Recipe thread, Bec's swap 2010

Didn't see one so thought I'd do it.
^_^
Greenthumb's Sweet Potato Salad
Catbird, here is the basic recipie for the sweet potato salad. I made a double batch for the plant swap.

4 cups shredded raw sweet potato
1 apple, unpeeled and chopped
½ cup chopped pecans
½ cup sour cream
½ cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
¼ teaspoon anise seed, freshly ground in mortar and pestle
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper


Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl; stir well.
Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl; stir well
Pour dressing over sweet potato mixture; stir well.
Cover and chill
Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Note: I prefer to prep the apples after preparing the dressing so that the apples have less chance to discolor.

David
~~~
Sallyg's Crispy Coleslaw (southern living cookbook)

Head of cabbage shredded, about 1 1/2 pounds
One sweet bell pepper, sliced thin, your choice of color or mix them, red and green pretty for winter
One medium onion sliced thinly
1 cup sugar
1/2 c plus 2 TB vinegar
1/2 veg oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp celery seeds

Pile the shredded cabbage, peppers, and onion in a large bowl, pour sugar over and toss. Cover and chill two hours. Combine vinegar,oil ,salt and seed in saucepan, bring to a boil, stir to dissolve salt. Pour over cabbage mix and stir. Chill two hours or more before serving. Keeps several days in refrigerator.

OK! Here is my Pickle Recipe--NOT that i haven't posted it before--but i always find something to add or remove.....

Gita’s Refrigerator Garlic-Dill Pickles

Need:
3 wide-mouthed jars (pickle type), or Mayo. Jars
One BIG bunch of fresh Dill
6-8 cloves Garlic (or to taste)—diced or thinly sliced.
10-12 pickling cucumbers--(such as Kirby). Fresh is best!
Store cucumbers are WAXED, and no way you can remove it! If you
must use store cukes, score them through the skin with a fork
and slice them thickly. They also have more seeds! But…it will
work if no others are available.

To Do: Stuff jars ¼ full of fresh dill, stems and leaves! Sprinkle a gene-
rous amount of the chopped garlic on top. Mix up a bit.

Stuff jars as full as you can with speared/sliced cucumbers, inter-
spersing them with some more Dill and a bit of garlic.
For MY taste---I usually have too much garlic in these.
Some love it!


Prepare the Broth: I
In a 2Qt. saucepan, combine the following:
2 and a half cups water….3/4-1cup white vinegar (can be part
Apple Cider vinegar)…1 rounded, regular Tbs. KOSHER, or
Pickling salt (DO NOT use regular, iodized salt!!!).
1 reg.Tbs. Sugar, 1tsp mustard seed, 1tsp. Pickling
Spice….or--1-2 Bay leaves…6-8 pcs. Whole Allspice,
And about 1/2tsp. Hot pepper flakes.

Bring broth to a boil. Lower heat and simmer all, stirring often,
For about 10-15 minutes. Keep VERY hot until ready to use!

Filling Jars:
Stirring constantly, to distribute spices, ladle hot broth
evenly into jars until all contents are covered. Seal jars. Invert
each jar a couple of times to mix contents.
Let jars cool to room temperature, and then refrigerate.

Pickles are ready to eat in 2-3 days! They will be delicious and
crunchy! Use them up in about 2 weeks, as they will soften
with time

Enjoy! Gita

AND--Here is my Potato Salad recipe----

Gita's Potato Salad;

As I said--I do not have a recipe for this--per say.
For a large bowl--I used about 4lbs. red skin potatoes--unpeeled.
Cook in salted water until almost tender. In a salad, you want the potatoes to be a bit firm. Cool--then cut potatoes in bite-sized pieces. Do not peel!

Boil, and coarsely chop about 6-8 eggs. (Boiling can be done days ahead)
Dice about 2 stalks celery and one small onion (purple onion looks nicer).
Some chives, or green onion adds a bit color too. Maybe a small carrot as well....
Or--maybe a couple diced radishes-- just for the color...
Dice a small Granny Smith apple and one dill pickle (these are the surprise ingredients!)
About 1tsp. of Celery seed
Dried (or fresh chopped) Dill Fresh has a lot more flavor.

Mix potatoes with all the above ingredients together--gently!
Mix eggs in last—so they don’t get “smithereened”….

Dressing:

About 1 cup (or a bit more) of good, regular mayo. I use “Hellmans”
About 1/2 a 16oz. container of sour cream. Use a good, rich one—like “Breakstone or “Daisy”. NO low fat—or fat free!
About 1/4cup Dijon style mustard...like “Gray Poupon”...I use the squeeze bottle and just eyeball it. This adds color as well as flavor...
About ¼ cup vinegar—plain or mixed with Apple Cider vinegar.
Salt and pepper to taste. I like using coarse sea salt and fresh-ground pepper....

Mix all the dressing ingredients together. Taste and add whatever you think it needs more of. All this can, also, be done a day ahead....
Refrigerate all sliced and chopped ingredients if you do it early. Then just mix it all together the morning of the Party. If you want the Salad creamier--add more mayo....

For presentation purposes--decorate the top of the salad with radish-roses...fresh mint, or other herb leaves--flowers, like Nasturtiums, Pansies....sprigs of fresh Dill....etc...
Makes it look SO pretty!

That's it, folks! This salad is very good!

Jug of Tea.
Buy a jug of spring water. Pour out about three cups for tea making, heat just under boiling and steep twelve regular size tea bags, or get the family size and use the equivalent, for a gallon. Pour tea concentrate back into the jug, it will fit because the tea soaks up a bit. For sweet tea, put about a cup of sugar into hot tea concentrate and stir to dissolve. Pour out and reserve a cup of water before mixing in jug or it may not all fit.

Pardon me if it seems too dumb to have to give a recipe for tea, but I took tea to two teacher luncheons before figuring out I could use the jugs! much easier.

Brownies with walnuts- Get a box of Betty Crocker. Throw a couple handfuls of walnuts in the batter.

Thanks Gita and Sally.