
Just leave a comment letting us know what you'll be bringing. The theme is Thanksgiving Side Dishes.
This is the community blogspot for the Afternoon Recipe Group.
Magic Cookie Bar Recipe (April Johnson)
For the bottom:
1 cup melted butter
4 cups crushed graham crackers
Combine and spread on large cookie sheet
To sprinkle on top, one at a time:
3 cups coconut
1 ½ cups butterscotch chips
1 ½ cups milk chocolate chips
Pour 2 cans sweetened condensed milk over top
Then sprinkle 1 to 1 ½ cups walnuts
Bake at 325 for 30 minutes or a little less
You may need to add a bit more butter for the bottom, the goal is to make it the consistency of a cheesecake crust.
Spiced almonds/brittle.... (Laurie Parker)
2 cups almonds (raw or roasted, but not salted)
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
1 tsp cayenne pepper (more if you like them really spicy) :)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
large sauce pot
wooden spoon
parchment paper or silicon mat
If your almonds are raw, roast them in the oven on a pie plate or cake pan for 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Set them aside to cool and add the cinnamon and cayenne pepper.
In a heavy sauce pan put in sugar, water, and salt. Set the heat to high, put a lid on top and boil for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, take the lid off and watch the pot closely. The bubbles in the sugar mixture should be piling on top of each other. When the color changes to medium to dark amber, through the almond mixture in and take off the heat and stir like mad. Once the almonds are coated, pour onto parchment paper. If you want more individual pieces, use a couple of forks to separate almonds. Let cool and then break apart brittle and put into an air tight container.
Almond Creme Cookies (Reba Orton)
Cookies: 6T chilled butter
1 C sifted flour
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.
1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.
Starting left to right: Liptauer Cheese (Hungarian spiced cheese spread), Cilantro Pesto, Mustard/Slaw Sauce, Hummus, Blue Cheese Spread w/ walnuts, and Sun-dried Tomato Pesto.
It was the perfect day for an outdoor grill recipe group. Tiffany provided us with 2 great recipes to use as the weather and our BBQs warm up. Enjoy!
Butternut Squash Soup
1 dollop of olive oil (about ½ a tablespoon)
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 green apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and chopped
4 cups chicken broth
dash each cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper
sour cream as garnish
Heat the oil and butter, then sauté the onion, carrot, and celery about 5 minutes, until softened. Add the squash, apple, chicken broth, and spices and simmer until the squash is soft. Pureee the soup… Serve with a dollop of sour cream in each bowl.
Whole Wheat Bread
Grind 7 1/2 or 8 cups of wheat (it will make about 12 cups of flour)
Put the following in Bosch mixer in the order given:
3 1/2 cups hot water (between 120-130 degrees)
1 (12-oz) can evaporated milk
2/3 cup oil
1 cup honey
1 1/2 T. salt
8 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour
3 T. Vital Wheat Gluten
3 T. yeast
Turn on Momentary switch (M) a few times to mix well
Turn Bosch on Speed 1, and immediately begin to add more flour. Add only until dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl - usually about 3 to 4 more cups. Make sure you don't add too much.
Knead on Speed 1 for about 7 minutes.
Spray pans with Pam (don't use oil - you can use shortening). Oil your hands. Remove dough from mixer onto a lightly oiled counter. Shape into loaves. Cover with a dry towel and let rise until dough is about 2 inches above the pan (about 30 minutes). Preheat oven.
Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes. Take one loaf out and check it with a thermometer - it should be 180 to 200 degrees. If not, bake another few minutes.
Take out of oven, brush tops with butter, if desired, remove from pans to cool. Freeze loaves you won't use in one or two days.

baseball sized lumps, roll the lumps into snakes (think playdough here) about the thickness of your finger. Then cut them into Nib sized pieces (see pic). If you want to get fancy you can try the fork method we did at the meeting but it's not necessary. They'll taste the same. If you want to see how to do it go here.