All-Day Meatball Stew

We had this on Friday, and we had some of the leftovers for lunch today, which is Sunday.  There is still enough for two more servings.  So it makes a lot.  It's from Simple & Delicious.

All-Day Meatball Stew
2 pkg (12 oz each) frozen fully cooked Italian meatballs (I used a 2 lb bag)
5 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 lb fresh baby carrots
1 medium onion, halved and sliced
1 jar (4 1/2 oz) sliced mushrooms, drained (omitted)
2 cans (8 oz each) tomato sauce
1 can (10 1/2 oz) condensed beef broth, undiluted
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup beef broth
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup cold water

Place meatballs, potatoes, carrots, onions, and mushrooms in a 5 or 6 quart slow cooker.  Combine the tomato sauce, broths, water, garlic powder, and pepper in a large bowl; pour over top.  Cover and cook on low 8-10 hours or until vegetables are tender.  Combine flour and water until smooth; gradually stir into stew.  Cover and cook on high 30 minutes longer or until sauce is thickened.

I never thickened it.  The sauce seemed fine, and today when we had the leftovers it had thickened up some more, so I'm glad I didn't.  Also, I had mine in the crock pot for 8 hours on low, but some of the potatoes and carrots were still a bit crunchy.  I couldn't let it cook any longer though because I had to work on Friday night.  But today it was perfect.  Because this has prepackaged meatballs, there was a thin layer of fat once the soup was cooked that I wish I could have removed somehow.  I tried to strain it off.  Once it cools and the fat hardens it's obviously much easier to dispose of, but when the soup was hot that was kind of an "ewww" factor.  Nobody noticed that but me, though.  Everyone really liked this soup.  It was expensive to make, because meatballs by themselves are ridiculously priced, and then you have to buy tomato sauce and the condensed beef broth and the potatoes, too.  So it's not a soup I'll make often, but I'm definitely saving the recipe.  Next time I will cut the baby carrots in half, and cut the potato chunks smaller, too.  Yummmmm.

Asian Noodle Toss

We had this for supper tonight.  It came together very easily, which is good.  It also makes a lot.  It says 4 servings but that is crazy.  Maybe 4 lumberjacks.  I was going to make this to bring to church, because on Wednesdays now we have a potluck before the evening service.  But then one of my kids came down with a fever this afternoon, and so no church for some of us and no potluck dinner for any of us.  So we have 2 big servings of this leftover.  It's from Simple & Delicious.

Asian Noodle Toss
1 pkg (9 oz) refrigerated angel hair pasta (I used 1/2 pkg dry whole wheat linguine that I already had)
1 pkg (10 oz) julienned (matchstick) carrots
1 pkg (6 oz) snow peas (I used 1/2 of a 12 oz pkg of frozen sugar snap peas)
2 cups cooked cubed chicken
11 oz can mandarin oranges, undrained
2/3 cup stir fry sauce
chopped green onions, for garnish

Cook the pasta in a Dutch oven according to package directions, adding vegetables and pasta at the same time (since I started with dry pasta rather than refrigerated, I added the carrots when there was 10 minutes left of cook time and the sugar snaps when there was 5 minutes left of the pasta cooking time); drain.  Return to the pot and add the chicken, oranges and their juice, and stir fry sauce; heat through.  Divide on to plates and top with chopped green onions.

This was so good!  Like real Chinese food.  Steve was excited when he saw it..."Lo Mein?" he said.  "I don't know...it's linguine" I said.  I thought at first there were way too many carrots, but once the pasta cooked it seemed like the right amount.  Steve said that there are always too few carrots in lo mein anyway so it was good.  The littles didn't like the noodles, but they liked the chicken and vegetables.  The rest of us all liked this and though it was really good.  It was easy and we will definitely have it again!

Cinnamon Applesauce Pancakes

Yesterday was Christmas, and we had coffee cake for breakfast, meatballs before lunch, soup and sandwiches for lunch, and maybe a snack before dinner.  This recipe sounded quick and easy and light to finish off the day.  It's from the latest Simple & Delicious, which I love and which I just got in the mail last week.  It starts with a pancake mix, which I don't love, but I guess that's part of the "easy." 

Cinnamon Applesauce Pancakes
1 cup complete buttermilk pancake mix
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chunky cinnamon applesauce
1/4 cup water

Combine pancake mix and cinnamon.  Add applesauce and water; stir just until moistened.  Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto hot greased griddle; turn when bubbles form on top.  Cook until the second side is golden brown.  Serve with syrup and butter.

I doubled the recipe, because as it's written it says the yield is 9 pancakes.  I doubled it and got 18.  But the batter was really thick.  Too thick.  It didn't spread well when you dropped it onto the griddle.  It stuck to the griddle some, even with it being sprayed with cooking spray.  Also they didn't taste apple-y at all.  Everyone ate them though.  We have 5 leftover which Emma assured me she would eat.  We are now 24 hours out from this recipe and they are still in the fridge...so I won't be making these again, even though I'm sure they could be tweaked to be better.  With the rest of the pancake mix, I will make a yummy scone recipe I have that starts with pancake mix (Chocolate Orange Scones).  So not a total loss.

Chocolate Peppermint Brownies

I made this before Christmas, to give to the kids' teachers at church and to our neighbors.  They have quite a Christmas-y look about them, so if I did make them again, it wouldn't be til next Christmas.  But they were good (of course we sampled them before sending them out into the world...).  This recipe came from the Better Homes & Gardens Christmas cookbook I am working through.

Chocolate Peppermint Brownies
1/2 cup butter
2 (1 oz) squares unsweetened bakers chocolate
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans (left out due to: not everyone likes nuts in their brownies)
Peppermint Frosting (recipe follows)
1 tbsp butter
1 (1 oz) square unsweetened bakers chocolate

Melt 1/2 cup butter and 2 squares chocolate in large saucepan over low heat.  Remove from heat and let cool 10 minutes (I put the butter and chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwaved on high for 1 minute, then stirred until the chocolate melted...also I did not wait 10 minutes before proceeding to the next step).  Add sugar and eggs, stirring well.  Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; add to chocolate mixture, stirring well.  Stir in vanilla and pecans.

Spoon batter into a greased and floured 13x9 pan.  Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes back clean.  Cool brownies completely on wire rack.  Spread with Peppermint Frosting (recipe follows).

Melt 1 tbsp butter and 1 chocolate square in small saucepan over low heat (again I used the microwave).  Remove from heat and let cool.  Spoon chocolate mixture into ziploc baggie and snip a tiny hole in one corner.  Pipe decorative design over Peppermint Frosting.  Cover and chill thoroughly (I didn't...).  Cut into 2x1 inch bars. 

Peppermint Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp whipping cream
1 1/2 tsp peppermint flavoring
2 drops red food coloring

Beat butter at medium speed of an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add powdered sugar, beating well.  Add whipping cream, flavoring, and food coloring.  Beat until frosting is spreading consistency.  (I did it all by hand, I didn't want to get out my big Kitchen Aid just for this...it came out perfect anyway)

Okay.  So the brownies were not very thick.  I almost think the brownie portion could be doubled.  The frosting layer was as thick as the brownies.  But, the flavor combination was so yummy.  I was nervous about using unsweetened chocolate for the last step, but the sweetness of the frosting was perfect with it.  So these came out really good.  Way better than the last time I tried to make mint brownies, a few years ago, and I just bought "mint extract" and not specifically peppermint extract, and it tasted like I had made Toothpaste Brownies.  So yeah, these were way better than that. 

 

English Muffin Bread

My friend Jill made this and posted the recipe last weekend.  I clicked on the link and saw how easy it was (only 5 ingredients) and that you don't have to knead it, which is a point in it's favor.  So I made it on Sunday, because between services we had nowhere to go (how glorious).  If you have rapid rise yeast, it only has to rise once, but I have regular yeast, so it has to rise twice.  Here is the link to the blog, which includes pictures.  Here at New Recipe Night we have not gone so far in the publishing world so as to include step by step pictures with each recipe.  http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/02/moms-english-muffin-bread.html  Of course I do not want to plagiarize, and always want to give credit where it is due.  I don't make up any of my own recipes, I just pass them along to you guys and tell you if they were worth my time & trouble.

English Muffin Bread
5 1/2 cups warm water
3 pkg (6 3/4 tsp) rapid rise or regular yeast
2 tbsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
11 cups flour (she says you can use bread flour or all-purpose...I only had 9 cups of bread flour so I used those and then 2 cups of all purpose)

Mix all ingredients together in a LARGE bowl (if you are using regular yeast, cover the bowl and let it rise about an hour, until the dough reaches the top [or close to it] of the bowl).  Spoon dough into 4 well greased loaf pans.  Let rise until dough reaches the tops of the pans.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, or until tops are golden brown.  10 minutes before end of baking time, brush tops of loaves with melted butter (mine only took 40 minutes total).  Cool 10 minutes in pans before removing to wire racks to cool completely.  Bread will be moist at first.  Be sure you allow to cool completely before cutting. 

This made awesome toast.  One of the other comments on the blog this came from said it made awesome grilled cheese, too, but we didn't do that.  We kept two of the loaves and gave two away.  So easy and so yummy.  We will definitely have this again.

Velvet Cream Biscuits

I don't know if all of you have heard me rave about my mother's biscuits, so allow me to do so here.  She makes the best biscuits.  She uses bakewell cream, and, unlike me, does not detest kneading and rolling out dough.  I have tried several biscuit recipes, including her own, and can't get them just right.  I have so  many memories of those biscuits.  She lets kids play in the dough scraps when she is done making them.  My sister and I used to do it, and now our kids do.  She made them faithfully for her grandmother-in-law until she passed in like 1986.  So they are historical biscuits, too.  I request them every year for my birthday.  They taste the best when they are fresh out of the oven, but they taste almost as good as leftovers if you slather the cut sides with butter and then grill them for a few seconds on a hot griddle.  Yummmmmmmm.  Anyway.  This biscuit recipe sounded easy (except for the rolling out part which I usually hate) and they sounded good.  Instead of cutting in shortening or flour, you use whipping cream.  From the SL Christmas cookbook.  We had these with minestrone soup.

Velvet Cream Biscuits
4 cups flour
2 tsbp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 cups whipping cream (I had to add an extra 2 tbsp or so to get the texture right)
2 tbsp butter, melted

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large bowl.  Add whipping cream, stirring with a fork just until dry ingredients are moistened.  Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead lightly 10-12 times.  Roll dough to 1/2" thickness.  Cut with a 2-inch biscuit cutter.  Place biscuits on lightly greased baking sheets.  Bake at 425 for 12 minutes or until golden.  Brush biscuits with melted butter.  Yield: 2 1/2 dozen

The verdict:  at first bite, I thought "I nailed it!  This is it!"  But then after I chewed for a few seconds, the texture and flavor were slightly different.  So if my mom's are a 10 (and clearly they are), I would say these are a good 8 or 9.  These didn't rise as much as my mom's do.  But I think they were easier to make.  And, my children played with the scraps, and used cookie cutters to make snowman-, apple-, angel-, train-, and gingerbread boy-shaped biscuits.  They had so much fun with it, which definitely made it worth the extra work of rolling out.  I'll keep the recipe, but will still prefer my mom's, which are #1!

Overnight Coffee Cake

I made this on Sunday, and we had it for lunch, along with sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, and hash browns.  A very yummy brunch.  This can be mixed the night before and then refrigerated and baked, or mixed and then baked immediately.  I didn't refrigerate it, so I can't say how it would turn out if you did.  I made it when I got home from church and put it in the oven.  This recipe is from the Southern Living Christmas cookbook I'm working through.

Overnight Coffee Cake
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup buttermilk (or sour milk, which you make by putting 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar into a measuring cup and then filling with milk to the 1 cup line)
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
Topping:
1/2 brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp cinnamon

Combine first seven ingredients in large mixing bowl.  Add buttermilk, butter, and eggs.  Beat at low speed of electric mixer until dry ingredients are moistened.  Beat at medium speed an additional 3 minutes.  Spoon batter into greased and floured 13x9x2 pan.  Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle over batter.  Cover and chill overnight.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes back clean.  Alternately, bake immediately at 350 for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes back clean.  To reheat, cover and bake at 350 for 5-10 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

This was very good.  Very moist.  I didn't have quite enough pecans, and I thought that was one of the yummiest parts.  We only ate about 1/5 of this as part of the brunch, so we had enough to give some to my parents and my grampie, and then still like 1/5 left of it for Sam & I to have for breakfast a couple of mornings.  So it would be great for a get-together because it makes so much.  Easy and yummy, definitely keeping this one.

Soft Ginger Waffles

This is another recipe from the Christmas cookbook I'm going through.  I have an old waffle iron; it used to be my grandmother's.  It is heavy, and it only has a two-prong plug, and the cord gets hot when I use it.  And, I love it because I think of her every time I use it.  I have a good waffle recipe already, but these sounded kind of like gingerbread waffles, so I wanted to try them.

Soft Ginger Waffles
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup molasses
2 eggs, separated
1 3/4 cup flour (I doubled this recipe, and used 2 cups white and 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour)
2 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp milk

Beat butter at medium speed of electric mixer until creamy.  Add molasses; beat well.  Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition.  Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices; add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.  Mix well after each addition.  Beat egg whites at high speed of electric mixer until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold beaten whites into batter.  Spoon 1 cup of batter onto preheated oiled waffle iron.  Spread batter to edges.  Bake until lightly brown.  Repeat procedure with remaining batter.

This batter was really thick.  Much thicker than my usual waffle batter, which you can pour onto the waffle iron.  This you had to dump and spread really quick.  These smelled so great while they were baking.  The end result was a bit dry, and I'm not sure why.  But we always use plenty of butter and syrup on our waffles anyway so it wasn't too big of a deal.  Nathan did not like these at all (he only likes waffles from a box, he said) but the rest of us ate them and thought they were fine.  They are hearty.  I made a double batch but didn't need to because no one had seconds, so Grampie benefitted from that.  He told me he thought they were "real good," and he chuckled when I told him Nathan didn't like them.  "Heh heh give 'em to Grampie!" he said.

White Lightning Texas Chili

Nathan really likes chicken.  And this is good soup/chili type weather.  This recipe is from the Southern Living Christmas cookbook my mother-in-law sent me for my birthday.  I left out the jalapeno so that everybody would eat it (myself included).  And I knew it would make a lot so I could freeze half for later.  This is always a gamble, because if we don't like it, we still have to eat it later.  But it's usually fine.

White Lightning Texas Chili
1 lb dried navy beans
4 (14.5 oz) cans chicken broth, divided (I used 8 cups stock)
1 lg onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp ground white pepper
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground cloves
5 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 (4 oz) cans chopped green chilies, undrained
1 cup water
1 tsp salt
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped (omitted)
shredded cheese (we used shredded Mexican)
salsa, sour cream, and sliced green onions for garnish

Sort and wash beans; place in a large Dutch oven.  Cover with water 2 inches above beans.  Let soak 8 hours (I forgot to do this the night before.  You can also cover them with water, bring it to a boil, let boil for 2 minutes, then simmer for 2-4 hours [I did 3], then drain and proceed with recipe...this is according to my Taste of Home cookbook).  Drain beans and return to pan.  Add 3 cans (or 6 cups) of chicken broth, onion, garlic, and spices.  Bring to a boil.  Cover; reduce heat and simmer 2 hours or until beans are tender.  Add remaining can (or 2 cups) of chicken broth, chicken, chilies, water, salt, and jalapeno pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Cover; reduce heat and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Serve with cheese, salsa, sour cream, and green onions.  Yield: 11 cups.

We had this with tortilla chips, too.  It was pretty good for scooping.  Nathan liked the beans, because they were the same size and texture as in his favorite "brown beans," which are Bush's canned beans.  He doesn't really like kidney beans or black beans.  All told, this took 6 or 7 hours, which was fine because I made it on purpose on a day that I knew we would be home all day.  You could probably adapt it for the crockpot, too, but I'm no food scientist so I don't really know exactly how.  Probably Jill does  =o) So this was a good recipe.  Enough left in the freezer for another meal, which we will all enjoy eating.

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

A few weeks ago Nathan went to a Cub Scout meeting and one of the mommies brought these cookies.  Steve brought two of them home to show me.  What a fabulous, ingenious idea.  But I knew it wouldn't work with my mom's chocolate chip cookie recipe, which is how I always make chocolate chip cookies.  The dough would be too sticky.  It was in the back of my mind all the next day...thoughts of "how could I do this?" and "there has to be a way."  That night at church I spoke of my concerns with one of my besties, Lisa.  She said "that mom must have gotten that recipe from Pinterest."  Now, Pinterest isn't a site I have ever visited, because I'm afraid it will be a time vortex, sucking away all of my time.  Because I know there is a lot of great stuff on there, just from what I see my facebook friends post.  So Lisa went on Pinterest and found it for me, because that's the kind of friend she is.  She even printed it on thick paper, so I don't have to recopy the recipe onto a card or anything.  This dough has more flour but the same amount of butter and eggs as my mom's recipe, so that's why this one works.  I made these for home fellowship last night.

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups chocolate chips
1 pkg Double Stuf Oreos

Preheat oven to 350.  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars with a mixer until well combined.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  In medium bowl, mix flour salt and baking soda.  Slowly add to wet ingredients until just combined.  Add chocolate chips.  With a cookie scoop, form balls with the dough.  Place one ball on top of an Oreo cookie, and another ball on the bottom.  Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo is fully enclosed in cookie dough (mmmmmmmmmmm try not to eat it raw, raw cookie dough is bad for you!  Maybe I did that and maybe I didn't...I will never tell).  Place onto parchment or silpat (?) lined baking sheets and bake cookies for 13 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.  These barely spread while cooking, so keep that in mind when determining how many can fit.  Makes 24 gigantic cookies.

I don't think I need to tell you how awesome these were.  I was afraid there wouldn't be enough, but there were.  They are so sweet that one is enough.  But really you are eating 3 cookies at the same time.  So don't make these just for your family because that could be disastrous.  But make them to bring somewhere, definitely.