The Cookbook Experiment

My amazing baker/food maker daughter Paulina and I have decided to make every single recipe in this cookbook over the course of time. It won't be wasting food because my husband and son will EAT ANYTHING!!!

The first recipe on the menu today is from Mr. Joe Littles. He is an amazing MARINE and a blessing in our church. He can still wear his uniform and when he does, ooo la la!! Who doesn't love a man in uniform?  The recipe is called "Snicker Salad"

Snicker Salad:
(3) medium apples peeled and chopped
(1) can of Mandarin oranges, drained (okay, I did not drain them until I was done chopping the apples and banana so that the juice would keep them from turning brown. I drained after I was done with the chopping)
(1) banana, sliced
(3) Snickers candy bars, chopped (put them into the fridge to chill a little bit, per Joe (and he was correct!) it makes them easier to chop
(1) large container of Cool Whip
Chopped pecans (optional)

Chop up all fruits and mix together in bowl. Add chopped up candy bars. Stir in Cool Whip and top with chopped pecans if desired.

As you can see, it looks delish! I have put it in the fridge to chill and will have an official taste test after it is completely chilled.  Thanks Joe!

Homemade Applesauce - No Sugar Added

I am always on the look-out for recipes that work for a friend who cannot have any added sugar and that do not require me to keep anything like Splenda or any other sugar substitute on hand.  Today I am taking this friend a meal that consists of ham steaks, roasted root vegetables and applesauce.  Almost every recipe for applesauce has some form of sugar so I decided to just wing it and make my own.

I started with a 3-pound bag of Gala apples. Why Gala? I don't know. They looked good and I am not a big fan of Granny Smith or Red Delicious.  The price was right at the grocery store.  All but three were peeled. I like to leave the peel on three of them for added texture. All were cored, sliced into small chunks and put into a pan with two thin slices of lemon.

Why lemon? Well, I can't add sugar and a squeeze of lemon always makes my tea taste better so I decided it would probably be just the ticket to helping out with the taste of the apples.

Next I added one teaspoon of cinnamon and I grated in some nutmeg. I did not use ground nutmeg. Don't do it. It only takes a minute to run your nutmeg pod over your micro-plane to get that delicious, fresh nutmeg taste. Fresh nutmeg is often my secret ingredient in many of my dishes.

Add to all of the above about 1 1/2 cups of water and set to boil. After it boils, reduce the heat  and cover the pot. Cook for approximately twenty minutes, giving them an occasional stir.

When they are nice and tender remove the lemon slices and use your handy dandy potato masher and mash the apples.

This applesauce is hearty and earthy. It is not the sweet applesauce of your childhood. It is applesauce all grown-up.  My friends love it because he can eat what he wants without worrying about his diabetes.

A new dish and finding ways to use it!

I admit it.  I am a glass junkie.  I love collecting carnival glass, milk glass or any other kind of glass that happens to catch my fancy!  I blame it on my grandmother! She started collecting the most amazing blue-purple Indiana Carnival glass and I inherited it from my mother.  It has a place of honor in my china cabinet and I have even bought a few more pieces to go with it.  I have also been buying the exact same pattern in green and gold and milk glass.  I LOVE Indiana Carnival glass!

A couple of months ago I found a delightful, large, heavy serving tray in the green carnival glass.  Alas, it is not the same pattern but I bought it anyway! It intrigued me.  I had never seen one in this design.  It has, to one side of it, a place to hold six deviled eggs.  Then the rest of the tray is segmented off to hold other things.  But what other things? I was not sure what the actual design intent was.  BUT, I had a party to go to with my Sunday school class ladies and NOW was the perfect time to use it.

As you can see, I made the deviled eggs (who only brings six deviled eggs to a party???).  I was not sure what to fill this dish up with.  I added the fresh strawberries (they were on sale!) and some green and red apple slices and then some slices of a baguette.  I needed the baguette to go with the Caprese salad that I also made (and did NOT have a fabulous dish to put it in! The horror!).

It was a fun evening with my girl friends.  I was regretful of a few things:  my caprese salad really needed some garlic but I did not add it, I should have made more deviled eggs as they were scrumptious, and I wish that I had found my sandals but wore tennis shoes instead! Never question the ramblings of a menopausal woman.  FUNNY! I guess my ramblings sound strange tonight because my heart is sad.  I will try to perk it up!  I must go in the kitchen and make these chocolate chip cookies that Billieanne made for her friend's birthday today!  I think inside Billieanne there lurks a secret baker because her cookies were sheer perfection! I will try and get pics if I do!

I know I have a few readers in Russia, I would love to become "pen pals" so feel free to drop me a comment and I will be happy to email! I would love to know what YOU take to a party to share!

From low calorie to WOW

I found a second recipe that I just had to try in this Patriots cookbook.  It is called "Apple-Cranberry Casserole" by Susan Chewning.  It calls for 3 cups of raw apple, sliced, 2 cups of fresh raw cranberries, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 stick of butter, 1 cup uncooked oatmeal, 1 1/3 cup of flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup pecans. 

I used 2 granny smith apples, 1 yellow delicious apple and 1 fiji apple.  I left the peel on and sliced them up thin and layered in a 9 x 13 cake pan.  I could not find my measuring cups so I used a coffee cup and put a whole cup of sugar on top of the apples and cranberries.  I melted two sticks of butter and put a (2) coffee cups of brown sugar, oatmeal and flour in a pan.  Let it get all melted and mixed well.  I spread that over the cranberries and apples and threw it in a 350 degree oven.  I will take a picture when it comes out! It is supposed to bake for an hour!!  That should give me time to get together the dinner I was going to make two nights ago!  It will definately be fried okra and fried chicken tonight!  Its not the traditional new year's menu but it works for us!

PS....just in case you are wondering, I did not add any nuts to this recipe as my oldest child has an aversion to the yummy things....if I want her to eat it, I have to always leave out the nuts!!