MEATBALLS

My grandmother's meatballs are the best that i've ever had. This is the "I can't eat just one" kind of meatball. Really, I can't each just one, or two, or three.. And since I only see her one time each year, won't stop there. I could eat them for lunch and dinner all week long and of course you need to eat them with homemade, baked all day, made from scratch kind of spaghetti sauce (which I have no idea how to make).

Memere's meatballs:
3 lbs hamburg
1 lb ground pork
8 eggs
12 slices soft white bread
1-2 large onions chopped
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp pepper
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp parsley (optional)
1/2 cup milk

Us a BIG bowl for mixing. I think she uses her kitchen-aid, but I am not positive about that.
First, start by wetting the bread with water and then squeezing out the excess. Now, mix all ingredients together. If you don't use a kitchen-aid, you must USE your hands for mixing. Its the only way to get it done right. Wash your hands, coat them them with olive oil and shape meatballs. Roll them in a shallow dish of olive oil, then bake at 350 for 20 - 30 minutes.

You don't want to minimize the recipe as they freeze well and you can use them with pasta, in lasagna or as appetizers.

Ice Box Cookies

Its Christmas time and my grandmother is already cooking all the goodies for this year's Christmas party! One of my favorite cookies that she makes for Christmas is a type of pin wheel cookie and she refers to them as Ice Box Cookies. And they are soooo good. 

So, here's the recipe:

2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup shortening

3 eggs

4 cups flour (probably more if you are cooking at hight altitude)

2 tsp Cinnamon

2 tsp salt

1 tsp Baking Soda

Filling:

1 package dates

1 cup chopped nuts

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

Directions:

Cream shortening, butter and sugar. Add eggs. Mix well. Sift in dry ingredients.  Divide the dough in half. Roll each half to about an inch thick. And spread the filling. (Now here's the tricky part about following a grandmother's directions. They are ALWAYS incomplete. I believe that for the filling you actually need to cook up the ingredients in a pot until they are soft and yummy). Refrigerate overnight.

The next day, using a sharp knife, slice cookie roll into thin slices. Bake at 375.

Yum. They should be soft and chewy and completely delectable. 

Thanksgiving and Ranger Cookies!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving this year. I have had a really good one. I spent the morning with friends, running the YMCA's annual Turkey Trot. It was mad fun, though I felt like we ran uphill the entire race. 

RUN FOREST RUN! Sometimes I wish I had the endurance of Forest Gump. He just started running and just kept on going. Why didn't he need to stop and catch his breath? And why didn't his muscles cramp up with all the lactic acid. hmm.

I even made it home in time to eat some amazing Cinnamon rolls and coffee. I LOVE cinnamon rolls and coffee, esp. when shared with friends

Look Mom! It's an official race! I even got a number to prove it, but we won't talk my time for this 5k.


After breakfast, I set to work on the appetizer that I decided to bring to Thanksgiving dinner. I really had a hard time deciding between bringing artichoke dip (a tried and true favorite) or something new from the Pioneer Woman's cookbook. To date, everything i have tried from this book has been wonderful. This time, I chose something new and daring and I chose right because the someone else provided the artichoke dip.  So, what I made was these amazing bacon wrapped, stuffed jalapenos. They were AMAZING and actually not all that expensive to makes. Jalapenos are much more affordable than I ever would have guessed. There is a simpler version of what I made available online . The version I made comes from Ree's cookbook; it has cheddar mixed in to the cream cheese and BBQ sauce of your choice on top. 


One tidbit of info that the cookbook didn't say, is that it is better to cook the jalapenos on a pan with a wire rack. This would have helped immensely, as I had trouble getting the bacon under the jalapenos to cook well and ended up turning them over to speed the cooking process. A wire rack would have solved the problem. And if you make these, definitely use the gloves. If you have never purchase disposable gloves before, you can usually find a box of them near the cleaning supplies at your local grocery store.  Definitely worth the time and effort.


Now, I am sitting here in my amazing and wonderful early Christmas present, a papasan chair and I am CRAVING some sort of sweet oatmeal treat and I think I am going to have to give in to the craving and make me some Ranger cookies! I LOVE these cookies. They tend to be on the sweeter side, but I owe the sweetness to the OH SO GOOD coconut. YUM!  These cookies remind me of the trailmix cookies that Starbucks used to sell and I used to LOVE. 


I found the recipes on Bluebonnetsandbrownies.com but the recipe is actually from Better Homes and Gardens.
As far as the recipe goes, I added just the cranberries because its what I had and also because I am not a huge fan of cherries or raisins. Some sort of mixed tropical fruit would be good too and go incredibly nicely with the coconut. These cookies also freeze really well, so it might be a good idea to double the batch and freeze what you know you won't use in a day or two.  


Ranger Cookies
as originally published in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, 14th Edition

1/2 c. butter, softened (1 stick)
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1 c. quick-cooking rolled oats
1 c. coconut
1 c. raisins, dried cherries, dried cranberries, or mixed dried fruit bits

Preheat oven to 375F. Beat butter in a bowl with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in rolled oats, coconut, and dried fruit.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges are light brown and centers are set. Cool on cookie sheet 1 minute. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.


Grab yourself of a glass of milk and enjoy!

Stuffed shells and Apple cake

I spent pretty much all day cooking today and hanging out with my dog Moxie... and the only part of the meal that I can say I was immensely pleased with was the stuffed shells. Can we say comfort food and a half????

My recipe:

1 box large pasta shells

I am not sure what the "regular" size is in oz, at the moment... maybe 12 or 16 oz containers, one of ricotta, and one of cottage cheese.

6- 8 oz of a parmesan cheese blend. 

1 egg

1 frozen pkg. chopped spinach

1 cup mozzarella cheese

1 tsp. italian seasoning

1 tsp diced garlic

1 jar favorite pasta sauce. In this dish, i prefer Prego traditional.

Preheat oven to 350. Cook the shells to al dente, and cool under cold water. Spread a small amount of sauce to coat the bottom of a 13x9 glass baking dish. This will prevent the shells from sticking. Mix all cheeses, egg, seasoning spinach and garlic together. Stuff the shells with a tablespoonful of filling and place in a single layer in the baking dish. Cover the noodles with the remaining jar of sauce.

Cover the dish with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle some mozzerella cheese on top and bake until cheese is melted (about 15 minutes). So good!

I also baked a really yummy apple cake today and made a failed attempt at baking bread.

The apple cake reminded me more of an apple version of banana bread. So when I make this recipe again, I think I will just make it in loaf pans.
It was really tasty and moist, and since I used pumpkin instead of oil, I felt like it was a bit healthier than a average apple cake. I think it would be fantastic with some sort of topping such as whipped cream or cream cheese frosting.

The recipe comes from my great aunt Jeanette. The idea of using oil in such large amounts really grosses me out, so I replaced it by using 1 cup pumpkin and 1/2 cup melted butter. The original recipe called for a cup and a half of canola oil.

so,

1 cup pumpkin/ or apple sauce would work too.

1/2 cup melted butter

4 eggs

2 cups sugar ( I only used 1 and a half cups and it was good)

4 tsp vanilla

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 cup walnuts, (I used pecans)

6 cups petite chopped apples.

  This is the point where i put a S.O.S out on facebook wondering if anyone knew if this cake would overflow in the oven.  Thanks to some quick response, I took so preventative measures (just in case), but I was assured that it wouldn't rise too much. BTW, do you see those little raising looking things? They are chocolate!!! yum

And they were right! This picture shows how close it came to overflowing, but it all stayed in the pan. :)



The only directions I had for making this recipe  were to bake it at 325 for an hour. I guess that my mom is assuming I know the correct order of adding ingredients. I do... you hook up the KitchenAid, pour it all in and turn it on! Okay okay, i did it right (I think)! I put the wet in first, then I put the flour and remaining ingredients.  I poured the whole batter in a bunt pan and it took closer to an hour and 45 minutes to bake. I know this because after an hour I took it out and let it cool partly, but when I tried to flip it out of the pan, i realized it was mostly still raw. :(  Sadness. I threw a piece of foil over the top to prevent it from getting too dark and threw it back in the oven for another 45 minutes. No one could have guessed that I had almost flubbled it! (Flubbed= totally and completely messed it up). As I said before, when I make it again, I will make it in loaf pans. The recipe should make 3 loafs. It was a little too much batter for the bunt.  It didn't overflow, but it definitely was FULL. Maybe next time a bunt and a loaf??

The bread was a total flop. I did learn that you can make a basic white bread with just flour, water, yeast, salt and melted butter. If only it had come out nicer. It was SOOOOOO dense, and dried out quickly as it cooled off. Since this was only my second failed attempt at making bread, I really don't know what I did wrong. Try try again!  How many fails equals a success?  Next time, i plan on trying squash roles! They can't be that hard....

My first blog of the day! or year! or even life!

The BIG plan had been to create a blog to share about my hiking adventures with a friend of mine who was battling cancer this year. I had grand aspirations about it and so I created a blog (which I was unable to find) and never did anything with it. I know... sad day and I am such a horrible friend! My almost valid excuse for never blogging was due to the fact that I had begun the blog to share hiking adventures with my friend Ellen, since she would not be able to hike this year. Unfortunately, I spent two months of the not so long summer on crutches and never actually went hiking. In September, my friend passed away, thankfully no longer suffering, and she has gone on to be with her Maker. She was an amazing woman and has made a difference in the lives of those around her.  She is greatly missed.

The weirdest thing happened the other day.  Ellen is my friend on facebook. Actually, I think she will always be my friend on facebook since there is no one to delete her account anymore. So FB has created this new thing to help you stay connected with people. It will tell you that you haven't emailed so and so in a while and and it tells you to send them a message. So I got one of these from FB about Ellen. :) It made me smile to know that she will not be forgotten.

Now, since she had been the main reason for blogging and she is no longer reading blogs, i have had to re-evaluate. I needed to figure out what I should blog about. What aspect of my life would people even care to read about? Should I blog about my adventures around the world or hiking or cooking or feelings on things or my silly little conspiracy theories?

I was recently introduced to thepioneerwoman.com. I am so excited about this blog and all these ideas came crashing in on me. Not only is she one of my new hero's, but she's really fun to read. Why not blog about it all? And just be me... which most often is random and sporadic and passionate and adventurous and again, quite random. I am really excited to share my most favorite recipes! I have some new recipes that I am SOO excited about, and over Christmas I am gonna snag my Memere's recipes (translation: my grandmother's recipes). I am super excited to have them documented and easily accessible for me and whoever else happens upon them.

So when I decide to cook something, such as lasagna or banana bread or breakfast casserole, if I don't absolutely LOVE the recipe, then I try another and another and sometimes even another.  Now if I can't find one that I really like within a certain amount of time, I might quit cooking that dish all together. Thats what I did with lasagna. Last year, I think I made 10 lasagnas. They were good, but they weren't great. At that time, I didn't own a big enough pot to boil the noodles, so I was using the ones you don't bake. Since I couldn't find a recipe that I LOVED, i blamed it on the noodles and haven't made lasagna in over a year. Someday I promise I'll try again. I have recently just done the same thing with homemade mac and cheese, and I have to say that Ree Drummund from thepioneerwoman.com has the perfect recipe! Its GOOOOOD! But now here's my problem. What if even though the recipe from Ree is great, but not the best? What if I stop looking for recipes and am missing out on some fabulous mac and cheese recipe?

Anyways... thats the blog for today. Recipes to follow.