From Debbie Gift

Brown in stock pot:

• 1½ pounds lean ground beef
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• ½ cup chopped onion (or 1 teaspoon dried onion flakes)
• Canola or olive oil

Combine & cook:

• 1 ½ cups white rice
• 1 ¼ cups water
• 14 oz can stewed tomatoes
• Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Mix and set aside for topping:

• 1-2 cups breadcrumbs
• 2-4 Tbsp margarine or butter, melted or canola oil

Garnish:

• Jalapeño peppers

For Stuffed Peppers:

• 3 large bell peppers
• 1-2 additional cans of tomato sauce for Stuffed Peppers

Directions:

Add browned meat mixture to rice mixture.

For Spanish Rice:

Place in oven proof baking dish, top with breadcrumbs.

Serve garnished with jalapeño peppers.

For Stuffed Peppers:

Wash, halve and seed 3 large green peppers. Boil for 5 minutes or until just softened. Drain.

Stuff meat/rice mixture into green peppers.

Top with extra cans of tomato sauce and breadcrumb mixture.

Bake at 350°F for 10-20 minutes or until crumbs are browned and or tomato sauce is hot.

Serve garnished with jalapeño peppers.

From Andrew Telesca

• 2 lbs smoked salmon (chopped fine)
• 4 slices white bread (chopped fine)
• 4 tbsp zesty French dressing (mayonnaise substitute)
• ½ cup onion (finely grated)
• 4 tbsp parsley (chopped fine)
• salt
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 cup flour
• 4 “eggs” (substitutes of your choice) – used to stick the breading to the cake
• 1 cup canola oil
• 3 tsp water
• 1 ½ cups plain dry bread crumbs (like panko). Could also try wheat germ.

Directions:

Mix salmon with chopped bread, dressing, onion, parsley, lemon juice, salt. Make patties – about ¼ cup each. These didn’t stick together very well on our first go-round. Perhaps add some egg-substitute, or potato starch & water to make them clumpier?

Put the patties in the freezer for 15 minutes (to dry off).

Mix egg substitutes with 1 1/2 tsp canola oil and water. dredge patties in flour, and then egg goop shaking off the excess each time. Then coat in bread crumbs.

Heat oil medium-high until hot but not yet smoking. Cook patties on both sides until medium golden brown. Drain.

From Jenn Purnell

• 3 large onions, chopped up
• ½+ cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• ¾ cup tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon wine vinegar with a touch of brown sugar added
• Optional: 1 ½ teaspoon hot sauce
• Optional: ¾ teaspoon crushed red pepper
• ¾ teaspoon parsley
• ¾ teaspoon marjoram
• ¾ teaspoon oregano
• ¾ teaspoon thyme
• ¾ teaspoon dried basil leaves
• 6 (28-ounce) cans whole Italian plum tomatoes.
• 9 heads roasted garlic, peeled (or 3 heads roasted elephant garlic, peeled)

Directions:

Sauté the onion in the olive oil until soft, then add minced garlic.

Add everything except the tomatoes and roasted garlic.

Squish the tomatoes and add them (including the liquid!). Stir and bring to a boil. Simmer 20 minutes.

Add the roasted garlic, mix. Simmer for 45 minutes.

From Alice

• 30 g wasanbon sugar
• 2 ml water
• 20 g mijin-ko (kanbai-ko) flour made from sweet rice
• Food coloring
• katakuri-ko (potato starch)

Directions:

Mix water and food coloring. Mix sugar into water and food coloring. Add mijin-ko and mix until the dough holds finger marks.

Dust your molds with katakuri-ko. Fill molds tightly, and tap out onto a plate.

These are dry sugar candies – and go well with the tea ceremony. Shapes of these candies are seasonally linked and generally very specific. Since I only have a few molds, those are what I plan to make.

If you do not have rakugan higashi molds, you can buy candy or chocolate molds at many craft supply stores. They’ll hold you over until you can make a friend in Japan to send you some molds.

From Jessica Branom-Zwick

• 3 lbs spinach (or your preferred quantity)
• 2 cups dried cranberries
• 1 small Walla Walla or other onion
• 2 tasty pears or 4 satsumas (your choice)

Directions:

Chop, toss, and serve.

From Jenn Purnell

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 6 cups French bread, cut in cubes
• 2 tomatoes, cut in cubes
• 1 cucumber, seeds removed, cut in cubes
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
• ½ red onion sliced
• 3 large handfuls fresh basil, chopped
• 3 tablespoons capers

Vinaigrette:

• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• ½ cup good olive oil
• a tiny pinch of salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Sauté bread with oil until browned, mix up the vinaigrette.
Mix everything together. Let sit 30 minutes before serving.

From Alice

• 1 cup oat milk or milk substitute of your choice
• 6 tablespoons palm oil, butter, margarine, or other solid fat
• 1 Tablespoon yeast
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• 2 “Eggs” (substitute of your choice)
• 5 cups flour

Topping

• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ⅔ cups flour
• 4 Tablespoons palm oil
• 2 fake egg yolks
• food coloring (pink, orange, yellow)

Directions:

Heat the oat milk until it bubbles and remove from heat. Add the palm oil, stir until melted. Add the yeast when it is about the same temperature as tap-hot water. Try not to let the yeast get coated in palm oil.

Add ⅓ cup sugar, fake eggs and 2 cups flour. Add the rest of the flour a little at a time, mixing thoroughly. Knead until smooth, about 8 minutes. Put dough in an oiled, warm bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled in size (1 hour).

Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces. Form into flat ovals on a lined cookie sheet. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled again (40 minutes).

Topping: mix ½  cup sugar, ⅔ cup flour, and palm oil until you get crumbs. Mix coloring with the fake egg, then add to the crumbs. Roll into 16 ovals about the same size as the top of the buns. Place a topping oval on each bun, and press very lightly into place. Do not press hard enough to collapse your buns!

Cut patterns into the oval topping – spiral shapes, criss-crosses, etc.

Bake at 350°F for 15 to 20 minutes, or until sugar topping is almost browned.

From Alice

• 2 ¼ cups white, short-grain, Japanese rice (or medium-grain California rice).
• rice wine vinegar
• ¼ lb sashimi-grade salmon

Directions:

Broil the salmon until justflaking.

Cook the rice. Add rice vinegar until the flavor of the rice is right–like sushi rice. This should be ¼ to ½ cups of rice wine vinegar.

Make tightly-squished balls of rice with bits of salmon hidden in the middle. Using an onigiri mold makes this easy.

You can put other things in the middles too!

From Corinne Cooley

• 2 lbs free-range lamb, chop finely
• 1 large onion
• 2-4 tomatoes, chop finely
• Optional: 2 green chilies, chop finely
• ½ inch ginger, grated
• 3 tsp minced garlic
• Optional: ½ tsp red chili powder
• ½ tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp coriander, grind up
• ½ tsp cumin seeds, grind up
• ¾ tsp home-made garam masala: grind together white peppercorn, clove, bay, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, coriander (red pepper & mustard seeds optional)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cloves
• 2 green cardamom pods
• ⅓ cup canola oil
• Chopped cilantro

Directions:

For 5-10 minutes, boil 1 clove of garlic, bay leaves, and lamb in 2 cups of water. Pour off the water.

For 1 minute, activate the spices by frying the cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves in the oil.

Add the onions. When the onions are lightly browned, add the ginger, garlic and green chilies.

For 5 minutes, saute all that with the boiled meat.

For 5 minutes, cook with half the garam masala mix and the rest of the spices (turmeric, red chili powder, cumin, coriander).

Add the tomatoes and salt and cook until a couple minutes after the liquid is gone.

Add 2 cups of water and cook until the meat is tender.

For 5 minutes, fry the whole thing up with the remaining garam masala mix. Serve with the cilantro.

From Jason Enevoldsen

• white peppercorn
• clove
• bay
• cumin
• cinnamon
• cardamom
• coriander
• Optional: red pepper
• Optional: mustard seeds

Directions:

Grind together.