Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter or regular butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
3/4 cup honey-roasted peanuts
3/4 cup coarsely chopped bite-size chocolate-covered peanut butter cups (about 15)*

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Add the sugars, baking soda and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of the bowl occasionally.

2. Beat in egg, milk and vanilla. Using the mixer, beat in as much of the flour as you can. Stir in remaining flour by hand. Stir in the chocolate pieces, peanuts and peanut butter cups.

3. Drop by generously rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake the cookies in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Makes about 30 cookies.

If you like, for easier chopping, freeze miniature chocolate-covered peanut butter cups in their wrappers for 1 hour. Remove frozen candies from wrappers before chopping.

Source:  Midwest Living

Two ingredients, angel food cake mix and any kind of cake mix.  Put them in a bag together, shake well, scoop out 3 tablespoons of the mix, add 2 tablespoons of water, then put it in a ramekin and nuke it for 1 minute.  The recipe didn’t say whether or not to spray with Pam, but I did because I didn’t want a mess. 

Ha, you can see how well that worked for me.  But, if I wasn’t Miz Piggy it would have been fine.  I made it, nuked it, and it was just this itty bitty amount of cake in the bottom of the ramekin.  So I doubled the recipe, at least I think I did, I was talking to my friend, Nisha on the phone while I was making this and since yours truly can’t chew bubble gum and walk at the same time, who knows what I did.  All I know is that it started to run over in the microwave so I quickly put a saucer under it and finished cooking it.  It took about a minute and a half for the larger batch, but remember, I have the microwave from hell, so my timing is never accurate.

And how did it taste, curious minds want to know?  Well, all I had was a confetti cake mix to mix with my angel food cake mix, so it’s kinda vanilla tasting.  But it’s not bad, but I’m also desperate.  I don’t have anything in the house that isn’t healthy, and this is the only thing I could come up with fast that didn’t involve actual work.

Would I do it again.  Sure, I would.  If this was topped with a sliced banana, a drizzle of chocolate sauce, or some fresh fruit, or my dilly’s favorite, lemon sauce, it would be pretty good for a quickie.  A bit of almond flavoring would be nice, too.

But I think I would like it better using a chocolate cake mix.  Or I could just stir some chocolate chips or cocoa into this.  It’s not knock-your-socks off people, but it’s not too bad considering that it only takes 1-2 minutes start to finish.  Except for the mess…. Ughhh!!

Tweaks: I made this again, doubled the recipe, put it in a mug, did NOT Pam it, nuked it for 1:30 and it came out perfect.

If you’re one of those people who makes black-eyed peas on New Years Day, I have a wonderful recipe for you.  My neighbor, the one with the fantastic German Potato Salad recipe, makes these every year, and it’s a fabulous dish!

2 cans black-eyed peas, I drain and rinse for a more subtle flavor
2 cans italian stewed tomatoes
1 lb. sweet italian sausage, with casing removed
1 large onion
2 tablespoons of italian seasoning
1 teaspoon of oregano, if desired

Brown onion and sausage, drain, crumble and dump all in a crockpot, simmer on high for 3-4 hours, meanwhile cook a cup or so of pasta, any small pasta will work and stir it in at the end. 
This is so good, and so easy….

Enjoy and Happy New Year

~ jan

My son, John, made molasses cookies Thanksgiving recipe from the recipe on the back of this bottle of Grandma's Molasses.

For years we have made Silver Palate Molasses Cookies, it's our family favorite, and the recipe is in the Tried 'n True archives on this site, but after tasting these, we have a new favorite.

They are moist, fat, plump chewy cookies, the tops are dusted with sugar, they crackle when they bake and the taste is amazing.  My Silver Palate recipe is a flatter, oilier cookie, these are just better.

I never thought I would say this, we have used our Silver Palate recipe since the 80's, but this one is just far superior.

Hope you all enjoy these as much as we do.  Oh my, they are so good!

~ jan

 

These cookies should be soft, so watch them carefully when baking. They will look very moist and underdone, but I promise you they're fine and will set up completely while cooling. I found one recipe in my research that called for sliding the parchment paper onto the counter top to cool the cookies rather than transferring them to a cooling rack. Supposedly, this would keep them optimally soft. For cookie baking, I prefer insulated cookie sheets to prevent undersides from over browning.  I used a SiloPat baking liner when I baked these.

 

Grandma's Molasses Cookies

Makes 3 1/2 to 4 dozen

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. (generous) salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cloves
3/4 cup shortening, at room temperature (Crisco)
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/4 cup molasses, preferably Grandma's (not blackstrap)
1/4 cup granulated sugar

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the shortening, brown sugar, egg and molasses on medium high speed until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat on lowest speed to moisten. Increase speed to medium and beat until combined, scraping down bowl as needed. Chill dough in freezer for about an hour or in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 and line baking sheets with parchment paper or place on SiloPat. Place 1/4 cup sugar in a shallow bowl. Scoop dough by rounded tablespoons and roll between your palms into 1 1/4 to 1 1/2-inch balls. Dip tops of balls in sugar and place on baking sheet about 2 1/2 inches apart.

Fill a glass with cold water. Dip your fingertips in the water and sprinkle each ball of dough with a few drops (this makes the crinkles). Bake one sheet at a time in the center of the oven for 8 to 9 minutes, or until cookies have spread, but still appear quite moist (they will not look "set" or done, but they are). Slide parchment onto counter top and cool completely.

NOTE:  I think these cookies are so moist and soft because you use shortening (Crisco) instead of butter.  We used to use shortening a lot years ago, but now so many cookies are made with butter instead...

Much better than a hot toddy, my friend Carlene swears by this recipe...

1-2 teaspoons of brown sugar

1 Tablespoon of vanilla ice cream

Mix together and put in a mug of hot water, add a jigger or more of rum, a pat of butter on top and a cinnamon stick to stir with.

Enjoy and feel better soon ;o)

Okay, so the poor ole feller has a bit of trouble with one of his ears turning loose, but this is so cool!

My friend, Barb was telling me earlier this week about Creole Burgers.  When she was a little girl there was a local drive-in called the Sani-Cream and they served these burgers.  When they closed, the owner gave her dad the recipe, and her family has made them ever since.

You all know about how crazy we are about my Sloppy Joes, and the Creole Burgers are, for me, a new twist on an old favorite.  I thought they were amazing, and I’ll make them again and again.  She couldn’t remember exactly how much ketchup and mustard to use, she just tastes it and knows when it’s right.  Since I had nothing to gauge them by, I found a recipe online, altered it a bit, and think it’s really close to what she makes.  Hope you all enjoy these as much as we do.

~ jan

1 lb. ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 can of Campbell’s Chicken Gumbo Soup
4-5 tablespoons Heinz Ketchup
3 tablespoons mustard, I use Plochmann’s because it’s my favorite
2-3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
salt to taste

Brown hamburger and onions breaking it up and crumble as it cooks, drain, add soup and condiments and simmer 15-20 minutes.  It thickens as it cooks.

So easy, and SO good!

Note:  I added salt very sparingly as the soup gives you a salty base to begin with, next time I think I will sprinkle the hamburger with Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning when I brown it.

Last week on Jan’s Daily Dish I told you about my FoodSaver not working and my eBay purchase of another one.  It arrived yesterday, brand new with tape and cardboard still intact, so of course I fired it up immediately and it worked perfectly.

So this morning I got up, assembled my ingredients and I was off to the races. 

I used two heads of iceberg lettuce that I washed, chopped and spun dry in the salad spinner.  They don’t recommend you use baby bibb or spring greens, they’re too tender and don’t last as well,  romaine and iceberg work best.  Then I used the slicing blade of the salad shooter to quickly shred all of the other veggies.

Then I gave it all a quick toss to combine all the ingredients in the mixing bowl, which by the way is the greatest, cheapest thing ever.  This huge stainless bowl came from a local restaurant supply house, cost less than $10 and I use it so much, it’s awesome!

I started using a funnel to fill the jars, quickly realized that it was a pain, it was easier to just position the jar over the salad bowl and scoop the greens with a measuring cup.  Hubby doesn’t like green peppers, so I only added them to some of the jars and I didn’t add soft ingredients like cucumbers, tomatoes, or mushrooms as I’ve read that they don’t hold well.  I also used a regular stainless knife to chop my lettuce, even though I have a plastic lettuce knife, there is “supposedly” no need to use it as the lettuce doesn’t turn brown and I’m not a fan of tearing it because I like a finer texture and it’s hard to achieve when tearing it.

Then I wiped off the tops of the jars to make sure they were dry so that the seal would hold and I was ready to vacuum seal them.  It was really fast, really easy, it only took twenty seconds per jar to seal.  And no, there is nothing running down the front of the FoodSaver, it’s just shadows from the jars ;o)

And how long did this take?  From the time I started assembling my ingredients until I put them in the fridge, thirty-five minutes start to finish and I have enough salad to last me for seven days.  And this was the first try, I’m thinking next time it won’t take as long as today because I’ll know what I’m doing.  One mess per week and enough salad to last for days, works for me…

These little plastic tulip sundae dishes are a great find.  They are usually in stock at Walgreens, and at holiday time they have them in red and green.

You’re probably wondering why I’m showing you these, what’s so special about plastic bowls?  Well, first of all they are like $.49 apiece, and they are the best thing ever when I’m in the kitchen baking.  I guess I’ve watched too much FoodTV, but I always measure my different ingredients into little containers before stirring whatever I’m baking together. 

Okay, I confess, it’s not entirely FoodTV, it’s mainly so that I don’t forget to add something. I have glass ramekins, and FiestaWare ramekins, but they’re bulky and heavy, these are lightweight, stack easily, grab one and you’re good to go.  I have a ton of them, and I use them for all kinds of things.  They’re the perfect size for little hands when you are fixing a snack for little people, I use them for coleslaw, potato salad and baked beans, and they’re perfect for a scoop of ice cream, or a serving of pudding or Jello. They’re unbreakable, dishwasher safe, you’ll find a boatload of uses for them.  You won’t want to trot them out when Aunt Martha comes to visit, save the cut glass for when she comes, but for everyday use, you can’t beat these!

You might want to check the seasonal aisle next time you are in Walgreens, I think I’ve seem them at Wally World, too.  I know, they’re plastic, but they’re goodies, pinky swear they are…

~ jan

Prep time: 20 minutes

Total time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted, plus additional for pan
1 package (18.25 ounces) chocolate cake mix
3 large eggs
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
3 to 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 box (1 pound) confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped nuts

Directions
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. and place rack in center. Lightly butter a 13-by-9-inch baking pan. 
2. In a large bowl, stir together cake mix, 1 egg, and 1/2 cup butter until combined well; evenly pat into prepared pan and set aside. 
3. In a large mixer bowl, beat cream cheese on medium speed until smooth. Beat in remaining 2 eggs and the cocoa powder until combined well. Reduce speed to low and add sugar; beat until combined well. Gradually beat in remaining 1/2 cup butter and the extract; beat until smooth. Fold in nuts with a rubber spatula and spread over cake mixture in pan. 
4. Bake until set around edges but center is a little gooey, 40 to 50 minutes (do not overbake). 
5. Transfer cake in pan to a wire rack and let cool slightly before cutting.

Nutrition facts per serving (based on 20 servings): 
Calories: 365
Total fat: 20g
Saturated fat: 9.5g
Sodium: 342mg
Carbohydrate: 45g
Calcium: 56mg
Cholesterol: 69mg
Protein: 4g
Fiber: 2g

Source:  Ladies Home Journal