Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Variations on a theme
Not to mention that we already posted all the beloved standards last year...
But lets make a quick musical analogy. What do great composers do when they get bored or run into a creative block? What always brings a smile to the audience when 21st century composition is just too much effort (both to write and hear) and yet we've all heard Beethoven's 9th a few to many times to be really thrilled by it (unless Osmo Vanska is conducting, of course)? It's easy. Take a familiar tune and warp it just a little. Elaborate here, throw a disney tune mash up there, make Mozart sound like Rachmaninoff for the rest of it, and voila! The musically discerning audience is thrilled with your cleverness and their own ability to appreciate it! They leave the concert saying pridefully pompous things like "the baroque flavor in that exposition reminded me of Whitacre's Cloudburst as if set by Jean-Baptiste Lully!", and "I felt that the coda in the style of Brahms was the perfect commentary on the Schubert-style quartet, especially considering Clara!" Yes, Variations on a theme are always a crowd pleaser.
I submit to you all that baking is not so different than music. Just consider Mom the Osmo Vanska, who recreates the classics with perfection. And the rest of us could become the discerning audience, who whines unless Osmo is conducting, or we could create our own variations on the theme.
So post some ideas you have and let's see if we can work through them. Or post the whole recipe and we'll applaud wholeheartedly. I've recently begun to love lime flavored things, do you think lemon bread could become key lime bread? This summer I made quite a few trifles, and now that fresh fruit is hard to come by, I wonder if I could pull one off using brownies and coconut. Emma and I were discussing oreo truffles the other day and I realized that I could quickly alter a cookie dough recipe to create cookie dough truffles, dip them in brown chocolate, and mix them in with the oreo truffles for variety in gift giving.
This is more of a quest for creativity than it is a challenge in the kitchen. Let's see what we can come up with!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Chicken Nuggets
buy a bag of frozen chicken nuggets. (I personally prefer the dino shaped ones)
follow the directions on the back.
wait...no...
So, this recipe is AMAZING! And it is super easy. Me and me roommates eat dinner together on sundays, and my roommate Megan offered to do it this past week. We were all a little skeptical because her idea of domestic is slapping some pre-made cookie dough on cookie sheets, and waiting for someone (usually me) to remind her that they are done, and making an incredibly large mess in the process. How you do that with pre-packaged cookie dough, I don't really know. But it happens. Bless her heart. :)
It turned out to be one of the BEST dinners ever! And you cannot just skip the honey mustard sauce with these. In fact, if your going to choose between the nuggets and the sauce, pick the sauce. It makes the whole recipe worth while.
AND its gluten free. thats important in my apartment :)
All thanks and compliments go to our dear southern friend, Paula Deen.
Ingredients
- 2 cups crushed sour-cream-and-onion-flavored potato chips
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 6 chicken breast fillets, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
- Honey Mustard, recipe follows
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Spread the crushed potato chips in a shallow dish. Beat together the egg and milk in a shallow bowl. Dip the chicken cubes into the egg mixture and then dredge them in the chips. Place the chicken nuggets on a baking sheet and drizzle with melted butter. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown. The chicken nuggets can be frozen after baking. Serve with your favorite sauce, such as honey mustard or ranch dressing.
Honey Mustard:
3/4 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 tablespoon lemon juice or juice from 1/2 lemon
Horseradish, to taste (We didn't put this in, because we all think its gross)
2 tablespoons orange juice (more or less as needed)
Combine all ingredients except orange juice; stir well. Thin to pouring consistency for dressing or dipping consistency for dips with orange juice. Cover and chill for 2 or 3 hours.
Yield: 1 1/4 cups
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: None
Ease of preparation: Easy
6 girls and 1 guy finished them all off, with more room to spare, although we all had a sufficient amount to eat.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Halloween Layer dip
Aaand, lets get a close up of my creepy friend in the middle there....
Friday, October 30, 2009
Aaron's Chili
This is a good chili… a nice gentle burn that sets in slowly, and a definite deep flavor to it.
2 Yellow Onions Sauteed in Olive Oil
2 Lbs Ground Meat (Pork & Beef combined, coarse grind is best) Browned
28 Oz Crushed Tomatoes
28 Oz Tomato Sauce
12 Oz Tomato Paste
15 Oz Beef Broth
4 x 15 OZ Dark Red Kidney Beans
Heaped TBSP Each of
Cocoa Powder (Unsweetened)
Ground Cumin
Cayenne (Red Pepper)
Garlic Powder
Cumin and and Red Pepper are of course a critical constituent of any chili. The Beef Broth and the Cocoa are the 'secret' ingredients. Cocoa sets off the Cayenne nicely. It does not make the chili ‘chocolatey’, although if you know it is there you can detect it.
The balance isn’t perfect yet, it didn’t win the office competition, but I had three bowls of it myself, and my coworkers had kind things to say about it (even the ones who don’t report to me directly)…
Thursday, October 15, 2009
French Dip
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Chris's Salsa
5 qts tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2 lg green tomatoes, chopped
10 jalepeno peppers, chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
6 onions, chopped
2 cups celery (about 1/2 stalk), chopped
1/4 cup saltscant
1/4 cup honey (it says 3 Tbls, but I just usually dump in about 1/4 cup)
2 green peppers, chopped
1-2 cans tomato paste to thicken it up, if desired (I add 1 or 2, and it's still pretty thin.)
Tomatoes- wash them, and then put them in a pot of boiling water until the skins crack a little. Take them out, let them cool a minute and then peel the skin off, and cut the stem out, and cut any bad spots out. Throw them in the food processor. I do the tomatoes first because it gives me how many batches I'm gonna make. One 5 gallon pail of tomatoes makes about 2 batches, give or take. All of the veggies get chopped up in the food processor. Do the jalepenos last, because it's just easier to get everything else done, in the pots, and then do those. Be sure you wear gloves and don't touch your face!!! After you have everything in a pot, bring it to a boil. Let it simmer for at least 15 mins (but you can let it go all day, too, just don't let it burn. Stir it!) Here, you can play with it to adjust heat and flavor. This recipe, as is, is pretty spicy. I water bath can them. Quarts need 50 mins, pints need 40. One batch makes 8ish quarts, depending on how long you let it boil down.
Taco Dip
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Spider Web Dip
Make guacamole. (We all know mom's, right? Is it on here somewhere?)
Put it in a round pan or plate.
Put some sour cream in a plastic bag, cut the corner, and pipe circles around the guacamole. Run a toothpick from the center out, to give it a web design.
Take some colossal olives. Pipe two small dots on half for eyes. Place two next to each other on the web. (Repeat for as many spiders you want on there.) Add black food coloring (like, the real stuff, because that's the only way to actually get black), and draw legs on the spiders.
My other thought was, you could take the method of making lots of things with raisins in it. And, at random points during the evening yelling "ugh, I just ate a dead spider. It was in my cookie!" That would make everything with a raisin, also a spider-themed food. For added effect, have one or two guests also participate.
Bisquick Mix
White Flour Biscuit Mix
9 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1/4 cup baking powder
2 cups solid vegetable shortening
(Or, you can do 10 cups of self-rising flour and the shortening instead)
Mix the first three ingredients. Add in the shortening. Mix together with your hands until it resembles lumpy cornmeal.
Store in a tightly sealed container. It makes 11-12 cups. You can use it anywhere you see Bisquick or Bixcuit Mix called for.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Spiced Banana Walnut Muffins
Fake Oreos, Fake Spiders
Then dye your frosting red. Use it to draw little black widow markings on your sandwich cookies. Chocolate chips for the eyes, and chocolate dipped pretzel sticks for the legs. Or you could use black licorice if you wanted to ruin perfectly good cookies.
Chocolate Spiders
So there is this party coming up, Halloween themed and with a circle of friends that have a whole lot of inside jokes. What I need are dishes (healthy and not) involving spiders. Spider looking, spider web looking, even perhaps spider leg looking. Whatever. I know I could take a ritz cracker, stick 8 pretzel sticks to it with peanut butter, then dip the whole thing in chocolate, but I would like to branch out a little more, and come up with perhaps an entire meal of spider foods.
Ready, set, brainstorm.
Brotschnitte und Eier
You take a couple pieces of bread (preferably wheat) and cut them into 1 inch squares. In a fry pan, heat up a little bit of olive oil. Add some pepper to it, and then throw in the bread. Pan fry it until the bread is toasted.
In another pan, at the same time, make scrambled eggs.
Serve both hot, with ketchup and orange juice. I know it sounds weird, but its really really good.
Mubba's Green Bean Casserole
Here's my secret:
Use the same recipe that Nancy posted, but add 1 dollop of miracle whip and 2-3 dollops of sour cream to the cream of soup before you mix it with the green beans. Thats for one of mom's oval casserole dishes, so for a 13x9, I'd at least double it.
It does make it incredibly less healthy. In fact, health wise, you'd probably be better off eating that cheesecake that Aaron posted earlier.
Friday, September 25, 2009
(Nearly) Vegan Mexican Goolash
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 jar salsa
1 can rotel
1 can shoestring corn
1 can yello corn
2 cans black beans
1 can olives
Spray your crockpot with PAM first, trust me. Then put the chicken breasts in and cover with the jar of salsa and can of Rotel (undrained). Cook for 2 hours on high if not frozen, 4 hours if they are still frozen. After they're done cooking, remove and shred. To the crockpot add the corn and beans (drained and rinsed) and the can of olives (drained). Add the chicken and stir. Cook on low for a little longer, until heated through.
If you want to, serve it with some cheese and sour cream. Its really not necessary though, and it adds extra fat and makes it non-nearly vegan. This is also really good cold as leftovers. Mmm...
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Chocolate Marble Cheesecake
BLT Pizza
You need:
Cresecent Rolls
Sour Cream
Cream Cheese
Lettuce
Tomato
Bacon
Okay, its like vegetable pizza, where you take pillsbury crescent rolls (You know, the little tubes that *POP* when you squeeze em) and bake them flat on a cookie sheet. Then you make an amazingly unhealthy spread with cream cheese and sour cream.
Then you pile lettuce on top ( I liked using romaine, because its pretty :) ) and some tomatoes, and some bacon pieces and VOILA! bacon lettuce tomato pizza. Its amazing.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Raspberry or Strawberry Salad
Cookie Salad
Saturday, September 19, 2009
The vinaigrette
In my defense, lest you judge to harshly, it applies to much more than this salad, and has so many possible variations that it was a cumbersome addition to the salad post.
You really need to know one major principle in the making of any vinaigrette. Are you ready? Its a ratio. 2:1.
Tough, right?
That's 2 parts oil for one part vinegar. This is your base.
You can use whatever kind of oil you want, although olive oil is both traditional and healthy, peanut oil can make for a nice flavor, and canola oil works if you are a poor starving student forced to improvise on a crappy budget or on the leftovers people have in the cupboards.
And, while the options for the vineagar are infinite, I must warn you to not eliminate the possibility of using just plain white vineagar. It has its benefits, and it depends on the salad.
Next you need to think about the essence of your vinaigrette. Do you need a citrus feel to it? Add some lemon juice. Are there crasins in your salad? Try a little orange juice in your dressing. Is the salad mostly made up of tart or bitter ingredients? Put mustard in the dressing. (Weird logic? not really. Mustard is very good at drawing out sweet flavors, especially if you are just putting that yellow "French's" stuff into it. Which I give you permission to do, as long as you tell NO ONE.) The rule for any of these additions is that however many you use, one or 5, the amount should equal your vinegar.
(Incidentally, if you insist on making the vinaigrette without adding these flavors, you should increase the vinegar to equal the oil, making it a 1:1 ratio.
But thats not all! Simply mixing oil and vineagar will never impress anyone, so start thinking spices. Salt and pepper, yes, but you know that spice rack you got as a wedding present that you never really touched except for the cinnamon which is now empty? Yeah, open that up and start smelling things. If you like the smell, throw it in. It only takes a couple of tries before you find a combination that really expresses your flavor. Or, if you don't have a spice rack at your disposal, start digging through the cupboards and discover the random spices you have accumulated over the years.
Make the dressing a few times and put it on the side, pretty soon you will find the simplicity of mixing it as easy as grabbing a bottle out of the fridge, and you might even start preferring it so much, you stop buying dressings altogether.
Tomato Mozzarella salad
So let's talk salad for a moment. An important pronciple I learned from the French is that salad does not always mean lettuce and dressing. In fact, since salad really just refers to the blending of various fresh things, it doesn't even necesarily have to refer to vegetables at all, meaning fruit salad could simply be referred to as salad, and if you wanted to, say, create a salad using pudding and cookies, it could simply be referred to as a salad as well. Although I don't know anyone who would do such a thing, and if they did, there would be GREAT debates as to whether it counted as a salad or as a dessert.
But I digress. My favorite salad from France is one I had my very first week there, and many many times after.
You will need:
Tomatoes (Roma work really well for this)
Mozzarella (I like to get the fresh kind, packed in water, for this, since its more of a feature of the dish than just grating it over the top)
A vinaigrette. You can use a pre-mixed kind, but if you want to make a really nice one, I will give you the recipe for that as well.
You can add fresh basil as well. It brings the flavors together quite nicely.
Slice the tomatoes and the mozzarella so that the slices are basically the same size (and if you got the fresh mozzarella in the round packages, then they are nice and uniform!) Layer them out on a plate, in a pretty pattern, alternating between the tomato and mozzarella. Drizzle with the vinaigrette and the chopped fresh basil and some salt and pepper.
Yup, thats all there is to a marvelous salad. I might add that if you are particularly wealthy or trying to impress someone, Havarti cheese works well too.
And, I might add again, that its in our blood, in our own heritage to love this salad. After all, how many times did we have tomatoes and cheese for lunch at Grandma and Grandpa Pratt's house? Remember how you could just pick a tomato and eat it like an apple, catching the juice dribbles with that unreasonably large hunk of yellow cheese that Grandma would cut for you? This is simply less portable and less messy.
Pumpkin Bread the Easy Way
Monday, September 7, 2009
Nancy's Boeuf Bourgingnon
The recipe came up because I was in need of an accompaniment cd, so I cohersed my very busy friend Bryan to spend part of his saturday afternoon playing for me, and in exchange he and his wife requested that I cook a real French meal for them. (I offered to pay them, but they wanted services for services, and I obliged, since cooking for people isn't something I get to do very often.) I had short notice and no access to a real recipe book, so I went to the grocery store on a blank slate ans simply started wandering the aisles.
You have heard that necessity is the mother of invention? Well, I like to think that this was sort of this, but more of a love and service beget creation, you know, like Elder Uchtdorff's talk last year in the RS session. Which everyone should read/listen to/ download to their ipod, or whatever it is you do these day.
But I am rambling, so onward to the recipe!
You will need:
Some cuts of Beef, not ground. a cut for each person, whichever style you like, although cheap and thing work really well, because no matter what you do, the recipe will turn out tender.
Kite string (or cooking twine, whatever. I like kite string, its cheap and everyone has several spools laying around)
Beef bouillon or beef stock or beef soup base. Get the kind in the pourable box, you will want a lot of it!
Bacon, one slice for each cut of beef
Fresh Basil
Various spices, although the best are italian, pepper, mustard seed, caraway seed, celery salt, and garlic
or if you are feeling lazy, you could try it with the lipton onion soup mix. haven't done that yet, but the blend would work in this.
Now, you are finally going to get to use that meat tenderizer that just sits in your knife rack or utensil drawer, lonely and waiting for you to cook something real! (Of course, if your lonely meat tenderizer has given up and run away, then cover your rolling pin with saran wrap.) Smash (smoosh?) that meat so it is flat and malleable.
put your spices on it (except for the fresh basil and mustard seeds, those need to wait) and then lay a slice of bacon across on side of it. Fold it over so it sandwiches the bacon, and then roll it up and tie it into a little ball with the kite string.
Put your beef bouillon/stock in a stock pot or pan big enough to hold all your servings with a little wiggle room. (I used 1 box of stock in a saucepan with 3 servings, anything more and you will have to move to a bigger pan and perhaps more bouillon)
put some mustard seeds and chopped fresh basil and whatever other spices you like into the stock as well, and then drop the beef in.
Let it boil and simmer for about 20 minutes (depending, of course, on size and thickness of meat) Even if you go too long, you are cooking the meat by boiling it, so it won't get dry. And you are cooking it by boiling it in its own juices, so it won't get slimy.
Serve it hot, and its a really great idea to put a little ramekin of the extra au jus (that's fancy for spicy bouillon) on the side of each serving, so that the meat can be dipped in it and drizzeled with it.
Yummy.
Oh yes, if you have small children eating this, you probably want to cut the kite string off before you serve it.
And it goes really well with a nice tomato mozzarella salad (which I suppose I will have to post as a seperate thing.... someday, when I have time)
A little balance...
...
...
That's right, there are 44 desserts, and the other sections barely even acheive half that.
Unbalanced, for sure.
Now, to be fair, I have, I am sure, contributed to the problem, and in addition, it seems like a reasonable thing to have more recipes for the things we like to eat and create.
But why don't we see if we can't step it up a little in the other areas. Perhaps Aaron could do some more point tallying this time notfying us in advance of the rule that a dessert post is a negative point. This means, if you are going to post a dessert, it would be wise to post a non dessert as well.
(Not that the fat content will be any less, since we all know that brussel sprouts taste better when broiled in bacon fat)
Air Freshener
Nauvoo Bread
Parmesan Picnic Bread
Oven Fried Chicken
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Walking Tacos
Shredded lettuce
taco meat
sour cream
salsa
shredded cheese
Crunch the doritos inside the bag and then open it. Add which ever of the other ingredients that suits your fancy. Eat with a fork (or spoon if you enjoy a challenge) straight out of the bag.
These are great for big groups because they don't make much mess- you don't have to worry about balancing a plate and the what not.
I hadn't ever tried these until this summer. Occasionally Valleyfair treats their staff to these and we visit Matt at the park and I eat all of his. We made them for dinner here, and the kids really enjoyed them. Just a piece of advice though- don't eat one of these and then go on the Octopus.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Edible Modeling Dough
1-1/4 Cups Powdered Sugar
1-1/4 Cups Powdered Milk
1 Cup Corn Syrup
1 Cup Peanut Butter.
Mix.
Vaguely reminiscent of actual peanut butter cookie dough, just similar enough to be disappointing when you realize that it is realy just peanut-butter-flavored-diabetes-in-a-bowl.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
onion dip
And you have to get the ruffles with ridges. Because the ridges hold more of the onion dip goodness and stay crunchy. If you get the non ridgy kind then the chips get soggy between the dip and your mouth.
Its easy.
1 container of sour cream
1 packet of lipton french onion soup
mix it up. well. don't let any pockets of spice collect up, and make sure to scrape the bottom so that it mixes up entirely.
Grean Bean Casserole
For the record, the green beans really should be the french cut ones. The others work, but they don't quite bake into the sauce the same way.
four normal sized cans of french cut green beans
2 cans campbells cream of soup. (you know the routine, chicken or mushroom. the recipe calls for mushroom, but SOME people won't eat the mushroom stuff, so you have to consider who you are serving this to)
Frenchs fried onions
salt and pepper
drain the beans, mix them with the soup and some milk and about half the can of onions, salt an pepper to taste. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, then scatter the rest of the onions on top so they get crispy during the last 5 minutes of bake time.
Reeses Peanut Butter Bars
But you do need a food processor... (Ok, remember the Christmas of the food processor? I know you all have one. Well, Emma and I don't, but that just means you have to make them for us and mail them to us. Whatever happened to care packages?)
I'm posting the 13x9 recipe, because there is no point to making any less...
2 1/2 cups of graham craker crumbs (remember that food processor?)
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup margarine
1 cup peanut butter
mix it all up and press into the bottom of the 13x9.
Melt 2 TBsp of peanut butter with
6 oz chocolate chips (thats 1/2 package)
Boom Baby
The bestest homemade syrup I have ever tasted in my whole entire life...
This is that syrup.
1 cube butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup sugar
Boil it together, then once it boils, remove it from the heat. Add:
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
Yummmmmmmmmmm.
Nancy's very own Mac and Cheese
Noodles (I prefer stuff called campagnolle, it sticks to the cheese nicely. Shells work pretty well too, but its not as much fun to say as campagnolle. Come on, you know you want to say it out loud. Campagnolle!)
Flour
Butter/Margarine
Onion, cut up tiny
Milk (or cream if you feel gourmet)
as many different kinds of cheese as you want, shredded. I like to use mozarella and cheddar.
Garlic/ seasonings
Boil the noodles, put them in a collinder, put some butter in the pan and sautee the onions. cook them up until they are a little beyond clear, but not brown. Add the spices while you are doing this. Garlic is the best thing, and then it is up to you to branch out from there.
Add a splash of milk and some flour, stir it up and while it is still liquidy add the noodles back in. the flour will start to thicken up, so continue to add a little more milk to keep it stirable. Start to add the cheese in and keep stirring it while you watch the cheese get all lovely and melting.
Serve it hot!
Grandpa and Nancy's Stir Fry Stuff
Frozen Mixed Veggies
Ramen Noodles
Eggs
Chicken
I'm poor, so I don't often actually use chicken, but if you have to feed protein to children, or to grandpa, then cut up a few chicken breasts into bite size chunks and cook them up in olive oil. Leave them and their grease in the pan while you continue to the next steps.
Start with the veggies and some water in a frying pan (I suppose a wok if you have one...) start them thawing/steaming which may take longer depending on how freezer burned the veggies are. If they are leftover from the last roommate that you lived with, it could take up to ten minutes. Once the veggies are reasonably frostless, add two cups of water per package of Ramen noodles, and add the ramen noodles as well. Continue to stir them around (that's why its called stir fry) until the noodles are soft, then toss in the ramen noodle spice packets. let the water reduce a bit while you stir it around, then crack some eggs in and continue to stir it around. I suppose the eggs are optional, but they give a little more protein to the whole experience, as well as kind of bind it together.
Once the eggs are done, then so is your stir fry!
For the Record...
Mississippi Mud Bars
Here's the stories:
I remember when we were bringing these to a ward/branch function and the pan was sitting uncovered on the padded console between the front seats in the Toyota. Dad was getting overly excited as he was driving and put his elbow into the pan of them. We got to eat them all ourselves, since we couldn't really serve them after that.
I brought some to school one day and someone (Justin Solie) asked me what they were. I told him it was Mississippi Mud. He said it was impossible that it was from the Mississippi and I told him it was. Then I convinced everyone at the lunch table that Dad had flown down there the day before (which he probably had) just to get some mud from the river so my mom could make them (which, as we all know, he didn't. I'm just dishonest. I got it from my brother who adjusted the score from last month...).
Salami, Pickles & Cream Cheese Appetizer
A few we're missing...
Okay, in fairness Jessica posted 12 recipes, and I only posted 11. But one of Jessica's is a repeat from earlier (Divinity).
Melissa posted seven, but I disqualify two because she hasn't made them (this is me making up the rules after the fact, a process you should all be well acquainted with by now given our shared childhood experience). However, I added two points because she did post two pictures.
Then, just to be fair, I had to give myself a point for my picture posted, which brings me back to my original point: I win. Not by a landslide, but if it takes adjusting the rules to suit me, I'm not above that.
Now, I expect Emma Jane and Nancy and Amy to step up to the plate (PUN!) this month. Of course, Amy has had nothing interesting take her focus off Pratt Family Cooking in the past month, so I can't imagine why she has been so neglectful (other than that whole job change/moving her family across the state thing, which is a pathetic excuse).
This month's challenge: Who can post each of these critical missing recipes first. Of course, since these each form an integral part of our upbringing, the recipe is not complete without some form of explanatory note.
You may begin.
Mississippi Mud
Peanut Butter Cup Bars
Green Bean Casserole
Playdough
Guacamole
Fruit Shakes
Daddy Pratt Hamburgers
‘Kentucky Fried’ Chicken (8 of the 11 spices are salt…)
Mom’s bread
Stef’s pickles/creamcheese/summersausage
Sunday Roast
Onion Dip
Bouche de Noel
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Birthday Cake, the Ice Cream lover's way
Springform pan
Two kinds of ice cream that work together
Cookies
chocolate sauce (or, another kind if chocolate doesn't work with the ice cream)
Cool-whip
Soften one kind of ice cream. Line the springform pan with plastic wrap. Fill the bottom of the pan with ice cream. Be sure you push it into the edges. Freeze again.
Crush the cookies. Soften the next thing of ice cream. Take the cake out and put a layer of crushed cookies in. Drizzle with chocolate sauce. Put the next kind of ice cream in.
Freeze solid.
Take it out, pop the edge off, and put it on a plate. "Frost" it with the cool-whip. You can color the cool-whip with food coloring, and use a plastic bag with the corner snipped to decorate the cake. It looks like a real birthday cake, but it is just ice cream.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Divinity
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
In 2 quart saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/2 cup water. Cook to hard ball stage (260 degrees) stirring only till sugar dissolves. Meanwhile, beat egg whites to stiff peaks. Gradually pour syrup over egg whites, beating at high speed on electric mixer. Add vanilla and beat till candy holds its shape, 4-5 mins. Quickly drop from a teaspoon onto waxed paper. Makes about 40 pieces.
Salt Water Taffy
2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oil of peppermint
7 drops green food coloring
Combine sugar, syrup, salt, and 1 1/2 cups water in 2 quart saucepan. Cook slowly, stirring until sugar dissolves. Cook to hard ball stage (260 degrees) without stirring. Remove from heat; stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into buttered pan. Cook till comfortable to handle. Butter hands; gather taffy into a ball and pull. When candy is light in color and gets hard to pull, cut into fourthes. Pul each piece into long strands about 1/2 in thick. With buttered scissors, quickly snip into bite sized pieces. Wrap each piece in wax paper.
Aunt Julia's No Bake Cookies
3 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup coconumt
1/2 cup nuts
6 tablespoons cocoa
1 tsp Vanilla
Heat over stove:
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup evap. milk
1/2 cup margarine
Stir together; drop by tsp on waxed paper. Let age one day.
Middlebro Manitoba Shepherd's Pie
6 to 20 potatoes
2 to 4 lbs cheap round steak
1 hot pepper
1 to 3 onions
1 or 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 can creamed corn
1 to 2 lbs mild cheddar or colby cheese
Slice the meat into stroganoff strips, and start browning them in a fry pan (like the good Revereware pan Aunt Nancy gave Reo for Christmas) while you dice onions and pepper. Brown everything together (in olive oil) while you peel and cut potatoes. Let the meat and seasons (pepper, onions, and a little something from your spice cupboard) simmer together for as long as you have. The meat could be hamburger if you are in a hurry, or venison if you don't tell Melissa, but it needs to simmer in a covered pan fo ra good half hour if it's cheap round stake, which we buy here for less than hamburger. The number of potatoes depends (notice I spell POTATO like a democrat, which is not capitalized) upon th esize of the pyrex pan and the number of people and the size of the potatoes. Whip or mash the potatoes like you would for mashed potatoes and spread them in the (13x9 or bigger) cake pan. Stire the canned soup into the simmering meat, layer the creamed corn on top of the potatoes and spread the meat and soup on top. Layer the cheese on top and bake for 15 to 20 mins at 300 to melt the cheese. The whole thing can be refridgerated or frozen like lasanga and used the next week or month. Obviously, if it is frozen or refridgerated it would have to bake longer. The hot pepper came from the garden behind the hanger at the airport in Dyersburg, Tennessee.
Oh yeah, the reason the residents of Middlebro come to Warroad to the Library, instead of Roseau, is that they think the assistant librarian in Warroad is so nice and helps them find good things to read.
(as written by Reo Pratt)
Pizza Dough
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups of all-purpose four
1 Tablespoon cornmeal
Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add salt, olive oill and 2 1/2 cups flour. Mix together. Add remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until it clings to the side of the bowl. Knead.
Cover and let rise for about 1 hour, until doubled in bulk.
Push down. Brush 14 inch pan with oil and sprinkle with cornmeal. Press dough into pan. Top as desired.
Bake at 450 for 15-20 mins.
Cinnamon chips
cooking spray
cinnamon and sugar mixture
Preheat oven to 425. Spray the tortillas with spray. Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and sugar. Cut into wedges. Bake in the oven until crisp. These make a good after school snack. The place I got them from suggested using chopped up fruit as a "salsa" for them. I haven't done that yet, but sounds good.
Crockpot Apples
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
cinnamon
Slice and peel the apples, and put them in a crockpot. Slice the butter on top. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Cook on low for 8ish hours, or high for less than that. You do have to stir this! The apples will get all mushy and yummy and will produce a lot of juice. They taste a lot like Mom's baked apples.
Put on top of vanilla ice cream with a dollop of cool whip. Or, serve it however you want, but that is what we make it for.
I believe that would put me at...
By the way, I also spent some time putting labels on our recipes as per (Jessica's) suggestion, and I added a label gadget on the right so you can now see our recipes by category, hopefully making our site more useable -
Muddy Buddies
9 cups Chex
1 Cup Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
1/4 Cup Butter
1 Tsp Vanilla
1-1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar
Stir together Choc Chips, Peanut Butter and Butter and microwave on high 1 minute. Stir, microwave and stir in 30 second intervals until smooth. Stir in vanilla, pour over cereal and try to stir without crushing. Pour mix in to 2-gallon ziploc. Put powdered sugar in ziploc and shake. Spread out on waxed paper to cool, then store in tupperware in fridge.
Potstickers
40 Wonton Wrappers
2/3 Lb Ground Pork
1 Cup Chinese Cabbage - Minced
2 Green Onions - Minced
1 Egg
1 Tbsp Light Soy Sauce
Dash of Salt
Hot Chili Oil (to taste)
1/2 Cup Peanut Oil
1 Cup Water
Combine Pork, Cabbage, onion, egg, soy sauce, chili oil in large bowl, mix well.
Lay out won ton skins on dry surface, put 1 tsp filling on each. wet outer edge of won ton skins with water for seal. pinch together in semicircles.
Place 2 heavy fry pans on low heat, add half of oil to each. arrange potstickers so that they are close together, then raise heat to medium high.
Cook uncovered until bottoms are golden brown - it takes a couple of minutes, then steam by dumping 1/2 cup of water in each pan and covering immediately. Let steam until wonton wrappers are semi-transparent, then take cover off and cook until bottoms are crisp and brown.
The Standard for Sugar Cookies
2 sticks of butter
1 Cup of Sugar
Cream together well
Add 1 Tbsp Milk, 1 egg, mix
Mix together:
3 Cups of Flour
1/4 Tsp Salt
3/4 Tsp Baking Powder.
Add slowly to wet ingredients
Refrigerate
Use a sifter to sprinkle powdered sugar on your rolling surface, then roll out the dough. Using powdered sugar instead of flour for rolling means not only do you eliminate the floury dust on sugar cookies, but it bakes over in a very subtle, sweet glaze-like finish in the oven.
Roll out 1/4 inch deep, cut with cookie cutters.
Bake for 8 minutes at 375, rotate half way through.
Grandma Burnham's Butter Cream Frosting
1 Tsp Clear Vanilla
2 Tablespoons Cream, Milk, or Water
1/2 C Solid Vegetable Shortening (Crisco)
1/2 C Butter or Margarine, softened
1 Lb Confectioners' sugar
Sift the sugar into large bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Blend until creamy. Do not over beat.
Thin with white syrup to do writing or do string work, also to make frosting easier on a cake which is not frozen or has crumbs.
For a pure white frosting substitute 1/2 C Solid Vegetable Shortening and powdered cream for the butter or margarine. A dash of salt will improve the flavor. 1/4 Tsp Butter flavor can also be added.
Mom's Spinach Dip
1 - 10 oz package Frozen Spinach
1/2 Pint Sour Cream (approx.)
3/4 Tsp Salt
1/8 Tsp White Pepper
1/8 Tsp Finely Chopped Onion
1/8 Tsp Worcestershiire Sauce
4 drops hot sauce (optinoal)
Cook spinach according to directions. Drain, the cool by running cold water over it in a colander (makes the color stay green). Dry by squeezing or mashing.
Put spinach in blender to chop. Add enough sour cream to moisten until it is the right thickness of a dip. Then add other ingredients and blend until combined. Chill.
Big Sourdough rounds turned in to bread bowls are best for serving - cut off the top, scoop out the insides, cube the insides and place on a plate, then fill the bowl with the dip and replace the top. Some additional rye bread cubed is tasty and adds color variation (especially since you can't tear apart the bowl until some of the dip has been consumed.
Chocolate-Cherry Something
26 Chocolate Wafers (or Oreo Crumbs, no filling)
1/4 Cup Butter/Margarine
8 ozs Sour Cream
1 Package (4-serving) instant chocolate pudding
1-1/4 Cups of Milk
21 Oz Cherry Pie Filling
Crush the wafers and reserve 2 Tablespoons
Mix the rest of the wafers with the melted butter
Spread the crushed buttered wafers in an 8x8 pan
Refrigerate
Mix the sour cream, pudding mix, and milk. Use a mixer. Spread it on to the chocolate crust.
Spread the cherry pie filling on top, then sprinke the reserved chocolate crumbs.
Refrigerate for a few hours. If you need it quick, you can freeze it for one hour. (Actually, you can serve it right away, but it serves best when set up by chilling).
Cheesy Hash Browns
2 Cans Cream of Chicken Soup
4 Cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese
24 Ozs Sour Cream
2 Tsp Salt
1 Cup Melted Margarine
4 Lbs Frozen Hash browns.
Mix all the ingredients together except half the butter and the hash browns first, then add the hash browns in. Pour the remainder of the butter on top after putting it in the crock pot. It's supposed to bake for about an hour in the oven in two 13x9 pans, the nice thing is this can be kept warm for ever in the crock pot, so start it early and let it be. We do it in the crock pot because it goes well with ham, which takes up the whole oven.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Apricot Honey Chicken
Ingredients:
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (5 ounces each)
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 3 tablespoons apricot preserves
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 4 teaspoons honey
Directions:
In a large skillet, cook chicken in oil over medium heat for 7-9 minutes on each side or until a meat thermometer reads 170°. Combine the preserves, orange juice and honey; pour over chicken. Cook for 2 minutes or until heated through. Yield: 4 servings.See disclaimer on post below.
Bacon-Wrapped Chicken
Ingredients:
- 6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4 ounces each)
- 1 carton (8 ounces) spreadable chive and onion cream cheese
- 1 tablespoon butter
- Salt to taste
- 6 bacon strips
Directions:
Flatten chicken to 1/2-in. thickness. Spread 3 tablespoons cream cheese over each. Dot with butter and sprinkle with salt; roll up. Wrap each with bacon strip.Place, seam side down in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Bake, uncovered, at 400° for 35-40 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 170°. Broil 6 in. from the heat for 5 minutes or until bacon is crisp. Yield: 6 servings.
Truth be told, I took this from Taste of Home. But I'm totally going to try it by the end of the month. It looks delectable.
Another Favorite Salad Combination
Chopped broccoli and cauliflower- chop it really small
croutons
sunflower seeds
chunked deli turkey (about a 1/4 inch slice)
craisins
Kraft Asian toasted sesame dressing
The raw cauliflower and broccoli sound a little weird- but with the dressing, they're quite good. Don't mix the dressing in with the salad- the salad keeps really well for a day or two, but not if you've already added the dressing.
Mother In Law's Monster Cookies
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 cup 2 tbsp brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
4 1/2 cups oats
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 m and ms (I really love using dark peanut m and ms, but whatever floats your boat)
Cream together all of the ingredients in the top section. Then add the flour. Then add the oats. Then the chocolate stuffs. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. These freeze really really well.
And a doubled recipe of this does not fit in my kitchen aid, just to let you know.
Easy Fried Chicken
Storehouse potato flakes
a couple of eggs, depending on how much you want to make
a good frying pan
oil, and/or fresh bacon grease
Heat up oil in the pan, on medium high. Set up a cookie sheet with paper towels on one counter. On another counter, next to the pan, line up bowls with potato flakes and eggs. Beat the eggs. I used four eggs when I did a whole huge bag of chicken, just to give you an idea. Cover each piece of chicken in the eggs, then coat in potato flakes. Put into the hot oil. Fry for a few minutes- you'll know to flip it when the edges of the top of the piece are turning golden. Flip it. Fry it for about 2 more minutes, depending on how big the piece of chicken is. Remove from pan to cookie sheet. You probably want to use different tongs (you're welcome) to flip and to remove just to keep from cross contamination.
Especially if you use bacon grease, you probably won't need a lot of seasoning for these. Really, they would be best with honey mustard sauce, but they're pretty good on their own.
Green Rice
Perogie Casserole
Mashed potatoes
Cheese
Bacon
1 Onion
If you have left over mashed potatoes, that will work fine. If you plan on making the mashed potatoes for this, make sure to throw a few cloves of garlic into the boiling potatoes and add sour cream, cream cheese and butter to the potatoes as you're mashing them.
Boil lasagna noodles. Spray casserole pan. Sautee the onion in a little bit of olive oil. Layer noodles, mashed potatoes, onion and cheese. Try to do this twice. Then cover it all in cheese, sprinkle bacon on top "as a garnish." Bake at 350 for probably 20 minutes or so, depending on if the potatoes were cold when you layered them. Probably add salt and pepper or tony's for taste.
It doesn't get much more Minnesotan that this, folks.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
(what should we call these?)
They were a big hit. I wish I had taken a picture of a completed one. They are pretty, too.
ice cream cones (the ones with flat bottoms. What are they called???)
brownie mix (plus whatever you need to make brownie mix)
chocolate ice cream
sprinkles
Mix brownies according to directions. Set up cones on a cookie sheet. Fill each cone about 1/2 full with brownie mix. You don't want the brownie to come all the way to the top when baked. Bake until the house fills with yummy brownie aroma. Allow to cool.
Later, after bribing the kids to eat their vegetables with these, put a scoop of ice cream on the top. This is why you want the brownie to be slightly below the top of the cone. You want the ice cream to be able to be a little bit in the cone. Top with sprinkles. I believe that sprinkles should be required and, in no way, negotiable for this.
Yum! The ice cream seeps into the brownie just like it does in a brownie sundae, except it is in a nice, portable cone.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Glurch
1/2 cup liquid starch
3/4 cup glue (ie- elmer's white glue)
Mix the glue into the starch, first in a cup, then finish mixing it in on wax paper. Let sit for 20 mins.
This is fun for kids to play with, and surprisingly not messy. It will stain if you color it and let is sit on a fabric, though. It reminds me of sitting on Grandma Earl's swing and playing with magic sand with Amy. It's not magic sand, but it has that same fascination for children. It's solid with pressure (squeezing it) but turns liquid.
Really, it is an easy clean-up.
Cinnamon rolls
First of all- the bread recipe:
1 C scalded milk
1/4 c wesson oil
1 T yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 t salt
1 egg
flour (you know, enough to make it right)
1 T gluten (it says optional, but this is what really makes the dough nice and chewy)
Combine water, sugar, and yeast. Let stand while you heat milk for 1 min in microwave or over stove. In a seperate bowl, stir egg, oil, and salt goether. Mix this wilth the milk after it has cooled. (Baby bottle temperature is how I think of it) Pour warm mixture into sugar and yeat. Add gluten and flour. If you can't handle this part, learn to make bread before attempting this recipe.
Roll out dough into rectangle. Soften 1 cube butter and spread over dough. Sprinkly 1/4 c cinnamon and 1/2 cup sugar (mixed together) over that. (You can add raisins, if you are fan of the dead fly look). Roll and cut (use a thread, in case you didn't know that trick). Bast at 400 degrees.
Now, the frosting. The best part:
1 cube butter
1 lb of powdered sugar
1/4 c milk
(yeah, seems normal so far, oh but wait...)
French vanilla coffee creamer. (Yeah, wipe that drool off your face)
Pour this over just as they come out of the oven to really make is soak in and saturate the dough with ooey-sticky goodness.
By adding orange zest and juice to filling and frosting, you can make orange rolls. I'm a fan of orange rolls, but I like this one better as cinnamon rolls.
If you don't want to do all this work, take a trip down to the Waseca Farmer's Market. The women in our branch who gave me this recipe bakes them and sells them there. You have to get there early, though. They sell out by 7 am.
Easy "Quiche"
1 C fresh spinach
1 C cooked and diced/shredded chicken
1 C parmesan cheese
1 C Swiss cheese
1 C diced ham
1/4 c yellow onion
Bake pie crust at 350 for 10 mins. Remove and allow to cool. Mix spinach, chicken, cheese, ham and onion together and put in crust.
Whip together: 2 eggs, 3/4 cup mayonnaise, 1/4 cup milk.
Pour over ingredients in crust. (It will be very full). Bake at 375 for 50 mins.
Chris's Apple Turnovers
Filling:
5 C sliced apples
1 C white sugar
1/3 C water (if your apples aren't juicy. If they are freshed pick, and the kind that juice runs down your chin as you eat them, you can skip this.)
Slowly steam on low heat for about 10 mins until done. Apples need to be firm, and not mushy. Add 2 T sugar mixed in 1/4 C flour. Sprinkle over apples as you lightly stir. After it thickens, remove from heat and add 3 T butter, 1/2 tes. salt and 1 teas. vanilla. Let stand at room temp until cool.
Crust:
3 C flour
1 t salt
1-2 T butter
Up to 1/2 cup of water
Mix flour and salt. Cut in butter; add water as needed. This is a basic pie crust recipe. You can use anyone you want, really.
Form walnut size pieces of dough and roll into round patties. Put apple filling on half, fold over and pinch together with the edge of a fork. Bake as you would a pie. Glas with powdered sugar glaze (powdered sugar, milk, and a tinsy bit of vanilla).
Szechuan Chicken
But it is good.
Chicken Breast, Cubed
Fry with Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce (from previous post) and a tiny bit of sesamee oil
Carrots, sliced
Red Pepper, little strips
Onion, little strips
Celery
Green Onion
Zucchini or Broccoli
Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce
Sesamee Oil
Corn Starch
Chicken Broth
Cook Chicken with Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce. Remove from pan.
Cook carrots, red pepper, onion, and celery with Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce. Add a tiny bit of sesamee oil.
As carrot mixture begins to become transparent, add in zucchini (or broccoli, or pea pods).
Make a liberal mixture of Cornstarch and Chicken Broth.
Add to vegetables with Chicken.
Add the rest of the Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce.
Egg Rolls
Package of Spring Home TYJ Spring Roll Pastry (This is the brand they use)
Filling:
Cellophane Noodles - Prepare according to Package
Ground Pork, Browned and Drained
White & Purple Onions, chopped
Carrots, Chopped
Cabbage, Chopped
Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce (See previous recipe)
Pepper (Ground)
Beaten Egg (to seal egg roll wraps
325 for Ten Minutes to bake. Spray them with Pam (cooking spray) first.
Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce
1c. Soy Sauce
3/4 C. Brown Sugar
Boil in small saucepan.
This is to use in the Egg Roll Recipe and in the Szechuan Chicken recipe that are forthcoming...
Grandma and Grandpa Pratt's Buckwheat Pancakes
1/2 Tsp. Soda
1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
Wet Ingredients:
1 Egg Yolk
1-1/2 c. Buttermilk
3/4 tsp. Soda
2 Tbsp sugar
Wet Ingredients:
2 Egg Yolks
2 C. Buttermilk
2 Tbsp Oil
1 Heaped Vienna Sausage Can (5-1/2 ozs +) of Flour
1 Heaped Tablespoon of Brown Sugar
1/4 Tsp. Soda (Not powder! Powder is Soda plus an acid, the buttermilk has acid in it)
Tiny bit of oil if the griddle is well tempered. A little more than a teaspoon if it's not a well-tempered griddle
1 egg, separated, even if the recipe is doubled
Put the yolk in the Buttermilk (1 cup?)
Beat the white until stiff
Add the beaten white after the rest of the fluid has been added to dry ingredients
After the first side bubbles, the second side should cook 1 or 1-1/2 minutes. Time it.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Layers (two recipes)
Layer Cake:
Very basic, but a fun spin on plain old cake.
Cake mix (plus whatever is needed to make said cake)
Chocolate pudding
Topping of choice
Make the cake and cool it completely. Frost the cake with pudding. Top with fruit, chopped up candy bars, nuts, cool whip, etc. Last time, we did yellow cake, chocolate pudding, and strawberries. Pat Horton is the one who introduced me to frosting a cake with pudding, and it is very good, and easy.
Layer Taco Dip:
sour cream
taco seasoning
onions
lettuce
tomato
olives
cheese
whatever other taco toppings you want
chips
Mix sour cream and taco seasoning. Finely chop onions and mix those in. Spread mixture on pizza pan, cookie sheet, or serving tray. Top with layers of other taco toppings. Serve with chips. I did serve this for dinner the other day, and put seasoned hamburger meat on the side.
Yeah, I know, I'm not that fancy. But, hey, these are good, easy, not too hot food.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Feast for your eyes
Ok folks, we're losing it again. I am the first culprit, since I haven't posted a recipe in quite a long time. But here comes another month, and with it a chance to revive our statistics! So I propose a bit of a challenge. let's make June a photo blog month. Instead of posting the actual recipe, post a photo of your dinner. Heck, even if its a photo of a dinner you ordered at a restaurant, or even if it's one that your child created/invented. Maybe you could even post a pic of a meal you want to make that you found online or in a recipe book somewhere. Post the photo and a few key ingredients, whether they are obvious in the photo or not. Then we, in the comments section will have the opportunity to vote yea or nay as to whether we want the recipe. It can be sort of like a non-competitive contest. With validation as the prize! Sure, it's not the most emotionally healthy way to go, but I'm betting that the recipes won't exactly be healthy either, so why not make sport of it?
On your mark, Get set, POST!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Yummy Marinade and green beans side
Equal parts:
soy sauce
7-up
vegetable/corn oil
Mix together and pour over meat. (Turkey roast sliced up is really good, as is chicken.)
Let sit in the fridge overnight, or as long as you can. (It is best overnight, but it's okay if you get it marinading in the morning, too.)
Grill.
It's really good served with garlic green beans:
fresh green beans
olive oil
several garlic cloves, minced
Saute green beans in olive oil and garlic. Keep them crisp, though. That's the key to this, is to not cook the green beans into soggy grossness. How much garlic, oil, and beans you need depends on how many you want to eat, and how garlic-y you want it. Hey, and it repels Twilight fans, too.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Hay Stacks
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Merle's French Silk
Cream together:
1 cup margarine
1-1/2 cup sugar
Beat in to butter mixture:
2 Squares unsweetened chocolate
2 teaspoons vanilla
Beat in 4 eggs, one at a time, 5 minutes between each egg
Pour into 9" pie pan with Graham Cracker crumb crust.
Double recipe to make it in a 13x9 pan, which is how Mom usually does it.
The May Challenge
Chinese Almond Cookies
Stir together:
2-3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cut in 1 cup crisco like you would for a pie crust.
Mix seapartely
1 egg
2 tablespoons mild
1 teaspoon almond extract
Add to flour mixture. Mix well.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Press a blanched almond half on to each cookie, press down to flatten slightly.
Bake in 325 degree oven, 16 minutes
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Roasted Garlic
Roasted Garlic is good spread on bread (baguettes?) or mixed with butter and noodles (especially fettucine). This year I'm going to try it on barbecued meats, which is how it makes the "April Summer Foods" month feature.
By way of useful information (I'm no Alton Brown, but...) it has been scientfically proven that garlic not only keeps away vampires but also repels rabid fans of the 'Twilight' series.
Preheat oven to 375
Line bread pan with aluminimunium foil
Halve two or three cloves of garlic (across the equator, not top to bottom)
Set them in the pan and pour 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil over each.
Put in oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. It's done when the cloves are slightly browned, soft, and spreadable.
After they've cooled a few minutes, you can pick them up (maybe with a hot pad) and squeeze the cloves right out into a dish. It's kind of fun.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Musaman Curry
1 can (19 oz) coconut milk (Mae Ploy brand is my favorite)
3 tbsp fish sauce
3 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup roasted peanuts or cashews
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 tbsp masaman curry paste
1 lb chicken cut into stew pieces
2 tbsp tamarind liquid
3-4 medium size gold potatoes chunked
1. On medium heat, put begetables oil in a pot, then add masaman curry paste. Stir fry for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add 1/3 can of coconut milk, stir fry for 4-5 minutes, until it bubbles red.
3. Add chicken, stir fry for 5-8 minutes
4. Add rest of coconut milk, and 3/4 can of water.
5. Add potatoes and carrots now.
6. Add fish sauce, sugar, tamarind liquid and peanuts.
7. Simmer 30 minutes. If its too thick, add some water. If its too thin, simmer longer.
8. Remove from heat.
Serve over sticky rice. I'll post that recipe soon. I also like to add sliced onions when I add the potatoes and carrots. This is my favorite thing ever.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Chocolate Trifle
William and I made this tonight for our FHE tomorrow (Aaron is in Chicago tonight). It is very easy, and really yummy - although all we did was lick the bowls and utensils when we were done.
INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
- 1 (19.8 ounce) package brownie mix
- 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
- 1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
- 1 (1.5 ounce) bar chocolate candy
DIRECTIONS
- Prepare brownie mix according to package directions and cool completely. Cut into 1 inch squares.
- In a large bowl, combine pudding mix, water and sweetened condensed milk. Mix until smooth, then fold in 8 ounces whipped topping until no streaks remain.
- In a trifle bowl or glass serving dish, place half of the brownies, half of the pudding mixture and half of the 12 ounce container of whipped topping. Repeat layers. Shave chocolate onto top layer for garnish. Refrigerate 8 hours before serving.
Comfort Food: Pasta Salad
So, the recipe. We like to use shells, but you can pick any fun pasta you want. Boil it, strain it, and then immediately cool it with cold water. Dump a little ranch dressing in, just enough to coat the noodles. Then, stick it in the fridge to finish cooling. (You coat the noodles so that they don't stick to each other.)
While that cools, chop up whatever you want to put in it. We do a meat (chicken, ham, or deli meats), veggies (tomatos, cucumbers, celery, carrots), cubed cheese, olives, whatever else sounds good. This is the nice part, because if kids interupt you, you can stop, attend to them, and come back to it. There is no time limit on this step.
Dump stuff into the noodles. Add more ranch, and then, add some italian salad dressing. Trust me, it gives it the perfect zing. I'd say mine end up with about 2 parts ranch to 1 part italian, but there is no measurements.
If your in my house, the last step is to make sure Seth doesn't keep snitching from the bowl throughout the day.
These make great leftovers, too. When we are going to have a few days of back to back craziness, or if I just don't know how many people I'll be feeding, when, I make this up, and then it is there, ready for whoever needs to eat whenever.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
April Proposal
I don't think that every recipe has to be with the theme, but it did help me think of recipes to post, so I say we do it again.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Comfort Food: Warm Pudding
milk
Make the pudding according to directions. Take it seriously when it says to stir constantly. And make sure to keep the bottom of the pan scraped. When it is done, pour immediately into mugs and serve.
Matt introduced me to this when we were engaged. I was very dubious at first, but now its a standard in our house. By far, the best flavor is butterscotch, but be aware that its very rich. We usually just do chocolate. Vanilla is all right, but not the best.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Comfort Foods: Beans and Bread
Admittedly, one of the first tests of my marriage was introducing Stef to Grandma Pratt's cooking. Stef barely survived the experience. It's not that Grandma Pratt didn't know how to cook, it's that she wasn't willing to spend any money on ingredients. So if she had leftover piecrust, green beans, and canned beef, well, she'd make it work. Or at least try.
But there was one time they devised something that was truly great out of leftovers:
Grill a slice of homemade bread.
Pour baked beans (from a can, hormel or van camp's work just fine) on top.
Put a slice of fresh tomato on top of that.
Then melt a slice of mozarella cheese on top of that.
After the Whole-Wheat Griddle cakes with Santa Barbara Plum Jam, this has to be my favorite Pratt recipe. The Burnham side is another story - my mom and grandma and great-grandma have 'the gift' with cooking - but the Pratt side produced just two great recipes.
By the way, if anyone manages to perfect a recipe for the griddle cakes(it was made 'off-the-cuff'), be warned of the following:
As I understand chemistry (which is very little at all), when you combine elements, the new compound has properties that are unrelated to the properties of the original elements, e.g. flammable hydrogen plus fire-feeding oxygen = water, an extinguisher. The only exception to this rule is mass: You cannot create mass by combining elements. The mass of the new compound is the sum of the masses of the elements. Properties different. Mass same. There is only one exception to this law:
Pratt Whole-Wheat Griddle Cakes defy all of the laws of chemistry, physics, and gravity. Their atomic weight is greater than gold. If you can eat more than one, and they're good enough to make you want two, you need to be prepared for the fact that you've just swallowed fiber with a density that defies the law of physics - even light can't escape. Astronomers wondered for decades why their black hole studies consistently become erratic at 5:30 AM pacific time. It's because that's when Grandma got back from her morning walk and fired up the griddle and started mixing the Sprite and Buttermilk.