Food Gifts
Fink Family Blueberry Pie
Ever since my husband was a little boy he has been in love with blueberry pie. His Grandmother tells us the story of him asking as a young boy for “more blueberry pie Grandma” every time we visit. As a special treat he loves making this pie for our boys. Read on to learn how to make this delicious pie.
Ingredients You Need
• 2 Thawed 9 Inch Pie Crusts
• 4 Cups of Blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• ¾ Cup of Sugar
• 3 Tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
• ½ Teaspoon Lemon Juice
• ½ Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon or Nutmeg
• Pinch of Salt
• 2 Tablespoons of Cinnamon & Sugar Mixture
• 1 Tablespoon of Milk
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Chocolate, health food and good will
A while back we wrote about Chocolate, the misunderstood health food and listed multiple reasons why you shouldn’t put down that chocolate bar. I’m happy to say, I’m still a chocoholic and have recently been introduced to a new chocolate company. No, I don’t get any payback for talking about them, I simply love chocolate so I’m happy to spread the word.
Here’s the story. I have a friend who also loves chocolate. She recently gave me some chocolate candy she had ordered from various countries. The stuff was delicious. It was rich dark, melt in your mouth yummy chocolate. I wanted more…..
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Dog Snack Recipes – K9 Cookies
If you’re looking for a gift for a friend who has everything, make a tin of canine snacks for their favorite canine. Here are a few favorite K9 recipes for our furry friends.
Canine Carrot Cake
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon soy flour
1/4 cup chopped, unsalted peanuts
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup honey
1 cup ground or grated carrot
Combine flours, soda and peanuts.
Mix in egg, oil, vanilla, honey and carrots until well combined. Pour mixture into a cake pan, and bake at 325 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on rack, cut into wedges and serve.
Puppy Dog Peanut Butter Cookies
½ stick butter
2 eggs
½ cup of peanut butter
2 tbs sugar
pinch or salt
whole wheat flour
Melt 1/2 stick butter in a saucepan, and, with the heat still going, add two eggs and stir briskly until it is one glutinous mass. Remove from heat. Add 1/2 a cup of peanut butter, two tablespoons of sugar, a pinch of salt, and two or three handuls of whole-wheat flour.
Bake in an 8X8 square baking pan for 15 minutes or until brown on edges.
Cool and serve in small quantities.
Yummy Doggie Cookies
1 3 1/2 oz jar of baby food, liver or beef
1/3 cup wheat germ
2/3 cup lowfat powdered milk
Mix and drop by the tablespoon onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool before giving to your dog.
Blooming Flower Teas – Hot New Trend in Tea
One of my favorite Christmas presents this year was a gift box of blooming flower teas.
If you’re thinking of getting some flowering teas, I would recommend you get a glass pot or glass teapot or you’ll miss half the fun. Many of the companies that sell the flowering teas also carry the glass tea pots. Having the glass teapot allows you to observe the flowering process as well as filter out most of the petals before you pour the tea into your cup. (There’s nothing worse than flower petals in your teeth.)
If you’ve not seen these flowering teas in action, I found a video from one of the tea companies that shows you what you’re missing.
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Is a Detox Diet Program Right for You?
It seems everywhere you turn these days, there’s a new detox diet popping up. From the Master Cleanse, and acai berry diets, to diets featuring raw foods, rice, grapes and water, there seems to be an extreme diet for every food.
The questions are… do these diets work and are they a healthy way to achieve long term weight loss, health and fitness? This article will seek to answer those questions, give you the pros and cons of detox diets and provide you with the information you need to make an educated – and healthy – decision about detox diets.
Gluten Free Recipes and Cookbooks
Homemade Pecan Treasures make great last minute gift giving
by Mike
I love to cook and especially to bake, so I love the holiday season for making cookies and special breads to give as gifts. Here are a couple of ideas that make great gifts.
Pecan Sandies
This recipe makes a shortbread-like cookie with the great combination of cinnamon and pecans.
1 Cup butter, cut in pieces
1/3 Cup Sugar
1 Tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 1/4 Cups Flour
1 Cup Pecans chopped fairly fine
granulated sugar (about 1/3 cup for coating)
In a mixer, combine butter, sugar, water, and vanilla. Mix 30 seconds to creamy
smooth. Add cinnamon, mix in the flour by hand in increments, then add nuts. Dough will be very stiff.
Roll dough in 1″ balls, roll the balls in the granulated sugar, place the
sugared balls on an ungreased cookie sheet and criss-cross the tops with a
fork. Once pressed down, cookies will not spread much.
Bake at 325 degrees for 20 mins, or until the bottoms are lightly golden
brown.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies.
Note: A trick for making more evenly-sized cookies is to divide the dough, wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap, and roll/squeeze it out into a 1″ diameter cylinder, then slice into evenly sized pieces before rolling the pieces into balls.
Honey Pecan Spread
1 Cup honey
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Cup finely chopped pecans
Place about 1/2 of the honey in a small 1 pint decorative canning jar. Add the lemon juice and cinnamon, stirring to combine. Add the nuts, stirring to coat. Top off with more honey, and carefully stir to integrate. Pop a decorative top on the jar and it is ready for gifting (or eating!)
Best after sitting for a couple of days for the flavors to harmonize. Serve on bagels or pancakes. It can also be poured over a block of cream cheese and used as a spread on crackers.
Helpful Hints for Cooking with Herbs
Catch a whiff of savory rosemary and you’re instantly transported to your favorite Italian restaurant: deeply inhaling the steaming scent rising from the marinara sauce on your pasta. Rub a little sage between your fingers and the tangy aroma reminds you of the roasted chicken grandma served for Sunday dinners.
The flavors and fragrances of herbs enhance many of our favorite dishes. Knowing when to add herbs to recipes, and whether it’s best to use fresh or dried herbs can make all the difference in the potency and flavor. Many culinary schools teach aspiring chefs to add most fresh herbs to recipes near the end of the cooking time for a variety of reasons.
How to Make Flaky Pie Crust Recipe
Easy Pie Crust Recipe Guaranteed to be Flaky and Delicious
If You’re Looking For An Easy Pie Crust Recipe, Here It Is
Pie is a popular dessert during the holidays and there are a variety of pie types so you could have a different pie evey day of the week and still not run out of new recipes. While the fillings may change, the foundation for a great pie is a great pie crust.
Have you ever been served pie that has crust so tough you can’t get your fork through it? Sure, we all have. Well, here’s an easy pie crust recipe that makes crust that is always tender and flaky.
The Key Relevance Factors for Grading Honey
What are the key relevance factors for grading honey?
Honey is nature’s perfect food: it is the only food that humans eat that harms neither plant nor animal in its production and consumption.
Honey is derived from plant nectar, with each individual honeybee contributing perhaps only 1/12 of a teaspoon to the hive’s honey production during her entire lifetime. Because there are so many different nectar sources being visited by a single hive of bees, even a single pound of produced honey will contain nectar from thousands and thousands of different flowers. In order to standardize the sale of honey, the USDA developed a set of standards for grading honey. As of 1985, these Standards are now in their fifth issue. According to the National Honey Board, honey is graded, on a voluntary basis, using these USDA standards.
There are 6 relevant factors in evaluating the honey’s grade (5 quality factors and color):
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It’s Apple Picking Time! Use Those Apples to Make Some Apple Crisp and Apple Pie!
By: Alexine
Autumn is one of the most beautiful seasons. With the foliage turning and birds migrating there is plenty to see when your outdoors. One special activity in the fall is apple picking. This is a great way to get out with the family or your significant other and have some fun. Then if you feel inspired you can bake with those yummy apples. Who wouldn’t want some warm apple pie or apple crisp on a cool autumn night? I know I would and that’s why I’ve put two of my favorite recipes together to share with you all!
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Tis The Season for Delicious Buffalo Berry Syrup
By: Alexine
Around the Dakotas grows a thorny bush covered in little red berries. They call these tart little buggers buffalo berries. They are great for making into syrup, jam and pies. I went to the lake and harvested some recently and decided to make some syrup. It is a delicious addition on your pancakes or French toast and with the holidays approaching it can be a great gift as well. Keep reading for the recipe and directions on how to make this delicious syrup!
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Feel Like Baking? Try Some Monkey Bread Muffins!
By: Alexine
Do you have some over-ripe bananas that you are about to throw away? Or kids that much down food the minute they walk into the door after school?
I have the perfect solution! Bake some delicious Monkey Bread Muffins. They are healthier than most sweet snacks and simply irresistible.
Keep reading to get the recipe with my special tips on how to make these yummy muffins!
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My Grandmother’s Recipe for Delicious Bread and Butter Pickles
By: Alexine
Every year my grandmother would give me these delicious bread and butter pickles. Since we moved this past spring I was unable to get any from her so I decided to ask for her recipe and try it myself.
This recipe is a really great way to use up the last bunch of cucumbers from your garden or a bag from the farmer’s market. Either way the cucumbers are wax free which is necessary to make the pickles.
I hope you enjoy making and eating these bread and butter pickles as much as I do!
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Impress Your Neighbors with some Homegrown Zucchini Muffins
By: Alexine
If you are looking for a great way to do something nice for your neighbors or friends, bake them some zucchini muffins. They won’t be able to resist the delicious taste! The recipe will also help you use up any leftover zucchini from the garden so that it does not go to waste. Nobody likes wasting home grown food; so jot this down and make some delicious zucchini muffins today!
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Late Summer Refrigerator Pickles with Zucchini, Squash, & Bell Peppers
This time of year, many home gardeners are starting to ask themselves these questions:
“What the heck am I going to do with all these vegetables?”
“Just who thought it was a good idea to plant all this squash?”
“Did we really need 37 tomato plants?
“How on Earth did I forget to celebrate “National Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch” night?”
If you missed the opportunity to celebrate on August 8th – or have neighbors who take a dim view of trespassing, here’s a tasty alternative.
A Brief Guide to Drying and Storing Herbs
or…. what happens when you pick a pound of basil leaves and dry them?
Home-dried herbs are less expensive than the commercial variety and taste better too. Fresh-dried herbs have a more intense flavor, brighter color, and are less likely to have been irradiated.
Most herbs are extremely easy to grow and hard to kill – kind of like weeds. They grow well in the garden or in a group of pots arranged on a sunny windowsill. Delicious fresh, herbs are also easy to dry and store. Homegrown and dried herbs also make great gifts.
Learn the basics of sun-drying or air-drying as we follow an entire pound of fresh basil leaves through the picking, washing, and drying process.
Steamed Asparagus Topped with Mushrooms
Here’s a healthy vegetable dish that is attractive and delicious.
When cooking, be sure not to overcook the asparagus. Steam it until it turns a bright green and then remove. It shouldn’t be soggy or limp.
Ingredients:
20-24 fresh asparagus spears
8 ounces white or cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon lemon zest OR lemon juice (the zest adds better flavor)
1. Heat olive oil in small saucepan.
2. Toss mushrooms and lemon zest together on medium heat until mushrooms soften. Add a few teaspoons water if mixture gets too dry.
3. While mushrooms cook, steam asparagus for 2-3 minutes – just until spears turn bright green.
4. Serve mushroom mixture over steamed asparagus.
Kitchen Gadgets As Holiday Gifts
You Can Never Have Too Many Kitchen Gadgets
Everyone appreciates good food, but those who love cooking appreciate good kitchen gadgets just as much. Read on for our top favorite kitchen tools. These handy tools were designed to make your life easier, save you time, make your culinary creations more authentic… and even give you that expert flair that makes you feel like an old, “seasoned” cooking pro!
Ready for the Top Favorite Kitchen Gadgets? Here goes: