Satisfying, Sumptuous, Savory Saturdays

Satisfying, Sumptuous, Savory Saturdays

Guess what we are cooking today (actually, I made this on Wednesday)???  Cranberry Apple Casserole by Cel Bailey - this recipe is also available in our Trinity UMC cookbook - Temptations!  I think this recipe is both satisfying and a little sumptuous!!  The recipe that I'm going to give you is for ONE RECIPE!  I will tell you what I did to it at the end.

3 cups chopped, unpeeled apples (I used Granny Smith)
2 cups raw cranberries
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups quick oats
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup real butter

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix apples, cranberries and sugar.  Place in a 2 quart baking dish.  Mix oats, flour, brown sugar, pecans and butter together; spread over the top of the apple mixture.  Bake for one hour.

Well . . .you see . . .our family doesn't make many dishes in a 2 quart casserole.  That is not usually big enough.  You would think we would all be overweight - not just me!!  So, we always double this because it is a holiday favorite - both Thanksgiving and Christmas!!

So I doubled all the ingredients - 6 cups apples, 4 cups cranberries, 3 cups sugar (goodness gracious! - it needs it though).  So far . . .so good.

Isn't it pretty??  Those were some of the most gorgeous cranberries I have ever purchased!!

I used my cranberries straight from the freezer.  You can buy them when fresh in the grocery store and then just chunk that bag right in the freezer and use them as needed.  That is why the sugar looks kind of clumpy - the cranberries were cold!!

This is where the problem occurred.  I told Mark last week that I HAVE to purchase some new reading glasses.  I've been wearing 100's, 125's, and a pair or two of 150's for years.  All of a sudden, I can't read everything.  Dadgum - getting old is not for sissies!!  So when I read the recipe, I thought it said 1/2 cup flour (rather than 1/3 cup) so I had already mixed in a cup of flour rather than 2/3 (cause I was doubling, remember?).  There was nothing I could do except start over OR . . ..WAIT FOR IT . . .I HAD A BRILLIANT IDEA.  I would just triple the topping.  Everyone loves the topping.  It is like a giant oatmeal cookie on top of cranberries and apples.  So that is just what I did.  I tripled all the topping ingredients -- the oats, the flour, the brown sugar, the pecans and the butter (well - actually - I didn't triple the butter.  I just couldn't imagine three sticks of butter in anything . . .so I only doubled the butter (that is still TWO STICKS OF REAL BUTTER - LAND 'O LAKES SALTED BUTTER IS MY FAVORITE) . . .I may have added just a tad more - if you are ever tripling it, you can decide -- you have to be able to spread it.) . . .I just typed parenthetical information inside parenthetical information - there is probably some other punctuation I should use . . .or there is probably some hard and fast rule that says NEVER DO THAT . . .but heck - my blog, right? hee hee!  I always use way too many "dot, dot, dots . . ." and way too many parenthesis - I think I even talk that way!!
 

I baked it for an hour but because there was so much of it, I actually put it back in and let it back a little longer.  Then we reheated it on Thanksgiving day.  This casserole is what was cooking when Mr. Stanley Steemer (see last post) was here.

 

Cranberry Apple Casserole is wonderful - it is so versatile - you can serve it for breakfast on Christmas morning or for Sunday lunch - I think it would be great with pork tenderloin . . .maybe I'll make it for Tuesday night???.  It is especially great on Thanksgiving.  My sister-in-law, Alice, usually makes this dish but they went out of town for Thanksgiving.  We love it so much that someone else (that would be me!) has to make it when she isn't here.  (we sure did miss them but they were where they needed to be!!)

 

I'm not having a lot of success with folks linking up to share recipes . . .but I'm going to keep on.  When I went to that conference (She Speaks) this summer, they said, "don't give up."  so . . . link up and share a recipe with us!!  What dish does your family love so much that you cannot have thanksgiving without it?  Or you can just share any recipe!!

Sumptuous Saturday . . .on Monday - EEK!

 

 

 

 

Let me tell you about a wonderful and easy cake!!  This is a recipe for Carrot Cake that is one of the best I've ever tasted. . . so I'm classifying this recipe as Sumptuous!!  Yes, I know it is not Saturday - life just got in the way of blogging!!!  Do you see the picture of my old timey grater?  It works so well!!!  It was Mark's grandmothers, I believe!!  I guess you can tell from the other picture that the last time I made Carrot Cake was on the fourth of July. 

 

Carrot Cake

 

1 1/2 cup oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs separated - jumbo

Sift these ingredients together:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour - I prefer white lily

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

 

1 pound carrots grated very fine to make 3 cups grated

 

Put oil in bowl of mixer. Add sugar and mix. Add egg yolks one at a time mixing after each one. Add carrots next. Add flour mixture about  a third at a time. Beat egg whites in a clean bowl with clean beaters until peaks form. Gently fold into cake batter. You need three 9" pans - grease and flour them and cut out wax paper circles and put in pan and divide batter between the three pans. Bake in preheated oven - 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes then cool on rack completely before icing

 

 

Icing

2 - 8 ounce blocks of cream cheese - let soften

2 tsp vanilla

2 sticks land o lakes salted butter - softened (no other brand is as good!)

2 boxes powdered sugar

1 cup chopped pecans (if you like nuts)

Enough pretty pecan halves to decorate bottom of cake

 

Mix butter and cream cheese in mixer. Add sugar and vanilla . Stir in nuts. Ice cake. Decorate with pecan halves. You will have extra icing - be generous between layers. Mark likes to dip pecan halves in the leftover icing.  This recipe is actually a "double batch" of icing -- one recipe (which would be half of this one) is not enough . . .so since we have double icing, I definitely think this classifies as sumptuous!!

 

Happy baking!!

 

 

Yummmmm - Brown Sugar Brownies

Since I'm on vacation today, I decided to bake something to share with someone else!!  My mother-in-law taught me to bake these back when Mark and I were newlyweds.  I couldn't bake a thing back then!!  While our kids were growing up, I would guesstimate that I baked at least 1,000 pans of these yummy treats.  I have a new lens for my camera so I decided to take a picture of the ingredients and then realized that I forgot to put the brown sugar box in the picture!!  Oops!!  The recipe is simple and delicious.  First preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  While the oven is heating, melt 1 1/2 sticks of butter.  I love Land o' Lakes personally.  When butter has melted, add one box of brown sugar and stir until well mixed together.  Next add three eggs (I use jumbo).  Add them one at a time and stir.  Do not use an electric mixer for this recipe.  The brownies will be soooo tough!!!!  (yes, I tried and yes, I had to throw them away)  After adding the eggs, add 2 1/2 cups of self rising flour.  I always buy White Lily Flour if I can find it.  To me, it makes the lightest baked goods.  (This is not a paid post - they could care less that I like their flour and Land o' lakes could care less that I love their butter!!)  After adding flour, stir well with wooden spoon.  You need a strong spoon to stir the mixture -- a wooden spoon works really well.  Next add 1 tsp. of vanilla.  Last but not least, add 1 cup butterscotch chips.  Optional:  baking m&m's, chocolate chips instead of butterscotch, coconut, 1 cup chopped pecans.  The best combination is the butterscotch chips and the pecans.  Spray a 9 X 13 pan with pam and pour the brownie mixture into the pan.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  Check the brownies at 25 minutes.  They should not "jiggle" in the middle but you do not want to overcook these.  Allow to cool before cutting (except for the piece or two that you cut pretty quickly because they smell so good as they are baking . . .)  One of Laura's friends loves these brownies.  One year, I baked her a pan of these for her birthday and wrapped them in a "shirt size" box - simply use wax paper instead of tissue inside the gift box.

Brown Sugar Brownies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Spray a 9 X 13 inch pan with pam

1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
1 box of brown sugar (light not dark)
3 jumbo eggs
2 1/2 cups self rising flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup pecans, chopped

Melt butter, add sugar and stir.  Add eggs, one at a time, stirring after each addition.  Mix in flour.  Stir in vanilla.  Fold in chips and nuts.  Pour into pan.  Mixture will be thick.  Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.  Enjoy!!!!

recipe for poppyseed chicken for a crowd

I know that I've shared several recipes lately but that seems to be "where I am" right now.  This middle-aged momma has been doing some major cooking lately.  I've written about our Tuesday night study before so I won't bore you with details about all of that but I've had a problem.  I'm cooking for 25-30 people each week and sometimes I find it hard to quadruple a recipe. Do you quadruple the spices? I've worked out the proportions for one of my favorite recipes and thought I would share . . .just in case someone else needs to make poppyseed chicken for a lot of people!!

First thing is to cook a lot of chicken.  I usually use boneless chicken breasts and I buy them when they are on sale or either I buy a couple of gigantic bags at Costco.  I always cook one whole bag and almost the whole second bag.  I usually save about 4 breasts to cook for my family at a later date.  I simply fill up my two huge stock pots with chicken breasts and add water to cover.  I add lots of pepper and a good bit of salt.  I usually add some Cavender's seasoning also and a little garlic salt just for flavor.  When the chicken is done, I remove from the boiling water and place in one of my disposable pans and let it cool enough to handle.  I turn the burner back onto high and let the broth cook down at this point to use later.  After all the chicken is chopped or shredded into bite sized pieces, I start assembling the casseroles.  I use the 1/2 steam table pans which I buy in a big pack at Costco. 

I mix up one pan at a time.  I've tried it the other way and believe me, this works much better.  It is hard to stir all the ingredients if you mix it all together.  So for each steam table pan, you will need:
24 ounces sour cream
1 big can of cream of chicken soup
1 regular can of cream of chicken soup
Spray pan with Pam and then add sour cream and soup and gently mix together in the pan.

Then I add the chopped chicken on top of the sour cream/soup mixture.

How much chicken?  Well, I use my glass four cup measuring cup and I fill it to the top.  I would assume that is at least five cups chicken.  Next time, I am going to add another one to two cups of chicken to each pan.  It was a little bit soupier than I like after I baked it.

Now gently mix the chicken and soup and sour cream together in the pan.

For the top of each casserole, melt one stick real butter.  I don't even buy margarine anymore - just butter.  You can see that I'm using that same four cup glass measuring cup.  I use it a lot when I'm cooking.  Melt the stick of butter.  I zap it in the microwave for about a minute or so.

Then I use the tools that God gave me - my hands - and I crumble the Ritz Crackers . . while still in the sleeve.  WORD OF WARNING - if you crumble the crackers too vigorously, you will have a mess because the end of the sleeve will open and crackers will fly all over your kitchen.  Yes, I know from experience.

Add the crackers to the melted butter and add a couple of tablespoons of poppy seed to the mixture. 

Spread all over the top of the casserole.  The topping is really good so you do not want to skimp on this step.  Add more crackers if necessary.

At this point, you can cover with foil and slip into a two gallon freezer bag and freeze until needed or you can preheat the oven to 350 degrees and cook for about 45 minutes to an hour.  If you freeze the casseroles, place in refrigerator the day before needed.  Preheat oven to 350 and cook for a very long time (unless it is totally thawed before you begin baking).  I usually get home at 3:00 and put the casseroles in the oven and take them out around 6:00 p.m.  If you are making multiple casseroles, repeat the above steps.  I usually make three casseroles to feed 25 - 30 people.  That means that you would need:

2 giant bags of boneless chicken breasts from Costco

3 steam table pans

Pam

3 - 24 ounce containers of sour cream  (or nine 8 ounce containers)

3 big cans of cream of chicken soup

3 regular cans of cream of chicken soup

6 tablespoons poppy seed

3 sticks butter

3 rolls Ritz Crackers (I think I ended up using all four rolls for my three casseroles)

Happy cooking!!