President's Day Potluck--Updated

We first wrote this post in 2011 and are updating it now in 2015.
For a short month, February sure packs Presidential Punch. Four United States Presidents were born in February and we have the President's Day holiday to celebrate them. We're all familiar with Abraham Lincoln on the 12th and George Washington on the 22nd. This year marked the 104th anniversary of Ronald Reagan on February 6th. William Henry Harrison's 242nd birthday followed just three days later.

Here at Potluck Paradise headquarters we think these birthdays and all the other presidents provide a perfect platform for potluck. The menu could practically write itself. From Reagan's favorite Mac and Cheese through Washington's storied Cherry Pie there's a lot of good eating to be dished up from American History.

I have two favorite presidential recipe collections. In my Food Will Win the War blog (http://bit.ly/1AbNIcM), there are recipes from World War I. Eleven years before he was elected president, Herbert Hoover served voluntarily as the United States food commissioner during those days when we shipped vast quantities of wheat and meat, fats and sugar to our allies in Europe.

I've also written a book, Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen, with 55 recipes from his life and times. You'll find two of my favorite Lincoln recipes on other posts in this blog. The handy click-through index on the side will take you to his Gingerbread Men and a delightful appetizer or cracker called an A-Pee.

But back to the Presidential Potluck. There are several collections of "presidential favorite recipes" I've looked through a couple and drawn together a short list to get your potluck started. Dishes with * have recipes in this post or at other places within this Potluck Paradise blog. For the others, you can easily use your own favorite recipes for these suggestive dishes:

Entree
Ronald Reagan's Macaroni and Cheese
Dwight Eisenhower's Beef Stew -- beef, potatoes, carrots, small "boiling" onions simmered in beef stock and tomatoes seasoned with thyme, bay leaves, and garlic
James Buchanan's Pennsylvania Baked Sauerkraut -- 1 pound thinly sliced pork tenderloin browned quickly on both sides in a bit of butter in a large, oven-proof skillet; sprinkle with 1/4 cup brown sugar; 1 pound package sauerkraut placed on top of the pork. Cover and bake in 325 oven until kraut is cooked, about 15 minutes. Watch as you may have to add a bit of water if the kraut is too dry.

Vegetables
FDR Salads and Veggies -- served at meals for King George IV and his wife Queen Elizabeth in June 1939
Lettuce with Roquefort Dressing, Asparagus with Saratoga Chips (thinly sliced potatoes, fried quickly), Mushrooms and Wine Sauce; Sliced Tomatoes, Buttered Beets, Cranberry Sauce

Herbert Hoover Red Cabbage* Find at Blog Archive February 4, 2015

Beverages
*Woodrow Wilson Prohibition Drinks

Dessert
* Herbert Hoover WWI Cake
*Lincoln Gingerbread Men

The Recipes

Prohibition Sour "A Drink for Men"
By the Drink 
1 ounce lemon syrup (See recipe below)
1/2 ounce orange syrup
freshly squeezed juice of one lime
crushed ice
carbonated water, 6 ounces approximately

Put the syrups and lime juice into a 12-ounce glass and add a scoop of crushed ice. Fill with carbonated water, stir and serve garnished with a slice of lime

By the pitcher -- enough concentrate for 12 8-ounce servings
1 1/2 cups lemon syrup
3/4 cup orange syrup
juice from 6 limes
carbonated water and ice
Mix syrups and lime juice.
Pour into a large pitcher and add 60 ounces (about 2 liters) carbonated water.

Simple Syrup
1 cup water
1 cup white granulated sugar

Put the water into a medium pot, Gradually add the sugar, stirring constantly. Warm the mixture over low heat, stirring gently until the sugar dissolves. Do not even bring it to a simmer. Just heat gently until the sugar dissolves. Keep simple syrup in the refrigerator for several days.

To make flavored syrups
1/4 cup simple syrup
1 tablespoon frozen concentrated juice mix, thawed

Mix together and use immediately or store in the refrigerator for two or three days

Prohibition lasted through five presidencies -- Wilson, harding, Coolidge, Hoover, and FDR. My book Soda Shop Salvation has more than one hundred tasty recipes for soda shop and non-alcoholic treats. You can find a sampling at the blog Soda Shop Salvation (http://bit.ly/16StU0j)


Easy Herbert Hoover World War I Cake
This recipe saves fat, sugar, and eggs and is a delicious way to taste history one dessert plate at a time.

2 cups brown sugar
2 cups hot water
2 tablespoons lard (or butter)
1 teaspoon salt, optional
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 package (8 ounces) raisins, chopped
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Put everything but soda and flour into a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Boil 5 minutes after it bubbles, then cool. Stir in soda and flour. Put batter into a lightly greased loaf pan. Bake 45 minutes. Cake keeps fresh a long time and can “be sent to men at the front.”

Lincoln Gingerbread Men -- click Blog Archive 2015 February heading to find this and another Lincoln recipe.

Copyright 2015 Rae Katherine Eighmey.  All rights reserved

Red Dress, Red Dinner

Hearts collide in February here at Potluck Paradise headquarters, No, we're not talking about lover's spats, we're celebrating the double-duty heart benefits of Valentine's Day celebrations and the American Heart Month promoting heart health especially among women. Well, what could be better to celebrate our Potluck Paradise National Potluck Month than a Red Dress -- Red Dinner. Although we're more likely to wear a red sweater and jeans.

Enough healthy red foods come to mind to easily fill a potluck table. Whole-wheat pasta tossed with tomatoes and red peppers, or in a red marinara sauce. Salmon is kind of red and then there is red snapper. We could even include some red meat -- a nice piece of lean steak -- smaller than a deck of cards, mind you -- with all the fat trimmed. Of course there are bushels of red vegetables! Tomatoes and red potatoes are too easy. What about red radishes in a non-fat dip, delicious red beets either simply roasted or slivered into a saucepan in the recipe below. Red cabbage is one our favorites. This recipe has all the flavor and hardly any fat. Just two tablespoons of butter for a whole head.



WWI Victory Red Cabbage
4 cups thinly sliced red cabbage
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon minced onion
1/16 teaspoon nutmeg
1/16 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
Soak the cabbage briefly in cold water. Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Add the onion and seasonings and cook until the onion is transparent, stirring frequently. Drain the cabbage and add to the frying pan carefully as the water clinging to the shreds will tend to spatter. Cover and cook over low heat until the cabbage is tender, about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring from time to time. Remove lid, add the vinegar and sugar, stir well and cook for 5 more minutes.

This is a quick and delicious way to prepare beets. It is a little messy to peel and then slice the raw beets. But the flavor is well worth it. Cooking time will vary depending on thickness of slices and how young, or old, the beets are.
Luscious Steamed Red Beets
3 to 4 red beets
4 large lettuce leaves
grated peel from one orange
Peel the beets and slice very thinly on a vegetable slicer -- about 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch. Take a heavy bottomed 2-to 3-quart saucepan with a lid. Put about a half inch of water in the pan. Put in two lettuce leaves and then put in the beet slices, sprinkling them with orange rind as you fill the pot. Put remaining two lettuce leaves on top. Cook over low heat until the beets are tender, about 15 minutes. Watch carefully so that the water does not completely evaporate! You can eat or discard the lettuce.

And now for dessert!

We're skipping the red velvet cake or chocolate dipped strawberries and suggesting red pears with raspberry sorbet and maybe just a drizzle of dark chocolate. Use the pears just as they are, or poach in a light syrup. You could even use canned pears if you are in a rush. If you do use raw pears, toss them with a bit of lemon juice after you cut them so they don't turn brown as quickly.

Love Boat Salad for your Valentine

Love is in air and hearts arae filling the grocery stores. So we're taking a break from celebrating our own National Potluck Month here at Potluck Paradise headquarters. Not that we don't love potlucks, but we're pushing romance this week leading up to Valentine's Day. Look at the post below for our homemade and mostly healthful Valentine's chocolates. In this post we have a dish that could be the centerpiece of a potluck, but is lovely on a shared plate for two.

One quick comment before the recipe. We've made a few changes to typical seafood salads to cut the fat and reduce the sodium. That's why we've used poultry seasoning to add a bit of complexity to the dressing instead of a more traditional "seafood seasoning." Check out the labels. No sodium in poultry seasoning while "celery salt" is the first listed ingredient in the other product.

Shrimp and Avocado Salad
2 tablespoons non-fat cream cheese
2 tablespoons non-fat mayonnaise
1/8 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/8 teaspoon cumin, or more to taste
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1 cup small salad shrimp
1/3 cup finely diced celery
1/4 cup finely diced red bell pepper
1 tablespoon minced parsley
1 teaspoon minced dill gherkin pickle, low sodium version
1 Haas avocado

Combine the cream cheese, mayonnaise and seasonings in a small mixing bowl. Reserve a couple of shrimp for garnish and chop the rest into three or four pieces. Add the remaining ingredients and carefully mix until shrimp and vegetables are coated with the dressing mixture. Cut the avocado in half. Remove pit. With a small spoon, scoop out about half of the avocado flesh, chop and mix with shrimp. Make it a little easier to eat by scoring the remaining avocado in a chris-cross pattern Mound shrimp mixture into avocado shell, garnish, and serve with beet and sweet potato chips. Refrigerate any leftover filling and eat within two days.

Healthy Chocolates for your Valentine

Sure the fancy heart-shaped boxes are nice, but why buy chocolates for your Valentine when you can make these delicious treats filled with healthful dried fruits and nuts. Here at Potluck Paradise headquarters, we're always ready to test chocolate recipes. These easy to make candies are at the top of our list. They taste like the richest bon-bons and no one will ever know the secret filling unless you spill the beans. The recipe dates from World War I when sugar was restricted to two tablespoons a day. Natural ingredients made these Honey Fruit Chocolates popular holiday gifts for Christmas 1917.

Make some for your special someone and watch him. . . or her. . . smile! The filling keeps frozen for weeks, ready to make a few more whenever you want a delicious little bite.

Honey Fruit Chocolates
1 12-ounce package raisins
1 8-ounce package whole, pitted dates
2/3 cup figs, diced
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
grated rind of half an orange
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons honey
1/8 teaspoon salt
chocolate for dipping,
such as melted dark or semi-sweet chips
Run the fruit and nuts through an old-fashioned grinder, or pulse in
a food processor, until ground into a rough paste. Stir in rind, juice,
honey, and salt. Chill mixture until firm. Form into balls, about 3/4
inch in diameter. Melt chocolate chips and dip balls to enrobe
filling. Cool on waxed paper or foil. The filling can be frozen and
made into chocolates in batches. Makes about 6 dozen.

Just Desserts for the Big Game Potluck

As the Big Game heads into the dramatic fourth quarter, we here at Potluck Paradise headquarters have a couple of tasty desserts, sturdy enough to stand up to any last minute excitement and delicious enough to sooth any low-score jitters.

Our Green Bay Guiltless Cheesecake is non-fat, and no-bake. Easy to have the fixings on hand for cheesecake when you don't want to wait. The Steelers' Pound Cake combines chocolate and orange batters for a wonderful marbled flavor combination. The cake keeps well for several days and as it does not have butter or shortening, is lower in fat than most pound cake recipes.

Here's our homage to the Steelers' Defensive Line -- a POUND cake in classic Black and Gold.

Steelers Chocolate and Orange Pound Cake
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 6-ounce can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
3/4 cup cooking oil, such as Wesson
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon ginger

2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, and baking powder. Mix thoroughly. Measure the orange juice concentrate and add water, if needed, to make 3/4 cup. Stir the juice, oil, and eggs into flour mixture. Mix until combined and then beat at low speed with an electric mixer for three minutes. Put half the batter into another bowl. Stir ginger into the first mixture. Put melted chocolate and cinnamon into the second mixture. Spray 8- by 4-inch loaf pans with non-stick spray and divide the orange batter between them. Drop spoonfuls of the chocolate batter into the orange mixture and swirl with a knife to “marble” the batters. Bake until a skewer comes out clean – for pyrex loaf pans 45 to 55 minutes. For Other Baking Pans: Metal or dark pans may bake faster. You could make this in an angle food cake tube pan. Baking time would be longer. To assure ease of removing baked cake from loaf pans, line them with heavy-duty aluminum foil or parchment paper and spray that with the non-stick spray. I would not recommend baking this in a Bundt pan.

Green Bay Packers fought their way into the Super Bowl. They have nothing to be ashamed of, nor should anyone who eats this no-bake, non-fat delicious treat.

Guilt-less, No-Bake Lemon (or Orange) Cheesecake

Make the Lemonade or Orange filling.
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup corn starch
1 12-ounce can frozen concentrated lemonade (or orange juice), thawed
grated rind of 2 large lemons
3 8-ounce packages non-fat cream cheese (24 ounces total)

Mix the sugar and corn starch in a 1 to 2 quart saucepan. Gradually stir in the lemonade concentrate. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture turns clear and is very, very thick. Stir in the lemon rind and set aside to cool. Plop cooled lemonade mixture into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Beat until smooth with electric mixer. Add cream cheese and beat until blended.
To make cheesecakes: Spoon mixture onto crust (recipe below) and place in refrigerator to firm. Ready to eat in about 1 hour. Keeps covered in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Before serving garnish with whipped cream or sweetened sour cream (2 teaspoons sugar mixed with 1/4 cup light sour cream for each 6 cheesecakes)

Crust
Melt in a microwave for about 30 seconds, repeat for 5 second intervals if needed:
2 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Stir until chocolate is melted and blended with the butter.
Add: 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

Line a muffin pan with paper cupcake liners. Stir with fork until well blended and then put 2 tablespoons of mixture in the paper muffin cups and press firmly with a flat-bottom glass or the back of a spoon. Set aside.

Recipe makes 18 muffin-sized cheesecakes (1/3 cup size).

The thickened filling mixture can be stored in the refrigerator for a week or longer, Measure out 1/3 cup to mix with one 8-ounce container of cream cheese to make 6 cheesecakes at a time. Refrigerated crust mixture keeps for weeks, too. Warm slightly before pressing into cupcake papers.

Steelers' Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Sunday afternoon the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Green Bay Packers. For Steeler fans, these easy-to-make-ahead meatballs with chipped spinach and golden raisins are a metaphor for the dominance of their team over the Green and Gold. For the rest of us here at Potluck Paradise headquarters, they are just a great meatball that keeps in the fridge for a few days and freezes nicely for a month or more in the sauce. Baking the meatballs in the oven eliminates the need to fry them on top of the stove. A method we love here at PP headquarters for efficiency and neatness!

Steelers’ Sweet and Sour Meatballs

For the Meatballs:
1 9-ounce package frozen GREEN spinach, thawed
1/2 cup GOLDEN raisins
1/2 cup dry unseasoned bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup orange juice
2 whole eggs, or 3 egg whites
2 1/4 pounds 90% lean ground beef

For the Sauce:
1 14-16 ounce can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 1/2 cups white wine or apple juice
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons white vinegar
3 tablespoons corn starch
1/2 cup cold water

To Serve:
1 jar cooked red cabbage
Leaves of Romaine lettuce

Preheat oven to 400 degreed F. Thaw the spinach and wring out until very dry. Put spinach and raisins in food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Or chop with a knife. Put the breadcrumbs in a large mixing bowl and stir in the seasonings. Stir in the orange juice and let stand a couple of minutes until the juice is completely absorbed. Stir in the spinach raisin mixture and the eggs. Then add the ground beef. Line a large baking sheet with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Spray with cooking spray. Form beef mixture into balls, about the size of a large walnut. Place on sheet and spray tops of meatballs with cooking spray before putting into the oven. Bake until internal temperature of the meatballs reaches 160 degrees F. and the tops are browned.

While meatballs are baking, make the sauce. Put cranberry sauce, wine or juice, brown sugar and vinegar into a large pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring from time to time, until cranberry sauce is melted. While this is cooking, combine the cold water and corn starch into a smooth mixture. Gradually stir it into the sauce. Continue stirring until the sauce thickens and turns transparent.

When meatballs are fully cooked, gently place them in the sauce and stir to cover them. Allow to cool and then refrigerate before serving.

To serve. Heat the red cabbage and meatballs. Wash the Romaine lettuce leaves and dry. Place a dollop of cabbage on leaf and then one or two meatballs. Fold up leaf to eat and enjoy!

Copyright 2011 Rae Katherien Eighmey All rights reserved

Green Bay Sacked Potatoes

Cheer on the Green Bay Packers in the Big Game with these easy to make stuffed potatoes. Good hot, warm or room temperature, this healthful and filling dish couldn't be easier to make. Tomorrow's dish as our National Potluck Month continues -- Steelers' Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Green Bay Sacked Potatoes

Ingredients::
"B" size red potatoes
Fully cooked "brown and serve" sausages -- one for each whole potato
Cheddar cheese, finely grated -- 2 teaspoons for each whole potato

Method:
Scrub and then gently boil the potatoes until tender. Cool and slice in half. With a small spoon, scoop out a hollow bowl in the middle of the potato, reserving the scooped out potato bits. Cook the sausage according to package directions then dice.

Combine the cooked potato, diced sausage and grated cheese. Put back into the potato shell. Warm under the broiler or in the microwave until the cheese melts. Serve hot or at room temperature. You can make these ahead and store in the refrigerator until game time!