Kahlua Cake

Kahlua, and everything else, is not healthy - but it has chocolate. Enough said.

Allow 2 days to make this, the results are worth it.


Ingredients
  • 1 Cake, German Chocolate or Dark Chocolate
  • 1 C Kahlua
  • 1 - 2 7 oz Cans whipped cream
  • 6 - 8 Heath bars

Preparation
I highly recommend using genuine Kahlua - accept no substitute.
  1. Cook cake until dry (add 1/3 extra cooking time over instructions).
  2. Let cake cool overnite in pan. (That's one day).
  3. Poke holes in cake thoroughly, pour Kahlua over cake.
  4. Let Kahlua seep into cake well (Overnite is best - and that's the second day).
  5. Cool Heath bars overnite in refrigerator (they crumble better).
  6. Crumble / crush Heath bars into crumbs.
  7. Crumble cake with fingers (the fun part), and layer in glass bowl (3 - 4 layers), each layer in proper order.
    • Cake.
    • Whipped cream.
    • Heath bar crumbs.
  8. Lick fingers when done (the best part of preparation).
  9. Serve quickly (if you can wait).

California Hummous

Or is it hummus? homos? Who cares??!!




Ingredients
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 2 cans garbanzo beans
  • 2/3 C water
  • 1 fresh lime, well squeezed
  • 3 T Tahini
  • 1/4 t oregano
  • 1/4 t parsley flakes
  • 1/2 t black pepper
  • 1/2 t cumin
  • Trace of olive oil
  • Pinch of parsley flakes, crushed

Preparation
  1. Peel and dump garlic whole, into food processor.
  2. Process on high until garlic is well minced, and pieces stick all over inside of bowl. Scrape pieces off sides.
  3. Drain, then wash garbanzo beans, then drain again.
  4. Puree garbanzo beans and garlic, mixing water while pureeing.
  5. Add lime juice and tahini, blend again.
  6. Add oregano, parsley, pepper, cumin; blend thoroughly.
  7. Dump puree into large serving bowl.
  8. Drizzle olive oil over top, crush and sprinkle parsley flakes on top.
  9. Serve with chips or pita bread, or as sauce over baked potatoes.

Mango Salad




Ingredients

Preparation
  1. See Slicing a Mango, to learn how to prepare your mangoes.
  2. Squeeze 1/4 lime over mango, mix well as chopping mango.
  3. Squeeze 1/4 lime over mango and jalapeno, mix extremely well.
  4. Squeeze 1/4 lime over mango, jalapeno, and cilantro, mix well.
  5. Squeeze 1/4 lime over mango, jalapeno, cilantro, onion, and pepper, mix well.
  6. Pour mix into serving bowl, put inside refrigerator container.
  7. Refrigerate a few hours.
  8. Sample once - let it chill. You can eat the skin, and suck the seeds while you clean up the remainder.
  9. Enjoy over cuban style black beans, and sesame mint rice.

Peanut Butter Stew

Peanut Butter Stew is a great way to use up leftovers. It's good either hot (over rice, as a soup) or cold (as a salad).


>> See it done!


Ingredients
  • 5 Medium / 3 Large onions, diced (1/4" chunks) (when chopped, almost 2 Quarts)
  • 2 T oil
  • 28 oz tomatoes, canned (5 large), chopped, drained
  • 3 C water
  • 1 - 1 1/2 t ground ginger
  • 1/2 t cayenne pepper
  • 1 - 1 1/2 T curry powder
  • 1 t paprika
  • 8 - 16 oz crunchy peanut butter
  • 1/4 C leek leaf, diced (opt)
  • 4 - 8 oz bean sprouts, chopped into 1/2" pieces (opt)

Preparation
  1. Mix spices well in cup.
  2. Add oil to well heated deep pot.
  3. Fry onions on high until soft, stirring constantly.
  4. Add tomatoes, fry 2 minutes.
  5. Add water and drained tomato juice, bring to boil, add spices and mix well.
  6. Add peanut butter with a fork, mix well.
  7. Sir constantly, bring to a boil.
  8. Reduce heat to simmer, cover, cook 3 minutes.
  9. Uncover.
  10. Add bean sprouts (opt).
  11. Stir, cook until oil appears on top.
  12. Stir again, garnish with whatever is on hand:
  13. Serve over cooked potatoes or rice, and whatever cooked or raw veggies come to mind. Or as a dip for taco chips. Or as a sauce for meat.



See it Done!

Red (sweet) pepper, onions, spices, peanut butter, tomatoes.


Put spices in a bowl, and mix well.


Add cooking oil to a dutch oven, heat until water droplet sizzle when sprinkled.


Fry onions, then peppers and tomatoes.


Add tomato juice and water, then spices and peanut butter. Bring to a boil - then simmer, until oil appears on the surface.


Chop green onions.


Mix chopped onion, and serve over rice.

Tuna Couscous




Ingredients
  • 1 C Water
  • 1 C Quick couscous
  • 1 t olive oil
  • (dash of salt)
  • 1 t lemon juice
  • 1 T dried mint leaves, crumbled and cleaned very carefully
  • 1 can tomato, chopped
  • 1 can tuna
  • 1/4 C onion, minced
  • 1/4 C celery, minced
  • 1/4 C cucumber, minced

Preparation
  1. Heat water in microwave 2 - 3 minutes or until boiling (or hot).
  2. Stir in salt, olive oil, lemon juice, mint, couscous; stir continuously (2 - 3 min) until water absorbed and couscous solidifies.
  3. Stir in other ingredients.
  4. Chill in refrigerator.

Chuck's Kick In The Seat of Your Pants Chili **

Kick In The Seat of Your Pants Chili is great during cold weather - to warm you up, and during warm weather - to cool you down. It's real tasty with San Francisco style sourdough bread.


(**) Follow Safety Precautions when you cook this, please.

  • 1 T olive oil (Optional - see meat cooking variances)
  • 5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 t ground black pepper
  • 1/2 t ground brown pepper (aka cumin)
  • 1/2 t ground cayenne pepper
  • 1 fresh Habenero pepper, WELL minced (** Follow safety precautions)
  • 1 Can (6 oz) chopped Jalapeno peppers, drained
  • 6 fresh Serrano peppers, minced (** Follow safety precautions)
  • 3 T chili powder
  • pinch oregano flakes
  • 2 - 3 T black caraway seeds
  • 1 yellow onion, chopped
  • 1 sweet pepper (green or red), chopped
  • 1 Can black beans
  • 1 Can brown (pinto) beans
  • 2 Cans red (kidney) beans
  • 1 Can white (garbanzo) beans
  • 1 to 1 1/2 pounds meat or meat substitute - chopped stew beef, ground beef, ground turkey, or tofu - see meat notes)
  • 28 oz Can chopped tomatoes


  1. Cook the meat.
    • Cook in a microwave safe bowl or dutch oven. See Meat Cooking Variances.
    • If using ground beef, cook meat, drain well, and set meat aside (per note below), leaving 1/8 C grease in bottom of bowl.
    • If using stew beef or ground turkey, pour olive oil into bottom of bowl.

  2. Chop, mince, and / or drain peppers and garlic.
  3. Add garlic and 6 quantity of hot pepper, chili powder, oregano, black caraway to bowl.
  4. Microwave spice mixture 3 - 5 minutes, covered, on 10.
  5. Wash hands VERY carefully (** 5 minutes of scrubbing with a brush for safety).
  6. Remove bowl from microwave, uncover (** point bowl away from face - fumes are intense).
  7. Add chopped onion, sweet pepper on top of spices, cover, microwave 5 minutes on 10.
  8. Remove bowl from microwave, uncover (** again, point bowl away from face).
  9. Thoroughly mix onion, sweet pepper, and spices.
  10. Place meat on top, cook if stew beef or turkey (per note below).
  11. Add tomatoes, mix well, cover, microwave 5 minutes on 10, then 15 minutes on 3.
  12. Remove bowl from microwave, uncover, stir mixture thoroughly.
  13. Drain and rinse beans thoroughly, draining in colander, until water drains clean from colander.
  14. Add beans to bowl, mix thoroughly, microwave 5 minutes on 10, 30 minutes on 3.
  15. Remove bowl from microwave, uncover, stir, let cool until comfortable in mouth (** chemical burns from hot peppers is enough).
  16. Serve with sourdough bread, sour cream, and cold beverages (** creamy or thick like Sobe Liz Blizz, Thai Tea, tomato juice, or unfiltered apple juice), or beer, and lots of that.

Meat Cooking Variances:

  • Stew Beef (preferred) - cook after cooking spices and vegetables:
    Chop meat into 1/4 or so inch cubes, drain blood / juice off
    Place meat on top of cooked onion / pepper as above, microwave 3 - 6 minutes til brown with slight pink showing.
  • Chopped beef (lean or normal) - cook before anything else:
    Place beef into plastic colander, place colander in clean glass bowl, cover and microwave for 4 - 8 minutes on 10, until brown and still soft, with grease draining into glass bowl.
    Remove bowl from microwave, uncover, chop cooked beef using wooden spatula or spoon into 1/4 inch chunks, let finish draining into bowl.
    Remove colander from bowl, finish draining colander on newspaper.
    Pour off and discard all but 1/8 Cup or so of grease from bowl.
    Substitute bowl with 1/8 C of grease, for bowl with olive oil (above), and cook hot peppers / spices in this.
  • Chopped turkey (prefer normal - lean is too dry) - cook after cooking spices and vegetables:
    Place turkey on top of cooked onion / pepper as above, cover, cook until brown and dry (5 minutes or so).
    Remove bowl, uncover, chop turkey with wooden spatula / spoon into 1/4 inch chunks.
  • Tofu - Wash and rinse tofu, drain, and chop into 1/4" cubes. Saute with 1T oil, 1 t oregano or marjoram, 1 t chili powder, and / or 1 T beef bouillion, until chunks are brown, dry, and leathery. Add with tomatoes.

Cabbage / Shrimp Salad

Shrimp are weird little things. I wonder who first considered eating one - but this is one tasty result of that venture.




Ingredients
  • 1/4 C sesame seeds
  • 1 C almonds, sliced or slivered
  • 1 head cabbage, chopped
  • 1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
  • 2 packages Ramen noodles, shrimp flavour
  • 1/4 C sugar
  • 1 C vegetable oil
  • 3/8 C vinegar
  • 1/4 t ground ginger
  • 1/8 t paprika
  • 1/8 t black pepper
  • 1/16 t cayenne pepper
  • 1 lb salad shrimp
  • 1 lb tofu, clopped into 1/4 inch cubes
  • 1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced

Preparations
  1. Spread sesame seeds and almonds on baking sheet, toast in oven at 350 for 5 minutes or so, until golden brown. Let cool.
  2. Mix cabbage, onions, almond / sesame seeds.
  3. Mix sugar, oil, vinegar, flavour packets from Ramen noodles, ginger, paprika, pepper. Pour over cabbage etc. Mix well. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
  4. Thaw and drain shrimp. Mix shrimp, tofu, and / or mushrooms into cabbage etc.
  5. Crumble Ramen noodles. Mix noodles into salad, just before serving. Mix well.

Bean Salad

This is a very versatile recipe. It can be a side dish, or a main course. You can add or subtract ingredients, easily - just use a properly chosen container to marinate the beans - mix / stir frequently, for several days, for best flavour.

If you make this regularly, you'll want to buy juice in 128 oz plastic bottles. You can marinate the salad in a used empty bottle, cut the bottle open open to remove the salad, when done - then discard the bottle. A funnel, large enough to pass beans easily, yet small enough to fit inside the mouth of the bottle, will be very useful when pouring beans into the bottle.

Here, I substituted 8 oz of sliced mushrooms for the green and wax beans.

This is the veggies, marinating in the bottle. See the vivid colours? Each colour represents a different flavour.


Ingredients
  • 2 Can black beans
  • 2 Can garbanzo beans
  • 1 Can green beans
  • 2 Can pinto beans
  • 2 Can red beans
  • 1 Can wax beans
  • 8 oz mushrooms - "bits and pieces", or "sliced".
  • 1 onion (red is best), or 1 bunch green onion, diced
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, minced
  • 1 sweet pepper (green or red), or 1 each, diced
  • 1/2 C oil
  • 1/2 C sugar
  • 1/2 C vinegar
  • dash pepper
  • dash salt
  • dash paprika and / or tumeric

Preparation
  1. Drain and rinse beans thoroughly. Use a very large pot, and lots of water.
  2. Mix beans, and other veggies. Make sure that all beans and veggie pieces will fit through the funnel or neck of the bottle. Dice as necessary.
  3. Put veggie mixture in a bottle or marinating container. You may need more than 1 container.
  4. Mix dressing mixture (oil, sugar, vinegar, spices) thoroughly.
  5. Pour dressing mixture into marinating container(s).
  6. Marinate 12 - 48 hours (longer is better). Mix or turn over the container, regularly. 1/2 of the vegetables should be draining, as the other 1/2 is soaking, constantly. This works best, with the bottle on its side, and turned end over end - not rotated.