Granola

This is great for breakfast or for a snack. Adapt to your individual taste.  I have tried a few different recipes and this one is a little less sweet and sticky.  Yields 8 cups.

INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup vegetable oil. Could also use butter.
1/2 pure maple sugar.  You can use honey or a combination of honey and brown sugar.
1 t. salt
1 T pure vanilla extract
2 cups coarsely chopped nuts.  Use any combination of almonds, walnuts, cashews and or hazelnuts.
6 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup pumpkin or sunflower seeds.  I don;t always include these.  it depends on if I have them on hand.
2 T of brown sesame seeds.  I usually use white.
1/4 t. cinnamon (I like to include this but it is optional)
1 cup flaked coconut (I like to include this but it is optional)
You could include dried fruit at this point or add it when you serve the granola

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small sauce pan on low heat, warm the oil, syrup, and salt. Stir in vanilla.
2. In a large bowl, mix together oats, nuts, seeds, cinnamon, and any other ingredients.  Gradually add the warm liquid stirring as you go until all the ingredient are evenly coated.
3. Spread the granola on an un-oiled baking pan.  Place in a pre-heated 325 degree oven fpr 30 minutes, stir after 20 minutes.  Remove from the oven and to prevent clumping, stir every 10 minutes or so, until cooled.  Store in a closed container at room temperature.

Barbeque Ribs

This recipe comes from my brother Pat.  He made these for my 50th birthday celebration and they were fabulous.  Messy to make but fabulous to eat.

Mix 1/2 sugar and 1/2 Lawrys
Rub both sides.
Let chill for 2 hours
Mix coke, bbq and water
Set ribs, shingled in a pan.
Submerged. cover. cook @250 degree for 4 - 5 hours.

My brother sent me this recipe by text.  I'll have to watch him the next time he makes them for me and add a little more detail.

Home-Made Bread Crumbs

This is from Ruth Reichel.  I love following her on Twitter.
http://www.ruthreichl.com/2011/12/final-gift-guide-offering.html

I make these and keep a bag in the freezer, perfect for whenever a recipe calls for bread crumbs, you have your own, homemade.  I love when I can make bread crumbs from stale bread and not have to throw it away unused. ;)

Cut a good loaf of stale bread into cubes and grind it into crumbs in a blender or a food processor.  (A blender is better; it gives you a more uniform texture).  If your bread is not stale enough to crumb, you can dry the cubes out in a 200 degree oven for about 15 minutes before grinding.
 Spread the crumbs onto a baking sheet and toast in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes until they are crisp and golden.  Drizzle with olive oil (about a quarter cup for every 2 cups of crumbs), season with salt and allow to cool completely before putting into containers.
 These will keep in the freezer almost indefinitely.  Just whirl them in the microwave for a few seconds to take the chill off.

Right from the oven.

How to Make Better Scrambled Eggs

I had never done this before today.  Delicious! how-to-make-better-scrambled-eggs by Ruth Riechl

Below is the information:

I learned how to make this kind of scrambled eggs from The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book, and Alice learned to make them from the painter, Francis Picabia, who understood that scrambled eggs should not be fluffy curds, but a dense, almost custardy concoction that you eat with great joy and concentration. To achieve that, Mr. Picabia had five rules:

1. Cook them in a saucepan, not a frying pan.
2. Cook them over very low heat.
3. Stir them constantly; he used a fork, but I prefer a heatproof rubber spatula.
4. Keep adding butter as you cook them. Mr. Picabia preferred 2 tablespoons of butter per egg - which comes out to a stick of butter for every 4 eggs that you’re cooking.  “More,” he counseled, “if you can bring yourself to it.” I don’t mind counseling the opposite; it’s really the slow cooking that makes these eggs, not the butter.
5. Don’t rush; Mr. Picabia says to take half an hour to prepare the eggs. That, I’ll admit, also seems slightly excessive to me. I think you can turn the heat up slightly and do it in about 15 minutes.

Below is the recipe verbatim from The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book. Feel free to adjust it as I have, but as long as you keep the heat low and your hand moving until they’re creamy but nearly set, you’ll end up with the most luscious eggs of your life

Eggs Francis Picabia

Break 8 eggs into a bowl and mix them well with a fork, adding salt but no pepper. Pour them into a saucepan - yes a saucepan, not a frying pan. Put the saucepan over a very, very low flame, and keep turning them with a fork while very slowly adding in very small quantities ½ lb. butter - not a speck less, more if you can bring yourself to it. It should take ½ hour to prepare this dish. The eggs of course are not scrambled, but with the butter, no substitute admitted, produce a suave consistency that only gourmets will appreciate.

Hot Spiced Meatballs

Recipe from Elaine Moran

We made these for our tapas Christmas. They were an all-around hit. 


Meatballs
3/4 lbs. ground beef
3/4 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1 1/2 T. onion, minced
1/2 t. prepared horseradish (we omitted this ingredient)
1 drop Tabasco sauce
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper

Combine all ingredients. Form into 3/4 inch meatballs. cook meatballs, pour off drippings.
        *Loosely form for tender and moist meatballs

Sauce
3/4 cup catsup
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar
1 T. onion, minced
2 T. brown sugar
2 t. Worcestershire sauce
1 t. dry mustard
1/4 t. pepper
1 1/2 t. salt
2 drops Tabasco sauce

Mix all ingredients. Pour over cooked meatballs. Cover and cook 10 minutes. Shake occasionally. Serve hot.

*Garnish with pineapple chunks

Lime-Drizzle Shrimp

From Tapas and Wine by Kyle Gruening and Dennis Kohl

We made these for our Tapas Christmas. Twas delicious.


INGREDIENTS
4 limes
12 raw jumbo shrimp
3 T. Spanish olive oil (regular olive oil works fine)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Splash of fine sherry
Salt and pepper
4 T. chopped fresh flat leaf parsley (we mostly used this as an optional garnish)

DIRECTIONS


Grate the rind and squeeze the juice from two of the limes. Cut the remaining 2 limes into wedges and set aside for later.

Peel, clean, and devein the shrimp, leaving the tails intact. Rinse the shrimp under cold water and dry well on paper towel.

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottom skillet, then add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and cook for 5 minutes, stirring from time to time, or until they turn pink and start to curl. Mix in the lime rind, juice and splash of sherry to moisten, then stir well together.

Transfer the cooked shrimp to a serving dish, season to taste with salt and pepper, adn sprinkle with the parsley. Serve piping hot, accompanied by the reserved lime wedges for squeezing over the shrimp.

Gourmet Mushrooms

INGREDIENTS
1 stick of butter
2 dry pkgs. Goods Seasons Italian dressing mix
4-5 small packages of WHOLE mushrooms (wash mushrooms, but DO NOT slice into pieces)

DIRECTIONS

1. Put cleaned mushrooms in large slow cooker. Fill to the top, just so you can get a cover on
2. Melt butter and add the dry dressing mix. Pour over the mushrooms and cook in slow cooker.
3. Start on High for a few hours, then reduce to low until ready to serve.

* You can have them cooking all day. DO NOT ADD ANY WATER. The mushrooms will make their own juice.