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Saturday, November 8, 2008

SWEET SMELLS COMING FROM THE KITCHEN....


I haven't talked about it much, but I love to cook.  Over the years I have cooked in restaurants and done some catering for my friends...rehearsal  dinners, graduation parties, New Years Eve parties etc..  My last two gigs were at the Senior Center, where I had a lot of volunteer help. Pizza for 70 and Chicken and Biscuits for 70.  Next Friday we will be doing a Turkey Dinner. Yesterday
I picked a peck basket of beets and today I made half into pickled beets (the rest will be made into beet soup with sour cream and fresh dill).  This cooler weather gets me going, so I also have some rice pudding in the oven.



PICKLED BEETS
(Today I made 3/4 of a gallon container...it was 4 times the directions below)

Combine 1/4 cup water, 1/3 cup vinegar, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves.  Heat to boiling and pour over beets (that have been cooked and sliced).  I add onion, which absorbs the beet flavor, and when some of the beets are gone, I hard boil eggs (peel them) and let them marinate in the beet juice along with the remaining beets.
(from Better Homes and Gardens - New Cookbook)

SIMPLE RICE PUDDING
 
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Combine 3 1/2 cup scalded milk (I use skim), 1/4 cup uncooked rice, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (somtimes I leave this off) in a greased 1 quart casserole.  Bake for 2 hours.  When it has baked for 30 minutes, stir in brown crust that forms on top of pudding.  Repeat at half-hour intervals.  Don't stir the last half-hour.  Serves 6
(from The Redbook Cookbook)

1 comment:

Gayle said...

I pretty much hate to cook dinner type stuff, but I love to bake (although I don't ever seem to do it). I am going to go make rice pudding right now. I've never even eaten it before, but it looks like something I can do! :)