 Here's a salad I concocted while dieting. Yummy and easy to make. Serves 4 - 6.
Ingredients: 4 chicken breasts 1 batch of asparagus from your local grocery store's produce department 1/2 cup mayo 1/2 cup chopped onions a handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half mustard to taste Directions: Bake the chicken, cool and then slice into cubes. Steam the asparagus but don't overcook - leave a little crunch in it. Drain and cool and cut into bite sized pieces, then add to the chicken along with mayo, chopped onions, tomatoes, and mustard. Store in fridge. That's it. Perfect for summer.
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 THIS IS A YUMMY LUNCH TO SERVE TO EITHER FAMILY OR COMPANY
Serves 4 INGREDIENTS 1 package containing 4 croissants 1 12 oz package of frozen extra small (cooked) shrimp 1/4 cup mayo 1 large celery stalk 1/4 cup chopped onion dill to taste Lettuce Directions: Thaw shrimp and blot dry. Finely chop onion and celery and mix together with shrimp and mayo. Sprinkle on dill and mix again. Cut croissants in half and load on the shrimp salad. Add lettuce leaves and serve.  Usually, I like to post apple recipes in the fall. Somehow, I associate this tasty fruit with the season of nippy air and fires in the wood stove. But apples are available all year round and always good in a recipe. And, in honor of my new book, HOME ON APPLE BLOSSOM ROAD, it seemed only right to post a recipe using apples. So, here you go!
Applesauce Cake Ingredients: 2 cups flour 1 tsp soda 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp cloves 1 tsp vanilla 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 cup thick sweetened applesauce 1 large egg, well beaten 1 cup raisins Directions: Cream together butter and sugar. Add egg and mix. Sift together dry ingredients and add alternately with applesauce. Add vanilla and raisins. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool and frost with buttercream icing.  This is my new favorite snack! So easy to make and so yummy. Perfect for parties or a holiday movie night. All you need is:
1/2 cup popcorn (pop it in your air popper or on the stove top in 2 Tbsp oil) 1 package of white candy melts 3/4 cup ground peppermint (grind it in your blender) Directions (so easy!): After you've popped your popcorn, pour it into a large bowl. Melt the candy melts according to package instructions and then pour over the popcorn and mix. Add the crushed peppermint and mix then pour onto a large cookie sheet to harden. After the chocolate has hardened break into pieces and store. I made mine the day of our family's part so it would be nice and fresh but this will also keep for several days at room temperature. If you like you can add roasted peanuts to the mix also. Happy eating!  PUMPKIN CASSEROLE
Here's a fun dinner casserole you can make for your family or for company. I just made this for our foodie group the other night. I'm sad to confess that I pre-cooked my pumpkin a little too much, which is why it looks so sad in this picture. I'm sure you'll do better if, unlike me, you follow the directions! Ingredients: 1 whole pumpkin 8 - 10 inches in diameter 2 1/2 cups onion, finely chopped (you can also use 1 cup of onion and be fine) 1 green pepper, chopped 1 tsp salt 1 tsp pepper 2 large cloves, mashed 2 tsp oregano (I used one this last time and that was plenty so experiment with this) 2 tsp capers (this can be optional) 3/4 cup raisins 1/3 cup pimento stuffed green olives 1 8 oz can tomato sauce 2 lb lean hamburger 3 eggs, beaten Directions: Cut a five inch top from the pumpkin. Scoop out the seeds and scrape the inside clean. Place in a large pan of salted water and boil until the meat on the sides is tender (30 minutes). Pumpkin should be firm enough to hold its shape. Remove and drain. Filling: In a large pan fry the hamburger, onions and green pepper. Mix together your spices and add to the meat along with the raisins, olives, capers, and tomato sauce. Cover pan and cook with meat for fifteen minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Mix in the eggs thoroughly and then stuff your filling in the pumpkin, packing slightly. Cover loosely with the pumpkin lid and bake in a shallow greased baking pan at 350 for 1 hour. Unless you happen to have over-boiled your pumpkin like I did. Than half an hour should do it. If you like, before serving you can rub butter around the upper edges and then sprinkle with granulated sugar to simulate frost. One final note. If, like me, things like garlic and pepper are no longer your friends, not to worry. You can omit the garlic and pepper in this and use a yellow pepper and still have a very tasty meal with little risk of heartburn. Happy Halloween and happy eating.  Don't you love summer and all the fabulous fruits that come with those long, hot days? Watermelons are ripe now and so good for us - a great source of Vitamin C, beta carotene, and magnesium. And it's also a mild diuretic.
Here's a ridiculously easy little goody that will take you all of five minutes to whip up. Fun to serve at a brunch. Makes 4 servings. Ingredients: 1/2 a small watermelon, cut into pieces 1 cup strawberry flavored Greek yogurt (I love the Greek Gods brand!) 1 Tbsp coconut syrup Directions: Mix well in blender for a minute, then chill. You can serve garnished with a mint leaf or just plain as I did. Happy summer!  This yummy dessert was served to us when we were visiting friends in Aachen, Germany. Every time I've served it our guests have raved over it. It calls for using a special German holiday cookie called Printen but I think you could easily substitute ginger cookies. So, here it is.
Ingredients: 5 or 6 Printen cookies 1 1/2 mini-bar sized bottles of rum 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup powdered sugar 2 egg yolks plus one egg 1 pint whipping cream 1/2 envelope plain gelatin (last time I made this I used about 3/4 of the package) Directions: Dissolve the gelatin and some rum in a small amount of water (last time I simply dissolved the gelatin in some rum) and let stand Crumble the Printen and soften in rum until there are no more hard pieces Beat the egg yolks, the egg and the sugar to a fluffy cream (you won't get peaks like you do with egg whites, so just give it a good beating) Add powdered sugar to cream and whip until stiff Add the Printen mixture carefully to the fluffy egg mix and then add the gelatin mixture. Add the whipped cream and place in fridge to firm up. Serve cold. Will easily serve 6, probably 8.  Smoothies are the hot new trend these days and I think they're a great way to pack in some extra vitamins during the winter when we're so susceptible to all kinds of bugs. Here's a recipe for one of my favorites. It incorporates kale, which I think is a nasty tasting green all by itself. Mixed with everything else though, it goes down great.
Ingredients: A handful of baby Kale or two leaves of full grown kale several cubes of honeydew melon or half a pear (I use half at a time to get more mileage out my pears) 1/2 cup yogurt (love Greek Gods honey-strawberry!) 1 banana 1 cup almond milk (or regular milk) Directions: Mix everything on high in your blender for a minute and you're ready to go. Makes two servings  I love this traditional German dish! Here's how to make it:
Ingredients: Thinly sliced beef rump roast, as many slices as there are guests you plan to serve - get a couple extra as people love them. (Your local grocery store butcher should be able to cut this for you.) dash of salt & pepper mustard dill pickles (1 spear for each roll) chopped onion raw bacon, 1/2 strip for each roll Directions: Salt and pepper the meat, spread mustard thinly. Top with bacon, then onion and pickle. Roll up tightly and secure with toothpicks. Spray roasting pan with Pam. Put rouladen in pan. Spray again with Pam and cover. Bake at 350 until rouladen are fork tender. Serve with red cabbage and potato dumplings.  This appetizer was served at one of our Red Carpet parties. It was brought by my pal Elizabeth Schulz, who got it from The Seattle Times (recipe created by Chef Kathy Casey). Thanks Elizabeth - it was an Oscar worthy treat!
P.S. Sorry for the poor quality picture. No one thought to take a pic before we devoured these and we wound up having to take one from the old newspaper clipping. SESAME CHEDDAR OLIVE POPPERS Time-saver Hint: Press the dough into a log and cut into the exact number of pieces you need. To wrap the olive, use the thumb of one hand to press each piece of dough into a flat pancake in the palm of the opposite hand, then press the pancake around the olive. A 1 tablespoon food scoop sometimes works, depending on the consistency of the dough. Tips: For more intense poppers, use jalapeno stuffed olives. Black sesame seeds can be found in the Asian section of Central Market; all white sesame seeds can be used for a milder taste. 1 cup (4 ounces) finely grated sharp cheddar cheese 2 tablespoons butter, softened 1/2 cup sifted flour dash cayenne pepper 1 jar (about 24) medium-large[queen size] pimiento-stuffed olives, drained 1/3+ cup mixed white & black sesame seeds [depending on how adhesive the dough is, which is based on the quality of the cheese, I might use double the amount of seeds] 1. Blend the cheese and butter together in a food processor, then blend in the flour and cayenne until the dough comes together. 2. Shape 1 heaping tablespoon of dough around each olive. See hint above. 3. Place seeds into a small bowl. Roll each ball in the seeds and place balls on an ungreased baking sheet. Balls may be made ahead and refrigerated, covered; bring to room temperature before baking. 4. Bake in a pre-heated 400-degree oven for 15 minutes. [I usually turn off the oven at 12 min and finish baking on residual heat.] 5. Best served warm. Makes 24. |
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