February 1, 2010

Great-Grandma’s Date Cookies

Filed under: food — Tags: birthday, food — K @ 3:15 AM

My grandpa loves snacky foods, so that’s what we usually get him for Christmas, his birthday, and Father’s Day. My mom was flustered this Christmas because she didn’t have a chance to make grandpa’s favorite cookies. When I asked what recipe that was she told me that his mother used to make him date cookies and she has that recipe. Guess what he’s getting for his birthday today?

So, here’s the recipe for…

Great-Grandma’s Date Cookies

Cream:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup shortening (I used butter)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix:

2-1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Add this mixture to the above mix
It will now look like chocolate chip cookie dough without the chocolate chips!

Prepare dates:

Place 1 cup chopped dates in a bowl
Pour over 5 tablespoons boiling water
Let sit for a couple minutes
The dates will be much softer now
Drain off any excess water
Add to the above mix

Optional: Add in some nuts. Since my grandpa’s such a great guy and it’s his birthday, I added 1/2 cup chopped pecans. If I had it to do over again, I would have added 1 cup because they’re not very prominent in the finished cookies.

Bake:

350-degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown
These are a softer cookie – not crunchy.
I made mine a little big and it ended up yielding about 30 cookies

Note: I’ve had some blog issues the last few days and long story short, the photos will be posted as soon as I can figure out why they’re not posting! Got a few to post, but not all of them.

Thanks for visiting! If you’re interested in more recipes you can check out my food and recipes pages. If you want to know what I’ve been up to this week, visit my front page or subscribe via RSS!

I’m also participating in the following carnivals today! You can find many more fantastic recipes here:

Comments (18)

January 27, 2010

The Coupon Experiment

Filed under: saving money — Tags: discounts, food, health, saving money — K @ 1:47 AM

Something has been bothering me. I’m attracted to the real food movement and have been was making progress eating more real food. I try not to eat processed foods and have been limiting packaged powders. I was getting good at grocery shopping and finally staying either in or close to our budget. Then something happened. I’ve read quite a few blogger’s out there get their groceries for a little bit of nothing thanks to coupons and rebates and this intrigued me. I subscribed to the Sunday paper for $7 per month to get coupons. If it didn’t work out, I could easily cancel. Here’s how it went…

Week #1: Wow! I saved $10 on groceries! Crap – I just spent double our budget.

Week #2: Wow! I saved $13 on groceries! Crap – I just spent double our budget, again.

Week #3: Wow! I saved $16 on groceries! Crap – I just spent almost double our budget. The real food is disappearing from our cart

Week #4: Wow! I saved $30 on groceries and only went a little over budget! Cart filled with processed foods

At this point I feel like I fell into a trap. It’s winter in Iowa and there are no markets around here. The nearest grocer that sells a decent supply of locally grown meats and organic produce is one hour away. We need to save money and I actually ended up spending more, not just monetarily, but with our health as well. In the last month, even though we watched what we ate during the holidays, D and I have both gained weight. Our cabinets are getting more and more full, leading us to snack on, guess what, crap foods throughout the day. At this point, I feel stuffed and upset to my stomach. I blame the cereal and HFCS-laden white bread.

Week #5: Well, we’re stocked up on canned soups, fruits, and veggies. We also have plenty of powdered cake, pancake, and cupcake mixes as well as cereal. We did buy quite a bit more fresh produce than usual due to the store’s 80th anniversary sale. We ended up $5 under budget and saving 25% off of our total bill due to the coupons. Saving money makes D really happy.

I had worked out a system and kept a budget and was purchasing real food before all this couponing business. Now we’re so into clipping, we have a stockpile of “Q’s” that we can dig through and use without going over budget. I’m feeling much better this week and am thinking of a plan to get more good food back into the cupboards.

I have found that many whole food producers do actually have coupons! Many I can’t use around here, but my grocer does carry a few products. Some whole foods retailers give away copies of magazines that have coupons in them or even coupon books! I already have plans for a garden around our fire pit. I have some herbs, garlic, a grapevine, and rhubarb planted around the house – that was my first step last year ~ edible landscaping!. This year I’ll be adding some veggies and another grapevine.

See the next page to see how I’m going to save money on real food…

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Comments (6)

January 18, 2010

Sesame Turkey Recipe

Filed under: food — Tags: food, meal, saving money — K @ 3:07 PM

Yep, this recipe is delicious sesame goodness, only with turkey instead of chicken. There is a distinct turkey taste, but it’s good and an excellent, non-traditional way to use up leftover turkey!

We like to serve these with my newest discovery, cheese puffs (aka crab rangoon without the crab). You can find wonton wraps in the refrigerated area in your grocery – at Hy-Vee, they are next to the salad mixes and tofu. And of course, these goodies aren’t complete without some homemade sweet and sour sauce!

The original sesame chicken recipe is from RecipeZaar.

Sesame Turkey Recipe Ingredients

Turkey – I use about 4 cups leftover turkey. But I you can adjust the amount.
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2-1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2-1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds – put sesame seeds in a hot pan and stir. They’re done when they’re light brown.

Sesame Turkey Recipe Instructions

Cut turkey into bite size pieces.
Heat a large non-stick skillet that has been sprayed with Pam, over medium-high heat.
Cook turkey until no longer pink. (Or just reheat turkey.)
Mix together honey, soy sauce, water, corn starch, ginger and red pepper flakes.
Whisk until no corn starch lumps appear.
Pour sauce mixture into skillet with turkey.
Cook until sauce thickens slightly.
You can add more water if sauce is too thick.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until turkey starts to soak up the sauce.

Cheese Puffs Recipe

Put a spoonful of cream cheese on a wonton wrap.
Rub water around the edge.
Pinch the edges toward the center.
Drop in hot oil until light golden brown.

Homemade Sweet and Sour Sauce

The following recipe tastes just like the packaged stuff but doesn’t contain high fructose corn syrup. Instead of a bright red color, it’s a translucent brown. This recipe is from About.com.

1/3 cup white or rice vinegar (Note: rice vinegar gives better results)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch mixed with 4 teaspoons water

Mix the vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, and soy sauce together and bring to a boil in a small pot. Mix together the cornstarch and water, add to the other ingredients and stir to thicken.

I’m also participating in the following carnivals today! You can find many more recipes here:

Comments (7)

January 7, 2010

Easy Bagel Dip Recipe

Filed under: food — Tags: food, holidays — K @ 2:25 AM

So, if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know how much my family is into creamy dips and intriguing desserts during the holiday season. My mom has been making the following dip recipe for a few years now and it is so addictive and so easy to make! D loves dips too and specifically wanted this one for our New Year’s Eve get together last week. And out of all the junk food available, guess which one was gone first? That’s right, this one!

The base of mayo and sour cream is well, very creamy. The beef adds a saltiness along with the herby parsley and dill. This dip melts in your mouth!

Beef Bagel Dip Recipe

Ingredients:

16 ounce jar real mayo
16 ounce container real sour cream
2 tablespoons dried parsley
2 teaspoons dried dill weed
2 packages dried beef (not corned!)
2 packages bagels (I’ve tried plain, honey wheat, and onion)

Instructions:

Chop beef – just pull it out of the package and slice it one way then slice it the other – voila! That’s good enough.

Dump everything except bagels in a bowl and mix well. This dip does not need to let the flavors blend in the fridge – it’s good from the get-go.

Slice each bagel into large bite sizes. This helps to scoop up ample dip I cut it like I’m cutting a pizza, only with a knife, then pull apart the pieces.

All in a new bowl my sister got me for Christmas!

If you’re interested in more recipes you can check out my food and recipes pages. If you want to know what I’ve been up to this week, visit my front page!

I’m also participating in the following carnivals today! You can find many more recipes here:

8GM5Y6TG8RRA

Comments (19)

December 22, 2009

Christmas Baking: Biscotti

Filed under: food — Tags: food, holidays — K @ 1:50 AM

I get emails from Biaggi’s Ristorante every once in a while. It’s usually the run of the mill, “check out our new…” email, but this one was different. There was a recipe inside! I had all of the ingredients except for the sliced almonds so D bought some for me on his way back from work.

I made mine a little too thick so I had to cook them longer. I missed the point of doneness and just barely overcooked them. D still liked the taste and I packed up the nicest ones in goody bags for extended family.

Biscotti di Prato Recipe

Yield: 2 dozen

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp almond extract
2-1/2 cups flour
1 cup sliced almonds

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time.

Add extract, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon an mix

Slowly add flour on low speed

Stir in almonds and mix for 30 seconds

Form the dough into a 12″x3″ log on a parchment paper line baking sheet

Baking until lightly golden (40 minutes)

Cool for 30 minutes

Cut at an angle into 3/4″ slices

Reduce oven to 300 degrees

Arrange slices cut side down and bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown

Transfer from baking sheet and allow to cool for about 1 hour. Yum!

Comments (1)

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February 1, 2010