Below are the NINE recipes that Jolie and Ava would have LOVED to get through with their “Cooking with Cast Iron” class—luckily, they can still share the recipes with all of you!
Recipe taken and slightly altered from: https://afarmgirlskitchen.com/loaded-baked-potato-soup/
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 30 mins
Creamy and delicious Loaded Baked Potato Soup is easy to make in your Dutch oven cast iron pot.
7-8 baking potatoes peeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 medium onions chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
6 cups chicken broth
2 cups half and half
salt and ground pepper to taste
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 pound bacon cooked crispy, crumbled
shredded cheese, variety of your choice
full-fat sour cream
green onion thinly sliced
In a cast iron Dutch oven:
Brown the bacon in a Dutch oven pot over medium to high heat. Remove from the pan using a slotted spoon. Set on a few paper towels to drain the fat.
Drain all but 1 tablespoon or so of the bacon fat. Saute the onions and garlic in the fat, just until translucent. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. Add the butter and let melt. Add the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes, or until it's lightly browned. Stir with a wooden spoon so it does not stick to the pan.
Add the chicken stock and potatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer the potatoes for 20-30 minutes, or until tender. Mash with a potato masher. Season with salt and ground pepper to taste.
Gently stir in the half and half, a little at a time. Season with onion powder, garlic powder, and ground mustard. Add more ground pepper if necessary. Stir with a spoon occasionally. Let simmer over medium to low heat for 10-15 minutes, or until the soup is thickened slightly.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream, green onion, shredded cheese and crumbled bacon, or a garnish of shredded, potatoes, fried pressed together in a cookie cutter.
Enjoy!
***This is a Jolie Tucker—straight from Cast Iron Creation’s kitchen—giving you two alternatives for making your steak!
Coarse salt, such as kosher salt or sea salt
1 or 2 boneless beef steaks, 1 inch thick (about 2 pounds total), such as strip, rib-eye, flat iron, chuck-eye, hanger or skirt (preferably “outside” skirt)
Black pepper (optional)
(Optional) I like to make my own rub for meat by combining paprika, garlic powder, cayenne, onion powder, and chili powder. Once the steak thaws, I put it in a freeze lock bag and add a dash of lime juice and rub to it to create a paste and rub it into the meat. I add real crushed garlic in and a splash of sriracha sauce, Worchester sauce, and a little more lime juice and let it marinade 48 hours.
Remove packaging and pat meat dry with paper towels—see directions about for rub and marinade if you’d like to have more tender and flavorful steak. Line a plate with paper towels, place meat on top and set aside to dry further and come to cool room temperature (30 to 60 minutes, depending on the weather). Turn occasionally; replace paper towels as needed.
Place a heavy skillet, cast-iron, on the stove and sprinkle lightly but evenly with about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt. Turn heat to high under pan. Pat both sides of steak dry again.
When pan is smoking hot, 5 to 8 minutes, pat steak dry again and place in pan. (If using two steaks, cook in two batches.) Don’t forget to use a dishtowel or rubber handles for a cast iron skillet.
Let steak sizzle for 1 minute, then use tongs to flip it over, moving raw side of steak around in pan so both sides are salted. Press down gently to ensure even contact between steak and pan. Keep cooking over very high heat, flipping steak every 30 seconds. After it’s been turned a few times, sprinkle in two pinches salt. If using pepper, add it now.
When steak has contracted in size and developed a dark-brown crust, about 4 minutes total, check for doneness. To the touch, meat should feel softly springy but not squishy. If using an instant-read thermometer, insert into side of steak. For medium-rare meat, 120 to 125 degrees is ideal: Steak will continue cooking after being removed from heat.
Remove steak to a cutting board and tent lightly with foil. Let rest 5 minutes.
Serve in pieces or thickly slice on the diagonal, cutting away from your body and with the top edge of the knife leaning toward your body. If cooking skirt or hanger steak, make sure to slice across the grain of the meat.
Enjoy!
***Alternatives: a different approach to cooking a steak using cast iron is to add oil and salt to your cast iron skillet and sear each side of the steak for one minute on medium heat. Next, put the skillet in your oven to cook to your preferred temperature. When you take the skillet out of the oven, move the steak to another tray and add wine (I use a sweet red) in your hot skillet to deglaze and scrape with a spatula then add the steak back in the skillet and then use a spoon to baste the wine over each side of the steak—it makes your steak extremely moist!
Recipe taken and slightly altered from: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/229669/glazed-carrots/
2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into sticks
¼ cup of butter
¼ cup packed brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
Place carrots into large cast-iron skillet, pour in enough water to reach depth of 1 inch, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer carrots until tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and transfer to a bowl.
Melt butter in the same cast iron sauce pan; stir brown sugar, salt, and white pepper into butter until brown sugar and salt have dissolved. Transfer carrots into brown sugar sauce; cook and stir until carrots are glazed with sauce, about 5 more minutes.
Recipe taken and slightly altered from:
https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/baked_asparagus_with_parmesan/
1 pound asparagus
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt, less or more
1/8 teaspoon black pepper, less or more taste
1/2 cup loosely packed (about 1.5 ounces or 40g) shredded or grated parmesan cheese, or to taste
Prep the asparagus: Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C). Break or cut off the woody ends of the asparagus spears. For an added touch, if you want you can use a vegetable peeler to peel the skins off the base of the asparagus spears for a more elegant presentation.
Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, Parm: Arrange the asparagus spears on a foil-lined cast iron baking sheet and coat with the olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and the Parmesan.
Bake: Bake at 400°F until the cheese begins to brown, about 8-10 minutes.
Recipe taken and slightly altered from: https://www.recipetineats.com/cowboy-rice-salad/
1 1/2 cups brown rice, uncooked
2 3/4 cups water
Dressing:
1/3 cup lime juice, plus more to taste
1/2 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp chipotle powder (sub with smoked paprika + cayenne pepper)
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder (or 1 garlic clove, minced)
3/4 tsp salt
Black Pepper
Salad:
1 red capsicum/bell pepper, diced
1 green capsicum/bell pepper, diced
1 small red onion, chopped
1 x 400g (14oz) corn kernels, drained
1 x 400g (14oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
3 tomatoes, watery seeds removed then diced
1 cup coriander/cilantro leaves, roughly chopped
Place brown rice and water into a medium cast iron sauce pan over medium-low high heat. Place lid on. When water starts simmering, turn down to low and simmer for 15 minutes until water has evaporated and rice is firm / tender cooked. Remove saucepan (lid on) from stove, stand for 10 minutes, fluff with fork. Cool to room temperature (transfer to large bowl and refrigerate to speed up process).
Place Dressing ingredients in a jar, shake. Taste test, adjust to your taste.
Place Salad ingredients and rice in a bowl. Drizzle with dressing. Toss, then serve. Fantastic served straight away and even the next day!
****This recipe is taken straight out of Chocolate Caper’s kitchen and is Betsy’s original recipe for Jolie’s birthday cake.
Chocolate Cake:
1 3/4 cup Flour
1 3/4 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Cocoa high quality
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Oil canola or coconut oil
2 Eggs
1 cup Buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla
1 cup Hot Water
Chocolate Buttercream:
1 1/2 cups Butter softened
1 cup Cocoa (if you are a chocoholic like Jolie Tucker—you can increase the amount of cocoa—you’d want to increase the milk and powdered sugar slightly IF you increase the cocoa to keep it from getting too dry.)
5 cups Powdered Sugar
1/3 cup Cream Half n Half or Milk
Toffee candy of your choice—smash it up with a rolling pin
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. If you have a flour sifter, sift all dry ingredients.
In mixing bowl, beat oil, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla for 1 minute. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until combined. Pour in hot water and mix together. The batter will be liquidy but that's a good thing -- it will create a moist cake.
Spray two 9-inch cake pans (cast iron baking pans make cake very moist) with non-stick cooking spray. You can also use three 8-inch cake pans for this recipe. Pour batter evenly into each pan. Bake at 22-27 minutes. Place toothpick or cake tester in the center of the cake to check if it comes out clean.
Let cool before frosting.
In mixing bowl, cream together Butter, Cocoa, Powdered Sugar, and Cream until light and fluffy. You may want to add more cream or milk depending on consistency. Once the cake has cooled and has been removed from pans, frost each layer with frosting.
Top with chocolate shavings, chocolate chips, sprinkles, M & M's or whatever your heart desires.
At the end, fold in your toffee or chocolate covered toffee into your chocolate buttercream
*This recipe makes three 8-inch thin layers to two 9-inch thick layers. If you would like to make a thick triple layer cake, 1 1/2 times the recipe and use three 9-inch cake pans.
You can sprinkle some toffee on the top of your cake too after spreading the buttercream. This is one baked good that gets even better the next day if covered.
***This recipe was taken and slightly altered from https://www.purplecarrot.com/plant-based-recipes/mexican-polenta-bowl
1 cup dry polenta
1 jalapeño pepper
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 avocado
1 can black beans
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup green onions
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
1 lime
4 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon salt*
4 cups water*
* not included
Tools
small bowl
medium bowl
large pot
whisk
PREP: Rinse and dry all produce. Mince the garlic, chop the tomatoes, green onions, and cilantro. Slice the jalapeño in half lengthwise, remove the seeds and membrane, finely dice and set aside. Peel the avocado, remove the pit, cube and set aside. Drain and rinse the black beans. Cut the lime in half and juice into a small bowl.
Add 4 cups of water to a large Dutch cast iron pot, over high heat and boil.
While waiting for the water to boil, combine the polenta, nutritional yeast, salt, and garlic in a medium mixing bowl.
Once the water is hot, slowly whisk in the polenta mixture. Continue to stir the mixture as the water comes to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low continuing to whisk the polenta until water is absorbed and it has thickened, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Once cooked through, spoon the polenta into bowls. Top polenta with tomatoes, beans, green onions, cilantro and avocado. Add in as much jalapeño as desired based on your affinity for spice.
Drizzle lime juice on top, serve warm and enjoy!
***This recipe was taken from https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/hot-peaches-3367633
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 peaches, quartered, with peel on
1 stick butter
1 cup Cinnamon Schnapps Liqueur
Vanilla ice cream, for serving
In a medium bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Toss the peaches in the sugar mixture until generously coated. Leave them in the mixture.
In a large cast-iron skillet, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the peaches and fry on each side for 1 to 2 minutes, or until softened slightly. Pour the schnapps into the skillet and lightly stir the peaches around to absorb some of the flavor. Light the schnapps on fire. It should flame off quickly.
Remove from the heat. Place the peaches over ice cream and drizzle with the remaining sauce from the skillet. Serve immediately.
Use extreme caution when igniting alcohol. Remove the pan from the heat source before adding the alcohol. Pour the alcohol into the pan and carefully ignite with a match or click lighter. Return the pan to the heat and gently swirl to reduce the flames.
***This recipe was taken and slightly altered from https://www.hy-vee.com/recipes-ideas/recipes/cast-iron-breakfast-skillet
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ lbs. red potatoes, coarsely chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
½ c. yellow onion, chopped
2 clove(s) garlic, minced
½ tsp. kosher sea salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
4 oz. fully cooked Spanish chorizo, sliced
1 (4-oz) can mild diced green chilies
1 c. shredded Cheddar cheese (4 oz)
4 large pasteurized eggs
Fresh cilantro, for garnish
Tools
10-inch cast-iron skillet
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Heat olive oil over medium heat in a 10-in. cast-iron skillet. Add potatoes, bell pepper, onion, garlic, salt and black pepper. Cook for 12 to 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender and golden brown, stirring occasionally. Add chorizo and chillies; stir until combined. Sprinkle cheese evenly over potato mixture.
Create four 2-in. indentations in the potato-chorizo mixture, using the back of a spoon. Crack one egg into each indentation, ensuring the egg is in contact with the bottom of the skillet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until egg whites are set and yolks begin to thicken. If desired, garnish with cilantro.