1 tsp. dried dill weed, or a handful of fresh, minced
6 oz. cream cheese
2-4 Tbsp. salmon broth, or other broth
8 oz. frozen tortellini
1/3 cup shredded mozzarella
In a large pot, or Dutch oven, heat olive oil. Add garlic and stir around for a few seconds. Sprinkle salmon chunks with seasoned salt. Add salmon, tomato, zucchini, and dill to the pot. Let it cook, covered, without stirring, for a couple minutes. Stir gently. Let it cook some more, covered, until the zucchini is softened and salmon is nearly cooked. Gently stir in cream cheese and enough broth to make a sauce. Add frozen tortellini, and possibly more broth. Stir gently. Cover and let simmer over heat until tortellini are cooked (3-4 minutes), stirring as necessary. Sprinkle mozzarella over the top and cover. Heat until cheese is melted. Serve.
NOTES: My grandson was so proud of the salmon he caught on the Kenai. He presented half of it to me with the biggest smile ever. I split the filet in half and used the tail-end in this recipe. The dish is quick and really easy to make.
Sprinkle cookie crumbs into six 8-oz serving dishes. Whip together remaining ingredients until stiff. Dollop into serving dishes. Chill. Serves 6.
NOTES: I use a stand mixer. The whipping is short work. I had a small, old orange, so the zest was really dry and crumbly, but it was a really juicy orange. I’m just saying you may have to adjust. Since it’s not cooked, you really don’t want to be chewing on big pieces of orange zest. Make sure the zest is super fine. I eyeballed this and you should, too. One of the recipes I used as a base said that any type of acidic juice would do for the 2 Tbsp. lemon juice. Think vinegar or apple juice. I’ve been flying on Delta Airlines a lot to visit my father in Las Vegas. Delta still serves Biscoff Cookies. What a fantastic base for cheesecakes, or these Orange Syllabubs. You can find all kinds of syllabubs on the web. I mish-mashed a couple different recipes and came up with this. It’s REALLY tasty! On my next go, I may try using raspberries and making a raspberry syrup for this. Who knows?
Process ham in a food processor until it’s finely minced. Keep an eye on it, so it doesn’t puree. In a bowl, stir together enough mayonnaise to bind the ham, a dab of Dijon mustard, a splash of hot sauce and Worcestershire, and a spoonful of vinegar. Stir in the ham until it’s well mixed and is the consistency of a spread. Refrigerate for awhile to develop the flavor. Serve. Can be used as a sandwich spread or on crackers or on a bed of lettuce with tomatoes.
NOTES: This is an easy way to use leftover ham. Just eyeball the amounts. I got the recipe from SouthernBite.
Prepare a 9″ springform pan by lining with parchment paper and spraying with non-stick spray. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Cream butter with sugar with a mixer until it’s creamy a light-colored. Add the eggs, one at a time, until incorporated into the butter/sugar mixture. Mix in the vanilla extract or paste.
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the butter/sugar/eggs until just mixed. Don’t overmix. Fold in the rhubarb. Transfer the batter to the prepared springform pan. Smooth the top of the batter and then sprinkle with sliced almonds.
Bake at 400 degrees F for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack.
NOTES: Do you see how much rhubarb is in this? It’s a rhubarb cake, that’s for sure. This turned out incredibly moist and very, very rhubarby. The recipe comes from kitchenculinaire. Next time I may try adding some orange zest and sprinkling sugar over the top with the sliced almonds.
3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (or extra sharp)
1/4 cup chopped pickled jalapeno peppers
Into mayonnaise, stir garlic powder, cayenne, paprika, and liquid smoke. Mix well. Stir in cheese until it is well incorporated. Stir in jalapenos.
Serve with crackers or tortilla chips or over baked potatoes or anything else you can think of. The flavors will develop if you let it sit for awhile under refrigeration before serving.
NOTES: Echo Lake Meats in Kenai, Alaska is known for developing this recipe, but I do not know if they were the first. They sell it commercially and it is WORTH the detour down Kalifornsky Beach Road to go get it, if you happen to be in the area. Now you can buy Kenai Dip in nearly all the grocery stores here in Anchorage, but it is not the same. The grocery stores use WAY too much mayonnaise trying to stretch their dollars and it doesn’t look very appetizing at all and there’s not much flavor. This recipe nails it. It’s a CHEESE dip, not a mayonnaise dip. I think the liquid smoke is the key. And also the sharp cheddar. All that being said, I don’t measure out my ingredients, but rather add them to what I think looks like Echo Lake’s version. I usually start with a small base amount of mayo, and once the dish is done if it seems too dry I’ll add more. That hasn’t happened yet. It’s a CHEESE dip. Enjoy!
Prepare an 8″ or 9″ square baking dish with parchment paper or non-stick spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl stir together banana, egg, and brown sugar until well mixed. Stir in oats, flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt until well mixed.
Pour half the batter into the prepared baking dish and smooth the top. Sprinkle berries over the batter. Dollop the remaining batter to cover the berries.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes until bars are set.
NOTES: I’ve made this many, many times now. It’s super simple. I’ve been short a banana and even that worked. There isn’t much flour in these, so the type of flour is not important for the recipe. I use gluten-free so that I can share them with a family member, but all-purpose or whole wheat flour works for the recipe, too. I’ve tried fresh blueberries and both fresh and frozen (and then thawed) raspberries (red and gold). I feel confident that you could use frozen berries as well. I pick loads of raspberries every summer and freeze and vacuum seal them. Once thawed, they are a bit of a mess, so I drain out the juice without squeezing and then sprinkle the remaining pulp over the batter as per the recipe. One pound of frozen raspberries yields me about one cup juice and one cup berry pulp. The pulp works just right for this recipe. I’m going to use the juice for a different purpose. The original recipe is found at thisdelicioushouse. I really like these bars because they don’t use much sugar or flour. The stars of the recipe are the bananas, the oats, and the fruit.
I usually, not always, use Certo Liquid Fruit Pectin for my jam. This time I used the recipe that came inside the Certo package and then I water-bath canned this batch. Because I got an electric canner for Christmas that I finally had time to open and play with. Such fun! It will do pressure canning or water-bath canning, as long as the jars are only pint or half-pint.
Yield: 7 cups
Ingredients:
6 large jalapeno peppers
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
6-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. crushed red pepper
1 pouch CERTO liquid fruit pectin
Deseed the peppers and dice very small. Measure 2-3/4 cups peppers into a large saucepan. Stir in sugar and vinegar. Stirring frequently, bring the mixture to a full rolling boil over medium-high heat. Let it boil for exactly one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and immediately stir in crushed red pepper and CERTO. Skim any foam off with a metal spoon. The pepper jelly is ready and now it is a matter of preserving it. That part I leave up to you.
Notes: I didn’t use all 6 of my jalapeno peppers. I realized I was going to have too much “fruit” so I measured as I diced so as not to waste any. If you decide to process the jelly in jars, as it cools you will need to shake it around so that the “fruit” is distributed throughout the jar. Otherwise it floats to the top. I think a jar of this jelly would taste amazing heated in a crockpot with a batch of meatballs or brussels sprouts, or served on crackers with cream cheese.
2/3 cup gluten-free flour, or regular all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
Olive oil
Shredded cheese (optional)
In a very large bowl, mix together the cabbage and scallions. In a separate small bowl, whisk together eggs, Dijon, and salt and pepper. Stir the egg mixture into the cabbage mixture until the cabbage is well coated. Sprinkle flour and baking powder over the top of the cabbage and stir until well mixed.
Heat a skillet (12″ with a sloped edge is best) over medium heat and pour a couple tablespoons of olive oil into it. Swirl the oil so it coats the sides as much as possible. Place the cabbage mixture into the skillet and press it down. Reduce heat to low and cover skillet. Let it cook for 15 minutes. Lift cover and see if the bottom is brown and comes away from the skillet easily. If yes, flip the skillet upside down so that the cabbage slides onto a plate. If it’s not ready, then cover it back up and wait for it to brown and come away from the pan. Swazz a bit more olive oil into the skillet. Heat it and then slide the cabbage into the skillet, uncooked side down. If you’re using cheese, sprinkle it over the cooked top. Cover. Let it cook another 15 minutes. Check that the cabbage is cooked through. Remove from skillet and serve.
NOTES: This smells so good while cooking! It’s a quick and easy dish coming from Irina Macri at Cooked & Loved. I have made this using both green and red cabbage. Irina includes a recipe for a sour cream dill sauce to use as a topping. Tonight I’m roasting a salmon, so I’m going to try the sauce on my salmon.
I usually, not always, use Certo Liquid Fruit Pectin for my jam. The recipe booklet that I use is from 1975 when the liquid pectin came in bottles. Now the pectin comes in sealed envelopes and each envelope is equivalent to one half-bottle. My recipe booklet is falling apart. The new recipe sheet that comes inside the packages now isn’t as comprehensive as the old one. I do not water-bath can my jam. There is enough sugar in it to act as a preservative. Using canning lids keeps air from getting in. When I was a child, my mother only used paraffin to cover the jam and many people still do it that way. I have heard that you should not increase the recipe and/or cut the amount of sugar, something about cooking time and setting and preserving. So, stick to the recipe.
This is how I prep for a jam-making session
Set out enough sanitized jars and rings to match the yield of the recipe, either pints, cups, or half-cups.
Put the appropriate number of lids into a small saucepan of water over low heat.
Set out my canning funnel, a ladle, metal serving spoon, and small dish.
Cut open the envelope of Certo and set it in the small dish.
[The small dish is for the foam (which is just as delicious as the jam, only foamy)]
Rhubarb-Golden Raspberry Jam
Yield: 8 cups jam
3-1/2 cups prepared fruit (about 1-1/3 lb. rhubarb and 1# golden (about 2 cups frozen) raspberries
7 cups sugar
1 envelope Certo Liquid Fruit Pectin
Slice rhubarb into saucepan. Add 1/4 cup water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer until rhubarb is soft, about 1 minute. Measure the golden raspberries. Add enough prepared rhubarb to equal a total amount of 3-1/2 cups fruit. Stir the fruits together in a LARGE pan. Add sugar to pan and mix well.
Over high heat, bring to a full rolling boil and boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; at once stir in Certo. Skim the foam off with a metal spoon. Continue to stir and skim. Ladle into jars, leaving 1/2″ room at the top.
Wipe the rims of the jars and screw on the lids. Turn the jars upside down for at least thirty minutes (or as long as hours and hours–doesn’t matter).
6-14-2025 I thawed a pound of frozen golden raspberries. When measured it was nearly 2 cups. Then I added the softened rhubarb to make 3-1/2 cups total fruit. This turned out REALLY yummy. I’m always trying to find things to do with the golden raspberries. From frozen, they’re mushy and seedy. Compared to red raspberries, they’re a very mild flavor, not tart. When used fresh, they work really well as a fruit in spinach bleu-cheese salad. Anyway, this jam turned out really good and I didn’t have the hassle of de-seeding them first. Since the rhubarb is about half the fruit and rhubarb doesn’t have seeds, the seed-stuck-in-the-teeth-problem is significantly reduced. Yay!
Rinse the poblanos and roast on a baking tray at 400 degrees F. At 15 minutes, flip them over. Give them another 10-15 minutes. The peel should be curling up. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
In a saucepan over medium heat, add 3 Tbsp. butter. Once melted, stir in the chopped onion. Saute for 5-7 minutes. Stir in garlic and saute for another 1-2 minutes. Stir in 3 Tbsp. flour and mix very well. Stir in 4 cups chicken stock and 1/2 tsp. salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook for 8-10 minutes.
Once the poblanos have cooled a bit, pull off as much skin as you can, then de-stem and de-seed them. Roughly chop and add to the saucepan with the stock mixture. Blend the mixture in a blender or food processor until smooth. You may have to wait for it all to cool a little bit. An immersion blender would be best.
Return to the saucepan and heat to simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add salt to taste.
Garnish and serve.
NOTES: I laughed while making this. It’s my mother’s (Bushka) recipe. It was well-known she did not like spicy food. I guess being married 67 years to a man originally from Texas must have rubbed off on her. The last few times I visited them before she passed in 2022, she asked me to make this soup. Personally, I think it’s the best ever, but I can’t figure out why she wanted me to make it. Depending upon the poblanos, it can be really spicy! I could tell it was too spicy for her the last time, but the world’s most stubborn woman that she was, she ate it. Every last bite! This soup recipe is one that I was determined to bring home with me, so I made sure to snap photos of it before I left. I recently made the soup at home for the first time. It was weird not having my dad roast the poblanos. My poblanos were huge and they were refrigerated, so the roasting time was longer. After roasting, I covered them, because that’s what Dad always did and I think they did need to be steamed, they were so large. De-seeding was a real pain, but I persevered and the deed was done. The soup turned out really spicy and my husband (another Swedish-descendant like my mom) barely choked it down. I thought it was delicious! More for me! Thus my laughter while typing this. I don’t have an immersion blender, so I cooled the mix a little while and then blended it in my food processor in two batches.
