If you are stuck in the old way of salt and butter on popcorn, here is a new twist. This is for the nights when you want salty sweet. Personally, cinnamon is my latest addiction. It’s hard for me to resist and I don’t want to stop eating it. There are variations, of course, but this is by far my most favorite way to eat popcorn.

Pop your popcorn in the hot air popper. Butter as desired, plus extra. I recommend you use a spoon. You really want the butter to coat evenly. Then sprinkle with a touch of salt, and the a couple of teaspoons of sugar, and some cinnamon. It’s important to stir this well. Absolutely delicious!

My first big job out of high school was at a local steakhouse. We made a cranberry salad around the holidays that was so sweet/sour/addictive I had a hard time not eating myself sick on it. This recipe I found in an old cookbook that was a gift from my boss at that time-I don’t think it was the same exact salad, but I have the same difficulty not eating the entire batch in one night.

Cranberries are so intensely sour and coupled with the sweet pineapple and marshmallows, creates the ultimate combination.

1 package fresh cranberries

1 cup sugar

1 cup drained crushed pineapple

4 cups mini marshmallows

1 cup whipped cream or cool whip

process cranberries in food processor until finely ground. add sugar and pineapple, then marshmallows.

*At this point you can allow it to set overnight if you want/need to.

Add whipped cream just before serving

Gigantic Blackberries

This is the first year I have had a nice batch of blackberries off my thornless bush. I’m extremely proud of this plant-I started it from a little bitty 2 leaf start. Now 3 years later I picked a gallon and probably will have another gallon over the next couple days. The only thing I could do with this many berries is either freeze (no time) or bake (better option).

preheat oven to 375′, grease a 13×9 baking pan

2 pints berries,carefully washed/rinsed

1 cup sugar with 2 TB cornstarch mixed in

Stir in a large bowl and let set while you mix the topping.

in bowl, microwave 1/2 cup butter until soft and about 1/3 melted

mix in 1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 cups oats

1 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

mix with a fork until clumpy

pour berries into pan-crumble topping over berries and bake 30-45 minutes until fully bubbly and topping is golden brown.

Allow to cool 10 minutes before serving ,and top with vanilla ic cream!

My dad makes the ultimate rhubarb pie. I never like the mix of strawberry rhubarb. To me rhubarb deserves it’s own dish-and of course topped with vanilla ice cream. I love the tartness mixed with sweet vanilla ice cream and the velvety texture of good tender rhubarb. Years ago my dad took a pie to a potluck dinner. A couple of elderly ladies were ranting about the pie, wondering who had brought it. He admitted he did, and they promptly told him to tell his wife she makes the best rhubarb pie in years.  I’m surprised they lived when he told them he made it him self.

I think this is a more old fashion recipe with the egg that adds a custard-like touch.

Pre-heat oven to 425′

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped rhubarb (about 1/2-1  inch slices if your stalks are average)

mix: 1 1/2 cup sugar and 2 TB cornstarch-then stir into rhubarb,

stir in  1 beaten egg

set this bowl aside while you make the crust

Crust:

1 cup cold shortening

(you can use 1/2 butter, but do not replace completely with butter,it melts away and leaves holes in the crust!)

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

mix flour and salt-cut in shortening

[ I put 1 cup flour and 1/2 shortening in my little food processor and pulse until it is coarsely mixed-shortening should be pea size-ish. Put that in a bowl, and do the other half]

measure 1/3 milk into measuring cup, add 1 TB vinegar and pour immediately into the bowl. Mix with a spoon until it comes together, then I use my hands to pack it together.

Roll out the first half, then put that in the pie dish. Pour in the rhubarb mixture, top with the other dough. Pinch closed all the way around, then trim with a sharp knife.  Slice a couple holes in the top-this allows the air to escape while it’s cooking. I have never made one that doesn’t ooze over. It’s okay-it’s a good thing.

Place on cookie sheet in oven. Bake at the 425′ for 15 minutes, then reduce temp to 350′ and finish for 40-45 minutes. Allow to cool for a bit before you cut into it-and top with a scoop of your favorite vanilla ice cream!

Indeed the spirit has caught me! This recipe I got out of a newspaper about 10 years ago. I didn’t have a good recipe filing system, so I actually carried this in my wallet for that entire time. Luckily I somehow managed to keep it in one piece!

I chose to bake this in a 13×9 inch glass pan and just top each piece with whipped cream. Add about 10-15 minutes to the baking time.

I couldn't help myself- I started eating before I took the picture.

This is a fabulous recipe-slightly bittersweet and rich. Courtesy of Guinness.

Guinness Chocolate Cake

1/4 cup cocoa powder (for dusting cake pans)

2 sticks butter or margarine (butter is always MY preference)

1 cup Guinness Stout (can is best which I wouldn’t say for most beers)

2/3 cup Dutch-process dark cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups unbleached flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/4 tsp baking soda, sifted

2 extra large eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

     Heat oven to 350′. With cocoa powder, lightly dust two greased 8-inch springform pans.  In a heavy saucepan or microwave, heat butter, Guinness and cocoa powder until melted, cool.

I do this in the mixer: Sift dry ingredients together. Add the Guinness mixture and beat for 1 minute on medium speed. Add egs and sour cream and beat 2 minutes on medium spped.

Pour batter into pans and bake at 350′ for 25-30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Place pans on wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes, then remove the sides and cool completely.

Frost with your favorite frosting. It hardly needs any if you love cake.

This recipe is for when you want cake from a box only make it taste really good! I spent about a week exploring cake mix variations I could make, and this one is quite good.
Pumkin Cake
Preheat oven to 350′
Mix together:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 can pumkin
2 tsp pumkin spice
or
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon & 1/4 tsp ground clove & 1/4 ground ginger
pour in greased 9×13 pan and bake for 25-30 minutes
Wonderful cooled and frosted with a cream cheese frosting.

Lemon Drop Cookies
These were a hit. Usually lemon cookies are mild-these are not. They pack a delicious and wonderful lemony punch that makes you want more.
Preheat oven to 350′
Mix together:
1 box lemon cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp lemon extract
mix ingredients. form dough into small balls and roll in confectioners sugar.
Bake for 6-9 minutes. They should be gooey on the inside when fresh out of the oven, and make a delicous chewy cookie when cooled.
If you have any left by then, that is….

I fell in love with sushi the very first time I tried it. With a love for most foods new and different, I love the fresh and beautiful way sushi comes together.  So then I decided dessert sushi would be possible-after doing some research I found some ideas. Obviously I’m not the first here, but I came up with my own version. The only thing I took was molding chocolate recipe, which is a bag of chocolate chips with 3 tbs of karo syrup. Molding chocolate is also available.

The rest was just my own idea of what would look similar to sushi but be a delectable bite of sweetness.

I started with one package of chocolate chips. Once melted in the microwave, mix in the 3 TBS karo syrup. I let it cool for a while in the fridge down to a workable temp. In order to work on my roll, I put the chocolate between 2 layers of plastic wrap and used a rolling in to roll it as thin as I could without getting holes. Thinner is better here.

My version wanted some sort of rice. So I used rice krispies. In order to keep it soft, I mixed it with a combination of equal parts softened cream cheese and marshmallow fluff. The only time in my life I have ever bought that stuff, but I need sweet and soft. After rolling this out flat between plastic, I put it on the chocolate.

Now I have the fruit. I decided fruit of various colors would be attractive and tasty. I bought fresh strawberries, kiwi and papaya. I think the result was fabulous. Papaya and kiwi are not my normal type but it was a perfect combination. To keep my fruit easy to work with I sliced it in squareish strips. Then I put them all on a tray and froze it. This helped keep from squishing

The rolling part is tricky, I kept the bottom plastic wrap on and work quickly as the chocolate hardens and cracks or melts at your touch. I haven’t got it down easy yet. Some of my rolls turned out better than others, my prettiest ones I took to a party and forgot to take a picture. I decorated my trays mostly with mint and a dish of dark chocolate syrup ’soy sauce’ for dipping.

This was one of the last ones, I added some homemade jelled cranberry ‘ginger’ and pistachio ‘wasabi’.

The golden delicous drippy sweetness of a ripe peach. Nothing quite like it when fall starts to set in and the local peaches can be bought by the box, guaranteed to be ripe. I can’t buy them in grocery stores, they have no flavor. So this time of year I load up, make jam, sauce, and can as much as I have time for.

Peaches Galore

My favorite things to make is a simple hot peach sauce served over vanilla ice cream.

Start with about 1 peach per person. I did 4 peaches, a bit much when 2 of those are kids, but we managed.

I peel and slice, I like to make smaller bites, about 1/4-1/2 inch thick.  I slice them right into the sauce pan.

Thats all there is!

In a measuring cup mix 1/2 cup sugar and one heaping teaspoon corn starch. Mix into peaches and heat on medium heat until juicy. Add good sprinkle of cinnamon and a pinch of ground clove.

A Bit of Spice

Stirring constantly cook until bubbly hot and slightly glazed looking. Serve hot over vanilla ice cream!! Yum!!

This needs another scoop of ice cream...

One thing that frustrates me with the consumerism of the processed food market is many things can be made from scratch in almost as short amount of time. Thinking ahead makes eating homemade dinners or desserts just as easy in my book.

This cheesecake recipe is very basic, I love a good cheesecake with a little fruit on top once in a while. This takes about 15 minutes to mix up, 20-30 min to bake. If I forget to set out the cream cheese to soften I put it on a plate one at a time and microwave it in increments of 15 seconds until its soft.

Crust:

Mix together with fork:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs-or one package yields about 1 1/4 cups( I put graham crackers in my food chopper for a minute or two)

1/4 cup sugar

1 TB Flour

Add:

5 TB melted butter

mix evenly and pat evenly into GREASED 8×8 pan (I make square cheesecakes!)

Beat until smooth

16 oz. (2 packages) very soft cream cheese-I never use low fat

3 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp Vanilla extract (almond can be substituted)

Pour over crust. Bake at 375′ for 20-30 minutes until center is no longer jiggly. Cool completely before serving or you will have a gooey mess!

Topping ideas: Always top each serving separately. You can buy canned fillings/toppings like cherry or blueberry, but any fruit is good mashed or diced and a bit juicy and maybe slightly sweetened. Chocolate syrup or caramel syrup make an easy and pretty topping.