They sell these at Tulipan, a Hungarian pastry/bistro shop in Wooster.

ONLY, mine are better.

And that is not bragging- I add lemon and for some reason they don’t, so mine taste sweeter and tangy-er and yummier.

This recipe makes a lot of bars- I cut them into  bars and serve them with tea.

They are light and sweet and sticky and delish!

                          Ingredients:

1 TBS yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1 tsp sugar

6 TBS butter

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg + 1 yolk

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

3+ cups of flour

1 1/3 cups sliced or slivered almonds( reserve until after you put on glaze)

glaze ingredients

2 tsp. lemon juice

2/3 cup sugar

1 stick butter

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup whipping cream

Method:

Proof yeast with warm water and tsp sugar.   Blend sugar with butter until fluffy, add eggs and mix until it looks curdled, then mix in yeast mixture.  Add milk,vanilla, salt and stir well.  Then add 2 1/2 cups flour and stir until you have a very sticky, wet dough.  Add last 1/2 cup of dough, and dump onto well floured surface and knead for about 5-7 minutes( you may add more flour as needed, but the dough should stay sticky and light).

Grease bowl, shape dough into a ball, drop into bowl, turn once to grease top of ball, and then cover with plastic wrap and let raise about 45 minutes.

Flatten into greased and foiled and greased jelly roll pan- Or you could put down parchment paper under the foil and only grease the top of the foil.

-raise another 45 minutes.

Whilst the dough is raising, put the ingredients for the glaze (EXCEPT
for the lemon juice) into a small pan and bring to a boil.  Add lemon juice and let simmer for 5 minutes.  Preheat oven to 375 F.

Now, when dough has risen slowly in jelly roll pan, pour glaze over top.  It will pool up in some areas- that is normal- and spread almonds evenly over top.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 375  F.  until top is golden brown.

Remove from oven, allow to cool for 10 minutes or so, then remove from pan and cut into bars.  OR- while still warm scatter white chocolate disks over top and when melted skim them over the top with knife spatula.  Remove foil and allow to cool, then cut into 2 inch bars.

I Love Asian-style foods.

They are aromatic and delicious and allow me to incorporate veggies that Frank would otherwise not eat.  And it is definitely not girly food!

Last night I made this for dinner and it was so good.  And good for me, since soba noodles are made from buckwheat which is good for diabetics because of it’s glycemic levels.

Meredith brought back the soba noodles when she came down in January.  ( She also brought a great assortment of dark chocolates- but that is ALL gone!)

The instructions are all in Japanese.  But I let the noodles  “dance” in boiling water for  7 minutes and then served them with the pork and veggies and the sauce from the marinade.  ( Does anyone know what I’m supposed to do with the little pink pill and small foil packet inside the cellophane wrapping?  I wasn’t sure, so I put it aside until I can identify the contents.)

Anyway, they cook up a slightly grey and tan color and make a very nice base for the sesame pork and snowpeas.

Ingredients:

boneless pork about 1 lb.- I used 4 small boneless chops

1- 12 oz. pkg of fresh snow peas

4-6 scallions- chopped on the diagonal , white and green

12 oz. fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

1 carrot or red pepper (for color)- sliced into slivers

2-3 TBS of sesame oil

a generous splash of olive or rice oil

sesame seeds

marinade-

1/4 cup sesame oil

1/4 cup golden sherry

1/8 cup olive or rice oil

1/4 cup soy or teriyaki sauce

1 minced clove of garlic

1 tsp. minced fresh ginger

Method:

Cut pork into thin pieces, cutting against the grain. 

In a shallow baking dish, mix together the marinade and stir the pork into it, coating all the meat.   Cover and put into fridge and let the flavors marry for at least 2-3 hours (or overnight, if you like a  stronger flavor).

Slice and dice up your vegetables- you may want to cut the ends off of the snow peas, but it isn’t really necessary.

Heat splash of olive/rice oil until you can see a slight shimmer and notice it just starting to smoke, then add the sesame oil and sear the pork quickly on both sides.  Only work with a handful of meat at a time, so that the oil doesn’t cool down or the meat will become tough.  When seared through- the color will no longer be pink- transfer meat into a warm serving dish. 

Now, add another splash of sesame oil and the scallions and carrot or red pepper.  Stir until translucent ( the onions) , add the mushrooms and pour the remaining marinade over the vegetables and keep stirring.

Add the snow peas, cook until they turn a very bright shade of green (about 4 minutes) and then add the cooked meat and stir everything back together.

In a small skillet sautee about 2 TBS of sesame seeds into 1 tsp of oil until lightly browned.  Sprinkle over the top of dish and serve over cooked soba noodles.

You may also heat up some soy sauce with a little sherry in it to pour over noodles- they tend to soak up sauce.

You can add a salad if you like- I just added a diet gingerale and a hefty portion of snowpeas!  Yum! Yum! and again I say, YUM!

I’ve been cleaning and baking and searching out toys.

Going through boxes of books and choosing the most interesting.

Making homemade noodles and preparing falafel and scrubbing out toilets and sinks and bathtubs and sweeping and mopping.

Aidan and his parents are coming for a short visit!

I don’t clean Jordan’s bathroom unless he has to share it.

I’m not sure how often he cleans it, but it gets a thorough job when his brother comes to visit.  (Luke, that is just one more reason why you should come more often!) 

I was going to buy falafel at Alladin’s when Ally and Aiden and I went.

But I had such a good time watching him work on a lemon slice that I forgot to order them until we were almost done eating.  So I figured I’d make them myself.

Isn’t this the cutest thing you’ve seen today?! 

But back to the making of falafels.

Because this is some real serious business. 

Lately, all I want to eat are falafels.  I LOVE GARBANZO BEANS!

And so does Aidan- so I’m making the falafel for him!  And me.

I promised you a recipe.  So here goes.

Ingredients:

Chickpeas- (or garbanzo beans) 16 oz. canOR

about 2 cups dried beans that you have soaked overnight.

If you are using the dried beans- you will need to drain them and put into fresh water in a pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for an hour.  Drain and cool for 15 minutes.

Reserve liquid from beans

1 clove garlic -chopped

1 onion-chopped

a handful of fresh parsley, chopped=1/3 cup

1 tsp coriander, ground

1 tsp cumin,ground

2 TBS flour

salt and pepper to taste

oil for frying

Method:

Combine all ingredients, except oil, in food processor.

Process until it is ground fine.

You may need to add a little of the liquid from the beans.  Add 1/4 cup at a time- you don’t want this to be runny- you are looking for a thick paste.

keep processing- not smooth enough.

It should look like this when it is ready to be fried in oil.  I’m sorry – I don’t have a picture of them fried yet!   The batter is sitting in my refrigerator waiting for the hot finale!

BUT- I won’t leave you here, I promise.

Make the batter into ping pong size balls and flatten slightly and then fry in about 2 inches of oil at 350 degrees for 5-7 minutes.

I will post pictures of the finished falafel, if they aren’t eaten up too quickly!

I’ve got to go- I went into the kitchen to grab my list of ingredients and I realized that I went upstairs to get dressed after making whole wheat bread dough and the batter for falafel, and I got distracted into cleaning the bathroom.

My kitchen is a disaster!  Pots and pans and cups and knives all over the place.

So, I’ll try to get up some pictures later.

It really is quite lovely.

And the taste is just perfect.

Especially if you love Scotch eggs.

AND I DO!

Nor only is it covered with bacon, but it is stuffed with boiled eggs!

And it is totally delicious.

I saw this on a blog from OZ and just decided to make it my own.

I was not thrilled with the recipe they offered, but the concept- I took it and ran!

So here is my adapted recipe for Scotch Meatloaf.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground round

1 lb. ground pork

1 lb. ground chicken(or turkey)

1 onion, medium, diced

3/4 cup chopped parsley

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp coarse ground pepper

1 cup bread crumbs

1 egg (raw)

1 tsp gravy magic or Worcestershire sauce

4 large boiled eggs, peeled

7 slices good quality bacon

Method:

Boil eggs- place in cold water and bring to boil.  Cover with tight fitting lid and time setting for 20 minutes.  Then pour out hot water and immediately immerse eggs into cold water.  You want them to cool off as soon as possible.

Boiling the eggs in this way insures that the yolks will not turn color and that the shell will release easily without tearing up the egg.

Peel  at least four of the eggs and set aside.

Mix together the first 10 ingredients in a large bowl.

You can use a strong wooden spoon- or just wash your hands well and mix together with your fingers.  Either way- make sure everything is well mixed- the best meatloaf needs a thorough amalgamation of ingredients. 

Optional: you may wish to add a bit of sage or fennel seed to the mix if you want a more sausage flavor.  I didn’t and it turned out very well- but I think it would be fun.

Now- divide the meat in half and put the first half into the bottom of your loaf pan and make an egg size trough down the center.  Put the eggs into the trough next to each other in a line.

And then, using the other half of meat, cover the eggs and pinch the sides together so that it is a solid loaf of meat.

Cover with thick slices of bacon and bake for at least an hour at 375 degrees.

I covered the top for the baking time and then turned the oven to broil and uncovered the loaf so that the bacon could crisp. 

Broil another 5 minutes- until bacon looks crisp enough for your taste.

This is a recipe that you will make over and over again, if you like meatloaf and eggs and bacon.

Add a salad and some sugar snap peas-

And dinner is served!

This is a reprinting of  two recipes from August-

F.R.O.G. Jam-

3 oranges juiced

2 (3 oz) packages of raspberry gelatin

4 cups mashed ripe figs

4 cups sugar

4 TBS. orange zest

4 TBS. fresh ginger, finely diced

Over medium heat, stir OJ and gelatin until dissolved.

Add chopped figs, sugar, orange zest and ginger. Let come to boil on med heat,

reduce to low, stirring often. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, continue stirring until mixture thickens.

Pour into sterilized jars, seal and place in canner filled with hot water. Process 15 minutes.

My version of FROG jam-

3 oranges juiced- about 1 cup liquid (add water if needed to get 1 cup)

1 (3oz) pkg. of raspberry gelatin (JELL-O)

1 pkg low sugar sure jell

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup splenda

4 cups chopped figs

1 Quart of fresh raspberries, cooked and reduced to liquid after you smash it

through a sieve to remove seeds.

4 TBS orange zest minced fine

4 to 5 TBS fresh ginger minced fine

In large saucepan, stir together OJ, raspberry juice, gelatin and pectin (surejel) until dissolved over medium heat.

It will take a while with a whisk but just keep stirring until there are no lumps. Add sugar,splenda , figs, orange

zest and ginger and bring to boil on medium heat. Reduce to low heat, but keep on a low boil and cook for about

25 minutes. Stir often or it will burn on the bottom or stick. When the mixture thickens, Pour into sterilized half pint

jars, and seal with rubber tops and rings. Place in hot water bath and process for 15 minutes.

Sugar is a preservative. Since I have taken so much out of this recipe, even when the jars are sealed, I would store in

the refrigerator and try to use within 6 months time.

-one of my most frequently requested recipes.  Because I just revisited the FROG  jam that I made ( at a tea in Chincoteague) and it was really, really good.  It was so good I wish I had made more- LOTS more.

So if you didn’t make it or copy it the first time- here’s another opportunity.

If you did- let me know how yours turned out.

  Long title, that! 

But I’ve discovered I get a lot of people looking for something specific and if you don’t title it- they can’t find it.

(my version of “If you build it they will come…)

I haven’t written in the last couple of days because:

1) I’m still sick

2)I’m still kind of whiney about it

3)I don’t want to write whiney.

So here is a great recipe for spaetzle- or German drop noodles/dumplings.

I never made these before Meredith went to Germany and came home longing for some.  In my family we made zsomervenka and spoon dumplings.  It is basically the same recipe, only the method is different.  But I love the method and the flavor of the spaetzle- so here it is!

It has a distinctive curly noodle look- and since you make them in boiling water, they don’t incorporate the flavor of the dish as much as enhance it.

The recipe is  basic noodle recipe;

2 cups flour (all purpose)

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk

Mix salt and flour with fork, making a well in the bottom of a medium sized deep bowl.  Beat eggs and milk together and pour into well, continue to beat liquids adding the flour into the mixture until the flour is totally incorporated.

I add a little more flour at this point- about 1/4-1/2 cup because I like my dough a little stiffer. ( If you want to make zsommervenka you need to add a lot more flour so that you can grate your noodles and allow them to dry slightly on tea towels.)  If you want to make dumplings, wet a spoon in your liquid-stew-soup- and drop small teaspoons of dough into hot liquid.

But if you want to make Spaetzle, then you need some extra equipment.

This is a Spaetzle maker.  It is a bowl that slides over a flat surface with holes on it to let the dough drizzle through and cook in the boiling water in the pot below. (I know- no boiling water-  I have made a lot of spaetzle and I have a proper respect for the boiling water, having burnt myself more time than you can imagine.  So- I’m not making the spaetzle AND taking pictures at the same time, thank you very much!)  

If you don’t have a spaetzle maker you can use a colander with large holes and push the dough through with a spatula.  The spaetzle maker costs between $12 and 18 dollars- buy it- it’s worth it!

You will also need a slotted spoon to take the spatzle out when it is done.  Since you are making these noodles on a continuous basis – about half way through stir the entire pot and take out the top layer of noodles.  The uncooked ones will sink to the lower pot of the pan when you stir it and you can continue cooking them for several more moments.  If in doubt- taste them.  YUM!  The cook’s privilege!

When cooked you can add them to beef stew, or chicken paprikash, or carmelize an onion and add to the spaetzle.

My favorite is to make an extra batch and then fry up some bacon and sautee an onion in the fat, add  the spaetzle ,crumbled bacon and 1 cup of chopped Swiss cheese until it is all melty and delicious!

So if it is cold and rainy or snowy outside, boil some water and make your kitchen all steamy and wonderful with homemade Spaetzle! 

Your family will thank you!

Probably too late for this year- although I think you could do a batch of the brandied cranberries today and not miss a beat.  And it is SO worth making a batch of these.

Brandy,cranberries, orange peel, sugar, and I added a dollop of orange marmalade.  These are seriously good- even if you don’t like cranberries-  seriously good. 

Brandied Cranberries Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 (12-ounce) bag of fresh or frozen cranberries
• 1 1/4 cups sugar (or substitute Splenda for half of the sugar)
• 1/2 cup brandy
• 2 TBS  finely chopped orange zest
• 2 heaping TBS orange marmalade

Method

1 Preheat oven to 325°F. Sort through cranberries and discard any that are soft or decayed.

2 Mix cranberries, sugar, brandy, and orange zest in a 8 or 9-inch baking dish. Bake uncovered until most of the liquid has evaporated, 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Makes 2 cups. Chill up to one week.

They bake in the oven- stir occasionally!

And this is the end result-

Take a closer look. 

I just ate one berry- and it is “oh my goodness” good.

The bread stuffing is made out of  honey whole wheat bread, cornmeal bread, and half a loaf of rustic white bread.  This is the best stuffing I’ve ever made.  The bread made  all of the difference.

Random comment about parsley……………………………

The French cooks use only the leaves and short stems of parley in their dishes.

The Italian chefs use the entire stem, chopping it fine and going for a more robust flavor.

I’m Slovak with Germanic influences-  I used mostly the leaves, but I picked through the stems for the more delicate ones and chopped them up as well. Because 2 bunches was just barely enough for the huge bowl of bread crumbs.

I used my own herbs rather than poultry seasoning, as well.

I dried the sage earlier.

Then I picked off the hard stems and rubbed it until it was pliable and broke up easily.  I put twice this much in the bowl.

And then added celery and onions sauteed in butter.

And fried sausage and crushed nuts- and you have stuffing.

Stir it all together and put it in a bag in the refrigerator to mingle the flavor.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Hope your day is filled with happiness and joy and good eats!

Yes, I did write that.

Two years ago, I wasn’t using a computer much- maybe once or twice a week to check email.

Four years ago, I was just barely using a cell phone.

Things have changed.  Times have changed.

Thanks to Meredith, I have changed.

She bought me a cell phone because she wanted to get a hold of me when she had a free moment and that didn’t always coincide with my home time.

She bought me a camera and gave me her lap top to use.

And so here I am- on the computer daily.  Blogging, emailing, Facebooking, and doing online college courses. 

Am I thankful for the extra time I need to spend to keep up with that schedule?

Not really.

I don’t read as much.  I don’t craft as much. And to be perfectly honest, I don’t clean my house as much.

BUT- I had a phone in the car and Patty could warn us about the nor’easter and the closing of the causeway in enough time for us to get across.

And I have some wonderful friends from blogging and Facebook that I wouldn’t know or be in touch with daily.

AND- I can share my recipes and cooking tips with a wide range of people.

So, yes, I am thankful for the opportunity to touch those around me in such a tangible yet technological way.

And to illustrate my point- here’s a wonderful way to make oven baked chicken legs.

Chicken drumsticks are always hard for me because they take so long to be done next to the bone.  I bake them a long time and it is still reddish in the center.

So, I looked at a LOT of cookbooks and picked up some hints that you might already have known.  I didn’t until recently, however, so I’m going to share.

The meat is so dense at the top that it takes a long time to cook.  But if you cut the meat from the top of the bone all the way down to the thin part of the leg and pull it away from the bone….

Then flour the entire leg ( I use a mixture of flour and spices- salt, pepper, and Old Bay seasoning).

Make sure you flour the cut side as well as the skin portion

Then brown the leg in about 4 TBS of vegetable oil in a pan that can go into the oven.

Place foil loosely over the top of pan to keep your oven from getting “oiled” by the spit of frying chicken.

And bake for 45 minutes to an hour at 350 degrees F.

You will be so happy with the results- AND there is no reddish pink meat next to the bone.  Add a salad and a baked potato and you have dinner!

Yumm!  I’m thankful for oven fried chicken today, too!

This particular post is dedicated to my brother, Bruce.

In fact, it is his idea.  Almost his idea.

I didn’t even know for sure that he read my blog.

But when I spoke with him last he asked me to do a blog on making fruitcake.

That’s right.  Fruitcake.

My family likes fruitcake.

Our mother had a great recipe that is chockful of nuts and candied fruit.

No raisins or dried apple slices or spices.

Fruit and nuts.

My mom would make it in early November and wrap it in cheesecloth soaked in brandy until Christmas.  So it is fruity and nutty and a little boozey.

The recipe – typical of ALL of my mother’s recipe is basically a list of ingredients with  temperature and baking times tacked on the end.

Fruitcake:

2 cups flour

1 3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 pint marachino cherries

1/2 lb. candied pineapple

1 lb. dates

1/2 lbs pecans

1/2 lbs. walnuts

1 lb. candied fruit mix

5 eggs, beaten

BAKE at 250 degrees F for 2 1/2  to  3 hours

I love looking at all my recipe files.  It is almost like visiting with Robin and my mom when I read their notes and recipe’s.

and getting together is a good reason  – so gather up your ingredients.

Just smell the deep and festive mix of  fruit and nuts!  

CLOSE UP!!!

Add flour, sugar and baking powder and stir until all of the flour and sugar is incorporated.

This smells so good!

add beaten eggs  to mixture  and stir well.

The dough is thick and looks very sticky.

Grease pans liberally and use wax or parchment paper to keep mixture from sticking to sides of your pan.

Now you can decorate the cakes, using candied pineapple and the red and green glacee cherries.  Cut the green pineapple into leaf shapes and the red into petals- pop some cherries in for the centers and you have bright and happy little fruitcakes!

You can make them in smaller sizes or in a large loaf pan- just make sure that you use parchment or wax paper and lots of Pam to keep them from sticking.

And then after you have baked them at a low temp (for the smaller cakes- bake them less time but not less than 45 minutes.  They get darker, but what you are looking for is a fairly firm texture.)

In my family-fruitcake is always a treat.

I like the mug- but if you like nuts and fruit- you will like love this cake!