WayBack Machine

What if I told you I know where you can find the recipes of your childhood, the ones most near and dear to your heart? I'm not talking about Mom's meatloaf or Grammy's chocolate pie...I'm talking about the food that is forever in your deepest childhood memories...School Lunch Favorites! While reading posts on Facebook the other day, I came across a website for the USDA Recipes for Schools. There they were, for anyone who wanted to take a trip in the "Wayback Machine" to 1955's Ranger Cookies or 1959's Wacky Cake.

Alphabetical by recipe name, here are some of the one's I remember...
Peanut Butter Pie
Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
Cafeteria Apple Crisp
Cafeteria Cole Slaw
Cafeteria Lady Rolls
Cafeteria Tapioca
Chili
School Pizza
Sweet Rolls
Glazed Peanut Butter Bars
Meat Loaf
Carrot Cake
Cherry Delight
Cafeteria Peanut Butter Candy
Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies
Peanut Butter Bars
Peanut Butter Fingers
Peanut Butter Fudge
Apple Crisp
No Bake Oatmeal Cookies
School Style Sloppy Joes
Tamale Pie
Toastie Dogs
Pizzaburger on Roll

You're going to have to use some of your math skills...the recipes are for 50 servings! I'm soooo glad I paid attention in Math class!

*The website is NFSMI.com
http://www.nfsmi.org/Templates/TemplateDefault.aspx?qs=cElEPTEwMiZpc01ncj10cnVl

They're Back!

Our hummingbirds are back in full force demanding that I keep their feeders full at all times. They zip past your head as you fill the bottle, anxiously awaiting that delicious nectar. If I bought the red colored concentrate at the store, I'd have to get a bank loan to finance the summer's buffet. They can drink a 40 ounce feeder in one day!
If you go to BackYardBird.com , they give easy directions for making up your own hummingbird nectar. The commercially made nectar is colored with red dye, unnecessary and actually harmful to hummingbirds. To make your own, all you need is plain white sugar and water. The following recipe is easy to make and very inexpensive:

* Use ONE part white cane sugar to FOUR parts water. (That's 1 cup sugar, 4 cups water)

* Boil some water for several minutes BEFORE MEASURING. Boiling the water helps retard spoiling. It is important to boil the water before you measure it because some water evaporates during boiling and will ruin the 1:4 ratio. (I start with 4 1/4 cups water to 1 cup sugar)

* Measure out your water in the amount you have decided to make (for example, 1 cup of sugar to 4 cups of water will make 4 cups of nectar). (You can make a double batch and store in a juice container.)

* Stir the white sugar into the water while the water is still hot.

* Let the mixture cool completely before filling the feeder.

* Any unused nectar can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

*Very important to keep everything sterile, birds get sick from a moldy feeder. Clean the feeders with bleach water (10:1 ratio)




"We all have preconceived ideas about what hummingbirds' lives are like, but so much of their world is imperceptible to the human eye. Filmmaker Ann Prum describes the breakthrough science and latest technologies that allowed her and the crew to reveal incredible new insights about these aerial athletes."

"Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air" is part of the 28th season of the Peabody and Emmy award-winning series produced by WNET.ORG for PBS. Major support provided by Canon U.S.A. Inc.

The Sniff Test

Gayle King was talking about expiration dates on her XM show the other day. It seems she had put a couple boiled eggs on for her supper...I can't understand why Gayle King (bf to Oprah) would be eating boiled eggs for dinner...but anyway, she had put the eggs on to boil and the phone rang. Then the doorbell rang and it was favorite daughter Kirby. She came into the apartment complaining about the horrible smell, "What is that terrible odor, Mom?"
It seems she had let them boil dry. Ok, that smells pretty bad, but Kirby thought the eggs smelled REALLY bad and went to the fridge to check the expiration date. It seems Jan.16 was the date stamped on the end of the carton. Gayle said, "Eggs don't go bad, do they?" Yes, they do, along with almost everything that you buy at the grocery store! Almost everything has an expiration date clearly stamped somewhere on the bottle, box or can these days.

If you look in my fridge,

you will see I have Condiment Addiction.

There's no group for it, no 12 step plan so I have no hope of recovering from this malady. I have muliples on about every kind of dressing known to mankind. I can't say no to an Asian sauce, Mexican salsa, pickle or jam. I never run out of the staples; mustard, mayo and ketchup...in fact I have 'stand-by' jars in the pantry at all times.

My sister in law sent me a very interesting site, StillTasty.com , with some great information on just how long it's safe to keep foods after you open them. The site is easy to navigate, you just plug in the food and it pulls up the shelf life.

These are opened, refrigerated:

Chocolate syrup 6 months
Barbecue sauce, bottled 1 month
Catsup, tomato; cocktail sauce or chili sauce 1 month
Chutney 1-2 months
Horseradish, in jar 3-4 months
Mayonnaise, commercial 2 months
Mustard 1-2 months
Olives, black and green 2 weeks
Pickles 1-2 months
Salad dressings, commercial, bottled 3 months
Salsa, picante and taco sauces 1 month

Up till now I've used the 'sniff test' to determine if I needed to toss the item. Guess I'd better use the chart from now on.
Got to go now, I have to clean the fridge...