[libertarian27]

National Blueberry Popover Day March 10

Oatmeal-Nut Waffles Day March 11

National Baked Scallops Day March 12

Coconut Torte Day March 13

National Potato Chip Day March 14

National Pears Helene Day March 15

National Artichoke Hearts Day March 16

[libertarian27]

Ping to the Weekly Recipe Thread:

Recap of recipes from last week (March 3rd)

Cakes _ Post#` 13 _ Chocolate Cake

Dessert _ Post#` 12 _ Super Simple Apple Dumplings

Marinades, Sauces _ Post#` 11 _ Kimchi Dakgalbi-Meat Marinade

Muffins _ Post#` 14 _ Beakfast Muffin in a Cup

Pancakes _ Post#` 10 _ Dutch Pancake

Pork _ Post#` 09 _ Hazelnut Crusted Pork Tenderloins

Potatoes _ Post#` 19 _ Three Cheese Potato Gratin

Soup & Stews _ Post#` 04 _ Pork Tenderloin & Sweet Potato Stew

Vegetables _ Post#` 05 _ Edible Flowers
Vegetables _ Post#` 03 _ Shrimp Cole Slaw
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2853990/posts?page=22#22

[squarebarb]

Just as a matter of curiosity, do left-wing forums ever have things like this recipe thread, or the weekley gardening thread, or anything fun? Since I never go to one I wouldn’t know.

[mojitojoe]

Southern 3 Bean Salad

1 16 oz. can cut green beans, drained
1 16 oz. can cut yellow beans, drained
1 16 oz. can red kidney beans, drained
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/4-1/2 cup sliced purple onion
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Dump beans in colander and rinse, drain well. Combine beans, green pepper, and sliced onion. Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl, whisk together then pour over bean mixture. Toss well and chill for at least 4 hours. Store in refrigerator.

Serves 10 to 12.

* Note, I usually double the recipe because it’s even better leftover. It lasts well for up to 5-7 days covered tightly in the refrigerator.

[WXRGina]

This is such an easy and very delicious recipe for those of us who LOVE key lime pie!

---

Key Lime Pie

1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust (or a regular pie crust, if you prefer)
3 cups sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup Key lime juice (not everyone has Key limes available, but regular limes will do. Fresh-squeezed, strained is best)
1 tablespoon fine-grated lime zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice, and lime zest. Mix well and pour into graham cracker crust.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until tiny pinhole bubbles burst on the surface of pie. DO NOT BROWN! Chill pie thoroughly before serving. Top with whipped cream if desired.

[Gabz]

I was over at Church earlier, setting the Altar for the morning, and discovered no one was signed up for “coffee hour” so I’m going to hit up my tried and true roll ups.

Cranberry & Feta, Onion & cheese, Blue cheese and nuts, and cream cheese and lox. All use flour tortillas. Burrito size are quicker and make bigger rolls, but any size will do. I’m going to be using fajita size (little ones) because I forgot to buy the larger ones when I was picking up cheese.

Cranberry & Feta:
8oz cream cheese (room temperature)
4-6oz crumbled feta (room temp)
6oz bag dried cranberries(chopped)

Cream the cheeses in a mixer or food processor and mix in cranberries. spread on tortillas and roll tight. wrap in saran and refrigerate or freeze (will keep for 3 months in freezer.) 15 minutes before serving unwrap and slice.

Blue Cheese & nuts
8oz cream cheese (room temp)
4oz crumbled blue cheese (room temp)
4 oz chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
Chopped apple (optional)

Same as above

Cream Cheese & Lox
8oz cream cheese (room temp)
3-4tbs sour cream
3-4oz smoked salmon/lox (chopped)
1-2 TBS of capers (drained & chopped if large)
chopped scallion(optional)
1-2tsp lemon juice

Same as above

Cheese and onion
3 large onions - chopped
1 stick butter
8oz cream cheese - cut in pieces
6-8oz shredded swiss cheese

Put onions and butter in frying pan and saute for about 20 minutes until they are limp, but not burned. Stir in cheeses until melted. Spread on tortillas and roll tightly. Wrap in saran and refrigerate overnight.
To serve: Preheat oven to 375. Grease baking sheet. Cut rolls into 1 inch slices. Place upright on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

[bgill]

tweaked another recipe and made this a couple weeks ago and was waiting to post it. It has a nice flavor and is rather light, not heavy like most loaf quick breads. I didn’t add pecans but they’d be good in it. One of those larger cans of sweet potatoes would make double the recipe. This is a keeper.

Sweet Potato Bread

2 C canned sweet potatoes, mashed
2/3 C juice from the canned sweet potatoes
2 C sugar
1/2 C oil
3 eggs
3 1/2 C flour
2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1 1/2 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 C chopped pecans (optional)

Pour into 1 sprayed large loaf pan or 2 smaller ones. Bake at 350 for 55 minutes or until done.

It keeps for several days in the frige wrapped.

[MissMagnolia]

I debated whether to post this because it is so long, but decided to do it in two posts. I’m posting the first non-recipe part because to me, knowing where a recipe comes from and what it means to the cook who used to or currently makes it adds to the food …. taste, mood, atmosphere …. whatever, it adds.

By way of further explanation, my folks are elderly (79 & 89). Dad has survived a cardiac arrest and has CHF so every single day is a “bonus” day with him. Both folks grew up on farms & both grannies were wonderful cooks. The last couple of weeks, the folks and I have been reminiscing about good food, good times, family no longer with us, and wonderful memories - this has been a great source of joy to all of us. I’ve been cooking quite a few of the recipes and I love it when my dad or mom’s face just ‘lights up’ when they get a dish that their mom used to make.

So, here goes …. and I apologize for such long posts.

My Granny’s North Carolina Brunswick Stew

My mom’s parents made their living and raised their 5 kids on a farm in North Carolina. They grew cantaloupes, cotton, tobacco, and corn. They also ran a dairy, had chickens, hogs, a very large German Shepherd guard dog named Rolf and lots of kitties running around the barn. Granny had a large “kitchen” garden for the family and she spent many hours in a hot kitchen on summer days, canning vegetables and fruit for the winter months. She was an outstanding cook – plain and simple fare, but we all loved visiting and eating at her house.

Once a year, Granny and Granddad would make a Brunswick Stew. It was made in a large black kettle, over a real wood fire, in the back yard. The women prepared the ingredients and the men did the stirring. Mom remembers peeling & cutting up buckets of potatoes. I can still remember standing around the fire while the men stirred and talked, the large wooden paddle swirling the contents of the kettle around and around. It was a magical time for a little kid … the making of the stew.

And then, there was the eating. Nothing, until this week, has ever come close to tasting like the Brunswick Stew out of that big black kettle. Back in those times, a store-bought white bread, with its soft texture, was a treat ….. and so was a Pepsi …. and that is what accompanied a bowl of Granny’s Brunswick Stew. (Note – since you will not be bound by the constraints of childhood memories and traditions, you may want to have corn bread with this stew – it’s wonderful).

Mom has always been on the ‘lookout’ for Brunswick Stew that comes close to the stew made on the farm. There is a well-known brand that comes in a can and it used to be, that doctored heavily with added spice and veggies, it would barely pass muster in an emergency ‘gotta-have-some-stew’ attack – recently, the quality has decreased to the point that it’s not even worth doctoring up. The small town fire departments in the area of the old farm also make stew in black kettles to sell as fund raisers, but now they use a gas fire ….. and the ‘recipe’ just isn’t the same as Granny’s …. similar, but not the same. Lately, the quality of these stews has become a disappointment as well.

So, in the quest for a passable Brunswick Stew, this past week we took Granny’s recipe and using a spreadsheet, broke the ingredients down to proportions that would fit in crock pots (you need two). We made the first batch (later made a 2nd) and let it cook in the crock pots for 20 hours. It smelled like stew, it looked like stew, and finally ….. it tasted really, really close to Granny’s black kettle Brunswick Stew. Nothing will ever match her stew, but this is pretty darn close. Mom is happy and she is the official taste tester and quality control inspector. We broke out the white (wheat) bread and the Diet-Rite Colas (no Pepsi) … and dished up the bowls of stew ….. and took a memory and taste trip back to the farm!

So … here’s the recipe (next post) ….. made (almost) the way Granny made it, in smaller proportions and in crock pots.

[Red_Devil 232]

Everybody! Thanks to a post by MissMagnolia over on the gardening thread I have found a program that will allow me to save FReeper recipes I might want to try someday. I just do a copy and paste it in the new program called RedNotebook.

Quote from: MissMagnolia "You can post pictures and links. It is SEARCHABLE ….. there is a ‘word cloud’ so you can click on a word, but I use the ‘tags’ extensively that they allow you to set up. For instance, I have a tag called “Gardening”. If I put ‘Gardening’ in the search box, it will pull up every entry made under that tag, in date order. Today, I have had two entries, both about the new camellias we bought. I can look at the date list under ‘Gardening’ and see exactly when we got those camellias. I can also just search under the word ‘camellia’ and every time I used that word, the entry will show up."

I have just started using it this morning and have (copied&paste) saved a couple of recipes from last week thread. Here is a screen shot of the program:

The center area is where you enter comments into your Journal, you can have as many Journals as you want (cooking, gardening, projects, hobbies) about anything you would want to have a searchable journal for. The right side is for your Tags and the left side is a calendar that shows the entry date below the calendar is a search box and below that is a word cloud click on a word and it will bring up all your entries that contain that word.

Thought some of you might like to try it. It is FREE.

Download the freeware for RedNotebook from here.

At the top of the RedNotebook page if you click on Screenshots it will bring up a demonstration video (it is hard to follow because the commenter moves fast through the demo.)

This is a screenshot from the RedNotebook web page showing an inserted picture and some statistics.

[MissMagnolia]

Lemon Apricot Tea Bread

Just pulled this out of the oven an hour ago - it is really good and I’m making another one to give as a little anniversary present tomorrow:

http://www.relish.com/recipes/lemon-apricot-tea-bread/

[sockmonkey]

Thanks for all your hard work in indexing all the recipes.
I had made up a recipe in my head a few months ago, and couldn’t remember exactly what I’d put in it...

Lucky for me, you, in all your awesomeness enabled me to find it via the recipe indexes you compile.

Thanks you a million times...