You Can’t Beat These Beets! Canning with Ball Jars and a Giveaway!

Posted on August 20, 2015 by kelleychisholm

 Beets ready to be canned

A few weeks ago I posted about International Can-It-Forward Day as part of a promotion with Jarden Home Brands. This was an event to celebrate the joys of fresh preserving, which I’ve been doing for years, so I was happy to blog about it. And for my efforts, Jarden sent me a great Ball home canning discovery kit that had three pint jars with lids and bands and a polypropylene canning rack. Also included was a box of cool designer red lids with bands, fiesta salsa mix, some coupons and the latest edition of the Blue Book Guide to Preserving, which has more than 500 recipes. Sweet! In addition, Jarden will be sending one of my lucky readers a coupon for any size case of jars, up to $16.00. Extra sweet! Keep reading to see how you can enter to win these great jars.

Ball Canning Discovery kit and other goodies

Last year I canned several jars of delicious marinara sauce, Roma tomatoes, dill and okra pickles, jalapeños, pickled peaches, strawberry preserves and salsa, all for my family to enjoy in the cold winter months (https://kelleychisholm.com/2014/08/12/yes-you-can-preserve-now-and-enjoy-later/). This year I wanted to try my hand at pickled beets, which I love.

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How Will You Celebrate National Zucchini Day? With These Awesome Fritters, I hope!

Posted on August 7, 2015 by kelleychisholm

 Kel's zucchini and squash fritter

For National Zucchini Day, which is August 8, I decided to make these zucchini and squash fritters that appeared on my Facebook feed (see http://www.healthy-holistic-living.com/zucchini-fritters-recipe.html for the original recipe) for 3 main reasons:

  1. They looked incredibly delicious.
  2. Zucchini is cheap and abundant this time of year.
  3. I just received the brand new Pampered Chef Veggie Strip Maker and was anxious to try it.

Zucchini have only 17 calories per 100 g., contain no saturated fats or cholesterol and are a good source of potassium. When selecting zucchini, choose those that are firm and small-to-medium sized. They should be free of nicks and cuts and uniformly green in color, with a glossy sheen.

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Mom’s Amazing Rose Geranium Cake with Rose-Buttercream Frosting

Posted on August 2, 2015 by kelleychisholm

Yum-oh!

When’s the last time you baked a cake with your Mom? Luckily for me, it was just a couple of weeks ago. And this wasn’t just any cake – it was a melt-in-your-mouth, delicious rose geranium cake, unlike anything I’ve ever had. Mom had seen a recipe for this years ago and then more recently on Food Network’s TV show, “The Best Thing I Ever Made” where Chef Anne Burrell shared her Mom’s recipe for this delightful cake, infused with rose geranium leaves.

Rose geranium plant

Don’t confuse a rose geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) with your everyday garden variety geranium — it is not the same. According to Kevin Lee Jacobs in Garden Design Magazine, “this plant is not technically a geranium at all, but rather, a member of the Pelargonium genus. This is a plant that really earns its keep—not only is it easy to grow, but the plant’s deeply cut, medium green, intensely fragrant leaves can be used in drinks, desserts and even in your bath as a beauty treatment.” Mom got her plant at the Wake Forest Herb Fest, but I imagine you could get them at a nursery/greenhouse.

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Kel’s Incredibly Delicious and Easy Basil, Garlic and Parmesan Butter

Posted on July 15, 2015 by kelleychisholm

PC freezing trays ready for Kel's herbed butter

When I finally got my Pampered Chef herb freezing trays, I immediately knew what I was going to use them for first: Basil, Garlic and Parmesan Butter. My basil plants have been doing great this year, and while I plan on making some of Kel’s pesto later this summer, I really wanted to make some flavored butter to use later on pasta and bread and to sauté veggies and other things in.

Angel hair pasta with Kel's herbed butter

This recipe is basic — just five ingredients to create one of the best spreads you’ve ever tasted! If you don’t have a garden, you can find fresh basil at most farmer’s markets and some grocery stores – the key is to get it fresh. I used the leaves from approximately 12-15 stems of basil in this recipe. Also, make sure you are using fresh garlic and parmesan as well – none of that canned or jarred stuff!

Fresh basil

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Kel’s Tart and Tasty Raspberry Lemonade Gelatin Shots

Posted on July 8, 2015 by kelleychisholm

Kel's Raspberry Lemonade Gelatin Shots

When my sweet niece Mercedes posted a You Tube video of these gelatin shots to my FB page, I knew I had to try them – they were so cute and looked perfect for summer. I mean really, how Martha-Stewart perfect are these? And, as the matron of gelatin shots in our family (thanks to my grownup nieces, nephews and siblings, plus a penchant to please) I thought these would be a big hit for my sister’s recent birthday celebration. And yes, yes they were.

To be completely honest, these are somewhat of a pain to make. Assembling and mixing the ingredients is quite easy and even scooping the lemons doesn’t take long. What’s hard (at least for me), is trying to fill the lemons to the top with the gelatin mixture and then transferring them to the fridge without spilling any of it. I used a ladle to fill the lemons, but next time I think I’ll get one of those plastic squeeze thingies instead, and fill part of them in the actual fridge. And there will be a next time, because in addition to being so cute, these are tart, refreshing and ideal for a hot summer’s day. And they do pack a punch!

Use a ladle to fill lemons with lemonade mixture

I did change regular pink lemonade to raspberry lemonade, but that was all. To view the video Mercedes sent me to see a step-by-step instructional, click here: Tipsy Bartender

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Chef Cherisse’s Yummy Jicama Slaw

Posted on June 30, 2015 by kelleychisholm

Jicama slaw as a cookout side

Looking for a great and easy-to-make side dish to take to a Fourth of July celebration or other summer cookout? Well look no further than this light and refreshing jicama slaw, courtesy of my friend Chef Cherisse Byers. This pairs great with grilled chicken or pork chops and is a wonderful alternative to a traditional coleslaw.

What is jicama, exactly? It’s a juicy, sweet and nutty tuber that tastes much like a savory apple. Crunch, it is most commonly prepared raw, but you can cook jicama, too. Its white flesh stays crisp when cooked briefly. You can find it in most major grocery stores in the produce section.

Recently,  I assisted Chef Cherisse at Whisk to make this slaw and she julienned the jicama. However, she recently altered the recipe and grated the jicama instead. “When you grate the jicama it holds onto the dressing better and the diced mango gets nice and “tangled” in the shreds.  Also, the texture and appearance is closer to that of the traditional slaw.”  So give it a try according to your personal preference.

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Aunt Ruth’s Heavenly Hickory Smoked Lemon Grilled Chicken

Posted on June 14, 2015 by kelleychisholm

Lemon hickory chicken off the grill

This incredible recipe has been handed down through the generations and it’s as finger-licking good as I remember it from my childhood – it truly was (and still may be) my favorite grilled chicken. I had almost forgotten about it until I recently had it at Mom’s, and she credits “Aunt” Ruth, one of her parents’ close friends, for this awesome chicken, as well as my Mamma, who added some extra spices to the marinade. I loved going to Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tom’s Shenandoah Valley home when I was a child and have such great memories of walking next to a rushing mountain stream with swimming holes and a beaver dam as well as the beautiful views of their property. I still remember picking wild blackberries from their land and making preserves that very same day. It was magical!

As usual, I digress, so back to the recipe. What makes this chicken so incredibly delicious is the lemon in the marinade and the smoke from the hickory sticks, which is what we always used growing up. If you don’t have access to a hickory tree, just buy the chips from your local hardware store – this bag was about $4.00.

Smoker box and hickory chips

I purchased a small smoker (8.5x4x2”) for less than $10.00 since I’ll be making this on a regular basis. According to the instructions on the bag of hickory chips, you can use aluminum foil instead. Go ahead and spring for the smoker – I guarantee it will pay for itself in no time!

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Kel’s Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers, a Carnivore’s Delight!

Posted on June 8, 2015 by kelleychisholm

Kel's cheesesteak pepper up close

Summer means bell peppers will soon be in abundance and I absolutely adore them, whether they’re green, red, yellow or orange. I especially love stuffed peppers and there are so many ways to fill them, whether you’re a carnivore, vegan, or somewhere in between. OK, judging by the title of this post, this one’s for all the meat lovers out there – think of it as a cheesesteak sub, minus the bread (and the carbs!) And lots of ooey, gooey cheese on the top and bottom – yum, yum, yum, yum, yum!

I used thinly sliced top sirloin sandwich steaks that were on sale (of course) at Harris Teeter for this batch, but feel free to use roast beef from your deli, or even Steak-umms®. It all depends on your preference of the thickness of the meat. Overall, I think I like the Steak-umms® the best, but the sirloin in this recipe is sure to delight if you love a great cheesesteak with a little bit of texture!

36dcf14e_steak_faces1

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Kel’s Classic Lasagna, Comfort Food for a Crowd

Posted on June 1, 2015 by kelleychisholm

Kel's classic lasagna

One of my favorite go-to dishes to make at large get-togethers is classic lasagna. After all, what’s not to love? It’s practically guaranteed to turn out great, since you really can’t go wrong with pasta, meat sauce and lots of yummy, yummy cheese baked together for comfort food at its best.

For this particular lasagna, I used my homemade marinara sauce, which is quite garlic-y, so I did not add any additional garlic. But if you’re using your favorite jarred sauce from the grocery store, I’d add 4-5 cloves to the mix. If you have any meat sauce left over, save it, since the sauce in the lasagna gets absorbed by the noodles when refrigerated (if you have any leftover lasagna, that is!) Also, you can make the sauce the day before, which not only saves time the next day, but also adds more intensity to the flavor of the sauce. Just heat it before you get ready to assemble the lasagna.

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Kel’s Boursin and Jalapeño Stuffed Chicken Breasts Wrapped in Bacon. Need I Say More?

Posted on May 20, 2015 by kelleychisholm

Kel's Boursin cheese and Jalapeno stuffed chicken wrapped in bacon

Brad loves Boursin® cheese, but I rarely buy it unless it’s on sale, since it is a bit pricey. Well, he was in luck the other day because Harris Teeter had it BOGO free. I decided to use one of the packages to stuff a couple of chicken breasts I needed to cook, and then thought that I should really wrap them in bacon. Sometimes good thoughts like that just pop in my head. I also thought I needed to add some jalapenos for heat, and voila! a tasty entrée was in the making.

I used Boursin’s® Shallot & Chive Gournay Cheese in this recipe, but feel free to make this with your favorite flavor, such as the Garlic & Fine Herbs. Next time I will  add extra jalapeños because we like a bit more heat, but this still tasted great and we just added some hot sauce at the table.

This is fairly easy to put together and well worth it. I’m always looking for a new way to prepare chicken and now that it’s grilling season, I know this will become a family favorite! Brad loves this new twist on his favorite spreadable cheese.

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