One of my favorite ways to warm up, after crunching through snow or enduring a cold windy day, is to enjoy a hot comfort beverage that soothes and relaxes. After all, when you have a warm, full tummy, you are so happy and content that a nap just inevitably creeps up on you, doesn’t it?

Here are recipe ideas for five of my favorite hot comfort beverages. I keep ingredients for all of them in my pantry so they are easy to make, and easier still to add to your family cookbook. Just cut and paste them into your recipe template and feel free to tweak them to your own taste:

1. CHAI
This lovely Indian-inspired hot tea beverage is about the most comforting hot comfort beverage I know. It is creamy, spicy and very relaxing.
Key spice: Cardamom
Shortcuts: Chai spices, tea bags, evaporated milk

3 cups water
3 teaspoons loose black tea
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2-1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar

Place water, tea and spices in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer a few minutes. Strain. Add milk and sugar, then return mixture to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Serves 4-6 (I like this a lot).

2. HOT CHOCOLATE Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes I wonder who first tried to eat an artichoke (and why). Was it some hungry creature searching for moisture in the artichoke being watched by an equally hungry caveman (no offense intended to the Geico Neanderthals)?  Either one must have been pretty desperate to rip off all those prickly artichoke leaves.

Nowadays, most people use a very sharp knife to cut through the fibrous artichoke leaves to remove the thorny leaf tips. Personally, I like to peel off any scruffy outer leaves from the artichoke, and then snip off the remaining artichoke leaf tips with my kitchen shears. (I find that I have better control and won’t slice my fingers in case I have a senior moment.)

Here are two quick, simple, tasty (QST) artichoke recipes (most) anyone will like:

1. STEAMED ARTICHOKES & QST LEAF DIP
My favorite way to eat an artichoke is steamed. Honestly, they aren’t much of a stomach filler. Just a “green” taste, really, and fun for party conversation. Although lots of people eat the steamed artichoke leaves dipped in melted butter, my version of a leaf dip is richer and a good excuse to eat something more satisfying.

Here’s How:
Steam trimmed artichokes until the heart is soft (when you can easily stick a fork into the bottom and feel no resistance). The cooking time will vary, depending on the size of the artichoke. Drain and set aside to cool. Serve artichokes on a salad plate (or small bowl) with Leaf Dip, as follows, on the side. Read the rest of this entry »

With the 2008 Presidential Election just around the corner, it seems appropriate to plan some Election Night grazing to enjoy while watching those many happy voting returns.

What a perfect time to work on your do-it-yourself family cookbook!  Nothing else of consequence will be on television, or on the internet, to distract you. Why not take this opportunity to devote time to your important cookbook-making project (especially if you plan to gift your cookbook to friends and family for the holidays).

To help you spend more time using our cookbook recipe software, here are some simple Election Night menu ideas:

Election Night Snacks
These crisp no brainers get on the table fast and fill hungry stomachs quickly, so don’t refill the bowls until after dinner.  Think about Chips & Salsa, Popcorn, Pretzels or crackers & hummus dip, or Vegetables & ranch dressing.

Election Night Entrées
You’ll want something hearty and flavorful, as well as easy so you don’t have to spend loads of devoted time preparing (thus freeing your time for cookbook-making). Consider Chicken and Noodles, Hamburgers/Hot Dogs, Lasagna, Macaroni and Cheese, or Vegetarian Pizza (all winners available in your local supermarket).

Election Night Desserts
A great standby dessert on Election Night is apple pie or ice cream, but how about something lighter on your stomach, such as the favored cookie recipes of our contending First Lady candidates. As published by separate websites, here are links to both Cindy McCain’s favorite Oatmeal Scotchies and Michelle Obama’s favorite shortbread cookie recipes, as well as a link to the favorite cookie recipes of several former U.S. Presidents. When made up ahead, any of the cookie recipes are easy and delicious, and time saving.

Happy voting, cookie and cookbook making!

Matilda

Halloween donut spiders

This time of year, thoughts are turning toward what amusing ghoulies, ghosties, and long-leggedy beasties will show up on our doorsteps on Halloween night.  Yes, it is almost time for trick-or-treaters to make their way to our front doors!

My favorite Halloween payout to these little extortionists is usually a non-frozen ice pop or two. I like ice pops because they are extremely inexpensive (a box of 100 for under $5); parents like ice pops because they are safe (if punctured by mean spirits, they leak); and the kids love ‘em because, well, they are kids and think I give them ice cream! Read the rest of this entry »

It seems we migrated into Fall without hardly noticing.

Maybe we’ve been a bit distracted from watching our own personal worth drop with every foot of the ticker tape…or watching our nation’s delicate financial markets holding the world’s economy at bay….or watching Presidential debates and waiting for the candidates to give us a real, detailed “change management” agenda….

Nevertheless, Fall is here and some glorious autumn colors are bound to show their reds and golds very soon, perhaps in your part of the world.  Aside from everyone’s woes and jitters, people still gotta eat, and easy is the name of the game for some of our favorite fall one dish dinners with an international flavor. Read the rest of this entry »

You can Google and find a lot of free recipes for just about everything. But if you search for, say, “cookie recipe” you may wind up getting results that include computer cookies.

So I decided to build the Free Recipe Search Engine, a handy one-stop shopping place that searches through over 100 recipe and cooking websites and gives you exactly the recipes you want.

I’m storing the Free Recipe Search Engine here. If you like it or have other free recipe sites you’d like me to add, please let me know!

Chocolate banana split cake

Two of my favorite flavors are chocolate and banana. I don’t usually eat them together, but one day last week I had a desire for a nice slice of chocolate cake. There were two bananas on the counter (sorry, banana trees are for monkeys), so I thought why not make that Chocolate Banana Split Cake my cousin, Jean Brown Craft Batts, raved about a few years ago.

It just so happened that the local ladies club was having a dessert social that day and had invited members to bring a favorite sweet to share. Thank goodness! I really didn’t want to have to eat the whole Chocolate Banana Split Cake by myself. Read the rest of this entry »

Soon there will be traditional tailgating parties and potlucks to contend with as the crisp air of autumn beckons neighbors and strangers to gather for one common cause — football.

If you are lucky enough to volunteer to bring a dessert, you can’t go wrong with these delicious but easy mini-tarts that get their quickness from ready-made vanilla wafers. I don’t know where the recipe originated, but here are two slightly different versions that are sure to please hungry game-goers, game-watchers, or other gathering crowds. Read the rest of this entry »

Did you hear that Colonel Harlan Sanders’ handwritten secret recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken got temporarily moved out of corporate headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky with much fanfare?  Makes me wonder if that publicity stunt not only triggered KFC sales, but also increased curiosity about the original formula he developed in 1939-40.

It was enough to get me thinking about his secret recipe, so I expect others have the same interest, too. And, I wonder what ingredients were actually available during that time period. Read the rest of this entry »

Whenever I pass the candy counter in the supermarket and see Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, I always remember our dear friends in Australia. They love Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, but can’t get them there.

Last year, I sent them a whole box full of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, hoping they would arrive without mishap, melting or other misfortune. They did! (My customs tag was a bit odd, but the bags of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in all sizes survived.) Read the rest of this entry »

We all have our moments, and today I had one that’s too good not to share. This morning I was thirstier than usual, and really wasn’t in the mood for a cup of decaf or green tea after my workout. So I thought, instead of just water, how about one of those cold, fancy frappe-type iced coffee drinks instead?

I’ve had these iced coffee drinks at the coffee bars. I’m a cookbook software entrepreneur, and I’ve been around long enough to be able to figure out how to do this simple iced coffee beverage and not have to run out to get one for around $40 dollars a gallon (and we think gas prices are high). Read the rest of this entry »

This may not be a revelation to some readers, but soybeans taste good. Aside from mixed opinions about the benefits of soy, soybeans are high in fiber and protein. They have been used in China as food for more than 5,000 years. While I can’t fathom eating scorpions on a stick like some Chinese do (according to Summer Olympics TV coverage), soybeans aren’t half bad.

Yes, I know I am a decade behind on this soybean subject, but I think I’ve avoided soybeans because the name edamame turns me off. The name soybean doesn’t do much for me either, frankly. With the Summer Olympics in full bore, I got inspired to do some experimenting with soybean chili for small groups of TV-watching couch potatoes. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a handy guide somebody emailed to me years ago about how to tell if your fruit is fresh. Feel free to add it to your cookbook. (I should probably add it to our cookbook software!) Read the rest of this entry »

Summer’s bounty of fresh vegetables is always inspiring. Some of my favorite light dinners on hot summer nights are cold vegetable soups made early in the day so the flavors mingle and meld together. I love spending time outside in the patio sipping a cup of cool soup and munching some crusty French bread (slathered with brie cheese, if I get the chance). Hey, I never said these cool summer soups were non-fat dishes!

I have several recipes for cool summer soups, but here are my Top 3 favorites: Gazpacho, Vichyssoise, and Creamy Zucchini. These cool soup recipes have several things in common: They are easy to make; They are delicious; They share some common ingredients so you can shop for all three recipes at the same time.

Try these Top 3 cool soups for summer and see if you want to include one in your own family recipe cookbook:

Read the rest of this entry »

I did something this week that I never thought of before. Twice, as a matter of fact. I liked the first result so much that I had to try it again, and I am considering adding the easy recipe to my family cookbook.

You see, my local market discounts less-than-perfect produce in addition to day-old bakery items. I’m not proud when it comes to saving money. Especially these days! So, when I saw a several-pound bag of very ripe nectarines (marked down to the price of two nectarines I might add), I immediately snatched them up. Roasted nectarines with crumbled graham crackers, walnuts, and vanilla yogurt seemed like a wonderful dessert idea. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is something that will haunt you until you make it. A week ago I saw a restaurant review in a local magazine, and the food writer was all agog at the neighborhood bistro’s version of pig candy. Now, pig candy has been around awhile, but I was intrigued that such a foo-foo place had it on the menu, let alone was becoming the talk of the town.

Pig candy, for the uninitiated, is simply cooked bacon topped with caramelized dark brown sugar, and a little chili powder or paprika, if desired. Read the rest of this entry »

I just read the most interesting article in the New York Times about great chocolate chip cookies and a fabulous chocolate chip cookie recipe. Three secrets bits of advice I hadn’t thought of, but they’ll definitely be going in my own family cookbook: Read the rest of this entry »

I love throwing birthday parties for the grandkids, but we all know what a zoo it can be. You are the only thing standing between a dozen grabby little hands and sugar. So why not take a little of the stress out of doling out the cake and ice cream by doing it all in one fell swoop?

The problem with traditional ice cream cakes is that the ice cream is too thick and it gets hard to cut. That’s where Matilda’s 4 Layer Chocolate Chip Mint Ice Cream Cake comes in.

First, make a traditional chocolate sponge cake in two round pans. Out of the box works fine–the kids want sugar after all, not an epicurean gastronomical experience.

Let them cool, and then slice them in half lengthwise with a sharp knife. You’ll have 4 thinner round cake layers.

Microwave the mint ice cream for a few seconds to soften it a little. Then put a thin layer of ice cream on top of one of the cakes. Add a cake layer on top of that. Put in a layer of chocolate frosting. Another ice cream layer. Another cake layer. Repeat until you are left with a cake layer on top. Put frosting on the exterior. Use as many ice cream layers as you want–I think two layers is about right.

Make sure to use chocolate fudge icing, as the normal fluffy stuff won’t always do a great job of containing melting ice cream. Also, you’ll need about twice as much icing because the ice cream will make the cake a lot taller.

Cover it and stick it in the freezer until an hour before your party. Letting it thaw a little makes it easier to cut.

This trick may save you ten minutes of ice cream scooping, and those ten minutes can seem like ten hours when you have kids screaming and ice cream melting!

From time to time I’ll add in some of my favorite recipes. This one is a favorite of mine from the Olde Country. The “e” in Olde stands for England.

Yorkshire Pudding, despite what the Yanks may think, has absolutely nothing to do with Bill Cosby or Jello. Yorkshire Pudding came about some time ago when food supplies were short and the squalid masses needed something to stretch out a stringy piece of meat. Originally it was referred to as “English Meat Grease Bread,” I believe, or I could be making that part up. The people of Yorkshire have a reputation for bluntness, so maybe not.

Anyway, despite its meager beginnings, it’s a delightful way to use the delicious drippings from a nice roast or steak or even sausage. Always cook it right before you serve it. It doesn’t keep, unless of course you work in a Yorkshire pub, in which case they will serve it to you months after it should be thrown out.

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup flour (4 oz)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon water
2 eggs

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 450.
Sift flour and salt into a bowl.
Make a well in center and add milk and water gradually, beating with a wooden spoon.
Beat eggs separately until fluffy.
Add to flour mix.
Beat until bubbles rise to surface.
Pour batter into a pitcher and refrigerate for 1/2 hr.

When meat is done, remove from pan and place on a warm platter.
Re-beat batter and pour quickly into still hot cooking pan.
Bake in oven for ten min at 450.
Reduce heat to 350 and cook for 15 min more, or until it is well risen and has turned golden brown.
Serve immediately from pan in which it was cooked.