Jasmine Cafe

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Kellie

We have visited Jasmine Cafe a few times since they opened this past Spring.  Each time we have visited we have been pleased with variety of appetizer and meal options, the beautiful presentation of each dish, and the friendly service.

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Maple Raspberry Pork Loin

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Kellie

This dish was easy to prepare as part of a special dinner for my parents.  The pork loin was sliced in 1.5 inch thick pieces, then pan-seared in a small amount of butter with pure maple syrup (about 3 tbsp), a bit of Framboise wine (about 3 tbsp), and salt and pepper to taste.

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Giant Whoopie Pie Cake

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Kellie

In the past when I’ve used my grandmother’s whoopie pie recipe to make a giant whoopie pie cake, the filling was too soft and the cake top sort of slid off to the side shortly after assembly.  This time I tried a different frosting recipe, and it worked much better!

This filling recipe is the same filling used in Nellie Moody Jones’s Molasses Whoopie Pies.  I made a double batch to generously fill the giant whoopie pie cake shown above, though a single batch would probably be enough!

Whoopie Pie Filling

1/2 c. vegetable shortening

4 tbsp. Marshmallow Fluff

1 c. confectioners’ sugar

milk, as needed to achieve spreadable consistency.

Combine all ingredients and beat thoroughly using just enough milk to make the frosting spreadable.

 

 

Posted in Desserts & Sweets | 6 Comments

Easy Corn Chowder

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Kellie

I cannot believe it’s mid-June, and I feel compelled to make soup, or even blog about it.  Let’s hope for some warmer weather in Maine soon, but until then…

Corn chowder is an easy cold day dinner made with ingredients that are usually in the freezer, refrigerator and cabinets.  Serve with a sandwich, corn bread, or cheese toast, and salad or veggie sticks and it makes for a very low effort meal.  I like to make mine with a little diced bacon to give it a smokey flavor.  It only takes a slice or two, diced finely, so I usually package the remaining bacon in packages of 2 – 3 slices and freeze for use in other recipes.


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Molasses Whoopie Pies

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Kellie

I love molasses cookies.  I love whoopie pies.  I found this recipe in a book I received as a Christmas gift: Making Whoopies by Nancy Griffin.

I liked the combination of the soft molasses cookie with the sweet frosting filling, but was a little saddened by the fact that these whoopie pies came out of the oven much thinner than they appeared while baking.

 

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Cool Pineapple Tool

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Kellie

I have my mother to thank for this lovely tool, which I received in my Christmas stocking.

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Spicy Peanut Noodles

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Kellie

This dinner represents my second adventure with Peanut Butter & Company’s The Heat Is On peanut butter. It is also a very easy dinner to throw together on a work night. The recipe ingredients I used are shown below, with the exception of the onion and soy sauce I forgot to include in the picture…

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The First Spring BBQ

Posted on May 22, 2011 by Kellie

This Spring has not been very BBQ-friendly with all of the rain we have been getting in Maine.  While we have not grilled at home since our February Maine Winter Grilling Adventure, we had our first real Spring barbecue while visiting my brother last month.  It began with a trip to Armando & Son’s Meat Market in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

We sampled some of the more ordinary offerings from Armando’s, but we noticed that there was a wide array of unusual and exotic choices of meats and other products.  For dessert I purchased a bag of Portugese cookies which were unlike any cookies I have tried before.  I also purchased a container of dulce de leche which we used as an apple dip…

 

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Barley Bake

Posted on May 21, 2011 by Kellie

For the past couple of months I have been ripping through a huge pile of Taste of Home magazines that were given to me.  For some reason I feel compelled to browse each of them, and tear out pages that sound like recipes I might try.  This barley bake recipe was very tasty, and I definitely plan to make it again!

It was very easy to prepare, simply combine the ingredients and bake it.  I did cut back on the butter, omitted the celery because I didn’t have any at the time, and substituted chicken broth for the veggie broth.  I also used a few hefty shakes of Common Folk Farm’s Herbal Pepper before baking.  We enjoyed this dish with chicken (prepared using the recipe for Sea Scallops with Mushrooms and Sherry) and oven-roasted asparagus.

I liked the nutty flavor of this dish, and would consider substituting it for rice as a side dish with just about any meal.

 

Posted in Casseroles, Chicken & Other Meats | Tagged | 1 Comment

Red Cabbage Soup = Science AND Supper…

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Kellie

This soup was inspired by my preparation of concentrated red cabbage juice for a lab I had planned for my 8th grade science students.  I boiled half a head of red cabbage to obtain the dark purple juice, which we used as an acid/base indicator.  I used the remaining half of the cabbage to create this soup.

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