Easy Cook: Cornmeal Marmalade Muffins with Glaze

Here’s another old-fashioned Southern recipe, “Cornmeal Marmalade Muffins.” Sometimes “easy is better” and this recipe fits into that category. A friend gave me a jar of homemade satsuma (orange) marmalade for Christmas and this is the perfect recipe for using some of the marmalade. The muffins are a quick “one bowl” recipe — it takes less than 5 minutes to mix and pop the muffins into the oven. The flavor “punch” comes from both orange marmalade and cornmeal which are mixed into the batter. These muffins don’t have added sugar (other than the marmalade); they are not too sweet — that’s a good thing! If you pefer, add a powdered sugar icing for a sweet twist when serving. These very tasty cornmeal muffins are great for breakfast, brunch or just a snack.

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Let’s Cook Southern Homemade Biscuits

I enjoy eating flaky, tender biscuits every now and then. Biscuits are the quintessential Southern breakfast food and surely are found on every restaurant menu here in the South. Thanks to fast food chains, such as McDonaId’s, biscuits are now well-known across the country. To satisfy my biscuit craving, it is easy just to hop in my car and drive to a McDonald’s restaurant for a biscuit and egg sandwich. However, I have been perfecting my “chef’s skills” for making my very easy homemade biscuit recipe and can now make a batch as quickly as I can drive several miles and wait in the drive-thru line to pick up my breakfast order. Hot out of the oven, I love to pour honey and cinnamon sugar on my homemade biscuits for breakfast, or really, any time of the day.

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No-Fuss Polka Dot Date Cake

Here is a quick and easy cake to bake which has a unique, yet mighty tasty flavor. The cake doesn’t need a separate icing — the nuts and chocolate chips which are sprinkled on top of the cake batter serve that purpose. The unique flavor comes from chopped dates which are added to the batter — please, don’t say “no” — this is a delicious cake. I don’t remember where the recipe came from; but I love the cake and have kept the recipe filed away all these years. When I need a “no-fuss” cake recipe, I call it up. This week, I have to bake a dessert in a hurry for a special event.  So I’m making “Polka Dot Date Cake.”

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Easy Cook: Best Ever Homemade Pizza

It is “Super Bowl Sunday.” And this one-in-a year football game calls for pizza. I have always enjoyed making homemade pizza and this recipe may be my favorite pizza creations. It is incredibly easy to make and our taste testers decided that it tastes better than any “pizza in a box.” The flavors and ingredients are balanced — you can taste the toppings and not just the pizza crust. Best of all, you can customize the ingredients to each person’s preferences. The recipe is quick–taking about 5 minutes to make the pizza and 10 minutes to bake. Compare that to the time to get a pizza delivered from a pizza restaurant on “Super Bowl Sunday.” To make this “efficient” pizza, I used several convenience products. “Simple” was my objective. Here’s my “way too much” pepperoni pizza.

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Lament to Summer Tomatoes: A Savory, Silky Tomato Soup & Air Fryer Croutons

“Savory Tomato Soup” is a soup which I made this past summer using canned tomatoes just because I just couldn’t find juicy, fresh ones. I’m making it again this winter — what is better than hot soup on a cold winter night. My summer garden crop of tomatoes flopped; the price of tomatoes in grocery stores was extravagant. I apparently missed the market for those delicious Creole tomatoes which I love so much. To spite the situation, I decided to make tomato soup using canned tomatoes rather than fresh ones. But move over, fresh tomatoes. This soup turned out to be quite delicious and can be made any time of the year, even when tomatoes are not in season. Here’s what I did.

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Easy Cook: Chicken Taco Soup

“Chicken Taco Soup” is a hearty and satisfying soup to cook for a hurry-up lunch or supper meal. It is a quick recipe and doesn’t require much of effort — just open several cans — which is very nice once in awhile. I used left-over rotisserie chicken in the soup along with several canned and frozen vegetable ingredients and a packet of dry taco seasoning. That’s it; this recipe made a very tasty soup–entrée. Sometimes I will purchase a rotisserie chicken for a meal and find that about half of the chicken is left-over after we eat. Rather than let the chicken go to waste (which can easily happen), I have several recipes which make good use of the chicken. This is one such recipe. Plus, by reading the labels, I have found ways to cut down on the sodium in the soup.

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Freezer Banana Chocolate Chip Waffles

Freezer waffles make such an easy and tasty breakfast and snack. We eat more Kellogg’s Eggo-Waffles at our house than I ever care to admit. So, why not make my own waffles? Should be easy enough, I thought. First, that meant purchasing a waffle iron, since I couldn’t find my old one. Second, it meant coming up with a recipe for waffles that taste like the commercial ones. Eggo-waffles are crispy, thin and flavorful. I wanted a square, thin waffles so that the waffles would fit in my toaster. The waffle iron which I purchased from Amazon turned out to be a Belgium waffle iron which makes thick waffles — and they are not square. Plus, the waffles are not crisp! But the waffles are very, very tasty. And, and I am happy to report that the frozen waffles do crisp up when re-heated in the toaster. Success!

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Easy Cook: A Small Batch of Air Fryer Granola

Wow, I’ve just made the best and easiest batch of granola possible. It is crunchy and aromatic. And I used my newest kitchen “gadget,” an air fryer, which I purchased around the holiday season. The air fryer was intended as a Christmas present for a relative. But when the relative stated that she already had an air fryer, I decided to keep this Christmas present for myself. Do you ever do that? Although other friends say that they “love” cooking with air fryers, I really haven’t figured out a way to make good use of my air fryer. Today I decided to give this little appliance another try and am pleased to report that I made a very successful batch of granola.

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Easy Cook: Vicki’s Baked Salmon with Marmalade Glaze

We all know that the American Dietary Guidelines recommend eating more salmon and deep sea fish for a heart-healthy diet. That’s great, but how do you cook the salmon? Sister-in-law, Vicki, shared this three-ingredient recipe for “Baked Salmon with Marmalade Glaze.” The salmon is tasty; and you can’t find an easier recipe than this one. And it is a great choice for the Passover meal coming up this week.

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Cheesy Cauliflower & Potato Soup

What do you cook with half a head of cauliflower and one baking potato which are left over from other cooking projects? A soothing, hot soup for these cold spring nights is just what we all need. So I made “Cheesy Cauliflower & Potato Soup” which combines two of my favorite vegetables. The soup is creamy, smooth and flavorful. I used evaporated milk in the recipe rather than heavy cream; the soup is low-fat and healthy, too. Freeze the leftovers if you have any left. Add a little hot sauce to give a Cajun “zip.”

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