Honeymama's Christmas Fruitcake

As usual, we hit that thang before I could run get the camera.

My grandmother, "Honeymama" as she was known by us grandkids, used to make her Christmas fruitcake every year sometime in November. By the time I first sampled her fruitcake, a firm tradition had been established. Every year the first piece of fruitcake went to my Aunt Sandra, her second child. None of us could touch the fruitcake till Sandra had eaten the first piece.  Aunt Sandra lived a good hour or two drive from Keene up on the prairie west of Springtown, Texas, north of Weatherford so she only came down once a month or so to check on her Mama.

One year, not long after my Grandfather passed away, Aunt Sandra got busy with business affairs and didn't come and visit her mama as often as Honeymom thought she ought to. I was sitting in her kitchen a few days before Thanksgiving, looking covetously at that fruitcake when all of a sudden my grandmother stood up, pulled a big knife out of the drawer and approached the fruitcake muttering darkly.

"If she can't be bothered to come visit her mother, I know someone who will appreciate a piece of fruitcake." 

I couldn't believe it when she plunked a thick slice of fruitcake and a tall bottle of Dr. Pepper down in front of me. With a twinkle in her eye, she winked at me and went back to her early Thanksgiving preparations.

Honeymom gave a copy of her fruitcake recipe to Sheila years ago. I still have the handwritten copy. Apparently Honeymom got the recipe from "Aunt Dora", whoever that was. I should check the family tree to see who she was I suppose. Anyway, Sheila tweaks it a bit and no two fruitcakes come out exactly the same but they are all addictively delicious. She made two this year, the first with chopped dates which lasted about two weeks. The second time we didn't have dates so we made it with craisins (dried cranberries).  Feel free to have fun with the ingredients. It's a very forgiving recipe. I think the secret is that neither Aunt Dora, Honeymama, nor Sheila use citron in the recipe. It's a nice mild fruity and dense moist cake. I can't resist it.

Ingredients:  

1. 4 eggs
2. 2 cups sugar
3. 1 cup melted butter
4. 1 tsp. baking powder
5. 2 1/2 cups flour
6. 1 cup milk
7. 1/1/2 cup walnuts or pecans
8. 1 cup chopped dates, raisins or craisins
9. 2 small boxes or 1 large box chopped candied pineapple 
10. 2 small boxes or 1 large box candied cherries
11. 2 cups grated fresh coconut
12. 1/2 cup flour (dusted on fruit)
13. 1 tsp vanilla extract
14. 1 tsp almond extract 
15. 1 tsp butter flavoring
16. Spices to taste (nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, etc.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees
2. Mix eggs, sugar, butter, and baking powder till smooth.
3. Add 2 1/2 cup flour and milk
4. Chop nuts and all fruit and toss in a large bowl with 3/4 cup flour
5. Mix coconut into fruit mix
6. Add spices till the batter tastes like you like it.
7. Stir all together in a large bowl and fold into a large bundt cake pan (or a normal size bundt pan and a loaf pan) coated with butter
8. Bake at 300 degrees for approximately 1 hour until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Serving Suggestions:

This recipe tends to run over the top of our bundt pan, so we put some of the batter in a loaf pan and made a "giftable sized fruitcake" (right) and avoided having to clean fruitcake batter off the oven racks. One hint given to us by seasoned fruitcake bakers: Fruitcake tastes best if you let it sit for a few days in a cool corner before you eat it. Wrap it in plastic and hide it from yourself. It's the only way it's going to make it more than 12 hours without you losing control and chopping off a hunk of it. My Honeymama used to let hers sit for up to two weeks or until Sandra showed up for her first-of-the-season fruitcake.  Serve with milk or either Coke or Dr. Pepper in the traditional bottle.

If you can bear to give away the smaller fruitcake, cut it in slices after it cools, then put the slices in one of those plastic gift boxes or cake tins. Walmart sells them in the Christmas wrap section. Just slap a bow and a tag on it and you have a fantastic gift most people with working tastebuds will love.


If you think you don't like fruitcake, you might want to try this fruitcake. The lack of citron really makes this a lovely collage of gentle, tasteable flavors and a tribute to the culinary genius of Aunt Dora, my Honeymama and my Sweet Baboo!
 
If you find you don't like this fruitcake, box it up and mail it to "Uncle Tom's Home for Homeless Fruitcakes". We'll make sure your unwanted fruitcake will achieve its ultimate purpose in the grand cosmic scheme of things.

© 2018 by Tom King

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Honeymama's Candied Dill Pickles

If you like sweet pickles at all, you'll love these.  My grandmother (we called her Honeymama) used to make these and whenever she had a jar in the fridge, I was there to mooch 'em.  Nothing better in the world than a longhorn cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread with Kraft Mayo, a slice of fresh tomato still warm from the garden and several candied dill chips.  She taught me how to make them, in self-defense I think, hoping I'd ease up on her supply. 

Oh, and you needed a tall cold Dr. Pepper in the return-for-deposit bottle to go with it. The beauty of candied dills is you almost have to make them yourselves. For some reason pickle makers have never mass produced candied dills for very long, if at all.

Here's what you need to make candied dills:

• 1 giant jar of cheap hamburger dill pickle chips
• 1 cup of sugar for each quart of the jar's capacity
• 1 tablespoon of mixed pickling spice per quart
• Vinegar (apple cider vinegar works nicely and gives it a unique flavor)
• Cheesecloth
• Twine

Here's what you do:

1. Pour out the pickles into a collander and drain off the vinegar. 
2. Rinse the pickles with fresh vinegar.
3. Rinse out the pickle jar.
4. Put the pickles back in the jar
5. Pour part of the sugar into the jar. 
6. Pour vinegar over it to dissolve the sugar.
7. Alternate sugar and vinegar till the jar is about 3/4 full of vinegar.
8. Measure 1 tablespoon of pickling spice onto a six inch square of cheesecloth.
9. Wrap the cheesecloth around the spice and tie the open end securely with string.
10. Tuck the spice ball down in the pickles
11. Finish filling the jar with vinegar and the entire amount of sugar
12. Put the lid back on and shove it to the back of the refrigerator
13. Put a sign on the jar threatening to chop off the fingers of anyone who gets into the jar without permission.
14. Shake up the jar every day or two to promote complete dissolving of the sugar on the bottom of the jar.  Open the lid and sniff. It doesn't help any, but it's good for your morale during the curing process. 
15. Wait at least two weeks for the sugar and spice to permeate the pickles.
16. About  a week into the process, make another jar or two. You will need them because if the first jar lasts a week I'd be surprised.

17. Enjoy!

I make my own labels for these.  I wondered why no commercial pickler made candied dills for a long time. Then, I found candied dills made by a small local boutique pickler named "Annies". She sold them through a special display at Brookshire's and charged $7 a pint for them.  I used to buy them when I couldn't wait for a new batch to cure. They are that danged good!

Annie even sells one variety of candied pickles that have jalapenos in them. Those are really good too. I may try a batch of Honeymom's candied dills with a few jalapenos tossed in to give it a little kick. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Tom

Vegan Cole Slaw

Vegan Cole Slaw

I came into possession of some vegan mayonnaise. I was skeptical at first but the stuff turned out to be really really good. Made with all the usual ingredients, the only thing different is the vegan mayo. It makes up to a huge bowl of Cole slaw for potluck. As with fresh made Cole Slaw, if you set it in the fridge overnight you may get some settling of the thinner parts of the dressing in the bottom of the bowl. Just toss it all again or pour off any water that settles and it’ll be great.

Dressing Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cup Vegannaise (vegan mayonnaise)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cider or red wine vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon celery seed
• ½ teaspoon season salt or Creole seasoning
• Salt to taste
• 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

Slaw Ingredients:

- ½ head of green cabbage
- ½ head of purple cabbage
- 3 cups grated carrots.

Directions:

1. Chop both cabbages
2. Grate the carrots
3. Toss with dressing in a large sealable bowl
4. Refrigerate in a sealed bowl until ready to use.

Oriental Cole Slaw

Once again it's so good we ate half of it before I thought,
"Hey, I need to write this one up for TPV!" The recipe makes
better than twice that much Cole slaw.

This my Sweet Baboo's favorite Cole slaw recipe from our box o' old recipes under the kitchen cabinet. It's easy to make and it's a huge bowl of Cole slaw when you're done - perfect for potluck. It's not that hard to do.

INGREDIENTS:

Slaw -

• 2 pkgs. Chicken flavor Ramen Noodles
• 1 bag Cole Slaw mix
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds 
• Butter/margarine

Dressing -

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup oil
• Seasoning packets from Ramen noodles

DIRECTIONS:

1. Crush the Ramen Noodles in a large bowl. Store in a Ziplock bag.
2. Put Cole Slaw mix in a large bowl or Tupperware container.
3. In small frying pan melt butter and brown the slivered almonds.
4. Mix almonds into slaw and noodle mix.
5. In a small bowl, Mix sugar, vinegar, oil, and Ramen noodle seasoning packets
6. Pour dressing over slaw mix and toss till everything is evenly coated. Keep the crushed Ramen noodles separate and don't add them until just before you serve it up.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS:

Put the Cole slaw in a big Tupperware bowl, seal and store in the fridge overnight so it's nice and cold for potluck on Sabbath. Just before you serve it, pour the Ramen noodles into the slaw and give it a good toss.

Mmmmm good!

Tom King

Sheila's Homemade Banana Pudding

This dessert is a sure potluck hit. You should double or triple the recipe. It looks nice in a big yellow mixing bowl which I recommend everyone get because, well, everyone should have a big yellow glass mixing bowl. There are easier ways to make banana pudding, but no Jello mix can quite compete. You can't make it like this out of a box. Between the cooking time, the assembly time, and making up the topping, it can take an hour to put it all together. It’s very much worth it. It’s easy to double or triple the recipe. You just have to be really careful keeping it stirred while cooking a very large batch so it doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pot.

Ingredients

Pudding

• 1/2 Cup Sugar or you can substitute Stevia or something like that to lower the calories. You just have to change the prep a bit.
• 1/3 Cup Flour or ¼ cup corn starch
• 3 Egg Yolks, Save the egg whites for making meringue if you plan to do that.
• 2 Cups Milk
• 1 Box Vanilla Wafers
• 5 Bananas
• 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla (a bit more if you use something beside vanilla extract)
• A dash of salt

Meringue:

• 1 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar, for making meringue
• 3/4 cups Sugar, for making the meringue
• 3 Egg Whites, for making meringue
• Alternate topping – large tub of Whipped Cream or Cool Whip

Directions:

1. In a large pot or saucepan, mix flour, egg yolks (beaten), milk and salt. If using sugar add it now. If using artificial sweetner, set it aside till after the pudding is cooked as heat will kill the sweetness.
2. Heat over medium eat, stirring constantly with a wire whisk. It takes around 15 minutes for the pudding to thicken. Don’t let it scorch.
3. When the pudding thickens and begins to bubble, remove it from the heat and set it aside to begin to cool. Add vanilla when it's cooled a bit and stir it up good.
4. In your big yellow mixing bowl, place a layer of vanilla wavers in the bottom of the bowl. If making a double or triple batch, make sure you have an extra bowl or a really, really big bowl.
5. Slice bananas and cover the layer of cookies. Alternate cookies and bananas
6. If using artificial sweetener (which will cause diabetics in the group to kiss you feet) stir the sweetener into the pudding. Just follow the replacement amounts on the box of sweetener. At any rate, with your pudding ready to go, every few layers, spoon the pudding over the cookies and bananas. Add more cookies and bananas and pudding layers until you fill up the bowl. 
7. At this point you should preheat the oven to 350 degrees if you are doing meringue. If you are doing Cool Whip skip to step #13.
8. Place all the egg whites in another mixing bowl. Add a teaspoon of cream of tartar and 3/4 cup of sugar or sweetener two tablespoons at a time while beating the egg whites. It could take up to 15 minutes.
9. Continue whipping egg mixture till it forms stiff glossy peaks.
10. Pour meringue mixture over the top of the banana pudding; spread it out over the bowl. Dab at the top of the meringue with a spoon till curly peaks form.
11. Set the pudding on a baking sheet and bake in the hot oven till the peaks begin to brown.
12. Remove the pudding and allow it to cool to room temperature, and then chill in the refrigerator. Do not put hot meringue straight out of the oven in the refrigerator. It will collapse as I discovered the hard way.
13. If you’re doing Cool Whip instead of meringue, wait till the pudding cools at least to slightly warm and then spoon whipped topping over the top of the pudding. At this point I add cookies in decorative patterns on top of the topping.
14. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
15. You may have to padlock the refrigerator door while the pudding is cooling. Otherwise, you may get up Sabbath morning and find a big hole in your pudding.

Serving Suggestion:

This part’s simple. Pull off the plastic, stick a big spoon in it and get out of the way. I promise you that you will be taking home a nice clean bowl.

Creole Seasoned Vegeburger Mac and Cheese Casserole

This one is very like the Vege-Cheeseburger Macaroni Casserole in my last blog. It's just a little simpler and maybe a little quicker. Here's how it works.

Ingredients: 

• Morningstar Griller Recipe Crumbles (1/3 bag)
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 1/2 bell pepper
• Olive oil
• Jar of spaghetti sauce
• 1/4 cup grated cheese
• 6 sliced olives 
• 2 boxes macaroni and cheese
• 1 tbsp Tony's Creole Seasoning

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Cook the macaroni by package directions.
3. In a large pot, lightly cover the bottom with olive oil.
4. Saute onions and peppers with Griller Crumbles.
5. Add spaghetti sauce and prepared mac and cheese.
6. Stir in Creole seasoning
7. Warm the mixture then pour into large loaf pan
8. Sprinkle grated cheese over top.
9. Spread sliced olives over the cheese
10. Bake 15-20 minutes until the cheese is melted and begins to brown.

Serving Suggestions:

Bake on Friday. Simply reheat for Sabbath Potluck.

© 2018 by Tom King

1.  

Vege-Macaroni Burger Corn Casserole

Here's a quick and highly adaptable macaroni casserole. I had some microwavable macaroni, some Grillers Crumbles and a can of soup, so this recipe was a big GO!  I added a couple of things that I liked but you might not so I put it in parentheses. This one can be done on Friday and kept in the fridge till potluck Sabbath. It doesn't take long in the oven either.

Ingredients:

• 16 oz.macaroni
• 4-6 oz Velveeta cheese
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped carrots
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 bag Morningstar Farms Recipe Crumbles, Loma Linda Vegeburger or Worthington Vegeburger
• 1 can whole kernel corn drained
• 1 8 oz can tomato soup
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 to 1 can mild Rotel tomatoes (optional)
• Club cracker crumbs, French-fried onions, or crushed potato chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Heat olive oil in a skillet, saute' the onion and green peppers until tender, add Recipe Crumbles and cook till done.
3. Prepare elbow macaroni per the directions and drain.
4. In large bowl, mix drained macaroni, Recipe Crumbles or vegeburger, onions, peppers, corn, tomato soup, salt, garlic powder and Rotel (if desired).
5. Stir and add a little water if the mixture is too dry.
6. Pour mixture into large casserole.  Grate Velveeta or thin slice it to cover the top of the casserole. 
7. Sprinkle crumbled crackers or French-fried onions or crushed potato chips over the top of the casserole. I like to drizzle a little ketchup on top for decorative purposes.
8. Put into the oven and bake for 20 to 30 minutes until cheese is melted and is lightly browned on top.

Serving suggestions:

Cover the dish with foil and let cool before storing overnight in the fridge. Heat in the oven before serving for potluck. All you need is a big spoon.

Bon' Apetit

Tom
© 2018

Cottage Cheese Loaf - Nutty Version

I got hungry for cottage cheese loaf and whipped up this one.  I changed a few ingredients thanks to some suggestions from readers and a couple of ingredients I wanted to try out for a nuttier version. If you guys are allergic to nuts, this one is not recommended. Here's the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 large carton cottage cheese (24-32 oz. size)
• 5 eggs (higher in protein with the extra egg and binds the extra oatmeal)
• 1/2 cup pecan meal (If you have pecans, dump a cup in the blinder and whiz it up till it's meal)
• 1/2 cup slivered toasted almonds
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 2 Tbsp peanut butter
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 packet Lipton's onion soup mix
• 1 regular box of Special K cereal
• 1/2 stick of butter

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Crush the Special K in a large bowl. Grind up the pecans to make meal if you don't have pecan meal.
3. Stir in oatmeal, peanut butter, oil, soup mix, cottage cheese and eggs. Mix together thoroughly.
4. In 9x13 casserole dish, melt butter.
5. Press loaf mixture into the casserole dish
6. Sprinkle toasted almond slivers over the top
7. Bake in the oven for 40 to 60 minutes until the top is brown and the edges are crisp and pull slightly away from the sides of the pan.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS:

Cover and hold in the refrigerator for tomorrow's potluck or serve immediately. I tend to go with "serve immediately" as you can tell from the picture above. This version has a nuttier flavor than the original recipe. The oatmeal doesn't much change the taste and gives you more of it if you need to feed a larger group. An extra egg covers the extra ingredients. I love this stuff. If you haven't checked it out, here's the original recipe the way my grandmother and Miss Sheila made it.  (Just click the link).

Tom King

Pat Fine's Vege-Cheese Burger Loaf

Pat Fine was a pastor's wife Sheila knew back in Monroe, Louisiana when she was a new Adventist. Pat was an incredible vegetarian cook. Sheila collected a lot of recipes from Pat and we've never tried one of them that wasn't delicious. I made this up today and it was almost entirely eaten up before I could get a picture. It's an easy recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 19 oz can of Loma Linda or Worthington Vegeburger, Redi-Burger or 1 package of Morningstar Farms Grillers Crumbles
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp sage
• 1 slice toasted bread crumbled up fine
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 onion chopped fine
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tsp butter or margarine
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 tsp oregano

Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl mix vegeburger or crumbles with sage, bread crumbs, garlic powder, sage, eggs, salt and 1/2 cup shredded cheese.
3. Caramelize onions by sauteeing in olive oil 
4. Add sauteed onions to vegeburger mix
5. Melt butter in 9x12 casserole dish in oven
6. Spread vegeburger mix in casserole dish and cook for 5-10 minutes
7. Mix ketchup and oregano in a small bowl
8. Take out casserole and spread ketchup/oregano mixture over the top
9. Sprinkle cheese over the top of the vegeburger loaf
10. Cook for 15 minutes or until the mixture gets firm, the cheese melted, and the edges bubble.

Serving Suggestions:

Serves 8 or 4 really hungry people. It's good with potatoes (baked or mashed), green beans or broccoli, carrots or salad or maybe Cole slaw. Some fresh hot rolls are all you need to top the meal off. Also, it can be a stand-alone potluck dish, prepared on Friday and heated up during services for a potluck lunch.  Enjoy.


Tom

Barbecue Wham

Thought I'd do another Wham recipe this week. A very versatile stuff is Wham! It's easy to make up for barbecue. Here's how!

Ingredients:

• Thawed roll of Wham sliced and cut up into thin strips or shredded
• Chopped onions chopped fine
• 8 minced garlic cloves
• 2 bottles KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce
• 1 small bottle of ketchup
• 2-3 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

1. Mix onions and garlic
2. Mix barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce and ketchup
3. Mix wham, onion/garlic mixture, and barbecue sauce/ketchup mixture
4. Place in crockpot and cook on high for 2 or 3 hours stirring occasionally

Serving Suggestion:

This makes a large amount of barbecue suitable for a potluck.  Serve on buns with fries or chips. Makes a great easy sandwich for a bunch of hungry young people.

Tom

Fruity Breakfast - Strawberry Compote

I didn't have any whip cream or cherries or this would have been prettier.

 
A nice addition to a bagel breakfast, this strawberry compote is really flexible and easy to make up. You can make a sugar free version by substituting apple juice for the water or adding splenda or Stevia instead of the sugar. Neither holds it's sweetness well when heated up, but it does help allay the tartness of the strawberries. You can use frozen or fresh strawberries. Either way they go mushy when you cook them. You also don't have to use lemons. I was out of lemons so I used a tangerine. You can also use lime or orange juice as well. The flavor is good either way.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound strawberries
• Juice of one orange, lemon, or lime
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 1/4 cup water

Directions:

I use a pie server to scrape the bottom of the pan during
heating to keep it from sticking and burning.

1. Cut up strawberries and place in pot
2. Add citrus juice 
3. Add sweetner
4. Add corn starch
5. Add water
6. Stir over medium heat for 5 to 15 minutes. Stir constantly to prevent burning and sticking to the pot. Bring to a slow boil till the mixture thickens

Serving suggestions:

Tastes great served over waffles, pancakes, bagels, or toast with a bit of whip cream on top if you'd like. If you want to be terribly fancy, add a cherry on top of the whip cream. In the picture above I've served it with cream cheese on a bagel.  You can double, triple, quadruple or more the recipe if you're serving a potluck breakfast with waffles or pancakes to a bunch of hungry academy choir members. Makes a great alternative to syrup. At least you get a little fruit in there that way.

Tom

Wham Croissants

I love this stuff. It's hard to get but the ABC bookmobile sometimes can bring it around when it visits. Also there's usually some available at camp meeting and some health food stores have it. It's not as common as the canned stuff since it's frozen, but it's worth getting if you can. A big roll lasts a long time. These warm sandwiches are great.

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks of butter softened
• 4 Tbsp digon mustart
• 4 Tbsp poppy seeds
• 1 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
• 1 small onion chopped fine
• Fresh spinach
• Swiss or pepperjack cheese

Directions:

1. Slice and fry wham in butter 
2. Sautee' poppy seeds and finely chopped onions
3. Spread croissant with sauteed seeds and onions with digon mustard and Worchestershire
4. Add slice of Swiss and/or pepperjack cheese. If you prefer you can use American or cheddar slices
5. Top with spinach and heat in the oven at 350 degrees until the cheese melts. You can wait till the cheese melt and then add the spinach, but I like the spinach a little wilted, so I add it first. Either way works.

Serving Suggestion:

A Wham croissant is great with handful of potato chips and a dill pickle. that's all you need for a light summer lunch. Simple.

Tom

Chinese Vegetables and Skallops

We've been looking at ways to use Loma Linda and Worthington Vegetable Skallops the past two weeks. Skallops are a versatile vege-meat and I particularly like them when we take them back to their roots. Soy and wheat gluten-based meat substitutes were brought to the Adventist Church by Dr. Harry Miller, erstwhile mission doctor and physician to Chinese leader Chiang Kai Shek. Dr. Miller set up a vegetarian meat substitute production plant that became Loma Linda Foods and from which sprang other brands like Cedar Lake, Worthington, and even Morningstar Farms which is available in almost every grocery store in the nation as a vegetarian meat substitute.

So using Skallops as a protein source with Chinese vegetables is appropriate given it's roots in Chinese food.  Using the basic fried with a corn meal coating version we showed you a couple of weeks ago, making a protein-rich Chinese vegetable dish is simple.

Ingredients:

• Fried cornmeal coated Skallops
• Bag of frozen Chinese vegetables
• Wok
• Olive or vegetable oil
• Rice or fried rice mix

Directions:

1. Prepare rice by package directions
2. Prepare Skallops or reheat them if already prepared
3. Heat oil in wok over medium heat
4. Add vegetables to oil and cook till thoroughly heated
5. Remove from heat and place in serving bowl.

Serving Suggestions:

This dish can be served like haystacks by placing rice, Skallops and prepare Chinese vegetables in separate bowls. Serve yourself by placing a bed of rice on your plate, a pile of Chinese vegetables on top of the rice and then place several Skallops on top of the vegetables. Add soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, sweet and sour sauce or whatever sauce you might like. There are all sorts of things you can add. I like to throw cashews, almonds, or peanuts into the mix. I also use chia seeds, flax seeds or quinoa as a healthy garnish. It's up to you. You can put nuts and the like in later or cook them in with the vegatables. Quinoa, however, is better if you start it in the oil in which you cook the vegetables before you add the veggies. 

With Chinese vegetables, you also stretch the Skallops farther if you're serving them for potluck. They get a little expensive but they are so good. You might station a helper by the Skallop bowl and dole them out sparingly, especially to the kids (and some grownups sadly) who might clean out the Skallops in one go. With a "server", you can share out the Skallops more fairly and without having to single anyone out for being a little enthusiastic in their spooning up the Skallops.  Just a trick I learned in my years of happy potlucking.

Tom

Skallop Kebabs

This is a good summer dish you can cook on the grill. Loma Linda or Worthington Skallops, fried up the way we showed you last week form the protein part of these vegetarian kebabs. There are a lot of permutations and you can use whatever vegetables pop your cork and it'll probably be fine. Here I've offered some suggestions.

Ingredients:

• Loma Linda or Worthington Skallops pan fried with cornmeal coating 
• Green, red, and/or yellow bell peppers. Just about any peppers you like will do.
• Sweet onion cut in large chunks
• Pineapple (for a sweet tang to your kebabs)
• Medium to large mushrooms
• Black olives 
• Other raw vegetables you like and can manage to get on a skewer
• Seasoning you like
• Wooden kebab skewers

Directions:

1. Prepare the Skallops so they are already cooked.
2. Alternately skewer veggies, fruit and Skallops on wooden kebab skewers
3. Sprinkle seasonings you like over the kebabs. Some nice combo seasonings are available to give you anything from a Cajun to Mexican to Italian seasonings or simple seasoned salt.
4. Place skewers in your barbecue grill or grill them in the oven until the veggies begin to soften. Watch them close so that the edges or the Skallops don't get singed.
5. Remove when done and serve.

Serving Suggestions:

Serve Skallop-kebabs on a bed of rice or with potato salad, macaroni salad or whatever starches you like. Set out some sauces like sweet and sour, teriyaki, ranch dressing, barbecue sauce or something more haute cuisine if you desire - anything that makes you happy.   Kebabs are great grilled over charcoal and give you something to grill now that you've become a vegetarian.

Bon appetit'.

Tom

Vegetarian Skallops

Vegetable Skallops are an interesting meat substitute. Vaguely a sort of vegetarian seafood, they are really good and can be used in a variety of ways. SDA Vege-food giants Worthington and Loma Linda both make versions of this basic vege-meat. I send up prayers of thanksgiving for Dr. Harry Miller (the subject of the biography "China Doctor") who imported Chinese seitan and tofu variants and built a vegetarian foods industry that's helped keep SDAs eating vegetarian for comin on a century.


This week we're going to look at the standard preparation method for Vegetable Skallops. I'm not saying you can't make them a different way, but this week's recipe and the recipe for the next two weeks are all based on this basic corn meal coating version. I really do like these things. It's by far the best seafood substitute that either Loma Linda or Worthington do. Fishy products are really difficult to imitate, but Skallops are definitely a tasty substitute.

So here we go:


Ingredients:

• Loma Linda or Worthington Skallops (both come in small and large cans)
• Cornbread mix or corn meal. I like cornbread mix because it has a little flour in it and it sticks to the Skallops better.  Martha White cornbread mix is made with vegetable oil, unlike Jiffy.
• Vegetable oil
• Two or three eggs (optional) and milk
• Season salt or your favorite seafood seasonings

 Directions:

1. If you are using an egg wash (and you don't have to) mix two or three eggs with a little milk in a bowl. You'll use this as a first stage dip for your Skallops.
2. Dump cornbread mix into a big bowl and add spices to taste (optional).
3. Heat oil in large skillet to medium heat.
4. Dip each Skallop into the egg wash (optional) and roll in cornbread mix. 
5. Gently place each corn meal coated Skallop in the oil and lightly brown on each side. 
6. Drain on paper towel and blot gently to remove excess oil

Serving suggestion:

Skallops can be served as you would fish or other fried seafood. I always make up a little tatar sauce out of onions, mayonnaise, cream of tartar and pickle relish.  Ketchup is also nice or eat them plain. You can also make them up into kebabs (see next week) or with Chinese vegetables (two weeks from today).




 Skallops are my second favorite vege-meat after Tender-Bits and that says something because there are some really good vegetarian meat substitutes out there.




Tom King

That Old Basagna!

That old basagna!

When  my son, Micah, was about 3 or 4, he came upstairs one Sabbath to check out what was for Sabbath lunch. When he saw his mother extract a pan of lasagna from the oven, he stood there in the kitchen, put his hands on his hips and said, "Are we going to have that old basagna again?"

I really like lasagna and it's an easy Sabbath dinner or dish to take to potluck. Sheila made wonderful lasagna, but Micah, for some reason, didn't fancy it. Not sure why, but it didn't take long before Micah's opinion of "that old basagna" changed and it became one of his favorite Sabbath dishes.

I've done "basagna" before. This version is an easy one and quite good. Just a few changes in the ingredients. Here goes:

Ingredients

• Lasagna noodles
• Jar of spaghetti sauce (to avoid it being a little soupy, use a thicker style pasta sauce).
  
• Large carton of cottage cheese
• Can of sliced black olives
• Package of Morningstar Farms Recipe Crumbles
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1/2 cup chopped bell peppers
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• Olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.

   

   It looks like this going into the oven!

2. Cook 9 lasagna noodles according to directions.
3. In a skillet cook Griller Crumbles in olive oil with onions and bell peppers.
4. Place 3 cooked noodles in the bottom of the casserole dish.
5. Spoon cottage cheese in an even layer over the noodles.
6. Spread Crumbles, onion, and peppers over cottage cheese.
7. Spread layer of spaghetti sauce next then a light layer of mozzarella.
8. Next add 3 more noodles and repeat the layers above.
9. Add 3 more noodles on top with the rest of the sauce and a nice thick layer of mozzarella.
10. Cook at 350° for 30 to 45 minutes until the sauce begins to bubble and the cheese is melted with brown spots on top as shown in the photo above. 

Serving Suggestions:

The first picture I posted was only a partial lasagna because we were so hungry that we ate half of it before I remembered to take a picture. Next time I shot the picture right out of the oven and replaced the half eaten one. This is really good with the Grillers Crumbles in it. Serve it with a nice big salad, some garlic bread and iced tea (decaf of course) and you have a really nice Italian meal. It's easy to prepare and keep overnight and reheat for potluck next day. Lasagna is really easy to make and always a hit at potlucks. It's flexible. You can get creative with ingredients if you want. You can use spinach instead of the Crumbles, or make it with several different kinds of cheeses instead. You can hardly go wrong with it. Make it any old time. it's wonderful stuff!

Tom