Nicole’s Recipes

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
2T cornstarch
2T rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T sugar

Simmer all ingredients in saucepan until dissolved slightly thickened.

1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup peanut oil
Salt to taste

Preparation:
1. Heat oil in a large kettle w/lid over medium heat.
2. Then, toss in three kernels, and place the lid on the kettle.
3. Wait for the kernels to pop.
4. Once popped, quickly stir in the sugar, and add the remaining kernels.
5. Replace the lid, and listen for the kernels to start popping.
6. Then, remove the kettle from the stove, and shake to keep the kernels from burning.
7. Return the kettle to the stove for a few seconds; then, lift and shake again.
8. Repeat until all kernels have popped.
9. Then, salt to taste, and enjoy!

Serves: 12

16 oz mascarpone
2 tsp vanilla extract
4-6 tbsp Kahlua
1 1/2 c. strong french press coffee or espresso, cooled
1 pint cream
8 tbsp icing sugar
2 pkgs Milano cookies
60- 70% chocolate bar
Cocoa powder, to dust

Method:
Whisk the mascarpone with the vanilla and Kahlua and a scant 1/2 cup coffee, until everything is thoroughly mixed together. Whisk the cream with the icing sugar until smooth, then fold in the mascarpone mix.

Pour the remaining coffee into a bowl. Take one cookie at a time and dip it in to the coffee. Set it to one side and continue with the remaining cookies.

Line 12 serving glasses, custard cups or bowls with 2 cookies, breaking them in half if you need to. Spoon the mascarpone mix in until you reach the top of the glass. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to allow the flavors to infuse.

Remove the Tiramisu from the fridge. Take the frozen chocolate bar and grate a little chocolate over the top of each Tiramisu. Finally, dust with sifted cocoa powder to serve.

1/2 cup butter
1 cup minced celery
3 tablespoons minced shallots
1 quart half-and-half cream
2 (12 ounce) containers fresh shucked oysters, undrained
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, and cook the celery and shallots until shallots are tender.

2. Pour half-and-half into a large pot over medium-high heat. Mix in the butter, celery, and shallot mixture. Stir continuously. When the mixture is almost boiling, pour the oysters and their liquid into the pot. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Stir continuously until the oysters curl at the ends. When the oysters curl the stew is finished cooking; turn off the heat and serve.

I wanted to make a Yorkshire Pudding to go with our prime rib for Christmas and I read a LOT of recipes because I wanted it to be a success. This is what I did and I got a very nice looking pudding fit for the Queen. Too bad she didn’t come!

4 large, fresh eggs, measured in a liquid measuring cup
Equal quantity of milk to eggs
Equal quantity of all purpose/plain flour to eggs
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp lard or beef dripping

Heat the oven to the 450 degrees.

Pour the eggs into a batter bowl and beat for awhile. Add milk and pinch of salt and beat some more. Sift flower in and keep whisking.

You should have a lump free batter resembling thick rich cream, if there are any lumps pass the batter through a fine sieve.

Leave the batter to rest in the refrigerator until time to cook. (30 mins minimum)

Place a pea-sized piece of lard, dripping or ½tsp vegetable oil in a Yorkshire pudding tin or 12-hole muffin tin and heat in the oven until the fat is smoking. Give the batter another good whisk and fill a third of each section of the tin with batter and return quickly to the oven.

Leave to cook until golden brown approx 20 minutes. Repeat the last step again until all the batter is used up. This makes enough for 6 people according to the recipe I read. Serve hot right out of the oven!

**Alternately, you can put all the batter in one large pan like a cast iron fry pan and make one large pudding to slice. Batter should be about 1/3 full in the container. Do not use a glass container. Baking times will be longer with a larger volume.

** A couple cooking tips- it will be pretty dark golden brown when it is done, it will pull away from the sides of the container and rise up high AND the best clue it’s done is the surface will be dry. Let it keep cooking until the surface of the ENTIRE thing is dry. I had parts of mine still looking wet, so I left it in and it rose up a couple inches higher while waiting for that part to be dry. Mine was perfectly done top and bottom and it had risen very high when I followed that rule about cooking it till it’s dry. Good luck!

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SERVING TIPS:
o In Yorkshire serving the pudding is traditionally with gravy as a starter dish followed by the meat and vegetables. More often smaller puddings cooked in muffin tins are served alongside meat and vegetables.
o Yorkshire pudding isn’t reserved only for Sunday lunch. A large pudding filled with a meaty stew or chili is a dish in its own right.
o Cold left-over Yorkshire Puddings make a lovely snack with a little jam or honey.
o Yorkshire Puddings do not reheat well, becoming brittle and dry.