CALICO BEAN SOUP

This is a hearty soup I often made for my family on those harsh cold winter days. And if you actually have any left over, it is even better reheated the next day!

1 (20 -oz.) pkg. mixed, dry beans
2 lbs. chopped, cooked ham
2 qts. water, plus
1 large onion, chopped
2 (14-oz.) cans diced tomatoes
1 (10-oz.) can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 tsp. salt, or to taste
1/4 tsp. pepper, or to taste
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp, chili powder or to taste (optional)


In a large pot, cover beans with water 2 inches above top of beans and soak overnight or 10 - 12 hours.
Drain.
Add 2 quarts water and the ham to the soaked beans. Simmer 2 1/2 - 3 hours, until beans are tender.
Add the onion, all tomatoes, lemon juice and seasonings. 
Simmer 30 to 40 minutes longer. Serve hot with a hunk of corn bread. 

(TIP - Do not add salt to beans before they get tender. Doing so will often keep them from getting tender, leaving them hard and crunchy no matter how long you cook them.)

Snow Ice Cream - a little history

 Setting aside this unusual winter, we don't usually get a good, deep snow here too often. Upon that first deep snow I remember seeing as a child, my mom introduced me and my brother to Snow Ice Cream. When she told us she was going to make us ice cream, we got really excited. We LOVED homemade ice cream!

She started getting all the ingredients out and setting them out on the table. We expected for her to get the ice cream freezer out next. But instead, she picked up her largest mixing bowl and headed outside! We could not figure out what she was going to do with that bowl outside!

We watched out the window in fixed fascination as she carefully scooped the clean, top layer of snow up and filled the bowl to heaping with it. When she came back in, she had our full, undivided attention. As she worked and mixed she explained to us that the snow must be clean, and only use the top couple of inches. She said that you also had to wait until at least a couple of snows had fallen to "clean the air" and a third or fourth deep snow had come before you could use the snow to make Snow Ice Cream. She greatly emphasized how extremely important this was, because the snow, when it first falls, collects all kinds of things out of the air that we wouldn't want to eat.

By the time she finished telling us all this, our ice cream was ready to eat! It was the best ice cream we had ever had! And best of all, we didn't have to take turns cranking or sitting on the ice cream maker. We begged her to make a WHOLE BUNCH and put it in the freezer to save for summer, but she said it wouldn't keep. She was right ..... I tried it once when I was an adult and it didn't keep long. It kinda got flat and super hard . . . . . but I had to give it a try. 

Every winter, from then on, we begged her to make Snow Ice Cream every time it snowed. And she firmly held to the safety of not making it until after several snows had fallen and then a good deep snow fell. Needless to say, we often went several years without getting our beloved snow ice cream. Many years we were lucky if we got even one dusting of snow.

Then one year we had a really deep snow and our then local weather man, Don Woods, gave out his Snow Ice Cream recipe during a news cast. He was with KTUL Channel 8 news in Tulsa. He gave the same instructions as our mom did....... wait until after several snows have fallen, then make it when a deep snow falls. From then on, every year, every time it snowed, viewers swamped KTUL with calls for Don Wood's Snow Ice Cream recipe. He ALWAYS refused to post the recipe on the air until we had had enough snow to safely make the ice cream. He didn't want to make any kids sick. He would then quickly cheer everyone's disappointment up by drawing one of his extra fun Gusty's and drawing for a winner. When I find his recipe, I will post it here. Don Woods is retired from KTUL now, but if any of you have Don Wood's Snow Ice Cream Recipe, I would love it if you sent it to me!

The Snow Ice Cream recipe I have posted here in my Cook Book Blog is the one I created for my kids when they were small. With 6 of the creative little darlins', the ideas flowed and we enjoyed a lot of delicious variations. Regardless of the recipe you use, I hope you got to enjoy at least one bowl of tasty Snow Ice Cream this winter.

SLUSHY - not for kids

1 cup Sugar
5 cup hot water
1 (12-oz) can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
2 cups pineapple juice
2 cups grapefruit juice
2 cups brandy
1 (3-liter) bottle of ginger ale

Stir the sugar into the hot water; mix until completely dissolved. Add the orange juice concentrate, pineapple juice, grapefruit juice, and brandy to the sugar water. Stir and mix until thoroughly blended.

Pour into a freezer safe container and freeze overnight.

To Serve: Fill a glass half full of frozen slushy mixture.  Finish filling glass with ginger ale. Stir well and serve.  Keeps for a very long time in the freezer.

Snow Ice Cream

1 (12-oz) can evaporated milk
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
pinch of salt
1 T. vanilla extract
1 gallon clean snow, approximately

In large mixing bowl, combine evaporated milk, confectioner's sugar, granulated sugar, salt, and vanilla extract; mix throughly. Add snow; mix until all is completely blended; serve immediately.
If it is too thin, add more snow. If it is too dry, add a little more milk, but be careful..... just a few drops of milk mushes it down fast!
Texture greatly suffers if you try to hold it over in the freezer, but it can be done and the kids get a big kick out of pulling 'snow' back out of the freezer once it has all melted outside.

Let your imagination go to vary the recipe. Reducing the vanilla to about 1 tsp. and adding a few squirts of chocolate syrup before stirring makes a great Chocolate Snow Ice Cream.

 Reduce the milk a little and add a thawed package (or can) of sweetened, sliced strawberries.

Replace the granulated sugar with your favorite Jello powder (orange comes out tasting like the Dreamsicle)

Don't hold back, let your imagination go. Enjoy that snow!

Chicken Salad - History

I have always loved a good Chicken Salad. By good, I mean one that is light on the dressing. I don't like a heavy dressing that covers up the flavor of all the other ingredients. The dressing should simply be there to bind all the ingredients together as one and heighten the flavors.

One day, quite awhile back, I was browsing through a cooking magazine when I came across an interesting Chicken Salad recipe. Interesting because it contained fruit. I actually had everything on the ingredient list so I whipped up a bowl. It was wonderful! My oldest daughter and I both loved it more than nearly any Chicken Salad we had ever eaten. It was definitely worth a repeat.

BUT..... before we could make it again, the recipe had disappeared. We kept hoping to find it, but as time went on, we never did. And we could not remember how we made it. But we did remember that what we liked best about it was the grapes and the light dressing.  So I decided to take the best qualities of all the Chicken Salads we had ever eaten and try to create a Chicken Salad recipe that was our ultimate favorite. So after only two tries, the Chicken Salad recipe you see posted here is my scrumptious result. It is now, my all-time favorite Chicken Salad, and my daughter loves it as well. With just a couple of crackers on the side, it is a complete meal on it's own. Made ahead, it is an excellent high protein, low fat, vitamin packed lunch in a hurry. And making it ahead gives it time for all the flavors to blend together perfectly.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. If you have an variations to it that you like, I would love to hear them. Either post your variations here in the comments or email them to me at: tentfire@hotmail.com

Chicken Salad

4 cups cooked chicken, chopped
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup red grapes, halved (no seeds)
2/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup thick mayonnaise
1 (6-oz) carton vanilla yogurt
1 T. millk

Combine chicken, celery, grapes, walnuts, mayonnaise, yogurt, and milk. Stir well, until all is thoroughly blended. Chill before serving. Eat as a sandwich or serve on a leaf of lettuce with a side of crackers.

Special Thanks

Special THANKS goes:

•  to my mom, for all the time, energy, and great pains that she took to dig deep for old recipes and for all the numerous recipes she has passed down from her head to mine.
• to LL, ND and KB, whose excitement and encouragement gave me the push and drive I needed to stick with it as I put this cookbook together.
• to RM and PK, who never complained about the odd meals they got (such as stew for breakfast and oatmeal for dinner) while I was running through my list of recipes, preparing them all to get exact measurements (My family cooks mostly on the "eye ball measuring style). 
• to AM, for being my most honest food critic. That was very important!
• to all of my critters, who eagerly ate my mistakes without complaining.
• to LL and LC, who were so very generous with the enormous amount of time they gave me in their home, under their feet and on the Internet as I typed in my recipes to the publisher. I can't thank you guys enough! (I didn't have a working computer at that time.)
• to ALL six of my kids, for helping me compile the list of recipes for this cookbook. (LL, ND, AM, KB, RM , and PK are my children)
• to everyone else who deserves thanks but has not been mentioned.
  
   THANKS!!

Chicken 'n Butter 'n Cream

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1/8 rounded tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. paprika
3 lbs. chicken pieces, alike or assorted
1/3 cup butter
1 1/2 cup milk

Combine flour, salt, pepper and paprika. Dip chicken in water, then coat each piece well with four mixture. Place chicken in a flat baking dish. Sprinkle remaining flour mixture over moist and/or missed spots on chicken. Slice butter thinly over chicken. Gently pour milk around and over all. Bake, covered, in a pre-heated 350 degree (F) oven for about one hour. Uncover and continue baking an additional 30 minutes or until done.

How It Came About

I come from a family of many great cooks, for many generations back. Recipes have been passed down from generation to generation, embedded into the next generation's mind. Some recipes were scribbled onto scraps of paper, tucked away into little boxes for safe keeping. As my mom grew up and moved out on her own, she began calling her mom to ask how to make those familiar favorites of her childhood. Most recipes were simply verbally passed down. Some were merely a vague ingredient list scribbled down on a scrap of paper, no instructions and no concrete measurements (a handful of this, and a scoop of that).

As I grew up and moved out on my own, I began to miss the foods my mom cooked. I began repeatedly calling her and asking, "Mom, how do you make...?" And so began another generation of recipes passed down from parents' head to child's, and many boxes of recipes scribbled on scraps of paper that are now so yellowed and brittle, some are barely legible. I say parents-to-child because a few of the recipes in this book were passed down to me from my dad.

As I began to have a family of my own, I found much joy in cooking for my six children, searching for and creating recipes that pleased them. They, too, quickly developed their favorites.

As my children began growing up and moving out on their own, they, also, began to miss the foods I cooked. Soon, they began calling me and asking, "Mom,how do you make...?"  As I began to repeatedly answer, "I don't have that written down anywhere. I will just have to tell you how to make it." and began digging through boxes of old recipes I did have, recipes that are now barely readable and crumbly, I realized that generations of recipes were in great danger of being lost. Thus, this cookbook was born.

My cookbook, "Hello, Mom, How Do You Make...." has been available in book form for about five years, and will remain available to anyone that would like to purchase one. And I will now bring it to you online, a few recipes at a time. And here, I will also be including the history behind many of the recipes. I hope you get much enjoyment from many of them. Feel free to email me with any questions you might have or suggestions as to which category you would like to see a recipe posted in next. You can reach me at: tentfire@hotmail.com