Another favorite summer meal......

I know today is more like a fall day, but I wanted to post this favorite of ours. And it will be warm again, we are not through with hot weather at all! The beef stew recipe is in the archives in April of 2011. :)

One of our favorite summer meals, especially after the strawberries are fresh, is chicken salad and fruit served together with a warm croissant! Instead of making my own chicken salad, I like to go to Sam's and buy a tub of it, they have very good chicken salad!

We like fresh watermelon, strawberries, kiwi, honeydew, and grapes all cut up together. You can buy the fruits already cut up at the grocery, we always cut our own. I don't care for cantaloupe, but you can add that too.

We love to serve it with a warm croissant fresh out of the oven. Peppridge Farm has them in the frozen food case, or you can buy them already cooked, just warm lightly in the oven. YUMMY!! And it doesn't heat your kitchen!

One of our favorite summer meals

Thinking yesterday about when I first moved out on my own with Deborah and Carol, we used to have a favorite once a week meal, especially in the summer. That meal included hamburgers, baked beans and potato salad. You will find the potato salad recipe in an earlier post. Today, we will talk about the hamburgers and baked beans. The hamburgers were simple, a pound of ground chuck or ground round, 1/2 pkg Frenches onion soup mix, salt and pepper, 1/4 cup bread crumbs holds the burgers together. Mix and form burgers and grill. One pound makes four burgers.

I use 2 of this size can for the baked beans, more if I am taking them somewhere

Now for the baked beans! These are special baked beans with a secret ingredient that had not been shared until I was in charge of making the baked beans at the fire department for our annual dinner one year. You will see that the secret ingredient is a touch of prepared mustard.


Baked Beans
2 cans pork and beans, pork removed
1 onion chopped
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar (may use light brown)
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons mustard (1 tsp powdered mustard may be substituted, I use regular yellow mustard)
Stir together in baking dish and top with bacon slices.

Bake at 400 degrees for about an hour, you want the "soupiness" gone. I don't time them when I cook them, I just take them out when they look like I want them to look.

The beans should look like this when they are done

Make the potato salad from the earlier post, and you have a great, easy, quick summer (or anytime) meal. Rick and I had this quite often in our early years together, and several times a year in our later years.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

Back in 1978 after graduating from nursing school, I moved out of the only home I had ever known. My best friend's mother said "it will never last, she'll be back".......that bit of lack of confidence in my ability to make it on my own made me very determined to do just that. I have been back for a weekend (and a couple of weeks when we lived in MA) on occasion when we lived away from here, but I never moved back. That probably was not one of my wiser moves......hahaha. But then again, if I had been living at home, I most likely would never have met Rick and most likely I would not be posting a blog......so thanks Patsy for that comment!

The room-mate I had for 3 years and I used to make lots of different things, one of which was home-made spaghetti sauce, so I will post that recipe here:

Spaghetti Sauce
2 large cans crushed or diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 medium onion chopped finely
2 green bell peppers coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp minced garlic (I buy it in the jar and keep it in the fridge)
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 to 1 tsp oregano leaves (if you use fresh, use the lesser amount)
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 pound sliced mushrooms (optional)
1 pound ground meat (chuck or round)
Parmesan cheese as desired

Combine all ingredients in a crock-pot and simmer 3-4 hours
Brown and drain one pound ground chuck or ground round; drain, and add to the sauce OR make the meatballs from an earlier post. Serve over cooked spaghetti or your favorite pasta. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Cookies

Today Valarie made old fashioned oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips instead of raisins. Boy they were good! I decided to share the recipe. It is from my Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book page 188. (sometimes you can not eat what Valarie cooks!) I am not sure what year this book is published. I have had it since 1999 or 98.

Oatmeal Cookies

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional) [haha Allison!]
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2 cups rolled oats (old fashioned oats, not quick oats)
• 1 cup chocolate chips

1. in a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Beat until all combined and scrape sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in the eggs vanilla until all combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in remainder of flour, then stir in the oats and chocolate chips.
2. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 10 - 12 minutes or till edges are golden. C ool cookies on a wire rack. Yield 48.

Val did a great job on these, and she is very proud of herself!

See you next time!
Y'all have a great day!

Memories from Lincoln Elementary School

Well, a couple days ago Valarie handed me a box of cocoa and a box of oats and said, "kitchen now!" Well, since the box of oats was the old fashioned kind I got out of it at that point. I told her she had the wrong kind of oats, which she did really, but you can use them if you have to.

When we were at Lincoln School every Friday we had no-bake cookies. Every Friday. Without fail, those cookies were there. It was the dessert of the day. And the left overs were for sale at a quarter a piece. Yum! I always had an extra quarter that day! They also made them for sale on days when we hosted baseball games!

So without further delay, here is the recipe!

No-bake Cookies

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (may use crunchy for additional flavor)
  
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa. Bring to a boil, and cook for 3 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in peanut butter, oats, and vanilla. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool until hardened.

I hope you enjoy these! Have a great day!

I love y'all!

To be continued.............

Taco Soup

One day last winter I decided to make a pot of taco soup. It was so good, we ate on it all day! I thought I would share the recipe since I found a picture of it and thought how good it looked....

You can add cheese, hot peppers, sour cream or other garnish when you are finished with it, serve with corn chips or tortilla chips....


Taco Soup

• 2 pounds ground chuck
• 2 cups diced onions
• 2 (15 1/2-ounce) cans pinto beans
• 1 (15 1/2-ounce) can pink kidney beans
• 1 (15 1/4-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
• 2 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 2 (4 1/2-ounce) cans diced green chiles
• 1 (4.6-ounce) can black olives, drained and sliced, optional
• 1/2 cup green olives, sliced, optional
• 1 (1 1/4-ounce) package taco seasoning mix
• 1 (1-ounce) package ranch salad dressing mix
• Corn chips, for serving
• Sour cream, for garnish
• Grated cheese, for garnish
• Chopped green onions, for garnish
• Pickled jalapenos, for garnish

Directions

Brown the meat and onions in a large skillet; then drain the excess fat, then transfer the browned beef and onions to a large slow cooker or a stockpot. Add the beans, corn, tomatoes, green chiles, black olives, green olives, taco seasoning, and ranch dressing mix, and cook in a slow cooker on low for 6 to 8 hours or simmer over low heat for about 1 hour in a pot on the stove. To serve, place a few corn chips in each bowl and ladle soup over them. Top with sour cream, cheese, green onions and jalapenos.

This is so good, even I like it as picky as I am! And it will be fall before we know it and soup weather!

Y'all have a blessed day now! Hear?

Hot Fudge Cake

A few years ago I found a recipe for a good looking hot fudge cake. It makes its own fudge sauce and is excellent with home made vanilla ice cream! Yum! It is one of those things you make right before you want to eat it, then it's gone. It doesn't keep very well overnight. Actually it does still taste good, it just doesn't keep the hot fudge part well. But, you make it in a 9 x 9 pan and so it is good for a family dessert.

1 c. self-rising flour
3/4 c. granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. cocoa
1/2 c. milk
2 Tbsp. melted shortening
1 c. chopped pecans (if desired, I leave these out)
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. cocoa
1 1/2 c. hot water

Heat oven to 350°. Measure flour, granulated sugar and 2 tablespoons cocoa into bowl. Blend in milk and shortening; stir in nuts. Pour into ungreased square 9 x 9 x 2-inch pan. Stir together brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa; sprinkle over batter. Pour "hot" water over batter. Bake for 45 minutes.

While warm, spoon cake into dessert dishes and spoon sauce over each serving. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Yum!

Enjoy, and let me know how you like it!!