Tex Mex Goulash

2 lbs ground beef cooked, drained and rinsed

1 can Rotel crushed tomatoes with chilies

1 tsp each garlic powder, cayenne pepper, salt & pepper

3 tsp paprika

1 small yellow onion

cook and simmer to let flavors marry

1 lbs egg noodles

serve meat over noodles

garnish with sour cream

add ins- red kidney beans, elbow mac instead of egg noodles, turkey instead of beef, cheese

chunky tomatoes instead of crushed

I also added a few dashes of Cayenne sauce for more spice and 1 tbs butter with 1 cup of noodle water for more sauce

Special pumpkin pie- from Kathy Neid

Here is a pumpkin pie recipe from Kathy Neid- look closely folks, this one has butter...YUMMY!

• Pie crust
  
  1/2 cup softened butter
  2/3 cup shortening
  1 tbsp sugar
  1/4 tsp baking powder
  1 tsp salt
  3 Cups flour
  1/2 cup milk
  Cream butter and shortening add 1/2 of the flour along with sugar,baking powder, and salt. Mix well, add milk and remaining flour. Shape into 2 balls wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate about 20-25 min. Roll out on floured board making two bottom crusts

  • Pumpkin Pie Filling
    
    1 can pumpkin, not the pie filling- whole pumpkin
    1 can evaporated milk
    3/4 C sugar
    2 eggs
    1 Tbsp melted butter
    1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
    1/4 tsp nutmeg
    1'4 tsp ginger
    1/8 tsp ground cloves
    3/4 tsp salt
    
    mix everything together with mixer, pour into unbaked pie shell Bake @ 425 for 15 min. Reduce heat to 350 continue baking for 40-45 min.
    Same Recipe on the Libby's can only difference is the melted butter.

    Thank you Kathy for the contribution to our blog!

  
  

Fleischkuechle (meat pies)

This is my husband's dad's family recipe/ so the Schwarz side- hope you enjoy..

Original recipe-

Meat mixture . . .

• 1 1/2lbs ground beef

• 2 tsp minced onion

• 1 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp celery salt

• 3/4 cup hot water(I use almost boiling and enough to make the meat soft and easily spreadable- this also pulls out some of the fat)

Mix ingredients well.

Dough . . .

• 1 pint 1/2 & 1/2

• 1 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Enough AP flour to make a soft dough (start with 4-5 cups)

Mix ingredients & let rest 1/2 hour. Heat enough oil to fry- get it hot while you assemble the pies. Divide the dough into pieces the size of 2 walnuts and roll out thin like a pie crust (oblong circle shaped and use flour on the counter so they don't stick).
Put about 2 Tbs of meat mixture onto dough, fold over & pinch tightly to close so they don't break open too badly when frying (they will some anyway, but don't worry).

Fry until golden and meat is done. I usually cut the first one open to determine the cooking time.

**I don't really use a recipe anymore- I make sure the meat smells good and I put pepper in the dough too. I also just use a season salt and add garlic and cayenne pepper too.

Joel likes to bite off one end then drain into a bowl and dip into ketchup. I prefer ranch dressing.

I sometimes add chopped mushrooms. These could probably be baked if you cook the meat first then egg wash the dough, but Joel would not have it that way-- only fried for him!

ENJOY!!

Sweet 'n' Sour Country Ribs

I found this recipe in my one-dish collection cookbook (Find it on Amazon!) and thought I'd try it because it looks SO GOOD! Instead of using pork ribs I used pork chops because I couldn't find ribs at Smith's and if you know me, you know I HATE Walmart!

Instead of re-typing the recipe and probably plagiarizing, I found it online. It's from the French's mustard website (Reckitt Benckiser, 2011).

Ingredients:

3 pounds country-style pork ribs, fat trimmed

3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks

2 cups apple juice

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup FRENCH'S® Extra Tenderizing™ Worcestershire Sauce

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons FRENCH'S® Spicy Brown Mustard

2 tart green apples, cored and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions:

Heat 1 tbsp. oil in 6-quart saucepot or Dutch oven over high heat. Cook ribs 10 minutes or until well-browned on all sides; drain fat.

Add potatoes to ribs. Whisk together apple juice, vinegar, Worcestershire, sugar and mustard. Pour over rib mixture; stir well. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low. Cook, covered, 40 minutes or until pork is tender and no longer pink in center, stirring occasionally.

Stir in apples; cook 5 minutes or until tender. Transfer ribs, potatoes and apples to platter; keep warm. Combine cornstarch with 2 tbsp. water. Stir into pot. Heat to boiling, whisking constantly. Cook 1 to 2 minutes or until liquid thickens, stirring often. Serve with crusty bread, if desired.

Reckitt Benckiser. (2011). Sweet 'n' sour country ribs recipe. Retrieved from http://www.frenchs.com/recipe/sweet-n-sour-country-ribs-RE0436

Grandma Elsie's egg noodles

This is an old family recipe, I remember Grandma making them, but I learned from my mom. I have changed some things as every cook does, but you'll get the idea. There is no real recipe (amounts are by feel and by choice).

Dough-

5 eggs (more or less- I always make at least 5 because we like the left overs)

Enough AP flour to make a very stiff dough

Chicken base or granulated bullion

I usually put in some poultry seasoning too and salt & pepper. Sometimes I use garlic salt.

Mix this all together until it makes a stiff ball (let rest 20 minutes so it's easier to roll).

Roll out very thin, sprinkling with flour to keep from sticking. Roll up like a cinnamon roll.

Cut the roll in half length wise and then into thin noodles. Separate them into individual noodles.

I usually cut the ball in two to make the process easier.

Broth- (the real secret, the better the broth the better flavor in the noodle)

I usually have some from cooked chicken or turkey in the freezer, but you can use canned.

Pulled chicken, canned or frozen chicken in the broth is also great. If I am making a one pot meal I'll put frozen veggies in the cooking broth for flavor and extras like the nutrients they offer, but if I'm making it with a meal I don't add veggies. Mom grates a carrot into her broth regardless.

Season the broth (stock) with chicken base, salt & pepper etc. to suit your fancy as long as it tastes good and bring to a boil.

Add the noodles to the boiling broth & cook until done (they should not be doughy inside) usually 30-45 minutes

ENJOY!

homemade mint chip ice cream

1 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 cup milk (I used 1 %)
3 drops peppermint oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped thin mints add 15 minutes into freezing
green food color (if wanted)
mix everything well (except mints) until sugar is almost melted, pour into ice cream freezer- freeze as directed
makes 1 quart

Please become a follower of us & leave us comments! We value your opinions so remember to sign in (its easy) THANKS!!!

homemade strawberry cheesecake ice cream

1 can sweatened condensed milk

3 oz cream cheese or marscapone (room temp)

1 cup chopped strawberries

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 tsp honey

1 tsp real vanilla (I make my own- 3/4 cup vodka, 2 vanilla beans split, put into seal containter, shake everyday & ready to use on the 3rd day)

Using beaters mix until smooth all except berries- pour into ice cream maker add berries slowly

freeze

makes 1 Quart

BUCKEYES (MY VERSION)

There are a lot of versions of this recipe, but I think this works out the best. I’ve been making these for over 30 years and this is almost fail-proof.

Ingredients:
12 oz peanut butter
1 ¾ cup of real butter
1 pound powdered sugar
1 large bag chocolate chips

Hints: Try to buy thick peanut butter, not creamy, old fashioned works best. Creamy makes the batter too soft.

Mix peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar until fully mixed, you have to use your hands, so take your rings off.

Form mixture into small size balls and refrigerate, or freeze. The harder they are, the easier they are to work with.

Melt chocolate chips in double boiler, this way the melted chocolate stays soft long enough to coat the peanut butter balls.

Dip frozen peanut butter balls in melted chocolate with a toothpick until well coated and place on cookie sheet. Either spray cookie sheet with non-stick spray or use wax paper.

Don’t let melted chocolate chips cook too much, or it will be hard to work with.

You can either stick a round toothpick into each peanut butter ball, or use the same one, whichever is easiest for you to work with. Sometimes the toothpick is hard to get in, once they are frozen. I usually stick the toothpick in before I freeze them.

Keep refrigerated, these are very addicting.


Jackie Stephens

Snack Cake

You know those little snack cakes you can buy in the stores now for about a dollar. I thought I could perfect something like this a lot more economical. Here goes.

Use any kind of cake mix you want!
I used the plastic bowls because I bought some of the cakes.
I also tried it using my corningware cereal bowl(not the large ones).
I have used all different kinds of cake mixes.
The only thing I found different is when I made a pineapple-upsidedown cake, I had to use two bowls otherwise they can be mixed and baked in 1 bowl.

1/2 cup of cake mix
1 tablespoon of water
2 teaspoons of oil
2 teaspoons of egg-beaters
Mix together in the bowl
Cook for 46 seconds in microwave (power of microwave may effect the cooking time)

For the pinapple upsidedown cake you have to cook the butter and brownsugar in the final cooking bowl for 30 seconds, then you add the pineapple and the cake mix as per the instructions above, and cook for about 90 seconds.

I have added nuts, raisins, fruit and many more things to different varieties of cakes
I use the sugar-free or lower sugar items when I can

Lower sugar cheesecake

This is delicious! Also, lower in calories.

A full package of sugar free cookies crushed
1/4 stick of butter
1/4 cup of splenda

1 8oz. softened lowfat creamcheese
1 8oz. softened mascarpone
1/2 cup of splenda
1/4 cup of egg beaters
1 tablespoon flour
1/3 cup of non-fat milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla
optional lemon peel shredded

Crush the cookies, add the splenda, and the butter and put in 350 oven for about 15 mins.

While that's baking mix the 2 cheeses, the sugar, flour until smooth
Add the egg beaters, vanilla, milk, and lemon peel

When the crust is finished, take it out of the oven and pour in the filling
Put aluminum foil around the pan
Put in a larger pan, and pour water half way up the cake
Bake in a 350 oven for about an hour
I use a 6in. springform pan I got at the kitchen store. I makes a nice high cheesecake.

Helpful resouces

DID YOU KNOW?
Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to
pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store.
If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.


Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil.
It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating.
Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.


Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef..
It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelettes rich add a couple of
spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.


For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt chocolate mint patties
in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.


Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste
of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm.
This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.


Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.


Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.


Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water.
The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.


Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers


Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket.It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper.
The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.


Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.


Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing pantyhose. Place pin in seam of slacks and... ta da!... static is gone.


Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup.
Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.
Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box ofyour car.
When the window s fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth.
It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.


Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to thecup and gone forever!


Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it. so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!


INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around thehouse for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; hetook the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of amesh material... I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well ...the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit.You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make yourclothes soft and static free... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feelwaxy when you take them out of the box ..well this stuff builds up on your clothesand on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn yourhouse down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very longtime (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it withhot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months.He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long!
How about that!!
Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that.
So, I thought I'd share!
I learned also that the vent pipe for the dryer also causes failures, especially the expandable tubing often used. It clogs up with lint and needs to be cleaned or replaced. Our dryer has a heat fuse in it (45.00 service call and 10.00 fuse) and I had to replace it twice because just cleaning the corrugated expandable tubing didn’t solve the problem but replacing it did. So call your favorite chimney sweep, they are used to doing this job of cleaning the vent.

Helpful resources

This is interesting.
When you get the web site up, click on the state.
Then the next window is a listing of all the cities in that state.
Click on your city and there are the speed traps listed. SPEED TRAPS - NO JOKE...CHECK IT OUT! I had no idea this was available to everyone.
http://www.speedtrap.org/speedtraps/stetlist.asp

Helpful resources

Few things annoy me as much as automated telephone systems. I know theysave companies money. But I think it is bad customer service to makecallers jump through hoops to speak to someone. This site lists telephone numbers for a wide variety of companies. The companies are divided into categories for ease of use. You'll find the customer service number for the company. Then, you'llfind out how to get through to an operator. No more voice prompts! COOL SITE, GO HERE: http://www.gethuman.com/us

Helpful resources

I checked with Verizon today and they do not sell and will not release our numbers unless we sign something to do that but she did say if you sign up for contests etc it could be given out and said to call the do not call list. She verified this number for me that it is the correct one as some people are receiving bad numbers so then you could be giving out your number that way/ This is SAFE AND CORRECT
Call the following number from your cell phone: 888-382-1222. It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time. It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number. HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS. It take about 20 seconds.

Helpful resources

This may be useful to know when grocery shopping, if it's a concern to you. The whole world is afraid of China-made "black hearted goods".Can you differentiate which one is made in Taiwan or China ?
If the first 3 digits of the barcode are 690, 691 or 692, the product is MADE IN CHINA.
471 is Made in Taiwan .
This is our right to know, but the government and related departments never educate the public, therefore we have to RESCUE ourselves.Nowadays, Chinese businessmen know that consumers do not prefer products "MADE IN CHINA ", so they don't show from which country it is made.
However, you may now refer to the barcode, remember if the first 3 digits are:690-692 … then it is MADE IN CHINA .00 - 09 … USA & CANADA30 - 37 … FRANCE40 - 44 … GERMANY47 ... Taiwan49 … JAPAN50 … UKBUY USA /CANADA by watching for "0" at the beginning of the number. We need every boost we can get!

Helpful resources

Who knew! And you can buy 1,000 at the Dollar Tree for $1.00, even the large ones.1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.2 Clean windows, mirrors, and chrome... Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave windows sparkling3. Protect China by separating your good dishes with a coffee filter between each dish.4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter. 5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.6. Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale. 9. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.10. Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.11. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.12. Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows? Use strips of coffee filters.13. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken fingers, etc on them. It soaks out all the grease.14. Keep in the bathroom. They make great "razor nick fixers."15. As a sewing backing. Use a filter as an easy-to-tear backing for embroidering or appliqueing soft fabrics. 16. Put baking soda into a coffee filter and insert into shoes or a closet to absorb or prevent odors. 17. Use them to strain soup stock and to tie fresh herbs in to put in soups and stews. 18 Use a coffee filter to prevent spilling when you add fluids to your car. 19. Use them as a spoon rest while cooking and clean up small counter spills. 20. Can use to hold dry ingredients when baking or when cutting a piece of fruit or veggies. Saves on having extra bowls to wash. 21 Use them to wrap Christmas ornaments for storage. 22. Use them to remove fingernail polish when out of cotton balls. 23. Use them to sprout seeds. Simply dampen the coffee filter, place seeds inside, fold it and place it into a zip-lock plastic bag until they sprout. 24. Use coffee filters as blotting paper for pressed flowers. Place the flowers between two coffee filters and put the coffee filters in phone book.. 25. Use as a disposable "snack bowl" for popcorn, chips, etc. OH YEAH THEY ARE GREAT TO USE IN YOUR COFFEE MAKERS

Grandma Claudine's Salami (or GG as the kids called her)

You will need-
5 lbs lean ground beef (80-20 no fatter)
5 tsp cure salt ( Morton makes a good one, comes in a blue bag)
2 1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp liquid smoke
2,3,4 tsp red pepper flakes depending on how hot you like it
Mix very well (i use my hands)
Put into a bowl, refrigerate, for 3 full days mixing well each day

The 4th day roll into 8 tight logs about the width of a silver dollar and about 12 inch long or so
Place these into a broiler pan and bake 150 degrees for 8 hours turning once half way through

Using paper toweling roll to remove the extra grease that has pooled
Wrap in parchment, foil etc. enjoy! I usually freeze some
Great for sandwiches, crackers or just eating
If you dont have a brolier pan, crumple up some foil and then straighten out some leaving ridges for the grease to pool into.
I will post a picture when i make it again (Sam should be asking soon-lol)

The BEST dill pickles

With all those summer gardens coming I thought you could use a good recipe for dill ( I put garlic cloves to make kosher!) pickles******

Boil and keep warm -

12 cups water

6 cups white vinegar

3/4 cups table salt

1/4 tsp alum (available in the spice aisle)

If you have extra liquid just save and reheat later

Need-

About 1 lug pickling cukes

1 package dill weed (stalks & stems)

Quart or pint canning jars (wide mouth are easiest)

It might sound weird but put the cukes in the washing machine on rinse & spin. This cleans them extremely well!

Fill cleaned hot jars with as many cukes as will fit, add dill weed and stems (as much as you want) and garlic cloves if wanted. Top with hot water mixture leaving 1 inch head space- clean off jar top from anything on it and top with hot canning lid and screw top (tightened).

Turn bottles upside down on towels on the counter until cool then right side up. Put any that didn't seal in the fridge and the rest in cupboard for 3-4 months to process.

These are delicious, not soggy fantastic pickles! ENJOY!! :)

Hint & Tips

1- Frozen grapes are very refreshing on a hot summer day
2- If you put bread in the bottom of the pan before you put your meatloaf mixture in (on top of the bread) it will soak up all the grease and pull right off the meat when done, leaving your meatloaf not greasy tasting and no grease to get rid of- feed it to your dogs, they'll love it!
3- Mini marshmellos placed in the bottom of the cone before making an ice cream cone stops the drips out the end
4- You can make a casserole out of anything as long as you have canned soup and frozen hash brown potatoes. Try ground beef & cream of mushroom- Ham and fiesta cheese- pork & cream of asperagus etc. Mix any of these or your own creation with the has browns top with bread crumbs or crumbled crackers Bake 350 until hot...delicious!
5- Baking soda and vinegar make a natural drain cleaner. run hot water down the drain, 1/4 cup baking soda/2 cups white vinegar, let set 2 hours & rinse
6- salt sprinkled around the wheels of your camp trailer/motorhome/tent will keep out the ants and other bugs
7- A bounce dryer sheet keeps mosquitos away- place on your belt etc & watch it work
Happy Summer!! (If it ever comes :)

more tid bits

If you want to make smores and don't have chololate but do have chocolate chips try making a hole in the marshmello and fill with 3-4 chips, seal the marshmello back together with your fingers and roast. The chocolate will melt and it's less messy! Or use the chocolate covered graham crackers for even less mess.

Bananas are great on the grill too- pull one piece of the peel down and carefully slice the banana open, fill with chocolate chips and mimi marshmellos, pull the peel back up and cover with aluminum foil. Grill until hot and melted...delicious!

tid bits

Baggy Ice Cream- this is great for camping or for making with kids!

1 quart size zip top baggy
1 gallon size zip top baggy

1/2 cup 1/2 & 1/2
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
put this mixture into the quart baggy and remove as much air as you can, seal well

drop this bag into the gallon bag along with ice (2-3 cups) and about 2 tbs rock salt
remove as much air as you can and seal well

shake, roll, squeeze until the ice cream is hard and set (for little kids use oven mits, towels etc. because this will get very cold)

remove the inner bag and bite off one corner, push out the ice cream and enjoy!
Good on cobblers or by its self.
Can add chocolate chips, fruit etc to make flavors

Blueberry Lemon Streusel in a Jiff

When Carrielynn and her boyfriend Jacob were stopping at our house on their way to California my mom made a streusel cocoction for breakfast. It's somewhere in between a sweet coffee cake and a dessert. It's really good! Even my dad liked it-which is really saying something. There's really no recipe because she made it up, but here's the basic idea.

Jiffy Blueberry Lemon Coffee Cake with Streusel

Directions for Cake:
Make cakes according to package directions, but combine both mixes together. Place mix in greased 8x8 pan.


Directions for Streusel:
3 packages instant cinnamon oatmeal
1 tbs butter
3 tbs brown sugar

Mix ingredients well and smooth over top of cake. Bake cake according to package directions and watch for done-ness. This cake took longer than the Jiffy directions - about 50 minutes, but watch yours because altitude changes will make a difference.

Parlez vous blog post?

Okay I'm going to try and get a post out once a week (mostly because my dad doesn't think it will happen). It's going to be difficult because this week I'm working 40 hours and I have an online class. We'll see how well it goes.

I'm glad to see we have 5 followers! Let me know what you'd like to see on the blog and I'll try to get it on. Oh, and invite other people! I know there's not much yet, but I'm hoping pretty soon we'll have some more recipes posted. I'll try and get something else out later this week.

For some reason a whole bunch of the changes I made to the blog didn't save. It's kind of frustrating because it took a long time to do. I'll try and update the look of the blog when I make the next post.

Grandma's Chicken Dumplings

For the first actual recipe post I suppose I should post something that is a fond family recipe. This is the family dumpling recipe that came from my Grandma Schwarz. Originally it was her mother's recipe and although we have made some slight changes (it used to have celery in it and we never do that) the tradition remains the same. Remember to double the recipe because you'll want leftovers and my mom says it freezes well.

Schwarz Family Chicken Dumplings

For the dough:
2 C all purpose flour,
1/2 tsp salt,
1 beaten egg,
1 tbs oil,
3 tsps - don't convert this to tablespoons even if you double the recipe! It wont work!
1/2 C milk (more or less to make a soft dough) mix & let rest while you make soup

For the soup:
2 cans cream of chicken soup with 1 1/2 cans water (I usually use more water or broth to have lots of soup). Heat in a large pan with a tight fitting lid as this will go in the oven (sometimes I use my turkey roasting pan).
While soup heats: roll dough out like cinnamon rolls to 1/2 inch think, spread softened butter (it has to be real butter, not margarine) on dough & lightly sprinkle with poultry seasoning (you can also top with celery leaves if you like the flavor - that's what Grandma used to do). Roll up long ways and cut 1/2-3/4 inch slices (sometimes I do larger). They should look like cinnamon rolls. Drop into bubbling hot soup and put into preheated oven at 450 degrees for 20 minutes or so. The dumplings should be fluffy like bread not doughy or stiff. I usually add either rotisserie, canned or left over chicken to the soup.

If you double the recipe and don't use a very big pan make sure to check them after 20 minutes. They will usually crowd the pan and need a longer baking time. Enjoy!

- Danielle

Here we go . . .

So I think my mom came up with the idea of us having a blog as a joke. I took it seriously so here it is. We'll see how it goes. This whole thing makes me want to watch Julie and Julia.

I think the idea is that we can share recipes and special life moments with friends and other family members. Sounds like a good idea to me, since I've been away at college for three years and have been officially cooking for myself for a while. Hopefully, this will be fun and interesting!