Google Alert - recipe |
- Simple and Soothing Hot Apple Cider <b>Recipe</b> - Gramma Good
- Why We Hold Tight To Our Family's Holiday Food Traditions
- <b>Recipe</b> for Success
- Christmas Eve Run and Christmas Cookies <b>Recipe</b> Round-up <b>...</b>
- Family photos, secret <b>recipes</b> and Tony Romo's nickname all <b>...</b>
- TREE-CYCLING A <b>recipe</b> for “What to do with that tree?”
| Simple and Soothing Hot Apple Cider <b>Recipe</b> - Gramma Good Posted: 25 Dec 2013 02:10 AM PST I was having a holiday lunch at a friend's home the other day and she had made the most delicious apple cider. It absolutely warmed my soul on a cold Chicago day. When I asked her how she made it, I was shocked at how simple it was to prepare, so I figured I'd share it with all of you! It only takes buying two ingredients from your local grocery store, but it will nourish all of your friends and family like a truly homemade treat. The key ingredient is mulling spices, which is a spice blend containing cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice berries, cloves, ginger, as well as dried You'll also need pre-made, unspiced apple cider, which can be bought in a half gallon or gallon jug. The combination is absolutely divine, and so simple to throw together. Enjoy! Do something GOOD today…share this easy recipe with your friends and family! Simple and Soothing Hot Apple Cider Recipe
Author: Gramma Good
3.2.1271  |
| Why We Hold Tight To Our Family's Holiday Food Traditions Posted: 25 Dec 2013 12:15 AM PST Around Thanksgiving, The Race Card Project brought us the story of a woman who grew up in a Filipino family but desperately wanted to be anything but Filipino. When Melanie Vanderlipe Ramil was a child, she shied away from her family's traditional meals, including the rice that's a staple in Filipino cooking. But recently, she's become committed to keeping those food traditions alive. Melanie's story got us thinking about people who cherish special dishes — specifically, holiday dishes — that have been passed down through generations as a tribute to their heritage and ancestors. So we asked for your stories of endangered dishes, and you delivered — in hundreds of wonderful emails and comments. One person who wrote in was Mary Young in Bowling Green, Ky. She had just decided to start making her Norwegian grandmother's Christmas cookies again. They're called krumkake (pronounced krim-caca), and they look like small waffle cones. Young makes these sinfully delicious cookies with butter, eggs, sugar and cream. "You can hardly go wrong," she says. "They're actually pretty rich for being kind of delicate little cookies, and I think everybody will love them." Mary used to bake them with her grandmother in the weeks before Christmas. But after she passed away, that tradition died out. Until this year. "It may have a little something do with the fact that I'm turning 50 next month, maybe feeling a little mortal," she told us. "But I got to thinking that if I don't do these things with my kids, or at least show them how it's done, it may end with me." She wasn't about to let krumkake go. She asked her parents to send her grandmother's special iron from Iowa. And she spent this past weekend teaching her children, who are now in college, how to make the cookies. Mary learned the art of making krumkake while her grandmother was alive. Other people said they never got that chance. When Mark Karney was growing up in a Hungarian immigrant community in Lorain, Ohio, he says, "You went to anybody's house at Christmastime that was Hungarian and there was nut roll to be served." Both of Mark's parents passed away about 20 years ago, and his mother left behind a box full of recipes. But he discovered her instructions for nut roll weren't so precise. "The first time I made it, I didn't get the dough wet enough. And when the thing was baked — and I probably over-baked it a little bit — it turned out like rock," he says. So Mark kept trying to get that nut roll to feel and taste just the way his mom used to make it. "You know, you have an amazing memory for tastes and smells, so, when you're experimenting with the recipe, you're gonna know when you get it right," he says. He's still trying to perfect the Hungarian dishes in his mother's recipe box. For him, gone are the days of dusty old recipe cards — he's created a website where he updates his mom's old recipes, hoping his kids will have an easier time keeping them alive. "The only Hungarian traditions we really had growing up were the foods," he says. "Everyone who was an immigrant at that time wanted to be an American. They didn't want to dwell on the old ways." Now, some families we heard from were making dishes to create their own tradition, not necessarily tied to their roots. Diane Withiam was impressed with her daughter, Ana, who has been trying to keep her great-grandmother's favorite dish on the holiday table. "After grandma died, my daughter just needed to have spinach balls at Thanksgiving," says Diane. The spinach balls weren't a relic from the Old Country. But they've become a sort of memorial to Ana's great-grandmother, Vera. And Vera's spirit, Diane says, lingers in the kitchen for her as well. "I was thinking that in making a pie, there are certain motions you go through in making a pie, how you roll the crust, how you crimp the crust — I do that like my grandmother or mother would do," Diane says. "And I still feel close to those ancestors when I do those things in the way that I was taught." Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. |
| Posted: 24 Dec 2013 11:41 PM PST DRAIN — It took Tammy Wolfer a half century to find her sweet spot, but she's located it in Drain, remodeled it, furnished it and settled in — and she's making the most of it now. Wolfer is founder and inventor of Tammy's Fabulous Fudge, a confectionery store in Drain and also a roving booth that appears at festivals and fairs, including the Holiday Market in the weeks before Christmas at the Lane Events Center. After a fifth year of setting up at the Holiday Market, Wolfer's 128 flavors of the ultra-rich fudge have gained a considerable following. She figures she's sold 800 pounds there this year. "Each year, it's getting bigger and bigger because I have repeat customers who tell me it's a holiday tradition to buy my fudge," Wolfer said while spooning her Himalayan pink salt caramel concoction into loaf pans. Wolfer — who wears her blond hair in a tight bun and red jingle-bell earrings — says she's happy now. But the path she traveled was overfull of trauma, illness, many job changes and more. Wolfer made her first batch of fudge when she was 13. Her family was living in the woods in a log cabin they built in rural Jackson County. Wolfer taught herself to make candy, she said. She got down her mother's cookbook, read the recipes and figured it out. "I learned that, if I made it, I got to eat it," she said. "Mom didn't always give her all she wanted," Wolfer's mother, Lassie Smith, added. As a kid, Wolfer showed an entrepreneurial streak. "I would buy Bub's Daddy (bubble gum) at the drug store and take it to school. I would buy it for a nickle and sell it for a quarter. By the end of the day, I could get 50 cents to $1 out of them." Every Christmas, Wolfer honed hear confectionary skills, filling the house with hard candy, divinity and fudge. Perfecting the technique Decades later, Wolfer would discover that the exacting requirements of fudge making, as a daily practice, matched her drive and intensity. Today, she makes fudge when she's in the mood, day or night. "Sometimes I want to work until 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning," Wolfer said. "Nine times out of 10 I'll get out of here at 11 or 11:30 (p.m.)" The fudge required that she perfect techniques to keep it from "sugaring," which means developing an unpleasant grit. She also had to figure out why the fat sometimes formed unsightly pools on the surface of the fudge and what to do about it. She doesn't pretend she's offering the public a health food. But she is a stickler for ingredients. Long ago, she jettisoned the tradition of using evaporated milk, and went to cream. For her, the No. 1 fudge-making shame is to use a commercial mix. Fudge, to her, can only be fashioned from sugar, cream, salt, butter, egg whites, corn syrup and flavoring. She makes 20-pound batches in a tall pot on a regular kitchen burner. For each new flavor, she adjusts the temperature and timing. "If I put nuts in them, it sets up way faster because it absorbs the moisture from the nuts," she said. "If it's a humid day, it doesn't set up as quick." She started with a goal of outdoing Baskin-Robbins' 31 flavors of ice cream with a like number of fudge tastes, but she overshot and now has 128 flavors. Examples: Dark Mocha Espresso Fudge, Marvelous Maple Bacon Fudge, Blazing Chocolate Jalapeno Fudge, Oregon Beavers Fudge (Orange/Chocolate) and Oregon Ducks Fudge (Lemon/Lime). "One of our claims to fame is our variety," Wolfer said. "Another one is 'Always creamy.' Another is when you bite into it, it does taste like it's what it says it is." Each new batch takes 3½ hours to complete, including 40 minutes standing at the stove, stirring with an giant wooden spoon and keeping an eye on a candy thermometer. "I left here at 4 a.m.," Wolfer said one day in the week leading up to Christmas, "and I was back here at 8:30 or 9 (a.m.). It'll be that way for the rest of the week. It's hard to keep up with; you've got to have product." Bipolar disorder diagnosed Wolfer's parents didn't realize it when she was growing up, but her outsized energy was a symptom of something wrong. It wasn't until Wolfer was an adult that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was stabilized with heavy-duty drugs, she said. When Wolfer was in her early twenties, the family suffered a tragic blow. Wolfer's father, a long-haul trucker, was returning home and backing his truck into a parking place when Wolfer's nephew rode a bicycle behind the truck, in a blind spot, and was killed, Wolfer said. "Dad was never the same again and mom wasn't either," Wolfer said. For several months, Wolfer, who was in her early 20s, rode with her father on his long-haul runs. Then, one day, "he handed me the keys and said, 'You do it. I can't do it anymore.'" Wolfer has been a nurse's aid, dog groomer, long-haul truck driver, Tupperware sales supervisor, UPS driver and, now, a professional fudge maker. She's lived in Hawaii, Ohio, Idaho and California. Wolfer married, first, as an 18-year-old to a man who abused her. Three other marriages followed. Her last husband died of colon cancer, leaving her with a widow's pension that keeps her going. She has two grown children, including one who served in Iraq and returned home with post traumatic stress disorder. She has ruptured disks in her back, undergone three back surgeries and a hip replacement. "There's time when my back hurts enough that I really can't function real well. There's a lot of different angles of it," she said, "between that and the bipolar." In recent years, Wolfer helped her mother nurse her father for three years through his decline and death from Alzheimer's disease. He would grow agitated and restless and want to leave home every evening at dusk. "Every night it was a huge battle. We'd (have to) talk him into staying the night," Wolfer said. "There was only the two of us." She started gambling These were hard things, said Smith, a white haired woman in a blue gingham shirt with a "noel" appliqué. She loves to sing and is wont to break out a "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" without warning. "My faith has supported me over the years. I trust the lord to guide and help and be my mainstay," she said. After Wolfer's father died in July 2006, she was at loose ends. Drain, the north Douglas County town of 1,143, has an unemployment rate of 12.5 percent, according to 2012 Census estimates. "There's really not a lot of opportunity in a little town," Smith said. Wolfer started gambling heavily. "Slowly it became more and more enticing. That big win. That one time. I just started gambling more and more to the point it became a way of life," she said. "At one point, I said I am tired of living hand-to-mouth because I'm spending all my money on gambling. It doesn't matter how much I win, I'm going to turn around and put it back into the machines because I'm always looking for a bigger win." She begins to branch out After treatment at Emergence Addiction Counseling, she was able to stop, she said. Wolfer and her mother occupied themselves with canning, elderberry and grape juice and then crimson spire applesauce. Wolfer made tie dye, neck coolers and jewelry. And then she returned to fudge. Wolfer made it first for friends, and then, when the North Umpqua Farmer's Market started up in 2009, she made fudge for sale. She soon branched out to other fairs and festivals, including the Holiday Market. "It's where we make the majority of our money for the year," Wolfer said. Wolfer struggled with depression in the wake of her father's death. Smith, who is a Seventh-Day Adventist, got her daughter to go to a depression recovery class at a church in Cottage Grove. There, she met Tim Pastor, a former IRS agent. She remembers him saying he'd just buried his 17-year-old black lab, who was like family — and, two days later, was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He put on a brave front, Wolfer said, but "I still remember him standing by the table after the class was over and he was the saddest most forlorn person I've ever seen," Wolfer said. "The next week, I brought him lemon fudge." Pair plan to marry next year In the years since, Pastor has been her helper, with bookkeeping, her website and, a year ago, opening a storefront with a commercial kitchen of her own — across the street from Ray's Food Place on Highway 99 in Drain. Wolfer and Pastor plan to marry next year. Smith, now 78, moves fast along side her daughter, shrink-wrapping tray after tray of the fudge that Wolfer produces. She and her daughter both wear Bluetooth receivers in their ears. Their work is steadily interrupted by the jingle of old fashioned bells on the shop door, by a customer who wants to send a package of fudge to a son, or take a package home for a party. "Our foot traffic here is so that the store carries itself," Smith said. Recently, a toothless man stepped into the fudge shop, asking whether he could wash the store windows for a little cash. Smith treated him tenderly. "I would love to have you do it, but we have a gentleman who does it for us," she said. "But thank you for stopping. You are welcome to try some fudge while you are here." She returned to her task of poking pink salt grains onto the tops of the latest batch of fudge bars. "I admire people who are striving to keep going," she said. Tammy's Fabulous Fudge may be at a turning point. Wolfer, who is 55, said she could sell more candy if she had machinery, costing tens of thousands of dollars, to automate. She figures she could make a wholesale business out of her sideline of coconut cashew brittle. Setting up for shows, chopping up hundreds of fudge samples, putting up her 10-by-20 foot booth with sneeze guards — it's all labor intensive, Wolfer said, so she's going to narrow her participation in fairs next year to the biggest and best. She plans to get bar codes for the fudge and the brittle and get them into local grocery stores. And, she wants to pump up her Internet sales. All of this is divinity to her mother's years. "It really gives a direction-to-life for her," Smith said. Where: 301 N. First St. in Drain |
| Christmas Eve Run and Christmas Cookies <b>Recipe</b> Round-up <b>...</b> Posted: 24 Dec 2013 10:53 PM PST Merry Christmas!
We drove to the nicer part of town to do a 3.0 mile run. Sometimes, you just have to get out of your neighborhood – know what I mean? There were SO many awesome Christmas decorations. Henry had a blast pointing out all the Santas (he can say 'Santa' and it sounds adorable).
Also – it was cold. We ran by the Homeland house!
Any other Homeland fans out there? This house is the Saudi Ambassador's home from Season One. You know, the guy that puts a drawing of a heart in the window to set up secret meetings? Yup. That's his house! We actually ran by the crew when they were filming the scenes a few years ago. I remember asking one of the workers what they were filming and he said, "This really awesome show called Homeland. You should watch it when it comes out!" We covered 3.0 miles with lots of stops to look at blow-up Santas.
Dear Dream Neighborhood: I will be back one day. Buying, not renting.
Christmas Cookie Recipe Round-Up I asked some of my blog friends to share their favorite cookie recipes. Here they are! Julie at PB Fingers loves Mimi's Sugar Cookies.
Kath at KathEats loves Kate's Kookies.
Monica at RunEatRepeat loves Martha Stewart's Gingerbread Cookies, as do I! These are awesome cookies. Fun fact: I actually baked these for a blogger bake sale like three years ago – and Monica won them!
Anne loves her Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip cookie recipe.
As well as her Matt's Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies.
We are baking cookies later, but I'm just going to do a break-and-bake cookie. Call me lazy, but I already cleaned the kitchen and don't want to tidy up again! |
| Family photos, secret <b>recipes</b> and Tony Romo's nickname all <b>...</b> Posted: 24 Dec 2013 10:52 PM PST If you want Jerry Jones' special family recipe for chicken spaghetti then you should probably get a copy of the Dallas Cowboys 2013 Family Cookbook. The annual cookbook was recently released and while it doesn't include the recipe to the team's "secret sauce" it does have several family pictures from the players and coaching staff. Here are a couple examples: The book also includes brief Q&As with several Cowboys players, coaches and their significant others. Bet you didn't know Brandon Carr's favorite restaurant is Joe's Crab Shack. Well, you would have if you bought the 200-page book. Here are some highlights: – Jason Garrett's favorite movie is Casablanca. – Three people Miles Austin would like to have dinner with (living or dead) are Richard Pryor, George Carlin and his dad. – Sean Lee's gameday ritual is to call his family while he's driving to the stadium. – Tony Romo's nickname for his wife is Bubbles. Romo's wife's nickname for him: Bubbles. If you want to purchase a copy, you can do so here at the Happy Hill Farm website. Follow Jon Machota on Twitter: @jonmachota . Bookmark the . |
| TREE-CYCLING A <b>recipe</b> for “What to do with that tree?” Posted: 24 Dec 2013 10:00 PM PST
In addition to what dead trees normally do—turn into mulch (food) for surrounding plants, there is a host of other things you can do with that evergreen. Do you or a neighbor have a pond? A tree can be used as fish habitat when sunk into the water. Do you have a good size back yard? A tree makes a great shelter for birds in the winter, as well as rabbits. The tree can even be used to feed them—people can put peanut butter or oranges on the branches. Another local business, J.J. Cardinals, located at 12830 S. Saginaw, 810-695-8733 in Grand Blanc offer recipe sheets for many different bird treats that can be made at home out of dried fruit, nuts, and other items. A quick search of the internet will offer several results as well. If you aren't into the nature aspect of recycling, Yancho states that many communities offer curbside pickup for mulching or composting trees. According to Yancho, Oakland County parks has a tree recycling program where trees can be dropped off from Dec. 26, 2013 – Jan. 13, 2014, seven days a week, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at their parks, including Groveland Oaks Park (14555 Dixie Highway—at Grange Hall Road in Holly). Tree drop-off is free although all decorations, plastic, tinsel and wire must be removed. The program is selfservice and assistance in removing trees from vehicles is unavailable. In the Spring, residents can get their tree back — in the form of compost and wood chips from the park. If you are able to cut the branches off the tree, they can be cut up to use as extra winter cover for tender landscape plants to help them survive the cold months. Straw or leaf mulching is also needed if you plan to get a potted tree to replant in your yard. Yancho states although it may be trendy to get a potted tree, they can only survive under very specific conditions. He recommends the homeowner prepare a spot for planting first, by mulching a spot in the yard. It is important to realize how big the tree will grow and plant at least 15 feet from a driveway, sidewalk, or house and remember the trees can get to be 20-30 feet wide in its lifetime. Also, many people may not be aware that, even though they are green evergreens do go through dormancy in the colder months, so being taken into a very warm house can shock them out of the dormancy cycle—which is important in order to not damage the buds of next years' growth. Additionally, Yancho recommended such a tree only be in the house 5-7 days depended on how warm your home is. When the holiday is over, in order to not shock the tree further, if the outside temperature is below zero, the tree should be placed in a garage or other cool place before being replanted in the previously mulched area. After planting it is important to add 4-6 in of mulch over the planting site to keep the roots warm during the winter, and to make sure the tree is well watered as well. Another consideration to be aware of is exposure to road salt. This common plant killer becomes airborne in a mist on roads with higher speed traffic. The effects of this can often be seen on the windward side of roads where trees that are close are brown and dead. "Some trees are resistant to salt," Yancho explained, "and also people need to be aware of run-off areas". Yancho gained his tree expertise after the oil embargo and resulting agricultural crisis of the late 1970's when it no longer became profitable for the family farm to produce cash crops on a large scale. He and his brothers went to work off the farm for about ten years, while his father made the decision to plant Christmas trees. "By the late 80s he had planted so many he couldn't handle it by himself," Yancho said. He brought back his sons to go into business with him. "So I became a Christmas tree farmer since 1963," Yancho explained. Although Yancho has been to Europe and other countries he says he loves Michigan and he is well known for being active in and giving back to the community. He is the Third member of the Executive Committee of the Genesee County Farm Bureau and a member of the Michigan State University Extension's Citizen's Cooperative program. Trim Pines is also one of twelve farms which partner with the Eastern Michigan Food Bank in Flint, growing produce to sell for distribution to needy families. He doesn't profit on the exchange though, making just enough to cover costs. Unlike typical crops such as corn or soybeans, Christmas trees are a renewable and recyclable resourced that doesn't require a lot of fertilizer or annual cultivation, Yancho said. It is "easy" on the land and does not compact the soil as other crops do. A typical tree farm is only tilled once every ten years versus the annual tilling most famers do. This enables a healthier soil which grows lots of microorganisms, as well as serving as wildlife refuges. More information about Yancho and his farm can be found at www.trimpines.com/about.htm, or he can be contacted via phone: (810) 694-9958 or by e-mail: info@trimpines.com |
9(MDEwMzQ0NTcxMDEzNTE2Mjg4MDQ3OGJiOA004))
| You are subscribed to email updates from Google Alert - recipe To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
{ 0 Comment... Views All / Send Comment! }
Posting Komentar