Publisher's Desk...
Today's issue is from guest publisher Linda in Michigan:
Hi from Linda in Michigan. Before I introduce our theme for today, I need to give you a little feedback on last week's hot dog issue. Reader, Pam, originally asked for the hot dog theme. In the Discussion Forum, she shared her favorite hot dog money stretcher recipe. I would like to share it with you:
"Beanies and Weanies" recipe. Just cut up hot dogs into bite-sized pieces and add to a large can of your favorite baked beans. Add some chopped onion and heat and serve.
Tasty, quick meal.
Another one of our readers, Don, (my friend the "Canadian Alien"), adds that he and his buddies always take hot dogs to roast after a long day of quadding or snowmobile riding. He says that they take pita bread rather than buns, because the bread holds up much better on the rides.
The last addendum comes from my son, Tim. He wanted me to know that one year I did not make him hot dogs and chili for his birthday. It seems that I made pepper steak and he has carried that emotional scarring burden since then. I told him I did not remember that. I only recall the good times. Then he brought up the carrot cake birthday??¦??¦??¦oh, never mind.
This week's issue should be easy on everyone's memory. Because, who doesn't like
PUDDING? I found some great recipes in the 1979 ($1.99) copy of "Easy Homemade Desserts with Jell-O Pudding". Then, when I thumbed through one of my Mennonite cookbooks, I found some pudding recipes made from "scratch". I had almost forgotten that not all pudding comes from a box, either "cook-to-serve, or instant". I have tried to choose a good sampling of both. The
Publisher's Choice recipe is actually a misnomer. It should be called Tim's Choice. It's his favorite birthday cake recipe. Guaranteed to heal emotional scars!
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Ramblings...
Frequent Flier Miles in the Millions ...
According to the San Francisco Examiner, Mike Phillips, a civil engineer at UC-Davis, has become a cult hero in the obsessive subculture of people who collect frequent-flier miles by parlaying $3,150 worth of pudding into 1.2 million miles.
Oh, yeah - he's also going to claim an $815 tax write-off.
Last May, Phillips was pushing his shopping cart down the frozen-food aisle of his local supermarket when a promotion on a Healthy Choice frozen entree caught his eye: He could earn 500 miles for every 10 Universal Product Codes (bar codes) from Healthy Choice products he sent to the company by December 31.
Even better: Any bar codes mailed by the end of the month would rack up double the mileage or 1,000 miles for every 10 labels.
"I started doing the math, and I realized that this was a great deal," he said. "I wanted to take my family to Europe this summer, and this could be the way."
Frozen entrees were about $2 apiece, but a few aisles away Phillips found cans of Healthy Choice soups at 90 cents each. He filled his cart with them, and then headed to his local Grocery Outlet, a warehouse-style discount store. And there he hit the mother lode.
"They had individual servings of chocolate pudding for 25 cents apiece," he said. "And each serving had its own bar code on it. I did some more math and decided to escalate my plans."
Phillips cleaned the store out - bought every last cup of pudding in the warehouse. He then asked the manager for the addresses of all the other Grocery Outlets in the Central Valley and, with his mother-in-law riding shotgun in his van, spent a weekend scouring the shelves of every store from Davis to Fresno. "There were 10 stores in all," he said. "Luckily, most of them were right off the freeway."
He filled his garage to the rafters with chocolate pudding and stacked additional cases in his living room. But Phillips wasn't finished yet-he had the manager of his local Grocery Outlet order him 60 more cases. "A few days later I went out behind the store," he said, "and there were two whole pallets of chocolate pudding with my name on them."
All in all, he'd purchased 12,150 individual servings of pudding. Around this time, Phillips began to reveal his scheme to fellow readers of the Webflyer Web site, where he posted an account under the name "Pudding Guy."
Phillips' tale was met with skepticism, if not outright disbelief, until he uploaded photos of his haul. They're still there, at http://www.flyertalk.com/pudding.htm
But then Pudding Guy discovered he had a problem on his hands: The deadline for earning double miles was quickly approaching, and there was simply no way Phillips and his wife could tear off all those bar codes in time.
"I had to come up with something to do with all that pudding, fast" he said.
Phillips trucked the pudding to two local food banks and the Salvation Army, which agreed to tear off the bar codes in exchange for the food donation.
"We'd never seen anything like it," said Larry Hostetler, community relations director for the Sacramento Salvation Army. "We've gotten some big donations, but always from companies and institutions, not individual people."
Phillips got his bar codes in the mail in time to beat the deadline, and then held his breath. The promotion specifically said I could get the miles for any Healthy Choice product," he said. "But still, it seemed like there was a good chance they'd get me on some technicality."
But then packages - large packages - started arriving in the mail from Healthy Choice. In all, they contained 2,506 certificates, each good for 500 miles. That's 1,253,000 miles.
Under the terms of the promotion, Phillips could have the mileage posted in any airline account. He split 216,000 between his United, Delta and Northwest accounts and posted the rest--1,037,000 miles--to his American Airlines account.
By surpassing the million-mile mark, Pudding Guy now has AAdvantage Gold status for life, entitling him to a special reservations number, priority boarding, upgrades, and bonus miles.
While we talked on the phone, Pudding Guy did a little math--as you might have noticed by now, he's very, very good at math--and figured out that scheme netted him enough miles for 31 round-trip coach tickets to Europe, or 42 tickets to Hawaii, or 21 tickets to Australia, or 50 tickets anywhere in the U.S.
"Wow - 31 trips to Europe for a little over $3,000," I said. "That's less than $100 a ticket."
"Oh, it's better than that," Phillips said. "Since I gave the pudding to charity, I can take a tax write-off of $815. So that brings the cost of a ticket to Europe down to $75."
As it turns out, Pudding Guy didn't donate all his stash to the food banks. He kept about 100 servings for himself, and he's just about finished them. "Actually," he said, "I really like the stuff."
Source: multiple websites
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The Magic of JELL-O
100 New and Favorite Recipes Celebrating 100 Years of Fun with JELL-O
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Did You Know?...
Source: Jell-O Pudding website
Creamy, cool and satisfying, it's no wonder JELL-O?® Pudding has been an American family favorite for more than 63 years. Today you can cook JELL-O Pudding over the stove, just like your grandmother did, or you can whip up some JELL-O instant pudding in a mere five minutes. Either way, when you could go for something rich, smooth, and delicious, JELL-O Pudding is the place to turn.
Sixty four percent of moms say JELL-O Pudding is a favorite snack for kids.?
Kate Smith (1942-45), Roy Rogers (1956), and Bill Cosby (1974-present) are just some of the famous people who have been spokespersons for JELL-O Pudding.?
JELL-O Pudding is available in the following varieties and delicious flavors:
JELL-O Brand Instant Pudding & Pie Filling?
JELL-O Brand Fat Free Sugar Free Instant Reduced Calorie Pudding & Pie Filling?
JELL-O Brand Cook & Serve Pudding & Pie Filling?
JELL-O Brand Fat Free Sugar Free Cook & Serve Reduced Calorie Pudding & Pie Filling?
JELL-O AMERICANA Pudding & Custard Mix?
JELL-O Brand Instant Pudding & Pie Filling?
Banana Cream?
Butterscotch
Cheesecake?
Chocolate?
Chocolate Fudge?
Coconut Cream
Devil's Food
French Vanilla?
Lemon
OREO Cookies 'n Creme
Pistachio?
Vanilla
White Chocolate
JELL-O Brand Fat Free Sugar Free Instant Reduced Calorie Pudding & Pie Filling?
Banana Cream?
Butterscotch
Chocolate?
Chocolate Fudge
Pistachio?
Vanilla?
White Chocolate
JELL-O Brand Cook & Serve Pudding & Pie Filling?
Banana Cream?
Butterscotch?
Chocolate?
Chocolate Fudge?
Coconut Cream?
Lemon?
Milk Chocolate?
Vanilla
JELL-O Brand Fat Free Sugar Free Cook & Serve Reduced Calorie Pudding & Pie Chocolate
Vanilla
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Great conversion tools on one website
Convert measurements, calculator, you name it FREE:
ConvertIt.com
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Next Monthly Theme...
To Be Announced on February 4th
A to Z Recipes continues with its popular Theme Issues. We will share theme recipes and post them on the first Sunday of each month. Send your recipes no later than the last Friday of each month to have them posted in the next monthly theme issue. You may send in your favorite theme recipes in ONE email. If the number of recipes exceeds those needed in the issue, the publisher will post as many from every submitter as possible and save the remaining recipes for the following Sundays of that month. The rules for recipe submissions for the monthly theme issues are the same as ALL recipes submitted for posting.
The rules are as follows:
As a service to your fellow readers, please send only recipes that are in a form that others could easily copy and save for their own use. Recipes that would require a lot of editing or cleaning up or use non-standard measurements should not be submitted. Recipes without a name and location of sender may NOT be posted or posted without any credit given. There will be NO recipes posted that are from other recipe-zines. A to Z Recipes protects the privacy of its readers and does NOT publish email addresses. There will be no exceptions.
See the A to Z Recipes Theme Issues collection here:
A to Z Recipes Theme Issues
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Crazy Corner...
Give Chocolate Pudding
First soldier: "Pass me the chocolate pudding, would you?"
Second soldier: "No way, Jose!"
First soldier: "Why ever not?"
Second soldier: "It's against regulations to help another soldier to dessert!"
Granny Makes Pudding
Okay, grandkids, today we are going to make an old-fashioned banana pudding, grandma's way, not that new fangled stuff they make with instant pudding and phony whipped cream. Phooey! Ours will be made from scratch - real pudding made on the stove and real meringue on top.
Here's what we need, a baking dish, a bowl and a large pot. Let's make a big one. Banana pudding will not last long. Measure out 1-1/2 cups of sugar. That's okay; we can clean up the spills later. Now we need 4 eggs, and this is the tricky part; we have to separate the yokes from the whites.
Crack the egg and let the white part run out. Oh, we need the bowl. Whew, that was close. Now put the yoke in the other half of the eggshell and separate the rest. See? You try it now. Crack it carefully, and??¦ Uh oh, the yoke broke. Oh me, the whites will not beat up fluffy with yellow in them. We will try and get it out with a spoon.
Put the sugar in the pot, and stir the egg yokes into the dry sugar. That's a little grandma trick to make the egg mix in. Now stir in 2/3-cup flour, and 4 cups of milk. Just add a little of each at the time and stir it in, so it will mix.
Okay, put the heat on medium and cook. We have to stir it the whole time or it could burn. While grandma stirs, you can fix the wafers and bananas. Make a layer of vanilla wafers in the bottom of the baking dish, and then a layer of sliced bananas. You did remember to wash your hands first, I hope?
Oh, the pudding is boiling. It's sticking to the bottom? Stir! We have to cook it until it boils gets thick and then 2 minutes extra. Why? I don't know why. Don't question me now while I'm busy.
Grandma will take it off the heat, and add 4 tablespoons of butter and a dash or two of vanilla. As long as it doesn't taste scorched, we can still use it. We will pour half over the wafers and bananas. Yes, I know we are using store-bought wafers. It is not going to be THAT homemade. Now, make another layer of wafers and another layer of banana and pudding. Hurry before the pudding gets cool.
You can lick the pot while grandma makes meringue. See: whip the egg white with a fourth teaspoon of cream of tartar, another little grandma secret. When they are fluffy, we will add a teaspoon of vanilla and 2 tablespoons of sugar for each egg. Why are they not getting fluffy? It must be that yoke that got in the mix. What a mess.
Throw it away and get some more eggs out. Grandma doesn't remember it being this difficult when she used to make it. We will beat until peaks form and add the sugar. Now, spread on top of the pudding. You can use your finger to make peaks in the meringue. No! Don't lick you finger first!
Grandma will put it in the oven and let the meringue brown for 10 or 15 minutes. We can clean up some of this mess while we wait for it to finish. Let's check it. Eeek! It's burning!
Get out of way and let grandma get it out of the oven. I don't understand it. It was only in there for 10 minutes. Well, it is a bit brown, but not too bad. Thank goodness we checked when we did or it would have been a burnt offering.
When it cools a while, we can eat it. Grandma feels a bit dizzy. Must be from standing over the heat. Grandma better sit down for a while before she faints and falls into the pudding. We have had enough disaster for one day already.
It does look pretty good. Maybe grandma can make a cook out of you yet. The next time, though, we will just use pudding and whipped cream. The old way is too much trouble.
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NEAPOLITAN PUDDING
2 2/3 cups sugar
?? teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons flour
4 cups boiling water
4 egg whites
2 cups crushed or chunk pineapple
?? cup maraschino cherries
4 bananas cut into chunks
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
Whipped cream, optional
Mix first three ingredients; stir into boiling water, and cook until clear and thick. Beat the egg whites until light and fluffy. Add pineapple, cherries, and bananas. Add extracts. Chill and serve. Top with whipped cream.
PUDDING POKE CAKE
1 package (two layer size) yellow cake mix
Ingredients for cake mix
2 packages (4 serving size) chocolate instant pudding and pie filling
1 cup confectioner's sugar
4 cups cold milk
Prepare and bake cake mix as directed on package for 9x13 cake. Remove from oven. Poke holes at once down through cake to pan with round handle of wooden spoon. Holes should be at 1-inch intervals. Only after the holes are made, combine pudding mix with sugar in large bowl. Gradually stir in milk. Beat with electric mixer at low speed for not more than one minute. Do not overbeat. Quickly, before pudding thickens, pour about half of the thin pudding evenly over warm cake and into holes. (This will make stripes in cake.) Allow remaining pudding to thicken slightly; then spoon over the top, swirling to "frost" the cake. Chill at least one hour. Refrigerate leftovers.
ROCKY ROAD PUDDING
2 cups cold milk
1 package (4 serving size) chocolate instant pudding and pie filling
?? cup miniature marshmallows
1/3 cup unsalted peanuts, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Pour cold milk into a bowl. Add pudding mix. With electric mixer at low speed, beat until well blended, one to two minutes. Let stand five minutes. Fold in marshmallows, peanuts and chocolate chips. Spoon into individual dessert dishes. Chill about 2 hours. Garnish with whipped cream and additional chopped peanuts if desired.
FRUITED TAPIOCA PUDDING
1 can (8 ?? oz.) fruit cocktail
1 can (8 ?? oz.) crushed pineapple in syrup
1 package (3 ?? oz.) vanilla tapioca pudding
1 tablespoon butter
Drain fruits, reserving syrup. Add water to syrups to make 2 cups. Prepare pudding mix with measured liquid as directed on package. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and fruit. Chill and serve.
BUTTERSCOTCH PUDDING
1 cup brown sugar
6 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
?? teaspoon salt
3 ?? cups milk
3 tablespoons butter
6 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla
Graham cracker crumbs
Nuts
Bananas
In saucepan combine sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt. Blend in milk. Add butter. Cook on low heat, stirring constantly, till mixture thickens and bubbles. Cook one minute more. Beat eggs slightly. Stir about half of hot mixture into eggs. return to saucepan and heat. Cook one to two minutes more. Do not boil. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Cover surface with wax paper. Cool without stirring. Layer with graham cracker crumbs, nuts and bananas to serve.
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Heart Healthy...
LEMON CREAM CHEESE CRUNCH BARS
Servings: 2 Bars
Estimated POINTS per serving: 3
1 (8-ounce) can Pillsbury Reduced Fat Crescent Rolls
1 (4-serving) package Jell-O sugar-free vanilla cook-and-serve pudding mix
1 (4-serving) package Jell-O sugar-free lemon gelatin
1 cup Carnation Nonfat Dry Milk Powder
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1 (8-ounce) package Philadelphia fat-free cream cheese
1 1/2 cups raisins
1/4 cup (1 ounce) chopped pecans
1/4 cup flaked coconut
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a 9-by-13-inch rimmed cookie sheet with butter-flavored cooking spray. Pat rolls in pan, being sure to seal perforations. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until light golden brown. Place cookie sheet on a wire rack and allow to cool. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, combine dry pudding mix, dry gelatin, dry milk powder, and water. Cook over medium heat for 6 to 8 minutes or until mixture thickens and starts to boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add coconut extract and cream cheese. Mix well using a wire whisk. Fold in raisins, pecans and coconut. Spread mixture evenly over cooled crust. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Cut into 24 bars.
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For Two...
BREAD PUDDING FOR TWO
1 slice bread, cubed
2 tbsp. raisins
1 egg
1/2 cup evaporated milk
3 tbsp. water
2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
Divide bread and raisins between two greased 8-oz. baking dishes; set aside. In a bowl, beat egg, milk and water; pour over bread. Combine sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg; sprinkle over top. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool slightly. Serve warm. Yield: 2 servings
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Publisher's Choice...
TIM'S BIRTHDAY CAKE
First Layer:
One box of Jiffy yellow cake mix
Ingredients for cake
Make cake according to package directions. Bake in a 9x13 pan until golden brown. Be careful. This bakes very quickly because it makes a very thin layer of cake. Cool completely.
Second Layer:
2 (4 serving) boxes of instant vanilla pudding mix
Ingredients for pudding
1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese, softened
Make pudding according to package directions. Blend in cream cheese. Spread on top of completely cooled cake.
Next Layers:
1 can of crushed pineapple, drained
Bananas
Cool Whip
Maraschino cherries
Crushed walnuts
Spread pineapple, sliced bananas, Cool Whip, diced maraschino cherries and nuts on top of pudding layer.
Say Happy Birthday to Tim!
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