Easy Chocolate Cake

Ingredients
1 1/2 C flour
1 C sugar
2 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
6 Tbsp. oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp. vinegar
1 C cold water
1 container Cool Whip

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 8×8 pan.
2. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Once combined, make 3 holes/wells in the mixture. In 1st hole put the oil in; in the 2nd hole, put the vanilla in; in the 3rd hole put the vinegar in. Pour the cold water over the whole thing and stir till blended.
3. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 35 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes then remove from pan. Once completely cooled, top with whip topping.

Healthy Holiday Cheesecake

Ingredients

1 C graham cracker crumbs
2 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted
2 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 C low-fat or plain yogurt
4 (8oz) pkgs. fat free cream cheese
1 C sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
8 oz. reduced-fat sour cream
2 Tbsp. sugar

Direction
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar, add margarine. Press into the bottom of a 9″ or 10″ springform pan. Spray sides of pan with vegetable cooking spray. Set aside.
3. Combine flour, cornstarch and yogurt, mixing on low speed of electric mixer. Add cream cheese, increase speed to medium, add sugar, eggs, lemon juice, lemon peel and vanilla. Beat well. Pour over prepared crust.
4. Bake for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 degrees and bake for an additional 45 minutes. Turn oven off but leave cheesecake in the oven to cool off.
5. While cake is cooling in the oven, blend sour cream and sugar together. After cake has cooled for about 30 minutes, remove from oven and gently spread sour cream mixture over the the top. Return to the oven for 30-45 minutes to set the sour cream. Refrigerate before serving.

Peach Melba Bavarian

Ingredients

1 (3 oz) pkg lemon gelatin
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/4 C cold milk
1 C boiling water
2 egg yolks
1/2 C sugar
dash of salt
2 Tbsp peach brandy
1 (10 oz) pkg frozen peach slices, cut into small pieces
1 C heavy cream
bottled raspberry sundae topping

Directions
1. Combine both gelatins in a blender, pour cold milk over and allow to sit for 1 minute.
2. Pour boiling water over mixture in blender, cover and whirl at low speed for 2 minutes; remove cover and add egg yolks, sugar, salt and peach brandy.
3. Replace cover and remove feeder cap. Whirl at high speed, gradually adding pieces of frozen peaches and blending until smooth. Add cream if you have room in the container, whirl until well blended. If there is not enough room, pour into a container that can hold the mixture and stir in cream with a rubber scraper until cream is well blended.
4. Pour mixture into a 5 C ring mold. Chill at least 2 hours before serving.
5. To serve: Run a thin-bladed knife around the edges of the mold. Dip mold quickly in and out of a pan of hot water. Invert onto a serving plate. Spoon bottled raspberry topping over mold.

Bundt Kuchen

Ingredients

3 -4 C flour
1 1/4 C sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 pkgs. dry yeast
1/2 C butter, softened
1 C very hot tap water
4 eggs, room temperature
1 Tbsp. grated lemon peel
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 C confectioner sugar
1 Tbsp. milk

Directions
1. In a large bowl thoroughly mix 1 C flour, sugar, salt and undissolved yeast. Add softened butter.
2. Gradually add very hot tap water to dry ingredients and beat for 2-3 minutes at medium speed with electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally.
3. Add eggs and enough flour to make a thick batter. Beat at high speed for 2 minutes
4. Cover and let rise in warm place for 1 hour. Stir in lemon peel and nutmeg. If needed, add enough flour to keep at a thick batter,
5. Grease and flour a 10″ bundt pan. Pour batter into prepared bundt pan and let rise another hour.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes; remove from pan.
7. Whisk confectioner sugar and milk together, Drizzle over warm cake.

You can change the flavor of the cake easily by using grated lemon juice in the glaze. Or use orange peel in the batter and orange juice in the glaze.

Pie Crust

Susanne Delisle

I always get compliments on crust and this is my go-to pie crust for everything crust related. I don’t use shortening often because it is unhealthy, but this is one of the few times I use it. I also only use Crisco. I have no problem with generic products, but there are some things I won’t use them for and shortening is one of them.

Ingredients
2 C Flour
3/4 C Crisco, regular or butter
3/4 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. ice cold water

Directions
1. Whisk flour and sat together.
2. Cut shortening in until mixture looks like coarse meal. I use the sheeting method with my hands. It’s easier if you google how to do it instead of me writing a page long description that might not make sense.
3. Make a well in the center of the mixture and put the water in the well. Mix the water into the mixture until mostly combined. Form into a ball, then divide ball in half. Try not to overwork the dough or it will be tough.
4. Sprinkle flat surface with flour and roll out one crust at a time. Use as you need.

p.s. If you only need one crust, you could still make both and roll out the the second crust and freeze it in a pie pan. If you don’t want to do that, the measurements would be…

1 C flour
3/8 tsp. salt, (a shallow 1/2 tsp)
3/8 C shortening, or 6 Tablespoons
2 Tbsp. ice cold water

Follow directions above

Chicken Wings

My Mom created these to try to recreate the wings from The Willard.

Ingredients
2 pounds chicken wings, thawed
oil to fry wings in
1/4 C butter, melted
2 Tbsp lemon juice
hot sauce, as much as you like!

Directions
1. Fry chicken wings in 2 ” oil at temperature of 375 degrees. Don’t crowd the pan. Fry, turning occasionally until done. Approximately 8-10 min. Drain well.
2. Put chicken in a bowl and toss with melted butter. Sprinkle with lemon juice
3. Coat with hot sauce of your choice. Serve with ranch or blue cheese salad dressing.

You can make this heathier by baking the wings instead of frying them. 400 degrees for 20 minutes, turning wings over half way through.

Cherry Crunch

Ingredients
1/2 C butter
1 1/2 C brown sugar
1 C flour
1 C old-fashioned oats
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
2 – 20oz – cans cherry pie filling

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Melt the butter in a 9×13 x2 pan in the oven, taking care that the butter does not brown.
3. In a bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Pour the melted butter carefully into the dry ingredients and mix well. This crumb mixture will be a little lumpy; it is not supposed to be smooth, Put half of the crumb mixture back in the 9x13x2 pan. Spread it evenly. Spread the cherry pie filling over the top, then top with the rest of the crumb mixture. DO NOT STIR!
4. Bake for 1 hour.

Picnic Chewies

Ingredients

2/3 C butter, softened
2/3 C shortening
1 C sugar
1 C brown sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
3 1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 oz. bag of chocolate chips
1 1/2 C chopped walnuts

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Blend butter and shortening together until light and fluffy. Add both sugars and cream well. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg. Stir in the vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir flour mixture into the creamed mixture. Add the chips and walnuts, combining well.
4. Drop by spoonful’s onto ungreased baking sheet, about 1″ apart. The cookies will not spread much while baking.
5. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool briefly on baking sheet, then move to rack. Yields approximately 7 dozen , 2″ inch cookies.

Suet Pudding

Suet is the hard white fat on the kidneys and loins of cattle, sheep, and other animals. It is used to make foods including puddings, pastry, and mincemeat.
Suet is not common in the U.S., but our British friends use this ingredient quite a bit. I almost didn’t put this recipe here, but thought that if nothing else, it would be an interesting read. I don’t even know if we can buy suet here in the U.S. Maybe any European visitors who read this recipe can give a thoughts on this recipe and suet. You can substitute shortening for the suet, it will affect the the texture but is a better substitute than butter.

Ingredients
2 C finely chopped apples
3 C soft bread crumbs
1 C raisins
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mace
1/2 C finely chopped citron or candied orange peel
1/2 C finely chopped suet
2 eggs lightly eaten
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C molasses
1 C milk
1 Tbsp cornstarch

Directions
1. Combine first 6 ingredients in bowl, then work in suet. Mix remaining ingredients separately, then stir into suet mixture.
2.Put into top of ungreased 2-quart double boiler and steam over simmering water; adding more boiling water as necessary for 2 1/2 hours, or until done, unmold from pan.
3. This is traditionally served with a sauce, I don’t know the traditional sauce, but I have read that a hard sauce would be good with it.

Pork Burgers

I had totally forgotten about pork burgers! We always used to get them at the fair and we all looked forward to it. I love how this recipe is a blank canvass for variations. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 pound unseasoned ground pork
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. salt

Directions
1. Mix pork with the salt and pepper. Shape into 4 patties.
2. Place over moderately hot coals or fry on a skillet or grill pan. Cook to well-done. Serve on hamburger buns
3. Read on for variations for your pork burger.

a. Santa Fe Burger – Fresh guacamole, salsa and chili peppers. Serve open-faced on corn bread
b. Georgia Burger – Fresh peach slices and crispy strips of bacon. Serve on honey-wheat roll.
c. Pacific Burger – Sunflower seeds, grilled pineapple slice and honey-dijon mustard. Serve on sourdough bread.
d. Caribbean Burger – Mango slices, hot pepper sauce, slice of red onion and chopped fresh cilantro. Serve on grilled hamburger bun, brushed with olive oil.
e. Mediterranean Burger – Prepare a mixture of plain yogurt, chopped fresh dill and chopped cucumber. Serve in a pita bread pocket.
f. Italian Burger – Top with a dab of pesto and a mixture of mozzarella, parmesan, Romano and provolone cheeses. Serve with focaccia.
g. Thai Burger – Make a peanut sauce mixture by combining peanut butter, hot chili oil and a dash of soy sauce. Serve on a bun brushed with hot pepper infused oil.