Dance of the Sugar Plum Candies!

Often I’ve heard the song, “‘Twas the night before Christmas”, with the lyrics;

“The children were nestled

All safe in their beds

While visions of sugar plums

Danced in their heads”

I love that old song, it always creates an image of Christmas magic with elves, candy, stars and Santa dancing in the dreams of sleeping children. I’ve often wondered what a sugar plum was and how delicious it must be, if the children dream of them the night before Christmas.

Children love cartoons, and I have not grown out of that love myself.  I do enjoy cartoons, and don’t mind the least that my child wants to watch them all the time.  One of my favorite cartoons is “Max and Ruby“, a story of a little boy bunny and his perfectionist sister.  In one episode, Ruby and her friend Louise are giving a “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies”, ballet recital to Grandma and Max.  The refreshments include, you guessed it, sugar plums.  I was kind of disappointed to see that they were sugar coated plums.  What a bummer.

One day, while shopping in Whole Foods (my favorite grocery store ever), I saw a display of Christmas treats.  I noticed a box of sugar plums.  Now the moment of truth.  I turned the box around to read the ingredients, to my pleasant surprise, it was not a box of sugar coated plums.  Score.  I purchased them and went to the car to see if the sugar plums held up to the Christmas song hype.  They did and then some.  Now, I wasn’t going to spend a ton of money buying these sugar plums, so I would have to learn to make them.  I searched the web for a recipe that was similar to the ones I had finally found.  There were many recipes, but the one I am posting, with a few minor changes, is the one that included all the ingredients I really liked.

The base recipe is by Treva Bedinghaus, About.com Guide.

http://dance.about.com/od/famousballets/r/Sugar_Plums.htm?p=1

I added a couple things which I will include under the original ingredients, and italicized.

Ingredients:

2 cups whole almonds

1/4 cup honey

2 tsp. grated orange zest

1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground allspice

1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup finely chopped dried apricots

1 cup finely chopped pitted dates

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1/2 tsp. grated ginger

1/2 tsp. ground cardamom

1 bag semi-sweet chocolates

Whole cloves

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400. Arrange almonds on a baking sheet in a single layer and toast in oven for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool, then finely chop.

Meanwhile, combine honey, orange zest, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg (ginger, cardamom) in a medium mixing bowl.  Add almonds, apricots and dates and mix well.

Pinch off rounded teaspoon size pieces of mixture and roll into the shape of a plum and add a clove to the top as the stem.  (Rinse hands often, as mixture is very sticky.) Roll in sugar, then refrigerate in single layers between sheets of waxed paper in airtight containers for up to 1 month.  Their flavor improves after ripening for several days.

I actually rubbed my hands with a little butter and that helped keep the mixture from sticking.  Before I formed the sugar plums, I used a double boiler and melted the bag of semi-sweet chocolates.  Then as I formed the mixture into plum shapes, I dropped in the melted chocolate and covered them.  I dropped the chocolate coated balls onto a lined cookie sheet and my little boy took a spoon and sprinkled (dumped….whichever you choose) colored sugar on the chocolate (purple would be ideal).  I didn’t use the confectioners sugar. 

A few notes for those who can learn from my mistakes.  I, mistakenly, thought I could take a cup of dried apricots and when they were finely chopped by the food processor, that it would still be one cup. duh, not so.  As my Mom told me, it will vary, best is to finely chop and measure appropriately.  Same with the dates.  If I had chopped the dried fruits first, thereby getting the correct amount added to the mixture, it would have tasted better.  Don’t get me wrong, they taste good, but a little too much nut flavor for my taste. 

My Mom also had a great idea, take a pitted prune (dried plum) and use a melon baller and scoop out the middle, then stuff the sugar plum mixture into the prune shell and THEN dip in chocolate.  Too much detail work for me.  I like short and sweet recipes, not complications….but, for those of you who don’t mind I think it’s a great idea.  Let me know how it turns out!!!

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/c/christmas_songs/#share

Authentic LEBKUCHEN, Gingerbread recipe from scratch. Wonderfully simple.

Gingerbread House

Mom is German and in Germany, or Deutschland, gingerbread is called Lebkuchen.  I found a recipe for Lebkuchen in a cook book called, “My Favorite Cookies from the old Country.”  They called for allowing the dough to sit in a covered bowl for 10 days before using it.  That’s more time than I’m willing to wait for cookies, I’d just head right back to the store and get the refrigerated kind.  Well, I really wanted to know an easy recipe for gingerbread, so I called Mom.  As always, she came through with flying colors.  I believe I will make some homemade gingerbread cookies this week.  Let me know how yours turn out, ok? (P.S. The picture is not one of Mom’s gingerbread houses, it’s one we did with the baby a couple of years ago.)

A little note on the cookbook I was reading, they did suggest to leave the cookies out over night to harden and then bake them.  Of course, cover them up first.  I’m not sure why, but it was an interesting step to take.  Well, if you’ve waited 10 days to make cookies, what’s one more night?  Ahhh, but there’s nothing better than a house filled with the warm scents of freshly made, freshly baked and decorated, Lebkuchen cookies.

LEBKUCHEN (Gingerbread)

½ cup unsalted butter

½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1/3 cup dark corn syrup

1 egg

2 ½ cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground cloves

2 tsp. ground ginger

¼ tsp. salt

Combine butter and brown sugar in a large bowl; beat until well blended. Add corn syrup and egg; beat until smooth. Combine remaining ingredients in another bowl; stir to mix well then add to butter mixture, a third at a time, mixing after each addition until smooth. Divide dough into thirds; wrap each third in foil and chill at least one hour to make rolling easier. On a well-floured surface roll out one-third of the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, cut out cookie shapes, placing them on ungreased baking sheets, 1 inch apart. Bake at 400 deg. F, for 8 minutes or until lightly browned; remove from baking sheet at once onto a cooling rack. While still warm brush with LEMON GLAZE.

LEMON GLAZE: In a small bowl 2 cups confectionery sugar add 1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice, stirring with a fork to combine. If too thick add a little at a time more lemon juice until glaze is of spreading consistency. Immediately decorate with sprinkles etc. (I use this same dough and glaze to make gingerbread houses)

Banana-Nut Bread or Muffins

I have always loved bananas. They are so good for you and they taste delicious. I especially love fried bananas with a fried egg, or banana bread on a cold snowy day with hot chocolate.  Alas, I can no longer enjoy a banana.  Several years ago, I noticed an itchy sensation in my throat when I ate bananas.  My tongue felt thick and tingled, an overall unpleasant experience.  I brought it up to my doctor who informed me it was a food allergy.  I had, to date, never had any kind of allergy to food.  How could this be?  He advised me that some people acquire food allergies as they get older.  He was right, that was the start of several food allergies.  Hopefully, I have stopped developing food allergies, it really is difficult to deal with at times.  When we go to restaurants I have to go down the list of food I am allergic to.  If we are in a seafood restaurant, I have to specify that they cook my food on a clean grill, or in a clean skillet and it can’t be touched by anything that has touched seafood, shellfish, spinach, etc.  I was recently in a seafood restaurant and they advised me that they only had a small grill and could not guarantee that anything they grill for me would not be contaminated by an allergen.  My husband really wanted to eat there, so I ordered something that was “safe”, how badly could nachos get messed up?  Extremely badly as it turns out.  I took one bite and tasted shrimp.  Shrimp is one of my more severe allergies.  I asked the waiter to come over to tell him that the chips tasted of shrimp.  His answer not only shocked me, but caused great concern at the ignorance of a person who serves food to patrons who may have food allergies.  He nodded his head as I told him my discovery and advised me that they, do, fry the chips in the shrimp oil.  He also helpfully added, that the heat of the oil kills all the allergens in the shrimp and renders the food completely safe for those of us who are allergic.  Wow.  Sadly, this is the attitude of many wait staff.  They are not educated, the cooks are not educated, and food allergies are not taken seriously.  People die every day from anaphylactic shock brought on by food allergies.  Restaurants really need to take those extra steps to insure the safety of their food served to the public. Some people have such severe allergies that even the smell of a food they are allergic to can send them into a severe health emergency.  Thankfully, none of my allergies are so extreme.

My husband and son love bananas, we have them in the house but I don’t cook with them as the steam from the cooking bananas can cause a mild irritation to my throat.  We also don’t eat several other things because I can not cook them, due to my allergies.  My mother-in-law came for a visit and she made some banana nut muffins.  We had several left over bananas that I did not want to waste, after she left.  I decided to bake some Banana Bread.  My Dad sent over the recipe they use and I tried my very first Banana Bread.  It smelled really good, and yes, it did  cause me a little discomfort, I just took an antihistamine which seemed to ease the symptoms some.

Sometimes having food allergies makes me sad.  My Mom and I have taken several cruises and most of the time the food on the menu has some sort of allergen.  The wait staff are very good about making sure the food is safe.  It’s important to tell them prior to your sail date of allergies and then to discuss with both the Maitre dee and your waiter, your allergies.  They are, however, unable to change the menu.  After several nights of eating a small variety of things, I was so upset to discover that there was nothing on the third nights menu that I could eat.  I broke down in tears and left the dining room.  The waiter followed me out to the elevator to ask what was wrong.  I told him that there was nothing on the menu I could eat.  He was so nice, he offered to get me a hot dog from the Lido deck.  I laughed and motioned to the evening gown I had on and said no thank you.  He coaxed me back to the table and made it his mission to bring me a grilled chicken breast with other things I could eat.  Of course, his kindness and concern again had me in tears, but that is what should happen.  None of us asked to have food allergies, it’s annoying to the people who go out with us, it’s annoying to the waiters and chefs/cooks, it’s annoying to us.  The fact is, people have food allergies.  They are dangerous, and they can kill.

That said, please try this wonderful recipe, unless you are allergic of course .  The Banana Bread came out of the oven and between my son and husband was devoured shortly thereafter.  This recipe is for muffins, however the bread recipe is at the bottom.  I don’t like nuts in my food, as a general rule.  So I left the pecans out.

Banana-Nut Muffins:

author: unknown

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 cup mashed ripe banana

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup chopped pecans

• Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl’ make a well in center of mixture.  Combine egg, mashed banana, milk and oil; add mixture to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.  Stir in pecans.
• Spoon batter into greased muffin pans, filling three-fourths full.  Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until golden.  Remove from pans immediately.  yield: 1 dozen
• Per muffin: Calories 217 Fat 10.6g Cholesterol 20 mg Sodium 184mg

Banana-Nut Bread:

Spoon batter into a greased 81/2 X 41/2 inch loaf pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pan 10 minutes.  Yield: 1 loaf.

German Broetchen or German Hard Rolls

My Mom is German, as I’ve said before, and she brought a bag of German Hard Rolls home one day when I was little.  She was very happy she found them at our local grocery store.  I remember looking at them, thinking they didn’t look that special.  I poked one, sure enough hard as a brick,  I thought Mom was crazy.  Why in the world would anyone want to eat a roll with a crust like that.  Surely it would break your teeth out.  Was I ever wrong.  Crusty on the outside, soft and delicious on the inside.  A true breakfast treat.  I never thought I would bake them myself.  I’m trying to branch out my kitchen skills.  I am finding that I do love to bake bread.  Good for my family, bad for my figure.

 These were so much fun to bake, even more fun to eat.  You will need two days to make this recipe so make sure you plan your time accordingly.

This recipe was e-mailed to me, so I do not know whom to give credit for it.  Whomever you are, thank you, simply delicious!

Ingredients:

Note: you will need a spray bottle with water for this recipe.  This is what makes the crust crunchy.

Day 1: 

2 cups Bread Flour

1 1/3 cup water

1/2 tsp instant yeast

Day 2: 

5 1/2 cup bread flour

1 1/3 cup water (extra if needed)

1 tsp instant yeast

1 to 1 1/2 tsp salt

Preparation: 

Mix all the Day 1 ingredients in a bowl until smooth and lump free

Cover loosely with plastic wrap

Leave on counter overnight (this makes the “sponge”)

Day 2:

Mix the sponge with 5 cups of flour, water and yeast

Knead for 8 minutes, preferably with a stand mixer

Add up to another half cup of flour until dough barely sticks to the bowl

Sprinkle salt over the dough and mix for 4 minutes

The dough should be smooth but still tacky, adjust with water,  a teaspoon at a time,  or flour, a tablespoon at a time

Form dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl turning once to coat

Place a damp towel or plastic wrap over the top and let the dough rest for 2 hours

Turn dough out on lightly floured work surface and cut into pieces the size of a small orange

Let dough rest for a few minutes then form into small balls or any other shape you like

Coat in flour and place on parchment paper about 2 inches apart

Cover with a damp cloth and let them rise for another hour

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Place an old pan on the bottom rack

Lightly score  rolls with a serrated knife or blade

Place rolls on cookie sheet and place  in the oven on the next shelf above the pan

Pour 1 cup water into the old baking pan and close the door quickly

Spray sides of the oven with water 2 or 3 times in the first 5 minutes of baking

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes

Cool rolls on wire rack so that the bottom will not get soggy

Rolls should be eaten warm and crispy

Place in the fridge then re-crisp in the oven or toaster if you are not eating them the same day

They can even be frozen

I didn’t have a spray bottle so I used a basting brush and a cup of water to splash on the sides of the oven, it worked nicely.

Go Nuts (or Ape) for my Chocolaty Pumpkin Monkey Bread

Go Ape for my chocolate pumpkin Monkey Bread

 

I had Monkey bread many years ago and it was so good.   A while ago I tried to replicate it, but failed miserably.   I ended up with a pile of dry bread covered in burned cinnamon.   Yuck!

I learned from that mistake and went on to discover the most delicious combination of monkey bread ingredients I ever tasted.

Ingredients:

2 cans biscuit dough

1 cup cinnamon sugar

Nutella Hazelnut spread

Pumpkin Pie dip

5 pats of unsalted butter

1 bread pan greased and set aside

Tear biscuit dough into small chunks and place into a large bowl as you tear them apart.

After all your dough is in small chunks pour cinnamon sugar over them and toss until every piece is coated in the mixture

Drop coated bread chunks into greased bread pan

Do not overlap

Make one layer Drizzle Nutella over this layer and then the pumpkin pie dip

Make another layer of dough, drizzle again with Nutella and Pumpkin pie dip

Make last layer of dough and place pats of butter on top

Place in oven and bake until dough is done, according to directions on biscuit dough can WATCH carefully dough may bake faster, depending how big or small the dough pieces are.

Don’t over bake!

Serve warm with scrambled eggs.

It is so good! You can find Pumpkin Pie dip in most specialty kitchen stores.

Delicious Easter jello with home made pudding, marshmallows and cheddar cheese

Delicious Easter jello with home made pudding, marshmallows and cheddar cheese

One of my most favorite deserts is my Grandma’s jello salad.  She made up this recipe and it is a family favorite.

I use different variations of this Jello salad, but the same technique Grandma taught me.  The home made pudding is out of this world. It is very easy to make.

When my husband first saw this jello salad, he wasn’t sure what to think.  He told me he didn’t think the cheese was such a good idea, he didn’t think he’d like it.  His mind was quickly changed once he took a taste.  Don’t write this off because you think the cheese will not be good, it is wonderful.

I found these cute, rabbit shaped, marshmallows and decided to use them since it is Easter.  They are hidden a little in the cheese, but it’s still a cute presentation. 

This recipe makes a lot of Jello Salad. I cut it in half and I have fun with the combinations of jello and fruit. I also use the flavored marshmallows to mix things up a bit. Kids love this, and adults do too!

My Grandma makes this a lot, and she always adds different kinds of fruit with the pineapples. Her favorite type of fruit to add are bananas. I’m allergic to bananas! I went to her house and she told me she made her jello salad. I cut myself a piece then put it right back in the pan. I went back into the living room with no jello. She was just about to ask me why, when her eyes got all big and she said BANANAS! A few weeks later she made the jello again. This time she didn’t add banana’s and was happy to tell me that. I was so glad I could have a slice of her jello salad.  I get a slice and there were some odd looking fruit pieces mixed in with the pineapple, just to be sure I asked what they were, Mango. I’m allergic to mango too. So, I had to learn how to make it myself, or I’d never get any I could eat! Ha Ha.

The first recipe is Grandma’s actual Jello Salad.  The ingredients I used for the salad pictured are listed below.  Feel free to experiment with flavor combinations. 

Grandma’s Jello Salad:

1 regular package Lemon Jello

1 regular package Orange Jello

 can crushed pineapple

1 bag mini marshmallows

Orange Juice

2 TB. sugar

3 TB. flour

1 egg, beaten

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/2 pint whipping cream (or 8oz. Cool Whip)

Grated cheddar cheese

Prepare Jello according to package

Drain pineapple and reserve the juice

Add pineapple to jello

Pour into glass dish

Cover with mini marshmallows and refrigerate to gel

Add orange juice to pineapple juice to make 1 cup

Pour into sauce pan

Add sugar, flour, and beaten egg

Cook over medium heat until pudding like, stir constantly

Remove from heat and allow to cool at room temperature, stirring occasionally

Once room temp., refrigerate until ready to add to Jello salad

Put whipping cream in a bowl and add lemon juice

Fold in the pudding mixture, whip together (if using whipped topping, then mix into pudding mixture)

Put on top of marshmallows then grate cheese on top

Refrigerate until ready to serve

Easter Jello Pudding ingredients:

Raspberry jello

Bunny shaped Marshmallows

Fruit cocktail drained, reserve the juice to use for the pudding

Want an easy Easter recipe for desert your kids will love? Feed them “Dirt”.

Want an easy Easter desert recipe your kids will love? Feed them “Dirt”.

Before you start looking up the phone number for Child Protective Services, read on. Not only will your kid love it, but your big kid (husband) will love it too. The first time I ever was served “dirt” was at Christian Acres Church Camp. At dinner one night, the desert table, was lined with gutters filled with dirt for desert. It was fantastic. I’ve never forgotten it, and never fixed it until tonight.

My sons school is having an Easter Party tomorrow and I wanted to bring something different, fun, and well, that would move me up on the favorite-snack-bringer scale. I’m at the bottom right now. I try to bring healthy snacks and drinks on my son’s snack day. One day, I brought Gluten free chocolate crispy rice bars, organic fruit twists along with fruit/veggie juice boxes. When I picked him up from school, I asked him if everyone liked the snacks I brought. He said, “not exactly, except the fruit twists.” Great. This is my ace in the hole, I hope!

“Dirt”

1 package chocolate pudding

Regular Oreo Cookies

Gummy worms

Speckled Peanut butter M&M’s

4 plastic cups (or a tin-foil bread pan)

Fix the pudding according to package directions

.Put Oreo cookies in a zip lock bag and crush with a meat tenderizer (flat side)

Put 1/2 cup pudding in cup Sprinkle

2 tablespoons crushed cookies over top

Put gummy worm into the pudding and leave 1/2 laying on top of the Oreo cookies

Place two speckled “eggs” beside the gummy worm

I use the Cook and Serve pudding, I think it just has a better taste than the instant.

Serve with a smile.

Easy Beef Ranch Stroganoff with elbow macaroni and Dill Succotash

I have heard that sometimes the greatest inventions were by accident.  I’ll have to agree with that.  I was wondering what to  make for dinner last night with the ground beef I had.  No, to Taco’s, hamburgers, hamburger steak, meatballs, and all the other usual ideas.  I wanted something different.  I remember having a delicious ground beef dish with elbow macaroni.  I didn’t quite remember the ingredients, but I thought it had cheese in it.  How hard could this be? 

As I was getting the ingredients out, I had a brilliant idea.  Why not use a packet of Ranch Dressing mix?  We love Ranch Dressing, so why not use it to spice up the hamburger?  I had, left over shredded Mozzarella cheese, from pizza night last night.  Ok, it’s coming together.  I said a quick prayer that it would taste good and got to cooking. I kind of flew-by-the-seat-of-my-pants on this one.  After the meat was cooked, I added the cheese and ranch dressing mix.  It needed liquid.  I didn’t have cream (that would have been amazing I’m sure) so I used whole milk.  I added a little at a time until it was a nice thick consistency.  I tasted it, and Whalah, it tasted just like Beef Stroganoff!! What a wonderful surprise.  I love Hamburger Helper Beef Stroganoff, which was probably what my room-mate was making, now that I think of it.  It has a crazy amount of sodium in it, so I don’t make it any more. Now, I can make this anytime I want and it’s much healthier.  I didn’t add one bit of salt to the entire dish.  You can use 2% cheese, and milk, what a great meal.  Quick and easy. 

I always boil my hamburger meat.  I take the lump of ground beef out of the package, add it to a sauce pan or skillet, add water about 1/4 way up the meat and boil.  I also add lots of garlic, onions and pepper.  I think it flavors the meat as it boils.  I learned this little trick in college, from a room-mate of mine.  Four of us shared a house, and we alternated weeks for cooking and cleaning the kitchen.  One of my room mates was making something with hamburger meat, and boiled it.  I asked why in the world a person would do this.  I was told, and found to be true, that it makes it easier to drain the grease from the meat.  We all know, from basic science, that oil and water do not mix.  So, by boiling the meat, the grease rises to the top of the water, which can then be easily poured off with the water.  No more paper towels, no more precious meat going into the trash along with the grease, no more greasy yuck tasting meat.  Just cooked hamburger with a very nice flavor. 

After the meat is boiled, I pour off the water and grease, then break it up into small pieces and fry a little bit longer to make sure it’s cooked through.  Most times, I’ll cut the hamburger in half to make sure it is cooked enough before I pour the water/grease off.  This is such a neat trick, time saving too!  Warning, don’t boil too long or you’ll end up with a hamburger baseball. 

Beef Ranch Stroganoff

1 lb Ground Beef

water

2 tsp low sodium soy sauce

1 packet Ranch Dressing mix

2 large cloves of garlic, smashed

1 TB spoon minced onion

2 tsp freshly ground pepper

1 cup shredded 2% mozzarella cheese

whole milk, or cream, or 2% milk

Elbow macaroni

Add ground beef to a large sauce pan, pour in enough water to cover 1/4 way up the meat.  Leave the ground beef whole, do not break it into pieces yet.

Add to the ground beef and water, garlic, minced onion and pepper, bring to a boil

Cook until nearly well done

Pour off water and then break the beef up into smaller pieces

Add the ranch dressing, cheese and stir.

Slowly add milk until it reaches a medium thick consistency

Allow this to simmer together while you make the macaroni

Elbow Macaroni:

Cook as per package instructions, use about 1/2 a box

Dill Succotash:

Frozen Succotash vegetables

1 TB spoon butter

1 tsp dill

Allow the vegetables to cook, add the butter once the veggies are done, then add the dill while the water/butter is boiling.  Take off the heat, drain and serve.

Once the macaroni is cooked, pour off most of the water, then add to the ground beef mixture, stir, serve and enjoy. 

I have some leftover, which means a delicious lunch tomorrow.  It will probably be even better tomorrow once all the flavors blend, or marry.  Ummmm, Yummy, I hope you enjoy!

Do you know what a Turnip is? Want to know how to cook one and be glad you did?

 

Long time ago, bacon grease was the “go to” grease to cook with. Then studies showed it was bad for our hearts, and other oils became more popular. I can remember Mom had a bacon keeper on the stove, when I was little. It was a tin container, round, with an insert in the top. The bacon was put on the insert, the grease dripped down into the container to be used for cooking. Mom said that I always smelled like bacon, and she couldn’t figure out why. One day, when I was about 3 years old, she came into the kitchen to find me climbing onto the counter top to eat the bacon out of the bacon keeper. I never could figure out why anyone wanted to store perfectly good bacon. It simply must be eaten immediately. I have never seen another “bacon keeper”, and when I’ve mentioned it to people, they look at me like I’ve sprouted three heads. The horror!! Leaving bacon out, using it’s fat to cook with. Why would anyone in their right mind use such a flavorful grease to cook with? Why, not even Paula Deen uses bacon fat! wink wink.

I finally was organizing my loose recipes into a binder with those plastic sleeves, very convenient.  I ran across this recipe from a dear family friend, Justine.  It is her mothers recipe for Boiled Turnips.  This is a very old recipe.  Please don’t turn your nose up at it, try it.  You will be surprised and the flavor.  You might just find yourself wanting more turnips in your diet. 

Boiled Turnips

by Ora Wallace

6 medium turnips (cut the root and stem off, wash, then chop into bite size pieces)

2 tbs Bacon drippings  (or just fry 4-5 slices of bacon, remove bacon and crumble, add crumpled bacon to turnips at end)

1 tbs sugar or to taste

salt to taste

Corn meal

Water to about top of turnips

Cook until tender

sprinkle plain corn meal in broth to thicken

eat immediately

What to do with left over Rotisserie chicken? Comfort Food, Chicken Pot Pie style

When I was little, I did not like Chicken Pot pies. I took the stand, if there is a pie crust, it needs to be filled with cherries or apples, not chicken with veggies. I’ve slowly given over to accepting the chicken pot pie. We went to Cracker Barrel to eat dinner on the night they were making chicken pot pies. I thought I’d try one, it had been years since I ate one. It was delicious! I found myself craving a chicken pot pie.

I wanted to make my own Chicken pie (as my son calls it), but wasn’t sure how. I read in a cook book, several different versions of pot pies and decided to mix them to create my own version. My mother-in-law happened to be coming to visit the day I made my first attempt at a Chicken pot pie. My whole family loved, including the little boy. We ate like pigs, it was so good!

My son and I have been sick for the last two weeks with chest colds, head colds, all over colds I guess would be the best description. I haven’t felt like cooking, who does when your under the weather? I have been wanting chicken pot pie. I decided that once I felt better, we were going to have one. For the last several days, I have not been able to smell or taste anything. Probably a good idea not to cook anything new.

My sense of smell and taste are coming back, so tonight was the night. I bought a lovely Rachel Ray, enameled, cast iron casserole dish, for my birthday. I received some birthday money, and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend it than on one of her pieces of cookware. I got a Rachel Ray knife for Christmas. It is fantastic. I have several pieces of her cook and bake ware, I like all of them.

Tonight I decided to use my new casserole dish. I can cook on top of the stove with it, put it in the oven, then cover with the lid and store it in the fridge for leftovers tomorrow. Score!!

Chicken Pot Pie:

1 deep dish frozen pie crust (thawed)

2.5 cups cubed chicken

2 cups frozen veggies

1 cup celery thinly sliced

1 medium onion

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp poultry seasoning

2 tsp parsley finely chopped

1.5 tbsp butter

1.5 tbsp olive oil

salt

fresh ground black pepper

1/3 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350

In a large skillet saute the onions, celery in the butter and oil,

add salt and pepper

when onions & celery are softened, add the parsley and poultry seasoning

add the flour and brown slightly, stir a lot so it doesn’t burn

slowly pour in the chicken broth and milk stirring constantly until thickened

add the frozen veggies

heat through

Pour in a casserole dish

Take the pie crust out of the pie plate, careful not to tear it

Put over the casserole dish and pinch the sides to seal.

Cut slits in the top of the pie crust to vent

Bake in oven 45 minutes until the crust is golden brown and bubbly

I saw another version of pot pie. Instead of putting the pie crust on, put on cut biscuit dough. Then you’ll have pot pie with biscuits. Looked yummy too!!