Rachel Sue’s Roasted-Potato Potato Salad

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

small potatoes
salt
pepper
olive oil
1 part mayonnaise
1/2 part sour cream
garlic cloves
onion
red & green bell pepper
fresh dill
fresh parsley
fresh oregano
lemon zest
lemon juice

Wash and cut potatoes into bite sized pieces. Season with salt, pepper and olive oil. Place on pan and roast until well-colored.

Roast garlic with olive oil, salt and pepper, until soft.

Finely chop herbs. Dice onions and peppers. Zest & juice lemon.

Mix mayo, sour cream, roasted garlic, salt, pepper, herbs, lemon zest, lemon juice, onions and peppers. Toss with potatoes to coat.

Chill and serve.

Source: Rachel Sue Reagan

Submitted by Jim Wilson
Son of James & Lola Wilson

Lola’s Cobbler

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

1 stick (8 T) Butter
1 cup sugar
¾ cup self-rising flour
¾ cup milk
1 28oz can sliced peaches in syrup – mostly drained

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put butter in deep baking dish and place in oven to melt. Mix sugar and flour; add milk slowly to prevent lumping. Pour over melted butter.

Do not stir.

Spoon fruit over top, gently pouring in syrup.

Do not stir.

Batter will rise to the top during baking.

Bake for 30 – 45 minutes.

Good with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Note: You may use fresh blueberries, strawberries, black berries, cherries, apples, peaches or pears. Clean, peel and core 2 cups fruit. Bring to boil with 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring often. Make sure sugar is completely dissolved and substitute this mixture for canned peaches.

Submitted by Lola Wilson
Daughter of Ella Turnbill

Jim’s-Best Fruitcake

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

Recipe is based on Alton Brown’s Free-Range Fruitcake incorporating my changes.

Ingredients

1 10″ loaf pan 4 8.5″ loaf pans
(4 cups dried fruit) (12 cups dried fruit)
1/2 c 1 1/2 c golden raisins
1/2 c 1 1/2 c dark raisins or currants
1 c 3 c dried pineapple
1/2 c 1 1/2 c dried cranberries
1/2 c 1 1/2 c dried blueberries
1/2 c 1 1/2 c dried cherries
1/2 c 1 1/2 c dried apricots
1 3 lemon, zest of, coarsely chopped
1 3 orange, zest of, coarsely chopped
1/4 c 3/4 c candied ginger
1 c 3 c gold rum
1 c 3 c sugar
5 oz (1 1/4 sticks) 15 oz unsalted butter
1 c 3 c pineapple juice
4 12 cloves, ground
6 18 allspice berries, ground
1 t 3 t cinnamon
1 t 3 t ground ginger
1 3/4 c 4 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 t 1 T salt
1 t 3 t baking soda
1 t 3 t baking powder
2 6 eggs, beaten
1/2 – 3/4 cup 1 1/2 – 2 1/4 cups toasted pecans

Directions

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

Place fruit, rum and juice in a non-reactive pot with the sugar, butter and spices. Bring mixture to a boil stirring often, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for at least 15 minutes. (Batter can be completed up to this point, then covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before completing cake.)

Combine dry ingredients and sift into fruit mixture. Quickly bring batter together with a large wooden spoon, then stir in eggs until completely integrated, then fold in nuts. Spoon into a 10-inch non-stick loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. Start checking for doneness at 40 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting toothpick into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If not, bake another 10 minutes, and check again.

Remove cake from oven and place on cooling rack or trivet.

When cake is completely cooled, seal in a tight sealing, food safe container. The cake’s flavor will enhance considerably as it sits.

Submitted by Jim Wilson
Son of James & Lola Wilson

Nancy Curtis’ Vintage Bread Pans

Posted on by — 4 Comments ↓

Two vintage bread pans from Nancy’s collection:
smooth-ridged-bread-pans_thumb2

Two-Piece, smooth pan, the other side slips together with tabs and slots:
smooth-sided-clamshell-bread-pan_thu

Hinged, ridged pan with viewing windows:
ridged-bread-pan_thumb2

Check the rise of your dough by peeping through those windows:
ridged-bread-pan-windows_thumb2

The ridged pan, open at the hinge:
ridged-bread-pan-open_thumb2

Freshly-baked bread cooling in the ridged pan:
bread-in-ridged-pan_thumb2

Bread baked in the ridged pan:
bread-from-ridged-pan_thumb2

Courtesy Nancy Curtis

Curtain-Rod Potracks

Posted on by — No Comments ↓

Having a very small kitchen leads to having to come up with innovative ways to store all ones stuff. There was room above the three doorways in the kitchen, so …

Simple black curtain rods bought at Wal-Mart with heavier-duty black brackets bought at Lowes. This rod was originally bowing / sagging under the weight of everything I had hanging on it, so I added two extra brackets (for a total of 5) and put wooden dowel rods on the inside of the rod as reinforcement.

curtain-rod-potrack_thumb[5]

The copper corner brackets were added later as reinforcements. They also were bought at Lowes and will eventually be painted black. The S-hooks are shower-curtain hooks from Wal-Mart, and again, will eventually get painted black.

curtain-rod-pot-rack-bracket_thumb[2]