Yummy!

We've been picking strawberries from our garden for about a month, now.

Here's how we get rid of them...Yummy!

I hull the strawberries, slice them and add sugar to them. I use about 1-2 tablespoons of sugar. I cover and let them sit for a while in the fridge. This give the sugar time to melt and some of the strawberry juices to come out.

I make a 'Lazy Daisy Sponge Cake' recipe from an old Pillsbury Family Cookbook from 1963.

Lazy Daisy Sponge Cake

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup milk, scalded
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, well beaten
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Grease a 9-inch layer pan. I used an 8" x 8" square glass dish so I can split the cake, if I want.
After milk is scalded, remove from heat and add the butter to it until the butter melts.
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in one bowl.
Put eggs, sugar and vanilla in another bowl and beat until lemon colored.
At low speed, add dry ingredients.
Then mix in the milk and butter mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees F until a silver knife comes out clean. This will be about 30 minutes. Cool a bit and make your strawberry shortcake!

It takes me about 15 minutes to put together the cake and 20-30 minutes to bake it. The taste and texture is so much better than the rubbery little dessert cups you get at the store.

We ate 2 of these cakes one right after the other. I cut them into 9-pieces each. We had 18 shortcakes!

This is one of my favorite desserts ever! I also use blackberries on this cake and peaches, too! Use your imagination and enjoy this simple cake. You won't be sorry!

Sorry...

I've been under the weather a bit, so I haven't posted for a long while. All is well, though.

Here's one of my favorite things to do with leftover spaghetti. Yes! A spaghetti pie! Yes, we couldn't wait.

This is one easy thing to make. I don't remember where I got the recipe. I think it was word-of-mouth from an Italian friend.

Put in enough spaghetti in a bowl to fill an 8" or 9" pie plate. I fill the pie plate beforehand to make sure I have enough. Then I put it into a bowl. Then, lightly spray or grease the pie plate.

Scramble one egg and add to bowl. Stir egg into spaghetti really well. You can salt and pepper if you like. I usually don't because the toppings are flavorful enough.

Put eggy spaghetti into the pie plate.

Top with leftover, meats and veggies, then cheese. You may use the sauce, if you like. I left off the sauce on this one. I used a liberal amount of pepperoni in this one. It turned out really good.

Put into the oven at 350 degrees F until a knife comes out of the center clean. I use a glass dish because I can look underneath to see that all is cooked.

Serve with more sauce and cheese.

Easy!

Royal Breakfast fit for a King and Queen

Have you ever wondered what the royalty eats for breakfast? Well, the King and Queen of our household have this.

On the left, fruit bowl. On the silver (plated) platter, bacon, sausage, toasted Easter bread and homemade crumpets. On the right, homemade strawberry jelly and butter.

Of course, the Princesses have their treats, too! (In the blue bowl.)

Best wishes for a very happy life together, Prince William and Princess Catherine!!!

Cooking for Freezing

It's been a while since I've posted here. The reason is that I've had a short stay in the hospital and I couldn't get up and about very well until lately. What I'd like to tell you about is a real life saver for the family. Since I knew I would be out of commission for a few days, I prepared freezable meals that could be heated up by anyone in the family. Actually, it's just me and my wonderful hubby. He benefited from the preparation because he had to prepare the meals until I could stand on my own.

First, I prepared two rice dishes - peppered rice and Spanish rice. I divvied them out into quart bags and that gave me one serving for the day I made it and two servings to go into the freezer. This was for both of them which ended being 4 quart bags of sides. Rice freezes really well as a prepared dish or plain cooked rice.

I made a large amount of macaroni and cheese. We had one dish for dinner and I divvied the rest into glass loaf pans and put them into the freezer. This gave us three loaves of mac and cheese to reheat.

Then I made chili. One quart and one pint went into the freezer.

Next was chicken and dumplings. I made the first night's dinner with dumplings and the frozen portions were frozen without dumplings. I had one quart left to put into the freezer after the dinner. I taught my hubby to make cheater dumplings using store-bought biscuits in a tube, when it came time to eat.

I also made small meat loaves that cooked in about an hour. Hubby likes meatloaf for dinner and cold on sandwiches. This made it easy for him to prepare his lunch for work, too.

I made pizza shells with a quick dough recipe. I keep all of the fixin's on hand so hubby can make a pizza all by himself.

I made dozens of cookies that we could set out if company came to visit. Oh well, we didn't have too much company. The cookies were good!

In the freezer, I also had a steak, some hot dogs and hamburgers, kielbasa and a few other things that could be fried on the stove quickly.

This was enough food for us for about 3 weeks of eating. My WONDERFUL hubby was able to come home from work and throw something in the oven or the microwave for us for dinner.

Preparing food ahead is a really good idea even when you're not expecting to be laid up for a while. Frozen food comes in handy when you've had a busy day and don't feel like cooking. Throw a few things in the oven or microwave and you'll have really good meals without buying expensive TV dinners.

I hope you enjoyed this post.

Aw, Nuts!

Yep! Nut Rolls!!!
Yep! Takes a while to make them.
Yep! Worth every bite!

Sorry I only have pics of them in the raw stage. I'll post the finished pic and recipe when I make the next batch.

This is one of the family favorites for holidays in our house. I am of Croatian descent and my Mom always baked these for holidays. If she was in a really REALLY good humor, then we'd get them some time during the year. Actually, the 'good humor' was if she wanted some. So, we all benefited from her wants. My Aunt, of Blessed Memory, made the poppy seed rolls and some nut rolls. Sometimes, whoever made the best ones, swapped out with the other. It was interesting to see how different each person made theirs.

Here's a pic of the rolling process. Dough is rolled thin. Nut mixture is applied to 2/3 of the dough. For extra flavor, small wads of butter are placed here and there over the filling. Then, the roll begins. Ends are tucked in and under so nothing leaks.

This is my favorite dough recipe. I'll post this later, too. It is really weird to do, but it turns out great.

I hope all of you had a great holiday season. I wish you many blessings during the new year.

Take care.

Comforts of Home!

Mmmmmm! I know this isn't the most gorgeous picture, but it is a very comforting picture. Just think...these are warm out of the oven! Homemade! I sat down with a cup of steaming hot joe, these biscuits and a jar of lemon curd. How much more comforting can you get?! Here's my recipe.




Scratch Biscuits
2 cups all purpose flour
6 tablespoons of shortening, butter or margarine
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt

Cut all of the shortening into the dry ingredients until nice and crumbly.

Then, add...
1 cup of milk or buttermilk (I add 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup of either sour cream or plain yogurt)

Stir this all together until the ingredients are nice and wet.
Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead about 6 times. This will make a few flaky layers.
Pat into about a 1/2 inch slab.
Cut with a biscuit cutter or a floured drinking glass.
Place on an ungreased baking pan.
If you have dough left over, gather it, fold it once or twice and pat into another 1/2 inch slab.
Cut more biscuits.
When you don't have enough left over to cut, make a hand-styled biscuit (see top left biscuit).
Bake at 400 degrees until nicely browned.

Japanese Meatloaf

I tried a WONDERFUL meatloaf recipe from the blog I follow called Japanese Cooking Lovers. It is listed on the right of this blog. You MUST try this! This is a pic of my Hubby's lunch today. I made smaller meatloaves so they'd fit nicely into a container with other stuff. Green beans to the top left; meatloaf to the top right; baked potato on the bottom.

I can't tell you how yummy this was. It cooked up in a matter of minutes. It was SO juicy and had SO much flavor that I didn't even use the sauce given in the recipe. The best part is it cooks in a frying pan so you don't have to wait for hours to eat it.

There was a tip on the site to make the meatloaf very tender. It was a little hard to figure, but I asked Yuri about it. When you put all of the meat ingredients together, whip the meat until your arms get tired. Then whip it some more. And then whip it some more. This breaks down the fibers in the meat and incorporates all of the ingredients well. The meat should be creamy and loose when you are done.

Please check out the Japanese Cooking Lovers blog! You will not be sorry!

Happy cooking!