Halloween Treats.... Pumpkin Squares, and BOO Cookies and more.....,

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Most Years I make Cookies or snacks while I carve pumpkins, my favorite pumkins to carve are puking pumpkins....It's a nurse thing....Here are the treats..enjoy...
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Pumpkin Squares ( Marshmallow rice cookies)
1/2 c Butter (salted)
10 cup Crispy rice cereal
1 bag Miniature marshmallows
2 c Mixture of candy corn and Indian candy corn
1 cup c Miniature chocolate chips
Candy pumpkins
Yellow and red food coloring ( to make orange)

Melt butter and marshmallows; stir until smooth. In a large bowl, mix rice cereal, candy corn and miniature chips together. To marshmallow mixture, blend in 2 drops yellow food coloring and 1 drop red food coloring, adding more coloring if necessary to make it orange. Add marshmallow mixture to cereal mixture; stir real quickly to combine. Spread on a large buttered pan; press with buttered hands. While warm, press on candy pumpkins spaced 1 to 1/2-2 inches apart. Refrigerate and cut into squares.
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BOO Cookies:
Sugar Cookies with white icing and raisens for eyes and the open mouth....I think it is easiest to buy the tube of dough..let the kids make them, and shape them. Cook as regular cookies- decorate when cool.
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Oatmeal Raisen Pumpkin Cookies:
Pop N Fresh Oatmeal Dough is really good, and it has raisens in it...makes great cookies, you can cut into round and bake at 350 degrees.
Pumpkin Filling:
Whip up in a small bowl, and then refrig for a few hours before you make the cookies.One small can of pumpkin pie filling, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, cinnamon, 1 tsp of buttered rum flavoring, powdered sugar half cup, 1 tsp vanilla. Then just like making ice cream sandwiches, put filling in between the oatmeal cookies.
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Lovely Puking Pumpkins....

Zucchini Bread ( The Special One with Raisins)

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3 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground Saigon cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 cup mashed Zucchini's*
1/2 cup Special Raisens*
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/4 cup yogurt-vanilla
2 pats butter (for greasing pan)
Once in a pan, lightly sprinkle freshly zested lemon across the top.

Bake in a Bread Pan, well buttered or greased....Sometimes I like to use Light Virgin Olive Oil. ( there is also PAM Spray that works great). I prefer Glass pans, less stickiness for some reason. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

About the Zucchini, 2 or 3 zucchini's peeled and mashed and preheat in the microwave, with a bit of butter, and salt, slight.

About the Raisins, I soak them overnight in Hot Buttered Rum Flavoring ( or you could use real Rum just as well) and Orange Juice, and a bit of Blueberry Juice is nice too. In the Fall Apple Cider. Let them soak until they are good and Plump.

( If you ever want to try something different, shredded coconut is really nice too....instead of the lemon zest on the top...)
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If I am going to make Bread...any kind..I need the right music...Blues...or R&B...or Soul....So to accompany this I put the Neville Brothers with this receipe...just click the title.....( song is" Fearless."..really haunting song...I think it is about NOLA )......

Guilty Peasure : Brownies....

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Brownies Mix ( the kind with the Syrup pack)
Chocolate Pudding Mix
Kahlua or Coffee Liqueur
( if you don't drink Coca Cola)
2 eggs
Crushed Up MM's
Butterscotch Bits

Mix all like you normally would, but instead of water use the Kahlua or Coke. And add a third cup more liquid. Then cook in greased glass pan at 350 for about 40 minutes. Do Spread the mixture, and sprinkled the MM's and Bits across top and smooth in....Amaretto is also nice to try. Let cool for about 2 hours before eating. Brownies should be fudgey, not cake-like.
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Tonight is the Saddleback Event for the Election...I am dreading it...so this will really help.

Hmmmmm, Hot Steamy Buns ( homemade)

Cucumber Cheese Soup

Cheese Cucumber Soup
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( serve with Garlic Bread)

2 English Cucumbers Sliced
one small container Sour Cream
1 Cup Vanilla Flavored Creamer ( less fat, but still seems creamy)
I package KNORRS Leak Soup( powder)
Half stick butter
I cup water ( add more if needed till consistancy creamy)
1 teaspoon Worstshire Sauce
1 teaspoon Honey Mustard
Garlic Powder
Paprika
Dash of Nutmeg

Cheese: shredded, Havarti, Sharp Chedder, Monterey,Smoked Goulda totalling One Cup, mix in even amounts, some can be bought already shredded.

Crabcakes....Baltimore Style

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Enigma Crab Cakes:
I have made these since I was a kid with my grandmother and greatgrandmother.....and then after waitressing in many Seafood Houses along the Atlantic Coast and tha Baltimore Harbor, I altered the receipe over the years.

WHAT YOU NEED:
Crab ( 16 oz. prepicked Lump and canned- Fresh)
One Mini Heinken
One tin of Old Bay Seasoning *Critical*
One Egg
Hungarian Paprika
Garlic Powder ( NOT salt)
Parmesan Cheese ( the powdery kind)
One jar of Mayo
Dijon Mustard
Box of Ritz Crackers
Buttered Glass baking pan

(1) In a bowl mix the Crab and even it's canned juices, with cup of mayo, 2 teaspoons mustard, and one tablespoon of Beer.
(2) In a seperate Bowl, Bowl A, crush up about 30 Ritz Crakers, nice and fine, then add a dusting of Old Bay, and some garlic powder, and some paprika...
(3) Now crush up some more crackers, about 20 and add them to the Wet mixture and then sprinkle with parmesan cheese( the powder kind), just sprinkle lightly.
(4) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
(5) Now take the crab and measure with your hands, and make balls gently molded with your hands.
(6) Once you have molded, then roll in Cracker Bowl until the ball is fully covered with crackers, then place in the baking pan.
(7) If mixture is too wet, don't be shy about adding crushed crackers to the Wet Bowl.
(8) Make the balls, and place in circle and in pan ,so there is space between to cook.Sprinkle more Old Bay lightly across the top.
(9) One can makes approximately 8 Crab Cakes.
(10) Bake for approximately 30-40 minutes.

Serve with salad, tomato aspic, potato salad, and garlic bread......and fruit...

* Background: This is a 4th Generation Baltimore Reciepe, handed down through the women of my family. Grandmother Flo taught me...she would stand in the kitchen and crack open a Heiniken and my grandfather would come and stand and nibble on the crackers and the crab and drink a beer, and she would put on Johnny Mathis and Nat King Cole and then they would slow dance while they baked....and I would sit and soak in the smell of the Baking Crab and Heiniken....Old Bay wafting on a warm summer night still melts my heart....
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8.11.08....Please make them this week and have a cold beer with them ...Toast Phelps and Baltimore !!!

Why Naked Sushi ?

(originally posted 7.16.08)

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Why Naked ? And did I mean Me or the Sushi ? I meant the Sushi....sorry. See here is the thing I was remarking to a friend that I can't eat Hot Food right now, spicy or temperature wise.( I have a Gatroeneritis thing going on....so the Some Changes were kind of in Order)...... And then I joked " Oh, gee , I am really really craving sushi right now, I guess it will have to be naked."

So I have been eating Cold Naked Sushi and Cold Rice Noodles all week, No Wasabi, No Horseradish, No Ginger.....but that one comment got me thinking about how much Food can be a Diversion, a Distraction.....an Escape. We are living through Dark Times right now, if we had a little snack shop on the corner to meet , we could share our snacks and Iced Cold Tea and food and Cooking Ideas....and yeah , Soulfood.

So let's meet here, and share Receipes and some Soulfood here.
We can have All Kinds of Food and Themes.

But for tonight....Some Sushi...the Best Soulfood around.
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Video treat: How to Make Sushi ( wonderful video)