Pear Crumble

So I seem to be on a canned fruit kick here. I had yet to use any pears in this little project of mine and since we had a high school classmate of Richard's coming for a few days I decided I just had to do something with some pears. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com



Pear Crumble:

2 cans pears, drained and sliced
2 tsp lemon juice

Topping:
3 Tblsp sugar
3 Tblsp oatmeal
2 Tblsp flour
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1 dash ground nutmeg
1 Tblsp cold butter (I would use a little more next time)
2 Tblsp chopped nuts.

Place pears in a greased 1 quart baking dish. I used a 9" pie pan. Sprinkle with the lemon juice. In a bowl combine the sugar, oatmeal, flour, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Add the butter and using a pastry blender or two forks work the mixture until it is crumbly. Sprinkle over pears and top with nuts.



Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until bubbly.

I used:
2 cans of pear halves

Fruit Cocktail Bread

I found several recipes for Fruit Cocktail Bread on the Internet. One sounded good but bombed terribly. I actually threw out both loaves. (Not everything I make turns out perfect).So for my second effort I tried this recipe I found on Cooks.com. It got great reviews, everybody loved it.

Fruit Cocktail Bread:

1/3 cup butter whipped
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 can (17 oz) Fruit Cocktail, drained
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Dry Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in milk. Add fruit cocktail and nuts. Add dry ingredients, mixing until just moistened. Pour batter into a greased and floured 9x5 loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted comes out clean.



I used:
1 can of Fruit Cocktail

Asparagus Casserole

We love asparagus, I mean we really love it. So I spent some time trying to find a recipe for all my canned asparagus and I found this recipe on Cooks.com. Easy, fast, simple and it makes great use of the canned product.



Drain 2 cans of asparagus spears. Place in a greased 8x8 pan. Open a can of Cream of Mushroom Soup, pour into a bowl and mix it up to a spreadable consistency. I add a couple tablespoons of milk. Spread the soup over the asparagus, sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese and breadcrumbs.



Bake at 375 for about 35-40 minutes or until the cheese is melted and barely golden brown.



I used:
2 cans of asparagus
1 can of Cream of Mushroom soup

Peach Crisp

Peaches are wonderful, especially ripe, fresh ones,,,,ah the many things I can make with them. However, we are dealing with canned, sliced peaches today.

Peach Cobbler or Peach and Berry Cobbler seem to be common recipes. I personally do not have any great love for cobblers. Maybe it is that I find the biscuit topping too dry or boring.

But I do love apple crisp so I decided to take my favorite apple crisp recipe and make a few changes. most obvious is replacing the apples with canned, sliced peaches.



Peach Crisp:

1 Tblsp flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cans of sliced peaches, drained
Sugar to taste

Topping:
1/4 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
dash baking soda
dash baking powder
2 Tblsp butter, melted

Grease an 8x8 baking dish and set aside. Preheat the oven to 375. In a bowl mix the peaches with the flour, cinnamon and add sugar to taste. We don't like generally sweet things.

Place peaches in prepared pan. Mix the topping together, except for butter. Once mixed well add the butter and mix until moistened. Sprinkle over the peaches. Bake for 35-40 minutes.

I used:
2 cans of sliced peaches

Stuffed Shells

Richard and I were grocery shopping the other day and while in the pasta aisle he started talking about how he used to make stuffed shells when he went on a boater's pot luck affair. That was all I needed to hear. We promptly picked up all the ingredients we did not have at home. A few days later I went to work, with some help from my wonderful sous chef Richard.

I cooked the shells per the instructions on the package. While they were draining and cooling I browned up some sweet Italian sausage (1 lb). When the sausage was cooked I drained off the grease and put it into a large bowl. To the sausage I added 3 cups of grated mozzarella cheese, 1 lb of ricotta cheese, 3 cloves of minced garlic and 1 can of chopped spinach which I had squeezed all the water out of. Then I stuffed the shells.



After I had all the shells stuffed I covered them with spaghetti sauce, I used two cans. I then sprinkled them with Parmesan cheese and baked them at 350 until the sauce was bubbling around the edges.



When I pulled them out the Parmesan cheese was a little golden brown in spots.



After we ate I had a lot of shells leftover so I packaged them into meal size portions and froze them for future use.



I used:

1 can of chopped spinach
2 cans of Hunts Spaghetti sauce with garlic

Pork Chops My Way

I love to "freezer dive" in my chest freezer because I am never 100% sure what I will find. In this case the last of our pork chops from Sam's Club. Being a very cool spring day I got creative.

3 pork chops
2 cans diced tomatoes with veggies
1 can French cut green beans - drained
1/4 cup dry red wine
1/4 tsp Oregano
1/2 tsp dried Basil

Brown the pork chops in olive oil; using just enough to cover the bottom of the skillet. Add the tomatoes, green beans, wine and dried herbs. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Mix the dumplings together and spoon the batter on top of the pork-tomato mixture.

Cover and simmer for about 10-12 minutes or until the dumplings are done.

Dumplings:
1 cup sifted flour (sift then measure)
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1/4 tsp dried thyme





I used:

2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 can of French cut breen beans

Ideas for Using Canned Goods

Having been traveling for the last two weekends and not having a working oven in my kitchen at the time I have not made any really nifty or unique dishes but I have made a couple of simple ones.

One night I took a pork tenderloin, butterflied it, pounded it a little thinner than it normally is and set it aside. I drained a can of sliced mushrooms and then sauteed them in a skillet with a little olive oil and with 1/2 of a medium onion, diced, 1/4 cup diced celery and 3 cloves of minced garlic. I sprinkled a little bit of dried Thyme on. When the veggies were cooked I used them to stuff the tenderloin. I then closed it up so the veggies would stay put and secured it with toothpicks. I then put a dry rub all over the outside of the tenderloin and we cooked it on the grill. Richard really liked the veggie stuffing.

Earlier this week I chopped up two slices of bacon, put them and 1/2 of an onion which I had chopped up into a small saucepan. I cooked it, stirring occasionally until the bacon and onion were cooked. I drained off the grease and then added a can of young peas. I cooked them over low heat until the peas were heated through. This will also work with canned green beans.

Tuesday I get my new range which has two, yes two, ovens and five burners. I am very excited.

I was also thinking I may expand this blog to include was to use all the stuff I have canned here at home.