Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches

3/4 to 1 lb. roast beef (from the deli)
3/4 to 1 lb. sliced white cheese from the deli – muenster, provolone, mozzarella, etc.
hoagie or french rolls – one per person
1 lb. sliced mushrooms, optional
1 lg. onion, quartered, optional
softened butter

If you want a buttery flavor then slice each roll, spread with butter and lay butter side down on a large cookie sheet. Toast at 400 degrees for a few minutes, until butter is melted and bread is barely crisp. You can also just toast the bread without the butter. Flip them over and add a few slices of roast beef and some cheese. Stick back into the oven and bake until the cheese is melted, about 5 minutes.

If you want (and I highly recommend it) you can saute the mushrooms and onions in butter while everything is toasting and then put a large spoonful or two on top of the cheese once it’s melted. Or on top of the roast beef, then add the cheese and melt it all. My kids don’t like the mushrooms/onions so they eat theirs with meat and cheese only. The two littlest guys (ages 3 and 5) split one.

An alternative to the roast beef is to use some sort of beef sliced super thin, or stir fry meat (make sure you cut it smaller if the strips are very long). Brown the meat in some butter and throw in some garlic powder, onion powder, beef bouillon granules, soy sauce, worchestershire sauce, and Jane’s Mixed-up seasoning or salt. This is sometimes cheaper than a pound of roast beef, but takes longer to make.

Sausage Barley Soup

Here’s a flavorful soup for your crockpot. I love my crockpot. If you don’t love yours, you can make this on the stovetop. Which I did the other night and it took about 40 minutes.

1/2 to 1 pound Italian sausage – I’ve used turkey sausage and reduced fat too, it all works
1 onion, diced
3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
6 cups chicken broth or 1 48 oz can chicken broth – I use half broth, half water and bouillon
3 to 4 large carrots, sliced
1/2 cup uncooked pearl barley
1 zucchini, sliced or diced
a head or a few handfuls fresh spinach, chopped

Cook the sausage, onion, and garlic until the sausage is done. Toss all the ingredients into your crockpot and give it a hug. Cover and cook 4 hours on high or 6 hours on low.

 

Grandma Swain’s Sausage Soup
This is Grandma’s famous soup, talked about in hushed and reverent tones at family gatherings. We all adore this soup. It is fantastic. I usually have the ingredients on hand so I can whip this up anytime. Okay, I keep the ingredients on hand specifically so I can make it often. There have been fights over the last bowl.

1 lb. uncooked breakfast sausage links
1 small to medium sized onion, chopped
1/3 c. chopped green pepper (I often leave this out since the kids don’t like them)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
3 c. water
18-oz. can tomato juice (2 1/4 c.)
16-oz. can kidney beans, drained
1/2 c. long-grained rice (both white and brown work; brown just takes a little longer)
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 to 1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. salt
dash pepper

Cut the sausage into bite-sized pieces and brown in a large saucepan. I usually throw the onion (and green pepper if I’m using it) in at the same time and let it cook with the sausage then add the garlic right at the end. Add water, tomato juice, beans, rice and seasonings. Simmer, covered, for 25-30 minutes or until rice is tender, stirring occasionally. We wipe out the entire pot in one sitting. This does not hold up well as leftovers since the rice turns super mushy. If you will have leftovers cook some rice separately from the soup and add a little to each bowl as you serve it.

Sugar Cookie Bars

Sugar Cookie Bars
Yield: about 60 bars (depending on how big you cut them)
Time: about 40 minutes + time to cool and frost
Recipe from MyDearMother
PRINT RECIPE

Cookies:1 1/2 C sugar
1 C butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/2 t almond extract
1 t vanilla
1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
2 1/2 C flour

Frosting:
1/2 C butter softened
4 oz cream cheese, softened
3 1/2 C powdered sugar
3-5 T milk
1 t vanilla
food coloring

1. In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer beat the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and egg until nice and frothy. About 4 minutes.
2. Add the vanilla and almond extract and beat for 1 minute more.
3. In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Mix them around so that all ingredients are well incorporated.
4. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat for about 2 minutes.
5. Press the dough into a large jelly roll (cookie sheet) pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
7. Let the pan cool completely.
8. Time to make the frosting! In a medium sized bowl (or your stand mixer) combine the butter and cream cheese. Beat for about 2 minutes.
9. Add the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and food coloring. Mix for 1-2 minutes or until smooth.
10. Frost your pan of cookies. Cut the cookies into bars and serve!

As a fun decorative option, you could pipe a bit of white frosting onto the bars. Just take about 1/4 of the frosting out of the mixer before you add the food coloring. Put the white frosting into to sandwich sized zip loc bag. Carefully snip the tip and pipe some fun decorations onto the bars.

Saltiness Toffee Cookies

1 (16 ounce) box saltine crackers, you won’t need the whole box
1 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup finely chopped pecans
Directions:

1
Heat oven to 350°F.
2
Line a cookie sheet with foil.
3
Arrange crackers snugly in a single layer, filling the sheet completely, about 40 crackers.
4
In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat.
5
Add the brown sugar and mix well.
6
Pour the butter mixture evenly over crackers, spreading as necessary.
7
Bake 8-10 minutes, or until the butter is bubbly.
8
Remove the sheet from the oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the crackers.
9
When the chips have softened, spread them over the crackers with a knife.
10
Sprinkle immediately with the nuts.
11
Let the cookies cool 5-10 minutes before cutting between the individual cookies with a spatula.
12
Remove them to a plate, keeping them in a single layer.
13
If you don’t remove them while they are still warm, they will stick to the foil.

Cheesecake

I discovered very quickly that a cheesecake is a nice gift–people like them, they look fancy, and they freeze well (and therefore transport well).

So I’m posting the recipe here, since I keep promising to give it to friends.

Cheesecake:

filling:
3 packages cream cheese (8 oz each), softened
1 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp lemon juice
4 large or 5 medium eggs
crust:
1/3 lb graham crackers (1 pkg from a 1 lb box) crushed to about 1 1/4 c fine crumbs
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c butter or margarine

Beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each on medium or low speed, and scraping the bowl frequently. Mix graham crackers and 1/4 c sugar. Add melted butter and mix well. Press into 9″ springform pan or 9″ round cake pan lined with foil. You can just press it into the bottom, or part-way up the sides, too. Pour in filling. Tap it gently on the counter or run a knife through it to pop the bubbles, if there are any. Bake at 300-315 F for one hour. Then turn off the oven but leave the door closed for an hour. Then prop the oven door open with a butter knife for another hour. Chill overnight or freeze (this is an important step–it “fixes” the texture). Use the foil to life the cheesecake from the cake pan after it’s chilled or frozen.

You can actually freeze this overnight, remove the pan, and slide the whole cheesecake into a gallon-sized ziploc bag to serve later.

I discovered that you can cook two at a time, but not three–three pushes them too close to the oven walls and they don’t cook evenly.

Also, I discovered that cream cheese has a “use by” date that is six months down the road. So you can buy a bunch when it’s on sale and then have cheesecake whenever you want.

Finally, we tried seriously whipping the mixture (usually a “no-no” with cheesecake) and it came out so incredibly fantastic–but it had cracks all over the surface, so it wasn’t pretty when it was done. Worth trying, though!

Three notes from my mom, the cheesecake master:
1. Cream cheese should be room temp so it doesn’t lump.
2. Beat as much as you want until you add the eggs. After the eggs, almost no
beating.
3. Cream cheese is good for months after the expiration date.

Lemon Squares

Lemon Squares

Crust
Mix
1 cup melted butter
12; cup powdered sugar
2 cups flour
Press into 9×13 pan and bakd 350 for 15m

Filling

14; cup flour
2 cups sugar
in separate bowl beat
4 eggs and add 6 TBSP lemon juice
Add both bowls together
Pour into crust and bake 350 for 25m

 

sprinkle powdered sugar on top immediately after it comes out of oven

Doughnuts Baked, Cinnamon & Otherwise

Baked Doughnuts
For Printable Recipe, Click here!
Makes: About 15 doughnuts (& donut holes)

For the Dough
3/4 cups Warm Milk
1 packet Active Dry Yeast
1 tbsp. Unsalted Butter
1/3 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
2 ½ cup All Purpose Flour
Pinch of Nutmeg
½ tsp. Salt

For the Glaze
* Enough to glaze all the doughnuts
¼ cup Milk
1 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
2 cups Confectioners Sugar

For the Cinnamon Sugar Topping
*Enough to cover all of the doughnuts
½ cup Unsalted Butter
1 cup Sugar
1 tbsp. Cinnamon

To make the dough, place ¼ cups of the warm milk in the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle the yeast over the milk. Let sit for 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the remaining ½ cup of milk with the sugar and butter. Add it to the yeast mixture. Stir to combine. Add the eggs and stir until incorporated. Add the flour, nutmeg, and salt and stir until the dough starts to form. Change to the dough hook and knead for until the dough starts to become smooth. If the dough is too sticky, slowly add more flour until it is no longer sticky.

Transfer to the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic and has formed a ball. Place the dough ball in a large lightly greased bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit in a warm place for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.

Once the dough has risen, roll it out on a lightly floured surface until ½ thick. Using a doughnut cutter (if you don’t have a doughnut cutter, you can use 2 biscuit cutters – 1 that is about 3 inches, and the other that is about 2 inches for the inner circle) cut out the doughnuts until you have no dough left. If desired you can gather up the scraps into a ball and roll it out and cut out more doughnuts. I prefer not too because I feel the dough becomes too tough.

Place the doughnuts on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or parchment paper, about 2 inches apart. Cover with a clean towel and let sit for about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven 375 degrees F.

Place the baking sheets in the oven and bake for 7 minutes, until lightly golden brown. Be careful to not overbake these. You want them to be light and doughy inside. Let the doughnuts cool for about 5 minutes until ready to top with either the glaze or cinnamon sugar topping

While the doughnuts are cooling make the glaze and/or cinnamon sugar glaze. Each recipe makes enough to cover all the doughnuts. I made a half recipe of each and topped half of the doughnuts with each topping. Or you can choose to just do one of topping for all the doughnuts.

To make the glaze, combine the milk and the vanilla in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat until just warmed. Slowly add in the confectioners sugar and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Remove the glaze from the heat and place over a bowl of warm water.

To glaze the doughnuts, dip them halfway into the glaze and place on a draining/cooling rack set over a baking sheet. Sprinkle with sprinkles if desired. Let set for about 10 minutes.

To make the cinnamon sugar topping, melt the butter in a saucepan or a microwave, and place in a small bowl. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl.

To top the doughnuts with cinnamon sugar, dip the halfway into the melted butter. Then dip them into the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Set on a draining/cooling rack to set, about 5 minutes.

Serve and enjoy :)!

 

Ingredients

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup crisp rice cereal, coarsely crushed
2 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup sugar, divided
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter-flavored shortening
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions

Mix flour, crushed cereal, 2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl.

Cut in shortening with pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add milk and stir just until moistened.

Roll dough into approximately 2 1/2 dozen 1 inch balls.

Mix cinnamon and remaining sugar in a small bowl. Drop balls into melted butter and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture.

Place balls onto greased 8 or 9 inch round pan.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes in pan on wire rack before removing.

If you are looking for a perfectly rounded ball, try using a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan as mine baked together. They weren’t exactly round but they still turned out beautiful!

Chicken Nuggets

Ingredients

  • 2 skinless and boneless chicken breasts
  • ½ cup milk
  • ½ cup flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • ½ tsp chili powder
  • ¼ tsp garlic salt
  • ⅛ cup oil

Directions

  1. combine flour, salt, pepper, and chili powder
  2. Trim any fat away from chicken.
  3. Cube chicken into bite size pieces.
  4. Pour enough milk over chicken to soak.
  5. Place about oil in a medium deep pot.
  6. Over medium high heat (more towards the high side) heat oil until hot.
  7. Pour milk out from chicken and add the flour mixture.
  8. Seal and shake until nuggets are completely coated.
  9. Place nuggets into hot oil and let them cook until golden brown, turning chicken as needed. Always double check to see if any chicken you make is cooked through.
  10. Remove and drain on a paper towel.

Funeral Potatoes

8-10 medium potatoes peeled and shredded
1 can cream of chicken soup
3 cups shredded cheese
1 cup sour cream
3 green onions (diced/blended)
Salt and pepper to taste

Withhold half cheese, mix all else, top with remaining cheese.
9×13
350°
25-30m
Serves 8-10

Prep time 25 m
Cook time 30m
Total time 55m

Hi Beautiful

Ah a baking question—-

Funeral/Party Potatoes

12 potatoes, baked, cooled, peeled, and grated or (32 oz frozen hash browns)

2 cups sour cream

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese

½ cup melted butter

¾ cup milk

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

⅓ cup chopped green onion

2 cups corn flakes

Mix all ingredients except the corn flakes and put in 9×12 pan. Cover with crushed corn flakes (butter not needed in flakes). Bake at 350° for 40 minutes. Do not cover.