A vintage recipe...

This afternoon I was surfing the net looking for ...what else good recipes when I came across this one on my favorite recipe site.  This is very similar if not the same recipe I made for my family when I was in high school O'so many years ago.  My 5 brothers devoured it in no time and my mother was pleasantly surprised it didn't taste like a peanut butter cookie. It is a moist cake and the peanut butter flavor is not over whelming.  The frosting is very good too, but if my memory serves me the frosting I made back then was a cooked frosting and not as sweet.  If you are looking for something different to take to a potluck or just to serve at home, give this a try, I don't think you will be disappointed.  Also I used 2-8 inch pans as suggested in the recipe, but I feel like I could have used 2 9 inch or perhaps even 3-8 inch (double the frosting if you do that).

Superbowl Peanut Butter Cake

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE:

½ cups Margarine Or Butter

1-⅓ cup Sugar

¼ cups Peanut Butter

1 teaspoon Vanilla

2 whole Eggs

2 cups All-purpose Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Salt

1 cup Milk

FOR THE FROSTING:

Allison but Chocolate syrup on her's.

¼ cups Margarine Or Butter

¼ cups Peanut Butter

1 teaspoon Vanilla

½ teaspoons Salt

2-½ cups Powdered Sugar

3 Tablespoons Milk

Preparation Instructions

For the cake:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream the butter with the sugar. Add the peanut butter, vanilla, eggs and beat well.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and then beat it into the creamed mixture adding it alternately with the milk.

Pour into 2 prepared 8-inch round cake pans.

Bake in the 350F oven for 35–40 minutes until just golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Take care not to over bake!

Cool on a wire rack.

For the frosting:

Cream together the margarine/butter, peanut butter, vanilla and salt. Beat well. Add powdered sugar alternately with the milk until it reaches spreading consistency. Spread on the cooled cake

Hear my prayer...

Last week was a very busy week for me.  The Christus House Clinic had a lot going on, 3 clinic days, one doctor out, one soon to be out, and a new Family Nurse Practitioner has joined our staff at least for the summer, but we are all hoping her stay will be a long one.  All of this means that schedules must be revamped and phone calls to the patient to reschedule them to a different doctor or a different day. On top of that we had 20 new patients scheduled for first visits.  I have been spending about 40 hours a week at the clinic, trying to keep up with the work that needs to be done before we open the doors for a clinic day and the work that has to get done after a clinic day.  We are in desperate need of volunteers.  We are in need of, especially nurses, doctors, and phlebotomists, But that is not to say you can't help if you don't know anything about the medical field. If you know the alphabet and can file, if you can help us with our old computers, if you can make copies, if you can take a sample of a chart and duplicate it 30-50 times...WE NEED YOU!  even if you can only give 1 day a month, more would be awesome, but 1 would gratefully appreciated.

I have been the recipient of some wonderful fresh veggies, slicing and cherry tomatoes, purple hull peas, and some peppers.  Thursday I blanched the peas, yesterday I boiled some of the tomatoes that were still green with some garlic and jalapenos. Then I pureed it but it in 1 cup size freezer bags then but it in the freezer.  This is a part of a green salsa recipe  (6th recipe down) I love with Mexican food (there are a couple of Mexican restaurants that serve it with their chips).  I just but a bunch of the cherry tomato in the oven to pan roast them, so I can use them in soups and casserole later in the year.  I found this recipe on-line, (somewhere?).  All you do is wash and dry your tomatoes, put them on a foil lined 1 inch deep cookie sheet, sprinkle them with olive oil, salt throw in a couple of cloves of garlic, (I would have used a whole pod but I didn't have one), preheat the oven to 250 degrees cook for about 3 hours.  When they are almost completely shriveled up allow them to cool, place in freezer containers top with a little more olive oil and freeze.  I still have about a pint of cherry tomatoes and about 8 ripening slicing tomatoes on the counter.

Bar-B-Q Chicken....

On the menu for today is bar-b-Que Chicken using a sauce recipe that allegedly my uncle Tracy bought from Savannah Bar-B-Que restaurant, one that Paula Deen eats at occasionally and has used a couple of times for a show of hers.  It is my favorite recipe fixed as is, but it is also good with a few alterations.  This time of the year a full recipe is a good idea, because it keeps well and like a good wine it gets better with a little age, but frequently I will cut the recipe in half.

Bar-B-Que Sauce     
42 oz   Catsup

8   oz   Mustard

1   pt  Vinegar

1/4 C  Worcestershire sauce

2  T   Lemon Juice

1 1/2  t  Sugar

1  T  Salt

2  T  Black pepper

1/8 t or more  Crushed Red Pepper to taste

1 stick  Oleo

Mix all ingredients (except for peppers and oleo) in a larger sauce pan. 

Mix well.  When heated add peppers and oleo. Cook until oleo is blended.

Allow to cool and pour into jars.  (I use Catsup bottles) Refrigerate.

Note:  add 1/2 C of brown sugar(or more), if you like your sauce on the sweet side

              1/4 C liquid smoke in the winter when it's to bad outside to grill

              an aversion to heat leave out the red pepper and maybe some of the black

              

I put my chicken in a salt and sugar brine last might. I don't like dry chicken.  Just before it goes on the grill I will give the chicken a good sprinkling of lemon pepper and about 15 minutes before the chicken is done I will slather on the BBQ sauce until it is ready to serve.  As you can see by the picture above I also made some No-Knead French Bread (3rd. recipe down).

The sides for this will be cold slaw and Butter Sauteed Corn.  The slaw is already made and in the fridge.  I have no "recipe" for this, so here is what I usually do.  Buy a bag of shredded cabbage with carrots, a small can of crushed pineapple.  Drain the pineapple saving the juice, dump the drained pineapple on top of the cabbage that is in a large bowl, start dropping in the mayonnaise (I don't like salad dressing, but if you do...) a heaping spoonful at a time, drizzle in a little of the pineapple juice, stirring well as you go when it looks, and taste right, sprinkle in a little celery seed.  But this time I had the bright idea to use some cream cheese.  So I let the cream cheese come to room temperature then I whipped in some mayonnaise, some pineapple juice and the celery seed until it looked and tasted right, then I stirred that into the cabbage and pineapple. Refrigerate until time to serve.
For the corn, just put about a 1/2 a stick of butter in a skillet when it meltes add a couple of tablespoons of chopped pimento, toss in a couple of cans of corn that have been drained or you can use frozen corn.  Add a little chopped onion, (I used the dried chopped)and some salt and pepper.  I would have added some chopped bell pepper but I was out. Saute all of this till the corn has been "pan roasted".  This tasted almost as good as fresh corn on the cob.

As a treat for desert I made some cupcakes...are you surprised?  This recipe I found on my favorite recipe website, but of course I had to make a few little changes.  I took Golden Oreo Vanilla Cupcakes and changed it to Oreo Cupcakes, by using a chocolate cake mix and Chocolate Oreos.  Don't you think lemon would be awesome, or peanut butter....I tried to cut one in half to show the cookie on the bottom like on the website, but I made a mess and had to eat the cupcake...Oh darn....

A Friday night memory from long ago...

Being raised in a Catholic home so many years ago, on Friday the main course was always fish, at school (even though I  did not go to a Catholic school) and at home.  One of my favorite seafoods was and still is shrimp.  Mother, being a Georgia peach from Savannah knew so many wonderful ways to prepare shrimp as well as other seafoods.  This was one of her go to meals when she was in a hurry or needed to stretch the main course to feed my 5 hungry brothers, daddy, herself and me.  You can always add another cup of rice. Add a salad and some bread and you have a grand meal in a little bit of time, with minimal effort.

Mama's Shrimp and Rice
3 T butter
1 med. Onion minced
1 chopped Bell pepper/green pepper
1 clove minced Garlic
1/4 C chopped pimento
1/2 C sliced  mushrooms
1 C Rice uncooked
1 lb Shrimp cleaned and divined
1 t salt
1 Bay leaf
2 C Water
Saute onion, pepper, garlic, mushrooms, pimento in butter till tender and transparent.

Add remaining ingredients except for the shrimp.

Cover and cook on low heat about 30 minutes, Add the shrimp for the last 5 minutes

A menu worth repeating...with a couple of changes

Sunday "dinner" is going to be hamburgers, a repeat of the Friday night at the family reunion, only this time I think I will try making my own buns (I didn't get to the Bread Store) and I think I will make potato salad and some deviled eggs instead of the beans and some Chocolate-Chocolate and Butterscotch Chip Moonpies.  Just in case I didn't post team 1's Friday night menu at the reunion, it was: hamburgers with brown sugar bacon (recipe below) , pepper jack and/or American cheese, avocados, and of course all the regular trimmings  like lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and mustard and/or mayo.  We also had Crock Pot Baked Beans  (recipe below) with onions baked in and brown sugar bacon crumbled on top.  Sorry no pictures of that, but I'll do my best to capture a few of this meal.
Crock Pot Baked Beans
2 cans Pork and Beans drain off as much of that juice as you can if you want thick, not runny beans
1/2 C Catsup
1/4 C Mustard
1 T Liquid smoke
1/4 C Brer Rabbit syrup (not that watery runny stuff) I like full cane flavor (some use brown sugar)
**1/3 C bacon grease melted (see note)
Onions peeled and depending on the size left whole, halved or quartered
Brown Sugar bacon, crumbled  (recipe to follow)
Place well drained beans in your crock pot set on low heat.   From here on out it's totally a matter of taste, I have never measured anything in this recipe ever, so the measurements above are no more than educated guesses and too, ti also depends on how many cans of beans you are using.  Stir together all the ingredients except for the onions and the bacon, taste and adjust to your liking.  submerge the onions in the beans and allow to cook for at least 4 hours.  When ready to serve top with crumbled bacon
**Note:   you can do this same recipe in a casserole dish, in the oven at 350 degrees for about a hour, except I usually just lay several strips of bacon on top of the beans before I bake them and don't add the bacon grease
Brown Sugar Bacon
Preheat oven to 400 deg.  Lay bacon on a metal rack that fits over a 1 inch deep cookie sheet or use a broiler pan, so the fat can drain away from the bacon.  Sprinkle brown sugar over the top of the bacon to form a thin layer (you don't want it too sweet).  Place in the oven for about 20 minutes, but keep a close eye on it cause one minute it will be almost done and the next, it will be burnt.  Blot the top of the bacon with a paper towel to remove  the  excess bacon grease on top of the bacon.  Great on Hamburgers, BLT's on top of beans as well as all by itself.

Mari Ann's burger

My potato salad is another recipe I can't put on Tasty Kitchen...I don't measure, I just dump and mix till it taste good.  This is what I usually do.
Here are some pictures of the burgers we made today.

Allison's burger

A full plate

Sara's burger

Potato Salad   
4  Potatoes chopped and cooked to fork tender
Hard boiled eggs about 4 - 6
Onion chopped about 1/4 C
Celery chopped about 1/2 C (out of celery use celery seed but don't use to much)
Pickle chopped about 1/3 C (I prefer sweet, but some prefer dill)
Mustard 2 - 3 T

Yes, it is a black olive...

Mayo start with 1/2 C then add till it reaches your desired consistency or taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Paprika

Optional:   I'm sure there is alot more out there that would be really good in potato salad but these are my favorite optionals
Olives green (with/without pimento)

Black Olives

Pimentos

The following recipe for Home Made Hamburger Buns I found on the Tasty Kitchen web site as you probably figured I had to adapt the recipe alittle to match what I have in my pantry. Next time I think I just make 6 buns with this recipe....
Homemade Hamburger Buns
3 T Warm Milk
1 C Warm Water
2 t Yeast
2-½ T Sugar
1 whole Egg
3  1/2 C + 3 T Flour
1-½ t Salt
2-½ T Butter

• Preheat your oven to 400 deg.
• In a mixing bowl, combine your warm milk, warm water, yeast and sugar. Let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes or until your yeast is bubbly. 
• Add the egg and mix with the paddle attachment of your mixer on low speed until the egg has broken.
• Add the flours and salt and mix. Once the flours are mixed in, add the butter and mix for about 1 minute. 
• Switch to the dough hook and mix on low speed for about 5-7 minutes until the dough is slightly tacky. If it’s sticky, you’ll want to add more flour (1 tablespoon at a time) while it’s kneading.
• Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and let the rise for about an hour or until doubled in size.
• Once the dough has risen, divide it into 8 equal pieces and form each piece into a ball. Place each ball on a large sheet pan that has been lightly greased or lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Press down slightly on the ball because you want it to be wider rather than taller. 
• Let these proof for 30 minutes to an hour or until almost doubled.  
• Bake for about 15 min. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

The recipe below is an adaptation of 2 recipes, one I found on the Internet and the other I'm not sure, but it probably came off the Internet too.  But believe it or not neither came from Tasty Kitchen, what a shock, right...as stated in the recipe I accidentaly left out the baking soda.  I don't know for sure what the soda is suppose to do in a recipe and I will but it in the next time I make these, the taste tester (that's me) can't find one thing wrong with these cookie.  They are soft, chewy and delicious.  I used an ice cream scoop so they would be uniform in size, the small ones I baked for 8 minutes, the large 12.  I cut the marshmallows in half for the small, and left the whole for the large.
Chocolate-Chocolate & Butterscotch Chip Moon Pies
1/2 C (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 C butter flavor crisco
1 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C granulated sugar
1 sm pkg instant chocolate pudding
2 1/4 C flour
1/2 t baking soda (missed this the first time I did this)
1 t salt
2 t vanilla extract
2 large eggs at room temp
2 T hot milk with 1/2 t instant coffee dissolved in it
2 C (1 - 12oz pkg) chocolate chips
Optional:

1 C Butterscotch chips
Marshmallows to make moon pies 
Sea Salt for adult cookies sprinkle on top just prior to baking

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
• In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. 
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, Crisco and both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. 
• Reduce speed to low; add the pudding, salt, vanilla, eggs and the coffee/milk. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. 
• Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. 
• Stir in the chocolate chips.
• Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
• Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet at least 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store in an air tight container.

Last weekend was awesome...this weekend not much happening

Miss Kitty's on Lake Palestine

 I had a wonderful time last weekend with my brothers and their wives at our family reunion.  Dena (Jay's wife, he passed on several years back), Mike and Donna, Rachel and her new husband and 2 boys came by for a visit on Saturday, Billy Joe and Mari Ann their son Jimmy, Tommy and Kathleen,  Rusty and my daughter Mari Ann and her 2 girls, as well as Andy who may as well be a brother of mine and a new family friend Heather were all there.  I really missed the people that could not be there, my son and his family, Katie Sue, Amy and her family, Jason and his family along with other children, grandchildren of my brother's.  I do so hope and pray those that couldn't be here this year will make a special effort to be with us  at Huntsville State Lake, in the spring of 2013.  I'm hoping for March or April (perfect camping weather) we are going to, have to, work around my sea faring kin Tommy and Jimmy so they can be there.

You should have heard the roar as most of them arrived, 7 Harley Davidsons and a vintage cherry red Corvette as they rolled into the driveway... the sound of thunder comes to mind.  We shared alot of memories, fun, good food and love this weekend. Here are a few of the pictures that were taken.

Team 2 , Saturday night good eats.

Mari Ann, Shawn, Allison and Sara (behind the cup).

She wanted to ride soooo bad, but she's too little

Billy Joe, you better keep an eye on her!  She ready to ride...

Posing with their rides.

A little family game time...

This is going to be a nice quite weekend.  Nothing special on the agenda, just going to do what ever floats my boat so to speak.  I have already made a batch of cookies.  I found a recipe on Tasty Kitchen for Lemonade Cookies, that I wanted to try... I didn't have any lemon, but I did have 1 lime and 1 orange.  So I started cooking.  I made the cookie dough as directed except I did not put the juice or the peel in the dough until I had divided the dough in half, then I put the lime in 1 half of the dough and the orange in the other half,  Then I shaped the dough into logs on plastic wrap and but it in the refrig.  I was thinking I do this just for an hour or so to make the dough easier to slice and handle, but it turned into an over night cooling session.  This morning I got up and baked the cookies as directed and made the frosting.  As ususl I made a few changes in the recipe, the frosting calls for water and of course lemon juice, but since I don't have any lemon juice I made the frosting with milk,  and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Everything else I did the same, then I divided that in half (a little less than 1/2 C each) added some lime peel  and green food color to one and orange peel and I tried to make orange by using red and yellow food color (it's more peach colored than orange, but it looks OK). And they taste really good, hope the girls like them.

I'm planning on crockpoting a roast for Sunday Dinner, probably the A La Onion Soup recipe, with some mashed potatoes, some salad (got some lettuce that needs to be eaten and probably some rolls.  Wish ya'll could be here.

Sorry Mike,.....

I should have made this for our family reunion this weekend but I didn't even think about it...you should have said something... but here's my recipe...enjoy.

Pimento Cheese
1  lge bag  shredded Co-Jack cheese

1  lb  Very Sharp cheddar cheese shredded

1  lb   Rat Cheese shredded
8 oz  cream cheese at room temp
12 oz  Rotel Tomatoes  chopped drained (maybe 2 if you like the heat)
1- 4 oz  Green chilies chopped drained
Garlic cloves 2-4 finely chopped/grated
1 or 2  4 oz jars  Pimentos' chopped drained
Mayonnaise lots, buy a qt. jar just for this.
Optional items:
1-2 Green onion finely chopped optional
Scotch bonnet, serrano or jalapeno peppers (be careful  with  these, use just a little and wear gloves to seed and devaine) 

• I always start with a large bag of the shredded cheddar/Jack cheese, after that stroll the cheese isle looking for what sound good. All cheeses should be cold when you grate them, then allow to come to room temp before making the pimento cheese.  
• Mix all the ingredients together adding the mayo as you stir.  Use a little more mayo than you think is necessary, cause the cheese soaks it up and it will stiffen,  making it difficult to spread to spread after sitting in the fridge.  I think this is one of those recipes that "ripens" with  a little age, but anytime your ready, get out the Fritos and start dippin'.  Try it on a Ham sandwich or make a grill cheese or Panini....