Pumpkin Cheeseball Recipe

Border courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net #100281214
Click photo for printable recipe

I'm really into pumpkin these days! The pies, the cakes, the cookies, the hot drinks, and now The CHEESEBALL! Yummy! There is just so much that can be done with this versatile autumn fruit besides the Halloween jack-o-lantern.

We did not have much space in our little repurposed dog kennel garden for large produce, but my grandson and I were thrilled to have successfully grown 1 pie pumpkin in its own 2 foot square pumpkin patch. He was so glad to finally be allowed to pick it. 

Even if you do not have your own homegrown squash, the canned variety will work just fine to make this wonderful hors d'oeuvre. Add your favorite snack crackers and you're good to go! 

Homemade Yogurt and Blueberry Sauce

There has been a lot of activity in our kitchen lately! Some of it has to do with the recent remodeling projects. (That's another post for another day.) Some of it has been experimenting with a simple way to make yogurt.

"Why?" you ask.

Two reasons:

1. We spend wa-a-a-a-ay too much money on yogurt at the grocery store. (The Bear and I can easily put away 3 cartons a day. Even with coupons and sales we spend at least $2.50 a day or $17.50 a week since he eats 2 cartons of Greek style and I eat at least 1 of whatever style we have available.
2. Neither one of us needs the additional bovine growth hormone that I fear might be in some of the yogurt we consume. He is a man. I am a post-menopausal woman. Enough said. The only ways I know to avoid this hormone are to buy only organic - which would be wa-a-a-a-ay more expensive than what I'm spending now - and I don't want to spend a lot of money on yogurt (see #1 above); or make it myself using non-hormone injected cow's milk. Uh, I choose the latter option.

After a bit of experimentation I have come upon a nice method for making it using equipment and supplies I already had on hand, unless you count the cheese cloth that I bought because I was out of it. Oh, and 1 carton of organic plain yogurt as my starter. (Bought on sale and with a coupon.)

My equipment: a large dutch oven for heating the milk and a pressure cooker/canner for incubating a batch. Also, 2 quart-size mason jars with lids, a funnel, a wooden spoon, cheesecloth, and a candy thermometer.

Steps for making yogurt:

• Pour 8 cups of milk into dutch oven. (That's 1/2 gallon of milk. No matter what price you pay for your milk this method will be a whole lot cheaper than buying 8 cups of yogurt!)
• Heat your milk to 180 degrees while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Use a meat or candy thermometer for accurate measurement. My candy thermometer does a great job helping me make yogurt but it has never helped me make good candy! My holiday fudge always turns into a disaster. Or a nice fudge sauce. Depends on how you market your product. Which is why one of our family traditions includes celebrating Christmas with hot fudge sundaes. :)
• After the milk has reached the desired temperature it needs to be taken off the burner and allowed to cool until it reaches 110 degrees. If you let it sit too long just put it back on the heat until it reaches the desired 110 degree temperature.
• Stir 1/4 cup of cultured organic yogurt into your warm milk. I always use a wooden spoon when making ANYTHING that uses a starter (sourdough bread, friendship bread, etc.). It is probably an unnecessary precaution since the milk is heated in a stainless steel pan, but I do it anyway because somewhere in the back of my mind is the thought that metal kills live cultures. Not sure why that thought is there. Anyway. . .
• Using a clean funnel, pour the warm cultured milk into 2 clean mason jars. Place lids on them. These lids can be reused for each batch because you will not be sealing them to the jars.

• Place the jars on the rack in the pressure cooker/canner. As you can see, my canner holds 5 quarts but that would be a bit too much yogurt, even for The Bear and me. Actually, it would be a bit too much for my refrigerator. Now that I know how to make this quickly 2 quarts at a time is plenty.

• Place water in the canner so that the level is about 1/2 way up the sides of the jars. Heat the water until it reaches 110 degrees. Then turn off the stove.
• Once the proper temperature is reached, put the lid on the pressure cooker but DO NOT add the pressure gauge. The idea is to keep the cultured milk incubating, not cooking!
• Open the pressure cooker every 2 or 3 hours to check on the temperature of the water. If it feels too cool turn the stove on "low" for a short time. DO NOT ALLOW THE WATER TEMPERATURE TO RISE TOO HIGH! If you do, it will kill your cultures. Ask me how I know.
• Go to bed. Really. I start my yogurt about mid-afternoon and I check the water temperature two or three times, the last time being right before I retire for the night.
• Wake up to 2 jars of fresh, creamy yogurt!
• I always take out 1/4 cup of cultured yogurt and place it in a separate container in the refrigerator before I do anything else. This is the starter for the next batch.

Strain some of your yogurt using cheese cloth to make Greek style. The Bear likes the thicker curds of this style of yogurt. I'm not particular. 

Use the milky liquid, the whey, that results from the straining in place of buttermilk in pancake or biscuit recipes. It makes them light and fluffy!

Stir spoonfuls of homemade jam and jelly into your individual yogurt servings. I use strawberry jam, peach jam, and apple jelly. Since The Bear and I are partial to blueberry flavored yogurt I make blueberry sauce and keep it in the refrigerator near the yogurt. (Recipe below!)

Blueberry Sauce

This blueberry sauce is adapted from the Blueberry Pie Deluxe recipe found in The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan. (The whole pie is excellent, too!)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh or thawed blueberries
1/4 cup water
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:
Combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan. Add the blueberries and water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture boils, thickens, and clears. Remove from heat. Stir in the butter and the lemon juice. Cool. Then refrigerate.

Place about 2 Tablespoons of the filling on top of your regular or Greek homemade yogurt. Delicious!

Hungry? Try This Pancake Recipe

source

I know this isn't a cooking blog, but I have got to share with you this amazing recipe that I discovered yesterday for the most delicious pancakes I have EVER made (or eaten)! They were tasty, light, and fluffy. As a matter of fact they disappeared so fast that I didn't get a picture so I had to borrow one.

I have never been a fan of buttermilk. Meaning, I can't stand to drink the stuff! But I have become a huge fan of baking with it. My homemade biscuits and pancakes have been better than usual lately and it has got to  be the buttermilk! It isn't just the taste of the finished product. It's the consistency!

So here is the recipe I devised for our pancake supper last night:

Sift together in a large bowl (I used a large Pampered Chef Batter Bowl):

1 1/4 cup flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

(I don't care if the flour says it is presifted. Sift it anyway! I sifted the dry ingredients together earlier in the day while the kids were down for their naps and did the following steps when we were ready to eat breakfast for our dinner.)

Add the following to the dry mixture:

Cut 2 Tablespoons shortening into the dry ingredients in the bowl with a pastry blender (again, mine came from Pampered Chef) until the mixture resembles crumbs.

Beat 1 egg in a separate cup. Then dump it into the flour-shortening mixture.

Add buttermilk. (Start with 1 cup and then add more 1/4 cup at a time until it reaches the consistency that you like for either thick or thin cakes. I used about 1 1/2 cups.)

Mix well with a wire whisk.

Fry on a lightly greased, hot griddle, turning when done around edges and bubbly in the middle.

****

The next time I make these I'm going to be sure that I have both real butter and maple syrup on hand! Why allow margarine and maple-flavored boiled sugar to cheapen the taste?

And if you need any Pampered Chef items feel free to contact my daughter, Elisabeth (aka Lisa), who is my own personal PC consultant.  :)

Wednesday's Wisdom: A Few Random Thoughts

Getting behind in my posting recently has served as a reminder that neglecting the blog schedule is one thing but neglecting the Bible reading schedule is quite another. My first word of wisdom is that as you reach a busy time in your life, which these days pretty much covers anyone who lives in the northern hemisphere, make your Bible reading and prayer time your top priority. Nothing is more important than spending time with the Lord. Relationships become weak and sickly whenever they are neglected and the same holds true for the spiritual relationship.

Speaking of relationships, it will not be long until we celebrate the day I officially became a mother. I say officially because I cradled my daughter in my womb many months before I cradled her in my arms. Anyway, in honor of the "second anniversary of her 29th birthday" my oldest daughter, Karen, is having a give-away on her blog. The wise person will register to win this fabulous prize. Does that mean I'm going to enter? Of course!

And speaking of birthdays, it was pointed out by my friend, Vicky, that I did not post a link to the recipe I used last week when making strawberry pies for The Bear's birthday. That was probably because I had the recipe written on a piece of paper and not bookmarked on the computer. But that has been corrected now and I am more than happy to share the recipe and give the person that submitted it the credit due them.  You can find the recipe here.

There were a few suggestions under "reviews" that I intend to try (see #5 below the recipe at the link) but the recipe I used was almost exactly like the original at the link. I may cut the sugar back a bit as one reviewer suggested.

And as a final tip, let me suggest that it is wise to shop frugally for the ingredients. I bought store brand pie crusts for the sake of time but homemade crusts would have greatly reduced the price. The same could be said for whipped cream made from heavy cream and piped onto the pies with a tube decorator (I'm a bit snobbish when it comes to whipped cream because I prefer the real thing over the topping in tubs) but a can of the real stuff had to suffice. There was just barely enough in the can to go around the two pies.  The cost of the pies (minus crusts and cream) breaks down as follows:

• 3 quart cartons of strawberries (used 2 1/2 for the pies) = $2.50. Aldi had them for $0.99 per carton;
• 1 package of strawberry gelatin = $0.34 from Aldi
• 3/4 cup of sugar = who knows but not much; I estimate less than $0.25 based upon 11 1/4 cups per 5 lb bag
• candles = recycled from previous birthday parties; rare is the person in this family who gets new candles (and when they do it gets deducted from the cost of their gift. Just kidding).

And if you've read this far perhaps you'd like to see what happened to the leftover strawberries and a few melted chocolate chips:

They don't look as pretty as they would have if moved to a another platter but The Birthday Boy requested them at the last minute.

Resurrection Cookies

This is a recipe that we have used for many years. It was shared throughout the homeschool community beginning in the early '90s. We've been making these since The Bear was a little scrapper, if not before his birth.

I vividly remember making these the night before Easter in the year 2000 because The Bear began asking spiritual questions while we made them together. It was then that he first became aware of his sin and his need for a risen savior. The cookies are tasty, but the gospel message is even more appetizing so do not skip the most important ingredient: reading the Bible passages!

RESURRECTION COOKIES

To be made the evening before Easter.

Ingredients and supplies:
1c. whole pecans
1 tsp. vinegar
3 egg whites
a pinch of salt\
1 c. sugar
zipper baggie
wooden spoon,
tape
oven
Bible

Step 1:  Preheat oven to 300 BEFORE BEGINNING.   This is very important!

Step 2:  Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested He was beaten by the Roman soldiers. Read John 19:1-3.

Step 3:  Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp. vinegar into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross he was given vinegar to drink. Read John 19:28-30.

Step 4:  Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life. Read John 10:10-11.

Step 5:  Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin. Read Luke 23:27.

Step 6: So far the ingredients are not very appetizing.  Add 1 c. sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know this and how to belong to Him. Read Ps. 34:8 and John 3:16.

Step 7:  Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus. Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

Step 8:  Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. Read Matt. 27:57-60.

Step 9:  Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF.  Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. Read Matt.27:65-66.

Step 10:  GO TO BED! Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. Read John 16:20 and 22.


Step 11:  On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Easter Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty! Read Matt. 28:1-9

Pork Chops and Stuffing Recipe (Frugal Sunday 4/10/11)

Okay, it wasn't fair to put a picture of the main course here and then not put the recipe or the cost analysis. I'm about to correct that.

The original recipe was one that I discovered on an old computer recipe program that I had back in the '90s. Back in those days I didn't modify the recipe because my family liked it "as is." And then one day I came to the conclusion that I really didn't like it so I started experimenting. Here's my recipe for pork chops and stuffing. A doubled portion of chops is shown in the picture because I intended to feed 10 people.

You'll need the following:

4 or 5 porkchops
1 box of cornbread stuffing mix
1 can of creamed corn
brown sugar
Dijon mustard
water
chopped celery, and more chopped onion and/or spices to taste (optional)

Stuffing: Open the box and take out the packets of stuffing and herbs (they might be separate packages depending on brand). Mix these with the creamed corn and any additionals you wish to add. Spread these dry ingredients on the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan. The stuffing box tells how much water to use. Measure the water and pour it over the stuffing mix in the pan.

Pork chops: Lay pork chops over the stuffing. Mix enough brown sugar with the Dijon mustard to make a glaze. The amount will depend upon the number of chops in the pan. I use a ratio of 3:1 of brown sugar to mustard for each pork chop. Usually this equates to 1 tablespoon of brown sugar to 1 teaspoon of mustard for each piece of meat. Slather the glaze generously over the chops.

Bake uncovered in an oven that has been preheated to 375 degrees. Check the meat after 45 minutes for doneness. There should be no pink. If they aren't completely cooked put them back in the oven and check every 5 minutes until they are done.



This is a tasty recipe. The pork juices soak into the stuffing and add just a bit of flavor and a touch of a crust to the cornbread. (In my opinion the original unmodified recipe resulted in a stuffing that was too dry and crunchy.) The glaze on the chops helps to seal in the moisture of the meat and yet add a tart-sweet flavor.

The bottom line for cost? Believe it or not, I know almost to the penny.

The meat is the expensive component (as always!) and I paid $13.78 for the ten big chops that were on sale last week. I used 2 boxes of Stove Top Stuffing that I bought on sale and combined with coupons several months ago. This made the name brand cheaper than the store brand (which is $1.59) because they cost me $1.29 each for a total of $2.58. The canned corn was $0.50 a few weeks ago. The cost of the brown sugar and mustard were negligible in such small portions. So $13.78 + 2.58 + 0.50 = $16.86. Divide this by 10 and the cost of the main entry was less than $1.70 per portion.

We had a couple of vegetable dishes and home made (scratch) rolls as sides. I made yellow cake with fudge icing for dessert. The meal came in well under my target of $2.50 per person and those who got to eat it here (Pastor Dad, The Bear and his buddies, and myself) plus our own Meals on Wheels delivery service (Princess and her family) seemed to enjoy it. The Bear was especially impressed by the fact that I'd made homemade rolls.

Let Them Eat Quiche

I had all of those lovely bread crumbs from the dried out hamburger buns that I'd run through the food processor the week before and I didn't know what to do with them.   I didn't want to coat any more meats or fish before frying them and I certainly didn't want to throw the crumbs away. Wasting food is definitely not frugal!

I had the idea of using them to make a pie crust but I wasn't sure that this was possible.  I found this site here which told me that it most assuredly is.  Armed with this knowledge, I pressed on!  (Pun intended.)

I had 3 cups of crumbs that I combined with 3 tablespoons of melted butter in the bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie plate.  I then froze the resulting shell.

Later, I took a basic quiche recipe of 4 beaten eggs combined with 3/4 cups of half and half and modified it.  I didn't have half and half but I did have a carton of heavy whipping cream (thanks Karen and Philip) that I used instead.  I did this by combining 1/2 cup of skim milk with 1/4 of the cream.

I had never made a quiche before.  We only have real men around here so I'd never attempted one.  (What?  You don't remember that book?  Real Men Don't Eat Quiche, I think it was called.)  Anyway, real men or not, mine were in for a somewhat kitschy quichey meal.

The big decision was what to put in the quiche.  We were out of all cheese except for a slice of American and none of the usual quiche filling ingredients were available either so I improvised again.  It turns out that we had a couple of banana peppers in the freezer and a jar of chunky salsa in the refrigerator.  Hmm. That salsa would definitely add some veggies to this meal!   I took about 1/2 cup of the salsa and slices of one pepper and added them to the egg batter.

I then poured the batter into the frozen shell and set my concoction into a preheated 350 degree oven.  It took about 45 minutes to bake and that was with me checking often after the first half hour to see if it was done.  I did this by inserting a bamboo skewer into it often (we're out of toothpicks, too).  When the skewer was clean, the dish was done.

The final touch was to tear up that piece of cheese and place it on top of the warm quiche.  It promptly melted and I spread it as best I could with a knife.

The Bear looked at my concoction with a skeptical eye.  Evidently he has also heard that real men don't eat quiche even though he wasn't even alive when that book first came out.  He asked me what this dish is called.

Not to be outdone I told him that it is called "Scrambled Eggs With Salsa On Buttered Toast."  (Hey!  I can call it anything I want!)  He loves scrambled eggs.  He loves buttered toast.  He ate it and he liked it!  Adding a serving of bratwurst sausage complemented the um, scrambled eggs, and used up another meat found at the bottom of my freezer.

Frugal Sunday Menu 4/3/2011

We returned home from the funeral in Tennessee last Saturday evening and had to prepare many things for the next day, including Sunday dinner.  As part of my Great Freezer Cleanout of 2011 I checked to see what was available to fix our crowd. 

I was very blessed.  One of the things in the freezer was a 3 lb. bag of skinless, boneless chicken breasts that I'd bought on sale a few weeks earlier.  A check of the pantry showed canned chicken bouillon.  Using these ingredients I was able to make a stock-pot full of chicken and dumplings.  The dumplings were made from scratch which helped to keep the cost down significantly and to improve the taste (in my opinion).

Bags of store-bought vegetables (corn and broccoli) were added, as were frozen rolls.  The big splurge of the day was a frozen store-bought turtle pie (also bought on sale) because I had no time to make a dessert. 

I have a pretty good idea of what I spent on the chicken  a few weeks ago ($5.99) and each of the veggie bags ($2.00 each).  The pie cost about $3.00.  So for about $13 I fed 11 people on Sunday and had enough chicken and dumplings left over to make lunches for 2 days.  Also, 7 of Sunday's 11 people were adults. 

Price per person on Sunday was less than $1.20 each.  Factoring in the leftover lunch portions would make the cost considerably less (below $0.90 per portion).

And the best part was that everyone liked the meal and was pleasantly surprised that we weren't forced to go out to eat due to our unexpected funeral trip.

Frugal Sunday Dinner, 3/20/2011

The date is not a mistake. Not only did we not eat here yesterday, but I did not have opportunity last Monday to discuss the previous day's meal. We were busy with special services at church all week so my attention was focused elsewhere.

Special services also means special guests around the Sunday dinner table. As a consequence, I spent a bit more money than usual for the meal, at least I thought that at first. But upon further inspection I discovered that I actually got more mileage out of this meal than anticipated.

Our menu was a classic dinner of roast beef with gravy, baked potatoes and fixings, baked sweet potatoes, California-style veggies, and rolls. We had hot fudge cake for dessert.

The biggest problem I encountered, besides the fact that I wanted this meal to turn out well, was that I had to buy just about everything for it because there were no roasts in my freezer or potatoes in the bin. I also had no cake mix, sour cream, or time to make rolls or hot fudge sauce from scratch. In other words, I had to buy practically every ingredient. Thankfully, that doesn't happen very often. But since it did, I know that I paid exactly $44.93 for the meal. And since I know I fed 13 people that Sunday I also know the price per person to be about $3.46. OUCH!

But that's not the whole story. We had leftovers, and lots of 'em!

On Monday, I took some of the leftover roast, gravy, California veggies, and one baked potato and combined them to make beef stew. Since we had homeschool co-op all day and little time to prepare dinner before the evening church service I was able to feed the three of us a meal made from the leftovers without it seeming like we were eating leftovers.

On Tuesday, I used two of the leftover baked potatoes and combined them with milk, sour cream, and cheese to make loaded potato soup. There were enough slices of roast left (sans the gravy) for sandwiches. This was another quick meal designed for a church night.

Since there were 13 fed on Sunday and 3 each on Monday and Tuesday, the total number of people fed from that $44.93 was actually 19. This brings the cost down to $2.36 per person which is within my target parameters for a nice Sunday dinner.

As always, I'll leave you with the directions for the dessert that was served. If you have a Shoney's, Frisch's, or other restaurant that serves a hot fudge cake, then you'll know what this looks like.

HOMEMADE HOT FUDGE CAKE

Bake a chocolate cake in a 9 x 13 inch pan according to the directions on the box. Allow cake to cool but DO NOT ICE IT! When ready to assemble, cut cake into squares. Slice each cake square horizontally to make a top and bottom layer.

Place a slice of vanilla ice cream between the cake layers sandwich-style. Heat homemade or commercially prepared hot fudge sauce and place a generous portion on top of each cake/ice cream sandwich.

Put a dollop of whipped cream over the fudge sauce and finish with a cherry on the top. Serve immediately.

Makes 15 generous servings.

Frugal Sunday Dinner 3/13/2011

Our menu yesterday consisted of

• Oven-fried Chicken Parmesan
• Poultry Stuffing
• Green Beans & Potatoes
• corn
• biscuits
• Punch Bowl Cake
• ice tea and lemonade

There were 9 of us at the table yesterday.  (Baby Lili was sleeping in my bedroom.)  We had a guest preacher staying in our home also.

I wish I had taken pictures of the meal, at the very least one of the Punch Bowl Cake.  Or better yet, of Sweet Pea who sat guarding it the whole time dinner was in the oven.  Or perhaps of that moment at the table when she took a bite and started sputtering like an engine in need of a tune-up.  Until then, no one - and I mean no one - knew she didn't like coconut.  That Sweet Pea!  She sure has the potential of adding a touch of levity to any recipe!

The Punch Bowl Cake was not "Plan A" for my dessert.  I intended to serve a golden butter cake with chocolate fudge icing (the icing is my mother-in-law's recipe) but the layers fell apart coming out of their pans.  Of course!  What did I expect when there was a guest for dinner? Hence the need for "Plan B," the Punch Bowl Cake.  I think Sweet Pea wished there had been a "Plan C."   

Anyway, besides the corn that came out the freezer, the biscuits, and the drinks, I will share where I found the recipes.  You'll need to use your imagination to see it.

The Oven-Fried Chicken Parmesan recipe was from The Kraft Cookbook.  It was published in 1977 to celebrate 75 years of Kraft.  I've owned the book since we married in 1978.  I doubled this recipe and used only thighs and legs that I bought on sale a couple of weeks ago.  Every other ingredient is a staple around here, including the parmesan cheese.

The recipe for Poultry Stuffing is in the book Fix-It and Forget-It Recipes for Entertaining, a slow cooker recipe book.  This recipe was a good way of using some of the free bread that I've been blessed with in abundance in recent weeks.  I put a loaf through the food processor and we were in business!  At one point our visiting preacher joked that he thought I was making bread pudding, which means he must've thought the Punch Bowl Cake had fizzled and that I'd moved on to "Plan C" for dessert.  Very funny!  Hmm. On second thought, I wonder if Sweet Pea likes bread pudding?  Maybe we'll find out next week.

I used a recipe for Green Beans & Potatoes from Busy People's Slow Cooker Cookbook.  It was very good and used bacon bits for texture and flavor.  Canned beans are the basis for this recipe.

The Punch  Bowl Cake was also found in a cookbook, but one compiled for a fundraiser.  And since the person who submitted the recipe is my aunt, I don't think she will mind if I share it.  Come to think of it, I think she got this recipe from me in the first place because I was making this dessert several years before this cookbook was published.  Either way, no one will care that I share.

Punch Bowl Cake



1 pkg. butter recipe cake mix
2 6-serving packages of vanilla instant pudding (my store doesn't sell this size anymore so I used 3 4-serving sizes instead)
5 c. milk
3 bananas, sliced
2 (20 oz.) cans of cherry pie filling
2 (20 oz.) cans of crushed pineapple, drained
1 1/3 c. coconut (which shall be omitted in the future thanks to Sweet Pea!)
1 (16 oz.) container of frozen whipped topping
pecans, chopped (which I had already omitted because others in the family don't like nuts)

Bake the cake according to directions and allow to cool. Break into pieces (my cake did this for me, sigh)  and place in the bottom of punch bowl.  Beat pudding and milk.  Cover cake with half of pudding, half of bananas, 1 can of pie filling followed by 1 can of pineapple, half the coconut.  Repeat the layers.  Spread whipped topping over the top and garnish with nuts and more coconut if desired.  Refrigerate overnight.


The worst part about the punch bowl cake is that it takes up so much space in my already over-crowded refrigerator!  This is where the crock-pot recipes were helpful.  Many of their ingredients are shelf items and very little that had to be prepared ahead needed to be refrigerated.  And I did use both crockpots again yesterday.

It was a little bit harder to determine the cost per person for this meal.  We had left-overs of everything, including the chicken, so Pastor Dad, The Bear, and I will get another meal out of this.  Obviously this increases the number of people it will feed and diminishes the cost per serving.   My most expensive items were the chicken at about $7 (the total cost on the packages), and the canned goods for the dessert that I bought on an emergency run back to the store.    There's no way this meal cost more than $1.75 per person and I'd say that estimate is high even though the biscuits were canned (bought for less than $0.30 per can during one of the savings events of recent weeks).  

If I can keep my cost between $1.50 and $2.00 per portion each Sunday I am one happy hostess.

Frugal Sunday Dinner, 3/6/11

It was a smaller crowd than usual yesterday. First, The Bear chose the menu . . . and then forgot and went home with friends, but not before giving me strict instructions that we were to save some leftovers for him! Second, Princess and her little family had a better offer. But the rest - all 7 of us  - feasted accordingly.

These were the things on yesterday's menu:

• Mexican Chicken casserole
• Mexican rice
• Refried beans
• Mock Mexican fried ice cream

One version of "Mock Fried Ice Cream" recipe can be found here. I was inspired by this recipe but then modified it to fit our tastes by using some frugal items we had on hand. Here is my version (pictured above):

Vanilla ice cream

Honey nut Cheerios (they were on sale this week) - about 2 1/2 cups crushed

Pecans - about 1/2 cup chopped

Coconut - about 1 cup shredded

Butter - 1/2 cup melted

Light corn syrup

Honey

Whipped cream

Cinnamon

Form ice cream into balls. Crush the cereal. Mix cereal with nuts, coconut, and melted butter. Roll ice cream balls into cereal mixture.  Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and freeze until hard.

Meanwhile, mix about 1/4 of light corn syrup with 1/4 cup of honey.  When ready to serve, place one ice cream ball into serving dish.  Drizzle with honey mixture. Add a dollop of whipped cream and finish with a shake of cinnamon.   Serves about 15.

The Bear rated this an A+ (obviously we had leftovers.)


Here is the Mexican Chicken casserole that I fixed because The Bear requested it:

Cube about 1.5 lbs. of baked chicken breasts.  Place in 8 x 8 inch baking dish.  Mix 1 can of cream of chicken soup with 1 small can of red enchilada sauce.  Pour soup mixture over chicken cubes and mix well.  Crush by hand enough original flavor Dorito chips to make a crust for the top.  Place shredded cheese over the chip crust.  (The fact that I am not exact on my measurements proves that I quit measuring many years ago!)  Bake in 350 degree oven until cheese melts on top.

(I doubled this recipe for yesterday's meal.  Yes, there were leftovers enough to feed The Bear.)

This picture of the spring robin doesn't have anything to do with yesterday's meal.  It just goes to show you that I feed all my visitors well, including the birds!

This Is For the Birds!

We have some fine feathered friends living here in our neighborhood. Besides the beautiful wrens and cardinals we have a wide variety of woodpeckers that drop by each day for their meals. They range in size from the little downy woodpeckers to the large northern flickers. We used to have a pileated woodpecker as a regular visitor but we haven't seen him in a couple of years. Having him staring in the kitchen window was enough to give anyone a start!

My woodpecker friends are a lot like toddlers. They are early risers who let you know when they are ready for their breakfast. When we had toddlers in our household they would knock insistently on the bedroom door around daybreak until a sleepy parent got out of bed and fixed the food. Now we have birds knocking on the wood siding right outside our bedroom window about the time that the sun begins peaking over the horizon. Groan!

Consequently, I try to keep suet cakes in stock and to make sure that the window feeder is full before I go to bed at night. With the recent cold-and-snowy weather that we've been experiencing my bird-brained neighbors have been going through the suet cakes at an alarming rate! Thankfully, I've developed a recipe for using some of the odds-and-ends on hand to keep the feeder filled and the early morning window-knocking to a minimum.

Do you compost? I do. It's a good way of returning plant-based materials back to the soil in flower and vegetable gardens. But one of the cooking by-products that shouldn't be composted is animal fats. I recycle those by making my own suet cakes. Here is my recipe:

• 1 cup fat (bacon grease, lard, beef drippings)
• 2 1/2 cup of grain (I bake bread so I always have whole grain wheat, winter wheat, rye, or cornmeal on hand)
• 1/4 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
• 1/2 cup bird seed, millet, or sunflower seeds(The stuff that goes in the regular bird feeders)

Melt the fat and peanut butter in a saucepan. Add the grain and cook until bubbly. Remove from heat and add the seeds. If you have a suet basket and have previously bought commercially prepared cakes be sure to save 2 or 3 of the plastic cases to use as molds. Otherwise, cool until the mix is hard enough to handle and roll into balls. Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze until ready to use.

If you have leftover pieces of nuts, peanuts, blueberries, raisins, or cherries they can be added at the same time as the seed. I had a piece of left-over blueberry pie that I broke up and added to my last batch. I've had fun watching the birds digging through the fat to reach those pieces of berries.

Just remember to keep that feeder full once you take the birds on to raise. Like toddlers, they don't seem to understand the words, "No! It's too early! Go back to bed!"

Since When Are These In Such High Demand?

I was reading an article about the snow that is blanketing the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. And, yes, I know that this is a serious situation. I'm currently smack-dab in the middle of it, so I'm aware. However, something I read struck my funny bone.

The wallop of back-to-back storms is causing certain items to disappear from grocery shelves. According to the article one of those items is Brussels sprouts.

O-o-k-a-a-y.

I happen to like Brussels sprouts. Really. But if my family is a fair representation then it is safe to say that most people do not.

I know that there were other events recently besides snowstorms that precipitated (pun intended) a raid on the stores, but since when are Brussels sprouts an hors d'oeuvre served while watching the Super Bowl?

If you have such a recipe, please share. I obviously need to find a new way to present them since what I'm doing now isn't working!

Amish Friendship Bread Bonanza

If you've ever been blessed enough to be given Amish Friendship Bread starter then you know how absolutely delicious it is and also how it can overrun your household. Or the households of your friends. There's something ironic about a baked good having the word "friendship" in the title when it can literally make your friends run and hide when they see you coming to give them starter of their very own!

I've been doing some experimenting of late to see if I can remedy the situation. I think I've found a solution that will work for me and thought I'd share it just in case some of the rest of you find yourself overwhelmed from time to time. After all, feeding a starter shouldn't make us groan as though we've been awakened by an infant for a 2 a.m. feeding, or spending so much money on its feeding requirements that it is like having my teenaged son living in the house.

Here's what I've done to make my starter fit into my routine and schedule:

• Freeze it. I found that it does not hurt the integrity of the loaves because more leavening agents are added to the bread batter anyway. The starter is basically for taste, not leavening of the loaves.
• Thaw it when ready to start the 10 day countdown toward the finished product. I count the day that I take it out as Day 1.
• Don't give any of the starter away. Gasp! No, really. I take out 1 cup and return it to a gallon-sized Ziploc as per the directions, put that bag in the freezer for a month or so, and use the rest.
• Triple the bread-making recipe to make 6 loaves. Trust me on this one. If you were to remove the 4 cups of starter (3 to give to friends and 1 to keep) you would have approximately 1 1/2 cups of starter left in the bowl for making a 2-loaf batch of bread. So if you include the 3 cups that you would normally hand off to friends you can see that the recipe can be tripled to make 6 loaves.
• I mix everything up in a gigantic Tupperware that I bought years ago. I found it to be just the right size for allowing yeast bread to rise and now it also doubles as the mixing bowl for this sweet bread. As an important reminder, make sure you have enough flour, sugar, eggs, milk, and pudding mixes on hand before you begin. It is quite shocking how much of each ingredient it takes to make a triple batch.

There are a few other things I've done to the bread recipe that you might or might not like. For instance, I cut the amount of oil in half and substitute applesauce. And speaking of applesauce, the kind I use is pre-sweetened and has cinnamon added. Consequently, I cut back on the amount of sugar by about 1/3. For a triple-batch I used 2 cups as opposed to 3.

We use the loaves in a variety of ways. Since it is a dessert/breakfast bread of sorts, I tend to give the extra loaves to friends and relatives. For some reason, the same people who run away when they see you coming with a bag of starter do not run when they see bread. :)

I enjoy doing a once a month cooking marathon whenever possible. I can bake the bread once a month and dole it out accordingly. This means freezing it quickly before Bear has a chance to down a loaf or two during the cooling stage.

I'm thinking about giving my starter a name like Baby Huey or Traveling Gnome and handing him out for adoption each month. That way we could all share in his care and feeding, he'd be used once a month, and we'd each only be baking from his bounty 4 times a year. Any takers?

Getting Ready

I spent all day Saturday cooking. My freezer is now packed with enough meals to feed us throughout the month of June except for each Sunday's dinner. I don't usually make up my mind as to what I am fixing for that day until sometime on Friday. In all my attempts to get things organized I really must allow myself some things that aren't completely under control. Where's the fun in everything being organized? Well, I concede there must be some fun in it or we wouldn't be watching so many "Monk" episodes these days.

Anyway, I've done something like this before and have even borrowed cookbooks at the library on the subject in the past. If you are interested in doing a mega-cooking day, hop on over to Tricia's and Cortney's blog, appropriately named Once A Month Cooking, for their June menu. I didn't use their menu plan, but I'm sure it is excellent. My planning and preparations were underway prior to their announced menu but I have every intention of participating in a future month.

Last night the Princess came over for the evening so that we could stock her freezer, too. She, Lulu, and I prepared enough food to last her little family for a couple of weeks. She doesn't have a separate freezer so that's about all she can handle at a time. Hopefully, these will be the two weeks that the Princess is recovering from childbirth. Hint. Hint.

{We interrupt this blog post to say that as I was typing, the phone rang. Glancing at the caller i.d., I saw that it was the number of the Princess's cellphone. My heart leaped into my throat! "She's probably ready to go to the hospital," I thought. False alarm. I'd forgotten to write on the directions at what temperature to preheat the oven for the dish she's fixing tonight. Sigh.}

As I was saying, my freezer is stocked and so is the Princess's. Now we're just waiting anxiously for the birth of her little guy, whom I think should be named "Ike." If you wonder why just do a Google search on the words "Hurricane 2008 Ohio. " Mmm hmm.

Feeding The Bear

This is a topic so near and dear to my heart, stomach, and pocketbook because I am in charge of feeding the Bear and the rest of us who live with him. In fact, I feed the Bear so much and so often that I get bored with the "same 'ol same 'ol." Anyone else out there like that?

If so, click on my profile and ask to become part of my second blog called appropriately "Feeding the Bear." Just in case you're a fellow who doesn't want to participate in yet another one of your aunt's crazy blogs (Hi Nephew E!) I'm telling you now that it is a recipe exchange blog. Well, now that I think about it, Nephew E probably has some pretty tasty recipes featuring bear (not THE Bear). Eww!!!!

Anyway, all doable (by me, not a hunter) submissions will be tested by my son, the Bear, and rated accordingly.

Help me out people! I'm tired of cooking some of my old tired menu items! I need some inspiration!

You don't need to be a blogger yourself to participate. All of you "anonymous" people are welcome to join, too*. And real names will be used at that location. I want credit for my recipes, thankyouverymuch, and think you deserve it, too.

* If you know me well enough to have my email address but don't want to sign up for a Google account, that's fine. Just contact me via email. If you wish to sign up for a Google account, please do so. I had an account long before I had a blog. Anyone who doesn't know me personally, but knows someone who knows someone who knows me (like 6 degrees of separation) will be granted permission once I verify all 6 degrees. :) It's the price of giving up anonymity.

It's the Great Pumpkin (Recipe) Charlie Brown!

I love pumpkin! Nine years ago a friend gave me a wonderful recipe for Pumpkin Dump Cake that she cut from a magazine. She was even nice enough to make a sample cake for us. Wasn't that sweet?

Then a few years ago I lost the recipe and I was heartbroken. But like anything these days, I was able to immediately find a similar version online. I tried this and if it isn't the same exact recipe there isn't enough difference to quibble about.

I took this to a family reunion a couple of weeks ago and it was very well received. I hope you enjoy it.

Pumpkin Dump Cake

1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin - if you grow pumpkins like I did in TN use 1.75 c. pumpkin puree
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
4 eggs
1 c. white sugar
1.5 T pumpkin pie spice (or you can substitute cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and ground cloves)
1/2 t. salt
1 (18.25 oz) package yellow cake mix
1/2 c. butter (melted)
1 c. chopped pecans

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl whisk together the pumpkin, sugar, salt, and spices. Stir in the milk. Add eggs one at a time. Beat after each addition. Pour pumpkin mixture into the prepared pan.

Sprinkle the yellow cake mix over the pumpkin mixture, then sprinkle the pecans over that. Drizzle the melted butter over all. Bake in the preheated oven for 55 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Cool before serving.

Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream on the top.

*I recommend serving this with freshly whipped heavy cream. I always recommend freshly whipped heavy cream on almost anything! :)