More Calcium

Cooking Tip for the Day: If you're making broth using chicken or beef bones, add a tablespoon of vinegar as the bones are simmering. This will "draw the calcium out of the bones into the broth," reports author Beverly Nye in her book Everyone's a Homemaker.

And who couldn't use just a little more calcium?

Who'd have thunk?

That once the cold weather hit, you could pull up from the garden some of these . . .


Wrap them in this . . .




Set them aside for a week or two or three . . .




And end up with this!?!

How cool is that?

If you don't wrap your green tomatoes in newspapers, by the way, and just set them in the windowsill in hopes of wintertime ripening? They'll shrivel.

Just thought you'd wanna know.

Frugal Lemonade

If your family eats canned fruit

odds are good that the liquid that's left after you eat the fruit is sugar water. (On store-bought cans, the label will specify the fruit has been canned in "light syrup" or "heavy syrup." That's code for sugar water.)

If you add a squirt of this

you will end up with a nice cold glass of subtly fruity lemonade.

And what could be more frugal?

Delicious.

(Oh. And feel free to add more water if it's too sweet, or more lemon.)

Note: Check out Works-For-Me Wednesday for more great ideas.

Also, see Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammy's Recipes for even more yummy suggestions.

Rice Krispies Ice Cream Pie

Don't you just love treats with Rice Krispies in 'em? Mixed with chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch chips, marshmallows, just about anything you add to the crispy little critters, you can't go wrong. Their very presence yells, "PARTY!"

Do I hear an amen?

So with this simple concoction, a crunchily delicious pie crust that you smush into the bottom of a pan then top with softened ice cream. Add, of course, any other toppings you find crucial to your happiness.

RICE KRISPIES PIE CRUST
4 c. crispy rice cereal
1 c. chocolate chips
1/2 c. butter

Butter a springform pan (the kind you use to make cheesecake). Set aside.

Pour Rice Krispies into large bowl.

In saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate and butter.
Pour melted chocolate mixture over cereal and stir to coat.


Pour cereal mixture into prepared pan. Smush down to make crust. (I use plastic wrap and my hand to do the smushing.) Freeze for about 30 minutes.

After about 15 minutes, take out from the freezer your favorite ice cream flavor (or three) and set on counter to soften. When ice cream has softened (about 15 minutes), remove crust from freezer, and fill with the ice cream. One regular carton of ice cream should be enough, or three smallish, Ben & Jerry's-type cartons for a special occasion.


Fill 'er up. Place back in freezer to harden a bit.




A few minutes before you're ready to serve, remove sides of pan. Cut pie into wedges (warning: the crust will be firm and a tad bit of sawing with serrated knife necessary). Top with chocolate sauce, raspberry sauce, marshmallow sauce -- whatever floats your boat.

Voila! C'est magnifique! (Sorry, that's my high school French coming out. If I knew how to say "instant party," I would, but I got only as far as French II. Tant pis. Which, I am hoping, means "too bad.")

Note: For more great kitchen tips, visit Tammy at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays.

Totally Not Food Related . . .

One of the biggest blessings of 2008 for me was discovering that the prayer organization Moms in Touch has groups for moms of college and career-aged kids -- and even for grandmas, too. If anyone thinks they might be interested in meeting to pray for their kids an hour each week, I would highly recommend you check it out.

What lead me to this group, you ask? (OK, maybe you didn't ask. But here's what happened.) In the process of writing this magazine article last year, I met so many amazing, lovely women over the phone and via email -- the kind of women who made me think, "That's who I want to be when I grow up" -- that once I concluded my interviews, I just had to join a group myself. It was, without a doubt, the absolute best thing I did last year, for so many reasons.

I'd be happy to blather on some more, if anyone wants to email me (or leave comments) with questions. But I'll shut up now since this is, indeed, a recipe blog, and Lord knows I'm having a hard enough time staying on topic already.

Sausage in Brioche

How can Christmas be over when there are still so many Christmas recipes to try?! My motto is forge ahead; keep baking Christmas goodies until the urge passes. So that's what I'm going to do.

Today's entree came from a book written by one of my very favorite cookbook authors, Susan Branch. If you haven't seen her books, you MUST check them out. They are charming, illustrated with her very own lovely, lovely watercolor paintings.

In Christmas from the Heart of the Home, Susan explains how to make this without a bread machine. I do all my yeast bread baking with a little help from kitchen appliances, so I'll just give you my cheating little bread machine directions.

BRIOCHE DOUGH

Plop into bread machine:

1/4 c. milk

2 eggs

1/2 c. butter, cut into pieces

2 c. flour

1 T. sugar

1 package dry yeast

Set machine on "dough" option.

When dough is ready, take half of it and smush it out into a 4" x 12" rectangle on a floured surface.

SAUSAGE PART:

Now take

1 lb. ring of fully cooked Polish Kielbasa sausage

and cut it in half. You'll have two long hot dog-shaped pieces of meat. Put one of the halves in the middle of the dough you just smushed out.

Wrap dough around the sausage and pinch edges to seal. Place it seam side down on a greased baking sheet. Repeat with other half of dough and other half of sausage. Let it puff up for about 40 minutes or so (it won't be super puffy). Brush entire surface of both loaves with

EGG WASH:

1 egg white whisked with 1 t. water

Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, until brown.

Slice with a bread knife, and serve with mustard.

We had this with soup for dinner, but you can also serve as an appetizer.

And I really don't think anyone needs to know it came from a Christmas cookbook. Shhhhhhh.

Does anyone else love Susan Branch cookbooks?

What's in Season in January

. . . other than chocolate s'more pie, that is.

January is a great month to shop for:

avocados

bananas

Belgian endives

bell peppers

broccoli

brussels sprouts

cabbage

carrots

grapefruit

kiwi

kumquats

leeks

lettuce

mandarin oranges

mushrooms

onions

oranges

pears

pineapples

potatoes

radishes

spinach

sweet potatoes

tangerines

Make a new friend with an unfamiliar fruit or vegetable this month. Let us know what you try.