Wilma on Wednesday Talks about Light Cooking

After those recent posts about losing weight, I couldn't really post a recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies, could I? Well, they are healthy aren't they? Oatmeal? Raisins?


The original Wilma, though she made recipes that might not be considered light, never really had a concern with her weight. Perhaps because, born in 1912, she was in her late teens during the depression, she was always very frugal, and cooked and ate in moderation. Also, my grandpops, Jerry, had diabetes, so she cooked with his diet in mind, as well. Desserts were only for special occasions, as was eating out.

Wilma (age 61) and Jerry in 1973

Moderation. Portion control. Cooking at home. Not really novel concepts, but some that I try to embrace.


So, me. Writer of the blog, and passer-on-er of Wilma's recipes. I get most of my inspiration from Cooking Light. Even when I worked for Weight Watchers, my favorite recipes come from Cooking Light. Generally, I hated everything I tried from the WW cookbooks and magazines. I don't know why, but they just seemed tasteless to me.


And there are some things I just naturally always do, whether I'm trying to lose weight or not. Like I never buy full fat dairy. OK, maybe not never, but 98% of the time. I buy reduced fat versions. And Greek yogurt! I'm a huge fan. Let's see... I love vegetables, and fruit. Also, more fish and chicken, than beef and pork.


Do you want a recipe? I didn't take a picture of it, but it looks like chicken soup with black beans. I rarely make up recipes, but the stars lined up, and Sunday, I made an awesome soup... let's call it the 


Giants Awesome Sunday Chicken Soup.


measurements are approximate, and not that critical
Leftover shredded chicken made using this recipe (about 1-1/2 cups)
About 1/2 a can of black beans (also leftover)
1/2 to 3/4 cups chopped onions
2 carrots, sliced thin
1 can of diced tomatoes (14 oz?... the regular size) I used the Hunts fire roasted diced tomatoes with garlic
1-1/2 to 2-1/2 cups of chicken broth
a couple of handfuls of baby spinach


Saute the onions in a bit of olive oil (a healthy oil) until they start to brown a little. Add the sliced carrots and saute them a couple of minutes. Dump in the tomatoes, chicken, beans, and broth (use enough broth to make it soupy). Let it simmer. Right before serving, toss in some baby spinach and stir until it wilts.


I hope this is right. I didn't write anything down, and just kind of dumped things in. Other possibilities might be red or green peppers, corn, whatever you like in vegetable soup. The shredded chicken and the beans are key, though.

Wilma on Wednesday Makes Chicken and Tortillas

I love Mexican food, and Wilma had a couple of recipes in her book that fit the bill. This one, I made on Saturday so that Kyle could take the rest back to Macon with him for his roommates. And this is one that I did make considerable revisions... for the better, I think. Pictures of this casserole are kinda, well, not that appetizing, but here ya go.

Chicken and Tortillas


Boil 1 chicken, salted slightly, til tender enough to takeoff bones and cut in small pieces.


OK... that was the old way. A friend of mine pointed me to this recipe for chicken cooked in the crockpot, and it is amazing! Basically, I used 1.83 pounds (ok, I remembered it from the label) of boneless chicken breast, about 8-10 ounces of salsa (that was all that was in the jar), and the pack of taco seasoning. I like to buy the one with less sodium. When it was done (about 6 hours on high), I could literally shred it with one hand, poking it with the tongs. It was that tender. Really. Now, back to the recipe.


Put the following in a saucepan:
2 cans of cream of chicken soup
1 soup can of broth from the boiled chicken oops, I just used the salsa that was left in the crockpot
The rest of the stuff, I didn't use because of the salsa, but here are the ingredients from the original recipe:
1 can of chopped green chilis
2 tsp pimientos, chopped
2 Tbsp minced onion well, I did chop up some onion, probably 1/4 to 1/2 cup
2 Tbsp chili powder


Let simmer 15 minutes. Add chicken. Here, I also added a can of black beans, just because. Two cans might have even been better!


In a 13 x 9 casserole dish, place a layer of corn tortillas torn in quarters, then a layer of chicken mixture. I think I used a total of 12 tortillas.


Cover heavily with grated cheese and bake 30 minutes at 350 deg. F.


I made it in a disposable pan so that Kyle could take it with him, and not worry about returning it. It was surprisingly yummy,  but the corn tortillas do kind of just melt into the chicken mixture. Crushed chips on top would be delicious, too!

Wilma on Wednesday Makes Speedy Cheesecake Pie

Well, what a week for pie! Do you read Peter's blog, Male Pattern Boldness? Of course you do, and you know he was going on and on about pie earlier this week. The pie I made is one of my favorites, and I really had a craving for it. The good news for my eating less sugar resolution was that I made it, had one piece, and then sent the rest back to Macon with Kyle. Win, win!


Now, it sounds like cheesecake, and it's similar, but different and maybe (maybe?) a little bit lighter. Here ya go!


Speedy Cheesecake Pie

1-1/4 cups plain or cinnamon graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter (maybe a little more)
1-8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 T lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
Dash salt


Combine crumbs and butter, press into a buttered 8 or 9 inch pie plate, building up sides with a spoon. (I used a premade graham cracker crust, so Kyle could just take the whole thing.)


To make filling, beat cream cheese until fluffy; gradually blend in sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and salt. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.


Pour filling into crumb crust, bake in a slow oven, 325 deg F for 25-30 minutes or until set.


Topping: Combine 1 cup sour cream, 2 T sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla.  Spoon over top of pie and bake 10 minutes longer. Chill several hours. Can be made ahead of time and frozen.


The top of mine ended up looking a little funny because I put on the cover that comes with the premade crust while it was cooling in the fridge and it made some condensation that dripped on it. Arghhh! Still tasted amazing!

Wilma on Wednesday Makes Sausage Balls

I bet you've heard of these. I bet you've even made them, or a version of them. According to Betty Crocker, this recipe is among their most requested recipes. Now, I'm going to link to the Betty Crocker one later in the post so I don't completely lose you, but I'm posting Wilma's, even though it needs a little work. Let's take a look (my comments will be in tangerine). [Did you know that Bisquick has been around since 1931?]

SAUSAGE BALLS


1 lb. sharp cheese, grated
1 lb. sausage
3 cups Bisquick


Melt cheese (NO, do NOT melt the cheese... I did it this way once and it was a messy disaster). Lightly saute sausage, drain excess fat. Add cheese and Bisquick.


Okie dokie. Since I didn't melt the cheese, I mixed the grated cheese in with the bisquick. After the sausage cooled just a bit I mixed it in.


Shape into balls and line up on ungreased cookie sheet. Well, since the cheese wasn't melted, I was hoping the semi-greasy sausage would help "glue" them into balls. Nope. So I microwaved the whole mess about 30 seconds on 40% power. Still no sticking together into balls. I microwaved them again. And no sticking. So I added a little milk. Just enough to make everything stick together into balls. Oh, and go ahead and spray a little cooking spray on the cookie sheet for good measure.


Bake at 350 deg. F for 15 minutes. Serve warm.


So, to write this post, I checked out the recipe on the Betty Crocker website, and guess what? No cheese melting. Not even any sausage cooking. And they add milk to stick it all together! There are a few more ingredients. Anyway, if you make these they will disappear!!

Wilma on Wednesday Makes Oatmeal Caramel Bars

If your New Year's resolutions include losing some weight, or eating healthier, than this recipe is not for you. Thankfully for my NY resolution to just those very things, I made these right after Christmas, and sent the leftovers packing with young, thin people.


Nevertheless, in spite of a major mistake in following directions on my part, they were (and will be if you make them the right way) delicious!

OATMEAL CARAMEL BARS


1 (14 oz.) package caramels
1/3 c. milk
2 c. flour
2 c. regular oats, uncooked
1-1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 c. butter or margarine
1 (12 oz.) package chocolate morsels
1 c. chopped pecans


Combine caramels and milk in a saucepan; cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the caramels melt. Set aside.


Combine flour, oats, sugar, soda and salt. Add eggs and butter, stirring until mixture is crumbly. Press half of mixture into a greased 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan.


Bake at 350 deg. F for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with chocolate morsels and pecans; pour caramel mixture evenly on top. Sprinkle remaining crumbly oat mixture on top. Bake at 350 deg. F for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool and cut into bars. (they cut better if they have been refrigerated).


These are very rich, and just a small bar is enough... think cutting that bar in the picture into 3! It will serve a lot!


Some sewing has started to happen, and I'll have a ruby slip update tomorrow!

Wilma on Wednesday Makes Cookies

Sand Tarts to be specific. These delicious shortbread-type crescent-shaped cookies are a family favorite, and my grandmother could make them like no one else. Mine are not nearly as pretty, but they're still pretty tasty.


If you do a search online, there are lots of variations on this recipe, and lots of traditions and "family rules" about these delightful cookies. Our rules included the one that they had to be rolled in granulated white sugar, always. No colored sugar for us! The sugar was the "sand" part of the cookie!


Anyway, here you go, and there note that there are no eggs, so good for someone with allergies. There are lots of nuts!

Sand Tarts


7/8 cup butter
5 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp water
1 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)


No instructions here from Wilma, but basically mix everything together the way you would make cookies. Bake at 375 deg. F for 15-20 minutes (my oven cooks hot, so 12 minutes was all I needed).


Gently make them into crescent shapes. If the butter gets too warm, chill before baking (that was the problem with mine, so they aren't too crescent-y).


Remove from the oven, immediately roll them in sugar and put on cooling rack.


Note from Wilma: If you use 1 cup butter, use 2-1/4 cups flour, but also add the appropriate amount to each of the other ingredients.

Wilma on Wednesday Makes Orange Peach Salad

Last week, when I made the oven chicken "salad", I also made this little oddly colored jello salad. [by the way, Irene, I think I'm all done with the potato chip recipes, so you're safe now... moving on to jello.]


First, a little history lesson. Did you know that powdered gelatin was invented way back in 1845. In 1902, the advertisements placed in Ladies Home Journal declared jell-o to be "America's Most Famous Dessert." [source] I had no idea that this important ingredient of so many "interesting" concoctions had been around so long.

Looks, delish, no?


How do you make it? It is super easy!


1 3-oz. package of peach jell-o
1 cup of orange juice
1 cup of buttermilk


Heat orange juice to boiling. Dissolve jell-o in hot oj and stir until completely dissolved. Let cool to room temp. Add buttermilk and stir until mixed well. Pour into jell-o mold (I used 4 6-oz pyrex dishes). Refrigerate until comletely set.


And it is actually pretty tasty, in spite of it's salmon-y looks.


Take it away, Mr. Cosby!

Wilma on Wednesday, ummm Thursday

Wilma makes a Hot Chicken Salad


This particular dish is a bit confusing to me. Is it a salad? Is it a casserole? What's the difference? I'll give you the details, and you can decide.

2 cups of cooked, shredded chicken I roasted 2 bone-in chicken breasts.
3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup of chopped celery
2 t minced onions I used more
1/2 cup chopped or slivered almonds I used a pre-slivered package that claimed to have about 1/3 cup
1 t lemon juice
1 cup crushed potato chips
3/4 cup Hellmann's mayonnaise
salt and pepper to taste


Mix all ingredients together (except potato chips) and top with crushed potato chips. Bake at 350 deg. F for 45-60 minutes.


Serves 4-6


So, there it is in the picture with a crescent roll and a jello salad that Wilma will be sharing with you next week. The general consensus of the family is casserole, and the whole thing looks a lot like a "ladies who lunch" menu. Not my favorite, but not bad either.


In other news, I've asked my mom for some more pictures of Wilma, preferably pre-1960. She's a little confused about the whole blog thing in the first place, but we'll see what she comes up with.

Wilma on Wednesday: Chicken Tortilla Rolls

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, if you're reading here in the U.S. If not, I do hope you had a lovely day last Thursday while we were all dining on turkey, watching football, and giving thanks (not necessarily in that order).


We celebrated a small feast at a restaurant on Thursday, and then Laura, Thomas and Thomas' dad came down from Tennessee, and we had more fun Saturday and Sunday.


Saturday was definitely all about the college football for us...

Laura, UGA Redcoat Marching Band, 2007

The University of Georgia played their rivals Georgia Tech (and won!!), and with a kickoff at noon, we needed a basement friendly menu, so chili, guacamole, chips and chicken tortilla rollups made the cut. I don't really know the origin of the rollup recipe, but it's in Wilma's cookbook, and true to form, it's a little vague... I've listed in red what I actually used or did.

Chicken Tortilla Rollups

5 cans Swanson or Underwood Chicken spread (I only used 3 4.25 oz cans)

3 pkgs cream cheese (8 oz pkgs. I used 2 regular and 1 1/3 fat)

1 medium jar Pace picante sauce (I used 6-8 oz.)

1 small can chopped green chilis

Finely chopped onions

Chili powder

Garlic salt

10 flour tortillas

Mix chicken spread and cream cheese together. Add picante sauce to make mixture spreadable. Add the green chilis and onions and add seasonings to taste. (I didn't this time, but I think I've added chopped green olives with pimentos in the past, as well.)

Spread on flour tortillas and roll-up. If you spread it on about 3/4 of the tortilla and tightly roll up, it squishes to the edges and makes it slightly less messy. Chill overnight (well-wrapped). Slice and serve.

The plate above shows about 5 of the tortillas, sliced. You can use any size really, but if you use the smaller ones, you'll need more than 10. This is super fast to mix up, and very popular. The chicken spread is a little weird, but mixed with everything else, it makes a very tasty appetizer!

Wilma on Wednesday -- Tuna What? Casserole

This week's Wilma installment has been a staple for me, for as long as I can remember. And I'm pretty sure it was the first thing I ever made all by myself, and at the tender age of around 6. But I'm also pretty sure I've never heard of anyone else ever concocting such a casserole.


My mom and dad got married at the young, young age of 19 and 22, respectively. Aren't they cute?...

Is my mom really wearing red boots? That's my Great Aunt Dortee (short for Dorothy) looking on over on the left. This was taken in early 1959, a couple months after my parents got married, in front of their first house.


Anyway... as wonderful a cook as my Grandma Wilma was, she never really taught my mom anything. While the following recipe is in Grandma's cookbook, I'm speculating that my mom found it on the back of a Campbell's soup can, and we ate it so often, that later in my parent's marriage my dad refused to eat tuna ever again.

But it is super easy, and can be dumped together assembled in about 5 minutes. And a 6 year old can make it! I think I let my own daughter, Laura, make it when she was 6. Aren't we cute...

If you can't tell from the age of the pictures, I'm on the left on a trip to Boca Raton, Florida, and Laura is on the right, somewhere in the Czech Republic countryside. Sadly, I don't think Laura's husband, Thomas, likes tuna, so she'll be limited to making it on those time when he might be on a business trip, and she needs to feed the kids quick.


Tuna Potato Chip Casserole

In a 9" x 9" square pan, layer:


Crushed potato chips
1 can of LeSeur peas
1 can of tuna fish (any size you want... I used 2-5 oz cans)


Meanwhile, mix 1/2 can of milk with a can of cream of mushroom soup. Pour this over the layered ingredients. Add a topping of crushed potato chips. Bake at 350 deg F for 20-25 minutes.


I don't have a picture of it on a plate, because frankly, it looks a little gross. But 2 of us ate almost this whole thing on Monday, leaving just enough for my lunch today.

"Wedding dress" update: check back here tomorrow! It's almost done!