Winter Veggie Salad

This is such a great salad to make in the winter. It keeps up to 4 weeks, so they say! It's never lasted that long in this house! I made it today for a potluck for my last class at the Studio this year. Luckily, there was some left to take a picture (or attempted to at least!)

Winter Veggie Salad

1 can French style green beans

1 can Shoepeg corn (I used white corn--what is shoepeg, anyway?)

1 can petite young peas

1 jar pimentos

1 red onion, finely diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 c. celery, diced

Put all these veggies in a colander and let drain completely. I used my hand to squeeze all that I could out of them. Put the drained veggies in a container, I used a glass wide mouthed jar (the decorative kind you can get at Christmas time). Then pour dressing over the veggies.

Dressing:

1/2 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

Mix all in a cup until sugar is dissolved. Pour dressing on veggies. Put lid on jar and shake. Store in the refrigerator. Best if made a day ahead of time to let the flavors blend.

Best Chocolate Oat Chip Cookies

My hubby is a HUGE fan of the standard Toll House chocolate chip cookies. Don't deviate because he just don't like any others....until....these. He still likes his standard cc cookies, but these will do as well. I love how chewy they are..so yummy.

Chocolate Oat Chip Cookies

1 ¾ c. all purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
½ t. salt
1 ¼ c. packed light brown sugar
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened
½ c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 T milk
2 t. vanilla extract
2 ½ c. quick or old-fashioned oats
2 c. (12 oz package) Nestle Toll House semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 c. coarsely chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl – set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat brown sugar, butter, and granulated sugar until creamy. Beat in eggs, milk, and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats, morsels, and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake at 375 for 9 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies or 12 to 13 minutes for crispy cookies. Let stand for 1 minute; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Dip in soy milk and enjoy. J

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

I use an ice cream scooper instead of a rounded tablespoon – if you leave the mound high, they’re really chewy in the middle. When you take them out of the oven, they will probably not look too done, but they will taste great!!

Oh, and if any of you make them, I need to be the judge if you baked them the right way.



Recipe given to me by my daugher, Cortney..and I copied it directly from her. I told her that SHE needed to make them for ME first, so I would know if it was worth my time! And she did add that little bit about dipping them in SOY milk! As if....

okay..it was worth my time and they are best dipped in very, very cold SKIM milk ;)

Golden Sweet Cornbread

I'm not a huge fan of cornbread, but I do love it when it's moist, a bit sweet and has corn in it. Hoggy's Restaurant has the best. The old standby Jiffy just doesn't cut it anymore. I made it a few weeks ago and it was hard, crumbly and just plain blah. So I went searching for another recipe. I found one on allrecipes.com but it had lots of comments such as: good, BUT I'd do this or that or whatever. So, I thought, I'll just pick and choose which changes I thought would be good and try it. And I think we have a winner!! It was moist, crispy on the edges and full of good corn flavor!

Golden Sweet Corn Bread

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 small can corn niblets, drained well


Preheat oven to 400° F. Put 2 TBSP. butter in a 9" round cake pan and put in oven to let it melt. (this is what makes the yummy crust!). In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk, corn and melted butter until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

recipe adapted from allrecipes.com

Cabbage Soup

This is a wonderfully healthy, delicious, full of fiber soup that came from Annie Joseph, owner of Chapel Hill, a retreat for families with children with cancer. She makes a big pot of this soup for the family on the weekends.

Chapel Hill House Cabbage Soup

1# Bob Evan's original sausage, browned and drained, okay--not so healthy, but you could use turkey sausage

48 oz. tomato juice

1 1/2 cups water

1 14 oz. can Great Northern beans, undrained

1 14 oz. can kidney beans, undrained

1 14 oz. can Rotel tomatoes with green chilies

1 14 oz. can Italian style diced tomatoes

1 bag coleslaw mix

1 tsp. Greek's seasoning (not to be confused with Green's seasoning! which I bought when I didn't have my glasses)

Mix all in a large stockpot and simmer for 1 hour.

A nice soup served with a crunchy baguette for a crisp, fall dinner.

Sloppy Joes

I have come to realize that I am more of a picky eater than I originally thought. Like Sloppy Joes for instance, some I like and some I absolutely DO NOT like at all. And Manwich, eeewww! This is a recipe of Mom's that I really like and make mostly for me, and maybe I'll share with others at times. LOL My husband told me early on in our marriage to never fix him Sloppy Joes or Macaroni and Cheese, but I can fix anything else and he'll eat it. I guess he got the flu one time after eating Sloppy Joes, which he didn't care for too much anyway, and that sealed the deal! No more for him. No problem, he really does eat anything and is easy to cook for so I didn't mind. Whenever I had the urge for a Sloppy Jo, I'd just get one out of the freezer, pop it in the microwave and enjoy. Now yesterday I was making another batch and he walked in and asked what I was making, and before I could answer, he said it smelled good and then tasted it......and LIKED it! :) I had to chuckle a little bit before telling him what he just ate. He said his Mom just mixed ground beef and ketchup or Manwich and it was terrible. So, I'm afraid I'm going to have to start sharing after 33+ years.

Sloppy Joes

4 lbs. ground beef, cooked and drained

4 green peppers, diced

4 onions, diced

32 oz. ketchup

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 + a little more, white vinegar

1/4 cup ground dry mustard

1 1/2 TBSP. salt

Mix all in a large dutch oven, simmer over low heat for 60 minutes.

My favorite part: After it's cooked down, I let it cool. Then I take an ice cream scooper and put it in a lined cupcake tin. I put the whole tin in the freezer and wait until the Sloppy Joes are solidly frozen, then I pop them out and put them in a freezer zipper bag. To serve: put on a plate and microwave for 2 minutes! I love it!

Best Hot Chocolate Mix

You'll never buy the little packages of hot chocolate mix again after making this! I promise! We know winter is close when I make up my first batch of this mix.

Hot Chocolate Mix

In a LARGE bowl, and I mean large!, mix the following thoroughly:


8 quarts Instant Dry Milk
1 lb. dairy creamer
1 lb. confectioner's sugar
1 21 oz. container Nestle's Quick


To serve:
add 1/3 cup mix to a coffee mug and add boiling water, stir and enjoy!

Cheers!

Apple Pineapple Salad

Apple Pineapple Salad

1 can crushed pineapple, undrained
2/3 c. sugar
8 oz. cream cheese
1 3 oz. pkg. lemon jello
1 c. celery, finely chopped
1/2 c. nuts, finely chopped
1 c. apples, unpeeled and diced
1 c. Cool Whip

In a saucepan, combine pineapple and sugar, bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Add jello, and stir until dissolved. Add cream cheese and stir until mixture is thoroughly combined. Cool. Fold in celery, nuts, apples and Cool Whip. Pour into a 8x8 square glass pan. Refrigerate. Cut into squares when firm.

This one was from my Mom, I'm making it tomorrow and then I'll add a picture. We had this yesterday at a potluck and a smart one would have taken a picture then! :)