Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 ¼ cups bread flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup margarine
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips

Mix the wet ingredients well and then add the dry ingredients. Separate into small balls on a cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. This makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Easy Guacamole

1 ripe avocado (peeled and pitted)
½ cup salsa
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon red pepper sauce

Mash the avocado in a medium bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. And serve.

makes: 1¼ cups

Egg Drop Soup

4 cups chicken broth or stock
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 or 2 green onions, minced
Salt to taste
¼ teaspoon white pepper (optional)
A few drops of sesame oil (optional)

Bring the broth to a boil, and then add in the salt, white pepper, and sesame oil. Cook the seasoned broth for about a minute. Slowly and steadily pour the egg into the boiling soup. If you want the egg to be shredded in the soup, stir the soup briskly as you pour the egg in. Garnish it with green onions, and enjoy it hot.

Homestyle Butter

1 pint heavy whipping cream

Churn the cream until the butter in it coagulates and separates from the buttermilk. Scoop the butter (that is, the coagulated cream), out of the buttermilk and put it in a bowl. Press the butter against the side of the bowl with a spatula to squeeze out the extra buttermilk, which you then should pour back into the rest of the buttermilk. The more you squeeze the butter, the harder and less creamy it will get. If you're going to store it for a while, squeeze it very well and then rinse it (see below). If you're going to eat it all up right away, you probably don't want to squeeze it so much. Either way, you'll want to eat it up fairly quickly, since it's got no preservatives to embalm it.

If you need to rinse the butter, then after you've squeezed out all the buttermilk that's easy to squeeze, pour in a little cold water (around ¼ cup) and stir it up into the butter. It won't mix in, but it will mix with any remaining buttermilk. Squeeze out the water and pour it off, noting its color. If the water you've squeezed out wasn't as clear as it was when you put it in, then repeat the rinse. If it was just as clear coming out as going in, then your butter is well-rinsed, and should last longer: a week, maybe two, instead of just overnight.

Blåbærsuppe (Blueberry Soup)

10½ ounces blueberries
2½ cups water
1¼ teaspoon cornstarch
sugar to taste

Stir everything together while cool, and then bring to a boil. Enjoy it hot in a cup or cold in a bowl.

Dixie Salad

It's just like Ambrosia, except along with all the fruit, you also add the following:

pecan halves
pomegranate seeds

Ambrosia

1 15-ounce can pineapple chunks
1 8-ounce can mandarin oranges
several red apples, chunked, not peeled
maraschino cherries, halved
16 ounces sour cream
many mini-marshmallows

This needs to sit for 24 hours before serving, so plan ahead. Mix the fruit and the sour cream together in a mixing bowl, then mix in the mini-marshmallows. Let it sit in refrigeration for twenty-four hours, but check it a couple of times to see that it's developing the right consistency: it should be thick and pretty cohesive with no extra juices running around. If it's too wet and runny (which is typical), stir in some more marshmallows. If it's too dry (look at the marshmallows), try stirring in a tiny bit of apple juice. Enjoy chilled.

Maple Cider

2 quarts apple cider
1 cup maple syrup
1 stick cinnamon
3 whole cloves

Put the ingredients together in a pot and heat on a low heat for a long time. You can use a slow cooker, too, if you'd like. It's best enjoyed hot, but can be good cold as well.

Maple Syrup

1 cup water
2 cups sugar
½ teaspoon maple flavoring

Bring the water to a boil and dissolve the sugar into it. Once the sugar is dissolved, add the maple flavoring. Enjoy!

Wassail

1 gallon apple juice
1 can frozen concentrated lemonade
1 can frozen concentrated orange juice
4 sticks cinnamon
12 whole cloves
12 balls allspice
½ cup sugar
2 quarts water

Put all ingredients in a large pot and heat over a low heat for a long time. It can also be done in a slow cooker. Enjoy hot.

Ma Schmidt's Pancakes

2 eggs
2 cups milk
¼ cups sugar
1½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups flour

Mix the eggs, milk, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl. When they are thoroughly mixed, add the flour until you get the right consistency. Fry in a pan. The pancakes should be thicker than crèpes, but still pretty thin. Enjoy them hot, topped with homestyle butter, and maple syrup.