Cracked Pepper Cheddar Muffins

Cracked Pepper Cheddar Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
  1 tablespoon sugar
  3 teaspoons baking powder
  1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
  1 egg
  1-1/4 cups 2% milk
  2 tablespoons canola oil
  1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

Directions
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and pepper. In another bowl, whisk the egg, milk and oil. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in cheese.

Fill muffins cups coated with cooking spray two-thirds full. Bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm.

Yield: 1 dozen.

Originally published as Cracked Pepper Cheddar Muffins in Taste of Home December/January 2008, p38

I whipped these up to go with some soup we had while Dad was here. Dad liked them. Brian and I thought they were bland. The texture was good, alittle bit like popovers, and I liked the pepper/cheddar taste. They are probably worth doctoring up a little since they were fast and easy. Probably a little salt and some garlic and/or onion powder would help. I cut back on the baking powder because 3 teaspoons is a lot. I did about 2 teaspoons, and they still rose nicely.

Cheese Stuffed Potatoes

This is a simple recipe that looks like it has been around awhile.

Cheese Stuffed Potatoes--8 potatoes

Bake potato 'til tender. Cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out insides, leaving 1/4 '' shell. Mash potatoes with milk and butter. Stir in 1/2 c sour cream, 1/2 c grated Swiss cheese, 1 1/2 t salt, 1/4 t pepper. Spoon back into shells. Heat in 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with 1/4 c shredded Swiss cheese.

Basically, it's fancy twice baked potatoes. I liked them a lot. I used whatever cheese I had (co-jack?) because I only ever buy Swiss cheese in slices. It was good, and it would be good with Swiss cheese, too.

Chunky Chicken Picadillo Chili

I was searching for something to make last-minute for dinner. I think I spent more time looking for something to make than actually cooking. I decided on this because we actually had all the ingredients, and it looked pretty simple (especially because I used precooked chicken). It is from a Gooseberry Patch booklet called "Family Favorite Recipes with SUN-MAID Raisins and Dried Fruit."

my picture

Chunky Chicken Picadillo Chili

2 t. cumin
2 t. chili powder
1 t. salt
1/4 t. cinnamon
1 lb. boneless, skinless
chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 T. oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 14-1/2 oz. cans Mexican-style diced tomatoes
1/2 c. chipotle salsa or medium salsa
3/4 c. Sun-Maid Natural Raisins
16-oz. can red or black beans, drained

Combine cumin, chili powder, salt and cinnamon and coat chicken evenly with seasonings; set aside. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add chicken and garlic to saucepan; cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in tomatoes, salsa and raisins and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in beans. Cover and continue to simmer 5 minutes longer or until chicken is cooked through. Serves 6.

Camille had to take a picture, too.

It was good and fast. I liked the raisins and cinnamon in it. Brian couldn't even tell there were raisins since they plumped up and looked like black beans. He doesn't have very discerning taste buds. Someone came over to borrow a rake right after I added all the spices to the pot, and it smelled so strong in our house. She probably won't come back for awhile.

The bread bowls were delicious as well (from Mel's Kitchen Cafe). Months ago I made a batch of 6 or 8 and froze them, and they have been awesome to have available.

Fried Apples

This is a classic family breakfast from when we were growing up.  Dad created the recipe and I remember loving it.  It looked like it got typed up to go in a cookbook somewhere and then thrown in the cupboard.  I knew my family would love it, too, so I whipped it up for breakfast this morning.

Fried Apples
Recipe from Dad

5 apples, peeled and sliced
1/3 stick butter, or enough to fry the apples
1/3 c sugar
1/4 c flour

Fry apples in butter.  Add sugar and flour and mix until thick and bubbly.  Serve warm.

I accidentally dumped a bunch of flour in the pan and in trying to rectify my mistake made it worse.  So it ended up being a gloppy mess.  No one seemed to mind, however, because it got eaten up right away and the bottomless pit that is my child cried when it was all gone.  She ate more than me. I was just sad it got eaten before I remembered to take a picture of the gloppy mess.

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Potato Muffins

Don't let the name fool you, these are not muffins, but more like rolls. And, my did not melt in our mouths, but that might have been my mistake as I'll explain later.

I made these for Big Chubb to take to Young Men's activity tonight. he said he would call them Scandinavian Donuts to fool the boys into eating them.

Ingredients

1 yeast tablet (1 tablespoon)
2 tablespoons warm water
1/2 cup mashed potatoes
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs beaten
1/2 cup butter
pinch of salt
3 cups flour

Directions

Combine yeast cake, warm water, potatoes, hot water and sugar. Let rise until light and bubbly or spongelike.

Add remaining ingredients and roll out and cut with small round cookie cutter.

Place on greased cookie sheet.

Let rise 30 min. and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 min.

Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

They turned out fine. They taste more like a sweet roll. We all liked them. Little Chubb ate two and proclaimed he needed a third, but I wouldn't let him have one.

My problem with the recipe was that it isn't very clear. I melted to butter so it would mix into the dough better. I also didn't know how thin to roll the dough or how close to place them on the cookie sheet. Then I didn't know whether to brush them with melted butter and then sprinkle powdered sugar right when they came out of the oven or after the had cooled.

I may try them again and change the way I actually made them. Oh, Twenty minutes was too long. They came out a little drier than I think they were supposed to be. Plus, next time I am going to douse them with melted butter and lay a nice thick layer of powdered sugar on them.

Blueberry Pancakes with Blueberry Sauce

Fair warning: I did not make the pancake recipe, and I probably never will, but I'm posting it anyway because it came with the blueberry sauce recipe. I did make the blueberry sauce, and it was
delicious.

Makes 12 - 4 1/2'' pancakes

Blueberry Sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp. corn starch
1 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. butter or margarine

Drain blueberries, reserve juice; rinse berries with cold water

In a small sauce pan combine flour and corn starch. Add enough water to the blueberry juice to make one cup liquid. Blend into corn starch mixture. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil and is thick and clear. Cook over low heat five minutes longer; stir occasionally. Stir in lemon juice and butter. Keep sauce warm.

Blueberries can be used in the sauce instead of adding them to the pancake batter.

Blueberry pancakes

1 package Duncan Hines Blueberry Muffin Mix
1/3 c flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup water
1 egg

In a medium bowl blend muffin mix, flour and baking powder with a fork. Stir slightly beaten egg, water and oil. Mix until well blended. Stir in blueberries.

Pout batter in pre-heated, lightly greased griddle and cook until pancakes begin to dry around edges and bubbles form on top. Turn and cook until golden brown. Serve at once with blueberry sauce.

If you read that carefully, you will realize that it does not list an amount of blueberries to use. You will also realize that the sauce recipe directs you to combine flour and corn starch, when flour is not an ingredient. I'm 97% sure that should be "combine sugar and corn starch." I used a cup of frozen berries which melted was about 1/2-2/3 cup, and I used the berries in the sauce instead of adding them to the batter.

I just made regular pancakes and served them with the blueberry sauce. The blueberry sauce was a huge hit. C raved about it saying, "yum, yum, yummy in me bum, bum, bummy" at least 8 times. She doesn't pronounce her t's sometimes. She also asked for thirds of the sauce. I liked it a lot as well. Brian had a taste of the leftovers the next morning and also enjoyed it. It would be good on crepes, waffles, German pancakes, French toast and other breakfast foods.

Grandma Allred's Roll Cookies

This isn't our Grandma Allred but Great-Grandma Florence Allred. Apparently, Ancestry.com used to have a section on their website where you could set up a little family page and put all sorts of things on it. They closed it down at the end of September, so I couldn't see what other recipes people had put on. Mom's cousin, D'Ann Stoddard put this one on saying it was from a cook book GGma Allred had and gone through and highlighted and marked in. Apparently, this was marked "good".

Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 egg
2 1/4 c. flour
1/2 t. salt
2 T. milk
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. vanilla

Directions:
Cream butter, add sugar gradually. Add beaten egg. Mix and sift dry ingredients and add alternatively(I think she meant alternating) with the milk. Add flavoring. Chill dough one hour. Roll part of the dough at a time to 1/8 of an inch in thickness. Cut with floured cookie cutter. Bake on greased baking sheet.

Bake 375 for 9 minutes (the book indicated 10-12 min, grandma changed the time).

This is your basic sugar cookie. I did like it because it was really quick to mix up and the nutmeg makes it a little different. However, I still think the ultimate sugar cookie recipe in Mom's Best Recipes is the best sugar cookie recipe around. That being said, I still managed to eat about 90 percent of the cookies (stress eating due to major lack of sleep and very difficult days with our lovely kiddos).