JUST FOR FUN-- Anyone have any favorite recipes?? (from simple to complex...have at it!!)

I originally pulled this from the Internet a couple years ago, don't recall where, but we have tweaked it some over the years - anyway, this is a huge hit with our family and friends every year.

This Sangria is made in three parts and should allow at least 4 hours to chill before serving, better if chilled overnight to give the fruit time to properly macerate.

Makes 2 1/2 Quarts - 8 servings

Part I - Spiced Syrup
****************************************
2 cups Water
2 cups Granulated Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
10 Allspice Berries
6 Cloves
1/4 tsp Anise Seeds (heaping)

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan, cook over medium heat, stirring until sugar is fully dissolved.
2. Raise heat and bring to boil for two minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove from heat and let cool until lukewarm. Strain syrup through a fine mesh strainer into a container and discard spices.
4. Cover and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Note: This will make more than you need, but I caution about halving it as halving causes the sugar to have issues dissolving effectively. It will make enough for a double of Parts II and III below.

Part II - Spiced Fruit
****************************************
2 cups Fresh Cranberries
2 Granny Smith Apples, large dice
1 cup Spice Syrup (Part I above)
3/4 - 1 cup Orange Liqueur (Triple Sec, Cointreau, Grand Marnier, or other)
1/2 cup Ruby Port Wine

1. Combine all ingredients in a 3-quart container with a tight-fitting lid.
2. Cover and refrigerate at least four hours or preferably overnight.

Part III - Sangria
****************************************
1 (750-milliliter) bottle of Red Wine (medium - full body)
1/2 cup Ruby Port Wine
1/2 cup Orange Liqueur (Triple Sec, Cointreau, Grand Marnier, or other)
1/2 cup Cranberry Juice (juice, not cocktail)

1. Add all ingredients to the fruit mixture and stir to combine.
2. Refrigerate until chilled, and serve over ice.

Note: This Sangria is meant to be heavier and richer than one in the summer, so a heavier (medium - full body) wine is preferred, such as a Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah/Shiraz, Sangiovese/Chianti, Malbec, or Tempranillo - we typically use Chianti.

Now go invite some friends over for some good cheer!

I used to make these with my kindergarten classes as a gift for parents. These are also a Christmas tradition in our family.

HAYSTACKS

1 bag bittersweet chocolate chips
1 bag butterscotch chips
1 bag crunchy chinese noodles
1 cup peanuts

Melt butterscotch and chocolate chips in top pot of a double boiler. Add crunchy noodles and peanuts, and stir well. Drop on wax paper and allow to cool completely.
Easy and yummy, and fail-safe. It's a real esteem builder for children who want to make something to give to others.

You can get a recipe anywhere, but I double the pumpkin and spices (except for nutmeg).

You can get a recipe anywhere, but I double the pumpkin and spices (except for nutmeg).

Simple Trick that is Awesome

Melt some good mint chocolate squares in the microwave.

Dip Ritz crackers in the Chocolate or cover the Ritz crackers on a wax paper sheet.

It is like homemade fluffy mint cookies. - Awesome.

You can drizzle some white chocolate on them to make them look really pretty as well.

Over thanksgiving I made some buffalo stew that turned out pretty well.

Ingredients:

3 Medium Tomatoes
1 Large Onion
2 Green Peppers
5 Thai Chillies
6 Small Mushrooms
2 Carrots
Cilantro
Salt/Pepper
5 Jalapenos
1 Garlic
1 "Box" Chicken Broth
1.5lb Buffalo "Stew Meat"
Cumin
2 Cans of Corn
1 Can of Black Beans

Slowly boil medium tomatoes, chopped garlic, cilantro, and thai chillies in chicken broth until tomatoes basically fall apart. Then add chopped onion and carrots. Boil until carrots become soft. Add chopped green peppers, jalapenos, and mushrooms. Keep boiling (on low) for a while (my cooking is not an exact science by any means). Toss in a little salt and pepper and cumin - not much, though. Raise the heat a little and toss in Buffalo meat with corn and beans. Cook until Buffalo is done and let simmer for a while.

It taste best when allowed to sit in the fridge for a day or so.

La Bete Noire: The Black Beast
flourless chocolate cake
details:
http://www.grouprecipes.com/47281/la-bete-noire---the-black-...

Cake:
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, diced
18 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped 6 large eggs
~~~~
Ganache:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
8 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
~~~~
Lightly sweetened whipped cream

Musician, Blimpographer...Hear my music: www.myspace.com/americanpirates
my videos: www.youtube.com/conservativefunds

Plant, pick, peel, heat, eat.
Butter to go with it: 1 pint heavy cream, 2 tsps salt (optional). Let cream sit out for 24 hours. Pour cream and salt in a mason jar and lightly shake the jar in a metronome fashion (maybe 50 bpm). In about 10 minutes, you'll have butter, about 3-4 standard sticks. Good stuff with good raw milk too.

After looking over some superfood books, I compiled a list of superfoods. Then I separated them into groups so I could make meals out of them.

Here's my standard breakfest:
Some whole wheat fiber-rich cereal
Dash of cinammon
Dash of 100% Cocoa
Tsp of honey
Scoop of organic whey protein
Serving of unsalted mixed nuts
Dash of flax seeds

Alternative breakfest:
Scramble some egg whites
add minced garlic, cayene pepper, organic (or homemade) salsa...maybe some tumeric and mustard seeds
Mixed greens on side

Snack
pure green tea (i use Iota)
miso soup
apple or pear

Super pizza
Whole wheat (or rice) crust organic pizza
Toss on minced garlic, cayene pepper, organic (or homemade) salsa...maybe some tumeric and mustard seeds

Seaweed salad:
mixed greens, kale, seaweed, garlic, salsa, mushrooms, and whatever veggies, tumeric, mustard seeds, etc.

Light salad
mixed greems, apple chunks, pear chunks, unsalted mixed nuts

The combinations are endless. When the combination is right, it tastes a lot better than junk food (cheaper too!). Also, after a little practice, it takes less time to prepare a healthy meal than it does to get food from a fast food joint.

Best thing I ever learned from my grandfather, rather easy-

Take one mug
One large handfulk of Ritz brand crackers.
Dump crackers in mug.
Cover with milk.
Eat with spoon.

All you need, love it.

Eric Hoffer

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." Benjamin Franklin
---

Check it out!
http://www.zazzle.com/climategate+gifts

this evening if I should buy some cookies, and he said "no, this time of year you should be baking cookies, not buying them," so I skipped my trip to the store and made these, because it was my only dessert recipe for which I had all the ingredients on hand: http://www.landolakes.com/mealideas/ViewRecipe.cfm?RecipeID=...
Easy to make and yum!

I'

best available foods for nourishment in most delicious recipes all in a forum format allowing others to comment and make adjustments

http://www.goneraw.com/recipes

B.J Bagel
1 wheat bagel
Cut in half
Lightly toast the bagel
Roast garlic in the oven, or preferably with a grill
Roast red and green bellpeppers
Spread roasted garlic on both sides of the bagel
Spread fresh avacado on bagel
Add bellpeppers
Add tomato
Add cucumber
Add onion if desired
A dash of italian dressing
A dash of italian seasoning
A dash of Pepper

Rand Paul Potatos
-dice up some onions and garlic
-Dump 3/4 a cup of olive oil in a frying pan
-wait 1 minute for oil to heat up
-Throw onions and garlic in and evenly distribute it in the pan
-Add roasted red pepper
-Wait till golden brown
-While this is all happening
-Cut up 4 potatos, before I start panfrying onions and garlic... I usually soften up the potatos by microwave, or steaming them... but you don't have too...
-Throw potatos in pan, and cover...
-Turn heat on low
-Wait till potatos are golden brown to crispy..

Serve with B.J Bagel.. and enjoy...

I also like to cut up tomato slices, and throw pepper on top as a little fancy side thing..

My favorite meal in a nutshell..

much better without the liver, but then it would just be hamburger helper with lots of garlic lol. Either I am a failure at cooking the stuff to make it not taste like a cow pasture, or there is no disguising the flavor with anything. Perhaps I just don't like it...needless to say, I hadn't a clue what I was doing!

What are you fightin' for?
Caught in the middle?
Freedom is only for those with the guts to defend it!

Perfect for Cold Fall and Winter Dinners.

OkeeDokee folks, if you want the most intense, deep stew flavours you have ever experienced then you best be copying this one down.

I know lamb scares some folks off but I have made this many times and almost everytime there is someone in the crowd that doesn't like lamb. Well by the end of this meal they are lamb lovers!

I got this from Bon Apetit magazine a few years back.

This is THE BEST recipe you will ever have.
I serve it over mashed potatoes with green onions. You can also make some simple Irish Soda Bread if you get the hanker'n

Enjoy
----------------------------------------------------
Yields: 6 Servings

Ingredients

6 tablespoons Olive oil
6 About 6 pounds Lamb Shanks
1/2 cup All purpose flour
5 cups Onions chopped
4 cups Beef Stock
2 12 Oz Bottles Guinness Stout
4 Carrots peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
2 large Parsnips peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
2 medium Rutabagas peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup Prunes pitted

Preparation:
* Heat 6 tablespoons vegetable oil in heavy large Dutch oven over high heat. Season lamb shanks with salt and pepper. Coat lamb with flour; shake off excess. Reserve excess flour. Add lamb to Dutch oven in batches and brown well. Using tongs, transfer lamb to bowl. Reduce heat to medium. Add 5 cups chopped onions to Dutch oven and sauté until transluscent, scraping up any browned bits, about 5 minutes. Add reserved flour and stir 1 minute.

* Return lamb shanks and any accumulated juices to Dutch oven. Add beef stock and Guinness. Cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until meat is almost tender, about 1 hour.

* Add carrots, parsnips and rutabagas to Dutch oven and simmer uncovered until meat and vegetables are tender and stew thickens slightly, about 40 minutes. Spoon fat from surface of stew. Add prunes and simmer 20 minutes.

DO AHEAD:
Stew can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover tightly and refrigerate. Rewarm stew over low heat before serving.

Recipe by Gerri Gilliland
Bon Appetit - March 1994

Made these for Thanksgiving. Best Chocolate Chip cookies I have ever had. They are big ones.
http://www.recipezaar.com/Just-Like-Doubletree-Hotels-Chocol...

Put 3 sticks of butter in a small saucepan, cook on low until melted. Then, boil another bigger saucepan or pot, put your metled butter pot inside the boiling pot (creating a double boil).

Take 1/2 Oz of your best bud (grind it) put it in the butter pan.

Allow to cook for as long as possible while pissing off your girlfriend because she hates the smell and the fact that you are a huge pothead and possibly ruining her pans. I like 2-3 hours, but it might be excessive, better be safe than sorry.

Take your new green butter and strain the chunks of bud. Dispose of the bud in someone elses garbage can or a dumpster.

Put the butter in tupperware and put in the fridge until it becomes butter again.

Put on toast, pancakes or anything else. You can also take fruity pebbles, chocolate, fluff and peanut butter and make a better version of rice crispy treats. Or you can mix with chocolate and granola and a bunch of other hippie crap and make goo balls.

Give them to stressed out co-workers, friends and family.

Final step - don't eat them alone

time you roast always go LOW and SLOW
we just cooked our turkey at 250 degrees until it read 165 in the breast.
falls of the bone and super super moist and juicy.
only way to go.
p.s.
mae-ploy sweet chilli sauce found at ethnic grocerys
best condement on the planet

Awesome Stuffed chicken recipe

Stuffed Chicken Roulade (Leg Meat):
pt 1: http://www.umake.it/index.php?option=com_seyret&Itemid=109&t...
pt2: http://www.umake.it/index.php?option=com_seyret&Itemid=109&t...

My girlfriend's best cookie ever recipe:

Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies:

http://www.umake.it/index.php?option=com_seyret&Itemid=109&t...

A chef I trained under once showed me this fun squash recipe:

Roasted Buttercup (acorn) Squash w/ Honey Garlic Soup:

http://www.umake.it/index.php?option=com_seyret&Itemid=109&t...

I got lots more if you want 'em
www.Umake.it - The online resource for the Hand Made Society

After the Holiday Turkey Soup

* 3 cups cooked turkey, diced
* 3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
* 1 large carrot, chopped
* 1 large celery stalk, chopped
* 1/3 cup Swanson Organic Onion Flakes, diced
* 4 slices turkey bacon
* 1/4 pound tofu chopped into cubes
* 1 can (15 ounces) Eden Foods Lentils w/onion & bay leaf
* 1 can (12 ounces) chicken broth
* 1/2 tablespoon Swanson Organic Sage
* 1/2 tablespoon Swanson Organic Thyme Leaves
* 1/2 tablespoon Swanson Organic Rosemary
* 3 tablespoons Swanson Extra Virgin Olive Oil (may need an additional 1–2 tablespoons)
* 3 cups water

In large heavy sauce pan, add olive oil, turkey bacon and sauté at medium heat until browned. Add the can of lentils, chicken broth, potatoes, celery, carrots, diced turkey and water. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Add onion flakes, sage, thyme and rosemary and stir. Continue to simmer at low heat for 10 minutes. Add the tofu and cook on low heat and stir occasionally until the potatoes and carrots are done.

Makes 10 servings. Serving size 1 cup.

bread
peanut butter
add jelly

I've got a recipe to share(not my own but someone else's on youtube which I like and want to link to), but first I want to say, the recipes I see on here that are supposed to be healthy but have a lot of sugar in them are not healthy, because from what I have read, sugar is like a poison to the human body. Why do I say that? Check these links
http://www.mercola.com/article/sugar/sugar_cancer.htm
http://www.mercola.com/article/sugar/dangers_of_sugar.htm
Now if sugar is that bad, what to use instead? I'd say organic raw honey(if you are healthy and don't have cancer)or organic stevia or maybe Truvia brand sweetener(for recipes that need the bulk of sugar that stevia alone does not provide).
Why not splenda or nutrasweet(aka aspartame) instead of sugar? Read these links to find out why
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2000/12/0...
http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/index.htm
http://www.mercola.com/forms/sweet_misery.htm
And don't forget to throw out those crystal light packets and avoid the gatorade, they are harming your health.
If you need a healthy alternative to gatorade try something like this
http://www.vitacost.com/Alacer-Electromix

Now, on to my healthy recipe. In this video I am going to post, the guy says to use agave nectar in he recipe, but I don't use that because Dr. Mercola recommends against using it, I just use organic stevia instead, or some raw organic honey.
The recipe is for macadamia nut milk(I use raw organic macadamia nuts). Here is a link to the recipe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Oe8nqtH88

First:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup margarine

Second:
1/4 cup hot boiling water
1 tsp baking soda

Third:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup chocolate chips

Combine First and beat with mixer.
Combine Second and mix it with First.
Combine Third with First and Second, mix, and form cookies size.
Bake at 330 deg F (on convection gas oven) for approx 10 minutes.
You can replace chocolate chips with raisins, or anything you like, or even omit it.

2 cups flour, mix of whole wheat and white is good
1/4 cup lard
1/2 tsp. sea salt
Water as needed.
Mix the first three ingredients, and add water slowly until somewhat stiff dough. Knead until it is smooth. Let sit half an hour or so.
Cut into 8 equal pieces.
Roll each piece with rolling pin, on floured board or counter in a circle.
Fry on ungreased cast iron pan until browned spots, turn and repeat. Put each one on towel, as you are cooking the others.
These are SO much better than store bought, and so simple, you will love them, and they are good just as is.

1 bag southern style hashbrowns (the square cut potatos)
1 c. sour cream
1 can cream of potato soup
1 can cream of celery soup

mix together, spread in 9x13 pan and bake until golden brown and bubbly

cover top with slices of american cheese in single layer and sprinkle heavily with crushed original lays potato chips on top

return to oven to melt cheese

let cool 10 minutes before serving - can be refrigerated and reheated for next day, but best right out of oven

this will feed quite a few people, great for large families, and cheap! Hope you enjoy!

If you're lucky enough to find some morel mushrooms, soak overnight in salt water, cut into 1/4's or halves depending on size, dip in beaten egg, and roll in finely crushed saltine crackers. Fry in 350 degree oil or fat until golden brown. Drain on paper towel and sprinkle with salt to taste. Make sure that the mushrooms you find are hollow inside, false morel's that are poisionous are solid inside. I know this recipe is pretty simple, but it's one of my favorite things to eat in the spring! Happy mushroom hunting!

COOL!!

If anyone has any more please add them......

(or if anyone has made any of the recipes below.. then post your reviews...)

adventurous ... pick one below.. make it ...and give your unbiased opinion...