Dixie Salad

Invented in Utah's Dixie for the use of pomegranates. I decided this year in a poorly quantified comparison study that, in fact, the small, beige, sort-of-ugly pomegranates that Grandma sends (straight fromUtah's Dixie) are in fact sweeter than the kernels that come from the plump red supermarket fruit. Hmm.

Dixie Salad

cube some yummy eating apples

shell some pomegranates

chop some pecans

stir them all up with whipped cream

Daddy Dixie Salad

don't put in pecans.

put in pistachios

or almonds

or cashews

but don't put in yucky old cockroach pecans.

Sannali Dixie Salad

Play around with the matrix-- she claims yogurt works.

Reija Dixie Salad

Chop up a Snickers bar and put it in.

Oh, and that reminds me of a joke. What do you call a ticking cow?

Abominable.

Wienerstube

I think these are a polarizing little cookie. I love them: I like how they are coal black. I like how they are spicy and chocolatey. I like how they are crisp but tender. But I think other people think they taste burnt because they look black and because the flavor combination is unusual to American taste buds. That's ok-- I'll eat them all. From Maida Heatter, these are supposedly German.

Wienerstube

1 ½ c AP flour

1 ½ t baking powder

¼ t salt

¾ t cinnamon

¼ t allspice

½ t finely ground black pepper

Pinch cayenne

¾ c black unsweetened cocoa powder

6 oz unsalted butter

1 ½ t vanilla extract

1 c sugar

1 egg

Sift together dries. Cream butter. Add vanilla, sugar; beat. Beat in egg. Gradually add dries. Tear off a strip of wax paper 16 inches long. Place dough down the length, forming a heavy strip about 10 in long. Fold the long sides up around the dough. Pressing against the paper with your hands, shape the dough into an oblong about 12 inches long and 2 ¾ inches thick. Wrap the dough in the paper. Put in freezer or refrigerator several hours, until firm. Oven to 375. Line cookie sheets with parchment. Unwrap the dough. Cut with sharp knife to ¼ inch slices. Bake 10-12 minutes.

Ginger Cookies

From the M-m-m-m More Cookies booklet published by Pillsbury in 1987. I think we made these fairly frequently, and they are yummy to me.

Ginger Cookies

2 c sugar

1 ½ c butter, softened

½ c molasses

2 eggs

4 ½ c AP flour

3 t soda

½ salt

2 t cinnamon

1 t cloves

1 t ginger

½ t nugmeg

Sugar to roll

Cream sugars, fat, and eggs. Stir in mixed dries. Fridge 1 hr. Oven to 350. Roll balls in sugar. Bake 8-12 min till set (should flatten). 10 dozen.

Crisp Chocolate Snaps

I suppose this is a lesser cookie in the Matheson cookiesphere, but I remember them, and I like them. So here they are. From the M-m-m-m More Cookie booklet, published by Pillsbury in 1987.

Crisp Chocolate Snaps

2 c sugar

1 c brown sugar

1 ½ c butter, softened

2 t vanilla

3 eggs

6 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted, cooled

½ t red food coloring, optional

4 c AP flour

2 t soda

1 t salt

Sugar to roll in

Oven to 350. Beat sugars and fat till light and fluffy. Add vanilla, eggs, chocolate, food coloring, blend well. Stir in mixed dries. Can be refrigerated to facilitate easier handling. Roll balls in sugar. Bake 8-12 minutes until set (should flatten). 6 dozen.

Linzer Cookies

We just barely made these. They're on the cooling racks. They smell delicious and I am liking to eat them, so even though I do not have a special linzer cookie cutter, I'll keep the recipe anyway. The recipe, I believe, came in the box of Fox Run brand linzer cookie cutters.

Linzer Cookies

1 1/4 c almond flour, or hazelnuts and almonds, ground fine

1 c unsalted butter

2/3 c sugar

2 large eggs

1 t vanilla

2 c AP flour

1 t baking powder

1 t cinnamon

1/4 t salt

1 t lemon zest

powdered sugar for dusting (I haven't used this yet)

1 c jam (the recipe suggests seedless raspberry. We're using guava right now, which is surprisingly not too tropical. The jam needs to be fairly smooth.)

Pre-heat oven to 375. Cream butter and sugar till light and creamy. Add eggs, then vanilla. In separate bowl, mix dries and spices. Add dries to wets, beat to combine. Place in freezer till firm, 30-40 min. Dust a surface with flour, roll dough to about 1/8". Cut even amounts of tops and bottoms. Bake cookies 8 minutes. Cool. Use about 1 t jam per sandwich cookie.

Yellow Turkey Casserole

A great favorite of ours for leftover turkey. If I post this on the blog, perhaps no one will have to ask for it again. Maybe if I get the courage I will ask Mom for the recipe for the other yellow turkey casserole. The other yellow turkey casserole? Yes. It has a creamy sauce, and I like it too. But this is the one with the little noodles and the rice.

Yellow Turkey Casserole

Butter a 9X13 glass dish.

Cover the bottom of the dish evenly with 2 c. raw rice.
Sprinkle evenly across the rice 1 t. salt and 1 t. curry powder. You may use more curry powder if you like.
Chop or dice 3 c. of leftover turkey or chicken meat.
Spread the turkey evenly across the rice.
Mince 1/2 to 1 onion, 2 stalks celery and saute in butter until soft. Spread the vegetables evenly across the turkey.
Make according to package directions one packet of the dry chicken noodle soup which wants 4 c. of water, with this change: use 5 c. water. You may substitute part or all of the water with chicken broth.
Ladle the hot soup over the stuff in the dish. Be careful so that you disturb things as little as possible. Save the noodles until last so that you can distribute them evenly over the surface of the dish.
Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees F for one hour.
Uncover and serve.

Making Beef Stew

The harvest from the garden turned out to be really meager. We had a couple decent potatoes and lots of pathetic ones, about four beets the size of marbles, a single beautiful zucchini, a nice handful of carrots that Milly ate pretty fast (she said they tasted just like carrots from Ghana!), and some cherry tomatoes that we think weren't supposed to be so "cherry." And one mournful, twisted, tiny purple pepper. But the time had come! And so we harvested and cooked it all up into a stew and fed it to our favorite masses. Also with some pumpkin soup, courtesy of "our pumpkin" (we nabbed it off of U of R campus), lots of nice autumnal bread, a blueberry tart that turned out weird, and a pumpkin-cream cheese pie.

Honestly, I haven't eaten any stew so I don't know if it turned out well. For some reason, yesterday, I had no appetite for meat. But I think it turned out well-- a lot of it got eaten (then again, there were 11? people there). It looked and smelled wonderful! So I will transcribe Mom's stew instructions. Thanks Mom!

Beef Stew

If you want to thicken the stew:
Mix about 2 T. flour with some salt and pepper and paprika in a gallon zip lock bag. Put your meat cubes into the bag and toss them about until the meat has picked up all the flour. Brown the meat in your stew pot in 1 to 2 T. oil or fat. Then add your liquid (beef broth or water) and stir until the flour is all distributed in the liquid. You can also saute your onions, but it isn't necessary.
If you prefer a clear broth:
You don't need to cook the meat first. Fill your pot about halfway with liquid of your choice. Turn on the heat fairly high and add your meat. As the meat begins to cook, prepare your vegetables.

Add the vegetables as you get them prepared (in most cases). Carrots are hardest, so add them first. Then onion, then potato. Bring it to a boil, then turn the heat down to let the stew cook at a high simmer. Count on 1 1/2 to 2 hours total cooking time. Add fresh green beans and fresh corn and bell pepper about 40 minutes before the end. Add herbs about 1/2 hour before the end, except for bay leaves, which should be added at the beginning. If you used canned tomato, you can add it at about any time. I would wait until about half way through, so that the carrot and potato have a chance to soften. Add garlic at the beginning. At any point you can add more broth to attain sufficient liquid. Remember also that anytime you add something you will cool down the stew, so the temperature needs to raised temporarily to maintain simmering. Salt according to taste, but a rule of thumb is 1 t. per quart.