Cooks Corner

THE NEW TOWN PRESS presents: The Cook's Corner Featured Article by Jean Redstone

Where do snacks come from? OK. Dumb question. Snacks come from the cupboard or the refrigerator and before that, probably from the supermarket. Which is precisely the problem with snacks.

These days, for good or not, many families chow down on snack food as much as on mealtime food. Yet all the “experts” insist we feed our bodies and our kids’ bodies with wholesome meals and snacks. But did you ever read what’s in some of the fast snackers on the market shelf? Do you see trans fatty acid? High fructose corn syrup? Piles of sodium?

Let’s just agree it’s not a piece of fruit or a vegetable something-or-other tucked tightly in that cellophane packet. And if it were, would you eat it happily day after day? Would the children?
So the challenge is serving a quick, inexpensive, accessible snack that is filling, satisfying and minimally dangerous to you and your loved ones’ health. Generally, that means DIY and fortunately, Doing It Yourself doesn’t require a lot of time or effort. Or dollars. And there’s a genuine pat-yourself-on-the-back feeling from making snacks that are healthy and tasty for your family.

The following recipes qualify. Each will take little more than a half hour to prepare and cook and, depending on your family, will serve snacks for a couple of days or more. Each can be a snack or part of a meal, thereby doing double duty. And each stores well either in the fridge (a must for the eggs) or, covered, on the counter, ready for a quick grab when a snack is called for. And each offers an alternative to the usual artificially flavored, colored and preserved product you pay top prices for outside your kitchen.

EASY APPLE CORNBREAD

1 pkg cornbread mix, such as Jiffy
1 large or 2 medium apples
½ C walnut, pecan or cashew pieces
¼ C light brown sugar

Core and cut apples into small chunks, leaving on the skin. Follow directions on cornbread mix and make the batter. Add cut-up apples and mix well into the cornbread mix. Pour into rectangle pan (such as a brownie pan). In a small bowl, add the chopped nuts to the brown sugar and toss to coat the nutmeats. Sprinkle the nuts and sugar mix over the top of the cornbread. Bake according to package directions. Cool and cut into squares. Serve warm as a bread with any meal or room temperature as a snack. Delicious with jam or fruity cream cheese.

NOTE: Options for the cornbread include using pears or dried, sweetened cranberries as the fruit. Or mix the apples with the cranberries for an exotic treat.

NO FUSS PICKLED RED EGGS

1/2 dozen eggs
Juice from 1 16 oz jar pickled beets
1 to 2 pinches Allspice (optional)

Hard boil the eggs. Cool thoroughly. Remove the shell and leave eggs whole. In a large container (which will fit into the refrigerator) pour the juice from a jar of pickled beets. If desired, add pinch of Allspice to taste. (Store beets separately in refrigerator, tightly covered, for use as usual.)
Add cooled eggs, whole, to the juice and let sit, covered, in refrigerator at least overnight. The eggs become a rosy red and take on the spicy, pickled taste of the juice. Good as a snack, appetizer, or sliced into salads or on sandwiches. The juice can be reused with more eggs one or two more times, if enough remains.

NOTE: To vary, add diced onion to the pickled beet juice before placing the eggs in, or just use the juice from a jar of pickled beets with onion.

WINTER STRAWBERRY MUFFINS

1 ¾ C flour
1 Tbs baking powder
½ C vegetable oil
2 eggs
¾ C sugar
1 10 oz. pkg of frozen strawberries
½ C chopped pecans, walnuts, or almonds
½ tsp. salt

Thaw the strawberries. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Sift all the dry ingredients together. Stir in the nuts. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, oil, and thawed berries. Stir the fruit mix into the dry ingredients and blend lightly with a mixing spoon. Grease muffin tins and spoon in mixture. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Makes 15 – 18 regular muffins, two to 2 ½ dozen mini muffins.
Any frozen fruit can be substituted for the strawberries. If you use blackberries or raspberries, however, toss the thawed berries in enough sugar to coat them before adding to eggs and oil, to reduce the acidity of the fruit.

NOTE: These muffins make a good dessert split in half (for regular size) or crumbled (for mini size) into a dessert bowl and topped with ice cream or custard. Also good in lunchboxes.

Share your favorite recipes with everyone!!

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Cooks Corner
The New Town Press
421 Stone Meeting House Rd.,
Woolwich Twp., NJ 08085

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