Springtime Recipes

UPDATE: this contest is now over! Thank you to everyone who participated in the recipe swap. The winner is Melissa N. Congratulations, Melissa!

Spring is in the air, and the weather is beautiful! I am listening to the birds sing outside my window as I write. I can’t help but dream of actually spending a day outside, maybe even on a picnic with my family! And if that gets to happen, I’ve come up with some recipes that I would love to take with me.

By Cjbvii (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

 

Strawberry Mango Smoothie

1 cup fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
½ cup mango, cubed
¼ cup orange juice
6 ice cubes (or more if desired)

Place all ingredients into a blender and blend well. Makes 12 ounces. (My daughter-in-law Shweta will LOVE this drink.)

 

Sweet Snack Mix

1 box Crispix cereal
1 (12 ounce) bag tiny pretzels
1 pound pecan halves
1 cup margarine
2 cups brown sugar
½ cup dark corn syrup

Melt margarine in small saucepan. Add sugar and syrup. Cook and stir until sugar is well dissolved. Mix the dry ingredients and pour sugar mixture over top. Mix well. Bake at 250 degrees for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking. (Knowing my family, I may need to make a double batch. There are eight of us. Hubby, three sons, two daughters-in-law, and my brother. Actually there are nine now, but little 4-month-old Lucy won’t be eating this kind of food this spring.)

 

Pressed Cuban Sandwiches

1 loaf Cuban or French bread
butter, softened
1 pound sliced ham
1 pound roasted pork
½ pound Swiss cheese, sliced
sliced dill pickles
onions, thinly sliced
yellow mustard

Preheat your griddle or frying pan and use a non-stick cooking spray on it. Slice bread loaf in half and lengthwise. Butter the inside. Load up your ingredients: pickles first, then onion, pork, ham, and cheese. Close sandwiches and place on hot pan. Cover with a cast iron skillet and press down. Grill 2 to 3 minutes, until cheese is melted and gooey, and bread is toasted. Makes 4 generous servings.

These recipes (and about 700 more) are found in Sherry Gore’s Taste of Pinecraft cookbook. If you’d like to have a copy, you can order one by going here: http://www.sherrygorebooks.com/book/taste-of-pinecraft.htm.

Recipe Swap! And Cookbook Giveaway!

The winner of last week’s blog contest is Megan Derry. Congratulations, Megan! She won a full set of the Ada’s House novels.

Now that I’ve shared my recipes, I’d love to hear from you! Let’s do a “recipe swap,” shall we? I will do a few of these throughout the upcoming year, and this is the first. If you have a spring recipe that you like, please share it below! Or, if you don’t have a springtime recipe, please feel free to share any favorite recipe.

The recipe swap will run all week from today through Friday, April 6. At noon on April 6, I will use Random.org to select one recipe giver to receive a copy of The Esh Family Cookbook. This cookbook was created by an Old Order Amish family (Miriam Flaud’s family) using favorite recipes.

If you are reading this anywhere other than my website, such as on Facebook, in an email, or on Goodreads, please hop on over to my website to leave a recipe to share. Only comments left on my website will be entered into the giveaway. (It’s just too hard to track down all the comments left in various places, and that means it’s too easy to miss some of the comments.)

Comments are closed.