Hawaiian Coleslaw

Years ago when I was a single, young woman, I received this recipe from a friend in order to prepare it for a dinner party at my church. I remember making the salad for the dinner, but I had not made the dish since that time. So one evening when I needed a salad for dinner, and I was going through the refrigerator to see what was available, I found that I had the ingredients needed to make the recipe. Much to my delight, my husband and I loved the salad.
I have many coleslaw recipes that we like, but this one has definitely become a favorite. The actual recipe calls for a whole head of cabbage, which would be great for a large gathering, but way too much for two, or even a family, and the salad will not save for a long period of time. I was able to save the leftovers for us for our meal the next day, but the color did drain out of the cherries (I used up some candied cherries leftover from Christmas baking. I do not know if this would happen with maraschino cherries). The flavor was not impacted; the salad just didn't look quite as pretty. I will give the recipe as it was written for me and then give a version for a smaller quantity. Basically, what I did was to go by what looked about right for us, so please gauge by these measurements for the size of your family. Blessings...

Recipe:

1 head cabbage, shredded
1 16-ounce can crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
3-1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 cup red maraschino cherries, halved

1. Place cabbage in large salad bowl.
2. Spoon pineapple, with some juice, into cabbage. Add mayo and stir to combine the ingredients.  Save extra juice in case you might want to add more at serving time. Chill salad for about an hour.
3. At serving time, add cherries and more pineapple juice if the salad is not moist enough for your taste.

Yield: 8 servings

Salad for two:
1 cup shredded cabbage
2 soup spoons (approx) pineapple
1-1/2 teaspoons mayo
2 tablespoons cherries.

These measurements are approximate. I just made sure the salad was moist and flavorful.

Double Fudge Muffins

Oh, these muffins are wonderful. This recipe goes back to one of my old Bon Appetit magazines, 25 years ago to be exact. The writer of the recipe called it a dessert muffin, but we don't think that way in our family. A muffin is for breakfast or brunch in our house, but these are rich and are saved for special times. This recipe is easy, but does take a little longer to make than most muffin recipes. I serve them with fruit, some form of eggs, and a breakfast meat for a terrific Saturday or Sunday brunch. 
Recipe:

5 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (if you don't have a scale, this is a scant cup, or just between 3/4 cup and 1 cup.)
2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate (2 squares)
1/3 cup butter
3/4 cup low-fat sour cream
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 large egg, room temp.
1-1/4 teaspoons vanilla
1-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously grease 16 2-1/2" muffin cups or line with foil baking cups.
2. Melt first 3 ingredients together in a double boiler set over barely simmering water. Stir until smooth. Remove chocolate from over water to cool slightly.
3. Whisk the sugar into the chocolate. Add sour cream, corn syrup, egg and vanilla and whisk until combined.
4. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix in the chocolate chips.
5. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add chocolate mixture to well; stir into dry ingredients until just blended (batter will be lumpy).
6. Spoon batter into prepared cups, filling each 3/4 full.
7. Bake muffins until tester inserted in center comes out moist and almost clean, about 20 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pan and serve warm.

Serves 16
Tip: If you don't have a double boiler, the chocolate and butter can be melted in the microwave. Be careful to heat and stir slowly so as not to burn the chocolate. Also, the foil baking cups work so much better than greasing the muffin pan. Much less mess and the muffins to not stick to the cups with this recipe.

Ham and Pineapple Salad

I was very traditional for Easter this year and made a ham dinner for my husband and I, which means we have a lot of leftover ham. Thankfully, we love ham and I have many uses for it in recipes. This salad is a new one that I made for our supper Sunday evening, with great success. It is very easy and fast to put together, except the time it takes to cut up the fresh pineapple. Canned pineapple chunks would probably work just fine, but the flavor may not be as vibrant. The fresh pineapple and ham combination was wonderful. The recipe is written for two servings, but the list of ingredients is so simple that it would be very easy to multiply for a larger group of people.

This salad would make a great tea or lunch dish served with dinner rolls and a vegetable salad. As you can see in the photo, I served it with a Fruit-and-Cabbage salad. This particular salad was in the post dated 3/29/10. If you don't have left-over ham and would like to try the dish, a packaged ham steak would be a very easy substitute with out the bother of baking a whole ham.

Recipe:

1 cup fresh pineapple cubes
1 cup cubed fully cooked ham
1 tablespoon chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard

1. In a salad bowl, combine the pineapple, ham, green pepper and celery.
2. Combine the mayonnaise and mustard in a measuring cup. Pour over salad ingredients and stir to coat.

Serves 2
Tip: I used low-fat mayonnaise successfully for the dish.