Friday, May 18, 2007

Low-Fat Chicken Salad...Easy...Yummy!











2 cups cooked skinless chicken breast, cubed
1 stalk of celery, sliced
1 medium unpeeled apple, diced
1/4 cup raisins
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup low fat yogurt (PLAIN)
1/4 cup fat-free mayonnaise
1 tsp curry powder


Place chicken cubes in a medium bowl along with sliced celery, diced apple and raisins. In a small bowl, whisk lemon juice, yogurt, mayonnaise and curry powder. Pour over chicken and toss to coat.
I got this yummy, easy recipe from the internet and we like to eat it on pita bread versus the salad. You can also easily add walnuts or diced onions to this recipe, but this will change the fat content significantly!


Calories 229, Calories from Fat 24, Total Fat 2.6g (sat 0.7g), Cholesterol 85mg, Sodium 237mg, Carbohydrate 17.2g, Fiber 1.7g, Protein 34.1g

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Reasons I Love To Cook

I have loved to cook since before I was tall enough to stand at the stove and stir a pot. Now, there several types of cooking and an endless list of ways to temp the taste buds! I would have to say I specialize in comfort foods. My great-grandmother and I would spend hours in her kitchen making recipes she had been serving her family for over 60 years! She would assign me little tasks and bussle around the kitchen canning fruits and vegetables, stirring sauces and baking the best pies and cakes you've ever tasted! The very first recipe she taught me to make was the peanut butter buckeye. I remember standing in my mom's kitchen struggling to get the ingredients measured perfectly, while melting the chocolate on the stove top. I'll never forget the feeling I got when my family devoured the entire batch and complimented me on my "skill" at making this Christmas favorite. From that point on, I was hooked. I learned to can fresh fruits and jams. I perfected the art of a delicious lasagna. And I made my grandma cry when she tasted my first homemade pie crust! The day she gave me the recipe for her famous pie crust, she told me it was a family secret. I quickly committed it to memory where it still lives to this day!

Grandma Ruth has been gone for three years last Sunday. I miss everything about her. The way she always smelled of baby powder and aquanet, the way she smiled even when she was "mad as hell", or how she would never throw anything away! She kept Hershey's Kisses and water colors in a small cupboard for when her grandbabies came to visit and gave me a new baby doll she handmade every Christmas.

I keep her in my heart now and in my kitchen. Grandma was always in the kitchen. She said it was the hub of her family. No matter what was happening, her cooking always brought them together at the table. Many family members have tried to duplicate her recipes over the years and they all have tasted pretty good, but never quite as good as grandma's. Last year for the 4th of July, I made all her favorite recipes and we all gathered in her kitchen to eat. I received loads of compliments and several family members pumped me for information regarding "secret ingredients", to which they attributed the difference in grandma's recipe versus their version. To those individuals I reply, that Grandma Ruth did indeed make all of her dishes with one unlisted ingredient, but it is no secret. She always cooked with LOVE.

Recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Pie



Crust for a double-crust pie

1 cup plus

2 teaspoons sugar

1/3 cup flour

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 ½ cups sliced rhubarb (about 1 ¼ pounds)

2 ½ cups hulled strawberries, halved and quartered if large

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut in several pieces

1 tablespoon milk

Vanilla ice cream, optional

1. Roll half of the dough out on a lightly floured surface to a 12-inch circle. Ease into a 9-inch pie plate. Roll out the second disc of dough and slip onto a rimless cookie sheet. Refrigerate while making the filling.
2. Whisk together the sugar, flour, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add the rhubarb, strawberries, lemon juice, and vanilla and toss until the fruit is well coated with the sugar mixture. Set aside for 10 minutes until the fruit softens slightly.
3. Preheat the oven to 425F. Position an oven rack in the lower third of the oven.
4. Spoon the rhubarb mixture into the pie shell and distribute the butter over the fruit. Cover with second crust and trim the overhanging dough to ¾ inch all the way around. Turn the edges under, flush with the rim of the pie plate, and crimp or flute to seal. Use a sharp knife to cut several steam vents. (Or you could cut 1-inch strips and weave a lattice crust, crimping the edges). Brush the top crust with milk and sprinkle with the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar.
5. Bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 and bake until the crust is a rich golden brown, the fruit is tender, and juices bubble through the vents, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack at least 1 hour.

I prefer the lattice crust top because it looks prettier and is less messy in the oven!

Recipe for Lemon Meringue Pie







1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
dash salt
1 1/2 cups hot water
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons butter
1 scant teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 baked pie pastry, 9-inch
3 egg whites
1 teaspoon lemon juice
6 tablespoons granulated sugar


In a medium saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups sugar, the cornstarch, flour, and salt; gradually stir in hot water. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low; continue cooking, stirring, for 8 minutes. Stir about 1/3 cup of the hot mixture into the slightly beaten egg yolks, then return to hot mixture in saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, and cook for 4 minutes longer. Add butter and lemon peel. Slowly stir in 1/3 cup lemon juice. Pour into baked cooled pie shell. Cool to room temperature.
Beat egg whites with 1 teaspoon lemon juice to soft peaks. Gradually add the 6 tablespoons sugar, beating until stiff peaks are formed and sugar has dissolved. Spread meringue over filling, covering completely. Bake at 350° for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. Cool pie completely before serving.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Recipe for Strawberry and Peach Pie















1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
3 medium peaches, cored and sliced
3 cups of strawberries, thinly sliced
3 Tbsp lemon juice (I use the little plastic lemon stuff.)
1 egg
1 Tbsp water
2 deep-dish pie crusts, thawed (one for top)


1. Preheat over to 425 degrees.2. Add peaches and strawberries to large bowl.3. Mix flour, sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon in a small bowl.4. Add dry mixture to fruit and toss. 5. Add lemon juice to fruit mixture.6. Add water to egg and beat. Brush egg mixture on bottom of one pie crust. 7. Prick bottom pie crust. Add fruit mixture.8. Cut other pie crust into 1/2-inch strips and create a lattic on top of the pie. (Instead of cutting top into strips, you could also cut some decorative holes in the top crust with apple- or other-shaped cookie cutters.) I found this step worked better if you ball up the top pie crust, then roll it back out before cutting or working with it.9. Brush top of pie with egg.10. Cook for ten minutes at 425, then turn oven down to 350 and cook for another 35-40 minutes until crust is browned and the filling is bubbly. (Cooking it at 425 for ten minutes will firm up your crust.)

This would be great served warm with ice cream!

Monday, May 14, 2007

Era of "Lost Signal" Comes To An End

So we finally lived out our satellite contract with Dish Network. Most likely to be called the era of "lost signal"! Because this house lives and breathes by a television, we are never short on quality programming and our latest selection for viewing entertainment is no different! I was oblivious to the fact there were over 500 channels that can be purchased through Time Warner Cable! Remember when HBO had one channel? and it was 17.99 a month? and they played the same movie every day? and your parents didn't allow you to watch it after 10? Well, now HBO has like 8 channels and it's like $10 a month! But for those of you who hate change: they still play the same movie everyday and you still shouldn't allow your children to watch it after 10!

When it came time to select our channel package we couldn't seem to agree on anything, except that we could lose half of the home shopping channels and still be satisfied customers! Alas, we ended up with nearly 100 movie channel choices, 300 "regular" channels and 100 chances to watch various different sporting events! Tack on the DVR and multi-floor viewing, and it is certain that no house work will ever get done and I will be spared the pleasure (note sarcasm) of seeing any "Conan", "Predator" or gun-slinger type movies ever again! Ahh...that felt nice to say! Better yet, I will never miss another episode of "King of the Hill", "Family Guy", "Gilmore Girls", or "House". Freakin' Sweet~