Shepherds Pie

The Recipe:

• 1 lb. hamburger
• 1 can green beans
• 1 can corn
• 1 can tomato soup
• 1/2 c. shredded cheese
• 1 egg
• instant potatoes to serve 6

1. Prepare potatoes according to package directions, but decrease milk by 1/2.
2. Add egg to potatoes and set aside.
3. Brown hamburger and drain off fat.
4. Add green beans, corn, and soup.  
5. Pour into casserole dish and cover with mashed potatoes.
6. Top with cheese.
7. Cook in oven at 350 for 20 min.

Freezer Meals

Yes, I've been combing through my blog lists figuring out who has yet to post on the blog.  To my surprise, Courtney, who has lived under the same roof as me for the past year, is on that list.  It seems like she doesn't have to spend her life in the kitchen because she gets a head start with her freezer stock.    So when she asked for one of my recipes last week I held it ransom until she agreed to post about her freezer meals.  Obviously, she agreed.  

.....

I've been assigned to blog about my freezing techniques.  I am a huge fan of cooking more food less often.  A couple years ago, my mother-in-law bought a Reynolds Handi Vac for me and my sister-in-law.

We loved them!  One day we had a freezer meal day and made about 25 meals.  Just to get your ideas rolling we made chicken alfredo sauce, bacon & cream cheese wrapped chicken, funeral potatoes, and pizza rolls.  It was AWESOME to have all these meals on hand!  Ever since then I've been kind of a freezer nut.  Tyson jokes about eating the leftovers I scraped off his plate 6 months later.  I don't think I'm that bad:)  All I know is, it saves me money and time so I'm all for it!

They recently stopped making the Reynolds Handi Vac so we tried out the Ziploc pump.  I think I like this even more!  You pump out the air by hand rather than the battery operated sucker, but I actually think it's easier.

Yesterday I made Kelsey's navajo taco recipe (sorry, we're not sure where it's from). 

1 can kidney beans

1 can black beans

1 can pinto beans

1 can chili

1 package fajita mix

1 small can tomato sauce

1T brown sugar

2 lbs hamburger

Here's the thing...I rarely follow recipes.  I generally use whatever I have on hand and try to double or triple the recipe.  It *usually* works out.  So for this recipe, I used...

1 can white kidney beans

2 cans black beans

2 cans pinto beans

2 cans chili

1/2 package taco mix

2T brown sugar

1 huge can of whole tomatoes, blended

1 can tomato soup

2 lbs hamburger

some ketchup

Haha.  I know, it's a miracle things turn out.  But Tyson said these were some of the best navajo tacos he's ever had.  We ate this meal for two nights with Rhodes roll scones and I was able to freeze three more meals of it.  For this meal, I used the quart sized Ziploc vacuum bags.  You just fill them up and use the "mini bike pump" to suck out the air.  So easy.

I've also used these bags for things like cream cheese/chicken filling to go in chicken roll ups, and soups such as the white chicken chili Kelsey posted last week.

For casserole type meals, we use the aluminum square cake pans that fit into the gallon sized bags.  The ones you can find at the dollar store fit great and are definitely the best buy (I think they're 3/dollar).  I've used this for funeral potatoes, chicken enchilada casserole, poppyseed chicken, pizza rolls, chicken cordon bleu, etc...  My mother-in-law has done chili rellenos and even cake!

Ziploc containers work great too.  If I make a whole turkey I freeze the leftovers in these containers.  I also recently made a ton of this sauce from the World Wide Ward Cookbook.

Don's Authentic Creamy Italian Tomato Sauce

saute:

2T olive oil

1T butter

1 tsp basil

dash crushed chili pepper (if you have it)

3 medium onions (or shake in some minced)

1 clove garlic, crushed (or again, some minced)

dash of salt

add 3 - 29oz cans of tomato sauce and cook at least 20 minutes.  Stir in 7oz Gouda cheese until melted.  Add 1 pint heavy cream and remove from heat.

I serve this over mini penne pasta with grilled chicken strips and parmesan cheese on top.  I doubled the recipe and made 10 of these containers full.  Our family uses one container with left-overs.

Anyway, that's about it.  Cheap and easy.  That's what I'm all about.

Creamy White Chili

YUM.  The first time I remember having this was when we went to visit our Anderson cousins in California a few years ago.  Aunt Lori made it and as far as I know my mom got the recipe from her.   Danny loves it because it's hearty and filling.  I love it because it's so easy in the crock pot.

Last year when we lived with the Pages, Easton learned how to unscrew lids.  I don't know what we were thinking, putting all the spices at his arm's reach, but the cumin was the first to be dumped all over the floor.  We vacuumed it up.  From then on, every time we vacuumed, it smelled like cumin.  If we wanted to trick people into thinking we'd been slaving in the kitchen all day, all we had to do was vacuum the floor, and the room instantly smelled like this chicken chili.  We try to remember it in a positive light.

These are the Anderson cousins (courtesy of Maggie's blog).  Today Uncle Russ got sustained as second counselor in the  bishopric in their ward, so I guess this recipe is a toast to that.  Congrats, Russ!

 

 Uncle Russ, Aunt Lori, and cousin Maggie

 Here's Kennedi and Collette with Maggie and Hallie.  Couldn't find one of Jake, but he probably prefers it that way :)

And here is the RECIPE

• 1 lb. chicken breast
• 1 med. onion
• 1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 (15 1/2 oz) cans Northern Beans, drained
• 1 (14 oz) can chicken broth
• 2 (4oz) cans mild green chopped chilis
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 c. sour cream
• 1/2 c. whipping cream

1. Cube chicken and cook in oil with onion and garlic powder.
2. Stir everything else together in the crockpot.
3. Add the chicken, and cook on low 2 hours (everything is cooked so really you just need to heat it throughout)

Drill Team Salad

(In honor of Courtney and her very long day yesterday)

Courtney was on the Alta Drill Team in high school.  To a little sister, hearing about what was going on there was always pretty cool.  I was always so jealous of the presents she got from the "booster moms"- balloons, chocolates, flowers- you name it, she got it.  Anyway, I remember my mom made this for dinner once and she mentioned one of the moms had made it for a team dinner for the drill team, so I've always just considered it the  
drill team salad.  

The recipe:

• chicken
• celery
• mandarin oranges
• red/green/yellow peppers
• cucumber
• romaine
• slivered almonds
• 1 T fresh ginger
• 1 t minced garlic
• 1 T soy sauce
• 1 T white sugar
• 1/2 c. salad oil
• 1/4 c. white wine vinegar
• 1/2 c. mayo

1. Blend the ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, oil, and vinegar.  
2. Add 1/4 c. of this mixture to the mayo. Blend. Dressing: done.
3. Rub the rest of the mixture over chicken breasts and bake at 350 until done.  Slice.
4. Make your salad using whichever ingredients you want or have on hand.  (Mom used to just do it salad bar style and we'd make our own salads.)
5. Drizzle dressing on top and enjoy!

OKAY! Okay. This is not a real picture- it is, in fact, the Wendy's mandarin chicken salad.  The truth is, I was so into eating my salad that i forgot to take a picture of it.  So this is holding the place until someone else makes it and takes a picture so we can have the real Drill Team Salad picture.  

Another side note, I totally messed this recipe up when I was making it- I didn't notice the lower case "t" on the garlic, so I added a full TABLESPOON instead of just a teaspoon (I fished most of it out I think).  Also I just realized I used your typical dried ginger and I'm pretty sure dried herbs are about 4 times as strong as fresh.  But the good news is it's still yummy!  So the real good news is you can't really go wrong with this :)

Taco Soup

This recipe is wiggling its way into my family memories enough to consider it a family recipe.  A few thoughts about this recipe:

• Courtney thinks this is a Halloween recipe.  Mom often made this for us before we went trick-or-treating.  I remember her making stew but hey, to each his own memory.
• This recipe also reminds me of Danny because the man inhales this soup.  It takes a lot to fill him up and this is hearty enough to do the trick- most of the time.  
• Ok, not family-related, but this reminds me of scout camp stories- is it true they really all bring a can of food and they mix it together into a pot and dig in?  Well this recipe is basically all cans so yes, I feel like a boy scout when I make this.

 The recipe:

• One large can of tomatoes
• 2 cans corn with liquid
• 2 cans kidney beans with liquid
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• 1 packet Hidden Valley ranch mix
• 1 lb. hamburger

1. Brown hamburger and set aside (try to pat most the grease off).
2. Puree the tomatoes in the blender.
3. In a large pot mix tomatoes, corn, beans, seasoning, ranch mix, and hamburger.Don't drain the corn and beans- dump everything in!
4. Heat on stovetop or in crockpot
5. Top with sour cream, cheese, and tortilla chips or Fritos

Meatloaf

Well, Dad likes it.

That's what Mom always told us when we'd complain about eating meatloaf for dinner.  I think we can all agree it's more of the reputation of meatloaf than the actual taste of it that we complained about.  So I made meatloaf and cornbread for dinner on Sunday.  It went well until I realized I don't own a loaf pan.  What's meatloaf without the loaf?  Well we cooked them in pyrex bowls and had personal pan-style meatloaf.  The mini-loaf. 

 

The recipe:

• 1 lb. hamburger
• 1 egg
• 1 can tomato sauce
• onion
• salt & pepper
• handful of crushed saltines

1.  Mix all ingredients together
2. Smash into a loaf pan
3. Bake at 350 for at least one hour
4. Here is the gross part ***do not let your children or husband see you do this or you'll be dining alone!** When you get it out of the oven, you have to use a paper towel to soak up the grease. I like to think of it as healthifying the meatloaf- hey, I'm just getting rid of the grease here.  It's a healthy effort.  
5. You can either squirt ketchup on top or just dip it, but you must use ketchup.  

And if you try a bite and don't like it, give it to Dad- he likes it.  

Really though, you'll like it.  Especially if you serve it with corn bread and honey butter!

Noodles

Making noodles has been a tradition in our family for who knows how long. It's quite a process cranking all the dough through....seems like my arm always gets tired so fast and my mom always has to say "keep going, we have to go fast so the dough doesn't dry out!" Great arm workout. And it's a good thing it is because the final product is simply carbs slathered in butter. But really, so so good. I love butter noodles with barbecued chicken. mmmm mmmm mmmm.

On that note, WELCOME, MELANI!

I really appreciate that Mel chose this recipe because we can't have a family cookbook without talking about butter noodles. She's done it with plenty of pictures which will be so helpful. I'll let her take it from here.....

The recipe:

• 6 eggs (jumbo size works best)
  
• 4 Cups flour
  

Mix 6 eggs with a fork in a mixing bowl. (just to break them up) Then add the 4 cups of flour and mix until dough is stiff.

This is what the dough looks like after mixing. If it seems too dry and the flour won't mix in all the way, you can add a tiny bit of water at a time until it is the right texture. I am not an expert at this point, but the dough has turned out a little different every time I have made it. It always tastes the same in the end. :)

Take the dough out of the mixer and form it into a log. I rub a bit of olive oil on my hands before doing this so it doesn't stick.

Cut the log into equal sized slices. I usually get about 16.

Take each slice and put it through the roller. The first time through should be on a lower setting (2) so the dough comes out thick. Take these to dry for just a few minutes on the back of a chair.

I just use a white sheet that I cut up into pieces and lay these on the chair backs. Flip each one over to dry a bit more and then take them back to the noodle maker to roll out thinner.

Move the setting on the noodle maker to a higher number (6) and put the dough back through the roller. They will come out long and thin.

Drape these over the back of the chairs again and let dry. Flip over so both sides can dry evenly. Drying time depends on your house, humidity outside, fans going, etc. You just have to guess the first few times and feel for the dryness. You don't want them too wet, or the noodles will stick together and won't dry well after cutting them.

When dough is ready, stack a few together and cut into chunks. The length of the chunks will be the length of the noodles. I usually cut mine about 3 - 4 inches long.

Attach the noodle cutter and put each chunk in to cut into noodles. Set a sheetcake pan under to catch them. I fill up the pan and take them to dry. Then come back and finish off the rest of the dough.

This is another white sheet that I lay on the bed to let the noodles dry on. Just sprinkle the noodles around and separate the clumps so they can dry.  I have learned to lock my door when they are drying or all your hard work may be almost gone when you go in to see if they are dry. (My kids love them!!! And they love to help make them!!!)


The finished German Buttered Noodles! These are so yummy as a side, with sauce on them, or in soups. They can be used for anything you would use pasta for. Put dry noodles (wet works too, if you want them right away) into boiling water and cook until soft. Just melt some butter and dump it on the cooked noodles. The whole process takes about 1 1/2 hours, depending on drying time. It gets easier the more you make it. And some of these steps might not be absolutely necessary, but that is how I was taught by my mom and grandma. (Kelsey's grandma and great grandma) And sometimes you just do things because that's how you are "supposed" to do them.

This could possibly be the longest blog entry ever, but I wanted to throw in a little history. Kelsey had mentioned using the hand cranking method, which is what we did until just a few years ago. KitchenAid has made our lives much easier and our arms much flabbier! The noodle making attachments to the mixer are wonderful and cut the process time down a bit.

 Old

Older

Before the hand cranking method, Kelsey's great great grandma used a noodle cutting board. Her name is Amalie Mai. She would roll the dough out in a circle, roll the circle up (like a fruit roll-up), place it on the board and slice it into tiny, perfect noodles. That would be fun to try sometime, but I'll stick to the KitchenAid for now.

I love making these because they seem so rustic and historic to me. These noodles really are a part of our heritage and I hope I did this recipe justice. Thanks for letting me be a part of the Family TREEts!

Chicken Broccoli Casserole

Great News! Even though nobody responded to the "group effort" idea, Katelin has volunteered to go first. (My profound apologies for not including her in the initial guilt list from last post.) This is proof that family recipes follow you no matter where you go. Even to the ends of the happiest place on earth. So take it away, Kate.

Hi there. Katelin here.

I don't have much to contribute, because I'm very lazy when it comes to cooking. But, today I busted out chicken broccoli casserole. It's not much, but it's something I learned from mom. So, here we go. (even though you all already know how to make this, let me feel like I'm helping.)

I like to have my chicken already cooked, it's fastest to poach it. aka boil it in some water while you watch Lost. So, after your chicken is done, let it cool down!

Get your pan out, line it with foil to make for easier clean up. (I'm all about saving time and energy) Throw in some broccoli. Frozen, fresh, whole, cut, whatever. It's casserole, you can pretty much do whatever you want. Then cut up your chicken and throw that in too.

Then whip out a can of cream of chicken soup. Throw that on there. Stir it if you want, but it'll probably end up the same if you don't. Then slap some cheese on top and bam! You got yourself a casserole! Almost!

Cover with foil and stick in the oven on like 350º then get your rice going, however you make your rice. I had to make it on the stove so it took a while. The casserole needs 20-30 minutes, so figure out the timing :)

Then whip em both out, throw onto a plate, throw the leftovers into some tupperware and take that to work with you. Eat while watching Lost. The end.

Grandpa's Mac N' Cheese

Grandpa Cook passed away when I was little. But still, a few things remind me of him. Funny thing is, almost all the things I can think of are food!

1. Poached eggs (more the smell than the actual dish, but I remember when we used to go to Aunt Karen's house it smelled so gross!! Now I know it was the poached eggs.)

2. Snowcaps (the colorful ones) and sugar-free candies


3. Homemade mac-n-cheese

4. Also the phrase "Oh my lands!" Every time Grandpa is on one of our home videos he says that. It's so cute.

5. Oh, and his belly- he always used his 'built in pillow' to rock one of his grand-babies to sleep.

6. One more thing, my uncle JC. Every time I see him I just can't stop thinking of Grandpa.

SO ANYWAY...

Dad says the fun fact about this recipe is that it was never the same thing twice. Grandpa would use whatever he had around the house and threw it in. Sooo..... here it is.
Ok, so it's not a looker. but, it is what it is, and that's that.

The recipe:

• 1 c. dry macaroni
• 2 eggs
• 1 c. milk
• 1/2 tsp Wocestershire sauce
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp paprika
• 1 1/2 c cheddar cheese
  

1. Cook and drain 1 c. macaroni
2. Beat eggs well
3. Stir in milk and seasonings
4. Layer macaroni and cheese in 1 1/2 quart casserole pan, ending with a layer of cheese
5. Pour egg mixture over top
6. Sprinkle with additional paprika
7. Bake in microwave 4 1/2 minutes
   

Berok

Aunt Mel told me about this one. I guess Grandma used to make it and Great-Grandma made it before her. For some reason, every time I make something with cabbage I think of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory- they had cabbage soup for dinner every night. So to be honest, I'm trying to imagine my family eating it years ago, but all I can think up are scenes from the movie.........

The Recipe:

• 4 c. cabbage
• 2 lbs. hamburger
• 2 yellow onions
• 36 rhodes rolls

The directions are just too easy! First set out your rolls to thaw. Put the cabbage and onions in a frying pan, let them cook together for a few minutes. Then add your (already cooked) hamburger and let the flavors cook together for a bit. I love the green color from the cabbage. Note: this step can be stinky. May bother your husband's upper lip syndrome. Flatten out your roll, put a spoonful of the filling in the middle and wrap it up so it makes a ball. Then bake about 12 minutes on 350.

Sweet & Sour Hamburger

I always HATED it when my mom made this as a kid. Looking back though, I just don't know why! So I got to thinking I should really give it another shot. I'm glad I did because sweet & sour hamburger is a lot more tasty than I remember! I asked my mom about it and she told me she got the recipe from her Aunt Marge. So she'll get the credit for this one.

The recipe:

1 1/2 lb. hamburger
2/3 c. evaporated milk
1/2 c. chopped onions
2/3 c. cracker crumbs
1 tsp. salt

• Mix the above ingredients and make into patties. Set aside.

2T cornstarch
1/2 c. brown sugar
2T soy sauce
1/4 c. vinegar
1 c. water
1 chopped green pepper
2 cans pineapple chunks

• Drain pineapple juice, and keep enough to make 1c. If there isn't enough, add water.
• Put in saucepan with cornstarch, brown sugar, soy sauce, and vinegar. Stir until thick and clear.
• Cook hamburger in frying pan (for me it was the George Foreman)
• Place pineapple and green pepper in sauce. Heat.
• Drain grease and simmer all together 15 minutes
• Serve with rice.
  

Chicken Noodles

I don't have many memories of my Cook Grandparents. They both died when I was little. This recipe, however, is one the Grandma used to make, so I felt like I was getting to know her just a little better when I made this. Aunt Mary is the expert on making homemade chicken noodles, so I called her for tips.

The recipe:

Noodles:
Whisk the following together with a wire whisk:
1 egg, beaten
3 Tbsp milk
1 tsp salt
Using a fork, mix in 1 cup of flour.
*Dough will be sticky

Using lots of flour, roll half the dough into a circle, as thin as you can get it. Make sure there is plenty of flour on top of the dough. Then roll it up and cut it into thin (1/8") noodles. Fluff them a little so they come unrolled. You can let them sit on a baking sheet (my mom has always dried noodles on a sheet so I put a pillowcase over my baking sheet).

Boil a whole chicken, or you can boil just parts for a small group. Usually about an hour or on lower heat a little longer. Take the chicken our and remove meat from the bones. bring the broth to a boil. Add chicken bouillon to the broth for taste. When the broth is boiling, add the noodles and let cook for about 15 minutes stirring constantly. Turn down the heat so you don't scorch the noodles.

Then make your mashed potatoes, and serve the chicken and noodles on top. Sounds crazy, but it's delish! Danny even said he liked it- and that's saying something. He wasn't as excited to pose with his food, but he obliged. There he is with his "seconds"