Joy in the Kitchen!

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 ...

' 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 ...

  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 ...

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 m...

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 wi...

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 ty...

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...