Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Three Kitchen Cents

Adding my three cents to the fray of recipe blogs, allow me to feature a few of the winning seasonal efforts from my kitchen in the past couple of weeks. (Sorry, no photos. You'll have to use your imagination.)

Best quick lunch: Spread homemade pesto on homemade whole wheat French bread slices. Top with slices of mozzarella. Broil on cookie sheet until cheese melts. Serve with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers or pickles.

Best salad: This is my invention, adapted from several different sources. All quantities are approximate. You can experiment with dicing or chopping sizes to vary the texture. You can also try changing the ingredient ratios to make certain flavors more prominent (e.g. more apples for a sweeter salad).

Pink Potato Salad

Combine in large bowl:

4 c cooked red beets, peeled and diced
4 c cooked potatoes, peeled and diced
4 hard boiled eggs, peeled and diced
1 medium apple, peeled and diced
1/2 c chopped green onion (opt.)

Add to desired consistency and taste:

chopped fresh parsley (opt.)
salt and pepper
light mayonnaise and/or plain yogurt

Best dessert: Unfortunately, I can't take credit for this one. CP was the inspired baker who substituted fresh red raspberries for sour cherries in a recipe from my mom. His modifications are in parentheses.

The results? Let's just say that I'd be very embarrassed to tell you how much of the double batch I consumed in one sitting.

Red Raspberry Crunch

Cream together:
1/2 c butter
1/2 c sugar

Add:
1 c flour (replace half with whole wheat flour)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c oats (decrease total flour and increase oats accordingly)
1 c coconut

Press half of mixture in bottom of square baking dish. Bake 12 minutes. Add fruit (about 4 cups) and put remaining crumb mixture on top. Bake until lightly browned. Serve warm with milk.

2 comments:

  1. Just to clarify, here: Last night we ate about 60% of the double-recipe crunch, and tonight we finished it off. That tops us off with an entire stick of butter--each. Totally delicious. -CP

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  2. Oooh---that looks really good. And I have a big bowl of red raspberries sitting in the fridge, just waiting to be turned into something delectable.

    -JJ

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