Friday, August 31, 2012 at 08:14AM Cranberry and apple ice pop recipe
Makes 10 pops
2 small apples, about 3/4 pound ( or 1-1/4 cups applesauce)
1-3/4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1-1/4 cups simple syrup (recipe follows)
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Thursday, August 30, 2012 at 09:00AM 
Rice-stuffed baked apples are among apple recipes at usapple.org. Baked apple recipes offer numerous options ranging from dessesrt types to those stuffed with bread or rice, sautéd vegetables, dried fruit and nuts to meatier choices such as ham and cheese or bread with savory sausage.
The approach is similar for most recipes: Core the apples, stuff them, and then bake in a shallow bath of apple juice or cider. That means there's lots of room for creativity, or to just try filling apple cups with stuffing made from a favorite family recipe.
My recipe was inspired by two recipes: Sweet Apple Chicken Sausage Fruit and Rice Salad from the chicken sausage maker Al Fresco, and the rice-stuffed apple recipe from the U.S. Apple Association. I wanted the sausage diced instead of sliced in the rice salad, and fell for the lovely presentation of the apple association's baked version. The sweet apple chicken sausage was a flavorful, savory complement to the sweet apples and raisins. As a salad, this mixture would certainly be enhanced by the crunch of slivered almonds used in the Al Fresco recipe.
baked apple recipe, stuffed apple recipe in Cooking Wednesday, August 29, 2012 at 04:46PM
Mango-walnut brownie
Mango-walnut brownies
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
Tuesday, July 10, 2012 at 07:07PM 
The "Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook" has 27 ideas for cornbread among its more than 200 recipes.
Our tests of the recipe for Vidalia Onion Cornbread produced an exceptionally moist and tender, slightly sweet cornbread that didn't last long. With only two tablespoons of fat in the recipe, its pleasing texture is owed to the juiciness of the vidalia onions.
We tested the recipe in a plain 9-inch cast iron skillet and a 9-inch square glass baking dish. Both came out fine, but testers were more pleased with the cornbread produced by pouring the cornbread batter into the pre-heated cast iron skillet to which a tablespoon of oil had been added. That adaptation of the recipe produced the crust that is typical of traditional Southern cornbread.
Cooking Tuesday, July 10, 2012 at 06:55PM 
The Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook Some people covet their grandmother’s silver or the 200-year-old cabinet brought over by ancestors from the old country.
My heirlooms are the sort that don’t need polishing. Yet they shine with the patina of three generations of family meals. They’ve traveled from Louisiana to California to New Jersey and points in between. They’ve sauteed okra with onions, bell peppers, celery and garlic, and they’ve fried up floured cuts of savory chicken, and fish dredged in cornmeal. Knowing that meals made by my mother and late grandmother have helped “season” my decades-old cast iron skillets is a big part of what makes them my most treasured possessions.
I now use this seemingly indestructible cookware for everything from scrambling eggs to baking. And when it’s time for the annual camping trip with friends, I can be counted on to bring the huge, jet-black skillet that means we’ll have pancakes and bacon cooked over fire. For these reasons and others “The Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook” (Oxmoor House, $24.95) is a delight. Nevermind that it helps market the cast iron skillets, griddles, bakeware and even a cast iron grill made by Lodge Manufacturing; it has a chapter devoted to “Nothin’ but Cornbread.”