Squash Spice Cake

I have this recipe twice. Apparently someone else thought it was good. I have a little booklet called "How to eat all the squash you'll grow with just one packet of Daytona. Hybrid Summer Crookneck Squash". This recipe came from it and was also handwritten by Mom on a sheet of notebook paper. I was really excited to make all the recipes in the little booklet, but we haven't gotten a single squash from our one squash plant. All the little squashes would wither away once they got about an inch and a half long. We finally have one that made it past that size, but now the plant, along with the winter squash plants, is getting powdery mildew. What a bummer.

Brian's parent shared some yellow squash with us. In an attempt to use it before we went to the family reunion I made this cake, then froze it. It is delicious.

Squash Spice Cake

1/2 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
1 egg
2 c grated summer squash (about 3/4 lb.)
1/2 c applesauce
1/4 c orange juice
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 c chopped walnuts
1/2 c chopped raisins
Cream cheese frosting

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg. squash, applesauce and orange juice. Beat well. Combine flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Gradually add to squash mixture,blending well. Stir in walnuts and raisins. Pour into a greased 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Bake in a 350 degree F. oven for 45 minutes. Cool. Frost with cream cheese frosting or sprinkle with sifted confectioners' sugar.

I loved this cake. It has a similar taste to carrot cake. I omitted the raisins and nuts, though I'm sure they would be good in it. I didn't have orange juice, but I did have about 1/4 c mandarin oranges sitting in the fridge, so they got blended in. I frosted it with a whipped cream cream cheese frosting, and it went well with the cake. Janet and Jacob visited while this cake was still around, and they both liked it, too. This is a winner.

Granola

This is another Tonya Campbell recipe, #6092.

4 c uncooked oatmeal
1 1/2 c wheat germ
1 c grated coconut
1/4 c powdered milk
1 T cinnamon
1 T brown sugar
1/3 c vegetable oil
1/2 c honey
1 T vanilla

Mix dry ingredients. Warm oil, honey and vanilla. Pour over dry ingredients and stir until coated. Bake on cookie sheet at 250 degrees for 1 hour or 300 degrees for 1/2 hour. Turn frequently. OPTIONAL: Sesame seeds, nuts, bran, etc. Be creative!! Add dry fruit after baking. Enjoy!

I substituted ground flax for the wheat germ. I can't seem to find wheat germ at my favorite grocery stores. I really like the taste of this granola, but it didn't get clumpy like granola should. I realized a few days after making it that I only put in 1/4 c honey. That probably had something to do with it. We all really like granola, so I'll probably make it again and see if the extra honey helps hold things together better. Maybe I'll up the brown sugar too, because that seems like it would help things stick as well.

Gingerbread Pudding Cake (Slow Cooker)

This is a Taste of Home recipe that I have had my eye on for awhile because it is a pudding cake and it is a slow cooker recipe. I thought it would be a win, win recipe, but it wasn't.

Gingerbread Pudding Cake

Ingredients

Photo from Taste of Home

1/4 cup butter, softened
  1/4 cup sugar
  1 egg white
  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  1/2 cup molasses
  1 cup water
  1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  1/4 teaspoon salt
  1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
  1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  1/2 cup chopped pecans
  TOPPING:
  6 tablespoons brown sugar
  3/4 cup hot water
  2/3 cup butter, melted

Directions
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg white and vanilla. Combine molasses and water. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt, allspice and nutmeg; gradually add to creamed mixture alternately with molasses mixture, beating well after each addition. Fold in pecans.
Pour into a greased 3-qt. slow cooker. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Combine hot water and butter; pour over batter (do not stir).
Cover and cook on high for 2 to 2-1/2 hours or until a toothpick inserted near center of cake comes out clean. Turn off heat. Let stand for 15 minutes. Serve warm. Yield: 6-8 servings.

So, usually with pudding cakes, you put the hot water on top, and it magically bakes up a cake in pudding. This ended up being a weird gelatinous cake, reminiscent of the strawberry bread I made once, and no pudding. The taste was very rich, most likely due to the abundance of butter. I don't recommend this recipe, but it for some reason you feel compelled to make it, cut back the amount of butter in the topping. I also didn't take my own picture because pudding cakes generally look like a gloppy mess, and this one wasn't any better.

Vegetable Gratin and Gross Tuna Burgers

Last night we had tuna burgers with vegetable gratin for dinner.  Jacob was not excited.  Tuna burgers are not a favorite of his and he hates zucchini (is that possible? I guess no zucchini week for us).  Surprisingly, he very much liked the vegetable gratin.  He went back for thirds and finished it off for lunch today. 

Vegetable Gratin

1/4 c creamy spread mustard
2 T oil
1/2 t italian seasoning
1/2 t garlic powder
1/4 c bread crumbs
3 small zucchini thinly sliced
3 medium tomatoes
1/2 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Combine spread, oil, and spices.  Mix 1 T spread with bread crumbs.  In lightly greased pie plate, layer 1/2 zucchini, overlapping slices.  Dot with some of mustard mixture.  Layer 1/2 the tomatoes over zucchini.  Dot with mustard, sprinkle with cheese.  Repeat with zucchini, tomatoes and mustard.  Bake uncovered at 400 degrees 30 minutes.  Sprinkle with bread crumbs.  Bake 5 minutes more.

You can see we don't have a pie plate, just a shallow round cake pan, making the nice layers a little crazy.  But it was still good.  Jacob even liked the zucchini when it had mustard and cheese on it.  Jacob almost needed more sauce, but then the sauce king decided he didn't need it, which is a big deal.

The main dish was tuna burgers, but not your normal tuna burgers.  These were Cupboard Project tuna burgers.  They were not very good.  Do not make these. 

Tuna Burgers

1 can tuna
8 oz can cream of mushroom soup
buns

Mix tuna and cream of mushroom soup.  Put on burgers and bake at 400 until crispy.  Serve with dill pickles or cinnamon apple slices.

We do not have dill pickles or cinnamon apple slices, but we do happen to have a surplus of pickled beets, so we substituted. 

I like normal tuna burgers better.  Jacob thinks they are both equally bleh.

Wheat Germ Yogurt Bread

Wheat Germ Bread

 No need to be a health food nut to enjoy it!

Makes 2 loaves

4.5 to 5 c unsifted flour

1/3 c instant nonfat dry milk solids

2 T sugar

2 t salt

2 packages Active dry yeast

1 1/3 c water

1/2 c plain yogurt

2 T Margarine

1/2 c wheat germ

 

 

Mix 1 3/4 c flour, dry milk solids, sugar, salt, and undissolved yeast.

Heat water, yogurt, and margarine until liquids are very warm (120-130 degrees).  Margarine need not melt.  Gradually add to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes at medium speed of mixer.  Add 1/2 c flour.  Beat at high speed 2 minutes.  Stir in wheat germ and enough additional flour to make a stiff dough.  On floured board knead until smooth, 4-5 minutes.  Divide dough in half.  Shape into two balls.  Place on greased baking sheet.  Cut a circle in the top of each 1/2-inch deep and 1-inch from outer edge.  Cover; let rise in warm draft-free place 45 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees F 20 to 25 minutes, or until done.  Remove from sheet and cool on racks.

 What did we think of it??

She declares it tasty.  We loved the crusty outer edge and the light inside.  I think I added a little too much flour, so it was a little dense and undone in the middle.  4.5 cups was too much.  But we still loved it.  We ate one whole loaf for lunch between the three of us.  If you are looking for a tasty bread recipe for an evening snack, try this.

Turkey Crepes

I got an old cookbook from Mom entitled "Let's Eat!" (The title page is missing; Mom had to tell me the title).  It's from their ward in Fargo and has tons of awesome looking recipes in it.  It also has a lot of recipes handwritten by Mom that she said she never ended up making.  So I got busy and started making some.  This one looked interesting and cheap, so I tried it out.

Turkey Crepes                                          374 degrees 15 minutes
6 servings 42 cents each  (I'm sure that amount has increased these days, but it's still cheap)

1/2 c uncooked rice
3 T butter
2 T flour
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1 c water
5 T instant dry milk
1 c shredded swiss cheese
1 small onion, chopped
3/4 c ground turkey
1/2 c peas
1/4 t rosemary, thyme, dry mustard


1.  Cook rice.
2.  Make cheese sauce.
3.  Saute onions; add turkey and spices and rice and 1/3 c cheese sauce.
4.  Spoon mixture into crepes; fold; place in pan; cover with cheese sauce.
5.  Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.

Crepes:  2 eggs, 5 T dry milk, 1 c water, 1 c flour, 1/4 t salt and 2 T melted butter.
Whirl in blender 'til smooth. Refrigerate at least 1 hr.  Cook. 12 crepes.

We loved this recipe.  I thought the crepes might be weird, but they tasted great.  The filling wasn't exciting at all--it was the crepes and cheese sauce that made this recipe.  We both really liked these; they were healthy, filling, and cheap.  The only problem I had with this was that it took forever to make and it made tons of dirty dishes. It's worth the sacrifice though, so we're going to add it to our normal dinner rotation.  Yay for crepes!

Untitled Shrimp and Pasta Stuff

This was a splurge dish, sort of. I bought the shrimp from Smith's, where there was a lousy selection. I opted for the 12 oz bag of salad shrimp over the next step up, which cost $13(!). They were small, but still tasted like shrimp!

Ingredients
6 ounces fettuccine and/or spinach fettuccine, cooked

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12 ounces fresh or frozen peeled and deveined shrimp
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil or cooking oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon instant chicken bouillon granules
1 tablespoon snipped fresh basil
1 1/2 teaspoons snipped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup snipped fresh parsley

Directions
1. Thaw shrimp, if frozen. Halve lengthwise; set aside.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions; drain.
3. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan cook mushrooms, onion, and garlic in hot oil until onion is tender but not brown. Combine wine, bouillon granules, basil, oregano, cornstarch, and pepper. Add to saucepan. Cook and stir until bubbly.
4. Add shrimp to wine mixture. Cover and simmer about 2 minutes or until shrimp turn opaque. Stir in tomatoes and heat through. Add shrimp mixture, cheese, and parsley to hot pasta; toss to coat pasta. Makes 4 servings.

Make-ahead tip: Shell and devein shrimp, chop the vegetables, and snip the herbs; cover and chill separately up to 4 hours. Cook pasta and assemble as above.

Brian and I agreed that this tasted good, but there was something missing. It needed something to hold everything together, and the sauce was too thin to do that. If you are going to splurge and buy shrimp, don't use it in this recipe.

Cooking Hints

No recipe today, just a typewritten page of cooking hints found in Mom's cupboard.  They are obviously older, but I still learned a trick or two.

1.  Use up that bit of leftover meat by combining it in cream sauce and serving it piping hot with toasted corn bread squares; or by grinding it together with minced vegetables and mixing it with mayonnaise for tasty, nutritious spreads.

2.  A little meat can go a long way; combine it with meat extenders, such as rice, macaroni, spaghetti, noodles, cracker or bread crumbs, vegetables, and cereals.

3.  Uncooked smoked meats will will stay fresh and sweet for a long time if you do this; saturate a clean cloth with vinegar, wring out, and wrap the bacon or ham in this damp vinegar cloth.  Then wrap again in waxed paper and store in the refrigerator.

4.  When buying meat, ask for the trimming and "collect the bonus."  Simmer with vegetables, and well seasoned, they make delicious nourishing soups.  Use meat trimmings also to add flavor to dressings, stuffings and casserole dishes.

5.  Roast meats at low to moderate temperature and reap these rewards:  More servings per pound because less shrinkage of meat.  Up to 20% saving on fuel.  More and better flavor.

6.  Remove the burnt taste from scorched milk by putting the pan in cold water and adding a pinch of salt to the milk.

7.  Don't buy a quart of sour milk or buttermilk because you need a cupful for a special recipe.  Just add 2T of vinegar to one cup of sweet milk and stir.  Presto!  Sour milk.

8.  Cheese souffle will stay high, light, and handsome, if you use quick-cooking tapioca instead of flour to thicken the milk base.  Take three tablespoons tapioca to one cup milk for a 3 egg souffle.

9.  Stale, dried-up cheese turns into a delicious spread when placed into the meat grinder with chunks of raw onion.

10.  Get more juice out of lemons by quickly heating them in hot water for several minutes before squeezing, or they can be rolled to soften.

11.  If only a little lemon juice is needed make a cut in the end of the lemon and squeeze out exactly the amount needed.  The rest will keep better.  If the lemon is cut in half, it will keep better if a piece of wax paper is pressed firmly over the cut end.

12.  Fish odors will vanish from cooking utensils quickly if you add two or three tablespoons of ammonia to the dishwater.

Special Rhubarb Cake

After a series of unfortunate events, our rhubarb plant will not be producing rhubarb this year. I was desperate for some rhubarb, so I bought some at Lolo's, formerly Buy Low, formerly Food 4 Less. 

Special Rhubarb Cake

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons butter (no substitutes), softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups chopped fresh or frozen rhubarb

TOPPING
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted

SAUCE
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9-inch square cake pan.
Beat 2 tablespoons softened butter and 1 cup white sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat egg into the butter mixture.
Mix 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl; add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, to the butter mixture, stirring just to combine into a batter. Fold rhubarb into the batter just until incorporated; pour into prepared pan.
Stir 2 tablespoons melted butter, 1/4 cup flour, and 1/4 cup white sugar together in a bowl until evenly moist; sprinkle over the batter.
Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.
Stir 1/2 cup butter, brown sugar, cream, and vanilla together in a saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute. Serve sauce immediately with the warm cake.

Originally from Allrecipes.com, although the recipe under this name now is a little different.

It was good, but I wish I would have saved my precious rhubarb for something more exciting. I totally spaced the streusel topping. Maybe that would have given it the wow factor I was looking for. This seems like a dessert Dad would like because it had the taste of a cobbler. It would be good with more rhubarb, like twice as much.