Crunch Time!

This year for Thanksgiving I'm in charge of rolls, and pies, so I thought I'd get some recipes up there, in case any of you want to try one out for Thanksgiving. As soon as I get them made, I'll put up some pictures. We're having pumpkin, chocolate, peanut butter, apple, and cherry. (The pumpkin was one of the first posts that I did so you can look in October if you want the recipe; for the cherry, I'm making a crust, opening a can of cherry pie filling, pouring it in, and baking it in the oven. :) )
(Here's the cherry, and pumpkin pie...a little overdone, but hopefully it tastes okay.)

Aunt Gabbie's Peanut Butter Pie

Aunt Gabbie's Apple Pie

This is another one of Royce's favorites...Gabbie always finds us the best recipes :) It didn't look at all like I was planning, because my crust was giving me troubles, but I think it will taste really good, because I think I put a little too much shortening in the crust :)

6-7 cups apple—sliced thin w/lemon to keep white (I use Jonagold, Gabby uses Granny Smith & maybe a mix)

1 c sugar (if jonagold’s are sweet, reduce sugar)

½ c flour

1-2 T corn starch

½ t cinnamon

¼ t nutmet

Peel, core, slice apples thinly—put 1T? lemon juice over them to keep them white while in bowl

Mix all dry ingredients together

• 2 choices

  1. Gabby usually layers apples in thin layer, then sprinkles part of dry over them and repeats like a lasagna---trouble is, you have to come out evenly with apples and dry mix

  2. I poured the dry over the apples and stirred it in & poured it in the pie shell. Worked out fine. Gabby does this also

Dot top of apples with butter and top layer of crust

Bake @ 425 for 40-50 minutes

Gabby puts the crust covers you girls gave her over the edges so they don’t get too done

If you want, you can brush the crust with milk or ½ & ½ & sprinkle sugar on it

(My mom sent me the e-mail with Gabbie's recipe :) )

Chocolate Pie

This is my mom's really good chocolate pie that we always have for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

2 squares chocolate

2 cups milk

5 T flour

¾ cup sugar

Pinch salt

2 eggs

1 T butter

1 tsp vanilla

Baked pastry shell

• Melt cocolate,

• add milk gradually stirring constantly until smooth

• heat in double boiler (I just stir it all the time)

• Mix flour, sugar, 7 salt and add to mik

• Stir until thickened and then cook for 15 minutes

• Add butter, cool slightly 7 add vanilla

• Pour into baked crust

• Serve cold with whipped cream

Lasagna

Here's my mom's lasagna. Whenever we had company over, my mom would always make lasagna.

1lb ground beef
1/3 c onion
1-2 cloves garlic (or garlic powder)
2 can tomato sauce (just plain sauce)
1 c water
1 carton cottage cheese
1/3-1/2 block mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/3-1/2 block cheddar cheese, shredded
1pkg lasagna noodles, uncooked

Brown hamburger with onion and garlic. Drain fat off meat. (Sometimes I leave it on...it's not very good for you, but sometimes it's really tasty :) )
Add tomato sauce and water to meat.
Spray a 9x13 pan with Pam. Start your layers with the meat sauce. Then add a layer of the uncooked noodles. Spoon around 2-3 TBSP of cottage cheese next; then add another layer of meat sauce, then a layer of moz cheese, then cheddar cheese. Then you start a new layer of noodles, and continue like that. (You kind of have to eyeball the layers with how much you want on each layer...it's not too picky though...it should taste pretty good, even if you don't get your layers very even.) When you make your last layer, make sure you get sauce all around the edges, so that you don't have any bare noodles, and put a little more shredded cheese on the very top than you have the rest of your layers. Cover with tinfoil, then bake it in the oven at 350deg, for around 1hr 15min. You want to check it at around an hour, and if it looks too runny, you can take the foil off; from there you just want to make sure your noodles are done, and then it's ready!

Maraschino Cherry Thumb print Cookies

Here are some yummy cookies that are fun for Christmas. Of all the cookies I make these are Royce's favorite. I like them because they're really pretty :)

Maraschino Chocolate Thumb print Cookies

2 (10oz) Jars of Maraschino Cherries
1 1/2 C Flour
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2c butter, softened
1 c granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 c semisweet chocolate chips
2 TBSP milk

Drain cherries, reserving 1 tsp juice. Combine flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Mix well. Put butter and sugar in medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium for 3-4 min. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Add flour mixture; mix well.
Put chocolate chips and milk in a small saucepan and heat, stirring constantly, on low heat until chocolate melts. Add reserved cherry juice. Let cool slightly.
Shape dough into 1"balls. Place on ungreased baking pan. Push in centers with thumbs(I never use my thumb...I have a knife with a round handle at the end, so I never use my thumb:) ), then spoon 1 tsp chocolate mixture into each thumb print and top with a cherry. Bake at 350deg for 10-12 min, or until cookies are firm. (Be sure not to overcook, or they become hard...not as tasty) Let cool on wire racks.

Chicken Noodle Soup and Homemade Rolls

Poor Royce is sick today, so I made him some chicken noodle soup and rolls. (And finally something turned out again! Which is good...because I'm planning on making 8 pies for Thanksgiving :) )

Chicken Noodle Soup:

1 can chicken broth
1 1/2 c water
1 peeled carrot, chopped
1 peeled potato, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 can chicken (I use the big cans from Costco...you could use fresh chicken too...obviously you want to cook the chicken first)
1/2 c uncooked noodles

Heat broth, water, carrot, potato, and celery over med/high heat until rapid boiling. Add chicken and noodles, and cook over med heat around 10-12min.


Aunt Gabbie's Dinner Rolls (so, so yummy)

4c flour
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1/4 c sugar
2 tsp salt
2 TBSP powdered milk
1 tsp lemon/lime juice
2 TBSP oil
1 1/2 c warm water (like baby bottle warm-180ish)

Mix all ingredients in bread machine on dough setting. When finished, knead dough slightly on lightly floured surface, and shape into 12-16 rolls. Let rise for 30 min. Bake at 350 deg for 20-25 minutes. Remove rolls from pan.

(And if you forget to put the yeast in, you can put some oil and cinnamon and sugar on it and bake it and try to pull it off for Family Home Evening treats. :) )

Cursed!

I'm not very superstitious, but I think I've been cursed. Since I've made this blog, I can't cook anything! Nothing is turning out. So if I cook anything again that doesn't taste like doody, I'll post it :)

"Why give me a great gift, only to snatch it away? What did I do? Huh? Did I ask for too much? Did I fly too close to the sun on my beautiful hot dog wings?"