Candy Bar Pie

Darrell’s sister Nancy served this to us at her home in Taos. This frozen pie has the crunchy almond pieces complemented with the coffee flavoring and a flaky crust. It tastes much more complex than the recipe looks. Great for summer when it’s too hot to fire up the oven for long, we never have this pie hanging around for very long.

1 8 ounce Hershey bar with almonds, broken
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1 Tablespoons hot water
1 13 1/2 ounce Cool Whip
1 8″ baked pie crust

Combine candy bars, coffee, and hot water in small saucepan. Stir over low heat until candy is melted and coffee is dissolved. Cool, and fold into whipped topping until smooth. Spoon filling into crust, then freeze for several hours. One 8-inch pie. Serve with coffee, enjoy!

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

This casserole qualifies as comfort food at my house. One of my “go to” recipes that will serve 4 to 6 guests and may be prepared ahead of time. I like to use the pre-cooked rotisserie chickens that are so readily available and the other ingredients are always in my pantry. The casserole can be prepared in around ten minutes, and you can make it a lower fat version by using Pam on the tortillas and microwaving them instead of frying them in oil. Low fat or no fat cheeses further reduce the calorie and fat content.

1 can cream of mushroom soup, low fat
1 can cream of chicken soup, low fat
1/2 cup reduced fat milk
2 cups cooked, diced chicken
2 cans chopped green chilies, drained
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium onion, diced
1 cups (1 pint) reduced fat sour cream
1/4 teaspoon cumin
12 corn tortillas
3 cups grated Jack or Cheddar cheese
2 medium tomatoes (do not use canned tomatoes)

Put about 4 tablespoons oil in a skillet; fry tortillas, one at a time, until soft and pliable (about 30 seconds on each side, adding more oil if necessary). Drain tortillas on paper towels. After all are fried, saute onion in skillet until soft and golden; drain off excess oil. In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients, except tortillas and cheese. Spray Pam on 10″ X 14″ casserole; place 4 tortillas on bottom of casserole, tearing as necessary, to fit into a single layer. Spread about one third of mixture from bowl over the tortillas, then spread cup of cheese over the mixture. Repeat layers twice. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until cheese browns and bubbles. Remove from oven; let stand for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

To lower calories, cottage cheese may be substituted for sour cream; blend with 1/2 cup milk called for in recipe until texture is like sour cream.

Mitchell Barbeque Sauce

My Dad loved to barbeque, and one of my favorite childhood meals happened when he barbequed pork chops over charcoal with this sauce sopped on when the chops were nearly done. Since it has a lot of sugar, if you put it on too quickly, the meat will blacken too much and you’ll have blackened pork chops. This recipe came from his family, I understand that Granddad Mitchell brought it from Louisiana. Our family fled Louisiana after the Civil War and came to Texas. Good move!! This sauce because of the high vinegar content will tenderize your meat if you also use it as a marinade before cooking. Forget about bottled sauce, this is the best!!

1 large can tomato juice
1 quart vinegar (preferably apple cider)
2 lb. bag brown sugar
3 -4 onions, peeled and sliced
3-4 lemons, sliced
8-10 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 bottle worcestershire sauce
1 bottle Tabasco hot sauce
salt
pepper
Optional: 1 can tomato puree to thicken

Combine ingredients in large pot. Bring to a boil then simmer for 30 minutes, or you can reduce this by cooking longer. When the smell of sauce wafts through the air, remember all the joys of barbecues in the past.

Pour into quart canning jars. This does not require refrigeration. Use as a marinade or brush over barbeque in the last few minutes of grilling.

This recipe was from my Dad who got it from his Dad.

Quick Peach Cobbler

Our Aunt Artie made us this cobbler at her home in Lafayette, La, in the 1950′s. It’s a delicious way to have your cobbler without having to roll out the dough. I’ve tried many different versions of this type of cobbler, but I keep returning to this old favorite as the best version I’ve tried. Grue and Blue had this for lunch a lot of days when I had thirty minutes or so to make an entire meal including bread and dessert. A small dish of the cobbler hot out of the oven with ice cream is heavenly. It can also be made with fresh or frozen peaches.

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar for batter
3/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cans cherries or one #2 1/2 can peaches
Cube of butter (3 Tablespoons)
3/4 cup sugar for fruit
1 Tablespoon cinnamon

Mix first four ingredients into a batter. Melt butter in 9X9 pan. Pour batter over butter, add fruit. Sprinkle 3/4 cup sugar and cinnamon over top of fruit. Bake at 375 until crust rises and browns.

Top with ice cream or whipped cream as preferred.

Pumpkin Nut Bread

When Fall mornings are crisp and the smell of maturing crops is in the air, I pull out my mixer and make this cake. We used to bake it in one pound coffee cans but alas I have no one pound coffee cans any more. Matt always loved pumpkin bread and would have it for breakfast with spiced tea. Nothing signals fall better than pumpkin *anything*.

1 cup butter
3 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 can (1 lb.) pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups sifted flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup dark or golden raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and add sugar gradually; beat in eggs. Add pumpkin and vanilla, mixing to combine. Sift together the flour, salt, soda, baking powder, and spices; blend with pumpkins mixture. Add nuts and raisins.

Grease two loaf pans or one tube pan, and flour lightly. Bake for 60-65 minutes or until bread tests done with a toothpick. Let stand 10 minutes before removing from pans, cool on racks. Wrap and store overnight before slicing.

Spicy Molasses Cookies

These rolled cookies are crisp and spicy. They are great Christmas cookies, and do well with the plastic cookie cutters that have lots of detail on the inside. We began using this recipe with the Twelve Days of Christmas cookie cutter set that had some amazing detail; you use a glaze on it which collects in the detail creases so you don’t have to individually decorate each cookie, just brush on the glaze. On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me (etc etc etc).

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 Tablespoons molasses
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoons cloves

Cream margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in egg and nmolassess. Add combined dry ingredients and mikx well. Chill dough 4 hours or overnight. Roll out dough on floured surface to 1/8″ thickness. Cut with floured cookie cutters, pressing firmly on cutter; place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 f for 6 to 8 minutes. Cool slightly, remove from cookie sheet. Brush with glaze if desired.

Glaze:
1 cups powdered sugar
4 Tablespoons milk
1 Tablespoon corn syrup

Italian Cream Cake

This cake is most requested when family members celebrate birthdays. I generally cook the cakes ahead of time and freeze them; freezing the cakes makes little ice crystals throughout the cake and prevents the cake from being dry. You can make beautiful layer cakes as the directions show or you can do a larger sheet cake. I have travelled many miles with the cake in my lugguage, and I pull it out of my luggage, whip up the frosting and ice it when I reach the destination. I like to pipe decorative icing edges at the top and bottom of the cake and sprinkle chopped pecans on top. Some fresh pansies or other edible flowers may be used to garnish. Don’t try to skip beating the egg whites, or the cake will be too dense. Don’t let the cake get too warm or the cream cheese frosting will run.

Cake batter:
1 stick butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 3/4 cups sugar
5 egg yolks
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoon soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 small can Angel Flake coconut
1 cup chopped nuts
5 egg whites, stiffly beaten with 1/4 cup sugar

Cream butter and shortening; add sugar and beat until mixture is smooth. Add egg yolks and beat well. Combine flour and soda; add to creamed mixture alternatelyd with buttermilk. Stir in vanilla extract. Add coconut and nuts. Fold in egg whites. Pour batter into 3 parchment paper lined greased and floured 8 inch cake pans (or 2 9 inch pans). Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until done; cool. Watch it closely because there is a relatively high sugar to flour proportion and the cake will overbrown easily. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cream cheese frosting:
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick butter
1 box powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chopped pecans
Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth; add sugar and mix well. Add vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Spread on cake. Sprinkle top with finely chopped pecans.

Hint: I make 1.5 times the frosting recipe because I have found the frosting inadequate to frost all three 8″ layers or two 9″ layers and to pipe decorative edges.

12 oz cream cheese
3/4 stick butter
1 1/2 box powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Sweet Potato Apple Casserole

I prefer this sweet potato dish to the traditional marshmallow topped dish for the holidays. The natural sweetness of the potatoes is contrasted with the tartness of the apples, and honey or brown sugar further sweeten just as far as you want to go with sweetness. Toasted pecans on top add to the fall harvest flavors and add some needed texture.

8 large sweet potatoes
large pot for boiling
water to cover

Cook sweet potatoes until nearly done. They will be cooked two more times so don’t overcook at this stage. Pour out water, and run cold water over them to cool. When cool, remove from pan, and peel and slice the potatoes in about 1/4 inch slices.

3 – 4 Sliced Granny Smith Apples, peeled
Butter as needed
Large saute skillet

Saute sliced potatoes in butter. Saute apple slices. Layer in large oiled casserole (9X12).

Top with:

Chopped nuts, toasted (pecans preferred)
brown sugar and/or honey
Cinnamon

Cover with foil and bake at 325 for 45-50 minutes.

Southwestern Deviled Eggs

I developed this recipe in an effort to bring a different flavor to deviled eggs. Every recipe I found seemed to have the same bland ingredients, and the eggs were so stinky that you didn’t really get a lot of sensory pleasure from them. Thus the technique to boil the eggs perfectly was added to my repertoire, and to season with the southwest flavors we love. (Hint: green chile is good in this, too!)

10-12 uncooked eggs (enough to cover bottom of saucepan before adding water for boiling)
3-4 tablespoons mayonnaise, reduced fat
1 tablespoon sour cream, reduced fat
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons salsa
1/3 cup shredded cheese (fat free or regular)
1 – 2 tablespoons chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
paprika to sprinkle
sliced olives, optional

Place eggs in saucepan, cover with water, and place on burner. Add one teaspoon salt to water. Bring to a rolling boil, cover pan with tight fitting lid and turn off burner but keep pot on the warm burner. After 17 minutes, eggs are hard-cooked. This method results in a perfect egg with no dark smelly stuff around the yolk.

Drain hot water from pan, fill with cold running water to quickly cool the eggs. After cool, crack the eggs on the flat top of the counter (not the edge), rolling them to break the shell into small segments. Beginning at the bigger end of the egg, slowly peel off the shell, rinsing any tiny shell pieces off the eggs.

Cut peeled eggs longwise into halves, removing the yolk to a small mixing bowl. Mash the yolks with a fork until yolks are mealy and completely broken up. Add mayonnaise, salsa, sour cream, onion, sugar and garlic, and mix with fork until creamy and smooth. Hint: add the mayonnaise and sour cream a tablespoon at a time until you reach the creamy consistency you prefer. Add cheese, salsa, and salt and pepper to taste, mixing throughly with fork.

Place yolks mixture into a small baggy, sealing at the top. Cut out a small opening on one corner of the baggy. Squeeze the bag and direct the filling into the egg white holes where the yolks originally rested. Top with a slice of olive, sprinkle with paprika, and arrange on an egg plate. Lettuce leaves may be used as a base to cover a plate and to garnish the dish.

Variations: add green chilis, chopped jalapeno, or chipotle pepper to your liking

Mema’s Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coconut
3 cups quick cooking rolled oats
1 cup chopped nuts

Blend sugars and shortening. Add beaten eggs. Sift dry ingredients together and add to first mixture. Stir in vanilla, coconut, oats and nuts. Mix well and drop by teaspoonfuls on greased cookie sheet. Flatten with bottom of glass. Bake in 350 oven until light brown.

Recommended: lightly toast the oats in the oven, and toast the nuts before adding to the dough.