Recipes and Cooking Ideas for Homemakers and Amateur Cooks
 

Year: 2006

Desserts, Pork and Ham, Side Dishes

An entire meal of recipes

Ham in a Hurry
Easy Potato Pancakes
Crescent Rolls
Broccoli
Peach Freeze

ham meal

This meal is taken from the 2007 Taste of Home Annual cookbook. I added cooked broccoli (because it was on the picture with the ham and potatoes) and crescent rolls. I made it one evening last week and didn’t take time to post it then.

Ham in a Hurry   …the actual recipe with the meal is Ham with Pineapple Salsa , but beside the recipe is a box that says, “Ham in a hurry  …If you can’t take the time to make the salsa for the ham w pineapple salsa, just sprinkle a little brown sugar over the ham. Then top it with crushed pineapple with its juice before popping the ham in the oven.  You can also make an easy, delicious glaze by blending apricot preserves with some mustard, lemon juice, and a dash of cinnamon. Simply heat the glaze in a pan and brush it on the ham during the final minutes of baking.” I did the brown sugar/pineapple variation (it was very good! And easy!),
ham1
ham2  then broiled it with the Ham w Pineapple Salsa directions. Here is that recipe if you want to try it. I might try it sometime, but I didn’t this time because I only had 2 of the 6 ingredients on hand and also I thought the brown sugar one sounded better.
Ham with Pineapple Salsa
1 can (8 oz) crushed pineapple, drained
2 Tbsp orange marmalade
1 Tbsp minced fresh cilantro
2 tsp lime juice
2 tsp chopped jalapeno pepper
¼ tsp salt
1 bone-in fully cooked ham steak (1 ½ pounds) Mine wasn’t quite that big.
For salsa, combine the 1st 6 ingredients into a small bowl; set aside. Place the ham steak on an ungreased rack in a broiler pan. Broil 4-6 inches from the heat for 8-10 min or until a meat thermometer reads 140, turning once. Cut into serving-size pieces; serve with salsa. Yield: 4 servings.
Editor’s Note: When cutting or seeding hot peppers, use rubber or plastic gloves to protect your hands. Avoid touching your face.

Easy Potato Pancakes
3 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes
2 Tbsp flour
2 eggs, beaten
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1 ½ tsp water
½ tsp salt
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
Place the hash brown potatoes in a strainer; rinse with cold water until thawed. Drain thoroughly; transfer to a large bowl. Add the flour, eggs, butter, water, and salt. Mix well.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Drop the batter by 1/3 cupfuls into oil;
ham potato1 fry until golden brown on both sides. Drain the pancakes on paper towels. Yield: 4 servings. (It makes 5 pancakes.)
ham potato2 We had a problem knowing what to put on them because they seemed bland without anything. My mom used to make something like that for breakfasts and we ate them w syrup. I tried syrup, but it didn’t seem right. Ketchup didn’t seem right either. So, if I make them again, I might try to jazz them up with chopped peppers or spices. Tiffany LOVED them! I cut one up and she ate it as a finger food.

Crescent rolls
I’ll feature them this time. We have them a lot and it’s always Lexi’s job to make them. ham rolls1   You can see what kind they are (maybe?) by the empty can sitting there. Baking instructions are on the can. I’d recommend these if you aren’t sold on them already! 
ham rolls2

Broccoli
This was just frozen broccoli florets, cooked and salted.

Peach Freeze
2 cups vanilla ice cream, softened
1 1 /3 cups frozen unsweetened peach slices
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
In a blender, combine ingredients;
ham peach1 cover and process till smooth.
ham peach2  Pour the mixture into small freezer-safe dessert dishes; cover and freeze until serving. Yield: 4 servings
ham peach3  This is a winner! Easy to do and very refreshing! But I’ll probably just make it in the summer mostly… it was almost too refreshing for a snowy evening in WI! The cinnamon in there is what makes it great, I think.

Beverages, Cookies and Bars

Iced Tea and Cookies

Cookies!

Lexi (my dau, just turned 4) and I made some cookies last night. She seemed to sort of need some “mom time”, so we put Tiffany (9 mos) to bed, Shannon (my husband) had a late hockey game, and Lexi and I had alot of fun baking. Baking with her is interesting… She dumped all the ingredients in the bowl, except the eggs, of course. It always amazes me how the mixing bowl can be 10″ across and the measuring cup is 2 1/2″ and she still dumps part of the sugar, flour and choc chips over the edge onto the counter!!!!   She also decided we should wear “cookie baking beads”. She had some in her toybox, so we each wore them… you can see hers on a picture.

This recipe comes from the Mrs. Field’s Best Ever Cookie Book . Did you ever see “Mrs. Fields” in a mall (cookies, candy, etc.)? Well that’s her. This cookbook is written by her, Debbi Fields. Her store/bakery has been going for over 20 years. Shannon got the cookbook for me for Christmas 2 years ago.

Double-Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

6 oz, semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened (I didn’t use unsalted because I only had salted, maybe I should’ve omitted the 1/4 tsp of salt then)
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
12 oz milk chocolate chips (about 2 cups)
24 – 30 whole shelled peanuts (we used 55 because that’s how many cookies we had)

Preheat the oven to 300. In a double boiler, melt the semisweet chocolate over hot, not simmering, water. (My microwave worked great for this. ) Set aside to cool to about room temperature.   In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a medium bowl, combine the sugars, then add the butter and beat until well combined. Add the peanut butter and beat until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until just combined. Add the flour mixture and the milk chocolate chips and beat until no streaks of flour are visible.      Pour in the melted chocolate
cookie1 and mix partially with a wooden spoon until marbleized. Drop the dough into 3-Tablespoon mounds (that would be huge, I made them smaller), 2 in apart, onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Top each with one whole peanut. I thought the one peanut thing was kinda ‘yeah, whatever’, but it turned out to be a really fun job for Lexi.
cookie2  Bake for 23 min, or until just set but still soft. Cool on the cookie sheet for 30 seconds, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Yield: About 2 dozen. M ine made about 4 1/2 dozen.
cookie3   These taste GREAT, but they beg for a glass of milk! I prefer chewy cookies, these are kinda dry. Maybe it’s because they bake so long at a lower temp. They don’t melt down into a flat cookie… however you put them on the cookie sheet is how they’ll look when they come out of the oven, so I smashed them down a little before putting them in the oven, after the first batch came out and I saw that’s what they do. Another thing, semisweet chocolate chips are not my thing… if semisweet was the only chocolate, I would not be a chocoholic. Chocolate would tempt me about as much as, let’s say, raisins (I like them, but nothing special.), so next time, I’d do ALL milk chocolate in these cookies.

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I’m also going to feature a tried-and-true recipe here. Iced tea . I try to keep it on hand in the fridge. If I do, we go thro’ at least one pitcherful a day. It’s so easy and fast… in about 10 minutes, you can go from no tea anywhere around to drinking a cold glass of iced tea. For the taste, it’s comparable to meadow tea , if you know what that is. When I first started making it, I thought it wasn’t as good as meadow tea, but was well worth it for less work and time being put into it. Now that I’m used to it, I like it better than meadow tea. My mother-in-law makes it too and I forget who started making it first, so I’ll give her credit in case it was her.  Maybe we don’t even make it quite the same anymore, I haven’t compared notes with her on it lately.

Iced Tea

Put a coffee filter in a coffee maker (sometimes little pieces of leaves somehow get out of the tea bags, so the filter catches them then). Put 1 Mint Medley tea bag in it.
tea1Fill the coffee pot with water to 8 cups and pour into coffee maker. Turn it on and run it thro’ just like you’d be making coffee. While that’s being made, put a little over 1/2 cup of sugar into a 2-qt pitcher. When the tea is done, pour it into the pitcher (I don’t know if piping hot liquid is good for a pitcher, but I’ve used the same 2 Pampered Chef pitchers for this for a few years and they’re holding up great… putting in a plug for Pampered Chef, you’d love the plunger thing to stir it with too). Stir it to disolve the sugar,
tea2 then fill it up with ice
tea3 to within 1″ of the top. Stir till ice is about all gone. It’s cool, but not cold by this time, so if we drink it right away, we serve it “on the rocks”, as my dad would say.
tea4  I really need a lemon slice to put on the side of this mug!

By the way, if you rinse out the coffee pot and filter holder thing right away each time, you can make coffee and tea in the same coffee maker and the tastes don’t cross over… at least WE don’t notice a coffee taste in our tea anyway.

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Also, the ‘What’s your kitchen theme/colors’ is SO interesting! In a couple weeks, I’m planning to compile a post with excerpts from all your comments (anonymously… people will have to go back and read the comments if they want to see who said what) on what your kitchen is. So, I’d still love to hear more!

Beef, Main Dishes

Stromboli

In researching how to make stromboli about 6 years ago, I found there are alot of different variations out there (different kinds, different shapes, braided tops, spiral-rolled, etc. So, I experimented with it and here is the result… a recipe of my stromboli, tried and true, we love it! I’ve only ever made 2 different kinds… pizza and steak. Tonight was steak.

Steak and Cheese Stromboli

1 loaf frozen bread dough, thawed
14 oz pkg thinly sliced beef Philly steak
Montreal steak seasoning  *edit* or seasoning of your choice
1 tsp. oil
1 green pepper
1/2 of an onion
Handful or 2 of sliced mushrooms
3/4 cup pizza sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Butter
Parmesan cheese

Put the oil in an electric skillet and turn to 300. Cut up green pepper and onion into approx. 1 1/2″ x 1/4″ pieces and fry for a few minutes, stirring often`. Add steak and sprinkle steak seasoning on it
strom1 and fry a few more minutes until no longer pink. Throw the mushrooms in and stir it.
strom2Put it on simmer while you roll out the bread dough into a rectangle about 12″ x 8″ x 1/2″. (This measurement is a wild guess, by the way. ) Spread pizza sauce on it.
strom3Then spoon meat mixture on it, then put cheese on top.
strom4Now, the dreaded part… getting it closed.   Pull the edges up around to the middle (the edges are usually fatter, so it’s got some extra to give) and pinch to seal. Then seal the ends too. If any holes break open, patch them up, or the problem will magnify as it bakes! I always have one hole somewhere somehow.
strom5Then flip it over onto the pan… a quick smooth maneuver would be good here.   Butter the top with very soft butter or melted butter and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
strom6 Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.
strom7
YUM!
strom8

To make the pizza variation , trade the steak, seasoning, oil, grn pepper, and onion for an 8 oz pkg of pepperoni. Then if your taste buds allow, sprinkle some crushed red pepper on the cheese before closing it up. It gives it extra zip.  Do everything else the same. No frying involved though… that’s handier.

What style and flavor of stromboli do you make?

Comments

2 Responses to “Stromboli”

  1. Amber on April 3rd, 2008 10:43 am

    We love the pizza kind, too and also ham and cheese with mustard smeared on the dough. If you want to try something different to close your dough: spread the toppings down the center and leave about 3-4 in. on either side. Make cuts in the dough about an inch apart on either side. ‘Braid’ the dough strips over top of toppings and brush with egg whites and sprinkle with sesame seeds. :) Love your site!

  2. Tom Barrett on November 23rd, 2008 6:10 am

    Kay, I want to say thanks for the really nice recipe and the great, step by step pictures.

    I’m a fan of anything “Cheesesteak”, and I do make Steak and Cheese Stromboli’s using a puff pastry dough sheet.

    But yours looks great, and I love the idea of putting sauce in the dough.

    great job and thanks!

Breads Biscuits and Rolls, Sweet Rolls and Coffee Cakes

1 recipe without a picture and 1 picture without a recipe

First the picture:
date pinwheel These are date pinwheel cookies made by my mother-in-law. I don’t have the recipe and don’t want the recipe, because just the fact that I’m married to her son guarantees that I’ll get to taste these now and then. They are her specialty and they look hard to make… you should see the rolls of them before she cuts and bakes them… it’s rolled very thin!   They are just delicious!!!!

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Now for the recipe. The reason I don’t have a picture is because I used Shannon’s camera. But now that I’m ready to feature this, he has his camera. So, I may edit it later to add a picture. I made it on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Banana Bread   …from the 2004 Quick Cooking Annual cookbook

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups ripe mashed bananas (about 3 medium)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I’m going to use milk chocolate next time )
1/4 cup chopped maraschino cherries

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Beat in the bananas just until combined. Stir in the walnuts, chocolate chips, and cherries.     Pour into a greased 9″x5″x3″ loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 70-80 min. or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 min before removing from pan to a wire rack. Yield: 1 loaf.      This was VERY good, but then I love banana bread! The cherries in it made it look more festive, and they tasted good too. I know it’s past Christmas now, though. Next year, I want to make a real fruit cake. I saw all the fruits featured in the middle aisle with the baking stuff at the grocery store all Christmas season, but didn’t try it this year.

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Now, I’m going to throw out a question, just out of interest and because I love to hear from you too… What is the theme/color of your kitchen? And anything else you’d like to say about it.

Mine is Coca-Cola. It started a couple years after we were married when we saw some kitchen Coke stuff one time and thought it would be neat. Then, when you keep your eyes peeled for it, it’s amazing how much there is out there!!!! So, my colors are red and black… which is why the colors of this site will always be red and black.

Beef, Breads Biscuits and Rolls, Seafood, Side Dishes

Fire up the grill!

I’m going to feature our supper last night. Some of us around here have been sick, so suppers haven’t been happening much this week… until last night. We made up for it then!!!!

Grilled Shrimp & Mushrooms
Stuffed Baked Potatoes
Grilled New York Strip Steak
Sauteed Mushrooms
Texas Toast
Veggies & Dip

Our friends who came over last night supplied the steaks… these are, incidently, the same friends I mentioned a couple weeks ago who brought hot ready-to-eat carry-out pizzas over for supper. Anybody else have friends like that?

Grilled Shrimp & Mushrooms

55 large (not jumbo) shrimp
Butter
Lawry’s seasoning salt
Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Meat Magic seasoning
Sliced mushrooms

There is actually no recipe for this… it was created by Shannon. He doesn’t measure ingredients or anything, but I know that it uses pretty much butter and less mushrooms than shrimp. Thaw the shrimp under cold running water. Mix the shrimp, butter, and seasoning all together in a bowl and skewer it on skewers, putting a mushroom on now and then.
grill shrimp
Grill it till browned. You can either serve them on the skewers or slide them off in to a bowl. Serve with cocktail sauce. So delicious! They cool quckly, so it’s a good idea to put them in a bowl that’s been heated up or eat them right away… or both.
grill shrimp done

Stuffed Baked Potatoes (also known as Twice Baked)     This recipe comes from a Weber Gas Barbeque Cookbook (came with our Weber grill).

3 lg baking potatoes
3 Tablespoons softened butter or margarine
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup sour cream
1 Tablespoon fresh snipped chives
2 Tablespoons grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup broccoli florets

Wash and dry potatoes. Prick with fork. Bake until done, about 1 hour. (Mine took 1 1/2 hours @ 400, but they were BIG). Halve potatoes lengthwise. Carefully scoop out pulp, reserving 4 shells. (I just cut the top 1/4 off, then let the shell pretty thick. It doesn’t break as easy then when your scoop out the pulp.)
grill shells
Mash potatoes with butter while still hot. Blend egg yolks and sour cream; mix with potatoes, chives, and salt. Mound mixture into reserved shells
grill filled potato
and place in a foil pan.
Place pan in center of cooking grate of gas grill (over indirect/medium heat) and cook until potatoes are heated through, about 20 minutes. Top each potato with cheese and continue to cook until cheese has melted. Garnish top with cooked broccoli florets before serving.    I usually do them in the oven instead of the grill… bake on ungreased cookie sheet @ 375 for 20 min, then top with cheese, bake 5 min longer. Garnish top with broccoli.
grill done potato

Grilled New York Strip Steak

4 12-oz. New York Strip Steak
Lawry’s seasoning salt
Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Meat Magic seasoning

Again, no actual recipe here, but this is how Shannon does it… Trim fat off,
grill trim
then let set till room temperature. Put seasoning on just before putting on the grill. Don’t put seasonings on ahead of time because the salt in them pulls out the moisture. In a charcoal grill, over to the one side, have HOT coals piled up almost up to the grate. The heat should be so intense that you can’t hold your hand there, even for a second. Sear the steaks there for about 1 1/2 minutes, then flip over to regular coals to finish grilling.
grill steaks  How long it takes depends on how much heat there is. Grill until steaks reach an internal temperature of 145 – 150. We like A-1 sauce with our steaks… ok, Ruthie, just some of us do.
grill steaks done

And, you can’t have steak without…
Sauteed Mushrooms

1/4 cup butter
2 8-oz cartons whole mushrooms, washed

I don’t know an actual recipe for this, but this is how I do it… When butter is about all melted in frying pan, put mushrooms in. Fry over medium/high heat stirring and flipping pretty often until they look darker and smaller and done… not sure exactly how to descibe it, ya just kinda know.    Line a bowl with paper towel and scoop mushrooms into bowl. Then, pull the paper towel out from under them and serve them in the bowl. (The paper towel gets rid of some extra grease.)
grill saute mshrm

Texas Toast

Loaf of French bread
Lots of butter
Garlic powder

Again… this is just how we do it. Slice the loaf on an angle into 1″ thick pieces. Spread butter heavily on both sides. Sprinkle garlic powder on top… less for this kind of meal, more for an Italian meal.
grill toast
Put under broiler for a few minutes, but don’t forget about it or you’ll be reminded by smoke curling out of the oven… been there, done that!    When the first side is done, get them out, flip them over, and broil the other side. You shouldn’t have alot of other stuff going on while doing this, like fussy babies or making veggie trays or very involved conversations. Texas toast is what we call this bread, so if that’s an incorrect term, then we’re talking about a different Texas.
grill toast done

Veggie Tray

Baby carrots
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Green Peppers
Ranch veggie dip

Yeah, ok, this was more for healthy looks than anything. The guys didn’t even touch it. It was the only thing on the table not loaded with calories.
grill veg

We didn’t have dessert, but later in the evening, we ate some of the irrestistable Raspberry Cream Cheese Rolls that were left over from when I made them (again already) yesterday morning.

Comments

Candy, Cookies and Bars, Holiday Cooking

Christmas cookie baking/candy making day 2006

We made cookies and candy, then divided it all out between us. This is the rich assortment I brought home.
baking asst

baking asst2 Same assortment. Different angle.
If you wonder what a specific kind is or what it’s made of or want the recipe, just ask. I don’t know the names of everything, but I’ll find out if you want to know.          So far, Shannon’s favorites are the snickerdoodles and peanut butter balls, my favorites are the turtles and those pretzel chocolate pecan things, and Lexi’s favorites are the choc covered Ritz & peanut butter sandwiches and the frosted sugar cookies. We didn’t all taste everything yet.

Cooking, baking, melting, coating, measuring, stirring, cutting, icing, snitching …
baking lin Linda stirring away at something. She had to cook that stuff for 5 min and when Izzy cried, the deal was that one of us either had to take care of the baby or keep stirring her stuff while she took the baby… going by the picture, guess which was picked.

baking cooks  There’s Linda again, front and center… sorry, didn’t try that! Looks like Sandra is dying laughing about something at the sink… can tell it even more on my bigger original picture.

baking tableful Getting things done and we’ve got something to show for it!

baking ruthiesue  Ruthie Sue making frosting… her own special wouldn’t-want-to-eat-it-anymore recipe. She is 7 (right, Rufusannie? it’s her dau) and looked for work in the kitchen several times throughout the day… a budding cook!

I think I got warped because on my way home, I glanced at the clock in my car and did a double-take and it took me a couple seconds to clear my head and realize that no, an oven wasn’t on… the clock said 3:50.

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Now, I’m going to feature the 3 things I made that day…

Candy Cane Cookies
Peanut Butter Balls
Rice Crispy Roll

Candy Cane Cookies     …recipe from the 2006 Quick Cooking Annual Recipes cookbook

1/2 tube refrigerated sugar cookie dough, softened
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon red food coloring

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cookie dough, flour, and extract until smooth. Divide dough in half; mix food coloring into one portion. Shape one teaspoon of white dough into a 6″ rope. Shape 1 teaspoon of red dough into a 6″ rope. I rolled them with my hands. Next time, I want to try piping them with a cake decorating bag… I think that would be easier and they’d get more even. Place ropes side by side; press together lightly and twist.

Place on an ungreased baking sheet; curve one end of cookie to form handle of cane. Repeat with remaining dough, placing 2″ apart on baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until set. Cool for 2 min before carefully removing to wire racks. Yield: 3 dozen.

baking candy canes  I forgot to take progress pictures of these. I’ll make a batch every year and maybe get better with time! Mine didn’t get very even and I got so tired of making those crazy little ropes!!! But they are very festive-looking and they taste great too!

The next 2 recipes I found on vernam06’s site. You’ll love her site… she posts LOTS of pictures… in my opinion, that makes the best kind of site! There are pics of their Christmas baking day, of her sweet funny busy grandchildren, and more pics of this and that. Always interesting!

Peanut Butter Balls

1 1/2 lbs powered sugar
1 lb peanut butter
1/2 lb butter

Mix all together and dip in chocolate.

baking pb balls  Here’s kind of a progress all-in-one picture. The light balls are ready to be dipped, the dark ones are done. This recipe was easy and fun and so good! I think I’ll make more before Christmas! They’re not sticking around here too well!

Rice Crispy Roll

1 bag of lg marshmallows
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. peanut butter
5 1/2 c. rice crispy cereal

Melt together first 3 ingredients,
baking rc1
mix in rice crispies. Press in jelly roll pan. Melt together 1 1/3 c. chocolate chips and 3/4 c. butterscotch chips. Spread on rice crispie mixture.
baking rc2

Roll up as jelly roll and cool at least 1 hour.
baking rc3  These are just tops! I still enjoy rice crispie candy every bit as much as I did as a kid. This roll adds a different twist to them, esp with the filling! YUM!!!

Breakfasts, Sweet Rolls and Coffee Cakes

Brunch

Ham/sausage/bacon & egg & cheese muffins
Raspberry Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls
Fruit and dip

We had a brunch for Lexi’s 4th birthday party, then she opened her gifts and we had the cake and ice cream closer to noon then. I tried a new recipe for the brunch. It was a hit!!! I was replenishing the fruit tray and the eggs and was going to eat after everyone else was done… until… people started coming out for seconds and saying “these rolls are awesome” type of comments. So, I got a plate and got a roll before they got all. They were soooo good! My mom copied the recipe down and my mom-in-law confirmed that I would put it on this site and said she’d get it then. So, this is something I will DEFINITELY make again and it wasn’t just the taste I liked… they were so easy to make too. By the way, if you remember back around Thanksgiving, I was planning to make these T-giving morning, well, it didn’t happen then, so here they are finally!

The recipe comes from my friend Shannon.

roll.jpg

Raspberry Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls

1 Tablespoon yeast
1 3/4 cups warm water

Mix.
Then add

7 to 8 cups donut mix

Mix dough and let rise till doubled. Reserve 1/4 of dough. Roll out the 3/4 and spread with melted butter (I used a little over a half stick) and brown sugar ( I had it maybe about an 1/8″ deep) and cinnamon. Roll it up, cut into 12 pieces, and lay in a 9×13 pan.
roll1  Tips for cutting rolls: I use a string… slide it under the rolls, bring the ends up over, cross them and pull, and it makes a nice cut without smashing… ok, maybe everyone cuts rolls like that… I learned it from my mom. Also, to get them an even 12 pieces, cut in the middle first, then each section in half, then thirds from there (if you count my pieces, there are 14 because I cut the ends off first).

Swirl raspberry filling and cream cheese filling on top of rolls. roll2 I piped it on, then tried to swirl them together with a knife, but as you can see, it didn’t get too good. I stopped after doing 3 and just left them like that.

Edit: If you don’t have access to the cream cheese filling, try this:
8 oz softened cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Beat till smooth. Put it in a plastic storage bag (or a decorating bag), cut the corner off, and pipe it onto the rolls.

Roll out the rest of the dough. Spread with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon and cut into small pieces. Lay on top of filling. Let rise about an hour.
roll3

Bake 25-30 min at 350. Drizzle with glaze (1 c. powdered sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 2 Tablespoons milk).
rolls-baked.jpg  They sorta billowed out of the pan… maybe because I used the 2 ends after all. I drizzled the glaze on right away and it kind of melted and pooled. Next time, I’ll let them cool for a few minutes first. Madisonsmom2, I don’t know if this looks like yours did. ????? 

Edited January 2012 to add: I often put about 3 rolls in a different small pan so the 9×13 doesn’t billow over. Also, I often make them the evening before, put them in the fridge overnight (unbaked), pull them out of the fridge and put em in the oven, then turn the oven on. I don’t preheat the oven if I’m pulling them out of the fridge because I’m afraid the cold pan would crack on the hot oven rack.

Anyway, they were just scrumptious and another great thing about them is that the dough was not at all sticky! I didn’t get my hands or the rolling pin messy. I could just roll on top of it without it sticking to the rolling pin or the counter!!!

Here is the rest of our meal…
meal muffins  Ham is in the closest crockpot, eggs are in the farthest crockpot… we just used those to keep them warm. I should’ve made a sandwich and taken a picture of it… didn’t think of it.
meal fruit

Comments

7 Responses to “Brunch”

  1. Bernice Wagner on April 5th, 2008 6:48 am

    Good morning, I come everyday to your site to see ‘what’s cookin’…what is the raspberry filling and cream cheese filling? Did I miss a recipe for them? Also, is parsley the green flakes in the Red Lobster biscuits? I’ve had them at the resturant and can’t wait to make them! Blessings to you for sharing your cooking skills! thanks, Bernice

  2. Kay on April 5th, 2008 7:27 am

    Hi, Berneice,
    Thanks for the comment and for stopping by my site often!
    I got the cream cheese filling at the same bulk foods store where I got the donut mix. The filling comes in plastic tubes. The raspberry filling is just a can of pie filling from the grocery store. If I have a pie filling with chucks in it, I put it in the food processor to get rid of the chunks. So, nope, you don’t have to make the fillings. :)

    On the Red Lobster biscuits, the green flakes are parsley and Italian seasoning. I know, the recipe doesn’t call for it and I don’t put it in anymore, I should change that picture!

  3. Barbara Miller on April 9th, 2008 9:59 pm

    I want to try the rasberry thingys but I have no bulk food store where I live so how could I make the cream cheese filling? Thanks Barb

  4. Kay on April 9th, 2008 11:11 pm

    Good question, Barb. I’m planning to make these rolls sometime soon (got so hungry for them again after posting them!) and instead of buying the cream cheese filling, I’m going to make it and see how it turns out. I found a couple recipes. Google ‘danish cream cheese filling recipe’, that’s what I did. The filling recipes have eggs in them, but that should be ok because it gets baked.

    After I make the rolls, I’ll let you know what recipe(s) I used and how it turned out. I’ll also post it here.

  5. Kay on April 18th, 2008 10:35 am

    Update: I added the cream cheese filling recipe into the post above.

  6. Lydia Jo Martin on July 7th, 2011 5:48 pm

    Thank you for steering me this way. Were you being nice or is this some sort of evil diet plan to deter me? No really, from that photo you can tell that the dough rolled out so nice. Looks like a great thing to keep stuff on hand for. I will now go eat a piece of sugar free dove chocolate and try not to think of cinnamon rolls again today!

Birthday Cakes

4 Birthday Cakes

Lexi’s Birthday Cakes

1st birthday    Dec. 2003

cake1

cake 1

2nd birthday     Dec. 2004

cake2

cake 2

3rd birthday   Dec. 2005

cake3

cake 3

4th birthday    Dec. 2006 

cake4

cake 4

Comments

One Response to “4 Birthday Cakes”

  1. salma! on March 6th, 2010 11:06 pm

    oh my gosh you’re like a professional!!! right?!?

Breads Biscuits and Rolls, Desserts, Seafood, Side Dishes

An entire meal of new recipes!

Posted on December 7, 2006
Filed Under Breads Biscuits and Rolls, Desserts, Seafood, Side dishes

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 fish1Meanwhile, 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 dessert2Top 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.

Side Dishes

Creamy Onion Potatoes

One of our dishes for supper this evening was a new recipe… and a hit!!! Creamy Onion Potatoes . We also had a pork roast done most of the day in the crockpot and served with b-b-que sauce, salad (without homemade croutons, I burned them ), and refrigerated breadsticks (out of a ‘pop-able’ can). A very good supper with little fuss!

Last night we had a very easy meal too! Mondays always get sort of wild for me for some reason, I guess catching up from the weekend. So, Shannon got home and I hadn’t started anything yet, but in about a half hour, supper was on the table… frozen tater tots baked and eaten w ketchup, fried chicken breasts (actually an easy quick diet meat… spray skillet w non-stick cooking spray, thaw frozen chicken in microwave, put it in skillet, season to taste *smiling at that line*, and fry on both sides until not pink in the middle), peas , and refrigerated crescent rolls (out of a pop-able can). I keep those crescent rolls on hand. We just love ’em. You may say that the homemade ones are much better… well, you’ve never tasted my homemade ones! The whole bread realm, let’s just say I need more practice on that!

Back to supper tonight… this recipe is in the Taste of Home’s 2004 Quick Cooking Annual Recipes book. I only took one picture, after it was done. There wasn’t a whole lot of anything interesting going on because there’s not much to making it, so that’s why no step-by-step pictures.

Creamy Onion Potatoes

6 cups cubed red potatoes, cooked
1/3 cup chopped green onions
1 carton (16 oz) French onion dip
White pepper to taste
1 cup (4 oz) shredded cheddar cheese

In a bowl, combine potatoes, onions, dip, and pepper. Transfer to a greased 1 1/2 qt baking dish; sprinkle with cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until cheese melts and potatoes are heated through. Yeild: 6 servings.

s potatoes  In case you can tell, I made a half batch because 6 servings would’ve made way too much.

My take on it: Definitely on my would-make-again list!!!! A good way to dress up potatoes. It was so easy and full of flavor, not to mention attractive… what dish isn’t attractive that’s topped with melted cheese?! 

Just a couple ‘extra’ things here… mgk1102003 , thanks alot for your feedback after trying the banana split dessert! It was fun to hear that someone had tried one of the recipes!      And, misssteph101 , we want your rice crispie roll recipe!   Thanks, vernam06 , for introducing it to us!

Desserts, Salads

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.

—————————————————————————-

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!

Snacks

Delicious! Licked clean! A winner! Must have! Double the recipe! Fans are everywhere!

Posted on November 26, 2006
Filed Under Snacks

That describes this new recipe. It comes from a ’95 Taste of Home magazine. My mom-in-law planned dinner and supper for T-giving Day, then assigned us to bring stuff. This Hot Pizza Dip was one of my things to bring for supper. She had never tried it before, but thought it looked good. And it was!!!!! It’s so easy to make too. I don’t have progressive pictures because I was hurriedly putting it together because people were already in the kitchen snacking and it still had to bake for 20 min.   Then, while it was baking, I thought, ‘Hey, that’s a new recipe’. So the only picture is after I took it out of the oven.

s pizza dip

  Hot Pizza Dip

1 package (8 oz. ) cream cheese softened

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

2 cups (8 oz. ) shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup ( 4 oz. ) shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup pizza sauce

1/2 cup finely chopped green pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped sweet red pepper

Tortilla chips or bread sticks

In a bowl, combine cream cheese, italian seasoning and garlic powder;

spread on the bottom of a greased 9-in. pie plate. This was easier AFTER I greased my spatula. Otherwise, it sticks to the cheese mixture.

Combine cheeses; sprinke half over the cream cheese layer.

Top with the pizza sauce and peppers. Sprinkle with the remaining cheeses. I saved some peppers to sprinkle on top, just for looks.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Serve warm with tortilla chips or breadsticks. We used tortilla chips.

Yield:  about 3 1/2 cups.

The “hot” in the title means because it was in the oven… it has no ‘zip’ to it. When (yeah, when ) I make it again, I’m going to try adding some chopped pepperoni, jalepenos, or crushed red pepper seasoning to it. When we were talking about making supper, there were some groans and comments about still being full from the main meal. But, it still got licked clean and raved about anyway! Just delicious! Definitely going in my not-so-blank-anymore cookbook!

Comments

One Response to “Delicious! Licked clean! A winner! Must have! Double the recipe! Fans are everywhere!”

  1. Beth on December 18th, 2010 12:29 am

    I was thinking about making a pizza dip for our family Christmas & found this in your recipe file. I realized that you posted this one before I even knew you. :) You didn’t join the board until December 13, 2006 (I looked). You have TONS of recipes on here…my goodness, girl. I’m going to need to come here for inspiration some more. Why don’t you just give me a meal plan for a month? hehe. jk. I have no clue if you get this comment from such an old post, but I’ll submit it anyway.

Tidbits

Grilling

I won’t be featuring a new recipe right now. I’m just going to throw a couple pictures up here and put a new recipe or 2 up later.

GRILLING

s grilling This is Shannon and his brother Preston making Shannon’s baked beans on Thursday morning. My mom added them to our T-giving menu this year. Yes, it involves the grill… that’s a bunch of steak chunked up to throw in and a couple other meats. I can’t feature that recipe. Why? Shannon’s answer to people who ask for the recipe is: “I could tell ya, but then I’d have to kill ya.” …he is, of course, just kidding… I think.

I know the ingredients, but not quantities. I’m pretty sure Preston knows the recipe by heart, but he won’t tell you either. He’s Shannon’s grilling buddy. You know, the whole concept of men and food in the same sentence was always a very common one to me, but the concept of men and helping make food was foreign… until I got married. Shannon and I have lots of fun together making meals. There’s something very attractive to me about a man who likes to cook, especially grill. Besides, it’s so fun to work in the kitchen with a guy, and just watch him… if I’m chopping up a green pepper into a million teeny little pieces, what do I use? A small knife or a food chopper. What does Shannon use? A huge clunky knife! But I must say, he must have good coordination because I tried it Thurs morning and nearly cut my finger holding the pepper several times …yeah, peppers go in the baked bean recipe, and jalepenos too. Ok, no more ingredient give-aways on that.)

After Shannon and Preston got done making the beans, they got a bar-b-que cookbook (we have pretty many barbeque/grilling cookbooks, including “The Barbeque Bible”) and sat down with it at the bar and were making comments like, “We should try that sometime” and “This says to smoke the brisket for a minimum of 8 hours”.

s pork chops This is a picture of the pork chops on the grill Wed evening when we had our open-faced pork chop sandwiches. Shannon said that sometime he himself would do the feature on here for those sandwiches.

Well, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I want to put a couple new recipes up on here tomorrow afternoon.

Cookies and Bars

Tried and True

Posted on November 21, 2006
Filed Under Cookies and bars

The feature this time is not a new recipe. It’s a cookie recipe that you all just gotta have!!!  It’s the BEST cookie recipe in the world! Oh, you say, “My mom makes the best cookies”, well I’ll bet these are better! You say, “My cookies could win a blue ribbon”, well these could win a bluer one! You say, “I’m just not a cookie person” or “I don’t see how people can eat more than 4 cookies at a time”, well you’ve obviously never tasted these cookies! Ok, maybe that was a little over-rated, but let’s just say I LOVE these cookies!!!!!

This recipe comes from the Magnolia Cookery cookbook, compiled by the Magnolia Mennonite Church. What first tipped me off several years ago that these cookies may be worth trying is that there are 5 names behind it in the cookbook… Mary Ellen Knepp, Mrs. Miriam Lichty Graber, Mrs. Henry Yoder (Irene), Mrs. Edward Beachy (Gertie), and Mrs. Chester (Mary Ann) Miller. So, with the credits given, let’s get on to the recipe… my 2 cents are in red.

Monster Cookies

12 eggs                                    (6 eggs)
2 lbs. brown sugar                    (2 cups)
2 lbs white sugar                       (2 cups)
1 T. vanilla                                (1 1/2 tsp.)
8 tsp. soda                                (4 tsp.)
1 lb. butter or oleo                     (1 cup, I use butter flavored Crisco)
2 lbs. peanut butter                    (2 cups)
18 c. oatmeal                             (9 cups)
1 lb chocolate chips                     (* see below)
1 lb. M & Ms                             (*see below)

Mix in order given. (I beat it with an electric mixer after each addition till I get to the oatmeal, then switch to a wooden spoon.) 

making monster cookies

Drop by spoonfuls, then flatten.
s monst3
Bake @ 350 for 12 minutes. Do not overbake. Cookies may want to crumble when first out of the oven, but become more firm when they cool. This is a huge recipe. It turns out fine divided in half or quartered. Yields approx 200 cookies. (I have never made a whole batch… I usually make half, those amounts are written in red beside the regular recipe.) You can press M&Ms on top of cookie after on the cookie sheet. (I think it’s easier to mix them in the dough.) Can use pecans instead. Also can cut back on peanut butter. (That just seems like a bad idea to me.)

*In my cookbook, I have written “For 1/2 batch, put in a 12 oz bag of choc chips and most of a 14 oz bag of M&Ms… gotta save some for eating!”

The finished product.
monster-cookies.jpg

s monst4 The tasters, with cookies and milk.

No new recipes for supper tonight… we had pizza. This evening we put pork chops from the freezer to the fridge to thaw for grilled open-faced sandwiches for Wed eve supper. Again, not a new recipe (I’m kinda falling in a ‘tried and true’ rut!) I don’t think I’ll feature those tomorrow night though and save them for another time instead. We have them fairly often and this is kind of a busy week and it takes kinda long to post stuff on here. I wonder about copyrights on cookbooks… if it would be legal to scan recipes in. I seriously thought about it this time, but I didn’t want the Magnolia church to come after me!  

BUT… we still got the cinnamon rolls coming up for Thurs morning brunch (since our T-giving dinner with Shannon’s family isn’t till early evening). AND also Thurs morning, Shannon (and his bro Preston will probably come help him) is planning to make a double batch of his wonderful baked beans for our T-giving get-together on Friday with my family. I’ll try to get a picture of the process, but I can’t feature that for reasons I’ll tell you on Thursday. I’m pretty sure I won’t update until then… so happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Beef, Main Dishes

Mozzarella and Beef Puff

Posted on November 20, 2006
Filed Under Beef, Main dishes

My first entry WAS going to be some for exotic yummy-lookin’ entree or dessert… to impress you all , but 5:00 this evening found me staring in the cupboards, fridge, and freezer. Then, I spotted the “Jiffy all purpose baking mix” box with recipes on it. So, I scanned them and thought the Mozzerella and Beef Puff sounded good.

There won’t be all that many casserole-type dishes on here. Neither Shannon nor I like them… but for different reasons. His reason: the same taste the whole main course, and the throw-everything-in-the-trough effect. My reason: I never know what else to put with it… all the food groups are in there, so do we go double on the veggies or the bread? In my mind, a meal should have at least 3 things on the table. So, if there’s a casserole, I need to come up with 2 more things!

Mozzerella & Beef Puff

Crust:
1/4 cup butter or magarine
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup JIFFY baking mix
3 eggs

Filling:
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 can (7 oz.) mushrooms
3/4 cup onion (chopped)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 can (10 3/4 oz) cream of mushroom soup

1 to 1 1/2 cups shedded mozzarella cheese (I did 1 1/2)

Preheat oven to 425. Grease 10″ round baking dish. Brown ground beef, onion, and mushrooms. Drain, add seasoning and mushroom soup, and set aside. For crust, bring water and butter to a boil. Add baking mix all at once, beat with wooden spoon until mixture is smooth and forms a ball. Remove form heat. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Spread dough onto bottom and up sides of pan.
s puff crust
Fill w beef mixture. Bake 25 minutes until golden brown and puffy. Sprinkle with cheese and bake 5 minutes more. Yeild: 4 – 5 servings.
s puff baked Mine got baked a little longer because my Mom called and I was talking to her when I should’ve got it out. But it turned out good because the cheese got nice and brown around the edges. It’s VERY filling.

My take on it: I’m not going to cut it out of the box to add to my blank cookbook (which isn’t so blank anymore). It was VERY good, but nothing exceptional. The garlic added some pizzazz. A huge plus for it is that it takes very common ingredients and is very easy to make short notice… like, you can grab frozen hamburger out of the freezer and have it fried up in 15 minutes.

To round out this meal, I cooked frozen broccoli (there were no veggies in the main dish) and then we topped it off with banana splits for dessert.
s banana split We don’t always have dessert, but the toppings and bananas and ice cream scoop were some more things to help fill up my ’empty’ table problem, what with having casserole and all!

I should add somewhere on this site, that Shannon is a better cook than me! When Tiffany was born, he worked from home some for the first week and made alot of the meals, and we ate some good stuff!!! Much better than when I’m in charge! Where he shines most is the grill. He grills year-round, but of course more in the summer. He has a baked bean recipe that is just awesome, and he’s famous for those beans among our family and friends. My sister Jan requested them at her wedding and my mom just called me this evening (remember overbaked puff above) and asked if he could make them for our T-giving dinner this year. He also makes a killer pork chop open faced sandwich. I will ask him make a ‘guest appearance’ on here once in awhile!

There are some things in the comments from my last post that I want to come back to sometime, but I’ll leave it at this for now. I’ll most likely be updating before Thanksgiving, so I won’t wish you a Happy Thanksgiving yet! If I don’t make anything before, I plan to make a cinnamon roll recipe that madisonsmom2 messaged to me. I’ll make it for brunch since our T-giving dinner is an early supper (I think to accomodate the hunters). This is not just any cinnamon roll recipe… it’s got a couple ‘surprise’ ingredients in it.   …That was all just to whet your appetites.