it a bit finer.
Form and fry dumplings:
Form dough into a log (about 1 inch wide), then cut dough crosswise into 1-inch-wide pieces. Put a few pieces, cut sides down, on a lightly floured surface (keep remaining pieces loosely covered with plastic wrap) and flatten slightly with your hand. Roll out each flattened piece into a 3-4 inch round with lightly floured rolling pin. Put a rounded tablespoon of filling in center of each round, then brush or dab halfway around edge with a little water and fold in half, pressing edges together to seal and leaving a small opening at each end of semicircle to vent steam. Stand each dumpling, sealed edge up, on a wax-paper-lined tray, then press dumplings slightly onto 1 side so more of dumpling touches tray. By fine-tuning the dumpling size you can make these into a slightly larger main dish size versus appetizer size.
Heat oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderate heat until hot, then remove from heat and arrange dumplings in a tight circular pattern standing up in oil (they should touch one another). Cook, uncovered, over moderate heat until oil sizzles, then drizzle warm water (1/3 cup) over pot stickers and cook, covered, until bottoms are browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Add a couple of tablespoons more water if skillet looks dry before bottoms are browned. Note: If you like them even more browned, flip them over and brown the other side before drizzling the water into the pan.
Remove lid and cook, shaking skillet to loosen pot stickers, until steam dissipates, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove pot stickers from the skillet and let rest on paper towels for a minute then serve warm with the dipping sauce.
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