By Don and Ingrid Brestler

Serves 4 to 6 

Spice Crust

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp instant minced onion powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• ¼ tsp pepper
• ¼ tsp oregano
• ¼ tsp basil
• ½ cup butter or margarine (I can’t believe it’s not butter)
• ½ cup shortening
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 6 to 8 tbsp ice water
• 1 tbsp milk

Mix dry ingredients, cut in butter and shortening till crumbly. With a fork mix in water mixture till moistened and divide dough in half wrap in wax paper and refrigerate while preparing filling.

Filling

• 2?½ cups cut up leftover chicken or turkey
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp poultry seasoning
• 2 cups frozen mixed vegetables
• ½ cup onions, cut up
• 2 medium potatoes, cubed

Stir fry chicken, onions, potatoes with a bit of oil until translucent in skillet and add frozen vegetables, cook for 3 to 5 minutes, set aside and add sauce (below).

Sauce

• 3 tbsp butter or margarine
• 3 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 cup half and half cream
• ¾ to 1 cup chicken broth
• salt and pepper to taste

Cook butter and flour until bubbly, stir in half and half and chicken broth to thicken. Stir sauce into filling and set aside.

Roll ½ of the dough into a rectangle (1?8″) and fit into 11″ x 9″ pan and trim pastry. Add filling. Roll out the dough for the top cover, slit, and brush with 1 egg and 1 tbsp of milk (beaten) for a golden brown crust.

Bake at 375?F for 35 to 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Let stand 5 minutes. Cut into squares.

Hint: Use the same spiced crust for meat pies.

By Duane Radford, Freelance Writer
Canadian Cowboy Country Magazine

Baked beans are seldom enjoyed by folks in our hectic world, but they’re a real treat at any time of the year. They’re so good and round off any meal with venison or beef, not to mention pork; they can be a meal in themselves, enjoyed with fresh-baked bread topped with butter and a beverage of your choice.

• 1?½ cups dried beans (e.g. small white pea or navy beans, 
• or the larger great northern beans)
• ½ Spanish onion, diced
• 2 slices of bacon, chopped
• 1 tbsp brown sugar or maple syrup
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• ¼ cup molasses
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• 2 tsp red wine vinegar
• ½ cup ketchup

Soak the beans overnight in cold water in a large cooking pot, add 3 to 4 times as much water as there are beans because they’ll swell. Drain the contents the following morning and rinse the beans under cold water. Cover the beans with water, bring to a boil, and simmer for 30 minutes. Drain the liquid in which the beans were cooked into a mixing bowl?—?set it aside. Put the beans in a Boston bean pot. This particular recipe is geared for five cups of baked beans so please don’t vary the amount of ingredients or else you must adjust them to the capacity of your casserole dish.

Mix the seasonings in a measuring bowl (salt, pepper, mustard, brown sugar or syrup, molasses and ketchup) and pour over top of the beans. Add the diced onion and bacon (you can also use salt pork or trim from a cooked ham). Stir well. Or, add the beans, onions and bacon in layers and top off with the seasonings mixture?—?then stir. Top off the beans with the water in which the beans were cooked.

Bake the beans in an oven at 250°F for 6 to 8 hours. Periodically add extra bean water (as needed) to keep them covered, stirring occasionally.

A word of advice to stay on the good side of the better half?—?until you get the hang of it, place some tinfoil on a baking tray underneath the Boston bean pot to collect any juices that might boil over, as it’s easier than cleaning the oven!

By Cliff Cunningham

• lasagna noodles, as many as needed
• mozzarella cheese (desired amount)
• Sauce
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 2 tsp cooking oil
• 3 (7½ oz) cans tomato sauce
• ¼ cup green pepper, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp onion, finely chopped

Cream Cheese Mixture:

• 1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups cottage cheese
• 1 tbsp parsley flakes

Scramble-fry beef in cooking oil until brown. Add remaining ingredients to meat and simmer slowly, uncovered for 20 minutes.

Mix cream cheese with cottage cheese, parsley, salt, pepper and garlic powder in a bowl.

Place a layer of noodles in baking dish, spread ½ of meat sauce over noodles and then cream cheese mixture on top of that, followed by another layer of noodles, the remaining meat sauce topping it off with mozzarella cheese.

Bake uncovered at 350°F for 45 to 55 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

By Gena LaCoste

• 1 fryer chicken, cut into serving pieces
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 2 cups sliced okra
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• ¼ tsp allspice
• salt and pepper to taste

Brown the chicken in the oil, and then remove to a covered casserole. Pour the onion, pepper, garlic, allspice, okra, tomato sauce and vinegar over the top of the chicken and bake at 350°F for 45 minutes.

Note about okra; I can sometimes find fresh okra at Superstore, and when I can’t, it’s always available there in the frozen vegetable section, and it’s very nice okra. Buy the sliced, not whole pods when buying the frozen. If you use the fresh, slice it about 1?3″ to ½” thick, and then I lightly fry it in a skillet to remove the “strings”.

By Ken McNabb

• 1 pre-cooked ham 
• 5 to 6 pineapple slices (or desired amount)
• ¼ cup teriyaki marinade 
• ¼ cup maple syrup 

Most all of your hams today are pre-cooked. You can hunt and find one that is not, but today we will use a pre-cooked ham. Place in a buttered Dutch oven and cover with pineapple slices, add all the juice. Drizzle teriyaki marinade and maple syrup over ham. Bake in a Dutch oven for about 2 hours; smaller hams can take up to 1 hour. Over cooking a ham just dries it out. Put a large scoop of coals on the bottom and top. Add new coals as these cool off every 30 minutes to 1 hour.