From the Better-Late-Than-Never Category: We won't discuss the condition of my recipe collection coming to the end of the canning season, but here's the Orange Pickled Beets recipe I promised long ago. I haven't made this for a long time, but it can be canned and served as pickled or thickened and served Harvard-Style. Orange Pickled Beets (by Florence Fabricant in the Garden-to-Table Cookbook) Makes 6 pints 8-9 pounds beets, without tops 12 narrow strips orange peel, an inch or so long 3 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar 3 cups sugar 1 cup orange juice, preferably freshly squeezed 1 tablespoon pickling or kosher salt 1. Wash beets, leaving an inch or so of stems. Place in a large kettle, cover with water and bring to a boil. Cover the kettle and simmer the beets until tender, about one hour depending on size. 2. While the beets are cooking, simmer the orange peel in water to cover for 15 minutes, then drain. 3. Combine vinegar, sugar, orange juice and the prepared orange peel in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Set aside. 4. When the beets are tender, drain them and rinse in cold water. Slip off the skins and lsice the beets. 5. Fill clean, hot pint jars with hot beet slices, leaving headroom of 1/2 inch. Add 1/2 tsp. salt to each jar. 6. Return the orange syrup to a boil and fill each jar to within 1/2 inch of the top with boiling syrup. Include 2 strips of peel in each jar. 7. Adjust lids and process the jars in a boiling-water-bath for 30 minutes. Carol

oh shoot, we missed the day...but I found a couple from a thread I saved from 06. but i don't see "margerine" on any of them...:-) Stacy KatieC posted this: DoubleTree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe By : Katie Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time :0:00 Categories : Cookies Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1/2 cup rolled oats 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. cinnamon 1 cup butter -- softened 3/4 cup brown sugar -- packed 3/4 cup granulated sugar 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla 1/2 tsp. lemon juice 2 eggs 3 cups semi-sweet -- chocolate chips -- (Ghirardelli) 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts Grind oats in a food processor or blender until fine. Combine the ground oats with the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla, and lemon juice. Add the eggs and mix until smooth. Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture and blend well. Add the chocolate chips and nuts to the dough and mix by hand until ingredients are well blended. For the best results, chill the dough overnight in the refrigerator before baking the cookies. Spoon rounded 1/4 cup portions onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Place the scoops about 2 inches apart. Bake in a 350°F oven for 16-18 minutes or until cookies are light brown and soft in the middle. Store in a sealed container when cool to keep soft. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This was from westelle: Grandmas Oatmeal Cookies (Margaret Carstens Grandmothers recipe) 5 dozen - recipe may be doubled 375º F oven 1/2 cup softened butter 1/2 cup shortning 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup granulated sugar 2 eggs 2 Tablesp. water 1 teasp. vanilla 1 1/2 cups flour 1 teasp. baking soda 1 teasp. salt 3 cups quick Oatmeal 1 12oz bag Hersheys Chocolate Chips (I like to use the minis) * Cream butter, shortning, sugars, eggs, water and vanilla. * Mix together the flour, salt and baking soda; add to creamed micxture and mix well. * Add oatmeal and chips; hand-stir these into mixture. * Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet; Bake at 375º F for 10 to 12 minutes or until light brown. * Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Note 1 The raw dough may be made into balls and frozen. It is not necessary to defrost before baking - a little more baking time may be needed. Note 2 A double recipe will also make 8 12 oz giant cookies. * Divide dough into 8 equal parts. * Spread one part into an 8" circle onto a greased cookie sheet making the center of the circle thinner than the edges. * Bake for about 15 minutes * Let hardened-up a little before moving to cooling rack - but not so long that you cant move it at all. ______________________________________________________ This from jan hobbs: My recipe calls for oats that are put through the blender first... 2-1/2 c. old fashioned oats blended in the blender and set aside. Cream 1 c. melted butter 1 c. white sugar 1 c. brown sugar 1 tsp. vanilla Add 2 large eggs and beat well. Add 2 c. plain flour 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. baking powder the blended oats 2 c. chocolate chips Beat well, and drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet sprayed with Pam. Bake for 10-12 min. just until the edges start to turn brown. The key to chewy cookies is not overbaking them. This recipe also is delicious with raisins and chopped nuts instead of chocolate chips...this is my hubby's and grandsons favorite. _________________________________________________________ Stacy

Posted by foodonastump "So couldn't this "potential difference for more energy to transfer" have an effect on not just the braising liquid, but also on the meat that's in the vessel? Or was America's Test Kitchen completely dillusional when they experimented with cooking pot roast in a dutch oven, in an oven at various temperatures and found: "We then tested higher temperatures to reduce the cooking time. Heat levels at above 350 degrees boiled the meat to a stringy, dry texture because the exterior of the roast overcooked before the interior was cooked and tender. The magic temperature turned out to be 300 degrees - enough heat to keep the meat at a low simmer while high enough to shave a few more minutes off the cooking time." Excellent questions. First, It seems to me that we can all accept that: 1. To the meat in the liquid inside the vessel, it makes no difference where the 212F heat comes from. By the very definition of thermal energy, there is no difference between heat from the oven, stove, coal, candle, -------. 2. However, to the meat, how long the meat stays in the 212F will make a difference. To tenderize the meat, it is important to cook it long, in the ATK experiment, as they stated, they cook the meat at 350 but shorter time, therefore some of the meat is tougher. "By the way, the oven cooking time for their pot roast is 3.5-4 hours after the liquid comes to a simmer, stove top. And yes, with an internal temperature of 210 degrees they themselves called the roast "overcooked", in quotes. In other words it was a desirable result in this case. Again, unless they're dilussional, it sure sounds to me like there's 212, and then there's 212. And that generations of cooks weren't wrong. " I don't think that generation of cooks were wrong. Cooking with a covered Dutch oven inside an oven will produce wonderful results. Whether that will have more delicious end results than doing it with the Dutch oven on the stove top is my question. "Last note - you asked why do it in the oven rather than stove-top. ATK found what LindaC mentioned above: "After a few rounds of stovetop cooking, we felt that it was too difficult to maintain a steady, low temperature, so we began pot-roasting in the oven, starting out at 250 degrees. This method required no supervision, just a turn of the meat every 30 to 40 minutes to ensure even cooking." I can understand that. For the purpose of the repeatability of the experiment, as in any experiment, it is important to maintain recordable and verifiable environmental conditions, and that is much easier done in an oven which has a limiting thermostat. There is no practical way to do that on the stove top. However, I am not sure for everyday cooking anyone would have a problem to get the Dutch oven to be on simmering low-fire setting on the stove top. ---------------------------------------------- BTW, ATK has provided much very useful and important information to the public, however, most of their tests are done in somewhat informal settings. To confirm a true test of 350F vs. 300F in the quality of the meat, I believe the experiment must be done in an oven with an electronic PID type of thermostat which has the ability to control the environment to 0.1 F resolution. Mechanical bi-metal or capillary hydraulic type of thermostats in normal ovens can vary as much as 30F to 50F. Humidity of the cooking environment should be monitored, and a chart recorder should be in operation to record temperature swings throughout the entire cooking time. Because testing by individuals chewing is highly unreliable, it depends on subjectivity, and where the meat from the same cut is taken for the chewing. Proper way to do it perhaps would be using a durometer tester. Finally, no test result is to be considered conclusive until the same test is performed by another independent testing facility. Bottom line: Stewing using a Dutch oven in an oven will make wonderful and delicious stew. However, beef "tenderness" cooked at 212 F is very different texturally than beef tenderness cooked at 135F. dcarch

This is something my DD does for every bridal shower she goes to is to make up a box or book of favorite recipes, and include some kitchen utensils, or coffee cups, towels, dishcloths, nothing expensive, because she can't afford it, but something that has ment a lot to those who have received them. Our church put out a cookbook in the very early '80s. It was a Polish parish, with many wonderful cooks. The book had many of my late MIL's recipes in it. The book is out of print, and the next one we did doesn't have nearly as many of the old recipes in it as the first one did. So, last year for my neice's birthday, I took my book apart and scanned the whole thing. Think 8.5" x 5.5" and 1.5" thick. It took me hours (Days!). Then I took the flash drive to Staples and had them print and bind four of them. My neice and her sister and brother all got one. When we had purchased the original book, we all bought extra copies, but over the years they were given as gifts or have just been misplaced. Now the whole family has access to the recipes in the original church cookbook and grandma's recipes. I also have my grandmother's recipes, many written on whatever scrap of paper she had to hand. I am slowly getting them typed into the computer with notes as to what I found them written on and all of Grandma's notes on them, such as "Swell", or "so and so said this is good". Many are clippings. I also have an aunt's recipes and those from my dad's cousin's wife. Eventually, these will all be put into the computer and into book form for my kids. Grandma's will be shared on cd with my cousins. I figure if they want them printed, since I put all the work into transcribing them, they can take care of printing them! Tami