Veggie Tails and Flowers for Fancy Veggie Basket

My Mother began making fancy cut veggie baskets for special occasions after I left home, so I didn't have the chance to watch or help her much. Now that she's passed to the other side of the veil I had to recall, search for photos of her vegetable basket and online to "see" how to make various veggie tails and flowers.  In addition I asked myself questions.  I began to get some inspiration of my own--possibly from her whispering suggestions in my ear.  I felt her nearby as I thought of her, which made for a priceless time.   

What follows is how I make radish roses, green onion tails and stems, carrot crinkles and flowers, jagged cucumber circles, celery tails and turnip flowers. 

Cardamom is the secret in these gingerbread cookies

Title: Piparkakut (Finnish Christmas Gingerbread Cookies)

Description:
My Mother says, "The aroma of these cookies baking takes me back to my childhood in Finland." We make various large to small sizes of these in heart shape and hang them in the kitchen window during Christmas. Heart is the symbol of Christmas in Finland. We also had plenty of other shapes to eat as well.

Ingredients:
3/4 c margarine or butter
3/4 c sugar
1 egg
2 T dark Karo syrup
1 t cinnamon
1 t cloves
1 t ground cardamom
1/2 t baking soda
2 1/2 c flour

Directions:
Cream margarine and sugar. Add egg, spices and syrup. Then add flour and soda sifted together. Form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill the dough overnight in the refrigerator. Roll out on floured surface very thin and cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter. Bake on a very lightly greased cookie sheet about 5 min at 375 degrees. Do not overbake! Store in an airtight tin and they will keep "forever".

Egg Gravy over Mashed Potatoes and Tilapia

I was cooking some tilapia in the crock pot when my Mother asked what I was going to serve with it.  She suggested Egg Gravy over mashed potatoes.  

She used to make egg gravy often.  I'd never made it because it was just something she would just whipped up.  I say that because she uses a wire ship to stir the gravy and would prepare it so quickly.  So, she talked me through it. Since she never really did cook from a  recipe, this is the best I came up from.  I even put the saucepan on her lap so she could stir it and teach me the correct consistency.  

Egg Gravy

Boil 3 eggs about 9 minutes.

Melt 1 T butter in a sauce pan.

Add some chopped onion to it. 

Don't let it get brown.

Add 2 cups milk

stirring continuously with a wire whisk.

Add 1/4 cup flour

stirring continuously until it thickens.

Stir in some salt and pepper to taste.

After you've peeled and rinsed the eggs, slice them both ways with an egg slicer and gently stir them into the gravy.

Serve over mashed potatoes.

A crisp green salad also goes so well with it. 

Lemon Souffle

As I wonder what "ladylike" recipe to make,  I remember this lemon souffle recipe my Mother sent me when I lived far away from her and was not yet married.  I just dug out the recipe card she sent me, dusted it off, am entering it here for safer keeping and will give it a try for this week's Recipe Party.   

Kevainen Sitruuna Kohokas 

From the Kitchen of My Mother

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour combine

dash of salt

2 Tablespoons melted margarine ----->*(I use squeeze PARKAY so I do not need to melt it.)

2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 1/2 cups milk, scalded -- scald means to let it come just barely to a boil

3 well beaten egg yolks

3 stiffly beaten egg white

Combine the first 3 ingredients.  *Add melted margarine. Add grated lemon peel and the lemon juice.  Scald the milk in a small kettle.   Meanwhile beat egg yolks well.  Slowly stir milk with a whip (vispila) into the egg yolks.  Add this mixture into the flour-sugar mixture.  With electric beaters, beat the egg whites until stiff as if making merinque.  Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.  Then pour the batter into an ungreased dish.  Set in another bigger pan with about 1 inch of water in it.  I use a dripper pan.  Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes.   Do not be alarmed, this does not raise any at all as souffles are supposed to.  It makes its own sauce on the bottom, somewhat like Grandma's Chocolate Cake Pudding.  

With spring coming, I think you will enjoy this.  We certainly do.  

Regular souffle dish looks like this . . .

I think you could use your blue-grey Arabia casserole dish for this purpose.

I love how my Mother gives me tips that will mean something to me and help me understand the recipe better like:

which casserole dish I have that will work, 

what other recipe it's like in consistency, 

what scald means, 

what brand of margarine to use, etc.