2-10. Diane's Italian Green-Olive Salad

It seemed like a holiday every time my dad drove our family to the Italian, delicatessen and restaurant areas in Chicago. Mother would stand at the counter and pick out lovely things like provolone cheese, cannoli and prosciutto. Italian olive salad was also always on her list. The savory flavors of that salad companioned with crusty breads, thick sandwiches or a variety of meats was amazing.

Those trips to the city were infrequent, but eventually, deli counters at local grocery stores near our home began to sell that wonderful olive salad. Unfortunately, something had been lost in the translation...the flavors were not exactly the ones I remembered.

One day, after a particularly disappointing olive salad had been purchased and rejected, I decided to make my own salad; after all…how hard could it be…there was no cooking involved  in this recipe. Because my mother had never made this salad, the internet did not yet exist and our local library offered no help, I was on my own.

Ingredients that I remembered from those wonderful salads of my childhood were combined and allowed to marinate. Finally, I lifted the lid  from the olive container..the fragrance was amazing and very famliar... a taste of the olives told me that I had hit the mark! 

I love this tasty dish…the combination of herbs, oil and olives will fill your kitchen with a bouquet of fragrant aromas…just like the Italian delis of my childhood.

Diane’s Italian Green-Olive Salad

2 C large whole green olives, with pits (smaller olives may be used), drained - reserve liquid
2-3 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
Olive oil, extra virgin
Pepper blend
Basil
Oregano

Put olives in a plastic bag and crush, (whack), them with a rolling pin or board. The olives should be slightly split. Pour crushed olives into a bowl and mix in about 1/4 C olive oil, 1/4 C reserved olive liquid, the celery and garlic. Mix well. Add pepper blend, dried basil and oregano to taste. (It is better to add less seasoning…more can be added later if necessary). Mix well. Pour into a container with a lid. Refrigerate. Periodically, rotate  or shake container so mixture is well coated with the oil and seasonings. If oil congeals, let salad sit out at room temperature for a few hours. Marinate olive mixture for 3 days before eating.

(Be mindful of the pits!)

This salad is wonderful as a side dish with sandwiches, chicken, or with a fresh piece of crusty, bread. The flavored olive-marinade is to-die-for!


*Note: The salad pictured above was made with small olives. Here in the Ozarks, large green olives with pits are impossible to find. I had to buy the pictured olives in the St. Louis area. They taste the same as larger olives, but the salad is more satisfying to eat if jumbo-sized olives are used. Pitted olives do not taste the same.

2-9. Chocolate-Mint Cupcakes

One beautiful spring day I saw an internet advertisement for some lovely chocolate-mint cupcakes. They were quite striking because dark chocolate had been drizzled across the fluffy green icing that had been topped with chocolate mint cookie flags.

Shortly after I saw the cupcake picture, and before I could make a batch, we began to have the hottest summer weather anyone had ever experienced in this area; it lasted for four long months. The urge to turn on my oven and bake anything diminished with each super-heated day.

In spite of the weeks of weather-related doldrums, I did not abandon my hope to make those minty cupcakes and purchased the required box of chocolate, mint wafer cookies. I wanted to be ready in case the weather cooled down.

Day after day, I waited for the temperature to drop and then, I had to buy a second box of cookies, because I had already eaten the first. Every day, while munching on them, I thought about how great the chocolate mint cookies would have looked on those fancy cupcakes. This went on for weeks until it became embarrassingly evident that I had probably consumed more than a dozen boxes of cookies.

Finally, in mid-October the weather cooled…the cupcakes were baked and decorated...it was a delicious, anticlimactic ending to a long, hot summer. The big question now is, will I stop buying those cookies?

Chocolate-Mint Cupcakes

1 box chocolate cake mix
Water
Eggs
Oil
 
Mint frosting, tinted green
Chocolate, mint cookies, cut in half
1/2 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Shortening
 
Mix cake mix according to box directions and fill cupcake papers 1/2 full. Bake according to directions and cool baked cupcakes on a wire rack.

Make frosting, tint light green and add peppermint flavoring to taste.
 
Frost cupcakes with a spatula or pipe icing  to cover top of cupcakes attractively. Stand cookie halves, cut side down,  in the center of each frosted cupcake.
 
Put 1/2 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips in a microwave safe dish. Melt on high for 30 seconds. Stir and continue at 10 second intervals if necessary until melted. Add 1 tsp of shortening and stir into hot chocolate.
 
Dip fork tines into hot chocolate mixture, and fling the chocolate back and forth over the cupcake tops to make an attractive presentation. Allow the chocolate to harden before serving.
 
Makes 20-24  cupcakes.

2-8. Quadruple Berry, Apple-Rhubarb Pie

Many years ago, a catchy television ad from the Pillsbury Company told viewers that, nothin says lovin’ like something from the oven. Even though the ad ran during the volatile 60s, the homey commercial became an immediate favorite. After all…who doesn’t love fragrant aromas wafting from their oven?

I always enjoyed being in my kitchen and believed, wholeheartedly, that love for my family could be expanded  by turning out loaves of bread, pans of cookies and other wonderful things baked especially for them.

With kids grown and long gone, I thought lovingly of them the day I put the recipe for Quadruple Berry, Apple-Rhubarb Pie together. With many bags of frozen fruit in the freezer and my desire to replicate a pie that used to be sold by Schwan’s, I set forth on my pie adventure. The Schwan's pie that I remembered was actually a  triple-berry apple-rhubarb pie and it was one of the best pies I had ever tasted. It had a wonderful crust, a sweet fruity interior and an amazing vanilla icing.

My recipe has one more type of berry than the Schwan's pie and my crust is folded. A two-crust recipe allows for two pies to be made, if desired.

(The pie filling recipe  may be cut in half and the crust may be formed like a traditional two-crust pie to make one pie).

Quadruple-Berry, Apple-Rhubarb Pie

Pie crust for 2-crust Pie
(Pie crust and pie crust secrets, Blog recipe #16)


2 C granulated sugar
2 T cornstarch
½ C flour
2 C frozen rhubarb, defrosted and drained
3 C mixed berry blend, frozen
1 C raspberries, frozen
3-4 C apple slices, frozen, thawed and broken into pieces
2 C strawberries, frozen
2 T orange juice

4 T butter or margarine

Vanilla icing (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, combine granulated sugar, cornstarch and flour. Add all berries, thawed apple piecs and drained rhubarb; mix well. Add orange juice and mix well.

Roll out half pastry for each pie. Place rolled dough in 2-pie plates. The dough should hang off plate edges. Place half of the filling in each plate. Dot with butter. Bring up edges of dough and gently lay onto the top of the filling toward the center. Bake until fruit is tender and crust is browned (about 50 minutes). If crust is browning too much, lay a piece of foil on top for the remainder of the baking time. Remove finished pies to cooling racks.

Optional: Drizzle cooled pie with vanilla-flavored icing. Slice and serve