Moo's Chinese Noodle Custard

This is a good first course or side dish for any Asian dinner. It's light and not what most people expect when ordering Chinese. I prefer light (low sodium) soy sauce and organic chicken broth. If you want to avoid the chicken broth, try vegetable broth.

1 pkg fine noodles
4 eggs, whisked
1/2 t. salt
2 t. soy sauce
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups milk

Cook noodles until tender. Rinse and drain. Set oven to 325 degrees. Pour noodles into a 2 quart casserole. Whisk eggs well and add other ingredients. Pour over noodles and fold in. Set casserole into larger pan with some water and bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Moo's Peanut Butter and Pepper Sauce

There's something about a good peanut butter sauce. This is a palate pleaser...Asian style!

2 T peanut butter
3 T warm water
2 T soy sauce
1 T cider vinegar
2 T sesame oil
1 t. cayenne pepper
2 t. sugar
1/2 t. salt
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 T scallions, finely chopped

Combine peanut butter with warm water to make a smooth, thin sauce. Then combine the remaining ingredients except the garlic and scallion into a very smooth dressing. Add garlic and scallion just before serving.

Blue Cheese Dressing

This is a delicious blue cheese dressing for any salad. But while I like it on greens, I adore it on cold pear slices (either fresh or canned). An unusual palate pleaser.

1/4 cup wine vinegar
1/8 t. pepper
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/4 t. salt
3/4 and 2 T. olive oil
1/2 cup apple sauce

Combine vinegar, salt and pepper in blender. Slowly add oil while running blender at low speed. Add sour cream, apple sauce and blue cheese. Blend until smooth.

Thai Tartare

Given my concerns about hormones and antibiotics given to many commercial cattle, I prefer to use organic beef. I don't have tartare as often as I used to, but this is a good palate pleaser.

1 lb raw, high-grade ground lean beef
Grated rind of 1 1/2 limes
3 shallots, minced
3 scallions, minced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
3 T cilantro, finely chopped
6 T lemon grass, minced (cut off sticklike part and remove outer leaves of bulb before chopping)

Place all the ingredients together in large bowl and mix thoroughly with your hands. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Place several lettuce leaves on a serving plate. Mound tartare up on top of lettuce. Garnish with mint leaves.

Moo's Best Barbecue Sauce

I love this barbecue sauce. Everyone in my family loves this sauce. I guess you could call it a family-wide palate pleaser. I hope you love it too. And when I want to do something a little more on the edge, I add some Maker's Mark whisky.

½ cup vinegar
2 T prepared mustard
¼ cup water
1 t. freshly ground pepper
4 T sugar
1 T salt
2 slices lemon
½ cup butter
1 cup catsup
4 T Worcestershire sauce

Mix and simmer for 5 minutes. If you want to kick it up a notch, add ½ t. cayenne pepper.

Dovell's Tomato Dumplings

This is real comfort food. It's also something my grandmother used to make for my father. She gave the recipe to Moo and when Moo wanted to please us with something special, she'd make tomato dumplings. As an aside, Moo used to can her own tomatoes, which made for very flavorful tomatoes all year long. This is best served as a winter dish, so good canned tomatoes made this a real palate pleaser.

Dumplings:
2/3 cup flour
¼ t. baking powder
1 egg
Water

Tomatoes:
1 quart tomatoes
½ cup sugar
1 heaping T butter
Salt & pepper to taste

Mix dumpling ingredients to make a batter. Set aside. In a pot or large saucepan, mix tomatoes, sugar, butter, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. To make dumplings, drop batter in boiling tomatoes one teaspoon full at a time. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Asian Mashed Potatoes

Here's something a little out of the ordinary. Give your mashed potatoes a little Asian zing for a real palate pleaser.
1 lb. potatoes
1 t. salt
2 T rice vinegar
2 t. oil
3 T cilantro, chopped
3 T green onions, chopped
1 T toasted sesame seeds

Peel potatoes and quarter if particularly large. Boil in salted (1 t.) water until soft and ready for mashing. Pour off most of the water, reserving some for adding moisture as you begin the mashing. Note that is no milk added to these potatoes so reserve enough of your potato water. Begin mashing, add rice vinegar and oil first so you can judge your use of the reserve potato water as you go along. Shortly before potatoes reach the right consistency, add cilantro, green onions and sesame seeds. Enjoy.