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Recipe Requests
Peanut Butter Candy Bar Made With Crackers
I found a bar/candy thing (for lack of a better word) at a bake sale. My family loved it and now I am trying to find the recipe. It had saltine crackers, I believe, on bottom with a peanut butter mixture (smooth and creamy) and then another layer of crackers and then chocolate on top. If anyone could help me I would appreciate it.
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Bonnie from Avoca, NE
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I'm looking for a recipe for potato soup that uses milk (not half-n-half, etc.), and does not have any meat in it.
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Maryeileen from Brooklyn, OH
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Can anyone tell me how to make sugared pecans? I'm guessing brown sugar and butter?
imaqt1962 from Illinois
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Today's Recipes
FLAVORED POPCORN
With just a little popcorn and a handful of other ingredients which are on hand, you can fill baggies or inexpensive containers with a great-tasting treat. The following two recipes are both great gifts. Please enjoy them as my gift to you from Real Food for Real People!
Pecan-Honey Popcorn
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine popcorn and nuts in large heatproof bowl; set aside. Combine butter, honey and vanilla in small saucepan.
Cook over medium heat until butter melts. Pour honey mixture over popcorn mixture.
Stir until combined. Divide mixture and place on 2 baking sheets. Bake 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until light golden brown.
Barbecued Popcorn
If you have any favorite recipes for flavored popcorns, add them here or email them to us!
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These are cute little turkeys made out of oreo cookies and candy pieces. They are even easy enough for young children to help make and look great on the holiday table.
Requires:
5 minutes preparation time.
Take 1 oreo apart. This will be the base.
Place the whole oreo on its side on the base, so that it sticks to white of the oreo.
In front of the oreo on its side, place a malted-milk ball for the turkeys head.
Place candy corn, points down, in between the oreo cookie that is standing on it's side.
By Cheryl Lore from Asheville, NC
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Ingredients
Directions
Place styrofoam tree on the center of a lettuce - covered dish. Place a piece of lettuce and one of the above ingredients on the tree with a toothpick. Continue doing this till your tree is covered.
You'll wow your guests with this beautiful, edible centerpiece!
By Joanne from San Jose, CA
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Making Incredible Sauces at Home
By Reluctant Gourmet
My 5 Step Method for Preparing Professional Quality Brown Sauces...
As a home cook, one of the hardest things for me to accomplish when first starting out was making a rich velvety brown sauce to serve on steak, lamb, veal, pork, or even chicken. I could put together a pretty good pan sauce using the dripping after sautéing or roasting a piece of meat but it never quite had that incredible intensity that I experience when dining out at a great restaurant.
It wasn't until I spent some time reading about sauce making and speaking with a few chef friends that I learned it isn't so much the "how to" but the "ingredients" that make the difference. Using my 5-step method to make a great brown sauce is easy if you have all the necessary ingredients and I will give you some great resources for finding them.
What is a Sauce?
According to Food Lover's Companion, a sauce is "a thickened, flavored liquid designed to accompany food in order to enhance and bring out its flavor." Now that can cover a lot of territory.
It goes on to say, "In the days before refrigeration, however, sauces were more often used to smother the taste of foods that had begun to go bad." I'm sure we have all had experiences that have proven this true even in the days of refrigeration. Think back to your high school cafeteria.
But in the 19th century, the French created an intricate process for making sauces that is still being taught in cooking schools all over the world. This process involves numerous steps and if you have the time, I highly recommend James Peterson's, "Sauces" and Raymond Sokolov's "The Saucier's Apprentice". They are entirely devoted to just this subject.
Why is it so difficult to make great sauces at home?
As Chef Alton Brown says in his cookbook, I'm Just Here For The Food, "By and large, most home cooks don't do sauce - and that's too bad. Traditional sauces are indeed scary."
The process just to prepare the key ingredients that go into a sauce takes a lot of time. It starts by making a stock with roasted beef and/or veal bones, reducing them for at least 12 hours, continuously skimming the pot, straining the liquid to remove the bones, reducing some more, adding a roux (a mixture of flour and water used as a thickening agent) and you now have a nice brown sauce or sauce espagnole.
A professional chef will then reduce this brown sauce further to make a demi glace, the mother of all sauces. These guys spend a lot of time in cooking school learning how to do this and take great pride in the sauces they can make with it. These stock reductions are the foundation to hundreds of classic sauces being served in fine restaurants.
Why can't I just use a bouillon cube?
Unless you want to ruin an expensive cut of meat by covering it with a salty, corn syrup reduction, I would stay away from bouillon cubes or any of those cheap packets of instant sauces you see in your local supermarket. Just look at the ingredients to see if what's inside is real or simply processed. You can't build a sound house without a strong foundation. The same is true when making sauces.
What's a home cook to do?
Since making a great sauce at home depends of finding a good stock reduction or demi glace, I would like to offer you the following resources.
My Quick & Easy 5 Step Method
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More Details
1. Sauté a chopped shallot or small onion in one ounce of butter (1/4 stick) for 1-2 minutes until translucent.
2. Deglaze with 1/2-cup red wine and reduce to an essence (approximately one tablespoon of remaining liquid). Be sure to remove the pan from the heat before deglazing.
3. Add 8 ounces of demi-glace.
4. Reduce the sauce until it is thick enough to coat a spoon.
5. Season with freshly ground pepper to taste.
One last item that is optional but often used by professional chefs is a pat of butter. It adds a bit more flavor and shine to the finished sauce.
Alternatives
At this point you have a delicious sauce that you can serve or use as a base and layer in more flavors by adding additional ingredients including fresh herbs and spices, fruits, chutneys, relish, or cream.
If you are adding mushrooms or other ingredients that need to cook a bit, add them to the pan right after you add the wine and let them cook while the wine is reducing.
Copyright © 2003 G. Stephen Jones, The Reluctant Gourmet
G. Stephen Jones created the Reluctant Gourmet back in 1997 as a hobby to assist other novice cooks who may find the art of cooking a little daunting. As an ex-Wall Street broker and Stay-at-Home Dad, I try to explore cooking from a different perspective. Visit http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/ for more tips, techniques, and recipes.
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Pumpkin Bread I
Ingredients:
Directions:
Combine sugars, pumpkin, oil, and eggs. Beat until well blended. Sift together flour, soda, and spices; add and mix well. Stir in raisins, nuts, and water. Spoon into well oiled 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 65-75 minutes. Turn out on rack to cool thoroughly. Frost if desired. Makes 2 loves when using 2 small loaf pans.
By Robin
Pumpkin Bread II
Ingredients:
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together 1st six ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, milk and eggs. Add dry ingredients and butter, mixing until just moistened. Stir in nuts. Spoon into well greased 9"x 5" loaf pan. Bake for 65 minutes or until bread tests done. Cool 10 minutes before removing from baking pan. Makes 1 loaf. (to make 2 loaves use 1 lb. of canned pumpkin and double rest of ingredients.
By Terri
Ingredients
Directions
Sift flour with soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add remaining ingredients, mixing well throughout. Blend until smooth. Pour batter into 3 greased and floured loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour. Cool slightly in pans. Remove from pans and cool thoroughly on rack. Wrap in foil or plastic; refrigerate. Bread should be made at least 1 day before serving.
By Robin from Washington, IA
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Monkey Bread I
Ingredients:
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put frozen bread dough in microwave on high for about 3 minutes to thaw. Put sugar and cinnamon in bowl and mix. Put stick of butter or margarine in bowl and melt in microwave. Take out now thawed bread dough. Pull off small pieces and roll into a ball. Dip ball into melted butter and then into cinnamon and sugar mixture. Place into bread pan. Do this with all bread dough. After that mix leftover sugar and cinnamon mixture and butter together and pour over bread in pan. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown or toothpick comes out clean.
By Robin
Monkey Bread II
Ingredients
Directions
Mix 3/4 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp. cinnamon. Quarter each biscuit and roll in sugar-cinnamon mixture. Drop into greased bundt pan.
Bring to boil 1 cup sugar, 3/4 cup butter and 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Pour over biscuits. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes. Immediately remove from pan. Serve warm.
By Robin from Washington, IA
Monkey Bread III
Ingredients
Directions
In a plastic bowl with tight-fitting lid, combine pudding mix, sugar, cinnamon and pecans (if desired). Pour the butter into a shallow bowl. Cut the biscuits into quarters. Dip several pieces into the butter, then place in the plastic bowl with the other ingredients; cover and shake. Remove to a greased 10 inch fluted tube pan. Combine until all the biscuit pieces are coated. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pan for 30 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate.
By Robin from Washington, IA
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Ingredients
Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two loaf pans. In a large bowl, combine sugar, water, oil, eggs and sweet potatoes; mix well. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and baking powder; mix well. Add flour mixture to sweet potato mixture. By hand, mix until well combined. Stir in pecans. Pour evenly into greased and floured pans. Bake at 350 for 60 to 70 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pans. Cool completely. Wrap tightly and store in refrigerator for up to 1 week or in freezer up to 2 months. Makes 2 loaves
By Robin from Washington, IA
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