Evening Elixer

Researchers have discovered that nutmeg calms a racing mind and helps you fall asleep faster. A good "evening elixir" before bed: warmed coconut or almond milk, a dash of honey, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and cardamon. It is a delicious way to unwind and get your mind ready for sleep.  This is from the "PCOS Diva" on Facebook.

Oven crisped Hard Taco Shells

Working with 6 tortillas at a time, wrap in a barely damp cloth or paper towel and microwave on High until steamed, about 30 seconds. Lay the tortillas on a clean work surface and coat both sides with cooking spray. Then carefully drape each tortilla over two bars of the oven rack. Bake at 375°F until crispy, 7 to 10 minutes.  From "One Good Thing" by Jillee.  

Krub (Klub) for Mona

I thought it was interesting to note that the meat was optional in all of the recipes I looked at.  I remember that Grandma and Mom put sausage in theirs, mixed in with the grated potato.  I seem to remember that the potatoes they used were partially boiled.  Mona, do you remember that?  I would sure take care of the problem of too much moisture, but I was just a kid so I could be remembering wrong.  If that's the case though, I'll bet you could use the frozen hash browns, thawed, instead of peeling and shredding your own.  (I'm always looking for shortcuts.)

• 6 slices bacon
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups potatoes, peeled and finely shredded (or ground).  Important:  Squeeze as much moisture out of the potatoes as you can.
• 1 egg (helps hold the mixture together
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• 2 tbs. grated onion
• (Optional:  8 oz. pork sausage, ham cubes, or salt pork.  Sausage can be mixed throughout, other meat is to be used in center of dumpling. 

1.Place bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat and fry to render out the fat. Remove bacon from the pan and crumble.  Reserve the grease.

2.In a medium bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder. Stir in potatoes, optional sausage (raw), ½ tsp of salt, pepper, egg, and onions to make a sticky dough. Knead for 10-15 minutes till the dough is no longer sticky. Use more flour if needed.

3.Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and add 1 ½  teaspoons of salt. (Alternately you can cook these in pork stock or a mixture of equal parts beef and chicken stock with a little bit of bacon to kick up the “porky” flavor.  If you do this, omit the salt in the boiling liquid.) Squeeze the potato mixture into 6 or 7 dumplings, or your desired size, no bigger than a baseball. Some pictures showed them as sort of flattened balls, some showed them round. If you are usng meat other than sausage, push it into the center of the dumpling and seal it shut.  Drop carefully into the boiling water, stirring often to make sure they do not stick to the bottom or sides of the pan.  Simmer for 45 to 60 minutes depending on the size of your krub. (I remember this always seemed to take forever when we were kids.)  Remove to a platter with a slotted spoon.

4.Serve with bacon grease brushed over the top, and crumbled bacon. These may also be sliced and fried the next day which is more visually appealing since then they're browned and crisyp, Mom always served them fried piping hot with chunks of cold butter.  They freeze well.  

Tip: If your dumplings are too “wet” from boiling, put them on a baking sheet in the oven for about an hour covered in the bacon/sausage drippings, it will get rid of the excess water, then serve with butter and salt and pepper to taste. Also, these are good served with cream gravy made from any kind of meat drippings.

Rice Cream

1 cup white rice (not instant)

½ tsp. salt

1 qt. milk

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. almond extract

½ chopped almonds and 1 whole blanched almond

2 cups heavy cream, whipped with 1 tsp almond extract and sweetened to taste

Cook rice, salt, and milk in double boiler until rice is soft and mixture is thick, about ½ hour.  Add sugar and almond extract.  Chill.  Add chopped almonds and whole almond.  Stir in whipped cream.  Spoon into dishes and serve with red fruit sauce.  The person who gets the whole almond gets a gift and gets to help hand out the Christmas presents.  

Quick Potato Lefse

2 cups water

2 cups instant potatoes (shake to settle)

3 tbs. shortening

3 tbs. butter

2 tsp. salt

1 tbs. sugar

Bring water to a boil.  Remove from heat and stir in instant potatoes, shortening, butter, salt, and sugar.  Cool.  For each cup of this mixture, add ½ cup of flour and divide into 4 portions.  (Keep remainder of potato mixture refrigerated until ready to use.)  Roll each portion into dinner-plate size, as thin as possible, using additional flour if needed.  (to aid in rolling it thin, use a grooved rolling pin with a sock and a pastry board covered with a pastry cloth.  Use a lefse stick to turn.

When lefse is as thin as possible, flip one end of the lefse over the lefse stick and up to center.  Place lefse on hot lefse griddle and unroll.  When bubbles appear, turn and bake on other side. If needed, turn over once more and bake till brown spots appear.  Do not overbake or lefse will be dry.  Lefse is traditionally served spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar, then rolled up to eat.  

Red Fruit Sauce

Possible fruit juices: pomegranate, currant, cherry, strawberry, cranberry, or raspberry.

2 cups juice

Sugar if needed

2 tbs. cornstarch

Cold water

Bring juice to a boil.  Meanwhile, dissolve cornstarch in cold water.  Remove juice from heat and slowly stir in cornstarch & water mixture, stirring constantly.  Bring  back to a boil quickly.  (Mixture will not be too thick.)  Pour sauce into a pitcher or jar.  Chill before serving.  Can be spooned over rice cream, crepes, pancakes, ice cream, etc.  

Breakfast Burritos

These were surprisingly good and super easy to just microwave for a minute or so.

Breakfast Burritos

Makes 4 burritos

4 large Tortillas

1/3 lb sausage, cooked and drained

6 eggs, scrambled with salt and pepper to taste

1 cups shredded cheese

Warm tortillas in the microwave to soften. Fill each tortilla with some sausage, eggs, and cheese. Wrap into a burrito and then wrap in foil. Put foil wrapped burritos into a ziploc bag and freeze. Thaw and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is melted and they are heated through, rotating halfway through baking time.

Stuffed bell peppers

These worked well. I personally would rather not have pre boiled them, but they were still good.

Stuffed Green Peppers

4 large green peppers

3/4 lb ground beef

2 T chopped onion

1 t salt

1/8 t garlic salt

2 cups cooked rice

1 cup Salsa

2 cups Grated cheddar cheese

De-seed peppers and boil 5 minutes. Cook ground beef and onion. Stir in salt, garlic, rice and salsa. Stuff the peppers and put in a baking dish. Top with cheese.

Cover and bake 350* for 45 min.

Bake uncovered 15 minutes longer.

Ham & Cheese Rolls

This would be good with pretty much any filling.

Ham & Cheese Rolls (4 servings)

Take 1 piece of dough and roll it into a circle (we used some frozen roll dough, placed in the fridge overnight so they had thawed but not risen) Put one 1 oz cheese (about 1 cup shredded) and 1/4 cup chopped ham in middle. Fold over the dough and seal. Spray a piece of foil with non stick spray. Wrap roll in foil, then put in gallon size zip top bag. Freeze.

Unwrap. Place on cookie sheet and bake 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Zesty Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken

Everyone has raved about this. I haven't tried it, but it has turned out really well for everyone else.

ZESTY SLOW COOKER BBQ CHICKEN

3 lbs Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast Halves

1 - 18 oz Mesquite BBQ Sauce

1/2 cup Zesty Italian Salad Dressing

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

2 TBS Worcestershire Sauce

Combine BBQ Sauce, Italian dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire in a gallon size bag. Mix in bag. Add chicken. Freeze.

Thaw, place in slow cooker and cook for 6-8 hours on low. Use fork to shred chicken, and serve on buns. 

Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas

I suspect that just about any enchilada recipe would freeze well, but this is the recipe we tried. I have made this recipe several times fresh, and it is tasty.

Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas

2 Chicken Breasts, cooked & shredded

1 15 oz cans green chili enchilada sauce

1/2 can diced green chilies

8 small flour tortillas

1 c shredded cheese

4 oz cream cheese

Pour 1/4 can enchilada sauce into a 9x13 pan.  Save 1/4  can for the top, add other 1/2 can into the chicken.  Add the cream cheese and chilies & heat until the cream cheese is melted.  Spoon into enchiladas with a handful of cheese.  Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce on top.  Sprinkle cheese on top and freeze.

Bake from frozen, covered for 30 min, uncovered for 20-30 minutes @ 350*.