The casserole with hamburger on the bottom, beans in the middle and mashed potatoes on top

What to do with last nights leftover mashed potatoes?  Oh my gosh this is so good!   It doesn't really have a name and I think my mother-in-law, Fayetta, invented it.  A casserole.  That the Chief likes!  He hates casseroles and pot lucks.   This is why he hates casseroles.  According to the Chief at the end of the week Fayetta would throw all the leftovers in a pot or cake pan and that was dinner.  And as he tells this story he gets the most distrubed look on his face.  I love all kinds of casseroles, they are a comfort food.  Good that night and again warmed up for breakfast!  The Chief would never in a million years eat last nights dinner for breakfast.  He is so weird!  Anyway, here is the recipe for  Hamburger on the bottom, beans in the middle and mashed potatoes on top, oh I think we sometimes call it the hamburger casserole. 

Brown some hamburger with onions...I don't always drain it depending what kind I use.  Store burger I drain, elk and deer I don't.
Put the cooked hamburger on the bottom of a cake pan, sprinkle with cheese...put 2 cans of drained green beans on top, more shredded cheese and top with leftover mashed potatoes.  Bake til hot through.  How easy is that! 

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.