Slice and Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies

 I love slice and bake cookies!  Here’s another tried-and-tried recipe from my collection. 

 

Cookie baking tip: Many stick margarines are really vegetable oil spreads, with insufficient fat to produce a good cookie. Check the label – if there is a lot of water in the product, then you will end up with flat cookies if you bake with these vegetable oil spreads. While not heart healthy, fats which are solid at room temperature work best for baking: butter, shortening, lard, or real margarine.

1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar

¾ cup butter, softened

2 eggs

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups all-purpose white flour

1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt (optional)

1-1/2 cups chocolate chips

Cream brown sugar and butter until light and fluffy; add eggs and vanilla; mix until well blended.  Sift together the wheat flour, white flour, baking soda, and salt.  Add flour to sugar/butter/egg mixture and stir until well blended.  Add chocolate chips and mix until chips are evenly distributed.  Shape dough into rolls about 2 inches in diameter, using only enough flour to keep dough from sticking to hands.  Refrigerate until ready to bake.  Preheat oven to 350°F.  Slice dough, making slices about 3/8 inch thick.  Place on greased baking sheets and bake at 350 for 13-14 minutes or until lightly browned. 

 

Potato Soup

Potato soup - with cheese, of course!

In ninth grade homemaking class, one of our first cooking lessons involved making white sauce; we added it to English peas to make creamed peas, which seemed pretty gross at the time.  Why on earth would someone need to know how to make white sauce?

I still don’t care for creamed peas, but knowing how to make white sauce has proven very useful over the years.  The proportions of fat and flour to liquid can be changed to suit your needs, but the prep method is the same: add flour to hot fat, stir until flour is coated with fat to make a roux.  Add liquid, cook and stir until the liquid is thickened.  Once the liquid boils, it is as thick as it will ever be; continuing to cook past this point can result in a thinner sauce.   The following formulas are pretty easy to remember:

·         Thin white sauce:  1 Tbsp. fat, 1 Tbsp. flour, 1 cup liquid

·         Medium white sauce:  2 Tbsp. fat, 2 Tbsp. flour, 1 cup liquid

My potato soup is based on a thin white sauce, resulting in a pretty dense soup because of the thickening effect of the potatoes.  If you prefer a thinner soup, add more liquid or fewer potatoes.  Go for real butter!  Add cooked celery if you must.

Potato Soup

2-1/2 lbs. potatoes

½ cup finely chopped onions

¼ cup butter

¼ cup flour

4 cups liquid (potato liquid and milk)

Salt and pepper to taste

Wash and peel potatoes; cut into large cubes.  Boil until tender; I use about half as much water as potatoes.  When potatoes are cooked to desired tenderness, pour potato liquid into a large liquid measuring cup; add milk to make 4 cups, set aside.  Set potatoes aside.

Strive for more-or-less equal proportions of potatoes and liquid; I had a few more potatoes this time.

In a large saucepan, melt butter and sauté onions until they are translucent, taking care not to burn the butter. 

Saute onions in butter, yes, real butter.

Add flour and whisk until all the flour is coated in fat.  Add potato liquid/milk mixture to flour/butter mixture.  Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened; it should coat a metal spoon.   

Thickened sauce coats a spoon.

Add potatoes; using a potato masher, mash potatoes until they are at the consistency that you like.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  You may also add grated or cubed cheese of your choice at this point; I usually add cheese when serving. 

Old fashioned potato masher works just fine.

 

Oatmeal - Coconut Refrigerator Cookies

Once upon a time, you couldn’t go to the grocery store and buy slice-and-bake cookie dough or pre-shaped frozen cookie dough, ready to be baked.  Industrious individuals such as my mother, aunt, and grandmothers made their own slice-and-bake dough from scratch and stored it in the refrigerator or freezer for later use.  My mother made ice-box cookies for Vacation Bible School and elementary school parties and special occasions and for no occasion at all, except that everyone liked cookies.  My paternal grandmother always had ice-box cookies on hand at her house.  Before we knew about Salmonella and recognized that eating raw eggs was a bad idea, she always kept a bit of leftover dough for the grandkids to eat raw, straight from the refrigerator.  I have a pretty good stash of refrigerator cookie recipes from my mother, both grandmothers, and aunt.  This recipe, in my maternal grandmother’s handwriting, is attributed to my Aunt Mildred.  I tweaked a couple of things (cooking temperature, addition of mixing instructions, addition of cinnamon); the cookies are crispy and delicious!

My grandmother's handwritten recipe - a real treasure!

 

Oatmeal – Coconut Refrigerator Cookies

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt (optional)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

3 cups oatmeal

1-1/2 cups coconut

½ cup pecans

1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and mix again until light and fluffy.  Stir in flour until well blended, then add oatmeal, coconut, and pecans.  Divide dough into three equal pieces and shape into rolls, about 1-1/4 inches in diameter.  Wrap each roll in waxed papeer and refrigerate or freeze for later use.  If the dough is to be frozen, overwrap the waxed paper with foil. 

To bake, preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease baking sheets with shortening or spray with non-stick spray.  Using a very sharp knife, slice dough into 3/8 inch thick slices and place on baking sheets.  Bake 12-14 minutes or until done. 

Personal experience with my oven and my baking sheets showed that 14 minutes baking time was needed with dark pans and 13 minutes baking time was needed with shiny pans. 

Cooked and cooling on paper towel.

Baked Fish and Spinach



The finished product.

6 fish filets (tilapia, halibut, etc.)

8 oz. fresh spinach

Juice from 1 lemon

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 red onion, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 400°F.   Place fish in a 9x13 inch baking dish that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray or lined with foil for easy clean-up. 

Top fish with sliced red onion, minced garlic, and lemon juice.  Place fresh spinach on top of fish and drizzle with olive oil.  Cover tightly with foil and bake 15 to 20 minutes; fish is safe to eat at an internal temperature of 145°F. 

 

This dish is super easy to prepare, and it works with any type of fish.

Served with baked potato and roasted beets - yum!

 

Southwestern Grits

Grits fall into the category of foods that either you love or hate; there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground.  I love grits!  One of my favorite childhood food memories is eating grits and boiled wieners for supper with my grandmother; that was one of her favorite combinations.  My mother often prepared a Reba’s Grits Soufflé, a recipe she got from a friend.  The following recipe is my take on Reba’s dish; it called for 1 stick of melted butter or margarine, but leaving it out doesn’t hurt a thing.  The original recipe called for garlic-cheese or other grated cheese.  I like to add green chilies and a bit of cayenne.  Dusting it with paprika improves eye appeal.

Southwestern Grits

1 cups grits

1 cup Mexican blend grated cheese (Cheddar, Monterrey Jack, Asadero, and Queso Quesadilla)

1 (4 oz.) can chopped green chilies, drained

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 eggs  

Milk

Paprika

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Spray 2-1/2 quart casserole with nonstick pan spray.  Prepare grits according to package instructions.  When the grits are done, stir in grated cheese, chopped green chilies, and cayenne pepper.  Beat eggs in a liquid measuring cup and add milk to equal one cup.  Temper egg mixture with a spoonful or two of the hot grits mixture; add egg mixture to the grits.  Whisk well to blend.  Turn into prepared dish and dust with paprika for color.  Bake for 45 minutes; the internal temperature should reach 155°F. 

Spinach - Veggie Lasagna

This recipe had its origins in a spinach lasagna recipe from Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service's Cooking Well with Diabetes series.  I modified the recipe to include more vegetables; added an egg to the ricotta; and increased the amount of tomato sauce.  It is a very easy dish to prepare; chopping vegetables is the most time consuming part.  It’s just as easy to make two batches at the same time; make one for immediate use and one for the freezer!



Many lasagna recipes are very high in salt and fat.  Using vegetables rather than meat as the main ingredient lowers the fat content, and making sauce from no-salt-added tomato products rather than commercially made sauce reduces the sodium content.  Of course, cooked and drained ground beef ,  turkey, or Italian sausage can be added for a meaty dish, and commercial spaghetti sauce can be used if that is your preference.  I prefer ricotta to cottage cheese in lasagna because the texture is more appealing, and ricotta is much lower in sodium than cottage cheese.

Spinach - Veggie Lasagna

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 ounces fresh mushrooms, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried oregano or 2 teaspoons fresh oregano

½ bunch fresh spinach (or half of a 10 oz. bag of fresh spinach)

1 (14.5 oz.) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes

2 (8 oz.) cans no-salt-added tomato sauce

1 (15 oz.) container reduced fat ricotta cheese

1 egg, beaten (optional)

8 oz. part-skim milk mozzarella cheese, grated

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

12 no-boil lasagna noodles

In a large skillet, sauté onions, garlic, mushrooms, and green pepper in olive oil until the vegetables are wilted and the onion is translucent.  Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, and oregano.  Simmer until heated throughout.

Mix egg and ricotta cheese; set aside.  (Leave out the egg, if you wish.  Adding an egg makes the ricotta easier to spread).



Layering order really doesn't matter!

Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray.  Layer the lasagna as follows:  a little sauce in the bottom of the pan, followed by noodles, spinach, ricotta, mozzarella, and sauce; repeat layers, ending with noodles, more sauce, more mozzarella, and the Parmesan.  Don’t stress about the order of the layers; as long as you have three layers of pasta and use up all the ingredients, it will turn out okay.   Cover tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour.  Yield:  8 servings.  To freeze for later use, freeze lasagna unbaked; wrap pan tightly in heavy duty foil.  Thaw 3 or 4 hours in the refrigerator, then bake 1 hour and 30 minutes at 375°F.

One to freeze for later and one to bake now.

Variation:  Use vegetables other than spinach.  I have made this dish with a combination of sliced yellow and zucchini squash and broccoli florets, about 4 cups total. 



The finished product.

Pumpkin-Ginger Cake

While this cake is an adaptation of the Fresh Apple Cake blogged about earlier, I decided it deserved its own identity because it is really is a completely different product.  This cake is moist; it can, of course, be made as bread loaves.

In the course of making this cake, I discovered that my new Bundt cake pan does not hold as much as my old Bundt cake pan!  To prove this, I placed 8 cups water in each pan, and here’s what the experiment revealed:



Old Bundt Pan

New Bundt Pan

 

When using the smaller Bundt pan, there was enough batter to make a 3x6 inch loaf, as well.  Moral of the story:  don't assume all Bundt pans are the same size, and avoid over-filling.



Comparison

Pumpkin-Ginger Cake

1 cup canola oil

1 cup sugar

1 cup molasses

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons ginger

1 cup buttermilk (if home-prepared pumpkin puree seems extra juicy, reduce buttermilk to ¾ cup)

2 cups canned pumpkin or home-prepared pumpkin puree

1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350° F.  Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan.  Sift together flour, ginger, baking soda, and baking powder; set aside.  In large bowl, mix together canola oil, sugar, molasses, and vanilla, using medium speed of mixer.  Add eggs to this mixture and mix well.  To this mixture, add dry ingredients and buttermilk alternately, mixing well to blend, using low mixer speed.  Blend in the pumpkin and pecans.  Pour into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, and the top of the cake bounces back when lightly touched.  Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and continue cooling.