Category: recipes

Odds and Ends

I’m sorry, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted.  We have had cold weather , rain, rain, and more rain, and now it’s finally feeling like fall.  Crazy weather!!!

I thought I’d just put some odds and ends here, of things we’ve been doing.   We have a vacation to Florida coming up next week.  I’m a little iffy about going through Florida.  Wasn’t the devastation awful???   And now we may be in for lots of rain, from the next Hurricane coming in through Mexico.

We are getting ready for Pledge Sunday,  at our church.  That will be next week.  It will be the culmination of a month long campaign.  Dick and I have been co-chairs, along with another couple, in manning the “Freely We Give, Freely We Receive” campaign.  (Notice we’ve never said the actual word, PLEDGE.)

Our job, as co-chairs, was to stand up in the service, and talk about the different things, and rev up the people.  The first Sunday, Dick talked about the Devotional Booklet.  I was “Vanna White” and showed the booklet around.  The next Sunday, Dick did the talking, and I was “The Opera Lady”, with my mink stole…Isn’t it GORGEOUS!!!…and I had a few quality items that I put in individual packages to hand out to the congregation for “Freely I Give”.   This past Sunday, I talked about the Giving Card that they would be getting in the mail, and we also did a Stair step of giving units.  Dick came out as “Ross Perot”, and brought out a huge chart to fill in.  It was the first time he’d ever had hair gel in his hair, and we tried to make his ears stand out a bit.   We haven’t figured out what we’ll do next week, but I’m sure it’ll be more serious, since it’s the culmination week.

It’s been fun having my two-year old grandson discovering Halloween.  He’s kind of scared of some of the things, but he was really getting into getting some candy.  We’ll go to a pumpkin place tomorrow.   Yesterday, I joined him and his mother to go to Grapevine. We met my nephew and his girlfriend, and had lunch and wandered around.  If you’ve never been to Grapevine, TX, you need to go!!!  It’s a very happening place.  They have the cutest little shops.

The weather was nice for a day.  I found a beautiful butterfly in my garden.  Then it was cold enough for a fire.  Seemed like a good time to make chili.

What do you do, when it’s cooler and you’re feeling like it’s FALL??  I like to cook.  Today I made a pumpkin pie.  Nice to have the house smelling like fall, with pumpkin things, baked breads and cookies.  Yummo.  Because, truthfully, Texas doesn’t have a lot of cold weather.

I’m considering having a lady come and clean my house, once a month.  She’s coming tomorrow to give me a price, or tell me it’s too gross and she won’t do it.  I have lots of recommendations for her.

 

Bill, our 75 lb. black lab, has suddenly decided he’s a lap dog.  It’s pretty funny.  He barely fits, but he needs some lovin’ and scratchin’.

And finally, I want to show you my corn maze.  Do you think you could make it through?   LOL

How is your fall going?   Do you celebrate Halloween?   Will you dress up?  Do you have a child or grandchild, or neighbor child to enjoy the holiday through their eyes?   I firmly believe it’s a fun celebration to have fun dressing up and getting candy.

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Grandma Sherry

 

Grandma Sherry’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am sharing with you my famous Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe.  The recipe I used today, is of my own design, and it is loaded.  They are delicious!  I always get compliments on these cookies.   I was also trying out my new Mega Cookie Sheet.  I was interested to see how many cookies would fit on this huge cookie sheet…..it barely fit in the oven!!!   I was able to get 20 cookies on this cookie sheet.  Yes!!  I love it.

                                           Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cream together:

1 1/2 c. shortening or softened butter

1 1/2 c. brown sugar

3/4 c. white sugar

Add and stir well:

3 eggs

1 1/2 t. vanilla

 

Add and mix well:

3 c. flour

1 1/2 t. salt

1 1/2 t. baking soda

 

Add and stir well:

1 c.  of chocolate chips

3/4 c. toffee chips

1/2 c. chopped walnuts

1 1/2 c. oatmeal

Preheat oven to 375*.   Drop cookie dough by large teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet.  Bake 8 – 10 minutes until done. { I like to take mine out when they are just beginning to turn golden, and let them finish baking on the pan.}  Remove from pan, and let cool on rack.  Enjoy!!!

 

Let me know if you like this recipe.  What is YOUR favorite cookie recipe?  Press LIKE, below, if you liked this post.

Grandma

Funeral Potatoes…a Friday Freezer Recipe

 

 

 

For probably 20 years, my family has made Funeral Potatoes for most of our family dinners.  My Aunt Virginia Fairchild used to help with Funeral Dinners at her church, and they always served these potatoes.  Actually, we thought we were kind of the only ones who called them Funeral Potatoes, but it appears that they are popular all over the US.  I just made these today, to take to a group function, as my part of dinner.  They were devoured!   I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like these potatoes, except perhaps my nephews, who don’t like cheese.  I am now in charge of Funeral luncheons at my church, and we serve these often.  The recipe is as follows, and I hope you enjoy them.

Funeral Potatoes

Ingredients:

  • Large pkg. of hash browns….I prefer the O’Brien ones with peppers and onions
  • If no hash browns are available with above additions, add 1/2 c. of diced peppers and onions.
  • 8 oz. Sour Cream
  • 2 sticks of margarine or butter
  • 1 can of cream of chicken soup
  • 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
  • 8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • Doritos or other crunchy chips

Directions:

  • Heat oven to 375*.  Grease a 9 x 13 pan.   Chop onions and peppers if using those.

Put hash browns into a large bowl.  Add sour cream, cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, cheddar cheese, salt and pepper.

  • Melt one stick of butter and add to bowl.  Stir until well mixed.Spread mixture into greased pan.

  • Melt other stick of butter.  Crush Doritos, (in this case, I used Sour Cream and Cheese chips), and top the mixture in the pan with them.
  • Pour the melted butter over the Doritos.

  • Bake at 375* for about 40 – 45 minutes.

To FREEZE:   Cover unbaked mixture with foil and label.  This can be frozen and kept in the freezer for up to three months.  Thaw.  Bake as indicated above.

CROCKPOT:  Instead of baking in the oven, you could also use the Crockpot.  Spray with vegetable oil, or put a liner in the crockpot.  Put mixture in and cook on high for 2 – 3 hours, or low for 3 – 5 hours.

From the Recipe Files of Sherry Ruddell

Enjoy!   Leave me a comment to let me know how you like this recipe.  Push Like if you enjoyed this post.

Oh no…I failed! Oh, thank you Lord…I fixed it!

 

For three weeks, I had an invitation to a friend’s birthday party posted on my refrigerator.  I really was planning on going to her party.  But Grandkids arrived, with their parents and it was a busy day.  Actually, I was thinking it was going to be the next weekend.  I blew it.  It was a Fail for me.  I felt really bad.

Luckily, I was hosting Bunco at my house the following Monday.  My friend was attending.  As hostess, it was my job to provide dinner for all of the players.  So I decided to make a dessert in my friend’s honor.  Her name is Betty, so i decided to make Apple Brown Betty.  I looked for recipes for Apple Brown Betty and found a ton of them.  I never realized that the old recipes called for whole wheat bread crumbs.  My recipe ended up more like an Apple Crisp.  It was good and it filled the bill!  As a tribute to my friend, Betty, here is the recipe.  I tend to adjust things if I don’t have the items or I think something else will taste better.

 APPLE BROWN BETTY

Ingredients:

  • 6 Granny Smith apples
  • 1/4 c. lemon or orange juice
  • 1 stick of butter or margarine
  • 1/2 c. of brown sugar
  • 3/4 c. of white sugar
  • 3/4 c. of flour
  • 1 t. cinnamon
  • 1 t. nutmeg
  • 1/2 t. salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 375* F.  Spray 9 X 13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Peel and slice apples and layer in bottom of pan.  Sprinkle lemon or orange juice on top of apples.  Top apples with brown sugar.  In a medium bowl, mix together white sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.  Cut butter into flour mixture until the size of peas.  Spread flour mixture over apples.  Bake at 375 for 30 – 40 minutes.

This tastes delicious with ice cream!  And it makes your friends more tolerant of your mistakes.

 

Not Yo Momma’s Lasagna!!!…a Freezer Meal Friday recipe

 

What is your comfort food? What is your soul food? Mine is Italian food. Ohhhhh, I love pasta, in many forms! And Pasta loves me…I kind of have a pasta stomach. You know, that little pooch from all of those carbs??? Yep, that’s me. At this point in my life, I need to decide…do I want a svelte body and give up all white foods and carbs? Or do I want to savor some good, tasty food, because..well…I’ve tried to be good for a long time, and I’m maybe just going to accept my weight and try to eat healthily for the most part. Lasagna is my treat. It’s also great to feed a crowd, take to a pot-luck, and makes a great freezer meal.

I’ve played around with lasagna recipes for a long time. This is one that I’ve created. No, it doesn’t have eggs. Yes, I really prefer cottage cheese in mine instead of ricotta cheese. Feel free to use turkey instead of ground beef. But the best thing is that I use Oven Ready Lasagna noodles, and don’t have to cook them first. Here’s the recipe. Enjoy! Continue reading “Not Yo Momma’s Lasagna!!!…a Freezer Meal Friday recipe”