Xmas cookies, rice krispie treats, pecan caramel meringues, pb cookies, chocolate covered pb balls

I give these to the young adults in our family. They really like them. Most of the cookies are too sweet for me and if I was to make them for myself I would experiment with cutting back the sugar a lot or maybe skipping the sugar.
All of these cookies can be gluten free if you use gluten free ingredients and work in a gluten free kitchen

Rice Krispie Treats  
13x9 pan, well buttered
Make in Very Large barely fits in the microwave safe bowl
(Rice Krispies are not gluten free so would need to substitute a gluten free puffed rice cereal)
note: 2 bags of marshmallows + 2 boxes cereal makes about 3 pans of cookies.

• melt 3 T butter in micro about 45 seconds
• 40 marshmallows, coat with melted butter, then microwave about 1'10" to melt. Stir till smooth.
• 6 cups cereal, mix into melted marshmallows. spread into 13x9 pan. allow to cool.

Pecan Caramel Meringues (Can use any nut actually)
Al foil or parchment
heavily buttered, cookie can be very sticky and hard to get off

• 4 egg whites, beat till stiff
• 1.25 cup brown sugar, slowly add to egg whites and mix till thickens
• 1.5 cups pecans ground with 1 T sugar, fold in gently to egg white/ sugar mixture

drop small spoonfuls, bake 10-15' at 325-350F till slightly browned.
Sometimes easier to peel off aluminum if cookie somewhat warm. Cookies might not stick if you butter heavily enough and the cookies don't flatten.

Peanut Butter Cookies 10-15' at 325-350F
mix together, little balls, flatten with fork

• 1 cup drier peanut butter (16oz jar is about 1.5c)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls
Mix together and form into balls

• 1 cup ground walnuts
• 1 cup ground dates
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup peanut butter

Dip in melted chocolate made from 1  bag of chocolate chips

I use my food processor to grind everything but in the past I used to just chop finely with knife.

Ginger Dressing

Process till smooth in cup blender (need to increase amounts if make in pitcher of blender)

2 T finely chopped carrots
1 T finely chopped ginger
1 T mild flavor olive oil
1 t brown sugar
1 t lemon or rice wine vinegar
1/2 t soy sauce
1 - 2 T water

I looked at several recipes. It appeared that the ratio of carrots to ginger ranged from 2:1 to 4:1. The carrots gives color and a sweeter flavor. I used mild flavor olive oil. I thought that stronger flavored oils, like sesame seed and peanut oil, might overpower the ginger flavor.

I think equal amounts sweetener to vinegar/lemon juice works best. Soy sauce provides salt. Add water for enough liquid to process.

To keep the recipe simple with fewer ingredients I didn't try adding onion, garlic, mustard, ketchup, celery or tomatoes but any of these could be added.

Recipes that I looked at:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/light-carrot-ginger-recipe.html
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/famous-japanese-restaurant-style-salad-dressing/
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/japanese-ginger-salad-dressing/
http://foodbabe.com/2013/05/23/japanese-restaurant-style-carrot-ginger-salad-dressing/
http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/Benihana-Ginger-Salad-Dressing-Copycat-Recipe.html


link to my experiments

Green soup (previously chicken soup) converted to Jumblelaya

Start heating up the remaining soup from yesterday.

Fill a medium small metal bowl half full with deveined frozen shrimp in the shell, add cold water, let sit about 20 minutes or so to thaw.

Add following chopped/sliced veggies to soup

• 2 celery stalks
• rhubarb
• green pepper

Make a medium brown roux. (use metal pan & spoon.)

• about 2 T butter
• about 4 T flour (I make a drier roux. Can do equal amounts butter/flour if you wish.)

Then add liquid from soup to roux make a smooth gravy with no lumps then add back to soup.

Take off shells from thawed shrimp and rinse shrimp.

Slowly bring soup to boil to let it thicken.

Add equal amounts of

• white pepper
• red pepper
• black pepper

(Start with 1/4 tsp of each. May need more if you like spicy hot. May get spicier hot as it sits.)

Then add shrimp. It will immediately turn pink.

Turn heat off or down. You are done.

Serve over rice.

If it gets too spicy hot you can cool down with plain yogurt or cottage cheese.

Chicken soup converted to green soup

Add to left over chicken soup**

• 1 can navy beans
• browned & sliced italian sausage
• sliced onion, browned
• several cloves of garlic pressed through garlic press

Then add and cook until soft

• A big bunch of thinly sliced greens such as Kale, Swiss Chard, Spinach, and/or Collards

Season with generous amount of fresh ground black pepper
Salt if needed

**
If you don't have leftover chicken soup use

• 1 can chicken broth 
• 1-2 cans of water 
• 3-4 diced potatoes cook till soft

Then add rest as normal

When rhubarb is in season I add it to the soups too.

Chicken Soup with potatoes

Cook until meat falls off the bones (about 1 - ? hours)

• 2 chicken legs with thighs
• with 1 onion cut up
• in water to cover 2-3x in stock pot
• with about 2-3 teaspoons of salt

Then remove meat from bones & return to pot

Add cut up

• potatoes (about 3-4)
• carrots
• celery

Cook until soft (about 30 minutes or so. If the pieces are larger they take longer.)

Season to taste

Southwestern Bean Salad

Mix together

15 oz can Casa Maita southwestern Bean Salad
roughly chop following and add
1 large onion
1 garlic clove
1 stick celery
green pepper
1/2 cucumber
2 tomatoes
1/2 - 1 cup chinese or regular cabbage, bok choy, or romaine lettuce

Can eat right away or serve cold

Turkey A La King, sort of

I looked up the recipes on line but boy do they use a lot of butter. I don't remember my mom using that much butter. Actually she probably used margarine. I thought she just made a white sauce and put a small can of mushrooms and a small jar of pimientos in.

This is how I made it but next time I'm cutting the butter down to 1/2 tablespoon. I didn't have any mushrooms or pimientos on hand so didn't put them in. I also didn't have milk or chicken stock so just used yogurt and water.

Melt in pan

• 1/4 cup butter (Probably could use a lot less, like 1/2 tablespoon.)

Saute in butter (Cut & chop as you go)

• 1 large onion
• 1 carrot 
• probably could add some raw mushrooms here but I didn't have any.
• 1 celery stalk
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1 small sweet red pepper
• 1 garlic clove

Then add

• 1/4 cup flour
• salt (about 1 teaspoon)
• fresh ground black pepper

Slowly add

• 6 oz yogurt
• 12 - 18 oz water

Bring to a boil and cook about 2 minutes or so until it thickens. Stir occasionally so it doesn't burn

Add and heat through

• 1 - 2 cups Turkey pieces, broken in large pieces or coarsely chopped
• My husband added some frozen corn at this point. Hominy might be a good addition too.

We served it like this;
Toasted bread with a handful or so of salad on top, then covered with Turkey A La King (Also known as Smooey on Toast)