Caramels

Mmmm, yummy!

I had the weekend off from work and of course I have a long "to do" list of holiday-oriented things that should be done. I managed to cross of quite a few, so I'll label this weekend... productive.

One ambitious project was candy-making. I've never really attempted much candy-making, but I was seduced by pictures on pinterest, and chose 3 types that seemed totally doable. MinimIal ingredients, and I had all the tools necessary, including the candy thermometer. I've only taken a picture of the 200 individually wrapped in handcut wax paper caramels, but I also made a 3-layer peppermint bark, and English toffee.

So, I'll do a quick review and link.

The soft caramels (which, for the record, I pronounce "car-mel", you?). Easy. I followed the instructions to the letter. Turned out great! The only downside... those suckers take a long time to wrap. And you get sticky. But definitely yummy. On a scale from 1 to 10, I'd give them an 8 for taste.

Next up was a 3 layer peppermint bark.  Even easier to make. Melt some chocolate. Spread. Cool. Repeat 2 more times. Ok, there were a few more steps, but you get the drift. Downside: time waiting in between steps. My plan was to string the lights on the tree. Which would have been accomplished except the tree started seriously leaning and that project was abandoned. Taste rating: 10!

Finally, the English toffee. I had pinned a couple of recipes, but ended up using the recipe inside the Ghirardelli chocolate bar wrapper. Of course, I had used the chocolate in the peppermint bark, so I melted the chocolate chips that were called for in one of the other recipes. No downside to this at all except maybe it takes longer than you might except to reach 305 deg F. Taste rating: 15! It's that good. And sorry folks that might except me to gift this... nope. I'm keeping it for the family.

So. much. sugar.

From Wilma's Recipe Archives -- Porcupine Meatballs

Greetings, porcupines! Never fear, no porcupines were harmed in the making of these meatballs. Porcupine meat is far too difficult to get what with those quills and all. (apologies to Patty, the Snug Bug who does the best critter greetings ever... I just couldn't resist!)


Well, there is clearly a reason it will take me a year and a half to go through all these recipes, as it has been a couple of weeks since I tackled another one. And there are a couple of things you will start to notice about her main dish recipes. One is ample use of canned soup. I think she may have gotten some of her best recipes from the Campbell's soup labels!


To make these meatballs:
1 lb ground beef, lean (I used 1.25 lbs as that was the smallest pack at my grocery, definitely a pet peeve of mine)
1/3 cup rice (used Texmati)
1 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
1/4 small green pepper, chopped
1/4 small onion, chopped
1 egg


Mix together. Shape balls. Brown and add 1 can of tomato soup, 3/4 can water.


Cook for 1-1/2 hours, slowly.

All ready to be mixed up, which I did by hand. I made the meatballs about 1-1/2 inches diameter.

Many of Grandma's recipes have minimal cooking instructions, and I've typed this one exactly as written. I tried to make it just to these instructions, but I ended up only cooking it for about an hour, and did have to add more water. She doesn't mention it, but it should be covered. The long cooking time does make meatballs particularly tender.

I chopped my green pepper and onion with a Pampered Chef chopper.

Food Chopper

I love this tool because it gets things really minced, and I hate big pieces of stuff in my meatballs. Plus, Roland hates green peppers, so this is a good way to disguise them.

Since the rice was in the meatballs, I was a little perplexed as to what to serve with them, but I just made more rice and then opened a can of green beans. Kyle prefers the canned ones, and once he's back in school it will be back to fresh! Roland said they were really good, and he didn't even notice the peppers.

Tonight we're going to have the leftovers with spaghetti.

Happy Birthday, Roland!

Today is Roland's birthday, and a day I'm always looking forward to. It's hard being the older woman (by only 6 months), and now he's back to being the same age I am!


The cake is another Grandma recipe. I'm not going to post the recipe unless I'm overrun by requests, but she called it "Summery Chocolate Cake". Not sure what makes it summery except that it appears to be a "light" recipe... you know, one of those that uses applesauce to replace some of the fat and the eggs. It appears to be on the thin side, and if it's worthy of a remake in flavor, I will use a smaller pan. Obviously we haven't cut into it yet, but the batter was delicious, and the frosting *ahem* was too.


In sewing news, I have finally finished the cutting out of my Colette crepe dress. We have an hour or so before we go out to dinner, so I think I'll go do a little sewing...

A Little Cooking Challenge

NOTE: Cooking is really not my thing. But I am the primary cook in our household, so I have a shelf full of cookbooks. Recently, I was rummaging through said cookbooks trying to find something to take to a 4th of July party, and I came across the little "book" my mom put together of my Grandmother's recipes after she died.


Were she still alive today, next year would have been her 100th birthday. Wilma Emilie Janssen Lawton taught me to sew, and was a housewife extraordinaire. If you looked up the definition of grandmother, she would be it. I've decided to try to make all of the recipes over the course of this year and next. There are more than 90 recipes, but I have plenty of time as her birthday is November 2.


I started tonight. First, let me introduce you properly...


Wilma Lawton,

meet my blog friends. They are all fabulously talented, artistic and sweet.

And now, let's enjoy our first recipe (I am going to try to make these as close as possible to her original recipe):

Spanish Noodles

1 lb. coarsely ground beef

1/2 cup green pepper

2 small onions, chopped (I used about 1/4 of a large Vidalia onion)

Fry the above ingredients and then add:

1 can tomato soup (I used the Campbell's Healthy Request)

1 cup of water

2 cups of noodles

1/2 tsp celery salt

salt and pepper

Cover and simmer for 45 minutes and add 1 cup of grated cheese (I had a grated Mexican blend on hand).

That's it. Really easy, and while the cooking time seemed really long, the flavors all blended well and I was happy that I resisted the urge to add more spices. Roland went back for seconds, so it was a hit.

Next post will be back to sewing! I finished a refashion this morning.

National Pie Day

Who knew? Actually it was yesterday, but I'm just getting around to blabbing about it. So far, my resolution of losing weight is a losing battle, so I let the family know about this amazing celebration. The request was for apple or coconut cream. Neither of those are my favorites, though there are very few sweets that I'll completely pass up without a good reason, but I just didn't feel like peeling apples.

That left the coconut cream pie, a kind of pie that I've had mixed results with in baking. Using my mother-in-law's recipe and Betty Crocker for comparison, this time it got rave reviews! Laura made the meringue. Or maybe I should say that she stood there whirring away with the electric whisk attachment that came with the stick blender she gave me for my birthday.

And today... it's all gone. I hope that you all had a wonderful pie day!

Sauces, and Stuffings, and Croute, Oh My!

Cooking. You won't often find me blogging about cooking because I'm not really that into it. I know lots of crafty people really like to cook, as well, but not me. Give me those 5 ingredients in 30 minutes kind of recipes and I'm all set. However, the story of the pheasant hunt does merit some mention, if only so that the poor pheasants did not have to die in vain.

The story begins in late February when Kyle and Roland set off with other college boys and their dads for some father-son bonding on a pheasant hunting trip in southwest Georgia. They head to a hunting "farm" where the hunters stand in a large semi-circle, and the birds are released and are shot. I supposed it's not so much pheasant hunting, as it is pheasant shooting. I have no pictures of this massacre. Thankfully, for me anyway, the now dead birds are cleaned and turned into just the breast meat, and placed in zip loc baggies. Roland and Kyle took their share, and I am happy to report, that they did not take as much as they actually killed. From February until just a couple of days ago, the baggies remained in our freezer, and every so often, Roland would ask when we were going to eat them.