Enter His Gates with Thanksgiving

These are the two sides that I made to complement the Pan Fried Pork Chop. 

 Crash Hot Potatoes. They are so flavourful and crisp. I was surprised there is no butter but olive oil. This is so unlike Pioneer Woman who is also known as the Buttah Queen. Even without buttah, they still smell and taste just as good.

The Homemade Ranch Dressing are all store cupboard ingredients.  I find this to be very refreshing if you have it very cold with iceberg lettuce. I like that it is homemade, so the flavour is very fresh ( No More Hidden Valley) and I can adjust to suit my taste. Another winner!


Crash Hot Potatoes
Pioneer Woman Cooks
serve 6

Ingredients

12 whole new potatoes or other small round potatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
kosher salt to taste
black pepper to taste
rosemary ( or other herbs of choice) to taste(thyme)


Method

• Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in as many potatoes as you wish to make and cook them until they are fork-tender.
• On a sheet pan, generously drizzle olive oil. Place tender potatoes on the cookie sheet leaving plenty of room between each potato.
• With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again. Brush the tops of each crushed potato generously with more olive oil.
• Sprinkle potatoes with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and fresh chopped rosemary ( or chives or thyme or whatever herb you have available).
• Bake in a 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Homemade Ranch Dressing

Pioneer Woman Cooks

serve 8

Ingredients

1 clove to 2 cloves garlic

salt to taste

1/4 cup Italian flat-leaf parsley

2 tablespoons fresh chives

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

Buttermilk as needed to desired consistency(milk)

white vinegar to taste, optional

worcestershire sauce, to taste, optional

fresh dill, to taste, optional

cayenne pepper, to taste, optional

paprika to taste, optional

fresh oregano to taste, optional

tabasco to taste, optional

Method

• Mince the garlic with a knife and then sprinkle about an 1/8 to 1/4 tsps of salt on it and mash it into a paste with a fork. Chop the parsley, chives and any of the optional herbs very finely and add to the garlic.
• In a bowl combine all ingredients, adding other optional ingredients as you wish, tasting frequently a adjusting seasons as needed. Chill for a couple of hours before serving, thin with milk or buttermilk if desired.

My family loves them all! These sides are great with pork chops. They're so easy and fast to put together.

This post is linked to Cook Like A Star 'Pioneer Woman' hosted by Zoe, Baby Sumo and Mich.

Each day should be a day of thanksgiving to God for all the blessings he has provided us with!

Psalm 100

A psalm for grateful praise

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

A Garden Eastward in Eden

While Pioneer Woman derived joy from watching a huge grin sweep across her husband's face when he bit into something he finds delicious, I too derived the same joy watching my hungry cowboy younger son who came home from the ranch gym where he is working on his cattle abs, polished off this plate in less than 5 minutes and with a second helping of the potatoes.

Pan Fried Pork Chop
Pioneer Woman Cooks
serves 8

Ingredients
7 pieces or 8 pieces Thin Bone in Pork Chops
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon seasoned salt(Lawry's seasoned salt)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon butter
Extra salt and pepper, to taste


Method

• Rinse pork chops.  Salt and pepper both sides of the pork chops.
• Combine all dry ingredients. Dredge each side of the pork chops in the flour mixture, then set aside on a plate.
• Heat canola oil over medium to medium-high heat. Add butter. When butter is melted and butter/oil mixture is hot, cook 3 pork chops a time, 2 minutes on the side. (make sure no pink juices remain.) Remove to a plate and repeat with remaining porch chops.

Note: I serve with smashed new potatoes and iceberg lettuce with homemade ranch dressing. Both sides are also from Pioneer Woman website which will be in the next post.. 

This post is linked to Cook Like A Star 'Pioneer Woman' hosted by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids,
Baby Sumo from Eat Your Heart Out  and Mich from Piece of Cake.

What is a Terrarium?
A terrarium is a collection of small plants growing in a transparent, sealed container. A terrarium is a closed environment, and can actually used to illustrate how an ecosystem works. Inside a terrarium's walls, many different natural processes may be observed: photosynthesis, respiration, and the water cycle. The water in the terrarium is constantly recycled, passing from liquid form to gas and back again. As the moisture in the air condenses on the glass walls, it returns to the soil and is absorbed by the plants' roots.

I attended this workshop in the church organised by the Women Fellowship. The workshop began with the reading of Genesis 1-2:8. The book of Genesis chronicles the creation of the world and God's plan for his people.

And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Genesis 2:8

The First and Greatest Commandment

Pandan chiffon was the only cake my late mum ever baked.  She was the neighborhood Pandan Chiffon expert. I don't know where she got her recipe from, but I know she made everything from scratch. She obtained the pandan extract by pounding the pandan leaves in the pestle and mortar and I know she never used cream of tartar in her egg white.
My mum died young and sadly I never get to know her recipe. She was illiterate and I had just started working then.

Although I learnt to bake when I was about 14, I couldn't remember when I first baked pandan chiffon. I have tried many recipes but this recipe works well for me. Family and friends like it too. I have been using this recipe which I got from the Straits Times for many years now and I don't think I will change or look for a better one.

To support Little Thumbs Up 'Pandan' event, I baked a pandan chiffon in a 18cm pan and rest of the batter into 6 cupcakes frosted with gula melaka buttercream. I added lesser sugar in the cake batter which resulted a less moist, fluffy and tall chiffon. It is still as soft and light, and if you have not tried this recipe before, you might not even notice it.

If you like gula melaka as much as I do, you will love this buttercream.on the pandan chiffon. Pandan leaves, coconut milk, gula melaka, they are supposed to go together, don't they?

Pandan Chiffon Cake
The Straits Times


Ingredients

10 pandan leaves, finely chopped
6 tbsp water
96g egg yolk, from about 6 eggs
140g caster sugar (100g)
1/4 tsp pandan paste
40ml corn oil
72 ml thick coconut milk
108 cake flour
240g egg white, about 7 eggs
1/8 tsp cream of tartar


Method

• Preheat the oven to 190C(170C).
• Blend the pandan leaves with water to a fine pulp. Wrap the pulp in muslin cloth and squeeze to extract the juice. Discard the pulp and set aside the juice.
• Whisk together the egg yolk, 60g sugar, salt, corn oil, coconut milk, pandan paste and pandan juice until well incorp[orated.
• Sieve the cake flour into the pandan mixture and continue to whisk until smooth. Set aside.
• Whisk the egg white, remaining sugar(80g) and cream of tartar until stiff, such that a firm peak forms when the whisk is pulled from the mixture.
• Gently fold the egg white mixture into the cake batter until well incorporated.
• Pour the batter into 23cm tube pan and bake for 50 minutes until the surface is browned.
• Remove the cake from the oven and invert it on a cooling rack. Allow the cake to cool before removing it from the mould by running a palette knife along the circumference of the cake to loosen the sides.

Gula Melaka Buttercream

1 large egg (optional)

125g butter (softened at room temp)

150g gula melaka, finely chopped

1 pandan leave, knotted

Method

• Into a mixing bowl over a pot of hot water on stove, beat egg and sugar with hand beater. Beat until mousse like(if using egg).
• Remove from pot and continue to beat until mixture has cooled.
• Add in the soften butter one by one and beat until you get a smooth creamy texture.
• Chill in the fridge to firm buttercream if it is runny to frost. Alternatively, you can dip cake into mixture and top with grounded gula melaka.

This post is linked to Little Thumbs Up 'Pandan' hosted by Joceline from Butter,flour & Me, organized by

Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids and Mui Mui from My little favourite DIY.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Matthew 22;37

A Wife Of Noble Character Who Can Find?

Buttah + Ree = Buttery.
These Pioneer Woman's Citrus Butter Cookies are delicious but sweet. They are not crunchy but melting soft. I baked these cookies because there are citrus zest in them. I love food that has citrus zest. These cookies are perfect for afternoon tea.

This recipe is found in her second cook book, Food From My Frontier and her website.  

Citrus Butter Cookies
Food From My Frontier

Ingredients
4 Sticks salted butter, softened
1-1/2 cup sugar
2 whole large eggs, separated
4 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons orange, lemon and lime zest ( approx 1 tbsp each)
2 tablespoons orange, lemon and/or lime juice (2 tablespoons total)

Icing
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk
2 tablespoons orange, lemon, and lime zest
juice of 1/2 lime
juice of 1/2 lemon
dash of salt
extra zest, for decorating

Method

• Preheat oven to 350F
• Cream butter and sugar until combined. Add egg yolks and mix until combined (set whites aside for the icing.) Add the zest and the flour and mix until just combined, then add juice and mix until combined.
• Scoop out heaping teaspoons of dough, then roll them into balls between your hands. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 13 minutes. Remove from the oven and keep on the cookie sheet for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the pan with a spatula and allow to cool completely before icing.

To Make The Icing

• Combine 1 egg white with the rest of the icing ingredients. Whisk thoroughly until combined, adding either more powdered sugar or more juice until it reaches a pourable but still thick consistency.
• Drizzle the icing across the cookies in several lines, then do it again in the other direction.(used piping bag).
• Sprinkle with extra zest before the icing sets.

Note: I halved this recipe and got 38 cookies. Do not over baked the cookies. It should be pale in colour. 

This is linked to Cook Like A Star 'Ree Drummond' hosted by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids,

Baby Sumo from Eat Your Heart Out and Mich from Piece of Cake

A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Proverbs 31:10

She Speaks With Wisdom

Pioneer Woman is like a fairy tale kind of a story of a city girl married to a rancher and became a successful blogger with  a broad fan base. It is a blog by Ree Drummond on her life as a rancher wife and mother, and her cooking. She is famous for her witty and corny writing, superb photography skills and her steps by steps cooking instructions are hugely popular with fans all over the world. She also has a cooking show on Food network and is also author of several books.

Both her Cinnamon Rolls and Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever are her treasured and popular recipes  loved by many who made them. I have baked both several times but for this month's Cook like A Star 'Ree Drummond', I am sharing with you one of my family favourite pasta, Pioneer Woman's Cajun Chicken Pasta. This pasta was featured in the first episode of  her cooking show with Food  network.

Cajun Chicken Pasta

serves 6
Pioneer woman cooks



Ingredients

3 whole boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
3 teaspoons Cajun spice mix, more to taste
1 pound Fettuccine (linguine)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoon butter
1 whole green bell pepper, seeded and sliced (yellow peppers)
1 whole red  bell pepper, seeded and sliced
1/2 whole large red onion
3 cloves garlic, minced' 4 whole Roma tomatoes, diced (local tomatoes)
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup heavy cream
cayenne pepper to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
salt to taste
chopped fresh parsley

Method

• Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain when pasta is still al dente;do not overcook!
• Sprinkle 1 1/2 teaspoons Cajun spice over chicken pieces. Toss around to coat. Heat 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy skillet over high heat. Add half the chicken in a single layer;do not stir. Allow chicken to brown on one side, about 1 minute. Flip to the other side and cook an additional minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a clean plate.'Repeat with remaining chicken. Remove chicken, leaving pan on high heat. Add remaining olive oil and butter. When heated, add peppers, onions, and garlic. Sprinkle on remaining Cajun spice, and add salt if needed.
• Cook over very high heat for 1 minute, stirring gently and trying to get the vegetables as dark/possible as possible. Add tomatoes and cook for an additional 30 seconds. Remove all vegetables from the pan.
• With the pan over high heat, pour in the wine and chicken broth. Cook on high for 3 to 5 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pan to deglaze. Reduce heat to medium-low and pour in cream, stirring/whisking constantly. Cook sauce over medium-low heat for a few minutes, until cream starts to thicken the mixture. Taste and add freshly ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, and/pr salt to taste. Sauce should be spicy!
• Finally, add chicken and vegetables to sauce, making sure to include all the juices that have drained onto the plate. Stir and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until mixture is bubbly and hot. Add drained fettuccine and toss to combine.
• Top with chopped fresh parsley and chow down!

This post is linked to Cook Like A Star "Ree Drummond" hosted by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids,
Baby Sumo from Eat Your Heart Out and Mich from Piece of Cake

In Proverbs 31, the entire chapter is devoted to what King Lemuel's mother taught him about the ideal woman. She taught him about the ideal woman. and to look for something beautiful in the woman that he would have for his wife because God made all women to be something beautiful.
Beautiful woman may defined as having physical features, but in the Bible we see more about beauty as defined by character.

She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Proverbs 31:26-27