Tag: low carb

Aunt Hilda’s Bean Salad

Many years ago on our way to visit Jerri’s family in Kansas and Oklahoma, we accepted an invitation to stay the night with Uncle Clarence and Aunt Hilda in Newton, Kansas. We telephoned when we were a couple of hours away to let them know we were eating dinner and were looking forward to seeing them.  

Before we left Wisconsin Jerri had told her aunt that we did not expect her to cook anything for us. We knew that otherwise she would be busy in the kitchen getting ready for her starving niece and family. She loved to cook!

We arrived and Jerri began catching up on family news while Clarence and I first checked fluid levels in the car then sat down in the living room to discuss the price of gasoline and other current affairs. After an hour or so, Aunt Hilda disappeared into the kitchen. Soon we were all sitting around the big table admiring Aunt Hilda’s idea of a bedtime snack.  

Besides ham, chicken, roast beef, pork and assorted cold cuts, there were carrot and celery sticks, two or three different kinds of bread, cheese, salads, pickles, relishes and of course desserts, coffee, iced tea and lemonade. I was reminded of the Franklin in the Canterbury Tales whose table, Chaucer says, “snowed with meat and drink.” Our son was awed. “Do you realize that she had seven different kinds of meat?” he asked us the next morning.

One of the salads was a tasty variation on a three bean salad with chopped peppers and onion. When I told Aunt Hilda I really liked it, she just handed me the bowl with “I’m glad you like it. Have some more.” Like me, Aunt Hilda is a “pusher” when it comes to food.

Aunt Hilda made a point of having that salad whenever we stopped to visit. When I asked for the recipe she told me the salad was made with a liquid sweetener rather than sugar. I would never have guessed it. She explained that since Uncle Clarence had diabetes, she made a point of finding dishes he liked which did not spike his blood sugar levels. This salad is one of them.

She got the recipe from Meribeth, the wife of her cousin Ken Kaufman, who wrote a little cookbook, “Sweeten Without Sugar,” with recipes for people with diabetes. With a photocopy of the book Hilda sent me a note explaining that Meribeth was diagnosed with diabetes when when she was three or four years old but still “baked hundreds of wedding cakes, even 50th and 60th anniversary ones.”  

I could not find the liquid sweetener the original recipe called for, but with Jerri’s help we determined the right amount of Stevia to Go which does the job. I’m not sure that our bean salad tastes quite as good as Hilda’s, but it’s close and delicious. Even if you do not suffer from diabetes you might want to try this. It tastes good with fewer calories! 

INGREDIENTS:

1 15 oz. can cut green beans

1 15 oz. can cut yellow wax beans

1 15 oz. can dark red kidney beans

1 small onion (2 -2 1/2 inch diameter)

1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup cider vinegar

3/4 – 1 tsp. liquid sweetener (Stevia to Go)

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

PROCEDURE:

Drain the green and wax beans and drain and rinse the kidney beans thoroughly before putting them into a large bowl. Peel and chop the onion medium fine. Wash and chop the peppers to about a quarter inch dice. Add the vegetables to the beans along with the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and stir well.

Add about three-fourths-teaspoon Stevia to Go sweetener. Stir and let the salad stand for about five minutes. Taste and add more sweetener if needed. Mix the salad well and chill it overnight in the refrigerator. This recipe makes about fourteen half cup servings. Meribeth’s cookbook says a serving has about ninety calories.

NOTES:  Be very careful not to add too much Stevia to Go to the salad. This salad tastes much better after it rests a full day in the refrigerator.

Before we left Wisconsin Jerri had told her aunt that we did not expect her to cook anything for us since we knew that otherwise she would be busy in the kitchen getting ready for her starving niece and family.  We knew that she loved to cook!

We arrived and Jerri began catching up on family news while Clarence and I first checked fluid levels in the car then sat down in the living room to discuss the price of gasoline and other current affairs. After an hour or so, Aunt Hilda disappeared into the kitchen. Soon we were all sitting around the big kitchen table looking at Aunt Hilda’s idea of a bedtime snack.

Besides ham, chicken, roast beef, pork and assorted cold cuts, there were carrot and celery sticks, two or three different kinds of bread, cheese, salads, pickles, relishes and of course desserts, coffee, iced tea and lemonade. I was reminded of the Franklin in the Canterbury Tales whose table, Chaucer says, “snowed with meat and drink.” Our son was awed.

One of the salads was a tasty variation on a three bean salad with chopped peppers and onion. When I told Aunt Hilda that I really liked it, she just handed me the bowl with “I’m glad you like it. Have some more.” Like me, Aunt Hilda is a “pusher” when it comes to food.

Once she knew I liked it, Aunt Hilda made a point of having that salad whenever we stopped to visit. When I asked for the recipe she told me that the salad was made with a liquid sweetener rather than sugar. I would never have guessed it. She explained that since Uncle Clarence had diabetes, she made a point of finding dishes that he liked which did not spike his blood sugar levels. This salad is one of them.

Actually, she got the recipe from the wife of her cousin Ken Kaufman, Meribeth, who wrote a little cookbook, “Sweeten Without Sugar”, with recipes for people with diabetes. With a photocopy of the book Hilda wrote a note explaining that Meribeth was diagnosed with diabetes when when she was three or four years old but that “She baked hundreds of wedding cakes, even 50th and 60th anniversary ones.”

I could not find the liquid sweetener that the original recipe called for, but with Jerri’s help we determined the right amount of Stevia to Go which does the job. I’m not sure that our bean salad tastes quite as good as Hilda’s, but it’s close and delicious. Even if you do not suffer from diabetes you might want to try this. It tastes good with fewer calories!

INGREDIENTS:

1 15 oz. can cut green beans
1 15 oz. can cut yellow wax beans
1 15 oz. can dark red kidney beans
1 small onion (2 -2 1/2 inch diameter)
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup cider vinegar
3/4 – 1 tsp. liquid sweetener (Stevia to Go)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

PROCEDURE:

Many years ago as we were on our way to visit Jerri’s mother and brothers in Kansas and Oklahoma, we accepted an invitation to stay the night at Uncle Clarence and Aunt Hilda’s home in Newton, Kansas.  We telephoned them when we were a couple of hours away to confirm that as planned we had already eaten dinner and were looking forward to seeing them.  

Before we left Wisconsin Jerri had told her aunt that we did not expect her to cook anything for us since we knew that otherwise she would be busy in the kitchen getting ready for her starving niece and family.  We knew that she loved to cook!

We arrived and Jerri began catching up on family news while Clarence and I first checked fluid levels in the car then sat down in the living room to discuss the price of gasoline and other current affairs.  After an hour or so, Aunt Hilda disappeared into the kitchen.  Soon we were all sitting around the big kitchen table looking at Aunt Hilda’s idea of a bedtime snack.  

Besides ham, chicken, roast beef, pork and assorted cold cuts, there were carrot and celery sticks, two or three different kinds of bread, cheese, salads, pickles, relishes and of course desserts, coffee, iced tea and lemonade.  I was reminded of the Franklin in the Canterbury Tales whose table, Chaucer says, “snowed with meat and drink.”  Our son was awed.

One of the salads was a tasty variation on a three bean salad with chopped peppers and onion.  When I told Aunt Hilda that I really liked it, she just handed me the bowl with “I’m glad you like it.  Have some more.”  Like me, Aunt Hilda is a “pusher” when it comes to food.

Once she knew I liked it, Aunt Hilda made a point of having that salad whenever we stopped to visit. When I asked for the recipe she told me that the salad was made with a liquid sweetener rather than sugar.  I would never have guessed it.  She explained that since Uncle Clarence had diabetes, she made a point of finding dishes that he liked which did not spike his blood sugar levels.  This salad is one of them.

Actually, she got the recipe from the wife of her cousin Ken Kaufman, Meribeth, who wrote a little cookbook, “Sweeten Without Sugar”, with recipes for people with diabetes.  With a photocopy of the book Hilda wrote a note explaining that Meribeth was diagnosed with diabetes when when she was three or four years old but that “She baked hundreds of wedding cakes, even 50th and 60th anniversary ones.”  

I could not find the liquid sweetener that the original recipe called for, but with Jerri’s help we determined the right amount of Stevia to Go which does the job.  I’m not sure that our bean salad tastes quite as good as Hilda’s, but it’s close and delicious.  Even if you do not suffer from diabetes you might want to try this.  It tastes good with fewer calories! 

INGREDIENTS:

1 15 oz. can cut green beans

1 15 oz. can cut yellow wax beans

1 15 oz. can dark red kidney beans

1 small onion (2 -2 1/2 inch diameter)

1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup cider vinegar

3/4 – 1 tsp. liquid sweetener (Stevia to Go)

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

PROCEDURE:

Drain the green and wax beans and drain and rinse the kidney beans thoroughly before putting them into a large bowl.  Peel and chop the onion medium fine.  Wash and chop the peppers to about a quarter inch dice.  Add the vegetables to the beans along with the oil, vinegar salt and pepper and stir well.

Add about three-fourths-teaspoon Stevia to Go sweetener.  Stir and let the salad stand for about five minutes.  Taste and add more sweetener if needed.  Mix the salad well and chill it overnight in the refrigerator.   This recipe makes about fourteen half cup servings.    Meribeth’s cookbook says a serving has about ninety calories.

NOTES:  Be very careful not to add too much Stevia to Go to the salad.  This salad tastes much better after it rests a full day in the refrigerator.

Custard Pie

Our chicken coop was home to at least a couple dozen hens and a rooster year round. Hens need plenty of daylight to lay reliably, so egg producers today have bright artificial lighting that makes the hens think it is midsummer on the winter solstice. We didn’t even have a back porch light or a light in the woodshed, let alone one in the chicken coop. If I didn’t fill the woodbox before it got dark, one of my sisters carried the flashlight while Dad complained about our wasting batteries.

We were lucky to get a half dozen eggs a day in January, which is one of the reasons why we had cereal or pancakes for breakfast so often in the winter. I still like how a bowl of hot oatmeal warms me on a cold morning, so the cereal may have been partly a way to prepare us kids for the walk to the bus stop in -30 degree weather.

During the late spring and throughout the summer, however, we had more than enough fresh eggs. That’s when Mom made custard pies. She could whip one up in 20 minutes, including the time it took her to make the crust. After you have made a dozen, you will be doing the same.

Not as sweet, not as many calories or carbohydrates as fruit pies, a custard pie is a delicious way to end a meal. A custard pie is absurdly easy to make. This recipe will make a nine inch pie that will serve eight.

INGREDIENTS:

1 pie crust
3 large eggs
2 cups whole milk or 2 cups reduced fat milk plus 1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

PROCEDURE:

First make a pie crust. You can halve this recipe for one crust or make two and freeze the second. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. When the oven is hot, prick the bottom of the pie crust and put the crust in the oven. You have 10 minutes to make the filling.

Put the eggs in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes to bring them to room temperature. Have the milk at room temperature or warm it to about 100 degrees. Beat the eggs until the whites and yolks are mixed, but not lemon yellow.

Stir the milk, sugar, salt, nutmeg and vanilla into the eggs and mix well. After the crust has baked 10 minutes, remove it from the oven and fill it with the custard mixture.

Return the pie to the oven, turn the heat down to 325º. Bake for thirty to thirty-five minutes. After thirty minutes, test for doneness with a table knife stuck into the center of the pie. If the blade comes out clean, the pie is done. If not, bake four or five minutes longer and test again.

NOTE: If you have too much custard for your crust, you can bake it in custard cups along with the pie. Jerri puts the cups in a pan of hot water, but I usually just pop them into the oven.