I honestly would not have expected that a good cake could be made without sugar but then again, I’m probably thinking about the frosting that usually is loaded with sugar. This one looks interesting although I’d probably want to change out the prunes for something else. Maybe I could take a hint from the video in the previous post and just as they used post-it notes in place of butter, I could use erasers or some other office supplies in place of the prunes. (can you tell I’m not really thrilled with prunes? [grin])
Boil a cup of dates and a cup of prunes in the one cup of water for 3 minutes; add 1 stick of butter (melted) and a cup of raisins and let that cool.
While it’s cooling Mix a cup of plain flour, a teaspoon of baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 2 eggs, a cup of chopped nuts, 1/4 teaspoon each of cinnamon and nutmeg and a teaspoon of vanilla.
Add that to the fruit mixture and stir until it’s blended. Pour it into a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes
Every once in a while I like to take a “normal” recipe and try to see what changes can be made to it that will either improve it or just make it different. My wife sent me this video that I think does a great job of showing how somebody really did a major job of changing the basic spaghetti recipe. I can honestly say that I’ve never tried making it this way.
We’ve been spending a lot of time away from home this month and one of the things that I aways end up missing is the coffee I have at home. Oh, it’s nothing super special, In fact it’s an off-brand of coffee that I chose because it was the lowest price. But after all the time we’ve spent in hospitals or eating away from home and some of the truly vile concoctions that come out of coffee dispensers in these places I have never been so glad to come home and brew up a pot of my familiar el cheapo coffee and fix it the way I’ve been doing for years.
Sitting here enjoying the last of that first pot of home-brewed coffee in a couple of days I decided that it would be only appropriate to dig into the collection of coffee recipes and put one of them up tonight.
This one is called “Alpine Carnival”
You start by dividing two tablespoons of instant coffee and 1 teaspoon of vanilla evenly between two cups.
Then in a small saucepan, dissolve two tablespoons of brown sugar in a teaspoon of water. Stir the dissolved sugar over a medium heat until it reaches a full boil.
Once it comes to a boil immediately remove it from the heat and stir in 1 and a half cups of boiling water. Divide sugar mixture between the two cups and top with a dollop of whipped cream.
I’ve been away for a while, having been with my wife as she went to the hospital for the second time this month. It was something of a circus this time around. Oh, the people were nice enough and everybody meant well but it’s easy to imagine that some of ‘em weren’t at their best, which explains why they had a sort of chili-Mac memory… The kind that often need to be reminded three or five times that they said an hour ago that they’d get you such and such “in just a minute”.
In any event there’s been a lot going on with the Olympics and all and because of that I looked up this Chinese recipe. One thing I’ve noticed about Oriental cooking in general is that once you’ve got everything available that you need, the cooking itself is pretty fast.
Cut 18 oz of boneless skinless chicken into 1/2 inch pieces and put them in a bowl. Stir in 3 tablespoons of Soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of dry sherry. Let this stand for 30 minutes to marinate a bit.
Get a cold wok or large skillet ready by spraying with your favorite cooking spray and then preheat it over a medium-high heat. Add onion a medium onion cut into wedges and stir-fry that for 2 minutes.
Add a medium green and a red sweet pepper and stir-fry for another minute. Add a cup and a half of sliced fresh mushrooms and stir-fry for another minute or so more or till veggies are crisp but still tender. Remove the veggies from wok and set them aside.
Drain the chicken and reserve the marinade. Add a tablespoon of cooking oil to the wok. Then add 1 teaspoon of grated ginger root and stir-fry for 15 seconds. Next Add half of the chicken and stir fry 3-4 minutes or until they’re not pink anymore. Take them out and then repeat this step with the remaining chicken.
When the chicken is all done put all of the chicken and veggies in the wok along with an 8oz can of bamboo shoots. Push everything away from center of wok leaving an open space in the middle.
Stir 1/4 cup of chicken broth, a teaspoon of cornstarch, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper into the reserved marinade and add it to the wok. Cook and stir till it thickens slightly and the toss gently to coat the chicken mixture.
Sometimes I just want to sit down to a good hearty bowl of soup. Corn Chowder is one of those that fills the bill just exactly. It’s great all year round but it’s double good on a cold day.
Fry up six slices of bacon until it’s crisp. Then remove the bacon and set it aside. Saute a half cup of finely chopped onion in the bacon drippings until they’re transparent but not quite starting to turn brown.
Cook 2 cups of diced raw potatoes in a cup and a half of water and t teaspoons of salt, the sauted onion and the bacon (crumbled) in a covered pan until tender. Add 1/8 teaspoon of pepper and 2 cup of cream style corn.
Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and mix it with 2 tablespoons of flour. Stir in 3 cups of milk and cook until slightly thickened. Then add it to the corn mixture.
Garnish with some chopped parsley, shredded cheese or corn chips on top.
Serve piping hot and be prepared for people to ask for seconds
(makes about 6 servings)
It’s the heat of summer and everybody’s hot but sooner or later summer will be gone and you’ll be wishing it were warm again so that you could head out back and rip off the patio furniture covers and crank up the grill. So instead of waiting ’til winter and wishing you could, how about doing it now? At the very least you won’t be able to say that you didn’t when you had the chance.
To get you started, here’s a great Grilled Bratwurst recipe:
Put 6 bratwursts, a can of beer, a medium onion chopped up, six peppercorns and four cloves in a three quart saucepan. Simmer this mixture for twenty minutes and then drain it.
Grill the bratwursts about two to five inches from the charcoal for about ten minutes or until they’re browned. Sprinkle it with some water to form a crisp skin.
Serve ‘em in hard rolls with a good spicy mustard and you’re in business.
Hard Boiled eggs are not only a great snack and side dish on their own, they are also useful in many recipes. I was recently asked, “can you hard boil eggs in the microwave?”. I honestly didn’t think it was possible to do this.
When faced with a question like this that just won’t go away, it’s time to put on the headphones with some Beethoven playing and spend some time searching. After searching a while I found that yes, you can actually hard boil eggs with a microwave oven.
There’s two ways to go. One is by using a microwaveable egg cooker that you can find at Amazon and most kitchen appliance stores and following the directions that come with it. The other way do microwave hard boiled eggs involves a few easy steps.
Start by coating a microwave safe container with a non-stick spray.
Then gently crack the eggs and pour them into the container. Be careful to keep the yolk intact.
Next cover the container with a paper towel and cook for 45 to 90 seconds.
If the eggs aren’t done, put them back in for 15 seconds at a time until they’re done.
To Deep-fry something is To cook it completely submerged in hot oil. When something is Deep-fried at the proper temperature it will absorb comparatively little oil and turn out surprisingly light. If the oil is too hot, foods will brown too quickly and stay raw in the middle. If the oil isn’t hot enough, the foods will sit in the oil too long and absorb too much oil.
Deglaze means to add liquid to a pan in which foods have been sautéed or roasted in order to dissolve the caramelized juices stuck to the bottom of the pan. this is then used to make a quick sauce or gravy for a roast, steak, chop, or a piece of seafood fillet or steak.
Degrease means To remove the fat that forms on the tops of simmering broths, sauces, jus, and braising liquids.
A Demi-glace is A mixture of equal parts of brown stock and brown sauce that has been reduced by half.
To Dice something is to cut it into cubes that are roughly the same size as opposed to chopping, where food are cut into irregular pieces.
I think it’s pretty likely that most people have heard of the snack mix that you can make with Chex cereals. Well, here’s a variation on that theme that’s easy to make and very likely to become an often requested favorite.
All you need is a half cup of butter (that’s one quarter pound stick), a cup of brown sugar and two tablespoons of corn syrup. Mix them up and microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir it up and give it another minute.
Pour it over four and a half cups of a Chex or Crixpex type cereal and toss it until it’s all coated and you’ve got some good movie / game watching munchies.
I noticed a recent search where the search phrase was “best acne treatment foods”. And while I’ve known for years that acne problems are at least partially related to diet and the foods you eat, I wasn’t aware of and particular recommendations for dietary changes that could help fight the problem.
I did some looking around and learned that the main recommendations from various sources all basically involve simplifying your diet. Things like eating less processed foods and replacing them with things that have are either not processed at all or at least keep the processing to a bare minimum.
Adding things to your diet such as fruits, vegetables, and other fiber-rich foods. Instead of white bread you might try a wholegrain wheat or rye bread instead. For breakfast you might consider a wholegrain cereal or oatmeal. Not only are they good for your digestive system in general but they often help lower your cholesterol as well.
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