Pistachio Cake

Pistachio Cake
Dorcas Annette Walker

Springtime is full of color as the earth warms up. It is my favorite time of the year and this week Spring is official on the calendar. One reason I love springtime is due to the fact that I am addicted to color. If you don’t believe me just check out my website at: www.dorcasannettewalker or ask any of my family. I enjoy dressing in bright colors and each room of my house is a different color blending together like my flower beds outside. I especially revel in the soft green spring colors that appear outside my windows forming buds on the trees while the carpet of grass comes back to life again turning the world into a mass of green hues. There is something soothing to me about the color green.

I was fascinated the first time I saw my friend, Tonda Miller, make a Pistachio Cake. I always gravitated toward cooks and kitchens whenever I was out on the road traveling with my husband in evangelism. Camp meeting kitchens always welcomed another hand and you never knew what new recipe or tip you might discover. Tonda and I have a long history of friendship as both our husband are ministers and we’ve been in numerous revivals and camp meetings together. Tonda is also a camp cook. I loved whenever we were together as we both enjoy experimenting with ideas, sharing recipes, and trying new dishes out.

The first thing that caught my eye about the Pistachio Cake was its soft green color layered with green icing to match. Not only was the cake good to look at, but it tasted scrumptious, and was moist. The secret to the green coloring was using pistachio pudding. I couldn’t wait to get home to try the recipe out myself. Every time I make a Pistachio Cake it always brings lots of comments and second helpings. What I love about this cake is that it is simple to make and can be made ahead of time. This recipe for Pistachio Cake takes only around ten to fifteen minutes to prepare and serves sixteen.

Pistachio Cake

1 pkg yellow cake mix
1 pkg instant pistachio pudding
3 eggs
1 c cooking oil
1 c 7-up or Sprite
½ c pecans chopped
Combine all the ingredients together in bowl and beat with a mixer for two minutes. Pour batter into a greased bunt pan and bake at 350º for forty-five minutes. Cover and cool.

Icing:

1 pkg instant pistachio pudding
1½ c milk
8 oz container cool whip
Mix ingredients together and beat for five minutes. Cut the Pistachio Cake into three layers and ice. Refrigerate until ready to serve. May garnish with green sprinkles!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a freelance writer, author, columnist, and photographer from Jamestown, TN. If you have any cooking tips or favorite recipes you are welcome to contact me by mail at: Dorcas Walker, 929 Wildwood Lane, Jamestown, TN 38556 or email me at: dorcaswalker@yahoo.com. For more information about the Walker family and Dorcas’ books check out her website at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com or htpp://dorcasannettewalker.blogspot.com for other Creative Mountain Cookin recipes.

Seven-Layer Salad

Seven-Layer Salad
Dorcas Annette Walker

Spring is the time to start gardens. Even if a person doesn’t have a garden spot to grow a lot of stuff, planters are ideal for mini gardens. Lettuce needs to be planted early to do well. I’ve always had a garden spot for lettuce, onions, and radishes. Today we can buy ingredients for a fresh salad year round in the store, but there is nothing like the joy of walking outside to pick fresh lettuce or herbs to make a salad. Over the years my large garden spot has been changed to a flower bed and herb garden. Even so I plan on squeezing some lettuce and a few radishes in my herb garden between the parsley and chives this spring. One can never have too many plants.

There are all kinds of Seven-Layer Salad recipes to choose from ranging from mild salads to more of a western-style salad that can be used as a main dish. I even found a recipe for a Seven-Layer Salad for the birds that sounds good enough to eat- check it out below! Either way no matter how picky your family is when it comes to eating salads there is bound to be a Seven-Layer Salad recipe that will temp the taste buds. The great thing about making a Seven-Layer Salad is that this salad can be made ahead of time- even a day earlier. So mix and match the following ingredients to your heart’s content. If you need a quick casserole add more layers from some of the ideas below. My mountain style Seven-Layer Salad is simple to prepare, taking around twenty minutes or so to fix, and serves ten.

Seven-Layer Salad

Layer:
6 c lettuce broken into bite-size pieces
1 c broccoli
1 c cauliflower
1 c frozen peas

Spread 2 c mayonnaise or salad dressing (both are similar in flavor although salad dressing is usually a bit sweeter than mayonnaise) over the top to the edges to seal in the salad, which will keep the salad nice and crisp.

Sprinkle on top:
1 c shredded cheddar cheese
½ c bacon bits
Cover and chill in refrigerator until time to serve. May garnish with croutons!

Variations for Seven-Layer Salad:
- In place of lettuce use mixed salad greens, fresh spinach, Romaine lettuce or Iceberg.
- Layer in: cucumber slices, shredded red cabbage, diced tomatoes, black olives, Bermuda or green onion rings, mushrooms, sliced celery, grated carrots, slivered radishes, red or green peppers, chunks of hard boiled eggs, or a diced avocado.
- Top with: grated Parmesan cheese, feta cheese, croutons, chives, or a sprinkle of paprika.
- Western style salad: layer lettuce, crushed Fritos or tortilla chips, chopped tomatoes, cheddar cheese, one can of Mexi-beans or pinto beans (drained) one large jar of Italian salad dressing, and top with red onion rings.
- Bird Seven-Layer Salad: layer chopped greens, cubes vegetables (such as Brussels sprouts, zucchini, cucumber, green beans, red or green peppers, etc.), chopped broccoli and shredded carrots, uncooked pasta, drained canned pinto beans, and top with frozen mixed vegetables!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a freelance writer, author, columnist, and photographer from Jamestown, TN. If you have any cooking tips or favorite recipes you are welcome to contact me by mail at: Dorcas Walker, 929 Wildwood Lane, Jamestown, TN 38556 or email me at: dorcaswalker@yahoo.com. For more information about the Walker family and Dorcas’ books check out her website at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com or htpp://dorcasannettewalker.blogspot.com for other Creative Mountain Cookin recipes.

St. Patrick's Mint Brownies

St. Patrick’s Mint Brownies
Dorcas Annette Walker

I’m always collecting recipes that catch my eye that I stash in a pile to try out sometime. While browsing through my recipes, I saw a recipe for mint brownies and my imagination kicked in. I changed the brownie recipe to honor St. Patrick’s Day and whipped up a batch using my husband as a taste tester. He didn’t want to stop with one brownie. I had to admit these brownies were not only colorful but luscious too.

St. Patrick’s Day honors St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland who died on March 17th. Interestingly enough St. Patrick’s Day has been celebrated with greater fanfare here in America than over in Ireland. The total number of immigrants from Ireland lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent resident since 1820 is 4.8 million. The first St. Patrick’s parade, made up of Irish soldiers serving in the British colonial army, took place in New York on March 17, 1762. In 1995 the Irish government struck by the strange paradox of America, Canada, and Australia making a bigger holiday out of St. Patrick’s Day than the Emerald Isle itself began a national campaign to transform St. Patrick’s Day into an authentic Irish celebration. Corn beef and cabbage is the traditional Irish meal for St. Patrick’s Day. Today people celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by wearing the color green, shamrocks, and clover with three leaves in memory of Ireland.

Brownies are easy to make as a quick dessert or snack. These St. Patrick’s Mint Brownies are rich and moist topped off with a cool tasting creamy icing. Preparation time for my St. Patrick’s Mint Brownies is close to 45 minutes (baking time included) and serves around sixteen.

St. Patrick’s Mint Brownies

1 box of Brownie Mix
1pkg thin chocolate mints
Mix up and bake a batch of brownies as directed. As soon as brownies are done spread a layer of chocolate mints on top. Cover and let the mints melt.

Icing:

2 c powdered sugar
½ c shortening
¼ c milk
¼ tsp peppermint extract
¼ tsp almond extract
couple drops of green food coloring
Beat together with Wisk until smooth. Spread over cooled brownies. Cut into squares and serve!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a freelance writer, author, columnist, and photographer from Jamestown, TN. If you have any cooking tips or favorite recipes you are welcome to contact me by mail at: Dorcas Walker, 929 Wildwood Lane, Jamestown, TN 38556 or email me at: dorcaswalker@yahoo.com. For more information about the Walker family and Dorcas’ books check out her website at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com or htpp://dorcasannettewalker.blogspot.com for other Creative Mountain Cookin recipes.

Split Pea Soup

Split Pea Soup
Dorcas Annette Walker

March is always unpredictable weather wise. The month tantalizes a person with warm spring days that make you itch to get outside and begin gardening, only for the weather to turn wintry and cold overnight. You never know from day to day just what the weather will be like. For a blustery chilly day Split Pea Soup is a great dish to warm you up and tide you over until the weather turns warm again. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day I’m going to be using green foods in my recipes this month.

Split Pea Soup is made of dried, split peas, which have a great source of folate, fiber, iron, and protein as well as being low in fat. Here in the United States Split Pea Soup is merely one of many kinds of pea soups. Some people eat Split Pea Soup with corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate the color green. England gave us a well-known nursery rhyme about pea soup, which appeared first in 1765; Pease porridge hot. Pease porridge cold. Pease porridge in the pot. Nine days old. Pease is the archaic form of the word pea. Pea soup is a common dish throughout Germany and the Netherlands often containing bacon, sausage, or smoked pork and eaten with rye bread. According to one source the Greeks and Romans were selling hot pea soup in the streets of Athens around 500 to 400 BC. The second week in November is National Split Pea Soup week. One cookbook alone features over one hundred and fifty recipes using split peas.

My first introduction to Split Pea Soup was at my grandmother’s table. She would simmer on the stove all afternoon a huge pot of Split Pea Soup filling the house with a mouth-watering aroma. As a finishing touch my grandmother would drop spoon biscuits into the boiling soup that would rise to the top and puff up. It was a hardy and filling dish. My Split Pea Soup recipe takes three hours to make serves around eight, and leftovers can be frozen. You can also make Split Pea Soup in a crock-pot on a busy day. Put in all ingredients of my recipe (reduce water to fit crock-pot) in a crock-pot and cook on high 4 to 5 hours or on low 8 to 10 hours until all ingredients are cooked and soft.

Split Pea Soup

Take one meaty ham bone and cover with around 16 c water in large pot.
(I freeze leftover ham bones and meat scraps for soups.)

Add:
1 lb of dried split peas
1 tb dried onions or 1 small fresh onion diced
1 tsp salt.
Bring to a rolling boil and cook for 2 hours stirring often.

Add to soup:
5 carrots peeled and sliced
4 medium sized potatoes peeled and diced
Cook until soft and simmer for another hour or until ready to serve. (Add water if soup gets too thick.) Serve hot with homemade bread or rolls. Garnish soup with carrot curls!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a freelance writer, author, columnist, and photographer from Jamestown, TN. If you have any cooking tips or favorite recipes you are welcome to contact me by mail at: Dorcas Walker, 929 Wildwood Lane, Jamestown, TN 38556 or email me at: dorcaswalker@yahoo.com. For more information about the Walker family and Dorcas’ books check out her website at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com or htpp://dorcasannettewalker.blogspot.com for other Creative Mountain Cookin recipes.