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Anyone who does any amount of cooking likely has at least a few cookbooks. If you’re my mother, you might have a few hundred. There are some you keep only for one recipe and some that you use on a weekly basis. Many are divided by theme — appetizers and desserts, meat or vegan, Italian or Chinese. Some are collections of favorite from restaurants, or simply favorites that a church group have put together to publish and raise funds.

I only have one shelf of cookbooks, though they will spill over and require two very soon. My first cookbook was actually one I started with my grandmother when I was 8 or 10. She would save the recipes from Rookie Cookie, a cartoon mouse who gave kids easy recipes to make and published them with themes in the Saturday newspaper. I’d cut out the recipes and glue them onto pieces of paper to put in a binder. Eventually I added recipes from other sources. I’ve dismantled that binder, but still have most of the recipes.

My favorite cookbook is similar. My aunt had put together a cookbook of family recipes for my mother when she got married. A few years ago my family started putting together another cookbook for my generation. It contains recipes for all the meals I enjoyed at family gatherings. 

When it comes to my Saturday night theme cooking, I am much more likely to look online for a new recipe, but sometimes I pull from an old favorite. I’ve kept the recipes that work and put them into a file to make a cookbook of Saturday night recipes.

A friend asked me today how to organize the recipes she’s been clipping. I have a folder where I stash clipped recipes, with the intention of maybe typing them up and adding them to one of my favorite cookbooks. But I wonder how you organize your recipes. Any suggestions?

If you’re a fan of the Food Network, you’ll want to catch Guy Fieri as he comes to Lowell later this month. The Guy Fieri Roadshow starts its monthlong tour with a stop at Lowell Memorial Auditorium on Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $39.50, $49.50, $150, and $250. The auditorium is located at 50 East Merrimack St., Lowell. Call 978-454-2299, or visit www.lowellauditorium.com. 

 

Halloween has passed and your jack-o-lantern’s night in the spotlight is over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy the seasonal taste of pumpkin.

We celebrated Halloween in the newsroom and I found this great pumpkin chili recipe to give a favorite dish a different twist. I was asked how many alarms this chili had and the truth is it’s not very hot at all. But it’s still quite tasty and a good dish for a cool fall night.

I adapted the preparation of this dish to suit the newsroom. Instead of cooking everything in a big pot, I cooked the beef and cooked some of the other ingredients together, but I added everything together in the crockpot and let it do most of the cooking there.

Pumpkin Chili

Ingredients

2 pounds ground beef

1 large onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans, drained

1 (46 fluid ounce) can tomato juice

1 (28 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes with juice

1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/4 cup white sugar

Directions

In a large pot over medium heat, cook beef until brown; drain. Stir in onion and bell pepper and cook 5 minutes. Stir in beans, tomato juice, diced tomatoes and pumpkin puree. Season with pumpkin pie spice, chili powder and sugar. Simmer 1 hour.

Sometimes the easiest recipes are also the best. That proved to be the case with the Bacon Maple Pancakes I made as the Saturday night newsroom honored our neighbors to the north, Canada.

This simple recipe put a new spin on a breakfast favorite, combining pancakes and bacon in one dish. I can easily imagine enjoying it for breakfast, brunch or even dinner. So can many members of the newsroom, as it earned rave reviews.

The recipe is from cooks.com

Bacon Maple Pancakes


1 1/2 c. Bisquick

1 tbsp. sugar

2 eggs

3/4 c. milk

1/4 c. maple syrup

1 1/2 c. shredded cheese

12 slices crisp bacon, crumbled

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Grease and flour 9 x 13 inch pan. Beat eggs, milk, Bisquick sugar, and syrup. Add 1/2 cup cheese. Beat until smooth. Pour into casserole. Bake uncovered until toothpick comes out clean, 10-15 minutes. Remove. Sprinkle with rest of cheese and crumbled bacon. Bake until cheese melts, 3-5 minutes. Serve warm with maple syrup.

If there was any doubt that garden season was over, snow over the last few days sealed it. Thanks to a poor growing season, blight and worms, I only got a handful of red plum tomatoes this year, and none of the bigger ‘big boy’ hybrids.

Instead, I ended up with several plants falling over from the weight of green tomatoes that refused to turn red. As the frost loomed last week, I finally plucked them all and decided the best approach was to search for green tomato recipes.

Many people have heard of fried green tomatoes, but I’d never tried them in any form. Tonight I sampled some and found them to have an interesting flavor. The bigger version seemed a little sweeter, while the plums were a little more tart. The only flavors I can compare them to are a very tart apple, an element of green pepper and some having more or less of the developed tomato taste.  

I found a list of recipes at  http://tipnut.com/green-tomato-recipes/.  Based on the recipes I spent tonight dividing approximately 25 tomatoes into several cups each of diced and pureed tomatoes. I put some in the freezer to use later for green tomato bread. This week I may try the following green tomato soup I found on several sites online. I’ll be sure to let you know how it turns out!

Green tomato soup

3 c Tomatoes; green -peeled & chopped fine

1 Onion; chopped

1/4 ts Cinnamon

1/8 ts Cloves; ground

1 ts Sugar

1/4 ts -Pepper

2 c -Water

1/4 ts Baking soda

3 tb Butter

3 tb Flour; all purpose

4 c Milk

Place in the saucepan; the tomatoes, onion, cinnamon, ground cloves, sugar, pepper and water. Bring to a boil and boil for 30 minutes. Add the soda. Melt the butter, add the flour. Mix and add the milk. Cook till creamy, stirring constantly. Add green tomatoes to the cream. Mix thoroughly. Salt to taste and serve.

The Taste of Andover, highlighting the restaurants of Andover and North Andover, returns on Wednesday, Oct. 28.

The event, running from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Wyndham Andover Hotel on Old River Road in Andover, will feature appetizers, desserts and a variety of menu items from approximately 25 restaurants and food establishments in Andover and North Andover, including The Chateau, Glory, The Meat House, The Lanam Club, Sandrino’s Best of Thymes, Greater Lawrence Technical School, and Whole Foods, among others.

Tickets, which include a cash bar, are $25 and are available from the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce at 978-686-0900.

It’s a Sunday night TV staple for me. A new Iron Chef will be added soon, with competition for the coveted spot to start this Sunday night. Tell me who you’re rooting for and if there’s a test you’d like to see!

If you work in the Eagle-Tribune newsroom, chances are you get an email with that message at least once a month, sometimes a few times a week, as we celebrate birthdays, departures or other big days. As soon as we see any food on that table in the back of the room, we flock to it and it doesn’t take long for that food to disappear.

It was in that spirit that some members of the night desk adapted this week’s edition of USA WEEKEND, which explores our fascination with the dessert and the number of TV shows dedicated to all things cakeimg_1270. If you want to check out the real thing, look in Sunday’s Eagle-Tribune.

Labor Day weekend in Lawrence means a weekend of celebrations, from the Lebanese celebration at Mahrajan to the Bread & Roses Festival to the Feast of the Three Saints. This is my fourth Labor Day in the Merrimack Valley, and every year around this time the newsroom talk turns to rice balls, crispellis and all the other treats to be enjoyed at the festivities.

This year I got to try some of the treats myself. On Thursday, writer Rosemary Ford, who wrote about all the events for Thursday’s paper, went to the famed Italian Kitchen to bring rice balls and crispellis back to the newsroom for us. Both were yummy.

Crispellis, for those who aren’t familiar with them, are a variation of fried dough. I was considering eating them with sugar, but was told that was “for kids” and the authentic way to enjoy them was with anchovies and/or cheese. I passed on the anchovies. I only bought one, but could easily have eaten half a bag of the small fried dough balls. I was anticipating a gooey yellow cheese, but they were neatly packed with a ricotta type. 

The rice ball was like a large meatball except not as dense. Lightly friend and topped with spaghetti sauce, a pleasant surprise of chicken and peas was found in the middle. Just the right size for lunch!

If you can’t make it downtown this weekend, you can try this recipe for the crispelli as provided in The Italian Kitchen and printed in The Eagle-Tribune nearly 10 years ago. 

Crispelli

Ingredients:

2 cups very warm water

1 pound flour (or more to achieve desired consistency)

1 ounce yeast

1 ounce salt

1/2 ounce sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking power

1 can anchovies (optional)

2 cups oil, or enough to fry in a skillet or sauce pan.

Confectionary sugar

Mix above ingredients except for the oil.

After the dough is made, let it rise for at least 45 minutes. You will have a very sticky dough that is hard to work with. For plain crispellis, you can scoop ping-pong ball sized dollops into hot oil.

For anchovy crispellis, take a handful of dough. Using lots of flour makes the job easier. Place an anchovy or two in the middle, wrap it in the dough to form a ball. Carefully drop into oil. You should have enough in the pan for the dough to float. Fry one side and then the other for a few minutes until they are a golden brown. Do not burn the oil. For a sweet touch, sprinkle the plain crispellis with some confectionary sugar.

Chicken salad is often a summer staple, but it doesn’t have to be the typical picnic fare. We enjoyed foods from India in the newsroom last weekend and I decided the curry in this fruity chicken salad added an Indian twist to the night. It’s also a great way to take advantage of summer produce!

Cherry Chicken Salad

3 nectarines or peaches, divided
2 c. tart red Montmorency cherries, pitted
3 c. cooked cubed chicken
1 1/2 c. sliced celery
2 tbsp. sliced green onions
1 c. light mayonnaise
1/4 c. plain lowfat yogurt
2 tbsp. honey
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. curry powder
1/8 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 c. toasted slivered almonds, divided

Fresh, canned or frozen cherries may be used. Thaw frozen cherries. Drain canned and thawed cherries before using.
Slice one of the nectarines; combine with cherries, chicken, celery and green onions in large bowl.
Combine light mayonnaise, lowfat yogurt, honey, lemon juice, curry powder and ginger in a small bowl, mixing well. Pour mayonnaise mixture over chicken mixture; toss to coat. Cover; refrigerate until chilled.
Just before serving, stir in all but 1 tablespoon of the almonds. Arrange chicken salad on lettuce-lined salad plates. Slice remaining 2 nectarines; garnish with nectarines and almonds.

* Recipe from cooks.com

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