Christmas Cookie Recipes

The Christmas baking season has commenced!

All three cookie recipes can be seen here.

Candy Cane Cookies/Spritz Cookies

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
food coloring

Cream butter, shortening and powdered sugar.  Blend in egg and extracts.  Stir in flour and salt.  Blend in food coloring, fill cookie press and press onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes.  Dark pans go less, light colored pans go a little longer.  Allow to cool 1 minute on pan and then cool completely on cookie rack or foil.

Butter Cookies

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 beaten egg
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix as usual for cookies - fat, sugar, egg, vanilla, dry ingredients.

Roll into small balls.  Roll in colored sugar, place on ungreased cookie sheet and flatten slightly.  Bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes.  Dark pans go less, light pans go longer.  Cool for 1-2 minutes on pan.

Mixed Nut Bars
(Although I didn't have enough butterscotch chips these still turned out well and they were so delicious.  Everybody loved these.  Warren loved the edges where the butterscotch sauce cooked up a little firmer.  I liked the gooey centers better.  They were all around winners.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup + 2 T. cold butter (divided)
1 can (11.5 ounce) mixed nuts - I've used salted and unsalted with good results
1 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 light corn syrup

Combine dry ingredients and 1/2 cup butter in food processor until crumbly.  Press into a greased 13x9x2 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Sprinkle with nuts.  Melt butterscotcch chips in microwave in 30 second blasts stirring well until melted.  Stir in corn syrup and 2 T. butter and throughly mixed.  Pour over nuts.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Cool and cut into 1 x 2 inch bars.

Tons of Recipes from a Day of Cooking

Hello!!!  Are you here from YouTube?  From the day I went back and forth homeschooling and cooking all day?  I'm so glad you're here and you'll be happy to that all the recipes from that video are in one place.  Right here!

First up the meatballs.  In the video I showed me making Savory Meatballs, but I mentioned that I made meatballs the week before and everybody loved them.  Well, here's the long story.  I love trying new recipes and changing up existing recipes.  My family would prefer I just stick with what they like and stop changing things up.  The week before I made a different meatball recipe which we actually happened to like even better than these, but they are both good.  As a bonus I'm sharing both recipes here.  The first will be what you saw in the video.  The second will be the ones I made "last week".

Savory Meatballs
6 pounds beef and venison mix
1/3 c. dry minced onion
1/3 c. beef bouillon
2 cups evaporated milk or regular milk

Mix all together.  Shape into small meatballs.  I place mine on either aluminum foil or parchment paper so cleanup is a bit easier.  Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through.  To test this cut one in half checking for doneness.

Use these in spaghetti sauce or brown gravy or however your family likes meatballs.  You can even combine 2 c. ketchup, 1 c. brown sugar and 1 T. Worcestershire sauce in crock-pot with meatballs.

NOW FOR THE RECIPE MY FAMILY LIKED EVEN BETTER

Meatballs
4 1/2 pounds venison and beef mix
1 1/2 t. pepper
3 t. salt
3 t. parsley
3/4 c. diced onion
4 slices bread
1 1/4 c. milk

Soak bread in milk for 10 minutes.  Mix all above ingredients together and form into balls.  Bake on rimmed cookie sheet(s) at 350 for 45 minutes or more until meatballs are cooked through.

Chili
click here for recipe

Cheesy Potatoes (makes 1 9x13 casserole)
2 pounds frozen potato cubes
1 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/2 c. chopped onions
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 c. sour cream
1/2 c. melted butter
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Combine all ingredients except potatoes.  Stir in potato cubes.  If they are frozen together bang them on the counter a few times to loosen up the potato cubes.  Spread in greased 9x13 pan.  Top with crushed potato chips or buttered crushed corn flakes (if desired).  I don't do that; I'm usually in too much of a hurry.  Bake uncovered at 350 for 45 minutes.  Allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Crock-pot Scalloped Potatoes
2 pounds potatoes, sliced (make fast work of this in a food processor)
1/2 t. cream of tartar
1 c. water
1 small onion, sliced
1/4 c. flour
1 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
2 T. butter
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 handfulls shredded cheddar or colby cheese
sliced ham

Toss sliced potatoes in water/cream of tartar solution for 10 minutes.  Drain.  Grease 4 quart crockpot.  Layer potatoes and onion.  Sprinkle with flour, salt and pepper.  Add ham slices and one handful cheese.  Make another layer just the same except do not put cheese on yet.  Spread cream soup over and add one more handful of cheese.  Cook on low for 7 - 9 hours.

Stove top Pepper Steak
click here for recipe

Although I never got to making the 7-Layer Salad that day I did just make it today and it was so good.  Here's how I make it.  It's quite forgiving

7-Layer Salad
1-2 heads of lettuce, torn into small pieces (it really depends on how big or little the heads of lettuce are)
1 very small red onion, sliced very thin
1/2 - 1 cup broccoli pieces
1/2 cup sliced carrots
1 c. frozen peas
half a cucumber, sliced
1 package of pre-cooked bacon (approx. 3 ounces), cut into 1 inch pieces
1 pkg. ranch dressing powder mix
2 cups mayonnaise
shredded cheddar cheese

You can really use any veggies you prefer.  Layer everything in a large glass casserole dish.  I have a 10x15 Pyrex dish that works perfectly for this.

Place bacon pieces on top.  Sprinkle ranch mix over entire top.  Spread mayo over all.  Cover with cheese.  Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours or until supper.  You can toss the entire mixture when it's serving time, but we prefer to serve it as is and scoop out what we want.

This is so good.  I might go dish me up some right now.  It's 11:00 p.m.

The full video can be seen here.

Bible Camp Baked Oatmeal {Recipe}

Our older kids all went to a Bible Camp up North many summers.  This baked oatmeal was a breakfast staple.  One that Emily loved and looked forward to.

This recipe was first shared on my bulk cooking video here.

BIBLE CAMP BAKED OATMEAL

3/4 c. vegetable oil
3/4 c. white sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. milk
1 t. salt
1 1/2 T. baking powder
4 1/2 c. quick cook oats (regular work fine, too, it'll be a little firmer)
1 t. cinnamon
3/4 c. raisins or any dried fruit you like (optional)

Mix all ingredients together.  Pour into greased 9x13 pan.  Sprinkle with brown sugar if you'd like.  Refrigerate overnight.  Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes until oatmeal is set.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

I often split this into two smaller square pans, wrap with plastic wrap and then foil and freeze for up to 3 months.  To bake I set it on the counter before bed and bake in the morning for a little less time than a full pan - about 25-30 minutes.  This keeps well in the fridge once baked and can be warmed up on the following mornings.

You can watch this recipe in action on A Country Life.

How to Make a Rhubarb Pie & Homemade Pie Crust

Who doesn't love pie?

I love pie so much.

And if you love pie as much as I do you are going to want to learn how to make them homemade because have you looked at the price of a bakery pie?  OMG - they are crazy expensive or unthinkably small.  

Does baking a pie scare you?  It shouldn't.  It definitely isn't difficult, just a little time consuming.  In an effort to be always efficient today we made TEN pies at once.  It helps to enlist a few extra hands and in my case I grabbed three unsuspecting TV watching nappers and put them to work.  It wasn't long and we were filling the freezer with rhubarb pies.

Let's talk about crust.  It needs to be flaky and light.  The best way I've found to get the most desirable crust is to use lard.  Yes, lard.

This recipe makes enough crust for 2 double crust pies or 4 single crust pies.  It also freezes well so if you don't use it all just shape a crust size amount of dough into a small round, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months.  

Best Ever Pie Crust

3 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 cup + 2 T. lard

5 T. water

1 T. vinegar

1 egg

Combine dry ingredients.  Cut in lard until crumbly.  Whisk wet ingredients and stir into flour mixture.  Stir together just until mixed.  Divide dough and roll out using a little extra flour.

That's it.  I'm sure you can do it, just don't over mix or you'll get tough dough.

On this particular day I made two different rhubarb pie recipes so we could compare and see which one we liked better.  Since this was my first time freezing rhubarb pies I wasn't sure if they would get too juicy and need a little extra flour.  (They didn't)

Rhubarb Pie

3 cups sliced rhubarb

1 cup sugar

sprinkle of nutmeg

1 egg

3 T. flour

Mix all together and pour into unbaked pie crust.

Topping:

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter

Mix flour and sugar; cut in butter until crumbly.  I use my food processor to make quick work out of this.  Spread over rhubarb mixture.  Place in 2 gallon freezer bag and freeze.  May stack after all pies are froze solid.

(Repeat for each pie you're making.)

Rhubarb Nut Pie

3 cups rhubarb

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

1/2 cup flour

Layer rhubarb, nuts and brown sugar in unbaked pie crust.  Beat together eggs and melted butter.  Add white sugar and flour.  Mix well and pour over rhubarb.  Place in 2 gallon freezer bag, freeze, may stack once completely frozen.

Baking frozen pies

Do not thaw.  Place frozen pie in 350 degree pre-heated oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes.  Turn off oven; leave pie in for another 10-15 minutes.  Both pies can be served warm, room temperature or cold - whatever you prefer.

If you'd prefer to watch the making of these pies in action check out my YouTube video.  Click here.

Tell me, are you a pie baker?  What's your favorite pie?

OR

Haven't you taken the plunge into baking pies?  Why not?

Crazy Huge Muffin Baking Day.....100+

I got it in my head that I wanted to bake 100 muffins.  Why?  So I could feed them to my hungry family plus the extra crew that's around for cranberry harvest.  Emily was standing idle at the moment I had my muffin baking epiphany so I grabbed her and put her to work mixing and filling and baking.  Of course, I was instrumental in the process.  I didn't make her do all the work.

We had fun over filling muffin cups, balancing hot muffin pans on surfaces not meant for hot muffin pans, and creating a huge pile of dishes for Amber to wash.  It was a good day.  And in the end (which is a different end than in the video) we counted 105 muffins.  

Three of these recipes are old standbys.  The recipes are already on the blog.  Only one is new(er).

Blueberry Power Muffins from Finger Prickin' Good

Power Muffins was the newbie recipe.  Both times I made them I had to make substitutions for some of the Greek yogurt.  I used plain Greek + honey, then I used plain Greek + honey + sour cream + vanilla yogurt.  Both batches turned out great so it seems to be a forgiving recipe.  No fussy cooking for this mama.

Are you crazy for muffins?  What's your favorite flavor?  I'd love to know.

Watch Emily and I make 100+ muffins.

Quick & Easy Chocolate Torte

This delicious and super simple Chocolate Torte is highlighted on today's vlog.  This recipe is from my mother-in-law's hand typed recipe binder.  It can be made as lemon torte or Warren's favorite, chocolate torte.

Chocolate (or Lemon) Torte
1 pkg. dry cake mix (chocolate or lemon)
1 cup flaked coconut
2 T. water
1/4 c. melted butter
1 egg

Mix all together and pat into greased 9x13 pan.  Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes.

1 large pkg. chocolate or lemon instant pudding
Handful of toasted coconut

Prepare pudding, pour over baked crust.  Then cool completely.  Frost with 8 oz. container of Cool Whip.  Garnish with toasted coconut.  Chill.  Keep leftovers refrigerated.

That's it!  Not much to it.  Vlog can be seen here.

Fresh Berry Torte :: Super Easy Summer Dessert

It is summer!  Really and truly summer, the kind where temps soar into the 90's and thunderstorms make their way through in the evening.  And we're loving every minute of it, well not so much the storm destruction, but I do love watching a good thunderstorm move in.  The clouds rolling around the sky, the forceful sound of high winds, the darkening sky at 5 p.m.  It's hard to express just how much I love watching storms, not because I don't have the words for it, but we are cranberry farmers and weather impacts our crop immensely, and we only get one chance each year for a crop.

Hail = Destruction = Devastation

Anyway, I haven't posted a recipe since Black Bean Quesadillas back in May and I want to share this super easy summer dessert right now because it's strawberry season.

From instagram

Another #simplesummerpleasure - picking strawberries right out my back door.  Strawberries are not hard to grow.  My patch is in a raised bed about 3 feet x 16 feet.  I keep it weeded, watered, and throw on summer chicken manure in the fall and call it good.  I started this patch with bare root stock.  I would not recommend that.  Stop by @fleetfarm and pick up some nice lush plants, much easier to get started.  And there's nothing better than a ☀️ #sunwarmedstrawberry. 🍓  #strawberrypatch #homestead #homesteadingfun #homesteadingforbeginners #favoritesummeractivity #foodfromthefarm

A post shared by Jennifer Brockman (@camphomeschool) on Jun 12, 2017 at 6:18am PDT

This dessert is perfect for summer because the oven only needs to be on for 15 minutes and it's served cold so it's super refreshing and light.

Fresh Berry Torte

Crust:
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 c. butter
3/4 c. oatmeal

Place flour, sugar and butter in food processor and pulse until crumbly (or fork by hand).  Add oatmeal and pulse a few more times.  Press into ungreased jelly roll (10x15) pan.  Bake at 400 degrees F. for 10-15 minutes until edges are lightly browned.  Mine were in for 12 minutes yesterday.  Cool completely.

Filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
3/4 c. powdered sugar
8 oz. Cool whip, thawed

Cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth.  Fold in Cool Whip.  Spread over cooled crust.

Topping:
1 qt. berries, washed and stemmed

The berry choice is the fun part.  This time I only had strawberries (fresh from the front yard) and not many of them because the kids were snitching all day before I made the dessert.

Enjoy immediately or refrigerate.

I sliced my strawberries so they would stretch over the full pan, but halved would work nicely.  I've also mixed up the berries and used strawberries and blueberries.  Raspberries are yummy, too.  Sadly, I've never used cranberries because they are quite tart and, although Warren and I would like that, especially if they were mixed with blueberries and strawberries, the kids wouldn't go for that and would end up picking them off.

May :: A Month in Review :: Large Family Style

Aargh!  It's already time for a May month in review.  Finishing off the school year strong was my top priority along with preparing for Nick's graduation party along with getting the garden planted along with, along with.  Doesn't it seem like there are so many along withs?  Most days my head is just spinning with all the to do right nows.  My notebook system to do list wasn't working - the notebook was always getting buried in the paper mess that is my life and the to do list became a never do list.  I needed something more in my face than a notebook so I bought a magnetic white board for the fridge door similar to this:

And it's always in my face because #1 I like to eat and #2 My family likes to eat so I'm always reading the list and working at shrinking it.  It's been a good thing and I still use the notebook for shopping lists and menus.

In my April month in review I shared a picture from Nick's turkey season.  He's a huge protein nut and cooks plenty of his own food.  Well, the day he shot the turkey I was with Amber at the hospital while she recovered from her appendectomy.  He breasted out the turkey and baked it just as he would for chicken breast.  It was so tough, basically inedible for those of us with average jaw strength.  Hah!  I suggested he turn it into crockpot turkey and rice soup.  I walked him through the process, but he did all the work of chopping vegetables, etc.  The turkey tenderized pretty well in the crockpot and the soup was delicious.

The season changeover called for a great big shoe cabinet clean out.  With a family of 9 we have a ton of shoes, not because we believe in excess, but we all have a number of interests and many of those interests call for certain shoes.  And country life requires a good stash of junk shoes so we tend to keep shoes for gardening, lawn mowing, cranberry planting, and all sorts of outdoor activities until they fall apart.  I know, that's very green of us.  Below you can see what we took from the cabinet; we sent seven pair off to Goodwill, 10 pair went into the trash, and the rest were placed neatly back in the cabinet.

Maria and I baked a giant 2.5 pound of whole wheat bread in a very old pan found in my Grandma's basement.  I wish I knew the story of the pan - where she got it, if she used it, why it was in the basement and not in her kitchen cupboard.  I suppose I'll never know; even though, using it still brings out stories.  Stories I share with my littles who never knew their Great-Grandma.

Mother's Day flowers - we spied three huge Bumblebees pollinating this day.

One of Joseph's favorite games is jumping on the trampoline with toys.  This day he grabbed his horse, but he's also jumped with balls and sand pile trucks (that one I put a stop to, I don't want him to fall on a metal truck - that'd probably hurt).

Amber loves finding paintings on Pinterest for inspiration and painting them with her own style.  She uses this fold-able easel and a variety of supplies to create some really fun paintings.

It is rhubarb season; I've been baking with rhubarb and juicing it.  This weekend I put up 15 quarts of rhubarb juice.  I'll share a post on how I do that soon.  This little number, though, is so good.  I doubled the recipe and reduced the sugar.  That way there was enough to go around and it still tasted like rhubarb should - sour and puckery.

The virtual homeschool program end of year field trip took us to Circus World Museum.  See Maria clinging to Dad; she was nearly scared to death of all the newness.  She warmed up a bit for a carousel ride.

107 year old carousel

Circus snacks:  popcorn and ice cream

 Apparently we raised a little lady.

Fishing....always fishing around here and an endless supply of cheesy smiles.

He's not riding yet.  Matter of fact, a couple weeks back he actually punched me when I lifted his foot onto the pedal.  I'll give it some time before I try again.  Until then, though, he walks the bike around the yard every chance he gets.  And in the background was my Memorial Day treat, a tilled garden ready to plant.

That's a wrap for May.  Another blink of an eye and it'll be the end of June; all our much anticipated events of early summer will be over.  Enjoy every day, each is indeed a gift from God.

Black Bean Quesadillas :: Frugal Friday Lunch

I think the cold, wet days of this Wisconsin spring are almost behind us.  YEAH!!!  Today is absolutely gorgeous, then it looks like one more gloomy day before the sun hits.  Here's the upcoming forecast and I couldn't be happier.  There's a pep in everyone's step, smiles on their faces, and the scene from the kitchen window is three shirtless kids jumping on the trampoline.

• Thursday

  May 4

  PM Showers

  PM Showers

  6337

  40%
• Friday

  May 5

  Sunny

  Sunny

  6440

  0%
• Saturday

  May 6

  Sunny

  Sunny

  5934

  10%
• Sunday

  May 7

  Sunny

  Sunny

  6137

  0%

When the weather finally decides to warm up we love to take full advantage of it spending as much time outside as possible.  All that outside play and sunshine makes for a bunch of hungry tummies.  Come noon, making lunch is usually the last thing on my mind, but eating lunch is the first thing on everyone else's mind.

That's when I pull out a few simple pantry staples and make Black Bean Quesadillas.  These are especially nice during Lent when we want to change it up a bit with the meatless Friday meals.

Here's what you need to make a large family portion of black bean quesadillas.

2-3 cans black beans

about 1 cup salsa + more for dipping

flour tortillas (2 per quesadilla)

shredded cheese - colby, colby jack, cheddar - or mix it up

sour cream

Basic Directions - can be adjusted to fit any family size

Drain and rinse black beans.  Dump into flat bottomed bowl/pie plate.  I use a deep dish pie plate and then use a fork to smash the black beans somewhat.  Add salsa.  Just enough to wet the beans.  You don't want it too drippy.

In the picture below you can see the process of building the quesadillas.  Lay out flour tortillas on baking sheets (Amazon tells me I purchased these in 2011 - I use them almost daily and they are still in great shape; definitely worth the price).  Top with black bean mixture, add shredded cheese.  Cover with 2nd flour tortilla.  Sometimes I add sliced black olives.  Sometimes I make a couple quesadillas with just cheese and black olives for the little kids or just cheese.  These are so versatile.

The pan on the left is my favorite Nordic Ware baking sheet.

Before going in the oven.

Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes or until the flour tortillas are as crispy as you like them and the cheese is melted.  We like the tortillas crispy around the edge, yet soft in the middle.  Let them cool a bit, if you can wait, then cut into wedges with pizza cutter.  Don't worry if some of the good stuff squeezes out, just stick it back in or grab it quick before someone else does.

Plate up with additional salsa and a great big dollop of sour cream.  Yum!!

In other recipe news:

We try new recipes quite often, usually found through Pinterest.  Some quickly become family favorites and others, not so much.  Amber made Brookies the other day.  They came together quickly and disappeared super fast.  So if you have a bake sale coming up and need a show stopper cookie, you'll definitely want to give these a try.

Pinnable Image