Haunted Houses

I came up with this idea a while ago. I was inspired by last Christmas's "gingerbread" houses. So for FHE last night, we made haunted houses. It was a hit. Really easy and quite fun (even for the adults.)

Royal Icing Ingredients

2 egg whites
2 tsp lemon juice
3 cups powdered sugar

Blend egg whites and lemon juice until well blended and foamy. Slowly add sugar while blending. Mix well. If desired, add color and blend thoroughly.


I put mine in sandwich bags and snipped a corner to squeeze out. My first bag had a huge hole, so it was coming out in a big blog. That's the bag I used to put the houses together, so they had a lot of orange goop all over. I used the finer tipped bag to do all the decorating.

Simple structure using graham crackers.

I put frosting on the roof and let him put candy wherever he wanted to.

Then I put frosting on the bottom of whatever candy he wanted for the plate and he placed it.

Peeps makes ghosts, cats, and pumpkins.

He really had a ton of fun. This house is for Grandma and Grandpa Denney.

This is our haunted house, made by yours truly. If you can't tell (Aaron couldn't.) I made spiderwebs on the side and put black M&M's for spiders. It was a lot of fun. And yes, we had some candy when we were done.

Lasagna

So I'm pretty sure this was my first lasagna. I was getting a bit ambitious I think. But it worked out! I will tell you I was afraid to take the first bite. I thought for sure it wasn't going to work out. But it did! Woohoo! This was originally Mom's recipe, but I changed it a bit.

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil
½ onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lb. lean ground beef cooked (I'm sure turkey would sub great in here)
4-8 oz. mushrooms (I used a 4 oz. can. If you wanted to beef it up two cans would work well.)
3 cans diced tomatoes (could use seasoned ones and skip the seasonings.)
¼ cup flax seed (honestly, I forgot them. But just now realized it would go in just fine.)
1 tbsp basil leaves
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp black pepper
½ tsp salt
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg
8 oz. mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
8 oz. lasagna noodles (oven-ready)
parmesan cheese

In a 2-quart saucepan heat oil; add onions and garlic and sauté until onions are translucent, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, basil, sugar, salt, and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. While sauce is simmering, in a bowl combine ricotta, egg, and mozzarella cheese with parsley; set aside. In bottom of a 8x13” baking pan, spread a thin layer of meat sauce; top with alternating layers of cooked lasagna noodles, cheese mixture and meat sauce, ending with a layer of meat sauce. Douse with parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to stand 15 minutes before serving.


When you hit the stage of adding tomatoes, etc. I'd put it in a soup pot. My saucepans aren't big enough anyhow. I would use as much noodle on each layer. You'll probably have to break them a bit. Since I used the oven ready noodles, they're stiff. Putting a layer of cheese mix on that is kinda hard. But I basically tried to spread it on the noodles like putting it on a cracker. It worked alright. I wasn't able to spread it too well, but I'm sure the heat helped it to spread when it was cooking. Make sure no noodles are exposed on that last layer. That's why it's important to end with a meat layer. Then I just doused the top with parmesan cheese. You can put as little or as much as you like. I liked it. It added a crunchy and flavorful crusty top to the lasagna. I didn't use all the lasagna noodles in mine. I probably could have if I had broken some of the pieces up. At first, I thought it had too much basil because I could really smell it. But once we were eating it, it was great. The taste wasn't at all overwhelming. I think it just has a strong scent. But the flavors balanced very nicely.
 

I didn't put this under kid friendly, however Joseph ate it without a complaint once it was cooled down. Maybe most kids are cool with lasagna. I didn't know that.

Lemon Zest tip

So I've had lemons around since I started making homemade lemonade.  I also used it in a fish recipe the other day and in that recipe it needed some lemon zest as well. I don't have a real lemon zester, but I have a cheese grater that's the super fine kind. So I use that. It works just as well. Anyhow, Aaron wanted to make the lemonade a few days before I was ready to use the zest, so I zested my lemons and put it in a container in the fridge. I wasn't sure how it would keep, or if it would work, but I figured it was worth a try. To my surprise, when I pulled it out to use it the other day, it was great! It was dry, but still had all the lemon flavor (you could smell it.) So from now on, I will never toss a lemon rind after I juice it. I will zest it first, store the zest, then juice it.

I use lemon zest mostly for lemon tea cookies (the best ever!!) or blueberry muffins. (I'll probably be making one of the two soon since I bought lemons today. Maybe even both!)

Breakfast Sausage

I found this one in a Pillsbury Cookbook my mom lent me. It's made with ground turkey, which is what drew me to it. I was originally suspiscious, just because it doesn't sound like it would work, but this is an awesome recipe. I didn't post it under kid friendly, because I don't know how most kids handle sausage, but when I made it this time, Joseph ate it without a single word (which is a very good thing.)

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp rubbed sage
½ tsp dried thyme
½ tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp vegetable oil
In a large bowl, combine the turkey, salt, sage, thyme, nutmeg and cayenne. Shape into eight patties, In a large skillet, cook patties in oil over medium heat for 5 minutes on each side or until juices run clear. Drain on paper towels. May also be made as ground sausage.

 

I made mine as ground sausage. It's a bit easier. But I do plan on doing this again, but making them into patties and pre-freezing. I think it should work. It'll be fun. If you do plan on making patties though, I would use wax paper to shape the patties. Ground turkey is especially sticky and your hands will be a mess if you just try to shape them with your bare hands. Good luck!

French Toast

My mom's famous french toast.

Ingredients (6 slices)

3 eggs (use 1 egg for every 2 slices of bread)
1tbsp milk
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp vanilla

Dip each piece of bread in the egg mixture, thoroughly covering both sides. Place on a warm grill or skillet. Cook thoroughly on both sides until golden brown or desired doneness.

For ours, I cut up one slice of bread into four pieces so they were like french toast sticks. I realized afterwards that I could've just cut up a piece of already cooked french toast in this manner, but it did help in soaking up the last of the egg mixture, because the pieces are small, versus trying to soak up the last bit with a full slice. This was of course served with our delicious homemade syrup.

Corn bread!

To go along with our chili, we always make corn bread. I take no special ownership of this recipe. It comes straight off the container of corn meal.

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup Corn Meal
¼ cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt (optional)
1 cup skim milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 egg whites or 1 egg, beaten

Heat oven to 400. Grease 8 or 9 inch pan. Combine dry ingredients. Stir in milk, oil and egg, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until light golden brown and wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

I generally eat mine with butter. The boys like to put butter and syrup. (Something I'd never heard of, but Aaron loves to do. Joseph enjoys it as well! That's what makes it so kid friendly.)

Chili!

So here's your standard crock pot chili! I've been making crock pot meals on Sundays with our church starting at 1 this year and choir practice right after, there's not time for elaborate cooking when we get home. This came out great. Like I said, it's a standard chili, but there's nothing wrong with that. It's refreshing every now and then.

Ingredients

1 lb. lean ground beef (or turkey)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 green sweet pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced (Can't go wrong with more garlic either)
1 15-oz can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained (may use dried beans)
1 14 ½ oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
2-3 tsp chili powder
1 tsp dried basil, crushed
1/2 cup flax seed

In a large saucepan, cook ground beef, onion, sweet pepper, and garlic until meat is brown and onion is tender; drain fat. Stir in kidney beans, undrained tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder, basil and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered for 20 minutes. -OR-
Cook ground beef, chopped onions, chopped green sweet pepper, and minced garlic. Drain fat. Combine in crock pot beef mixture; kidney beans, rinsed and drained; tomato sauce; diced tomatoes, undrained; chili powder; dried basil, crushed; and black pepper. Cover; cook on low heat for 8-10 hours or on high heat for 4-5 hours.

I made a few alterations to the recipe. It's a bit bulkier than the original (from Better Homes and Gardens.) I also used dried beans. I measured out two cups and then cooked them. This of course equaled more than 15 ounces of beans when they were cooked. However, with the added meat (it was originally 12 oz.) it's not super beany or anything.

We like to top our chili with cheese (cheddar or swiss) and/or saltines. Generally speaking, we also eat it with corn bread (coming next!)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is a recipe Aaron found in the Reader's Digest and wanted to try. It turned out great. We just made it again for the second time and enjoyed it even more.

Ingredients
6 corn tortillas, cut into ¼ inch strips (You can most certainly use more tortillas. These are yummy!)
5 tsp olive oil, divided
½ tsp salt
¾ lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into ½ inch cubes
1 large onion, chopped
5 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 lb. red potatoes, cut into ½ inch cubes
1 cup frozen corn
1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chilies
¼ cup minced fresh cilantro
¼ tsp pepper
3 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tsp basil

In large resealable plastic bag, combine tortilla strips, 2 tsp oil, and salt. Seal bag and shake to coat. Arrange tortilla strips on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 8-10 minutes or until crisp, turning once. Remove to paper towels to cool.

In large saucepan, saute chicken in remaining oil until lightly browned. Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring frequently, until onion is tender. Add broth and potatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 10 minutes. Add corn, chilies, cilantro, and pepper, and heat through. Stir in lime juice. Top each serving with tortilla chips.

This has quite the citrus flavor. I wouldn't skimp on anything, especially not the cilantro or lime juice. It's a great soup.

Chicken Rice

A long time ago my husband and I created chicken rice. We both grew up with white instant rice which was then slathered in butter and salt. I can probably eat this once a year and enjoy it. Otherwise I'm not a huge fan. However, we eat rice a lot. It's not instant, but more sticky because it's cooked in the crock pot. I do prefer sticky rice. However, it's still really boring just cooked in water, so we started cooking our rice in chicken broth. At first we would just use half and half, and now we just use chicken broth instead of water. (Although the broth is homemade, so it is essentially still water :) You use boiling water and chicken boullion.) So I don't know how this would work with instant rice, but I imagine it would work just as well. Just substitute your water with chicken broth and cook as the rice directs. It will have a slight color change, but it's a lot less boring and adds some flavor to your rice meals. (We do use plain white rice sometimes. Like with stroganoff or things that have a sauce to go on the rice. But if we're eating rice plain, like next to fish, we make chicken rice.)

I have also experimented with beef broth, for a beefy rice. It's not bad. I just don't have too many meals that go well with that flavor. But if you do, it works just as well.

More on Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, the last time I made chocolate chip cookies, I only did two batches, so I froze the rest of the dough. I found that it only takes a few hours to completely thaw out. That would be ideal for cooking. However, I was feeling lazy last night when the dough was thawed and put it in the fridge. So when I made them this morning, it was a little hard. However, it still worked out great. I would recommend letting the dough be completely thawed, but if you want to pull it out of the freezer one night and pop it in the fridge, you should be able to cook them the next morning doing it the way I did here.

Here's the dough. Just put it in a tupperware and popped it in the freezer!

Because the dough was cold, I couldn't plop them down like you normally would, so I molded them into balls with my hands like so.

They came out pretty well. They didn't cook as even because of the cold dough. I cooked them a few minutes longer than usual and they still looked doughy in the center. Of course once they cooled, they still tasted great. My husband can attest to this.

Cabbage Tip

I have a hard time finding enough things to do with cabbage to warrant buying an entire head. I know some stores will cut the cabbage in half, so you don't have to use as much. I wish I could do that. However, our store doesn't so I'm stuck trying to figure out what to do with it if I needed it for one recipe (usually my fish tacos.) Here's my tip. My cabbage is usually shredded from fish tacos, so I keep it in a baggy and slowly incorporate it into our green salads. It doesn't have a strong taste, but it has a nice texture, so it can liven up the salad a bit.  Anyhow, it's how we've started using our extra cabbage.

BBQ Chicken

This is something that has just been created over the years. Nothing that has a recipe or instructions. Here's the deal:

Ingredients
Raw chicken strips (can be chicken tenders or chicken breasts cut into slices)
BBQ sauce in quantity to match amount of chicken

Soak the chicken in the BBQ sauce. You can marinate it ahead of time if you think that far ahead. Even if you cover the chicken in sauce right before you cook them, that's fine. Pour the sauce and chicken in to the frying pan and cook over medium heat. Turn chicken once or twice until it's all cooked. Eat with remaining sauce.

This comes out very tender, and it's so easy. I use it whenever I have leftover chicken that I didn't cook. It's easy and yummy. My kinda meal.

Julie's Famous Alfredo Sauce

Not really mine, but from my BYU Cooking Class. I love this recipe! So does everyone who eats it. It's super easy (easier than Kraft Mac N Cheese I think, and way tastier!) I am learning that the type of cream you use makes a huge difference in how it turns out. I used to use the one in the purple box (excuse my lame descriptions.) It made a really creamy sauce, but not very good leftovers. The last 2 times, I've used one in a brown and red box. This has a different flavor, which I like. It isn't as creamy (as you'll see from the picture) but it makes great leftovers. So try it out and see which one you like best. You will probably have completely different cream options than I do anyhow!

Ingredients

¼ cup butter
2 cups cream (I believe this is the equivalent to 1 pint, the smallest size you can buy cream)
½ tsp salt (again, I don't add this personally)
¼ tsp pepper
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni

Combine butter, cream, salt, and pepper in skillet. Bring to a gentle boil; reduce heat and simmer 4 minutes, stirring to prevent scorching. Stir in parmesan cheese and heat through. Do not boil. Sauce will be thin. Serve with cooked noodles. (I prefer elbow macaroni because it cooks a lot faster and holds the sauce inside the noodle if it's a creamy sauce, so you get more sauce in each bite.)

Julie's version: I just pour all the sauce ingredients in and stir. It takes a while to smoosh out all the parmesan clumps, but you just keep stirring, You really want to be careful about scorching. Once it's all blended and heated, you can serve it up!

Joseph absolutely chows down on this, so I am listing it as kid friendly!

Sesame seed Chicken strips

I made this one quite a while ago and loved it. I didn't like it as much this time, but I think I might've been pregnant last time (which for me makes a huge difference.) Aaron still liked it, so it's a keeper. It is a bit messy to make, but yummy. It isn't the most flavorful chicken, so I would recommend having something with some flavor with it, be it a flavored rice, noodle, etc.

Ingredients

1 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp dried minced onion
2 tsp ground mustard
1 cup crushed butter-flavored crackers
½ cup sesame seeds
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts

Sauce:
½ cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp honey

In a bowl, combine mayonnaise, onion and mustard. In another bowl, combine the crackers and sesame seeds. Cut chicken lengthwise into ¼ inch strips. Dip strips into mayonnaise mixture, then into the sesame seed mixture. Place in a single layer on a large greased baking sheet. Bake at 425 for 15-18 minutes. or until juices run clear. Combine sauce ingredients and serve with chicken strips.

I think that the type of mayo you use can really influence the flavor of this recipe, so use the good stuff. (That was probably my problem.) You might also cut the sauce recipe in half if you don't think you'll use a ton of it.

*For some reason it won't load my photo. I'll try again later.*

Slow Cooker Pepper Steak ... in progress

So this one didn't come out like it should have. But we can tell it has tons of potential, so we're keeping it around. There are a few reasons why it didn't turn out. One, I bought less steak than it calls for, planning to half it, but really had to 1/3 it. But then I put the full amount of soy sauce in the slow cooker, etc. So it didn't come out like it ought to. And the picture isn't nearly as pretty as the one on the card I have. But, we're going to try it again, because like I said before, it has great potential. So here it is.

Ingredients
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 lbs boneless beef top sirloin steak, cut into strips
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce (I would highly suggest finding reduced sodium)
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 green bell peppers, cut into strips (mine are chopped. I forgot)
1/4 cup cold water
1 tbsp cornstarch
Hot cooked rice

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-low heat. Brown steak strips in 2 batches (or 1 if you pan is large enough.) Add garlic; cook and stir 2 minutes. Transfer steak strips, garlic and pan juices to crock pot. Add onion, soy sauce, sugar, salt, ginger and black pepper to crock pot; mix well. Cover; cook on low 6 to 8 hours or until meat is tender (up to 10 hours.) Add bell pepper strips during final hour of cooking. Blend water and cornstarch until smooth; stir into slow cooker. Cook, uncovered, on high 15 minutes or until thickened. Serve with rice.

As a note, I do not typically add salt to any of my recipes unless it is absolutely necessary. So although I may list it in the ingredients, my versions most likely don't use it. So you can use it or not.

Mac and Cheese!

Everyone loves a good mac and cheese. I have a few recipes that I've used and tried. This is definitely near the top. It is great because you can crock pot it, or stove top it. I love the versatility of that. Anyhow, it's a really simple recipe and makes great noodles. It's also the top of my mac and cheese reheat list. Anyone who's had Kraft knows that mac and cheese does not microwave well. This is my #1 microwavable mac and cheese. Hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients
3 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
2 tbsp butter
3 cups (24 oz) grated cheedar cheese (or sharp for different flavor. Or any combo of cheese equal to 24 oz)
20 oz. Evaporated milk
salt and pepper to taste
I added some cayenne pepper as well

Crock Pot:
Cook noodles, then toss in butter. Add to Crock pot with additional ingredients. Cook for 2-3 hours on high. Stir occasionally.

Stove Top:
Cook noodles, coat on butter. Add remaining ingredients and melt on medium heat, stirring regularly to avoid scorching.

This recipe is easily beefed up by adding peppers, mushrooms, meat products, etc. It's easy to get creative, but still yummy simple.

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Well, I dared to venture and make chocolate chip cookies. As my mom probably knows, I have struggled with making her chocolate chip cookies (the only chocolate chip cookies I would dare make because they are the best.) Be it cruddy ovens, poor cookies sheets or a glitch in her recipe, I have struggled to make her cookies. However, for whatever reason, I dared to make them yesterday for Family Home Evening and they were a success! I can't tell you how happy I was! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup pecans
1 pckg milk chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375. Mix butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla thoroughly. Measure flour. Blend dry ingredients, stir in. Mix in nuts and chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoons 2” apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Cool slightly before removing from cookie sheet. If using semi-sweet chocolate chips, use walnuts.

The only thing that was different was, I managed to run out of flour! I didn't realize I didn't have any reserves so I ran out. However, I had some cake flour (the same I use for my baking powder biscuits) so I ended up using about a cup of cake flour. I can't say yet if they make the cookies any better. I only know a bit about what makes cake flour different than regular flour. Anyhow, they turned out great. I make my cookies big, to a fault, but they were soft, fluffy and golden brown. The color seemed different, which may have been due to the flour. But they tasted great. I didn't use nuts, mainly because I didn't have any.

Biscuit Variations

As a sidenote to the biscuits, you can also make them with buttermilk. I tend to do this when I have two recipes. Neither one uses the full pint of buttermilk (the smallest container you can buy) but they often use the whole pint together. So I just make those two recipes within the same week. (I used the buttermilk in the Junior Wellingtons as well.)  Here are the variations:

Buttermilk Biscuits
Substitute buttermilk or sour milk for the milk. Reduce baking powder to 1 1/2 tsp and add 1/2 tsp baking soda.

Cheese Biscuits
Add 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese to the dry ingredients and bake as directed.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Stroganoff

A family classic. It's just mom's recipe. I never liked it with mushrooms growing up, but I've since gotten over my phobia of most vegetables. I think I even used more that it usually calls for, because they were in my fridge already opened. For some reason, it tasted a tad bit bland last night, but we're not sure why. I wasn't exactly measuring out the seasonings, but I tend to use more than recipes call for that way. Despite it not being too flavorful, we still enjoyed it, and on average the stroganoff tastes fantastic!

Ingredients

1 lb. lean ground beef (I have used ground turkey)
1 tbsp onion powder (I used chopped onions, since they were already chopped up in my fridge. Probably about 1/4 cup or so)
¼ cup margarine
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1 4-oz can mushrooms
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream

Melt margarine over medium heat, add onion powder. Add meat and brown. Add flour, salt, garlic, pepper, and mushrooms. Cook 5 minutes. Add soup, simmer uncovered 10 minutes. Stir in sour cream. Heat through. Serve with rice (or egg noodles.) If you don’t have lean ground beef, you can leave out the margarine. If you have 7% fat or less, you need the margarine to make the sauce.

Mom, maybe you can answer the question of why it uses cream of chicken soup instead of cream of mushroom?

Chicken Pillows

Here's another recipe courtesy of Jared and Anita. We had it at their place before we moved out and I had to have the recipe. It was surprisingly simple to make and we really enjoyed it. I must add that Joseph ate it without a single protest. That's always a good sign!

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 box cream cheese
2 garlic cloves or equivalent garlic powder
1/2 purple or sweet onion
Salt and Pepper
3 cans crescent rolls
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
3 tbs butter
1/3 cup bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brown chicken in medium skillet with 1/2 tbsp olive oil over medium heat until cooked throughout. Remove from pan and chop finely with food chopper. Return to heated pan and add remaining 1/2 tbsp olive oil, finely chopped onion and pressed garlic or garlic powder. Heat over medium heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and place in medium mixing bowl. While the mixture is still hot, mix in entire box of cream cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Each tube of rolls will yield two pillows. Unroll the rolls. Where the dough is diagonally perforated, overlap the dough slightly and reattach it by pressing it together. So take the two triangles, and make a rectangle. You should end up with 4 rectangles from each tube. It's best to have it on the baking sheet before you start assembling. It's not easy to move after you put them together. Place about a 1/3 cup of the goodness on top and in the center of one of the rectangles. "Cap" it with another rectangle by laying it on top of the mixture and pressing the edges together. Brush each pillow with melted butter and sprinkle on the bread crumbs. Cook for about 15-20 minutes. While they're baking, prepare the soup using milk (like making tomato soup.) Spread the soup on the pillows once you serve them on the plates.

Hamburgers

We had hamburgers a few weeks ago before I really started blogging here. At the time, we had more meat than we needed, so I decided to pre-shape some of them and freeze them for another time. That was what we ate a few nights ago. However, I neglected to get a picture of the patties all neatly frozen, nor did I take one before I had already bitten into my hamburger. So excuse the partially eaten hamburger picture. I took it, so I just had to use it. Anyhow, this had two stages.

Stage 1: Making the patties

Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef or turkey (we use turkey all the time)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
liberal dousing (maybe a tbsp) of Alpine Touch (an all-purpose seasoner with garlic, salt, onion and pepper.)

You can season it in a multitude of ways. I've used worchestershire sauce, and tons of different combinations. What is listed above is our generic hamburger recipe. In the burgers shown above, I even added some grated cheddar cheese, instead of slicing it and adding it later on. It was a success, I'd say.

For shaping this burgers, this is the format. Choose how big you want them to be. Quarter pounders is quite big, but sometimes it's just the right size. With the recipe above, you can make 4 larger burgers, or you can make anywhere from 5-7 smaller burgers. Just realize that if you don't get them real skinny they will plump up when cooking and that can make them seem smaller in comparison to the bun. I used two sheets of wax paper. Put the amount of meat you want to use between the two and shape. (The wax paper keeps your hands from getting really sticky and gross) Keep in mind if you choose to use turkey, that the meat will be significantly more sticky and soft. After shaping, you may immediately grill, or freeze for later use.

Stage 2: Cooking or freezing

If freezing shape the patties, then stack them with a piece of wax paper between each patty. Make sure the wax paper is large enough to separate the meat patties from touching. Then place the stack of patties in a bag and plop in the freezer until you want to cook them! Upon removing them, you may have to pry them apart with a butter knife. However, the wax paper comes off really easily. Then plop right on a hot grill. They don't take too long to cook. I found that the pre-frozen patties tended to hold their shape better and make better patties. When you don't freeze them, they puff up while cooking, which makes them smaller in comparison to the buns. It's a technicality, but I liked them better that way. In freezing them, you can also make more than one batch at a time, so you have some on hand at the last minute.

Best Biscuits Ever!

I love these biscuits. I got the recipe in my cooking classes at the Y. We would seriously make these with any meal type dish we were making in lab because they're easy and absolutely delicious! Anyone who took that class is addicted to these biscuits. They are called Baking Powder Biscuits.

Ingredients

1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cake flour
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
½ cup vegetable shortening
¾ cup milk

Preheat oven to 425. Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add milk all at once and stir just until dough forms a ball. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead 12 times. Pat or roll ½ inch thick. Cut into rounds with 2 inch cutter. Bake on greased baking sheet for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and flaky. (You can substitute all regular flour. I use cake flour because who wants to mess with a good recipe, right? But using all all-purpose flour works as well.)

I would only cook mine for 12-13 minutes. It all depends on your oven. I don't like them to get too golden brown. Just slightly golden. Although I'm sure if you were cooking on a good sheet vs. the stuff I have, it might cook a bit different. I tend to get around 10-12 biscuits from this. I just use a glass cup to cut mine out. With this recipe I used a plastic kiddie cup, so they're a bit smaller than usual. These were cooked about two minutes longer than I'd recommed, so you can get an idea for the coloring.  Add some butter and jam. Mmmm.

 

Oatmeal

My favorite oatmeal is maple and brown sugar. However, we don't generally buy it,  but we have lots of plain oats. So I eventually came up with my own way to make it. I must say, it's not half bad!

Ingredients
1 3/4 cup water
1 cup quick oats
1/4 cup brown sugar (not packed)
1/8 tsp mapleine (like in homemade syrup)

If it's not seasoned enough for you, you can easily add more. I add all the seasoning after the oats are cooked according to the directions. These rations are for 2 servings (per the label on the oatmeal). Joseph really likes it. He puts raisins in his.

Junior Wellingtons

This is one of those recipes I found in a cookbook I happened to have and decided to give it a go. It's a bit heavy on the meat (which can be adjusted easily), but it's really flavorful and we all like it!

Ingredients
1 ½ lbs lean ground beef
3 egg yolks
¼ cup buttermilk
4 ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp Baby Bam
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp Italian seasoning
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp flour
3 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 tbsp water
6 slices American cheese

Combine the beef, 2 egg yolks, buttermilk, Worcestershire sauce, Baby Bam, garlic, Italian seasoning, and salt. Stir well. Divide the meat into 6 equal portions. Form into patties. Brown thoroughly on both sides in skillet. Refrigerate browned patties for 30 minutes. Heat oven to 425. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll out pastry sheets to 1/16-inch thickness and cut into four even sections. Combine remaining egg yolk with water and beat with whisk to make egg wash. Place 4 pastry sections on baking sheet and paint a border of egg wash around each section. Place a chilled hamburger patty in the middle of each section and top with 1 slice of cheese. Top cheese with remaining pastry sections, pressing the edges together with a fork to seal. Paint the top with egg wash and cut an ‘X’ in the top of each Wellington. Bake until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

That's the official recipe. However, when I did it I only used 1 lb. of meat, 2 pastry sheets and 4 pieces of cheese. I didn't alter the seasoning too much. It still came out great. I don't bother cutting out circles. Then you have leftover pastry sheet with nothing to do with it. What a waste! I just cut mine in squares and use the whole thing. The patties are 1/4 lb, so they're pretty meaty. So for me, the more pastry, the better the balance. I think next time I'll even add some grated carrots. Anyhow, it's a flavorful meal, the pastry sheets are fun and add variety. Oh, here's the recipe for "Bam". (If you didn't notice, this is an Emeril recipe.)

Ingredients

3 tbsp paprika

2 tbsp salt

2 tbsp dried parsley

2 tsp onion powder

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried thyme

½ tsp celery salt

This obviously makes a bit. It lasts for a while. I'll eventually put up more recipes that use Bam. I've also used it randomly. It's a nice all-purpose seasoner with kick.