Make your own Beer-Battered ‘Fried’ Onion Rings with the recipe below

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A chicken pie recipe from Rochelle Rogers in the cookbook from First Presbyterian Church of Punta Gorda titled “A Taste of Heaven” makes me hungry.

New Vision Community Church’s Feeding the Flock shares Loretta Shuman’s recipe for Fried Grouper Chinese Style. It looks exotic and good served over rice.

Five-Bean Bake is a dish from Southern Living’s All-Time Favorites. The beans called for are canned beans although you can certainly cook your own dried beans if you choose. Sauteed onion and bacon should fancy up this dish to please all the folks at the table.

A delightful recipe from Southern Living’s All-Time Favorites is Crispy “Fried” Onion Rings. They are fried for only a minute or so, then finished in the HOT oven. There is also a version for Beer Battered “Fried” Onion Rings. Who doesn’t love onion rings?

Mary Lee Herro shares her Zucchini Bread with optional nuts in Sharing Our Finest Cookbook from the Apopka Citizen Police Alumni Association. She says pumpkin may be substituted for zucchini, so all that canned pumpkin you bought for Thanksgiving and never got around to using can come in handy!

Violet Schoening’s fresh apple cake from Northside Baptist church’s book of recipes is wonderful. She advises using a glass baking dish and says it is good even with no frosting. It can be frozen for use later.

ROCHELLE ROGERS’

MELT IN YOUR MOUTH CHICKEN PIE

Recipe from First Presbyterian Church of Punta Gorda,

A Taste of Heaven

3 pound fryer

2 cups reserved chicken broth

1 can cream of chicken soup, undiluted

1 stick butter or margarine, melted

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup self-rising flour

1 cup buttermilk

Cook chicken until tender. Remove meat from bones. Save broth. Cut chicken into pieces and put in 9- x 12-inch dish. Put reserved broth and chicken soup in sauce pan and bring to boil. In another bowl, combine butter, flour and buttermilk. Mix thoroughly to form batter. Pour broth mixture over chicken and then spoon batter over top. Bake at 425 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until brown.

LORETTA SHUMAN’S

FRIED GROUPER CHINESE STYLE

Recipe from Feeding the Flock, New Vision Community Church

2 pounds grouper steaks or fillets

1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup vinegar

1 cup sugar

1-1/3 cup water

3 chicken bouillon cubes

1 cup drained pineapple chunks

1 large green pepper cut in strips

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1-1/2 tablespoons water

1-1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

Cut steaks or fillets into 2-inch wide strips and roll in flour seasoned with salt. Place fish in heavy frying pan which contains about 1/8 inch of fat, hot, but not smoking. Fry at moderate heat. When fish is brown on one side, turn carefully and brown the other side. Cooking time is approximately 10 minutes, depending on thickness of fish. Drain on rack or absorbent paper. While fish is frying, combine vinegar, sugar, water, bouillon cubes, green pepper, and pineapple in saucepan. Simmer for 10 minutes. Combine cornstarch, water and soy sauce to make a thin paste. Add gradually to hot sauce and cook until thick, stirring constantly. Serve the sauce over fish and rice.

FIVE-BEAN BAKE

Recipe from

Southern Living All-Time Favorites

8 bacon slices, chopped

1 large onion, diced

1 (28-ounce) can pork and beans

1 (19.75-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 (16-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 (15.5-ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 (15.25-ounce) can lima beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup ketchup

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup cider vinegar

Cook chopped bacon slices in a large skillet over medium-high heat until crisp; remove bacon, reserving 2 tablespoons drippings in skillet. Add diced onion, and sauté in hot drippings five minutes or until tender.

Combine bacon, onion, pork and beans, black beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, lima beans, ketchup, brown sugar, 1/2 cup water, and cider vinegar in a lightly greased 13 x 9-inch baking dish.

Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for one hour; uncover and bake 30 more minutes.

Makes 8 servings.

Note: The hardest part of preparing this dish is opening the cans. For hard-core cooks, you could use dried beans. I lean that way. But, canned beans are fine although they are sodium-packed. You can rinse them but you may be rinsing some of the vitamins away. And, ounce for ounce, they are more expensive than dried beans. So, however you choose to do it, beans are good for you!.

CRISPY “FRIED” ONION RINGS

Recipe from

Southern Living All-Time Favorites

1 large sweet onion

1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk

1 egg white

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

Vegetable cooking spray

1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

Cut onion into 1/4-inch thick slices, and separate into rings. Select largest 12 rings, reserving remaining onion slices for another use.

Whisk together buttermilk and egg white in a small bowl until blended.

Dredge onion rings in flour; dip into buttermilk mixture, coating well. Dredge again in flour, and place on a baking sheet.

Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Tilt pan to coat bottom of skillet. Add 4 onion rings to skillet, and cook 1 minute on each side or until golden. Wipe skillet clean. Repeat procedure twice with remaining onion rings and oil. Place fried onion rings on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 400 degrees for 3 minutes. Turn onion rings, and bake 3 more minutes. Remove from oven, and sprinkle with salt. Serve immediately.

BEER-BATTERED “FRIED” ONION RINGS:

Prepare as directed through the first step. Reduce buttermilk to 1/4 cup, and whisk together with 1/4 cup light beer and 1 egg white. Proceed with the rest of the directions as directed.

Makes 3 servings.

MARY LEE HERRO’S

ZUCCHINI BREAD

Recipe from Apopka Citizen Police Alumni Association’s

Sharing Our Finest Cookbook

2 cups sugar

1 cup salad oil

3 eggs

2 cups zucchini

3 cups sifted flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon ginger

1 cup nutmeats (optional)

Beat sugar and oil together until blended. Whip in eggs. Stir zucchini into mixture. Blend in sifted dry ingredients. Add nuts. Pour batter into three greased pans, (7-1/2 x 3-1/2 inch). Fill bread pans 2/3 full. Bake at 325 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes. These freeze well. Pumpkin may be substituted for zucchini.

VIOLET SCHOENING’S

FRESH APPLE CAKE

Recipe from

Northside Baptist Church cookbook

1-1/4 cup oil

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup pecans

3 cups raw apples

Mix in order. Pour batter into 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Bake 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes. Cool, slice and serve from pan. Best if pan is glass.

Frosting:

1 stick butter, soft

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons evaporated milk

1 cup dark brown sugar

powdered sugar, as needed.

Cream butter, salt, milk and brown sugar. Stir in powdered sugar until it takes form and spread over cooled cake.

This cake may be frozen. And it is good without the frosting.