Category: Recipes From Life

A lifetime’s worth of shared recipes

Po’Boys

This go-to recipe is wonderful on cold days, and can be set up first thing in the morning for a welcoming dinner at the end of the work day. To do that, use frozen meat and set the crockpot on low.

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Po’ Boys

Crockpot dinner that is super easy, super yummy, and has only 5 ingredients.
Prep Time5 minutes
Crockpot time6 hours
Total Time6 hours 5 minutes
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: creole, crockpot, easy
Servings: 4 people
Author: Ava Broadway

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds beef roast can be in multiple pieces
  • creole seasoning to taste
  • 1 can cream of mushroom soup (10 3/4 ounces)
  • 1 can cream of chicken soup (10 3/4 ounces)
  • 2 teaspoon Bob’s Flavor Enhancer can substitute salt and pepper

Instructions

  • Season the beef roast on both sides with creole seasoning and Bob's.
    creole seasoning, 2 teaspoon Bob’s Flavor Enhancer
  • Put meat in crock pot and set on high. Pour soups over top of meat. Cover and cook for 6-8 hours on low, until tender.
    3 pounds beef roast, 1 can cream of mushroom soup (10 3/4 ounces), 1 can cream of chicken soup (10 3/4 ounces)
  • Remove roast and slice thinly. Add back into crockpot gravy.
  • Serve on crusty rolls, with gravy in small bowls for dipping.

Notes

If your meat is frozen, it will take longer to cook.  You can set the crockpot on high in that case in order to ensure the meat is thoroughly cooked.  You do not need to mix the soups together, they will blend naturally.  
Feel free to mix and match different ‘cream of’ soups, depending on what is available in your cupboard.

Tiny New Dill Potatoes

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Dilled New Potatoes

Very light, easy-to-make side dish that pairs well with fish, chicken, beef, pork…
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time25 minutes
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: easy, light, quick
Servings: 8 servings

Ingredients

  • 24 small new potatoes red or yukon gold
  • 1/4-1/2 cup butter
  • 6 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped or 2 tablespoons dried dill, to taste
  • salt and pepper to taste at table

Instructions

  • Place washed potatoes in a 2 quart pot. and add water to cover the potatoes plus 1-2 inches.
    24 small new potatoes
  • Cover pot and boil for 20-25 minutes, until potatoes can be easily pierced with a fork. Drain water from pot.
  • Add sliced butter to pot; allow to melt on potatoes. Sprinkle with dill and stir potatoes gently to distribute.
    1/4-1/2 cup butter, 6 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
  • Season with salt and pepper to taste at the table.
    salt and pepper

Notes

Another nice add is to stir in a little sour cream – not necessary, but delicious!  
Alternate directions:
Melt butter in a heavy casserole like a dutch oven. Add potatoes, season with salt and pepper, coat with melted butter. Cover and cook over low heat for 30-45 minutes, shaking casserole occasionally to rotate potatoes. Toss with dill.
 
This technique can be a little tricky as you HAVE to trust the process and you HAVE to keep the heat low and you shouldn’t take the lid off (you can but it will take longer).  It takes a little less of your attention, however.

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

When living in the Netherlands in the late 1980s we had very few Mexican restaurants – and since we had moved there from New Mexico, we were having some serious enchilada withdrawal symptoms.

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Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

Creamy, slightly spicy and deliciously cheesy…
Prep Time25 minutes
Cook Time35 minutes
Total Time1 hour
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Mexican
Keyword: cheesy, chicken, filling, most requested, turkey leftovers, zesty
Servings: 6 people

Ingredients

  • 1 package flour tortillas 12 small
  • 8-12 ounces pepper jack cheese shredded
  • 4 ounces cheddar cheese shredded, divided
  • 2 chicken breasts cooked and shredded or diced
  • 1 can chopped green chilis 4 ounces
  • ½ cup diced onions
  • 1 can cream of chicken soup 10 3/4 ounce
  • 8 ounces sour cream or low fat plain yoghurt
  • ½ teaspoon cumin

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
  • Mix soup, yoghurt/sour cream, green chilis, cumin and 4 tablespoons of cheddar cheese. Reserve 1 cup of mixture and set aside.
    4 ounces cheddar cheese, 1 can chopped green chilis, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 8 ounces sour cream or low fat plain yoghurt, 1/2 teaspoon cumin
  • To remainder, add chicken and onion and stir well. Place 1 heaping tablespoon on each tortilla, add 1 tablespoon pepper jack cheese, and roll into cigar shape. Place seam side down in a greased 13 x 9 inch rectangular pan. Repeat for each tortilla.
    8-12 ounces pepper jack cheese, 2 chicken breasts, 1/2 cup diced onions, 1 package flour tortillas
  • Cover with the cup of reserved sauce (thinned slightly with a little milk if desired very thick). Sprinkle with remaining cheese, using remainder of pepper jack first and cheddar last.
  • Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 30-45 minutes, until bubbly. Can be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated prior to baking, but will need extra time to bake.
  • Leftovers can be frozen and reheated later.

Notes

Serves 4-6, depending on what side dishes you serve.  
Warm tortillas roll easier and crack less.  Either zap them in the microwave for 10 seconds (one at a time as you roll them) or use them at room temperature.  
This recipe was shared with me when we lived in the Netherlands, and had (at the time) little or no access to Mexican restaurants.  It is similar to a recipe we enjoyed when living in New Mexico that had a light, chicken cumin flavored sauce.

Angel Biscuits

Light biscuits that can be mixed up ahead of time and baked on demand. A classic.

This is a great recipe to mix up early in the week and then bake as needed during the week. The aroma alone will make you hungry. For convenience I have included the recipe for Honey Butter Spread, which pairs beautifully with the biscuits.

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Angel Biscuits

Light biscuits that can be made ahead and baked in the morning.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Course: Breakfast, Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: make ahead, most requested, refrigerate
Servings: 45 biscuits
Author: For Goodness Taste

Ingredients

  • 1 package yeast or a scant teaspoon from a jar of yeast
  • 2 tablespoons warm water
  • 5 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup shortening
  • 1 cup buttermilk or 1 tablespoon vinegar + 7 tablespoons milk

Instructions

  • Dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside.
    1 package yeast, 2 tablespoons warm water
  • Sift flour with other dry ingredients.
    5 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon salt
  • Cut in shortening, using a pastry blender, fork or two knives, until it looks like crumbs.
    1 cup shortening
  • Add buttermilk and yeast mixture to flour mixture. Stir until a soft dough forms.
    1 cup buttermilk
  • Knead on a floured board for 2 minutes.*
  • Roll out to desired thickness and cut with biscuit cutter. **
  • Bake for 10 minutes at 450 degrees F.
  • Serve warm with Honey Butter Spread.

Notes

  • * At this point you can put the dough into a covered container or ziplock bag and store it in the refrigerator until it is needed; it will be good for at least 7 days.  Dough does not need to come back to room temperature before rolling it out.
  • **If desired, roll the dough out on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes before cutting the biscuits. This may allow the biscuits to bake taller.
  • If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can make a substitute by just adding  vinegar to milk.  Measure 1 tablespoon of white vinegar into a measuring pitcher, then add milk to make 1 cup.  Stir and let sit a few minutes.  
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Honey Butter Spread

The shortest recipe in my collection!
Prep Time5 minutes
Total Time5 minutes
Course: Dressing, Sauce or Spread
Cuisine: American
Keyword: dip, quick, spread
Servings: 4 people
Author: Kathleen Finnegan

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup butter softened
  • ¼ cup honey

Instructions

  • Beat butter and honey in a small bowl until light and fluffy. Serve with Fried Donut Puffs or Angel Biscuits.

Notes

Serves 4.
Store covered in the refrigerator.  Let soften at room temperature before serving for maximum spreadability.

Ways to use Angel Biscuits:

1) Pair fresh biscuits with Sausage Gravy for the classic Southern breakfast.
2) Serve with Sunday dinner.
3) Unexpected guests? Add Angel Biscuits to the menu to feed a few more mouths.
4) Bake, slice, then wrap in tinfoil and freeze. Pull out just what you need and make quick-to-go breakfast sandwiches with ham, sausage, bacon, eggs…
5) Pair freshly baked biscuits with Honey Butter Spread for a hospitality or condolence visit. Often the aroma of the biscuits is enough to entice the grieving to eat just a little bit, and the honey butter has them reaching for seconds.

Honey Butter Spread

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Honey Butter Spread

The shortest recipe in my collection!
Prep Time5 minutes
Total Time5 minutes
Course: Dressing, Sauce or Spread
Cuisine: American
Keyword: dip, quick, spread
Servings: 4 people
Author: Kathleen Finnegan

Ingredients

  • ¼ cup butter softened
  • ¼ cup honey

Instructions

  • Beat butter and honey in a small bowl until light and fluffy. Serve with Fried Donut Puffs or Angel Biscuits.

Notes

Serves 4.
Store covered in the refrigerator.  Let soften at room temperature before serving for maximum spreadability.

Quick, easy, delicious, and people love it! Great on biscuits, croissants, donut puffs, pumpkin bread, etc. etc. etc.

Caprese Spaghetti Salad 

A summery side dish, easy to make and fun to eat.

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Caprese Spaghetti Salad

A deliciously light, fresh summer side dish – especially when your garden is churning out a lot of tomatoes!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Total Time25 minutes
Course: Main Course, Salad, Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Keyword: easy, fresh vegetables, light, pasta, stovetop
Servings: 8 people
Author: Kathleen Finnegan

Ingredients

Salad:

  • 8 ounces vermicelli or other thin spaghetti broken into thirds, cooked, drained and cooled
  • 6 green onions sliced OR 1 vidalia onion, diced
  • 4 roma tomatoes seeded and diced
  • 4 ounces mozzarella cheese cubed (1 cup)
  • ¼ cup diced ham or pepperoni or salami optional

Dressing:

  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • ½ teaspoon dried basil or 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
  • ¼ teaspoon BOB’S seasoning or other seasoning salt

Instructions

  • Combine salad ingredients and toss well to combine.
  • Pour dressing on salad and mix again to coat.
  • Combine dressing ingredients and blend well; set aside on counter.
  • Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate until serving time.

Notes

If you want a heartier salad/main dish, add ham, pepperoni or salami.  I love the salad without the meats; it is light and tasty and a wonderful summer side dish that pairs well with any grilled meat.  

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.

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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!

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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.