Getting the Site Going Again
May 14, 2013
It’s been a while since I posted here on the website but I’ve been busy getting a Facebook page working for Grandma’s Best Recipes. However, I’m now back here and want to keep this page updated and have all kinds of interesting stuff on here. So watch for lots of new things in the days ahead!
Marg
Another Kitchen Disaster
November 11, 2012
After my last kitchen disaster I thought I wouldn’t have another one for a while. Well, I certainly was wrong about that. Want flat, heavy bread? Just ask me how you can make that happen and I can tell you. Fred and I make bread together. He mixed and kneads it, I pan it and bake it. We made bread the other day and everything was going fine until after I panned the bread.
I remembered to go out and turn the oven on but then I came back to my office and sat in front of the computer and forgot all about the bread. When I finally remembered, about an hour later, and I went to the kitchen, I discovered that the bread had fallen and was flat. I debated what to do, as I had never had that happen before. I debated taking it out of the pans and re-panning it and letting it rise again. However, I decided against that and put it in the oven to bake. Big mistake!
It didn’t rise one bit and I knew I had really cooked my goose this time. The bread baked and was duly taken from the oven and it was level with the top of the pan. Not much air in that! And it certainly wasn’t light, either! So then I began to check around for information and discovered that I would have been far better off to re-pan the bread and let it rise again. Oh well, so much for checking up on the facts before making a decision!
However, one good thing I can say for myself. When I make a mistake like that I know enough not to repeat it. So I can confidently say that we won’t have to live with flat bread again, at least not from this same mistake. And to help me keep better track of time when I’m on the computer, I’ve deided to invest in a timer so I can remind myself when I need to go do something.
Anyway, if you are reading this, I think there are two take-aways:
1. Even those of us who have been around a kitchen for years and years can and do still spoil a recipe and
2. If you happen to do the same thing as I did and have your bread fall, just re-pan it and let it rise again. You’ll get far better results than baking it when it’s flat!
The Best Snickerdoodles
November 9, 2012
If I had to pick one cookie I liked above all others I think it would be Snickerdoodles. I love cinnamon so these cookies really appeal to me. Then are easy to make and the flavor is superb, but they are much, much better when you use butter rather than margarine. So if you want the very best flavor, use butter!
I made a batch of Snickerdoodles the other day and decided to take a photo of them. So I thought I’d share the recipe here along with the photo. Enjoy!
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbsp. granulated sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350F. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and beat thoroughly. Stir in vanilla, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Gradually mix in flour. In a separate bowl, mix sugar and cinnmon together. Set aside. Form dough nto 1″ balls and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Using the tines of a fork which has been dipped in flour, gently press balls into 1 1/2″ circles. Sprinkle each circle with sugar and cinnamon mixture. I use a spare salt or sugar shaker for this purpose. Bake for about 8 – 10 minutes or until cookies are golden brown.
Makes 6 dozen cookies. Theses cookies freeze well.
Funny Kitchen Adventure
November 4, 2012
Some time back a friend of mine published a muffin cookbook and one of the recipes was for Lemon Burst Muffins. The title of the recipe sounded intriguing, so I thought I’d create a brand new recipe using a similar title. I didn’t want to copy his recipe, so I didn’t even look at the ingredients list. So how would I create a lemon burst muffin I wondered? Hum, well, let’s see.
So I decided that what I wanted to do was add a bit of lemon juice to the liquid in a muffin recipe and then use lemon instant pudding as a filling. So I took one of my muffin recipes that was fairly simple and adapted it. So did it work out? NOT!
The muffins were actually really delicious, however, they don’t look so great! I put too much dough in the bottoms of the tins and then I put too much instant pudding on top of that. The muffins rose and rose and rose and I ended up with a pan with instant lemon pudding all over it. Plus some in my oven too. Thank heavens for self-cleaning ovens!
As I said, the muffins were delicious and light and fluffy, everything a muffin should be. I loved the flavor and decided I just needed to re-do the recipe and put less in the pans. Well, I did, and the results were superb! These are absolutely delicious muffins. They are in my Grandma’s Best Muffin Recipes cookbook and I called them Burst of Lemon Muffins. I thought I’d share the recipe here so you can try them yourself. So here it is. And remember, don’t fill those muffin tins too full!
Burst of Lemon Muffins
1 – 3 ½ oz. package instant lemon pudding mix
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 egg
½ cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup lemon juice
2/3 cup milk
Grated rind of one lemon
Method: In a medium sized bowl mix pudding according to directions on package. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. Grease muffin tins. Preheat oven to 375°F. In a large bowl combine dry ingredients. Mix well. Make a well in the center. In a separate bowl, beat egg well. Add oil, lemon juice, milk and rind. Stir well. Pour liquid ingredients into the well in the dry ingredients, stirring until just moistened. Fill greased muffin tins 1/3 full. Cover each with 1 tsp. lemon instant pudding. Fill the muffin tins 2/3 full with the remaining dough. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes.
Makes 12 large muffins.
If you make them, I’d love to hear how they turned out! And I do hope that if you do make them you don’t end up with the mess I did the first time I tried them!
Grandma’s Best Breakfast Muffins
October 17, 2012
Grandma’s Best Breakfast Muffins
I just got a message from a customer who bought my muffin book way back in the early 1990s, asking for this recipe as she had misplaced her cookbook. Anyway, I thought I’d share it here so anyone who wants to try it could do so.
BREAKFAST MUFFINS
1/2 lb. bacno, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup chopped onion 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar 1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup bran cereal
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg, well beaten
1 1/4 cups milk
Grease muffin tins and set aside. Preheat oven to 375F. In a frying pan, cook bacon, adding onions during the last 5 to 6 minutes. Drain off fat. Set bacon and onions aside. In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients. Stir well. Add bacon, onions and cheese. Form a well in the center of the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine vegetable oil, egg and milk, mixing thoroughly. Pour into well in dry ingredients, stirring until just moistened. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake 18 – 20 minutes. Makes 12 large muffins.
Enjoy!
Two New Books Today
October 16, 2012
It’s been a while since I posted here but I will be getting back to posting more regularly now. Just wanted to let everyone know that I have two new books out today and that they will be on sale for this first week. These books will regularly sell for $2.99 but for this week only you can pick up either for $0.99 each. You’ll find them at:
Grandma’ Best Soup Recipes: www.amazon.com/dp/B009PBQ59A
Grandma’s Best Christmas Recipes: www.amazon.com/dp/B009PBXZOI
Hope you pick one up. Oh, and if you do, please consider leaving me a review if you like the book!
Have a great day
How to Decorate Cakes
May 8, 2012
My friend, Christine, has written two awesome books. The first one, How to Decorate Cakes, is all the information you’ll need to become an expert on decorating cakes. It covers all the different types of icing, how to make borders and so much more. You’ll find it on Amazon as a Kindle book and it’s really quite inexpensive for the amount of great information it includes. If you would like to know more about How to Decorate Cakes, check the book out here.
How to Decorate A Cake
This Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding Recipe Rocks
March 28, 2012
Another of the favorite recipes in our house when I was growing up was bread pudding. My Mom made all our bread from scratch and if she had half a loaf that was getting stale she’d make a bread pudding with it. Those puddings were so good and since I’ve been cooking I’ve discovered that I can do all kinds of interesting things with a bread pudding.
I’m going to provide the basic recipe here and then give a number of suggestions to vary the recipe. So here goes:
Mom’s Bread Pudding
6 or 7 slices stale bread
2 tbsp. melted butter
4 eggs, well beaten
2 cups milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 2 quart casserole dish. Break bread into bite-sized pieces and spread in the bottom of the dish. Drizzle with melted butter. In a separate bowl combine remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. Pour over top of bread, allowing the mixture to soak into the bread for a couple of minutes. Bake for about 45 to 50 minutes or until a knife inserted into the custard comes out clean.
Variations
Blueberry Bread Pudding: Add 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries on top of the bread before pouring liquid mixture on top.
Lemon Bread Pudding: Add the grated rind of one lemon and about 1/4 cup lemon juice to the liquid mixture before pouring over the bread.
Sauce for Pudding: Make a sauce with the following recipe and pour over pudding before sesrving:
1 – 12 oz. package white chocolate baking chips
1 cup heavy whipping cream.
Method Place chips in a small bowl. In a small pot, bring cream just to a boil. Pour over baking chips and whisk until smooth. Serve warm with pudding. Um-Um Good!
Grandma’s Best Chocolate Recipes Free on Feb. 28th at Amazon
February 26, 2012
Through the Kindle Direct Publishing program I will be offering my Grandma’s Best Chocolate Recipes cookbook free from midnight on February 28th to 11:59pm on that day. So if you’d like a free copy of this book be sure to go to Amazon and download it. You can find it here:
www.amazon.com/dp/B0072X0CBK Hope you get your free copy and enjoy it. And if you have a minute I’d love it if you could leave me a review!
Grandma’s Rice Pudding
February 24, 2012
My Dad always loved rice pudding and my Mom made it often to please him, although she loved it too. I still occasionally make it too. It is easy to make and delicious. My Mom always said that if you were serving fish you should have a rice pudding for dessert, so you might want to make it when you’re cooking fish. I think that was just her way of having a good excuse to make rice pudding, though. I don’t think there’s any cooking wisdom in her dictum, just her rationale for making a dessert she loved.
Here’s the recipe we’ve been using in our family for years. Hope you enjoy it!
1 1/2 cups long grain rice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs, well beaten
1/4 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups milk
1 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1/2 to 1 tsp. nutmeg
Method: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 2 quart baking dish. Mix all the ingredients except the nutmeg together in the dish. Sprinkle nutmeg on top. Bake for about 40 – 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle of the custard comes out clean. Serve warm.
This recipe has quite a thick custard which rises to the top, with the rice sinking more to the bottom of the dish. It is the way my Dad and Mom both loved it and I do as well. If you want less custard just add one less egg and you’ll be good to go. Additionally, if you don’t like nutmeg you can substitute cinnamon. Or if you prefer, you don’t have to use either.
Variations:
Apple Rice Pudding: Add 1 peeled, finely chopped apple to the mixture for a different flavor. If you’re adding the apple you will want to substitute cinnamon for the nutmeg.
Pineapple Rice Pudding: Add 1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained and 1/2 cup coconut to the mixture. This works well with the sprinkle of nutmeg.
Let me know if you use the recipe and how you like it.