Ingredients:
 
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar (Granulated)
1 egg
1 tsp of pure anise extract, 1/4… tsp will be used for the glaze
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups of flour (Bob’s Red Mill Pastry Flour is the best)
1 1/2 cup of powdered sugar
3 tbsp of water

Directions:

Beat the butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl with mixer on medium until light and fluffy. Add the egg, 3/4 tsp of the anise extract, and salt; beat until well blended. Stir in the flour. Refrigerate for about an hour until the dough is not as soft. Roll into small balls and flatten them with your hands on a greased pan. Bake at 350 degrees until light brown around the edges, about 12-14 minutes. Remove and let them cool.

Make the glaze: mix the remaining 1/4 tsp of anise extract, water, and powdered sugar. Mix well and pour over the cooled cookies and let set.

Makes about 30-35 depending on the size you make the cookies.

Thanks to Rachel Mills for this recipe!!!

Chocolate Mousse

Makes 8 servings.

Berries on a Cloud

Makes 15 Servings.

Raspberry Sauce

Mix Sugar and Cornstarch in 1-qt. Saucepan.
Stir in water and raspberries.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils.
Boil and stir 1 minute.

1. Chop or slice one onion and mince two cloves of garlic, throw them into a pot on medium heat with almost a tablespoon of oil/butter/margarine.

2. Add 1/2 teaspoon tumeric, 1/2 tsp Garam Masala (mixed Indian spices), 1/2 tsp curry powder, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, 1/2 tsp salt, pepper. (measurements here are approximate, adjust as you like). Stir spices to coat onion.

3. Chop up 1/2 bell pepper, add to pot, stir well.

4. Once onions are translucent, add 1 cup dry red lentils and 2 cups water, stir well. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer covered for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. If you want, chop up another vegetable like zucchini or tomato, or steam some corn.

6. When the lentil pot reaches a smooth consistencey and most water has been absorbed, add your extra vegetables to the simmering lentils, and add a small amount of water (1-2 tbsp). Simmer on low heat until vegetables are warm.

7. Serve over rice, top with raisins or coconut or toasted nuts as desired.

Also, just need to give credit where credit is do. These three recipes from the Zen Meditation Camp were given to me by the head cook for the camp. Her name is Laura Fish. I enjoy the experience whenever I get a chance to cook with her and her husband, Jim.

Date Orange Bread

Makes 1 Loaf.

Serves 30.

Tahini-Garlic Dressing

Ingredients:

1 ½ Cups Tahini

6 T Canola Oil

¾ Cup Lemon Juice

¾ Cup Water

3 Tsp. Apple Cider Vinegar

6 Tsp. Tamari

3 Garlic Cloves, pressed

¼ Tsp Black Pepper

Directions:

Thoroughly blend all ingredients in a food processor.

Refrigerate.

Makes 30 Servings.

We are having a potluck at church this Sunday and I wanted to make something that involved the rhubarb. I didn’t want to make a pie as it won’t go as far as other items. So I did a search on www.allrecipes.com. I use this website a lot when looking for recipes. It has a conversion option so you can make something for as many or as few people as you want. It also lets other people make comments on recipes so you can see how it turned out for them. Anyways, while searching I came across this recipe for Rhubarb Dream Bars. They looked good. I decided to do two batches of them for Sunday’s potluck. I made the first batch last night and tried some this morning. THEY ARE WONDERFUL! The second batch is in the oven.

The recipe that I got from All Recipes is below. Just a few notes though. Because I didn’t have enough butter at home I used a ½ Cup Butter and ½ Cup Shortening. Of course, that turned out just fine. For the topping, I used all 3 cups of sugar the first time but it was really sweet. For the second batch I am only using 2 ½ Cups. I ended up having to bake it for 55 minutes because at 35 minutes it was still really runny. So set it for 35 minutes and then check on it every 5 minutes. Also I cut it into 21 (3×7) bars instead of 15 (3×5). Enjoy!

Rhubarb Dream Bars

Ingredients:

CRUST-
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 cup butter, softened

TOPPING-
3 cups white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs, beaten
4 1/2 cups chopped fresh rhubarb

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, mix together 2 cups of flour, confectioners’ sugar and butter until it forms a dough, or at least the butter is in small crumbs.
Press into the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking dish. (Spray the dish with PAM before putting the crust in)
Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven.
While this bakes, whisk together the white sugar, salt, flour and eggs in a large bowl.
Stir in rhubarb to coat.
Spread evenly over the baked crust when it comes out of the oven.
Bake for another 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until rhubarb is tender.
Cool and cut into squares to serve.

Serves 15.

My casserole adventure began with a batch of homemade carrot soup that I added too much cayenne pepper to, it was just too hot to eat straight-up, so I decided to use it as an ingredient in something else, a casserole! So I looked at a bunch of different casserole recipes and discovered several common factors:

1. Thick soup was somehow involved.

2. There was a starch element (potatoes, rice, etc)

3. There were other ingredients, such as vegetables and meat.

4. There was some sort of topping, like cheese or crumbs.

5. Everything got cooked before it all got mixed together and put in the oven.

So I cooked up a mixture of wild and white rice in the rice cooker, sauteed some chicken and vegetables, then mixed it all up, grated cheese on top, and threw it in the oven on a low temperature. The low temperature was my only mistake, it needed a much higher temperature to actually get the heat all the way through that thick mass of food. I kept pulling it out and checking it, frustrated with its failure to heat up quickly. 45 minutes later I turned up the temperature, walked away for 20 minutes, and came back to happily discover a bubbling, steaming casserole! Perfect!

My second attempt (there was a LOT of that soup to use up) wasn’t nearly as good as the first, too many extra carrots added in (the soup really was enough carrotness for one dish), but I am interested in trying again with another creamy, homemade soup.

So there is a bit of insight into how Shannon cooks. Very intuitively, very independently, very experimentally, with a lot of reckless abandon, know very well that in the end, I will eat pretty much anything, so no matter how bad it is, at least I won’t go hungry, and at least I will have learned something new.