Patina General

Hawaiian Haystack

Winter is getting looong! I'm sick of snow, sick of my winter wardrobe, and sick of winter food!  I need some spring, and I'm unfortunately not heading to a warmer climate for a vacation, like some of you are!  O.K...maybe this year I'm feeling a little jealous!  I actually like being at home when everyone else in town is gone, and the weather is melting and the birds are singing...but this year that may not be so.  As a result of my not wanting to make another pot of winter soup, I decided to make my family one of our favorites!  I usually make this recipe for Happy Girl's birthday in February...when we need some summer hopefullness!

This recipe came out of the Free Church cookbook.  It's been around for years & probably has many variations.  You can tell by my dog-eared, splattered cookbook, that I've made it a lot!  I love making either Raisen Bran muffins or Blueberry muffins to go with it.  The pickier eaters can have all their items separate.  I like it all...and my mound usually gets bigger than I can eat!  Buffet meals like this recipe are my favorite for parties!

 

 

Hawaiian Haystack

 

Chicken gravy:

2 cups cooked, cubed chicken

2 10 oz. cans cream of chicken soup (if you want to be healthier, use the healthy request)

1 cup chicken broth

 

Toppings:

Chow Mein noodles

Chopped celery

Chopped green onion

Chopped green pepper and/or red & yellow peppers

Chopped tomatoes

Bite size pineapple chunks- fresh or canned tidbits

Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Shredded Coconut

Slivered almonds

Sunflower Seeds

Soy Sauce 

Your favorite cooked rice

 

Directions:

Combine soup, broth and cooked chicken in a stockpot on medium heat until warm.  To serve, we usually have rice first, then gravy, then cheese and the rest of the toppings.  I usually make a double recipe for a big family party, or to have leftovers.  I love serving all the toppings in my vintage refrigerator dishes, because I can simply put their lids on and pop in the frig for leftover night!

 

Don't you love seeing all that color?  Hope this spring-y recipe helps you get though this long winter!

 

 

 

Vanilla Taffy

Need a sweet treat for your special Valentine, or a baking day with your kids?

Vanilla Taffy

3 Cups Sugar

2 Cups Corn Syrup

1 Cup Water

2 Tbl. Sp. Butter

1 tsp. Vanilla

In a 3 quart sauce pan combine:  sugar, corn syrup and water.  Stir until sugar is dissolved.  Cook to 256 degrees without stirring. 

Remove from heat, stir in butter and vanilla. Pour into buttered shallow pan or platter to cool.

With buttered hands, pull taffy until shiny white.  Twist into a rope and cut into small pieces and place on waxed paper.

Wrap taffy pieces in candy wrappers.

Makes 2 1/2 lbs.  This batch made 200 pieces.

Warning:  This taffy recipe is not a soft, chewy kind of taffy, but one that dissolves in your mouth over a few minutes.

Our kids love making this, it takes many sets of hands to pull, cut and wrap.

 

Winter Soups: Vegetable Beef Barley

It's cold outside!  Time to make a big pot of soup!  Not only do we need something warm in our tummies, but we need as many veggies as we can get to fight all the germs around us! I make this hearty soup with the leftovers of the Pepperoncini Beef.  You could substitute any leftover roast, or brown some ground beef, but I do think the pepperoncini meat makes it extra good!

Vegetable Beef & Barley Soup

2 cups leftover Pepperoncini beef roast

3 cartons beef broth (32 oz.)

2 cloves garlic, minced

3/4 cup chopped onion

3/4 cup chopped celery

3/4 cup chopped carrot

1-2 cans chopped tomatos, (or 2 frozen, fresh tomatoes)

1/2 cup frozen corn

1/2 cup frozen peas

any other veggie you've got ( I used some zucchini, above)

1 teaspoon basil

2 bay leaves

ketchup

1/2 cup medium barley (or the quick cook kind)

Directions:

Put everything in the stockpot except the frozen corn, peas and the barley.  For the ketchup, I make 2 big circles around the pot-real exact!  Bring it all to a boil for 1-2 minutes, then lower temperature to a simmer for at least an hour, or more.  Add frozen veggies and medium barley and simmer for another hour.  (You could speed it up by using quick barley at this point)  The longer it simmers, the better your house will smell, and the more the flavors will come together.

I love cornbread muffins with this soup. A little butter and honey on them...yum! Costco has a great mix right now that has corn kernels in it.  Yes, I do make some things the easy way!

Eat your veggies!

FYI:

I read in an old church cookbook that you can freeze garden tomatoes whole!  I tried it for the first time this year, since I had 28 tomato plants :0  I rinsed and dried them, and wrapped them with cellophane and tinfoil and put them in the freezer.  When I take them out, I simply run them under cold water and the skin comes right off!  I chop them up while frozen and add them to my soup.  Gotta love it!

Food for a Crowd: Melty sandwiches

Hospitality is still in the air around my home, and you may be searching for something to make for a casual New Year's eve gathering with kids?  The Shredded Meat recipe is always a hit, but these melty sandwiches work great for my kids to help with the assembly, and they like eating them, too.  You can get as fancy as you want with the ingredients, but good old Oscar Meyer works just fine.

Melty Sandwiches

Dollar Buns, white or wheat, sliced

Bologna ( I love the Wunderbar from the deli, if you can find it), cut in triangles

Salami (I use hard salami from the deli, but any would work)

Cheddar Cheese, sliced

Montery Jack Cheese, sliced

Chopped/minced yellow onion

Softened butter

Poppyseeds

Place softened butter in small bowl with chopped onion.  Add poppyseeds.  Mix together with fork. Sorry, I don't have exact measurements...let's guess!  How about 1 stick of butter, 1/2 small onion, and 1 1/2 Tb. poppyseeds?  It's really to taste!  I make a batch without onion for the kiddos!

Get a big piece of foil ready...20"?  Open up your sliced buns, and start spreading the butter mixture on half.  I put about 10-12 buns in foil together.  On top of butter mixture, place 2 triangles of bologna, 1 or 2 slices of salami, depending on thickness, 1 slice of cheddar, and 1 slice of montery jack.  Close lid of sandwich.  They can be double decker in the foil.  Completely wrap foil around.

Place in a 350 degree oven until contents are melty and bread is a little crunchy...20 minutes?  You can tell this is a very casual recipe!

Enjoy!

Peppered Pecans

During this season of appreciating those around us, I am always looking for a hand-crafted way of gifting.  In years past, I have made big batches of yummy granola, and jarred them up creatively for all those special teachers that mentor my children throughout the year-church, piano, dance, school.  My thought is, you can't go wrong with food, because even if they don't like it themselves, they can serve it to their guests!  I first tried these Peppered Pecans at the special baby shower, and couldn't stop eating them!  I brought them to holiday parties, and heard the same from others!  They are wonderful as a munchie, but are amazing on a lettuce salad, too!  I have always had a weakness for salty and sweet together!

Peppered Pecans

1/2 cup honey

4 teaspoons black pepper

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon allspice

16 ounces pecan halves

8+ Tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix honey, black pepper, salt and allspice in a bowl.  Add pecans and toss to coat.  Spread coated pecans on parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkle with 1/2 the sugar.  Bake 15 minutes, stir, bake 5 more minutes.  Take out of oven and separate.  Sprinkle with rest of sugar.  Cool and serve at room temperature.

Winter Soups: Baked Potato Soup

After enjoying a lot of food for Thanksgiving, I am ready for a big pot of soup, with a simple vinagrette salad and some bread!  This Baked Potato Soup that I made for our college roomate get-together at the store last Friday night is anything but low-cal, and low cholesterol, but it's the perfect comfort food on a cold, wintery, night!  Since the "Summer Salads" were quite a hit with the Pinterest crowd, I will be posting a few of my favorite "Winter Soups" over the next couple of months.  At our house, the seasonal recipes change as often as the seasonal decorating! 

Baked Potato Soup

2/3 cup margarine/butter

2/3 cup flour

7 cups milk

4 cups red potatos, poked and baked, cooled, cubed with skins on

4 green onions, chopped

12 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

1 1/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup sour cream

Directions:

In stockpot/soup pot, melt butter.  Slowly whisk in flour and heat until smooth.  Add milk couple cups at a time and stir until thickened (yes, this can take a while). When thickened, add potatos and onions.  Bring to a boil and stir constantly (so it doesn't stick to the bottom).  Reduce heat, simmer 10 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients, and stir until melted and blended.

And, yes, we had a fun night with our Bethel College roomies at the store!  We got caught up with everyone's families, enjoyed our soup, salad and bread, and enjoyed the ambiance of the store at night, with all the twinkling Christmas lights and fragrant candles!  A great way to begin the Christmas season!

Missed you Meg, and Kris! (I'm behind the camera...oh, bummer ;)

Cranberry Orange Bread

At the end of a long, busy weekend at the store, I just want to come home and make a big pot of soup, maybe some Granola, and sometimes a loaf of yummy, sweet bread.  I'm ready to just nest awhile and be home.  This recipe for Cranberry Orange Bread is the perfect combo of sweet and tart, and I love the crunchy walnuts in it.  It's even better if you slice it and toast it in the oven for a few minutes!  Great for holiday entertaining and gifting, too!

Cranberry Orange Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

3/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 beaten egg

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

3/4 cup orange juice

2 Tablespoons vegetable/canola oil

1 cup chopped cranberries (I always have a bag of them in the freezer)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and soda.  Combine egg, grated orange peel, orange juice and oil.  Add to dry ingredients. Stir/mix until moistened.  Fold in cranberries and walnuts.  Place in greased and floured loaf pan.  Bake 350 degrees for 60 minutes.  Makes 1 loaf-double if you want 2!

Caramel Corn

1 Cup Butter

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 Cup Dark Corn Syrup

Mix and boil for five minutes, add 1/2 tsp. baking soda

Pour over five quarts of popcorn.  Bake 250 for sixty minutes, stirring every fifteen minutes.

Making caramel corn is one of my fall favorites.  I aquired the recipe ten years ago from a dear neighbor.  Once the popcorn is popped and measured I place it in my turkey roaster This big roaster has seen far more caramel corn than it has turkeys.

While making the caramel mixture forget about all the calories and fat that will be later consumed and enjoy the treat.

Pour caramel mixture over popcorn and mix well to coat popcorn.  

Transfer caramel corn to an extra large shallow baking pan and bake in a 250 oven for one hour, stirring every fifteen minutes.

Enjoy your fall treat!

 

Raisin Bran Muffins

There's a fall chill in the air, which makes me want to cook and bake warm food! I've never been a good breakfast eater, but these days I force myself to eat something healthy in the morning to get my metabolism going!  I like quick and easy, and totable, if possible.  These muffins fit the bill, and if I can pop a dozen in the oven, and they're warm, even better!

Raisin Bran Muffins

5 cups flour

2 cups sugar

5 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

7 1/2 cups boxed Raisin Bran cereal

1 quart buttermilk

4 eggs, slightly beaten

nuts, optional

Directions

Mix all ingredients into a plastic ice cream bucket that has a lid.  First blend dry ingredients, then stir in cereal.  Add buttermilk, oil, and eggs.  Stir until mixed thouroughly.  Do not overstir, and never stir again.  Mixture can be stored in refrigerator for up to 6 weeks (with lid on).  To bake, fill muffin pan cups 2/3 full, add a pat of butter and some cinnamon and raw sugar, and bake 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

The mixture in the bucket looks anything but appetizing, but they are soooo good warm out of the oven.  They are bran...so beware eating more than a couple a day!  My neice adapted the recipe and made some with regular bran flake cereal and craisins.  Sounds good for those non-raisin types!

Zucchini Quiche

We have picked our first zucchini of the season, and thus begins the zucchini, tomato, cucumber, and green bean abundance!  We haven't had a vegetable garden for two years, so I am extremely excited to take advantage of all the goodness coming out of it this year!  In past years, I have accumulated a few favorite recipes to appreciate the bounty of the season, and will share them with you as I cook them for my family in the next few weeks.  With my first two zucchini, I decided to make my absolute favorite:

Zucchini Quiche/ Italian Zucchini Crescent Pie

Ingredients:

1 Package refrigerated crescent rolls

4 cups thinly sliced zucchini, seeds removed

1 cup chopped onion

butter/olive oil for sauteeing

1/4 dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

salt & pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

2 beaten eggs

8 oz shredded mozzerella/ part cheddar

Tomato slices

Directions:

Separate and pat crescent rolls into quiche pan or large pie plate to create crust. Place crust in oven to bake for 5-7 minutes, or until puffy and light brown.  Saute zucchini and onion for 10 minutes, or until soft, but not mushy. Add seasonings and eggs into mixture.  Pour veggie mixture onto crescent crust.  Top with cheese, tomato slices, and a sprinking of parsley.  Bake 15-20 minutes or until set in center.  Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

FYI: For these photos, I doubled the recipe, and made it in a 11 x 15...the rectangle baking dish that is bigger than the 9 x 13.  I like leftovers! We have this for supper with watermelon or a green salad and the Very Best Blueberry Muffins.