Thanks for your comments and following my posts about mom's recipes. I've decided to move the blog to a dedicated Internet address - Recipes From My Mom. I will probably continue to post at both addresses for awhile before I close this one. Hope you'll move over to the new site and become a follower or add a comment.
I posted the fish chowder recipe I created earlier this week, inspired by mom's scampi recipe. Click on the photo of the new blog or here on this link.
There's no shortage of recipes for oatmeal raisin cookies and I can't honestly claim that my mom's recipe is the best. The main reasons that I love this recipe are because it only takes one cup of oatmeal and it satisfies my need for a good brown sugar-to-butter ratio. The cookies don't spread when they bake and stay chewy for days. To me, that's pretty close to perfect.
I've always been a big oatmeal lover. Of course, when I was little we didn't buy instant or packs of various flavors. Mom cooked it in a saucepan on the stove to a creamy consistency. Then she let me add my own cinnamon-sugar, honey or fruit. No matter how I describe this cheerful and charming food memory to my daughter, she won't have anything to do with hot cereal. But she does love oatmeal cookies.
As I made this batch of cookies and was ready to add the raisins, we realized there were no raisins in the house. Well, there was a box of dark chocolate covered raisins. Sounded good to me and received daughter approval too. Result: a happy mix-up we'll definitely make again. In fact, they had a taste that was similar to eating a trail mix with chocolate chips.
Oatmeal raisin cookies, makes approx. 2 dozen
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tblsp. milk
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup oats, old fashioned
1 cup raisins (or 1/2 cup chocolate covered raisins, if you're up for something different)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream together brown sugar and butter. Mix in egg, vanilla and milk. Stir in flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt to combine. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop by small spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 mins. or until golden. (Mom added a note about soaking raisins in hot water for about 10 mins. This is great if your raisins have dried up some and need to be revived. Just drain them very well before you add to the batter.) See step-by-step recipe photos in this video.
Whenever I needed inspiration for roasts or tenderloins, I knew mom would have some great ideas. She would rattle off a list of ingredients and describe a method that she liked. In addition to her own creativity, she was a cookbook fanatic. She would often exclaim,"Oh, I saw the most wonderful recipe this month that I bet you would love!"
So now that she's gone, I often turn to the cookbooks that she loved so much. Her Best Recipes of Bon Appetit collection was especially impressive, going back to 1996. I'm so lucky to have them now, in addition to about a dozen other cherished volumes. After she died, as we went through her cookbook closet I found a few that I already owned, so I gave them to her friends to have as mementos.
Her Best of 1996 Bon Appetit had a wine-braised brisket recipe I adapted to get dinner in the oven sooner, with fewer pots and pans. Whenever I can, I like to use mom's Le Creuset Dutch oven that I inherited. We both loved the color blue and it makes me so happy to have one of her pots that she used for years.
The original recipe says that once your braising is done, you can chill and keep the brisket well covered up to 3 days, so this would make an excellent make-ahead dish for company or a family Sunday dinner.
Wine-braised brisket, approx. 3 lb. brisket will serve 4-5
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups dry white wine
1/2 cup brandy
3-4 Tblsp. good quality olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 celery stalks, sliced
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsps. dried thyme
3 lb. brisket (or a well-marbled beef roast)
1 15 oz. can chopped tomatoes
Combine chicken stock, wine and brandy in a medium saucepan and boil for about 25 minutes to reduce.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Add olive oil to Dutch oven and saute onions and celery over med-high heat, stirring often, until onions are golden. Add garlic and thyme and saute for a few more mins. Transfer the vegetables to the saucepan of chicken stock while you brown the meat. Add the canned tomatoes to the vegetables and stock.
Generously season the brisket with salt and pepper. Brown all sides in the Dutch oven.
Stand the brisket on it's side and put about half of the vegetables & stock into the bottom of the Dutch oven. Place the brisket on top and pour the remaining vegetables on and around the meat. Cover with the lid and bake in 325 degree oven for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until the roast has an internal temperature of 135 degrees. (The rule of thumb is 40 mins. per lb.)
Remove the brisket and let it rest, wrapped in foil, for 20 to 30 mins before slicing. You can either serve the vegetables and broth over thin slices of brisket or puree the veggies and make a thicker sauce. We liked the thicker sauce.
There are a few dishes in the stack of mom's recipes that I shuffle past because I haven't worked up the nerve to tackle them yet. I will make them, I promise. Well, maybe not her liver pate but I won't say never.
This picante corn casserole does not intimidate me at all and it's such a great side to go with ham, any kind of BBQ, chicken or fish. For a recent family dinner, I baked it in advance, transported it and just reheated for about 15 mins. Everyone loved it and the leftovers were good the next day. My hubby said he even liked it as a dip, which is an interesting idea.
There are a couple of things I did differently and next time I'm thinking about doubling the chiles. Mom's list of ingredients start with a stick of margarine which seemed like too much fat too me. I didn't have margarine so I used half a stick of butter and it was fine. I think the casserole would also be great with a little grated cheddar on top. I know, I know, that would just add more calories and fat but this blog isn't called Mom's "healthy" recipes, is it?
Picante corn casserole, serves 8-10
1 stick of margarine
1 pkg., 8 oz. cream cheese
12 oz. frozen white corn, thawed and drained
3 Tblsp. onion, chopped
1 can, 4 oz. diced green chiles
Salt to taste
2 Tblsp. hot salsa
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and coat a pan 9" square pan with cooking spray.
Melt margarine over low heat. Add cream cheese and stir until melted.
Add remaining ingredients and combine completely.
Spread in prepared pan and bake uncovered for 35 minutes.
I don't think mom thought of recipes as easy or difficult. What really counted was how much impact the dish would make when she served it. Now in my opinion, her Kahlua pie makes a good impression but it also makes lots of dirty bowls! My nephew and daughter had both been wanting a French silk pie and I wanted to try making a chocolate cream. The extra effort and messy kitchen were definitely worth it. I think we've found a new family favorite - Mexican silk pie!
Since it was the first time I've ever made mom's pie, it was also my first time to work with unflavored gelatin. It's not as complicated as I had feared -- much like dissolving yeast when you're baking bread.
The other step that might seem hard is working with a double-boiler. I just put a medium saucepan of water on the stove and sit a smaller saucepan inside it, making sure there's only enough water to let the small sauce pan float. Plus, with this recipe, you don't have to be worried about the chocolate "blooming" so try the microwave melting tip that I mention.
Pie de Kahlua, approx. 8 servings
9" pie shell, pre-baked
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 1-oz. squares semi-sweet chocolate
1/4 cup warm water
1 env. unflavored gelatin, like Knox
1/4 cup cold water
1/4 cup Kahlua
2 egg whites
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 Tblsp. sugar
Slightly beat egg yolks in top of double boiler. Add 1/2 cup sugar. Cook and stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved, about 5 mins.
Melt chocolate with 1/4 cup warm water in small saucepan (I actually did it in the microwave and it was fine.)
Stir melted chocolate mixture into egg yolks. Continue to cook and stir in top of double boiler until it begins to thicken, about 8 mins.
Soften gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water. Add to chocolate mixture. Stir well and remove from heat. Add Kahlua. Place pan in bowl of ice water.
Using electric mixer, whip egg whites until stiff peaks form.
At this point if you're using a stand mixer and you only have one bowl, you can carefully transfer the whipped egg whites to a large bowl. Then you can use the mixing bowl to whip the cream with the 1 Tblsp. sugar until stiff.
Fold whipped cream and cooled chocolate mixture into egg whites and combine thoroughly. Spread chocolate filling into baked pie shell. You can whip extra cream to pipe around edge of pie. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
It was inevitable that one of mom's recipes would cause me to breakdown. Actually I thought it would be something she made that I used to request or a favorite holiday dish. So it was a surprise to find myself emotional over chicken breasts.
The recipe's instruction threw me a bit when I first looked at it. I knew some steps must be missing but mom taught me to be resourceful and I was sure I could figure it out. What I wasn't prepared to handle was how completely helpless I felt that I couldn't call her to ask what I was doing wrong. She wasn't there to explain. She won't be there anymore to sympathize with me or cheer me on.
It helped that my husband asked for seconds and said it was really good. I think my red eyes and sniffles told him what I needed to hear. It wasn't mom's reassuring voice but she would have said it was delicious and the next time I make this dish it will be easier.
Mom also would have had a good laugh with me about how funny the chicken looked. The stuffing was oozing out and there were a half dozen toothpicks sticking out of each piece because of my attempt to pin them together. I'm sure there will be more tears over her recipes but I will find my own way of making them work.
Spinach stuffed chicken breasts, serves 8-10
1 med. onion, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. butter
10 oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained
1 lb. ricotta cheese
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley
1 Tbsp. fresh oregano
Salt & pepper
8 halves boneless chicken breasts
Bake at 350 degrees F about 30 minutes.
My additional instructions:
Saute the chopped onion in the butter.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine onions with spinach, cheese, egg and seasonings.
Pound the chicken breat halves to make them more uniform in thickness. Mound some of the spinach mixture in the middle of each chicken breasts and roll sides in to contain the filling. Secure with toothpicks if necessary.
I browned them in the same skillet the onions were sauted in before putting into a baking dish. Bake until the chicken is no longer pink, about 30 mins in 350 degree oven.
My favorite cold weather flavor has always been pumpkin so Mom would often make this rich cake when I was home for holidays. She and I both loved the combination of spices and generous amount of brown sugar. It's such an adaptable recipe too because it's good as a layer cake, bundt, muffins or baked as mini bundts to serve as individual desserts.
Mom gave me the recipe when I was catering so that I could make mini bundts for her to give her friends. I knew she usually did all her own baking for gifts so I was thrilled that she asked me. She bragged to everyone what a great caterer I was and raved about how the cakes turned out. It was a great boost to my self-esteem and an even better parenting lesson.
Pumpkin spice mini bundts, makes 10
4 eggs, at room temp
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cloves
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin puree
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat eggs thoroughly with electric mixer. Add brown sugar and beat until fluffy. Beat in oil and pumpkin, mix completely.
Whisk together dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and combine just until moistened.
Pour batter into greased mini bundt pans and bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until cakes spring bake when touched with your finger.
Let cool slightly before removing from pan. Glaze with a simple powdered sugar icing.
When my mom discovered the internet and email, I was thrilled. I loved reading her messages about what was going on in her life. There are 108 of her emails from 2007-2010 saved in one of my folders and some of my favorites describe dinner parties.
She would tell me the menu she planned, how she wanted to decorate the table and who was invited. I was lucky that a guest took some pictures at one of the dinners and she sent me a few. I can almost hear mom asking if anyone needs more wine or wants some coffee.
This pork tenderloin was one of her tried and true recipes that she often served to guests. It's amazing to me what an easy recipe it is but tastes like you spent much more time on it. The mustard sauce is savory, with just a little zing from the white wine. I will definitely make it next time I have a dinner party, maybe with some taragon or a little dill.
Pork tenderloin in mustard cream sauce, serves 6
2 lb. pork tenderloin
Flour seasoned with salt & pepper
4 tblsp. butter
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken stock
1 1/2 tblsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 cup heavy cream
Cut pork into 3/4" thick slices. Pound gently to make thin, round medallions. Dust in flour.
Saute in butter until brown on both sides. Transfer to a heated serving dish to keep warm.
Deglaze pan with wine and chicken stock. Cook over high heat until reduced and thickened.
Whisk in Dijon and cream. Season to taste. Pour over pork.
I searched but did not find mom's rum cake among the stack of her recipe cards. There were years when she would spend an entire December weekend making rum cakes as gifts for neighbors, co-workers and friends. It became a holiday tradition that I wish I could continue.
She used the recipe recommended by Barcardi that started with a yellow cake mix. I'm convinced she would add her own touches to the ingredients but I don't know what she did. There will probably be many dishes that I'm going to realize she made her own and I'll never know how.
So I created my own rum cake recipe that has a touch of Triple Sec, which tastes really good with dark rum. I make them as mini cupcakes. They are great additions to a tray of treats or for a cookie exchange. But just like I wish I knew what was in Mom's rum cake, I also wish she could've tasted mine.
Mini Rum Cakes, makes 6 dozen
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup dark rum
2 oz. Triple Sec (orange liquor)
Rummy buttercream frosting
12 Tblsp. butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
3 cups powdered sugar
2 oz. dark rum
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line mini cupcake tins with paper lines.
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs and mix completely. Stir in grated orange peel.
Whisk together flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gradually beat flour into butter mixture, alternating with buttermilk and vanilla. Stir in dark rum and Triple Sec.
Spoon batter into prepared mini cupcake tins and bake in 350 degree oven for 16-20 minutes. Cake is done when it lightly springs back after you touch it with your finger. Let cupcakes cool while you make frosting.
Cream butter and gradually add the powdered sugar. Mix in the rum and stir to test the spreading consistency. Add a little more rum if you need a softer frosting. Use a piping bag to add a little poof on top of each cupcake.
Mom was a bit of a perfectionist. Her home was always clean and orderly. Her outfits were simple but chic. And her food had to look as good as it tasted. She took pride in everything she prepared but also learned she could use store-bought things to save time. Sometimes she just didn't want her guests to know that's what she did.
One time she had purchased sugar cookies from the grocery store and then frosted them in beautiful multi-colored swirls before some friends arrived. When the guests started exclaiming how good they looked and tasted, I blew her cover by announcing she decorated them but didn't bake the cookies. Oh boy, did I get the evil-eye!
I love to save time with store-bought too. There are also times when you do what's possible with the time available. This cookie recipe works great if you only have enough time to drop blobs on cookie sheets and bake. Or you can go all out and give them frosting faces and outfits. I tend to bake them as gingerbread men and leave 'em naked. Not perfect, but pretty tasty.
Gingerbread cookies, makes 3 dozen
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
Cream butter with sugar and molasses. Add egg.
Whisk together flour, soda, salt and spices in a separate bowl. Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well.
Chill dough in refrigerator for a few hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Dust your work surface lightly with flour and roll out dough to desired thickness.
5. Cut into shapes and place on greased cookie sheets. Bake 8 to 10 mins.
6. While cookies are still warm, you can add raisins or other decorations. Or let cool and frost. They are really good with no decoration at all -- crisp and spicy like ginger snaps
Recent Comments