Holiday Pressure

I don't know about you but when the Holidays roll around my blood pressure goes up! I don't know if its the excitement of the season or the pressure I feel to get everything done. So to help you from feeling the stress that seems to effect many of us I have a make ahead mashed potato recipe that can be made up to 3 days before the event.

Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes

8 lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces

Boil the potatoes until fork tender

1 pkg. cream cheese 8 oz.

1/4 cup sour cream

salt and pepper to taste

Butter

Paprika

Mash boiled potatoes. Add sour cream and chram cheese, salt and pepper mixing well. Put mixture into a greased casserole dish. Top with pats of butter. May be stored in the refridgerator for several days. Before serving sprinkle with paprika and bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes.

8 servings.

This is just one small step to making your holidays a little more stress free. Anything we can do to make the season more enjoyable will just add to releiving your anexiety and stress.

Still Making Mistakes in the Kitchen

You would think after 40 years of experience in reading recipes I would have it down pat by now. Well I tried to attribute my mistake to being tired or poor eye site, but the truth is I just read the recipe wrong. The story is, I had bought fresh blueberries at the grocery store...only because they were on sale! Sunday morning I decided to make blueberry pancakes for breakfast. I almost always make a big breakfast on Sunday morning even if it is only for me and my husband. I looked up a recipe for blueberry pancakes on the Internet which is sometimes easier then trying to find one in all my cook books. I followed the recipe as indicated not rationalizing the amount of sugar until it was to late. I had inadvertently changed the amount of sugar from 1 1/4 tablespoons to 1 1/4 cups of sugar. Thinking to myself that it seemed like a lot of sugar I still went ahead and added it to the batter. I even went into my home office and told my husband it seemed like a large amount of sugar for pancakes. Still not going back to check the recipe. I let the batter sit for awhile so that the bubbles could form to guarantee a light and fluffy pancake. Still not checking the recipe I poured the batter onto the griddle thinking it hadn't thickened like pancake batter usually does. The batter proceeded to spread on the griddle to cover the whole top. Wow this doesn't look right! I finally reread the recipe to find my error. I could not believe my mistake. There was no way I was going to flip that batter to cook the other side but I tried. To say the least they did not look like the pancakes I had anticipated for breakfast.

Now what should I do? I didn't want to waste all those fresh blueberries or even the ingredients I used to make this mess. This old cook came up with not a bad option. I poured the whole mess into a 13 by 9 inch cake pan. Popped it into a 350 degree oven....how long I don't remember but until the toothpick test came out clean. Once it was cooled I decided not to frost it since it was evidently sweet enough with all that sugar. So I served it just as it was. Mind you all the blueberries had fallen to the bottom so cutting it into serving pieces was impossible.

To say the least it did not go to waste, all of it got eaten with no complaints. I think every kid in the house asked what it was so I made up a cute name to go with my mistake. BLUEBERRY BOO BOO. (blueberry buckle)

I don't think I will repeat this recipe but it does show that when it comes to baking you have to follow the recipe as written or you will invent your own BOO BOO.

Holiday Memories

I think we all have special Holiday memories and some stay with us a life time. I know that one of my favorite Holiday memories was when my three sisters and my Mom would all get together to bake our Christimas cookies. I have a picture packed away somewhere showing the tables of cookies baked by the five of us. It didn't happen often and I probably can only count it on one hand when all five of us were together to bake together so it is a very special memory that I will keep in my heart forever. We each would pick one recipe we wanted to make, usually a traditional one that was repeated each year. My Mom's was always russian tea cakes, or pecan balls, snowballs.....their are various names for this one recipe. Round little cookies dusted with confectioners sugar. My Mom always made her's special by putting a half of marschino cherry in the middle. I know one of us would pick the magic cookie bars or 7 layer cookies these both are the same cookie just with different names. Graham cracker bottom and layers chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, walnuts, coconut all into one pan. I can still remember this one being made by my Grandmother Mimi. My sister Reta always wanted Gingerbread men and I always liked to make something new. I remember skimming through all my cook books at home hoping to find that special cookie that would become a tradtion with me. I have found one I like very much right now and have made it now for 4 or 5 years. I got my recipe from a contest winner on Good Morning America. They are chocolate caramel treasures and they are wonderful. The only problem with this terrific cookie is their are so many steps to the finish. We each had a favorite that we wanted to bake to make our Holidays special. I remember working all day long and we would have hundreds and hundreds of cookies by the end of the day. I wish that I could go back in time just to live that day over again because it was one of my best memories of the holidays. I hope this starts to make you remember one of your favorite memories from your past holidays. Take each day and treasure it as if it is a gift, for you will never have that day back again, remember the joy and laughter to keep in your memories forever.

Fall Favorites

Ahh Fall or Autumn whichever you prefer , what ever you call it, call it my favorite time of year. Here in Michigan the leaves change colors and the air becomes crisp. Taking a walk down a tree lined path or making a trip to the apple orchard makes for a wonderful start to a season in my opinion doesn't stay long enough. This is the first fall so far that we haven't taken a sunday morning trip to the apple orchards. No one has mentioned it so I guess they just don't want my famous apple pie! I really will miss not making my traditional trip to pick a bushel of apples and I will really miss not making my pies.

Fall brings on the thoughts of warm soup simmering on the stove, or like right now I have a crock pot full of beef stew. Theres nothing like a warm bowl of soup along with a fresh warm loaf of bread. This time of year is when my bread machine will get its work out. During the hotter months I just don't think of it.

Sitting here writing about the bread reminds me to drag out my bread machine and start a loaf for dinner. There's nothing like the smell of fresh bread.

Fall it conjures up that warm feeling of home and good food. I can't wait to start on some of my cold weather favorites. I hope the crisp air puts you in the mood to cook something hardy and flavorful.

Memories

I can remember the first time my Mom let me cook. My grandmother on my Dad's side was visiting from Tennessee. We called her Moco (pron-Maco). Born and raised in the south she had a very heavy southern accent. She was a very small woman maybe 4 feet 10 inches and kinda built round. I must have been about 7 or 8 years old and we lived in Warren, Michigan at the time. My Mom pulled up her step stool and told me to stand on the top, I am pretty short myself and round like my grandma....lucky me! My Mom was like 5' 7" tall and of medium build, and out of her four daughters none of us got her stature....unlucky us. Anyways I remember standing on that step stool and helping make my Moco's buttermilk biscuits. I remember her making a well in the middle of the flour and I got to add the buttermilk. She slowly with almost magical hands worked that buttermilk into the flour. She use to take butter and melt it in the pan and then after cutting the biscuits she would dip them in coating both sides before baking them. I could never duplicate Moco's biscuits and to tell you the truth I don't remember the taste of them. One of the memories I still have is my dad waiting at the table for his Moms biscuits with the sorghum and butter. He would take a heap of butter and then drizzle that sorghum on the butter and mix them together, then spread it so thick onto those biscuits. I don't think I have had sorghum since I was a kid. I wish I had my Grandmothers recipe for biscuits but I don't think she ever wrote it down. I do remember her telling me she had to make like 100 biscuits every morning for all her sibling and the farm hands. I think she made them twice a day once in the morning and once for supper time. That's my first memory of cooking in the kitchen and it brings warm feelings back to my heart. I hope this blog brings back fond memories of your first time cooking.

In the Kitchen with Margie

Welcome fellow foodies....If you are anything like me you are addicted to the Food Network. I can't say I watch it constantly but I do enjoy watching Paula Deen and Ina Garten. Both middle aged full figured females that really enjoy being in the kitchen. For over the past year I have been actively working on my personal web site recording all my moms treasured recipes. If any one else has taken up this challenge I salute them in trying to decipher how some of these recipes were ever finished. My Mom absent mindedly forgot to finish numerous recipes so my guess is as good as yours. I'm very sure she knew exactly what to do but just never wrote it down. I continue to slowly work my way through both her handwritten book and her small 3 by 5 tin. I cook each of the recipes first and serve it to my family. No One has died yet...ha ha ha. Truly most of these recipes are terrific and I remember fondly as a child. I will continue each day adding content to my web pages hoping to bring a smile to someones face and a full belly.

WWW.SMALLTOWNKITCHEN.COM