Chinese Salad

Chinese Salad

1 head cabbage, shredded
1 bunch scallions, green part diced into cabbage

Mix and chill.

2 packs of Ramen noodles without seasoning packet, crumble noodles in pack before opening
1 stick (1/2) butter or margarine
1 package slivered almonds
3 tsp sesame seeds

Brown the above in the melted butter or margarine, stirring well while browning.

Dressing
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil (we used olive oil)
1/2 cup vinegar (we used cider vinegar)
2 tbsp soy sauce

Mix the cabbage, and noodle mixture in bowl. Pour dressing over that, mix well and chill.

Dragon Crone
(12/24/03)

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Chocolate Pretzel Treats

Chocolate Pretzel Treats

I went to our Weavers' Guild Christmas meeting last Saturday and one of the ladies made the easiest, best treat for us!

Place little round pretzels on a baking sheet on parchment or wax paper.

Put a Hershey's kiss in the middle of each pretzel.

Bake (probably at 350°) for 3 or 4 minutes until the kiss gets soft (it's appearance won't change, so you'll have to feel them).

Take out of oven and press a holiday red or green M&M into the middle of the kiss, pressing the kiss down until it covers the pretzel.

When they cool the pretzel will adhere to the chocolate
and they're like chocolate pretzel cookies.  Yummm, and easy peasy!!

Kathy T.
(12/18/03)

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Denise's Divinity

Denise's Divinity

I don't like divinity, so I had never made it, until it was assigned in my foods class. I made a note of this recipe because it's small, the instructions are explicit and it worked.

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3 tbsp water
1 egg white
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine sugar, corn syrup and water in a small heavy saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Continue cooking without stirring to 127° C.

When syrup is almost cooked, beat egg white and cream of tartar to the upper limit of the soft peak stage.

Pour syrup in steady fine stream into egg white while beating constantly with an electric mixer. Do not scrape syrup pan. Add vanilla and beat mixture until it holds its shape and loses its gloss. Drop by teaspoons onto buttered pan.

Denise
(12/17/03)

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Joan's Rice Pudding

Joan's Rice Pudding

Is this an approximation of kheer, the Indian rice pudding?

1/2 gallon 2% milk
heaping cup basmati rice
1/2 cup sugar - more or less to taste
1 tsp ground cardamom - more or less to taste
sliced almonds, raisins, cinnamon (all optional)
...bet it would be good with unsalted pistachios also

Bring the milk and rice to a boil, stirring frequently, and then simmer slowly, still stirring frequently, until mixture is thick and creamy (this took me about 1-1/4 hours).

Stir in the sugar and cardamom (more or less to taste). I also added a small handful of sliced almonds. I decorated the top with toasted sliced almonds, yellow raisins, and a light sprinkle of cinnamon sugar.

Joan
(12/4/03)

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Water Whip Pie Crust

Water Whip Pie Crust

Here's the recipe I use and it has never failed me. Most people just can't believe it, but it works!

3/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup boiling water
1 tbsp milk
2 cups flour (sifted)
1 tsp. salt

Put shortening in a bowl. Add boiling water and milk. Whip with a fork until a thick, smooth texture is formed and all liquid is absorbed. Sift flour and salt into mixture and stir quickly into a dough. Work lightly until smooth.

Roll out on a floured surface.

LaVonne
(11/30/03)

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How to Cook Wild Turkey Breast from Mary

How to Cook Wild Turkey Breast from Mary

Here's what we did with a wild turkey breast. Can't get much leaner than that. I guess for your goose, I don't think I'd roast it whole. Maybe a braised treatment, still keeping it rare, browning a bit at the end after rubbing with butter and sprinkling on some flour.

Anyway, here's how we did turkey breast: floured, then dipped in beaten egg, then grated parmesan cheese, and/or shredded veggies, like onion/carrot/celery, shredded extremely thin.

This is what we did with a wild turkey breast: maybe both the veggies and the parmesan cheese. Roasted carefully, until the juices were just the palest of pink, when the breast was pierced with a skewer used for stuffing.

Boneless breast, wrapped in bacon, grilled until rare.

Sounds delicious however you cook it.

Mary
(11/26/03)

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Roasted Veggies (glazed with vanilla butter)

Roasted Veggies (glazed with vanilla butter)

Our favorite way to do carrots and practically any other root veggie is to roast them.

Cut the carrots either in half or quarters length-wise, spread on a pan, put them in a 350°F oven until tender. This depends on the carrots and can take anywhere from a half-hour to an hour. Stir them on the pan (toss them really) at least once during the roasting. It's difficult, but not impossible, to overcook them. This really concentrates the sugars and gives them an almost smoky sweetness.

We like to glaze them with vanilla butter. Scrape a couple of vanilla beans into melted butter and pour the mix over the carrots during the last 15 minutes of cooking. You can add a dash of rum if you'd like. Good vanilla extract will work but the beans are better.

This is good on parsnips, sweet potatoes, hard squash, turnips, and onions. You can do them ahead and warm them up too. I've never met anyone who didn't like them.

Catspaw, who also likes corn pudding
(11/17/03)

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Dave in Oz's Sauteed Chicken in a Mustardy Cream Sauce

Dave in Oz's Sauteed Chicken in a Mustardy Cream Sauce

It's a fairly basic honey mustard sauce and goes like this:
You'll need:

• 2 carrots
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 large brown onion
• some butter (real salted butter, nothing else will suffice)
• a couple of cloves of garlic
• 2 chicken breast fillets (no skin)
• your favourite seeded mustard
• salt and pepper
• sherry or white wine
• cream, about 300ml
• rice

What you need to do:
Cook the rice (2 cups of rice to 3 cups of water in the microwave for 14 minutes on 70% usually does it - or use the rice setting if you've got it)

Dice the carrots, celery and onion into cubes of about equal size (about 3/16ths of an inch).

Chop the garlic as finely as possible (I tend to slice it lengthwise in slivers, then rotate it 90 degrees along the axis of the cut, repeat the slivering process, then rotate it 90 degrees around the axis of the cuts and repeat again, thus ending up with really really really small cubes).

Add a generous chunk of butter to an electric frypan set at about 300° F. Add the diced vegetables. Stir around and reduce heat to simmer until the vegetables are softened (sometimes helps to put the lid on). Splash some sherry in every now and then to keep it all moist.

Dice the chicken into 1/2 inch cubes.

Set the vegetables aside in a bowl, increase the heat to 350°-400° F, put a little butter in to grease the pan, add the chicken (do not stir for 30 secs or so). Stir around and brown each side. Add about a tablespoon of mustard, and a splash of sherry. Reduce heat a little to avoid burning. Add cracked pepper to taste.

Once the chicken is fairly cooked through, add the vegetables and a little more sherry. When the sherry reduces off, add the cream and simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently. The sauce should be a rich yellow colour (add more sherry if it looks to be reducing too much). Taste, if needed add some salt.

Voila! You're done, serve over a bed of rice.
Dave
(11/17/03)

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Chicken with a Mustardy Sauce

Chicken with a Mustardy Sauce

Dear Annie: I'm not Dave in Oz, but here's a mustardy sauce that I pour over chicken breasts and bake 'em in. All amounts are approximate:

For 4 chicken breasts, mix together
2 to 3 tbsp. Dijon mustard
2 tbsp dried tarragon leaf
1/2 cup lemon juice

I usually don't plan ahead enough to have the chick thawed, so put the frozen chick in dish, pour on the mix, cover and cook low (250° F or so) for 1/2 hour to thaw the chick a bit, then up to 350° F til done.

sandy cronequeenenabler
(11/17/03)

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Amy Sedaris' Li'l Smokey Cheeseballs

Amy Sedaris' Li'l Smokey Cheeseballs

2 cups shredded smoked gouda or smoked cheddar
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese
1 stick butter (she doesn't say salted or sweet)
About 2 or 3 tsp milk
2 tbsp A1 steak sauce

Let ingredients sit until room temperature. Blend together and then refrigerate for a while. Form a ball with the mixture. Roll in crushed walnuts. Put back in fridge. Serve at room temperature, spread on Ritz crackers.

I presume that the A1 steak sauce stands in for the bold and salty taste of the secret ingredient in the play.

I heard from a friend who has been to Amy's performances that she sells cupcakes and cheeseballs in the lobby during intermission. Amazingly, she also has her email and home phone on her website, with the single caveat that if people want to call her they should not call too late at night. :-)

Alfred
(11/17/03)

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