Grandparent Recipes - Cornbread Dressing

Is there any food, besides the turkey, that best signals the holidays have arrived? I LOVE cornbread dressing, and was thrilled to see Suzanne's grandmother's recipe arrive in my Inbox. Today, she shares it with us, and we may share other dressing recipes through the week.


We have so much to be thankful for - our freedom, our families, our friends. May this Thanksgiving be an extra special one for you, filled with love, laughter, hugs, kisses, and gratitude. I appreciate you - our readers, our authors, our families, our friends. Connections we've all made this year have been precious. Thank you.


Now, from Suzanne Williams:

My Grandmother's Cornbread Dressing

*This is an old family recipe which originated with my great-grandmother (mother's side). Simply put, we think its the best ever. The cornbread itself is a very moist buttermilk cornbread. The dressing is lightly flavored as my grandmother never liked a lot of spices. Just be sure to follow the directions when it says DO NOT STIR as that is key to the texture being firm and not mushy.

CORNBREAD:

1 cup white ground cornmeal (not self-rising)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup shortening, melted

Mix meal, flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
Add buttermilk, egg, and melted shortening.
Pour into greased 9” pie plate.
Bake at 375° F for 12 minutes.
Makes 1 cornbread.

DRESSING:

2 recipes cornbread, crumbled
1 cup Pepperidge Farm cornbread stuffing crumbs
3/4 tube saltines
1 cup each steamed celery and onion, minced
poultry seasoning, to taste
3 eggs, beaten
4-5 cans chicken broth, heated
Chicken or Turkey drippings (optional)

Prepare 2 recipes of cornbread.
Crumble cornbread into a large bowl.
Steam celery and onion with 1/4 cup water in small saucepan. Do not brown!
Place saltines, stuffing crumbs, and the steamed celery and onion mixture on top of cornbread.
Add poultry seasoning (to taste).
Very lightly toss together.
Pour beaten eggs over mixture.
Slowly add heated broth.
Do not stir!
Gently prod the mixture with a fork to allow the liquid to seep through.
Pour into a rectangular baking dish.
Casserole contents should be slightly floating in liquid.
Bake at 350° F for 30-40 minutes. Do not allow to dry out!

NOTE:

Recipe is large and will perhaps take more than one baking dish. However, it can be halved. Dressing should be slightly floating in broth before being baked. Granny always boiled a chicken and used some of the natural broth instead of canned. She also used this broth for the gravy. At other times, she has used the drippings from the baked turkey as well. The amount of canned broth will need to be adjusted based on the amount of turkey drippings or boiled chicken broth you use. If not using drippings, you might need more than 4 cans of broth.

GRAVY:

1 can Campbell’s cream of chicken soup
1/2 - 1 can chicken broth
Giblets, diced small

Pour chicken soup into small saucepan.
Add chicken broth until desired gravy thickness.
Add giblets.
Heat.

Grandparent Recipes - Grandmother's Plumi Moos

Today, we welcome author Valerie Comer.

You know how there are things from your childhood that you don't miss for eons until suddenly you're reminded of them again? So it was with Plumi Moos. Both my parents were raised in southern Manitoba, Canada, in a strong Mennonite culture. Plumi Moos (pronounced PLOOmeh moose) is a traditional Mennonite food and is best translated simply as Fruit Soup. While it certainly contains fruit, it isn't related to soup in any way (in my opinion!) other than you spoon it out of a bowl.

Traditionally, Mennonites would have their major Sunday meal after church, then late in the afternoon a light meal called Faspa. This would be buns, meat, cheese, pickles, and a large serving bowl of canned fruit or Plumi Moos.

When my mom went into fulltime care in 2007 I brought her Mennonite Treasury cookbook home, so I knew where to start looking when the thought of making Plumi Moos entered my mind a few weeks ago. And though there were many versions, none of them sounded quite right. I sent out a plea to my cousins on Facebook and got a couple more versions, which also didn't ring bells. So I invented my own!

Plumi Moos

1/2 cup snipped prunes
1/2 cup snipped dry cherries
1/2 cup raisins
2 1/2 cups water
Bring to a boil and simmer until fruit is soft.

Add:
1/4 cup honey
dash cinnamon & cloves

Mix:
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups milk

Stir the milk combo into the simmering fruit.
When thickened, turn off heat.
Chill before serving.

We enjoyed it so much that I'll be experimenting with other dried fruits over the winter. I'm serving it as part of breakfast, a dessert, or a snack. Why don't you give it a try?



Valerie Comer's life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local foods movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily ever afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughter.

Her first published work, a novella, will be available in the collection Rainbow's End from Barbour Books in May 2012. Visit her website and blog to glimpse inside her world.

Grandparent Recipes - The Cookie Legacy

Today, we welcome author JoAnn Reno Wray with a delightful story and some incredible recipes.

The Cookie Legacy

© JoAnn Reno Wray

The scent of cookies baking, spicy oatmeal, butterscotch shortbread, and date roll ups, are imbedded in my brain. My paternal grandmother, Ethel Reno, baked a massive box of all kinds of cookies for our family every year. My three brothers and I eagerly looked forward to those homemade treats.

Grandma’s kitchen was paved with black and white linoleum squares and a white porcelain sink sat under one window. My favorite part of the kitchen was the cupboard. It was deep, lined by shelves sporting gingham yellow paper, and soaring to the tall ceilings. In the far back corner was a special box of toys for grandkids. I’d sit in the cupboard and play, listening as Grandma bustled around the kitchen baking and stirring pots of stew or frying up chicken.

When Grandma baked her Christmas cookies, she piled heaps and stacks all over the kitchen. So many kinds it dazzled eyes. We often heard her slap Grandpa’s hand admonishing him, “Those aren’t for you!” To which Grandpa would reply, “I paid for the ingredients!”

Today I’m a grandmother to five grandchildren, three boys and two girls ranging from one to sixteen years old. One is from China. His name is YingEr, but now goes by Seth.

Before YingEr came to this country, I’d sent our son, who was in China at the time, a package with dozens of cookies in it. This amazed YingEr and his family. No one they knew had an oven in their homes. It was so amazing, YingEr took the cookies to school for show and tell. He allowed his classmates to look at the cookies and to smell the cookies. He held the cookies aloft, proudly explaining, “My new grandma in the U.S.A. baked these cookies in her own oven in her own home!” Still, he never allowed anyone at school to eat a single cookie, wanting them for himself and was upset he had to share with his family!

When he arrived in the U.S. the first thing YingEr wanted to do was bake cookies with Grandma. So we did. That first Christmas he and his mother, Grace, also helped me with my annual Christmas cookie baking spree of 300 plus dozen cookies we give away to friends, family, and ministries, just like my Grandma Reno did.

Up in Minnesota my daughter and her children bake cookies every year with recipes from Great Grandma and Grandma, too. Through the years I’ve added new cookie recipes and homemade candies to the trays. The legacy of love my Grandma Reno started has multiplied and lives on.

Below I’ve included a couple of favorite cookie recipes from our collection.

PECAN BUTTERBALLS

Grandma used to make these first. I do the same because it’s my favorite. You can make the dough ahead and refrigerate until ready to bake.

Oven: 325°                               Time: 16-18 minutes                           4+ Doz.

Ingredients:

Cream ½ lb. butter.

Stir in 1 TBSP vanilla.

Gradually mix in ¾ C. powdered sugar.

Add 2 C. flour.

Add 2 C. chopped pecans, working well into dough.

Directions:

Roll into 1" diameter balls. Bake on greased sheets about 1" apart (they do not rise) at 325̊ for 16-18 minutes until lightly browned. Shake in powdered sugar while still hot. Cool on racks that have been put on top of newspaper to collect the powdered sugar and make clean up easier. Store in air tight containers with layers separated by wax paper. Will keep for at least two weeks if they last that long!

============

CREAM WAFERS

Oven: 375°                                 7 - 9 MINUTES                                    1½ Doz.

This recipe is one that my husband’s Grandmother from Germany made. It was passed on to me by my mother-in-law along with a still treasured 1948 copy of The Joy of Cooking. This is my husband’s favorite. I get frequent requests for these. They’re worth the extra effort they take, as they absolutely melt in your mouth.

Ingredients:

1 c. Butter      

1/3 C. whipping cream     

2 C. flour

1 C. granulated sugar     

Green & Red Sugar decorative sugar    

Cream Filling (Recipe below)

Directions:

Mix butter, flour, and whipping cream well. Chill one hour. Roll dough 1/8" thick. Cut into 1½" rounds. Transfer to waxed paper. Heavily sprinkle with sugar on both sides and decorate one side with either red or green colored sugar. Place about 1" apart on ungreased baking sheet. Don’t over crowd your baking sheet. Prick each cookie 4 times with fork.

Bake at 375° for 7-9 minutes. Watch carefully as they can burn easily. Remove from oven, Allow to sit on baking sheet a couple of minutes, then remove carefully to cooling racks. Place two wafers together with tinted filling.

Cream Filling :  Original recipe: ¼ C. softened butter, 3/4 C. powdered sugar,  1 Egg Yolk, 1 tsp. vanilla, ½ tsp. Almond Flavoring, Red & Green food coloring. Beat all ingredients except coloring. Divide &  tint.

Alternative Filling: Use a can of your favorite brand of vanilla frosting, add ½ tsp. Almond flavoring; mix well. Divide can into bowls. Tint half the frosting red or pink and half green. Paste food colorings work better than the liquid type but either works fine.

Store in air-tight containers with layers separated by waxed paper.

Find JoAnn on the Web:

http://epistle60.wordpress.com/

http://epistleworks.com/

Grandparent Recipes - Grandad Ern's Flapjacks

From Tracy Ruckman:

I had the privilege of living with my maternal grandparents for about a year after I finished my first year of college. I moved from the tiny Alabama town where I'd spent the past year to my grandparents house in metro Atlanta.

Grandad Ern during a smoke break while
working a Southern railway passenger train
between Atlanta and Greenville, SC.
He normally worked freight trains,
infrequently passenger trains. 

Grandad Ern was a railroad man and was still working for Southern when I moved in. (He retired a few years later with 39 years + 1 day of service.) His schedule coincided with my own work schedule frequently - I worked 2nd shift so I could go to school during the day - so we spent our "wind down" time in the kitchen.

One of his favorite late-night snacks was flapjacks, and even though I follow the recipe, I never can quite get them as good as his! I think his company made a difference.

Grandad Ern's Flapjacks

Add water to self-rising flour until almost runny. Drop into a hot frying pan with a 1/4" of hot grease. Fry on each side until done. Careful not to cook too fast as the center will not get done. Split open and spread liberally with margarine/butter and jelly. (He preferred grape jelly - I preferred strawberry preserves.)

Grandparent Recipes - Grandmother's Banana Bread

Today, Suzanne Williams shares her grandmother's recipe for one of my favorite treats. 

My Grandmother's Banana Bread

1 stick butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1-2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Cream butter and sugar.
Add egg. Mix well.
Add dry ingredients.
Add bananas. Stir well.
Stir in pecans.
Bake in greased loaf pan at 325 (F) for 55 minutes.
Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan.
Cool 2-3 minutes before slicing.

About Suzanne:

Suzanne Williams is a native Floridian, wife, mother, daughter, sister, granddaughter, Christian, dachshund owner, spelling whiz, wildlife enthusiast, photographer, graphic artist, and writer. She designs book cover art for self-publishing authors. She writes a regular column on digital photography for Steve's Digicams, as well as in her personal blog. Her book, Fearless, is her personal testimony of how God freed her from crippling fear. Her debut novel, Missing, releases after the first of the year.

Grandparent Recipes - Nanny's Divinity

Today, WIP founder Tracy Ruckman shares a recipe with us.

My paternal grandmother, Nanny, made the best divinity in the world. When I became an adult, I tried to make it every year. Some years I was successful, other years I was not. Just before Nanny went to Heaven, she told me the secret - it all had to do with the humidity. (I guess you see the importance of family recipes here, can't you?) If the humidity was too high, the divinity wouldn't set properly; if it was too low, the candy would be dry.

For several years, I followed this guideline - 57% humidity seemed to be perfect for candy-making. (In the South, those percentages don't get that low very often.)

Then my husband Tim entered the picture with his mother's divinity recipe. The ingredients were almost identical, but the cooking methods were different - and Edie's recipe did not rely on the weather. Since Edie's recipe is top secret, and since it's Grandparent Recipes month, we're calling this Nanny's recipe, but we'll give Edie's tips for cooking it below. It helps to have two or more people making this together and/or a stand mixer.

Nanny's & Edie's Divinity

5 cups white, granulated sugar
1 cup Karo Light corn syrup
1 cup water
4 egg whites
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 cups chopped pecans, optional
Maraschino cherries, optional

Mix sugar, water, syrup together in large saucepan. Bring to boil, then boil until the liquid "spins a thread," stirring constantly. While the mixture is boiling, separate eggs and put the whites in a large mixing bowl. When the sugar mixture spins a thread, pour half of boiling liquid into the egg whites, beating with mixer as you pour. The mixture will begin to expand. Put the remaining liquid back on the stove and bring it back to a rolling boil. Then pour all of it into the expanding egg white mixture while continuing to beat.

Beat until the mixture a minute more, then use a large spoon to stir the mixture several times, until it gets a dull finish. Then, add nuts or chopped cherries if you wish, then very quickly, drop by rounded teaspoons on large sheets of waxed paper, then top with cherry halves or pecan halves, as you wish. Let cool. Store in air tight containers.

Divinity makes great gifts, and it's easy enough to mix and match different kinds. Some batches we leave out all nuts and cherries, topping only with one or the other. Some batches are deluxe, and have a little of all of it. The fun part is that each kind tastes very different. Even though you make a large batch, it will disappear very quickly - at least it does in our family.

Grandparent Recipes - Grandma's Old-Fashioned Fudge

Today, we welcome author Linda Cox with one of her grandmother's recipes. You'll find Linda's precious story, Grandpa's Quilt of Many Colors, in Life Lessons from Grandparents releasing this month. 

Linda with her Mother and Grandmother

One of my family’s favorite Christmas goodies was my grandmother’s old-fashioned fudge. When she passed away, my mom continued the tradition of making this fudge. I can remember watching them make the fudge and how disappointed they would be when it didn’t turn out just right. I’d sneak peeks out the kitchen door to where the platter  of cooling fudge sat on top of the freezer on the unheated porch, willing the fudge to set as quickly as possible so we could cut it. It’s the best fudge I’ve ever tasted. It literally melts in your mouth with each bite. But be forewarned—one piece can practically put you in a sugar coma. Well worth it, though, I might add.

Grandma’s Old-Fashioned Fudge

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup milk

1 tbsp dark syrup

1 heaping tbsp cocoa

butter the size of a walnut

vanilla to taste

chopped pecans

Mix the first five ingredients together in a sauce pan and cook slowly, stirring once in a while.  Boil until a small amount dropped into cold water makes a soft ball.  Remove from heat.

Add vanilla and beat until it begins to granulate (not too long).  Fold in pecans.  Pour at once into buttered platter.  Cool.

AUTHOR BIO:

Linda Cox recently retired after twenty-five years as a district office secretary for the State of Illinois. Her first loves are studying the Bible and reading, but Linda occasionally tries her hand at writing. Her work is published in All My Bad Habits I Learned from Grandpa (Thomas Nelson), The One-Year Life Verse Devotional (Tyndale), Love Is a Verb Devotional (Bethany House), and Life Lessons from Grandparents: A Trip Down Memory Lane (Write Integrity Press—to be released in November 2011). She is also a regular contributor to www.DivineDetour.com. Linda and her husband live on a farm with their two indoor/outdoor farm mutts.

Grandparent Recipes - Spinach Elegante'

During the month of November, we're going to feature recipes by grandparents to celebrate the release of Life Lessons from Grandparents: A Trip Down Memory Lane (available later this week.) The recipes come from contributors to Life Lessons, from readers like you, and from our own families. If you have a recipe you'd like to submit, read the guidelines here.

Today, we welcome Elsi Dodge. Her wonderful story "S is for ..." is included in Life Lessons.

SPINACH ELEGANTE'

I don't know which side of the family this came down on, but it was always referred to as "an old family recipe." It's the only thing I can cook. AND everyone who invites me to a holiday meal begs me to bring it! Definitely a winner, eh?

3 boxes chopped frozen spinach

1 pound sour cream

1 package dried onion soup mix

lots and lots of shredded cheese (to taste)

Thaw spinach. 

Squeeze all the juice out.

Stir in the soup mix and the sour cream.

option 1: Top thickly with shredded cheese and bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

option 2: Stir half the shredded cheese in and bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Top with shredded cheese and heat till it's melted.

option 3: Stir half the shredded cheese in and bake etc. as above. Take to the party you're taking it to. Top with shredded cheese and re-heat.

option 4: Put in little patty-pan type dishes and serve as individual little quiche-thing-ies.

option 5: Use as dip for crackers.

The recipe card I have says it serves 8. We always found it serves about 4. Mention loudly in front of the children that it's made of spinach, so they won't take any. Then there's more for you!

Elsi Dodge is a single, retired teacher of children with special needs. Living in Boulder, CO, she travels in a 30-foot RV, with the dubious assistance of her beagle and a small saber-toothed tiger, cleverly disguised as a tabby cat. In her spare time she tutors, sings in choir, co-leads Bible study, works with a church youth group, and (obviously) writes. Her blog is www.RVTourist.com/blog.