Better Than Fruitcake

I am one of those crazy people that actually like fruitcake. I don’t like it enough to take the time to make one but if you brought one to my house I’d eat it. :o)

This recipe is a bit more cake-like than traditional fruitcake but still has the flavor I like.

You can bake it in a ring-pan, loaf pans or muffin pans. All you need to do is adjust the baking time.

2 eggs

1 28oz jar of mincemeat

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I used both)

2 cups chopped candied fruit (toss the fruit with about 1/4 cup of rum or brandy and let sit for a couple of hours before making cake, stir occasionally)

1/2 can condensed milk (I poured out about half the can and filled it back up with the molasses)

1/2 can molasses

1 teaspoon rum extract

Mix these ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Add:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

Mix well.

Pour into greased and sugared baking pan of your choice.

Bake at 300 for 25 minutes to 2 hours depending on size of pan. It is done when a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Let cool before removing from pan.

Apple Cheddar Sausage Balls

I love apple in my sausage! While I’m not fond of cheddar cheese and apple pie, I did wonder if they would pair well together with sausage???

Yup! They do!

These sausage balls are perfect to pair with eggs and toast for breakfast or make into patties for a breakfast sandwich on a biscuit. (That’s what I’m trying next…)

2 pounds breakfast sausage (if you’d like trying to make your own, you can try my recipe HERE)

1/2 cup finely chopped apple

1 egg, beaten

3/4 cup fine bread crumbs

1 cup shredded cheddar (I used a 3 cheddar blend of sharp, mild & white)

Mix well together. Form into balls. Bake on greased or parchment-papered baking tray at 350-375 for about 30 minutes or until they temp at 165.

Pierogi Casserole

I love pierogi but I would never make them! They are so much work! Lately I’ve been making a lot of dishes I love into casseroles: cabbage rolls, stuffed green peppers…

This one combines all the things I love about pierogis in one dish!

1 pound gnocchi, cooked and drained

1/2 head of cabbage, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

1 cup sauerkraut, drained and rinsed (this is optional)

1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced or chopped

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon marjoram

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 pinch ground cloves

1 cup shredded white cheddar cheese

Sauté cabbage, onion, mushrooms and garlic with seasonings in 4 Tablespoons of butter until tender.

Toss with gnocchi and sauerkraut (if using). Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Pumpkin Butter Scones

A crisp fall day of watching BBC with a friend calls for a cup of maple cream tea and a batch of pumpkin scones. I have a freezer full of pumpkin butter, so I made up a recipe for these little gems. Just the perfect thing for the Call the Midwife Christmas special!

2 cups flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold butter

1/2 cup pumpkin butter (I used this orange bourbon recipe. But you could use this one or this maple one or any of your favorites.)

1 egg

Preheat oven to 400.

Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Cut in cold butter until the flour mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Whisk together pumpkin butter and egg. Add to flour mixture. Stir well to combine.

Knead a few times on a floured surface.

Place on greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Press into a circle about 1/2” thick. Cut into 8 wedges. Separate them slightly from one another.

Bake for 15-17 minutes.

Let cool on rack.

Make a orange spice glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Add orange juice until it becomes a good consistency for drizzling over the top of the cooled scones.

Drizzle over the scones when they are warm but no longer hot. Eat right away or wait until the scones have gotten to room temp and glaze has set.

Bourbon Orange Pumpkin Butter

This is the darkest and most flavorful of the three pumpkin butters I made. It is my favorite to throw into pancakes or yogurt!

4 cups pumpkin puree (see how to make your own HERE)

1/2 cup apple cider

1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (see my recipe HERE)

1 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon bourbon

1 teaspoon orange juice

Combine pumpkin, cider, sugars, and spice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, still stirring often, until it reduces down and gets thick. You can make it as thin or thick as you want.

Remove from heat and stir in bourbon and orange juice.

Let cool in fridge. Pour into jars or freezer containers. Store in fridge for up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to a year.

Pumpkin Pie Butter

No, it isn’t made of pumpkin pie… But it does have pumpkin pie spice in it and is yummy enough to eat from a spoon!

First you need to make pumpkin puree (you can try this method HERE)

3 cups pumpkin puree

1/4 cup apple cider

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (my recipe HERE)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon orange juice

Combine pumpkin, cider, sugars, and spice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, still stirring often, until it reduces down and gets thick. You can make it as thin or thick as you want.

Remove from heat and stir in extract and orange juice.

Let cool in fridge. Pour into jars or freezer containers. Store in fridge for up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to a year.

Maple Pumpkin Butter

I decided to tackle the pile of pumpkins sitting on the hot tub today!

First step was to get them all baked and pureed. Super easy using this oven method!

Before I knew it, I had 25 cups of pumpkin! Fifteen cups went into the freezer and the other 10 got made into pumpkin butter. I’d never made it before, but from the recipes I saw on-line it didn’t seem too difficult. So, I made it up as I went along and am pretty darn pleased with the results!

spiced bourbon orange, pumpkin pie & maple

My mind is reeling with all kinds of ideas to do with them! If they work, I’ll post them here. But first, the Maple Pumpkin Butter recipe:

3 cups pumpkin puree (see recipe HERE)

1/4 cup apple cider (I used our homemade cider)

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 Tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon maple extract

pinch salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine pumpkin, cider, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, still stirring often, until it reduces down and gets thick. You can make it as thin or thick as you want.

Remove from heat and stir in extracts,, salt and lemon juice.

Let cool in fridge. Pour into jars or freezer containers. Store in fridge for up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to a year.

Chorizo Sausage

With the ground pork in my freezer, I am trying some sausage recipes on a smaller scale to see what I think. This one wasn’t my favorite, but I want to remember how I did it. On the other hand, it made a KILLER chili last night for supper!

2 pounds ground pork

1 1/2 Tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon each: oregano & cumin

1/4 teaspoon fennel seed

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/2 Tablespoon each: onion powder & pepper

2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

Mix together well by hand or in a stand mixer. Freeze or use within 2 days.

Bacon Jalapeno Biscuits

I needed something to go along with the pot of chorizo chili for supper and had just chopped up the last of the jalapenos from the garden. So here is the result…

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 cup shortening or lard

1/4 cup crumbled bacon

2 Tablespoons minced fresh jalapeno

1/2 cup shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese

1 cup milk

Mix together dry ingredients. Cut in shortening or lard with a pastry cutter. Stir in bacon, jalapenos and cheese. Add milk and stir until just combined.

Drop onto greased baking sheet and bake at 450 for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve hot with butter.

Chicken & Green Beans with Peanut Sauce

I picked a whole big bowl of green beans from the garden today, parboiled them, and stir-fried them with some chicken breast. Over rice it was a super delicious and easy supper! And you could smell the peanut butter throughout the entire kitchen… mmmmm!

Peanut sauce:

2 Tablespoons sesame oil

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

4 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter

2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Whisk it all together until smooth and set aside.

Just sauté some cut up chicken breast (about 3 or 4) until it is no longer pink. Throw in some fresh parboiled or frozen green beans and stir-fry them until they are hot. Add the peanut sauce and heat through. Serve over white rice.

Blueberry Lemon Streusel Muffins

This is a simplification of a recipe I found on Pinterest. I am going to write it in steps so that no one will be as confused as I was when I made it. It has quite a few steps (but still less than the original recipe) and dirties quite a few bowls but, thankfully, it was worth it in the end… My quest for the perfect blueberry muffin may be over???

 

Step one: Combine 1/4 cup sugar and the zest of 1 lemon in a small bowl. Set aside.

Step two: Combine 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup flour in a bowl. Mix in 3 Tablespoons melted butter until it turns into pea-sized pieces.

Step three: Mix 2 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt in a large bowl.

Step four: Whisk together 2 eggs and 1 1/8 cups sugar in a mixing bowl until smooth. Add 1/4 cup melted butter and whisk until combined. Whisk in 1 cup buttermilk and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Step five: Take the lemon/sugar combination and sift out the lemon zest through a fine sieve, reserving the sugar for topping the muffins. Stir the sugary lemon zest into the flour mixture.

Step six: Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the egg/sugar mixture. Mix until it is just combined. The batter will be very lumpy. Don’t worry, you don’t want to mix it too much!

Step seven: Gently fold in 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries. If using frozen, toss them with 1 Tablespoon of flour before folding in.

Step eight: Fill 12-15 prepared muffin cups. Top each with streusel and a bit of the lemon sugar. Bake at 425 for 17-20 minutes or until the tops are firm and golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes in pan and another 5 minutes on wire rack. Eat warm.

Family Sized Chicken Pot Pie

One little round chicken pot pie from the freezer section is never enough to fill me up, much less one of my guys. One homemade 9” pot pie doesn’t cut it either. So, this time I made one in a 9x13 baking dish and it did the trick!

I got this recipe from a sweet friend, Mary, who makes it all the time for her clan. But she got the recipe from her mom, Carolyn. They were the two who inspired me to get over my fear and make a darn pie crust! Thanks you two!

A batch of my mom’s pie crust (recipe HERE) made enough for the pot pie and a single crust dessert pie, too.

Roll out about 1/2 the dough for the bottom crust and line the bottom of a 9x13 glass baking dish.

Fill with 6 cups diced cooked chicken, 1/2 bag of thawed frozen peas & carrots, 1 cup of thawed southern style hashbrown potatoes.

Make a gravy.

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup flour

6 cubes or teaspoons of chicken bouillon

4 Tablespoons dried minced onion

salt & pepper, to taste

3 cups water

3 cups milk

Melt butter in small saucepan over medium high heat. Stir in onion and bouillon. Whisk in flour. When it bubbles, quickly whisk in water and milk. Continue to whisk until thick and bubbly.

Pour gravy over filling in crust.

Roll out top crust and place on top of your pie.

Bake at 425 for 25 to 30 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown.

It didn’t turn out very pretty (I”m still new at the pie making thing) but it tasted great! We served it in bowls because it seemed pretty runny but it thickened right up!

Now this is comfort food!

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

This pie combines my favorite dessert (pie) with my hubby’s favorite dessert (chocolate chip cookies). I think if we were ever to get married again we’d have this instead of cake at the wedding… ;o)

First make up a single pie crust. I used my mom’s pie crust recipe. It turns out great every time!

Line 1 9” pie plate with the rolled out crust.

Then make the cookie filling:

1/2 cup softened butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Mix butter, sugars and vanilla. Beat in eggs. Add dry ingredients. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spread into pie crust.

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes or until dark golden brown.

Let cool to room temperature and serve thin slices with a glass of cold milk or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Blackberry BBQ Sauce

Behind the fence in the backyard is completely overgrown with blackberries which means a freezer full of blackberry jam every summer! The best way to get rid of the extra is to make Blackberry BBQ Sauce.

1 cup ketchup

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

1/3 cup blackberry jam

1 teaspoon mustard

1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

Mix it in a small bowl. Use as you would any other BBQ sauce.

I poured mine over a beef roast in the crock pot and cooked it on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-6 hours.

Shred the beef and serve on hamburger buns.

Pineapple Salsa Chicken Salad

This is quite possibly the best chicken salad I’ve ever made! I got the recipe for the chicken here at Food.com. Then I served it on a bed of baby spinach topped with my homemade fresh pineapple salsa. It was a huge hit on this warm summer day!

1 Tablespoon flour

2 teaspoons chili powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Mix in a small bowl.

Cut up 4-5 chicken breasts into small pieces, not bite-sized. Rub each piece with the above mixture.

Heat 2-3 Tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over med-high heat. Brown both sides of the chicken. Cover and cook on low heat, turning occasionally until cooked through.

Serve chicken hot on a bed of baby spinach. Top with fresh pineapple salsa. See recipe HERE.

My Mom’s Pie Crust

This is the recipe for the pie crust my mom has been making for over 30 years. There are no tips or pie crust secrets because I don’t know any. I only made this crust for the first time last week. But it turned out great, rolled out easily and didn’t give me any trouble. I had such a pie crust phobia that I wrote out this recipe before we got married over 20 years ago and finally made it last Thursday…

It makes enough crust for 2 double crust pies 9” or even 10”. The crust can be stored wrapped in plastic wrap for 1-2 days but needs to be frozen for longer storage and taken out to thaw before using.

Mix in large bowl:

4 cups flour

2 teaspoons salt

1 Tablespoon sugar

Cut in:

1 3/4 cups shortening (you can also substitute 1/2 cup softened butter for some of the shortening)

Beat together and add:

1/2 cup water

1 egg

1 Tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice

  

Divide into 4 portions and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 15 minutes to 2 days before rolling out or freeze for longer storage.

 

Roll out on floured surface and use in your favorite pie recipe as directed.

Old Fashioned Apple Raisin Pie

For my second all by myself pie attempt, I decided to really go out on a limb and make up my own recipe. While paging through some vintage 1930s to 50s cookbooks, I found several versions of raisin pie. My mom said that they reminded her of mincemeat. Really??? Apple mincemeat is one of my favorite pies!

So I pieced together a few of the recipes, threw in some apples and spices and came up with my own apple raisin pie. And I have to admit that it turned out pretty incredible! I know what I will be making next Thanksgiving…

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 Tablespoons instant clear gel (if you don’t have this, you can try cornstarch in the hot liquid but I can’t promise the results)

grated zest from 1 orange

1/2 cup orange juice

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 1/4 cup cold water

dash salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1.4 teaspoon cloves

1 cup raisins

1 cup peeled, chopped apples

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 400.

Mix brown sugar, clear gel and orange zest in a small bowl.

Combine water and juices in a medium sized saucepan. Whisk in sugar/clear gel mixture until smooth and thick.

Stir in raisins and apples.

Aren’t these gorgeous raisins?

 

Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly (it will probably already be pretty thick), stirring constantly. Boil for 2 minutes while stirring.

Remove from heat.

Then roll out pie crust and line a 9” pie plate.

Pour hot filling into pie crust. Roll out and place crust on top. Cut vents into the crust.

Cover crust edge with foil (I LOVE the pie shield I bought!!!) and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove foil and bake for another 25 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Serve pie slightly warm or room temperature with a dollop of whipped cream.

If you are keeping your pie more than a day, store the leftovers in the fridge.