Southern Angel's Got Even MORE Spring Time Recipes!

There are so many spring vegetables and fruits to play with during this time of year, so here are some breakfast, lunch, and supper ideas for y'all!

• Cherries
• Strawberries
• Bananas (okay, okay - these are available year-round)
• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Raspberries

• Sugar Snap Peas
• Rhubarb
• Avocado
• Chives
• Watercress
• Ramps or Wild Leeks
• Poke Salet

1. BREAKFAST IDEAS
   1. Fruit Salad and Bagel
   2. Oatmeal topped with 1 teaspoon sour cream mixed with 2 tablespoons brown sugar, and sprinkled with 1 tablespoon finely chopped walnuts
   3. Scones and Quickie Berry Smush
   4. Grapefruit half topped with brown sugar, yogurt, and wheat germ
   5. Angel's Granola and Yogurt

2. SALAD IDEAS
   1. Spring Time Sweet Baby Spinach Salad
   2. Herb Egg Salad
      EGG SALAD NOTE: Before you romp off to make these egg salads, you may need a refresher course on how to boil eggs. First step is to rinse out your pot. Next, pour about two inches of water in your pot and GENTLY place your eggs into the water, then cover your eggs with about a half-inch of water. (If the number of eggs that you're boiling won't all fit into the bottom of your pan without stacking them, take a clean dish towel and line the bottom of the pot with one half of the dish towel and place one layer of eggs on the dish towel. Next, fold the other half of the dish towel over the layer of eggs and then place the remainder of eggs on top of the dish towel then cover eggs with about a half-inch of water.) Second step is to turn your stove eye on HOT/HIGH and bring the eggs to a boil. Once you have a rolling boil, boil the eggs for exactly 10 (ten) minutes and then run cold water over them in the sink for a couple of minutes. There ya go, boiled eggs. Shoo stinky.
   3. Southern Egg Salad Sandwich
   4. Tons of Avocado Recipes care of AvocadoSalad.com

3. MAIN AND SIDE DISH IDEAS
   1. Stir fry with beef or chicken, bell pepper, sugar snap peas, carrots, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, celery, ontions, bok choy, and bean sprouts. Serve over rice or noodles.
   2. Pick any fruit and serve with whipped topping
   3. Pork 'n Ramps
   4. Roasted Ramps and Taters
   5. Poke Salet Dip
   6. Poke Salet

4. DESSERT IDEAS
   1. Cherry Trifle
   2. Pick any fruit and serve with whipped topping
   3. Fruit Cobbler
   4. Old Fashioned Strawberry Pie
   5. Every kind of rhubarb recipe that you can think of is here at: RhubarbInfo.com

Toss apples in reserved orange juice, then toss in remaining fruit. Next sprinkle with sunflower seeds, if desired.

Toast bagel, rub on butter and enjoy breakfast!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sift together flour and salt sugar. Cut in butter with a fork (or pastry cutter) to pea-sized mixture. Add milk and stir until just moistened.

Throw out some flour on a sheet of waxed piece of paper and roll the dough out and cut into whatever shape scone you want. Brush tops with butter and sprinkle tiny bit of sugar on top of each scone.

Place on greased cookie sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly golden.

Quickie Berry Smush:
1/4 cup blackberries
1/4 cup strawberries
2 Tablespoons honey

Smush together all ingredients and serve with scones.

If you use unsalted sunflower seeds, then add 3/4 teaspoon of salt or so to taste. This makes about 10 or so servings. The kids will love this and it's much better for them than chips! This granola is also yummy on top of ice cream, yogurt, and fruit salad. Make sure you look at the end of this recipe for other dry ingredient suggestions.

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup slivered or sliced almonds
1 cup salted sunflower seeds
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup toasted wheat germ (un-toasted is fine, too)
1/2 cup honey or maple syrup (pure maple syrup, not Aunt Jemima, now)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup dried cherries, or your favorite dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, blueberries, cherries, etc.)

Preheat oven to 275º. In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, wheat germ and brown sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk together honey and oil until well-blended and it looks sort of like apple sauce. Pour honey mixture over oat mixture and stir gently. Sometimes I mix the ingredients by hand to make sure all the nuts and oats are covered.

Pour granola over a large greased cookie sheet or two small greasaed cookie sheets. Toast for 20 minutes, stir, then toast for another 15-20 minutes - until granola is *GBD (*golden brown delicious). Stay close to the oven and don't start playing on the computer so that you lose track of time because you will need to keep the granola from burning.

When the granola achieves the "GBD" stage, remove it from the oven and transfer to a large bowl. Add dried cherries and mix until evenly distributed. Cool to touch, then store in airtight container.

Other dry ingredients to consider adding:

• Stir in 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon to the dry ingredients before mixing. You are welcome to add more - it's your granola! Make it as cinnamon-y as you want!
• Substitute dark brown sugar for the light brown for a sharper molasses taste
• If you are into that molasses taste, you can add a couple of tablespoons of molasses or dark brown corn syrup to the honey and oil mixture
• You can add other goodies to this recipe too, like:
  • 1/3 cup of flake coconut
  • 1/8 cup sesame seeds
  • 1/4 cup shelled pumpkin seeds
  • 1/3 cup pecan pieces (or halves)
  • 1/3 cup pine nuts
  • 1/3 cup walnut pieces
• You can leave out the wheat germ, too. I add it because it's rich in protein, B vitamins, vitamin E, iron, carbohydrates, and fiber.
• Visit your local health food store and you can find all kinds of neat seeds, nuts, roots, sticks, dried bugs, and other interesting things to add that are good for you. I recently acquired some flax seed (thanks Momma!) and I added 1/4 cup of it - it is a delicious addition to my granola!

You can eat granola as is, eat as cereal, or use as a yogurt topping. Yum!

Note: if you go crazy and add a lot more dry ingredients, then you'll need to add a bit more honey and oil. You don't want dry granola, do you? What would the neighbors think?

Toss together vegetables with dressing and top with sunflower seeds

Whisk together and serve over salad.

Mash up the eggs and then mix together all ingredients except parsley and tomatoes. Store in an air-tight container and refrigerate for a couple of hours for flavors to meld. Top with tomatoes and parsley and serve with crackers or if you want to make this into a sandwich, lightly toast your favorite bread, put on two thin slices of avocado (that was lightly salted and splashed with lemon juice), a slice of tomater, and then pile on your egg salad. The creamy-ness of the avocado will take the place of mayo.

4 boiled eggs
3-4 Tablespoons mayonnaise
4-5 Tablespoons mustard
4-5 Tablespoons DILL pickle relish
1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper
2 Dashes Tabasco pepper sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Lettuce
Sliced tomatoes
Thinly sliced Vidalia onion (optional, of course)
Sliced bread, lightly toasted

Mash eggs, then mix eggs with mayo, mustard, dill pickle relish, Tabasco sauce, and lemon pepper. Add salt and pepper and taste. Store in an air-tight container and refrigerate for a couple of hours to chill and for flavors to meld. When you're ready, toast your bread, put a slice of Vidalia onion on one piece of toast, put lettuce and tomater on the other piece of toast, then slather on a heap of egg salad and enjoy.

4 pork chops
Flour
1 large ramp, finely chopped
1 can cream of mushroom soup plus 1/2 can water
1 quart or box or whatever you call those things of sliced mushrooms, thoroughly rinsed
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons A1 sauce
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix together everything except pork chops and flour, and pour the mixture into 9x13" pan. Drop chops into water to moisten then dredge them in flour and place them in mushroom mixture. Carefully cover chops with mixture.

Bake chops 30-45 minutes, depending on thickness of meat. Remove chops from pan. Deglaze pan with 1/4 cup wine, broth, or water, then pour into sauce pot. Whisk in 2 tablespoons flour and when thickened, remove from heat and pour into gravy boat. Serve chops over rice with gravy.

2 large ramps, cleaned, ends trimmed, and roughly chopped - to about a 1/4 inch
6-8 medium potatoes (enough to cover a 9x13" pan), scrubbed and chopped into bite-sized pieces
4 cloves chopped garlic
4 Tablespoons of bacon grease
Salt and pepper (enough to lightly dust the taters)
3 Tablespoons crushed red pepper

In a big skillet, heat up the bacon grease then saute the ramps and garlic on low for about ten (10) minutes.

Add in potatoes and rest of ingredients and fry until sides of potatoes are barely brown. While you're doing this preheat the oven to 375F.

Pour everything into a 9x13" pan and bake until tender, about 30-45 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine poke salet, sour cream, mayonnaise, cream cheese, pecans and green onions. Using a wooden spoon, mix thoroughly until all ingredients are well blended. Add seasoned salt, oregano, dill weed and lemon juice. Season to taste using salt and pepper. Cover bowl with a clear wrap and place in refrigerator for a minimum of 2 hours.

If you are feeling fancy, trim core end of cabbage to form a flat base. Cut a crosswise slice from the top, making it wide enough to remove about a fourth of the cabbage. Lift out enough inner leaves to form a shell or bowl about 1-inch thick. Spoon dip into cavity of cabbage and serve with an assortment of fresh vegetables or croutons.

Poke salet greens (young and tender ones are best)
Bacon
Salt and pepper to taste
Hot pepper sauce

Clean poke greens well rinsing several times. Place these in a large pot and boil for ten minutes, drain and discard water. Refill with cold water and boil again. Do this 3 (three) times, pouring off the water and adding fresh water each time. After the water has been changed at least three times, add fresh water and 1 slice of bacon. Cook down the greens until tender. Fry rest of bacon until crisp and set aside.

My Momma used to put the boiled and rinsed leaves in her cast iron skillet, add in hot pepper sauce, fatback or bacon grease and fry it until it was "done."

Another way to cook poke salad is to put the boiled and rinsed leaves in a big skillet with some bacon drippings, an egg or two, a half cup (or more) of chopped onion, and then scramble it all together.

1 Angel food cake, torn into bite-sized pieces
2 (4-serving size) packages instant vanilla pudding
4 cups 2% cold milk (or whatever milk you have on hand)
3 cups pitted and halved cherries
12-ounce container Non-dairy whipped topping, thawed of course
1 3-ounce package cherry Jello
1 cup HOT water
1 cup crushed ice

Mix cherry Jello with hot water and stir until Jello is completely dissolved. Add cup of crushed ice; set aside.

Mix together pudding mix and milk in medium mixing bowl; add in 1/2 cup Non-dairy whipped topping. Add cherries to Jello mixture and stir. Using one of those pretty trifle dishy-thingies (or your favorite bowl), alternate layers of pudding mixture, angel food cake, cherries, and top off with remaining Non-dairy whipped topping. Chill and serve.

1 tablespoon cornstarch (or flour)
4 cups sweetened fruit (use 1/2 granulated and 1/2 brown sugar to sweeten them - you judge how sweet you want them)
1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Mix cornstarch and fruit, then pour into grease 13 x 9-inch baking dish. Top with batter topping.

Batter Topping:
1 cup self-rising flour
1/2 cup milk (or water)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 egg, slightly beaten
1-2 tablespoons raw sugar (or whatever you have - for sprinkling on top)

Combine all the ingredients, except the 1-2 tablespoons sugar. Beat with spoon until batter is smooth. Drop by spoonfuls on peach mixture, spreading evenly. (It spreads over peaches while baking.) Sprinkle with the sugar. Bake at 375° for 30 to 35 minutes, until topping is golden brown. Let it cool for about 15 minutes - or as long as you can stand it, and then dig in.

Mash 1/2 cup of the strawberries and mix with cornstarch, sugar, and water; boil for 2 minutes or until thickened. Place remaining berries in crust. Remove strawberry mixture from heat and pour over berries in the shell. Chill and serve with whipped cream.