I miss Bed Bath & Beyond. I’m keeping my coupons just in case… 🤞Here’s what I made this week:
The kitchen is my happy place so here is what I made this week:
I haven’t had a cold or flu in over 50 years. Hmmm… I wonder if it’s the home cooking? 🙂
This is my most treasured cookbook, the one I learned how to cook with. It was published in 1968 and is still a classic today. I often refer to it and this time, I came across an old recipe for prune whip. I see a lot of people ask about how to make prune whip so I took a picture of the recipes (2 actually, one stovetop and one baked) and am posting them here for anyone who wants to make old fashioned prune whip, or maybe can use this recipe as a base for your own creation.
Prunes provide more than just fiber. They are full of nutrients like potassium, iron, vitamins B6 and K, lots of polyphenols, and boron for bones. Enjoy!
Summer blueberries are in season so I’m loving this easy recipe for what I’ve decided to call “Blueberry Breakfast Cake.” It’s not too sweet, easy to make, no mixer is needed, and there are different options for the top. Along with my usual breakfast of a hard-boiled egg and toast, I’ve been enjoying a slice of this breakfast cake for dessert. Blueberries are considered brain food so I’m hoping this helps me for the number of times I walk into a room and forget why I went there! 😀 Click here for the recipe.
👩🍳 NEW RECIPE:👩🍳 I hate cooked spinach, always have. It just tasted slimy and I would prefer a can of sardines (with the heads!) than eat cooked spinach. But spinach has so many health benefits, I had to find a way to incorporate it into my cooking and here it is: wilted spinach! It’s not slimy. Baby spinach softens up quickly when it’s steamed and that’s what I do here. I cook the chicken and pasta and then just steam the spinach on top for two minutes and now, I eat spinach all the time!
You know how they always say, “Eat leafy greens?” 🥬 Make this recipe and you’ll be supporting your heart, brain, eyes, bones, blood pressure, and digestion, And spinach is loaded with vitamins A, C, and K, plus folic acid, iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium and more.
Com’on! Get on the spinach train like me! 🚂 Click here for the recipe.
Is anyone else tired of cleaning your garlic press? Or of chopping garlic? I know I am. I cook with garlic all the time and I saw a great tip on a better way to use garlic. All you do is add a whole peeled garlic clove directly into your pan while cooking. You’ll still get plenty of garlic flavor without the mess. Once your recipe is done, simply remove and discard the garlic. I forgot once and ate the whole thing but that’s okay – you’ll gets lots of health benefits, just maybe not a lot of close-up friends!
Many recipes start with sautéing onions and garlic and so you sauté them together. I actually put my olive oil and garlic clove in my pan and start to heat it up. Once the garlic starts to sizzle, I add the onions and away I go. Another benefit of this method is that your garlic won’t burn so easily. Actually, mine has never burned this way, probably because it’s whole and not chopped fine or crushed. I’ve been using garlic this way for months with chili, one-pan pasta dishes, rice, and spaghetti sauce, and thought I would share this will my follow cooks.
Eating less sugar? I am. So I’ve been making dark chocolate clusters as a gift for my sweet tooth. It could not be any easier to make these healthy treats. All you need is two ingredients: 70% dark chocolate and some nuts (this time I bought some roasted unsalted cashews). You just melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water (that’s an old-timey double boiler), chop up the nuts and stir them into the melted chocolate. Then spoon your clusters onto some wax paper, refrigerate, and keep stored in a container in the fridge.
They are a lot like my chocolate-almond clusters (https://www.jennycancook.com/recipes/chocolate-almond-clusters/) except I’ve been using cashews because they’re soft and they have lots of magnesium.
Did you know that dark chocolate (a least 70% cacao) has many health benefits? It’s good for your heart, your brain, your skin, and it contains flavonoids, the same antioxidants you get from green tea.
So if you don’t already, learn to love dark chocolate and make your own homemade chocolate clusters. I often have one as my only dessert… okay, two if no one is looking. 👀 😋
NEW RECIPE: Do you like chocolate? Do you like coffee? How about molasses? Okay… maybe not as a snack, but you need it to make this classic and delicious pumpernickel bread. And now you can make it at home in a Dutch oven with no kneading! My husband loves this bread and even uses it for peanut butter sandwiches. It’s super easy to make and the complex flavor that comes from the coffee, chocolate, molasses, and some rye flour makes a really tasty loaf.
There are two ways to make this recipe. One is the fast way using warm liquids and that takes about 4 1/2 hours of time. The other way is the long overnight way, using cool water. You put it together at night and bake in the morning. I have used both methods and cannot tell the difference in the results.
And for the record, I love molasses and sometimes just have a spoonful or two for the numerous health benefits, including iron, calcium, and magnesium. If you want an easy way to make homemade pumpernickel bread, click here for the recipe.
If this looks like the perfect apple, it might be too good to be true. Apples in their natural state are not glossy. So if you see an apple like this red delicious, don’t take a bite just yet. It might be like snacking on a candle because some apples are coated with wax to keep them fresh longer. It’s called “food-grade wax” but I’m not buying it. That’s like saying, “food-grade dirt.” It won’t kill you but do you want to swallow a spoonful of dirt? How about a spoonful of wax in your stomach?
I love red delicious apples and bought a few last week. When I ate the first one, I had a hard time chewing the skin. I couldn’t remember red delicious skin being so hard to eat. Then I remembered reading about wax on apples and I was sure this apple was coated so I decided to try removing it. I scraped it with a small paring knife and was shocked to see how much wax came off this small 3-inch apple.
Imagine how much is on a big apple! So when you see a glossy, shiny apple, it just takes a second to scrape it once with a knife to test for wax. No wax? Enjoy the apple and the skin, which has more nutrients than the inside. If you see wax, you can scrape it off with a knife or you can drop the apple into boiling water for 5 seconds to melt the wax, then rub it off with a coarse towel. Keep the wax away and eat an apple a day. 🍎
Here is my new favorite muffin. ❤️ I only make muffins in my toaster oven now (boycotting my awful Viking oven!) so I make six at a time. I eat one and freeze the rest. I freeze almost all of my baked goods the same day they’re made. I remember “day old bread” always being on sale at the bakery, because fresh anything is always better, except for wine, I’m told. 🍷
With my easy oatmeal muffin recipe, you soak the oats first, and I use minimal sugar and no butter but they are so good… moist on the inside with a crispy top from a little sprinkling of sugar before baking. Let me know if you try them. Click here for the recipe.