Time to pull out the faded and stained old handwritten recipes or notes, favorite cookbooks, and share with friends who really want to offer our best dishes to family and friends for Christmas. This time of year I especially try to remember the two women who taught me to cook, and to love cooking. My husband’s paternal grandmother, and his mother taught me with encouragement, kindness, joy and pride in the making of simple meals for big families. They taught me how to make good, nourishing meals from simple, cheap ingredients. They taught me to cook with love. I was a really slow student, but fortunately God gave me such good teachers that even I learned to cook well. Eventually.
Please share old family favorites, new discoveries, and memories, of course. I especially love it when we get recipes from different parts of the country, and our international readers. Zurich Mike, where are you? Being, as we say here in the South, of a certain age, I am steeped in old Southern recipes and cooking methods, but I have loved getting new ideas and recipes from our readers in Texas and Louisiana who do meals with boldness and heat, our coastal friends who share the best seafood recipes, our Northern friends who give us so many good stew and roast and vegetables recipes. Midwesterners just seem to do such a great job with family meals and especially winter vegetables, and no telling what you might get from out west and the West Coast, but the ideas and recipes are always wonderful.
MAMA SMITH’S PECAN COOKIES
So good – the cream of tartar makes all the difference!
Beat together – I use a stand mixer:
1-1/2 cups butter
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
2 eggs
Whisk together:
4 c. flour
1 tdp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
Mix sugar/egg and flour mixtures together.
Add 2 c. chopped pecans.
Roll into logs, wrap with plastic wrap or waxed paper, refrigerate for a couple of hours or store in freezer until needed.
Slice fairly thin – a little less than 1/4 inch thick
Place on cookie sheet lightly greased or sprayed – or parchment paper lined cookie sheet
Bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned.
Sorry about the typo – that’s tsp baking soda
Figured it out as the “s” is to the left of the “d” on the querty keyboard. Recipe sounds similar to “ice-box” cookies without the cream of tartar.
Plus, “tbsp” is 4 characters, so…..
Those sound fabulous.
I asked a Large-Language Model (aka chatbot) to look for your typo. It decided it was Betty Crocker and suggested that there is too much flour. And it wants vanilla, and to add the pecans at the end. Does any of this make sense? It appears our computer overlords are getting uppity.
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Yes, there are a couple of likely mistakes in this recipe, primarily with the dry ingredients:
1. Typo: “tdp” should be “tsp”
The abbreviation “tdp” is not standard for measuring ingredients. It’s almost certainly a typo and should be “tsp” which stands for teaspoon.
2. Likely Too Much Flour:
The ratio of flour to fat and sugar seems very high. 4 cups of flour for 1.5 cups of butter and 2 cups of sugar will likely result in a very dry and dense cookie, possibly even crumbly. This amount of flour is more typical of a scone or shortbread recipe than a standard cookie.
Possible Corrections and Suggestions:
Here’s a corrected version of the dry ingredients, and some other suggestions to improve the recipe:
Corrected Dry Ingredients:
Whisk together:
2 1/2 to 3 cups flour (Start with 2 1/2 cups and add more only if the dough is extremely sticky)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
Other Suggestions:
Vanilla Extract: A common and often necessary ingredient in cookies is vanilla extract. Consider adding 1-2 teaspoons to the butter/sugar mixture.
When to Add Nuts: The instructions say to “Mix sugar/egg and flour mixtures together. Add 2 c. chopped pecans.” It’s generally better to add nuts towards the end of mixing, just until combined, to avoid overmixing and developing too much gluten.
Baking Time: The baking time is not specified. This will depend on the thickness of the slices and your oven, but a starting point would be around 8-12 minutes.
Cooling: It’s usually best to let cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Why the Original Might Be Problematic:
Dryness: The excessive amount of flour will absorb too much moisture, leading to a dry and potentially crumbly cookie.
Toughness: Overmixing a dough with a high flour content can develop the gluten, making the cookies tough.
Difficulty Rolling: The dough might be very stiff and difficult to roll into logs due to the high flour content.
In summary, the main issues are the “tdp” typo and the likely excessive amount of flour. Reducing the flour and adding vanilla will significantly improve the recipe.
Thanks for the notes – !
I double checked our recipe – she did have 1 tsp vanilla and that’s another typo – it was listed over to the side of the card and I missed it!
However, that’s the amount of flour I always use – and we like the consistency.
Some recipes for these pecan refrigerator cookies add a touch of nutmeg, but she never did.
Yeah, it shows that AI doesn’t know anything about baking…
Why does the cream of tartar make the difference? Is it a stabilizer, the way it helps meringues stay inflated? Thanks.
I seem to love cookies with cream of tartar – both store bought and home made. There’s just something about it.
I recently read a comment from a chef suggesting using it in cakes too. I’m caring for a disabled daughter just diagnosed with cancer right now, so don’t have much time to experiment with baking right now.
May God bless you and keep both you and your daughter, Sibyl! I am so sorry for what you are going through.💕🙏🏻
When mixed with baking soda it produces CO2 bubbles which create rise. It also prevents sugar from crystalizing during baking so you have firmer structure to fluffy things like egg whites etc.
Tysm they sound delish
One Christmas time my mother and I made a day trip to New York City. One of her friends recommended we go to Lüchow’s German Restaurant and have their sauerbraten. The sauerbraten was delicious, but it was the YUGE Christmas tree, heavily decorated, in the middle of the dining room that held my attention. To this day, decades later, it remains the most beautiful Christmas tree I’ve ever seen.
Lüchow’s recipe for their famous sauerbraten is here: https://www.food.com/recipe/l-chow-s-sauerbraten-406140
Beautiful.
The sauerbraten recipe looks great. Sort of a spicy sweet and sour beef and veggie dish.
That is beautiful…!
Thank you for posting this! It is very similar to a family recipe that was in a box that disappeared when we moved a few years ago. Now I need to try it with hot German potato salad and my other great-great-grandmother’s hot cabbage slaw!
sounds like a perfect Christmas……….. mostly because of the blessing of the home and MN Mass. Too many are (1) unaware or (2) forget what CHRISTmas is about
2 cans crescent rolls
2lbs breakfast sausage – we use Tennessee Pride hot
1 bar cream cheese
1 egg white
Poppy seeds
Brown sausage in skillet then mix with softened cream cheese. Lay out crescent rolls in rectangular pairs on cookie sheet. Spread sausage / cream cheese mixture onto rectangles and roll into logs. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 (until crescent rolls are golden brown. Let cool slightly from oven, spread thin coat of egg white on top of crescents and sprinkle with poppy seeds.
Simple and fabulous.
My, my this sounds delicious and so easy fast to bake. I can nearly smell your kitchen now.
I make this using the maple sausage and it is delicious!
Breakfast sausage…..now we’re talking……!
Thanks for sharing. Does this have a name?
Sure it does. My wife made them for tons of events when I was an Army officer. Universally liked. I had a squadron commander that nearly promoted me for them.
Hoo Vol Sausage Logs?
Exactly
I actually copied this recipe and am using it for my Christmas eve snack.
Doing that right there..
Fudge – Old Fashioned fudge recipe from the side of the Hershey’s Cocoa Can
3 Cups Sugar
2/3 Cup Hershey Cocoa
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 Cup milk
1/4 Cup butter (3 Tbsp)
1 tsp Vanilla
In very large microwave proof bowl combine cocoa, sugar, salt. Blend with milk. Microwave approximately 24 minutes (ck til it is at ‘soft ball’ stage). It will boil and bubble up to the top of the bowl and cook. Add butter and vanilla (experiment til you have right time for your microwave)
Butter pans
Cool in sink of water – just kinda float the bowl down in cool water in the sink. Add butter and vanilla. Let it cool a bit. Beat with wooden spoon. Pour when it loses its gloss.
My brother and I still call this ‘cement’ fudge from the many years we were kids making this stuff. It didn’t always come out right. I seem to remember a hammer and chisel once. LOL I love the old fashioned grainy texture. If you hit it right you can usually cook it the same amount of minutes each time. Each microwave is different.
This is surely a vintage recipe and the best fudge I ever made. For years cooking on the stove but, later decided I would master making it in microwave (easier cleanup). Yummy
That’s how cooking rolls. Practice is everything. We called my wife’s efforts “biscuit disks.” He grandfather owned multiple bakeries and could cook anything. She now makes the best biscuits and gravy I’ve ever eaten.
You got that right! I could live on biscuits and gravy!
Our favorite Christmas meal used to be biscuits and gravy, ham and eggs. After Midnight Mass, we came home and opened presents. Then we had a huge breakfast and went to bed. Later we go to our parents’ houses for dinner, but that was our favorite time.
Sounds like my childhood in the Midwest.
I can almost envision it while smelling the breakfast!
In the south, it is country ham and ‘red eye’ gravy. Brings back wonderful memories.
Because of a predisposition to diabetes I changed my diet about 10 years ago and the food I miss the most is biscuits and gravy. My mom made fresh biscuits every morning and made cornbread for every lunch and supper.
Whipping cream biscuits
2 cup cake flour,1TBS. plus 1tsp. baking powder, 1/4 tsp. salt,1TBS. sugar,1/4 cup unsalted butter,1cup+1TBS. heavy whipping cream.
Combine first 4, medium bowl. Cut in the butter. Add whipping cream, working just ‘till moistened. Knead if wish, drop, bake 425, or adjust to your oven 10-12 minutes, use your nose.
Not just the South. My Minnesota dad made the best red eye gravy. He’d cook ham, eggs and pancakes for Saturday breakfast. The red eyegravy we used to melt brown sugar on our pancakes. Oh Lord, we were in heaven. He did something similar with venison steaks too. Dang, I sure do miss that man.
I was lucky enough to marry a great Southern cook. She thought that she had the best biscuit recipe from her mother-in-law until she found the ultimate biscuit recipe online with Brenda Gantt. Otherwise, I can choose from “milk” gravy, red-eye gravy (note: has coffee in it), or tomato gravy.
(Note: Ms. Gantt’s baking method is to use very high heat – 500F, so it cost us one heating element in our oven) (Also note: Ms. Gantt’s biscuit recipe takes some practice – the first few batches will be AWFUL until you get the feel of the process. Once you get it, there’s nothing like them)
And to top it all off, she worked down at Stennis Space Center with a bunch of cajuns and picked up some of their recipes and spicing. We usually do a few crawfish boils during the spring when they’re in season (read: reasonably priced)
My family did waffles on Christmas Eve. It began in the 1950’s when Mom suggested it as an easier-to-digest later evening meal than soup or anything with meat. We weren’t wealthy so it was a low cost but fun meal.
She put the old waffle iron (had been her mother’s) right on the dining room table next to her usual position, which was closest to an electrical outlet. She also had the bowl of batter and a small can of Crisco with a brush (was no such thing as “non-stick” waffle irons…), and all the toppings were in the middle of the table so all five of us could reach them. We all liked it so much it became tradition.
Biscuits and gravy — always so yummy and filling.
So jealous.
Grits please!
W/lots of butta and salt/pepper.
Grits make the meal!
Lol.
My wife makes great “scratch” biscuits……now.
She apprenticed with my maternal grandmother who whipped them up almost daily and only measured her flour.
Biscuit disks Hoo Vol?! LOL. My wife’s early efforts we laughed about and labeled hockey pucks.
I can mix up biscuits that are passable bit they never rise as high or as light and fluffy as my better half’s.
I will offer that two of the secrets to great biscuits are the texture after mixing the milk/buttermilk in, (never too dry but not runny either) and to never knead or fold the dough ball after its turned out. Roll the dough only a minimum amount.
Anyone else have tips on making great biscuits?
Only use whole fat buttermilk. Lard or cold shredded butter as your fat. Little handling, like you said. And use a sided pan, or preferably a hot cast iron skillet. The biscuits will rise instead of spread out. And I will only use White Lily flour.
Cast iron is the best way. I have a 10″ workhorse that gets used at least every other day probably.
Angel Butter Biscuits
2-1/2 cups AP flour
6 tbsp softened unsalted butter
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
Combine the dry ingredients and butter in a mixing bowl with a pastry cutter until it looks like sand with pea sized lumps. Stir in the buttermilk with a rubber spatula. Scrape the dough into a 2qt bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Scrape out the dough onto a lighty floured countertop. With floured hands, fold and turn 8 times then form into a 1″ thick round disc. Cut the disc into 8 wedges and roll each wedge into a ball. Place the balls of dough into an oiled 10″ cast iron skillet. Press the balls down to about 1″ thick. Cover with plastic wrap, let rest and rise for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Remove the plastic wrap and bake the biscuits for 25-30 minutes until puffed up and golden brown. Let stand for 5 minutes in the skillet, then tilt the biscuits out and transfer to a cooling rack. Serve warm.
White Lilly flour, a soft wheat, is the best. My aunt Dorthy’s “ Cloud Nine” biscuits. 2 cups flour, 1 tbsp sugar, 4 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup lard, 1 egg, 2/3 cup milk. Sift dry ingredients, cut in lard until crumbly. Make a well in center. Stir egg and milk. Mix wet with dry until incorporated. Don’t over mix. Turn onto floured surface and knead gently, just enough to form a soft dough. Knead too much and your biscuits will be tough. Spread the dough to 1 inch thick, and cut rounds with a biscuit cutter or small glass. Bake at 450 for 8-10 minutes.
I wish I could find White Lily Flour out here in Arizona. I’ve tried cake flour when making biscuits, but it costs quite a bit more.
Out of curiosity, I just checked Amazon, and White Lily Flour is on the menu: several different variations, eg., self-rising, all purpose, etc.
Having never used White Lily flour myself, I have no idea how fast this moves through the ‘UGE Amazon system – regarding storage & freshness, but it is available for purchase as part of the regular stock.
Many here – and I agree with you – have weighed-in on the good, the bad, & the ugly of shopping Amazon. I won’t add anything further to these remarks, but I get it. *The previous statement is a reminder to myself to stay on topic.
Now I’m going to order some of that flour!
P.S. Menagerie, with 50 years of marriage now under our belts, and two cross-country relocations, I have managed to hold on to the hard-bound Good Housekeeping cookbook that my mother gave me in November of 1974. With many hundreds of pages and lovely photographic illustrations, it falls open to the favorite holiday baking recipes. The binding is currently held together with duck tape.
White Lily Flour makes great fry bread.
Walmart sells it and Frys . . maybe not in all stores. You sure can order it online from the company or Amazon.
Our Michigan Kroger website shows White Lily Flour, self rising.
I’ve made the famous Jolene Black’s Cream biscuits for years – always requested for the recipe – never fail. 2 ingedients only. I mixed up on wax paper, pat into a rectangle cut and separated and bake. No mess, no fuss – just high great biscuits. white Lily Self Rising Flour and Heavy Cream.
I’ve worked out the proportions to make 6 Biscuits – perfect for a family of 2 when needed.
https://www.ajc.com/food-and-dining/recipe-jolene-blacks-cream-biscuits/G6HT2MW5MKSLHD5A6VN7LWJSS4/
White Lily makes cornmeal mixes, cake and brownie mixes, too.
Yum!
They have a store locator on their website, so you can see if there is a seller near you.
https://www.whitelily.com/where-to-buy/
Thanks for this link. I will try their flour and cornmeal. I found they carry them in my local stores. I will look for them.
Best flour for biscuits, hands down!
Thank you Menagerie and I’ll try your tips.
Whoops, didn’t see this. We make special trips to get White Lily.
I agree about the buttermilk–whole buttermilk makes a huge difference. Don’t skimp on the butter. I pat the dough out rather than roll out. I think the key is adding the buttermilk. I do a bit at a time–and, I usually use a cup–I split it in fourths, and with the last fourth I go sparingly. I have found that the milk absorbs more than you think–and one of the mysteries of baking seems to be that some batches need a bit more milk than others–but stir and stir before adding more.
Here’s my favorite biscuit recipe. I only make them as drop biscuits. You can add anything to them: cooked sausage crumbles, shredded cheese, herbs, raisin, etc. If they need to look pretty, I pat the top with my hands and shape the sides a bit. If you plan to cut them out, knead the dough two or three strokes before turning them out on a floured surface.
Easy to Make Cream Biscuits
Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups White Lily Self-Rising Flour(or other brand of not available)
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup butter, melted (Optional)
Measure flour into large bowl. Gradually stir in cream, adding only enough to moisten flour and hold dough together. (if you don’t have enough cream, add more. Ditto flour. This ain’t rocket surgery. 🥰 ) Brush top with butter if using.
Place on baking sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Serve hot.
Here’s a variant, if you need more biscuits or want a sweeter dough.
Hurry-Up Biscuits
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
4 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups heavy whipping cream.
In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add cream; stir just until moistened. Drop by 1/4 cupfuls 1 in apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake 17-20 minutes or until bottoms are golden brown. Serve warm.
Bon appetit!
Sounds like Charleston, South Carolina “cream” biscuits and they are a real treat. Thanks and Hi MayberryLady.
Thanks, Monticello, and you are so very welcome. Regrettably, I have never been to Charleston, but based on the way these taste, I can only imagine!
Bisquits explained. very good background on how, what, when, and problems.
https://bakeschool.com/homemade-biscuits-its-as-easy-as-1-2-3/
I made her scones which are just a sweetened bisquit. Easy and the explanation behind the recipes are helpful.
White Lily self rising flour is part of the magic. It’s super light.
I don’t know the rest, but it freaking works.
Check out Brenda Gantt videos online. She lives in AL and is well known for her biscuit recipe videos. She was even on Mike Huckabee making her delicious biscuits. He technique is very free form and that makes it easy to do and hard to miss up. I did it and you can too.
It does take some practice to get the feel of the dough coming together, plus be aware that your oven heating element may become a casualty to the stress of the baking temperature.
“Biscuit disks” reminds me of the time my dad told my brothers to go get their toys with missing wheels. He said Mom had made new ones for them!
Once when I was backing down our driveway, I hit and knocked down the brick retaining wall. My husband walked out and surveyed the damage. He told me it was not problem, just go make up a pan of biscuits like I made when we first got married.
MORE ROFLMBO
The power of a good biscuit!! It just soothes the soul! Love your story, Menagerie!
ROFLMBO
LOL!!
My daddy said,my biscuits hopped,but they didn’t jump,hahaha
I just had to laugh when reading that the recipe was from an OLD Cocoa can and your instructions said to microwave. Of course I knew that this method morphed over time but it made me chuckle just the same.
I have made the Hershey’s fudge many times over the years but didn’t know about the microwave directions. Do you do the 24 minutes in increments? I will have to try. Yes, one time needed that hammer and chisel on my favorite fudge pan. Last year I was making pralines, had three different thermometers spread around the edge of my pan because I didn’t trust them. Near soft ball stage, I had three different temps.
OMG this has been so much fun today, Menagerie.
3XALady, no, use a large bowl as it will foam up to the top, but, no stirring while cooking the 24 min (you’ll have to test a bit earlier to check your own microwave time).
3 different temps must have been fun. Test a drop or two in water but, you must have done that, too.
Peanut Brittle is another favorite and so easy to microwave.
I take it your fave fudge pan survived. LOL I will be sure to tell my brother. He still pokes fun at that time.
My MIL at the time helped me get it out. We would pour hot water in, some would melt loose and out it came. Again and again and again. That was my pan for mashed potatoes and I had to have it as the lid fit on with holes and holes in the pan so I could pour off the water and mash the potatoes in the pan. It was a treasure.
Mercy I cooked up many a pot of fudge first. When my son and I returned from Africa he was amazed at the microwaves. Told him he would have to learn to cook in it so we did together. My family used to give me grief but, sure easy to to do candies, pies, etc. When I would visit family I always made NaNa lemon meringue pie (only the custard part in the m.c.) and she loved it.
I can see your amazed face when you saw “microwave”. LOL My recipe was never on an OLD Hershey can. LOL I am laughing now. They took off the original recipe for a few years back, but, finally added it back. I decided to adapt the original to an easier way, easy to time, no stirring while cooking and easy cleanup.
Just now went to the cupboard to check my new Hershey can and it has all kinds of recipes including Classic Rich Cocoa Fudge. Morphed is right . . to a NEW can and an OLD cook. LOL
My mom made the best pinwheel cookies from a Hershey recipe. But I seem to remember it being in a Hershey cocoa cookbook.
Sometimes she would slice off a dozen and put them in the oven before we left for school in the morning.
Nothing like a soft, warm, melt-in-your-mouth pinwheel cookie before the walk to school on a NE Ohio winter day!
My husband makes this fudge. He doesn’t like the newer, creamier recipes. I have never once made fudge myself. He has two talents, meats on the grill, and fudge. Oh yeah, and the most important, he makes great coffee.
God Bless caffeine!
3 talents!
Love it love it, Menagerie. I agree with him. Today y’all made me so hungry. Earlier today I had to warm me up an apple fritter skipping my normal breakfast.
I confused my poor husband. I made a small batch of cream cheese mint candies this afternoon. Instead of using a candy mold I put the “dough” in my cookie press. He could not figure out what I doing when I didn’t put them in the oven. I had to explain several times that I made candy, not cookies. His final question was, “So, you’re not going to bake them?”
His forte is the grill, making spaghetti sauce and deviled eggs.
Humn,
Tried to do this microwave fudge recipe and I guess I cooled it too quickly in the sink of cool water…..it turned to dust in the bowl.
in an attempt to salvage added milk and butter and re-cooked for about 5 mins to get it to a liquid again. Doubt it will set now……if it doesn’t then I will freeze it and eat it anyway!
Anyway had fun trying it out. Like I said I think I erred by cooling it too quickly and too far before pouring it into pans.
This is not a recipe, per se, but rather, a special ingredient for any kind of chowder: smoked salmon.
Years ago at the holidays, my ex bought a large slab of smoked salmon at Sam’s Club.
When we opened it, it did not taste superb, and rather than eat it as is, I included it as an ingredient in my seasonal chowder.
Ever since, I tend to pick up a pack of smoked salmon when making chowder.
we do the same thing with “left over” blackened redfish caught earlier in the year and frozen …
it’s not really that good rethawed after months in the freezer, but it does make a chowder snappy. (pun intended)
I’m always a little jealous of people who learned how to cook from their moms and grandmas. My mother is remarkable for many reasons, but her cooking isn’t one of them. She is a caricature of a lousy Irish cook. The other day I walked into her apartment to a familiar childhood smell. Mom was boiling pork chops on the stove.
Though several levels better than my own mom, my mother in law was also a plain Irish cook.
On the flip side, my one sister and I did learn to bake. Mom never minded us doing anything in the kitchen so long as we cleaned up after ourselves. We were only limited in that we had to buy our own ingredients (other than flour and eggs, which we generally had on hand).
My own mother was a pretty bad cook. Remarkably, she really thought she was good. I learned to cook at first from my husband’s grandmother, who was the best old style Southern country cook I’ve ever known, and his mother, also an excellent cook. I was at first at poor student, but I learned. And later, I learned more on my own, mostly from cookbooks.
Menagerie, all I can say is, you married the right man to learn to cook. Secret ingredient is love.
My grandmother was the one that made me love the kitchen. In the Missouri Ozarks, she had a wood cook stove. Fired it up for three meals a day for my grandfather. I would mix up a cake made with flour, sugar, milk, vanilla, not sure what else, pour in the big iron skillet. Get out the food colors, put drops on top of the mix, and swirl with a knife to make beautiful designs. Then Gma would bake it for me.
Wood cook stoves are literally the best ever.
Precious memories.
Oh, they so are precious. I remember standing at her pie safe and taking down all the flavors from the traveling salesman and smelling them. I remember her precious hands making biscuits in the big bowl full of flour, putting in a pinch of this and a pinch of that, pouring in the cow’s milk, then squeezing them off and putting them in the baking pan with lard to bake. I was so blessed.
I learned to cook as a child because I didn’t like what mom was making and I never got enough. Selfish me. Cook and I get first dibs on what I want.
Anyway, that led into watching the food channel which used to have good “how to” but lately it’s too much competition. Yes cookbooks were good too. I highly recommend a basic Betty Crocker.
As a newlywed and for many years after (in 1970s) I cooked by trying to imitate, from memory, what and how my mother cooked for me and my 7 siblings. The results weren’t all that great. Then, lo and behold, I realized that if I actually followed a recipe from a cookbook, my meals tasted so much better. I also really enjoy my 25+ year subscription to Taste of Home magazine. It has a recipe for White Chili (made with chicken and dairy and white beans) that I subtitle “Better than s-x.” Taste of Home is also online now. The last few years, though, the magazine evolved from comfort food to more exotic fare.
Regarding White Chili, which I love … you weren’t doing s-x right.
America’s Test Kitchen. Been on for over 20 years. Best cooking show!
Sounds familiar.
I did not like my mother’s cooking but that was because she was a “health nut” back when people really meant you were crazy if you used carob instead of chocolate. Our house was the one where kids got popcorn or apples instead of candy on Halloween.
I doubt there is such a thing as a kid who is excited to have tempeh and tofu instead of hamburgers, or yogurt instead of donuts. It is hard to convince your family you are a good cook, especially at Christmastime, when you don’t believe in using sugar, white flour, butter, or chocolate. But looking back, she did pretty well with the ingredients she approved of. There were a few things she made that stuck with me, and I guess my diet continues to be healthier than average.
My mother was a fabulous cook and baker, as were all the women in her family and at least one of the men, and I was very privileged to learn under her starting at a very young age.
Sadly that knowledge was one of the first things to go when she slid into early onset Alzheimer’s at 60-ish. She could not even boil water. My poor father who had never missed a sumptuous meal made by her was now the chief cook and bottle washer. Something he had never trained for. He was a spoiled almost only child, who could barely boil water himself. She was gone in less than five years.
I had always felt I never had half the talent of Mom, but as I get older and have more time for cooking or baking than I did while raising a family and working a full-time+++ job I find myself excelling at many of the things I thought I would never master without her.
Like gravy. I never thought I would ever figure it out, but now I even teach others how to to make it easy and delicious, and light and fluffy with no lumps. It was mostly fear, something I am usually not known for. Once I let the fear of not being as good as Mom go, I was good to go.
TwoLaine, my mother also passed from Dementia and was a wonderful cook as well…she had all her recipies in a “RedBook” cookbook stuffed with handwritten post its and index cards…my mother passed very quickly after my father passed from a quick but debilitating illness and in the craziness of the funerals, house packing and selling I never was able to locate the “Redbook”…I think about it often and remember my mother with a smile for how she was, not how she went…Alz/Dementia is a cruel cruel disease that I wouldn’t wish on my very worst enemy…
When family treasures, like a well-worn cookbook, are lost in the aftermath of a family member’s death, it is often said, by others, that “it was just stuff”. My mother didn’t have a library of cookbooks, but roughly a half-doz, of varying types.
After she died, while sorting through which things to keep and which to give away, I found myself at the kitchen table, page turning in cookbooks that were as familiar as my own at the time. It was the notes in her own handwriting that threw the curve-ball and hit the heart’s bullseye. That was thirty years ago. I am now a year older than she was when she passed unexpectedly. The hand-written recipe notes can still reduce me to tears.
I too had a mom that was an excellent cook and baker. For a time she owned and did all the cooking and baking for her restaurant.
As a single mom she never actually spent time in the kitchen teaching me but would leave me detailed instructions for how to prepare dinner so it was ready shortly after she arrived home. She then made the gravy.
I was preparing roasts for dinner at the age of six. I was one of those latch keys kids.
best way to avoid lumpy gravy is to put flour (or flour cold water mixture) into a fine holed metal strainer sitting in the gravy. Whisk within the strainer until as smooth as possible then just lift out the strainer and any lumps come with it.
As am I. I wasn’t allowed to cook or touch anything in the kitchen. When I got married, I decided to fry some chicken as my first meal for my husband and a few of our friends. I’d seen my mother do it many times and it looked easy enough to me. As I was pulling a thigh out to put on the plate, I dropped it onto the raised wood floor of our little kitchen. Thunk! The chicken was so hard and heavy that it dented the floor. Everybody laughed and ate the chicken anyway; although it was quite the chore.
The next day I went to the book store and stocked up on cookbooks and learned to cook from those. We lived on chili that I kept frozen as my father did teach me how to make his fabulous chili that he liked to make “at the river” where we used to go fish, shoot, and drink beer. The first year, whenever something I tried from a cookbook was inedible, I’d drag out a block of chili and heat it up. My husband thanked my Dad for teaching me to make chili as he claimed he survived the first year of our marriage because of his chili.
it is the love, lessons, time shared that matter. Without our memories, what are we, anyone of us?
Speaking of those fond memories their is a digital collection of recipes & old books if anyone fines a need to search out a vintage recipe. A link is here: https://archive.org/details/cbkthe
I find that those old cherished recipes evoke warm memories of times with family and guess that’s why we continue to share these dishes with the younger genertion. (holiday traditions are important to share.
Hope this will assist in finding cherished recipes that have been lost. I found myself searching stores this year for Mr Christies chocolate wafers that I made for years into a log covered in real whipped cream. saly they discontinued these and I have just found one recipe that is for homemade choc wafers with a similar deep flavour. I now need to searh for the special cocoa it called for. Loved the look. lightness and taste of this after a big meal. {KING aRTHURS black cocoa power) Memories of making/sharing this for many years is a treasure.
I inherited my mother’s recipe box and make many of those to this day. But some of her best meals were those she “winged” – most notably her spaghetti sauce. Sometimes the result was deemed “my sauce”, and occasionally it didn’t meet her standards.
One day, not long before she passed, I sat with pen in hand while she put her sauce together. I got her to commit to every proportion and ingredient. The result, now memorialized in our family recipe box, is “Midge’s Sauce”.
Whenever I find myself missing Midge, I am only one sauce batch away from comfort!
I found this recipe quite by accident on Thanksgiving morning and have been waiting for the right place to put it. Enjoy!
23 Dec 1909 | A Scripture Cake | Highland Vidette | Highland, KS | Pg: 6
Thank you, haven’t seen this recipe for many a moon. A never fail recipe!
The WORD is delicious.
Christmas Cheese Ball
8 oz cream cheese ,softened
8 oz sharp cheddar, grated
1 TBS Worcestershire 1 TBS lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped bell pepper
1/4 cup diced pimento, drained
1/4 cup diced onion
1 small can crushed pineapple, drained
Chopped pecans
Mix all ingredients except nuts together. Form into a ball. (I usually line a bowl with plastic wrap and press the mixture into the bowl and cover the top with more wrap.) Chill until firm. Roll in chopped nuts. Recipe can be doubled or adjusted to your tastes. (Some finely chopped jalapeno is a nice addition.
It’s not Christmas in the South without a cheese ball. I have fond memories of one of my nephews, age 13, sitting in front of this cheese ball and and a pile of Ritz crackers, devouring the whole thing.
I haven’t been able to find the small crushed pineapple in my Walmart for a long time.
This is available in my local Walmart right now. Is this different than “small” crushed pineapple?
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Canned-Crushed-Pineapple-20-oz/15021180?classType=VARIANT
You can also order other crushed pineapple in cans from other companies and Walmart will ship them free to your store:
https://www.walmart.com/search?q=Canned+crushed+pineapple
These are the larger or ‘regular’ sized cans of pineapple. There used to be one that was about half that size. Now if you only need say 8 oz. of crushed pineapple, you have to open the larger can and have some left over. There are two more grocery stores in my small town and I need to check with them if I need the small can. Just haven’t done it.
I had this at a friends home several years ago and asked her for her recipe. She said “Oh that thing has been around for a hundred years”. I replied “Well, it certainly kept well”. I’ve added it to my go-to appetizer recipes and have named it The 100 Year Old Cheeseball. I serve it with Blue Diamond Pecan crackers. Yumm.
a recipe for my Christmas eve meal.
So far so good, PLEASE NOTHING WITH MINCEMEAT!!! Thank you in advance.
5 lbs of mincemeat
2 cups tallow
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:p
Please continue…. 😁
Mincemeat. That brings back great Christmas memories.
My Aunt was an amazing cook. Her pies won prizes around here.
During the holidays she would bake her famous pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Her apple pie was famous. Deep didn’t begin to describe it. Homemade pie crusts. She made cheesecake, berry pies and would make a mincemeat pie for my uncle.
The family would gather there for Holiday meals. When dessert finally came out, my Uncle and I were the only ones to eat mincemeat pie.
Later, long after my uncle had passed away. We would still gather there. The subject of pies would come up.
It was often said around the table, “John, you and Tony were the only ones who liked the mincemeat pie.”
Tony would look across the long table at me, a smile across the tanned face and say,”Good! That means more for you and me!”
I can still see all of them around the table and in kitchen now.
Lots of fond memories as years of joy make my eyes misty.
Eagle61, Katie, Harrison, Menagerie, and everyone here, thank you for the walk down memory lane.
If you love mincemeat pie never forget the Hard Sauce to go with it:
Brandy Hard Sauce (Little Grandma)
1 C. Butter, softened
2 C. Confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
¼ C. Brandy
Cream butter and sugar until light. Beat in vanilla and brandy. Makes about 2 cups. Refrigerate.
A nice dollop on top of the pie is awesome. My Little Grandma was born in the latter 1800s and was a fabulous cook.
That sounds good!
I seem to be one of only a few that love all different fruitcakes. The price drops right after Christmas which is a good thing!
I also like fruitcake. Don’t make them and haven’t seen the candied fruit at Walmart this year, even if I wanted to make one.
4 ingredient fruit cake is easy
Ingredients
Method:
Check cake at the 1 1/2 hour mark. If it is browning too quickly, cover with foil.
Variations:
Some people soak the fruit in cranberry juice/orange juice/Milo/apple juice/pomegranate juice
You can take some liberties and add some chopped nuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice
Some steeping liquid alternatives include spiced chai, iced coffee, fruit juice or green tea. If you’re happy with a more natural taste go with tea, but if you prefer traditional sweetness then a sugary steeping liquid will help.
That just means more fruit cake for us fruit cake lovers. LOL
I’d walk a mile for a good slice of fruit cake. Two if there’s a glass of egg nog to go with it.
I’ve never been even a decent cook. I mean I wouldn’t starve……but
So, my contribution to the cooking (anytime) is cleaning up. Yes, I know some of you chefs extraordinaire are the clean as you go cooking types, but my role is the clean up. I learned that from my dad.
And I’ve always said it’s a great way to stay in the social mix of things going on after dinner. And if someone is going to cook for me…..I’m cleaning up. I have been places where I start to clean and the cook/chef is taken aback, but appreciative. After church meals, and when things winding down, I say this is my kitchen now.
“I can’t make a clean dish dirty artistically, but I can make a dirty dish clean.
I’m with you. I have never had much interest in cooking. I am a “cook to live” rather than a “live to cook” person. Now that we are both retired, my husband does all the cooking. He loves it! I do the clean-up which I don’t mind at all.
My husband does most of the cleanup. I keep up with things to a point, but on some more complex or large meals, things move along fast at a certain point, and I get behind. I hate cleanup. If I didn’t have him, I doubt I’d cook. Of course, I mostly do it for him, I’ve wanted to feed him good food many decades now.
My husband is the clean up guy too. I’m so appreciative for him doing that chore to help me keep caught up on the big cooking days.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/8302943816423681
We (men) dish people want to be cook people…
Lol, Bill. On holidays my husband and I become both cook and dish people. It all equalizes out in the end. The rest of the year I am the primary cook and dishwasher. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
https://www.facebook.com/reel/8302943816423681
I’m hiring a cleaner upper if you know anybody…. lol 😉
My husband is the opposite. Give him the most difficult recipe and he’ll come through like a champ. Every dish in the kitchen may be dirty, but he’ll have a masterpiece that’s delicious and beautiful.
He always feels bad that he’s made a mess of the kitchen. I always tell him I don’t mind cleaning at all, but especially when it’s for one of his amazing dishes.
I’m of Swedish descent and a Leap Year “baby” (which never changes no matter how old “we” get). Last February 29th I turned “17” and my husband made me a Swedish Princess Cake topped with a pink marzipan rose. It is great fun living with someone who dives into cooking and baking like he does!
What an awesome birthday cake. Love it!
Excellent! You’re a team player when needed! Your church is blessed to have you.
Wish we could book you for family parties. Expenses plus all you can eat! 😉
I love anyone who will do cleanup. ❤️
And we thank you for this Brant and all the cleaners. My housemates grandsons come over for dinner and never even try to clean up. Not even once.
If they’re not going to help clean up – then maybe you leave a TIP jar out? Help pay for some of the groceries.
Chocolate Chip Chili Cookies
Prep Time: 15 min Total Time: 33 min Servings: 34
Ingredients
175 g butter
3/4 cup demerara sugar
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
250 g chocolate chips
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
Cream the butter and sugars.
Beat in the egg and vanilla essence.
Sift flour, cocoa, cinnamon, chili, ginger and baking soda into the creamed mixture, and mix.
Fold through the chocolate bits.
Take approximately a tablespoon of the mix and form it into a ball and then press down with fork, place on baking tray leaving a little room for spreading.
Bake for 15- 18 minutes at 350F Allow to cool slightly.
Sift the icing sugar and cinnamon into a bowl and toss the biscuits in the mixture one at a time and then put on a wire rack to cool.
Nana’s Banana Bread
1/2 cup butter
1-1/2 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
2 mashed bananas
1 top baking soda
4 tbsp sour milk
1/2 top salt
2 cups flour
2 egg whites
-Cream sugar and butter
-Add egg yolks and bananas
-Sift baking soda and flour
-Add alternately with sour milk
– Fold in beaten egg whites
-Bake in bread 🍞 pan for 45 minutes at 350 degrees
Extra ideas: serve with frosting or (best) warm with peanut butter that has melted on it.
Merry Christmas
I love these posts by Menagerie! They’re such a nice break from such a chaotic, violent, evil world we live in. Especially her Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas posts! They often bring back fond memories of my innocent childhood days. It nice to know that CTH has such a strong Christian base and a component of Faith expressed by Menagerie, Sundance and other Treepers! Thank you and Godspeed Menagerie!
Well spoken. I’m not much at cooking. I live alone now and it’s just to much for one person but I’m well stocked for emergency. I always love the post on the ‘TREE’ at holidays. Merry Christmas to all the Treepers who read here and thanks to Menagerie. Now I’m off to microwave my t.v. dinner..😁🤗
My husband was out if town the first Sat in Dec. I stayed home with our elderly dog. For dinner Sat night I had 3 cupcakes and 2 glasses of lactose free milk. Best dinner I have had in 20 years! Needless to say uf I didn’t have to cook for him I never would. But I read every one of the delicious posts and eat them all in my imagination. I eagerly await all if Menagerie’s holiday offerings. Thanks to everyone
AMEN
Amen, Bubby
I love reading the memories, as much or more than the recipes.
Nice choice of picture.
Thanks, I really liked it too.
Crab tartlets
Ingredients
2 pkgs Phyllo Miniature Tartlet shells
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (6 ounce) can crab meat, drained
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 can whole cranberry sauce
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Set tartlet shells on baking tray.
In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, crab, mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, Cheddar cheese, green onions and Worcestershire sauce. Spoon 1 teaspoon of mixture into tarts and garnish with whole cranberry dollop.
Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 15 to 20 minutes, or until light brown.
These freeze wonderfully. Just reheat before serving.
My grandmother and mother made this pie every Christmas. It has become so popular I am asked to make it every Thanksgiving too!
Cranberry Raspberry Cream Cheese Pie
I make cranberry and cream cheese fillings the day before and assemble pie Christmas morning, cover with plastic wrap and chill till set.
1 baked pie crust (I make my own)
Mix 1 – 3oz pkg Raspberry Jell-o and 1/3 cup sugar – set aside
Bring 1 1/4 cup cranberry juice (not cranberry juice cocktail) to a boil. Remove from heat and add gelatin mixture stirring to dissolve. Stir in 1 – 8 oz can jellied cranberry sauce, diced, stir until completely incorporated ( heat a little more if necessary to dissolve sauce but do not boil). Cover with plastic wrap. Chill until slightly thickened. I have chilled it overnight and it works fine)
Beat 1-3 oz pkg Cream Cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon milk, and 1 teaspoon white vanilla until fluffy. Fold in 1/2 cup thawed cool whip. Spread evenly into pie shell. Chill, covered with plastic wrap.
Beat cranberry topping until frothy; pour over cream cheese mixture. Chill until well set.
My mom used to make this, at least something very similar except hers was in a 13×9 w/out the crust so I would guess she doubled it. Sometimes she would add chopped pecans. It is so good. Thx, I will try your version! She also would do a blueberry version in summer time.
I do miss the 3 oz packages of cream cheese. They were so handy.
Whiskey! Preferably angel’s envy rye in very large quantities. Served at room temp in a clear glass with a large mouth. The rest is all good, even the inlaws.
My son recently introduced me to Russel’s Reserve, 10 year. I don’t drink a lot, but I love that. Straight, no ice.
4 Roses Small Batch!
You are funny 😆
Kentucky Owl bourbon is my favorite on the holidays. Strictly for medicinal purposes of course.
I’d love to enjoy a perfect Manhattan if I could ever find Boisierre vermouth again. However I do still have some Boodles gin, so I may break over on Christmas Eve and enjoy the perfect Martini.
I had some extra dough from my Cream Cheese Cut Outs and I didn’t think I had the stamina to make Jam Thumbprints this year, but it’s one of our favorites to give because they are so pretty. Well, I do as I do… and I tweeked my recipe and made these terrific Jam Thumbprints out of the dough. Here is that altered recipe!
Joan’s Jam Thumbprints (2 days – or 1 long day – worth it!)
1 cup of granulated sugar
1 cup butter, softened
3 oz of cream cheese, softened
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg (separate the yoke from the white and place the whites in a small bowl aside for later)
3 cups of flour
3/4 cup of Apricot Jam – you may use other jams, but the tanginess of the Apricot played well with the tanginess of the cream cheese – Raspberry or Blackberry would really be nice, too. Strawberry may be too sweet – but use your best judgement.
Combine sugar, butter, cream cheese, almond and vanilla extracts, and egg yoke. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and salt to evenly distribute. Blend with a handmixer adding the flour a bit at a time until thoroughly combined. Refrigerate 8 hours over overnight.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the racks in the center of the oven.
Roll the dough the size of golf balls and make a deep well using your thumb in the center while keeping the edges nice and thick. Using a very small 1/4 teaspoon sized spoon, gently ladle stirred and room temperature jam into the center of the cookies. Using the egg white, take a cooking paint brush and brush the outer edges with egg white to “seal” the cookie.
Bake in 375 degree oven, in the center of the oven, about 20 to 23 minutes until lightly golden. Lift from the cookie sheets and allow to cool on parchment paper. The jam will thicken and harden as it cools. When stacking in a cookie box, cut small pieces of parchment to place between so they don’t adhere. Store in a cold place, lower than 50 degrees (my garage was cold enough to stack these in cookie boxes as I built our gifting boxes.) Makes about 48 cookies – ish.
Outrageous Southwestern Chocolate Cookies with Macademias
16 oz Semisweet Chocolate Chips
8 tablespoons butter
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour (don’t get scared by how little flour this is! trust the process!)
1 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 teaspoons instant Espresso granules
1 1/2 teaspoons cinammon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
12 oz of Semisweet Chocolate Chips (for mix in)
12 oz of White Chocolate Chips (for mix in)
1 1/2 cups of coarse chopped Macademia Nuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In microwave safe bowl, add 16 oz of the semisweet chocolate chips, butter, and espresso granules, heating in 20 second increments, stirring between each interval, until almost melted. Do not overheat.
Combine dry ingredients. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cayenne.
Mix eggs, sugar, vanilla and almond extracts, on high speed until light and fluffy – I use my WHISK with my hand mixer for this step. It will become rather thick like a mayonnaise consistency – so you’re whisking it for maybe ten minutes. Change the whisk attachment to standard beaters and add the melted chocolate and mix on low setting. Gradually add flour mixture until just combined. Add in semisweet chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and macademia nuts.
Do not worry if the dough seems odd, it will look more like brownie or cake batter than cookie dough.
On parchment paper lined cookie sheets, drop by a heaping tablespoon (I used teaspoons to make smaller cookies) and place them about 2 to 3 inches apart for spreading. Bake in center of oven, rotating cookie sheets halfway through, until cookies are shiny and cracking but with still soft centers… about 12 to 15 minutes.
Do not bake these cookies to a crisp, they are meant to be soft and chewy.
Cook on the baking sheet for 10 minutes and then remove to cool on parchment paper or racks.
Holy cow! How beautiful!
Don’t know WHAT got into me… I got the Christmas Spirit.. baby!!!!
Sure enough! I’ve been cooking up a Christmas goodie box for my daughter and SIL in California. Pumpkin bread, banana bread, fudge, cream cheese mints, so far. Still have the spritz and a pan of triple peanut fudge. Will get er done this evening and mailed out tomorrow.
My husband is going a bit nuts with all the aromas and no samples. He’s a type 2 diabetic so I have to keep him on a short leash during making time.
On Christmas Eve he and our SIL here will be in a fudge eating contest. Lol!
That sounds delicious, Deb. Do you ever use frozen banana for your bread? I learned to take browning Bananas and throw them, skin on, in a zip lock bag and store in the freezer. They get wilted and black and kinda ugly, but when you thaw them out and open them up… just run your knife down them like you would a vanilla bean and the banana paste is more mature in flavor and delicious in bread. I sometimes add cream cheese and refrigerate the banana bread and it’s dense and hearty.
Cream cheese mints…yummmmm!!
Your poor husband. Diabetes verses the smells. He must have a mighty angel to help him stay his course.
Always traveled, boxes from home, whenever, precious memories. You are a dear, caring person.
Is there a pistachio “something” in that box? What is the green (with nuts?) in the second box?
No pistachio cookies in there, however I did make a gifting box with ALDI sea-salted Pistachios in a couple of the cupcake holders for a more “mature” gift for an elder patriarch.
The green are Butter Spritz cookies made with an Italian Cooking Press – decorated with nonpareils, sprinkles, colored sugars, jimmies, and candied cherries. Didn’t make any red this year… thought what we had going was enough.
However, you could sub some of the flour and grind nuts in a clean coffee bean grinder and substitute for added flavors. I do this a lot with raw almonds.
Thanks for the answer and for the tips! I love anything pistachio.
Beautiful! ! You’ve inspired me to get extra creative this year! Thank you, Jwoo!
Dooooo it!!!! And post us back your creations. It’s fun to share the fun. Wish you were all with me in the kitchen doing this in tandem.
Wow, what a fabulous selection of cookies, JWoo! And to know they are home made is the best part!
Thanks, Raven! They turned out really good this year. Finished all the big “obligation” boxes and now on to the random-act-of-kindness boxes which are way more fun.
Wow, again! I’d love to be on your “obligation” list, or would be super happy to be on your “random-act-of kindness” list, too.
Yes, I am a sucker (and beggar) for home made treats!
How many boxes do you usually make each year?
Aww Raven. I would gladly ship you a box if I felt they would travel safely. Most likely would, but some I would be sensitive to their temperature and breaking apart.
I do not bake every year. In the past, maybe 400 to 600 is good average and about 8 of the fruitcakes. I double batched the fruitcake two years ago because I was so enamored with the recipe and I was testing it.
This year, I pushed close to a thousand as we had lots of folks to bake for. 4 story office building, my daughter’s work Christmas party, our local fire department, four families, and the RAOK boxes.
I haven’t mastered leveling out the recipes to make equal batches. I’m still working on the perfect recipe tastes and this year… I got it down. I’m content and grateful with the quality of every one of them…. though I am not a great “decorator” of sugar cookies. What a pain, but they are soooo buttery that we made a few stockings that we just left alone undecorated, and they turned out to be my favorite of the bunch.
I did notice that the consistency of butter in the grocery stores seems to have changed. Not sure if it is the fat content???? I have had to increase the flour added to the recipes until it’s of the right consistency for shaping.
I love to feed people and I love to see their reactions and get feedback. I have had almost 19 years with a daughter who has grown up around gourmet food and she’s “bored” with it, so I get little feedback. To her… this is “normal”. So, if I want a compliment, I have to shock and awe somebody else. Compliments are like hugs… we should give them often and liberally.
Ok, so I’d say Wow again, but that’s how I started my last two posts to you.
But, Wow, JWoo, that’s a look of cookies, fruitcakes and goodies to make and share. What a blessing you and your bakery are to many, many others!
I can’t imagine your daughter not being enamored with your cooking, no matter how long she’s been around gourmet food. Home made anything and everything is always the best, which makes going to a church potluck a little slice of Heaven to me. I imagine that is what your meals are like, and for sure if I were there you’d get lots and lots of
complimentshugs from me!Church potlucks are the best, especially the southern Baptist ones. They’re my favorite.
No bakery… just my kitchen. Not a pro just lots of practice and great tunes and podcasts to pass the time.
Holy smokes, those are some goodie boxes. You and Savannah have been busy!
We are off soon, Deb. Not sure I’ll know how to sit down and do nothing for a while. I’ve got a stack of books to read… but Savannah requires much more activity. Hoping to wear her out at the gym and maybe I can carve out some me time. Blessings to you friend 🧡
Looks like a page from the I Spy books that I like to read to my grandchildren.
I spy some thumbprints, a snowflake that’s blue, some bark, 7 snowmen, and Santa Claus too!
Very Dr Seussian… love it! Yes, I spy…
Peanut butter blossoms and wedding cakes, my favorites! For years my parents did an Open House at Christmas. My favorite job was putting the kisses on blossoms.
I would have paid you to unwrap all the kisses – lol. They ought to just sell the unwrapped just for this occasion.
Perfection!
Favorites here, too. Have always filled half the batch with mint jelly and the other half with red raspberry jelly.
May I ask, what was your tweak this year? The cream cheese, perhaps?
The extra cream cheese cut out dough turned into jam thumbprints was a happy surprise. The egg wash made them glossy and prettier.
A lot of lower temperature, longer cooking time and the cookies’ bottoms were perfectly light.
I used coconut oil for the peppermint bark and a hint of vanilla along with the peppermint for each the white and dark chocolate…a hint of sea salt. Terrific!
The chocolate cookie with the cayenne pepper was a total rerigging of a Martha Stewart recipe, and by that time I had so many cookies.. if I blew it, I wasn’t going to lose much. Those were some of folks favorites and that was a draw on my days among Mexican cuisine. I tweaked with white chocolate and semi sweet… melted then and added full chips at the end with the nuts… and cinnamon because I love adding cinnamon and coffee to brownies. I was thinking of my love of Mexican Mole. Peppers and dark chocolate, with the sweet of white chocolate and earthiness of nuts.
The double chocolate chip has different sizes of chips for different feel.
I always write down my tweaks as I go, so I’ll remember the best combinations. Been cooking like this a long time.
Thanks for taking the time to answer!
Ditto on cooking a long time–since I was 10. Also record changes, etc. When someone asks me for a recipe, first I cringe, then get to work on a fresh copy. My best recipes look like a culinary version of that old T-shirt, “I ran into Tammy Faye at the Mall.”
“I ran into Tammy Faye at the Mall”…. HA HA!!!!
Maisonette white chocolate mousse
8oz corn syrup
12oz melted white chocolate
4 egg whites
1/2c sugar
1qt whipping cream
1c confectioners sugar
2T vanilla
1. Stir corn syrup into melted white chocolate, cool to room temp
2. Whip egg whites into stiff peaks, gradually add granulated sugar and beat until stiff and shiny. Gently fold into chocolate mixture.
3. Whip cream to soft peaks; add confectioners sugar and vanilla. Fold into chocolate mixture.
4. Serve chilled with dark chocolate sauce and raspberries.
The Maisonette was a much loved French restaurant in Cincinnati. The owner was kind enough to share recipes after it closed.
Had the pleasure of eating there a few times in the late 70’s. White Chocolate Mousse was to die for, as was much of their menu. Good times and sorely missed by the boomers.
My mother called this Depression Cake since it doesn’t use butter or eggs and they made it for Christmas during the 1930’s. We love it!
1 cup brown sugar,packed
1&1/4 cups water
1/3 cup Crisco
2 cups raisins
Mix in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Allow to cool and then add:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
2 tsp cinnamon
Spread in a greased and floured 9×13 pan. Bake at 350 about 30 min.
When cool ice with the following: 2 eggwhites and enough confectioners sugar to make a thick paste. Sprinkle with colored sprinkles while icing is wet.
This recipe looks like it might be good for breakfast — along with a savory item. Is it heavy like Fruit Cake? I’m going to give it a go and make your recipe, Quilter!
No, it’s not heavy but addictive if you like spicy raisin cake!
Cool, sounds even better. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Christmas Country Ham or City Ham?
South of the Mason-Dixon line late fall and early winter was the time to prepare the fattened hog rather than the goose.
The task could not be accomplished in warmer weather since it took time to preserve all the meat and there was no way to keep it cool and safe except in cold weather.
Even so it took teams of 7 or more, (read a neighborhood event) to process even one hog in a day much less multiples.
Most fresh hams, shoulders, loins and pork bellies for bacon were first salted down in a “salt box” built specifically for the task. Salt was used to draw the moisture out of the meat and ready it for the smokehouse in most cases.
Prior to and especially during the Great Depression a farmer might keep half a hog for personal use but sell the rest in town or to neighbors.
So a ham was to most a special dish enjoyed during the holiday season only in years past.
A “city ham” is a ham that is either fresh or frozen. If it hasn’t been frozen it is kept chilled and processed in time to reach the grocers before the holiday season, (or a smaller supply stock kept year round at the grocers.)
A “country ham” is a salt and or sugar cured and smoked ham or shoulder. This ham requires no refrigeration and is usually covered with a linen sack.
To prepare a country ham requires extra steps a day or two ahead of baking. This ham must first be soaked at least overnight but 24 hours is probably best. It is critical during this soak that the rinse water be dumped out and changed with fresh cool water a couple times. This step is to remove most of the salt from these hams before baking. If a country ham isn’t soaked and rinsed the result is too salty to eat in most cases.
So the Christmas ham was an eagerly awaited event and dish.
Christmas day and through the rest of the holiday season was the time for ham biscuits. Ready for any guests who visited the ham biscuit plus side vegetable dishes was the expected fare during the holidays.
A tip for the frugal is to visit your grocers immediately after Thanksgiving and Christmas checking for turkeys and hams that didn’t sell and are marked down drastically. We make our own ham and turkey salads and pressure can turkey stews and soups and our beloved Brunswick stew is prepared and then canned or frozen.
Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to all and especially Menagerie for bringing the memories. Hope you enjoyed this rambling Chautauqua.
Howdy Monti!!!!
Another frugal tip – from these FRUGAL girls – buy your fruitcake fruit and decorations on clearance immediately AFTER the holidays for the following year. Candied fruits do not lose their flavor or texture when stored properly in a cool, dark, pantry. We do this for our fruitcakes – and I HATED FRUITCAKE – until I came across this fantastic recipe from a 83 year old friend.
My fruitcakes, I actually made last year in small batch aluminum loaf pans and stored in the freezer. Took them out, and cut them in very thin slices with a sharp knife and placed parchment paper sheets between the thin slices. Came out FANTASTIC.
I echo your sentiments on the clearance hams and turkeys – ALDI offers TERRIFIC hams that are not too salty – great country-style hams and both the bone-in and the pre-sliced hams are fantastic. We frugal girls buy them and split them into zip lock bags instead of deli meat, because it’s cheaper and tastes terrific.
ALDI has allowed these girls to eat like Queens on an incredibly MODEST budget. Even to reasonably bake the almost thousand cookies I made this year – it was a great way to rotate my “prepper” stock and gift the masses.
Love to you, my bro from another mo.
Fruitcake recipe please!
Here’s my Hungarian grandmothers Fruitcake recipe. She called them Fruitcake Bon Bons as they are in the mini cupcake holders. They were awesome and a much looked forward to Christmas treat. Been meaning to share with my Treehouse family:
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp mace
1/4 cloves
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
5 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup brandy
8 oz. candied red glacé cherries
4 oz chopped candied pineapple
1/2 cup candied orange peels
1/2 cup candied lemon peels
8 oz dromedary pkg dates
1 cup currants
1 cup raisins
2 cups walnuts chopped
Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, mace, and cloves in a bowl. Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Then beat in the molasses, honey, and the 1/4 cup brandy. Add the flour, cherries, pineapple, dates, currants, raisins, orange and lemon peels, and the walnuts. Save some cut candied cherries to place one on top of each mini cup cake as decoration. Bake in oven at 300 degrees for 25 minutes.
Merry Christmas fellow Treepers!
Get in the car and drive 12 miles north on 301. When I get into town turn left at the second traffic light and pull over to the right in a quarter mile at the Claxton Fruitcake Company store.
Hi ya JWoo!
May have to try that fruitcake recipe because I despise the stuff…….the most re-gifted item of the season are those store baked fruit cakes right?
Our tradition is an applesauce cake with dates, black walnuts and blackberry jam. I’ll try to post that one later today if I can make time to do so.
That sounds really good, Monticello. I had a matriarch friend of mine who used to cook for commercials. All those gorgeous meals back when they were staging real food – she would make an apple cake with very very thinly sliced apples. Was a work of art – and delicious to boot. Yes, please, post your applesauce cake recipe here. Sounds delicious!
I like to sub applesauce for cooking oil in my baked breads recipes.
Our Christmas Dinner was the same as Thanksgiving. Turkey abit raw and the other sides passable. My Mom was not a fan of the kitchen but then my Dad would step in and scrambled eggs and ham steaks to the rescue. It was glorious.
this year we are making Trump toast.
ingredients.
1 Olympic size swimming pool filled completely with top shelf champagne
a ton of hell yeahs
a pinch of humility…just a pinch. like salt, you never over do the humility when serving the sweet victory
100 pounds of fresh squeezed hallelujahs.
one grand opening prayer
this toast will be raised on Christmas day and will likely last for at least 4 years.
no refrigeration required. use as needed. and works well as a tonic, perfume, fuel for the wholesome mind and tincture to ward off bad juju.
God Bless America
THIS ^^^^ made me laugh so hard my belly ached and I was crying!
Bet those bubbles tickle if you take a dip regitiger
I’m soaking in it Madge. (old commercial…I love old marketing jingles…I miss that)
I’ll have a couple of tanks of that “beverage”, please.
This annual Christmas tradition is the most stolen gift at the family gift exchange and I’m told it’s better than Baileys. (Obviously, your choice of liquors will impact the flavor. I’ve included the brand of the ones I typically use.)
HOMEMADE IRISH CREAM
Combine 3/4 cup whiskey (Kessler), 1/2 cup rum (Bicardi light), 1/2 cup brandy (Korbel), 1/8 cup Southern Comfort, 1/4 cup chocolate syrup, 1 tsp instant coffee, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp almond extract, 1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk. Mix thoroughly. Then gently stir in 1 cup egg beaters and 1 cup heavy whipping cream. Yield is 1 quart plus a small glass on the rocks. 😉 Enjoy!
… plus a small glass on the rocks for the baker… (giggle)
I think of my kitchen hero, Julia Child, with a splash of the wine for the recipe and the glass for the chef. My favorite way to cook and spend hours in my kitchen. My favorite thing to do is to feed and break bread with ones of I love. I somehow must find this Spirit to feed my community.
How about a challenge – that each of us bake a little something – and leave it at strangers’ doors. I’m in. I’m doing it!
Gift boxes can be purchased 2, 3, or 4 for $1.25 at the dollar store. Line with parchment and wah lah! Beautiful Christmas blessing.
Bon appétit! I became a Julia Child fan later in life – after our sons were grown and I branched out from my first love, which was all about Spanish language and everything that goes with teaching it. My employer offered me the opportunity to head back to school to study and become state certified to teach French, and double my ability to serve the district. It was a happy agreement. Bonne cuisine, et beaucoup de nouveaux bons amis!
If you’re ever in St Louis, there is French Patisserie there that you must go to… La Bonne Bouchee… you can go online and see their pastries. Remarkable, but their french onion soup is to die for!
French and Mexican… so diverse and fun to cook!
I am of German decent (2nd gen American) and I HATED FRUIT CAKE, LEBKUCHEN, and the like… much to the disappointment of my father. So, when a genteel, master baker, elder friend, gifted me a fruitcake two years ago… I was like:
“oh, uhhhh, thanks (not) for the “gift!” (of the absolutely worst Christmas treat experience of my childhood life)”…
I would rather have had a gift of flaming dog poo left in a bag on my porch… but, because I really respected her and revered her baking abilities… I took a small bite thinking I would try it and promptly throw the balance in the trash can.
Nope! Turns out, I didn’t like the bitter rinds and the alcohol put in the cakes. This recipe is the answer and if you like dates and pecans (and who doesn’t?) you will LOVE this beautiful loaf worthy of gifting and sharing.
FRUIT CAKE (Makes 7 or 8 small loaves)
3 cups of flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 lbs dates (pitted and cut once)
16 oz of candied pineapple
8 oz of candied red cherries
8 oz of candied green cherries
2 lbs whole pecans
6 eggs
1 1/2 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
Beat the eggs, vanilla extract, and 1 1/2 cups of sugar together. Whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder together until thoroughly mixed and add to the egg mixture, mixing with hand mixer. Set aside mixer. With large mixing spoon, fold in the cherries, pineapple, and add the whole pecans last. (You may have to mix this with your hands.)
Press firmly into small loaf pans lined with buttered parchment paper or you can use buttered brown lunch bags for the lining in the pans. Place the seven or eight loaves on a large cookie sheet. Bake on cookie sheet at 275 degrees for 1 1/2 hours until tops are dry and lightly browned.
You can freeze these for a year without losing quality. Keep them wrapped in their parchment paper, wrap again in aluminum foil, and then in gallon size zip lock freezer bags for long time storage. If you can keep them around and not eat them all. These are delicious!
Thank you!
You are most welcome, BonnieBlue. Enjoy!
Made a batch the other day for my wife who loves fruitcake but hates the alcohol and bitter rinds found in the store bought ones. She LOVED this! Great recipe. Will be making this now every year for her. Thank you!
Makes my heart happy, Homer Les. My pleasure to share!
Thanks for a great laugh!! I hate that crap too.
This recipe is not that fruitcake of our memories. This is a good one! ❤️
5 Milky Way bars
3 cups Rice Krispies cereal
1 stick + 3 TB **unsalted** butter
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
In a saucepan large enough to hold the Rice Krispies, melt 1 stick of butter and the Milky Way bars until they are one smooth and homogenous mix. Stir in the Rice Krispies and fold until thoroughly mixed. Press into an 8×8 pan.
In the saucepan, melt the 3 TB of butter and chocolate chips until smooth and homogenous. Pour onto the Rice Krispy mixture in the 8×8 pan and smooth into an even layer. Let cool 20-30 minutes.
Is this one cup of each chocolate chip listed or one cup of either kind of chocolate chip for the topping? Thank you.
One cup of each kind (2 cups total).
My grandmother made Stollen, passed it on to mom, passed on to my sister, passed it on to my oldest daughter.
I provide financial support for raw materials and shipping to clan members out of town and assist in labor.
4 loaves per batch. 52 loaves a year to cover clan and friends.
Ok, I nibbled at the hook & here is what I found @ allrecipes is a 4.7 star recipe.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/17160/christmas-stollen/
Almond Roca
3/4 lb butter
2 cups sugar (I use brown sugar)
1/4 cup water
2 TBSP golden syrup (original says corn syrup, but I don’t use that)
1 1/3 cup toasted, sliced almonds
1/3 cup (more or less) finely chopped toasted almonds (I put in a ziploc bag & use a rolling pin)
semisweet chocolate chips
(To toast almonds, spread on baking sheet, bake in 350° oven for 7-8 minutes.)
Melt butter in heavy saucepan over low heat. Add sugar, stir to dissolve. Add water & syrup. Cook over low to medium heat, until candy thermometer (required!) reads 290°. Be patient, may take an hour – if you have a newer stove that burners go on & off…😠
Remove from heat, stir in 1 1/3 cup almonds quickly, and spread into 10 x 15 pan.
Cover generously with chocolate chips ASAP (you want them to melt). Spread smoothly over the candy. Then sprinkle with chopped (rolling pinned) almonds.
Now – this is from a Canadian cookbook, though my original recipe I got from an oncologist where I worked in BC close to 40 years ago.
The cookbook “Company’s Coming for Christmas” by Jean Pare (should be “accent grave” on that final e, but I don’t have a French keyboard 😶) recipe was a lucky find years ago (I’ve given copies to all my daughters-in-law 😆) because I lost my original recipe in a move ☹️
But – the recipe is way too complicated in the cookbook, so I’ve modified. I use sliced, not slivered almonds. I use less butter (original calls for a full pound) because I found my roca greasy on the outside. And the original calls for cooling the almond toffee, melting chocolate in a double boiler, pouring it on the toffee, etc, and covering both sides with chocolate. My thinking was “um, why cool (way more time) & then melt chocolate (more electricity & bother)? The toffee spread on the pan is 290°, right? Won’t *that* melt chocolate? So I spread semisweet (or 70% dark) chocolate chips generously, and spread evenly when they are melted. Then I sprinkle the “rolling pinned” almonds over top of that. And I spread chocolate generously on the one side so I don’t have to wait for cooling, flipping over, & spreading on the other side😆
Whew! Harder to type than to make!
Enjoy!
what is the quantity of chocolate chips?
That one I play by ear. I basically cover the whole thing with chocolate chips, and then add a few more. 2-3 cups maybe? (it’s hard to have too many 😀)
My mom knew I loved her Divinity and she would make a batch just for me every Christmas. I’d eat it slowly, enjoying every piece throughout the year — as far into the year as the batch would make it.
Mom has been gone for 33 years now, and I still have pieces of Divinity from the last batch she made before she died. They still look beautiful, always colored pink, although they are as hard as rocks now.
My husband, knowing how much I loved mom’s Divinity, asked me to dig out mom’s old recipe so he could make it for me. My mother was a cook who only needed a few short notes to remember how to make something, and her Divinity recipe definitely showed it to be true. Try as hard as he can to fill in the empty areas of mom’s recipe, and after many years of trying and failing to make dry, crunchy Divinity like mom made, he has given up on her recipe.
So I’m coming to the excellent cooks here at the Treehouse to see if any of you have a recipe for Divinity that does not turn out chewy and sticky, but dry and crunchy. I would love to get that recipe from you.
Thank you in advance for any help you can give me!
I wish I had my Mother’s recipe for Divinity. She never wrote anything down.It was all from Memory. She made, to die for Divinity. Always waiting for just the right day, Humidity was a big factor. For 60+ years it was her treat to our family.
Yes! I remember my mom saying something about it having to be very dry in order to get her Divinity just right.
I know the process of making Divinity is a lot of work, which always made me that much more thankful that she’d make a batch just for me. And thankful that my husband keeps trying to find the perfect recipe — that’s actually a recipe — that matches what our moms used to make.
Hopefully someone will have the recipe and share it with us both!
Hello Raven, Your request prompted a memory of my Southern grandmother’s divinity candy.
I remember it as a ten y/o – and still talking about it this week with hubs.
Loved it so much, that I considered making it for my daughter’s wedding!
Will leave grandmother’s recipe here – but I have never made it.
Hers was not chewy or sticky … but, light and fluffy – melt in your mouth.
She did use fresh black walnuts, and that was the only “crunch” I recall.
Raven, I’ve never heard of crunchy divinity!
There are several web sites for candy making – very informative.
Found one about candy thermometers, and wondered if your mom cooked her candy to a higher temp?
And, it depends on the altitude of your location, and whether the thermometer is accurate.
Lots of details involved!
Grandma’s Divinity
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white syrup (Karo, I suppose?)
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
Mix together in pan.
Cook over medium heat till it comes to a boil – stir constantly.
Reduce heat, and do not stir, till it reaches 250 degrees.
Take 1/2 of this mixture – slowly pour it over 2 stiffly beaten egg whites.
Cook remaining mixture in pot to 278 degrees.
Pour hot mixture, slowly, over the other.
Beat till it forms a peak.
Add 1 cup chopped nuts, and 1 tsp vanilla.
That’s all I have from the recipe.
I think next step would be to drop the mixture by a teaspoon on wax paper.
Also, I would lightly toast the nuts before adding.
Raven, the candy-experts on the ‘net says to keep trying and not give up.
I know my grandma and probably your mom had years of experience to perfect this heavenly concoction!
Yep – remember the “humidity” comment, too!
Thank you, Miss Della B for sharing your grandmother’s Divinity recipe with me (and probably lots of other people, too)!
Light and fluffy would have been a better description than light and crunchy; I just knew the chewy and sticky stuff that I can find all over the place is not real “Divinity.” Light and fluffy and melt-in-your-mouth sweet and delicious is Divinity. Adding a little pink makes it beautiful and fresh nuts. . . the older I get the more I like them.
Just reading the recipe made my eyes glaze-over, so it’s probably the perfect thing to make my husband’s heart beat a happy beat!
Thank you again, Miss Della B!
Do any of you remember or live close to a restaurant called ‘Pannekoeken Huis’? They served Dutch food, with their specialty being the Pannekoeken (Pan a koo’ ken) for which they were named. The last Pannekoeken Huis in Minnesota closed earlier this year.
Pannekoeken reminds me of a big pop-over, with the Pannekoeken coming out of the oven tall and puffed up and shrinking down as it cools. They are delicious, especially with warm Rum Raisin sauce poured over them.
Turn oven on to 425 degrees.
In bowl mix
3 eggs (beat them a little before adding next ingredient)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbls sugar
1 tsp vanilla
You will have lumps and that’s OK.
Using a cast iron pan only (approximately 10″ across/round or two smaller pans) place 1 1/2 tbls butter in the pan and put it in the hot oven until the butter melts (do not leave it in too long so that the butter burns).
Remove pan from oven, pour batter in pan and put back in the oven for 25 minutes.
You will have to watch the Pannekoeken as it bakes. My oven bakes one side faster than the other, so I turn the Pannekoeken around about 10 minutes into cooking so it comes out with high sides all around. And I never have to leave the Pannekoeken in for the full 25 minutes, even though I set the timer and sit and watch it.
When it’s done your Pannekoeken will rise over the sides of your pan and have a light brown to brown color along the top. The inside bottom will be holding the melted butter. Uuummm, butter.
While the Pannekoeken is baking I make Rum Raisin Sauce. This is my mom’s recipe —
In sauce pan mix
1 cup sugar
2 tbls cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups water
bring to boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly
After 1 minute remove from heat and add
4 tbls butter
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp rum extract
1/2 cup raisins
Stir until butter melts and put in gravy server.
When Pannekoeken comes out of the oven plate it as quickly as possible and serve. It is fun to see it puffed up, even if only for a minute.
One Pannekoeken feeds my husband and myself, and I usually make half a batch of Rum Raisin sauce, since a whole batch is too much for us. But is delicious!
Can’t go wrong with Christmas Crack!
https://therecipecritic.com/christmas-crack-recipe/
Oh, I’ve been wanting this recipe but didn’t know what it was called.
Thank you!
I’ve just assembled the ingredients. Plan on making tomorrow. Yummy, 😋
I have made these every year since 1983. I received the recipe from my daughter’s lst grade teacher.
Coconut Creme–taste like Almond Joys
lst day–Mix together
l box powdered sugar
l stick softened butter (or margarine but I prefer butter)
1 can eagle brand milk
1 1/2 bags large sweetened coconut (14 oz. size)
Roll into balls with hands or use scoop. Place on cookie sheet and refrigerate or freeze overnight. You can leave
these in the freezer until you are ready to dip.
2nd day (or later)–Melt chocolate chips (I prefer the Ghirardelli melting wafter) in a double boiler over simmering water.
Use toothpicks to dip and then place on parchment or waxed paper until chocolate has set. Candy tools are very
inexpensive (one round, one like a fork) and easier to use plus they last forever. After cool, I put into the candy
papers and store in tins. They can be frozen and used as needed.
Now from my very Swedish heritage — Fastlagsbullar (fest log boo’ lar).
Fastagsbullar, or Fasting Bun, is made and eaten by Swedes especially between Christmas and Easter, or like me every and any time I can make it. They have the flavor of “kardemumma” or cardamom, which is a flavor I love. (Just brewed a pot of coffee and dropped a cardamom pod in with the coffee grounds before brewing to make the most delicious coffee ever!)
75 g jast
200 g smor
5 dl mjolk
1/2 tsk salt
2 tsk mystott kardemumma
2 dl socker
2 agg
17 dl vetemjol
I had to translate the original recipe using Swedish measuring spoons and cups.
2.64 ounces cake yeast (the kind usually found in the dairy case)
7 ounces butter
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cardamom
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
8 1/2 cups flour
Put butter and milk in pan and cook on low heat until butter is melted. When mixture is just warm to the touch (97 degrees F) add a small portion of the mixture to the cake yeast to melt it. If liquid is too warm it will ruin the yeast. Once cake yeast is melted add all of the liquid mixture to the melted yeast.
Stir in salt, cardamom and sugar.
In separate bowl whip 2 eggs, then add to the liquid mixture.
Slowly blend in approximately 8 1/2 cups flour, enough so the dough does not stick to your fingers.
Put warm, damp cloth over bowl and place in warm area for half an hour to let the dough rise.
Once risen, roll dough into log and then cut pieces from log and roll those into balls. You should end up with approximately 30 balls.
Place dough balls onto sided cookie sheet and brush with egg whites. Let stand in warm area for 15 minutes to rise again.
Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 15 minutes — until rolls are light golden brown on top.
To eat Fastlagbullar like they do in Sweden —
Let cool
Cut off tops of rolls, put to the side
Scoop out the soft bread inside to create a bowl, and save the soft bread pieces
Make a mixture of 1 cup ground almonds, 1 cup sugar, and the soft bread pieces you scooped out. Add a little milk until the mixture looks like oatmeal, then put the mixture back into the buns.
Put whipped cream on top of buns
Put the part you cut off the top of the buns on top of the whipped cream
Sprinkle with powdered sugar
Cranberry Sauce must be taken out of the can in ONE gelatinous, shimmering piece.
^^^^^😋🤩
Yea, that’s how I remember it being served…. probably why I never liked it too.
Asparagus Sauce
My mom started serving this at every holiday meal beginning in 1951. It was meant to go on fresh cooked asparagus but we use it on canned and can be used with other vegetables. We ave it on the table at Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
1.5 c mayonnaise
1-3 tsp horseradish
1/2 c butter
1-2 T. cider vinegar
dry minced onion
das of cayenne
salt/pepper to taste
This must be done on the lowest heat possible. Just let it sit until the butter is melted and mix well. Remove from heat immediately. Tastes best if made, refrigerated and then reheated ahead of time. My husband used to dislike asparagus until we were first dating and he joined our family for Thanksgiving. Mom served this sauce and asparagus and now he loves it…
I first learned of CTH during the 2016 campaign and while I can’t comment often it’s a daily go to for me.
Do you use prepared horseradish?
Oohh, sounds spicy and delicious!
Gingerbread (I make tons of this – my mother-in-law keeps it in her freezer because she eats it for breakfast).
1/4 lb butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup hot water
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tablespoon ginger
Preheat oven 350F
Grease and flour cake tins (I use 5 mini-loaf tins or 3 -mini-loaf and 1 regular loaf tin, also I put parchment paper in bottom of tin to ease getting the gingerbread out).
Cream butter and sugar
Add eggs and beat well
Add molasses and hot water, mix well
Sift dry ingredients and gradually add to wet.
Pour into prepared tins and bake 30 to 35 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean).
Cool in pans a couple of minutes then turn onto cooling racks. Leave parchment paper on bottom of loaves.
My secret to sticky gingerbread as taught to me by my Dad – while gingerbread is still warm, wrap in cling film and place in freezer bags. After a couple of days, stick it in the freezer for later enjoyment.
Slice and slather in butter. Also good with some marmalade.
These candied pecans are so simple and delicious. Put them in a jar with a pretty ribbon and it’s also a wonderful gift to share.
The cayenne adds just a nice hint of heat but you can leave it out if that’s not your thing.
Candied Pecans
½ c sugar
½ c packed light brown sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
12 oz (about 3.5 cups) of pecans
1 egg white
1 Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2 Mix the granulated sugar, cinnamon, salt, and cayenne to a small mixing bowl and whisk until evenly combined.
3 In a separate mixing bowl, briefly whisk the egg white then add the pecans and toss until evenly coated.
Then add the sugar mixture and stir/toss until the pecans are coated.
4 Spread the pecans out in a single even layer on the baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes, then remove the nuts from the oven and give them a brief stir. Bake for about 20 minutes more or until the pecans are fragrant.
Thank you, Jabby. Another great recipe to make and share!
Awesome thank you Jabby.
They are so good in spinach/strawberry salad with a rspberry dressing.
Yay, thank you Menagerie, I’ve been waiting for this.
This year I’ve made a command decision to have a non-traditional Christmas Eve dinner. After all I am the Mom/Grandma! Grampa and I are providing the dinner in lieu of gifts for the kids and grandkids, the best ever BBQ! I’ll still cook up the normal goodies, cookies, nut breads, fudges, peppermint cream cheese candies. I haven’t decided on pies yet. Maybe banana pudding instead.
The kid’s food allergies seem to be expanding so I have to make things without cinnamon and peanuts now.
We’re going to have a wonderful Christmas Eve get together without adding more stress to our daughter and grandkids to cook.
We eat seafood of all types for Christmas Eve. This is by far one of the easiest and most delicious. Found this recipe online years ago.
Sheet Pan Garlic Shrimp
INGREDIENTS:
2 pounds extra large or jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined, thawed if frozen
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 large cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Pinch freshly chopped parsley, for garnish (optional)
Lemon wedges, for serving (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350°F and set an oven rack in the middle position.
Place the shrimp on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic. Roast for about 8 minutes, or until the shrimp are pink and just cooked through. Immediately add the butter directly on the hot baking sheet and stir until melted. Transfer the shrimp and butter sauce to a serving dish and sprinkle with a bit of fresh parsley, if desired. Serve with lemon wedges.
Sounds great but what are the other people eating? /s
I just bought 6 lbs of “colossal” shrimp as K-corp had a sale on them… already been thru 2 lbs with just cocktail sauce.
While using the oven makes a great way to time save, I use pan method with the same above ingredients tho I also use heavy cream & cheese (mozz or sharp cheddar but for this season I got Parmesan instead.
Tips for pan method:
I only use butter, brown the butter first for more flavor IE let it sizzle down til the water is out of it, carefully stir constantly & brown the butter to light to medium shade to your taste (adding garlic & garlic salt that includes parsley here after browning stage)
Then add the shrimp let sizzle down til water is out of shrimp flipping shrimp to cook/brown other side til done.
Once shrimp is done remove from pan & drain back to pan.
Add heavy cream & cheese flavor of choice (additional garlic & salt,pepper to taste)
Stir continuously & reduce heavy cream mixture to and acceptable viscosity to your tastes. (it sets up stiffer the cooler it gets)
Add back shrimp & allow to warm back up in the cream sauce. (add more garlic!!!)
Enjoy, I serve over a pasta generally.
I copied a couple of these recipes and let me tell you, I’m impressed. You guys are awesome.
I would LOVE a bound Treehouse Cookbook, Menagerie. An excellent fundraiser for Sundance.
The Patriots Guide to Delectable, a collection by the Conservative Treehouse
A Deplorable Cookbook. Something about following a recipe on paper vs an electronic device makes it better, especially one w/stains, folds, dog ears, or ink that has run. Not sure why, maybe it’s just me. I reckon it is an age thing.
Yes to something on paper. I collect recipes. Have done so since a child, barely able to read. I like to write in my cookbooks, make notes such as made this for so-and-so’s birthday (date it), list who was there, etc. Also like to document my own changes, tweaks, suggestions. These will be handed down to those in my family who love to cook.
Not just you, guns. Me, too. I have a three ring binder in the kitchen. In case of fire, grab the cats, the birth certificate file, and the three ring cookbook!!! Mine has my notes in it, too, Crimson. Could make a doctoral thesis out of the thing.
Fudge in a Flash
Grease an 8″ x 8″ pan.
Ingredients
1 lb. powdered sugar (3 3/4 Cups)
1/8 tsp. salt
6 TB. butter
4 TB. milk
1 Cup chopped nuts, optional
Combine all ingredients, except the nuts, in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently. Stir until bubbles form, and continue to cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir in the nuts, if using. Spread into the prepared pan. Work fast as the fudge will set quickly. Don’t worry about scraping the last bits out of the pot because they will sit on top and not blend in. The fudge does set that quickly! When cool, cut into squares.
A great tasting fudge with very little work.
Did you forget the chocolate?
Is there chocolate in your fudge? Do you add cocoa pieces and melt those with the sauce pan with the rest?
I like quick and easy, for sure!
WOOPS! 1/2 Cup Cocoa powder. I use Hershey’s. Thanks for catching this.
Left out 1/2 Cup Hershey’s cocoa powder! 😵🤗
Thanks to Lady & Raven below.
When do you add it in? With the sugar?
Everything except the nuts goes into the pan and gets blended together with a spoon or spatula at the git-go, before cooking/turning on the heat. 😋
When I first proposed this to the family as a new side dish to try out, I was met with skepticism, which changed at Thanksgiving dinner upon tasting it. It makes for a great accompaniment to the ham and turkey we made and was really quite delicious. Not at all overpoweringly sweet. Just right. Give it a try.
Paula Deen Pineapple Casserole
https://www.pauladeen.com/recipe/pineapple-casserole-recipe/
Paula Deenʼs Pineapple Casserole recipe, a classic Southern side dish, combines sweet pineapple chunks, sugar, and sharp cheddar cheese, sprinkled with buttery crackers for a baked masterpiece of cheesy, crunchy goodness.
Difficulty: Easy
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Servings: 10
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
2 (20 oz) cans drained pineapple chunks(I used 1 can of the bits and 1 of chunks)
6 tablespoons reserved pineapple juice
1 cup made into crumbs buttery crackers
8 tablespoons melted butter, plus extra for greasing pan
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 °F.
Grease a medium-size casserole dish with butter.
In a large bowl, stir together the sugar and flour. Gradually stir in the cheese. Add the drained pineapple chunks, and stir until ingredients are well combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared casserole dish.
In another medium bowl, combine the cracker crumbs, melted butter, and reserved pineapple juice, stirring with a rubber spatula until evenly blended.
Spread crumb mixture on top of pineapple mixture.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown.
Enjoy!
One of my favorite recipes of all time. So delicious, warm and comfy. Thank you for sharing.
I would like to share how to make potato candy, taught to me by my first MIL in 1962. Select a smallish russet potato and boil in water until it is done. Let it get totally cold. Put in large bowl and with mixer, start beating. It will almost turn to liquid. Start adding powdered sugar and add and add until the dough is stiff enough to roll. Be sure to have extra pkgs of powd. sugar on hand, more than one. Get dough board, sprinkle on powdered sugar and on dough roller. I like to work with smaller amounts so I just grab some of the dough, kind of mash together, put on dough board and either move around to gather powd. sugar or add some from package. Roll out to about 1/4″ thin. Spread with peanut butter, then roll up in a roll. Some recipes say to put in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 20 minutes but I haven’t done that. I just slice the roll into about 1″ slices, put on cookie sheet to dry or ‘set.’ When dry, put in air tight bowl for storage. They need to at least sit over night so the peanut butter flavor melds with the powdered sugar. I keep mine refrigerated. I’m not used to writing recipes so hope this is understandable. When rolling out the dough, get enough at one time that you think will make about a 12″ x 12″ piece of dough to be spread with peanut butter. The longer this sits, the better it tastes. Just think of the dough here as rolling dough for a pie. the same process.
I make the old fashioned peanut butter roll that uses sugar, water, and white corn syrup brought to a soft boil stage. That is added to a mixture of beaten egg whites and then whipped until it forms a soft dough. I can remember my mom as well as my MIL (her specialty) beating this divinity–and yes, humidity does play a factor or it won’t get hard enough–for a looong time by hand because no other option. . I am lazy and find my kitchenaid mixer does just fine although it also will take up to 20 plus minutes to make the dough. Then spread with the peanut butte, roll it up and then slice.
This takes a lot of effort and time although inexpensive to make and delicious. I can see why the potato candy became so popular.
Carrot Pudding with Butter Sauce topping- at least 75 years old recipe
My MILaw made this every Christmas. As she aged, she sent me on the search for the suet.
Shirley’s Carrot Pudding
2 tsp sale
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups grated potatoes
2 cups grated carrots
1 3/4 cups chopped suet
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup raisins
Note: Suet is the raw, hard fat of beef, lamb or mutton found around the loins and kidneys. Ask your local butcher if he has any.
Mix all together. Steam on stovetop in a pan in another pan of water. (Think of a metal jello mold as a possibility for the interior pan.) Steam for 3 hours.
Butter Sauce
3 cups sugar
3 heaping Tbl flour
3 rounded Tsp nutmeg
1/2 pints boiling water
1/2 pound butter
Simmer all on stovetop; keeping warm. Spoon over pudding. (Perhaps a crockpot might work? Haven’t tried that technique.)
Salt, not sale.
This isn’t a recipe but is a hint. If you have old recipes that called for a cake mix, those cake mixes were 17+ oz. if I remember correctly. If you use the old recipe and a new recipe in the box which is now around 15 oz., you will need to add around 3 oz of cake mix to your recipe. I keep an opened yellow cake and chocolate cake handy to scoop what I need out of.
I’m not trying to hog the recipes but I just have to share this cookie recipe. Cranberry Hootycreek Cookies is so named because the lady who developed it lives on Hooty Creek and owls live there too. I re-constitute my dried cranberries by microwaving them in a little water for about a minute, no certain time. Just want them not to be dried and tough.
CRANBERRY HOOTYCREEK COOKIES
2-1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup softened butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup rolled oats (don’t think it makes a difference of quick or regular)
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts
You can use other chips than white. These are soooooo delicious.
CHRISTMAS CAKE RECIPE.
Ingredients:
* 2 cups flour
* 1 stick butter
* 1 cup of water
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1 cup of sugar
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 cup of brown sugar
* Lemon juice
* 4 large eggs
* Nuts
* 2 bottles wine
* 2 cups of dried fruit
Sample the wine to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the wine
again. To be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and
drink. Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a
large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar. Beat again. At this
point it’s best to make sure the wine is still OK. Try another cup…
Just in case. Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 eggs and add to the
bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.
Pick the frigging fruit up off floor. Mix on the turner.. If the fried
druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a
drewscriver. Sample the wine to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two
cups of salt. Or something. Check the wine. Now shift the lemon juice
and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or some
fink.. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360
degrees and try not to fall over. Don’t forget to beat off the turner.
Finally, throw the bowl through the window. Finish the wine and wipe
counter with the cat.
Go to the shops and buy cake.
LOL! I wondered about two bottles of wine and you didn’t say red or white! My husband had a BBQ Sauce recipe that required maybe one bottle of beer, but there were other bottles in the 6-pack, so the recipe required the sauce maker to drink a beer in between. People always asked him for the recipe, and they cracked up after they read it.
My husband no longer drinks, so I don’t know if he even still has that recipe. The sauce was really good. I’ll have to check with him. Thanks for reminder and the laughter!
PASTA AL CAVALFIORE
1 head cauliflower cut into florets
1 lb pasta (short curly pasta is the best).
5 oz chopped pancetta (you can use bacon, but it’s not the same)
Olive oil
minced garlic
Boil the cauliflower until a knife can be easily inserted into it. Meanwhile, saute the pancetta and garlic in olive oil in a pan large enough to hold the cooked cauliflower. When the pancetta/garlic and cauliflower is ready, sir in the cauliflower and use a spoon to break it up. You will end up with something like “chunky” mashed potatoes. Add oil and salt as needed to keep the cauliflower sauce smoothish.
While doing all that, cook your pasta. Toss it into the cauliflower sauce. Eat it with plenty of cheese (pecorino or asiago is best).
Ooh, that sounds divine. Thanks, Joe!
Sounds tasty!