tossed salad

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

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!

hummus

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

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!)

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.

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

eggplant curiousity

Why is the eggplant called an eggplant? Our familiar North American oblong. deep-violet vegetable bears no resemblance to an egg in shape, color, or taste.

A little research enlightened me.

The eggplant is a vegetable in multitudinous variations of color and shape per this picture. The word eggplant describes only one of the "looks" of the vegetable.

For those of you who are curious about the name aubergine in French which equals eggplant in English (and how that came to be) check out the etymology.

asparagus soup

This quick and easy soup received rave reviews. In spite of the summertime weather, diners went back for refills. Why was it such a hit?

I think it was entirely due to Tchaikovsky. I set the table, poured drinks, served the food, lit a couple votive candles -- and tuned the music to a classical mix. It happened to feature Tchaikovsky.

The conversation immediately turned to the dining experience with many happy expressions of enjoyment. Although pleased, I knew it wasn't really about my experimental-style cooking. It was about Tchaikovsky.

Try eating this soup with a sandwich on the side and the famous Polish composer's music filling the atmosphere and see if you agree. Let me know if Tchaikovsky is the "missing ingredient" in your home cooking . . .

Recipe for Asparagus Soup (makes about 6 servings)

• Put together in a blender: 2 cups cold cooked fresh asparagus and the water it was cooked in. (I used leftover refrigerated cooked fresh asparagus from the night before)
  

• 1 teaspoon olive oil

• 1 can Campbell's brand beef noodle soup

• additional cold water, if needed, to have enough soup for 6 servings

• 2 teaspoons corn starch

• Blend.

• Pour soup from blender into saucepan.

• While stirring constantly, heat thoroughly. The cornstarch will thicken the soup.

• When heated, put a lid on the saucepan and remove from burner.

• Serve immediately.

***

Review
5 forks for taste
4 forks for appearance
5 forks for presentation

Custom sliced pickle salad

Nothing beats this easy salad for refreshment on a hot summer day!

For each diner, slice one chilled large whole dill pickle. Sprinkle the sliced pickles on a couple cool leaves of fresh, crisp lettuce. Serve immediately.

Fresh squash and tomato rice medley

Summer squash and zucchini squash are abundant this time of year.

So I made a simple meal (serves 3) of:

White rice (simmer, covered, 1 cup rice + 2 cups water until water is absorbed)

In a separate saucepan I cooked a couple small, sliced summer squashes and a small sliced zucchini squash in a little bit of water.

Also washed, sliced, and added a fresh tomato (from Canada, on the vine, hydroponically grown, to follow the CDC's recommendations on tomatoes this summer) to the cooking vegetables.

When all was cooked, I served the rice in small shallow bowls and put the cooked vegetables on top. As a decoration and a touch of dairy, I put small chunks of cheddar cheese on the hot rice and vegetables. Served with fresh plums and spicy tortilla crisps.

Ramen bok choy

Okay, a success! After yesterday's abject failure, I tried bok choy (three servings) again. This time, I stir fried chopped fresh bok choy in canola oil with:

6 largish fresh white mushrooms
6 chopped strips of turkey bacon
1 handful of roasted sunflower seeds
a quick dusting of garlic powder
an even quicker dusting of powdered ginger

Meanwhile I cooked three individual serving size packages of ramen noodles in boiling water for about three minutes. I drained the ramen noodles, and divided them among three shallow bowls.

I reheated the stir-fried mixture, added three eggs, and stirred the eggs (plus cooked ingredients) until the eggs were totally cooked. Then spooned the hot stir-fry mixture over the ramen noodles.

For color and complementary flavor, I accompanied the stir-fry with fresh plums.

• 
  

Review:

My diners had the option of further seasoning their stir-fry with soy sauce, fresh ground black pepper, or with the powdered seasoning pre-packaged with the ramen noodles.

• The soy-sauce-seasoning diner said the dish was excellent! He figured out the "crunchy things" were sunflower seeds and commented favorably on them.

• The other diners opted for some of the ramen noodle pre-packaged seasoning as an additional flavoring, as well as a bit of fresh ground pepper. They agreed that the ramen noodles were too dry -- perhaps too well-drained before the stir fry was added.

Not a favorite salad

Seems like I am functioning in a low ebb of culinary capability. Tonight I impulsively bought bok choy for the first time and made a fresh vegetable salad for dinner. I truly thought it would be good: boy choy cabbage, mushrooms, broccoli, chopped raisins, and roasted sunflower seeds with a dressing of plain yogurt plus cinnamon.

The first clue I had that my family didn't like it was the slow progress through the food on the plate. The confirming moment came when Guy sprinkled Kelly's salad with soy sauce -- and she still insisted on eating in (very slowly) rather than ditching the contaminated mixture and refilling her plate with the original concoction.

A promise of yellow seedless watermelon was the key to maintaining peace at dinner. Ah, well . . . maybe tomorrow will bring new inspiration.

I chose not to immortalize this failed salad recipe in a photograph.

cube steak with Asian vegetables

We had an appreciation dinner for Sherman, who was leaving for a summer job in another part of the country.

Dinner was austere, but yummy!

The main course was cube steak with Asian stir-fry vegetables.


Very simple to prepare because the steak is thin and mechanically tenderized:

• Brown the cube steak on both sides in a large skillet.

• Add a little water (about a cup or so) and simmer until the meat is cooked to taste.
  

• While the meat is cooking, quickly microwave a package of frozen Asian-style stir fry vegetables.
  

• When the vegetables are cooked, add them to the meat in the skillet.
  

• Mix together and heat through.

• Serve cube steak topped with the stir fry vegetables and broth. Season with soy sauce or steak sauce.
  

Enjoy!