Snickerdoodles

My 1963 Betty Crocker “Cooky Book” calls these a delicious family cooky from Mrs. Ronald Anfinson in Benson, Minnesota. While I’ve eaten them before this was the very first time I made snickerdoodles. And I have to say, they were pretty swell!

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 3/4 cups flour

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

4 tsp cinnamon

Heat oven to 400.

Mix butter, shortening, sugar, and eggs thoroughly. Blend flour, cream of tartar, salt, and soda. Stir into butter mixture. Mix well. Shape dough into 1” balls and roll in cinnamon sugar (1/4 cup sugar and 4 tsp cinnamon mixed together).

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes

Dill Pickle Relish

I decided to make dill pickle relish, too. I have made quite a few jars of sweet pickle relish but I do like a good dill pickle relish on hamburgers… This one came from a Canadian website, so I had to change the units but here it is in American… LOL

4 pounds cucumbers, chopped very small

1/4 cup pickling salt

1/2 tsp turmeric

2 cups white vinegar

1/3 cup sugar

4 cloves minced garlic

1 Tbsp dill seeds

2 tsp mustard seeds

1 1/2 cups finely chopped onion

Combine cucumbers, salt and turmeric in a large bowl. Stir in 1 cup cold water. Let sit for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Drain and rinse well in colander, pressing out moisture.

Bring vinegar, sugar, garlic, dill seeds, mustard seeds to boil. Add cucumbers and onions, return to boil, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Fill hot jars up to 1/4” headspace. Process for 15 minutes in boiling water bath. Let sit for 5 minutes before removing from canner.

Makes 6 half pints

Jalapeno Salsa

I have made two batches of this salsa this year. I must have bought some really mild jalapenos. You would think that with equal parts of tomatoes and unseeded jalapenos, it would be really hot. But it wasn’t… It was good and flavorful, but not hot. I like it because it doesn’t need many tomatoes, which came in handy this year…

3 cups chopped tomatoes

3 cups chopped jalapenos, seeded or unseeded

1 cup chopped onion

6 cloves minced garlic

2 Tbsp minced cilantro

2 tsp oregano

1 1/2 tsp pickling salt

1/2 tsp cumin

1 cup cider vinegar.

Combine all ingredients in large stock pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Ladle into hot jars, leaving 1/4” headspace. Process 15 minutes in boiling water canner.

Let rest 5 minutes before removing from canner.

Makes about 3 pints.

Too Good To Be Zucchini Bread

This is the best zucchini bread recipe ever! It is moist and yummy and most people don’t even know it’s zucchini. I got the recipe from Chris’ aunt Cindi and I just modified it a tiny bit. If your garden produces an abundance of zucchini, you gotta make this bread! Oh, and it freezes great, too!

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup oil

2 cups sugar

2 cups grated zucchini

3 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup plain yogurt or sour cream

Mix eggs, oil, sugar, zucchini, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients. Mix until combined. Do not overmix. Stir in yogurt or sour cream.

Pour into 2 bread pans that have been greased and sprinkled with sugar.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until tester comes out clean.

Fudge Meltaways

For some reason I just had to have these today! My mom made them when I was a kid and I haven’t made them in about 15 years. But today I had to have ‘em! Yup, they were just as good as I remembered!

Crust:

1/2 cup butter

1 oz unsweetened chocolate

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup shredded coconut

1/4 cup chopped nuts

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup pasteurized egg product

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

Melt butter and chocolate together. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well and press into 9” baking pan. Chill.

Filling:

1/4 cup softened butter

1 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups sifted powdered sugar

Mix together until smooth. It will be very thick! Add a splash of milk if needed. You want it to be thicker than cake frosting but you need to be able to spread it on top of the crust. Chill.

Topping:

1-2 oz of unsweetened chocolate

Melt and spread on top of filling. Chill. Cut before completely firm.

 

 

Zucchini Pie Filling

This year’s garden has not yielded much, but the zucchini just keep coming. In an effort to find ways to use it up, my mom suggested zucchini pie that’s supposed to taste just like apple. So I made some up, put it in apple crisp and sure enough… it tastes just like apple!

This filling is supposed to go into a pie but worked equally well as an apple replacement in my apple crisp recipe.

 

Zucchini Filling

8 cups of peeled, seeded and sliced zucchini

Boil zucchini until tender. Drain and let stand in cold water for about 5 minutes, then drain.

Add:

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 Tbsp flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 Tbsp cream of tartar

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Toss to coat zucchini well. Pour into pie shell or into crisp and bake as recipe directs.

Crisp Recipe

3/4 cup oatmeal

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup softened butter

Blend dry ingredients together and cut in butter until crumbly. Press half into bottom of lightly greased 8” baking pan. Reserve remaining to sprinkle to top of filling.  Bake at 375 for about 30-40 minutes.