Zucchini Relish

From Darlene Fuhriman, my Mother-in-Law


5 large zucchini
3 red peppers
3 green peppers
5 large onions
1/2 cup salt
1 tsp alum

Grind or shred the vegetables. Add the salt and alum. Cover and let set over night.

5 cups vinegar
5 cups sugar
2 tbls each mustard seed and celery seed
1 tbls tumeric

Mix in a large pot and bring to a boil. Squeeze the water out of the shredded vegetables. Add them to the liquid. Simmer for 20 minutes. Pour in hot jars and process (at sea level) for 10 minutes. Adjust for your altitude.

Notes: I have a large, fine mesh bag to hold my shredded veggies in. You can use a cheesecloth lined colander (or two) and use the cheesecloth to squeeze the liquid out. If you have a grinder or shredder attachment to a mixer, it works quite well for this recipe.

If you are wondering, "What will I use this on?" you are not alone. It is a phenomenal relish for burgers and hot dogs. It's even better with grilled steak and chicken. Just a blop on the side of roast beef is great, too.

But my absolute favorite use? Take a couple good quality hot dogs. Split them open and pan fry. Put them on a good toasted wheat bread with mayo, mustard, ketchup and zucchini relish. This is an amazing hot dog sandwich. If I ever opened a restaurant, I would put this on the menu. It is that good.

Enjoy!

Rustic Chicken Casserole

From Me

chicken tenders (or breasts cut into strips)
6-8 small potatoes, peeled, sliced
carrots (equal to potatoes), peeled, sliced
1 onion, diced
2-3 stalks celery, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
5 oz mushrooms, sliced

Sauce

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
milk

Topping

stale croutons or stuffing mix (1 package), stale croutons work really well here.
mozzarella or provolone (unsmoked) cheese

Blanch potatoes and carrots in boiling water for just a few minutes. Drain. Place in 9x13 casserole. Saute onion, garlic, celery and mushrooms in olive oil. Pour onto potato and carrots.

Make sauce. If you don't typically use cream of mushroom soup, then substitute any creamy soup base you may use. Use milk to make a pourable consistency. Pour sauce over vegetables.

Lay chicken on top of casserole. Top with crushed croutons and slices of cheese.

Bake at 350 until chicken is done. (This is why strips work better than large chicken breasts. That and you don't need so much meat per serving this way.)

For those on blog feeds

I just tweaked the mushroom soup recipe. I added the original recipe amounts at the end and mucked with a bit in the middle. Enjoy!

Mushroom/Onion Soup

onion

garlic

mushrooms

Slice the onions (I used 1 HUGE onion), saute with olive oil and garlic (a few cloves). Make sure to cook the onions well. Too little sauteeing equals almost crunchy soup.

Chop mushrooms. I used baby portabello and white button. Pictured below isn't even half of what went in the pot. Probably a pound and a half total. I bought the mushrooms at Costco and they come in about 24 oz containers I think. Over half of each kind went in.

Add mushrooms to onion and garlic and cook until you just want to eat it all right now.

Now for the soup part. I use beef base. 4 tbs for 1 quartish of water (or there abouts). You can use beef bouillion or beef stock. The beef base stinks but ends up making everything taste great.

Let cook. If you use a crock pot, low 5-6 hours. On the stove top, maybe an hour. It does need some time to let all the flavors come together completely.

I have found having a good ciabatta bread sliced or diced in the freezer makes croutons and crisps dang easy. Top slices with provolone cheese. Pop in oven at 400 degrees and bake until cheese starts to bubble and brown.

This is an amazing soup. Hearty and with a very meaty, toothsome quality that I love. I didn't even miss chunks or slabs of meat. The mushrooms give a great texture. Hubby thinks it tastes like French Onion Soup with mushrooms. Sonny thinks it much better than French Onion Soup. I just love it.

(The recipe this came from is as follows: 2 tbl olive oil, 2 large vidalia onions chopped, 1 pack each-10 oz each- cremini and button mushrooms, salt and pepper, 2 tbl butter, 6-10 cloves garlic chopped, 2 tbl sherry, 4 c beef stock)

(original recipe from Crock-Pot Slow Cooker Recipes)

Gorilla Poops

Mom Fuhriman

Yep, you read that title right. This is a no bake peanut butter cookie. The hubby grew up calling it by this name because, well, that's kinda what they look like.

2 c sugar
1/2 c milk
1/3 c butter
1/2 tsp salt

Combine these and boil for 1 minute. Have ready the following in a large bowl...

3/4 c peanut butter
1 c coconut
3 c rolled oats
1 tbs vanilla

Pour the hot mix over bowl ingredients and stir well. Drop by teaspoonfuls on waxed paper lined plates or cookie sheets. Cool in fridge.

~notes~

After they cool, we store in the fridge in a tupperware bowl. They do tend to get crumbly. I don't like how sweet they come out but I can never convince hubby to lessen the sugar. If you try this with less sugar, please share how it turns out.

Jiffy Lemon Cake

from my Grandma Carter

1 pkg cake mix, white or yellow
3 oz lemon jello
3/4 c oil
3/4 c hot water
4 eggs

Combine and mix first four ingredients. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Pour into greased 9x13 pan. Bake 350 for 35-40 minutes.Remove from oven and with dinner fork punch holes in cake approx. 1 1/2 inches apart over entire surface. Then with spoon, spread glaze over entire surface of cake. By not pouring on too much at a time, the cake will absorb the entire frosting. Serve warm or cold, with or without whipped cream.

Glaze

6 tbs lemon juice
1 1/2 c powdered sugar

Mix well.


~notes~
From Grandma- I prefer to add at least 2 tbs grated lemon rind to the frosting. I also add fresh grated lemon rind at the very end of the cake mixing and fold it in before pouring batter into pan, about 2 tbs. I also add a dash of mace to this batter.

From Janelle- This is a very quick a easy cake. I serve cold and without whipped cream. Very tasty and fairly impressive in its simplicity.

Curry Salad

 from nicole

Lettuce-ripped and cut (spring lettuce mix or red leaf lettuce would be good)
Strawberries-sliced
Blueberries-whole
Avocados-sliced (optional)
Toasted almonds-sliced or slivered (or candied pecans)
Dried cranberries
Curry Salad Dressing

Add however much or little of everything. Mix together and serve.

For a fall salad, substitute pears (peeled and cut) for the strawberries and leave out the avocado.

Curry Salad Dressing

1 c mayonnaise
1/2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp vinegar
2 tbl milk
1 tsp granulated sugar

Mix all the ingredients together. Pour over the salad and mix well. Serve right away.

~Notes~
*If you leave the milk out of the dressing, it keeps longer. Just refrigerate and use as needed.
*If you think there will be leftovers to the salad, have everyone add their own dressing and avocado. These would cause the salad to go icky when stored. (I know. Very technical chef type word there.)

Brown Sugar Chicken

from claudine

2 cups brown sugar

1 cube butter, melted

4 tbl ketchup

4 tbl mustard

4 tbl worcestershire sauce

a couple palmfuls of dried onion

1/2-1 tsp dried red pepper flakes (optional)

6-8 chicken breasts or a bunch of thighs

Stir together. It turns out to be very thick. Spoon and glop over the chicken in casserole dish. Sauce can be cooked and then poured over the chicken. 

Bake at 350 for 60-90 minutes. Frozen chicken longer, thawed shorter. 

Can be done in a crockpot but it's not quite as good, or so I've been told. The butter has a more pronounced flavor when roasted in the oven.