Cook Creative

twice baked potatoes

2009-02-01T12:38:00.000-08:00

No Photo. This recipe is posted at Kelly's request.

1 potato per person served
pot of leftover homestyle baked beans
shredded cheddar cheese

Bake the potatoes or microwave until cooked.

Place each potato on a plate.
Slice open.
Ladle hot baked beans over baked potato.
Sprinkle generously with shredded cheddar cheese.

Serve.

tossed salad

2008-12-18T12:07:00.000-08:00

Classic tossed salad, full of healthful garden vegetables . . .

pot roast 22

2008-12-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

This must be at least the 22nd time I have made this version of pot roast, and iot still ranks high as a favorite with the hometown crowd . . .

Mary's magnificent soup

2008-12-16T11:30:00.000-08:00

This is a classic recipe, good as an entree, snack, hot or cold, dip, or topping over rice or noodles.

baked beans

2008-12-15T17:51:00.000-08:00

Baked beans are quick to fix and greatly loved by the homeplace diners!

split pea soup

2008-12-14T17:50:00.000-08:00

Split pea soup helps keep the kitchen warma nd makes the house smell good while it is oprepared.

hummus

2008-12-13T17:50:00.000-08:00

hummus is quick nd easy to make, if you have a blender at hand.

caramel rolls

2008-12-12T17:49:00.000-08:00

Caramel rolls:

Start with one package Rhodes brand frozen caramel rolls . (Check out this link for information about Herbert C. Rhodes, the highly inventive founder of Rhodes Bake N Serv frozen bread.)

Before baking the frozen rolls, remove them from the pan.

Spread the prepackaged caramel on the bottom of the foil pan.

Sprinkle 1/2 cup chopped pecans on top of the caramel.

Arrange frozen rolls on top of the pecans and caramel.

Bake according to package directions.

Enjoy!

tuna casserole

2008-12-11T17:48:00.000-08:00

To make sauce:

Melt 1/2 stick of butter in saucepan over low heat.

Slowly add about 1/4 cup flour to melted butter, stirring constantly.

When the butter and flour mixture thickens, gradually add 2 cups milk.

Stir over low heat until sauce is thick and creamy.

Add 4 ounces grated cheddar cheese.

Add 12 ounces drained canned tuna packed in water.

To prepare noodles:

Boil a pot of water and cook pasta according to package directions.

Drain cooked pasta and add cheese and tuna sauce.
Mix thoroughly and serve warm

sweet potato pie

2008-12-10T17:47:00.000-08:00

Sweet potato pie is delightfully easy to make and serves well -- warm or chilled.

Requires no extra sweetening, but . . . if you like sugar . . . maple syrup (or equivalent) can be added as topping.

I started with a recipe memorized from a cooking magazine -- maybe Rachel Ray's?

Ingredients:

4 pounds sweet potatoes
4 cups milk
6 eggs

Bake sweet potatoes in 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for and hour, or until done.

Take baked sweet potatoes out of oven and allow to cool (about 30 minutes).

Remove skins.

Mash the cooled, sweet potato pulp.

Mix in milk and eggs.

Season with cinnamon.

Pour into greased 11 x 17" baking dish

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until done -- about an hour.

Optional: After about 35 minutes of baking, place strips of refrigerator pie crust across top of pie. Return to oven and finish baking until pie is done and the crust is browned.

3 alarm hamburgers

2008-12-09T17:47:00.000-08:00

This is Guy's special spicy burger!

Grill hamburger patties in a skillet until browned to taste.

Place hamburger on toasted bun.

Top with lettuce, onion, spicy mustard, peperoncini peppers, pickles, and catchup.

sauteed cucumbers in butter sauce

2008-12-08T18:26:00.000-08:00

Cucumber saute ingredients:

oil
1 cucumber, sliced
lemon juice

Slice cucumber.
Saute in oil.
Splash lemon juice across the bottom of the skillet.
Simmer until cucumber slices tender.

Sauce:

Melt 1 and 1/2 sticks butter

Throw in:
2 tablespoons lemon pepper
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons salt

Stir to mix.

Both the cucumber saute and the butter sauce go well over a pot of cooked pasta!

pickle and relish tray

2008-12-07T14:27:00.000-08:00

****THIS IS COOK CREATIVE'S 100TH POST***

Buy pickles, olives, pepperocini -- anything you like from the pickle section of the store!

Add a dish or two of chutney or fruity relish for variety.

Arrange beautifully on a platter.

Serve with a tasty meal and enjoy!

redundant cabbage soup

2008-12-06T13:55:00.000-08:00

Serves 12+

2 pounds beef for stew
1 white onion, diced (optional)
1 large head green cabbage, sliced
1 large can tomato juice
2 pounds baby carrots
vegetable oil to cover the bottom of the soup pot
splash of lemon juice
salt and pepper

Pour enough vegetable oil into soup pot to just cover the bottom.

Brown stew meat (and diced onion)

Add sliced head of green cabbage and baby carrots.

Add enough water to fill about two-thirds of the soup pot.

Add large can of tomato juice until pot is full.

Add splash of lemon juice (about 1/4 cup). Salt and pepper to taste.

Simmer this soup for hours -- preferably all day long. The soup gets thicker and tastier with longer cooking.

When this cabbage soup is served for both lunch and dinner, it tastes better when served the second time -- hence the name: redundant soup

***

Review:
5 forks -- great taste

cheese and cracker tray

2008-12-04T11:21:00.000-08:00

Cheese spread (We like the log-style covered with chopped nuts!)
Carr's water crackers
Triscuit crackers
Triscuit thins
Beautiful platter

Arrange crackers in beautiful pattern on platter.

Serve with tasty beverages and cheese spread.

4-legged smoked turkey

2008-12-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

4 smoked turkey legs
1 smoked turkey breast
2 pounds baby carrots
1 Tablespoon flour

Sprinkle the flour into a turkey roasting bag.

Hold the top of the bag closed, and shake the bag to distribute the flour all over the inside.

Pile turkey legs, carrots, and turkey breast into bag.

Tie roasting bag closed with twist tie that comes with the turkey bag.

Slash top of bag 3 or 4 times with sharp knife to let air escape.

Cook at 350 degrees Fahrenheit according to turkey bag directions. (The more weight in the bag, the longer the cooking time.)

Take out of oven. Cut open bag.

Serve meat on platter.

Enjoy!

fruit and cheese tray

2008-12-02T10:53:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:

Gouda cheese
fresh grapes
beautiful serving platter
cheese slicer

Bring fruits and cheese to room temperature.

Arrange fruit and cheese tastefully . . .

cranberry orange relish

2008-12-01T10:50:00.000-08:00

Side dish
Vegetarian

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

1 bag fresh cranberries
2 tangerines or oranges
2 skinny slices tangerine/orange skin
1/2 cup raw sugar (or nearest equivalent)

In blender, chop all the ingredients.

Pour into attractive serving dish.

Great with roast turkey!

squash sautee

2008-11-30T10:48:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:
summer squash
zucchini squash
butter
lemon juice
basil
salt and pepper

Thinly slice squashes.

Sautee in butter.

Add dash of lemon juice, basil, salt, and pepper.

Serve warm.

Yum!

deviled eggs

2008-11-29T09:01:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:

1 dozen eggs
sliced dill pickles
mustard
horseradish
bacon (We like turkey bacon!)
pickles, chopped, with juice from jar

Hard boil the eggs. (Gently simmer 20 minutes.)

Shell eggs. (See very awesome oblong egg shelled below.)

Slice each shelled egg in half lengthwise.

Take out egg yolks and put them in a separate bowl.

In the separate bowl, combine eggs yolks and all the ingredients listed above.

Fill egg white halves with yolk mixture.

Decorate with a bit of pickle, pimento, paprika, or olive.

Chill until time to serve.

Enjoy!

Heddy's frozen pumpkin pie

2008-11-28T08:54:00.000-08:00

Delicious! The best tasting (and simplest to throw together) frozen pumpkin pie!

For 1 (* or maybe two) pie(s):

1/2 gallon New York vanilla ice cream
1 can pumpkin (normal size can)
1/2 cup brown sugar (to give that molasses-y flavor)
2 Tablespoons pumpkin pie seasoning
1 purchased graham cracker crust in a foil pan for one mountainous pie (*or divide this recipe between two graham cracker crusts for two prairie-style pies!)

First, take ice cream out of package and soften in a bowl until it can be stirred.

Stir in the canned pumpkin, pumpkin seasoning, and brown sugar.

Mix with a large spoon to the best of your ability without melting the ice cream entirely.

Put mixture in graham cracker crust.

Cover and freeze.

Enjoy!

egg in zucchini nest

2008-11-23T13:08:00.000-08:00

Here's a fun dish --

5 servings

In one saucepan,

Hardboil 5 eggs.

While the eggs are cooking, combine in a separate saucepan:

2 cups rice
2 zucchini squash, sliced
1 yellow summer squash, sliced
4 cups water
1 cup tomato juice
2 tablespoons butter

Cover and simmer until the liquid in absorbed and the rice is soft.

Drain the hard boiled eggs.
Serve the rice and zucchini mixture into plate bowls.
On top of each "nest" of zucchini and rice, place an unshelled hard boiled egg.
(Put dishes for eggshells near diners' plates on the table so each diner can shell their own egg.)

***

Review:

4 forks -- good to eat and to generate conversation

enzymes make the difference

2008-11-22T02:44:00.000-08:00

One area of remarkable advancement in the food industry is the use of enzymes to improve manufactures food products. Checking into the use of enzymes in cheddar cheese, one thing led to another and I eventually stumbled over Novozymes, a Danish company that researches, designs, and manufactures almost 50% of the enzymes added to food products worldwide.

In food manufacturing, enzymes are most often added to baked goods.

In the biofuels industry, enzymes are used to improve the efficiency of chemical conversion of raw materials to finished product. Novozymes is engaged in second generation biofuels research and application.

surprise pie

2008-11-21T11:16:00.000-08:00

Last summer we put up lots and lots of gallons of sliced, fresh peaches from our peach tree.
Lots.

Today, I pulled the first gallon bag of frozen, sliced peaches from the freezer.
Surprise Pie was in my mind.

First, I peeled off the plastic bag and threw it out. (Microwaving plastic can release harmful chemicals into food, I understand.)

Then, I washed out the largest Pyrex bowl and placed the block of frozen sliced peaches in it.

Next I microwaved the peaches. For several minutes. Then several more minutes. Hmmmmmmm. Still frozen solid.

So I improvised an ice pick with a table knife and drove it with a wooden rolling pin as a mallet. Drove the table knife into the frozen fruit, . . . sort of, not really.

Kelly came to the rescue with a blow dryer.

After about ten minutes of serious blow drying, I could finally break the gallon of frozen peaches into smaller chunks. That was good enough to pile into pie tins lined with frozen pie crust.

After cooking about 14 minutes in the oven, the pie tins looked like they were about to overflow with excess pie liquid.

So we got out a large glass baking dish and turned the Surprise Pies upside down into it.

We made lunch, ate lunch, and cleaned up afterward while waiting for the Surprise Pie to finish cooking. About the time everyone else had forgotten about it, I remembered to glance in the oven. Looks good!

Baked at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour 40 minutes (or until the crust is brown and juice thickened.)

***

Review:

5 forks -- All the fun is in making the pie (actually, a peach cobbler in the end). Tastes good, too.

definitions: tried and true cooking

2008-11-20T11:13:00.000-08:00

Now that plain cooking has a definition, we went back to define "tried and true" recipes.

My diners' definitions of "tried and true":

"Old standby recipe."

"Something without salt added."

"Something you've done before and everyone likes."

Glad I have the lingo down!