Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff |
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Birthday Dinner
Thursday, October 24, 2024
All Things Pumpkin
And it's always interesting to see how they view the world. I told a friend yesterday if I were ever in need of an album cover for my music, this photo would be my choice. My own piano practice will resume next week.
15-oz. can pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
12-oz. can evaporated milk cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 box yellow cake mix
1 and 1/2 sticks butter, melted
1 to 1-1/2 cup chopped nuts
Mix pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, and cinnamon thoroughly and pour into a lightly greased 9x13-inch baking dish.
Sprinkle dry cake mix (straight out of the box) over pumpkin mixture. Pour melted butter over cake mix. Sprinkle with chopped nuts. Bake 1 hour at 350ยบ. Let cool completely
Topping:
1 8-oz block cream cheese, softened
1 box powdered sugar
1 8-oz container Cool Whip
Using a hand mixer, blend cream cheese until fluffy. Mix in powdered sugar. Then mix in whipped topping. Spread over cooled pumpkin cake. Refrigerate. Cut into squares to serve. Can sprinkle lightly with cinnamon or chopped pecans to garnish. (I never do this part.)
And one last pumpkin themed food. Jecca made these fun quesadillas for little people's dinner one night. It's too cute not to share.
Monday, October 14, 2024
Hurricanes Are Fattening
Easy Vegetable Soup |
1 16- oz bag frozen vegetables for soup
1/2 medium head cabbage, finely chopped
1 medium onion, diced (or 1/2 large onion)
1 15-oz can cut green beans, drained
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
1 pkg dry Ranch Dressing mix (all I had this time was dip mix)
1 tomato can full of water (swish to get all of the tomatoes) that's about 2 cups
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Put all ingredients into a pot. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes or longer, until vegetables are as tender as you like them. We like ours cooked longer, until the cabbage is very tender. This time I probably let it simmer a little over an hour.
Friday, October 11, 2024
What A Difference A Day Makes
Wednesday morning, Sept 25 |
Saturday morning, Sept 28 |
We were lucky. I almost didn't share the photos of this barn because our damage looks minor when you see what happened in North Carolina. We have watched in horror at the complete destruction others are dealing with. Communities are trying to figure out how to get children back to school. Our schools here start next week, two weeks post storm. Just north of us, they are digging wells at schools to provide water in hopes of reopening in a few more weeks.
We have more significant damage across our farm. Barns will have to be torn down. Roof repairs need to happen. But our house was untouched. And we had a generator that ran for a week. We were among the lucky ones. I only want to say how quickly things can change. In ways that we can't predict.
Everything is better with ice cream. |
Apple Spice Cake |
Saturday, September 21, 2024
The Grandmother Gig Greatest Hits
Yes, I'm still here. Just staying busy. Or moving slower as I get older, therefore not getting as much done. Both poor excuses for not posting. But this morning as I was looking in the recipe index here I realized I need to keep up with sharing new recipes. It is easier for me to find them again here than it is to remember where I found the recipe originally.
But before I actually share a NEW recipe, I'm going to repost a blog from over a decade ago. Tomorrow is the first day of fall. The pumpkin farm down the road from us opens today. Mommy's family arrived here last night (fall break for them) and she was telling me she took pumpkin bread to her new neighbors.
So here are some of my favorite pumpkin recipes. There are others on the blog that are also good. Pumpkin Pie Twists. Pumpkin Angel Food Cake. Pumpkin Ring Cake. Turkey Pumpkin Chili. I like them all, but you can't go wrong with these that I've been making for many years. The post below is also a reminder of how long I've been doing this blog!
Sunday, October 9, 2011
The Frost Is (Almost) On The Pumpkin
It's that time of year. Pumpkin spice lattes are back at Starbucks. Look for pumpkin ice cream at Trader Joe's. It's time to make pumpkin pies, pumpkin cake, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin anything. I like it all.
I made these two loaves last night to take to church this morning for the before-Sunday School coffee time. Both daughters have made this recipe many times. When Mommy taught kindergarten, she took it for snack time when they were talking about "fall things" and all the five-year-olds loved it.
If you make it in 8-inch foil pans, you can get three loaves from one recipe--one for you and two for giving. And it freezes well.
Pumpkin Bread
3-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
4 large eggs
1 (15-oz.) can pumpkin
Stir together flour and remaining ingredients in a large blow until smooth. Divide batter evenly between 2 greased and floured 9-inch loaf pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes, or until wooden toothpick inserted into center of each loaf comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack.
OR you can divide between three 8-inch foil loaf pans and bake for 45-55 minutes, or until done.
And because I like autumn and pumpkins so much, I'll share another favorite recipe. No photo of this one, because I haven't made it yet this year. But trust me, it is a wonderful dessert. We had it first when a friend served it at a bridal luncheon for Mommy. Even people who say they don't like pumpkin, like this one. Just don't tell them what it is until they have tasted it!
Pumpkin Crunch
(15-oz) can pumpkin
(12-oz) can evaporated milk
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Lightly grease the bottom of a 9x13-inch dish. Mix the above ingredients and pour into dish.
Sprinkle 1 box Duncan Hines Yellow cake mix (dry, right out of box) over pumpkin mixture.
Melt 1-1/2 sticks butter and pour over cake mix.
Sprinkle 1-1/2 cups chopped nuts over the butter.
Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees. Let cool completely.
Topping:
1 box powdered sugar
8-oz. cream cheese, softened
8-oz. Cool Whip
Mix cream cheese and sugar. Then fold in Cool Whip and spread over top of dessert. Refrigerate until serving time. Cut into squares to serve. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon or chopped nuts to garnish.
Take this to your next church dinner and let people try to figure out what it is. Besides good! And how could I talk about fall and pumpkins and not think about this poem. Remember this?
When The Frost is On The Punkin by James Whitcomb Riley, 1853-1916 When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock, And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock, And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the hens, And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence; O, it’s then’s the times a feller is a-feelin’ at his best, With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest, As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock, When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock. They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here— Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees, And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees; But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock— When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock. The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn, And the raspin’ of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn; The stubble in the furries—kindo’ lonesome-like, but still A-preachin’ sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill; The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed; The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover over-head!— O, it sets my hart a-clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock, When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock! Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps; And your cider-makin’ ’s over, and your wimmern-folks is through With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and saussage, too! ... I don’t know how to tell it—but ef sich a thing could be As the Angels wantin’ boardin’, and they’d call around on me— I’d want to ’commodate ’em—all the whole-indurin’ flock— When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock! |
Thursday, July 11, 2024
Lake, Family, Food
Tomato Corn Avocado Salad |
Saturday, June 29, 2024
To Cook Or Not To Cook...That Is My Question
Garlic Parmesan Chicken Pasta Bake |
- I had cooked, cut up chicken breasts in the freezer. I thawed them in the microwave while the pasta was cooking.
- I only used one jar of Alfredo and one jar of garlic parmesan Alfredo sauce.
- The recipe calls for 1 cup of garlic parmesan sauce. Next time I will look for that near the salad dressing and bbq sauces. Evidently it's condiment used for wings.
- I added 1/2 cup pasta water since I didn't have the extra cup of sauce.
- Since I only had 2 cups of chicken, I added some frozen peas. They were okay, but not sure I would had them again.
- I only had one cup of mozzarella so I used that and plus one cup of cheddar.