Family Recipes

I honestly am shocked I don't have this one up here already. This is by far my favorite gravy recipe because it's so simple. I usually add extra seasonings to it so my gravy isn't too boring, but this works really well.

( Sausage Gravy )

This recipe comes to you from our generous friends at King Arthur Flour. This recipe is on the back of the red bag of Unbleached All-Purpose Flour and is not the same as the recipe they have on the website. They do not kid when they say The Best. These really are the best fudge brownies you'll ever try. Of course, the trick is locating the Dutch process cocoa (absolutely NOT the same as regular cocoa powder). I know I can find it locally without too much trouble. I buy Droste Cocoa. If you can't find it locally, do a search online and you should be able to order it from Amazon at the very least. There are a few other brands that make Dutch process cocoa powder. I buy the Droste because it's what my local market carries.

( The Best Fudge Brownies Ever )

I don't fry chicken often (or ever, really), but we had some chicken breast tenders to cook without a meal in mind, so I decided to do a little digging around online. I found a recipe and adapted it (as usual, right?) and the chicken was a hit with everyone.

( Honey Fried Chicken )

I love a good quiche. It's one of my favorite foods to serve, mostly because it's so versatile. This is a pretty basic recipe, one that is easily modified.

( Quiche Lorraine )

I absolutely love chocolate covered pretzels and these are just stupid easy. They're not actually "covered" in the sense that you dip the pretzel in the chocolate, but it's still a chocolate/pretzel combination. There are so many possibilities with this, too. From what I can tell, different candies melt differently, so if you choose to do multiple types, be sure to put them in the oven separately.

( Pretzel Kisses )

It's leftover time, and turkey salad is one of my favorites. We were low on various common ingredients and I think the recipe we came up with turned out better than any other turkey/chicken salad I've ever had before. There are no measurements, since this is one of those recipes I have always just sort of "eyeballed" when I make it.

( Turkey Salad Sandwiches )

I can't believe I didn't have a recipe for cheesecake in here anywhere. Sure, I had pumpkin cheesecake, but no plain ol' cheesecake. I found a great recipe on AllRecipes (of course) and made it nearly without any tweaks. I have a feeling this one might be one I could play around with a bit, though....

( Cheesecake )

My second attempt at broccoli cheese soup went much better than the first. I'm glad B suggested it for dinner the other night. It didn't really take much time at all.

( Broccoli Cheese Soup )

I know this is so basic, but tomorrow is National Pancake Day in America (not to be confused with National Pancake Week, which occurs during the month of February), and we plan to celebrate this weekend with a fresh batch of pancakes. We haven't decided what we'll be putting in them just yet, though.

This is, without a doubt, the best pancake recipe I have ever used. I tend to use Bisquick in a pinch, but honestly, this recipe is no harder to make and the results are far superior.

( Pancakes )

I love bananas, I love chocolate, and I love pudding. If I'm going to eat banana pudding, I prefer the traditional stuff, and that just takes too long. Besides, there's no chocolate in it! I made this simple dessert to satisfy some cravings. This would look very nice served up in a parfait glass or in a trifle bowl if you're making dessert for a crowd.

This dessert can be made with vanilla pudding and chocolate pudding, but I like using ganache instead of the chocolate pudding. Most of this is just eyeballed. This isn't even a real recipe. It's more of a concept.

( Banillache )

I've been struggling with ideas for breakfast in the morning when trying to rush out the door to get Sophie to school on time and me to work on time. An English muffin really just doesn't cut the mustard (and it's a bit messy, at that). It dawned on me to try breakfast taquitos since B is a fan of the taquito anyhow. They're convenient in so many ways. I love how contained they are, and how I can add different ingredients, and how they're great candidates for make ahead meals. I have a feeling I'll be making a batch of these up soon for freezing after our trial run this morning.

( Breakfast Taquitos )

B has a little potluck today at work to celebrate the opening of the Summer Olympics. He requested I find something to make that might use all the crazy amounts of basil we have. I decided since there's no proper kitchen at his work place that it should be something cold. Of course, this doesn't use even a small fraction of our basil. Come to find out (after making this), there will be a little contest. I'm not sure what the criteria is, but he requested I make a little placard stating the name of the dish, the country of origin, and that it was made with home grown basil.

This soup is rather involved, but it's really all prep. There's no cooking at all. I adjusted the ingredients just a bit to make up for the extremely strong garlic I used. I think it turned out pretty well, but I have no point of comparison, either.

( Classic Gazpacho )

I am a little surprised I didn't already have a recipe for apple pie in my archives, although perhaps that's because it's just so easy to make. Either way, B was asking for it the other day, so I did a little digging and came up with what is pretty darn close to the best apple pie I've ever had. The only thing that would have made it any better is if we had actually waited for the pie to cool. Because of our impatience, we were eating apple pie soup, but that's okay. It still tasted great!

( Apple Pie )

I hate when I run across a recipe I really want to make and am missing one measly ingredient. I don't like to run to the store for just one thing unless it's absolutely necessary and will often times put off making that particular recipe until I have all the necessary ingredients. Of course, with the power of the internet, a lot of times it is possible to find substitutions for various ingredients.

Today, while trying to make my potato casserole, I realized I had cream of mushroom but not cream of chicken soup in the pantry. While this normally wouldn't even slow me down, one of our dinner guests is allergic to mushrooms. I had too much to do to bother going out for one can of soup, so I decided to do a quick search. I found this particular recipe plastered all over the place (if it was just in one place, I'd give them credit). Sadly, I had to do a substitution for one of the ingredients in this recipe as well, but it all turned out okay in the end. As a matter of fact, it turned out much better than okay. B said he liked it better than the typical can of cream soup. I have to agree, it was pretty darn tasty stuff!

This recipe makes about one can of soup.

( Cream of Chicken Condensed Soup )

This has to be the absolute best recipe I've ever found for rugelach. It's not a terribly sweet cookie but is quite rich with the nuts and cream cheese. They turned out so beautifully and weren't really that difficult to make at all. The only thing I don't like about the recipe is that it only makes 32 cookies. I felt I was being stingy on the rugelach when I made my Christmas cookie plates this year for gifts, but we didn't have any left over at all. I found the recipe in Everyday Food from December of 2007. Of course, I made a few changes to the recipe (when have I not?).

( Walnut and Brown Sugar Rugelach )

Yum! These are not only incredibly delicious, they're also terribly easy. Everyone loved them! Honestly, I wish there was a marshmallow somewhere between the jumbo size and the mini size, since I think these are just a little too large. Unfortunately, making my own marshmallows would then make this a not so very easy recipe, so jumbo it is!

( Marshmallow Puffs )

Otherwise known as "Nehmon Toodoos" here, these lemon cookies are simply the best. I picked them because of the name and because they looked pretty. I wasn't terribly sure they would turn out alright based on the ingredients, but I was extremely surprised by them. This cookie wound up being a favorite, and not just for me! I will definitely make them again. I'm already trying to come up with other flavors that might work (failing miserably, because the lemon is so good, though!). This recipe is from Taste of Home's Best-Ever Christmas Cookies and Candies (2005).

( Lemon Snowflakes )

This is by far my favorite new recipe this year. I found this recipe in Taste of Home's Christmas Cookies and Candies Recipe Cards issue (2007, of course). I want to find Marie Capobianco from Portsmouth, Rhode Island and give her big kudos, because these cookies simply are the best. I made a few adjustments and I'll point those out in the notes as usual. Seriously, if you're intending to try a new cookie and even remotely like the flavors of raspberry or pistachio, give these a try. They're not nearly as complicated as they sound and they are so yummy! These were devoured so quickly here!

( Two-Tone Christmas Cookies )

I am surprised I haven't already posted this since it's one of the snack mixes I have been making at Christmas for years (ever since my mother found the recipe and shared it). It's very simple, with one main ingredient and a quick seasoning packet. As far as snack mixes go, it doesn't get much easier than this. With all the different cheese crackers available these days, this recipe can be a bit more personalized.

( Mexican Cheese Crackers )

This is my favorite beef stew ever in the world.  My mom used to make it when I was a kid and I have it cooking in the crockpot overnight for supper tomorrow.

This was so easy and so tasty. Everyone loved it, and I didn't have to stand over the stove flipping bread. The bread didn't all fit in one layer in my pan, so I wound up stacking a few pieces on top of the first layer in the middle of the pan. Instead of serving the French toast by individual slices of bread, I cut it as I would a casserole. I didn't chop my pecans since I wanted to be able to easily avoid them when giving the French toast to my daughter. I added cinnamon, but who knows how much. My best guess is probably about two or three teaspoons. Almond flavoring would also be good in this, but I didn't bother with it this time around. Maybe next time... ;)


( Baked French Toast )

I love pumpkin pie, I love cheesecake, and I love gingersnaps. Combine the three and we've got a great recipe for pumpkin cheesecake. I believe the original recipe called for solid pack pumpkin and for some reason I had extreme difficulty finding that. I used pie filling and dumped the spices and it turned out perfectly. Granted, I had to add a tiny bit of time, possibly about 10 extra minutes or so. Everyone loved it. Of course, it will be much better if there is a longer period of time for the cheesecake to set in the refrigerator. Mine didn't have quite long enough. I think it came out of the oven about 6:30 AM and was served less than 12 hours later. This is an excellent recipe for first time cheesecake makers (me) as I had no problems with any cracking or sinking or anything. I couldn't have asked for a better looking or better tasting dessert.

I did add a few extra cookies than what it says here, and possibly a few extra nuts. I didn't measure my crust ingredients out very carefully, but I did do random taste samples. ;)

( Pumpkin Cheesecake )

This is one of the dishes from last Sunday. I am pretty sure I didn't follow the recipe exactly and I've already adjusted to reflect most of the changes, but I can't remember if I put the honey in the salad or not. I'm pretty sure I did. I'm also pretty sure I failed to put in any salt. This is probably one of the better Waldorf salads I've ever had, but fresh cherries in December aren't exactly cheap (or tart). Tart cherries would have been better, and I'm not entirely certain fresh is necessary for a recipe like this, but the salad still turned out well. I would definitely make it again. There wasn't any left after six adults and a toddler had their way with it.

( Cherry Waldorf Salad )

This was an unexpected side dish. I love asparagus (when cooked properly, of course) and had planned to serve it as the side dish for last evening's meal. I didn't want to make just the same old asparagus so I decided to be a little creative. This was the well received result.

( Mushrooms and Asparagus )

I was looking for an Oriental salad that would go with my Oven Baked Almond Chicken (from Dream Dinners) last night and realized I had a limited supply of ingredients with which to work. I ran over to AllRecipes.com (as I usually do lately) and started searching. Thankfully, I found a couple recipes I could sort of improvise and combine. It actually turned out pretty well.

( Oriental Salad )

I am not a big fan of blueberries but I know they are good for me so I've decided to try and start using them a little more often. I made these muffins for Sunday morning breakfast and everyone loved them, including me.

( Blueberry Muffins )

I get requests for this pasta salad after I've served it at a bbq or some other function.   I thought I would share it with you all.   This makes a VERY large bowl of pasta salad and you will probably have to make it a couple of times before you get the ingredients to suit your tastes.

I took two yummy things to eat, adjusted a pasta recipe I love to make and created a whole new dish, which is now my favorite thing to make for dinner.  It requires alot of pans, but it's pretty easy to make.

I love scones. I don't think I've ever bothered to make them before, and while they might be a little on the messy side, they're completely worth it. This recipe is very versatile and super easy. Make a batch fresh, mix up the dry ingredients and put them in a jar, print a recipe card with the instructions, and put everything in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon, a serving dish, a nice kitchen towel, and you've got a wonderful hostess gift.

( Simple Recipe for Scones )

Every now and then we buy too many bananas to eat before they turn brown. When a banana is too brown to eat, we stuff it in a bag in the freezer and save it for banana bread or muffins. They look absolutely disgusting and get all slimy and nasty, but they are so sweet and are perfect for baking. Our frozen banana collection was starting to take over our freezer, so this morning I decided to make muffins. These are some of the best muffins I have ever had!

( Crumb-topped Banana Muffins )