Two-Hour Buns

3 c. warm water
2 or 3 tbsp. honey (or 1/2 c. sugar)
1/4 c. oil
1 tsp. salt
2 tb. yeast (I use Fermipan; if you use the kind that is mixed with liquid and sugar and then you wait a few minutes before adding it to your dry ingredients, you probably use the same amount.)
2 eggs
8 c. flour (I use half whole-wheat and half white)

Mix half the flour with the yeast.
In a separate bowl, whip the eggs, oil, honey and water, and add it to the flour mixture. Blend well.
Mix the remaining flour with the salt and add it.
Let rise 15 minutes.
Punch down and form into buns; place on a greased baking sheet.
Cover and let rise one hour.
Bake at 350F for 15-18 minutes.

The original recipe (Thanks, Cathy!) called for all white flour, and sugar instead of honey, and those were delicious buns too.
To keep a soft top without giving them a milk/egg/butter brush when they come out of the oven, I take the damp dishtowel that keeps moisture in during the rising stage and lay that over the buns while they cool.

Celery Tip

Wash your celery and after it has drip-dried, wrap the bundle in aluminum foil and keep it in the fridge. The ends won't turn brown; it'll stay nice and fresh.

Lefse

It's a Scandinavian potato crepe, made as a treat here in Canada, usually for Christmas or Easter.

Lefse (Mom's recipe)

3 c cooked, riced potatoes (you need a ricer to get the right texture)
4 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
1 c flour
1 tsp sugar

Mix ingredients well. Take a large tablespoon of dough and roll in hands to a round shape. Roll as thin as you can on a well-floured board. Bake on top of grill, electric frying pan or on top of a wood stove. Bake on both sides until brown spots appear.

In my family, we spread a thin layer of butter on it and a sprinkle of sugar, then roll it up.
Other families might put jam on it, or even meat or cheese.

Basically Best Meat Loaf

2 lbs ground beef

1 egg

1 c milk

½ c onion, finely chopped

¼ c parsley, finely chopped

1½ tsp salt (I don’t put that much, just a good sprinkling of it)

1½ c rolled oats OR 2 c soft breadcrumbs

¼ tsp oregano (or thyme)

½ tsp chopped garlic

Beat egg and add milk.

Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Form into loaf and place in shallow baking pan.

Place a few cloves and bay leaf on top.

Bake at 350F for 1½ hours.

From Eat, Drink and Be Healthy, by Agnes Toms

Cheese Roast

2 cups cooked navy beans
1 tsp chopped parsley
3 tbsp finely diced celery
2 c grated cheese
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 c soft bread crumbs
2 tb butter

Drain and mash beans and combine with parsley, celery, cheese and seasonings. Add egg and mix thoroughly. Brown crumbs in butter and add to cheese mixture until it is thick enough to shape into a loaf. Roll in remaining crumbs and bake in moderate oven (350F) until nicely browned, 25-30 minutes.

Serve with any desired sauce.

***
I didn't have enough bread crumbs (and what are "soft" bread crumbs? I didn't even know there is such a thing) so I tore two slices of fresh bread into tiny pieces. It worked like the dickens because when browned they were nice and crunchy.
I packed the mixture into a loaf pan and we ate it without any sauce.

Chocolate Fudge

½ c butter or margarine (melted)

1½ c brown sugar

1/3 c milk

½ c cocoa

1-1/3 c icing sugar

¼ c chopped walnuts

Bring first four ingredients to boil over low heat and continue to boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Add last two ingredients, put into greased pan, voila.

I usually double the amount of nuts, and if there’s a teaspoon of brewed coffee left from the morning, add it when you add the nuts. Make sure the nuts are at room temperature; I once put them in shortly after taking them from the freezer, and the moment I added them to the hot fudge, it got so hard it wasn't pourable or spreadable. 

If you can, make fudge on a clear blue sky day. This recipe works out (i.e. hardens) most every time, but still ... why not hedge your bets. 

Homemade Diffuser Oil

1/4 cup rubbing alcohol (vodka works too)

1/4 cup hot water

20-25 drops essential oil 

Swirl to mix.

Use any essential oil you love:

• Eucalyptus, peppermint, and lavender reduce tension • Peppermint energizes • Lemon, lemongrass, and thyme purify • Lavender, orange, peppermint, cedarwood, frankincense, and jasmine inspire a positive mental state and combat depression

Sourdough Starter

1 tb Fermipan instant yeast (if using regular yeast, mix with the honey and 1/2 c of the water and let sit 15 minutes before combining with remaining water and adding to dry ingreds)
2 tsp honey
2&1/2 c whole wheat flour
2&1/2 c warm water

Using a wooden spoon, combine dry ingredients and add combined wet ingredients.
Place in large crock or gallon glass jar. Do not use any kind of metal container because the starter will react chemically with the metal.
Cover container with a damp cloth secured with a rubber band.
Keep the container at room temperature for 5 days. Stir it down each morning.
On the 5th day, add 1/4 c more warm water and 1/4 c more whole wheat flour. Let it stay at room temp till the 6th day.
It is ready to use or refrigerate on the 6th day. To store, place in a small crock or jar (no metal here either)) and refrigerate.
When you use 1 cup starter, replace it with 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup water. Even if you do not use the starter weekly, be sure to discard 1 cup and replace it as above at least once a week to keep the starter fresh.
Use a wooden spoon to stir down the starter daily. Stirring daily is advisable, but not altogether necessary.

*From Recipes for a Small Planet, by Ellen Buchman Ewald

I just add the starter to my dough mixture; I don't adjust the bread ingredients.

Spicy Tofu

1 tb olive oil

1 lb firm tofu, drained and cut into ¾-inch cubes

¼ c teriyaki sauce

1 tb grated fresh ginger

1 to 3 tsp Chinese hot chili paste with garlic or other hot sauce

2 small green and/or red bell peppers, seeded and cut into ¾ inch pieces

3 tb chopped peanuts

Heat oil over medium heat. 

Add tofu and cook, stirring constantly until cubes begin to brown, about three minutes.

Add next three ingredients. 

Stir and cook two more minutes.

Add last two ingredients and cook till softened, about three minutes.

Serve over brown rice.

Grilled Bread

4 slices focaccia bread

2 tb olive oil

¼ tsp salt

Brush bread slices with olive oil and season lightly with salt or other favourite seasoning. Grill bread in 400F oven for 10 minutes; it should be crusty outside and chewy in the centre.

I don’t usually have focaccia bread in the kitchen, so I use any bread on hand and it’s always delicious. Grated Parmesan cheese is a nice seasoning; so is garlic powder. It's so simple and yet so good.

Chili Beans

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 large (540-oz) cans kidney beans

1 green pepper, seeded and chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tsp cumin

1 540-oz can diced tomatoes

2 tsp salt

1 tsp chili powder

parmesan cheese

Sauté onions, pepper and garlic in oil until tender. 

Add remaining ingredients and heat over low heat, covered.

Serve with brown rice; sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Colourful, tasty, satisfying.

Variation:

1.Add a can of brown beans.

2.Add a second can of diced tomatoes and stir your leftover rice into the chili beans before heating.

3.Melt grated mozza on tortilla chips in the oven and serve them as dippers.

Muffins

2 cups whole wheat flour

3 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

3 tbsp brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup milk

¼ cup oil

Sift first 4 ingredients together. 

In another bowl, beat egg with milk and oil. 

Pour liquid into dry ingredients all at once, and stir just enough to moisten all dry ingredients. 

Batter will be lumpy. 

Fill well-greased muffin pans 2/3 full. 

Bake in 425F oven for 20-25 minutes. 

Makes 10-12 muffins.

Variations:

Corn Meal: substitute 1 cup yellow corn meal for 1 cup flour.

Blueberry: add 1 cup fresh blueberries to dry ingredients. Makes 14-16 muffins.

Bran: decrease flour to 1 cup and blend 1 cup bran into dry ingredients.

Date Bran: also add ½ cup chopped dates to dry ingredients.

Grandma Benson’s Baked Potatoes

Wash potatoes, peels on, and slice in half lengthwise.

Poke with knife point to make tiny slits. Don’t poke all the way through.

Place on baking sheet in 425F oven for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and butter the cut sides of the potatoes lightly.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper and/or whatever else you like (garlic or onion powder? surely anything goes).

Return to oven another 45 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through and tops begin to turn brown. 

I like to cook them till the tops are crispy sometimes too.

Don's Lemon Blueberry Freeze

3 cups whipping cream

1.5 cups sugar

4 tsp grated lemon rind

1/2 cup lemon juice

10-oz can blueberry pie filling (also works good with fresh blueberries, saskatoons, raspberries or other pie fillings)

In a large bowl combine sugar and cream, until sugar is dissolved. 

Blend in lemon rind and juice - mixture will thicken slightly. 

Pour into 13"x9" pan and freeze until slightly firm (about 1/2 hour).

Drop spoonfuls of pie filling over cream mixture & swirl together with a knife. 

Cover and freeze until firm (about 4 hours). 

Cut into squares and serve. S

erves 8 - 10.

Basically Best MeatLoaf

All meatloaves are not created equal!
As a kid, I didn't care for steak; to me, it had the texture of cardboard. 
Anything made from ground beef, well, that was a different story. 
I am still not a big meat-eater, but to this day I like pretty much anything made with ground beef.

2 lbs ground beef

1 egg

1 c milk

½ c onion, finely chopped

¼ c parsley, finely chopped

1½ tsp salt (I don’t put that much, just a good sprinkling of it)

1½ c rolled oats OR 2 c soft breadcrumbs

¼ tsp oregano (or thyme)

½ tsp chopped garlic

Beat egg and add milk.

Add remaining ingredients and mix well.

Form into loaf and place in shallow baking pan.

Place a few cloves and bay leaf on top.

Bake at 350F for 1½ hours.

You can use a cup of tomato juice in place of the milk in this recipe, but I prefer the meat loaf made with milk.

From Eat, Drink and Be Healthy, by Agnes Toms

Spinach with Feta

1 x 10-ounce bag fresh spinach

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

3 green onions, chopped

½ c crumbled feta cheese

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tb dried dillweed

¼ tsp pepper

Rinse spinach and shake off excess water. 

In large frying pan over medium-high heat, cover and cook spinach in only the water clinging to the leaves, until they start to wilt, about three minutes.

Transfer to colander, press out liquid, and coarsely chop.

In pan, heat oil over medium heat and fry onions, garlic and dill till softened, about three minutes. Add spinach, pepper, and all but one tablespoon of the cheese, cooking and stirring till cheese softens, about two minutes. 

Sprinkle with remaining cheese and serve.

Don't be dismayed when you see how little volume there is in the end. This makes a small bowl and is intensely flavoured; there will only be a couple small spoonfuls per person and that will be enough. It's sort of a special treat, very rich; you don't want a whole lot of it. 

Tooth Polish

2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp baking soda
15 drops peppermint oil

The recipe was seen on Facebook and I finally got around to trying it out. 

Update, March 2016
I have been using the above homemade toothpaste for a long time, and did not connect it to my gums being quite often sore, achy, bleedy. I rinsed with salt water for relief, and it always worked, so I thought maybe bacteria in my mouth was the problem.
Then I read that baking soda is an abrasive and if used often to brush teeth, can make the gums irritated and inflamed.
So I stopped using it for several weeks. Suddenly I didn't even know my gums were there.
This morning I used the toothpaste again, and again my gums are sore.
So there you have it. This recipe is not for me.

I leave it here only so that if you're trying it, having found the recipe here or elsewhere, you'll make the connection if your gums start acting up. Using it once a week instead of daily might not cause any problems. Maybe less peppermint oil would be better too.

Joanne's Antipasta

Sauce:
½ cup oil

1 cup chili sauce

½ cup malt vinegar

1 tsp brown sugar

1 clove garlic (crushed)

salt and pepper to taste

½ cup water

1 tbsp horseradish

juice of 1 lemon

1 cup catsup

Other Ingredients:
½ cup string beans (chopped)

6 mushrooms (sliced)

½ cup cocktail onions (sliced)

2 dill pickles (chopped)

3 cans flaked tuna

½ cup raw cauliflower

1 cup raw carrot (sliced)

½ cup stuffed olives (chopped)

Combine sauce ingredients and bring to boil. 

Add other ingredients. 

Simmer until veggies are almost done (30-40 minutes). 

Bottle and refrigerate. 

Keeps up to 4 months.

Spicy Burgers

"These burgers are spiced to perfection. To make them even spicier, you could melt jalapeno soy cheese on each patty and serve topped with salsa.

This is a SparkPeople.com Recipe (what's this)

Ingredients

1/2 cup flour 1 small onion, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 tsp dried oregano 1 small hot or jalapeno pepper, minced 1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 medium red pepper, diced 2 cups cooked or canned black beans, mashed 1/2 cup corn niblets 1/4 cup bread crumbs 1/4 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp chili powder 2 tbsp parsley, minced (optional)

Directions

1. On a small plate, set aside flour for coating. In a medium saucepan, saut� the onion, garlic, oregano, and hot peppers in oil on medium-high heat until the onions are translucent. Add the peppers and saut� another 2 minutes, until pepper is tender. Set aside. 2. In a large bowl, mash the black beans with a potato masher or fork. Stir in the vegetables (including the corn), breadcrumbs, cumin, salt, chili powder, and parsley. Mix well. Divide and shape into 6 patties. 3. Lay down each patty in flour, coating each side. Cook on a lightly oiled frying pan on medium-high heat for 5-10 minutes or until browned on both sides. Makes 6 patties. Reprinted with permission from HOW IT ALL VEGAN! by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer (www.GoVegan.net) Arsenal Pulp Press."

Dressing Casserole

1 medium onion, chopped

4 tb butter

10 slices bread, cubed

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 tsp sage

½ c celery, chopped

1 can chicken with rice soup

½ can water

Preheat oven to 325F.

Brown onion in butter.

Mix with remaining ingredients.

Bake 1 hour.

Do you like your dressing almost soggy? The recipe I found doesn't say whether to bake it covered or not, so to be on the safe side I put the lid on. It's a bit soggy that way, so next time I'll take it off for the last half hour, or even the whole hour, and see what happens.

This recipe is in the little wooden recipe box Mom had at home while I was growing up, and that I have had since she bought something different and passed the old one on to me some 20 years ago. The recipe is in Mom's handwriting, on a piece of notepaper folded in half. 

And it's perfect for those holiday/family get-togethers like Thanksgiving when there is never really enough dressing inside the bird.