Spinach Stuffed Mushrooms

Delicious and tasty - wonderful for parties or just yourself. We also love the Stuffed Mushrooms, page 27, in Tastes & Treasures cookbook. Ingredients: 12 medium baby bella mushrooms (each about 2 inches wide) One 10-oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry 1/2 cup crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese Spices: garlic powder, onion powder, salt, black pepper Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray and set aside. Remove mushroom stems and set aside. Place mushroom caps on the baking sheet, rounded sides down. Bake in the oven until slightly softened, 12 - 14 minutes. Leave oven on. Meanwhile, chop mushroom stems. Bring a skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to medium heat on the stove. Add stems and cook and stir until soft, about 3 minutes. Place cooked stems in a medium bowl. Add spinach, cheese, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder, 1/2 tsp. onion powder, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Mix thoroughly. Pat mushroom caps with paper towels to remove excess moisture. Evenly distribute spinach mixture among the caps, about 2 tablespoons each. Bake in the oven until filling is hot, 8 - 10 minutes. Enjoy! MAKES 4 SERVINGS

AZ Centennial Quilt displayed at AHS Museum

Want to see a work of art? Visit this fabulous hand made quilt that celebrates Arizona's Centennial. It will be displayed at the Arizona Historical Museum at Papago Park until the end of January. Don't forget to look at the back of the quilt. Carolyn Mendoza and Maureen Biles were very impressed with the details of this amazing Legacy Project.

While you are at the museum, check out the great books in the lobby gift shop. Recollections and Reflections An Arizona Historymakers Centennial Commemoration is a wonderful gift idea with it's great stories of the people and businesses that help build this state.

Historymaker Navajo Code Talker Keith Little (1925-2012) Memorial Fund

League Member Renee Donnelly has been communicating with Keith Little's widow, Nellie, who said "Keith's life-long dream was to provide a legacy for the amazing story of the Navajo Code Talkers and to pass their story on to future generations through the Navajo Code Talkers Museum and Veteran Center."

Donations made in his honor should be send to www.navajocodetalkers.org or NCTF Museum PO Box 1266, Window Rock, AZ 86515.

Pam Stevenson and Quilts - Pieces of Time

Quilts tell so many stories- just ask the families who have inherited them. During the war, this Red Cross quilt was used to raise funds for the war effort. The Baltimore quilt with it's detailed workmanship has been auctioned several times with over $30,000 at last trade.

Historical League member and author Pam Stevenson shared stories of several quilts that make up the Grand Endeavors Quilts Book. Photos of several of these quilts are framed in the large board room at the AHS Museum.

Jackie Berkowitz presented Pam with a Centennial ball cap after her fascinating presentation.

More about the Program and Pam Stevenson -

It traces the history of Arizona through women who recorded pieces of their lives in their needlework. Beginning with Mexican women of the 1860’s through Hopi women of the 1990’s, this program introduces women who pioneered Arizona through the quilts they stitched. The colorful patterns of women’s quilts added a spot of brightness to their homes and their lives. Arizona Quilts features quilts discovered by the Arizona Quilt Project, which documented the history of Arizona quilts made before 1940. The results of this five year quilt research were recorded in the women’s history book, Grand Endeavors: Vintage Arizona Quilts and Their Makers, co- authored by Pam Knight Stevenson. The television documentary, Arizona Quilts: Pieces of Time, written and produced by Pam Knight Stevenson is also based on the Arizona Quilt Project research. Pam said that the Arizona Quilt Project documentation is archived at the AHS Papago Park Museum and the quilt photos in the board room are from that collection.

Pam Knight Stevenson is a journalist, historian and fourth generation quilter. Pam served nine years on the board of the Arizona Quilt Project, a non-profit organization created to document the history of quilts in Arizona. Besides the book and television program noted above, Pam also produced Hopi Quilts, a national PBS television documentary that traces the history of quilting on the Hopi mesas. She also produced the video Quilt preservation: Protecting your Quilts for the Future for the Phoenix Museum of History.

Cooking Class - Leslie Christensen League Member

Give a certificate for a cooking class

from League member & professional chef

Leslie Christensen

Leslie will be conducting a cooking class 2-4 pm at the Desert Botanical Gardens on 02/05/12.

The class will feature 2 delicious recipes from Tastes and Treasures and the selected entree of
Arizona's Centennial menu celebration.

$50 for members, $62 for non-members

Leslie is donating her payment to the League.

Purchase your class online - click here or
call DBG and sign up over the phone.
480 481.8188

Leslie's Facebook Page
Private Cooking Classes and
Custom Culinary Parties

Sweet Potato Recipe Becomes a Tradition

What traditional foods do you serve at Holiday meals?
This one was a simple recipe printed in a 1958 Detroit FreePress newspaper but our family began to serve it at every Christmas meal. Our daughter named them "Fat Men with Top Hats" and the tradition was born.

Rancho de La Osa has a delicious Sweet Potato Souffle, page 122 in Tastes & Treasures cookbook. The soufflé is a definite tradition for this historic property in Sasabe, AZ.

Ingredients

2 cups mashed sweet potato

3/4 cup brown sugar

4 tablespoon melted butter

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 can pineapple slices

Directions

Mix ingredients and place on pineapple ring using an ice cream scoop. Top with marshmallow and 1/2 cherry. Bake 12 minutes at 400 degrees until the marshmallow is toasted.

Note: Bake 6 minutes, then add the marshmallow and cherry. This helps to keep them from sliding off the pineapple ring. Push the marshmallow down into a hollow in the sweet potato.

Historymaker/Navajo Code Talker Keith Little 1925-2012

The Navajo Code Talkers and Keith Little were given a wonderful tribute at the Historymakers Centennial Gala February 11, 2011. Keith attended along with fellow Code Talkers Joe Kellwood and Sidney Bedoni. The Code Talkers were honored in 2005 and the Centennial Gala 2011 brought all honorees together for a special recognition.

We realize that the passing of these courageous men must not end the acknowledgements they deserve and we continue to honor them with our Historymakers Recognition program and exhibits at AHS Museum.

When asked why he chose to go to war, he answers simply: "[because] the Japanese made a sneak attack on the US," adding that he wanted "to protect our people, land and country."

Their stories are told in the Historical League's Centennial book, Arizona Recollections and Reflections which is a Centennial Legacy Project. The chapter in Tastes & Treasures from Cameron Trading Post also talks about the Navajo people.