Daily Thoughts · Meats

Hello From Sunny California

Can I just write to brag about the glorious weather we are having out here? It has been just beautiful and we have sat outside drinking our coffee/tea, downing the most glorious pastries from Portal Bakery in Glendale, people watching (and yes, I have to admit, dealing with a “little?” deisel fumes from thousands of cars driving by, but still, you get the picture, you can take a few fumes when the weather is so gorgeous.

Anyway, I was reading in my new Paula Deen magazine on the plane ride here and say something that I wanted to share with you. When you are wanting to make meat pies, like chicken cobblers/pot pies or beef and you don’t want to take the time to make or roll out pastry, use crust croutons, mixed with French Fried onion rings you buy in the can. This makes a most tasty dish and you can mix these two and crumble them over the top of your pot pie. Bake at 350 for about 25 min and you have one delicious pot pie. Try it and let me know what you think. I cannot wait to get home and try this. Just knowing the two ingredients she mentions, you know it is going to taste great.

Daily Thoughts

Sunny California

What a most glorious day. We awoke to the sun shinning and not a cloud in the sky. We decided to go to Lake Ave Church and was so blessed. After church Randy said that he had our whole day planned. We were now off to Marstens for breakfast and we sat on the patio and had breakfast, just enjoying the sunshine and the great food. Then we headed over to Simi Valley to tour the Ronald Reagan library. Unbelieveably beautiful. The grounds alone were worth the trip out. Then the Air Force One which was on site for us to tour was just a highlight for us. We had a picture taken of us going onto the plane, so we came away with a great picture of us both giving it the ole “Presdential wave”. We came home and walked around downtown Pasadena and stopped at Il Fornio for pasta and salad. Now, we are back at the hotel, just thinking back about our wonderful first day of vacation here in California. Will keep you posted on our adventures as we anticipate each upcoming day….gotta run, Brad and Angie just called and want us to come over for coffee……….talk to you tomorrow!

Desserts

Old Fashioned Tea Cakes

1 cup butter (no substitutions)

1 3/4 up sugar

2 eggs

3 cups flour

1/2 teas baking soda

1/2 teas salt

1/4 teas ground nutmet

1 teas vanilla

In bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Stir into the creamed mixture. Knead dough for a few minutes on a floured board until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until firm.

Preheat oven to 325. On a lightly floured surface *(this is where I deviated from the recipe and used the shape and cut method), roll the dough hout to 1/4 ” in thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 1/2 ” apart onto cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the oven. Allow to cool on cookies sheets for 5 min before removing and putting on a wire rack to cool completely. I sprinkled powdered sugar over half of mine and the other half, I used cinnamon sugar to sprinkle over before baking………

Daily Thoughts · Desserts

FYI on easy shaping and cutting cookies

OK, I discovered something today that I wanted to share with you. I am making old fashion tea cakes to take to one of our friends when we go to California tomorrow. He had told Randy one day that his grandmother use to make this wonderful little cakes that he always remembered, but had not had in years (this is after Randy had been talking about how much I like to bake and then offered to have me bake some for him). So…..I am off to the internet to find a recipe after not being able to locate them in any of mine. The instructions say to roll out onto floured board and cut into desired shapes. I did not have the time to do all that today, so……….I found a round can the size of what I wanted the cookies to be. Washed it out. Dried it and sprayed it with Pam. Stuffed dough in the can, making sure it was packed solid into the can, filling it up completely. Then I turned the can open side down onto waxed paper. I opened the closed end of the can, leaving the lid in place. Using my hand, I used the lid to slide out the dough onto waxed paper. I sliced the cookies 1/4 ” thick and laid them on the cookie sheet and baked them. It was so easy and fast and they are delicious. I sprinkled powdered sugar over them as they were cooling on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes. So they are uniform in size, nicely shaped and a great little cookie to eat with hot tea of coffee. I hope our “friend” (that I have never met) is not disappointed. If he doesn’t like them, we will have them with our Starbucks while sitting on the California freeways this week. Will post the recipe after I take a break and have a cookie with my Dr. Pepper.

Starches

Rice Pilaf

2 cups rice

1 can french onion soup

1 can beef broth

1 can of water

1/2 cup of butter

Melt butter in dish which you have sprayed with Pam. Add all ingredients and cover and bake for 45 to 50 min in a 350 degree oven. Remove from oven and remove lid. Stir with a fork.

Meats

Lemon Rosemary Chicken

This is a delicious dish, and have made it for company numerous times. It always gets rave reviews. It is simple, and looks so pretty and has a remarkable flavor.

1 baking chicken

2 sliced and deseeded lemons

1 onion sliced

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

1 tables Lawry’s Seasoning Salt

2 cloves of fresh garlic

Wash and dry chicken. Between the skin and meat, stuff about 6 to 7 lemon slices and the sprigs of rosemary and cloves of garlice. Place rest of onion and lemon inside cavity of chicken. Sprinkle the Seasoning Salt, along with pepper all over the chicken. Sprinkle more garlice powder if desired. Bake in a covered dish for about 1 1/2 hours or until done at 350. I usually cook the rice pilaf, to go along with this. The flavor is just amazing and it looks so pretty on the platter. Use fresh rosemary and a couple slices of the lemon to lay around the chicken to serve.

Desserts

Coconut and Banana Mini Cheesecakes

3 cups vanilla wafer crumbs

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

6 tables melted butter

2  (8 oz) softened cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1 medium banana, mashed

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tables banana liqueur (if you do not want to buy this, just use vanilla and decrease the amount to 1 tables)

1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Sliced banana and toasted coconut (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. In a medium bowl, combine crumbs, brown sugar and melted butter. Press into bottom and half-way up sides of 2 (12-cup) mini cheesecake pans. Bake 6 minutes. cool completely. *(Instead of doing this, if you are in a hurry, you can purchase the vanilla wafer crusts by the grahm cracker crusts at the grocery store. This recipe would fill 2 of these crusts)

Reduce heat to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, beat cream cheesea and sugar with mixer at medium speed until creamy. Beat in mashed banana until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in liqueur and coconut. Spoon batter evenly into prepared crusts. Bake 20 minutes. *if using store bought crusts you will need to bake about 30 min. Cool completely. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving. To serve remove from pans. Garnish with sliced bananas and toasted cocount and whipping cream.

*If using the store bought 9 in crust, you do not need to bake before filling the crusts with the filling. Just increase your cooking time to 30 minutes. You will also not remove from pans after the 2 hours of refrigeration. Just cut and serve directly from these pans. It is only the cupcake size pans which you would remove them from before serving.

Daily Thoughts · Soups

Tues, February 23 Tomatillo Soup

Had lunch at a friends house yesterday and she served us this most amazing soup. It is like the green chile stew that you might have read on this blog, but the tomatillos give this soup just a little different flavor and it is a lighter soup than the one previously posted. It is easy, quick to prepare and goes so well with a pan of corn bread or warm tortillas which you have spread with a bit of butter and salt. Great for those nights when you have some left over roasted chicken you bought at the store, or some saved frozen chicken you have in the freezer. It is so good. You will make it again, and again….
2 T. butter
1 onion finely chopped
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
Saute onion and garlic in the butter
Add:
1 small can chopped green chilis
1 28 oz. can chopped tomatillos (I found these in that special international section at Kroger at Frankford & Midway)
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. white pepper
32 oz. chicken broth
1/2 cup shredded chicken breast (I used the roasted chicken from Kroger)
1/2 cup uncooked rice
Cook on low/medium for about 20-30 minutes.
That’s it. 
Breads · Daily Thoughts

Miracle Monday

Hope each of you had a marvelous weekend. I was so ready to write yesterday, but my computer would not let me on the internet, so all my thoughts had to be pushed back. If you are wondering what the miracle is, it is simple. It was just the miracle of some of the greatest gifts God has given to us. The gift of friendship and love, of sharing special times with friends, the abundance of “necessities” that we are so blessed to have, God’s grace and love and protection! It is with this in mind that I must tell you that though this weekend, wasn’t a long awaited trip to some far distant country, or a spa weekend, it held so many wonderful memories. The memory of just laughing with sweet friends who dined on wonderful Mexican food on Fri night, while our husbands were at church for a men’s retreat. The memory of standing over a stove on Saturday morning, stirring and stirring for almost an hour, the best candy you have ever put in your mouth. The accidents of adding too much cream by one of the “cooks” caused so much laughter, as we all knew that this “cook” wasn’t living her dream of standing over a stove, cooking…but doing it, nonetheless. What wonderful memories we can have laughing and telling our “girl” stories to each other. This was one of those weekends. They have told me to post the candy we made, and will do so tomorrow, but today, I have been requested to post these “pop in your mouth” little fudge muffins. This weather will make you appreciate these wonderful little mouthfulls of sweet, light chocolatey muffins.

Fudge Muffins

4 (1 oz) squares of semi sweet chocolate

1 cup butter

1 3/4 cup sugar

1 cup flour

4 eggs

1 teas vanilla

1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Melt Chocolate with butter over low heat or in microwave. Stir in remaining ingredients, except vanilla. Stir in eggs 1 at a time. Add vanilla and nuts (if desired). Fill minature muffin pans, which you have sprayed with Pam, 3/4 full. Bake at 325 degrees for about 23 to 25 minutes. Let cool before removing from pans. You can sprinkle powdered sugar over these. Serve with hot tea of coffee. These also freeze well, so could be thawed and served when unexpected guests arrive.

Desserts

Cheerio Treats

These are addicting! One of my bestest friends brought these over one day and said that she made them for her grandchildren who are in their teens and every time they were in town, they requested these from her. They are simple to make and just hit the spot when you are hungry for something, but not too terribly sweet. Thank you Cora for introducing me to something else to have to give up when I have my first heart attack.

Melt in microward:

3 tables butter

10 oz miniature marshmallows

1/2 cup peanut butter, creamy or crunchy

When melted, stir and add the following:

5 cups plain cheerios

1 cup M&M’s (peanut or plain)

Stir and press into a long glass pan (9 by 13). When cool, cut into squares.