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We Are BACK!

That was a great vacation from blogging.... O.k. folks time to get back to the Kitchen....!!!!!!!! But first.... we have quite a few frustrated recipe submitters and I apologize for the delay in getting them up. Will do the best I can over the next couple of weeks to cover them all. But first is first... Remember the post on Truly Useless Kitchen Gadgets For The Chef Who Has Everything well quite a few people disagree with me..which is of course GREAT! One wrote a letter and did not leave a comment, but here it is.... Just wanted to comment on this not-so-useless device. If you do a lot of canning, you would like to have a sturdy jar lifter. After you have processed your preserves in boiling water for 15 minutes, you grab the wooden handles and put the red rubber curved ends under the boiling water around the neck of the finished jars and lift them out. this allows you to process the next batch without waiting for the water to cool enough to take out the first batch. Your picture ...
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Nana Cecelia's Harvard Beets

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This is a new one on me. Barbara over at " Barbara's Tchatzkahs " who recently sent in the recipe Muffin Meatloaf And Potatoes a la Barbara , now gives us a recipe from the "old country" and her grandmother. Here is what she writes: Today I was digging through more boxes from parents which I had in storage. My mother passed 7 years ago and I knew she had my some of Nana's recipes in her things somewhere. My Nana, of blessed memory, was one of the best cooks I have ever known. The oldest of 13 children and the daughter of 2 immigrants who ran from the Pogroms in Poland, she could make a gourmet meal out of a crust of bread and a carrot! Well, almost. And I found some of them!! Many of them are for baked goods (will share later) but I found her recipe for Harvard Beets in my Nana's handwriting. While I only like beets in borscht, this was a favorite with most of the rest of my family. Hope you can use this - I think she'd be amazed her recipes ca...
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OMG! Another Macaroni And Cheese With Mushrooms

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I find it incredibly revealing to look at the statistics on the blog from time to time. Especially what people search for and what recipes they are looking for. Consistently, over the year, two different categories rate the highest. The Mac & Cheese recipes and Lemon Meringue Pie . Now, personally I do understand the desire to create a great Lemon Meringue Pie but Mac & Cheese is just so... well so easy, right? I am not really sure how to interpret this. We are talking literally way over 10,000 (ten thousand) hits during the year on Mac & Cheese recipes! I would tend to think that simply put many people are looking for the simple, easy, and good recipes with which they can eat and feed their families without too much bother and fuss. And many of these people are simply not chefs and cooks, and want an easy way to make good food. Which is something I suspected for a very long time. But I may be reading the statistics in a way I want to see them, however, nevertheless the fa...
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The Big Book of Diabetic Desserts - Book Review

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The Big Book of Diabetic Desserts Decadent And Delicious Recipes Perfect For People With Diabetes By: Jackie Mills (***Due to layout of this review, if viewed in an RSS reader, certain sections may seem duplicated.) Before we begin, the review of the The Big Book of Diabetic Desserts the normal disclaimer from Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen. This book review was solicited by the publicists of the The Big Book of Diabetic Desserts and contains my personal opinion of the book. For kosher readers of Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen - This is not a "kosher" cookbook though the majority of recipes in the The Big Book of Diabetic Desserts can be used as is, or with just a few sane and healthy substitutions, can be kept kosher. It is not that difficult to find equivalent and healthy kosher substitutes these days, especially in the United States. Author & Book Details: The Big Book of Diabetic Desserts is the second diabetic cookbook written by Jackie Mills, MS, RD. The ...
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English Toffee - Great Candy Recipe

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(An old recipe from Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen with pictures now added) Paula really surprises with this one! Candy Recipes! Wowsers! Who doesn’t like candy? This is fairly easy and makes a great gift idea when placed in a decorative tin. And you thought I snuck out of the kitchen! English Toffee You will need a candy thermometer. Ingredients: 2 Cups of Sugar 1 Teaspoon of Salt 1 Cup of Water 1 Cup (2 Sticks Butter) 3 Cups of Slivered Almonds (Divided) 3 - 6 Oz Packages Semi Sweet Chocolate Morsels Directions: Combine sugar, salt, water and butter. Cook to the light crack stage (285 f on candy thermometer). Stirring constantly. Add 1 cup almonds. Pour quickly on well greased cookie sheet and spread out with a metal spatula. Fast now, because it will set fast. Allow to cool for ½ hour. Melt chocolate morsels in saucepan on top of the stove or in microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate on high for 30- second intervals, stirring after each interval until melted. Spread half on t...
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Diets, Fat And Eating

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I can possibly get in a lot of trouble for this, as it appears on the web site of the International Herald Tribune . I actually read this editorial by Alex Beam in the Friday, December 14, 2007 edition of the International Herald Tribune . However, this piece so belongs in Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen , I am just going to go for it, and hope the powers that be realize that I am posting for readers who would never have read it otherwise, with all the links and with clear note that it is from the International Herald Tribune. (Click on the title and you will be taken to the article in IHT. All pictures below were added by yours truly and not part of the original editorial.) A Steady Diet Of Blubbering About Fat By Alex Beam BOSTON: A year-end fixture from the newsmagazines is The Year in Pictures, a roundup of the past 12 months' worth of photojournalism. Playboy, I'm told, used to run a feature called The Year in Sex. Maybe they still do. So here is my annual contribution:...
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Muffin Meatloaf And Potatoes a la Barbara

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As readers of Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen know, I love meeting new people through this blog. It is often a great experience and certainly expands one's horizons. Barbara sent in these two recipes below. She is a fairly well known blogger with quite an interesting background. So let me first introduce you to Barbara (Don't call her Barb though, only Barbara or B!) through the two blogs I know she runs. (Pictures below are from Barbara's blogs.) Her first blog is " Barbara's Tchatzkahs ". Now before you go off to your dictionary trying to figure out just what a "Tchatzkah" is it is a Yiddish word that can mean many different things. However it is usually used to denote - "an inexpensive trinket or a toy". When someone saves a million little different things, you say, "What are all these Tchatzkahs for?" "It can also be spelled as "Tchotchka".) The word has other meanings as well. It can also refer at times an...
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Just What Is This Holiday Called Hanukkah? (And A Simple Latke Recipe)

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Over the past few days I have received quite a few emails asking me a great deal about Hanukkah and its significance. Though I have written about this before here @ Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen in the post " A Bit About Hanukkah & Some History ", I realized that many Jewish traditions in regard to food I obviously take for granted. So in this post I will try to explain a bit more about Hanukkah than I did previously in the above mentioned post, and how the traditions of eating certain food groups developed. I will try and concentrate on three main points. The Historical Background Some Of The Traditions Involved The Food Associated With Hanukkah Some of what is written below obviously has nothing to do with food per-say so if you are not interested just skip over it. The following is not meant to be a comprehensive article either. So if you are looking for detailed specifics just Google it and there are a million sites explaining Hanukkah. The Historical Background...
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