Bubbling Jack & Clams on Pumpernickel

So, what's always on hand when you feel the craving for a cheesy, seafood-y  garlic-butter-y appetizer?  At our house, that would be a can of clams, some jack cheese, and some  pumpernickel bread.  Cutting the ingredients in thirds yields a nice serving  for 3 or 4.

Now and then, like today, I use co-jack  and there've been times it was shredded Swiss. And while  there's almost always a partial loaf of cocktail rye or pumpernickel in the freezer, a nice medium-thick slice of  soft, chewy, fresh pumpernickel can't be beat.  Five minutes to mix it up and maybe five or less  under the broiler  equal  almost-instant gratification.    Depending on the size of the bread base, this  may be finger food or fork food, and it's also  pretty broiled and served in individual ramekins with a knife and fork.

Combine 16 oz.  Monterey Jack cheese, shredded, 3 (6-1/2oz) cans chopped clams, drained, 2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley,  3 TB softened butter, 2 Tbsp chopped chives, 2 garlic cloves, minced, 1/4  tsp ground red pepper, 1/4  tsp  freshly ground black pepper

Spread on  8 slices pumpernickel bread for knife & fork eating or  about 30 slices cocktail  bread.    Broil until golden brown and bubbly. Garnish with parsley sprigs and lemon wedges. Enjoy  immediately.

Superb Pork and Onion Kabobs

An unusual combination of honey, curry, soy, and  chili sauce combine to make a memorable dish.  Make them  in the broiler, skewer-less, if you choose,  as I often do in the winter - after all, you're going to  pull them off anyway.   A skewer  just keeps everything neat and controllable on a grill. Either way, these are unusually  tasty, & fast.  Just  remember to start them  marinating in the morning or night before.

In a bowl, combine 1/2 c soy sauce, 1/4 c. honey ( sugar free works great), 1/4 c. chili sauce....slight pause here while  I mention that  I can tell your age if you're thinking I mean salsa, or hot sauce.  No, chili sauce was the predecessor to these items and is nothing like either one. It's more like a hopped-up ketchup.  You'll find it in the same  grocery  sauce section, in a bottle that probably  looks just like a seafood cocktail sauce bottle .  Back to the ingredients:  add   2 TB veg oil, 2 tsp. curry powder, 2 TB  finely chopped onion.   Mix well,   remove half of it and save  in the fridge for basting.

Add 2 lbs boneless  pork , cut in 1" cubes.  Cover and marinate 3 hours or overnight, refrigerated. This is a good use of that  pork loin  roast you bought on sale, cut up  and  froze  in  smaller hunks.  Otherwise, you can cut up  very thick  boneless pork chops.

When ready to cook, drain & discard that marinade  and thread the  pork on skewers , alternating  with 3 or 4 medium onions cut in  4-6 wedges each .   Grill over medium heat about 5 minutes.  Turn, baste often, and grill about 15 minutes more, until juices run clear.  Don't overcook.  I use sweet onions, or when using regular white onions, I  nuke the wedges for about 2 minutes before grilling them, so they are more tender and not so bite-y.

Turtle Pretzels and Minty Witch Cookies

Minty Witches   and   Turtle Pretzel Nuggets    

'Turtle anything'  is  a magnet for me, and these nuggets are delicious,  however......someone at RR magazine is  totally clueless when it comes to time management.    I'm not  at all sure these are worth the effort,  so  I'm likely to go back to plopping a caramel on a small pretzel ring or twist, nuking briefly, then dipping in chocolate and nuts.  Even easier,  put a Rolo on a small pretzel ring, nuke briefly to melt a bit, press a pecan half on top.    The taste is pretty  much the same and it frees up an hour or so for waxing the driveway or whatever you consider  more fun than  tediously rolling out caramels.

Being a good direction-taker, I started out following directions to roll the caramels flat with a rolling pin.  I used Kraft caramels, maybe Brachs would have been softer... or maybe I should have had  Wheaties for breakfast,  because  this  task was not as easy  as it sounded.   I soon started nuking a dozen or so at a time, for about 15 seconds, to soften them slightly, which resulted in being able to squish them flat with my fingers, no rolling involved.  (If you over-nuke they'll begin to lose their shape  and be too gooey to work with)  This made the process speed up acceptably, but still took a while.  I've left the  RR original directions intact here, in case  you happen to feel like punishing yourself or  keeping  kids busy for hours.  I also found that dropping them in the nuts resulted in too heavy  a nut coating, so I just sprinkled the nuts over the hot chocolate.

One 14-ounce bag (4 dozen) soft caramels   One 10-ounce bag pretzel nuggets,  12 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped , 2 cups natural almonds, toasted and finely chopped       Directions:  Unwrap the caramels, then, using a rolling pin, roll out each one into a 1/8-inch-thick oval. Wrap a caramel around each pretzel nugget, pinching the ends to seal. In a double boiler over simmering water, melt half the chocolate, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Add the remaining chocolate, remove the top of the double boiler from the saucepan and stir until smooth.

Place the almonds in a shallow bowl. Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Using a fork, dip a caramel-covered pretzel in the chocolate to coat, tapping off any excess chocolate. Transfer the pretzel to the almonds and toss to coat; place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining pretzels. Let stand until set, about 3 hours. ( I refrigerated them to harden  the coating faster).
Yummy for sure,   but never again......    

Minty Witches
are a favorite I've been making at Christmas  for  about  forty years.   I am not  crazy about sandwich cookies,  hard cookies, or mint  for that matter, but these are an exception to all three.  Somewhat like Girl Scout Thin Mints  on speed, they're very chocolate-y  and the chocolate-covered  mint patty filling  makes them easy to assemble.  I buy the long thin boxes of the candies somewhere cheap like Dollar Tree.  They also carry small bags of  the same type mints ( like mini York's) in small bags.    There are generally about 20 per box, check the label for quantity.  Thiis time I happened to find orange-flavored mints covered in chocolate.

Combine 1/2 c  solid shortening, 1/2 c. sugar, and 1 egg, and beat til creamy. Blend in 6 oz mint-flavored chocolate chips, melted, and 1/4 c. white corn syrup.  Sift together  1 3/4 c  flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt.  Stir into chocolate, mix well, and refrigerate  several hours or overnight. Just add about 1/4 tsp peppermint extract if you use plain chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 350.  Roll into tiny  uniform-size balls, about the size of a maraschino cherry or a malted milk ball. It's important not to let them get too big, or the filling will get lost inside. We want them to  spread to be only the same size as the mints.    Roll them in granulated sugar,  and bake for 10-15 minutes.  Let stand on cookie sheets  a minute  before removing,  but do not let them cool....they harden quickly  Remove half of them to a rack,  turning upside down. Immediately  top with a peppermint and then the other cookie, right side up.  As the  mint begins to soften, gently push to squish the filling to the cookie size.  Cool.   The original recipe says it makes 48 but I never  get  more than 36.   They are  witchy-good!

Chopped Greek Salad

Greece still being  on my bucket list, I have no idea how authentic any Greek salad really is, actually.  Is it  like  pizza.....mostly an American version of some vaguely similar dish?    Whatever  the answer,  as for salads ,  there's nothing like a tangy Greek salad.     If you're in the market for a superb  traditional recipe, check  my   January '08  blog entry.   But lettuce  doesn't always hold over or travel well,  so I  often rely on this crisp, crunchy  alternative.  With nothing  delicate  to wilt,  and no  sour cream, yogurt  or mayonnaise to be concerned about,  there are  no  worries about  refrigeration  issues when taking this  version  anywhere. It was great tonight  served with  rack of lamb roasted with a little dijon and breadcrumb coating, and I love munching on it for a tasty low-fat, low-cal, low-carb lunch or snack.    

  Keep the veggies chopped in a uniform size, about nickel size, in order to get a taste of several veggies  in each bite. This will easily serve 8 hungry people, it  makes a substantial  bowlful.   I double it when taking to a party and it disappears  in a flash. 

Chop everything  &  toss together in a large bowl:

1 1/2 c. fresh broccoli ( no stems) , 1 1/2 c. fresh cauliflower ( no stems) , 1 medium cucumber with the  peel on,  1 c. cherry tomatoes, halved,  1/2 pepper  of each color: green, red, yellow;    1 large can  whole ripe pitted  olives, drained and cut in half; ( you can use Greek or Kalamata if you choose) ,  3 sliced green onions, green and white  parts,   8 oz Greek vinaigrette salad dressing, Kraft or any brand;   and 1 c. feta cheese.  Don't skimp on the feta !     It's ready to eat  or will keep  for several days,  keep  refrigerated.    After a day or two the dressing may congeal a  bit; just set it on the  counter  briefly, stir, and it will become clear again.

Watermelon-Raspberry Spinach Salad

I'm not sure why I  seldom make this pretty,  refreshing salad  in the colder months, except that the 'winter' watermelon that's available  (from where,  Patagonia ? ) just isn't very sweet.   Mid- March isn't  exactly summer here, but I bought  a container of cut-up melon today  anyway  so we could enjoy this  salad with the first outdoor-grilled pork chops of the year.

At home  we enjoy this as a side, but   I  made this into  a  popular entree salad at the  club's restaurant  by adding strips of cooked chicken breast. The pink shades were perfect  for several pin-themed  charity lunches supporting breast cancer research.   The salad is very low fat/low calorie and low carb too, if you use a fat free and/or low sugar dressing.   The  original recipe used   a homemade poppyseed dressing but I like it much better  with a  raspberry dressing. It adds to the visual appeal as well.   I'm partial to Ken's Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette  low-sugar version   or Panera's,  but there are several others too.

As for the recipe,  just  use baby spinach or  tear larger leaves in half.  Add cut up ripe watermelon, fresh red raspberries, halved green grapes, slivered  almonds, and whatever you decide to use for the dressing.

Pecan Pie Bagels

Where is it written that pecan pie is just for dessert?  After all, in colonial America, pie was specifically prepared as breakfast food, especially fruit pies.   But it's  tricky to juggle a slice of pecan pie in one hand and  a cup of coffee in the other, so why not make it easier, and a tad more breakfast-y by downsizing and loading it all  in  a bagel instead of pie crust?  

I made a big batch today for a spring gardening seminar, using mini bagels.  This was    more time consuming than usual, only because scooping  out a smaller space is best done a little more carefully.

They are wonderful still warm, but  just as good at room temperature, so  can be prepared ahead of time,  just cool first  and then carefully cover so they don't harden up while waiting or enroute to wherever they're headed.

This recipe makes 6 large bagel halves. Obviously,  adjust for larger quantities.

Preheat the oven to 375.    Split 3 cinnamon-raisin bagels in half and place on a foil covered baking sheet...don't skip the foil, unless you use wax paper or a Silpat.  You'll regret it when  stray brown sugar and syrup bake & burn onto your pans.  Using a small serrated grapefruit spoon or knife, or  your fingers,  carefully scoop out the insides of the bagel.  Leave  the outside  & bottom intact  and not paper-thin.  Tear or chop the crumbs in tiny pieces and set aside.    Beat 3 eggs, and then beat in 1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar, 1 cup light ( white)  corn syrup, 1/8 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1 TB butter or margarine, melted.

Fold in the reserved crumbs and 3/4 c. chopped pecans. If you're making mini bagels, chop them   finely to accomodate the smaller space.  Carefully spoon the filling into the bagel shells.  Top with pecan halves, if you wish.  Bake for 25 minutes or until firm in the center, and golden brown.