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Recipes to date:

1. Colleen’s French Onion Soup
2. Colleen’s Holiday Cinnamon Rolls
3. Colleen’s Bolognese Soup
4. Colleen’s Oatmeal Rye Sandwich Bread
5. Colleen’s Summer Squash Lemon Bundt Cake
6. Colleen’s Turkey and Bacon Stew with Dumplings
7. Colleen’s Super Frittata
8. Colleen’s Potato Pie
9. Grammy Nellie’s Brownies
10. Colleen’s Pork Posole Soup
11. Sweet Potato Whiskey Cake
12. Colleen’s Pierogi’s
13. Parade – Chicken Quesadilla Pie
14. Quiche Colleen
15. Arroz Con Pollo
16. Colleen’s Cinnamon Coffee Cake
17. Colleen’s Chicken and Swiss Chard White Lasagna
18. Radish Salad
19. Colleen’s Ham Pot Pie
20. Chi-Ghetti
21. Mom’s Oatmeal Cookies
22. Holiday Mini Mince Pies
23. Dennis’ Favorite Rustic Bread
24. Merry Holiday Cookies
25. Gluten-Free Buttermilk Biscuits
26. Simple Buttermilk Biscuits
27. French Meat Pie, Chagnon Style
28. Boudreau’s Bourbon Chicken
29. Gumbo Cookies
30. Colleen’s Toasted Coconut Blondies
31. Banana Whiffee (with and without Gluten-Free variation)
32. Zoukie Fish Burger
33. Most Excellent Corn Muffins
34. Whoopee Pies
35. Good Old Fashion Apple Cobbler
36. Easy Peasy Doggy Ice Cream
37. ‘I Want More’ Potato Salad
38. Mom and Pop’s Homestead Burritos
39. Stroga-Knock-Off
40. Mexican Cornbread Skillet
41. Paella Boudreau Style
42. Chicken Alexfredo
43. Yankee Pot Roast
44. Colleen’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
45. Colleen’s Cajun Style Gumbo
46. Bonny Jam Scones
47. Beefaroni Gloriosky
48. Chicken Collezini
49. Colleen’s Hermit Bars (Updated 08/10/18)
50. Colleen’s Creole Style Chicken
51. Corn Chowder
52. Spicy Chicken Soup
53. Minestrone Soup
54. Boston Cream Pie
55. Colleen’s Signature Beef, Bean and Barley Soup

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French Onion Soup

This is a very simple and easy recipe that is delicious & filling, and can be served up quick! Even quicker if it’s canned up and waiting for you to just grab, heat, and serve. To can 4 quarts, increase this recipe by 50% (not doubled). Process the quarts at 10 lbs. for 90 mins. Each quart is 2 servings.

Recipe:

4 large onions, sliced thin (about ¼ inch or so), browned in 2 TBS butter until tender.

Add in:

• 2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
• ½ to 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp seasoned pepper (can sub plain pepper)
• ½ tsp thyme
• 8 cups water
• 2 TBS beef base
• 2 TBS chicken base

The water and bases can be replaced by 4 cups of beef broth and 4 cups of chicken broth. Also, vegetable broth or base can replace the beef and chicken flavors for a vegetarian version.

Bring to a boil just long enough to heat through, and ladle into oven safe bowls.

Arrange slices of thick French bread on soup, and top with a thick slice of cheese on each. Mozzarella, Swiss, provolone, gruyere are all good cheeses for this.

Place the filled bowls on a sheet pan and place in broiler.

BROIL FOR ONLY 2 or 3 MINUTES AND WATCH CLOSELY!

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Colleen’s Holiday Cinnamon Rolls

This is from a recipe that caught my eye because of the oatmeal in the dough! Making a homemade cinnamon roll that wasn’t dry and heavy wasn’t easy (at least for me!) so I sure couldn’t fathom that oatmeal would be a good addition to a homemade dough. It was intriguing enough to me to try it though, and I just couldn’t believe how beautifully this recipe came out! Not too mushy, and not too dry either. I have no idea why this works, I am just enjoying the rolls and the compliments from my husband who is usually not a fan of sweet cakes. These are definitely being added to our Christmas Brunch menu!

Cinnamon Rolls:

• 2 cups milk
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon dry yeast
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 5 to 6 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter, divided

Filling:

• 1-¼ cups sugar
• 1 heaping TBS cinnamon
• 1 egg yolk

Glaze:

• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1-½ cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 to 2 TBS cream as needed for desired consistency

Heat the milk to 115-120 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together the warmed milk, brown sugar, yeast, rolled oats, and 2 cups of the flour. Combine well and set aside for 20 minutes or so to proof yeast. Then add the eggs, salt, and 1/2 cup of the softened butter. Combine well again, and add 3 cups of the flour, kneading in the last cup to make a soft dough.

Let the dough rise in a greased bowl covered with plastic wrap or a tea towel, until it has doubled in size, at least 1 hour. Divide the dough into two pieces, and roll them each out into rectangles 14 inches long, and 10 inches wide. Of the remaining ½ cup softened butter, spread ¼ cup onto each of the rolled out rectangles of dough. Sprinkle half the filling on each, spreading it evenly. Roll up the dough the long way and pinch it shut. Slice each roll of dough, using string wrapped around the roll and pulling the string closed to slice the roll into 18 pinwheels, placing them into a greased 13×9 pan evenly spaced apart. Repeat slicing and placing pinwheels into a pan for the second roll. Brush all 36 rolls with a beaten egg yolk and 1 TBS water, and lightly sprinkle all the pinwheels with cinnamon sugar. Let rise until rolls completely fill pan, about 45 minutes. Place a pie pan of hot tap water on bottom rack, and bake the 2 pans of rolls on the center rack in a 350 degree oven for 22-25 minutes. Let cool a few minutes right in the pan before glazing.

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Bolognese Soup

This soup recipe caught my attention because of the unusual list of ingredients. This version is kinda sorta like the original, but changes were made to amounts and vegetable variety according to what I knew we liked and would usually have on hand. There’s no bigger disappointment than having a craving and being out of key ingredients.

This has also been altered (optional, of course) in our quest to lower our carb intake. Personally, I miss the pasta, but Dennis actually prefers the spaghetti squash replaced the pasta with. Either way is delicious.

BOLOGNESE SOUP

• 2 oz prosciutto, chopped
• 1 cup onion, chopped
• 1 cup carrots, chopped
• 1 cup fennel bulb (or celery stalks), chopped
• 1½ tsp minced garlic
• 1½ lbs ground beef and/or ground pork
• 2 cups white cooking wine
• 1 quart whole tomatoes, undrained and cut up
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp seasoned pepper
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 3 oz dry and broken spaghetti —OR—
• 2 cups cooked spaghetti squash.

In a Dutch oven, cook the prosciutto on med/high heat until starting to brown, 3 minutes or so. Reduce to medium heat, add the onions, and sauté for 5 minutes. Add in the carrots, fennel or celery, and garlic, cook an additional 2 minutes.

Add in the meat, salt & seasoned pepper, and cook until meat is browned all over, drain the fat after cooking. Add in the wine, simmer for 10 minutes, then stir in the tomatoes and nutmeg and simmer another 20 minutes.

Stir in the broth and cream, bring the soup to a low boil and add the spaghetti, cook for 10 minutes.

Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese to serve.

Option: Omit the spaghetti and add in 2 cups of cooked. You can substitute spaghetti squash instead.

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Oatmeal Rye Sandwich Bread

This was an experiment to use up rye flour, oatmeal, and as luck would have it, this bread really needed the eggs to lighten it up, and with our new chickens, we had an over abundance of them at the time.

This recipe makes 2 loaves and makes a bread that can be sliced thin enough to make sandwiches. It also makes a wonderful grilled cheese.

Ingredients:

• 2-½ cups warm whole milk (110 – 120 degrees, 2% milk is ok too)
• 2 pkgs (or 2 TBS) yeast
• 1/3 cup honey
• ¼ cup melted salted butter (or 80% oil margarine)
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 eggs
• ½ cup rye flour
• 5 to 6 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups uncooked oatmeal

Directions:

Warm the milk, honey, and butter together until milk reaches about 115 degrees and the butter is melted. Whisk in the yeast and rye flour, mix in the oatmeal. Cover and leave in warm place for 10 mins to proof yeast. It is important to mix in both the RYE flour and oatmeal so they have time to absorb the liquid.

Once the yeast is proofed, stir in the eggs and salt, and enough of the flour to make a dough, knead for 8-10 minutes until smooth and stretchy. Spray a large mixing bowl, place dough in bowl and lightly spray top of dough. Cover bowl with Saran Wrap or a tea towel and let rise in a warm place until double in size.

Punch down and cut dough in half, form into 2 loaves. Place into 2 loaf pans that have been greased and floured. (I also place a piece of wax paper on bottom of pan after greasing and grease the wax paper too before flouring it. This ensures the loaf won’t stick to the pan.) Using a sharp steak knife, make a 1 in deep cut down the middle of each loaf. Cover with a tea towel and let rise in warm place until double in size again.

Bake in preheated 350^o degree oven for 35-40 minutes, or until interior temperature of bread is 200 degrees.

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Summer Squash Lemon Bundt Cake

This recipe comes from having too much summer squash in the kitchen, and absolutely no more tolerance for the tired old zucchini bread-type recipes to use it up! This is a summer-y, lemon cake with a light glaze. There were some blueberries in the freezer so I added a cup to the batter, and omitted the glaze, replacing it with just a sprinkle of confectioner’s sugar to make it an even lighter cake. Just delicious!

SUMMER SQUASH LEMON BUNDT CAKE

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 summer squash, grated (1 – 2 cups, drained on paper towels)
• 3 cups flour, sifted

Directions:

Combine the butter and sugar, negating until light and creamy. Add in each ingredient one at a time, blending well, folding in the squash and then flour, one cup at a time.

Pour batter into a greased and floured Bundt or tube pan, and bake in a 350 degree oven for 55 – 60 minutes. Let cool at least 15 minutes before removing from pan.

When cake is completely cool, make the glaze:

• ¼ cup melted unsalted butter, cooled but still liquid
• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 1 TBS lemon juice

Combine until smooth, glaze cake as you wish, let set.

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TURKEY AND BACON STEW WITH DUMPLINGS

Strangely enough, while doing a search for main dishes to use up leftover bacon, I came across a recipe for Turkey Dumpling Stew. I was intrigued enough to try it out. As always, the recipe was tinkered with and only vaguely looks like the original, but I am sure my version tastes just as good as the original. And I am sure your version of my version will also be just as delicious! 😃

TURKEY AND BACON STEW WITH DUMPLINGS

Ingredients:

• 4 strips of bacon, cooked or uncooked
• 1 – 2 cups turkey, cooked and cubed
• 1 cup onion, roughly chopped or quartered
• 1 cup carrots, diced
• 1 cup celery, sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• ¼ tsp crushed rosemary
• ½tsp cumin
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 3 cups water, divided
• ¼ cup flour
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper

For the dumplings:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1-½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 3 TBS baking margarine (79% oil or more, but no less!)
• ½ cup milk

Directions:

If cooked bacon is being used, chop it up fairly finely and set aside, and use either 2 tsp of reserved bacon grease you may have, or olive oil to sauté the onions, carrots, and celery in a Dutch oven.

If uncooked bacon is being used, cook it in a Dutch oven, then remove it to drain on a paper towel. Reserve 2 tsp of the bacon grease to sauté the onions, carrots, and celery.

Once veggies have been sautéed for 4 to 5 minutes, add in the 3 cups of broth, and 2-½ cups of the water along with the bay leaf, rosemary, cumin, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes covered.

Mix together the ¼ cup flour and remaining ½ cup water until smooth. Make sure the broth and veggies have a bubbly low simmer going and stir in the flour and water mixture, cooking until thickened, 2 or 3 minutes. Stir in the bacon and turkey, and leave stew on a bubbly low simmer while you make the dumpling dough.

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt for the dumplings. Cut in the baking margarine, then stir in the milk just until combined. Give the stew pot another stir to be sure nothing is sticking, and then drop the dumpling dough in 6 rounded spoonfuls into the stew. They will expand while cooking so give them room. Baste each dumpling with just one spoonful of stew, sprinkle with fresh or dried parsley, cilantro, basil, or any other greens you happen to have in the house.

Put the cover on the Dutch oven and DO NOT lift it for 15 minutes! The dumplings will not cook if the lid is lifted and the temperature drops. After 15 mins, remove from heat and serve.

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Colleen’s Super Frittata

We call this a Super Frittata, but it’s not even a regular frittata. We have no idea what it really is, we just know it’s good. It was inspired by another recipe I found while in search of ways to use up our constant over abundance of eggs, and I am pretty sure the only things that stayed the same were the eggs and biscuits. Ummm, actually just the biscuit ‘idea’ stayed the same since the original recipe called for canned biscuits. For some reason, I just don’t think canned biscuits would work in this. I could be wrong though, who knows?!

No matter, this is a recipe that can be made from whatever you’ve got in the fridge. I have made it with cream or just 2% milk; different kinds of cheeses instead of the cheddar in the recipe; sausage worked the best, but ham was delicious also; this is a recipe that is just a guide…as all recipes should be!

SUPER FRITTATA

Ingredients:

• Single batch homemade biscuit DOUGH
• 12 – 16 oz bulk pork sausage
• 1 onion, chopped
• Half of a colored bell pepper, chopped
• 10 lg eggs (use 12 eggs if small or med)
• 1/3 cup cream
• 2 cups (divided) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp minced or dried cilantro

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

In 12 inch ovenproof skillet or paella pan, cook the sausage, onion, and pepper over medium-high heat. Drain off fat, stir in the garlic and cilantro, remove the meat and veggies from pan and set aside.

In large bowl, beat the eggs and cream. Stir in ONE cup of cheese, and ALL of the set aside sausage mixture. Set this aside.

Cut the dough into 8 half-inch thick biscuits, then cut each biscuit into 6 pieces. Spread 1 TBS vegetable oil in the empty ovenproof skillet or paella pan and evenly sprinkle the dough pieces into the pan. Do not pat them down, there should be spaces between all the pieces. Pour the sausage mixture over the dough pieces, making sure the meat and veggies are evenly distributed throughout. Top with the remaining one cup of shredded cheese and bake 25 – 30 minutes until it is set and the crust is golden brown. Cool 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

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BACON, POTATO, AND FETA TORTE (AKA POTATO PIE)

When I asked our teenaged son if he wanted to try the torte I made, he said “No, I’m good.” Even after I told him it had potatoes, bacon, and cheese in it – all things he loves – he was not interested in trying this torte. When it was ready and time for supper and Dennis started to ask him if he wanted the torte I made, I cut him off and asked Alex instead if he wanted some Potato Pie, to which he excitedly said “Yes, ma’am!” It is one of his favorites now, and we have never told him it is really a torte!

BACON, POTATO, AND FETA TORTE (AKA POTATO PIE)

Ingredients:

• 4 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 2 russet potatoes, sliced very thin – no more than ¼ in thick
• ½ cup feta cheese, no substitutes!
• ½ onion, chopped
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• ¼ tsp thyme
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• ¼ cup red bell pepper, chopped

Directions:

Make 2 pie crusts and line pie plate with one.

Sauté the onions and peppers, add in the garlic, salt, and pepper.

Layer bottom of the pie crust with a single layer of sliced potatoes, just enough to cover well.

Sprinkle 1/3 of sautéed onions and peppers, 1/3 of the cheese, and 1/3 of the bacon. Repeat until you have 3 layers of each. You may not use all the potatoes, or you may need more.

Warm the cream, stir in the thyme, and pour slowly over all of the pie.

Add the top crust, seal, and cut vent holes. Brush the top crust with egg yolk and 1 TBS of water, using just enough to brush on generously.

Bake at 375 degrees for 40 – 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

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Grammy Nellie’s Brownies

My older sister, Kathy, was the baker in the family growing up. I had no interest in it whatsoever, but Kathy managed to collect some recipes from Mom and her mother over the years and has saved them all. That was lucky for me when Kathy found out I was failing miserably at making brownies and she offered to send me Grammy’s recipe she was still using some 30 odd years later. I have a note on this recipe that it was typed by my grandmother for Kathy back in 1974. That makes me smile because I remember my grandmother somehow ended up with a typewriter and she really enjoyed using it! She never hesitated to haul it out and type a recipe up right then and there if someone asked for one! I have the feeling that if times had been different, my grandmother might have found herself working in a big city office somewhere!

GRAMMY NELLIE’S BROWNIES

Ingredients:

• 1 cup shortening
• 4 1-oz pieces of baking chocolate ***
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 eggs beaten until light
• 2 cups sugar
• 1½  cups flour
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Melt shortening and chocolate together. Cool.

Beat eggs and add sugar and vanilla. Add the egg mixture to the chocolate mixture, and incorporate the dry ingredients until well blended.

Spread batter in a greased and floured brownie pan or 11×13 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes.

***Some notes about this recipe:

I never seemed to have baking chocolate in the house, so I started using 4 oz (3/4 cup) of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and it works well.

Following the original recipe will give you more of a dense cake texture, using chocolate chips will make it slightly more fudge-y.

I had some leftover toffee bits once, and sprinkled about a 1/2 cup over the top before baking. This was a winner with the family, but I noticed it changed the texture quite a bit! It made the outside chewy and the inside very fudge-y. All versions are delicious!

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Colleen’s Pork Posole Soup

This soup came about while I was trying out everything Mexican in the recipe books. It caught my attention because of the strange ingredients, such as pig’s feet, fried pork rind, pork butt, and hominy. What is hominy I wondered?

Out of all those strange (to me) ingredients, my interest was piqued by hominy! Go figure. Anyway, we always have pieces of pork leftover from cutting a whole pork loin into chops, and I was looking for something different to do with them. This not only did that, but would also add another soup to the cookbook. Soups were turning out to be staples for school lunches during baseball season when Dennis would not make it home for supper.

So while this recipe most likely does not represent a true posole, it is probably close enough and is a delicious way to turn leftover pork into a delicious soup. Oh, and I found that we all really like hominy!

COLLEEN’S PORK POSOLE SOUP

Ingredients:

• 1 TBS canola oil
• ½ lb boneless pork (whatever you have or is left over) diced
• ½ lb kielbasa, diced
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 2 cups cooked hominy (drain & rinse if using 16 oz can)
• 5 oz fresh minced cilantro, stems and all
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 TBS chili powder
• 1 heaping tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp smoke paprika
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Directions:

In a Dutch oven, brown both meats in the heated canola oil. Add in the onions and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the broth, being sure to scrape up any bits that have stuck to the bottom of the Dutch oven during cooking. Add in all the remaining ingredients, along with desired amounts of salt and pepper.

Simmer on the stove top, covered, for half an hour, then uncovered for another half an hour. (You could also just stick the Dutch oven right into the oven at 350 degrees for 1-1/2 hours or so.)

Add in ½ cup noodles, macaroni , or ditalini about 10 minutes to end of cooking time.

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Sweet Potato Whiskey Cake

We don’t often have home canned sweet potatoes, but when we do, we have way too much. It always happens that we somehow come by a really good deal on a farmer’s market size box of them, and though we don’t usually have sweet potatoes with our meals, we just can’t pass up the deal. So we pick them up and spend a couple of days canning them. After all that work, I find myself staring at all the jars wondering what to do with them!

Our kids surprised us with the first batch we canned way back when we were a new family and money was tight…very tight. There weren’t any store bought cookies and snacks for them in the house, but I did try to have homemade cookies and brownies on hand. Still, they still had to get creative at times if they wanted a snack. That’s probably why they ended up in my canned goods. I am still amazed when I think back to when one of their favorite snacks was opening a jar of mashed sweet potatoes and heating it in the microwave with butter and brown sugar! It always made me smile to see them sitting in front of the TV together, each with their cup of mashed sweet potatoes eating it like it was ice cream! Good times!

But the children have long since moved out, and we came by another box of sweet potatoes which we couldn’t pass up. Dennis and I canned them all up, and once again I found myself staring at all the jars wondering what to do with them! This cake recipe is one of the recipes I came up with. I am not sure why or how I came up with adding the whiskey…perhaps we had an over abundance of that too! Who knows? It works, though, and is a delicious cake.

SWEET POTATO WHISKEY CAKE

Ingredients: 

• 3 cups flour
• 1 TBS baking powder
• ¾ tsp salt
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 ½ cup cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ¾ cup milk
• 1/3 cup whiskey

Directions:

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a mixing bowl and set aside.

Melt the butter in a large mixing bowl, whisk in the brown sugar, then add the eggs, potatoes, vanilla, milk, and whiskey one at a time until mixed well.

Sift in the flour mixture one cup at a time, mixing well.

Grease a tube pan, then cut out a circle of wax paper to fit on the bottom and grease again. Then flour the pan. A Bundt pan will work just as well, just omit the wax paper on the bottom.

Pour the batter into the pan and then sprinkle 1/4 cup chopped walnuts. If you are using a Bundt pan, sprinkle the nuts BEFORE you pour the batter into the pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes.

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Colleen’s Pierogis

I have never been any good with modern cooking technology. My skills with a microwave are haphazard at best and there is less than a 10% chance that I will get the food or drink heated up to the right temperature. It’s the same with box mixes. They’ve done the hard part for me, all I gotta do is mix it and bake it, right? But no, yet again, we are talking less than a 10% chance of it baking up to an edible state. Honestly, I can even remember struggling with jell-o! And then there’s the frozen stuff. Seriously? Pan, package contents, oven to the right temp, follow directions and…I give up. French fries are the spawn of the devil, I swear! Ha!

So when Dennis spotted frozen pierogis in the grocer’s freezer, his eyes lit up and we just had to take a couple of bags home. I was not really on board, especially since I had no idea what a pierogi was, and I sure didn’t know how to heat or cook them up. Dennis assured me, though, that they were foolproof and all I had to do was boil them like pasta, so we threw them in the cart. Even I can boil pasta, after all! That very night, I boiled them up exactly according to the directions, and although they looked rubbery and colorless to me, not to mention unappetizing, I served them up.

I took one bite and looked at Dennis, and he looked at me very hesitantly and with fear in his eyes – because we both knew I was screaming ‘I told you so!’ in my head, but keeping my mouth shut because I am a nice person! Ha! – he commented that the pierogis were pale, and rubbery, and I added that they were also flavorless! I tried a few different ways to improve them, but I gave up on them pretty quick.

Dennis was bummed as he really had a hankering for them, though, so it became a mission for me to get my honey his gol-dang pierogis. I recalled that when I made my own pasta, there was a world of difference between homemade and the boxed stuff, so I set about finding a recipe to make our own pierogis, too. It’s always fun for me to learn a new recipe anyway, as long it doesn’t involve a box or bag! As always, it was a few tries before the recipe was adjusted to our tastes, but even the ‘experiments’ were gobbled up. Besides the pasta texture being improved by leaps and bounds, I was able to really pack in some flavor to the filling, and more filling into the pierogis. I don’t make these often because they are a bit labor intensive, but they last for a few meals when I do, so that makes it worth the effort.

COLLEEN’S PIEROGIS (makes 20 – 22)

Dough:

• 2 cups sifted flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• ½ cup sour cream
• ¼ cup butter, softened (I use 80%-oil baking margarine)

Filling: Mix together:

• 1 cup mashed potatoes
• ½ – 1 cup shredded cheese of your choice
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• ½ cup chopped onion, sautéed in butter and olive oil
• ½ cup chopped red bell pepper, sautéed with the onion
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Anything else you can think of 🙂

Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl, and add the beaten egg with a fork until it is combined well and the flour is ‘crumbly’. With a fork, work in the sour cream and butter until it is a sticky ball. Then use your hands to finish combining it all together, kneading and folding the dough without adding more flour. It should become less sticky but still very moist. Wrap up the ball of dough and refrigerate it for about an hour.

Meanwhile, get your filling made and set aside, ready to use when you finish rolling out the dough.

You may want to cut the dough in half to make it easier to work with. Roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thickness, and I do use a bit extra flour to help at this stage. Use a 4 inch round cutter to cut out circles of dough. (If you do not have a 4 inch cutter, a red solo cup works! You may have to finish cutting out the circles with a butter knife, but it works!) Knead the scraps of dough together, let rest for 5 mins, and roll out to 1/8 in thickness and cut out more dough circles.

Place 2 tsps of filling in a line down the middle of each dough circle without the filling reaching the top or bottom of the circle. Using your finger dipped in water, moisten the outside edge all around the circle, this helps to seal it. Fold the circle in half and gently press the edges together. Use a fork to finish sealing the edges. Place on sheet pan lined with wax paper and refrigerate while you work with the other half of dough.

At this point, you can freeze them uncooked for up to 4 weeks, refrigerate them overnight to cook up the next day, or cook immediately in salted boiling water for 10 minutes, or until they float.

Remove and drain on paper towels and serve as is, or you may want to add some color by cooking them in some olive oil and butter in a heated up frying pan on medium heat, cooking for a minute or two on each side.

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Parade – Chicken Quesadilla Pie

This is a recipe I came up with in desperation! At the time, we had Dennis and myself to feed, along with 2 teenage boys. It was time to make dinner and there was always a bag of chicken breasts in the freezer, but we were so bored with the usual chicken dinners I had come up with. There are only so many ways to make chicken pot pie, after all! So I started searching my cookbooks. In all of them, I found interesting versions of ‘quesadilla pies’ but they were all made with ground beef. Finally I decided to try a version with chicken. As always, it took a few different tries before this version got the thumbs up from the family! In fact, when Louis took his first bite, he looked up in surprise and exclaimed “This is like a parade in my mouth!” Ha! That’s a winner in my book, and we have called this dish ‘Parade’ ever since!

This dish can be made without the meat and it will still be good, and for a gluten free version, simply replace the flour tortillas with corn tortillas that are marked ‘gluten free’ on the package.

PARADE – CHICKEN QUESADILLA PIE

Ingredients: 

• 1 lb cooked chicken, shredded or diced
• 1 small onion, chopped roughly
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 TBS taco seasoning
• 15 oz can black beans, rinsed
• 14 oz can diced tomatoes with green chilies (or chili ready-your choice)
• 6 8-inch flour tortillas
• 16 oz can refried beans
• 2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese

Optional: ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

In a large skillet, cook the onions until soft. Add in the cooked chicken, water, and taco seasoning, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 2 minutes. Stir in the black beans and tomatoes. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, lightly spray two pie plates. Spread ¼ of the can of refried beans on 4 of the tortillas. Place one tortilla with refried beans on the bottom of each pie plate, and cover each tortilla with ¼ of the chicken mixture from the skillet. If you are using mozzarella cheese, sprinkle just a ¼ of it onto each tortilla. Place the two remaining tortillas spread with refried beans on top in the pie plates and spread each with half of what’s left in the skillet. Sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella cheese, and top with the plain tortillas. Pour out one cup of the Mexican blend cheese onto each plain top tortilla and spread to the sides with your hand. The cheese should cover the top tortilla completely.

Cut two pieces of foil to fit over the pie plates, and spray lightly so the cheese will not stick to it during baking. Cover each pie plate tightly with the foil and bake at 350 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes. Remove the foil immediately, and let sit a few minutes before cutting into wedges and serving

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Quiche Colleen

I am always saying that a recipe is just a guide, and this Quiche Colleen recipe is a perfect example of that. It has a varied list of ingredients, but the only ones that must be used is the unbaked pie crust, the eggs, the cream or evaporated milk, and some kind of cheese. The rest of the ingredients will be made up according to what you feel like that day, or what you have in the fridge and/or pantry, whether you want it vegetarian or not, or according to what the kids will eat! Oh, a tip here about the kids…we tell them this is Scrambled Egg Pie so they will eat it since Quiche is “just gross” and only worthy of a wrinkled nose of disgust! Ha! Another tip, if you skip the sautéing step and just add the vegetables raw, you are missing out on a LOT of flavor, so take the extra 5 minutes – it will be worth it!

QUICHE COLLEEN

Ingredients:

• ½ onion, chopped
• ½  (any color) bell pepper, chopped
• ½ cup mushrooms, chopped or sliced
• 1 – 2 cups of fresh chopped greens such as spinach, Swiss chard, etc
• ½ cup diced cherry tomatoes
• ½ tsp of parsley, basil, cilantro, or oregano; or a couple of sprigs off of whatever fresh herb plant you have that strikes your fancy at the moment.
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 4 – 6 cooked slices of regular or thick sliced bacon, crumbled or chopped
• 1 cup cooked ham, cubed
• ½ tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp seasoned pepper
• 5 eggs
• 1 cup heavy cream -OR- evaporated milk
• 1 cup cheese of your choice, shredded
• ½ cup crumbled or cubed cheese such as feta or sharp cheddar
• 1 pie crust
• Splash of white cooking wine
• Splash of olive oil

Directions:

Line a pie plate with an unbaked, single crust. Or blind bake the crust first if you prefer. Set aside.

Sauté all the chopped vegetables – except any tomatoes and greens – in a splash each of olive oil and white cooking wine for 5 minutes or so, adding more olive oil if needed. When the veggies are wilted, add another splash of white cooking wine and add the greens just until wilted, maybe 2 minutes or so, then add in the tomatoes, the meat, and any herbs you are using. Stir it all together, then take the skillet off the heat and set aside.

Whisk eggs and cream or evaporated milk together, and add the salt and seasoned pepper, along with the shredded cheese. Stir in the sautéed mixture into the egg mixture.

At this point you can either sprinkle any crumbled or cubed cheese you are using into the pie crust, and pour the sautéed mixture into the pie crust, using a scraper to empty the bowl and to even out the ingredients in the pie crust.

You can sprinkle a bit of cheese on top, or just bake it as is in a 375 degree oven for 25 – 30 minutes, or until the quiche does not ‘jiggle’ in the middle when tapping the pie plate. Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

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Arroz Con Pollo

When I finally got up enough nerve to try making Paella, Dennis bought me a paella pan to encourage me. Paella was an intimidating dish to me with so many ingredients, some of which I had never worked with before, such as clams in the shell, and a new spice called saffron. Saffron was wildly expensive and only a small amount was used, but oh! What a difference it made to the flavor of the dish! I was enthralled by this new spice and wanted to try other recipes using this new, exotic spice, and in my new paella pan! I found several different versions of Arroz Con Pollo (Rice with Chicken) and after a few tries, I came up with my own version. The amount of rice seems to be a bit much for the amount of chicken we use (only 3 leg quarters cut into 6 pieces) so more chicken can be added if you are feeding more people than 6 small pieces of chicken will feed. Otherwise, the leftover rice makes a great lunch or midnight snack for the next day or two! I use my paella pan, but a large 12 inch oven-safe or cast iron skillet will work just fine also.

ARROZ CON POLLO, COLLEEN-STYLE

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion, diced finely
• 1 red bell pepper, diced finely
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ – 1 tsp saffron threads
• 1/8 tsp red chili flakes
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 – ½ cups (20 oz) fresh diced or canned diced tomatoes, un-drained
• 1 – ½ cups water
• ½ cup white wine
• 2 cups Arborio (short grain) rice
• 1/3 cup sliced pimento stuffed olives
• ¾ cup frozen or fresh green peas

Directions:

3 chicken leg quarters, cut into 6 pieces, dry rubbed on top and under the skin with oregano, salt, and pepper – amounts to your taste. Brown on medium to medium high heat, all sides of the chicken in olive oil. Remove from pan to drain on paper towels.

If needed, add a TBS or so more olive oil to the same pan, and add the diced onion and red bell pepper, cooking on medium heat until wilted, 2-3 minutes.

Add in the garlic, saffron, chili flakes, and salt. Keep cooking for 3 – 5 minutes.

Add in the tomatoes, water, wine, peas, and rice. Stir well, and cook just to heat it all up, 2 – 3 minutes.

Place the chicken pieces skin side up to the pan, just barely nestling each piece into the rice mixture. Sprinkle the sliced olives over everything, making sure one or two sliced olives go on each piece of chicken.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes. Baking it uncovered for the last 20 minutes will finish off browning up the chicken, but will also create a ‘crust’ on the bottom and sides of the rice mixture. Delicious!

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Colleen’s Cinnamon Coffee Cake

This is a simple old-fashioned cinnamon coffee cake. I am sure the original recipe was from one of my vintage cookbooks, but which one is a mystery! No matter though, since I clearly recall choosing it because there was a shortage of all basic ingredients in the house, and it was such a simple recipe that I figured substituting some or all of each ingredient would be easier. Yeah, it was one of those weeks…

However, this coffee cake came out so well and was gobbled up so fast that I quickly wrote down all the changes that were made, and I have yet to make the original. This is a dry cake, and a bit crumbly, which makes it perfect as a snack with a good hot cup of coffee to wash it down. And it can be left in the dish it is baked in, and if you have a 9X13 baking dish with a plastic cover…well, that just makes the whole thing simple, easy, and delicious!

COLLEEN’S CINNAMON COFFEE CAKE

Mix:

• 1-½ cups sugar
• ½ cup shortening
• 2 eggs

Stir in:

• ½ cup milk
• ½ cup sour cream
• 4 tsps baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ tsp cinnamon

Mix all together until well combined, and add in 3 cups sifted flour, one cup at a time until well combined again.

Spread into a 9×13 greased and floured baking dish. Set aside.

Mix 3/4 cup of brown sugar, and 2 tsp cinnamon with a fork. Pour it all at once onto the batter and gently spread the cinnamon sugar mixture to the edges with your hand.

Bake at 375 degrees for 35 – 40 minutes.

Let cool for 5 minutes, then cut into 20 squares, leaving the cut cake in the dish to cool. Cover when cool and that’s it! Easy peasy, and fast!

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Colleen’s Chicken And Swiss Chard White Lasagna

This recipe came about in desperation! Dennis is not a big fan of chicken, and while he will eat anything put in front of him and be grateful for it, I still wanted him to enjoy it. But we were really tired of the dishes I had already come up with. So I started combing through my collection of cookbooks, magazines, and even the internet trying to find something – anything – new. Recipes for Chicken Lasagna intrigued me, as did White Lasagna. This is my third try at a version we would all like, it’s a winner around here! This time around I added our own fresh Swiss chard, steamed and layered in underneath the ricotta mixture, along with lots of fresh herbs growing right out on our deck. I hope you enjoy!

CHICKEN AND SWISS CHARD WHITE LASAGNA

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• ½ red bell pepper, diced
• 1 cup mushrooms, chopped
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 stick butter
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ cup flour
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1-½ cups milk
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella (divided, 1 cup for mixing in the sauce, 1 for topping the lasagna)
• ¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
• ¼ cup fresh oregano, chopped
• 1 tsp seasoned pepper
• 32 oz Ricotta cheese
• ½ cup or so of grated Parmesan cheese (the kind in a green can, not shredded)
• ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• ½ cup of shredded Parmesan cheese
• 2 boneless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
• 8 oz pkg of whatever fresh greens you like, we use Swiss chard, but spinach would also work. Steamed and set aside.
• 9 pcs of oven ready lasagna
• 1 TBS dried cilantro (to sprinkle on top)

Directions:

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and sauté the onion, pepper, mushrooms, and garlic, along with the salt until tender. Add the flour and cook until well incorporated, maybe a minute or so. Then slowly add the broth and milk. Don’t do it all at once, the flour will clump up on the veggies. Add maybe 1/4 at a time. Add in the basil, oregano, and seasoned pepper, then stir in one cup of the mozzarella and stir until melted. Cover and set aside.

Combine the Ricotta cheese, with the grated Parmesan cheese (from the green can) and the fresh cilantro. Set aside.

Ready to assemble now. Using a 9×13 baking dish, spray the dish lightly, then pour just enough white cooking wine to coat the bottom. This will cook the bottom pieces of lasagna with having to use sauce on the bottom of the dish. The line the bottom with 3 pieces of oven ready lasagna. I prefer the flat rolled lasagna, but traditional lasagna will work just fine.

Layer ½ the steamed greens onto the lasagna, then ½ the ricotta mixture, ½ the shredded chicken, and ¼ cup or so of the shredded Parmesan cheese. Ladle on 1/3 of the sauce, and repeat the layers. (I like to hold out just a bit of the greens and Parmesan to sprinkle on the top just to make it pretty.)

Top with the last 3 pieces of lasagna and just enough of the sauce to cover them. Arrange the greens on top, sprinkle the remaining cup of mozzarella, and the TBS of dried cilantro.

Bake uncovered, in a 350 degree oven, for 30 – 35 minutes. Let stand 5 mins or so before serving. This dish is good the first night, and will be even better the second night!

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Radish Salad

We have been trying to grow vegetables on this barren plot of land since we got here 2 decades ago! Ok, so it’s not technically ‘barren,’ but it is clay which is pretty close if you ask me! Over the years, and many dismal failures to cope with this clay soil, we have made half-hearted efforts to try another spot, to build a raised garden, to use fertilizer, or another vegetable – but the first rush of excitement of seeing something sprout always seemed to be followed closely by disappointment and frustration of watching the sprout either do nothing, or just up and die out. This happened to vegetables and flowers. If my flowers bloomed, they got eaten by deer. So, no color, no food. Grrr.

Now, we did slowly come to realize that if something grew well in the woods surrounding our house, it would probably grow well on our property so I traipsed down several times to retrieve all kinds of ferns, Dennis dug up and transplanted a holly bush he came across, and I even discovered some daffodils! All well and good for some greenery around the property, but we had decided we wanted a simpler way of life, to hopefully retire to our own little homestead, and growing some of our own food was a must! But how?

We tried this garden and that garden, this kind of soil and that, got giddily excited when we had volunteer squash growing one year, but until then, all we had yet again, were dismal failures. For years we tried again, to lackluster successes at best. Heck, we couldn’t even grow radishes!! I mean, radishes?! Seriously?! I remember our daughter growing one in a Dixie cup in kindergarten for gosh sakes! Who can’t grow radishes?? It was humiliating to say we couldn’t! All we could produce were frustrated sighs.

But we are nothing if not persistent! Or just stupidly stubborn! Ha! Anyway, we did not give up because we simply cannot embark on a journey to homesteading and not know how the heck to grow a gol-dang radish! And I am happy to announce that as of last year, we can grow a radish! Yup, we savored the success of a couple of actual harvests the last couple of years, and when you wait and work as long and hard as we did for these glorious (yes I said glorious!) little harvests, they must be celebrated better than just throwing them into a humdrum green salad! No, no, no! We had a real honest-to-goodness harvest and I was going through cookbooks and the internet in search of something worthy of our own homegrown radishes. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot out there for radishes, but I did manage to get some ideas, and with a little experimenting, this is what I came up with.

It is a fresh, crisp, and cold salad, wonderful for spring and summer, and a delicious side for almost any dish, from burgers & pulled pork sandwiches to quiche. I would advise that fresh dill works much better in this recipe than dried dill or dill weed, but at the same time, I would also advise that a recipe is just a guide and this is an easy recipe you can experiment with by adding other herbs or veggies, whatever you like! I have seen recipes that have chopped, blanched asparagus, and I keep thinking that a bit of shredded Parmesan cheese might be nice, also. However you like it, enjoy your harvest!

RADISH SALAD

• 1 – 2 cups of sliced radishes
• ¼ tsp salt

Toss sliced radishes with the salt and let stand in a colander to allow any liquid to drain. After 10 minutes, transfer to a large bowl.

Add in:

• 1 cup sliced red onion
• 1 cup peeled and sliced English cucumber

Whisk together:

• ¼ cup good olive oil
• 2 TBS white wine vinegar
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 TBS chopped fresh dill
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Pour over the veggies and toss to coat all evenly. Chill well.

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Colleen’s Ham Pot Pie

This is a ‘fast food’ dinner that can be thrown together on a week night, and there are a few variations depending on what you might have left over in the fridge.

HAM POT PIE

Heat together:

• 1 10oz can Cream of Mushroom soup, undiluted
• 1 10oz can Cream of Chicken soup, undiluted
• 1 cup milk or cream
• 1 cup sour cream (or replace half with Ranch dressing)
• 1 heaping tsp of ham -OR- chicken base, -OR- bouillon

Stir in:

• 2 – 3 cups cooked ham, diced
• 2 12oz pkgs of frozen veggies of your choice, cooked

Divide mixture between 2 lightly sprayed pie plates -OR- 4 quart casserole dish.

Top with unbaked buttermilk biscuits, being sure not to totally cover the top so as to avoid spillage. The mixture should already be warm, so it just needs to bake long enough for the biscuits to cook, I bake my biscuits at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, but it can vary if your biscuit recipe differs.

Another option for a topping is mashed potatoes as in Shepherd’s Pie. I would bake that at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

I once had leftover scalloped potatoes and used them as a topping and it was a big hit. I baked that at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. (Pictured above.)

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Chi-Ghetti

This is a great variation to the tired old, everyday spaghetti with sauce from a jar. I have always liked spaghetti and sauce with a little burger and onions thrown in, especially for the speed it could be put together at the end of a busy day with a hungry family to feed. But unfortunately, no one else really liked it. And then one day I came across a simple and quick – and one might even say interesting – recipe for “Chili on Spaghetti.” This was not a true chili by any means as this ‘chili’ was ready in mere minutes, and the original recipe with its watery version was even less so. But it was very quick to make and it was liked by the family well enough to keep tinkering with it, and this is the final version (so far, anyway. Ha!)

When our son Louis asked what this dish was, I said it’s “sort of chili on spaghetti but not really” to which he replied “Then we shall name it ‘Chi-ghetti’” since it’s only a little of both! That made me laugh and I loved it, so it stuck. I hope you enjoy this weeknight favorite of ours.

CHI-GHETTI

• 1 lb. ground beef, cooked and crumbled. Drain.

Add in to the same pan as the drained burger and heat:

• 14oz can tomatoes & green chilis, undrained
• 14 oz can chili ready tomatoes
• 15oz can red kidney beans, rinsed
• 10oz can French Onion soup, undiluted
• 1 TBS chili powder
• 1 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp cinnamon

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve over 1 lb cooked spaghetti, sprinkle with shredded cheese of your choice, and raw chopped onions.

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Mom’s Oatmeal Cookies

My mother-in-law had a passion and talent for creating beautiful things, from quilts to afghans to doilies, but baking wasn’t one of her passions in the least! She was a utilitarian cook who was not shy about it, and proclaimed she was interested in no recipe that had more than 3 ingredients! Ha! But she would make oatmeal cookies from scratch when her kids were growing up, and they were – and still are – one of Dennis’ favorites! So of course, they were at the top of the list whenever I was deciding which cookie recipe to bake. I didn’t have the original recipe he remembered, but I tinkered with other recipes until I got something close.

Then I found the actual recipe Dennis’ mom used in one of the cookbooks I inherited from her. Unfortunately, I could not for the life of me, make the cookies he remembered come out right with that tattered, well-used, and loved recipe. Luckily for me, I had tinkered enough and come up with a cookie Dennis loves now. But when he requested fruit bits in them, and I used the homemade Brandy Vanilla we make now, the cookies are pretty much awesome…so much so that when he shares them with the kids in his classes, they immediately start going through the recipes here looking for how to make them! So, with a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to my beloved late mother-in-law for going the extra mile and making cookies from scratch for her kids and giving Dennis fond memories of homemade cookies from Mom, I am putting up my own version which is now Dennis’ second favorite oatmeal cookie!

MOM’S OATMEAL COOKIES

Ingredients: 

• 1 stick baking margarine, softened (80% oil, no less!)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp Brandy vanilla -OR- regular vanilla extract
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1-¼ cups flour, sifted
• 2-¼ cups rolled oats (increase by another 1/2 cup if using quick oats)
• ½ cup dried fruit bits of your choice

Directions:

Cream the margarine and sugars together, adding in each ingredient one at a time until well mixed, folding in the fruit bits at the end.

Using an ice cream scoop for uniformity, roll dough into balls and place on an unsprayed, foil-lined baking sheet. Press down and flatten halfway, and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 9-11 minutes.

These are large cookies and a batch will make 16, so place 8 per baking sheet. If you want smaller cookies, only bake for 8-9 minutes, keeping a close eye on them to be sure they don’t burn. For either size cookies, the tops will be pale, so you want to keep checking the rims around the bottom, when they are just beginning to show a golden brown, they are done.

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Holiday Mini Mince Pies

Dessert pies do not go over well in this family of mine for some reason. I suppose a whole slice is too much of a commitment after a full meal so the pies all sit untouched. Dennis likes to have pies around for the holidays though, so I just make one, but still, so much of it goes to waste. Even when I make Dennis’ favorite Mince Pie, he will only have one, maybe 2 slices out of the whole thing, leaving me to eat the rest or throw it out, and this does not sit well with me. I had gotten to thinking (always dangerous! lol) about our family buffets and how things disappear quicker when they are in single serving size…or is it ‘fun size?’ Hmmm, maybe that’s it…it will get eaten if it’s fun size cuz who doesn’t like fun, right? Ha!

My guess was right, though! Instead of a whole pie being cut into only 8 pieces that no one wanted, I made the mince filling into 36 individual appetizer size mini-pies and I had to hide a few for Dennis for later because they were going fast! This is a recipe that I only make at Christmas, and you can make it with the alcohol or without, your choice. If you don’t want to add any alcohol, just leave it out, you don’t need to substitute anything in its place. Keep in mind though, that the filling needs to sit overnight in the fridge so plan ahead if you want to make them.

MINI MINCE PIES (makes 36)

Ingredients:

• 1-½ cups of mixed dried fruit pieces such as pears, figs, apricots, prunes, peaches, raisins, etc.
• ½ cup chopped dates (it’s ok if they come dusted with sugar to keep them from sticking together)
• ½ cup dried cranberries or craisins
• 1 cup apple, chopped into small pieces equal to the dried fruit pieces
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp allspice
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup apple juice
• 2 TBS corn starch

Directions:

Leaving the apple out, run all the dried fruit along with the spices and sugar through a food processor just long enough to combine everything and to be sure any large chunks are broken down.

Combine the dried fruit mixture from the food processor (still keeping the apples set aside) with the apple juice and orange juice in a large saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil and immediately reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. The mixture will be thick. Remove from heat.

In a small bowl, combine the 2 TBS of corn starch with 2 TBS of juice or water, and quickly stir into the simmered fruit mixture, put pan back on the heat and cook for 2 mins. Remove from heat.

Mix in the chopped apple, and 2-3 TBS of Brandy or Whiskey if using, then cover and chill overnight.

You will need enough pie dough for 3 crusts. I find that once the dough is rolled out to a 10 inch circle, and using a 2-½ inch biscuit cutter, that I can easily get 12 rounds cut from each rolled out dough. Working with 12 rounds at a time, start placing them into the cups of a regular 12 muffin tin. Place the round on the top of the cup, it should be big enough to cover the top, not fall in. Gently press into the bottom of each cup, it will create a very shallow pie crust which will be just enough for a small cookie scoop of filling for each.

Once the muffin tin has the 12 crusts tucked in, bake them (empty of filling) at 375 degrees just for 3 or 4 minutes. Tap down gently, any parts that have bubbled up.

Fill each small pie crust with just enough mixture to fill each one, I find that using a small cookie scoop works well.

Bake filled pies at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes or so, watching to see if the mixture is bubbling slightly which means they are done. Cool just a couple of minutes and remove pies from muffin tins to avoid over cooking. They can be easily removed by slipping a butter knife underneath the crust and lifting. Cool on paper towels. Can be served right away, but if making ahead, they should be covered and refrigerated until serving.

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Dennis’ Favorite Rustic Bread

This is a recipe that was inspired by the Most Excellent Corn Muffins that the whole family loves. The difference in the muffins is the honey which we get (in barter!) from a friend. It was time to make some bread to go with the Tavern Fare Beef Barley soup on the stove about a year ago, and suddenly I got brave! I started with the cornmeal and honey, and then added some wheat flour. There had been something in a magazine that said to always let wheat flour sit for 10 minutes or so after it’s mixed into the dough in order to let it absorb some water. This was news to me, and since I had trouble getting any wheat bread to rise well, it was definitely an interesting experiment and now was the time to check it out. I also added some rye flour because, well, what the heck? I was throwing everything into the pot anyway, and rye is always a favorite around here. The end resulting bread did not disappoint. It had no trouble rising, and it baked up a beautiful dark gold color. I was most pleased with this throw-together bread, and it turned out to be perfect with the thick barley soup!

Although this bread has a chewy crust rather than a hard crumbly crust, I still call it a rustic bread because of all the different flours. My notes tell me that this is ‘Dennis’s favorite rustic bread’, and that ‘Alex says this bread is amazing!’ I keep notes like that on all my recipes, and have discovered that they are a big help when planning a meal to know who loved or hated what. It’s always wonderful to see someone’s eyes light up when they spot a favorite recipe coming to the table and this bread has certainly joined the ranks of favorites around here. I hope you enjoy it!

 

 

 

 

 

DENNIS’ FAVORITE RUSTIC BREAD

Ingredients:

• 2-½ cups boiling water
• ½ cup corn meal
• ½ cup rye flour
• ¼ cup honey
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 TBS yeast (or 2 single packs)
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups wheat flour
• 3 to 3-½ cups all purpose flour (unbleached if available)

Direstions:

Mix together the corn meal, rye flour, honey, and salt in the boiling water in your large mixing bowl. When the mixture has cooled to 115 to 130 degrees, mix in the yeast, cover, and set aside for 10 to 15 minutes to proof.

Once the yeast has proofed, add in the vegetable oil and wheat flour, and let sit for 10 minutes or so to allow the flour to absorb some water.

Add in the all purpose flour 1 cup at a time, until a dough forms, and knead for 8 to 10 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning the dough once, and cover with either plastic wrap or a dish towel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Punch down, and let sit 10 minutes. Divide into equal halves and shape into loaves, and place in greased and floured loaf pans. Using a sharp knife, cut 3 or 4 gashes diagonally on each loaf. Cover with a dish towel and let rise until doubled.

Bake in a 375 degree preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, brushing all over with melted butter as soon as they are finished baking. This bread is especially good warmed up and sliced thick for soups, or toasted up in thinner slices for breakfast.

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Merry Holiday Cookies

There was a time when I would pull out all the ingredients, mix up some cookie dough, chill it, roll it, and cut out a multitude of Christmas shapes. Then I would bake them all up, let them cool, and frost them all with royal icing – that’s the frosting that dries to a hard, flat, glossy surface. The boys would then get out the edible markers we got for them, and they would spend the next couple of hours decorating them…and claiming each one they decorated as their own whenever anyone else wanted one! Ha!

I also remember spending a snowy day in NH a few decades ago with my 3 year old making our ‘one and only ever’ gingerbread house. It is a sweet memory for me because while we made our identical pieces side by side, Alysia was sad that her pieces were not as pretty as mine. I told her it didn’t matter because the oven would bake them to be the same as mine, just watch. And when she wasn’t watching, her piece would go back in the dough bowl! The look of wonder in her shining eyes when all our pieces came out just the same as each other’s was absolutely priceless!

The patience for all that is long gone, though, along with any kind of wonder in our grown kids’ eyes. So while I don’t have the patience to make gingerbread houses, or royal icing frosted cut out cookies, I still like to have a cookie in the house that makes it ‘feel’ like a Christmas cookie, and this is what I came up with. It was Dennis who declared it was a very merry cookie, and I agree with him! It’s a simple cookie, very easy to make, which is good because once the family finds them, they won’t last long and you’ll need to make more.

MERRY HOLIDAY COOKIES

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks of baking margarine, softened
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 2-¼ cups all purpose flour, sifted
• 10 oz bag of mixed dark chocolate & mint baking pieces

Directions:

Cream the margarine and sugars together, adding in the remaining ingredients one at a time until combined well, and folding in the baking pieces at the end.

Using a small scoop or a ¼ cup measure for uniformity, roll dough into balls and press almost flat, to about a half inch thickness, onto an ungreased, foil lined sheet pan.

Bake in 375 degree preheated oven for 9 – 11 minutes, cool on paper towels.

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Gluten-Free Buttermilk Biscuits

When our daughter in law, Anna, let us know she had been told by her doctor to go on a gluten-free diet, the first thing she said was that her birthday was going be depressing. The kids all get to request their favorite treat for their birthday gift and Anna was really looking forward to her favorite Banana Whoopee Pies I had come up with just for her. I decided right then that she was not going to be disappointed!

I was really stumped though. My first effort to make something gluten free was a flop. I had tried biscuits for a holiday meal, and while they were soft and delicious when they were warm, they were hard as rocks when they cooled to room temperature. That was not going to work for a whoopee pie. Warming them up would melt the filling, after all! So I did a LOT of thinking and researching to no avail, until finally I came up with the idea of beating the egg whites and folding them into the batter. So I gave it a shot, and impatiently waited until they cooled to try one, because that was the key…would they be soft after they cooled?

To my great relief, they were!! The only thing that made me happier than that was presenting the batch to Anna and seeing her face light up!

When it came time to trying gluten-free biscuits again, I did the same thing. A couple of beaten egg whites and the cooled biscuits were so good that even Dennis ate his whole half that we were taste testing. I hope you enjoy, I know Anna did because she made sure to take the leftovers with her! 🙂

GLUTEN FREE BUTTERMILK BISCUITS

• 2 cups of gluten free flour
• 2 tsp xanthan gum
• (2 cups of gluten free flour with xanthan gum already blended in can be used instead. Pillsbury is the brand I like to use.)
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 4 TBS chilled unsalted butter
• ½ cup buttermilk
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2 egg whites, beaten or whisked until soft peaks form

Whisk together the flour and xanthan gum, and cut in the butter until coarse crumbs form.

Combine the buttermilk and sour cream and gently fold in the egg whites. Add all at once to the flour and gently mix/fold it in until a dough forms. Be patient and go gently, it WILL come together.

Place the dough on a gluten-free flour dusted counter, and gently pat out to an inch thickness and cut out the biscuits, about 8.

Place on an ungreased foil lined sheet pan, brush the tops with melted butter, and bake in a 400 degree oven for 14-16 minutes.

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Simple Buttermilk Biscuits

This was one of the very first things I learned to make from scratch. There were 6 growing and hungry kids in the house, plus 2 adults to feed, and it did not take me long to figure out that biscuits or bread on the table went a long way to stretching a meal. It’s still a favorite for holiday meals or brunches. They are perfect for biscuits and gravy also, and if the recipe is doubled and the dough patted to 1-½ inches instead of ¾ inch, the kids tell me they are just like Bojangles biscuits! Ha! What we always strive for! But the kids are happy, so what the heck!

Just a couple of tips – The less the dough is handled, the flakier they will be. And don’t twist the biscuit cutter when cutting them from the dough as this will keep them from rising as well. Finally, I find that margarine works best, but it must be 80% oil – anything less has too much water content and will ruin the biscuits, and while this is not a difficult recipe to make, it is messy so you only want to do it once! 🙂

SIMPLE BUTTERMILK BISCUITS

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 TBS baking powder
• ¾ tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 5 TBS chilled margarine (80% oil)
• 1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

Whisk together the dry ingredients and cut in the margarine with a pastry cutter until coarse crumbs form.

Add in the buttermilk all at once and toss together with a fork until a dough forms. Add more flour a little at a time if the dough is too sticky, but try not to add too much.

Place the dough on a flour dusted counter and pat the dough to ¾ inch and cut out the biscuits with a 2-½ in biscuit cutter, there will be enough for 12 to 15 biscuits.

Place the biscuits on an ungreased, foil lined sheet pan, brush the tops with melted margarine, and bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 12 – 15 mins.

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FRENCH MEAT PIE, CHAGNON STYLE

My mother in law, Theresa, could work magic with a sewing machine, a crochet hook, or a set of knitting needles. My gosh, the quilts she would create were a marvel and just gorgeous! Our home is chock full of her quilts and every size and style of afghan. There are also multitudes of hat, mitten, and scarf sets, and intricate doilies. Memere had a passion for creating all of it.

But what she did not have a passion for was cooking. Oh, she kept her family fed, and made the holidays special with traditional treats and all, but mostly her cooking was basic. One of her favorite recipes was ‘All in One.’ As Memere Theresa explained it to me, the All in One Recipe was calling home before leaving work, and telling whichever kid that answered the phone to put the chicken into a roasting pan, throw in 5 potatoes, and a bunch of carrots, cover it with foil and bake it at 350 degrees and she’d be home before it was done. I laughed out loud at that ‘recipe.’

So, as a rule, it was basically fried meat and potatoes, spaghetti etc., or All in Ones that she cooked to feed her family, and there were no recipes kicking around her kitchen as far as I knew. There were 2 recipes she had committed to memory for those times she either needed to feed a large group of people, or needed to feed the family for a few days while she did other things, and one of those recipes was for ‘French Meat Pie.’

Whenever I mention that recipe, whoever I am talking to either asks what a meat pie is, or an entire conversation about meat pie recipes ensues. It is never a subject that is just brushed off! This has always surprised me since it really is a pretty basic recipe with very little, if any, herbs or seasoning added. It’s just burger, ground pork, and potatoes, in a double crust pie, and each cook may or may not add seasoning to it. So that gets discussed, who adds what and all, but something else I hear a lot is that they have Grandma’s or whoever’s recipe, but the meat pie just doesn’t come out the way they remember it, and they can’t figure out why.

I think that Memere Theresa figured it out, though. Either that, or she was taught by her mom, who was taught by her mom, and so on, and I was just lucky enough to have had her teach me! So, this is not a recipe that she just wrote down and handed to me. No, no, no, this recipe was taught with her standing side by side with me at the stove, and it was up to me to write down the important parts as she was teaching me how to make it. This is a recipe more about the technique than it is about the ingredients, and every single time I make it, I can hear her voice coaching me through the process. I will be honest, I am not a huge fan of meat pie, but I do enjoy the memories that making them brings back of learning how to make it and of the lovely lady who taught me.

The following recipe is from Dennis’ mom’s family, but you can certainly use your own family’s recipe since it is the technique that makes the difference! Enjoy 🙂

FRENCH MEAT PIE, CHAGNON STYLE – Makes 3 Pies (freeze 2 for later!)

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs ground beef (80/20 is best)
• 1 lb ground pork
• 3 lbs russet potatoes (only use russet, the others break down too much)
• 2 medium onions, chopped

Directions:

In a large 8 quart pot over medium heat, cook the onion in about an inch of water. It is at this point you can use any herbs or seasonings you would like, Dennis’ mom had started using 1-2 TBS of creole seasoning along with salt and pepper to taste, and that is how we still like it. I have, however, seen recipes that call for chili powder, cumin, garlic, or even allspice and/or cloves. Go easy if you decide to try allspice or cloves in this recipe, only use about a 1/4 to a 1/2 tsp for a 3 pie recipe. You can be more generous when using cumin, chili powder, or garlic though, start with 1 TBS of whichever spice you choose, and add more at the end of cooking the meat if you want it.

Once the onion and spices (if using any) have cooked for a few minutes, add in the ground beef and pork but DON’T FRY. Mix the meat together with a wooden spoon and keep stirring slowly. The mixture needs to ‘steam boil’ slowly so add water if needed, and reduce the heat a bit if you hear/see that the meat is frying rather than cooking by a steamy boil. Continue this method of cooking until the meat is just past pink. My mother in law explained the meat should be completely cooked, but still ‘sticky’ instead of crumbly like it would be if it were fried. Drain off fat, and set aside.

Peel and boil the russet potatoes separately, checking often. They should be boiled past the crunchy stage, but not to the creamy, disintegrating stage. They need to be in between and if they do become over boiled, it’s best to make a new batch as it will affect the texture of the meat pies.

Mash the potatoes with NO milk or butter and add to the meat, mixing well. I was wearing out mixing this all together with a wooden spoon when my mother in law informed me she always used an electric hand mixer because she hated this part. I also was hating this part, so I dug out my hand mixer and have also used it every time since!

Season to taste with salt, pepper, and additional spices if using, and fill 3 pie crusts, using both a top and bottom crust for each pie. Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes.

In my family, I can remember this being served with gravy and a side of green beans, and a couple of our kids like to melt a slice of cheese on top. However Dennis feels that serving French Meat Pie any way but hot and by itself is simply sacrilegious! Whatever your preference, I do hope you enjoy!

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Boudreau’s Bourbon Chicken

I am always on the lookout for a good, quick chicken recipe and when I came across one for Bourbon Chicken, I was excited to try it. The recipe sounded good, and it sure did look good in the picture of it. So, I followed all the instructions, baked it up the way it said to, but was dubious when I pulled the pan out of the oven. It was served up and Dennis and I agreed pretty darn quickly that this was a washed out version of what we were expecting and a total disappointment. There were ‘wisps’ of good flavor though, so we decided one more try, and I got to thinking about how to make it more like what we were expecting. Usually it takes 3 or 4 times before it is perfected, but this was a big winner right out of the gate the second time around! Even Alex loved it, but being a kid still, I didn’t dare tell him what he was eating before he tasted it! LOL! Anyway, it is an easy recipe, even for a weeknight since it is prepped the night before. In the recipe, I have marinated the chicken in a airtight baggie, but next time, I am going try marinating the chicken right in the baking dish it will cook in and see how that goes. Also, this recipe is for 3 chicken leg quarters, but there is enough marinade for 4 leg quarters, or even 5 if need be. You will just need a baking dish large enough for all the chicken to be in a single layer in the marinade. Enjoy! We sure did!

BOUDREAU’S BOURBON CHICKEN

Cut 3 chicken leg quarters into 6 pieces. Gently peel back the skin on each piece, but be careful not to detach the skin. Then, using the tip of a steak knife or similar, poke a few holes into each piece of chicken. This helps the marinade flavor the chicken on the inside too.

Overnight And Cooking Marinade:

• ½ cup bourbon
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup soy sauce
• ½ small onion, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp ginger

Place the chicken pieces – with the skin still peeled back – into a large airtight baggie. Pour the marinade in with the chicken and let sit overnight in the fridge.

To bake, remove the chicken pieces from the baggie and pour the marinade into a lightly greased, 13 X 9 baking dish. Gently replace the skin back onto the chicken pieces, and place the chicken skin side DOWN in the marinade. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Remove the foil, turn the chicken skin side UP and bake uncovered for another 35 to 45 minutes, basting 2 or 3 times.

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GUMBO COOKIES

I will be honest, I have absolutely no recollection whatsoever of where this recipe came from or where it got its name! How strange. Most likely, I went searching through my vintage cookbooks to come up with a biscuit that would go with gumbo, found an interesting recipe for a flat biscuit, and then one of the kids proclaimed it looked like a cookie. Whatever, that’s just my best guess! LOL! Enjoy!

GUMBO COOKIES (flat biscuits) Makes 15

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1-¼ tsp baking powder
• 1-¼ tsp baking soda
• 1/3 tsp salt
• 5 TBS unsalted butter, chilled
• 1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

-Combine all dry ingredients. Cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly.

-Add in the buttermilk, using a fork, until it forms a soft dough.

-Roll to 1/2 inch thickness & cut out 15 2-1/2 inch rounds.

-Before baking, use a sharp knife to cut a cross hatch in each biscuit.

-Bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

-Brush with melted butter while hot, and sprinkle lightly with coarse salt.

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COLLEEN’S TOASTED COCONUT BLONDIES

This is a recipe I have been working on for years! Hubby is not a huge fan of chocolate brownies, and I needed to come up with a bar that will travel in his lunch to school. Blondies never interested him, either. It wasn’t that he didn’t like them, they were just boring. Coconut is a favorite of his, though, so I thought I would take this recipe in a ‘tropical direction’ and also use the spiced rum vanilla we had made this summer. Finally, after many test recipes and discussions with hubby about what he liked best about each batch, we have a winner! Hope you enjoy! 🙂

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1-½ cups brown sugar
• 12 TBS unsalted butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp spiced rum vanilla extract***
• ½ – ¾ cup white chocolate chips
• 1-½ cups toasted coconut, divided (save ¼ cup for topping)

Directions:

Set oven to 350 degrees to preheat. Spread the coconut in large sheet pan and set in oven for 3 minutes. Stir, and place back in oven for just a minute or two. If still not toasted enough, stir and place back in oven, checking every minute until done. Keep a close eye on it to be sure it doesn’t burn, which it will do quickly! Set aside to cool.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Combine the sugar, melted butter, egg, and spiced rum vanilla*** in 2nd bowl. Add to the dry ingredients, then fold in 1-¼ cups of the toasted coconut, reserving ¼ cup for the topping.

***Can combine vanilla and rum extracts, or use 2 tsp vanilla extract.

Spread batter in a greased and floured 9.5 X 13 brownie pan, or a greased and floured 9 X 13 baking dish. Sprinkle the reserved ¼ cup toasted coconut on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 – 24 minutes. Cool, cut into squares.

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Banana Whiffee

August is upon us, and like it or not, it is a turning point towards autumn. Schools are opening back up, and soon everything will be decorated in reds and golds, and there will be a whole lot of pumpkins showing up on lawns doorsteps, and as flavoring in everything from coffee to dessert. Before that though, about midway through August, is our daughter-in-law’s birthday. We are not big on birthdays around here (most likely because I hate to shop! Sorry kids…) so I usually bake up a favorite instead. This banana treat is always Anna’s request.

Earlier this year, though, Anna was told she needed to change her diet to gluten free. It took a bit of pondering on my part, but I was determined that Anna would have her favorite birthday dessert, and was finally able to figure a way to make them gluten free for her. The directions are at the bottom of the recipe if you are interested.

This recipe is actually two variations of the Chocolate Whoopee Pies & Filling already posted. The banana whoopee pies were developed for Anna since she is addicted to all fruit, but especially bananas; and the pumpkin whoopee pies were developed for our eldest daughter Alysia, who loves all things pumpkin come autumn. The filling for each remains the same as listed with the Chocolate Whoopee Pie recipe. We like to call these ‘Banana Whiffies’ and ‘Pumpkin Poofies!’ Don’t ask us why cuz we don’t know!

BANANA WHIFFIES / PUMPKIN POOFIES

Ingredients:

• ½ cup margarine, 80% oil content
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• *** ½ cup ‘faux buttermilk’
• ½ cup mashed banana -OR- ½ cup mashed pumpkin
• 2 cups flour

***Do not use real buttermilk. It will make the baked whoopee pies lumpy and uneven. Instead, place a ½ tsp of lemon juice in a half cup measuring cup and fill the rest with milk.

Directions:

Cream margarine and sugars together, and add in each ingredient one at a time until mixed well.

Use a regular size ice cream scoop or small melon scoop to drop equal amounts of batter onto parchment or foil lined cookie sheets. (Do not grease the foil.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 – 15 minutes, checking at 10 minutes to be sure they are not burning. Gently tap the tops to see if they are firm.

Let cool and fill, using the Whoopee Pie filling recipe.

GLUTEN FREE DIRECTIONS:

First off, be sure your other ingredients are gluten free. Baking POWDER is not always gluten free! Who knew it could hide in there? Brands that are gluten free are pretty easy to come by, although, Rumford, Argo, and Clabber Girl are all gluten free along with others, just check the label. Baking SODA is always gluten free no matter who makes it. Also, if you are making the pumpkin whoopee pies and are not using your own mashed pumpkin, commercially canned pumpkin is usually gluten free also, but as always, you should check the label to be sure.

Secondly, I used Pillsbury Best Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Blend and was pleased with the result. I chose it because it already contains the appropriate amount of xanthan gum which basically replaces the gluten missing from all purpose flour. It was also the most reasonably priced at $5.99 for 2 lbs. That sounds pretty pricey, I know, but there are way more expensive options out there and Pillsbury worked just fine. Look around and see what your options are, but either make sure the gluten free flour blend contains xanthan gum, or that you buy the xanthan gum separately and research how much should go into the 2 cups being used in this recipe. Also, Pillsbury gluten free flour blend is measured out 1 cup = 1 cup, which further simplifies things.

There are only two exceptions to make these treats gluten free which are listed just below. Other than the 2 exceptions, just follow the recipe as is to make either of these recipes or the classic chocolate whoopee pie recipe. Powdered Baking Cocoa is naturally gluten free, but check ingredients to be sure that the only ingredient listed is ‘cocoa.’

1st Exception:

Replace the 2 cups of flour with the appropriate amount of gluten free flour blend according to the instructions on the package (not all GF flour measures cup for cup) making sure that the flour blend either contains xanthan gum, or that you add the appropriate amount needed.

2nd Exception:

Separate the egg, and add the yolk to the batter. Whisk the egg white with just a pinch (1/16 tsp) of Cream of Tartar, which is naturally gluten free so no worries there. Whisk until stiff peaks form. By this point, everything but the flour should be in the batter bowl, and gently fold in the whisked egg white. Once that is fully mixed in, gently fold in the flour blend. Finish baking as recipe says. Good luck and enjoy!

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Zoukie Fish Burgers (Zucchini Tuna Cakes)

This is a recipe that was changed in both amounts and ingredients according to what I had leftover in the larder, and there simply isn’t any improving on it so I am leaving it as is. It was an experiment recipe in an effort to use up a zucchini and it turned out to be a real winner. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 TBS butter or margarine
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 med zucchini shredded (use the whole thing. 1 to 1-1/2 cups)
• 4 oz can chunk lite tuna in water, drained well
• 1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp seasoned pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Sauté the onions for 4 – 5 minutes, then remove from pan, leaving as much of the oil in the pan as possible.

Mix the onions in a bowl with all the rest of the ingredients. Form into 4 patties about 3/4 inch thick. Pour another 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of bread crumbs into a shallow bowl, and coat the patties.

Add another TBS or 2 of olive oil to the frying pan, set at med high heat, and when hot, cook the patties for 3 minutes or so on each side.

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Most Excellent Corn Muffins

We have a couple of friends who are beekeepers, so it ends up that they get our jams, and we get their honey. Good deal all around. I love having ‘real’ honey in the house, and seeing jars of it on my counter always make me smile. Yes, because we have good friends who gift it to us, but also because I can’t help recalling when our friend brought home his first bee boxes (?) full of bees and they couldn’t be put outside yet because it wasn’t warm enough. He proudly posted a photo of these boxes sitting front and center on the hearth in his living room. I remember thinking that I bet his wife is not so pleased about this! Then I read the caption which said “My wife is NOT pleased!” Makes me laugh every time.

So, with an abundance of honey in the house, I started replacing a part of the sugar in some baking recipes with honey to see if the flavor would come through or just be lost. There was no point to adding the honey if we couldn’t taste it. The results were mixed, some were okay but not great, and sometimes not a hint of honey came through. And then I tried the honey in my corn muffin recipe and when I took a bite, I actually thought “Wow, these are most excellent!” So I have named these ‘Most Excellent Corn Muffins.’ I know…you are jealous of my creativity, right? Ha! Anyway, this recipe makes 12 regular size muffins, but I recommend doubling the recipe if you are making these to go with a meal, because your family will be looking for them as a snack later, too.

Combine in large bowl and set aside:

• 3/4 cup yellow corn meal (not self rising & Aunt Jemima’s is best if you ask me)
• 1-1/4 cups flour
• 1 TBS baking powder

In second bowl:

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melt and slightly cool, then mix in:
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 TBS honey
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk

Combine the two bowls into one without over mixing. Use an ice cream scoop to divide batter into the 12 muffin cups.

Side note: To make these muffins easy to grab as a snack, grease and flour the muffin cups instead of using paper liners. The muffins will pop right out of the muffin tin and have delicious and slightly crispy sides.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 to 18 minutes.

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WHOOPEE PIES

This was a dessert that I struggled and suffered through to make because my son Steven had requested them for his birthday. They, like the jam filled scones, were far and away too much trouble for the end result. But also like the jam filled scones, I didn’t want to just let this recipe go by the wayside. So I started experimenting and looking up different recipes until I got this one pretty much perfected. Perfected as far as not avoiding making them!

There are two things to point out here. The first is that the ‘baking margarine’ in this recipe is a margarine that is made with 80% oil. There are lots of brands that have a lot less oil in them, but that just means there is a lot more water in them instead of oil, and a water-filled margarine does not make a good margarine to bake with. Luckily, I have found that store brands often have 79% or 80% oil, and they are even the cheapest. Average cost is $1 a pound. I have not used real butter in this recipe, so I cannot advise either way on that. And that actually brings me to my second point I want to mention.

Somewhere along the way, a whoopee pie recipe called for buttermilk, and I used it, liked it, and kept it in the recipe I came up with. I very rarely had actual buttermilk in the house, however, so I always used the method of putting 2 TBS lemon juice into a measured 1 cup, and finished filling the cup with 2% milk. Anyway, one day I did have actual buttermilk in the fridge so I used that instead. Big mistake. Real buttermilk changed the whole texture and density. I scrapped that batch and made another, with my lemon juice and milk concoction, and the pies baked up evenly and lighter. So, don’t use real buttermilk, it will ruin the recipe.

Oh! And one more thing…because there’s always one more thing, right? 🙂

Use an ice cream scoop to measure out the batter, this makes the sizes uniform, and makes dropping them onto the baking pan easier. The pies will be a good hefty portion, though, so I have taken to using the smaller version which I think is actually a melon baller. Don’t worry they will be too small as you are dropping them on the baking sheet, they will expand and make what I consider much more of an individual serving. It is your preference. Just remember that the smaller pies will bake up slightly quicker.

So, after far too long of an introduction (drum roll please), here’s the recipe!

CHOCOLATE WHOOPEE PIES

• ½ cup baking margarine, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup ‘faux buttermilk’ (2tsp lemon juice in 1 cup, finish filling w/2% milk)
• ½ cup baking cocoa powder
• 2 cups flour

Cream the margarine and brown sugar together. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and faux buttermilk. Whisk together the remaining dry ingredients and sift into the batter. Mix together until smooth.

Line baking sheets with tin foil – do not spray or grease! Use an ice cream scoop or melon baller, depending on which size you want to make, to drop equal amounts of batter onto the tin foil.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes, but start checking at 10 minutes to avoid burning.

WHOOPEE PIE FILLING

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 stick baking margarine, softened
• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow fluff
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine the 2 sticks of butter and margarine, and add each ingredient one at a time as each stage is creamed. Use a piping gun or frosting bag to create a swirl of filling on half of the cooled whoopee pies. Use the other half of the pies for the tops on the filled pies. Store them in square snack bags, or wrap each one in plastic wrap, and store in the fridge.

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GOOD OLD FASHIONED APPLE COBBLER

I always have to prepare this when the kids aren’t around because they are as bad about stealing cinnamon sugar coated apple slices as they are about stealing raw cookie dough! Serve the cobbler warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, cold from the fridge, or room temperature…it doesn’t matter, it’s good any way you want it. The recipe is from Grammy Nellie, who didn’t like making pie crusts if she could help it!

Peel and slice 3 cups of apples. You can use baking apples, or mix in some Granny Smith for tartness, your choice. We have always used whatever we had in the house!

In a large bowl, toss the apple slices with 2/3 cup to 1 cup of sugar, 1 TBS flour, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, and 1/8 tsp ground cloves. Be sure all slices are well coated, then place in a lightly sprayed deep round baking dish. Dot with butter or margarine. Set aside.

For the cobbler, whisk together:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 TBS sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Cut in 3 TBS shortening until mixture looks grainy, and stir in 1/2 cup milk just until moistened. Drop 6 mounds (1 in the middle and 5 surrounding) by spoonfuls onto apples in baking dish.

Bake uncovered at 425 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

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EASY PEASY DOGGY ICE CREAM

There are a lot of recipes out there for ‘ice cream’ for the pups, but this is a basic recipe that is the favorite of both our girls!

• 2 cups of plain or vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup peanut butter

I told you it was basic! 😀

Mix the yogurt and peanut butter together. Fill a muffin pan with muffin cups, and use an ice cream scooper to fill the cups with the mixture. Freeze the cups right in the muffin pan. Once frozen, they can be stacked and stored in a plastic baggie. To serve, peel the paper off and throw the single serve ice cream into their food dish. I usually take a fork and mash it into pieces just so they don’t swallow it whole, but maybe your dogs have better manners and will lick it as it melts. Hahahahahaha!

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‘I WANT MORE’ POTATO SALAD

I have always thought of this as a basic recipe. It is the same as I have made it even back when I couldn’t cook! So when it was served at our annual 4th of July bash, and people started complimenting me, and others were telling me that they usually don’t like potato salad but they like mine, I was a bit surprised. In later years, people would tell me they would look forward to the bash for weeks because of Dennis’ smoked ribs and my potato salad. I do not get it since as I said, it’s a basic recipe. But maybe that’s it after all…it’s basic. In this world where there is always a ‘new and improved’ version, it was the back to the basic recipe that was the best after all. So here is my basic recipe! Enjoy 🙂

Directions:

Peel and cube 4-5 lbs of potatoes into bite-size pieces. Drop into rapidly boiling and salted water. Once water is boiling again, only cook for 3-4 minutes, but not more than 5-6 minutes, watch closely and check for doneness so you don’t end up making Mashed Potato Salad! (Is that even a thing? It doesn’t sound good if it is! Ha!) Anyway….Drain and cover potatoes with ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain again when cool and air dry the potatoes in a colander.

Ingredients:

To make the dressing, mix together:

• 1-1/2 cups mayonnaise
• 1/2 TBS vinegar
• 1 TBS lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp seasoned pepper
• 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 2 lg fresh basil leaves, chopped (or 3/4 tsp dried)
• 2 tsp fresh dill, chopped (or 2 tsp dried dill weed)
• 1/2 tsp celery salt
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped or minced to preference
• 1/2 cup sweet relish (add more if that is your preference)
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp paprika

Mix all together, then add the cooled potatoes. Chill for at least 2 hours.

Optional additions:

• Chopped red, yellow, orange or green pepper
• 4 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
• 1 large carrot, shredded
• 3 or 4 strips cooked bacon, crumbled

If the taste is off, I find it is usually because it needs more relish or celery salt so try adding more relish by the spoonful until it is right, or a couple of extra shakes of the celery salt. All of the measurements can be increased or decreased, it’s all about your own preferences. I have always said a recipe is just a guideline!

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MOM & POP’S HOMESTEAD BURRITOS

We had some leftover London Broil a couple of years ago and between Dennis and I, we made up a batch of burritos with it. They were good, except for the sauce I made from a recipe online. We made another batch a few weeks later using yet another sauce recipe that was also a flop. After that we gave up for a couple of years, or maybe we just forgot about it. But now that I am going through and cleaning out recipes that don’t work, I have come across our recipe for burritos again. However, I was still mystified on what sauce to use, so it just stayed on the ‘back burner’, so to speak. And then just last week, I found we were out of burger for what I had planned for supper and had to figure something else out to replace it. I was searching our basement pantry for ideas when my eyes lit on a lonely jar of Alfredo sauce that was nearing its expiration date. My mind raced through what I had in the fridge and I decided that Alfredo sauce mixed with a can of drained diced tomatoes with green chilies was the perfect sauce for some burritos! So these are not traditional burritos, but in homestead style, we worked with what we had, and it was delicious!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. leftover steak or roast, sliced thin & cut into 1/2 inch pieces.
• 1 onion, sliced the same thickness as the meat
• 1/2 of a green or red bell pepper, sliced the same thickness
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp seasoned pepper
• 1 tomato chopped

Directions:

Sauté the onion and pepper slices in olive oil on medium heat for 5 or 6 minutes.

Pour a splash or two of red cooking wine into the frying pan of onions and peppers, and then add all the other ingredients, making sure the meat is cooked and vegetables are soft.

Set out six or eight 8-inch tortillas, 2 per person is a filling portion. Divide the mixture evenly between them. Optional: add a TBS of cooked black beans and/or refried beans to each burrito. Roll each one and place into a lightly sprayed baking dish. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix together a 14 oz jar of Alfredo sauce and a 10 oz can of drained diced tomatoes with green chilies. Heat and pour over the lined up burritos. Sprinkle about 1/4 cup of shredded Mexican Blend cheese on top, along with a TBS or two of either dried or fresh chopped cilantro. Bake uncovered, in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Serve with sides of black beans, rice, and/or corn.

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STROGA-KNOCK-OFF

A few years back, Dennis requested a meal he enjoyed but hadn’t had for a very long time. Well, I had never had Goulash either and was intrigued, so off I went to the cookbooks. After finding a few different recipes, I sat down to run them by him to see which was closest to what he remembered. Right away, he stops me and says he doesn’t remember there being any tomatoes in this dish at all. Since every single recipe I had seen started with tomatoes as the main ingredient, I was a bit surprised at that. So I turned to the internet and started searching there. All in all, I spent about a week searching between the internet and my cookbooks, and nothing anywhere that did not have tomatoes in their goulash recipe! Finally, in exasperation, I asked him to describe the dish to me. It took about 2 seconds for me to figure out what dish “mushrooms, strips of steak, and sour cream in the sauce” was. I remember very clearly not speaking for a minute while I just stared at my darling husband; and he in turn, had the intelligence to start inching nonchalantly towards the door. “Stroganoff.” I called after him. “You had me searching for a week for goulash recipes without tomatoes when what you wanted was stroganoff?” Right before he disappeared through the door, he claimed he never knew it was stroganoff, he only heard it called goulash. Oh well, I guess I should have asked MUCH sooner! So I did finally find a recipe and make the labor intensive stroganoff from scratch – only to have our youngest son not only pick out all the mushrooms and onions, AND he also referred to it as ‘hamburger helper’! Amazing that they have both survived, isn’t it?! Anyway, I found myself avoiding making the dish because of all the work for a weekday meal, and I didn’t feel it was a Sunday Dinner recipe, so eventually I figured a way to make it a quick meal that can be on the table in about 45 minutes start to finish. Plus, it’s not quite so hard to take the removal of mushrooms when there’s so much less work involved. Ha!

Dry rub 1-lb of steak or stew meat cut into thin strips with Chicago Steak Seasoning, salt, and pepper. Set aside. (The Chicago Steak Seasoning is optional.)

Fry 1 onion sliced the same thickness as the meat, and the same amount of mushrooms also sliced the same thickness. Cook until soft, about 8-10 minutes, then add the meat strips. (If the onions and mushrooms are sticking to the pan, and you don’t want to add more oil, pour in about 1/3 or 1/2 cup of white cooking wine.)

When the meat is browned on all sides, add in a 10 oz can of undiluted Cream of Mushroom soup, and the same amount of vegetable broth. Salt and pepper to taste, stirring and mixing the sauce well. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Mix together 1/2 cup of sour cream and 1 TBS of cornstarch. Add hot broth to the sour cream to temper it a little at a time, until a 1/2 cup of broth has been mixed in. Then stir it into the simmering sauce, and cook just another 5 or 10 minutes.

Serve over egg noodles cooked to package directions. A 12 or 16 oz bag should be plenty. Serves 4 – 6.

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Mexican Cornbread Skillet

This recipe is by request from our oldest daughter, Alysia. She and I were chatting on the phone about cooking meals ahead for the week and she asked what I was making. I told her about the cornbread skillet, which is a recipe I developed long after she had gone off to college. After describing it to her, I suggested that she might try to make it with the ‘fake meat’ scrambled hamburger I saw in the vegetarian freezer at the grocery store. It sounded like a good idea to her so she asked that I post the recipe. Alysia is a vegetarian, and although her hubby, Al, is not, he is willing to try the vegetarian dishes she comes up with. One of the dishes she came up with was a vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie, which Al christened “Shepherd’s LIE” after just one bite! (Gotta admit – that was a good one!) That’s how cooking goes though, sometimes it works and sometimes it just doesn’t, and I am interested to see how the vegetarian version of this dish comes out! And Dennis has just reminded me that this may also be a good recipe for our daughter-in-law, Anna Maria, who is a vegetarian as well, but is also highly allergic to gluten. This recipe is gluten free as it uses only cornmeal and no flour.

This recipe makes 2 pies using 10-inch cast iron skillets.

Fry up 1-lb burger and 1 chopped onion together, using the spatula to separate the meat while cooking. Drain, salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Heat 2 well-greased 10-inch cast iron skillets in a preheated 350 degree oven while mixing the batter, or no more than 7-10 minutes.

Melt and slightly cool 3/4 cup butter or 80% oil margarine in large bowl.

Mix in:

• 1-3/4 cups cornmeal
• 1-1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 3 large eggs
• 14 oz can corn, drained

Remove skillets from oven and just barely cover the bottom of each skillet with cornbread batter. You don’t want to be too generous on the bottom because you will need it for the top. Only spread enough to make a crust of sorts. Then sprinkle each skillet with about 1/2 cup or so of shredded cheese of your choice. I like to use the Mexican Blend Cheeses.

Divide the meat and onion mixture between the 2 skillets and spread it evenly. Spread a thin layer of salsa on top of the meat mixture, using about 1/2 – 3/4 cup each skillet.

Pour the remaining cornmeal mixture over the top, dividing it between the 2 skillets. Be sure the mixture is covering the top completely, using a spoon to poke everything down if needed.

Sprinkle about 1 cup of shredded cheese on each skillet, and bake uncovered for 25 – 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

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Paella Boudreau Style

Paella has always intrigued me. All the pictures I had ever seen of paella made it look like a delicious adventure. Watching chefs talk about it, and reading articles about it, just made me want to try it even more. I had a recipe cut out from a magazine for years, but I never tried it. The list of ingredients was intimidating and a couple of them were a tad expensive, too; saffron threads, Arborio rice, chorizo sausage, live clams! I’d shake my head wistfully and tuck the recipe back into the book with a sigh.

What finally got me to actually try the dish was coming across several different recipes for paella, one of which included rabbit no less, and I suddenly realized I not only had a perfect recipe to use up all those squirrels in my freezer, but I now had a perfect excuse to jump in and finally try to make paella. So, over the next couple of weeks, Dennis found me a paella pan, and we started gathering all the other ingredients we would need. It was a 3 or 4 hour long process making it the first time, but it was very much worth the effort to keep making it. Now, I make sure the meats are all cooked ahead of time so that when I decide to start making the paella for supper, it’s actually on the table in 45 minutes or less! Amazing. AND amazingly delicious too!

Ingredients:

• 4 oz chorizo sausage (do not cook this prior to making the paella)
• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 1 medium tomato, diced
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• Pinch (1/4 to 1/2 tsp) saffron threads
• 1 cup arborio or medium grain rice
• 1 cup frozen peas
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup white cooking wine
• 1 TBS lemon juice
• 1 TBS fresh or 1 tsp dried cilantro
• 1 – 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded into large bite size pieces
• 1 – 2 cups cooked squirrel meat (optional)

Directions:

Drizzle some olive oil into a paella pan and remove the casings from the chorizo sausage while the oil is heating up. Cook the sausage in the oil on medium heat, breaking it apart as it cooks. Add the onion and cook them both together until onions are beginning to brown, maybe 5 – 6 minutes.

Stir in the diced tomato, garlic, saffron, salt & pepper, rice, water, cooking wine, lemon juice, cilantro, and the cooked meats. Mix well, and bring to a boil. Cover well with foil and simmer over low heat – without stirring – until liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes.

Carefully remove the foil so as not to tear it, and tuck in:

• 1 lb thawed out frozen pre-cooked, deveined large shrimp with tails on
• 1 lb mussels cleaned & debearded, or clams

Place these upright in the dish so they can open easily, and carefully cover the pan with foil tightly until the clams or mussels open, and the shrimp is heated through, about 10 – 12 minutes.

Remove foil, garnish with 1 TBS fresh cilantro, if desired, and serve.

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Chicken Alexfredo

With baseball season upon us, suppers become casseroles that can be easily heated up quickly in a microwave, so that no matter what time someone ends up coming home hungry, there is a good meal waiting. I have quite a few of these recipes, but Alex doesn’t like all of them which is a mystery to me. He loves chili, hates spaghetti and chi-ghetti, but loves beefaroni and mac & cheese, so it’s not the pasta he has an aversion to. He loves anything with cheese, cornbread, and burger, but hates it all together in Cornbread skillet. Seriously, Alex? I just don’t get it, but at least he will eat it, or cook something else on his own. Still, I like to have things that he will enjoy, so when I came across a recipe for chicken Alfredo with pasta, it caught my attention. The original recipe was a lot more detailed which wasn’t going to work for a quick casserole, but I managed to simplify it to make it worth my while to make it instead of avoiding it because it was too much effort!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. penne rigate pasta, cooked & drained
• 5 oz jar Prego Alfredo sauce flavored with bacon
• 1 – 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded into big chunks
• 1 cup sour cream
• 15 oz pkg of ricotta cheese
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs
• ½ – 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and pour into greased 13 X 9 baking dish. Sprinkle additional cheese on top if desired.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until lightly browning on top.

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                   Yankee Pot Roast Made With Beer                        (aka ‘soft meat’)

This is a meal that brings me back to my grandparents’ house on a Sunday, any Sunday at all for 30 years of my life. Sundays were an open invitation to the whole family every single week and no matter if 5 people or 50 people showed up, there was always enough food to go around. I just happily ate what was put in front of me, never thinking to ask what any of that delicious food was. Fast forward to years later trying to keep my own brood fed, trying to remember the dishes my grandmother made, and I was out of luck.

Dennis and I discovered pot roast quite by accident. We had come across a good sized roast on clearance, which is always a good thing to find with 6 kids to feed on teacher’s pay! So it went home with us even though we didn’t really know what it was. I looked up what the package label said it was and how to cook it, and it came out okay, not great, not bad, just okay. It wasn’t until the next time we cooked it – and I forgot it in the oven for an extra hour – that I realized THIS was my favorite dinner at my grandparents’ house on Sunday afternoon all those years ago! Our kids had never had pot roast and despite their aversions to anything different, they all declared it a favorite after just one bite! Despite knowing it is pot roast, they have all referred to it as ‘soft meat’ ever since. Our oldest daughter is a vegetarian now, but it was a struggle for her in the early days. As Dennis and I like to explain: She was a vegan until she found out there was no cheese, and a vegetarian until she found out there was no soft meat. She has been vegetarian for a number of years now, but don’t worry, I have figured out a way to make her a version of this dish so she doesn’t miss out on it completely, because that’s just what moms do 🙂

Ingredients:

• Appropriate size beef or venison roast
• 1 med potato per person, cut into large chunks
• Carrots (equal to the amount of potatoes)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• Olive oil
• 1 bottle of beer or stout
• 3 cups of beef broth
• 2 TBS flour
• ½ tsp brown sugar
• 1 squirt of mustard
• ¼ cup ketchup
• ½ tsp thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Sear meat well on all sides, remove from heat, and keep covered

Cook vegetables in olive oil in the same pot in which the meat was seared (about 8-10 mins)

Meanwhile in a separate bowl combine the beef broth, flour, brown sugar, mustard ketchup, and thyme, adding the bay leaf after combing the ingredients.

Add the entire mixture (all at once) to the vegetables after they are cooked making sure to scrape the bottom of pot with the vegetables in it with a spatula to get any meat stuck to the pot to mix into the juice.

Add 1 to 1 ¼ cups of beer to pot. (You can drink any remaining beer.)

Place the meat on top making sure it is mostly submerged in the juice.

Cook covered at 350^o for 3-4 hours.

Check every hour to stir the vegetables and turn the roast over. (Add water if needed.)

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Colleen’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Shortening is not a usual ingredient in my cookie recipes, but the original recipe I worked from for these Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies used shortening, and that is how I made them the first time. Although I have changed amounts, and added different ingredients, and experimented with using butter in place of the shortening, I have gone back to using all shortening in this recipe. Using all shortening makes the cookie crunchier and crumbly which my family prefers for this cookie. If you would like a chewier cookie, try replacing half the shortening with butter, or a good margarine which is made with 80% oil. I know, that doesn’t sound good, but you are looking for the least amount of water in a margarine. If it’s made with only 57% oil, you can be sure there’s more water than you want making up the other 43 percent! Luckily, I have found that most store brands contain 80% oil, and they are also the cheapest!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup shortening
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla

Cream everything together well, and then add:

• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1-2 cups of chocolate chips folded in at the last –

Using a level ice cream scoop, form dough into balls, roll in sugar, and place on ungreased, foil-lined sheet pan. Press down lightly on each cookie to flatten a bit, and leave enough room for them to spread out.

Bake at 350^o for 10-11 minutes, and then let cool in the pan for 1-2 minutes.

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Colleen’s Cajun Style Gumbo

All but one of our kids are from Louisiana, where Dennis spent 17 years working before he transferred to North Carolina 19 years ago. I got here from New Hampshire a year later with the one kid not from Louisiana, and absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of southern cooking. So when my new family from Louisiana asked for Gumbo, I will be honest, an image of a baby elephant with huge ears flying around was all my mind could conjure up. Ha! What can I say?

It was time I figured out what Gumbo was, and there would be no checking through my stash of cookbooks looking for starting point recipes this time. Fannie Farmer was as uninformed as I was, and the popular vintage cookbooks which make up my collection had only ‘watered down’ versions of what Dennis and the kids were describing to me. So it was off to the internet, and between what I could find and what the family was asking for, I came up with this recipe. It’s a hearty stew (or is it a hearty thick soup?) and it is what Dennis is having for supper on the ball field all week. I ladle the Gumbo into the thermos almost to the top, and a quarter cup of hot-from-the-microwave rice gets plopped on top. A good, filling meal in a thermos!

 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb smoked sausage
• ½ cup flour
• 5 TBS margarine
• 1 lg onion, chopped
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• ¼ cup Worcestershire Sauce
• ½ tsp parsley
• 4 cups of hot water
• 5 beef bouillon cubes
• 14 oz can of stewed tomatoes, undrained
• 2 cup frozen, sliced okra
• ½ lb cooked shrimp
• 1 cup chopped chicken, cooked

Pour ¼ cup of oil into a 7-quart Dutch oven and cook the sausage. Remove sausage, sprinkle flour over the hot oil and add 2 TBS of margarine, cooking over medium heat, stirring constantly until brown. (About 5 minutes.)

Reduce heat slightly and add 3 TBS of margarine. Add onion and garlic, Worcestershire Sauce, salt and pepper to taste, and the parsley. Cook everything for about 5 minutes. Add water and bouillon whisking constantly. Add sausage back into the mix, bring everything to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 45 minutes. Add tomatoes and okra, and cover and let everything simmer for another 45 minutes. Add shrimp and chicken and simmer everything again for 15 minutes.

Pour gumbo into bowl and drop an ice scoop of cooked rice into the middle of the bowl and serve.

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Bonny Jam Scones

I call these Bonny Jams. This is a variation of another recipe I found somewhere online, and they were okay; but they were such a royal pain in the butt to make. Those scones weren’t worth the effort, but I kept trying because I really liked the idea of a jam filled scone. After quite a few tries, I finally came up with not only a good recipe that my family (even Alex!) loves, but I also figured out an easy way to put them together. It’s so easy now, that I don’t avoid making them. That’s not to say it’s not a bit labor intensive, but this way is a whole lot less work than the original recipe and the rate of success using the original version was only about half. With this recipe, I don’t worry about them being a flop, and I even make 2 pans at once now. I make 2 because it saves me from having to listen to the whining for more when the first pan ran out too fast! These scones are definitely worth the effort to me. 🙂

BONNY JAMS – makes one pan of scones

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled & cut into small pieces
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 lg eggs

Combine the dry ingredients and cut in the butter until the flour mixture looks grainy.

Combine the wet ingredients & add to the flour & butter, using a fork to toss and mix together until just combined. Lightly knead the dough on a floured surface just to form into a ball, and divide evenly in half.

You will need two 9-inch cake pans. You really don’t want to use 8-inch cake pans as this will make the scones too thick. Prep the first pan by greasing it well with shortening, have a piece of wax paper cut to size to fit into the pan getting it as close to covering the whole bottom as possible. Place the wax paper in the pan and grease that as well with shortening. Then flour the pan. For the second pan, you just need a piece of plastic wrap large enough to hang over the sides after you have tucked the wrap into the pan and sprinkled it with flour, not much – just enough to keep the dough from sticking.

Press half of the dough into the pan prepared with wax paper, making sure the dough is even all over and pressed along all the sides.

You will need maybe 1/2 to 3/4 cup of your favorite jam and spread it onto the dough from the middle out to one inch away from the sides all around. Set aside.

Press the remaining half of the dough into the plastic wrap lined pan, making sure it’s even all over and pressed right to all the sides. (If you are making 2 pans, you will need to do this twice, lifting out the dough and letting it rest on the plastic wrap – in the fridge if need be – until you are ready to work with it. You will now be able to prep the 2nd pan with shortening, wax paper, and flour as you did the first pan.)

Go back to the pan with the dough and jam and brush water on the one inch all around the dough without jam. This will help the top layer stick to the bottom layer and seal in the jam. Using the plastic wrap hanging over the sides as handles, lift the dough out of the second pan. Carefully invert the dough onto your hand and gently peel off the plastic wrap. Immediately and carefully place the dough onto the dough spread with jam, but don’t just drop it on all at once. It works best if you place it gently, and work your way around, pressing gently along the edges as you go to help seal it. This is the easiest way I have found to do this, you’ll know when you have the dough in your hands which way is the best for you! Good luck, it is worth the trouble!

Once you have the top layer sealed onto the bottom layer, you want to brush the top with some melted butter, and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. If they aren’t quite done, give them up to 5 minutes more, but be sure they aren’t burning on the bottom and sides. Let them cool for 3 or 4 minutes or so before removing from the pan and cooling on a wire rack. Cut scones into 8 wedges and enjoy!

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Beefaroni Gloriosky

There was a price reduction on canned veggies where we do our grocery shopping. All of a sudden I found myself staring in wide-eyed wonder at an entire section of every style of diced tomatoes you can think of (and some you would never have) for a mere 36 cents a can! “Honey, get the cart!” Now, what to do with all of them? I had a tried and true recipe for beefaroni, and it is a perfect casserole for baseball season, but it was so boring that we would avoid it like the plague. I can’t tell you how many times I threw out half a batch because it spoiled before I finally gave up on making it. But I had all kinds of fancy schmancy diced tomatoes now, so I changed up the pasta, added some herbs, and added cheese to the top, and voila! A new souped up version and we’re all digging into the beefaroni again!

Fry 1 pound of ground beef and 1 cup of chopped onions together until beef is browned and onions are soft then drain.

Add in:

• 1 14 oz can of chili ready tomoatoes
• 1 14 oz can of tomato sauce
• ¼ cup of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• ½ TBS of chili powder
• ¼ tsp basil
• ¼ tsp dill weed
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper

Simmer everything until heated through

Cook and drain 1 lb of Penne Rigate pasta

Combine pasta and sauce and spread in lightly greased 9 x 13 baking dish

Cover with 1-2 cups of shredded cheese of your choice. (Try to use 2 or 3 kinds of cheese.)

When top is well covered, bake in the oven as 375^o for 15 minutes to melt the cheese.

 

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Chicken Collezinni

Once baseball season starts, supper menus change drastically around here. Gone are the quick meat and potato dishes, and even casserole-type dishes like Chi-ghetti and Stroga-knock-off pretty much get the ‘heave ho’ because of their inability to hold up in the fridge and be warmed up again. In their place are casseroles that can have a piece cut out of them and microwaved for a fast meal at anytime. These casseroles even manage to feed the family for not just one, but at least two meals. With baseball season lasting for months, I have had to come up with quite a few of these recipes so as to avoid the total dread and boredom of supper time. This one I actually developed all on my own, so I christened it in a form of my own name…yes, I named Chicken Collezini after myself! (The Collezini part, not the chicken part. Ha!)

Heat together:

• 1 can Cream of Mushroom soup, undiluted
• 1 can Cream of Chicken soup, undiluted
• 3 cups milk
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Celery salt to taste
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 can peas, rinsed
• ½ tsp Italian seasoning
• ½ tsp dried basil
• 1 TBS chicken base
• ½ onion, chopped & sautéed in butter
• 2 cups cooked chicken, cubed

Cook and drain:

• 1 lb of spaghetti

Combine separately:

• ¾ cup Italian bread crumbs
• 3 TBS melted margarine

Add spaghetti to pot with chicken mixture and then pour everything into a 9 x 13 baking dish that was lightly sprayed with cooking oil. Cover everything with bread crumb mixture.

Bake uncovered at 350^o for 30-35 minutes.

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Colleen’s Hermit Bars

(Updated 10 August 2018)

Some say the Hermit Bars were so named because their color was the same as a hermit’s robe. Others say they were called Hermits for the length of time they could keep without spoiling. Wherever they came by their name, Hermits were a staple of every household of the 19th century and most likely the century before, also. They were a food that would travel well and keep for several weeks, long before someone could find a meal at fast food places, or even restaurants and grocery stores. Hermits were made from a basic recipe, but every household boasted their own special amounts and ingredients. Although it is not easy to find even a basic recipe for Hermit Bars in today’s cookbooks, I have been able to find a few variations in my collection of older cookbooks; and as generations of home cooks before me, I have come up with my own version of this favorite classic!

Cream together:

• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup softened margarine (with high oil content)

Add in:

• ½ cup of molasses
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp cream of tartar
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp spiced rum vanilla extract (optional)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• ¼ tsp mace
• 1/8 tsp allspice
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup raisins (or craisins)

The batter will be sticky and a bit difficult to spread in the brownie pan.

Bake in greased and floured brownie pan at 350^o for 25-28 minutes.

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Colleen’s Creole Style Chicken

It all started with a tattered recipe for paella torn from a magazine years ago, thrown into a cookbook, and picked up and looked over every few months, thinking how much I would like to try this recipe, and back it gets stuck into the cookbook until next time. You know how that goes. Lately though, I have been organizing my recipes that work, throwing out the ones that don’t, and actually making the recipes I haven’t yet, to see if they are keepers or losers. I needed a paella pan to finally try that paella, and my sweet hubby found me one. The paella was fabulous, as was cooking with the paella pan. I really don’t have the patience for things that have only one use, so I started looking around for other recipes to make in the pan. It was during this search that I discovered my new addiction – creole recipes! So much flavor, and easy to make, too. This recipe is one I developed using different elements of creole cooking and my own, so I call it ‘creole style’ since I am not positive it is strictly ‘creole.’ And let me tell you how good this Creole Style Chicken is…my hubby is NOT a fan of chicken. Oh, he will eat it without complaint, but every time chicken is mentioned, he remarks (and all the children say it with him if they are nearby) that “chicken is fowl!” So when I come up with a recipe for a chicken dish, and Dennis actually REQUESTS it….well, that’s gotta be some dang good chicken and that recipe is definitely a keeper!

Start with

• 3 chicken leg quarters – cut into 6 pieces

Dredge chicken pieces in Creole seasoned flour

Melt 3 TBS of butter in a frying pan and cook chicken until browned on all sides

Arrange chicken in a paella pan. Deglaze the frying pan with ½ cup of white wine and pour everything including the drippings and cooked bits into the paella pan.

Add into paella pan:

• 1 large tomato, roughly chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup chopped mushrooms
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 3 sprigs chopped fresh oregano
• 1 tsp Creole seasoning

Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour at 350^o

Uncover and add 1 ¼ cups of okra, cooked and 1 tsp minced garlic.

Cook everything for another 15 minutes, uncovered.

Serve vegetables over a bed of cooked white rice. (3/4 cup to make 1 ½ cups)

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Corn Chowder

(with fish variation **)

Soups are ‘my thing’ lately. This week, Dennis starts coaching with the Varsity baseball team at our school. The running joke here is that on Valentine’s Day I get a diamond, a kiss, and a “See you around Mother’s Day.” The diamond of course, refers to a baseball diamond. Haha. Oh well. Dennis loves being involved with the team, and I find other projects at home to pass the time. It all works out. As I was saying though, soups become important in the springtime because they provide the answer to what used to be a very difficult question of how to keep my sweet hubby fed when he is gone for 14 hours a day. He always carries his breakfast and lunch with him, but during baseball season he also gets a thermos of hearty soup and some bread and that gets him through. In order to keep it from becoming monotonous, I have been busy finding and developing new recipes.

This recipe is a simplified version of a chowder recipe I found in “City Tavern Cookbook – 200 Years of Classic Recipes From America’s First Gourmet Restaurant” by Walter Staib. Colonial Era cooking and baking is ‘my thing’ too. I love it and can’t get enough of it!

• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1 TBS chopped fresh basil (or ¾ tsp dried basil)
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme (or ¼ tsp dried thyme)
• 1 tsp paprika
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large russet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 3 cup frozen corn (2 – 12 oz bags)
• 2 cups heavy cream
• ¼ cup dry white wine
• ¼ cup corn starch

Using a cast iron Dutch oven, sauté the onions and carrots in 1 TBS butter or margarine.

** Fish chowder variation: Remove carrots and onions. Add another TBS of butter or margarine and cook fish until white and flakey. Remove fish from pot and continue with recipe. Do not add the fish back in until the very end.

To the carrots and onions in the Dutch oven, add the vegetable stock, basil, thyme, paprika, and garlic. Bring to boil. Stir in potatoes and frozen corn; bring it all back to a boil. Stir in cream, reduce heat, and simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally until vegetables are cooked and the chowder is heated through.

In a small bowl, combine corn starch and wine until smooth. Add some hot soup into the corn starch and wine before stirring it into the pot, cooking all until bubbly. (Add the fish back in at this point is making the fish chowder variation.)

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Spicy Chicken Soup

(Sopa de Pollo Picante)

Last year sometime, our son, Steven, and his wife, Anna Maria were eating at their favorite family-owned hometown Mexican restaurant when they got a text from me telling them that Pops (aka Dennis) was sick in bed. Hearing that Dennis is sick is cause for pause since it is such a rare occurrence, to hear that he was actually sick in bed probably stopped their breathing momentarily! Being reassured that Pops was just trying to rid himself of a cold, they remained calm – and ordered the restaurant’s homemade Mexican Chicken Soup to go. No one is sure if it helped the cold; but Dennis loved it, ate it all up, and I will say, he was up and about the next day. Draw your own conclusions. 🙂

I did not have the restaurant’s recipe, and not much to go on for taste as Dennis pretty much licked the bowl clean, so this soup most likely is not even close to the original. I am always on the lookout for a different kinds of soup, though, so I started searching recipes. This recipe is a conglomeration of all (and there are a whole lot of them!) recipes for Mexican Chicken Soup online. I especially loved all the ideas for toppings that can be added, and I also love that this is a very quick and easy soup to make. It can literally be on the table feeding your family 30 to 40 minutes after gathering your ingredients, making it a “go-to” meal when you are running late, or just trying to get supper on the table on a busy weeknight.

• 2 TBS olive oil
• 1 sm onion, diced
• 2 TBS minced garlic
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 14-oz can fire roasted tomatoes
• ¼ cup salsa
• 1 14-oz can black beans, rinsed
• 1 TBS lime juice
• 1 tsp cilantro
• 1 lb cooked chicken
• Salt/Pepper to taste

Sauté onion in oil

Add everything else and bring to simmer

Serve with garnish of corn chips and shredded Mexican cheese.

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Minestrone Soup

Every ‘Hometown USA’ has that one family-owned restaurant that has been around for decades, and is everyone’s favorite. Whenever I was lucky enough to dine at that restaurant in my hometown, you can be sure I was at the salad bar ladling their homemade minestrone soup into a bowl, forgoing the cups which were much too small for such a wonderful soup! Any minestrone soup after theirs paled in comparison and was a disappointment to me, so when we moved away, I had to figure out how to make it myself. It has taken a few years of adding this, or taking that out, or changing amounts of ingredients to develop this recipe and I have no idea if mine tastes even remotely like the original which inspired it. All I know is that the minestrone soup from the restaurant years ago would always make me smile and close my eyes in order to savor the taste, and now, finally, this minestrone soup from my own recipe does, too!

Sauté together:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 large carrots or parsnips, peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ¼ lb minced bacon, ham, or pancetta
• 1 Russet potato, peeled and cubed
• Towards the end add:
• 1 bunch Swiss chard, leaves only, roughly chopped sauté until just wilted

Stir in:

2 (14 oz) cans of diced tomatoes

1 (15 oz can of white or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

7 cups of beef broth

3 cups of vegetable broth

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 oz piece of parmesan cheese rind or 2 TBS grated parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

OPTIONAL: ½ cup of macaroni (Leave out if canning)

Heat to simmer and serve

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 Boston Cream Pie

Boston Cream Pie. Not really a pie by modern thinking, but before the 1900’s, pies and cakes were baked in the same pans and there was no distinction between the two. This dessert was also called a chocolate cream pie, and a custard cake. I just call it fabulous! It’s a delicious and impressive dessert that is easy peasy, and even fun to make. To frost this dessert, all you do is pour the glaze over the top and let it go. It will drip down the sides and decorate itself! Love it! – Colleen

Using a mixer, combine:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 2 ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup soft shortening
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla

Pour batter into 2 greased and floured 8 inch round cake pans.

Bake at 350^o for 30-35 minutes

******

Make cream filling first so it can be completely chilled when cake is cool.

Mix in saucepan;

• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 TBS corn starch
• ¼ tsp salt

Gradually stir in 1 cup milk and bring to boil over medium heat, stirring constantly

Boil 1 minute and remove from heat

Put half of the mixture into a separate bowl and whisk in 1 egg yolk

Return separated portion of mixture to pan, blend everything and bring back to boil for another minute

Remove from heat and add 1 TBS butter and 1 tsp vanilla

Place pan and whisk in the freezer, removing to whisk cream mixture every 10-15 minutes until completely cool. Then cover pan and keep in the refrigerator until ready to fill the cake.

NOTE: Hollow out the top of the bottom layer of the cake so the cream won’t leak out of the sides.

Chocolate Icing for the Boston Cream Pie

Once the cake is filled and ready to be frosted, microwave together 1 oz. of chocolate chips and 1 TBS of butter or margarine. Microwave the chocolate chips and butter 15 seconds at a time stirring in between each heating.

Blend in 1 cup of sifted confectioner’s sugar and 2 TBS of boiling water. Whisk until smooth.

Pour icing slowly over the top of the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides and quickly using a butter knife smooth and even out the distribution of icing on the top of the cake.

Keep in the refrigerator until the icing is set, then it can be kept at room temperature if the weather cooperates. It it’s too hot and the icing starts to melt out the cake bake into the refrigerator.

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Colleen’s Signature

Tavern Fare Beef, Bean, and Barley Soup

I always followed a recipe when I made this soup. However, after many trials and errors, it occurred to me that I changed it every time. Certain ingredients were being left out, or replaced, or the amounts were different, but the changes I made while making this soup had become the same. And since the soup was seasonal, sometimes it took me a while to remember what the changes were come winter, so I finally wrote down the recipe with the changes. What I ended up with was nothing like the original recipe and I realized it was my own original recipe! Amazing. So this is my signature recipe because it made me realize I might just be able to cook after all. Believe me, if I can cook, anyone can! 🙂 – Colleen

In a large kettle or stock pot over high heat, combine:

• 9 cups water
• ½ cup dried lentils
• 1 cup split green peas
• ¾ – 1 cup of pearl barley
• 2 – 3 large carrots
• ¼ cup black beans
• ¼ cup white beans
• (½ cup of blacked peas can be used to replace beans)

Bring everything to a boil for 2 minutes, remove from heat, cover and set aside.

In a cast iron pot, sauté 1 pound of beef cut into bite-size pieces. When the meat is browned on all sides add 1 large onion, chopped, and cook together for 5-6 minutes over a medium high heat.

When ready, add to pot:

• 9 cups of water
• 2 good TBS of beef base
• 1 good TBS of vegetable base
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp marjoram
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ tsp parsley
• ½ tsp thyme
• ¼ tsp pepper
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• About ¼ cup of ketchup

Bring everything to a boil, reduce to simmer, add contents of set aside stock pot. Simmer for 6-8 hours and leave in refrigerator overnight, if possible.

Best served with homemade bread.

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