FABULOUS FRUIT

It’s funny the way a thought will travel through the universe and be shared by so many. 

Recently I’ve became more and more interested in including more fruits and vegetables into my family’s diet. Where fruit is concerned I’ve been slowly adding a little more pineapple to sweet and sour recipes.  Fruits to desserts or as dessert, yogurt, simple fruit syrups for breakfast foods or dessert toppings,  and side dishes  like fried apples and red hots apples were joined with a lot of encouragement on my part to replace one sugary drink a day with a glass of fruit juice.

I’ve also been including fruit salads with at least two dinners a week.  This is where the universal thought comes in….are you ready? 

Just this last few days the topic of the discussion that was brought up by someone who lives across the country from me, and I swear we had no prior communication prior to this on the subject, was fruit salads.  Maestro play a little “Twilight Zone” music please.

Over the days since then there have been discussions of various fruit and vegetable combos, adding the fruit to yogurt and a few recipes.  Some of which will be making an appearance in my menu shortly.

That got me to thinking, if the ladies and gentlemen  on budgethomemaking@yahoogroups.com were interested in incorporating more fruit in their diets, then so might be others in the nation. Thus this blog post was born. 

Adding fruits and vegetables to your every day diet above your normal current intake has many positive aspects to it. 

1.     Fiber: We all know we need more fiber in our diet for a variety of reasons ranging from regularity to cholesterol control.  Fruits and vegetables are an excellent source of fiber.

2.     Specialty diets: if you need to avoid glutens, dairy, and other allergens for various health reasons they just might be the answer.  Check your own diet restrictions for any restrictions on fruits or vegetables.

3.     Weight loss: Who doesn’t worry about their weight? Filling up on fruits and vegetables sans sugars, carbohydrates and other fillers is a great way to lose weight.

4.     Availability: In this modern age you can get just about any fruit or vegetable year round.  They are canned, frozen, juiced, dried and freeze dried.  Some may not be in your store, but a web search will turn them up.

5.     Variety:  The variety of fruits and vegetables, as well as the ways to serve them either cooked or raw is endless. Don’t believe me?  Check out any good seed catalog like Baker’s Seeds (their catalog is a feast for the eyes, you can order both a 2013 and 2014 catalog now online) or sellers like amazon.com and you’ll see what I mean immediately.  

6.     Uses: The world wide web is loaded with recipes for various uses for these wonderful menu additions.  Pick a fruit or vegetable and simply put it in your web search link of choice along with the word recipes and you will be amazed. 

So on to fruit salads, as the afore mentioned budgethomemaking@yahoogroups.com was discussing.  Just exactly what do you classify as a fruit salad?  When I was growing up a fruit salad was one of four things. 

The first was of course a Jello based salad be it either in the Jello like the Classic Jello Fruit Salad, or with the Jello unmixed and used as flavor and binder as in Vickie’s Pink Stuff .   These were all the rage at church socials and other pot lucks, because they traveled well and held up well while being held until after the meeting.

The second, my mom’s favorite,  was a simple fruit salad of chopped up bananas and apples combined with a sectioned orange and drizzled with corn syrup. This you made ahead of time and let it "meld" for a bit before serving.

The third was my grandmother’s simple holiday favorite.  She would place on a small china dessert plate a leaf of bright green lettuce.  In the middle of this she’d place a single canned pineapple ring. In the center of the pineapple ring a dollop of Miracle Whip or mayonnaise was added to the middle of the pineapple ring. This was topped with a maraschino cherry, complete with stem.  Simple and fast to make, attractive to the eye.

Then of course there was the fourth, the classic cottage cheese and canned peaches favored by many dieters.

Fruit salads have come a long ways since then.  My personal favorite is a variety of versions of the Broccoli and Red Grape Salad that you often see on salad bars in many restaurants.  Of course I do a homemade version, but it is definitely worth eating.

Grapes and raisins are a great add in to chicken and tuna salad for either eating as a salad, on a sandwich, or in a wrap.

Spinach salad with fresh strawberries is delicious to say the least.

But the simplest of all is frozen fruit salad.  This is where you open your freezer door and pour yourself a mixture of all the different frozen fruits in there.  Sprinkle with sugar or honey if desired and eat this as it thaws.  Particularly refreshing when you have been working outside in the summer heat.  

Don’t forget fruit salads for breakfast, like Citrus Fruit Salad, or Fruit Salad Parfaits.

Appetizers can be a Fruit Salad Platter rather than the normal Veggie Platter you so often see at potlucks. Instead of the ranch dressing dip that is served with the veggies consider serving a variety of fruits such as melons, strawberries, kiwis, bananas, mango, apples, fresh figs, papaya, and other firm fruits cut into appropriate size with one of these fruit dips.  Yogurt Fruit Dip,  Caramel Fruit Dip, or  Cream Cheese Fruit Dip from Mini Fruit Pizzas.

Then how about fruit salad sundaes like a Banana Split, a  Fruit Bowl Sundae , Mini Fruit Pizzas ,or Chocolate Covered Bananas  for dessert?

The ideas for using fruits for salads are endless, use your imagination to add taste and elegance to any meal.

Jan who loves the versatility of fruit in OK

WEEK #3—GROUND BEEF #2

February 28, 2013

While doing clean-up on my blogs I discovered I'd never got this post up and running.  It was originally written for the week of July 4, 2012 and for some reason never left the draft mode. I did some adjustments to it and so here it is.  Finally!  Hopefully I'll get the rest of the 52 weeks up soon.

July 4, 2012

It’s ground beef time again.  As I said in the beginning we eat a lot of ground beef, so technically every other week my menus will be ground beef based for a while.  After all what can’t you make with ground beef?

Please note that most, if not all, of the recipes I do with ground beef could be done with other ground meats.  You might have to make a few allowances for fat content or such to keep things from drying out, but pretty much you can interchange the ground meat ingredient without much change.  Unless, perhaps with wild meats, such as venison, but if you are cooking with wild meats you most likely KNOW what you need to do to make the recipe work. 

As usual I’m running a little behind on my menu posts, so this is being done during the July 4^th week and therefore you will be seeing our holiday cook out menu for that day during the week. It will look like a huge menu for just the three of us, but we LOVE leftover grilled meats, so when I am cooking I am doing so with planned leftovers in mind.

Today is Tuesday and I have the Donvier in the freezer preparing for our homemade ice cream for tomorrow’s dessert.  And the chicken leg quarters to grill, along with tomorrow’s ground beef and bologna are already thawing in the refrigerator.  I’ll boil the eggs for the deviled eggs later on today. 

My son has already made a delicious huge batch of chocolate chip cookies both for sharing at work today and to go with our ice cream tomorrow.  We are in full holiday mode here.

We’ll have zero fireworks because we don’t want to burn the place down, not to mention the fact that the cost of those does not comply with the budget we have going right now.  We’d rather save money we would have spent on fireworks to travel to Walt Disney World in the future on a shoestring budget to have a wealth of fun and enjoy their fireworks while there.  If you are interested in how you can travel to WDW cheaply, and still get the most fun see my blog posts on the subject. How to Plan a Frugal Trip to Walt DisneyWorld,  Payingfor your Magical Trip, Saving Money While onthe Trip—Getting There,  Saving Money While on the Trip—Food! GloriousFood!,  and Saving Money While on the Trip—Souvenirs and Other Things.

So instead we  will have a great day of watching the latest Harry Potter movie and other movies we have recorded scheduled, complete with popcorn and a little Pepsi (an uncommon treat around here any more), along with a cookout and some down time as a family. During the evening hours we’ll watch fireworks on tv in the cool of the house.  Both men are off work for the holiday and that makes for an even better time. 

In this week’s menu you will also see the appearance of using my muffin tins for things other than just muffins.  For a whole list of ideas on other uses of the muffin tin and other common household items view “Muffin Tins, Not Just for Muffins and Cupcakes Any More. “

Anyway, here is the menu for Week #3—Ground Beef #2.  Hope you have a Happy and Safe July 4^th!

BREAKFAST OPPORTUNITIES:

Basic Cake Donuts/Muffins

Raisin Bran

Grapenuts

Oatmeal

Farina

Fruit salad

Dried Fruit

COMMENTS:

My husband loves cake donuts, but we don’t love the calories from frying donuts.  So for Christmas  I purchased him two donut pans and we’ve been experimenting with different recipes.  We’ve found that muffin recipes work well, especially if you add a little glaze.  As time goes on there will be various other donut recipes posted as we find ones we like.  This was the first, other than the one that came on the pan—which we can’t find right now, that he really likes.  He eats his unglazed.  Me I want the glazing—gotta have my calories you know!

LUNCH OPPORTUNITIES

MuffinTin Corn Dogs—once we’ve had them for dinner

Spaghetti and Meatballs—once we’ve had them for dinner

Home canned beef soup

Jarred salad with cucumbers from the garden

PB&J

Potted Meat Salad sandwiches.

COMMENTS:

In an effort to stick with keeping things cool in the house I’ve taken to cooking various muffin tin meals.  These make great individual servings, that leftover well and re-heat quickly.  They also cook in record time.  After all the shorter time the oven is on, the better it is when it’s 100+ degrees outside.

WEEK 3—DAY 1, GROUND BEEF 2

Red Topped Meat Loaf

Mashed Potatoes—make a big batch for uses later in the week

Peas

Jarred salad

Toasted French Bread

Applesauce Spice Cake

Tea

COMMENTS:

Red Topped Meatloaf is the basic ground beef meatloaf with the ketchup topping we all grew up with.  You can either cook it in your Summer Kitchen in either your turkey roaster or crockpot.  Or if you prefer in muffin tins to speed up cooking in your oven.

We like potato salad made with mashed potatoes, so later this week you will see the leftover mashed potatoes appear with the holiday big meal. If you prefer a different type then go ahead and prepare your potatoes while boiling the potatoes for the meatloaf then cool and refrigerate for being one step ahead in that meal preparation.

WEEK 3-Day 2

MuffinTin Corn Dogs

Frozen French Fries

Pork ‘n Beans

Refrigerator Pickles

Tea

Applesauce Spice Cake

COMMENTS:

As I mentioned earlier we are trying to cut down fried foods in our household—except on the fourth—sorry doc, so I’ve been experimenting with how to have our favorites without frying them. 

On one list a woman recently posted she made these using a pre-packaged cornbread mix.  Since I make all my own mixes I first tried them with my Cornbread Master Mix cornbread and it came out a bit too dry and crumbly for our liking. 

So then I decided to use my Corn Dog recipe that uses that master mix and found we liked the texture and firmness better.  An additional tweak I did was on the second batch I used my mini loaf pans instead of muffin tins and found they accommodated the shape of the hot dog link better. 

WEEK 3-DAY 3

Moo Gurgle Tacos

Mexican Rice

Guacamole

Flan

Tea

COMMENTS:

Moo Gurgle is our quick and easy homemade taco filler recipe that we use in numerous ways.  My husband made it as a teenager and then introduced it to me while we were dating nearly 40 years ago. 

It didn’t earn its unique name until we had teenagers of our own, however.  A group of them went to our lake house together and wanted to make tacos while there. 

They called and asked me for the recipe and I rattled it off—forgetting to tell them to drain the meat after they browned it.  Being teenagers they purchased the cheapest, fattest ground beef they could.

All the kids called me “Mom” so when I was asking them how the tacos turned out one young man said “Mom, those moos really gurgled!”, referring to the thick grease in the taco filler.  Thus the name was born “Moo Gurgle”.

WEEK 3-DAY 4—July 4, 2012

Charcoaled Hamburgers, plain

Charcoaled Hamburgers, bbq sauce

Grilled Bologna

Char-grilled Chicken Leg quarters

Deviled eggs

Potato salad

Butterfly potatoes

Onion strings

Zesty Onion Ring Dipping Sauce

Cole Slaw

PEPSI

Homemade Ice cream

Chocolate chip cookies

COMMENTS:

We thoroughly believe in this house when you fire up the charcoal grill or a wood fire you use every bit of the fuel you put in the grill.  We also love grilled leftovers, so while we’ll cook all the above on the fourth not all of it will be eaten for certain.  It will be a pick and choose meal.  “This is what we cooked, choose what you want and the rest will reappear in other meals.”

All the hamburgers with bbq sauce consist of is a beaten egg mixed with bbq sauce and then mixed into the ground beef patties and grilled.  One word to the wise, they do tend to fall apart easily—despite the egg for a binder, so cook them on foil on the grill.   I use Kay’s BBQSauce as the sauce in them.

We make up for all of the non-fried foods this week in this one meal.  Butterfly potatoes is our name for the potatoes that you see at fairs of all sorts that are potato chip thin and cut in a spiral.  I was lucky enough to acquire one of those potato cutters at a craft fair years ago and we have enjoyed it ever since.

I’ll try to get one of the guys to create a pattern for it and I’ll put up photos of it as well asap.

We are Pepsi addicts in this household, but once we decided to become super gazelle intense on paying off our debt Pepsi is one of the things we removed from our life.  Now we each drink one sweetened beverage a day (juice, tea, lemonade or kool-ade) and the rest of the time we drink water or unsweetened tea.  I will admit it’s hard going from lugging around a Pepsi all day to going to a single sweetened beverage (I generally do a juice), but it has saved us so much money it is unbelievable. (Do the math on how much you pay for soft drinks in a week and multiply that by the month/year—you will be astounded!) Plus all three of us are losing weight and are feeling better. 

So the Pepsi for this one day—two 2-liters, is a special treat.  The bottles will be washed out and saved for future events—stay tuned for those.

WEEK 3-DAY 5

Smoked Chicken Salad in Tortilla bowls

Lime Cilantro Rice

Refried Beans or home canned pinto or kidney beans

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tea

COMMENTS:

What grilled chicken isn’t eaten on the fourth will be deboned, cubed and tossed in with picante, refried beans, corn, lettuce, rice and whatever else we happen to think of for a cool salad on a hot summer night.  We may even forgo cooking the tortilla into a tortilla bowl and simply roll it all up in a burrito style tortilla much like Qdoba burritos.

WEEK 3-DAY 6

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Garlic Toast

Jarred Salad with Italian dressing

Leftover desserts from the week

Tea

COMMENTS:

I generally make a double or triple batch of the spaghetti meatballs—which are different than my Master Mix Meatballs and either can or freeze them with or without the sauce for future grab and run meals.  

Both men also like for me to cook extra pasta for the meatballs and will take the leftovers to work for lunches. 

WEEK 3-DAY 7

Biscuit Cup Tacos

Either leftover Mexican or Lime Cilantro Rice

Tea

Leftover Flan

COMMENTS:

Truly the tail end of the week and a meal of all leftovers, simply reproduced in a slightly different manner.  Quick to bake in the toaster oven in the Summer Kitchen.  Look for any leftover Biscuit Cup Tacos to make an appearance at lunchtime next week.

Jan who wishes you a Happy and Safe Independence Day in OK

ALL THINGS FERMENTED

February 24, 2013

After reading the book “Friendship Bread” and writing a review on it.  I started doing research on Amish Friendship Bread, its history, its uses and similar products.  This is already causing ripples in my kitchen that may be either a boon to my scratch cooking materials or the all out host to a fruit fly congregation.

Amish Friendship Bread is basically a sweeter than normal sourdough starter that is used to create hundreds of breads, cakes, donuts, muffins, coffee cakes and foods of all types.

Currently I have no starters of any type going in my kitchen, which is actually pretty unusual for me.  Generally I will have Sourdough Bread Starter, RefrigeratorPotato Bread Starter, Artisan Bread Starters, sour cream, buttermilk and yogurt starters of various types stashed here there and everywhere, but for some reason I have found myself not doing so this last year or so.  Why I don’t know, I simply got away from it.  I’m thinking as spring is coming on soon that having these starters on hand again might be a good thing.

Despite what you may have heard just about any fermented starter can be refrigerated or frozen if you have to travel for a bit or simply bore of it.  So if life gets too busy to do my baking I can always freeze them.  Then once thawed you start over with day one of the process.

I lost most of my starters when my big freezer died the last time and I’ve simply not got them going again.  So yesterday I started out with the new to me Amish Friendship Bread Starter, and then I’ll slowly work my way through the various other “ferment” items I have used over the years to give variety to our basic menus.  First I need to get both fridges cleaned out for the refrigerated bread doughs, yogurt, sour cream and buttermilk batches but that is a post for the PrincessPlan blog so please wander over there and read it.

Since I needed to do some research anyway on the Amish Friendship Bread Starter and recipes for its use anyway I soon found myself cruising the web watching utube videos on the subject and reading of its history on various websites.  This of course segued into finding other fermented products to possibly try like Biga, andHerman Cake.

Biga is a much thicker starter used in Italian cooking for things like Ciabatta bread and is often called La Madre or Mother to bread.  

Herman is a German Friendship Bread quite similar to the Amish Friendship Bread http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Cake  .  I found the name of this one interesting because I call my regular Sourdough Starter Herman and he actually resides in my Herman Pot that the master Potter Swan made for me years ago while I was attending rendezvous.  It is basically a lidded crock with an air hole in the lid to allow the gases to escape.   When using my Herman pot I do put a piece of folded cheese cloth under the lid because fruit flies are very determined little fellows and where you have starter and bananas in the same kitchen you are likely to get fruit flies.  Then I will have to drag out my homemade fruit fly traps instructions to get rid of those guys too.

While reading the book and doing the research I found myself thinking about the brandied fruit that I use to make in the late 70’s and early 80’s.  It was excellent as a topping for ice cream, cheese cakes, pound cakes and numerous other items or to bake with so of course I decided to check for recipes for that as well.  A trip to the grocery will be required for me to get that starter going, so I’ll post about it on a later date.  I have already uploaded the recipe for the starter for it if you are interested, just hit the hyperlink above and another window will open directly to the recipe.

Now on to creating the starter for the Amish Friendship Bread.  It is a very basic recipe and the only thing you have to remember is to not use anything metal while making the recipe for this or any other fermented starters.  Because if you do the starter will turn green and develop a metallic taste that is most unpleasant.   I personally use glass or ceramic bowls, or my pottery Herman pot and wooden spoons for all my mixing. 

It took me roughly 15 minutes to gather and make the starter and day one was soon behind me.  Following the instructions of the recipe I should be baking my first Friendship Bread in ten days.  Stay tuned.

Jan who likes having the basics put together for fast basic baking during the busy spring season as she sets out the garden and helps her men clean up the yard in OK

Epilogue: Day #2 moved the Friendship Bread starter from the bowl I mixed it in to the standard gallon Ziploc bag today.  Squished and mixed and it is now waiting for a repeat of the squishing for the next few days.

Day #3 I found out yesterday that you do need to expel the air from your ziploc more than once a day.  After about six hours my ziploc was very ballooned.  Luckily I checked it just in case and avoided a possible explosion.  What a mess that could be.

Day #6 As per the instructions I just added the 1 cup each of flour, milk and sugar to the starter.  Oh boy did it smell good!  Nicely soured. By the way, when I add milk to this batch I am using whole milk, future batches I may used powdered milk or milk of less fat content, but I always start out with a new to me recipe per the instructions and then adjust them to the way they work best for my family in future versions.

Jan who ran out between rain showers to feed and release in OK

SINGING THE PRAISES OF CRESCENT ROLLS

When I was growing up crescent rolls meant it was either a holiday or company was coming.  This was in the days before the familiar long tubes of crescent roll dough were in every Mom and Pop grocery.  Homemade crescent rolls were a way for a homemaker to prove she truly was Donna Reed. 

Now crescent rolls come in cans from the refrigerator section and can be purchased either already perforated for making a quick easy eight triangles to roll up into the infamous crescent shape or to be unrolled into a long flat sheet to use as the basis to make everything free sweet rolls to taco cups and Jalapeno bread sticks.

Whether you make the homemade version or get the dough from the dairy case at your local grocery they are a valuable asset to have on hand for quick and delicious meals. 

I have to admit until I started getting daily emails from http://www.pillsbury.com/  I had never considered all the possibilities for crescent rolls.  Oh I had made WienerWraps for years, but now we are having crescents as part of at least one meal a week because they are quick and easy to use. 

I either purchase the crescent rolls on sale with a coupon and stock up when I can or I make up a batch of the homemade version using the Hot Roll Master Mix and just pull the amount of dough I need for that day’s creations from the freezer.  It couldn’t be simpler.

I also make many of the Pillsbury recipes, as I have wrote previously, my own by tweaking  them to be new family favorites.

A great example would be their Sticky Chewy ChocolatePecan Rolls .

Right off the bat I did not have milk chocolate chips on hand, but I did have semi sweet.  Oh those were some RICH Pecan Rolls, definitely needed a glass of milk with them.  They were also delicious!

A week or so later I was looking at all the different baking chips the stores now have out for holiday baking.  On a wild urge (I should never get near the baking aisle when I’m craving sweets) I purchased numerous bags of various flavors, including the Kraft Caramel bits—I bet you can see where this is going.

So this morning I decided we needed sweet rolls for breakfast.  Because of good prices and coupons I was able to grab a couple of convenient tubes from the fridge and make breakfast quickly.

One 8 count can got made with the brown sugar pecan topping of the original recipe, but then I simply buttered the dough and sprinkled it with a good dose of cinnamon sugar.  At this point I considered adding either raisins or other dried fruit and/or chopped nuts.  But since I knew the others would be so rich I went with just the cinnamon sugar.

The second can was made per the original recipe right up until the chocolate chips.  That can I dotted the dough with the Kraft Caramel bits instead of chocolate chips.  While both sweet roll creations were wonderful the Caramel Rolls won hands down in the favorites department! 

In the not to distant future I will try the recipe with butterscotch chips, pie fillings,  Nutella or peanut butter.  The possibilities are endless, jelly rolls anyone?

A FOOD STORAGE NOTE here.  Right now most grocery stores are running baking supplies on sale.  It is a wonderful opportunity to stock up for many months to come.  Four, baking powders, baking chips and much more can be vacuum sealed and properly stored to last until this time next year.

Right after the holidays, or even just before the stores will start marking the baking chips down to the lowest prices of the year.  If these are kept in a a cool dark place in an air tight (or vacuum sealed) container they will keep an extremely long time.  Also look for the candies to go on sale after the holidays.  Many of those can be crushed and used for baking later on in the year as well.

Now back to the crescent rolls. Another breakfast treat would to make homemade toaster pastries by using the dough in rectangles that you filled with jellies, jams, marmalades, curds, Nutella, pudding, pie fillings, or any number of fillings.  You would simply need to put the filling on one half the rectangle, fold the other half over and use a fork to seal the edges then bake.  These could even be made ahead of time and nuked to re-heat. 

Wiener Wraps easily get an update by using all types of sausages instead of just wieners.  Don’t forget to add cheeses or maybe other goodies, such as a small bit of well drained kraut as you wrap.

The dinner options are tremendous too.  In my Muffin Tins, Not Just for Muffins Any More post I mentioned using muffin tins for all sorts of meals.  Crescent rolls are great as holders for all sorts of foods like taco filler, quiche, pizza toppings, mini “pot pies” and just about anything you can think of.

Simply spray the muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray and use one crescent roll per cup.  I notice the Wal-Mart brand crescent roll even comes in a jumbo size that would be ideal for doing this in larger muffin tins.  Instead of rolling the roll up you use it flat to line the muffin tin cup.  Then fill the cup with your food of choice.  Bake at the designated crescent roll temperature until golden brown.

Speaking of Pot Pies, how about using the crescent rolls for the crust on your regular sized pot pies?

I just read a recipe on the Pillsbury website that suggests using two cans of crescent rolls.  You roll the first one out flat, seal the perforations and then butter lightly.  On top of this you add shredded pepper jack cheese.  The second can you roll out flat, seal the perforations and then lay it on top of the cheese.  You then cut through all the layers in narrow strips and twist up for bread sticks and bake at the time and temperature on the can.  They suggest serving them as a dipper for salsa.  Me I’m thinking they’d be good with any number of meals as the bread for the dinner.

Why stop with just pepper jack?  How about Italian cheese blend or plain mozzarella to serve with spaghetti—maybe use garlic butter instead of just plain butter.  Or smoked gouda and serve with a salad for lunch.  The possibilities go on and on.  Make the recipe your own.

Now that I’ve started your mind working what wonderful uses can you come up for crescent roll dough?

Be prepared, I just “liked” Pepperidge Farm’s puff pastry group on facebook and have already seen so many possibilities I’m looking for a good recipe for homemade puff pastry—in the meantime I’ll be watching for coupons too.

Jan who is quickly becoming a fan of this old time favorite for more than just bread with dinner in OK

MAKING A RECIPE YOUR OWN

I know, I am very behind on posting menus, but I have a good excuse—life, it’s been very busy.  I have plans to catch up, that is for certain.  But in the meantime here is a Patterson Pantry food related post for you.

It is amazing what will trigger your taste buds.  You can be having a casual conversation with someone and they will mention a food and suddenly you have to have it.  A commercial on tv can trigger a similar reaction.  Even games like Farmtown where you “Make” various foods can have you suddenly craving that food.

That’s what happened to me yesterday and it triggered not only a web search, but a re-creation of a recipe to suit my family’s needs and tastes.

Then of course it triggered this post.

 All too often many of us will decide we want a recipe and search the web for the “perfect” recipe for the desired food.  But the question is what is the “perfect” recipe?

We all have a “selective eater” in our family, which will rule out a recipe that was otherwise very close to what we want.  Or we will be short an ingredient.  So we tend to move on to the next recipe and end up frustrated.

Instead of doing this make that recipe your own.  Find one that sounds good and adapt it. 

Yesterday I was reading a post on a yahoogroups list and someone mentioned hush puppies.  That night’s menu called for fish sticks, tater tots and spinach with corn muffins.  Suddenly I wanted hush puppies instead of corn muffins.  Being too lazy to go to the kitchen and pull a cookbook I hit the web.

The first Hush Puppy recipe that popped up was for Jalapeno Hush Puppies.  OOOOOH!  Now that sounded great! So I clicked the link to Tastykitchen.com and read the recipe.  You got it! It was basically good, but I knew the sheer amount the recipe made was waaaay too much for the three of us for dinner.  No problem, not only am I quick with numbers I have a program (Master Cook Deluxe) that will shrink the recipe for me with the click of a button. 

Then I read the ingredients.  WOW!  That is a lot of onion powder—more than my family would want, so I cut that down to a little under one half of what it called for.  Since that was for flavoring and would not affect the rising of the dough it was an easy fix.

Next my eyes fell on the huge amount of diced jalapeno.  No wonder the recipe called them a spicy appetizer!  Burn!  Too much for my frail tummy.  So that got cut way down as well. 

So the Jalapeno Hush Puppy Original Recipe was tweaked to Jan’s Jalapeno Hush Puppies with Variations Recipe.

When I went to make the recipe I discovered I was temporarily out of Cajun Seasoning. It took me less than five minutes to whip that up at a far cheaper price than a bottle of the spice would have cost me at the grocery.  Again this was a recipe I found on the web, well actually several recipes and I sort of adapted several of them to meet my family’s taste.  Cutting down the salt, adding garlic etc.

The result was a delicious, almost spicy sopapilla tasting hush puppy to go with dinner.  I also had over half of the batter leftover. 

This prompted a discussion during dinner about what to do with the batter.  Anyone who knows me, knows I hate waste, especially food waste.  So I needed a use for all that batter that was leftover. We decided I would refrigerate it and the next night use it as batter for the scheduled homemade Chicken Nuggets.  It the batter was too thin I would just add a small amount of flour and or cornmeal to adapt it to stick to the chicken while frying.   

This of course lead to more discussion about using it on things like hot dogs for a “corn dog” , on cheese sticks, as a batter for all sorts of veggies and the list went on and on.

Then there was the fact the batter was slightly sweet.  Almost sopapilla tasting.  Ahhh, leave the Cajun Seasoning and jalapenos out and serve with honey or powdered sugar.  It would be perfect and quick.

Then my son mentioned how much the dough was like the “donuts” he and his father like so much at our favorite Chinese food restaurant.  This prompted an experiment to leave out the spicy stuff, fry and roll in either plain or cinnamon sugar.  Perfect!

All this because someone mentioned hush puppies in passing. 

My family now has another Master Mix because of all the uses we came up with for it. I will now make up a large batch of the dry ingredients both with and without the Cajun Seasoning.  To have on hand to make small batches for batter frying any number of things.  That is a true adaptation of a basic recipe.  So what recipe could you adapt for your family?

Jan who is always tweaking recipes in OK