Once upon a time there was... Hamantaschen

Today is Purim - the celebration of the Jews escaping the evil Haman. Haman wore a funny looking triangular hat, so to celebrate/make fun of him, we eat delicious triangular Hamantaschen cookies! This recipe is from Cal's Jewish mother and makes about 30 cookies.

ingredients

2 eggs

3/4 c sugar

1/2 c vegetable oil

2 3/4 c flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

1 jar dessert filling

Cal's tip: The exact dessert filling is very important! Jams and jellies will not work, and we havent had good luck with anything but this brand:

We also recommend making this recipe three times - a good excuse to make many flavors of Hamantaschen!

Once upon a time there was... Chicken Satay Lettuce Wraps

Wrapping food in lettuce just makes it seem so much healthier. "Yes waiter, I'll have the large soda, fries, and bacon double cheeseburger - but could you sub a lettuce wrap for the roll? I'm on a diet. " That's my kind of diet.

So now take an already pretty healthy meal, like chicken satay, and wrap it in lettuce, and you've got a super healthy dinner! Cornelius and I didn't invent this concept, but we did invent this exact variation. It's a mess to eat, and it's time consuming to make - but it is also delicious and healthy! (it's wrapped in lettuce, isn't it?)

Once upon a time there was... Sage Butter Chicken

Here is a new recipe for a great quick weeknight meal.  We decided it should have a dollop of some kind of sauce - it will be up to you, Castle Farm Cookbook readers, to help us decide what that should be.  We will include our thoughts on future adaptations.  

We saw a few variations of this recipe but we sufficiently changed them so we're going to consider this one our own.  So here it is, Sage Butter Chicken du Cornelius.

Once upon a time there was... French Beef Stew!

I am reminded of an old pig proverb: Sometimes, stews happen.

Today I'll be making a French Beef Stew from AllRecipes. Cal was lured into participating in my last beef stew, but that's because there was beer involved. Today, he refused, so I've asked my friend Millard (the Elephant) to make his Castle Farm Cookbook debut and help. He's great to have around for multi-ingredient meals because he always remembers to include everything.

Millard's note: Actually, I've been here before (scroll to the bottom). I never forget these kinds of things.

Once upon a time there was... Baguettes!

Today, I'll be flying solo and making some delicious French baguettes. Cornelius isn't helping because - let's put this nicely - he doesn't like to wait so long to bake good bread. He'll be back later with a recipe that I am not participating in. A nice home-baked loaf of bread is one of the best things in the world. And this recipe makes 2 loaves! The recipe comes from our Good Housekeeping cookbook. It may not be as exciting as our Beer Bread, but it still is wonderful.

Once upon a time there was... Honey Mustard Egg Salad

You're not going to believe this...we still don't. It's snowing again. After we got 23" (over 3 farm animals) of Snowmageddon, Snowverkill is currently dropping about another foot. It's a dangerous place for a small cow!

With crazy blizzard wind warnings, we are again afraid of what we will eat if the power goes out. So today we will make another one of our cold-meal specials: egg salad. But this time, we will invent a honey mustard twist!

Once upon a time there was... Sweet and Savory Sweet Potatoes

The sweet potato is one of nature's most versatile foods (and we would know). Also, some people call this a yam. We think that's a funny word, so we go with sweet potato in any case. Some people hated yams from their childhood side dish dramas, so we will say this is a sweet potato (even though the orange-fleshed ones taste better). Deal with it!

Here's a great recipe we invented for Yams Two-Ways - or as we like to call it, Sweet and Savory Sweet Potatoes.