Spaghetti and Meatballs

Spaghetti and meatballs is similar to Spaghetti and Gravy, but just different enough to be special. Making meatballs takes a little more work than is required for gravy, but the effort is worth it. While you can buy pre-made and pre-cooked meatballs, freshly made meatballs are so much better. So take the time to make them from scratch. You won't regret it.

Mom had two different recipes for meatballs. When I made this recipe, I used some aspects from both recipes, which appear below. The recipe allows for plenty of variations that you can easily adopt to your preferred taste. Both of Mom's recipes called for using ground beef, which I used here, but you could also use ground turkey or Italian sausage. The seasonings are fairly basic: onion, garlic, oregano, and basil. Other seasonings, such as rosemary, could provide a different flavor. I used canned tomatoes, but fresh tomatoes would be delicious. Because these meatballs are so good, I know that I will make this recipe again.

Spaghetti and Meatballs 

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 2 tsp. oregano
• 2 tsp. basil
• 2 Tbsp. chopped garlic
• 2 Tbsp. Olive oil
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• cooked spaghetti

Combine meat, bread crumbs, cheese, milk, egg, salt, pepper, 1/4 cup chopped onion, 1 tsp. oregano, 1 tsp. basil, 1 Tbsp. garlic. Form into meatballs and place on baking pan. Brown meatballs in oven at 425 for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, in a skillet, the remaining garlic and onion in the oil. Add the tomatoes and tomato sauce. Mix in the remaining oregano and basil. Place meatballs in the sauce, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve over spaghetti. Enjoy!

Sage Biscuits

Biscuits are easy to make and can be a delicious addition to any meal or a snack all on their own. While you can buy biscuit dough at a store, it is so easy to make your own dough, I think you should always just make your own dough. The basic ingredients include items you probably keep around your kitchen, such as flour, baking powder and butter. Then, you can customize your biscuits with seasoning or specialized ingredients like buttermilk to get different flavors.

The addition of sage makes for a lovely savory biscuit. I have tried biscuits with rosemary, but I had not even considered using sage. When I saw this recipe in Mom's recipe box, I knew I had to try it. The resulting biscuits were delicious. And the next time I make them, I might add a little more sage for a stronger flavor. The recipe calls for powdered sage, but fresh sage would work as well.

Sage Biscuits 

• 2 cups flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 tsp. powdered sage
• 3/4 cup milk

Mix dry ingredients. Cut in butter until coarse crumbs form. Add milk, stirring quickly until dough forms,  and is soft but not sticky. Turn out dough into lightly floured surface. Knead about half a minute to shape into a smooth ball. Roll or pat out until 1/2 inch thick. Cut into biscuits. Bake at 450 for 12 minutes. Enjoy!

Armenian Yeast Bread

Here is another bread recipe from among the many in Mom's bread recipe box. I don't specifically remember eating this bread as a kid, but this recipe makes a delicious bread. The resulting bread can be served with just about any type of meal, but I think it would be really good with soup or a meal that has sauce that needs to be sopped up. The bread is somewhat flat, but is hearty and strong enough to absorb a good amount of sauce.

When I made this recipe, I cut the amounts in half because I did not want to have too much bread around. I shouldn't have worried about that. MDS and I ate the bread within two days, so next time, I won't hold back, but will instead make the full recipe.

Armenian Yeast Bread 

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup boiling water
• 2 tsp. salt
• 4 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 envelope yeast
• 1/3 cup lukewarm water
• 4 cups flour
• 2 Tbsp. milk
• sesame seeds
• olive oil

Mix together in a bowl butter, boiling water, salt and 3 tablespoons sugar. Cool to lukewarm. Soften yeast in lukewarm water (about 120 degrees) and stir into butter mixture. Beat in two cups of flour and blend thoroughly. Add remaining two cups flour. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead for about ten minutes, adding more flour as needed or coat hands with olive oil is dough is too sticky. Place dough in a greased bowl and let rise in a warm place free from drafts for about two hours or until doubled. Punch down; divide and shape into four balls. Cover and let stand for 15 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, flatten and roll out to a circle about seven inches in diameter. Used fingers to create dimples or pattern on top of bread. Brush tops with a mixture of milk and one tablespoon of sugar. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Put bread on ungreased baking sheet. Let rise again for about 90 minutes or until doubled. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Allow to cool. Enjoy!

Sourdough-like Beer Bread

MDS and I recently returned from a week in San Francisco. While there, we ate well, including some delicious sourdough bread. I don't know if there is something special about San Francisco sourdough but I have never tried to bake it. A true sourdough requires a starter, which is a method of cultivating wild yeast with flour and water. I don't have a starter, so when I found this bread recipe among Mom's recipes, I thought I should give it a try.

Typically, beer bread uses beer and baking powder as a leavening agent. This recipe uses yeast. The dough rose very well and made two very large loaves. The beer gives this bread the sourdough-like taste. Although this bread is no San Francisco sourdough, it is very delicious in its own right. This bread rose very quickly, so if you don't have all day for a slow-rising bread, this one is a good alternative to a non-yeast bread. The bread is great fresh out of the oven, but also good leftover for sandwiches or toast.

Sourdough-like Beer Bread 

• 5 1/2 cups flour
• 2 packages yeast
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 cup warm beer
• 3 tablespoon oil
• cornmeal

In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, yeast, sugar, and salt well. In a saucepan, heat water, beer, and oil until warm (120 to 130 degrees). Add flour to mix. Blend until moist, then beat for three minutes. Gradually stir in the remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, about five minutes. Place in a greased bowl and turn greased side up. Cover; let rise in a warm place until dough doubles (about one hour).

Punch down and divide in two. On a lightly floured surface, roll or pat dough to a 7x11 inch rectangle. Start with the  longer side, tightly roll, pressing dough into roll at each turn. Pinch edges and ends to seal. Place seam side down on greased cookie sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. With a sharp knife, make three or four diagonal slashes across the top. Cover; let rise again for about 30 minutes. Bake at 375 for 30 to 35 minutes. Allow to cool. Enjoy!

Moist Chocolate Cake with Favorite Icing

Early in 2016, I made this cake to bring to Mom's for her usual Saturday night with her grandkids. It was a full house, just about all the kids were there: Tim, Ryan, Amanda, Ava, Patrick, Lorelei, Delilah, and even Mike stopped by for a bit (but, sadly for him, Mike did not stay to try this cake). The cake was a hit. I had been wanting to try this cake out for a while, but was afraid to make it when MDS and I would be the only ones to eat it. If I had been left alone with this cake, I know that I would have eaten it all myself. So, if you ever have to feed a full house, this cake should work just fine.

This cake is delicious and could be made for any occasion. I baked the cake in a pan instead of as a layer cake, which was called for in Mom's recipe. I think cupcakes would also be terrific. So, whatever size pan that you use, just adjust the baking time a bit. For example, Mom's recipe calls for nine-inch round pans and baking for 25 to 30 minutes; I used a 9x13 pan and baked the cake for about 40 minutes. The frosting takes a little more work than some frostings, but is worth the effort. But, I still need to work on the frosting texture because, although the resulting frosting still tasted delicious, it did not quite have the creamy texture that bakery cake frostings have. Interestingly, the recipe calls for a cup a coffee, but you do not taste the coffee in the cake.

Moist Chocolate Cake

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup oil
• 1 cup hot coffee
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Sift the dry ingredients. Add oil, coffee and milk. Mix at medium speed for two minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat two more minutes. The batter will be very thin. Pour into two greased and floured 9X1 1/2 round pans. Bake at 325 for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pans. Cool on wire racks.

Favorite Icing

• 1 cup milk
• 5 Tbsp. flour
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Combine milk and flour in a saucepan; cook over medium heat until thick. Cover and refrigerate . In a mixing bowl, beat butter, shortening, sugar and vanilla until creamy. Add chilled milk and flour mixture and beat for 10 minutes. Frost the cooled cake. Enjoy!

Grandma's Cheesecake

In celebration of Megan's "39th" Birthday, I made this cheesecake. I found this recipe among Grandma's recipes. As I have said before, Grandma loved cheesecake, as you can see from some previous recipes. I also love cheesecake, so I was happy to try these recipes. The cheesecake was a hit with the adults, Tim and Amanda. This particular cheesecake has a certain tartness that might be difficult for kids to like.

Because I know Meg loves strawberries, I made a simple strawberry sauce that could be used on top of the cheesecake. Simply bring 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup sugar, 2 cups chopped strawberries, 1 tablespoon corn starch to a boil for about two minutes. Then reduce the heat and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened. Also, instead of using graham crackers for the crust, I used plain vanilla cookies. Megan suggested that golden Oreos would make for a good crust. Maybe next year.

Grandma's Cheesecake 

• 20 graham crackers, rolled to crumbs
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 8-oz. packages cream cheese
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla, divided
• 1 cup sour cream

Make the crust by combining the graham cracker crumbs with the melted butter and 1/4 cup sugar. Press the crumb crust into a pie pan. Bake at 375 for 4 minutes. Meanwhile, make the filling by blending together the cream cheese, eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Pour filling into the crust.Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes. Mix together the sour cream and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Pour over the top of the cheesecake and smooth over with a spatula. Bake at 475 for 5 minutes. Allow to cool. Enjoy!

Ryan's Peppermint Patty Whoopie Pies

Guest Blogger: Ryan Buckley 

This is another recipe from Giada's show on the Food Network. I really like whoopie pies and the chocolate flavor and the subtle peppermint flavor. The use of peppermint patties in the cookie filling seems very unique. My cousin Tim is not a fan of peppermint but he even liked these. Not everybody likes candy canes so we only did a few with the crushed candy canes. I would really want to make these again.

Ryan's Peppermint Patty Whoopie Pies

• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped 
  
• 3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 10 chocolate-coated peppermint candies, such as York Peppermint Patties, chopped
• 5 candy canes, crushed, optional

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Melt the chocolate and 1 stick of the butter over medium heat in a double boiler. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Set aside. To the bowl with the melted chocolate, add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla and salt. Whisk to combine. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the yogurt. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour mixture being careful to avoid over-mixing. 

Scoop 1-tablespoon mounds of the batter on the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1-inch between each cookie. Bake the cookies for about 9 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through. Slide the cookies on the parchment onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

 Meanwhile make the filling. In a medium bowl, use an electric hand mixer to beat the remaining 2 sticks butter and the confectioners' sugar; mix until light and fluffy, starting on low speed to avoid splatter and work up to medium speed, 3 minutes. Add the peppermint extract, salt and peppermint candies. Beat on medium speed until the candies are broken apart and evenly distributed, 2 minutes. Spread the filling on the flat side of half of the cookies. Top with the remaining cookies. Roll the edges in the crushed candy canes if using and serve immediately or store in an airtight container until ready to serve.  Enjoy!