Life With The Stanfords

My Favorite Cookbook

Food is a large part of my life (and why I'm livin' so large, heh, heh).

• I love to eat good food in large quantities. I especially love good food that is beautifully prepared, expertly presented and served to me by an efficient waiter who doesn't talk too much (but has a killer dry wit).
• I love to cook good food - also in large quantities these days. Good food makes people happy. It makes them feel better and comforts. Having someone cook a home-cooked meal for you is like receiving a handwritten letter. It shows so much care, time and thoughtfulness.
• I spend about an hour every Saturday morning planning what my family will eat for the next week and making a grocery list for the plan. Then I grocery shop. That seems heavy to some people, but it actually saves a huge amount of time and money over the course of a week. Plus, I loathe going to Wal-Mart. Why would I want to make several trips there during the week? I would say that planning the menu and grocery shopping probably takes about three hours every Saturday.
• I spend a lot of time looking at recipes. Not always, but when the thought of making spaghetti one more time makes me want to toss my cookies, there has to be a new recipe. You know what I'm sayin'?

 MyRecipes.comis my favorite online source for recipes. Southern Living "stores" all their recipes here. They also have a fabulous feature called, "1 List, 5 Meals".They have a shopping list pre-printed with everything you need to make a week's worth of suppers. Great resource when the creative juices just aren't flowin'!

As for my favorite cookbook, I'll start with the runners-up.

Third Place -- My good ol' red and white checkered Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. My Mama's copy was covered in pink-flowered contact paper. This is the perfect starter cookbook. It's got all the basics in there - how to make a white sauce, easy chili recipe, how long to cook a roast, etc.

Second Place -- Any Southern Living cookbook will do. They really do have the best recipes on the planet. I would say I've got about a 98% success rate using their recipes. Almost all of my tried-and-true favorites come from Southern Living.

And the winner is...Southern Living's Easy Weeknight Favorites. This is the one in my kitchen that has the most stained and wrinkled pages. They have a section of well-balanced menus that are quick, easy, and delicious. Then there's a slowcooker section, and sections for specific food groups. All the recipes are easy. The mark of a great cookbook to me is actually being able to make the recipes in it. These are so do-able and practical. You will love it.

BONUS:

Following is my favorite recipe from Easy Weeknight Favorites. I make it almost every time I cook a meal for someone who's been ill, had a baby, etc. Inevitably, I'm asked for the recipe. Here it is. Enjoy!

 

Creamy Chicken Casserole

3 cups chopped, cooked chicken (Timesaver: buy one of the rotisserie chickens at the grocery store and use that. It's a little more expensive, but very tasty.)
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz. sour cream
1 Tbs. poppy seeds
Optional:  a little bit of Tony Cachere's - to taste
1 "stick" of Ritz crackers (about 40 crackers), crushed
1/4 cup butter, melted

Combine first 4 ingredients; spoon into a lightly greased 11 x 7 baking dish. Combine crushed crackers and butter, and sprinkle over chicken mixture. (Easy tip:  crush the crackers in a closed Ziploc bag, melt the butter and pour into the Ziploc bag with the crackers and smush up together. Kids love this job.) Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Yield:  4 servings

Homemade Caramel

I ended my previous post with an almost completely empty bowl of homemade caramel. I had a couple of requests for the recipe so I'm sharing it here. I've always wanted to make caramel, but that whole "boil the condensed milk in the can for an hour" thing just didn't appeal to me.

This recipe is very simple. It came from my kids' Kindercooks class. Here goes:

HOMEMADE CARAMEL

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 cup sugar

1. Using a microwave-safe bowl, combine all ingredients.
2. Cook on HIGH power in the microwave for 3 minutes, then stir.
3. Reduce microwave to 50 percent power and cook for two 2-minute intervals, stirring between each interval.
4. Continue to microwave on half power at 1-minute intervals until caramel becomes a caramel color and reaches desired consistency.

NOTES:

1. All microwaves cook differently. Watch carefully to make sure the mixture doesn't boil over.
2. My total cook time was about 11 minutes. I stopped cooking when the caramel was a little lighter than I wanted it. It continues to darken and thicken as it cools. So don't overcook it.
3. After it's been refrigerated, the caramel gets really stiff. Just warm it up for a few seconds in the microwave to make it "stirrable" again.

Gifting the caramel...

The other night we had dinner with friends and I wanted to bring a little something for our hosts. I bought a pretty glass jar at Wal-Mart for $3.97. Everything else I had on hand at home.

I cut a strip of pretty fabric with pinking shears and hot-glued it to the outside of the jar. Then, I tied raffia around the outside of the fabric. I printed the words "Homemade Caramel" on a piece of scrapbook paper and cut it into a circle. Punched a hole in the tag and attached it with raffia. Voila!

I brought the jar of caramel with a few shiny, red apples. This is a great Fall gift. It is really inexpensive to make and so delicious! This caramel is great on apples, drizzled over popcorn, brownies, and ice cream. I think you could drizzle it over an old shoe and that would be good, too. Enjoy!
 

Easy AND impressive???

I had a request for easy recipes that impress people. I laughed when I read the request because I'm much better at easy now than impressive. You know, five kids and all. Impressive meals at my house mean we make a smiley face out of all the foods on our plate. Oooh! Aaah!

There are a few things I make that seem to be crowd pleasers and are pretty easy. Most of the "impressing" part comes from the presentation. For example, if you'll serve the Crawfish and Corn Soup from yesterday's post in individual, footed dessert bowls on  beautiful salad plates with big, beautiful pieces of crusty, French bread beside them, Voila! Impressive.

 

 

Mandarin Orange Salad

Bagged lettuce of your choice (I like Baby Butters)
1 small can mandarin oranges
cashew pieces or halves
golden raisins
Brianna's Poppy Seed Dressing (another brand is fine also)

There are tons of variations on this salad. Put in as much or as little of each item as you'd like. No chopping (I hate chopping)! Serve in a pretty bowl and arrange the mandarin oranges around the top to be pretty. Delicious. I get lots of requests for this salad.

Quiche Lorraine

Quiche makes an elegant presentation sliced and arranged on a dark leaf of lettuce beside a bunch of grapes and apples. The Swiss cheese and bacon are SO good and satisfying.

(1) pie crust for 9 inch pie
3 beaten eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1/2 bag of real bacon bits (the kind that come in the metallic gold bag are best)
1 medium onion, chopped and cooked (or fudge like I do and use dehydrated onions)
1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Prepare the pastry. Line the pastry shell with tin foil. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 5 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking for another 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees.

In a bowl, stir together the eggs, milk, salt, onion and bacon. Toss together the shredded cheese and flour. Stir gently into egg mixture. Pour into hot pastry shell. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until middle of pie is firm. (Sometimes I put the broiler on during the last few minutes to give it a nice, golden finish.) Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serves 6.

My favorite dessert to impress is still the Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake right on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa box. Nobody makes a good, chocolate cake anymore, so this is a real treat (especially if you refrigerate it first). Top it with toasted pecans, beautiful strawberries or powdered sugar. Make sure you have lots of ice cold milk to serve with. I also just made this really great apple pie that was in the September Southern Living. So good.

Lastly, I find that if you'll make some homemade brownies, top individual slices with good vanilla ice cream, warm, homemade chocolate syrup, and some raspberries in a pretty dish, your guests will be your love slaves forever.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you end up making any of the recipes, variations, improvements, etc. Also, if you have a super easy, impressive standby, I'd love to hear it. Every domestic diva needs a few of those up her sleeve. Have a great weekend!   

Welcome to October

Perfect timing for what I consider our first Fall month. Last night was our first cold snap. My kids wore long pants today, and I wore a jacket. Welcome, October!

Tomorrow night we're having our first Crawfish and Corn Soup of the year. Here's the very easy recipe from my friend, Dana Teague:

2 cans garlic roasted cream of potato soup
2 cans cream style corn
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 pint half and half
1 pound crawfish or shrimp
1 medium onion, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
2 stalks parsley, chopped
1 medium bell pepper, chopped
1 stick butter
salt/pepper to taste
Tony Cachere's to taste

Saute all vegetables (except parsley) in butter until tender. Add crawfish (undrained) or shrimp. Stir over medium heat for five minutes. Add soup, corn, half and half, and parsley. Cook over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with hot, crusty French bread. ***This soup is really best after it's been refrigerated overnight and reheated.

Our cold snap's also perfect timing for this month's playlist - A Tribute To Coffee. The older I get, the more I like coffee. Nothing gets me through a day of homeschooling better than a cup of Cafe' Vienna, and coffee with a friend is just so fine. Coffee deserves it's own playlist because:

It's a very elegant drink - dark, sophisticated.

Coffee is so retro, but I can't explain why. I love almost all things retro.

It has so many moods. In a substantial mug, it's just comforting and good. In a china cup, it's ladylike and sociable. I guess coffee is like a good, black dress - it can go anywhere.

Coffee has one of the most wonderful aromas in the world. Who needs potpourri if you've got coffee?

The smell of coffee reminds me of my grandparents, my Mama, and lots of other really good things.

There's my not-so-short list of why coffee is magnificent. Enjoy a cup with your cold snap and have a lovely October.

Love those biscuits from Popeye's!

It occurred to me last night as I was making breakfast for supper that whenever I mention making homemade Popeye's biscuits, people always ask for the recipe. I never can remember it exactly, so I thought I would share it here.

For those of you who may not have a Popeye's in your neck of the woods, it is a New Orleans-based fried chicken chain. Their biscuits are very dense, buttery and melt-in-your-mouth. This recipe is so easy. It's definitely low investment, hight return. WARNING: These biscuits have been shown to sabotage diets. Umm, they're also highly fattening.

Here's the recipe:

4 cups Pioneer biscuit mix
8 ounces sour cream
3/4 cup club soda
1 stick of butter

Mix the first three ingredients together. Roll out to 1" thick on a lightly floured surface. Cut with a 3" round cookie cutter, taking care not to twist the cutter as you cut the circles. Melt 1/2 of the butter in the bottom of a 9" x 13" pan. Place biscuits in pan and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Melt remaining butter and brush over the tops of biscuits. Makes between 12-16 biscuits.

Serve with honey, jam, gravy...Heck! These things are so good you could serve them with dog food and they'd still taste great. Enjoy!

The Official Thanksgiving Menu Is Set

Well, my sister and I have decided on the menu for Thanksgiving. We will be celebrating at her house the day after Thanksgiving. This is what we have decided:

Crabmeat and Brie Dip w/ Crackers
Fried Turkey w/ Dressing and Cranberry Sauce
Honey Baked Ham
Sweet Potatoes with Bourbon Sauce
Mashed Potatoes w/ Gravy
Cornbread Casserole
Green Bean/Bacon Bundles
Asparagus w/ Jalapeno Hollandaise Sauce
Homemade Bread
Pecan Pie
Almond Coconut Cake
Fantasy Fudge
Sparkling Champagne Punch

What do you think? Too much? I'm just glad I haven't given away all my stretchy dresses from pregnancy. Ya'll, we like to eat.

Food = Love in my family. Every time we go to my Dad's, as soon as we walk in the door, he asks, "'Jeat yet?" That is Southern shorthand for, "Hello. How are you? Would you like to have something to eat?" We love each other with food. I'm sure that's unhealthy. But as you can plainly see, we love the heck out of each other! That's good, isn't it?

The best things in life are simple...

Today I'm baking. I usually bake at least once a week. Brownies, cookies, cakes - you name it. One day my children will know how completely spoiled rotten they are. They will come to me when I am old and gray and they will wax sentimental about all the confections I made for them growing up. Then I will sit there with my halo firmly in place, and...wait, I'm sorry. Where was I?

One of my favorite recipes is for oatmeal cookies. The official name is Oatmeal Crisps, but that makes them sound crispy and they are not. My mama had this in her red and white checked cookbook that she had covered in pink flowered contact paper. My mama was so creative. The cookbook was older than I was and they don't have this recipe in the modern editions.

So with Fall coming (this is really an act of faith on our part down here in Louisiana), I thought I'd share this recipe. Oatmeal cookies are so "fallish" to me.

Oatmeal Cookies (Oven 350 degrees)

1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2-3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

Thoroughly cream shortening and sugars. I highly recommend Crisco shortening sticks. They make life so much easier.

Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add flour, salt and soda; mix well. I do not sift these together and the cookies are fine.

Stir in rolled oats. I use the old-fashioned regular oats, not the quick cooking kind. To me, these give the cookies a much better texture. Also, I use about 2 1/2 cups of oats. To each his own.

Plop big blobs of the dough on an ungreased cookie sheet. I use about 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of dough for each. No need to flatten.

Bake for 10-12 minutes in preheated 350 degree oven.

Voila! Beautiful chewy, sweet oatmeal cookies. These are not like any other oatmeal cookies I've ever tasted. They make me happy. They'll make you happy, too. If only you could come share a cookie and a big glass of ice cold milk with me. I'll have to settle for a comment.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y, Hey!

This is my token blog for the day. I get so disappointed when I go to one of my favorite blogs and there is nothing new posted. I don't know how Pioneer Woman does it. There is something new there everyday, usually more than one thing! Amazing.

Hurricane Ike didn't do too much damage here. I sure am sick of hearing the wind blow, though. It's been blowing for almost three days now.

I finally get to get out of the house today. We are going to have supper with a fellow Music Minister and his family. Jade has asked me to make one of my fabulous desserts. When I asked him which one, he didn't pick one of the fancy ones. He chose the Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake. 

The Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake is sublime yet so simple to make. It is low investment, high return. The only thing I do differently from the recipe is add more powdered sugar than it calls for. This will produce a very thick chocolate frosting. When you put the frosted cake in the refrigerator, the frosting becomes this thick, fudge-like slab. Put a cold glass of whole milk with that. No fancy dessert can compete. 

And here's where I put in a plug for Hershey's Cocoa. This is a staple in our home. I get the big box. Cocoa is great because it makes the best hot chocolate (we drink it year round - even in south Louisiana) and you can combine it with oil to fake chocolate baking squares. By the way, the recipes for both hot chocolate and the cake are right on the box.

To end this token post, I will leave you with some gratuitous photos of my baby,Evelyn:   

Evelyn is modeling a lovely dress that I made for her for Easter. She's about to bus' out of it, ya'll. I better get to sewing some frocks for Miss Fatty Cake.    

You guys have a great weekend. Go to the Lord's House tomorrow and praise Him. Tell Him how much you love Him and how great He is. He already knows, but He still likes to hear us say it. And hey, He deserves it!