Lemon Pudding Frosting

 A real nice change of pace for cakes

1 packet Dream Whip

1 box (3.4 oz) lemon instant pudding

1 ⅓ cups half and half or whole milk

Combine the ingredients and beat on low speed, increasing the speed as needed, until it's thick and fluffy, and stiff peaks form. This will take several minutes.

If you prefer not to use Dream Whip, you can use 2 cups of heavy cream instead, adding some powdered sugar to sweeten in up.

Frost the cake on top only, right before serving. Store any leftovers in refrigerator.

Easy Cucumber Salad

This salad keeps amazingly well. We love it!

2 English cucumbers, thinly sliced

1 tsp salt

1 med red onion, thinly sliced

1 cup white vinegar

½ cup water

½ cup sugar

2 Tbs minced fresh dill

Season cukes with salt in a large bowl, and let sweat for one hour. Drain liquids, but do not rinse. Toss cukes with onions.

In a small saucepan over high heat, combine vinegar, water, and sugar. Stir just until sugar melts and liquid turns clear, 3-5 min. Pour over cakes and onions. Stir in minced fresh dill. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour. Serve cold or at room temp.

Greek Salad with Really Good Dressing

This dressing is crazy good. It was a secret recipe from a pizzeria, but it's no secret anymore! The original recipe made almost a gallon of dressing, so I had to do a lot of math to scale it down for home use. It keeps well at room temperature if tightly covered, so you may want to make the larger amount. I use it in place of Italian dressing on some salads. Larger recipe makes almost a quart of dressing. Smaller size is in parenthesis ( ).

1 ½ cups olive oil  (¾ cup)

1 ¼ Tbs garlic powder  (2 scant tsp)

1 ¼ Tbs dried oregano  (2 scant tsp)

1 ¼ Tbs dried basil  (2 scant tsp)

1 Tbs ground black pepper  (1 ½ tsp)

1 Tbs salt  (1 ½ tsp)

1 Tbs onion powder  (1 ½ tsp)

1 Tbs Dijon mustard  (1 ½ tsp)

2 cups red wine vinegar  (1 cup)

Mix olive oil, garlic powder. oregano, basil, pepper, salt, onion powder, and Dijon mustard together in a bowl. Pour in the vinegar slowly, mixing vigorously until well blended.

Make this earlier in the day so it has time to meld the flavors.

Greek Salad 

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

1 green bell pepper, chopped into 1" pieces

2 cups halved cherry tomatoes

5 oz feta cheese, cut into ½" cubes

⅓ cup thinly sliced red onion*

⅓ cup pitted kalmata olives

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 toss very gently. Sprinkle with a few generous pinches of oregano, and top with mint leaves, if using.

*To reduce the bite in red onions, soak the slices in a generous amount of cold water for 15 minutes. Drain and repeat this process two or three more times. So obviously you need to do this well before you make the salad.

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