Categories

Hi everyone,

I just set up a category system for our recipe blog. You'll notice that there is now a list of categories in the right sidebar and each recipe posted can be tagged with as many categories as it fits. To get this all working, I used the delicious2Blogger system created by phydeaux3, which is a really nice and well-documented Blogger hack. Everything is working fine for me, but I'm not exactly sure how the categorization will work for us as a whole, considering that this is a multiple-author blog. The way it is set up uses a separate tagging website for which I have an account and a password - I'm not entirely certain whether the easy post to del.icio.us link will be available to all of the other authors. I will test it out and let you guys know how it works soon.

-Hannah

Lemon Birthday Cookies

Recipe Name: Lemon Birthday Cookies

Notes: I sent these to Jill for her birthday. I had searched for a recipe for lemon cookies everywhere, and didn't find any that were satisfactory, so I took the best parts of a bunch of them and created these cookies. The dough is very soft and batter-like, which worried me at first, but in the end it creates a very light, moist cookie.

Servings: about 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup shortening
  
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
  
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
  
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon unsweetened lemonade mix powder
  

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the shortening, butter, sugar, and egg. Then add the lemon juice, lemon extract, and water. In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Sift the powdered ingredients into the creamed ingredients, mixing all thoroughly. Using a spoon or cookie scoop, place one-inch balls of cookie dough on an ungreased cookie sheet. If your cookie sheet has a very dark nonstick coating, be sure to line it with parchment paper before baking. The dough is very soft and sticky, so it is probably best to scoop it right onto the sheet without trying to shape it with your hands. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes, or until the bottom edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown, but not the tops. While the cookies are baking, mix the confectioners' sugar and the lemondade powder thoroughly in a small bowl. When the cookies are cool enough to hold their form without crumbling, but are still a little warm, take them off the cookie sheet and toss them in the powdered sugar bowl so they are coated with the powdered sugar/lemonade mixture, and put them on a plate to cool.

Cinco de Mayo Black Bean Dip

Recipe Name: Cinco de Mayo Black Bean Dip

Notes: I tried to make this black bean dip for Cinco de Mayo, but I had some blender difficulties. I just finally got it pureed, and it's pretty good. With the number of chili peppers listed below, this dip ends up being medium hot (i.e. if it were a commercial salsa, it would be labeled "medium"). If you like it hotter, go ahead and add another chili pepper. But if you prefer it mild, you can either cut down the number of chilis or you can substitute a safe amount ground cayenne for the fresh chilis.

Servings: Enough for a whole party full of people!

Ingredients:

• 1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 3 green chili peppers, very finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cumin
• 1 1/2 tablespoons coriander seeds
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 2 cans black beans
  
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Directions:
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat, and then add the onions, peppers, chilis and garlic. Saute until the onions are translucent, and then add the coriander and cumin. Stir until everything is well mixed and cook for one more minute. Take the pan off the heat and add the vinegar. Combine the beans and cooked mixture in a blender or food processer and puree everything until it reaches a smooth dip consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste after blending.

Orange Julius

Recipe Name: Orange Julius

Notes: An old favorite.

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces frozen orange juice concentrate
• 6 ounces water
• 6 ounces milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 12 ice cubes

Directions:
Add one at a time and blend

Welcome to the Recipe Box!

Hello JDH and ROQ!

Thanks for joining up and contributing to the recipe archive. I am hoping that I'll have a chance to post more recipes after my finals are done for the spring. And I'm trying to figure out a way to tag recipes with a category so that we can sort them (just like your real recipe box would be sorted). In the meantime, thanks for sharing your recipes!

Plain Susan Veggies and Sweet Yams

Recipe Name: Carrots/Turnips/Celery

Notes: I got this recipe from Roger's wife Susan. It's fun to use things like "Turnips" that are otherwise ignored by today's palate.

Servings: Quite a bit, I estimated everything.

Ingredients:

• 4 large Carrots
• 1 Turnip
• 4 stalks Celery
• 3tbs olive oil
• turmeric
• garlic
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions: Grate carrots, turnips and chop the celery in very small pieces. Soak it in cold water for 1-24hrs. Heat the olive oil in a skillet with the garlic and turmeric. Sauté vegetables and add salt and pepper to taste.

Recipe Name: Sweeeeet Yams or Potatoes

Notes: Another successful incorporation of forgotten foods

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• 2 large yams, or sweet potatoes, which ever looks best
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth

Directions: Without peeling the yams, chop them into large pieces, maybe an inch square. Sauté (on medium) for a while, maybe 20min total, turning them gently to promote even cooking, but not damaging the structure of the yam. When they look like they are either burning, or are falling apart, add the broth. Cover and reduce heat. Cook for 30min-1hour.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

Recipe Name: Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

Notes: I made this little number up when some colleagues came over to my house for a reading group. I wasn't sure it would be successful, but it was a huge hit! Because I don't have a pie plate at the moment, I made this in an eight or nine inch square baking dish. Nobody could figure out what to call it at the time (pie, crumble, tart, cobbler) but the consensus was that it is an extremely successful recipe. I normally hate pies, pastries, and baked fruit desserts, but even I couldn't resist a second serving.

Servings: 8 generous servings

Ingredients:

for the bottom crust

• 1 cup shortening
• 3 shallow cups flour
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup ice cold water
• 1 teaspoon salt

for the filling

• one 16 ounce package of strawberries, washed, de-leafed, and sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 to 1 1/2 pounds rhubarb (five or six medium sized stalks, I think), washed and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon mace
• 1/4 teaspoon ground clove

for the topping

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, cut into 1" cubes
• 1/2 cup hazelnuts, coarsly chopped

Directions:
Make the bottom crust by mixing the flour and salt, and then cutting in the shortening. The key is to blend by cutting until the flour is well mixed with the shortening, but don't over work it. Then slowly add the icewater, mixing it in the same way until the dough can be formed into a ball, but isn't sticky. Pat the dough into a ball, and roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Drape the pie crust into a square baking pan or pie pan. If using a square pan, make sure that the crust comes at least an inch up the sides of the pan, otherwise it will shrink when baked and the result will be really messy. Trim the excess and put the shell in the refrigerator until the filling is ready.

To make the filling toss the strawberries and rhubarb slices in a large bowl. Combine the flour, sugar, brown sugar, and spices in a small bowl until they are well mixed, and then pour the mixture over the strawberries and rhubarb. Add the vanilla. Toss the filling until the strawberries and rhubarb are evenly coated with sugar and spices, and then pour all of it into the empty crust you made earlier.

Make the topping by mixing the flour, brown sugar, sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in the butter until the flour is all mixed in and the result again looks like a bowl full of small peas. Mix in the hazelnuts until the mixture is even, and sprinkle all of it over the top of the cobbler.

Bake the entire dessert at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes or until the filling begins to bubble and the topping is golden brown.

Black Bean Lasagna

Recipe Name: Black Bean Lasagna

Notes: This is a recipe that April B. shared with me one summer when I was home from college. A nice take on lasagna that is vegetarian but still has a good amount of protein. I often make this recipe using two loaf pans instead of one big lasagna pan, and bake one immediately and put the other in the freezer to be baked later.

Servings: 6

Ingredients:

• two 16 ounce cans of black beans, rinsed, drained, and slilghtly mashed
• 1 cup salsa
• 2 cups spaghetti sauce
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 15 ounces ricotta cheese
• 6 lasagna noodles
• 1/3 cup shredded parmesan
• 1 egg white
• 1/4 cup skim milk
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1 cup shredded monterey jack

Directions:
Stir beans, salsa, spaghetti sauce, garlic and cumin together in a medium bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl, stir together the ricotta, parmesan, egg white, and milk. Spray a 9 by 13 inch pan with vegetable oil. Spread one cup of the bean mixture in the bottom of the pan. Cover this first layer with a layer of uncooked noodles. Spread half of the remaining bean and sauce mixture over the noodle layer. Then spoon half of the ricotta mixture and half of the shredded cheeses on top. Cover this with another layer of noodles and continue layering the rest of the bean/sauce mixture and the rest of the cheeses. Sprinkle any remaining shredded cheese on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes covered with tinfoil, and then 10 minutes uncovered (I have found that it works better if I give it closer to 15 minutes uncovered). Let the finished lasagna stand for 5 minutes before serving.