Oh, the plums are so plentiful right now.� We only have a few more months to enjoy them so I’m hoping I can find some great ways to use up some fresh plums.

I’m not much for making jellies and jams, although I have been known to make some pretty good ones.� Plum jam is sort of a luxury, meaning we don’t usually buy it in the grocery store.� Lately, if we have any in the house it’s because some benefactor was feeling generous to us.� It’s delicious, but I’m thinking I want ideas that are somewhat more suitable for a main dish.

Plums are loaded with vitamin C which makes it a great fruit to add to your family’s diet as vitamin C has been proven to increase the absorption of iron into the body.� So, besides the antioxidant values of vitamin C, you get an iron boost.� I like plums because they’re sweet and juicy, but I guess the nutrition value is important as well!

When I did a little research into some of my old recipes and cookbooks, certain recipes keep coming up, or a variation of those recipes.� There are many mouth-watering pictures of roasted pork with different plum and apple combination glazes.� I even found one beef stew that had plums in it!

A dessert recipe that I particularly like is a simple one that I remember from long ago.� We took plums and chopped them up, put them in a pan with just enough apple cider to just cover them, and brought them to a slow simmer.� Once the flavors were all cooked together, we grated a tart apple in there and added a little ground cinnamon.� Then we let that simmer together for a while until it got thicker. The sauce was served hot over vanilla ice cream.� Yummy!

Does anyone have a particularly unusual or delicious dish that they’ve made with plums?� I would love to see what you come up with.

If you’ve seen a lot of recipes lately that call for almond flour or almond meal, you may be wondering what it is.  I know I was.  When I looked into low-carb diet recipes, I came across a lot of these types of recipes.  As it turns out, almond flour is typically used as a replacement for wheat flour or cornmeal, both high in carbohydrates.

Almond flour can be used as a coating for fish or chicken instead of flour or cornmeal.  However, almond flour is not a substitute for regular flour when used in bread that forms a real dough because you can’t knead it.  It is suitable, however for quick-breads like muffins and other “mix and pour” type  breads.

You can find almond flour or almond meal in health food stores or many larger grocery stores.  You can also make your own at home pretty simply.  To make almond flour, buy the blanched almonds without the skin and, starting with small amounts in your blender or food processor, pulse until the texture becomes like cornmeal.  If you use whole almonds or blanched almonds with the skins on, you’ll make almond meal.  Either way, the finished flour or meal will resemble cornmeal more than it will resembles regular wheat flour, and they can really be used interchangeably.  If you blend the almonds too long, you’ll end up with almond butter, which is good, too, so just set it aside and try again.

What to make with almond flour or meal?  I guess my favorite is coating fish and chicken.  The results are very different from your typical flour coating.  It has a nutty, of course, taste that you won’t have from wheat flour or cornmeal.  Be careful when you cook your fish or chicken though as the almond flour will tend to burn a bit faster.  I choose a lower oven setting when I’m oven frying with almond flour coatings.

Other than coating fish or chicken, or turning into a muffin recipe, what would you do with almond flour?  It seems pretty versatile, so I would love to hear your opinions about how to use this fun food!

Molasses is that thick, dark, sweet, and tangy sweetener you probably recognize as an ingredient in homemade baked beans.  Or, you may just know it by the expression “as slow as molasses in January.”  If that’s the case, it’s high time you were introduced.

Dark molasses, or more specifically, blackstrap molasses, is a byproduct after the third boiling of sugar syrup during the refining process.  It’s what’s left after the sugar has been crystallized, which we know as granulated sugar.

Blackstrap molasses is a powerhouse of vitamins and minerals.  Probably one of the only sweeteners that is actually good for you!  It’s a very good source of iron, calcium, potassium, as well as those lesser thought of nutrients we need, and the much sought after vitamin B6.   When you look for molasses, be sure to look for unsulphured molasses to get a cleaner, clearer taste.  You can store it unopened for up to a year.  Once you open your bottle of molasses, you can store it in the refrigerator (although it gets pretty slow pouring) or in a cool pantry for about six months.

When I was little, molasses was a staple in our house.  We liked it poured on a thick slice of crusty bread as a nice after school treat, or poured over our oatmeal in the morning instead of sugar or honey.  Molasses is quite sharp tasting and could be an acquired taste, but it is sweet, so most youngsters will grow to like it.

Other than just enjoying on bread or cereal, or for making baked beans, there are many really nice recipes that use molasses.  Molasses is often used in barbecue sauces, pulled pork sandwich recipes, gingersnap cookies, and many other foods that require an extra sweet and tangy flavor.  You can even just grab a bottle and use it as is to baste chicken or meat for a very colorful and rich flavor.  If you’re feeling very adventurous, you can even make your own homemade Worcestershire sauce with molasses!

Does anyone have any ideas about what to make with blackstrap molasses?  Have you ever just eaten it on bread as a treat, or is my family the only crazy one?  I’d love to hear from you!

This may seem like a pretty simple question, since there are so many ways to eat raisins, but I’d like a few new ideas.  Since I get tired of baking sweets with them, and putting them in cereal, and just snacking on them, I guess it’s time I learned a few good recipes to use them up in a main dish or salad.

One way I have used raisins in something other than sweets is one of those fabulous potluck salads you all have probably partaken in at some point in your life.  It’s the combination “Broccoli-Raisins-Bacon- Salad.”  Let me see if I can find my recipe.  That would be a good start.

Okay, here we are with one of my concoctions:

Crunchy Broccoli and Raisin Salad

• 4 cups chopped fresh broccoli (see * below)
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup onion (depending on how strong it is)
• 1/2 cup sliced water chestnuts
• 8 to 10 slices of bacon, diced then browned until crisp
• 1 cup sunflower seeds (salted)
• 1 cup raisins

• 1 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar
• 4 Tbsp cider vinegar

Put the first ingredients in a big bowl and toss together well.  (* I normally put my broccoli in the microwave for just a few seconds, then let cool in the refrigerator.  Blanching them quickly like that brings out the flavor, but be sure you don’t let them get soft!)

In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, sugar, and vinegar until well blended.  Pour the dressing over the salad, mix together until everything is coated, then cover lightly and put in the refrigerator until all the flavors come together, at least a couple hours.

That’s my simple salad to use up a whole cup of raisins.  Another thought which comes from a fond memory of a restaurant meal from some years ago, is for a raisin sauce to serve over salmon.  That was very good, but I’ve never attempted to make it.

Do you have any favorite recipes in which you use up some raisins?  Even recipes like the raisin sauce which actually features raisins as the main ingredient would be nice.  I’d sure like to hear from you!