Light Pineapple Cheesecake

On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we have our traditional leftover dish – Turkey Tetrazzini.  I was looking for a dessert that would be completely different from the rich food we have been eating since Thursday.  I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and it fit the bill perfectly.  It is light-tasting and light in calories – 207 calories based on 9 servings.

LIGHT PINEAPPLE CHEESECAKE

Crust:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 Tblsp. granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, cut into small cubes

Filling:

• 8 oz. can crushed pineapple
• 8 oz. package low-fat cream cheese, softened
• 3 Tblsp. granulated sugar
• 1 Tblsp. all-purpose flour
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• Ground cinnamon for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

To make the crust:

In an ungreased 8-inch baking pan, combine the flour, sugar and salt.  Rub  in the butter with your fingertips until mixture is crumbly.

Press the mixture onto the bottom of the 8-inch pan.

Bake @ 325 degrees F for 12 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.

To make the filling:

Drain the pineapple, pressing down to remove as much juice as possible, reserving the juice (there should be about 1/2 cup of juice); set pineapple and juice aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and flour.  Add the egg and mix until smooth.  Add the pineapple juice.  Gradually add the milk and vanilla.

Sprinkle the drained pineapple over the baked crust.

Slowly pour the filling over the pineapple.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake @ 325 degrees F for one hour or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack to room temperature.

Cake is good served at room temperature or chilled.  Refrigerate leftovers.

Yield:  9 servings

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Happy Thanksgiving

In the 1990s, my oldest daughter and I had a booth at a large craft mall which we kept supplied with a variety of handmade crafts.  My interest was in decorative painting.  I liked to scour antique malls and thrift shops to find old wooden or enamelware items to paint and sold hundreds of pieces over the years.

Fast forward to 2010 and a walk through the Ohio Valley Antique Mall in Fairfield, Ohio (near Cincinnati).  In one of their beautifully decorated booths, I saw a familiar object….an enamelware platter that I had painted in 1996.  I had adapted the design from a picture in a school textbook, simplifying it and adding a few items.

I had painted the design on several projects through the years but had never kept one for myself.   A week before Thanksgiving, this old platter seemed to call to me to take it back home, so I bought it and after 14 years, it’s on display in my living room.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYBODY.

Granddaughter at her First Grade Thanksgiving Dinner

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Quilt Labels with Photos

I recently completed a quilt with a horse theme for my grandson and I like to include a label that says something about the recipient as well as the quilter.  My grandson loves horses and I had a recent photo of him on a horse.  I printed the picture on Inkjet Printable Fabric (I used Printed Treasures) along with information on how and when the quilt was made as well as a photo of myself.  I left a 1/4-inch border around the edges of the printed portion.

Printable fabric is quite stiff and difficult to sew by hand.  I added strips to the printed panel that allowed for easy and neat hand stitching in place.

I cut strips of coordinating fabric 2 inches wide for the sides of the panel.

After stitching with a 1/4-inch seam, I pressed toward the strips and then measured to get the width.

I cut strips for top and bottom 2 inches wide x the width measurement.  I stitched the top and bottom strips onto the picture panel with 1/4-inch seams.

The seams were pressed toward the border strips.  Then I turned under and pressed 1/4 inch on the top and left hand side of the completed piece.  This piece was then pinned to the lower right hand side of the quilted backing, matching the right-hand side and bottom raw edges.

I basted the right-hand side and bottom of the label panel and keeping the pins in place, hand-stitched the left hand and top edges of the panel.

Then the binding was sewn onto the quilt and hemstitched – and the quilt was complete.

My grandson really liked his quilt and will always have a record of it as well as pictures of how we both looked when it was made.

The Horse Quilt

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Really Good Jam Bars

I found this recipe in an old Fanny Farmer cookbook.  The bar cookies are easy to make and the flavor is wonderful.

REALLY GOOD JAM BARS

• 1/2 cup margarine (I like Imperial)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 egg
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup jam*

*This would be a good way to use up little bits of a variety of jams.  I keep a jar in the refrigerator to put the last spoonful of jam or preserves and the resulting mixture is delicious.

Preheat oven at 400 degrees F.  Grease an 8×8 inch pan.

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine, sugar, vanilla and almond extract.  Add the egg, mixing well.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.  Add to the margarine mixture, beating until blended.

Spread half of the dough in the 8″ greased pan, using water-dampened fingertips to help spread the dough.

Spread the top evenly with jam

Drop the remaining dough in large dollops on top of the jam….

….then use water-dampened fingertips to spread the dough and cover the jam – a few bits of jam peeking out are OK.

Bake at 400 degrees F for about 25 minutes until top is golden brown.  Cool in pan on a wire rack.

While still warm, loosen the edges from the pan and cut into 16 bars.

Keep bars in pan on wire rack until completely cool.

Yield:  16 bars

I have a note in my binder:  “First made July 12, 1995, using my homemade seedless blackberry jam.  David (my husband) ate about 1/3 of them while they were cooling in the pan.”

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Stewing a Whole Chicken

When I was married in 1952, my mother showed me two housekeeping techniques that she considered invaluable – how to iron a man’s dress shirt and how to cut up a chicken.  Both tutorials served me well since two of my four children were boys so I spent a lot of time ironing shirts, and for over 50 years, I never considered buying anything but a whole chicken that I could cut up the way I liked and save money, too.

My husband (who was the only one in the family who would eat almost any part of the chicken) passed away six years ago, everybody else was concerned about the fat in dark meat, and even the dog was on a chicken breast diet after a pancreatitis attack.  At that point, I started buying skinless chicken breasts, either fresh from the market or in big freezer packs from Sam’s.  They were handy to use with no waste and I was completely converted.

Then, one day I saw a blog about cooking a whole chicken in a slow cooker.  I’m not a big fan of slow cookers, so I cooked mine on the stovetop in a big Dutch oven.   I realized even after removing the skin after cooking, there was still more fat than in the skinless variety, but the taste and texture of the chicken was so wonderful that I felt it was worth it.  Here’s how I do a whole chicken:

My market handles a good quality fresh Amish roaster which I buy in a 4-pound  size for about $7.  I wash the chicken and put it in a big Dutch oven, cover with water and cook over medium heat for approximately 1-1/2 hours…

….turning halfway through the cooking.

When the chicken is done (and I like it very well done), I remove the pot from the heat, place the chicken on a platter to cool slightly and pour the broth into a large container.  When the chicken is cool enough to handle, I remove the skin and remove the chicken from the bones, separating it into containers:  white meat, dark meat and scraps for the dog.

From the 4 lb., 11 oz., chicken I cooked today, I got 3 cups of white meat, 1-1/2 cups of dark meat, 1 cup of scraps and 8 cups of rich chicken broth.

I prefer to leave any seasonings or vegetables out of this procedure so I can have more options on using the chicken and broth.  I put the packages of chicken in the freezer (minus what I wanted to use that day) and refrigerated the broth.  The next morning, I will remove any fat from the broth and put it in smaller containers for the freezer.  Note that this broth won’t have the preservatives of commercial broth and should be in containers that will be used in a few days.

The flavor of the chicken is great and the broth is so much better than the canned or boxed stuff.  I feel I get my full money’s worth out of $7 worth of chicken and with minimal time and trouble.

Here are some of my favorite recipes using a cup or two of cooked chicken.  Either white or dark meat can be used.

Chicken and Black Bean Burrito Casserole

Chicken and Asparagus Pudding

Yukon Chicken Salad

Chicken and Eggplant Parmesan

Balsamic Chicken Melt

Easy Chicken a la King

Chicken Puffs with Mushroom Sauce

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A Patchwork Memory Jacket

This is the first quilted jacket I made.  About 7 years ago, I was very new at quilting and was looking for anything I could find around the house to use as practice projects.

About 25 years ago, my oldest daughter had embellished my black square dance skirt with her gorgeous hand-painted and embroidered work.  When the skirt was no longer wearable, I cut out all of the hand-worked panels, not knowing what I would do with them.  When they surfaced again while I was looking for things to quilt, I had my answer.

I made the jacket first out of patchwork squares with colors that coordinated with the embroidered panels…

…then appliqued the panels onto the jacket.  At that time, I didn’t have the skill to piece the panels into the patchwork design.

The design that had been on the center front of my skirt was a beautiful rendering of swans and I used those as a panel on the back where there was plenty of room.

When I was making the jacket, I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, so I just used a sweatshirt as the lining.  It has become a piece that I keep back for special occasions and if I were making it now, I would put much more thought into a lining that would complement the jacket.

The colors don’t come through too well but this is really an exciting, beautiful jacket and one that is filled with memories.  My husband passed away six years ago, but we had so much fun going to square dances and whenever I wore the skirt, I spent quite a bit of time standing still so the other women could circle around me, admiring each beautiful panel with my daughter’s handiwork.

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Anadama Bread and Rolls

I first made this bread in December of 1982 and included mini-loaves in my food gift baskets that year.  This is very good bread and you can definitely taste the hearty texture of the corn meal.   I adapted my recipe from one in a 1976 edition of Redbook Cookbook.

ANADAMA BREAD AND ROLLS

• 6-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, approx.
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 cup yellow corn meal
• 2 pkgs instant dry yeast
• 1 cup water, heated to 130 degrees F
• 1 cup milk, heated to 130 degrees F
• 1/2 cup light molasses*
• 3 Tblsp. butter, melted

*I used some molasses I had bought in Amish country and it has a slight sorghum flavor.  Any good light molasses would work well.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, place 1 cup of flour, the corn meal, yeast, water, milk, molasses and melted butter.  With a paddle beater, beat at medium speed for 3 minutes.

Remove paddle beater and insert dough hook.  Add one cup of flour to the mixture and beat at medium speed, gradually adding 1/2 cup of flour at a time as the dough is being kneaded for 6-1/2 minutes.  Dough should be elastic and smooth, but will be a little sticky to the touch because of the molasses.

Place dough in a greased bowl ….

…cover and let rise in warm place for 30 minutes.

Punch down dough and make into bread and/or rolls.  This amount of dough will make two 9×5 inch loaves or a variety of other combinations.  I chose to make a 7-3/4 inch loaf and 10 large rolls.  Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Bake the rolls for approximately 12-15 minutes, depending on size.  Bake a 7-3/4 inch loaf of bread for approximately 30 minutes, and a 9×5 inch loaf for 45-55 minutes.

Remove from pans immediately to a wire rack and let cool.

I like to cover the bread with a tea towel while cooling to keep the crust soft.

The bread came out of the oven at noon, just in time for my daughter and me to enjoy it for lunch with a bowl of soup – fantastic!

Incidentally, for busy days, it’s nice to have a box of Campbell’s V-8 soup in the pantry.  Today, we had Southwestern Corn Chowder – really good.

Note:  I always underbake the rolls because I’m going to be browning them in the oven just before serving – usually just two or three at a time.

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A Happy Scrap Gift Bag

Influenced by my youngest daughter, our family made a pledge several years ago to go green by having all of our gift bags be of reusable fabric.  It takes a lot of bags, especially at Christmas time, but at least three branches of the family have been able to stick to the pledge.  The bags are either returned to the giver or are kept for the next occasion.

I wanted to make a different sized bag to hold the Halloween gifts I had gotten for my daughter and wanted to use as much as possible of my huge scrap collection and anything else that could be recycled.

I found two old dinner napkins (16×16 inches) which were very worn around the edges.

I pulled out a big bag of scraps of various sizes in fall colors – orange, rust, yellow, dark red, maroon, green.  I wanted to use an old piecing technique that uses a lot of small scraps and started out with a small piece in the center of one of the napkins (scrap piece right-side-up on wrong side of the napkin).   Then, I put another small scrap on top of the first piece, forming an angle.

I stitched a 1/4 inch seam, trimmed and pressed the piece open….

…then sewed a piece across the bottom of the first two pieces, log-cabin-style.

I continued around the sides of the block, trimming and pressing each time after stitching.   I continued to sew strips until the napkin was filled.  I put the strips at different angles to get a wonky look.

I turned the piece over, trimmed the excess fabric around the edges and squared-up the piece.  I also trimmed off the worn hemmed edges of the napkin.

Using the completed piece as a pattern, I placed it on top of the second napkin and cut the napkin the same size to form the back of the bag.  A piece of recycled cord was sewn to the right-side of the back piece.

The front and back were stitched with a 1/2 inch seam along the sides and back.  Then I stitched a facing to the top portion of the bag, turned it to the inside and hand-stitched in place.

The bag was turned and pressed….

…and was ready for filling with something good – and for recycling many, many times.

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