Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Applesauce Bundt Cake

2 C flour

2 t baking powder

½ t baking soda

½ t salt

¾ t cinnamon

½ t ginger

1/8 t cloves

sprinkle of nutmeg

sprinkle of cardamom

½ C butter

1 C packed brown sugar

1 t vanilla

2 eggs

1 ½ C unsweetened applesauce

½ C cherry-infused dried cranberries

Combine dry ingredients

Cream butter and sugar

Add vanilla

Add eggs, one at a time

Beat thoroughly

Add applesauce

Combine dry ingredients and egg mixture

Mix lightly

Add dried cranberries

Bake at 350 degrees 50 minutes

Coffee Cake

Basil Crackers

Basil Crackers

2 C flour

1 T sugar

1 t salt

2 T fresh basil

1/8 C butter

½ C milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor.

Pulse to mix.

Add butter and basil.

Blend until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add milk and blend.

Ideally the dough will form a ball; mine did not.

Roll out dough on floured surface until 1/8 inch thick.

Cut out crackers and place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 13 minutes.

Store in airtight container

Cookbook also says to prick the crackers with a fork before baking and to brush the surface with milk and sprinkle with additional salt before baking. I’ll do that next time.

Source: Easy Homemade Crackers Using Herbs by Jim Long. Published by Long Creek Herbs of Blue Eye, Missouri.

Only child pepper

Pepper Harvest

Coleus

Cinnamon Chip Brownies

Cinnamon Chip Blond Brownies

1 1/3 C flour

1 t baking powder

½ t salt

1 t cinnamon

1C brown sugar

½ C butter

1 egg

1 t vanilla

1 C Hershey’s Cinnamon Chips

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon.

Cream sugar and butter. Add egg and vanilla. Mix well.

Combine flour mixture, egg mixture and cinnamon chips.

Bake in 8x8 pan at 350 for 25 minutes

Macaroni and Cheese in Muffin Tin

Source:  Muffin Tin Chef, by Matt Kadey

Mini Macaroni & Cheese

8 oz macaroni

6 oz cheddar cheese, shredded

½ C plus 2 T grated Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

¾ C milk

1/3 C plain yogurt

¼ C sun-dried tomato pesto

2 chopped green onions

1 T grainy mustard

dash nutmeg

dash pepper

2 T butter

¾ cup Panko bread crumbs

Cook macaroni. Drain pasta, return it to pot and stir in the cheddar cheese and ½ C of the Parmesan cheese. In medium-sized bowl beat the eggs. stir in the milk, yogurt, spices and mustard. Add egg mixture to pasta, along with chives. Mix well. Divide the mixture among 12 medium muffin cups. Heat the butter in a skillet and cook until browned, stirring regularly. Stir in the remaining 2 T Parmesan cheese into the toasted bread crumbs, sprinkle over pasta mixture. Bake at 350 until set, about 15 minutes.

Coleus plant and Polka Dot plant

Tiny Tim and Yellow Tumbling Tom Harvest

Tomato

Best Banana Bread

Best Banana Bread

2 eggs

1/3 C buttermilk

½ C vegetable oil

2 bananas

1 ½ C sugar

1 ¾ C flour

1 t baking soda

½ t salt

½ C walnuts

Whisk eggs. Combine with buttermilk. Add oil. Mix thoroughly. Add mashed bananas.

Add sugar. Combine flour, soda, salt. Combine egg mixture and dry ingredients. Mix well. Fold in wanuts.

Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 20 minutes

Celebration of Tomato Artwork at Tomato Art Fest in Nashville

I’m not the only one who appreciates the tomato as art form.

http://tomatoartfest.com/about/

The Tomato Art Fest will return this year on Saturday, August 10, 2013 for its 10th year! Located in Historic East Nashville’s Five Points, which has been coined by Budget Travel Magazine as “Nashville’s version of New York’s East Village,” this FREE, costume-friendly event provides a fun-filled day for all.

The Tomato Art Fest was founded by Meg and Bret MacFadyen, owners of East Nashville’s Art and Invention Gallery. In 2003, the gallery hosted an art show celebrating the tomato in late summer, and planned a few neighborhood events to promote the show. The Tomato Art Fest proved so popular that it immediately turned into an annual, signature event for the hip, urban neighborhood of East Nashville.

Clusters of Tomatoes and a Pair of Peppers

Happy Tomato Plant

Cinnamon Basil and Tiny Tim Tomato

Baby Belle Peppers

Late Bloomer

Basil and Tomato

 Soon-to-be Pesto

Cinnamon Basil in the sun

This tomato plant is happy

Peppers

I have more pepper plants than I can manage. But the fruit yield is low.

Rainy Day

Scholarly study of Jell-o Salads

http://digest.champlain.edu/article1_2.html

Digest! The publication of the Foodways Section of the American Folklore Society

From Rosy to Regrettable
Mixed Nostalgia and the Meanings of Jell-O Salad
By: Clare Forstie

Regular visits to my Midwestern grandparents’ home have provided ample opportunity to sample both a revered and maligned American food-like substance: the Jell-O salad. My immediate reaction (like that of many of my generational peers) when seeing olives suspended in lime-green Jell-O, has been: “ew, gross!” On the other hand, when discussing the subject of this paper, friends and family have offered heart-warming reminiscences about the presence of Jell-O salad at family and community events. It seems that this once-ubiquitous dish provokes responses that run the gamut from horror to adoration. These responses have prompted me to ask: why is there such an extreme range of reaction to the food? Why do Jell-O salad proponents, consumers, and detractors recognize this dish as a distinctly “American” food? What makes it American, and why do many care about it now? Exploring the ways in which proponents and detractors understand Jell-O salad as an American and regional dish tells us something about how “Americanness” is created and why everyday foods matter.

Scholarly studies of cornbread and other food geography markers

ABSTRACT. This article explores the regional identity of the Great Plains through its foodways using 744 responses from a mailed survey that asked participants to plan a representative menu for their locale. The strongest association is with beef--not surprising in an area known for cattle ranching. Other commonalities include potatoes, beans, and corn. Differentiation within the region is marked by preparation methods for beef as well as emphases on cornbread and peach cobbler in the south, rhubarb pie in the north, tortillas and sopapillas in the southwest, and pickles in two separate clusterings

.

…Finally, the fourth research question posed the possibility of using particular foods to set culture boundaries. Probably the most noticeable examples are the separate regions of cornbread and tortilla selections. A similarly distinct line between preferences for apple pie and peach cobbler divides the northern and southern Plains along approximately the same boundary as that established by settlement geographies.

Shortridge, Barbara G. "A Food Geography Of The Great Plains." Geographical Review 93.4 (2003): 507-529. America: History and Life with Full Text. Web. 22 June 2013..

Basil Cornbread

Basil Cornbread

1 ½ C buttermilk

3 eggs

1/3 C chopped fresh basil

2 C cornmeal

1 C flour

½ C sugar

4 t baking powder

1 t salt

½ C butter

1 ½ - 2 C fresh corn kernels

Whisk buttermilk, eggs, and basil. Blend cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt.

Melt butter. Mix butter and dry ingredients. Combine liquid mixture, dry mixture and corn. Pour batter into buttered 9 by 9 baking pan. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes. Surface should be golden brown and cake tester inserted into center should be dry.

Wildlife in the garden, sweetpeas, flowering tomato

 Ben likes to eat pansies

 Sweetpeas

Most accomplished tomato

Cinnamon Basil

Basil, Marigold, Tomatoes

These plants seem to be thriving in the too-small pot

Mr. Majestic Marigold

Group Hug

Tomato, Coleus

Tomato Plant in the Sun

The extra sunshine available to the leftmost plant has given it an advantage

Micro-climates on the patio

 These get morning sun

These get afternoon sun

Basil, Pansies, Pepper

 Pinching helped this basil to perk up

 It's especially pretty to see the pansies fluttering in the breeze.

This pepper is about two inches tall.

Pink on the porch

Two peppers

I'll leave these two on the plant in hopes they will ripen to red.

Tomatoes in a Forest and a Happy Basil

Fruit ripening nicely 

This Basil likes its pot

Basil and Tomato

Cinnamon Basil about to flower.

I'll have to pinch it right away.

Tomato flowers in background, to the right.

Lysopersicon esculentum 'Tumbling Tom Yellow'

Fruity Pastel Cookies

Fruity Pastel Cookies

1 ½ C butter, softened

1 C sugar

1 6 oz package raspberry gelatin

2 eggs

1 t raspberry extract

3 ½ C flour

1 t baking powder

Cream butter, sugar and gelatin powder. Beat in egg and raspberry extract. Combine flour and baking powder, gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Using a cookie press fitted with the disk of your choice, press dough 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 6 minutes.

You could do the same recipe with lemon gelatin and lemon extract or orange gelatin and orange extract, etc.

Impatiens and Tomato

 What color will it be?

This pink impatiens likes its location

This is one of the particularly healthy tomato plants