Salads: Chinese Salad

This Chinese Salad is one that my family makes a lot in the summer time and it is really good. My favorite part is crumbling the ramen noodles. I don't like to put them in until right before I eat it because I enjoy the crunch. This is also a salad that my mom likes to take to parties because it is different then normal salads.

Chinese Salad

1/2 Head Cabbage (shredded)

4 Green Onions, chopped

1-2 cups Cubed Chicken

1 pkg. Ramen Noodles

2 Tbsp. Sesame Seeds

Dressing

1/2 cup Oil

3 Tbsp. Sugar

3 Tbsp. Vinegar

1 pkg. Ramen Noodle Seasoning

Mix all the salad ingredients together in a big bowl. Mix the ingredients for the dressing together and add to the salad when you are ready to serve.

Soups: Chicken Noodle Soup

This is one of my favorite recipes. My mom has made this since I was a child, but we have never had a written recipe, so I have to make it up. This soup was my favorite to eat in the winter time with the French bread recipe. i loved sitting around the kitchen table with a warm bowl of soup while I enjoyed my amazing family!

Chicken Noodle Soup

1 qt. of homemade chicken broth

1 pint of bottled chicken

Homemade Egg Noodles (see recipe below)

You will place the chicken broth and chicken in a pan and bring it up to a boil. Taste it to see if you need to add water. The homemade broth is usually pretty strong. Add homemade egg noodles. (I usually use about three eggs for this size of batch, but you can add as many or little as you want.) Allow the egg noodles to cook for about 15-20 min. and serve with bread. ENJOY! I know I do!

Homemade Egg Noodles

You will mix 1 egg with 1 cup of flour together. So, for the above recipe I would mix 3 eggs with 3 cups of flour and add about 1 tsp. of salt (taste and add more if needed). When ingredients are combined, roll the mixture out and cut into small slices. Make sure to sprinkle all the noodles with flour so that they will not stick together. Add to the soup mixture. The flour on the noodles will also help to thicken the soup. 

Soups: Baked Chili

This is a recipe that I just started making. This chili has cornbread on top of it and my husband loves cornbread. Also, this is a chili that is easy for me to make vegetarian, which is perfect for me because I don't eat much meat and I love chili. I hope to be able to make this recipe and variations of this recipe for my children.

Baked Chili

1 lb. Ground Beef

1 large Onion, chopped

1 large Green Pepper, chopped

1 can (16 oz.) Kidney Beans, rinsed and drained

1 can (15-1/4 oz.) Whole Kernel Corn, drained

1 can (14-1/2 oz.) Diced Tomatoes, undrained

1 can (4 oz.) Chopped Green Chilies

2 tsp. Chili Powder

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Ground Cumin

1/2 tsp. Sugar

1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder

Cornbread Biscuits

1 cup All-Purpose Flour

1 cup Cornmeal

2 tsp. Baking Powder

1/8 tsp. Salt

1 Egg

1/2 cup Milk

1/2 cup Sour Cream

In a pan over medium heat, cook beef (I just take it out), onion and green pepper until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add remaining ingredients; bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Beat egg, milk and sour cream until smooth; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Transfer chili to an ungreased 13x9x2 baking dish. Drop batter by heaping teaspoonfuls onto hot chili. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees for 15-17 minutes or until biscuits are lightly browned.

Salads: Ambrosia

This is a sweet salad that my family likes to make around the holidays. I didn't like it when I was a child because I don't really care for coconut. As I have gotten older, I have started to like the salad but it is still not my favorite. I posted this recipe because my family really enjoys it and it is a holiday tradition.

Ambrosia

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar                                                      2 Tbsp. Flour

1 ½ tsp. salt                                                     1 ¾ c. pineapple juice

2 eggs, beaten                                                 1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice

3 qts. Water                                                     1 pkg. Spigadoro Macaroni**

3 cans (11 oz) Mandarin Oranges                   2 cans (20 oz.) chunk pineapple

1 can (20 oz) crushed pineapple                      1 cup mini marshmallows

1 carton (9oz) Cool Whip or                           1 cup shredded coconut

12 oz. Dream Whip

**found in Italian markets; resembles pearl tapioca

Instructions:

One Day Ahead: Combine sugar, ½ tsp. salt, flour and stir into pineapple juice. Beat eggs and add to mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thick. Add lemon juice. Cool mixture to room temperature.

Bring Water and remaining salt to boil. Add the entire package of macaroni and cook until macaroni is done. Drain and rinse the macaroni in cool water. Cool to room temperature.

Mix the macaroni and the egg mixture together and refrigerate overnight in an air tight container.

The Next Day: Drain the juices from all of the canned fruits Mix the fruits, coconut and marshmallows together with the egg/macaroni mixture. Add the cool whip and serve.

Breads: Banana Bread

I love making banana bread and my husband enjoys it as well. This is a recipe that my mom has made since I was young. It was the nice go to recipe when the bananas were really ripe. When I was a kid the bread was usually gone after being out of the oven for 10 minutes. It is the best when it is warm. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.

Banana Cake/Bread

Shift together into a large mixing bowl:

2 cups All-Purpose Flour

½ tsp. Baking Powder

¾ tsp. Soda

½ tsp. Salt

Add:

½ cup Shortening (We always use oil)

1 ½ cup Sugar

3 Eggs, unbeaten

1 tsp. Vanilla

Beat for 1 minute. Add 1 cup of mashed bananas (about 2 bananas). Beat for one minute scraping the bowl while beating. Add ¼ cup of buttermilk. Beat for 2 minutes, scraping bowl while beating. Pour into two deep 9 inch cake pans, greased and sprinkled with flour. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from pans and let cool. This is good filled with and topped with whipped cream.

Breads: Hard Rolls or French Loaf

I love this French Loaf recipe which my mom has made since I was a child. I loved coming home to the wonderful smell of homemade bread. I now make this bread recipe for my husband and he absolutely loves it. It usually only lasts a few days before it is completely gone. I hope my children will carry on this recipe as well.

Hard Rolls or French Loaf

4 cups Flour                                                    1 ½ cups Hot Tap Water

1 tsp. Salt                                                        2 Tbsp. Oil

1 Tbsp. Sugar                                                  1 Tbsp. Yeast

Put flour in bowl. Make hole in the middle of flour, and put remaining ingredients in hole. Mix like heck. Let raise once. Make into hard rolls or roll out into circle and roll up to make French loaf. Put slits in top of French loaf. Let rise. Cook until golden brown. Rolls 450 degrees. French loaf 400 degrees.

Candy: Creamed Fudge

I love my grandma's fudge. It is so yummy. She would dip it is chocolate, but many times I just liked to eat the fudge. It was usually too rich for me after it was dipped in chocolate. Sometimes my mom or grandma would put nuts or mint extract in the fudge and that was really good as well. This recipe is also the recipe we would use to make many different kinds of fondant. You just remove the cocoa and add flavoring and color and you have amazing lemon, rum, mint, etc. chocolates.

Wonderful Chocolates of assorted flavors.

Creamed Fudge

2 lb. (4 rounded cups) Sugar                                                  

2 oz. (2 Tbls.) Glucose                                                           

1 cup Heavy Cream & ½ cup water or                                  

½ pt. (1 cup) Evaporated Milk & ¼ Water                            

2 oz. (½ cube) Butter

2 oz. (2 sq.) Baking Chocolate

1 tsp. Vanilla

½ tsp. Salt

3 oz. (1 cup) Chopped Walnuts

Make the slab ready, cold and damp. The friction of pouring hot fudge on a dry slab might cause the batch to grain. Crème the sides of a 3 qt. kettle with part of the butter before putting the batch in it. This may be done with any candy where the formula calls for butterfat, and makes it easier to wash the sides of the kettle down.

Put sugar, cream, glucose, chocolate and butter in the kettle. Stir thoroughly before putting it on the fire. This will help to keep the cream or milk from curdling.

Bring to boil and wash the sides of kettle down with a small we pastry brush. Start at the top and wash all the sugar that sticks to the sides of the kettle down into the batch. The extra water thus put into the batch will not hurt anything, it will boil out again. Stir to keep from burning.

A batch of sugar, glucose and water may be cooked without stirring after it comes to a boil. It will not burn under 320 degrees. Candies containing milk, chocolate, etc. must be stirred while being cooked over an open flame or a hot fire.

We may stir a batch of candy in any manner we like as long as the original amount of water is in the batch. We may stir a batch at any time as long as the batch is boiling and we do not touch the sides of the kettle above the surface of the batch.

Cook to 236 degrees. Put in the vanilla and salt, turn off the burner and stir. Pour on the cold damp slab. Allow it to cool until it is neither warm nor cold. Work batch from side to side of slab until creamy brown/white color.

(This recipe can be used to make any flavor of fondant if you remove the cocoa and add the flavoring and color you want when the fondant begins to turn on the slab.)