• Sear the Meat

  1. In a large stew pot or Dutch oven, melt the lard over medium-high heat.

  2. Add the beef roast and oxtails, searing them for 4–5 minutes until browned on all sides. This helps lock in flavor.

  3. Once browned, remove the meat and bones from the pot and set aside to cool slightly.
• Build the Stew Base

  4. To the same pot, add the canned tomatoes (use kitchen scissors or a knife to chop them directly in the pot).

  5. Stir in the beef broth, thyme, bay leaves, parsley, salt, pepper, and garlic

  6. Simmer this flavorful tomato broth over medium heat for 5–7 minutes while the meat cools.
• Prepare and Simmer the Meat

  7. Once cooled, cut the roast beef into bite-sized chunks.

  8. Return the meat, oxtails, and any bones back into the pot.

  9. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes, allowing flavors to develop.
• Add Vegetables

  10. Stir in the carrots, potatoes, onion, celery, Lima beans, and corn.

  11. Continue cooking for another 30 minutes, or until all vegetables are fork-tender.
• Final Touches

  12. Remove any remaining bones from the pot.

  13. Carefully remove meat from the oxtails, discard bones, and return the meat to the stew.

  14. Stir well and keep warm until ready to serve. Serve with toasted rustic bread.

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x12x2 inch baking pan.
• Mix the corn and creamed corn. Stir in the pepper, salt, melted butter, sugar and four
• In another large mixing bowl, whisk the 4 eggs. Add milk. Add the corn mixture and stir.
• Pour into baking dish and fill almost full.
• Bake at least an hour and often longer until the corn pudding does not "jiggle." You can insert a spoon or knife into the center part to see if it is runny. If it is, then it needs to cook longer. Sometimes it takes 1 1/2 hours to set and be done.

• The small individual 875 ml wine bottles are great for making this pepper vinegar; you can also buy pretty decorative bottles. Be sure to use only clear glass jars. Wash jars and remove labels if there are any. Basically, any jar will work – some folks use Mason jars. I like to use small jars so that I have more bottles of pepper vinegar to give away.
• Trim any long stems on the peppers. Pack as many peppers as you can get into the jars. Use the handle end of a wooden spoon or a chopstick to stuff the peppers in the jar, being careful not to damage the peppers. If you have sensitive skin, wear gloves.
• Using a funnel, fill each jar with the distilled vinegar, covering the peppers. Set on a shelf and in a few weeks you will have glorious hot pepper vinegar. You can refill the jars several times.

• Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Grease a large, heavy cookie sheet.
• Mix flour, sugar and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. In another large bowl mix eggs and egg yolks together. Add vanilla, almond flavoring, 1 ¼ cup of the nuts, cranberries, and the zest to the eggs.
• Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, stirring until just barely blended. You will have to use your hands and perhaps add another egg or you can use some of the reserved egg whites if the mixture is too sticky to form.
• Using greased hands, form dough into three 4-inch by 9-inch (or thereabouts) rolls that are 2 inches thick. Mixture will be sticky and you will have to use your hands. Using a greased spatula, gently place the “rolls” on greased cookie sheet, making sure the rolls are several inches apart.
• Press reserved almonds on top of the shaped dough.
• Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until the dough will hold together. Remove from oven and cool slightly. (You must not cool the biscotti too much because they will get too hard to cut). When cooled slightly, gently slide the rolls to a floured cutting board and gently cut through each roll at an angle into 1½- inch pieces. Turn each piece on its side and place on the cookie sheet.
• Bake again for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven and turn each piece onto another side. If you prefer harder biscotti, turn biscotti and bake for 5-10 more minutes.

• This is a “make now and eat now” salad. If you dress it, you eat it. You can cut the parts of the salad early, but do not amalgamate it until you are ready to eat it.
• 
  Cut the watermelon into large chunks and lay it out on a plate lined with paper towels to remove some of the excess water. I do that when I am making watermelon skewers for my B&B guests. It keeps the watermelon from weeping into the dish.
• 
  Cut watermelon again into cubes about 1½" large. Put cubes of watermelon, pepper strips and onion rings into each salad bowl. Add crumbled cheese. For each salad, cut 1 basil leaf and 1 mint leaf into very thin strips and place on top of each salad.
• 
  Wisk together the lime juice, honey, salt and pepper.
• 
  Garnish with an edible flower like a begonia or nasturtium. Dress salad just before serving.
• 
  Instead of individual salads you can make one large salad if you prefer. Also do not dress this until just before serving.
• 
  This salad recipe is adapted from a Watermelon Salad in "Our State" magazine.

Day 1:

• Add the sugar and water to a large cooking pot. Boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Wash figs, do not remove stems.
• Add the figs to the sugar syrup – figs will not be totally covered. Bring to a slow boil and boil gently for 45 minutes. Don’t worry about stirring the figs. They will release more juice and then there will be more liquid. They are so fragile it is best not to stir them now, but do keep an eye on them. After 45 minutes remove pot from heat and set aside. Cover pot.
• If you feel you must stir the pot, use a wide spatula and gently lift the figs. Remember they are fragile.

Day 2 & 3:

• Boil gently until sugar is almost gone, checking often. For me this took several hours so I set the temperature on low.
• Gently remove the figs from the pot and place them on the cooling rack set on a large cookie sheet with sides. The figs will drip.
• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Turn off oven. Place the cooling rack and cookie sheet with the figs in the warm oven. Leave figs for several days to dry. You can keep heating oven again to 200 degrees if needed. I did not dry my figs totally. They are so tough if you do that. I think I like them half dry.
• Optional: When figs are dry enough for you, sprinkle them with the extra granulated sugar. They are already sweet but this keeps them from sticking together so much. Store figs in refrigerator in an air-tight container or zip lock bag.