Favorite Recipes

These are some of my favorite recipes that aren't from the internets. Ones from my Grandma Howe are prefixed with "Grandma Howe's ". Some of them have other sources in the recipe that I'm placing in italics.

Dutch Babies

  • 3 eggs
  • 1/3 c. sifted flour
  • 1/2 c. milk
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 2 T. butter
  • Nutmeg

Preheat overn to 450 degrees. Beat eggs well. Combine flour and salt. Mix well with eggs (wire whisk works well). Add milk and mix well. Melt butter in large cast iron skillet; pour mixture in. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Bake 10-12 minutes until brown. It will be puffy.

Note: May serve with syrup

Very Moist Southern Cornbread

  • 2 c. cornmeal
  • 2 T. flour
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 cup sugar or Splenda
  • 1/4 c. oil
  • 2 c. butermilk
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 1 or 2 cups cottage cheese
  • Non-stick cooking spray

Spray large cast-iron skillet with non-stick spray. Mix conrmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and sugar. Next add oil, buttermilk, eggs and cottage cheese. Pour into skillet. Bake at 350 degrees until knife inserted in middle is dry and top is browned. Takes about 20-30 minutes. If top gets too brown before center is done, cover with foil until done.

Grandma Howe's Cheese Ball Recipe

This is a cheese ball recipe Grandma Howe gave to us on a recipe card that's delicious and not too hard to make. When I was younger, we kids would help Mom make this.

The brands are important on this recipe. Non Cracker Barrel cheese makes it taste different according to Mom (I've never tried any other brand)

Grandma wrote in all caps, but I'm mix-casing it here.

My added comments look like this.

Recipe

Here's what's cookin': Cheese ball

Recipe from: Mom

Grandma added dashes delineating the amounts and the units. The engineer in me appreciates this :D (and I do love calling myself an engineer).

  • 1 - 8-oz. Shredded Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheese This is the cheddar cheese
  • 1 - 8-oz. Philidelphia Cream Cheese
  • 2 - tsp. chopped pimento
  • 2 - tsp. chopped green pepper
  • 2 - tsp. chopped onion
  • 1 - tsp. Worchestershire sauce
  • ½ tsp. lemon juice no dashes here

Combine cheese and softened cream cheese, mixing well.

Add remaining ingredients.

Chill until firm.

Roll into a ball and cover with chopped nuts or garnish with chopped parsley and pimento strips.

Pork Loin with Apple

One day sometime last year (2017), I woke up and put the following into the crock pot for my turn at cooking the family meal. I don't remember the exact measurements, but it was delicious.

  • Pork loin
  • Garlic Cloves
  • Onion Soup Mix
  • Onions
  • Apples
  • Sauerkraut
  • Cranberry Sauce (with cranberries)

Ginger Beer

One fortuitous day, I was taking my afternoon walk around the office and I ran into my friend Terry Bates in the breakroom. He had an interesting bottle of yellow liquid with him. When I asked about it, he let me try his homeade ginger beer. It was super good. He has since given me a video to watch and some notes on it. Maybe I can try to make my own this weekend...

YouTube Tutorial

Terry's Notes

Expect the bug to look a bit "grotty" when it is active; bubbles on the top, audible "fizz," and bubbles when you stir with wooden spoon. You can grab, wooden spoon to stir, cheesecloth, fliptop bottles, maybe large funnel in Target. (Target has an app, so you can search and see what is in-store and even the aisle). The pot he uses is a "dutch oven" which appear to be cast iron and ceramic. I prefer that, since yeast does not seem to react well to metallics. So I would use a wooden spoon to "feed" and stir the bug. I use an analog kitchen scale to measure out the amounts, but a digital could work. Once you do it enough, you can eyeball amounts.

Don't wash the ginger. Do remove any obvious dirt or dust. Get organic ginger (no pesticides). Use brown sugar to feed the ginger bug. You may or may not use Brown sugar in the "beer" concoction. I'm told that white sugar may be less "nutritious" to yeast. So, if you use brown sugar for the bug, it will activate more quickly. If you use brown sugar in the beer, it may ferment faster (faster than you expect). I think I've gone with Brown sugar for the bug, and White sugar for the beer to make it ferment over longer time period. Depends.

Once the bug is "fizzy," refrigerate immediately, cover it enough so that air can get in, with cheesecloths + lid,, but not hermetically sealed. Loosely cover so yeast can feast on air. Feed weekly or every 10 days, with 2 table spoons sugar 2 tablespoons ginger. Also, feed if you use it. Generally, for Ginger beer, you need 1/4 cup of bug to 4 quarts of Ginger Beer brew you make. The bug could theoretically last for a year or so. You can verify it is still "alive" if you stir and see bubbles, or notice that the beer you make is not as "active" and bubbly as expected.

Ginger beer bottles you filled/generate should "finish" fermenting in 2-5 days. In this heat it may be 1-2 days, but generally the optimal temp should be 73 degrees. To test if finished, when I "burp" daily in sink, if the bottle pops strongly and has some mist, it is probably "done." Toss that in the fridge immediately. If you forget to burp, it will explode the bottle.

Grandma Howe's Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

In Croation, Grandma pronounces this "Sodoma"

  • 12 large cabbage leaves
  • 1 1/4 lb. ground beef
  • 2 teasp. salt
  • 1/2 teasp. pepper
  • 1 cup cooked rice
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teasp. poultry seasoning or thyme
  • 2 tablesp. Wesson pure vegetable oil
  • 2 8-oz. cans Hunt's Tomato Sauce
  • 1 tablesp. brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 tablesp. lemon juice or vinegar

Cover cabbage leaves with boiling water and let stand for 5 minutes or until limp; drain. Combine next 7 ingredients. Place equal portions of meat mixture in center of each leaf. Fold sides of each leaf over meat; roll up and fasten with toothpicks or string. Brown in hot Wesson in very large skillet. Pour in Hunt's Tomato Sauce. Combine sugar, water, and lemon juice. Stir into tomato sauce. Simmer covered, one hour, basting occastionally. Makes 6 servings.

Hunt Foods, Inc., Fullerton, California

Grandma Howe's Carrot-Raison Chutney

Creative Home Library

Cooking Time: 1 hour

Yield: ten 8-ounce jars

  • 16 large carrots, about 4 pounds water
  • 2 oranges
  • 1 lemon
  • 4 cups sugar
  • 1 cup white vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons mixed pickling spices, tied in cheesecloth
  • 1/4 cup seedling raisins

Method:

  1. Scrape and slice carrots. Combine with water to cover in a large saucepan. Cook until soft, about 30 minutes. Drain. Mash with a potato masher or ricer.
  2. Peel oranges and lemon. Cut the peel of 1 orange and the lemon into tiny slivers. Seed and slice oranges and lemons.
  3. Heat sugar, vinegar, slivered peels, and spice bag to boiling in a heavy kettle. Boil 5 minutes to make a syrup. Add mashed carrots, sliced oranges & lemon, and raisins. Cook, stirring often, until mixture thickens, about 30 minutes. Remove spice bag. Seal in hot sterilized jars.

Serve Carrot Chutney with grilled chops. Very good with a fish curry.

Grandma Howe's Carrot Cake 1

This is one of two Carrot Cake recipes Grandma Howe gave me.

  • 1 1/2 c. oil
  • 2 c. sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 c. flour
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. nutmeg
  • 2 1/2 c. grated carrots
  • 1/2 c. raisins
  • 1/2 c. nuts (pecan or walnuts), chopped

Blend oil and sugar. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each egg. Sift flour and measure. Add remaining dry ingredients and add to sugar mixture. Add carrots, raisins, nuts and mix will. Bake in greased and floured 13x9" pan at 300 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese
  • 1/2 stick butter, melted
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 box powdered sugar (3 c.)
  • Grated coconut

Let cream cheese come to room temperature and mix with other ingredients

Grandma Howe's Carrot Cake 2

Farm to Market to Home II

Northminister Presbyterian Church

Endwell, New York (1988)

  • 2c sifted all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 3/4 c granulated sugar
  • 1 c vegetable oil
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 c shredded carrots
  • 1 c flaked coconut
  • 1 c coarsely chopped walnuts
  • 1 can crushed pineapple (8 1/4 oz.), drained
  1. Grease 9x13 inch baking pan. Dust lightly with flour and tap out excess.
  2. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon into large bowl. Make a well in center and add in order: Sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Beat with wooden spoon until smooth.
  3. Stir in carrots, coconut, walnuts, and pineapple until well blended. Pour into prepared pan.
  4. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes until center springs back when pressed with fingertip. (Center will sink slightly as it cools.)
  5. Cool completely, then frost with Cream Cheese Frosting (see below).
  6. Store in refrigerator.
  7. Serves 10 to 12 people

Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat 2 packages (8 ounces each) of cream cheese, 1/3 cup sifted confectioners sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Spread on top of cooled cake.

Grandma Howe's Peanut Butter Balls

Thanks to Georgia Root

  • 2 cups peanut butter
  • 1 lb 10X sugar, sifted
  • 2 sticks butter, softened
  • 1 lb chocolate chips or wafers

Mix peanut butter, sugar & butter together. Melt chocolate in double boiler over low heat (don't allow water to boil).

Use a long-handled iced-tea spoon to form the mix into balls. Use a candle-dip (wire loop) to lower each ball into melted chocolate. Set coated ball on wax paper to dry.

Makes a LOT of finished peanut butter balls so you may want to scale back incredients (1/2 recipe, for example).

Grandma Howe's REFRIGERATOR KOLACHKI

Catherine Giolma

  • 4 to 6 cups flour
  • 1 lb. butter or margerine
  • 1 lb. cream cheese
  • dash of salt
  • confectioner's sugar

Cream the cheese and butter together. Add slat and gradually work in flour, about a third at a time. Wehn dough has consistency of a light pie crust and will not stick to fingers, shape into 5 balls, wrap in waxed paper, and set in the refrigerator 6 hours or overnight.

Roll out a 1/2" ball of dough at a time on sifted confectioner's sugar, keeping the remaining dough in the refrigerator. Cut into desired shapes and fill with cooked nut filling. (I make them like yelly rolls and cut to size after rolling.) Bake 15 to 20 mins. at 350 degrees until lightly brown.

NUT MEAT FILLING for Kolachki

  • 2 cups ground walnuts
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 egg yolks

Mix and cook for 5 mins - cool and spread (this will keep in refrigerator for weeks).

Grandma Howe's Bread and Butter Pickles

Farm - to - Market to Home II

Northminister Presbyterian Church

Endwell, NY

  • 2 (full) qt. sliced medium cucumbers
  • 3 medium white onions, sliced
  • 1 1/2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
  • 1/4 c. salt
  • 2 1/2 c. white sugar
  • 1 1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
  • 3/4 tsp. turmeric
  • 3/4 tsp. celery seed
  • 1 tsp. mustard seed

Do not pare cukes. Slice 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Add onions and garlic to slices of cukes. Mix together; add salt over this and cover with cracked ice. Mix thoroughly. Let stand 3 hours. Drain well.

Combine remaining ingredients. Pour over cuke mixture. Heat just to a boil. Pack in clean, hot jars to within 1/2 inch of top, making sure vinegar solution covers vegetables. Cap each jar at once. Process 5 minutes in boiling water bath. Makes for pints.

Betty Holdsworth

Grandma Howe's Best-Ever Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

This Better Homes and Gardens recipe can be found here.

Pie Tips:

  • Buying a crust is a lot easier than making one

Grandma Howe's Perfect Rhubarb Pie

This Taste of Home recipe can be found here.

Grandma Howe's Pie Toppings

Grandma Howe gave me these recipes specifically for the toppings (not the whole dessert). She likes to mix and match pies and toppings.

... rest of dessert recipe

Topping

  • 3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces
  1. To prepare topping, in a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, flour, and nutmeg. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut butter into brown sugar mixture until coarse crumbs form. Sprinkle apples evenly with topping.

Grandma Howe's Potica

This is such an important and large recipe that I put it in its own blog post.

Nai Nai's Pork Shoulder

Jenny's mom Julie was taught this recipe from a Puerto-Rican friend.

Sofrito

  • 1 green bell pepper
  • 1 onion
  • 1 head of cilantro
  • 1 whole head of garlic
  • a whole bunch of olive oil

Emulsify everything with olive oil. You'll know it's enough when it's a beautiful bright green

Pork

Stab pork, shoulder multiple times and insert cloves of garlic (a whole head, as much as you can).

Rub down with Adobo powder and rub down with Saizon and rub down with Sofrito from steps above.

Put in oven bag and bake for an hour at 350 in instant pot / oven.

adobo

sazon