Viewer Recipes

Jeani's Halloween Corn Salad

11/7/03. Last Halloween Nina and I were guests at Jeani's. Adults nibbled from a buffet of deviled eggs, meat balls, pasta salad, and corn salad, while  daughter Mary went out trick or treating. We were intrigued with Jeani's corn salad. We had never thought of corn and olives together, but here they are, and a nice combination too.  Dessert was provided by Mary, who graciously shared a peanut butter cup and other candy from her new stash. 

3 cans drained white corn (I like Green Giant, white shoepeg corn)
1 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
1 cup sliced green onions
1 cup sliced green olives
Italian dressing (I use Good Seasons and make it with white wine vinegar and olive oil)

If you use olive oil let it stand for 1/2 hour before serving to warm the oil.
It's good to make this salad the night or even day before to let the flavors come together.
This is not a really fancy recipe but it is fairly fast and good.  Happy Cooking.
     Jeani 11/4/03

CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE

     10/23/03. Grace is a long-standing dear friend of the Corvallis, Oregon, division of our extended family. We were recent visitors during a birthday celebration for Frossene. Grace brought a chocolate cheesecake which was declared marvelous by everyone. 
     Nina, a dedicated chocolate-lover, doesn't care for most chocolate cheesecakes because a sour taste conflicts with the chocolate. Not so in Grace's cheesecake.  In addition to everything else, the cake looks great. 
     Grace originated this recipe June 1996. 

20 oz. Package of Oreos
3 tablespoons well-chilled butter or margarine, cut into pieces
One pint whipping cream
18-oz. Semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 pound cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. Vanilla

Generously butter a 9" springform pan. Finely crush Oreo cookies in food processor, using on/off turns. Cut in butter until mixture begins to gather together. Scrape the crumb mixture into the springform pan and press crumbs into bottom of pan and up the sides to 1/2 inch from the top. Make sure there are no cracks. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the heavy cream with chocolate chips in double boiler until the chocolate chips melt. Cool 10 minutes.

In food processor, beat cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined. Beat in chocolate mixture and vanilla. Pour into crust and bake in a 325 degree oven until outer 2" of cake are firm but center still moves slightly, about 1 1/4 hours. Cool completely on rack. Top pan with paper towels and cover tightly with foil. Refrigerate 1-2 days before serving. Cut while cool and serve at room temperature. This cheesecake can be frozen. It does not deteriorate the quality.

I use only Philadelphia Brand cream cheese and only Oreo cookies and only Nestles Semi-Sweet chocolate chips for the finest quality cheesecake.

This is a very forgiving recipe. You can adapt different flavors into it if you choose to.

I adapted this recipe from Jan Roberts-Domingues. She is a writer for the Gazette-Times. She originally published this recipe for a Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake.

This recipe gets rave reviews from all who eat it!

A new variation! June 2002

Use an 11X14 pan and butter it. Use 20 oz package of Oreos (same as above recipe), but put the crust only in the bottom of the pan (not up the sides). For the filling, prepare one and one half recipes. Bake for 40-45 minutes instead of 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool and refrigerate same as original recipe. Cut into bite sized pieces. Enjoy!

Spinach Fatoyer
(fatayer-s'banega)

Denise kindly sent this recipe 7/6/03. For further information see Recent Mail 6/21/03.

Bread Dough ('Ajeenet al-Khobz)

9 oz. (2.5 cups) hard white bread flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. rapid rise dry yeast
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. lukewarm water

Sift the flour and salt on to a pastry board, mix in the yeast and make a well in the centre.
Pour in the oil and work together with the tips of your fingers until the oil is completely absorbed.
Add the water in two or three stages - it is difficult to measure the exact amount of water as it depends on the brand of flour you are using.
Knead the dough with your hands until it is smooth and elastic. Form into a ball, cover with a damp cloth and leave in a warm place for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Spinach Filling

You can use any tasty tender green leaves for the filling. Traditional variations are purslane (leaves only), sorrel or Swiss chard, as well as dandelion, wild chicory and other edible wild herbs.
Makes about 30 small triangles or 4 large

About 1/2 lb. spinach, chopped into thin strips, about 1/4 inch wide
Salt
1 small onion, very finely chopped
1/4 tsp. finely ground black pepper
1 tbsp. sumac
1 tbsp. pine nuts (optional)
Juice of 1/2 lemon, or to taste (sumac also has a lemony flavour)
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

Put the chopped spinach in a mixing bowl, sprinkle on a little salt and rub it in with your fingers until the spinach wilts.
Season the chopped onion with a little salt and pepper and again rub the seasonings in with your fingers to soften before adding it to the spinach.
Add the sumac and pine nuts, pour in the lemon juice and olive oil and mix well together. Taste, and adjust seasoning if necessary. The filling should be quite strongly flavoured to offset the rather bland pastry (by the way, it's similar to white bread dough pastry if you're pressed for time!).

To make the triangles:

Preheat the oven to 450 F and grease a baking sheet with a little veg. oil.
Divide the dough into two balls. Flatten the first slightly, dip both surfaces into flour, shake off the excess and roll out into a
large circle, about 1/10 inch thick, turning over the pastry regularly.
Use a round pastry cutter, 3 inches in diameter, to cut the flattened pastry into as many circles as you can.
Start from the edge and work your way around the outside, then the inside. If you do not have pastry cutters, use a thin-edged glass or cup. (This size will make medium triangles. You can make smaller ones, 2 inches in diameter, to pass round as cocktail snacks, but it will take practice to make them look professional!)
Pick up any excess pastry, knead it together and let ir rest.
Turn the circles over, then take one and lay it on the fingers of one hand.
Put a tsp. of stuffing, or less if you have small circles, in the middle of each circle, and then lift two sides, each one third of the
circle, and with your thumb and index finger pinch them together, half way down, making a thin raised joint.
Lift the open side and pinch it equally to both loose ends to form a triangle with rounded sides and a thin raised inverted y in the middle. Make sure you pinch the pastry tightly together so that it does not open during baking.
Transfer the filled pastry carefully on to the greased baking sheet and continue until you have finished both dough and filling. You should end up with about 30 pieces.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 min, or until golden, and serve hot, tepid or at room temp.
Freeze well. You can bake them completely before freezing and only warm them after defrosting.

Tipsy Tart

Denise wrote 11/22/02:
     Since you say you lack dessert recipes, I am submitting one of my favourite and most popular dessert recipes in thanks for your wonderful site. This is a traditional South African dessert - the banana is untraditional but is a lovely touch.

TIPSY TART
1/4 lb. dates, finely chopped
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. instant coffee
4/5 cup boiling water
1 tbsp. cocoa
1/4 cup butter
4/5 cup sugar
3 extra large eggs
2 cups cake and pastry flour
2 tsp. baking powder
Pinch salt
4 bananas, mashed
1/4 cup pecan nuts, coarsely chopped

SYRUP
4/5 cup sugar
6 tbsp. water
Pinch salt
1 1/2 tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup brandy

     Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter a large oblong baking dish.
     Combine the dates, baking soda, coffee, boiling water and cocoa and allow to cool.
     Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the butter mixture, alternating with the date mixture. Fold in the bananas and nuts and spoon the mixture into the greased baking dish.
     Bake for 1 hour (test with a fork for doneness). When almost done, start preparing the syrup.
     Syrup: Stir the sugar, water, salt and butter in a small pan over low heat until all the sugar has dissolved. Boil for 5 min. Add the brandy, bring to the boil and remove from the heat. Pour the syrup over the HOT tart and leave it to be absorbed.
     Serve warm with whipped cream.
     Denise 11/22/02

Chicken Chili

Here is a recipe for fast and easy Chicken Chili. It's a hit!

1 can 12 1/2 ounce chicken or 1 lb. chicken breast cooked and deboned
2 cans 15 ounce Northern Beans drained
1 jar salsa
2 teaspoon cumin
1 can chicken broth 15 or 16 ounce
1 8 ounce pkg. Monterey jack cheese
Combine ingredients, bring to boil, and simmer 20 minutes. Add more chicken
broth if too thick.
Lebear56 2/11/02

     With my family, this recipe has been a very popular variation of the traditional cranberry sauce. It is thick and chunky and flavorful and has worked well for years with even those die hard opponents of "cranberry sauce". The cooking method is simple and the recipe is very forgiving; don’t worry about using exact measurements, a little more or less of anything is fine. Go with those flavors that you really like.

1 lb fresh cranberries; whole (I typically use two of
           those  12 oz bags of whole cranberries and it 
          seems to work just fine)
2 C. sugar
Zest of 1 orange; slivered (I’m not a big orange flavored
          anything fan, so I go with half of what this calls for,
          but it does impart a wonderful essence, so I don’t
          omit it entirely)
1 orange; peeled and diced
2 apples, peeled, cored and diced
½ C. apple cider vinegar
1 t. ginger root; peeled and chopped
1 stick cinnamon; whole
¼ C. pecans or walnuts; chopped
¼ t. dried red hot chili peppers (the food, not the band)

     Put all ingredients into a saucepan. Bring to boil while stirring. Now, here’s a big caveat…before this all starts to cook down and meld, it’s going to smell…bad. The vinegar will be really strong and you will wonder how in the world this is going to work. But be patient. It will. Once the cranberries start to pop open, it all starts to pull together into a very fragrant holiday accompaniment. Makes about 4 1/2 pts. It works great the next day as well on turkey sandwiches. Enjoy and peace to you this holiday season!
Kitty Keenan 11/20/01

     My favorite dessert on my site (wrote Tim) is the Banana pudding. With one exception, that's the way it has been made for at least 10 generations. That's about 200 years. The one exception is that once you go back 4 generations, they were baking their own vanilla wafers. 

2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 eggs, separated
8 bananas
5 tablespoon flour
4 cups milk
3 teaspoon vanilla
1 box vanilla wafers

     Slice bananas into 1/4 inch thick slices. Take a 9 1/2 X 13 1/2 X 2 baking dish and coat the bottom and sides with wafers, then a layer of banana slices, alternating layers until just below the top, then set aside. Combine sugar, flour, salt, stir in milk. Cook over boiling water or in a thick pot over medium heat until it begins to thicken. Stir beaten egg yokes into hot mixture and cook 7 minutes more. Remove from heat and add vanilla, then pour over bananas and wafers. Top with a meringue made with the egg whites (see below) and brown in a hot oven, 425 degrees F. Serve warm or chilled.

6 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
12 tablespoon sugar

     Egg whites need to warm to room temperature. Place egg whites in a large mixing bowl, add salt and vanilla. Beat on high until they just begin to thicken. Then begin adding the sugar, a little at a time (beating well between additions). Continue beating until stiff peaks are formed. Test by pulling out the beaters and turn over, peaks should not curl over. Spread all over pudding, make sure it touches the edges to prevent shrinking. Take the back of a spoon and pull up points to make attractive.

     My favorite cake is the Chocolate Lover's Delight. I am a choc-o-holic and my granny invented this one for me. It's very choc-o-rich.

1 stick butter
1 cup oil
2 cups flour
3 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
5 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda

     Heat the butter, oil, cocoa, water in a saucepan until the butter is melted, mix well. Combine the flour and sugar in a large bowl with a fork. Pour the heated mixture over the flour and sugar, add the eggs and mix together. Dissolve the baking soda in the buttermilk and add to the batter, mix thoroughly. Put batter into a 10 X 12 sheet pan and bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 to 35 minutes until it tests done with a toothpick. Leave in the pan, spread on the Icing (see below) while cake is still hot.

1 stick butter
5 tablespoons cocoa
4 tablespoons  evaporated milk
1 tablespoons vanilla
1 box powdered sugar
1 cup finely chopped pecans

     Melt butter in a sauce pan, add cocoa, milk, and vanilla, stir until mixed then remove from the heat. Mix in the sugar, adding a little more milk if necessary to make it a spreading consistency. Spread evenly over hot cake then sprinkle with the nuts.

     My personal favorite cookie has nothing to do with the taste, which is great, it's the way the Soft Molasses Cookies make the house smell when you're baking them. It'll make your neighbors decide it's time to come for a visit.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (sifted)
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon  cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons  baking soda
2 tablespoons hot water
1/2 cup soft shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
6 tablespoons cold water
1/2 cup seedless raisins or dates

     Sift together flour, ginger, cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve soda in hot water. Mix shortening, sugar, molasses, and egg until creamy. Stir in flour mixture alternately with cold water, then add soda and all but a few of the raisins or dates. Drop by rounded tablespoons 2 inches apart onto a greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with remaining fruit. Bake 12 minutes, until done.
     Makes 2 dozen cookies.

     Tim Everhart, 1/28/01. For his site, with more Southern desserts and other recipes, go to our Links page, and find Anglefire.

     I know several home made potato soup recipes. Many can take a lot of time. The one I use most often is quick and easy. It has several variations so it can be different each time you serve it, or find your favorite and enjoy. (Also amounts of items can be increased or decreased proportionally depending on the number of people you will be serving.) This recipe will serve 4-6 people.

4-6 medium potatoes, peeled and diced into small bite size chunks
1 small onion minced, or 3-4 green onions thinly sliced
1 clove garlic finely minced 
1 Tablespoon butter or margarine 
1 Tablespoon olive oil or oil of preference 
1 12 ounce can evaporated milk (regular or skim) 
salt to taste 
white or black pepper to taste

Optional items: (may be added individually, in combinations, or left out entirely. However, it is not recommended to add bacon and ham together)
1 cup cubed cooked ham 
3-4 strips of bacon fried crispy and crumbled (1 Tablespoon of bacon drippings may also be substituted for the olive oil) 
1 cup frozen corn, or well drained canned whole kernel corn 
1/2 cup thinly sliced celery or 1 teaspoon celery seeds 
Dash of cayenne pepper

Preparation:
     In a 2 quart or larger saucepan add butter or margarine and oil or bacon drippings and melt over medium heat stirring occasionally so butter does not brown. Add onion (and celery if desired). Cook until onion is transparent. Add minced garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes longer.

     Remove from heat, add diced potatoes and enough water to just cover. Add a dash of salt. Bring to a boil and retain the boil until potatoes are cooked but still firm, maintaining water enough to cover while cooking. 
     If you desire a thicker soup remove 1/2 to 1 cup of the potatoes and set aside. Add any of the optional items and simmer for 15 minutes. (DO NOT add spices or celery seed at this time.)

     Drain liquid from the potatoes retaining enough to make 1 1/2 cups. Return the liquid to the potatoes and add evaporated milk. 
     If you are using the reserved cooked potatoes to thicken: combine potato liquid, evaporated milk, and potatoes in a blender and blend until potatoes are liquefied. Return to the pot. Add spices and simmer over low heat until soup reaches desired temperature. Stir often to avoid sticking or burning.
Erika 5/23/01