Cranberry Muffins

I was looking around for a way to use up bits of leftover cranberry sauce and orange-cranberry relish and came across this recipe on MomCentral. Since my homemade sauce had lots of orange in it, I let that be a substitute for the lemon zest. The recipe made 12 nice, big muffins--very delicious and grainy, as I used whole wheat flour.

• 2 ½ cups white whole wheat or all-purpose flour
• 2 ½ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• ¾ cup plain Greek-style yogurt (whole milk or low-fat milk)
• ¼ cup milk
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• ½ tsp. lemon zest
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray (or line with muffin liners).
2. Measure flour by spooning into a dry measuring cup, level with a straightedge or back of a knife, then pour into a mixing bowl. Add baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Whisk until thoroughly combined.
3. In a separate mixing bowl whisk eggs until slightly frothy. Add yogurt, milk and canola oil. Whisk well until smooth. Add lemon zest and brown sugar, mixing well. Add cranberry sauce and stir with a spoon until thoroughly combined.
4. Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just moistened. The batter should still be lumpy with a few little spots of dry flour. Do not over mix. Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each to the rim.
5. Bake in center of oven 22 minutes, rotating muffin tin once halfway through, until muffins are a lovely golden color on top. Remove tin from oven, transfer muffins to a cooling rack. Serve warm or room temperature.

Southwestern Style Pea Soup

Strange as it may seem to those who dislike it, pea soup has always been my ultimate comfort food. The other day, after several hours spent in the chair at the dentist's office, I wanted something warm and easy to eat, and came up with this soup with a Southwestern kick.

You can use homemade pea soup if you wish. I've always loved plain old Campbell's Green Pea (no ham) soup best. It's your choice.

1 can Campbell's Green Pea Soup
1 soup can of milk
1 cup of fresh salsa

Place ingredients in blender, whir until smooth, thinning with additional milk if necessary. Heat by the cupful in the microwave. Serve with a dollop of sour cream, if you wish.

Makes 4 servings.

Fresh Salsa

I keep a batch of this going all the time now. Sometimes it is served almost like a side dish or vegetable with the meal, although it is also quite delicious on a turkey whole wheat sandwich. When it starts to get low, I just add more tomatoes or avocados, whichever I have on hand.

1/2 cup medium or hot salsa
1/2 sweet white onion, finely chopped
2 large tomatoes, finely chopped
1 large avocado, finely chopped
6 New Mexico-type green chiles (roasted, peeled, seeded), finely chopped
1 tsp. fresh cilantro, finely chopped

Juice of one small Key lime (to taste)

Add all the finely chopped vegetables and the cilantro to the salsa. Add lime juice to taste. Keep covered and refrigerated.

White Trash Fudge

The blogging world is a wonderful one. I have "met" people online through their blogs or their comments on mine, and have come to feel that they are friends even though I have never seen them in person.

I have, however, met Mary and her wonderful husband, Pat, for real, face to face, and they were just like family. We had first chatted online and when they came to our part of New Mexico for a visit, we all got together for a wonderful evening. You would think that strangers might have a problem finding things to talk about, but from the first hug we were friends for life. We cried when they left.

I recently got a package from Mary and Pat, who are now back in Massachusetts getting their house ready to sell so they can move out here and be our forever neighbors. In the package was some fudge, and it was oh, so delicious--addictive, even. There was also a note that was to be read only after the fudge was consumed. Here it is, word for word:

I once read on your blog, Clair, that Velveeta Cheese is only good for mixing with salsa or Rotel tomatoes to make queso.  Now that you have tasted (and hopefully approved) the fudge, I will provide the recipe.


1/2 pound Velveeta Cheese
1/2 pound margarine or butter
2 tsp. vanilla (I used almond extract as we were out of vanilla)


Mix together and melt over low heat or in microwave.


2 lbs. powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa


Mix together sugar and cocoa. Pour melted Velveeta mixture into sugar mixture and stir until thoroughly mixed. Pour into buttered pans and refrigerate until set.

*****

By the way, if you try this recipe and like it, let me know. You can also send along a comment to Mary, a "reluctant" blogger.

Vinegar "Recipes" for Around the House

I like using simple cleaning methods. I've always heard about the many uses of vinegar and have been finding it to be very helpful around the house. I know you can find sites with probably thousands of uses, but wanted to pass on some tried and true methods I've been using and can personally vouch for.

Coffee maker: Our water here in the desert is terrible. It smells when it comes out of the hot water tank or if it stands for very long. It eats faucets and makes them all spotty (see below). Even though I use filtered water to make coffee, I figure it can't hurt to clean out the coffee maker every once in a while. Fill the reservoir with vinegar to the two-cup line, and run the coffee maker through a cycle. Dump out the vinegar (actually, save it for one of the uses below) and run through the cycle twice more with clean water. Wash and rinse the glass pot well.

Windows: Use a solution of half white vinegar and half water. Wipe on with a damp cloth, wipe off with newspapers.

Drains: Our smelly water makes for smelly drains, so this method works to make them fresher smelling. Pour into drain 1/2 cup baking soda, then follow with 1/2 cup white vinegar. Then pour in 1 cup of boiling water. Let sit for 10 minutes, then flush with lots of cold water.

Glassware: Our water makes glassware cloudy. Dip a damp cloth into white vinegar and rub the inside and outside of glasses. Wash and rinse as usual. Much better!

Faucets: Wipe with a damp cloth dipped in vinegar. Spot free!

Pergo-type floors: This is today's exciting discovery. Our kitchen floor was pretty, but all spotted up. No matter how I scrubbed, I couldn't get it to look clean. After a little Internet research, I mixed one cup of white vinegar with four cups of warm water, dipped in the mop, and wrung it out. I wiped down the floor and then skated around on a terry-cloth towel immediately to dry it completely. The results? A glowing floor, and a wonderful time for the pup!

Little Pete works hard

Finished! This pup is hard to get in focus, as he rarely pauses in his chores.

Spicy Pinto Beans

3 cups dry pinto beans
Fresh cold water*

1/2 chopped onion (I like the sweet Vidalia-type)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
A tsp. of cumin
Salt

1 cup of green chile meat (yesterday's recipe)

Pick through the beans carefully, removing any little rocks. Rinse well, and cover with cold water. Soak overnight. In the morning, drain and rinse. Cover with more cold water, add chopped onion, garlic, cumin, and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, cover the pan and simmer on low heat until almost tender.

Add the green chile meat, stir well, and continue to cook on low heat with the pan partially covered until the beans are tender. Add additional water as necessary.

Note: Cooking time will vary with altitude. I've seen recipes for pre-soaked beans where the cooking time is supposedly 20 minutes. Ha! Here at 4000 feet, I've found that I can cook beans for a long time before they are done--maybe a couple of hours. This just gives a chance for the flavors to soak into the beans.

Depending on the heat of your green chile meat, these beans can pack a real wallop, so you might want to serve them with some sour cream on the side to cool things down a bit.

*****

*That's what we like to call it, here in the thirsty desert.

Green Chile Meat

For some reason, I get a kick out the name of this sauce. Never mind that--you'll want to make some and put it over most anything. It's really good on scrambled eggs with a little sour cream on the side, and it adds a good bit of kick to the pinto bean recipe that will be posted in a day or two.

The recipe comes from the book, More of the Best from New Mexico Kitchens, by Sheila Cameron and the Staff of New Mexico Magazine. (New Mexico Magazine, 1983). They got it from the world famous Owl Bar and Cafe in San Antonio, New Mexico.

That simmering time isn't a mistake, by the way. Simmer the sauce for at least three hours, and you'll be glad you did.

3 1/2 lbs. of hot green chile (roasted, peeled, seeded, and chopped)
1 1/2 lbs. hamburger meat
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 quarts of water
Salt to taste

Brown the meat and drain off excess fat. In a large heavy saucepan, cover the chile and garlic with water and bring to the boiling point. Mix in the meat and simmer, tightly covered, for a least three hours. Add salt to taste.

Pecan Cake: A Good Way to Start a Diet

Have you read the book, Julie and Julia; 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen; by Julie Powell? At one point, Julie talks about the spectacular pecan cake she makes that everyone loves. When I went to the Internet to find the recipe, I found that I was not the only one who just had to make that cake after reading about it in luscious detail.

The full name of the recipe is Paul Prudhomme's Spiced Pecan Cake. We had a dinner party for eight last night and I made the cake for dessert.

Let me tell you a bit about it. First of all, nobody needs this cake! It is incredibly rich--beyond rich, needlessly rich. The cake itself has less than a cup of butter, only 3 egg whites, and no salt. I really wish that I had stopped there. As a matter of fact, I could have divided the recipe into thirds and baked a single, unfrosted layer. I think it might have been a hit that way, especially after a filling supper.

However, the frosting calls for 8 egg yolks, an incredible cup and a half of butter, and a total of five cups of sugar. I was so far into the spirit of the thing that I actually made that frosting. A tiny skimming of it might have been tasty, but I followed the directions and ladled the darn stuff onto the three layers of the cake. I could hardly lift the plate when it was done.

I had spent a part of the three previous days cracking and chopping pecans; sometimes alone, while listening to bluegrass and blues, and sometimes with the help of a friend. Of course, I could have bought the nuts already prepared, but we do live in a pecan orchard and I had these huge bags of pecans waiting in the freezer (just under the huge bags of hot green chiles!). The recipe calls for a total of four and a half cups--we gave up after four, which turned out to be more than ample. Way more, as was everything else about this monster of a cake.

The eight of us were able to eat less than half of the thing. I sent some home with some strong and willing guests. The rest of the thing is squatting on my kitchen counter, just waiting for some unwary fool to lift the cover.

It was a great way to start a diet. I don't think I ever want to eat again.

Crock Pot Decision

Thank you all for taking the time to leave comments, recipe links, and opinions about using a crock pot.

Arija, I am sorry that you lost so much in the bush fire. I appreciated your minority opinion, which gave me a smile. When I was much younger, I was an extremely disorganized hostess. We used to tease my half sister and her husband about my lack of preparation. They would drive up to our house in New Hampshire from theirs in Massachusetts, maybe a two and a half hour drive. When they arrived, we would visit for a while, then I'd say, "Well, I'll just nip out to the garden to harvest some wheat to make the bread for supper."

It wasn't far from the truth, when describing my meal-preparation habits. Those poor people had to wait once while I made hamburger buns from scratch, and then while I ground the meat for the burgers!

I really, really wanted to show them that I could have a meal mostly prepared and ready to put on the table for them, so for their next visit I bought a crock pot and made spaghetti sauce, which simmered all night long before they came for supper one Saturday. I was so pleased with myself, but only until we tried out the sauce. It had really simmered to death, the herbs had long lost any flavor, and the consistency of the meatballs was that of canned dog food, as best I can imagine it!

This time, many years later, I am ready to try again. Thanks to all your advice, I have bought a crock pot (actually two!), and a couple of cookbooks as well. I plan to follow directions and see if the modern crock pot is all it is cracked up to be,  Arija's opinion notwithstanding!

I'll let you know how it all works out.