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Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Festive Foods Make Entertaining Simply Delicious

Now that temperatures are cooler and we’ve turned the calendar pages to the festive month of November, I can’t help but think about warm, comfort foods and holiday entertaining.

As a working mom, I look for every opportunity to save time. That’s why I love crock pots and make-ahead salads! Since I’d be remiss not to “talk turkey” this month, below is one of my favorite turkey recipes to feed hungry groups with ease. I’m also including an easy-to-make cranberry jell-o salad recipe with Caramel Apple Cheesecake for dessert. Mash some real potatoes, open a can of green beans and call it good… Menu planning doesn’t get much easier than that!

Herbed Turkey Breast

Ingredients:
5 to 6 pound turkey breast, fresh or thawed
2 T. butter or margarine
1 T. soy sauce
1 T. fresh parsley, minced
¼ c. garden vegetable-flavored cream cheese
½ tsp. dry basil
½ tsp. rubbed sage
¼ tsp. ground black pepper
¼ tsp. garlic powder

Directions:
Place turkey in stoneware. Combine remaining ingredients and brush over turkey. Cover and cook on Low for 8 hours or High for 4 hours.

Cranberry Pineapple Salad

Ingredients:
2, small packages of cranberry (or raspberry) flavored gelatin
1 ¾ c. boiling water
1, 16-oz. can jellied cranberry sauce
1, 8-oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained
¾ c. orange juice
1 T. lemon juice
½ c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:
Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Then break up the cranberry sauce and stir it into the liquid gelatin. Add pineapple, orange juice and lemon juice. Chill until partially set. Stir in nuts. Pour into an 11x7x2 dish. Chill until firm; cut into squares. Serve on lettuce leave and top with a dollop of mayo.

NOTE: While this red salad looks pretty against a dark, green lettuce leaf, I rarely take the time to serve it this way. It just becomes so fancy! Perhaps I should try it this holiday season…

Team Latham

November 5, 2010

Desserts, General, Poultry, Recipes
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Celebrating a Merry (Not Scary) Halloween
One of the things I enjoy most about being a parent is the opportunity to relive all of my favorite memories from my own childhood. When I think about “Halloween pasts,” I remember how much excitement I felt about choosing my costume and going trick-or-treating with my cousins. Each week I religiously read TV Guide to see when “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” was going to air and marked my calendar so I’d be sure not to miss it. And Halloween preparations also meant my mom and I would be busy in the kitchen.

Making “Great Pumpkin Cookies” became an annual tradition. This tradition lives on, and this week my son spent some time after school baking up these delicious holiday treats in my mom’s kitchen. Because they’re as fun to eat as they are to make, we’d like to share our treasured recipe with you. I’m also including the “Charlie Brown theme song” in case you need a little background music as you bake.

What are your family’s Halloween traditions?

P.S. While the cookies are baking, your aspiring artists can try their hand at making jack-o-lantern or Frankenstein luminaries. This also makes a great “rainy day” activity. Check out this Website for more ideas to fight boredom when kids are stuck inside: http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/bored.htm#in

LIGHT UP THE NIGHT WITH HALLOWEEN LUMINARIES

Materials
- Glass jar of any size
- Paint brush or 1” foam brush
- Tissue paper, cut into approximately ½” wide strips
- Black and white construction paper (other colors as desired)
- Paper maché paste or wallpaper paste
- Electric candle
Instructions

Coat the jar with paste and smooth on tissue paper. Don’t worry about making all of the strips nice and neat; it actually makes a neat effect when strips are placed every which way. Cut out eyes, nose and mouth; adhere to jar with another coat of paste. Put on one final coat of paste, making sure all of the tissue strips are covered. You’ll see that we also used a glue gun to adhere bolts to Frankenstein’s head. Last fall my daughter and I made jack-o-lantern luminaries. For directions on how to make these, click here: http://www.craftideas.info/html/recycled_jar_pumpkin_b.html
Team Latham

October 29, 2010

Desserts, General, Recipes
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

What Kind of Nut Are You?

I’m a big fan of the seeds covered with hard shells in all varieties — as a sundae topping, in baked goods, or simply by themselves! (You probably thought I was going to talk about how I’m a raving fan of Latham Seeds, eh? Instead I’m taking a break from promoting our company’s products to talk about nuts.)

National Nut Day is celebrated annually on Oct. 22. So, today I decided to devote a little time to studying this topic. I learned that people around the globe are encouraged to celebrate National Nut Day by eating large quantities of baked goods, nuts or snacks. Any holiday that encourages you to eat baked goods is worth celebrating.

Sound nutty to you? Well, I’ll admit it — I’m a nut! According to a Fisher^® Nuts personality quiz, I’m an almond to be exact. You can take this short quiz, too: http://www.fishernuts.com/fisher/press_pdfs/nut_quiz.pdf.

The Fisher® Nuts Website also includes a link to all the nut recipes you could ever dream of. For some reason, I’m drawn to the Almond Cookie Bites …

What kind of nut are you?

Team Latham

October 23, 2010

Desserts, General, Recipes
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Picking and a Grinning: Apple Harvest
This week our kids were assigned homework that our entire family enjoyed: picking apples. Fortunately, my parents’ Red Delicious tree was especially productive this year and the apples were ripe for picking. To make it even better, we were harvesting apples on a beautiful fall afternoon with blue skies, sunshine and temperatures in the upper 70s. Our energetic nine-year-olds spent as much – if not more – time climbing the tree than they did picking the fruit but that’s how the best memories are made.

As much as I love the natural goodness of a crisp apple, I have to admit that I enjoy eating them more with a little dip! Last week while I was making farm visits in northeast Iowa, I had the pleasure of also visiting with one our salesmen’s wives. She had just whipped up some dip for their kids’ afternoon snack, so I requested it for my blog. While Meg got this recipe from a Cooking Light magazine, she admits to liberally sprinkling additional toffee bits on top of the dip – more chocolate is always better, right? Her family also likes this dip with graham cracker sticks and/or animal crackers.

What’s your favorite way to enjoy apples?

Apple Fun Facts
- Apples come in all shades of reds, greens, yellows.
- Apples are grown in all 50 states.
- Apples are grown commercially in 36 states.
- 100 varieties of apples are grown commercially in the United States.
- 2,500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States.
- 7,500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world.
http://www.gone-ta-pott.com/National_apple_month.html
Team Latham

September 17, 2010

Desserts, Recipes
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Cool, Fall Days Call for Apple Crisp

As I walked our dog along the creek, I couldn’t help but think of all the things I love about early fall. I love how the morning air is crisp and cool but the afternoon temperatures are pleasantly warm without all of the humidity we experience in the heat of summer. I get a kick out of watching children play touch football in our backyard. I enjoy decorating for fall and picking pumpkins. I marvel at the number of Monarchs resting on my flowers and delight when I find their eggs on the backside of leaves. I find beauty in the countryside as crops mature and leaves begin to turn color.

Most of all, I enjoy the fruits of this season. There’s nothing better than fresh apple cider and all of the wonderful home-made treats that are synonymous (at least to me) with fall harvest. My mom made the following recipe last weekend, and I thought it was simply delicious. I hope you’ll agree!

What do you enjoy most about fall?

Team Latham

September 10, 2010

Desserts, Recipes
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

Labor Day Weekend and large gatherings? Back-to-school snacks? End-of-the-summer bounty?

It was tough choosing just one of these topics to feature in my weekly recipe blog until I looked through an old Taste of Home magazine. I was searching for a new idea on how to put my family’s bountiful zucchini to good use when a photograph of a delectable-looking chocolate cupcake with a pull-quote caught my attention. The lady who submitted the recipe wrote, “I’m always asked for this recipe, which makes a tasty treat after school, after lunch or after supper. My grandkids love these cupcakes and don’t believe there are veggies in them!”

With Labor Day and family get-togethers around the corner, I thought cupcakes would be the perfect addition to a family picnic. Not to mention, getting kids to eat veggies without even knowing it is like a dream come to true! I thought to myself, “I don’t even have to count this as a dessert. Why these cupcakes really count as a serving of vegetables rather than a dessert. Perhaps I could eat two of them – one from the fruit/vegetable group and one as dessert.” (How’s that for rationalization, ladies? Of course, I won’t share this thought with my kids!)

What’s your favorite way to sneak veggies to your kids?

Team Latham

September 3, 2010

Desserts, Recipes
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Savoring the Last of Summer
Our two children headed back to school on Monday, which always signals that summer is coming to an end. This weekend our family will savor as much summer-time fun as possible. With Saturday’s forecast calling for sunshine and 85 degrees, we’ll make one last trip to a nearby water park. I’ll marinate some Iowa chops, so they’re ready to grill that evening. (See marinade recipe below.) I’m also looking forward a little “me time” in the kitchen during the early morning hours, so I can make one of my all-time, favorite desserts: Colorado Peach Pie.

One reason this recipe is one of my favorites is because it’s so delicious. It’s unlike most peach pies because it has a sour cream filling. It tastes so creamy and delicious (in my humble opinion). Another reason I love this recipe is because I can “cheat” on the pie crust. There’s no need to roll out a pie crust, yet one can savor a flakey crust.

Just thinking about Saturday’s meal is making my mouth water. Perhaps I need to change my plan … I could leave work early today and have fresh peach pie for supper tonight!

How does your family savor what’s left of summer?

Lemon Pepper Pork Chops

Ingredients
- 4 pork chops, cut 1½-inches thick
- ¼ c. red wine vinegar
- ¼ c. cooking oil
- 1 T. Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp. lemon pepper
- ¼ tsp. garlic power
Directions
1. In a self-sealing plastic bag, combine vinegar, cooking oil, Worcestershire sauce, lemon pepper and garlic powder.
2. Use a fork to poke holes in the chops.
3. Next place the chops in the bag, seal and refrigerate them for a minimum of 30 minutes but overnight is even better.
4. Remove chops from marinade and grill.
5. Pork chops should be cooked to medium doneness of 160 degrees Fahrenheit.
Team Latham

August 27, 2010

Desserts, General, Pork, Recipes
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Chocolate Zucchini Bread
One of my favorite things about summer is the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables. I enjoy adjusting our menus to incorporate whatever is in season, and right now, that means zucchini! Try out this delicious recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Bread. While it’s baking, your kids can try out the Corn Putty recipe below for a few minutes of fun!

Corn Putty

Play with it like clay, then watch it become liquid again!
- 1 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 cup water + 1 tablespoon water
- Food coloring
Blend mixture with fork. It should flow when the bowl is tipped but feel solid when you touch it. If it’s too thick, add a little water. If it’s too runny, add a little cornstarch.

Recipe provided by the Iowa Corn Promotion Board.
Team Latham

August 6, 2010

Desserts, General, Recipes, Sides
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Take the Cookie Challenge

You won’t want to miss out on the fun – and the cookies – today at the Latham Country Fair in Alexander! Val Plagge with the Iowa Soybean Association is issuing a Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge where guests are invited to sample two types of cookies: one made from a traditional recipe and one made with soy flour and tofu (see the recipe below). Stop by and See Val at the Latham Country Fair, in Alexander, Iowa today to cast your vote for your favorite cookie!

For more information about the Latham Country Fair, click here.

Team Latham

July 30, 2010

Desserts, Recipes
Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Cathy’s Orange Muffins: Try them at the Latham Country Fair!

By far, one of my favorite things about any fair is all of the delectable food that tempts one’s taste buds. One of the many delicious treats that you can try at the Latham Country Fair in Alexander, Iowa, July 30, are Cathy’s Orange Muffins. (See recipe below.)

Cathy’s baking is special to our family because she not only bakes incredible treats like these orange muffins, but she has also made cakes for our children’s birthday parties. She’s helped make many memories at our family events.

Try a taste of the Latham Country Fair at home this week with Cathy’s Orange Muffin recipe. Then plan a trip to Alexander next Friday to taste even more treats!

For details on the Latham Country Fair and to find out how your family can join in the fun, click here!

Team Latham

July 23, 2010

Desserts, General, Recipes

Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Festive Foods Make Entertaining Simply Delicious

Herbed Turkey Breast

Cranberry Pineapple Salad

Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Celebrating a Merry (Not Scary) Halloween

LIGHT UP THE NIGHT WITH HALLOWEEN LUMINARIES

Materials

Instructions

Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

What Kind of Nut Are You?

Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Picking and a Grinning: Apple Harvest

Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Cool, Fall Days Call for Apple Crisp

Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Savoring the Last of Summer

Lemon Pepper Pork Chops

Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Corn Putty

Recipe provided by the Iowa Corn Promotion Board.

Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Take the Cookie Challenge

Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds

Cathy’s Orange Muffins: Try them at the Latham Country Fair!