What’s cooking?
February 25, 2012 | Family,Food
I made sea scallops from an A Food Centric Life recipe that I got from Amy. I also made something with shrimp, because my son really loves shrimp. It’s always fun to try something new!
Food: Tomato and Watermelon Salad
August 30, 2011 | Food
I saw this recipe over at Algonquin Books Blog. It’s absolutely delicious! My mother would have loved it.
Apple tree
August 27, 2011 | Family,Food,Iowa
Our apple tree is loaded with apples this year. I’ve got to get into harvest mode soon. I might try making apple jelly this year.
What’s your favorite recipe for apples? Pie? Salad? What’s the craziest apple dish you’ve eaten? Let me know. I love new recipes!
This is one of my new favorites from my aunt. We ate these when we were in Missouri. Yum!
Aunt Carolyn’s Candy Apples
Ingredients
4 apples, peeled and sliced
A little water
Red Hots candy
1/2 cup sugar
Cinnamon
Place sliced apples in a skillet with a little water and heat. Cover with Red Hots. Stir only after juice from apples accumulates. Add sugar and cinnamon. Cook until soft.
Food: Shrimp dip
July 15, 2011 | Food
I got this recipe from a friend many, many years ago. I love this dip so much that I could sit with the bowl and a box of crackers and eat the whole thing. Luckily (for all concerned), I made it for my book club last night.
Shrimp dip
2 cans shrimp
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
1 8-ounce package, plus 1 3-ounce package, cream cheese
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon horseradish
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 teaspoons dill weed
Let cream cheese soften at room temperature. Mash all ingredients. Chill at least one day before serving with crackers.
Food: Strawberry Fields Salad
July 14, 2011 | Food,Summer
I didn’t take a picture of the salad when I made it, but you can see it here: Strawberry Fields Salad on Southern Living. The only thing I didn’t use was a green tomato. But, oh my goodness, I can’t find the words to explain how delicious this salad is. I love summer!
Food: Pasta salad
July 11, 2011 | Food
I got this from Phyllis Hoffman Celebrate, summer 2011 edition. Yum!
Pasta Salad
1 pound pasta
1 1/2 cups fresh asparagus, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup pine nuts
1 1/4 cups sliced zucchini
1/4 cup chopped basil
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
2 tablespoons lemon zest
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cook pasta. Add asparagus to water during last 1 to 2 minutes of cooking time. Drain.
Heat 1/4 cup olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and pine nuts. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until pine nuts begin to turn slightly golden, stirring often. Add zucchini. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until zucchini is soft.
In a large bowl, combine pasta, asparagus, zucchini mixture, remaining 1/4 cup olive oil, basil, parsley, chives, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and apper, tossing gently to combine.
Food: Lefse
July 10, 2011 | Family,Food,Marie's recipes,Norway
This is for Lance, whose people are, in part, Norwegian — from what I’ve heard.
Lefse
1 large egg
2 cups kefir*
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons hornsalt**
1 cup melted butter
flour
Makes about 15 lefse. The less flour and less preparation time used, the better. After you grill each lefse, cover with a tea towel to keep them from drying out. When done grilling, lay them out and let them cool off. Spread filling on one lefse and cover with another of a similar size. Cut in half. Eat some now; freeze the rest.
Filling
1 1/4 cups butter
1 cup sugar
cinnamon
Prim***
Mix on high speed until smooth and spreadable.
*I find kefir in the organic dairy section of my grocery store. Some people make their own, but I haven’t tried that.
**I usually buy hornsalt when I’m in Norway. Otherwise, I can get it through Ingebretsen’s in Minneapolis. It’s a raising agent that smells like ammonia, and it always reminds me of smelling salts (and, wouldn’t you know it … they’re both the same thing). Seems like a smelly thing to use for baking. But, remember, these Norwegians also soak their fish in lye.
***Prim is a spreadable brown cheese. I’ve always gotten it in Norway, but I bet I could check with Ingebretsen’s or Willy’s Products to see if they could get it. It’s not completely necessary, but it adds a nice flavor to the filling.
Related posts
Lefse!
Breaking in the lefse grill
Posted by Becky @ 6:00 am | 2 Comments
Food: Potato salad
June 25, 2011 | Family,Food,Iowa,Marie's recipes,Norway,Summer,Vacation
Yes, there are hundreds of ways to make potato salad. One of my favorites, though, is the way my mother-in-law makes it. She shared her recipe.
16 ounces sour cream
6 ounces mayonnaise
3 tablespoons dill pickle brine
1/2 apple, chopped
2 dill pickles, chopped
1/2 leek, sliced
7 potatoes, cooked and diced
Mix all together. Let set. Serve with dinner from the grill.
Waldorf cookbook
June 12, 2011 | Food,Iowa
As Anne Bakke made the syttende mai dinner, she kept mentioning “the Waldorf cookbook.” In fact, all of the recipes she used that night came from it. I wanted to get my hands on this cookbook. I finally found one from a collector just west of here.
The best I can determine, the cookbook was published in 1981, in honor of Tillie Rasmusson, who was food service director at Waldorf College for most of the 20th century. According to The Iowan, “She was beloved for her welcoming campus kitchen, housed in the basement of Salveson Hall, and for her delicious cinnamon rolls, baked every weekend. Waldorf students would reportedly make their travel plans around Rasmusson’s baking schedule, returning to campus in time for rolls fresh from the oven. So legendary were those rolls that two of them were placed in the cornerstone of a new building dedicated in 1955 — Rasmusson Hall.”
According to Waldorf, “Rasmusson Hall (1955) is a three-story residence hall for approximately 56 students. It is named for Tillie Rasmusson, a former food service director who was beloved for her caramel rolls.”
The cookbook opens with Tillie’s Chapter and Recipes.
“We feel it appropriate that this cookbook be named in memory of Miss Tillie Rasmusson, since for nearly fifty years she served delicious meals to thousands of students, teachers, and friends at Waldorf College. If there is one thing everyone remembers about Tillie’s cooking, I’m sure that it would be her cinnamon rolls. Students, especially the men, who went home for the weekend would return Sunday morning in order to enjoy Tillie’s rolls.
“Just before Tillie retired I asked her about the amounts purchased and the amounts served at the college while she was cook. She fed around 375 students and teachers every day. As you read the quantities remember everything was ‘home baked.’ There were no cake mixes, no frozen foods and no instant potatoes. When I mention potatoes, she didn’t have an electric peeler for many years, so they peeled the potatoes by hand.
“40 sacks of flour every two months (100 lb. sacks)
150 lbs. of potatoes a day
60 dozen eggs three times a week
150 lbs. of butter a week
150 lbs. of roast beef for one meal or
10 large turkeys
12 gal. of canned fruit for sauce
75 gal. of milk every day
Every Saturday she baked
50 loaves of bread
500 buns for maid-rites for Saturday evening
15 doz. large cinnamon rolls
55 pies — each pie cut in 7 pieces”
That section includes the ingredients for rolls, although I’m not sure whether they were cinnamon rolls, caramel rolls … or both, but the recipe was for making a couple hundred rolls. It also has 13 other recipes, with a few Norwegian delicacies, such as fattigman and julebrød (Christmas bread). The rest of the cookbook is filled with recipes — Norwegian and otherwise — from others.
