Buckeye Candy

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Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups peanut butter
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 6 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1.   In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, butter, vanilla and confectioners’ sugar. The dough will look dry. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet.

2.   Press a toothpick into the top of each ball (to be used later as the handle for dipping) and chill in freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.

3.   Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler or in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir frequently until smooth.

4.   Dip frozen peanut butter balls in chocolate holding onto the toothpick. Leave a small portion of peanut butter showing at the top to make them look like Buckeyes. Put back on the cookie sheet and refrigerate until serving.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 331 | Total Fat: 19.4g | Cholesterol: 16m

This recipe is quite easy to throw together.

You’re hardly doing more than just opening up

cans of things and dumping them into a pot.

It contains a couple weirdo ingredients

I myself would never have entertained using:

“Taco Seasoning” & powdered Ranch dressing.

(Who the hell buys crap like that?)

But it turns out with a really distinctive flavor:

Bold and a bit “tangy.”

The beer is a nice flourish but not strictly necessary.

Several chile peppers, chopped

Several stalks \ celery, chopped

1 lb. \ hamburger

1 packet \ Taco Seasoning

1 packet \ powdered Ranch salad dressing

1 large (26-oz.) can \ condensed Tomato Soup

1 14.5-oz. can \ diced tomatoes

2 cups \ chicken broth

1 can \ whole-kernel corn

2 cans of beans

(black, Great Northern, kidney, pinto, red, etc.)

1 12-oz. can \ beer

Briefly sautee chile peppers & celery.

Add hamburger and brown.

During browning process, add contents of 2 packets.

Add all the various cans of things.

Bring to boil.  Let simmer briefly.

Yemen’s Salta

Salta is a dish that does not, to my knowledge, exist anywhere beyond Yemen.  (Though I’ve heard you can get it in Dearborn, Michigan, a town with a high concentration of Yemeni people.)

Salta is nothing but a fairly simple stew, containing vegetables and bits of meat.  It’s traditionally eaten, not with utensils, but by scooping it out with bits of bread.  It’s a specialty of San’a, the capital … but is available in other parts of the country.  Furthermore – and I have absolutely no idea why this is the case – it’s a traditional lunchtime food.  Salta joints seem only to be open around midday, at which time they are packed with hungry working men.

There are two factors that make salta distinctive.  The stew has a highly unique topping of blended vegetables and fenugreek.  And it is served at extremely high temperature in a stone bowl.

I recently prepared salta for myself.  I knew in advance it would be impossible to replicate the original – but it was close enough.  It was quite good.  Here’s what is looked like.

For those times you really, really wanna know what the person who googled right before you googled.

I guess I DIDN'T wanna know.

I guess I DIDN'T wanna know.

A couple times I thought it was talking to me.

The Ascension, or Six Hundred Days In Her Life

chicken-stir-fry

Tonight’s stir fry (chicken and veg, fairly bland thrown-together sauce of:

  • non-fiery “fiery sauce” +
  • non-spicy “spicy habanero sauce” +
  • soy sauce (the only reliable sauce in there!)

Yakisoba (lightly fried thin noodles) not shown.

choco-foster-kane

I found this chocolate bunny which apparently honors the character Charles Foster Kane. Admirable!

Gooey Love Cake

Make this relatively quick and impressive cake for your Valentine. 

vanilla cake mix, banana creme pudding mix, caramel ice cream topping, banana

suggestion: vanilla cake mix, banana creme pudding mix, caramel ice cream topping, banana

1 box cake mix

1 box instant pudding mix

1 jar (1 pound) ice cream topping

fruit, cut into small pieces as necessary

hint: Choose complimentary ingredient flavors. 

1. Make cake batter (do not bake yet) according to box directions.

2. Make pudding according to pudding pie directions on box (reduced liquid), pulverizing lumps between fork tines and your finger.

3. Swirl 1/2 cake batter and 1/2 pudding together in a large cake pan.

4. Place fruit on swirled mixture.

5. Drizzle remaining cake batter and pudding over fruit.

6. Bake according to briefest time box directions.

7. At end of baking time, turn off oven, then open over door quickly, then close oven door and allow pudding cake to cool in warm oven.

8. Cover pudding cake with plastic wrap and refridgerate overnight.

9. Pour at least most of ice cream topping over pudding cake.

10. Arrange fruit on top of topping.

Spinach and rice omelette

popeyes-date

If you have traditional ideas about breakfast food but you need to start the day with iron, you might try this quick and tasty meal.

 Take six ounces of canned spinach and squeeze it dry.  Mix it with one cup of cooked rice. 

Break three large eggs into a cup.  Add milk and stir until the mixture is even. 

Drop a pat of butter into a frying pan.  Heat the frying pan until the butter starts to melt.  Then pour the milk and eggs mixture in.  Stir the butter through the mixture a few times, then add the spinach and rice, one forkful at a time.

Click here for more omelette recipes.

Hot Chocolate Drinks

newsimg.bbc.co.uk

newsimg.bbc.co.uk

 

HOT COCOA/HOT COCOA COCKTAIL
 

Hot Cocoa (recipe by Alton Brown): 

2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup Dutch-process cocoa

2 1/2 cups powdered milk

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 pinch cayenne pepper

milk or water

1. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl and incorporate evenly.

2. Heat milk or water.

3. Fill mug half full with mixture and pour in hot milk or water and stir.

4. Store remaining mixture in an airtight container.

Hot Cocoa Cocktail:

Pour one shot of Peppermint Schnapps and two shots of Kahlúa into a large mug, then fill to the brim with prepared Hot Cocoa drink (see above).
 

HOT COCOA CLOUD 

2 cups milk

½ cup half and half

3 ounces dark chocolate pieces (at least 85% cocoa)

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 pinch cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons dark rum

1 cinnamon stick

Put first 5 ingredients in a pot and gently heat while stirring with cinnamon stick. When the chocolate is melted, turn off heat and add vanilla and rum. Stir with cinnamon stick and serve.

Quicker and Easier Figgy Pudding

tnjn.com photo by Samantha Thornton

tnjn.com photo by Samantha Thornton

My very own Quicker and Easier* Figgy Pudding recipe for when you’re expecting carolers AT ANY MINUTE:

 
1 cup butter, plus extra for cups

1 cup sugar

3 eggs, separated into yolks and stiffly beaten whites

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon rum extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ pound dried figs, approximately, chopped

1 ½ cups dry bread crumbs

water for oven

 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Butter oven-proof cups with extra butter.

3. Cream together butter, sugar, yolks, milk, extract, spice, and baking powder.

4. Add figs and crumbs and stir.

5. Fold stiffly beaten whites into mixture.

6. Place large shallow baking pan on middle rack in oven and fill 1/2 full with water. Scoop batter into cups and place cups into water-filled pan.

7. Bake the whole setup 1 /2 hour.

8. Crack open oven door to let cool somewhat.

Optional: Top with milk or cream.

Note: Figgy Pudding has a Fruitcake consistency.

*This recipe is quicker and easier compared to traditional Figgy Pudding recipes.

Sautauthig and a First/Last Celebration of Cooperation

sail1620.org

sail1620.org

The harvest feast- now known as the “first Thanksgiving”- between the Wampanoags and the English settlers at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621, was a brief celebration of unity.

Sautauthig, a Wampanoag dish, was likely served at the feast. The measured recipe was originally at plimothplantation.org but has since been removed. An unmeasured, perhaps more authentic recipe:

SAUTAUTHIG

water

dry samp

dried, crushed blueberries

optional: milk, salt, butter, maple syrup or honey 

Heat water until almost simmering. Add samp while stirring. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until thickened, stirring occasionally. Add blueberries and stir. 

 

If desired, add any optional ingredients and stir.