In the Kitchen Archives - Holly in the Home

March 11, 2014 by holly

Our favorite breakfast cake

This type of “cake” used to be called “coffee cake” but since we don’t drink coffee in this house, we started calling them “breakfast cake” years ago.

This version is our very favorite. I have substituted the apples with strawberries, a strawberry/banana mix, peaches, and more. The texture is slightly different when you use more moist fruit, but it’s always been delish.

Here is the recipe that serves a smallish family . We quadruple or octuple it when we make it.

1 C flour (I’ve used gluten free flour as well – it works too)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 C cored, peeled and diced apple (or other fruit)
1 egg
1/4 C oil
1 C sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 C chopped nuts (optional)

Stir flour, salt and soda together; set aside. Place apple in medium-sized bowl. Break egg over apples. Add oil, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and nuts. Blend thoroughly. Stir dry mixture into apple mixture until flour is dry. Mixture will seem dry.
Spread in greased 8″X 8″ baking pan. Bake in 350 oven for 40-45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Makes 9 squares.

June 12, 2013 by holly

Broccoli Salad

Another salad favorite at our house is this quick and easy broccoli salad. I like to blanch the broccoli before I use it, just to that bright green stage. It takes away the “bite” of raw broccoli.

We use one Costco-size bag of broccoli – 3 pounds of florets, then cut into bite-sized pieces. We have used white vinegar, red wine vinegar, cider vinegar and balsamic vinegar – all of them work just fine. I prefer one of the flavored vinegars to the plain white vinegar – gives it a bit more yumminess.

We also cut the bacon first – it cooks nicely into little bacon bits that way. The problem is all the snitching that goes on before the bacon makes it into the salad…..

So – here’s another easy salad recipe our family loves:

Ingredients
3 pounds broccoli florets (Costco-size bag)
1 lb fried and crumbled bacon
1 large red onion, chopped. (We often lightly saute the onion in the bacon drippings to take away some of the bite)
1 C sunflower seeds
1 C raisins

Dressing:
1 C mayonnaise
1/2 C sugar
1/3 vinegar

Mix first 5 ingredients together in large bowl. Mix dressing. Put on broccoli right before serving, or up to 3 ahead of time if refrigerated before serving. The longer the dressing in on the salad, though, the runnier it gets.

Enjoy!

June 3, 2013 by holly

Minion Cupcakes

We celebrated our granddaughter’s 4th birthday today. We had a small-ish family dinner – only 19 people here today. We wanted to do something cute for her but we just couldn’t spend 3 hours per cupcake. (More power to those who do!) We were hoping for quick and easy – and we lucked out with these ADORABLE minion cupcakes.

Directions for these easy-peasy cupcakes:

First, you’ll need to gather the following:

24 cupcakes (Made from 1 box cake mix or purchased)

Minion

1 batch icing
12 Twinkies
Candy eyes or Smarties
1 tube black icing

Now……

Make cupcakes according to package directions.
Make favorite icing recipe or – gasp – even buy ready-made frosting.
Ice cupcakes
Cut Twinkies in half. Stick on top of cupcakes
Use black icing to attach eyes to Twinkie halves (if you can’t find candy eyes, attach Smarties, then add pupils with black frosting.)
Use black icing to draw glasses around eyes
Add mouth
Add hair

Enjoy the total cuteness of the minions. Seriously awesome.

May 30, 2013 by holly

Strawberry-rhubarb crunch

Several years ago, I went to buy rhubarb at the grocery store. It was something like $3.49/pound – and I needed enough to feed 22 people (back in the days when we had 20 kids at home). I decided right then and there I was going to grow my own.

Turns out, rhubarb is a plant-it-and-forget-it type of plant. I got starts from a friend, put them in the ground, harvested stalks the next year and they’ve been going gang-busters ever since. They grow huge leaves (which contain toxic oxalic acid – don’t eat that part) and tart stalks that are very similar to celery – they just taste better.

Yesterday, I cut a few stalks and made this yummy recipe:

Strawberry-rhubarb crunch

2 cup white sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 cups sliced fresh strawberries
6 cups diced rhubarb
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup rolled oats

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2. In a large bowl, mix white sugar, 6 tablespoons flour, strawberries, and rhubarb. Place the mixture in a 10×15 inch baking dish.
3. Mix 1 1/2 cups flour, brown sugar, butter, and oats until crumbly. You may want to use a pastry blender for this. Crumble on top of the rhubarb and strawberry mixture.
4. Bake 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until crisp and lightly browned.
5. Serve with ice cream. (Pretty sure this part is not optional.)

May 22, 2013 by holly

Tex-Mex Layered Salad

$Tex-Mex salad$ This is probably hands-down our favorite lettuce-based salad – and we have several we love.

It is easy to make and very flexible. We alter the ingredients all the time. It is also beautiful to look at.

So, if you need a salad and you’re tired of just lettuce and tomatoes, give this a try!

SALAD

8 cups shredded lettuce
8 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
3-1/2 cups tomatoes, chopped
1 can (16 ounces each) whole kernel corn, drained
1 can (16 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 C shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 medium ripe avocados, peeled and diced

*We also add in black olives, chopped yellow onions instead of green onions – just be creative. Oh, and we don’t really measure what we put in. We just eyeball it.

CILANTRO DRESSING:

1-1/2 cups mayonnaise
2/3 cup salsa
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1-1/4 cups minced fresh cilantro (OK, you can leave it out if you must – but I love it!)

PS: This is the BEST DRESSING EVER!

Directions
Place the lettuce in a trifle bowl. Arrange some egg slices around edge of bowl; place remaining eggs over romaine. Top with tomatoes, corn, beans, onions and cheese. In large bowl, drizzle lime juice over avocados; gently toss to coat. Sprinkle avocados over tomatoes; spreading to sides of bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, lime juice, cumin and chili powder. Stir in cilantro. Pour dressing over salad. Garnish with additional olives, tomatoes and cheese if desired.

Yield: 16 servings. Ish.

April 29, 2013 by holly

Chicken Curry

One of our family favorites is a chicken curry sauce that we eat over rice and then pile high with yummy toppings.

It’s one of the recipes we octuple, which means when we make it, we are using 1 cup of curry powder, a gallon of chicken broth and 2 quarts of cream. What’s not to love?!

[Read more…]

January 22, 2013 by holly

Raspberry freezer jam

Did you know you can make freezer jam from frozen berries? Spread the joy of canning all year round.

One gallon of frozen berries makes about 4 batches of jam, 4 pint jars each. I let the berries (usually at least partially smooshed at this point) thaw, then use the berries AND the juice to get to my 3 cups of berries. I also use bulk pectin that I purchased a couple of years ago from Pacific Pectin. I order 25 pounds at a time and keep it dry and cool. It lasts several years, even for me. Also, when using bulk pectin, 1/3 C can be substituted for a box of ANY other “regular” dry pectin – brand does not matter, at least not that I have found.

Finally, jam-making is pretty precise – measure carefully or your jam often “won’t work”.

Here is the recipe I use:
3 C berries
5 1/4 C sugar (yes, you do need that extra 1/4 C)

Mix together and let set at least 10 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes to help dissolve the sugar.

Mix together 1/3 C pectin (or one package) with 3/4 C water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Once it reaches a full rolling boil (can’t be stirred down), boil and stir one minute more. Add to jam/sugar mixture and mix together for 3 minutes. Pour into cars (use a funnel!), wipe tops of jars, put on lids and rings, then leave on counter for 24 hours. After that time has passed, refrigerate (for immediate use) or freeze (for longer term storage).

January 22, 2013 by holly

Pastitsio

2 pounds hamburger
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic
2 C tomato sauce
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
12 eggs, beaten
1/2 C butter
1/2 C flour
1 tsp pepper
5 C milk
2 C grated Parmesan cheese
1 32 oz bag macaroni noodles, cooked and drained

In a large skillet cook meat, onion and garlic till meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain fat. Stir in tomato sauce, oregano, salt and cinnamon. Bring to boiling, reduce heat. Simmer for 10 minutes. Gradually stir meat mixture into 3 eggs; set aside. Stir slowly to avoid cooking the egg.

For sauce, in medium saucepan melt butter. Stir in flour and pepper. Add 4 1/2 C of milk all at once. Cook and stir till thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 1 minute more. Gradually stir sauce into six of the beaten eggs. Stir in half of the Parmesan cheese. Toss macaroni with remaining eggs, milk and Parmesan cheese.

To assemble, in two 10X15 baking dishes, layer half of the macaroni mixture, all of the meat mixture, remaining macaroni mixture and all of the sauce. Sprinkle with additional cinnamon.

Bake in 350 oven for 30-35 minutes or till set. Let stand 5 minutes. Serves 24+

January 13, 2013 by holly

Crock-pot Monterrey’s

This dish is another family favorite. Years ago, when hubby was a teenager, he worked in a Mexican restaurant that served a dish similar to this. We’ve adapted it and now it has become our Christmas Eve tradition. (It’s just as good other times too!) [Read more…]

January 13, 2013 by holly

Raspberry-jalapeno jam

Like some heat with your sweet? You’ll love this, then. We sure do.

You can eat this jam with chips, crackers, on meat, over cream cheese or – like my oldest – just plain on a piece of bread. [Read more…]