Pizzeria Peppers

With all the bounty from our garden, I'm constantly looking for recipes that will use our fresh vegetables.  I found one recently that was so easy and so delicious that I wanted to share it with you.  Everyone in my family loved it, even Ben who usually doesn't like bell peppers.  I found the recipe at www.cookinglight.com.

I doubled the recipe below for the four of us, and used about eight small peppers instead of four large ones.  Homegrown peppers are about half the size of the mutant ones from the grocery store.  We did have three peppers left over, which were great for lunch the next day.  The recipe calls for green peppers but we used green and red and they were equally awesome.

Pizzeria Peppers

Ingredients

2 large green bell peppers (about 1 pound)

1/2 pound Italian sausage (no casings, or remove from casings)

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons sliced green olives (I left these out, but would use black olives next time)

1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce

1/4 cup (1 ounce) shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut tops off bell peppers, discard tops, seeds & membranes.  Cook peppers in boiling water 5 minutes, drain and set aside.

Brown sausage, onion and garlic in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, stirring to crumble sausage.  Add mushrooms, saute 2 minutes or until tender.  Stir in Parmesan cheese, olives, Italian seasoning, salt and tomato sauce, cook 4 minutes, stirring frequently.

Divide sausage mixture evenly between peppers, and top with mozzarella cheese.  Place stuffed peppers in an 8-inch square baking dish; bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. 

***

I served this dish with a side salad of spinach, fresh homegrown heirloom tomatoes, quartered artichoke hearts, chopped mozzarella, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Delicious! 

A Ridiculously Delicious and Easy Snack

This is a recipe I found from the Feingold Recipe Boards and my kids absolutely love it.  I've started making it for parties and have found that adults become addicted to it just as quickly.  It's one of those recipes that you're almost embarrassed to share because it's so easy and unsophisticated.

The recipe is called Puppy Chow.  Why?  I have no clue.  I've thought about giving it a different name, like  Chocolate Party Mix, or Choco Chow, but nothing has caught on.  So it will remain Puppy Chow in our home.

Also, I use the Ghiradelli White Chocolate Chips (which are really vanilla chips) because Ben's chocolate sensitivity would prohibit him from eating multiple servings of Puppy Chow.  It is equally good with white chocolate or regular chocolate.

Try it and I guarantee your family will be hooked, too.

Puppy Chow

Ingredients
9 cups Crispex Cereal
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 tsp pure vanilla
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions
In a small saucepan over very low heat combine chocolate, peanut butter and butter until completely melted and mixed through.  (If your heat is too high the chocolate will get thick instead of melting, so make sure your heat is very low or use a double boiler.)  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

In a large bowl pour mixture over the cereal.  Gently stir taking care to coat all the cereal without breaking or mashing it.  Once all the cereal is coated pour the powdered sugar over the top and mix, until all is coated with sugar.  Serve!

Store any extra in an airtight container after it has cooled completely.

Easy Weeknight Lasagna

When you blog about making food from scratch, your friends and family assume that EVERYTHING you make is from scratch.  You end up getting credit for things you didn't actually make.  It's kind of funny.

It's true that I make a KILLER lasagna from scratch.  Using my homemade pasta sauce and homemade noodles, the lasagna is seriously to die for.

But let's get real, I'm a working mother, I don't have time to whip out a scratch lasagna on any given weeknight.  So I learned how to improvise and I'm willing to share my trick with you.

You will never buy a frozen lasagna again!

Total prep time is 10 to 30 minutes, depending on whether you use meat or not.  And cook time ranges from 30 minutes to 45 minutes.  The key to making this lasagna great is to use a good, all-natural jar of sauce.  PLEASE skip the Preggo.  As a good Italian girl that brand makes me shudder.  I really prefer the brand Rao's, which makes a great Marinara sauce that isn't sweet (I HATE sweet pasta sauce!).

Give this recipe a try and your family will be very happy.  You can also make two lasagnas at once and freeze one to make weeknight dinners really easy!

Easy Weeknight Lasagna

The Blue Moon is not an ingredient, but definitely
makes the lasagna process more fun!

Ingredients:
2 jars Marinara Sauce
1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground Italian sausage (or 3-4 sausage links, sliced)
salt, pepper, garlic powder
8 oz ricotta cheese
16 oz mozzarella cheese
3 to 4 oz of grated parmesan
2 boxes No-Boil Lasagna noodles

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown ground beef and Italian sausage over medium heat.  While it's browning, add seasonings to taste.  Once it's fully cooked, pour both jars of pasta sauce into pot and let simmer for about 10 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray (I like the Spectrum brand which doesn't contain nasty BHT preservatives like the mainstream brand does).  Using a ladle, spoon two ladles of pasta sauce into the bottom of the baking dish.  Layer four no-boil noodles over the top.  Spoon two more ladles of sauce over the top.  Using a large spoon scrape thin layers of ricotta and spread them over the sauce (about 8 separate thin scoops).  Layer slices of mozzarella around over the ricotta.  Add another layer of noodles.  Then repeat two more times (sauce, ricotta, mozzarella, noodles, sauce, ricotta, mozzarella, noodles).  After the third or fourth layer of noodles (depending on how deep your dish is), pour the remaining sauce over the top, and then spread mozzarella over the top, either sliced or grated.  Also add grated parmesan cheese.

Bake until sauce gets bubbly and cheese is melted - about 30 to 40 minutes.

This recipe can easily be made without the meat.  Simply layer the sauce right out of the jar (no pre-simmering required) and bake for about the same amount of time.

If You Like Pumpkin, You Need This Recipe

There was a birthday in Ben's class the other day, so I asked him what treat he would like to take instead of the cupcakes the birthday girl was bringing.  Ben requested pumpkin cookies, something I didn't have a recipe for.  One Internet search later and I found these incredible pumpkin cookies.  The kids LOVED them, and then I tried them out on my bunco group, who all requested the recipe.  So. . . here you go.

Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon all-spice (or 1/2 tsp ground cloves)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
15 oz can pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, all-spice and salt.   Set aside.

In a mixer bowl, cream together the butter and both sugars for three minutes.  Add pumpkin, egg, and vanilla and mix well until creamy.  Mix in dry ingredients until well blended.

Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoons.  With hands lightly floured, pat down the cookie to smooth and flatten.  Cookies will not spread, or level out - so you must shape them before baking.  Bake for around 15 minutes, until cookies are slightly firm when touched.  Do not over bake.  Let sit for three minutes then let cool on wire rack.  Once cooled, drizzle Cream Cheese Frosting over the top.

Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat ingredients together in mixer bowl until smooth and all lumps have disappeared.  Drizzle over cookies using frosting bags/tips.


These cookies actually taste like little muffin tops.  Do NOT store in an airtight container because there is so much moisture in these.

They really are a little piece of pumpkin heaven!

Hot Soup For A Cold Day

By cold day, I don't mean weather.  It's mid 70's here, which is absolutely perfect.  No, what I mean is a day in which I have a cold.  Like a really bad cold.

This recipe is one I stole from my parents, who stole it from a book.  But I can't give props to its creator, because the copy I have doesn't say what book.  This is a pretty quick recipe as far as minestrone soup goes, in that it takes less than an hour from start to finish.  Some versions of minestrone soup can take more than 24 hours if you factor in soaking the beans.  Who has that much time to plan ahead?

Not me, and certainly not when I have a cold.

My family loves this recipe.  It makes a great, filling dinner - especially with homemade sliced bread with butter!



Quick Minestrone 

Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 pound carrots, diced
5 stalks celery, diced
2 tablespoons oregano (fresh or dried)
1 tablespoon basil (fresh or dried)
salt & pepper
4 quarts Beef or Chicken Broth
1 pound potatoes, diced
small head shredded cabbage
1 can (28oz) peeled plum tomatoes
1 can (15oz) red kidney beans
1 can (15oz) white kidney beans (cannellini)
1 can (15oz) garbanzo beans
1 bag (10oz) baby lima beans
6 slices cooked bacon, chopped
1 cup small shell macaroni
grated Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

In a 12qt pot, simmer garlic and onion in olive oil for 5 minutes.  Add carrots, celery, oregano, basil and salt & pepper and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking.

Carrots, Celery and Onion simmering in the olive oil with seasonings.

Add broth, potatoes and cabbage and bring to boil.  Cook 15 minutes.

These are the two brands of broth I use.  Remember to buy one with no added
artificial flavors or MSG.  

Pour the tomatoes into a bowl (with juice) and crush them, then add to pot along with the beans (drain the beans first) and bacon.  Add salt and pepper as needed and bring the mixture to a slow boil again.

Most canned veggies are free of artificial colors, flavors or preservatives,
but check the ingredients label just to be sure.  

Add the shells and cook 15 minutes or until the shells are done.  Stir often.  Remove and sprinkle grated cheese over individual servings.

The recipe says this serves 6-8 but that is an understatement.  We served our family of four tonight and I still was able to save some for tomorrow's dinner, and can five quart size jars!  Needless to say, it makes a ton.

Cake Pops And Legos

With how busy we've been lately I did not plan very well to have a birthday party for Ben.  I know, bad parenting moment.  So this week I threw together a birthday party, inviting people at the last minute and hoping they didn't have other plans.  Luckily, a few of Ben's friends were able to join us after (and between) soccer games. 

Ben had an absolute blast in any case.  The kids spent the day swimming.  The adults spent the day hiding in the shade of an umbrella and drinking sangria.  Ben was given several different sets of Legos, which he loves, and the boys spent all evening putting them together. 

Ben originally told me he wanted a Scooby Doo / Pirate cake for his birthday.  This caused me quite a bit of anxiety because while I'm a pretty good baker, I am HORRIBLE at decorating cakes.  And there is no way I could buy an all natural Scooby Doo / Pirate cake at a store.  So I got the crazy idea to try cake pops instead, and when Ben saw a picture of them online as I searched for recipes, he was totally on board. 

They were pretty fun to make, and after several batches I finally got the hang of it and made much less of a mess.  The picture below is from my first batch, which is why the chocolate is running down the stick.  Thankfully, the pops were a hit with the kids and the adults (and with our dog Trixie who got to eat the ones that fell off the stick)!  Recipe below. . .

Thanks so much to those who were able to make it with such last minute notice, and for making Ben's Lego dreams come true! Thanks to my cousin Denise for giving me her cake pop tips.  A big GIANT thank you to my bestie Shawna for coming over early to help me get ready for the party.  And a big thank you to my other bestie Kate for helping me clean up this morning.  You girls rock! 

Cake Pops

Ingredients:

1 box cake mix, bake as directed

1 can frosting

1 bag chocolate chips, or melting chocolate

cake decorations (such as sprinkles, nuts, marshmallows, peanut butter chips, etc.)

Lollipop Sticks

Styrofoam

Directions:

Bake the cake according to the instructions.  Cool completely.  In a large bowl, completely crumble the cake.  Mix in 3/4 to 1 container of frosting, until mixture resembles play dough.  Form into golf-ball-sized balls and place on cookie sheet lined with wax paper.  Put lollipop sticks into cake balls, freeze for 30 to 45 minutes.  Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips using double boiler.  Dip frozen cake balls into chocolate, letting excess drip off.  Add decorations and stick into Styrofoam to let set.  Place in refrigerator to help cool. 

Tips:

1.  Make sure you have your Styrofoam to let your cake pops set.  Or you could use a lot of friends to sit around and hold them while they set.  But it's hard to fit your friends in the refrigerator.   

2.  Use a little frosting or chocolate on the tip of the lollipop stick before inserting into cake ball, to help the lollipop stick stay secure. 

3. Use a little shortening to help thin the melted chocolate. 

4.  Let the melted chocolate cool a little bit before dipping the cake balls - this will help prevent the constant dripping off the stick onto the Styrofoam (like you see in my picture above!).

5.  Keep your husband and children out of the kitchen while you make these or the cake pops will disappear before you can finish the batch. 

Products I used:

To save time, I did not make my cake or frosting from scratch, but you totally could.  Instead I used these products, all found at Whole Foods, and all are all-natural. 

Cake Mix: Dr. Oteker Vanilla and Chocolate (I keep these on hand all the time, just in case.)

Frosting:  The Frosting Queens, Vanilla and Chocolate

Melting Chocolate:  Guittard Real Milk Chocolate Chips (These are AWESOME!  They blow Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chips out of the water. Try them in your chocolate chip cookies.)

Decorations:  Let's Do Organic Sprinkelz, Chocolatey & Confetti; Sunspire Peanut Butter Chips 

You'll Never Guess

Here is the dessert I made tonight.  It was absolutely great, but I bet you can't guess what it is?!?

Nope, you're wrong.  It's actually. . . . . .


Zucchini Cobbler
(recipe courtesy of allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:
4 cups peeled, chopped zucchini (seeds removed)
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cups (1-1/2 sticks) butter, chilled
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:
1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook and stir zucchini and lemon juice until zucchini is tender, 15 to 20 minutes.  Stir in 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and cook one minute more.  Remove from heat and set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.  In a large bowl, combine flour and 1 cup sugar.  Cut in butter with a pastry blender (or a Cuisinart on the dough setting) or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Stir 1/2 cup of butter mixture into zucchini mixture.  Press half the remaining butter mixture into bottom of prepared pan.  Spread zucchini mixture over top of crust, and sprinkle remaining butter mixture over zucchini.  Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

3. Bake 35 minutes or until top is golden.  Serve warm or cold. 

I served it with Breyers Natural Ice Cream (Natural Vanilla flavor).  The kids could not tell it was zucchini.  They guessed pineapple and apple.  Ben gave it a 10 out of 10.  Darrin gave it a 6 out of 10.  Lia didn't really like it which cracks me up because she is the biggest vegetable eater in the house - and I honestly think this was too sweet for her, if you can believe that. 

I am a HUGE cobbler fan.  (Like, make me a cobbler for my birthday and forget the birthday cake, that's how much I love cobbler.)  And I loved this recipe.  I can't believe how sweet and tangy the zucchini gets - tastes just like apples to me.  Seriously, this is a great recipe AND it gives your family one more helping of veggies at night! 

Big thanks to Miss Paula for giving me this recipe. 

Teriyaki Meatballs

This recipe is so easy and just too good not to share.  It's perfect for a week night dinner.  My kids (and husband) loved it!  I served it with brown rice and sauteed zucchini fresh from our garden.

My newest kitchen gadget is a rice cooker.  I've always thought rice cookers were dumb - why do I need a gadget to do what my pots can do?!?  But after switching from Minute Rice to long grain brown rice, and ruining more than a few pots of rice, I decided to try a rice cooker.  And I love it!  Tonight's batch turned out perfect, with no fuss. 

Sorry for the pictures, I wasn't planning on blogging this recipe but my family told me I should. 

Teriyaki Meatballs

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground beef (I actually used ground lamb tonight)

1/2 cup diced onion

1 cup bread crumbs (tonight I used Ian's Whole Wheat Bread Crumbs found at Whole Foods)

1/3 cup teriyaki sauce (I love Soy Vey Teriyaki Sauce - found at all grocery stores)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix the ingredients in a large bowl.  Shape into meatballs slightly larger than golf balls.  Cook in a shallow baking dish for 35-40 minutes.   

How easy is that!?!  You can also serve this as a meatloaf instead of meatballs, but extend the cooking time just a little bit. 

Next You'll Tell Me I Should Put Carrot In A Cake

What does one do when they have a really GIANT zucchini fresh from their garden?  Seriously, look how TALL that zucchini is - it's the same size as the wine bottle hiding behind it. 

That's right, one makes zucchini bread!  I would never in a million years have thought to make bread out of zucchini - but my sister-in-law, Karen, brought some over this past Christmas and we loved it.  So I found a recipe, tried it out last week to rave reviews, and decided to make a double batch tonight from our really GIANT zucchini.  Here's the recipe - you're going to love this one, trust me!  Oh, and it's another Paula Deen recipe (LOVE her!). 

Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup water
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I did not use these)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar.  In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice.  Mix dry ingredients into wet, add nuts (if you use them) and fold in.  Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with non-stick spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean.  Or, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes.

Tonight I doubled the recipe to make four loaves.  Make sure your non-stick spray is all natural - sometimes these have nasties hidden in them.  I use the Spectrum brand for our cooking.  Both times I've made this it was ready after exactly an hour and perfect each time.  We like to eat ours sliced with a little butter spread over it.  The kids LOVE this recipe and so do Darrin and I.

Wednesday Meatloaf

I was never a big fan of meatloaf growing up.  I don't even really remember it being served in our house.  But Darrin is a big fan of the stuff.  So I've tried a few recipes and have found three that I really like.  Tonight my mom came over for dinner and I served the following meatloaf.  The kids both had second helpings (okay, Mom and I did, too).  This meatloaf is a Paula Deen recipe, so you know it's a good one.

This recipe is very, very easy to whip up even after a long day of work.

I am not a ketchup fan, but we recently switched to Annie's Naturals Organic Ketchup which has no corn syrup, and all of us love it.  I used that ketchup in this recipe and I highly recommend it.  I also boiled and mashed some Yukon gold potatoes with the peels - you always have to have mashed potatoes with meatloaf!

Brooke's Homemade Meatloaf

Ingredients
Glaze:
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons packed light brown sugar

Meatloaf:
2 pounds ground beef
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons ketchup
2 large eggs
1 cup bread crumbs (or 1 slice white bread, torn in pieces)
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a small bowl, whisk together all the glaze ingredients and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine all the meatloaf ingredients and mix well.  Press the mixture into a 9x5 inch loaf pan.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Brush half of the glaze over the top of the meatloaf, bake for 30 minutes more.  Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes.  Turn the meatloaf out onto a serving platter and brush the remaining glaze over the top before serving.

Biscuits And Gravy

One of Darrin's favorite breakfasts is biscuits and gravy.  And I've never liked it, so we never have it.  This morning he took matters into his own hands and made this classic recipe.  What do you know, it was actually really good.  The kids liked it too!  Ben actually put it in his top three favorites.







Darrin used this recipe, from allrecipes.com (we doubled the biscuit part of the recipe for our family of four):

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon butter or margarine, melted
• GRAVY:
• 1/2 pound bulk pork sausage
• 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Combine milk and butter; stir into dry ingredients just until blended. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
2. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, cook the sausage over medium heat until no longer pink. Stir in butter until melted. Sprinkle with flour. Gradually stir in milk, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes. Serve over biscuits.

A Day Of Prep

The Kimbles are hosting Easter Dinner tomorrow, so today was my day for preparation.  Of course, you can't face a day of cooking without first eating a good breakfast, so per the kids' request, Darrin made Easter Bunny pancakes. 

Then, Ben made his own list of the things he needed to tackle today:

On my list:  Make 2 Lemon Cheese Pies, make homemade corn syrup substitute (for ham and marshmallows), make marshmallows, make macaroons, do laundry, change sheets.  Get haircut.  Here is Lia with me during my haircut:

So, this could possibly be the best thing I've ever baked:  chocolate dipped macaroons.  Yum!

But here is a recipe I wanted to share:  Lemon Cheese Pie.  This recipe was given to me by my mother in law, and our family loves it.  Do not be tempted to use a store bought graham cracker crust with artificial ingredients - a homemade crust is super easy!  The recipe below is for one pie, but I doubled it today so I could make two pies at once.

Lemon Cheese Pie

Graham Cracker Crust:

1-1/2 cups crushed graham crackers (about 12 crackers, I used a food processor to finely crush, but you could do it by hand)
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted

In a small bowl (or electric mixer bowl) mix the ingredients well.  Press into the bottom and up the sides of a 9" pie plate.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes before filling, or bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack before filling.  (I just put mine in the refrigerator while I made the filling and topping.)

Lemon Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla

Mix ingredients well and pour into prepared crust.

Lemon Topping:
1/3 cup sugar
2-1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 egg yolk
1 tblspn butter

Mix sugar and cornstarch in medium saucepan.  Add other ingredients except butter and cook on medium heat until thickened (about 5 minutes).  Add the butter, remove from heat.  Pour over top of Lemon Filling. 

Refrigerate the pie for two hours until set. 

This recipe is sure to be a crowd pleaser, and it's so light and refreshing - just the right amount of lemon. 

Now, I'm off to make the dough for tomorrow's rolls, and something tells me the Easter Bunny is due to arrive soon to fill the Easter baskets for the kids.  So glad I had a full day to prepare, tomorrow will be just a little less work.

Mango Jam

Because so many sweet fruits are stage two on the Feingold Diet, Jelly has been something that is very hard to find in an acceptable form.  Berries, apricots, peaches are all stage two items and we are still living deeply in a stage one world.  I'm surprised that my kids haven't made a big issue out of this, because before Feingold we were very much a peanut butter and jelly family.  In the last year we have substituted peanut butter and honey with great success - but we still miss our jelly. 

I found this recipe for Mango Jam and I thought I would try it.  I finally got to use my new Mango slicer, which I HIGHLY recommend.  Anyone who has ever tried to peel/cut a mango will understand the neccesity of this tool. 


Mango Jam

2 pounds ripe mangoes
1-1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup water

1.  If mangoes aren't already very ripe, boil or steam them until soft.  Cool, then remove the peel and inner seed.  Place the mango pulp in a large bowl and use a fork or potato masher to mash the pulp well. 

2.  Place the sugar and water in a large saucepan over low heat, stir mixture, and bring to a boil.  When it begins boiling, increase heat to medium-high.  Continue boiling until it reaches 270 degrees.  Stir in the mango pulp and boil until the mixture thickens - about 7 to 10 minutes. 

3. Pour cooked jam into sterilized jars and seal according to canning directions. 

I followed this recipe except that I used extra mangoes to lessen the sugar/mango ratio.  I also ran the mango through the food processor instead of mashing by hand in order to make a very smooth jam.  I used a very tall pot because once you add the mango to the sugar/water mixture, the whole thing "becomes like napalm" (as my dad likes to say when he's cooking polenta).  Even with the tall pot I had to stand back to not get splattered by the bubbling concoction. 

The result:  not bad.  It is a little too sweet to just have on toast, but it goes great with peanut butter.  I think next time I would add a little lime juice to the mixture to cut the sweetness a tad.  A work in progress.