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Becky's Recipes

Here are some fun, kooky cookies from one of my fab fiddle students.

Kelsey's Minty Meringues

Ingredients:
2 egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1 capful peppermint extract (probably about 1
teaspoon)
2 handfuls mini chocolate chips (maybe approximately
1/3 cup)
6 squirts green food coloring
4 squirts yellow food coloring

Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet
with parchment paper or tin foil. Beat the egg whites
with a mixer until they are frothy and a little stiff.
Then add the sugar and beat a whole lot more, until it
looks shiny and makes soft peaks. Stir in the
peppermint, chocolate, and food coloring. Use a big
spoon to dollop the mixture onto the cookie sheet.
Place the cookies into the oven and then promptly turn
the oven off. Leave them inside for at least 8 hours,
or ideally, overnight. When you take the cookies out,
they should look very similar to the way they did when
you put them in. This recipe makes about 12 meringues.

Raspberry Cream Muffins
from the Betti

1 c.	frozen raspberries
3/4 c. & 2 T	white sugar, divided
1/4 c.	butter, softened
1	egg
1/2 t.	almond extract
1/2 t.	vanilla extract
2 1/4 c.	all-purpose flour
3 t.	baking powder
1/2 t.	salt
1 c.	half and half
1/2 c.	finely chopped vanilla or white chocolate chips
2 T	brown sugar

In a small bowl, toss frozen raspberries with 1/4 c.
sugar. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and 1/2 c. sugar.
Beat in egg and extracts. Combine flour, baking
powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately
with cream. Fold in chips and reserved raspberries.

Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 full. Combine brown
sugar and remaining sugar; sprinkle over batter.

Bake at 400° for 15 min. or until tooth pick comes out
clean and muffin tops are brown. Cool for 5 min.
before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm.

Yield: 1 dozen

Sun Drop Cake

This cake was a big hit with my honey, who might as
well hook up to an iv of Sun Drop every day.

When my brother and I are at Mom and Dad's, we always
have to make a pilgrimage over to John's North Star, a
local auto mechanic. He has a machine with Sun Drop
for just 35¢! We hold him in awe because of it.

Haven't heard of Sun Drop? Ah! It's a nectar of
Heaven and will surely be served at the bridal feast
of the Lamb at the end of time. It's a lemony citrus
soda pop, much like Mountain Dew, but with more of a
kick due to the fact it's flavored with real orange
juice concentrate. Sun Drop can't be found just
anywhere, although I've run into it in Southern
Minnesota, Eastern Wisconsin, Western North Carolina
and Middle Tennessee.

The cake itself is from Astray Recipes while the icing
comes from Cooks.com.

Cake:

1        Box lemon cake mix
1        Small pkg. instant lemon pudding mix
12 oz. Sun Drop
3         Eggs
3/4 c. Oil

Icing:

2 c.     Confectioners sugar
2 oz.    Sun Drop
2 T.     Butter

Mix up cake and bake in a greased and floured Bundt
pan at 325 for 1 hour and 15 min. Allow cake to cool
some before removing from pan. Mix up icing and pour
over cake as soon as you take it out of the pan.

Tom Sellick Cookies
(aka Becky's Chocolate Minty Christmas Cookies)

Cream Together:
1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar
3/4 cup Butter

Add:
2T Water
2 Eggs

Sift Together and Add:
2 1/2 cups Flour
1 1/4 t Soda
1 1/2 t salt

Melt and Add:
1 12 oz. pkg. Chocolate Chips

Mix it up really good, then set it in the fridge to cool for at least an hour. Form into balls and bake at 350 degrees for 10 - 12 min.

Place a half an Andes Mint on each cookie as soon as you take them out of the oven. When the mint melts, spread it around with a knife. Makes about 72 cookies. You'll need about 3 boxes of Andes Mints.

Tom Sellick gave out this recipe many years ago on "Oprah" as being his favorite Christmas cookie recipe. My mom was (and is) a big fan of his and so were most of the other moms on our connection growing up. It's become a holiday favorite of my family and friends as well. They are a little like Girl Scout Thin Mints. Mmmm! Hope you like them!

This is a favorite at our family gatherings.

Mother Buller's Mighty Marinaded Salad

1 head broccoli, separated
1 head cauliflower, separated
1 box grape tomatoes
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 can pitted, whole ripe olives
1 can sliced mushrooms
2 cans sliced waterchesnuts
1 16 oz. Kraft Zesty Italian salad dressing

Combine ingredients in a yellow Tupperware bowl with lid or convenient equivalent. Shake to distribute dressing throughout and place in refrigerator, turning occasionally. Best if made the night before you plan to serve it.

(This recipe was sent to me along with 10 live lobsters from the Mueller Family in Maine! Somehow, we got this lobster to pose with their latest record. Go to the picture page for more photos of our lobster feast. -- Becky)

Curt Mueller's Lobster Bisque

1 - 2 lbs. lobster meat, diced (this can vary according to what you have leftover)
4 c. chicken broth
2 sm. potatoes, diced (you can use leeks or a combo of both)
2 stalks celery w/ leaves, finely chopped
1 large carrot, finely chopped
1 med. onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 c. butter
1 bay leaf
1/4 c. flour
1 c. heavy cream
dash each nutmeg and paprika
Salt to taste

Heat broth and add potatoes. In a separate pan, lightly sauté celery, carrot, onion and garlic in 1/2 c. of the butter. Add to broth. Add the bay leaf and bring liquid to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool mixture slightly, remove bay leaf.

In a clean soup pot, melt remaining 1/4 c. butter; add flour and stir until smooth. Add stock, stir well and simmer mixture until potatoes are done. Slowly add the heavy cream; add dash of nutmeg, paprika, and Curt sometimes adds some parsley flakes and coarse ground pepper too; add salt to taste. Add the diced lobster meat; heat thoroughly but don't let boil. Serve in warm bowls. We have stretched this w/ more broth, and even some milk too, and sometimes I reduce the amount of butter just to try to make it less rich....it's very filling! It's hard to wreck.

As far as the history of this recipe goes, Curt developed this recipe in an effort to copy the lobster bisque served at a particular lobster pound in Bar Harbor when we first got married and moved to Maine in 1984. The roadside lobster pound was operated by a husband/wife team for a few years...all we can remember about them is their tattoos, black leather and matching Harleys. This recipe is the result of years of experimentation on Curt's part, and he would like to emphasize that you can juggle the amounts of pretty much everything and still achieve excellent results.

PUMPKIN CAKE

1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups white sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 10 inch bundt or tube pan.
Cream oil, beaten eggs, pumpkin and vanilla together.
Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, ground nutmeg, ground allspice, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and salt together. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix until just combined. If desired, stir in some chopped nuts. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cake cool in pan for 5 minutes then turn out onto a plate and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.