Zucchini Patties

 Zucchini Patties

    This recipe comes to us from The Jubilee "of our many blessings" Cookbook by the United Methodist Women of Highland Park United Methodist Church, printed in 1991. This church is located in Dallas, Texas. It is not my church, but I pass by quite often.  It is a beautiful building. 

    In my last poll, the contestants were carrots and zucchini.  Zucchini won with about 56% of the 16 votes.  When I do polls, I already have recipes picked out and I'm ready for whichever main ingredient is declared is the winner.  I usually will make the runner-up the following week; next week's recipe will be Sweet and Sour Carrots. The recipe for this week's winning ingredient, zucchini, was submitted by the cookbook committee, not an individual member.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter

1 1/2 cups grated unpeeled zucchini (this was about 1 1/2 zucchinis)

2 tablespoons grated onion

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup flour

2 eggs

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1/4 teaspoon oregano

Salt and Pepper to taste

    I used the smaller grate side of a cheese grater for my zucchini which I had washed, dried and removed the ends of.  I forgot to pat dry the zucchini between towels before I put the shreds in my mixing bowl, but I did pat the mound of shreds with paper towels to get as much moisture as possible.  After shredding the zucchini, I melted butter in a large skillet on medium-low, because I didn't want the butter to burn.  Into my bowl of zucchini shreds, I added the rest of the ingredients, except for the salt and pepper.  I didn't end up adding salt or pepper. I didn't have plain oregano, so I used Italian Seasoning.  I used powered Parmesan cheese, but you could used freshly grated Parmesan if you can find it. It was perfectly fine with the powdered kind. I used a brand of mayo called Duke's Mayonnaise, which I've never used, but seems to have quite a following, so I'd thought I would try it. Mix your ingredients until well mixed.

    The recipe says to shape the mixture into six patties and while I did end up with six decent sized patties, the batter is too soft to shape and lay into the skillet.  I dropped mounds of the batter in the skillet, which I then spread into patty shapes. Cook until browned on both sides and serve plain or with tomato sauce and grated cheese or with sour cream and chives.  I did sour cream this time and didn't have chives, so I sprinkled parsley flakes on top and it looked quite pretty and it tasted good.  

  The verdict? I liked this recipe.  It wasn't difficult and did not take too long to make.  As a time saver, you could prep your onion and zucchini the night before and then just combine the ingredients and cook the next night.  This recipe is vegetarian. I bet you could make it vegan, if you know of vegan substitutes for the dairy products. 

Let me know if you try this and what you think about it. 

Green Beans with Garlic

Green Beans with Garlic 

    This is "spur of the moment" post.  I hadn't planned on talking about these green beans that I made.  Basically I had a bag of green beans, about a pound, which I had gotten on sale at a local Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market.  After washing my green beans, I cut the tips off both ends of the beans and put them into boiling water for a few minutes.  I wanted to partially cook them in water and finish in a skillet with garlic.  I didn't time how long I boiled them. I just cooked them until they were at texture which I liked.  They still had a bit of crispness as well as a nice, green color. 

    As the beans were cooking, I added a tablespoon or two of butter to my skillet and heated that up, adding about three cloves of minced garlic.  You can use margarine or cooking spray if you like. I stirred the garlic around for about three minutes, before draining the green beans and adding them to my skillet.  I simply just cooked the beans about four to five minutes with the garlic and butter.  I used Jane's Krazy Mixed-Up Salt instead of regular salt and pepper. This simple recipe would be good also without salt or a 'salt free' substitute.  

Ingredients:

Garlic to taste

Butter (approximately 2 tablespoons)

Green Beans

Salt & Pepper to taste

Bacon and Onion Pie

 Bacon and Onion Pie

    I've wanted to make a quiche for a long time, but never have.  This pie is pretty much a quiche; it's just not called a "quiche". I have a set of four book set of Favorite Recipes of America cookbooks from 1968 and this recipe comes from the "Vegetables" book, which also says "including fruits" on the cover.  This amuses me that it mentions it includes fruits. I started by pre-heating my oven to 375 degrees. I made my piecrust using a recipe from a 1978 The Family Circle Pies and Cakes Cookbook. This recipe was submitted by Mrs. Jack Roberts of Augusta, Georgia. I'm not good at rolling out pie crusts or making them look pretty in the pie pan and this time I was par for the course.  The crust was pretty horrid looking (I used a 9 inch pie pan and used a nine inch single crust recipe) as it had torn a bit. I poked  holes around the crust with a fork, after I'd done as best I could getting the crust into the pan and patching a few places. You do not pre-bake this crust. 

    Next, instead of cooking my bacon and then crumbling it, I cut it up befre cooking until crispy. When crispy, I removed the bacon to a paper towel covered tray. As the bacon had cooked (I stirred it around occasionally) I chopped up my onion.  The recipe calls for four large onions and after I'd chopped one onion, I knew that two were going to be plenty and it turns out I was right on that.  Two large onions were perfect for this. I cooked the onion in the bacon grease until clear & softened, returned the bacon to the pan, combining the onion and bacon before removing the pan from the burner to cool. I mixed sour cream and eggs until well incorporated and combined the sour cream and egg mixture with the bacon and onion mixture. Here is where it was helpful to have the onion and bacon mixture cooled. When mixing hot ingredients with eggs, you need to either cool the hot ingredients  before mixing or temper the egg with a little bit of the hot mixture, before combining the two.  If you don't it will not be smooth.  It will look more like the egg bits in fried rice.

    Once the egg/sour cream and the bacon/onion mixtures were well combined, I added a 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper, as well as a 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning and poured everything into my crust and placed it into my oven for about 37 minutes.  The recipe says to bake for 30 to 45 minutes and I set my timer for 37, because I could always cook the pie longer if necessary. As it was, at 37 minutes, there was no need to cook it longer. The pie was gorgeous, in my humble opinion and even my wonky pie crust looked fine around the edges. After cooling for about 15 minutes or so at least (I actually lost track, because I was anxious to cut into it), I served myself a good slice with a sprinkle of finely shredded Cheddar-Jack cheese. 

    The verdict?  I really liked this and I would definitely make this again. I thought the pie was visually appealing, the pie crust turned out really good, I liked both the finished texture and flavor. The recipe calls for caraway seed, which I didn't have and I was going to substitute dill seed, but at the last minute, decided to use the Italian seasoning instead and  I'm glad I did. Other options could be cajun seasoning, chili powder, garlic powder or try something different. As always, let me know if you try this.  

Fudge

 Fudge

    Yep, so I did a poll a few weeks ago to see what I should make.  Would it be Fudge, or would it be Peanut Brittle? The winner was Fudge and I finally made it today.  It was delayed partially due to the snow & ice storm we had in Texas. The weather to me wasn't the main issue, it was the power outages and living without power and heat in below freezing temperatures.  It sure is a reminder of and gives me (and others also) an appreciation for all that I have.  

    Anyhow, so this Fudge recipe comes from the 1949 The American Woman's Cook Book. I made it as is, using the option of light corn syrup instead of cream of tartar.  The first thing I did was grate my two squares of unsweetened chocolate into a medium sauce pan, using a zester. Next I added sugar and mixed before adding my liquid ingredients of milk and corn syrup and making sure all ingredients were well incorporated. I cooked on medium-low, stirring occasionally, until the mixture boiled and reached 'soft ball' stage. Once the chocolate mixture reaches the 'soft ball' stage, you remove your pan from heat, plop your butter on top and let the mixture cool to lukewarm *Do not stir the butter in*.  When your mixture is lukewarm, add your vanilla and stir that all together with the butter and chocolate.  Beat the mixture until "it creams". The recipe says this is when it's no longer shiny and a bit of the chocolate will hold it's shaped when dropped from a spoon.  That's how I tested, because I felt it stayed pretty shiny.  Pour your mixture into a buttered pan. I used a glass 8x8 pan and was happy with the thickness of the pieces when I cut them.  I cut my squares when it was completely cooled.  The recipe says "when it hardens" is when you "mark it into squares".  I thought it was still fairly soft, but I was able to remove my squares and put in a Tupperware container to help maintain freshness. 

The verdict? I thought it turned out really tasty.  It's pretty much pure sugar, so you don't need big pieces. Although I thought the finished fudge was soft, I liked it.  If it was chilled, I'm sure it would maintain shape really well. I would definitely make this recipe and it would be fun to try so many of the obvious additions: nuts, marshmallows, peanut butter, etc. But what about cayenne, cinnamon or chipotle? A little bit of surprise heat, would be exciting. And, what about trying almond, coffee or mint flavor extract instead of vanilla?? Mix it up. Make it yours. 

If you try this recipe, let me know what you think.  

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1 or two squares chocolate (I used 2 squares unsweetened)

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar or 2 tablespoons corn syrup (I used corn syrup)

2/3 cup milk (I used 2%)

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons butter (I used unsalted)

Lemonchick's Turkey & Vegetable Soup

 Lemonchick's Turkey & Vegetable Soup

    Well, I had a little bit of an unplanned hiatus. I had planned to make fudge the week February 14th and then we had a major ice/snow storm (It snowed twice that week) which knocked out power for millions of Texans, all over the state. Some had no power for 5 days or more. Some like me, had multiple power outages, which in some cases lasted hours at a time and others for short periods.  My longest outage was about 18 hrs. Some had power on and off constantly the whole time and some never lost any power at all. I won't go into any more of that, but I will say the fact that we had the weather wasn't the issue, it was the power outages causing no heat in freezing temps. So, that is one of the reasons for the delay in another post. 

    Anyhow, back to the business at hand. When I went shopping the other day, I picked up a package of soup vegetables at a Fiesta grocery store, for just over $4.00. Most Hispanic grocery stores will have these packs of soup vegetables.  All you have to do is chop up the veggies, add them to broth, add seasonings and meat if you like. There was plenty of chopped vegetables and it would have been just fine without meat. The pack I got came with onion, a type of Mexican squash that I don't know, a small bit of corn, cilantro, carrot, a small red-skinned potato, cabbage and a piece of celery.  

    I prepped my veggies by washing them first and then chopping them into small pieces. You can chop them as small as you like. I put my carrot, potato and corn into the soup pot which I had poured two 32oz containers of chicken broth and 3 cups of water (I'd turned the pot on to start heating while I was chopping the vegetables) into. I added the cabbage, squash and celery, followed by two cubes of Knorr tomato bouillon with chicken flavor and about 5 cloves of garlic (finely diced). I added a little more than two cups of cooked, chopped turkey meat and 1/4 cup of quick cooking brown rice and boiled everything until my harder vegetables were soft. Honestly I didn't time it. Just cook until your vegetables are as tender as you like. I added chopped cilantro and 1/4 teaspoon and cooked it just a little bit longer, before serving myself a bowl with a sprinkle of sriracha sauce. The verdict? Yummmmmmmmmm.  And, now I have food for the whole week, because it was a huge pot of soup! 

Options: Use vegetable stock and leave out turkey for a vegetarian version.  Change it up and add different seasonings.  I did not use salt in mine, but you can salt to taste. Use beef broth and use chopped beef. Use chicken, instead of turkey. Sprinkle queso fresco or a bit of your favorite cheese on top when you serve. Make it your own!

Ingredients:

1 pack of soup vegetables (Mine had a wedge of a small cabbage, 1 small red-skinned potato, 1 small Mexican squash, 1 piece of celery, 1 piece of corn-on-the-cob, cilantro and about 4 or so good sized pieces of a giant carrot)

2 32oz containers of chicken broth

3 cups water (I used straight from the faucet, because I'm fancy)

5 cloves garlic (or to taste)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 tomato bouillon cubes with chicken flavor (or plain ol' chicken bouillon cubes)

1/4 cup quick cooking brown rice

Sriracha or your favorite hot sauce for extra flavor in your bowl

Lemonchick's Cheesy Turkey Rice Casserole

 Lemonchick's Cheesy Turkey Rice Casserole

    Wow! Yes, this is the third recipe I've posted this weekend.  This one is special, because it is my own creation. I created it using ingredients I had at home. Turkey is in the title, but you could substitute chicken or tofu/paneer cheese if you're vegetarian.  I am so excited by how this turned out.  Try it and let me know how you like it.  

2 cups cooked turkey (cut into chunks)

2 cups cooked brown rice

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 packet dry onion soup mix

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 cup shredded cheese 

Sour cream

    Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cook your rice according to directions and set aside in a good-sized mixing bowl. Add the tomatoes (do not drain), cream of chicken soup, onion soup mix, and the Italian seasoning, stirring after each addition. Cut 2 cups of cooked turkey into chunks and stir into the rice mixture. Stir in half of the shredded cheese. Make sure all ingredients are thoroughly incorporated and spread into a 9x13 pan (spray with cooking spray or lightly oil) and sprinkle the remaining half cup of shredded cheese. Bake in your oven uncovered for 30 minutes. Remove and cool slightly (or as long as you can wait). Serve with a dollop of sour cream.  You could get at least 6 - 8 servings or maybe more, depending on how big everyone's appetites are.  

    Variations: Use chicken or if you are vegetarian, use tofu or paneer cheese cubed and cooked; white rice instead of brown, cream of celery soup instead of cream of chicken; if you're watching your sodium intake, try using low sodium version of the soups; try diced tomatoes withe chilis; chipotle seasoning instead of Italian seasoning. 

Tampa Tea

 Tampa Tea

    I didn't intentionally pick this drink to make (to enjoy with my fried cheese balls appetizer), but it just so happens that it is Super Bowl Weekend and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are playing in the game.  I am rooting for the Bucs, because the brother of a co-worker friend of mine is on the Bucs. In his first NFL season, he has the chance to play in a Super Bowl. 

    This recipe is in the 1958 Good Housekeeping's Book of Ice Creams & Cool Drinks cookbook. I will be making more recipes from this book, because "Hello! It has ice cream in the title!!!" This drink is super, super easy. It is just black tea, orange juice, sugar, lime juice and ice water. Your base is black tea, so you make that first, by boiling water and steeping two teabags for at least 3 minutes. Stir in a 1/2 cup of sugar to the hot tea, until the sugar is dissolved. I mixed my 2 1/2 cups of orange juice into my 4 cups of ice water and added the 1/2 cup of lime juice, then stirred in the tea. 

    This tea drink is good, but I would make it again with less sugar and would probably even try it without the extra 1/2 cup of sugar. I also would make a stronger tea base with maybe 4 teabags instead of 2 teabags. Do it to your taste though.  Use all the sugar. Add more or less tea.  The recipe calls for pouring 8 tall ice filled, glasses of this concoction and garnishing with fresh pineapple fingers or sprigs of mint.  

    One last suggestion is that I feel that this drink would make a good base for a mixed alcoholic drink. Try gin, vodka, tequila, bourbon or whiskey.  I have the first three and am not a big fan of the last two, so that's a no-go for me on the bourbon and whiskey. Make sure that if you have little ones in your household, you add liquor to only the glasses for adults.  

This is my oh, so helpful helper, Rooster.