Traditional Food

CONTENTS

BAKED SALMON

ROAST BEEF

GRANDMA’S BAKED HAM AND APPLES

PIZZA POTATOES

GRANDMA’SHORT BREAD COOKIES

CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS

LIGHTSIDE

VEGAN PANCAKES

TIPS

FOOD INFORMATION, PEANUT BUTTER RECALLS

BAR MIXES

DRINKS

BAKED SALMON

4- 6 OZ. SALMON FILLETS

1 LEMON

1 TABLESPOON OAT BRAN

1 ½ teaspoon dill weed

½ teaspoon thyme leaves

½ teaspoon onion powder

1 lemon

1 teaspoon paprika

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine oat bran, dill weed, thyme leaves, onion powder, and paprika. Sprinkle over salmon fillets. Bake at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with lemon wedges.

YIELD; 6

BEEF ROAST

3-4 pounds, rib or sirloin.

1 teaspoon salt per pound of meat.

½ cup flour.

1 small onion.

1 cup water.

Rub with salt, flour, pepper and onion.

Place meat in roasting pan with fat side up.

Add 1-cup water.

Do not cover unless a less tender cut is used.

If beef is fat, it will require no basting.

Time required for roasting depends on shape of cut.

For well done roasts, the average cooking time is 30 minutes per pound of meat, for medium 25 minutes per pound, and 20 for rare.

ROAST AT 325

GRANDMA’S BAKED HAM AND APPLES

2 large slices of ham steak.

2 teaspoons……………..(10 ml)………………….prepared mustard.

4 tablespoons………….(60 ml)……………………brown sugar.

2 tart apples.

1 ½ cups…………………………(375 ml)…………………apple juice.

Place the ham in baking dish and rub with mustard.  Sprinkle

with 2 tablespoons (30 ml), of brown sugar.  Core the apple

and cut into thin slices.  Cover the ham with the apple slices

and sprinkle with rest of brown sugar.  Add apple juice. Bake

at 300 F, (150 C), for 30 minutes or until tender.

YIELD:  4-5 servings.

TIME:   40 minutes.

Pizza Potatoes

1/2 cup broccoli, chopped

1/4 onion, chopped

1/4 cup carrots, chopped fine

1 small tomato, sliced

2 baked potatoes

1/2 tablespoon margarine

1/2 tablespoon flour

1/2 cup skim milk

1/4 cup cheese, shredded

Cook broccoli, onions, and carrots in a small amount of water until tender and set aside. In a saucepan, melt margarine and stir in flour. Add milk slowly while stirring. Cook until sauce thickens, stirring occasionally. Add cheese and stir until melted. Add vegetables to cheese sauce and stir. Split open potatoes. Pour equal amounts of vegetable cheese mixture over each potato. Top with sliced tomatoes.

Serves 2.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached white flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

cinnamon to taste (optional)

1 cup vegan chocolate chips

1 cup organic sugar

1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup water

Directions:  Preheat oven to 350.  In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix in the chocolate chips. Make a well in the center and set bowl aside.

In a medium size bowl mix vegan sugar and oil. Add the vanilla and then add the water. Be sure to mix it well.  Add the wet to the well in the dry. Spoon dough onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 8-12 minutes.

Take them out and move them to wire cooling racks. Makes almost two dozen cookies.

GRANDMA’S WHIPPED SHORT BREAD COOKIES

1 POUND………(500 G)……………..BUTTER OR MARSRINE

3 CUPS………..(750 ML)……………FLOUR

1 CUP ……………(250 ML)…………..ICING SUGAR

Beat with mixer until creamy.  Drop on cookie sheet and bake at 350 F, (175 C) until slightly brown.

YIELD: approximately 5 dozen cookies

TIME:  1 hour (includes cooking and cleaning time)

LIGHTSIDE

Dinner Blessings

The housewife invited 2 couple and their children for dinner one night. As they get ready to eat, the housewife asks her son, “Would you like to say blessings”?  “I don’t know what to say”, the boy replies.

“Just say what you hear what your mother says”, replied the mother.

The boy bowed his head and said, “Lord, why on earth did I invite two 2 couples and their kids for dinner”?

A priest dies and is in line at the Pearly Gates. Saint Peter asked the guy ahead of him his name.  The guy replies, “I am Sam Horton, taxi driver from New York.” Saint Pater gives him a silken robe and golden staff and said, “Enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Now it’s the priest’s turn. He booms out ” I am the Right Reverend Anderson.” Saint Peter gives him a cotton robe and a wooden staff, and says to the Priest, “Enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”  Taken back the priest asks, ” That man was a taxi driver why does he get a silken robe and golden staff”.

“Results,” Said Saint Peter. “While you preached, people slept.

When the taxi driver drove, people prayed.

Vegan Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

3 tablespoons organic sugar

1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

dash of salt

3 dashes of nutmeg

1 to 1 1/4 cups soymilk

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 Ener-G Egg Replacer (found at health food stores)

Directions:  Combine all dry ingredients (flour, salt, vegan sugar, baking powder, nutmeg). Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl.  Mix wet and dry ingredients, but don’t over-stir.  Pour onto hot skillet, flip once.  Makes 6 medium pancakes.

Note: You may also add fresh fruit such as blueberries or vegan chocolate chips for some variety!

TIPS

BABY WIPES TIPS

Since heading the market in the 80’s, these moistened disposable baby wipes proved to be great in and outside the home.  From cleaning your hands after changing oil or a tire, clean tools, rub marks off your walls, many, many uses including shining your shoes, wipe with baby wipe and buff with a soft, dry cloth.

To freshen up a smelly drain, just pour a cup of Baking Soda into it, and flush with hot water.

Blocked Drains?

Instead of using caustic products (be green and save money) for clearing blocked drains, throw a cup of baking soda down the drain followed by a few jugs of water.

FOOD INFORMATION

USE FOOD THERMOMETER

Don’t rely on looks alone. Bacteria can spread during ground meat.  Always use a food thermometer and cook at 160 degrees Fahrenheit when cooking your hamburgers.

After about 15 years, Health Canada has come out with a new Food Guide. Included in the guide is advice for different ages and stages of your live (children, women of childbearing age, men and women over 50).

Some recommendations are;

Eat at least one dark green and one orange vegetable each day.

Vegetables, fruit with little or no added fat, sugar, salt.

Have vegetables and fruit more often then juice.

Make half your grain products whole grain each day Choose grain products that are lower in fat, sugar or salt.

Drink skim, 1%, or 2% milk each day.

Select lower fat milk alternatives.

Have meat alternatives such as beans, tofu often.

Eat at least 2 Food Guide Servings of fish each week.

Select lean meat with little or no added fat or salt.

Each person’s lifespan is genetically pre-determined, eating “lifespan essential” foods will maximise your chances of living as long as possible.

The 20 foods are black tea, apples, blackberries, blueberries, cherry tomatoes cranberries, cherry tomatoes, dark chocolate, oranges, peaches, plums, red grapes, cereal bran, green tea, coffee, red onions, raspberries, strawberries.

Peanut Butter Product Recalls

The outbreak of salmonella illness, which began in late summer and is ongoing, has been linked to eight deaths, including two in Virginia. In all, about 500 people in 43 states and Canada have become ill. About 22 percent were hospitalized, and about half of those affected are children.

Health officials said they would work with companies supplied by Peanut Corporation of America to continually update a recall list that is available on the FDA’s Web site. The Web site details a long list of popular products that are affected, including candies, cookies, snack bars and snack mixes.

Search For Peanut Butter Product Recalls

Information current as of 12 PM January 21, 2009

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced a recall yesterday of nine varieties of snack bars amid fears they may be contaminated with tainted peanut butter or peanut paste.

The affected products include snack bars from popular brands Clif, Larabar, Nature’s Path Organic and Hebert’s Fully Loaded.

“With the size of this recall, in terms of volume of peanut butter, we may certainly expect more recalls in this country,” said Garfield Balsom, food safety and recall specialist at the CFIA. “We will certainly be notifying the consumers.”

For a full list of the recalled products, visit;

www.inspection.gc.ca

NEXT HEALTH CRISIS?

The past decade witnessed the massive off shoring of jobs to low-cost countries, decimating the U.S.A. and Canada manufacturing base. Cheap food may bring the next health crisis.

Ice cream. Yogurt. Crackers and biscuits. Egg and products containing powdered eggs. Cake. Powdered and condensed milk, pet food, pie, cereal plus other food products.

You probably consumed some of these products.  Did you know where they came from?  You may have thought these products were produced in the USA or Canada.  You would not know that some of these products came from china, and yes, China imports them into Canada and the USA.

These foods of Chinese origin have been found by authorities in the United States, Canada, Australia, to contain an industrial chemical called melamine that is used to make plastic.  In recent weeks, the Chinese government has admitted that adding melamine to food – which raises protein levels, making poor-quality products look more nutritious – is common practice in China.  Melamine can cause kidney stones and kidney failure when eaten. It has already sent about 54,000 Chinese consumers to the hospital and caused the deaths of at least four infants.

Elanor Starmer is a research analyst with Food & Water Watch, a national non-profit firm working to ensure clean water and safe food. For more information, visit

www.foodandwaterwatch.org

BUY LOCAL

Where possible we should buy locally grown foods. As a rule your food is fresher, better flavour, picked within a day of your purchase. Local produce more likely has a higher nutrient content than store-bought produce that has spent time on a transport truck and warehouse. Further farmers who sell directly to local customers receive the full value for their product, can sell cheaper, as there is less cost to processing, transportation, packing, warehouse etc.

RESPONSIBLE DRINKING

If you have teenagers, or in fact any adult, impress on them the risks of driving while intoxicated. Statistics demonstrate many fatal road accidents are caused by drunk drivers.

If you’re having a party, provide food with drinks. Offer non-alcoholic substitutes such as fruit, soft drinks.

2 drinks taken within an hour by a person 100 pounds produces a 075 reading. One drink is equal to about 1.5 oz. of whisky or 2 bottles of beer. The rate of elimination for each hour after drinking has stopped is 015. A 200-pound person, after 1 drink produces a reading of .019, so you can see there is a big

difference due to weight.

BAR MIXES

BLIZZARD.

3 ounces bourbon.

1 ounce cranberry juice.

1 teaspoon lemon juice.

2 teaspoons sugar syrup.

4 ounces crushed ice.

Combine in blender until the drink is thick.

Serve straight up.

SHANGHAI COCKTAIL

¼ juice of lemon

1-teaspoon anisette

1 ½ ounce Jamaica rum

½ teaspoon grenadine

Shake with ice cubes. Strain into cocktail glass.

MARTINI (sweet)

1-ounce gin

½ ounce Italian vermouth

1dash orange bitters

Stir with ice cubes. Strain into chilled cocktail glass

NON- ALCOHOLIC DRINKS

Apple Juice Punch.

2 quarts apple juice.

2 quarts cranberry juice.

8 oz. lemon juice.

8 oz. Sugar.

2 bottles ginger ale.

Combine everything except the ginger ale.

Stir well. Add ginger ale plus chunks of ice before serving.

Apple Cocktail.

½ ounce applejack.

½ ounce apple cider.

¼ ounce gin.

¼ ounce brandy.

Shake with ice cubes. Strain into chilled cocktail glass.

It’s surprisingly easy to prepare a rack of lamb for your next dinner party. Watch how to trim, marinate, roast and serve a stunning rack of lamb. Rack of lamb recipes from CanadianLiving.com: www.canadianliving.com www.canadianliving.com www.canadianliving.com www.canadianliving.com … rack lamb food canadian living test kitchen

I’ve certainly had a lot of positive feedback on my Famous Restaurant Recipes you can do at home. Chili’s Grill & Bar – Chick-fil-A – Olive Garden – Boston Market – Red Lobster.

Recently had an email from Marion S, who said, “I loved your recipes for a romantic dinner. Do you have more? From a more up-scale restaurant?”

OK – You can’t get more upscale than the Four Seasons dining room.

The story of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, which opened its first hotel in 1961, is a tale of continual innovation, remarkable expansion and a single-minded dedication to the highest of standards. The Canadian-based company has, for nearly 50 years, transformed the hospitality industry by combining friendliness and efficiency with the finest traditions of international hotel-keeping. In the process, Four Seasons has redefined luxury for the modern traveller.

The Four Seasons kitchens have attracted some of the best chefs from around the world. Simple but fine dining has been their goal.

So – here we go again: You’ve met someone special – maybe through friends – maybe on one of those Romance relationship sites like eHarmony or WUVING.com – and you want to whip up a truly romantic dinner!

You’re looking for some great romantic dinner recipes to sweep that special guy or girl off his or her feet.

Here is an elegant – but simple – meal you can prepare at home with that fantastic Four Seasons flair:

–Four Seasons Minestrone alla Milanese–

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup finely chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped leek, white and light green parts

1 cup finely chopped celery

2 cups finely chopped carrots

2 cups finely chopped cabbage (preferably Savoy)

1 cup green beans cut into 1/2-inch lengths

2 cups of 1/2-inch cubes of peeled boiling potatoes

1/2 cup finely chopped prosciutto

1 cup of 1/2-inch cubes of unpeeled zucchini

1 cup chopped rinsed fresh stemmed spinach

2/3 cup chopped fresh or canned tomatoes

1/2 cup tomato sauce

6 cups chicken broth

3/4 cup rice (preferably short grain Arborio)

2 cups canned cannelini beans

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Grated Parmesan for garnish, optional

In a large stock or soup pot, over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add the onion, leek, celery, carrots, cabbage, green beans and potatoes and stir for 2 minutes.

Add the prosciutto, zucchini, spinach, tomatoes and tomato sauce and stir for another 2 minutes.

Add the chicken broth, bring to a boil and simmer, covered, over low heat for 15 minutes.

Add the rice and beans, and simmer, uncovered for 15 minutes or until the rice is tender. Remove the soup from the heat.

In a small skillet saute the rosemary in the olive oil for 30 seconds. Add this to the soup along with the parsley and cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately. Garnish with more cheese if desired.

–Four Seasons Crab Cakes–

2 pounds jumbo lump crabmeat

1/2 pound fresh codfish fillet

1/2 to 1 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

2 tablespoons finely chopped chives

2 tablespoons basil, julienned

Salt and pepper to taste

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Olive oil for sauteing

Pick through crabmeat, removing all shells but being careful not to break up the large lumps too much. In a food processor, grind codfish until pureed. Add 1/2 cup of heavy cream and puree until incorporated. Then add more cream if needed. The mixture should be smooth and shiny, yet firm enough to hold its shape.

Place this mousse in a metal bowl and add the other ingredients, except for the olive oil. Take a small portion of the crab-cake mixture and saute in hot olive oil until golden brown. Taste to adjust seasoning. Form the rest of the crab cakes and saute in hot olive oil until golden on both sides.

Finish by baking in a 450-degree oven for 4 to 5 minutes.

Save the extra for a late night snack!

–Four Seasons Strawberry Pie–

1 cup All Purpose Flour

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 stick butter

1 1/2 Tbsp. shortening

1/8 cup Ice water

Put flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Cut the butter, and shortening into the flour. Process a few seconds until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Drop by drop add the water, processing briefly. The whole process should take about 20 to 30 seconds.

Wrap and chill for an hour. Remove from refrigerator, and let stand 15 minutes before rolling. You can double this up for a top and bottom crust.

Filling:

1 cup Sugar

3 Tbsp. Corn Starch

1 pint Strawberries

1 12 oz. can 7-UP (Yes, 7-UP – it works!)

Whipped cream.

In a medium sized sauce pan combine sugar, cornstarch, and 7-UP until creamy.

Cook over a medium to a medium high heat until the mixture becomes thick. When this mixture becomes thick, cool to room temperature, and add a couple of drops of red food coloring.

Wash, and cut strawberries into quarters, or smaller depending on how large they are. Sprinkle a teaspoon or two of sugar on the strawberries, and place them into the shell.

Pour the cooled 7-Up mixture over the strawberries. Allow this to set for a few minutes. Serve with plenty of Whipped Cream.

And that’s everything you need to create a Romantic Four Seasons Dinner for Two!

Bon Appetit!

- Brian Alan Burhoe brianalanburhoe.com.