Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats

Yesterday when I was thinking of my mom's chicken and dumpling recipe and musing on her lack of interest in cooking (that is so foreign to me, I LOVE to cook), I realized that one of the things I made earlier this week was also a recipe I got from her. I don't know where she got it, but it is a tasty variation of the old stand-by recipe for Rice Krispie Treats. I have updated it to be able to do it in the microwave.

Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats

4 Tbs. Butter
60 Large Marshmallows (16 oz. Bag)
1/2 Cup Crunchy Peanut Butter
6-1/2 Cups Rice Krispie Cereal

Spray with non-stick spray, or coat with butter, a 9" by 13" baking dish. Place the 4 Tbs. butter in a very large microwave safe bowl and melt completely, about 1 minute. Swirl butter to coat all sides of the bowl. Place the marshmallows in the bowl with the butter and stir to coat all the marshmallows well with the melted butter. Return to microwave and cook for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring down about every 30 seconds. When the marshmallows are creamy and melted down (but don't cook until they look like syrup, that is too long) stir in the peanut butter. Stir until peanut butter is completely mixed in. Pour in the rice krispies and stir until completely coated with the marshmallow mixture. Turn out into the buttered pan and press down to smooth out the top. (I butter my hands before doing this so the mixture doesn't stick to me.) Let cool then cut into squares. Yum!

Mama's Chicken and Dumplings

As I have said in the past, my mother did not like to cook. For most of my growing up years, my grandmother lived with us and did the cooking. My mom was very 'right-brained' and did not like the mundane. If she cooked, it was going to be something special, not the day to day ordinary things (my daughter Sara is exactly like her.) Mama did have several dishes that were outstanding and this is one of them.

Mama's Chicken and Dumplings

1 Large Hen (at least 5 lbs.)
3 Ribs of Celery
3 Large Carrots
3 Cloves of Garlic
1 Tsp. Whole Black Peppercorns
1 Tbs. Salt
2 Bay Leaves
Water
1 12 oz. Can Evaporated Milk
1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour

Wash chicken well and remove the Parson's Nose (tail). Place in a large (at least 12 qt.) stockpot and sprinkle with the salt. Cut the celery and carrots into about 3 inch lengths and place in pot with chicken along with bay leaves. Peel and cut each clove of garlic in half and place in pot. Sprinkle in black peppercorns. Cover the chicken with cool water and place on heat. Simmer gently for several hours or until chicken is completely tender and falling from bone. Remove chicken carefully from stock and let cool. Strain stock, discarding vegetables, bay leaves and peppercorns. Chill stock thoroughly until fat has hardened at the top. Remove fat from stock (do not discard fat) and return stock to a low simmer on heat. If there is less than 3 quarts of stock left due to evaporation, add water to bring stock level up to about 3 quarts. If more than 3 quarts, boil quickly to reduce volume. Make dumplings.

Dumplings

1-1/2 C. All Purpose Flour (Do Not Use Self-Rising Flour)
1/3 C. Reserved Cold Chicken Fat (see note below)
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1/2 Cup Cold Milk
1 Egg, Thoroughly Beaten

Mix flour, fat and salt well. Add milk and egg. Mix well. Add additional flour if needed to keep dough from being too sticky. Roll on heavily floured cutting board. Cut into squares. Drop dumplings into reserved chicken broth which is simmering. Simmer about 15 minutes, stirring gently once or twice. Dumplings will rise to the top of the broth when done.

Meanwhile, remove chicken from bone and cut or tear into bite size pieces. After dumplings are done, stir in chicken meat. Whisk together the evaporated milk and the 1/2 cup flour until smooth. Pour into chicken and dumplings. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. If too thick, add additional milk. If too thin, stir in additional flour mixed with water or milk.

Note: If you don't want to go to the trouble of chilling and using the chicken fat, shortening may be substituted, but this will not be the 'real deal'. Shortening wasn't invented until about mid-century (give or take a decade) 1900's. Before that, it was chicken fat, lard or butter. So, use hydrogenated fat (shortening) if you must, but the taste won't be the same.

Thoughts about Daddy

I have been thinking about my father all week. He would have turned eighty-seven this week had he still been living. A good friend lost her father this week and all those old feelings of loss resurfaced even though it has been sixteen years since I lost him. I loved my mother, but I never connected with her like I did my dad. He instilled in me from an early age a powerful sense of right and wrong. He taught me to believe in myself. He told me I could do anything I set my mind to do (and for a long time I really believed that.) I inherited his love of books and acquistion of knowledge, just for the sake of learning. He never sat down without picking up something to read. I was lucky to grow up in a house filled with good books and an example of someone who loved to read them. He was hard-headed (stubborn) and always right (unfortunately I acquired those traits also - just ask my family), but honest and trustworthy to a fault. I remember running into a fellow several years ago that had worked with Daddy and he told me that he was also in some sort of organization with him and every year Daddy was always elected treasurer, always. He said "Your dad had more integrity than any man I have ever met." Wow, will someone ever say anything like that about me? Probably not. I can still remember Daddy telling me: "Billie Jean, don't ever tell someone you will do something if you don't fully intend on doing it. Your word is the most important thing you have." He lived by those words. Happy Birthday Daddy.

Homemade Ginger Ale

I really don't know why, at this time of the summer gardening season when everything has really started coming in, I decided to try to make homemade ginger ale. Maybe it is because I love ginger ale. Maybe it is because I like to try new things. Maybe I just like a challenge. I think it must be a combination of these three things. Anyway, I tried it and I like it. It is not nearly as easy as running down to Wal-mart and buying a 2 liter bottle, but it is a lot more fun.

Homemade Ginger Ale

1 Clean 2 Liter Soda Bottle
1 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Very Finely Grated, Peeled Ginger Root
Freshly Squeezed Juice of 1 Lemon
1/4 Teaspoon Baker's Yeast (Not Rapid-Rise)
Water

Put sugar, ginger root and lemon juice in a small pitcher with a pouring spout. Add about 2 cups of warm (not hot) water and stir until sugar is dissolved. Pour into the 2 liter bottle. Without rinsing pitcher, put about 2 more cups of cool water into the pitcher and stir to make sure all sugar and ginger is loosened. Pour this cool water into the 2 liter bottle. Very carefully, add yeast to the 2 liter bottle. Cap and shake to disperse yeast. Remove cap and fill bottle to within 2 inches of top of bottle with cool water. Recap and set at room temperature (75 to 85 degrees) for 48 hours. The yeast will cause the drink to carbonate. The bottle will feel very hard to the touch. Do not let the bottle sit longer than 48 hours at room temperature or the yeast will start producing alcohol and the drink will become ginger beer. Refrigerate the ginger ale and let set for 24 hours in refrigerator before drinking. I strained mine before drinking, but this is optional. This is very refreshing and delicious, much better than what can be bought at the supermarket.

Apple Bread

This is the apple version of a basic bread recipe that I have been experimenting with for the past several months. I need to give credit to my daughter Sara and tell a funny story concerning her, with regard to this recipe. She received a loaf of this bread and a copy of the recipe from a friend. She loved the bread and shared the recipe with me. Now comes the funny part. Sara (like me) is not a beer person. Doesn't care for it at all and knows nothing about it to speak of. Well, the recipe calls for a 12 oz. can of beer (for the yeasty flavor and leavening). Didn't specify any particular type, just beer. Her husband Jonathan is a beer afficionado and keeps several types of gourmet (huh!) beer out in the fridge in their garage. To Sara, beer is beer so she goes out and grabs the closest bottle of beer within reach and makes a great loaf of bread. Jonathan is raving about the bread and saying it is so much better than the loaf that the friend had brought over, so much darker and richer and yeastier. Sara says she wonders if it is because that beer she used was dark brown and smelled so strong! Did Jonathan freak out? Had she used one of his expensive imported gourmet beers to make her beer bread? You bet, and it was delicious!

Apple Bread

3 1/2 Cups Self Rising Flour
1 Cup of Sugar
1 Tsp. Vanilla Flavoring
1 Tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1 12 oz. Can of Beer (any kind - even gourmet)
1 Cup Apple Pie Filling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a large loaf pan. Mix all dry ingredients together. Stir in beer and pie filling slowly. Pour into prepared pan and bake one hour or until bread tests done with cake tester. Cool completely before slicing. This is great served with apple butter.

Here is the basic original version that was given to Sara:

Beer Bread

3 Cups Self Rising Flour
1 Cup Sugar
1 12 oz. Can of Beer

Proceed as directed above.

I have also varied this basic recipe by adding one cup of frozen blueberries and 1 tsp. of almond flavoring. When I make the basic version, I reduce my sugar to 3/4 cup so that it is not quite so sweet.

Sweet Potato Biscuit Memories

I'm just musing this morning. I've got my grandmother on my mind for some reason. Perhaps it is because I've been going through old pictures and she is in so many of them. She was such a big part of my life for so many years. She lived with us until I was a teen-ager and was the major cook and care-giver for us girls. When we girls got older, she moved out to live with her step-mother who had become widowed, but she didn't move far. I would go spend the night with her on many weekends and even spends weeks at a time at her house during the summer months. This went on up until the time I got married. I knew how much I loved her, but didn't realize how much she must have loved me until I had grandchildren of my own. I have a big lump in my throat just thinking about her and she has been gone almost 31 years. Alva Gertrude Rodgers Porter. Who I am today is, in large part, due to you.

What has this to do with Sweet Potato Biscuits? This morning I was preparing Ralph's breakfast and popped a piece of homemade fruit bread into the toaster. The smell of it brought back memories of my grandmother's sweet potato biscuits she would make. She knew that I loved them and some mornings she would get up very early and bake a couple of sweet potatos. Then she would have hot sweet potato biscuits for me when I got up. She would split the biscuits open and put butter on them. Sometime she would sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar, but usually not. They were perfect with nothing but butter. I've never been able to duplicate that taste and I've tried. She would take the warm, mashed sweet potato and stir in some shortening or lard. Then she would stir in some self-rising flour until it looked right. She would then knead it just a few times on her floured countertop and cut it into biscuits. She would put them into a bacon greased pan and bake in a hot oven until they were golden brown and delicious. I really would love to have one of those biscuits right now. Even more, I would love to have my grandmother.

Pie Crust Pastry

I have had this recipe for years and it has never failed me yet. It has been published with many different names, i.e. egg pastry, vinegar pastry, never-fail pastry, etc. I just call it Pie Crust.

Pie Crust Pastry

6 C. Flour
2 C. Shortening or Lard (Manteca)
1 Tsp. Salt
1 Egg
2 Tbs. Vinegar
Ice Cold Water

Blend flour, shortening and salt. Beat egg in measuring cup; add vinegar and enough water to measure 1 cup. Add egg mixture to flour mixture; blend until dough leaves sides of bowl. Divide into 6 equal portions and place in plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator and chill for several hours before rolling out on floured cloth or board. Will keep for up to one month in refrigerator. Yield: Pastry for six 1-crust pies or three 2-crust pies.