An entire meal of new recipes!

Flavorful Fish Fillets
Dilled Green Beans
Mini Italian Biscuits
Strawberry Yogurt Trifle

1 meal

This past summer, for awhile I was doing the meals they already put together in the Quick Cooking and Taste of Home annual cookbooks. It had kind of (well, totally actually) petered out, so I thought this would be a good time to start it again. I’m going to try to do one every week. This one comes from the 2006 Quick Cooking annual cookbook. I just got this one from one of my friends ( appalolly  on xanga) for my birthday in October.

These recipes always say “Prep/Total Time: 20 min.” or some other little minutes. Three of these recipes say 20 and one says 15 min. From the time I started making supper till it was on the table was an hour and 5 min… not too bad, considering there were a few minor interruptions from the kids. But I do always kinda chuckle at the times they put on recipes!

Flavorful Fish Fillets

1 pkg (18.7 oz) frozen breaded fish fillets
3 T. olive oil
1 jar (26 oz) speghetti sauce
3 T. prepared horseradish
1 cup (4 oz) shredded mozzarella cheese

In a large skillet, cook fish in oil for 4 min on each side or until crisp and golden brown.
1 fish1 Meanwhile, in a lg saucepan, combine the speghetti sauce and horseradish; cook until heated through. Spoon over fish; sprinkle with cheese. Cover and remove from the heat. Let stand for 5 min or until cheese is melted. Yield: 4 - 5 servings.
1 fish2
My opinion: Very good! Would definitely make again! Very easy to make! I wasn’t sure about pasta sauce with fish instead of tartar sauce, but it was just tops!!! Way too much sauce though… next time, I’d cut the sauce in half. I served the rest of the sauce with the meal to spoon on extra, but we didn’t really need it.

Dilled Green Beans

1 cup water
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
2 T. chopped onion
2 t. beef bouillon granules
1/2 t. dill seed
2 pkgs (9 oz ea) frozen cut green beans

In a lg saucepan, combine the water, green pepper, onion, bouillon, and dill. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5 min. Add the beans. Cover and simmer 8-10 min longer or until beans are crisp-tender; drain. Yield: 5 servings.
1 beans1  Oops! I see I didn’t drain them!
My opinion: Good, but nothing outstanding. Wouldn’t make again. With that much work, esp for a side dish, it should be dancing with flavor. It had extra flavor, but not as much as I was hoping it would.

Mini Italian Biscuits
For those of you who have this cookbook, I added the biscuits in here because I think meals should have 3 things, not counting dessert. This recipe comes from the same cookbook.

2 cups biscuit/baking mix
1/2 cup finely shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
2/3 cup milk

In a bowl, combine the biscuit mix, cheese, garlic powder, oregano, and basil. With a fork, stir in milk just until moistened. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 for 7-8 min or until golden brown. Serve warm. Yield: about 3 dozen.
1 biscuits
My opinion: Very good outstanding flavor, but too dry. But then, all my biscuits always get dry, so I would take any advice on making moist biscuits that just melt in your mouth! I’m going to find out if I’m doing something wrong and keep trying these biscuits because they are sooooo good!

Strawberry Yogurt Trifle

5 cups cubed angel food cake
1 carton (8 oz) vanilla yogurt
1 cup whipped topping, divided
3 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1 Tablespoon flaked coconut, toasted (optional , I didn’t have any toasted and didn’t feel like toasting 1 tablespoon, so I skipped it completely)

Place cake cubes in a 2-qt bowl.
1dessert1
Combine the yogurt and 3/4 cup whipped topping; spoon over the cake.
1 dessert2 Top with strawberries and remaining whipped topping. Sprinkle with coconut. Yield: 4-5 servings.
1dessert3
My opinion: Another keeper! A look at the ingredients tells you that you couldn’t go wrong. I made a half batch. These are the changes I would make next time… I would make 2 layers (cake, goop, strawberries, cake, goop, strawberries, rest of whipped topping) instead of all the cake on the bottom. It’s better to have more cake touching the yogurt part, I think. Also, I would make a little more of the yogurt mixture next time… it just ‘lubricates’ everything nicer.

We both thought this was a very good meal! Especially the dessert and the fish.

Tomorrow afternoon, Lexi and I are planning to make her birthday cake (it’s supposed to be a house). I’ll post it on here then… if we get done before midnight! Also, I’ll put her other 3 birthday cakes from previous years on with it.

Salad and dessert for a potluck

We had a carry-in/fellowship meal/potluck/whatever you call it at church today. I tried one new recipe and one old faithful. These 2 recipes would be well worth your time. Both are just great! The new recipe sorta turned out as a flop for looks, but was just delicious! I know now what happened, so I’m going to try it again sometime.

First of all, the new one… This recipe comes from the Treasured Recipes for our Mothers cookbook. Recipes submitted by Mr. Kolb and the 3rd and 4th grade class at the Lebanon Valley Christian School. We got this cookbook as a wedding gift from Elvin Martins.

Banana Split Ice Cream Dessert

3 bananas
1/2 gal. vanilla ice cream (in a square box)
1 c. nuts (I used walnuts , not chopped… more crunch that way!)
1 c. chocolate chips
1/2 c. butter
2 c. 10X sugar (in WI, we call it powdered sugar )
1 1/2 c. evaporated milk
1 t. vanilla
1 pt. whipping cream or Cool Whip (I used Cool Whip)
1 1/2 c. graham crackers
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. butter

Cover bottom of 11″ x 15″ pan with graham cracker crust made from last 3 ingredients. Save 1/2 cup crumbs for top. I don’t have an 11×15 pan, so I put it in a 9×13. It worked fine, but the pan was full to the top… and that’s not why it flopped.

Slice bananas and layer over crust,
split1

slice ice cream in 1/2″ slices over bananas,
split2

sprinkle nuts over ice cream.
split3
Freeze to firm. Melt the choc chips & 1/2 cup butter, add 10x sugar and evaporated milk. Cook mixture until thick and creamy, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Cool, spread over ice cream, freeze until firm. Whip cream until stiff (unless you’re using Cool Whip ), spread over choc layer and top with remaining crumbs. Store in freezer. Remove about 10 min before serving. Will keep several weeks!

split4

My take on it: Absolutely tops! Definitely on my “would make again” list!!! It’s also fun to make, esp the slicing the ice cream part.  With all those ingredients together, you know you can’t go wrong!!!

Now, the ‘flop’ details… There’s a misprint in this cookbook. In the directions above, it says ‘cool’ instead of ‘cook’ until thick and creamy. That was very confusing to me, how you’d cool it, then remove it from the heat! So, anyway, my choc mixture never did cook, thus it never got very thick. But I poured it over the ice cream anyway and then panicked as it worked it’s way down into all the cracks and slowly but surely, traded places with the i.c.layer!  Then I was laying in bed stressing about it and a lightbulb came on in my head that it prob meant cook instead of cool! But it still tasted just GREAT and nobody at church probably knew anything was wrong with it.

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And now the old faithful…  This is something my mom used to make when I was still at home (and still does). I remember requesting it for my birthday meals. It comes from the Taste of Home Recipe Book Second Edition . This cookbook was also a wedding gift, from Lee Rhodes’.

Four-Fruit Compote

1 can (20 oz.) pineapple chunks
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. cornstarch
1/3 c. orange juice
1 T. lemon juice
1 can mandarin oranges, drained (we’ve never made it w\ oranges, and always sub 2 c. of grapes instead)
3 to 4 unpeeled apples, chopped
2 to 3 bananas, sliced

Drain pineapple, reserving 3/4 cup juice. In a saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Add pineapple juice, orange juice, and lemon juice. Cook and stir over medium heat until thick and bubbly; cook and stir one minute longer.
fruit1

Remove from the heat; set aside. In a bowl, combine pineapple chunks, oranges, apples, and bananas.
fruit2
 Pour warm sauce over the fruit; stir gently to coat. Cover and refrigerate. Yield: 12 - 16 servings.

fruit3

This can be made a day ahead, except the bananas should be sliced into it right before. They start getting brown and mushy after a few hours, but the apples hold up great. If you like glazed fruit salads, you’ve gotta try this one! It’s been my favorite as long as I can remember.   Sometimes Mom would add marshmallows or raisins.

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Recipe Request

For the one who asked for a rice crispie roll recipe , I looked in about 15 of my cookbooks, including all my Taste of Home and Quick Cooking, and didn’t find one. So, I went online and found this one . It’s great… there are detailed step-by-step instructions with pictures and they look SO neat!!! I just might have to try them myself! Hope that’s what you were looking for!

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