Green Tomato Cake ~ posted by Tap, tap, tap…

This is a moist, spice-type cake…a good way to use some of those extra green tomatoes before frost hits.”

INGREDIENTS:4 cups chopped green tomatoes
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup butter
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
DIRECTIONS:
1. Place chopped tomatoes in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon salt. Let stand 10 minutes. Place in a colander, rinse with cold water and drain.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch baking pan.

3. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat until creamy.
4. Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, soda and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add raisins and nuts to dry mixture; add dry ingredients to creamed mixture. Dough will be very stiff. Mix well.
5. Add drained tomatoes and mix well. Pour into the prepared 9 x 13 inch pan.
6. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.

I can’t find my altered recipe ( I may have not written it down). If I remember right, I used the food processor on the tomatoes, to chop them fine. I didn’t salt them but did let them sit and strained them well. I also may have used pumpkin pie spice (and increased it a bit) instead of the cinnamon and nutmeg. Since we like a lot of goodies in our bread/cakes I also would have probably doubled the raisins (I use blonde) and nuts.

Blender Cranberry Salad ~ posted by Phyllis in Canada

It’s from the More with Less cookbook and it’s SO delicious!

Blender Cranberry Salad
Dissolve over low heat:
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1 c. cold water
Combine in blender (or food processor):
2 c. cranberries
1 unpeeled orange, seeded and quartered
1 apple, cored and quartered
1/2-3/4 c. sugar or honey
dissolved gelatin
Blend only until orange peels are well chopped.
Add 1/4 c. nuts (optional)
Chill until firm

You could also omit the gelatin and water and serve as a relish.

Needleroozer’s Fake Ice Cream

This recipe was originally from How Cooking Works. Papa and I modified it years ago, so the kids could have ice cream for their birthdays. You are only limited on variations by your imagination.

The basic vanilla coconut milk ice cream:
4 cups coconut milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar (Papa likes superfine)
pinch of salt
1 TBSP vanilla extract
1/2 vanilla bean, slit lengthwise, and scraped*

Stir the coconut milk and sugar together until the sugar is dissolved. Add the salt and vanilla and freeze in an electric or hand operated ice cream freezer.
Yields about 1.5t quarts

*throw all of your scraped beans into a jar, and fill it with sugar. Vanilla sugar is wonderful to bake/cook with.

Okay, now for some variations.

For more of a coconut flavor, lessen the vanilla or leave out the bean, and add some coconut. Yum!

For orange sherbet, instead of vanilla, add 1 TBSP of orange oil, and some orange zest. If you make a batch of this, and a batch of vanilla, you have the makings for a Creamsickle! The kids love this combo.

You could also use lemon oil and zest, or throw in berries, peaches.etc. If you add fruit, add it to the milk, and include it in the volume, or it will come out liqud-y.

We always do this in our old fashioned hand crank ice cream maker, and it is just wonderful to be able to have the real taste of ice cream, without the dairy.

Church Pat of the Manor’s Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Prehat the oven to 350 degrees, spray cooking oil to coat bottom of a 9x5x3 inch bread pan, then lightly dust the pan with flour and tap out the excess.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the dry ingredients except the sugar.

In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until well blended. One at a time, add the eggs, beating well with a fork (I will be using a mixer) after each addition. Stir in the bananas, milk, and vanilla until well combined.

Stir in the flour mixture just until blended. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Scrape batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.

Bake for 45-55 minutes or until you test with a knife in the center of the bread and it comes out clean.

Remove to a wire rack, cool at least 10 minutes before removing the bread from the pan, and then finish cooling on the rack.

Bon Appetite!
ChurchPat

Dr. Weil’s Ginger-Almond Pears ~ posted by Jelly Bean

Ginger-Almond Pears

5 firm, ripe pears
3 c apple cider
2 t finely chopped fresh gingerroot
salt to taste
3 T arrowroot starch (I used cornstarch)
1/2 t pure almond extract.

Slice pears thinly (I did not peel them, but the recipe calls for peeling) and place in a saucepan with cider and gingerroot. Add a pinch of salt.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until pears are tender, about 15 minutes.

Dissolve arrowroot starch in 1/3 cup cold water and add to the simmering pears, stirring, until the sauce is thick and clear.

Remove from heat and stir in almond extract. Serve warm or cold (but I am already partial to warm!!!).

Hope that helps someone!