Pumpkin Bread

It seems a shame to post this now. I don't think we ever ate it until the fall, but it was on the back of my tea cake recipe, so I'll go ahead and add it. The bread is best right out of the oven with lots of butter...hmm...butter seems to be a theme in these recipes.

3 cups sugar
1 cup butter (or margarine, oleo as some call it)
4 eggs
1 lb can pumpkin
2/3 cup water
3 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking pwoder
1 tsp nutmegg
" allspice
" cinnamon
" cloves

Cream sugar and margarine. Add eggs and pumpkin. Mix well. Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl. In the dry ingredient bowl, use mixer and add a little pumpkin mixture, then a little water, repeat a little at a time until all ingredients are mixed. Pour into loaf pans, but the best is empty tin coffee cans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.

Lemoine Family Tea Cakes

I'm pretty sure this was my Granny Grace's recipe, correct me if I'm wrong, Mom. This is probably Ray's favorite cookie.

Cream together:
1/2 lb butter (2 sticks)
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
Large spoon vanilla-1 tsp plus 1/2

Seperate bowl:
5 c. flour
Tsp baking powder

Combine ingredients, and refrigerate 1 hour. Roll to 1/4 inch and cut with small cup or biscuit cutter. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Disgustingly Rich Brownies

This is another recipe from the cookbook. Unlike the cookie recipe, which I've made lots, this one I've only tried once. They were way too addictive and have way too much butter to make very much. They are really good and super-rich!

2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 eggs
3/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cubes (1 cup) butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/4 teaspoon salt
Bowl
8 or 9-inch square baking pan

1. Smear the inside of an 8 or 9-inch baking pan with shortening. (or just spray PAM)
2. Melt the butter over a low heat. Watch it. It's easy to burn.
3. In your mixing bowl, stir the cocoa and sugar together. Then stir in the melted butter.
4. Add the eggs and vanilla, and stir again.
5. Now add the flour and salt, and mix just until smooth. Not too much. (If you're adding walnuts, now's the time.)

Cooking:
1. Scrape the mixture out into the greased pan and spread out into and even layer.
2. Bake in a 350-degree oven until the brownies just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan (or until you can stick a toothpick in and pull it out with no batter sticking to it). Takes about 40 to 50 minutes.
3. The hardest part. Let cool for a while before cutting.

Darrell's "Forget-the-Cookies-Just-Give-Me-That-Batter" Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

This is my favorite cookie! It is in a Klutz cookbook I probably got when I was 10. There's little pictures of the ingredients in the book, but other than that, I'll copy it word for word. It's really funny how many compliments this recipe has gotten when it came from a kiddie book.

1/2 cup butter (or margarine)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/8 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 bag (6 ox.) chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)
Small bowl
Mixing bowl
Cookie Sheet
Spatula

1. Turn your oven on to 375 degrees
2. In the small pan, melt the butter. While it's hot, add both sugars. Stir, then let cool a bit.
3. While the butter mixture is cooling, mix the flour, soda, and salt in the mixing bowl.
4. In the small bowl, beat the egg lightly with a fork, then add the egg and vanilla to the butter mixture. Stir.
5. Now add the butter, egg, and vanilla to the flour mixture in the mixing bowl. Stir again, then add chocolate chips and nuts if you want them.
6. Stir everything until it's all mixed up well and put the bowl in the refrigerator to cool for about an hour.

Cooking:
1. When time's up, get your cookie sheet--don't grease it. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls, put them on the cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Don't Overcook! You want your cookies to be moist and chewy. Take them off the cookie sheet carefully with your spatula and let them cool. Yum!

A few notes, on this one...make sure the butter and sugar mixture is very cool before mixing everything together or you chocolate chips will melt in it. I rarely put it in the fridge to cool for an hour. I usually grease the pan, and be very careful about the timing. It seems to be very particular on this recipe. Too much and they're hard, too little, and they are fall apart gooey.

Cheating chicken and sausage gumbo

It would take my Mom an entire afternoon to make a gumbo, but it's really hard to find time to stir a roux for 20 mins. with two kids running around. The first time I made a roux, I had just gotten it right and a fly flew in it. It seared it's wings off immediately. The next time I made a roux, I splashed it on my face and had a scar on my cheek for months. Be careful!

1 jar Savoie's Dark Roux
1 Rotisserie chicken (Honey jalapeno is interesting)
1 lb. package smoked sausage
2 lb. fresh pork sausage (They do NOT have good cajun sausage in Texas, or if they do I have not found it...the closest substitution is HEB's Cayenne sausage. Be careful though, this stuff is so spicy you won't have to season the gumbo at all.)
2 bell peppers
2-3 onions
Tony Chacherie's Cajun seasoning
2 Bay leaves

First, you make the roux...not really, you just empty it into a heavy bottom pot. The whole jar will make 1 huge gumbo or a really stout regular. It's very rich, so you might not want to use the whole jar. Be careful to reconstitute it. It seperates in the jar. Cut up the bell peppers and onions, but watch the roux, it takes it a little while to get hot, but be careful not to burn it. It's ready when it becomes smooth and easy to stir. Add your vegetables and saute. While, you're doing this, cook your fresh sausage in a skillet. When vegetables are soft, add water, as much as you think you need, but probably at least 8 cups. Cut up the cooked sausage and smoked and add to the pot. Seperate the meat of the chicken into small strips and add to the pot. Add your bay leaves and wait a big to taste the gumbo and then season. Let it cook as long as you want, at least 30 mins, but the longer the better. Serve with rice. It freezes well, which is good, because we can never eat that much!

Hamburger Pasta

This used to be the special on Wednesday nights and Semolinas. It was Ben's favorite so Mom started making it and then I just repeated after hers. There's lots of variations you can do. I like to add Bacon and Blue Cheese.

1 package Penne Pasta (Barilla Plus in yellow box is great)
1 lb. ground beef
Mustard and Mayo (Mayonesa with lime instead of lemon is much better)
Salt, Pepper, and/or McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak seasoning
Grated cheddar (about 1 cup)
Diced tomatoes (vine ripe best)
Shredded lettuce
Coarsely chopped onion

Brown ground beef with Montreal Steak seasoning, you can add the onion in if you like it cooked rather than crunchy, it also makes the onion sweeter. Boil pasta and drain. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and adjust ingredients to taste. Easy, huh? It's good for bringing meals to people, everyone likes hamburgers and it makes several meals.

Why am I up this late?

Well...I think it has something to do with my epilepsy meds. Anyhow...I've been wanting to keep track and share recipes and voila...there's this thing called the internet! Who would have thought of using THAT? Anyhow, good, easy recipes...and hopefully sharing them will motivate me to try new things rather than repeat old ones over and over.