Welcome
I am constantly amazed at how animated and talkative people get when you mention food. The mere aroma of certain foods can evoke memories that transport us back to a special place and time. Food can bridge the gap between all ages, races and ethnicities.
Let's face it, the only thing that should ever come between people is a table and some serving bowls.
Remember going to a bar or a club to meet men? Well I found out this morning that bars and clubs are a thing of the past. If you really want to get a man interested entice him with cookies! This little piece of knowledge came my way in the form of an innocent phone call to my grandmother (88 yrs.) and aunt (91 yrs.) in Florida. My grandmother answered the phone and said, “Guess what your aunt and I are doing today”? We are having a nice gentleman over to teach him how to bake cookies. After my mouth dropped for a second I thought, how cute. It turns out my aunt Jay had been giving some of her cookies to her mail carrier who in turn shared some of the cookies with a friend of his. Well his friend loved them and wanted to know who made them, long story short the man was introduced to my aunt, they became friends and today at 1:00 pm he is having lunch with my grandmother and aunt who are then both going to teach him how to bake Italian lemon cookies.
Italian Lemon Cookies
4 cups flour
1 cup of sugar
8 Teaspoons of baking powder
3 eggs
3/4 cup of milk
1/2 cup of butter, softened
4 Teaspoons of lemon extract
1 Teaspoon of lemon zest (optional)
Mix all ingredients together (by hand or mixer). Drop onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes.
FROSTING:
1 box confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon of lemon extract
3 Tablespoons of Milk (should be runny enough to drizzle, if too thick add a little more milk)
Mix and pour over cookies as desired.
Photo by Allysa/flickr.com
Passing by some peanut brittle at the grocery store the other day reminded me of a funny story. Many years ago one of my aunts had to go into the hospital for some minor throat surgery. The surgery went fine; the doctor said it would take a couple weeks for her throat to heal. This meant no solid foods for at least the first week. So my aunts menu pretty much consisted of ice cream, pudding, jell-o almost anything that was soft and cold or could be sipped through a straw. It’s not hard to enjoy ice cream and pudding for a couple of days but by the third day you are pretty hungry and are craving some serious food.
I believe my aunt was into her fourth day of recovery and an old friend stopped by with wrapped gift in hand. My aunt was happy to see her friend even though she couldn’t get the thought of sinking her teeth into some solid food off her mind. Her friend said here, this is for you it might help take your mind off of things; I know it is one of your favorites. I’m sure you all can guess what it was…..you got it; it was a nice big box of homemade peanut brittle. My aunt didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, her friend cried when she realized what she had done. Obviously it was not intentional; I think we all felt sorrier for the friend than we did for my aunt (how embarrassing). Needless to say everyone survived, my aunt got to eat eventually, her friend never lived it down and we inherited a funny story to tell at any given opportunity.
Peanut Brittle
2 cups peanuts (may substitute any nut)
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup white Karo syrup
Butter a cookie sheet and set aside. Mix water, sugar, peanuts, and syrup in a 2 quart sauce pan. Bring to a boil.
Cook until candy thermometer reaches hard crack stage (310°F). Remove from heat.
Quickly stir in baking soda and butter, as it will harden rapidly.
Pour quickly onto a buttered cookie sheet and let stand for about an hour to cool.
Break up into pieces.
My great aunt Mimi really enjoyed nibbling on baby back ribs; it was always such a treat for her. Normally my aunt would always get her baby backs at a local restaurant or at someone’s home if invited and baby back ribs just happened to be on their menu. Making them herself was a different story all together, you see and I do say this lovingly; “My aunt was energetically challenged”! If it wasn’t really, really easy to do, make, prepare etc…. then she wasn’t doing it. When any type of recipe was extremely labor intensive to make she would rely on my grandmother (her sister) to make it. Which in itself was fine because my grandmother always enjoyed cooking for the family plus she was and still is the complete opposite of my aunt, my grandmother is loaded with energy. To this day at age 88 she can walk faster than most of us that are much younger than her and still spends all day in the kitchen cooking. So whenever a recipe came along that listed very few ingredients and required very little preparation time, you would actually get to see my aunt make a mad dash for the kitchen.
Lazy Babies (baby back ribs with and oriental twist)
2-4 pounds baby back ribs
1 cup of honey (any)
1 jar hoisin sauce
8 cloves garlic
Chop garlic or press garlic. Place ribs in roaster pan. Pour hoisin sauce and honey over ribs, dot with garlic. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour
