Tag Archives: Recipes

Cinnamon Muffin Cake – Recipe

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On January 9 I posted about Muffin Cake. Today I am recreating that process of making muffins (ha ha!) on purpose.

2/3 c. butter, melted
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 c. milk

3 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. Cinnamon

Sift the dry ingredients together. Set aside.

Put the sugar and eggs into a mixer bowl, then slowly increase speed and mix until smooth. Melt the butter and on slow speed drizzle the butter into the egg/sugar mixture. Mix well on a faster speed. Add the milk a little at a time, mixing well.

On a low speed add the dry sifted ingredients and mix gently until all the dry in incorporated into the milk/sugar/egg/butter mixture.

Butter a 13×9 pan, pour the batter evenly into the pan, pushing into all the corners using a silicone spatula.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 35 to 40 minutes or until done (cake tester inserted in middle comes out clean)

Chocolate Syrup

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Makes 1 Qt. chocolate syrup (4-cups)

1 1/2 cups Cocoa
2 3/4 cups Rapadura (experiment with more or less, or substitute another sweetener)
1/8 tsp. Sea Salt
2 cups Spring Water (or filtered)
4 tsp. Vanilla (REAL vanilla, not imitation)

Combine everything except for the Spring Water and Vanilla into a medium saucepan. Gradually add the Spring Water to the dry mixture in the pan, stirring well, until smooth.

Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, and once at the boiling stage allow the mixture to cook for at least 3 minutes (all the while stirring!) You can cook it longer if you prefer the syrup thicker. [I have used double the water once, and let it simmer for a long time to thicken, getting rid of the extra water, and it turned out really nice, without stirring it the whole time, though I'd not recommend doing this!]

Remove the sauce pan from the heat and stir in the Vanilla. Pour into a clean container that has a sealing lid. Like a wide-mouth Quart Jar (canning supplies) and allow to cool, uncovered. Once cool, cover well and refrigerate.

Use to make chocolate milk of whatever dark or light version is your preference. Also good as an ice cream topping. Yummy over homemade vanilla ice cream!

Two days until Thanksgiving – Prep Plan

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Today is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving 2011. The day after T-day is a birthday, my daughter will be 13!

Today I need to make the stuffing, then stuff the Free Range Organic Fresh Turkey (15+ lbs.) and roast it in my Electrolux oven on Perfect Turkey setting with the probe.

Then start the gravy making a roux or two (light and dark, for instance) and finish it after the turkey is done, taking the drippings and using chicken stock.

The stuffing will go into freezer bags, then into the fridge until Thanksgiving Dinner time. (It’ll be heated in Corning Ware French White casserole dishes with lids or foil over the top in the oven.)

The Free Range Organic ROASTED Turkey will be allowed to cool, then it will be carved and the different types of parts will be put into Food Saver bags and processed (vacuum sealed) and put into the fridge until Thanksgiving Dinner time. (The turkey slices, (and chunks) will be put into different oven vessels with gravy (covered) to be heated in the oven.)

More gravy will be heated on the stove top (I make lots and lots of gravy for this holiday!)

Tomorrow will be Wednesday, and that is Pie Day. I try to always make the pies the day before. I need to rummage up all my pie dishes and figure out if I need a new one or now. My grandma’s pie plate broke a few years ago. It was one of the worst days of my life. It was an 8-inch wide Fire King – so pretty, deep dish, and so historical for me: it was my grandmas from way back. She died in the early 70′s, it was hers for I don’t know how long, but I’d always known it. It just suddenly fell apart one day (not on it’s own, mind you.) It wasn’t treated right at that time, dropped by someone not authorized to touch it. Anyhow, it broke horribly and I screamed and screamed and screamed and felt so sick about it. I still feel that way.

So then, pumpkin pies and I don’t know what else.

On the day I’ll make rolls of some kind. Last year I was so organized and full of good things, it was the double holiday on 1 day year (every so often the stars align …) I made what became known at the time as 1-up Mushroom Rolls and Tom-Kitten Rolls. I’d forgotten that until I read my post-thanksgiving/birthday blog post from last year this morning. I don’t know if I’ll make any of those for this Thanksgiving, but I’ll have to remember to re-tool the ideas and get them made on purpose some times.

I’ll have yams or sweet potatoes, canned, and I’ll candy them on the stove top (Candied Yams.) I’ll make a Cheddar Cheese Sauce, with that and cauliflower I’ll make Glorified Cauliflower. The obligatory Green Bean Casserole will also be made. (Green Beans, Chicken Flavored White Sauce, Fried Onions.)

I used to make the turkey on Thanksgiving Day, but found it too much with a birthday nearby since 1998, plus my hubby isn’t a good carver so it’s a task best done by me beforehand. It makes everything so much easier to spread the things that need done into the days before the holiday, then on the day it’s reheating and making the veggy things.

Oh, of course, the mashed potatoes. Can’t forget them. I LOVE them with Turkeys and Beef Roasts (and gravy from the particular bird/meat) I love them how I make them. The main secret is, forget any method but using a big Kitchen Aide Stand mixer (or something like it) and first put cooked potatoes into the KA bowl, use a fork to break them up some first, then put the paddle attachment and bowl on the KA Mixer and turn to stir and add salt, butter and sour cream, turn the speed up to 6, allow to mix for 3 minutes. Turn off, scrape the sides, put the wire whip attachment on the KA Mixer and turn the speed to stir, then slowly up to full speed, and leave it to whip for 3 full minutes. Voila! Wonderful Mashed Potatoes!

These work well then to be put into an oven-able serving dish and dot with butter, sprinkle with paprika and stick in a warm-hot oven until ready to serve (not an oven that is baking or roasting something, but this should be done when stuffing and turkey and green bean things are already heated and being held to stay warm.

This is then when the veggy other things for the stove top can be made, and then everything is ready to be served without feeling like it’s killing you. :)

The one thing I like and most of us here do, is canned Cranberry Sauce, jellied variety. It’s tart and sweet and cool and smooth and whoa! What a combination with turkey and gravy and stuffing and … oh so good! It says THANKSGIVING! It pulls it all together, makes the most Thankful statement that can be. All the stuff without it is good, OK and all that, but not the same without that cranberry jellied cold smooth tartness. :)

Maisy’s Cheeseburger Macaroni

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The Meat Base

2 lbs. ground beef (organic, grass fed, if can find) (or 1 lb. if necessary)

1 large onion, diced fine

1 can/jar tomato paste (approx. 7 oz.)

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp. Ancho Chili Powder

Dash of Tabasco Sauce (to taste)

In a large pot (Dutch Oven size) start the onions in some virgin olive oil over a medium heat, cook until beginning to turn translucent, then add the ground beef, chopping into small pieces, cook until browned. Add the tomato paste, cayenne pepper, and ancho chili powder. Stir well. Add the Tabasco Sauce, taste, add more to desired level of flavor.

Combine this with the macaroni and cheese (directions below.) Serve!

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The Macaroni & Cheese Part

Cheese Sauce

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

2 cups milk

Tabasco sauce

1 box of elbow macaroni, cooked via package directions (make sure to add salt to the water!)

In sauce pan melt the butter and stir in the flour, mixing well. Allow to simmer (should be a loose paste, add more flour or butter as needed.) When the flour butter paste has cooked for at least a minute, add the milk, stirring well. On a medium-low heat bring the cream sauce up to heated through, it will thicken as it gets closer to the boiling point. Full thickening will occur when it boils. This is a thick sauce. Once the cream sauce is thickened, add the shredded cheddar cheese, stirring well until it’s melted and incorporated into the cream sauce. Add some Tabasco sauce to taste (I like a lot!)

Cook the elbow macaroni according to package directions, in a large pan or bowl combine the macaroni with the cheese sauce.

Combine with the meat base as directed.

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I made this for dinner last night, had the leftovers for lunch today. Everyone loved it and still loves it. It’s my own creation, based on the fact that it’s “out there” but this is my own concoction of it, including spice and sauces.

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Penne Pasta & other dishes

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I had a box of Penne pasta I’d gotten at Costco a long time ago, never used any of it since I like the Capellini pasta with my homemade version of meat sauce often, and didn’t want to add another tomato sauce dish into the mix. (All my life I made meatballs to go with my sauce until sometime in the last 5 or so years I did it the “wrong” way and made meat sauce, and only have made meat sauce since, except for one time I forced myself to make meatballs in the last year. That’s a whole topic unto itself for sometime.)

I was out of Capellini though one night in the past couple of months and went looking for ideas online about something besides my normal meat sauce & what to do with Penne.

I found this: simplyrecipes.com/recipes/penne_pasta_with_meat_sauce/

That is similar to what I now make sometimes, using Penne, and my nearly 3 year old loves it the best on anything I make.

I don’t make that recipe, just use it for inspiration. I nearly make my regular sauce, but I leave out olives & put less basil & in it, and put Thyme in it (something I don’t put in my regular sauce ever) and it is good.

I serve my “spaghetti” meals with meat sauce in a separate dish from the pasta. The Penne though, I mix them in the dish.

There is another dish I make using medium noodles. I got the idea from a Cambell’s cook book I have. I’ve been making that more since Winter. Never before that. In the last month I took that idea and pared it with the Penne idea and made a third dish.

I know I don’t have any recipes written out in this post. My recipes are not cook book sort. I cook this kind of thing with my feelings (don’t know that that is the right way to say it.)

When I cook it’s for a larger than many households crowd. Hubby isn’t always here, but the rest of us are: 14 year old boy (eats more than anyone here), 11 year old girl (usually eats way more than me), 9 year old boy (spotty eating habits, getting more sometimes though), Toddler (eats a lot sometimes, not much others) then me and hubby.

I like to cook so that there is some left-over for snacks and lunches, at least 1 or 2 or 3 servings. Sometimes I sort of plan that and make a lot, and often in such a case there are no left-overs at all.

I’ve been stuck in the “what to make” rut a lot the last few years, so this post has progress showing for me. Less “hamburger crap” [ground beef stroganoff) –which is great. That nick name for the dish shows my feeling about it. It’s what I’ve called it for a long time around here, something that doesn’t sound very nice indeed.