Cashew Chicken ...p53

Most of you readers are probably too young to remember when Cashew Chicken was about the only Chinese cooking we did at home!  Before woks were readily available at Walmart, Target....oh, we didn't have those stores then either.

We did have local stand alone butchers where we could choose our chicken (live) and have the butcher slaughter it on the spot.  Our local Detroit butcher was Vergote's.  We kids would hide behind mom's skirt listening to the squawk as the butcher's ax fell with a thud across the chicken's neck.  Then we'd eagerly open our eyes to watch the chicken run around the little kitchen with his head cut off.  By the time we studied descriptive phrases in English, we knew what the figurative "running around like a chicken with its head cut off" literally looked like.

Compare that to this conversation between modern kids, "yeah, we went to Walmart, where mom walked the rows and rows of packaged chicken and tried to decide, 'breasts? thighs? wings? boneless breasts?' It's as if she'd never seen a chicken before!" 

The combination of cashews with chicken is still a winner.  The critic loved this simple but tasty recipe.  NOTE:  The ingredients in the cookbook don't list the rice (which from my picture, you can see I didn't have!), lettuce, green onions, and most important, cashews, or their respective quantities, so be sure to determine quantities you'll need before leaving for the store!  And there is a typo in the cookbook, Fry the chicken, don't dry it :-) 

Hardy Appetit!

Dear Abby's Pecan Pie ...p89

My comment for Thanksgiving:  Make this pie. 

Delicious despite my error in not adding butter until I had already mixed in the pecans.  Oops.  I poured it over the top and stirred it in.  It was still perfect!  Combined with the Perfect Pie Crust, all agreed this was worthy of repeat!

My sister turned me on to this trick after years of my tearing thin strips of foil and wrapping pie crust edges to prevent over-browning:  just tear off a square a little bigger than your pie tin, fold in half and cut out the middle - voila!  a perfect foil circle to lay over the browning edges!

Hardy Appetit!

Perfect Pie Crust ...p89

Perfecting pie crust is no easy task, but the critic mastered this years ago. 

One day after 9/11, a stroke severely limited the use of the left side of her body, and I thought she'd never make pies again.  Not so.  It is now one of my greatest joys to watch her toss the dough and determine the point at which it is just the right consistency to roll out.  She uses her hands and what a delight it is to see her use both her hands; her brain doesn't instruct her to use her left, so we've dubbed it "Mr. Lonely," in order to isolate those instructions.  "Tell Mr. Lonely to hold the bowl."  And he does, but he must be told.  She refuses to use a fork like I do to toss the dough, insisting her fingers tell her when it is just right, "that's your problem making dough - you're afraid to touch it!" and I am - I've always heard you don't touch the dough.  But hers is the golden touch and every crust she makes is delectable and flaky.  She says the secret is she doesn't "press" the dough, she just tosses it. 

The recipe was contributed by my sister, who runs a very close second to my mom in pie-crust making! So this Perfect Pie Crust was my attempt to, well, make it perfect. 

And it was excellent, no doubt, but I still prefer my mama's no measure, touch technique! 

Hardy Appetit!

Sweet Potato Crunch Casserole ...p66

Oh. my. gosh.

I love sweet potatoes anyway, but topped with this crunch, love reaches a new super sweet delight!  It's as if a package of pecan pralines was crumbled all over the top.  If you're diabetic, you might wanna not tempt yourself here....

The critic went wild over this side dish.  I share her delight and have decided I will use this topping (not the sweet potatoes) as the crunchy topping in every apple crisp recipe from now on. 

Hardy Appetit!

Spinach Salad ...p35

Amp up your meal tonight with a dark green spinach salad using this simple, tasty dressing.  One warning.  The dressing makes a lot....  I wasn't sure if I should use it all on my one simple bag of prewashed spinach leaves, or bottle the extra.  I chose to bottle the extra, feeling I drenched the leaves plenty with a good pour and could use this again on other salads.  If you don't want your salad soupy wet, I'd suggest you reduce the recipe by 2/3. 

Or eat it at Linda's and see how it's really done.

Hardy Appetit!