Holiday treats galore :)

When the holidays came around, I always knew I could count on my mom as well as Aunt Alicia to make some family recipes.  Most of our cookies are easy to accomplish so I decided to embark on some of the harder ones...candies!  My mom would always make caramels as well as carmel corn and Aunt Alicia and Grandma Braun would make fudge.

The best part of making these today is that I was able to do it with my friend Elizabeth and a fellow blogger herself (coppertopkitchen.blogspot.com).  Elizabeth made a few great cookie recipes as well and the pictures below will show how wonderful they were.  It wouldn't be the holidays without making treats with friends and family!

RECIPE:
Carmel Corn
16c. popped popcorn
2 sticks butter
2c. cream
2c. brown sugar
1/2c. corn syrup
1t. salt
1/2tsp. soda
1tsp. vanilla

Combine butter, cream, brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt together.  Boil for 5 minutes.  Pull immediately off heat and add soda and vanilla.  Pour over popcorn and mix well.  Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes.

Aunt Alicia's Fudge
2c. sugar
2T. heaping cocoa
2c. cream
1/2c. dark corn syrup
1tsp. vanilla

Mix sugar and cocoa together in a large kettle.  Add cream and syrup and bring to a boil over medium high heat.  Turn down to medium and cook until 245 degrees or soft ball stage.

Immediately remove from heat and add vanilla.  Keep stirring until cooled.  Add a tsp of cold water while stirring to help cooling process.  Pour either into a pan or form into little balls.

They turned out perfect!

Carmels

2c. sugar

2c. cream

1 1/4c. corn syrup

1/4c. butter

1tsp. vanilla

1/2tsp. salt

Combine sugar, cream, corn syrup, and butter over low heat stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved.  Turn unto high heat until it boils and then turn down to medium.  Stir constantly until mixture reaches 245 degrees or soft ball stage and take off heat immediately.  Add salt and vanilla.  

Pour into greased pan.  When starting to cool, cut into small squares so indentations will be made.  

*Note:  Do not pour caramels into parchment paper in pan.  It will stick on paper as I soon learned.

Here are a few sneak peek pictures of Elizabeth's cookies, Russian tea cookies and White Chocolate Pomegranate Cookies.  Remember visit her blog coppertopkitchen.blogspot.com

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from my family and enjoy some of our heirloom recipes :)

Comfort food

Each family has a comfort food that you can always count on to satisfy your cravings.  Germans have a tradition of cooking a lot with noodles as well as cream.  One of my favorite dishes is cream noodles.  After my mom would mix up a batch of bread dough, she would follow it with my grandma's recipe for noodles for dinner that night.

This recipe is very easy to make and with a  few simple changes, it's even easier.  The actual noodle recipe is bread dough (that's a separate entry for when I'm feeling more adventurous).  I've substituted and used frozen bread dough.  You can also use biscuit from a can as well.

MMMMMMM  Get ready for a wonderful dinner surprise!

RECIPE:
2c. cream
1 potato, cut
1 bayleaf
1-2tsp pepper
1-2tsp salt
1/2 onion, chopped
Approximately 20-30 noodles

Pour cream into large kettle.  Add in potato, onion, salt, pepper, and bay leaf.  Cut dough into small pieces and roll into one inch noodles.  When cream is boiling add in noodles putting enough space in between noodles as they will expand.

Cover pan with lid and cook until all cream is cooked into the noodles (~15 minutes).  The noodles will be large and crunchy on one side and fluffy on the other.

Serve and Enjoy!

What to do with leftovers...

After my Grandma has cooked for all the children and grandchildren on Thanksgiving, there is still plenty of leftovers.  After each holiday, when needing something easy, quick, and scrumptuous to make, we could always count on Grandma to make a large pan of turkey pot pie.

For all of you wondering what to do with your Thanksgiving leftovers, here is a great recipe that warms the house and is yummy too.

Turkey Pot Pie:
Recipe:

Pie Dough
1/2c. shortening
1 1/2c. flour
1/2t. salt
~1/2c. water
Mix shortening and flour together along with salt.  Add in water until it's soft and can be formed into a dough.

Filling:
2 carrots
3 celery stalks
1 small onion
Chop the above vegetables together.
Melt 2T. Butter into a pan and add in chopped vegetables.  When they are soft, add in 2c. chicken broth and bring to boil. Add in 3c. cut potatoes.  Cook until soft.
In another pan, add in 2c. turkey, 3T. flour and 1/2c. milk until warm.
Add turkey mixture into veggie mix.  Put mixture into 9in. pie pan.  Cover with pie dough.

Bake at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes or until brown.

Pigs in the Blanket

Earlier this week our secretary at work was saying how cabbage was on sale, which got me inspired to make a great family recipe--Pigs in the Blanket.  Both of my Grandmas made this dish, but with varying ingredients.  I used to only eat the meat and rice as I hated the cabbage, now the cabbage is the best part.

Now I must admit, I modified the recipe a bit.  I'm not a stay at home and it's difficult to make a dish like this while working.  I instead decided to use my crock pot to make the dish.  I also wanted to be a bit healthier so I decided to use brown rice instead.  

RECIPE:
1 pound hamburger
1/2c. uncooked white rice or 1/2c. partially cooked brown rice
salt and pepper
~1/2tsp. cinnamon
1/4 onion
1 can tomato soup
1 cup water
Cabbage leaves

Mix hamburger, rice, salt, pepper, onion, and cinnamon together.

Form into balls and place in cabbage.  Wrap meat into cabbage tightly and place in crock pot.

Add a few pieces of cabbage leaves.  Pour can of tomato soup over the cabbage rolls.  Add 1 cup of water as well.  Cook 4 hours in crock pot or on stove until cabbage leaves are tender and hamburger cooked.

Eat and Enjoy!!

NOTE:  The crockpot worked great and I would definitely do it again.  This is such a great easy family recipe, perfect for the fall.  The brown rice was great and no difference compared to the white rice was noted.

Lots of memories

When I was little, I got lucky and my Aunt Teresa and I both received the ABCs of Cooking Cookbook.

We definitely went through and made the whole alphabet of recipes, some successful and others not so much (haha remember the mistake of putting in 3 Tablespoons of salt instead of 3 teaspoons?).  My first recipe I ever made on my own was B for Banana Bread.  Every time I make the recipe it turns out great.  I always get compliments on the recipe and most of all, each time I make the bread, it reminds me of Grandma's kitchen and the summer Teresa and I decided to cook the alphabet of recipes.

RECIPE:
3/4c. sugar
3 bananas
3/4c. oil
2 eggs
Blend these together until mixed thoroughly.
2c. flour
1tsp. soda
2tsp. vanilla
1/2tsp. baking powder
1/2tsp. salt
Mix above ingredients together and then slowly mix into wet mixture.  Stir until flour is mixed in.
Pour in either a bread tin or a muffin tin.  Bake at 325 degrees until lightly brown.
Makes either one loaf of bread or 12 muffins.

Perfect every time!

So next time you have you some browning bananas, try this family favorite!

Recipe #1: Plachenta

When I was little, each fall my mom would use our pumpkins to make one of my dad's favorite dishes plachenta.  So in honor of fall, I thought it would be appropriate to start my first dish with this recipe.  Plachenta is definitely best eaten with some rivel soup, but that's for another recipe day!  Now plachenta can be either apple or pumpkin flavored, though I don't like the apple flavor.  I thought I better follow grandma's recipe exactly so I even made two apple ones.

RECIPE:
PLACHENTA

2 eggs
1/2c. milk
Beat eggs and add milk and add together.
1/2 T. salt
6 c. flour
5 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2c. shortening
Mix the next four ingredients together into a dough and make smooth.  Add egg and milk mixture with the flour mixture.  Add 2c cream and slowly add into dough.

Here is the dough consistency finished product.

Filling: (measurements are approximate as there were none written)
Fresh pumpkin cooked or canned pumpkin ~4 cups
~1 1/2 T. Salt
~ 1 1/2 T. Pepper
~1 T. Sugar

Approximately this much pumpkin.

Press dough flat.  Add filling and form into pastry.  

Right before baking.  Not very conformed but they turned out!

Poke tops of pastry with fork.  Bake at 350 degrees until light brown (~20 minutes).
Makes 19

The finished product even on Great Grandma Splonskowski's dinnerware!

Some people including my mom thought I was pretty brave attempting plachenta as the first recipe but on a crisp fall November Day, it was perfect!  My house now smells delicious with fond memories of plachenta as a child.

Heirloom recipes...Am I crazy?

I love cooking and have many fond memories growing up cooking with my Grandmas as well as mom.  Great conversation, scrumptious food, and lasting bonds were created in the kitchen.  As my Grandmas have begun to age and my interest for cooking has increased, I've decided to try to start a journey of heirloom recipes.  My goal is to archive all these great recipes into one cohesive place so that whenever I want a dish from home, I know where to turn.  There will be one VITAL missing ingredient during this process, my Grandmas and mom.  Attempting to cook these German dishes is definitely going to be a learning process but one that will last for generations...A guarantee that the dishes passed down from ancestors will be around for future family members!