Saturday, February 19, 2011

Cuppa, Cuppa, Cuppa Cobbler

One of our family favorites is cobbler...any kind, almost...everybody has a favorite!  It's SO simple & is a great dessert (with ice cream, of course!).  Enjoy.
Melt 1 stick of butter in a 9x9 pan.
Mix together:
     1 cup flour
     1 cup sugar
     1 cup milk
Pour into pan with melted butter, do NOT stir.
Add fruit to your liking (I use about 2 cups).  Sugar & cinnamon to taste, or just sugar, depending on the fruit.
Cook at 350 for about 30 minutes.  Serve warm with ice cream.

So did you get the name?  cuppa flour, cuppa sugar, cuppa milk......hee, hee!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Goodie, goodie, gumbo!

Cold winter nights have traditionally meant soup or chili at our house.  Tonight was that kind of night!!  Last night we enjoyed a wonderful fried oyster, boiled shrimp, crabmeat & hot butter meal.  Since I cooked enough shrimp for Cox's army, we had leftovers!!!  Now, my family is not made up of leftover eaters, so I have to get creative. All day long I was thinking about how good those shrimp tasted & how good some seafood gumbo would be.  Alas, I have never made gumbo.  The roux, the file', all that chopping...it just seemed daunting to me.

When finally home for the day, a quick trip to the internet and cooks.com yielded a seafood gumbo recipe that was really easy!  I fudged the ingredients a little as this was a "refrigerator/pantry" meal, but the outcome was outstanding!  We cooked rice to have with ours.  I also took some out before adding the seafood & made a small pot of chicken gumbo for our non-seafood eater!  Some crunchy rolls would have been good, but none in the kitchen :(

Seafood Gumbo (from cooks.com)

5 qts. water
2 bell peppers, chopped
2 c. celery, chopped
6 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce  -  I used 2 cans diced tomatoes & a can of Rotel for a browner gumbo
3 tbsp. black pepper
8 slices bacon, cut fine
3 c. green onions, chopped
3 lbs. shrimp, crabmeat or both  (I also added some leftover baked chicken)
1 cup flour
2 lg. onions, chopped
4 tbsp. garlic, chopped
3 tbsp. salt
3 tbsp. red pepper
3/4 c. parsley, chopped
10 pods fresh cut okra
7 or 8 tbsp. vegetable oil (or sausage or bacon grease)

Make a roux stirring vegetable oil and flour until well browned.  Add 2 cups water and stir.  Add 3 more cups water and all other ingredients.  Let cook until vegetables are done.  Add seafood 15 minutes before gumbo is ready and let cook.  Add more water if necessary.

My changes that worked:
no bell peppers
canned diced tomatoes instead of sauce
cooked bacon I had in the freezer
no green onions
some fresh garlic & some garlic powder
frozen breaded okra (yes!  it worked great)
chopped chicken and 2 chicken bullion cubes

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Cookie Medicine

Today is a stormy, rainy, cold day.  I always want to bake cookies on days like this.  It makes the house smell good, it cheers everybody up, and we have delicious snacks all day!  My two little helpers (ages 1 & 2) will, of course, be assisting in the mixing process.  I love baking with my grandchildren as I did my children.

One very special memory that stands out from my lifetime is of baking sugar cookies with my brother.  When I was in second grade, I was very ill.  I had 3 day measles, red measles, and scarlet fever.  Back in those days, that meant I had to be in a completely dark room all the time.  My momma did my schooling, so I did not get behind (I was actually ahead of my class when I went back to school after 2+ months!)  I had a little record player  and a radio in the room with me, and lots of family "company" when I was awake.

After some time had passed and I was well on the road to recovery, Momma left me with my brother while she went to run errands.  Of course, I had no idea what he was doing; but soon found out that he had been making and rolling out cookie dough.  I will never forget him coming into my room, putting a blindfold on me, and taking me to the kitchen.  He sat me on a stool at the kitchen counter and gave me a cookie cutter.  I blindly felt the rolled out dough and cut out cookies.  He baked the cookies and we had them with milk back in my dark room.  It was my first time out of that room in almost 2 months and I will never forget it.  My big brother is somebody special and I'm thankful for him and his tender heart.

The kiddies and I did not make sugar cookies today, but see my previous post on teacakes for an excellent recipe.  Today we made M & M cookies, got flour all over the kitchen, licked the beater, and had a good time!!

M & M Cookies
1 - 1# pkg M & M's
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans, if desired

Chop up 1 1/2 cups of the candy.  Stir together flour, soda & salt.  Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla, beat well.  Beat in flour.  Add chopped candy and nuts.  Drop by spoonful onto cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for 6 or 7 minutes.  Remove, put on candy and return to bake until brown (another couple of minutes).  Makes about 5 dozen.