Hey Jaclyn: Baking in High Altitudes

Guess what I cooked up yesterday?!?! Actually, I baked it. Them. Whatever!! I baked chocolate chip cookies with the twins… I know, I know, it doesn’t sound like that big of a deal. But it kind of is considering I live in the desert, at a pretty gosh darn high altitude (almost 6000 feet above sea level)! It took me MONTHS to figure out how to adjust my cooking & baking when we moved here – I had no idea that living at a high altitude would make such a difference to so many things – even boiling water takes longer!



Well, I digress, dear cousin. =) As a mom, chocolate chip cookies are a staple in my baking repertoire but when we moved to this teeny little mining town in New Mexico, I really had a hard time making this one work. I finally found the perfect recipe a couple months ago…. Truly, it’s just the recipe off the back of the Nestle Toll House bag of chocolate chips, following the high altitude adjustments. They turn out perfectly every time! I am hoping that your readers that live in remote high altitude areas, like mine, might find this helpful….





 I also found this article handy; it talks about measurement adjustments for high altitudes in general. =)

Baking In High Altitudes:

http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?id=18476

http://allrecipes.com/howto/high-altitude-cake-baking/

Hey Jaclyn: Chicken and Ratatouille

Guess what I cooked up the other night??  Chicken & ratatouille pasta! Can you say delicious?!?! 

The twins have been obsessed with the movie “Ratatouille” lately so of course we had to try & make it. I looked up ratatouille on foodnetwork.com & found this recipe for “Round 2 Recipe – Chicken & Ratatouille Pasta”. 

Even though it’s not “traditional” ratatouille, I thought that Gary & the kids would like it better because of the pasta & chicken. Since this is a "Round 2 Recipe", there is another recipe within this one, for a grilled vegetable Panini… then the ratatouille pasta is made from the leftover vegetables. I didn’t do this because it wasn’t a "Round 2 Recipe" for me.  {Jackies note: Great idea by Food Network by the way - adding in additional recipes that you can make with leftover ingredients or meals - good one FN!}

I bought a fresh eggplant, a bag of frozen zucchini & yellow squash (I couldn’t find fresh yellow squash anywhere for some reason!!), canned tomatoes & chopped up a fresh onion. The basil was from the produce section… you know the ones that come in the little plastic boxes? 

That’s a lot of garbleygook I mean, information up there isn’t it?? This recipe was very simple; Vicki helped with most of it… everything except the chopping really.  It was simple, healthy & delicious. It dawned on me when I was chopping up the eggplant that I had never had it before…. & I loved it! It was sweet! {I didn’t know eggplant was sweet. LOL}

For the Chicken & Ratatouille Recipe from Food Network Click HERE, then follow Karen's suggestions. 

This recipe was great with chicken but would also be yummy with crumbled Italian sausage or smoke sausage!

Hey Jaclyn: Vicki's Baked Potato Bites

Guess what I cooked up tonight?? I haven't decided exactly what to call them yet but I'm thinking something along the lines of "Vicki's Baked Potato Bites" or "Vicki's Favorite Popped Potatoes".... Vicki {Karen's daughter - in case you guys didn't know} loved them & she said that they tasted like a baked potato that had popped open (she loves baked potatoes). Anyways... they were so simple but so yummy! I had some red potatoes that I'd purchased last week & not used for some reason so tonight I chopped them up into bite sized pieces (with the peels on), tossed them in some vegetable oil & then seasoned them with salt, pepper, garlic, a little bit of paprika & a little bit of Montreal steak seasoning. I sprayed a cookie sheet with a little bit of cooking spray (just to be safe, cause we all know there's nothing worse than stuck-on potatoes!!!) & baked them @ 375 for about a half an hour or so, until they were fork tender. When I took them out of the oven, I sprinkled just enough shredded cheese to make any kid happy. Yum-o!

They were so yummy! Perfect side for our grilled hot dogs tonight. The whole family loved them! Give them a try, I'm sure the family will love them.... =)

Pretty Pink Pies by Karen

Guess what I cooked up last night? They are called "Pretty Pink Pies" and I found the recipe in this silly little cookbook I ordered out of one of the twins' fundraiser catalogs. It's called Silly Snacks- Family Fun in the Kitchen and it has all these awesome snack & desserts that you can make with (or for) your kids.

 Anyway, we were going over to our friend's house for a bbq the other night and I had said I'd bring dessert, but when the time came I REALLY didn't want to turn on the oven to make cookies or cupcakes; it was just too hot. So I started flipping thru this little cookbook because I remembered it had lots of easy, non-baking things in it and came across these little pies. They just looked so yummy and refreshing..& they were! Here's the recipe -- I know you'll want to try them!

Pretty Pink Pies

Makes 6 servings

1 small ripe banana, sliced

1 package mini graham cracker crusts (6 crusts)

2 tablespoons chocolate syrup/ice cream topping

2 containers (6oz each) strawberry yogurt

6 mini marshmallows

6 fresh strawberries cut into wedges

1.       Place banana slices in each pie crust. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon chocolate syrup. Spoon yogurt over top.

2.       Place 1 marshmallow in the center of each pie. Arrange strawberry pieces around marshmallow to resemble flower. Serve immediately or cover & refrigerate up to 4 hours.

 

I did not measure out the chocolate syrup, I just eyeballed it and put what appeared to be a decent amount on top of the bananas. I also didn't "wedge" my strawberries, just quartered them, so its not as pretty but it worked. Oh, since I was making more than 6, I just bought a large container of strawberry yogurt, it's less expensive that way & yogurt never goes to waste in my house!