Sweet Suppertime

heavy on the butter and sugar...

Meatloaf–no leftover style

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I have vacillated back and forth as to whether I wanted to post my meatloaf recipe.  It’s not like I want to keep it a secret…
Quite simply it is because I did not want to photograph meatloaf!  There you have it.  You must admit that a slab of meat on a plate just might not be as photogenic as say….a cheesecake or bacon wrapped asparagus spears.
The long and short of it is that I make meatloaf at least once a month.  It’s a family favorite and every time my family starts putting “dibbs” on the leftovers for their sandwich the next day I tell myself that I might be able to airbrush the meatloaf and make it look as good as it is.   Tonight I decided that the cute little loaded potatoes and creamed peas took some of the pressure off of the meatloaf and that I might be able to document the meatloaf recipe after all.  Don’t judge the photo until you have tasted the meatloaf.

Meatloaf   by Sweet Suppertime

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2 pounds lean ground beef (break into chunks)
2 eggs beaten
1 onion chopped
1 1/3 cups bread crumbs
2 Tablespoons fresh parsley or 1 Tablespoon dried parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup Buffalo Wing Sauce (or barbecue sauce or if you are out of everything mix 1/3 cup ketchup with 1 TB specialty type mustard)

In a large bowl combine beaten eggs with ground beef and mix with hands or by spoon until well blended.  Add onion, bread crumbs, parsley, garlic powder, salt, pepper and buffalo sauce and mix well.  I like doing this with my hands, it just feels like I get everything worked around nice and evenly.
Place in an ungreased bread pan.  I bake mine in a bread pan my mother gave me and when I measured it at the bottom it was 9 inches long and six inches wide.
After I pat the meatloaf into the pan I like to make a little bit of a well in the middle with my fingers, just so the meat is at it’s shallowest point in the middle.  Somehow I think it cooks better and more evenly this way.

Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes at 350 or until desired doneness.  Bake the first 30 minutes under foil and remove the foil for the last 45 minutes.  During the last 15 minutes of baking I like to drizzle additional Sweet Buffalo Wing Sauce over the top, about a 1/4 cup in total.  I have been known to add sliced mushrooms as well:)

Cool in the pan for 15 minutes before inverting to a platter.  Slice and serve!  If there are leftovers, consider meatloaf sandwiches for lunch tomorrow.  It’s one of my kids’ favorite lunches.

Sweet Buffalo Wing Sauce

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Sweet Suppertime

In the realm of being a mom there are a few things that I always count on to make my life easier–if only for a moment or two.  You might feel the same way as I do about duct tape, hot glue, the dollar store, super glue and masking tape (when you have short children and the church pants you just bought are about two feet too long and you forgot to hem the pants before Sunday!)  Included in my list of time/life savers is this recipe for Sweet Buffalo Wing Sauce.  It’s a “go to” kind of thing.   If you need to add a bit of quick flavor to a favorite dish or just change things up a bit, this is a great way to do it.  Of course now that I have said that I had better clarify just a bit.  We are a saucy family. 🙂
We have a fridge full of sauces!  Sauces for fries, hamburgers, rice, salads, fries again, ice cream, skewers, fries again.  Well you get the idea.
The thing is…my kids have asked me to post my meatloaf recipe but I can’t until I record this sauce. (Because the sauce is in the meatloaf )  So here it is.  It just might be the easiest thing I do for the biggest results.  I should give credit here to my nephew in-law.  Is that a real relation?  Anyway he used to work at a place that made this wing sauce and he told me how to make it and it has been a life changer.  Seriously.  I put it on pizza, slip it in meatloaf, plaster it on wings, mix it with ranch dressing for salads and fries, spread it on gourmet quesadillas, use it in panini’s, pour it in baked beans and have been tempted to put in on ice cream.  Kidding!

Your list of ingredients is pretty simple:  Brown Sugar, garlic powder and any hot sauce you have in your cupboard.  I have tried this with Cholula, Franks and Western Family.  I feel pretty confident that you could use ANY hot sauce and find the right proportion of brown sugar to go with it.  By the way…do you see the size of that Franks Sauce container?  Yup, I bought that at Sam’s Club in the gallon form.  That should be evidence that we make this recipe quite often.

Sweet Buffalo Wing Sauce     told to me by my nephew-in-law and adapted to the sugary side by me

1 cup hot sauce such as Franks, Cholula etc
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1/2 tsp garlic powder (optional)

Place the hot sauce and brown sugar together in a heavy pot and stir to incorporate the sugar.  Turn burner on to medium heat and bring to a boil.  Keep in mind that you could make candy out of this if you boil it too long so don’t leave the kitchen.

Bring ingredients to a boil, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  Store in the refrigerator.  Oh, and start making extra room for that gallon jug! 

Double Delicious Cookie Bars

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sweet suppertime

Lucky me.  Saint Patrick’s weekend found me in Saint George, Utah watching my son play baseball.  He’s great.  His name is Keven.  He’s not just great at baseball but he’s a great kid.  When we were expecting Keven we weren’t sure we were going to get to keep him.  Lucky us… we did!  He is named after my husband’s brother.  The reason?  Because I have rarely seen an older brother who loved his younger brother like my brother-in-law loves Tod, (my husband).
You may wonder what all this has to do with baking cookie bars.  Well, there is a connection.  We stayed with Tod’s brother and his wife and we had plenty of time to visit while we sat in the stands.  It was fun to share memories and tell stories and catch up on kids and grandkids. ( I get my first one in two weeks!)  One conversation led to another and before long we were all hungry and wishing for something delicious to eat.  That’s when I remembered this recipe which I promised to share with my sister-in-law.  So, here it is!  She will appreciate this because it speaks of some pretty rich ingredients and we have shared a few of those over the years.  So here we go:

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray a 9 X 13-inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.

sweet suppertime

Cream:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Add:
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Mix well and
Add:
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 1/3 cups oats (quick cooking or old-fashioned)
Mix together to form cookie dough.  When well-mixed
Throw in:
1 cup chocolate chips ( I am a milk chocolate girl trying to refine my senses to enjoy semi-sweet)
You will need an additional 1/2 cup chocolate chips when the bars are removed from the oven.
Spread:
Take about 2/3 of your cookie dough mixture and spread it in the bottom of your prepared pan.  It’s a bit sticky so you can use a little flour with a small roller and a piece of waxed paper or parchment or you can just dig in with your fingers.  I like to think of baking as a contact sport so I just got a little non-stick spray on my fingertips and went after it!
This is where it gets fun.

sweet suppertimes

Place:
3 lines of chocolate creme-filled cookies (I used Oreos) in the pan
Drizzle:
1/2 cup or more of caramel over the cookies.  I melted 32 caramels with 1 teaspoon of water in a microwave-safe bowl for 30 seconds on half power and 1 minute on full power; stirring halfway through.  You can use bottled caramel but I can’t recommend caramel-flavored topping.  Get the good stuff!
Sprinkle
1/2 cup of shredded sweetened coconut over the caramel drizzle
Finish off:
by dropping spoonfuls of the remaining dough on top of the cookies and pressing the dough down lightly.  It doesn’t need to cover all over the pan, just most of it, as it will spread.

sweet suppertime

Bake:
at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until the top starts to turn golden brown.  Remove from the oven and

sweet suppertime

Top:
with remaining half cup of chocolate chips.  These will soften.
Drizzle:
more caramel if you feel like it and wait until it is completely cool before slicing.  I’m sure you won’t have any lack of imagination on how to serve these or where to hide a few extras for yourself!

sweet suppertime

Double Delicious Cookie Bars     by Sweet Suppertime

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 1/3 cups oatmeal (quick or traditional)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, divided
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup or more of caramel sauce or melted caramels
18 chocolate creme-filled cookies

Spray a 9×13 baking pan with cooking spray.  Cream butter, brown sugar and white sugar until fluffy.
Add vanilla and eggs and incorporate.  Mix in baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Once incorporated, add flour and oats scraping sides of the bowl. Add 1 cup of chocolate chips, mixing just to coat.
Spread 2/3 of the dough on the bottom of your prepared pan and place 3 lines of creme-filled cookies on top of the dough.  Drizzle about 1/2 cup of caramel on the cookies followed by 1/2 cup coconut.
Top with remaining cookie dough, dropping by spoonfuls and then slightly flattening.
Bake 350 for 20-25 mintues, until nicely golden brown.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle remaining chocolate chips (1/2 cup) on top to melt.  Drizzle with additional caramel, if desired.
Enjoy and feel lucky!

Very Peanut Butter Bars

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School lunch at Alpine Elementary was delicious.  I loved school lunch and that is saying something since my own mother is my most admired cook.  I not only loved school lunch but I loved the lunch ladies!  They were women that I knew and they smiled at me and made me feel loved as I went through the line collecting my lunch.
 My own children went on school lunch strike about 10 years ago and my husband has been packing lunches ever since.  Yes–my husband–he is pretty great.  Their collective complaints were that the food was not quite up to snuff–smaller less palatable portions–yada yada–  I digress.
One of the best things about school lunch back in the day was that giant slice of peanut butter bar that was larger than any third graders hand.  It was divine and through the ensuing years I searched for a way to recreate peanut butter bars that matched the memory of a young girl who lingered in the lunchroom before bounding out to a game of four square, kickball, hopscotch or jacks. (By the way my mother is a great jacks player!)
One thing I knew as I embarked on my mission to create the best bar was that there had to be ENOUGH peanut butter verging on too much….as if?
This is how it goes:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease (and I still like to flour) a large baking sheet, jelly-roll style.
Have a piece of parchment, wax paper or a little extra flour handy when it’s time to spread the dough into the pan.
Cream together:
3/4 cup butter or margarine ( I am a bit of a penny pincher so I use a cube of margarine and 1/3 a stick of
      butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup PEANUT BUTTER
Mix until well incorporated and
Add:
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
give this about 20 seconds with your mixer and finish off
Adding:
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
* I put the flour in first so that it doesn’t puff out all over the place, then I add the rolled oats and mix just until the flour and oats are blended nicely.  Your dough will be pretty sticky, but that’s okay since you will be sprinkling a bit on the top to get it rolled out nicely.

Spread:
Drop the dough evenly down the center of your greased pan and work the dough out to the sides with your fingers a bit.  This is where I usually grab a piece of waxed paper or parchment and a rolling pin to help me get the dough to the edges as evenly as possible.
Bake:
Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes until light brown.  My kids like them kind of chewy, if yours like them crunchy then leave them in a bit longer.

When they come out of the oven take 6 large spoonfuls of peanut butter and drop them on top of the hot dough and let the peanut butter get soft, about 2 minutes.  To be honest this picture looks a bit skimpy on the peanut butter side of things.  Load it up if you love peanut butter!
Frost:
Wait until everything is cooled and frost with your favorite frosting.  I will post my favorite chocolate frosting tomorrow–it’s like spreadable fudge!  Slice and serve (preferably the size of a third graders hand 🙂  )
Eat!


Very Peanut Butter Bars by Shanon Balser, Sweet Suppertime

Cream together:
3/4 cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
Add:
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Blend well and add:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
Mix until well blended and spread on a greased and floured jelly roll pan ( I call it a large cookie sheet)
Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.  Drop 6 large tablespoons of peanut butter on top of the hot dough and allow to sit for about 2 minutes.  Spread over the top of the bars and allow to cool.  Frost with your favorite chocolate frosting.

Creamy Potato Chowder

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creamy potato chowder, potato soup

Winter just keeps lingering.  I don’t know why but for some reason I keep thinking that –now that I have outlasted January–the sun should shine and the snow should melt.  Not so.  The nasty little winter storms do provide a couple of nice opportunities for those searching.
First is that it keeps soup season alive and we love soups at our house.  Second it keeps two of my boys busy with their snow shovels.  I am actually pretty proud of these two as they set out in the old truck to shovel a few walks for a couple of widows in the neighborhood. ( I refrain from following them and telling them they have missed a spot.)  Service is always a good idea and I am pretty proud of them.  So on a blustery day as they set out to do a good deed, I set about making one of their favorites dishes;  Creamy Potato Chowder.  There are as many variations of this dish as you can imagine.  Sometimes we add scrambled sausage,  sometimes we add a can of creamed corn, sometimes we load it up with cheese– but it is always topped with bacon and served with what we call “cheezers”.    Get the basic recipe down and then add the ingredients you love.  My husband wants to try it with clams.  I told him to shovel some driveways of  the elderly and we will talk.  So here’s how it goes.

In a large pot combine the onion, carrots, potatoes, bouillon cubes, parsley, salt, pepper and water and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

The water should just barely cover the vegetables as they sit in the pot.  Once the vegetables are tender add the butter, whole milk and cream and return to a low boil.  Thicken with remaining milk and flour mixture simmering for an additional 3 minutes.  Remove from the heat and serve with garnishes of your choice.

Bring it on February, soups on!

Creamy Potato Chowder  by Sweet Suppertime

1 onion chopped
4 large potatoes cubed (about six cups)
3 medium carrots grated (about two cups)
1 Tablespoon Parsley
8 chicken bouillon cubes
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
approximately 6 cups water or just enough to cover the vegetables as they sit in your pot

Bring the above ingredients to a boil and turn down to a simmer.  Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

Add:
1/4 cup butter ( i like to use bacon grease if I have it)
2 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream

Bring to a nice simmer and thicken with:
1 1/2 cups additional whole milk mixed with 1/2 cup flour.  Stir this until the lumps disappear.  Add thickening to soup stirring constantly. ( I pour this through a sieve as I put it into the simmering pot of soup to prevent lumps)
Return to a simmer for three minutes, uncovered.  Remove from heat and serve.

If you are not going to serve this immediately, cover it with a lid to keep it from forming a film on top of the soup.  Garnish it with grated cheese, bacon and parsley.  

Poppyseed Chicken Bake

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Poppy Seed Chicken Bake, Sweet Suppertime

Yes–I know Poppy Seed is two words.  Not for this Bake it’s not!
Several years ago I had to do some time with bed rest.  Not fun.  I was expecting our sixth child and for some reason this little guy kept thinking he wanted to rush the pregnancy along.  Often neighbors would bring us dinner and it was so kind and thoughtful.  One particular evening as my husband opened the door he found a woman that we didn’t even know standing on the front porch with a pan filled with this delicious meal.  I found it so endearing that someone I didn’t even know had found out that I was on bed rest and, because she had had a similar experience, she wanted to bring dinner to me.  I never asked her for the recipe and there have been so many times over the years that I wished that I had.  So I started my quest to make this comforting bake.  This is how it turned out!
Poppy Seed Chicken Bake, Sweet Suppertime
Cook 3-4 chicken breasts and cut them in to bit size cubes. Sometimes I use my pressure cooker and sometimes I boil the chicken breasts with a couple of bouillon cubes. Set these aside.
Saute one medium chopped onion in one tablespoon of butter with 1/4 teaspoon of pepper until they become transparent and delicious looking.  I love this part of cooking, it’s the tiniest bit of involvement and all of the sudden my house smells like a five star restaurant.

Poppy Seed Chicken Bake, Sweet Suppertime

Mix the sauteed onion with 1 can of cream of chicken soup, 1 1/2 cups sour cream, 1/2 cup mayonnaise,
1 1/2 Tablespoons poppy seeds, and 1/4 cup of milk. The mayonnaise smooths out some of the tang of the sour cream. Fold in the cooked chicken and spread in a 13 X 9 baking dish.  Crush one sleeve of buttery crackers ( I use Ritz) and combine with 1/2 cup (yes the whole cube) melted butter.  I don’t try to crush the crackers into oblivion, i like larger pieces and I think they look pretty on the top in all different shapes and sizes.  Top with 1/4 cup green onion and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes.  You should see bubbles sizzling away on the edges and the casserole should be nicely browned on top.
Take it out of the oven and sprinkle with 1 cup of finely grated cheese…or not.  I like doing this at the end because the cheese doesn’t bake it just melts in pretty little patches of goodness.  My family likes to eat this over rice and the preferred side dish of the meal?  Broccoli.  Obviously the ingredient list is not on all the “healthy diet” lists.  I will say though, that for a woman on bed rest it tasted like pure heaven and was delivered to my family by an angel.

Poppy Seed Chicken Bake, Sweet Suppertime

Poppyseed Chicken (yes we spell it all run together)  by Sweet Suppertime

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

3-4 cooked chicken breasts, cubed (if the boys are home for dinner I make it 5) set aside
1 medium onion chopped and sauteed in
1 TB butter with
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Mix onions and chicken with:
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 Tablespoons poppy seeds

Spread in a 13 X 9 pan and add topping.

Topping
1 sleeve butter crackers crushed
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup green onions, chopped
Mix butter and crushed crackers together and sprinkle over the chicken bake.

1 cup finely grated cheese to add after it is out of the oven

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until bubbly and brown.  Serve over rice if desired.  (doubly delish over wild rice) add grated cheese as soon as it it out of the oven.

Fajita Seasoning

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You’ve got to love holiday food.  Turkey, ham, turkey, something involving cranberries, more turkey.  But there comes a point where I just cant take it anymore, eventually even the thought of turkey or any other gravy laden leftover makes me cringe a little.  My husband and I hit our anti-turkey wall today.  We needed a little zip, a little culinary kick if you will, so we did what any couple suffering from an excess of turkey would do. We whipped up some south of the boarder goodness.  There’s a lot to be said for a few tortillas and fresh salsa after a two day sweet potato binge.

Our fiesta amid today’s snowstorm couldn’t be complete without our South American standby: fajita seasoning. This recipe is a combination of all my favorite Mexican restaurant flavors. I use it on everything.  A teaspoon or so spices up tortilla soup and a dash adds kick to otherwise boring canned black beans. Today I used it as a rub for my fajita meat.  After slicing up my chicken in my brand new Cuisinart food processor {one of my lovely Christmas presents} I massaged about a teaspoon and a half of this fajita seasoning into the meat before tossing it in my frying pan.

Since I’m only cooking for two, a batch of this seasoning will get me through two or three dinners.  I keep any extra in an air tight container near the rest of my spices.

Fajita Seasoning

2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1 chicken bullion cube {crushed}
*If I’m craving extra kick I’ll add 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Mix all the spices together and add to fajita meat/veggies.

Creamy Chicken Chili

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Crisp fall evenings are reminding me that it’s time to break out the soup, stew and chili recipes that mark the dwindling of summer barbecues. This chili is a favorite of my daughter Lacey who is not a fan of the heavier and heartier flavors of traditional chili. In contrast, this chili has lighter flavors that beg the question, “is this really qualified to be a chili?” For a girl who has been known to drink cream straight from the container, this recipe was destined for success. This recipe is adapted from a recipe I found in an old church cookbook.

 Creamy Chicken Chili

1 large onion chopped
2 TB olive oil
1 tsp garlic powder
2 15oz cans Great Northern beans (drain and rinse)
2  large cans chicken broth(or equivalent in water and bouillon)
2   4oz cans diced green chilies
1/2  tsp sea salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp cumin
1/2  tsp coriander
1/2  tsp ground black pepper
1/4  tsp cayenne pepper
4  chicken breasts cooked and shredded

Add just before serving:
1 cup sour cream
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
juice of 1/2 lime ( or if you love lime use the whole thing)

In a large pot, saute the onion in the olive oil until it becomes transparent. Add the chicken and garlic powder, oregano, cumin, coriander, salt and pepper and let this simmer for just a minute or two on low heat. This allows the chicken to pick up all kinds of flavor. Now just open up those cans and toss it all in together reserving the sour cream, whipping cream, lime juice and cilantro until just before serving. Simmer on low for 30 minutes or all day in your slow cooker.
Just before serving (by this I mean maybe 15 minutes or so before) add the sour cream, whipping cream and lime juice and stir to incorporate. I like to lay a slice of pepper jack cheese on the top as I take it to the table and sprinkle the cilantro over it. You can add tortilla chips, more sour cream or shredded cheese if you like. My family has never been opposed to a slice of avocado as a garnish either 🙂