Beef with Sour Cream Horseradish Sauce - Recipe #104

The recipes that originate with Trent share some commonalities - they are written on scratch paper, like old phone bills, or Post-it notes and they lack detailed instructions or in the case of this rub and sauce combo, the type of meat to serve it with. While I asked (unfruitfully) what the intended meat for this was, it was only after I purchased and served a tough roast that suggested baking at 325 degrees until 140 degrees, that he said ¨I think this was for a London Broil¨. I quite enjoyed the sauce and plan to use the leftovers (even though I only made half a batch, some still remains) on a London Broil soon.

Beef with Sour Cream Horseradish Sauce

• 1 tsp fresh parsley, minced
• 1 tsp dried thyme, crushed
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp pepper, black, crushed

325 degrees, 1 - 1 1/2 hr (140 degrees interior temp.)

• 1 c. sour cream
• 1/2 c. horseradish
• 2 T. milk
• 1 T. chives, fresh
• 1/8 tsp pepper, white, ground

Elenor's Eclairs - Recipe # 103

Another extraordinarily simple dessert recipe. Rather than making a complete recipe, I used leftover graham crackers from an earlier dessert and just half of the pudding. Well, I tried to use just half of the pudding - however, when I was at the store, I couldn't remember whether I was supposed to buy a small package or a large package, so I erred on the side of getting too much. After my 8 x 8 pan of eclairs was finished, I still had half a box of pudding leftover that remains in my refrigerator. This would be a fun recipe to make with young children. A little too much reliance on already prepped ingredients for me to enlist into my normal routine, though I'll keep it for the sentimental value.

Elenor's Eclairs

• 2 small packages instant vanilla pudding
• 3 cups milk
• Graham crackers
• Chocolate cake frosting

Cover the bottom of a 9¨ x 13¨ pan with graham crackers. Combine pudding mix with 3 cups of milk and spread on top of crackers. Top with another layer of graham crackers. Add a layer of ready-made chocolate cake frosting. It may be easier to quickly frost top crackers before putting them on pudding layer, then fill in any gaps. Allow layers to ¨blend¨ in refrigerator for 1-2 hours before serving.

Elenor was Jack's (Trent's grandfather) long-time secretary and bookkeeper.

Rolo Treats - Recipe #102

Monday nights I work until 8:05 p.m., rush off to the bus that leaves at 8:11 p.m. and return home by 8:35-ish. So any recipe that I make on a Monday is typically either something that requires morning prep time, such as a slow cooker meal, or something so easy it barely counts as a recipe. Last Monday, during my ¨lunch¨ break at 4 p.m., I headed to Roger's Market to pick up the majority of the remaining ingredients needed for the Recipe Challenge. As I unloaded my basket with pretzels and Rolos, I felt like defending myself by saying ¨really, most of the time, I have fresh healthy food¨, though I suppose in the grand scheme of things, pretzels are a ¨healthy¨ junk food.

My good friends who hosted my bridal shower shared this recipe with me, one that they've used at many a party. It's easy enough for a late night and scalable - I made just the number of Rolo treats as there are Rolos in a package. Yummy and small enough that you don't feel any guilt over eating one or two.

Rolo Treats

• pretzels
• Rolos
• pecans

Layer a baking sheet with pretzels.

Stack a single Rolo candy on each pretzel.

Preheat oven on bake to 250 degrees.

Bake pretzels and Rolos for 4 minutes.

Place pecan on top of Rolo and pretzel and press.

Cool in fridge - enjoy!

Makes: as many as you want

Salmon with Chili-Honey Glaze - Recipe #101

The race continues. The closer I get to the end, the more likely I am to make only one-half the recipe, just so my refrigerator doesn't explode. This recipe was quite good, though I prefer a drier, less sweet rub for my salmon in general. It was the perfect end to a sunny sail to Kingston last Sunday. Not a very complex recipe, but it still feels fancy. Plus I had stayed up to late the night before playing board games and was sleepy enough that I wouldn't have trusted myself with anything too complex.

Salmon with Chili-Honey Glaze

• 1 1/3 lb. salmon fillet
• 2 T orange juice
• 2 T lime juice
• 3 T honey
• 1 t ground cumin
• 1 t ground chili powder
• 1 small minced green chili
• 1/4 t salt
• freshly ground pepper

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Place salmon in foil-lined baking pan.

Combine orange and lime juice, honey, cumin, chili powder and minced chili, stirring well to dissolve the honey.

Pour about half the glaze over the salmon, sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake 12 minutes per inch of thickness (this is where I regretted that my oven thermometer had died and the new one hadn't yet arrived). Halfway through the cooking time, pour the remaining glaze on top. When the salmon is cooked through, remove from the oven. Spoon the thickened glaze in the bottom of the pan over the salmon and serve.

Serves 4.

Little Cheesecakes - Recipe #100

Wow - a milestone. One hundred recipes made from the Loose Recipe Challenge. Hard to believe that it's almost finished. We had dinner and game night at a friend's house last week. As I had worked that day, I nearly didn't prepare a recipe until Trent reminded me how little time (and how many desserts) I had left. This is another of the recipes that I received one Christmas from Trent's mom. It got good reviews from the other dinner guests.

Little Cheesecakes

Beat together:

• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 1/3 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Pour into well greased muffin tins (do not skimp on this step - I had a heck of a time getting them out intact, even from the silicone cookware) - 6 for dessert size, 10-12 for smaller treat size. Bake at 375 for 15-30 minutes depending on size, until knife comes out clean. Remove from tins while warm. Top with sweetened sour cream or serve with fresh or frozen fruit (I took advantage of the season and sauteed some apples in butter with a little cinnamon and sugar and mixed with some caramel sauce remaining from another dessert-making foray). Double recipe and freeze extras.

Mom's Berry Muffins - Recipe #99

Mom's berry muffins are part of the taste of my childhood. No mixes for us - our baked goods were from scratch. And when blackberry season began, we had pies, muffins, shortbread and more to use up some of nature's bounty. So at my bridal shower, I was pleased that this was the recipe she chose to share. This time, I used some of the last batch of raspberries from the Wallingford Farmer's Market. I should have known that in late September they'd be better baking-berries than eating-berries. I shared them at a friend's brunch and then with another friend, as I knew that recipes for numerous other baked goods were coming up soon.

• 1 c. white flour
• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 T. baking powder
• 2 t. sugar or honey
• 1/8 t. salt
• 1/4 t. ground cloves (I was out, so substituted allspice)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c. oil
• 1 c. milk
• 1 c. berries
• 1/2 t. cinnamon (for berries)
• 1 T. sugar (for berries)

Mix dry ingredients. Make a well. Place egg and oil in well and beat slightly. Pour in milk and stir until all ingredients are moist. Mix berries, cinnamon and sugar separately and fold into the mixture. Bake in muffin tin at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

Thursday Thought

¨Lots of people have all the time in the world, and yet they don't know it. They fill their time - that's the problem; they clutter their lives. Then they discover they have none. But they once did, even if they did not know it.¨

Alexander McCall Smith, The Novel Habits of Happiness

Why are we so busy nowadays? At the library recently, I overheard one of our children's staff inviting a family to our upcoming Lego Robotics program. ¨Oh, we don't have any time - the kids have too many other obligations.¨ It made me a bit sad that there was no time for a more spur-of-the-moment idea for them, but not too surprised.

Perhaps I'm particularly susceptible to feeling busy at the moment. I just started teaching a series of classes on Best New Picture Books to childcare providers and parents. At the same time, I have a few closing meetings for my trip to Tanzania, am a part of my church's ¨long range strategic planning taskforce¨, which requires a few small group discussions this month and still go to choir on Thursday nights. It's getting so an evening home is a rare and lovely treat. Time for me to start guarding my time a bit more (though not too jealously, as I have a tendency towards holing up at home as the evenings get darker).