Blizzard Chili (Recipe) - Photograph

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I took those photographs of the pot of chili I'm making during the Winter Storm / Blizzard today.

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Blizzard Chili Recipe

Ingredients

~ 2.5 lbs ground beef
28 ounce (oz) can petite diced tomatoes
28 ounce (oz) can crushed tomatoes
chili seasoning packet
    i.e.
    4 ounce (oz) Six Gun Chili Mixin's
    or
    McCormick Chili mix

Directions

Brown the beef in a skillet or pot.

Add the remaining ingredients, in order. (Note: read instructions on chili seasoning packet. It's better to add "heat" to taste at the table, versus putting it into the pot, and the chili being too hot (spicy) for anyone to eat.)

Simmer on Med/Low for at least 30 minutes. (Longer to let all of the flavors mingle.)

"Recipe" - Postcard

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This week's Sunday Postcard Art theme was "Recipes." Mine is more "Food" than "Recipe" but it is all I could come up with.

I created this using GIMP 2.10.28

The vintage images are from an Internet search. (See the side of my blog for links.)

Magic Cookie Bars - Photograph

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I made Magic Cookie Bars this week, using the Eagle Brand recipe, which I've also included in this blog post, with my additional notes:

Ingredients
        
non-stick cooking spray

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup butter, melted (=1 stick / 8 tablespoons)
1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (~1 11.5 oz bag)
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut (~2/3 of a 7 oz bag)
1 cup chopped nuts

Instructions

HEAT oven to 350°F.

Coat 13 x 9-inch baking pan with no-stick cooking spray.

COMBINE graham cracker crumbs and butter in small bowl.

Press into bottom of prepared pan.

Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture.
(Maybe pour milk on last, on top of everything else?)

Layer evenly with chocolate chips, coconut and nuts.

Press down firmly with fork.

BAKE 25 to 30 minutes or until lightly browned. (~18 minutes in my oven, on middle shelf.)

Loosen from sides of pan while still warm; cool on wire rack.

Cut into bars or diamonds.

For perfectly cut cookie bars, line entire pan with foil, extending foil over edge of pan. Coat lightly with no-stick cooking spray. After bars have baked and cooled, lift up with edges of foil to remove from pan. Cut into bars.

VARIATIONS

SUBSTITUTE chocolate chips or nuts with candy coated pieces, dried cranberries, raisins, mini-marshmallows, butterscotch chips, or peanut butter chips.

Stuffed Zucchini Sausage Short Cut Method Recipe - Photograph

(after baking)

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(main ingredients)

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(in pan before baking)
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I like squash and zucchini cooked as a vegetable on their own, or baked as stuffed zucchini. I had some frozen zucchini and came up with this short cut method recipe for making stuffed zucchini in a pan, instead of in the zucchini shells.

One change I might try the next time I make this is to puree the zucchini slices, then mix that with everything else.

Stuffed Zucchini Sausage Short Cut Method Recipe

Ingredients:

12 oz (340 g) frozen Jones Sausage
 (defrost in refrigerator the night before)

16 oz (1 lb) (454 g) frozen sliced zucchini
 (defrost/heat to room temperature in microwave & drain)

1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 tbls grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbls onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp dried parsley
1/8 tsp oregano
1/2 cup dried panko bread crumbs

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (optional)

spaghetti sauce (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Grease an 8" x 8" x 2" nonstick metal pan with olive oil (optional).

Defrost/heat to room temperature in microwave the frozen sliced zucchini and drain liquid.

Beat egg in a bowl. Then add all dry ingredients, one at a time, mixing as needed, so that everything is blended together. (If the mix is too dry, add a little water and mix. I didn't need to when I made this.)

Add the room temperature Jones Sausage to the bowl and mix it until all of the ingredients are blended together.

Add the room temperature sliced zucchini to the bowl and mix it until all of the ingredients are blended together.

Spoon the mixture into the baking pan and flatten the top so that it is level.

Cover the pan with tin foil.

Bake in the oven on the bottom shelf at 375 F for 30 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven, pull back the tin foil, sprinkle on the shredded mozzarella cheese, recover with tin foil, and bake for an additional 5 minutes, to melt the cheese. (optional step)

Remove the pan from the oven and serve with optional spaghetti sauce.
(I had it without the spaghetti sauce and it tasted good. I also had it without the shredded mozzarella cheese on top and it tasted good that way, too.)

Easy Pasta Salad Recipe - Photograph

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When it's hot during the Summer, I enjoy having cold salads to eat. This is a photograph of the pasta salad I made using the three ingredients shown and listed below:

12 ounce / 340 grams box of Barilla tri-color rotini (elbow and bow tie pastas work well too)

16 fluid ounces (1 pint) / 473 mL Ken's Steak House Creamy Italian dressing

dry weight 6.5 ounce / 184 grams can of Pearls sliced California ripe black olives

Instructions:

1) Cook the pasta per the box instructions. (I like to add some salt and olive oil to the water, to help it come to a boil faster and keep the pasta from sticking together.)

2) After draining the water, allow the pasta to cool completely. (I put the pasta into the container, then put that in the refrigerator to cool. If you don't let the pasta cool first, and add the salad dressing immediately, it gets absorbed into the pasta, resulting in a "dry" pasta salad.)

3) Once the pasta is completely cool, add the salad dressing and black olives, and mix until blended.

4) Store the pasta salad in the refrigerator.

I got this recipe from my Mom. It's a great time saver, and tastes good.

"Hearth and Home" - Tag

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This week's Tag Tuesday challenge was "Hearth and Home."

I created this using GIMP 2.10.8.

The vintage images are from an Internet search. (See the side of my blog for links.)

"Retro Housewife" - Postcard

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This week's Sunday Postcard Art challenge was "Retro Housewife."

I created this using GIMP 2.8.20.

The vintage images are from an Internet search. (See the side of my blog for links.)

"Chicken Run" - Postcard

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This week’s Sunday Postcard Art challenge was "Chicken Run" but I wasn't sure what that meant.

I made a recipe card using this chicken soup recipe. This is also my first creation using GIMP version 2.8.0, which was released on May 5.

The vegetable digital stamps are from the NIDDK Image Library. The chicken is from Clipart ETC.

The fonts are Sarsaparilla and RiotSquad.

Snowballs / Mexican Wedding Cookies / Pecan Balls / Russian Tea Cakes / Butter Balls

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I based my recipe on the Kraft recipe.

All of these recipes are very similar:

Mexican Wedding Cookies

Pecan Balls

Snowballs

Russian Tea Cakes/Cookies

Butter Balls

Ingredients:

2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened (Stop and Shop Sweet Cream Butter Unsalted)

1 cup powdered sugar

6 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. salt

2 cups finely chopped Pecans

4 cups flour

1 cup powdered sugar for coating

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350°F.

2) Beat butter, 1 cup of the powdered sugar and the vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.

3) Add salt and beat on medium speed.

4) Gradually add pecans, beating on low speed after each addition until well blended.

5) Gradually add flour, beating on low speed after each addition until well blended.

6) Use cookie scooper to drop dough, 1-1/2 inches apart, on ungreased baking sheets.

Bake 10 to 15 min. or until bottoms of cookies are lightly browned. Time may vary based on your oven. Cool 5 min. on baking sheets. Roll warm cookies in remaining 1 cup powdered sugar until evenly coated; place on wire racks. Cool completely. Store in tightly covered container at room temperature.

Makes about 96 cookies. (4 x 6 on 4 cookie sheets.)

250 Dollar Cookie Recipe

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I took today off from work and made these cookies this afternoon, after making my Great Grand Mother's Thanksgiving stuffing this morning. Someone forwarded me this cookie recipe in an email (I think back then it was originally the "$200 recipe"). The story was something about the person eating these delicious cookies in a restaurant, asking for the recipe, and getting charged $250 for it, so they were sharing it with everyone. The story is probably an urban legend, but the cookies are delicious. The recipe is below and free for anyone to copy. I made the recipe cut in half, which is shown below the original one.

$250.00 cookie recipe:

2 cups of butter

2 cups of sugar

2 cups of brown sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp of vanilla

4 cups of flour

5 cups of blended oatmeal **

1 tsp of salt

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp of baking soda

24 oz of chocolate chips

1 8oz Hershey bar (grated)

3 cups of chopped nuts (your choice)

** measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder

Cream butter and both sugars together. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey bar and nuts. Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies.

Recipe halved:

1 cup of butter

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp of vanilla

2 cups of flour

2 1/2 cups of blended oatmeal **

1/2 tsp of salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp of baking soda

12 oz of chocolate chips

4oz Hershey bar (grated)

1 1/2 cups of chopped nuts (your choice)

Makes 56 cookies