Boiled Raisin Drop Cookies

These are the cookies "Grandma used to bake" when my kids were small. Because I have no self-control when there are cookies in the house, I don't bake often.

That's why, when my son called asking for the recipe I had to go on a hunt.

It took a lot of searching through all the little slips of paper in my Mom's old cookbooks, but I finally located it, and thought I'd share.

These cookies are soft and cake-like, so when you layer them in a storage container, slip a sheet of plastic wrap or waxed paper between the layers. Otherwise they'll stick together.

2 cups raisins, boiled 20 minutes
1 cup of juice from the raisins
3 eggs
1 tsp.soda
1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup nuts (optional)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt

Sift together flour, soda, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt - set aside.

Cream shortening and sugar, add eggs one at a time and beat thoroughly. Add the juice from the raisins, alternately, with the dry ingredients. Add the raisins and nuts.

Drop by spoonfuls on a greased baking sheet and bake for about 12 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Swedish Potato Sausage

Swedish potato sausage is a Christmas Eve tradition at our house. My Mother made it, my Grandmother made it, and her mother made it. Now I make it, and I love it.

Just thinking about it while I was stuffing the casings today made me feel like one of Bob Cratchet's kids - remember how they jumped around squealing in anticipation of the Christmas goose?

Some people think I'm nuts - they don't like it at all. But that's OK, because I wouldn't eat an oyster or caviar if you paid me. (Well, for a million bucks I might as long as I could swallow fast.)

Anyway, if you want to try it, here's what you need:

Sausage casings - you get them from the guy behind the counter at the meat market. I've never seen them on display.

4# pork shoulder - you don't want it too lean
4# beef
8# potatoes
4 smallish onions
2 t. allspice
3 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper

Grind the meat, potatoes, and onions, then add the spices and mix, and mix, and mix.
(This is a 2-handed job.)

Then stuff the meat into the sausage casings, tying off about every 4 or 5 inches to make individual sausages.

Store the completed sausages in a kettle of water until you're ready to cook them - otherwise the potatoes will turn black. That doesn't hurt the taste, but it looks funky. You can freeze what you aren't going to use immediately.

Drop the sausages into boiling water and let them cook for 45 minutes. You can serve them hot, which is good. But I especially love them cold as snacks. Some people dip them in a bit of mustard.

For me this job is a bit time-consuming, but not difficult. Last year we bought a good grinder with a sausage stuffing attachment. But before that, I used one of those hand-grinders - just like my Grandmother and Great Grandmother used.

Before we got the new "stuffer," I had a terrible time finding something to put the casings on so I could stuff them, and finally purchased a "fat funnel" from the automotive department in the hardware store. That worked, but it was sure messy and it took a lot of hours to stuff 16# of sausage.

Every time I make potato sausage I'm reminded of how my Great-Grandmother did it. She had a grinder, but Grandmother said to stuff the casings she used a hollowed out cow's horn. I suppose that worked better than my little short, fat funnel.

Chicken Tortilla Soup My way

Last week we went out to lunch and I ordered the soup of the day - which turned out to be Chicken Tortilla. I'd never tried it before and the first spoonful had me grabbing for the ice water. But the more I ate, the more I liked it.

So, I tried to find a recipe. There were plenty of them, but none that had the ingredients I saw in that soup. That's when I decided to just wing it... and I'm really glad there's just enough left over for my lunch tomorrow.

Here's what went into the pot...

First I soaked about a cup full of pinto beans overnight. Then I cooked them until they were close to done. I set them aside until time to start the soup.

Into a crock pot went:

The mostly cooked beans
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can of water
about 1/2 t. cumin
about 1/4 t. cayenne pepper
a few splashes of hot sauce
about 1/2 t. garlic powder
salt and pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 leftover cooked chicken breast, cut into pieces about 3/4" squarish

After it had cooked for a while I tasted it and added a bit more of the cumin, cayenne, and garlic.

To serve, I topped it with finely shredded cheddar cheese and minced green onion.

Yum...

*All the recipes I saw called for cilantro - but since there was none on the shelf and it's 12 miles to the grocery store, I didn't use it. Maybe next time.

World's best pie crust recipe - Sally says so!

Hi all, I'm back.

Got a little side-tracked there, and was actually going to let this blog go and just put all the recipes on the Cooking with Carl website. But I have a bossy kid and he convinced me to change my mind. So, in honor of returning, I'll share a new recipe just given to me by my friend Sally.

She brought it home with her after a visit to her daughter in Minnesota - and she swears that it's the best pie crust she's EVER made - or eaten.

Combine:
4 cups flour
1 3/4 cups shortening
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup VERY COLD water
2 Tablespoons vinegar
1 egg

This recipe will make crusts for 4 pies - and here's the best part. You can make one pie today, roll the remainder into 3 balls, wrap them tightly, and keep them in the freezer until you get the urge to make another pie.

Apparently, this dough is so elastic, you can roll it out thin without it breaking into pieces. My old recipe calls for 2 cups of flour and it only made enough crust for one pie.

I can hardly wait to try this...

How to make gravy

Gravy was a staple in our house when I was growing up. So learning to make it was as natural as learning to fry an egg. That's why I was shocked when a good friend came to dinner and wanted to watch when I made the gravy.

She's known as a very good cook - but it turns out she never made gravy because she didn't know how.

So here goes: First, there are 2 different kinds and 2 different ways.

If you've cooked a roast or a turkey and have drippings in the pan, you'll want to use the cornstarch method.

First, put a tablespoon or two of cornstarch in a small bowl. Add water and stir until it is smooth. Don't ever just dump the cornstarch into the hot drippings, because they'll land in a lump and stay that way.

Now, if you don't have enough liquid in the drippings, add a little water. Then slowly stir in the cornstarch and watch the mixture thicken. Add a little more water, alternating with the cornstarch, until you get the volume of gravy you want. You can also add milk, or the water from the pan in which you boiled potatoes. If you use water you'll get brown gravy, if you use milk you'll have milk gravy.

The important thing is to keep stirring while the gravy is cooking. If you don't, you'll get lumps. Keep watching until you have the thickness you want, then get it off the stove. You can keep it in a warm oven if you aren't quite ready to serve the meal.

The second way is to use the grease that's left in the bottom of a frying pan after you fry chicken, pork chops, or bacon. Some people also use the grease left from frying burgers, but I don't like the flavor as well as the others.

If you have a LOT of grease, pour some in a bowl and set it aside. Then add about 2 or 3 Tablespoons of flour and stir it well. If you've removed too much grease, put some back so you get a kind of crumbly mixture.

Now add milk - about a cup the first time. Then, just like with the other method, keep stirring and adding and stirring and adding until it has the consistency you want. Again, you can use some of the water the potatoes were cooked in for part of the liquid.

Don't despair if you get too much liquid and your gravy is runny. Just keep it on a medium low heat and let it cook down until it's right. Remember to keep stirring, however!

Yours for good eating,
Marte

Twice Baked Potatoes - Yum!

This week-end was a friend's birthday, and since he'd mentioned his love for twice baked potatoes, we decided to figure out how to make them for his birthday dinner.

It wasn't difficult, but it was a full meal. So combined with steak and salad and corn on the cob (4 of the 7 ears my garden yielded this year!) it was a huge meal! I saved half of my potato for lunch today.

Here's the simple twice baked potato recipe I used:

4 large baking potatoes
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup crumbled bacon
3/4 cup minced green onions
salt and pepper

I'm not sure how I ended up with the cooking detail on this dinner, but with the exception of the steaks, I did.

I baked the potatoes ahead of time, let them cool, then cut an oval out of the top of each of them and scooped out the flesh - leaving enough to hold the "shell" together.

While I was doing that, I had the bacon frying until the little pieces were crisp.

Reserving about 1/4 cup each of the cheese, bacon, and onions, I first added the butter and beat it until it was smooth, then added the rest.

Then I stuffed the mixture back into the shells - which became mounded up on top due to the extra ingredients.

I put that back in the oven to reheat, then about 10 minutes before dinner was to be served, I sprinkled the reserved cheese, bacon, and onions on top, put it back into the oven, and let them melt together.

The result: "Melt in your mouth" potatoes.

One thing I might do differently - probably cut the potatoes in 2 and serve a half potato to each person, because it really was too much. Along with the rest of the meal, everyone was stuffed.

Yours for good eating,
Marte

Our favorite green bean recipe

The deer in my garden left us just enough green beans for a good meal - the little thieves! They even ate 2 rows of onions and have started on the tomato plants now, which really surprised us. I had no idea they'd eat those, and I wonder what's wrong with their heads, since the grass all around the garden has been watered all year and is lush and green.

Oh well. Next year a tall fence.

Meanwhile, we thoroughly enjoyed what few green beans they left for us.

Here's our favorite green bean recipe:

Start with fresh green beans - add them to enough water to allow them to boil without drying up. While they're cooking, cut up some bacon into small pieces and chop some onion. These go into a frying pan.

I usually start the bacon first because I like to get the pieces almost crispy, and that would mean burned onions. So cook the bacon for a few minutes, then add the onions.

When they're ready, add them to the green beans that are already cooking. Keep an eye on the pan and let the water boil away so by the time the beans are cooked there's not much water left. (It generally takes about a half hour for the beans to be good and tender.) Then add a can of tomato soup and cook it long enough to get it hot clear through.

If the rest of dinner isn't quite ready, you can keep this in the oven on low for a while.

You may not have a garden, or the deer might have eaten every bean if you do - so remember you can also use this recipe with canned green beans. Just add the bacon and onions to the beans and their fluid, let it cook down until there's not too much fluid left, then add the soup.

Yours for good eating!
Marte

Cooking in your child's kitchen... a different experience!

Today was my baby boy's birthday - and since he gets home from work rather late, we decided to take his cake and birthday dinner to him instead of inviting him here.

Luckily, I have a big roasting oven that we could stick in the back of the pickup with a cooked turkey breast and pre-mashed potatoes. The rest I took along to cook at his house.

And now I know some things that will go in his stocking this Christmas. Things like soup spoons, serving spoons, stirring spoons and more sizes of sauce pans than just "large". Well, guess the pans won't fit in the stocking, but you know what I mean.

I can't believe he's been eating his soup with a teaspoon all this time.

He's been getting along fine with his George Foreman grill, his large sauce pans, and a couple of frying pans. But that's because he only cooks "bachelor food." One of these days he may want to cook a whole meal.

If you have grown kids who are bachelors or bachelorettes, you might want to try cooking in their kitchens. It could give you ideas for Christmas, too.

Here's to all our kids...

Marte

The trick to flaky pie crust - and a huckleberry pie story

Have you ever forgotten something that you knew so well you didn't even have to think about it?

That happened to me a few years ago. I don't bake pie very often any more - that's the excuse I gave myself for forgetting. And that's why my pie crusts started turning out "heavy."

I couldn't figure it out - I was using the same recipe that I'd used forever, and yet getting results I didn't like at all. Then one day a friend served me a piece of pie and her crust was wonderful - light and flaky. So I mentioned my recent failures at pie crust.

Her response? "Are you remembering to use ice water?"

Well, no. I had completely forgotten about ice water. Since then I'm back to making good pie crust.

Here's the simple recipe I use:
2 cups of flour
salt - I never measure it, sorry!
3/4 cup of shortening

Using a dough cutter (or a couple of knives if you don't have one) cut the flour, salt, and shortening together until you have pea-sized lumps.

Now add 1/4 cup of ice water and mix it just until it sticks together. Do NOT over mix.

Divide the dough in two - this is for a pie with a top crust.

Flour your rolling board well so the dough won't stick when you begin to roll it out. Sprinkle a little flour on top and spread it around so the rolling pin won't stick either. Don't roll it any more than you have to or your crust will be heavy in spite of the ice water.

A friend of mine who grew up with 4 older sisters (and thus didn't learn to cook) told me the story of her first huckleberry pie. She was a newlywed and her husband expressed a desire for huckleberry pie.

Having no idea how to make one, she asked an older friend. The friend told her to just mix some lard and flour and roll it out, then add huckleberries and sugar and bake it. (This happened in about 1934, when most people still used lard.)

Her friend didn't tell her about the water, or cornstarch to thicken the berries, and she didn't have a rolling pin. So she kept adding more lard and mixed and mixed trying to make the mess stick together. Finally she patted it all into place in the bottom of a pie tin. Then she put in huckleberries and sugar and put it in the oven.

And her poor husband ate it. When he told the story later he said "it tasted like huckleberries boiled in oil, but I was a new husband so I ate the damned stuff."

Later on she became known for her wonderful pies...

Broccoli Salad Recipe

Remember when George Bush Senior said he didn't like broccoli, and since he was President, nobody could make him eat it? We thought he was kind of silly, because we do like broccoli.

Unfortunately, we'll have to trek to the store to get it, because we're not the only ones. It seems that whitetail deer also think it a delectable treat - just like my carrots, peas, and beet greens. I managed to bring in one dinner's worth of broccoli before the little brats stole it all. Unfortunately, between them and the underground critters, the only carrots we got were the really tiny ones I pulled when I thinned the row.

I try to be generous - it's been a hot dry summer and grass isn't exactly "juicy" right now, but darn - did they really have to take everything?

Oh well - next year a tall fence.

Meanwhile, if you've only tried broccoli cooked, try this salad recipe for a change of pace:

2 1/2 c. chopped broccoli
1/2 small onion, cut into thin slices and separated (purple if you have it\
1/2 c, dried cranberries (soaked in water for 10 minutes)
1 Tablespoon sunflower seeds
3/4 c. mayonaise
1 teaspoon of sugar - or 1/2 package of sugar substitute, if you prefer
1 Tablespoon of vinegar (balsamic if you have it)
1 teaspoon curry

Mix it all together and serve cold

Just as an update - we bought new yeast, and the latest batch of bread is mmm-good.

Yours for good eating,
Marte

Dead yeast = chicken bread

Whew! That was some loaf of bread, or rather some two loaves of bread.

This week-end Carl set out to make bread, just as usual, but something went wrong. It just didn't rise like it was supposed to. He had some things to do outside, so he asked me to keep an eye on it and if it looked ready, to put it in the oven. I waited about an hour and decided it wasn't going to raise any higher, so started it baking.

I set the timer for 20 minutes, and when the time was up it still looked pasty white. So I set it for another ten minutes. Still white. Another 5 minutes... same thing, so I took it out of the oven.

Later I took the loaves up to my neighbor's chickens. Sure hope I didn't dent their beaks with it!

The trouble - our yeast was dead. We hadn't tested it because the package said it should still be good for another year, but it wasn't.

Before you waste flour and other ingredients, test your yeast. Start with the amount of warm water needed for your recipe. Add 1/2 to one teaspoon of sugar and mix it in. (Most recommend the water to be at 100 degrees.) Then add the yeast - if the mixture begins to bubble or foam within 10 minutes, the yeast is good and you can add the mixture to your recipe. If it doesn't, it's not. Get new yeast.

Bread baking can be a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of effort - and it's no fun to go to that effort only to be baking chicken food. (And really bad if you have no chickens nearby!)

Yours for good cooking,

Marte

Got Huckleberries? Try this coffee cake recipe

Our part of the world isn't producing many huckleberries this year, so the price is high. In fact, they're going for $35 to $45 per gallon, depending upon whether there's a "middleman" involved.

I've always preferred picking my own, because I love wandering around in the woods after them. The peace and quiet is rejuvenating, and the eating fantastic. But this year we haven't found many.

So... to make that great taste stretch farther, we're baking coffee cake instead of pie. Here's a huckleberry recipe that only calls for one cup of those precious orbs.

1 1/2 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 c. milk
1 egg
1 c. huckleberries

Combine flour, sugar, and baking powder
Cream together shortening, egg, and milk and add to flour
Beat 50 strokes with a fork
Stir in huckleberries and pour into a greased 9 inch square pan

Then combine
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
14 c. soft butter

Crumble this over the top, then bake for 25 - 30 minutes at 375 degrees

Happy eating!

The Spoon - Remembering our Ancestors

Funny how some small thing can take your mind back to childhood - and before.

For me it is the spoon - an old silver tablespoon. Well, it used to be silver, but now it's only partially silver, because it's been used so much that the plating is worn off the bottom and the edges of the bowl.

It doesn't look like the new spoons in my drawer, because it's a funny shape - sort of squared off on the the right hand side. My Mom used that spoon, my Grandmother used it too, and now I use it and think of them. But of course I don't use it often because I use teflon spoons on my non-stick cookware.

But tonight I cooked in the cast-iron dutch oven, so I used the spoon and thought of my family.

The funny shape is from wear - and I think of how many days and nights my Mom and my Grandmother stood stirring a pot over a wood stove - and then later over an electric stove - until the side of the spoon wore down. I don't know for sure, but maybe my Great-Grandmother used that same spoon. If not, she used one just like it. When I was a little kid, I thought that was the shape of stirring spoons - because my Grandmother had several of them.

How many pots of soup, or stew, or sauce must you stir to wear off the side of a spoon? I don't know, but it's plenty.

I think of the stories Mom told about her Grandma standing at the stove stirring with one hand and holding a book in the other - and of how I do the same thing. I think of being a kid and sitting on the tall stool next to the stove, talking and watching Mom or Grandmother stirring. I wonder if they wished I'd go find something to do so they could hold a book in the other hand?

If they did, I'm glad they didn't shoo me off. Those talks are good memories. And when I use the spoon, I feel like they're all here with me. So I put down the book and spend some time with them...

I wish you good memories,
Marte

Northwest Rice & Beans Recipe

A few years ago we became concerned about all the chemicals in the meat we were buying at the store - we knew that commercial beef is fed growth hormones, antibiotics, and who knows what else.

So we looked for and found a person who raised chemical-free beef, and started buying a whole or a half beef at a time. It's a great way to know the meat you're eating is "pharm-free" as well as a great way to save money. When calculated by the pound, even the hamburger costs less than it does in the store.

We think it's a great bargain, because organic foods in the store cost extra, and we're getting organic, grass fed beef for far less than we'd pay for commercial beef.

But back to the hamburger - when you buy this way, you get a LOT of it. Especially if you're like my husband and prefer not to get certain cuts. So what to do to avoid complete boredom?

Northwest Rice and Beans is one solution. I even love this stuff warmed up the next day.

This recipe serves 2 hungry people - with enough left over for lunch tomorrow...

Brown about a pound of hamburger - depending upon what you have on hand. I add salt, pepper, and some garlic salt while it's cooking.

Chop up about a half a medium sized onion and brown that with it.

While you're doing that, stick a cup of rice in the rice cooker and let it do its thing. Or, if you're using instant rice, get it ready.

Once the meat and onions are browned, add one can of beans - pinto beans or kidney beans work well. Go ahead and add the broth in with the beans.

Stir that up, then add a can of mushroom soup and one small can of tomato paste. Then stir in your cooked rice.

After you mix it all together, look at it and decide if it needs a bit more liquid so it won't dry up in the oven. If it does, you can use water or (my preference) tomato juice. You want it moist, but not soupy.

Put it in a covered dish or dutch oven and bake it for a half hour to an hour at about 250 degrees. How long you leave it depends upon what else you've got to do before dinner, but if it will be a while, check once in a while to see if you need to add liquid.

About 5 minutes before you plan to take it out of the oven, grate some cheese and spread it on the top. Use a little or a lot to suit your taste.

Why should you choose organically grown beef?

As I mentioned, the chemicals. For starters, you don't know what some of them will do to you. But secondly, we know that the growth hormones are dangerous - especially for children. They contain estrogen, and excess estrogen causes a whole host of problems. I have an article about that on my pharm-free health website, and if you have young children you really should read it.

Wishing you happy and healthy eating...

Marte

www.marte-cliff.com

Summer Squash - an idea and a recipe

My favorite thing about summer squash is just a bit silly - I love to watch it grow.

If I go to the garden in the morning and again in the evening, I can see how much it's changed, and that's fun. But after that, it becomes a bit of a problem. It grows so fast and so well that there's more than we can use, and I've never been all that fond of the stuff. So, what to do with it?

I did learn one way to use it up tonight, much to my surprise. I found out my horse likes it! I offered him a small piece and he gobbled it right up, along with the spinach that had gone to seed.

You may not have a horse, or you may not want to feed him squash if you do, so here's a recipe my neighbor says is "Out of this world." I haven't tried it yet, so no promises!

Summer Squash Recipe:

2 tablespoons butter
1 cup diced onion
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
4 cups diced summer squash
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon lemon juice

In a large saute' pan, melt the butter and saute' the onion until limp - 3 to 5 minutes. Sprinkle with paprika, sugar, and poppy seeds. Add the squash, salt, and water. Cook uncovered until the water evaporates and the squash is softened - another 3 to 5 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the squash and stir to mix. Add the sour cream and lemon juice. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes more, until the sauce thickens. Serve immediately.

According to the recipe, this is 4 to 6 servings...

Yours for good eating,
Marte

Marte Cliff
writer@marte-cliff.com

Grocery shopping and our environment

Shopping is about cooking, isn't it? You can't cook unless you bring home the groceries, after all.

Today I got to thinking about all those grocery bags, and about the very different points of view in different places.

A week or so ago I read that Seattle is starting something new - you either bring your bags along with you when you shop, or you pay for each new bag you carry from the store. I suppose a lot of shoppers will go ahead and pay, but many others will see this as a wake-up call to begin wasting less of earth's resources.

On the other hand, my friend in Florida reported a very different scenario. She tries very diligently to carry bags with her so that she isn't responsible for wasting them. Most of the time that works out well, but not long ago she ran into a store policy that was just the opposite.

When she told the clerk she wanted her purchases put in her cloth bag, the clerk said no. She was required to put them in a disposable bag with the store logo. She did say she could set the store bag inside the cloth bag if my friend wanted her to! She said thanks, but she guessed that would defeat the purpose.

Both of these communities are very big on recycling, so it isn't as if the store was not aware of the need to be less wasteful. It sounds like they just aren't thinking.

Now that the news about Seattle is out, I'll be waiting to see if the idea spreads - it would save retailers a ton of money while helping Mother Earth, but it will sure be difficult for those of us with wandering memories. I can't think how many times I've taken my cloth bags along, only to leave them in the car when I go in to shop!

People like me will be getting extra exercise - with those trips back out to the parking lot to get bags.

I don't guess the bag industry will be very pleased - just think what would happen to their sales if we all started carrying cloth bags, or re-using the plastic and paper bags until they fall apart.

So... my thought for the day - take at least one of those cloth bags you have stashed and put it in your car right now, while you're thinking about it. And then, try really hard to remember to take it in the store next time you go for groceries.

And I will too!

Health and happiness,
Marte

Marte Cliff
writer@marte-cliff.com

Can you call it chili if it contains corn?

Yesterday I was at a potluck-type function, and one of the ladies brought a soup that caused quite the discussion.

At first I thought it was tomato soup, made with milk, because of the color. But, the aroma said no, it was taco soup. It definitely smelled like taco seasoning.

Since we had to heat it, everyone took a turn at stirring, and then the debate began. It was definitely soup - more liquid than anything else. But then, there were the kidney beans, and the baby corn, and some other lumpy things. Later I found out those were small pieces of diced chicken.

The person who made it said it was "Southwest Chicken Chili." One of the other ladies said that was ridiculous - chili can't have baby corn. Someone else said chili didn't have milk, and someone else said chili didn't have taco seasoning.

So, what's your opinion? Can it be chili and have those ingredients?

All that talk about chili made me hungry for the kind I make, so today I browned burger, tossed in a huge can of crushed tomatoes, kidney beans, pinto beans, chopped onions, and (cheating) 2 envelopes of chili seasoning from the spice aisle in the grocery store.

My only concern is that the pot won't make it to dinner time. I keep having to go back to taste it - just to make sure it's still as good as it was a half hour earlier.

I guess if there's not much left by then, my carpenter (who should be happy because he doesn't have to cook tonight) will just have to fill up on corn bread.

Wishing you something as good for dinner tonight as my chili!

Marte

Marte Cliff, Copywriter

Molasses Cookies from another era

Not long ago, at a potluck, I commented to a friend about how much I liked the cookie I was munching. He said "Well, your Uncle baked it." Wow. I didn't even know my uncle baked!

He had been there and left, so the next time I saw him I mentioned the cookies, and he said "That was my Mother's recipe." Then he offered to write it down and bring it to me, and now I bring it to you. He's promised to bring me more of her recipes, and I'll share when I get them.

Keep in mind that my Dad was one of 7 kids, so Grandma's recipe makes about 9 dozen cookies. My Dad would have been 92, so my guess is this recipe has to be at least 80 years old, if not older.

2 cups of lard (I expect that shortening will work if you don't have lard?)
2 cups of sugar
2 cups of molasses
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons allspice
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons cloves
9 cups of flour
4 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla
3 cups of oatmeal

My uncle didn't include mixing instructions, but I would guess that the first step would be to cream the lard and sugar, then add the molasses, eggs, and vanilla. Meanwhile, mix the flour, baking soda, and spices together, blending well. I'd mix that in, and add the oatmeal last.

He said that you could leave out the oatmeal, but I sure liked the taste of the cookies with the oatmeal included, and of course, roughage is good for you!

Here's to happy munching!

Marte

Roast Beef Hash - made his way, or my way?

The other night my husband cooked roast beef and we had a pretty good chunk left over. I don't know where that roast came from, but the darn thing was kind of tough. Maybe he just cooked it too long.

Anyway, he didn't want to make sandwiches of it, so said I should grind it up to put in the dog food. I, carrying some of that thrifty Scandinavian blood, said no. Let's grind it up and make hash.

I had in mind baked hash - with ground meat, ground onions, and shredded left over potatoes. I got those ingredients all ready and put it in the refrigerator until time to finish cooking dinner - intending to add some beef broth and an egg or two just before it went in the oven.

Well, I went on out to the garden to pick raspberries, and when I came back, my carpenter was cooking hash on top of the stove. He had some bacon grease in the frying pan, which was good, and he did put some eggs in the mix, but no broth.

And you know what? It tasted really good. Just goes to show that I really am not a necessary accessory to the kitchen. I like that.

Yours for good eating,
Marte

"Fluffy" fried rice made easy

For years, Carl complained every time I cooked rice. It was always "sticky" and he wanted it "fluffy." I tried every recipe I saw, and even got advice from a "master chef," (or so he said!) No luck - everything I tried resulted in sticky rice.

Since I happen to love my version of fried rice, I kept trying to find a way to get rid of the "sticky" so he'd like it too.

I was just about to give it up when one Christmas I ran across a rice cooker.

I bought it (for him), and the rest is history. We now enjoy fluffy rice every week or so. What I enjoy the most (aside from the fact that he's usually the one doing the cooking these days) is that you turn it on and forget it. When the rice is done, the pot switches to "warm" and you don't have to hover over it, watching to see when its just right.

If you've been having this same (earth shaking) problem, take advantage of the hot deal I just found. It's only good until August 4th, so if you need a rice cooker, get it now!

FUJITRONIC FR-803 Electric Rice Cooker 4-Cup w/ Non-Stick Pot
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Buy.com price: $26.99

Marte's Fried Rice

My fried rice is a bit different than the kind you'll find at a Chinese Restaurant - but I like it better. You might too, so here's how you make it:

While your rice is cooking, cut some bacon into small pieces - about 1/4" across. Then chop some onions - use green onions if you have them, but the others are fine, too. Brown the bacon and onions together in a wok or a large frying pan.

When the rice is done, stir it into the bacon and onions - be sure to include the bacon fat. After it's thoroughly mixed, scramble 2 or 3 eggs with a tablespoon or so of soy sauce. Then stir that in and let it cook until your desired level of done-ness. I like it a little on the dry side.

Serve with some chopped green onions on top if you have them.

Until next time, good cooking!

Marte

Easy Summer Cooking with Winter Tools

Do you have one of those big roasters to use on holidays when you need to cook a turkey AND use the oven for a few other things?

We do, and it's a great summer time tool as well. Putting dinner in the oven is always an easy way to cook while getting other things done, but when it's 90 degrees outside, heating up the house with the oven isn't an attractive option.

Instead, we take the roaster outside on the patio, where its heat can disperse into the already hot summer air.

It works great for a roast or a casserole - and also for a pie, cake, or cookies.

If you have one stored away for holiday cooking, dig it out and put it outdoors. If you don't have one, consider the purchase. Your house will stay much cooler, and if you need an excuse to sunbathe you can say you were watching the food.





Nesco 18-qt. Porcelain Cookwell Electric Roaster, White


I know they'll be on sale in November, but right now is when you need it, and at only $49.95, the lower temperature in your house will make it worth buying now.

Yours for good eating,
Marte

P.S. Be sure to visit www.carlcooks.com for recipes!

Mashed Potatoes - better the 2nd time around

Leftovers make me feel guilty. Either I feel guilty for serving "used food" or guilty for throwing them out. So this week we figured out something to do with the leftover mashed potatoes - and I liked them better than I did the night before.

Here's what we did:
First, a bit of oil in the frying pan to keep the potatoes from sticking.
Next, spread the leftover potatoes over the bottom.
Then chop some green onion - a little or a lot to suit your taste. Sprinkle those on top.
Now grate some cheese and sprinkle it around. Again, a little or a lot depending on how much you like cheese.

After the bottom of the potatoes begin to brown a bit, turn the whole thing over. It won't turn neatly, but that's OK. All you're doing is getting it hot enough to taste good, melt the cheese, and give some crispy edges.

This doesn't take long, does taste good, and does remove the guilt that you would otherwise have in a few days when you open that container and see that watery lump of graying potatoes.

If you've got some good recipes for leftovers - share! I don't know too many cooks who can plan well enough to live without leftovers. Maybe that's why there are so many fat dogs, or why I wish we had chickens or pigs. (I don't want the dogs to be fat.) It would just feel better to feed that stuff to someone!

Yours for good eating,
Marte

Summer food - it's just easier

Now that barbecue season is here, cooking got easier, and so did clean-up.

With days in the 90's, no one is interested in heating up the house with cooking, and a big evening meal doesn't even sound appealing. So... how many things can we cook outdoors on the grill?

Burgers, steaks, and hot dogs, of course, and perhaps pork chops. When we have our act together and think about dinner ahead of time, we like to marinade steak, and even burger. You can make a tasty marinade with equal parts of olive oil and red wine vinegar, a dash or two of Worcestershire sauce, and garlic powder. When we do it we make quite a bit, so the meat can be covered well. We use it, take the meat out for cooking and then freeze what's left for next time. Go heavy or light on the worcestershire sauce to suit your own palate.

If you're tired of "where's the beef," seafood is a delicious change. You do need the right tools, of course, like this seafood rack from cooking.com. It's listed on their site at only $19.95... (click the photo to learn more)


Along with that barbecue, watermelon and cantaloupe make for a light meal on a hot day.

Because the garden is now producing lettuce and radishes, we also like to add a fresh green salad. Sure wish we could also add garden ripe tomatoes and fresh cucumbers, but spring arrived here so late that we may not have those until September! Sure hope they ripen before the first frost.

There's hope here for the tomatoes - I see blossoms now. But as for the cucumbers, I have my doubts. Those plants are still tiny.

Yours for good eating,
Marte

4th of July food, rice salad recipe

Traditions are important - and the food for the 4th of July seems to be a tradition at our house.

The carpenter turned cook has already got a potato salad made, and is planning one more grocery run for morning to make sure he has all the fixin's for BBQ. I think he's going to push me into making some other salad - and it won't be hard to decide what it will be, since the menu is the same every year! Macaroni salad and "ugly salad" it will be.

If you've never tried "ugly salad" now might be the time. You start with a box of Rice-a-roni fried rice mix. Cook it according to the package instructions. Then you add the good stuff:
A half cup or so of finely chopped green onions,
A small can of artichoke hearts, well chopped (save the juice)
A small can of chopped olives
A small can of water chesnuts, chopped finely (toss the juice)
A half cup of mayonaise.

Before you chop the artichoke hearts, drain the juice off into the cooked rice mixture. Then chop everything, dump it into the rice, add the mayonaise and mix.

I first saw this when I was working in a restaurant and it was on the salad bar. I thought I should toss it, because it looked like it was turning green. Well, as it turned out, it's supposed to look a bit green. I never heard the name, so I've called it ugly salad ever since. As soon as I tasted it, I asked for the recipe, and it has become part of our traditional holiday food.

We wish you a joyful day, and remind you that to ensure that it remains joyful, be careful with fireworks, and put your pets indoors.

Animal rescue groups know that on July 5 they will begin getting calls about lost pets, and a few found pets. Unfortunately, they don't always match up, and there are more lost than found. Fireworks scare critters, and they run so hard and so far that they sometimes can't find their way home. Keep them safe - keep them in!

Wishing you a fantastic 4th!
Marte

When dinner plans go wrong... eat red macaroni!

The past 2 days have been so hot that even I have been uncomfortable. Everyone knows that any time Marte Cliff says she's too warm, it's really hot and everyone else is not just warm, but roasted. I take a lot of teasing any time I utter those words. Meanwhile, everyone else freely whines about the heat.

Yesterday was up to 97 and by night we had far off thunder and sheet lightening in the sky... So today a storm blew in.

It was hot and muggy all day, with thunder rumblings and the skies getting darker and the wind stronger as the afternoon wore on. By 5 o'clock it felt pretty good to be outside puttering with the garden and picking the first strawberries. So we stayed out for quite a while.

Before we went outside, we put a little roast in the oven, and about a half hour before dinner time I came in to check on it - and found the oven cold! It seems the lightning caused a little power bump and it turned off the oven, along with "un-setting" the digital clocks.

Hamburger to the rescue! Just to make it more interesting, we added chopped onions and shredded carrots, and then simmered the cooked burgers in a combination of beef broth and mushroom steak sauce. Along with spinach, "red macaroni," and cantaloupe for dessert, it turned into a good dinner.

Our red macaroni is a version of what my Grandmother used to call "Slip and go easy." I could eat it until I burst when I was a little kid, and I still make a pig of myself on it.

You start with frying a handful of chopped onion along with a couple of strips of bacon, cut into small pieces, then add a can of tomato sauce and/or a can of tomatoes, and salt, pepper, and garlic to suit your taste. Dump in some cooked macaroni, and that's it.

May your oven always stay lit!

Marte

Back on track - sort of

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I wrote - time flies when you're trying to put things back together after a computer crash.

Once the computer was home, with it's new hard drive, I had to begin trying to re-install programs. Unfortunately, that caused me to download too many megabytes, and Hughes Net shut me down completely. If I'd know about their policies, I'd never have signed up, but the salesman "forgot" to mention the limited access.

I still have a few programs to go, but will do it at midnight, during the "free download time" they offer.

Meanwhile, we're looking forward to the garden bringing forth good things for the table. I picked the first few strawberries yesterday, and tonight we had a wonderful salad made from baby lettuce.

I make it a habit to seed too thickly, and then I have to thin the row - which turns out to be a wonderful bonus for our taste buds. Those tiny lettuce plants taste better than any full grown leaves. I buy a packet of mixed seeds, so get plenty of variety in both shape and color.

To keep from overpowering them with salad dressing, we use a simple vinegar and oil - first spray on just a little olive oil - we use the kind you spray on pans before baking - and spritz on some wine vinegar. Then add a little salt, garlic, and oregano. Yum!

Spring planting came so late that I wonder if we'll ever get tomatoes - I just saw the first blossom starting to come today. I sure hope so! Nothing tastes quite so wonderful as a warm tomato just picked from the vine, and with the big scare over commercially grown tomatoes, we won't be buying any of those - even if they tasted good.

Here's to good food,
Marte

Barbecue season at last!

First, sorry for the long absence. Our hard-drive crashed! We had a back-up, which is a laptop, but typing on it is a chore. I think I averaged about two typos per word.

Summer seems to have finally arrived in North Idaho - sunshine for 3 days now! So Carl has taken some of his cooking outdoors to the Barbecue. Why is it that even though we have a gas grill (no charcoal aroma) steak and burgers smell better when cooked on the barbecue?

Meanwhile, he's also gotten hooked on frozen veggies cooked in the basket in the top of the rice steamer. Just turn it on and set the timer for 15 minutes - no worries about getting things overdone, and the nutrients stay in the veggies. It works for fresh things too - he used it for asparagus and it turned out perfect.

Hope you have sunshine, too!

Hamburger - ham meatloaf - Very Good!

Today I was gone all day and came home really worn out. I walked in the kitchen and couldn't see a thing going on, so sighed - thinking that my husband must have decided it was my turn to cook.

Must have been that I was so tired my nose wasn't working - or maybe it was all the dust I'd been breathing outside in the wind all day. No matter - a new creation awaited my hunger.

Carl had made meatloaf of ground beef, little chunks of leftover potato, and a good portion of tiny ham cubes, along with some crumbled bread and a couple of eggs. The little ham cubes were left over from making homemade pizza on Sunday - the little tiny ones that I usually toss into a homemade soup.

Goes to show what good things can come out of a refrigerator full of leftovers!

Here's to tasty creativity!

Ever try a carrot sandwich?

Today I volunteered to help out at a ladies' fashion show and tea fundraiser, and I came home with a new recipe.

All the members of this group brought tea sandwiches and/or treats to serve to an audience of about 60 ladies. I've never before seen so many calorie-laden goodies get eaten so fast! From tiny cherry tarts to cream cheese stuffed strawberries with chocolate, to old fashioned brownies and cornflake/peanut butter balls - the goodies were abundant.

But what was more interesting to me (because too many sweets make me queasy) was the variety of sandwiches - including one I'd never seen before. It wasn't very pretty, but talk about good! Served on whole wheat bread, the filling consisted of nothing more than cream cheese filled with finely shredded raw carrots.

We don't serve tea sandwiches around home, but my bet is this would make a great spread on crackers.

Thinking about goodies prompted me to add a new page to our "Carl Cooks" website - so as of now you can find the banana bread recipe that's been used in my family since a friend shared it with my mom some time in the 1940's. You know it's good, or we'd have found a new one by now!

So you can enjoy it too, here's the direct link to Mrs. Lydia Falk's Banana Bread recipe.

Wishing you a happy Memorial Day week-end...

Marte

Off the hook with Papa's Pizza

Papa Murphy's that is... Carl got off the hook for cooking last night when our neighbor came by with a gift for me - a pizza all ready to go in the oven.

I love them, and Carl doesn't. He swears pizza gives him a stomach ache. Does that stop him from helping me eat them? Heck no. That pizza got him out of cooking. Funny how fast he learned that cooking every night gets to be a bore - and a challenge of some magnitude.

So my next challenge is to find him a good recipe for home-made pizza sauce. I think perhaps it's the preservatives they use in commercially made pizza that gives him a bad time. But as much as he likes baking bread, I think he'll enjoy making the crust. And God only knows what he'll come up with for toppings. As long as there's plenty of good cheese, I'll be happy.

Anyone have a pizza sauce recipe? If so, share please!

Yours for good eating,
Marte

Adventures with pork ribs

Carl and I have different ideas about pork ribs. He likes the country style - with lots of meat on the bones - soaked all day in barbecue sauce and then cooked slowly in the big iron dutch oven. Sometimes he browns them on the barbecue grill just before serving, sometimes not. (That depends on the ambition factor, you know.)

I, on the other hand, prefer the less meaty ribs, cooked with no sauce. I like to take the lid off before they're completely done so they can get crispy. Yes - they're greasy and salty and ... I love them.

So, this week I bought some of "my" kind of ribs. And Carl cooked them the way he does a beef roast, sort of.

He left them all in one piece instead of cutting them apart like I do. Then he wrapped the meat around the outside of the dutch oven and put potatoes and carrots and onions in the middle. However, knowing that I liked them crispy, he didn't add any water or broth. He did put the lid on the dutch oven, however.

After an hour and a half in a 350 degree oven he thought dinner should be cooked, but it was still a push to stick a fork in those carrots! We left them another 20 minutes and ate slightly hard carrots and almost done potatoes. The meat was cooked, but in spite of taking the lid off for almost an hour, they were not crispy. (We put aluminum foil over the veggies in the middle when we removed the lid, by the way.)

So what went wrong? I think the ribs need to be cut apart and laid down in the pan so they sizzle in that lovely grease. And, it appears to me that the carrots need moisture while they're cooking.

Just a few days earlier he cooked his favorite chuck roast, and it all turned out just right. You can see the chuck roast recipe at our Carl Cooks website.

My teaching Carl to cook is really pretty funny. I've never been a cook, never wanted to cook, and don't know many tricks of the trade. The only time I really enjoy it is when it is the job of the day - like for Christmas and Thanksgiving when I start in the morning and keep going until all the dishes are done.

I have a feeling that with his experimentation and love of good food, meals might begin to be more interesting around here.

If you've got a favorite you'd like to share - send it on. And with your permission, I might even put it on the Carl Cooks website!

Happy meals,
Marte

Healthy dog treats equal happy canines

Anyone else have spoiled dogs? Ours have now decided to turn their noses up at any treats that don't come from our kitchen.

The easiest treats of all are liver - just bake or pan fry the stuff until it firms up enough to cut easily, then cut it into small pieces and leave it in an oven at about 200 degrees until the pieces turn crunchy. Our dogs will practically fight each other for one of those, and it makes us feel good to know they aren't getting any preservatives. If you get it good and dry, it will keep, but just to be on the safe side I store it in the freezer.

But do keep an eye on your work - or your dogs - or both.

One night I had baked about 4 pounds of liver and had cut it into the small pieces I mentioned. Not wanting to take the couple hours necessary to dry it right then, I left it on the kitchen counter and forgot to put it away when I went to bed. In the morning there was about a cup full of liver scattered across the floor, next to the empty baking pan.

You know a Border Collie standing on her hind legs can reach pretty far across the counter when there's something really wonderful to steal.

I don't know if the other two helped her eat it or not, but I kind of doubt it, because she was the only one who stunk for the next 3 days. Whew! I couldn't stand to have her in the room!

Knowing how much they love liver, and feeling lazy, last week I was in a pet store and bought a bag of "liver treats." Good thing for me the bag said I could return them if I wasn't satisfied. I didn't taste them, but you know when the dogs spit them out and look at you with that old "What was THAT?" look, they must not have tasted very good.

Our mainstay treats are beef and cheese - I buy inexpensive cuts of roast beef when it's on sale. Then cook it and pulverize the cooked meat in the food processor. After that I cut some chunks of cheese, add some flour so it won't stick together, and pulverize that. Then, a little olive oil and the juice from the roast. After I dump in some whole wheat flour and about a tablespoon of yeast I add water (or beef or chicken) broth to make a mix about the consistency of bread dough.

You can be fancy and roll this out and cut it like cookie dough, but the fast and easy way is to roll chunks into long "ropes" and lay them side by side on a cookie sheet. After the sheet is full, take a long knife and score the tops so the pieces will break apart easily. I usually let the dough raise before baking.

Once I did try just patting the whole mix into the bottom of a cake pan, but it was harder to break the pieces apart after it was baked. I like small pieces so they can have more treats.

Unless your dogs prefer chewie cookies, bake this for an hour or so at about 300 and then turn the oven down to 200 and bake it for a couple more hours - so you get crunchy biscuits without burning them. I like to play it safe, so I also store these in the freezer.

By the way... When we first started making these biscuits I used a recipe - measured ingredients and everything. But you don't need to. The dogs like them just as well if there's more or less cheese, and they like them fine if you toss in some left over pork or hamburger (or steak!) when you're pulverizing the roast. You can even add some veggies if you want. The main thing is to get all the ingredients processed down so you don't have big lumps.

Go bake a biscuit - your dogs will love you for it!

Homemade bread, less an ingredient

Yesterday this old "carpenter turned cook" made a batch of homemade bread. In fact, I made two batches, because I forgot to put everything in the first time.

The recipe I'm using calls for cooking oil, and I left it out. I thought I'd mention it, because it wasn't half bad. Anyone trying to cut calories or cut fats might want to consider making that mistake on purpose.

Meanwhile, I'm finally understanding why my wife used to get so annoyed when she'd ask what I wanted for dinner and I'd say "I don't know." It really is hard to cook "I don't know!"

The worst of it is, I can see she's getting even. There's something in that smile when she says it that looks just a little malicious. I think the woman is having fun watching me try to do what she's been doing for the past 40 years. I KNOW she's having fun when she sits down with a book and waits for me to put it on the table.

Do you think she'd like to have her job back? No? I didn't think so either.

Any of you guys (or gals) have some ideas for fast and easy dinners, shoot them over.

I suppose I should be fair...

My husband did cook now and then - if I looked like I might keel over, or on my birthday and Mother's Day. So he wasn't completely new to the kitchen.

And of course, he cooked on camping trips. Sometimes I thought the menu was the most important part of the planning. He'd spend a good week or more making sure he had everything, and of course all his buddies loved to go with him because of the feasts they enjoyed.

But getting him to take over cooking at home took a bit of time. He's been doing it for a couple of months now, and I did have to laugh at him a couple of nights ago.

He was sitting outside enjoying one of the few warmish days we've had, and he said he just didn't know what to cook that night. He told me it was hard to think of something and asked me what I wanted. I told him "I don't know," and he complained - said I wasn't helping a bit.

I said I didn't feel at all sorry - that I'd been trying to cook "I don't know" for about 40 years now and it was his turn.

Anyone have a good recipe for "I don't know?"