"Baked" Beans

4 cups dry navy beans
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 pounds bacon, browned and cut into small pieces
2 onions, finely diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup ketchup
1/3 cup blackstrap molasses
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon baking cocoa
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon Magic Dust

Soak beans in cool water for around two hours. Add the liquid smoke and a teaspoon of salt and simmer until the beans are firm, but not crunchy, approximately 1 hour. Drain and reserve the liquid. Brown the onion and garlic over medium heat. In a small saucepan combine ketchup, molasses, salt, pepper, mustard, baking cocoa, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar; bring to a slow boil.

Put everything, except the reserved bean water, into a crock pot, add the Magic Dust and stir. Add just enough of the reserved bean water to cover the beans. Put the lid on and set the crock pot to 350° (medium/high) and leave it alone for a couple hours. Check on it periodically and if they look dry add more of the reserved water.

Sharp and Spicy Mac and Cheese

Serves 12 (can easily be cut in half)

6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup flour
5 1/2 cups milk
5 cups sharp white cheddar, grated
1/2 cup pepper jack, grated
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 pound elbow macaroni

Baked method:
a bit of butter for the pan
AND
1/2 cup Panko breading
OR
2 tablespoons butter, melted
6 slices of white bread, cubed (you may want to cut crusts off as well)
- melt the butter in a large bowl then stir in the cubed bread.

If you're going to bake it, then preheat your oven to 375° and butter a 3 quart casserole dish. Put a large pan of salted water on to boil for the pasta. Pour the milk into a large sauce pan and put it over medium/low heat, it should be slowly heating up while you're dealing with the roux. If you're new to heating milk you will probably be tempted to turn up the heat, but you should resist. Milk will burn fairly easily and then you're out a quart and a half of milk because there's no coming back from that. Once you burn the milk the flavor will take over everything else.

Melt the 6 tablespoons of butter in another large sauce pan over medium heat. Pay close attention when the butter starts to bubble and keep your whisk and the flour handy because the next step will seem to take forever to get started, but once it does your window of opportunity for flavor perfection closes fast! Again, resist the temptation to turn up the heat. Butter is super-fragile and if your pan is too hot it will skip right past the delicious nutty flavor of brown and go directly (and quickly) to the bitterness of black. The butter will go from melted to bubbling, then it will bubble for a bit (this is the part that takes forever) before it starts to foam. The foam will rise and fall fairly quickly, and you want to be extra vigilant about burning during this step. When the foam falls you should have a nice, rich, brown liquid and that's when you should remove it from the heat and whisk in your flour.

Once your flour is completely integrated with the butter return the pan to the burner and start whisking in the warm milk, a cup or so at a time. Add a bit of milk, whisk until smooth, repeat until all of the milk is added. Bring the sauce up to just under a boil, stirring constantly, then start adding cheese. Again, a cup or so at a time; add cheese, whisk until smooth, repeat until all the cheese is added then turn the heat to low.

Now is a good time to put the pasta into the boiling water. If you're going to bake your mac and cheese then you don't want to cook it all the way through, just until the outside is done but it's still crunchy in the middle.

While your pasta is cooking you can perfect the spicing in your cheese sauce. Begin by adding the nutmeg and the salt, then stir in the pepper and cayenne. Give it a taste and adjust as you see fit. When you have the flavor the way you like it turn the heat off and wait for your pasta to finish. Once your noodles are done to perfection drain them and add them to the cheese sauce. If you're not going to bake it then you're ready to serve, or you can put it in a crock pot and take it to a party.

If you are going to bake it then pour everything into the casserole dish and top with either the Panko or the bread and butter mixture and slide it into the oven. Bake for about 30 minutes, until topping is brown and cheese is bubbly, then let it cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe by: Kelly Sink

Russian Tea Cakes

I have several versions of this recipe in my possession that were passed down from grandmothers on both sides of my family and they're all pretty much the same, except for the names. Great Grandma called them Russian Tea Cakes, Grandma Mil dubbed them Mexican Wedding Cakes and somewhere in Grandma Mil's notes, in handwriting I don't recognize, the recipe is tagged Shortbread Sugar Pops. Recently I made them for a Gay Pride bbq, colored the sugar to match the pride flag and called them Prop 8 Cakes. Whatever you call them, they're addictive and delicious.

dough:
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped fine

coating:
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Mix dough ingredients together, cover tightly and refrigerate for at least one hour. If you're in a hurry you can skip the refrigeration, but it does make it oh so much easier to handle the dough once it's been chilled.

Preheat oven to 400°. Form dough into 1" balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. These cookies don't spread so you can feel free to place them close together. Bake 10-12 minutes, until firm and lightly browned. Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before coating.

Put 1/2 cup of powdered sugar into a plastic bag and add warm (but not hot) cookies. Shake to coat.

To make colored sugar:

When I decided to do the rainbow colors I Googled "how to color powdered sugar" and came up with a couple different methods. They both sucked, but one significantly less than the other. The truly sucky method was the baggie method. The instructions I found were to put your sugar in a plastic bag and drip a couple drops of food coloring down the side then shake the bag to mix. This was completely ineffective. I wound up with a dime-sized ball of color in the corner of the bag and a dog who thought it was dance party time in the kitchen. No good at all.

So once I calmed the dog down I went with method number two; the food processor method. Again the instructions were very simple, just put the sugar and color in the food processor with the chopping blade and whir it up until the sugar is the color you want. Easy peasy, right? Wrong. Turns out it takes quite a bit more than the "drop or two" of color that I was instructed to use. Realistically, more like a full teaspoon to color 1/2 a cup of sugar. And it made a HUGE mess in the food processor. Only a bit of the sugar accepted the color, and then it gooped up on the edges of the bowl. I did find that if you leave the processor running for a bit then the caked on color begins to flake off the sides and reincorporates with the rest of the sugar, lending a bit of color to the whole batch. The real problem with this method is that between colors everything must be cleaned and absolutely dry before starting the next.

What I really learned from this experience is if I want colored cookies the better way is probably to make a glaze and dip them, rather than try to color the sugar itself. To do a glaze just put your sugar in a bowl with the color and just enough milk (just a teaspoon or two) to mix it into a liquid. Then either dip your cookies or put them on a rack and pour the glaze over them.

Salsa Fresca

One of the things I love most about summer is the veggies at their peak. Sure, if you live in the U.S. you have access to cherry tomatoes all year long, but they're only really good during the warm months. Speaking of cherry tomatoes, you might have noticed that I use them fairly regularly and you may be wondering why. (Even if you weren't wondering I'm going to tell you.) The reason I use them instead of regular tomatoes is simply because they have the most flavor. If you'd like you can pretty much swap out one tomato for another in most any recipe, but the smaller varieties are where the flavor's at.

2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced (if you like a bit more heat in your salsa then leave some seeds in)
juice of 1 lime
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt

Toss ingredients together in a bowl and let sit for at least 10 minutes. Serve with chips or tacos or breakfast burritos or...

Recipe by: Kelly Sink

Cucumber Salad

It's summertime! And nothing says summer like fresh, cool cucumber salad. When I was a kid Mom made this with just onion and cucumbers and it was delicious, but now that I love LOVE tomatoes so much I find that I put them in more and more things.

1 1/2 cups rice vinegar
2 cups water
2 cups sugar (you can cut this some, but no more than 1/4 cup)
2 cucumbers, peeled and sliced
1 purple onion, thinly sliced
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved

Combine vinegar, water and sugar in a small sauce pan and slowly bring to a boil. When the sugar is dissolved boil for one minute then pour it over your sliced veggies. Chill it for at least an hour before serving, and four is better. This keeps fresh and delicious in the fridge for up to a week and makes a tasty handy snack on a hot afternoon.

Recipe by: Kelly Sink

Rich and Savory Pizza Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups halved or quartered cherry tomatoes
1 cup white wine
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup vodka
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
salt
pepper

Heat the olive oil in a wide skillet over medium-high heat then add the garlic. Let the garlic fry just a bit before adding the tomatoes and the wine. Reduce the heat to medium and slowly simmer the tomato mixture until the tomatoes begin to separate from their skins. Add the vinegar and simmer until you have about half a cup of liquid, then add the vodka.

Simmer slowly until you're back down to a bit more than 1/4 cup liquid before adding the basil. Give it a couple more minutes over the heat, until it's at a consistency you like. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking and then let it cool just a bit before spreading it on your crust. Choose your toppings wisely, the wrong toppings will easily be overpowered by this rich sauce.

Recipe by: Kelly Sink

Shredded Chicken

Shredded chicken is so good for so many things. You can use it in a sloppy-joe style sandwich, or on a pizza, but the best way to use it is in pretty much any Mexican or Tex/Mex food that needs meat. Tacos, burritos and enchiladas are all better with some tasty shredded chicken.

3 poached chicken breasts, preferably still warm
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup white wine
1/2 cup quartered cherry tomatoes
2 sun dried tomatoes, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 chili pepper, seeded and diced (you can leave the seeds in if you'd like it extra spicy)
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
salt
pepper
water

Put the chicken breasts in a high-sided skillet over medium-high heat and add the broth and the wine, and enough water to cover the chicken. Bring it to a low boil and turn down the heat. Add the tomatoes, garlic, onion, chili powder and cumin and keep it at a very low boil.

The secret to getting tender and juicy chicken is keeping it at that very low boil for as long as it takes for the chicken to naturally break apart, while keeping it moist enough that it doesn't dry out. So, take a pair of tongs and periodically turn your chicken around in the pan until it starts to fall apart. Add more water if it looks dry and bring it back to a low boil.

When the chicken starts to break up add the basil and allow it to simmer while you use a fork to gently pull the chicken into strips. Taste it and add salt and pepper accordingly. If you feel it needs more time to soak up spices you can always add more water, but keep in mind that your finished product should only have about 1/4 cup of liquid, just enough to keep it moist but not wet. If you're making it with the intention of reheating later you might want to leave a bit more liquid so that you don't wind up with dry chicken for your next meal.

Recipe by: Kelly Sink

Ho' Cakes

My Grandma Nita used to make these deliciously sweet corn hot cakes for us and they are certainly an extra-bright spot of memory in my happy childhood. The trick is to get them the right size, both diameter and thickness. They should be thin, and not at all cakey (exactly the opposite of restaurant pancakes), and should really be no larger than a biscuit in diameter. If you make them thicker and larger they begin to resemble cornbread instead of tasty breakfast cakes.

Serves two:
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream (you can easily substitute plain yogurt)
1/2 cup buttermilk (regular milk will work, but buttermilk pushes them to over-the-top-amazing)
1/2 package of "JIFFY"® Corn Muffin Mix (do not substitute another brand if you can at all help it)
butter

The other slightly tricky thing about these is that there are no hard measurements. You'll have to just keep making small adjustments until you get the right consistency. When finished the batter should be thin and runny, and it will get thicker the longer it sits so if you're making a lot you should be prepared to add more liquid.

Mix the sour cream, buttermilk and "JIFFY"® mix until you have the right consistency. Melt a bit of butter over medium heat and pour your batter in.

When the edges round down and the center has a ring of air bubbles it's time to turn them. If your skillet is too hot they'll burn before this happens because cornmeal is nearly as fragile as butter, but if they're a bit extra dark don't worry too much about it. They'll still be pretty tasty, if not nearly as attractive as they should be.

Serve with butter and syrup, or jam, or even just plain. However you decide to serve I'm sure they'll be a treat you'll remember.

Recipe by: Juanita Sink