cookbook update

As some of you may remember, I started a project...a really long time ago...a, REALLY, long, time ago. I just wanted to let you know, it is not forgotten. I am entering recipes, still, and promise you will get your cookbook, but I'm not saying when because...uh...i dunno. I think i've found a way to publish it, at lulu.com. I can probably get them printed for under $7 there.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, here is the original email, sent almost a year ago. You are welcome to join in the fun, just send me an email with your tested and loved recipes, and put cookbook in the subject. Keep it simple, is my only request. I've got to finish this...this year.


original email...
If this message has gotten to any husbands, it’s not for you. Please forward it to your wives, or suffer a long, lingering death by tater tot casserole.

It’s 5:00pm, the husband is coming home in one hour, the kids are covered in boogers and mud, and every crockpot recipe needs to cook for at least 5 hours. The dinnertime doom begins. The only solace I receive is that there are other women I know and love who have to cook dinner 21,840 times within the approximate 60 years of domestication, before the old folks home hands out the meal tickets. They are still alive, and happy…maybe. Or are they, too, living with this eternal torment in secret. Making dinner is not the issue here, I enjoy cooking, it’s the decision that kills me. If you are cringing, or crying, you know what I’m talking about. What’s for Dinner. When you finally find a recipe that uses the 3 chicken breasts you have in the freezer, you’re missing the chopped shallots, or the fresh ginger, or the arugula…huh? Who buys arugula? (If you do, go away.)

So, I have an idea. I would like to know what you make. Your favorites. I’d like to collect as many as I can, and creatively compile them into a cookbook for all of us. If you send a recipe, I’ll send a book. Any recipe. I promise, I will compile them all and finish this by Christmas (because it takes me till Christmas to do anything, like laundry, it will be done by Christmas. Dani is dying for her pink shorts, but she’ll have to wait for Santa, I don’t do darks till October). If you want some for Christmas presents for other people, I will do it, just send them in. I’d like to have all the recipes this summer, so I can work on it in pieces and make it really good.

Here are the categories I have included:

Appetizers and Party Food
Desserts
Beans and Rice
Drinks
Beef
Eggs
Breads
Pasta
Chicken
Pork, Turkey, Fish
Cookies and Snacks
Roast
Crockpot
Soup & Salad
Fruit and Veggies

Plus any clever tricks of the trade, organizational tips, dinner time stories, complaints, etc. These will be fun.

I’ll give you three weeks to respond, and anyone I haven’t heard from I will send an annoying reminder email. If I don’t hear from you after that, I will assume your dinner dilemmas are of no ones business but your own, and I will leave you alone, to live in your fantasy world, alone.

I am excited to hear from you. Send as many as you can, the more the better. Feel free to forward this to anyone you want, or to someone you know I’ve missed. Not only will it be great to have a butt load (excuse me…a boat load) of recipes we trust are great from women we know and love, but it will give us a needed outlet for the torment of the 5:00 hour.

Thank you. Really, thank you.

Love Cally


Here are a couple recipes from the book:


orange chicken
cook time: 30 minutes

Terry Jean Kocher
my aunt
red deer, alberta canada

4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp ginger
½ cup orange marmalade
½ cup orange juice
1 tsp lemon juice
1 small can mandarin oranges, drained

· Melt butter in a large skillet. Brown chicken, seasoning with salt & pepper. Don’t cook the chicken, just brown it. Remove chicken to a plate.

· In a small bowl (I use a pyrex measuring cup) mix together brown sugar, cornstarch, salt, ginger, marmalade, orange & lemon juice.

· Pour sauce into the pan you cooked the chicken in. Bring to a boil, scraping up the brown bits & stirring until thickened. Add chicken.

· Simmer 25-30 minutes; add mandarin oranges.

· Serve over rice.

strawberry romonoff
Judy Reed

Faye Gold
mother of Conan’s highschool buddy, LeGrand
kingsport, tennessee

½ gallon vanilla ice cream
1 small carton cool whip
2 packages frozen strawberries
Strawberry jam to taste

· Soften ice cream. Beat cool whip, ice cream, & strawberry jam together with portable mixer. Stir in frozen strawberries. Freeze until firm.

chicken tacos
Cook Time: 6 – 7 hours

Jennifer Hughes
friend
knoxville, tennessee

Serve with your favorite taco or fajita toppings on tortillas. EASY!

3 frozen chicken breasts
1 packet taco seasoning mix
1 can chopped green chilies

· Place chicken breasts in crock pot.

· Sprinkle taco seasoning & green chilies evenly over chicken.

· Cook on high for 6 - 7 hours.



Be patient with me. It's coming.