Recipes from Aunt Karen

Below are a few tasty recipes courtesy of our Aunt Karen: a super aunt, stellar cook, and also a "Nye" Sista. I'm definitely making the Zucchini Cobbler to see if I can trick Greg into eating more zucchini.

BAKED CAULIFLOWER

1 med onion minced

1 garlic clove minced

4 TBSP butter, divided

2 TBSP olive oil

1 pkg (16 oz) frozen cauliflower, thawed

½ tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

¼ C dry bread crumbs

¼ C shredded cheddar cheese

In a large skillet sauté onion and garlic in 2 tbsp butter and olive oil until onion is tender. Add the cauliflower, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, sauté 2 minutes. Transfer to a greased 1 qt baking dish . Melt remaining 2 tbsp butter and toss with bread crumbs. Sprinkle over cauliflower mixture. Cover and bake 350° for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake for 10 minutes more. Sprinkle with cheese and bake 3-5 minutes longer until cheese is melted.

*We love this recipe. I just made it the other night using a mixed bag of frozen broccoli/cauliflower. This version was also good. I love the nutmeg on it; in fact I increase it to ¼ tsp.

MACARONI COLESLAW

1 pkg (7 oz) macaroni

1 pkg (16 oz) coleslaw mix

2 med onions finely chopped

2 celery ribs finely chopped

1 med cucumber finely chopped

1 med green pepper finely chopped

1 can (8 oz) whole water chestnuts, drained and chopped.

Dressing: 1 ½ C reduced fat salad dressing (or regular if you wish)

1/3 C sugar

¼ C cider vinegar

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

Cook macaroni according to pkg directions, drain and rinse in cold water. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the coleslaw, onions, celery, cucumber, green pepper and water chestnuts. In a small bowl whisk the dressing ingredients. Pour over salad, toss to coat. Cover and chill for at least one hour.

*I used a red pepper as I like their taste better and low fat mayo. It was good.

PARMESAN CORNFLAKE CHICKEN

½ c crushed cornflakes

1/3 c grated Parmesan cheese

¼ c seasoned bread crumbs

1 ½ tsp dried parsley flakes

½ tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

6 tbsp melted butter

1 cut up chicken (2-3 #), skin removed.

In a shallow bowl combine the first 6 ingredients. In another shallow bowl put the melted butter. Dip chicken in butter, and then roll in cornflake mixture. Place in a greased 13 x 9 baking dish. Bake uncovered at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until chicken juices run clear.

ZUCCHINI COBBLER

8 C chopped, seeded, peeled zucchini (about 3#)

2/3 C lemon juice

1 C sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

Crust: 4 C all purpose flour

2 C sugar

1 ½ C cold butter, cubed

1 tsp ground cinnamon

In a large saucepan over med-low heat, cook and stir zucchini and lemon juice for 15-20 minutes or until zucchini is tender. Add the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, simmer 1 minute longer. Remove from the heat, set aside. For crust, combine the flour and sugar in a bowl, cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir ½ cup of dry mixture into zucchini mixture. Press half of the remaining crust mixture into a greased 15 x 10 x 1 baking pan. Spread zucchini over top, crumble remaining crust mixture over zucchini. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 375° for 35-40 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

*This is a fooler and a great way to use those large zucchini. I did not take time to pick out seeds. I just peeled and chopped. We never noticed the seeds when we ate it. It makes a lot, so it was fun to cut it all up and Dan took some to work and made every one try to guess what the middle was. Everyone guessed apple.