Swedish Nuts: A somewhat healthy snack!

This recipe is something I would usually associate with the winter holidays, such as Christmas or Thanksgiving, but they are good any time of year.  They make a great snack and are good for gift giving.

Swedish Nuts

serves 12

3 1/2 cups mixed nuts
1/2    cup butter
2       egg whites
1      cup white sugar
salt, to taste

Preheat over to 325 degrees. Place nuts on a 10 x 15 inch jellyroll pan, and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove nuts from pan; add butter and allow to melt.

In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat the sugar and salt into the egg whites. Fold the toasted nuts into the egg white mixture. Arrange the coated nuts on the buttered jellyroll pan.

Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated over, turning the nuts with a spatula every 10 minutes, until they are crisp and golden.

Remove tray from oven; allow the nuts to cool and then store them in an airtight container.

This recipe appears in the Allrecipes "Tried & True Thanksgiving & Christmas Cookbook.

Sourdough Bread Part II

I have now been able to use my sourdough starter a couple of times!

The first time I baked two of the traditional boule shaped loaves; we are still enjoying the fruits of my labor! I used a recipe for "Black Canyon Sour Dough Bread" on Mike's Sourdough web page.

I kept my starter going for a few more weeks...
I was able to keep it "bubbling and doubling" using Mike's technique simply by discarding a portion of starter, then feeding it with flour and water every 12 hours. Last week I decided to bake again and I decided to bake using loaf pans. I also used the same recipe but decided to change the ratio of white flour to wheat flour...used more white flour and less wheat this time.  Here are the results:

My next challenge should be interesting.  Now that the starter has had about a month to develop, I chose to store it in the refrigerator for a few weeks.  This will put it in a somewhat dormant state; it will need to be fed about once a week until I attempt to bring it back out of the fridge and revive it for use! 

I find this project interesting--I hope you do too.  I am still amazed that you can actually make bread this way.  And I will keep you posted as to what happens when I try to revive the starter. Hopefully it's all good!

Chunky Microwave Applesauce

This recipe is from "The Silver Palate Cookbook." I have always liked this recipe; I have made it several times--it always comes out tasting great!

Chunky Microwave Applesauce

4 servings

2 McIntosh apples (halved and cored; you can peel them if you desire)

2 Granny Smith apples (halved and cored; you can peel them if you desire)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Cut each half apple into 6 wedges.

Combine the apple wedges, water and lemon juice in a deep 1 1/2 quart microwavable dish. 

(I prefer a glass or ceramic dish for this.)

Toss the sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl, then stir into apple mixture.

Cook apple mixture uncovered at 100% power for 5 minutes. Stir, pressing the apple into the liquid.

Return apples to microwave and cook at 100% for 5 additional minutes.

Use a potato masher to mash the hot apple mixture until the mixture is coarsely mashed. Allow to cool

to room temperature, then place into the refrigerator until chilled.

Source: Silver Palate Cookbook