Molasses Cookies

Another childhood recipe, this one is off the Brer Rabbit Molasses bottle, one my awesome mom made every so often. We would make these cookies small because then we could eat more of them. One time Mom and I were having one of our famous mother-daughter talks while drinking tea and eating cookies and looked down to find that we had eaten a couple of dozen!!! Call them molasses cookies or ginger cookies, just make these.

Mix together these ingredients:
3/4 Cup shortening (melted, cooled a bit) /
OR butter, softened
1 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup molasses
1 egg

Sift or whisk together in separate bowl:
2 t baking soda
2 Cups flour
1/2 t ground cloves
1/2 t ground ginger (or 1 t)
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt

• Add dry ingredients to wet mixture, a bit at a time.
• Chill for an hour or so (metal bowl helps).
• Roll into small balls and roll balls in sugar.
• Bake on greased cookie sheet at 375 degrees 8 to 10 minutes.
• Leave on sheet a minute or so then remove to wire rack to cool.

Made with shortening, the cookies may harden to ginger snaps after a few days but the butter version stays pretty moist unless you bake them longer. Storing in cookie tins works well.

I made these to give to folks stopping at our Kiwanis table at the Richmond Hill Park Fair.

Short Bread Cookies

My late great mother-in-law would make these for Christmas, but whenever you want a nice simple tasty cookie, make these.

Mix together these ingredients:
1 pound butter
1 Cup light brown sugar
4 Cups white flour

• Roll into 4 rolls and roll them in red or green sugar (for Christmas).
• Chill overnight.
• Slice off cookies and bake at 350 degrees 15 to 20 minutes until golden.

Hey, use organic ingredients and you'll feel better about the pound of butter, but each cookie is small. FYI, my ex said don't use whole wheat flour. He tried it and "blech".

PUMPKIN PIE CAKE

I've had this recipe for a long time and it needs to be accessible and not lost. Try it once and you will bake it again.

Take one yellow cake mix, reserving one cup for the topping, mix the rest with 1/2 cup of melted butter and one beaten egg. Line the bottom and sides of a 13x9 inch pan with this mixture.

Mix together:
1 large can pumpkin (28 oz. size, approx.)
3 beaten eggs
3/4 cup of sugar
2/3 cup of evaporated milk
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ginger
1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Pour into crust-lined pan.

Cut 1/2 cup of butter into the 1 cup reserved cake mix and 1/4 cup of sugar. Sprinkle this on top of pumpkin mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour and enjoy!! Reddi Whip or whipped cream is a nice addition.

Happy Halloween and/or Thanksgiving or TREAT Day to you and yours!

Tweeting re the EVIL GOP

The Republicans PROVE they are evil by gutting Food Stamps and starving people. Outrageous! NO compassion!! #p2 #inners @SpeakerBoehner

— Kate Anne (@PeaceHugs) September 19, 2013

NOT a peace-full tweet, but how can Republicans starve people and claim (most of them) to be Christians. NOT my idea of Christianity, or spirituality. God forgive them -- I do not know if I can. Speaker John Boehner has a LOT to answer for.

Fluffy Egg Dumplings

When in the mood for noodly carbs I will make a half batch of these on top of vegetable bouillon and deliberately undercook them. I will even re-heat the leftovers in the microwave. Cook them as directed and they are beautifully fluffy.

1-1/2 C flour
2 t baking powder
3/4 t salt

1 egg well beaten
2 T salad oil
1 C milk

Whisk or sift flour with baking powder and salt in medium bowl.

In small bowl, beat egg then add oil and milk. Pour all at once into flour mixture and mix only until moistened.

Drop batter by rounded tablespoons onto gently bowling stew or bouillon. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes, then cover tightly for 10 minutes.

Possible additives to flour: 1/2 t curry OR 1/2 t sage, OR 2 T chopped parsley or chives, OR 1 t caraway seeds.

07/06/13 UPDATE: I added some fresh rosemary and some corn just off the cob. Yum.

(For recipes like these, I keep my old stained McCall's Cookbook.)

Homemade Cocoa

Homemade cocoa goes down way too fast -- and I even doubled my recipe and moved from my usual small 8 oz mug: for that a heaping teaspoon of cocoa to a Tablespoon of sugar, dash of salt and mix together; add a T of milk and mix more, add a 1/4 t of real vanilla and 6 oz or so of milk. Heat in microwave a minute or so: delicious! Comforting.

US Homeless To Go Hungry As Food Stamps Are Cut | UK Progressive

US Homeless To Go Hungry As Food Stamps Are Cut | UK Progressive talks of hunger arising from the current and future Republican policy to cut food stamps. Who will fill the gap to meet their need?

“Churches and charities can take up the slack,” harrumphed Robert Royal on an episode of Moyers & Company not long ago. Royal runs The Faith and Reason Institute, a right-wing group loosely affiliated with conservative elements in the Catholic Church. 

But Royal, an avowed supporter of the Gekko-Galt Romney-Ryan ticket, was shocked into dumbfounded silence when Sister Simone Campbell, organizer of the “Nuns on the Bus” anti-poverty tour, pointed out that Bread for the World did a study and found that every last cathedral, church, synagogue, mosque, temple and meeting hall in America would have to raise an additional $50,000 every year for 10 years to compensate for the GOP plan to eliminate food stamps. 

All he could muster was a half-hearted, sort-of but not really embarrassed, “Of course we need to take care of the needy” but never explained how “we” will do that if food stamps go away.

I know my little neighborhood church has trouble meeting its current expenses. We cannot take on more than some occasional food collection drives -- which fill today's food stamp gaps, not those scheduled for October and into the future. Not fair to the poor. What will be the consequences?

ToniD's Italian Fritata

Some friends have requested some zucchini recipes and voila, BlueRootsRadio.com's news editor extraordinaire ToniD posted an awesome sounding Italian Fritata. You ought to go check out the BRR blog, but let's also repost it here.

Everyone is talking cooking. So for dinner tonight I made myself a Fritata, Italian Omelet.

Sliced zucchini, baby portabella mushrooms, chopped tomatoes, sauteed in Olive Oil with a pat of butter for taste, spices are oregano, garlic powder, pepper, and pepper flakes, Enough eggs beaten to make a thick fritata after veggies are sauteed. Sprinkle with grated Italian cheese of your choice. Cover and cook on medium heat until eggs are cooked. Slice pizza style and serve.

Spinach Fritatas are good also.

If you have an oven safe pan, you can finish it in the oven. The eggs will rise more if you do that.

Then one of our fellow BRR bloggers, 60th Street, posted his similar meat version. Maybe you'd like to combine the two versions (red or green peppers, yes, but forget the meat for me):

@toniD: I had one of those for breakfast, this afternoon, only scrambled.

I used a lot of the same ingredients. Mine was sauteed zucc, onion, baby portabellas, red peppers in olive oil. Then I threw that in and scrambled it with 3 eggs, a crumbled corn tortilla, chopped turkey and pepperoni, italian seasoning, cajun seasoning, salt and pepper.

Ate with a side of buttered multigrain toast and a tall glass of V8

Hangover breakfasts are awesome!

Breakfast Recipe: Avocado Toast

Take a soft Hass avocado, add lemon juice, mix until smooth. Spread on tasty (whole wheat) toast, add slices of good Farmers' Market or CSA radish and a teeny bit of salt. ENJOY.

This is much healthier than butter and oh so yummy with a bit of crunch! Don't remember where I got it last year but certainly do NOT wish to lose this awesome recipe.

Pumpkin soup

Pumpkin soup
Originally uploaded by Kate Anne

Easy to make soup from CSA organic pumpkin: delicious!

I was inspired from Tassajara Cooking by Edward Espe Brown. "The way to be a cook is to cook." The recipes in the book are sketchy but even sketchy recipes work as a recipe depends a lot on the flavors, size (relative, unless measured, and even then preference matters more), and intensity of the ingredients. The CSA season has ended and I had two small pumpkins which my share partner ceded to me. (She was pleased to be gifted with some of the soup!) I took one and dived in:

Ingredients:
Pumpkin, onion, (sea) salt, (olive) oil, water, cinnamon, nutmeg

After removing seeds and stringy stuff, cut pumpkin (unpeeled worked) into one inch or so chunks. take a onion (mine was large not huge), and saute for two minutes, add the pumpkin and saute five more minutes. Then add 1 cup of water and simmer covered (stirring occasionally) for about 45 minutes until soft and watery. Puree in blender or food processor, add a little more water if necessary. Heat. Add a little sea salt, then kiss each serving with some grated cinnamon and nutmeg. Perfect for a stormy night -- or a sunny day -- whenever you have an extra pumpkin. Not just for jack-o-lanterns or pie!

CSA Pasta #1

CSA Pasta #1
Originally uploaded by Kate Anne

Kale, wheat fettucine, garlic, crushed red pepper, EV olive oil, oregano, sea salt, frozen veggie stock cubes to finish cooking -- yummy way to use up the CSA kale. Actually made something similar to use up swiss chard. Used rotini pasta -- fried garlic with some CSA onion in the EVOO but omitted oregano. Another version used some cherry tomatoes: nice touch.

Yummy CSA Food

Yummy CSA Food
Originally uploaded by Kate Anne

Breakfast included delicious CSA cantaloupe. Marion Nestle would approve. I am currently reading her book What to EAT: An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating. CSA = Community Supported Agriculture -- see SunnysideCSA.com.

BreakRoomLive.com: The Angry Chef (Hummus)

Marc Maron's hummus recipe sounds and looks like it would taste yummy. Bam!! (Hear his version of this famous word.) Let me know if you try it....