Every time I want to put something on my blog I think it needs to be something unique and/or different, then today I realized people like to know that simple food is special! Tonight we had a vegetable stirfry, pork tenderloin on the BBQ and couscous salad. The part that made the meal great was it was cooked working together and we sat at the table and ate it together sharing about our day over our meal…that is special! If you have never made a couscous salad, just buy a box of the original couscous and follow the recipe to make it. It is so simple and very good! The couscous takes 5 minutes to cook and after you add cucumber, cherry tomatoes, green or red onion, fresh garlic and parsley you make a light dressing of fresh lemon and oil, mint, pepper and salt! The salad is great next day too! Enjoy a special dinner with someone special tonight!
Fresh Strawberries!
There is something that says summer has arrived! Fresh Ontario grown strawberries!
3 cups sugar
1 -3 oz pkg strawberry jelly powder
Mix well the strawberries and the sugar and let stand 4 hours or overnight. After the mixture has sat, bring to a hard boil, reduce heat to medium and boil for 10 minutes stirring regularly. Mix jello in with berries and sugar until well dissolved and bring to the boiling point again. Remove from heat and let set a few minutes. Stir again. Put into freezer containers , let cool and freeze. I am not afraid to add a bit more strawberries and although the recipe is a little more runny it works well for the things we like to use the jam on! ENJOY!
My Go to Food!
Everyone has a go-to-food! Mine is what I like to call Pretzel Bugs. Here is the recipe:
The original recipe calls for chow mein noodles but I have swapped pretzels many times for them. Whether you use pretzels or chow mein noodles these are a great cookie in the freezer. They can’t be out too long, too bad!, as they go soft, but they sure give a good chocolate fix! One Christmas I even added dried cranberries for a variation and I loved the new cookie. I should mention that I am a big fan of chocolate covered pretzels so this comes as a natural idea to me!
¼ cup butter or margarine
½ cup peanut butter
1 pkg semi sweet chocolate chips
1 pkg butterscotch chips
1 cups unsalted or salted peanuts
2 cups broken pretzel sticks or chow mein noodles
Melt butter and peanut butter. Add chips and stir till melted. (I often melt the first four ingredients in my 8 cup measuring glass bowl in the microwave, stirring every 30 to 60 seconds.) Remove from heat, cool slightly and then mix in nuts and pretzels. Drop unto waxed paper cookie sheets and put in fridge to chill. When cold put into a covered container with layers of waxed paper store in the fridge or freezer. Very Good!
These speak a bit of sweetness in a rough or tiring moment! Have fun with the recipe and add in other special ingredients, if the combination isn’t great try a different one.
What is your go to food?
Picture of just mixed ‘bugs’ about to go in the fridge to cool!
Next Round of Cookbooks
Pretty exciting times around here as I distributed all of my cookbooks from the first order and had to reorder. Thanks so much for all of you who purchased one. Hope you are having fun reading it and using it! I did find two missed ingredients in the first edition and I trust you will all be sure to write the ingredients in under Page 28 Taco soup, 1 to 2 cup raw pasta and under Page 171 Banana Cake and the chocolate frosting, 1/4 cup sifted cocoa.
The most exciting things to happen in this month of selling was hearing great stories of people having collected recipes from the newspaper columns. Christine brought in a binder full of them to show me, that was pretty special! I also enjoyed hearing one family made the cookies and cream cake for three different functions within a two week span! That was in there because of my son-in-law Andrew! Nice call Andrew! I heard one lady say she took it to the beach to read-how fun is that, I do the same thing with magazines and cookbooks.
Thanks again for taking interest in this project and happy cooking memories to you all!
A Labor of Love!
A while back I came home to the smell of these amazing muffins cooling on the rack. It was a stressful day and baking banana muffins were on my to-do list but Randy took the time to make them for me. What a gift. This is an amazing banana muffin!
AMAZING BANANA MUFFINS
The following recipe was given to me by one of my readers in the New Hamburg Independent paper. She said it was the best Banana Muffin recipe she had ever had. I made it very soon thereafter, because banana muffins and I really like each other, and I must agree it is one of the best! It is moist and a good keeper. Try this one out soon!
1 cup mashed banana
1 cup brown sugar or white
1 cup miracle whip
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup milk chocolate chips ( I often use semisweet, or a combination of dark and semi.)
1 tsp vanilla
Combine all ingredients just until blended. Drop mixture into muffin wrappers or a well greased muffin pan. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes. If possible, try to wait to eat until you sure the muffins won’t burn your mouth. Makes 12 large or 18 smaller ones. When wanting just a little treat I would even bake these (for less time) in my little tart pans.
Cookbooks Have Arrived!
My cookbooks arrived last Thursday and I am some excited! There are over 400 great recipes and some fun timeless tips. I am selling them for $20. each and look forward to sharing the stories and recipes with family and friends. My mother was able to wait excitedly with me for the arrival and we stopped cleaning out closets just to sit and read and enjoy the finished product! If you are interested let me know and we will try to arrange getting one to you!
Hear The Sizzle, Feel The Heat!
I’ve been thinking about spring alot and looking forward to the great BBQ’s. Of course a family tradition is a steak dinner at Christmas-you really should try it! Caesar Salad, Baked Potatoes and BBQ’d steak, no fuss and no mess, more family time! I have always wondered about the cuts of steak and I found this great information in some old material and books as gathered by my Grandma, my Mom and myself. Here is a timeless tip put in my soon to come cookbook:
- Timeless Tip: From a list in an old book I summarize it: ‘The most tender beef steaks are sirloin, porterhouse, T-bone, club and tenderloin and can be BBQ’d and broiled. Round and flanks steaks are more fibrous and should be tenderized with seasonings and cooked slowly’.
Sunday Morning Sweet Treat!
When it comes to special occasions you do not want to spend all of your time fussing with food. It is therefore important to find quick ways to make treats for every meal. The following recipe is one I make many times when everyone is home for the weekend. It is easy, quick to bake and wonderfully good!
1 refrigerated roll of cinnamon rolls with icing
table or maple syrup
brown sugar
Preheat the oven to 350* F. Open the rolls up and cut each single bun into four. In a 9 inch round or square pan cover the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of syrup and then lightly sprinkle brown sugar over the syrup. Carefully put the cut pieces of dough into the pan trying to evenly spread them out. Bake for 15-20 minutes till nicely browned. After baking let the pan sit for 1-2 minutes and then invert quickly over a platter. Let sit till all the sauce has drizzled out over the buns. Remove the pan. Spread the icing in the package over the warm buns and then eat the sweet treat right away! The buns nicely pull apart.
Grandma Knows!
I always peeled potatoes with a knife and ended up wasting too much flesh. By experience I have learned that to use a peeler to peel potatoes you actually increase the volume you are making. The following timeless tip from my Grandmother has helped me a lot when I cooked for large crowds. She had many such lists for cooking for a gang. When considering this quantity information remember your crowd and be sure to account for an all adult serving vs. various family ages servings.
- Timeless Tip: Potatoes for a crowd: 28 pounds for 100 -5 oz servings of potato salad; 50 lbs for 100 – 5 oz servings of mashed potatoes; 24 lbs for 100 -6 oz servings of scalloped potatoes. Grandma Purdy
Maple Syrup Whole Wheat Bread Gone Wild!
I am really enjoying making our own bread. It is fun to try some of the old recipes that have been handed down through the years from some of the great bakers among my family and friends. You do have to write your own methodology as so many of the great bakers just knew how to bake and the normal steps in a process of flour/yeast/etc. to dough/bread/bake! Here is a recipe of my most recent bread-I ended up running an errand and the proofing was quite a bit longer than I anticipated!
Maple Syrup Whole Wheat Bread
1 tbsp white sugar
1 cup warm water
3 tbsp traditional yeast
1 cup maple syrup or honey
1 cup vegetable oil
3 tbsp salt
3 cup hot water
3 cup cold water
6 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup bulgur or other type of grain or flour
another 1 cup whole wheat flour
8 to 9 cup white flour
| Dissolve the sugar in the warm water and sprinkle the yeast over the mixture. Set aside for at least 10 minutes. In a very large bowl put the maple syrup, oil, salt and 6 cups water, stirring well. Add in the first 6 cups of whole wheat flour and the bulgur and mix well with a whisk, until smooth. Add in the yeast mixture and stir together. Add in the other cup of whole wheat flour and 4 cups of the white. Stir to mix well. Add in another 3 cups and continue to work it in. You may have to use your hands (grease them first with oil or butter). Turn out on a clean and floured surface and work in 1 more cup of white flour. If the dough is still too sticky add in a bit of the last cup of flour a bit at a time. The dough should pull away from the surface enough to drop it into a well greased clean bowl. Cover and rise about 40 minutes. Punch down and let rise for another hour. Form the dough into loaves and put into 6-7 greased bread pans. Let rise again. Bake at 350 F till nice and golden (about 40-50 minutes). If you want a soft crust spread butter over the top of the baked loaf. Take out of bread pans and let cool on a cooling rack.Enjoy! |
Cooking With Memories 