Did You Know?

BANANAS! Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it. Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.
CHEESE! Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold! Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking. To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.


For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.


Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.


Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

Reheat Pizza... Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.
Easy Deviled Eggs. Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.


Expanding Frosting..When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

Reheating refrigerated bread...To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.
Newspaper weeds away...Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and for- get about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.


Broken Glass? Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.
No More Mosquitoes... Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away! To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.



Flexible vacuum? To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling... Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... ta da! ... static is gone.


Measuring Cups...Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.
Foggy Windshield? Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelopes... If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.


Conditioner...Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

Goodbye Fruit Flies! To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!


Get Rid of Ants...Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Vegetable Tart - CEiMB

Enough vegetables!!!! I am so happy that next couple of weeks choices do not involve massive amounts of vegetables. I have said it before and I will say it again...I could NEVER be a vegetarian.

This weeks recipe was chosen by The Wiivers. Cornmeal-Crusted Roasted Ratatouille Tart. You can find the recipe HERE or on page 98-99 in Ellie's cookbook. I will not complain because I could have chosen not to make the recipe. That is part of the fun with these type of groups though. Sometimes you are challenged to cook/bake something that you normally wouldn't. I was just hoping to like this interesting vegetable concoction. It just wasn't in the cards for me.

The Hubster thought that it was OK. However, he requested that I not make it again. I guess that says a lot about how he really felt.

Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies - TWD

Here it is....Tuesday again!! This recipe was chosen by Ulrike of Küchenlatein. The recipe is posted HERE or you can find it on pages 146-147 in Dorie's cookbook.


I will say that this recipe does not beat my mom's sugar cookie recipe. I like my mom's sugar cookies way better because they are so much moister than these are. I have tried to duplicate the recipe from my mom numerous times throughout the past several years and always get frustrated. I think that my problem is that I can't roll out dough to save my life. I can say without a doubt that this is due to my lack of patience.

Some of my cookies turned out chewy, some were a tad on the crisp side. I sliced some of the cookies thicker than the others using the "slice and bake" method. I shaped the dough into logs and froze it before slicing.


I thought that it would look festive to dunk the cookies in chocolate and decorate with Christmas sprinkles. We thought that the cookies tasted good. The kids especially liked them, of course.

Brioche Raisin Snails - TWD

This recipe was chosen by Peabody from Culinary Concotions by Peabody way back in March. You can find the recipe HERE or on pages 56-57 in Dorie's book.

The recipe was kind of putzy to put together, or rather just time consuming. Probably because of the yeast. But these little snails were delicious and we all enjoyed. It was also fun to get all pyro and fire the raisins that had been drenched in rum. The pastry cream inside the snails was great as well. That was probably the best part.

Jewel Roasted Vegetables - CEiMB

I wish I had more positive things to say about these jeweled veggies. I am struggling though, REALLY struggling. The only thing that comes to mind is that the dish was colorful.

Marie from A Year From Oak Cottage chose the recipe. You can find the recipe HERE or on page 244 in Ellie's cookbook. Be sure to check out what my fellow CEiMB members thought. I think that others enjoyed it much more than we did.

I considered not making the dish but didn't want to skip. I haven't skipped any yet. I am not a huge veggie fan and the list of veggies I do like is short. A vegetarian is something I could never be. I decided to halve the recipe, make it anyway and hope that I would be pleasantly surprised.

Since carrots are on my short list of vegetables that I like, I thought that I could just eat those if I didn't like the rest. The Hubster complained the entire time I was making the recipe and was not hopeful either.

The recipe was easy to prepare and looked nice in the dish. When it came out of the oven, the veggies were not tender. I thought that maybe it would have helped to cover the carrots, sprouts and garlic while they roasted for an hour. Everything except the beets were hard and crunchy. I was expecting tender and soft. The thyme taste sensation was not up my alley either. I seriously couldn't get the taste out of my mouth for hours after dinner. It was my first time eating beets too. I thought they tasted like dirt. The Hubster felt the same way and was much harsher in his opinions than mine. I highly doubt that this recipe will be prepared in our house again.

Corn Chowder

Got leftover turkey? I sure do. And corn too! I saved this awhile back and thought that it looked good. I have no idea where I found it. If I found it on your blog, be sure to let me know. I will give you credit where credit is due!

I also decided to call this a "Simple Soup Supper". Nancy from The Dogs Eat The Crumbs designed this cute logo awhile back. I LOVE soup. The Hubster calls me a "soup hound" so I thought this would be a good excuse to make lots of different soups.

Corn Chowder

INGREDIENTS:
4 oz. bacon, chopped
1 cup finely chopped onions
1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
2 Tbsp. minced garlic
3/4 cup finely chopped red bell peppers
5 cups corn kernels
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 quarts chicken stock or canned low-sodium chicken broth
1 and 1/2 cups 1/2-inch cubes peeled russet potatoes
1 Tbsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 cup heavy cream
Finely chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

DIRECTIONS:
1. Place an 8-quart stockpot over medium heat and cook the bacon until crispy, about 5 minutes. Remove the bacon and drain on paper towels.

2. Add the onions, carrots, and celery to the stockpot and cook, stirring often, until vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the bell peppers and corn to the pot and cook for 10 minutes, stirring often. Sprinkle the flour into the pot and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes. Pour the chicken stock into the pot and stir to combine. Use a whisk if necessary to break up any clumps. Add the potatoes to the pot and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and continue to cook for 20 minutes.

3. Season the chowder with the salt and cayenne and stir in the cream. Serve with the bacon and parsley as garnish.

Makes 3 quarts, 10 to 12 servings.

This soup was so, so YUMMY! My whole family liked it. Especially my youngest son who is also turning into a "soup hound". I was surprised because it had a little cayenne pepper kick to it. Not to much though. Just perfect. I also added some chopped turkey left over from Thanksgiving. I will definetly be making this one again.

Linzer Sables - TWD

THIS IS ONE GREAT RECIPE! I repeat, ONE GREAT RECIPE! The recipe for this week was chosen by noskos at Living the Life. A fabulous choice. The recipe can be found HERE or on page 134-135 in Dorie's cookbook.

These little cookies are not only delicious, but they are so stinking cute. I made stars out of mine and sandwiched them together with raspberry jam. The cookies were simple to put together and I thought that the dough was very easy to work with. The nice thing about these cookies is that you could make them year round with basically any type of cookie cutter to match the season.

The taste is good too. When first reading the recipe I had my doubts, mainly about the nuts and cloves. Again, I am not a nut fan and this recipe calls for a good sized portion of them. I think that since the nuts are finely ground (I used almonds) you can taste them but don't have to crunch through or see them. I was also surprised that the clove taste is delicious. A little spice...Huh, who knew?!

I am planning on making another batch of these later this week to take to a cookie exchange this weekend. The recipe yielded 25 cookies, however, I only got 22 sandwich cookies out of my batch. I rolled my dough a little less than 1/4" thick. The Hubster enjoyed them too!