Believe in the Magic Traci Diary

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  • Menu Planning Monday ~ January 2, 2012

    I go back to work on Wednesday.  It will be nice to get some normalcy back in my life, but on the other hand, it’s been nice to relax and not worry about my students for a little while.  They keep me on my toes while I am teaching them.  Things they do and say are priceless.  I always say I could write a book about some of the words that come from their mouths.

    Going back to work means limited time to get food on the table when I get home.  If I don’t menu plan, I’m like a fish out of water.  I just flop around and don’t always cook or eat what I should.  Which is not good at all.

    Here is my plan for this upcoming week:

    Monday – baked spaghetti, left-over Italian bread, spinach salad

    Tuesday – ham egg casserole, buttermilk biscuits, pancakes or waffles, fruit

    Wednesday – veggie beef soup, rolls, left-over spinach salad

    Thursday – eat whatever you like at night

    Friday – Thai veggies with pork over rice (with peanut sauce)

    Saturday  – chicken scampi, angel hair pasta, some sort of veggie

    Linked up to Menu Plan Monday

  • Sugar Cookies

    Happy New Year! I haven’t blogged as much as I like during the past year. This needs to be corrected.

    Right before Christmas, I was browsing Not Rachael Ray’s blog and found this recipe for sugar cookies. I had all the ingredients, so I finished baking those cookies. Oh my goodness, these are easy cookies to make. I usually have lots of problems when using cookie cutters. Only a few times did I have a problem.

    Last night being New Year’s Eve, I decided to make a batch of sugar cookies and homemade icing so the Imaginative One, the Wee One, and their cousins could decorate sugar cookies while waiting for midnight. With the excitement in the air and the anticipation of the new year, they quickly decorated the cookies (5 to 10 minutes tops) before they were back to playing and their movie marathon. The cookies were soon forgotten. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

    Rachel offers three different variations for these cookies. I’m only going to list one of the variations, the simple cut-out cookie.

    (We had decorated them on placemats, so we did not get my mother-in-law’s table super messy. The Imaginative One and the Wee One got sprinkles and icing all over their mats. So I removed them from the mats to clean them and put their cookies on their plastic bags to dry.)

    Sugar Cookies

    Not Rachael Ray

    Stars of the recipe:

    • 4 cups flour
    • 2 teaspoons baking powder
    • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
    • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
    • 2 cups sugar
    • 2 large eggs
    • 1/4 cup milk
    • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
    • 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

    Steps:

    1. Combine flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and nutmeg in a bowl.
    2. In a separate bowl, combine butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and lemon extract.
    3. Add milk and flour alternately until combined.
    4. Chill dough until easy to handle. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
    5. “Roll dough out on a well-floured board or counter (for crisp cookies, roll to about 1/”” and for softer cookies, roll to about 1/4”).”Roll dough out on a well-floured board or counter (for crisp cookies, roll to about 1/8” and for softer cookies roll to about 1/4”).
    6. Cut with floured cutter.
    7. Bake at 350*F for 6-7 minutes.

    Printable Recipe

  • 2011 in review

    The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

    Here’s an excerpt:

    A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,600 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 43 trips to carry that many people.

    Click here to see the complete report.

  • Meal Planning ~ Week of December 11

    Monday – Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole made in the crockpot

    Tuesday – Macaroni and Cheese Soup with Veggies, rolls

    Wednesday – Pork Chops, some sort of side dish, and veggies

    Thursday – Eat what you want a night

    Friday – Ham and Pasta Skillet Dinner, veggie, roll

    Saturday – Sloppy Joes, chips or fries, raw veggies

  • Lemon Cookies

    One of my favorite authors/book series is Joanna Fluke’s, Hannah Swenson.  Not only does Hannah bake cookies for a living, but she also solves mysteries.  Joanne Fluke also provides recipes for the readers.  I have found several of my favorite recipes in her books.  This is one of those recipes.  I don’t remember which book it is from.

    If you like tart lemon bars, you will like these.  They are lemon bars in a cookie bar form.  Yummy!  Enjoy!

    These are wonderfully lemony and quite tart.  You may wish to sprinkle them with powdered sugar before you serve them to those who like them sweeter.

    Lemon Cookies

    Stars of the recipe:

    • 1/2 cup softened butter (1 stick = 1/4 pound)
    • 3/4 cup white sugar
    • 1 egg beaten (just whip it up in a glass with a fork)
    • 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
    • 2 tsp. lemon juice
    • 1 tsp. baking powder
    • 1/4 tsp. baking soda
    • 1 2/3 c. flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
    • 1/2 c. milk

    Steps:

    1. Beat the butter and the sugar together until they’re light and fluffy.
    2. Add the beaten egg, lemon zest, and lemon juice.  Mix it all up.
    3. Mix in the baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Mix well.
    4. Mix in half of the flour and half of the milk.
    5. Stir everything all up, and then add the remaining flour and milk.  Mix well.
    6. Drop by teaspoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Make these cookies small, about the size of a cherry.  If you make them too large, they’ll spread out on the cookie sheet and crumble when you remove them.
    7. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 to 14 minutes.
    8. While they are baking, mix up the topping.

    Topping:

    Stars of the recipe:

    • 1/4 c. of lemon juice
    • 1/2 c. of sugar

    Steps:

    1. Heat lemon juice just a bit in the microwave.
    2. Add sugar and stir it up.
    3. When the cookies come out of the oven, remove them to a wire rack with a piece of foil placed under it.
    4. Brush the topping onto the hot cookies.  The faster you do this, the quicker the topping will dry into a glaze.

    Printable version

  • Weekly Menu for week of Dec. 5

    I’ve been bad about noting making a menu which causes me to figure out what we are going to eat late in the game.  I don’t have time for that because I get home from work and then have to automatically start dinner.  If I knew what I was going to make, it would make the transition easier.  I could get the prep ready beforehand or have hubby start the dinner.  The Wee One loves eat whatever you want night and has been asking for one this week which is driving me crazy.  We’ve decided that Thursday’s would be a perfect night for that.  They eat left-overs or make themselves a sandwich.  It is a more relaxed night for dinner. 

    We usually go over to my in-laws for dinners on Sunday nights.  They are going to a potluck dinner and concert tonight so we are on our own for dinner.  Our dinner is going to be similar to what we have on Sunday nights.  The Wee One wanted to make it an eat whatever you want night so I allowed him to help with the menu.  He is satisfied with what is planned :).

    Friday night, the school district I work for’s varsity football team went to a state championship game.  They figure the attendance rate was going to be low so they gave us the day off.  We have to make it up at the end of the year though.  Since I had Friday off, I used it to go grocery shopping without the crowds and boys.  There was a lot of manager specials on meat so I nabbed some.  My menus for the next few weeks are going to feature some of those meats.  By the way, the football team did end up winning the game.  They’ve been to state 3 times – 1981, 2010, and 2011.  This was the first time they won the state championship.  They also were undefeated this year which is impressive!

    Now on to the menu,

    Sunday – chicken in the crockpot, stuffing, mac and cheese, broccoli with cheese sauce, pretzel rolls

     Monday – bbq ribs in the crockpot, left-over mac and cheese, veggie

    Tuesday – sweet and sour chicken using leftover chicken, rice

    Wednesday – baked potato bar, raw veggies

    Thursday – Eat whatever you like night

    Friday – Homemade pizza, salad

    Saturday – spaghetti or pasta with garlic bread made from depression era bread, salad

  • Fried Potatoes

    When I was a teenager, I lived with my mom and grandparents.  Even though my grandma was a great cook, she never taught me her recipes.  Oh, I have a few recipes because she gave them to me.  However, she and I never cooked in the same kitchen.

    One of the side dishes she cook was fried potatoes.  I love the taste of the crispy crust of the potato when it’s been fried in a skillet.  Yum!  Once I got married and moved into a place where I cooked dinner, I started to make fried potatoes.  The problem I encountered was that it took forever for the potatoes to cook up.  Through practice, I learned the secret is to put a lid on the skillet while the potatoes are cooking.  Not all of the potatoes get that crispy crust, though.  That’s fine, though. The boys refuse to touch them.  I get to eat the potatoes with the crispy crust, and the boys get to eat the mushier potatoes.

    One way to check to see if the potatoes are cooked throughout is if to become translucent, like when they finished cooking.

    Fried Potatoes

    Stars of the recipe:

    • 3 to 4 potatoes cut into slices, I use russet, but you can use whatever kind of potatoes you want
    • 1/2 onion cut into rings
    • oil, I use extra virgin olive oil
    • salt and pepper to taste

    Steps:

    1. Cut potatoes into slices and onions into rings.
    2. Coat the bottom of a skillet with oil.  As Rachael Ray says, twice around the pan with the oil. (I use a cast iron skillet.)
    3. Turn the stove on to med.  Let the pan warm up.
    4. Add the potatoes and onions.  Season with salt and pepper.  Put the lid on the skillet.
    5. Let the potatoes cook for about a few minutes.  Then flip the potatoes to make sure they don’t burn.
    6. Continue cooking the potatoes, flipping them potatoes every few minutes.
    7. The potatoes will be finished when translucent looking.
    8. Enjoy!

    Printable Recipe

  • Thank you!

    Today I was given the honor of being a Friday find from Grandma Loy’s Kitchen.  Thank you so much for featuring me on your blog!  It was a treat to see the picture I had taken in my email this morning.

  • Not Pecan Pie Bars

    A couple of weeks ago, I found a recipe in Grandma Loy’s kitchen that intrigued me. The recipe was for pecan pie bars made with pretzels instead of pecans. I knew I wanted to make them but didn’t know when I would. So on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, at dinner, we were talking about Thanksgiving dinner. I offered to make the veggies, biscuits, and desserts. It was then I knew I would make those not pecan pie bars.

    Everyone was impressed with the not pecan pie bars. It looked like real pecans were part of the topping, and it was not too salty. My sister-in-law, who is allergic to nuts, enjoyed them. Even my brother-in-law gave me a compliment on how good they were. I ended up sending the rest of the batch home with them.

    You first need to make the Bar Cookie Crust

    Stars of the Bar Cookie Crust

    • 2 c. all purpose flour
    • 1/3 c. sugar
    • 1/4 t. salt
    • 1/2 c. butter or margarine, cut up

    Steps for making the Bar Cookie Crust

    1. Place flour, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl.
    2. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
    3. Press crumbs firmly into the bottom and 1/4 inch up the sides of a greased (I use my pan-release mixture from my local candy/cake supply store.) 9×13-inch baking pan.
    4.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

    While the Cookie Bar Crust is baking, make up the topping.

    Stars of the recipe for the Not Pecan Pie Bars

    • 1 Bar Cookie Crust
    • 2 eggs
    • 3/4 c. Karo, Light or Dark
    • 3/4 c. sugar
    • 2 T. butter or margarine, melted
    • 2 t. vanilla
    • 1 1/3 c. broken pretzel sticks (I put them in a bag and then smashed them with the smooth side of my meat tenderizer. Many frustrations were worked out.)

    Steps for the Not Pecan Pie Bars:

    1. While the cookie bar crust is baking, beat eggs, Karo, sugar, butter or margarine, and vanilla in a large bowl. (I used my stand mixer.)
    2. Stir in pretzels.
    3. Pour over hot crust, spreading evenly.
    4. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until filling is firm around the edges and slightly firm in the center.
    5. Cool completely on a wire rack.
    6. Cut into bars and enjoy!

    Printable Recipe

  • Makes it own Crust Apple Pie

    Last week I found this recipe on This Week for Dinner’s website. I thought this was a genius idea because you don’t need to make a separate crust for the pie. I don’t know if I’ve attempted to make homemade crust. Usually, I use the store-bought variety.

    This pie is easy to put together. Although it called for peeling the apples, I left a little peel on, which added color when the apples peeked out of the crust. Which was pretty cool looking. This is not a traditional pie. Instead, the crust is more like a cobbler than apple pie. This pie would be good with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or even cinnamon ice cream. Yum!

    Makes It Own Crust Apple Pie

    from This Week for Dinner

    Stars of the recipe:

    • Sliced apples, sliced but not too thin, peeled.
    • 1-2 Tablespoons of cinnamon sugar
    • 1 1/2 sticks melted butter
    • 1 cup sugar
    • 1 cup flour
    • 1 beaten egg

    Steps:

    1. Fill a pie plate or any 8×8 casserole dish/pan with sliced apples. Only the center can be slightly above level with the top of the dish, or the topping will spill over the sides, so don’t get carried away.

    2. Sprinkle the apples with about 1 Tbsp. Cinnamon sugar. (More or less, depending on what you like.)

    3. Mix together the butter, sugar, flour, and egg.

    4. Pour the mixture evenly over the apples, and sprinkle with more cinnamon sugar if desired.

    5. Bake at 350 degrees F until deep golden brown – around 40-45 minutes or so.
    6. Enjoy!