New recipes (to me) for Easter 2013

by Pat Laster

                
                Easter—the second of the two most major holy days in the United Methodist Church—with all its pomp and circumstance—has come and gone; only a memory now, but a great one.

                After services came family gatherings, and in the Couch extended family, we participated in that, too, complete with egg hunt for one lone Oregonian toddler great-niece.

              Our meal was a potluck at a brother/sister-in-law’s home off Brazil Road in north Saline County, Benton Arkansas. Another brother brought homemade (huge, luscious) rolls, ham, a layer cake and two pies. A sister served up a rabbi-motif platter of fresh veggies and dip served in red and green peppers and her famous potato salad. The hostess made a delicious-tasting and eye-appealing strawberry trifle. Grandson Billy’s mother (Billy was working at Cracker Barrel in Arkadelphia) cooked a great cheesecake in a spring form pan, something I never did! Other families brought other dishes, all delectable.

               I took two vegetable dishes from recipes found in “More Faithful Cooking: Favorite Recipes from United Methodist Women and Friends” of Piggott UMC. I’m glad to report that both got positive “reviews” from the cooks in the family. The recipes follow.

               SAUERKRAUT SALAD – submitted by Roma Richardson. Ingredients: 2 14-ounce cans sauerkraut; one cup chopped green and red bell pepper; one-fourth cup salad oil; one-half cup vinegar; 1 cup sugar; two teaspoons celery seed; one-fourth cup chopped onion; salt and pepper.

               Directions: Drain and rinse sauerkraut. Mix in other ingredients and refrigerate. Serves 8 – 10. (That was easy once I got the lids off the cans. For some reason, I don’t do can openers well.)

              The reason I chose the other recipe needs an explanation. In my recipe book search, I stopped at a green bean casserole. Why? Last July when I bought two used cars from Bill Fitt’s Motors, the senior Mr. Fitts gave me 4 quarts of canned produce from his garden that he’d put up himself. One of them was a jar of green beans. “Aha!” I said—probably aloud.

              But I would have to buy another onion, another bell pepper, a package of pre-cooked bacon (my choice to do this), two small cans of mushrooms and a container of bread crumbs. Done.

             GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE – submitted by Dotty Patridge. [The directions and ingredients were interspersed.] Fry 6 cubed pieces of bacon until halfway done. [I fried the entire 13 1 medium onion, chopped, 1 bell pepper, chopped, 1 clove garlic, chopped. [I estimated and added a heaping teaspoon of chopped garlic.]

             Add one fourteen-point-five-ounce can tomatoes drained. Cook until soft.
             Add: one-fourth cup mayonnaise, one Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, one cup mushrooms, sliced and drained, two (fourteen-point-five cans cut green beans, drained. [I used the quart of Mr. Fitts’.]

            Mix and place in a sprayed casserole. Cover with crumbled bacon and bread crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Serves around 8. [Or more, depending on how much each diner spoons out.

            This cooking experience turned out much more complicated than I imagined. The frying pan, though large, held only the first three veggies. To add the other ingredients, I pulled out the Dutch oven and poured everything in to mix.

             Afterward, my white range was brown-and-red spotted, I’d used four utensils to stir; I’d bought an up-scale-but-manual can opener  that didn’t work  any better than the one I had, meaning I had to pry the tomatoes and mushrooms out of half-opened cans. Still, it tasted and looked good.

             I'm sure the United Methodist Women of Piggott wouldn't mind at all if you decided to use one of these recipes. And I wouldn't, either.