Some many things happened in 2016 that just absolutely floored people. The person who won the popular vote, Hilary Clinton, lost the electoral vote, and much to many people’s chagrin, Donald Trump is our new President-Elect. There were many technological breakthroughs, including the Amazon Echo, an AI which is so useful, it almost becomes part of your family. Many of our favorites in the entertainment industry are no longer with us, including David Bowie, Prince, Carrie Fisher, a list that is too long and sad.
The Nesco makes a great Honey Baked ham, whether you’re just warming one up from their store, or making your own. I hope you’ll try my Nesco Honey Baked Cola ham.
These shortening peanut butter cookies are a great way to use up extra peanut butter or extra shortening. They are nice and light, not heavy or greasy. Use your favorite peanut butter, creamy or even extra crunchy, it’s up to you.
I found this recipe on the back of the Zulka brown sugar bag. The cake looked great on the package, I happened to have apples in the refrigerator, and I wanted to try something new.
The instructions on how to make the cake on the bag make no sense, therefore, I changed it to the traditional method of creaming the butter and then creaming the butter and sugar together. Okay, so you don’t know what creaming is? It’s very simple. Put room temperature butter into a large bowl, and then beat it with an electric beater until it is nice and smooth. If you don’t have room temperature butter, you can cut the butter up into small pieces and then cream it. The best way to beat is with a stand mixer, but a hand mixer will do just fine. Don’t try this with a whisk, it’s too difficult.
This is a very moist cake, and may take quite a while to bake. The original instructions said 40-55 minutes, mine was in over 80 minutes, your mileage may vary.
Cream Cheese Cranberry Stuffed Celery is a healthy and easy appetizer to make. It’s great as an after-school snack or something to do with all that leftover celery. A little sweet, a little savory, it’s a perfect appetizer for the holiday season.
With just the two of us, a regular chicken is just too big, so I started buying Cornish Hens. They come two to the pack, at 1 1/2 pounds each. A one-half bird is enough to feed one person. Cornish hens taste just like regular chickens and are not baby chickens. For more information, please see the Wikipedia article on Cornish Game Hen.
I love barbecued chicken, but barbecues have been outlawed in our city, so I am stuck with less conventional ways of barbecuing. Last year, I bought a cast iron grill/griddle just for the purpose of barbecuing steaks and making pancakes. It also does a fine job with chicken, and I use the top of my wok to cover foods so they can completely cook. Of course, I have to have my windows wide open, and I shut off the bedroom where the fire alarms are to prevent them from going off. My grill/griddle is easy to clean, just put it in water while it is still warm, but not hot.
I used Hoisin sauce because my son had expressed a desire for Chinese food the day before, but you could use whatever barbecue sauce is your favorite. I served it with Same Day Fried Rice and we had ourselves an Asian feast!
Chinese Stove Top Barbecued Cornish Hen YouTube Video
Can you use freshly cooked rice on the same day to make fried rice? No, you can’t. But, if you use this same-day fried rice method, you can cure your craving any day. You will be surprised at how easy this is.