German Sauerkraut Salad (The Colony Inn in Amana, Iowa

We had a wonderful day yesterday despite the icky stuff that threatened and then made good on it with light snow and then kind of a wintery mix of snow and misty rain. The temps hovered around 20F, so it wasn't bitterly cold just icky. Den needed some tax document to complete our income tax stuff and picked that up at the Cedar Rapids Public Library at the Westdale Mall and then the headed to the Amana Colonies.

I have a quilt in process that I am calling "The Daydreamer Quilt". There is a picture of it above, I am still working on it. It will be for the bed that it is on, in our guest room down stairs. The large flowers are the product of an Iowa artist named Stephanie Brandenburg. She and her mother have a shop in South Amana called Fern Hill Gifts and Quilts. We stopped there and I purchased a couple more yards of the color wash fabric that you see in the drops on the sides. I need it to complete the shams as well as "piano key" border on the drops of the sides and foot. Anyway, Fern Hill is absolutely amazing. Three levels of antiques (some are structural and some just what you would expect in a antique store) and fabric for quilting. What this stuff was beautiful stuff.

We have in the past always gone to the Ronnenburg for meal when in the Amanas but this time Den wanted to try something different. So, we went to the Colony Inn. Meals are served family style. You order your entree' and they bring you what goes with it in small bowls that you can choose what you want and have pretty much as much as you want. When they bring you the salad portion, there were several bowls, lettuce salad with homemade buttermilk dressing (not ranch), cottage cheese (this has buttermilk and chive in it, yummy), and sauerkraut salad. We both loved, loved the sauerkraut salad.

My mother's mother was a Dunkered from Pennsylvania which is, as I understand it, a sect of Amish. She married and Englisher, my granddad. I called Mom from the restaurant to see if she knew how to make this salad. Yes, well sort of. But she thought it was in a Amish cookbook that my sister had given her but I should talk to my cousin Martha as she has borrowed the book. As it turns out the Colony shares this recipe and the young lady brought me a copy of it.

I am headed back to Mt. Pleasant for our sewing day on March 5th and Mom wants some of this, so I guess I should get it on the make.

Sauerkraut Salad (Colony Inn in Amana, Iowa)

Combine in a large air tight container (tupperware or Gladware or the like)

1 quart sauerkraut (don't wash this at all leave the juice on it)

1 C. diced celery

1/2 C. onion, chopped (medium)

1 C. sugar

1/2 C. salad oil (they use Wesson Oil, I will be using canola oil)

1/4 C. red and green bell peppers chopped (for taste as well as color)

Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

Cover and refrigerate for 72 hours, so the flavors can meld well.

The young lady told us that after sitting at room temperature for over 3 hours the oil will form bits of solids in the salad so keep it refrigerated.

I hope that you try this and that you like it as well as both Den and I do.

God Bless,

Linda

Ranch Chicken and Rice

I was gone this weekend leaving Denny to take care of himself. He was working at the radio station. I always have to feed him no matter what so I made him some Chicken and Rice something that I fixed him while we were dating. This was my own recipe, long before Campbell's Soups came up with theirs. This time I gave a bit of Ranch twist and then repeated the process at Mom's and my brother and his wife joined Mom and I for lunch and they liked it as well.

For 4 servings:

Prepare 2 cups of Minute Rice per directions on the box except use chicken broth instead of the water. Set this aside.

1 complete skinless/boneless chicken breast, flattened and trimmed of fat and connective tissue and then cut in to 4 fairly equal portions
Dredge:
3/4 C. all purpose flour
2 Tbsp. yellow corn meal
1 Tbsp. Penzey's Spice's Ranch Dressing Seasoning Base, rounded
1 tsp. baking powder
Dredge the chicken portions in the flour mixture and brown in melted butter in a large skillet until golden on both sides. Remove to a plate.
Add to the meat dripping
a 1-2 TBSP. butter
2/3 cup of chopped celery
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 tsp. minced garlic
saute until tender
Add to the vegetables
1 C. sour cream
1 reg. can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, undiluted
1 Tbsp. Penzey's Ranch Dressing Seasoning Base
1 small can of mushroom stems and pieces, drained
Bring to a simmer and add in the rice that you have waiting.

Place this in a buttered 10" baking dish. Smooth the top and place the chicken portions on top. Cover with foil and bake at 350F for 30 minutes.

Coconut Cake from Debbie Field's Great American Desserts

I turned 63 on the 11th of February. If I wanted a birthday cake, I have to make it myself but I want to make it so that Denny can eat as he ends up eating way more of it than I ever do so I make it from scratch. He happens to love Coconut Cake, well he also loves chocolate cake and carrot cake and cheese cake ................................... you get the picture. I found this recipe and thought I would give it a try.

1 C. butter, softened
2 C. sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
4 lrg. eggs, separated
2 C. all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
pinch of salt
1 C. buttermilk, at room temp.
1 C. shredded coconut
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter 3 layer cake pans, I used 8" rounds and instead of flouring, I lined the bottom of the pans with parchment paper.

Cream together the butter and the sugar in a large bowl, until fluffy, about 4-5 minutes using an electric mixer on medium. Add the vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the egg yokes, 1 at a time, beating for 20 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the bowl.
In a bowl whisk together or sift together if you prefer the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in thirds, alternating with the buttermilk. Beat for 45 seconds after each addition and beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Scrape down the bowl. Add the coconut and beat on low speed.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter until no white streaks remain.
Divide the batter evenly between the three cake pans and smooth the top of each.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool in the pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning them out of the pans onto the wire rack to completely cool.

Here is where is divert from her directions. If you are kind of feeling like you want a island theme, try draining very well a can of crushed pineapple that comes in it's own juice not syrup. Mix up a package of vanilla instant pudding and pie filling only make it with 1 and 1/2 cups of milk and then foal in the pineapple. This gets used as the filling for the cake when you assemble it. Pinacolata Cake

Frosting is as follows:
8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
4 Tbsp. butter, softened
1 pound powdered sugar
Mix well and this makes your frosting.
Debbie also calls for toasting 1 cup of coconut and sprinkling this all over the frosting.
This cake is rich and extremely tasty.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

I was in Mt. Pleasant this past weekend visiting my mom and picking up some fabric that I needed to complete my "Daydreamer" quilt. While there I got into a cooking mood as sometimes happens. To tell you the truth, about anything to get my mom to eat more than a thimble full of food is worth getting me in the cooking mood. I had just received my latedt issue of Southern Living magazine with this glorious pound cake on the cover. I thought that I would share it with you and give you a pointer that the folks at the magazine haven't caught onto just yet. The cake in the magazine is called Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Pound Cake but because I am detouring from their recipe a bit I have dropped the Strawberry Swirl part but will give you a flavorful alternative. OK.

Strawberry slim as I call it is that stuff that you purchase in the grocery store to slice your strawberries into and then put into a pastry shell for fresh strawberry pie or to doll-up one of those short cake rounds. What I am going to give you here is in this blog from a previous entry as "Fresh Strawberry Pie".
1 C. sugar
2 Tbsp. corn starch
1 1/4 C. cold water
1 Tbsp. white corn syrup (in a pinch this weekend I used honey)
1 reg. package of Strawberry flavored Jello
Stirring constantly over medium high heat, bring to a boil and continue cooking and stirring for 1 minute. When cool this will replace that jar of "strawberry slime" that they sell in the grocery store and it tastes like strawberries.

Now for the cake part:
Preheat the oven to 350F
Grease a 14 cup tub pan or use the smaller 12 cup and use a small loaf pan for the balance of the batter.

1 1/2 C. butter softened
3 C. sugar
1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
6 lrg. eggs
3 C. all purpose flour
1 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (I will tell you here that when I made this I didn't have the almond extract on hand at Mom's and used all real vanilla extract and it was great)
2/3 C. strawberry glaze (this would be what we made above, I would tell you that you want this at room temp.. If it too cold it won't swirl and too warm it runs)

Beat the butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty (Kitchen Aid stand works well) mixer. until creamy. Gradually add the sugar, beating at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add cream cheese, beating until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.
Gradually add flour to the butter mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition, stopping to sxrape the bowl as needed. Stir in the flavoring.
Pour 1/3 of the mixture into the prepared pan. Dollop in a few teaspoons of the strawberry glaze over the batter and swirl in with a knife blade or skewer. Repeat twice more. (If you are using the smaller pan, stop filling it about 1/2 inch from the top. While there is no levening in this it does rise a bit and you don't want t mess. If you are using the smaller pan and have a small loaf pan in the oven with the tube pan, you will need to watch it for doneness. I found that the baking time on the smaller tube pan is just short of the shortest baking time below.)
Bake at 350F for 1 hour or 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a spagetti strand inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes. At that point remove cake from the pan on to the wire rack and allow it to completely cool, about 1 hour.
Southern Living says this recipe is from Nancy H. Test from West Chester, Ohio.

I can tell you that my brother, his wife, my husband and my mom all raved. The cake has a wonderful texture as well as a very richness associated with pound cake. I sliced fresh strawberries into the rest of the glaze and served it on the side with the cake. What a pretty picture and it remained everyone of spring being here one of these days.