This page requires a password Wrong Password


Peggy McFadden's Empire Biscuit cookies
courtesy of Cheryl adler



Ingredients

3/4 lb. butter

1 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 cup corn starch

3 cups flour

seedless raspberry jam

Glaze:

confectioners sugar

milk

vanilla

Sift the dry ingredients together. Add a little bit at a time to softened (not melted) butter. Use hands to mix. Roll out portions of dough between sheets of waxed paper to about 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick. Cut dough with a round cookie cutter (I use a glass). Place on a greased cookie sheet or a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 300 degrees until a very light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Spread jam between two cookies. Ice with confectioners sugar glaze and decorate with a bit of colored sugar if you like (my Granny always used a little red sugar).

To make the glaze just mix sifted confectioners sugar with a little bit of milk and a few drops of vanilla extract until smooth and thin enough to smooth on easily with the back of a spoon.



Mini quiches (crustless)



Ingredients

  • cooking spray
  • 1 pound bulk sausage
  • 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
  • 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
  • 1/2 cup chopped green onion (optional)
  • 8 eggs
  • 2/3 cup instant potato flakes
  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
  • salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Spray 36 mini muffin cups with cooking spray. 2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and crumble in sausage. Cook and stir until sausage is crumbly and evenly browned, about 10 minutes . Drain and discard any excess grease.

3. Sprinkle sausage, Cheddar cheese, Swiss cheese, and green onion evenly into the prepared muffin cups.

4. Beat eggs, potato flakes, and cream together in a bowl; season with salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture evenly over the sausage-cheese mixture in the muffin cups.

5. Bake in the preheated oven until quiches are set in the middle and lightly browned, about 22 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes before serving.



Connie's Toffee Bars



INGREDIENTS

48 Sections Graham Crackers (Nabisco Red Box), divided to cover an edged baking pan

1 ½ Sticks Butter

¾ Cup Brown Sugar ( I prefer dark brown)

1 Teaspoon Vanilla (optional)

½ Cup Chocolate Chips, melted to drizzle over crackers

1/3 Cup (approx.) crushed Heath Bar bits to sprinkle on top


Line edged 10 ½” x 15 ½” baking pan with parchment paper (or spend hours cleaning pan!). Combine butter and sugar in saucepan, stirring. Bring to boil over medium heat. Once it comes to a boil, do not stir and allow to boil for 3 minutes. Stir in vanilla if using. Pour entire mixture over the crackers and spread evenly. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Drizzle with chocolate and sprinkle with Heath Bar bits. Place pan in refrigerator to cool about an hour. Remove from frig an break bars apart carefully. Eat any “mistakes”! Anne Sohmer makes a version of this without the chocolate: Increase the brown sugar to 1 cup and add ¼ cup chopped pecans to sugar mixture before spreading it on the crackers. They freeze very well.

​



Chicken salad indienne
courtesy of chris Murray



Ingredients

  • Herbs and spices impart Eastern flavor
  • 2 to 4 cups diced cooked chicken
  • 1 13 1/4 ounce can pineapple tidbits, drained (1 cup)
  • 3 ribs celery, diagonally sliced
  • 4 to 5 scallions, sliced, including some green portion
  • 1/4 cup salted peanuts
  • 2/3 cup mayonnaise (scant)
  • 2 tablespoons chopped chutney
  • 1/2 teaspoon grated lime rind
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt


Toss first five ingredients together in a large bowl. Combine remaining ingredients in a small bowl, stirring to blend. Pour onto chicken mixture and stir together well. Chill until ready to serve, preferably 3 hours to overnight for flavors to blend. - Serve on salad greens


Yield: 4 to 6 servings



Apple walnut cake
Ann Straub



INGREDIENTS

2 cups sugar

1 cup plus 2 tbsp vegetable oil

1/4 cup apple cider

3 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp each cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups flour

2 large Granny Smith apples (3 1/2 cups), peeled, cored and sliced

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts


1. Heat oven to 350. Coat a 10" tube pan with removable tube insert with nonstick spray.

2. Whisk sugar, oil, apple cider, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt in a large bowl until blended 3. Stir in flour until blended. Stir in apples and walnuts.

4. Scrape mixture into prepared pan.

Bake 70-80 minutes.

Cider Sauce

2 cups apple cider

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 Tbsp cornstarch

1 Tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk cider, brown sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan until blended. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, whisking occasionally. Boil 1 minute or until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla; stir until butter melts. Let cool to warm or refrigerate until serving.




Candied flowers
courtesy of garden Gate magazine



Ingredients

  • 1 egg white
  • superfine granulated sugar, available at grocery stores, or see recipe below*
  • optional: 1 or 2 drops of vodka mixed with egg white to speed up drying

Tools:

  • Small artists brush, bowl, waxed paper, mesh strainer

Gather the materials and tools, and pick your flowers early in the morning, when they're fresh and crisp. You can use pansies, lilacs, rose petals, violets, pinks and annual geranium flowers.


Beat egg white until it's frothy. Hold the flower stem and paint all of the petals completely with egg white.

Once the flower is painted, pick up a pinch of sugar in your fingers and sprinkle it on the back. Shake off the excess and snip off the stem, then lay the flower face up on the waxed paper, and sprinkle the front with sugar. After one batch of flowers is done, use the strainer to dust it with a second coating of sugar.

If it's not too humid, the flowers should dry overnight. You'll know they're dry when the petals are stiff and brittle to the touch.

Transfer the dry flowers to a plastic container lined with paper towels. To avoid crushing them, stack the flowers only 3 layers deep, separating each layer with paper towels. Place a tight lid on the container and you can keep the candied flowers up to a year in your freezer.


*Here’s how to make caster sugar:

1. For every 1 cup of caster sugar that your recipe calls for, add 1 cup plus two teaspoons of granulated sugar to a clean coffee or spice grinder, food processor, or blender.

2. Grind the granulated sugar for only a few seconds, until the sugar is finer in texture, but it is not fine enough to form a powder that starts to clump together.

3. For added precision, run your homemade caster sugar through a fine strainer before adding it to your recipe.




A Member of The Garden Club of America

Contact us at:

LittleGardenClubofRye@gmail.com

Little Garden Club of Rye, PO Box 58, Rye, NY 10580