Easter Garlic Mashed Potatoes

3# mixed potatoes

5 lg. cloves of garlic

Wash the potatoes. Peel and cube the sweet potatoes and immediately put them in salted water. Before prepping the regular potatoes, put the unpeeled garlic cloves in warm water, for 10 minutes, to make peeling them easier.

Add the cubed potatoes to the pot. Bring to a quick boil then reduce the heat to a low simmer. When the potatoes are just getting tender, add the peeled, crushed, chopped garlic.

Turn off the heat and cover the pot. Let stand 10 minutes. Drain, then add the following:

1T dry parsley

1/2T Lowry's Garlic Salt

3/4t red and black pepper

1 stick of butter

2/3c sour cream

Give everything just a rough mash, just to blend everything, and melt the butter. Stir in the sour cream right at the end. We'll be having this for our Easter dinner this weekend with a vegetable medley, a grape tomato salad, a sauerkraut-pork meat course and a purple cabbage side that's just wonderful! For dessert I'm going to make a slightly different version of my Italian inspired olive oil cake, adding slightly cooked citrus peel this time, and baking the batter as muffins.

I love the idea of the flavors and textures these different potatoes bring to the dish. Not everyone's favorite type of mashed potatoes, but if you're adventurous, you might like these for a change. They provide much more nutritive value than just regular potatoes.

I hope you all had a wonderful Passover-Easter holiday weekend. . .Lin

Joann's Danish Cabbage

Here we are. . .It's holiday season once again! This is a much requested recipe. I've posted it here many times, but today I'm making more than usual, so I'm putting it here again, in case you want to serve this to a bigger group.

2-1/2# purple cabbage

6T butter

2/3c sugar

2/3c white vinegar

1t salt 

1/2t fresh ground black pepper

Quarter or 'eighth' each cabbage, then slice in 1/8"-1/4" slices. Combine these ingredients in a 4 quart pot, cover and put on low heat. As it heats up, stir gently to melt the butter and sugar, then simmer gently 2-3 hours.

At the end, stir in 1/3c jelly. The jelly is the only thing I ever vary in this recipe. The original calls for current jelly, but that has a strong metallic taste to me. In the past I've used rosehip preserves, orange marmalade, elderberry jelly, apple jelly. . .

Today I have a choice between raspberry-jalapeño, fig, or Forest Berry Preserves that I found in an Italian market. I think those Italian Forest Berries will win out with their awesome fruity flavors! It's very seedy though so I'll heat the jam to melt it and strain out the seeds, using 1/3c of the clear jelly that will result.

This is best, when made the day before, then heated just before serving. Once you try this recipe you'll want it every time you make lamb, pork, chicken or turkey.

Happy Holidays Everyone 😃🎄🥰

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Generously butter a 9" baking dish. Put these dry ingredients in a large bowl:

1/2c corn flour

1-1/2c all purpose flour

1T ground chia-flax seeds

1-2t ground smoky cumin - optional

3-1/2t baking powder

2t brown sugar

1t salt

In a medium size glass bowl, whisk these together, then set aside:

1/2c oat milk

1/4c sour cream

1T white vinegar

3/4c baked, peeled, mashed sweet potato

6T very cold butter

Cut the butter into small cubes. Using a pastry cutter, combine with the dry ingredients until the butter is all chopped into flour coated, gritty little pieces.

Stir the sweet potato mixture into the butter-flour bowl. Using a heavy silicone spatula, cut through, scrape and combine best you can. Turn this out onto a floured counter, kneed it a bit, adding a little corn flour at a time, until it's no longer a sticky mass.

Pat it flat, on the floured counter, into a square about 3/4" thick. Cut this into 9 equal pieces. With floured hands, shape into balls and put in the greased pan, making sure each biscuit touches those around it. Chill in the 'fridge or freezer for an hour. After 45 minutes, preheat the oven to 350°.

1 egg yolk 

1-2t water

a sprinkle of smokey chili powder

Whisk those together and brush on the surface and edges of each biscuit. When the oven's up to temperature, bake for 45 minutes.  Cool 15 minutes. Serve with soup or chili, plain, or buttered. These would also be good with melted butter and jalapeño jam. . .Lin

Coleslaw Redux. . .

The coleslaw I made the other day wasn't going anywhere. After a couple servings, I still had a 32oz. container, full, this morning.

Hmmm, pitch it? No. . .I'll cook it!

First, drain awhile in a colander. Then in a big skillet, melt 3T butter, add the coleslaw, salt, pepper and 3T of a dark, fruity Balsamic. I have several well-aged, traditional Balsamics, white Balsamics, apple cider, and in fruit infused, I have black cherry, raspberry, pear, coconut, cinnamon pear, fig, pomegranate, and the one I chose, Blackberry Ginger. A foodie can never have too many vinegars you know. This was a good choice!

I lightly simmered all these ingredients mixed with the coleslaw, for 15 minutes, stirring several times, partially covered with a screen. Turn the heat off and just leave it there another 5-10 minutes.  Drain once again in the colander before repackaging. Cooking like this, takes away a bit of the crunch, and adds some wonderful new flavor. It'll keep another several days in the 'fridge.

Think twice before pitching leftovers. Is there some form of new life you can give them? . .Lin

Plum-Quat Marmalade or Fruit Butter

My Sweet Little Kumquat Tree

7 lg. kumquats

7 almost ripe plums

2 'cuties' with peel

This measured out to 3 cups of very finely sliced-chopped fruit.  Use the whole kumquat.  Slice in quarters lengthwise then cut each into 3 long sections.  Remove seeds and finely chop.  Remove the peel from the cuties, thinly slice then cut each length ⅓" long.  Chop the orange finely and add to the mix.

2c sugar

1t pumpkin pie seasoning

a big shake of black pepper

a small shake of cayenne pepper

¾c water

½c of real butter

Bring this mixture to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer for 4 minutes. Add the fruit and simmer 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let the mixture cool a bit. Strain the liquid into a bowl then bring that to a simmer for another 5 minutes to reduce and thicken it. Add the fruit again, cook a little longer, to thicken, then cool again and refrigerate in a covered bowl. If you want, stir in the butter at the end of the cooking time, making this a fruit butter, good on toast, muffins or biscuits. . .Lin

Cinnamon Honey Butter

4oz. salted butter

2-3T local honey

½t ground cinnamon

Heat the butter, just enough to melt. Stir in the honey and cinnamon. Chill, stirring occasionally to keep everything suspended and blended. Store in the refrigerator. Spread on toast,  muffins, use as a topping for mashed sweet potatoes, or mix with hot steamed carrots, just prior to serving. . .Lin