Church compiles favorite recipes

If you had walked into my kitchen last Thursday afternoon, you would have wondered what in the world was going on.

I was sitting in a wheelchair, with a blue plastic bowl in my lap, cutting up apples for a dessert I was making. I scooted up the wheelchair to do a few tasks and stood a few times on my good leg, but I let my daughter do the rest, including putting the heavy pan into the oven for the dessert to bake.

Although this broken ankle of mine has set me back quite a bit, I’ve also been determined to do most of the things I want to do, and that includes trying a recipe from Daniels Chapel Free Will Baptist Church’s new cookbook, "Favorite Recipes.”

If you read my food column often, you know I always enjoy a good church cookbook, and this one is no exception. The Crossroads Sunday school class at Daniels Chapel assembled favorite recipes from two previous cookbooks as well as new recipes from members, families and friends for this book.

The spiral bound cookbook is filled with many recipes local cooks will enjoy trying — some you might have seen before at covered dish dinners or at family reunions and others that are very new.

I’ve told my son I’d try Sherri Whitley Jernigan’s healthy zuppa Toscana soup; he loves that soup at Olive Garden, and this version sounds very good and easy to make. And I know my family would love the baked potato cubes recipe Kathy Hayes submitted. The recipe sounds simple enough and would be such a good side dish to a beef main course. And if I could drive right now, I would have already gone out and bought the ingredients for one of the main course casseroles of chicken pies in this book.

The bread section is always one of my favorites in a cookbook. In this one, I left a marker for Debbie Lewis’ blueberry muffins sweetened with sugar and honey. There are plenty more blueberry recipes in the dessert section for those lucky folks with blueberry bushes in the backyard!

There are plenty of cakes in this cookbook, including Lillian Jackson’s chocolate chip cake which I’d like to try and Carolyn Barnes’ 10 layer chocolate cake. My family loves those multi-layered cakes with delicious chocolate frosting. They both sound delicious! And there are plenty of pies to go around, too, made with pecans and lemons and chocolate and so many more yummy things.

The recipe I made last week was Inez Etheridge’s delicious apple crunch. The recipe is very simple, with apples and a cake mix as the main ingredient. We ate the dessert as a crisp, served hot with vanilla ice cream. It was very sweet and very good.

Help out Daniels Chapel and purchase this cookbook. Call the church at 243-2013 for more information. The cookbook is $15. Proceeds will go to the church renovation project.


Delicious Apple Crunch

• 4 large cooking apples, peeled and cubed
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 stick margarine

Place apples in 9x13-inch baking dish. Cover with water. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle dry cake mix over mixture. Melt margarine and pour over cake mix.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Delicious either warm or cold.

Inez Etheridge

*NOTE: I used brown sugar instead of granulated and cut it to 1/2 cup; I also used butter instead of margarine. This is very good served warm with vanilla ice cream.


Macaroni Beef Bake

• 4 ounces macaroni
• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup green pepper, diced
• 2 tablespoon flour
• 1 pound can tomatoes, undrained
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• Salt and pepper to taste

Cook macaroni following package directions. Rinse in cold water and drain.

Brown beef, onions and pepper in skillet. Stir in flour. Add tomatoes and cook until mixture thickens. Stir in cheese, seasonings and macaroni.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes.

Louellen Galloway

Delicious breakfast

I’ve never really been an oatmeal-lover. In fact, it was only about two years ago that I had a bowl of oatmeal for the first time in recent memory. It was from Starbucks and was delicious topped with dried fruit, nuts and brown sugar.

But I can’t buy oatmeal every morning, and I don’t like the instant kind, particularly.

Instead, I decided to try baked oatmeal. I’ve seen any number of recipes in the last year for baked oatmeal, but I didn’t really understand the concept. Was it a quick bread? A version of oatmeal in a bowl?

Turns out, it’s more the latter.

I read a bunch of recipes and sort of put together a few of them to come up with the recipe I’ve made twice now, both with great success. My husband loves it, too, which surprised me. He loves grits and hadn’t been eager to try oatmeal.

You can add in your favorite fruits and nuts, but I chose an unpeeled apple cut into small chunks and pecans. I also added some cinnamon. I’d love to try it with blueberries and peaches sometime or maybe even banana and blueberries. Dried fruit would be delicious as well. If you like maple syrup (I don’t), you could use that as a sweetener instead of the brown sugar.

I let my oatmeal bake until it was a little brown on top.

Both times, I had a little bowl when it was hot from the oven, and it was so good. But I think the beauty of baked oatmeal is in the leftovers. Just add some milk into a bowl of the oatmeal and microwave for 20-30 seconds. Stir it up and you have this wonderful, creamy oatmeal with chunks of fruit and nuts mixed in. Reggie eats his cold.

The thing I love about eating this for breakfast (in addition to the good-for-you aspect) is that a bowlful really fills me up, and I’m not hungry as quickly as I am with my routine breakfast offerings.


Baked Oatmeal with Apples and Pecans

• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons applesauce
• 1 apple, unpeeled, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare 8-inch (or similar size) baking dish.

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix with spoon to combine. Pour into baking dish.

Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until lightly browned.

When warming leftovers, place oatmeal in a bowl with a little milk and microwave for 20-30 seconds. Stir.

Festive salad

I seldom make this broccoli and apple salad more than once a year, but it’s always for the same occasion — a family event held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

The turkey barbecue dinner at the home of my cousin Martha Cayton and husband, John, sort of transitions the family from one season to the next.

My salad — with its festive green broccoli and celery and red crunchy apples — makes me think of the holiday season ahead. I always ask myself if it’s too early to put the salad in a pretty red bowl or if I need to go with a clear or crystal bowl. I usually choose a pretty red bowl because I’m always ready to get the Christmas season started.

This salad is a variation of one I’m sure many of you make. I’ve made it before with raisins, but my family prefers it with apples, and I never include onions. It’s not difficult to make— just a lot of washing and cutting of the vegetables and the apples. I wait to add the sunflower seeds right before the salad is served.

If you’re asked to take a dish to a holiday gathering or if you’re hosting one at your house, this salad will certainly add some holiday cheer to your table!


Broccoli Apple Salad

• 1 red apple chopped into bite-size pieces*
• 1 bunch broccoli, washed and cut in bite-size pieces
• 3 celery ribs, chopped into bite-size chunks
• 1/2 cup or more sunflower kernels

Dressing:

• 3/4 cup mayonnaise (I use reduced fat)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons vinegar

Toss chopped apple, broccoli and celery.

In small bowl, mix dressing ingredients. Toss together broccoli, apple and celery with dressing. Pour into serving bowl. Arrange several pieces of apple so red is showing on top to make for a pretty display. Refrigerate.

Sprinkle sunflower kernels on top just before serving.

*Use a firm apple such as gala. I look through the apples to find the reddest ones.

Appealing apples

I love fall. The cool mornings, sunny afternoons, leaves that color the landscape with oranges, reds and yellows.

I love making soups and breads and almost anything that calls for apples in the ingredient list.

Last week, when I made a quick visit to my favorite grocery store, I saw that not only did they have in a supply of this season’s fresh apples, but they were also on sale. I quickly picked up a few yellow delicious to eat with our dinner of turkey Sloppy Joes and got a few more Cortland apples to make baked apples the next night. Neither variety disappointed.

I look forward to apple season each year. When we were young, Mama and Daddy would take my sister and me to the mountains each fall, and we’d always come back with apples. Sometimes we even picked them ourselves. I looked forward to taking those apples home to enjoy in Mama’s cobblers and apple buns or stewed on the stove and served alongside pork chops.

I had thought I’d make an apple cobbler for supper Saturday night. My son was grilling burgers and hot dogs for us, and I wanted something to go along with our meal. But instead, I decided to try something new, an apple crisp.

I looked through a number of recipes and then put my own twist on one. The dessert is so simple to make and is in the oven in 15 minutes, probably. The house smelled so good while the crisp was cooking.

I do love the smell of apples cooking, especially if there’s cinnamon involved.

The crisp was a golden brown on top, but underneath was a layer of perfectly cooked, soft apples.

I scooped some crisp in dessert cups and topped each with vanilla ice cream. The crisp was still hot, so the ice cream quickly melted.

Oh my, oh my, this dessert was so good. There were five of us eating the apple crisp, and everyone loved it. I especially liked the combination of textures with the soft apples, smooth ice cream and crunchy oatmeal topping. Yum, yum.

I can’t wait to make this again.


Apple crisp

• 4-6 medium cooking apples, peeled and sliced
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pour cut apples into ungreased pie plate and spread evenly.

In a bowl, mix brown sugar, oats, flour and cinnamon. Add melted butter and vanilla and stir well until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over apples.

Place pan on cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil in case the apple juice runs out while the dessert cooks.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes or until topping is golden brown and apples are tender. Serve warm with ice cream on top.

Season for cranberries

If you're like me, you're already thinking ahead to the annual Thanksgiving feast. The big day is just two weeks away, so those of us who are cooking had better be deciding on side dishes and pies and how to stuff the turkey.

My menu doesn't change much from year to year; my family isn't keen on change. But I have added a few new recipes from season to season and hope to continue to be flexible with my holiday meals.

My husband and I are the only two cranberry eaters at our house, and we both look forward to the congealed cranberry dish made with Jello, whole berry cranberry sauce and pecans that I make each year. The recipe is one my mother made often, not only for Thanksgiving but also whenever she made chicken casseroles. It's easy to make, and I love it not only with the main meal at Thanksgiving but the next day with my turkey sandwich.

That being said, I also love making relishes with fresh cranberries. I've made a few fresh relishes over the years and enjoy the novelty of cooking with the berries, which pop as they simmer in a saucepan.

Last week, I did some experimenting and made a relish with fresh cranberries, a tart apple and walnuts. It smelled so good as it cooked.

When I purchased the cranberries at my local grocery store, I noticed the bulk nuts were already on display, so I bought enough walnuts for this relish. I cracked those while the relish cooked and later mixed them into the cranberries along with the apple. I loved the way the apple chunks went from vivid white to a pretty shade of pink as I mixed the ingredients.

I let the relish cool until dinnertime, then served it alongside a pasta dish. It wasn't the side dish I would have chosen for a tomato-based pasta dish, but I was pleasantly surprised how good the two dishes were together. My husband couldn't get enough of this tart relish. He ate a bowlful and requested more. The same thing happened with the leftovers the next night.

This really is a delicious relish, especially if you like tart dishes. The different textures of the nuts, apples and cranberries are pleasing to the palate. And if this relish was good with a pasta dish, I can only imagine how good it will stack up with turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes and dressing!

I found this recipe on the Web site for the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association. The only change I made was to use apple juice instead of cranberry-apple juice because that's what I had in the refrigerator.

This dish can be made in less than 30 minutes on Thanksgiving Day or just as easily the day before and stored in the refrigerator.



Cranberry, Apple and Walnut Relish

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cranberry-apple juice (I used apple juice)
• 1 pound (4 cups) fresh or frozen cranberries
• 4 cups peeled and diced Granny Smith apples (about 1 pound)
• 2/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Combine sugar, juice and cranberries in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat; simmer 15 minutes or until cranberries pop and mixture thickens.

Remove from heat. Stir in apples and walnuts. Spoon into bowl and cool. Cover and chill at least 4 hours.

Yields 4 cups.

Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association



Helen's Cranberry Sauce

• 1 (14 oz. can) whole-berry cranberry sauce
• 1 (3 oz.) package cherry Jello
• 1 cup hot water
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1/2 cup pecans, cut up
• Orange cut in bite-size pieces (optional)

Mix Jello and hot water. When Jello is dissolved, mix in cold water, cranberry sauce, nuts and orange. Chill. Stir while chilling to keep nuts from rising to the top.

Helen Boykin

Healthy Choices

You can buy baked chicken and a salad every day at Wilson Medical Center's Cafe Court. Or maybe a black bean burger with some fresh fruit is more to your liking.

But if you'd rather have a serving of fried chicken tenders and french fries, you're in luck, too.

It's all about making choices, said Dan Cantu, director of food and nutrition services at Wilson Medical Center.

And the hospital is helping its employees and anyone else who eats in Cafe Court to make informed choices. Not only do they prepare healthy foods, in some cases they display the nutritional content of their menu items. For instance, a sign at the grill notes the turkey burger fat content is 9.5 grams with 203 calories. A veggie burger has only 2.7 grams of fat and 130 calories, but the cheeseburger jumps to 24 grams and 476 calories. A grilled chicken sandwich weighs in at 2.2 grams of fat and 146 calories.

The beef hamburger is still a very popular menu item, said Ricky Letchworth, cafeteria supervisor, but more and more people are paying attention to those fat grams and are opting for the healthier turkey, vegetable or black bean burger, he said. And to make it even healthier, they're ordering it on a whole wheat bun.

At breakfast, pork sausage and turkey sausage are each served in the cafeteria. About a third of the sales are for the turkey sausage, Letchworth said.

"We're selling more and more," he said. "People are making those choices."

Employees are also happy to see the big bowl of Apple Cranberry Salad at the salad bar. The salad is garnished with walnuts and feta cheese and dressed with fat-free raspberry vinaigrette. Letchworth sells two to three large serving bowls of the special salads each day.

The hospital has offered healthy menu items for years, but it's stepping up its efforts in order to receive a Red Apple designation from N.C. Prevention Partners. The organization's mission is "prevention first for a healthier North Carolina."

Wilson Medical Center currently has a Yellow Apple status as it implements its plan for a Red Apple, meaning the hospital will be designated a "healthy food environment." That should happen this spring.

To get there, the hospital must meet a number of goals from training food services staff on portion control, to working with outside vendors for healthier options, to labeling foods that can easily be identified as healthy.

Healthy choices will be labeled with a yellow and black bumble bee in the hospital cafeteria. Already, the bee is displayed on menu items and refrigerated beverages that are considered the healthy choice.

And soon, those who eat in the cafeteria will be able to thumb through a notebook of menu items to find the nutritional content of their meal. That process was quite labor-intensive, said Shannon Jackson, clinical dietitian supervisor. The hospital cafeteria is self-managed, and staff couldn't rely on a big corporation to supply the nutrition information.

Hospital dietitian Kay Johnson analyzed each recipe in the hospital's four-week rotation in order to calculate the nutritional content.

Employees and visitors to the hospital will soon see some more changes to the regular menu, Letchworth said. He'll be offering more healthy choices, including a healthy soup of the day, and wants to serve fish twice a week instead of three times a month, he said. Lightly seasoned vegetables will also be on the menu each day.

Jackson said they get mixed messages from their customers. Some are thrilled to have the healthy options, others get defensive and say the cafeteria staff is trying to change them.

Cantu said the challenge is to get people to eat in the cafeteria every day and not get tired of it. With 1,200 register transactions in the cafeteria each day, they need to keep their customers happy, but they also want them healthy.



Strawberry Walnut Salad

• 1 2 1/2-pound bag spinach or spring mix or both
• Two quart containers thinly sliced strawberries
• One red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 cups walnuts
• Feta cheese for garnish
• Fat-free raspberry vinaigrette dressing

Mix ingredients and toss with vinaigrette. You can easily change the ingredient amounts for a smaller salad.

WilMed Cafe Court



Citrus Chicken Salad

• One bag spinach (or spring mix, or both)
• 1 pound diced fajita chicken strips
• 1 30-oz. can mandarin orange slices (drained)
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• Fat-free balsamic vinaigrette dressing

Mix salad ingredients and toss with dressing. You can easily change the ingredient amounts for a smaller salad.

WilMed Cafe Court



Apple Cranberry Salad

• 1 2 1/2-pound bag spinach or spring mix or both
• 6 diced Red Delicious apples tossed with lemon juice if desired (don’t peel)
• 2 cups Craisins
• One-half red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 cups toasted walnuts
• Feta cheese to garnish
• Fat-free Raspberry vinaigrette

Mix ingredients and toss with vinaigrette. You can easily change the ingredient amounts for a smaller salad.

WilMed Cafe Court

Dress up cole slaw with apples

I'm not a big fan of cole slaw. No offense to our local barbecue establishments, but I really don't like the yellow side dish that so many people, including my husband, team with pork barbecue.

But for some strange reason, I decided to try apple cole slaw at a seafood restaurant in Wrightsville Beach several years ago, and I loved it. I made sure I got it on a return trip to the restaurant a year later.

I looked on the Internet for a recipe for apple cole slaw, and I found many, but I never made it at home until last week.

I had been craving seafood, so I planned a shrimp dinner for my husband and me. We had eaten so many green salads in recent weeks, and I really didn't want another one. But the apple cole slaw came to mind as a good side dish for our meal.

I went back online and looked at many recipes. One looked vaguely familiar, using a similar dressing to the one I mix into a broccoli and apple salad. We love that salad, so I decided to go the easy route and use that dressing recipe.

I also had no intention of grating cabbage, so I bought a bag of broccoli slaw mix that contained shredded cabbage, broccoli and carrots. The mix is a good source of both Vitamin A and Vitamin C.

Making the slaw couldn't be simpler. To the slaw mix, which I washed first, I added a chopped Red Delicious apple. Then I mixed in my dressing of mayonnaise, vinegar and sugar. It was ready in less than 10 minutes.

I really enjoyed this simple side dish. The different textures of the fruit and vegetables made a nice combination, and the slightly sweet dressing was a good complement. I didn't think it would be good the next day, but it was very tasty and the apple and vegetables were still crunchy.

Next time I make it, I'll probably add in some celery. It's certainly a recipe that can be added to easily.


Apple Cole Slaw

• 1 12 oz. package broccoli slaw mix
• 1 large Red Delicious apple, diced

Dressing:

• 3/8 cup mayonnaise (I use reduced fat.)
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon vinegar

Toss slaw mix with apple.
Mix dressing ingredients and stir into slaw mixture.
Chill until ready to serve.