Lefse

Lefse..what is that you say?  It is a norwegian potato bread...kind of like a tortilla.  My great grandfather was from Norway and his wife was from Sweden.  My great grandmother would make lefse and lutefisk.  At least this is what I have been told, I didn't know them.  I have googled lutefisk recipes and would rather starve then eat that, and truth is I am not a  big fan of lefse either.  The Chief likes it so we made a batch today.  The little girls weren't a fan either!   

You can see that is does resemble a tortilla.  it is much thinner and more delicate. 
To make it you need:

10 large potatoes
Peel, quarter and boil til done.  Drain and mash really well..no lumps.  I use my mixer to do this.  Add 1 cube of butter, not margarine, and 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream.  Beat well and put in the fridge to cool.

Once the potatoes are cold, take about half and mix with a small amount of flour.  I have no real measurements..it goes by feel.  You want just enough flour to hold the potatoes together when you roll them.  I took a golf ball sized ball and gave it a trial roll and didn't have enough flour.  Just add more till you can roll them out and they hold together, and make sure your table is well floured. 

Use a golf ball size wad and flour both sides from your table...then begin to roll out...

Once it is rolled out I use a metal spatula and slide it underneath to loosen it from the table and to pick it up and put in onto my hand then I flop it onto the hot griddle. 

Do not grease your griddle, and make sure it is hot.  Not too hot that it burns the lefse!  This lefse looks a little thick...you want them very very thin.  Once done on this side you flip it..they should look like a tortilla...

This is how it should look, You can see the burnt flour on the pan, every so often take a piece of waxed paper and rub it around your pan and scoop off the flour...

Once you have some cooked put them onto a clean towel lined plate and cover with the other end of the towel to keep warm. 

Just keep stacking them up as you get them cooked.  Store them in a zip lock back once they are cooled.  Warm them in the microwave. 
So how do you eat them?  Take one and butter it and roll it up and eat.  You can also put jam on it.  I don't mind them with jam. 
We never ate them with a meal, more like a snack. 
And of course you can eat them with lutefisk!  Google it. 
Enjoy!

Biscuits

I love to try new recipes..sometimes they are most delicious and sometimes they are not.  This one is definately most delicious.  Let me start from the beginning.  On Christmas day Kasey and I went downstairs with a big pot to get some potatoes.  This is where our wires got crossed.  I filled the pot with potatoes with the intention that a little over half would go into the crock and the rest would be used for dinner.  He peeled the whole pot and put them on to cook!  Needless to say we have a ton of mashed potatoes!  I was looking through one of my old cookbooks and came across a recipe for Potato Biscuits. 

Isn't this a great looking cookbook?  It goes right along with my collection and I love it.  It is written by Ethel Rayson Dixon from Louisiana. 
Here is the recipe:

Potato Biscuits
1 cup flour
3 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp bacon drippings
1 cup mashed potatoes
1/2 cup milk
Sift dry ingredients, then add potatoes and bacon drippings.  Add enough milk to make a soft dough.  Roll out on a floured board 1/2 inch thick.  Cut with floured cutter.  Place biscuits in greased pan.  bake 400 for 12-15 minutes. 

After typing this recipe and reading what you are supposed to do..here is how I did it!  I didn't sift the dry ingredients...I stirred them together.  I dumped the whole 1/2 cup milk in and stirred it in, then dumped it onto my table that I had floured.  Kneaded it and patted it out and cut it with a biscuit cutter.  I put them on a cookie sheet, ungreased and baked for 15 minutes. 
I am not too good at pre-reading the recipe for the how-to! 
These are excellent biscuits..real tender and flakey.  They have a hint of bacon flavor to them and are good with butter, honey butter and as the Chief likes it...with homemade raspberry jam!  Enjoy.

Thanksgiving

What kind of a blogger would I be if I didn't blog about Thanksgiving!  I love all the cooking and smells and family and friends that go along with Thanksgiving.  When I was growing up it was just my brother, the Grinch, and I.  Nothing special, no real traditions.  Sometimes we would go to Pootsies moms.  Then I got married and the traditions began.  It was about family, a huge family.   A family who loved one another and were nice to one another.  A family who cooked and laughed and cleaned up together.  Kids and babies and cousins and a mom and dad who made it all happen and gathered everyone in. That is where I learned to make and love stuffing.  I watched and stirred and tasted as Fayetta got it all together.  I wrote it down and have been making it ever since..that is my favorite part of Thanksgiving. 

This is the stuffing...my favorite.  Here is the recipe, and like so many of my recipes there are no real measurements. 
Fry onion and celery in 2 cubes butter. 
2 packages of stuffing
1 can milk
3 eggs
sage, garlic, salt and pepper
Boil giblets in water til done, chop and add to to dressing with enough of the cooking liquid to make moist.
I put it all in my big silver bowl and start mixing with a wooden spoon and end up using my hands. Put it in a cake pan and bake.  350 til done.  I really have no idea how long..I would guess a half an hour or so. 

Another tradition we do is the ice drink.  This is our Thanksgiving and Christmas drink.  Every year for 29 years so far. 
In a big silver bowl combine 1 can apple juice and 1 can grape juice made according to the directions.  Freeze.
When it is time to serve pour 7-Up in and use a knife to chop up and make slushy. 
Thats it, very easy and pretty good!

Something that will be tradition is a Sweet Potato Casserole.  My mother (not to be confused with the grinch) brought it to dinner last year and the girls and I loved it! 

 This is truely most delicious!
Sweet Potato Casserole
3 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1cup sugar
1/2 stick butter
2 egg
dash of salt
1/3 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
Mix together and put in 9x13 pan
Topping
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
Mix til crumbly and sprinkle on top
Bake 350 for 40-45 minutes

I'd love to know what you do with your leftover turkey, besides sandwiches! 
I usually make a soup, or pot pie. 
Happy Thanksgiving friends!

Cooking with Granny

I have fond memories of my Granny.  She was a pie maker and I loved her cherry pie and her chocolate pie. 
Today I got to have Peyton for the afternoon and he was my helper while I made chicken noodle soup.  The apron Peyton has on is one I made for his dad when he was a litle boy. 

He dug in with both hands! 

I gave him a bowl with flour in it...I wasn't up to adding any liquid to his bowl!

I rolled out my noodle dough and he rolled out his flour...

I rolled out my dough very thin, then rolled it up jelly roll style and sliced it very thin.  Gramma Johnson said that was the key..rolled thin and sliced thin.  Peyton unrolled the slices and put them in the pan with some flour.

He carefully helped put the noodles into the bubbling broth and was a great stirrer. 
I had a great time making soup with my sweet grandson this afternoon.  I can't wait til Oliver and Alivia are old enough to cook with Granny! 
This post isn't about a recipe really, it is about making memories. 
I want my grandkids to have the same fond memories with me that I have of my Granny.  I loved  to be at her house...I remember the green carpet in the living room, the smell of stinky sourkraut fermenting in the bedroom off the kitchen, the pink phone on the kitchen wall.  I remember sleeping with her and putting my legs next to hers to get warm.  I remember counting waterfalls along the highways with her.  She had a collapsable cup in her purse that I thought was so cool.  My Granny liked to  hum.  She was a kind loving person.  She had a great laugh.    I remember the way she made the bed, she would get it all made and then turn down each side.  She was a good cook.  In the kitchen were these big drawers, one for sugar, one for flour and one for bread.  She would have me get the old dry bread out of the drawer and break it up into the bowl.  She would add milk, eggs, vanilla and sugar and let me stir.  Soon after we would have bread pudding.  I remember her baking pies.  I remember sitting with her while she snapped beans.  I remember her laugheing at the things me, Kelly and Dawn would do.  She called me 'Doll'.  I remember when she got sick, how frail she became.  I remember the day she died, I think part of me died that day too.  I remember her funeral, the cemetery and the emptiness in my heart. 
How I love my Granny.   I want to be like my Granny.

Honey Butter

Oh my gosh...you will think you have died and gone to honey heaven!  This is so  most freakin' delicious!  It is fabulous on fry bread and corn bread and would be good  on toast too!  It certainly is most delicous right off the spoon or your finger!  Enjoy!

Honey Butter
1 cup honey
1 cup softened butter
1 tsp vanilla powder
Beat with mixer on high til thick. 
I used a hand mixer. 

I got this recipe from the Allison's Pantry website.  I also get my vailla powder from them too. 
www.alisonspantry.com
If you live in the Riverton area Billie Kellog is the rep and you can order from her.  Message me on facebook and I will get you her number.  I'd post it here but I am to lazy to get up and find it!  She is also on facebook! 

Cookbooks

I love cookbooks.  I read a cookbook like people read novels.  I have a good collection of them and some are just plain useless and others I can't live without.  One that I can think of that is useless is one by Martha Stewart titled Martha Stewart's Dinner At Home.  Here is one meal from her summer menu collection:  Broiled Black-Pepper Tofu, Soy-Lemon Dipping Sauce, Soba Noodle Salad and Baked Apricots with Almond topping for dessert!  Yum...NOT!  The only use for this book is as a wedding gift for someone I don't like!  Yeah..I would do that. 
One of my favorite cookbooks is called Country Fair Cookbook.  I looked it up on amazon.com and you can purchase it there.  I highly reccomend it.  I have never been disapointed in any recipe I have tried from this book.  Tonight I baked mini cupcakes for Marlyee to take to her class tomorrow for her birthday.  I used a chocolate cake recipe that I had written ''good, real moist" in the margins.  Indeed it is most delicious!  I was too lazy to take pictures but I will share the recipe. 

Moist Chocolate Cake Supreme
2 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups warm water
2 1/4 cup flour
Combine sugar, cocoa, salt and oil in bowl; beat until well blended.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in vanilla.
Combine baking soda and water.  Add flour to cocoa mixture alternately with soda mixture, beating well after each addition.  Pour batter into greased and floured 9 x 13 pan .  Bake in  350 oven 45 minutes or until cake tests done.  Cool in pan on rack 15 minutes.  Remove from pan; cool on rack.  Frost with Chocolate Satin Frosting.  Makes 16 servings. 
**I have never removed it from the pan!***
Chocolate Satin Frosting
Combine 3 tbsp butter or regular margarine and 1/3 cup milk in 2 qt saucepan.  heat until butter melts.  remove from heat.  Sift together 3 cups sifted confectioners sugar and 1/2 cup cocoa.  Stir into hot mixture; beat until smooth.  Beat in 1 tsp vanilla.  Spread quickely on cooled cake. 

Rolo Cookies

A month or so ago a new family moved into our ward, and was assigned our family to home teach and visit teach.  They came over to introduce themselves and brought us a plate of most delicious cookies.  I had to have the recipe!  I have made it twice.  They are oh so most delicous! 

Rolo Cookies from Julia Shumway
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1/4 cup water
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 bag rolos

In heavy saucepan combine brown sugar, butter and water, cook and stir til butter is melted and mixture is smooth.  Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate chips, stir til they are melted.
Transfer to mixing bowl and let stand 10 minutes. 
Mixing on high add eggs 1 at at time beating well after each. Combine dry ingredients and add to chocolate mixture beating til well blended. 
Refrigerate 1-3 hours. 

Take a tbsp of dough and roll it into a ball, flatten in the palm of your hand and wrap it around a rolo to cover completely.  Roll in hands to form a ball.  Place on lightly greased cookie sheet  and bake at 350 for 7-10 minutes or until slightly puffed and cracked. 

Lasagna and Enchiladas!!

This is another recipe that I have made for years and have never had a recipe for.  It is always most delicious!  Start with browing your hamburger, add some diced up onions if your family likes them.  When my kids were home they didn't like onions so I would cut them either really big so they were easeir to pick out or really small so they blended in.  Accomodating of me don't you think!  While your burger is browning boil your noodles to.  To figure out how many noodles you need line your pan with a couple layers of uncooked noodles so then you have the correct amount. 

Begin layering.  I always put a scoop of sauce on the bottom of my pan, then a layer of noodles, several scoops of the sauce...

a couple big spoons of cottage cheese.  Smear it around to cover the layer of sauce....

Then a layer of cheese.  I used a good handful and sprinkle it around.  Continue layering til your pan if full.  Bake 350 til hot and bubbly. 

My recipe for the sauce is just this:
brown your hamburger, drain grease. 
Add 2 cans of tomato sauce and a can of tomato paste
Season with a good palmful of Italian seasoning and Oregano.  You don't have to use both.  Salt and pepper. 
Taste, if it needs more of something I add it. 
My secret ingredient in all my tomato based dishes is a palmful of sugar.  It cuts the acidity of the tomato sauce. 

One for my family and one for my mother!


For the enchiladas, I use the recipe in the Pioneer Woman cookbook.  It is a multiple step recipe but very most delicous!  Here goes!!

You need to heat some oil and lightly fry your corn tortillas to make them plyable.  I put them in the hot oil covering both sides and take them right out and put them on a paper towel lined plate to drain..

Here they are all limp and ready to roll!

First dip them into yoru sauce.  I found out today that making the sauce ahead of time and letting it cool doesn't burn your fingers when you dip them.  I have tried using tongs to dip them but the tortillas are too fragile and they rip. 

Lay the dipped tortilla on a plate, put on a spoon of meat mixture, a dab of cheese and roll...
Place seam side down in your pan...

Pour leftover sauce over and top with cheese.  Bake til hot and bubbly!
Another one for me and another one for my mother! 
Simple, Perfect Enchiladas...from The Pioneer Woman Cooks, page 176

The Sauce
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp flour
cook in a pot for 1 minute then add
1 can (28 ounce) enchilada sauce
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer while you prepare the rest.  I take it off the stove and set is aside.

The Meat

1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion
2 cans diced green chilies
1/2 tsp salt
Brown the ground beef and onion, drain and stir in the green chilies.  Turn off heat and set aside.

In a small skillet heat some oil and lightly fry the corn tortillas.  Drain on paper towels. 
Dip tortilla in red sauce, place some hamburger and a little cheese, roll and place seam side down in baking dish.
Pour leftover sauce over top and sprinkle with cheese. 
Bake 350 for 20 minutes. 

Enjoy!

Winter Warmers



These are two of my favorite wintertime drinks.  Actually I just discovered the Vanilla Warmer this fall, and it is most delicious!  I have been making the hot cocoa mix for years and have given tons of it away as little gifts. 



You can see in this picture there is cream.  That makes the hot cocoa and the vanilla warmer ever so most delicious!  The little girls like to have their cocoa topped off with the cream in the can. 

Hot Cocoa Mix

10 cups powdered milk
2 lbs Nestles Quik
1 11 ounce powdered coffee creamer
3 cups powdered sugar
Mix together real good and store in an airtight container.
Use 1/3 cup of mix to a cup of hot water.  Stir and add a splash of cream! 


Vanilla Warmer

1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup vnilla coffee creamer
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla powder
Mix together, store in an airtight container.  Use 2 heaping tbsp in a cup of hot water, add that splash of cream and enjoy!

Cinnamon Rolls

I have been craving cinnamon rolls to this afternoon I mixed up a batch. 

I am not a very good blogger as Iforget to take pictures until I am well into the recipe or forget to take a finished picture until dinner is over.  I had begun making the dough when the light bulb went off to take a picture and blog! 
Here is my recip for Cinnamon Rolls
2 tbsp yeast
3 cups warm water
Put this into your mixing bowl and give it a stir.
1/3 cup shortening
1/2 cup (1 cube) butter
Melt these together in the microwave
To the yeast mixture add:
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2 eggs
butter/shortening mixture
2 cups flour
Mix for 3 minutes.
Add about 8 cups more flour a few cups at a time.  Depending on the size of your mixer you may need to dump it onto the table and knead it all in. 
Once well kneaded put into a oiled bowl and let rise til double. 
Afte it has doubled punch down and divide in half.
Roll out into rectangle and spread with very soft butter...

 As you can see here I used melted butter...I prefer to use very soft butter that I can smear in.  Sprinkle with cinnamong and sugar.  I use a healthy amount of brown sugar.  The Chief prefers white sugar..interesting isn't it!  I prefer brown..he prefers white!



Roll up and then slice about 2 inches thick, or for thinner ones about an inch...

Once you have them cut, place into a greased pan and let them raise again til doubled.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes or so. 

Turn out onto foil lined pan (easy clean up once they are gone!) and then frost....

Oh my gosh..these are most delicous! 

Icing Recipe

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2-3 tsp lemon juice

1/4 cup melted butter

3-4 tbsp cream or canned milk

Mix til creamy and then slather over the tops of the rolls.

I don't measure this..I just dump and hope for the best!  And my advice is to use cream!  I also dumped in some powdered vanilla too. 

Enjoy!

















Cornbread

I am always on the quest to find the perfect recipe.  I found one for brownies, bread, pie and now cornbread!  I have a ton of cookbooks and have tried numerous recipes for cornbread and they have all been less then most delicous.  It turns out you just need to know the right people when looking for a good recipe! 
This past May I went to Cornish Utah to welcome my very first granddaughter, Alivia Brittania Armajo, when I also discovered the perfect cornbread recipe.  Majas's sister and her family were there also and Kerri had planned a most delicoius dinner that included cornbread.  I made the gluten free pan for Maja and Kerri made the regular pan.  Both are, oh my gosh, most delicious! 
Last night the Chief made dinner, chili.  He makes a good pot of chili, and I made the cornbread. 

I wish I had taken a picture before I cut it...oh well. 

Look how moist and tender it is..it truely is most delicious!

Here is the Kirkman recipe for cornbread.  You're gonna love it!

1 1/2 cups flour

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup milk

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

3 tbsp melted butter

Stir dry ingredients together and mix in the wet stuff.  Pour into a greased pan, not 9x13, the one just bigger then a 8 inch square. 

You can also make muffins too. 

Bake 350 til done...(I failed to write down how long) about 20 minutes or so. 

A little story of me and cornbread...when I was a little girl I remember my granny making cornbread for dinner.  I had never had it and when I took a bite it tasted like there was sand or dirt in it.  I was convinced that my granny had put sand in the cornbread.  From then on I did not like cornbread. 

I know...crazy huh!

Happy Fall

Caramel apples are a yummy fall treat.  Let me back up a bit...like to last weekend.  I thought it was time to get the Halloween stuff from the garage..ok, back a few days further, I went to the Dollar store and they had their Halloween stuff out.  I bought a bunch of stuff....that is when I decided to get the stuff from the garage.  So last Saturday we brought in all the Halloween stuff.  The little girls and I began to decorate the house...midway through stretching the spiderweb stuff across the living room it dawned on me.  It was only the middle of September.  I thought it was close to October 1...so I had 2 choices, take it down  and disapoint 3 excited little girls.or continue on.  We finished decorating and the girls were so excited to show dad how scarey our house was!  At the check out counter I also bought a Halloween cookbook.  I planned to make some cute halloween goodies throughout the month of October.  Since I seem to have no perception of when October is I started making treats tonight and to start the Halloween season here are some most delicious caramel apples. 
I started by washing 8 Granny Smith apples and putting them in the fridge. 

Next we had to unwrap a bazillion caramels.  Ok, not quite a bazillion but 2 14 ounce packages of them.  I put them in a heavey pan.

While the pan was heating we put the sticks in the apples.

Once the caramels were melted it was time to dip them.

Here is the recipe from the book.

Caramel Apples

1 package (14 ounces) caramels

1 tbsp water

5 Granny Smith apples ( I doubled the recipe and it was enough for 7 medium apples)

Small wooden sticks

Wash, dry and refrigerate apples. 

Unwrap caramels and put in heavy skillet with water..cook and stir til smooth. 

Poke popsicle stick into apple and then dip in the hot caramel, spooning over the top to cover. 

Set to harden on wax paper. 

If desired you can roll the apples in chopped nuts, sprinkles or chopped candies. 

Enjoy and Happy Fall

Angel Food Cake

 I have always wanted to make an angel food cake.  I thought they were complicated and tempermental.  I couldn't have been more wrong!  I read this book titled "Notes on Cooking" A short guide to an essential craft by Lauren Braun Costello and Russell Reich.  It was one of my many bathtub reads.  A section in the book is called 'mise en place' which means 'put in place'.  That phrase has been a great help.  The chapter talks about having all your things in order, in place, ready to go when you are cooking.  So many times the mixer is running...and I am trying to hurry and separate eggs or find something to add..and if I remember to 'mise en place' things go much more smoothly.  As you can tell by the picture above..I have 'mise en place'.  I know...a miracle!

Angle Food Cake

1 cup sifted cake flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 3/4 cup egg whites (about12)

1 1/2 tsp cream of tatar

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond extract

Sift together cake flour and 3/4 cup sugar. 

Beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt until foamy.  Add 3/4 cup sugar 1 tbsp at a time beating at high until stiff glossy peaks form.  Blend in vanilla and almond extracts. 

Add flour mixture in 4 parts, folding about 15 strokes after each addition.  Spoon batter into ungreased 10" tube pan.  Pull metal spatula through batter once to break large air bubbles. 

Bake in 375 degree oven 35 minutes or until cake tests done.  Invert tube pan on funnel or bottle to cool.  When completely cooled, remove from pan.  Makes 12 servings.

I did measure the whites!

 All mixed and ready to put in pan....

 light and fluffy...

 Doesn't that look fabulous!

 The Coke bottle.  I had John go get me a bottle of Coke...he brought me  a plastic bottle of coke.  I explained to him that I needed a glass bottle...he came through!  I saved it in the back corner of the cupboard!

 Baked and inverted on fancy schmancy Coke bottle!

I ran a knife around the edges of the pan and it came out perfectly!  I used to buy these from the bakery at the grocery store.  Let me tell you, homemade is far more most delicious!  It is one of my favorite cakes now!