Category Archives: Sides

Food & FamilyEnjoy Spook-tacular Halloween Goodies

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Submitted by Darcy Maulsby,
Darcy Maulsby & Co.

No tricks here—just easy, Halloween-themed recipes from my kitchen to yours that will wow your family and friends!

Spider Web Chocolate Cupcakes

I had fun preparing these treats for a cooking class I taught on Oct. 25 at The Elements in Storm Lake, Iowa. I showed the audience how to make Spooky Spiced Spider Cider, followed by hearty Jack O’Lantern Pot Pie, with a side of Crazy-Good Carrots. After sampling some luscious Hocus-Pocus Pumpkin Bars, we enjoyed the grand finale of Stunning Spider Web Chocolate Cupcakes.

Hocus-Pocus Pumpkin Bars

These simple, flavor-packed recipes are sure to frighten away your fears of preparing a crowd-pleasing meal!

Spooky Spiced Spider Cider

  • 2-1/2 cups apple cider or unsweetened apple juice
  • 2/3 cup orange juice
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 12 whole cloves

In a 1-1/2-qt. slow cooker, combine the first 5 ingredients. Place cinnamon stick and cloves on a double thickness of cheesecloth; bring up corners of cloth and tie with string to form a bag. Place bag in slow cooker.

Cover and cook on low for 1 hour. Discard spice bag; continue to cook 1-2 hours or until heated through. Yield: 3 servings. 

Jack O’Lantern Sloppy Joe Pie

  • 1 pound lean ground beef (90% lean)
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

    Darcy and the Jack O’Lantern Sloppy Joe Pie

  • 1 cup salsa
  • 1/2 cup chili sauce
  • 1 cup frozen or canned corn
  • 1 can chili beans
  • 1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
  • 1 sheet refrigerated pie pastry
  • 1 egg
  • Orange food coloring (use red and yellow food coloring if you don’t have orange food coloring paste)

In a large skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. In a small bowl, combine the flour, salsa and chili sauce until blended; stir into skillet. Add the corn, chilies and brown sugar.

Transfer to a deep-dish 9-in. pie plate. Unroll pastry; place over filling. With a sharp knife, cut out a face to resemble a jack-o’-lantern; flute edges. Beat egg and food coloring; brush over pastry.

Bake at 450°F for 9-11 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Yield: 6 servings. 

Crazy Good Glazed Carrots

  • 1 quart of cut carrots
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup chicken broth or chicken stock
  • 2 tablespoons butter

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cover. Cook until tender.

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Food & FamilyEat Great and Lose Weight!

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Darcy MaulsbySubmitted by Darcy Maulsby,
Darcy Maulsby & Co.

This July I returned for my fifth year as the featured Saturday morning cook at the 2012 Cherokee County Fair in Cherokee, Iowa. It was great to have nearly 60 people learn how to “Have Your Cake and Eat it, Too.” I’m on a mission to show you can eat great and lose weight without sacrificing flavor—or dessert!

Take this simple, citrus-marinated Cuban Pork Tenderloin, which only has 140 calories per serving and is great on the grill. If you try it, let me know what you think (e-mail me at yettergirl@yahoo.com). Be sure to enjoy a piece of Glazed Lemon Cake, too!

Cuban Pork Tenderloin
(find more great pork recipes at http://www.porkbeinspired.com/Index.aspx)

  • 1 1/2 to 2 pounds pork tenderloin, trimmed
  • 1/4 cup orange juice, fresh
  • 1/4 cup grapefruit juice, fresh
  • 2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Mix orange juice, grapefruit juice, cilantro, cumin, oregano, garlic, salt, and hot pepper in gallon-sized zip-top plastic bag. Add pork, close bag, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours.

Prepare outdoor grill for direct medium-hot grilling. For a gas grill, preheat grill on high. Adjust temperature to 400°F. For a charcoal grill, build fire and let burn until coals are covered with white ash. Spread coals and let burn for 15-20 minutes.

Lightly oil cooking grate. Remove pork from marinade, drain briefly, but do not scrape off solids. Place on grill and cover grill. Cook, turning occasionally, until browned and instant-read thermometer inserted in center of pork reads 145°F, about 20-27 minutes. Transfer to carving board and let stand 3-5 minutes. Cut on slight diagonal.

Low-Fat American Fries

  • 4 baking potatoes, cut into wedges (leave the skins on)
  • 4 teaspoons olive oil
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon pepper
  • ½ teaspoon paprika

Toss potatoes with olive oil and seasonings. Bake at 425°F for 35 minutes, or until crisp.

Darcy’s Ranch Salad

  • 1 bag of coleslaw mix
  • Spin Blend salad dressing (this has better flavor than mayonnaise)
  • 1 packet dry ranch salad dressing mix
  • Fresh broccoli, washed and cut
  • Crumbled, cooked bacon (optional)

Combine coleslaw mix, Spin Blend, ranch salad dressing mix, and broccoli. Taste as you go to determine how much Spin Blend, ranch mix, and broccoli you want to include. Top salad with bacon.

Watermelon Fruit Kabobs

  • Wooden kabobs
  • 1 seedless watermelon
  • Fresh fruit of your choice (options could include grapes, pineapple chunks, cantaloupe, honeydew melon)

Cut watermelon in half. Take one half and place it flat-side down on a platter or serving tray. Arrange chunks of fresh fruit on each kabob. Placed the pointed end of each kabob into the rind of the watermelon. Serve and enjoy!

Glazed Lemon Cake

  • 1 package white cake mix
  • 1 package (3.4 ounces) instant lemon pudding mix
  • ¾ cup vegetable oil
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup lemon-lime soda
  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice

In a mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, pudding mix, oil and eggs. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Gradually beat in lemon-lime soda. Pour batter into a greased 13-inch by 9-inch baking pan. Bake at 350°F for 40 to 45 minutes, or until cake springs back when lightly touched in the center.

Combine confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Carefully spread over warm cake. Cool cake on a wire rack. Yields 12 servings.

Darcy Maulsby is based in Lake City, Iowa, where she runs her own marketing/communications company and helps out on her family’s Century Farm. She assists clients in agriculture and other industries with magazine articles, sales materials, newsletters, website articles, photography and more. Darcy, who is also an avid home cook, invites you to follow her food and ag updates on Facebook and on Twitter.
Check out Darcy in “Eat, Pray, Farm : Women in Ag”
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Food & Family“Living to Serve” Defines this Northwest Iowa Volunteer

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Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve.

The FFA motto is comprised of just 12 short words but, when lived out, these words can make a big impact on rural communities. Just ask Pam Fuller of Paullina, a community of 1,044 in northwest Iowa.

Whether Pam looks for community service opportunities or whether such opportunities find her is a lot like asking, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” But the bottom line is that Pam has a passion for helping others. She has become a tireless fundraiser for high school organizations and activities in her area. Her current priorities include fundraising for Close Up, the nation’s premier non-profit, civic education organization, and for the South O’Brien FFA Boosters, a Booster Club for the South O’Brien FFA Chapter.

To help raise money for the Close Up students, who will spend one week of their summer in Washington, D.C., Pam started making lollipops 10 years ago. She makes 40 different flavors in shapes ranging from snowmen and tulips to hearts and balloons. Then she sells them at home tracks meets, as well as at home football and basketball games. If it sounds like she’s spending lots of time in the kitchen, she is! Pam spends about two to three hours making each batch of 50 lollipops, and last year she made over 6,500 lollipops. The biggest sellers are cotton candy, strawberry daiquiri and strawberry-watermelon. (If you’re ever in the area, these lollipops are a real treat! My kids are a big fan particularly of the strawberry-watermelon ones.)

In addition to making lollipops, Pam is currently busy planning a pancake fundraiser. It’s become a tradition for the Southwest O’Brien FFA Alumni Board to host a free-will breakfast the day before Easter. The menu includes pancakes, sausage and applesauce. This is just one of three fundraisers the FFA alumni host to help support FFA members’ trips to state and national convention. They also host a football tailgate that consists of hamburgers, chips and lemonade. During the basketball season, they’ve become known for their succulent pork loin supper with a side of baked beans. Today Pam is sharing their bean recipe on TheFieldPosition.

Pam, who’s a full-time substitute teacher during the school year, doesn’t take off summers from fundraising or working with high school youth. She and students involved with the Close Up program run a concession stand at the O’Brien County Fair. In addition to organizing the concession stand, Pam sells ice cream on the fairgrounds.

The Ice Cream Truck had become a fixture at the O’Brien County Fairgrounds after 25 years. So when the proprietors decided to retire, Glenn (Pam’s husband) saw it as an opportunity to keep the tradition alive. He bought the 1962 Chevy ice cream truck in 2009, and Pam started selling ice cream at the 2009 county fair. Her product offerings include soft serve chocolate and vanilla cones, sundaes and ice cream sandwiches, homemade chocolate chip cookies, plus Wizzards, which are similar to a Dairy Queen® Blizzard®. Pam also bought a smoothie maker and a sno-cone maker, and at the 2011 county fair, sno-cone sales topped her ice cream sales.

Year-round Pam serves her community in various ways. She’s active on church committees and launders and fits the school’s band and chorus uniforms. Early each morning she delivers the Sioux City Journal – and has done so for 31 years!

Pam and Glenn also enjoy spending time with their six children and nine grandchildren. This year they’re hosting two exchange students, one from the Czech Republic and one from Venezuela. It’s no wonder this family knows how to cook for a crowd! Perhaps their recipe for Big Batch Baked Beans is just what you need when your family gathers soon to celebrate Easter or reunites this summer. Pair it with Big Batch Brownies and you will easily be able to feed a small army.

Big Batch Baked Beans

    • 1 gallon of baked beans
    • 1 lb ground beef
    • 2 C. BBQ sauce (we use Cookies®)
    • 2 C. ketchup
    • 1½ lb. bacon
    • 1 C. brown sugar
    • 1/4 C. or less mustard

COOK’S TIP: Increase this recipe as you need. We fill a couple of electric roasters and let beans simmer forseveral hours.

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