Escalloped Oysters

This is a wonderful recipe for winter holidays.

1/2 pound saltine crackers, hand-crushed
1/4 pound of butter
1 - pint oysters, drained, and save the liquid
2 1/2 - cups milk
1 - cup heavy cream or half-and-half
paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Butter bottom and sides of 8 x 12 x 2 1/2-inch baking dish.
Add layer of crackers, layer of oysters, lightly
season and dot with butter.
Repeat with crackers and remaining oysters.
Add 1 cup milk, 1/2-cup cream or half-and-half,
season, and dot with butter.
Add layer of remaining crackers, topped with
1 cup milk and 1/2-cup cream or half-and-half.
Melt any remaining butter in 1/2-cup milk with
oyster liquid and pour over mixture.
Sprinkle with paprika.
You can then refrigerate over-night, or immediately
bake.
Bake covered 40 to 50 minutes in 350-degree oven

Serve hot.

Pennsylvania Dutch Shoofly Cake

4 C Flour
1 LB brown sugar
1 C shortening
1 C Molasses Brer Rabbit Green Label is best
2 C hot water
1 T baking soda

Make fine crumbs by mixing flour, shortening and sugar together with two forks. Reserve 1 C for the topping. Mix everything else together and add to bulk od crumbs. Beat well. Pour into a buttered and floured 9x13 cake pan. Top with reserved crumbs and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Amish/Pennsylvania Dutch Chicken Corn Soup

1 4 pound chicken
4 quarts water
1 chopped onion
10 ears of corn or one bag of frozen corn
1/2 cup chopped celery with leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the chicken slowly in the water until tender-about 1 hour. Add salt 1/2 hours before chicken is done. Remove chicken from broth. Take the meat from the bones and chop fine and ad to broth. Remove corn from the cob and ad to the soup or add the frozen corn. Add celery and seasonings and simmer.

Make rivals by mixing
1 C flour
1 Egg
1/4 C of Milk

Traditionally you would rub this mixture together with two forks. Ten minutes or so before you are ready to serve the soup, drop by small bits into the boiling broth.

Elaine's Egg & Sausage Cassarole

I got this terrific recipe from a lady who lives in Texas. Wonderful for cold days.

1 - cup grated cheddar cheese
4 oz. sliced mushrooms, drained
1 1/2 lbs. bulk sausage
1 - 10 1/2 oz. cream of mushroom soup
1/2 - cup milk
2 - cups seasoned croutons
1 - small onion - chopped
6 - eggs, beaten with 2 cups milk

Grease 9 x 13 pan
Sprinkle seasoned croutons on bottom of pan.
Cover croutons with cheese and mushrooms.

Brown the bulk sausage, crumbled, with the onion.
Add to the cheese and mushroom mixture.
Pour the egg and milk mixture over all.

Refrigerate over night, or freeze. If you freeze the mixture, allow
6 to 8 hours to thaw.

Before baking, spread with the 10 1/2-oz can mushroom soup,
thinned with 1/2-cup milk.

Bake in 325-degree oven for one hour.

Serve while hot.

Low Fat Cake

4 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 C sugar
1 Vanilla
1 C Flour

Separate eggs and beat yokes until pale yellow. Add vinegar. Beak egg whites until high peaks form. Fold in sugar in several increments. Add vanilla. Combine with both egg mixtures and then add the flour gradually. Bake 350 oven 20-30 minutes or until it tests done.

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Homemade Christmas Butterscotch

A very old butterscotch recipe:

1 C butter
1 C sugar
1 C molasses
Dash of real vanilla

Combine butter, sugar and molasses in a pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook about 20 minutes, Remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour onto a well butter platter. Allow to cool and harden. When totally hard crack it with the corner of a knife.



Make Your Old Candy Wrappers

Easy Lemon Pie

1/2 Cup water
2 Eggs
1/14 Cup Water
1/2 Stick butter
1 Whole Lemon chopped finely
2T Flour

Putt all ingredients in a blender for 1 1/2 minutes. Pour into an unbaked 8" pie shell and bake at 375 for 35 minutes.
Serve with whipped cream if desired.

Salmon Treats

14 - oz. canned salmon or tuna (use boneless and skinless salmon or tuna in water)
1 - egg
1/2 - cup sifted flour
1 - HEAPING teaspoon baking powder

Drain the salmon or tuna liquid into a measuring cup.
Put the fish into a mixing bowl and flake.
Add egg.
Mix well with a fork.
Add the flour and mix again. It will be thick, but that's O.K.
You can add a small amount of black pepper at this stage, but the mixture doesn't need any salt.
Use 1/4 of the liquid and add the heaping teaspoon of baking powder to it.
Beat with a fork until it foams up. It should reach the 3/4 cup mark. If it doesn't, then your powder is old.
Pour this into the fish mixture and mix well. It will now be thin, but that's the secret.
Using two teaspoons, scoop the mixture out with one spoon and with the other, push the mixture into a deep fryer half-full of hot oil.
The nuggets are done in just a few seconds.
You CAN NOT mix these ahead of time to cook later.
They MUST be cooked within about 15-minutes of mixing.
You can vary the taste by adding grated onion, garlic or whatever else suits you.

Holiday Rum Cake

A very tasty dessert for the holiday season.

1 - cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 - 18 & 1/2 oz. package yellow cake mix*
1 - 3 & 3/4 oz. package Jello Vanilla Instant Pudding & Pie filling*
4 - eggs
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup Wesson oil
1/2 cup dark rum (80 proof)

*If using yellow cake mix with pudding already in the mix, omit instant pudding
Use 3 eggs instead of 4, and 1/3 cup oil instead of 1/2

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 10-inch tube or 12 cup Bundt pan.
Sprinkle all nuts over bottom of pan.
Mix all cake ingredients together.
Pour batter over nuts.
Bake 1 hour.
Cool.
Invert on serving plate. Prick top. Spoon and brush glaze evenly over top and sides.
Allow cake to absorb glaze. Repeat until glaze is used up.**

Glaze

1/4 - lb. butter or margarine
1/4 - cup water
1 - cup granulated sugar
1/2 - cup dark rum (80 proof)

Melt butter or margarine in saucepan.
Stir in water and sugar.
Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
REMOVE from heat.
Stir in rum.

Options: Decorate with border of sugar frosting or whipped cream.
Or serve with a large dollop of whipped cream.

I believe that using the regular cake mix and adding the package of Instant Pudding Mix seems to taste better.

A Bundt pan also seems to work better.
**Prick with cake tester or toothpick.

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TUNA & NOODLE (OR MACARONI) CASSAROLE

This is a delicious, easy-to-do cassarole for chilly-weather dinners.

6 oz. uncooked noodles (or elbow macaroni). I prefer Kluski noodles.
1 - can (10 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 - cup milk
1 - #12 can chunk-style tuna in water (small can) - drained
3 oz. shredded chedder cheese(mild or sharp) - can use colby or taco cheese if
desired
1 - medium red onion - chopped
1 - small green pepper - chopped
1 - tablespoon pimento (optional)
1/4 - teaspoon black pepper

Cook noodles or macaroni according to directions. Set aside.
Combine soup, milk, chopped onions, pimento, green pepper and black pepper.
Place over medium heat.
Add cheese and stir occasionally until cheese is melted.
Mix noodles or macaroni and tuna in 2-quart cassarole.
Blend in cheese sauce.
Bake uncovered in moderate (325 degree) oven about 20 minutes.

Serves 6.

Serve with warm rolls and cranberry sauce.

Options: You can use 2 cans of tuna, drained, or 2 cans of turkey, drained.
Other ingredients remain the same.

VEGETARIAN CHILI

This is a fine recipe for people who do not like ground beef or pork in their chili. My wife is a vegetarian (mostly), likes chili, but doesn't like ground meat in her soup. Therefore, I came up with this recipe, which I now like almost as much as the kind with meat. The beauty of this recipe is that you can use the cheapest (most reasonably-priced) canned goods, with no loss of flavor.

1 - large can tomato juice
1 - 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 - 4 oz. can tomato paste
5 - 15 oz. cans beans, drained, but not rinsed (I like kidney beans, either dark red
or light red, or pinto beans, or black beans, or mix them up)
1 - large onion, chopped
1 - large green pepper, chopped
1 - clove garlic, chopped
1 - tablespoon salt
1 - teaspoon black pepper
1 - teaspoon paprika
1 - teaspoon chili powder (not red pepper)
1 - teaspoon parsley flakes

In a large kettle, mix tomato juice, tomato sauce, tomato paste, along with the salt, black pepper, paprika, chili powder and parsley flakes.
In a large skillet, cook onions, garlic and green pepper in olive oil under medium heat until soft.
After onions, garlic and green pepper are ready, add to the large kettle, along with the drained beans, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer about 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Serve with oyster crackers or corn bread.

Put a shaker of red pepper on the table for those who like it.

Great recipe for cold days, or a second-day quick meal.


More Chili Recipes

VEGETARIAN STUFFED PEPPERS

Most recipes for stuffed peppers call for ground beef or pork. Here is a very tasty recipe for vegetarian stuffed peppers.

4 - medium-size green, yellow or red peppers (not hot peppers)
1 - medium red or white onion - chopped
1 - 26 oz. jar of meatless spaghetti sauce
1/4 - teaspoon black pepper
1/4 - teaspoon parsley flakes
Brown or white rice

Wash peppers. Make a slim cut across the top of peppers to open them up. Remove stem, seeds and membranes inside. Place the cleaned peppers in a large kettle, cover with water, and boil about five minutes. Remove and set aside.
Prepare rice to obtain one cup.
Place chopped onions in a medium sauce pan. Over medium heat, cook onion in olive oil until tender.
When onions are tender, add spices and about 10-oz. (roughly one-half) of the spaghetti sauce. Heat to boiling, turn heat to low and simmer about 5 minutes, uncovered.
Add rice and heat.
Stand cooked peppers in shallow baking dish. Spoon the rice, onion and spaghetti sauce mixture into the peppers. If any of the mixture is left, spoon around the peppers. Pour the remaining spaghetti sauce over the peppers. Cover baking dish, and bake in a 325-degree oven for about 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, if you desire, you can sprinkle some parmesan cheese over the peppers, and bake, uncovered, for another 10 to 15 minutes.

Serve with rolls and dessert.

My wife is a vegetarian, but does like the taste of some meat products. Once in awhile, to vary the above recipe, I will add 4 links of sweet Italian sausage to the baking dish, and bake the sausage along with the peppers for the initial 45 minutes. This gives the recipe a wonderful flavor, but the sausage remains firm and doesn't enter the mixture.

Vegetarian Cooking Made Easy

Hot Bacon Sauce for Dandelions or Spinach Salad

This is a very old recipe. It was my mother's. A schoolteacher, she had a house in Greenville, Pa., and a farm in Hartstown, Pa. where she grew onions bigger than softballs, winning the prize each year at the fair.

4 - Slices Bacon
1 - Egg, beaten
1 - Small can evaporated milk
2 - Tablespoons sugar
1/3 - cup vinegar
Dash salt

Cut bacon into small pieces and brown. Keep 4 teaspoons baking drippings. Add egg, vinegar, milk, sugar and salt to bacon drippings. Cook until slightly thickened. Pour over salad greens while still hot. Especially good on dandelions in the Spring.

Chicken Italian

2 - Chicken breasts, boneless, cut into nugget-size pieces
1 - Cup Italian bread crumbs
2 - Eggs, beaten
1 - Cup grated Muenster cheese
1/4 - Cup white wine
1/2 - Cup butter or margarine
1/2 - pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/2 - Cup chicken broth

Dip chicken in beaten eggs. Roll in crumbs and saute in butter or margarine until browned on both sides. Place in 9 x 13 casserole dish. Layer mushrooms on top. Pour broth and wine over the top and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350-degrees for 30 minutes.

Best served over rice with a jello salad and wine. It is also delicious warmed up the next day. Just add more broth and put back in oven. Also, the chicken, once fried, can be served as chicken nuggets with a sweet-and-sour sauce or mustard sauce for dipping. Serves 6

Easiest to use boneless chicken breasts.

Mennonite Style Cole Slaw

Mix:
1/4 C sour cream
1/4 C vinegar
3 T sugar
1 t salt
1/8 t dry mustard

Pour over 4 cups of shredded cabbage and mix well. Garnish with sliced green onion rings. Chill.

Irish Potato Cake

Irish Potato Cake

Cream together :
2 C sugar
3/4 C butter
4 eggs

Add:
1 C mashed potatoes
1/2 C milk
1 Bar German's Sweet Chocolate-melted

Sift and add:
1/4 t nutmeg 1/2 t salt
1/2 t allspice 2 t baking powder
1t cinnamon 2 C shifted flour

Fold in 1 C walnuts. Bake in two 9" greased pans at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Ice with favorite vanilla frosting.

Original Hot Wings for the Superbowl

Mix 50/50 butter (not margarine) and Frank's Louisiana Hot Sauce in a large pan. (1/2 C of each to start is good)
Heat until butter is melted.

Deep fry chicken wings until very crispy.
Saute in hot sauce and butter and serve with Marie's Blue Cheese Dressing and celery and carrot sticks.

You can keep adding more wings to the sauce and they will get hotter as the day goes on. If you get low on sauce just ad more hot sauce and butter in equal proportions (such as 1/4 C butter to 1/4 cup hot sauce).

These are a huge favorite in Buffalo, New York.

Tibetan Salad

Here is another recipe from my daughter.

My daughter will be 50 tomorrow. She looks much younger. Same figure as when she was in college and has yet to dye her hair. She says it is because of 5 easy exercises that she does every morning. Here is the link: Tibetan Yoga. She says they turn back the clock.

Tibetan Salad
1 bag of Shredded Coleslaw
2 T of shredded ginger
3/4 C vegetable oil (you can add 1 T of sesame oil if you have it)
1/4 C soy sauce
2 T Rice Vinegar (in the Chinese Food Section of the grocery store).
1 Tomato sliced and then cut into thin strips

Mix together and chill.

East Indian Potato Salad

My daughter went to the South Indian Mountains several years ago. The airline lost her luggage and she was left with not much more than the clothes on her back and a 28 inch Ashika drum for two weeks.

She left the drum there at a monastery because it was too much trouble to carry it back. The following year she returned to India, this time carrying a large red and purple Conga drum decorated with shells and Antique African bells made by her friend, Dr. Kwasi Jayourba at his drum factory in Pittsburgh. Dr. Kwasi is a jazz drummer who used to play with Nat King Cole in Vegas back in the day when black people had to enter through the kitchen. She left the Conga drum there as she did not want to carry it back. So India got a couple of drums and we got a couple of recipes.

East Indian Potato Salad

Boil 4 cups of cubed potatoes as if to make potato salad
Grind together 1 very small hot chili pepper and 3 tablespoons of chopped cilantro (coriander). Mix 1/4 C coarse ground salt and the juice of 1 lemon. Combine with the chili and cilantro. Pour over the potatoes and mix well. Serve chilled.

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Ham Pie

This is a very fast and delicious way to use left over ham:
Mix:
Apr 1 C cubed ham
1 can cream of celery soup
1/2 C milk
1 C peas
1 T dried onion flakes
Dash of pepper

Mix 1 1/4 C seasoned stuffing crumbs-I like Pepperidge Farm-with 1/4 C melted butter. Put into a pie pan as if it were a pie shell. Pour other ingredients into pie shell. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes.

Baked Bananas

Heat Oven to 450 degrees
Slice Bananas in half and dot with butter, Sprinkle with Brown Sugar.
Bake 15 minutes

Sprinkle with shredded coconut and serve. Good also with vanilla ice cream.

Vegetarian Chili

This is a fine recipe for people who do not like ground beef or pork in their chili. My wife is a vegetarian, but does like chili, so I whipped up this recipe. I now like it almost as much as the kind with meat. The beauty of this recipe is that you can use the cheapest (most reasonably priced) canned goods, with no loss of flavor.

1 - large can tomato juice
1 - 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 - small can tomato paste
5 - medium-size cans beans (kidney beans, either light red or dark red, black beans
or pinto beans) You can use eithor, or all, or mix them up.
1 - large onion, chopped
1 - large green, yellow or red pepper (not hot), chopped
1 - clove garlic, chopped
1 - tablespoon salt
1 - tablespoon paprika
1 - teaspoon chili powder (not red pepper)
1 - teaspoon parsley flakes
1 - teaspoon black pepper

Drain beans, but do not wash. In a large kettle, mix tomato juice, tomato sauce and tomato paste, along with the salt,black pepper, paprika, chili powder and parsley flakes.

In a large skillet, cook onions, chopped pepper and garlic in olive oil until onion is soft.

Add the onions, garlic and peppers, along with the drained beans to the tomato mixture

in the large kettle, bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer for about 2 hours, covered..

Serve with oyster crackers or corn bread. Put a shaker of red pepper on the table for those who like it.

This is a great recipe for cold days, or a quick meal.

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600 Chili Recipes

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Sauerkraut Salad

As awful as this sounds, this salad is amazingly delicious. But if you make a mistake and use regular sauerkraut instead of Bavarian sauerkraut then it will definitely be even worse than it sounds.

My daughter took this salad to a New Year's Eve party in Pittsburgh and everyone laughed until they tasted it on a dare. At the end of the evening the maid and one of the guests engaged in a tug of war in the kitchen over the left over salad. The maid won.

Sauerkraut Salad
2 cans Snowfloss brand Bavarian Style Sauerkraut
1 chopped onion
1 chopped red or green (mix both colors for Christmas)
1C chopped celery or 1T celery seed
1C sugar
1/3C vinegar
1/3C water
1/2C salad oil

Toss and marinate overnight in refrigerator. Some like to drain before serving. Will keep several weeks.

Christmas Rum Balls

Christmas Rum Balls
1 1/2 C finely crushed chocolate wafers
1.2 C sifted powdered sugar
1/2 C chopped walnuts
1/4 C light corn syrup
3T rum
1/2 t grated orange peel
1/4 C powdered sugar

Combine all but the last ingredient. Roll into balls and roll in powdered sugar. Best if allowed to age a week or two before Christmas.

Christmas Eve Oyster Stew

While my daughter was growing up it was traditional in our home to have Oyster Stew for Christmas Eve dinner. It was usually served with peas and baby onions, tiny Pepperidge Farm Rolls, a relish tray, Christmas cake and cookies, and of course, oyster crackers.

Oyster Stew-serves 4
1/4 C butter
1 Pint of oysters
2 1/2 cups of Half and Half 0r 1 C of Milk and 1/2 C light cream (20%)
1t. salt
Dash of Pepper or Cayenne Pepper
Dsh of Worchestershire Sauce
Paprika

Melt butter in skillet. Put the half and half in a sauce pan and drain the oysters into the half and half. Then warm the oysters in the melted butter. Add Worchestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Heat the Half and Half until almost scalding (do not boil. Add the butter and oysters. Add a dash of paprika. Serve immediately.