xtcian

I didn't get the invite. Am I missing something? Sorry for the lack of recipe, I am still trying to get kids out the door for school.

This has become my new favorite cookie recipe. They're actually relatively healthy (no sugar, white flour or butter) and yummy too.

Oaty Oatmeal Cookies
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1 Egg
1/2 Cup Melted Butter (I use coconut oil to avoid the butter)
1/2 cup honey
1 Cup Oat Flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp or cinnamon
1 1/2 cups instant oatmeal
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup dried cranberries, raisins, etc (optional)

Preheat oven to 325°F.
Beat egg, add other liquid ingredients and blend thoroughly. Stir dry ingredients together. Add to liquid mixture and mix well. Stir in oatmeal,
nuts and fruit. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls on to greased cookie sheet.
Bake @ 325°F for 12-15 minutes. Yield about 2 dozen cookies.

Ok, I'll provide a recipe. The following is from Anna Sortun, chef and owner of Oleana Restaurant in Cambridge, MA. Probably my favorite restaurant in the greater Boston area. Anna is a James Beard winner and truly exceptional, in my opinion. Her menu features some really interesting Turkish/Greek-Mediterranean influences. The recipe below is for a whipped feta that's a little reminiscent of a traditional southern staple, pimento cheese. It's a great appetizer and super easy since you can basically just dump the ingredients in a food processor, and out comes a fantastic spread. The only trick is finding the chilies (a good Armenian market usually has them) which really give it the unique flavor.

2 cups sheep’s milk French feta, drained and broken into rough ½ pieces or crumbled
2 red bell peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
2 teaspoons Aleppo chilies + a pinch for garnish
1 teaspoon Urfa chilies + a pinch for garnish
½ teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika + a pinch for garnish
1 teaspoon lemon juice
¼ cup olive oil

1. Place all of the ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and combine them so that the sweet and hot peppers coat the cheese.
2. In a food processor, fitted with a metal blade, purée the mixture for about 2 minutes, until very smooth and creamy.
3. Place the mixture in a crock and sprinkle it with a pinch of all three of the chilies to garnish and show them off.

This link goes to my Gramma's pumpkin pie recipe; the best pumpkin pie in the whole entire world.

http://bozoette.typepad.com/red_nose/2006/12/the_best_pumpki.html

I just scoured my spam folder, but still can't find a tourney invite. Have I been voted off the island?

I stand corrected. :)

Here's a recipe (and family favorite) for Bowtie Pasta with Italian sausage and a nice creamy pink tomato sauce:

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 lb. sweet Italian sausage
½ tsp. crushed red pepper
½ cup diced onion*
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes**
1 ½ cup whipping cream
½ tsp. salt
3 Tbs. fresh minced basil (or a couple shakes of dried basil)
¾ lb. bowtie pasta
Parmesan cheese

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Remove casings from sausage, crumble and cook in oil with crushed red pepper until sausage is no longer pink (about 7 minutes). Add onion and garlic and cook another 5-7 minutes until tender. Add tomatoes**, cream, salt and basil. Simmer until slightly thickened, about 4 minutes.

Cool pasta al dente. Drain and put in serving bowl or platter. Toss with sauce. Garnish with Parmesan cheese. Eat out of the serving bowl. Faint. Repeat as needed.

*My sister really likes the flavor of the onion, but not the texture, so I dice the onion up as tiny as I can manage.

**She's also a baby about tomatoes, so I blend the tomatoes in a blender with the cream before adding to sausage.

Serves 4.

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And one more for a delicious and easy hot dip I like to make when people come over to watch games.

Ole Hot Appetizer

1 pkg. cream cheese
1 can Hormel Chili - No Beans
1 small can diced green chilis* (usually on the "international" aisle of Harris Teeter with the taco kits)
2 cups shredded cheese (I prefer the taco or Mexican blend rather than plain cheddar, but either works)

Preheat oven to 350°. Spread cream cheese in bottom of a glass 8x8 pan. Spread chili on top, followed by diced green chilis. Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until cheese is hot and bubbly.

Serve with chips (I tend to use Tostitos Scoops). Let it cool for a couple minutes before digging in so as not to burn your mouth, even though it's worth it!

*Remember that sister who requires that everything be blended and/or diced super-fine? Yeah, she usually has me blend this tiny amount of green chilis, too. :)

Invite, please? Thanks.

Okay, that was hilarious.

I bake bread.

Yeah. Laugh it up, fuzzball. I bake bread. But instead of posting an entire recipe, I'm just going to post the tricks I have used to make other recipes more awesome.

A) Make it semi-sourdough with a mixed starter:
1) Fix you some bread dough. (This is how all my grandmomma's recipes started, with the assumption that you knew how to make some key and complicated step without being told: "Fix you some stewed apples."

2) Take 6 oz of the dough, after it has risen and put in the saran wrap in the fridge for a couple of days. Enjoy the other bread you have made, or save it to compare to the next bread generation. Or just throw the dough away, because it won't match what you are going to make in a couple of days and it will ruin social security.

3) A couple of days later, take the 6 oz of dough out of the fridge, let it get to room temp, add water and..... oh, who am I kidding? Just follow the Joy of Cooking recipe for "Mixed Starter". Then make the same old recipe you made before, but use the starter instead of the yeast dissolved in water. Save, or reserve, as we homemakers say, 6 oz of it in the fridge (or freezer if you're sick of making bread).

4) Buy The Joy of Cooking, if you don't have it. the new edition is awesome.

B) Make the crust more crusty
1) Preheat a baking pan on the bottom rack
2) Splash vinegar on the loaf (he said "loaf") before you put it in the oven. Repeat halfway through baking for MAXIMUM INSANE CLOWN KRUSTINESS.
3) Put two cups of ice cubes in the bottom pan. Use boiling water for MAXIMUM CAVALCADE OF WHIMSY KRUSTINESS.

My favorite recipe is for slow cooker pork loin.
Put 2-3 lb pork loin roast in a slow cooker. Add 1/3 cup honey dijion mustard, 1 cup apple juice and 1 cup chicken broth. Cook for 8 hrs on low until the meat falls apart. Super easy supper. Vaguely reminiscent of NC barbecue. My kids love it.

Go Heels!

Roasted Red Pepper Salsa

6-8 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 - 1/2 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil (if you call it EVOO, I hope you burst into flame)
1 large jar (24 oz.??) roasted red peppers packed in water, drained and chopped into 1/2 x 1/2 inch pieces
2 cans diced tomatoes
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. freshly ground pepper

Heat olive oil over medium heat, add garlic and cook for about 1 minute and 30 seconds (don't let the garlic brown). Add red peppers, tomatoes salt and pepper and bring up to a simmer. Reduce heat and cook until liquid has reduced by 1/2 (generally about 45 minutes or so).

One of the most versatile recipes I know. Serve it as an appetizer with crackers and cheese. Serve it room temperature or hot. It's equally good as a sauce on grilled chicken or pork. This is my go-to choice for bringing an appetizer to a party and I've gotten so many requests for the recipe over the years, I bring along printed copies so I don't have to spend the whole party repeating it. And the best part about it is that you probably have all of the ingredients for it in your pantry. Not fancy, just good.

Hey Ian! My IT peeps block the site, can I email you my picks??

Enchiladas

1 lb ground beef
1 med onion
1 packet taco seasoning mix
4 cups (oh yeah, I said 4) mexican shredded cheese
1 large can tomato sauce
1 pkg flour tortillas

brown ground beef and chopped onion in a skillet, drain.

Add taco seasoning mix and 2/3 cup water, simmer 4 mins or so.

Fill flour tortillas with meat mixture and cheese. Roll up and place into a greased casserole dish.

Once dish is full, pour can of tomato sauce over top. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake at 350 until cheese is bubbly.

Didn't Lucy just spend the whole weekend with Barnaby? You could just post 25 pictures and everyone would be happy! I know I would.

"I pointed out to the little prince that baobabs were not little bushes, but, on the contrary, trees as big as castles; and that even if he took a whole herd of elephants away with him, the herd would not eat up one single baobab."

I think I have 3 entries into the pool: mine, Matt's and my son Ethan's. All listed as M.Lowell. I hope that's okay. If not, it's Matt's fault! (Greg - that goes for your pool too.)

i entered my bracket at espn under the name 'goathanger' & email 'goathanger@gmail.com'. so invite me or enter me or sumpin'!

My favorite recipe is as follows:

(1) Place ice in a glass.
(2) Add scotch (preferably Macallan 18 year).
(3) Let sit for two minutes.
(4) Drink.

I call it "scotch on the rocks" - been in the family for generations.

GO HEELS!

Carrots in Beer and Dill

4 large carrots, peeled
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup beer
.25 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon dill weed, dried

Cut the carrots into small sticks and sauté in butter, uncovered, over medium heat until they are barely browned. Add the beer and dill and cover. Cook slowly until the carrots are tender, stirring often, for about 15 minutes. Add the salt and sugar and continue to cook, uncovered, for about 3 minutes more.

Delicious!!!!

Hey folks who didn't get to enter... ESPN's site really sucked over the last few hours. I couldn't even log on to invite people.

Love craighill's bracket name. He should win some kind of prize for it.

Hey all,

So as a Duke-loving lurker (perhaps there are more) I want to share an article I read this morning, linked from Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish blog: http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=77950f2b-9680-4f0a-9de4-0e26a61316b4

I'm not taking a side either way on the political argument, but I will be cheering on the Devils this tourney, while accepting that they won't get past the Sweet 16. Even that may be wishful thinking.

(1) So, I made the pork recipe, with some changes, the main one being using shoulder. It was awesome. I'm adding it the dadmeal arsenal (and I do mean arse, in most cases). Thanks, Sharon!

(2) Speaking of arse, how about Jon Wade Gray? 21.6%! Ha-HA. Wotta maroon!

Ha! I totally missed that kate wrote the same thing I did about "stewardesses" (albeit well before me). Guess more people knew that than I thought!

i want know the full defination about bbaobab tree about 100 pages like that.