Two quick, yummy dishes from the Grandma Moses of Mysteries

Please welcome my guest, Norma Huss.

In July of 2011, I read an interesting recipe for broccoli salad on The Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen blog. It was a cold dish, but I altered it quite a bit to make this hot side dish. I cooked the vegetables (my husband does not like his broccoli and cauliflower raw), lost one ingredient (that I didn’t happen to have), and changed the sauce completely. A hit with both my husband and me.

Fiesta Vegetables - for 2 (multiply for more servings)

2 slices bacon, cut before cooking or broken up after (latter is easier)

3 or 4 florets broccoli
3 or 4 florets cauliflower
1/4 large onion cut in wide strips
1 or 2 tbsp raisins
1 or 2 tbsp chopped pecans
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp Balsamic vinegar
½ tsp sugar or honey

 

Place broccoli, cauliflower, and onion in steamer. Steam for 15 minutes until tender but not mushy. While this is cooking microwave or fry bacon until crisp. Break or chop into bits.

Prepare sauce by whipping the olive oil, vinegar and honey together.

Mix cooked vegetables with sauce (or pour it over) and serve hot with the bacon, nuts, and raisins sprinkled on top.

Here's a bonus recipe. Sorry, no illustrations for this dish.

Sloppy Joes with Red Cabbage

 Brown hamburger until all pink is gone, chopping with a plastic or wooden spoon or spatula to keep the meat from clumping. Add chopped onion and one or two cups of shredded red cabbage. Add your favorite barbeque sauce or a purchased one. Simmer for 15 minutes or so, or until you corral all the family and prepare whatever else you might be serving.

 As you may have noted, I’m not big on exact measurements. My favorite barbecue sauce starts with ketchup and usually includes vinegar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, powdered cloves, a tiny bit of cinnamon, salt, enough water to keep things from burning, and maybe some paprika, chili powder, or pepper. (Those last three are only if the mood strikes me.) Serve hot on buns.

I have served this numerous times to a variety of people. No one has ever detected any difference in either taste or texture compared to Sloppy Joes without the cabbage. (I love to add surprising elements to any meal.)

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 I call myself The Grandma Moses of Mystery. Besides my two mysteries, Yesterday’s Body and Death of a Hot Chick, my other published book is a non-fiction retelling of a young man’s adventures—A Knucklehead in 1920s Alaska.

As I write this post, my daughter is putting the finishing touches on the cover for my new book to be out later in November. Cherish is the title. It’s a ghost mystery for the younger YA reader.

The short blurb—Sophomore Kayla has seen the ghost for years and she wants to make her go away. But instead, it’s Kayla who disappears from her life in the twenty-first century and into Cherish’s life in 1946, only days before Cherish will die.

 http://www.normahuss.com