Recipes!!

Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes

Recipe by Glorious Treats

Yields- 15-16 cupcakes

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup oil (vegetable, canola or extra light olive oil)

1/2 cup buttermilk

(or 1/2 cup milk plus 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar or lemon juice- add acid to the milk then set aside for 5 minutes before using)

Directions-

* Preheat oven to 350*F.

* In a medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir together with whisk, and set aside.

* In the bowl of an electric mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds.  Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed about 30 seconds.  Add vanilla and oil, beat.

* Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour mixture.  Add half of the milk, then the rest of the flour and the rest of the milk.  Beat until just combined.  Scrap down the side of the bowl.

* The batter will be thin.   Pour batter into a muffin pan prepared with paper liners.  Fill liners about 2/3 full.

* Bake cupcakes in pre-heated oven for 12-14 minutes.

* Cool in pan 1-2 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan (carefully) and finish cooling on a wire rack.

* Frost as desired when fully cool.  I love to use my favorite Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting recipe.

* Feel free to use this recipe for a cake as well.  The recipe above will work for a 6″ cake.  Double the recipe for an 8″ or 9″ cake.

* A note about Cake Flour-  Cake Flour has a lower protein content than traditional all-purpose flour, which results in a more tender, delicate crumb in the finished product.  If you can not find or access cake flour, feel free to substitute as necessary, but your results will vary from the original recipe.

 

Mom’s Corn Casserole

Grease a 2-3 qt. casserole pan and preheat oven to 350.

1 cup chopped green onions

1 cup chopped green pepper

3 eggs

1 (17 oz.) can whole kernel corn; undrained!!

1 (16 oz.) can creamed corn

1 (8.5 oz.) package of Jiffy corn muffin mix

½ to 1 cup sour cream

4 oz. (1 cup) shredded cheddar cheese

In medium skillet, melt a bit of butter (or use a bit of olive oil) and add chopped onions and pepper. Saute 5-10 min until onion is tender, set aside.

I mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs and then add the corn and the creamed corn; blend well. Add the onion and pepper mixture that was set aside. Add the muffin mix and stir just until blended.

Pour the casserole mixture into the greased dish. Drop small spoonsful of sour cream over the top of it. Sprinkle the grated cheddar on top. Bake the casserole, uncovered, at 350 for 1 hour and 15 min, until firm and golden brown. Makes 8-10 servings.

(Recipe found in “The Western Favorites Cookbook” .)

Pumpkin Cookies with butterscotch chips and chocolate chips

Makes a large batch, half the recipe if you need to. Add one cup of chopped nuts if you desire.



3 cups sugar
1 cup softened butter
3 eggs
2 cups pumpkin
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips
1-2 cups butterscotch chips
5 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
nuts, if desired
Set oven to 375 degrees. Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, butter, and vanilla. Beat well. Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl including flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon, mix well. Slowly mix into egg/pumpkin mixture. Add nuts, and chocolate and butterscotch chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto sprayed cookie sheets. Cook about 12 minutes, remove quickly from cookie sheets to cookie cooling rack. Enjoy.

This is about half of the batch of cookies.

Cheeseburger Macaroni

Much better than Hamburger Helper!

This is so easy to make and I usually have all the ingredients sitting in the pantry and/or freezer. My family snarffed, I mean snarffed the whole pot in a matter of minutes.

1 ½ lbs ground beef

1 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, pressed

1 can (26.5 oz.) spaghetti sauce

1 ½ half cups of al dente cooked elbow macaroni

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Brown meat, onion and garlic in skillet, drain. Season to taste with salt and pepper, if desired.
2. Add spaghetti sauce and mix in.
3. Add elbow macaroni and stir. If the mixture seems a bit dry add about 1/3 can of water that you swished around in the spaghetti sauce can and mix it in.
4. Stir in cheese and mix. For a variation you could add some grated pepper jack cheese with the cheddar.

Cooking and prep time about 20 minutes. Makes 4-6 servings.

 Yummy Muffins

Buttermilk-Pecan Muffins

1 ½ cups all- purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

¾ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon grated nutmeg

1 large egg

2/3 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled

1/3 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup raisins

Heat oven to 400 F.  Grease 12 regular sized muffin-pan cups.  Mix flour, sugar, baking soda and spices in large bowl. In another bowl use wooden spoon, to beat egg, buttermilk, and melted butter to blend well.  Stir buttermilk mixture into flour mixture only until just blended. Don’t over-mix. Quickly fold nuts and raisins in and spoon batter into prepared muffin pan cups, filling two-thirds full. Bake 20 minutes until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. Makes 12 muffins.

Applesauce-Carrot Muffins

½ cup raisins

1 cup all-purpose flour

¾ whole-wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 large egg

½ cup sugar

¼ cup corn oil

1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon lemon extract

1 cup applesauce

¾ cup grated carrots

Heat oven to 400 F.  Grease 12 regular size muffin pan cups. Combine raisins with ½ cup warm water in small bowl and let soak. Meanwhile, mix flours, baking soda, salt, and spices in large bowl. Using electric mixer beat egg and sugar in second bowl until fluffy. Beat in oil and vanilla and lemon extracts, stir in applesauce. Stir applesauce mixture into flour mixture only until just blended.

Quickly fold in carrots and raisins (with their water). Spoon batter into prepared muffin-pan cups, filling each ¾ full. Bake 15 to 18 minutes until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Blueberry Muffins

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (thaw if frozen)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

2/3 cup milk

¼ cup butter, melted and cooled

Heat oven to 400 F. Grease 12 regular sized muffin pan cups. Toss blueberries with 1 tablespoon of the flour in small bowl. Set aside. Sift remaining flour , sugar, baking powder and salt into large bowl. Using wooden spoon, beat eggs, milk and melted butter in medium-sized bowl to blend well. Stir milk mixture into flour mixture only until just blended-batter will be stiff-. Fold in floured blueberries as you stir. Spoon batter into prepared muffin-cups filling each 2/3 full. Bake 15-18 minutes until lightly browned and tooth pick inserted in a muffin comes out clean. Makes 12 muffins.

Sour-Cream Raisin Muffins

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1 cup sour cream

1/3 cup milk

1 cup raisins

Heat oven to 400 F. Grease 12 regular sized muffin cups. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into large bowl. Using wooden spoon beat egg, sour cream, and milk in second bowl to blend well. Stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture only until just blended (batter will be stiff). Fold in raisins as you stir. Spoon batter into muffin cups filling each nearly to the top. Bake 15-18 minutes until golden brown and toothpick inserted into muffin comes out clean. Makes 12 muffins.

Muffin tips:   Have the oven pre-heated and the pan prepared ahead of time so that once the batter is mixed it can be spooned into the pan and baked immediately.

                           

Even if a non-stick muffin pan is used, spray it lightly with vegetable spray.

Be careful to not over-mix the batter, combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl and stir them together with a gentle touch, but mix well. Then, speedily fold in the nuts, or raisins, etc.

My tips:  I have a silicon muffin pan that sits in its own metal rack that I purchased at Target about 4 years ago. I love it because not only is it easy to grease- just spray with nonstick vegetable spray-  it is very easy to get all the muffins out undamaged because of the flexible pan. Its easy to clean, too.

To cut down on fats and oils in baking I learned a tip several years ago to substitute applesauce or pureed fruit for the oil. I do this in the majority of recipes I make for baked goods. Often I use applesauce, but I have also used pureed peaches, pears, apricots, or a mixture of them together.

I have collected recipes for years and have baked all the recipes shared here.  My family has enjoyed them and I hope your family enjoys them too. The four recipes I’ve shared here were taken from a cooking article contained in Redbook magazine from March 1988.

Sparkling Lemonade

Mix Seven-up or Sprite soda with lemonade. Garnish with real lemon slices and serve from a punch bowl.

For a colorful alternative, mix cherry seven up instead of regular seven-up (or sprite) with the lemonade or use pink lemonade with regular sprite or seven-up.

Lion House Wassail

2 ½ cups sugar

4 cups water

2 cinnamon sticks

8 allspice berries

10 cloves

1 piece ginger

4 cups orange juice

2 cups lemon juice

2 qts apple juice or cider

Combine sugar and water, boil for five minutes.  Remove from heat and add cinnamon sticks, allspice, cloves and ginger.  (Spices may be put in a little cheesecloth bag for easier removal later.)    Cover and let stand for one hour.  Strain, or remove spice bag from wassail.  Just before serving add juices and/or cider and bring quickly to a boil.  Remove from heat and serve.  36 ½ cup servings.  Half the recipe for smaller groups.

The Best Hot Cocoa

½ cup sugar

¼ cup baking cocoa

dash salt

1/3  cup hot water

1 quart milk

¾ tsp vanilla extract

In quart pan combine sugar, salt and cocoa, stir together.  Gradually add the hot water.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until heated.  Add milk and heat through.  Stir often and do not scorch or boil the milk!  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Serves 4-6.  Top with whip cream, cool whip, or marshmallows.  For a variation, use a few  cinnamon sticks when preparing, for cinnamon cocoa, remove the sticks before serving.

                                                 

Fettucine Alfredo

Fettucine Noodles:

In large pot boil salted water and add noodles; cook until tender.

Make Alfredo sauce while the noodles are cooking.  After cooking drain noodles and keep warm so they can be mixed with sauce as soon as it is done.

Alfredo Sauce:

½ cup butter

2/3 cup cream (or half and half)

1 ½ cup grated parmesan cheese

¼ cup salt, dash pepper

chopped parsley

Heat butter in saucepan until melted, stir in cream, warm it and then add grated cheese, salt and pepper.  Heat until cheese is melted, stirring occasionally with a whisk, and sauce is smooth.  Do not scorch.
When the sauce is ready, stir in the parsley.  Mix the sauce with the noodles and serve at once.

 

Potato-Topped Mini Meatloaves

 

1 lb. ground beef

1 pkg.  (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix

1 cup water

2 Tbsp.  A.1. Original Steak Sauce

6 oz. (3/4 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed

3 cloves  garlic, minced

3 cups hot mashed potatoes

1/4 cup  chopped fresh parsley

1 jar (12 oz.) beef gravy, warmed

Make It

HEAT oven to 375ºF.
MIX meat, stuffing mix, water and steak sauce; press into 12 muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray.
BAKE 20 to 25 min. or until done (160°F).
ADD cream cheese and garlic to potatoes; stir until cream cheese is melted. Stir in parsley. Scoop over meatloaves. Serve with gravy.

Hubby is a meatloaf junkie and I am lukewarm to most meatloaf recipes but this recipe is really tasty. (From Kraft foods)