All Recipes review

All Recipes has become one of my favorite site to find recipes lately. I love how all the recipes have lots of reviews, and a lot of the reviewers give changes and suggestions to improve the recipes. One of the other neat features is that you can do an advanced search for the ingredients you have on hand, and it'll find you recipes with those ingredients in them.

Last week I searched bacon, pasta, tomatoes and spinach and came up with this fabulous recipe for Penne Pasta with Spinach and Bacon. I did end up using chicken instead of bacon, fresh tomatoes instead of canned, and spaghetti pasta instead of penne, but it still turned out delicious!


Last night was pork chop night...I was bored with all the usual ways I cook pork chops (we eat them a lot because they are so cheap here!), so I did a quick search and found this amazing recipe. Baked Pork chops with Spicy Tomato Sauce. Here's the recipe and picture... Both Justin and I thought the sauce was astonishingly different and incredibly tasty. He was quite impressed and kept asking me what the ingredients were! The only changes I made was to lightly bread the pork chops in flour and pepper before browning.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 thick cut boneless pork chops
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 (10 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup water

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Place pork chops in the skillet, and brown about 5 minutes on each side. Remove from heat.
3. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, salt, pepper, and dry mustard.
4. Arrange pork chops in a medium baking dish. Sprinkle with lemon juice, season with brown sugar mixture, and cover with tomato sauce. Pour water into the baking dish.
5. Cover, and bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).

Finally here's a great recipe for Pumpkin cookies. Last night I finished off 4 or 5 of these and could have eaten more, but alas, they were gone! Light, not too rich, and very, very yummy!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 
  
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.
4. To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.

Note: all 3 of these pictures are from the All Recipes site; they are not my own.

Need help with pan scum

First off, I want to say welcome Olla. For those of you that don't know Olla, she is my wonderful Grandmother-in-law.

Olla, I am so glad you were finally able to join us, and the pumpkin recipe looks really good. I'll have to try it soon!

Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer is having a backwards "Works for me Wednesday". Instead of giving a handy tip, everyone is asking for a tip. So if you read this blog and can help, please comment!

Here's my query. What can I do to get rid of the yucky, sticky, yellowish buildup that accumulates around the edges of my glass bake ware, cookie sheets, muffin pans, etc. Plain old soap and scrubbing isn't getting my pans clean, and it bothers me that I can't ever get my nice pans looking new again.

Thanks!
Jessica

Pecan Pie Pumpkin Cake

When you can't decide whether to make a pumpkin or pecan pie, you might want to try this. I have served it several times recently and everyone enjoyed it.

2 cans (15 oz each) solid-pack pumpkin
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
1 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 package yellow cake mix
1 c. butter, melted
1 1/2 c. chopped pecans

Frosting:
1 (8 oz) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 c. confectioners' sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 (12 oz) carton Cool Whip

Line a 13x9x2 inch baking pan with waxed paper and coat the waxed paper with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, milk, and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Pour carefully into prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with Dry cake mix and drizzle with melted butter. Sprinkle with pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until golden brown. COOL COMPLETELY in pan on a wire rack. Invert onto a large serving platter; carefully remove waxed paper. In mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth. Fold in Cool Whip. Frost dessert. Store in refrigerator.

Sorry that I don't have a picture of this dessert. Will try to take one when I make it the next time.