I just made the BEST recipe for my book club last week, using chili sauce, for shrimp dip. The book was " Long Journey Home" About a Afrian Boy that found his home land at war at age 12. It is a quick good read. We make recipes around the theme of the book, so I googled African recipes. I found great recipes, but the best was the one I'm going to share with you. The first night I used the sauce as a dip for cold shrimp the next night I made a hot dish sauting the shrimp, aspargus, pineapple and the sauce and severed over rice. It is going to be my new, favorite company dish. 1 pound fresh or frozen jumbo shrimp (16 to 20) 4 stalks celery Red Dip (recipe follows) Pink dip (recipe follows) Red Dip: 2 tablespoons Red Pepper Paste(recipe follows) 1 cup chili sauce Pink Dip: 2 tablespoons Red Pepper Paste (recipe follows) 2/3 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing 1 tablespoon lemon juice Red Pepper Paste: 1/4 cup dry red wine 1 tsp. cayenne pepper 3/4 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. ground ginger 1/8 tsp. cardamom 1/8 tsp. ground coriander 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/8 tsp. ground cloves 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/8 tsp. ground allspice 1/8 tsp. black pepper 1/8 of a medium onion 1 small clove garlic 1/4 cup paprika Directions: 1. Clean shrimp and cook according to package directions; refrigerate. Cut celery into sticks. Refrigerate in cold water. 2. Prepare dips. Serve in bowls with shrimp and celery. Red Dip: Mix all ingredients. Makes about 1 cup. Pink Dip: Mix all ingredients. Makes about 3/4 cup. Red Pepper Paste: 1. Measure 2 tablespoons wine and remaining ingredients except paprika into blender container; cover. Blend until smooth, scraping sides of blender frequently. With remaining wine, wash spices down sides of blender. 2. Heat paprika in saucepan 1 minute. Add spice mixture in small amounts, stirring until smooth. Cook unitl hot, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool. Red and Pink Dips can be prepared 48 hours in advance. Store covered in refrigerator. I would use food processor instead of blender. It was hard to scrape the sides of the blender! * didn't like the pink sauce as well. Next time I will make this sauce using the chili recipe on this posting.

I was born in 1944 and I can just barely remember things like ration stamps and smushing a bag of white stuff and a bright yellow lump until it became margarine. We creamed coffee with canned evaporated milk--yuck! We ate Spam, and I will never again, for any reason, eat Spam. Portions were small. Four people ate a pound of ground meat made into "chopped steak" patties. We always had cheap bread and mashed potatoes. I used to gag on mashed potatoes until I went away to college and the food was so bad I was forced to learn to tolerate them. One can of vegetables fed the four of us. Hot dogs and beans were a frequent meal. I found beans a little more tolerable than mashed potatoes. By the time I was in high school all the bills had finally been paid off and we began to eat nicer food and larger portions. I am left with some quirky taboos regarding food because for so many years I was forced to eat foods that I absolutely hated. I will NEVER eat breakfast for supper, canned Dinty Moore Stew (something my mother fed us if my father didn't come home for supper) or Spam. I never had to eat reheated steak or lamb because we never had any left over. Both were special treats once they became affordable. I didn't encounter a lot of reheated leftovers until I began to eat my mother-in-law's cooking. They had been even poorer than my folks and nothing was ever wasted, even after they could afford to eat better. I never had access to a freezer in which to freeze extra portions until I was married. My ex would eat anything and everything he could get his hands on so I didn't have to eat anything I didn't enjoy. I do enjoy some foods reheated--home made beef or chicken soup, spaghetti sauce, chili, stuffed peppers or cabbage, lasagna, stew/Stroganof and tomato based casseroles. Once my kids (and all their friends) moved away, and my ex was long gone, I found myself stuck with left over food that I don't like reheated or frozen and reheated. When microwaves came out and I bought my first one, I was excited to reheat meat that was left over. I believed that if I bought a steak or prime rib in a nice restaurant I could now reheat leftovers and they would taste great. What a sad disappointment it was when I warmed up a beautiful piece of prime rib and took my first bite when it came out of the microwave!!!! Over the years I have tried various recipes and suggested methods to use left over meat and nothing I have tried has been acceptable. Calling myself picky makes me sound like a very difficult person. Maybe I should say I have super sensitive taste buds? No matter how I refer to my odd preferences, I have never learned to like certain reheated foods. If I were again so poor that I absolutely couldn't allow any food to go to waste I would force myself to eat it. However, I cook for only myself and choose to eat only tasty (to me) foods. If I do order a fabulous prime rib in a restaurant I order the smallest cut on the menu and yes, the dogs get the leftover meat. I have another issue to complicate my cooking for one and that is that many years ago I had a primitive form of today's gastric surgery to restrict how much I eat at one time. I can't possibly eat more than 2.5 to 3 ounces of any meat at one sitting. I guess I am not even cooking for one--I should call it cooking for half an adult. I appreciate all the information offered in your responses and have found some ideas I will try. I can make nice gravy if I have drippings but I don't know what to do for a baked chop or piece of chicken. I can make a roux, but I don't do well creating enough flavor without drippings. I also plan to buy a really good toaster/convection oven so I don't feel guilty about heating a big oven for one small serving. I will get one that allows rotisserie cooking and hold off on an earlier decision to buy a Ronco rotisserie.

I made the North African stew for supper tonight and Elery and I both liked it very much. It was very filling, with all those beans and lentils and surprisingly, not very spicy, in spite of the homemade baharat I made to season it with. I didn't have barley that the recipe calls for, so I used a mixture of quinoa, millet and flax and a handful of brown rice. It makes a LOT, though, I'd make half a batch next time, I have a large container in the refrigerator. Elery will make omelettes stuffed with it, I'm sure, and I don't mind leftovers. I'd definitely make it again. Elery was lamenting that his kimchi is just started today, he thought they would go well together. Ahem. I understand that kimchi is very healthy and full of probiotics and all that, but I just can't eat it, it's too spicy. Annie

Pink, if its just you, you can make 1/2 the recipe. Maybe make two thin crust pizzas from it (stretch the pizza dough thinly on pan. and no need to make a round crust — stretch dogh out into an oval or free dorm organic shape. I used thinly slice fresh plum tomatoes, but you can make a simple tomato-based pizza sauce (it often has a bit of oregano in it. Most people suggest not adding too much sauce. Before adding toppings, I make a bit of a ”barrier layer” with olive oil/any oil nf a pastry brush or fingers/spoon. That helps prevent the dough from getting too wet/damp/soggy. Cook for less time, keep an eye on it. On e when grilling a pizza ougside, it rolled and stuck together. I let it. I ened up with a rather yummy ”calzone.”