Oatmeal Scones

Oatmeal Scones
3 c. oatmeal
2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 t. soda
1 t. salt
1 c. sour cream
1 c. butter, melted
Mix dry ingredients together, add sour cream and butter and stir until well blended. Place dough on well greased stone, pat down until about 1-1 1/2 in. thick, cut into pie shape pieces and separate pieces as shown in picture below. You can also just do spoonfuls of dough, like drop cookies, but bigger, instead of making the pie shaped pieces. Bake at 420 for 20 minutes or until slightly golden. In hindsight, I would make my scones thicker, they turned out ok, but a little thin.

Pull the pie shaped section out to the edge.

View from the top, sorry, no picture of the finished product; I took them in to work as a treat to celebrate passing my boards.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

There is no better treat than fresh, home-baked cookies and a cold glass of milk. And here is a bonus, feel a little less guilty by adding some healthy ingredients to your favorite treats, like oatmeal.

The Recipe

My helper

Mmm, almost done

Cooling on the racks

Ready to EAT!

Baked Beans from Scratch

Baked Beans
4 c. dried pinto beans, rinsed
6-7 c. water
1/2 lb. of bacon, 4-5 thick slices
1 t. salt
1-2 t. black pepper
Optional:
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 t. onion powder
mustard
ketchup
barbecue sauce
Rinse beans and put beans, bacon and water in a large pot or dutch oven. Bring to a boil an turn down heat, simmer for 2 hours. Add salt, pepper and seasonings of your choice. Serve as a meal with cornbread or these are great as a side with smoked or grilled meats.

If you are from the north, you will probably prefer your beans and cornbread to be a little sweet. In the southern US, they don't add sugar to their beans or to their cornbread. I decided to try making beans from scratch cause I saw the recipe on Pioneer Woman, have you ever been to her site? I didn't stick to her recipe, I just used it as my jumping off point.

5 slices of thick applewood smoked bacon

Normally you just put the raw bacon in the pot with the beans and water. The bacon cooks up when you boil and then simmer the pot for 2 hours, but it never gets to that crispy bacon level, which I love, so I cooked mine first.

Chopped up the CRISPY bacon

4 c. dried pinto beans, rinse with water and make sure that you only have beans and no FOs, foreign objects

Put beans, water, bacon and bacon grease in pot and boil, cover, turn down to simmer for 2 hrs.

Beans and bacon after they have been simmering for 2 hours, I used 7 cups of water, you probably only need 6. Now they are ready to season.

1 t. salt, they needed more, but then everyone can add as much salt as they prefer at the table.

1 or 2 t. ground pepper, I used about 1 1/2 t. of freshly ground, it is much stronger than store bought ground pepper.

1 t. onion powder, I used onion powder since I didn't have an onion around, you could add 1/2 an onion or so and cook it up with the beans early on.

1/4 c. brown sugar, I didn't want to get them too sweet, you could easily add more sugar, if you like sweet baked beans

Some mustard, barbecue sauce and ketchup, I just added a little of each along with all the other seasonings.

Mix up some cornbread from scratch or mix, I used a mix since I didn't have any corn meal

Bake corn bread in a skillet, heat the skillet on the stove to melt 2 T. butter in the bottom

I ran the butter around the sided to make sure the cornbread didn't stick to the pan.

Pour the batter in the pan, you can see it is already starting to bake on the edges of the hot skillet.

Bake in the oven as directed, mine said 400 for 20 min.

Mmmmm, it is so nice and crispy on the bottom

Serve with beans

Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's Pie
1 lb. ground beef, browned
1/2 onion, chopped or 1 t. onion powder
1 c. corn
2 c. mixed vegetables
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 can water
1 t. basil
1 t. oregano
Brown beef in a large frying pan, add onion, cook until onions soften. Add all other ingredients into the pan and mix up well, cook on medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring often. Spray a baking dish of your choice with nonstick spray, I used a deep 9 in. round. Pour beef and vegetable mixture into the dish. Top the mixture with a biscuit mix of your choice or if you are feeling industrious, make some from scratch. Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes.

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

Buffalo Chicken Wraps
1 bag Buffalo chicken strips
lettuce
celery
ranch dressing
shredded cheddar cheese
whole grain tortillas
Put it all together in a wrap and enjoy! These are great and simple. I got the idea from my sister, thanks Gina! Having celery on them is a little different, but with these wraps it goes great and adds some good crunch.

Chicken Enchilada Soup

Chicken Enchilada Soup
1 16 oz. can enchilada sauce
1 28 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can water
2 c. corn
1 can black beans
1 can refried beans
2 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
tortilla chips
sour cream
shredded cheese
Combine first 8 ingredients, simmer for 20-30 minutes, add cayenne pepper if you like a little more spice. Top soup with chips, cheese and sour cream.

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

1 c. butter or shortening
1 c. creamy peanut butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
3 eggs
3 c. all-purpose flour
2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
Filling:
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
3 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
5-6 T. milk
In a mixing bowl, cream the shortening, peanut butter and sugars, add vanilla and eggs. Combine flour soda and salt, add to creamed mixture. Shape into 1 inch balls, place two inches apart on baking sheet. Flatten to 3/8 inch with fork or bottom of a glass. Bake at 375 for 7-8 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire racks. In a mixing bowl beat filling ingredients until smooth. Spread on half of the cookies, and top each with another cookie. Makes about 4 dozen.

From the Archives: Individuals Chocolate Souffles

3-6-09
Individuals Chocolate Souffles

8 oz. semisweet chocolate
6 T. butter
2 T. rum, coffee or water
6 egg yokes
6 egg whites
1/4 heaping t. cream of tartar
1/2 c. sugar
Butter and sugar 6 ramkins, preheat oven to 375. Combine chocolate, butter and rum in a heat proof bowl. Set bowl in a skillet of water and heat but do not simmer. Stir mixture until smooth, let cool ten minutes, then whisk in egg yokes. In another large bowl, beat egg whites until foamy, add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in sugar and beat until peaks are stiff but not dry. Gently fold egg white mixture with chocolate mixture. Divide batter into ramkins and bake for 20 minutes or until souffles have risen and set. Souffles can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 24 hours before baking.

Ingredients

Seperate eggs

Chocolate mixture and egg yolks

Foamy egg whites

Egg white mixture, beaten to stiff but not dry peaks and chocolate mixture

Fold two mixtures together gently

Put mixture in ramekins, they don't need to be quite so full

Bake

From the Archives: Irish Brown Bread

3-6-09
Irish Brown Bread

1½ cups all-purpose flour	2 tsp baking soda
1¼ cups whole-wheat flour	1 tsp salt
¾ cup quick oats	1¾ cups buttermilk
½ cup wheat germ	2 Tbsp honey

Heat oven to 400°F. Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray. In a large bowl, mix flours, oats, wheat germ, baking soda and salt.
Whisk together buttermilk and honey. Add to flour mixture; stir to combine until soft dough forms.
Turn dough out onto floured surface. Divide in half. Shape each half into a round loaf. Place loaves 3 in. apart onto prepared baking sheet; bake 25 minutes or longer until bread sounds hollow when tapped. Let cool 15 minutes. *Note: I suggest dividing into three small loaves and bake 2 inches apart*

From the Archives: Hungarian Goulash

2-20-09
Hungarian Beef Stew

1 boneless beef chuck-eye roast, 3 1/2 lbs, trimmed and cubed into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1/3 c. sweet Hungarian paprika
1 t. salt
1-12 oz. jar roasted red peppers, rinsed
2 T. tomato paste
3 t. vinegar
2 T. vegetable oil
4 large onions, diced (6 cups)
4 large carrots, cut into 1 inch rounds
1 bay leaf
1 c. beef broth
1/4 c. sour cream, optional
Preheat oven to 325. Sprinkle meat with 1 t. salt, let stand for 15 minutes. Put paprika, peppers, tomato paste and 2 t. vinegar in food processor and combine until smooth. In a dutch oven combine oil, onions and 1 t. salt, cook on medium heat until the onions are beginning to soften, but not brown, 8-10 minutes. Add paprika mixture, cook and stir another 2 minutes, until the onions begin to stick to the bottom. Add beef, carrots and bay leaf, scrape down sides with spatula, cover and transfer to oven. Cook for 2-2 1/2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. Add beef broth and cook for another 30 minutes. Remove bay leaf and add another t. vinegar and sour cream if you want to. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over boiled potatoes or egg noodles.


This was the first meal we made in our new kitchen, that is if baking a frozen pizza doesn't count. This turned out pretty good, Nate wanted to make it from out Cook's magazine for a while, I think next time we will make it a bit more spicey, other than that, it was a great, hearty meal.

From the Archives: Crock-Pot Sweet Potatoes & Apples

s11-29-08
Crock-Pot Sweet Potatoes & Apples

This is great for the fall and especially for Thanksgiving, you can get it ready in the morning and not worry about it until lunch time.

8 sweet potatoes or 1 squash
2 apples
1/4 c. butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 T. cinnamon
Peel and cube sweet potatoes/squash