I posted a question to twitter Saturday afternoon, and turns out several people were left with drool on their keyboards, their desks… and a few were asking for recipes. Twitter, facebook and email messages were so busy – I’m wondering if I should go into cooking rather than stick with writing and editing.

Um. No.

So, for Jeremy Kelly and Mark Souza in particular..LOL..here you go! PS – these recipes can be expanded easily, just double or triple up (or more).

3 frozen ham steaks
1/4 c apple or pineapple juice
salt, pepper, garlic powder, nutmeg to taste

3 large Russet potatoes
1 c shredded cheese
1/2 sour cream
chives, bacon bits, salt & pepper to taste

Place steaks in baking pan and cover with juice. Sprinkle with seasonings and set in the oven, start at 350*.

Wash potatoes and prick with fork. Place directly on the oven rack beside the ham steaks, and bake together for 1 hour. Check steaks and potatoes then, if they need more time, lower temperature to 300* for half an hour. Repeat if necessary, but make sure ham is still covered with juices so as not to dry out.

When the potatoes are ready, split each and add 1/2 tsp margarine to each one, sprinkle with shredded cheese, sour cream and toppings of your choice, and return to oven for five-to-ten minutes.

Serve with corn on the cob, or niblets (we pref. frozen niblets, steamed and buttered with salt & pepper).

Wash 1 cup of basmati rice and set aside in 2 cups of cold water to soak.

3 Outlaw burgers (or cube steaks), browned
1 package Lipton’s onion soup mix
1 can Hunts (or other) Garlic & Olive Oil diced tomatoes
2 cups tomato juice (or V8 is awesome)
1/8 cup worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp soya sauce
cracked black pepper

Place burgers (cube steaks) in large casserole dish, cover with soup mix, tomatoes, juice, sauces and cracked pepper. Cover and bake in 350* oven for 1 hour.

At the half hour mark, drain the rice and prepare to package directions.

Prepare a can of French Beans to your preference.

We serve with sauce over the rice, some folks prefer no sauce other than that covering the meat. Basmati can be replaced with any rice, really – we just prefer it for it’s flavor and aroma.

1/4 cup (50 mL) butter or margarine
1 cup (250 mL) packed brown sugar
2 cups (500 mL) sliced fresh strawberries
2 cups (500 mL) chopped fresh rhubarb
1 pkg (510 g) Betty Crocker Super Moist French Vanilla or White Cake Mix
11/4 cups (300 mL) water
1/3 cup (75 mL) vegetable oil
3 eggs

Heat oven to 350°F (180°C) or 325°F (160°C) for dark or non-stick baking pan. In 9×13-inch (23×33 cm) rectangular baking pan, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter. Arrange strawberries on brown sugar; sprinkle evenly with rhubarb. Press strawberries and rhubarb gently into brown sugar.

In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter over strawberries and rhubarb.

Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Immediately run knife around side of pan to loosen cake. Place heatproof serving plate upside down on pan; turn plate and pan over. Leave pan over cake 1 minute so brown sugar topping can drizzle over cake. Cool 30 minutes. Serve warm or cool. Store loosely covered at room temperature.