New Members of Our Duck Dynasty

They arrived on Saturday...

Our Duck Dynasty is getting bigger :)

Taste of (Polish) Summer

Summer in Poland means, besides warmer weather, fresh fruit based dishes. At least to me.
Strawberries served with cream and sugar, blueberry pierogi, plum knedle, blueberry soup and cherry soup made by my mum. All so very tasty and refreshing at the same time!
I enjoy having and making various kinds of food: Southern, Tex-Mex, Asian, Italian or, generally speaking, European. But, sometimes I do crave the meals we had at home in Poland. The familiar/favorite tastes of the cuisine not available here. Since I am not good at making any type of pierogi (I have tried a few times but the results were rather miserable), I do not even attempt to cook anything like that these days. That is why, missing the summer Polish dishes, I finally cooked cherry soup. Easy to make and so enjoyable! All you need is the fruit, water, sugar and some cornstarch ( I used Polish potato flour instead). Some time ago I bought a bag of frozen, pitted cherries - I thought I would make a pie. Later I forgot about them. When the crave for the fruit meals came, I had the key ingredient in the freezer, ready to be cooked.

What I used (for two servings):

• 1 bag (12 oz) frozen (pitted) sweet, dark cherries  - I used about 99% of the bag content
• water,
• 3 TBS sugar,
• about 1 TBS potato flour (cornstarch),
• 2 qt pan.
• And: 1/2 cup elbow pasta.

 

What to do with it:

1. Cover frozen cherries with water and cook (at 4) to boil, add sugar (the soup should be refreshing, not too sweet). 
2. Mix potato flour (or cornstarch) with a bit of cold water, add this mixture to the soup, to thicken it (do not make it too thick!), stir, cook for about two minutes. If it happens that the soup gets too thick, add some more cold water.
3. Remove from heat and chill.
4. Cook the pasta according to the instructions provided by its manufacturer.
5. Serve the chilled soup with pasta.

I had not eaten this kind of soup for about four years, so I was quite happy when I made it. It was sooooooooo good! Next time I will make blueberry soup - soon!

Yeast Jelly Buns

Last week I decided to try a recipe by Jenny Jones (Jenny Can Cook). I chose that recipe because it was supposed to be a recipe for healthy Polish Pączki (donuts) version, and I did feel like having some fresh made pączki. Since the dough is not fried but baked instead (which sounded good to me because I dislike the frying part - so messy!), the donuts turned out to be more like regular yeast buns not real pączki. They tasted really good though and, all in all, I was (we were) really pleased with the results of my work.

My comments on making the donut-buns

The recipe calls for milk but on that day, I had run out of it. At first, I thought I would skip making pączki, but finally, I decided to use half and half instead. Actually, in recipes for 'real pączki' cream is often used.
I made the dough in a traditional way, by hand. I had to use much more flour than it was listed in the recipe (maybe half and half made the mixture wetter and more sticky) - about two cups altogether. After 20 - 25 minutes of kneading and spanking (meaning the dough of course), it was ready to be set aside.
I never use any baking paper so I greased the tin with some butter and floured it a little bit. It worked fine.
I stuffed the donuts with raspberry jam only, did not make the custard filling. Since I had never used 'the stuffing tool' before, I was not sure how much jam I was to squeeze into the buns. I did not want it to be that much as shown in the picture which illustrates the recipe by Jenny Jones. Later it appeared I could have pressed a bit more jam inside each of the donuts than I actually did.

One more thing: when a recipe is long, I usually happen to miss some part of it as (most often) I just scan the text while making the food item, looking for the key information such as eg. required temperature of the oven or time of baking. And I did miss the part on brushing the buns with melted butter. Nevertheless, instead of covering them with powdered sugar only (the buns seemed a bit dry indeed), I decided to glaze them with the thick icing made of powdered sugar and some hot water.

Summarizing the recipe experience: the buns/donuts were really enjoyable and not too sweet. Maybe next time when I am ready for some pączki again, I will brush them with butter too.

Recipe - print out version here.

Video by Jenny Jones

Our First Pol-Tex Home Made Tacos

We like tacos and, from time to time, have them at various restaurants and Tex-Mex food places. Yesterday we had them for dinner - at home too. They were soooooooooooooooooo good! My husband gave them his big YES! too. The meal was really very enjoyable and, what was also good about it, it was quite inexpensive comparing to eating out. We bought taco shells and taco sauce at Dollar Tree . Both products are very good so there is no need to get them/spend more at a different store.

Some of the ingredients

 

What I used to make our Pol-Tex tacos:

• 1 lb ground meat,
• taco seasoning,
• 8 taco shells.

 

To serve with tacos:

• lettuce - cut into small and thin pieces,
• 1/2 onion - diced,
• 1 small tomato - diced,
• cilantro - we used dried cilantro leaves,
• shredded cheese (Mexican style),
• taco sauce.

What to do with it all:

1. Brown ground meat.
2. Add taco seasoning and water (follow the instructions provided by the taco seasoning manufacturer).
3. Warm up taco shells in oven (instructions on the box). I kept them in the oven (350F) for 4 minutes.
4. Put the meat and seasoning mixture in your taco.
5. Dress your taco with (whatever you like): taco sauce, lettuce, onion, tomato, cilantro and shredded cheese.

They were best tacos we had had for some time. Surely we are going to have them (at home) more often!

Baked Potatoes with Cheese & Chives by Chef Pol-Tex

This recipe was 'invented/developed' by myself. The potato dish can be served as an appetizer or a side. It is quite tasty and we really like it.

What you need (for two persons):

• 3 or 4 medium size potatoes,
• shredded cheese,
• chives (cut into small pieces),
• salt and black pepper,
• some canola oil,
• baking dish.

What to do with it all:

• Heat oven to 400F/ 200C.
• Peel potatoes and cut them into halves and then in halves again - you will have little 'potato boats'.
• Grease baking dish slightly with some canola oil.
• Place potato boats in your baking dish.
• Season the potatoes with salt and black pepper.
• Sprinkle the potato boats with some oil.

Potato 'boats' - ready to be put into the oven

• Bake the potatoes for 30 minutes.
• After that, take the baking dish out of the oven and turn the potatoes.
• Bake for 30 minutes again.
• Take the dish out of the oven - sprinkle the potatoes with shredded cheese and pieces of chives.
• Bake them for 5 to 10 minutes.

Have a nice meal! 

 

Baked potatoes with cheese and chives

Banana Bread from Aldi

Of course, banana bread made from the scratch is the best but the one we have found at Aldi's is quite good too. Especially considering that the bread comes 'from the box'.

The bread mix contains real bananas. You only need to stir it/combine  with some water, oil and eggs. No mixer needed, just a spoon. I also add some raisins and chopped pecans to the bread mixture.
When baked, it tastes really nice so it can be served as a party treat (with no risk of being ashamed of its quality). If you prefer muffins, you can bake them using the mix and a muffin tin.
The bread is very easy to make and it is inexpensive too. We like to have it from time to time.

My Decorated Cutting Boards

I created my first decorated cutting board when I was 13 or 14. Then, there was a long 'no board' break. After quite a long time, I painted some more and another break came. I was busy with work and other projects. Recently, I have decided to decorate wooden bread boards again but, this time, in a totally different way.
The cutting board you can see in the picture below is just a sample of what I intend to do/make.

Let me explain what the paintings are:

1. Chef Pol-Tex. Since I moved to Texas, I have been the chef of our Polish-Texan kitchen (I am Polish, my husband is Texan). I make Texan and Tex-Mex dishes, cakes and pies with a touch of my Polish soul. Or the opposite: I prepare Polish meals, seasoned in a Texan/Southern way. We call it Pol-Tex food. 
2. The character painted on the board was created by myself when I was around 16. Since then, the little 'girl' and quite a band of similar characters have lived in my notepads and on pages of my notebooks. In a way, the drawings are part of me. Inspired by my husband, I thought it is time to show them/myself to the world. 
3. The flowery motifs are symbols of our Polish-Texan home. Some of them are elements of the traditional Kashubian folk pattern (Kashubia is the region of Poland I come from). Bluebonnets are, of course, the State flowers of Texas. 

As I mentioned above, this board is just a sample.

MORE PATTERNS TO COME!

If you would like to order a board with similar paintings, please contact us using the online form on the side of this page.

Please note: 

• I decorate the boards by hand, that is why the pattern on the board you get may slightly differ from the one presented as a sample. 

• The board is meant to be a decorative item only. It must not be used as a kitchen cutting board due to the layers of paint and varnish which cover the wood.

 The price of a board depends on its size and the pattern included on it.

MORE PATTERNS TO COME!