Deviled Eggs

Today a friend asked me if I had a good deviled egg recipe, and I confessed that I have never been good at deviled eggs.  More to the point, I have never tried very hard.  Deviled eggs were one of my mother’s signature dishes.  She took them to every church dinner, and she always came home with an empty platter.  I tried to duplicate her eggs once or twice, but it has been a good twenty years since I last made deviled eggs. 

My mother said she liked to take them to covered dish dinners because they were the easiest thing to make, and I doubted her.  As usual, she was right!   They aren’t that hard to prepare.   Like cables in knitting, they make you look clever when you really aren’t.

Some of my previous problems with making deviled eggs involved not being confident in how long to cook them.  Boiling eggs for a good long time results in a tough white and a dark ring around the yolk.  Today I followed these instructions, and the eggs were perfectly cooked:

http://www.incredibleegg.org/recipes/recipe/basic-hard-boiled-eggs

I’m not sure if my mother used relish; she did use a bit of pickle juice.  Now, if anyone asks, I have a deviled egg recipe!

6 large eggs (should be at least a week old for easier peeling)

1 Tablespoon plus one teaspoon Miracle Whip salad dressing

1 teaspoon mustard

1 tablespoon relish (sweet or dill, your choice)

1 teaspoon pickle or relish juice

Black pepper

Paprika

Place eggs in a single layer in a heavy saucepan; cover with 1 inch of water. 

 

 Bring the water just to a boil, then turn off heat and cover pan with tight fitting lid.  Let stand 12 minutes.  Pour water off eggs and run cold water over them to cool.  Once the eggs are cool, peel them.  With a sharp knife, cut eggs in half. 

 

Carefully remove yolks from whites and place yolks in a small bowl.  Set whites aside.  Mash yolks very finely with a fork.  Add Miracle Whip, mustard, relish, pickle juice, and a bit of black pepper.  Mix well. 

 

 

Spoon yolk mixture into halved eggs.  Sprinkle with paprika and transfer to serving dish.  Yield: 12 egg halves.

Note:  I did not add any salt, but I found these deviled eggs to be a bit salty for my taste.  The mustard, salad dressing, and relish all have salt.

Easy Pasta Florentine

The main reason I started a food blog was to document some of my “inventions” that turned out reasonably well so that I could prepare them again.  This dish falls into the clean-out-the-refrigerator/pantry category.  On hand were a couple of bunches of spinach that needed to be used, a bit of mozzarella cheese, and some whole wheat pasta that had been around for a while. 

Garnished with grated Parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes.

 

2 bunches fresh spinach

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 cloves garlic, finely minced

3 cups whole wheat bowtie pasta

4 cups water, divided

1/2 teaspoon salt

¼ cup flour

1/3 cup nonfat dry milk

1 cup shredded part skim mozzarella cheese

Double rinse spinach and drain well.  Hint:  add a good shake of salt to water when rinsing leafy vegetables to help remove sand and dirt from leaves.

Sauté garlic in olive oil in a large saucepan or skillet with a tight fitting lid.  Add spinach and 1 cup water; cover and steam until desired tenderness is reached, about 5 to 8 minutes. 

Be careful not to overocok spinach.

Remove spinach and place in a bowl; set aside.  Add 3 cups water to the same pan and bring to a boil; add pasta and salt, and boil gently until desired tenderness is reached, about 10 minutes.  With a slotted spoon, remove pasta and place in the same bowl with the spinach.  Mix flour and nonfat dry milk.  Let liquid in pan cool a bit, then quickly whisk flour/powdered milk mixture into the liquid, making sure that no lumps form.  Cook on low until thickened (this doesn’t take long), stirring constantly witha whisk.  Turn off heat, then stir in mozzarella until well blended.  Dump spinach and pasta back into the skillet, stirring gently until all is well coated.  Yield:  4 servings.

Creamy and delicious!

Variations:  Use any type of pasta you prefer.  If you don’t have nonfat dry milk on hand, remove about a cup of the final cooking liquid and add in a cup of milk to make the sauce.

 

 

Eggplant Lasagna with Pasta

 

Most of the eggplant lasagna recipes that I see use eggplant in place of lasagna noodles.  However, I really like the taste and texture that pasta lends to lasagna.  This recipe is based on the spinach lasagna recipe that I always use.  There are a lot of vegetables in this dish; the texture is decidedly chunky rather than mushy.  Using canned tomato products rather than jar spaghetti sauce limits sodium content.  You could replace the Italian style tomatoes with another can of no salt added stewed tomatoes.  Of course, fresh oregano is always a good choice if it is available.

2 medium eggplants, peeled and sliced lengthwise in ¾ inch wide slices

1 large onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely minced

8 ounces mushrooms, roughly chopped

4 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 (14.5 ounce) can sliced stewed tomatoes, no salt added

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, Italian style

1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce, no salt added, plus one can of water

2 teaspoons dried oregano

8 ounces shredded part skim Mozzarella cheese

1 (15 oz.) container part skim Ricotta cheese

1 egg, beaten

8 no-boil lasagna noodles 

Spray a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick vegetable oil spray; set aside. 

Nicely broiled.

Line a baking sheet with foil and place sliced eggplant on the foil; brush eggplant with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil.  Broil eggplant about 4 to 5 minutes per side, or until eggplant is wilted and lightly browned.  Cut eggplant into relatively large pieces, about an inch or so; set aside.

Cut into largish pieces.

In a large saucepan or deep skillet, sauté onion, green pepper, garlic, and mushrooms in remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil.  Add tomato products, water, and oregano; simmer for about 20 minutes.  Add eggplant, set aside.

About 7 cups of veggies, before adding eggplant!

Saute onion, green pepper, garlic, and mushrooms.

Add tomatoes and simmer for a bit

Mix ricotta with beaten egg until smooth.

Layer ingredients into baking dish as follows:  one third of the sauce; half the noodles; half the Ricotta mixture; one third of the Mozzarella.  Repeat; finish with the remaining one sauce and mozzarella. 

A very chunky sauce.

 

Cover with foil and bake at 350°F for about 45 minutes.  Let set a few before serving.  Yield:  8 servings.

Before baking.

After baking.

 

Peanut Butter - Cheerios Bars

Not the best eye appeal, but they taste good!

The original recipe was a variation of Rice Krispie Bars; I was introduced to these peanut buttery bars by 4-H members.  I was never a huge fan of Rice Krispie Bars made with marshmallows; and in truth, Rice Krispies cereal has never been something I would keep around the house to eat.  Cheerios, on the other hand, are always available.  Usually I buy store-brand O-shaped oat cereal rather than Cheerios.  These bars are great for bake sales; they are durable, not subjct to crumbling, and they always seem to be gone at the end of the day. 

Peanut Butter – Cheerios Bars

1 cup sugar

1 cup white corn syrup

½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine

1 cup peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)

6 cups O-shaped oats cereal

Prepare a 9x13 inch pan by spraying with nonstick pan spray; set aside.  In a large saucepan, add sugar, corn syrup, and butter or margarine.  Bring to a boil and boil one minute.  Stir in peanut butter until well blended.  Stir in dry cereal until all the cereal is coated.  Turn mixture into the prepared pan and press down with the back of a spoon.  After mixture is a set, but not completely cool, cut into squares; cutting is easier before they are completely hardened.   Yield:  24 bars.  Tip:  If you choose to use margarine instead of butter, make sure the product is real margarine rather than vegetable oil spread, which contains water and may result in less than ideal bars.

Ready for the bake sale.

 

Slice and Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies

 I love slice and bake cookies!  Here’s another tried-and-tried recipe from my collection. 

 

Cookie baking tip: Many stick margarines are really vegetable oil spreads, with insufficient fat to produce a good cookie. Check the label – if there is a lot of water in the product, then you will end up with flat cookies if you bake with these vegetable oil spreads. While not heart healthy, fats which are solid at room temperature work best for baking: butter, shortening, lard, or real margarine.

1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar

¾ cup butter, softened

2 eggs

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups all-purpose white flour

1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt (optional)

1-1/2 cups chocolate chips

Cream brown sugar and butter until light and fluffy; add eggs and vanilla; mix until well blended.  Sift together the wheat flour, white flour, baking soda, and salt.  Add flour to sugar/butter/egg mixture and stir until well blended.  Add chocolate chips and mix until chips are evenly distributed.  Shape dough into rolls about 2 inches in diameter, using only enough flour to keep dough from sticking to hands.  Refrigerate until ready to bake.  Preheat oven to 350°F.  Slice dough, making slices about 3/8 inch thick.  Place on greased baking sheets and bake at 350 for 13-14 minutes or until lightly browned. 

 

Potato Soup

Potato soup - with cheese, of course!

In ninth grade homemaking class, one of our first cooking lessons involved making white sauce; we added it to English peas to make creamed peas, which seemed pretty gross at the time.  Why on earth would someone need to know how to make white sauce?

I still don’t care for creamed peas, but knowing how to make white sauce has proven very useful over the years.  The proportions of fat and flour to liquid can be changed to suit your needs, but the prep method is the same: add flour to hot fat, stir until flour is coated with fat to make a roux.  Add liquid, cook and stir until the liquid is thickened.  Once the liquid boils, it is as thick as it will ever be; continuing to cook past this point can result in a thinner sauce.   The following formulas are pretty easy to remember:

·         Thin white sauce:  1 Tbsp. fat, 1 Tbsp. flour, 1 cup liquid

·         Medium white sauce:  2 Tbsp. fat, 2 Tbsp. flour, 1 cup liquid

My potato soup is based on a thin white sauce, resulting in a pretty dense soup because of the thickening effect of the potatoes.  If you prefer a thinner soup, add more liquid or fewer potatoes.  Go for real butter!  Add cooked celery if you must.

Potato Soup

2-1/2 lbs. potatoes

½ cup finely chopped onions

¼ cup butter

¼ cup flour

4 cups liquid (potato liquid and milk)

Salt and pepper to taste

Wash and peel potatoes; cut into large cubes.  Boil until tender; I use about half as much water as potatoes.  When potatoes are cooked to desired tenderness, pour potato liquid into a large liquid measuring cup; add milk to make 4 cups, set aside.  Set potatoes aside.

Strive for more-or-less equal proportions of potatoes and liquid; I had a few more potatoes this time.

In a large saucepan, melt butter and sauté onions until they are translucent, taking care not to burn the butter. 

Saute onions in butter, yes, real butter.

Add flour and whisk until all the flour is coated in fat.  Add potato liquid/milk mixture to flour/butter mixture.  Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened; it should coat a metal spoon.   

Thickened sauce coats a spoon.

Add potatoes; using a potato masher, mash potatoes until they are at the consistency that you like.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  You may also add grated or cubed cheese of your choice at this point; I usually add cheese when serving. 

Old fashioned potato masher works just fine.

 

Oatmeal - Coconut Refrigerator Cookies

Once upon a time, you couldn’t go to the grocery store and buy slice-and-bake cookie dough or pre-shaped frozen cookie dough, ready to be baked.  Industrious individuals such as my mother, aunt, and grandmothers made their own slice-and-bake dough from scratch and stored it in the refrigerator or freezer for later use.  My mother made ice-box cookies for Vacation Bible School and elementary school parties and special occasions and for no occasion at all, except that everyone liked cookies.  My paternal grandmother always had ice-box cookies on hand at her house.  Before we knew about Salmonella and recognized that eating raw eggs was a bad idea, she always kept a bit of leftover dough for the grandkids to eat raw, straight from the refrigerator.  I have a pretty good stash of refrigerator cookie recipes from my mother, both grandmothers, and aunt.  This recipe, in my maternal grandmother’s handwriting, is attributed to my Aunt Mildred.  I tweaked a couple of things (cooking temperature, addition of mixing instructions, addition of cinnamon); the cookies are crispy and delicious!

My grandmother's handwritten recipe - a real treasure!

 

Oatmeal – Coconut Refrigerator Cookies

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt (optional)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

3 cups oatmeal

1-1/2 cups coconut

½ cup pecans

1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and mix again until light and fluffy.  Stir in flour until well blended, then add oatmeal, coconut, and pecans.  Divide dough into three equal pieces and shape into rolls, about 1-1/4 inches in diameter.  Wrap each roll in waxed papeer and refrigerate or freeze for later use.  If the dough is to be frozen, overwrap the waxed paper with foil. 

To bake, preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease baking sheets with shortening or spray with non-stick spray.  Using a very sharp knife, slice dough into 3/8 inch thick slices and place on baking sheets.  Bake 12-14 minutes or until done. 

Personal experience with my oven and my baking sheets showed that 14 minutes baking time was needed with dark pans and 13 minutes baking time was needed with shiny pans. 

Cooked and cooling on paper towel.