Tips For Homemakers

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) of unsalted butter.  Pour into a 13×9 inch pan.

Mix 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of milk with a teaspoon of vanilla flavoring/extract.  When thoroughly mixed, dump on top of butter.  Do not stir.

Dump a 32 ounce can of pie filling of your choice on top of the flour mixture.  Do not stir.

Bake in oven for about 40 minutes or until lightly browned crust.  The flour mixture rises up through the fruit filling.

Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

My sister, Wanda makes this cobbler and reminded me how easy it is to make.  She learned it from Mom, I believe.  In a family, it is often hard to figure out who first started making a recipe.  See Easy Dump Cobbler for recipe with pie filling and self-rising flour.

Ingredients		Directions
1)	4 tbsp unsalted butter; melted	Preheat oven to 375°F.Pour butter in an 8” glass baking dish. In a bowl whisk together all the dry ingredients (2-7). Pour in milk and vanilla, until just blended. Pour into the prepared baking dish. Do not stir. Place berries in the center of the batter and sprinkle juice over the top of just the berries. Do not stir. Bake for 40 minutes and golden brown. Serve cobbler warm with whipped cream or ice cream.
2)	1 cup flour
3)	2 tsp baking powder
4)	1/2 tspsalt
5)	1/4 tsp nutmeg
6)	¼ tsp cinnamon
7)	1 cup sugar
	2/3 cup milk
9)	1 tsp vanilla
10)	2 cups blueberries
11)	Juice of ½  lemon
12)	Whipped cream or Vanilla Ice Cream

My sister-in-law, Jeannette in Greenville, SC recently shared a cake recipe that sounds great.  I can’t wait to make it.  She said she took it to a family reunion and it was finished off quickly and people were asking if there was anymore.

Prepare a yellow cake mix per instructions on the box.  Pour into a 9×13 inch greased, floured pan.   While the cake is still hot out of the oven, poke holes evenly across the top of the cake.  Then pour one can of Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk over the hot cake.  Then stir and spread a 15 ounce can of Coco Lopez Cream of Coconut over the warm cake.  Let the cake sit until it cools off. 

After the cake cools completely, spread a 12 tub of cool whip over the cake.  Then sprinkle 7 ounces of angel flake coconut on top of whipped cream.

Then the surprising part…cover and refrigerate for 3 DAYS.  It will be one of the most moist cakes you have ever eaten. 

Have you ever made Rice Krispy treats and burnt the butter or the marshmellows on top on the stove?

I learned this trick when I was working for Golden Corral.

Put 6 tsp (3/4 stick) of butter or margarine (not soft substitute) and a bag of small marshmellows into a large glass/ceramic bowl.  Heat in microwave for two minutes.  Stir until all the lumps are out.  Then add about four to six cups of Rice Krispys.  Just make sure the mixture isn’t too dry.  I just keep adding the cereal until it looks right.

I have also found that the generic brand at Walmart actually makes the treats better because they stay crispier longer.  I have also used the soft margarine substitute and the treats were not as good.  Not as crispy and the taste is different, too.

I managed a coffee shop for awhile and we had a drink there called Javachino.  I fell in love with it.  The shop closed and I can’t get the exact ingredients but I made a drink that is almost as good.  Use a blender and put:

1 cup of cold milk (2 %)

1/4 cup of ice cream

8 to 10 ice cubes (mine are those skinny half circle cubes)

2 tablespoons of Folgers Cappuccino french vanilla (or other flavor)

I blend it until the cubes are crushed thoroughly.  The drink should be icy.  It is delicious.  It is a great afternoon treat.  When my niece comes over or my girlfriend, we always enjoy one.  But keep in mind, it is fattening with the ice cream so I wouldn’t suggest drinking one every day.

I love to put a roast in the oven before I go to bed and let it cook overnight on about 200 degrees.  I often put a frozen roast (London Broil or Rump Roast) with an inch of water in the pan and cover with aluminum foil.  Add spices of your choice…I use Nature’s Seasoning, garlic salt and beef bouillon and Worcheshire Sauce.  The roast is fall-apart tender.

Let the roast cool and refrigerate until dinner.  I add potatoes and onions and carrots and then put it back in the oven for another hour or so.

Well, my husband is a potato-eating man and I end up with a lot more meat leftover than potatoes.  So, I wash a couple of potatoes, poke holes in them and microwave them.  After quartering the potatoes, I drop the potatoes in the broth and meat to flavor while cooking.  Also, I reheat my roast in a skillet on top of the stove, often slicing the roast into smaller pieces to make it reheat faster.

If you are short on broth,  just add a couple beef bouillon cubes and some water.  And if you like it thicker than the au juis like gravy, add a mixture of one heaping tablespoon of flour to a cup of cold water that has been stirred well.   Upon heating, it will thicken.

I enjoy the smell of fresh baked cookies as well as the taste. I have found the packages of Betty Crocker cookies are just the right size for my husband and me. I think it makes about two dozen. We eat a few hot out of the oven with a cold glass of milk. Then I put the rest away in a Tupperware container with a slice of bread to keep the cookies soft.

I appreciate companies making smaller portions of goodies. When I make a cake, I either end up throwing a lot of it away or I try to give half of it away right away. I find making these cookies means less waste and less chance that we will overeat.

All of our family loved Dad’s chicken stew. Mom takes it to church functions and it is very popular there, too.

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts (with skin)
• can of shoe-peg white corn
• 1/2 cup of onions (optional)
• three med sized Russet potatoes
• 5 or 6 ounces of evaporated milk
• small can of tomato paste
• salt and pepper to taste
• Nature’s Seasoning to taste
• Chicken Bouillon/chicken broth to taste

Rinse chicken breast to remove any blood/water. Put the breasts into a large pot (I use my spaghetti noodle-boiling pot). Cover the breasts with water and boil. I usually fill the pot half way. Cover for faster cooking.

Once the breasts are cooked and and start coming off the bones, you can lift the breasts out onto a plate to shred. Keep the broth. Sometimes I use a couple forks and pull it apart while in the pan. You will remove the skin and bones and pull the the chicken apart. If you like your chicken shredded instead of chunky, you can cook it more. Put the chicken back into the broth if you de-boned it on the plate.

Sometimes, I stop at this point and let the chicken and broth cool for about half an hour or I put the pan (with a lid) into a sink of cold water. I don’t like to put warm things into the refrigerator so I cool it down first. Once the outside of the pan feels cooler to the touch, I refrigerate it. Then the next day, it will only take another 30 minutes or less to finish up the stew.

Heat the stew back up if you refrigerated it.

Add the half cup of onions to the heated broth and chicken.

Add the small can of tomato paste and stir.

Add shoe peg corn after draining and rinsing.

Cut the potatoes into 1/2 inch squares and add to stew. I use russet potatoes. I don’t want the potatoes to dissolve away and I find russet potatoes stay firmer.
Add a tsp of salt. Add pepper to taste (I usually start with 1/2 tsp). I add three or four bouillon cubes or you can add chicken broth. I probably put about a tsp of Nature’s Seasoning in at this point. But basically, you will spice it to your taste. My husband likes a lot of broth so I add enough water so the stew comes up about 3/4 of the way up the side of the pan. Often that means adding more bouillon, salt, pepper and Nature’s Seasoning.

You will add the evaporated milk last. You can use one little can of evaporated milk or about 5 ounces. The broth should now be a light orangish color.

Cook about fifteen or twenty minutes until the potatoes are cooked.

I serve cornbread with the chicken stew. When eating the stew as leftovers, I have Ritz crackers and sometimes make a sandwich.

This recipe makes about 8 to 10 bowls of soup. I can have leftovers for another meal or pack stew in lunch. If I decide to eat the stew as a meal again….I usually skip a day before I serve it again. I think my husband would eat it every day…he loves it.

During this busy holiday season and the all-day cooking, I realized I use a shortcut every time I cook.

I fill the kitchen sink full of hot soapy water and wash dishes as I dirty them. Most of the time I am organized enough to even wash some of the pots and pans before putting the dinner on the table. Plus, even if you don’t have time to wash them, you have soaked them and they are definitely easier to clean.

If you have a dishwasher, this still works for you. I don’t use a dishwasher… by choice. I hate dishwashers. But, my daughter does enjoy her dishwasher and it helps to wash off the pots and pans before putting them in the dishwasher. Also, if you do this when you have a big meal with lots of pots and pans, you can start the dishwasher with the pots and pans and then by the time you finish eating, you can unload the pots and pans and start the second load of dishes/glasses and silverware . A big meal almost always means two loads for the dishwasher.

I occasionally make pancakes from scratch and they are very good but not that much better than the “complete” pancake mixes you buy.

My mom makes really good pancakes and part of the reason is because she adds vanilla flavoring and melted butter to the “complete” mix. I make enough for two people and I usually add a teaspoon of vanilla and maybe two teaspoons of melted butter. Then I also add some wheat bran. You can buy that in the cereal aisle. Just add a couple tablespoons of it though.

You will find you won’t get hungry so fast when you add the wheat bran. The butter and vanilla flavoring really add to the flavor. yummy