Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Week 30: Crockpot Stuffed Peppers

The Recipe
4 green, red, or yellow bell peppers
1 cup cooked rice (1dl pre-cooking)
1 (15oz) can chili beans with chili gravy
1 (15oz) can tomato sauce
1 finely chopped onion
175g shredded ham (optional)
1 (8oz) can corn

Remove tops, membranes, and seeds from bell peppers. Chop tops; set aside. If necessary, cut a thin slice from the bottom of each pepper so they sit flat. In a medium bowl stir together rice, ham and undrained beans; spoon into peppers. Pour tomato sauce into the bottom of a slow cooker; stir in reserved chopped pepper, corn and onion. Place peppers, filled side up, in cooker.

Cook for 6-7 hours on LOW or 3-4 hours on HIGH.

Serve with shredded cheese and chili.

The Verdict
I know it seems like a cliche to say that everything is better with bacon, but I actually do think this would have been better with cooked bacon rather than ham. Ah well, I still liked it well enough. It wasn't fantastic, but definitely good enough to make again some other time.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Week 29: Crockpot Teriaki

The Recipe
1lb chicken pieces - I used drumsticks
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 garlic cloves, chopped finely
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp sherry (I didn't have any, so used red wine instead)

Dump the chicken into a crockpot and cover with the rest of the ingredients. Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours.

The Verdict
It was alright. I wasn't crazy about the sauce by itself, but liked the way it coated the chicken. NOT something for my husband though.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Week 28: Watermelon Ice Cream

The Recipe
1 watermelon, without rind and seeds
2.5dl cream (1 cup)
1 lemon
2.5dl milk
2 tbsp rum or vodka
~1 dl sugar or to taste
~50g chopped dark chocolate

Cut the watermelon into pieces and run through a blender or similar.
Whip the cream until stiff and add the watermelon juice (strain it if you want - I didn't). Add the rest of the ingredients and stir carefully.
Pour mixture into ice-cream maker; proceed according to manufacturer instructions. I left mine for about 45 minutes.
Transfer to freezer tubs and freeze for another couple of hours until solid.

The Verdict
This recipe almost made for more than could fit into my ice cream maker! Just a heads-up. Again the consistency turned out weird, because the whipped cream gathered on the top, leaving the juice still completely liquid below. I stirred it when putting it into the freezer tubs, and again 2-3 hours later, which I think did the trick. The alcohol is to keep the watermelon juice from freezing too solid, but I don't think it worked too well - took forever to soften up after I took it back out of the freezer a couple of days later!

Not my favourite - almost too sweet despite the lemon - but I have a friend who I think will love it :)

Week 27: Orange Sorbet

The Recipe
5 oranges
2 egg whites
50g icing sugar

Press the oranges. Mix together eggwhites and icing sugar until stiff. Carefully fold in the orange juice.
Pour mixture into ice-cream maker; proceed according to manufacturer instructions. I left mine for about 35 minutes.
Transfer to freezer tubs and freeze for another couple of hours until solid.

The Verdict
The consistency turned out really weird here, because the orange juice and the egg-whites froze at different speeds. The taste couldn't be faulted though :)