Grandma Mills' Barbecued Beefburgers

I realized recently that I haven't posted a recipe for a while. As I was trying to decide which recipe to use, I remembered this recipe. It is a recipe that I found in my great-grandmother's recipe notebook.

The original recipe turned out a little vinegary to me so I adjusted the recipe by adding 1 teaspoon of brown sugar.

BARBECUED BEEFBURGERS

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup ketchup
6 tablespoons vinegar
3 tablespoons minced onion
1 1/2 teaspoons Worchestershire sauce

Add 1 tsp salt to 1 1/2 lbs beef. Form it into 6 patties. Heat skillet over medium heat. Arrange beefburgers in it. Sauté them until golden brown on underside; then turn and brown on other side.

While the meat is browning, stir together in a 2-cup measuring cup or a bowl, ketchup, vinegar, onion, and Worchestershire sauce. Drain all fat from skillet; then add this barbecued sauce to browned meat.

After adding the sauce, cover the skillet and let the beefburgers simmer over lo heat for 5 to 10 minutes or until of desired rareness, basting meat occasionally. When done arrange beefburgers on a hot platter with sauce poured over and around them.

German Potatoes

I enjoy eating baked potatoes. They make a quick and easy meal for one. Just stick a potato in the microwave and in minutes you can enjoy! There are restaurants that serve a baked potato bar so that you can top them with anything. So when I found a recipe for German Potatoes and read the recipe, I thought, "These are so simple! They are just baked Potatoes stuffed with sausage!" Of course, not everything is as simple as it first appears but these are easy to make.

Here is the Original Recipe. I found it in the cookbook titled Twenty-Five Cent Dinners for Families of Six. Now before you rush out to buy the cookbook, it was written in 1878 so the prices have changed quite a bit.

ORIGINAL RECIPE:

"German Potatoes--Carefully wash one quart of potatoes, removing any defective part, cut a slice from the top of the potatoes, take out a little of the inside, chop it fine, mix it with half a pound of highly seasoned sausage or mincemeat, (costs six cents), fill it into the potatoes,  put on the piece you first cut off, and bake them for about three quarters of an hour in a quick oven. Serve them as soon as they are soft. Ten cents will cover the entire cost, and they will make a hearty and nutritious meal, especially if the meat used is pork."

Okay, now we all know that it is going to cost more than 10 cents to make this meal, but this is taken directly from the cookbook. Now for how I made the potatoes.

GERMAN POTATOES

1 or 2 russet baking potatoes

1/2 pound sausage

Carefully wash the potatoes, removing the defective part. Divide the potatos in half, hollowing out the center of the potatoes. Finely chop the potato center and mix with sausage. Stuff potatoes with mixture. Wrap in aluminum foil and bake for an hour to an hour and a half in a 325 degree oven.

An alternative is to place the potatoes in a slow cooker in the morning before you leave for work and when you arrive home, you will have a wonderful stuffed baked potato waiting for you.

It is a simple, but nutritious meal for one or two. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Peanut butter and chocolate! One of my favorite combinations!

I was babysitting for a friend a few years ago, and the children I was watching wanted to make cookies. The first wanted chocolate chip cookies. The second wanted peanut butter cookies. The third didn’t care. He just wanted cookies. Since the other two couldn’t agree, I came up with the idea to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. They were terrific. I simply took my favorite recipe for peanut butter cookies and we added chocolate chips to them.

Well, I recently found a vintage recipe from a General magazine insert for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, and I think it was even better than my last minute recipe. The dough is closer to a chocolate chip cookie dough than the dough for a peanut butter cookie. The cookies were moist and soft.

 Mmmm…I’m getting hungry just writing about them.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup creamy peanut butter

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup sugar

½ cup firmly packed brown sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

5 tablespoons milk

1 egg

1 (6 ounce) package chocolate chips

½ cup chopped peanuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375ºF. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside. In large bowl, combine peanut butter, butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla; beat until creamy. Beat in egg and milk. Gradually add flour mixture; mix well. Stir in chocolate chips and peanuts. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Okay, here’s where I admit that when I made them I doubled the chocolate chips. The more chocolate the better, right?

For all of you singles who don’t want to have 4 dozen cookies sitting around the house because:

1)      You are going to eat them, or

2)      You are going to toss most of them.

I add more flour so that the dough is stiffer and easier to handle. Then I roll the dough into individual balls. Place on a cookie sheet and stick in the freezer. Once they are frozen, I pull them out and stick them in a container, and then I place them back into the freezer. Then when I want cookies, I just grab a couple of frozen dough balls and stick them in the oven. That way I can have cookies anytime I want without having either the mess or too many cookies.

Enjoy the cookies!

God bless you!

Chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate!

I love chocolate! I don’t know many people who don’t, and this time of year I really love to drink hot chocolate in the mornings. I’m not a coffee drinker, but I do like to occasionally have a cup of hot tea. Yet my early morning preference is for a tall cup of hot chocolate. I just recently downloaded a recipe book called Chocolate and Cocoa Recipes and Homemade Candy Recipes by Janet McKenzie Hill. This book was written in 1908 and can be downloaded from Amazon’s Kindle ebook store (see my Amazon store below).

Here are two of the chocolate recipes that are shared in the book:

Plain Chocolate

For six people:

1 quart milk

2 ounces premium chocolate

1 tablespoon cornstarch

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons hot water

Mix the cornstarch with one gill (see below) of the milk. Put the remainder of the milk on to heat in the double –boiler. Bring the milk to the boiling point. Stir in the cornstarch and cook for 10 minutes. Cut the chocolate up into fine bits, and put in a double-boiler; add the sugar and water. Stir constantly until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Add this to the hot milk, and beat the mixture with a whisk until it is frothy. Or, the chocolate may be poured back and forth from the boiler to a pitcher, holding high the vessel from which you pour. This will give a thick frock. Serve at once.

Omit the cornstarch if you prefer not to have the chocolate thick.

*gill = 1/4^th of one pint

Chocolate, Vienna Style

4 ounces Vanilla chocolate

1 quart milk

3 tablespoons hot water

1 tablespoon sugar

Cut the chocolate in fine bits. Put the milk on the stove in the double-boiler, and when it has been heated to the boiling point, melt the chocolate with the sugar and water, stirring until smooth and glossy. Stir the mixture into the hot milk, and beat well with a whisk. Serve at once, putting a tablespoon of whipped cream in each cup and then filling up with the chocolate.

Plain chocolate may be used instead of vanilla. If you use plain chocolate instead of vanilla chocolate, add a teaspoonful of vanilla extract and three generous tablespoons of sugar instead of one.

Original directions:

Both recipes recommend placing the chocolate, sugar, and water in a small iron or granite-ware pan and stirring over a hot fire until smooth and glossy. Since we no longer cook over hot fire (unless camping) I left out these directions. I also do not recommend melting the chocolate in a small iron or granite-ware pan, but instead I recommend using a double-boiler to melt the chocolate. There is less chance of the chocolate burning than melting it directly over the heating element whether electric or gas. If you don’t have a double boiler, you can easily make one using a glass mixing bowl and a 2-quart sauce pan.

Feather Rolls

While I loved the Parker House Rolls, they turned out to be a little crusty and dense for some of my family members.  My mom asked me to make rolls that were lighter and softer so I went looking for a recipe that was and I found the PERFECT SOFT ROLL RECIPE!!!!     It is a no knead recipe and I found it in the 1959 revised edition of the Fannie Farmer Cookbook. These rolls turned out so light and airy and delicious that Cowboy Carter (my nephew) ate about 3 full-size rolls and 3 baby rolls. These rolls were a big hit in my family, and they are so quick and easy to make! I will definitely be making them for the Boone Family dinner on Sunday.

 I will just say that I doubled the recipe and forgot to make sure that I had enough muffin tins for the rolls so some of the rolls where made by just dropping the batter on a cookie sheet which made them look more like biscuits than rolls and some of them were made in a mini muffin pan (the baby rolls). What can I say? I am a big picture person, not always a details person. J

Feather Rolls

1 cup warm milk (not hot)

1 package yeast

4 tablespoons soft butter or oil

2 tablespoons sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

Put milk and yeast in mixing bowl. Let sit for 5 minutes. Stir well. 

Add butter, sugar, salt and egg. Mix until thoroughly blended. Stir in the flour. Dough will be sticky and gooey. 

Cover the dough and set aside in a warm place. Let rise until double, about 45 minutes.

Prepare muffin tins with butter. Stir down dough. Fill muffin tins half full. Set aside and let rise until muffin tins are full. 

Bake in 350º oven until golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

                

Parker House Rolls

This recipe is one of my favorite recipes for rolls. The recipe originated at the Parker House,  a hotel in Boston.  I made them just yesterday for my mother. She works in a doctors’ office and the office was planning on having a special lunch today.  She asked me to make four dozen rolls! I had to find a recipe that was easy to multiply.

After preparing the rolls, I had to taste one. J My nephew was with me. He helped shape the rolls, and when I tasted one, I gave him a bite. He immediately asked for another one so they are 4-year-old approved!

Parker House Rolls

7 ½ teaspoons dry yeast (3 packages)

3 cups milk

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

6 tablespoons sugar

6 eggs, beaten

12 cups unbleached flour

6 teaspoons salt

Extra butter melted for glazing rolls and greasing baking sheets

Sprinkle yeast into 1 ½ cups of the milk in the bowl. Leave for 5 minutes; stir to dissolve. Warm the remaining milk in a saucepan with the butter and sugar. Stir until the butter has melted. Cool until lukewarm, then beat in the eggs until evenly combined.

Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the dissolved yeast and the butter mixture. Mix in the flour to form a soft, sticky dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface. Knead until smooth, shiny, and elastic, about 10 minutes. Knead in extra flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the dough is too sticky. Resist adding too much flour, as the dough should not be dry, but soft.

Put the dough in a buttered bowl and cover with a dish towel. Let rise until doubled in size, 1 to 1 ½ hours. Punch down dough, then let rest for 10 minutes.

Shape the rolls as desired. Place the rolls on a buttered baking sheet. Proof until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425º. Brush the tops of the rolls with melted butter. Bake rolls for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden and hollow sounding when tapped underneath. Cool on a wire rack.

 This recipe will make about 4 dozen rolls depending on the size of the rolls.

Chicken with Potatoes

I have not tried a lot of Greek food before. I have mainly eaten gyros at local fairs and festivals, but I found this recipe for Chicken with Potatoes in an old Kansas City Star magazine. It was submitted by Mrs. Adam Kanas. I think I fell in love with this recipe. I will definitely be making it again.

Chicken with Potatoes

4 large potatoes, julienne

3-pound chicken, cut up

¾ stick butter

Salt

Pepper

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

½ can tomato sauce

1 ½ cups water

Flour and brown chicken quickly in butter in large skillet. Remove from pan. Sprinkle potatoes with salt, pepper, paprika, and cayenne. Sauté potatoes in the same skillet until well coated. Place potatoes in large baking pan. Place chicken over potatoes. Bring tomato sauce and water to a boil in the skillet. Add to the chicken and potatoes. Bake covered for 10 minutes. Then bake uncovered for 20 minutes or more at 375 degrees. Add small amount of water, if needed.