Amy's Custard Sauce

This custard sauce is a favorite at our house. We serve it on waffles, french toast, and pancakes instead of syrup. The entire recipe has only 1/2 cup of sugar, instead of the concentrated sugar you get in commercial syrups, and even fruit syrups. And yummy! Amy Heaton shared this recipe with us, and we love it.

Custard Sauce

1/2 cup raw sugar (or granulated sugar, if you prefer)
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups milk

In a saucepan, combine dry ingredients and then add milk. Turn on the heat. Stirring with a whisk, bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes. Stir constantly to avoid scorching the sauce. Remove pan from heat. In a separate bowl, put:

3 egg yolks

Whisk yolks together, then gradually add a cup of the sauce to the yolks, mixing well. Then slowly return all back to the pan, scraping the bowl. Bring the sauce back to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil again for 2 minutes, continuing to stir. Remove from heat. Add:

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla and 4 Tablespoons butter and stir until melted and mixed well.

Serve warm over waffles, pancakes, German pancakes, french toast, or crepes. Yummy!!

Toffee Squares

Such an easy cookie to make, and so yummy.

Toffee Squares

1 cup butter (softened)
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg yolk
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 t. vanilla

Mix in order given. Press into a greased cookie sheet, leaving 1 inch around the edges. Bake 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. While hot, sprinkle with about 2 cups chocolate chips. As soon as they are melty, spread around the cookie. Sprinkle with chopped nuts (I prefer almonds, but toasted pecans are pretty good, too.) While warm, cut into squares or diamonds.

Fresh Ginger Cookies

Yay!! It's that time of year when making cookies doesn't make the house unbearably hot, but rather gives that toasty warmth and that yummy smell that fills the house with the joy fresh cookies are supposed to. (I'm waxing a little poetic this morning, but that's because I'm MAKING COOKIES!!)
This is a recipe I cut out of a magazine years ago, and I love it still. It's a soft, chewy cookie made with fresh ginger. Totally tastes like fall. (And I never make just one batch. I always double or triple.)

Fresh Ginger Cookies

2-1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
12 Tbsp. butter (room temperature)
1 cup sugar (plus more for rolling)
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg

Combine flour, soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream sugar, grated ginger, and butter until fluffy. Beat in molasses and egg. Beat in flour mixture until combined. Chill at least 1 hour. Preheat oven to 350. Roll dough into 1-1/2 inch balls and roll in sugar. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake until edges just start to brown, about 13-15 minutes. Centers will still be soft., Let stand on cookie sheet 1 minute, then remove to cooling rack to cool completely.

Killer Peach Cobbler

I have a new, favorite peach cobbler recipe. I've been looking for a good one for years. Peach cobbler is hard to get right because the peaches are just so darn juicy (yum, right?) It's hard to get a topping that balances the filling out just right. Finally found one. I've made it 3 times now, and it works great every time. But (there is always a but, right?) it is NOT low sugar. In fact, it has lots of sugar. And white flour. And frankly, I'm not really interested in making it healthier. I only make peach cobbler a few times a year, because I think peach cobbler with canned peaches isn't worth the effort. I'd rather have apple if I have to use preserved fruit. I only make it during peach season. Given all that, I've decided to call it Killer Peach Cobbler. I promise it's not good for you. I promise you'll love it.

Killer Peach Cobbler

peaches, peeled and sliced, enough to fill your pan at least halfway
1 package yellow cake mix (I actually used lemon today. Yummy.)
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, cut in 16 pieces
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. chopped nuts (I use pecans because I have a pecan tree. Use whatever you love.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Layer ingredients in order in a 10x14 baking dish (I like the dish larger than the 9x13 because it allows the cake mix to cover more area with a thinner layer. I felt like the 9x13 gave me too much topping for the fruit. Use what you have.) Bake about 40 minutes. Serve warm or cold, with whipped cream or ice cream.

Peaches:
Cake mix:Butter:
Brown sugar:Nuts:

Wilted Spinach Salad with Candied Pepper Bacon

I love this salad. I know it has too much sugar in it. (Any sugar in a salad is probably too much.) But as an occasional treat, it's fabulous.

Wilted Spinach Salad with Candied Pepper Bacon

8 slices bacon
2-1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper

Bake bacon topped with brown sugar and pepper ~22 minutes in a 400 degree oven, until crisp. Cool and cut into 1/2 inch pieces. Reserve grease.

12 oz. baby spinach
1 medium apple, cored and chopped
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped (or wedged)

Toss in a large serving bowl with the bacon. In a separate microwave-safe bowl combine:

3 tsp. apple cider vinegar
4 tsp. dijon mustard
salt and pepper
4 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. bacon drippings

Mix until well blended. Microwave on high for 2 minutes, until bubbly. Toss to coat salad and serve immediately. Enjoy.

Summer Salsa

I got a request for this salsa recipe, which always surprises me a bit, because it seems so simple to make salsa. I sometimes forget that I've been cooking (really cooking, and not just helping) for around 25 years now, so things that seem easy may only be so because of my experience. So here is my salsa recipe. Feel free to adjust the ingredients to what you have on hand.

Russ’s Salsa

1 large onion
3 serrano peppers
2 jalapeno peppers
1 t. chopped garlic
1 1/2 t. salt
3 large tomatoes

Prepare vegetables for salsa by removing onion skin, seeding peppers, and removing stems from tomatoes. Cut the items into manageable pieces. In a hand food chopper (rotary type), mix/chop onion, peppers, garlic and salt (be careful if you use a food processor, or you could end up with soup). When well chopped, remove to large bowl and chop tomatoes in chopper. When well chopped, add to pepper mixture and stir together. Flavor improves with a few hours sitting (in the fridge). I do not use cilantro in my recipe, as Russ hates it, but feel free to add a couple of sprigs, chopped, if you like it. Also - this recipe makes HOT salsa. If you want milder salsa, use milder peppers instead of jalapenos and serranos. If you like hotter, try a habanero or two. Zowie!

Tips: Use rubber gloves to prepare the hot peppers, and then discard. I usually only need one for my left hand (the one not holding the knife).

I made salsa with the pictured ingredients from the garden the other day. It turned out so pretty, with all the colors. Delicious, too.

Summer Salads

This is one of my favorite summer salads. Unfortunately, no ones else in my family likes it, so when I make it I have to eat it alone. Perhaps I will make it for picnic in the park next week. It's a great way to use up tomatoes and onions, which are often in abundance.

Tomato Crouton Salad

• 3 large tomatoes, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 large onion, chopped (I prefer a sweet onion, but use your favorite)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley or basil
• 2 cups croutons
• 2 Tbsp. Italian dressing

Toss tomatoes and onions and parsley with the dressing. Just before serving, add croutons and toss again. Serve immediately. (The croutons get soft quickly, so don't add them until the last minute possible.) So yummy! And easy. And I'm all about easy.

Anything Goes Muffins

This is a recipe I got from a friend, Jenny Chamberlain. It's a lovely recipe because it's so versatile. I have adjusted her original recipe, found here, for my humongous family and for the sweeteners that I use. Today I used vanilla yogurt and applesauce as the 2 c of anything. I also threw together a quick streusel topping (sorry, no recipe on that) to make them even more yummy. They were delicious.

Anything Goes Muffins

Preheat oven to 375.
4 c. flour (I like 2 c. white, 1 c. w/w, and 1 c. oats)
2 Tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. powdered stevia
1/2 c. sucanat
1/4 c. molasses
2 c. Anything (moist - such as bananas, shredded carrots, pumpkin...)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1-1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. oil

Sift dry ingredients. Mix all wet ingredients. Stir wet into dry just enough to moisten. Bake in preheated oven for 15-18 minutes. Makes 24 large muffins.

The real versatility of muffins lies in the plethora of moist ingredients you could use (the "Anything" of the recipe.) A favorite is 1 c. shredded zucchini and 1 c. cranberry sauce. Another fun idea would be peanut butter and banana. Or strawberry/banana, or applesauce/yogurt, or perhaps peaches/sour cream. How about squash muffins with some butterscotch morsels stirred in. Ooooh, and pumpkin/cranberry would be really good. Enjoy!!

(Here is a pre-cooking photo. I was going to be sure to take a finished product photo, but the kids ate them too quickly.)

Juicy roasted chicken

I have recently discovered that I can, indeed, roast a chicken. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that until a few months ago, I had never roasted an entire chicken before. It just seemed so advanced, so grown-up. Well, after becoming educated about how chickens are generally raised for slaughter (in horrendous conditions and pumped full of hormones and antibiotics) I had just about quit eating chicken altogether. I missed it. Chicken is so good, and healthy. Then I discovered that Costco carries a brand of chicken called Coleman's Natural that is organic, antibiotic and hormone-free, and that are fed no animal by-products. It's expensive, though. Really expensive. As one would expect, the full chickens are the cheapest per pound. So I needed to learn to either cook a full chicken or cut up a raw chicken. I went with the former. And guess what I discovered? It's easy. Really easy. Who knew? (Probably lots of people, actually, but not me.) I picked up a simple recipe from Allrecipes.com and made a few tweaks, and I couldn't be happier. Delicious, moist chicken. We always roast 2 at a time, one for eating and the other to cut up for other recipes. Finally, I am a real grown-up cook. (Don't tell anyone, but I've never roasted a turkey either. Maybe now I can take a stab at it. How hard can it be?)


Juicy Roasted Chicken

1 whole chicken, giblets removed.
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup butter
1 stalk celery, cut in sticks
1/2 of a lemon, quartered,
1/2 of a small onion, quartered

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken in roasting pan (a square Pyrex dish works great) and season inside and out with salt and pepper (be very generous). Place 3 Tablespoons of the butter in the chicken cavity. Then stuff the chicken with the celery sticks, the lemon and onion wedges. Arrange the remaining butter, sliced into pats, on the outside of the chicken (see photo below). Bake chicken for 1 - 1/4 hour to 1 - 1/2 hour in the preheated oven. Remove from oven and baste with the drippings. Cover with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 30 minutes before serving. Delish.

Homemade trail mix

Yesterday I went shopping at Costco for the month's groceries, and when we got home, we made trail mix. We like to make our own trail mix here, for a couple of reasons. 1: It's significantly cheaper, even if you use the same ingredients, which we don't. 2: You can personalize it. I will not give you a recipe here, because I like to think anyone capable of reading this blog is capable of figuring out what they want in their trail mix. But I will give you some ideas.

Costco trail mix, which is my inspirational basis, has peanuts, almonds, cashews, raisins, and m&m's. It's a very basic mix, but good enough to have it's own facebook fan page. (These day, I wonder if that actually means anything.) As we have no allergies in our house, we use peanuts for our base as well. We also add almonds (the bags of baking almonds at Costco are cheaper than the roasted almonds, and you could roast them if you wanted to, but I leave mine raw.) We grow our own pecans, so they go in as well. Cheapo, and yummy. I have several in my family who do not like cashews, so I don't put them in. (I just buy them and eat them myself.) For the sweet, we put in raisins and Craisins. The Craisins add a bit of color, and they're well-priced at Costco. I don't want m&m's, because they're a bit pricey, and total sugar. I do like the sweet ingredient, though, so we also add chocolate covered raisins to ours. Finally, we add some sort of cracker-y thing. Pretzel sticks are great, or cheese nips. Whatever you like and find on sale. This month I splurged and bought goldfish to go in. That will drive the price up, but the kids thought I was a very cool mama. The trick to making it cheaper is to look at the per ounce price (so conveniently figured out for you at Costco. Use a calculator anywhere else.) If the per ounce price of the ingredient is lower than the per ounce price of pre-made trail mix, you're saving money. There are a lot of other ingredients you could add, if you liked. I've though of a few for future use: shredded coconut, gummy bears or Swedish fish, yogurt covered pretzels, sunflower seeds, toasted pumpkin seeds, skittles, cheese balls...the possibilities are vast. Good luck with yours. Once you get it made, the real trick is to keep it from disappearing too fast.

BLT Pasta Salad

This is a salad that always gets good comments at a picnic or barbecue. It's a little different than the norm, but it's easy to make. And it has bacon. It's hard to go wrong with bacon.

BLT Pasta Salad

2 cups uncooked macaroni
5 green onions, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
1-1/4 cups diced celery
1-1/4 cups mayonnaise
5 teaspoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled

Cook macaroni, drain and rinse in cold water until cooled. In a large bowl, combine the macaroni, green onions, tomato, and celery. In a small bowl, combine the mayo, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Pour dressing over macaroni mixture and stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Just before serving, stir in bacon.

New England Clam Chowder

This recipe is a family favorite. As always, the amounts here make a pot of soup big enough to feed a family of 7. Or a hungry family of 5. Possibly a starving family of 3...well, you get the picture. This soup really improves with age, so if you can make it the day before, refrigerate it overnight, and then reheat, it will be even better.

Clam Chowder

1 large onion, chopped
3 Tablespoons olive oil (or bacon grease, if you have it)
1/4 c cooked, crumbled bacon *
~1lb. frozen hash browns (or equal amount potatoes, 1/4" dice)
1/2 cup flour
3 cans clams, drained (reserve juice)
1 c. cream or half and half
3 cups milk
2-3 teaspoons salt

Saute bacon and onions in oil until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add potatoes and stir to coat. Cook about 2 minutes. Sprinkle flour over all and stir to incorporate. To reserved clam juice, add water to make 2 cups. Stir clam juice, cream, and milk into potatoes, stirring well. Add salt. Bring almost to a boil, stirring, until thickened. Reduce heat and cook until potatoes are done, about 15 minutes. Stir in clams, heat through, and remove from heat. Let sit about an hour, reheat, and serve. Alternately, you can refrigerate overnight and reheat and serve the next day.
(*If I have time, I will cut up and fry the bacon before cooking the soup, leaving the appropriate amount of grease and bacon in the pan to saute the onions.)

Homemade yogurt

We talked about homemade yogurt at the park the other day. Here is a link to a recipe for crock pot yogurt that sounds like the recipe I used to use (which I cannot find.)

Per our conversation...

Yesterday at Picnic at the Park, we were discussing cream soups, because it's case lot sale month and everyone wants to stock up. I mentioned I have greatly reduced my canned cream soup use by making my own mix of flour and milk. Here is a recipe I found in the fabulous compilation book, The Complete Tightwad Gazette, by Amy Daczyczn. (This specific recipe isn't one I have made, per se, although I have used the basic premise frequently. The book is highly recommended.)

Cream Soup Mix

2 c. dry milk
1-1/4 c. cornstarch OR 2-1/2 c. flour
1/4 c. chicken bouillon
2 Tbsp. dried onion flakes
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. thyme (opt.)
1 tsp. basil (opt.)

Mix all ingredients and store in airtight container. If using cornstarch mix, add 1/3 c. mix to 1-1/4 c. water. If using flour mix, add 1/2 c. mix to 1-1/4 c. water. This makes concentrated casserole consistency. For soup consistency, double the water.

If you have a lot of milk, like we do (yea, cow!) you can just put milk in the blender with the flour or cornstarch and use that.

Not only is this soup healthier (especially if you use raw milk for a base, and a good quality chicken bouillon), it is significantly cheaper.
Store brand soup - 69 cents for a 10 oz. can
Homemade soup mix- Recipe makes ten 12 oz. batches at 18 cents each.

You could also get dried mushrooms at the store, and if you wanted a cream of mushroom concentrate, I would just throw some dried mushrooms in a chopper and add to the dry ingredients, or add mushrooms to the other part of your recipe.

For comparison, here is the list of ingredients from a can of Western Family Cream of Mushroom condensed soup: Water, mushrooms, wheat flour, soybean oil, salt, cream, monosodium glutamate, whey powder, soy protein concentrate, modified corn starch, autolyzed yeast extract, disodium phosphate, maltodextrin, spice, garlic powder, natural flavors (contains milk), dried mushrooms, partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oils.

Waffles/Aebelskievers

This recipe is the same for both waffles and Aebleskievers. We have a tradition in our family of serving aebelskievers at General Conference time in the spring and the fall. I have a humongous family (okay, not so huge in number, but humongous in appetite), so feel free to reduce this recipe by as much as you need. Parenthetical numbers are for a half size batch.

Waffles

8 eggs, separated (4 eggs)
2 Tbsp. sugar (1 Tbsp.)
1 cup melted butter - or other oil of your choice (1/2 cup)
4 cups milk (2 cups)
5 1/3 cups flour (2 2/3 cups)
1 tsp. salt (1 tsp.)
2 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder (4 tsp.)

In a small bowl, whip egg whites and sugar until stiff. Sift together dry ingredients. In a LARGE bowl, beat together egg yolks and butter/oil. Alternatively mix in dry ingredients and milk (adjust milk if needed for the batter consistency you want.) Fold in egg whites. Bake in hot waffle iron or aebleskiever pan. Muy delish.

Our favorite breakfast

This is our favorite breakfast. The reasons are myriad. For the kids, it's the favorite because it tastes so good. For me, it's a favorite because it uses lots of eggs and milk, is very healthy, requires very little sugar (as opposed to conventional pancakes or waffles), and it tastes so good. I often replace about half the flour with whole wheat flour, which doesn't adversely affect the taste or fluffiness. I got this recipe from my friend, Candy Heaton. (The numbers in parentheses are for a larger batch, cooked in a 10x15 pan.)

German Pancake

6 eggs (8)
3 cups milk and cream, in whatever ratio you want (4 cups)
1-1/2 cups flour (2 cups)
1/3 cup sugar (I don't put any sugar in mine, but the original recipe calls for it. Your choice.)
1/2 teaspoon salt (1 teaspoon)
1/4 cup butter (I only use real butter. Coconut oil doesn't keep the pancake from sticking.)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Melt butter in a 9x13 pan in preheated oven. Mix all other ingredients in blender (or with a mixer on highest speed.) Pour into buttered pan and bake (lower oven) for 17 minutes, until set in the middle and puffy around the edges. Serve warm with fresh fruit, jam, syrup, or powdered sugar.

And so it begins...

Meg asked me for my granola recipe,and I think this will be the easiest way to share recipes. I make no promises as to frequency of postings, only to deliciousness of food. And that's pretty relative, so take it for what it's worth. We love this granola. So much healthier than store-bought breakfast cereals, and a good way to use food storage grains to keep them rotated.

Best Granola (7 Wives Inn recipe)

8 cups rolled oats
3 cups rolled barley
3 cups rolled wheat
3 cups 9 grain mix (chipped grain - not rolled)
2 c flaked coconut
1/2 c sunflower seeds
1 cup sliced almonds
1-1/2 cup succanat

Mix above ingredients in a giant bowl. In a suacepan, heat until bubbly:

1 cup water
1 cup coconut oil
1 cup honey
1 cup peanut butter
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Pour hot mixture over dry ingredients and mix well. Spread over 4 cookie sheets. Bake in 225 degree oven for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. When cool, add:

2 cups raisins

Store in airtight container.