It's that time of year. Time to drive myself crazy looking for the perfect neighbor gift for 12 or so families. It's a Utah tradition, Neighbor Gifts. Most everyone does it. And there is stiff competition afoot. One family dropped off warm bread wrapped in a dish towel and a jar of Lingonberry Jam. Yum! Another brought Hot Cocoa and another Roasted Tomato Soup.
The fun part is trying to think up a cute saying for the tag. Since my gift includes a small bar of artisan soap, our tag reads "We 'Soap' your Christmas is Clean and Bright!" Not too shabby for an amateur.
This recipe was in my recipe box labeled "Corn Starch Cookies". Not very appetizing, huh? I've renamed them in honor of the TWO FEET of snow that dumped on the east coast this weekend. Stay warm y'all.
Snowy Meltaways
1 Cup Butter (two sticks) don't use margerine
3/4 Cup unsifted Corn Starch
1/3 Cup unsifted Powdered Sugar
1 Cup unsifted unbleached Flour
Using beaters, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add corn starch and powdered sugar. Stir in flour. Chill 4 hours. Roll into 24 balls and press thumb very lightly in top to make small indentation. Bake 12-14 minutes at 350 degrees. Might be less depending on your oven. Make sure they are not browned.
Frosting
3 oz Cream Cheese softened
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
Food coloring as desired (I split mine in half after mixing, then 1 drop of green in half and 1 drop red in the other)
Cream and together then frost cooled cookies. Just spread a small dollop on each then refrigerate to set.
Corn Pudding is likely on every Thanksgiving and Christmas table throughout the Southern US. Midwesterners hardly ever heard of it but everyone seems to love it. Its a great side dish, very moist and buttery with just a touch of sweet.
You make the whole thing in one pan, pop it in the oven for an hour and yum.
Corn Pudding
1 (8.5 oz) Box Jiffy Corn Bread Mix (you know, those little blue boxes?) or any corn bread mix that size
1 Can Creamed Corn (14 oz)
1 Can Whole Kernel Corn (14 oz) - DRAINED
1 Stick melted butter
2 Eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 Tblsp sugar (can be omitted)
Melt butter in 9 x 9 pan (microwave 10 seconds at a time). Add corn ingredients first to make sure butter isn't hot after melting that will curdle eggs. Then the add the rest, straight into pan. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees until brown (at high altitude 375.) Serves 4 to 6 (use 9 x 13 pan if you double this recipe)
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I am also including a recipe to make it from scratch (this is a bit larger so use 9 x 13 pan), still 350 degrees for 1 hour.
2 Cup Flour
1 Cup Cornmeal
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 Tsp Salt
3 Tsp Baking Powder
Doug, I forgot to tell you today that there is a small package coming tomorrow for you. Be careful of the spider and the toothpicks - that's all I'm gonna say about that. LOL.
Enjoy.
From: Doug Subject: Re: package
To: Mom
Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 1:30 AM
MOM, I'm just gonna throw out the box. I don't want a spider to jump in my face. You better not have mailed me a spider. I will freak! - Doug
From: Doug Subject: Re: package To: Mom Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 3:14 PM
Hi Mom. I got the package. Thank you for the krispie eyeballs and spider. They will be delicious. You should've seen me try to open the box. I was scared you actually put a real spider in the box. I slowly opened each flap of the box and I had a can of Raid next to me. Good job on creeping me out Mom.
- dougie
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Ok, you know your kid is watching too many late-night scary movies when he assumes his own mother is sending him spiders via UPS.
Was he imagining I had impaled them alive on toothpicks and mounted them to foam boards? Then wrung my hands in glee just before I sealed the box and handed it off to the hunky driver wearing brown? Arachnophobia anyone? (In all fairness, he did have a scary encounter with a pretty good sized spider in my family room.)
I was telling my co-worker about Doug's assumption of what I sent him as a Halloween treat. She owns two Tarantulas and thought it was a MARVELOUS idea to send Doug the shell from her little baby the next time it molts.
What do 3 gallons of paint, 80 pounds of apples, and 4 bushels of grapes have in common? They are just the latest in a long list of projects that stem from an obsessive/compulsive personality disorder I've been living with since buying my first issue of Martha Stewart.
WHY do I feel a need to start horrendous projects that cover every surface in my kitchen and cause Fred to hide in the garage playing with ropes? Seriously, isn't one gallon of applesauce enough? Five gallons of grape juice? OF COURSE NOT. There are apples and grapes rotting on trees and vines within a 10 mile radius of my kitchen. They must not be wasted. Save me.
This is how sick I am. Even though I couldn't stand bottling one more half gallon of grape juice, those blasted grapes hanging on the vine over in 'lil old Margaret Beecher's yard were only going to be good for another week. And then they'd be gone. Until next year. And OH MY HECK I may not have canned enough. So I picked 'em. Then I de-stemmed 'em. And I FROZE them, cause you never know if maybe we'll need another SEVENTY gallons of grape juice during the long, hard, Utah winter.
Speaking of winter. It's been a long, LONG, disputed goal of Fred's to put in new windows. Disputed, my friends, because my very illogical, female, reasoning says that the $5000 spent on new windows (that will save, oh, maybe $200 per winter) translates into 25 YEARS before we break even. But, hey, whatever stills the waters.
Turns out, that in order to put in new windows, we had to rip off all the exterior window trim. This turned into weeks and weeks of trying to find someone who was creative enough to put it back. To save a little money, I volunteered to paint all the new wood trim. I JUST LOVE to paint. No, really. And I have nothing else to do.
Uhh, but it turns out you can't paint when the temperature is below 50. Well that's a problem since all our delaying to find the right carpenter put us into early November. We lucked out, though, with TWO, count 'em, TWO days to get 200 feet of window trim painted. No problem. I'm the queen of bite off more than I can chew.
But I did it! It's beautiful and the best part? I got to paint the front door orange!! (You can send your condolences to Fred Schubert, Sandy, Utah.)
Oh, and in an effort not to be idle for a spare minute, I ALSO decided that I needed to make these adorable Rice Krispie spiders for my niece and nephew for Halloween. There's a great story that goes with this particular project. I'll save that for my next post. In the meantime, if you are ever plagued with 80 pounds of apples, here's how you can turn it into 10 gallons of applesauce:
Gatorgirl's Southern Applesauce
(thanks to Lynne W., my personal librarian)
Use enough apples to fill a large non-stick pot.
Jonathon, Gala, Red Delicious, Yellow Delicious or a combo of any sweet apples.
Wash, core and quarter. Leave skins on for flavor.
As you cut them, drop them in 2 quarts of water with 2 Tblsp of lemon juice.
This will keep them from turning brown.
Once all are cored and cut, drain off water.
Put them in pot, with 1/4 cup of sugar on top plus two or three cinnamon sticks (if you like cinnamon)
Turn heat on med-high and cover. Leave the sugar on top of apples so it doesn't scorch on bottom. Once the lid is too hot to touch (about 15 min) turn heat down to med-low, stir apples, and let cook for 45 min. Stir occasionally.
Turn pot off, leaving lid on. Let cool. Mash the apples down and hand pick out the peels. Makes great chunky applesauce!
I am staying inside today but Fred is going hiking. In the snow. Brrr.
I'm SO not ready for winter. It was just 70 degrees on Wednesday. But it IS a great day to try out Grandma Schubert's Maultaschen recipe. It's Schwabish you know. So Fred has Schwabian blood in his veins? That explains many, many things.
Fred has very fond memories of visiting his grandmother in Poughkeepsie (puh-kip-see), New York. He watched her make Maultaschen as well as Spaetzle, German-style potato salad, and Sauerbraten. Fred's been anticipating eating Maultaschen ever since the recipe arrived from his Dad. It was a bit hard to decipher but I think I got it right. I love that this was typed by Frieda and has her handwriting in the margins. You can almost hear her accent. Although her recipe calls for making her own dough, I decided to try a short cut to save some time. Fred says its passable but we will be making this another time and rolling the dough ourselves. I will add the dough recipe at the end of my post if you have the time to make it. NOTE: We rolled our own dough on Sunday. Make the effort. It make a big difference in the taste.
1 box frozen spinach thawed
1 large yellow onion
3 Tblsp butter
7 slices old bread
3 lbs good ground beef
2 eggs
salt and pepper
2 packages wonton wrappers
(makes enough to feed a Schwabian platoon AND the Shoell Family - cut in half for a normal family)
Chop the spinach and onion in a food processor.
Pulse until just chopped, NOT creamy.
Melt the butter in med hot pan. Saute the spinach and onion for 5 minutes. Put two slices of semi stale bread in processor and pulse. Soak the remaining 5 slices of bread in water. Actually just run it under the faucet quickly then squeeze the water out as best you can.
Put the spinach mixture, chopped bread and wet bread in a bowl. Add the burger, eggs, salt and pepper. I used 2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp pepper. Then I used my hands to mix it well. Really get everything squished together. Instead of making my own dough this time, I decided to use wonton wrappers. Lay out the wrappers on a dry board, then put about 1 tablespoon of the mixture in the center and spread a bit but don't get close to the edges or it won't seal well. Use a brush or your finger to spread a little water around the edges then cover with another wrapper and press edges together. They seal easily.
I boiled about 6 cups of water for 25 or so dumplings. Add 2 teaspoons of salt to water. Once at a good boil, add dumplings and bring temp down so its at a simmer (don't want to tear the dumplings up in a rolling boil.) Cook for 15 minutes, ladle out dumplings with some of the broth and salt to taste. I would recommend adding a bit of beef bouillon in place of one of the tsp of salt for more flavor, but salt and pepper to taste.
Nudel Dow (Noodle Dough)
(cut in half if you halved the filling recipe) 8 cups flour through sieve 8 eggs 2 Tblsp salt Enough water to hold together (start with 4 Tblsp and add as you need) Keep hands floured while mixing (yes with your hands). This is a stiff dough, you will need to work it for about 30 minutes. Keep flouring your hands so it doesnt stick.
I suggest rolling this out with a pasta machine working up to the number 6 setting. If not, roll out portions until it is very, very thin. Cut strips 5 inches long by 2 1/2 inches wide. Put a tablespoon of mixture in center of one end, spread a bit with a fork, then fold over and seal. Gute Nacht - Mahlzeit!
I can just bet that most of my Midwestern friends are covering their eyes and sticking their fingers in their ears screaming, CRIPES SAKE, why would you put fish in a taco?! EH DERE, what's wrong with hamburger and Lawry's taco seasoning?
When I first moved to Utah, someone mentioned that the best fish tacos were served at a crazy looking joint on Fort Union, called Lone Star. I gasped. Why would anyone think it was a good idea to put fish in a taco. It was the most foreign concept I'd heard. Well Frog Eye Salad probably tops fish tacos but I'll leave that recipe for another day. A very distant day. Shudder. Sorry Utah.
But I continued to hear about fish tacos everywhere they served Mexican food, so I asked around. How did Utahns come to put fish in their tacos? The answer is simple really. Being on the left coast of the country, the Mexicans who migrated up North were mostly from the coastline of Mexico, not from the central area that fed immigrants into the Midwest. And being on the coast, naturally they used a lot of fish in their dishes.
So I made my first trip to Lone Star and fell in love with the limey, smokey tacos covered with coleslaw and a touch of lime dressing, served in a white corn tortilla. Light and refreshing. And their 'taco stand' is very cool including a broken down station wagon and old cowboy boots nailed to the fence posts.
The fish tacos were not difficult to recreate. I came up with a very simple version of their dressing, added a bit of jalapeno jack cheese, some tomatoes from my garden and hey, muy bueno, mi amigos. I think I could even talk some Wisconsites into trying one.
Chipotle Lime Dressing
1/4 cup Green Goddess Dressing
1 Tbsp fresh Lime Juice
A couple dashes of Spice House Chipotle Pepper (or ground red pepper
1/8 Tsp Spice House Sweet Ancho Chile (your store brand of chile powder
Taco Ingredients
Salmon (or other grilled fish) -marinated for 15 min in 2 Tbs veg oil and 2 Tbs lime juice and rubbed with Spice House Sweet Ancho Chile powder
White Corn Tortillas
Diced Tomatoes
Jack or Jalepeno cheese, shredded
Shredded cabbage (I bought a bag of cole slaw cabbage, already shredded)
To put together the tacos, you can brush a small about of oil on the tortillas and quickly heat them in a hot skillet, or microwave them for 15 seconds which will warm them nicely without the oil.
Load them with just a small handful of cabbage, then add a few small pieces of fish, tomatoes, cheese and drizzle with the Chipotle Lime Dressing. When it comes to tacos its always better to load less ingredients than to have everything fall out on the first bite.
The lazy days of summer are here. I can't get motivated to do much more than the minimal cooking - rather, we've been grabbing bagged salads and adding tomatoes from my garden and sometimes resorting to cold cereal for dinner.
In fact this meal was from two weekends ago when I still had some gas in my motor. That's how little I've cooked lately.
Yawn. Stretch. Sigh. Is it Autumn yet?
So, a simple meal: Buy a couple tuna steaks, marinade them for 10 minutes in a mixture of 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 3 tablespoons olive oil (never marinate seafood longer than 20 minutes or the vinegar part of your marinade will precook it). Then sear them on a very hot grill for 3 minutes on each side (more if you don't like raw, less if you do).
Cut some thick slices of watermelon, spray or brush with olive oil, then grill for 2 min on each side and drizzle with balsamic vinegar. That vinegar is a beautiful accent to the sweetness of the watermelon.
Make a small salad with your favorite vinegarette and enjoy a warm summer evening before they are a memory.
(A happy American dumpling) 
I can just bet that most of my Midwestern friends are covering their eyes and sticking their fingers in their ears screaming, CRIPES SAKE, why would you put fish in a taco?! EH DERE, what's wrong with hamburger and Lawry's taco seasoning?
