Cranberry Muffins

The only time I ever used to think about cranberries was around Thanksgiving time. I discovered this weekend that they are great to use in baking.  I ate two of these muffins after breakfast on Saturday and had to restrain myself from eating more!!! You can find dried cranberries at the store in the same section as you would find raisins. 

Ingredients:

2 cups white flour
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine (melted)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Topping:

1/2 tablespoon white sugar

Preheat oven to 375. Line twelve muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.  Mix all ingredients together by hand with large spoon in the order shown.  Pour batter evenly into the twelve muffin tins.  Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with the 1/2 tablespoon of sugar.  Bake 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool on rack about 10 minutes.

Turkey Noodle Soup

I bought a turkey breast at the grocery store that was a little over nine pounds because we had company for dinner last week.  Even after cutting off a bunch of turkey for sandwiches, I still had a fair amount of turkey meat left on the bones, so I decided to make some turkey noodle soup.   Even though I associate soup with cold weather, it is delicious year round.  There's something about soup that brings instant comfort!!  My in-laws were great cooks and one of the many tips they gave me was to cook the noodles and soup separate from each other. I thought it was kind of unusual the first time they served me soup and did that, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense.  If you add the noodles to the soup as you're cooking it, it absorbs a lot of the liquid!! If you don't have leftover turkey, you can use leftover chicken instead.  This recipe is great for either :)

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked and chopped turkey
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2  teaspoon marjoram
8 cups water
6 ounces egg noodles (uncooked)

Break turkey  bones into small enough pieces to fit into large stockpot.  Cover with enough water that it covers turkey bones.  Bring to boil, turn down to simmer, cover with lid and cook for 1/2 hour.  Remove from heat, let cool slightly and strain liquid through colander into large bowl (the colander will catch all the bones).  Pull remaining meat off bones and set aside.  Toss the bones :)  Pour the liquid back into the stockpot and add all the ingredients except the noodles.  Cover with lid and simmer until all the vegetables are tender (about 30-40 minutes).  Cook noodles as directed on package, drain and set aside.  Add desired amount of noodles to bottom of serving bowl and then add the soup.

Sour Cream Kuchen

After my father-in-law passed away seven years ago and my mother-in-law went into assisted living shortly after that, the hubby and I cleaned out their entire house to get it ready to sell.  One of the things I made sure didn't get thrown away were some old cookbooks and a big binder full of recipes and newspaper clippings that belonged to my mother-in-law.  She was of Slovak descent and my father-in-law had a Slovenian background, so she would make ethnic dishes such as kolache, potica (nutroll),  golumpki (stuffed cabbage), stuffed peppers and pierogi.  A few months ago, I found her handwritten recipe for Sour Cream Kuchen. Kuchen is a German word for cake.  I don't know if she had any German relatives, but somehow she acquired this recipe. This recipe has cinnamon (which right away caught my eye)!!  She had written down a tablespoon of cinnamon for the topping, which seemed excessive (even for me),  so I changed it to two teaspoons.  The original recipe also had chopped nuts, which neither of my kids will eat, so I left those out.  I entered this recipe in a "recipe of the month" contest in a local publication and it won for the month of May! My mother-in-law passed on almost a year and a half ago.  I like to think she would have liked that her recipe won a contest :) 

Ingredients:

1 cup margarine (softened)

1 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups white flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream

Topping: 


1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream margarine and sugar until smooth with electric mixer or by hand with a large spoon. Add eggs, vanilla extract, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sour cream. Mix well.

In separate bowl, make topping by mixing together brown sugar, white sugar and cinnamon. Pour half of the batter into an ungreased 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan. Cover with one half of the topping. Add remaining batter and cover with remaining topping. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool about 15 minutes.

Brownie Cake

One of my favorite desserts to make (not from scratch) is boxed brownies.  Probably 80% of the time, I make brownies in a square or rectangular pan, but for something different, I like to make them in a 12-inch x 1-inch circle pan. When I made this a few years ago, Dominic gave it the name, "brownie cake" because I decided to frost it.  I made the buttercream frosting from scratch (because Lauren has been requesting that particular frosting for months),  but you can certainly use canned frosting (which is what I usually use).


Directions:

Start with a 18.3-ounce box of brownie mix, any brand you like.  I used Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie mix, but whatever kind you use just make sure it can make a 9 x 13-inch size pan of brownies. If it's a brownie mix that only makes a  8 x 8 or 9 x 9-inch sized brownies you probably won't have enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan. Prepare the brownie batter, per the ingredient list on the box and pour into a lightly greased 12-inch x 1-inch circle pan. Bake about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the brownie "cake" completely cool and then frost with your favorite frosting or sprinkle with powdered/confectioners sugar.

Homemade Buttercream Frosting Recipe:

3 cups powdered/confectioners sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons milk

Mix powdered/confectioners sugar and butter together with spoon.  Stir in vanilla and milk and beat by hand or with electric mixer until smooth and of spreading consistency.  If frosting is too stiff, then add milk a little bit at a time until it gets to the desired consistency. This recipe makes the exact amount to cover the "brownie cake."  Add sprinkles if desired (which in our house it is ALWAYS desired)!!!!

Blueberry Buckle

 I didn't even know what blueberry "buckle" was until about ten years ago.  It's basically a fruit cobbler that "buckles" up while baking.  You can eat this for breakfast or after dinner for dessert (or anytime in between)!!  This is fantastic warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on it :)  It smells absolutely amazing while it's baking in the oven.  It will make your whole house smell incredible!! Blueberries FINALLY went on sale at my favorite grocery store this week, so I dug this recipe out of my recipe "archives" and made it today. When I told my hubby and daughter I was making this, they were very happy, it's one of their favorites!

Batter:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg
2 cups white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
6-ounce package blueberries, rinsed

Topping:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup white flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease a   9 x 13 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. For batter: in large bowl, cream butter with the sugar; add egg and beat well with large spoon.  Add white flour, baking powder, salt and milk until smooth.  When well combined, "fold" in blueberries.  You have to be kind of gentle adding the blueberries in, they are kind of fragile.  Pour mixture into baking pan and spread with knife until bottom of pan is covered evenly. For topping: in separate bowl, blend together topping ingredients with spoon until it looks like loose crumbs.  Sprinkle topping mixture on top of batter and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.