Beat cheeses, margarine
and water in a large bowl until well blended. Add flour, salt, and cayenne
pepper; mix well.
Stir in oats and
sunflower kernels; mix until well combined. Shape dough into a roll that is
roughly 2-inches in diameter; wrap securely. Refrigerate at least 4
hours—overnight is better.
Preheat oven to 400
degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheets. Cut roll in 1/8 to ¼ inch slices. Place
on prepared cookie sheets. Bake 9-11 minutes or until edges are light golden
brown. Remove immediately; cool on a wire rack.
At the Chatham Camera Club’s 2008 Christmas party,
Gwen Boyles brought Fruitcake Cookies that she has baked that I thought were
delicious. They contained both pecans and pistachios which made them different
from any that I had tasted before. Alan loves pistachios and he kept going back
for one more cookie.
Because these are a slice and bake cookie in a
shortbread like dough, these are very pretty cookies. I think this is a recipe
that you may want to try this year. I predict that you will add these cookies to
the list of things you need to cook for the holidays.
FRUITCAKE COOKIES
(Serves 30)
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
½ pound butter, softened
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 egg
8 ounces candied pineapple or citron or (4 oz. of
each)
8 ounces candied cherries (whole)
6 ounces whole pecans
1 cup shelled pistachios
Sift flour and cream of tartar together into a small
bowl, set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and
confectioner’s sugar until smooth. Add egg and beat well. Add flour mixture and
combine just tuntil thoroughly blended. Add remaining ingredients. Using a heavy
spatula or clean hands, mix until all fruits and nuts are evenly distributed.
Divide dough in half. Place each half onto a sheet
of wax paper. Shape each half into a log, approximately 10-12 inches long and 1
½ inches in diameter. Wrap each log in wax paper. Freeeze for several hours
until very firm.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice log into ¼ inch
slices using a sharpe knife. If dough crumbles, refreeze. Place slices ½ inch
apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Note: a nonstick cookie sheet or silicone
baking mat is very helpful. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are light
golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
Yield: 6-7 dozen cookies.
Turkey Carcass Soup was my Mother’s favorite way to
use the last of the turkey and it has become the way we usually eat the last of
the turkey. If you take the time to do this, you will have several delicious
meals for later. We even use leftover turkey breast this way.
TURKEY CARCASS SOUP
(Serves 10)
4 cups chopped leftover turkey
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 cans or packages shoe peg corn
1 can or package small limas
2 onions, diced
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
Slice the remaining meat from the turkey and reserve
for another use. Break the carcass apart, and cover with water and boil for
about two hours or until the remaining meat comes free from the bones. Remove
the bones and skins from broth and degrease your broth. If needed, chop any
large pieces of turkey to bite sized pieces. Then just make the soup as you
usually would adding anything you wnt such as potatoes, rice, turnips, cabbage,
etc.
This soup freezes well so there is no excuse for
wasting any part of the turkey. The amounts of vegetables and seasonings needed
may vary depending on how big your turkey was. Often when I thaw a quart of soup
to use later, I will dilute it with a can of tomato juice.
Last year Margaret gave me
this recipe for a Sweet Onion Pudding that her friend and running partner Jen
had given her. (This recipe originally appeared in Southern Living last fall.)
Jen’s family all contribute different dishes for their Thanksgiving meal so Jen
took two puddings for her contribution. She said the family loved it and there
were no leftovers. Hope your family and friends enjoy this recipe as much as
Jen’s did.
SWEET ONION PUDDING
(Serves 8)
6 large eggs
2 cups whipping cream
1 3-ounce package shredded
Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons all-purpose
flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup butter or margarine
6 medium-size sweet onions,
thinly sliced
Lightly whisk eggs together
and add whipping cream and shredded Parmesan cheese, blending well.
Combine flour, sugar, baking
powder and salt. Gradually stir these dry ingredients into the egg mixture. Set
aside.
Melt butter in a large skillet
over medium heat; add onions. Cook, stirring often, 30 to 40 minutes or until
they are caramelized. Remove them from heat.
Stir onions into the egg
mixture; then spoon into a lightly greased 13x9x2 inch baking dish.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30
minutes or until pudding is set.
LaJeanne Pierce lent me her
copy of Good Eats from Holden Beach, North Carolina. This is a collection of
recipes by the Holden Beach Chapel. I imagine the cookbook is available at shops
in the area or you can order a copy for $22.00 (includes shipping and handling)
from Holden Beach Chapel. 107 Rothschild, Holden Beach, NC 28462.
I enjoyed looking at the
cookbook and found several recipes that I plan on trying. The first recipe that
I tried was this one for a Bundt Pan Squash Casserole. I could not quite decide
what this would be but I was intrigued. Both of us really enjoyed this—I would
describe it as actually being a cross between a casserole and a bread. I decided
to add the Italian seasoning to the recipe and thought it was a good addition. I
baked this in my large bundt pan but next time think I will try it in a small
bundt pan and bake any leftover batter in a small loaf pan. This will be a fun
recipe to play with.
BUNDT PAN SQUASH CASSEROLE
(Serves 10)
3 cups diced yellow squash
½ cup chopped onion
4 eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup vegetable oil
¾ cup shredded mozzarella
cheese
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 cup Bisquick
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly grease a bundt pan.
Beat eggs and oil. Add salt,
pepper, Italian seasoning and cheeses and stir. Fold in squash and onion. Add
Bisquick and stir to combine.
Pour in prepared bundt pan and
bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.
Immediately turn out of pan
onto serving platter. Slice to serve with a sharp knife.
I enjoyed these Tuna Burgers
when we prepared them. In all honesty, I liked them more than Alan, but he
doesn’t like salmon patties so I wasn’t surprised. Because I served them on buns
with lettuce and tomatoes, he ate them without complaining.
Be sure to allow enough time
to refrigerate the burgers before you cook them and cook them over a low to
medium heat.
TUNA BURGERS
(Serves 4)
1 6-ounce package of
water-packed tuna, drained
½ cup soft bread crumbs
½ cup finely chopped celery
2 tablespoons minced onion
1 tablespoon minced fresh dill
weed
1/3 cup mayonnaise-type salad
dressing
2 tablespoons chili sauce
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Flake drained tuna in a bowl.
Add breadcrumbs, celery, onion, and dill; toss until mixed.
Blend together salad dressing,
chili sauce, and lemon juice in a small bowl. Add to the tuna mixture; mix well.
Shape into 4 patties. Cover and refrigerate for an hour before cooking.
Remove tuna patties from the
refrigerator and lightly dust with flour. Place in a preheated, lightly oiled
skillet. Cook over low to medium heat for 5 minutes on each side or until
lightly browned.
Serve plain or on buns with
lettuce and tomato.
Every time that I have been
able to go I have always enjoyed the Pittsboro First United Methodist Church’s
Annual Bazaar. I always try to get there early and join a lot of other people
eagerly standing in line waiting to rush inside to stock their freezers and
pantries with lots of goodies for the upcoming holiday season.
This year there is an even
better reason to be an early bird because they will be selling their “hot off
the press” cookbook Cooking with Faith II. I enjoyed reading some of the
recipes last night and I predict that a lot of you will be purchasing multiple
copies for Christmas gifts. The cookbook will be on sale at the Bazaar for $10
and I think it is a bargain.
The book contains recipes for
many old favorites that you may have lost and can do longer find in newer
cookbooks as well as new recipes that you will want to try.
I was given permission to
share a couple of recipes from the cookbook with you and I had a hard time
choosing which to use. I chose a recipe for Corn Chowder that Janet Farrell
submitted in memory of her mother Maxine Farrell because I have always wanted a
good corn chowder recipe and this certainly sounds like this one. The other
recipe that I chose was one for a Pumpkin Crisp submitted by Pat Jacques. I was
telling some people in my Sunday School class about it and everyone was
intrigued by the idea. There is also an intriguing Casserole for Leftovers
submitted by Faye Horne for the holidays that I am anxious to try.
The annual Bazaar is Friday,
November 6, 2009 from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Barbeque and chicken salad plates and
sandwiches, desserts and beverages will be available. The Pittsboro First United
Methodist Church is located at 71 West Street (Highway 64) in downtown
Pittsboro.
CORN CHOWDER
(Serves 6)
4 slices bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups diced potatoes
2 cups water
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups cream style corn
1 ½ cups milk
½ cup evaporated milk or half
and half
1 tablespoon butter
Sharp cheddar cheese, cubed
Saute bacon and onion; set
aside. Boil potatoes in water until tender, about 15 minutes. Add remaining
ingredients, except cheese. Simmer until heated through. Do not boil. Put cubed
cheese in bowls. Ladle hot soup over cheese and serve.
PUMPKIN CRISP
2 15-oz. cans pumpkin
1 cup sugar
¾ c. evaporated milk
3 large eggs
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking dish. In a large bowl, whisk together
pumpkin, sugar, evaporated milk, eggs, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla
until smooth. Pour into prepared baking dish, sprinkle evenly with walnut crispy
topping. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until center is set and topping is golden
brown. Serve warm with whipped cream.
Walnut Crisp Topping
¾ c. firmly packed light brown
sugar
¾ c. quick cooking oats
¾ c. chopped walnuts
2 T. all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
6 T melted butter
In medium bowl, combine brown
sugar, oats, walnuts, flour and cinnamon. Add melted butter, stirring until
combined, sprinkle on pumpkin crisp. Follow instructions above.
I tried this Turnip Casserole
recipe and both of us liked it. It was easy to prepare and you would probably
have all the ingredients called for on hand. The turnips that I used did not
have a distinct turnip flavor and I think flavorful turnips would make this
casserole even better. (I bought some turnips at the Siler City Farmers Market
this weekend that had a really good turnip flavor.)
TURNIP CASSEROLE
(Serves 8)
3 pounds fresh white turnips
5 slices of bacon
¼ cup butter, melted
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
3 eggs beaten
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 cup bread crumbs
½ teaspoon paprika or as
needed to lightly sprinkle over casserole.
Cook bacon and crumble.
Reserve drippings and crumbled bacon.
Peel and dice turnips. Cook in
boiling salted water seasoned with the reserved bacon drippings until turnips
are tender. Drain.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine melted butter, sugar,
salt, pepper, beaten eggs, and vinegar; stir into the diced, cooked and drained
turnips. Gently blend in the bread crumbs. Spoon into a greased casserole.
Sprinkle with paprika. Bake 40 - 45 minutes. Sprinkle with crumbled bacon before
removing from the oven.
Our neighbors went to the
mountains last week and they returned with Stayman Winesap apples – their
favorites. They shared some with us and it reminded me of how much I have always
enjoyed this apple variety and they are especially good this fall.
The apples are a delicious
snack but I decided to try baking some and tried this recipe for Baked Apple
Rings. This recipe is a little different because it does not call for any butter
and it doesn’t need any. The apples were yummy prepared like this. I want to try
this recipe again and substitute nutmeg for the cloves because I really enjoy
that flavor. Be creative and try different spice combinations.
BAKED APPLE RINGS
(Serves 6)
4 large baking apples
½ cup light brown sugar
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup honey
½ cup water
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Core and slice apples into
½-inch rings. Place in a shallow baking dish.
In a saucepan, combine and
heat the remaining ingredients until sugar melts. Pour over the apples.
Bake for 15 minutes or until
the apples are tender, turning rings to baste once or twice.
I found this recipe in a free
publication at our hotel in Fernandina Beach on our last trip to Florida. I
thought it sounded delicious and was anxious to try it. I’ve altered the recipe
slightly and we both enjoyed it when I made it. I expect that this is a recipe
that I will use often.
The number of people this will
serve is going to depend on how big their appetite is for shrimp. Four people
will be a stretch.
SHRIMP FERNANDINA
(Serves 3-4)
1 pound large shrimp, peeled
and deveined (whether to leave
the tails on is your
choice)
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoons dry white wine
1 lemon – zest and juice
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/8 teaspoon salt or to taste
¼ teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper or to taste
¼ cup Italian bread crumbs
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
¼ teaspoon paprika
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Melt butter and add white
wine. Pour into a shallow casserole dish that has a cover. Place shrimp in a
single layer in the casserole.
Mix mayonnaise, zest and juice
of the lemon. Taste—if it is too lemony for you, add a little additional
mayonnaise. Spread this mixture evenly over the shrimp.
Sprinkle evenly with
breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle lightly with paprika.
Bake casserole covered for 10
minutes. Uncover and continue baking for about five minutes or until shrimp are
done. Be careful not to overcook.
Mary Alice’s friend Karin
Evans who lives in Anchorage, Alaska, sent this recipe to all her buddies from
the days when her husband was still in the Air Force. I’ll let Karin’s comments
on the recipe speak for themselves. “I had this side dish at Spencer’s soccer
barbeque the other day. It took me everything I had to not stick my head in the
bowl and eat it all. Yes, It was that good.” That is a strong endorsement for
Cowboy Caviar.
COWBOY CAVIAR
(Serves 6)
1 11-ounce can white shoepeg
corn, drained
1 15-ounce can black-eyed
peas, drained
3 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 avacado, chopped (or 2 if
you wish)
1/3 cup green onion, chopped
¼ cup olive oil
¼ teaspoon minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
¼ cup garlic red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon cumin
Mix all dressing ingredients
together and set aside.
Mix all vegetables together in
a large bowl.
Add dressing and mix together.
If you can wait, give the
mixture an hour or so for the flavors to really blend. The longer it sits, the
better it tastes. But it’s delicious to eat right away cool.
Serve with corn chips as an
hors d’oeuvre.
Karin says she rarely uses the
exact ingredient amounts. She says it’s good to substitute black or red beans
for the black-eyed peas. She has also used plain red wine vinegar in place of
the garlic red wine vinegar. You can add hot sauce if you want it spicy. She
always doubles this recipe, but not necessarily the dressing, and eats on it for
days. She says it is good in burritos, pitas, or on top of salads, anything.
We have enjoyed this recipe
for Banana Peanut Butter Bread. The flavors are very subtle with neither the
banana or peanut butter flavor dominating. I sometimes find that the banana
flavor can be a little too sweet or is almost overpowering so I especially liked
this version of banana bread.
BANANA PEANUT BUTTER BREAD
(Serves 12)
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
½ cup smooth peanut butter
2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Lightly grease a 5x9 inch loaf pan.
In a large mixing bowl, cream
together the butter and sugar. Add eggs; beat well. Stir in the peanut butter,
bananas, flour and baking soda until blended. Fold in the walnuts.
Pour into the prepared pan.
Bake at 325 degrees for 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center
of the loaf comes out clean.
Remove to a wire rack to cool.
I tried this recipe for
Cheese-stuffed Pattypan Squash recently and both of us liked it. I bought 2
small to medium pattypans although I did not weigh the squash, I found that the
rest of the ingredients seemed to be in the right proportion. If you have a
large pattypans, one squash will feed two or more people and the rest of the
ingredients should be about right for a large squash. Just taste after you
combine the pulp and cheeses and adjust amounts as needed. You may decide you
need additional seasonings or breadcrumbs. You don’t want your stuffing to be
runny.
CHEESE-STUFFED PATTYPAN SQUASH
(Serves 2)
1 pound pattypan squash
2 tablespoons butter
½ small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper
¼ cup bread crumbs or more if
needed
2 teaspoons chopped fresh
parsley
Boil whole pattypan squash in
water until tender. Remove from water and allow to cool slightly.
Cut off tops of squash and
carefully scoop out the pulp.
Melt butter and saute onions
and garlic in butter until onions are tender.
Combine onion-butter mixture
with pulp, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and bread crumbs. Stuff shells with
this mixture and sprinkle with the chopped parsley. Place on a lightly greased
baking sheet.
Bake at 300 degrees for
approximately 20 minutes or until squash are piping hot.
Jeff and Janet Davis told me
about this easy and delicious dessert recipe for Grilled Bananas that they have
been making this summer. They say everyone they have served it to love it so I
asked them to share their recipe. I think you will enjoy trying this.
GRILLED BANANAS
Allow 1 banana per guest. Do
not peel the bananas. Slice the bananas lengthwise through the skin but be
careful to not cut all the way through the banana (just almost through). Squeeze
banana slightly from end to end to open up slightly.
Sprinkle chocolate morsels and
small miniature marshmallows into the sliced open banana. The size of the banana
and your taste will determine the amount of chocolate and marshmallows you need.
Wrap lightly with aluminum
foil being careful to keep the foil raised up so that the marshmallows will not
stick to the foil while cooking. Place on a heated grill for roughly 15 minutes.
Let each guest top his banana
with whipped cream, cherries, nuts, etc. or whatever they want for a quick
dessert.
Alan created this barbeque
sauce to use on ribs (although it should also be good on chicken). He had seen a
sauce similar to this on a TV cooking show. All of the ingredients are ones that
you probably have on your shelves. He used plum jam that he bought from Joan
Thompson at our local Farmer’s Market. Simple prepare meaty baby back ribs by
your favorite technique and then finish them on a grill using the Plum Sticky
Barbeque Sauce. This is a good recipe for your Labor Day Barbeque.
PLUM STICKY BARBEQUE SAUCE
(Serves 8)
¾ cup catsup
¼ cup cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire
sauce
½ cup light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper
2 tablespoons (heaping) plum
jam (I use Joan Thompson’s plum jam from the Farmer’s Market)
Place all the ingredients in a
small saucepan and bring to a boil. Immediately cut off heat and cool before
using.
For the first time in several
years we have had a bumper crop of basil. I decided to try this recipe for a
Spinach Pesto which uses equal parts of fresh baby spinach and fresh basil
leaves. After I prepared the pesto I boiled just enough small pasta--I used
wagon wheels because that happened to be what I had on hand—for the two of us
and tossed with with about 2 tablespoons of the pesto. It was really tasty. I
froze the rest in an ice cube tray to enjoy later. Serve the pasta warm as a
side dish or add other ingredients and use it as an alternative to potato salad.
SPINACH PESTO
(Serves 12)
2 cups fresh baby spinach
2 cups loosely packed basil
leaves
1 cup grated Romano cheese
2 tablespoons fresh oregano
2 teaspoons minced garlic
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 cup olive oil
Place the first six
ingredients in a food processor; cover and pulse until chopped. Add the walnuts,
lemon juice and peel; cover and process until blended. While processing,
gradually add olive oil in a steady stream.
Serve the desired amount of
pesto with hot cooked pasta or cool after mixing and add other ingredients and
serve as a side salad.
Transfer the remaining pesto
sauce to ice cube trays. Cover and freeze for up to 1 month.
To use froze pesto: thaw in
the refrigerator for 3 hours.
Last week Gloria Lee sent me
this recipe. She says that not only is it delicidou but receives extra nice
comments upon presentation. She thinks it is probably the best summer recipe
that she has ever tried. Floria believes that even people who say that they do
not like egg salad will like this because they never really taste that much egg.
If you try this recipe it is
absolutely necessary that you use real crab meat NOT the artificial stuff.
Gloria gets her crabmeat from Sam’s of Cosco even though she lives at the beach.
She uses the pasteurized fresh crab meat and says that although it is a little
pricey it is worth it for a special dinner. She thinks of it as a summer recipe
because good fresh tomatoes help to make it so tasty.
I tried this recipe this week
and it was yummy. (This is a knife and fork sandwich.)
CRABMEAT SANDWICH
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons chili sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons chopped
green onion
1 tablespoon chopped green
pepper
1 egg boiled and finely
chopped
Combine these sauce
ingredients and refrigerate overnight.
Egg Salad
Make a good egg salad using 1
egg for each person that you are plannning to serve. Gloria did not include a
recipe for egg salad but says that she chops the eggs finely and mixes with
mayonnaise, mustard, a little vinegar, salt, pepper and a little pickle juice
and mixes until it is smooth and creamy. (Alan made egg salad when we tried this
by the old add and stir and taste method. Just use your favorite egg salad
recipe.) Make 1 sandwich per serving and wrap the sandwiches tightly in plastic
wrap and refrigerate. Gloria suggests using Very Thin or Thin White Pepperidge
Farm Sandwich bread.
When you are ready to serve,
place a piece of lettuce on each plate and top with tomato slices. Top the
tomatoes with a sandwich. Top each sandwich with a generous amount of fresh crab
meat and spoon the sauce over the top of the crabmeat.
Gloria says she has not tried
it but that you can use shrimp or if you cannot eat seafood, try chicken. She
served this with cantaloupe and crisp pickles.
Years ago Congo Bars were a
popular bar cookie but people don’t seem to make them as much now—probably
because there are such good chocolate brownie mixes available. I used this
recipe and made some recently using my convection oven to bake them and I was
really pleased with how they turned out. The secret of success with this recipe
is to not overcook them—start checking them before they are supposed to be done.
Rather than sticking a cake tester in the center of the pan when you are testing
these, stick it in about 2 inches from the edge. Remember they are going to
contiue to cook for a few minutes after you remove them from the oven. I like to
cut the bars into squares before they completely cool. I used an 8 x 16-inch pan
and cut 72 squares.
CONGO BARS
(Serves 15)
2 ¼ cups sifted flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup shortening or butter
1 lb. light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts (pecans or
walnuts)
1 6-ounce package chocolate
chips
Mix and sift flour, baking
powder and salt.
Melt butter or shortening. Add
brown sugar to butter mixture. Allow to cool slightly. Add eggs, one at a time,
beating well after each addition. Add dry ingredients, nuts, chocolate chips and
vanilla.
Pour into a greased pan about
10 x 15 inches.
Bake at 350 degrees for about
25 minutes. Begin checking about 5 minutes before this.
For a convection oven, bake at
325 on convection bake for about 20 minutes.
Several weeks ago I prepared
this recipe for Veal Scaloppini in Lemon Sauce that I found in an old Southern
Living Annual Recipes. I served this over rice and both of us enjoyed this dish.
I am looking forward to trying this technique with chicken breasts.
VEAL SCALOPPINE in LEMON SAUCE
(Serves 4)
1 ¼ pounds veal cutlets
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground
pepper
3 tablespoons butter or
margarine, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh
parsley
1 large garlic clove, pressed
2 tablespoons capers
Press veal between 2 sheets of
heavy duty plastic wrap, and flatten veal to 1/4-inch thickness, using a meat
mallet or rolling pin.
Combine flour, salt, and
pepper; dredge veal in mixture.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter with
oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add veal and cook, in batches, 1
minute on each side or until golden. Remove from skillet, and keep warm.
Add remaining 1 tablespoon
butter, wine, and lemon juice to skillet, stirring to loosen browned particles.
Cook until thoroughly heated.
Stir in parsley, garlic, and
capers; spoon over veal. Serve immediately.
May substitute 4 skinned and
boned chicken breast halves for veal. Cook chicken 3 minutes on each side.
I tried this Two Bean and Corn
Salad recently and we both enjoyed it. I think if you preferred you could make
this with two cans of black beans if that was what you happened to have on hand,
but I would not try it without at least one can of black beans.
If you are not certain that
you like cilantro simply reduce the amount called for to a tablespoon or two.
You could even try using parsley instead but that will give the salad a
different flavor.
This recipe makes a lot so you
will have enough to share or a big bowl to take to a covered dish meal.
TWO-BEAN and CORN SALAD
(Serves 10)
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 15-ounce can Great Northern
Beans, rinsed and drained
1 15-ounce can black beans,
rinsed and drained
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 cups frozen corn kernels,
thawed
1 medium-sized red bell
pepper, chopped
1 cup chopped red onion
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 small jalapenos chilies,
seeded and chopped
Whisk oil, vinegar and cumin
in a large bowl to blend.
Add remaining ingredients and
toss to coat. Season salad with salt and pepper to taste.
Place in refrigerator and
chill for at least 6 hours, tossing occasionally.
I thought this was equally as
good or perhaps better the next day.
If we are lucky enough to be
able to harvest our cherry tomatoes before something else gets them, I’ll be
making this Baked Cherry Tomato recipe that I tried recently, often this summer.
This is easy, delicious, and colorful. Try it while local cherry tomatoes are
available.
BAKED CHERRY TOMATOES WITH PARMESAN TOPPING
(Serves 6)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin
olive oil
2 12-ounce baskets cherry
tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
cheese
Pour oil into a broilerproof
ceramic baking dish. You want to select a size of dish that will keep the
tomatoes from rolling around too much without actually packing them in.
Place tomatoes in dish; turn
them to generously coat them with oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top with
parsley and Parmesan cheese. (This recipe can be made a day ahead to this point.
Cover; chill.)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
If you have prepared the dish ahead, allow it to come to room temperature. Bake
tomatoes, just until plump and shiny, but not split, about 8-10 minutes. Remove
dish from oven.
Preheat broiler. Broil until
tomatoes begin to split and cheese begins to color, about 2 minutes. Serve warm.
While good fresh corn is
available locally, why not try these two recipes that appeared in this column
years ago. They are truly golden oldies – something just a little different when
you are tired of corn on the cob.
CORN FRITTERS
(Serves 4)
1 cup corn, fresh, cut from
the cob
2 eggs, slightly beaten
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Combine the corn with the
eggs. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt. If the batter is too thin, add
a bit more flour, if it is too thick, add a little milk. Mix the batter until
smooth. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a greased griddle and fry like
pancakes. Servce with meat or alone with syrup or molasses. (Kitchen Kapers
07-22-82)
CORN and SQUASH SAUTE
(Serves 4)
2 ears corn, cut from the cob
3 yellow summer squash, diced
2 green onions, chopped,
including tops
3 tablespoons butter
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
Melt butter in a skillet and
add the remaining ingredients. Saute slowly until the squash is tender – about
10-15 minutes.
Some friends brought us some
fresh cucumbers recently so I used some of them to fix these Marinated
Cucumbers. They were delicious and something that I will definitely fix again.
MARINATED CUCUMBERS
(Serves 8)
4 cups cucumbers, peeled and
sliced
1 sweet onion, sliced
¾ cup sugar
1 cup water
½ cup cider vinegar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon celery seed
Cover sliced cucumbers and
onions with ice water and soak for 1-2 hours.
Heat sugar and 1 cup water
stirring until sugar is completely dissolved.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Drain cucumbers and onion. Add
vinegar, oil and celery seed to cooled sugar-water. Pour this mixture over
cucumbers and onion. Refrigerate overnight before serving.
Alan and I tried this recipe
for a Bourbon and Brown Sugar Flank Steak last weekend and agreed that this is
something you might want to try for a 4th of July cookout. We
substituted a London Broil for the flank steak which is perfectly acceptable but
it will be better than a flank steak. Because it was so hot, we opted for a
pasta salad rather than the mashed potatoes (potato salad would be good, too)
but we did make the sauce to serve with the steak. I think sliced steak served
open-faced on a piece of buttered, toasted sour dough bread with the sauce would
make a great use of leftovers—if you have any.
BOURBON and BROWN SUGAR FLANK STEAK
With GARLIC-CHIVE MASHED POTATOES
(Serves 6-8)
¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
¼ cup minced green onions
¼ cup bourbon
¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce
¼ cup Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper
¼ teaspoon Worchestershire
sauce
1 2-pound flank steak, trimmed
½ teaspoon cornstarch
3 pounds small red potatoes
6 garlic cloves, peeled
½ cup reduced fat sour cream
1/3 cup 2% reduced fat milk
2 ½ tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly-ground
black pepper
¼ cup chopped fresh chives
To prepare steak, combine
first 7 ingredients in a large zip-lock plastic bag; add steak. Seal and
marinate in refrigerator 8 hours or overnight, turning bag occasionally. Remove
steak from bag, reserving marinade.
Prepare grill.
Place steak on grill rack
coated with cooking spray; grill 5 minutes on each side or until the desired
degree of doneness is reached. Remove from heat. Let stand 10 minutes before
cutting diagonally across grain into thin slices.
Combine reserved marinade and
cornstarch in a saucepan. Bring to a boil; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
To prepare potatoes, place
potatoes and garlic in a large Dutch oven; cover with water. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat; simmer 30 minutes or until tender. Drain.
Return potatoes and garlic to
pan, and place over medium heat. Add sour cream, milk, butter, salt and ¼
teaspoon pepper. Mash potato mixture with potato masher. Stir in chopped chives.
Serve plates and drizzle sauce
over potatoes and steak.
Garnish with pieces of chives
if desired.
I tried this Zucchini
Casserole recently and both of us enjoyed it. This recipe will make a large
casserole that will feed 10 to 12 people (or more) very generously. When I make
this again for just the two of us, I will use 1 zucchini and 1 tomato and reduce
the rest of the ingredients accordingly.
When you read the recipe your
first response will probably be that I have left out some ingredients but I have
not and that is the beauty of this recipe. I used the Pepperidge Farm zesty
Italian croutons and if you use these you may want to reduce the amount of
Italian seasoning that you use.
ZUCCHINI CASSEROLE
(Serves 6)
3 medium zucchini, cubed (do
not peel)
3 fresh tomatoes, seeded and
cubed
½ pound mushrooms, sliced
1 small finely chopped onion
1 green pepper, diced
8 ounces, grated mozzarella
cheese
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 box Pepperidge croutons
3 tablespoons butter
1 5-ounce package of shredded
Parmesan cheese
Prepare vegetables. Gently mix
all ingredients except butter together and place in a large greased shallow
casserole dish.
Slice butter on top of the
casserole and cover. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until the zucchini is crisp
tender. Uncover, add Parmesan cheese and bake a very few minutes or until the
Parmesan just melts.
Mary Alice sent me the recipe
for this Mango Chutney Pasta Salad that a friend of hers had served recently.
She thought that the salad was delicious and one that people who read this
column might want to try. I have not made it myself but I think it sounds yummy
and is certainly a good hot weather dish.
MANGO CHUTNEY PASTA SALAD
1 16-ounce package penne
pasta, cooked to al dente
3 cups bite sized broccoli
florets, steamed until just crisp tender
3-4 chicken breast halves
cooked and cut into bite sized pieces
1 large red bell peper,
julienned
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup mayonnaise
1 12-ounce jar mango chutney
2 tablespoons mild curry
powder
1-2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice or to
taste
Salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to
taste
Combine ground black pepper to
taste.
Combine pasta, chicken and all
vegetables in a bowl.
Combine the next four
ingredients in a small bowl and then toss with the pasta.
Add honey, lemon juice, salt
and pepper to taste. Chill for at least two hours before serving.
A couple of weeks ago I made
these Blueberry Blintz-Style Pancakes. I actually made them for supper on a
cooler day but had some leftovers so I was able to try reheating them for
breakfast. The cottage cheese plus the four eggs give these pancakes a different
texture from regular pancakes but we both really enjoyed them. I reheated the
pancakes for breakfast for about 50 seconds on 50% power in my microwave and I
thought they were just as good then. This recipe is also good because the
cottage cheese gives the pancakes some extra protein.
BLUEBERRY BLINTZ-STYLE PANCAKES
(Serves 4)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup small curd cottage
cheese
1 cup sour cream
4 large eggs, well beaten
1 cup blueberries
In a large bowl, sift together
dry ingredients.
Lightly beat eggs. Add beaten
eggs, cottage cheese, and sour cream to the dry ingredients. Stir until just
combined.
Fold in blueberries.
Cook on a hot greased (with
oil not butter) griddle, turning only once.
Stack on a plate, butter and
serve with warm maple or blueberry syrup.
Mary Alice passed along this
recipe for Asian Meatloaf recently. She and Steve had a dish similar to this at
dinners-to go-type-place recently and enjoyed it so much that she decided to
search the internet for a similar recipe. She found this recipe on the Cooking
Light web site and decided to try it. She said she was very happy with the
results. Because she didn’t have any of the rice crackers on hand, she
substituted the Panko bread crumbs.
ASIAN MEATLOAF
(Serves 4)
1 3 ½ ounce package plain rice
crackers such as ka-me
1 pound ground turkey
½ pound lean ground pork
1 cup chopped green onions
½ cup hoisin sauce, divided
½ cup chopped red pepper
½ cup chopped canned water
chestnuts
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy
sauce
1 tablespoon grated fresh
ginger
¼ teaspoon salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 large egg whites
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place crackers in a food
processor; process until finely chopped. (If you can’t find rice crackers,
substitute 4 ounces of Panko bread crumbs.)
Combine cracker crumbs,
turkey, pork, green onions, ¼ cup of the hoisin sauce and remaining ingredients
in a large bowl.
Shape mixture into 6 loaves
and place on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Spread 2 teaspoons hoisin
sauce over the top of each meat loaf. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or
until a meat thermometer registers 165 degrees. Remove from oven and let stand
for 5 minutes before serving.
Several weeks ago I tried this
recipe for a Blackberry-Lemon Upside-Down Cake that I found in Cooking with
Wild Berries of Down East Maine (available from the Bar Harbor Jam Company
along with other gourmet products). The cake was delicious. Alan looked at it
and immediately headed to the grocery store because it called for vanilla ice
cream. This certainly made a yummy combination but I think the cake is good
enough that it doesn’t need anything else. When I ate the cake the next day I
heated a single serving in the microwave at 50% power for about 25 seconds--be
careful because you don’t want to ruin the texture of the cake.
When I made the cake I used
blackberries that I had purchased in the grocery store. They have certainly been
readily available this spring and I have been enjoying them. I did not have a
9-inch round cake pan so substituted a 9-inch square pan. This is a recipe that
I will use again.
BLACKBERRY-LEMON UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE
(Serves 9)
2 teaspoons melted butter
1/3 cup packed light brown
sugar
1 ½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 cups fresh blackberries
1 ¼ cups flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 large egg
¾ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put 2 teaspoons of melted butter in the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan and swirl to
coat pan. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and evenly spread lemon zest over sugar.
Sprinkle evenly with blackberries and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine
flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, beat the
sugar and softened butter at medium speed of an electric mixer until
well-blended. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Alternately add flour mixture
and milk to the sugar and egg mixture, beginning and ending with the flour
mixture. Blend well. Spoon batter over the blackberries.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40
minutes or until a cake tester placed in the center comes out clean. Cool on a
wire rack for 5 minutes. Loosen the edges with a knife. Place a plate on top of
the cake pan and invert onto plate.
Last summer I tried this
recipe for fresh Asparagus Baked with Goat Cheese and Bread Crumbs and I thought
this was an absolutely scrumptious combination of flavors. This is easy to
prepare—just be sure to watch it carefully because asparagus cooks so quickly
and you don’t want mushy asparagus.
ASPARAGUS/BAKED with GOAT CHEESE
and BREAD CRUMBS
(Serves 6)
1½ pounds large asparagus
spears, trimmed
2½ tablespoons butter, melted
and divided
2 ounces fresh white goat
cheese, crumbled into bits
(about ½ cup)
½ cup fresh white bread crumbs
Coat the asparagus spears with
1½ tablespoons of the melted butter, then salt lightly. (I did this in a
zip-lock bag because it was easy to really coat the asparagus using this
technique.) Arrange the asparagus spears in an oven-to-table shallow baking dish
large enough to hold the asparagus in one layer. Evely distribute the cheese
bits over the asparagus, then sprinkle with the bread crumbs. Evenly drizzle the
remaining 1 tablespoon melted butter over the bread crumbs. Bake at 400 degrees
until asparagus in tender-crisp and the bread crumbs are lightly browned, about
10 minutes.
I tried this recipe for
Chicken and Mushrooms recently and both of us think this recipe is a winner. The
flavor is delicious and it is so quick and easy to prepare. I even used a
package of presliced mushrooms to make things even easier. I found that I was
able to slice a breast into medallions and layer it on a serving of rice. One
larger breast half actually fed two of us, so depending on the size of your
appetite, you might want to halve this recipe. I have a feeling that this recipe
is going to be used often in our home.
CHICKEN and MUSHROOMS
(Serves 4)
4 chicken breast halves,
skinned and boned
5 tablespoons Worcestershire
5 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons chicken broth or
water
½ pound mushrooms, sliced (or
more if desired)
If your chicken breasts are
very large, pound them a couple of times to help tenderize them and speed the
cooking process.
Combine Worcestershire,
mustard, broth or water, and oil in a large skillet. Add mushrooms and cook over
medium heat just until they begin to release their liquid (2 to 3 minutes).
Arrange chicken on top of
mushrooms, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Turn chicken and stir, combing with
mushrooms. Cover and cook another 5 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly
cooked. Uncover the chicken midway through the final cooking period.
If you decide you want a
little more sauce, add a little more chicken broth or water during the last 5
minutes of cooking.
I prepared these Chilled Dilly
Peas recently and they have a wonderful flavor. This is so easy to assemble that
it makes a good addition for any meal, but especially if you want something
extra for a buffet or covered dish.
CHILLED DILLY PEAS
(Serves 4)
2 cups frozen small green
peas, defrosted and brought to
room temperature
½ cup sour cream
2 tablespoons chopped fresh
chives
2 tablespoons chopped fresh
dillweed
1/8 teaspoon salt or to taste
¼ teaspoon curry powder
Place frozen peas in colander
and allow to defrost, drain and come to room temperature.
Combine remaining ingredients
and stir well.
Place peas in a bowl and pour
sauce over them. Toss gently. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours before
serving.
Strawberry season is here once
more. Several weeks ago I tried this recipe for Strawberry Muffins with some
Florida berries that I had bought. Both of us thought that this recipe was a
winner. I used standard sized muffin tins (not the oversized ones) and I wound
up with more than 12 muffins so have an extra tin on hand in case you need it.
The leftover muffins kept beautifully for a week in the refrigerator. I reheated
them in my toaster oven and they were as good later as they were they day I made
them. Furthermore, I’m sure they muffins will be even better with local
strawberries, but try to use a firmer berry when you try this recipe.
STRAWBERRY MUFFINS
(Serves 12)
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 cup fresh strawberries,
chopped
1 tablespoon cinnamon sugar
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Grease or line the muffin pans. (I used regular sized muffin pans.)
Cream butter in a large bowl;
gradually add sugar and eggs, beating until light and fluffy.
Sift together flour, baking
powder and the salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with the milk, beginning
and ending with dry ingredients.
Stir in the lemon rind and
gently fold in the strawberries.
Spoon the batter into muffin
pans, filling each 2/3 full. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar lightly over the top of the
batter.
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or
until lightly browned.
Gloria Lee also sent me this
recipe for a Hot Fudge Cake that I think sounds absolutely delicious. What can I
say? I do have a weakness for dishes that combine chocolate and brown
sugar—especially if they’re served warm. I think a lot of you are going to enjoy
this recipe.
HOT FUDGE CAKE
(Serves 9)
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup white sugar
6 tablespoons cocoa, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 ¾ cup boiling water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine flour, white sugar,
and ONLY 2 tablespoons of cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
Stir in milk, oil, and vanilla
and combine until smooth.
Spread in an un-greased 9-inch
baking pan.
Combine brown sugar and
remaining 4 tablespoons cocoa and sprinkle over the batter.
Pour boiling water over all.
Do not stir!
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.
Serve warm topped with whipped
cream or ice cream. When you serve this, turn it over on your plate and the
chocolate syrup will be on top.
Gloria Lee recently sent me
this recipe for a Tropical Chicken Salad. A friend of hers had served it at a
luncheon recently and Gloria says it is delicious. Gloria said her friend served
it with a zucchini quiche but Gloria thinks any vegetable quiche would be good
with it. This will be a great salad to serve during the spring and summer
months.
TROPICAL CHICKEN SALAD
(Serves 6)
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup mayonnaise
½ teaspoon curry powder (more
if desired)
1 20-ounce can chunk
pineapple, drained (save juice)
1 11-ounce can mandarin
oranges, drained (save juice)
2 large firm bananas, sliced
and put in saved juice to soak (you can add a little lemon juice to the reserved
juices)
½ cup flaked coconut
¾ cup toasted almonds
Place chicken and celery in a
large bowl. Combine mayonnaise and curry powder and add to the chicken mixture
and mix well. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Before serving add drained
bananas, mandarin oranges, and coconut. Stir gently to combine.
Serve on lettuce or spinach
leaves. Sprinkle with toast almonds.
Mary Alice sent me this recipe
for a Cranberry Pork Roast that a friend of hers had served at a dinner
recently. Mary Alice thought it was so good that she asked her friend to email
her the recipe and she passed it along to me. I thought that because it was
prepared in a slow cooker, some of you might be interested in trying it for
Easter since with multiple church services and celebrations with children, you
cooking and preparation time are probably limited. Happy Easter!
CRANBERRY PORK ROAST
(Serves 6)
1 boneless pork roast (2 ½ to
3 pounds)
1 16-ounce can jellied
cranberry sauce
½ cup sugar
½ cup cranberry juice
1 teaspoon dry mustard
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold water
Place pork roast in slow
cooker. In a medium bowl, mash cranberry sauce; stir in sugar, cranberry juice,
mustard and cloves. Pour over the roast.
Cover and cook on low for 6 to
8 hours or until meat is tender. Remove roast to a platter and keep warm. Skim
fat from juices; discard.
Add cooking juices to a 2-cup
measuring cup, adding water if necessary to equal 2 cups total liquid. Pour into
a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Combine cornstarch and
cold water to make a paste; stir into the saucepan. Cook and stir until
thickened. Season with salt to taste. Serve over the sliced pork.
Several weeks ago I tried this
recipe for Wheat Bread with Walnuts. I was very pleased with the results. It was
quick and easy to assemble and I liked the texture of this wheat bread. The
bread had just enough sweetness that a small piece satisfied me when I felt that
I needed something that was just a little sweet. Although I like the flavor that
the walnuts gave the bread, if I did not have any on hand, I would not hesitate
to substitute pecans.
WHEAT BREAD with WALNUTS
(Serves 10)
1 ½ cups unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
½ cup wheat germ
1 cup firmly packed dark brown
sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts
2 eggs, beaten
1 ¼ cups milk
½ cup butter or margarine,
melted
Combine the first 9
ingredients in a large mixing bowl, stirring well.
Combine eggs, milk, and
butter; add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Spoon batter into
a greased and floured 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 3 inch loaf-pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to
55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out
clean.
Cool in pan for 10 minutes on
a wire rack. Remove from pan and allow to finish cooling before wrapping for
storage.
Several weeks ago I tried this
recipe for a Bruschetta Dip. We both thought it was delicious.
After I mixed the cheeses I
divided the mixture in thirds. I placed one part in a small round baking dish
and heated it. I froze the rest of the cheese mixture to use later.
I halved the topping
ingredients and found that I had extras.
We did not use all of the dip
so I stirred it all together and refrigerated it. We used this as a cold spread
for crackers and sliced zucchini. Alan actually preferred the cold version.
BRUSCHETTA DIP
(Serves 12)
2 8-ounce packages garden
vegetable cream cheese
1 8-ounce package plain cream
cheese
6 Roma tomatoes, seeded and
chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
1 medium onion, chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
1 baguette of French Bread,
thinly sliced
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a pyrex baking dish,
combine the plain and vegetable cream cheeses and bake for 20-25 minutes, or
until hot.
In a sauté pan, heat olive
oil, add onions and garlic, and cook until the onions are transparent. Add
chopped tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes until the tomatoes are soft but
not mushy.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Drizzle vinegar on top of tomato mixture and mix thoroughly. Spread on top of
cooked cream cheese.
Serve immediately with French
bread. If you wish, brush the bread slices with olive oil and very lightly toast
in the oven.
When we went to Margaret’s at
Christmas, we took the round about way in order to avoid having to drive such a
long stretch on I-95. We made a stop at a small country store that obviously
catered to tourist in South Carolina and I saw a little specialty rice cookbook
– Oscar Vick Cooks Rice from the Rice and Seafood Recipes from the Low Country
of South Carolina series. Of course I bought it.
When I came home and was
looking through the cookbook I saw this recipe for Cream of Rice Soup and it
immediately jogged vague memories of my Mom making a Chicken and Rice soup and
adding hard-boiled eggs. During our snow week I tried the recipe and I liked it.
I used the fat-free half and half when I made it and if I had had some leftover
baked chicken I might have added a little. This is super easy and a great and
inexpensive way to use leftover rice.
The cookbook really has some
interesting recipes that I am looking forward to trying. The next time I cook
rice I am going to reserve two cups before I serve it so I can try a rice
pudding recipe from the book.
LOWCOUNTRY-STYLE CREAM of RICE SOUP
(Serves 4)
2 cups half & half
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons chopped fresh
parsley
1 teaspoon garlic salt
2 diced hard-boiled eggs
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups cooked long grain rice
½ teaspoon cracked black
pepper, or to taste
Place chicken broth in a
saucepan. Add the parsley and butter. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer as
you add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer gently for 10 minutes. Taste and
adjust the seasonings as needed. Serve and enjoy.
I think a little chopped
cooked chicken would be good in this.
We tried this Irish Stew
recipe several weeks ago and both of us enjoyed it. It is very easy to assemble.
You could even prepare this recipe ahead, up to the point where you add your
vegetables. Refrigerate it at this point. Then bring it back to a simmer and add
the vegetables. This way you can easily remove the grease that has coagulated
while the stew was in the refrigerator.
Hope you will enjoy this stew
as the main course for your St. Patrick’s Day celebration.
IRISH STEW
(Serves 6-8)
1 cup dry red wine
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper
¼ teaspoon dried whole thyme
3 pounds lean beef for
stewing, cut into cubes
¼ cup olive oil
1 10-1/2 ounce can condensed
beef broth
1 ¼ cups Guiness Stout or
other dark beer
2 tablespoons tomato paste
6 carrots, scraped and cut
into 2-inch slices
12 small boiling onions
6 medium potatoes, peeled and
halved
Combine first six ingredients,
stirring to dissolve salt. Pour over beef cubes in a shallow dish. Cover and
refrigerate for 8 hours.
Drain meat, reserving
marinade. Remove and discard bay leaves.
Heat oil in a Dutch oven over
medium heat; brown beef in oil.
Add broth, stout, tomato
paste, and reserved marinade. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 1 ½ hours. Taste
and adjust seasoning, You may want more salt and pepper.
Add carrots, onions, and
potatoes; cover and cook for 30 minutes or until the vegetables are done.
I tried this recipe for
Asparagus roasted with Yukon Gold Potatoes and Parmesan cheese and we both
thought this was a winner. This is very easy to prepare and you are literally
preparing two vegetables in one pan. I’ll use this recipe frequently.
ASPARAGUS ROASTED POTATOES and PARMESAN
(Serves 4)
1 pound asparagus, tough ends
trimmed
1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes
3 tablespoons extra virgin
olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ cup grated
Parmigiana-Reggiano cheese
Place rack in upper third of
oven. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Cut asparagus and potatoes
into 1-inch pieces
Toss together asparagus,
potatoes, oil and salt and pepper in a zip-lock bag.
Spread vegetables in a large
shallow baking pan, spreading evenly. Roast, stirring once, for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle evenly with cheese
and roast until cheese is melted and golden in spots, about 3 minutes more.
Mary Alice sent me this recipe
for Better than Chicken and Dumplings that she says is good and very easy to
prepare. (I think I may have printed a recipe very similar to this, years ago.)
If your chicken breasts are small you may need to add a few more. You want to
have enough chicken to generously cover the bottom of your pan. Be careful not
to overcook the chicken when you boil it or it will be tough.
BETTER THAN CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS
(Serves 8)
6 chicken breasts
¼ cup butter
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup milk
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cups chicken broth
Boil chicken until done.
Remove chicken breast from the broth and set on a plate to cool.
Melt butter and pour into a
9x13-inch baking pan.
Tear chicken breasts into
pieces and layer on top of the butter. Mix flour and milk; pour over the
chicken. Mix soup and chicken broth—taste and add a little salt and pepper if
you think it is needed. Pour the broth mixture over the chicken. Do not stir.
Bake at 400 degrees for 30
minutes or until top is brown.
I found this recipe for Easy
Hawaiian Fish in a free publication that I picked up when we spent a night in
Fernandina Beach, Florida. When I saw this recipe, I knew I was going to try it.
We had a package of Mahi
fillets in our freezer that a friend had given us so I used them for the recipe.
I really don’t know the amount of fish that I was working with and if you are in
a similar situation, just select the right size of dish for the amount of fish
that you have. Then adjust the other ingredients accordingly.
The Mahi was delicious and I
enjoyed leftovers that I heated at 50% power in the microwave for lunch. Our
kitchen did not reek of fish when I prepared this. Just be careful not to
overcook the fish—watch your cooking time, especially when you broil the fish
after you add the coconut. Our oven did not need 5 minutes for the coconut to
brown.
EASY HAWAIIAN-STYLE FISH
(Serves 4)
1 pound fish fillets—mahi,
grouper or snapper
½ cup of Lawry’s Hawaiian
Marinade
½ cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup coconut flakes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray a baking fish with non-stick cooking spray.
Place the fish fillets in your
baking dish. Pour the Lawry’s Marinade over the fish. Sprinkle generously with
the chopped pecans.
Bake for about 10 minutes,
then sprinkle the coconut over the fish and broil for another five minutes or
until the coconut is brown.
My “chocolate” Valentine for
you this year is a recipe that appeared in Gourmet magazine about five years
ago. The magazine says the recipe was adapted from a Ritz-Carlton recipe.
I think the cookies are yummy
although the pistachios do make them a little expensive to make. However, if you
bought and shelled your own pistachios, that might make them a little more
economical. (I used a small package that was already shelled, roasted and
salted.) I used a bar of Ghirardelli bittersweet baking chocolate (60% cacao)
when I tested the recipe.
The cookies are
small—bite-sized actually but they are delicious. You might be able to
substitute chopped pecans for the pistachios but I have not tried this.
I won’t wait until next
Valentine’s Day to bake these cookies again.
CHOCOLATE and PISTACHIO COOKIES
(Serves 20)
6 oz. fine-quality bittersweet
chocolate (not unsweetened)
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon
unsalted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups light brown sugar,
packed
1 large egg
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups shelled pistachios,
(not dyed red), finely chopped
Finely chop 2 ½ ounces
chocolate and melt in a small bowl set over a small saucepan of barely simmering
water, stirring until smooth. Remove bowl from heat and cool chocolate.
Finely chop remaining 3 ½
ounces chocolate.
Sift together flour, baking
powder and baking soda.
Beat together butter and
brown sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until light and fluffy,
about 5 minutes, then, beat in egg and vanilla until combined well. Add flour
mixture in batches and mix at medium speed until just combined, then beat in
melted chocolate until incorporated. Stir in pistachios and chopped chocolate.
Divide dough into 6 equal
portions and roll each piece into a 12-inch long log (3/4 inch thick). Wrap each
log in wax paper and freeze until firm, at least 30 minutes.
Put oven rack in middle
position and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Slice 12 inch-thick rounds
from 1 frozen log and arrange about 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet.
Place baking sheet on top of another sheet (to protect undersides of cookies
from over-browning) and bake until cookies rise slightly and then fall (tops of
cookies will be cracked), 10-12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool.
Make more cookies (on cooled baking sheets) in same manner. Cookies keep, cooled
completely, in an airtight container at room temperature for one week.
Wrapped dough logs can be
frozen for up to 3 months. If you plan to keep logs to bake later, wrap the logs
in plastic wrap after they have frozen.
I seldom visit Charleston
without bringing a new cookbook home with me. Last year I purchased Breakfast on
the Battery – a Charleston Chef’s Collection of Breakfast and Tea Recipes by
Connie Stahl when we were there.
This weekend I tried her
recipe for Lemon Brownies from this cookbook and they were delicious. Even
better, they were so easy to prepare. I carried them to serve at coffee hour at
my church I brought hardly any home – much to Alan’s disappointment. There is
also a recipe for Orange Brownies in the cookbook which is identical only
substituting orange flavorings for the lemon extract, juice and rind.
This cookbook retails for
$22.95 plus taxes when applicable. It may be ordered online from
www.breakfastonthebattery.com. There is a $5 shipping and handling charge.
LEMON BROWNIES
(Serves 20)
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon lemon extract
1 tablespoon finely grated
lemon rind
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon
juice
2 teaspoons finely grated
lemon rind
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Butter a 9x13x2-inch baking
dish. Set aside.
In a bowl, cream the sugar and
butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs and mix well. Add flour and salt and mix
until just combined.
Pour into buttered baking dish
and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until done.
While brownies are baking,
prepare the glaze. Sift the powdered sugar and add lemon juice and rind. Stir
until sugar is dissolved and glaze is thickened.
Pour glaze over hot lemon
brownies. Cool and cut into squares. Cover and store in a cool room
Years ago before he moved to
Chattanooga, Jeff Brewer gave Alan his recipe for chili but he asked him not to
pass the recipe along to anyone else. Alan immediately tried Jeffs recipe and we
both liked it so much that this is the recipe that we have used ever since
whenever we make chili.
When I was trying to decide on
a recipe to feature the week before the Super Bowl, I wondered if Jeff would let
me use his recipe in this column, so I asked Alan to call him. Jeff gave us
permission so we can now share this special recipe with you. We like to make
this a day before we plan to eat the chili although we do a lot of sampling
throughout the cooking process and it is delicious whenever you decide to eat
it. You might decide that this is your favorite chili recipe, too. I always like
to have a couple of containers of it in my freezer.
JEFF BREWER’S CHILI
(Serves 10)
1 pound hot pork sausage
1 pound ground chuck
2 8-ounce cans tomato sauce
16-ounce can tomato paste
1 can tomato puree
2 14 1/2-ounce cans diced
tomatoes
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled
and finely diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 medium onions, diced
2 stalks celery, finely diced
2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
1 tablespoon oregano
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons Worcestershire
1 bottle beer
½ teaspoon black pepper
Brown beef and sausage; add
green pepper, onions, and celery. Saute until onions are soft and meat is
browned. Add apples, tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce and tomato puree and
all seasonings. Add beer. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer and cook for 3 hours.
Taste and adjust seasonings as desired—it may easily require more chili powder.
‘Chili can now be served over
spaghetti, by itself, or mixed with pinto or red kidney beans. (Jeff uses 2 cans
red kidney beans—we like pintos that Alan cooks.) If you add beans, you may need
to add water to keep from being too thick.
Mary Alice’s friend Karolyn
Stuver gave me a cookbook that she and several friends had created from Taste
Book. The cookbook contains recipes contributed by Karolyn and her friends as
well as some that they had selected from the internet. You also have the option
of adding some additional recipes or your own.
Karolyn is an excellent cook
so I immediately looked for some recipes that she had contributed and decided to
try this recipe for Sweet Potato Hash. It was delicious - Alan said it was the
best sweet potato dish he had ever eaten. When I make this again, if my bacon is
thinly sliced, I will add a couple of additional strips and maybe even a little
more onion. I think you will enjoy this sweet potato dish.
SWEET POTATO HASH
4 strips applewood smoked
bacon, cooked and cut into a
¼-inch dice
½ medium Vidalia onion, cut
into half moon slices
2 tablespoons kosher salt for
the boiling water
2 jumbo or 4 small sweet
potatoes, peeled and cut into a
¼-inch dice
3 tablespoons dark maple syrup
or cane syrup
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
cut into several pieces
Salt, pepper, and rosemary to
taste
Cook and dice the bacon.
Brown the onions in the same
pan you used to cook the bacon. You want to cook the onions until they start to
caramelize—about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile bring water to a
boil; add the kosher salt. Add the potatoes and cook for about 2-3 minutes (they
will have a slight crunch). Drain in a colander then spread on paper towels and
pat dry.
Add potatoes to the
bacon-onion mixture; add syrup and butter. Stir to combine and cook for 1-2
minutes or until potatoes are tender. (Your cooking time may vary depending on
your sweet potatoes.)
Add salt, pepper and rosemary
to taste.
Jeanne Pierce found this
recipe that is described as the most dangerous cake recipe in the world on the
internet before Christmas. It is so dangerous because now you are only five
minutes away from warm chocolate cake at any time of the day or night. Needless
to say I immediately tried the recipe and the flavor is delicious – my daughter
Margaret was a little disappointed because she thought the cake was a little
“tough”. Her Dad told her that was easily solved with vanilla ice cream. The
whole cake really goes in one mug. I think children will be fascinated to watch
it rise and go over the top. Depending on the strength of your microwave, you
may decide to adjust your cooking time by a few seconds.
5-MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
(Serves 2)
1 coffee mug
4 tablespoons all-purpose
flour (not self-rising)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 large egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons mini chocolate
chips or chopped nuts or a
combination of both
(optional)
1/8 teaspoon of vanilla
(scant)
Select a straight sided coffee
mug that holds at least a cup of water—the one I used held a cup plus 2
tablespoons. Do not use a cup that contains lead because it will become too hot
to handle.
Add dry ingredients to the mug
and mix well. Lightly beat the egg and add to the dry ingredients and mix well.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips and nuts (if
using) and vanilla, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave
and cook for 3 minutes on high. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but
don’t be alarmed.
Allow to cool a little, and
tip out onto a plate if desired. Eat while warm (with a little vanilla ice cream
and chocolate syrup if desired. (This will serve 2 if you want to share!)
After reviewing the recipes
that ran in this column in 2008 I have selected my favorites. This is in no way
scientific and many of you might make different choices, but these are recipes
that I keep making.
The Lasagna Soup recipe came
from the West Chatham Food Pantry Cookbook that they published late last spring.
The recipe was one of Johnna Canipe’s. This is an easy recipe to prepare and is
a great recipe when you want soup to be your main dish.
Gloria Lee sent me the recipe
for the Sausage and Cheese Muffins. After making the first batch and freezing
part of them I always keep some in my freezer. This is a great muffin for
breakfast on the run or a nice hors d’oeuvre if you make miniature muffins.
My daughter Margaret gave me
the Aunt Abby’s Beef Brisket recipe. This is a delicious brisket and is
incredibly easy to prepare. We always freeze a couple of small casseroles of
brisket slices. This is a leftover that Alan does not complain about.
We both enjoyed the Garlic
Lovers Shrimp Bake. It is a nice change from fried or boiled shrimp. However, as
its name implies, it is garlicky so if this is a problem for you simply cut back
on the garlic when you prepare this.
The Cream Cheese Pecan Pie is
yummy and certainly makes an impressive dessert that is worth the calories.
Because this pie is so rich I thank you could stretch it and serve 10 people or
if you are serving a buffet with more than one dessert it might go even further.
LASAGNA SOUP
1 lb. ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (32-oz.) box chicken broth
2 (14.5-oz.) cans petite diced
tomatoes
1 (15-oz.) can tomato sauce
1 T. firmly packed brown sugar
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
½ tsp. salt
2 C. broken lasagna noodles
1 (5-oz.) pkg. Grated Parmesan
cheese
1 (5.5-oz.) box Italian
seasoned croutons
2 c. shredded mozzarella
cheese
Combine ground beef, onion,
bell pepper and garlic; cook over medium-high heat, 8 to 10 minutes, stirring
occasionally until beef is browned and crumbles. Drain well.
Stir in broth, diced tomatoes,
tomato sauce, brown sugar, Italian seasoning and salt. Bring to a boil over
medium-high heat; reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. Add noodles, and simmer
until noodles are tender. Stir in Parmesan cheese.
Preheat broiler. Ladle soup
into 10 ovenproof bowls. Top with croutons; sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
Broil soups for 3 to 4 minutes or until cheese is browned and bubbly.
SAUSAGE and CHEESE MUFFINS
(Serves 8)
1 pound pork sausage, cooked
until no longer pink –
drain and cool
3 cups Bisquick
1 ½ cups shredded Cheddar
cheese
1 10-3/4-oz. condensed Cheddar
soup
¾ cup water
Combine cooked sausage,
Bisquick and shredded cheese in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the
mixture.
Stir together the soup and the
water, add to sausage mixture, stirring just until the dry ingredients are
moistened. Spoon into lightly greased muffin pans, filling to the top of the
cups.
Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to
25 minutes or until lightly browned.
This will make about 15
regular-sized muffins or 36 small muffins.
AUNT ABBY’s BEEF BRISKET
(Serves 10)
1 fresh beef brisket – ours
weighed about 4 ½ pounds
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
2 envelopes regular onion soup
mix (not instant)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 ½ cups catsup
Line a large roasting pan with
heavy foil, letting the ends of the foil hang over the edges of the pan. Place
brisket on the foil Sprinkle the sugar, soup mix, and garlic powder over the
brisket. Drizzle catsup over all. Fold the ends of the foil over the brisket,
sealing securely and leaving air space.
Be sure to seal really tightly
so nothing leaks out while it is baking—if juices do leak out, then take it out
of the foil and put it in the roasting pan and reseal the top tightly with foil
so it stays moist while it continues baking slowly.
Bake in a 325 degree oven for
3 ½ hours or till tender. Transfer to a platter and allow to cool slightly
before slicing. Skim grease from sauce and serve warm sauce with the meal.
To make ahead and reheat;
after cooking, cool and slice brisket. Store in refrigerator in sauce or freeze
in sauce. Reheat before serving.
GARLIC LOVERS SHRIMP BAKE
(Serves 3-4)
1 ½ pound medium shrimp,
peeled and deveined
6 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice,
freshly squeezed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Worcestershire
sauce
½ teaspoon hot pepper flakes
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cracker crumbs
Arrange shrimp in one layer in
a shallow baking dish. (I used a
10-inch-pyrex pie plate.)
In a small saucepan, melt the
butter and add the lemon juice, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, red pepper flakes
and salt. Reserve two tablespoons of this mixture and pour the remainder evenly
over the shrimp.
Add the reserved butter to the
cracker crumbs and sprinkle evenly over the shrimp.
Bake in a preheated,
450-degree oven for approximately 8 minutes, or until the crumbs are lightly
browned and the shrimp is pink, Do not overcook or your shrimp will be tough.
CREAM CHEESE PECAN PIE
(Serves 8)
1 15-ounce package
refrigerated pie crusts
1 8-ounce package cream
cheese, softened
4 large eggs, divided
¾ cup sugar, divided
2 teaspoons vanilla, divided
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1 cup light corn syrup
Unfold and stack the 2 pie
crusts; gently roll or press them together. Fit the crust into a 9-inch pie
plate according to package directions; fold the edges under and crimp.
Beat the softened cream
cheese, 1 egg, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and salt at medium speed with
an electric mixer until smooth. Pour evenly into the prepared crust. Sprinkle
with the chopped pecans.
Stir together the remaining 3
eggs, ¼ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and the corn syrup. Pour this mixture over
the pecans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to
55 minutes or until set.
Allow pie to cool before
trying to slice. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator.
This Black-Eyed Pea New Year’s
Casserole will give you a head start on your “lucky” New Year dinner and all in
one dish. This is so quick and easy to prepare and you will probably already
have a lot of the ingredients on hand or you will have no trouble finding them
in the grocery store. After you assemble the casserole, all you will have to do
is add some greens and perhaps some sweet potatoes to your meal and you should
be all set for an auspicious start to 2009.
BLACK-EYED PEA
NEW YEAR’S CASSEROLE
(Serves 10)
1 pound mild or hot pork
sausage
1 large onion, chopped
4 15-oz. cans black-eyed peas,
drained
2 14 ½-oz. cans whole tomatoes
with their juice, chopped
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
sauce
¼ teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper, or to taste
½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
½ teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon marjoram
1 bay leaf
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Brown sausage over medium
heat. Add onions and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add remaining
ingredients, draining some of the grease if there seems to be too much.
Place in a greased 3-quart
baking dish and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.
Remove bay leaf before
serving.
What to serve on Christmas Eve
is often a dilemma because it can be such a busy day as we try to finish up
loose ends. I also like to have something that can be prepared ahead to serve
either before or after church services.
This Shrimp Chowder has often
been the main course for us on Christmas Eve. When I make it I always think
about a comment that a friend of ours made about the recipe when she included it
in a self-published cookbook. She said, “This is about the only recipe you will
ever get from me that calls for Velveeta Cheese, but the chowder is so good I
will give in…but just this once…” I like to make this a day ahead because I
think it is even better that way.
If you think you just don’t
have time this year to prepare a special dessert from scratch, you might like
the Cranberry Cheesecake Topping that I prepared last week. I had purchased a
plain Jane New-York style cheesecake from a discount store. I made the topping
and drizzled it over individual slices. We both thought it was outstanding and
really pretty as well. What could be quicker or easier?
SHRIMP CHOWDER
(Serves 8)
5 large onions, peeled and
chopped
1 stick butter
4 large potatoes, peeled and
diced
2 cups boiling water
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound Velveeta cheese
1 ½ pints milk
1 ½ pounds shrimp, cooked
Chopped fresh parsley for
garnish
Lightly cook onions in butter.
Add potatoes and boiling water. Simmer until potatoes are tender and season to
taste. Melt cheese in milk in top of double boiler and add to potatoes and
onions. Add shrimp and simmer gently for 20 minutes or more; do not boil. Place
a little snipped parsley in bottom of each bowl and fill with chowder.
If my shrimp are large, I
usually cut them in halves or thirds.
CRANBERRY CHEESECAKE TOPPING
(Serves 12)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
½ cup water
4 cups fresh cranberries
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
Mix sugar and cornstarch. Add
all other ingredients to the sugar and cook until the cranberries pop. Chill.
To serve, drizzle topping over
individual servings of your favorite New York-style cheesecake—either homemade
or purchased.
This is a pretty salad for
the holiday season and is a nice change from congealed salads. If you have
pomegranate seeds on hand it is easy to prepare. I found the seeds in Greensboro
several weeks ago at a large chain grocery store. The next time I prepare this,
I am going to try adding some slivered toasted almonds.
POMEGRANATE-CRANBERRY SALAD
(Serves 6)
1 bunch romaine lettuce, torn
into bite-sized pieces
1 cup fresh pomegranate seeds
½ cup dried cranberries
½ medium red onion, sliced
½ cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup milk
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
Place salad ingredients in a
large glass salad bowl.
Place all dressing
ingredients in a small bowl; beat with a wire whisk until well blended; pour
over salad. Toss. Serve immediately or refrigerate for a little while.
Two years ago, I went to a
Cookie Swap with my daughter. My grandchildren had a great time helping me
assemble these Holiday Mexican Wedding Cakes that were my contribution to the
party. I think if you wanted, you could use your favorite Lady Finger recipe,
which is what my daughter Margaret did when she made them. I was able to find
the natural pistachios at an area location of a national west coast specialty
grocery chain but if this is not an option, substitute pecans. The cake flour
that I used when I prepared the recipe gave the cookies a very tender texture.
HOLIDAY MEXICAN WEDDING CAKES
(Serves 35)
2 cups unsalted butter, room
temperature
1 cup powder sugar plus more
for rolling cookies
2 tablespoons pure vanilla
extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shelled unsalted natural
pistachios, salted
1 cup dried cranberries or
dried tart cherries
3 1/3 cups sifted cake flour
1 2/3 cups sifted all-purpose
flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Butter 3 heavy large baking sheets.
Using electric mixer, beat 2
cups butter and 1 cup powdered sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat
in vanilla and salt, then pistachios and cranberries. Using spatula, stir in all
flour. Do not over-mix dough—you may have to use your hands.
Shape dough by generous
tablespoonfuls into football-shaped ovals. Place on prepared sheets, spacing 1
inch apart. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until bottoms just begin to color,
about 16 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets 10 minutes before coating.
Pour generous amount of
powdered sugar into medium bowl. Working with 5 or 6 warm cookies at a time, add
cookies to bowl of sugar, gently turn to coat thickly. Transfer cookies to sheet
of waxed paper. Repeat to coat cookies with sugar again. Cool completely.
Can be made 4 days ahead.
Store in airtight containers at room temperature.
This is the time of year when
we like to have nibbles on hand for unexpected guests. I’ve tried both of these
recipes recently and liked them both.
The Ham Dip is a wonderful
use for the leftover ham. I think if you had leftover baked country ham it would
be even better than the dip I made. I really enjoyed this with some Honey Wheat
Dipping Pretzels that I had bought in a specialty shop. Alan and I both thought
this would also be good as a topping for baked potatoes.
I think you will have fun
with the Rum Sugared Pecans by asking your friends if they can guess the mystery
ingredient. This is very easy to prepare, just be sure to pay attention and stir
your pecans every 15 minutes. These are just delicious.
Several weeks ago we ran a
recipe for “Sweet” Cornbread Dressing that I had created, thanks to an idea that
my daughter had passed along. Unfortunately, the ¾ cup of celery was eliminated
from the recipe because of my frustration with the computer at the time. I hope
this error did not ruin the dressing for any of you that might have tried it for
Thanksgiving. Some of you might prefer it without the celery, anyway. We had the
half of the dressing that I had frozen with our Thanksgiving meal and both of us
still thought it was some of the best dressing that we have eaten. The corrected
recipe is printed below.
HAM DIP
(Serves 8)
1 16-oz. container of sour
cream
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 ½ teaspoons light brown
sugar or more to taste
¼ cup chili sauce
1 tablespoon mustard
1 cup ground ham
Blend together and
refrigerate. Serve with crackers or fresh, raw vegetables.
RUM SUGARED PECANS
(Serves 16)
1 pound shelled pecans
8 tablespoons butter, (1
stick)
1 cup white sugar
½ cup rum, preferably dark
Spread pecans on a baking
sheet which has been lightly greased or sprayed with nonstick vegetable spray.
Be sure to use a pan with sides.
Melt the butter in a heavy
saucepan, add sugar and rum. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes. Pour over
the pecans and shake the pan to coat evenly.
Slow roast in a 250 degree
oven for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes to prevent from sticking. Remove from
pan and cool. Store in a cool location, not a refrigerator, in an airtight
container.
May be put in decorative jars
or boxes for gift-giving.
Several
weeks ago Sallie Milholen shared these candy recipes with me as well as some
samples. The candy was yummy and we both agreed that these were recipes that you
might be interested in making for the holidays. I’m running the recipe this week
because you might have time to practice with these during Thanksgiving.
One thing that I like about
all three of these recipes is that they are simple. Sallie said that when she
made the Pecan Millionaires, she did not have any milk chocolate chips on hand
and substituted semi-sweet chocolate chips instead. I liked this version so much
that I will probably make this version.
The Pralines are delicious,
however, the draw-back with pralines is that they quickly lose their creaminess
and begin to harden and get a little grainy. If you have ever bought any at the
Market in Charleston or Savannah, you will find that the one you eat immediately
is the best, by night they are still addictive but not quite as creamy. When you
order these by mail, they arrive sealed in individual packets but even this does
not completely solve this problem. This recipe would be easy to halve and if you
only needed a few pralines, why not try this. The recipe is so easy you can
simply make them as needed.
The Peanut Butter Pin Wheels
are a good no bake recipe and if you like peanut butter you will enjoy the
flavor. This would be a good recipe to make with children although you may need
to do the slicing.
PECAN MILLIONAIRES
1 14 oz. package of Kraft
Caramels
3 tablespoons water
2 cups chopped pecans
1/3 block of paraffin
1 12 oz. package milk
chocolate chips
Butter a piece of wax paper
or spray with cooking spray with butter. (Place paper on a cookie sheet.)
Melt caramels with water in a
double boiler. Add chopped pecans and stir. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto buttered
wax paper. Refrigerate until firm.
Melt paraffin and chocolate
together. Drop cooled caramels and nuts into the chocolate mixture. Remove and
place on buttered wax paper. Allow chocolate to set up. Place in an air tight
container and store in a cool location.
PECAN PRALINES
2 cups white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar –
firmly packed
1 tablespoon butter
½ cup sweet milk
3 cups chopped pecans
Combine first 4 ingredients
and bring to a boil. Add pecans and cook for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and
drop by spoonfuls on waxed paper. Allow to set up and then enjoy.
PEANUT BUTTER PIN WHEELS
1 box powdered sugar
1 stick butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons evaporated milk
Mix the ingredients and work
together into a mass similar to dough. When smooth and well mixed, divide into
four or five parts. Take one part at a time and roll it (like you roll pie
dough) between sheets of waxed paper sprinkled with powder sugar.
Spread the “dough” with
peanut butter and roll up jelly roll fashion. (If bottom is inclined to stick,
lightly coax the edges with a knife.) Slice rolls into pinwheels.
My
daughter Margaret told me about a delicious dressing that she made last week but
when I asked her to send the recipe she told me that she didn’t have a recipe,
that she just winged it. Buy she did tell me what she did although she couldn’t
give me amounts.
When Margaret made this she
cubed cornbread that she had made using the old “Flako” corn muffin recipe with
cream-style corn and sour cream. However she had to use a different mix since
“Flako” is no longer available. Because this is a very moist cornbread she
toasted her cubes.
I decided to try this last
week, buy rather than making cornbread I had the remains of a square of
cornbread that I had bought at a local grocery store. Although it was not made
with the corn it was still a “sweet” cornbread. I cubed my leftovers and toasted
them at 275 degrees and when I measured them I had just a little over 2 cups so
I decided to add a cup of sourdough cubes, which I did not toast.
If you don’t like mushrooms
or don’t have them on hand, just use more celery. This really is a recipe to
play with and find your own special version.
I had 2 7x5-inch casseroles
of dressing. We ate one which Alan, who is not a big dressing fan, said was some
of the best dressing he had ever eaten. We had enough left over for another
meal. I froze the other which I will reheat to enjoy later. (I baked the
casserole that I froze.)
I think one of the things
that I like best about this recipe is that is makes a reasonable amount for two
people I’m looking forward to making Margaret’s version in the future.
“SWEET” CORNBREAD DRESSING
(Serves 8)
2 cups “sweet” cornbread
cubes, lightly toasted (generous cup)
1 cup sourdough bread cubes
(generous cup)
¾ cup chopped onion
2 green onions, chopped
¾ cup sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon sage
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons butter (and
additional butter to dot the top of the
dressing when you bake it)
Combine bread cubes in a
mixing bowl.
Melt 3 tablespoons of butter
in a skillet. Add onions and celery and sauté over medium heat until they begin
to turn translucent. Add sliced mushrooms and seasonings and continue to sauté
until the mushrooms are slightly tender. (You may need to add a little more
butter.
Pour the onion mixture over
the bread cubes and stir thoroughly to combine.
Combine a lightly beaten egg
and 1 cup chicken broth. Add to the bread mixture and stir to combine. If you
think the dressing is too dry, add a little more chicken broth.
Lightly grease a shallow
casserole dish or dishes and put dressing mixture in them. Dot with butter.
Refrigerate until ready to bake.
Bake at 350 degrees until
lightly browned and bubbly.
Several
weeks ago I baked Pumpkin Bars to serve at coffee hour at church. I was really
pleased with the recipe. These are about as easy to assemble as anything you
could try and I really enjoyed the spicy flavor—perfect for this time of year.
I baked my bars in a 9 x
13-inch metal pan and found that they were ready in 25 minutes. I cooled them in
the pan for a few minutes and then cut them into bars but left them in the pan
when I drizzled them with the glaze. After they had completely cooled I covered
the pan until I was ready to place the bars on a serving dish.
Pumpkin Bars
(Serves 20)
½ cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup canned pumpkin puree
1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup golden raisins
½ cup chopped pecans
Glaze:
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 ½ tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon grated orange rind
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray a 9 x 13-inch pan (or
you may use one that is very slightly smaller).
Mix all ingredients together
and pour into prepared pan. This is a very thick batter that you will need to
spread in the pan.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or
until the bars pull away from the edge of the pan and it tests done.
Mix together the powdered
sugar, orange juice and rind and drizzle over the bars while they are still
warm.
Kathy Grigg gave
me these venison recipes that she said were given to her by Trudy Walters.
Although canning venison takes more time and is more trouble than simply
freezing it you don’t fill up your freezer with it. However, when I talked with
Trudy about the recipe she says that the canned venison is not pretty so you may
want to hide it behind your other canned goods. Kathy says that cleaning the
jars after you empty them is also a chore. However, they both agree that this is
a good and versatile way to prepare venison—something that you may be more
inclined to do this year with the high cost of meats.
Kathy also passed along this recipe
for Deer Jerky that Ricky Scott gave her. You might want to try this.
I know that some of you are laughing
about me featuring these recipes if you have heard the infamous story of our
missing crock pot with the Deer Stew that Alan was cooking overnight!
Canned Venison
Cut venison up into bite size
pieces, trimming meat as needed. Pack loosely into quart jars, leaving 1 inch of
head space at the top. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to each quart. Do not add any
water.
Cook in a pressure canner for 1 hour
on 10 pounds pressure. Cooked in this manner the meat can then be used as you
would for stew beef for soup or a beef stew with onions, potatoes, carrots, or
whatever you like in your stew. Season this stew to your own taste.
If you prefer you can pack the meat
in jars as described above and cook at 10 pounds pressure for 2 ½ hours. Using
this method you have fully cooked meat, ready to serve over rice, toast,
biscuits, mashed potatoes, etc. If you are serving it this way someone gave me a
recipe several years ago suggesting that you warm 1 can of cream of mushroom
soup in a saucepan. Do not add water to the soup. After soup is warmed and
broken up, add a quart of the deer meat. Simmer for 10 minutes. She described
this as tasting very much like Bunker Hill Beef and Gravy.
Deer Jerky
½ cup water
½ teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon Old Hickory Smoke liquid
¼ cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
¼ teaspoon lemon pepper
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
3 pounds of venison
Cut meat into long, thin strips.
Combine all the ingredients and marinate the deer meat strips overnight. Cook on
the rack of a foil lined roasting pan or a foil lined baking sheet. Bake at 150
degrees for 8 hours, turning after 4 hours. An outdoor grill with a thermostat
is ideal for this.
Several months
ago I tried this recipe for Spicy Lemon Chicken and we both enjoyed it. I was
interested in the cooking technique and think you could do the same thing with
any marinade or sauce that you enjoy on your chicken. I found an Asian chili
sauce in a local store and was interested to see that it was something that my
son in law had brought us when he came home after a yearlong stint in Korea—he
always referred to it as rooster sauce because of the design on the bottle.
Chicken/Spicy Lemon
(Serves 6)
6 skinless chicken drumsticks
6 skinless chicken thighs
2 lemons
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon Indonesian chili sauce or
any Asian chili sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black
pepper or to taste
¼ cup chopped parsley
In a medium bowl, combine the lemon
zest and the juice from the two lemons, garlic, onion, Asian chili sauce, olive
oil, salt and pepper. Transfer the chicken and marinade to a zip-lock plastic
bag and seal. Place the bag in the refrigerator to marinate overnight, or about
10 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Remove the chicken from the marinade
and arrange on a large roasting pan. Roast until cooked through, about 45
minutes to 1 hour. When the chicken is pierced with a knife the juices should
run clear.
Serve hot, sprinkled with the
chopped parsley.
Recently I saw
some butternut squash in the produce section of a grocery store that had already
been peeled and diced—a real plus. I tried this recipe and I liked it. I did not
use the vanilla wafer crumbs. If I were going to do that I think I would reduce
or eliminate the thyme in the recipe.
Honey & Thyme
Butternut Squash
(Serves 4)
2 cups pureed butternut squash
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut in
pieces
1 ½ tablespoons honey
¾ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black
pepper
½ cup vanilla wafer crumbs or as many
as needed (optional) to sprinkle over your casserole
If you are working with a fresh
butternut squash, cut it in half and place cut-side down on a greased baking
sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour, or until it pierces
easily with a kitchen fork; remove from the oven.
Turn squash cut-side up to cool,
then remove seeds and dis-card.
Scoop out the pulp and place in a
food processor fitted with a steel blade and puree or if your squash is very
tender just mash it thoroughly with a potato masher. Measure to get the amount
of squash needed for the recipe and freeze the rest for another use.
Add butter, honey, thyme, salt and
pepper to the squash and puree or beat until smooth.
Place mixture in a well-oiled
casserole dish and sprinkle with vanilla wafer crumbs if you are using them.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes or until hot.
When I was
growing up my Mother frequently served a Grated Sweet Potato Pudding for dessert
and it was always a favorite of mine. I do not ever remember her making a Sweet
Potato Pie.
I combined her sketchy recipe—I
suspect that when she was making this she never used a recipe—with several
others that I had come across and we both enjoyed this when I fixed it several
weeks ago. Although it was served as a dessert when I was a child, if the Sweet
Potato Casserole with the Praline Topping is considered a vegetable dish this
certainly can count as a vegetable, too.
Grated Sweet Potato
Pudding
(Serves 6)
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
¼ cup white sugar
¼ cup light brown sugar
¾ cup milk
3 cups grated raw sweet potato
2 tablespoons melted butter
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup chopped pecans
¼ teaspoon salt
2 eggs, well beaten
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly
grease shallow baking dish.
Combine your first 10 ingredients.
Then stir in your 2 well beaten eggs. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until set and
the pudding begins to brown around the edges.
This Stuffed Green Pepper Recipe is
a nice variation from the recipe that I was accustomed to preparing because it
uses bulk pork sausage. This is truly almost a meal by itself—just add a green
salad and perhaps another vegetable like an ear of corn and you are ready to
serve.
Peppers/Stuffed
(Serves 8)
8 medium-sized green peppers (about 4
lbs.)
1 pound bulk pork sausage
1 ½ cups chopped onion
½ pound fresh mushrooms, chopped
1 (6oz.) package herb-seasoned
stuffing mix
1 cup sour cream
2 cups chopped fresh tomato
1 can (10 ¾-oz.) tomato soup
¾ cup water
2 teaspoons of your favorite herb and
spice blend seasoning or just use a little salt
Cut off tops of green peppers and remove seeds.
Wash peppers and set aside to drain.
Crumble sausage into a frying pan, add onion and
mushrooms and sauté until the sausage is browned. Drain well; set aside. Place
sausage mixture in bowl and add stuffing mix, sour cream, and seasonings; stir
well. Add chopped tomato and stir gently.
Stuff pepper with the sausage mixture, and place
in a lightly greased 12 x 8 x 2-inch baking dish. Combine soup and remaining
ingredients and pour over the peppers.
Bake 30 to 40 minutes at
350 degrees or until peppers are tender and sauce is hot and bubbly. If you need
to, insert a knife into the sausage mixture and be sure that it is good and hot.
Several weeks ago I tried this
recipe for Oven Roasted Carrots and Parsnips and we both thought it was
delicious. This is easy to prepare. The only difficult thing about the recipe is
not to nibble so many pieces when you take this out of the oven that you don’t
have enough for your meal! Try to use vegetables that you have just bought
rather than ones that have been lingering in your vegetable drawer for several
weeks.
Oven Roasted Carrots
and Parsnips
(Serves 6)
1 pound parsnips
1 pound carrots
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black
pepper
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
Peel and cut carrots and parsnips
into 3 inch lengths. Halve or quarter as necessary to make all pieces more or
less uniform.
Toss with olive oil, thyme, salt and
pepper. (Rub the dried thyme between your palms to break up and really release
the flavors.)
Place in a shallow baking dish that
you have lightly sprayed with an olive oil cooking spray. A jelly roll pan is
ideal.
Roast in a 425 degree oven for 45
minutes, or until tender and browned. Stir occasionally while roasting.
I tried this
recipe for a Cream Cheese Pecan Pie last week and we both agree that this is a
winner. The only reason that I know for rolling the two pie crusts together is
because of the weight of the filling but you could certainly try it with a
single crust. This is a pretty pie—almost like a picture in a magazine.
Cream Cheese Pecan Pie
(Serves 8)
1 15-ounce package refrigerated pie
crusts
1 8-ounce package cream cheese,
softened
4 large eggs, divided
¾ cup sugar, divided
2 teaspoons vanilla, divided
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1 cup light corn syrup
Unfold and stack the 2 pie crusts;
gently roll or press them together. Fit the crusts into a 9 inch pie plate
according to package directions; fold the edges under and crimp.
Beat the softened cream cheese, 1
egg, ½ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and salt at medium speed with an electric
mixer until smooth. Pour evenly into the prepared crust. Sprinkle with the
chopped pecans.
Stir together the remaining 3 eggs,
¼ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and the corn syrup. Pour this mixture over the
pecans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 55
minutes or until set.
Allow pie to cool before trying to
slice. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator.
Apple trees are loaded this year so I
wanted to try to give some apple recipes to try. The Pan Fried Apples with
Raisins and Nuts is very easy and very tasty. This is just the kind of basic
apple dish that my mother fixed routinely without the raisins and nuts-and yes,
she probably used bacon grease. If you have leftovers they reheat beautifully in
the microwave. I enjoy them with breakfast.
When we were in Florida in July I
had the Apple Caesar Slaw at a restaurant in Fernandina Beach and decided that I
could easily make it at home so I wrote down the ingredients so I could
replicate the dish. Frankly I think that mine was better. I used Pink Lady
apples because that was what I had on hand. I had the last of the slaw three
days late and the apples still had not begun to turn brown.
Pan Fried Apples with
Raisins and Nuts
(Serves 8)
6 medium apples (Granny Smith or
another firm cooking apple)
½ cup pecans, roughly chopped
½ cup walnuts, roughly chopped
½ cup raisins
½ stick of margarine or butter
½ cup light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon water
In a heavy frying pan, sprayed with
cooking spray, space cored apples, (unpeeled and quartered). Add pats of
margarine or butter, spices and brown sugar on top of the apples. Add water.
Cover and steam until the apples are tender at medium heat. Do not stir. Add
nuts and raisins and steam a few minutes longer. Avoid stirring the ingredients
to prevent tearing the apples. Shake the pan on the stove to keep apples from
sticking. Serve from the pan.
Caesar Apple Slaw
(Serves 6)
3 cups shredded cabbage
1 cup chopped red skin apple--do not
peel--sprinkled with a little lemon juice
½ cup Caesar salad dressing (when I
tested this I used Ken’s Creamy Caesar)
2 tablespoons (heaping) shredded
parmesan cheese or to taste
Combine all ingredients and allow at
least two hours for the slaw to chill. Feel free to adjust the ingredients to
your taste.
This recipe for Hungarian Goulash is
really simple to prepare once you have your ingredients assembled and cut and
diced. This is a tasty dish and I think your family will enjoy it. If you wanted
you could easily make a double batch and freeze some for use later.
HUNGARIAN GOULASH
(Serves 4)
1 pound lean, boneless top round
steak
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 ¼ cups coarsely chopped onion
1 cup green pepper strips
2 ½ cups chopped fresh tomatoes
1 ¼ cups water
1 tablespoon paprika
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 cups hot cooked rice
Trim all visible fat from steak; cut
steak into bite-sized pieces. Cook in hot oil in a large skillet over medium
heat until browned, stirring often. Add onion and green pepper; cook 5 minutes
longer, stirring often.
Stir in tomatoes and next 4
ingredients. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and cook 45 minutes longer or
until tender, adding additional water, if necessary.
I made these Crispy Oat cookies with
Heath Bar Bits recently and had several people ask me for the recipe. Alan
thought they were worth repeated trips to the cookie tin. I found this recipe in
a fund raising cookbook that the Carteret Obstetrics and Gynecology practice had
published to raise money for Relay for Life. It is available at several stores
on the Crystal Coast so be on the lookout for a copy if you vacation in that
area. It retails for $15.00
CRISPY OAT COOKIES
WITH HEATH BAR BITS
(Serves 20)
2 sticks butter, softened
2 eggs
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups quick cooking oatmeal
1 10-oz. package milk chocolate
covered Heath Bar bits
Heat oven to 350 degrees; lightly
grease cookie sheet.
Beat butter, eggs, brown sugar, and
vanilla until blended. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; beat until
blended. Stir in oats and Heath bits.
Drop by rounded teaspoon onto
prepared cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
Cool one minute, remove to wire cooling rack.
Gloria Lee sent
me this recipe for a Taco Pie several months ago and she says that she really
enjoyed this dish. She said that when she made it she only used about ¾ of the
can of green chilies because she thought it might be too spicy. She says that
this is simple to make and is a pretty dish. However she says to be sure to let
it rest for at least 5 minutes before beginning to slice it.
Gloria said that a friend of hers had
made this using chicken instead of ground beef and her family really enjoyed
this version of the pie. Gloria thought you could use a roasted chicken and cut
it in small pieces to do this. You could probably also use leftover diced turkey
for this—about 2 cups of diced meat. If I were doing this version I would simply
sauté my onion in a little cooking oil and add the cooked chicken or turkey to
the onion for just a few seconds.
TACO PIE
(Serves 4-5)
1 pound lean ground beef
½ medium onion, finely chopped
1 (1.25) envelope taco seasoning mix
1 4-oz. can drained chopped green
chilies
1 cup milk
2 eggs
½ cup Bisquick
¾ cup shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat a
9-inch pie plate with cooking spray.
Cook ground beef and onion in a
nonstick skillet on medium heat stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes or until
beef is no longer pink and onion is tender, drain. Stir in the seasoning mix.
Spoon mixture into the pie plate and top with the chilies.
In a medium bowl, mix together the
milk, eggs and baking mix. Pour over the beef mixture in the pie plate.
Bake for 25 minutes or until a knife
inserted into the center comes out clean. Sprinkle with the cheese and bake 8 to
10 minutes longer. Remove from oven. Cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Serve with salsa, sour cream,
shredded lettuce and diced tomatoes.
Last week in honor of the Olympics I
cooked Szechuan Chicken, Don’t be afraid to try this and don’t feel like you
have to run out and buy a wok if you don’t have one – a large skillet or chicken
fry pan will work just fine.
When I do stir fries I use tamari
sauce rather than regular soy sauce because it seems to be a little less salty.
I couldn’t find frozen pea pods in the grocery stores I checked in Siler City
but I didn’t go to all of them so I substituted frozen snow peas and they
worked. I thawed them in a colander and then spread them on a paper towel and
patted them dry before I started cooking.
My actual cooking time on this recipe
was probably a little less than 15 minutes, so once you get your chopping and
dicing done, a stir fry is a quick and easy meal.
I served the Szechuan Chicken with
some melon that I had in the refrigerator and we both felt that this made a nice
combination. We enjoyed this dish and will prepare it again even without the
stimulus of the Olympics.
SZECHUAN
CHICKEN
(Serves 4)
1 egg white, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons cornstarch, divided
3 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
1 tablespoon sherry
2 large chicken breast halves,
skinned, boned, and cut into
1-inch cubes
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cider vinegar or rice
wine vinegar if you have
it on hand.
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1/3 cup water
1 large clove garlic, crushed
1 bunch chopped green onions,
including part of the green tops
1 10-ounce package frozen pea pods or
snow peas (whatever
you can find)
½ teaspoon dried red pepper flakes or
to taste
Combine egg white, 1 tablespoon soy
sauce, sherry, and 1 tablespoon cornstarch and beat until frothy.
Marinate chicken cubes in this
mixture for ½ hour.
Combine salt, remaining soy sauce,
garlic, vinegar, sugar, molasses, water, and remaining cornstarch.
Remove chicken pieces from marinade
and quickly sauté them in hot peanut oil. Remove chicken from oil and cover with
foil to keep warm. Put chopped onion and pea pods in wok or skillet. Quickly
stir fry. Add red pepper, chicken pieces and sauce to wok. Bring to boil.
Immediately serve over rice.
I enjoy eating fresh salmon almost
any way that it is prepared. This is a great way to prepare fresh fillets in the
oven. If you can’t find small fillets, use larger ones and halve them when you
serve them. Just adjust your cooking time a little but do be careful not a
overcook them. You will probably find yourself using this cooking method for
salmon frequently and perhaps trying it with other fish as well.
BAKED DIJON SALMON
(Serves 4)
¼ cup butter, melted
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 ½ tablespoons honey
¼ cup dry bread crumbs
¼ cup finely chopped pecans
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
4 4-ounce salmon fillets
¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
1/8 teaspoon pepper or to taste
1 lemon for garnish
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a small bowl, stir together
butter, mustard, and honey. Set aside. In another bowl, mix together bread
crumbs, pecans, and parsley.
Brush each salmon fillet lightly with
honey-mustard mixture and sprinkle top of fillets with the bread crumb mixture.
Spray a baking sheet lightly with a
cooking spray. Place salmon on prepared pan and bake in a preheated oven until
it flakes easily with a fork, approximately 10-15 minutes.
Season to taste with salt and pepper
and garnish with a wedge of lemon.
I’m always on the lookout for
different salad ideas in the summer because I like to use cool dishes that can
be prepared ahead. This Summer Corn and Cabbage Salad (or slaw as we like to
call dishes made with uncooked cabbage) is quick, easy and delicious. Just be
careful not to overcook your corn—in fact, I have seen several salad recipes
this summer that use uncooked corn. Margaret served us one when we visited her
and I liked it.
SUMMER CORN and
CABBAGE SALAD
3 medium-size fresh ears of corn or 1
10 oz. frozen whole
kernel corn
1 ½ cups shredded green cabbage
1 medium sweet red pepper chopped
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
¼ cup olive or vegetable oil
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey or to taste
1 teaspoon dry mustard
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
Cook ears of corn, cut corn from cob.
(If using packaged corn, cook according to directions, and then drain.) Combine
corn along with remaining vegetables in a salad bowl.
Mix oil, lemon juice, honey, dry
mustard, salt, and pepper. Mix well. Pour over salad mixture. Toss to coat.
Cover and refrigerate 2-24 hours.
Adjust salt and pepper to taste before serving.
Spoon salad onto a lettuce leaf to
serve if desired.
Many years ago my daughter Margaret
gave me a copy of Beyond Parsley, a cookbook compiled by the Junior League in
Kansas City, Missouri. The book was originally published in 1984 and I have no
idea whether it is available today although you could probably find a copy
somewhere on the internet.
This cookbook has one of the best and
simplest recipes for a Tomato Sauce using fresh tomatoes that I have ever tried.
The splatters on this page in the book certainly attest to the fact that I have
used this recipe frequently. It is wonderful on pasta or over a piece of fish or
a grilled chicken breast. It also makes a great base for spaghetti sauce or
shells stuffed with a cheese mixture. While tomatoes are so plentiful, why not
make up several batches for your freezer to use this winter?
TOMATO SAUCE WITH
FRESH TOMATOES
(Serves 8)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 pounds fresh tomatoes, peeled,
seeded and finely chopped
(approximately 5 cups)
5 large basil leaves, finely sliced
¾ teaspoon salt or to taste
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper or
to taste.
Heat oil in a heavy pot, and sauté
onion until transparent. Add garlic and sauté another 2-3 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients and bring
to a boil. Lower heat and simmer very gently for about 15 minutes.
Gloria Lee sent me several recipes
recently and I tried this one for a Fresh Tomato Pizza last week. It is just as
delicious as Gloria said it was and is so pretty. Gloria says the fresh herbs
are the secret of this recipe and she thinks that fresh oregano might be good on
this. This pizza is one of the prettiest that you’ll ever see, especially if
your tomatoes are uniform in size.
I had leftovers so the next day I put
a slice in my toaster oven and reheated it for several minutes on bake at about
250 degrees and it was as good as when I had just made it. I have also frozen
several slices to try later.
Alan wants me to add some pepperoni
for him the next time I make this – he thinks all pizzas need pepperoni. I’ll
add some on his half next time.
Gloria’s recipe does not call for
exact amounts but I will indicate roughly the amounts I used although basically
you want to use enough to generously cover your pizza crust.
FRESH TOMATO PIZZA
1 refrigerated pizza crust
Generous amount of grated Parmesan
Cheese (approximately 1
cup)
Generous amount of grated Mozzarella
Cheese (approximately
3 cups)
Chopped fresh rosemary (approximately
1 ½ tablespoons)
Chopped fresh basil (approximately 1
½ tablespoons)
Sliced firm fresh tomatoes (as many a
you need to cover your
crust)
Freshly ground pepper and garlic salt
to taste
Lightly spray a baking sheet or pizza
pan with olive oil spray.
Preheat oven to temperature indicated
on the pizza crust you
are using.
Top pizza crust with the remaining
ingredients in the order listed in the recipe.
Bake approximately 20 minutes or
until golden brown – watch this carefully, I found that in my oven it was ready
in about 15 minutes.
I recently found this recipe in a
North Carolina Art Museum Cook Book edited by Elizabeth Norfleet. I had given
the cookbook to Mary Alice for her birthday so she could take a taste of North
Carolina with her when she moved to Whidbey Island, Washington, later this
month.
I browsed through the cookbook when
we were babysitting several weeks ago and this recipe for Cheesy Crusted Chicken
caught my eye. When we came home I tried this dish. It was delicious – something
that I will make again. I think you will enjoy it too.
If you see this cookbook, I’m sorry I
don’t remember the title; it has some wonderful sounding recipes and beautiful
pictures reproduced from the North Carolina Museum of Art collection. This
cookbook would be a great gift for someone.
CHEESY CRUSTED CHICKEN
(Serves 4)
3 cloves garlic, sliced
½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup bread crumbs
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black
pepper
½ cup finely grated sharp cheddar
cheese
½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
4 bone-in chicken breast halves,
skinned
Mix sliced garlic and oil in a bowl;
let stand at least 20 minutes or preferably longer. Remove garlic.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a
separate bowl, mix together bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and cheeses.
Dip chicken pieces in garlic oil,
then in crumb mixture.
Place crusted chicken on a rack that
you have sprayed with Pam in a shallow baking pan. Pour the remaining oil over
the chicken pieces.
Bake uncovered for about 45 minutes
or a little longer if you have really large chicken breasts. However, be careful
not to overcook.
Several weeks ago I made a Corn and
Vidalia Onion Pudding. When Alan walked through the kitchen while I was
preparing this he observed that he didn’t see how it was going to be worth the
trouble. After tasting it, he changed his mind. Furthermore, the leftovers were
as good when reheated in the microwave as when the pudding was fresh from the
oven. This is a good weekend or special occasion dish. I also think it would
transport well for an addition to a covered dish meal.
CORN and VIDALIA ONION
PUDDING
(Serves 8)
3 tablespoons flour
1 ½ cups 2% milk
1 cup shredded Vermont white Cheddar
cheese
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black
pepper
½ teaspoon dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon butter
2 cups chopped Vidalia onion or other
sweet onion if
Vidalias are not available
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 ½ cups scraped fresh corn kernels
Arrange oven rack on center position.
Spray a shallow oven to table baking dish with nonstick cooking spray—I used a
2.8 liter Corning French white oval dish when I made this.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Place flour in a heavy, medium
saucepan and whisk in ¼ cup of milk to make a paste. Pour in remaining 1 ¼ cups
milk and stir thoroughly. Place pan over medium heat and cook, stirring, until
mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Add cheese a handful at a time, whisking
constantly. Remove sauce from heat. Stir in salt, black pepper, dried thyme and
Cayenne pepper. Set aside to cool.
Melt butter in large, heavy medium
skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring until softened,
about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook and stir 4 to 5 minutes more. Season with a
little, additional salt and pepper. Remove from heat.
Whisk lightly beaten eggs into cooled
sauce. Add corn and onions. Spread mixture evenly in prepared pan. Bake at 375
degrees on center shelf until pudding is firm and golden on top, 35 to 40
minutes. Cool 5 to 10 minutes. May garnish with sprigs of fresh thyme before
serving, if desired. Serve hot.
I tried this recipe for shrimp
several weeks ago and we both enjoyed it. It does have a definite garlic flavor,
particularly when I reheated the leftovers later, so if this is a problem for
you, just cut back on the garlic. This is a very easy way to prepare shrimp—just
be careful not to overcook them.
GARLIC LOVERS SHRIMP
BAKE
(Serves 3-4)
1 ½ pound medium shrimp, peeled and
deveined
6 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice, freshly
squeezed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon hot pepper flakes
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cracker crumbs
Arrange shrimp in one layer in a
shallow baking dish. (I used a 10-inch pyrex pie plate.)
In a small saucepan, melt the butter
and add the lemon juice, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, red pepper flakes and
salt. Reserve two tablespoons of this mixture and pour the remainder evenly over
the shrimp.
Add the reserved butter to the
cracker crumbs and sprinkle evenly over the shrimp.
Bake in a preheated, 450-degree oven
for approximately 8 minutes, or until the crumbs are lightly browned and the
shrimp is pink. Do not overcook or your shrimp will be tough.
Local peaches are available now and
it is wonderful to have them after the cold snaps did so much damage in recent
springs. To celebrate this, I tried this incredibly easy recipe for a Spicy
Peach Upside Down Cake. We thought it was delicious – we tried it served
slightly warm with vanilla ice cream. The next night, I just warmed it for about
30 seconds at 50% power in the microwave and enjoyed it without a topping. I had
a friend tell me that is was good for breakfast, too. I hope you’ll enjoy this
as much as we did.
SPICY PEACH UPSIDE
DOWN CAKE
(Serves 15)
2 cups chopped peaches
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ cup butter
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup chopped pecans
1 package spice cake mix (18 ½ oz.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sprinkle chopped peaches with lemon
juice and sugar and set a
aside.
Melt butter in 9x13-inch cake pan.
Sprinkle evenly with brown sugar and pecans. Evenly add a layer of chopped
peaches.
Prepare cake mix according to package
directions. Spread evenly over the peaches. Bake at 350 for approximately 35
minutes or until done.
Cook for 10 minutes in pan, then
invert onto serving tray. Serve warm with whipped topping or vanilla ice cream,
if desired.
If all the blooms on the blackberry
bushes yield berries we should have a bumper crop of this fruit. In anticipation
of this, I gave in and bought some blackberries in a grocery store several weeks
ago so I could try this recipe for Wild Blackberry Crisp. It was delicious and I
didn’t even serve it with ice cream or whipped cream. There could hardly be an
easier dessert to make than this.
WILD BLACKBERRY CRISP
(Serves 6)
1 quart wild blackberries, fresh or
frozen
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup flour
½ cup butter, chilled
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 1/3 cups flour
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Generously butter a 9x9-inch baking
dish.
Mix berries, sugar and flour. Place
in prepared baking dish. If your blackberries are not very juicy, sprinkle this
mixture with a tablespoon or two of water.
In a separate bowl, cut the topping
ingredients together with a pastry blender until crumbly. Sprinkle the topping
over the blackberries.
Bake in a preheated oven for about 45
minutes or until browned and bubbly.
Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla
ice cream or whipped cream.
When Mary Alice was married, one of
my friends gave her a copy of Come On In! recipes from the Junior League of
Jackson, Mississippi. This is a wonderful cookbook that is easy to use and it
has a lot of recipes that are user friendly.
Since Mary Alice and Steve have been
married, Uncle Sam has sent them from coast to coast and Mary Alice says that a
lot of the time when she is asked to take a dessert to a covered dish or to a
bake sale, she uses the recipe for this Vanishing Blueberry Pie that she found
in Come On In! She says it truly vanishes. Mary Alice says that frequently when
she is making this for her family she will use the almond extract since this is
a flavor that they like.
Mary Alice did observe that at the
last bake sale at her church she took this pie as well as a Southern Chess Pie
and her west coast friends did not seem to know what a chess pie was.
VANISHING BLUEBERRY
PIE
(Serves 8)
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or ½
teaspoon almond extract
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg, beaten
2 ½ cups fresh blueberries, washed
and drained
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room
temperature
3 tablespoons chopped pecans or
walnuts
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
For this pie, blend sour cream,
flour, sugar, vanilla, salt and egg until smooth. Fold in blueberries. Pour
filling into the pastry shell and bake for 25 minutes.
Make the topping by thoroughly
combining the flour, butter, and nuts. Sprinkle the topping over the pie and
bake 10 additional minutes. Chill before serving.
I was excited to get a copy of A
Taste of Tradition, the new West Chatham Food Pantry cookbook, several weeks
ago. (See story about the cookbook on the B front in this week’s paper.) As a
matter of fact, it was my reading material on a road trip that week.
I found many interesting recipes and
have been given permission to share a couple of them with you—hopefully to tempt
you to purchase this cookbook. One recipe that really intrigued me, and my
daughter May Alice agrees, is Joanna Canipe’s for a Lasagna Soup. This is
definitely on my list of recipes to try in the fall or on a cool summer day. As
soon as I make a dent in the leftovers in my refrigerator, or when Alan say no
to them, I am planning to try Paula Hargrove’s recipe for Day Ahead Dijon
Chicken.
I think you will enjoy this cookbook
and may want to buy extras to give to family and friends.
LASAGNA SOUP
1 lb. ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (32-oz.) box chicken broth
2 (14.5-oz.) cans petite diced
tomatoes
1 (15-oz.) can tomato sauce
1 T. firmly packed brown sugar
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
½ tsp. salt
2 c. broken lasagna noodles
1 (5-oz.) pkg. grated Parmesan cheese
1 (5.5 oz.) box Italian seasoned
croutons
2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
Combine ground beef, onion, bell
pepper and garlic; cook over medium-high heat, 8 to 10 minutes, stirring
occasionally until beef is browned and crumbles. Drain well.
Stir in broth, diced tomatoes, tomato
sauce, brown sugar, Italian seasoning and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high
heat; reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. Add noodles, and simmer until noodles
are tender. Stir in Parmesan cheese.
Preheat broiler. Ladle soup into 10
ovenproof bowls. Top with croutons; sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Broil soups
for 3 to 4 minutes or until cheese is browned and bubbly.
DAY AHEAD DIJON
CHICKEN
4 boneless chicken breasts
½ c. honey
½ c. Dijon mustard
1 T. curry
2 T. soy sauce or teriyaki sauce
Place chicken snugly in baking dish,
meat side down. Mix other ingredients. Pour over chicken and refrigerate
overnight. Turn chicken over. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour at 350
degrees. Baste well with sauce and continue baking, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
Spoon sauce over chicken and serve. Excellent with buttered rice.
I tried this recipe for Chicken with
Mushrooms and Shallots recently and was very pleased with it. This is easy to
prepare and I thought it was a nice way to do something a little different with
chicken. I served this on top of a serving of rice and garnished it with a
little chopped parsley.
CHICKEN with MUSHROOMS
and SHALLOTS
(Serves 4)
4 boneless chicken breast halves with
skin removed
¼ cup olive oil
1 cup sliced mushrooms
2 tablespoons minced shallots or
purple onions
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
If your chicken breasts are extremely
large you may want to tenderize them.
Saute Chicken in olive oil in skillet
over medium heat for 8 minutes. Turn chicken.
Add mushrooms and shallots. Season
with salt and black pepper. Cook for an additional 8 minutes or until chicken is
tender and done. Don’t overcook.
Place chicken on platter. Sprinkle
generously with the shredded cheese and top with the mushrooms and shallots.
Cover with aluminum foil and let stand for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.
I tried this recipe for Everything
but the Kitchen Sink Cookies several months ago when I needed a recipe that
yielded a lot of cookies. I realize that the yield will vary depending on the
size of your cookies, but I had at least 12 dozen cookies. I thought it was a
very good cookie and I found that they froze nicely.
A good feature of this recipe is that
you can vary it according to what you have on hand after you combine the first
nine ingredients. Then add a spice or delete according to what you like and what
you have on hand. Try substituting semisweet chocolate morsels and peanut butter
morsels and rather than adding toffee bits use 1 2/3 cup chopped pecans and
combine all of these with the rolled oats. Experiment and find what combinations
you like best.
A word of caution, however, I used
the biggest bowl I own when I assembled these.
EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK COOKIES
(Serves 50)
2 cups butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
5 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon instant coffee
granules
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
5 cups rolled oats
1 (12-ounce) bag milk chocolate
morsels
1 (12-ounce) bag white chocolate
morsels
2/3 cup almond toffee bits
1 cup chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, beat butter with an
electric mixer until creamy. Add sugars and beat until smooth. Add eggs, one at
a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla.
In a separate bowl, combine flour,
baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, coffee granules, pumpkin-pie spice,
all-spice, nutmeg, and salt. Gradually add to the butter mixture.
In a separate bowl, combine oats,
chocolate morsels, toffee bits, and pecans. Add oat mixture to cookie dough and
mix with hands.
Drop cookies by rounded teaspoonfuls
onto an un-greased baking sheet.
(Try making these without some of the
spices and substitute peanut butter morsels for the white chocolate and use 1
2/3 cups chopped pecans eliminating the toffee bits if you don’t have them on
hand.)
Bake for 11 to 13 minutes per batch,
or until edges of cookies are lightly brown.
When I was a child you could not
persuade me to eat a tomato whether it was fresh from my Daddy’s garden or was
cooked. How my tastes have changed! Amber Morris King sent me the National
Symphony Orchestra Cookbook (soft cover--$19.95) and it has some great recipes.
The cookbook would make a wonderful souvenir of a trip to Washington.
One recipe that I have prepared
several times that I have really enjoyed is this recipe for a Tomato Casserole.
I have taken this to several covered dish meals and did not have any leftovers.
TOMATO CASSEROLE
(Serves 8)
2 14 ½ ounce of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped onion
¼ cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup of light brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon Creole seasoning
(generous)
1 cup Pepperidge Farm Cornbread
stuffing
1 cup sharp Cheddar cheese, grated or
as needed to sprinkle
over the casserole (optional—I
used it)
Combine diced tomatoes, chopped
onion, chopped bell pepper, light brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, Creole
seasoning and cornbread stuffing mix. Pour into a lightly greased shallow baking
dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Top with
grated cheese if using and cut off oven while leaving casserole in oven just
long enough to melt the cheese—only a minute or two.
If I were serving this during the
Christmas season I would try to find white cheddar cheese and sprinkle it with
chopped fresh parsley just before serving.
My daughter Margaret shared this
recipe that a friend had given her for a fresh beef brisket. Margaret says this
is the best brisket recipe that she has ever tried. We bought a brisket and
cooked it using her recipe and it was delicious and incredible easy. This is a
recipe that we will use again.
AUNT ABBY’s BEEF
BRISKET – MARGARET
(Serves 10)
1 fresh beef brisket – ours weighed
about 4 ½ pounds
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
2 envelopes regular onion soup mix
(not instant)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 ½ cups catsup
Line a large roasting pan with heavy
foil, letting the ends of the foil hang over the edges of the pan. Place brisket
on the foil. Sprinkle the sugar, soup mix, and garlic powder over the brisket.
Drizzle catsup over all. Fold the ends of the foil over the brisket, sealing
securely and leaving air space.
Be sure to seal really tightly so
nothing leaks out while it is baking—if juices do leak out then take it out of
the foil and put it in the roasting pan and reseal the top tightly with foil so
it stays moist while it continues baking slowly.
Bake in a 325 degree oven for 3 ½
hours or till tender. Transfer to a platter and allow to cool slightly before
slicing. Skim grease from sauce and serve warm sauce with the meat.
To make ahead and reheat: after
cooking, cool and slice brisket. Store in refrigerator in sauce or freeze in
sauce Reheat before serving.
While fresh local strawberries are
available, try this recipe for Strawberry Drop Biscuits. When served warm they
are just delicious. Also drop biscuits, which I remember my mother making, are a
good way for a beginning cook to start making biscuits. When blueberries come in
I am going to try substituting them in this recipe. (When I made these, my
strawberries had not been refrigerated and were at room temperature.)
STRAWBERRY DROP
BISCUITS
(Serves 12)
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons shortening
1 1/3 cup milk
1 cup sliced strawberries
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine dry ingredients. Add
shortening and cut it in until the mixture is crumbly. Add milk and beat until
smooth. Fold in sliced strawberries.
Drop batter by spoonfuls onto greased
cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes
until lightly browned. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes before serving
warm.
This makes 12 generous sized
biscuits.
I was going through recipes that I
had clipped from magazines years ago and came across this recipe for Lemon and
Rosemary Pinto Beans. I tried it and Alan thought they were some of the best
pinto beans he had ever eaten. This is a great variation of a marinated bean
salad. If you make this in advance it is important to let the beans come to room
temperature, otherwise they will be quite crunchy.
PINTO BEANS MARINATED
LEMON & ROSEMARY
(Serves 6)
2 15-ounce cans pinto beans, rinsed
and drained
¾ cup chopped sweet onion
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 ½ teaspoons minced, fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
1/8 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
6 lemon wedges
Combine the first seven ingredients
in a medium bowl. Toss to blend. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be
made a day ahead. If so, cover and chill in the refrigerator. Then allow to
stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.)
Garnish with lemon wedges to squeeze
over the beans and fresh rosemary sprigs, if desired.
Several weeks ago I bought some fresh
rhubarb and some Florida strawberries and baked this Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp. I
served this warm from the oven and we both enjoyed it. I will make this again
but if my strawberries are really sweet I will reduce to about ¾ cup the amount
of sugar that you mix with the fruits because I like for this dessert to be a
little tart – especially if it is served with vanilla ice cream.
STRAWBERRY-RHUBARB
CRISP
(Serves 8)
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 ½ cups flour
¾ cup cold unsalted butter cut into
pieces
1 pound rhubarb
½ quart strawberries
1 lemon (use zest from entire lemon
and juice from half the
lemon)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar – or less if strawberries
really sweet
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Using a
food processor, with a metal blade, mix brown sugar and flour together. Add
butter. Mix until large pea-size chunks from and crumbs hold together. Set
aside.
Trim off rough ends of rhubarb and
cut into 1-inch lengths. Remove stems on strawberries and cut into quarters.
Place rhubarb and strawberries in a bowl. Add juice of half the lemon, the zest,
vanilla and sugar and toss gently.
Place fruit mixture into a buttered
8-inch square casserole. Cover with the brown sugar topping. Bake for 45 minutes
or until fruit juices are bubbling. My crisp did not bubble over but to protect
your oven, place a cookie pan on the bottom oven rack.
One of the signs of spring is fresh
asparagus. While they are available, try this recipe for Roasted Asparagus. They
are delicious prepared this way and it is so easy with little or no cleanup.
Just be sure not to overcook them.
I toasted the pine nuts in a 325
degree oven for 4 or 5 minutes watching them carefully. You want them to be a
very light golden-brownish color.
ROASTED ASPARAGUS
(Serves 4)
1 pound medium-size fresh asparagus
spears, trimmed
½ tablespoon olive oil (you can use
olive or vegetable oil spray)
¼ cup pine nuts, toasted
¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
1 plum tomato, seeded and chopped
Toss asparagus in olive oil or spray
lightly with cooking spray. Arrange asparagus in a single layer in an aluminum
foil-lined pan.
Bake at 425 degrees for 7 minutes or
just until crisp tender.
Sprinkle asparagus with salt, toasted
pine nuts and chopped tomatoes.
Recently I had leftover ham as you
usually do when there are only two of you and you bake a ham. I decided to use
it by trying this recipe for ham salad. Both of us liked this. It is a good
sandwich filler or a tasty spread to use for hors d’oeuvres. This recipe is
basically just a starting point—depending on the type of ham you use you may
need more or less Miracle Whip or any of the other ingredients. If you ham is
especially salty eliminate the salt. (I used a Cure 81 ham when I prepared this
salad). Try this recipe and don’t be afraid to play with it!
HAM SALAD
(Serves 8)
3 cups cooked ham, ground
½ cup chopped sweet pickle
2 teaspoon sweet pickle juice
3 green onions, chopped, including a
little of the tops
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
2 tablespoons Durkee’s Sauce or Dijon
mustard
½ cup Miracle Whip or more if needed
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black
pepper or to taste
Mix all ingredients together by hand.
Refrigerate until ready to use.
Try to allow
enough time for the flavors to develop—at least overnight. Serve on rye, whole
wheat or white bread for a delicious sandwich. This recipe will easily double or
triple but do not freeze it.
Several weeks ago a reader from
Moncure called and wanted to know why I had not featured a recipe for a New
Orleans-style gumbo in this column. I told him that I would try to remedy that
omission shortly so I began to look at gumbo recipes. I discovered that there
are about as many versions of this dish as there are of Brunswick Stew. The
recipe that I finally tried is one that I came up with after combining elements
from two recipes. I chose to use chicken and shrimp in my version because they
are easy for us to obtain unlike some versions that call for smoked duck’s
breast or any other number of meats.
This version is also easy in that it
does not require making a roux. We both were pleased with this gumbo and I think
you might enjoy it, too.
CHICKEN and SHRIMP
GUMBO
(Serves 8)
4 sliced thick-cut bacon
1 large onion, finely chopped
½ large green pepper, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
(optional)
1 ½ cups frozen sliced okra, rinsed
under cold water and
drained, or fresh okra, ends
trimmed and sliced
3 cups chicken broth
2 14.5 can whole tomatoes, with their
juices, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken
breasts, any fat removed
½ pound medium shrimp, peeled and
de-veined
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf
parsley
¼ teaspoon freshly-ground black
pepper
½ teaspoon salt or to taste
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper or more
to taste (optional)
2 teaspoons gumbo file powder to
sprinkle over gumbo when serving
(1/8-1/4 teaspoon or to taste for each individual
serving)
4 cups cooked long-grained rice
In a large pot, cook the bacon until
crisp. Remove bacon, drain on paper towels and crumble.
Add onions, green pepper, celery,
garlic and okra to pot. Saute in bacon fat for 5 minutes until onion is
translucent. Stir in the tomatoes and chicken broth and salt and black pepper.
Add whole chicken breasts and simmer until chicken is done. Remove chicken from
pot and shred into bite-sized pieces and return to the pot.
Remove bay leaf, Add parsley. Taste
for seasoning and add cayenne pepper at this point. Stir in shrimp and simmer
over medium low heat for 20-30 minutes. (Prepare rice while shrimp are
simmering.)
Ladle gumbo over hot rice and
sprinkle with reserved crumbled bacon and gumbo file powder.
When I was in Florida with Margaret
several months ago we ate lunch in a little tearoom-type restaurant that is very
popular with locals in her area. Jonathan says that when he joins her he is
always the only man in the place but the food is so good that he doesn’t mind.
When we were there we shared a slice of Key Lime Pound Cake with a Cream Cheese
Glaze type of icing. The cake was delicious but we decided we could replicate it
ourselves.
At the time I thought this would be a
wonderful addition to any meal so why not try it for Easter this year?
I found this recipe on the Internet
and tried it and thought is was delicious. I was in a hurry so I simply used the
glaze in the recipe but the next time I try this I am going to try to replicate
the cream cheese glaze – I think they probably slightly thinned the usual cream
cheese icing with a very small amount of key lime juice.
KEY LIME DAIQUIRI
POUND CAKE
(Serves 16)
1 cup butter
½ cup shortening
2 cups white sugar
5 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons rum
1 tablespoon grated key lime zest
2 teaspoons key lime juice
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter
2 tablespoons key lime juice
2 teaspoons grated key lime zest
3 tablespoons rum
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Grease and flour a 10-inch tube or
bundt pan.
Mix together the flour and baking
powder.
In a large bowl, cream together 1 cup
butter, shortening, and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs
one at a time. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing just
until incorporated. Stir in 2 tablespoons rum, 1 tablespoon key lime zest, 2
teaspoons key lime juice, vanilla and lemon juice.
Pour batter into the prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 90
minutes, or until cake tests done. Allow to cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn it out
onto a wire rack. While warm, prick top of cake with toothpick. Brush Key Lime
Daiquiri Glaze over the warm cake. Cool completely.
To make Glaze: In small saucepan,
combine 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup butter, 2 tablespoons key lime juice and 2
teaspoons key lime zest.
Bring to boil. Continue boiling,
stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and stir in 3
tablespoons rum.
Mary Alice’s friend Kyla sent
this recipe for a Hot Wing Chicken Dip which I think would be a wonderful
addition when you are planning snacks to serve if you have friends over to watch
the basketball tournament games. Kyla said that when she made this she used
Texas Pete wing sauce. She also confessed that she cheated and used 2 cans of
chicken that she drained and shredded. Kyla said that when she served this for a
Super Bowl party everybody loved it.
Alan says it tastes exactly
like Hot Wings!
KYLA’s HOT WING CHICKEN DIP
1 8-ounce package cream
cheese, softened
1 cup bottled Ranch Salad
Dressing
1 package original dry Ranch
Dressing mix
½ cup bottled Wing Sauce—or to
taste
1 8-ounce package shredded
Cheddar cheese
3-4 cooked chicken breasts,
shredded (or two cans of chicken, drained and shredded)
Mix and bake at 350 degrees
until bubbly and golden. Serve with celery sticks and tortilla scoopers.
If you decide to use less wing
sauce you may need to thin the mixture with a little additional Ranch Dressing.
Years ago I clipped this
recipe for Stir-Fried Beef with Broccoli and Oranges because I thought it seemed
like an interesting flavor combination. I finally got around to trying the
recipe several weeks ago and we both really enjoyed it. It was quick and easy to
prepare and best of all was something a little different. I used a Stir-Fry
Sauce that I bought in the Oriental food section at a local grocery store.
STIR-FRIED BEEF with
BROCCOLI and ORANGES
(Serves 4)
1 bunch broccoli (about 1 ¼
pounds), stems peeled and cut
in ½-inch pieces, florets
separated
3 large naval oranges
3 teaspoons vegetable oil
12 ounces beef top round for
London broil, sliced thinly on
the diagonal, then cut in
bite-sized strips
½ cup bottled stir-fry sauce
Add broccoli to a large pot of
boiling water. Cook 3 to 5 minutes or until barely crisp-tender. Drain and
immerse in ice water to stop the cooking. Remove from water and spread on paper
towels to dry.
Squeeze juice from 1 orange
into a medium bowl. With a sharp knife, cut peel and white membrane from
remaining 2 oranges. Holding oranges cut between membranes to release sections.
Squeeze any juice remaining from the membranes into bowl. (You should have ½ cup
of juice.)
Heat 1 teaspoon of the oil in
a large nonstick skillet or wok over high heat. Add beef in batches and stir-fry
until brown, taking care not to crowd skillet and adding the remaining oil as
needed. Remove beef to a bowl as it browns.
Remove any excess oil from
your wok.
Add stir-fry sauce, orange
juice and broccoli to skillet or wok. Stir over medium heat 2 to 3 minutes until
the liquid is lightly reduced and the broccoli is hot. Stir in the beef and
orange sections; cook 1 minute to heat through.
Serve over a bed of rice.
(Put the beef in the freezer
for 10 to 15 minutes to make slicing it easier.)
Both of these cookies were
served at coffee hour at our church this month. I ran the recipe for Joan
Thompson’s Oat Bars years and years ago, but I had not made them in a long
while. When Joan served these this week and we were practically inhaling them,
they were so good. I promised to rerun the recipe for those of you who missed it
the first time around or for people like me who had forgotten just how good
these crispy bars are.
I found the recipe for
Butterfinger Cookies in the Best of the Best from Washington Cookbook that
Caroline and Jackson gave me for Christmas. (There are Best of the Best
Cookbooks for almost every state or region of the US – a good travel souvenir if
you are like me.) When I saw this recipe I knew that I needed to try this since
Butterfingers are Alan’s favorite candy bar. We both thought these were
yummy-almost addictively so. When I made these I added additional flour and
baking soda to the recipe in the cookbook because of the moistness of my peanut
butter (Peter Pan).The ingredient amounts in the recipe in the paper are for the
version of the cookies that I baked.
JOAN THOMPSON’S OAT BARS
(Serves 20)
1 cup butter or margarine,
softened
1 cup sugar
1 beaten egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ¾ cups flour
1 lightly beaten egg white
½ cup oats.
Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
Lightly grease a 10x15-inch
jelly roll pan.
Cream butter or margarine and
sugar. Add beaten egg yolk and vanilla. Stir in flour.
Pat mixture into prepared
jelly roll pan. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with a generous ½ cup of oats.
Bake at 275 for approximately
1 hour and 10 minutes or until a light golden brown. Remove from oven and cut
into bars. Let cool and remove from pan.
Several weeks ago I found a
piece of beef in my freezer and upon examination I decided it was a small piece
of chuck. When I weighed it I found that I had enough to try this recipe if I
halved the recipe, which I did. This beef had a delicious rich flavor that we
both really enjoyed. I had never thought of adding coffee to a beef stew but it
works and really enhanced the flavor of this dish. (Since I halved the recipe, I
used a small slow cooker.)
BRAISED BEEF with COFFEE and RED WINE
(Serves 8)
3 pounds beef stew meat, such
as boneless chuck, trimmed of
fat and cut into 1 ½”
cubes, and patted dry
2 tablespoons all purpose
flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
3 carrots, sliced diagonally
into 2-inch pieces
4 new red or white potatoes,
diced
6 small turnips, peeled and
quartered
1 cup strong coffee
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ cup dry red wine
Use a medium or large round or
oval slow cooker.
In a zip-lock plastic bag or a
bowl, toss the beef with the flour, salt, and pepper, shaking off the excess. In
a large skillet over medium-high heat, warm 1 ½ tablespoons of the oil until
very hot, add half the beef and brown on all sides about 5 minutes. Transfer to
the slow cooker. Repeat with the remaining oil and beef.
Add the onions to the skillet
and cook, stirring until softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to the slow cooker
and add the carrots, potatoes, and turnips. Add the coffee and thyme to the
cooker. Pour the wine into the skillet and bring to a boil over medium heat,
stirring constantly and scraping up any browned bits stuck to the pan. Pour into
the cooker and stir. Cover and cook on LOW until the meat is tender; 7 to 8
hours. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust seasonings if necessary. Serve.
Gloria Lee included a recipe
in her Christmas card to me and I already consider it one of my favorite
Christmas gifts. She said that she had prepared these muffins and taken them to
a Pot Luck and they were almost inhaled. Gloria said that she planned to serve
them Christmas morning.
I thought this was a good idea
so I had Mary Alice add the ingredients to her grocery list and we had these as
well as Moravian Sugar Cake as our Christmas morning breakfast. I prepared these
again after we came home and thought they were even better with our “Southern
Sausage” than with what was sold in the Northwest. I used hot sausage both times
and fixed some regular sized muffins and a few miniature muffins and adjusted my
cooking times accordingly. I individually wrapped and froze some of the muffins
and when we were at the beach several weeks ago, I heated them and served them
for breakfast I found that one medium sized muffin was enough for me and did not
leave me feeling hungry before lunch. I served these then with fresh orange
sections and I really enjoyed this flavor combination—try it.
I hope you enjoy Gloria’s
Sausage-Cheese Muffins as your Valentine!
SAUSAGE and CHEESE MUFFINS
(Serves 8)
1 pound pork sausage, cooked
until no longer pink—
drain and cool
3 cups Bisquick
1 ½ cups shredded Cheddar
cheese
1 10-3/4-ounce condensed
Cheddar soup
¾ cup water
Combine cooked sausage,
Bisquick and shredded cheese in a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the
mixture.
Stir together the soup and the
water, add to sausage mixture, stirring just until the dry ingredients are
moistened. Spoon into lightly greased muffin pans, filling to the top of the
cups.
Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to
25 minutes or until lightly browned.
This will make about 15
regular-sized muffins or 36 small muffins.
This recipe appeared in
Southern Lady magazine last year and I tried it. It was embarrassingly easy and
is delicious. It took so little time to prepare that Alan was working on the
computer and didn’t even realize that I had already made the fudge and cleaned
the kitchen. I really don’t see how you could have a failure with this recipe.
KAHLUA CHOCOLATE FUDGE
(Serves 16)
1 can Eagle Brand condensed
milk
¼ cup Kahlua
2 tablespoons instant coffee
granules
12 ounces semisweet chocolate
morsels
1 cup chopped pecans or
walnuts
½ teaspoon vanilla
Combine condensed milk, Kahlua,
and instant coffee granules in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a brisk simmer and
cook for 2 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and stir in
chocolate morsels. Stir until melted. Add nuts and vanilla and blend in.
Pour fudge mixture into an
8x8-inch pan that you have lined with aluminum foil. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
Remove pan from refrigerator and turn upside down to remove candy with the foil
lining. Gently peel away the lining.
Cut fudge into 32 pieces and
store in an air tight container in the refrigerator.
Today’s recipe was created by
Kathy Shortt of Garner and she won first place in the N.C. Pork Council Tarheel
Pork Challenge. I made this recipe this morning and I like it. It is incredibly
quick and easy. The only change that I made to the recipe was that I used a
nonstick pot and did not add the olive oil when I cooked the sausage. After I
had sautéed the sausage, I drained it in a colander and then spread it on paper
towels to drain some more. Then I added the olive oil and began sautéing my
mushrooms and added the sausage at this point. From start to finish it took me
45 minutes to prepare this recipe.
Although I am sure you could
do this in advance I probably wouldn’t because you will lose the pretty bright
green spinach color.
I think this will be a great
Super Bowl recipe. Serve it with some crusty bread and you should have some
happy guests.
KATHY’s SAUSAGE and TORTELLINI SOUP
(Serves 10)
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 (19.76-ounce) packages sweet
Italian sausage
2 (8-ounce) cartons sliced,
fresh mushrooms
1 (9-ounce) bag of baby
spinach
2 (14-ounce) can diced
tomatoes
2 (32-ounce) cartons low
sodium chicken broth
1 (28-ounce) package fresh
Three Cheese Tortellini (from dairy
case)
Grated Parmesan cheese for
garnish.
Coat a large stock pot with
olive oil or cooking spray.
Remove sausage from casings
and heat over medium heat in a stock pot until sausage is completely cooked, add
sliced mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are sautéed. Add
the entire bad of baby spinach. Cook stirring occasionally, until spinach is
lightly sautéed. Add diced tomatoes and stir thoroughly.
Add chicken broth and bring to
a boil. Add tortellini and simmer on low for 10 to 15 minutes until the pasta is
cooked. Ladle into soup bowls and sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese.
Variation: The first four
ingredients can be cooked together and used as a tasty sauce for pasta
.
I am always attracted to green
salad recipes that have interesting ingredients. My daughter suggested that I
might like this recipe for an Orange-Avocado Salad with Baby Mixed Greens that
appeared in Southern Living several years ago. She was right. This is a great
combination of flavors and it is a pretty salad as well.
SALAD/ORANGE – AVOCADO WITH BABY MIXED GREENS
(Serves 6)
2 medium avocados, sliced
2 navel oranges, peeled and
sectioned
1 5-ounce bag baby mixed
greens
3 slices prosciutto, cut into
thin strips
¼ cup thinly sliced red onion
1/3 cup chopped toasted
walnuts
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup white balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper
Arrange greens on a serving
platter. Top with avocado slices and orange segments. Sprinkle evenly with
prosciutto, red onion and toasted walnuts.
Whisk dressing ingredients
together in a small bowl.
Drizzle arranged salad with
the desired amount of dressing.
We all like the convenience of
bottled salad dressings and the variety that is available now is mind-boggling.
Although the quality of these dressings has improved dramatically sometimes it
is nice to have something homemade. These are two of my favorites. The recipe
for the Tangy French Salad Dressing was given to me by my aunt many years ago
and it is almost identical to the dressing that used to be served on salads at
the Rathskeller in Chapel Hill. The Italian dressing is very good—in fact, I
think the perfect salad dressing if you are serving spaghetti or lasagna.
TANGY FRENCH DRESSING
(Serves 8)
1 cup safflower oil
1/3 cup cider vinegar
½ cup catsup
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Worcestershire
1 small onion
1 clove garlic (optional)
If you are using garlic,
lightly mash it and let it soak in the vinegar for an hour. Then remove it from
the vinegar
