Monthly Archives: February 2013

February 21, 2013 · 10:54 am

Greek Chicken and Barley Salad

Greek Chicken and Barley Salad

Chicken salad and Greek salad are two of my favorites.  I knew I had a winner when I saw this recipe on my Cooking Light calendar.  I was not sure if everyone in my house would love it, but to my surprise everyone did.  So here you are a quick, easy, flavorful, and healthy salad that your family will enjoy.  Don’t be leery of the barley if you have never used it before.  It is so similar to pasta  or rice in texture.  Barley is also an excellent source of soluble fiber that is good for digestion and a great source of potassium which helps to lower blood pressure.  Hope that all of you are enjoying your week.  I’m off this week for a winter break.  While some of my friends are enjoying Disney World, I’m just enjoying Villa Rica!

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February 19, 2013 · 8:38 am

Pink and Chocolate Heart Cookies from Martha

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I know that Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but I just had to post these gorgeous cookies!  In preparation for Valentine’s Day I spent a Saturday afternoon in the kitchen making these beautiful heart sandwich cookies which caught my eye sitting there on the front cover of Martha Stewart’s  Living Magazine. I have made a couple of Martha’s recipes. One of them was a great success in my classroom two years ago at Christmas. Even though it took us four days to make them it was worth it. What I am leading up to is the fact that the cookie recipes of Martha’s seem to be so time-consuming! I know that she has lots of helpers in her kitchen, but there is just one of me. The  active time given for  completing this recipe was 3 hours and 25 minutes. I spent five hours. If you have ever spent five hours doing one recipe you know that  when you are finished you don’t even want to eat what you have prepared or it just doesn’t live up to all that time spent in the kitchen. In other words, I could not be the judge of these cookies. I took them to school and let 60 of my students judge them.
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February 10, 2013 · 6:20 pm

Oatmeal Cookies with White or Semi-sweet Chocolate and Pecans

Oatmeal cookies

Last week my students made oatmeal cookies and I will have to say they were fantastic!  If you have ever made cookies from scratch you know it is so easy to mess them up!  It makes it doubly hard to keep everything straight when there are five  to six students working on the same recipe.  As the instructor, I step back and watch.  I’m not the type to get in the kitchen with them.  Mistakes are great tools for learning!  Questions like these will be floating through the classroom as they are busy in their kitchens:

  • Did you measure the soda?
  • How much sugar do we add?
  • Do we use all purpose flour or self rising?
  • Hey, I don’t think you packed the brown sugar!
  • Do we cook these at 325?

Of course they all have a recipe in front of them and a planning sheet that should have  their specific jobs listed.  Plus two days before I have shown them how to make the cookies and use all of the equipment.  How did they do?  Out of 24 kitchens only 2 groups made some kind of mistake with their recipe which resulted in very flat cookies and another group  had pale clumps that did not spread at all.  For me, that is a very good baking day!

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February 4, 2013 · 8:05 pm

Chocolate Chip Rum Cake and Pot Lifters

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I have the best cake recipe for you today.  It is going to knock your socks off!   Don’t look at me sideways, but it’s made with a cake mix.  Yes, it is true.  I didn’t believe it myself when I tasted it.  I just knew my friend Marilyn was lying, but no she doesn’t lie!    It is like a big  chewy brownie  with a hint of rum,  chocolate chips and nuts.   Now who is not going to love it?  When you take a bite you are going to think that you have died and gone to heaven – chocolate heaven that is.

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