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Tim Burton's "Big Fish" has always captivated me. There has never been another movie like it. Its soft focused yet dark look captures the beauty and depth of an old adult fairy tale. My whoopie pies....well they look like something the characters would be chowing down on.
The beautifully soft and light yummy chocolate cookies remind me of the sweet yet dark nature that Tim Burton brings to his fairy tale.
The fluffy and very smooth and sweet inside reminds me of all the fluff and floof that the main character puts into his bigger than life stories. This is what creates the central force in his life, just as the crème is the central force in the center of these cookies.
"Just a glorified Oreo," you may say, but nothing is further from the truth. It is so much better. Its soft creaminess matches no other cookie. I'm not telling a big fish, I swear....I've brought the recipe to prove it.
It is as follows:
"Tell a Big Fish Whoopie Pies"*
Ingredients: 1 cup buttermilk, 4 tsp vanilla extract, 1 and ½ cup softened butter, 1 cup water, 2 cups confectioners' sugar, ¾ cup sugar, ¾ cup Splenda, 2 cups marshmallow crème, ½ tsp salt, 2 eggs, 2 tsp baking soda, 2 cups all-purposed flour, 2 cups whole-wheat flour, and ¾ cup baking cocoa.
1) In a large mixing bowl cream 1 cup butter, sugar, and Splenda until light and fluffy. Add eggs and 2 tsp vanilla extract and blend well. In another bowl put together the flours, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, add to the creamed mixture alternating with the buttermilk and water, beating well after each addition.
2) Drop by tablespoons 2 inches apart on baking sheets greased with a butter flavored cooking spray. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool.
3) In a smaller mixing bowl, beat the marshmallow crème, confectioners' sugar, ½ cup of the butter, and 2 tsps of vanilla extract. Spread filling with a flexible metal spatula onto the bottom half of the cookie sandwich. Top with the remaining half of the cookies.
4) Enjoy with all the fantasy and richness of your own fairy tale laced with all the joy and glamour of your dreams come true.
* Base for this recipe is from Taste of Home and then I molded it from there.


Whether you're looking for diet food that's filling as well as nutritious or light eats for summer, a well balanced chicken salad should fit the bill. The combination of vegetables with chicken supplies your body with the much required proteins, vitamins and essential minerals. Chicken meat is said to be the most nutritious meat after seafood. And when the salad's so easy to prepare and can be made in under half an hour, what more could you need? Just prepare the salad and serve on a bed of lettuce or fill it in a sandwich with bread.
This dish offers a lot of versatility. Use your imagination and prepare chicken salad with ingredients that catch your fancy. You have a variety of vegetables and fruits to choose from to go with your chicken. You make this dish to taste different each time you make by altering the ingredients or dressing. This is one diet food that people actually like to eat. Just find out which fruits or vegetables to add to your salad that's complement the chicken's taste and blend in with the entire dish to make it tasty as well as nutritious.
Here's a chicken salad recipe that combines the goodness of chicken with wholesome vegetables. You could use it as a sandwich filling or just eat it as it is.
First, you'll need Poached chicken for this recipe. Let's see how to make poached chicken -
- Chicken breasts on the bone, fat removed - 3 lbs
- Chicken broth - 6 cups
- Parsley - 10 sprigs
- Thyme - 2 sprigs
- Onion - 1 cut into two
- Carrot - 1 cut into two
- Celery - 1 stalk, cut into two
Take a pan and combine the chicken breasts with the vegetables, parsley and thyme. Pour the broth over this to cover and let it boil. Reduce the heat and cover. Let the chicken cook for at least 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the chicken cool down uncovered for about 30 minutes. Remove the chicken alone. Skin the chicken, remove the bones and dice it. You can refrigerate the chicken broth for later use.
Let's proceed to the Chicken Salad -
You'll need -
- Poached chicken - 4 cups
- Diced celery - 1 stalk
- Scallions julienned - 4 (you could also use diced sweet onions instead of this)
- Tarragon or dill - 1.5 tsp
- Fresh cut parsley - 2 tbsp
- Fresh lemon juice - 2 tsp
- Dijon mustard - 1 tsp
- Mayonnaise - 1 cup
- Pepper
- Cooking salt - 2 tsp
How to prepare -
Just combine the chicken with scallion, celery and herbs in a bowl. In another bowl, mix mayonnaise with lemon juice, mustard, pepper and salt. Mix both sets of ingredients and keep in the fridge before you serve.
Easy chicken salad ready in minutes!





Few can brag about how delicious their bake beans are and the quality of the toots they create other than my wife Blanca's recipe. You will love her baked beans and it will increase the quality of your toots or your money back, wait you're not paying anything for this recipe.
The only requirement is that you must say this rhyme out loud while serving the beans to your family and guests. It kind of weird, if you promise to do that, your bake bean dish will turn out to be a scrumptiously delicious and a great hit, if not, well you're on your own. This is an old family legend dating back to Captain Cook's days or was it Pocahontas, well it was someone that carved their niche in history and was an expert tooter.
Here's the rhyme: "Beans, beans the musical fruit the more you eat the more you toot, the more you toot the better you feel, so eat Blanca's baked beans at every meal." Now wasn't that fun!
Ingredients
5 different types of beans
1 large can of butter beans
1 large can of red Spanish beans
1 large can of kidney beans
1 large can of pinto beans
1 large can of garbanzo beans
1 large onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
2 cup ketchup
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp chopped garlic
¼ cup brown sugar
1-cup of molasses
tsp. powered mustard
2 bay leaves
½ pound of bacon-thick sliced
Cayenne pepper to taste, we like lots, you'll create a flame thrower.
Instructions:
Make sure you drain the cans of beans and rinse the beans. You can substitute the canned beans for dried beans but obviously you would have to soak the beans over night before you can use them.
Using a large bowl mix all the ingredients and place in a baking dish, preferably a Pyrex type and cover the bean mixture with aluminum foil, place in a pre-heated oven at 275 degrees. Cook for four to five hours, uncover the foil the last 30 minutes in the oven and serve piping hot, and let the tooting begin.An option is to put in a ½ teaspoon of baking soda in the bean mixture to reduce the effects of the beans, but then it couldn't be called a "Tooting bake bean recipe," could it?
Don't be afraid to break a little wind, or let one rip, or cut one loose. Hey farts are as old as life itself. When you get the urge and you're around people you want to impress or don't want to feel embarrassed, here are some little pet names you can use to break the ice, so to speak.
These little designates have been handed down through the centuries to describe plain old farts. It's a way of adding a little dignity to the event. When the situation arises just simply use the pet name like, "was that...flatulence"-this is used when you're around a bunch of med students, intellects, college professors and rich doctors "blanket bomb"-a must at pajama parties, "botty burp"- for dancers, all kinds of dancers, except in strip clubs, "bull snort"-bull fighters and most of the spectators, "cheek squeak"-librarians, and old maid teachers, "trumpet-sounding"-orchestra members and the conductor of course, "chemical warfare"- military commanders, and right on up to the Chief of Staff, of course he won't admit it, he will just say it's classified, "chili killer"-food servers at Mexican restaurants, "crunchy frogs"-rainforest guidesand Tarzan, "duck call'-hunters and good ole boys chewing tobacco, "fart combo"-fast food employees and must be executed in rapid succession, "fartrogen dioxide"- chemical engineers that possibly worked on atomic projects, "fickle fuzz"-bartenders and indecisive cops, " fungi maker"-mushroom farmers, and bat trainers," fire in the hole"- demolition experts and the gorkers watching, "flabbergaster"-anyone trying to impress someone, and then lethally blows it all, also news commentators sensationalizing, "fly breaking the sound barrier"-Testpilots, and a test pilot wanta a be, " foo-foo"-cook in a Chinese restaurant, "frump"- self-centered and egotisticcommercial landlords, "barking commands"- professional coaches,but with the crowds shouting no one will hear anyway, "cross wind"-commercial airline pilots that hope the flight attendants don't bring them coffee at that time of the toot, you might have heard one pilot say to the other, quite a cross wind today, well, the secrets out. "kabooms"-singers of fifties music, laughing gas- party guests that just can't stop laughing which sometimes produces repeated farting, Love puffs- disgruntled bakery employees, methane magic, landfill dozer operator, moon beam-hippies, and pot heads, morning thunder-teenagers that don't like to get up in the morning and dare you to come into their room, mouse squeaker-computer operators that look around at everyone else trying to pass theblame, "Casual perfume"- status seekers at a social gathering, "little pooh"- kids that can't takethe blame, and point to Winnie, "popcorn fart"-at least the beans didn't get blamed for this one, prison break-inmates that know that's the closest they ever get to getting out, "purple clouds", tornado chasers, and people that live in grass huts, putt-putts-the little old grandmas, and miniature golf players, "rectal turbulence"- people flying at thirtythousand feet and above and can't hold it in, rectum roar-zoo keepers, and lion trainers, "ripsnorter"-a beer drinking redneck with a pit bull by his side, "silent but violent"-someone you don't want to be sitting next to on a plane, train or automobile, or in church, "heavenly scent" priests, ministers, and rabbi's. There you go folks, now you use any of these pet names that fit the occasion and impress your colleges.
If there are any of you with Victorian Principles and this review offends you, well I say... don't worry be happy, laugh a lot, smile often, and toot wherever and whenever the urge hits you. Now that you know all these pet names you can be a hit at any social event and handle it eloquently if and when the occasion should arise and you need to break a little wind. Happy Tooting.


Do you have recipe book after recipe book lined up on your kitchen counter taking up valuable counter space? Do you have a recipe drawer you throw your recipes in, and never able to locate the recipe when you need it? What are you plans for your recipes from My Country Kitchen?
The staff of My Country Kitchen love organized recipes that make your life easier. Computerized recipes make it easy to find recipes, stay organized and reduce the stress in your life. Create the following categories for your personal computerize recipe database.
Appetizers
Beef
Beverages
Breads
Breakfast
Cajun
Cakes
Candy
Chicken
Condiments
Cookies
Crock Pot
Desserts
Food Mixes
Fruits
Holidays
Italian
Jam/Jelly/Preserves
Copy Kat recipes
Marinades/Rubs
Mexican
Oriental
Pasta/Rice/Beans
Pies
Pork
Potatoes
Salads
Sandwiches
Sauces/Creams/Dressings
Seafood
Soup
Turkey
Veal
Vegetables
What I suggest is to mark off time on your schedule to enter your recipes on the computer. Say 30 minutes a day or week, etc. Always remember to back up your recipe database.
Make a new document for each recipe and then save that document under the specific category on your recipe database.
Make a file for all your cooking tips.
Make a file for all your meals/grocery list you receive from My Country Kitchen.
Go through each cookbook and enter your favorite recipes on your database under Cookbook recipes. Unless the cookbook has sentimental value, sale your cookbooks. This will decrease your clutter. For the cookbooks that you are going to keep, make a chart with these subtitles: Recipe Name; Cookbook Name; and Page Number. This will allow you to find recipes in cookbooks easier.