Recipes...Homemaking Hints...To all you ladies...

Ladies, as I am getting closer and closer to our coming wedding, I am realizing more and more how I need as much information, helpful hints, recipes, ideas that I can get to add to even all the many things that Mama, Granny, and some of the many ladies that have influenced my life have shared.

So, I would love to hear from you!!!! Young ladies, too, if there is something that your mother/grandmothers have passed on to you, I would love to hear from you! I may even share some of your ideas, recipes, hints, etc. on here!

To start, here is a recipe that a lady in our church shared with our family

and Mama also post on here blog:

Onion Casserole


4 medium onions, sliced (size of lemon)
2 T margarine
12 saltine crackers, crushed
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 eggs
1/2 evaporated milk
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 c grated cheddar cheese

Saute onions in margarine. Line 8" square buttered dish with crackers. Mix onions and soup; pour over crackers. Beat eggs with milk, salt and pepper; pour over mixture; sprinkle with cheese. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

It Blue Berry Season!!!!

Well, it's blueberry time at our house (today and yesterday we picked around 35 quarts to sell), and praise the Lord!

Just wanted to share a favorite recipe of our family, again--from our house to yours!

Blueberry Crunch

1 can crushed pineapple

3 cups blueberries

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup sugar (yes, that is a lot of sugar ;)

1 stick margaring, melted

1 box yellow cake mix

1 cup chopped pecans

Grease 8 1/2 x 11 in. pan. Add undrained pineapple. Add blueberries. Add 3/4 cup sugar. Add dry cake mix. Add melted margarine and pecans with 1/4 cup sugar. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Take spoon and punch down to crunch in several places. Cook about 20 more minutes or until golden brown. ~ Enjoy

A Recipe...Chocolate Caramel Cake

Hey, everyone, just thought that I would share this recipe with ya'll! This is a chocolate caramel cake that one of my cousins shared with us! It is so rich and let's just say really fattening! Hope ya'll enjoy! I made it for our Country Fall Festival tomorrow! Please pray that we have a great service! Also, please keep our family in your prayers! We have the cold stuff going around in our house! Three of us have gotten it and three of us haven't! Please pray that Mama, Bethany, and I don't get it, and pray that the others get well soon! Enjoy the recipe!!

Chocolate Caramel Cake

1 box chocolate cake mix (bake as directed in a 9x13 pan, I used a devil's food chocolate cake mix)

2 cans of sweetened condensed milk (I found that one is more than enough)

Ice cream caramel topping

1 8 oz. coolwhip (we didn't use light...figured that hey...why save calories with all that sweetened condensed milk? ;-D)

1. First bake the cake and let cool completely...

2. I started punching holes in the cake with the opposite side of the knife, but then I went flipped the knife around to the sharp side...hahaha...either way it worked!

3. Now for the fattening part...if you are on a diet to gain weight this is a great cake to add to that diet! Now add the two cans of milk...they will soak through the cake...(that's what the wholes are for)

4. Now add the caramel...it will do the same...soak through that is...and possibly add a couple of pounds...hahaha...

5. The finale! The icing...just plain ol' coolwhip! Don't forget to lick the spoon!

Make sure you refrigerate! Then, ENJOY!!!!

Southern Yeast Biscuit Dough...

Ok...All of ya'll probably saw the yeast roll recipe that I posted last week...at least I think that it was last week! Anyway, I have been trying a couple of new recipes in the same cookbook...A Treasury Southern Baking by Prudence Hilburn. One of the recipes was for a yeast biscuit dough. I was so excited to find it so easy to make biscuits and cinnamon rolls out of the same dough! And the dough keeps all week in the refrigerator! Here is the recipe for the dough:

Southern Yeast Biscuit Dough

1/4 cup warm water

2 tbsp. sugar

2 packages (1/4 oz. each) active dry yeast

5 cups self-rising flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup shortening

2 cups buttermilk

Combine the water and sugar in a small bowl. Stir in the yeast. Set aside until the mixture becomes bubbly.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and baking soda. Stir too mix. Cut in shortening using a pastry blender, a fork, or your fingers (I used my fingers) until mixture resembles cornmeal. Add the yeast mixture and buttermilk. Stir with a large wooden spoon until well mixed. This will not be a smooth dough (to me it looked like sticky cottage cheese...haha...maybe not as knotty) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough until needed; it will keep about 1 week.

Now for the biscuits:

Yields about 6 biscuits (depending on the size cutter you use)

1 1/2 cups of dough

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Grease a baking sheet.

On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough gently 2 or 3 times. Pat or roll to about a 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with a 2 inch biscuit cutter (I used a smaller cutter). Place on baking sheet, spacing the biscuits about 1 inch apart. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, until lightly browned.

Now for the cinnamon rolls:

3 cups of yeast dough

4 tbsp. butter or margarine, melted

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 cup raisins (I didn't add raisins)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch cake pan.

Gently knead the dough 2 or 3 times on a lightly floured surface. Work as little flour into the dough as possible. Roll to an 8x18 inch rectangle. Brush with the melted butter.

In a small bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon, and raisins. Mix well. Sprinkle over the dough. Roll jelly-roll fashion, starting with the 18 inch side. Cut into about 16 slices. Place in the prepared pan. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until light brown. Turn out of the pan on to a rack and then turn upright onto serving dish.

Glaze:

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 to 1 1/2 tbsp. milk

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

For the glaze, combine the sugar, milk, and vanilla in a small bowl. Beat until smooth. (I had to add a little bit more milk) Drizzle over rolls. Best if served slightly warm!

Taken from A Treasury of Southern Baking by Prudence Hilburn

Enjoy!!!!

Homemaking Tip and a recipe!

Okay, everyone, earlier this week I told ya'll about some enchilada sauce that we bought at Walmart that just was not good even though it was cheap, but now I am going to recommend something that is delicious and cheap! It is Del Monte green pepper and mushroom spaghetti sauce! At our Walmart, it is only $.97, and it is a quick easy meal!

Now for Semi-homemade with Jennifer Lee

For a delicious, simple, fast meal

What you need:

One box of penne pasta (or pasta of your choice)

1 2 cup bag of mozzarella shredded cheese

1 can of Del Monte Sauce

1 cup of parmessan shredded cheese

What to do:

Cook your pasta as you normally would. (for those of you who don't know how to do that--you bring water to a boil, salt the water, and add pasta) ;-) Now, when pasta is cooked, drain, and add Del Monte sauce and Parmesan cheese. Stir. Then, add to a casserole dish (I sprayed the bottom of mine with Pam). Bake a 350 for about 20 minutes or until sauce begins to bubble. If you like your cheese a little browner, you can broil, but be sure to watch carefully! Then, Enjoy!

New Recipe--Chicken Lasagna

A couple of weeks ago, my Aunt Amy's parents went to the Amish country and bought her a cookbook. Well, she passed on this recipe to us from that cookbook! It was so good! Sorry I have no picture of it, but it did not take long for it to get gone!

Chicken Lasagna

8 oz. lasagna noodles, cooked and divided

1 1/2 c. cottage cheese (ok I'm not a big fan of cottage cheese, it is gross to me, but you couldn't taste it in this!)

2 c. shredded cheddar cheese, divided

1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese

3 c. cooked and cubed chicken breast ( I just kind of shredded it, but if you want to be precise this is what the recipe said!)

1 pkg. fresh mushrooms (I used a small can)

1/2 c. chopped onions

1/2 c. of butter (I didn't use a whole 1/2 cup of butter either, maybe I am not so good at following directions;-)

2 cans cream of chicken soup

2/3 c. milk

1 tsp. parsley flakes

2 tsp. seasoning salt

Saute mushrooms and onions in butter. Add soup, milk, parsley flakes and seasoning salt. Stir in chicken. Layer in 9x13 pan: Layer 1- half of chicken mixture; Layer 2-half of cooked noodles; layer 3: cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese and 1 cup of cheddar cheese; Layer 4- remaining cooked noodles; layer 5- remaining chicken mixture; layer 6- 1 cup shredded cheese. Bake at 325 for 1 hour. Serves 10 people! Enjoy!

Honey Bun Cake

I know that many of ya'll have visited Courtney's Blog you have seen the Honey Bun Cake! Well, Let me just say it was delicious! We tried it tonight for a after supper snack! Next time, I'll have to make me some coffee to go with it!

For those of you who haven't visited Courtney's blog, here is the recipe below. I believe she found it at cooks.com!

1 box yellow cake mix
4 eggs
3/4 C. cooking oil
2/3 C. water
1 C. sour cream (I left this out like Courtney did an mine turned out great, too! )
1 C. brown sugar
3 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix cake mix, eggs, oil, water and sour cream. In separate bowl mix brown sugar and cinnamon. Pour half of batter in lightly greased 9x13 glass baking dish. Sprinkle half of sugar mixture over batter and swirl it in. Pour remaining batter in pan and sprinkle rest of sugar mixture in and swirl it in. Bake for 35-40 minutes

GLAZE
4 TBS milk
2 C. confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Combine together and pour over hot cake.

Chicken and Mushroom Casserole

Yet another recipe from the Mennonite Gals Blog! We tried this one last night! It was delicious! (Although Rebekah found out later that she was allergic to celery! She thought that it was delicious at the time though! Don't worry it didn't hurt her, just turned her face a little red!)

1 package wide egg noodles
1 - 2 cups cut up chicken
1 - 2 Tbsp butter
1-2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 onion coarsely chopped
1 large rib celery, coarsely chopped
1 fresh tomato seeded and chopped (We didn't use the tomato)

1 can cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1/2 can cream of celery soup, undiluted (use all of it if needed)
1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 can French Fried Onions

Cook the noodles in salted boiling water until tender.

In frying pan, melt butter, (I often add a bit of oil to keep the butter from browning too much) saute' mushrooms, onions and celery until mushrooms are browned.

Mix soups and mayonnaise together in a bowl.

In shallow buttered casserole dish, layer noodles, mushroom mixture, chicken and sauce.

Mix gently with a spatula.

Sprinkle with french fried onions.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until heated through. ~Enjoy