The Great FJ Recipe Thread

[Conuly]

Mashed potatoes? I really want to know now what the solution turned out to be!

I just made for dinner what has to be the world's simplest dinner, eggs in tomato sauce. I had no idea it was this easy to poach eggs!

1. Prepare your tomato sauce. I decided to go with a marinara sauce. Saute one finely chopped onion and several pressed cloves of garlic in a large pot, I also added a finely chopped celery stalk. When soft, add half a can of crushed tomatoes or tomato puree. Finely chop a small handful of parsley and another handful of basil and add them to the sauce, cook for a few minutes and add some salt to taste.

You can use ANY sort of seasonings, though. I imagine this would taste great with cilantro and peppers, for example, or with mint and cumin. (Don't question the mint.) I usually add tomato paste to sauce, but this time I didn't out of laziness and I'm glad for it, the sauce thickened enough after I added the eggs.

2. Steam some torn kale. Kale is cheap, nutritious, and filling, and so serves as a good base for the eggs and sauce. However, you could use rice as the base, chickpeas, or nothing at all.

3. Decide if you're having bread with your meal. I made some quick garlic bread - saute garlic in olive oil on LOW until it's not sharp, add some fresh rosemary and romano cheese, pour over italian bread and stick it under the broiler for a few minutes. You may want to add more oil to the bread before putting it in the oven, we like to have ours totally drenched.

4. Poach the eggs (one per person) directly in the sauce. When you have the sauce simmering on a LOW flame, crack the eggs into a teacup or small bowl, tip them gently into the sauce, cover and cook for three or four minutes. You want the yolks runny. (You may need to salt the eggs after cooking, depending on your taste.)

To serve, put some of your kale on a plate, and ladle one egg and sauce on top. Have the bread on the side. Cheap (I doubt it came to much more than a dollar per person), filling, healthy, and quick!

I'm terrible at recording precise measurements and all, so my recipes are more like old-fashioned recipes, more "reminders" than anything else. Still, that makes them very adaptable :)

[Gizmola]

Conuly wrote:

Mashed potatoes? I really want to know now what the solution turned out to be!

I can't tell if you're teasing or not. Everyone IRL made fun of me for being proud of making mashed potatoes.

But in case you're limited like me and need help, this is what I did:

Attempt # 1

Peel potatoes and put in pan with water.

Boil the potatoes

Forget about the boiling potatoes until you smell a rancid, burnt smell

Realize the potatoes have burnt to bottom of pan

Try to scrap out enough decent potato to mash and eat.

Get pissed off that the damned potatoes are so f**king hot when you accidently spill them on your hand

Say "Screw it," let the dogs lick out the potatoes and pull vodka from freezer

Throw pan away while drunkedly muttering about how your stove and the pan were conspiring against you

Attempt # 2

Peel desired number of potatoes

Boil under really tender & falling apart

Mash while adding tiny bits of warm, whole milk & salted butter

Use a potato masher instead of one of the little mixer things that go in a hand mixer. Makes a big difference.

Taste repeatedly to make sure you're not getting them too soupy.

Salt & pepper as you eat them straight out of the pan with another few tablespoons of butter.

Call everyone you know and post on Facebook that you successfully made mashed potatoes.

Realize you're probably the only person on earth for whom this is a huge accomplishment

As you did before, pull vodka out of freezer.

Enjoy vodka.

Order pizza.

Sleep

[emmiedahl]

Mashed potatoes? I really want to know now what the solution turned out to be!

I just made for dinner what has to be the world's simplest dinner, eggs in tomato sauce. I had no idea it was this easy to poach eggs!

1. Prepare your tomato sauce. I decided to go with a marinara sauce. Saute one finely chopped onion and several pressed cloves of garlic in a large pot, I also added a finely chopped celery stalk. When soft, add half a can of crushed tomatoes or tomato puree. Finely chop a small handful of parsley and another handful of basil and add them to the sauce, cook for a few minutes and add some salt to taste.

You can use ANY sort of seasonings, though. I imagine this would taste great with cilantro and peppers, for example, or with mint and cumin. (Don't question the mint.) I usually add tomato paste to sauce, but this time I didn't out of laziness and I'm glad for it, the sauce thickened enough after I added the eggs.

2. Steam some torn kale. Kale is cheap, nutritious, and filling, and so serves as a good base for the eggs and sauce. However, you could use rice as the base, chickpeas, or nothing at all.

3. Decide if you're having bread with your meal. I made some quick garlic bread - saute garlic in olive oil on LOW until it's not sharp, add some fresh rosemary and romano cheese, pour over italian bread and stick it under the broiler for a few minutes. You may want to add more oil to the bread before putting it in the oven, we like to have ours totally drenched.

4. Poach the eggs (one per person) directly in the sauce. When you have the sauce simmering on a LOW flame, crack the eggs into a teacup or small bowl, tip them gently into the sauce, cover and cook for three or four minutes. You want the yolks runny. (You may need to salt the eggs after cooking, depending on your taste.)

To serve, put some of your kale on a plate, and ladle one egg and sauce on top. Have the bread on the side. Cheap (I doubt it came to much more than a dollar per person), filling, healthy, and quick!

I'm terrible at recording precise measurements and all, so my recipes are more like old-fashioned recipes, more "reminders" than anything else. Still, that makes them very adaptable :)

We make something like this a lot and my family calls it shakshuka.

[StarrieEyedKat]

Conuly wrote:

I can't tell if you're teasing or not. Everyone IRL made fun of me for being proud of making mashed potatoes.

But in case you're limited like me and need help, this is what I did:

Attempt # 1

Peel potatoes and put in pan with water.

Boil the potatoes

Forget about the boiling potatoes until you smell a rancid, burnt smell

Realize the potatoes have burnt to bottom of pan

Try to scrap out enough decent potato to mash and eat.

Get pissed off that the damned potatoes are so f**king hot when you accidently spill them on your hand

Say "Screw it," let the dogs lick out the potatoes and pull vodka from freezer

Throw pan away while drunkedly muttering about how your stove and the pan were conspiring against you

Attempt # 2

Peel desired number of potatoes

Boil under really tender & falling apart

Mash while adding tiny bits of warm, whole milk & salted butter

Use a potato masher instead of one of the little mixer things that go in a hand mixer. Makes a big difference.

Taste repeatedly to make sure you're not getting them too soupy.

Salt & pepper as you eat them straight out of the pan with another few tablespoons of butter.

Call everyone you know and post on Facebook that you successfully made mashed potatoes.

Realize you're probably the only person on earth for whom this is a huge accomplishment

As you did before, pull vodka out of freezer.

Enjoy vodka.

Order pizza.

Sleep

Well I, for one, am immensely impressed and proud of you. I once *literally* burnt a pot while I was trying to boil water. So your mashed potatoes accomplishment is a grand feat in my eyes. Brava. :clap:

[Conuly]

We make something like this a lot and my family calls it shakshuka.

Apparently that's the Tunisian version, now wildly popular (google says) in Israel.

I made what's I guess the Italian version, eggs in purgatory.

[lilah]

Conuly wrote:

I can't tell if you're teasing or not. Everyone IRL made fun of me for being proud of making mashed potatoes.

But in case you're limited like me and need help, this is what I did:

Attempt # 1

Peel potatoes and put in pan with water.

Boil the potatoes

Forget about the boiling potatoes until you smell a rancid, burnt smell

Realize the potatoes have burnt to bottom of pan

Try to scrap out enough decent potato to mash and eat.

Get pissed off that the damned potatoes are so f**king hot when you accidently spill them on your hand

Say "Screw it," let the dogs lick out the potatoes and pull vodka from freezer

Throw pan away while drunkedly muttering about how your stove and the pan were conspiring against you

Attempt # 2

Peel desired number of potatoes

Boil under really tender & falling apart

Mash while adding tiny bits of warm, whole milk & salted butter

Use a potato masher instead of one of the little mixer things that go in a hand mixer. Makes a big difference.

Taste repeatedly to make sure you're not getting them too soupy.

Salt & pepper as you eat them straight out of the pan with another few tablespoons of butter.

Call everyone you know and post on Facebook that you successfully made mashed potatoes.

Realize you're probably the only person on earth for whom this is a huge accomplishment

As you did before, pull vodka out of freezer.

Enjoy vodka.

Order pizza.

Sleep

Mmm vodka.

My culinary albatross, my white whale is beer bread. 5 years ago I was given a beer bread mix from one of those direct sale companies that make mixes and other cooking gadgets. (tastefully simple or taste of home or what have you). anyway the beer bread was good. One of my friends still raves about it and wishes I'd cook it again but every time I've tried to make beer bread from scratch it tastes too bitter, to chemically or nasty. I'm still searching for a good beer bread recipe, preferably one with cheese in it.

[2xx1xy1JD]

My Mexican version of shashuka is to cook the eggs with a jar of salsa. And yes, it is wildly popular in Israel.

[lauracat7]

Nigella Lawson has a terrific recipe for Margarita ice Cream- everyone I served it too loves it, wolfs it down and requests the recipe. Be aware that in typical Nigella fashion, this is not a low fat, recipe... Here's a link to the Fppd Network printed recipe which also has a photo I cannot get to post here. Enjoy! http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/margarita-ice-cream-recipe/index.html

This is a cinch to make, and easy-easy-easy to eat. It is, now that I come to think of it, in effect a no-churn version of the ice cream in Forever Summer. If you want to serve it in glasses dipped in sugar and salt, by all means do. But it is so good, that even as someone is not a committed ice cream eater and no kind of a drinker, I find I can spoon it straight into my mouth from the container I've chilled it in. In other words: no decorative touches or embellishments are remotely needed. This is truly the express way to dessert-deliriousness.

Ingredients

1/2 cup lime juice

2 tablespoons tequila

3 tablespoons orange liqueur (recommended: Cointreau or Triple Sec)

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar

2 cups heavy cream

Directions

Pour the lime juice, tequila and orange liqueur into a bowl and stir in the sugar to dissolve.

Add the cream and then softly whip until thick and smooth but not stiff.

Spoon into an airtight container to freeze overnight. This ice cream does not need ripening (softening before serving), as it will not freeze too hard and melts speedily and voluptuously

I do this with my Kitchen Aid standing mixer because my hands are not strong enough to whip the cream without a mixer. Hand mixer should be fine also. I do salt and sugar the glass rims, use lime zest when serving and sometimes an extra dribble of tequila or Triple Sec over the ice cream.

[Witsec7]

My culinary albatross, my white whale is beer bread. 5 years ago I was given a beer bread mix from one of those direct sale companies that make mixes and other cooking gadgets. (tastefully simple or taste of home or what have you). anyway the beer bread was good. One of my friends still raves about it and wishes I'd cook it again but every time I've tried to make beer bread from scratch it tastes too bitter, to chemically or nasty. I'm still searching for a good beer bread recipe, preferably one with cheese in it.

Pick a light lager that you enjoy, pour it in a glass bowl over night to flatten. Use the beer as liquid for your yeast, make a simple white or wheat bread and add a cup or two of the cheese of your choice.

[keeperrox]

My culinary albatross, my white whale is beer bread. 5 years ago I was given a beer bread mix from one of those direct sale companies that make mixes and other cooking gadgets. (tastefully simple or taste of home or what have you). anyway the beer bread was good. One of my friends still raves about it and wishes I'd cook it again but every time I've tried to make beer bread from scratch it tastes too bitter, to chemically or nasty. I'm still searching for a good beer bread recipe, preferably one with cheese in it.

Here are two recipes I urge you to look at:

http://www.farmgirlfare.com/2007/08/bac ... bread.html

http://www.farmgirlfare.com/2005/11/bee ... rsion.html

[Bella99]

My fellow Jinger Snaps, the new semester is racing up on me. I would love to hear your favorite kid friendly, quick, and or freezer recipes! We ate way too much pizza and Chinese food towards the end of last semester. So far I've frozen minestrone, potato soup, various cooked beans to add in to soups, mashed potatoes (I'll let you know how that thaws out - you freeze portions on a cookie sheet with a scooper), brown rice (spread on cookie sheet to freeze then toss in freezer bag) and chicken stock. I promise to report back on my experiments!

[Frumpalicious]

My fellow Jinger Snaps, the new semester is racing up on me. I would love to hear your favorite kid friendly, quick, and or freezer recipes! We ate way too much pizza and Chinese food towards the end of last semester. So far I've frozen minestrone, potato soup, various cooked beans to add in to soups, mashed potatoes (I'll let you know how that thaws out - you freeze portions on a cookie sheet with a scooper), brown rice (spread on cookie sheet to freeze then toss in freezer bag) and chicken stock. I promise to report back on my experiments!

Sometimes, I make meatballs and sauce and freeze them ahead of time. When I want something quick, I just toss that into the microwave while I cook the pasta. :)

Meatballs:

1 lb. ground beef, as lean as you can get it

1/2 lb. ground pork

2 eggs

1 cup breadcrumbs + extra if you need it

3 cloves garlic, minced finely (use less if you don't like it strong)

1/2 cup onion, chopped

A tablespoon or two of chopped parsley

A tablespoon of finely chopped basil

1/2 c. parmesan cheese, grated

1/2 c. romano cheese, grated

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400F. Mix everything but meat in bowl. Once thoroughly mixed, add meat. Don't mix too much, though. I've found that it makes the meat tough. At this point, you can fry a bit of the mixture and taste to see if you like it. Make meatballs with a tablespoon measure and put on cookie sheet. Cover loosely with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until no longer pink in center. Once done, freeze what you're not going to eat.

Sauce:

5 pounds tomatoes

1 head cauliflower, trimmed of thick stalks and leaves

1 head broccoli, trimmed of thick stalks and leaves

2 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped

Chicken stock (I don't ever measure how much I need because I vary the thickness of the sauce depending on my mood.)

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup minced onion

3 cloves minced garlic

A handful of chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons chopped basil

Salt & pepper to taste

Steam broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. Puree in blender. Don't tell kids or boyfriend about them. Remove seeds from tomatoes and discard. Crush the remains. Heat olive oil in large pot until hot. Add onion and saute for a few minutes until tender. Add garlic and cook until garlic is soft. Add tomatoes, pepper, salt, parsley, and basil. Add veggie puree. If it's still too thick, add some chicken stock. Bring to a bubbling simmer. Cover and simmer for two hours, adding chicken stock periodically if it gets a little too thick.

When finished, let cool. I usually ladle one cup servings into plastic bags and freeze. :)

Pasta (This one is great if you have older kids who like helping in the kitchen. )

2 cups all purpose flour + extra for dusting board and rolling pin

2 cups semolina flour

6 eggs

Sprinkle of salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 cup warm water + extra if mixture is too dry

Mix everything in bowl until you can't mix with a spoon anymore. Spoon out on floured board (or countertop, it's easier). Knead until dough is springy. Let rest, covered, for ten minutes. Cut dough into four pieces and put through pasta machine (if you have it). If not, just roll out with rolling pin until 1/8 inch thick. Use pizza cutter (or knife) to cut into 1 in. squares. Make into bowties by pinching opposite sides of the dough together.

At this point, you can freeze the bowties in a container. Layer it between sheets of parchment paper for easy removal. It'll keep for up to a month. When you're ready to use them, just throw them in the water and cook for an extra minute.

With fresh dough....

Put on floured cookie sheet until ready to cook. You can let the pasta dry for up to 3 hours. Fill large pot with water and bring to a very gentle boil. Add a few tablespoons of salt. Add pasta, but don't overcrowd the pot. Pasta is done in about four minutes, or about a minute after it comes to the surface and stays there. It's delicious!

[keeperrox]

My fellow Jinger Snaps, the new semester is racing up on me. I would love to hear your favorite kid friendly, quick, and or freezer recipes! We ate way too much pizza and Chinese food towards the end of last semester. So far I've frozen minestrone, potato soup, various cooked beans to add in to soups, mashed potatoes (I'll let you know how that thaws out - you freeze portions on a cookie sheet with a scooper), brown rice (spread on cookie sheet to freeze then toss in freezer bag) and chicken stock. I promise to report back on my experiments!

Here's a thread that you might find helpful: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5090

[Bella99]

Thanks! I'll start checking out that thread right now. I love spaghetti & meat balls/sauce but Her Maj is highly suspicious of ground meat. :? Go figure, beets and broccoli are ok but hamburgers are out? It is some kind of mixture/texture type thing. Which makes cooking ahead a bit trickier, but not impossible.

[snarkykitty]

Here's a quick and easy dish that leaves my husband wanting more. It takes about 20-30 minutes from prep to table and is incredibly delicious. This recipe yields 3-4 meals, and is quite filling.

"Chicken and Potatoes"

Ingredients

1 - 1.5 lb. Boneless chicken breast, cut it into strips (or just buy it already cut into strips)

3 -4 medium-sized Red potatoes, pre-washed (I don't skin my potatoes but you can if you want)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 pats of Butter (divide into 4 squares each)

1 Tsp (teaspoon) Minced onion (or finely chopped onion)

Sprinkle of Oregano

1-2 pinches of salt

1 pinch of ground black pepper

Sprinkle of Crushed Red Pepper

Lemon juice

Instructions:

* Spray the bottom of a large frying pan with PAM or similar cooking spray.

* Drizzle olive oil into the center of the frying pan, creating a thin layer of about 4 inches in diameter.

* Sprinkle Minced Onions onto the Olive Oil.

* Turn burner to MEDIUM (or 5/6 if your stove uses numbers) and let the Onions start to heat up.

* In the meantime, cut your potatoes into bite-sized pieces (about the size of gumdrop or smaller), then toss into frying pan.

* Stir the potatoes around in the Olive Oil with a wooden spoon so that they are in an even layer.

* Turn the heat up to MED-HIGH (or 7/8 if your stove uses numbers).

* Stir the potatoes and flatten into a single layer one more time, then use your wooden spoon to create an open space in the center of the pain.

* Cut your pats of butter into four pieces, each. Place each of the eight small pieces of butter onto the potatoes.

* Using a fork, place your strips of chicken breast into the center of the frying pan.

* Lightly drizzle lemon juice (I use those squeeze lemons) over just the chicken.

*Continue to stir and flatten the potatoes into a single layer on the perimeter.

* When the bottom of the chicken starts to brown a little, use the fork to flip each strip over.

* Once the other side of the chicken starts to brown, use the fork to take each strip out one at a time, put it on a heat-resistant cutting board, and pull it apart with a knife and fork. You are basically shredding the chicken into smaller pieces, each about the size of a dime. As you cut up each strip, toss it into the frying pain.

* Once all the chicken is cut and in the frying pan, use a wooden spoon, (heat-resistant) plastic spatula or slated spoon to mix it all together, flipping it all over as you go along, then "flattening" everything into a single layer. (If you can't do this with your spatula, lift your frying pan a few inches and lightly shake it so that all the pieces settle into a single layer. BE CAREFUL, oil is HOT.)

* At this point, sprinkle 1-2 pinches of salt, a few shakes of pepper, a shake of oregano, and a shake of crushed red pepper over the potatoes and chicken.

*Continue to stir and flatten everything into a single layer so that it all cooks evenly. At this point, things may want to stick, so make sure to gently scrape the bottom of the pan as you go (a heat-proof plastic spatula is best), so that you don't have burnt pieces stuck to the center of the pan.

* By this point, most of the olive oil should be gone, but if you need a little more to finish cooking it, drizzle a little around the perimeter of the pan, then scoop and mix as you have been doing.

* Keep flipping and flattening until everything is crispy. To test, use a new fork to take one potato piece and one chicken piece out. Blow on it before biting into them - it will be HOT!

- the potatoes should take on a golden brown color, be crispy on the outside and mushy on the inside

- the chicken should look crispy on the outside, but when you bite into it, it's moist on the inside.

It's done when it's a smidgen past what you THINK is done. It should smell really good, and there shouldn't be much standing oil. TURN OFF YOUR BURNER AT THIS POINT.

Use a slated spoon to scoop it out into bowls so that you can drain any excess oil that has remained.

I make this once a week, and despite it being filling, we are both salivating for more. This is real comfort food!! The next time I make it, I am going to re-post the recipe on my blog so that I can take pictures to go along with it. Let me know if you try it. It sounds complicated, but it's not!

[crazyforkate]

Honey Herb Chicken

1 3 to 4 lb broiler chicken, cut up

1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup honey or agave syrup

2 tbsp. soy sauce

2 tbsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. rosemary

1/4 tsp. oregano

1 tbsp. fresh basil

4 to 6 cloves garlic

salt and pepper

garlic powder (for sprinkling)

Combine all ingredients (except chicken) in a blender.

Brush a casserole dish with a few drops of olive oil or spray with non-stick spray. Place chicken in casserole dish and pour seasonings mixture over.

Sprinkle chicken lightly with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Bake, uncovered, basting frequently with juices in pan in a preheated 350°F oven for about 1 hour or until a fork can be inserted with ease and the juices no longer run pink.

Chicken breast temperature should be 155°F, temperature at thigh 180°F. Remove from oven and cover dish tightly with foil; leave for 15 minutes.

Variation: Quartered potatoes, onions and baby carrots may be baked in the same dish as the chicken.

It's delicious, hell, I love to drink the sauce.

[lawfulevil]

I started infusing tangerine peels from our tree into tequila today for Super Bowl Sunday margaritas... if this works I'll come back and update, I haven't done this before. Sometime this week I'll get the dried tangerine slices into the jars. Right now it's the peels of 8 tangerines, blanched, a little of the water I blanched them in, and a great deal of tequila (I used most of a 1.75 liter bottle) divided into 4 pint jars. I left enough room for two oven-dried tangerines apiece when I get some time. They're all living in the back of my fridge, I turn them over every time I go through the kitchen.

A few days before the super bowl I'll strain it, mix in simple syrup and a little fresh tangerine juice, and put the tangerine slices and liqueur back into the jars and back into the fridge.

I haven't decided what flavor to make the margaritas yet! We're taking them and my roast jalapeno bacon ranch dip, so maybe just the traditional citrus.

Sadly, the tree is still pretty full, so it's back to figuring out what to do with bushels and bushels of tangerines. I know, you all just feel so sorry for me, heh.

[Bella99]

Whine, whine ... Meanwhile we haven't gotten a single pear off our tree in seven years thanks to our abundance of rats with furry tails. I taught my standard poodle to chase squirrels per the Urban Harvest book. All I got was a very well exercised dog who wanted to go outside every ten minutes. ;) Our neighbor suggested a slingshot and a bucket of marbles but we're too soft hearted/headed.

Tangerine tequila sounds delicious.

[lawfulevil]

Oh, squirrels!

When I worked for a discount retailer, a new bride came in for an appliance to prepare a brace of squirrel. The game was her wedding present from her new father in law. I pointed her to a discontinued but name-brand slow cooker and referred her to my favorite online spice vendor. She returned a few months later for a new food processor.

She brought delectable muffins. I suspect I've eaten squirrel.

Oh well.

[Guest Anonymous]

I've just had a delicious snack worthy of inclusion in Wendy Jeub's new cookbook!

I carefully opened the top of 2 store-bought white pitta breads and filled them with slices of full-fat cheddar cheese. I poppped them in the toaster until the cheese had melted and then ate them while sprawled on the sofa. With the curtains drawn. In my pyjamas. While watching last night's Eastenders. At 2pm in the afternoon - yay for being a singleton and knowing how best to cure a hangover!

[Bella99]

Oh, squirrels!

When I worked for Big Lots, a new bride came in for an appliance to prepare a brace of squirrel. The game was her wedding present from her new father in law. I pointed her to a discontinued but name-brand slow cooker and referred her to my favorite online spice vendor. She returned a few months later for a new food processor.

She brought delectable muffins. I suspect I've eaten squirrel.

Oh well.

My husband grew up out in the sticks and his family fished, hunted and grew much of their own food. He still talks about how good the fish was, and how squirrel was just too gamy for him. I would happily pay for a share of venison, but I don't have any friends who hunt.

[Bella99]

I started infusing tangerine peels from our tree into tequila today for Super Bowl Sunday margaritas... if this works I'll come back and update, I haven't done this before. Sometime this week I'll get the dried tangerine slices into the jars. Right now it's the peels of 8 tangerines, blanched, a little of the water I blanched them in, and a great deal of tequila (I used most of a 1.75 liter bottle) divided into 4 pint jars. I left enough room for two oven-dried tangerines apiece when I get some time. They're all living in the back of my fridge, I turn them over every time I go through the kitchen.

A few days before the super bowl I'll strain it, mix in simple syrup and a little fresh tangerine juice, and put the tangerine slices and liqueur back into the jars and back into the fridge.

I haven't decided what flavor to make the margaritas yet! We're taking them and my roast jalapeno bacon ranch dip, so maybe just the traditional citrus.

Sadly, the tree is still pretty full, so it's back to figuring out what to do with bushels and bushels of tangerines. I know, you all just feel so sorry for me, heh.

I know it is a big job, but what about tangerine marmalade? Or maybe the food bank would appreciate them?

[kittypie]

@lilah: if you didn't mind using a beer bread mix, you probably won't mind Bisquick Beer Bread (me? I don't mind a bit!):

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/5 ... 6766.shtml

[kittypie]

Aaaaaand, for my 100th post, the best blueberry muffins I've ever had. I'm 53, I've had a lotta muffins. I'm making them again tonight:

http://www.americastestkitchen.com/reci ... ocid=19363

[kittypie]

I just recently learned how to prepare tofu for shallow frying. I would love some good tofu recipes...I'm going to start with that Thai peanut recipe on the first page of this thread but would love some other suggestions.