I wanted to know the difference between rotini pasta and corkscrew pasta, so I did a search and found a great site that explains about all the different pasta shapes. If you’re interested, the site is Cook’s Thesaurus. They have a lot of other great information as well on all sorts of things such as grain products, fruits, vegetables, legumes & nuts, flavorings, etc.
The Cook’s Thesaurus is a “cooking encyclopedia that covers thousands of ingredients and kitchen tools.” It has pictures, descriptions, synonyms, pronunciations, and suggested substitutions. It’s a very helpful site!
#1. What’s your favorite food smell?
That’s a hard question. A good meal cooking on the stove and lasagna or pizza baking in the oven. Cookies, dessert, or bread baking in the oven. I guess I don’t really have a favorite…there are too many that I like.
#2. What’s your favorite kind of apple?
Fuji, Pink Lady, & Honeycrisp
#3. What veggies do you like in your salad?
Mostly Romaine lettuce, with some spinach, cucumbers, carrots, sprouts, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini and yellow squash sometimes.
#4. Share a recipe that uses beef.
Here’s a recipe for those who enjoy Mexican food:
Brown meat with onion and bell pepper. Drain the meat. Add corn with liquid, tomatoes, chili powder, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Let it cook for 5 minutes. Then add olives and half of the cornmeal (1 1/2 cups). Stir well. Cook until thickened a little. Pour into a 9 x 13-inch dish.
Put milk and cheese in saucepan. Cook on low until cheese is melted. Add rest of cornmeal (1 1/2 cups). Stir well to prevent lumps. Cook on low heat until thick. Pour this mixture on top of meat mixture. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is brown.
#1. American cheese. Sliced fresh or prepackaged processed cheese product?
Sliced fresh, but most of the time prepackaged is more convenient
#2. What is your favorite cracker?
Triscuits with Rosemary and Olive Oil
#3. What hot breakfast cereal do you like? Think oatmeal, farina, grits, etc.
Oatmeal with added cinnamon and a little brown sugar (and sometimes raisins)
#4. Share a recipe that uses corn.
I wrote a post last week for Shoepeg Corn Casserole that I published yesterday. It’s something I wouldn’t make very often because of the fat content, but it’s great for a special dish. (Shoepeg corn is a type of white corn known for its sweetness.)
This is Elwanda’s recipe for corn casserole:
LAYER corn and green beans in buttered casserole dish.
COMBINE cheese, onion, soup, & sour cream and spread over veggies.
COMBINE butter, crackers, & almonds and spread over top.
BAKE uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
These individual cheesecakes would be nice to serve at a wedding shower if you wanted something different from traditional cake. They are simple to make with the following ingredients:
PREHEAT oven to 325 degrees.
LINE 24 muffin cups with paper liners and place one piece of cookie dough in each muffin cup.
BAKE for 10-12 minutes until cookie has spread to edge of cup.
BEAT cream cheese, canned milk, eggs, and vanilla until smooth.
POUR about 3 tablespoons cream cheese mixture over each cookie in the muffin cups. BAKE an additional 15-18 minutes until the cheese mixture is set. Cool completely. REFRIGERATE for at least one hour. Remove paper liners before serving.
TOP with a teaspoonful of cherries. (Or if red cherries do not go with your color scheme, then you could top with fresh fruit to color coordinate such as kiwi for green, blueberries for blue, etc., or for something neutral you could use shaved chocolate. That’s just my idea.)
Elizabeth, at Mom Cooks, has a great recipe for an awesome looking deli sandwich. She gives great directions with her step-by-step instructions which include pictures. If you want an impressive deli sandwich for company or to take to a luncheon, then check out her site.
#1. What’s your favorite form of potatoes?
I guess my very favorite would be fried potatoes with onions, although we rarely have those because of the “fried” factor. A close second would be my “easy mashed potatoes” which are like a comfort food and yet healthy at the same time. I don’t have to feel guilty about eating them like I would the fried potatoes or mashed potatoes loaded with butter and cream.
#2. Pie crust. Premade or from scratch?
I loved my mother’s homemade pie crust. It was so delicate and flakey…so yummy. She passed away in 2000, so it’s been years since I’ve eaten her pies. (My friend, Michelle, makes the closest thing to my mother’s pie crusts that I’ve tasted.) I rarely make pies, but when I do, half the time I buy premade pie crust and half the time I make it from scratch.
#3. Vegetables. Fresh, frozen or canned?
Fresh, when in season. The majority of the time I buy frozen.
#4. What one dish do you wish you could prepare better?
I wish I could make pie crust exactly like my mother’s.
I have not tried this recipe, but it sounds fun for Easter dinner:
Mix potatoes and juice with a mixer until smooth. Shape into small eggs and roll in corn flakes. Place on a greased shallow baking dish and bake @ 325 degrees for 25 minutes. Serve on a bed of shredded lettuce so it will look like eggs in the grass.
This list comes from the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental research organization based in Washington, DC. There are 43 items on the list, but I’m just listing the top few. To see the entire list, click here. #1 is the worst, and it gets better as you go down the list.
I’m trying to buy organic when I can. Sometimes it’s too expensive, but I’m finding more and more brands producing organic choices at affordable prices now.
I just came across a healthy sounding recipe for One Bowl Banana Nut Muffins with added wheat germ. I think it’s so important to try to get nutrition into our diets, and it takes added effort to get it into our kid’s diets. But if we make changes here and there and incorporate extra servings of healthy foods several times a week, it will make a difference in the long run.
One thing I might try different in this recipe is to use 1 cup flour & 1/2 cup spelt flour instead of all white flour. Spelt flour is so much healthier than white flour! And if your kids don’t like nuts, just leave them out.