Black-eyed Pea Salad

My pal Christine's recipe, the best I've had!

Marinade:

1 cup red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar

_Half-cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

Half tsp. black pepper

2 dashes Tabasco sauce

Half-cup vegetable oil

Fresh basil to taste, sliced (optional)

Salad:

1 cup red or sweet onion, finely chopped

1 or 2 bell peppers (red, green or a combination), seeded and finely chopped

1 or 2 tsp. minced garlic

1 fresh jalapeño, finely chopped

4 to 6 15-oz. cans black-eyed peas with snaps, drained (or 2 lbs. dried black-eyed peas, soaked, cooked and drained)

Must try - Mini ham, cheese, egg muffins!

If you have a 24-muffin pan for mini muffins, here's another use for it (from Rachael Ray). She said this works with lots of other omelette ingredients, too.

• 1/4 pound deli sliced Swiss cheese, finely chopped
• 6 slices Canadian bacon, finely chopped
• 3 Tbsp snipped or chopped chives
• A few grinds black pepper
• 8 eggs
• 2 Tbsp melted butter, or nonstick spray

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix the chopped cheese, Canadian bacon and chives. Season with a few grinds of pepper. 

In a bowl, beat the eggs. 

Brush the muffin tins with melted butter (or spray). Fill the 24 mini-muffin cups halfway to two-thirds with the cheese mixture. Pour beaten eggs into each cup, filling to just below the rim. 

Bake at 375 until golden, about 12 minutes. 

Can be frozen, then popped out each morning and microwaved!

Pizza bites

Fast appetizer; or, as I'm doing, bake ahead and wrap individually for sale :) They can also be frozen on a cookie sheet and then stored in freezer bags until you're ready to bake them.

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound fresh, ground pork sausage
• 10 ounces mozzarella or provolone cheese, cubed
• Bertolli garlic pasta sauce
• pepperoni slices
• 32 ounces cocktail rye bread

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F .
2. In a large skillet, brown ground beef and sausage.
3. Drain grease out of skillet. Stir processed cheese food into the mixture. Continue cooking until cheese melts. Arrange slices of bread on a cookie sheet; top with sauce and then heaping spoonfuls of the mixture.
4. Top with pepperoni slices.
5. Bake 12 to 15 minutes.           
   
   
   
   

Scotland Tea Cakes

Scotland Tea Cakes

1 cup butter (no substitutes)

2 cups sugar 

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla

4 cups self-rising flour

Mix sugar and butter. Beat well. Add eggs and buttermilk, plus vanilla. Beat after each addition. Add flour. Knead dough. Roll out on waxed paper and cut tea cakes with biscuit cutter. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until done.

— Sgt. Sylvia Dorsey, Royal Air Force, Alconbury, United Kingdom

Red, White and Berry Parfaits

Nilla Wafers
Philadelphia Cheesecake Filling
Cool Whip
strawberries and blueberries

Whip some of the Cool Whip into the cheesecake filling (add a little
vanilla extract?). Crumble the Nilla wafers. Layer in small glass
bowls or short glasses: wafers, berries, cheesecake, wafers, berries,
cheesecake. Top with Cool Whip and serve with a spoon.

Dried-Cherry and Rosemary Tenderloin/Venison

Holy schneikies this was good. It's a Gourmet recipe that Mom fixed for dinner tonight with beef tenderloin that was so red and tender it fell apart... Dad and I both thought it one of the best meals we've ever had. Holy cow this was good, and she says it's even better with the venison. Yark!

1 1/2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary (Mom chopped it very fine)
1 tsp coriander seeds (Mom used ground coriander)
1 large garlic clove (Mom tripled this and pressed it)
1 1/2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 (1-lb) venison tenderloin
1/4 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup dried tart cherries (Montmorency; Mom chopped 'em up)
3/4 cup fat-free beef broth (Mom used Swanson's)
1/2 cup water (Mom skipped this)
1 tsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp black-currant jelly (Mom says do not skip this or change proportions)

Preparation

Grind 1 teaspoon rosemary with coriander seeds and garlic with a mortar and pestle to make a paste, then stir in 1/2 teaspoon oil.

Pat venison dry and put in a bowl, then rub with paste. Season well with pepper, then cover and chill 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Heat a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet over high heat until hot, then add remaining teaspoon oil, tilting skillet to coat evenly. Season venison well with salt, then brown, turning once, about 6 minutes total (a little longer for beef tenderloin because it's larger; Mom did 4 min, 4 min, 4 min for the three sides of her roughly triangular tenderloin; if it's too rare when you slice it, then put the slices back in the skillet briefly).

Transfer skillet to middle of oven and roast venison until an instant-read thermometer inserted diagonally into center registers 125°F, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer meat to a plate and cover tightly with foil.

Add wine and cherries to skillet and deglaze by boiling over moderately high heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits. Stir together broth, water, cornstarch and remaining 1/2 teaspoon rosemary in a bowl and add to skillet. Simmer, stirring, until mixture is thickened, about 5 minutes. Whisk in jelly and salt and pepper to taste.

Cut venison into 1/4-inch-thick slices and serve with sauce.

Pound Cake

This is the "Old-Fashioned" Pound Cake recipe from James Villa's "My Mother's Southern Kitchen" (though I truncated the directions, which is wrong of me to do.)

1 pound butter (4 sticks)
1 pound sugar (2 cups)
9 large eggs
1 pound flour (4 cups, but weigh it if possible)
Dash of salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
Juice of 1 lemon

Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well. Gradually add flour and salt, beating constantly, then the vanilla and lemon juice, beating till well blended.
Butter and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan; pour in batter; "spank" around the bottom of the pan.
Bake at 325 for 1 hr 15 min or until a straw comes out clean. Don't overcook.