| Friday Top 10: spam recipes we learnt from Gmail
You've probably noticed the Google ads that sit on the page when you're using Gmail. It's one of the ways Google makes money out of your free email service. But have you noticed they also appear at the top of the page when you click on your Spam folder. And because they're related to the content that you're reading, they're always recipes involving spam (the food) from the same website, RecipeSource? Anyway, here's Tech Digest's pick of the, er, tastiest recipes that we've noticed while clearing out our Gmail spam folder. 1. Spam Vegetable Strudel. Good for vegetarians (apart from the spam part) 2. Vineyard Spam Salad. i.e. it has grapes in it. 3. Spam Primavera. Popular in Italy. Possibly. 4. Spam Imperial Tortilla Sandwiches. Makes me whistle the Star Wars theme.
More good cooks from the LA County Fair
Three Inland Empire residents - including a 12-year-old boy - took top honors in two more food competitions at the L.A. County Fair this year. Marilyn Cruz of La Verne captured first place in the Hidden Valley Family Friendly Food Contest with her recipe Fried Cluck N' Hidden Stuff. The two winners in the Great American SPAM Championship were Jennifer Anzaldi of Cherry Valley (adults) and Christopher Palomino, 12, of Chino (Kid Chef category). They each won $150 and are up for grand prizes of $3,000 and $2,000, respectively. Hormel Foods Test Kitchens will do the grand prize judging in January. Anzaldi created Elegant SPAM Stuffed Mushrooms and Christopher came up with SPAM Stuffed Mushrooms. Here are their prize-winning recipes. Fried Cluck N' Hidden Stuff 4 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless 1 cup diced carrots 1 cup diced celery 1 cup diced onions 2 sticks butter 2 bags seasoned bread stuffing (4 cups or more) 1 1/2 cups chicken broth 1 cup chopped dried cranberries 16 oz.
Winning Spam recipe
In the bowl of a food processor or mixer, combine 1/2 cup of the cheese, SPAM chunks, and sun-dried tomatoes. Pulse or mix until nearly smooth. Transfer mixture to a bowl and stir in remainder of the cheese and the red onion. Remove the stems from the mushrooms. With a small spoon, scrape out inside of each mushroom to make the cavity bigger. Stuff each mushroom with about one teaspoon of the SPAM mixture. Be careful not to overstuff. Carefully lay four sheets of phyllo dough on top of one another, brushing every other one with melted butter. Cut phyllo lengthwise down the center, and then cut each half into three pieces to make six squares. Place a mushroom, SPAM side up, in the center of each square. Lift the sides of the pastry up over mushrooms to resemble small bundles. Form a neck by pinching the edges together to seal.
It's been fun, but Jane Snow says: Goodbye, fruitcake
The year was 1978. I had never eaten a sauerkraut ball. I had never heard of Strickland's Frozen Custard. I had never dined in my car at Swenson's. I was young and svelte. All of that was about to change. In the ensuing years, Akron literally would seep into my bones and pile up on my hips as I earned my daily bread by eating it, first as food critic and then food editor of the Beacon Journal. I gained (and later lost) 100 pounds, and it has been delicious. But now it's time to say goodbye. After 28 years at the Beacon Journal (25 of them writing about food), I'm resigning to write cookbooks and dabble in other food adventures. But holy cannoli, has it been fun. Male caller: ``I'm trying to make fudge from your recipe, but something's wrong with the directions.
Mushrooms + Spam = winning recipe
On Tuesday, her Spam 'shrooms En Croute won the State Fair of Texas' Great American Spam Championship over 31 other cooking entries, including Spam tamales, French toast and a creme brulee-like creation that took third place. McKnight's finger-food entry was mushrooms stuffed with Spam Less Sodium, cheese and a few other ingredients baked in a square of phyllo dough. She's been entering State Fair cooking competitions for 12 years, but Tuesday's championship was her first big prize. "I love stuffed mushrooms, and sometimes, these things just come to you," said McKnight of Dallas, who won the blue ribbon, $150 and a chance to compete in a national competition sponsored by Hormel Foods, the maker of Spam. The Texas competition is one of 40 across the country where hot and cold entries are judged on taste, originality and presentation.
Church rolls out welcome mat to South Asians
FREMONT If the people who founded Good Shepherd Lutheran Church 49 years ago could see it today, no doubt they would do a double take. Dozens of graduation pictures over the years show a congregation predominantly of German and Norwegian stock, and reveal confirmation classes of mostly blond Sunday school students. But on Sunday, the Gospel was read in Hindi, several female parishioners wore saris and most of the old-timers had gray hair. "I think it's a sign of the times," said Patti Fontaine, a member of the all-blond confirmation class of 1977 and the daughter of two of the church's founding members. "It's just nice to see God's house full again." It was Fremont's changing demographics that last year transformed what had been a small, fairly typical Lutheran church into the place where Martin Luther meets Tikka Masala.
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