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!

Ripe olives, also known as black olives, are an odd food.  People often have either a strong like or a strong dislike for them.  One youngster I know loves them and will eat them right out of the can.  I made pizza for her the other day and all she wanted for toppings was cheese and black olives.  What was left in the can after making the pizza, she placed, as tradition calls for, on top of each finger tip and ate them just like that, plucking them off her fingers.

I, too, can sit down with a whole can of black olives and they will disappear.  However, I would prefer to find other ways to serve them.  There is a rather unique sandwich spread that I remember from some time ago, but it is a bit peculiar, so may not appeal to a lot of people.  You simply mix together some chopped black olives, chopped pecans, and cream cheese.  Spread it on small pieces of a sturdy whole wheat, cocktail rye, or pumpernickel bread.  This makes an excellent hors d’ oeuvre for a fancy gathering, but your kids probably will not like it for lunch.

One splendid dish I made the other night, however, turned out to be a family pleasing meal.  In a glass baking dish, I placed frozen fillets of tilapia fish, drizzled a little olive oil on top, sprinkled with thyme, oregano, basil, salt, and black pepper, poured on one can of diced tomatoes, added about a half clove of minced garlic, and sprinkled a generous portion of sliced black olives on top.  I covered the dish with tin foil, and baked in a 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes.  This baked fish turned out very good and had a Mediterranean flavor and look.  Very simple and very yummy!

If you’ve cooked with black olives a lot, or have used them in different salads or sandwiches, or any other dishes, I’d really like to hear from you!

If you’ve ever bought a jar of maraschino cherries to make something fancy, like topping cupcakes or ice cream sundaes, you’ve probably still got half a jar sitting in your refrigerator, like I do.  I’ve been searching all around trying to find something to make with these super-sweet treats, but aside from more sweeter-than-sweet desserts, I can’t seem to come up with anything.

Mostly what I find when I search for recipes that use maraschino cherries are not recipes to use them, but to make them.  Apparently, there are maraschino cherry aficionados who swear by the homemade variety.  When you read the ingredients on a jar of store bought maraschino cherries I can see why you might not want to ingest too many of them.  But, I am not an aficionado, I just want to use up my jar.

I saw a picture of a cake that looked like it had a layer of maraschino cherries in the cake itself, not in the frosting.  I didn’t get a recipe, but then I thought it might be just another too-sweet dessert.  I’ve seen them served in cocktails, but I’m not much of a cocktail drinker, especially sweet cocktails.

So, my dilemma is what can I make with maraschino cherries that is not a dessert or cocktail?  Has anyone ever used them as a part of a dish of some sort?  If you’re making a sweet and sour stir-fry, one that would have pineapple in it, could you throw in some maraschino cherries, or would the taste overpower everything else?

This is a puzzle.  I hope someone has a suggestion or two about what to make with maraschino cherries, because I’m stumped.  I’d love to hear from you if you do!

Our family uses honey as a sweetener in a lot of foods and beverages, so we end up with a lot of those little Honey Bears in our kitchen.  Often, we have quite an assortment in various degrees of “full.”  At just about any time during a typical day, we will have bears lined up on the kitchen counter, tipped precariously on top of each other, trying to consolidate the honey into one or two bears.

The dilemma is that we often end up with crystalized honey, which I know you can disolve in a little hot water, but I’d really prefer to use the honey before it turns to sugar.

I do have a simple fruit salad recipe that my family really enjoys, so I can use some up in that, but I would really like a recipe that uses more honey than a fruit salad.  My simple recipe is just to combine about 2 or 3 tablespoons of honey with about 1/2 cup of sour cream, mix until it’s nice and runny, then pour over any combination of fresh or canned fruit.  Doesn’t get much simpler than that!  I like the tangy flavor of the sour cream mixed with the sweetness of both the honey and the fruit.

Also, honey is a wonderful glaze for baked ham.  Just pour a bunch of honey over your ham as is, or you can spice it up a bit with some mustard, cloves, or whatever you want.  This is a great treat and we enjoy this dinner as often as we can find a good price on ham.

I’d be interested to see if anyone has other recipes using honey that may be a bit more unusual.

Breakfast in our house is often the biggest meal of the day.  If my husband’s cooking, it’s guaranteed.  He likes to fill up a plate to over-flowing with all kinds of his favorite breakfast food staples.  Apparently, he grew up with corned beef hash for breakfast, so now it has found a regular spot on our breakfast menu.

Needless to say, I have many, many cans of corned beef hash in the pantry.  If you visit me often here, you’re aware that my husband is somewhat of a hoarder when it comes to food; especially canned food.  He can fill up the pantry with more canned goods than you can imagine.

If you’re not familiar with corned beef hash, here’s what it is.  Very simply, you’ve got corned beef, which is a salt-cured piece of beef, chopped fine, mixed with finely chopped cooked potatoes, a little onion and seasoning.  That’s it.  Typically, you take this mixture and fry it up nice and crisp in a skillet and serve it alongside some eggs, poached or fried.

Now, there’s got to be other things to make with this staple in our house other than frying it up for breakfast.  I do have one recipe that I found for a hot, oven-baked sandwich.  You just mix the corned beef hash with some onion, celery, green pepper, and chili sauce, and any other spices you like.  Top some English muffins with the mixture and put your open-faced sandwiches in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes until they get hot all the way through.  Pull out the sandwiches, lay a piece of sliced cheese on top and stick back in the oven for a few minutes.  This works really great for a hungry group of kids after school.  The cheese is the selling point.

Has anyone made a whole dinner casserole out of corned beef hash?  I guess that would be my preference if I were to try and use up some of these cans.  I can’t wait to see what you’ve got to say!

My pantry is now home to four boxes of assorted croutons.  We have a partial box of garlic flavored, some herb flavored, some plain, and even some Parmesan croutons.  My family likes croutons on their salads, but we’re beyond our quota at this point.  Before they get stale, I would like to know if there’s anything I can make with them.

Sometimes when a casserole calls for a buttery breadcrumb topping, I’ll just grab a pile of croutons, crush them up, and use those instead of breadcrumbs. Since my croutons are normally flavored, they make a great topping for oven-baked vegetable dishes.  A nice, cheesy broccoli casserole is the perfect dish to top with these croutons.

What do you think about using crushing up croutons for a crunchy coating for fried fish or chicken?  If you use the really flavorful ones that should be delicious, right?

Now, if all this talk about garlic and herb flavored croutons has you craving them, I do happen to have a recipe to make your own.  Give this a try the next time you’ve got to have croutons and, unlike me, don’t have a pantry full!

Skillet Croutons:

Dice up bread into tiny, bite size squares.  Think about 1/4 to 1/8 inch squares.  You can use any kind of bread you wish, even rye or pumpernickel.  In a big, heavy skillet, brown the bread pieces in a bit of butter mixed with canola oil.  Drain on paper towels, but while they’re still hot, sprinkle with salt and any other seasoning you wish, like garlic powder, onion powder, or crushed thyme, or even curry powder.

These are very yummy.  I think I’ll make a batch once I figure out how to use up the ones I’ve already got… Help please!

Other than tomato soup, that is.  I must say, though, that since I found a sale on tomato soup and filled my pantry with a good supply of the stuff, I’ve seen several recipes that use tomato soup.  I normally find recipes that call for tomato sauce, but suddenly I see tomato soap instead.  Wonder why…

To me, canned tomato soup is very sweet.  The one recipe that this additional sweetness sort of made sense in was a recipe I saw for Sweet and Tangy cabbage soup.  It was from one of those old time recipe magazines from I don’t know how long ago, so it is really nice and simple.  This is how you make it:

1 medium head of cabbage, cut fine
2 quarts of chicken stock or broth
1 small onion, diced fine
1 small can tomato soup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything in a soup pot, bring to boil, and simmer until cabbage is tender.

You can’t get much simpler than that!  I love a recipe I can remember off the top of my head.  If you have any ideas about either how to dress up this soup, or create anything else with cans of tomato soup, I’d love to hear from you!

Almost every tomato based recipe that I turn to when relying on my old favorites, uses tomato sauce or diced tomatoes.  Very few have tomato paste listed as an ingredient.  Why is that?  I typically use only tomato sauce in my spaghetti or marinara sauces, but now I’m wondering why I’m paying for water.  Can’t you just use tomato paste and add a little extra water to make it like tomato sauce?

I’d really like to kick the tomato sauce habit for two reasons:  1) I’m paying more for tomato paste than an equivalent amount of tomato paste; and 2) I have a really beautiful new tomato paste in a tube that I’m itching to use.  I got it as a gift from one of those neat gourmet shops.  It’s so pretty and smells so good that I think I’m a convert. 

Have you switched to using a good tomato paste instead of cans of tomato sauce?  Does it take some thought to adjust your recipes, or is it just a “try it and see” sort of thing? 

I’m looking forward to reading your responses! 

We had a chili cook off at work this Fall, and I was left with an abundance of kidney beans.  Making more chili to use up the kidney beans is out of the question, so I’ve been trying to create some different uses for kidney beans… and failing miserably. 

The classic bean soups just aren’t working for me right now.  If I add black beans, the kidney beans just sort of disappear.  Black beans do tend to take-over any dish of which they are a part; both in color and flavor.  So, avoiding black beans, I’ve tried navy beans, butter beans, and pinto beans, which were all okay with my kidney beans, but I still haven’t come up with an idea in which to use JUST kidney beans, and use them up in a big way. 
 
I do, however, remember a really fantastic salad that my daughter used to make when she lived on the West Coast.  She mixed up a salad of kidney beans (drained and rinsed well), some finely shredded medium cheddar cheese, chives or green onion, a little salt and pepper, and mix it all together with either taco sauce or her favorite salsa.  Then she peeled and halved nice, ripe avocados and sprinkled them with a little lemon juice and set them on small plates. To serve she just spooned the kidney bean salad mixture into the avocado halves.  That was yummy, indeed!  

There is also a fabulous Three-Bean Salad that I’ve enjoyed many times at potlucks, but, to this date have not gotten a recipe.  I would love to have a really great recipe for a Three-Bean Salad that I could call my own.  Any suggestions?

Back to my dilema… are there casseroles, soups, or salads that use a good amount of kidney beans?  I’d love to surprise my family by cleaning out the stack of cans of kidney beans that are piled in my pantry.  Your input is greatly appreciated!

My husband makes the most fantastic cranberry relish I’ve ever had!  It’s so easy and delicious; all he does is puts whole, fresh cranberries in the food processor with a cut up orange, peeling and all, with just a dash of sugar.  It’s so yummy!  But, he makes gallons of it at a time.  Okay, that’s a little bit of an exageration.  We still end up with a pretty big container leftover after every Holiday meal.  His cranberry relish is delicious, but I can’t eat that much.  I also don’t want to throw it away.  Help!

I did see a delightful recipe recently for a, believe it or not, grilled sandwich made with cranberry sauce or relish.  You take pumpernickle bread, butter one side of each piece of bread, then you layer some sliced turkey (presumably leftover as well) with some cheese (whatever you have, they recommend Brie, but I never have that in the house, so maybe Monterray Jack or Swiss) and, finally, a little cranberry sauce or relish.  Put your bread together and grill your sandwich in a skillet until toasted on both sides and cheese melts a bit.

I haven’t tried this sandwich yet, but the next Holiday meal we have, I’m sure I’ll have an opportunity to give it a whirl.  It will be interesting.

Have you ever used leftover cranberry relish or sauce in any sort of dish and had good results?  Let me know… Christmas dinner is coming soon and we’ll have plenty of leftovers to experiment with.