Our cookbook - Celebrate with Food! is ready to buy...

I couldn't be more thrilled to announce that the family Christmas gift project Mom and I have been working on is finally available for sale - and Mom's illustrations are delightful! I hope you enjoy it too…

Click HERE to Preview & Order
   
 


   
 

   
 

Something to hold...

This post is to announce that my mom and I are working together to come up with an illustrated cookbook of  our quirky holiday menus for family dinner fun.
Look for more info soon...

September 17 - Eat An Apple Day

You’ve probably heard the adage “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” The original quote from about 1866 was "Eat an apple on going to bed, and you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread."  You can find out more about their health benefits at: http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/stories/10-reasons-to-eat-an-apple-a-day

But that’s not why you should eat one today, eat one because they are juicy and delicious and this really is an international holiday!  

Some apple snack ideas: 

• Dip granny smith apple slices in carmel.
• Slice fuji or gala apples thinly to layer with cheddar cheese on crackers.
• Add bite size apple chunks to your tuna salad for sandwiches.
• Bake a whole apple (with its core removed but not peeled) drizzled with a little pure maple syrup (don’t even think of trying fake syrup) at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.  You can add chopped nuts and more maple syrup and even ice cream afterwards if you like, but all alone it is still delicious.  Your own personal apple pie without the crust, YUM!
• If you’re making a fruit pizza with sugar cookie crust and lemon curd/cream cheese ‘sauce’, sliced granny smith apples add nice crunch and not too much sweet.
• You can even add grated apple to your meatloaf mix to cut down on the amount of meat needed and add extra flavor and nutrition, and if you don’t tell no one will know;)
• TIP: to keep apple slices from turning brown too quickly give them a quick dip in a water/lemon juice mixture

Menu

Meridene’s Mandarin Chicken Salad on a bed of lettuce

Cherry tomatoes & carrot sticks

Corn on the cob

My favorite Apple Pie

Meridene’s Mandarin Chicken Salad - Serves 6

3 Cups cooked chicken, chopped to bite size pieces

1 Tbsp. minced onion

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 Cup celery, thinly sliced

Combine chicken, onion, salt, lemon juice and celery

Refrigerate several hours.

1 Cup seedless grapes cut in half if desired

2 Fuji or Gala apples peeled & cut into bite size pieces

1/3 Cup mayonnaise

1 11 oz. can mandarin oranges, drained

1/2 Cup slivered almonds, toasted

Just before serving, toss chicken mixture lightly with grapes, mayonnaise, apples and all but                                                  a few orange sections and almonds.  

Line salad bowl with lettuce leaves; fill with chicken mixture.

Garnish with reserved orange sections, almonds and olives if desired.

My Favorite Apple Pie... if you want hard core healthy keep searching elsewhere, but if you’re looking for super delicious- this is it!

**My own comments about pie crust - I was very intimidated by pies because I could never get the crust to roll out well and when I added flour to try and get it to not stick it would be tough.  Forget about making it look good, roll it out ONCE -  that’s it, lift it up as smoothly as you can and lay it in the pie plate, then get the pieces that fell off and add them to the pie plate.  Pat the cracks together with as little touching as possible, and put it in the fridge while you’re working on the filling and top crust.  

After your filling is ready, roll out the top crust - ONCE, pour the filling in the pie plate with the dough on the bottom and lay the new crust, piece meal on top.  Don’t worry about gaps or beauty, we’re going for de-lish.  Seal the edge by squeezing the top and bottom crust edges together, making sure they don’t hang over the edge too far so they won’t break off during baking.  Brush with mixed raw egg or canned milk and enjoy!

Kelly’s Pie Crust - makes a bottom & a top crust

2 Cups sifted flour

1 tsp salt

1 Cup shortening

Blend with pastry tool, forks or knives, try to use your hands as little as possible

1/4 Cup ice water

Add to mixture as quickly and with as little mixing as possible.

Form into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap and place in fridge until you are ready to use.

Busksa Farms Fuji Pie Filling - enough for 1 pie

6 Medium apples

Wash, peel, core and slice apples thinly.

1/2 Cup sugar

1 Tbsp. Flour

2 Tbsp. Butter

1 tsp Cinnamon

Mix cinnamon, sugar, butter and flour together with a dough mixer.

Combine sugar mix with apple slices

Add to pie plate on top of bottom crust, top with pie dough

Seal edges and leave a few holes on top to vent

Brush pie dough top with either canned milk or mixed up raw egg.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes then 300 degrees for 45 minutes.

March 14 - otherwise known as 3.14 - Pi Day

What do spheres, Archimedes, calculus, The Simpsons, physics, Star Trek, pyramids and Carl Sagan’s novel Contact all have in common? 

Pi otherwise known as 3.14...

Pi is the exact ratio representing that the circumference of a circle is slightly more than three times as long as its diameter.  One of the oldest and most important mathematical constants, Pi is an irrational number, meaning the decimal representation never ends and never repeats, with the current record as of 2011 standing at 5 trillion decimal digits, which seems irrational indeed to me!

Although Pi day was created in 1988 by Larry Shaw, a physicist working at San Francisco’s Exploratorium, it wasn’t until 2009 that the US House of Representatives passed a resolution recognizing March 14 (3/14 or 3.14) as National Pi Day.  And if you want to plan ahead, at 9:26:53 on Pi Day 2015, the date will be 3/14/15 at 9:26:53, corresponding to 3.141592653.

While I honor mathematicians everywhere, especially my favorite Uncle John who was a college mathematics professor, I acknowledge that the best thing I can add to the mathematical dialog continuing throughout the ages is to share one of my favorite ‘pi’ recipe...

Menu

Chicken Pot Pi

Green Salad 

w/ round sliced...

-Tomatoes

-Carrots

-Cucumbers

Buttermilk Pi w/ Berries & Whipped Cream

          or if you don’t have time to bake a pie - you could eat Choco-Pies :)

Buttermilk Pie

Makes 1, 9 inch pie - May be doubled but not tripled.

Mix & set aside

1 1/4 cup Sugar

3/4 cup Flour

1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

1/4 + 1/8 tsp. Baking Soda

In a separate bowl whisk slightly

2 eggs

Add & whisk slightly:

1 cup buttermilk

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice (I use the juice of 2 lemons for extra lemon flavor:)

1 tsp. vanilla

Add dry ingredients to wet.  

Whisk until smooth.  

Be careful not to over mix.

1/4 cup butter

Melt

Add & stir in.

Pour into unbaked pie crusts & bake on middle rack at: 

400’ for 10 minutes

350’ for 10 minutes

325’ for 45 minutes or until done.

The pies should be springy and spongy in the middle.  It should feel ‘well done’.

Serve warm and topped with...

Berries - 

Macerate fresh berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries etc.) by sprinkling with sugar and allowing the juices to blend.

or try...

@ 2-3 cups frozen blackberry, boysenberry & raspberry mix 

Measure out berries into a bowl, set aside.

Combine in pot on stove

1 cup water  

1 cup sugar  

Boil for about 2 minutes

Add:

1 drop of red food coloring (optional)

1+ tsp. corn starch (optional).  

Pour over frozen berries & let sit until berries are thawed.

Whipped Cream

Beat until fluffy and holds a peak. 

2 cups Whipping Cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. Vanilla extract

Groundhog Day - February 2

How did an early Christian, blessing and distributing of candles day, known as Candlemas, switch to a day for a groundhog to predict the weather?  

Apparently February 2 is considered the middle of winter.  Since people were hoping that the last half of winter would be short, they received candles blessed by priests and looked to the animals in nature to give them an indication of how soon spring would arrive.  

Tradition says that the groundhog comes out of his hole to check for his shadow on February 2 and if he sees it, he regards it as an omen of six more weeks of bad weather and returns to his hole.

If the day is cloudy and, hence, shadowless, he takes it as a sign of spring and stays above ground.

Somehow this seems backwards to me, but apparently the Romans brought the tradition to the Germans who watched hedgehogs for the telltale length of winter prediction.  When Germans settled in Pennsylvania they decided that groundhogs had a  close resemblance to hedgehogs (same -hog ending in their name and all, I guess) and was an intelligent and sensible enough animal to take over the job.

Punxsutawney Phil, residing in Punxsutawney Pennsylvania, is now the official groundhog that the country looks to for the famous weather prediction, and one of my favorite movies is appropriately named Groundhog Day with Bill Murray where you can see the celebrity himself (meaning Phil, not Bill).  

Since my grandparents lived in Pennsylvania I’m thinking that we need to do some family history searching to find that German/Roman connection, and I’m happy to share my Grandmother’s recipe straight from Pennsylvania for Cherries in the Snow.  Here's to an early spring!

Menu

Hamburgers 

(Get it? - ground hog - Why do we call them hamburgers anyway? It’s beef!)

Carrot and Raisin Salad

Homemade Potato Wedges

Grandma Violet Caldwell’s Cherries in the Snow

Cherries in the Snow

9x13 pan or 2 8x8 pans

1 8oz package softened Cream Cheese   

Beat cream cheese until smooth

1 cup sifted Powdered Sugar   

1 container of Cool Whip 

Mix with cream cheese

Spread a thin layer of cream cheese mixture on bottom of pan(s)

Angel Food Loaf   

Cut into three long horizontal layers and cover bottom of pan(s)

Top with remaining cream cheese mixture, covering completely

1 can prepared cherry pie filling  

Carefully spoon over mixture.

  Chill at least 8 hours.

January 21 - 1st Atomic Submarine Launched

The USS Nautilus was the world’s first operational nuclear powered submarine. Namesake of the submarine in Jules Verne’s Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and the fourth Navy ship to bear that name, she was launched on January 21, 1954 and broke records in how long she could remain submerged, how quickly she could travel underwater and how fast she could change depths.  

Not long after the Soviets launched Sputnik and the space race, the Nautilus was the first vessel to complete a submerged journey underneath the North Pole in 1958 which greatly boosted America’s confidence.  She is now a National Historic Landmark Museum and can be toured in Groton, Connecticut.  

Personally I salute those who have the endurance to stay on a submarine without going bonkers.  I prefer to see blue skies, have wide open spaces and celebrate the first atomic submarine by enjoying dinner and watching one of the many submarine movies available.  Two of my personal favorites are... Operation Petticoat and The Hunt for Red October. 

Menu

Build your own Submarine Sandwiches

Veggie torpedos 

- carrot, celery, cucumber and pepper strips 

- Dunk ‘em in Ranch Dressing

Root Beer Floats

December 25 - Christmas Day in the Morning

Cinnamon is one of my favorite smells associated with Christmas. I enjoy luring loved ones away from their gifts or out of bed on Christmas morning with freshly baked yummies.  But if you’ve stayed up too late wrapping gifts or watching the Norad Santa Tracker the night before you might want something easy to prepare so you can get back to your own napping amongst the wrapping paper.  

This Christmas Quiche can be prepared the night before (which made me extremely nervous the first time I tried it, but everything worked out deliciously) and the Apple Puff Pancake is cinnamony enough to fill your home with Ahhhh...  Merry Christmas!

Menu

Christmas Quiche

and/or

Apple Puff Pancake

Sausage or Bacon

Fruit Salad 

- Grapefruit sections, Pomegranate Seeds, Diced Apples & Banana Slices

Freshly Squeezed Orange juice

Christmas Quiche    10-12 servings

Prepare the night before, store in the refrigerator and bake in the morning.

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup flour

Melt butter and add flour to make a smooth roux.  

6 large eggs

Beat eggs & add to roux.

1 cup milk

1/2 - 1 lb. cubed Monteray Jack cheese (amt. depends on your preference - I like less)

3 oz. cream cheese

2 cups cottage cheese

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

Add rest of ingredients to egg mixture.

Stir until blended - pour into 9x13 glass baking pan, cover w/ foil overnight

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 45 min.

Apple Puff Pancake   6-8 servings

2 Apples

Peel & slice

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Add to apples and mix

5 Tbsp butter

Chop and scatter in the bottom of 9x13 glass baking pan

Lower rack in oven to lowest level

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Place pan w/ butter in oven until butter melts and starts to bubble

6 eggs

Beat eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

Add to eggs and mix well

Remove baking pan w/ bubbling butter from oven

Distribute cinnamon apple mixture evenly in pan

Pour egg mixture over top of apples - do not stir

Return pan to oven.

Bake for 20-22 minutes

Powdered sugar (optional)

Cut into squares and sprinkle w/ powdered sugar if desired.