Joy in the Kitchen!

Valentine Cupcakes with Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

2012-02-09T07:59:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to make cupcakes for a while now. Seems like I think I have to wait for a special occasion for some silly reason. My special occasion for these are twofold.... two of the sisters I visit teach have birthday's this week (Happy Birthday SteviKay and Lorraine!) AND Valentines Day is coming up next week.

I used a basic no egg cake recipe... it is more dense and holds up better with a load of frosting on top. I used my Whacky Cake recipe. For the frosting, I used the Creamy Chocolate Frosting recipe on my blog for the base under the yellow flower cupcakes, and a Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting for the Valentine cupcakes. That's the recipe I'll post here. I thought they turned out fairly tasty. :) Wesley, who is 3, really loves them. He only wants to eat half though..... the TOP half. Funny boy.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

4 C. powdered sugar

1 C. softened butter

4 oz softened cream cheese

Mix until crumbly with a mixer. Add 1/3 C. milk, 2 tsp. raspberry flavoring, 1 tsp. vanilla flavoring, and beat until light and fluffy. It should be soft and fluffy, but stiff enough to hold its shape when piped onto the cupcake... just check by pressing the back of a spoon into the frosting in the bowl, lift up to form a peak and see if that peak stays put fairly well. If it doesn't - add up to 1/4 C. of powdered sugar and whip again.

Joy's Notes: To decorate the cupcakes, I loaded the above frosting into a large decorator bag equipped with a size 12 tip. Swirl from the outside in - EASY! A few carefully placed Wilton heart shaped sprinkles finished these off. The flower cupcakes I swirled chocolate icing on as a base, and then used a size 19 star tip to pull out petals. A small swirl of chocolate again for the center.

Loaded Mashed Potatoes

2012-02-03T15:31:00.000-08:00

Living in the middle of potato country, we eat a LOT of potatoes. One of our favorite ways to eat them is mashed with gravy. Once in a while we have leftover mashed potatoes. I don't enjoy them reheated as much as fresh since they are often dry, but this recipe using leftover (or fresh) mashed potatoes is so tasty I purposely make extra mashed potatoes now so we can have this later in the week! I love all the delicious toppings on a baked potato, and that is what I added to create this dish. I think chives would be good on it as well - but we'll try that in the summer when my chives are growing and fresh.

"Real" mashed potatoes are best.... but in a pinch you could use instant. Here in Idaho it's just a shame to not use fresh potatoes though.

Loaded Mashed Potatoes

3 C. mashed potatoes (leftover or freshly mashed)

1/4 C. melted butter

1 C. sour cream

1 1/2 C. shredded cheese, reserving 1/2 C.

1/4 C. fried & crumbled bacon, more if you want to use it for topping (I use the real bacon pieces already cooked and crumbled - otherwise it's about 4 slices of bacon)

1/4 C. sliced green onion

salt & pepper to taste

Mix potatoes, butter, and sour cream well. Add salt and pepper now. Add 1 C. cheese, bacon, and onion, mixing well. Pour into greased casserole dish, top with reserved cheese, more bacon bits if desired. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until heated through.

Joy's Notes: If you're making this with freshly mashed potatoes, you can cut your baking time to 20 minutes. This can be mixed up a day ahead and baked when you're ready to use it. (I'll bet you could freeze it too but I haven't tried that yet.) I buy the large (1 1/4 lb) bags of crumbled bacon at Costco. I just keep that in the freezer and add a handful to all sorts of things... scrambled eggs, omelets, cream of potato soup, pizza, baked potatoes, all sorts of things!)

Enjoy!!!

Cream of Leek Soup

2012-01-29T14:39:00.000-08:00

My Dad grows leeks in his garden. I am a happy recipient of a few of those leeks! Now I have to be honest with you, I doubt I would have seen these in the produce section of the store and longed to buy some... at least not until Mom brought me some of her Cream of Leek Soup! YUM! Today the family enjoyed this soup so much they suggested we grow our own leeks this year so we could have this soup more often!

In case you aren't already familiar with leeks, they are a member of the onion/garlic family. They have a thick stalk and very little "bulb", unlike the large bulb and small top of a regular onion. They have a very mild onion flavor.

Cream of Leek Soup is a wonderful first course soup, or with a side of crusty bread, would be a nice main dish soup.

Cream of Leek Soup

4-6 medium leeks

6 T. margarine or butter

3 T. flour

2 tsp. chopped chives, optional

1/2 tsp. salt

6 C. milk or light cream

6 cubes or 6 tsp. of chicken bouillon

Thinly slice leeks, discarding the top green portion. (You are really using just the white part and tossing a hefty portion - or the green part of the leek) In a medium pan, saute' leek in butter 8-10 minutes or until tender. Stir in flour, chives and salt. Add milk and bouillon. Cook over medium heat until simmering. Stir occasionally. Simmer 1-2 minutes. If desired garnish with nutmeg.

Joy's Notes: I've never used the chives, mainly because I didn't have them on hand. I've also never tried the nutmeg, but I'll bet it gives a wonderful flavor. I used all half & half today instead of cream or milk... with terrific results.

Chicken Alfredo Potato Bowl

2012-01-23T07:33:00.000-08:00

We love Alfredo Sauce on noodles, however, right now I've got a bunch of potatoes stored that need to be used. I figured we could do our usual alfredo sauce and some chicken tenders and settle that over some real mashed potatoes for a nice potato bowl. It turned out terrific!

You could use a bottled alfredo sauce, but it's really pretty easy to make your own if you have the ingredients on hand.

Easy Alfredo Sauce

2 C. half & half or a mix of heavy cream and milk OR 2 C. of evaporated milk

1 C. milk

2 T. butter

3 T. flour

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/2 C. Parmesan cheese, grated

salt and pepper to taste

Saute the garlic in the 2 T. of butter until it softens. Mix in flour and make a roux. Add milk and cream slowly, stirring constantly over medium heat until all milk is added and sauce starts to thicken. Add Parmesan cheese and stir until it's melted and blended in. Salt and pepper to taste. The sauce thickens as it cools. If it's thicker than you'd like, add a bit of milk or cream until it's the consistency you desire.

To make the rest of this Chicken Alfredo potatoes:

Pan-fry chicken tenders or strips of boneless skinless chicken breast. Season with salt and pepper. (If you want to dirty fewer dishes, remove the chicken at this point and make the alfredo sauce in this pan) Pour alfredo sauce over chicken. Scoop mashed potatoes into single serving bowls, add a couple of strips of chicken and ladle sauce over all. Sprinkle with paprika. Enjoy!

Joy's Notes: We MUCH prefer fresh mashed potatoes to instant... you could use instant, but there's just so much more texture and body in fresh mashed.

A Family Goal

2012-01-09T14:17:00.000-08:00

Last week we let the children (who still live here at home) suggest their ideas for family goals for the year. I was pretty impressed with the ideas they came up with! In fact, there were so many good ones, we decided to have 3 goals.   The goal connected with the picture posted above is last (but not least).... but I'm going to list all of our goals and be accountable to more than my family at home.

1. Get up 10 minutes earlier so we can read scriptures in the morning. (evenings are sometimes hectic and we were struggling to be together to read) .... This would not have been my choice for a goal! I have a hard time getting up in time to wake the kids for school as it is! However, the past week the kids have popped right out of bed and gathered in the living room to read. AWESOME!

2. Have a Family Home Evening Chart. We're pretty good at having FHE, but I tend to give the lessons & choose the treat and only assign out the scripture, prayer and songs. The kids really want to help give lessons and do treats so - I'll be making a chart for that shortly. So many options of HOW to do it, I'm having a hard time getting a decision made and starting it.

Number 3 is the goal I got crafty enough to create this post about. McKay, who's 16, thought it would be fun to do secret kindnesses for each other all year. The others chimed right in, in agreement! During Christmas, we have a stuffed Christmas Bear that we use for this - if we do a kindness for someone - that bear gets put on that persons bed and then it is that persons turn to do a kindness. So much fun through the holidays, I agree that it is a terrific goal for the year! However.... the kids suggested a "monster" instead of a Christmas Bear. I thought we needed a chart in easy sight to remind us if it is our turn. So - I used things I had around the house to make our Kindness Chart.

Kindness Kritter could have been a little better thought out - but he ended up pretty cute considering who made him. LOL I used yarn, a stray pair of Mr Potato Head eyes (the rest of Mr Potato Head had been lost long ago), and some sports buttons I had on hand. I had trouble finding something for the base of the chart - then remembered some old children's books that we were throwing out. (not in good enough shape to pass on to someone else) Hot glued together and covered with paper, this worked perfect! I used a 7x6 piece of metal I've had hanging around several years for the center and glued a magnet on the back of our little Kritter.

All in all this project cost me nothing out of pocket at the moment.....   and if you're wondering how this pertains to Joy In The Kitchen, the kitchen is where our little Kritter reminder resides! I hope Kritter grows weary from being moved from name to name this upcoming year.

Not everything happening in the kitchen is food related, right?!

Good luck with YOUR New Years family goals!

Here's a picture that shows you many of the reasons I spend so much time in the kitchen.....   please excuse the 6am Christmas Morning fashions. :) They are a beautiful bunch, aren't they?!

(This is my entire family minus my youngest grandson who was still sleeping, and my husband and I - someone has to take the pictures!)

Christmas Past (or in this case, REPAST)

2012-01-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

Okay.... so this treat platter hardly constitutes repast, however, we ate enough of it to count it as a meal a few times. This was a fun year for cookies and candy. I had a lot of help from Dave and the kids. Dave is the Fudge King around here. I've never made a batch in my life... he does a fabulous job! The caramels are a recipe from Dave's Grandpa. They turned out soft and chewy, just as I like them!

Going around clockwise - starting at "12"... and not counting the caramel chocolate dipped pretzel sticks...

Divinity
Christmas Sugar Cookies
Cracker Toffee
Caramels
Chocolate Nut and Craisin Clusters
Peanut Butter Fudge
Snowballs (better known as Mexican Wedding Cookies)
Pralines

Dave's fudge was done in a mini pie tin and is in the center of the tray wrapped in red cellophane. This was my first year having success with pralines. They were FABULOUS if I DO say so myself. (and I DO!) We also made pinwheel cookies dipped in chocolate.

Those Christmas Sugar Cookies remind Dave of his favorite Christmas song this year... You'll have to check it out and see if you've heard it before... Christmas Cookies - by George Straight .

Now that the holidays are over, it's time to get cracking posting some healthier food.!

Happy New Year!

Double Crunchers

2011-12-08T11:37:00.000-08:00

Time to start making cookies for Christmas! I don't know why Double Crunchers are reserved for Christmas treats around here, but that's almost the only time we make them. These have a cream cheese chocolate filling spread between 2 oatmeal crunchy cookies. Delicious!

This recipe comes from Dave's Grandma McKinnon. She made all sorts of cookies and candies! An amazing cook.

Double Crunchers

1 C. flour

1/2 C. shortening

1/2 C. brown sugar

1/2 C. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1 C. quick oats

1 C. crushed cornflakes

1/2 C. shredded coconut (optional)

Cream shortening, sugars, and egg. Add vanilla and all other ingredients. Mix well. The dough will be a little crumbly. Using 1 tsp. of dough each, shape 2/3 of the dough into balls. Put on greased cookie sheet. Flatten with the floured bottom of a glass. Bake 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Using 1/2 ts. of dough each, make the rest of the dough into small balls. Put on greased cookie sheet, flatten, and bake 8 minutes at 350.

Once the cookies are cool, use a larger cookie for the bottom, a smaller for the top, and fill with the following:

Chocolate icing: Melt over hot water, 1 C. semisweet chocolate chips. Add 1/2 C. powdered sugar and 1 T. vanilla Blend in 3 oz of softened cream cheese, Beat until smooth. Cool. Spread between 1 large and 1 small cookie. Store in covered container. Makes about 2 dozen.

Joy's Notes: We double the chocolate icing and use 8 oz. of cream cheese in that. It's just easier to use a full block. :)

Thanksgiving Menu

2011-11-21T04:03:00.000-08:00

This year we are excited to go to my parents house for Thanksgiving Dinner. We've been on an every other year schedule since we've been married, one year with my family, the next with Dave's. It sounds like it will be a smaller gathering this year... about 27 people. Seventeen of those people are my own children and grandchildren. :) Our little family is growing! Next year we'll be excited to join with Dave's side of the family to celebrate!

I like to organize my week so I'm not doing all the prep Thanksgiving morning. Tuesday I'll start on pie crusts, cutting bread into cubes (I baked bread and froze 2 loaves to save for this) for stuffing, dicing and shredding veggies. Wednesday I'll bake pies, make carrot cake, and peel and cut up potatoes. (I just keep those in a large plastic bucket of water and put them in the garage until I'm ready to cook them Thursday morning - it stays just under 40 degrees out there right now - just like a large extra fridge. lol ) Several years ago we started the tradition of take out pizza the night before Thanksgiving. I have a small kitchen and there's usually so much baking and prep going on that it's nice to have Dave bring that home!

Mom is cooking the turkey, I'm doing mashed potatoes and some gravy. Each family invited is supposed to bring whatever side dishes they'd like to eat. I love that most often there are a ton of salads. I could make a meal off of just those. My sister Peggy often makes this delicious creamy orange gelatin type salad. I've always said I should get the recipe - I love it! Mom's making an oriental cabbage salad with ramen noodles as well as her specialty cranberry relish and cranberry gelatin. (I should get those recipes too!) Brianna is still deciding which salad she's bringing, Audra's doing green bean casserole, Dad thinks he'll make his candied yams. (he makes the best candied yams!)

Since we want plenty of "leftovers" for the weekend, I'm also cooking a turkey or two and making some extra pies, rolls, and salads. These are some of the recipes I'm working with. I love the pie crust recipe. It is so easy to work with and always turns out tender.

Carrot Cake
60-minute Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
Pie Crust

The younger kids are asking for Cookie Salad. I think if no one else is making that, I'll do that salad and since I've still got several ripening tomatoes left from the garden I think I might make Aunt Lois' Marinated Tomatoes. (I sure miss Aunt Lois!)

We will also take an assortment of pickles canned this summer. Dill, sweet, maybe some Dilly Beans and pickled beets.

If I get really ambitious, I'll post my stuffing recipe. I rarely actually stuff the turkey anymore (partly because it adds extra cooking time and I don't want to get up that early), but start with a base of homemade bread cut into cubes and add shredded carrot, diced onion and celery, and a nice poultry seasoning. It turns out pretty good stuffed into a dutch oven and baked.

Happy Thanksgiving to each of your families. May your week be filled with gratitude for the freedoms our country allows us, and the blessing of being with loved ones!

Honey and Lemon Cough Soother and other home remedies.

2011-11-08T12:15:00.000-08:00

We've had a few weeks of colds, coughing, and runny noses here. The past week the 3 younger children had Hand-Foot-and-Mouth disease. Not fun! However, in comforting and treating my little sickies, I was thankful to remember some of the old remedies that help soothe symptoms.

When I was small and had a cough, sometimes Mom would mix some honey and lemon together and give me to help soothe my tickly throat. I have used this a LOT the past few years. Sometimes, even with over the counter cough medicine, we just keep coughing. I think the throat just gets so irritated it just can't quit! I mix this Honey and Lemon Soother together and then every time we start to cough, we swallow a small spoonful. It really does soothe and coat your throat and soon, the coughing is under control. I did a little hunting around on the internet to see how everyone else used honey and lemon.... and actually found that someone had done a study on young children (over 12 months of age) and if the child was given 2 tsp. of pure honey at bedtime it controlled the coughing as well as a cough medicine. Interesting! (and safer!)

Honey and Lemon Cough Soother

4 T. honey
1 T. lemon juice

Heat a few seconds in the microwave, stir together, put in a container. If you're not using it right away, keep it in the fridge.

Another home remedy for chest congestion and coughing that Mom used was Vicks Vaporub. Any Mentholatum product would work. We now personally use Watkins Menthol Camphor Ointment. Mom would rub that Vicks on our chest and neck, sometimes our upper backs... and then she'd put an old flannel cloth in the oven for a few minutes until it got warm, and wrap that around our neck and chest. The heat warmed the Vicks and helped loosen the congestion. The extra warmth was also relaxing and helped us go to sleep. I also remember many nights that Mom would sit on my bed and lightly rub the back of my neck to help distract that cough. I have such an angel Mother! I am not nearly so patient when my children are sick. Always room to improve.

Other things we use when we're sick:

AIRBORNE! I swear by that for heading off many colds each season. We might still get sick, but the duration seems shorter when we use Airborne as soon as we get a tiny sore throat. (I used to take echinacea and other herbs when I started getting sick, but Airborne is so much easier and tastier than what I used to use!)

Soda. (or Pop as it's called here in Idaho lol ) - a few sips of nice, fizzy, sugary soda help clear the junk out of the back of your throat and interrupt a coughing tickle.

Humidity. We keep a cool air humidifier going when anyone is sick during the winter. We try to keep the humidity in the house at around 45-50 % if we can. If it is really cold outside and the fireplaces and heat are all going constantly, the humidity drops to below 30%. I've read that if you keep the humidity up it allows your skin and other body defenses to work more efficiently to prevent illness. Maybe this year I'll try to keep that humidifier going all winter long regardless of sickness or not!

Reflexology. I don't know enough about reflexology to be an expert, but I DO know that massaging the right area on a foot can loosen chest congestion or lessen some sinus pressure. It is interesting to me to rub my kids' feet when they're sick and see that the spots on their feet that hurt coincide with what the reflexology charts show as an area affected when they're sick. You can find a reflexology chart HERE if you're interested in reading up on it a little. If nothing else, it is relaxing (at least to our family) and increases your blood and lymph circulation to help rid your body of the nasty toxins that accumulate.

I know there are a lot of essential oils that treat and soothe as well. I haven't gotten in to studying them yet. Maybe one of these days I'll do more, but in the meantime, we will continue using the few home remedies for colds that we know are tried and true!

Scalloped Potatoes

2011-10-25T18:53:00.000-07:00

Scalloped potatoes are one of my comfort foods. Warm and creamy, they are terrific for cool fall evenings, or freezing winter nights. Mom used to make this recipe once in a while during the winter. She often served it as a side dish to ham or chicken. I like to use it as a side dish to ham, chicken, barbeque country style ribs, OR as a main dish by adding chunks of ham or chicken on the top before baking. Mmmmm! It is super easy to make pretty much an entire nice meal in one oven with this. Scalloped potatoes (in a 9x13), a roast chicken or some ribs, and on the rack under the potatoes, some winter squash. Easy!

I'm sure we had these less when I was growing up because they use Cream of Mushroom soup, and Mom didn't buy that very often. Sure seems like I use cream of whatever soup a lot these days! I know there are plenty of recipes that use milk or cream, but this one is easy, and so creamy and delicious!

Tonight I made a triple batch so we could share with a neighbor. I didn't have enough cream of mushroom soup so I used cream of chicken along with the mushroom. It turned out fine, but I much prefer just the cream of mushroom for these potatoes.

Scalloped Potatoes

3 C. shredded or thinly sliced raw potatoes (I prefer shredded)

1/4 C. diced onion

Place into a greased casserole dish (or a 9x13 pan).

3-4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled (save the fat from cooking)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 T. flour

1 C. milk

salt & pepper

Add the flour to the bacon drippings and stir together over medium heat until bubbly. Add mushroom soup and milk. Stir until smooth. Stir in crumbled bacon. Add salt & pepper if you'd like.

Pour the sauce mix over the potatoes and onion. Cover with a lid or foil and bake at 375 degrees for 60 minutes. Uncover and cook another 15 minutes. Serves 6.

Joy's Notes: I often make a double batch and add diced ham or diced chicken on top to make this a main dish. So good!

Pumpkin Season!

2011-10-17T21:14:00.000-07:00

Today I ran across a couple of menu calendars I made in October and November of 2000. I know... it's sad I keep things that long. :) HOWEVER, it was fun to read through them and see that 11 years ago we still ate seasonally. There was a lot of soup, winter squash, baked potatoes, and apple dishes. It also reminded me of a few dishes I haven't fixed for quite a while and would like to serve again... Like brown sugar chicken. Yummy!

I have some pumpkin I plan to bake up and freeze to use later. Right now they're a decoration, but soon they'll fulfill their purpose on the table. I got an email from Better Homes and Gardens today that had a link to 41 Yummy Pumpkin Recipes. Some of those recipes looked REALLY good! I'm looking forward to trying the Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake Bars and the Pumpkin Creme Caramel! I'm considering trying the Pumpkin Bean soup.... but I can almost bet you that I'd be the only one who'd eat it without complaining. (or gagging visibly so as to be excused from eating all of their dinner) Anyway - if you'd like to check that out you can find it HERE.

With Halloween and Thanksgiving coming up, we will be enjoying pumpkin in several ways the next month and a half.

I've already posted a few pumpkin recipes here on my blog if you want to check those out:

Pumpkin Pie
Seasoned Pumpkin Seeds
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins
Pumpkin Pie Cake

By the way - isn't my little guy so cute in that picture above? That was last year. I'm positive he won't fit in that costume this year, he's growing like a weed! Pumpkin Season indeed!

Chili Sauce

2011-10-10T13:16:00.000-07:00

This recipe is one of those childhood memory things. I remember Mom cooking hamburger patties in this once in a while and I loved the delicious flavor it added. I've thought about it several times since I was married, but this year I finally asked Mom for the recipe. She said she used to love putting it on fried potatoes and different kinds of meat. (I only remember it on hamburger patties) My husband remembers his Mom making chili sauce as well. He remembers her mixing it with mayonnaise to make thousand island dressing. I had to call his Mom about it too and her recipe was basically the same as my Moms. :) Go figure. She said though, that sometimes they couldn't get celery so they just used some celery seed in it for flavor. The celery is about my favorite part of this.

In trying to figure out why this is called "chili" sauce, I did some research online and found that MOST recipes do call for some type of chili pepper. There were a few, like Moms, that are not spicy at all.

I can't figure out how to describe what this tastes like. It has many of the same ingredients as salsa - but is sweet and has celery. It is sweet and savory. I'd love to hear what other people use this for. I can't wait to try it on some meats and see what my children think!

Mom said she got this recipe from Mrs. Slaugh years before I was born. She thought Mr. Slaugh taught school somewhere and said they didn't stay in the community long. I love hearing about how recipes are handed down and passed around. I wonder if Mrs. Slaugh's family still make chili sauce? :)

Chili Sauce

8 quarts of tomatoes, peeled and chopped

4 C. onion, chopped

2 C. green pepper, chopped

8 C. celery, diced

8 tsp. salt

4 C. sugar

4 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. allspice

1 tsp cloves

1 1/3 C. lemon juice or cider vinegar

Mix all ingredients and simmer on the stove until it thickens up nicely. (about the thickness of salsa) This SHOULD make around 12 pints. Pour into bottles and process for 20 minutes.

Joy's Notes: I just used a 1/2 recipe. EASY to cut in half. (the lemon juice comes out to 2/3 C. - that was the only one you have to think about much lol ) I simmered mine until it was a little thicker than tomato sauce - I only got 5 pints. :)

Ratatouille

2011-10-05T07:49:00.000-07:00

Ratatouille! (pronounced "rat-a-too-ee") I love this wonderful blend of garden vegetables. I took a minute and researched ratatouille online and found that there are a lot of ways people make this. Different methods of assembly and an assortment of different herbs and seasonings. One way is to saute all the vegetables together (as my recipe does), another has you saute each vegetable separately and then add to a pot all together to simmer, and the third is to saute each veggie individually and then layer in a casserole dish and bake. I tend to always lean to the easy preparation methods and this recipe does that!

Mom gave me this recipe along with a little dish of freshly cooked ratatouille several years ago. It tasted so good I had to make it for my family. I've no idea where she found the recipe, but it was a good find!

When I set this on the table the other night and told my younger girls the name of it, they immediately thought of the animated movie from a few years ago. I have to admit, the name of that movie associated with loving this recipe is the main reason I watched it when it came out. :)

My zucchini is slowing production right now so I used 1 zucchini and a small yellow summer squash and a small patty pan squash instead. Sometime I'm going to try adding some fresh basil, but I do love this recipe just as it is.

Ratatouille

1 medium eggplant, cut into 3 inch long strips about 1/2 inch wide

2 medium zucchini, sliced 1/2 inch thick

2 tsp. salt, divided

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

2 medium green pepper sliced into strips

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 medium firm tomatoes, cut into wedges

1/4 C. chopped parsley

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 C. olive oil

Combine eggplant, zucchini, and 1 tsp. of the salt in a large bowl. Let stand 30 minutes. Drain, and dry on paper towel. Saute eggplant and zucchini in 1/4 C. of the olive oil 1-2 minutes each side. Remove from pan and set aside. Cook onions and green pepper until tender. Stir in garlic. Place tomato wedges on top and cook for 5 minutes. Add the eggplant and zucchini, parsley, and 1 tsp. salt and a few shakes of pepper. Simmer covered for 20 minutes and then uncover and simmer for another 5 minutes. Serve warm!

This recipe makes a large batch. It is usually served as a side dish, but would make a terrific main dish when accompanied by a nice, crusty loaf of french bread. I am excited to find that I have just enough of all the ingredients left in my garden for one more meal of this delicious dish! Enjoy!

Carrot Cake, The Best EVER!

2011-10-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

My Mom makes the best carrot cake ever! I grew up thinking that all carrot cake was just like hers, but I soon found that most have a lot more than carrots in them. :-) I don't care for pineapple or raisins in carrot cake, and this recipe doesn't have it. Perfect.

I think this cake has accompanied almost every Thanksgiving dinner (along with the assortment of pies and other desserts on the buffet) Mom hosts. I'm not sure where she found the recipe, but I know she's used it for over 45 years - and I've never seen her have to throw a piece out.

There is not a picture to go with this yet, but my niece asked if I had Grandma's recipe, so I thought this was a terrific time to post it. I suspect, that she might be wanting to make this for her birthday tomorrow - am I right? I'll add a picture when I make some next week when we dig the carrots in our garden.

The Best Ever Carrot Cake

2 C. flour

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

2 C. sugar

Mix together and then add:

3 C. shredded carrot

4 eggs

1/2 C. oil

Mix together very well. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz. package cream cheese, softened

1 C. margarine

1/2 C. chopped walnuts

1/2 C. shredded coconut

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 1/2 C. powdered sugar

Mix well and spread over cooled carrot cake.

Joy's Notes: I've used only 1/2 the coconut and it still tastes great. I REALLY prefer to make a double batch of frosting to make it extra thick. SO GOOD!

Happy Birthday Maren!!!

Jen's Fabulous Salsa

2011-10-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

Each year our family (Dave and I and our children and their families) goes camping for several days the end of July. We figure with 16 people in our family we deserve our own reunion. LOL Our oldest son and his wife brought along friends the first year and we just enjoy them so much we've adopted Jen and Lance as part of our reunion family! Last year, two of our other children brought along friends, and I think we'll have to adopt THEM as part of our reunion family as well! Our kids sure choose terrific friends!

This year during one lunch, Jen shared some salsa she'd made. Oh. My. Goodness!!! It is SO amazing! Just so fresh, tangy and full of summer flavor! I craved it so badly once we got home, I had to call Jen and get the recipe. She was sweet and said I could share it with you on my blog. Thanks Jen! Oh - and she just titled this recipe "Easy Salsa".... but it's much too good for a simple name like that, so I renamed it. Hope you don't mind Jen!

I always used to think of "salsa" as a spicy tomato based sauce with onions & peppers. THIS salsa does have tomatoes in it, but they're only one of many delicious ingredients. I'll put the recipe just as Jen sent it to me, and then at the end I'll add my own few alterations.

I dare you to try this and not want to make it again REALLY soon!

Jen's Fabulous Salsa

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can kernel corn, drained (not creamed corn)

2 medium tomatoes, diced (Jen removes the seeds and just uses the meaty part of the tomato, but she says that's just personal preference)

1/2 to 1 whole onion depending on how much onion you like.... diced

Mix above ingredients together and then add to taste, the following:

Avocado (Jen usually does one medium or large)

Cilantro (she says maybe 3 T. finely chopped)

Jalapeno

Salt & Pepper

Lime (1/2 to a whole one depending on how juicy it is)

Toss lightly to mix and serve with tortilla chips.

Joy's Notes: I really like white corn rather than the regular corn in this. I can usually only find this in the Green Giant brand around here. Jen told me that she also puts those diced tomatoes in a strainer and rinses them so they're not so juicy. This works really well as this is not a juicy salsa. I like to add 2 avocados. Jen said she dices the jalapeno really fine so it blends in well. I didn't have a jalapeno this time and just added an anaheim chili instead. Not quite as hot, but it works. Last time I only had a Serrano chili... tiny, unassuming looking thing, but BOY was it HOT! Never again. lol

I love that this recipe is written in a way that is really easy to play with amounts and can be altered to fit your taste. Not only is it tasty, it is so colorful! Enjoy!!!

Zucchini Relish

2011-09-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

If you grow zucchini or live near someone who does, there is always a need for more ways to use it! My friend AnnaRuth passed on this recipe which she says is her favorite. I made it for the first time today. It does taste wonderful and the texture is just right for relish. This tastes a lot like bread & butter pickles all ground up. :) My Mom makes an amazing hot dog relish that isn't as sweet and uses green tomatoes as its base. I'm hoping to try that one soon!

You can use any size zucchini, but if it's a large one, the skin should still be tender enough to pierce with your fingernail, and you'll want to remove the seeds before grinding it. I used an electric grinder to grind my onion and zucchini. If you don't have an actual grinder, you can use a food processor being sure to leave the veggies somewhat chunky. Shredding it doesn't give as nice of a texture.

Zucchini Relish

10 C. zucchini, unpeeled, ground

4 C. onion, ground

5 T. salt

Mix the zucchini, onion, and salt, cover and let sit in the fridge overnight. The next morning, drain, rinse, and drain again. Put in a large pan and add:

1 Green pepper, finely chopped(you could probably grind this too but I like the look of the chunks)

1 red pepper, finely chopped

2 1/4 C. vinegar

4-6 C. sugar (I used 5 C. but I think next time I'd use less)

1 T. nutmeg (I used half that)

1 T. tumeric

1 T. cornstarch

2 T. celery seed

1/2 tsp. pepper (I used half that)

Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. Fill pint jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

This was pretty easy to do. It does have to sit overnight (or you could grind in the morning and do the rest in the evening) but it's not like you're stuck in the kitchen several hours waiting. :) I can't wait to try this with roast beef or even chicken. Mmmm!

Chicken and Homemade Noodles

2011-09-16T16:27:00.000-07:00

Today is the first cool, rainy, day in a long time. You know what that means? SOUP!!! I've had some chicken backs in the freezer (from when I cut up several whole chickens this summer) just waiting for a day like today. I put them in a 6 quart pot with a couple quarts of water and some salt, brought them to a boil & turned them to simmer. If I don't have backs waiting, I really like to simmer a whole chicken and make a double batch... Usually there is enough extra meat that I can put in the freezer for another meal. In a bit I'll add a few chunks of carrot and a quartered onion to add flavor to the broth. I plan on them simmering 4-5 hours. The house smells so homey when things like this are cooking all day!

While this simmers I'll make a batch of noodles. I don't have a 'recipe' - I just start with about 2 C. of flour, a dash of salt, and maybe 4 eggs. Mix those in a heavy duty mixer (like my Kitchen Aid) or mix by hand.... if the dough isn't gathering together, add one more egg or a few tablespoons of water and continue mixing until the dough forms a good ball. (sometimes you still need even yet another egg or another tablespoon of water - trust your judgement) Should be fairly firm, but pliable. The dough will be a tad sticky... just pat it with flour and then wrap in plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 minutes or so. Cut 1/2 inch slices off and roll once slice at a time on a well floured board to as thin as you can get it to roll. I like mine about as thin as a nickel. Use a pizza cutter to cut this into thin strips - maybe 1/2 inch thick at most. Lay the noodles out on a cookie sheet until ready to use. If you're one who is lucky enough to have a pasta maker, just follow those instructions. I have a machine that rolls the dough out flat and then cuts it, but I like doing it by hand better.

Once the chicken has simmered long enough to be ready to fall off the bones, I pull it out onto a plate or cookie sheet to cool a bit, and then pull it off the bone. I skim the fat off of the top of the broth. If you have time to cook the chicken the day BEFORE you want to eat, you can just put that broth in the fridge and the fat will firm up and make it easy to get all the fat off. But who thinks that far ahead? ;-) Once the fat is skimmed, I add a couple of sliced carrots, a few stalks of sliced celery, and a diced onion. If the broth tastes weak, I add a few teaspoons to a tablespoon of chicken bouillon at this point. (My favorite soup base is Watkins - very good flavor and no MSG) Might need some salt now as well. (Don't you love exact measurements like this!) Bring the stock to a good boil. Drop the noodles in a few at a time (to keep them from sticking together) while stirring. Once all the noodles are cooking, cook until they're tender... I usually plan on about 20 minutes or so because I like them really soft. Add deboned chicken now and add pepper now if you're a pepper sort of person. I let people add it to their own bowl if they want it.

At this point you can serve this as soup.... OR we like to thicken it with a few tablespoons of cornstarch mixed with a few tablespoons of water, and serve it over freshly mashed potatoes. (talk about a carb high!) YUMMY!

Vinegared Cucumbers

2011-09-14T13:53:00.000-07:00

With an abundance of cucumbers and a diminishing supply of canning jars, we're finding ways to eat more of these crisp cucumbers fresh. Even my younger kids like these as they taste a lot like dill pickles. Mom likes to make up this recipe a few hours before dinner and then let it chill until ready to use. It makes a nice side for many dishes! Easy and quick!

This will help me use up half a dozen of those cucumbers in the picture, now what in the world am I going to do with the rest of them??? (I have enough jars and dill for 7 quarts of dill slices... that will take it down to less than half)

Vinegared Cucumbers

1 1/2 C. water

1/2 C. apple cider vinegar (Heinz is best!)

1- 1 1/2 T. salt

Mix until salt starts to dissolve and then add:

a few sliced cucumbers

a few thin slices of onion

Chill an hour or so and serve cold.

Devils Food Cake

2011-09-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

Oh my! This is one of my favorite cakes! When we first were married, Dave's Mom gave me a bunch of old Idaho Farmer-Stockman magazines. I'd guess they were from the 70's. This recipe was featured in one of those. I love homemade cakes so much better than cake mixes - they're just bit more dense and have so much more flavor. (in my opinion, which is what counts when I'm eating it! lol ) I've used this recipe many times for birthdays and special occasions.

Yes, this does take a bit more work that baking a cake with the help of Betty Crocker, but there are occasions that really are worth it!

Devil's Food Cake

3 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate

3/4 C. boiling water

3/4 C. margarine or butter

1 3/4 C. packed brown sugar

3 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. vanilla

2 C. sifted flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

3/4 C. buttermilk

Pour boiling water over chocolate; stir until melted and smooth. Cool slightly. Cream margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and chocolate mixture; stir to blend. Sift dry ingredients; add alternately with buttermilk to creamed mixture. Beat well after each addition. Pour batter into 2 prepared 9-inch pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until cake tests done with a toothpick. Cool.

Lay one layer of the cake top side down on a cake plate or other plate that's larger than the 9 inch layer. Spread that layer generously with chocolate frosting. Place second layer, top side UP, on top of the bottom layer. Frost sides and top of entire cake with a soft, fluffy frosting. Best served with some nice vanilla ice cream!

Easy Chocolate Frosting: melt 3 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate and 3 T. butter over low heat. Blend 3 1/2 C. powdered sugar, dash of salt, 7 T. milk and 1 tsp. vanilla. Add hot, chocolate mixture, beating until of spreading consistency.

Joy's Notes: This time, the icing I used is found with the cupcakes HERE. This is a nice, moist, cake. It can also be baked in a 9x13 pan adjusting the baking time to 30-35 minutes.

Bread & Butter Pickles

2011-08-30T09:13:00.000-07:00

Still using up cucumbers! My dill is finally coming on, so I did 5 quarts of dill pickles and then had enough cucumbers left to do these yummy pickles. These sweet Bread and Butter Pickles are a little more time consuming than a quick dill pickle, but are easy to do and tasty to eat. They are a lot like the Refrigerator Pickles I posted about last week, but these are easily bottled to use through the year. (and save fridge space) Bread and Butter Pickles are meant to be used on sandwiches or as an accompaniment to a main dish. My favorite way to eat them is with tender roast beef. Yummy! This is my Mom's recipe. I don't know where she got the recipe, but she was making these before I was born. (back in the day of the dinosaur if you ask my younger kids lol )

Mom's Bread & Butter Pickles

6 quarts of sliced pickling cucumbers (about 1/8 inch thick)

2 quarts of sliced onion

4 peppers, sliced (green, red, or a combination of both)

1/2 C. salt

ice cubes

Layer the veggies, salt, and ice cubes in a VERY large bowl - or a nice, clean sink. Let stand 3 hours. Drain, but don't rinse.

In a very large pot (I use the bottom of my pressure canner or water bath canner) mix the following:

2 quarts apple cider vinegar (Heinz is my favorite brand)

2 quarts of sugar

1 T. mustard seed

1 T. celery seed

2 T. turmeric

Bring to a boil, add the drained veggies and boil a few minutes. Put a pinch of Alum in each jar. Fill pint jars with pickles and liquid. (you'll have some liquid left over) Put lids on and process in a cold water bath for 10 minutes. Makes about 13-14 pints.

Joy's Notes: I've found you can easily add a few extra cups of sliced cucumbers. I think the red peppers are pretty, but it tastes the same with red or green. Heinz vinegar really makes a better pickle. I don't know what the difference is, but it is noticeable to me.

Sausage and Garden Vegetable Casserole

2011-08-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

If you are like me right now, and looking for lots of ways to hide, ummm... I mean cook zucchini and other summer squash, this recipe is a delicious option. All of my kids will eat this dish, which moves it up to the top of the list on menu's right now anyway! Right now we are picking squash every other day. There seems to be something about zucchini that makes it just a little too small to pick one day, and the size of your forearm the next! One of natures miracles for sure! LOL

All of the veggies I used are available in the garden right now, as well as the grocery store or a farmers market if you have one close to you. If you haven't tried patty pan squash, the taste and texture are very similar to zucchini. I think they're almost too cute to eat. I forgot to take a picture before we demolished this dish yesterday... but rather than wait until I make it again, I decided to post now anyway. :) Be sure you add or omit whatever veggies are available to you to make it your own.

Sausage and Garden Vegetable Casserole

2-3 10 inch zucchini, crookneck, patty pan, or other summer squash, diced (I suppose the patty pan would not be 10 inches - maybe just about the size of the spread of your hand.)

1 large onion

2 C. sliced carrots

1 lb of bulk country style sausage

8 oz. cream cheese

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/4 C. milk

1 box of Stove Top stuffing mix

Brown sausage in a large frying pan. Toss carrots and onion in with sausage and saute until they're nearly tender. Add summer squash and cook until squash starts to soften. Dice cream cheese and put on top of the veggie mix - put a lid on and let it warm the cream cheese a minute. Pour the cream of chicken soup and milk over everything and stir gently to mix. Pour into a 9x13 pan.

Mix the stuffing mix with 3/4 C. water, let sit a minute and then sprinkle it over the top of the veggie mixture. Bake in 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes or until bubbly.

Joy's Notes: Sometimes I like to add fresh green beans or peas with this. I also like to use diced chicken breast in place of the sausage sometimes. The kids like the sausage best though. One of these days I'm going to try adding a can of diced green chili's and see if we like that - I'll bet it would be pretty yummy.

Refrigerator Pickles

2011-08-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

My Mother-in-law is a great cook! She has always done a lot of canning as well. This sweet pickle recipe is one that Dave requested I learn to make soon after we were married. It's SO easy! I'm more of a dill pickle person, but I like these with roast beef, and since my fresh dill isn't ready yet, these will help use up those first cucumbers. They taste similar to bread and butter pickles. These are not brined or canned. You just slice up your veggies, fill a gallon sized GLASS jar, and pour the heated vinegar solution over it. Easy peasy!

Shirley's Sweet Refrigerator Pickles

4 C. apple cider vinegar

4 C. sugar

1/4 C. salt

1 1/3 tsp. turmeric

1 1/3 tsp. mustard seed

1 1/3 tsp. celery seed

Heat (not boil) until sugar dissolves.

Pack sliced cucumbers and sliced onions into gallon sized glass jar. Pour hot vinegar syrup over the vegetables. Cover jar with plastic wrap and then foil or a lid. When cooled, place in refrigerator. Pickles are ready to start eating in a week. Store in fridge. Will keep for 3-4 months.

Joy's Notes: I got a few gallon glass jars from a restaurant when I worked. You might check with a food service kitchen like that to find one. OR I've been able to find Ball 1/2 gallon canning jars sometimes. You can use two of those - or 4 quarts - or whatever miscellaneous jars you have lying around. This time we added some sliced yellow peppers. We'll know in a week if we like those added to the mix.

Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

2011-08-18T07:29:00.000-07:00

This cake is super easy to make and tastes wonderful! Jaylyn (who is 10) made this cake at a friends house early this summer and has had so much fun making it a couple of times a week ever since! We've had fun changing the cake mix and pudding flavors. (in case you're wondering - banana pudding and chocolate cake mix was NOT that great! lol )

I found a recipe online that is similar to what Jaylyn makes - only we add 1 C. of sour cream and increase the oil to 1/2 Cup. You can find that recipe HERE.

We prefer just a dusting of powdered sugar on this. It is rich enough without frosting.

We love eating this warm out of the oven .... and if there's any left, it stays moist and delicious for a few days afterward. I'm thinking this would freeze well but haven't had a chance to have any left to try it. Enjoy!

Homemade Raspberry Ice Cream!

2011-08-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

We've had an abundance of raspberries offered to us this year! Dad and Mom let us have 2 large pickings from their patch. I thought I'd NEVER finish picking the first time... move a branch or turn a leaf and MORE BERRIES! So far I've bottled 21 quarts, frozen 21 quarts, made 2 batches of raspberry freezer jam, mashed up and froze enough berries for 2 more batches of jam, and we've eaten raspberries fresh until we're almost pink from the inside out! :) We're in Raspberry Heaven!

We've been enjoying homemade ice cream quite a bit this summer. We've mainly made vanilla and chocolate. We started wondering how we'd enjoy fresh raspberry ice cream.... and tonight we found that we LOVE it!

We used a 4 quart ice cream freezer that is pretty much like THIS and approximately these ingredients:

Raspberry Ice Cream

1 quart of cream (I used regular but heavy cream would have been even better)

part of a quart of half and half (probably about 2 cups give or take a bit)

2 1/2 C. sugar

4 eggs beaten until light and fluffy (optional - I don't mind the raw eggs, but if that worries you - just leave them out all together)

about 8 cups of fresh raspberries

Mix the cream and sugar and stir. Add beaten eggs and mix well. Let this sit while you prepare the berries. Stir occasionally to help the sugar dissolve. Reserve 1-2 Cups of the berries to add whole. Mash the rest of the berries (or put them in a blender on low speed for a few seconds) and press them through a sieve to remove the seeds. Add the juice from the berries to the cream mixture - toss the seeds. Add the whole berries. Pour this mixture into your ice cream freezer can. Add half and half up to the "fill" line. Freeze as directed in the directions for your freezer. (ours took about 20-25 minutes turning and then we packed it with ice and salt and let harden for 35-40 minutes. It came out really firm on the sides and bottom and soft ice cream textured in the middle. LOVELY!)

Joy's Notes: Honestly - I just kept mashing berries and adding the juice until it tasted the way I wanted. The whole berries froze pretty firm - I didn't like that as much, but the kids and Dave LOVED it. I've never worried much about eating raw eggs (not by themselves - but IN stuff like cookie dough and ice cream) - we raise our own laying hens so maybe that's part of it, but if that concerns you, just leave the eggs out. It affects the texture very little. You might like to add a dash of vanilla to this - I didn't, but if you're a vanilla lover, it would blend well. You CAN use all cream rather than part half & half, but I think it makes it seem kind of "greasy" feeling. Too little fat makes it icy. Play with it until you get it the way you like. (which means you'll need to make this over and over to perfect it, right? Great idea!) OH! Another tip if you didn't already know.... instead of buying that expensive rock salt for ice cream, buy a bag of extra coarse water softener salt. Works perfectly at a fraction of the cost!

~~~~~

I have to tell a story on my daughter. :) She was here when we were making the mixture for ice cream earlier this summer. Her little guy who's 2 was dipping his finger in the cream & egg mixture to taste it, and she gasps, "BEN, No! That has raw egg in it.... you've got to wait until it's.......... frozen!" We all burst out laughing as she realized what she said. :) Really - like I said - it's ok to just leave the eggs out.

Enjoy your Raspberry Ice Cream! I know having this tonight is making me hope for another whopper of a raspberry crop again next year! Thanks Mom and Dad for sharing all those big, beautiful, RASPBERRIES!

Garden and Canning Update

2011-08-04T16:12:00.000-07:00

We've been planting and tending our garden for the past 2 months waiting for harvest time. It's HERE! :) In the past week we've been busy, busy, busy canning and freezing! Dad and Mom were amazing and let me have a picking off their raspberry patch a few days ago. 5 hours picking those berries! I'm not sure how many berries are in a traditional flat, but I'd venture to guess we got at least 4 or more flats. Those ruby red jars of raspberries sure look beautiful on my pantry shelf! (it might be hard to let people eat them!)

In the last week we have:

frozen 12 cups of peas

bottled 14 quarts of raspberries

frozen 9 quarts of raspberries

made 3 batches of raspberry freezer jam

bottled 16 quarts and 17 pints of green beans

We are eating fresh:

summer squash (crookneck and zucchini)

green beans

peas

red potatoes

onions

swiss chard

lettuce

Cucumbers are starting to come on and I notice there are two nice sized eggplant that are ready to use.

Today I picked the last of the peas. Tonight we'll have creamed new potatoes & peas with our dinner. Yum!

Dad invited me to another picking of raspberries tomorrow. (if the rain we're having at the moment doesn't knock them all off!)

We are so blessed to have such bounty available to us! Wish you were all close enough to come enjoy a garden meal with us.... there's not much better!

Hot Chocolate Mix

2011-07-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

Hot Chocolate in the summer? Must be time for CAMPING!!! We're heading to a family reunion soon and I just found that I'm out of hot chocolate mix. We love to make our own... we can make it creamier, or more chocolaty, and as we use quite a bit, homemade makes a good amount. I have never really checked the cost of this against pre-made hot chocolate mix. This is so handy for mixing up a double sized mug of hot chocolate to sip around the campfire in the summer, or for family to mix up as they want it all winter long.

Usually I make a double batch of mix and keep it in a 2 gallon ice cream bucket. I have to make the mix a couple of times through the winter. This morning, my younger girls mixed this up in just a few minutes.

Hot Chocolate Mix

11 C. Instant Milk Powder

3 C. powdered chocolate drink mix (like Nesquik)

3 C. powdered creamer

2 C. powdered sugar

2 tsp. powdered vanilla (optional)

Mix all together in a large bowl. Store in an air-tight container.

To use: Mix 1/3 C. of hot chocolate mix with 8 oz. hot water, mix well. Add a handful of mini marshmallows.

Joy's Note: If you'd like flavored hot chocolate, add a flavored creamer, OR once your hot chocolate is mixed up, add mint or cherry flavored chips and stir until melted. We also flavor with Watkin's flavors. I love raspberry, the kids tend to like cherry or mint best.

S'Mores Bars

2011-07-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

Here is a fabulous recipe that combines all the yummy goodness of ooey-gooey, sticky, chocolatey S'Mores eaten around the campfire! The best part of this recipe though, is that you don't have to wait for a campfire to enjoy them! (and you don't have to worry about people waving flaming marshmallows over your head!)

I doubled this today as I need treats to take to Girls Camp with me AND I wanted to leave some treats here for the family.

S'Mores Bars

3/4 C. butter or margarine

2/3 C. sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

18 whole graham crackers, crushed (abt. 3 cups)

1/2 C. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 - 2 C. chocolate chips

3 1/2 C. mini marshmallows

Heat oven to 350 Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in crushed graham crackers, flour, and salt. Reserve about one-third of the dough and press remaining dough onto the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan.

Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the dough. Sprinkle the marshmallows over the chocolate chips. Break chunks of the reserved dough and drop on top of the marshmallows. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on rack for 10 minutes. Cut into bars and cool completely.

Joy's Notes: It really IS easiest to cut these while they're still warm. Store them in a closed container. They freeze wonderfully!

How Does Your Family Grow?!

2011-07-10T12:08:00.000-07:00

This post is not in the kitchen, nor is it about food. The only way it is food related is that these are some of my family that I feed on a regular basis! Summer time is outdoor time. Our temperatures this past week have been in the high 80's. Today was a little cooler and there was a nice breeze. We spent much of the day outside. My husband Dave, hung a rope swing in our trees. He had to hang a second one, lower, for our little guy to swing on too. The grandkids should have fun if our little guy will share. There are plans to build a tree house in those same trees. (Hopefully the children will not be all grown by the time we get it built! :) )

So..... here's what we do when Joy's NOT in the Kitchen!

We often find her here contentedly reading.

Big brother on the little swing.

Trees, swings and big sisters are so much fun!

Standing in the "moat".

Dave spent the day making swings and repairing things in the yard.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

2011-07-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

We are blessed to live in an area conducive to gardening. Our garden is a little behind this year as it was a wet, cold, spring and we had a frost in mid-June that caused a few casualties. HOWEVER, our garden is coming right along! I like this stage of the garden. The plants are looking full and healthy, we are winning the war on weeds, and there's not an overload of produce yet. At the moment we are harvesting lettuce, radishes, chard, green onions, and strawberries. I thought I'd share a bit of our back yard. :)

Cilantro, onion, radish, lettuce, hot peppers.

Cucumbers, cantaloupe, kohlrabi, onion, beets, gladiola.

Dave decided to try a few square foot gardens this year. He got the lumber for 10 4x4 beds and got 6 of them put together this year. Personally I'm not sold on them for us.... yet. I think I will like them for strawberries and for things like "themed" gardens; a salad garden with lettuce, green onion, pepper, radish, etc.... or an herb garden. Since we like to can, freeze, or dehydrate a lot of the food we'll eat through the winter, we'd have to have a bunch of square-foot gardens to do enough for our family. I DO love the idea of the amount of produce you can get off of them in a small space. Perfect for a garden mostly to eat out of fresh, or to be used in a small space. Don't they look pretty and organized?!

Green Peppers, cabbage, onions, and lettuce.

The rest of our garden is in several sections. The main section has green beans, peas, carrots, swiss chard, yellow onions, pickling cucumbers, summer squash, tomatoes, and tomatillo. To the side of that garden we have 6 rows of potatoes (red and yukon gold) and 6 rows of corn. I didn't get pictures of the gardens further back but in one is 6 rows of corn and the winter squash. The other back garden has oriental pea pods, 6 more rows of corn, candy onions, raspberries, and rhubarb. (to be truthful the raspberries are full of weeds still... would not have been a pretty picture)

A view from the swing set.


Corn, potatoes, and onions.

Our strawberry bed isn't much to look at right now, we're in the process of moving it to some of the square foot gardens, but we are getting a decent crop of berries this year anyway! We're on our 4th picking. Today we got about 1 1/2 gallons of berries. Some of them were beautiful, large, sweet berries. Part of them are the last of their variety for the season and they're much smaller, but still so sweet. Nothing like a fresh bowl of strawberries with cream and sugar!

Thanks for letting me share some of our garden with you. There will be plenty of cooking in my kitchen going on using produce from our garden in just a few weeks! Stay tuned!

Audra's Chewy Brownie Cookies

2011-07-07T17:04:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness!  These cookies are fantastic!  Audra has been making these cookies for several years.  She knows they're one of my favorites.  They're just so chewy, and chocolatey, and DELICIOUS!  

In case you're following my blog and don't know my family, Audra is my oldest experiment - ooops - I mean CHILD. LOL  She's married now and has her own family, with 2 of the cutest children *I've* ever seen. (next to my son Brett, who has the other 2 cutest children!)  She is a fabulous cook when she has time, and contribute here on my blog once in a while. Considering she is going to college full time, working part-time, and raising a family, it's surprising she has time to contribute at all right now!  Love you Audra!

Today Jaylyn, who is 10, was remembering the yummy chocolate, chocolate chip cookies she's had at Subway.  Particularly, I think she likes that those cookies are HUGE!  I thought I'd try making giant cookies with this recipe and it worked wonderfully.  Instead of just a cookie scoop of dough - use an ice cream scoop (about 1/4 C. ).  I flattened them out a tad with a spoon.

Audra's Chewy Brownie Cookies

1 1/3 C. shortening

3 C. brown sugar

2 T. water

2 tsp. vanilla

4 eggs 

3 C. flour

2/3 C. cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

4 C. chocolate chips

 Cream the shortening, brown sugar, water and vanilla.  Add the eggs and beat well.  Add the dry ingredients except for the chocolate chips.  Mix well.  The dough is more like a brownie batter than the usual chocolate chip cookie dough.  Add chocolate chips.

Spoon onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Use about 1 T. of dough for small cookies and the above mentioned ice cream scoop or 1/4 C. for large cookies.  (I put a dozen small cookies on a sheet - and only 6 large ones)

Bake at 375 degrees for 7-9 minutes.  Cool on cookie sheets about 5 minutes before moving to cooling rack.

Joy's Notes:   I used 1 C. margarine and 1/3 C. shortening... mainly because I like the flavor better.  I also used a mix of white and regular chocolate chips... and I added walnuts.  (I'm sure Audra didn't include walnuts in the recipe because she doesn't like them, but they are yummy WITH them!)  This IS a double batch.  It would be easy to reduce the ingredients to the normal size.  From the double batch I got 12 large cookies and 4 dozen smaller ones.

These store well in a covered container... if you hide them so they CAN be stored. :) OH! And don't forget a nice, big glass of ice cold milk to go with these, they're pretty rich! Enjoy!

Polka Dot Pizza - Kids in the Kitchen

2011-07-06T12:09:00.000-07:00

My Mom let me make Polka Dot Pizza's when I was around 10 or 11 years old. I felt like such an accomplished cook! These are easy and fun for kids to make as they learn to navigate the kitchen. My younger girls are 8 and 10 years old. They help a lot while I'm cooking but these little pizza's they can make almost by themselves. I put them in and take them out of the oven. Younger cooks would enjoy stirring and assembling, and of course kids of ALL ages enjoy eating Polka Dot Pizza!

Polka Dot Pizza

Crust:

1 small package of biscuit mix (like Jiffy or even Walmart has a small package of mix)

OR - 1 tube of refrigerator biscuits - jumbo would probably work best

OR - 1/2 recipe of bisquick or 1/2 recipe of your biscuit dough

Mix up the biscuit mix as directed. Divide into 2-3 pieces. Flatten each piece onto an ungreased cookie sheet until it's about 1/3 inch thick.

Sauce:

1 8 oz can of tomato sauce

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. dried basil

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

Mix well and spread a few spoonfuls of sauce onto the crust you have ready on the cookie sheet. Spread sauce close to the edge but not so close that it will run off onto the cookie sheet. (this burns the tomato sauce and makes your pizza stick to the pan)

Toppings:

cold hotdogs - sliced about 1/4 inch thick

olives, sliced

shredded cheese, cheddar or mozzarella

Arrange sliced hotdogs and olives on pizza's, sprinkle cheese on top being careful to not let cheese fall onto the cookie sheet. (burned cheese is hard to clean off!)

Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes or until cheese is browned and bubbly.

Joy's Note: I always have pizza sauce left over from this. If you do, and you'd like to save it, try freezing it in an ice cube tray and then keeping in the freezer in a freezer bag. Easy to thaw when you're ready for just a little bit of sauce!

The girls with their Polka Dot Pizza's. They can't wait to eat them!

Wes didn't help until time to eat, but he wanted his picture taken too!

Strawberry Rhubarb Syrup

2011-06-15T18:40:00.000-07:00

I love Strawberry Rhubarb Syrup! It's such a beautiful color and tastes fabulous on pancakes, waffles, or ice cream. One of the best things about this recipe is that it doesn't use actual strawberries, but just strawberry flavored gelatin to create the traditional strawberry rhubarb blend of flavors. So many people have nice rhubarb plants that go unused every year... mine included sometimes, don't be afraid to ask a neighbor if they have extra rhubarb to share.

I can't remember if I got the recipe from Mom or someone else, but it is my favorite way to use rhubarb. I borrow my Mom's juicer to make rhubarb juice, but if that wasn't available, I would just cut up a good portion of rhubarb (cleaned and rinsed) in 1 inch sections, put it in a large pot, add 3-4 C. of water and simmer until the rhubarb gets mushy. Strain that through a colander with cheese cloth and as long as you end up with 8 cups of juice - you're ready to go! (I've had to simmer a second batch sometimes to get enough juice)

Today Audra and I made a double batch of syrup. We used my pressure canner (without the lid of course) to cook it. The syrup does foam up quite a bit as it boils so be sure to use an extra large pan. We ended up with 7 pints and 3 quarts of glistening red syrup! Mmmm!!! I wish I had some vanilla ice cream on hand to try it out!

Strawberry Rhubarb Syrup

8 C. rhubarb juice

1 pkg pectin

7 C. sugar

1 3 oz pkg strawberry gelatin

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix the sugar and gelatin powder together and set aside. In a large pot, blend rhubarb juice and pectin until well mixed. Bring juice to a boil. Add sugar mixture, bring to a boil again and boil 1 minute. Add vanilla. Remove from heat. If the foam on top bothers you, skim it off with a large spoon. Pour carefully into clean canning jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Remove and cool several hours. Ration cautiously - it disappears fast!

If you are able to use this whole batch at once, as gifts or for a party you wouldn't need to can it. It will keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks easy. (I treat it the same as I would jelly) Enjoy!

Teriyaki Chicken Kabobs

2011-06-05T17:45:00.000-07:00

Teriyaki Chicken Kabobs

Marinade:

1 can of citrus soda (usually 7up, but I only had Squirt)

1 cup of soy sauce

1/2 cup oil

1/2 tsp ginger

Cut up 2 chicken breasts into 1in cubes. Put in a tupperware container (I use those Ziploc or Gladware tossable ones) with the marinade. Marinade in the fridge for at least an hour.

When you're ready to grill alternate the chicken cubes with pineapple on a bamboo skewer. Grill for 10 min.

Enjoy!

Notes: Heat your grill for about 15-20 minutes before you are ready to grill. If using charcoal it takes about 20-30 minutes to get those ready.

Soak the bamboo skewers in water for at least half an hour to help them from burning.

Chunk pineapple or fresh pineapple works best for skewering.

Rhubarb Bars

2011-05-21T19:54:00.000-07:00

A few years ago we got some rhubarb starts from my Dad. (or maybe it was my brother, Kim, my memory is fading with age LOL ) We planted four hills of rhubarb to be sure at least one of them took off well. To our amazement, all four plants are thriving! The dilemma?.... what to do with all of that rhubarb?! I like stewed rhubarb, but the kids aren't wild about it. We do love Strawberry Rhubarb Syrup, and I can make several batches of that and bottle it to use later. But one of our favorite ways to use rhubarb is by baking it up in these YUMMY Rhubarb Bars!

A friend on Frugal Families posted this recipe in 2005. It fast became a favorite. It is easy, tasty, and elegant enough for a special occasion! (Today is Saturday! I'm counting that as a special occasion! LOL) Even if you're not usually a Rhubarb lover, you might give these a try - they're rich and sweet so the tartness of the rhubarb is masked wonderfully.

Rhubarb Dream Bars

(from The Best of the Best from the Great Plains Cookbook)

CRUST;
2 cups flour
3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter or margarine

Combine flour and sugar. Cut in butter until crumbs form. press into 15x10-inch pan. Bake in 350F oven for 15 minutes (or a little less). While crust is baking, prepare filling.

FILLING:
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup flour (add an extra 1/4 C. if your rhubarb is really juicy)
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups rhubarb, diced

Blend eggs, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. Fold in rhubarb. Spread over hot crust and bake in 350F oven 35-40 minutes until filling is lightly browned. Cut bars when cool.

Joy's Fried Rice

2011-05-19T16:38:00.000-07:00

Years ago I was a waitress at a Chinese restaurant. I loved the people there and I learned a lot about a different culture. I also learned a few tips on how to cook some of the foods I loved. Fried rice is one of those foods! I'd tried making fried rice before with less than delicious results... often mine came out mushy and it was missing a flavor I couldn't figure out. I found out it is critical to cook the rice ahead at least a day so it can cool and dry a bit... and that missing flavor?.... sesame oil!

Often when I make fried rice now it is the main dish rather than a side dish. I use leftover rice, and whatever appropriate vegetables I have on hand - usually carrots, celery, onion, peas. I LOVE bean sprouts in fried rice, but I leave them out unless I've had time to sprout my own... I just can't bring myself to pay for a bag of sprouts that I only need part of. (Sprouting mung beans is SUPER easy by the way - anyone can do it! Maybe that'll be a post another day.) I prefer ham as the meat to flavor the rice, but chicken is good too, or you can leave the meat out entirely if you prefer.

Fried rice for me is more directions than a recipe. Since I use leftover rice, if I have less rice, I add less veggies and meat. All of the seasoning is to taste rather than measured. Play around with it and find the amounts you like of everything. Make it your own! (I did!)

Joy's Fried Rice

medium grain rice, cooked and cooled at least 12 hours (for a main dish I usually have 4 cups or so of rice)

vegetable oil

soy sauce

sesame oil (find it in the Asian food section)

carrots, diced

onion, diced

celery, diced

fresh or frozen peas

mung bean sprouts

diced ham or cooked chicken (sometimes I just use lunchmeat ham)

a couple of eggs

dice and gather all of the meat and vegetables you want to use. In a small skillet, scramble one or two eggs and cook until done... set aside. In a large (if you're making quite a bit) skillet pour a tablespoon or so of oil. Saute vegetables until nearly tender. (salt them while they cook if you'd like) Add meat and then rice. When adding the rice, break apart the chunks of rice as you add it... if it seems really dry, add a tablespoon of water to your pan while it heats. Cook over medium heat stirring and turning often to heat the rice well. Add more oil if it starts sticking to the pan. When it's mostly heated through, add the scrambled egg and sprinkle soy sauce, some salt, and about 1 tsp. of sesame oil across the top and then mix in. Taste - add more soy sauce or salt if necessary. Serve hot.

We love this meal! I hope you enjoy including it in your menu's!

St. Patrick's Day Fare!

2011-03-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

Holidays are always a fun time to add excitement to your family! Some years I make a bigger deal out of them than others, especially smaller holidays like St. Patrick's Day. Maybe if we had some Irish lineage, we'd be more inclined to Corned Beef and Cabbage (which we tried last year and with a huge fail from the family) but as we're Danish and Scottish, we lean more to celebrating with "color" and theme.

This year I'm being a bit lazy. I THOUGHT about doing green shamrock pancakes for breakfast.... but mornings have been tough lately and I'm on day 2 of a headache, SO.... I'm settling for Lucky Charms and green tinted milk. Can't you just picture how festive the table will look with the green milk AND a leprechaun!

My lunch crew tends to prefer peanut butter sandwiches - and are too young to understand the holiday anyway so I'm off the hook there.

Dinner will be our main festivity and will include:

Shepherds Pie (which IS a common Irish dish)
Green Beans with Basil
Lime Jello with Pears
Lime KoolAid

and for Dessert:

Oreo-Crusted Mint Chocolate Chip Pie

If I get ambitious, I might have Dave stop and pick up some chocolate gold coins to decorate the table or to hide under plates or napkins.

I'd better go hunt for something green to wear. My kids aren't as afraid to try pinching me as I was to pinch MY Mom. She always told me she had green eyes and that counted for her green. I never dared question her! (I'm still not positive her eyes are green, more hazel or blue actually - but I won't go and try pinching her this year either. lol )

If spring is going to be slow coming this year - we'll at least enjoy this one GREEN day!

Happy St. Patrick['s Day!

Dusty Millers

2011-03-01T16:03:00.000-08:00

This cookie recipe was in an old Watkins Cookie Book. They really taste a lot like a ginger snap. They are especially good right after they're baked and still warm. Mmmmm! I played around with the recipe as usual. I'm not a huge fan of shortening so I substituted butter, and this time I subbed 1/2 C. whole wheat flour for part of the white. They're good either way, but the whole wheat makes them a little chewier and a step closer to a healthier choice. :-)

Dusty Millers

3/4 C. butter

1 C. sugar

1 large egg

1/4 C. molasses

2 1/4 C. flour (or sub in 1/2 C. whole wheat and another 2 T. white flour)

2 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. cinnamon

cinnamon sugar

Cream butter and sugar. Mix in egg and molasses. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Add flour, baking soda, ginger and cinnamon. Mix well. Roll into teaspoon sized balls, roll in cinnamon sugar and flatten with the bottom of a glass. Bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes. Remove from cookie sheets immediately and cool on rack.

MMMmmmmmm!!!!

Back to menu's again

2011-02-09T15:07:00.000-08:00

I didn't get a menu done for the past week and it has been hard to think up something I want to eat, and feel like cooking. I tend to procrastinate deciding until I've only got an hour or so until dinner and then my choices are pretty limited. Planning a menu make eating and cooking a lot more fun and allows me to use my Bountiful Basket produce more effectively.

Today on Facebook I asked for help with menu ideas and got a bunch of great ones! One of the best parts of this menu, is that I have everything on hand! LOVE having a well stocked pantry!

This is what we'll be enjoying the next week or so:

Wednesday - Breaded steelhead with lemon, broccoli, Oven Fries, and strawberries with whipped cream

Thursday - Spaghetti and Meatballs, tossed green salad, home made French Bread

Friday - Chicken Enchiladas (I have a pan in the freezer to use up), Spanish Rice, Fruit Salad

Saturday - Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, apple slices

Sunday - Boiled Beef, cauliflower & carrots, baked potatoes, tossed green salad

Monday - Steak on the grill (I hope), Buttery Garlic Potatoes, corn, red Jello w/ raspberries, rolls or heart shaped biscuits.

Tuesday - White Bean Chili , left over rolls or biscuits

Wednesday - Sloppy Joes, Oven Fries, sliced oranges

Thursday - Stracciatella , Toasted french bread, fruit salad

Friday - Homemade Pizza w/ pepperoni, red pepper, olives, onion, and a tossed green salad.

The Saturday at the end of this menu I'll be getting a Bountiful Basket order again and once I see what veggies and fruits I get that week, I'll do the menu for the next 2 weeks. :) A possibility for that week will be Chicken Fried Steak - if I can find that package of cubed steak I have in the freezer. THANK YOU to all those who made suggestions! My family will be happy to have a few new things for dinner and I will be happy to have it all planned out so I can cook without thinking too much!

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-02-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

Much to my kids' dismay, I've been avoiding baking a lot the past few weeks because I'm watching calories. BUT today I've got 5 extra kids for afternoon snacks AND I volunteered to bring treats for my 8 year old daughters basketball game tomorrow. I've been craving chocolate, and since I KNOW I'll sneak some of whatever I make, I figured I just as well tend to that craving. :) (We know it's important for Mom's to take care of their needs so they can tend to the needs of the family, right? At least that's how I'm justifying it today. LOL )

These cookies are an adjustment to another recipe I have for plain chocolate chip cookies. I just added the cocoa, adjusted the eggs and flour. This makes a large batch - about 6 dozen cookies. (I've never heard any of the kids complain about that.)

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 C. butter or margarine

2 C. brown sugar

1 1/2 C. white sugar

3/4 C. baking cocoa

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

3 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

5 3/4 - 6 C. flour

1 12 oz bag white chocolate chips

1 C. milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream butter, both sugars, and cocoa. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add the rest of the ingredients except for chocolate chips, and mix together until well blended. Mix in chocolate chips. The dough is pretty stiff but not crumbly. Roll in walnut sized balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Let cool a few minutes on cookie sheet and then remove to cool on rack.

Fun with Cupcakes!

2011-01-26T13:14:00.000-08:00

Cupcakes (or pupcakes as my 2 year old calls them) are an easy, pre-portioned treat to make. They can be simple and undecorated, filled, or fancied up for special occasions. Most of the time, when I'm not using them for a special occasion, I just spread the frosting with a knife... which is very tedious or I let the kids frost their own with a knife - which is messy. However, if I don't mind adding extra frosting to the top, using a decorating bag and a larger tip is a super fast way to make a cupcake look dressy. Add sprinkles or edible glitter for extra fun!

I used a regular cake mix. (which I was not wild about - they always turn out too light & crumbly) But this time I added a good sized spoonful of sour cream, and replaced about half of the water called for with yogurt. Not quite so dry and a little heavier. I used a basic decorator icing recipe with my own twist to get a good chocolate flavor:

Creamy Chocolate Frosting

4 C. powdered sugar

3/4 C. cocoa powder

1 C. margarine or butter

1/2 C. milk (give or take a few tablespoons)

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. almond flavoring optional

Beat the margarine, cocoa and sugar until blended and crumbly. Add vanilla and almond flavoring and mix well. Add milk a few tablespoons at a time up to the 1/2 cup called for... the texture should be so you can dip a spoon in it and it will hold a peak. Beat at a high speed for a couple of minutes to make it nice & fluffy. (scrape your bowl a couple of times during this) Use right away or refrigerate up to a week. (can also be frozen)

If you want non-chocolate frosting you can color, use shortening instead of butter, leave out the cocoa, and reduce the milk by a few tablespoons. Color as desired.

I used a #32 open star Wilton tip to pipe the swirled chocolate frosting on. Any large opening tip would do though. For the yellow flower, I used a #46 or 47 Wilton tip. The center just used what was already on the chocolate frosting bag. :)

It took me maybe 2 minutes to do the flowered cupcake. EASY! It may not be a professional job, but it works for us.

Have fun playing with decorating cupcakes at your house!

Rosemary Salmon

2011-01-25T21:04:00.000-08:00

My hubby works a lot of closing shifts so often this means he doesn't get home until 9:30pm. So often I make dinner for the kids early because they're in bed before he gets home and then I fix dinner for him and I. It can be really hard to cook for just two especially for me coming from a big family. This is more of directions than a recipe. This is my favorite way or rather only way I make salmon at home.

Rosemary Salmon

2 4oz Salmon Filets ( I like to get the ones from Walmart)
1 TBSP Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Dried Rosemary (Fresh would be better)

Heat a skillet on medium heat. Add olive oil and heat. Place the Salmon filets in pan and sprinkle with sea salt. Crush a pinch of rosemary in your hand and sprinkle onto salmon. Sear both top and bottom then lower heat to medium low, cover and finish cooking (about 5-8 min). Enjoy!

Audra's Notes: I serve this most often with hashbrowns. Tonight I also served it with a salad and oranges.

As you know we're doing this "Great in Eight" challenge and this made a great meal for not very many calories. I thought you might be interested how many calories were in this meal. Here's the calorie breakdown:

4oz Salmon - 100

1 TBSP Olive Oil - 120

Hashbrowns - 70

Salad w/ Avacado & veggies - 60

2 TBSP Red Wine Vinagerette - 80

1/2 Orange - 35

1 Cup Skim Milk - 90

Total: 555

Oh yeah!!

Grandma's Boston Clam Chowder

2011-01-23T16:42:00.000-08:00

When Mom first started this blog she asked if I wanted to contribute to it. Well, I did one recipe right at first and then time always seemed to get away from me, then a broken camera, and then because of school I haven't been cooking very much. But now I've set a goal to manage my time better and cook more plus I got a new camera (Woot woot!) I also felt that my recipes were boring and often don't use a recipe because I'll only cook for 2 or 3. But I figure that maybe I'll want to remember how I did certain things and sometimes you only need to cook for 2. So here's my first of many (I hope).

This is by far mine and my family's most favorite clam chowder. I got the recipe from my mom (Joy) who got it from her mom. My husband begs for this soup and tells me I can make it any time. I always make the full batch so that we have lots of leftovers for lunches the next couple days. I would normally make some kind of biscuit like cheddar biscuits with this, but Hubby and I are doing a "Great in Eight" Challenge and cheddar biscuits would cause us to lose points and by golly we're going to win this time. LOL I hope you'll love it just as much as we do!

Grandma's Boston Clam Chowder

2 (6oz) can Chopped Clams
1 Cup Chopped Onion
1 Cup Chopped Celery
2 Cups Chopped Potato
1 qt Half & Half or 2 cans of Evaporated Milk
3/4 Cup Butter
3/4 Cup Flour
Salt & Pepper to taste
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar

Drain juice from clams and pour over chopped vegetables in medium sized pan. Add enough water to barely cover and cook until veggies are tender. In the meantime, melt butter and flour. Cook a minute or two then add cream stirring and cooking until smooth and thick. Add vegetables, clams and sugar. Salt and pepper to taste. Serves 8.

Audra's Notes: This time I only used 5/8 cup of butter (1 cube & 2 TBSP) because that's all I had , but I figure it also made it healthier, and it still tasted fabulous!! To be honest I couldn't really tell the difference. I also used 3 cans of clams as a special treat for my Hubby. I don't always do this because it makes it more expensive.

Easy Meatballs

2011-01-15T18:57:00.000-08:00

Meatballs are an easy item to make ahead and keep in the freezer for quick meals. There are so many easy ways to fix a meal with them: spaghetti & meatballs, Swedish Meatballs with noodles, Barbecue, sweet & sour with rice! So many tummy pleasing things to do with a meatball!

The first time I made meatballs I thought they were just TOO time consuming. Mixing all the ingredients, rolling the mixture into balls, turning them in the frying pan until they were done. Too much time tending them. BUT now I have a few shortcuts so they're much easier!

1. I use a simple recipe with not too many ingredients

2. I use a cookie scoop (size 40) to make the balls rather than rolling them

3. Instead of frying them in a pan & turning them, I put the balls on a cookie sheet and bake them in the oven. Just put them in and leave them until the timer goes off! EASY!

This is a picture of the uncooked meatballs, don't you think they look just as good as if you'd rolled them by hand?!

Easy Meatballs

2 lbs. hamburger (I prefer 85/15 or MUCH leaner)

1/2-1 C. finely diced onion

2 eggs

1 tsp. salt

1 T. beef bouillon

1 C. bread crumbs

Dump all of the above in to a medium sized bowl. Be brave & just get in there with your bare hands and mush it around until it's well mixed. I've tried using my Kitchen Aid to mix it, but it changes the texture and I didn't care for it.... enough that I'd rather get my hands all icky instead. :) Spray a nice sized, sided cookie sheet with cooking spray. Use the cookie scoop, pressing the meat mixture against the side of the bowl to pack it, and drop onto the greased cookie sheet. You can put them touching and all of this recipe should fit on one sheet. Place meatballs into an oven heated to 350 degrees and bake 15-20 minutes. Once they're done, cool, place in freezer bags in the amounts you'd like to use for a meal, label and freeze.

Joy's Notes: You can leave out the beef bouillon if you'd like. When we have beef in the freezer that we've raised ourselves, the hamburger is really low in fat - maybe 5%. The flavor is much better as well. When I buy hamburger at the store, I always add the bouillon - store purchased meat just doesn't have the flavor of a pasture fed Hereford. ALSO sometimes I add finely shredded carrot or potato. The flavor is wonderful - it just adds a little more work. It is just as easy to do a double batch of these!

FANcy Potatoes

2011-01-11T20:49:00.000-08:00

I live in potato country. I have a few hundred pounds of beautiful russet potatoes stored in my storage area. One can never have too many good potato recipes! Tonight we had FANcy Potatoes. They are SO easy to make and serve. We had these with Roast Chicken, corn frozen from last summers garden, and a nice, tossed green salad. I used some smaller potatoes, a little smaller than my fist, and, since I have a teenage boy, I made a few extra. ;o) I had one left to put in the fridge after dinner.

FANcy Potatoes

6 medium russet potatoes

1 cube butter, melted

shredded cheese or cheese slices

bacon crumbles

sour cream

parsley, green onion, or chives

Scrub the potatoes. Slice each potato about 2/3rds of the way through at 1/4 inch intervals. It will fan out as it bakes, if you cut too far through, it will come apart as you work with it later.

Place partially sliced potatoes in an ungreased shallow baking dish. Bake at 375 for 1 - 1 1/4 hours. Check to see if the potatoes are fairly tender... they should be fanned out now.

Remove potatoes from oven. Drizzle melted butter over each potato so some butter slides into each slice. Sprinkle salt over the top of the potatoes. Push a little shredded cheese between each slice, you don't need too much. If you prefer, use thinly sliced cheese and insert between slices. Sprinkle bacon over the top. Put back in oven long enough to start melting the cheese. Remove from oven. Add a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of parsley, green onion, or chives to the top of each FANcy Potato. Serve hot!

Joy's Notes: You can use any size potato. Bake smaller ones less time and larger ones longer. I love the Hormel Real Crumbled Bacon. I buy a bag at SAM's Club and keep in my freezer just for things like this. You can fry your own bacon and crumble or any bacon bits will do though.

Chicken Gnocchi Soup and Lion House Rolls

2010-11-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

Today we had our first snowfall of the season! Totally soup weather!!! I absolutely love, Love, LOVE, the Chicken Gnocchi Soup at Olive Garden. We don't eat out often, and this soup kept calling to me. :) After a little search on the internet, I found a few different copycat recipes. The one that looked most authentic to me was THIS ONE.... you have to scroll down through the comments to find it - not the first recipe listed, but the second. I'll post the actual recipe - but be sure to click on the link above, it was interesting to see the different ways people fix it... I made my own modifications. :) Also, every recipe I found called for a package of gnocchi. I've never seen it around here (granted, I've never looked for it either) and didn't fancy a trip to town just for that. I searched the internet again and found several recipes for gnocchi! THIS ONE looked the easiest, though a lot of reading. It was MUCH easier than I thought to make them! (and I'm not serving them to anyone familiar with authentic Italian food, so who cares if they were exactly right) My husband requested this soup for our contribution for the family Christmas Eve Dinner at my Mom & Dads. Yes.... it's that good! ;o)

I also got ambitious and tried a new roll recipe. The article for Lion House Rolls was interesting, the rolls are pretty easy to make, but take close to 3 hours to complete. I'd make them again for sure... but if I'm in a hurry, I'll fall back on Grandma's Rolls because they're done in 60 minutes. The Lion House rolls were easily more tender than what I usually make.

RE: Olive Garden Style Chicken Gnocchi Soup Recipe

By kimbraman1961 (Guest Post)

I tried this recipe and it is the closest you can come to the soup at Olive Garden. As with the Olive Garden soup, it can taste a little different each time you make it. From beginning to end it takes about 10 min. of prep and 30 min. cook time.

1/3 cup butter
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 lb. chicken cubed or large chunks
1/3 cup flour
1/2 carrot shredded
1 stick of celery shredded
1/4 cup onion shredded
1/2 cup fresh spinach torn in pieces
2 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream (I use half and half)
3 chicken bullion cubes
Cracked pepper to taste
17.6 oz. of Gnocchi

On medium heat.
Melt butter in a soup pot, add in the garlic and sautee, add your chicken and cook through out
Add flour and stir in flour and mix well until the flour is cooked into the chicken.
Next add your milk and heavy cream
Then add the veggies(Carrots, Celery, Onion, Spinach)
Add three bullion cubes
Add your Gnocchi last it takes 3-4 min. to cook throughout
Mix ingredients well until soup thickens and stirring occasionally. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Joy's Notes and modifications: I used leftover roast chicken and just diced it bite sized. I diced the celery and onion rather than shredding. I used half & half instead of cream and 2% milk instead of whole because that's what I had on hand. I sauteed the veggies in butter with the garlic and then added the flour and milk. I didn't want to heat the milk hot enough to cook the veggies through. I also cooked my gnocchi in chicken broth and then just added it to the soup right at the end rather than trying to cook it in the thickened milk. Next time I will add a tad more salt and a little more spinach to the whole thing.

Next time you're up for trying a new soup or a new recipe for rolls, give these a try! I had very satisfied diners at my house tonight! Can't wait to heat those leftovers up for my lunch tomorrow. :)

Pressing Apple Cider

2010-10-25T09:18:00.000-07:00

Every year about now we wish we had a cider press. We have several apple trees and after canning dozens of quarts of applesauce and some pie filling, a few fresh apple pies, eating fresh apples until we're sick of them, we pick several boxes, store them in the garage, eat a few & throw the rests out in the spring. So wasteful!

This year Dave decided he would build a cider press. After perusing the different home made presses others have made and posted on the internet, he built one we quite like! He used materials we had on hand or that were scrap, so the total cost for the press came in under $50! The grinder for our apples came from Dave's grandparents. Grandpa hooked it up to a motor years ago and it worked pretty slick for grinding up our apples.

A few days ago we had Cider Pressing Day. A few family and neighbors brought apples to press and in between, we pressed our own. We started just after 10am, finishing up about 6pm. We did about 50 gallons of cider! (I'm sure we drank about 3 gallons of that through the day.)

I thought I'd share some photo's from that bit of fun... and show a little how our process works. :)

It starts with picking and washing apples. Then for the grinder we use, we have to quarter or eighth the apples, cutting out any bad spots. (no matter how many times Dad says the worms add flavor, I just can't add them. LOL )

The apples go through a grinder, into a fabric-lined plastic bucket that Dave drilled holes in, and then into the press. Wish I could share a glass of cider with each of you! It is delicious!

We plan on making this an annual event! We still have a few apples left on the tree this year. We may get good enough weather to press another 5 gallons or so this week, hopefully to use at our Halloween party Saturday! Yum!

Peanut Butter Cookies

2010-09-30T14:10:00.000-07:00

Our local stores just had a case lot sale. I bought a case of peanut butter at a great price so now I can make Peanut Butter Cookies! A handful of these cookies and a glass of nice, cold, milk, are one of my kids' favorite after school snacks. Mine too, truth be told. :) These are easy to mix up and bake.

The kids are out for spud harvest right now, and I haven't been baking much. When I asked what type of cookie we should make they chose these!

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 C. Peanut Butter (smooth or chunky)

1 C. butter or margarine, softened

1 C. sugar

1 C. brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 3/4 - 3 C. flour

Cream butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Beat well. Add flour 2 3/4 C. flour, salt and baking soda. Mix well. If the dough is too thin (needs to be thick enough to roll in a ball) add the other 1/4 C. flour.

Form into walnut sized balls, set on cookie sheet, press with the back of a fork to flatten and make the traditional criss-cross pattern. Bake at 375 for 10-11 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on baking rack.

2010 Canning and Preserving!

2010-09-23T13:07:00.000-07:00

I love doing home canning, preserving food we've grown or that's grown nearby and having it all available to use during the winter. I remember canning after school in the fall with my Mom. It was by her side that I learned how to slip the skin off of a peach, cut corn off the cob, and carefully put lids on jars. Even as a small child I was allowed to assist by mixing the sugar syrup to pour over fruit, or washing the jars. (I felt so important doing that as Mom told me my hands were just the right size to fit in the jar!) My Mother learned her canning skills from my Grandma (my Dad's Mother)... and I'm sure she learned to can alongside her mother. Often when I'm standing with my girls at the sink or stove during canning season, I feel a strong connection with my ancestors.... strong, good women who worked hard to preserve food for their families out of necessity. No running to Walmart for pre-packaged food for them! I am honored to carry on this heritage.

All the nostalgia aside, I've been looking forward to this particular post because it means canning season is finished! Yesterday my oldest daughter Audra, my daughter-in-law Brianna and I canned 40 pints of tomato Salsa. I finished up the last of my peaches and pears this morning, and though there may be some apples to dry and juice, or a few pumpkins to bake & freeze for pie, the majority of this years canning is DONE! Happy Day! :) I can put away all the canning paraphernalia and reclaim my kitchen for daily cooking!

Each year the amounts of canning are different. Everything depends on what I have left on my shelves from the previous year, and how well the garden produces or how inexpensively I can acquire fruits we don't grow ourselves (like peaches and pears). This has been a good year. The only thing I didn't do that I thought I would, is pickled green beans... and that was mainly because my dill went old and dry before I was ready do do them. BUT I still have 13 quarts on the shelf from last year and that is plenty!

Here's the tally sheet:

Canned:

Dill Pickles 18 quarts

Green Beans 61 1/2 quarts

Apple Sauce 51 quarts plus 12 pints

Pears 12 quarts

Minted Pears 3 1/2 quarts

Peaches 39 quarts

Diced Peaches & Pears 6 pints

Salsa 40 pints

Apple Pie Filling 6 quarts

Apple Butter 11 half pints

Currant Jelly 10 half pints

Plum Jelly 11 half pints

Pickled Beets 4 1/2 pints

Refrigerator Pickles 1 gallon

Frozen:

Roasted Green Chile's 20 lbs

Corn 54 2 1/2 C. bags

Peas 8 Cups

Pea Pods 4 Cups

Shredded zucchini 4 2-Cup containers

Raspberry Jam 20 pints

Strawberry Jam 15 pints

whole raspberries 3 Cups

Dehydrated:

11 sliced zucchini

What about that! I'm pretty pleased with this years' canning and preserving. My shelves are full, and I've been borrowing jars to finish up. A few of my apple tree's are just waiting for a good frost to be ready, and then I'll dry cinnamon apple slices and possibly do some fruit leather. It feels good to be so close to done!

I am blessed to live in an area and be in a position to grow a large garden. In another month we'll dig over 100 pounds of potatoes, 20-30 pounds of carrots, about a dozen winter squash, a few pumpkins and around 10 lbs of onions to store in our storage room through the winter.

Now.... with all that done, I'm ready to go out do dinner so I don't have to cook & clean up for a change! :) Whew!

How do you Butter your Corn?

2010-09-21T11:59:00.000-07:00

I love corn on the cob, fresh out of the garden, barely ripe and so tender! None of that tough, waxy corn at the store for me. Corn on the cob season is winding down in our garden. Still one more variety of corn that is coming on, but it may freeze before it's ready.

I love my corn on the cob with lots of butter and salt and pepper! I always thought everyone buttered corn on the cob just the way my family did it when I was growing up. I'm finding that isn't the case!

To butter our corn, we set a fresh, cold, cube of butter on a plate and then roll each ear of corn on the top. It melts so wonderfully and is quick and easy to cover the entire ear. Mmmm! I know some people use a knife with a pat of butter on it and slide that over the corn, and we used to use a nifty little gadget called a corn on the cob butterer. But, we much prefer the ease of simply rolling our corn on the whole cube of butter. :) Who needs a gadget? It does make an interesting shape on your butter cube, but if you set that aside JUST for buttering corn, it's no problem!

I just finished freezing some corn from our garden. I saved a couple of ears out for my lunch.... and you can bet I rolled them in that butter long enough that it drips off. Mmmm! (and you can bet that I ate it in neat, 3-4 row sections, from left to right ..... but HOW you eat your corn on the cob is probably a whole 'nother post!)

Enjoy!

Cheesy Broccoli Soup

2010-09-09T18:47:00.000-07:00

Woohoo!!! We've got a nice, rainy, cool, fall day here today! I love days like this as long as I don't have to go out in them. The BEST part of all though is that it is SOUP WEATHER! A steaming hot bowl of soup just isn't as appetizing in 90 degree weather as it is on days like today.

My friend Cherise gave me this recipe several years ago. We were driving truck in Spud Harvest together (that's potato harvest for those of you outside of potato country ;) ) and she brought me a warm bowl of this soup one evening. SO GOOD! Every time I fix this I can almost SMELL that good, Idaho, potato dirt. This soup is NOT like a cheesy CREAM of Broccoli soup. No cream added to it at all. (not counting the butter). It also has veggies other than broccoli. The sauce is smooth and rich. Tonight we're having it with a freshly made loaf of French Bread. It's a great soup to dip bread in. (sort of like a thin cheese fondue with veggie chunks LOL )

This recipe makes about 4 quarts of soup or so. It could easily be cut in half if you're feeding a smaller group and don't want leftovers. I've never tried freezing it, but I THINK it would thaw & reheat pretty well.

Cheesy Broccoli Soup

2 C. carrots, diced

3 large celery stalks sliced or diced

1 onion, diced

1 bunch of fresh broccoli, broken into bite size pieces

5 chicken bouillon cubes or 5 tsp. of granules

Put into large pot, barely cover with water, bring to a boil & then simmer until tender. Drain - reserving liquid.

In that same large pot, (vegetables are set aside), make a roux by melting 1 1/2 C. margarine or butter and then adding 1 1/2 C. flour. Stir together over medium heat until bubbly. Measure the reserved liquid from the vegetables and add enough water to make 10 cups. Add this to the roux, stirring constantly until thickened and smooth. Add 1 lb of cubed Velveeta and stir over low heat until the Velveeta melts. Add cooked vegetables, and salt and pepper to taste. (I like only a sprinkle of salt in this as the bouillon and cheese are salty)

Joy's Notes: This soup isn't super thick. If you like it thicker, add another 1/4 C. of flour when making the roux. I don't usually care for processed cheese, but I really like it in this soup!

Caramel Popcorn

2010-09-05T18:45:00.000-07:00

Caramel Popcorn! What a fun childhood memory! Once in a while, Mom would fix a BIG bowl of gooey caramel popcorn we could share while we watched a show on TV. Most of the time it was Sunday and probably Wild Kingdom or The Wonderful World of Disney. You have to realize, that this was before DVD's or even VHS movies you could pop in anytime you felt like watching a movie. When the TV station played the movie, we gathered around to watch!

This is the kind of caramel corn that is rich and gooey, Not the crispy Cracker Jack type of caramel corn. (though if you want, I'll share that recipe with you later) I like best to eat it while it's still warm and fresh. Oh my!

First off, you need 6-8 Cups of unsalted, popped popcorn. No, you can't use microwave popcorn for this. No popcorn popper? No problem! Some of you might remember back in the day, before microwave popcorn or fancy popcorn poppers, families popped popcorn right on the stove-top.... Here are the directions to do that: Set a 4-6 quart pan with a lid on that larger stove burner. Turn the stove on medium. Add 2 T. of oil and 1/2 C. popcorn kernels. Put the lid on. (I like to leave it cracked a little to let steam escape.) Once the popcorn starts to pop, shake the pan gently (letting the unpopped kernels settle back to the bottom) until the popping slows to a few seconds between pops. Remove from heat, remove lid - but beware of the occasional surprise pop! Pour into a large bowl. IF you were going to just eat it plain, you'd add salt & butter now...... BUT since we're using it for caramel popcorn, leave it just like it is.

To prepare your popcorn for caramel, shake the bowl to get the unpopped kernels to settle and carefully lift off the top popcorn into another bowl. Toss out the kernels and small stuff left in the bottom of the bowl.

Now that you've got your popcorn made, here's the recipe for the rest....

Caramel Popcorn

1 cube (1/2 C.) margarine or butter

1 C. brown sugar

1/4 C. corn syrup.

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Bring the first 3 ingredients to a boil. Add the 1/2 tsp. soda after removing from the heat. Pour immediately over 6-8 C. of popped popcorn and mix well.

Joy's Notes: Put your popcorn in a BIG bowl. That makes it easier to stir the caramel sauce in. The baking soda is optional... it makes the sauce foam up, which makes it easier to stir in, but if you'd rather, you can leave it out and just stir more. If you don't use it up right after making it, it will store a few days in a covered container.

Have fun making this on your next Movie Night. This makes a nice sized batch, all the more fun to share with a group!

Jam/Jelly Squares

2010-09-01T06:23:00.000-07:00

Today I thought I'd give a new recipe a try! I often prefer to use recipes I nearly have memorized, just because it's quick & easy, but today... I felt like trying something a little different. Gallo on Frugal Families (my favorite frugal website!), posted this cookie recipe for Jam/Jelly Squares. I had some bottled jam that needed used, so it was the perfect recipe to try. Gallo was sweet and gave me permission to share this recipe with you! She said she's made it for her family for years and doesn't remember where it came from. (that's how many of my recipes are as well!)

They were easy to make and tasted terrific! I'd definitely make them again. In fact, I probably should make more jam & jelly just to be sure I have enough for this recipe! I'll bet it would be delicious with my currant jelly. Mmmm!

Jam/Jelly Squares

2 C. flour

2 C. rolled oats

1 1/2 C. packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 C. margarine

1 1/2 C. jam or jelly

Mix the flour, oats, sugar and baking soda. Cut in the margarine until the mixture is coarse crumbles. Reserve 1 cup of this mixture for the topping. Press the rest of the mixture into a 9x13 baking pan. Spread on the jam. Sprinkle the reserved topping. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes until lightly browned. Cool and cut into bars.

Joy's Note: My dry mix looked REALLY dry before I pressed it into the pan. I was skeptical as to whether it would turn out... but after baking, it was perfect. I also used cooking spray on my pan so the jelly wouldn't stick.

Reaping the Harvest - Chicken Vegetable Soup

2010-08-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

I LOVE wandering through the garden this time of year and gathering ingredients for dinner, and luckily it's cool enough today to make Chicken Vegetable Soup! Our garden got a late start this year due to weather and a busy schedule, but it's going gangbusters now! The other day I canned 19 1/2 quarts of green beans (which gives me 60 quarts and 21 pints on the shelf) and 7 quarts of dill pickles (bringing me up to 35 jars of dills). Tomorrow we'll be doing lots of applesauce. I only have 20 quarts left and we go through 1 1/2 quarts at a time, so I'm hoping to get 70-80 quarts of applesauce this year. I should probably pick & can green beans again tomorrow as well.... I might just check & see if they'll hold off until Monday.

Oops, a little side tracked there. :) Back to dinner....

Last night we had roast chicken, so today, I'll use what's left of that, simmer & debone, and I'll wander through my garden to add: potatoes, carrots, onion, zucchini, tomatoes, and a little swiss chard.... there might even be some corn I could add! I'll toss the vegetables (diced), broth, chicken, and some chicken soup base in the crockpot. Depending on how that tastes, I might cut some thyme from McKay's herb garden to flavor it. I've got a loaf of homemade french bread in the freezer that will go great with this soup!

McKay (my 14 year old son) has a cross country race this afternoon. It will be WONDERFUL to come home from that race, right at dinnertime, to a hearty meal that's all ready for us. Easy, economical, and delicious!

Dessert tonight will be rich, moist, Zucchini Brownies!!! YUMMY!

Aunt Lois's Marinated Tomatoes

2010-07-15T07:35:00.000-07:00

It is just about tomato time of year here! At least mine in the garden have a few little green tomatoes and are setting a ton of blossoms. There's harvest hope!

I love a good, ripe tomato picked fresh from the garden. So sweet and juicy! So many yummy things to do with them too... sliced thick for tomato sandwiches, diced and tossed with greens for salad, fresh salsa, canned salsa, spaghetti sauce and soups! YUMMY!

My sweet Aunt Lois was an amazing cook. She gave Mom the recipe for these marinated tomatoes several years ago and Mom passed it on to me. They are wonderfully fresh tasting. (even with store bought tomatoes - and that's saying something because I'm really biased about home grown tomatoes!) They are quick and easy to mix up, and in the heat of summer, this cold salad is a terrific side dish.

Aunt Lois's Marinated Tomatoes

6 large tomatoes cut in wedges

1/2 C. sliced green onion

Combine the following in a shallow bowl:

1/3 C. olive oil

1/4 C. red wine vinegar or cider vinegar

1/4 C. fresh minced parsley

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. salt

1 T. fresh basil (or a sprinkle of dried basil)

1/4 tsp. pepper

Mix well and add tomatoes and onions. Stir gently to coat tomatoes with marinade. Chill at least 2 hours or overnight.

Joy's Notes: I really prefer fresh basil! Dried does ok, but fresh basil & parsley make it taste just so fresh. This will keep nicely a few days in the fridge. Someday I'm going to try adding a few other vegetables in - like summer squash and mushrooms. If I get around to that this year I'll let you know how I like it!

Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies

2010-06-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

I am posting this to avoid being a total liar. I told a friend that my recipe for Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies was on my blog. I sat down to find it, and I can't find it ANYWHERE! That blog post must be in the happy place in my mind with so many other things I "think" I've done.... like sending the check for our water taxes, or turning the stove off of high before I leave the house. ;)

We LOVE these cookies! My sister, Peggy, used to make these and they're so easy and tasty, I'm sure she has no idea how often we've used that recipe she shared with us over 20 years ago. One thing I love about them, is that in the summer, they don't heat up the house like baking a batch of regular cookies would. They are also a healthier sort of cookie than many... peanut butter gives them protein, oats add all sorts healthy things - hefty amounts of iron, protein, and a little calcium, not to mention a good serving of fiber! Really, the more I think about it, I'm pretty sure these are probably a super health food! (we'll ignore the margarine and sugar!)

Today Jaylyn, who is 9, did all the measuring and stirring. I spooned them out onto the waxed paper. She will be able to do that part herself soon. They turned out really yummy!

Peggy's Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies

2 C. sugar

1/2 C. milk

1/2 C. margarine or butter

dash of salt

Boil 1 minute, remove from heat and add:

1 tsp. vanilla

1 C. peanut butter (regular or chunky)

4 C. quick oats

Stir in well and quickly drop by heaped spoonfuls on to waxed paper. Cool.

Joy's Notes: It helps to have the waxed paper ready on the counter, oats & peanut butter measured & ready before you start boiling the first ingredients. You want to be ready to stir it in quick and get spooning that mixture out before it cools much. The cookies will set up & harden as they cool. If it is overcooked much it will crumble by the time you're towards the last of the pan... that part eats just as well with a spoon. :)

Garlic Green Beans

2010-06-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

What to do with a few LARGE handfuls of fresh green beans? We love this easy way to prepare them. I especially love that I don't need to snap them. I just snip the ends! We like them fairly tender, probably to the point that some feel they're overcooked. :) Check them every few minutes to see if they're at the point YOU like them. If you LOVE garlic, go ahead and throw in a few more cloves. Mmmmmm!

Garlic Green Beans

A couple of good handfuls of fresh green beans

a few tablespoonfuls of olive oil

2-4 cloves of garlic, sliced or minced

salt & pepper

Heat oil in large skillet. Add garlic and saute' just a minute to flavor the oil. Add green beans and cook over medium-medium high heat stirring occasionally to keep garlic and beans from burning. If you'd like the beans to be very tender, put a lid on your pan & they'll soften up faster. After about 10 minutes, test to see if the beans are done to your liking. If not - continue cooking until they are. If so - serve them up hot!

I can't wait until our garden is producing! The green beans I used tonight came in our Bountiful Basket food co-op order Saturday. They were good.... but nothing beats freshly picked and cooked within minutes!

Chili Verde

2010-06-13T20:45:00.000-07:00

This week, along with my usual Bountiful Basket of fruits & veggies, I ordered a Mexican specialty pack. What a fun bunch of new (to me) items to cook with! We had jalapeno's, green chilis, limes, cilantro, garlic, tomatillos, avocados, green onions, and a couple of yellow onion. There are several of those items I've never used. A quick search online revealed MANY recipes to consider! This is the one I found that looked the most interesting and that I had all the ingredients on hand. The directions were easy to follow and I only made a few adjustments to the original recipe. It turned out delicious!!! We served ours with Spanish Rice and warmed corn tortilla's.

My changes: I used only 1/2 a jalapeno, added 2 green chilies, which I roasted but did not take the skin off of, only about 1/3 of the cilantro. I also put mine in a crockpot. Then an hour before dinner, I ladled off most of the liquid, put it in a pan & boiled it for about 10 minutes to reduce the liquid a fair bit. If you cooked this on the stovetop that part wouldn't be necessary.

This is definitely a recipe going into our menu rotations.

Family Reunion Fun

2010-05-31T21:49:00.000-07:00

Our Memorial Weekend family reunion was a blast! Rained enough one day to bring on that feeling of sailin' the high seas and everything! My brother Kim and his family were in charge this year and did a Pirate theme. We crafted boats out of styrofoam, made pirate hats out of newspaper, and flags for our camps. For one potluck meal, several of my older children (you too Taylor) crafted this sailin' vessel to hold our fruit salad. Quite a good job, don't you think! (If you use your imagination, the "merman" on the front is quite effective.... thanks Grandma for letting us raid your toy box!)

Cookie Salad

2010-05-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

We have a family reunion this weekend! LOVE all the visiting, fun activities and FOOD! We spend the weekend in my parents orchard. We stay in trailers or tents. Friday through Monday. We only have to travel a mile to get there! This year we have a Pirate theme. Saturday evening our meal is potluck. Bring plenty of grub to share. Sunday roast beef is provided and we provide the side dishes and dessert. The kids have requested Cookies Salad for one of the dishes we take. It's easy and they love it. (so do I but I'm making it "for the kids", right?!) I won't even consider trying to remember to take a picture of it... too many other things on my mind this week. BUT I wanted to share the recipe with you in case YOU need a terrific side dish to take.

I always double this for my family.

Cookie Salad

1 C. buttermilk
1 8 oz container cool whip
1 small box instant vanilla pudding
2 small cans mandarin oranges, drained
1 large can pineapple tidbits, drained
1 package fudge stripe cookies

Mix buttermilk and vanilla pudding together. Fold in cool whip. Add oranges and pineapple. Mix in cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Joy's Note: This recipe works best if at least one whole fudge stripe cookie is sampled prior to mixing. :)

Grilled Chicken with Pineapple Roasted Red Pepper Salsa - Recipe Review

2010-05-10T11:45:00.000-07:00

While my daughter Keeley and I were planning the Mothers Day menu, she came across this recipe online. I wasn't too sure about the pineapple salsa, but we decided to try it. It is AWESOME! The chicken was tender and flavorful, the salsa was sweet, but not too sweet, and is a terrific accompaniment for the chicken. YUM!

You can find the recipe for the Yogurt Grilled Chicken with Pineapple Roasted Red Pepper Salsa right here at the Food Network.

We added less hot sauce, but next time we'll add more. I marinated the chicken for 5 hours just because that's how it worked out. :o)

We will definitely be adding this to our menu in the future. It is nutritious, tasty, and FUN! Give it a try & let me know what YOU think!

Here's the rest of our Mothers Day Dinner....

Shrimp Cocktail

Garlic Roasted Potatoes                                     Watermelon.....




................ pretty yummy!   And it's not pictured, but we had some wonderful, fresh, corn on the cob that came in our Bountiful Basket order this week!

Busy experimenting!

2010-05-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

The posts are few & far between lately. Hopefully that changes soon. I've been having fun finding ways to use up the food co-op produce we get every other week. I'm also working on eating healthier and exercising more. I've been creating in the kitchen the past week to cater to my changes. I'm limiting my calories to 1200-1500 each day. Makes it a bit harder to get all the nutrition I need if I eat sweets or breads. That's the only downside though. So far I'm down 5 lbs in the past week. I know the weight loss will slow down now & that's ok. Once my weight is where I'd like it I'll raise my calorie limits but I'm determined to keep eating healthier food.... and in the meantime... I'll just keep having fun with the menu!

Foods we've enjoyed the past week:

Lentil Burrito's
Grilled Chicken Salad
Homemade, fat free yogurt sweetened with diced mango
Vegetable Soup
Baked Chicken w/ Garlic Parsley Red Potatoes

In the works for this next week are:

Red Beans and Rice
Chicken and Black Bean Burrito's
Homemade Fat Free Refried Beans and Homemade Whole Wheat Tortilla's
Garlic Basil Shrimp with whole grain pasta

We've also been enjoying smoothies made with our fat free homemade yogurt, strawberries, banana's and mango's. Too bad the nice ripe mango's are gone now. That was good while it lasted!

I'll try to share my experiments with you as we go. The kids have adapted well. In fact, I was surprised to find out that they prefer whole wheat bread most of the time. How about that?!

I'm off to make a Wacky Cake for my son to take to activity tonight. Think I can do it without licking the spoon? Wish me luck!

Food Co-op Challenge days 4-7

2010-04-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

We've used our fruits and veggies to make:

Mango Strawberry Banana Smoothies

Chicken Vegetable Stir-fry

Burgers dressed with tomato slices & lettuce

Potato Salad

Strawberry Surprise (I'll post that recipe later!)

Starting week 2, and remembering I only get a basket every 2 weeks, I have left to use:

3 tomatoes
3 mangos
a large bunch of broccoli
1/2 a bunch of celery
1 head of lettuce
3 lbs apples

I need to plan menu's for the next few days.... I see a few more smoothies in our future!

Food Co-op Challenge day 3

2010-04-14T09:40:00.000-07:00

For dinner we had Turkey Vegetable Soup. From our Co-op basket I used: squash, potatoes, celery and a little tomato. Turned out yummy! It's one of those dump and stir recipes. Never turns out the same way twice.

We are also using up the last of our strawberries. They taste so good fresh I hate to make them all into jam or freeze them! So as a side for dinner we had strawberries with fresh yogurt dip. I used about 1 C. of plain yogurt, 3 T. brown sugar & a dash of vanilla. Mix it up a few minutes early so the sugar has a chance to dissolve. We used homemade yogurt that I made from dry milk - no fat at all.... tasted terrific and healthy to boot! Can't beat that!

Strawberry Shortcake and other Bountiful Basket delights!

2010-04-12T20:19:00.000-07:00

This post is in keeping with my challenge to myself of using my Bountiful Baskets produce. You can see the list of items (loot) received, HERE.

Sunday, from our basket we used:

Strawberries - both as fresh fruit with dinner AND as Strawberry Shortcake for dinner
Mango - cut two for the fruit platter with dinner
Celery and tomato - topped our Hawaiian Haystacks

Those cute little mandarin oranges just keep getting eaten as snacks. Boy are they good!

Monday we had:

Steamed Artichokes.... following directions alot like THIS... only I skip the lemon.
Sliced Mexican Squash stir-fried with a little onion and olive oil
Oven Fries using the potatoes

We are eating good! So much of that produce is wonderful prepared simply.

You can find the recipe for Strawberry Shortcake HERE.

Strawberry Shortcake

2010-04-12T20:13:00.000-07:00

I grew up with a different version of Strawberry Shortcake that any I've seen. I much prefer it - I'm sure partly because that's what I grew up with. I've noticed that other people just slice and sweeten the berries, some use a glaze, such as Danish Dessert, to slice the berries into. If my berries aren't very juicy, I might add a package of prepared Danish Dessert to the mixture.

Mom made a wonderful One Egg Cake to use as the shortcake - it is coarser than regular cake. My recipe for that is written on a 2x2 inch, faded pink, grease stained, Post it Note. LOL! Tiny writing, probably the closest thing to write on when I called Mom on the phone for the recipe. The recipe itself must be old. It calls for the cake to be baked in a "moderate oven". Mom told me that would be about 350 degrees. :o) Anyway - the cake is terrific for Strawberry Shortcake. I've never tried using it for anything else.

We always had home grown strawberries. They are smaller and alot more moist and flavorful. Sometimes now I have to make do with commercially grown strawberries. (like yesterday) They are larger and firmer. Home grown berries can be mashed easily with a potato masher, commercially grown berries work best carefully chopped in a food processor or the lowest setting on your blender.... leaving as large of chunks as possible while mushing up enough to make a little juice.

Freshly whipped cream is the BEST topping! (whip until stiff, add a tad of vanilla and powdered sugar - powdered sugar helps the whipped cream stay firm longer)

One Egg Cake

1/4 C. shortening (or I use butter or margarine)

1 C. sugar

1 egg

1/4 tsp. salt

2 C. cake flour (Mom and I have always used regular flour)

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 C. milk

Cream shortening (or butter) and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Sift dry ingredients together (I omit the sifting and just put the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and stir with a fork) and add to sugar mixture alternately with milk. (a little milk & mix - then a little dry ing. and mix, etc - for those of you a little new to baking) Add vanilla and mix well. Pour into greased 8x8 pan. Bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees) for 25 minutes or until center is done. (check with a toothpick - if it comes with batter on it, bake another few minutes & check again. It is done when toothpick comes out clean)

Strawberry Topping directions:

Cut off the tops and wash fresh strawberries. (frozen will work in a pinch) Mash with potato masher OR gently chop them in your food processor or low speed blender. (you DON'T want puree!) You want it to be quite chunky, yet juicy. Add sugar to taste. I like mine quite sweet. (surprise, surprise!)

Assembly:

Cut cake into serving size pieces. ( I like to cut my piece in half horizontally so it absorbs more strawberry liquid!)

Spoon prepared Strawberry Topping generously over cake.

Top with whipped cream.

Food Co-op Challenge!

2010-04-10T17:45:00.000-07:00

A few months ago a friend alerted me to Bountiful Baskets food co-op. Boy do I owe her a good turn! Every 2 weeks I get to pick up a laundry baskets worth of fresh fruits and vegetables. That basket is heaping full every single time! I pay $15 (plus a little handling fee) for this pleasure... and it IS a pleasure! (The picture above is 2 baskets worth)

The next 2 weeks I'm going to track on here how I'm using my produce from this basket. I'll list what I received today. A lot of our produce we just eat simply - sliced apples, steamed broccoli, mashed potatoes, etc. If I use it in a recipe to share - I'll post that here as well. (Such as tomorrow we're having Strawberry Shortcake - I'll post my recipe for our method of that & the recipe for the cake we use.)

This week I bought 2 baskets. One basket is supposed to work for 4 people - we keep running short by the time the second week rolls around. Some items need to be used right away, some will keep several days. We were also offered flats of strawberries at a terrific price - I got 2 of those (which ended up being 4 smaller flats)... and they are YUMMY!!! We've already eaten 2 lbs. :)

Here's this weeks haul!.... (what was in each basket)

1 bunch of celery

2 heads of broccoli

5 lbs potatoes

large head of leaf lettuce

4 mexican squash (like zucchini)

4 large tomatoes

4 artichokes

1 lb of strawberries

3 lb bag of apples

12 tiny little clementines

10 bananas

5 mangos

I think that was it. Plus all the strawberries for jam and a gallon of olive oil. Isn't that a fabulous deal?!

I'll keep you posted on our tasty menu using our delicious produce!!! (and I welcome any ideas for this menu as well!!! Please share!)