>Yeah! Another recipe that uses orange marmalade!

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla; beat until well combined. Add reserved flour mixture gradually, mixing until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in marmalade and walnuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until set and lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Decorate cookies with icing. makes about 3 dozen.

Orange icing
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons melted butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoon orange extract (or lemon, if you don’t have orange)
1 to 2 Tablespoons orange juice

Combine powdered sugar, butter or margarine, orange extract and enough orange juice to make a thick glaze. Mine was so thick I had to heat it in the microwave for 30 seconds. The original recipe only had 1 Tablespoon butter, but I needed 2 to make it spreadable.

Original recipe was in the WE Energies Cookie Book from 2006.

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INGREDIENTS:

2 cups cooked rice (see #3)
2 cups small red beans, dry (or 1 16 oz can of red beans)
2 Tablespoons chili powder or Creole Seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder or chopped garlic
1 small white onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
hot sauce, if desired
Optional: smoked sausage, cooked chicken, added in last 30 minutes of cooking.

DIRECTIONS:
1. Soak beans overnight. Drain and rinse.
2. In 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, layer all ingredients in order listed.
3. Cover; cook on Low setting 6 to 8 hours.
4. Meanwhile, cook rice in water as directed on package. Serve bean mixture over rice. (Optional: Serve with pepper sauce or hot sauce)

Isn’t that easy? Next year, this could be a lenten special for those of you who like a meatless Friday. For now, I might send the link to my friends at the Green Phone Booth for their Meatless Monday specials.

Next time, remind me to photograph the rice on a different color plate. Really, there is a bed of rice under the bean dish.

>Last time I bought a ham, it was a canned ham, much too big for the family. Great! I thought. Planned-overs! Nope. Not so simple. The ham just wasn’t very good. I wished I’d have paid a little more attention to the brand and type, but by the time we decided it wasn’t worth it, we’d totally forgotten which ham NOT to buy.

This time, we bought a better grade of ham and had a successful dinner with leftovers, and not too many leftovers. The original recipe is from Pillsbury.

INGREDIENTS
1 (3-lb.) boneless cooked ham
1 (8-oz.) can crushed pineapple in unsweetened juice
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons orange marmalade
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
DIRECTIONS
1. Place ham in 3 1/2 to 5-quart slow cooker. Drain pineapple liquid from can into slow cooker; refrigerate pineapple. In small bowl, combine brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of the marmalade and mustard; mix well. Spread over ham.
2. Cover; cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours.
3. About 5 minutes before serving, remove ham from slow cooker; slice or cube as desired.
4. In small microwave-safe bowl, combine pineapple and remaining 2 tablespoons orange marmalade; mix well. Microwave on High for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 minutes or until thoroughly heated, stirring once halfway through cooking. Cut ham into slices. Serve ham with pineapple mixture.

Now, the true confessions. I forgot the brown sugar. How? I don’t know. But given that this was an all-day simmering in the crockpot, I turned the ham and then put another dose of the (corrected!) glaze on it midway through the cooking time. It worked.

True confession #2; I used more than 3 Tablespoons marmalade. Remember my marmalade? It’s delicious, but too thin to spread on toast. It was perfect for this glaze, though – at least with brown sugar added.

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Carrot Cake: the original

Butter, for greasing the cake pans

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus a little more for flouring the cake pans

2 cups granulated sugar

1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups canola oil

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3 packed cups peeled and grated carrots (about 1 pound)

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Frosting

1 cup (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

8 Tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon milk or water, if needed

2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans

• Use 1 cup egg substitute for the eggs.
• Instead of the 1 1/2 cup oil, use 3/4 cup applesauce and 1/2 to 3/4 cup oil.
• I skipped the nuts in the cake, and mixed the nuts into the frosting instead of pressing them on top. That made for a lumpy (but delicious) frosting; I might do it the other way next time. Instead of a nut garnish, I sprinkled extra carrots on top.
• I had whole walnuts, so I put them in a small zipper bag and smashed them with a meat tenderizer on a cutting board.

>I may have posted this earlier – most likely last June when blueberries were in season. It’s a classic recipe, easy to make, and just as delicious with frozen blueberries as with fresh.

Blueberry Muffins
from my go-to source for recipes, the Good Home Cookbook.

2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups (1 pint) blueberries

1. Prepare a 12-cup muffin pan.
2. Stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamy and light. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. then beat in the milk and vanilla extract until well combined. Add the flour mixture and stir just until moistened. Fold in the berries.
4. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, until golden brown.
6. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from pan, and cool briefly on wire rack. Serve warm or cooled.

Great with milk or (you guessed it) coffee.

>I’m heading into a stress-loaded week. Parent-teacher conferences, daughter leaves for a spring break half-way across the country, son is caught up in March Madness at his high school, and Chuck hopes to survive the combination of stressors and the presence of two extra bunnies in our home while La Petite travels.

Of course, I head for comfort food.

While the chicken stock simmered (nothing precise, just water with chicken bones and skin, stray onion pieces, and the end of the celery stalks), I browsed the cookie recipes on my laptop. Then I realized I had many boxes of Girl Scout cookies in the house, and I did not need any more cookies.

But beside the cookies in the snack basket sat were two rapidly ripening bananas.

Banana Bread! Today’s variation: a hint of chocolate.

2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine
3 eggs or 3/4 cup egg substitute
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 medium to large bananas)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon wheat germ
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder (the good kind for baking, not hot cocoa mix)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. spray an 8- or 9- inch loaf pan with vegetable oil cooking spray or use your favorite alternative.
Beat the sugar and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, bananas, and vanilla. Beat on low speed until well blended.
Mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and wheat germ. Add the cocoa and chocolate chips. Mix well.
Stir dry ingredients into banana mixture just until moistened. Pour and scrape into the loaf pan.
Bake at 350: 8 inch pan for 60 minutes, 9-inch pan for 45-50 minutes. Muffin tins? You’re on your own. I don’t know how long that will take.

Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pan. Serve warm or cool; it’s delicious either way.

And maybe I won’t eat so many Girl Scout cookies if I have this banana bread around the house!

>”Honey, where’s today’s paper?”
“Recycled. You said you were done with it.”
“I was, but then I decided to make the minestrone soup recipe that was in the paper.”
“I can find it for you online.”
“No, thanks, I’ll fly by the seat of my pants.”
Hug. “That usually works well.”

It’s not what you might think. Chuck was making dinner; I had just come home from a Sunday afternoon at school, clearing my desk and preparing the new seating chart for March 1st. He wanted to make the soup, and the newspapers had already gone outside in the recycling. He’s good at winging it, and he remembered the main spices, so he did.

The soup looked good, smelled good, but… I took one bite and coughed until my face turned red. He’d overestimated the crushed red pepper. I couldn’t eat a second bite. Poor guy; neither could he.

Well, faithful readers, here’s the original. Pay attention to the amounts of spices, and don’t try to fly by the seat of your pants – not with the crushed red pepper, in any case.

Minestrone Soup

2 Tbs. olive oil
1 each: large onion, celery stalk and peeled carrot, cut into small dice
2 tsps. Italian seasoning
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. hot red pepper flakes
2 quarts vegetable broth (We used beef stock)
1 can (14.5 ounces) petite diced tomatoes
2 cans (15 or 16 ounces each) small white beans, undrained
1 cup ditalini or other small, tubular pasta
1 pound seasonal vegetables (see variations below)
Salt and black ground pepper
Optional: Parmesan cheese
Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large pot. Add onions, celery and carrots; saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes; saute until fragrant, about a minute longer. Add remaining ingredients. Cover and bring to a simmer.

Reduce heat to medium-low; continue to simmer, partially covered and stirring occasionally, until vegetables are soft and pasta is tender, about 15 minutes longer. Adjust seasonings, including salt and pepper, to taste.

Serves 8.

The original recipe is here at USA Weekend. My only advice: add red pepper sparingly. Please. And serve with lots of liquids, just in case.

In other news, you can still vote for my Zesty Orange Cookies at Foodista; just click the link below.

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