Now this is an “old” secret family recipe so if you aren’t family, look away now. Because we are the only ones in the world in on this recipe. If you keep looking, your life could be in danger! I’m warning you out of love! We are the only ones who make this. Well, us and everyone loving Velveeta cheese. So maybe its not all that secret.
Its my Seesters favorite ‘make it for my birthday’ meal. And today I made it for my Auntie’s birthday. My mother used to make it. Probably my grandmother too and I’m kinda old, so thats going way back, Poindexter.
Funnily enough, I never really made it. Not since the one time I tried and used sweetened condensed milk instead of evaporated milk and we all ate at taco bell that night. (you know, back in the days when you only did fast food for emergencies or occasional fun outings. I mean, once or twice a month, tops.)
This is comfort food. Soul satisfying, cheesy goodness and, in spite of the name, we don’t even bake it anymore. Mom used to, using either a crushed Ritz cracker topping or more cheese. She’d pop it into the oven and bake until bubbly. But as precious Seester pointed out, it can dry it out, if you aren’t careful. So she just scoops it out of the pot, no baking required. 1 less step, whee!
(Here is a 12 year old recipe that needed a new picture. The old one must have passed away, may it RIP, because its just gone. The new picture didn’t turn out so well so if you make it, feel free to send me a picture so I can replace it and not have the most humiliating green beans on the internet.)
I am always finding yummy ways to make green beans and have several favorites. (I never, ever serve them plain, heavens to Betsy). Here is a new one I found in one of my Taste of Home Classics cookbook. We fought over the last beans on this one… Continue reading “Nutty Onion Green Beans”→
(Here I am going through my 10 year old blog posts to update them, making them more accurate. Look how tiny my original 2010 photos were! 🙂 So enjoy, again!)
My all time favorite breakfast when I was a sprout, was my grandmas buttermilk pancakes. Even though it was my mom making them most of the time, it was grandmas pancakes! They were usually very thin and tender, dare I say, custardy. I could eat as many as I was allowed and of course, I was a bottomless pit in those days. Like all growing kids.
I have made them for years with have no written recipe. I am going to give it to you here the way I usually do it, by the seat of my pants.(eww) Afterward, I will add measurements from another recipe I found very similar to my grandmas.
(Originally written during the shutdowns of 2020, I am refreshing it up.)
Hello to you all! I am still amazed and impressed at how many people are baking their own bread now. Many are trying their hand at sourdough for the first time. Maybe because they have the time. (Unless you are in the trenches, working at hospitals, slogging it out at grocery stores, bless your hearts, every one!). Or maybe because they can’t get their hands on yeast. I have been making loads of sourdough and today just broke out the yeast for a change. But its like gold these days. I’m getting nervously low. Anyway, I had leftover mashed potatoes. I have chives in the garden. Soooo…
(reprinted and a bit updated for its 10 year anniversary recipe. Plus its that Challah baking, lip smacking time of year again. See below to find out what might have gone wrong with most recent loaf.)
Here is a beautiful holiday bread. Originally Jewish Sabbath bread, it is wonderful for any holiday table. I have the recipe here for you and you can adjust it to have a sesame topping, a poppy-seed topping, both, neither and how to make it a cinnamon raisin challah.
Festive Holiday Challah, resting on my Grandmas old tablecloth.
But before I get started I just had to share a funny. Chicky-doodles is a little banty chicken that, due to her small size, usually stays away from the other girls. She got out this morning and was roaming the back yard. Seems she knows how to get out of the pen area, but has not figured out how to get back in.
Anyway, there she is, wandering around, pecking at
(Reprinted and updated from original post from 2010, the first post I made when this blog was new.)
Lets do a little time travel, shall we? In the top picture is my Grandma, probably some time in the mid 1980’s. Below that we go back in time to around 1925 and see a picture of her with her twin sister. Helen is on the right. That’s Hazel on the left. Don’t you love the shoes? These two sweeties were adopted after their mother passed away, when they were only 4 years old, poor kiddo’s. They had many siblings but the family was broke up by the dad after the mom died. This photo was taken when they were 8 years old, so by now they are in their new home in CA. Their last names went from Painter to Jacobs.
My Memories of Grandma include her having a green thumb, that she loved to cook for people and she sewed Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls with button or embroidered eyes for children. I couldn’t stop by her apartment without being told to sit down to a full meal with veggies from the garden. (and I’d better not tell her I wasn’t hungry or didn’t have the time!) She’d cook for neighbors too old to cook for themselves and fed her family during the Depression. I remember her making me scrape the last bit of egg from the eggshell with my finger to get out every last drop. And wiping off aluminum foil to reuse.
My best cooking memories of her teaching me to make homemade egg noodles and milk dumpling soup. Those must come from her Midwest background. (They were born in Iowa.) She taught me pies, but sad to say it didn’t stick. I still struggle with crusts. One recipe that’s been passed down is for her tender Chicken Fried Pork Chops. They are rib-stickin’, good for cold nights, easy-peasy to make and darned delicious.
CHICKEN FRIED PORK CHOPS
6 regular cut pork chops, not thin, not too thick
mustard (I love Trader Joes garlic mustard in all my meat cooking)
flour, enough to dredge
2 cans chicken noodle soup (chicken with stars would work too or chicken with rice)
1)This is so easy! Spray a large skillet with oil, then spread about a Tbsp of oil around in pan and heat on medium. Brush the mustard on both sides of the chops with a little pastry brush and dredge each one on both sides in flour. Set them aside on a plate of wax paper until they are all ready.
2) Lay each chop in the hot pan and brown on both sides. I usually can only fit 4 or 5 in the pan at once and do the rest after the first batch of browning.
3) When they are all done, put all the browned chops back in the skillet and pour the soup over the whole thing. then pour about 1/2 soup can of water over it all too. Put a lid on it and let simmer on medium low heat for about 45 minutes. I usually set the lid so its open a crack so the sauce cooks down a little. It makes its own gravy. But keep an eye and add water if it looks too dry. I also might move some chops around if they don’t all fit in comfortably, rotating after cooking awhile.
4) They are done when they are fork tender. It depends on how thick they are. The soup sauce they are cooking in works great as a gravy.
Makes its own gravy out of the soup!
(Note, this post is originally from 2010. Seems I didn’t have a cell phone yet that took pictures.)
Thanks, mom for the picture. She made these for Paul and I for lunch the other day and I almost screamed “get your camera” when I saw what they were. She hadn’t told me what she was making and I did not bring my camera. She is always prepared though.
Speaking of screaming, these are just screaming for mashed potatoes. They might holler a little for rice. Add a nice salad and maybe some biscuits or garlic bread… mmm.
I hope you enjoy this old timey recipe and pass it down to your own grandkids someday.
(Time to freshen up this old post made 10 years ago. Enjoy, my pumpkins!)
Who knew granola could be so easy to make? So versatile? So delicious that it will make your head spin and sparks fly from your ears? Well, if you were a cartoon it would.
I was eating my bananas and yogurt and wished I had some crunchy granola to top it off. That would have made it my favorite breakfast ever. (oh wait, or was sticky buns my favorite breakfast ever? Or baked peach french toast? Or apple nut muffins?Well, never mind about that) Fruit, yogurt, granola. The sum is far greater than the parts, I kid you not. I usually use Trader Joes maple-pecan granola when I have it. But I didn’t. I have had a hankering in the past to make granola and here was the perfect opportunity. Especially since I make sure I always have oats on hand.
Anyone can do it. That’s why it’s called “easy-peasy”.
Aren’t sticky buns just the absolute epidemy of decadent luxury? Not something to be made lightly or often. But enjoyed slowly with heavy sighs of contentment. Knowing that while yes, they are fattening and, yes, maybe they wreck havoc on your body, they do help feed the soul with happiness, peace, joy and all those other warm fuzzies.
I wanted to add this to my recipe collection because its so delicious, I want everyone to know about it!
You can now find it all over on the web. I found it originally in a cookbook a girl at work loaned me. It was by Chrissy Teigan, who I’m sorry Chrissy, I’d never heard of. But I’m old so…In fact, that book had lots of great recipes. I might get myself a copy some day. Hang on, I’ll go buy it now!
Okay, done. Anyhoo- this rice is easy to make, dressing up a plain rice side dish and turning it into something fabulous. Its sweet! Its salty! Whats not to like? Serve with fish, dumplings, teriyaki anything, stir fry…I’ve never had it with meatloaf. I wonder how that would fly? Would grandma turn over in her grave? (I almost wrote gravy! HA!)
Now here is a blast from the past. Since it is summer and peaches are plentiful, i thought I’d dust this recipe off from 2010! One of my first blog posts! Enjoy.
Good morning sweetie! Guess whats for breakfast? No, not choco-crunchies, guess again. No, not left over pizza try aga…forget it. Its a wonderful concoction we call baked peach french toast. Smell it? Its almost done. Ummm, warm, slightly sweet with peaches and real maple syrup. Crunchy bites of nuts. Try it and write back to tell me if you loved it. I’ll be so excited to hear if you tried it.
1 loaf of french bread that you slice about 1″ think. I used less than a whole loaf.
about 3 oz. cream cheese
1 29 oz. can sliced peaches, drained (or use sliced fresh ones if you want)
1/4 cup chopped nuts like walnuts maybe
1 cup milk
1/3 cup maple syrup
3 eggs
2 Tblsp melted butter
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
Preheat oven to 400.
Spread cream cheese on both sides of bread. The first side is easy, but when you flip it over to do the other side, yikes! it wants to stick to the cutting board. I just used a mini spatula to lift it off and set in the pre-sprayed 9 x 13 baking dish.
Once the bread is cheesed up and set in the pan, poke holes in it with a fork, having a spoon handy to push the bread down if it tries to stick to the fork.
I like to dice up the peaches a bit, Slices were too big. So, put your peaches over the bread and top with nuts.
Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl with a whisk. Pour over the bread.
Pop into the oven for about 25 minutes or until egg mixture is set and it looks, um, toasty?
fruit, nuts, bread, dairy all in one delicious recipe.
(You can also cut the recipe in half and use an 8 x 8 pan. use 2 eggs and half the rest. You will have to eyeball half of 1/3 cup of syrup. Use the smaller can of peaches)
la petite kitchen 