Mary's Recipes Week Two

 Welcome back to Mary's Recipes.  I'm including a picture of the great lady herself with each post.  Isn't she a sweetie?  

I'm posting five recipes a week. That should keep you busy! 

 

 

This Week I Liked...

From the whirl of Social Media, here are a few things I marked as "liked" this week.



Patterns

https://justahappyhooker.blogspot.com/2018/09/blanket-joy.html    From 50 Shades of Four Ply, a vibrantly colored afghan.  I really liked the combination of small squares and large.

From the Patchwork Heart, a nice color combination.

Food


https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/hersheys-and-reeses-whipped-cream-toppings-are-here/?trkid=soc-toh-facebook

Agh, I meant to put these on the grocery list and look for them.  I'm not sure about the Peanut Butter one, but the chocolate, nice!

When I have a Chef, I'll ask for these by Smitten Kitchen in the mornings.

Television

From IO9,  before season one has even aired,  Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is getting a season two.

The 1918 Fannie Farmer Cookbook from Bartleby

Since Cooking Season has begun, you'll want to Bookmark the 1918 Boston Cooking School Cookbook, otherwise known as the Fannie Farmer Cookbook from Bartleby.com.

The entire book with 1,849 recipes is available, just select your menu items.

Here's a nice tomato soup to get you started.

Tomato Soup with Stock

1 quart Brown Soup Stock	1/3 cup flour
1 can tomatoes	Onion	1/4 cup each cut in dice
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns	Carrot
1 small bay leaf	Celery
3 cloves	Raw ham
3 sprigs thyme	Salt
4 tablespoons butter	Pepper

Cook onion, carrot, celery, and ham in butter five minutes, add flour, peppercorns, bay leaf, cloves, and thyme, and cook three minutes; then add tomatoes, cover, and cook slowly one hour. When cooked in oven it requires less watching. Rub through a strainer, add hot stock, and season with salt and pepper.

Savory Sweet Life's Thanksgiving Stuffing

I'm the only one in the house that likes stuffing with their Thanksgiving meal, but I truly love it.   I usually just buy packaged breadcrumbs and use the recipe on the label.

Sometimes, a recipe comes along that looks simple but tastier.  This one looks easy to do, simple enough to halve the recipe, and I'll be all happy on T Day.

http://savorysweetlife.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-stuffing-recipe/

Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe

Author: Savory Sweet Life

Recipe type: Side Dish

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  40 mins

Total time:  50 mins

Serves: 8

 

Traditional Thanksgiving Stuffing Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons butter or non-dairy margarine to keep it dairy-free
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, cut crosswise in ¼" slices
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground sage
• 1 teaspoon dry thyme
• 10 cups dried unseasoned bread cubes (found in the bread section at the grocery store)
• 1½ cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 1 egg
• Optional garnish: ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter in a large pan. Saute onions, celery, salt, sage, and thyme for 5 minutes on medium heat. Turn off heat. Add bread cubes and gently stir them into the onion mixture. Slowly pour chicken broth over the bread cubes folding everything carefully so the bread cubes do not break apart too much. In a small bowl, gently whisk the egg and add it to the stuffing mix. Continue to fold everything until the egg is incorporated. Scoop uncooked stuffing into a medium casserole dish and bake uncovered for 40 minutes or until nice and toasty on top.

Tasty Tradgedies: Betty Crocker's Classic Cheese Souffle

One of the fun things about trying to post every day is that I am inspired to try some new recipes.  They're always good fodder for posts.

I filled a gap in this week's dinner menu with something new for us:  Betty Crocker's Cheese Souffle.
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/classic-cheese-souffle/f3d6f31c-cbac-4df2-b35b-228be9c62d32

The recipe seemed simple enough.  I had problems, though.

The egg white never got stiff peaks, though I beat them (beated?) mercilessly.  They just kind of were all smooth and mellow.

The egg yolks when beaten were to be "very thick and lemon colored".   I didn't see anything like that either.  Pancake batter consistency was sort of the way it looked, and not lemon yellow.

The "dividing with two forks" thing didn't work out either.  I honestly don't know why they'd think forks were a useful cutting tool.

The souffle didn't rise much, which I expected because of the eggs and their lack of enthusiasm for the project.

For the finisher, it tasted sort of blah, like a scrambled egg with no flavor.  A lot of work for not so much, is my opinion. 

Here is how it should look (but as mom would say, it will still "taste like your foot's asleep")

The tragic souffle reality.

Snickerdoodle Poppers

From a Facebook feed (it's just a little newsreel, isn't it?) here is a doable looking recipe for Snickerdoodle Poppers.  It uses Pillsbury biscuits as a base.  I think if I like them I'd like a recipe for a different creamy center than the vanilla pudding mix.   Anything Snickerdoodle reminds me of my son of sons so they always catch my eye.  I also used to make homemade doughnuts long ago and wonder if this recipe might lead me back to those lovely warm delights.

Baking Day

Although I promised myself not to make any New Year's Resolutions for this year, I have snuck in some things I'd like to do more of or do better. Not Resolutions, just toying with my interests.

One of these things is baking more and learning to be a good cook. I'm enjoying dreaming away cookbooks in hand. Some of them such as the older Betty Crocker Cookbook and an old Farm Journal Cookbook are a pleasure to read as well as cook from. I am also smitten by Cook's Magazine and the wonderful essays that accompany each recipe.

For today, I'm making Slow Cooker Chicken Chow Mien from my newest version of Betty. I love chow mien, but no longer enjoy the La Choy or other canned versions and thought I'd like to make my own.

What a brave new world of cooking and having to cut up chicken. I've seen my mother in law do it slick as anything.

I was supposed to use skinless boneless chicken thighs but they didn't have those, so I thought hmm, I'll just peel off the skin and remove the bone. Yoikes! It is revealed to me that I am a "supermarket carnivore". I can cook any meats that I can just cook without handling cold slippery meat and trying to de-bone it. The skin sure did not "just peel off" as I imagined.

As I worked, making faces, shuddering with revulsion and muttering "Mother of God", I came to the conclusion this process probably isn't for me.

However, once the little pieces were frying away in the pan, smelling lovely and looking tasty, I revised my thinking and thought if I like how this tastes I might be able to do the snipping part if I can truly find the skinless boneless stuff.

Also on the menu is chocolate chip cookies, just the classic Nestle's Tollhouse recipe. I got really spoiled over the holidays having baked goods at hand, and now a mere candy bar doesn't quite cut the mustard when I want chocolate or something sweet.

Lastly, since I did not make good on my hope to become a good bread baker last year, I'm diving in this year and am trying another Betty recipe for Four Grain Batter Bread.