Recipes of Days Gone By ~ Apple Crisp Recipe

What You Need:

1 1/2 lbs. (about 5 medium) apples, cored & sliced, unpeeled

2 T. fresh lemon juice

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

2/3 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal

1/3 cup margarine

What You Do:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly spray a 2 quart casserole dish with vegetable oil spray - I'd use my nonstick pan coating instead. Arrange apples in prepared dish. Sprinkle with lemon juice and cinnamon. In a medium bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, and oatmeal. Cut in margarine with a fork or pastry blender until mixture is crumbly. Spread over fruit. Bake 40 minutes or until apples are tender. Makes 8 servings.

Use this recipe with a variety of fruits for a healthy treat.

Recipes of Days Gone By

For my birthday, my wonderful mother-in-law bought me two old recipe boxes at a local antique store. Much to my delight, they were both crammed full of yummy sounding recipes. I will be sharing these on this blog from time to time. Please join me while I dig through these Recipes of Days Gone By.

Cafe Baked Spaghetti Recipe

Life here has been crazy this week. So much chaos going on in our neighborhood and with our friends. I feel so helpless! So, because I'm weird this way, I am trying to feed everyone. It's what I do in times of crisis. I don't know that it helps anything at all, but I try. I can't make everything all better, but I can keep your belly full. So, due too these really stressful days I am craving comfort food. One of my favorite dishes that I consider comfort food is Cafe Baked Spaghetti. Like many of my recipes, I got this one in an email and it was an instant hit with us! It is so tasty and topped with gobs of melted cheese - yum! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

What You Need:
8 oz. package uncooked spaghetti, cooked
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 lb ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped - optional
1 heaping T. minced garlic
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 cup shredded cheese - we like the Mexican blend

What You Do:
Combine hot drained spaghetti, milk and egg, mix well.

Pour pasta mixture into a greased 9X13 casserole dish.

Brown ground beef with chopped onion and pepper, and garlic - drain of excess grease.

Return drained meat back into the skillet and add seasonings, cooking for an additional two or three minutes.

Stir in tomato sauce and cook for two more minutes.

Spread meat mixture over pasta mixture.

Cover the top with cheese.

Bake at 425°F for 10 minutes or until cheese melts and is bubbly.

Remove from oven and let stand for about 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

I Have a Confession

Dan and I are huge DDD fans. That's Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives on the Food Network. WE watch every chance we get; it's one of the few shows we agree on. Anyway, this morning we were piled up in bed, watching past episodes, and drooling like we normally do when watching this show. They did a feature on a restaurant that made the tastiest looking breakfast dishes I've seen in ages. I really must eat there and as soon as possible! They made this dish called a jumbot and it looks heavenly! Check it out!


I was thrilled when I found the recipe for this amazing looking breakfast! I am going to be making this dish really soon!

What You Need:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
8 ounces hot sausage link
2 tablespoons water
1 (4-ounce) stick margarine
6 cups peeled, chopped, boiled potatoes
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
1 1/2 cups chopped green peppers
1 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes
1 cup jalapeno peppers
9 eggs, beaten
10 ounces shredded Cheddar

What You Do:
Heat the oil in a skillet and brown the sausage over medium heat. Add about 2 tablespoons of water to the skillet, cover with a lid, and cook for about 20 minutes, turning once during the process. Roughly chop the sausage links.

Preheat a large skillet or flat grill over medium-high heat and melt margarine. Add the cooked potatoes and saute until golden brown. Add onions, green peppers, tomatoes, browned sausage, and jalapeno peppers. Saute together for 5 minutes. Mix in beaten eggs until the eggs are cooked.

Divide jumbot in half in the skillet or grill, and add 8 ounces of the cheddar cheese to 1 half of jumbot. Take the other half of jumbot and lay it on top of cheese. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top.

Recipe List

You might notice that I'm trying to organize all the recipes I've posted here, as well as at Ramblings.When I'm done, hopefully I'll have one nice alphabetized list over here. This should make things easier for all of us.

Our Favorite Pot Roast Recipe

Since I scored such a great deal on dry onion soup mix today, I decided to share the recipe I use it the most in...pot roast. I originally found similar recipes online, but did a lot of tweaking to combine them into the one my family now calls the best!

What You Need:
3-4 lbs roast - we really like Boston butt pork roast

1 (10 1/2 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup

1 package dry ranch dressing mix OR 1 package dry onion soup mix

1 12 ounce can of Pepsi

1 large onion, chopped

3 or 4 large potatoes, peeled and quartered

What You Do:
Place roast in the bottom of a well oiled crock pot.

Place potatoes and onions on top of roast.

Now pour cream of mushroom soup over veggies & roast.

Sprinkle whole envelope of ranch or onion soup mix on top. Sometimes I use both ranch & onion soup mix for a little something different.

Then pour Pepsi over all of it. Sometimes I use two cans of Pepsi. I like for it to come almost half way up the roast. It makes this have a really tasty gravy. You might want to experiment with the liquid amounts to find what you like best and what is right for your crock pot.

Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours, then dig in!

Fast & Frugal BBQ Sauce Recipe

I discovered this morning that I didn't have enough BBQ to properly sauce all the ribs I was making for dinner. Since I've set a pretty strict budget for groceries this year, running out to get some was out of the question. After reading dozens of recipes online, I found one that I had most of the ingredients for, so I tweaked it a bit and voila yummy, fast, cheap BBQ sauce. I really enjoyed this so much more than the store bought stuff.

What You Need:

1 medium white onion, chopped very fine

1 T. minced garlic

3 T. vegetable oil

1 2/3 cups ketchup

1/2 cup vinegar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons chili powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

What You Do:
Put oil in a sauce pan on medium heat and cook onion and garlic until they are soft.

Then add the vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, chili powder, and cayenne pepper.

Let this simmer for 30 minutes, stirring often.

Now, does anyone have a good recipe for homemade mac & cheese that you make on the stove top? My old stand by recipe is MIA and the stuff I tried tonight was a disaster!