DO BEETS REALLY TASTE LIKE DIRT?

Today my CAST-teammates discussed BEETS. All ways to cook them (boil or roast), ways to peel them (before or after they're cooked) , ways to use them (in Australia, sliced on a hamburger), fresh versus canned. Make borscht, or salad, or a side dish. Eat the green beet tops or not (if they're young and tender).

On and on went the BEET discussion. It was generally agreed that beets do taste like dirt. I guess that means people like the taste of dirt. How does one acquire a taste for dirt? My thought is they ate lots and lots of mud pies out in the back yard when they were children.

I remember one of my sisters making meatballs from mud and serving them up for the playmates to dine on.

When my granddaughter was in kindergarten, she came home from school one day - all thrilled because she had made mud pies that day in school and she brought a huge piece of paper, with the recipe on it, home with her. She announced proudly when she showed it to me - "here's my "masterpiece".

Grammie's reaction: what a charming malapropism !  Sometimes the wrong word says it so much better than the right one.

She got "masterpiece" and "recipe" all discombobulated. . They do sound very much alike. Say them out loud and you'll see.

I'm wondering if she likes beets, being they taste so much like her mud pies. I'll have to ask her.

Yummy Crepe Breakfast - Lunch - or Dessert

I had company for dinner a week or so ago and made homemade manicotti for the main course. For this recipe, you don't use the store bought manicotti pasta that's sold in a box. You make very light crepes - which I will include the recipe for - then fill them with the ricotta mixture, cover them with homemade sauce and bake for about an hour. But that is another dinner. Today, we'll be talking about the crepes. I had some left over from the manicotti project. And because of that,  I invented the recipe in the title.

I took a couple of the left over crepes, heated them in the microwave for about 30 seconds, then slathered them with Nutella, layered sliced bananas and strawberries covering one half of the crepe. Folded over the crepe and drizzled chocolate sauce over the top.

I ate them just like this (the dessert format).  But for breakfast and/or lunch, you could spread a layer of yogurt over the Nutella before you layer on the fruit.

Crepe Recipe: Makes about 25
5 room temperature eggs - 1 cup of flour - 1 cup of lukewarm water. Mix ingredients together with a wire whisk in a 1 quart vessel.
Oil a small cast iron skillet or a small (8") teflon coated frying pan. Wipe the oil around the pan with a paper towel. Heat the pan on medium heat. My ancient recipe says to use a whiskey glass (1 oz.) to measure the batter into the pan  but you can use a ladle or spoon - remembering that you want a very small amount of batter in the pan because the crepe should be very thin. Quickly, twirl the pan to get the batter spread around on the bottom to make a round shaped crepe. It just takes a few minutes to cook side one. Turn crepe over to cook side two (this side takes even less time than side one.

As the crepes are finished, pile them one on top of the other on a plate. When you're finished making crepes, you can wrap the whole pile in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator. They freeze well. Divide them up in serving sized batches to freeze.

Chicken Tortellini Alfredo

I attended a party recently where this was on the buffet. I loved it and asked for the recipe. It is so simple, I'm sure it will be on your favorites list too. It can be served to lots of people, as at this party. Or you can make it for just one or two people, which is what I normally do.

You'll need:

Jarred Classico Roasted Poblano Alfredo Sauce
Frozen or fresh cheese tortellini
1/2 of a cooked chicken breast, shredded
grated Romano cheese

Measurements: You know how it is with pasta and sauce - a little of this and a little of that. When I make it for myself, I boil 4 oz. of tortellini in one pan. In another pan, on very low heat, I heat up about 6 oz. of the sauce.

When I am ready to assemble, I add the shredded chicken to the sauce to heat up for a minute. Then I add the drained, cooked tortellini to the sauce mixture. Pour it into a bowl and drizzle with the grated Romano cheese.

Add a small side salad and there you have dinner.

Act III of Rotisserie Chicken - Chicken Tortellini Soup

This is the final act of the rotisserie chicken that I purchased at my local supermarket for $4.99 and created several "meals for one" from................... ______________________________________________________________________ I'm sorry that you find yourself in the position of "cooking for one" and that your dinner companions are the TV or reading matter spread all over your kitchen table. But, simply because this is the most unenviable situation to be in, you should have absolutely delightful meals and not just purely servicable......... _______________________________________________________________________ For the chickie's final application, he's coming to the table as chicken tortellini soup with fresh spinach........................ ________________________________________________________________________ You remember that way back in Act I when I made the chicken quesadilla, I advised you to remove all the rest of the breast meat and use it to make chicken salad (that was Act II) and to wrap up the remaining chicken entire carcass and meat and freeze it - freezing also, the juices that were left in the bottom of the supermarket container that the chicken came home to roost in............... __________________________________________________________________________ Now is the time to remove that package from the freezer. No need to defrost it. First of all, wrap up the carcass in cheese cloth. This is prevent the bones from falling apart and floating around in your soup. (And this is a personal preference) I don't like meat floating in my soup. If it is all wrapped in cheesecloth, it will all stay where it belongs......................... ___________________________________________________________________________ Fill a large soup pot with cool water. Drop you cheesecloth wrapped package gently into the pot along with the juices that were in the store container bottom. Bring pot to a boil, then lower heat to simmer. Skim off any foam which gathers on top. Add veggies to the soup. I like to put them in whole so that it is easy for me to remove them when the soup is done. I put a couple whole stalks of celery - including celery leaves, whole carrots and a whole onion. I also add a small can of tomatoes or fresh tomatoes, if you have them................... ___________________________________________________________________________ Simmer for 1 - 2 hours. Remove wilted veggies. I mash the carrots with a fork and add them back in. I toss the celery and onion. All their goodness is now in the soup. Remove the cheesecloth package. Now you have a lovely clear soup...........

____________________________________________________________________________ Bring it back to a soft boil so you can cook the tortellini right in the soup. I add about half a 1# bag of frozen cheese tortellini to the soup. Cook according to package directions. When the tortellini is almost cooked, I add one half a bag of fresh baby spinach............................................. _____________________________________________________________________________ Dinner's ready. I serve this with a couple tsp. of grated romano/parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. If this doesn't seem like a hearty enough dinner, have a chicken salad sandwich with it. You can also have dessert - because there's not too many calories in the soup.!!!! ______________________________________________________________________________ After I ate my chicken tortellini dinner, I still had two quarts of soup left over. I put one in the freezer for another delightful future meal and the other in the fridge.