Thrifty Thursday: Week #21 Ham & Bean Soup

One of the thriftiest meals on the planet has to be Bean Soup. Toss in some leftover ham, and you have bonus protein and flavor. Some have even called similar mixtures "Depression Soup", to commemorate how many families during the Great Depression stretched pennies over several meals.

This particular recipe is a favorite, especially of my husband's. It was given to me by a friend of mine many years ago. I try to always have a bag or two of dried beans in the cabinet, and this recipe is a tasty way to use them! You do need to plan a day ahead for this meal.

Ham & Bean Soup

2 cups of dried beans, any variety (I use 15 bean, but you can use anything)

8 cups of cold water

1/2 tsp baking soda

First, you'll need to add the beans to a large stock pot and cover them with the water. Stir in the baking soda. This will need to soak overnight.

The next day, completely drain off the soaking water and rinse the beans well. Return beans to the pan and add:

8 cups of water

1 lb. leftover ham (or smoked sausage, ham hocks, whatever you have on hand)

1 large onion, chopped

1 14.5-oz can of peeled tomatoes (I use diced)

Bring this to a FULL boil. Turn heat down to medium for a high simmer, 2-3 hours, or until beans are tender. 

Add in:

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp basil

1 1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 - 1/2 tsp pepper

Simmer for another 30 minutes. Enjoy!

These feeds our family of 6 comfortably. :) 

 

What did you do that was thrifty this week?

PLEASE ONLY ADD YOUR LINK IF YOU ARE PARTICIPATING IN THRIFTY THURSDAY. To participate, simply add the link to your thrifty post below (NOT TO YOUR HOMEPAGE!) and link back to this Thrifty Thursday post from yours. Leave a comment and visit the other TT links to comment on theirs. That's it! :)

TWD: Brioche Plum Tart

This week Denise of Chez Us picked Brioche Plum Tart on pages 54-55. You can get the recipe from her blog or buy the book, Baking From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan. Because I was recently diagnosed with diabetes, I was wondering whether I would be able to continue baking along with the TWD bakers. I'm happy to report that I'm not going anywhere and will be able to keep myself in check and continue to post TWD recipes. I'm also happy to say that I don't have to put Splenda in everything I make (blech)!

I've never made brioche before, though it's definitely been on my to do list. I'm glad the instructions said that the dough were behave more like a batter than a dough after mixing or I may have been tempted to add more flour!

It was totally fun to put together too. Kind of like making a mosaic. :) There would be no concentric circles on this tart. Why? Because I decided to make a two sided tart. On one side I used black raspberry jam and black plums, the other side has Nutella and cherries. Both sides are extremely delicious, the plum being the tarter of the two. I did get to try a bit of each, but refrained from gobbling down all of the brioche at the end. Man it was good! I saved myself a nutella/cherry slice for morning and did what Dorie said she does... passed it on. I gave the rest of the brioche tart to my neighbors, so I'll find out tomorrow if they liked it.


I would definitely make this again. It's a gorgeous presentation, looks like it came straight from a bakery. This could certainly pass for dessert, but I would be more inclined to serve this as a breakfast or brunch item instead. A definite keeper., not to mention a lot easier to make than it looks. I will warn you though, this needs time to rise and rest like bread does, because after all brioche is a bread. So be prepared for that!

Be sure to visit the other TWD bakers and see how theirs came out!

Banana Upside Down Muffins

Quite a while ago I received a cookbook called Sweet!: From Agave to Turbinado, Home Baking with Every Kind of Natural Sugar and Sweetener by Mani Niall. I had thumbed through it several times and bookmarked quite a few recipes, but never found the time to make anything. I've been holding on to these pics for a couple of months now, so I thought I had better get these posted! 

On a side note, there was an error in this recipe in the book. I contacted Chef Mani Niall through his website and he was super nice and very helpful with straightening things out :) The recipe below is correct.

As you'll see from the picture below, I did have a couple of casualties when inverting the pan. LOL. 

I love pineapple upside down cake and I love bananas. So when I saw the name of this recipe I knew it would be something I would enjoy. Even the kids liked the flavor of these muffins! So if you are like me and you get tired of making banana bread, try this delicious recipe on for size. These are perfect breakfast or brunch muffins!

If you prefer it as a dessert, pair it with some freshly whipped cream sweetened with powdered sugar and a little banana extract, sprinkled with cinnamon.

Banana Upside Down Muffins

from Sweet! by Mani Niall

Note: Mani suggests using dark muscovado sugar for the richest carmelized layer. I used regular dark brown sugar and they were fabulous. I can only imagine how good they would have been with muscovado!

non-stick cooking spray

4 tbsp unsalted butter

1/2 cup dark muscovado or brown sugar, packed (I used dark brown sugar)

4 ripe bananas

Muffins:

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, preferably organic

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg 

pinch of salt

1/2 cup dark muscovado or brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup canola oil

2 large eggs, room temperature

3 tbsp whole milk

3 tbsp dark rum

1 tsp vanilla extract

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 F. Lightly spray a 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

To prepare the pans, place 2 teaspoons of the butter and 2 teaspoons of the brown sugar in each muffin cup. Bake until the mixture in each cup is melted and bubbly, about 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and cool for a few minutes. Peel the bananas and cut them on a diagonal into 48 thin slices. In each muffin cup, place two banana slices on the bottom and two banana slices along the sides. 

To make the muffins, sift together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt in a medium sized bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, oil, eggs, milk, rum, and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add the egg mixture, and stir just until blended. Do not overbeat. Divide evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling them as full as possible (be sure to divide them evenly, they will be about 3/4 way full).

Bake until the center of a muffin springs back when pressed gently with your finger, about 18 minutes. Immediately invert and unmold the muffins onto a wire rack. Cool briefly and serve. The muffins are best the day they are made.

Lemon & Blackberry Cream Cheese Swirl Cake

My cable modem died, so during that time I took the opportunity to go through some old Taste of Home magazines to ear mark recipes. I spent the morning flipping through pages and making photocopies when one recipe in particular struck my fancy. 

The original recipe was called Chocolate Cheese Swirl Cake. The original recipe used a chocolate cake with a strawberry topping made simply from frozen strawberries, thawed then blended.

I love to bake cakes from scratch, but when those boxes of cake mix go on sale for under a dollar, I always grab some. Well, I've had a lemon box cake in the pantry for quite a while now, and I had some blackberries in the freezer, hence the birth of this tasty creation. 

Lemon & Blackberry Cream Cheese Swirl Cake

CAKE:

8 oz cream cheese

4 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 box lemon cake mix

1 1/4 cups water

1/2 cup canola oil

8-10 oz frozen blackberries, thawed

1/3 cup sugar

FROSTING:

2 8-oz pkgs cream cheese

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup blackberry juice (from thawed blackberries)

PREP

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease two 9" round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper. Grease the parchment. Dust with flour and tap out excess. 

Place frozen blackberries in a shallow bowl and allow them to thaw. Once thawed, remove 1/4 cup of the juice to be used in the frosting recipe (see ingredient list above).

MAKE THE CAKE

In mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream together an 8-oz package of cream cheese, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1 of the eggs, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.  Mix on medium high until creamy. Set aside.

With mixer on low speed, combine cake mix, the other 3 eggs, 1 1/4 cups of water and the canola oil for about 30 seconds. Beat on medium high for 2 minutes. Separate cake mixture evenly between the two cake pans. 

Take the cream cheese mixture, and using a spoon, drop the mixture in several places on top of the cake batter in each pan. Use a butter knife to swirl the cream cheese through the cake batter, but don't over mix it, you don't want to blend it in. Don't be alarmed, your cake will probably look lumpy. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until surface springs back when touched. Let the cakes cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove cakes from pan, peel off parchment, and allow cakes to cool on wire rack until completely cooled. 

MAKE THE FROSTING

Using mixer with paddle attachment on medium high speed, blend the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Turn speed down to low and slowly add the powdered sugar. Turn speed back up to medium high and bet until creamy. Slowly dribble in, while mixing, the blackberry juice. Scrape down mixer bowl and be sure everything is blended. Refrigerate until you are ready to frost the cake.

BLACKBERRY SOAK

In a small saucepan over medium heat, mix together blackberries and 1/3 cup sugar. Cook at a low boil until sugar is dissolved. Simmer for 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat and strain out as much liquid from the blackberries as you can. Basically you will be left with just seeds and skin, this you can send this down your garbage disposal. Don't feel guilty, your local waste treatment plant will happily turn it into renewable energy. :) 

ASSEMBLE

Place one cake layer upside down (flat side up) on cake plate. Spoon the blackberry soak onto the cake layer, smoothing with the spoon as you go. Allow to soak into the cake. Put enough on so that the layer is saturated.

Spread some of the frosting on top of the soaked layer, frosting to about 1" from the sides. You may want to refrigerate this layer for an hour to let the frosting set up to avoid slippage. Unless of course you are like me and you'll argue with the cake layers back and forth as it tries to slide off the top (see next step).

Place a piece of wax paper (or if you have a second cooling rack, this works great) on top of the remaining cake layer so that it is now sandwiched between the bottom rack and the wax paper. Invert the cake and place it gently on the counter. Soak the flat side of the cake with blackberry soak. You may or may not have any blackberry soak leftover after this step. When done, carefully turn the layer over and place it on top of the frosted layer. Frost the sides and the top of the cake.

NOTES: 

1. I had quite a bit of frosting left over so I will save it for another goodie.
2. Refrigerating the layers and the frosting is a good idea.
3. If you have some of the blackberry soak left over, you may add it to the top of the cake before frosting.
   
4. If you have more patience than me, you can refrigerate the cake and it will cut beautifully, no sagging :) 

This cake is a sweet treat with a hint of cheesecake flavor to it. It's even better if you let it sit in the refrigerator! After sitting in the fridge for a while it's like eating cheesecake-cake. :) 

A great summer dessert!

Thrifty Thursday: Week #20 Farm Fresh Chicken

On Tuesday the farmer called me (I buy my beef, my turkey at Thanksgiving, and sometimes chicken from the local farmer) and said he had fresh chickens that were ready to go. Several benefits here:

1) no hormones, injections, etc

2) raised outside in natural surroundings on a farm, not in a factory

3) much larger than grocery store chickens, usually twice as big or more

4) fresh, never been frozen

These babies are big. I don't have a kitchen scale, only my postage scale, and that tops out at 7 pounds. I was still holding quite a bit of the weight of the chicken as I tried to rest it on the scale. No go, kept topping out. I'm going to guess these were 9-10 pound chickens. I pay $10.00 per chicken. 

I'm sure there were some gasps at first. $10.00? For a chicken?? Let's think about this though. A chicken in the grocery store, on average, weighs about 4 pounds. When they go ON SALE they are $0.98/pound. So if I just bought a fresh, better for me chicken that weighs 10 pounds for $10.00, well heck, sounds like a good deal to me!

I put one in the freezer and slow roasted the other that same night. I've posted the recipe for Sticky Chicken that I used for this before, only that time I cooked it in the crock pot. This time I slow roasted in the oven (also in the instructions). I of course, had to add a little time and upped the temperature by 25 degrees as the recipe calls for a 4 pound chicken.

Funny thing is, when I brought this to the table my husband said "Holy crap. That looks like a mini turkey!"

Ha ha! Well look at the roasting pan the chicken is sitting in. That's a roasting pan that holds my 25 pound turkey at Thanksgiving!

So we sat and enjoyed our fresh, no hormone, never frozen, raised on a real farm chicken. Afterward I placed the chicken in a large plastic bag and put it in the fridge overnight. The next day I removed all the meat, separating white and dark. 

The dark meat I used for chicken enchiladas with homemade enchilada sauce. The white meat I still have, though I did use some of it in a tortilla wrap for lunch today. 

Lastly, the carcass and a bunch of scrap onions, onion skins, celery leaves, and carrot peelings I've been collecting in the freezer went into a big pot of water. Brought it to a boil and simmered half the day to make lots of homemade chicken broth.

I don't play along often enough in Fight Back Fridays, so I am entering this post in that event :) 

What did you do that was thrifty this week?

PLEASE ONLY ADD YOUR LINK IF YOU ARE PARTICIPATING IN THRIFTY THURSDAY. To participate, simply add the link to your thrifty post below (NOT TO YOUR HOMEPAGE!) and link back to this Thrifty Thursday post from yours. Leave a comment and visit the other TT links to comment on theirs. That's it! :)

Bananas n Cream Bundt Cake with Brown Butter Glaze

I originally found this delicious recipe on Ingrid's blog, 3 B's...Baseball, Baking & Books. She found it on Bunny's blog, Bunny's Warm Oven, and Bunny found it on Taste of Home. The Brown Butter Glaze that coats this cake so perfectly, was found on Recipezaar.

Now that I have covered all the proper crediting, I have to share this wonderful cake with you. I love bananas, but they do go brown so quickly. I can only make so many banana breads before getting bored, so I am always on the look out for something different. I've tried several banana cakes, but this is one of the best ones. You know you want to make it! Go ahead! 

Bananas and Cream Bundt Cake with Brown Butter Glaze

1/3 cup shortening

1-1/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/4 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

In a large bowl, cream the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add bananas and mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, stirring just until combined. Stir in walnuts. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Place a piece of waxed paper under the wire rack before adding the glaze.

Brown Butter Glaze

1/2 cup butter

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 tablespoons milk

In a medium bowl, add powdered sugar. Place butter in a small saucepan. Melt butter over medium heat until bubbly. Cook, stirring occasionally until golden brown. Remove from heat and pour butter into the bowl of powdered sugar. Add milk and vanilla, stir until smooth.

Pour over the top of the cake and let it ooze over the sides. Use a metal spatula to help smooth it out.

Take a look at this last picture. See the smiley face? Well of course you do, how couldn't you? I didn't do this on purpose, this was the wax paper under the wire rack to catch the dripping glaze. Guess even the waxed paper thought this cake was good! What's not to smile about!