Not very long ago I decided that peeling potatoes by hand was a huge waste of time and energy.  I much prefer just baking potatoes.  But lots of people like having mashed, boiled, or roasted potatoes, and I have to agree that all of those are yummy.  But peeling potatoes is a drag! 

So, I bought myself an electric potato peeler!  To be honest, it is not the top of the line commercial peeler.  In fact it cost less than $20!  But it works.  Amazingly well.  And it peels carrots and apples too!  And if and when this little guy kicks the bucket, I’ll take a look at an upgrade.  In the meantime, I will not be as reluctant to peel potatoes for some nice REAL and FRESH potatoes!

We had two very over-ripe bananas, and so I decided to make banana bread.  My favorite banana bread recipe calls for three bananas (most call for only two) so instead of using my favorite tried-and-true recipe, I decided to try a bread-machine recipe for banana bread that only calls for two bananas.  I love fresh baked bread from my bread machine!  Well, I was suspicious that there was a typo in the printed recipe – it did not call for any water or milk.  The only liquid in it was some honey and an egg.

Putting my suspicions aside, I set up the bread machine and followed the recipe to the letter.  I turned on the machine, and heard it mixing the batter.  Then I decided to go take a nap, hoping to wake up to some wonderful fresh banana bread.  When I got up, the bread smelled wonderful!  But opening the lid of the machine I saw that the machine had stopped mixing the batter at some point, and basically all I had was a very hot mess.  Nothing that resembled anything edible. 

I concluded that the batter was too thick for the machine to knead, and that the bread machine itself had broken down.  I was quite annoyed!

I had thought that someone else in my large extended family would have Easter dinner planned out this year, but when I started asking around it became clear that if I wanted to be going to a big family Easter celebration, I was the one who had to throw it!  With only two days notice, and no idea how many people would show up – anywhere between six and twenty people – I had to plan a menu, shop, and cook. 

So, we had a spiral glazed ham (it came out perfect), cole slaw, baked beans, pineapple bread pudding, corn fritters, devilled eggs, asparagus, green beans butternut squash, fresh baked bread, spinach & strawberry salad for dinner.  We had an assortment of iced teas and sodas, mile and water, and of course coffee.  Dessert was fruit torte and raspberry filled cake.  Some of this was bought already made (cole slaw, beans, and dessert) but the rest was home made.  Some of it made by me, some by my sister, some my hubby, some my Mom.  It was a succesful group effort, and everyone had a good time. 

Not too bad for a last minute party!

I recently received the new Southern Living Annual Recipes cookbook for 2009 in the mail.  I was really excited – I LOVE Cookbooks!  So I settled down for what I hoped would be a good read with a cup of tea and cracked open the book.  I have to say that I was wishing that there were photos of every recipe, like some of the other cookbooks that I get.  It is hard to get excited over a recipe if there is no photo of it!  I’m sure there are lots of great recipes in there, but I’m not sure that I’ll spend a lot of time looking for them there.  Because of that I don’t think I’ll order next year’s cookbook!  That baby cost $40 and I don’t know how much use it will get!

Having said that, however, there was a great looking recipe in it for nutter butter banana trifle that I thought I’d like to send to my mom – she loves trifles and she loves nutter butter cookies!  I thought about photocopying it and faxing it to her, but then I decided to do a search online and found the recipe online.  If you are interested in seeing it, you can go to this site:

Well running the diffuser through the dishwasher didn’t help.  The diffuser was still smoking badly when I put it on the stovetop.  I really was afraid it would catch on fire!  Well, I let it cool off in the sink and then threw it in the trash.  In today’s economy I don’t want to buy anything new that I don’t need to buy!  But I’ve had that diffuser for at least twenty years, so I did get my money’s worth out of it!

I did find diffusers online for a decent price and ordered two of them.  They arrived in the mail yesterday and I need to handwash them in hot soapy water before the first use to prevent them from smoking.  I didn’t have time to do that yesterday, so that is on my “to do” list for today!

Moral of the story – please folks, do not use diffusers for direct contact with food!

We had a family dinner here yesterday afternoon.  Mom brought a dish she had made that I’ve never had before.  It was a sour kraut dish with kielbasa, apples, potatoes, onions, and apple juice (or maybe it was apple cider.)  Everyone loved it!  She left about 1/2 of it behind – she made a ton of it!  Even my hubby, who hates anything with onions in it said it was delicious!  But then again, no one told him there were onions in it!  Shhhhh….. don’t tell!

In addition to the sour kraut, we had ham, corn pudding, baked pineapple casserole, fresh green beans almandine, fresh baked sourdough bread, and home-made macaroni and cheese.  It was a true feast!

Last night I wanted to cook some rice on very low heat on my gas stove.  As usual I pulled out my diffuser to slip under the pot so that the heat would be really low.  I could not believe my eyes when smoke started pouring out of my diffuser!  I pulled the diffuser out from under the pot to take a look at it.  Someone in the household had obviously tried to cook something directly on the diffuser and had put some kind of grease/oil on it!  I don’t know if it was butter, or non-stick spray, but it was definitely covered with some kind of grease!  I tried wiping it off, but it still smokes like crazy!  Well, now I’m afraid to use it because I’m afraid it will catch on fire!

I’ve never washed the diffuser before – never needed to!  Well, now I’m going to run it through the dishwasher – I hope it doesn’t ruin it.

As for who in this house tried to cook with it – no one is admitting to it.  This is very upsetting.  I wish that people would own up to their mistakes.  I may have to buy a new one now, and I’m not sure if any local stores carry them.  So now I’m doing a slow burn in more ways than one!

I finally got around to buying all of the ingredients for that pork tenderloin recipe and cooked it exactly as directed in the recipe.  No one in the family like it as much as the recipe that I had done a few weeks before when I had to substitute ingredients!  So now I am going to have to try to re-create it.  I did take notes on what I did differently, but the measurements weren’t exact.  I’m sure you know what I mean – a handful of this, a dollop of that!  I think that the part that was disappointing was the thyme.  I had substituted equal parts of parsley and oregano in place of the thyme for the first try.  I did buy thyme and used it for the second recipe, and that was such a different taste.  Don’t get me wrong – the roast was perfectly edible and none of it got thrown away.  It just wasn’t as super yummy as the first one that I “winged.”

Funny how that happened!

Over the years I’ve been frustrated by many failed attempts to bake good brownies.  I tried metal pans.  I tried glass pans.  The brownies were always too dry or too moist.  Then I decided to buy one of those double-walled insulated pans.  Perfect brownies every single time!  I love the pans that come with the fitting plastic lid on them.  I store the brownies right in the pan – just cover it with the lid.

I try to buy the least expensive mix.  After all, I am on a food budget and just having brownies is a luxury!  But when my budget allows it I will buy a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips.  I stir in 1/2 cup of each into the brownie batter just before pouring the batter into the pan.  My family loves these brownies!

One of the most valuable tools I have in my kitchen is a stove top heat diffuser.  I cook with a gas stove (I love cooking with gas!) and I frequently find myself needing to use a diffuser to help keep delicate things from boiling and/or scorching.  I’m always surprised when someone comes over and offers to cook something for me (and/or my family) and they are not familiar with either cooking with gas, or using a diffuser.  Many of them don’t even know what a diffuser is and they are amazed when I demonstrate and explain it to them.  So maybe I should consider giving a diffuser as a housewarming/wedding gift to new homeowners/newlyweds to help them get started in a better way of cooking!   I love mine – I find that it enables me to heat things up with less stirring, and less worry about burning.