Combine all ingredients in blender. To serve, stir in some sparkling water or soda and garnish with a lemon or orange slice on the rim. Put a spoonful of frozen berries in each glass.
Serves 4.

For alternative sangria recipes, see:
Schulte Sangria
Cynthia’s Sangria

This was originally published as a Hint from Heloise in the late 1970′s.

18-oz devil’s food cake mix
1 egg
3/4 C water, plus a little more as needed*
1/2 C nuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9×13 pan. Mix ingredients to make a thick batter (do not overmix). Spread in pan, smoothing the top. Bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on whether you like your brownies chewy (shorter time) or dry (longer).

*In a recent comment, Vicki said that she used a stick of butter (melted, I assume) instead of the water. I haven’t tried it myself, but when I read her comment, I had an “Aha!” moment. I bet this is the secret to turning a chocolate cake mix into real brownies.

While you’re in the cake mix aisle, if you like lemon cookies, pick up a package of lemon cake mix and try these: Lemon Crisps. They are just about the easiest cookies on the planet.

2 large sweet onions, such as Walla Walla or Vidalia
8 T brown sugar
1 t ground chipotle pepper (for a spicy version) or Hungarian paprika (for a mild version)
4 T butter, softened
Dash salt

Peel the onions and slice them in half. Place an onion half on a cutting board with the round side down and the cut side facing up. Carefully make three parallel cuts down into the onion without going all the way through. Turn it 90 degrees and make three more parallel cuts.

Place the onion half on a large square of foil. On each half, spread 1 T butter and then sprinkle with 2 T brown sugar, 1/2 t pepper or paprika, and some salt. Bring the sides of the foil up around the onion and twist the foil together at the top.

Place the foil-wrapped parcels in the coals of a campfire and roast. It takes about 15 minutes if the fire is very hot, or it may take over 30 if the coals are cooler.

When you open the parcels, the onions will be soft and sweet. You can just pull pieces of onion off with your fingers, or use a knife and fork.

I’ve read a lot of hype about baby boomers and cupcakes lately, but that’s not why I came up with this recipe. It’s simply my penchant for finger food that you can just pick up and eat. I love cake, but a beautifully decorated cake is intimidating at a potluck, and people may look at it longingly, but nobody wants to cut it. Once the first brave soul takes a piece, it becomes a free-for-all mess, with crumbs and icing smeared all over the table. Decorated cupcakes, on the other hand, are angst-free. They’ll disappear rapidly every time, leaving you with a clean plate, few crumbs, and many happy memories.

Makes 12-15 small cupcakes.

Filling
1 egg white
4 oz cream cheese — don’t soften it too much
2 T sugar
pinch salt
Beat the eggs, cream cheese, sugar and salt together and set aside. It needs to have a stiff consistency; if it’s runny, chill it in the freezer for a little while.

Cupcakes
1-1/2 C flour
1 C sugar
1/4 C dark cocoa
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 C water
1/3 C vegetable oil
1 T vinegar
1/2 t vanilla or orange extract
Mix dry ingredients together. In another bowl, mix water, oil, vinegar and vanilla or orange extract. Add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients and mix at medium speed for about two minutes. Place liners in 12 to 15 cupcake cups. Fill each cup halfway full with chocolate batter. Top with a heaping teaspoon or so of the cream cheese filling. There’s no need to poke the filling down, as it will sink naturally. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 F for 25 to 30 minutes.

Frost with cream cheese frosting (a half recipe of the frosting with an extra 1/4 to 1/2 C powdered sugar is about the right amount) and decorate with miniature chocolate chips and slices of orange jelly candies. Or top with grated chocolate and stick a square of chocolate in the top of each one.

At the Blue Bee, they serve this from plastic 1-gallon containers (similar to milk jugs). The recipe below, which is not the original but is smooth and strong and pretty authentic, makes one quart. Multiply the recipe by 4 to make a gallon for a party.

16 oz pineapple-orange juice
6 oz rum
8 oz Malibu coconut rum
2 oz apricot brandy

Shake well, serve over lots of ice.

For Barry’s 40th birthday party, a pirate-themed costume event, we made a variation of this and called it “grog.” Instead of 16 oz pineapple-orange juice, we used 8 oz orange juice and 8 oz mango-pineapple Hawaiian punch.

For that occasion, we multiplied the recipe by 16, and served it from 4 one-gallon milk-jugs, just as they do in Miss Emily’s.

The Lox Pizza did not take first place, but it was the loveliest entry there.

Spread cream cheese on a purchased pizza crust.
Layer lox, red onion, and capers.
Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper.
Cut with a pizza cutter and serve.

Karen says she “stole” this simple but beautiful recipe from her friend, Natalie Handy. Natalie, if you’re out there reading this, is it OK if I steal it, too?

1/2 C ham, diced (or substitute bacon)
1/2 C cheddar cheese, grated
1 small onion, diced
5 oz frozen spinach, thawed (1/2 package)
1/4 C flour
1/4 t baking powder
8 eggs
1/2-1 t salt
1/4 t pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease 12 muffin cups, or spray with non-stick spray.

In a medium bowl, combine the ham, cheese and onion. Squeeze all the water out of the spinach and add it. Stir together with the flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper.

Beat the eggs lightly and then fold into the rest of the ingredients. Divide equally among the muffin cups (I used a 1/4-C dry measure as a scoop) and bake for 20 minutes.

Note: Although the photo shows one of these baked in a pretty pink paper cupcake liner, I found that after a day in the fridge, the paper stuck to the sides, and what was supposed to be a quick breakfast was taking 20 minutes — just to unwrap it! So it’s better to simply grease the cups instead of using paper liners.

If you don’t have lime oil, just press some finely-grated lime zest in with the pepper and sesame seeds.

A light entree or appetizer for 2.

1/2 lb sashimi-grade tuna steak
Extra light olive oil
Key lime oil
Coarse salt
Fresh cracked black pepper
Sesame seeds (optional, meaning I forgot to use them and it was still tasty)

With your fingers, spread olive oil on the tuna steak, and then rub in a few drops of the lime oil. Sprinkle liberally with the salt, and then coat the entire surface with pepper and sesame seeds.

Bring a cast-iron skillet with a drizzle of olive oil to medium heat. You do NOT want it to be too hot. Place the tuna steak in the skillet and cook for 60 seconds. Turn it over and cook for another minute or two. You’ll be able to watch the top and bottom turn whitish-gray while keeping the middle pink and rare.

Remove to a cutting board and slice. Make a pretty puddle of sauce in the center of a plate and place the tuna pieces on the sauce.

Sauce recommendations:
Ponzu sauce
Roasted pepper cream
Saltsa ladolemono
Tamarind sauce
Taratoor (Lebanese garlic sauce)
Will’s amazing orange sauce
Teriyaki sauce (from Gary on s/v Gallant Fox)

2 t sugar
1-1/2 t salt
1 T yeast
1-1/2 C water
2 C white flour
2 C whole wheat flour
2 T oil
Dissolve sugar, salt, and yeast in water. Let stand 5 min. Blend in flour and knead well. Allow to rise until volume doubles. Punch down and knead again. Grease dutch oven or pressure cooker and dust with flour. Cover and then cook for 45 minutes over very, very low flame. Do not open and look! To brown the top, turn over and cook for 10 minutes.

When we tried this using high-gluten white bread flour, instead of whole wheat, it only needed 35-40 minutes of cooking. But be warned — it’s hard to get the flame low enough, even with a flame tamer, so the bottom may be a little overdone.

Salt (1-2 Tbsp?)

Saute onions, and pepper for a few minutes; add garlic and spices, while cooking.

Add the water, beans and bay leaves, then bring to a boil. Bring up to high pressure and cook for 12 minutes, then natural pressure release.

Meanwhile I cooked 1 1/4 C basmati Rice with 2 1/2 C water non-pressure cooker. The beans were a little soupy, but with the rice they were just right.

Combine the water, tea, and sugar and steep for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, peel the pears and carefully cut the cores out from the bottom with a thin-bladed knife.

Place the pears in a ceramic or glass casserole dish and pour the tea over them. Microwave for 5-8 minutes, depending on how ripe the pears are (the riper they are, the less cooking they require). They’re done when you can easily poke a fork into them.

Remove the pears to a plate to cool. When they are cool, carefully tuck a bit of cream cheese into each of the cavities and arrange them on a plate.

Pour the poaching liquid into a small saucepan and simmer on high until reduced to a thick syrup. Drizzle the syrup over the stuffed pears and serve.

1/2 C onion
1 T olive oil
1 1/2 C textured vegetable protein granules
1 t Basil
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t Oregano
1/4 C fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 t Salt
1 C bread crumbs
1 1/2 C boiling water
1/4 C tomato sauce

Chop the onion and saute it in the olive oil until soft. Combine with the other ingredients. Press into a non-stick pan and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.