Fun with Fruit

Be the hit at every party with some moderate effort, some bowls with a good seal and various spirits.

Cinnamon Apples

Three apples cored and diced into bite size pieces

One bottle of Fireball

Cover apples with Fireball and seal in a plastic bowl.

Do not recommend Granny smith apples.

Soak apples in Fireball three days prior to party or consumption.

Pineapples and Vodka

Same as the cinnamon apples only with vodka and pineapple Duh.

Crasians/ Dried Cherries

Soak Crasians/Cherries in Bullet rye for 5 days.  Pour off the syrup and chill the liquid.

Save the fruit for snacking or garnish for pineapple and apples.

ENJOY

Apple, Brie and Bacon Burger

Thinly slice apple of your choice with a mandolin (coring optional)

Cook Bacon and slice brie and set aside til burgers are done

Season meat to taste and patty

Grill or fry burgers

Once burgers are almost done, add slices of apple, brie and bacon

Put on buns with condiments you prefer and enjoy.

 

CECILS PEROGI'S

1/2 tube Jimmy Dean sage sausage
2 pats butter
1 tbs chopped onion
1 cup chopped spinach (frozen)
1 pkg perogi's of your choice
5 slices deli cheese
1 cup water

In a large skillet sauté sausage til crumbly. Add butter, chopped spinach and one cup water.  Simmer til spinach is thawed and there is still fluid in the skillet. Mix together and pour perogi's on top of mixture.  The steam will come from the bottom and cook the perogi's. Once the perogies are soft flip them over and put the slices of cheese on top.  Cover and let simmer for 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted and serve.  Nice one skilled dinner in 15 minutes. 

GUMBO

3 Aondule sausage sliced
1 large onion
center of the celery with leaves
2 tbs minced garlic
1 green pepper chopped
1/2 bag mixed or gumbo vegetables
2 cans Rotel
1 pound meat of your choice ( seafood or chicken or both)
1 tsp Goya seasonings
1 cup basmati rice
3 tbs gumbo fi
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups water

In a large stock pot or 4 quart pot put sausage, onion garlic and celery in and sauté.  Let it sweat for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally.  Add the chopped bell peppers, Rotel, goya and gumbo fi and mix thoroughly. Let simmer for another 10 minutes.  Pour in the chicken stock and water and rice.  Bring back to a boil and reduce heat and simmer 25 minutes.  Depending on the meat, you will not have to pre-cook the seafood but if you use chicken, sauté it with the sausage and add 1/4 cup olive oil.  If not thick enough add more gumbo fi.  The Rotel comes in regular and hot.  You decide how hot you want it to be but the sausage is pretty spicy.  Enjoy.

Okay, I got a request for my mom's greens recipe.  I won't take it with me to the grave like the rolls recipe.

Greens (Kale, Collards and Mustard)

1 ham hock or ham shank
1 tbs minced garlic
1 stick of butter
1 tsp Goya all purpose spice
1/4 cup Italian dressing
hot sauce to taste
1 tsp pepper
1 tbs dried onion
2 - 4 cups water 

Put all ingredients in the pot and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.  While they are cooking, clean the greens.  You can use one kind or you can mix them.  Grandma always mixed them.  To clean them, pull the leaves off and get rid of most of the stems. Rinse the greens after you clean them at least twice. Some greens are grown in a sand base and you don't want a pot full of grit.  Once your stock is ready, start to add the greens.  If you can't get all of them in the pot, let them cook down and add the rest.  Simmer for another hour checking frequently to make sure the fluid has not cooked away.  Any questions, call me. 614-441-3185.  Have a happy turkey day. 

Okay, we are all back in and set up and I have my computer back. Yeaaaa.  Had a meeting about the floors and I won this round.  They are going to change the floors and I get to pick the color.  We are waiting til January for the holidays to be over and they said they could put us in a hotel while they do it.  It will probably be 5 days but no biggie.  I think they are slightly scared of me.  Can't wait for winter so we can drive in the snow, go up to the ski lodge and watch people ski and drink hot chocolate.  Decorate for Christmas.  My first Thanksgiving will be on November 10th and then I'm going to be alone.  Sam is coming to visit Columbus so I can relax and do nothing.  No cooking, no snoring, coughing, blowing the nose, clearing the throat.  Absolute silence and bliss.  Uploading a bunch of pictures to add online.  Hope you like them.  Will send them soon.  Take care all.  Love you.

Well, we are back in our place.  Not happy about the look but that is supposed to change soon.  If it doesn't then my rent goes into escarole.  Sam passed his kidney stone just in time to catch a horrible cold.  It sucks to get old.  You go from one thing to another.  Going to Anchorage again to get this flap in my throat cut out.  Hope it's not a repeat of when I got my tonsils out.  That was embarrassing.  Send me pictures, if you have them, of Cindy and Steve's  Ocktoberfest.  Once we get the place put back together, and if you kept pictures of how it used to look, you can compare and tell me how fucked up it is.