Apple Pie

Apple Pie

6-8 apples, peeled and sliced

3/4 - 1 c. sugar

2 Tbs. flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 Tbs. uncooked tapioca

1 Tbs. water 

2 tbs. butter 

Peel and slice the apples.  Add the sugar, cinnamon, flour, tapioca and toss to coat.  Cook the apples breifly with about 1 Tbs. water.  This step is just to cook the apples down a little so that there is not a gap between the top crust and the apples.  

Prepare the bottom crust and fill it with apples.  Dot the top with 2 Tbs. butter. Cover with the top crust, flute the edges, then poke holes in the top for ventilation.  

Bake at 375 degrees about 25 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.  

First, peel and cut the apples.  I like to get it done fast, so I just use my apple corer/slicer.  The slices are a little thick, but I don't mind.

Usually when I make an apple pie it is with apples that I've picked from a tree rather than apples I've bought from the store.  Usually they are smaller, so I determine exactly how many I'll need by filling my pie plate to the very top and then some, so it is heaping.  In the pie I made today it took 9 apples.  Some spots had to be thrown away because of bruising.  

Place all the apples in a saucepot and add the flour, sugar, cinnamon, tapioca, and water.  I let the apples cook down for about 5 minutes so that they don't shrink after I've already put on the top crust. This step can be skipped, but I would recommend slicing my apples a little thinner.  

Poor apples into the pie plate with the bottom crust.

Dot the top with butter.

Put the top crust on and pinch the edges together.  Cut small slits in the top crust for ventilation.  

Bake at 375 about 25 minutes.  Serve with ice cream!

Sweet Green Relish (canned)

I love to can!  It's a great feeling of accomplishment.  I have a dear friend who just passed away about 10 days ago.  Not too long after I was married, she helped me get started with a lot of my canning.  She would lend me key ingredients that I didn't have on hand, sometimes I would borrow canning equipment, and sometimes I even borrowed jars when mine were all full!  Besides the borrowing, she got me lots of instructions and recipes on how to can different things.   I sampled many of her yummy foods at her house like grape juice, peaches, and this sweet green relish.  My husband and I were at her home eating dinner with her and her husband Dee when we were first introduced to this dish.  I believe that we just ate it on the side kind of like a garnish to the dinner.  It was so good; I knew I had to have the recipe.  We eat the relish on hamburgers and hot dogs especially, but my mom likes it on Roast.

As Nellie called it, it's an "End of the Garden Relish".  That's because you use large cucumbers, the ones that got away and grew too big before you noticed, leftover green tomatoes, and red peppers that take time to actually ripen and turn red.

I am grateful for Nellie and all that she taught me.  Her and her husband Dee had a canning kitchen in their basement right next to the storage room, and I always thought this was such an ideal situation. When my husband and I built a new home, we decided a canning kitchen in the basement was a must (now I just can't wait to get it finished).  I am happy to know that our Heavenly Father has blessed us with the knowledge that our relationships continue beyond the grave.  I am happy to know that Nellie will be reunited with her husband and that I too will see her again.  I am thankful for the sweet knowledge that Jesus Christ died for us, and that through his resurrection, we are all given the blessing of resurrection.  Even when they have lived an exemplary life of 84 years like Nellie did, it is always hard to lose a friend.

Sweet Green Relish
1 qt. green tomatoes
1 qt. onions (I use walla walla)
1/2 dozen red peppers
1 dozen green peppers
6 large cucumbers
1/3 c. plain salt

Grind ingredients.  I use a french fry cutter on my Bosch food processor, but I run the ingredient all through twice so they are diced.  Mix with salt and let stand overnight in the fridge.  Drain the next day and rinse briefly.  Stir in ice cubes and let soak a day or so (at least 2 hours).  Take ice water off (drain). Add the following:

6 c. sugar
1 Tbs. turmeric
1 qt. vinegar
2 Tbs. mustard seed
1 Tbs. celery seed

Cook 20 minutes.  Put in hot jars, screw on caps and invert for 5 minutes.  Tip right side up: jars should seal when cool.

Canned Spaghetti Sauce

(Scroll to bottom for recipe)

I've been canning this wonderful spaghetti sauce for years, and it has such great taste!  It's a little time consuming but fairly easy to put together.  If you don't have a stockpot that is 16 quarts or larger, I would half the recipe.  Also, be very careful not to burn the sauce.  I once borrowed my neighbors stockpot that was brand new.  I felt horrible when I scorched the bottom so badly that it didn't come clean, and my sauce had to all be thrown out.  I now use a very thick stainless steel Belgique pan by Tools of the Trade from Macy's and it's amazing!  If you do a lot of canning, I would invest in one.  

Start by weighing your tomatoes.  I do 5 lb. increments because small kitchen scales cannot handle 30 pounds.  

After you have a large pan of water boiling, submerge the tomatoes for about 1 minute.  Blanching them like this will make the peels fall right off.  

After you remove them from the boiling water, rinse with cold water.

 Peel and the cut the cores out of the tomatoes.  Place the peels and cores in a large bowl for compost or to discard later (I feed mine to the chickens ).

Fill the blender up with tomatoes, blend, and then poor into a large stockpot.  

Blend the onions in the blender as well, mixing them will a little bit of blended tomato so that they have enough liquid to blend well.  Do the same thing with the garlic.  Just put it in the blender with some blended tomatoes and then you don't have to worry about chopping or pressing the garlic.  

 Simmer 2-4 hours depending on how thick you like the sauce.  Just be very, very careful not to burn the sauce!  I have heard of some people simmering theirs in the oven rather than the stove top for this reason.  You will see in the picture below that the through the simmering process, the sauce has been reduced.

Ladle into hot jars and then add about 2 tsp bottled lemon juice to each jar so that there is enough acid.  Process in a hot water bath or a pressure canner.  I process it in a pressure canner for 25 minutes at 13 lbs. of pressure.  I have to use 13 versus 10 because of the elevation of where I live.  Check with your local extension office to see if there is a variation in the pounds of pressure according to where you live.

Spaghetti Sauce:

30 lbs. ripe tomatoes

8 cans tomato paste (or just use 4, your choice)

1 c. white vinegar

1/2 c. sugar

3 Tbs. oregano

4 Tbs. Italian Seasoning

3 Tbs. basil

2 heads of garlic (the entire head and all its cloves)

4 small onions

1/3 c. plain salt (no iodine)

3-4 bay leaves

Blanch tomatoes about 1 minute. Remove from boiling water and rinse with cold water.  Peel and core tomatoes, then blend in a blender.  Poor into a 16-quart stockpot.  Peel onions, cut, and put them in the blender.  Add about 1 cup blended tomatoes so there is enough liquid to let the blender smoothly blend the onions.  Add the onions to the saucepot.  Do the same with the garlic.  Just add a little tomatoes to the blender and throw the garlic pieces in and blend well.  Add all the other ingredients and stir well.  Simmer about 2-4 hours, depending on your desired thickness.   WARNING: Do not scorch or burn! 

 Remove the bay leaves, then ladle sauce into hot, clean jars.  I add about 1 tsp. bottled lemon juice per quart just to be safe (even with the vinegar in the recipe). Adjust screw caps and lids.  Process 25 minutes at 10 lbs. of pressure, or 13 pounds if you live where I do (check with your local extension). 

**Note: you can freeze this recipe as well. After you have cooked the sauce down, put it in the fridge overnight to cool it. Fill 1-quart freezer bags, seal, and freeze. 

Neiman's $250 Cookie Recipe (Dee and Nellie)

You've probably heard the silly story behind this recipe; I'm not sure if it's true or not, but these are some very rich cookies!

Neiman's $250 Cookies

small batch, makes about 28

1 cube soft butter

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. white sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 c. flour

1 1/4 cup blended oatmeal

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

6-8 oz chocolate chips (i use a combo of butterscotch, white, and mini semi-sweet)

1/2 c. coconut

2/3 c. chopped nuts

2 oz. hershey bar, grated

Cream butter and both sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and bakiong soda.  Add chips and nuts.  Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.  Bake 6 minutes at 375 degrees.  

Notes:  The original recipe was 4 times this one!  If you want to make the whole thing (112 cookies), the extra dough freezes wonderfully.  Just roll into balls prior to freezing.  

Soccer Bars

I got this recipe on the back of a 25 lb. Western Family sugar bag.  

Soccer Bars

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. sugar

1 egg

1/3 c. peanut butter

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. flour

1 c. oatmeal

1 c. chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars.  Add egg and peanut butter; mix well.  Stir in dry ingredients. Press into 9"x13" pan and sprinkle with chocolate chips.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. 

Banana Cookies

I like the alternative way to use up brown bananas rather than just making banana bread all the time.  

Banana Cookies

3/4 c. soft butter

1 c. sugar

1 egg

1 c. mashed banana

1 1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. soda

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 3/4 c. oatmeal

raisins, nuts, or chocolate chips

Mix all together in the order shown above.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.  

Soft Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

This is the recipe that my mom always uses.  It's great, and the cookies are really soft.  

Soft Sugar Cookies

2 c. sugar

2/3 c. butter

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup sour cream

5 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 tsp. salt

Mix ingredients in the order above.  Chill dough at least an hour.  Roll out on floured surface.  Bake at 400 degrees 5-7 minutes.  

Deluxe Sugar Cookies (Kristie Westover)

I love the almond flavor in these cookies!

Deluxe Sugar Cookies

1 c. soft butter

1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

1 egg

 1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. almond

2 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp. soda

1 tsp. cream of tartar

-Mix the first 6 ingredients, then blend in the flour, soda, and cream of tartar.  Cover and chill 2-3 hours.  Bake at 375 7-8 minutes.

Notes: I got this recipe from a friend and she told me (and I've tried this and it works) that she rolls the dough into small balls and then flattens them with a glass on a cookie sheet rather than rolling the dough out and then cutting it into cookies.  This saves a good deal of time and mess.  

Sugar Cookie Bars

When I was young, my  mom made really, really, yummy and soft sugar cookies.  I lloved to help her cut them out and frost them.  I was suprised to learn that my boys don't share quite the love for sugar cooking making.  What they like is to slap on the frosting (usually way too much), devour the cookie, repeat 2-3 times and then run outside or move on to something else.  Once they've had their fill, they have no interest in frosting any more cookies.  And to be honest, making sugar cookies takes a lot of time.  So  here is a recipe for sugar cookie bars where you get the same great taste without having to refrigerate the dough, no cutting out cookies, and everything is baked and frosted at once.  

2/3 cup soft butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4  teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream the butter and sugar together, and then add the egg and vanilla.  Add the other ingredients and mix.  Press dough evenly into the bottom of a cake pan.  You can line the pan with waxed paper if you desire.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  

Rollo Cookies (Jan Walker)

I first tried these cookies in high school when my best friend's mother made them.  She is an exceptional cook, and I always loved going to her home where she always had freshly baked bread to snack on.  I also remember her canned dilly beans, her two pantries with flour and other baking staples, and her really good Sunday dinners.  She is an amazing cook!  She was also one of my church leaders when I was a youth, and her testimony of Jesus Christ was apparent in everything she did, which I really appreciated.  Her, as well as many others, helped me gain my own faith in Jesus Christ.  

These cookies are a little bit of a pain because I have never found Rollos that were not wrapped in foil. Consequently, each one has to be unwrapped individually.  There is a lot of time put into these cookies; they are something I rarely make anymore because I have plenty of other demands on my time.  

Rollo Cookies

2 3/4 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 c. brown sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

3/4 c. cocoa

1 c. white sugar

2 cubes butter

2 eggs

1/2 c. walnuts and/or pecans (optional)

almond bark for drizzling

Mix all together except the nuts.  To make cookies, roll a small amount of the dough over each Rollo.  Dip the balls into sugar and then nuts.  Bake at 375 for 6 minutes.  Yields 72 small cookies.

When cookies are done and cooled, melt almond bark and drizzle it over the cookies (just a small amount to make them look nice; don't cover the whole cookie). 

Pumpkin Spice Cookies (SUPER EASY!)

Pumpkin Spice Cookies:

1 box spice cake mix

1 small can pumpkin pie filling (15 oz)

chocolate chips, raisins, craisins, and/or nuts

Mix together and drop onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes.  

Gorilla Poops! (No-Bake Cookies) Jill Adams

My oldest sister always made these and called them gorilla poops.  As I got older, I realized that nobody else calls them this (including my husband), and really, it's not a very appetizing name.  I began to believe that my sister made up this name on her own until one day not too long ago a Facebook friend of mine referred to them by the name of gorilla poops.  I was surprised, and a little excited to know that my family was not the only ones.  For all the rest of you, here are "No-Bake Cookies".

Gorilla Poops, No-Bake Cookies

1/2 c. butter

2 c. sugar

1/2 c. milk

2-3 tbs. cocoa (I use 3)

Bring to a boil, turn to low, and cook for 3 minutes.  Immediately add:

1/2 c. peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla

4 or more cups of oatmeal, depending on your preference.  

Drop by spoonsful onto waxed paper.  

English Muffins

English Muffins

1 c. warm milk

2 tbs. yeast

2 tbs. sugar

1 c. warm water

1/4 c. melted shortening

1 tsp. salt

5-6 c. flour

-In a stand-up mixer combine water, milk, shortening sugar, and yeast.  Let the yeast dissolve about 5 minutes.  Add other ingredients and mix well like bread.  Roll out 1/2" thick. Cut with a biscuit cutter, glass, or empty tuna can.  Sprinkle waxed paper with cornmeal and place the cut muffins on it.  Let rise 30 minutes.  Coon on greased griddle about medium heat 10 minutes on each side.  Very Yummy with grape jam!!

Feather-Light Overnight Rolls

This is the best recipe to make if you don't have a stand-up mixer like a Bosch or a Kitchen Aid because it doesn't need to be kneaded!  The rolls are super light and fluffy; the best I've had.  I have also frozen the rolls prior to rising and baking and that works pretty good too.  FYI: this is a huge recipe!  It makes 6 dozen rolls.  So if you don't have a lot of cookie sheets and cooling racks, then I'd definitely half the recipe.

Feather-Light Overnight Rolls:

1 c. water

1 c. butter (2 sticks)

3/4 c. sugar

2 tsp. salt

1 c. cold water

2 tbs. yeast

1/2 c. warm water 

4 eggs, beaten

7 1/2 c. flour

In a large saucepan bring 1 cup water to a boil.  Add the 1 cup butter, sugar, and salt.  Remove from heat.  Add the 1 cup cold water.  Separately, dissolve 2 tbs. yeast in 1/2 c. warm water.  When the first mixture is lukewarm, add yeast mixture and beaten eggs.  Stir briefly.  Add flour and stir together.  THIS WILL BE A REALLY WET DOUGH!  Resist the urge to add more flour.  Cover the pan with a lid and refrigerate overnight.

Divide dough into six equal parts.  Lightly flour surface and roll out each portion into a large circle about 1/2" thick and 12" in diameter. Spread melted butter over the dough.  Cut the dough into 12 wedges with a pizza cutter by first cutting the dough into 4 pie pieces and then cutting each 1/4 into 3 more pie pieces.  Roll up each pie piece starting with the wide end to form a crescent roll.  Tuck the end underneath the roll and place on a greased cookie sheet. 

Let rise about 3-4 hours (like while you are gone to church is the perfect time, especially because there are not little bodies around to get into them while they raise).  Bake at 400 degrees about 8-10 minutes.  

Note: These rolls will rise a lot!  So don't cut out the initial roll very big or you'll have footballs for rolls by the time you are done.  Also, I have made these plenty of times when I only put the dough in the fridge for an hour instead of overnight.  That works too.

 Roll each portion into a circle about 12" in diameter.

Next, cut the circle into 12 equal pieces by first cutting the circle into 4 and then cutting each quarter into three pieces.
Roll up each piece starting with the fat side and then place them onto a greased cookie sheet with the "tail" tucked underneath.  This forms a crescent shaped roll as seen in the pic below.
 Cover and let rise about 4 hours or so depending on how warm your house is.  The picture below is of them risen.  Bake at 400 about 7-10 minutes.  Watch them closely.

Cinnamon Roll Cake

Cinnamon Roll Cake

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cup milk

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 c. melted butter

topping:

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 Tbs. flour

1 Tbs. cinnamon

glaze:

2 cips powdered sugar

5 Tbs. milk

1 Tsp. vanilla

Instructions:

1.  Mix flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs and vanilla together.  

2.  Stir in melted vanilla, slowly.  Pour into greased 9"x13" pan.  

3.  Mix topping ingredients all together.  Drop over cake mixture evenly.

4. Swirl your topping and cake mixture with a knife going up and down the length of the pan.  

5. Bakre at 350 dergrees 28-32 minutes.

6.  Drizzle with glaze while the cake is still warm. ENJOY!!

Chicken Noodle Soup

When I make Chicken Noodle Soup I don't follow any kind of recipe, except for the noodle making part.  But if I had to write something down, this would be closest to it.  You will notice in my picture that I didn't have any celery on hand . . . oops! Oh well, I had already started to make it before I realized this fact.

Chicken Noodle Soup

*About 8 cups water

*chicken bouillon (1 tsp for every cup of water you use)
*2 c. chopped carrots  

*2 c. chopped celery 

*2-3 small potatoes, cut into small bite-sized pieces

*3/4 c. onion

*garlic clove, minced

*2 c. cooked and cut chicken
 * uncooked noodles (see recipe below)

*can cream of chicken soup

Boil potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, noodles, and garlic in about 8 cups or more water flavored with bouillon.  When everything is done (about 10-12 minutes), add cream of chicken soup and cooked chicken.  Add salt and pepper, garlic salt, or more bouillon depending on taste preferences.  

Noodles

1 egg, beaten    2 Tbs. milk
½ tsp. salt         1 c. flour

**Mix all together, use your hands if needed.  Turn out onto well-floured surface and roll thin.  Cut with pizza cutter into thin noodles.  Drop into boiling water. It takes about as long to cook them as it does to cook the vegetables, so add everything around the same time.  MY BOYS LOVE NOODLES, I usually triple the recipe!

Note: Sometimes when I am in a hurry, I cheat and use the premade noodles from Costco.  They are not as good, but they work.  If I do use these, they take longer to cook so I add them to my bouillon and water very first thing and they get a head start on cooking while I cut up the vegetables.  They take about 18-20 minutes to cook and the carrots, potatoes, celery etc. will take about 12 minutes.  

--Ways to cook your chicken:  I use my own bottled chicken which is super convenient, but you can also boil your chicken in chicken bouillon, water, and garlic for about 20 minutes and then shred it.  What's even better is to cook chicken in your crock-pot all day with water, bouillon, and garlic on low about 6-8 hours.  This is the tastiest and most tender way.  

Popeye Pancakes

This recipe has many names, puffed pancakes: German pancakes, baked pancakes.  In my family wee call them popeye pancakes.  

Popeye Pancakes

1 c. flour

1 c. milk

6 eggs

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cube butter

Melt butter and pour into a 9"x13" glass pan.  In a blender, blend flour, milk, eggs, vanilla, and salt and pout into the pan with the melted butter. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  

Whole Wheat Muffins

Despite the fact that these are whole wheat, they are not the healthiest food.  But  they are yummy.

Whole Wheat Muffins:

1 cube butter, melted

1 egg

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. brown sugar (firmly packed)

2 c. whole wheat flour

1 tsp. soda

1 c. milk

Mix liquid ingredients first, then add dry ingredients.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.  

Bread Soup Bowls

Bread Soup Bowls

1 c. warm water

1 c. warm milk

3 tbs. yeast

1/2 c. shortening

1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs

2 tsp. salt

6- 6 1/2 c. flour

Pour warm water and milk in a stand-up mixer.  Sprinkle the yeast over top, and the sugar over top of that.  Mix it for a second so the yeast gets wet and can start to activate.  Add the other ingredients and 3 cups of the flour.  Let mix until smooth.  Then slowly add the rest of the flour until a nice soft dough that is not overly sticky to the touch if formed.  Let knead for at least 5 minutes.  Cut dough into 10 equal pieces and form like large round rolls.  Place on two different greased cookie sheets.  Let rise until double.  Bake at 350 degrees 20-25 minutes.  

I know the dough has enough flour when the sides of the mixer are clean.  As the dough mixes, add a little flour at a time until the sides of the bowl are scraped clean by the dough as it mixes.  

Form dough into 10 large round rolls.  Place on greased cookie sheet with plenty of space between them.  Obviously, you will need 2 cookie sheets. 

Cover and let rise until double in size.

  

Bake at 350 about 20-25 minutes.  

Cut the top off each soup bowl and then carefully remove the inside of the bowl.  Save it to eat with butter or jam on the side.

Basic Granola

I like this granola because it can be as simple or etravagant as you want it to be.  Most often, I don't have nuts, dried fruit, m&m's, flax seed, and all that fun stuff on hand to throw in.  But that's ok, it doesn't stop me from making granola.  And if I do have something to add, well then I can do that too. This is also a good cold cereal alternative.

Basic Granola

3 c. old-fashioned rolled oats

3 Tbs. brown sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/3 c. honey

1/4 c. canola oil

1 tsp. vanilla

1.  Heat oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together oats, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon.

2.  In another bowl, stir together honey, canola oil and vanilla.  Dump this over the oat mixture and combine everything thouroughly.  Get your hands in it to mix everything well, and to coat the oats evenly with the honey mixture.  

3.Spread the mixture in a thin, even layer on a baking sheet and place on the center rack of the oven.  Bake, stirring after 15 minute, until the granola is a very light golden brown.  It will take 20-30 minutes depending on your desired "toastiness".  

4.  Cool the granola completely, stirring it around so it doesn't stick together.  (It hardens as it cools.)

5.  Mix in nuts, fruits, or whatever is desired (or nothing at all).