A Good Sunday Lunch

I offered to fix lunch for my two daughters and two grandchildren before they headed for the large pool at Coney Island in Cincinnati.  One daughter suggested an oriental style pasta salad would be good and I found one on Allrecipes.  This is my edited version with a few changes.

SESAME PASTA CHICKEN SALAD

• Servings: 8
• Print

• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 8 oz bow tie pasta (Barilla Piccolini)
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/3 cup Teriyaki sauce
• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 3 Tblsp. granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• few gratings of black pepper
• 2 chicken breast halves, baked and shredded
• 1/3 cup fresh cilantro leaves
• 1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds

Heat a small skillet over medium high heat.  Add sesame seeds and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly toasted.   Remove from heat and set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add pasta and cook for 7 minutes.  Drain pasta and rinse under cold water.  Transfer pasta to a large bowl.

In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine canola oil, Teriyaki sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, sesame seeds, ginger and pepper.  Shake well.  Pour dressing over pasta and toss to coat evenly.  Gently mix in chicken, cilantro and toasted almonds.

The three adults loved this salad – it was exactly what I was looking for in flavor and I would suggest that you not omit the fresh cilantro.  It just adds so much to the salad.

For dessert, I pulled out a recipe for a pie that myoldest daughter had made for a pie contest at the Hamilton County Fair (Cincinnati) in 1985.  She won an award and as soon as we tasted it, we could see why.  It’s incredibly rich, so plan on at least 8 servings.

NANCY'S CHOCOLATE LIME PIE

• Servings: 6-8
• Print

• 16 chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed (Oreo)
• 2 Tblsp. butter, melted
• 3 egg yolks
• 14 oz. sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
• 2 envelopes of Nestle Choco-Bake pre-melted chocolate
• 1/3 cup lime juice
• 3 egg whites
• 7 oz. jar of marshmallow creme

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Crust:

In a 9″ pie pan, combine crumbs with melted butter.  Press onto bottom and up sides of pie plate.  Bake @ 375 degrees  F for about 8 minutes.  Cool while preparing filling.

Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees F.

Filling:

In mixer bowl beat egg yolks at high speed about 4 minutes.  Add condensed milk, pre-melted chocolate and lime juice, mixing well.  Pour into prepared crust.

Meringue:

Beat egg whites to soft peaks, gradually adding marshmallow creme, incorporating well and beating to stiff peaks.  Spread over filling.

Bake @ 350 degrees F for 12 minutes until meringue is golden brown.

Chill for 2-3 hours.

Note: It’s important to chill the pie well and to chill any leftovers to make the pie easier to serve.

County Fair Decorations

It’s county fair time again and that means getting out my handcrafted items.  The quilted silhouette hanging is on the front door to commemorate one of my favorite summertime activities.  My family has been involved in county and state fairs for generations, partly due to our interest in harness horses.  My father was a harness horse driver/trainer and many happy hours were spent at the fairgrounds, so  harness horses are a strong element in my county fair designs.

In the kitchen, I have a quilted wall hanging that won a blue ribbon at the Lebanon, Ohio, Warren County Fair. 

In the living room there is a quilted/appliqued pillow that was one of my first efforts.  It also took a blue ribbon at the Warren County Fair.

The real treasure among the handcrafted items, though, is an old battered suitcase that my father took with him on the fair and racing circuit.  My oldest daughter decoupaged countless bits of cloth, ephemera, photos, buttons, etc., to transform the tired old suitcase into a work of art and memory.

There are tags attached with photos and the exhibit history of each member of the family.

I use the suitcase to store old premium lists and memorabilia from our hometown Carthage/Hamilton County Fair (Cincinnati).

I enjoy displaying these reminders of all the years our family has participated in the fun of a county fair.

Best of Show Dill Spears

Twenty-five years ago (1983), my husband, daughter and I were living on two acres of land on the Ohio/Indiana border.  Fruit trees took up about one acre and a huge vegetable garden took up the other half, barely leaving enough room for a small house.  My husband loved his mini-farm and spent every spare minute away from his normal job working in the garden.  He got excellent results and from the first asparagus in April to the remnants of the garden in the fall, I tried to use everything he hauled into the house every day.

He enjoyed walking down the rows of the garden in the early summer, pointing to each plant and telling me what kind of vegetable it was and how many plants he had.  He did this every day – a little boring, but he was so proud of his garden.

We always had a bumper crop of cucumbers and I processed them immediately to be sure we had crisp, crunchy pickles all year around.

The first year I seriously entered a county fair was in 1983 when I was brand-new to canning and preserving.  Imagine my surprise when we went to the fair and saw I had won a blue ribbon and a coveted BEST OF SHOW rosette for my Dill Pickle Spears.  That year, they had gotten creative in displaying canned goods and had them arranged on an old red wagon.  At the very top was a big, beautiful rosette and a completely empty pickle jar.  The judges told me they had liked the pickles so much that they had eaten all of them with their lunch that day.

Here’s the recipe:

DILL PICKLE SPEARS

• Servings: Approx. 10 quarts
• Print

• 4 lbs. pickling cucumbers, cut in spears
• Dill seeds
• Whole peppercorns
• 2 cups of 5% acid strength white vinegar
• 4-1/2 cups water
• 1/3 cup pickling salt

Place spears in sterilized hot quart jars.  Add 1 tsp. dill seed and 3 peppercorns to each jar.

Combine the vinegar, water and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Pour over the cucumbers, filling to within 1/4″ of jar top.  Seal and process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

I’ve found an asparagus steamer is good for processing just a few jars. Let jars cool on a rack before storing. Allow pickles to cure for at least 2 weeks before using for best flavor.

Makes approximately 10 quarts 

This is a good website for canning and preserving foods.

As a Best of Show Winner, I had my picture taken and there was a small article in our local newspaper with the recipe.

My husband passed away 4 years ago and since the dill spears were his favorite and not mine, I don’t make them any more.  But I think of him every time I drive by a big vegetable garden and remember the first Best of Show ribbon I ever won.

Little Boy Blue Quilt

 

I had the idea for this quilt two years ago and made it to enter in the Warren County Fair (Ohio) where it won 3rd prize. 

The pattern was taken from a wonderful book, Embroidered Childhood Memories by Brenna Hopkins & Nori Koenig, American Quilter’s Society, Paducah, KY.  The book includes more than 100 vintage patterns from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s – “Nostalgic needlework patterns capture the enchantment of fairy tales, lullabies and sweet dreams.”  I used the patterns for crayon coloring on white fabric.  I drew the pattern on the fabric with a permanent fine-point pen, using a light box, then colored the pattern with crayon and heat set by placing a piece of white paper over the coloring and pressing it. 

I chose the snowball block to show off the pattern and used a variety of blue, green, yellow and white fabric in the piecing to complement the crayon colors. 

I put the quilt away, thinking it would go to the first great-grandson in the family, and he came along on November 15, 2007.  I made up a label for the quilt and waited for my chance to present it to little Curtis.

 

I saw him for the first time last night.  Curtis didn’t have an opinion, but his mother and big sister liked the quilt.