Category: MAGAZINE MONDAYS

Orange Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

The original recipe didn’t have chocolate chips and I thought was way to bland. So I increased the salt, added the chocolate chips and another fun substitution is to use half butter and half peanut butter.
ORANGE OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
1 cup butter*
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
2 Jumbo eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups old fashioned oats
3/4 cup orange juice (with pulp)
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup milk chocolate chips

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Cream butter, sugars and eggs.
  • Sift together flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda.
  • Gradually add to butter mixture.
  • When well mixed gradually and alternately add orange juice and oatmeal until well blended.
  • Add the chocolate chips first and then fold in the raisins.
  • Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.
  • Bake for 12 minutes.
  • Cool on wire rack.
  • Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator!
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Carrots & Apricots and Baked Beets

Joy at Joy of Desserts is hosting a new meme, Vintage Recipe Thursday. I don’t have any pictures yet to go with these recipes, but I thought I’d get them submitted to help get her started. These were also old cut out pages so I’m also using them for Magazine Monday over at Ivonnes, Cream Puffs in Venice.

CARROTS & APRICOTS
1 pound fresh carrots, washed and shredded
6-8 large dried apricots, sliced into thin strips
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons water*
1 tablespoon sugar*
1 tablespoon red wine wine vinegar*

  • In a large skillet heat water and butter over a medium high heat.
  • Add carrots and apricots and saute’ for several minutes.
  • Sprinkle sugar over it all and add vinegar.
  • Stir and cook rapidly until glazed.
  • Serves 4

*you can substitute orange juice for water, but when I do this I also substitute brown sugar for the white and apple cider vinegar for the red wine vinegar.

BAKED BEETS 1

  • Wash and cut tops back about 2 inches.
  • Line a baking sheet with foil and preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  • Bake about an hour.
  • Remove from oven, cool and then peel.
  • Serve with fresh butter.

BAKED BEETS 2

2 large beets, washed and dried
1 teaspoon salt
Pinch pepper
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  • Place beets in a roasting pan, cover with foil, and bake 1 to 1-1/2 hours until tender.
  • Cool until easy to handle, if you are in a real hurry you can dip them in ice water.
  • Peel. If the beets are small, serve whole; otherwise slice, dice, mash or cut into julienne strips.
  • Place in a saucepan with salt, pepper, and butter and warm, uncovered, over low heat, shaking pan gently, 2 to 3 minutes. If mashing add a bit of heavy cream to sweeten them.

Baked beets are mellower, sweeter, and nuttier than boiled.

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Old Fashioned All Day Meatballs & Chicken with Baked Vegetable Stuffing in Tarragon sauce

In an effort to clean out my magazines and cookbooklets, I’ve decided to join Magazine Mondays hosted by Cream Puffs in Venice. What I really like is that she isn’t strict about when you post so I can publish these yummy results as I find them.

If you are anything like me, you have a drawer or a box full of recipes from newspapers, magazines, old maiden aunts, grandmothers, friends and every potluck you ever went to and said I have to have that recipe! Now while I usually keep the combination of spices and seasonings somewhat intact, I do make changes that make it more palatable to my family. So I always keep a list of likes, dislikes and allergies and am constantly altering recipes to fly by the seat of my pants.

These recipes have been floating around so long in the box that I have no idea where they actually originated, but one looks like a page from an old, and I mean OLD magazine and the other is handwritten. I have them stapled together with a note to combine them together. I’m like that – whatever works for my family. I had a girlfriend in college who loved fashion but was on such a strict budget there wasn’t room for the things she eyed. I remember Julie borrowing a fancy designer dress from a Joann, a girlfriend of ours for an event and then later that night she took it apart, made a pattern and made her own dress before putting Joanns dress back together. To my knowledge Joann never knew. Now I can’t do that with recipes literally, but I do do it in my mind as I’m eating a particularly tasty tidbit. Some days I feel like an archaeologist unearthing pieces to make a whole from.

OLD FASHIONED ALL DAY MEATBALLS
2 pounds ground beef
3/4 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup garlic salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 small Vidalia onion, chopped fine
2 eggs
3 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup raspberry jam
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup ketchup

  • In a large bowl combine the quick cooking oats, milk, eggs, onion and garlic salt.
  • Crumble the beef over top and then mix in well.
  • Shape into 1-2 inch balls.
  • Place in slow cooker.
  • Mix together the ketchup, vinegar, Worcestershire, raspberry jam and brown sugar.
  • Pour over meatballs.
  • Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours or until the meat is no longer pink.

With this recipe I found two old scraps of recipes (Chicken with Tarragon Sauce and Baked Tomatoes with Broccoli stuffing) that had been torn from old cookbooklets, one was even handwritten it was so old. The Brussel Sprouts and carrots were my addition for texture and color. They begged me to put them together and make this dish:
serves 4.



CHICKEN WITH BAKED VEGETABLE STUFFING IN TARRAGON SAUCE**
4 large chicken breasts cut into tenders
4 + 2 tablespoons butter
2 large tomatoes
1 cup baby carrots, cut into halves
3 cups broccoli florets, cut into small pieces
1 large bunch green onions, sliced
1 sleeve Keebler townhouse crackers, crushed
1 teaspoon tarragon
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons flour

  • Melt 4 tablespoons butter in skillet.
  • Brown each side of chicken piece.
  • While the chicken is browning, wash the tomatoes and cut the tops off. Scoop the insides out*, salt the insides and turn the tomatoes upside down to drain.
  • Transfer chicken pieces to baking dish, but leave enough room for the tomatoes in the center.
  • Add the carrots and Brussel sprouts and saute’ until tender.
  • Transfer them to the baking dishes scattered over the chicken pieces.
  • Add the broccoli, tomato pulp and green onions to the skillet and saute’ until tender.
  • Transfer to a mixing bowl and add crackers. Fill tomato cups. Add any remaining broccoli mixture to the chicken .
  • Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in skillet.
  • Add flour until golden.
  • Add chicken broth, tarragon, salt, pepper and whipping cream.
  • Bring to a boil while whisking constantly to prevent scorching.
  • Add lemon juice after it boils.
  • Immediately pour over the whole thing.
  • Cover with foil.
  • Bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees.

By using the larger tomatoes you can cut them in half after baking and have a nice presentation on the plate.

*I use a grapefruit knife and it works SUPER!
**I used Brussel Sprouts tonight, but in the future will use all broccoli.

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Baked Caramel Pears, Tomato Spaghetti Cups; Magazine Mondays

In an effort to clean out magazines and cookbooklets, I’ve decided to join Magazine Mondays hosted by Cream Puffs in Venice. What I really like is that she isn’t strict about when you post so I can publish these yummy results as I find them.
If you are anything like me, you have a drawer or a box full of recipes from newspapers, magazines, old maiden aunts, grandmothers, friends and every potluck you ever went to and said I have to have that recipe! Now while I usually keep the combination of spices and seasonings somewhat intact, I do make changes that make it more palatable to my family. So I always keep a list of likes, dislikes and allergies and am constantly altering recipes to fly by the seat of my pants.

These recipes have been floating around so long in the box of scraps that I have no idea where they originated (but they look like pages from an old Lawry’s magazine when I worked there) which based on all my changes doesn’t matter, but reminds me to keep that box. Some days I feel like an archaeologist, but come up with oldies that were favorites and will now be revived.


BAKED CARAMEL PEARS
3-4 firm pears, pared and cut into fourths
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon*
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small squares
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 to 6 tablespoons chopped, toasted pecans, optional
1/4 cup rum soaked golden raisins**

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  • Arrange pears side by side, center down in an un-greased 8×8 baking dish.
  • Stir together the brown sugar and cinnamon.
  • Sprinkle raisins around the pears.
  • Sprinkle with the brown sugar.
  • Evenly dot with the butter squares.
  • Bake uncovered 35-40 minutes or until pears are tender and brown sugar is bubbly.

*I deleted the pecans and increased the brown sugar to 1/3 cup while adding the cinnamon also.
**I soaked the raisins in rum for a day or so before and they were yummy!

Next time I will maybe broil the pears for a couple of minutes after they come out of the oven to crystallize the sugar.

TOMATO SPAGHETTI CUPS
6 firm medium tomatoes
6 ounces cooked spaghetti
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
+2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup plain yogurt1/4 cup sour cream or ricotta cheese
1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons fresh chives*
1 teaspoon Lemon Pepper Spice Hunter salt-free Key Lime Pepper
1 teaspoon Seasoned Salt McCormick Salad Supreme

  • Cut the stem ends from the tomatoes and carefully scoop out the seeds and pulp (I saved these for sweet and sour tomatoes tomorrow night).
  • Toss the pasta with the olive oil and lemon juice and allow to cool.
  • Whisk together the mayonnaise, lemon pepper, seasoned salt and Parmesan cheese.
  • Toss the pasta mixture with the mayonnaise mixture and gently spoon into the tomato shells.
  • Sprinkle the tops with ground parsley and paprika.

*I increased the lemon juice to 2 tablespoons and revived dried chives in the lemon juice before I began assembling the tomatoes.
+Not in the original recipe

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