Preheat oven to 350°

Mix together:
2/3 C vegetable oil - I use canola
1 C Sugar

Add and mix:
1 egg
1/4 C molasses

Mix in:
2 C flour
2 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1 t ginger
1/2 t ground cloves

Scoop and shape into a ball and roll in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet (I use parchment paper). Bake about 10 - 12 minutes. Just until the top crackles. Don’t over bake.

Preheat oven to 350°

Cream together:

½ C softened butter
¼ C canola oil
1 ¾ C sugar

Add and mix:
4 eggs
1 t vanilla

Add and mix:
3 C cake flour – I never have cake flour so here is a substitute for cake flour – 3 C flour minus 6 T and then add 6 T cornstarch
1T and 1/2t baking powder
1 t salt 

Add alternately with flour mix:
1 ½ C seedless strawberry jam
½ C Moscato

Mix well and pour into 3 well-greased 8 or 9 inch round cake pans. 

Bake for about 30 minutes. Check with toothpick and take out as soon as the toothpick comes out clean. Don’t over bake.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Beat together well:

2 8 oz. Cream cheese, softened
¾ C butter, softened
4 t vanilla
6 C powdered sugar

While beating add 5 – 7 T whipping cream (not cool whip – un whipped whipping cream) and beat well. That is the secret to the creamy, dreamy frosting.

Cool cakes completely.

Brush the tops of each layer with Moscato

Layer:

Cake
Frosting
Sliced Strawberries
repeat and finish with frosting on top.

Cube about 1 pound chicken breasts
1 C carrots, sliced
1 C frozen peas
1/2 C clelery
Water to cover

Cook on stove top for about 15 minutes

Drain water after cooking on stove.

Sauce:
In a sauce pan, melt
1/3 C butter
Add and cook for 2 - 3 minutes
1/3 C chopped onion
Add and mix together
1/3 C flour
Add and bring to boil to thicken - stiring constantly
2/3 C milk
1 can chicken broth
1/4-1/2 t celery salt
1/4-1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper

Crust: I suppose you could cheat and use a pre-made (insert shuddering here) crust.

2 heaping C flour.

Add 3/4 - 1 C Crisco - I won't use any other shortening.

1 t salt.

Cut together with pastry cutter until crumbly.

Add about 3 - 4 T cold water and mix until it sticks together.
You may need to add a few more Tablespoons of water. You
want the mixture to just start sticking together.

Divide the dough in half. Place on floured surface.

Roll out 1/2 large enough to cover pie plate. Place in the pie dish.

Dump the veggie, chicken mix into the pie plate.

Pour the sauce over and place the top crust on. Crimp the edges.

Bake at 425° for about 25 minutes until crust is just turning brown.

Enjoy!

Preheat oven to 350°

Grease 9X13 cake pan.

Mix:

1 Spice Cake Mix

1 3.4 ounce. Instant Vanilla pudding

1 C pumpkin puree

½ C water

½ C vegetable oil

3 eggs

2 t pumpkin pie spice

Bake until done. Cool and cut into 1” pieces

Wisk together:

2 C cold milk

2 3.4 ounce instant cheesecake pudding

Let stand a couple of minutes

Add 2 C Cool Whip (or my preference – real whipped cream) with the pudding mix

In a trifle bowl or other dish layer the cake alternately with the pudding mix.

Sprinkle the pudding layer with English toffee bits and chopped toasted pecans.

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving means traditions.

Around here one tradition is cinnamon rolls on Thanksgiving morning – which doesn’t make too much sense since there will be plenty of goodness a few short hours later.

Nevertheless, it’s what we do. I have kids and grandkids coming from all directions all morning long. And. I. Love. It!!!

I have one measly picture that doesn’t do the goodness justice.

It is soooo easy and you’ll be the hero and the one that everyone mentions in their holiday memories.

Here you go:

Thaw out frozen bread dough.

Sprinkle a little flour on the counter. Roll each loaf into a rectangle about 12” X 5”or so.

Spread butter over the dough.

Sprinkle and spread brown sugar over the buttered dough.

Sprinkle cinnamon over all of it.

Roll the dough. When you start, sort of roll and pull so you’re tucking the dough into a roll.

Cut the roll in to one inch pieces.

Butter the sides and bottom of a cake pan. Then toss in some brown sugar and spread it around evenly. Place a few dabs of butter evenly.

Place the pieces cut side up – usually 4 – 5 in each row.

Put your pan of rolls in a warm oven or warming drawer on proof or low. By warm oven – turn oven on and once it just starts to get warm (for me it’s about 2 minutes) turn the oven off. Let them rise to double the size.

Bake in a 350° oven for about 25 – 30 minutes.

Turn out onto a piece of aluminum foil that you can wrap it in once it’s cooled.

Hint: Soak your pan in hot water right away for easy clean up.

Directions for eating:

Slather in real butter.  Add a cup of cold whole milk and enjoy.

Oh my, this is so delish! You need to make at least two because this will be a favorite and you just can’t stop with one piece. Gooey deliciousness.

Melt:
1/3 C butter
Add and mix:
2/3 C sugar
1/2 t salt
1 C corn syrup
Mix in well:
3 eggs
Fold in:
1 1/2 C chocolate chips
1 C pecan halves

Pour into a 9” unbaked pie crust

Bake 375° for about an hour.

Pie crust:

I C flour

Add 1/2 C Crisco - must be Crisco

Add 1 t. salt

Cut together with pastry cutter.

Until crumbly

Add about 3 - 4 T cold water and mix until it sticks together. You may need to add a few more Tablespoons of water. You want the mixture to just start sticking together.

Place on floured surface.

Roll out big enough to cover pie plate. Crimp edges.

These are beyond delicious!

Anything that starts with butter . . .

. . . and ends with fresh peaches . . .

. . . can’t be anything but “oh my” delish!

The picture of the butter is from a double recipe so follow this recipe for one batch. But, since you’re gonna love them you might as well start out with a double batch.

Preheat oven to 350°

Cream together:
1 C softened butter
1 C sugar
1/3 C brown sugar

Add and mix:
1 t vanilla
1/2 t almond extract
1 egg

Add and mix well:
3 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 t cinnamon (I usually do 2 - love me some cinnamon)
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/4 t nutmeg

Then mix in 1 C fresh diced, peeled peaches

Drop by tablespoon or cookie scoop or whatever you use onto cookie sheet. Bake about 12 - 14 minutes - just until they start to turn toasty brown - don’t over cook. If your cookies are flattening out too much as you bake them you need to add more flour.

These taste like peach pie bites and are a soft, cakey type cookie. Perfect with a cup of coffee or better yet a tall, cold glass of milk.

Enjoy this peachy keen recipe!

I finally took some time to sit down and read through this recipe notebook. It’s not just an ordinary notebook, it’s a treasure from my family lineage. It’s part of my DNA.

This is the recipe book of my Great Aunt Ida. She was my Grandpa’s sister. Their parents came from Germany and she looked the part, at least in my eyes. She wasn’t over weight, but she was not a slip of a thing either. She never married. She was a midwife, baker and a wonderful cook. I think her German background played into her baking and cooking expertise. She lived on the family farm in Merrill, Michigan and supplied the bakery in the area with donuts and baked goods.

I remember, as a young child being woke up early one morning by my parents. My younger brother and I stumbled into the station wagon half asleep and with my parents headed to the farm to go pheasant hunting. What a day that was!

We tripped and occasionally fell through the harvested corn fields with my dad and grandpa looking for pheasants. Little did I know then that cut off corn fields would be a crucial part of my future life.

Part of the day my brother and I explored the farm and had a great time in the chicken coop. The chickens, not so much. We also collected a whole bunch of pinecones which had a whole bunch of sap which made my mom a whole bunch not happy. Front porch swinging was more enjoyable with the smell of cinnamon rolls baking in the kitchen.

The best part was being in the kitchen with my Aunt Ida, my grandma and mom making fried donuts, cinnamon rolls and bread. Aunt Ida had a huge sink and counter top. Pots and pans galore. Oh my. Heaven will definitely smell like fresh baked bread.

Aunt Ida made spaghetti and meatballs for lunch – my favorite.

Her kitchen was huge with a large wooden table in the middle. Off to one side of the kitchen the mud room held coats of all sizes and boots galore.  The other side led to a sitting room and some bedrooms. We weren’t allowed in the sitting room and I remember being a little afraid of that room. It was dark and looked like it didn’t get used much.

Aunt Ida and my grandma wore “house dresses” with aprons and stocking that they rolled down to their ankles just above their very uncomfortable looking shoes. And both always had a smile on their faces and Kleenex in their apron pockets. I was too young to pay attention to what they were chatting about, but, oh how I wish I could go back and listen.

I didn’t want the day to end and when it was time to leave, I was close to tears. Within 15 minutes of leaving the farm I was fast asleep in the back seat.

Over 40 years later I returned to the farmhouse with my Aunt and cousin for the auction of all of Aunt Ida’s belongings and other farm items. Aunt Ida had passed a few years earlier and it was a wonderful opportunity to go back. Everything looked the same yet different. The porch was smaller and some of the pine trees were gone. The chicken coop hadn’t been used in long time.

We found the hidden key and went in to the house and looked around. The emptiness covered the kitchen with sadness. I just stood there and willed myself back in time.

A side note – we sort of took the key with us. My Aunt has the skeleton key hanging in her kitchen now. Sadly, the house was going to be demolished so we knew the key had no purpose there.

If the items that were being auctioned off could talk what a time, we would all have. We roamed around and “claimed” the items we wanted. We didn’t have the highest bid on all of our wants, but we all walked away with a few items. I purchased one of her quilts for my mother for Christmas.

A few months ago, while I was visiting with my Aunt, she brought out this handwritten recipe book and gave it to me. I felt like I was being handed a holy grail.

This recipe book had to be easily 60 years old. I felt I was holding precious secrets of Aunt Ida.

It looks like she started to try to keep like recipes together. And she added and squeezed in others here and there.

When I look at the handwriting, I picture her sitting at her table scribbling in a recipe after she tried it and liked it. My mother’s handwriting is similar to hers. Reading her notes, trying to follow the path of her instructions that weave around previous recipes fills me with a sacred preciousness. My hands brush across the same pages hers did. The pages are spattered with ingredients here and there. The paper is worn soft on some pages. Probably her favorite dishes. I think I got my desire and ability to cook and bake from her.

My daughters-in-law have asked for a cookbook of my recipes and I keep telling myself I will get to it. And, get to it I must.

There may come a time when one of my grandkids would sit down with their copy that is worn from their use. They could show their children a recipe and recall a time when they made the dish with their Grama.

I hope you have a precious memory journal, cookbook or something to allow your future descendants the ability to “feel” the real you.

I have to double and triple this recipe for my family. One scoop of this cobbler just isn’t enough. Add creamy vanilla ice cream and you’ve just given your tummy a vacation!

Preheat oven to 350°

Combine:

1 pound blackberries

¾ C sugar

¼ C cornstarch

1 t. cinnamon

1 T lemon juice

 Place in a greased 9” square baking pan

Using a fork, mix together:

1 ¼ C flour

¼ C sugar

1 ¼ t baking powder

¼ t soda

1/8 t salt

 Use a pastry cutter to cut in 6 T butter – not softened.

Add:

¼ C heavy cream

Mix until it forms a dough – doesn’t have to be totally mixed. Can and should look a little crumbly.

Crumble the dough over the blackberry mixture.

Bake about 40 minutes. Make sure the blackberry mixture is bubbling.

 Enjoy!

It’s sleep over night at Grama and Grampa’s for the three youngest wigglies. They are 5, 7, and 10 – all boys.

Normally we have to decide between three favorites for supper, but we are snagging Grampa and going to a movie and then a late supper.

There will be cookies and milk scattered in between.  A late-night movie with popcorn and of course pancakes with chocolate chips for breakfast.

So, you can see food is always a big deal here as well as the company and “help” while preparing. And, the stories we hear at the table while eating – priceless.

If there is time, there will be some sort of crafting. The table will be busy and occupied – just the way it should be.

I hope you have a special something happening or someone at your table this weekend too.

Would love to see your “table” pictures.

Blessings!