One difference is that usually with a cake mix, the only ingredient from the fridge is eggs, whereas scratch cakes use eggs, butter, sometimes milk. One trick for lighter cakes is to use room temperature ingredients – so maybe if you try bringing the eggs, butter and any other chilled ingredients to room temperature before starting, that might help.

Another difference might be in the type of flour used. Some cake mixes use a lighter flour. So for your scratch cakes, you might try using cake flour (which has a lighter texture) instead of all-purpose flour. Try using 1 cup + 2 tablespoons cake flour for every 1 cup of all-purpose flour called for in the recipe.  Or look for recipes that call for cake flour, like my Snow White Cake, Nutty White Cake, and Whipping Cream Cake.

Here are some other general tips that will help give you lighter cakes:

* It’s important to incorporate air into the batter for light and fluffy cakes, so be sure to beat the batter as long as the recipe directs.

* You could try separating the eggs, then add the yolks to the batter, but beat the egg whites separately until very light, then fold them into the rest of the batter just before baking.

* Resist the urge to open the oven door while the cake is baking – the sudden change in temperature can cause the cake to fall.

I hope these tips help – please let me know how it turns out if you try them!

And I do have dozens of other recipes that use ground beef, including Crunchy Taco Salad,  Fiesta Beef Enchiladas, Festive Taco Potpie and Beef Tamale Pie.  Visit the Ground Beef Recipes page to see them all!

But you’re in luck, because in addition to my wieners-wrapped-in-pastry Pigs in Blankets recipe, I also have a Classic Stuffed Cabbage recipe for you. The recipe uses a slow cooker, but if you don’t have one you can cook the cabbage rolls on the stovetop: Use a covered Dutch oven and cook over low heat for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Keep in mind that cooking in a slow cooker doesn’t require as much liquid as on the stovetop, so check the pot frequently and if the sauce reduces too much, add a little bit of  water.

But the wonderful thing about casseroles is that they are so adaptable, so you can easily tweak one of my other chicken casseroles. For a reasonable facsimile of Chicken Divan, add some chopped chicken to my Rice & Broccoli Casserole recipe; add broccoli (cooked fresh or frozen) to Chicken Strata; or substitute broccoli for the asparagus in Chicken Asparagus Bake. And finally, I urge you to browse all of my Casserole Recipes for a lot more terrific baked-dish dinners!

However, it can be kind of tricky to convert the recipes, and it will take a little bit of trial and error. But fortunately, the Internet to the rescue! BreadWorld.com, a website from Fleischmann’s Yeast, has some good advice and tips for converting recipes here: Converting Recipes from Traditional to Bread Machine Use. And the Bread Making Basics page of the King Arthur Flour site has some tips if you scroll down to the Frequently Asked Questions area.

Hope this helps! Please let us know how it turns out if you convert a regular bread recipe to the machine.

Pork Chops & Stuffing Bake
For an easy and delicious meal, nothing could beat Grandma’s pork chops.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 to 40 minutes
Serves 6

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
6 (3/4-inch thick) boneless pork chops
1 small onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
1 (14-ounce) can chicken broth
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup, undiluted
1/4 cup dry white wine
6 cups herb-seasoned stuffing cubes

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly spray 13 x 9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Heat vegetable oil in large deep skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add the pork chops and cook until browned on both sides, turning once. Remove pork chops from skillet and set aside.

3. Add onion and celery to same skillet. Cook and stir until onion is tender, about 3 minutes. Add apples; cook and stir for about 1 minute. Add the chicken broth, undiluted soup and wine; mix well. Bring to a simmer; remove from heat. Stir in stuffing cubes until moistened.

4. Spread stuffing mixture in prepared baking dish. Place pork chops on top of stuffing; pour any accumulated juices over pork chops.

5. Cover baking dish tightly with foil and bake until pork chops are juicy and barely pink in center, about 30 to 40 minutes.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
Because everybody loved Grandma’s stuffing so much, she often made a second batch. She would place it in a lightly greased baking dish, cover it and bake it at the same time as the pork chops. For a drier stuffing, she would uncover it during the last ten minutes of baking.

Oh yes, angel biscuits! Rich, buttery and absolutely delicious. They are sometimes called Bride’s Biscuits because although they are yeast-risen, they are almost foolproof to make. So head over to Angel Yeast Biscuits and print out the recipe for your neighbor—I’m sure it is very close to the recipe she remembers so well.

In addition, you could use chicken tenders in many of my Chicken Breast Recipes; just keep in mind that you don’t need to cook chicken tenders as long as you do chicken breasts.

 As for one-dish meals: Oh, yes, if you’re tired of too-much cleanup, I have plenty of One-Dish Dinners you can choose from!

Making your own tomato sauce for pasta and pizza is really quite easy. You can use staples that you have on hand (canned tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, onion) and save money over costly commercial sauces. Here’s all you need to do:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet. Add 2 minced cloves of garlic and cook until softened. Chop 1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes. Add the tomatoes (and their juice) and 2 tablespoons tomato paste to the oil. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

2. Use in any recipe that calls for tomato sauce or pasta sauce.

Variations
–Saute 1 chopped onion with the garlic for a more substantial sauce.
–For mushroom pasta sauce, first saute some sliced white or cremini mushrooms in the oil, then add the garlic.

(Be careful, though if you’re making a marinade; if you don’t use wine you need to make sure there is some acid in the marinade. For 1/2 cup wine in a marinade, try substituting 1/4 cup vinegar + 1/4 cup water + 1 tablespoon sugar OR 1/2 cup stock or water + 1 tablespoon vinegar.)

And did you know that most every recipe that uses wine in Grandma’s Kitchen also includes a non-alcohol substitute? For instance, Five-Onion Soup calls for 1 1/4 cups burgundy OR 1 cup water plus 2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar.  And my Fettuccine alla Carbonara says you can use 1/4 cup dry white wine OR chicken broth. So feel free to browse all of Grandma’s Kitchen recipes and rest assured you can make them without alcohol!

You might also want to check out some of the recipes at the Zatarain’s website: zatarains.com/Recipes/Jambalaya.aspx. They all use their mixes, but the recipes also include a lot more additional ingredients than just chicken or seafood. It might be a good place to start if you want to expand your jambalaya repertoire.

However, are you aware of the USDA’s Nutrient Database? You can access the nutrition information (including calories, fat, fiber, sugar, carbs, etc.)  for thousands of foods — from simple ingredients (like onions or spaghetti) to prepared foods (like tomato sauce or chicken nuggets). The database is online at www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_s.pl.

In addition, I can tell you that if you’d like to keep the calorie count down when making the Chunky Potato Soup, be sure to use skim or reduced-fat milk, and maybe cut down on the amount of cheese – using 1/2 cup (instead of 1 cup) would still make a delicious soup.

And finally, you might want to check out the recipes that are tagged  “Healthy” on Grandma’s Kitchen: www.grandmaskitchen.com/tag/healthy. Although they are not specifically developed to be low-calorie, they are relatively healthy and you might find some dishes that fit in with your eating plan.

If you are baking cookies or muffins, you might want to be a bit wary. Many bakers and cookbooks say it’s fine to substitute quick oats for rolled oats when baking, but I find that sometimes it alters the texture of the baked good, especially cookies. The cookies will be fine, but maybe flatter, a bit more ‘mushy’ and not as chewy. Some people prefer that kind of cookie, but I like thick, chewy oatmeal cookies, like my Raisin Oatmeal Cookies! (And note that you want to keep away from instant oats in baking recipes—unless the recipe specifically calls for them—they will definitely turn your cookies or muffins into a mushy mess.)

But never fear! You could head over to the Albers cornmeal website, www.alberscorn.com and try their recipe for Corn Meal Mush, which includes instructions on how to fry up slices of the cooled mush. It sounds delicious!

So I’ve got a couple of more traditional scalloped potato recipes you’ll want to try: The traditional Scalloped Red Potatoes is a simple baked dish of potatoes, butter and milk. Pretty Potato Scallop Surprise is a little more involved; the creamy potatoes are speckled with celery, onion and pimiento. Confetti Scalloped Potatoes has Cheddar cheese and a topping of crushed crackers; however, it uses frozen hashed brown potatoes and cream of celery soup, so it is not really “from scratch.” 

In addition,  you might want to check out these from-scratch cheesy dishes that could also be considered “scalloped potatoes”:

Au Gratin Potatoes
Classic Potatoes au Gratin 
Herbed Cheese Potatoes
Smoky Mountain Potatoes

Hope this helps!

And don’t be afraid to take any of the salad recipes and make them your own—that’s the fun of sandwich spreads. Feel free to add or substitute a crunchy or flavorful vegetable (like diced celery, diced carrot, sliced scallion, sliced sugar snap peas), chopped nuts (like walnuts, cashews, almonds), minced fresh herbs (tarragon, thyme, parsley, dill, chives), and even fruit (diced apple or pear, raisins, chopped prunes).  The possibilities are endless!

(Sophia’s question was sent from the My Great Recipes app. Did you know that you can get Grandma’s carefully selected recipes on your smartphone? Just 99 cents for a limited time.)

I have a no-bake raspberry tart—is that close enough? My Luscious Raspberry Tart has a filling made of cream, white chocolate, and raspberries. It’s delicious, and very elegant. I think you’ll like it.

But wait! I’ve got plenty more cheesy potatoes! Sesame Mashed Potatoes are mashed spuds with plenty of cheese; Classic Potatoes au Gratin, with both Swiss and Cheddar, is one of my most popular recipes; Potatoes Romanoff has both cottage cheese and Cheddar Cheese. Au Gratin Potatoes uses American cheese; even Potatoes Florentine has a good amount of Jack cheese, along with the spinach. And finally, Delmonico Potatoes has 2 cups of grated Cheddar. Enjoy your cheesy spuds!

You might also be interested in my Marinated Rib Roast, which uses a boned, rolled roast (ask your butcher to do this), and Peppered Beef Rib Roast (featured in this week’s newsletter), which calls for a boneless rib roast. I hope this clears things up for you!

Quick Chicken Pot Pie uses biscuit baking mix (i.e., Bisquick) for the topping. Mini Chicken Pot Pies uses refrigerated biscuit dough as the crust. Tempting Tuna Pot Pie uses crescent roll dough (and you can substitute cooked chicken for the tuna). Not in the mood for chicken? I also have Festive Taco Pot Pie, Bayou-Style Pot Pie and Tuna & Pasta Pot Pie. Enjoy!

Butter is the solid fat that you buy in sticks and use on toast, sandwiches and to make cookies, cakes, etc. Butter is made by churning (mixing) cream until the fats come together to create butter, with some liquid leftover.

Originally, buttermilk was this leftover liquid. But nowadays (since few people churn their own butter!), buttermilk is regular milk that has had special bacteria added to it to thicken it and give it a tangy flavor – it is similar to plain yogurt, but not as thick. You can buy cartons of buttermilk in the dairy case of your supermarket, or make your own by mixing 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup whole milk and letting it sit for about 15 minutes. Hope this helps – happy baking!

You might want to try my Herbed Potato Salad, which has a creamy yogurt dressing. And don’t be shy about substituting your favorite veggies and herbs for the ones in the recipe – that’s what potato salad is all about!

As for the sauce—that’s a bit more difficult. I doubt that you would be able to duplicate the sauce exactly (even if the chef DID provide the recipe!). Instead, I would make a simple brown butter/hazelnut sauce to go with the ravioli: Melt a good amount of butter (maybe 1/2 cup) in a medium skillet over medium heat and cook until golden and just beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add about 1/4 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts, then a splash of hazelnut liquor (like Frangelico) and a pinch or two of salt and heat through. Then add the drained cooked pumpkin ravioli and toss gently to coat. What a great first course for a holiday dinner!

And if you’re thinking about holiday cooking, check out the Christmas Recipes page, where I’ve gathered all my holiday roasts, sides, appetizers and sweets. One-stop holiday recipe shopping at its best!

One of my favorites during the holiday season is the Puff Pastry Wreath – it looks spectacular and is not hard to make, as long as you have a leaf-shaped cookie cutter. For substantial noshing, you could also put out some crackers and my Holiday Cheese Ball or Smoked Salmon Ball. The Clam Dip ‘n Bread Bowl is another fun, hearty offering at a party. And for deviled-egg lovers, there’s always the ever-popular Blue Cheese-Stuffed Eggs and Almond Deviled Eggs.

And finally, if you really want to go all out (and guarantee that no one will go away hungry), why not a ham?  My Ham with Raisin Sauce is a show-stoppping crowd pleaser that is perfect for holiday entertaining. Have fun at your party!

For a tasty side dish, I like to make mashed potato cakes. Simply form the mashed potatoes into hockey-puck-sized cakes, then dip them in beaten egg, then dried bread crumbs. Fry them up in some vegetable oil in a nonstick pan over medium heat until brown and crispy – delicious! (Hint: If you find that the potatoes are too loose to easily form into cakes, try putting the mashed spuds in the freezer for a few minutes, or mix a tablespoon or two of flour into the potatoes. To avoid this the next time you want to make leftover mashed potato cakes, plan ahead when you make the potatoes for mashing: After boiling and draining the potatoes, return them to the empty pan and heat them over medium heat, stirring, for a few minutes to remove some of the excess moisture – and don’t add too much milk to the potatoes when mashing.)

I’m guessing you’re talking about my Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Pie.  Yes, indeed, that’s a great dessert! I’m so glad to hear it’s become a Thanksgiving tradition of your family.

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Pie
Our nickname for this pie—candy bar ice cream pie—indicates how many wonderful flavors it has.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Freezing time: 1 hour
Serves 8

1/2 cup chocolate syrup
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups crisp rice cereal
1/4 cup sour cream
1 quart chocolate chip ice cream, softened

1. Coat bottom and sides of an 8-inch pie plate lightly with butter.

2. Combine chocolate syrup and chocolate chips in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH (100% power) until hot, about 45 seconds. Stir until smooth. Reserve 1⁄4 cup of the chocolate mixture.

3. Combine remaining chocolate mixture and cereal in a medium bowl and mix to coat cereal. Press mixture over bottom and up sides of prepared pie plate. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes.

4. Combine reserved chocolate mixture and the sour cream in a small bowl and mix well. Spread half the ice cream in the prepared pie plate. Drizzle with half the sour cream mixture. Top with remaining ice cream and drizzle with remaining sour cream mixture. Freeze pie, covered, until firm, about 1 hour.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
To get clean, even slices of pie, Grandma first filled a bowl with hot water. She made a cut, then dipped the knife in the hot water and wiped it off. The hot knife sliced right through the frozen ice cream and crust with a minimum of effort. And that made it easier to cut the pie into 8 slices instead of 6.

You might also be interested in other breakfast and brunch main dishes that are perfect for the first morning of the New Year:

Speckled Egg Bake
Hash Brown Quiche
Mushroom Egg Bake
French Toast Casserole
Breakfast Bread Pudding
Cheddar Spinach Sensation

Happy New Year! Here’s to another wonderful, delicious year of good eating!

And note that if you haven’t canned before you might want to head over to the Home Canning section of  the National Center for Food Preservation; they have a lot of great advice, tips and step-by-step instructions for home preserving.

UPDATE: The recipe is copied below, but I’ve also added it to the Pantry section of the website — you can find it here: Homemade Apple Butter.

Homemade Apple Butter
Toasted pound cake became special with some of Grandma’s apple butter.

Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 3 hours
Makes 7 (1/2-pint) jars.

5 to 7 pounds Jonathan, Winesap or Red Delicious apples
2 1/2 cups apple cider
4 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Cut unpeeled apples into quarters and remove cores. Place in a large heavy stockpot. Add apple cider. Place over high heat. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the apples are tender and puffy, about 2 hours.

2. Process the apple mixture in a food processor or blender until smooth to yield 6 to 7 cups of pulp.

3. Combine apple pulp, granulated sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest, cloves and salt in a large heavy saucepan and mix well.

4. Place over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 1 hour.

5. Spoon into 7 hot sterilized 1/2-pint jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Seal with 2-piece lids. Store in pantry or refrigerator.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
When Grandma got a slow cooker, she put it to use making apple butter. She cut the apples into halves or quarters, then packed them in the slow cooker. She added 2 cups of cider and the remaining ingredients, then let the apples cook for 6 to 8 hours, stirring them occasionally. When done,  she spooned the the apples, along with the cooking liquid, into the food mill.

Sweet Potato Pie
Grandma called sweet potato pie, a staple on many holiday tables in the South, “autumn comfort food at its best.”

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Baking  time: 60-70 minutes
Makes 8 servings

1 refrigerated piecrust (from a 15-ounce package)
2 cups mashed cooked sweet potatoes (about 3 medium)
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon plus 1⁄8 teaspoon nutmeg, divided
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 large eggs
Whipped cream

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Fit piecrust into a 9-inch pie plate; flute edges.

2. Beat sweet potatoes in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Add sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon and 1⁄4 teaspoon nutmeg; beat until combined. Add milk, butter and eggs; beat until smooth, about 1 minute. Pour into prepared piecrust.

3. Bake pie until knife inserted near center comes out clean, 60-70 minutes. Cool pie on wire rack. Cut into slices. Serve each slice with a dollop of whipped cream and garnish with remaining nutmeg.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
If Grandma was in a hurry, she used one can (17 ounces) of sweet potatoes in place of the cooked fresh  sweet potatoes. And she told us that the center of a sweet potato pie should be slightly underdone even when the rest of the pie is done, as it will finish setting during cooling. That’s why this pie should be tested for doneness near the center, not in the center.

UPDATE: The recipe (and picture) is now in the recipes section: Sweet Potato Pie.

And don’t miss all my other pumpkin recipes on the Pumpkin Recipes page!

Spiced Pumpkin Cookies
We nibbled these cookies until Grandma said, ‘You’ll spoil your appetite.’

Preparation time: 24 minutes
Chilling time: 2 hours
Baking time: 11 minutes
Makes 3 3/4 dozen cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon each baking soda, baking powder and pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup each granulated sugar and firmly packed light brown sugar
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 ounces butterscotch chips
1/4 cup granulated sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

2. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a medium bowl and mix well.

3. Combine butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer set at high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in pumpkin and egg until blended. Beat in flour mixture until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract. Fold in butterscotch chips. Chill the dough, covered, for 2 hours.

4. Drop the dough by heaping teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Dip fingertips into the cinnamon sugar and lightly flatten each cookie, redipping fingertips between each cookie.

5. Bake until firm, about 11 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Store in airtight containers.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
Pumpkin paired with maple and chocolate is an unexpected and unbeatable flavor combination. Sometimes Grandma used an equal amount of chocolate chips or miniature chocolate chips in place of the butterscotch chips. Instead of the cinnamon sugar, she used maple sugar.

I have a couple of poultry recipes that you could easily adapt for a beef-and-barley dish. First, a stew: My Chicken & Barley Skillet would be delicious if you used ground beef instead of the ground chicken called for. (Or for a chunkier beef dish, you could use cubed or diced sirloin or chuck instead of ground beef. Just cook the beef for a couple of minutes in the oil in step 1 before adding the vegetables.)  And for a soup, our sister site, EasyEverydayCooking.com, has a Barley and Turkey Soup that could be made with ground beef instead of ground turkey. I hope you try one of them!

Fragrant Plum Cake
When baking, this cake filled the house with smells that promised a treat.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 40 minutes
Serves 12

2 cups self-rising flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 (6-ounce) jars baby food plums and apples
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
3 tablespoons drained canned plums, chopped
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 (16-ounce) package confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon grated orange zest

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. For cake, combine flour, granulated sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl and mix well.

3. Add the baby food plums and apples, vegetable oil and eggs to the flour mixture and beat with an electric mixer set at medium speed until blended. Spoon into a nonstick 13 x 9-inch baking pan.

4. Bake cake until a knife inserted in center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

5. For frosting, mix the canned plums and butter in a large bowl. Add half of the confectioners’ sugar and mix well. Add the remaining confectioners’ sugar and mix well. Stir in orange zest. Spread frosting over cooled cake.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
If she didn’t have baby food plums and apples, Grandma could still make a fantastic cake with one of her ingenious substitutions. She cooked 1 cup prunes in water until they were very soft, then she drained and mashed them and used them in place of the baby food. Or she used 1 cup seedless blackberry jam instead of the baby food.

That said, you can use ham hocks to flavor many soups (in addition to split pea), like my Chunky Potato Soup, Hearty Minestrone, Bronco Buster Soup (instead of the beef shank), and Farmhouse Ham Chowder.

And many Southerners  use hocks to add flavor to long-cooking greens like collard greens or mustard greens. Hope this helps!

I have to admit, your question had me scratching my head a bit, because aside from a field trip way back in grade school, I don’t really have any experience with making maple syrup. But my feeling is that it’s a pretty elaborate operation, and one not to be taken lightly. Also, collecting the maple sap is something that can only be done during a few months in the early spring – so making syrup is not something that you can decide to do on a rainy November afternoon!

That said, I found a good website that explains in great detail what goes into home-based maple sugaring: TapMyTrees.com. Lots of good info there! Please let me know how it turns out if you decide to try it!

As for pie crusts, if the recipe calls for shortening, you can use butter (in the ratio I mention above), but the crust will turn out less tender than if you used shortening. Since butter is much more flavorful than shortening, many bakers compromise by using half butter and half shortening (or lard) in pie crust dough, giving a good-tasting AND tender crust.

 My recipe for German Red Cabbage uses a bouquet garni with a German touch: cloves and allspice.

Or, if you have your own favorite cinnamon roll recipe, you could adapt it to a caramel roll recipe. Simply make a caramel by combining 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, 2 tablespoons light corn syrup and 1/4 cup nuts in a medium saucepan over low heat until melted and combined. Pour into the bottom of the pan you’ll use to bake the rolls. Top with the unbaked rolls, and then bake as usual.

And so glad to hear you’re a fan of my Chunky Potato Soup. It’s perfect this time of year!

Are you talking about Nana’s Banana Bread? It’s one of our most popular recipes.  Here’s the link:  www.grandmaskitchen.com/recipes/old-fashioned-breads/nanas-banana-bread/.  Happy holidays to you and yours!

Beef, Bean and Sausage Chili
A bowl of Grandma’s rib-sticking chili could fuel a day’s work or play.

Preparation time: 24 minutes
Slow-cooker time: 3 1/2 to 4 hours
Serves 6 to 8

3 slices bacon
8 ounces Italian sausage
8 ounces ground chuck
2 medium onions, chopped
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 small green bell pepper
1 jalapeno pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 (16-ounce) can red kidney beans
1 (16-ounce) can chickpeas
2 (16-ounce) cans diced Italian tomatoes
2 teaspoons Worcestershire

1. Chop bacon finely. Fry bacon in a skillet until crisp; drain and set aside.

2. Cut sausage into 1/3-inch pieces. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Place sausage, ground chuck and onions in hot skillet. Cook, stirring frequently, until ground chuck is browned and crumbly; drain. The sausage will be browned and the onions will be translucent.

3. Sprinkle the chili powder, dry mustard and black pepper over the sausage mixture and mix well.

4. Spoon sausage mixture into a slow cooker. Chop bell pepper and jalapeno. Mince garlic. Drain the red kidney beans and chickpeas.

5. Stir bacon, green bell pepper, jalapeno, garlic, kidney beans, chickpeas, undrained tomatoes and the Worcestershire sauce into sausage mixture.

6. Cook, covered, on LOW for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. Ladle into chili bowls.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
This chili practically cooks itself, freeing up Grandma’s day for other activities and also leaving her with time to prepare side dishes. She usually rounds out the chili with warm corn bread muffins and sliced fresh fruit or fruit salad.

UPDATE: I have added another chili, just because Nancy asked!

Tender Pork Chili
Full-flavored but not spicy, this is a chili that all the adults and children in our family enjoyed.

Preparation time: 16 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Serves 8 to 10

3 pounds pork loin
2 quarts tomato juice
1 tablespoon dried onion flakes
1 1/2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 (4 1/2-ounce) cans chopped mild green chiles
1 cup water
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Tortilla chips, optional
2 tablespoons grated Cheddar cheese

1. Cut pork into bite-size pieces. Place in a large nonstick skillet. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until browned, about 10 minutes. Keep warm.

2. Combine tomato juice, onion flakes, hot pepper sauce, garlic, salt and black pepper in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

3. Add the green chiles and water to the tomato juice mixture and mix well. Cook until onion is tender, about 10 minutes.

4. Sprinkle flour over pork in skillet and stir to coat. Add pork and any excess flour to tomato juice mixture and mix well. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Serve over tortilla chips, if desired. Sprinkle with Cheddar.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
To prevent the flour from forming lumps when she stirred the pork and excess flour into the tomato juice, Grandma used instant, or fast-dissolving, flour and stirred it with a whisk to break up any lumps. Instant flour is granular, so it dissolves quickly in liquids.

Halloween Party Recipes  
Thanksgiving Recipes  
Christmas Recipes
Grandma’s Christmas Menus

And if you’re planning on some football entertaining this fall, you’ll want to check out my Game-Day Recipes and Game-Day Menus.  

(And if you’re not receiving my FREE e-newsletter, it’s easy to sign up: Simply type your email address in the “Recipe Giveaway” box at the top right of this page.)

Chunky Chocolate Chippers
Chocolate Nut Chippers  
Chocolate Chip Squares   
Chocolate Chip Scones   
Chocolate Chip Brownies 
Chocolate Chip Shortbread  
Banana Double Chippers 

I think that’ll do it for now – I hope you find a recipe you like!

And if you are looking for a particular recipe that includes white chocolate, check out the white chocolate page for all the recipes that include that ambrosial ingredient.

And keep an eye out for our next two e-newsletters, both featuring treats perfect for Halloween! If you aren’t signed up for our newsletter, it’s easy! Just type your email address into the Recipe Giveaway box at the upper right corner of every Grandma’s Kitchen page! 

Have a great Halloween!

As I said, I’ve never used canned apples before, but maybe some of Grandma’s Kitchen visitors have – if so, please use the comments and tell us how you use them or how you would make spiced apples.

I would grill or pan-fry a flat iron steak just as I would any other beef steak; check out my how-to for Grilling Steak for some tips. Or head over to my recipe for Pan-Seared Rib Eyes for a good basic recipe for stovetop steak. For more ideas, you might want to visit our sister site, EasyEverydayCooking.com, and try Rib Eye Steaks with Tangy Herb Butter,  Pan-Seared Strip Steaks, or Porterhouse Steaks Verde. Hope this helps!

Potluck Casserole  
Patchwork Casserole
Chicken & Cheese Lasagna
Sausage & Eggplant Pasta
Potato Chip Casserole
Poppy Seed Chicken

I hope this helps!

Black icing can be tough. No matter how much “black” food coloring you use, it often ends up looking gray or purplish. And if you use too much coloring, it can give the icing a bitter or “off” taste. One solution is to start with a chocolate frosting or icing – using cocoa in the icing gives it a good running start.

The kind of icing doesn’t matter all that much – but I prefer a buttercream frosting or royal icing; I simply find them easier to work with.

What might matter is the kind of food coloring. Most serious cake and cookie decorators prefer paste coloring, especially for difficult colors like black and red. Wilton.com, the cake decorating experts, have a good supply of paste colorings, which they call Icing Colors. They also have a blog post with good tips for making and using black icing here: How to Make Black Buttercream Icing.

Good luck with those penguin cookies—it sounds like an interesting wedding!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chippers
Nobody could make peanut butter cookies like my Grandma!

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Baking time:12 minutes
Makes about 2 dozen cookies

1 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
Granulated sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Combine peanut butter, brown sugar and egg in medium bowl until well blended. Add chocolate chips to the dough; mix well.

3. Roll heaping tablespoonfuls of dough into 1 1⁄2-inch balls. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

4. Dip table fork into granulated sugar. Press sugar-coated tines of fork in crisscross fashion onto each ball, flattening to 1⁄2-inch thickness. Repeat dipping fork into granulated sugar to prevent it from sticking to dough.

5. Bake cookies in middle of oven until set, about 12 minutes. Let cookies stand on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Remove cookies with spatula to wire racks; let cool completely. Store cookies in airtight container for up to one week.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
Whether Grandma wanted to say “Welcome to the neighborhood,” “Good job!” or just “I love you,” she thought cookies said it best. If you want to make a statement with cookies, follow Grandma’s example. Start with a colorful plastic or paper plate. Pile it high with tasty cookies and then wrap it all up in colored plastic wrap. Tie the wrap with festive curling ribbons. Include the recipe on a pretty note card for a personal touch.

1 whole egg = 1/4 cup (or 4 tablespoons) Egg Beaters
1 egg white  = 3 tablespoons Egg Beaters

So if 1 white is 3 tablespoons, the equivalent for 1 egg yolk would be about 1 tablespoon Egg Beaters. But note that Egg Beaters contains mostly egg whites, so it may not be appropriate to use it as a substitute if a recipe calls for just egg yolks.  I hope this helps!

If you have a slow-cooker, I’ve got just the recipe you’re looking for: English Bread Pudding. It’s a fairly traditional recipe (except for the slow-cooker), and calls for dried fruit, nuts and cinnamon. If you don’t have a slow-cooker, or would like to try a simpler recipe, head over to our sister site, http://www.EasyEverydayCooking.com , for a super-easy recipe (using raisin bread), Raisin Bread Pudding.

But I am guessing you are looking for a cake that includes some fruit. If that’s the case, I’ve got a number of great recipes you can choose from:

If your daughter likes berries, try Star Berry Cake, Polka-Dot Berry Cake, Lemon Berry Pudding Cake or Blueberry Tea Cake.  

Or if you’d like to use canned fruit, take a look at my recipes for Fruit Cocktail Cake, Mandarin Orange Cake and Apricot Surprise Cake.  I hope your daughter takes to one of these cakes — and a very happy birthday to her!

And did you know that if you are a former customer of Grandma’s Kitchen (and have your customer number) you can access most of the Grandma’s Kitchen collection at www.mygreatrecipes.com/redeem? Many of the Grandma’s Kitchen recipes are posted now (including Hearty Chicken Stroganoff) and we will get all of them up shortly. If you don’t have your customer number, contact Customer Service at 1-800-570-5718 or CustomerService@imponline.com and they will get it for you. Please have on hand the address of where the recipe cards were sent when you call, or include it in your email.

Hearty Chicken Stroganoff
Grandma made this dish whenever my brother came home from college. It was his favorite!

Preparation time:14 minutes
Cooking time: 18 minutes
Serves 6

8 ounces wide noodles
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds chicken tenderloins
4 tablespoons butter, divided
6 medium mushrooms, cut into quarters
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon ketchup

1. Cook the noodles using the package directions; drain well. Cover to keep warm.

2. Mix 4 tablespoons flour with the salt and black pepper in a large bowl and mix well. Add the chicken and toss to coat.

3. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat until melted. Cook chicken in the butter, stirring frequently, until browned, about 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in mushrooms and onion. Cook, stirring frequently, for 4 minutes. Remove chicken and vegetables with a slotted spoon to a bowl and reserve pan juices in skillet.

4. Add remaining flour and butter and the dry mustard to reserved pan juices and mix well. Gradually stir in broth. Cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes. Stir in sour cream and ketchup.

5. Return chicken and vegetables to the skillet. Cook, stirring frequently, until heated through; do not boil. Place noodles on a heated serving platter. Spoon chicken mixture over the noodles.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
For a gourmet flavor, Grandma sometimes added a little white wine to this entree. She added 1/4 cup white cooking wine to the skillet when the mushrooms and onion were nearly cooked through. She let the mixture boil for 1 minute, then removed the chicken and vegetables from the skillet.

And did you know that if you have your customer number you’ll soon be able to access the entire collection at www.mygreatrecipes.com/redeem? Most of the Grandma’s Kitchen recipes are posted now and we will get the entire collection up shortly. Also, if you have your own secret tips to make these recipes better, share it with your fellow collectors!

Homemade Apple Butter
Toasted pound cake became special with some of Grandma’s apple butter.

Preparation time: 1 hour
Cook time: 3 hours
Makes 3 1/2 pints

5 to 7 pounds Jonathan, Winesap or Red Delicious apples
2 1/2 cups apple cider
4 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Cut unpeeled apples into quarters and remove cores. Place in a large heavy stockpot. Add apple cider. Place over high heat. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the apples are tender and puffy, about 2 hours.

2. Process the apple mixture in a food processor or blender until smooth to yield 6 to 7 cups of pulp.

3. Combine apple pulp, granulated sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest, cloves and salt in a large heavy saucepan and mix well.

4. Place over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 1 hour.

5. Spoon into 7 hot sterilized 1/2-pint jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Seal with 2-piece lids. Store in pantry or refrigerator.

1. Use a somewhat thick bar of chocolate – one to two inches thick is ideal.  This makes it easy to run the peeler along the thick edge to make the curls. Experiment with using less and more pressure to create curls with different thicknesses.

2. If the chocolate is too cold and brittle, the curls will easily break. To avoid this, place the chocolate in a warm place (90F to 95F) for a few minutes. You could also wave a hairdryer (set on low) over the bar a few times. If the chocolate becomes too soft, simply put it in the fridge for a couple of minutes.

3. Once you’ve created the curls, you can store them in an airtight container in the fridge. Use a toothpick or spoon to transfer the curls to the container and then later to the cake. If you use your fingers, their heat will soften the curls and they may become misshapen. 

Here are some desserts that would be great with some curl decorations:
Chocolate Truffle Mousse   
Chocolate Bread Pudding 
Chocolate Heavenly Hash 
Chocolate Chiffon Cake 
Dark Chocolate Cake 
Milk Chocolate Cake 
Fluffy Chocolate Pie 
Chocolate Cheesecake Pie

Have you tried my Old-Fashioned Gingersnaps? They are my go-to ginger cookie. What’s especially great about these cookies is you can make them softer or crisper by altering the baking time: longer for crisp, shorter for soft. Since you like them soft, bake on the lower end of the scale, about 10 minutes. And how are you storing your cookies? To keep them soft (and also to keep crisp cookies crisp), you should store them in an airtight container. And try this trick: Add a couple of apple wedges to the (airtight) container – they’ll help keep them moist and chewy for a couple of days.

With all these recipes, you’ll probably want to make a double or triple recipe if you’re serving the salsa with chips instead of chicken or fish. And remember, that the beauty of salsa is you can pretty much put whatever you want into it! So clean out that veggie drawer and experiment!

Hmmm, this is a toughy. First off, I want to make sure that if you’re using frozen biscuits (like I call for in Creamed Chicken & Biscuits), that they are completely defrosted before you put them on the creamed chicken to bake. Because if they are still a little frozen, they won’t bake properly. And also make sure that your oven is calibrated correctly – if it’s not hot enough you may have to up the temperature a bit, or bake longer.

Beyond that, it may just be that you prefer a more-done biscuit. For many people, part of the appeal of biscuits and chicken is the kind of doughiness of the underside of the biscuit (almost like a dumpling) in contrast to the nicely browned, biscuit-y top. That’s what my family loves!  (But they shouldn’t be runny!)

If you’d like your biscuits to be more biscuit-like through and through, you might want to try pre-baking the biscuits. Put them on a lightly greased (or parchment-lined) baking sheet and bake for 5 to 10 minutes, until the bottoms are just beginning to color, then transfer to the creamed chicken and finish them up in the oven. Or, just bake the biscuits all the way through, then use them to top off the casserole!

Spicy Jalapeno Mustard
This mustard was a great way  for Grandma to use the bounty of jalapenos from her vegetable garden.

Preparation time: 39 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Makes 10 (1/2-pint) jars

16 to 20 jalapenos
1/2 cups white vinegar
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup salt
4 cups sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 (16-ounce) jar yellow mustard

1. Cut the jalapenos lengthwise into halves. Remove and reserve seeds. Chop jalapenos finely to yield about 4 cups.

2. Combine jalapenos, vinegar, water and salt in a large saucepan. Simmer over medium heat until jalapenos are tender, about 8 minutes.

3. Add the reserved jalapeno seeds to the jalapeno mixture according to taste, using 1 tablespoon for mild flavor, 2 for medium and 3 or more for hot.

4. Combine sugar, flour, turmeric and dry mustard in a medium bowl and mix well. Stir in yellow mustard.

5. Add the mustard mixture to the jalapeno mixture and mix well. Simmer, stirring frequently, until thickened, about 5 minutes.

6. Spoon into 10 hot sterilized 1/2-pint jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Seal with 2-piece lids. Process in hot water bath for 5 minutes.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
After she started making this mustard, Grandma found plenty of uses for it. She served it with broiled or steamed bratwurst or other sausages, she used it to baste chicken pieces before baking or broiling them, and she brushed it on pork chops before broiling them. It was also the secret ingredient in her spicy honey mustard salad dressing.

Well, I can point you in the direction of a terrific recipe on our sister site, EasyEverydayCooking.com: It’s called Zucchini Bread, but I’m afraid it couldn’t be considered low-fat since it has a cup of vegetable oil in it! (It IS quite healthy and good for you, though.) If you like, you could reduce the fat count by replacing 1/2 cup of the oil with a 1/2 cup of applesauce.

And if you’re really looking to get rid of that surplus of zucchini from your garden, you should check out my Zucchini page – it has lots of great zucchini recipes, including my favorite, Chocolate Zucchini Cake. 

As for mile-high baking, be sure to check out the Ask Betty question from a while ago covering High-Altitude Baking.

Here are a few of my favorite recipes that used cooked chicken:
Chicken Phyllo Rolls
Creamed Chicken & Biscuits
Chicken Corn Fritters
Chicken Chimichangas
Chicken & Cheese Lasagna

And be sure to check out the Chicken & Turkey Leftovers page.

Seems like people have sugar on their minds today! I just answered Nancy’s question about a substitute for confectioners’ sugar.

Ok, here’s what you do if you have molasses on hand and want to make brown sugar:  for dark brown sugar, combine 1 cup granulated sugar plus 2 tablespoons molasses. For light brown sugar, use 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar and the 2 tablespoons molasses.

Guess what? I’ve got a terrific bread pudding recipe I think you’ll love. English Bread Pudding calls for apple, spices and mixed dried fruit – you can certainly use all raisins if you like!  As for an easy dumpling – how about Peach Dumplings? It uses refrigerated crescent roll dough so you know it’s easy!  And if you’ve really got a hankering for apples, you could substitute cored and halved apples for the halved peaches.

As for a substitute for cilantro, I’m not quite sure what to tell you. You’re right that parsley doesn’t really give the same flavor. There are other herbs that might give a similar flavor, but they might also give you a similar reaction, since the plants are in the same family!  But if you can find it, try papalo, a Mexican herb that is similar to cilantro.

You could also try celery leaves or dill (both easier to find that papalo), but they don’t have quite the same flavor. You might also try parsley PLUS a touch of ground coriander (which comes from the cilantro plant, so again, you might have a reaction). A mix of parsley and mint might also be good – not exactly like cilantro, but certainly more flavorful than parsley alone. In the end, I think you’ll just have to experiment a bit to find what you like. Good luck!

How about a salad? OK, I’m not talking about baby greens dressed with Dijon vinaigrette—we all know that most kids aren’t going to go for that.  But maybe a healthy pasta salad made with a favorite pasta shape along with cheese, bits of deli ham or turkey, carrot slivers and other tolerable vegetables. Or try a couscous or rice salad, studded with raisins, nuts and chunks of chicken.  And I don’t know any kid who would turn down Creamy Macaroni Salad.

And maybe “Breakfast for Lunch”! Who says you can only eat breakfast in the morning? Some traditional breakfast foods make great lunchbox fare: The simplest would be a bowl of granola with a container of milk and a banana, or maybe a bagel and cream cheese. Go a little bit fancier and pack thawed frozen waffles spread with peanut butter. For a truly comforting lunch, pack hot oatmeal in a Thermos and include some maple syrup and fresh fruit for mixing in.

Or perhaps a hot lunch? Some kids really enjoy hot food at lunch. My grandson, who passes by most vegetables, will happily slurp up most any kind of soup, even veggie-filled minestrone. So think about investing in a Thermos that you can fill with Chicken Curly Noodle Soup (or any other favorite soup), and add some bread and fruit.  A wide-mouthed Thermos is also good for last night’s stew, fried rice and other rice dishes, and even leftover scoops of casserole or baked pasta!

And finally, go beyond the typical sandwich. Forgo regular sliced bread and build a sandwich from raisin bread, whole grain pita rounds, rice cakes, corn muffins, or bagels. Or take it a step further and deconstruct the typical lunchbox sandwich by separating the protein from the bread or crackers—kids love putting together their own food! It makes it more like a snack, and we all know how much kids love snacks. Try some of these combos for easy lunches:

• Peanut butter or hummus with crackers
• Tuna salad with pita bread triangles to use as scoops
• Cheddar cheese and apple slices with crackers on the side
• String cheese and ham bites with crackers on the side

I hope these suggestions are helpful, Amanda. Here’s to a wonderful new school year for you and your kids!

So I’m not sure what to tell you!  Maybe there are differences in pans from different manufacturers? Have you tried a different brand? You might want to do some research on home and kitchen retail websites that include buyers’ reviews (like Amazon.com), and look for a pan that has universally good reviews. So sorry I couldn’t help you more!  

But maybe there are some Grandma’s Kitchen visitors who have some advice on silicone baking? If so, please comment below and tell Grandma and Merrianne about your experience with silicone bakeware, whether it’s good or bad!

My Santa Fe Skillet Chili, although an excellent chili, is a bit saucy because it uses undrained beans, tomatoes, and chiles. So if you try that recipe you might want to drain those ingredients before adding them to the chili. And of course, use any of the tips above if it’s still too saucy for you!

Classic Waldorf Salad
Grandma’s mother and father stayed at the Waldorf Hotel in New York in the early 1900s. They brought home this recipe.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: none
Serves 6

1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 medium Red Delicious apples
2  medium Golden Delicious apples
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup sliced celery
6 large leaves lettuce

1. For salad dressing, combine whipping cream, mayonnaise, granulated sugar, lemon juice and salt in a small bowl and mix well.

2. For salad, chop the unpeeled apples. Combine apples, pecans and celery in a large bowl and mix well.

3. Add salad dressing to salad and toss to mix well.

4. Place a lettuce leaf on each of 6 individual serving plates. Top with equal portions of salad. Serve immediately.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
Classic Waldorf Salad is so flexible. Grandma sometimes used whole-milk plain yogurt instead of mayonnaise.  Sometimes she added grapes, cut in half, and omitted the salt. She even occasionally used toasted sunflower seeds in place of the pecans.

The very best to your sister-in-law and the rest of the family!

Creamy Macaroni Salad
This delicious salad was always a family favorite at summer picnics.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: none
Serves 6

16 ounces elbow macaroni
1 each medium red and green bell pepper
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon each salt and black pepper
1 cup chopped celery
1 medium yellow onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
Cherry tomatoes, optional for garnish

1. Prepare elbow macaroni according to package directions, but do not add salt. Drain macaroni in colander; place under cold running water to cool. Drain thoroughly.

2. Remove the stems and seeds from red and green bell peppers. Chop bell peppers and set aside.

3. For dressing, in a large bowl, mix mayonnaise, cider vinegar, sugar, salt and black pepper until well blended.

4. Add cooked cooled macaroni, chopped celery, chopped bell peppers and chopped onion to bowl. Toss with dressing to coat evenly.

5. Place salad on serving platter. Garnish with cherry tomatoes, if desired, and serve.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
When Grandma cooked pasta, she didn’t have a pasta pot to use. If you don’t have one to cook your pasta in, use Grandma’s old-fashioned version of a pasta pot. She placed a metal colander or a large metal strainer inside a pot of boiling water. Then she placed the uncooked pasta in the colander or strainer. When the pasta was done cooking, she simply lifted the colander out of the pot to drain the pasta.

In addition, our sister site, GreatMealsinUnder30.com, has a great chicken kebab recipe that you can either grill or broil: Honey Mustard Kebabs. I hope one of these works for you!

You also might want to head over to the National Center for Food Preservation; they have wonderful recipes and step-by-step instructions for making jams and jellies, including three recipes for plum jam.

If you feel like using herbs in main dishes, salads, and other recipes, you can browse all of my recipes that use fresh herbs by heading over to the Herb Page. Enjoy those home-grown herbs while they last!

As for diabetic-friendly desserts, at this time we don’t have any recipes that are specifically developed for those on a restricted diet. But I urge you to check out the website of the American Diabetes Association at www.diabetes.org. Their “Food & Fitness” section has a lot of excellent advice on healthy cooking in general and cooking for diabetes patients in particular. In addition, www.DiabeticLifestyle.com has a large number of diabetic-friendly recipes in all categories.

And you might want to check out my recipes that are tagged  “Healthy,” which you can find at www.grandmaskitchen.com/tag/healthy.  Although they are not specifically developed to be diabetic-friendly, you might find some desserts that fit in with your eating plan.

Instead of the horseradish in the recipe, substitute minced fresh garlic, minced fresh chiles, garlic salt, chili powder, curry powder, cayenne, hot sauce, mustard – any zesty, strong seasoning is fair game.

If you’d like corn that isn’t quite so zesty, omit the horseradish, parsley and paprika and substitute minced fresh herbs (like basil, tarragon, lemon thyme), minced sun-dried tomatoes, lemon zest, or even grated Parmesan cheese! Or forget about the butter and seasonings and use your favorite vinaigrette or ranch dressing. The possibilities are almost endless – why not experiment a bit and find your favorite?

Thanks for the oh-so-kind words about my recipes! And guess what? I’ve got just the recipe you’re looking for:  Dilly Beans are fresh green beans, pickled in vinegar, mustard seed and dillseed and canned in sterilized jars. If you need to brush up on canning basics, or if you’ve never canned before, you might want to check out the National Center for Home Food Preservation website; it has some great advice on Canning and other ways of preserving food at home.

And why don’t you make Classic Pesto with Linguine tonight?

Shuck the corn and cook the ears in a large pot of boiling salted water for about 2 minutes. (If the corn is not going to be cooked in the recipe, cook the cobs a bit longer – maybe 5 minutes.) Let the cobs cool a bit, then trim the stem end and place, cut-end down, on a cutting board. Use a sharp knife to carefully cut down the cob to remove all of the kernels. Two ears of corn will give you 1 to 1 1/2 cups corn kernels; one 12-ounce can of corn is about 1 1/2 cups. So, depending on the size of your ears, you’ll need 2 to 3 ears corn to get the amount of kernels in one can of corn.

I hope you use that fresh corn in some of my recipes, like Farmhouse Corn & Tomatoes, Salmon Corn Cakes and Easy Dilled Succotash – it’ll be delicious, I promise! And find all of my corn recipes on the Corn page.

But be warned, this may not be just as your mother made it – there are as many versions of red eye gravy as there are Southern cooks. Some like to stir about a tablespoon of flour into the grease in the pan and cook for a moment or two before adding the coffee – this gives a thicker gravy. Some like to add a bit of white sugar, brown sugar or even maple syrup to counteract the bitterness of the coffee. Some even add hot sauce. Maybe you’d like to experiment to figure out just how your mom made it.

But remember that most everyone insists on serving biscuits with redeye gravy and ham—try my Savory Breakfast Biscuits or Herb Buttermilk Biscuits.   

And thanks for reminding me of this wonderful comfort food — I think I’m going to go and make some gravy right now!

I’ve gathered all these vegetarian main dishes and hearty sides in our Vegetarian Recipes page. Take a look, I think you’ll find plenty of recipes both you and your fiance will love!

First, make a lemon vinaigrette: Combine 1/3 cup olive oil, 1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest and 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice; add a smidgeon of mustard and whisk until thoroughly combined. Then wash and dry some arugula and maybe some other greens, like romaine lettuce or red-leaf lettuce (to counteract some of the arugula’s bitterness). Toss  the greens with some chopped asparagus that you’ve cooked in salted water for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the vinaigrette, toss lightly, and that’s it – a perfect summer salad!

And, oh yes, I also love cool salads this time of year!  And I’ve got quite a few recipes that you might be interested in: my Pea Salad in Tomatoes is a lovely salad, stuffed in fresh tomatoes, of baby peas, Cheddar cheese, and hard-cooked eggs in a mayonnaise dressing. 

As for a mayo-based potato salad, I’ve got plenty of potato salads on the site, but none, alas, that have a mayonaisse dressing. But the good news is that our sister site, EasyEverydayCooking.com, has a terrific mayonnaise-based potato salad:  Dilled Potato Salad. I think you’ll like it!

And for a macaroni salad, you  might want to try a recipe on our sister site, CookingVillage.com, called Creamy Macaroni Salad. It has a mayo/sour cream dressing, and it’s enlivened with vinegar, pickle relish and mustard. You might also like my Chilled Rotini Toss with a mayo and sour cream dressing and, in a timesaving stroke of genius, bottled Italian salad dressing to spice things up. Feel free to use macaroni or any other pasta in the salad, and veggies of your choice.

Hope these recipe suggestions help you keep cool this summer!

And if you’re looking for other ways to use up the surplus of zucchini from the garden this time of year, you might want to check out some of my great zucchini recipes, like Zucchini Pecan Squares, Chocolate Zucchini Cake, Zucchini & Tomato Medley,  plus more on the Zucchini Recipes page.

Mmmm – I love these doughnuts too!  I’ll try to get the recipe and picture  into the recipe section soon, but in the meantime, here’s the text.

Sugared Drop Doughnuts
Many rainy afternoons were brightened with these hot, fresh doughnuts.

Preparation time: 8 minutes
Cooking time: 22 minutes
Makes 65 doughnuts

Vegetable oil for frying
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup milk
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar

1. Pour enough vegetable oil into a large heavy saucepan or deep-fat fryer to measure 3 inches. Preheat the oil to 365°F.

2. Combine flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in a large bowl and mix well.

3. Whisk milk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract in a small bowl until blended. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and mix well.

4. Drop the batter by rounded teaspoonfuls into the hot oil; do not crowd the doughnuts. Cook until golden on all sides, about 2 minutes per doughnut. Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle doughnuts with the confectioners’ sugar.

Variation
Sprinkle doughnuts with a mixture of cinnamon and granulated sugar or with sweetened cocoa powder.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
Because she found a way to reuse everything, Grandma poured the cooking oil through a piece of cheesecloth to strain out any particles. She then put it into a clean bottle and used it for sautéing, but not for deep-fat frying. She  said the oil wasn’t pure enough to withstand high deep-frying temperatures.

But you also bring up the eternal question – how do you thicken your pie? For fresh cherry pie, my answer is neither cornstarch nor flour, but tapioca. I prefer tapioca because cornstarch and flour have a tendency to make the pie juices cloudy and I really like the bright, ruby-like color of cherry filling that you get with tapioca (or arrowroot, for that matter). The trade-off is that the filling may not set as firmly when the pie is cooled as if you used flour. But I don’t mind a slightly runny filling.

FYI, for 4 to 5 cups of pitted fresh cherries, you’ll need 3 to 4 tablespoons tapioca. And be sure to let the filling ingredients (including cherries, sugar, tapioca, and any liquid) sit for about 15 minutes to let the tapioca do its job of thickening before adding to the pie shell.

If you forgot that step, though, and you’re facing a burnt-on mess, here’s what you should do: Allow the pan to come to room temperature, then pour or scrape any accumulated grease into a disposable container, seal it and throw it away. Sprinkle the pan liberally with baking soda and top it with a wet paper towel. Let soak for half an hour, then clean as usual; the burnt-on stuff will come off easily. This works great with BBQ grills, too!

 Of course, you could also use storebought chocolate layer cakes, or a cake mix that makes two cake layers.

I’ve got a couple of suggestions for recipes you might want to tweak and personalize. The first is my Chilled Rotini Toss: I think you might want to try the dressing, it’s made of mayo and sour cream and, in a timesaving stroke of genius, uses bottled Italian salad dressing to spice things up. Feel free to use macaroni or any other pasta in the salad, and veggies of your choice.

You might also want to try a recipe on our sister site, www.CookingVillage.com, called Creamy Macaroni Salad. It too has a mayo/sour cream dressing, but it’s spiced up with vinegar, pickle relish, and mustard. The recipe actually sounds a little bit like the one you describe, especially if you substitute chopped hard-boiled eggs for the Cheddar cheese.

And of course, feel free to experiment more! To me, salad is all about trying different ingredients and different combinations.

I’m afraid I don’t have a chicken and recipe casserole on the site. But the good news is that our sister site, EasyEverydayCooking.com, has a great one: Chicken and Artichoke Casserole is full of chicken, artichokes, mozzarella cheese and brown rice. Of course, you can always use white rice instead of brown, and if you’re not fond of artichokes, substitute any other chopped cooked vegetable, like broccoli, asparagus or cauliflower. Hope this works for you!

I understand your dilemma. I don’t have home-grown asparagus, but I see it piled up at the farmers’ market this time of year and just have to bring home bundles and bundles.

I don’t happen to have an asparagus soup recipe on the site, but you could adapt my Leek & Mushroom Soup to make a terrific asparagus-leek soup. Simply substitute 1 pound of chopped asparagus for the mushrooms in step 2. If you’d like a chunkier soup with more texture, reserve some of the cooked asparagus (after step 2), then return it to the soup with the cream and milk and heat through. Delicious!

And you’ll want to browse all my asparagus recipes on the Asparagus Page.

You can see the home video of the making of my Sweet Cinnamon Biscuits on Facebook – even if you are not a member of Facebook. Simply go to www.facebook.com/grandmaskitchen and click on the “Video” link in the left column, then click on the “Sweet Cinnamon Biscuits” video.  Enjoy!

–Soups, stews and casseroles are good candidates for freezing. Check out my Casseroles page, Stews page and Soups section for recipes.

–Most non-dairy pasta sauces freeze well. If you have a sauce stashed in the freezer, all you need to do is boil up some water and cook the pasta for an almost-instant dinner. Browse the Pasta section for likely sauce candidates for freezing, like Spaghetti & Meatballs,  Rustic Eggplant Pasta and Pasta with Artichoke Hearts. And of course, my Big Batch Spaghetti Sauce is the perfect cook-and-save sauce.

–You might also want to check out my For-a-Crowd page for recipes that serve 8 or more. Many are good for eat-some-now, freeze-some-for-later dinners – like Grandpa’s Favorite Meat Loaf, Jamaican Chicken and Sausage & Eggplant Pasta.

I don’t happen to have a cole slaw recipe on the site at this time, but our sister site, EasyEverydayCooking.com, has just what you’re looking for: Tri-Colored Slaw. It has shredded carrots and red and green cabbage in a cider-vinegar-based dressing. I think you’ll like it!  If  you’d prefer a slaw with a creamy mayo dressing, make the  recipe, but use this dressing instead:  Mix together 3/4 cup mayonnaise, 1/4 cup cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon sugar.

Hearty Chicken Stroganoff
Grandma made this dish whenever my brother came home from college. It was his favorite!

Preparation time: 14 minutes
Cooking time: 18 minutes
Serves 6

8 ounces wide noodles
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds chicken tenderloins
4 tablespoons butter, divided
6 medium mushrooms, cut into quarters
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon ketchup

1. Cook the noodles using the package directions; drain well. Cover to keep warm.

2. Mix 4 tablespoons flour with the salt and black pepper in a large bowl and mix well. Add the chicken and toss to coat.

3. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat until melted. Cook chicken in the butter, stirring frequently, until browned, about 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in mushrooms and onion. Cook, stirring frequently, for 4 minutes. Remove chicken and vegetables with a slotted spoon to a bowl and reserve pan juices in skillet.

4. Add remaining flour and butter and the dry mustard to reserved pan juices and mix well. Gradually stir in broth. Cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes. Stir in sour cream and ketchup.

5. Return chicken and vegetables to the skillet. Cook, stirring frequently, until heated through; do not boil. Place noodles on a heated serving platter. Spoon chicken mixture over the noodles.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
For a gourmet flavor, Grandma sometimes added a little white wine to this entree. She added 1⁄4 cup white wine to the skillet when the mushrooms and onion were nearly cooked through. She let the mixture boil for 1 minute, then removed the chicken and vegetables from the skillet.

Pasta & Tomato Toss is a light summery salad of pasta, tomatoes and fresh basil.
Chilled Rotini Toss is colorful pasta tossed with Italian dressing – a great side dish for sandwiches.
Vermicelli Walnut Salad tosses fresh veggies and walnuts with thin spaghetti.

And there are a lot of other picnic-friendly salads on my Salad page. And don’t miss all my Al Fresco Summer Recipes, including lots of picnic picks.  So take a look and be inspired!

But did you know that if you have a fine-mesh strainer, you can improvise a sifter? Simply place the strainer over a large bowl, scoop in some flour and shake the strainer back and forth to sift the flour into the bowl. Be sure to do this before measuring out the 2 cups. Good luck with the recipe!

Granny’s Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
Granny’s cake was the pride of the cakewalk; everyone wanted to win it.

Preparation time: 12 minutes
Baking time: 40 to 45 minutes
Serves 8

2 tablespoons plus 2/3 cup butter, divided
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 (20-ounce) can sliced pineapple in heavy syrup
7 maraschino cherry halves
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet until melted. Sprinkle brown sugar over butter. Remove skillet from heat.

2. Drain pineapple, reserving 7 slices of pineapple and 1 cup of syrup. Store remaining pineapple slices in refrigerator for another use. Arrange reserved pineapple slices in the prepared skillet. Place a cherry half in center of each pineapple slice.

3. Place remaining butter in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer set at high speed until butter is creamy.

4. Sift flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt together. Add flour mixture to butter. Stir in reserved syrup, eggs and lemon zest. Beat, scraping bowl occasionally, for 2 minutes.

5. Pour batter into prepared skillet. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in skillet for 10 minutes. Invert cake onto a serving plate. Serve with whipped cream.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
Because she had a special use for it, Grandma didn’t discard the maraschino cherry juice. She added about 1/4 cup of the juice to fresh, hand-squeezed lemonade for a soft pink tint and light cherry taste. It was special enough for company, but it made us feel special, too.

So you’ll want to focus on fruit-based desserts with not too much butter, like Warm Stuffed Apples and Baked Rhubarb Dessert. You say you’re craving cake? Look to lighter cakes, like Heavenly Angel Food Cake; bypass any frosting, but top a thin slice with just a drizzle of chocolate syrup or flavored yogurt. Chocolate lover? Keep in mind that one small piece of good chocolate can be very satisfying (and feel so indulgent!), without coming near the calorie count of a rich pie, pudding or brownie.

Here are some tips to lighten the calorie load even more:

–Nuts can pack a wallop of calories. Use half the amount called for in the recipe, but toast them first to bring out their flavor. Toast in a dry skillet over medium heat, tossing occasionally, until they are browned and fragrant. And if you’re using a lesser amount, chop them finely so they’ll be evenly dispersed in the dessert.

–Instead of whipped cream topping, use a couple tablespoons low-fat vanilla yogurt.

–For frozen dessert recipes that call for ice cream, use sorbet or frozen yogurt instead. Try it in my Strawberry Angel Roll, Apricot Ice Cream Crunch and Warm Caramel Sundaes.

Good luck!

First make the biscuits – if you don’t have a favorite recipe, I’d suggest my Savory Breakfast Biscuits or Herb Buttermilk Biscuits, or just use the recipe on the Bisquick package.

While the biscuits are baking, make the white gravy (also called milk gravy):  Cook 1 pound sausage meat in a large skillet until cooked through and crumbly (cook the sausage in some bacon grease or shortening if it is not fatty enough). Sprinkle with 1/4 cup flour and cook and stir for a couple minutes. Slowly add 3 to 4 cups milk while stirring. (The amount of milk depends on whether you want a thinner or thicker gravy.) Cook the gravy until thickened and smooth. Some people like to add Worcestershire sauce or hot sauce at the end for an extra jolt of flavor.

Then simply split the biscuits and pour the gravy on top – Yum!

Grandma knew that nothing beats a freshly baked muffin hot out of the oven. Crumbly but not dry, tender but not falling apart, she would serve warm-from-the-oven muffins for breakfast, brunch, or snack time.  Check out her tips for baking the best muffins, and then try them out with some of her great muffin recipes.

1. Most muffin recipes use the standard muffin method: mix your dry ingredients and the wet ingredients separately, then combine them. It’s really important not to overmix the batter when you combine the wet and dry ingredients—mix only until just combined and all the flour just becomes moistened. The batter should remain lumpy!  If you mix until the batter becomes smooth, your muffins will turn out tough. About twelve strokes with your mixing spoon should be sufficient.

2. Be creative in your mix-ins! If you have a favorite blueberry muffin recipe, you can try using blackberries, dried cranberries, or chopped apples in place of the usual blueberries.  Experiment with adding different citrus zests or flavored extracts to muffin batter, or add chopped pecans, macadamia nuts, or sunflower seeds.  There are endless possibilities! When you add mix-ins, toss them with a little bit of flour before quickly mixing them into the batter at the end (remember, not too many strokes when you do add them!). A light coating of flour prevents everything from settling to the bottom of your muffins while they’re baking, so your ingredients will remain evenly distributed throughout the muffin.

3. You can use any size of muffin pan with any muffin recipe. If you want to end up with mini or jumbo muffins instead of standard size muffins, note that mini muffin pans hold about 2 tablespoons of batter per cup, while jumbo muffin tins can hold up to 1 cup of batter. Remember to adjust baking time accordingly—the smaller the muffin, the faster it bakes. Expect to bake mini muffins for about 5 to 8 minutes less than regular muffins, and add 8 to 13 minutes to the standard muffin baking time when baking jumbo muffins.

4. Don’t fill the cups in your muffin tin more than 3/4 full of batter, or you’ll end up with very flat muffin tops.  To get nice domed tops, fill them about 2/3 full.  If you don’t have enough batter to fill up every muffin cup in your tin, put 2 to 3 tablespoons of water in the empty muffin cups to prevent the pan from warping.

5. To make cleanup a breeze, grease your muffin pan very well, and don’t forget to grease the top of your muffin tin, too—if any batter drips there or the baking muffins expand over the cups onto the top of the pan, it will make removing the muffins and cleaning the pan easier. Using paper muffin cups makes removing the muffins from the pan easy, and helps keep them fresh longer, too.

Use these tips when you try these easy recipes for fresh, homemade muffins: 
Blueberry Orange Muffins
Chocolate Chip Muffins
Cranberry Brunch Muffins
Gingerbread Pear Muffins
Ham & Swiss Corn Muffins

Click here for lots more muffins!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chippers
Nobody could make peanut butter cookies like my Grandma!

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Baking Time: 12 minutes
Makes about 2 dozen cookies

1 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
Granulated sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Combine peanut butter, brown sugar and egg in medium bowl until well blended. Add chocolate chips to the dough; mix well.

3. Roll heaping tablespoonfuls of dough into 1 1/2-inch balls. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

4. Dip table fork into granulated sugar. Press sugar-coated tines of fork in crisscross fashion onto each ball, flattening to 1/2-inch thickness. Repeat dipping fork into granulated sugar to prevent it from sticking to dough.

5. Bake cookies in middle of oven until set, about 12 minutes. Let cookies stand on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Remove cookies with spatula to wire racks; let cool completely. Store cookies in airtight container for up to one week.

Grandma’s Secret Tip
Whether Grandma wanted to say “Welcome to the neighborhood,” “Good job!” or just “I love you,” she thought cookies said it best. If you want to make a statement with cookies, follow Grandma’s example. Start with a colorful plastic or paper plate. Pile it high with tasty cookies and then wrap it all up in colored plastic wrap. Tie the wrap with festive curling ribbons. Include the recipe on a pretty note card for a personal touch.

And if you’re looking to use up some of that leftover ham, go to my Ham Recipes page for dozens of great dishes using baked ham in lots of different ways.

And you might want to check out my No-Bake Recipes page for more treats that don’t require an oven!