Raspberry Citrus Bars

Thanks for the recipe Gazpacho!

Raspberry Citrus Bars

1 cup butter (no substitutions says the recipe)
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 cups flour

Cream the butter until soft, and then add your dry ingredients in. (This is easier if you do it in batches: otherwise flour kind of explodes everywhere.) When this is thoroughly combined, press it into a greased 13x9x2" pan and bake at 350 for 20 minutes (it will look slightly golden brown). While that's baking, continue with the rest of the recipe.

4 eggs
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 TBSP orange peel (I used lemon for this since I was squeezing the lemon for the juice anyhow)
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Combine the above ingredients thoroughly so that this custard is ready to pour over the top of the crust you're baking.

1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries, washed (I used boysenberries since that is what is growing outside, and when Heather and I made it we used a frozen berry blend from the store that contained raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. Use whatever berries you have and like and I'm sure it'll work out great.)

When the crust has finished baking, remove it from the oven and distribute the berries evenly over it. Then pour the custard over the berries and return the pan to the 350 oven for another 30 to 35 minutes (done when the middle is set).

Cool in the pan set on a wire rack. If desired sprinkle with additional powdered sugar when serving.

Scratcheroni and Cheese

Several years ago, Gazpacho gave me the brilliant idea of adding sour cream to a cheese sauce when making macaroni and cheese. This recipe takes a remarkably short amount of time to whip up, but is worth it when you really want macaoni & cheese but don't want to face one more boxed dinner. Unfortunately...or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, the recipe is highly imprecise, which means that you can alter it for any amount of persons you want.

Scratcheroni & Cheese

Macaroni (or other pasta shape if you prefer)

Cook this until al dente and drain it thoroughly. While you're cooking this, create a white sauce. I like mine thick, so it's usually equal proportions of flour and butter and about 1/3 cup milk for every 2 TBSP butter, but you can thin it however you want. Once your white sauce is nice & thick, add in SHARP (or Extra-Sharp) Cheddar cheese, a heaping dollop of sour cream, and cook/stir until the cheese is melted. Stir this all over into your pasta, add salt & pepper (and more sour cream if you want) and enjoy!

The sour cream makes it creamier, holds the cheese in suspension better so that leftovers aren't all greezy and separating, and it adds a piquancy that the mac-from-a-box just can't achieve (though you can stir in some sour cream and a little dill weed if you want to better up your box lunch).

Iced Citrus Wafers

This recipe comes from the Monster Cookies cookbook which I'm not even sure my mom still has, but in there it's called "Iced Lemon Wafers." I personally like to make these with lime juice/peel (and substitute vanilla for almond extract) better, and Bonitinha has experimented with other citrus fruits and found (if I recall correctly) that orange doesn't yield a nice icing: too much water in fresh squeezed juice I guess. Still, you could concentrate that down if you're just dying for some orange frosted cookies. I believe Gazpacho once experimented with a Lime Rickey variation that involved some cherries in the lime wafer version. Whatever you decide, enjoy!

Iced Lemon Wafers
1/2 cup margarine (this actually works best with margarine, not butter. Go figure!)
1/2 cup sugar
1 TBSP finely grated lemon peel
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 TBSP cornstarch

Lemon Juice
Powdered Sugar

Thoroughly combine all ingredients (dough will be dry), shape into a cylinder and wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for an hour. (I actually just refrigerate the dough in the bowl: I don't like having to cut my wafers and prefer to roll them into balls and then flatten them with the bottom of a cup, but you do what's easiest.) Cut your wafers into 1/8" slices and bake on a cookie sheet (greasing not necessary) at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Cool on a rack and then ice with a combination of lemon juice and powdered sugar thinned to either a drizzling consistency or thick enough to spread (whatever your choice).

Funeral Potatoes

Don't you hate it when you have a recipe you know you like but every darn time you want to make it you have to go back and find the recipe somewhere in your collections of books or call people to get it or run a google search (now that that's an option)? Yeah: this is one I keep losing, so I'm putting it in this ONE place along with some others I know I like and never can quite put my fingers on. I'm sure it has a better name than funeral potatoes, but what it is, I'm sure I don't know.

Funeral Potatoes
6 cups diced, peeled potatoes (~6-8) (or 2 lbs frozen hash browns)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 soup can of milk
1 cup sour cream
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
salt & pepper to taste

Cook the potatoes (or thaw) until tender and put in 2-3 qt casserole (9x13" pan). Combine soup, milk, sour cream, cheese, and onion with salt & pepper to taste. Mix that goop up and spread it on the potatoes. At this point, if you want a crispy topping, crush enough corn flakes to yield 3/4 cup crumbs and mix them up with 3 TBSP melted butter and put this all over the top.
Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes (hot/bubbly throughout).

FCG: Grandma's Christmas Punch

Grandma's Christmas Punch

Boil for 10 minutes:
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 quart water
Add:
12 whole cloves
4 sticks cinnamon
4 whole allspice berries
Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 1 hour.
Add:
3 cups orange juice
2 cups lemonade
2 quarts apple cider

Heat through and serve warm.

Kolachki

I like to think of them as "healthy" cookies. They're not really, but there's no sugar in the dough itself, so I can pretend. :) And I suppose eating the entire batch in one sitting also makes them not healthy, but still.

Kolachki

1 stick butter
6 oz cream cheese
2 c flour
jam of your choice (I like apricot or cherry)

Let butter and cream cheese soften, then combine thoroughly. Add in flour and work it into a dough (you may need to use your hands). Wrap in plastic and chill overnight. Roll dough out very thin and cut into squares. Spoon a small amount of jam diagonally across each square, then fold 2 other corners over (like wrapping a baby in a blanket). Use a little water to keep corners stuck, and pinch them so they don't unwrap. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Yum! (Gazpacho made the inspired suggestion that a little drizzle of powdered sugar frosting wouldn't be amiss. I don't know how that would fit in with my healthy theme for these guys, but I'm not saying it wouldn't be divine!)

Roasted Vegetable Stuffed Pizza

Today's recipe comes from Sunday lunch at my mom's house: something she made for us that was really quite good I thought. The recipe must have come from a Bread Machine Cookbook because the dough is created in that, but you could easily make your favorite pizza dough, with or without a bread machine and substitute it in this recipe. She also altered the recipe by putting some pepperoni in it (and by doubling the recipe and leaving the mushrooms out of one because some crazy people don't eat mushrooms), which was mighty tasty. I imagine you could substitute just about any pizza topping in this recipe, though if you want sausage, I'd probably say to cook it through first, just to be on the safe side. I'm thinking of making a combination of spinach and feta with some artichokes for a filling. Throw in some diced tomatoes and a bunch of garlic and I think it'd be quite tasty. Use your imagination, and as always, enjoy!

Roasted Vegetable Stuffed Pizza

In the breadmaker, use the dough cycle to combine the following:
1 cup water
4 tsp olive oil
1 1/2 cup bread flour
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp yeast

Filling:
3 cups quartered mushrooms
2 slized zucchini
2 red peppers, chopped
2 green peppers, chopped
4 cloves garlic, quartered
1 TBSP olive oil
1 cup pasta sauce
1 1/2 cups grated mozarella cheese
1 TBSP milk

Toss the vegetables in the olive oil and bake at 450 F for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Stir them into the pasta sauce and prepare the crust.

Grease a 9" springform pan (Mom used a cakepan without springform sides: worked fine.) and divide the dough into quarters. Take three of the quarters and roll it into a ball and then roll that flat and place it in the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pan, taking care to extend it over the edges. Sprinkle half the cheese in the bottom. Distribute the vegetable/sauce mixture evenly over the cheese, and then top this with the remaining cheese. Roll the remaining 1/4 of the dough flat and place on the top of the dish and press lightly to insure a good seal. Brush the top of the pie with milk and cut slits in the top crust for steam to escape.

Bake at 350 F for 50-60 minutes. Cool the pie for 20 minutes and then cut in wedges to serve.