Monthly Archives: April 2011

Coffee, Tea or…

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I know, tea..is not what you think of when sharing recipes…or is it? Drinks are an important compliment to any meal.

Jan sent me this tea site and I thought it might add some tasty additions to your meals, or maybe give you a quick pick-me-up for a lazy spring afternoon.  After all, digging in amongst all that garden dirt to assure you have all the important veggie ingredients for your recipes…IS important. So treat yourself! Sandwich in a refreshing tea break while you take five from your dirty routine.

Teas come in many forms.  Try one of these suggested on this site and tell us your thoughts.

Southeast Colorado wants to know!

Fruitcake: 1850 variety

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In our AceWriter’s group, Oris George is better known as shy guy.  Today,  SECO Recipes dubs him King of Fruitcakes!  He shared this tasty recipe; let us know if it still bakes up as deliciously as it did 70 years ago!

“…looking through a box of my mother’s stuff this morning I found this Fruit Cake recipe. The date on the page reads March 1850. This was my great, great grandmother’s recipe. My mother and my grandmother always made this fruit cake.

Thought you’d enjoy it.”

Oris

 

12 eggs

1 lb butter

3 cups sugar

1/4 cup pure cane syrup

4 lbs seedless raisins

2 lbs currants

2 pounds citron

1 orange, juice and grated rind

1 lb shelled almonds (blanched)

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 ounce rose water

 

Ø      -Blanch almonds and beat to paste with rose water.

Ø      -Chop fruit and other nuts fine, sprinkle with flour.

Ø      -Add all the batter of butter, sugar, flour.,sugar, spices.

Ø      -Pour into two pans buttered, floured, lined at bottom with heavy brown paper.

Ø      -Slow oven, about four hours.

Ø      -Straw test is safest.

Ø      -When cool, wrap in muslin cloth and put in dark place to mellow.-One pound of shelled pecans.

Sometimes my mother would add some candied cherries.

 

If nostalgia warms your heart, read Oris’ new book, Along the Backroads of Yesterday, fresh from the printer this spring.

If you are local to SE Colorado, you’ll have the privilege of visiting with Oris at his next book-signing, April 30th in Las Animas, Colorado at Java Jackie’s Coffee Shop, 239 Bent Ave., between 2 and 4pm. Of course, if you ARE from SE Colorado – you’ll be in Las Animas anyway for the annual Santa Fe Trail Day celebration.

Now…if you need some clarification on some of the above seemingly strange recipe terms such as slow oven and straw test or rosewater, please feel free to contact Oris on his website, www.orisgeorge.com. Oris is an expert on the 1940′s and such; he’ll be more than happy to accommodate your questions.

Also, we encourage comments here, as it can quickly become a forum of interesting recipe and idea exchanges.  So feel free to post a comment; ole Oris pops over here quite often and would gladly add his $.10! And Jan will jump in as well.

Please let us know when you try this recipe and how it turns out.



Pasta to Die For?

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Or so the story goes…

Everybody knows how much I love pasta salad. At least, if you’ve been to my place in the summer time, you know. I love the stuff and almost anything can spark a new variety pasta salad.

So, today being no different. Warm. Busy. Last day of Tax Season HURRAY!!! My website got burned. Life is a disaster at Jan’s House. Whatever the cause… It’s a pasta day.

Between the shoe in the toilet incident (Thanks Billy!) and the Marshmallow Bunny Peeps multiplying all over the living room carpet (Thanks Elizabeth!) I put on a pot of water and let it roll up a good boil. Threw three different kinds of salad pasta (including one wheat), some olive oil and oregano in the pot. Took a bit to cook all that, but I chopped up an onion, some banana peppers, a red pepper and some parsley to add when it was done. Cut up a couple of pork loin medallions left over from dinner last night, half a can of pineapple chunks left from the yogurt earlier and two BIG handfuls of craisins. I dumped on a bottle of ranch dressing and just enough garlic salt and lemon pepper to give it some sizzle and flavor.

Denver Food & Fun

We’re not going to say it’s good, but two of the neighbors just left on a stretcher rubbing their tum-tums, and another is about ready to roll out the door.  — I thought I might have enough left over for lunch tomorrow… but it’s looking like I fed the neighbors instead.