Recipes Archives | Page 11 of 17 |

Christmas Gift Jars and Baked Good Ideas

January 1, 2010 By Laura 4 Comments

For those who have been visiting our blog long enough, you’d probably know that we usually get very crafty for Christmas gifts for loved ones. But unfortunately, some years we were low on both time and money, to really craft as much as we would like to for gifts. Still, we prefer to show our love to our loved ones at Christmas, with more homemade sort of gifts, if we can. So we had the idea this year of sending some Christmas gift jars and baked goods. It would be simple, inexpensive, yet appreciated we were sure. Who doesn’t love food…right?

You should know, this post is not sharing the actual recipes we used. We are just sharing with you the idea of gift jars, and some presentation ideas, as inspiration, for your own gift giving. Gift jar recipes are very easy to find though! You can just do a web search, or….check Pinterest for a wealth of jar recipe ideas! Here though, we just want to show you what we came up with.

So some jars we made up with most of the ingredients to make Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.
All they needed to add was the butter, egg and vanilla!

Most of our gift recipients got a jar just like this, with the measured dry ingredients and directions. But we knew my 2 bachelor brothers, and my Dad, were not going to be baking anything. lol. So…..we baked theirs for them, and filled up the jar with the cookies. Cookies in a jar! So there is another idea for you!

We also gave some people the dry ingredients for this Curried Lentil Soup. What a big project THIS turned out to be. Because the recipe calls for red and yellow lentils. After visiting 6 stores all over town, over the course of a week, we settled for red and green. Maybe you know better where to get them? If not, don’t toss the idea all together, if you like the idea of soups. Again, search for recipes, and you’ll find more than you can shake a . . . . . . a . . . . . . spoon at. 🙂

Initially, we could only find tan, and made some soup ourselves to test the recipe. Not being lentil experts, we thought only the color was different. But ummm….not so much. We HOPE the red & green works out alright for everyone.

We also made loaves of fresh homemade bread (not pictured) , and included those in most packages.

And homemade donuts! : D

We got calls and messages from everyone, and they all seemed to really enjoy our tasty gifts! We think they probably ‘tasted the love‘. But one did tell us the bread and donuts were kind of hardish, or heavy, when they arrived. Now….the bread crust is. You can knock on the loaf, but it’s soft on the inside. It makes excellent toast, it’s great for sandwiches, and it goes well with soup, too!

But the donuts, being fried, we really weren’t sure HOW they would fair in shipping. So I guess they arrived….a little dense. Now, we take these things very seriously. So, we asked ourselves what we may have learned from that outcome, and this is what we came up with:

Don’t share our donuts anymore!!
No, seriously, we’ll be working on our recipe, to make them a little lighter. 😀 For the rare occasion we make them again, because they aren’t the healthiest regular food to eat. But they are a real treat, and that’s in part what make the holidays so special.

Some pretty ribbon on your jars, with an attached tag that shares the recipe or directions, is a very warm and thoughtful gift, for anyone who eats!
Your tag can be hand-written as well. It actually makes it all the more handmade-appeal.

We hope these ideas make your Christmas gift-giving season fun, delicious, and budget-friendly.

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Soda Cracker Toffee | Recipe

December 23, 2009 By Laura 11 Comments

This recipe is one that came to mind, in a memory from years ago. I had no idea what it was called though, so I googled the ingredients to figure it out.
I guess it’s called Soda Cracker Toffee.

Which brings to mind a pressing question for me: Does ANYONE actually say ‘soda crackers’ anymore? I can’t imagine. So if you don’t mind, while I share this recipe, I’m just going to refer to this type of crackers as ‘saltines’. After all, I’m just a kid.

But before I get to that, I wanted to share the memories that this treat brought to mind. I remember the first time I ever tried it. I was working as a teller in a bank. (Do I hear people snickering? lol. Yes, I realize, for anyone who knows me at all, it is comical that I ever worked in a bank. But I did. For like 3 or 4 years! You may wonder how I pulled that off. Well, that’s easy. I was a struggling artist at the time, living at home with my parents. A very, very good friend of my family’s (still today), was the president of the district of that bank, or something like that. He encouraged me to apply for a job at that bank. As much as I questioned him that they would ever hire me, he assured me all would be fine. ; ) I worked there for 2 years, and even was successfully transferred to the south shore when I got married. Until I couldn’t take it anymore…being like, and dressing like, someone I was so NOT. So then I quit, and became a married, struggling artist, in my first own home.

But in that last year, there was a girl that worked at my branch for a few months. There are 3 things I remember about her:

1) She was very bubbly, and always smiling.

2) She once turned to me after I said something or other, (I swear, I forget what..) and said, “You know, you are soooooo…..ABRASIVE!” Michael and I have laughed about that for YEARS since. Well, except I always forget the word she used, and he reminds me. And THEN we laugh again. But anyway, it’s not the truth. She was very sensitive, and just didn’t get my humor.

3) One day she brought in this recipe.
–

Now…..if you have a sweet tooth, THIS recipe is for YOU. It’s junk food, at it’s best. So I hear. I’m not really into stuff this sweet, but I know others who are LOVING it. ; )

It is SOOOO Easy to make. And only 4 ingredients.

Participating Ingredients: a sleeve of SALTINES, 1 cup of light brown sugar, a 12 oz bag of chocolate chips, & 1 cup of butter. (2 sticks. Holy…)

Spread a whole sleeve of the crackers as a single layer, on a 10×15 jelly roll pan, or, if you don’t have one of those (like us), we used a 17 1/4 x 11 x 1 inch cookie sheet, which should be covered with tin foil first.

I took this photo just for fun. (So take a break. ; )

In a saucepan, melt down the 2 sticks of butter and 1 cup of brown sugar.

This would be a good time to preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Bring to a boil, and while stirring frequently, boil for 4-5 minutes.

When the time is up, I saw lots of ‘pockets’ of butter or brown sugar, so I used the back of the spoon to press them out against the side of the pan, and mix some more, until it looked truly combined. Took a minute is all.

So then you have warm toffee, and it should look more like this.

Pour as evenly as you can over all of the crackers. You need to work some quickly because the toffee will start setting if it cools too much. Once it is all poured, quickly spread it out more evenly over the crackers.

Once it is spread out, put it in your pre-heated oven and bake for 5 minutes.

Remove pan from oven, and then turn off the oven.

Quickly spread the entire bag of chocolate chips all over the toffee-covered Saltines.

Then put the pan back in the oven for 4-5 minutes, which should still be pretty hot.

(In my attempt to see if the chips were indeed melt-y enough, I grabbed the spatula off the counter, which got caught on a pair of kitchen scissors, sending them flying INTO the oven, and falling to the bottom.
Metal tongs were necessary to remove the scissors, which were now on fire. But you can skip that whole step! : )

When the chips look melt-y enough, remove the pan from the oven again, and spread the chocolate more evenly over the cracker base.

Now place the pan in your refrigerator, to speed up the process of chilling and setting the chocolate.

When it is set, remove from fridge.

And cut into 1 inch squares with a pizza cutter. (You can actually do this yourself!! Michael just did it for me, because I’m weak, and have a life-long broken finger.) (I know what you are thinking by now….Yes, I am accident-prone.)

You can store it all in an air-tight container.

This treat is really a nice little gift, or a sweet addition to your own Christmas or New years festive celebration!

Enjoy!!

(And don’t forget to brush your teeth after! Seriously.)

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Waldorf Salad | Recipe

December 6, 2009 By Laura 2 Comments

You may or may not have heard of Waldorf Salad. My mother made it all of the time growing up, and I always thought it was a rather odd concoction. But I loved it! So did my brothers and sister, as much as I recall. And now, my kids love it too. Big hit. So simple. No measuring really needed. No cooking!
*Update: One of my kiddo’s food allergies expanded from just peanuts, to tree nuts too. So we can’t make this at home anymore.
But you can! And you really should.

Participating ingredients: apples, walnuts, raisins, mayonnaise.

How much you use of any of it, is a preference, and all in consideration of how much you are making, and so how many apples you use. We used 4 apples and fed 7+ (Some had seconds.)

So chop up some walnuts. (We were lucky to finally find walnuts not possibly contaminated by peanuts processed in the same manufacturing facility.)

We have this handy chopper. Can’t say it chops very consistently sized pieces though. It’s literally hit or miss every time. It turns as it chops, but still. We usually don’t care though, whether some pieces are bigger than others.

Peel the apples, core and slice them. Surely you all have the handy device above, to get the 2 latter tasks done in 1 shot.

Cut up the apples into bite sized pieces.

Put apples into a big bowl, add chopped walnuts, and add a handful or so of raisins too.

Adding some chopped celery is another great option.

Add a plop of mayonnaise, one plop at a time, and mix, until it is the desired amount you want.

It’s a sweet, delicious side-dish, chilled or not.

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Paula’s Rolls | Recipe

November 25, 2009 By Laura 1 Comment

This wonderful (and I mean wonderful!) dinner roll recipe was sent in by our friend Paula, from A Catholic Harvest. She’s a great gal. I adore her for so many reasons, but to sum it up, she’s a mixed bag. I love people who are full of wonderful qualities, but also full of surprises. For instance, recently I learned that she’s a ‘closet head-banger’. Inside this sweet, funny, supportive and faithful girl, is an inner rock-n-roll chick!! It’s true! Who knew?!

So speaking of rolls…lol….I love this recipe she sent us. I have a few recipes sent in that I’ll be making, now that I have more time to cook and bake. But here is one for now. She sent it, we made it, we photo’d it, and now we’re bloggin’ it!! I wanted to be sure I posted it at least by today, because really, these are perfect Thanksgiving Day rolls to have on your table! And chances are, you already have all of the ingredients you need, to make some last minute. (But please don’t hold us to that. lol) Regardless, these are truly wonderful ANYTIME rolls. So here we go.

Participating Ingredients:

***1/2 c shortening (or unsalted butter)
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp salt
4-1/2 tsp yeast
5+ c flour
2 eggs
stick of butter (not shown)
*** Since the sharing of this post, we have revised our family’s diet, for a healthier lifestyle.
Therefore, we substitute the shortening now for unsalted butter. We believe it’s a better choice.

NOTE: If you have a kitchen mixer, you are welcome to do this part using that. But did not have one at this time, so we mixed the dough by hand.
–

In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and shortening, mixing up and cutting up with pastry cutter.

Now, the next step in the directions is to beat 2 eggs in a measuring cup , and then fill the cup to the 2 cup mark with hot water. However, we did not have a 2 cup measuring cup, we only had a 1 cup Pyrex measuring cup. So, we measured out the eggs, dumped them in a small bowl, and added the remaining needed hot water, to collectively make 2 cups of eggs and hot water. I sure hope you followed that.

So here are our two measured, beaten eggs.

Adding the remaining measurement of how water.

Beat together.

Pour hot water, over dry ingredients in big bowl, and mix together. Slowly add 3 more cups of flour. Once all of the flour is in, and as you mix, you may realize that the mixture is really very wet, and is not really going to form a dough mixture at any point. This means you need to add even more flour, little by little, until it becomes more dough-like.

Once all combined well, cover the dough bowl, and let rise in a warm oven until doubled. (Paula uses 170 because it’s the lowest setting on her oven. Ours is 150, and that worked too.)

On a floured surface that you can cut on, knead the dough.

Flatten the dough out with your hands, or with a rolling pin, into a large pizza shape. Then cut with a pizza cutter into 16 triangle shaped slices, like seen above.

Roll each piece from the wide end of a slice, to the point. They’ll look like crescent rolls.

Place in greased pan (Paula uses Pam spray), allowing enough space for rolls to double in size again. Paula says you can use 2 9×13 pans and put 8 on each as we did, or she also has a large pan she thinks is about 11×20.

Cover and let rise in a warm oven again, about 20-30 minutes. When doubled, remove from oven, and heat oven to 375. Bake in 375 oven for 20-30 minutes, depending on how dark you want them.

Immediately rub on, or brush, with 1 stick of melted butter. ( Paula says, “Yes, 1 whole stick!”).

Do these look savory, or what?!!

Paula states at the end of the recipe, “YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED!” And indeed, we were not!!

We loved them so much, that we’ll be making them again and again. In fact, I am making more today. However, since we don’t normally eat all white bread, I am going to try this time making them with about 1/3 wheat flour, and see how those come out. I can keep you posted!

We hope you’ll find this recipe a new favorite in your home. Paula also sent a recipe for Indian Fry Bread, which we have plans to make in the next few days. I’ve got a list of recipes we’ll be sharing, actually. Meanwhile, if YOU have a recipe you’d like to see featured on our blog, please use the e-mail button in the sidebar on the right, and send it along! If it remotely appeals to us, we may just Make it-Photo it-Eat it & Blog it! And we’ll link to your blog too, if you’d like!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have rolls to make. And Taco Soup!

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Political Cookies

November 22, 2009 By Laura 3 Comments

We have a de-LICIOUS roll recipe coming right up, submitted by a regular and loved blog reader, Paula. But first, we just wanted to share with you some of our oldest daughter, {A}’s, creative cookies she made last week. (She is an ambitious baker these days, if you don’t know.)

{A} has a very strong interest in the Kennedy Family, and has as of late, been studying their family history in great depth. That’s not to say she is a fan of all of them. ; ) But, she does like who Robert F. Kennedy was. So much so, that she made sugar cookies for his birthday on Friday, November 20th. She thought it was a great excuse to practice her piping skills.

There were many duplicates of these cookies above, so this is just a sample of each design. She even had more detailed pre-sketches on paper, but realized they would be really hard to pipe. I think they came out really cute though. I also think it’s cute that she made these. lol

On a side note, I just wanted to mention that we’ll be doing a little renovation on the Home Page (just a little one). So if you notice things are out of sorts at any point, that’s why. : )

And that, I believe, was my shortest post, ever. I deserve a cookie, don’t you think?

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