Shea's Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm not a chocolate chip cookie fan. I know, how Un-American is that? But...my family is. I just never found a recipe that I was interested enough to make, poor deprived family. So, Shea took charge. Last year she found a "recipe in a jar" gift that she made for everyone for Christmas. We made the cookies and they were so good! I know this is on every post I type.....but it's......wait for it......Trent's favorite :) Thanks Shea!! Oh, a note about the margarine...DON'T use butter here (wait, have I EVER said that before?!!?) Use margarine..oh that's painful to say...but true. Use room temperature margarine sticks, much better cookies are the result. But just for these! Ow. Ok, better now.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 - 3/4 cups flour

3/4 tsp soda

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup brown sugar lightly packed

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup margarine, softened ( one and a half sticks)

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups chocolate chips (you can use 1/2 choc and 1/2 white chips for fun)

Mix flour, soda, salt, brown sugar, and sugar in a bowl. Add room-temperature soft margarine, egg, and vanilla until it's a dough consistency. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets in heaping tablespoon-full sized portions. Bake 350 for 12-14 mins.

Note to self: Trent likes 14 mins...it's a crunchy/chewy texture he preferred to the 12 min soft cookie that I did first.

Makes around 2 dozen.

To do the recipe-in-a-jar gift:

Place brown sugar in the bottom of a jar, then the flour/white sugar/salt/soda, then on the top put a cup or so of chocolate chips. (I added more when we made them). Add a tag with directions to add one and a half sticks of margarine, an egg, and a tsp vanilla. Bake 350 for 12- 14 minutes.

Flaky Pie Crust

Pie Crust

First pie crust I’ve tried that wasn’t the pre-made kind, and it is very good. Highly recommended for sweet pies. This is the recipe for a single crust pie, double this for a covered pie. The refrigeration chill time is 4 hours, so plan accordingly. Don’t skip the refrigeration process, as it is necessary for the gluten to develop.

Keep in mind that a pie crust is flaky because of tiny pockets of cold butter that melt during the cooking process. It’s important to keep this cold and not overwork the dough. Run hands under very cold water before kneading to preserve cold temperature.

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
½ cup butter, very cold and diced
¼ cup ice water/vanilla…place 1 tsp vanilla in measuring cup, add very cold water to make ¼ cup total.

In large bowl, combine flour,salt, and sugar. Cut in very cold, diced butter with a pastry blender until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add water, one teaspoon at a time, and toss with a fork, until all the water is incorporated. There should be small bits of butter visible. Run hands under cold water, then gather the crumbs into a flat ball, kneading only a little. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.

Roll out on lightly floured surface, and line pan with the bottom crust, fill with pie filling. Make an egg wash with 1 egg and a few tablespoons water, beaten together very well. Brush edges with the wash and add top crust. Crimp, fold, or decorate edges as desired. Don’t forget to cut a few vents. Bake as directed by pie recipe.

Pie tip: I always cover the outside edge with a gently pressed on lining of tin foil and let it the pie bake halfway and then pull the foil off so the edges don’t burn. Also, I egg wash the top of the pie with a light layer and sprinkle sugar on top before baking, looks pretty!

Million Dollar Fudge

Use a big pot to make this hot mixture.  I also tried this last night and this particular fudge is not temperamental when using metal. I used a metal bowl and a metal pan to set it. It was fine. Refrigerate several hours before cutting into neat squares, it has to be set very well before it will cut, use a hot knife.

Million Dollar Fudge SINGLE RECIPE

Makes one 13x9 baking dish about half full
23 oz bag semisweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, or coarse chopped chocolate
1 jar marshmallow crème (7 oz)
4-1/2 cups sugar
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz)
2 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. very good Mexican vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt

Million Dollar Fudge DOUBLE RECIPE

Makes one 13x9 baking dish very full, I prefer to make this thickness of fudge.
2- 23 oz bag semisweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, or coarse chopped chocolate
2 jars marshmallow crème (7 oz each)
9 cups sugar
2 cans evaporated milk (12 oz each)
4 Tbsp. butter
2 tsp. very good Mexican vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt

Butter a 13 x 9 baking dish.  If desired, line with parchment paper and butter the parchment paper lightly. 

In a large bowl stir together chocolate and marshmallow crème. Set aside. In a 4-qt or bigger saucepan, mix sugar, milk, and butter. Over low heat, gradually bring mix to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves, scraping down the sides if necessary. Boil for 6 minutes while stirring constantly without touching the sides of the pot, use the hot mixture to melt itself off the sides.  Pour hot mixture over the chocolate mixture in the bowl. Add vanilla and salt. Stir until smooth. Spread into buttered pan. Cool in refrigerator until set.

Sausage Gravy

This is my take on a Paula Deen Milk Gravy recipe, but I add sausage. It's so good. I bake Grands Biscuits from the pop-open tubes for biscuits and gravy. This makes enough for 2 or 3 people, I will double it for more.

1 package Jimmy Dean hot sausage, browned and drained
1/2 cup bacon grease (reserved from the last time you cooked bacon! Never throw that stuff out)
2 Tbsp Butter
1/2 cup flour
3 cups warmed milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Seasonings: ground thyme, cayenne pepper, ground rosemary, and Accent

Heat grease and butter and whisk in flour. Cook on medium heat until the raw flour smell and taste has cooked out, stirring constantly. It should be smooth and bubbly. Add milk slowly and stir it in, continue stirring until the gravy thickens. Add sausage and season with the seasonings...start with 1/4 tsp of each seasoning and add more to taste. I usually season with about 1/2 tsp of each spice listed. Serve over warm biscuits.

Texas Taco Chili

I got this recipe from my sister Dani. Great crock pot meal that's fast to make, then cook 3-8 hrs in the crock pot on low. Great for parties, makes a full crock pot and serves a lot of people.

2 lbs ground beef
1 large onion, chopped fine
1 bell pepper, diced (optional)
2 cans pinto beans (drained and rinsed)
2 cans navy beans (drained and rinsed)
2 cans kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
2 cans black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 package frozen corn OR 2 cans of corn
2 cans diced tomatoes, either italian or mexican style
2 packages taco mix
1 package ranch dressing dry mix


Saute the beef and onion, drain off some fat if necessary. Add the taco mix and stir until well combined.
In the crock pot, combine all the ingredients along with the beef/onion mixture, stir well to combine. You may want to add a cup or so of water or broth to bring to the consistency of chili or thick soup. Cook on low for 3-8 hours for flavors to blend.

Top with whatever you like: Cheese, sour cream, diced onion, hot sauce, cilantro... and serve with warmed tortillas.

Apple Butter

**Updated for less spices, when Shea and I made it we toned 'er down a bit.

Apple Butter: A jam-like condiment that is a combination of apples and spices. It is called a "butter" because in the old days when the cows gave less milk and cream in the winter, they had to have something else besides butter to use on breads and toast. So, the wives would take the excess apple crop and make "apple butter". There is no butter in it...it's like a very thick applesauce type jam with spices. Trent's favorite!

12 cups apple puree (see below)
7 cups white sugar
1/4 cup Cinnamon
2 tsp. Ground Ginger
2 tsp. Ground Allspice
2 tsp.  Ground Nutmeg
1 tsp. Ground Clove
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup Clearjel mixed with 1/2 cup of the apple puree

Mix all, bring to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes to thicken. Bottle in hot sterilized jars leaving 1/2 inch head space. Seal and process in water bath for 20 minutes. Will keep up to ten years.

Apple Puree:
I slice apples in half and boil them on my camp chef propane stove outside for an hour or so or until they are soft. Then I put them through my victorio strainer which takes out all the seeds, stems, and peels and gives out just the pure apple puree. Easy!

Holiday Stuffing

I make my own stuffing for holiday meals. My motto for stuffing is, you pretty much can't season stuffing enough. Dedicated to my Grampa Harper who LOVED sage...would tell my mom "Oh just go ahead and put more sage in there." I like small chunks of vegetables, so I cut them very fine. If you want larger onion and celery, just chop into larger pieces.

This is for a LOT of stuffing as I usually cook for between 15 and 20 people. Half it if you want.

2 bags stuffing bread cubes, the large bags at winco
2 cubes butter
2 large onions, diced very fine
1 celery bunch, cleaned and chopped very fine
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 Tbsp dried sage
1 Tbsp dried thyme
2 Tbsp dried parsley
2 cans chicken broth

Heat butter in a skillet or stockpot and saute onion and celery until very soft but not browned. Place bread cubes in a large bowl and add all the spices and toss well to mix. Go ahead and add the little seasoning packet that comes with the bread cubes too. Toss it all together and pour the cooked celery/onion/butter over the seasoned bread cubes. Add 1 full can of chicken broth and toss. Test the dryness and flavor by tasting and add more chicken broth if it's dry and more seasonings to taste. I always end up adding a little more of all the spices and I will use both cans of broth, sometimes a little more. I like a moist stuffing so I use broth to the point of sort of a partly saturated stuffing bread, but not soggy. Just don't go too overboard with the broth. You can also add apples, raisins, walnuts, whatever, but if I did that, my husband would freak and ask me if I just turned into a granola-muncher.

Stuff some in the bird if you want. The rest goes into a baking dish into the oven to warm it through, probably 325 degrees for 45 minutes.

Caramel Corn

This is the best caramel corn recipe I have ever tried! It is from my sister Rae, I don't know where she got it! Very good soft caramel popcorn. Can be shaped into popcorn balls that stay soft for days.  SELF:  This amount covers one giant silver bowl full of popped corn.  Pop the corn then use the same pot to make the caramel or it will boil over.

4 cubes butter
4 cups brown sugar
2 cups regular karo syrup

Boil to soft ball stage (bring to a boil, boil three minutes), remove from heat.
Add:

2 cans of sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla.

Pour onto a large bowl of kettle popped popcorn. (Don't try air popped or microwave popped, it doesn't work, it kind of disintegrates!)

Thick Spaghetti Sauce

This is for my brother in law, who hates spaghetti. He can tolerate it this way, but only about once every couple of weeks. So my sister asked me to post this so she can remember the stuff in it. This is a complete no brainer, cook the meat, open the cans, heat it all up and boil the noodles.

Sauce:
1 pound hamburger, browned and drained
1 pound italian hot sausage, browned and drained (optional)
2 cans Hunt's or Del Monte Spaghetti sauce
1 can medium olives
2-3 cans mushrooms
1 can italian style or mexican style tomatoes
Chopped Pepperoni if you have some on hand

Heat all together to a boil while boiling water for spaghetti noodles. Serve with garlic bread and cottage cheese. Easy.

Homemade Pasta

When my husband's mom passed away, we were sorting her things and I found a hand crank pasta machine. Decided to try my hand at making homemade noodles just last year, wow... it's fun and so delicious. I think it would be hard to do if I didn't have the machine, because it sheets the pasta into uniform sheets that are the same thickness then I change where the handle is and it cuts the sheets into fettuccine noodles. I make these noodles to go with the Chicken and Noodles recipe on this blog and the Alfredo Sauce recipe here. It is so much better than dried pasta! This makes 1 lb of dough, which is enough for one big fairly large pot of noodles. I can't wait until my nephew is here and he can help me make pasta...he will love it!

Simple Pasta Dough:

2 cups plain flour

1/4 tsp salt

3 large eggs at room temperature

I use my food processor for this. Put the flour and salt in the processor and zing it together. Add the eggs and zing it around until the mix is combined and just barely coming together. It will look crumbly. Turn it all out onto a lightly floured board and squish it all together into a ball. Knead until it is nice and smooth, this takes 5 minutes, sometimes more. It should not be sticky at this point, if it is, add a little flour and continue kneading. Wrap in plastic wrap and leave on the counter to rest for 1 hour. Roll in batches through the sheeter, I trim the rough edges off and re-roll them. Feed the sheets through the cutter of the machine. Noodles!

This pasta takes a while to cook to where my husband likes it, which is more than al dente. I like firmer pasta, but he doesn't, so it take s about 15-20 minutes for this to cook to the tenderness we can agree on. But even fully cooked, this pasta has a texture that is so much better than any dried pasta, it's so good.

Bread Dipping Oil

Think Johnny Carino's style here. Good stuff. This makes a really cool gift for the holidays or a housewarming. I bought small bottles with corks one year and filled them with this dipping oil. Gave them to my family and friends along with a loaf of french bread and some roasted dried garlic to serve with the oil, just like they do at Carino's. Oh, and call me if you need the garlic, I bought a big canister of it...still have over half of it left.

This is for one gift...you can double, triple, quad this for however many gifts you are making, or adjust for the size bottles you are using. Keep in mind the best way to buy the spices for this is in bulk food at Winco, much cheaper than the bottles you find on the baking aisle.

Dipping Oil:
1 tbsp. dried rosemary
1 tbsp. dried parsley
1 tbsp. dried oregano
1 tbsp. dried thyme
1 teaspoon Red pepper flakes (optional)

Mix all spices and add to 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil. When serving, swirl the bottle to shake up the spices and drizzle over the roasted garlic pieces on a plate. Sprinkle the oil with a little salt and dip the bread in it. Very good stuff.

Oh yeah, and this makes a good marinade too, especially for wild game. I had deer steaks out and ran out of marinade. I saw a half bottle of this bread dip in my cupboard and thought "what the heck..." It is now mine and my friends' favorite game marinade.

Sugar Cookies

Growing up it was a tradition at our house to frost and decorate Christmas Cookies. All our cousins would come over and we'd all frost angels, christmas trees, ornaments, stars, santas, whatever cookie cutter shapes my mom had. Mom carried this tradition on with her grandkids, and I carried it on with my kids. It's fun, and this is the best roll-out cookie dough recipe I have ever used. My mom's! Makes a good cookie to frost and decorate. I always double this, but here is the basic recipe if you don't need quite as many cookies.

Sugar Cookies, Rolled
Makes about 3 Dozen

1 Cup Sugar
½ Cup Butter or Margarine (I use butter, of course!)
1 Egg
1 Tsp Vanilla
½ Cup Milk
3 ½ - 4 Cups Flour
½ tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda

Cream together butter and sugar in mixing bowl. Add egg and vanilla and mix.Mix 3 1/2 cups flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda together in a separate bowl. Alternately add dry ingredients and milk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Form dough into a fat roll, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours, up to overnight.

Preheat oven to 350. Roll dough out on floured surface using a floured rolling pin to about 3/8”. Cut and bake on ungreased sheet for 10-15 minutes. (I start at 12 minutes and then check every minute.) For soft cookies, don’t allow them to brown, bake for 12-13 minutes.


Buttercream Frosting

1 cube butter, softened
½ bag powdered sugar (two heaping cups)
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp milk

Blend all together and add more milk, ½ tsp at a time. My mom liked a bit thinner icing for these, it was easier for kids to spread. Divide into small bowls and color with food or paste color.

Slow Roasted Turkey

I learned how to cook a turkey from my first husband's mom. Probably the one thing I regret is not telling her how much I learned about cooking from her. She was an awesome cook.

Keep in mind a few things with this turkey. This is NOT a pretty-Norman-Rockwell-Dad-Carves-the-Turkey-in-front-of guests-beautiful-golden-brown-turkey-on-a-platter. No. In fact, I don't even know how to do that. This is a super-moist-fall-off-the-bone-if-you-lift-it-out-of-the-roaster-you-pretty-much-just-get-the-bones-out kind of turkey. It is very delicious and the only kind my husband wants me to cook anymore.

Thaw that thing! Make sure you remember a couple days in advance to get the turkey out of the freezer and into the fridge to thaw.

Give yourself 10 hours or so for a huge turkey and adjust the time down for smaller birds. If we are planning the Thanksgiving meal at noon or 2 pm, which is what we usually do, I get everything ready the night before, set my alarm for about 2 am, turn on the turkey roaster oven and go back to bed. I also am fully aware that some people don't like to cook a turkey for this long and at this low of temperature, but I have been cooking turkey this way for 15 years, it's just such a GREAT turkey. You can do a half hour of HOT cooking at the end to make sure all the meat is at the necessary temperature if you are concerned about the low cooking temp.

Slow Roasted Turkey:
Rub a fully thawed turkey all over with butter, inside and out. You can also use olive oil instead of butter. Season cavity with salt and pepper. You can stuff the cavity with a quartered onion and some celery stalks, or traditional stuffing if you want (see notes below on stuffing). Rub the outside skin of the bird with a mixture of 2 tsp salt, 2 tsp pepper, and 1 tsp poultry seasoning. Double the seasoning if it's a HUGE mother trucker of a bird.

I always use a turkey roasting oven that sits on the countertop to roast the turkey because I need my oven for other stuff all day. Place the turkey breast side down in the roasting oven on the roasting rack. Place the lid on and turn the oven temperature to 250 to 275 degrees ( I think I usually do 275 and turn it down to 250 if needed). Cook that sucker for 8 hours at that temperature, basting often, at least once per hour. About an hour before you're ready to serve the meal, turn the oven up to 400 and cook for 30 minutes, watching it very closely. Turn it down a little if it's just too hot. (I'll be honest here, I don't usually do this...that bird is cooked after 8 hours, but if you're germ-o-phobic it will make you feel better.) Transfer the meat to a warmed turkey platter and serve.

***Notes on Stuffing.....to stuff or not to stuff? I'm a stuffer. But this cooking method makes the stuffing a very moist, very sloppy stuffing because of the constant basting, but it's a very GOOD stuffing when it's done. It all depends on what your family likes. I serve stuffing two ways every year...the stuffed-stuffing and the not-stuffed-stuffing. I fill the turkey with my stuffing recipe and I also bake a separate casserole dish full of "unstuffed stuffing" for people that don't like the super moist in-the-bird version. So that's the stuff on stuffing.

Dutch Oven Version:
Same thing, put in a dutch oven sealed TIGHT. Probably max weight for a turkey in a dutch oven is about 16-17 lbs. I have a 16 inch dutch oven and I have to CPR that bird to get it in the dutch oven and my husband still has to use vice grips to keep the lid on tight until it cooks down a little. Replace coals all day to keep the dutch oven at a low temperature for 6-8 hours. Great camping meal, my friends beg for it every time we go.

Turkey or Ham Gravy

Holiday time is approaching! Heeeeeere's Gravy!

Keep in mind this does not look like restaurant yellow turkey/chicken gravy. It is a darker brown and much better tasting.

You can do the whole “boil the neck” thing…but I don’t. It takes forever, uses up your saucepan which you always need for something else when you're cooking a holiday meal, and then you have to pick pick pick the small amount of meat off. I think this was a “depression” thing where they used every bit of meat they had, God bless 'em!
I also don't use any "innards" in gravy...but you can cut up the heart and liver and add it if you want. I choose not to, I use drippings and shredded dark meat as my base for turkey gravy.

Turkey Gravy:
Take as much of the turkey drippings from the turkey roaster to get the amount of gravy you want. Err on the side of too much gravy, especially if your turkey ends up a little dry. Try to skim off some fat, but leave some fat in, I wish I had one of those separators. Taste it, if it’s too salty, dilute with water (it usually is not too salty at this point, usually I have to add salt) Put it in a saucepan, bring to a boil. Add dark meat shreds, shredded quite fine. If you have a decent sized turkey, just pick the meat off of the back area, shred it and put in the gravy. TASTE IT again. Add thyme, poultry seasoning, salt, onion powder, pepper if needed. Add chicken broth if you need to stretch it. Taste taste taste, taste again! It should taste like slightly strong, yummy gravy because you are going to dilute the flavor a little by thickening it. Two mistakes people make: 1) Not making it strong flavored enough with drippings and spices BUT…. 2) don’t over-salt it. So it should taste good like you want the gravy to taste but slightly strong because you’re going to dilute it a little. Mix cornstarch with water, I start with about ¾ cup cold water and put 2 heaping tablespoons cornstarch in the water, mix well, for my 4 qt saucepan full of gravy. Add the cornstarch mixture to the gravy, boil to thicken, if you need it thicker, do another 1/4 cup cold water with one tablespoon cornstarch.

Ham Gravy:
Have a plan beforehand when it comes to ham. Do you want gravy or are you serving something other than mashed potatoes? If you want potatoes and gravy, you have to strain off the ham drippings BEFORE you glaze the ham. You don't want honey gravy. Bleh.

Baste your ham one last time, then drain off the drippings into a saucepan. Taste the drippings and add chicken broth or water to dilute the salty flavor. Ham is salty. Ham gravy is salty. But you have to dilute the ham broth somewhat or it's waaaaay too salty for gravy. Taste it, add pepper and accent if needed. You can add some thyme if you want and maybe one drop of liquid smoke. Taste taste taste, it should taste like strong gravy flavor, but watch the saltiness. Depending on how much gravy base you have, thicken as needed with cornstarch/cold water mixture. Start with ½ cup cold water with one heaping tablespoon cornstarch. Boil to thicken. If that's not thick enough, do it again with 1/4 cup water with one tablespoon cornstarch and continue from there.