Joan’s Country Kitchen

Cooking, Entertaining and Home Improvement Blog

Archive for October, 2009

Connect with Foodie Friends, Find Recipes on FoodConnect.com

Oct-29-2009 By Joan

I just found a great new foodie resource called FoodConnect. This cooking and recipe site is a terrific

Chicken and Herbed Dumplings

Chicken and Herbed Dumplings

social network too. Membership is free and sign-up just takes minutes. From there you can connect with cooking friends, sign up for a weekly cooking and recipe newsletter and more.

FoodConnect.com is all about recipes and food! Members post their own recipes - one terrific sounding recipe I am going to try is Chicken and Herbed Dumplings with Aromatic Vegetables posted by Alex Firman. Members can review the recipes and rate them too. Once you’ve chosen recipes that interest you, you can use the shopping tool to create a shopping list, making it easy to fix that special recipe.

Find a few recipes you love and don’t want to forget? Add them to “My Recipes” so they’ll always be there to refer back to at any time. You can also create and post your own favorite menus and search for info on cookbooks.

Another foodie area on FoodConnect.com is restaurants. You can search for restaurants by zip code or city, add your own favorite restaurant or rate the ones that are listed. It’s a great way to promote your favorite eating hot spots in your town or city.

There are lots of interesting food-related articles on FoodConnect as well. Here is one by Judy Witts called Liquid Gold about olive oil.

Almost all of the members I looked at on the site were from Vancouver, BC so FoodConnect could use some members from the United States! Take a moment to sign up for it’s free membership and browse. You could be the first in your city to post your favorite restaurant or make some new friends in BC.

This was a paid review by FoodConnect.com but, as with all my reviews, I fully checked out the site and really like it. FoodConnect has great potential and you can be part of it so sign up and post those recipes.

Posted in: Cooking Resources, Joan's Cooking Blog, Menu Planning
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Party Planning with Ease at Partease

Oct-28-2009 By Joan

Are you planning a wedding or baby shower? How about a birthday or graduation party? What you need is original and eye-catching party favors to help make your occasion special.

Partease is just what it says - it’s party planning with ease. Need theme ideas? With partease you can shop by theme, such as Asian, Eco-friendly, beach themed, romance, and more. You can have your party favors personalized as well. You can also shop by season, depending on when the event will be held or the chosen colors.

If you’re looking for any type of party favors, from candles, soaps, edible favors, place cards and coasters, you can find them at partease.

I’ll be planning a baby shower very soon and I loved the baby shower party favor section.. They were really cute and the prices were great too.

Posted in: Entertaining, Joan's Cooking Blog, Saving Money
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How to Make Money on the Internet with Blogging

Oct-28-2009 By Joan
Visit www.TheNicheBlogger.com
Want to Make Money Blogging? It’s Easy to Learn How to Make Money on Internet

Learning how to make money on Internet is a new concept for many people. Internet marketing is a relatively young industry and blogging is a huge part of it.

Not too long ago, many families didn’t even own a computer but nowadays, most families do just about everything online from socializing, playing games, to banking and shopping online. Internet marketing now provides booming business opportunities for those who want to work at home.

There are an infinite number of wonderful opportunities out there and many people are attracted to blogging as a way to make income online. Everybody has a hobby or passion they’d love to get paid writing about. What they need to get them on the right track is a successful, profitable business model to take them step by step through the process.

Some people choose to create their own informational product to sell online. Many niche markets are very receptive to downloadable books. Recipe books and cooking how to books are wonderful topics for ebooks to sell online. Ebooks are becoming more common all the time so if you come up with a good ideas, you should have little problem selling it online. Once your content is created, then you need a great blog to help promote it.

Once you have your own blog, you can add affiliate marketing (where companies pay you to post their links and products), create your own content to sell and more. There are many streams of income possible through professional blogging.

The easiest way to become an affiliate marketer is to create your own website. You then create high quality content and articles for your site and learn to drive traffic to it. The content, coupled with relevant ads which visitors click on, is the key to making money online.

The problem with creating a website is that it gets harder and harder to rank well with the search engines. The easiest way around that is to use blogging software, like Wordpress, to create your own blog. One of the benefits of blogging software is that it is faster it’s set up, more search engine friendly and easier to use.

Learning how to start a blog doesn’t have to be intimidating. If you have the right tutorial to follow, it’s easy in fact. The Niche Blogger is the easiest to follow guide that we have found and it’s the one I’ve personally used to set up several profitable blogs. The Niche Blogger is a membership site and the cost to join is so low that you should be able to easily make back your investment fairly quickly. Plus, you can cancel at any time, once you have your blogs set up and running.

While there are many different models, you really can’t go wrong with blogging. It’s possible to create a part or full-time income through through blogging, once you have the right tools and someone to help you at every step of the way.

Posted in: Joan's Cooking Blog, Kitchen Products, Saving Money
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Vegetable Recipes - Scalloped Corn Casserole

Oct-28-2009 By Joan

This recipe for scalloped corn could be used as a side dish for your holiday dinner or as a fancy way to fix corn anytime. I get tired of steaming veggies for dinner every night and love finding interesting veggie recipes. This one came from my mom’s Iowa 1901 Farm Bureau Cookbook.

Ingredients

1 15oz can of corn
2 cups milk
1 1/2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
2 TBs butter
2 cups bread crumbs

Directions

Mix the corn, milk and seasonings together.

Melt butter and toss with bread crumbs, coating thoroughly.

Place a layer of breadcrumbs into an 8×8 glass baking dish.

Add a layer of corn mixture, then another layer of breadcrumbs.

Continue layering, ending up with crumbs on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. The topping should be crispy brown.

The Mediterranean Diet is the healthiest in the world. If you’d like some tasty recipes using more healthy veggies, try Mediterranean Harvest: Vegetarian Recipes from the World’s Healthiest Cuisine

Posted in: Casserole Recipes, Country Vegetables
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Very Easy Blueberry Syrup Recipe

Oct-22-2009 By Joan

This blueberry syrup recipe is super easy and delicious. It can be used over ice cream, pancakes or waffles or add it to ice tea for a great berry flavored drink. It also makes a delicious gift from your kitchen for the holidays.

Ingredients for Easy Blueberry Syrup

3 c blueberries fresh or frozen

2/3 c. light corn syrup

Dash of salt

Cooking Instructions

Place all three ingredients into your blender. Cover and blend on liquid setting until syrup is smooth.

Pour blueberry mixture into a medium saucepan.

Boil mixture for about 5 minutes. Stir constantly to avoid sticking.

This easy blueberry syrup is terrific served over waffles or pancakes or try it on ice cream. Can also be added to your ice tea to make blueberry iced tea. This syrup can also be chilled and reheated.

This easy recipes yields 3 1/2 cups of blueberry syrup.

Posted in: Berry Recipes, Breakfast Recipes, Drink Recipes, Fruit Recipes, Gifts from Your Kitchen, Holiday Ideas
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Shop or Pay Bills Safely on the Internet with Shop Shield

Oct-20-2009 By Joan

Shopping online is easy and convenient but, let’s face it, every time you shop or transact with a web site online you put yourself the risk because other people have access to your personal financial information. As someone who has had my own credit card number stolen while shopping online, I can vouch for the necessity of using a service like Shop Shield® to keep me safer online and protect me from identity theft in the future. Shop Shield® offers the most complete protection against identity theft and credit card fraud when you shop, pay bills, make a Credit Card Payment or register with web sites.

Shop Shield® safeguards all my personal data when I’m shopping or paying bills online because Internet thieves, hackers and insiders don’t have access to my name, address, phone numbers, credit card numbers, passwords or my email addresses, because this information is never provided to any web sites. Shop Shield® replaces all my personal identity information with anonymous information so you and your family stay anonymous, and your information is secure.

Shop Shield® works almost everywhere major Credit Card Payment is accepted – so you can shop or pay bills securely at almost any web site.

How Shop Shield® Works

Shop Shield® replaces your real payment and identity information with anonymous data that is useless to thieves and can’t be traced to you. It’s the only product that protects ALL of your data, including your name, billing address, email address, passwords, phone number, credit cards, debit cards, and bank accounts.

Using Shop Shield® is also FREE when you pay with a checking account and is guaranteed 100% secure.

Luckily for me, my own case was easily solved. I check my bank accounts frequently and noticed a few small charges I did not make. My bank was great about canceling the charges and the card and issuing me a new card. If I’d known about Shop Shield® back then, however, I wouldn’t even have had that inconvenience.

Check out their service and see for yourself how easy, convenient and safe Shop Shield can be.

Posted in: Joan's Cooking Blog, Saving Money
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Old Fashioned Blueberry Cobbler Recipe

Oct-14-2009 By Joan

There’s nothing like a delicious blueberry cobbler on a warm summer evening. Try topping it with homemade vanilla ice cream and it takes you right back to a childhood spent in the country.

Ingredients

2 1/2 c frozen or fresh blueberries
1/4 to 1/2 c sugar to taste
2 tbs butter
1 1/2 c packaged biscuit mix
1 tbs sugar
2/3 c milk
1 tbs melted butter
1/2 c sugar
1 tbs cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c boiling water

Blueberry Cobbler Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat blueberries and 1/4 c sugar to bubbling and until sugar is dissolved. Stir in butter.

Place this blueberry mixture into 8×8 baking dish.

Combine biscuit mix and 1 tbs sugar. Add milk and melted butter. Blend until smooth.

Spoon biscuit mix over hot blueberries.

Mix 1/2 c sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon. Sprinkle this topping over batter.

Pour boiling water over the entire mixture.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until done.

Variation: You can also try this with double the biscuit mixture if you’d like more crust.

Posted in: Berry Recipes, Country Holiday Recipes, Desserts, Fruit Recipes, Summer Recipes, Superfood Recipes
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Sour Cream Blueberry Muffin Recipe

Oct-13-2009 By Joan

Try this luscious blueberry muffin recipe which offers the richness of sour cream and butter. It’s ok to

Blueberry muffin

Blueberry muffin

splurge on calories if you’re adding superfood blueberries to your muffins. They make a tasty treat for breakfast, dinner or a snack.

Ingredients

1 stick butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar plus additional for sprinkling the muffins
2 lg. eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. sour cream
2 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. fresh blueberries

Directions

Cream butter and 3/4 cup of the sugar in a medium mixing bowl, then add eggs, beating them in one at a time.

Add vanilla and sour cream and continue beating.

In a separate mixing bowl sift together flour, baking soda and the salt.

Stir flour mixture into butter and sour cream mixture until well combined.

Fold blueberries into the batter.

Spoon the batter into a 12 muffin tin baking pan, with paper liners.

Sprinkle blueberry muffin tops with additional sugar.

Bake these sour cream blueberry muffins at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until just golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

Posted in: Bread Recipes, Breakfast Recipes, Country Holiday Recipes, Desserts, Fruit Recipes, Gifts from Your Kitchen, Snacks, Superfood Recipes
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Joan’s Cooking Blog - Avoid Identity Theft with Safe Pre-Paid Debit Cards

Oct-13-2009 By Joan

Like most Americans these days, I have had my credit card number stolen while shopping online. Luckily for me, it was easy to fix the problem and I didn’t lose any money. However, since this happened, I decided to look into a prepaid card like those offered by NetSpend.

NetSpend offers a company debit card to use virtually anywhere to make purchases, pay bills, secure hotel and car rental reservations and shop online without the need even for a bank or credit history. This is a perfect solution for teaching your teenager to use a debit card responsibly. Simply charge the card with their allowence each week. Send one off with your college student so you can put money on the card at home and they can use it safely anywhere.

You can also get a prepaid debit card from NetSpend for traveling. Simply put the money onto your card and use it to make purchases for a specific length of time. That way you won’t be a victim of identity theft while traveling, eating in restaurants and shopping in distant cities.

NetSpend’s prepaid cards offer a great budgeting tool also. Put your grocery moeny on a NetSpend card each month and resolve to only spend your budgeted amount. Even low to moderate income shoppers can use these prepaid cards.

If you’re worried about identity theft, and these days, who isn’t, consider a Netspend prepaid card.

Posted in: Joan's Cooking Blog, Kitchen Products, Save Money on Groceries, Saving Money
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Remodeling Your Home-Try ModernFurnitureWarehouse.com for Ideas

Oct-13-2009 By Joan

Remodeling the entertainment areas of your home is one of the smartest home improvement

Beautiful Bedroom from Modern Furniture Warehouse

Beautiful Bedroom from Modern Furniture Warehouse


investments you can make. Updating your home allows you to entertain in style with a beautiful dining and living room too. If you’re considering a home remodel, you should check out Modern Furniture which offers a terrific selection of furniture and accessories for the dining room, home office, living room, your child’s room and the rest of your home in just about any style you want.

Modern Furniture helps you make your living room a family gathering spot or create a peaceful bedroom sanctuary. Beautify every room in your home at reasonable prices, which in many cases, includes free shipping too.

This article was a paid review but I have looked at the beautiful furniture and accessories at Modern Furniture and I love their dining room sets! We are currently remodeling our bathroom and I loved the modern, clean lines of their bathroom accessories too.

Posted in: Entertaining, Holiday Ideas, Home Remodeling, Kitchen Products
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Blueberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing Recipes

Oct-8-2009 By Joan

Blueberry vinaigrette salad dressings offer a unique and beautiful touch to a salad of mixed greens.

Blueberry Vinaigrette Recipe #1

Ingredients

1/4 c fresh lime or lemon juice
1 tbs honey or sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 c fresh blueberries
1/4 c plain yogurt
2 tbs olive or canola oil
Dash pepper

Directions

Mix together lime or lemon juice, honey and salt.

Mash 1/2 cup blueberries into the lemon or lime juice juice and honey mixture.

Stir in yogurt, pepper and oil and blend well.

Taste for seasoning.

Blueberry Vinaigrette Recipe #2

Ingredients

1/2 c olive oil
1/4 c red wine vinegar
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic minced
2 tsp prepared mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 c blueberries fresh or frozen (thawed)

Directions for Blueberry Vinaigrette Recipe #2

Put all ingredients except blueberries into a bowl and whisk to blend well.

Add Blueberries and stir gently.

Serve over mixed greens or store in refrigerator.

Posted in: Berry Recipes, Budget Recipes, Fruit Recipes, Gifts from Your Kitchen, Healthy Recipes, Salad Dressings, Salads, Side Dishes, Summer Recipes, Superfood Recipes
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Superfood Smoothie Recipe - Blueberry Smoothie

Oct-8-2009 By Joan

Jump Start Your Day with this Blueberry Superfood Smoothie.

This delicious blueberry smoothie is a great way to start your day with foods from the superfood list. Sweet and tangy, blueberries contain anti-inflammatory ingredients, plus Vitamin K and Folate, Vitamin C, Vitamin A, potassium, calcium and magnesium. This Superfood Smoothie is a meal in a glass.

The Apollo Personal Size Blender

Ingredients

1 frozen banana, thawed for 10 to 15 minutes
½ c low fat vanilla soy milk or use low fat milk
1 c vanilla fat-free yogurt
1 ½ tsp flax seed meal
1 ½ tsp honey
2/3 c fresh or frozen blueberries

The Apollo Personal Size Blender


Directions for Smoothie

Using your blender, add banana, yogurt, flax seed meal, soy milk and honey. Blend these ingredients on low until smooth.

Add blueberries and then continue blending.

Once banana and blueberries are fully chopped, increase speed to medium.

Continue blending until you reach the consistency you want.

Makes 2 Servings of Superfood Smoothie

Nutritional Information per Serving

Calories 244
Fat 3g
Sodium 94mg
Carbohydrates 48.3g
Fiber 4.5g
Protein 9.4g

Posted in: Berry Recipes, Breakfast Recipes, Drink Recipes, Healthy Recipes, Superfood Recipes, Weight Loss Recipes
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Book Review - Blueberry Muffin Murder by Joanne Fluke

Oct-8-2009 By Joan

I always love a great Hannah Swensen mystery by Joanne Fluke and Blueberry Muffin Murder was another hit. Reading a Joanne Fluke mystery, set in Lake Eden, Minnesota, is like having a homey visit with Hannah, her sister Andrea, Hannah’s two boyfriends, Mike and Norman, and all the various characters who reside in this chilly little town, including the neurotic Moishe the cat.

Hannah, who owns and operates The Cookie Jar, a popular bake and coffee shop in Lake Eden. These light-hearted cookie mysteries always seem to kill off some person who isn’t very well liked anyway and the Blueberry Muffin Murder is no exception. This time the victim is Connie Mac, a famous TV chef who comes to Lake Eden to open a store - and gets killed in the process. The fact that Connie Mac died in Hannah’s shop - with one of Hannah’s blueberry muffins - still in her hand, gives Hannah and her sister a special interest in the case.Despite the fact that one of Hannah’s boyfriends, Mike, is a police officer in Lake Eden who forbids Hannah to investigate the murder, the clues are piling up and Hannah is on the case.

Joanne Fluke mysteries are all interspersed with real recipes and the Blueberry Muffin Murder is no exception. This mystery includes tasty cookies and muffins like Blue Blueberry muffins, Multiple Choice Bar Cookies and Twin Chocolate Delights. All together there are eight recipes which make these books you’d like to hang onto after you read them.

Other great Hannah Swensen murder mysteries include other tasty titles like the Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder and the Strawberry Shortcake Murder. If you like light-hearted murder mysteries that make you want to grab a warm, fragrant cookie and a cup of coffee, you’ll love Joanne Fluke’s books.

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Posted in: Cooking Book Reviews, Desserts, Joan's Cooking Blog
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Blueberry Brunch Cake Recipe

Oct-8-2009 By Joan

This scrumptious blueberry brunch cake recipe is a favorite in my family for Sunday brunch or any special breakfast.

Ingredients

Cake

1 c margarine
1 3/4 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
3 c all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 can (21oz) prepared blueberry pie filling
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Glaze

1 1/4 c powdered sugar
1 tbs margarine
2-3 tbs lemon juice
a few drops of yellow food coloring

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour a 15×10 jelly roll pan.

In a large mixing bowl, combine margarine, sugar and vanilla and creme together. Add eggs, one at a time and beat well after each one.

Lightly spoon flour into a measuring cup and level it off.

By hand, stir in the flour, baking powder and salt. Blend well.

Spread half the batter in the prepared pan.

Stir nutmeg into pie filling and spread it evenly over the batter.

Drop remaining batter by teaspoonfuls over the filling.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until blueberry cake is golden brown.

Combine glaze ingredients and blend until smooth. If glaze seems too thick, add a few drops of water until it is the desired consistency.

Drizzle the glaze on the warm cake.

Cake makes 24 servings.

Posted in: Berry Recipes, Bread Recipes, Breakfast Recipes, Cake recipes, Desserts, Holiday Ideas
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Easy Low Fat Blueberry Pancake Recipe

Oct-8-2009 By Joan

Easy Blueberry Pancake Recipe

With this easy low fat version of the traditional blueberry pancake recipe lets you enjoy a delicious breakfast and lose weight too. Our blueberry pancake recipe gives you the added nutrition of whole grain fiber, which fills you up and keeps you from getting hungry. Superfood blueberries are packed with vitamins and antioxidants, and oats add fiber, protein and other healthy nutrients.

Ingredients for low fat blueberry pancakes

¼ c whole wheat flour
¼ c all-purpose flour
¼ c rolled oats
¼ c cornmeal
1 tbs honey
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
2 egg whites
2 tbs plain nonfat yogurt
2 tbs skim milk
2 tbs water
¾ c blueberries

Directions

Preheat oven 200 F. degrees for keeping the pancakes warm while you finish cooking.

In a medium mixing bowl, blend the wheat and all-purpose flours and mix in oats, cornmeal, honey, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

In a separate mixing bowl whisk together eggs, yogurt, milk and water. Carefully fold in blueberries.

Slowly add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix gently, just moistened.

Pour batter into skillet, using about 1/3 c of batter for each blueberry pancake. Brown on both sides and make sure middle is cooked before taking from heat.

Rachael Ray 10-in. Stainless Steel Nonstick Skillet, Stainless Steel


Rachael Ray 10-in. Stainless Steel Nonstick Skillet, Stainless Steel

If your blueberry pancake browns too quickly before center is done, turn heat down.

As you cook each pancake, put it into to a baking dish, cover with foil and place in warmed oven until ready to serve.

Instead of sugary syrup, try topping these blueberry pancakes with sugar-free syrup or blueberry low-fat or fat free yogurt, then top with a few extra fresh or frozen blueberries.

Makes 4 Servings

Nutrition per Serving

Calories 134
Fat 0.7g
Sodium 547mg
Carbohydrates 24.5g
Fiber 3.25g
Protein 6g

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Posted in: Berry Recipes, Breakfast Recipes, Weight Loss Recipes
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