Orange Teriyaki Beef

This past Thursday my sister and I attended the Taste of Home Cooking School in Midland, Michigan. One of the recipes that the instructor, Dana, demonstrated was Orange Teriyaki Beef. I prepared this dish tonight and was it delicious.
My photograph does not do it justice.

FYI An alternative variation might be to add pea pods (steam before adding) before serving.

Orange Teriyaki Beef

2 T flour
1 Oven bag large size
1/2 C orange juice (I squeezed 2 large oranges)
1/2 C teriyaki sauce (I used low sodium sauce)
1/4 C firmly packed brown sugar
3 garlic cloves minced (I used 1 t freeze dried garlic)
1 t grated orange peel
1/2 t crushed red pepper (I omitted this)
2 lbs beef top round roast 1 inch thick (this is a cheap cut, I paid 5 bucks for 1.75 lbs)
Hot cooked rice
1/4 C chopped green onions for garnish

Shake flour in oven bag. Place in a 13x9 baking dish. Add orange juice, teriyaki sauce, brown sugar, garlic, orange peel, and crushed red pepper into oven bag. Squeeze bag to blend ingredients. Add beef to bag. Turn bag to coat beef.

Close oven bag with nylon tie. Marinate in fridge for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 325. Cut slits in top of oven bag.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until thermometer reads 145. Thinly slice beef. Stir sauce. Serve with sauce over rice. Garnish with green onions.

This was the second Taste of Home Cooking School that my sister and I have attended. The cost is 10 bucks. Not only do you get a gift bag but you might be lucky enough to win one of the many door prizes. My sister and I did not win a thing!!! But the cooking demonstration is well worth the time and $$$$.

Free Jiffy Recipe Booklet

I love these little recipe booklets that are put out by food manufacturers. Jiffy products are manufactured here in Michigan and their corn bread mix is a favorite here at 'The Gear'.You can get a FREE updated Jiffy Recipe book by going HERE and requesting one.

Angel Food Cake with Apricots & Raspberries

This is a cake that was featured on the Katie Brown TV show. I tweaked it a bit and rather than use a store bought angel food cake (the horror!) I used my favorite angel food cake recipe and omitted and added certain items. This cake recipe could also be changed slightly by using different fresh fruits.

What I really liked about this cake is that it is light and tastes great after a large heavy meal.
Bake cake according to recipe. Once the cake is completely cooled, cut the cake into 3 layers using a long serrated knife.

Spread pudding mixture onto the bottom layer. Place fresh raspberries and apricot slices about 1 inch apart centered on the layer. Repeat this for the next layer.

The top layer is assembled using the same method except you omit the apricot slices and use sliced almonds around each fresh raspberry.

Keep cake chilled in the refrigerator.

Angel Food Cake Recipe

1 C sifted cake flour

1 1/2 C sugar
1 1/2 C egg whites (10-12 medium size eggs)
1/4 t salt
1 1/2 t cream of tartar
1/2 t almond extract
1 1/2 t vanilla extract

Sift flour and 3/4 C of sugar together. Beat egg whites with salt and cream of tartar in large bowl using high speed setting on mixer, until light and fluffy. Sprinkle remaining 3/4 C sugar over egg whites, 2 T at a tine, beating thoroughly after each addition. Continue beating until stiff peaks form. Fold in extracts. Sift dry ingredients, 2 T at a time, over beaten egg whites. Fold in gently but thoroughly with a wire whip or rubber spatula. I cut a piece of wax paper exactly the size of the bottom of pan. Place in pan before pouring batter into pan. Pour batter into ungreased tube pan. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 40 to 50 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cracks are dry. Invert pan immediately. Cool cake in upside down pan for 1 hour.

After the cake is cool, place pan right side up. Run a knife between the cake and pan to make removal easier. Place plate on top of pan and invert the pan and plate. Lift the outer pan from the cake leaving the tube part and cake. Place a knife between wax paper and pan bottom loosening the cake. The cake should fall onto the plate with the wax paper still attached. Peel the wax paper from the cake.

Pudding Filling

1box of instant vanilla pudding mix
1 3/4 C of cold milk
1/2 small container of Cool Whip

Mix together pudding mix and 1 3/4 C cold milk. Mix thoroughly and let stand for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes the pudding should be thick. Add the Cool Whip, mixing thoroughly. Place in refrigerator for two minutes to aid in thickening. Use for filling after 2 minutes.

Free Cookbook from SeaPak Seafood

Click on the link below for a free cookbook from SeaPak.

We love their jumbo shrimp so I am looking forward to trying some new recipes.

Plus...... make sure you look for coupons in the newspaper and magazines.

http://www.seapak.com/index/easyseafoodmeals

Quick & Easy Taco Salad

I love this recipe. It is the kind of recipe that you can fine tune for your likes and dislikes. Plus, it is fast AND easy. Excuse the paper plate but I felt like minimal clean up tonight.Ingredients

Doritos Taco chips
lettuce (shredded)
shredded cheddar cheese
diced fresh tomatoes
diced white onion
sliced black olives
1 can dark red kidney beans washed and drained
1 bottle Russian or Catalina salad dressing
taco mix
1/2 C water
1 lb ground beef
sour cream optional

Brown ground beef in a skillet. Once the meat is fully cooked, drain as much of the fat as you can from the ground beef. Place meat back in skillet. Add 1/2 C of water, kidney beans, and taco mix to cooked ground beef. Cook until the majority of the water is gone. Remove from heat to cool slightly.

While meat cools, dice the veggies. Once the meat is barely warm add the dressing of your choice (I prefer Russian). Use 1/2 bottle for 1 pound of ground beef.

Crush a large handful of Doritos, place on a plate. Place the following items in this order on top of the Doritos, shredded lettuce, large scoop of cooked taco mixture, diced tomatoes, diced onions, sliced olives, and shredded cheddar. Finish off with a dollop of sour cream.

Some people mix all the ingredients including the Doritos together in a large bowl and then serve with a small bowl of sour cream. I don't prefer this method because once all the items are mixed together they get soggy and cannot be refrigerated as a left over. Yuk, who wants soggy Doritos?

KitchenAid Stand Mixer Sale at Target

I found this information about a KitchenAid Stand Mixer sale at Target. Looks like quite the savings and you don't even need to leave the house or get out of your jammies!!! Now that's my kind of sale.

Info found at A Thrifty Mom blog.

KitchenAid Ultra Power Stand Mixers

Target has a temporary price cut on their KitchenAid Ultra Power Stand Mixers. It looked like not all of the colors are on temporary price cut, but several of them are. The Ultra Power Mixer has a 4.5-qt. bowl and boasts 300 watts of power for mixing double batches.

The list price is is $249.99 temporarily marked down to $199.99. There is an automatic $20 taken off for spending over $100. Use egift card code: URTYJLI8 to take off another $20.

Your total will come to $160 plus tax.

Shop through Shop At Home and receive 5% ($8.00) cash back on your order! Did I mention that shipping is FREE?!

Christmas Cherry Pie with Decorative Crust

For Christmas dinner, the last two years, I have baked a cherry pie. It is not just a cherry pie but a cherry pie inspired by an apple pie recipe that I saw on the Anton Brown show.

How did an apple pie recipe inspire a cherry pie recipe? Well, not so much the recipe but the technique. Anton Brown used a deep tart pan so that the pan could be removed from the pie and the pie could stand alone.

Ingredients
2 cans of cherry pie filling (I used Comstock Country Style)
2T tapioca granules
pie dough from scratch or otherwise (I used Pillbury's frozen pie crusts)
Decorative sparkly white sugar

Utensils
Deep dish tart pan (I had to order mine off the Internet)
Decorative pie crust cutter

First I empty one can of pie filling into a bowl. Then add just the cherries from the second can of filling. Add the 2 T of tapioca granules, this will help thicken the filling so the pie can stand on it's own without a pan for support.

Spray the tart pan to make pan removal easier. Place the bottom layer into the tart pan making sure to press it into the fluted sides of the pan. Pour the filling into the pan. Sprinkle the top of the cherry filling with the decorative sparkly white sugar.

Next roll out the top layer of crust. If dough is starting to get soft place it in the fridge on a cookie sheet for 5 minutes. It is important that the crust not be too soft for the next step.

The decorative pie crust cutters have two patterns, one on each side. This is the two patterns on mine. I used the second pattern for my pie.
Lay the top crust on a flat surface. Center the decorative crust cutter on the pie crust. Press down firmly. I used a rolling pin to make sure it cut the entire pattern into the crust. Lift the cutter directly up. The crust will be very delicate so I wrapped mine around the rolling pin and place onto the pie. Press the top crust and bottom crust together. Cut off the remaining crust that is hanging over the edge of the pan.Bake according to the filling's instructions.Cool completely (overnight in the fridge is best) before removing from the tart pan.

Sorry, I don't have any photos of the entire pie. We started nibbling before I thought about taking a photo.