Chicken Croquettes

This is one of those recipe cards that is hand-written in fountain pen ink. It is from "Mrs. Graves", and is a bit vague. I did the best I could, but can't use this recipe again, sorry Mrs. Graves. I wonder if people back in the good old days of trading recipes ever messed up a recipe so that other people would not be successful, because that is what seems to have happened here!! The mix was so runny that I couldn't make decent patties. The first croquette was the only one that held together in the oil. I could barely eat it, and am wondering about the other "croquette" recipes in my files. I will write this one out exactly as it was written, even though it doesn't follow the standard recipe format.

Chicken Croquettes

1 pint of fairly chopped chicken (packed in solid) 1 cup
chicken broth - 1 tblspn of flour and 1 tblspn of butter
1 tspn of lemon juice - a little salt & pepper. 1/4 tspn of
onion juice - a little minced parsley - 1 egg. Put
both over to boil - add flour & butter - salt pepper & egg
well beaten. Cook until it thickens - Take from fire
and add chicken. When cold form into shape. Dip
in bread crumbs - then egg - then bread crumbs again
Fry in deep fat

Berry Crisp

I love crisps, especially apple crisp. I have a recipe that I have used for years in the Betty Crocker cookbook. I thought I would try this recipe because I had some strawberries that were about to get too soggy to eat. I won't keep this recipe. There was not enough crisp to cover the amount of berries. Perhaps I miscalculated when I quartered the recipe, but it ended up being better over ice cream instead of with ice cream. The strawberries got really liquidy, and the crisp did not hold together, but it did taste good. The recipe was a bit vague, not indicating what size pan to use or how much sugar to use to sweeten the berries. I also used regular oats instead of quick-cooking oats, so that may have made a difference.

Berry Crisp

4 c. blueberries, blackberries, or strawberries
1/3 to 3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. butter
3/4 c. quick-cooking oats
1/3 c. flour
1/3 c. firmly packed brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. Place berries in baking pan ; sprinkle with enough sugar to sweeten.
3. Mix butter, oats, flour, and brown sugar together in a bowl until crumbly. Sprinkle over berries.
4. Bake for 30 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Cheese Potatoes

These potatoes tasted good, but were a bit difficult to prepare. The cheese forms a shell on the outside of the potato, so it makes it difficult to get a bite of cheese in each bite of potato. I used red potatoes with the skin still on, the fine grate on the grater, and poured the left-over melted butter over the top of the potatoes before cooking. Perhaps the next time I try these I will cut up the potatoes first and increase the ingredients so each piece is covered.

Cheese Potatoes

8 hot boiled potatoes
1/4 c. melted butter
1/2 c. grated cheese
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF.
2. Roll hot potatoes in melted butter and then in cheese mixed with salt and pepper.
3. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until brown. Serves 8.

Broiled Chicken Patties

These chicken patties tasted good, but I don't like how they cooked up. They were crispy on the broiled side, but soggy on the other side. I re-read the recipe and it never said to flip the patty half-way through cooking. If I use this recipe again I would broil one side and then turn the patty over and re-butter the top, continuing to broil them.

Broiled Chicken Patties

12 saltine crackers
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
2 c. finely minced cooked chicken
1/2 c. half and half
1 egg yolk, beaten
1 t. lemon juice
1 minced parsley
1/4 c. melted butter

1. Crush crackers into fine crumbs between two sheets of waxed paper. Mix with salt and pepper and set aside.
2. Blend remaining ingredients, except butter, together and work in prepared crumbs.
3. Shape into four patties about 1/2- to 3/-inch thick patties.
4. Place on broiler rack and brush edges with butter.
5. Brown about 3 inches from the sides and finish browning. Makes 4.

Peanut Brittle Cookies

This recipe was pretty good. I have some other recipes for something called Cookie Brittle which is similar, but this had peanuts in it. I should have used a larger pan so that the inside would have cooked longer. I quartered the recipe and used cocktail peanuts instead of dry roasted, and cut down the salt. I just realized that the recipe called for self-rising flour, I used all-purpose, so that may have affected the consistency of these bars. Also, I added the peanuts to the mix instead of sprinkling them on top. It's amazing that these bars came out at all with all the changes I inadvertently made!!

Peanut Brittle Cookies

1 c. butter
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
2 c. self-rising flour
6 oz. chocolate chips
1/2 c. chopped roasted peanuts

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
2. Blend butter, salt, and vanilla. Add brown sugar and blend. Add flour and chocolate chips.
3. Press mixture into a greased and floured 15" x 10" x 1" pan. Sprinkle with peanuts.
4. Bake 25 minutes. Cool and cut into bars or break into chunks.

Strawberry-Filled French Toast

OMG, this recipe is definitely a keeper!! I had some leftover strawberry cream cheese from the PB & C Sandwiches last week. I had a bit of trouble downsizing the recipe, but decided to wing it. I used about 3 ounces of the cream cheese, about a teaspoon of sugar, 6 fresh strawberries (chopped), about 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla, and a couple shakes of cinnamon for the filling. I used 2 eggs, about a tablespoon of half & half, a dash of salt, and 4 slices of bread. Usually I don't like the soggy egg bread part of french toast, so the next time I try this recipe I will only "egg" the outside portion of the bread. I tried this recipe with fresh blueberries, adding a bit more sugar, and it was also yummy!!

Safety note: Studies have shown that there are possible health risks to using raw eggs. Instead, substitute a pasteurized egg product.

Strawberry-Filled French Toast

Filling:
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. sugar
16 oz. frozen unsweetened strawberries, thawed and drained
1 T vanilla extract
1/2 t. ground cinnamon

French Toast:
11 eggs
1/2 c. milk
1/2 t. salt
butter
24 slices of sliced white bread
confectioner's sugar

1. For the filling, mix cream cheese and sugar together until fluffy. Add remaining ingredients and mix until well-blended.
2. For French toast, whisk eggs, milk, and salt together until foamy.
3. Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium heat.
4. For each serving, dip 1 slice of bread in egg mixture, turn once to coat, and place in skillet. Spoon about 1/4 cup of filling in center of bread. Dip another slice of bread in egg mixture, turning once to coat, and place over filling.
5. Cook 3-4 minutes or until underside is light brown. Turn and cook 3-4 minutes longer or until other side is light brown. Transfer to a warm plate, cover with aluminum foil, and place in a 200-degree oven until ready to serve.
6. Add more butter to skillet as necessary between batches.
7. To serve, dust each piece of French toast with confectioner's sugar. Makes 12 servings.

Carole's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

My family is helping my sister move out-of-state this week, and I decided that for the 12-hour drive we would need some in-transit sustenance. I used a large ice cream scoop so that the cookies would be larger than usual.

I took the "Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies" recipe from the Quaker Oatmeal box and modified it a little bit.

Carole's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 c. butter, room temperature
1 c. firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 t. baking soda
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
3 c. oats
1 c. raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2. Beat butter and sugars and beat until creamy.
3. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.
4. Add combined flours, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and oats. Mix well.
5. Stir in raisins well.
6. Use an ice cream scoop and place cookies 1-inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake 10 minutes. Switch oven shelves and bake another 5 minutes.
8. Cool on wire rack. Makes 16-24 cookies, depending on what size ice cream scoop used and how much dough was consumed!!

(NOTE: it is not safe to eat raw eggs, so I am not encouraging people to eat cookie dough)

Golden Potato Bake

Another disappointment with corn flakes. I figured that this would be a good accompanying dish for the chicken I made with corn flakes. NOT!! I will be cautious with corn flake usage in the future. But, this is not a keeper, and I don't know what I will do with the rest of these potatoes. Perhaps I could salvage them tomorrow ...

Again, it could be that I didn't get the corn flakes "crumby" enough. Also, I didn't realize that "pare" means to "peel". So, I peeled and cubed the potato, which may have made a difference to the recipe. Another thing is that I used the wrong sized pan, I used a loaf pan instead of a 9" square pan.

Golden Potato Bake

1/2 c. cornflake crumbs
1 t. salt
4-6 medium potatoes, pared
2 T butter, melted

1. Heat oven to 375ºF.
2. Mix corn flake crumbs and salt.
3. Brush potatoes with butter and coat with crumbs.
4. Arrange potatoes in an ungreased 9" x 9" x 2" baking pan.
5. Bake uncovered for 1-1 1/4 hours or until potatoes are tender. 4-6 servings.

Crispy Chicken Drumsticks

I had high hope for this recipe. After all, my favorite part of my family's tuna casserole was the corn flake topping!! I was quite disappointed at how the corn flakes worked, or didn't work as the case may be, as a coating for chicken. Perhaps I didn't make the corn flakes "crumby" enough? This is definitely not a keeper recipe.

I used some chicken tenderloins for this recipe, and as usual I needed more of the coating than the recipe called for. I also had to research what "boiled salad dressing" is. Apparently I don't know this because I was raised in the West!! I just used mayonnaise as the base for this recipe.

Crispy Chicken Drumsticks

1 c. corn flake crumbs
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
3-4 lb. chicken legs
1 c. boiled salad dressing or mayonnaise

1. Combine crumbs, cheese, and a light sprinkling of salt and pepper.
2. Coat chicken with salad dressing and dip each piece in the crumb mixture.
3. Bake in a shallow pan for 1 hour at 350ºF. Serves 4-6.

Potato Pancakes

I had overestimated the amount of potatoes needed for my last recipe, so I had one already-peeled potato floating in water in the refrigerator. For breakfast today I made Potato Pancakes. This recipe was satisfactory, but I have a lot of other similar recipes that might be better. I used slightly less potatoes than the recipe called for, and kept the 1 egg. So, I had to add more flour to make the better thick enough.

Potato Pancakes

1 egg
1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
1/4 t. onion juice
2 c. grated raw potato
flour

1. Beat the egg until light and pale yellow, add the seasoning and the grated potato.
2. Stir in flour, a tablespoon at a time, using only enough to make a thick batter.
3. Drop by spoonfuls into a frying pan containing a little hot shortening and brown slowly on both sides. Serves 6.