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.

Cranberry Wheat Muffins

This recipe for wheat muffins is one that I have been working on for a while. Muffins made with wheat bran or whole wheat flour can be a little tricky because the recipe can easily turn out to be dry and crumbly, which is exactly what you don't want, but whole grains are so good for us that it is worth the effort to make them. This recipe turned out a good muffin that we enjoyed for breakfast last week. The one thing that you might want to do is to add more chopped cranberries for more flavor. Also, do check the baking time at 12 minutes as these muffins bake fast and you for sure don't want to over bake them. Over baking really drys out baked products.

Recipe:

1 egg or 1/4 cup egg substitute
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/8 cup packed brown sugar
1-1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 cup unprocessed wheat bran
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup dried sweetened cranberries (like Craisens) larger pieces cut in half

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a medium sized 12-cup muffin pan.
2. Beat together egg, butter and buttermilk in a medium size bowl; stir in brown sugar until sugar is dissolved.
3. In another bowl combine dry ingredients and cranberries.
4. Add dry ingredients to liquid mixture and mix just until combined. Evenly distribute batter into muffin cups.
5. Bake 12-15 minutes or until muffins test done with a toothpick.
6. Remove immediately to a wire rack to cool.

123 calories each made with whole egg
120 calories each made with egg substitute
1.8 grams fiber each

Peaches 'N Pudding Crisp

This recipe for peach crisp is so good and very simple to make. It only takes about 15 minutes to put together because canned peaches are used rather than fresh, so precious time is saved by not having to peel fresh peaches, but the flavor is still wonderful. The topping is unusual in that it has a package of cook-and-serve pudding added in addition to the usual flour and oatmeal. Whether I serve it to guests, or just for my husband and I, I always warm it up a little in the microwave and top it with a little vanilla ice cream. Blessings...

Recipe:

1 29-oz or 2 16-oz cans good quality sliced canned peaches, reserve 1/4 cup syrup
1 tablespoon pudding mix

Combine the peaches, syrup and 1 tbsp. pudding mix in an 8" x 8" baking dish.

Topping:

2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 small package vanilla cook and serve pudding, reserve 1 tbsp. for peach mixture.
1/2 cup butter, melted

Combine the topping ingredients using an electric mixer until well blended and crumbly. Sprinkle topping over peaches. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until topping is golden brown and peach mixture is bubbly.

Yield: 6 servings
Tip: Canned peaches in juice can be used in place of the heavy syrup without needing to add more sugar to the dish.

Seasoned Coating Mix for Chicken

This tasty seasoning mix is very fast to put together with ingredients that are usually on the pantry shelf. The recipe makes enough for 4 small or 2-3 large chickens, so plenty if you are going to have a house full of people. I have found that chicken is usually a good choice when it comes to serving guests because very few people dislike it and it combines well with a large variety of side dishes. Blessings...

Recipe:

2 cups fine dry bread crumbs
2 teaspoons paprika
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1-1/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon onion salt
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Mix all ingredients and store in an airtight container. Figure 1/2 cup for a 2-1/2 to 3-pound fryer. (I have found that the average fryer is more like 3-4 pounds anymore.)

Directions for use:
Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a 15-1/2 x 10-1/2 inch jelly roll pan in a 375 degree oven. Watch carefully so butter doesn't burn. (If you prefer, simply brush the pan with 1-2 tablespoons of oil, but I think the butter gives much better flavor.) Shake chicken, a few pieces at a time, in coating mix in a plastic or paper bag until coated. Place pieces skin side down in the pan and cook uncovered for 30 minutes. Turn pieces and continue cooking for another 15-30 minutes or until chicken tests done. If the chicken begins to brown too much, cover it with foil so it doesn't burn.

Tip: For lower calorie chicken, I remove the skin and as much fat as possible and still have gotten good results with this coating mix. You will have to be a little more careful when turning the chicken so the coating doesn't come off.
Tip: This mix would work well for gift giving. Put it in a pretty jar with directions for using on an attached label.

Fresh Cranberry Salad

I know it is way past the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season, in fact Easter is just right around the corner, but for me, anytime is a good time for cranberries. I love these tart little berries, and thankfully, so does my husband. So not too long ago I pulled out this recipe to serve alongside a chicken dish. If you don't have fresh frozen cranberries on hand, please do keep this recipe in mind as the holiday time comes around later this year. It is very simple to prepare and very good. I like to serve it to guests because it combines gelatin with fresh cranberries for a sweeter salad. This is nice for guests who don't care for the tartness of fresh berries in conserves and relishes. Blessings...

Recipe:

2 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups cranberries, rinsed and picked over
1 package (6 ounces) raspberry gelatin or your favorite flavor
1 can (8-1/4 ounces)crushed pineapple in juice
1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Heat water and sugar to boiling in a 2-quart saucepan; boil 1 minute. Add cranberries. Heat to boiling; boil 5 minutes.
2. Stir in gelatin until dissolved. Stir in pineapple (with juice) and pecans.
3. Pour into a 6-cup mold or a 8"x 8" pan. Refrigerate until firm, about 6 hours. Unmold on salad greens, such as red leaf lettuce, or cut the pan of gelatin into 9 servings.

Yield: 9 servings
Tips: For a sweeter salad, use crushed pineapple in syrup.
Celery, or other kinds of nuts, make good additions in place of the pecans.