Home Canned Apple Sauce

Ingredients
1 bushel apples (mixed seconds)
1/2 cup honey
2 cups Brandy
4 cups water
2 Tbsp and 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

Pint Jars with lids and rings

Directions:

Core, peel and slice the apples.

Combine water and brandy. Warm on the stove while you process the apples. Add apples to the pot as they are processed. Cook until the apples fall apart by stirring.

Run apple mush through a food mill. Fill canning jars with 1/2 head space. Process in a pressure cooker at 6 pounds pressure for 10 minutes.

Optional: add ginger and nutmeg to taste to create "Apple Pie Applesauce".

Honey Raspberry Gelato

So, in April we went to San Francisco for a week and made an unexpected purchase. An ice cream maker. This also required the purchase of a Spätzle maker, cheese knifes, a serving tray and two huge cookie cutters. This was all done in order to get free shipping.
This is the long way of my saying that I'm making more ice cream today. I tried a batch of diet ice cream a few weeks ago and it was a horribly dissatisfying maple bourbon brain freeze. The flavors were nice, but when you remove fat, you lose creaminess. So, I'm back to the basics.
My recipe today comes from allrecipes.com. So, I've started with a basic Gelato recipe:

2 cups milk (whole)
1 cup heavy cream
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar

1. In a saucepan, mix milk and cream. Warm until foam forms around the edges. Remove from heat.

2. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until frothy. Gradually pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Return mixture to saucepan; cook over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture gels slightly and coats the back of the spoon. If small egg lumps begin to show, remove from heat immediately.

3. Poor the mixture through a sieve or fine strainer into a bowl. Cover, and chill for several hours or overnight.

4. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to a sealed container, and freeze until firm. If the gelato is too firm, place it in the refrigerator until it reaches the desired consistency.

I started by substituting honey for the sugar. And added a little bit of vanilla at the end. Adding the vanilla at the end helps maintain it's flavor. Also, be careful using imitation vanilla, because one of the common ingredients: ethylene glycol is an anti-freeze and will leave you with runny ice cream. Finally, I will finish it all off with some fresh raspberries when it is time to freeze. Stay tuned!!!!!!!

Cottage Cheese Salad

Cottage Cheese Salad

1 pint small curd cottage cheese

1 small package Jello, lemon or other flavor

1 can crushed pineapple or other fruit, drained

4 oz. non-dairy whipped topping or 1 c. whipped cream

Add dry gelatin to cottage cheese. Let stand 5 minutes, then mix. Fold in fruit. Fold in whipped topping. Chill.

Yield: 4-6 servings.

For a larger salad, use 1 1/2 pt. cottage cheese and large size Jello. Add more fruit and more whipped topping. Any fruit or Jello flavor can be used. Peach flavor Jello with peaches is good. This salad is a summertime favorite because it is quick nutritious and goes well at picnics as well as indoor meals.

Submitted by Linda Loula of Phillips, WI

Electric Frying Pan Pizza

1 1/2 cup Biscuit mix

3/4 cup milk

2 Tbsp. shortening

8 oz. can tomato sauce

1 cup shredded cheese

1 tsp oregano

Meat of your choice

Mix biscuit mix and milk and spread in a cold electric frying pan that is greased with the shortening. Top with remaining ingredients cover and turn control to 325 degrees and bake 12-15 minutes, or until done.

The crust is thick.

Submitted by Mary Gutsch of Eau Claire Field Force

Blogger's note: We added a lot to the tomato sauce to make it a little more "pizza" like. These included italian spices and garlic powder.

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What can I say? This recipe involved two firsts. 1) I've never ever before purchased Bisquick. 2) I've never ever before purchased shortening. I'm so glad we needed 2 Tbsp. of shortening to grease the pan. However, we used the electric frying pan the night before and it was really not very non-stick, so I was glad to have the shortening on hand today.

How'd it taste? That's a good question. It was really, really doughy. It was cooked. I'm sure of this, but it was just way too soft and doughy for our tastes. If you like thick crust pizza, you might like this one. You'll notice we used hot dogs. It did say meat of choice. We took our liberties. Besides it was the only meat we had. I'm not sure we'll ever make this again, but this would be great for a college kid. It's really, really cheap and very quick to make.

Beef and Mashed Potato Bake

Beef and Mashed Potato Bake

1 lbs. ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cups leftover mashed potatoes
1 can Cheddar cheese soup or cream of mushroom soup.

Break up and brown the ground beef with the onions until beef is completely cooked and onions are golden. Drain and set aside. Grease a medium square or large pie pan. Put the mashed potatoes all along the bottom and slightly up the side of the pan. Layer the beef mixture over the potatoes. Spread soup over the beef. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 mins.

Submited by Patricia M. Kelly via Butter 'n Love Recipes II, Bloomfield Manor Auxiliary

I have to admit, out of protest I improvised on this recipe. This, like most we've made, is a variation on the same thing. Beef & cream of something soup.

I used ground turkey instead of the beef, and added mixed vegetables on top of the beef in the pan, then put cream of mushroom soup over the top.

I was sad because when we last went grocery shopping we came across Cheddar soup, and neither one of us thought we'd ever use it, so, sadly it was not in our pantry for this delicious nugget of simpleness.

Again... not sure what I can say about this dish, other than I'm happy I used ground turkey, because it is a variation on a lot of the other dishes that have been posted. Tastes good, looks questionable...

Shrimp Chip Dip

Shrimp Chip Dip

2 8-oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup ketchup

1/3 cup French dressing

2-3 tsp. horseradish

salt & pepper

12 oz. can shrimp

Blend all but shrimp together. Add the shrimp last and blend for a short time. Best when chilled at least 24 hours before serving.

Submitted by Mary Gutsch of Eau Claire Field Force

Blogger's note: I would recommend using jarred horseradish. We didn't have any, so we added Penzey's Horseradish Dip instead. It's good, but it lacks the zing that horseradish would have given the dip.

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This is a very simple recipe. It took only a few minutes to make, and it's extra "fancy" with shrimp!

I can see all the ladies at the Tupperware party just going GaGa over Mary's Shrimp Chip Dip. The essence of the recipe, and it's success, is that the ingredients are essentially those in Cocktail Sauce. What do we use cocktail sauce for? For dipping shrimp. So adding the shrimp is a no brainer. And, well, what dip recipe isn't that much better with a little cream cheese or a pound?!?

The end result was very good, and one that will more than likely make another appearance at one of our parties. We enjoyed it the night it was made, but the leftovers, and with just two of us, there were lots of those, were even better. The horseradish came forward and so did the shrimp.

Friday Happy Hour

It's a little late, but what can I say. It's been a long week. Today was day 6 of an 8-day stretch at work. And, boy do I need a drink. So today's drink is one of my favorites.

Old-Fashioned

1/2 slice orange

1 maraschino cherry

1 sugar cube

4-6 shakes of Angostura bitters

1 1/2 oz. Brandy or Canadian Whiskey

seltzer water or lemon-lime soda

garnish: 1/2 orange slice and a cherry. Thread on a skewer: in orange, through the cherry, out the orange.

In the bottom of an old-fashioned glass (yes, this is where it gets it's name) place cherry and orange, add sugar and bitters to taste. Muddle this all together with a muddler. When this has been completely crushed and mixed, add ice. To this add the brandy or whiskey and finish off with water or sprite.

Adding sprite makes what the Wisconsinite will call an "Old-fashioned, sweet". Making it with seltzer will mimic the Old-fashioned you would be offered anywhere else in the country.

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I was taught how to make this drink at my first bartending gig. I was just a kid of 22. Her stage name was Simply Divine, but her real name was Brian Femrite. He sat me down early one night and took the time to really show me how to make a drink. It was the beginning of my fascination with a good cocktail. I've been hooked ever since. So hooked that most of the time I don't order one, because they are usually made so poorly. A few places where I know you can get a good one include: The Old-Fashioned-Madison, WI (duh!), Angel's Share-NYC, Grand Cafe-SF.