Grandmother's Cranberry Salad

1 lb. fresh cranberries
1 orange - all
1 apple, all but core
1/2 cup pecans
1 cup sugar
1 pkg raspberry jello
1 cup boiling water
8 oz. can crushed pineapple

Grind the first 4 ingredients. Add 1 cup sugar and set aside for 2 hours. Dissolve raspberry jello in boiling water. Add pineapple and the ground ingredients. Mix well and let set in refrigerator. Top with pecan halves. For Christmas, shape pecans like a Christmas tree.

Cauliflower-Broccoli Salad

I think this is my Aunt Connie's recipe originally, but my mom makes it quite a bit. I guess they both get credit!

1 head cauliflower
1 pkg broccoli
1 small red onion
1 lb bacon, fried crisp, drained, and crumbled
1/2 lb (or more) grated cheddar cheese

Dressing: 1/2 cup miracle whip, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Chocolate Chip Cookies

My new Kitchenaid mixer came with some recipes, and a request from the groom for chocolate chip cookies. No one really needs a new chocolate chip cookie recipe, but the recipe from the mixer book turned out just like I like. The cookies were thin, chewy in the middle, an crispy on the outside. From the empty cookie plate at our family Christmas celebration, I would say that others liked the as well.

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups all purpose flour
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (I prefer milk chocolate chips)

Place sugars, butter, eggs, and vanilla in mixer bowl. Mix about 30 seconds at speed 2. Stop and scrape bowl. Turn to speed 4 and beat about 30 seconds.

Turn to Stir speed. Gradually add baking soda, salt, and flour to sugar mixture and mix about 2 minutes. Turn to speed 2 and mix about 30 seconds. Stop and scape bowl, then add chocolate chips. Mix about 15 seconds at speed 2.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Remove from baking sheets immediately and cool on wire racks.

Recipe from "Instructions and Recipes For Your Kitchenaid Stand Mixer"

Coddle

On Christmas Eve, we went to Monett for dinner and church with my parents and Grandma. My mom made coddle for us, along with lots of other goodies. Most recipes, I am happy to try out on my own. But her coddle is so good, and David is so crazy about it, that I've never even tried. In case you'd like to try it though, here is the original recipe.

Emeril Lagasse's Coddle:
6 strips bacon, small diced - this time she used peppered bacon and it was delicious
1/2 pound andouille sausage - if you live nearby, Harter House has the best. And I think my mom uses more than 1/2 a pound
1 cup onions, diced
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp pepper
salt to taste
2 lbs baby red potatoes, diced into quarters
2 tsp fresh rosemary
2 c chicken stock

Render the bacon and sausage in a one gallon pot over medium high heat until the sausage is crispy. Add the onions to the pot and sweat for 3-4 minutes or until the onions are soft and translucent. Add the garlic to the pot and sweat for 30 seconds. (I will admit - this was the point at which I decided not to make this. Render bacon? Sweat onions? What? I still don't know what those things mean.) Place the potatoes in the pot and add the chopped rosemary. Then add 2 cups chicken stock to the pot and season with salt and pepper. Bring the pot to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes. Adjust seasoning if necessary and serve immediately.

This is one of those things that gets better with time. The only the better than fresh coddle is yesterday's coddle. Yum!

Keetha's Sausage Cheese Balls

I love Keetha's food blog - lots of yummies with a southern flair. I made her sugar cookies in July and they were great. I had been meaning to make her sausage cheese balls and even had all of the ingredients. Turns out my new Christmas mixer was just the incentive that I needed. I whipped up a batch and froze them. I'm looking forward to popping a few in the oven for breakfast, or maybe baking them and taking them to New Year's Eve festivities. Here's the recipe, straight from Keetha's blog:

3 cloves garlic, minced

16 ounces grated sharp or extra sharp Cheddar cheese

1 pound sausage (hot or mild)- can use turkey sausage

2 ½ cups baking mix

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 good dash Worcestershire sauce

Combine all ingredients until thoroughly mixed. You may as well go ahead and use your hands – they’re really easier to mix up that way. Shape the dough into small balls and place on an ungreased baking sheet.

At this point, sausage balls can be baked immediately or frozen. To freeze, place baking sheet with sausage balls in the freezer for at least an hour. Write baking instructions and date in permanent marker on a zip-top bag and place the frozen sausage balls in the bag. Don’t forget this step! I cannot tell you how incredibly efficient it makes you feel when you pull that bag from the freezer and see neatly penned instructions, written in your very own handwriting.

When ready for a few, simply remove however many you’d like from the bag and bake on an ungreased baking sheet; no need to thaw first.

To bake, preheat oven to 350° F. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Pioneer Woman's Christmas Rum Cake

I saw this recipe for Christmas Rum Cake on the Pioneer Woman's cooking blog. It looked delicious, so I had to try it.

Here's the recipe, just as PW wrote it:
Pioneer Woman’s Mother-in-Law’s Christmas Rum Cake

Cake:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 small package INSTANT vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup rum (dark or light is fine)
1 cup chopped pecans
Brown sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour Bundt cake pan. Sprinkle nuts over bottom of pan. If desired, sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar over the nuts. Mix all cake ingredients together. Pour batter over nuts. Smooth out ’til the top is even. Bake 1 hour, or a little less if the pan is black. Do not overbake!

Glaze: While cake has ten minutes to go, make the glaze.
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup rum

Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 4 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Turn off flame and pour in rum. Stir to combine and reheat for 30 seconds.
Remove cake from oven. Immediately drizzle 1/3 of the glaze on the bottom (top) of the cake. Allow to sit for five minutes.

Invert the cake onto a serving plate. Prick surface a hundred times with a fork (gently, please.) Slowly drizzle remaining rum glaze all over the top of the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. Cool to room temperature.


Next time I make this cake, I will change a couple of things. I used only 1/2 a cup of pecans, because we don't especially cake for nuts. Definitely use the brown sugar. For the glaze, I would only use 1 stick of butter. The glaze was pretty runny and hard to keep on the cake. And I had more than I really needed. The cake was delicious though, and very moist.

Open House Pumpkin Bread

For BooMama's Open House, I made pumpkin bread for you! If you have been with the Fremont House Kitchen for long, this may seem familiar. But...it's so tasty I just couldn't resist. I sliced into it tonight and spooned on some of Patty's apple butter. Delicious!

From Cottage Living Magazine, November 2006

This recipe doubles and even triples really well. A single recipe will make four little loaves (bake for 36 minutes).

1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1-1/3 cups sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons canned unsweetened pumpkin
1 large egg

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour an 8x4 loaf pan. Stir together the first 6 ingredients.
2. In a separate (large) bowl, combine sugar, oil, and pumpkin. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add egg, beating until well blended. Gradually add dry ingredients, beating at a low speed until blended. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
3. Bake at 350 for 1 hour 5 minutes or until loaf is golden and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pan on wire rack 15 minutes. Remove from pan.

Patty's Kitchen

My good friend Patty has a new recipe blog. If you are looking for time-tested favorites, you can't go wrong with Patty's recipes. When David's mom was in the hospital for the last time, Patty promised her that she'd take care of her boy. Not only has she kept that promise, but she's extended it to include me. Patty and her husband Jim are kind enough to invite us for dinner often. Patty's kitchen is a lot like mine - very small and hardly room for two - but the most amazing things come out of that kitchen. The first time I went to their house with David, I was a nervous wreck. What should I wear? Will I know what fork to use? I was so relieved to arrive and find that Patty doesn't wear shoes unless she just has to and that she serves things like fried potatoes.

Check out her blog here: http://pattyskitchen.blogspot.com/. She's just getting started, so bookmark it and come back often.

Chili

There's nothing unusual about this chili, but it's a sure fire hit with our friends. I recommend doubling or tripling this recipe. If you have some left, freeze it. It's even better after spending a month or two in the freezer.

4 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, chopped
3-4 pounds hamburger - the fatty greasy variety
4 tablespoons crush red chile
4 tablespoons chili powder
3 tablespoons cumin
3 medium cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 (14 ounce) can peeled whole tomatoes
4 cans kidney beans

Melt butter in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add meat, crushed chile, chili powder, cumin, garlic, pepper. Mix well and brown meat. Once meat browns (do not drain!), add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer uncovered. Stir occasionally. Simmer for 4-8 hours - the longer the better. We serve it with Fritos, cheese, sour cream, and chopped onion.

Cornbread Stuffing

Everyone has their own version of this Thanksgiving staple. This is the recipe that David's mom used, so I make it at least once a year for him.

Corn Bread
2 cups flour
6 teaspoons baking powder
1 and a half teaspoons salt
2 cups cornmeal
4 eggs
2 cups milk
1/2 cup cooking oil

Heat oven to 425. Grease a 9x13 baking pan. Mix dry ingredients. Beat eggs just enough to blend yolks and whites. Stir milk and oil into eggs. Add dry ingredients and stir to blend thoroughly. Pour into greased pan and bake 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

Stuffing
Prepared cornbread
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
2 eggs, beaten
1 can chicken broth
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sage
Milk, enough to make mixture mushy
Salt and Pepper to taste

Crumble the cornbread into a large mixing bowl. Add the onion and celery and mix. Add remaining ingredients. Pour into 9x13 or larger baking dish. Bake at 325 for an hour.