Category — Cooking

When Kayla and I went to the Amish, I picked up a new cookbook..ok, I confess, I bought two.  No…I didn’t need a new cookbook (or 2)…but Amish cookbooks are my favorite.   The recipes typically use ingredients that I have on had.  I have a real love of reading cookbooks too….

Here’s the first recipe I tried…Amish Turtle Cake.

It’s a HUGE success!

Here’s the recipe.

1 German cake mix (or your own)
14 oz caramels
1 stick margarine
7 oz sweet condensed milk
6 oz pecans
6 oz chocolate chips

Melt you caramels, margarine and milk in double boiler or microwave.  Cool slightly.  Mix cake.  Pour 1/2 of the cake batter in the bottom of a greased 9×13 pan.  Bake 15 minutes at 350.  Take out and pour caramel mix over baked cake.  Put on the rest of the cake batter.  Sprinkle the pecans and chocolate chips over the top.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

It’s salsa season here…..You wouldn’t know from the look of my garden.  We got SO much rain here that my tomatoes suffered horribly….well my sister in law Wendy came to the rescue with five crates of TOMATOES!

No sewing today…..just tomatoes….

And a roaster full of these meatballs, a roaster full of party potatoes, a crock pot of green bean casserole, a salad, and homemade buns for 50 hungry firemen!  It’s my day to cook for the county fire meeting….

Cooking, salsa….oh, and did I forget.  Number one son is bringing home his girlfriend.  I hope she can handle an active messy house.

My family LOVES homemade tapioca pudding.  I don’t mind making it…but…”once in while” I get distracted and it gets burned.  Today I tried a new recipe that tastes wonderful and eliminates most of chances of burning it because it is made in the crock pot!  This was one of the those recipes I just had to try because making pudding in a crock pot just sounds like it wouldn’t work…but it did!

Here’s the recipe:
Put the following ingredients into your crock pot:
2 quarts milk
1 cup small pearl tapioca
1.5 cups sugar….you can use only 1 cup if you prefer
Cook these ingredients in your crock pot for 3 hours on high.

When the 3 hours are up, in a separate bowl mix together:
4 beaten eggs
2 t vanilla and 1/2 cup of the milk mixture from the crock pot.

Now whisk the egg mixture with the crock pot mixture together in the crock pot.  Cook on high 20 more minutes.  Chill and eat.  It’s great alone, with whip cream or with fruit.  Yummy!

A bonus for me is that it uses FOUR eggs….when you have chickens, you are always looking for egg recipes.   If you are teaching kiddos, this recipe is a great for them to watch and participate in.  It’s fun to see the liquid milk turn into a creamy pudding.

P.S.  If you are here looking for the giveaway….here’s a link.

Over the weekend, my daughter Kayla had her wisdom teeth taken out.

Here she is snuggled up in my Carolina Christmas quilt.  While she was home we watched a couple movies and I tried to pamper her a bit by making my recipe for rice pudding.

Yesterday, over on Kayla’s blog a.k.a. Kayla’s Thrifty Ways, she wrote a cute little post asking for the recipe….and here is my reply.

Dear Kayla…..
I was happy to be of service to you!  I don’t get a chance to pamper you as much as I wish now that you are a grown girl and out and on your own.   We need to have a few more days like that…minus the teeth removal.  The company was splendid, the movies pretty good, and English paper piecing was great too.

As for the rice pudding recipe….It’s one of those that you have to make a couple times before you truly get the hang of it.  So, if you don’t get it the first time, try again.  It is definitely worth it!
Here goes….
Put 1 cup of rice in a pan along with 2 cups of water.  Add a 1/2 stick of butter or margarine.  Put it on medium heat.  Don’t cover it.  Cook until the liquid is mostly absorbed BUT not burned to the bottom of the pan.  Add 1 quart of milk….if you forgot your math, that’s 4 cups.  Let that cook until boiling.  Let it lightly bubble  for about 1 minute stirring all the time.

In another bowl combine 3 beaten eggs (you can get by with two but you know I always have too many eggs), add 1 teaspoons of vanilla and a half cup sugar.

Now take about 1 cup of the milk/rice mix and stir it in to the eggs.  Now whisk that mixture back into the pan on the stove.  Whisk LOTS and FAST or the eggs will curdle.   Continue heating and stirring a minute or two minutes.  Now, you can add cinnamon if you wish. The original recipe has it but, we like it best without.  You can pour it in a bowl and refrigerate if you want….I don’t because Kalissa likes it warm.  As it cools and sets, the top develops a custard like consistency.

When everyone is home, I double the batch.  The original recipe calls for whole milk, but I quit using whole milk just to cut the calories.  Of course it is richer and creamier with whole milk, but I am trying to avoid a richer, creamier, body so it’s my sacrifice.  I have also made it using sugar substitute and that’s okay too.   Leftovers make a GREAT breakfast!

Everyone here eats it a little different.  I eat mine in a bowl with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top and milk…kind of like cereal.  Kalissa eats her’s with cinnamon and sugar BUT no milk.  Dad eats his with a dollop of butter on top, cinnamon and sugar and milk.  Regardless of how you eat it, it’s yummy.

Looks like Kalissa found it….

…and so, Kayla, that’s the recipe.
I hope your teeth (or lack there of) continue to heal.   Let me know when your schedule will allow you to be home….it’s nice to spend the day together.  Love, Mom.

Last week I shared my Cookie Salad recipe with you.  That is my family’s favorite salad…today, it’s my chance to share my favorite salad with you,

Broccoli Cauliflower Salad.

Here’s the recipe:
1 bunch of brocolli chopped
1/2 head cauliflower chopped
1/2 c raisins
1/2 purple onion chopped
8 slices of bacon cooked crisp, crumbled
1/4 c sunflower seeds

Dressing
1/3 cup mayonaise
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
3 T vinegar

Mix the dressing and pour over the other ingredients.  Keep will for a day or so.

I have a HUGE love of salty things and with the bacon and sunflower seeds, this salad fits the bill.  I try to watch my carbs and for me, this is better than most non-lettuce salads.

Over the weekend, I helped host a bridal shower for my niece.  I was in charge of making salads…so I pulled out my old stand by recipe for No Fail Cookie Salad.  This is super easy and it’s always a hit.  If you have little ones, they will love to help you break up the cookies and you’re guarenteed to not have any left overs.

Here’s the recipe.

1 cup buttermilk (If I don’t have it, I mix one cup of skim with 2 T vinegar…it tastes richer with the buttermilk though)
1 small box instant vanilla pudding
2 c Cool Whip
1 package of fudge stripe cookies (I use the generic)

Mix the buttermilk and pudding.  Add the Cool Whip and cookies that are broken into small pieces-bit sized, not crushed.  Chill. 

How easy is that!  If you think ahead, you can save a couple cookies, break them in half and use as a garnish.  Another tip…if you are going to be busy the day you need the salad, break up the cookies in advance and store in a ziplock bag.  This salad does not do well as a left-over.  Make it the day you need it.

This is a standard salad that I make for graduation or other big events.  It’s easily double, tripled or even quadrupled.

Kelli was home with her beagle puppy, who is all puppy.  Few things are safe when she is around including the Revel Bars I made.  Revel bars a Kramer family favorite.  My hubby says, you can’t go wrong if you mix sweetened condensed milk with chocolate and I think he’s right.  If I make these for an event, these are typically the first bars that are eaten. 

Here’s the recipe…
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
3 cups quick oatmeal
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
15 ounces sweetened milk
12 ounces chocolate chips
2 tablespoons vanilla

Cream butter and brown sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Add sifted flour and soda.    Mix in oatmeal. Put 2/3 of mixture in pan and pat out in your greased 11 x 15 pan. If you have trouble spreading the dough out, spray your hands with cooking spray and pat.   Melt chocolate chips with sweetened milk and vanilla.  Add walnuts if desired.  Pour over crust.  Dot the rest of the creamed mixture over the top.  Bake at 350 degrees.  Check them at 20 minutes and bake longer if needed.

I am still getting LOTS of eggs from my chickens and still making lots of goodies that use eggs.  Here’s the latest installment of recipes that use eggs.

This is called Impossible Pie.  It’s one of those recipes that you have to try just because, quite frankly, it sounds impossible.

Mix together:
4 eggs
2 c milk
1 c sugar
1/2 c flour
1/2 c melted butter
2 t vanilla
1 c coconut

It will be in a liquid form.  Pour into a 10″ pie pan.  I don’t have a 10″ pan so I put mine in a round casserole.  If you use a 9″ pan, it will run over.  (trust me on the this tip)   Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.   The pie “makes it’s own crust” and tastes a bit like a coconut custard.

It’s not a beautiful looking dish but could be spruced up with a bit of whipped topping and strawberries if you like.

I made one last night and it was gone before I got a photo.  This is the second one I made.  Even hubby who doesn’t like coconut, likes this recipe.

Do you have any raunchy apples laying around?  I did.  I managed help three of the apples go from raunchy to FABULOUS in a short time using this recipe for
Sour Cream Apple Pie.   I honestly had to fight everyone off to get this photo.

Here’s the recipe.

2 eggs
1 cup sour cream (I used vanilla yogurt)
1 c sugar
2 T flour
1 t vanilla
3 c chopped apples
In a large bowl, beat eggs.  Add sour cream, sugr, flour, and vanilla.  stir in apples.  Pour into unbaked pie shell.  Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.  While that is baking combine
3 t butter
1/4 c brown sugar
4 T flour
Sprinkle the mixture on top of the pie.  Return to the oven and bake 20-25 more minutes until the filling is set.  Cool and refrigerate left overs…if there are any.

Kelli was home and we baked pies for a bake sale.  We made 5 regular apple pies and 2 strawberry/rhubarb pies for the bake sale.  Then we made two of the sour cream apples pies and two cream cheese pecan pies using Mary’s recipe from over at Quilt Hollow.  Since discovering Mary’s recipe, pecan’s have become a staple on my grocery list.

The kitchen was a huge mess…but the fun and the taste  were priceless.

If you are a cream cheese lover, here is a quick recipe for you…

2 tubes of crescent rolls
2  8oz. cream cheese
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 t. cinnamon
3/4 c sugar
Grease  your 9 x 13 pan and spread 1 pack of crescent rolls into the bottom of the pan.  Set aside.  Mix cream cheese,  1 cup sugar, and the egg YOLK (save the white).  Spread on the crescent rolls.  Put the other package of crescent rolls over the top of the cream cheese mix.  I usually roll them with the rolling pin first to get them stretched out far enough to reach the edges.  Beat the egg white and spread over the top of the crescent rolls.  Mix 3/4 cup sugar and cinnamon.  Sprinkle over the egg white.  Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees. 

When I make a mixture of bars for a get together, I usually make two pans of these.  One for my family to eat before the event, and one for the event.  If I didn’t, my family would eat the whole pan before company could even get to them.