Who thought, with doing a blog a day for a month that I’d actually post twice on the holiday weekend (speaks volumes about the lousy weather we’re having this weekend!)? This arrived from my sister, Bridget, this morning. I’m sharing it here because we’d love any good ideas you’ve got!

Ladies,
I need help, I cut tons of recipes out of magazines and print them from online, some I try right away, others I hope to get to one day. My clippings and recipe boxes are overflowing ... Anyone have suggestions for organizing them? I really don’t want to copy them all over onto recipe cards, some I can cut and paste onto cards. Do you have a efficient system that you use?
Thanks,
Bridget

I responded:

I save alot on my computer. If you read them in a magazine or newspaper you can usually find them online. I save them (I don’t have any better method for “getting around to them” either). If you can’t find them online, I scan them into my computer. I like having them online because it's much easier to do an online search than it is to comb through hundreds of paper copies to find one scrap.

My sister, Maureen, responded:

I don’t have an effiicient system that I use, but I always intend to set one up. I know a couple of years ago Jenner set up a binder system that she categorized by type of recipe and then had odds and ends like “make in the morning cook at dinner”, 30-minute meals, etc. I believe she printed them all on the same size paper and put in a recipe book. I think you could keep them all on whatever they are on and put into a binder. If you got page sleeves you could just slip whatever size paper you have into it. Let me know what works!

We’d love to hear your ideas, please post comments!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

31 Days of Blog: Day 5. When my husband and I met 23 (yikes! how did that happen?!) years ago, the first thing we found that we had in common was our devotion to Bruce Springsteen (we’ll attend our 20th (I think) show together this August); the second was that we had worked our teenage years in ice cream stores — mine in Baskin-Robbins in Tarrytown, NY, his at his father’s seasonal ice cream stand, Super Swirl in Methuen, MA. I guess it was kismet.

This morning in the Boston Globe, there was a great article about small ice cream stands and how they are so much a part of summer. The article seems to say that we’re luckier here in the northeast than in other parts of the country: We have more ice cream stands. Anyway, this article touched me, and I thought I’d share it with you.

Bliss arrives in icy, creamy scoops

By Tania deLuzuriaga / July 5, 2008
At Jay Gee’s in Methuen, it was straight coffee. Across town at Findeisen’s, it was cookie dough. And at Benson’s in West Boxford, black raspberry.
But my favorite, the ice cream I dreamed about all winter and drooled over all summer, was the coffee cookies ‘on’ cream at Hodgie’s Ice Cream in Amesbury. Always in a cup. Always with a sugar cone on top.
Forget Memorial Day, shorts weather, or the end of the school year. Summer starts in New England when the ice cream stands open.
After the desolate days of winter, that first cone is a sweet promise of balmy, carefree days to come.
It doesn’t matter that you might need a jacket while standing in line or have to turn on the heat in the car as you eat it. Ice cream is summer.
“That first cone of the year? That’s heaven,” said Joyce Wright, a grandmother from Plaistow, N.H., who’s been enjoying Hodgie’s ice cream for more than two decades.
For a child in New England, the mom-and-pop ice cream stand is bliss after a winter of franchised frozen milk.
During the winter, my sister and I would have to agree on a flavor and commit to a half-gallon at the supermarket. In the summer, I could have my pick of 40 flavors.
And while my mother rationed out the treats into a Dixie cup in the winter, Hodgie’s and the like had far more generous hands that precariously piled scoop upon scoop, even for the “¼-kiddie” size.
“Don’t order a small, it’s huge,” I have advised more than one boyfriend uninitiated in the nuances of local ice cream.
Growing up in Methuen, I made it my business to know every mom-and-pop stand within 20 miles of my house; I knew which place was on the way home from the beach and which was on the way to my grandparents’ place. In the summer, I tried to eat ice cream at least once a day. On a good day, I would have it twice.This apparently isn’t uncommon. Hodgie’s owner Jason Regis said he eats ice cream every day in the summer, and many of his customers do, too.
“It’s a staple of my diet,” the father of two said with a sheepish smile.
I took this all for granted until I went to college in the Midwest, where ice cream was called “custard” and was too soft, too smooth, and too boring. Most places had only a couple of flavors, and they were rarely something you’d want to eat. Pecan turtle? Banana? No thanks.
When I moved to Florida, I thought my ice cream prospects would improve in the land of endless summer. Sadly, ice cream there is like much else in the Sunshine State: franchised in a strip mall. Most places don’t make their own ice cream or have handmade signs advertising frappes. None ever offer a lime rickey.As I stood in line at some air-conditioned chain waiting for an overpriced scoop (literally, a scoop), I longed for Hodgie’s squat red-and-white building with the wood-planked porch and order window. Where Florida had parking lots, Hodgie’s has a pine grove in the back with picnic tables.
“It’s not the most glamorous place, but it’s got character and those places are few and far between,” said Scott Laing, who said he's been frequenting Hodgie’s with his wife, Karen, for at least 20 years.
That’s just the way Regis wants it. He fell in love with the place in high school when he worked as a scooper there and set his sights on buying it one day.
“It's just a great job,” he said. “People who come up to get ice cream usually have a smile on their face.”
When former owner Peter Hodge was ready to sell three years ago, he called Regis and his wife, Kelly, also a former Hodgie’s scooper. The couple vowed not to change a thing.
And they haven’t. A lot has changed in the years since I started eating Hodgie's ice cream. I’ve moved eight times, had three different jobs, and lived in four different states.
But the coffee cookies ’n cream is always the same. Always in a cup. Always with a sugar cone on top.

After fireworks tonight, I’ll be stopping at Hodgie’s for a ¼-kiddie Peanut Butter Cup (chocolate ice cream with peanut butter ribbon, Baskin-Robbins calls it “Peanut Butter and Chocolate”) in a sugar cone. Yum!

Happy 4th of July!

31 Days of Blog: Day 4. Our fireworks got rained out last night, and it’s too cold for the beach day we had planned, so we’re watching old videos of the kids when they were little, thinking we might call some of the friends we usually meet at the beach to have an impromptu cookout.

Last year this fabulous burger reared its lovely head at my friend, Lynne’s 4th of July extravaganza at Lake Winnepesaukee. Lynne’s parents live on an island in Lake Winnepesaukee. Her dad, Frank, and her son, Matt, both have birthdays over 4th of July weekend, and they always have a big family gathering. Last year Frank treated the family to these burgers. Lynne brought them to me via our weekly dinner group (we cook together and test out new recipes on our guinea pigs, I mean, families). These were one huge hit!

Stuffed bacon cheeseburgers

½ c cheddar cheese, shredded
4 slices
1 lb ground chuck
2 medium onions, divided use
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 T olive oil
1 T butter
1 clove garlic
1 T sugar
Barbecue sauce
4 large hamburger buns, split

Cook bacon in skillet until crisp. Let cool, crumble. Dice one onion and sauté in bacon drippings until translucent. Let cool. Combine cheese, bacon, and onion in a bowl. Season ground beef with salt and pepper. Create 8 flat patties from the meat mixture. Squeeze together 4 balls of the cheese mixture. Place the ball of cheese mixture between two ground beef patties; bring up the sides of the patty over the filling, making sure the cheese is completely covered by the meat. Flatten slightly for a nice patty shape. Refrigerate.

Heat grill to medium-high heat. Brush burgers with barbecue sauce and place sauce-side-down on grill. Brush top-side of burger with barbecue sauce. Grill the burgers for 7 minutes per side for medium.

Meanwhile, heat second sauté pan. Add olive oil and butter to pan. Slice second onion and sauté until translucent. Add garlic, salt, pepper, and sugar, continue to cook until caramelized. Combine onions with remaining barbecue sauce.

Remove the burgers to a clean side plate while you toast the buns, if desired.

Entertaining 911, continued

31 Days of Blog: Day 3. There is a certain wisdom to getting the necessities out of the way first thing in the day to make sure they get done. I always apply this to the dreaded cleaning of the house, if it doesn’t get done by noon, it seldom gets done, I either run out of steam or I lose focus. The same is true for blogging once a day during this National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) of July/Food, yesterday is a great example, I only wrote an 80-word post, half of which was done before 7 am, when I got distracted (toilet-training a two-year-old is a wonderful thing), and I didn’t actually post until the rest of my family was breathing down my back looking for dinner. Today, I’m trying to get it done early again.

I’m still in the 4th of July mode, and I want appetizers galore this weekend (we actually had nachos for dinner last night, and we had so much fun making them as a family — that almost never happens in my house, cooking as a family). At a recent dinner party, I made an upscale version of Chile con Queso. It was a nice change. The goat cheese adds tang, and the green salsa adds heat, a really nice complement. You can serve the dip with your favorite bagged chips, or you can make your own adobo chips from the recipe below, it’s easy and tasty, uses up leftover corn tortillas (you know me and my using up leftovers), and doesn’t have a lot of extra sodium.

Warm goat cheese and cilantro salsa

1 jar Mrs. Renfro’s green salsa
½ c cilantro
½ c low-fat cream cheese, softened (½ block)
¼ c goat cheese

Preheat oven to 350°. To prepare salsa, combine salsa and cilantro, cover and set aside.

To prepare cheese, combine cream cheese and goat cheese in a small bowl; stir until blended. Spread cheese mixture into a shallow ramekin or baking dish; cover with foil. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or just until warm. Remove from oven, top with salsa, and serve with chips.

Adobo Chips

½ t paprika
¼ t cumin
2½ t fresh lime juice
8 6-inch white corn tortillas
1 t canola oil
1 t adobo sauce

Preheat oven to 375°. Combine 2½ teaspoons lime juice, canola oil, adobo sauce, paprika, and cumin in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Brush 1 tortilla with about ¼ teaspoon juice mixture, spreading to edge. Top with another tortilla; repeat procedure with juice mixture. Repeat procedure 6 more times (you will have 1 stack of 8 tortillas). Using a sharp knife, cut tortilla stack into 6 wedges. Place wedges in a single layer on baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes; turn wedges. Bake an additional 10 minutes.

We’ll be sharing this new Con Queso tonight with friends while we watch fireworks at Salisbury Beach. Enjoy!

Entertaining 911, continued

31 Days of Blog: Day 2. It’s only Wednesday, but the 4th of July weekend is upon us. We’ve got alot of beach and baseball and quick changes between the two. We’ll be looking for the quick fix again this weekend. My friend, Nadine, gave me what may be the easiest appetizer idea ever! (And I thought Lisa’s Garlic-Feta Dip was easy.)

Pretzels and mustard

Honeycup mustard
Mini pretzels

Just put ‘em out in pretty bowls and you're good!

Entertaining 911

With summer here, I'm always looking for something I can pull out at the last minute, whether it's for dinner for the family, or when friends drop in, since schedules are looser in the summer.

My friend, Lisa, has made this little dip for years, and I love it! I had tried it several times and never got it quite right. The trick really is using the already minced garlic you can find in a jar in the produce section of the supermarket, freshly minced garlic just is not the same. Unlike so many spreads and dips that need to sit to allow the flavors to mingle or mellow, this dip benefits from being made at the last minute.

Garlic-feta spread

Equal parts jarred, minced garlic and crumbled Feta cheese
Balsamic vinegar
Wheat thins

Place garlic and Feta in a small, shallow bowl or ramekin. Add just enough Balsamic vinegar to moisten, too much will give it too much bite, so go slowly, you can always add more, but you can't take it out. Serve with wheat thins.

This is my first blog as a member of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month), the July theme is Food blogging. I'm making an effort to post every day in July, so keep checking me out, and send me your ideas for Emergency summer entertaining, getting dinner on the table for your family, and other topics and recipes you'd like to see.

Leftovers by any other name …, continued

Anyone who knows me knows a few things about me:

1. I hate to throw anything out.


2. I love leftovers, but my family doesn’t, which brings me to ...


3. I try to disguise leftovers in every imaginable form, so my family does not recognize them as having been a previous meal — chicken pot pie, chicken soup, vegetable soup, stews of all shapes and sizes, cheesy vegetable enchiladas (really any Mexican is ideal for hiding the evidence of the previous meal).

Given all those givens, I encountered a surprising piece of information last week that made me ask: How did I miss that?!

I put on an interactive dinner party last week, and one of the dishes we made was Gazpacho. Fourteen women were cooking the meal together. When the duo that was making the gazpacho was chatting with me, one of them remarked, “We always had gazpacho growing up, my mother made it out of leftover salad.”

She what?! I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of that. (Even if you know me pretty well, you may not know that I love gazpacho, I seldom make it, because my own family balks at cold tomato and vegetable soup.) n my defense, maybe I never thought of it, because I was never really trying to get rid of leftover salad: I grew up in a family of eight, we never had leftover salad. Even in my own family, my kids love salad, and we seldom have any leftover.

I do remember being surprised when I first met my husband’s family and found out that his Lebanese side of the family even had a name for leftover salad (mixed with day-old Syrian (pita) bread): Fatoush.

So, turning leftover salad into an entirely different dish you could actually serve to people, I love it! I mentioned it to my friend, Eileen, who is a vegetarian, and a very good cook, she said she’d only use the tomatoes and cucumbers from the leftover salad, so I tried.

I used the Gazpacho recipe from a friend I used to work with.

Vivian's blender gazpacho

5 large tomatoes, ripe and firm, divided use
3 European cucumbers, long seedless, peeled, divided use
¼ c olive oil
½ bunch green onions
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch chives
3 garlic cloves
5 dashes red wine vinegar
1 lemon, juiced
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1⅔ c beef broth
black pepper, fresh ground
1⅔ c tomato juice
1-2 dashes Tabasco

Blend 2 tomatoes, 1 cucumber, oil, parsley, garlic, lemon, broth, tomato juice, onion, chives, vinegar, Worcestershire, and peppers in blender briefly and place in large bowl. Chop remaining tomato and cucumber coarsely and add to soup. Stir together and refrigerate overnight before serving.

To modify it, I went with Eileen’s suggestion and just used the tomatoes and the cukes, I used leftover tomato soup instead of the tomato juice, and I didn’t have any chives. I had slightly less parsley and green onions than the recipe called for, but I was very happy with the results, and I bet it will be even better tonight or tomorrow, and next time, I’ll try with more of the salad, just to see how it goes.

As a final note, another friend said she makes meatloaf when she cleans out her fridge. As with my gazpacho recipe, I’ve never entertained deviating from my few favorite meatloaf recipes, but in the interest of wastelessness, I may expand my horizons. Check back here for the results some time soon.