Marinated Bean Salad With Corn

This is a really good bean salad, using five different beans and corn. It's my favorite.

1 can cut green beans

1 can white or cannelini beans

1 can dark red kidney beans

1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas)

1 can yellow wax beans

1 can white shoepeg corn

2 or 3 stalks celery, chopped

1 med red onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

For The Marinade:

1¾ cups sugar

1¼ cup white vinegar

¼ cup oil (recipe called for canola, but I recently found out it is the absolute worst oil)

2 Tbs water

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

Drain all canned items. Rinse white beans, kidney beans, and garbanzo beans, and put them in a large bowl.

Combine the marinade ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Immediately pour hot marinade over bean mixture. Stir to coat all beans. Add drained corn, chopped onion and green pepper, and chopped celery. Add salt and pepper; stir to combine all ingredients.

Refrigerate several hours or overnight (best) before serving. This salad keeps well for most of the week, but it won't last that long! 

Fabulous Greek Salad Dressing

This dressing is the "secret recipe" from a pizzeria, and it is the best Greek dressing I have ever tasted. The recipe made a huge amount of dressing . . . a gallon to be exact . . . way too much for home use. So I scaled down the recipe to make right around 2 cups. Took some math skills to do this, but fortunately my husband is a math whiz. Turned out great!

¾ cup olive oil

2 tsp (scant) garlic powder

2 tsp (scant) dried oregano

2 tsp (scant) dried basil

1½ tsp ground black pepper

1½ tsp salt

1½  tsp onion powder

1½  tsp Dijon mustard

1 cup red wine vinegar

Mix olive oil with the other ingredients before slowly adding the vinegar, mixing vigorously until well blended. Store tightly covered at room temperature. Best made at least 8 hours ahead, or the day before.

SALAD 

Use the selections of your choice, but this is what I like.

I English cucumber, cut lengthwise, seeded and sliced ¼" thick

1 green pepper, chopped into 1" pieces

2 cups halved cherry tomatoes

5 oz good Feta cheese* (not crumbled) cut into ¼" cubes

⅓ cup thinly sliced red onion**

⅓ to ½ cup Kalamata olives, pitted

⅓ cup fresh mint leaves, optional ***

On a large platter, arrange the cucumber, green pepper, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese. red onions, and olives. Drizzle with the dressing and very gently toss. Sprinkle with a few generous pinches of oregano, and top with cut up mint leaves. Season to taste and serve.

*It is recommended to use feta in brine, but I found a really nice dry traditional Greek FETA called MT VIKOS that I prefer over brined feta. It's expensive, but really worth finding.

**To take the bite out of red onions, I soak them in cold water for an hour, changing the water every 15 minutes. Can be done way in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

***If using, to use spearmint leaves, cut up. They are less pungent. But regular mint is what most people use.

Perfect Blueberry Muffins

Okay, I have a couple really good blueberry muffin recipes, and this is the latest. Very tender and loaded with berries. Like most muffins, they are best the day they are made. I freeze them and take out what we want as needed. But if you want to keep them at room temp, you can split them open on day two, add a pat of butter and pop them under the broiler.

3 Tbs unsalted butter

½ cup sugar

Finely grated zest from half a lemon

¾ cup plain unsweetened yogurt or sour cream

1 extra large egg (I always buy jumbo eggs)

1 ½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp fine sea or table salt

1 ½ cups flour

1 ½ cups (heaping) blueberries, fresh or frozen (no need to defrost)

3 Tbs turbinado sugar (raw sugar)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees/ Line a muffin tin with 9 paper liners, or spray each cup with non stick spray. 

Melt butter in the bottom of a large bowl and whisk in the sugar, zest, yogurt, and egg until smooth. Whisk in baking powder, soda, and salt until fully combined. Then lightly fold in flour and berries. Batter will be very thick, like cookie dough. 

Divide between prepared muffin cups, and sprinkle each with 1 tsp turbinado sugar. This may seem over the top, but it is what makes the perfect crunchy lid in the end, so don't omit it.

Bake for right around 25 minutes, depending on the size of your oven, until the tops are lightly golden. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Angel Sugar Crisps

This is a yummy, very crisp sugar cookie. The recipe comes from Taste of Home, a never ending source of good homemade foods. Be sure to use Turbinado or raw sugar to roll them in. Regular granulated sugar is just not the same. They are baked in a hot oven which makes them crisp.

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup solid shortening

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup brown sugar, packed

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

½ tsp salt

Turbinado or raw sugar

Cream together butter, shortening, sugars, egg, and vanilla until fluffy.

Sift together flour, soda, cream of tartar, and salt. (I didn't sift this). Add to creamed mixture. Mix until blended.

Scoop cookies into 1½" balls. Roll in turbinado sugar. Place on parchment lined cookie sheets. 

Bake @400 for 10 minutes.

Yield: 2½ dozen

Ham and Egg Cheese Casserole

I made 10 of these casseroles for our church brunch, having many requests for the recipe. It is not one of those recipes filled with bread, so it is popular with the men. I added some crumbled bacon to the mix. The recipes called for the cheeses on the bottom of the casserole. I thought this was strange, but then realized it creates a crust for the egg mixture. Still I just had to add a shredded cheddar cheese topping . . . couldn't help it and was glad I did. Also, use the convection bake mode on your oven. I didn't and had the bottom burn on some of the casseroles before they were set. Lesson learned.

1½ cups (6 oz) shredded cheddar cheese

1½ cups (6 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese

½ lb fresh mushrooms, sliced

6 green onions. sliced

1 med sweet red pepper, chopped

2 Tbs butter

1¾ cups fully cooked ham, cut into small chunks

¼ cup flour

8 eggs

1¾ cups milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Extra cheddar cheese for topping, optional

Combine cheeses (3 cups total) and sprinkle into a greased 13x9x2" baking dish.

In a large skillet, sauté the mushrooms, onions, and red pepper in butter. Stir in ham. Spoon over the cheese.

In a bowl, combine flour, eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Pour over ham mixture; cover and refrigerate overnight.

Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Bake on convection mode @325 for 35-45 minutes until a knife inserted near center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. 

Serves 8-10

Quinoa, Black Bean, and Mango Salad

This is a yummy Mexican side dish served to my Bridge Babes in the Northwoods. I was hesitant to use cilantro, fearful some wouldn't like it, so I used fresh parsley instead. It was good, but next time in goes the cilantro.

1½ cups pre-washed white quinoa

2¼ cups water

Salt and pepper

5 Tbs lime juice (3 limes)

½  jalapeño chile, stemmed, seeded, and chopped

¾ tsp ground cumin

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

⅓ cup fresh cilantro leaves

1 red pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped

1 mango, peeled, pitted, and cut into ¼" pieces

1 can (15 oz) black beans,  rinsed

2 scallions, sliced thin

1 avocado, halved, pitted, and sliced thin

Toast quinoa i large saucepan over medium heat, stirring often until very fragrant, making a popping sound, 5-7 minutes. Stir in water and ½ tsp salt, bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer gently until most of water has been absorbed and quinoa is nearly tender, about 15 minutes. Spread quinoa onto a rimmed baking sheet and let cool for 20 minutes. Transfer to large bowl.

Process lime juice, jalapeño, cumin, and 1 tsp salt in blender until jalapeño is finely chopped, about 15 seconds. With blender running, add oil and cilantro. Continue to process until smooth and emulsified, about 20 seconds.

Add bell pepper, mango, beans, scallions, and lime-jalapeno dressing to cooled quinoa. Toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Top with sliced avocado when serving.

Cranberry Sauce ~ Grandma Leu

This has been a family favorite at Thanksgiving. I decreased the sugar from Grandma's recipe, and it is still very sweet.

1 bag of cranberries

2 apples, peeled and cored, cut up

2 navel oranges, including the peel, cut up

1½ cups sugar

Grind the cranberries, apples, and oranges in a food processor. Remove to a medium size bowl. Add sugar, more or less to taste. Chill.

This keeps a long time in the refrigerator, so make it in advance of Thanksgiving.