Tomato Basil Soup

I have recently "branched" out and begun to use different spices. This is a HUGE step for me because I was the world's pickiest eater growing up (just ask my mom)!!! I remember the first time I told the hubby I had added marjoram to something I was making and he was like, "margarine?" It's now become one of my favorite spices to use because it makes you go, hmm, what is that flavor?!?!? The other day when I was at the Target in the spice aisle, I picked up a bottle of curry powder. I tucked it into the cabinet and kind of forgot about it!! Last night, I was making up some tomato basil soup - a soup I have eaten plenty of times, but have never made from "scratch." The first time I took a small spoonful to "sample," the first word that came to mind was "bland." I could just picture my husband picking up the salt and pepper and continually adding it! I thought to myself, why not add a bit of curry powder? The second word that came to mind after I added the curry powder was "yummy!" I talk a lot about how my two favorite spices are cinnamon and nutmeg, well I think my new favorite spice "duo" is marjoram and curry powder!!!

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter, unsalted
1 cup onion, chopped
28-ounce can tomatoes, crushed
4 cups water
1 1/2 tablespoons basil
1 teaspoon marjoram
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper

In a large stockpot, melt the butter slowly. Add the onion and slowly saute until onion is soft. In the order given, add the remaining ingredients and then bring to boil. Turn down to simmer, cover and cook for about 40 minutes. Makes 5 1/2 cups.

Cecelia's Sour Cream Coffeecake

I thank my lucky stars all the time that I didn't throw away any of my mother-in-law's old cookbooks and newspaper clippings that we found when we were cleaning out my in-law's house in Cleveland several years ago. I have found some really good recipes in her "treasure trove." It's hard to believe she has been gone a little over five years.
 

 

I adapted a sour cream coffeecake recipe that I found in one of my mother-in-law's old cookbooks by adding what I like to call my "trifecta" of favorite baking spices - cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Wow, this coffeecake smelled AMAZING when it was baking. Just for the heck of it, I looked at how much a "gourmet" sour cream coffeecake using Indonesian cinnamon was on-line - it was $65.00!! Wow, I buy my cinnamon and nutmeg for just buck each at Kroger. My most recent bottle of ginger came from the local dollar store. I decided to rename this coffeecake in honor and memory of my mother-in-law whose name was Cecelia.

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups white flour
1 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon vanilla


Topping:

1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12-cup fluted tube or Bundt  pan generously with non-stick spray. Set aside. In a large bowl, put the butter and sugar and then cream with an electric mixer or by hand with a large spoon until smooth. Add the eggs and mix well. Add the flour, sour cream, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and vanilla. Combine well and set aside. In small bowl, put the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. With a small spoon mix together. Set aside. Take half of the mixture in the large bowl and pour into the prepared pan. Spread evenly. Sprinkle half of the topping mixture on top followed by the rest of the mixture in the large bowl. Sprinkle the other half of the topping mixture evenly on top. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the coffeecake comes out clean. Remove from oven and let the coffeecake cool on a rack. When cool, turn pan over and remove gently. Place on a large plate. Keep covered at room temperature. Makes 10-12 servings.

Six-Layer Bars

Anytime I have ever been to a party and seen 7-layer bars (also known as Hello Dolly  bars and Magic cookie bars) on the dessert table, I have ALWAYS made sure I got a piece! I would definitely put them in the same category as pecan pie - decadent and not something you eat everyday. 7-layer bars are typically made with a graham cracker crust, but given I went to the grocery store this past Wednesday and completely forgot to buy graham crackers, I used some round vanilla wafers I had in the pantry for the crust. I decided to leave out the layer of butterscotch chips, because personally, I find them way too sweet. These bars were incredibly delicious - the hubby had two pieces for dessert Thursday night.

Ingredients

Crust:

1 cup white flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, unsalted

Filling:

1 cup round vanilla wafers, crushed
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
14-ounce can sweetened
  condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In small bowl, put the flour and white sugar. Using two dinner knives, "cut," in the butter until it resembles coarse crumbs. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9 x 13 inch pan with your fingertips or with the back of a large spoon.  Bake for 10 minutes and then remove from oven and let the crust cool for 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine the crushed vanilla wafers, chocolate chips, pecans and coconut. Sprinkle the baking powder and salt over the ingredients and combine well with a large spoon. Distribute entire mixture over the cooled crust. Pour the can of condensed milk over all ingredients and spread evenly. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Store covered at room temperature.

Black Bean Dip

I have probably been watching the Washington Redskins play football since I was in diapers.
 

My dad is a big fan and he has made me one too. Unfortunately, here in Michigan, it's rare that the local television stations will put a Washington Redskins game on! The biggest professional football game of the year is this Sunday - Super Bowl 50. In our house, that means snacks, snacks and more snacks. My husband is more of a college football guy, but he does like to watch the Super Bowl. Just out of curiosity, I looked on-line on StubHub! to see how much one ticket in a suite at Levi's Stadium is going for. Take a guess, $250,000! Good grief, I think I'll just watch it from the comfort of my own couch :) This is one of the "snacks" we'll be enjoying this Sunday!

Ingredients

14.5 ounce can sliced and stewed tomatoes, undrained
15 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup red pepper, membrane and seeds removed, chopped
1/2 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder

Put all ingredients into a blender and turn on high for 20-30 seconds (less if you want a chunkier salsa). Pour into a container or medium bowl and cover. Refrigerate for one hour. Serve with tortilla chips.  Makes three cups.

Grape-Nuts Crunches

I love being a volunteer "Field Editor" for Taste of Home magazine! We talk about food ALL the time, plus as an added bonus, it is an extremely supportive group of women and men who are all very passionate about baking and cooking, what could be better?!?!?! We had a challenge this week to find our oldest cookbook, take the year we were born (in my case, 1963) and then pick a recipe between the two sets of numbers. So for me, it would be between 19 and 63. I fished out my Town Crier DeLuxe Recipe Book from 1938 and looked for a recipe where I had all the ingredients on hand - that's a challenge in itself, LOL. I picked page 43. There were four recipes on the page - Fudge Four O'Clocks (which I have already made), Golden Pumpkin Cookies, Grape-Nut Crunches and Gum Drop Cookies. Since I had recently bought a box of Grape-Nuts at the grocery store because it was on sale and I had a coupon, I decided to make the Grape-Nut Crunches. I think the name of the recipe was a "typo," because the name of the cereal is "Grape-Nuts," not "Grapenut." I didn't follow the directions exactly, but I did use all of the original ingredients. Grape-Nuts have been around for over 100 years, that's pretty remarkable isn't it? These cookies came out really well and my "taste-tester," Dominic, had two!!


Ingredients

2 cups brown sugar
1 cup shortening
2 large eggs, beaten
2 cups white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup Grape-Nuts cereal


In large bowl, put the brown sugar and shortening and cream together by hand with a large spoon or with an electric mixer. Add the two eggs and beat well. In a small bowl, put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and vanilla. Pour the flour mixture into the large bowl and mix well. Add the oats and the Grape-Nuts cereal and combine until all ingredients are well incorporated. The batter is a little crumbly, so I used my hands. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge a minimum of one hour. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Roll the batter into 40 equal-sized balls.  Place 12-16 balls at a time on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press each ball with the palm of your hand or the bottom of a drinking glass. These cookies do spread when baking.  Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the cookies start to turn brown. Remove from oven and let them sit for five minutes on the cookie sheet before removing them to a wire rack to continue to cool. Makes 40 cookies. Store covered at room temperature.

Southern Cinnamon "Cake"

Earlier last year during one of the trips I took to Maryland, I looked through a desk that belonged to my grandmother that is now in my parents house. I remember seeing this particular desk at my grandmothers apartment when I would visit her. Tucked into the desk, I found a recipe book and some other loose sheets of paper with recipes written on them. When I saw the word, "cinnamon" in the title of this recipe, I knew I had to make it! The original recipe had raisins, which no one here in my house would eat, so I omitted them. I also accidentally put an extra teaspoon of cinnamon in the muffin batter, which I didn't discover until after I baked them, oops. I decided to keep that extra teaspoon in the recipe, because you can never have enough cinnamon, right?!?!?!?! I thought this recipe came from my great-grandfather, because he was a baker, but when I flipped the piece of paper over, there was part of a letter written on October 11, 1943, that starts out, "My Dearest Catherine." I'm pretty sure the letter was written by my great-uncle to his wife when he was on the USS Charger in World War II. Pretty cool, huh? I love when a recipe has a bit of "history" to it. It's interesting it was called a "cake" because in the original directions, it says to use, "crinkle" cups, which I figured were cupcake or muffin liners. I decided that this "cake" actually tasted more like a muffin :)

Ingredients

1/4 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg
2 cups white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup milk

Topping:

2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put paper liners into a 12-cup muffin tin. Set side. In large bowl, put the shortening, sugar and egg. Cream together until smooth by hand with a large spoon or with an electric mixer. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and milk. Mix well and distribute batter evenly into the 12 muffin liners. In a small bowl, put the white sugar and cinnamon. Stir well with a small spoon and then sprinkle the white sugar and cinnamon mixture evenly on top of the muffins. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven and transfer muffins to a baking rack to cool. Store covered for up to three days at room temperature.

Gingerbread Cookies

When Dominic and I made this gingerbread cookie batter up recently, we had high hopes that we would be making gingerbread men. Well, by the time the batter chilled in the fridge, we had dinner and then Dominic had his nightly bath, it was 9:30 p.m.! Since I had promised him that we would make gingerbread men, and I don't like to break a promise, I quickly decided they would become gingerbread cookies. I rolled them into balls and then put red sugar on one plate and green sugar on another plate, handed Dominic a glass and let him press down on each cookie. In less than 15 minutes, they were done! A few days later, I made up the rest of the cookie dough and then headed out to make two "deliveries." I felt a bit like a holiday "elf." My first delivery was to a local marketing company that publish a magazine that has featured my recipes for several months. The second delivery was to a friend of mine who will be helping me with a project for the disability ministry. Later, she told me her husband said, "that's what a molasses cookie is supposed to be like, both the flavor and the consistency were just what it should be - not too soft and not too crisp!" Cool, that made my day!

Ingredients

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups white flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 teaspoons ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

In large bowl, put the butter and light brown sugar. Cream by hand with large spoon or use an electric mixer. Add the molasses, egg and vanilla extract. Set aside. In medium bowl, put the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Mix with large spoon and then gradually add to the mixture in the large bowl. Combine well and then cover with plastic wrap. Chill in fridge a minimum of three hours. When ready to bake, roll into 4 1/2 dozen equal sized balls. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a dozen balls at a time onto ungreased cookie sheets. If desired, press the bottom of a drinking glass into colored sugar and then press gently. Bake for 12 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies are starting to turn brown. Remove to wire rack to cool. Store covered at room temperature.