Margarita Fruit Salad

This comes from Linda ( who found it in another NG)

Tequila Orange Liqueur Dressing
  2 Tbsp. tequila
  3 Tbsp. orange-flavored liqueur (Triple Sec, Cointreau or Grand Marnier)
  3 Tbsp. orange marmalade
  1 to 2 Tbsp. of fresh lime juice

Fruit Salad
  4 cups. sliced strawberries
  4 oranges peeled, sectioned and cut in small pieces
  1 small honeydew melon, rind and seeds removed, and cut in small pieces
  1 small cantaloupe melon, rind and seeds removed and cut in small pieces

In a large bowl, mix together the tequila, orange-flavored liqueur, orange marmalade and lime juice. Add strawberries, oranges, honeydew and cantaloupe. Stir to combine and refrigerate for several hours or overnight to allow flavors to blend.

Makes 6 servings.

Return to index

Portobello Pizza

another one from Sue who 'borrows' them from a recipe newsgroup

INGREDIENTS:
large portobello mushrooms (1 per person)
low-fat mozzarella cheese (watch your portions)
spaghetti sauce, homemade or low-fat brand in jar
any other low-fat topping you prefer

DIRECTIONS:
1. Place mushrooms on a foil lined baking sheet, and cook in a 350 oven for about 20 minutes or until mushrooms dry out.
2. Remove from oven and top with sauce, cheese, and any other toppings your prefer, and put back in oven till cheese melts.

Serve with a salad and enjoy!

Return to index

Lynchburg Hootenholler Cake

here's a 'comfort food' recipe from Blake

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp.ground nutmeg
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sorghum
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup Jack Daniel's whiskey
3/4 cup raisins, soaked
2 cups chopped toasted pecans

Cream butter; gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating continually. Combine next 5 ingredients; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk.
Combine sorghum and baking soda, add to creamed mixture. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into a greased and floured 9 by 5 by 3 inch loaf pan.
Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Refrigerate cake for easy slicing.
Serve with chocolate sauce or whipped cream or both. Mmmmm. Comfort food.

Return to index

Parmesan Portobello Burgers w/ Roasted Red Pepper Spread

another recipe from Linda

SPREAD:
1/3 cup reduced fat mayonnaise
1/4 cup finely chopped roasted red pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice

BURGERS:
1/2 cup roasted wheat germ
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1 Tbs. Italian seasoning blend
1/2 tsp. salt
2 egg whites
1 Tbs. water
4 Portobello mushrooms (3 1/2 to 4 inch diameter), cleaned and stemmed.
Cooking spray, (Pam, etc.)
4 whole grain rolls
4 slices part skim mozzarella cheese
4 slices tomato (optional)
Red leaf lettuce or spinach leaves

For Spread, combine all ingredients in a small bowl; set aside.
Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray baking sheet with cooking spray.
For "burgers" combine wheat germ, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning blend and salt in shallow dish; mix well. In a second shallow dish, beat together egg whites and water until frothy. Dip mushroom caps into beaten egg whites, then into wheat germ mixture, coating completely. Repeat. Spray lightly with cooking spray.
Bake 14-18 minutes or until mushrooms feel tender when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife and coating is crisp. Top each with 1 slice of mozzarella cheese; bake 1 minute or until cheese is melted. To serve, spread mayonnaise mixture on inside surfaces of rolls. Place warm mushroom, tomato and lettuce on roll bottom; cover with roll top.

Makes 4 Servings

Return to index

Silly Carrots

About 2 pounds carrots, peeled and sliced
10 oz. can tomato soup
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup wine vinegar
¼ cup oil
1 tsp. prepared mustard
1 lge onion diced
1 medium green pepper, diced
4 ribs celery diced
salt & pepper.

Cook carrots in boiling water just until tender. Drain set aside.
Combine remaining ingredients, heat and stir to boiling. Simmer 10 minutes. Pour over drained carrots, serve hot, or refrigerate for a salad.
Makes 6-8 servings.

Return to index

Wild Rice Soup

Here is an absolutely great wild rice soup that goes well with quail or pheasant.... very fitting with game birds.
This comes from J D Cooper.

2 cups cooked wild rice
6 tbsp butter (or more)
1 tbsp minced onion
1/2 cup flour
3 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup minced ham
1/2 cup finely grated carrots
3 tbsp chopped almonds
some salt (careful!)
1 cup "Half and Half" or cream. (more or less)
2 tsbp sherry (or a little bit more or less)
chopped parsley, chives or green onion tops
(You can sub veg broth and leave out the ham bits if you wish. Just use a bit more salt)

Melt butter in a saucepan. Saute onion until tender. Blend in flour. Gradually add broth as you whisk along! Cook, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil. Boil one minute. (This should be very smooth! No lumps except the onion bits!)
Stir in the rice, ham, carrots, almonds and salt.
Simmer about 5 minutes.
Carefully blend in the cream and then the sherry. Heat just till eating temp.

Garnish with chopped parsley, chives or green onion tops. (I like to cover this elegant soup with freshly ground Java pepper)

Return to index

The Cat Diet

My thanks to Janie for this sound advice; it may not make you thin but it will make you smile!

Most diets fail because we are still thinking and eating like people. For those us who have never had any success dieting. Well now there is the new Miracle Cat Diet!

Except for cats that eat like people -- such as getting lots of table scraps -- most cats are long and lean (or tiny and petite). The Cat Miracle Diet© will help you achieve the same lean, svelte figure. Just follow this diet for one week and you'll find that you not only look and feel better, but you will have a whole new outlook on what constitutes food. Good Luck!

DAY ONE
Breakfast: Open can of expensive gourmet cat food. Any flavor as long as it cost more the .75 per can -- and place 1/4 cup on your plate. Eat one bite of food; look around room disdainfully. Knock the rest on the floor. Stare at the wall for awhile before stalking off into the other room.
Lunch: Four blades of grass and one lizard tail. Throw it back up on the cleanest carpet in your house.
Dinner: Catch a moth and play with it until it is almost dead. Eat one wing. Leave the rest to die.
Bedtime snack: Steal one green bean from your spouse's or partner's plate. Bat it around the floor until it goes under the refrigerator. Steal one small piece of chicken and eat half of it. Leave the other half on the sofa. Throw out the remaining gourmet cat food from the can you opened this morning.

DAY TWO
Breakfast: Picking up the remaining chicken bite from the sofa. Knock it onto the carpet and bat it under the television set. Chew on the corner of the newspaper as your spouse/partner tries to read it.
Lunch: Break into the fresh French bread that you bought as your part of the dinner party on Saturday. Lick the top of it all over. Take one bite out of the middle of the loaf.
Afternoon snack: Catch a large beetle and bring it into the house. Play toss and catch with it until it is mushy and half dead. Allow it to escape under the bed.
Dinner: Open a fresh can of dark-colored gourmet cat food -- tuna or beef works well. Eat it voraciously. Walk from your kitchen to the edge of the living room rug. Promptly throw up on the rug. Step into it as you leave. Track footprints across the entire room.

DAY THREE
Breakfast: Drink part of the milk from your spouse's or partner's cereal bowl when no one is looking. Splatter part of it on the closest polished aluminum appliance you can find.
Lunch: Catch a small bird and bring it into the house. Play with on top of your down filled comforter. Make sure the bird is seriously injured but not dead before you abandon it for someone else to have to deal with.
Dinner: Beg and cry until you are given some ice cream or milk in a bowl of your own. Take three licks/laps and then turn the bowl over on the floor.

FINAL DAY
Breakfast: Eat 6 bugs, any type, being sure to leave a collection of legs, wings, antennae on the bathroom floor. Drink lots of water. Throw the bugs and all of the water up on your spouse's or partner's pillow.
Lunch: Remove the chicken skin from last night's chicken-to-go leftovers your spouse or partner placed in the trash can. Drag the skin across the floor several times. Chew it in a corner and then abandon.
Dinner: Open another can of expensive gourmet cat food. Select a flavor that is especially runny, like Chicken and Giblets in Gravy. Lick off all the gravy and leave the actual meat to dry and get hard.

Return to index

A Modest Meal For A Few Friends

This comes to me courtesy of Tony in another newsgroup; I suspect he stole it from elsewhere

(Lightly salt the diminishing stages) Boned swan, stuffed with a boned goose, stuffed with a boned capon, stuffed with a boned muscovy, stuffed with a boned mallard, stuffed with a boned pheasant, stuffed with a boned partridge, stuffed with a boned woodcock, stuffed with a boned dove, stuffed with a boned snipe, stuffed with a boned sparrow, stuffed with a dozen larks' tongues. (Chopped truffle will do instead of larks' tongues if you are a fairly law-abiding conservationist. The swan is not negotiable.)

Carefully stitch up the swan and place in a deep pan with a little burnt red wine and olive oil. Surround with parsnips, salsify, carrots, quartered onions, quartered shallotts, oyster mushrooms, and cover - well, you can use foil these days - and place in a low oven.

Prepare Brussels sprouts, peas, leeks, celery hearts, chicory, ladies' fingers, runner beans (sliced diagonally and fairly thinly) and potatoes, all ready for cooking nearer the time of serving. The meat will take a long time.

When the meat is done (pierce through with your sword and gauge the colour of the juices) remove it from the pan and place it on an ashet. Do not cover: put back in oven to crisp. Pour liquor into a basin and scoop off some oil and make a roux using plain flour. On no account should you use cornflour. Carefully remove the remainder of the oil and save for other dishes or for proofing your buskins.

Gently steam the vegetables with a small amount of water, making sure it is topped-up, for it must not catch. As the vegetables are cooked, remove them from the steamer. Wrap the celery hearts about with thinly-sliced ham before covering them in white sauce in the chafing-dish.

Place an enamel pan on a good heat, and cook well the roux, kneading it with a wooden spoon, then a bit at a time (tasting, to be sure of the flavour) add the vegetable water and the juices from the meat. This should make up to a robust gravy or sauce. If it requires more liquid, use burnt red wine.

While the swan is browning, serve turbot in a white wine sauce, with a small portion of peas and one of sliced leeks.

While you are enjoying the fish, the servants are preparing the (warmed) plates for the main course. If any of the fowl is domestic, it is inadvisable to tell your guests which layer represents Daffy or the Little Red Ken - Hen, I mean.

I leave it up to the host to choose the wines to accompany the meal, but a good Shiraz will not come amiss.

There should be a choice of puddings and fruit to follow. I always provide a good nourishing plum duff, as well as spotted dick, sherry trifle, fresh fruit salad, or a choice of indiginous or tropical fruit when in season. Custard, golden syrup, vanilla sugar and brandied apricots should be provided too, as plum duff and spotted dick can be a little dry if eaten as a stand-alone pud.
Should you have time, it is a good idea to offer peach melba or banana splits as a sop to modernity. You don't want your guests to think you are old-fashioned.

The cheeseboard should circulate after pudding and a reasonable selection of English cheeses may be offered. I would suggest the following: all farmhouse made, so far as possible - Cheddar, Cheshire, Lancashire, Wensleydale, Stilton, double Gloucester, Starston, and I understand that a very passable Brie is made in the west country. If you find anywhere stocking Limeswold, don't touch it: it is either very mature (known in the grocery trade as 'counterfeet') or it is counterfeit.

Don't forget to put out the biscuits.

Guests should be discouraged from chasing the riper cheeses if they escape, especially if they have had the duff or the dick.

A glass of good port or spirit will round off your meal. Remind your guests that afternoon tea will be served in approximately an hour.

Return to index

Return to Estatopia home page.