Mediterranean Salad

I love fresh vegetables especially during the summer time. So I came up with a salad that is healthy and very Greek. The feta cheese gives it the umph that it needs while putting olive oil into the mix adds some healthy oil that the body needs for digestion. I found that I loved the mix and am thinking of adding a yogurt dressing next time I make it. This is a recipe for one person.

1 ounce of feta cheese

1/2 tomato

1/2 green pepper

1/3 large cucumber

2 TBS. chopped red onion

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp olive oil

dash of sea salt

Chop vegetables into bite size pieces and mix together. Sprinkle feta cheese on top then add olive oil and lemon.

Lasagne

For Father's Day this year I asked Kerry what he would like to eat for his special dinner. I thought I would make something like Chicken and Dumplings and he said that he liked that recipe but that was not his favorite. He was a little disappointed that I didn't know him well after 31 years of marriage and what he likes to eat. "Of course" I thought, "Kerry loves my lasagne."

Not any Lasagne recipe but THE Lasagne recipe that I have always made him. It is the recipe that is found in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book published in 1976.

Cover via Amazon

Lasagne was always a hit at my house. I made it first the day that Jonathan was blessed for all the company that came to our home. Then there were the other celebrations like birthdays. It is probably the most popular dish in our household.

1 pound of Italian sausage or ground beef
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 Tbs. whole basil
1 1/2 tsps. salt
1 1-lb. can tomatoes
2 6-ounce cans tomato paste
10 ounces lasagne noodles
2 eggs
3 cups fresh Ricotta or cream-style cottage cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
2 Tbs. parsley flakes
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced very thin

Brown the meat slowly; spoon off excess fat.

Add next 5 ingredients and 1 cup water. Simmer, covered, 15 minutes; stir often. Cook noodles in boiling salted water until tender; drain; rinse.

Beat eggs; add remaining ingredients, except mozzarella.

Layer half the noodles in a 13x9x2-inch baking dish; (Yes. I know that this is a 9x9 pan but when there are two people eating, I make two smaller pans of lasagne. We eat one and freeze the other which is what I did today. So if you have a bigger crowd go ahead and make the BIG pan of lasagne like I used to when my family was home.)spread with half the Ricotta filling; add half the mozzarella cheese and half the meat sauce. Repeat. Bake at 375 degrees about 30 minutes (or assemble early and refrigerate; bake 45 minutes). Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serves 8 to 10.

Spicy Bean Salsa

This is a great dip to serve with chips. It is a little spicy with the jalapeno pepper so if you like things mild you can make this salsa without it.

1 can (15 1/2 oz) black eyed peas (drained)
1 can (15 1/2 oz) black beans (drained)
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped jalapeno pepper
3 oz. or 3 cloves garlic diced
chopped fresh cilantro
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1 pkg Good Seasons Italian Dressing prepared with oil and vinegar

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Cover and refrigerate several hours. Serve with tortilla chips or over rice.

Edith's Whole Wheat Bread

My Great Aunt Edith Whittle lived on a farm in Kimberly Idaho where the Olsens settled after immigrating from Denmark in the early part of the last century. I am sure the my older children remember the birthday cards that she sent to them every year with a dollar. That one small act helped them remember her. She was very kind to us and when we went to visit her she had a picture of my sister Jan and I on the dresser in her upstairs bedroom. When we were at her home we milked the goats and poured the cream on our breakfast cereal. What a treat! Here is her recipe for Whole Wheat Bread.

Beat together:
2 cups of prepared powdered milk, scalded
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup soft margarine
4 tsp. salt
Add and beat well:
4 eggs

Mix together and let sit until yeast bubbles, about 5 minutes.
1 cup warm water
1 Tbs. brown sugar
2 Tbs. yeast

Pour into milk mixture and add 7 cups whole wheat flour. Mix together well, the dough will be sticky. Add 1 1/2 cups of white bread flour. Put in greased bowl and let rise for 1 1/2 hours until double in bulk. Knead down and let rise again. Mold into 2 loaves of bread. Let rise for 1/2 hour and then bake 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Brush with melted butter while hot.


Today we made stone ground wheat bread. Jayden, Ashlyn, Peyton, and Cameron were over at my house for cooking lessons on how to make bread. It takes a couple hours to make bread so we made Marshmallow Popcorn Balls while we waited. Afterwards the kids enjoyed the treats they made.

I have a lot of hard red winter wheat in storage but you can find wheat berries at the store. Bob's Red Mill sells wheat berries in the grocery store or online but you need to have a wheat grinder to make the flour.

Jayden was fascinated to find that my very old Magic Mill wheat grinder, which my mother gave to me to use over 20 years ago and I tried to give it back to her several times but she wouldn't take it, had stones inside it to grind the wheat into flour.
Jayden poured wheat into the grinder and was amazed to find after it went into the little hole that flour came out into the tray at the bottom. We made about 7 cups of flour with the 5 cups of wheat that we put into the grinder. We had a discussion about how wheat was ground a long time ago and how people took their grain to the miller to have it made into flour. Peyton said that her best friend has the last name of Miller and I said that their ancestor probably was a miller a long time ago.

After we finished making the flour we started putting the bread together. First of all we proofed the yeast in 1 cup of lukewarm water and 1 Tbs. of brown sugar. The children watched the yeast bubble and grow and then put it into the milk mixture. Cracking the eggs was a favorite thing to do and each child got to put one into the mix then Cameron added the flour.

After mixing in the wheat flour the dough is very sticky and gooey so I add white bread flour to give the dough some gluten and make it stick together. This helps the solve some of the stickiness problem too.

I use my Kitchen Aide to knead the dough for 10 minutes which is very necessary to give the bread the right texture. Letting the dough rise is the next step. I let the dough sit in a warm place an hour until it doubles in bulk. I know when the dough reaches the top of my bowl that it is double.

There is a trick to making a beautiful loaf of bread and so I demonstrated how to do it with the first loaf and then Jayden did the second loaf. I thought she did a very good job.

First the bread is rolled with a rolling pin to get all the big bubbles out. We made sure that it was put on a well floured surface because the bread dough is still a little bit sticky. I turned the dough over a couple times to make sure that it was floured. Jayden rolled it into a rectangle and then rolled it the long way to form the bread. After the roll was made Jayden pinched the end to the dough to seal the loaf. Then she turned the ends towards the center and pinched them to the loaf. She did a really gread job putting it into the greased loaf pan.

Look at how well formed Jayden made her loaf. I couldn't tell the difference between the two loaves. The bread was given time to rise for a half an hour then it was ready to go into the oven. The smell of bread baking permeated the house and we couldn't wait to taste it.

Marshmallow Balls

My nieces and nephew, Cameron, Jayden, and Ashlyn, came over today for cooking classes. Popcorn balls were on our list today. I found these cool strawberry/vanilla marshmallows at Walmart in the Mexican food section. The taste of strawberry with peppermint was pretty good when we finished. At the beginning of our popcorn making session Ashlyn and Jayden had to try the marshmallows out and they passed their inspection.So we put the whole bag into the pot with the margarine and Ashlyn watched it melt. She knew when they were ready so she added the popcorn to the gooey marshmallows. Then I stirred them up. The marshmallow balls turned out to be a pretty pink color. Next I crushed some candy canes that I had saved from an after Christmas sale in the blender and we were ready to make our popcorn balls. Because the marshmallow balls were hot I made the balls first and then let the children handle them when they were cool. The marshmallow balls are very sticky so we sprayed their little hands with PAM. It worked really well to keep the marshmallow balls from sticking to their hands and the children thought it was great.
Next the children rolled the marshmallow balls in the crushed peppermint candy. The candy part of this was a hit with them. The marshmallow balls were now covered with a fine coating of peppermint. I had a piece of waxed paper ready for the children to put their popcorn balls on.Eating the popcorn balls was the best part. Cameron rated them as a 10 on a scale from 1 to 10.

1 pound bag of marshmallows (I used the El Mexicano Strawberry-Vanilla marshmallows from Walmart)
1/4 cup butter
3 quarts of popped popcorn
3 (3 to 4 inch) hard-candy sticks, crushed (peppermint candy canes)

Heat marshmallows and butter in top of double boiler or over low heat until melted and smooth. Pour over popcorn and mix well. Let stand several minutes before forming into balls. Roll in crushed candy. Makes 12 balls.

Taco Soup

This recipe was prepared for our Book Club by Nancy Perkins. Nancy is the lady standing in the back row at the far left. I thought the soup was delicious.

1 lb hamburger
1/2 onion (diced)
2 large cans stewed tomatoes (diced)
1 can tomato sauce (8 oz)
1/2 pkg Mild Taco Sauce
2 cans beans (kidney or black)
1 16 oz pkg frozen corn
1 teaspoon salt
1 tsp sugar
1 can water

Brown hamburger with onion and then add all the other ingredients. Cook on the stovetop about 1/2 hour. Add 1 pkg of Hidden Valley Ranch Mix and 1 cup sour cream.