Friday's Fave Foods---

Today's recipes come from my blogging buddy SC in Wisconsin. She has published some great recipes on her blog and was generous enough to send some to me for this site. Her blog is also where I found "Pioneer Woman Cooks"(see sidebar for link) which is an awesome cooking blog!

SC writes;
"It's so nice to have a cooking blogger friend :) Here are two recipes I'd like to share. They are two of my favorite things to make, and my grandpa loves them. They are from a good friend's Canadian Mennonite mother-in-law."

CHOCOLATE CHERRY BARS
1 devils food cake mix
21 oz can of cherry pie filling
1 tsp almond extract
2 eggs beaten

Stir all ingrediants until well mixed. Pour into a 9x13 cake pan and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Frost with the following;

FROSTING
Combine in saucepan
1 cup sugar
5 tbsp butter
1/3 cup milk
Boil one minute stirring constantly and add 1 cup chocolate chips. (I alwaysadd alittle more;) Frost warm cake.


HAMBURGER VEGETABLE SOUP
2lb hamburger
1/1/2 cup chopped onion (I use less)
1 box (2 envelopes) Lipton Onion Soup Mix
6 cups water
2 cups celery sliced
2 cups carrots sliced
1/2 package mixed frozen vegetables
3/4 cup small pasta
28 oz can pureed tomatoes
2 cans tomato soup
salt and pepper to taste

Brown Hamburger together with chopped onion. Add soup mix with 6 cups water in large pot. Add celery and carrots, simmer until tender. In separate pot cook noodles with frozen vegetables. Add noodles and veggie, meat, tomatoes, tomato soup, and salt and pepper to large pot. Salt and Pepper to taste. Simmer another ten minutes and serve.

Deal of the Day---Home Decor Patterns at Fabric.com

I am crazy about this site. Today they have home decor patterns on sale, and they have the coolest patterns! It just so happens I am in the planning stages of decorating the girl's room, so I am shopping bit by bit. I bought the rose cotton-linen blend at 90"wide, for $1.99 a yard for duvet covers a few weeks ago, and now am looking at coordinating fabrics. The paint I bought from the paint man at the flea market. He buys the returns from the name brand stores and sells them for 3-5 dollars, depending on his mood and the time of day! The only downside is that he generally does not have two gallons of the same color, but I often mix my paint anyway, so I have found ways to make this work.

My reasoning is to save money where I can, because there are some things I am going to splurge on. The printed fabric is a sample of Amy Butler's Lotus pattern, and it's $14.99 a yard at f.com of course I am waiting for it to go on sale! It's a 54" brushed cotton twill, and I hope to make a coverlet for each bed, and some valances. I'm looking for a small green and ivory toile for the third fabric. It's quite a ways off before all this has to be completed, but at least I am planning!

Friday's Fave Foods---Stewed Chicken with Dumplings

Part of my fascination with food and recipes is the geographical element. Wherever you go in the world, the local cuisine makes a statement about the place you are in. What products are available locally, what the economy is like. (I'm not talking about fast food here, that is a completely different subject, and one I will spare you from today)

Moving to the American South 13+ years ago opened up an entire new universe of food lingo and experiences! The great thing about cooking is that like gardening, like life, it is a process. Southern cooking is a deeply layered experience that spans generations of families, steeped in lore, tradition, economy, and sometimes survival. One of the greatest experiences I've had in my life is having lifelong Southern cooks open up to me, a native Californian, with their knowledge and their techniques. It's not stuff you will find in books! Out of respect, alot of that will never be published by me.

However, once you learn the lingo, a great source for Southern Cooking are the fundraising cookbooks that you find which are put together by families, schools, communities and churches. If you are interested in learning about regional cooking in the US, this is a great resource. My friend Janet sells one of these cookbooks, and it's from *Reed Creek Country Cooking that today's very traditional Southern recipe is derived.

**Stewed Chicken with Dumplings

Chicken

2 qt. boiling water

1 TBSP salt

1 cup flour

Pinch of salt

1 egg 1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup milk

Cut chicken in pieces and add to boiling water. Add salt; cook until chicken is tender. Mix flour, pinch of salt and baking powder, stir in slightly beaten egg. Add milk for dumpling dough. Drop 1 TBSP of dough at a time into broth around chicken. Steam 8 minutes in covered cooker. If uncovered while steaming, dumpling will fall.

Submitted by: Pearl Pyatt

*Reed Creek is a community in Hart County, Georgia

**She is not kidding about steaming the dumplings, if you uncover the pot before 8 minutes, you have messed up. Do not overcook the dumplings. Also, do not overwork the dumpling dough. I sometimes add fresh chopped parsey or parsley flakes to the dumpling dough. It's not shown in the picture, but the dumplings will blow up to about 5 or 6 times the original size, and they are good!

Friday's Fave Foods---Southern Lemon Cake

Today's recipe is an old Southern favorite. I found it in Frances Maynes "Under The Tuscan Sun". She included it in her recipe chapter. It was the only recipe in her book that was not Italian. Ms. Maynes is a native of Georgia, and she adapted it from her family's collection of recipes. I have made this cake many times, and it is wonderful!

Southern Lemon Cake

1 cup sweet butter

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking poweder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

3 TBSP lemon juice

zest of one lemon

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 & 1/2 cup powdered sugar

3 TBSP lemon juice (again)

1. Cream together 1 cup butter and sugar, beat in 3 eggs, one at a time, the mixture should

be light.

2. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt.

3. Add dry mix to butter/sugar mixture, alternating with butter milk. Begin and end with

flour mixture.

4. Add lemon juice and lemon zest.

5. Bake in a greased and floured tube pan at 300 degrees for 50 minutes. Test doneness with

toothpick.

6. Glaze with mixture of softed bugger, powdered sugar and lemon juice. Decorate with tiny

curls of lemon rind. (I have also used thinly sliced lemon, cut on one side and twisted, to

garnish)

Beagle Is Numero 'Uno' at Westminster

This made me smile today

Friday's Fave Foods---Lemon Meringue Pie

This recipe comes from my mom, Carol. She made this pie my entire life, and she was famous for it. My dad loved it. I just found out in October when she came for a visit it actually came from "Better Homes and Gardens", 1957 edition. I thought it was a secret family recipe! Enjoy!



Lemon Meringue Pie
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups water
1 TBSP butter
1/4 cup cornstarch
3 TBSP cold water
6 TBSP lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon peel (she never did this, but I would)
3 egg yolks
2 TBSP milk
1 8-inch pastry shell (she always made hers, not me :)



MERINGUE:
3 egg whites
6 TBSP sugar
1 tsp lemon juice



Combine sugar, water, and butter, heat until sugar dissolves. Add cornstarch blended with cold water; cook slowly until clear, about 8 minutes. Add lemon juice and peel; cook 2 minutes. Slowly add egg yolks beaten with milk; bring to boil. Cool. Pour into cooled baked shell. MERINGUE: Beat egg whites stiff but not dry; add sugar gradually; add lemon juice at the last. Sperad over cooled filling, sealing to edges of pastry. Brown in moderate over (350) 13 to 15 minutes.

Easing Water Retrictions in Georgia?

Lake Lanier

Well, finally! http://onlineathens.com/stories/020708/news_20080207021.shtml

The Govenor came out yesterday with the announcement that there will be some easing of watering restrictions this spring, and what good news that is! It will be up to individual counties and regional officials whether or not to implement the ease or not. Even though my water supply is regulated by a heavily legislated local county, I am hopeful that we will see some easement in our area. Because there is also the pressure of commerce, thankfully.

So....I am still doing the water barrell. We are still officially in a drought, even though the local rivers are swollen with rain and the resevoir is in good shape. The state is still just under the deficit level, and if things dry up, it could get real bad, real quick, again. Coming from the West, I know why water is political there. (Simply not enough of it much of the time) I did not realize until this week WHY it is so political here. Lake Lanier, which is the major urban water source for metro Atlanta (approximately 4 million people) is also a federal water basin, which means that some neighboring states are entitled to that water. The govenor of Georgia filed a lawsuit to keep the water within the state, and was denied. This means that in addition to supplying drinking water to other states, federally mandated programs having to do with conservation of endangered species (in one of these cases, freshwater mussels in a state to our south) have as much right to the water supply as the people of metro Atlanta, who use it as their main water source. Lake Lanier came periously close to drying up this winter, although the Army Corp of Engineers assured everyone that they could still get water by drilling thru the sludge of the dried up lake, ie, the water table. Nice, huh???? Fortunately Nature and God intervened, and we have seen some decent rain this winter, although it was predicted otherwise.

I'm not judging(in public). I'm just saying.

Personally, my water source does not come from Lake Lanier. I'm not on a well, but I know alot of people who are. I know alot of people have been worried and some re-drilled, but I personally do not know anyone who's well dried up. These people kept the landscaping industry on life support over the past 6 months.

Do I feel selfish about my garden? A little bit. But it is a source of joy for me, one that I cannot squelch. It's a living thing...not only in my yard, but inside of me. And it's not protected by the Feds, so it's up to me!

Helleborus or Lenten Rose

Why do I love this plant? First of all, it blooms in the middle of winter! And it will stay in bloom through out most of the spring. The flowers fade once we start to sustain some hot weather, usually around May. The glossy and attractive foliage remains in the place the entire year. Surprisingly it does not require much water during the heat of the summer. This must be it's period of dormacy, because just before it blooms again, right after Christmas it multiplies and replenishes it's own self. I have divided this one many times and given starts to friends. I don't think it was crazy about the drought and the heat last summer, it produced the least amount of new growth ever this year. But it seems healthy, and it survived just fine.

This plant is also deer resistant, and grows in a lightly shaded border. The main thing about it is placing it in the environment it wants, with fairly rich soil. Zones 3-8, and named Perennial of the Year, 2005. Get one, you can't go wrong!

Friday's Fave Foods---Mexican Lasagna

Friday is recipe sharing day! Today's recipe is submitted by wife to a rockstar and is especially good for large and busy families on a budget.

Mexican Lasagna

1 Lb of Ground Beef or Ground Turkey
I have also made this vegetarian style , instead of the ground meat you can finely chop zucinni, yellow squash, an onion, corn and carrots and saute in some olive oil then substitute the meat with this veggie mix Large Cans of Tomato Puree (or you can make your own with 5 tomatoes run through puree)
Chili Powder
Onion Powder
Garlic
1 can of Green Chilies
1 Large onion
1- 2 packages of tortillas (health nuts can use spinach or wheat tortillas, we just use the white flour ones)
Shredded Cheddar Cheese (2 cups)

Cook up the ground meat in a fry pan (or veggies) and add in a pinch of salt, two cloves of crushed garlic and the small can of green chilies. Chop up the onion and set aside. In a small sauce pan add tomato puree and 1 tablespoon of chili powder and 1 tablespoon of onion powder, let simmer, the color should change from bright red to a darker maroon color. Spray or grease the bottom of a large square pan. you are now going to layer the ingredients. First layer the tortillas. They do not need to be whole and can tear them to fit so that they cover the entire bottom. Then spread a thin layer of your meat or veggie mix (you can be adventurous and add both if you want). On top of that add a thin layer of black beans, then a layer of onion, then a layer of cheese. Then start over again with the tortillas. Layer until the pan is 3/4 of the way to the top. The last layer should be tortilla. Take the tomato puree mixture and dump all of It over the entire pan of layers. Top it off with another layer of cheese. Sometimes for extra crunch we layer the top with crushed tortilla chips. Bake the pan on 350 for about 30 minutes uncovered or until the cheese is bubbly. We like it to get crispy of top so we leave it in a little longer. Serve in squares like lasagna and top with your favorite salsa or sour cream. Serve with a salad and dinner is done!