Cooking with KP: 05/26/19

KAY LIME PIE

When I was 19, I created a refrigerator lime pie with a crust made with Golden Graham cereal. My brother was my taste-tester, and when I got the recipe just right, he ate the entire pie. My mom encouraged me to enter it in a Betty Crocker contest, so I did and I won! In 1978, a prize of $500 was major to a college girl, but nothing was better than the pride of my mother. She told everyone and bought 20 copies of the cookbook it was published in. This recipe was published in the 2nd Annual Military Wives Cookbook under the name Quick and Easy Lime Cooler.

Crust:
5 cups of Golden Grahams Cereal, finely crushed
1/3 cup of sugar
1/3 cup melted butter

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and press into a pie plate. Make sure to bring crust up to the top edge of pie plate.

Filling:
1 (8 ounce) container of frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 (14 ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons grated fresh lime peel (Don't leave this out!)
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (usually the juice of two medium limes)
3 drops of green food coloring

In a large bowl, blend by hand the whipped topping and condensed milk until smooth and thin. Add lime peel and food coloring and stir well. Then pour in lime juice. Mixture will thicken as the juice is added.

Place filling in crust and covered. Refrigerate at least 3 hours. Garnish with more whipped topping and lime slices.

You can also make this as a lemon pie just substituting lemons and yellow food coloring for the limes and green food coloring..
I have also made the lemon version and folded in strawberries prior to adding the lemon juice for a great strawberry lemon pie.

Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Garlic and Onions

This is not my original recipe, but one I adapted from a couple found online. It is great side dish with grilled meats. My family really enjoys it.

1 pound of Brussels sprouts, washed and allowed to dry on paper towel

6 Tablespoons olive oil

5-6 cloves/buds of garlic, peeled

1 medium onion, diced

1 Tablespoon garlic powder

salt and pepper

1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Trim bottom of Brussels sprouts, and slice each in half top to bottom. Heat oil in cast-iron pan over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add Brussels sprouts and cook about 3 minutes and stir. Add in garlic and onions, and sprinkle with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Cook for an additional 5 minutes. Then place in oven, and roast, shaking pan every 5 minutes, until sprouts are quite brown and tender, about 10 to 20 minutes. Taste, and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Stir in balsamic vinegar. Serve hot or warm.

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Cheaper Cuts of Beef Don't Have To Be Tough

Most people avoid the cheaper cuts of beef because they tend to be tough. With 8 children and three adults in our home, my mother had to find ways to tenderize the cheaper cuts of beef. One way to cook "down", as my mother used to say, a tough cut of beef steak is to season both sides of the steak with garlic powder, seasoned salt and pepper. Lightly brown the steak in a large skillet and on top add a diced green bell pepper, medium onion, a bay leaf, parsley flakes, a few dashes of Worchestershire sauce, and a can of diced tomatoes. Cover with lid. Let the steak simmer for 30-50 minutes. Remove lid and thicken juices by cooking 5-10 more minutes. You can also do the same with a cheap beef roast in a crock pot. Add all the ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. The flavor is simple, amazing and great with mashed potatoes.

Fall Vegetables for a Healthy You

As the fall approaches, we will all start to stay indoors more hours. This will lessen our vitamins, such as vitamin A, D, and K, which are enhanced by sunlight. Below are a few vegetables you might want to increase in your diet as the fall and later winter days approach. Besides, they are very tasty. In fact, in the next few weeks, I will be posting recipes that incorporate many of these delicious veggies.

Sweet potatoes and yams are very rich in carotenoids, vitamins A, B6, C, potassium, iron and fiber and are delicious when baked and eaten plain (without butter) or used in soups, casseroles or stir-fries.

Bell peppers are great sources of potassium, manganese, fiber and vitamins A, B, C and K. These sweet peppers are flavorful additions to salads and healthy stir-fries. You can choose from a rainbow of colors, including: green peppers,yellow peppers, orange peppers,and red peppers.

Summer and winter squash are rich in carotenoids, vitamins A and C, potassium, magnesium and fiber and can be served alone or added to many dishes.

Just a few tips for you...

Spray your Tupperware with nonstick cooking spray before pouring in tomato- based sauces. No more stains!

Use lifesavers candy to hold candles in place on your next birthday cake! Kids love them.

Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugarcone to prevent ice cream drips!

Zap garlic cloves in the microwave for 15 seconds and the skins slip right off!

If your celery begins to wilt in the fridge, fill a large cup half full of water and place celery in the cup. Put back in the fridge for two hours--it will be crisp. (Learned this from my mother).

Cooking Myth Busted

A Potato Can Save a Salty Soup or Stew. True or False? False. "This is an attractive idea, but it doesn't work because potatoes are not particularly absorbent," says Wolke, who conducted his own soup-and-potato experiment for his Cooking Myth Busters book. "There is no reason they would attract salt." If you remove the raw potato from the soup, the potato will taste salty, but so would a sponge — it has simply soaked up some of the salty liquid. Still, there is hope for salty stews: Adding a bit of vinegar or sugar can "cancel out" the saltiness by giving your taste buds competing flavors.

Super Moist Turkey

If you are looking for a way to get a moist turkey, you might try one of these family hints:

1--bake the turkey upside down--breast down for the first half of the cooking time. It will help the darker meat cook more thoroughly and the fatty juices of the darker meat will drip down to the breast and add moistness. Use a deep roasting pan for this.

2--bake the turkey with the breast up, but rub it with butter, garlic powder and pepper only. Do not salt the skin. Instead, mix salt in a cup of warm water and pour that cup of salted warm-not hot-water inside the cavity of the turkey. The salt water will steam up into the turkey, making it very moist.

3. bake the turkey with the breast up and slice two lemons and one orange in halves. Place the halves inside the seasoned turkey and the juices will steam into the meat, adding moisture and flavor.

Hint of the Week

Here is something I learned from my wonderful Mother, the greatest cook I have ever known. When you have just a small serving of cooked vegetables leftover from dinner, don't throw them away. Keep a large plastic container in the freezer and put the vegetables in the container. Mix them--carrots, corn, green beans, broccoli, etc. When the container is full make a pot of soup or stew. Also, if a recipe calls for 1/2 a chopped onion, chop the whole onion and add the half to the freezer container. My mother made the best vegetable soups from this idea.

Hint for the Week

With Fourth of July quickly approaching, you might be thinking of making Deviled Eggs. If you want perfectly boiled eggs, place eggs in a large pot and completely cover with cold water. Do not layer eggs on top of one another. Bring water to a rapid boil for 2 minutes, reduce to simmer and let eggs simmer 8 minutes, return to boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and empty hot water and fill pot with cold water. Let sit for 5 minutes. To peel easily, slightly crush shell in your fist and roll on counter with a firm grip. Of course, you don't want to push through the egg, but by making the shell crack in many small pieces, it is easier to peel. My father saw this on a cooking show years ago and taught me this. It truly works.