Dad Cooks!

While Mom and I have been hard at work designing and sewing up projects for the book I'm writing, Dad has been keeping us fed in grand style. We can't show off the projects yet, but we can show you one of Dad's casseroles.



He got the recipe from his favorite cookbook, Taste of Home's Contest Winning Recipes, 2004. Before Mom had shoulder surgery last year, Dad read through nearly every recipe she has, looking for things he could make while she was out of commission. He made lists, shopped, and cooked up a storm. Baked pies from scratch and everything. Still does, once in a while.

Anyway, here's his recipe for Cajun Cabbage Casserole. We finished everything in the nick of time, so we should be back with something interesting to show you on Friday.

1 lb. ground beef
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (10 ounces) diced tomatoes and green chilies (Rotel)
1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
½ c uncooked long grain rice
1 t salt
½ t dried basil
½ t dried oregano
¼ to ½ teaspoon each white, black and cayenne pepper (Dad stays on the low end of the range)
4 to 6 drops hot pepper sauce (Dad usually leaves this out, depending on whether he expects anyone with a sensitive stomach in the dinner crowd)
1 small head of cabbage
1 c shredded Colby cheese

In a skillet, brown beef, green pepper, onion and garlic. Drain. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, rice and seasonings.

Spread in an ungreased 9 x 13 baking dish. Top with cabbage and cheese. Cover and bake at 350° for 65 to 75 minutes or until the rice is tender.

CreamPuff Tree

Wowsers. It's been a long time. Sorry we've been away so long. I (Jerri) went off to Minnesota for a week with Katie and we've been all out of kilter since I got back. Anyway, we've missed you all.

Last Sunday we had a wedding party in at the salon. You know, all the members of a wedding came in to get their hair, nails and make up done. When that happens, we serve pretty food and mimosas. 

One of our favorite quick-but-pretty things for these events is a cream puff tree. No cooking, just a bit of assembly and you've got an edible centerpiece. 

You need a styrofoam cone, frozen cream puffs (we get them at Costco), strawberries, and white chocolate candy coating. A little powdered sugar is nice. Start by wrapping the cone with plastic wrap. (That way we can reuse the cone. It just seems cleaner, too.) 

We forgot this time, but usually we melt the chocolate and put a little pool in the center of the serving dish. Set the cone on top and let the chocolate cool. The hardened chocolate anchors the cone to the dish. Starting at the bottom, use toothpicks to anchor puffs in a circle.

Add strawberries here and there as you move up the cone.

Drizzle the puffs with white chocolate. We usually just use a spoon, but Mom has a new icing decorator thing, and we tried that. Didn't work that great, really. The chocolate cooled too quickly and clogged the tube. Next time we're going to try buttercream frosting.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar and you're done!

You can see we've got a few holes in this one. It was a small wedding party and Dad wanted us to save him some cream puffs, so we left the holes. For larger groups, we put the puffs closer together. Sometimes we fill any holes with silk flowers, which is pretty. 

We'll be back on Friday with some sneak peeks at what we've been working on lately. See you then!

Food O' the Irish

(Jerri here) Nancy, my brother's wife, drove up from Springfield to spend the day with us. We finished a baby quilt for her great-niece-to-be and had a wonderful time. For lunch, we had corned beef and cabbage.

Like most people, we think of corned beef and cabbage as traditional Irish food. My sister, who spent two weeks in Ireland recently, reports there was hardly any to be found.  No matter. Irish or not, it's delicious. Grab your shillelaghs and give the Blarney stone a smooch. Let's get cooking!

Start by washing the corned beef with cool water.

Put it in a Dutch oven and cover it with water. Slice one onion and add it to the pot, along with 2 T of Penzey's Corned Beef Seasoning. Bring the water to a boil and let it cook for 10 minutes. Turn down the burner and let the meat simmer for an hour per pound of meat.

When the meat is almost ready, it's time to prepare your vegetables.

Today we used small red potatoes, so we didn't peel them. All you have to do with those is wash them well and cut off any spots that look suspicious. Then cut them into medium-sized chunks. Scrape the carrots and cut them into good-sized chunks. Wash the cabbage and cut it into quarters. Cut out the cores.


Finally, cut each wedge in half.


When the meat is ready, remove it from the pan and put in the potatoes and carrots. Simmer for about 10 minutes, and then add the cabbage. Check after 10 minutes. You want the potatoes and carrots to be tender when you poke them with a fork, but not mushy. Do be careful. If you cook the cabbage too long, it makes your house smell and your stomach hurt.

While your veggies are cooking, put the finishing touches on the corned beef. First, scrape away as much fat as you can from the surface of the meat.

Next, spread a goodly amount of yellow mustard on top.


Combine 1/2 c brown sugar with 1/2 t of ground cloves and sprinkle it over the mustard.


Put the corned beef into the oven at 350° and let it cook until the sugar is melted and bubbly.


Meanwhile, your veggies should be done. Remove them from the pan, using a slotted spoon. They should look something like this:
Now all you need to do is slice the corned beef--across the grain--and serve it immediately. Oh--you'll also need to sit back and enjoy the compliments coming your way!
Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone. 

Bavarian Apple Torte

We made this torte for Quilt Night on Tuesday. Everyone really liked it, so we thought we'd share.


Here's how it's made.

Beat one stick of butter and 1/3 cup sugar in a small bowl at medium speed with an electric mixer, until fluffy. Gradually add 1 1/3 c flour. Beat just until the mixture is blended.



Stir in 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla. (Be sure to use good vanilla. Nothing ruins baked goods like poor-quality vanilla.) The mixture will be slightly crumbly.


Press the dough into the bottom and 1 1/2 inches up the sides of a slightly greased 9 inch spring form pan.


Now you're ready to make the filling. Beat the cream cheese and 1/4 cup sugar at medium speed until the mixture is smooth.


Add an egg and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Beat well.


Spread this filling evenly over the pastry you put into the springform pan.


Peel and slice the apples.


Combine 1/3 cup sugar and 1/2 t cinnamon. Add to the apples and toss lightly.


Arrange apple slices over cream cheese mixture.


Sprinkle with almonds. (The recipe says 1/4 cup, but we used more. They're so pretty!)

Bake at 400 for 40 minutes. Cool on wire rack; remove sides of pan.


Mama says: If you're going to do all this baking, you need to keep your oven clean. I'm fortunate enough to have a self-cleaning oven, but even with it, you have to keep the racks clean.

Here's my tip for the day.

To clean your oven racks, put them in a container big enough to cover them with water. (I use the bathtub!) Add the hottest water you have available and a goodly measure of Tide laundry detergent. When the water is cool enough to comfortably put your hands in, you should be able to just wash everything off the racks. You might need an SOS pad on some stubborn spots, but there's no need to use oven cleaner or any of the rest of that messy, smelly stuff.

Here's the full recipe for the torte:

Bavarian Apple Torte

½ c butter
1/3 c sugar
1 1/3 c all-purpose flour
¼ t vanilla
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
¼ c sugar
1 large egg
½ t vanilla
1/3 c sugar
½ t cinnamon
3 large Granny Smith apple ( 4 cups)
¼ c sliced almonds

Beat butter and 1/3 cup sugar in a small bowl at medium speed with an electric mixer, until fluffy. Gradually add flour, beating until mixture is blended. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon vanilla. Mixture will be slightly crumbly. Press pastry into bottom and 1 1/2 inches up sides of slightly greased 9 inch spring form pan.

Beat cream cheese and 1/4 cup sugar at medium speed until smooth; add egg and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, beating well. Spread filling evenly over pastry.

Combine 1/3 cup sugar, cinnamon, and apples, tossing lightly. Arrange apple lices over cream cheese mixture; sprinkle with almonds. Serve warm or chilled. Top with creme fraiche, sour cream or ice cream.

Dilly Bread

(Mama here) We baked bread this afternoon. I had some meatloaf left over from dinner last night, and there really is nothing better than meatloaf sandwiches with this bread.


Dilly Bread

2 ½ c flour
2 T sugar
1 T instant minced onion
2 t dill seed
1¼ t salt
¼ t soda
1 package yeast (2 1/4 t)
1 cup cottage cheese
¼ c water
1 T butter
1 large egg

In a large mixing bowl, combine one cup of the flour and all the sugar, onion, dill seed, salt, soda and yeast.


My yeast was a little past its prime, so I "proofed" it. That's just another way of saying I checked to make sure the yeast was still alive and would help the dough rise. To proof yeast, you add a teaspoon to about a quarter of a cup of warm water (about 110 to 115°). Add a teaspoon or so of sugar and mix. Wait five or ten minutes. If the yeast is good, it will foam up and get puffy looking, like this:



In a saucepan, combine the cottage cheese, water and butter. Heat until the mixture is warm. (I use a thermometer to test it and try to get it around 115°.)


Add the egg and the warm liquid to the flour mixture.




Blend at your mixer's lowest speed until the ingredients are moistened. Scrape down the bowl, then beat 3 more minutes at medium speed.


Stir in remaining flour to form a stiff dough. (The recipe says to do this by hand, but I use the dough hook on my mixer. It works fine.) Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place until light and doubled in size. This will take about one hour.

(I like to put the dough in a container like an ice cream bucket or even this cream puff bucket, whatever I've got handy. The key is to use something with a nice lid.)


Stir down the dough and turn it into a well-greased 2-quart casserole. Cover the dish and let rise in warm place until light, 30 to 45 minutes. This shows you how the dough looked at the beginning. I wanted you to see how much the dough has to rise. See that little black line on the side of the dish? That's where the dough has to get before you bake it.


This is what the dough will look like when it's ready to bake. You can barely see my black line, but if you look closely you can tell how much higher the dough is in the pan.


Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown. When you take it out of the oven, brush the top with butter and sprinkle with kosher salt on it.


Let the bread cool on a wire rack. Slice and enjoy!