Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

• 4 cucumbers, thinly sliced
• 1 small white onion, thinly sliced
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon dried dill, or to taste

Directions

1. Toss together the cucumbers and onion in a large bowl. Combine the vinegar, water and sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, and pour over the cucumber and onions. Stir in dill, cover, and refrigerate until cold. This can also be eaten at room temperature, but be sure to allow the cucumbers to marinate for at least 1 hour.

Roasted butternut chowder with apples and bacon

(as seen on the Today Show. We wanted to save it to be sure and do it!)

Recipe: Roasted butternut chowder with apples and bacon
Mark Bittman, New York Times columnist and author of "The Food Matters Cookbook"
Ingredients
1 butternut squash, about 1 1/2 pounds, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes
1 large onion, chopped
2 large apples, peeled, cored and chopped
4 bacon slices, or one 1/2-inch-thick strip slab bacon, chopped
2 tablespoons minced garlic
Salt and black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage or 1 teaspoon dried
1/2 cup dry white wine or water
6 cups vegetable or chicken stock or water
Preparation
Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Spread the squash, onion, apples, bacon and garlic in a deep roasting pan or on a baking sheet.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with the oil.

Roast, stirring every now and then, until the squash, onion and apples are tender and browned and the bacon is crisp, which takes about 45 minutes.

Remove the roasting pan from the oven.

Stir in the sage and white wine and scrape up all the browned bits from the bottom.

If you're using a roasting pan that can be used on the stovetop, position the pan over 2 burners and put both on medium heat. Otherwise, transfer the contents of the pan to a large pot or Dutch oven and set it over medium heat.

Add the stock and cook until the squash, onion and apples break apart and thicken and flavor the broth, which takes about 25 minutes. You can help the process along by breaking the mixture up a bit with a spoon.

Serving Size
Makes four servings

Rod's Ribs

Easy Fall off the bone ribs!


Baby Back Pork Ribs
2 Beers (Blue Moon or other tasty brew)
1 Onion

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F
2. Slice onion and lay evenly on bottom of roasting pan
3. Put on some tunes and drink 1 Blue Moon
4. Cut the slab of ribs in half so there are 6-8 ribs per slab

5. Place ribs, bone down on the onion
6. Pour 1 bottle of beer over ribs.  This is nearly 2 cups.  You can add a little water if you like.

7. Wrap pan tightly with tin foil
8. Place ribs in oven and bake for 3 hours
9. At 2 hour mark prepare sauce.
10. Remove from oven and baste in your favorite barbecue sauce and grill for 10 - 15 minutes to get some charring action happening.  Serve with additional sauce.

Sauce:
32 oz ketchup
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tbs lemon juice
3 tbs rum
3 tbs worcestershire
2 tbs liquid hickory flavoring
2 tsp pepper sauce

Mix all ingredients and simmer for 1 hour

Recipe to try: Peach and Apple Crisp

Filling:
2 Granny Smith apples, diced
2 Fuji apples, diced
3 large peaches, diced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Zest of 1 lemon

Mix all ingredients and spread in a buttered 10-inch baking pan.

Crisp
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 ounces sweet butter, cold and cubed

Mix all ingredients in a mixer with a paddle or cut in a bowl until crumbly, but not wet.

Spread evenly over fruit and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately one hour, until the pie is brown and crisp. Let cool for 15 minutes on a rack after removing from the oven.

OPTIONAL: serve with vanilla ice cream

Best Burgers Ever!

Lamb is expensive, but it is worth it. Easy Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 Pound of ground Lamb

Teaspoon of Oregano

Breadcrumbs

1 egg

Salt and Pepper to taste

Crumbled Feta Cheese

Half cup of diced Cucumber

Plain Yogurt

Half a teaspoon of fresh or dried Mint

Burger Buns

1. 1 Pound of ground Lamb

2. Mix Lamb with half a beaten egg, breadcrumbs, Oregano, Salt, Pepper and crumbled fetta cheese.

3. Make in patties

4. Grill!

5. For sauce, combine Yogurt, Mint and cucumber and drizzle on Burger

Date Nut Crunch Balls - Mama's Christmas Recipe

8 oz pitted dates (buy chopped and dusted in sugar)
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick margarine
2 cups rice crispies
1/2 cup nuts (use favorite type like pecans)
1/2 cup coconut

Mix dates, brown sugar and margarine in pan over low heat for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add rice crispies, nuts and coconut. Stir until well mixed. When cool enough to handle, roll into balls and drop in pan with powdered sugar and set aside.

(Rods favorite, Not Cliftons Favorite)

Glamour Cookies (or Cranberry and White Chocolate Christmas Cookies)

1c all-purpose flour
½ cup super fine sugar
½ tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 cup rolled oats
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 stick plus 1 tbsp soft butter
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup roughly chopped pecans
¾ cup white-chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine flour, baking powder and oats in a bowl.
In another bowl, beat together butter and sugars with an electric mixer until creamy.
Add egg and vanilla.
Beat in dry ingredients.
Fold in cranberries, pecans and chips.
Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into balls and place on a baking sheet lined with tinfoil.
Flatten each ball with a fork.
Bake for 15 minutes or until pale gold.
Let cool on a rack.
Drizzle cookies with melted white-chocolate.
Makes 3 dozen.

Nat's tips:
Cookies tend to take less than 15 minutes--usually between 11-13
minutes. They seem to keep baking on the foil but you can't move them
off the foil for a few minutes so better to pull them out a tad undone.
I used cherry crasions.
I buy extra white chocolate chips for the melting and drizzling.
I usually double the recipe.

(I have not made this recipe yet but just saved it here so I could try it one day. Thanks Natalie for sharing on facebook!)

Honeycomb

Ingredients:

1 cup of castor sugar (or normal white sugar will do)

1 tablespoon of water

1 tablespoon golden syrup

1 teaspoon bicarb soda (sifted so it has no lumps)

Grease a lamington tin with butter.

Place sugar, water and syrup in a large saucepan.

Cook, stirring over low heat until the sugar has mostly dissolved (sugar will not completely dissolve).

Raise heat – bring mixture to the boil.

Lower heat – simmer until mixture is a rich golden brown – about 10 mins. Don’t stir during cooking, but be careful it doesn’t burn. (At this stage, if you drop a little bit of the mixture into cold water it should be brittle – that’s also a way to tell if it’s ready).

Add bicarb soda – using a wooden spoon, stir quickly until combined.

Continue cooking until mix has risen to top of saucepan – about 1 min (this is why you need a large saucepan).

Take off heat. Pour into the tin. Do not flatten or stir the mixture. Mixture will drop slightly after being poured into the tin.

Leave at room temperature to set.

Break into pieces.

EAT!!!

--This recipe is from Rod's sister Jo. I tried 3 times to make this and it failed each time. Maybe I can get her to show me the next time we are together.

blue berry cake

1 box duncan hines golden butter cake mix
3 eggs
3/4 cup crisco oil
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup sugar

Mix all ingredients together and beat for 2 minutes
bake in 3 layers (greased and floured) pans
375 degrees for 15 minutes

frosting
1 8oz cream cheese softened
1 cup sugar
1 stick margarine softened
2 tsp vanilla
1 8 oz coolwhip
1 can blueberry pie filling

beat cream cheese, sugar and margarine until smooth and creamy.
Add vanilla and coolwhip and beat well

On cool layers use 1/3 frosting on each layer
adding 1/3 can of blue berry pie filling to top of each layer and
repeat for each layer

cake must be kept in refrigerator, gets better every day.

Banana Oatmeal Raisin Waffles

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup quick-cooking (rolled) oats
• 1 very ripe medium-size banana
• 1 1/2 cups soy milk (NOTE: I didn't have soy milk so I used what I had, fat free milk)
  
• 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup raisins
• Extra sliced bananas for the top

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s directions.
2. In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add the oats and toss together.
3. In a separate bowl, mash the banana very well. Add the soy milk, maple syrup, and vegetable oil. You can use a handheld blender to blend everything together; if you don’t have one, mix vigorously with a strong fork until there are very few clumps of banana left.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined. Fold in the raisins.
5. Let the batter sit for 2 minutes before making the waffles; this allows the oatmeal to get moist and blend with the rest of the batter.
6. Prepare the waffles according to the manufacturer’s directions. Serve with margarine, maple syrup, and sliced bananas on top.