"The Kowalski's [grocery store] 30th Anniversary Cookbook" - Cranberry Blondies - Holiday party food

Date I made this recipe:  December 3, 2017 – Party food!

The Kowalski’s 30^th Anniversary Cookbook (Kowalski’s Markets is a local, family-owned grocery store chain) – A collection of Kowalski’s best recipes edited by Rachael Perron

Published by Kowalski’s Corporation

ISBN:  978-1-4675-7717-5; © 2013

Purchased at Kowalski’s

Recipe:  Cranberry Blondies – p. 301 (These bars come close to Starbuck’s famous Cranberry Bliss bars which is to say, yum!)

I must admit that I’ve been rather late to the Kowalski’s “party,” possibly because I didn’t believe they could compete with another local, family-owned grocery store, Byerly’s, but I was wrong.  Very wrong.  (PS, a few years ago, Byerly’s merged with yet another family-owned store, Lunds, to become Lunds & Byerlys.)

Whereas most of the Lunds and Byerly’s stores are behemoth, Kowalski’s is practically a bodega. Shelf space in most stores is limited, but no matter because what they lack in shelf space, they make up for in carefully curated products lines, many of which are local.  In fact, one of my business clients’ products is sold in Kowalski’s (Safesha—a moisturizing hand sanitizer made with natural ingredients.  It comes in Sweet Orange, Lavender, and Unscented.  I love this product.  For the record, L&B carries it also.)

Items I shop for frequently at my local Kowalski’s are deli salads, the salad bar, fruit, veggies, yogurt (They carry my favorite brand) and meat.  Although Whole Foods still ranks as my #1 in the meat department, Kowalski’s is no slouch.  I’ve found the meat department staff to be incredibly knowledgeable and helpful, and a couple of month’s ago, they did me a solid when the package of chicken I purchased was questionable.  In fact, let me just give a shout out to Kowalski’s in general because while I think Whole Foods edges them out in the meat department, they are #1 for takeoff in the Customer Service department.

Like other grocery stores, Kowalski’s developed its own line of grocery products, products that they sample frequently in-store on the weekends.  Many of these items, like their Kalbi Sauce (Korean sauce) become recipe ingredients.  We made their recipe for “Kalbi Meatballs” at our annual party a few years back and they were a hit.  We don’t always like using jarred sauce, but this sauce is pretty tasty, and the recipe was easy.

Most of the recipes in this cookbook are uncomplicated and easy to make.  If a recipe ingredient isn’t to your liking, the staff will help you find a substitute as it did when I made their “Date & Blue Cheese Spread” (p. 99).  We love blue cheese, but many of our guests don’t and so I asked what I could use instead.  The answer was either feta or a cheese called Quark which is also like feta but with less tang.  We used Quark and it was delicious.

The cookbook’s Table of Contents is comprehensive:

• Breakfast & Brunch
• Beverages
• Starters (Hot & Cold)
• Soups
• Salads
• Meat
• Poultry
• Fish & Seafood
• Pasta & Grains
• Vegetables & Sides
• Cookies
• Desserts

 Nothing amiss there!

Since I was on the quest for party food, I bypassed most of these categories and landed on these contenders:

• Crab, Spinach & Artichoke Dip – p. 76
• Make-Your-Own Baked Cheese Dip – p. 77
• Bacon-Wrapped Parmesan Dates – p. 82
• Date & Blue Cheese Spread – p. 99
• Mascarpone-Stuffed Dried Apricots – p. 102
• Cranberry Blondies – p. 301

 As we are wont to do, my husband and I make a huge list of possible party food and then start eliminating things, sometimes because we have too many other “like” recipes in the hopper, and sometimes just because on second glance, we just aren’t as enamored.  This time around though, our rationale was slightly different as follows:

“Crab, Spinach & Artichoke Dip” – We liked this one a lot, but felt that while some guests might not like the crab portion of this recipe, and so we made another spinach and artichoke recipe.

“Make-Your-Own Baked Cheese Dip” – The list of “add-in’s” became overwhelming and so we nixed this one. 

“Bacon-Wrapped Parmesan Dates” -  This was a strong possibility, but we would have had to make them on the day of the party and we hate doing that so this one was out.

As mentioned above, we made the “Date & Blue Cheese Spread,” substituting Quark cheese for Blue Cheese, and it was good, but not as good as the “Cranberry Blondies.” 

The “Mascarpone-Stuffed Dried Apricots” sounded good, and I could have made them a day before the party, so I liked that, but by the time we got to reviewing this recipe, we just bagged it in favor of…I can’t even recall!

This then brings us to today’s recipe for Cranberry Blondies, or as our guests called them “The citrus bars!”  This recipe comes close to Starbucks' Cranberry Bliss Bars, a bar I so love that I ate them by the pound the last few Christmases before coming to my senses!  Starbucks' bars are topped by drizzled white chocolate, but these bars incorporate white chocolate into the batter – po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe.  I think we could have drizzled also some more of the white chocolate onto these bars, but we didn’t.  Maybe next time?

These were easy to make and easy to frost and even better, they freeze well!  We stored them, un-frosted, in our freezer for about two weeks and then finished them up the day before the party.  If anything, I would double the frosting because I love frosting and I especially like a cream cheese frosting so there you go!

Cranberry Blondies – Makes 24

¾ cup butter, melted

2 eggs

4 tsp. vanilla

1 ½ cups flour

1 ½ cups brown sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 cup white chocolate chips

½ cup chopped pecans

Cream Cheese Frosting

3 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 tbsp. room temperature butter

1 tsp. milk

½ tsp. vanilla

2 c. confectioner’s sugar

Topping

½ cup dried cranberries, chopped

1 tbsp. chopped orange zest

Line a 13 x 9” baking pan with parchment paper, extending up over the ends of the pan.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together butter, eggs and vanilla until thoroughly combined; set aside.  In a small mixing bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt; stir into butter mixture until thoroughly combined.  Add chips and pecans; stir to combine.

Spread evenly into the prepared pan; bake in a preheated 350F oven until top is shiny, cracked and light golden-brown (25-30 minutes).  Cool completely in pan; lift bars out of pan with ends of parchment paper. 

In a medium mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, milk, and vanilla extract with an electric mixer on low speed until creamy.  Gradually beat in the confectioner’s sugar on law speed until frosting is smooth and spreadable.

Frost the blondies with the frosting, garnish with the cranberries and orange zest, and cut into bars.

"The Mondale Family Cookbook" by Joan Mondale (Walter F. "Fritz" Mondale was Jimmy Carter's Vice President) - Inauguration Day 2017

Date I made this recipe:  January 20, 2017 – Inauguration Day     

The Mondale Family Cookbook by Joan Mondale (Minnesotans Walter "Fritz" Mondale and the late Joan Mondale were Vice President and Second Lady under President Jimmy Carter, 1980-1984)

Published by the 1984 Mondale for President Committee, Inc.

© 1984

Recipe:  Minnesota Wild Rice Casserole – p. 44

Although I have been known to pull a cookbook off my shelves to observe an event – a food holiday, a national holiday, or a "holiday" holiday - this time around, I hadn't planned to make anything for Friday's inauguration and yes, I know – shocking.  I just had a lot going on and just wasn't in the frame of mind to go on a search and destroy mission through vast cookbook list to find just the "right" one.

And then fate intervened.  This Christmas, I acquired several books and so I finally carved out a few minutes to update my cookbook data base (read:  Excel spreadsheet – so fancy!).  One of the books I acquired was The Mondale Family Cookbook and I was all set to put it on the shelf when it dawned on me I could make something for Friday's Inauguration and so I did. 

Was that incredible timing, or what? 

Because during an inauguration, like the one we had today, a President and a Vice President are sworn into office, and 40 years ago on January 20, 1977, Minnesotan Walter "Fritz" Mondale (of the "cookbook" Mondales!) was sworn in as President Jimmy Carter's Vice President. 

Since I was in college during this election and eligible to vote for the first time, I remember well the Carter/Mondale administration.  But with the exception of some sweet little adorable five year old who can name every President and Vice President, and who appears on talk shows to show off her prowess, most of us cannot normally recall Presidents, much less their second in commands.  And so let's test ourselves on how well we remember these dynamic duos, okay? (Hint:  You're looking for the names of 45 Presidents and 48 Vice Presidents.)

"All right then - pencils up, eyes front and...GO!" [Minutes, days, hours later] "And....time's up, pencils down."

How'd you do?  I'm guessing fair to middling.  Will it help if I show my work? 

Since I know for sure that my knowledge of our earliest Presidents and Veeps is fuzzy, I decided to test my knowledge starting with Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), our 32^nd President.   Why FDR?  Several reasons: 1) most of my history classes focused on the Great Depression and WWII which was when FDR was in office; 2) my dad grew up during the Depression and was a Marine in WWII, and 3) I have a better chance on my own history test if I start with what I know and that's the start of what I know!

Well, almost.  FDR served three terms (1933-1945) in office (bonus points if you knew this and also knew that he was the only president to serve three terms) but I have no recollection of Vice Presidents One and Two so I cheated and Googled and they are John Nance Garner (1933-1941) and Henry A. Wallace (1941-1945).  Please make a note of this.

When it comes to FDR's third Vice President though, I have this on lock and load:  Harry S. Truman.  My dad loved Harry S. Truman and his whole "The buck stops here" approach.  My dad was also a Marine during WWII and credits Truman with seeing to it that he came home from the Pacific theater so there's that.  (Bonus points if you knew that FDR oversaw V-E Day (Victory-Europe Day), but died before he could see the end of the war in Japan known as V-J Day (Victory Japan Day).  Harry S. Truman brought an end to the war in Japan after stepping into the Presidential seat held by FDR.

After finishing out the rest of FDR's third term, Truman ran for election, won, and became the 33^rd President.  (Bonus points if you recall the surprise outcome to the election and another bonus point if the word "Dewey" rings a bell.)

Okay then, so Harry S. Truman was President and his Vice President was....give me a second...and...nope.  The guy's name was Alben W. Barkley.  For some reason, I had [the name] Adlai Stevenson rolling around my head but dear heavens, Adlai Stevenson was Grover Cleveland's Vice President and they served from 1893-1897.  Please note that I was only off by 48 years.  I think I'll award myself a half point for remembering the name even if I couldn't place him with the correct President!

After Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower became President (I knew that so point for me!) and Richard Nixon was his Vice President.  Not that I recall Nixon being his Vice President so that's a deduction. (But I get points for knowing that Nixon became President eventually, and I also get points for knowing – because I watched it firsthand – all about Watergate.)

After Eisenhower, President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson served in office (2 points for me), and after Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson became President and Minnesotan Hubert H. Humphrey was his Vice President, and people, I am on a point roll! (By the way, I was not living in Minnesota at this time nor when Carter and Mondale were in the White House.)

Unfortunately, Johnson's Presidency was a rocky one (bonus points if you know about the Chicago Democratic convention and the Vietnam War), and so he decided not to seek reelection ("I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President."  Major bonus points awarded if you not only knew he said this but came up also with the exact quote; I came so close but didn't nail it).  This left the field open for Democrats Hubert H. Humphrey and the late Bobby Kennedy (among others) to run, but it was Republican Richard Nixon who won the day.

Richard Nixon's first Vice President was Spiro Agnew and then after Spiro stepped down, it was Gerald R. Ford who was from my home state of Michigan.  And I cannot pass up the opportunity to tell you a small story about Spiro Agnew.

While in law school, I took a Corporations Law class and during one class session, we reviewed a court case involving Spiro Agnew.  Since I attended law school later in life, the only people in this class who were not 26"ish" (the average age) were me, my friend, Melissa, and our professor who was only a few years older than the two of us.  In fact, the professor attended Kent State University during the famous Kent State Massacre, so award yourself bonus points if you know about that tragic event. 

Anyway, so the professor started the case review by asking if anyone in the class knew who Spiro Agnew was.  And Melissa and I were all "Oh, oh, Mr. Kotter!  Mr. Kotter!" (I reference the TV show Welcome Back, Kotter from the 70's – starring John Travolta) because of course we knew who he was, we lived through that era.  But nobody else in the class did.  Nobody.

"Oh people...people....[sigh]. Nobody knows?" I have never seen a professor so dejected.  Can I just say though, that for once, I felt pretty chuffed that I was old enough to know this information instead of feeling like a mom/den mother?

Moving on.  After Nixon resigned, Gerald R. Ford became President and his Vice President  was....dammit...it was....I know I know this and....nope.  Answer: Nelson Rockefeller.  Right about now is when I started to feel like I was on the TV show, Jeopardy, in that I knew Nelson Rockefeller's name had to be in the "Vice Presidents" (for 10) category someplace but I just couldn't figure out where!  My initial thought was Ronald Reagan which as you will see, is wrong, wrong, wrong!

Still, I rallied and now things started looking up because  after Ford, Jimmy Carter was elected President and our aforementioned Walter F. (Fritz) Mondale his Vice President. 

After Carter, Ronald Regan was elected President and his Vice President was George H. W. Bush.  Then Bush (senior) became President and Dan Quayle was his Vice President.  Bush (senior) was followed by Bill Clinton whose Vice President was Al Gore. 

After Clinton came George "W" Bush and his Vice President was Dick Cheney, and after that Barack Obama and his Vice President, Joe Biden, and today Donald Trump and his Veep, Mike Pence were sworn in.  Whew, right?

And before I get to the reason we are really here – The Mondale  Family Cookbook, let me just share a few other facts that I uncovered in my research:

*11 out of 48 Vice Presidents were from New York State including Aaron Burr, famous for engaging in a [gun] duel with Alexander Hamilton (he of the Broadway blockbuster Hamilton – An American Musical).  And four out of the 11 New Yorker's later became President:  Martin Van Buren; Millard Fillmore; Chester A. Arthur, and Theodore Roosevelt.

*To my surprise, six of the 48 Vice Presidents hailed from Indiana, including the recently sworn-in Mike Pence.  I guess I wasn't expecting Indiana to yield so many.  On the other hand, 13 states produced one and only one Vice President including the 13^th Vice President, William R. King who hailed from Alabama. 

And with that, we conclude today's – Inauguration Day 2017 – history review and test.  Please tally up your scores, (keep it honest folks,) pass your papers in, and to those of you who scored low, you know what you need to do!

So onto the book we go! In 1984, Mondale decided to run for President and so the 1984 Mondale  for President Committee, Inc. published this cookbook, The Mondale Family Cookbook, likely as a fundraiser or thank you gift for donors. The book contains family and friend photos, a Mondale family tree (loved that!), and recipes from the family and their friends, as well as recipes and menus from the Vice President's House.  And it was from one of those menus that I selected today's casserole recipe.

But first, I must mention – must – the "recipe" that cracked me up the most when I saw it:  "Hot Dogs and Tab (the soft drink)" from family friend, James A. Johnson. To make this recipe, you heat the hot dogs in a pot on the stove and then pour yourself a Tab and ta da, instant dinner! 

As tempting as that recipe was though, it wasn't exactly Inauguration-worthy and so I had to pass, settling instead on the Minnesota Wild Rice Casserole that was served to former First Lady "Lady Bird" Johnson, widow of President Lyndon B. Johnson, when she visited the Vice President's House, January 10, 1979. 

Still folks.  Still.  I cannot say that I've ever associated a Minnesota casserole with a Vice Presidential dinner and that is because casseroles are usually reserved for:

a) a Lutheran church basement funeral repast

b) a neighborhood pot-luck

c) a bridal or baby shower

d) all of the above

But this was 1979 and "fancy" casseroles were making the rounds of many a dinner party and those with wild rice, like the Mondale casserole, are fancier still.  You should know that wild rice is not rice at all but rather a grass/grain and has the distinction of being the official Minnesota State Grain. Perhaps this is why it ended up on the dinner table? (Dress to impress, cook to impress?)

That said, as any Minnesotan (or transplant like me) knows, a bona fide, true blue, all-American, specifically-Minnesotan casserole (or, as the natives say, "hot dish") contains at least one can of Cream of "X" soup, where "X" equals Mushroom, Chicken, or Celery.  There are no exceptions to this rule, and in fact, if this requirement has not been codified, i.e. made into law, it should be. 

Other popular casserole ingredients (although not necessarily mandatory) are Tater Tots and Velveeta cheese.  And it is ingredients like these that have people diving at the pot-luck table time and time again.

In fact, so popular are casseroles to these parts, that United States Senator Al Franken (D-MN) hosts an annual Minnesota Congressional Delegation Hot Dish Off (like a Bake Off, only not) every year and let me tell you, last year's results were interesting. http://www.franken.senate.gov/files/documents/2016HotdishRecipes.pdf

Last year's results were interesting because Representative Tim Walz's (D-MN-1^st District) winning recipe, Turkey Taco Tot Hot Dish contained not a single can of Cream of "X" soup.  Not one. And he wasn't alone as five – FIVE! – out of 10 submissions did not use soup.  Well, that's downright...un-Minnesotan!  How did it come to pass that we elected these people?

I am speechless.  Really.  How is this even possible? No soup (for you)?

And so a shout out to the following people who followed the rules (and possibly state statutes) and used at least one can of soup:  Senator Al Franken; Representative Collin Peterson (who made his casserole using rabbit.  Hmmmm.  Interesting choice, that.); Representative Betty McCollum; Representative Keith Ellison, and Representative Erik Paulsen who used three cans of soup, one of which was Cream of Mushroom, cream of Mushroom being the "official" casserole go-to around here, "don't ya know."

So that's impressive and the rest of you have your work cut out for you!

Now then, so used am I to seeing Cream of "X" soup, that I thought that was what the Mondale's Minnesota Wild Rice Casserole called for but folks, it did not and now I have further proof that I need to get my eyes checked.

The Mondale's recipe, as served to Lady Bird Johnson, called for 1 can of Mushroom Soup (not a "Cream of" in sight) and ½ cup consommé.  Technically, that's a violation and I'm sorry former Vice President Mondale, I'm going to have to "ding" you for that.

Frankly, I'm a little confused by these two ingredients as it's basically beef on beef.  Campbell's makes a can of "Beefy Mushroom" soup that I imagine is somewhat gravy-like, and then to that you add more beef broth in the form of consommé?  Well it puzzles is what it does but who am I to argue with a former Veep?

Still, because of my misread, I used Cream of Mushroom and the consommé, and all was well with the world and the dish was really tasty.  Very tasty.  But brown people, very brown.

And I only mention the color because it's in sharp contrast to the usual and customary white food of which many Minnesotans of Scandinavian descent are quite fond.  In fact, it is usual  and customary to see a holiday dinner of boiled potatoes (white), white fish (or actual Whitefish, a Lake Superior delicacy), pickled herring (ew – but white), lefse, a white crepe of sorts made with potatoes, and the ever-famous but never-popular, lutefisk which is white fished soaked in lye and then dried, I kid you not.  Never, ever will I eat that – never, and herring is out, but I can deal with the rest of it so long as I can add a splash of color known as Lingonberry jam!

Similarly, the Mondale's feast was a mixture of brown and white as follows:  Oysters Casino (oysters are white/gray); Roast Duckling with Kumquats (duck is brown); Minnesota Wild Rice Casserole (totally brown); Baked Cucumbers (sans the skin, cucumbers are white); Small Croissants (white/golden); Poached Pears (white) with Sabayon Sauce (sabayon sauce contains eggs – white and gold), and then in a complete about-face, they added a Bibb Lettuce and Watercress Salad with Slices Avocado – green, green, totally green and the dinner party was saved! I am kidding, of course, as it all sounds lovely and delicious and the very brown Minnesota Wild Rice Casserole was mighty tasty even though I defaulted to the Cream of Mushroom Soup.  Old cooking habits are hard to break!

So that's the story of my accidental inauguration dinner, a look at Presidents and Vice Presidents through history, and a further peek into the crazy casserole times of native Minnesotans.  And by the way, lest you think my history lesson was all for naught, everybody should have a few interesting anecdotes tucked away as nobody likes a boring dinner party guest.  In fact, when I took a class on [Geoffrey] Chaucer in college, my professor insisted that all of us learn to recite the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales in the original Olde English, for the express purpose of impressing party guests. (I can still recall the first eight lines and then after that I'm a bit lost, sort of like my Vice President recollection!)

And so when you get that call and subsequent party invitation from the Vice President's office? You're welcome!

And now to end our little historic look-back at the office of the President and Vice President, I wanted to let you know that Walter and Joan Mondale returned eventually to Minneapolis where he still resides; Joan passed away in 2014.  Joan was a well-known artist (pottery) and I completely forgot until I read her bio on Wikipedia that she was nicknamed Joan of "Art."  She compiled all the recipes in this book.

Walter continued on in law and politics and in 2013, was keynote speaker and honoree at a Law and Inequality Symposium titled Civil Rights & Civil Justice: 50 Years Later, at his law alma mater, the University of Minnesota Law School.   I was in that audience then (I'm a fellow attorney) and marveled the entire time how up close and personal I was to a former Vice President of the United States. 

Would that I had known about the Minnesota Wild Rice Casserole though.  Would that I had known.

Minnesota Wild Rice Casserole – six servings

¾ cup long-grained rice

¼ cup wild rice

4 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons diced celery

2 tablespoons chopped onion

2 tablespoons chopped green pepper

1 pound ground beef

1 can (10 ½ ounces) mushroom soup (Ann's Note:  Not CREAM of Mushroom Soup.  Mushroom soup.)

½ cup consommé

½ pound fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced

¼ cup slivered almonds

In separate pots cook the long-grained rice and the wild rice according to directions on packages.  While they are cooking, sauté the vegetables in the butter.  Add the ground beef and brown.  Stir in the mushroom soup, consommé, mushrooms, and almonds.  Cook for 10 to 15 minutes.  In a casserole, combine the rices with the vegetable-beef mixture and keep warm in a 250 oven until served.

"Great (Minnesota) State Fair Recipes" & "Blue Ribbon Winners - America's Best State Fair Recipes" - Chocolate Drop Cookies and German Apple Cake - It's State Fair Time!

Date I made these recipes:  August 27, 2016 – it's State Fair time here in Minnesota!

Great State Fair Recipes – A Collection of Minnesota State Fair Sweepstakes – Winning Recipes from 1906 to 1975 (spiral bound), edited by Karen Humphrey

Published by Minnesota State Agricultural Society (State Fair) and the American Daily Association of Minnesota

© 1976

Gift from a friend

Recipe:  Chocolate Drop Cookies submitted to the Fair by Mrs. Merle Robertson of Minneapolis, MN  - p. 32

Blue Ribbon Winners – America's Best State Fair Recipes by Catherine Hanley

Published by Smithmark

ISBN: 0-8317-0310-5; copyright 1993

Purchased at BCPA (Bloomington Crime Prevention Association) annual sale, 2015

Recipe:  German Apple Cake made by Joyce Dubois, submitted at the South Dakota State Fair- p. 67

Quiz time:  What phrase gets uttered more times in Minnesota in the month of August than any other?

Answer:  "So, are you going to 'The Fair'?"

'Round here, "The Fair" needs no explanation.  While county fairs and city fairs and festivals abound, there is only one big daddy and it's the Minnesota State Fair, now in its 157^th year.  On average, 150,000 people per day stroll through the Fairgrounds during the Fair that starts on the last Thursday in August and ends on Labor Day.  I know people who go to the Fair every single day as well as those who go every year. 

My husband and I have been rather slow to embrace this thinking, having gone about every five years or so.  Unlike the vast majority of people who attend the Fair, we're more interested in the music than anything else and the Fair provides a lot of stages and artists from which to choose.  We're on deck to go next weekend although we haven't decided on the musical act we want to see.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my friend, Laura, asked if I wanted to go to the Fair with her this past Friday, Day 2 of the Fair, and I said "Sure, why not?  Nothing says I can't go twice!"  We had a blast.  We have similar tastes when it comes to what things to see and do and in the almost six hours we were there, we managed to put some respectable miles on our shoes.  

One of the exhibits I make sure to tour are all the craft and cooking projects in the aptly named Creative Activities Annex building.  There you will find sewing projects, needlepoint, knitting projects and other crafts and then in the back you'll see the baked goods winners, pickling and preserve winners and other related food offerings.  This year though, and I cannot believe we did this, I was so focused on finding the award-winning knitting submission from my friend, Bonnie, that I forgot to go in the back and look at the food!  Just means I have to go back and look another day.  (PS—Congratulations, Bonnie!)

To be clear, I have never entered or will enter a food competition as that job is best left to the "professionals" i.e. those individuals who have been baking and canning and submitting their treats to the Fair for years and years and years.  I've always liked how the judging is done by trained "professionals" instead of letting "America vote" as happens on popular TV competitions.  These judges know their stuff and can tell in a nanosecond if someone's bread or rolls didn't rise (mine don't rise) and so there's no sense subjecting my offerings to these judges. "pre-emptive self-elimination" is the way to go, folks, and for that, I am sure the judges thanked me.

In fact, I tend to live my life by this (very real) motto:  "Why do for yourself when you can pay others to do for you?" And this is exactly why I would rather spend money on purchasing and then using cookbooks by award-winning state fair bakers than trying to create a special something on my own. 

Happily this year, I have two such cookbooks that fit the bill nicely and both of them contain recipes from state fairs around the country.  Both books pretty much have the same table of content that mirrors state fair categories:  "Pies and Pastries;" "Family & Party Cakes;" "Yeast Breads;" "Quick Breads;" "Special Cookies;" "Candies and Snacks; "Sweet Spreads (your jams and jellies)," and "Pickles and Condiments."  And no, the sweet stuff does not really go with your pickled stuff but these are state fair rules and so by god, we are following them!

The Great State Fair Recipes cookbook (collection of Minnesota sweepstakes winners from 1906 to 1975) also features award-winning recipes from these historic years:  1906, 1927, 1939, 1949, and 1962.  A little history recap is provided for each historic year and this is how I was reminded that the "March King" a/k/a John Philip Sousa was the 1927 opening day attraction.  According to the recap, JPS was approached by the U of MN to compose a march for the university and that is how the Minnesota March came into being:  "March on, march on to victory!/ Loyal sons of the varsity/ Fight on, fight on for Minnesota/ And the glory of the old maroon and gold...."  I played this piece so many times while in my community band that I have my clarinet part memorized. This march is now part of the standard repertoire played by the University of Minnesota Marching Band at every pep rally, game, or performance, including the Minnesota State Fair. (Small disclosure:  although I do not root, root, root, for the U of MN teams, I do love marching bands and did love playing all the U of MN fight songs while in community band.)

Also notable and slightly off point:  JPS was also commissioned to write the Foshay Tower Memorial March in honor of the opening on the (then) tallest building in Minneapolis, the Foshay Tower.  There is a long story behind this piece and in the interest of time, I won't bring you down that road but it's a great march and one I even conducted once with my community band.

At any rate, this cookbook is pretty fun and all the recipes sounded great.  The one that "sold" me though, was Chocolate Drop Cookies.  Aside from being something even I could bake without fear, I love it when cookbooks contain hand-written notes such as this:  "Very, very good.  1986." I don't know who wrote this next to the chocolate cookie recipe but that is what sealed the deal for me.  A second note also said "Chocolate is very mild!"  I have no idea if that was a good thing or a bad thing but there you have it.

As to the second recipe book – Blue Ribbon Winners – this book contains recipes from state fairs across the United States and I tell you what, selecting a recipe to make from this book was no easy feat. I looked over everything, paused for quite some time on the candy section (divinity—yum!) and even considered, albeit briefly, making some canned items even though I have not one piece of equipment to properly do so – (small detail).  In the end, I tagged about five recipes, one of which was Marjorie Johnson's "Jelly Roll" (a word on that in a minute) before deciding on the German Apple Cake.  I like apples, I have a little bit of German in me, and I was in the mood for another taste sensation besides chocolate...not that there's anything wrong with chocolate.  (There is NOTHING wrong with chocolate.  Ever.)

So German Apple Cake it was but first, a word on master baker, Marjorie Johnson, from Robbinsdale, MN.  And while once upon a time, nobody knew who Marjorie was, this woman has won so many ribbons at the Minnesota State Fair (over, 2500, of which 1,000 were blue ribbons) that she attracted the attention of national talk shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.  Besides being a highly-decorated baking contest winner, Marjorie (whom I met and have talked to) is a delightful talk-show guest because she has a great personality that is packed into her very petite 4' 8" frame.  The only reason that Marjorie does not stand out in a crowd is because she disappears! 

Although Marjorie has "retired" from competitive baking (no doubt a sigh of relief was heard by her competition around the state), she is still up for making appearances at the Minnesota State Fair this year.

Now Marjorie's "Jelly Roll" recipe doesn't seem hard but jelly rolls can be tricky and it would be most unfair of me to "ding" Marjorie because of my failure to come up with something that even approximates a jelly roll, never mind a blue ribbon appearance.  And since I could about bet the farm(!) that my efforts would fail, I settled on the German Apple Cake and I was not disappointed.

Both of these recipes "halved" very easily which is a good thing as I would rather savor a small batch of cookies and cakes rather than freeze the leftovers or worse, toss them out after swearing a week later that I could not eat another bite.

And so bakers or aspiring bakers, if you're feeling in a State Fair kind of mood, check out these recipes and these cookbooks and have at it.  I managed to time the making of these on a cool and rainy Saturday and they were the perfect thing to motivate me to stay in the kitchen which, despite all my cooking, is still something of a rare occurrence.  When the weather's warm out, I'd rather be outside soaking up the sun while I can. 

And finally, and apropos to nothing discussed above, since I am a musician, I often have ear worms running through my head at all times and it's often music to fit the occasion.  In my last blog post about the Olympics, I mentioned a few tunes about Rio or Brazil that came to mind.  This time around, here are some State Fair favorites.

From the movie State Fair (1962, starring Pat Boone and Ann-Margret) there's the song of the same name – State Fair – written for the musical and movie by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein.  And how can you not like these lyrics:  :  "Our State Fair is a great state fair is a great is a great is a great state fair hey!" (Love the "hey!"  It just pulls it all together.), not to mention "It's dollars to doughnuts that our state fair is the best state fair in our state."  I mean, I use the term "dollars to doughnuts" all the time but I'm old!  Older than this movie "old."  And as long as I'm at it:  of course "your" state fair is the best STATE fair in the "YOUR" ("OUR") state.  What else could it be?  But, and with all due respect to Rodgers and Hammerstein, this movie is really hokey and not one of their best and so there you go.

Not all the music from State Fair was that ridiculous though.   The movie also contained two other songs that I love and that I used to play on piano:  "It Might as Well be Spring," and "It's A Grand Night for Singing."  (Shall I just tell you though, that once I get past "It's. A. Graaaaannnnd. Night for signing..." I'm rather lost when it comes to the lyrics?  I can still envision the piano part but after the first line, I've got nothin'.)

From the musical/movie Camelot, written by Lerner and Lowe, we have the song "Then You May Take Me to the Fair."  This song, sung by Julie Andrews (on Broadway), is rather amusing and it still makes me laugh to hear it.  This is the lyric that sticks the most:  "Then you may take me to the fair, if you do all the things you promised/In fact, my heart would break should you not take me to the fair!" 

Finally, and a bit more contemporary, there's Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair," a tune my glee club sang while I was in high school.  I can still remember my part when singing the lyrics (which I hope you know!):  "Are you going to Scarborough Fair/Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme/Remember me to one who lives there/She once was a true love of mine."

Oh sniffle.  I love this song, love Simon and Garfunkel, love, love, love.

And now, bake to baking!  Your recipes await below:

Chocolate Drop Cookies – makes 36 cookies - Recipe submitted by Mrs. Merle Robertson of Minneapolis, MN

Ann's NOTE:  Mrs. Robertson says to frost these cookies with chocolate butter frosting while they are very warm,  but she did not provide a recipe.  And when I Googled one online, I found I did not have all the ingredients to make chocolate buttercream frosting, so we ate them without and they were fine.  Frosting though, would probably make them sensational.

½ cup shortening

2 squares unsweetened chocolate

1 egg

1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup milk

1 2/3 cup flour

½ teaspoon soda

½ cup chopped nuts

In a small saucepan, melt shortening and chocolate.  Cool.  Beat egg; stir in sugar, salt, and vanilla.  Add chocolate mixture and mix well.  To this add alternately the milk and flour-soda mixture.  Stir well.  Add chopped nuts.  Drop from teaspoon to ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350F for 10-15 minutes.  While still slightly warm, frost cookies with chocolate butter frosting.

Ann's Note:  I was in a hardware store the other day, when I spotted this dinky little measuring cup, meant for ¼ cup or less.  I love gadgets like this so I bought it and I used it to "halve" the egg needed to make a half recipe of the cake.  It was perfect, just perfect, and now I want to go get a few more.  And by the way, if a recipe calls for half an egg, simply crack an egg into a measuring cup (yield is about ¼ cup), stir it to mix, and then use only half of that mixture.  The dinky little measuring cup helps a lot.

Also, if you Google "Chocolate Buttercream Frosting" (a/k/a Chocolate Butter Frosting), you'll find endless recipes for that frosting.  And if another type of frosting is more to your liking, then run with that.

German Apple Cake – makes one 9 x 13" cake - Recipe from Joyce Dubois from Wolsey, South Dakota, submitted to the South Dakota State Fair.  According to her bio, she started submitting recipes around 1968 and entered (at the time the book was published) about 100 items (not all of them cooking items) to the State Fair each year.

2 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

4 cups finely chopped apples

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F (175C).  Great a 13" x 9" baking pan.  In a large bowl, beat eggs, oil and vanilla; gradually eat in sugar until mixture is thick and creamy.  Sift flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a medium-size bowl.  Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture, stirring until well blended.  Fold in apples and walnuts.  Spoon into greased pan.  Bake in preheated oven about 45 minutes or until cake has started to pull away from sides of pan and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean.  Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.  Sever slightly warm or cool.

"The Original Betty's Pies Favorite Recipes" (Betty's Pies is located in Two Harbors, MN) - Lemon Angel Pie for "Pi" Day 2016

Date I made this recipe:  3/14/2016 – "Pi"  (Pie) Day

The Original Betty's Pies Favorite Recipes by Betty Lessard

Published by:  Lake Superior Port Cities, Inc.

ISBN: 0-942235-50-9; © 2011

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores

Recipe:  Lemon Angel Pie – p. 43

Betty, Betty, Betty...Betty.  Sigh.  And no, I don't mean Betty Crocker, I mean Betty Lessard, she of the venerable Betty's Pies, located just north of Two Harbors, MN on Minnesota's famed "North Shore."

Betty is a legend in this state and no trip up the North Shore is complete without a stop at Betty's.  Factoid:  to drive along Minnesota's North Shore is to drive Highway 61 and yes, it's the same Highway 61 from the Hibbing, MN native Bob Dylan's song of the same name.

Now, this will likely shock and appall many of you but I was never a huge fan of Betty's Pies.

I know, right?  What am I saying? 

It's just that Betty's pies are okay, but not great.  I'm pretty sure though, that half the people who stop at Betty's do so because it breaks up the long-haul trip to Grand Marais, MN, which in turn is practically in O, Canada!

According to Betty's Pies website – www.bettyspies.com – Betty started making baked goods to sell at her dad's fish shack in 1956 and by 1958, she converted the shack to Betty's Cafe.  In 1974, Betty changed the name to Betty's Pies and in 1984, she wisely sold the restaurant and retired.  Smart move, Betty!  (PS—Betty passed away in 2015 at age 90.)  Betty's Pies is still in business and still continues to crank out her pies which are now available online!

Another smart move was sharing her recipes in the form of this cookbook – The Original Betty's Pies Favorite Recipes – because as lovely as the drive up Highway 61 is, it's still a long haul and one I'm not making just to get my hands on a slice of blueberry heaven.  Estimated drive time is 2 hours to Duluth, turn right (!) and then drive about another hour or so until you get to Two Harbors.  If your final destination is the picturesque Grand Marais (a/k/a the best town along the "Scandinavian Riviera"), then tack on another hour and thirty minutes.

Now then, when this year's "Pi" (Pie) Day came along, I perused Betty's recipes and then quickly settled on the Lemon Angel Pie because it sounded refreshing during a somewhat harsh weather week (We went from 70 and sunny to 30 and freezing overnight.  Welcome, spring?).  Plus it was easy to make.  Or was it?

Betty (Betty, Betty, Betty...Betty), I appreciate the simplicity of this pie, I really do.  But I feel like you left a few things out.  Let's parse this recipe:

Step one is to beat the 4 egg whites well, add cream of tarter, then sugar and the "spread" this into the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie pan.

If this concoction should have resembled something fluffy, ala meringue, this was a fail.  And I even had my egg whites warmed up to room temp just like a good baker should!  Oh, the humanity!  Anyway, I have a feeling that there was more to the "beat the 4 egg whites well" story than Betty let on.  My mixture never fluffed up to meringue consistency and I will never know if that was a good thing, a bad thing or the expected thing.

And I wouldn't go so far as to say that the concoction I got was "spreadable."  More like "pourable."

So I baked the crust as directed but the result, just so you know, was more like a Pavlova, i.e. a meringue cloud, rather than a tradition pie crust.  And apparently this is the result we wanted because as the book explains, "Lemon Angel Pie" is the name Betty gave to this dish that is traditionally referred to as "On a Cloud Pie."

And listen kids, it mattered not to me if I got a Pavlova rather than a pie crust but Betty's directions tell you ultimately to pour the lemon filling into a meringue "shell."  You will not get a "shell" by following the directions.  (And fair warning: when you don't get a "shell," it makes it all the harder to pour the lemon filling onto or into this thing.  Talk about a mess!)

The next set of directions to make the lemon filling also gave me pause:  "Beat the four egg yolks, add sugar and lemon juice, then cook over low heat until thick."

Well, okay, except that the mixture was already somewhat thick when I put in on the stove top.  And nowhere in the directions did it say how long to cook this mixture and what kind of "thick" consistency we were looking for so I spent a good deal of time stirring and stirring until – and this always seems to happen to me – it almost became too thick which is to say almost scrambled – blech!

The last step was to add whipped cream to the lemon mixture but again, Betty, how "whipped" did this cream need to be?

In conclusion:  the simplest set of instructions and ingredients proved to be a challenge.  Perhaps this is what Betty intended?:  "Oh sure, I'll give you the recipe but I'll fix it so you can't quite duplicate my masterpieces – bwahahahahahahahaha...."

Despite all these little cooking crises, the pie was great.  It was perhaps a tad too summery for a chilly March day, but Pi Day waits for no one. But if you want to wait to make it or eat it, the cookbook says that you can freeze this pie for another day.  Like maybe summer when it's hot and you just feel like having something refreshing. 

Last piece of advice:  the meringue will start to break down the longer it sits so if you and your loved ones cannot demolish this pie in one to two sittings, consider freezing it.

Lemon Angel Pie – makes 1 9-inch pie

Meringue Crust

4 egg whites

1 cup sugar

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Filling

4 egg yolks

½ cup sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 cup heavy cream, whipped

Preheat oven to 275F.  Grease bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate.

Beat the 4 egg whites well.  Add cream of tarter.  Gradually add sugar in 2-tablespoon increments until the full cup (one cup) has been added.  Spread (or pour!) into bottom and up the sides of a greased 9-inch pie pan and bake at 275 for 1 hour.  Cool.

Beat the 4 egg yolks and stir in ½ cup sugar and 3 tablespoons lemon juice.  Cook over low heat until thick.  Cool.  Ann's Note:  this seemed to take longer than intended because I wasn't sure how "thick" was thick!  I'm thinking that my total elapsed time was 5-10 minutes but don't quote me on that!

Whip 1 cup cream and add to the above custard.  Pour into the meringue shell and chill at least 2 hours.

"The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Park Avenue Potluck" & "The Mayo Clinic Williams-Sonoma Cookbook" - Cider Roasted Loin of Pork and Roasted winter vegetables

Date I made these recipes:  October 25, 2015 – Breast Cancer Awareness Month

The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Park Avenue Pot Luck Recipes from New York's Savviest Hostesses by Florence Fabricant

Published by:  Rizzoli

ISBN: 13-978-0-8478-2989-7

Recipe:  Cider-Roasted Loin of Pork (submitted by Meile Rockefeller) – p. 156-157

The Mayo Clinic Williams-Sonoma Cookbook by John Phillip Carroll, recipe writer, and Chris Shorten, photographer

Published by:  Time Life Books

ISBN:  0-7370-0008-2

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores

Recipe:  Roasted winter vegetables – p. 148

Eons ago, the Sloan-Kettering book came on my cookbook radar and I asked my brother-in-law, Ben, who works at Sloan-Kettering to see if he could get me a copy (I was unable to source it locally).  And he finally did earlier this year.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I was shopping for cookbooks at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores and came upon the Mayo clinic cookbook and since Mayo is located here in Minnesota, I bought it.

More months went by and as I was changing out some cookbook shelves, I saw the Mayo book and thought of making something from it this summer.  Do note it is now the end of October. At any rate, there it sat for a while in my "cook from" pile.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch Part II, in September I went to an opera (and blogged about it) and used a NY opera cookbook from my "regional" cookbook shelf and while doing so, made a mental note to cook also from the (NYC) Sloan-Kettering cookbook in the near future.

Well finally, opportunity presented itself to me to make something for the blog from each of these books at the same time, the theme of which would be "well-known hospitals."  (By the way, this could be the subject of a Jeopardy category, don't we think?)

And just as I was getting ready to select the recipes, I got an email from a dear friend:  "I have breast cancer."  And so that was a bit of a game changer because now my mission was to make something from each of these well-known (cancer treatment) hospitals in honor of her and all others out there battling cancer.

My mother was a breast cancer survivor.  Every year when I get a physical and a mammogram, I hold my breath until the results come in.  Every time.  I am always appreciative of the fact that every year also brings new advances in treatment and research.  After her surgery, my mom became part of a Reach to Recovery program, helping other women cope with their breast cancer.  I continue to be amazed that my mom reached out like that as she was a pretty private person but she did that for a long time before finally deciding to "retire" from all volunteering in general.  And I'm happy to report that she survived 23 years before passing away from a massive stroke.

In the next couple of decades, the message about breast cancer changed as we went from a more 1:1 counseling environment (survivor to survivor) and fairly low-key fundraising, to the month of October being designated Breast Cancer Awareness month, numerous three-day walks, and numerous Race for the Cures.  And so on and so on.  And cookbooks like these two are just part of the effort to raise funds for important research, care and education although if I may:  I think the general public is pretty aware of breast and other cancers by now leaving me to wonder if the message shouldn't change.  The new message should be about the continued importance of funding cancer research as well as allowing women, particularly low-income women, accessibility and affordability for both screening and treatments.  But that is just this gal's opinion.

At any rate, so the women of Park Avenue came together to create this cook book and I don't know about you, but I find it somewhat ironic if not hilarious that the Park Avenue ladies can well afford all the health care they could ever need and yet here they are, raising more money by submitting recipes to this book.  But fundraising is fundraising and money is money so we'll take.  (And by the way, I know the full title is Memorial Sloan-Kettering but I always shorten it, just like Mayo Clinic's full title is Mayo Clinic but nobody around here calls it anything but "Mayo" which should not, especially on a cookbook blog, be confused with "mayo" as in "mayonnaise.")

And so when the Coco's and Muffie's (I kid you not – please see p. 94 and 148 of the book) of Park Avenue came together to produce this book, they wisely decided to have another cookbook heavy hitter, Florence Fabricant, do the writing.  (In addition to cookbook writing, Florence is also a food critic for The New York Times and other culinary publications).

Now, the Sloan-Kettering cookbook doesn't exactly feature "healthy" foods, focusing instead on family favorites, but The Mayo Clinic Williams-Sonoma Cookbook does.  Every recipe gives you nutritional information per serving  and many recipes switch out ingredients such as white rice for brown rice or other healthier grains.  Some of the recipes I looked seemed a little bland for my tastes while others sounded delicious even if they weren't made in the same fashion we are all used to, for example, mashed potatoes.

In the end, this unintentional pairing of cookbooks yielded an unexpectedly delicious dinner that paired well together:  "Cider-Roasted Pork of Loin" (Sloan-Kettering) with "Roasted Winter Vegetables" (Mayo).  Even better was that they all roasted at the same temperature – 425F – making it easy to get this dinner on the table without a lot of fuss and muss.  I love it when things work out that way.

Things to know before you start:  1) You need to marinate the pork at least 8 hours in advance; 2) it took a lot longer than 30 minutes to roast it to the correct temperature; 3) a full recipe of the roasted vegetables makes a huge amount of vegetables that, despite cutting them approximately the same size ended up 4) cooking at different times.  And that is my one bitch about any type of roasted vegetable dish!  If I made this again and used the same vegetable combination, I might have started by roasting the turnips, then the potatoes and carrots and parsnips as they tend to take longer, and then the squash.  But that said, I'm not sure I'd include the turnips as they tasted more bitter than the rest of the vegetables used (carrots, parsnips and squash are all sweeter).  I normally like turnips but not this time around.  And I'm not sure how I felt about the parsley/garlic/malt liquor combination as it didn't seem to add much to the dish and the garlic might have been better had it been roasted. ("But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?")

So there you go, a delicious fall meal that yields plenty of yummy leftovers while at the same time, raising your awareness (hopefully beyond just October) to the ongoing fight to wipe out all cancers in our lifetime... with a little culinary assistance from two organizations helping to lead the way. Oh, and by the way, thanks too, to Williams-Sonoma for collaborating with Mayo on the cookbook.  I could never work in your store because the paycheck I earned would go right back into purchasing well...everything!

Cider-Roasted Loin of Pork – serves 8 (*must marinate for at least 8 hours)

1 quart fresh apple cider

¼ cup kosher salt or sea salt

2 boneless pork tenderloins, about 1 ½ pounds each

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon crushed dried rosemary leaves

1 tablespoon ground sage

Rosemary sprigs for garnish

Combine two cups of the cider, the salt, and 1 cup water in a saucepan and heat just until the salt dissolves.  Allow to cool.  Ann's Note:  I have no idea how long this process was supposed to take but I cooked it for what seemed like 15-20 minutes and the salt was still not dissolved.  I strained the remaining salt crystals and used the leftover liquid.  If there's on thing I cannot stand, it's overly salted food so better safe than sorry.

Place the pork loins in a heavy 1-gallon plastic bag with a zip closure.  Add the cooled brine.  Seal the bag and place on a dinner plate.  Refrigerate overnight, 8 to 24 hours.  Boil down the remaining 2 cups of cider until it has reduced to about 2/3 cup.  Place in a container, cover, and refrigerate.  Ann's Note:  I poured most of the brine into the bag, turned away for two seconds to adjust my measuring cup only to find half the brine was pouring out of the bag.  Dammit!  So I moped up the floor and counter and started again, this time heating some more cider and salt only to have the same thing happen.  Each time the bag was upright but the minute I looked away, disaster ensued.  So I ended up with more of a salt-less brine than intended but I was not going to go through that again!

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Remove the pork and the reduced cider from the refrigerator.

Remove the pork from the marinade and pat dry.  Rub the loins with the oil, pepper, rosemary, and sage.  Line a roasting pan with foil, place the pork on a rack in the roasting pan, and roast for 10 minutes.  Baste the pork with the boiled cider, turning the loins to baste all around.  Roast another 20 minutes, until an instant read thermometer registers 150 degrees.  Ann's Note:  I didn't feel like basting so I just poured the cider reduction over the loins and called it a day!  Plus, the only roasting rack I had was for chicken but it ended up not making a difference except that the loins almost looked like they were on a spit.  Finally, it took more like 30 minutes to get the loins up to 150 degrees and even then, I put them in the microwave for a bit as they were more pink than I'd like.  Yes, I know the trend with pork is to now go to medium rare but I can't bring myself to do that; beef, yes, pork, no.

Remove the pork for the oven and let it stand 10 minutes.  Slice, arranging on a platter, garnish with rosemary, and serve.

PS—we still had two apples left over from our apple crumble so I sliced those up and put them in the roasting pan along with the pork loins for about 10 minutes.  Delicious!

Roasted winter vegetables – serves: 6

1 butternut squash, 1 lb, peeled, seeded, and cut into cubes

3 red-skinned potatoes, cut into cubes

2 turnips, peeled and cut into cubes

3 carrots, halved lengthwise and cut into pieces

3 parsnips, halved lengthwise and cut into pieces

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons dried thyme

½ teaspoon ground pepper

3 tablespoons malt vinegar (Ann's Note:  you can substitute cider vinegar)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley

2 garlic cloves, minced

Preheat oven to 425F.  Coat a large roasting pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Put the squash, potatoes, turnips, carrots, and parsnips in the pan.  Add the oil, thyme, and pepper and stir and toss to combine and coat the vegetables evenly.

Roast, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are lightly browned and tender when pierced, about 45 minutes.

In a large bowl, stir together the vinegar, parsley, and garlic.  Add the vegetables and toss to combine. 

To serve, divide among individual plates.

Nutritional information – per serving:

Calories – 194

Kilojoules – 813

Protein – 4 g

Carbohydrates – 40 g

Total fat – 3 g

Saturated Fat - <1 font="" g="">

Cholesterol – 0 mg

Sodium – 56 mg

Dietary fiber – 7 g