Bread Machine Hamburger or Hot Dog Buns

Ingredients:

1 cup water

1/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup wheat flour

3 cups unbleached white flour

1 tsp. salt

1 packet yeast or two teaspoons of bread machine yeast

Preparation:

Add ingredients to the bread machine in the order given and set on dough cycle. When cycle finishes, punch down and let rest for a few minutes. While the dough is resting, prepare a cookie sheet by spraying it with cooking spray and lightly sprinkling it with corn meal. Pinch of a circle of dough and flatten it. Remember that your final product will be about twice as big, so do not make it too big. Place each circle on cookie sheet, spray tops with cooking spray or brush with butter or egg white wash, whichever you prefer, and let rise until double, about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until browned. Slice and enjoy. 

Note: You can make smaller party size shapes, or elongate the dough for hot dog buns. This recipe makes 8-10 large buns.  You can make it totally with white flour, or add more wheat flour if you want. Wheat makes a heavier bun that might take more time to raise.

Ma Judy’s Famous Pancakes

I never measure the ingredients for these pancakes. I just beat an egg; add equal amounts of milk and flour and a good amount of baking powder, usually about a tablespoon for cup of flour. Today, Megan and Jaron came to visit me, and for the first time I measured my ingredients so I can share the recipe. I do not use sugar, salt, or oil in the pancakes.
These are best eaten hot, so I always have the kids eating them while I am cooking more. Then I eat last, after everyone is full. I am not sure if it is the taste or the shape of my pancakes that are the most appealing. I make the grandsons tractor-shaped pancakes, and for the granddaughters, flowers and butterflies. (I tried to make a horse once for Madison, but it did not turn out right at all.) My children’s friends remember when I made their initials out of pancakes. I am no artist, but I give it a good effort. Recently, I saw the idea to use a ketchup bottle to squeeze the batter into shapes. I am going to try that sometime, and who knows what I might create!

Ma Judy’s Famous Pancakes

1 egg
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 T. baking powder

Beat egg, add milk and stir. Combine flour and baking powder and stir into wet ingredients just until mixed. Beating them together too much makes them tougher, not lighter. To fry them, use a good non-stick skillet or griddle and just a small amount of cooking oil. I use olive oil. Spoon them into the pan and wait for bubbles to rise in the pancake. Turn them and cook on the other side.

Beth's Soft Sugar Cookies

“Your mother is a saint.” I have made this statement often to Beth's children over the years. She would shake her head and say, “Oh, no I’m not!” if she heard me, but I believe it is true. A mother of six children, grandmother of two, and friend of many, it is difficult to find a nicer person. I have been blessed to have her as my friend for more years than I want to count, but I would estimate somewhere around 40 years. Our children grew up together, and Beth and I cheered them on from the stands at baseball and basketball games. Our sons still golf together, and our daughters are friends as well. Sometimes when we were at her house, she stirred up a batch of these easy, soft, cake-like sugar cookies. I also baked them often when the kids were growing up. They are not overly sweet – just enough to satisfy the urge for dessert. These cookies are never better than when they are still warm from the oven.

Beth’s Soft Sugar Cookies

1 cup sugar
¾ cup shortening or butter
1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in milk
½ cup milk
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 ½ cups flour
Mix in the order given. Drop by teaspoons on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees. Sprinkle with sugar when you take them out of the oven.

Sweet Potato Rolls

I made Sweet Potato Pull-Apart Rolls today from my Better Homes and Gardens: The Complete Guide to Bread Machine Baking cookbook. They are so good and easy! Adding to the flavor is the knowledge that Blaine grew the sweet potato in our garden last summer from plants purchased from a barefoot woman in a long, dark blue dress who runs the Amish store by LaPlata.  I also remember helping him dig up the orange beauties and marveling at the huge orange treasures hidden under the dried vines last fall.  We are going to eat these rolls with a bowl of beef stew.  Here is the recipe:

Sweet Potato Pull-Apart Rolls

¾ cup sweet potato, mashed

½ cup milk

1 egg

2 tablespoons margarine or butter, cut up

2 ½ cups bread flour

½ cup wheat flour

1 tablespoon brown sugar

¾ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon active dry yeast or bread machine yeast

Put the ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed. Select the dough cycle. When the cycle is complete, remove dough and shape into rolls. Let rise another 30 minutes or until nearly double in size. If you like, beat egg white and a tablespoon of water together to brush over the rolls before baking. This makes them shiny. Bake at 375 for about 18 minutes or until lightly browned.  

Enjoy!

Janie's Crock Pot Apple Butter

When I think of my big sister (she is not actually bigger than me, just a few years older), I remember the highlights of my childhood starring Janie. After she went on a date to the movies, she would retell me the entire plot before I went to sleep. I served as candle lighter at her wedding and thought she was going to faint! When I was about 12 years old and recovering from having my appendix removed, Janie read to me to help pass the long hours in the hospital. In the past few years we began to take short trips together and share some fun sister times.  Since we both like to be active, we went to Rocheport and rode a portion of the Katy Trail on a tandem bike.  We do not have time to spend hours in the kitchen, because we want to be outdoors whenever possible.  Who wants to spend hours watching and stirring apple butter?  This is my sister's easy and delicious recipe.

Janie’s Crock Pot Apple Butter

Peel apples, quarter, and fill to top of slow cooker.

Add:

4 teaspoons cinnamon

¼ teaspoon cloves

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup Red Hots candy

4 cups sugar

Cook on low heat 24 hours, and then blend with mixer.

Bill's Italian Beef

Italian Beef is one of my brother-in-law Bill’s specialties. It is tender and delicious, full of green papers and a little bit of red or cayenne pepper for heat. He makes a big batch of it, freezes it in smaller batches, and shares it with family and friends.  Either beef or deer is good prepared this way. People who think they do not like deer have not eaten Bill’s Italian Beef!  

Italian Beef

10 lb. beef or deer Roast

I lb. package Italian sausage (mild)

3 packages Au-Jus Gravy Packets

4 sliced green peppers

2 tablespoons red or cayenne pepper 

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons garlic

2 tablespoons Italian seasoning

12 cups water (3 quarts)

Directions:  Fully cook meet and sausage in water. Let cool; then slice thin.  Boil Italian seasoning in 12 cups of water and strain off seasonings.  Put meat and all other ingredients into the seasoned water in a large pan and cook down until tender. Make into sandwiches with Italian bread or Hoagie buns. Bill prefers to serve it on a crusty roll.

Here we are at their campsite in Colorado. They often take a batch of frozen Italian Beef for quick meals when camping.

Broccoli Salad

I had never eaten much broccoli growing up. Then I married Blaine and discovered broccoli, asparagus, kohlrabi, and Chinese cabbage growing in the Harvey garden.  Lee Ed and Elaine’s garden was a thing of beauty, with rarely a weed in sight. Blaine inherited his parents’ ability to grow food, and every summer we grow broccoli in our garden. The good news is that it is tender and delicious; the bad news is that it is all ready at the same time. We eat it steamed, stir-fried, and grilled with other vegetables in a foil packet. We give it away to our friends and family.  We grow tired of cooked broccoli, so another way to prepare it with a different texture and taste is to make raw broccoli salad. The recipe I use comes from a John Deere cookbook titled Kitchen Traditions: A Collection of Favorite Recipes from John Deere, a gift from my son.  The recipe is good as it is, but do not be afraid to play with the ingredients. Today I made it with dried cranberries instead of raisins and cut the recipe in half. I never use as much bacon as the recipe says, usually just four or five slices adds enough flavor without too much fat.

Eventually, we reach our limit of eating broccoli and let it bloom into tiny yellow flowers that attract tiny white butterflies. Blaine grumbles about it going to waste, and I tell him I like the flowers and the butterflies!

 Broccoli Salad

2 bunches of broccoli             

1 cup sunflower seeds            

1 cup raisins

1 medium onion

1 lb. of bacon

Dressing ingredients:

1 cup Miracle Whip or mayonnaise

½ cup sugar

2 tablespoons vinegar

Cut broccoli into bite-sized pieces. Fry bacon until crisp, drain and crumble. Mix all other ingredients with the broccoli and toss with the dressing. The salad is best if it is refrigerated for at least an hour to absorb the flavors. It can even be made the day before.