Month: March 2022

Sharing, Savoring, Simplifying

I am a packrat.

There is no denying it. I have wooden painting projects that have moved with me from country to country for decades. I have leftover embroidery thread from completed projects, scraps from quilts long since completed, stickers from when my children were small (also decades ago)…toilet paper and paper towel and wrapping paper tubes that might be needed for a craft project…old keys to things that are probably long gone…and a gazillion recipes gathered over a lifetime of roaming as a military dependent, officer and wife.

The recipes I treasure. I have the newspaper recipes that my grandmother cut out and put in a box, same from my mother, a whole newspaper section of Bohemian/Slovakian recipes my father preserved, and the ones I myself cut out. Recipes shared during our military travels (military wives are the BEST cooks!) and recipes born out of living in areas where certain foods weren’t available. And then there are the recipes that I created in a JML moment when I didn’t have the exact recipe or exact ingredients I needed to make whatever I had a taste for.

Before my children went off to college I drafted them to help me type our most used recipes into a cookbook entitled ‘Things You Can Eat And Some Things You Can’t’ (yes, named by my brilliant children). There are a few typos (scratch that, a lot of typos) in the book, and it is printed, not digital, so…

Many requests later, I am going to attempt to make the cookbook digital. I will give attribution where I have it, and since apparently you cannot copyright a recipe, I ask only that you also provide attribution if you find the recipe worthy of using. Good food shared creates community and caring and nourishment of the body and soul.

Links to the recipe posts can be found in the sidebar of this website and on the Recipes From Life page. I hope you find at least one recipe that you really love — or perhaps lost — over the span of your own lifetime.

Kathleen

Bring Better Baked Beans

As Spring tentatively approaches, if you want something warm and filling that you can set up and forget…Better Baked Beans may do the trick for you!

I made this for a squadron potluck when we lived in the Netherlands, and JML, my crockpot tipped over in the car on the way there, leaving only half the recipe in the pot.  Not only did it take me forever to clean the car, but the guys were very unhappy with the scarcity of the beans!  Fighter pilots are competitive about everything, and expelling noxious gas at a high velocity seems to bring them some sort of inner joy. I never brought any leftovers home, and make no claims that this recipe is totally healthy – but it is delicious!

True story, and the reason I now take the time to put my crockpot in a box to transport it, use the seat belt to buckle the box into the car seat if there is not enough room on the floor of the passenger seat….AND lay a towel over the top of the pot to weigh the top down if I don’t have one of those thermal crockpot carriers. There are probably better ways to do it, but I worked with what I had at hand at the time.

Print Recipe

Better Baked Beans

This side dish is hearty enough to to be a meal, sweet and full of protein.
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: barbecue, bbq, potluck
Servings: 8 people
Author: Kathleen Finnegan

Ingredients

  • 1 (3 pound) can pork and beans 48 ounces
  • 1 pound bacon diced
  • 1 medium onion diced
  • 1 ½ pounds lean ground beef
  • 1 cup ketchup
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon mustard prepared, not ground spices
  • ½ cup dark molasses
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350F, or use stovetop or crockpot.
  • Fry bacon in a dutch oven; set bacon aside and drain grease from pot.
  • Brown hamburger and onions in the same pot.
  • Add the bacon and beans to hamburger and onions.
  • Mix remaining ingredients (ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, molasses and Worcestershire sauce) and add to bean mixture in pot.
  • Bake covered at 350°F for 1 hour, or simmer on stovetop for 30 minutes, or bake in crockpot for 2-3 hours.
  • Serve with bread and salad.

Notes

Serves 8 as a main dish, 24 as a side.
If you are transporting this, be sure to secure the crockpot so that it doesn’t tip, and set it in a box in case any contents seep out as you round corners.  And don’t forget a sturdy serving spoon!

Watergate Salad for St. Patrick’s Day?

When I was in my teens a green fluffy dessert appeared at family gatherings called Watergate Salad. While Watergate Salad as a recipe did appear around the time of the Watergate scandal, apparently it was never served at the Watergate Hotel , and the best explanation I have found of the name is that ‘it’s full of nuts’. While it is not an Irish dessert, it is a GREEN dessert, and therefore qualifies in my book for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations!

I found this recipe in the clippings my mother had in her recipe box. I don’t think the original recipe included the bananas, but my father loved bananas and she was always looking for ways to incorporate them for him.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Print Recipe

Watergate Salad

A pineapple pistachio delight that was all the rage…for a while. Pudding, pineapple and Cool Whip…ambrosia!
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: easy, make ahead, potluck, quick

Ingredients

  • 1 4 ounce package INSTANT pistachio pudding (cook and serve won’t work)
  • 1 16 ounce can crushed pineapple, undrained
  • 1 9 ounce container Cool Whip
  • ½ cup maraschino or Bing cherries chopped
  • ½ cup walnuts or pistachios chopped
  • 1 cup miniature marshmallows
  • Sliced bananas optional
  • extra whole cherries for garnish

Instructions

  • In a mixing bowl, combine pudding mix, pineapple and pineapple juice until dissolved. Let sit 5 minutes.
  • Fold in Cool Whip, then cherries, nuts and marshmallows. Just before serving, fold in bananas. Recipe is best if put together the night before and stored in the refrigerator (except for the bananas). Bananas go in last minute because they brown easily.
  • Serve in an ice cream bowl with a spoonful of whipped cream and a cherry on top.

Notes

Serves 8.
Keep refrigerated.