Mama's Mashed Potatoes

(c) 2012 by Tom King

This is what mashed potatoes should look like.

Here's the recipe for Mama's Mashed Potatoes, which is the perfect companion to Barbecue Tender-Bits. These are Southern style mashed potatoes and they are to die for..........perhaps literally. This is not a low fat dish. However, if you're in the mood to celebrate, they cannot be beat.

One of the benefits of learning to cook your favorite meals yourself is that you can eat well at home without having to fly your mother cross-country every time you want this favorite dish. I learned to cook passably well by helping my wife make meals. She learned from her grandmother and mine and developed her own dishes to a level of artistic skill I cannot duplicate. I can get in the neighborhood, but have yet to match her. She on the other hand can cook right up to the grandmothers' level and, in most cases she goes beyond them. Mama's mashed potatoes are legendary. Here are the basic "secret ingredients". Getting the flavor right is a matter of adding a bit here and a bit there until the taste is right. That's actually the fun part of making this recipe

WARNING:  As I said before, these are not diet taters. They are a treat for Sunday or Sabbath dinner and holidays. Eat these too often and you'll find yourself weighing 300 pounds and coping with bad knees.  You have been warned.

Ingredients:

1. Potatoes (russets work, but red-skinned potatoes are by far the most delicious)
2. Potato flakes
3. Small can evaporated milk
4. Cream Cheese
5. Salt
6. Butter or margarine
7. Garlic powder
8. Sugar or Splenda

Equipment:

1. Large pot or boiler (as its apparently called in Louisiana)
2. Mixing bowl
3. Mixer (preferably an industrial sized Kitchen-aid, but a hand mixer will do)
4. Assorted spoons

 Instructions:

1. Boil the potatoes. I cut them up some so they'll cook faster. Depending on your taste, you can leave the skins on, especially with the thin skinned red potatoes. It's better if you boil them in the peels, though. They're more nutritious that way, though the final product isn't the usual pristine white most are used to. Go ahead and peel them if you are concerned about presentation. Avoid the Yukon gold potato variety. They do not mash well, though they make a nice potato salad. It's the red potatoes that make the best mash.
2. Place potatoes in mixing bowl with 1/2 to 1 cup of the water they were boiled in. Mash the potatoes with the mixer. They'll wind up a little soupy, but that's what the potato flakes are for.  
3. Add butter, cream cheese and a small can of evaporated milk and and mix it all in. I cut up the cream cheese and butter first and let the hot potatoes melt them before adding the milk.The butter is guesswork, I usually start with a big spoonful and add more in the last step if needed.
4. Add Garlic powder, salt and sugar or Splenda to taste. The wife has been adding artificial sweetener for some time in the interest of lowering calories. That still doesn't make it a diet dish, just so you know. This step is the critical one. Achieving that Southern mashed tater flavor is all about the blend of ingredients.  You don't need much more than a teaspoonful of the garlic and sugar. Add salt to taste. The mixture will still be a little soupy, but you should be able to taste whether you're getting it right. There should be a light hint of garlic and butter. The cream cheese shouldn't stand out. Somewhere between a block and half a regular foil block of cream cheese works nicely depending on how many potatoes you use to give it a creamy texture.
5. As you run the mixer, gradually sprinkle in dried potato flakes until the potatoes thicken. You'll know it's right when the mixer starts to leave swirl marks behind as the bowl rotates. 

Because potatoes are not all the same size, absolute measurements of ingredients are not really practical. Mashed potatoes are an art form, like dance or story-telling. It takes practice and the only way you know you've got it right is by tasting it till you get all the flavors balanced just so.

My son Matt is back in Texas and misses his Mama's cooking. So, at his requested, I posted this to go with my earlier post on Barbecue Tender-Bits as these two dishes and a good salad with maybe some broccoli and my grandmother's homemade rolls make up his favorite meal. The next food post I'll do is my Honeymama's homemade roll recipe. Till then, here's a passable wheat roll recipe you can make in your bread machine that are pretty good till the real thing comes along.

I also posted this recipe because really good mashed potatoes are so seldom seen anymore. I figure if you're going to get fat, it's way better to do it with this kind of food than on two dollar hamburgers. Hamburgers fill your belly. Mama's Mashed Potatoes fill your soul!

© 2012 by Tom King

The South Of the Border Salad

This salad recipe is likely a variant of the venerable Adventist haystack. It was apparently invented by a restauranteur who owned a little cafe in an antique mall in downtown Cleburne, Texas, five miles from Keene, my hometown. Now Keene is an Adventist college town and notable SDA ghetto.  It is little wonder the basic haystack idea drifted into the Tex-Mex cuisine in the nearby Johnson County Seat.  They had a Pappa and Mama version, probably in deference to all the Adventist vegetarians that came into the place.  The Papa version used hamburger and was more expensive. The Mama salad used ranch-style or chili beans, but otherwise, both were basically the same

The South Of the Border Salad was advertised and listed on the menu by it's three primary initials. The South Of the Border Salad was named what it was named I figure, both for its Tex-Mex flavor and because it gave the local heathens a giggle whenever some very proper Adventist customer or little old Baptist lady, when ordering, would nervously point to the menu or describe the salad by its ingredients or call it a Mama Salad, rather than say the name listed on the menu.  It's an easy-to-make potluck dish and can be added to a haystack potluck setup by baking a bag of potatoes or two ahead of time.  It's versatile for a potluck because you just set out the ingredients and let everyone make their own version. Way better than pizza too!  This is pretty much a whole meal by itself, so while it's listed as a salad, it's a lot more than just an appetizer.

Ingredients:

• Baked Potato, Large

  

  Start off your South Of the Border Salad with a baked potato.

• Butter/margarine
• Salt
• Chopped lettuce
• Diced tomatoes
• Chopped salad veggies like peppers, onions, cucumber carrots or whatever you've got.
• 1/2 cup Avocado or make up a big bowl of guacamole
• Jar or two of Picante Sauce
• Shredded cheddar cheese (for potlucks just buy a big bag of it already shredded)
• Bit carton of sour cream
• Bottles of Ranch and Catalina Salad Dressing
• Black olives
• Pot of Ranch Style Beans or you can use Loma Linda Five-Bean Chili, Chili Man or barbecue beans of some kind.
• Loma Linda Vegeburger, Worthington Vegeburger or Morningstar Farms Grillers Recipe Crumbles (you can even brown up some Loma Linda Taco Filling)
• Tortilla chips and Fritos
• Chopped Jalepenos
• Monster jar of Picante' Sauce (Pace or San Antonio Riverwalk is great)

Directions:

Add tortilla chips and beans or chili

1. Bake up a bag of potatoes in the skins before the event. You can take them already baked and heat them up in the church's warming ovens.  Most Adventist churches have these. By the time potluck is on, they should be nice and fluffy inside. 
2. Cook up a big pot of Ranch-Style beans or Vege-chile.  
3. Chop up your veggies, grate your cheese and set out the sour cream, tortilla chips and what not all out in a row in order of how you build your South Of the Border Salad.

Constructing the South Of the Border Salad: 

Next add all the salad stuff and voila!  You're done.

1. Break open the potato and spread it out over the bottom of the plate. You can leave the skin on or peel it off.  It's up to you, but I like all the vitamins to come with my potato.
2. Butter and salt is optional.
3. Add a layer of tortilla chips
4. Spoon on a layer of chili, barbecue or Ranch Style Beans
5. Make a a bed of lettuce and start adding all your chopped veggies. Get what you want. Make it with onions or without. There are no rules. 
6. Sprinkle a bunch of shredded Cheddar over the top.
7. Decorate the whole beautiful pile of stuff with dollops of avocado or guacamole, salad dressing, Picante sauce, olives, crouton, vege-bacon bits (TVP) and chives or whatever else you like.  Add a little peak of sour cream and you have created a magnificent meal - run for the table

This salad is best consumed quickly which is never a problem for me. That way, the salad stays cool and crisp while the potato and chili give you a nice warm base. It's great!  I've seen teenage boys consume two or three of these in a row. Sadly, this feat of gastronomy is no longer permitted me by either my physician or (more importantly), by my Sweet Baboo who does not wish me to explode and die.

Bon' appetite!*

(c) 2015 by Tom King

*And, yes I spelled it "appetite" on purpose - the American way not "appetit" like the French. This is, after all, an American Tex-Mex dish and we don't pronounce words all French and sissified.  Just sayin'.

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

Sheila’s Texas Style Potato Salad

All the potato salad that was left after a "light" lunch

Mama’s tater salad is epic and best of all – no mustard. I suppose you could add some, but you’d ruin it in my not-so-humble opinion as a noted gastronome.  This recipe serves a platoon of Marines and likely will be scraped clean at potluck.  It’s best made on Friday and served cold on Sabbath. It only improves the longer it sits in the fridge. It won’t spoil. It will be eaten within 2 days in most cases. Just don’t let the family get at it before potluck or you could be carrying an empty bowl to church.

Ingredients:

• 4-6 well-scrubbed potatoes
• 1 - 1½ cups Miracle Whip Salad Dressing
• 1 – 1½ cups Hellman’s or Kraft Mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon pickle relish
• ¼ cup finely chopped celery
• ¼ cup finely chopped onion
• ¼ cup finely chopped Bell peppers
• ½ teaspoon celery seed
• Small jar of pimento
• Salt, onion and garlic powder to taste
• 2 small cans sliced olives
• 6 hard-boiled and chilled eggs
• Paprika

Directions:

1. Boil eggs and chill
2. Boil unpeeled potatoes till tender but slightly firm. Allow to cool.
3. Peel and dice potatoes into half-inch cubes and place in serving bowl
4. Peel boiled eggs and grate into serving bowl.
5. Add mayo, salad dressing – adjust by adding more or less to taste
6. Add relish, pimento, celery, peppers, onion, and black olives. (Reserve a few black olives to garnish finished salad).
7. Stir in garlic and onion powder to taste. Go easy. You can’t back up.
8. Sprinkle paprika and olive slices on top to garnish.
9. You can add a few sprigs of fresh parsley to give the whole thing color.

Serving Suggestions:

Cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight in the refrigerator. Take to potluck, but get toward the front of the line. Either that or make two bowls and hide one till you get to the front of the line.  Just a suggestion.

 © 2017 by Tom King

Vege-Strip Steak Egg Noodle Stroganoff

This stroganoff recipe is loosely based on Peggy Ray's stroganoff recipe in the Tyler SDA Cookbook. Peggy's a terrific cook and the recipe was a good starting point, making it easy to modify. I don't use the onion soup because it makes it a little salty and I don't need the salt at this stage of my life. It's hard to keep any leftover stroganoff around. People can't stop getting into it.

INGREDIENTS:

• Morningstar Farms Vegetarian Steak Strips (Choplets also work great for this recipe)
  
• 1/2 Chopped onions
• Egg noodles
• 6 oz sour cream
• Sliced fresh mushrooms
• Mushroom soup
• 1 Tsp. beef seasoning in 1/4 cup hot water
• 1/2 package of Lipton Onion Soup Mix (optional)
• Butter, margarine, olive oil
• Small can of sliced olives 
• Cup of crushed potato chips 

DIRECTIONS:

1. Caramelize onions in a skillet while cooking the egg noodles according to directions.
   
   
2. Cook the noodles slightly al dente' and drain.
   
3. Dice onions and slice mushrooms and add to onions before they are quite caramelized.
   
4. Add water and beef seasoning when mushrooms and onions are well cooked. 
5. Add 1/2 bag of Vegetable Steak Strips and cook well.
6. Add can of mushroom soup and sour cream and stir mixture well and heat till it bubbles.
7. Add sliced olives, stir well. 
   
8. Pour noodles into large casserole dish and stir in sauce.
   
9. Sprinkle crushed potato chips over the top of the casserole and cover with foil.

SERVING DIRECTIONS:


Put in the oven at 170 degrees and heat before the potluck. Keeps well in the fridge overnight and actually tastes better the next day if you make it on Friday.  Morningstar Farms' meal starter frozen vegetarian meat alternatives are really useful, given that you can buy them at Walmart and various grocery stores - handy if there isn't a nearby health food store.

© 2017 by Tom King

Corn Chowder

 

It looked better in the crockpot. I sprinkled some chives on it for the picture.
This was what was left. As usual we ate some before we got a picture.

 Modified this from the Brotherhood of Locomative Engineers & Trainmen Cookbook.  It called for a pound of bacon so I subbed vege-bacon and it worked fine. You could probably use TVB based Bacon-Bits (check the label).  I reduced the recipe a little but not much.  Here's how it goes. I really liked this recipe. It'll go in the family cookbook. Lovely stuff on a cold night. Sheila had me make grilled cheese sandwiches to go with it.

Ingredients:

 1. Stripples or Morningstar Farms Breakfast Strips (to taste - I used 4 crisp strips)
 2. 1/2 cup diced onion
 3. 2-4 large Russet Potatoes peeled and cubed
 4. 1 can cream of celery soup or substitute 1 can mushroom soup + TBSP celery seed
 5. 1 15 oz can whole kernel corn (I didn't drain it - figured it needed the moisture
 6. 1 can of evaporated milk
 7  1 1/2 cup water
 8. 1-2 TBSP McKay's chicken seasoning (or Wyler's)
 9. Mashed potato flakes
10. Crockpot or Stock pot depending on how much of a hurry you're in.

Directions:

1.  Crisp your vege-bacon in a skillet or in the microwave. If you like it baconish, use more. You can always add more by popping them in the microwave and piecing them up. Don't add them to the soup just yet. If you use a skillet add the onions and saute them a bit. Otherwise just dump them into the soup from the get-go.

2. Peel and dice the potatoes. add to the pot with the onions. Hold off on the bacon till the last.

3. Add soup, celery seed if needed, corn, McKay's or Wyler's Powdered Chicken seasoning. Turn on the crockpot or put the soup pot on medium heat.

4. Add evaporated milk and water

5. Bring the mixture to a boil stirring periodically. Heat until potatoes soften.

6. Add potato flakes 1/4 cup at a time until the soup reaches the desired thickness. 

Serving Suggestions:

Is great with grilled cheese sandwiches, club crackers, saltines, Ritz crackers, or cornbread. I like it in my big giant cup with the grizzly bear on it. Perfect for a cold winter's night by the fire. I keep the leftover soup in the bog bowl with the plastic lid. It's not safe for the microwave so from there on I just fill up my soup bowl and 3 minutes in the microwave gets it hot enough to suit me.  It's very filling and you'll have a nice warm tummy all evening. One of life's decadent pleasures on a peasant's budget.

Bon Appetit'
Tom

 

Kitchen-Aid Mixers - The Potluck Chef's Best Friend

The Mighty Kitchen-Aid Mixer!

If you do potluck cooking, you are frequently called upon to prepare food in mass quantities. You can do this, of course, with quite ordinary kitchen have a lot of time on Friday's to get something ready for the church potluck next day, then I'm here to tell you....

Industrial strength kitchen tools are essential!

The one I'm going to talk about today is the inimitable Kitchen-Aid mixer. Let me warn you they are NOT cheap. We inherited ours from a friend when she passed away or I would never have known the joys of having the mighty Kitchen-Aid in our stable of kitchen tools.

This powerful and versatile stand mixer allows you to prepare stuff in a hurry or to multi-task, something we all have had to do when getting ready to feed hungry visiting academy choir. Here are some things specific to potluck preparation the size and power of the Kitchen-Aid allows you to do.

1. Bread-making - You can go off and leave the dough hook kneading your while you peel potatoes and prepare the baking pan for your rolls or bread loaves.
2. Potatoes - Great for whipping up enormous batches of mashed potatoes or potato salad.
3. Cakes -  Homemade cakes and cobblers are easy to whip up with a stand mixer. Just toss all the ingredients into the mixing bowl and run with the batter attachment. You can do other stuff while the ingredients are mixed up.
4. Vege-Meat/Food Grinder - The Kitchen Aid has a power hub and a bunch of attachments including a meat grinder. If you've  made up some gluten "wheat meat" or just want to make burgers out of something else like choplets or vegetable steaks. Just run it through and you've got burger.
5. Cookies and biscuits - For heavier mixtures like cookie or biscuit dough, the batter attachment is a whole bunch easier for blending in shortening with flour and eggs and stuff of different consistencies. Makes a big bunch of biscuits or five or six dozen cookies.
6. Whipped cream and meringue - For stuff that needs to be whipped up or beaten for a lengthy period like pudding, a mixer like this is great. With the whipping attachment, you can go off and leave it whipping while you work on something else. Works great.
7. Pasta - There's a pasta-making attachment that lets you make all sorts of homemade pasta like
   
   spaghetti, egg noodles and lasagna noodles
8. Ice Cream Maker - You can even make homemade ice cream with the ice cream attachment. Saves all that hand cranking or using the more awkward electric version of the hand-cranker. Great for small group parties or you can make it up and freeze enough for a potluck.
9. Grain Mill - The grain mill attachment allows you to make flour from a variety of whole grains - oats, rice, soy, flax, almond, corn, and even dried coconut. Multi-grain bread is a lot of fun to experiment with and you can get all sorts of grains and nuts in the bulk foods section of many grocery stores.
10. Food Processor - There is even a food processor attachment for chopping up vegetables and stuff.  Saves you some room on your counter and the attachment hardware is one tough magilla, unlike so many stand-along food processors.  

 

If you've got work to do, this invaluable tool helps you cook faster and better. The Kitchen-Aid is the Kirby Vacuum Cleaner of kitchen tools. Man, you gotta get yourself one of these!

© 2017 by Tom King

Neat Vegeburger Shepherd’s Pie

Atlantic Natural Foods has a couple of new products called “Neat” and “Neat Egg” that I tested out on my potluck version of shepherd’s pie.  It works pretty well and makes a nice sized shepherd’s pie.  I’ve already posted a shepherd’s pie recipe and my Sweet Baboo’s mashed potato recipe which is the base for any good shepherd’s pie.  I actually liked the NEAT burger crumbles because they were a little crisp from the prep process. I like my vegeburger with a little texture. If you don't like it a little crunchy, just don't cook it as long.

Neat Burger Crumbles

Ingredients:

 

• 1 package NEAT
• 2 TBSP water
• 2 Eggs or NEAT Eggs prepared according to pkg.
• Half an onion finely chopped
• Half a bell pepper finely chopped
• 1 tsp sage
• 1 cup BBQ sauce
• 1 small can of diced tomatoes

Instructions:

1. Mix NEAT with water and eggs or Neat Eggs (see recipe below) in a bowl.
2. Flatten mixture and press flat into a lightly oiled skillet on medium heat.
3. Cook until the bottom starts to crisp and flip.
4. Once the other side starts to crisp break it up into crumbles and stir. 
5. In a separate pan or skillet sauté onions and peppers and sage in a little olive oil
6. When the onions and peppers are caramelized, add diced tomatoes and barbecue sauce and heat
7. Add sauce mix to Neat crumbles mixture and you’re ready to go.

Serving Suggestion:

Fill casserole dish with mashed potatoes. Pour NEAT mixture over the mashed potatoes cover with foil and reheat once you get to potluck. Makes a really nice casserole.

NEAT Egg Prep.

1. Mix 2 TBSP water, 1 TBSP Neat egg mix per egg required in the recipe.
2. Mix well
3. Add to recipe just as you would an egg. 
4. NEAT egg isn’t a standalone substitute for eggs. It serves strictly as a binder in other recipes. It does a nice job in this one.

Cottage Cheese Loaf

This is a half recipe - I used a bread loaf pan.

Okay every potluck chef's got one of these published in their church's recipe book. Everybody's version is just a bit different - cottage cheese loaf offers a lot of room for individualization. So I'm picking out the one my Sweet Baboo contributed to the Tyler Adventist Church's "Bountiful Blessings" cookbook.  As I said, this is a high protein vegetarian casserole and works with a variety of ingredients, so experiment with it a little and come up with a recipe that works for you. It's not vegan, so you may have to warn the vegans in your group that there are some eggs and dairy in it. If you use a larger box of Special K, use a larger carton of cottage cheese.

This is a full recipe with a little extra Special K,
cottage cheese and eggs to make a potluck size dish.

This is one of my top three vegetarian dishes.  You already know my number one. This one's probably number two.  Enjoy.....

Ingredients:

1. 1 16-18 oz Box Kellogg's Special K Cereal
2. 1/2 cup pecan meal*
3. 1 large 24-32 oz container of cottage cheese
4. 4 eggs
5. 1/4 cup oil
6. 1/2 stick butter/margarine
7. 1 pkg. Lipton Onion Soup Mix
8. 1 cup water
9. 2-3 tbsp George Washington Golden Broth (Chicken soup base which doesn't have any chicken in it works too)
10. Cooking oil spray

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

   

   Alternative baking method - muffin pans
   Gets nice single servings with crisp edges
   all around like people like - Emily Erasmus
   

    
   

   
   
2. In a mixing bowl, crush the Special K Cereal into a meal-like consistency
3. Melt the butter/margarine in a small skillet, then pour into the mixing bowl.
4. Add all the remaining ingredients and mix well. Walnuts can be substituted for pecans in a pinch and it's quite good.*
5. Once everything is mixed up, spray the inside of a 9 x 12 casserole dish with Pam or a cooking oil spray. I like olive oil spray for this recipe.  I used a loaf pan in the picture below because I made up a half recipe for the Missus and I.
6. Press the mixture evenly into the casserole dish.
7. Place the casserole dish in the hot oven on a middle rack. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes until the top is brown as shown. The loaf should be firm throughout when it cools. Don't be afraid to let the top get good and dark.  
8. To serve, slice the loaf into slices. If you make it in loaf pans, cut it up like thick slices of bread.

Serving Suggestion:

Serve with vegetables, a salad and mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes or potato salad - some nice starch to go with your veggies. Throw in wheat rolls and you have a perfect meal. Take a big old casserole dish of this stuff to potluck and you will certainly take home a nice clean dish. 

Cottage Cheese Loaf, Brussels Sprouts, Mashed Potatoes and Salad

Do not forget to make an extra cottage cheese loaf to leave at home in case you're like me and always let everyone else go first at potluck. Your cottage cheese loaf will likely be gone before you get there, so to avoid being unhappy at potluck, you have to have a spare one back at home. I have to have cottage cheese loaf leftovers, because they make such wonderful sandwiches. If you like meat loaf sandwiches, I promise you're gonna love cottage cheese loaf sandwiches!

Bonny Appetite!
Tom King
(c) 2015


* Pecan and walnut meal can be made by simply pitching some pecans into an ordinary blender. Blend the nuts till it is the consistency of corn meal, although pecan and walnut meal are a little more moist than corn meal.

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

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

Ranch Fried Vege-Chicken

I like cranberry sauce with vege-fried chicken even if it's not Thanksgiving.

This is more of Sabbath Dinner special than it is a potluck unless you have a lot of big cans of Fri-Chick or Chicken Patties.  This is a really simple to do recipe, especially if you aren't adept at frying chicken already.  Here's how it works.

Ingredients:

• Loma Linda Fried Chik'n, Worthington Fri-Chik, Morningstar Farms Vegetarian Chicken Patties, or Loma Linda Chicken Patties
• Eggs
• Flour
• Ranch salad dressing seasoning mix (powdered)
• Olive Oil or vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Scramble eggs in a bowl with a wire whisk
2. Add flour and Ranch salad dressing seasoning to a second bowl and whisk together lightly. Don't use the entire seasoning envelope. A tablespoon or two should work nicely.
3. Remove vegetarian chicken from can or package and pat the pieces dry with paper towels.
4. Set up your frying pan and heat oil till it's ready to add the chicken.
5. Dip the dried vege-chicken in the egg wash, then in the flour and seasoning mix, then place in the hot oil.  Cook till brown, turning once.

Serving Suggestion:

That's it.  After you've fried up a bunch of these, serve with the rest of your meal.  I love vegetarian chicken with mashed or baked potato, some peas, pea salad, or some other vegetable. A green salad goes well with Ranch Vege-Chicken. I love vegetarian baked beans with it too.


© 2015 by Tom King

Vege-Pigs in a Blanket

Here we have the Adventist vegetarian take on "Pigs in a Blanket". This is an easy breakfast potluck or a fun dish to add some variety to a traditional Sabbath potluck.  Better yet, it's easy to make. Here's how.

Ingredients:

• Biscuit dough (I make my own, but you can use canned biscuits as well). You can also use Crescent roll dough as well.
• Worthington Saucettes,  Worthington Super Links, Worthington Vege-Links, Loma Linda Big Franks, Loma Linda Linkettes, Loma Linda Little Links, Morning Star Farms Sausage Links
• Cheddar or American cheese

Directions:

1. Roll out your biscuit dough flat - a quarter to half inch thick.  Cut in strips a little less wide than the links you are using as shown above.
2. Place vege-link (whichever kind you want to use) on the strip of dough as shown. The Saucettes, Little Links and Sausage Links give it a more breakfasty taste. If you want this for a lunch or supper, you can make bigger blankets for the longer vege-weiners. It's like pre-made hot dogs.
3. Place a strip of cheese beside the link.  You can use pretty much any cheese variety you want - even tofu cheese if you want to go full vegan.
4. Roll the link and cheese in the dough, cut the roll loose and press the end into the dough to hold it together as shown in the picture. 
5. Bake at 350° until it the dough cooks brown on top and the cheese melts as shown in the photo at the top.

Serving Suggestions:

You can serve this with breakfast food like cereal or scrambled eggs or hash browns for a breakfast potluck. You can also serve them like hot dogs with beans, potato salad, corn and fried potatoes. You might even try these for a Pathfinder fund-raiser.

© 2015 by Tom King