Roasted Things

A while ago, on my blog, I promised to post a little something on my experiment with roasting pumpkin seeds. Despite my fond memories of the pumpkin seeds Mom used to roast when we'd carve our pumpkins, I'd never tried to do it myself.

This year, however, Carissa and I split a farm share, and in one of the boxes of produce there was a pumpkin--which became mine when we split the box. I had a great time carving it on Halloween, and of course I had to roast the seeds. But how?

A quick Google search revealed two popular techniques. The first was simple: you wash the seeds, coat them with butter or oil and spices, and roast away. The second added a step: you boil them in a brine before cooking and roasting, which makes them crunchier. I'm a big fan of both crunchiness and complication, so I chose the latter. I based the technique on this recipe, but coated the seeds with butter, worstershire sauce, and pepper. The results made me wish I'd had a bigger pumpkin.

Today I'm roasting something entirely different: green soybeans. I tried edamame for the first time only a few weeks ago, at Blue C Sushi, a Kaiten-zushi bar (a Japanese version of fast food, a.k.a. "Sushi-go-round"--the sushi comes around on a conveyor belt). The edamame was served cold in a thickish red spicy sauce with garlic, and I loved it. I'd hoped to find a recipe for that sort of preparation, but I didn't see anything even remotely similar online.

Fortunately, though, I did find a recipe for spicy roasted edamame. I just took the dish out of the oven and had my first taste, and I'm happy to report it's quite satisfying in a different kind of way. I roasted the soybeans for a little less time than the recipe recommends; the texture reminds me of nicely roasted new potatoes, and they're spicy.

Have any of you tried edamame? I hear you can use it as a replacement for lima beans, which may or may not constitute a recommendation...

Love,

C.

What's Been Keeping Me Going Lately

1. Mom's good cooking.

2. The notes I got (directly or through Mom) from all of you.

3. Lentils! Yes, I'm posting about legumes at last. I've been supplementing the food Mom's been bringing me with my two favorite lentil recipes. You'll find the first, Greek fakes as interpreted by Adriana Shum, here (scroll down until you see "Bottomless Lentil Soup Pot"). I make the version with cinnamon and swirl a bit of sundried tomato paste into each serving. The second, apricot-lentil soup, is available here. They're both easy and both really, really good.

Speaking of good: Mom made some fantastic lasagne a week or two ago. Perhaps she'll post the recipe...

I have more to say about lentils, and I haven't even touched beans yet--but I think this will have to do for tonight. I miss you guys.

Love,

Christypher

Spanish Rice with Pork Chops for Mom

Hmmm. Still no legumes. Don't worry, I am planning to go on at great length about lentils sometime soon.

I realized, though, that Mom had asked me about the Spanish rice and pork chops recipe that's in my recipe box and that perhaps posting it here would be a good way to get it to her. It's not my recipe, really; it came from my Dad's mother, and I inherited it when I inherited the recipe box. Mom only realized she didn't still have it when she went to make Spanish rice the other day and had to improvise.

Here's the old recipe, with a couple of comments from me:

Spanish Rice with Pork Chops

Brown pork chops in butter and oil [in an ovenproof pan]. Add sage. Take out and lay aside. Brown 1 cup brown rice and 1 large onion or 2 small onions [chopped] and 1 large green pepper (chopped) until tender. Pour tomato juice (one large can) over rice and onions and green pepper. Season with salt & pepper and about 1 Tb brown sugar. Add pork chops to top and bake till rice is done. [There's no information about temperature or time in the recipe. Fannie Farmer suggests 375 deg F for 1 hour, but she's using long-grain white rice that hasn't been pre-browned. And should the pan be covered? I am besieged by questions.] Add more tomato juice if necessary, or when adding tomato juice at first, omit some if too moist.

***

I was so lucky as to benefit from Mom's creativity, and her version was absolutely delicious. I remember this one as being good, too, but her version had more kick. Perhaps she'll post some comments here to tell us what she did. :-)

I'm sorry I haven't been posting. I have, alas, been sick again--this time (we think) with an upper respiratory infection. I'm on the mend again, but way behind on my schoolwork. I'll be spending this afternoon reading about urban planning in the sun. It doesn't sound like a half-bad fate, really--and then I'm off to Monroe for Sunday dinner, which is even better. I think I'll even get to taste the new pork roast recipe!

I hope you are all well. How's Spring where you are? It's beautiful here today.

Love,

C.

Barley

I know, I know: I promised you legumes, and here I am writing about a grain. I can't help myself--I just had an interesting conversation with my friend Warren about barley. He cooks up barley and uses it as a side dish in place of rice, then throws the leftovers into soups and stir-frys. The subject came up, in fact, because he was cooking a stir-fry while we were on the phone. I'm intrigued. I don't think I've ever had barley except in soup.

Now back to 1) studying, 2) laundry, and 3) making up a pot of lentil soup to eat during the week. (See, I knew I'd get a legume in here somehow.) The lentil soup is a new recipe with ginger and garlic--I'll let you know how it goes.

Love to all,

Christy

Anderson Recipe Exchange Redux

Hello everyone!

I've been thinking a lot lately about how much I miss all of you, and how much I enjoyed our short-lived (but spirited) Anderson Recipe Exchange. Finally, it hit me: why not a blog? It would be easy, fun, and perhaps even less demanding than our e-mail version--and we'll get an online archive out of the deal.

I still had a bunch of our old e-mails saved, so I've dug them out and posted them here. I'm not sure I saved all of them, however--in particular, I remember some discussion of sapasui, of which I'd never heard at the time, but which I think I'd like to try to make. Any suggestions? I found one recipe here and one here, but I don't know which one is closest to the recipes you all remember.

It was a lovely Spring day here, and I spent a fair amount of it buying plants and gardening--I have a bunch of containers on windowsills and on a little rooftop outside one of my living room windows. I planted a "cut-and-come-again" leaf lettuce mix in a windowbox in early spring, and today I ate my first homegrown salad, which was very exciting (and tasty).

I'll be back soon with recipes. I've been eating a lot of lentils and beans lately, so I expect it will be Fun with Legumes from my end for a while--but I'm also hoping to tempt Mom into posting a link to the new pork loin recipe she discovered last week. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but it sounds fantastic.

I love you guys!

xoxoxoxo

Christy

P.S. It's the purest coincidence that I found time to put this together four years to the day after the last post I had saved--but I think it's kind of neat.

Shortbread and Cornbread from Laurie (April 23, 2001)

Hi Christy,

Here are the recipes you asked for:

Easy Cornbread

1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow corn meal
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil (I like peanut oil for this)
1 egg beaten

Heat oven to 400. Grease 8 or 9 inch baking pan (I always use my cast iron pan). Combine dry ingred. Stir in milk, oil and egg, mixing just until dry ingred. are moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until light golden brown and wooden tooth pick comes out clean. Serve warm.

I have used this recipes for years and we all love it. One time I was out of regular oil so I used peanut oil and it gave it a nice flavor and softer texture.

Brown Sugar Shortbread

1 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 1/4 cup flour

Cream butter and sugar. Add flour. Roll into 1 inch balls. Flatten slightly with a decorative glass. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 325 for 10-12 minutes. These are so good and so easy to make. I sampled them at a friend's house and asked for the recipe.

Hope all is well. We have another busy week of soccer practices, swim lessons, volunteering at the school, career shadow day, violin lesson, backpacking class, garden class, a friends birthday party, soccer games, Girl Scout camping overnight, Jr. Winds band evening rehearsal, company meeting, etc. The following week will be a little less crazy. Andi will be leaving for St. Louis with the band and some of the above mentioned activities will be over.

take care, love, Laurie

Shortbread from Christy (April 3, 2001)

This just keeps getting better and better! Laurie, I can't wait to try your sausage recipes. I think I might be able to tempt James into eating beans if there's sausage involved. Could I get you to send out your cornbread recipe? I've tried dozens of recipes, but I've never found one I liked.

I think the cast iron skillet should work well for the pork recipe. I have a cast iron skillet that I love, but unfortunately it's small. I used it every day when I lived alone, but it's usually not big enough for meals for two.

Katie's recipes sound good too. I'd especially like to have the biscuits and gravy if she's willing to share.

Mom, thanks for the Texas casserole recipe. I love that stuff.

Ed, I wanted to ask where you sign up for the recipes you get over e-mail. That sounds like an awfully good idea to me. I, too, have trouble finding time to try new things. If I do try something, it's usually on the weekend; we're lucky to get a homecooked meal during the week, let alone an innovative one.

I'm going to send out from memory a recipe that I think I managed to burn into my brain this weekend. I ended up going to New York--yes, New York--for the express purpose of baking a cookie. The Center for Book Arts there has an Edible Book Tea every year. It's a fundraiser for them; a jury selects several artists to make books out of edible materials, and then they auction them off and the funds go to the Center. I sent them a proposal for a book made out of shortbread, and they accepted it! (I was thrilled.) We were able to get reasonably-priced tickets at the last minute, so I spent Saturday and Sunday baking in my friend Barbara's kitchen in Brooklyn, and my book was auctioned off Sunday afternoon.

This recipe makes a nice rich cookie. It held together pretty well, even though I made huge pages (two batches of dough each).

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup sifted flour (I don't usually sift, but it's important for this recipe)
2 Tb cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 325. Cream the butter. Add the sugar slowly and cream until fluffy. Mix the dry ingredients together; use a pastry blender to combine with the butter and sugar, mixing well. The dough will be a bit crumbly, but should hang together when formed into a ball with your hands. You can either pat it out into a round or roll it out and cut into shapes; in either case, don't roll it too thin. Put the prepared dough onto a cookie sheet and prick it all over with a toothpick or a fork. If you're making a round, score it into eight or sixteen wedges. Turn the oven down to 300 degrees and bake the cookies, watching carefully. They should turn slightly golden but should not brown. The round could take up to 40 minutes; smaller shapes may take 15 minutes or even less.

Hope you're all well. It's crazy here, too--Spring Quarter has started.

Love,

Christy

Texas Casserole from Mom/Sis/Aunt Maggie (March 27, 2001)

Hi!

I wanted you to know that I tried Laurie's Butterscotch brownies and Katie's Chocolate Lush on some Garden Club members who came to lunch today. We nibbled (or gobbled) the brownies with tea while we had our meeting, then had a chicken salad for lunch. We finished it all off with the Chocolate Lush.

We're stuffed but feeling goooood!

The recipes were both very easy and I had everything on hand to make them. I shared the recipes at the meeting. The Garden Club members were very enthusiastic. One is making the Lush tonight for her husband, and is planning on making the brownies for the April Garden Club meeting.

Thanks very much for your great recipes.

Here's a recipe I used to make all the time, but have lost. I think I've remembered it correctly.

Texas Casserole

This recipe was from the Seattle Times about 25 years ago or so. I used to make it quite a bit, but have lost the recipe. It was a favorite of ours. This is my recreation from memory.

4 slices bacon, chopped
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can pork'n' beans (about 30 oz.)
1 or 2 cans (15 oz) chili
1/2 lb chunk bologna, diced, or 1/2 lb hot dogs, sliced
1-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Sauté bacon in ovenproof frypan until almost crisp. Add green pepper, garlic, onion and hot dogs or bologna and sauté until onions are tender. Spoon out some of the grease in the pan, if there's very much. Add pork'n'beans and chili. Mix. Top with cheese and put in a 350? oven for about 20 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.

You can vary the amount of the ingredients according to what pleases you. There may have been a dash of hot sauce in there, too.

Bye for now.

Love & XXXOOO
Aunt Maggie/Mommie/Sis

Laurie's Sausage Recipes (March 25, 2001)

Hi there,

Christy, the pork dishes you made sound so good. I made a pork roast once and was not happy with the results but I made it in the oven in a big pan. I'm going to try your pork roast recipe on top of the stove. And the pork chops sound good also. I usually flour thin pork chops and fry on top of the stove and then stick them in the oven to get tender. Sometimes they're very tender sometimes not. So I'll try your way next time I make them also. I have a cast iron pan with a tight fitting lid, what do you think about using that or should I use revere ware? I love my cast iron pans. Do you have one?

It's fun to have some new recipes to try that are easy. I get bored with making similar stuff all the time but wwith our busy schedule I don't have as much time to spend on cooking as I used to. Kate has an easy recipe for pork ribs and saurkraut. You can use the inexpensive shoulder ribs and it works just fine. I'll let her send that one. And she makes the best sausage gravy and biscuts I've ever had. Better than Bob Evans!!

The apple crisp Aunt Maggie made when we were out there in 1999 was delicious and so was the dutch baby. One night when we were downtown sightseeing late and rolled into Aunt Maggie and Uncle Tony's house we were hungry and she had several dishes all made up that just had to be microwaved. Yum Yum!!

One of my favorite things to do when making spaghetti is to use sausage (the kind that comes in a link or two and is usually one pound). I use one link or half a pound and chop it up and fry it. Then I warm up the sauce in the same pan. You really only need a little bit of meat to flavor it and it makes for a less fattening dinner. Then I use the other link for white beans. I fry up the meat with chopped carrots and onions and add to great northern beans that I soaked overnight. Even the kids eat this especially if I make corn bread in my cast iron skillet. In fact I'll probably make this tommorrow if I remember to soak the beans tonight!!

Tomorrow the crazyness starts again. We've had a nice spring break though. We spent several nights in a cabin. And we've gotten some shopping done. We got an instrument repaired so it's ready for all the concerts coming up, etc. etc. OK, I just got off the phone talking with Kate to find out now Andi's other instrument, her violin, needs a repair. ARGGGHHH!!

Hope everyone is doing well.

love, Laurie

Artichoke Note from Katie (March 19, 2001)

Just use the canned artichokes. They work fine.

Katie

Italian Braised Pork from Christy (March 19, 2001)

Wow! So many yummy-sounding recipes! I can't wait to try them all. I remember Laurie's butterscotch brownies from my last trip East; they were delicious. Everything else sounds equally good. I can vouch for the dutch baby too, of course. It's one of my favorite things. Mom made corned beef hash with fresh corned beef Friday night, which is another of my favorites.

I don't know if any of you got the message I tried to send on Friday. I seem to have hit a hotmail glitch, and I'm assuming you didn't. I wanted to tell you all that I've discovered the wonders of braised pork. It doesn't dry out! What I tried to send on Friday was an italian stovetop pork roast recipe. Using a saucepan that has a tight-fitting lid and that is only slightly bigger than the roast, you brown the roast well on all sides in a mixture of butter and olive oil, salt it, and add a half-cup of red wine vinegar, three bay leaves, and six to eight peppercorns to the pan. Turn the pork fatty-side up, cover the saucepan, and let it cook for two hours or so...et voila! You end up with a tender roast and nice pan juices. I was worried about the seasonings (three bay leaves?) but it had a good flavor.

Last night, I braised pork chops. I browned them slowly over medium heat in a skillet, then added some balsamic vinegar, some red wine vinegar, a bay leaf, peppercorns, and a couple of crushed cloves of garlic. I let them simmer in that for an hour or so, turning them over once. The skillet didn't have a very tight-fitting lid, so the pan ran almost dry a couple of times, and the pan juices ended up very dark. The chops were even better than the roast, and easy too! I served them with mashed potatoes and steamed carrots. I'd like to try them braised in apple cider and/or calvados, perhaps with some white wine.

I bought chili oil last night so that I can try the noodles sometime this week. Looks like I'll have to buy artichokes too. I swore that I wouldn't eat chocolate until Easter...let's hope I can resist the "mudpie" recipe until then.

And now, back to work for me. Hope you're all having good days.

Love,

Christy

Comments on Sesame Noodles from Aunt Maggie (March 17, 2001)

Hi!

We tried Laurie's Noodle salad tonight - delicious!

I served the noodles on a bed of romaine lettuce seasoned with chives and garlic. I fried a port steak and thin sliced it and served the pieces on top of the noodles. Great dinner.

We'll probably add this to our specials here.

My knees are acting up today - I went to the exercise training yesterday and hadn't been exercising since my injury, so even though the amount of exercise we did wasn't great (2/3 of the class was lecture), I'm feeling it. So back to my heating pad. I'm sure tomorrow will be much better. It's hard to decide when to exercise and when to lay low.

Bye for now.

Love & XXXOOO
Aunt Maggie/Mommie/Sis

Artichoke Dip from Katie (March 17, 2001)

Here is one more I already had typed. It is the weirdest recipe but quick, and yummy with wheat thins, pumpernickel bread (cut into cute little toasted shapes), or any kind of crunchy cracker.

Artichoke Dip

1 can artichoke hearts
1 cup Hellmann's mayonnaise
1 cup parmesan cheese
garlic powder to taste

Chop artichoke hearts and mix with all other ingredients. Put in 8- or 9-inch piepan or other similar oven-proof dish. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 25 minutes. Can be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated until time to bake. Serve warm with crackers.

Katie

Chocolate Lush from Katie (March 17, 2001)

OK Guys,
I'll quit being a curmudgeon. This one is really good, somewhat lowfat and very quick & easy. It looks really weird when you go to cook it, like a floating mudpie mess. (Kinda fun, reminds you of when you were a kid.) By the way, I just dump all of the first two sets of ingredients together but I'm a rebel, I don't sift my flour either so there!


Chocolate Lush

Mix:
1 Cup Flour
2 Tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp. Salt
3/4 Cup Sugar
2 Tbs. Baking Cocoa

Combine:
2 Tbs.Shortening
1/2 Cup Milk
1 Tsp.Vanilla
1/2 Cup Chopped Nuts (optional)

Add to dry ingredients. Mix until well blended. Spread in ungreased square pan.

Combine:
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
4 Tbs.Baking Cocoa
1 3/4 Cup Hot Water (from tap)
1 Tsp.Vanilla

Pour over batter in pan. It looks really weird but it's OK.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Cut with a spatula and serve upside down with some ice cream if you wanna be really naughty.

Devour, Enjoy.

Katie

Dutch Baby from Aunt Maggie / Mommie / Sis (March 17, 2001)

Hi!

The Sesame noodles sound so good that I think I'll try them today - I have all the ingredients. Thanks very much. I, too, love peanut butter, especially on a graham cracker with a glass of milk.

Christy's here - she came last night after I convinced her to drive me home from Seattle. I had a class at the Group Health on Capitol Hill. My exercise instructor thought I could use the information in the class for exercise instructors. She's asked people in her class to follow me if they have the need for a slower or less intense workout, as I automatically slow down for my knees. It was all free and lots of good info, including two instruction manuals.

Christy and her Dad are going through the old Howard/Jacobi family pictures and scanning some into the computer. Christy's found more info on Tony's Great Grandmother on the web and is conferring by e-mail with a very distant cousin who is a great source of historical information on the family.

From all this they are setting up a way to scan and identify all of our family pictures (it may take some time) and then to put in the text. It will be a fun project for them both. I'll be involved a bit on my side of the family, but will let the two of them take care of the Howards.

We made a Dutch Baby for breakfast. It's a versatile recipe for either breakfast or lunch. It's like a giant popover pancake, really puffs up around the edges. We didn't do the filling. I had made a sauce with strawberries and raspberries yesterday, so spooned that on most of it, but for some of it we sprinkled with lemon juice and powdered sugar.

DUTCH BABY

3 eggs
3/4 C milk
3/4 C flour
dash of salt

Blend together for 30 seconds in blender.

Heat 10 inch pan in oven for 5 minutes at 425 degrees. Melt 4 Tbsp butter in pan.

Pour blended ingredients into hot pan with butter in it. Bake 25 minutes at 425 degrees.

Filling:

Sauté 3 sliced and peeled apples in a pan with 3 Tbsp butter, 2 Tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, Rind of 1 lemon, 2 Tbsp lemon juice. Sauté 10 minutes. Pour onto pancake while in pan. Sprinkle with 1/4 C slivered almonds (toasted) and sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with sour cream. Slice and serve.

Alternate: Cool pancake & fill with vanilla pudding and top with fruit and whipping cream for a dessert.

Alternate: Cool pancake and drizzle with icing glaze.

Alternate: Fill hot pancake with creamed meat or cheese sauce with seafood for a luncheon dish.

Hope you all enjoy this easy dish.

More later.

Love & XXXOOO
Aunt Maggie/Mommie/Sis

Sesame Noodles from Laurie (March 16, 2001)

Hi there,

Kate asked for this recipe so I thought I would send it out for the recipe exchange. It is from Good Housekeeping about 5 years ago. I have made this several times and it is very good. It does make a lot but leftovers are just as good as the first day you make them. We all love peanut butter so I thought we would like this. Ed especially loves peanut butter, in fact it used to be one of the nicknames I had for him because one of his favorite things to do was get a spoon and grab a spoonfull of peanut butter to eat. (He probably still does this!!) The kids and I have been known to do this when we are hungry and need a quick snack. Anyway, here's the recipe:

Sesame noodles salad

1 16-ounce package linguine
1/2 cup salted peanuts
2 green onions
1/2 cup creamy p-nut butter
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup salad oil
2 tblspn sesame oil
2 tblspn cayenne pepper sauce
1 tblspn sugar
1/2 tspn crushed red pepper

30 minutes before serving or early in day:
1. In sauce pot, prepare linguine as label directs, drain, return to pan. Coarsely chop p-nuts and slice green onions.
2. In med. bowl, with wire whisk or fork, mix p-nut butter, soy sauce, salad oil, sesame oil, cayenne pepper sauce, sugar, and 1/4 cup hot water until blended. Add p-nut sauce to noodles in pan; toss to coat.
3. Serve warm, or refrigerate to serve chilled later. To serve, sprinkle noodles with chopped p-nuts, sliced green onions, and crushed red pepper.
If linguine mixture is refrigerated, it may become dry. Stir in about 1/4 cup hot water or enough just until mixture is moist and creamy. Makes 4 main dish servings or 8 accompaniment servings.

Now I'm hungry for these noodles. I call them peanut butter noodles because you can really taste the peanut butter in them. They are spicy so adjust the recipe if you don't like spicy foods. Let me know what you think of them if you decide to try them.

love, Laurie

Support from Katie (March 12, 2001)

Hi All,

I'll join in the fun as soon as I can. It is spring cleaning time around here and, yuck.

Love Ya'll
Katie

Butterscotch Brownies from Laurie (March 11, 2001)

Hi there,

Thanks for the recipes everyone has sent. It's fun to have some that I remember from years ago like Grandma's zucchini relish and Christy's Swedish cream cookies.

I was making a pot roast today the way that Lura and Dad taught me. You brown the meat real good on the outside before you put it in the oven. And I decided to make these wonderful butterscotch brownies that Rob's Aunt Juanita made for us one time when we were visiting. They are so good. I make them the way she did, in the same pot that I melt the butter I mix up the batter. Then put it in a long 9 x 13 pan.

Butterscotch Brownies by Aunt Juanita

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 cups brown sugar
3 1/2 cups Quick rolled oats
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter in sauce pan on top of stove. Remove from heat. Add brown sugar, mix until sugar is dissolved. Add oats and salt and stir until moistened. Add eggs and beat with spoon until stirred in good. Add dry ingredients. Add vanilla and pour or spread evenly in long cake pan (9 1/2 x 13). Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) for 30 minutes or until lightly browned. This makes a pan 8 x 8 square if only 1/2 is used.

Hope you enjoy these. They are delicious warm or cold.

love, Laurie

Swedish Cream Cookies from Christy (March 8, 2001)

Hello everyone! Thanks for the updates--and the (in)famous zucchini relish recipe. I can almost taste it. I guess your perspective on the relish depends on whether you lived through the summer of the Great Zucchini Explosion.

Laurie asked for the recipe for the Swedish cream cookies I used to make at Easter. I can almost taste them, too. They must have an appalling fat content, but boy, the cookies are good:

SWEDISH CREAM COOKIES

2 3/4 C sifted flour
Dash of salt
1/2 C heavy cream
1 C soft butter
Sugar
1 C (one 6-oz pkg) semisweet chocolate pieces, melted over hot water

Mix first 4 ingredients thoroughly. Chill. Roll out on sugared board to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with tiny fancy cutters. Bake on greased cookie sheets in preheated moderate oven (350 degrees F.) for about 8 minutes. Put together with melted chocolate, putting a dot of the chocolate in the center of each. Makes about 10 dozen very small, very rich cookies.

***

If I'm remembering correctly, it's crucial for the dough to be quite cold if you don't want to make a sticky mess all over the kitchen (and if you don't have my mother to clean up after you!). I sometimes dipped the cookies in chocolate, I think, but I never made sandwiches.

I'm sorry to hear about all the joint problems, but I'm very jealous to hear about the gardening. I have to fight my neighbors for gardening rights, and they're the kind of sneaky people who plant bulbs in the fall.

Love,

C.

Comments on Zucchini Relish from Mr. N. (March 7, 2001)

Hi, Sis

I remember all too well ma's zucchini relish. Actually, it was quite good, but quite ubiquitous. Sorry you have problems with your knees. Take it easy - the roses can wait if necessary. We've been putting down landscape fabric and bark on the area along the fence. Hopefully we might some day get that area under control.

Chas/dad/whodat/etc.