I Suck!

Kasey is coming today and  I decided that I would make him some Oatmeal Scotchies, his favorite.  How hard can this be?  You get the bag of butterschotch chips and follow the recipe on the back.  Yeah, that was a good idea. 
I got the ingredients out and mixed them up according to package directions.  Got my handy dandy cookie scoop and put them on the cookie sheets.  Preheated the oven to 375 and put the first pan into bake for 9 minutes.  They were a little on the done side, and flat as pancakes.  Removing them from the cookie sheet was not easy as they didn't hold their shape and they fell apart easily.  I did another pan and baked them for 8 minutes..they looked a bit better, although, still flat and hard to remove from the cookie sheet with out breaking.  The third try I baked them for 8 minutes and still..flat.  I let them cool for a minute or so before taking them off the cookie sheet...not a good decision.  I had to chisel them off the cookie sheet...see the picture of the mess:

You can see the piles of the first two batches...the crumbled mess is the third and final cookie sheet...unfortunately I made a double batch.  The bag had pan cookie directions, which I followed.  Good grief...I'll let this picture speak for itself:

They don't look too bad...except the stuff on the bottom of the oven.  That is the overflow that gave my house a lovely aroma of burnt cookies! 

Here is the finished product.  Does not look most delicious.  I don't even like this kind of cookie.  I will not be making Oatmeal Scotchies ever again. 

Fry Bread

We had indian tacos for dinner.  For those of you who have had them you should have smelled the grease and come over.  And for those of you who haven't had one, well your are missing out!  What is an indian taco?  Oh my gosh..a bit of most delicious heaven!  You make a fry bread, put it on your place, put chili on top and then top it with all  your favorite taco toppings.  Cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, sour cream, salsa..mmm!  Fry bread is also most delicious with stew too.  Rip it in half and dip it in your stew...oh my gosh...so good!

This is all there is to it.  From the left, salt, flour, baking powder and water.  First thing, dump some flour into your bowl.  Basically the amount varies with how many people you are feeding.  When all my kids were home, and their friends were here too,  I would use a 5 pound bag of flour. 

Then you add a handful of baking powder. 

Half handful of salt.

Give it a stir and then add water.  The amount depends on how much flour you use.  According to Karri Hughus, you use a refill mug.  For a long time I had a Pit Stop cup that I used. 

Start by dumping about half the water in and stirring, you want a basic dough.  If you get too much water add more flour, not enough water add more. 

This has a little too much water in it.  I had to add more flour.  No biggie.

Once your dough is formed, dump it out ontoa a floured table and knead it so it is not sticky.  Just knead in flour til it is just right.

Once you have your dough ready get a pan and put a couple inches of oil in.  Get it hot, I put it on 8 on my stove.  Too hot and it burns, too cool and it gets greasy and icky.

John and I have found that if we grease our hands the dough doesn't stick to us.  We just use a spray.

Break off a golf ball sized piece, aahh..give or take on the size, and pat it out like a pancake.  Johns sisters in Idaho can flatten thiers just using thier hands, we haven't mastered that.  I wish I could.  John likes to put a little slit in the middle so it doesn't puff up.  I don't really care. 

Put it gently into the hot grease and fry til golden brown on one side then flip to brown the other. 
That little bit in the pan is my test piece to see if my oil is hot enough.

Thats me frying the bread!  Karlene was the photogapher! 

Put the cooked fry bread into a napkin or paper towel lined bowl or pan to cool.  Thats it.
I did measure out the ingredients for you to try! 

5 cups flour
3 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp salt
I didn't measure the water.  You can figure that one out on your own! 
This amount fed 4 adults, 1 teenager and 3 little girls with about 3 pieces left over.  Some of the adults had seconds. 
Good luck and let me know if you try it and how it turned out.
And...all you much better then me fry bread cooks how did I do?  Is this how you do yours? 
Enjoy!

Chicken Casserole

This is one of my favorite cookbooks.  It is also a good read as it gives insight into the Amish life.  Kind of fun to look into another way of life, and they like to use butter!  Tonights dinner comes from this book, just a plain chicken casserole.  I have made it before and made a notation on the page to double the sauce and the page has a few stains on it.  That just adds to the cookbook, except when the pages get glued together.  Then it sucks.  I did that in my Mrs. Rowe's cookbook.  Luckily the recipe on the opposite page was one I didn't care to try. 
Patience is not my virtue and when you cook you need paitence to stand there and stir the sauce til it thickens.  I have discovered that almost high heat quickens that process! 

Easy Chicken Casserole

1/2 cup butter, I use the real thing but you can use margarine
1/3 cup flour
1 cup milk
2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 (3 ounce) can mushrooms
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
8 ounces noodles, cooked and drained - I used egg noodles
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese - I used grated chedder

Preheat the oven to 350, grease an 8 cup casserole. 
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat ( unless your name is Cheryl then you use the notch just before high), then whisk in the flour until smooth.  Gradually whisk the milk and the broth in, cook until thickened. Stir in the salt and pepper and mushrooms.  Add the chicken and noodles and cheese.  Stir together and spoon the mixture into the prepared dish (again, if your name is Cheryl you dump it all in a big bowl, stir well and then dump it into the greased pan, seriously who would spoon it in?)
Bake until bubbly and golden, about 45 minutes.  Depending on how much noodles you use you may need to double the sauce.  I measure the amount of noodles I put in....I just dump.  Same thing with the chicken and the cheese. 

Are these not the best pots?  I got them at a garage sale!  I used them to prepare the above dinner and am using the smaller one to bake it in.  The tea kettle is from a garage sale too, as are the spoon and whisk in the pots.  Just about everything in my kitchen is from a garage sale.  Most things are just better when they are 'broken' in. 

Not a very good picture of the chicken casserole and it isn't baked yet.  The only thing needed is a salad, oh and some homemade bread. 
Enjoy!