Tea Time

New salad recipe. Five to go. Niece Terri makes this recipe for special occasions. I often heard her aunt (my friend Kathy) talk about it, because her mother Effie (Terri's grandmother) always made it. I always thought it sounded a little strange with the sour cream, but now I'm hooked. It's really good.

5-CUP SALAD

1 cup each pineapple tidbits, Mandarin oranges, mini-marshmallows,   coconut, sour cream 

That’s it. Mix it up, cover and chill. 

I’ve read many versions of this “salad” (more like dessert than salad) when reading cookbooks, which are more fun than novels. 

All call for sour cream and mini-marshmallows, but the other ingredients can be berries, chopped canned pears, chopped canned peaches, fruit cocktail, bananas, or nuts. One exception – if you use maraschino cherries, use only 1/2 cup. 

We met at Cedars for early dinner to celebrate Joey's birthday on the 27th. I was driving home at 5:40 p.m. and my car temperature gauge told me it was 77 degrees. Today I got up to winter. Now it's 10:30 a.m. and only 31 degrees.

 

By the way, I think Cedars has a new cook. I'll not be going there for awhile. My last two visits were very disappointing.

What the world thinks: Click HERE.

I made Zone Soup - lots of Zone Soup. The Zone Diet was developed by Barry Sears, a biochemist. It balances protein, carbs, and fat. Every food is measured and then reduced to "blocks;" 7 grams of protein equals one block, and 9 grams of carbohydrates equals one block, and 1.5 grams of fat equals 1 block. Then you design your diet for X number of blocks for breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. Someone came up with this soup where 1 cup equals 1 block. If your snack is 1 block, you can have 1 cup of soup; 2 blocks gets you 2 cups, etc. My diet was 3, 3, 1, 3, 1. I felt great, never hungry, lost weight, and fell off the wagon when someone brought a big bowl of Halloween candy to the office and kept replenishing it for a week.

Here's the Recipe

ZONE SOUP

2 Tbs oil

4 parsnips (about 1 lb) cut into 1/2” pieces OR 1 cup cooked rice

4 ribs celery, sliced

1 turnip, (about 3/4 lb) cut into 1/2” pieces

1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped

1 Tbs finely chopped garlic

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (omit if you don’t like mildly spicy)

16 cups chicken broth

7 5-oz cans chicken OR 5 cups cubed cooked chicken

1 16-oz pkg frozen carrots

1 10-oz pkg frozen broccoli

1 10-oz pkg frozen chopped collards OR spinach

1-1/2 cups frozen chopped onions

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup chopped dill or 1 Tbs dried dill weed (Not dill seeds)

 

In a very large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat.

 

Add the parsnips, celery, turnip, jalapeno, garlic, salt, and cayenne.

 

Cook until vegetables are crisp tender, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

 

Add the broth, chicken, carrots, broccoli, collards or spinach, onions, lemon juice, dill (or other herbs), and rice if using in place of parsnips.

 

Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.

 

This makes 26 cups – 1 block per cup if you’re doing the Zone.

 

Freezes well.

 

Note: I added the rice option, because some people don’t care for parsnips, and they’re not readily available in some areas and expensive. The package I bought was 4 parsnips (1 lb) and cost $4.

Pair it with a cup of green tea. So good for you.

Mim invited me to be her guest at a tea held by her church women's group. What a delightful afternoon! The theme was Tea, Biscuits, and Books. Everyone was invited to bring a book, any book; new, used, one you've read, even cookbooks. The books were placed on a couple of tables, and then you could pick one to take home with you. What a great idea. I didn't even look. I've resolved to read my own books to downsize, so I'm avoiding temptation.

A volunteer hostess at each table brought the teacups, plates, etc. The food tiers were furnished by the church; ruffled white - some round, some square - and very pretty. They were ordered through Amazon.

Each placesetting had a bookmark with buckets of colored pencils or markers so you could color it. 

There were several different pictures and sayings. This is mine, and I rather liked it in black and white, so I didn't color it.

There were teabags on the tables with teapots of hot water, or you could make your own teabag at a table with loose tea. Fun! I chose blackberry and it was perfect for a tea party.

The teas came from Tanterra Farms in Springfield. Here's the link. Click HERE. 

The food was beautiful. Two of the ladies at our table, Judy and Marsha (or Marcia) made all the mini-muffins and cupcakes - 500 of them! Good job, ladies. The sandwiches were made in the church kitchen.

The bar cookies were from an English recipe, and very good. Sorry, I don't know who made them.

As Afternoon Tea is an activity copied from the UK, we played British Jeopardy. The categories were Brit Lit and Authors, Tea and Food, Quotes, The Royal Family, and I can't remember the other category. But our table won, and we got to take home the flowers from the make-your-own teabag tables. Mim had flowers from her dinner party, so she gave me her prize.

And here they are, making my kitchen a happy place.

As hostesses were gathering up their china after the tea, I got a chance to see some of the beautiful tea sets.

 

Thank you, Mim, for a lovely afternoon.

Here is this week's dinner:

MENU - POULTRY

Cranberry Chicken

Baked Rice

Sugar-Snap Peas

Magic Pan Salad

Puff Pastry Twists

Recipes: Cranberry Chicken, Baked Rice, Magic Pan Salad, Puff Pastry Twists

CRANBERRY CHICKEN

10-12 chicken tenders or 6 chicken breasts
1 15 oz can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 small bottle French dressing
1 envelope Lipton’s onion soup mix
 
Heat oven to 350°.
 
Combine all but chicken in large mixing bowl, mixing well.
 
Add chicken and stir to cover each piece.
 
Dump into a 13” X 9” baking dish.
 
Bake 20-25 minutes for tenders; 25-30 minutes for breasts.
 
Note:  Also good using pork chops and Catalina dressing.

BAKED RICE

3-1/2 cups boiling water
2 cups long grain white rice
4 Tbs butter
1-1/2 tsps salt
 
Heat oven to 375°.
 
Mix all ingredients in a 13 X 9 glass baking dish.
 
Cover tightly with foil.
 
Bake 24-27 minutes.
 
Remove from oven and check to see that all water is absorbed. Recover and leave it for 5 minutes.
 
Remove cover and fluff with a fork.
 
Note: I measure and freeze in plastic bags. You can make half the recipe and bake in an 8 x 8 or 11 x 7.
 
1-1/2 cups Rice Pudding
1-1/2 cups Crunchy Chicken Casserole
2 cups Fried Rice
1 cup Rice Muffins
New Year
Mardi gras

MAGIC PAN SALAD
Copy Cat Magic Pan Restaurant (out of business) Recipe

Tear up enough Romaine lettuce to serve the number of guests

Add to taste: Mandarin oranges from a can and finely sliced green onions

 

Toss with vinaigrette

 

Top with toasted slivered almonds

 

Vinaigrette:

3/4 cup white vinegar

1 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

 

Mix all dressing ingredients together in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil, stir to make sure sugar is completely dissolved, then cool.

 

This is a simple but refreshing salad that everyone loves.

PUFF PASTRY TWISTS

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

1 egg white

1 Tbs cold water

1/2 cup shredded Cheddar

 

Heat oven to 400°F.

 

Mix the egg white and water in a small bowl.

 

Place the puff pastry on a greased baking sheet, and brush it with the egg white and water.

 

Sprinkle cheese all over.

 

Cut the pastry into ten 1” strips.

 

Twist each strip three times.

 

Bake 10-13 minutes.

 

Note: Easiest way to thaw puff pastry is by putting one sheet into the refrigerator overnight. Leave the other sheet in the freezer for later use.

 

Joey has the sweetest flowering shrubs in her front yard. I want some. If you know what this is, please tell me.

My hyacinths are blooming - some even got frost bitten - and the tulips are well on the way. We seem to be going directly from Winter to Summer. The lawn people put on the first application of weed control this week, and Watersmith was here to do my sprinkler startup.

I thought grape hyacinths came up before the regular size, but mine are still babies.

The daffodils started blooming a week ago. They were hanging their little heads during a cold spell, but have perked up again.

I found a new area rug for the living room. Hated that taupe one. I'll put it in the garage. Another chore on my list. I'm like the saying, "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get."

Elly and I went to Wendy's for a hamburger before going to Michael's for a wreath making "class." I guess they're going to leave their Christmas tree up all year and just change the decorations. Cute idea. People will probably come there just to see what's on the tree as the year progresses.

Michael's advertised that you "buy a grapevine wreath, bring it to the class, and we'll furnish everything else." As it turned out, they had tables with glue guns and clippers set up, and a shopping cart with a pile of silk flowers. 

I thought they were going to hand us the flowers, and then say, "put three white ones here, add two yellows on each side, etc." No! Here it is - choose your flowers and make your wreath. I went to learn the techniques. 

Then they brought out a big spool of wide tan ribbon which looked like a perfect autumn choice, so I just picked a few flowers and glued them on. I'll figure out how to finish it later, but for sure it won't have brown ribbon.

I should have taken a picture of Elly's wreath. It was really pretty.

But first I want to work on this wreath I bought at a thrift store for $6.

I don't like pink and peach together, so I need to change out the peach. Maybe these pink ones from the Yearning for Spring tablescape will work. 

Or maybe I should use the yellow. I do like pale yellow with pink.

Oh, well. Like Scarlett, I'll think about that another day.

I'm still trying to eat the rainbow every day. I've discovered that fruit in vegetable salads works well; especially grapes and oranges.

Time to feed the kitties.