tossed salad

Classic tossed salad, full of healthful garden vegetables . . .

pot roast 22

This must be at least the 22nd time I have made this version of pot roast, and iot still ranks high as a favorite with the hometown crowd . . .

Mary's magnificent soup

This is a classic recipe, good as an entree, snack, hot or cold, dip, or topping over rice or noodles.

baked beans

Baked beans are quick to fix and greatly loved by the homeplace diners!

split pea soup

Split pea soup helps keep the kitchen warma nd makes the house smell good while it is oprepared.

hummus

hummus is quick nd easy to make, if you have a blender at hand.

caramel rolls

Caramel rolls:

Start with one package Rhodes brand frozen caramel rolls . (Check out this link for information about Herbert C. Rhodes, the highly inventive founder of Rhodes Bake N Serv frozen bread.)

Before baking the frozen rolls, remove them from the pan.

Spread the prepackaged caramel on the bottom of the foil pan.

Sprinkle 1/2 cup chopped pecans on top of the caramel.

Arrange frozen rolls on top of the pecans and caramel.

Bake according to package directions.

Enjoy!

tuna casserole

To make sauce:

Melt 1/2 stick of butter in saucepan over low heat.

Slowly add about 1/4 cup flour to melted butter, stirring constantly.

When the butter and flour mixture thickens, gradually add 2 cups milk.

Stir over low heat until sauce is thick and creamy.

Add 4 ounces grated cheddar cheese.


Add 12 ounces drained canned tuna packed in water.

To prepare noodles:

Boil a pot of water and cook pasta according to package directions.

Drain cooked pasta and add cheese and tuna sauce.
Mix thoroughly and serve warm

sweet potato pie

Sweet potato pie is delightfully easy to make and serves well -- warm or chilled.

Requires no extra sweetening, but . . . if you like sugar . . . maple syrup (or equivalent) can be added as topping.

I started with a recipe memorized from a cooking magazine -- maybe Rachel Ray's?

Ingredients:

4 pounds sweet potatoes
4 cups milk
6 eggs

Bake sweet potatoes in 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for and hour, or until done.

Take baked sweet potatoes out of oven and allow to cool (about 30 minutes).

Remove skins.

Mash the cooled, sweet potato pulp.

Mix in milk and eggs.

Season with cinnamon.

Pour into greased 11 x 17" baking dish

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until done -- about an hour.

Optional: After about 35 minutes of baking, place strips of refrigerator pie crust across top of pie. Return to oven and finish baking until pie is done and the crust is browned.

3 alarm hamburgers

This is Guy's special spicy burger!

Grill hamburger patties in a skillet until browned to taste.

Place hamburger on toasted bun.

Top with lettuce, onion, spicy mustard, peperoncini peppers, pickles, and catchup.

sauteed cucumbers in butter sauce

Cucumber saute ingredients:

oil
1 cucumber, sliced
lemon juice

Slice cucumber.
Saute in oil.
Splash lemon juice across the bottom of the skillet.
Simmer until cucumber slices tender.

Sauce:

Melt 1 and 1/2 sticks butter

Throw in:
2 tablespoons lemon pepper
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons salt

Stir to mix.

Both the cucumber saute and the butter sauce go well over a pot of cooked pasta!

pickle and relish tray

****THIS IS COOK CREATIVE'S 100TH POST***



Buy pickles, olives, pepperocini -- anything you like from the pickle section of the store!

Add a dish or two of chutney or fruity relish for variety.

Arrange beautifully on a platter.

Serve with a tasty meal and enjoy!

redundant cabbage soup

Serves 12+

2 pounds beef for stew
1 white onion, diced (optional)
1 large head green cabbage, sliced
1 large can tomato juice
2 pounds baby carrots
vegetable oil to cover the bottom of the soup pot
splash of lemon juice
salt and pepper


Pour enough vegetable oil into soup pot to just cover the bottom.

Brown stew meat (and diced onion)

Add sliced head of green cabbage and baby carrots.

Add enough water to fill about two-thirds of the soup pot.

Add large can of tomato juice until pot is full.

Add splash of lemon juice (about 1/4 cup). Salt and pepper to taste.

Simmer this soup for hours -- preferably all day long. The soup gets thicker and tastier with longer cooking.

When this cabbage soup is served for both lunch and dinner, it tastes better when served the second time -- hence the name: redundant soup

***

Review:
5 forks -- great taste

cheese and cracker tray

Cheese spread (We like the log-style covered with chopped nuts!)
Carr's water crackers
Triscuit crackers
Triscuit thins
Beautiful platter

Arrange crackers in beautiful pattern on platter.

Serve with tasty beverages and cheese spread.

4-legged smoked turkey

4 smoked turkey legs
1 smoked turkey breast
2 pounds baby carrots
1 Tablespoon flour

Sprinkle the flour into a turkey roasting bag.


Hold the top of the bag closed, and shake the bag to distribute the flour all over the inside.

Pile turkey legs, carrots, and turkey breast into bag.

Tie roasting bag closed with twist tie that comes with the turkey bag.

Slash top of bag 3 or 4 times with sharp knife to let air escape.

Cook at 350 degrees Fahrenheit according to turkey bag directions. (The more weight in the bag, the longer the cooking time.)

Take out of oven. Cut open bag.

Serve meat on platter.

Enjoy!

fruit and cheese tray

Ingredients:

Gouda cheese
fresh grapes
beautiful serving platter
cheese slicer

Bring fruits and cheese to room temperature.

Arrange fruit and cheese tastefully . . .

cranberry orange relish

Side dish
Vegetarian

Serves 8-10



Ingredients:



1 bag fresh cranberries
2 tangerines or oranges
2 skinny slices tangerine/orange skin
1/2 cup raw sugar (or nearest equivalent)

In blender, chop all the ingredients.

Pour into attractive serving dish.

Great with roast turkey!

squash sautee

Ingredients:
summer squash
zucchini squash
butter
lemon juice
basil
salt and pepper



Thinly slice squashes.

Sautee in butter.

Add dash of lemon juice, basil, salt, and pepper.

Serve warm.

Yum!

deviled eggs

Ingredients:

1 dozen eggs
sliced dill pickles
mustard
horseradish
bacon (We like turkey bacon!)
pickles, chopped, with juice from jar


Hard boil the eggs. (Gently simmer 20 minutes.)

Shell eggs. (See very awesome oblong egg shelled below.)

















Slice each shelled egg in half lengthwise.

Take out egg yolks and put them in a separate bowl.

In the separate bowl, combine eggs yolks and all the ingredients listed above.

Fill egg white halves with yolk mixture.

Decorate with a bit of pickle, pimento, paprika, or olive.










Chill until time to serve.

Enjoy!

Heddy's frozen pumpkin pie

Delicious! The best tasting (and simplest to throw together) frozen pumpkin pie!

For 1 (* or maybe two) pie(s):

1/2 gallon New York vanilla ice cream
1 can pumpkin (normal size can)
1/2 cup brown sugar (to give that molasses-y flavor)
2 Tablespoons pumpkin pie seasoning
1 purchased graham cracker crust in a foil pan for one mountainous pie (*or divide this recipe between two graham cracker crusts for two prairie-style pies!)

First, take ice cream out of package and soften in a bowl until it can be stirred.

Stir in the canned pumpkin, pumpkin seasoning, and brown sugar.

Mix with a large spoon to the best of your ability without melting the ice cream entirely.

Put mixture in graham cracker crust.

Cover and freeze.

Enjoy!

egg in zucchini nest

Here's a fun dish --

5 servings

In one saucepan,

Hardboil 5 eggs.

• 
  

While the eggs are cooking, combine in a separate saucepan:

2 cups rice
2 zucchini squash, sliced
1 yellow summer squash, sliced
4 cups water
1 cup tomato juice
2 tablespoons butter

Cover and simmer until the liquid in absorbed and the rice is soft.

• 
  

Drain the hard boiled eggs.
Serve the rice and zucchini mixture into plate bowls.
On top of each "nest" of zucchini and rice, place an unshelled hard boiled egg.
(Put dishes for eggshells near diners' plates on the table so each diner can shell their own egg.)

***

Review:

4 forks -- good to eat and to generate conversation

enzymes make the difference

One area of remarkable advancement in the food industry is the use of enzymes to improve manufactures food products. Checking into the use of enzymes in cheddar cheese, one thing led to another and I eventually stumbled over Novozymes, a Danish company that researches, designs, and manufactures almost 50% of the enzymes added to food products worldwide.

In food manufacturing, enzymes are most often added to baked goods.

In the biofuels industry, enzymes are used to improve the efficiency of chemical conversion of raw materials to finished product. Novozymes is engaged in second generation biofuels research and application.

surprise pie

Last summer we put up lots and lots of gallons of sliced, fresh peaches from our peach tree.
Lots.

Today, I pulled the first gallon bag of frozen, sliced peaches from the freezer.
Surprise Pie was in my mind.

First, I peeled off the plastic bag and threw it out. (Microwaving plastic can release harmful chemicals into food, I understand.)

Then, I washed out the largest Pyrex bowl and placed the block of frozen sliced peaches in it.














Next I microwaved the peaches. For several minutes. Then several more minutes. Hmmmmmmm. Still frozen solid.

So I improvised an ice pick with a table knife and drove it with a wooden rolling pin as a mallet. Drove the table knife into the frozen fruit, . . . sort of, not really.

Kelly came to the rescue with a blow dryer.














After about ten minutes of serious blow drying, I could finally break the gallon of frozen peaches into smaller chunks. That was good enough to pile into pie tins lined with frozen pie crust.











After cooking about 14 minutes in the oven, the pie tins looked like they were about to overflow with excess pie liquid.

So we got out a large glass baking dish and turned the Surprise Pies upside down into it.

We made lunch, ate lunch, and cleaned up afterward while waiting for the Surprise Pie to finish cooking. About the time everyone else had forgotten about it, I remembered to glance in the oven. Looks good!











Baked at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour 40 minutes (or until the crust is brown and juice thickened.)

***

Review:

5 forks -- All the fun is in making the pie (actually, a peach cobbler in the end). Tastes good, too.

definitions: tried and true cooking

Now that plain cooking has a definition, we went back to define "tried and true" recipes.

My diners' definitions of "tried and true":

"Old standby recipe."

• 
  

"Something without salt added."

• 
  

"Something you've done before and everyone likes."

Glad I have the lingo down!

definitions: plain cooking

We had a delightful but oft-repeated entree today -- rice with chili beans. When I called it "plain food", my diners objected. Boo asked me to define "plain".

"Tried and true," I said.
"There is a difference between plain, and tried and true," said Boo.

***

So, what is plain cooking?

My diners said plain cooking is:

"Where the deer and the antelope play."

• 
  

"One vegetable and one salad on the plate."

• 
  

"Anything without salt added."

• 
  

"Something without color."

Do you agree?

deluxe mashed potatoes

Serves 10 people.

Peel and quarter:

• 8 lbs russet potatoes

Boil potatoes in very large pot until soft (at least an hour).

Mash with hand-held potato masher.

Add lots of butter (about two sticks). Or add one package cream cheese.

Add milk to make creamier, if desired.

Whip with hand-held or electric beater to desired consistency.

Fold in 1/3 cup chopped parsley or cilantro.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

***

Review:

5 forks -- totally delicious!

simple baked squash

Serve 1 fresh acorn squash per every two diners.

• Wash and dry fresh acorn squash.

• Pierce skin of squash with fork.

• Place on foil-covered baking sheet.

• Bake at 350 degrees
  

until thoroughly cooked (at least 1 hour).

• Remove squash and baking sheet from oven.

• Cut each squash in half.

• Scoop out seeds.

• Season each half squash with butter and freshly ground pepper.

• Serve in-the-shell.

***

Review:

4 forks -- fun to eat!

baked salmon with fruit salad

Serves 6:

2 pounds fresh salmon fillets

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
Place salmon fillets skin-down on foiled-covered baking sheet.
Bake for about 30 minutes, or until salmon fillets are pink and flake easily with a fork.
Remove from oven and serve with lemon wedges.


Fruit salad:

1 can pineapple slices, unsweetened
2 bananas

Layer a slice of canned unsweetened pineapple and fresh banana slices

***

Review:

5 forks for flavor and ease of preparation.

classic artichoke and dip

Serve one artichoke per diner.

Fill large pot with water.

Add artichokes and 1 Tbsp salt

Simmer until artichokes thoroughly cooked (about 1 hour).

Remove artichokes from water. Keep warm, if serving immediately. Otherwise, cover and chill in refrigerator.



Serve one custard cup of dip for every two diners:

In microwave, melt 1 Tbsp butter per custard cup.

Add a splash of lemon juice to each custard cup.


Serve and enjoy!

***

Review:

5 forks -- artichokes are always a hit around here!

pan-fried ham with celery and lime

Serves 6

Ingredients:

Precooked boneless ham, sliced into 6 very thin slices (about 1 ounce per slice)
1 stalk celery
1 fresh lime
vegetable oil to cover bottom of skillet

Chop and saute an entire stalk of celery in enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom of a large skillet.

Pile the sauteed celery on a large plate.

Next, quickly pan fry 6 thin slices of fully-cooked boneless ham.

Place each slice of ham on a dinner plate.

Top each ham slice with several very thin slices of fresh lime.

Serve accompanied by sauteed celery.

***

Review:

4 forks -- enjoyed by diners

mashed sweet carrots with pepper

Serves 6.

Boil in a generous amount of water:
1 lb carrots
2 low-salt beef boullion cubes (optional, may substitute 1 tsp salt)

When carrots are thoroughly cooked (about 40 minutes of simmering), remove from heat. Drain the water from the saucepan.


Mash the carrots with a hand-held potato masher.

Add:
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

***

Review:

4 forks -- tasted good, even to those who don't ordinarily like cooked carrots

**Good reviews for making the plate of food colorful.
(Maybe the bright orange carrot color was the reason every diner chose to eat the mashed sweet carrots first!)

orange rice

Serves 6.

Ingredients:
2 cups rice
4 cups water
1/4 tsp turmeric

Simmer until water completely absorbed and rice cooked thoroughly.

Gently stir in:

1 can mandarin orange slices

Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bon appetit!

***

Reviews:

4 forks -- consensus after a little discussion among diners

***

Suggested (but untested) variations:

Variation 1:
To the original recipe above, add a zesty flavoring -- maybe cayenne pepper? Or Italian-style hot pepper flakes?

Variation 2:
Omit the cinnamon from original recipe.
Add cheddar cheese to hot, cooked rice and mandarin mixture.
Flavor with finely minced fresh dill

Variation 3:
Cook according to original recipe.
Add 1/2 tsp fresh mint leaves, chopped.
Chill in individual custard cups.
Invert rice from custard cups onto dessert plates.
Serve with dusting of raw sugar.

Swedish meatballs

Serves 6.

For meatballs, mix together:

1.5 pounds lean ground beef
1 cup rolled oats
1 beaten egg
1 teaspoon cardamon
salt and pepper to taste
moisten with a little milk, if mixture too dry
(Optional: add 1/2 chopped white onion for zestier flavor)

Shape mixture into small balls.

Brown meatballs in large skillet.

Add 1 quart water and simmer meatballs.

To make brown gravy:

When water is reduced and meatballs cooked thoroughly, reduce heat and add 3 cups milk to skillet.

Continue cooking at low temperature. While stirring sauce, sprinkle in 3/4 cup flour as thickener.

Stir as sauce thickens.

Serve meatballs with sauce over egg noodles. (Prepare noodles according to package directions.)

Bon appetit!

***

Review:

Everyone liked this recipe.

3 forks for bland, but good

party food 1

Informal parties to celebrate small accomplishments make our daily life
incredibly rich.

Some of the items we served at this party included:

Easy sour cream vegetable dip with carrots:

• Mix one package Knorr Vegetable Soup mix with 16 ounces sour cream. Refrigerate overnight.
  

(By the way, Knorr brand is owned by Unilever, which has great recipes online!)

Pepperidge Farm Entertaining Quartet fancy crackers topped with:

• Havarti cheese,
  
• Swiss Lorraine cheese,
  
• dill pickles, and
  
• black olives.

(Pepperidge Farm was started by Margaret Rudkin during the Great Depression in response to her son's asthma and allergies. Pepperidge Farm brand is now owned by Campbell Soup.)

Pineapple slices with:

• a dab of sour cream and
  
• sprinkled with cinnamon.

For dessert, we served Happy Apples brand refrigerated caramel apples.

***
Review

5 forks

The food was great, of course! It was a party!

no crust pumpkin pie

Fresh pumpkin pie makes a great autumnal side dish . . .

One small fresh pie pumpkin makes about four cups of mashed pumpkin.

Each pie (with or without a crust) requires 1 cup of mashed pumpkin.

***

First, cook the pie pumpkin:

Prick the skin of one pie pumpkin in several places.

Cook whole pie pumpkin in 350 degree F oven for about an hour.

Remove pumpkin from oven and cool.

When pie pumpkin is about room temperature, cut into halves. Scoop seeds from pumpkin.

Scoop pumpkin flesh from the shell. Mash with a hand-held potato masher.

I small pie pumpkin makes about 4 cups mashed pumpkin. (I reserved three cups of mashed pumpkin to make "real" pumpkin pies with crusts.)


I used the Old Fashioned Pumpkin Pie recipe from Esther H Shanks' Mennonite Country-Style Recipes as the basis for no crust pumpkin pie.

Mix:
1 cup fresh, mashed pie pumpkin
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar
dash of salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. vanilla
1 and 1/2 cups milk

Pour into greased baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees F for an hour, or until center of pie is firm. (Table knife comes out clean.)

Serve as delicious side dish for winter menu.

***

Review:

3 forks
My diners were merely tolerant of the whim to use pumpkin pie as a side dish. It was enjoyed with scepticism.

chicken with bok choy rice

Serves 4.

Slice boneless, skinless chicken breasts into long strips.

Place in large skillet.

Add water to a depth of about 2 inches.

Simmer until the chicken is cooked through. (No pink interior color. Replenish simmering water, if need be.)

While the chicken is simmering:


In a saucepan, place:
1 and 1/2 cups rice
3 cups water
1 baby bok choy, diced

Cover saucepan.

Simmer rice and bokchoy until all the water is absorbed.

Serve rice onto plates.

Arrange hot chicken strips on top.

Mandarin oranges make a good accompaniment.

***

Review:

3 forks
The diners ate and were satisfied, but menu did not elicit extraordinary enthusiasm. Maybe because bok choy is not a familiar vegetable in this setting . . . ?

wagon wheel beef soup

This was a spur-of-the-moment lunch item one recent October day . . .

Serves four.

Heat a large can Campbell's Vegetable Beef Soup, per directions on the can.

In a separate saucepan, prepare 1 package wagon wheel pasta according to the directions on the package. (We tried the mini wagon wheels by Barilla. The pasta size matched the soup very well.)

When the pasta is cooked, drain thoroughly.

Add to the hot Vegetable Beef soup and stir thoroughly.

Top with generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

Serve and enjoy!

***

Review:

Rating: 4 forks
My diners loved the recipe.

sour cream

Have you wondered why it is hard to find sour cream unadulterated with other ingredients? I have shopped at refrigerator sections where the list of extra ingredients in sour cream grosses me out. So I pick up brand after brand of sour cream, read the labels, and put them back. Only one brand at our local grocery has sour cream made from cream (only): Daisy Brand.

Daisy Brand, a fourth-generation, family-owned business, is the largest sour cream manufacturer in the USA. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and has a huge distribution facility at Garland, Texas. It uses Alien Technology brand, up-to-date, radio-frequency identification (RFID) inventory control devices in its distribution centers.

taco pie

This pumpkin face is happy because today's surprise entree came out great!
It is another of the,
"Oh my gosh, I thought we had all the ingredients (when we didn't)" successes.

My intent was to make soft-shell tacos. Bought the ground beef, onion, diced tomates, taco seasoning, cheddar cheese. (We had flour tortillas in the refrigerator.)

Recipe:
4 Servings:

Taco filling

• Heat 2 Tablespoons sunflower seed oil (or your favorite vegetable oil) in a large skillet.


• Add 1 pound low-fat ground beef and 1/2 diced white onion.


• Cook until meat completely browned.


• Add 1 can diced tomatoes.


• Add 1 package Taco Seasoning and 2/3 cup water.


• Simmer.
  
  

(Now would have been the time to pull out the flour tortillas and get ready to assemble soft-shell tacos. As it turned out, I had only 2 tortillas in my refrigerator, not enough to feed our hungry crew. And I didn't have the patience to wait for pasta or rice to cook.

So I reverted to plan B:

Grits --

• Boil 3 cups water in a saucepan.


• Add 3/4 cup grits, stirring constantly.


• Cook grits about 5 minutes, or until thickened.


• Pour grits into 4 bowls.


• Top each bowl of grits with several ladles of the simmering taco filling.


• Melt slices of cheddar cheese on top of the taco filling.
  
  Tastes great with lemonade!
  

***

Review

4 forks -- Everyone wanted seconds

Ham and eggs and grits

Sometimes we just have to fix comfort food -- days when:

• the dogs won't quit barking,
• the children won't stop fussing,
• the refrigerator's leaking,
• the phone's ringing
• unexpected guests stop by
  

Nothing but nothing beats ham and grits with water gravy, and a side of scrambled eggs for restoring harmony to the universe.

We tested out this menu last night with good effect:

Serves 4

Grits:

• Boil 3 cups water in a saucepan for grits.
• Add 3/4 cups grits to boiling water, stirring constantly.
• Let grits cook for a few minutes, until thickened. Stir occasionally so they don't burn.
  

Ham and water gravy:

While grits are cooking:

• Heat skillet.
• Place four fully-cooked, prepackaged ham steaks in hot skillet and cook for 3 minutes on each side. (It will blacken the steaks slightly.)
• Add 2 cups water to skillet with ham steaks and simmer. This makes the water gravy.
  

Returning to the grits:

• When the grits are thickened enough, add several slices cheddar cheese.
• Stir melting cheese into grits.
• Move saucepan with cheese grits to cool burner and cover.

Scrambled eggs and sausage:

• Get out another saucepan.
• Cover bottom of saucepan with sunflower oil (or your favorite vegetable oil).
• Break 4 eggs into skillet.
  
• Stir eggs in skillet with wooden spatula, scrambling them.
• Throw in a handful of sliced, fully cooked, little Smokeys sausage.
• Stir until sausage slices are heated through and eggs are cooked.

Serve:
Serve ham steaks on plates with cheese grits. Cover both with water gravy.

Pile scrambled eggs and sausage on the side.


Enjoy!

***

Review:

5 forks for pleasing the appetite and restoring good humor

holy cow sundae

If you want to have something light and fun for a quick meal, go down to the Newport Creamery restaurant and try a Holy Cow sundae.

We picked 10 scoops of ice cream and five toppings as well as banana, nuts, cherries, and whipped cream. Serves 5 diners.

Fun, outrageously good, and total social blast for all involved.

***

Review:

5 forks for filling

5 forks for glassy-eyed, ice cream feeling

spaghetti squash veggie bar

A fun variation on the old-fashioned, salad bar theme ---

Four servings:

• Wash, pierce, and bake 2 whole spaghetti squashes on a cookie sheet in 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 1 and 1/4 hours.

• Carefully remove cookie sheet with squashes from oven. Slice spaghetti squashes in half, lengthwise.

• Remove seeds from center of squash.

• Serve each warm squash half on a plate. Use a fork to turn the spaghetti squash out of the shells to make it look more like strands of spaghetti!
  

• Provide plenty of condiments to season the squash to each diner's taste.

For instance:

grated Parmesan cheese
salt
pepper
hot sauce
butter
cinnamon
raw sugar
grated nutmeg

***

Review:

3 forks for flavor
4 forks for fun

best beef stroganoff

Really good!

For four servings:

• Slice 1 pound lean steak

into small,thin stir-fry pieces.

• Dice 1/2 onion.

• Heat about 1 1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil in large skillet. (Sesame oil is my favorite!)

• Add steak pieces and diced onion to oil. Stir as they cook.

• While steak and onion are cooking, heat a saucepan of water to rolling boil. Cook 1 pound dry pasta according to package directions. Drain. Set aside.
  

• When steak and onion are cooked through, add 1 cup sour cream and about 1/4 cup prepared mustard to mixture in skillet. Heat until warmed through, stirring constantly.

Serve cooked pasta into soup bowls. Top with ample beef stroganoff topping.

Enjoy!!

***

Review:

5 forks for yummy taste.
Everyone ate seconds.

As the

why coffee bean packaging works

Coffee is a truly unique food product. Fresh coffee beans need to be protected from exposure to 0xygen while they are giving off large quantities of carbon dioxide. Until relatively recently, it was impossible to package fresh coffee beans without risk of the product become prematurely stale from exposure to oxygen.

Today's food packaging industry successfully conquers this difficulty through the use of a one-way coffee degassing valve. The one-way degassing valve is glued to the inside of whole bean coffee packages.

To learn more, we saved an empty package of Dunkin' Donuts whole bean coffee and cut the plastic de-gassing valve from the package.















The plastic de-gassing valve peeled easily from the packaging material.















Using a screwdriver, the top and bottom of the de-gassing valve comes apart, revealing a soft piece of gray plastic sandwiched in the middle. Gas escapes through the valve from the coffee package, but oxygen is prevented from entering the package. What a great invention!



The valve we examined was manufactured by Fres-co System USA Inc. Fres-co is an innovative manufacturer of flexible food packaging systems. The mechanics of their coffee de-gassing valve are depicted here.

Aquanova AG

What do you think about this?

Aquanova AG of Germany uses their patented nanotechnology to stabilize ingredients in foods, health products, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals.

For instance, some food additives including vitamins, colorants, and preservatives are lipophilic (only dissolve in fat). The Aquanova AG nanoparticles are ambiphilic (dissolve in water or fat). The company can produce energy drinks and nutritional drinks (functional food) which are cyrstal clear, although loaded with nanoparticles of ingredients.

What are your thoughts? Is this an amazing step forward?

food invention saves lives

If you think of the invention of milk chocolate, you might think of Henri Nestle (1814-1890), founder of the world's largest food and beverage company: Nestle S.A.

Actually, the invention which launched the young pharmacist Henri Nestle was an infant formula (Farine Lactee Henri Nestle) invented in the 1860's. The first life saved through use of the formula was a premature infant unable to tolerate mother's milk or any other substitute nutrition.

Henri Nestle's interest in developing infant formula was spurred by the high infant mortality rate. Of Henri Nestle's 13 siblings, 7 died before adulthood. His wife, the daughter of a charity doctor, was highly motivated to promote the research.

In the 1860's, Henri Nestlé and his friend, nutritionist Jean Balthasar Schnetzler, removed the acid and starch from wheat flour because they were hard for infants to digest. The infant formula, Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, made of cow milk, wheat flour, and sugar was reconstituted with water just before use.

By 1870's, Nestle's Infant Food (malt, wheat flour, sugar, milk) was available in the United States of America, selling for 50 cents per glass bottle.

peach harvest

We harvested a beautiful, fully-laden peach tree last week -- and spent the next several days putting up gallons and gallons of peaches!

The bountiful tree yielded about 600 ripe organically-grown peaches.


By the time our appetites are ready for peaches again, winter will be upon us . . .

**

Recipe for freezing fresh peach slices:

We peeled, pitted and sliced the peaches. They were spooned into plastic Ziploc freezer bags.

We sprinkled each gallon of peach slices with about 1/2 cup sugar and about 1/2 cup lemon juice.

Then the air was squeezed out of the bags as much as possible.

The bags were zipped shut and placed in the freezer.

sodium benzoate plus vitamin c = damaged DNA

*

The bad news is:

that many soft drinks contain a combination of preservative sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid (vitamin c). Together in soft drinks they create benzene, a well-known extremely harmful substance which causes serious damage to the DNA of mitochondria in cells. Such mitochondrial damage leads to cirrhosis of the liver, Parkinson disease symptoms, and aging.

UK research studies detail the adverse effects of sodium benzoate plus ascorbic acid in soft drinks. Coca-cola is taking this harmful combination of ingredients out of its soft drinks in the United Kingdom -- but not, as far as I can tell, in the USA.

*

Additional bad news:

Sheffield University research links sodium benzoate and a group of artificial food colorings to hyperactivity in children:

Besides the preservative sodium benzoate (E211), the artificial colours tested in the study were tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red AC (E129)

The preservative sodium benzoate, and three of the European food colors listed above are approved for use by food product manufacturers in the USA. They are:

tartrazine (FD&C yellow no. 5), sunset yellow (FD&C yellow no. 6), and allura red (FD&C red no. 40).

A word to the wise is sufficient, I am sure . . .

**

We will be avoiding soft drinks indefinitely.

Garden Salad

Garden Salad was just the antidote for our diet on a long car trip! Boo and Guy pulled the dish together, artfully arranging the leaves of lettuce layered with bright, crunchy, fresh vegetables. Topped with a dash of raspberry vinegar, and grated Parmesan cheese, it was delightful to see and surprising to taste!


Recipe:

Shred some lettuce, or pour pre-cut lettuce from the plastic bag onto the salad plates or into a large salad bowl.

Top with a variety of sliced vegetables such as mushrooms, red peppers, cucumbers.

Add a couple of olives or banana peppers for variety.

Sprinkle lightly with raspberry vinegar.

Grate some fresh Parmesan cheese over the salad and serve.

Eat with pleasant conversation.



Review:

5 forks for healthy, colorful, tasty, and timely

chicken gumbo from a can

The other night we had a curiosity manufactured by Campbell Soup Company: Chicken Gumbo Soup. It was spicy, but definitely thin and watery. A brothy soup delicately filling a bowl rather than a thick and hearty gumbo covering a heap of rice. However, it made a good appetizer for the light and delicate main course: Garden Salad.

Review:

2 forks for being too salty