What do we have here ... found a stack of old notes - nothing else to do but throw 'em on a Catch All page. This is what happens when I get irritated with the computer and pretend it doesn't exist. I take all mechanical and electronic glitches personally ... add insufficient recall ability (brain toast) ... I don't get even - I get odder (~.*)
Soooo ...
You might want to bookmark this page separately and check back from time to time. The plan is to throw the oddball stuff here as I find it so that I won't find any more surprise stashes - we shall see how long this good intention lasts.
I do find it amusing how many people these days are talking about reinventing themselves. Hell - I wake up and tap myself on the shoulder to see who's on first. "We" are never bored. Now if I could figure who buried those notes, I'd have a word with me!
Something else everybody is doing is advertising marinades - naturally I take credit for starting this trend. There is no easier way to variety and almost guaranteed good results no matter what your kitchen experience may be. Another benefit not to be ignored is the main work gets done early enuf in the day when presumbly all gears are in optimum mesh.
You will often find too that a salad dressing, for instance, that has too much of a bite as a dressing tones down to perfection as a marinade. As as I have mentioned before, I'm a wimp as far as hot stuff or too spicy goes but I just used some leftover Cajun mustard dip from Popeye's take-out on pork chops and it was mahvelous. Never throw away condiment packets. I also recently mixed a sweet and sour dipper with duck sauce from a Chinese delivery on chicken and rice - very tasty. Taco sauce tends to accumulate quite fast - enchiladas coming soon.
Unfortunately most of my notes do not include where I found most of the following goodies (yea right, see I was going to remember) so I send a blanket thank-you to all those kind enuf to hang their specialties on the web.
Try Worcestershire sauce on potatoes. Chunk 'em up and boil, drain, hit with a healthy dose of the w-sauce, dried onion, garlic powder, maybe a little parsley or celery flakes for color, coupla hunks of butter for a crispy browning as you toss the spuds around.
Interesting variations: Powdered milk instead of flour for fry-coating, instant potato flakes instead of flour in gravy. You can also use potato flakes for fry coat, or oatmeal, or any non-sugary cereal, cornmeal, whatever ...
Peach dipping sauce for chicken or pork: 16 oz. peach preserves, 1/4 Dijon mustard, 2 Tbls. lemon juice. Experiment with a variety of preserves or jelly.
Make your own refrigerator magnets by cutting strips of magnetic tape to fit pics, kid's art, doo-dads or whatever you customarily use that space for. Check out all the great magnetic hanger stuff at the hardware/variety stores too - I would be really cramped in this tiny hotel kichen without a bin that holds towels and hooks for pot holders. Wire racks double cabinet space too.
Deja Moo: Heard this BS before.
BTW: As usual - take all ideas/suggestions with a grain of salt. Or in other words ... if ya stump yore toe, don't go lookin' for another feller to blame.
Try Parmesan on green beans, or lemon juice.
Keeping kids out from under when preparing for a party: They can roll grapes in a soft cheese like Camembert, then in pecan chips and they can fill cherry tomatoes with crab or shrimp salad. Delegate the easy, time consuming stuff - makes 'em feel important as a bonus. Never too early to start - you may have a budding star chef who will take care of you in your old age. Thanks Jill - whooppee - two memory points for me.
Didja know you can make tea with cold water - never bitter. I usually use two big bags in a jar, makes it strong but you dilute according to taste allowing for ice cube melt down. Can use hot water from tap or nuke for a minute if time is short. Best when it sits all for at least an hour in the cold tho. Thanks Judy ol' sis - I'd be in trouble if I didn't credit this one.
This is a throwback to turkey days - Bubba has to have his sweet potatoes with marshmallows which he does put together all by his itty bitty self - cuz I can't stand lookin' at em. However, once they're in the oven they're under my jurisdiction. Couldn't find the itty bitty marshmallows ... and he got a little carried away with the big 'uns - looked like a volcanic eruption. I stabbed those suckers right into submission - wonderful therapy.
Another thing we couldn't find was canned roast beef - wanted it for an experimental sort-of-a-stroganoff using cream of celery soup. Excellent emergency back-up meal. Tried sliced deli beef instead - very tasty. Cook regular egg noodles (use the turn off the heat after boiling trick), then you can either throw the soup and beef in the pot to heat thru with whatever seasonings or heat soup and meat together to serve over noodles or transfer to baking dish (350 about half an hour). Top with crushed potato chips, crackers or Durkee canned French fried onions.
From Elizabeth in Desoto, MO (came in with a book order, sent her an extra copy - hint, hint): "Favorite five or fewer - Put into a crock pot 1 and 1/2 pounds smoked sausage cut into 1 inch chunks, 2 lbs. frozen hash browns and 4 chopped (I use scissors) green onions. Combine 1 can cheddar cheese and 1 soup can milk and any seasonings you like - I use pepper and garlic powder and pour over stuff in the pot. Cook on low 6 - 12 hours."
I'm seeing a lot of crock recipes floating around - probably because they make so much sense (the gear timing principal) especially if you work outside the home - what a relief to know the main work is done.
OK, I'm caught up for now - famous last words. Check back often. This will probably be where reader contributions will appear for the near future instead of messing with new pages. Trying to minimize distraction from work on a new book (actually it's a redo of my first book - most of the basics to get anyone by - and a bunch of goodies from the site for those who are not online yet - millions of hints and tips, lots of the oddball stuff I love). It's about half done so shouldn't take much longer. Watch for new order form.
Send your secrets - they may get into the new book too! I promise to pay attention to credits.
Latest LTF (less-than-fiver {ingredients}) campaign contributors: Just Julie, Home Sweet Home and Chyrel's Recipe Box.
Guest Recipes and Tips
From Jessica in Australia: I have a tuna recipe you might be
interested in ... super easy to make ... a real no-brainer - LOL ... perfect for me.
Tuna Dinner
1 - 1/2 cups macaroni
2 Tbls. butter
1 cup water
1/2 cup milk
tomato and veg packet soup*
450 gram tin of tuna
1/2 cup of cheese
1 Tbls. bread crumbs
1/2 tsp. paprika (optional)
Cook macaroni. Melt the butter in sauce pan, stir in the flour, then add the water, milk,
and the contents of the soup packet. Stir till boiling, mix in macaroni and tuna. Pour
into casserole dish and top with the cheese, then the bread crumbs. Sprinkle paprika on
top. Bake at 180 c (350 f) for 30 minutes or so. *I (Queen C) asked what size
packet which led to the need to find a conversion table - check out Metric Conversion Charts. I have
used it several times already. In this case, 60 grams translated to 2.1180 oz. That's the
good news, the bad is ... I could not find a tomato and veg combo packet so when I get
around to it, it'll probably be plain ol' veg, but I also found a tomato beef combo, so
who knows.
Also from Jess: I was just surfing round the beginner cooking sites - I'm trying to learn how to cook - rofl - and I found a site that tells ya how to cook corn on the cob ... ya simply take the husk and silk off the corn, sling it into a pot of boiling water, and wah-la 20 minutes later you have corn on the cob. Well ... not in my house - LOL - a little trick that I learnt about 3 years ago: Take the corn, husk'n'all and throw it in the mircowave for roughly 3 minutes. The hardest part of it is getting the husk and the silk off when it comes out of the microwave :o) and that is not really that hard at all - LOL
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I have to hilite one of Julie's (above) creations even tho it's more-than-fiver.
Spinach Cheese Bake
2 10 oz. pkgs. frozen, chopped spinach, thawed
1 lb. bulk Italian sausage
1 - 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 - 15 oz. ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 - 8 oz. pkg. shredded mozzarella
2 cups seasoned croutons
Drain spinach, squeezing out all liquid. Cook sausage until brown, drain fat. Stir in
tomato sauce, set aside. In a large bowl combine spinach, ricotta, parmesan, and egg.
Spread mixture in the bottom of a 12 x 7 in. baking pan. Spoon sausage over top. Cover
with mozzarella. Sprinkle croutons over all. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. (Can be made
ahead and refrigerated. Add croutons just before baking.)
As usual, I tampered ... adjusted down to half actually (no I did not try to divide the egg, might even use two next time) using an 8 x 8 baking dish. I did not add the croutons cuz this thing was screamin' for garlic bread and since I did use the whole can of tomato sauce, the extra juice made for mighty fine soppin' up.
~~~~~~
From Lois (Lois' Corner): A friend
brought this to a dinner party a couple of weeks ago.
Mom's Hot Chili Dip
1 15 oz can Hormel Chili (without beans)
1 lb. Velveeta Cheese
1/2 to 3 Jalapeno Peppers (she used three, but removed all the
seeds - carefully)
1 bunch spring onions, chopped
1 lb. cooked ground beef
Brown the beef and onions in frying pan. Sprinkle with chili powder to taste (she drained
the beef and onions before she added it - I would too). Put everything in an oven proof
dish (hers was round - looked like about a 1 quart size) and bake 45 minutes to 1 hour at
350. Serve with Fritos or taco chips - excellent.
~~~~~~
From Emily in Kentucky:
Dana's Cat Head Biscuits
(so named because they are usually big and fluffy)
Mix 3 cups self-rising flour with about 3 small containers whipping cream until dough looks/acts like you think it might feel like being rolled out on a well-floured surface and cut. Bake at 450 until golden brown.
World War II Syrup Pie
(when sugar was scarce)
Mix 4 eggs, 2 cups dark syrup, 1 Tbls. butter and 1 Tbls. flour; add pecans (enough to cover bottom of pie crust) or can substitute coconut. Bake in pie crust (buy or make your own) at 375 for about 10 minutes, then 350 until done. The center should be a little jiggly - will be firm when it cools. Makes 2 pies, not deep dish. Emily said this was the only pecan pie she'd had luck with.
~~~~~~
15-Minute Cheesy Rice with Ham and Broccoli
2 c. cooked ham, chopped
2 c. fresh or frozen broccoli flowerets, thawed - I used chopped
1 c. water
1 1/2 c. Minute White Rice, uncooked1/2 lb.
(8 oz.) Velveeta Cheese, cut up
Adjust quantities to servings needed. One cup ham, one cup rice and one cup broccoli made
plenty for two meals for us. Bring ham, broccoli and water to boil in large skillet. (I
used sauce pan) Cover. Cook on medium heat 3 minutes. Stir in rice and Velveeta; cover.
Remove from heat. Let stand 7 minutes. Stir until Velveeta is melted. Dang I wish I could
remember where I got that one.
I told Rexanne (who is entirely too busy right now to cook at all - and in a sec I'll tell you why) about it. Her report: Don't use regular rice (too sticky), would be good with pasta, and hold on now ... this was the first time she'd used Velveeta. I cannot imagine a more horrible existence than the Big V deprivation, especially never piggin' on the Rotel (canned tomatoes and peppers) dip melt. Shocking. JW (The Flamingo Times Weekly Newsletter) even declared it an official Bubba staple after I told him about the recipe. He ran it with a couple of other V-goodies - you can request a back copy - he's a good ol' boy that way.
OK, so here's why Rexanne is so busy - her Page for Parents is having a baby, that is, she's launching a newsletter of her own. Subscription info is on site. I highly recommend it, mainly because I am a featured site in the premier issue. Submit yours for review - you may snag one of these too ;)
~~~~~~
Words of Wisdom
I am not a glutton - I am an explorer of food. - Erma Bombeck
Housework can't kill you, but why take a chance? - Phyllis Diller
~~~~~~
And a corker I spotted today, at the bookstore: Underneath a Fiction sign (for the shelf in back of it) was a lovely display of low-fat cookbooks.
An appropriate follow-up, from EatDangerously.com
"Okay, we know it's not easy to eat dangerously these days.
There is always something telling you that you have to eat a balanced and healhy diet,
whether it's your doctor, wife, mother, or other form of interference. Block it out! Tell
yourself that the undue stress caused by trying to be healthy all the time will end up
giving you a heart attack!
"Being healthy pays off when you're old while eating delicious food pays off RIGHT
NOW."
Waldorf Salad
4 cups of diced and peeled apple cubes
3 spoons of lemon juice
2 cups of chopped celery
2 cups of loosely chopped walnuts
1/4 cup of mayonnaise
1/2 cup of heavy cream
salt and fresh pepper
lettuce
When cutting the apples, sprinkle with lemon juice to avoid darkening. Chop celery and walnuts and add them to the apples. Mix mayonnaise and cream in a cup. Season the mixture with salt and pepper to taste and mix with the apples. Refrigerate for about 2 hours and serve on a bed of lettuce.
That's just a sample from the site - there are loads more ways to misbehave. http://EatDangerously.com
~~~~~~
New: Index for Mindspring (newest) page
contents and graphic credits.
http://www.therealmartha.com/indexgraphiccr/default.htm
Nothing I try works consistently to remember exactly which graphics belong to who for proper credit on the page they appear, hence, my suggestion would be to enjoy all the links. Most likely you will find something - along the same lines taste-wise - that you like even better. One artist suggested making a separate file for each. Wanta bet she alphabetizes her spices too? Great hint if you're that type. I might just scream too if I see one more suggestion for freezing leftover tomato paste and the like in ice cube trays. Good gawd, I have enuf grief over big packages - there are definitely better ways to recalibrate one's mental balance.
~~~~~~
Check back in a week or three, there'll be more ... I might even tell you about the won ton fiasco. No, I'll tell you now - Bubba wanted onion rings, and I had a recipe for Taco Puffs to try so I bought a deep fryer. I will blame the stuffing problem on a cross-culture clash and who was I kidding anyway. However, fried won ton skins do make tasty chips for taco salad - also crispas (shake in a bag with cinnamon and sugar while still warm).
~~~~~~
Go to Mind It if you'd like to set up an auto e-mail notification whenever this page changes.
The birdie is whistling to bring showers instead of the white stuff ... I'm holding that thought.
~~~~~
And here's a thinker - Eve had it made - never had to listen to Adam compare her cooking to his mother's.
~~~~~
(Find great links at all of the above.)
Use back button to return to page of origin.
Final
aol site index
Start at the end and work your way back to the very beginning - TheRealMartha.com a.k.a. AltMartha's Easy Recipes, Queen
Can-ivore's Can-tagious Can Cuisine.
Check out
and the rest of the place ...
TheRealMartha.com
Queen C's Can-tagious Can Cuisine
http://members.aol.com/AltMartha/easyrecipes.index.html
Diary of a Mad Politically Incorrect Cook
http://members.aol.com/MsAtte2ude/diarymadpicook.index.html
Bubba Gourmet
http://members.aol.com/AltMartha/BubbaGourmet.index.html
Side Introduction to Vittles on the Go, part 1
http://members.aol.com/MsAtte2ude/sideintro.index.html
Feeder's Digest
http://members.aol.com/MsAtte2ude/FDintro.index.html
Awards and Recognition
Submit favorite sites - yours included natch :)
Less-than-Fiver
(ingredients) Safe Site Designation Tag
Right Royal
Piggin' Award
da Dude's You Dude a Great
Page Award
This Site is The
Cats Pajamas (It's like ... way cool)
Muddy Good Show
Created to recognize superior (wiggle-your-toes) newsletter content - sites
also eligible
~~~
More goodies, ways and means to get into trouble - the whole
lollapooloza
Mindspring Pages
Index
Sending the green keeps this
ol' donkey pullin' the cart :)
http://members.aol.com/AltMartha/buythebook.index.html
"Holiday Lifestyles of the Culinarily Inept"
Available soon as E-book too!