Christmas Goodies!

These are some recipes I've posted before, but somehow they got lost in the reboot of the blog.

This first recipe was invented by a wonderful lady named Gina Scalera who used to work at the Joseph-Beth Bookstore in Lexington. She died a couple of years ago, but when she was running the romance department at the store, she had a reading group. Each month they would meet to discuss a book, and Slave was the book of the month for November 2008. She would make up a new cookie recipe for each book, and this is the kind she made for Cat!

CAT'S M & M CANDY BARS

-2 cups unbleached Flour
-1 tsp. Baking Powder
-pinch of salt
-1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
-2/3 cup unsalted Butter, softened
-2 cups firmly packed Brown Sugar
-2 lg. Eggs
-2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
-1 cup M&M Candies

Preheat oven to 350 (325 if using a glass baking pan). Lightly grease a 13"x9" baking pan.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
In a large bowl cream the butter and brown sugar. Mix in eggs, one at a time, mixing well. Mix in the vanilla. Gently mix in the dry ingredients, until well combined. Stir in the M&M's.
Spread evenly into prepared pan. Bake 25 minutes, until lightly golden. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting into bars.
Yield: 3-4 dozen, depending on size of bar. Can be frozen.

While I'm at it, I might as well give away all my secrets. This next recipe is one I got from my grandmother. Heaven knows where she found it, but it's one of those things that everyone seems to like. I've tasted several different variations and have tried substituting other ingredients, but, trust me, the original is best!

POTATO CASSEROLE
1 pkg Ore-Ida hash brown patties (27 oz) thawed and crumbled up (You can use the bag of shredded hash browns, but it isn't as good.)
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
½ cup chopped onion
1 can Campbell's cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

Mix all together and spread in greased 9 X 13 pan
Mix one stick melted butter with 1 ½ cups of crushed cornflakes and spread over the top.
Bake @ 350 for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Merry Christmas!

Tasty Tuesday Pumpkin Casserole!

Recently, I've been delving into Indian cuisine while researching a new book. I've learned to make all sorts of interesting things, but along the way, the spices have crept into my everyday cooking repertoire. Not long a go, I baked a pumpkin. I froze most of the puree, but had about a cup or so left over and figured I would use it for something--hopefully before it went bad on me. A day or two later, it occurred to me to substitute the pumpkin for the asparagus in my asparagus pudding recipe and add some Indian spices. I thought it turned out rather well. 

Pumpkin Casserole  
 

Ingredients:
1 egg
1 cup pumpkin puree
dash of cayenne
2 tsp garam masala  (If you're not in the mood for Indian spices, you could substitute 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup flour
3/4 cup grated colby jack cheese
3/4 cup milk

Directions:
Place all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth. It will look like really thick pumpkin soup. Pour into greased casserole dish and bake at 400 degrees for 45 min until the middle puffs up (it will sink a little after you take it out of the oven) and the top is lightly browned.

I'm also blogging on Casablanca Authors today, and I posted my hash brown potato casserole recipe there. Check it out if you're feeling hungry! http://casablancaauthors.blogspot.com/

Tasty Tuesday Tuscan Beef with Penne Pasta!

Thanksgiving is only two days away, which means I should probably be posting recipes for leftover turkey. However, I made this dish about a week ago out of what I happened to have on hand, and it was pretty good, so I'm posting it now. That way you'll have it for when you're sick of turkey sandwiches.

Tuscan Beef with Penne Pasta

Ingredients
1 lb lean ground beef
1 tsp salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder mixture
1 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup roasted red bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped (I use the kind packed in oil)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 cup (dry) penne pasta cooked according to package directions and drained
1 tbsp or more of pesto
1 to 2 handfuls of fresh spinach
crumbled blue cheese (or Gorgonzola) 


Directions
Season ground beef with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder mixture, then brown in olive oil in a large skillet. Add peppers, tomatoes, onion, garlic and mushrooms and saute until onions are soft and translucent. Add the spinach and cook until wilted. Add the pasta and pesto and mix well. Top with crumbled cheese and enjoy!

Tasty Tuesday Orange Crunch Cake!

I know. I'm a bad, bad blogger. The truth is, I've been too busy working on home improvement projects and writing new books to do much blogging. Aside from the fact that blogging without the naked hunks just isn't the same.

That being said, I still do the occasional bit of cooking, and not long ago, my friend Susan Clement sent me this recipe. She'd recently been to Sanibel Island, which is where The Bubble Room is located. Budley and I vacationed on Sanibel twice when we were MUCH younger, and we had dinner in that same restaurant a few times. Seeing this recipe brought back some seriously old (but good) memories! Thanks, Sue!

THE BUBBLE ROOM’S ORANGE CRUNCH CAKE

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup orange juice

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

2 tbps grated orange peel

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch pans. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, walnuts and butter. Divide mixture evenly between the prepared pans. Set aside.

2.In a medium bowl, mix together the cake mix, water, orange juice and oil until blended. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the orange zest. Pour the mixture evenly over the crunch layer in the pans.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack and cool completely before frosting. Frost (crunch side up) between layers, on top and sides. Refrigerate.
  

Frosting:
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
8oz softened cream cheese
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups sifted 10x confectioner's sugar
1 tsp. orange juice
1/2 tsp grated orange peel. Many users double the icing recipe.

Note: Some users add orange extract to the cake(1 tsp) and frosting(1/2 tsp) to increase the flavor. Others decrease the water to ¼ cup and increase the orange juice to ¾ cup.

At The Bubble Room this is a 3 layer cake so I might play with this to make it so…great reviews on allrecipes and food.com. Duncan Hines also makes an orange supreme cake mix that should work well, too.

Tasty Tuesday Cheesy Hamburger with Potatoes and Onions!

I know. I've been amazingly lax about blogging lately--this from someone who once blogged every single day for more than four years. The truth is, I simply haven't had anything new to report. Yes, I've been helping my husband replace a bunch of windows, and I've been working on several home and farm maintenance projects that I've let slide for years, but I'm not sure any of it is worth more than a few Facebook posts and pictures.

But during that time, I've also been writing. A lot. With the result that I'm at least halfway through the first book in a paranormal romantic suspense trilogy about three survivors of a plane crash at sea.

Not my usual genre, I know, but it has stimulated my interest in a horde of new things, and those things have been keeping me busy. The amount of research I've done for this first book is staggering. Without internet access, I doubt I could've written it unless I'd spent an inordinate amount of time in the library, and even then I probably wouldn't have found what I needed. Call Google all the names you like, but it is still a valuable research tool.

In other news, my Sourcebooks editor called yesterday. She'd finished reading the erotic contemporary manuscript I sent her a while back, and she still likes it well enough to make a very nice offer for it, plus a second book to go with it. She didn't ask for much in the way of revisions, but I'm going to edit the entire book anyway. I first wrote that story several years ago, and my writing skills have improved since then, so I see no point in putting it out there for you to read without giving it a significant facelift. Since she wants two books, I'll probably have to drop the romantic suspense story for a while to revise the first book and then write the second. I can probably keep going on both, but there will be deadlines to meet, which will place greater demands on my time. Either way, blogging may continue to take a back seat to other projects.

That being said, here's a recipe you might enjoy. Last night, my husband wanted something made with hamburger that was creamy and cheesy. He claimed this was exactly what he'd had in mind. I didn't take a picture, but it tasted better than it looked anyway.

Cheesy Hamburger with Potatoes and Onions

Ingredients
2 medium potatoes, peeled, chopped and boiled in salted water until tender
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 lb lean hamburger
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp thyme
1/3 cup burgundy
1 tsp instant beef broth
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 cup sour cream or plain nonfat Greek yogurt
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Directions
Prepare the potatoes and cook until tender. Heat oil in a large skillet and saute until the onions are translucent. Add the hamburger and sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Cook until browned and add the garlic, beef broth powder, thyme, and burgundy. Let it cook down a little, then add the drained cooked potatoes, mushroom soup, ketchup, and dry mustard. Reduce the heat and let it cook for about five or ten minutes. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the yogurt and heat for about two minutes, then add the cheese. Stir until cheese is melted and serve.

Tasty Tuesday Pumpkin Waffles!

With all the talk about pumpkin pancakes on last week's recipe, I thought I'd give them a try. Then I decided my waffle iron had been idle much too long and took it a step further. I found a recipe for pumpkin waffles on Food.com and modified it a bit to suit what I had on hand along with my own spice preferences. They turned out to be pretty tasty! The original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups plain milk, but I had some buttermilk I needed to use up. Use what you have!

Spicy Pumpkin Waffles

Ingredients

Dry:
2 cups flour

¼ cup sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ginger

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon cloves

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

Wet:
3 eggs

¾ cup milk

¾ cup buttermilk

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

3 tablespoons oil

Cooking spray 

Directions

1. Preheat waffle iron.
2. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Whisk the wet ingredients together in another bowl.
4. Whisk egg mixture into the flour mixture until batter is smooth.
5.  Spray waffle iron with cooking spray; add a ladle full of batter and cook until waffles are set and golden brown, about 2 minutes. I use the #4 setting on my waffle iron and it beeps when it’s done.
6. Enjoy!

Tasty Tuesday Pumpkin Biscuits!

Now that I have a new pumpkin sitting out on the deck, I figured I'd better use up the pumpkin puree I froze last fall. Sam loves pumpkin bread so he has no problem with this, but since I usually freeze the pumpkin in the large-sized cottage cheese containers, I always have some left over. There isn't enough for another batch of bread, but not so little that I want to throw it away.

The solution? Pumpkin biscuits!

Catmaster Pumpkin Biscuits

Ingredients
2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp each of cloves, nutmeg, and ginger
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup shortening.

Directions
Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl, then add the shortening, pumpkin, and buttermilk. Mix with a fork to cut in the shortening until you have a soft, sticky dough. Turn dough out onto a board with a handful of self-rising flour and knead a few times until the extra flour is incorporated and the dough loses its stickiness. Press out to about 1/2 inch thickness and cut with biscuit cutter. Place biscuits on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 450 degrees for 12-14 minutes and enjoy!