Mock Toffee

I have heard these called many things Christmas Crack, Christmas Cracker Cookies, Mock Toffee etc. I prefer Mock Toffee because this is something I don't make just at Christmas time because it is awesome and super easy to make!

Caution: 
Be very careful when handling the boiling sugar and when removing from the oven. And, these are killer on your waist line!

They are so yummy, crunchy, buttery, chocolately goodness! 

Ingredients:

• 1 & 1/2 cups unsalted butter (3 sticks)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 27 saltine crackers 

optional ingredients:
(for topping)

Almonds

Walnuts

Peanuts

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Butter a large sized glass casserole dish very well. Lay a flat layer of crackers out on the foil. Melt the sugar and butter until a boil is reached. 

Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5-6 minutes or until mixture is thickened and sugar is completely dissolved. Pour the sugar/butter carefully into the glass baking dish. Place crackers in rows ontop of the sugar/butter mix than gently push them into the sugar by using a utensil (I used a wooden spoon handle)

Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the toffee becomes bubbly. Carefully remove from oven and sprinkle on the chocolate chips, let them soften and melt, and then spread them into an even layer. 

At this point you can add crushed nuts or not. 

Refrigerate for 2 hours to speed up the hardening process. After completely cool and hardened break into small pieces or use a sharp ended metal spatula or knife to cut into square pieces. 

You can also use a cookie sheet lined with tinfoil and buttered heavily and use more crackers (upto 40 or so) but, your butter/sugar part will be thinner and for safety purposes I decided a taller glass baking dish would be easier to handle. 

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Spicy Ranch Crackers

These Spicy Ranch Crackers are so yummy and not too spicy at least to my liking but, I love spicy foods!

They are so easy to make and with dirt cheap ingredients you can't go wrong!

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup cooking oil (Canola, Vegetable etc)
• 1 packet Ranch Dressing mix
• 2 Tbsp red pepper flakes 
• 4 sleeves of Saltine crackers 

Place all the crackers in a large mixing bowl, pour oil over top and using your hands to mix up the crackers and oil coat the crackers entirely with the oil. Sprinkle on the Ranch mix and red pepper flakes and again mix with your hands to coat the oiled crackers with the dry mixture. 

Place crackers on an ungreased cookie sheet making sure not to over lap them and bake at 250* for 20 minutes. 

It did take about 2 & 1/2 trays worth to get these all done but, it was well worth it! This makes a ton of crackers!

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Ham & Cheese Spread

This is a little recipe I made up several years ago to take to a company dinner and it was a big hit. 

My hubby loves this and asked me to make it so I thought I'd share the recipe here. This recipe makes a ton of spread so its great for large crowds or a very hungry husband.

It is great served on veggie crackers, celery sticks, carrot sticks, chips or used as a sandwich spread.

Ingredients:

• 2 8oz packages cream cheese
• 1 16 oz package cooked chopped ham
• 1/2 finely chopped onion 
• 2 Cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 16 oz bottle Ranch salad dressing

Ingredient Suggestions:

- I use Farmland cooked fine chopped ham
- I have also in the past used sliced deli ham and chopped it myself
- cooked crisp bacon crumbles is also great in this as a substitute for the ham

- Green onions are also great to use in this and adds a bit of color

- Wild onion greens if available are fantastic!

Directions:

Cube cream cheese to make it easier to work with and place in medium/large mixing bowl.
Add ham, onion, cheddar cheese and depending on how thick you want your spread to be you might start with 1/2 the bottle of dressing and just keep working a little in until you get the desired thickness. Keep in mind once refrigerated it does thicken up and becomes more solid. 

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Depression Cooking

*Update*
I am very sad to learn that on November 29, 2013 Clara passed away. She will be greatly missed.

I wanted to share with my readers a vlog that I have been following on YouTube for quite a long time.

Clara reminds me so much of my great-grandma Ramona and the way she would cook. I have learned many things from my little granny as well as Clara.

My little granny would've been 99 this year but, passed away when she was 92.
This is a picture of my granny and myself years ago in my room at my parents house (Yes, that is a Hanson poster on the wall.. don't hate!). I was putting makeup on her and doing her hair. She had the most beautiful smooth skin.
In the near future I plan on featuring some of my granny's recipes including Enchiladas and Tamales.

Even in her last days my granny was always a beauty. In this picture I can see the face of my mother as well as myself. And, its odd how many of her traits and personality trickled down the generations to my mother, my sister and myself.

While Clara is Italian her cooking style is much like what my granny's was but granny was Mexican.
As of December 24th Clara will no longer be making Depression Cooking videos. While I am sad to see her go, at 96 years old as Clara says "I'm pretty damn old!" I just love her and wish her good health and many years to come!
Click the links below for more on Clara's videos, cookbook & DVD's.
Clara's Depression Cooking YouTube Channel
Clara's website - DepressionCooking.com

Indian Taco's

Being of  "Native American" decent (as well as a bunch of other things) particularly Mvskoke Creek & Cherokee.. I love me some fry bread and some Indian Taco's. 

Go ahead.. call us "Indian's" if you will.. most of us don't care. 

With that being said.. I like to consider myself a Fry Bread Babe cause I am round, brown and yummy!

There is history behind fry bread and I think after you know the history of it, you learn to appreciate it more. It comes with a story of great pain and suffering of Native people.
Theres really no easy way to put it but, as most people know during the 1800's Indians were slaughtered, their lands stolen, women were raped, children were taken and were treated as animals.
Natives were removed from their home territories and placed in camps that were over crowded and supplies were meager. 

The government rationed supplies of lard, flour, salt, sugar, baking powder or yeast and powered milk were usually rancid.
Fry bread came from these few ingredients to keep the people alive during their captivity. To some Fry Bread is a sacred tradition and it is said that it is to be  consumed by the people until the earth has again become purified. 

If you Google search for "Fry Bread Recipe" you will only find a bazillion different versions and some will just leave you scratching your head.... think about it - if you are looking for something more on the "authentic" side go for the recipes with the least ingredients. 

But, anyhoo here's the recipe I use:

Fry Bread:

1 cup unbleached flour
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 teaspoon powdered milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup water
Vegetable oil for frying
Extra flour to flour your hands and for your surface.

Sift together the flour, salt, powdered milk, and baking powder into a large bowl. Pour the water over the flour mixture all at once and stir the dough with a fork until it starts to form one big clump. Flour your hands well. Using your hands, begin to mix the dough, trying to get all the flour into the mixture to form a ball. You want to mix this well, but you do NOT want to knead it. Kneading it will make for a heavy Fry Bread when cooked. The inside of the dough ball should still be sticky after it is formed, while the outside will be well floured.
Cut the dough into four (4) pieces. Using your floured hands, shape, stretch, pat, and form a disk of about 5 to 7 inches in diameter.  Don’t worry about it being round.
In a deep heavy pot, heat the vegetable oil to about 350 degrees F. You can check if you oil is hot enough by either dropping a small piece of dough in the hot oil and seeing if it begins to fry, or by dipping the end of a wooden spoon in and seeing if that bubbles. Your oil should be about 1-inch deep in a large skillet or other large heavy pot. Take the formed dough and gently place it into the oil, being careful not to splatter the hot oil. Press down on the dough as it fries so the top is submersed into the hot oil. Fry until lightly browned, and then flip to fry the other side. Each side will take approximately 3 to 4 minutes to cook.  Place the cooked Fry Bread on a paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Now for your Indian Taco filling & topping. 

Everybody is different on what they like to use for their filling and toppings. I myself like to keep it easy and simple. Remember the old saying.. K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple, stupid!) 

Brown 1-2 pounds of hamburger (depending on how many people you are feeding), drain and add 2 cans of chilli with beans per 1 pound of hamburger as well as 1 pkg of taco seasoning per 1 pounds of hamburger. Now don't go getting some nasty canned chilli like that Wolf brand that my Dad used to buy.. I wouldn't feed that stuff to dogs! Get some Hormel or even Walmart brand is better then Wolf. Or, if you are like me you might have some leftover homemade chilli in your freezer so, use that! 

So, that takes care of your filling.. now for the toppings!

Everybody has their own preferences on toppings...just think whatever you like on regular tacos is good on Indian Tacos.  I for one like the whole sha-bang! 

• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Jalapenos
• Taco Sauce, Picante Sauce or Salsa
• Onions 
• Cheese
• Sour Cream

Maple Buttercrumb Muffins

 

These little gems of crunchy mapley goodness are super easy and quick to make.

The crunchy crumb topping is the crown jewel to the soft cakey muffins.

This recipe will yield 12 muffins that are particularly yummy while still warm. 

• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons imitation maple flavor or maple extract
  (or could substitute vanilla extract) 
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
  (or pecans)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

Topping: 

• 1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
  (or pecans)
• 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Heat oven to 400* F.

Grease two 6 cup muffin pans or one 12 cup muffin pan or line with paper baking cups. 

Mix oats, milk, brown sugar and maple flavoring/extract in a large bowl; 

let stand for 5 minutes to allow oats to soften.

Add butter and egg; blend well. Stir in remaining ingredients just until moistened.

Divide batter evenly among muffin cups filling two-thirds full... the topping will be added later. 

Bake  for 10 minutes at 400* F and while baking prepare your topping. 

In a small-medium mixing bowl mix together the flour, brown sugar, oats, maple syrup, nuts and melted butter 

after allowing the muffins to bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and top each muffin with roughly 1 rounded tablespoon of the topping mixture and spread evenly atop each muffin. 

Return muffins to oven for an additional 10 minutes. 

Remove from oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes. 

Remove muffins from pan and allow to finish cooling on wire cooling rack. 

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Tips & Suggestions:
To make dividing the muffin batter easier use an ice cream scooper.
Add craisins (dried cranberries), raisins or other dried fruits for an even healthier snack!

SG's Homemade chicken noodle & veggie soup

This isn't really a "recipe" of sorts. Its one of those "little bit of this - little bit of that" kind of recipes. 

But, I will try to guide you along as best as I can.

Ingredients:

• Whole fryer chicken (fresh or thawed)
• Knorr Caldo Con Sabor de Pollo (Knorr brand chicken flavor bouillon) (to taste.. I start off with about 4 tablespoons than gradually add more as needed until desired flavor/level of salty-ness.  

I swear by the Knorr brand as I have tried many others and it just wasn't the same. I use this any time I need a chicken base or bouillon and it makes a nice warm cup of chicken broth to sip when you are under the weather also!  It is available on your ethnic (hispanic-asian) isle of your local grocery store. 

• Garlic Powder (to taste)
• Black Pepper (to taste)
• Noodles of some kind 

I prefer Fideo style noodles as they are teeny weeny little noodles that literally only take 5 minutes to cook. 

• 2 regular size cream of chicken or cream of celery soup 
• Carrots chopped finely
• Celery chopped finley
• Water

(My Sweet little mother-in-law helping in the kitchen chopping carrots.. mother in law yielding a knife.. this could get scary.. LOL just kidding!) 

You will need a large stock pot to boil your chicken in. Place your chicken in the stock pot and fill with water to just cover the chicken. For a 4-5 pound chicken it will take about 1 hour at a rolling boil to completely cook. After chicken is finished boiling remove from heat and carefully remove chicken from stock pot using meat forks. Save the broth that you cooked the chicken in.. strain out the undesirables (bones, skin etc) and place back into stock pot along with your cream soups, celery, carrots 

I would've posted pictures of the chicken being "plucked" but, its really not a pretty picture.. poor little birdy. 

After chicken has been cleaned from the bones, skin & fat removed shred or chop your chicken meat and place into stock pot along with soups & veggies and allow to cook until veggies are tender but not over-done. At this time you will add your noodles and allow to boil uncovered, remember if using Fideo noodles in particular you only need to cook them 5 minutes or sometimes less. Thicker noodles will of course need to be cooked longer so please read instructions on the noodle packaging for cooking times. 

This will make a ton of soup so take advantage of that and start stockpiling your freezer or take some to your neighbor!


Like Paula Deen says.. this will make your tongue slap your brains out! 

English Muffin Bread

This is now the second time I have made this recipe. The first time I used 6 cups of self-rising flour in the place of the all-purp + baking soda. The first time they turned out pretty good but, didn't rise very well. This second batch was much better. 

6 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 packages active dry yeast
2 cups milk
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Cornmeal (not cornbread mix)

Crisco/Shortening
Directions:

• Grease two 8x4x2-inch loaf pans with Shortening. (I have always preferred using glass baking dishes so these were baked in glass loaf pans). Lightly sprinkle pans with cornmeal to coat bottom and sides; set pans aside.

• In a large mixing bowl combine 3 cups of the flour, the yeast, and baking soda; set aside. In a medium saucepan heat and stir milk, water, sugar, and salt just until warm (120 degree F to 130 degree F). Using a wooden spoon, stir milk mixture into flour mixture. Stir in remaining flour. Keep in mind that dough will be very sticky and that is how it is supposed to be. 

• Divide dough in half. Place dough in prepared pans. Sprinkle tops with cornmeal. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size (about 45 minutes).

• Bake in a 400 degree F oven about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove bread from pans. Cool on wire racks. Slice, toast and top with butter, cream cheese, honey or whatever you like.
  
  I like to keep mine wrapped in tinfoil in the refrigerator as it will keep longer. 

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