Strawberry Jam ~ Cooking with High Heeled Life

Remember these delicious, juicy red strawberries from my

36 Hours with a City 6 year old ~ in the Country  post?

Imagine our little house guest's delight when we asked if she would love to make strawberry jam!

Ingredients required:

1-pint freshly picked strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced

2 TBsp. fruit pectin

1/2 Tsp. butter

1 cup sugar

2 8ounce jelly jars

This recipe is perfect for little helping hands !!

After placing the prepared strawberries in the bowl, our  little helper was happy to take on the "most important" part .. mashing the strawberries. A potato masher is perfect for the job.

In a skillet combine crushed strawberries, pectin, butter.

Stirring constantly, cook over medium-high heat, until mixture comes to a gentle boil.  Add the sugar and bring to a boil. Let boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat.

Pour into jars, seal and refrigerate until set about 6 hours.  Since, our strawberry jam cooking adventure was not planned, we did not have any jelly jars. But be were resourceful and saved ourselves from having to drive into town, by using two small glass bowls. Cut some parchment paper - slightly larger than the lid size, placed it over bowl, then cover with the bowl's lid.

The jam will keep in the fridge for up to 3 weeks. This is a simple and fun recipe to do with children.

NOTE: On Monnday our little guest's mother emailed us, to say our guest thinks she may need to spend a couple extra days next time. When the mother complemented her on the yummy jam, our little gal responded "of course, I did the most important part!"

Joining these lovely hostesses..

Stuffed Pork Chops ~ Cooking with High Heeled Life

 Usually my cooking adventures are completed with the help of Rehab Girl, but since we are taking a couple of weeks off for the summer Mr. G, has offered his help with the items requiring the stove. Of course he was unaware that photos are required for each step - so while I went off to find the camera, he thought he would get things going and stuff the pork chops. So I apologize for no photo of the actual stuffing process. He promises to not start the process without camera next time...

Ingredients:

2 thick stuffing pork chops (2-3 inches thick)

1/4 Cup Gruyère Cheese (you can use 2 slices per chop)

a small handful of pine nuts chopped coarsely

2 slices of cooked ham

Italian parsley  small bunch chopped 

2 strips of bacon (uncooked)

2 tbsp. melted butter

Start with the ham slices, add cheese on top, followed by pine nuts and a sprinkling of chopped parsley. Roll together to form a roll. Using a sharp cook’s knife make an incision into the side of the meat, so that you can flap the pork chop open like a book, (think of the bone as the spine of the book). Take the ham roll and place it inside the "open book" you created - close the meat flap, securing with a small wooden skewer or toothpicks. Wrap the stuffed and closed chop with a bacon strip. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with a little of the chopped parsley. They will look similar to the above photo. Set aside. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

For the side dish, we decided on steamed broccoli and a blend of whole grain brown rice (we used Lundberg Jubilee - it's gluten free). Cook rice according to package directions - cooking time for ours 50 minutes.

Once rice is cooking, add some butter to a skillet and brown the outside of pork chops. Then place pork chops in oven proof baking dish. Place in pre-heated oven for 35-45 minutes. The cheese may start to melt out... don't worry, you can spoon it onto the pork chops after.  Remove pork chops from oven and let stand 10 minutes.

My contribution to the dinner was salad and olive bread with olive oil and balsamic dipping oil.

Salad Ingredients:

3 small ripe red tomatoes

3 mini English cucumbers

oregano, salt, pepper, evoo, balsamic vinegar - to taste 

Cubed feta cheese

Slice tomato, cucumber  sprinkle with seasoning spices and add olive oil and a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar. Blend ingredients together - I find your hands work best. After blending add cubed feta cheese and very lightly blend again.

Dipping Oil Ingredients:

1/4 C- 1/2 C Extra virgin Olive Oil (depending on how much oil you want to make)

5 TBsp. oregano, pinch of salt and pepper to taste

couple dribbles of balsamic vinegar (I used Acetaia San Giacomo)

1 loaf of Olive bread

Mix dry ingredients in a small dipping container. Pour enough olive oil to cover. Check out the heart in the oil, I could not have predicted that .. but it just happened... add a couple drizzles of balsamic vinegar. 

Place olive bread on a cutting board - with dipping oil. Serve with a bottle of Chianti. We selected Castellani 2007 Riserva from our wine selection.

 Enjoy...

 When you cut into pork chop .. the cheese will melt out.... yum!

Who cooks dinner at your home?

ALL IMAGES MR.G.

For more fabulous dishes visiting these ladies...

Drunken Spaghetti ~ Cooking With High Heeled Life

When the aprons come out, it can only mean one thing...

Rehab Girl and HHL are cooking for their session together.

Today we I decided to try another great recipe from 

David Rocco's - Dolce Vita cook book...

Drunken Spaghetti

Ingredients

1 lb (500g) spaghetti

4 to 5 cups (1 to 1.25 L) red wine

4 tbsp (60 ml) extra-virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 anchovies, finely chopped

Chili pepper flakes

1 small bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

1/4 cup (50ml) freshly grated pecorino cheese

Rehab Girl is a great help she takes care of the things I can't easily

do such as chopping things. The garlic was already finely chopped;

you can find it in most grocery stores in the prepared salads area.

While chopping , bring water to boil and cook pasta for 2 minutes.

Drain well. In a large pot, put your wine on to boil.

While wine gets ready to boil ..

Heat up the olive oil in a frying pan. Add garlic,anchovies, and

chili pepper flakes,cook on medium until anchovies melt into the oil

and  the garlic is brown. Set aside.

By this time your wine should be coming to a boil.

Add your spaghetti to boiling wine.  

Give it a good stir and finish cooking pasta until al dente,

 about 6-7 minutes.

Sorry ... no photos of the boiling wine... Rehab Girl was

very upset about the wine being boiled ...

When the pasta is ready, the wine will have infused the spaghetti,

giving it a gorgeous ruby color. Drain spaghetti from the wine, toss in

 frying pan with garlic-anchovy sauce and finish cooking for 30 seconds.

 

Remove from heat and sprinkle with parsley and some grated pecorino...

We paired the Drunken Spaghetti with a nice green salad and

olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing. And there was enough

wine left in the bottle, for us to enjoy a glass of Chianti each ..

Bon Apetite!!

Note: We were excited about making Bare Foot Contessa lemon bars.

Unfortunately the lemon sauce did not turn out and was liquidy.

Has anyone used BFC lemon bar mix?

Joining....

Pasta Al Forno ~ Cooking with High Heeled Life

One of the many things I miss post Detour in Life is cooking, but with some help and the almost finished kitchen renovations- see the new floor I am getting back into the kitchen. David Rocco is one of my favourite celebrity chefs, and he is a local resident, so I decided to use a recipe from his cook book David Rocco's Dolce Vita. I chose Pasta Al Forno ...

Ingredients;

• 1 lb (500g) Rigatoni pasta
• 4 Tbsp. (60ml) extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 large eggplant, cubed
• 15 infornate olives or any black olives, pitted and chopped
• 10 large sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 2 dried chili peppers (optional)
• salt
• 3 cups (750 ml) tomato puree
• 3/4 lb (375 g) mozzarella cheess, shredded
• Smoked scarmorza cheese, roughly chopped
• Freshly grated Parigiano-Reggiano cheese, for sprinkling 

My helper for this recipe was RehabGirl ...

She was in charge of making sure I didn't forget I was coking , didn't burn down the house, or carry too much weight with my right arm ~ no more than 2lbs 

of carrying the water filled pot and getting the pasta going.

The Sauce...

In a medium sauce pan heat olive oil and brown garlic; make sure oil is hot before adding the eggplant, olives, sundried tomatoes and chili peppers. Saute everything until the eggplant becomes soft and is slightly golden. Add some salt and the tomato puree. Simmer 5-10 minutes or until pasta is ready.

Drain and return pasta to pot. Add all the sauce, mozzarella and scamorza cheeses.Stir really well.

Pour the whole thing into a large baking dish. Top with a generous sprinkle of Parmigiano and

bake 400 degree F. (200 degree C.) oven for about 30 minutes or until beautifully golden and crisp.

Finished Pasta Al Forno

serve with a Ceasar or Caprese salad

olive bread

and a nice red wine ...perhaps a Chianti ... Enjoy!

This was a fairly simple dish to make and

the clean up minimal (so good for the person who did not cook).

What your favourite pasta dish?

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