Baked Brie with Puff Pastry
Baked Brie as an appetizer - so elegant and so easy. Make a beautiful baked brie with puff pastry and you'll always be a hit! Serve with a preserve or jam or chutney on top, with crackers on the side and a couple small knives for people to cut the cheese with, and you are set. Raspberry chipotle, or pepper jelly are favorites to top with, but use whatever you like best - even putting two types of toppings - one on each half of the brie!

You'll need a wheel of brie (full circle), puff pastry thawed, an egg, walnuts, butter and cinnamon. If you have a large sheet of pastry compared to a smaller sheet, you can surround the brie up to the top and tie a string around the gathered-up pastry. Or you can use two smaller sheets of pastry, and fit the brie on one, cover with the other, and pinch them together around the sides.

In any case, you can first add a brie topping - I use a handful of crushed walnuts, browned in butter for about 5 minutes, then toss in a couple shakes of cinnamon, then swirl the pan around to coat the walnuts. You can use other toppings as well - almonds or pecans, cinnamon and nutmeg, brown sugar - think of the flavors you'd like in it, and you should do fine.

Put the brie on the puff pastry sheet (you can cut off the rind on the side of the cheese if you like - it isn't necessary), then top the brie with the walnut mixture, and spread it around. Now either bring hte puff pastry up over the top of the brie and tie off, or place another sheet on top and pinch the sheets together (I use a fork to get a nice pattern, and toss out the excess pastry dough). Beat the egg and brush the top and sides of the pastry with it. Place the brie into the oven at 350 for 20 minutes. It'll be great!

Spaghetti Sauce From Scratch
It's easy to make spaghetti sauce for a quick meal - in the time you cook the spaghetti, you cna make a great sauce for the pasta - and much better tasting than those store bought sauces, and often for less. Keep some canned tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes, or even paste. To use any, it's just a matter of thinning - add liquids to the thick products.

What you need or prefer: spaghetti noodles or other pasta, canned tomato product, olive oil, fresh onion, fresh garlic, and your preference of can of black olives (or jar of green, if you prefer), fresh chopped spinach, green or red chopped bell peppers, fresh chopped tomato, mushrooms, and/or any other great ingredients you like. Use these spices: oregano, maybe Italian spice, coriander.

Open your can of tomato product and start heating it in a pot. If needed, thin it with some red wine, or even water - or what is very good and adds flavor is to add the liquid from the olives. Add 1/4 tsp. or more of oregano, or if using Italian spice, use 1/2 tsp. or more of that, and 1 teaspoon or more of coriander (the flavor of the coriander is to die for!). Heat this and then add chopped up olives, spinach, tomatoes, and any other product you like in spaghetti.

At the same time, in a frying pan, heat up some olive oil and throw in some chopped onions and minced garlic (or add garlic powder or other form of garlic to the tomato product). Don't worry about an exact measure - you'll figure out how much you like after making it a couple times - maybe start out with one clove garlic and 1/2 of an onion. Also heat up any bell pepper in the pan. Saute until the garlic and onions are somewhat translucent. Now add this to the tomato sauce pot and let it all simmer until the spaghetti is done. The longer it simmers the better, but it can come off in about 10 minutes.

Add sauce to spaghetti and grate some fresh parmesan (or pregrated - but fresh is much better in flavor) chesse over it and serve.

If you like, make some quick garlic bread - take slices of your sandwich bread and spread a bit of butter or olive oil over the surface. Then sprinkle with garlic powder and broil until brown. If you have time, you can also add some oregano, some cayenne, and some grated parmesan and/or mozzarella cheese. Delicious!

The secret ingredients in this special sauce are the coriander and the olives with the olive liquid.

New Year's Black-eyed Peas
Eat some black-eyed peas on New Year's Day - it's a southern tradition.
They are easy - use fresh peas or dried - add a bit of garlic, onion, salt, ham or bacon (or ham hock or bone) and perhaps a bit of Cajun seasoning, then boil until tender to eat - fresh only a few minutes, dried perhaps an hour or so.

Christmas Meltaway Cookies
You need:
1 cup soft butter
1/2 cup sifted confectioner's (powdered) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cup sifted flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Then mix well the powdered sugar, butter and vanilla. Sift together the flour and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet - these cookies should not spread. Bake about 8 minutes, until set but not brown. While still warm, sprinkle them with more powdered sugar (then roll the bottom on the excess sugar so the whole of each cookie is covered with the powdered sugar. makes about 5 dozen cookies.

Mashed Potatoes

It's pretty easy to make great mashed potatoes. Just cut up potatoes and boil them about 1/2 hour give or take. You can peel or leave the peels on. If you leave the peels on, scrub the dirt off pretty well first. Put some salt to taste into the water with the potatoes, about 1 teaspoon per 5 medium potatoes. Poke at the potatoes after about 20 or 25 minutes and if they poke easily,, and are tender, then drain the water. Start mashing with a potato masher (or you can use a mixer if you like whipped potatoes. First add butter, so it will melt as you mash - about 2 tablespoons for 5 potato's worth, adjusting to your taste. Once the butter has melted, add some milk - you'll have to add a bit at a time to "sneak up" on the right amount - you want the potatoes to be slightly firm in a spoon, but not dry, nad not runny. The potatoes will absorb the milk pretty quickly, up to a point. You'll notice it can get runny fast, after that point, so add a bit at a time until you like the consitency. Test taste it, and add more salt or butter if you wish. Also, you can now add other types of ingredients if you like. You can try adding shredded cheese, garlic powder, chopped onion, or anything else you have a taste for. Make them your own "signature piece" that you have a specialty for.

Easy Fajitas

Cut strips of meat - beef, chicken, steak, game, or whatever you wish to use in the fajitas. Cut up strips of onions and green peppers and toss them around. Now add minced fresh garlic or garlic powder, plus some salt, pepper, cilantro, perhaps a bit of chili powder, and whatever other spices you might like to add. Add some oil (olive oil or canola oil) and also some lime juice. (Some people like to add tequila, but it's not necessary.) Toss it all up and let marinate for a day, or at least 4-6 hours. Then get a cast iron pan very hot, and quick fry the meat mixture, stirring it up to keep from burning. When the onions are slightly translucent but still firm, with the meat cooked, take off the grill. Serve with tortillas, guacamole, sour cream, diced tomatoes, strips of lettuce, black olives, shredded cheese, and whatever else you might like. Easy, fast and delicious!

The Best BBQ Ribs

Prepare the ribs prior to grilling. Take individual or the slab of ribs and sprinkle with garlic powder, not too heavily. Then get some teriyaki sauce and pour over the ribs, then let it sit on them for several hours. Grill the ribs, and when close to done (meat slightly pink when you cut into it), brush BBQ sauce over all the meat areas, and grill further to "set" the BBQ sauce ontot he ribs. Be generous, and you might even like to warm up a little extra BBQ sauce to serve with the ribs. They will be delicious!

Easy "BBQ" Chicken

You can make this delicious chicken any time of the year - it's quite tasty! Take the skin off the chicken pieces, and boil the chicken pieces in a pot of water - season to taste with salt, poultry seasoning, garlic, thyme, and/or whatever else you might like. Let them stay in a slow boil for an hour or more until quite tender.

Take a casserole dish and cover the bottom with your favorite barbeque sauce (KC Masterpiece works quite well if you don't have a different plan). Place the chicken pieces on top of the sauce, and pour more sauce on top of the chicken. If you layer more chicken on top of other pieces, make sure you cover the bottom layer with sauce first. Cover with foil or casserole lid. Place the sauce-covered chicken into the oven, at about 300-350 degrees, for an hour or so. Once the chicken is tender and has "taken" to the sauce (the sauce is thickened onto the chicken, no longer runny), pull it out and enjoy! Great for backyard barbeques - just prepare chicken before your party; it takes little time to prepare since most of the time is just cooking.