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Try a new recipe for any meal, occasion and day! You can also click here to read Beckie's cooking, shopping and ingredient tips.

GOOD COOKS NEVER WASTE ANYTHING! 
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GOOD COOKS AREN’T AFRAID TO EXPERIMENT!
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A GOOD COOK MAKES A RECIPE HIS OR HER OWN BY
TWEAKING THE INGREDIENTS!

Shopping Tip: When you leave your home to run errands, take a cooler with frozen ice blocks in it in case you want to buy something that requires refrigeration. If you have more stops to make you won't have to worry about spoilage before you get home.  It's also a good idea for leftovers if you go somewhere for a meal and take home extra food.

Ingredient Tip: If using only part of a can/container of any ingredient, cut off label and put over the remainder in a plastic zip bag. Put into a second bag for easy identification in freezer or wherever stored.

Serving Tip: Whenever you give food to others, potlucks, etc. it is always helpful to attach a note identifying what the food is. For example: "Chocolate chip cookies with pecans."

Pasta & Sauce Tips

Spaghetti Sauce  The longer you cook any tomato-based pasta sauce, the better it will taste.  For example: slowly simmer spaghetti sauce for about two hours before serving.  It will be richer and sweeter.

Spaghetti Sauce Add 1 lb.  cooked sweet/mild Italian sausage and 1 tsp. sugar to your favorite spaghetti sauce for a richer taste.

Healthy Dessert Tip Put 3/4 cup of your favorite dry cereal in a bowl, top with bite size pieces of fruit, a handful of nuts and a good-size dollop of yogurt. Serve while yogurt is still cold.

Mashed Potatoes If your mashed potatoes are too runny, add a few tablespoons of instant potatoes and stir well; it won't change the the taste of real mashed potatoes. Also- instant potatoes can help thicken any cream soups; just add a small amount till you reach the desired consistency.

Mashed Potato Variation add a tablespoon or two of creamy horseradish to mashed potatoes for an interesting taste.

Potato Salad Add crispy cooked crumbled bacon bits to your potato salad for a slightly different taste.

Fruit plates:  Put various types of fruit on a tray, contrasting the colors for a healthy dessert that will appeal to kids and adults alike.  The green of sliced kiwi fruit next to the orange slices or black grapes next to bright red strawberries will make any table interesting.

• For a more brown gravy, use a small amount of instant coffee to your pork or beef gravy.
• For a quick gravy, use cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup, using 1 /2 the amount of milk/water called for on the can’s directions.
• Add cooked crumbled sausage to the cream of mushroom soup for quick country sausage gravy.

Baking Tips

Cookies

• For softer cookies, use white or yellow cake mix instead of flour.  
• An extra tablespoon of oil, an extra egg, or 1 teaspoon baking powder added to your favorite cookie recipe will make cookies softer. 
• Lower the baking temperature by 20 degrees and lessen baking time by 4-6 minutes for a better cookie. 
• Add peanut butter chips to your chocolate chip cookies! 

Too add a little kick to the taste of your cookies calling for vanilla (or any dessert with chocolate), make vanilla rum. Start with a large bottle of rum (which is a lot less expensive than the cost of real vanilla), add one tablespoon of real vanilla extract per year plus add 1 vanilla bean cut into 1/2 inch snips.  The oil from the bean will infuse into the rum for the vanilla taste.  Add 1 bean every 6 months or so.  Add more rum when you get down to about 1/4 of a bottle of rum left.  Leave vanilla bean snips in bottle indefinitely.  If a recipe calls for 1 teaspoon vanilla, use 2 teaspoons of vanilla rum for best flavor.

Oatmeal Cookie variations 

• Mix into batter a small jar of orange marmalade.
• Add a jar of butterscotch topping to batter.
• Use dried cranberries or cherries for color and extra taste.
• Add butterscotch, vanilla chips or chocolate chips/chunks to recipe.
  
  Cookie Dough If your cookie dough is too moist, add cake mix to firm it up. (Adding flour will make cookies hard and tasteless.)
  

Tasty Pumpkin Pie

• For a richer but very subtle taste, omit milk ingredient in your pie recipe and use the same amount of egg nog instead.
• If you are adventurous, add 1 teaspoon of rum or vanilla!
• Use ½ brown sugar and ½ white sugar

Brownies

• For yummy brownies, add 1 bag of peanut butter chips to the batter before baking.
• Add vanilla/white chocolate chips to the batter before baking.
• Use 2 tbls of any flavor or original Kahula to brownies
• Chop maraschino cherries (1 small jar, drained) into your brownies before baking.  Add 2 tbls cherry Schnapps as well.

Cake Variation When baking a cake, add the same amount of applesauce instead of cooking oil.  You will have less calories and the cake will be nice and moist. Or just add 1/3 cup applesauce to any cake recipe or any box cake for a more moist cake.

Cake Variation For an extra moist cake, add a jar of baby food to the batter before mixing. Friuts work well with light cakes; vegetables (such as carrots or sweet potatoes) work well with darker cakes such as chocolate cakes.

Cornbread

• For moist cornbread, add a small can of creamed corn to the batter before baking.
• For an almost dessert-like cornbread, add a small can of whole kernel corn and a tablespoon of sugar to batter. 
• Add slightly chopped cooked red/green peppers and an extra tablespoon of canola or vegetable oil for colorful cornbread.
  

Bread Pudding Variation Add chocolate milk to your favorite bread pudding for a new taste.

Cake Variation:  Add a jar of baby food (apple, banana, pears, peaches, etc.) when baking a cake for a very moist and flavorful cake.

Peanut Butter

Add a tablespoon to chicken noodle soup for an interesting but subtle taste.

Spread your next peanut butter sandwich with some mashed banana.  Or put a few slices of crispy, cooked bacon on a peanut butter sandwich.

Cooking Tips:  To keep from losing your batter or coatings on fried foods, use non-stick pan, gently shake pan back and forth, especially when beginning the cooking process at a higher temperature.  The most important thing to remember is not to cover the pan as it will hold moisture in and coatings will separate from the foods.  A spatter screen is recommended. 

A great-tasting coating for pork chops or cubed pork steak is as follows: 

• 1 cup Drake's fry mix with 2 tables flour added
• 1/2 cup dry grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Frying Chicken: You can remove chicken skin before lightly dusting with flour/salt/pepper mix for frying.  The chicken will still be crispy but without the added fat from the skin.  Do not cover frying pan or breading will separate from the meat.

Beef Stew:  Use your favorite recipe, but add one grated peeled apple and one grated peeled carrot.  The apple and carrot will dissolve into the stew's gravy during the final simmering and the resulting taste will be delicious but subtle.

Meatloaf:  Jazz up your next meatloaf with a center layer of sausage –chorizo, Italian or Kielbasa. A layer of cheese and/or mushrooms gives meatloaf an interesting flavor as well.   

 Grilling Tip: This is from a grilling veteran: allow the grilled meat (especially beef) to "rest" a few minutes before serving; this allows for the juices to slow down and the meat will be more tender and tasty.

Natural Help for Constipation: 

1 cup bran (oat or wheat)

1 cup applesauce (sweetended or unsweetened)

½ cup prune juice

Mix well. Take 1 taplespoon twice a day. Increase to 2 tablespoons twice a day if needed. Keep refridgerated.

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