White Chocolate-Dipped Oatmeal-Cranberry Cookies

It's not Dave's cookie recipe (working on him to add those) but this is definitely a new family favorite since this past holiday season. Dangerously good!!!

Makes about 4 dozen.

 

1 c. (2 sticks) of butter, softened

1 c. firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 T. vanilla

2 c. all purpose flour

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

2 c. dried sweetened cranberries (like Craisins)

1 1/2 c. pecan pieces (toasted or not, either works fine)

1 1/4 c. uncooked quick cooking oats

12 oz. white chocolate chips

3 T vegetable shortening

 

Preheat oven to 375. Beat butter at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add sugars, beating well. Add egg and vanilla, blending well. Combine flour, soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl and whisk.

Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating until blended.

 Stir in cranberries, pecans and oatmeal until blended. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls, 2 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheets.  Bake for 9 - 11 minutes and cool completely.

 

Microwave white chocolate with vegetable shortening on high for about 1 minute or until chips melt. Stir quickly, once only if possible, until smooth. Dip half of each cookie or dip tops of cookies into white chocolate, letting excess drip back into bowl. Place on waxed paper to sit until firm.

 

Mom's Sausage Souffle

Staple of Easter brunches for many, many years. (It's always the Roberts family's Christmas morning breakfast as well.) Great because it's made the night before and ready for the oven on holiday mornings. This recipe makes about 6 servings.

 

1 lb bulk sausage, browned and drained

6 slices of bread, crust and all, torn into cubes

1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

1 t. dry mustard

1/2 - 1 t. salt

4 eggs

2 c. milk

 

Heat oven to 350.  Blend sausage, bread, cheese, mustard and salt. Beat eggs with milk, then blend with the sausage mixture. Pour into greased casserole dish and set in refrigerator overnight. Bake the next morning for 45 minutes covered with foil, followed by 15 minutes at 325 degrees, uncovered.

Lorraine's Enchiladas

Lorraine told me how to make these about 30 years ago. I never had it written down, so Lorraine may have to correct it if I've morphed it over time. Also a recipe that you've had at my house every time I have served Mexican food. (I don't really know quantities because I always make a LOT). They freeze well.

Can of enchilada sauce

Small can of tomato sauce

Ground beef, drained and mixed with taco spice

Shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese

Corn tortillas

I mix enchilada sauce with a small can of tomato sauce in a shallow bowl. (Not sure if Lorraine did this or if it was because my kids liked the enchilada sauce cut down a little).  Dip a corn tortilla completely in sauce and shake off excess. Place a few tablespoons of meat in a line across the tortilla. Spoon a T of sauce across the meat and add some shredded cheese. Roll up and place seam side down in a greased casserole. Spread remaining sauce across the top and sprinkle with some additional cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 - 35 minutes or until heated throughout and bubbly.

"Matt's Favorite Dessert" (aka Strawberry Sublime)

Great after Mexican food! (Which again means you've likely had it at my house). Actually, it's really good any time. You really want to use a stand mixer for this.

 

Crust

1 c. flour

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. walnuts, chopped

 

Filling

1 c. sugar

2 T. lemon juice

2 egg whites

1 10 oz package frozen, sweetened strawberries, partially thawed

1 c. heavy cream, whipped

1/2 t. vanilla

 

Mix crust ingredients together and spread on cookie sheet. Toast at 375 degrees for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown.

 

Beat first 4 filling ingredients at high speed for 15 minutes. Fold in whipped cream and vanilla.

 

Spread half the cookie crumbs on the bottom of a 9 X 13 pan. Cover with the filling mixture and top with remaining crumbs. Freeze until ready to serve, at least 6 hours.

 

Stuffed Burritos

The burritos you are served EVERY single time you have Mexican food at my house! (Sorry)  Annie

Flour tortillas

2 cans cream of chicken soup

3 4oz cans of chopped green chilies

Bag of shredded mexican blend cheese (or cheddar)

Ground beef, cooked drained and seasoned with taco spice

1 large can of refried beans

Spray a casserole dish.

Blend the soup and green chilies in a bowl. Line up next to the refried beans, ground beef, and cheese.

On a flour tortilla, spread a few tablespoons of refried beans across the center in a line. Spoon a few tablespoons of taco meat on top of the beans. Follow with a few tablespoons of of the soup mixture and top with shredded cheese. Roll up and place in the casserole, seam side down. Repeat, filling the dish. Spoon the remaining soup mixture across the top, making sure all exposed tortillas are moistened. Sprinkle shredded cheese across the top.

Bake at 350 for about 30 - 35 minutes, or until bubbly and heated through.

Mexican Corn Dip (aka Crack Dip)

The first time the Roberts family was introduced to this dip was when Kate Brennan (Topeka Brennan family/niece of Mary DeCoursey) brought it for a party being held at Breit's. Instant addiction and therefore the aka..... It makes a lot and is great for a crowd. We think best with Frito Scoops.

2 11 oz cans of Mexican corn, drained

1 4 oz can of chopped green chilies, drained

5 green onions, chopped

1 T sugar

1 c. mayo

1 c. sour cream

2 c.shredded Cheddar or Mex blend cheese

(Recipe also says 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped, but I've never used them)

Combine all and mix well. Refrigerate overnight (or as long as possible). Keeps in fridge for 5 days. (We've never personally tested the 5 day theory :)

Hot Ham Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 2 packages (7 1/2 oz each) small party rolls
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 2 tablespoons prepared mustard
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion (optional)
• 2 tablespoons poppy seed
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 ts horseradish
• 8 ounces boiled ham, chopped
• 6 ounces shredded Swiss or Cheddar cheese(I use Baby Swiss)

Preparation:

Melt or soften butter; add mustard, poppy seed, onion, and Worcestershire sauce. Without separating rolls, slice party rolls horizontally. Spread both sides evenly with butter mixture. Fill evenly with ham and cheese. Wrap each package in tightly in foil and refrigerate until ready to bake. Bake at 375 ° for about 15 minutes, or until thoroughly heated and cheese is melted. Good for baptisms, graduations,

etc.,anything that you just need to be able to come home and have food be ready.

I've made these using any kind of rolls and even french bread that I've removed about an inch of bread from the middle.They freeze well. Do you know that a cooler will keep things warm as well as cold?  You can warm sandwiches and keep wrapped in foil in a cooler for hours.

Strawberries

Take Jeanne with you to buy them. Some things can't be duplicated!  J

Serve with powdered sugar. Nancy

Italian sausage

Rope style hot Italian sausage from Scimeca’s is the best.  Call ahead.

Grill

Cut into pieces.
Aunt Jeanne said they had both hot and mild once and no one ate the mild.

Oyster Dressing

Make 1 day ahead

1 quart of oysters

3 packs (sleeves) of Krispy (saltine) crackers, crumbled

Butter

3 eggs

1 pint ½ & ½

Spray casserole with Pam.

Layer: (3 times)

            crumbled crackers

           oysters

            small pats of butter

 Top with one more layer of crumbled crackers

Beat the 3 eggs, combine with the ½ & ½  Pour over the casserole, as much as the pan will allow. You will not use all the liquid…save it for the next day.

Refrigerate.  The next morning, look at see if there is liquid on the bottom.  If not, put the rest of the mixture in, or if you don’t have any mixture left, pour just some ½ & ½. 

Bake at 365 for 45 minutes.  It should puff up like a soufflé, and be brown on the top.

Wild rice

½ lb wild rice (pure, not mixed)

2 pints of sliced mushrooms, combined regular and portobellas

2 sticks of butter

Put the rice in a colander, boil water and rinse the rice with the boiling water several times, until rice kernels pop open.  This can take quite a while.

Sauté the mushrooms in one stick of the butter until they are just done (when the juice comes out)

Combine sautéed mushrooms and the rice with the other stick of butter (melted) into a casserole.  May need to add some water before cooking.

Salt, pepper, garlic salt as needed

Cover and cook at 350 for an hour.

Jeanne's Bar-B-Que Sauce for ribs and chicken

Verified with mom(Jeanne) first

1 bottle Heinz chili sauce

½ stick butter

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup white vinegar

Dash A-1 sauce

1 sliced lemon

Combine all, heat throughout, (until it thickens), serve warm

Can be made ahead and frozen

Need about 3 recipes for the holiday crowd.

Plaza III Steak(hamburger) Soup

 My original recipe calls for 1 bottle of BV sauce instead of bullion cubes and accent, so that's the way I've always made it.
I also run the tomatoes through the blender.



 1/2  cup           butter or margarine
   1/2  cup           all-purpose flour
    8      cups          hot water
    2      pounds        lean ground beef
    2      tablespoons   beef bouillon granules
    1      cup           onions -- chopped
    1      cup           carrots -- diced
    1      cup           celery -- sliced
    2      cups          frozen mixed vegetables
   28      ounces        canned tomatoes -- diced
    1      teaspoon      pepper -- or to taste
    1      tablespoon    Accent® seasoning mix -- (optional)

Melt butter or margarine in a soup pot that holds at least 20 cups.  Blend
in flour to make a smooth paste.  Add hot water a little at a time.  Simmer
until smooth.  Sauté beef in a large skillet and drain off fat (I usually
rinse under very hot water which gets some more of the fat off the meat).
Add meat, bouillon, all vegetables and seasonings to saucepan.  Bring to
boil.  reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are cooked.  Do not add salt.

 

Beef Stew

I think the original name for this stew was "Stay in bed beef stew". Mom thought that was funny.
I also do this without the veggies and serve it over  noodles or rice.
I think you could do this in a crock pot also.

2 pounds stewing beef, well trimmed
1 pound potatoes, peeled and cut into medium chunks
1 large onion, chopped
4 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 can tomato soup, undiluted
1 can cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
2 or 3 bay leaves 
2 cups mushrooms, sliced (optional)
1½ cups frozen peas (optional)

Preheat the oven to 250°.

Add the raw beef and and all of the vegetables (except the mushrooms and peas) to a large stew pot. Add the undiluted soups and mix everything together well. Place the bay leaves on top of the mixture. The mixture will look quite dry at this point.

Bake the stew with lid on for 5 hours. If you are using mushrooms and peas, add them at the beginning of the last hour. Remove bay leaves before serving.

Scrambled Eggs

I think of this as being Aunt Jeanne's egg recipe.  Seems like she started bringing
it on Easter and we all have followed her lead.

2 doz eggs
1/2 c butter
1/2 cup milk
1 ts salt
1/4 ts pepper
2 can mushroom soup
1/2 c cream sherry(optional)
1 lg can sliced mushrooms
8 oz grated cheese

Scramble eggs with butter, milk and seasoning. (Yes this means to cook them)
mix soup, sherry and mushrooms. (I use milk instead of sherry)
In 9 x 13 inch pan layer eggs, soup mixture, then cheese.
Make at least 2 layers ending with cheese.
refrigerate at least 8 hrs. or overnight.
Set out 30 min. before cooking.
Bake 50 min. at 300.
serves 10 -12

Loretta's Chili

Buy packet of William's Chili seasoning. Follow directions on back.
I put the can of tomatoes in blender and with 1 can of chili beans. And I also always
err on the side of more chili seasoning to meat, I might use 3 lbs of meat and
enough William's for 4 lbs.

Mom didn't have anything chunky in the chili...someone wouldn't have eaten it!

Spaghetti sauce

 Mom's Spaghetti Sauce

Brown 1 lb. hamburger, drain.

Add

1 envelope Spaghetti seasoning

Add:

1 small can tomato paste

1 can tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup water

1 tsp sugar

White sauce with vegetables

Mom's White Sauce from Nora

In medium sauce pan, melt 1/2 stick butter.  Add approximately 3 tablespoons of flour to form a paste.  Gradually add 2 cups of milk.  When it starts to thicken, add 3/4 cup of shredded cheese and either 1 can asparagus or 1 can new potatoes, salt and pepper to taste.

 She also made this without the cheese and added new potatoes and peas. Lorraine

Loretta's Fried Chicken

Lorraine,

I don't know if these recipes are unique to Mom or not, but in my mind I'm fixing Mom's fried chicken and gravy (served over broken bread)  and her white sauce with asparagus or new potatoes and her spaghetti sauce.  Here they are:

Mom's Fried Chicken and Gravy

2 tbls. butter

2 tbls. crisco

Heat on stove in large frying pan.

Put 3 heaping tbls. flour, plus salt and pepper to taste In brown paper bag.  Shake fresh chicken thighs and legs in bag until coated.(Chicken tenders would be good, but don't bake as long.)

Place chicken pieces in heated frying pan, skin side down until skin brownded and crisp, turn to brown other side. 

Preheat oven to 350, place browned chicken on cookie sheet, skin side up and bake for 40 to 45 minutes.   

Gravy

Mix 3 tbls flour with drippings from pan, gradually stir in approximately 2 cups of milk on low heat, stirring until desired thickness.  Add salt and pepper, serve over broken bread.

 Love, Nora 

Sausage Dip

 - the dip I bring when assigned an appetizer.  (Kate Hansen)

Cream Cheese,8 oz.

Sausage, 1 lb

Rotel, 1 can

For the non-cooks  (including me in my early days) cook the sausage first then add cream cheese and Rotel. 

Heat until cheese is melted. Best warm with tortilla chips.

We like hot rotel, 1/3 fat cream cheese and low fat sausage. 

Challah Bread

(This recipe is from Eva.  It was her mother's recipe.)  

I(Eva) make this with the bread machine to knead it and then roll it out by hand

3/4 C warm water

1 lg egg

3 T margarine cut up

3 C bread flour

4T sugar

1 1/4 t salt

2 t active dry yeast

Coating

 l lg egg yolk

1T water

 

Preheat oven to 375

Place in bread machine in the order above but put on the dough cycle

Divide dough in half and then divide each half into thirds Braid bread so that you have two average size loafs or you can do l large loaf.  Let rise in warm draft free area until almost doubled in size approximately 15 to 20 minutes. Brush on egg yolk mixture.   Bake for 10 minutes and then add foil and cover to prevent to much browning.  Do this for another 10 -15 minutes and enjoy!

Calico Beans

This recipe for baked beans came from Berniece McEwen.  I've made them for so many years that I quit using the recipe 20 yrs ago.  I had to get this recipe from Barb who originally got it from me! I usually double this for the crowd but usually have some left over.

1 lb. hamburger
1/2 lb. bacon, crisp, cut up

1 c. chopped onion

2 cans pork & beans

1 can (1 lb.) kidney beans, drained

1 can lima beans, drained

1 c. ketchup

3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 white sugar

3 T. white vinegar

1 tsp. salt, pepper

Brown ground beef, drain.  Saute onions in bacon drippings.  Put all ingredients in crock pot at 275 for 3-4 hours.

STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM (or Peach)

This recipe comes from the Bairds.  They bring it in the summer...always tastes great!

2 packages thawed strawberries

1 cup sugar

4 egg beaters  ( originally called for 4 eggs, but no one uses raw eggs anymore )

2 cans sweetened condensed milk ( Eagle Brand )

1 pint whipping cream

3 12 oz cans of strawberry soda pop

vanilla extract, teaspoon or two.

milk to fill

Mix sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Mix in everything except pop and milk.
Pour into can. Add pop, then milk to the fill line.

This is for a 6 quart ice cream maker. If you have a 4 quart maker try one can
of sweetened condensed milk and less strawberries and pop, and one less egg.
Everything is flexible. 
You can make it with half n half instead of whipping cream. You can make it with
either whole milk or 2%.

For Peach ice cream swap the fruit and pop to peach.  The peach flavor is pretty
mild, you might need to add more fruit, or a can of peach nectar if you can find
it.  Ted


This recipe is from my Mother who got it from her church women's group.