Mince and Tatties

My dad served an LDS mission to Scotland. This meal was something he ate there. My mom makes it fairly often. It's super simple, comforting and filling.

Mince & Tatties

Baked potatoes

1 lb ground beef, cooked and crumbled 

1 pkg brown gravy, prepared

OR

1 T flour

1-2 beef bouillon cubes

TT salt and pepper

1 c water

Mix cooked ground beef and prepared gravy. 

OR 

Add flour to pan with cooked ground beef and stir well. Add bouillon, salt, pepper and water. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly.

(Sometimes I double the gravy.)

Serve meat/gravy mixture over baked potato.

Homemade Fajita Seasoning

Used this last night and it tasted great! For I batch of fajitas I used half a batch of the seasoning. (Also I left out the cayenne pepper.)

Source: allrecipes.com

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Lemony Apple Oat Muffins

Source: Janet Rose

I just made these again for the first time in a while and used regular milk instead of evaporated and regular oats instead of quick and both substitutions worked just fine.

Frito Salad

My neighbor Racheale Kunzler makes this often. Flint and I both LOVE it!

Racheale says she likes it heartier so she always adds one can kidney beans AND one can black beans.

Patio Beans

Great side dish for picnics or potlucks, especially of you haven't been grocery shopping in a while and don't have ingredients for a salad. Everything in these beans should be pantry staples. These are different than other baked beans, and by different I mean better :)

 

Patio Beans

Source: Janet Rose

2 (15 oz each) cans red or kidney beans (do not drain)

1 can tomato soup

1 T dry mustard

1/2 c brown sugar

1 lb ground beef

1 T dry onion

4 strips bacon, cooked and diced

Fry and crumble ground beef. Add remaining ingredients. Cook in crock pot for 4 hours or in oven at 350 for at least 2 hours.

 

Lately I've altered the recipe a little so that it fits perfectly in my 2.5 quart corningware dish.

Patio Beans Variation

Source: Amy Pugsley

 

3 cans beans

1 can tomato soup

1 can tomato sauce

1 1/2 T dry mustard

3/4 c brown sugar

1 lb ground beef

1 1/2 T dry onion

4 strips bacon, cooked and diced

Same cooking instructions as above. Fits perfectly in a 2.5 quart baking dish!

 

The recipe says two hours in the oven, but I always cook them longer than that. I like getting the beans as cooked as possible to help with the gas issue (TMI???). I also have made them without the bacon several times. It's a sad thing to cut out, but I don't always have bacon on hand. The bacon definitely makes the beans better, but the beans are still delicious without the bacon.

Cowboy's Delight

This is about the only meal that has "delight" in the name that I trust - hahaha - but really :) 

I love this because it's super easy and yummy. It's great college food or great for letting kids help cook. Kids also love eating it!

Cowboy's Delight

Source: Janet Rose

1 lb ground beef, browned

2 cans tomato soup

1 can corn

1.5-2 c dry macaroni, cooked until almost tender

Salt and pepper tt

Garlic powder tt

Sugar tt

~1 c water

Grated cheddar cheese

Mix ingredients together and top with cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until heated through.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have struggled for years to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. After trying countless recipes, I finally found my perfect one. It is Racheale Kunzler's recipe.

Cream:
1/2 c butter
1/2 c shortening
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 T water

Sift:
3 c flour (might need a tiny bit more for drop cookies)
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt

Add dry mixture to wet. Add desired amount of chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees. This recipe works well for drop cookies OR bar cookies. For bar cookies, bake for 17 minutes. For drop cookies, bake for 8 minutes, remove from oven and let sit on cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes. This will result in super moist and soft cookies. Even if they don't look done, take them out of the oven anyway!!! 

Susan Larsen's Fast Dinner

I made this tonight for the first time in a long time. It's very simple to make - only takes a few minutes of prep and then (if you are like me), you can clean your house while it cooks itself! Score!

Susan Larsen's Fast Dinner
Source: Susan Larsen :)

1 package cube steaks (4 steaks)
Thinly sliced potatoes and onions (amount determined by number of people you are feeding)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can milk

Season and brown steaks in a large non-stick skillet that has a lid. Once both sides are browned, add potatoes and onions to the pan. Combine soup and milk and mix well. Pour soup mixture over meat, potatoes and onions. Cover with lid, reduce heat to low and simmer for an hour.

Ta-da! That's it! Easy peasy lemon squeezy! :)

You can also substitute tomato soup in place of the cream of mushroom.

Banana Cake

Flint loves this stuff. It's like banana bread but even better :) The mixing method for this cake is pretty crazy. Every time I make it I worry if it will turn out - and it does! (And just to clarify, YES, you do add buttermilk twice.)

Banana Cake

Source: Phyllis Kunzler

Cream:

1 2/3 c sugar

1 1/4 t soda

1 t salt

2/3 c shortening 

Add and mix well:

2 1/2 c flour

1/3 c buttermilk

1 1/4 c mashed banana

Add and mix well:

1/3 c buttermilk 

2 eggs 

Pour into greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Once cooled top with cream cheese frosting.

BBQ Stew Meat

This is simple to make and delicious. To achieve best results, don't try to cut boiling time. Stew meat needs a lot of cooking time to be truly tender. Don't worry - it is worth the wait!

BBQ Stew Meat

Source: Janet Rose

• Boil one pound stew meat until tender (approximately 45-60 minutes).
• Mix together BBQ sauce (ingredients below) and pour over boiled stew meat in casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Super tender!

1 t pepper
1/2 c sugar
2 t Worchestershire
1 c onion
2 t dried mustard
2 t celery salt
2 t paprika
2 T vinegar
2 T butter
1 1/2 c water
3-4 T ketchup

Serve over baked potato or with rice.

Baking Powder Biscuits

This is another recipe from my mom. She's a great cook :) These are a great addition to any dinner and the best part is they come together really quickly. They also are perfect for biscuits and gravy! Yum!

A favorite family story with these biscuits.... Once my mom started working at the school in Park Valley, my dad started helping out with breakfast. One morning he was making these and accidentally used baking SODA instead of POWDER! Yuck!! They were absolutely disgusting and none of us will ever forget that morning!

Something that I like to do on Sunday morning is mix the dry ingredients and cut the fat in. Then once we get home from church I just quickly add the milk and bake. Speedy!

Baking Powder Biscuits
Source: Janet Rose

2 c flour
1 T baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/2 c shortening or butter (make sure it's cold!)
1 c milk

Preheat oven to 425.

Using a pastry blender, cut in butter or shortening until pea sized chunks remain. (Either type of fat works. My mom always uses shortening. I like butter a little better. It makes them taste like the canned biscuits you buy in the refridgerater section.)

Make a well in the middle and pour in milk. With wooden spoon or rubber spatula, fold milk in until combined -- but don't overmix! (Sometimes the dough will take a little more milk. You don't want any huge streaks of dry flour left.)

Spray baking sheet and drop dough into 12-14 biscuits. (You can also roll dough onto counter and cut into uniform biscuits with cookie cutters.)

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Serve with butter, honey, jam, etc... or with sausage gravy for breakfast!
We have also experimented with adding shredded cheese and various herbs to the dough - makes it into something like Red Lobster's cheesy biscuits. A fun variation!

Hamburger Pizza Roll-Ups

A little creation made from desperation one night. I was low on ingredients and craving pizza. Worked out great! Flint and I both loved them fresh as well as leftovers on the run.

 

Hamburger Pizza Roll-Ups

- cooked ground beef

- pizza sauce (1 can tomato sauce with a few shakes Tabasco, onion salt and Italian seasoning to taste)

- small cubes of cheese

- crescent rolls (I did homemade, store bought would work too)

Add a cube of cheese and small amount of pizza sauce and ground beef to each crescent roll dough slice and roll up. Arrange on greased cookie sheet. Let rise until double. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes or until cooked through. Serve with extra pizza sauce for dipping.

I made these another time and did them as mini calzones. They worked well also. However, Flint and I both commented that pizza dough would have been better for the calzones.

Roby Rolls

My mom is seriously famous for these rolls. They are freaking AMAZING! Every year for as long as I can remember, this has been my mom's assignment for Thanksgiving. She also makes them often throughout the year. They are surprisingly easy. I didn't dare make them for a long time without Mom, but I finally bit the bullet and now I'm hooked!

Janet Rose's Roby Rolls
(Soft, delicious and EASY)
Yield: 32 crescent rolls

Combine and let sit for 5 minutes:
2 T yeast
1/4 c warm water

Add and mix:
2 eggs
1/2 c sugar
1 t salt
1 c warm water
1 cube butter, melted

One cup at a time, add and mix in up to 4 1/2 c flour (might not take entire amount - dough should be soft).

Mix well until all flour is incorporated, but don't knead. Place in a greased bowl and cover. Let rise 1 1/2 hours or until doubled. At this point, either refrigerate overnight or roll out. (If refrigerated overnight, remove from fridge and let sit on the counter until room temp and then follow remaining instructions.)

To roll out, divide dough in half. Flour (or grease) counter space and roll each half into a large circle - dough should be about 1/4 inch thick. Using a pizza cutter, cut the circle in half, then in half again, etc... until there are 16 triangles from one circle. Roll each triangle up crescent style and place on greased baking sheet. Let rolls rise until doubled. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes. (Rotate the pans in the oven halfway through baking time.)

White Chicken Enchiladas

Like previously mentioned, I'm on an enchilada kick lately. However, this was my first time making chicken enchiladas. We both love chicken, but I hardly ever buy it. I just have a hard time justifying buying other types of meat when we have an all-access pass to a freezer full of beef (as part of Flint's wages) as well as pork from Flint's pig-raising adventures. Anyway, my sister Lisa shared this recipe - she got off the internet. All my 9x13 pans are presently farmed out or at my other kitchen, so I had to use a deep-dish 9x9, which really affected tortilla to filling ratio as well as the cooking time. Honestly, I didn't LOVE them. I liked them, but I want to know how they taste when they are spread out in more tortillas and in a bigger pan.

White Chicken Enchiladas
Source: Taste and Tell Blog

8-10 taco size flour tortillas (because I used a small pan, I could only fit 6 tortillas)
2 c shredded Monterey Jack cheese
2 c shredded cooked chicken (I used two 5 oz cans of chicken)
3 T butter
3 T flour
1 can chicken broth
1 c sour cream
1 7-ounce can diced green chiles
Garnish with cilantro if desired (nope!)
~ 1 c cooked rice

Preheat oven to 425. Prepare 9x13 pan by spraying with cooking spray.

Mix together 1 cup of cheese and shredded chicken. Place an equal amount of mixture into each tortilla. Also add approximately 2 T cooked rice to each tortilla. Roll tortillas and place seam side down in pan.

Melt butter in skillet. Stir in the flour and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Whisk in chicken broth and cook over medium heat until thickened. Stir in sour cream and green chiles. Pour the mixture over enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.

Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Top with cilantro.


The notes in italics were my little personal adjustments. Flint mentioned hotter green chiles would be okay with him - he loves spicy food! This was a great recipe to use canned chicken in - I actually hate canned chicken. Opening the can makes me want to throw up. However, once the enchiladas were baked, there was no way to tell that the chicken wasn't fresh. Score! Overall, I'm excited to cook this in the right size pan so the tops and bottoms can crunch up more and the sauce can get more melty. The double layering didn't work. My bad! I also was wishing for more cheese on top - however, my pan was completely loaded and there was no more room! I am going to share Lisa's picture, because they look better than mine :) Here's hoping next time (yes, there will be a next time) these enchiladas are divine!

Stew Meat & Mushroom Gravy Dinner

Stew meat (1-2 inch chunks of tough beef) is one of my favorite cuts of meat. Crazy that I just called a tough cut a favorite? Well, it's all about how you cook it. Or should I say, how LONG you cook it! When I cook stew meat, I usually make my mom's BBQ stew meat recipe. Last night I wanted to try something different, though. Here was my experiment:

Stew Meat & Mushroom Gravy Dinner

Source: Amy Pugsley

Add the following ingredients to crock pot:

1 lb thawed beef stew meat

~ 3 cups water

2 cubes beef bouillon

1 T dried onion

1/2 t dried minced garlic

1/2 t basil

1/4 t celery salt

Salt and pepper

Turn crock pot to high and allow to cook for 7-8 hours. Yes! 7-8 hours! Don't try to cheat and eat sooner. You will be chewing incredibly tough meat and won't be happy. About half way through cooking time, add one small can drained mushrooms.

Unfortunately, this is one crockpot meal that really needs to be watched. The water may begin run out - if this happens, add a few more cups. Continue checking moisture level every hour or so - if the water dries up, meat will be dried out AND tough. Hello jerky! The meat is ready to eat when it begins falling apart on its own and starts turning a pinkish color on the inside.

Five to ten minutes before serving, whisk 1-2 T flour with 1-2 T cold water in a small bowl. Add hot drippings from crock pot and whisk well. Pour flour mixture into crockpot and mix well. Liquid will thicken into gravy. Serve meat and mushroom gravy over noodles, rice or potatoes.

* Flint got seconds and said I could make this again. Success!

Strawberry Jam

Yesterday while picking up pies at the grocery store (for the brethren in our ward to eat after Priesthood Session), Flint and I spied strawberries on sale! One case (8 two-pound cartons) for just $5.99! How can you pass that price up?? As a child and adolescent, I helped my mom make strawberry freezer jam every year. However, as an adult, I have yet to make any on my own. With pleading eyes, I asked Flint if I could "splurge" and buy the strawberries and other needed ingredients for freezer jam. He said yes! This post is less of a recipe (because I followed the directions on the pectin box exactly) and more of a price breakdown. I like being able to look back and compare, so I know if I'm really getting a deal or not.

* Even though I had some ingredients on hand, I bought everything because it was all on sale. Oh, except lemon juice. I just used what I had.

Grocery Store Prices:
MCP fruit pectin, 3 boxes for $5.00
25 lb bag sugar, $9.99
1 case strawberries, $5.99
32 oz corn syrup, $2.49
Lemon juice, on hand

I made three batches and ended up with 12 pints and 1 half pint, plus a small container to go directly into my fridge. To make things easier, I will just say I ended up with 13 pints. Each batch took approximately two cartons of strawberries, which means I technically only used $4.50 worth of strawberries. Figuring out the cost of what sugar I actually used was the trickest part of this equation. After some research and mathematics, I found that each cup of sugar cost me $0.18. For the three batches, I used 21 cups of sugar (been to the dentist lately?!). I used all the pectin and most of the corn syrup. And I'm not going to worry about adding in the cost of the lemon juice.

Cost of Ingredients:
$4.50, strawberries
$5.00, pectin
$2.48, corn syrup
$3.78, sugar

Total cost: $15.78

$15.78 / 13 pints = $1.22 per pint

This is the point when I always stop and ask myself, was it worth it? In this circumstance, I am saying yes. I could probably get store-bought jam on sale for something close to that in price. But homemade tastes better. And the experience was fun. Thumbs up for making my own! I made apricot jam a few years ago - the kind that you actually boil and then process and seal in jars. That day was a huge mess and overall pain. Freezer jam is definitely the way to go! Like always, shoulda listened to my momma :)

Reminder to myself: Six 2 lb cartons made three batches, or 13 pints of freezer jam!

Caution: Construction Site!

These posts are all coming from my phone, which is being very annoying about formatting! As in - it's not letting me format at all! And, randomly assigning new fonts and sizes on it's own. Grr! I also have yet to beautify this little recipe blog. My laptop is toast :( 

Consider everything under construction until further notice!

Chicken Fried Steak

No people, it's not chicken! I am always surprised how many people think Chicken Fried Steak is chicken. Let's set the record straight.... It's BEEF, people, beef!

I grew up watching my mom make this and it has become one of Flint's all time favorite meals. He will just about fly me to the moon if I make him this. (Sadly, flying to the moon doesn't cover doing dishes!)

Chicken Fried Steak
Source: adapted from Janet Rose (my mom)

1 pkg cube steak (4 steaks)

Prepare three pie plates:
1. Plain flour
2. 2-3 eggs and a little milk, beaten well
3. Flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder, poultry seasoning and bread or cracker crumbs

Bread thawed cube steaks (flour, then egg, then flour/bread crumb mixture). Make sure to do a good job of coating the steak in each pie plate! Every layer is important. Use your fingers - get messy!

Place breaded steaks directly into a hot frying pan that has a layer of oil on the bottom. Let steaks brown well on both sides. Interior of steaks does not need to cook all the way. You may need to continue adding oil to your frying pan as you cook more steaks.

Prepare a glass 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Arrange browned steaks in the bottom. Add ~1 cup water and 1-2 chicken bouillon cubes. Seal with tin foil very tightly. You want the steaks and water completely enclosed so the steam/water can't escape.

* Alternately, if you have a cast iron skillet with a lid, fry AND bake the steaks in it! Same results, less dishes!

Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Steaks should be super tender! If you need to keep it in the oven longer, just make sure the water hasn't dried up, you don't want jerky :)

Serve with white gravy and mashed potatoes (or in the case of my picture, with oven-baked steak fries). Delicious!

Seriously, this is always a huge hit at my house! It takes a little longer, but also makes my husband happy with me!

Enjoy your trip to the moon!

Chocolate Frosting

Simple and delicious.

Source: Martha Stewart

3 1/2 c powdered sugar

1 c cocoa powder

1 1/2 sticks butter or margarine

1/2 c milk, room temp

2 t vanilla

Mix powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Using KitchenAid, with paddle attachment, add butter and combine. Slowly add milk and vanilla while mixing. Add more milk if too thick or more powdered sugar if too thin. 

Spaghetti Sauce

I am a spaghetti sauce snob. I have truly never used the store-bought stuff and don't ever plan too. I learned to make this watching my mom. I am guessing we no longer make it the same exact way. Honestly, I make mine differently every time. It's very "to taste." I use this basic sauce for lots of things: spaghetti, stuffed shells, dipping sauce for pizza rolls, lasagna, etc...

Spaghetti Sauce

2 cans (14 oz) crushed or diced tomatoes, or equivalent

1-2 cans tomato sauce

2 T dried onions (or 1/2 small onion, finely chopped)

Salt and pepper to taste

1-2 t garlic powder or paste

Italian seasoning or oregano to taste (~2 t)

Small squirt of ketchup if needed to thicken (optional)

~ 1 t sugar (optional)

~ 2 t Worcestershire sauce (optional)

Combine ingredients and allow to simmer until desired consistency is reached. Sometimes I cook this up in ten minutes, sometimes I let it sit on the stove on low for an hour. Either way works. If you have time, cooking longer does result in a richer flavor. I tried to give amounts for the ingredients, but truly - I just start dumping! This amount would typically be enough for Flint and I, plus leftovers. Sometimes I use store bought tomatoes, sometimes I use bottle tomatoes and sometimes I use frozen tomatoes. All work well.