Corn Souffle

My pot luck dish is usually corn souffle. It is easy, quick, I usually have the ingredients and it keeps well. So by request, here is the recipe. I double it for a 9x11 pan.  The single recipe makes enough for a pie plate. This is a dish I discovered at a pot luck in intensive care  at Bon Secours Hospital bakc in the 1970s!

Corn Souffle

4 c corn
1/2 c evaporated skim milk
1/2 c margarine (can decrease to 1/3 for lower fat)
1/2 c sugar
1 T flour
2 eggs well beaten (I use egg beaters)
1 1/2 t baking powder

Melt margarine. Add sugar and flour. Blend in milk and eggs. Add baking powder. Mix all together with corn. Pour in greased dish.  Bake 350 30 to 45 minutes.  Check at 30 minutes for browned top.  Time varies by air circulation in your oven and altitude.

Fruit crisp

Blueberry crisp is my nephew Brett's favorite.  Cranberry or rhubarb crisp is my family's favorite.

I usually double this recipe for a 9 x 11 inch pan.  The single recipe makes a pie plate size.

4 cups peeled, cored, sliced Granny Smith apples (or frozen blueberries, any berry, or fresh cranberries, fresh or frozen rhubarb, or a mixture of fruits, I like peaches and rasberries)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup flower sifted
1 cup sugar (I decrease to 1/2 cup for tart cranberry or rhubarb crisp, other fruits I use the full cup)
1/3 cup margarine

Spray pan with non stick spray.  Arrange fruit on pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon, salt and water.  Combine flour, sugar and margarine with pastry cutter or a fork. Mix until consistency of coarse meal.  Sprinkle mixture over the fruit.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Roasted vegetables with cranberries

1 head cauliflower sliced and cut into fourths
1 large red onion, cut into fourths and layers separated
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cup fresh cranberries
Salt
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray baking pan with non stick spray. Spread cauliflower and onion in pan.  Drizzle with olive oil (I like to use Misto, a spray device available for $10 at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  It allows you to spray on oil and decrease the fat in recipes).  Salt and stir. Bake for 15 minutes.  Stir in cranberries and bake another 10 minutes.

While that is baking, mix vinegar and honey in a small saucepan.  Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.  When you remove the cauliflower from the oven pour this mixture over it and stir.  Grind a small amount of pepper over the vegetables.

Great served with potatoes or brown rice.

Granola

Home made Granola (a favorite of my nephew Theron)

3 cups oats
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup sesame seeds
2/3 to 1 cups honey (sweeten to your taste)
1/4 c oil  (use an oil with mainly unsaturated fat like safflower)

Mix all together.  Use a cookie sheet with raised sides.  Spray with non stick spray.  Spread raw granola in a thin layer.  Toast at 325 degrees, for about 15 minutes.  Stir and toast another 10 minutes.  When you remove from the oven immediately scrape the granola into a large bowel (or it will harden in a clump)  Then stir in :
1 cup raw sunflower seeds
2 cups chopped dates
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup chopped dried pineapple
1/2 cup  chopped dried apricots
1 cup walnuts if desired

This is the fun part.  You can put in more of your favorite dried fruit, smaller amounts of other dried fruit. They main thing is to have a variety of dried fruit.

Recipes Requested

A young friend has requested a couple of recipes.  I had been planning to put some of my favorite healthy recipes on the blog so they would be available to me when traveling.  The following are not among my lowest fat recipes but they are quite good.

Beef Stroganoff

Margarine
Bay leaves
1 medium onion per lb of meat
1 lb round steak/5 people
salt and pepper
2 cups mushrooms per lb meat
2 cups beef bullion per lb meat
Worcestershire sauce
1 cup sour cream per lb meat (low fat)

Saute chopped onion until tender in margarine.  Add mushrooms and saute. Brown flowered meat (CUT IN STRIPS)in separate pan.  Add to onions and mushrooms. Add bullion, salt and pepper, dash of worcestershire sause, bay leaf and simmer for one hour  (I like to use a crock pot and cook for longer. May be made the day before and refrigerated over night. ) Prior to serving thicken sour cream with 2 and 1/2 Tablespoons flour/ cup. Add to broth and simmer 15 minutes.


Barbecue Muffins
1 tube buttermilk biscuits
1 lb ground beef (or half ground turkey)
1/2 c ketchup
3 T brown sugar
1 T cider vinegar
1/2 t chili powder
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Spray muffin tins with non stick spray. Brown meat.  Mix sauce ingredients in bowel and add to meat ( at times I use Masterpiece barbecue sauce with a little brown sugar instead of sauce).  Put meat over each muffin and sprinkle with cheese.  Bake 375 degrees 18-20 minutes.

To keep things in perspective...

Here are a few snippets from Marcus Aurelius to help you when you are getting bent out of shape over things...I discovered Marcus Aurelius when I read an article in Self Realization Fellowship magazine written by a philosophy professor.  He said that one book his students always kept was the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.  It was never available used in the university book store.  That was enough to send me online to order a copy.  A few thoughts when people or events are making you displeased...

"Everything is what your judgement says it is, and that power is yours.  When you choose to take away your opinion, you become like a sailor who has rounded the headland and finds a calm and tranquil bay."

"Discard everything except these few truths: we can live only in the present moment, in this brief now; all the rest of our life is dead and buried or shrouded in uncertainty.  Short is the life we lead, and small our patch of earth...And just as petty is the greatest fame, kept alive in the memories of others, who will themselves soon die; of what value is the memory of those who don't even know their own selves, much less one who died ages ago?"

    "Then what should we concern ourselves with?  Only with this:  correct thoughts, unselfish acts, and words that never lie.  We need to keep a disposition that gladly accepts everything that happens as necessary, familiar, and flowing from the original source."

     Reading the thoughts of Marcus Aurelius can be helpful, but to cut the reaction off at it's source I recommend Kriya yoga.  Yogananda went to considerable effort to bring this technique to the United States and daily practice of it ameliorates our negative emotional states.  It is spoken of as relieving great suffering.
(Instruction in this technique is best obtained through Self Realization Fellowship www.yogananda-srf.org)

ENTRY FORM 2013

DAN THE HAND ARMIJO TOURNAMENT IV

May 18 and 19th 2013 (Saturday & Sunday)

HONORING NEW MEXICO’S PREMIER HANDBALL PLAYER

Site:  Rio Mimbres Country Club, 2500 E. Pine, Deming, New Mexico

Entry fee: $35  Shirts may be for sale at the event!

Students $20

Deadline: May 14 (Tuesday)

Mail entry: Checks payable to Colleen Stinar, 59 Wagon Wheel Lane, Silver City, NM

Note: 2 courts. Matches will be two games to 15 with 7 point tie breaker. If division is small it will be round robin. Consolation bracket also

Entertainment: Instructional session by Dan Armijo (if present)

Lodging: RV parking available outside the Country Club, call Stinar’s regarding camping at their house bordering the Gila National Forest (Silver City, 50 miles north of Deming)

Information: Call Colleen Stinar, 575-574-5451, cstinar@gmail.com

Start times: Online at : www.colleen-stinar.blogspot.com May 16th Thursday

Sponsors: Stinar Realty, Noventum Custom Software and IT Support Stinar Lung and Sleep M.D.

NAME:______________________________________________PHONE:____________________

ADDRESS______________________________________________________________________

EMAIL:______________________________SHIRTSIZE:________________________________

DIVISION:

( )MEN’S A ( ) MEN’S B ( ) MEN’S C ( ) BEGINNER

( ) IF MY EVENT IS COMBINED WITH ANOTHER DIVISION I STILL WANT TO PLAY

( ) IF MY EVENT IS COMBINED WITH ANOTHER DIVISION REFUND MY ENTRY

WAIVER AND RELEASE:IN CONSIDERATION OF THE ACCEPTANCE OF MY ENTRY INTO THE DAN THE HAND TOURNAMENT  TO BE HELD AT RIO MIMBRES COUNTRY CLUB, I HEREBY FOR MYSELF, MY HEIRS, EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS WAIVE AND RELEASE ANY AND ALL RIGHTS FOR CLAIMS FOR DAMAGES AGAINST COLLEEN STINAR AND SPONSORS, FOR ANY AND ALL INJURIES I MAY INCUR DURING SAID TOURNAMENT

SIGNATURE___________________________________________________DATE____________

Correctiveart- a great source of custom stained glass

 I recently purchased two stained glass windows from PJ and Steve Robowski.  One has mainly blue, green and clear glass and hangs in my husband's office.  The other window is all clear glass, to allow views of trees and sky.  They incorporate lenses in the windows, thus their name correctivart.  PJ was a pleasure to work with, and produced the clear window with more clear glass in the area where I wanted it, and more ornamental objects to the right of the window (where the tree trunk is).

They are based in Silver City, New Mexico but have clients through out the country.  They ship insured UPS.

They can be reached at:
575 519-8017
correctiveart@gmail.com

My recent visit to Puerto Rico was enhanced by the lovely hospitality of one of the members of Self Realization Fellowship.  I attended the Sunday service.  The San Juan center is in a building with a downstairs entry room and then a lovely chapel upstairs.  The service was well attended,  and I understood part of it, since it was in Spanish.  After the service I was unable to get a cab back to the hotel due to an enormous festival taking place that weekend in old San Juan.  Luckily, I started talking to a member who agreed to drive me back to the hotel.  She strongly encouraged me to visit the retreat center in Cayey, about 45 minutes from San Juan, and kindly arranged to pick me up the next morning to go there!!  Olympia and her daughter Beatriz picked me up at 9 the next morning and off we went to Cayey.  The first stop was the home of Armando, who lives just down the road from the retreat center.  He helped build the retreat.  He graciously showed me his lovely home with a deck overlooking the mountains. He served cheese from Portugal  and cinnamon snacks from Spain (available in Walmart in  Cayey, but not San Juan!)  The mountains looked a lot like Silver City's but the plants and trees were more tropical. I was very lucky  to meet such loving and friendly souls.

Our visit to San Juan also included two bike rides through Old San Juan.  You would find old Spanish fort construction all along the city.  The walls were incredibly thick. On our first ride we returned to our hotel  via a route that took us past many empty and graffiti stained buildings. There were so many people walking because of the festival that I was not too frightened.  The second day, we were careful to avoid that route.