Posted on 12/22/2016 7:00:44 AM PST by Jamestown1630
Every year at Christmas my mother-in-law sends us a big box of cookies. I think she makes the best chocolate chip cookies I've had, but this year I tried the Raisin Jumbos, which were really excellent.
She makes most of her cookies with butter, but uses Crisco for this one; and she doesn't add nuts, which I think would be 'gilding the lily':
JUMBO RAISIN COOKIES
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 1 c. water
1 c. shortening
3 eggs, beaten
1 c. nuts (optional)
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. allspice
2 c. raisins
2 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
Boil raisins and water 5 minutes; cool. Cream shortening, sugar, and eggs. Add vanilla and cooled raisin mixture; stir in nuts, if used.
Sift remaining ingredients. Add to raisin mixture. Drop by teaspoons onto greased cookie sheet, and bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on racks.
I've been using this 'Latke' recipe for a long time. It's from an old edition of 'The Joy of Cooking', and while they're traditionally served with applesauce, I like mine with sour cream. I have never had the same success using a food processor to grate the potatoes, and always do it by hand - maybe it's true that you need a little 'knuckle' in there, for really good ones ;-)
Potato Pancakes
Pare and grate coarsely until you have 2 Cups of grated Russet potatoes (can use Yukon Gold)
Fold the grated potatoes into a clean dishtowel and wring out as much moisture as possible. Place potatoes in a bowl.
Beat 3 eggs well and stir them into the potatoes.
Combine and sift:
1-1/2 T. all-purpose Flour and 1-1/4 tsp. Salt
Add to the potato mixture along with 1 to 3 teaspoons finely grated Onion (I like lots!)
Heat in a heavyi skillet 1/4 inch of beef drippings or oil. Place spoonfuls of the potato mixture in the skillet, forming them into patties about 1/4 inch thick and 3 inches in diameter. Brown, then turn and brown the other side until crisp.
These are best served immediately. Not nearly as good, but in a pinch, you can crisp up leftovers in the oven - on the off chance that you have leftovers.
-JT
My mother used to make them when we were little. Scrumptious!
That Potato Pizza recipe sounds interesting... adding a browned ground meatloaf mix, beef, pork, veal layer might make a handy Shepard’s Pie variant.
Have to try that.
Thanks
LOL! I troll winery sites looking for recipes. They have some of the best chefs working for them developing recipes.
What a great idea!
My favorite toaster.
Sounds like a great variation.
I finally purchased some recipe software this week & have been putting my recipes on it. It’s been a lot of fun & reminded me of some really terrific recipes I’d forgotten about. I got so engrossed in the project that when I looked at the clock (thought it was still Tuesday) it was 3 a.m. Wednesday morning! I was so pooped yesterday that I had to take a 2 hour nap .... unlike my ‘younger’ years, I can no longer function on only 4 hours of sleep!
One recipe I had forgotten about was “Broccoli Salad Supreme”. I made it for a potluck several Christmases ago after my niece sang in a Christmas concert. If I remember correctly, I cut the sugar in half (per some comments on the recipe) & it didn’t hurt the recipe at all. I also ran across a rum ball recipe & that prompted me to remember some chocolate bourbon balls I’d made - nice gift idea.
Way back when, the Silver Palate Chefs ran a series of articles in the Sunday Parade Magazine. The pictures of the food were gorgeous & I loved their recipes - several are in my “all time favorite” category. They had some ‘gift ideas’ in the articles that appeared around Christmas and maybe next year I’ll made some of those for presents. With my recipe software, I can add pictures to a recipe ... for these old articles, I scan it into a PDF, use my snipping tool to outline what I want, save it as a jpg & then I can attach it to a recipe as the picture. This software will also allow the printing of cookbooks so I can share family recipes with my nieces. I’m really glad to have this project ... after Jan 1, it’s going to be a long, cold couple of months, perfect for getting my recipes in good order, until the weather breaks and I can get out in the garden again.
Some recipe links:
Broccoli Salad Supreme
http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/broccoli-salad-supreme
Chocolate Bourbon Balls
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/chocolate-bourbon-balls.aspx
By the way, I could not find chocolate ‘wafer’ cookies so I got Oreos, scraped off the white filling & used the chocolate part - worked like a charm. I especially like this recipe because other than butter, there is no ‘melting’ of anything .... most recipes require melting chocolate.
I think I have the ‘Silver Palate’ cookbooks, if they’re the same folks - two ladies who had a gourmet food shop?.
What software did you choose? I’d be interested in something like that.
Thanks for the ping.
Thanks to more recent studies, butter and Lard are no longer forbidden foods. So I have a new cookbook : 100% Natural Lard. It even tells how to render fat to make your own. It has a resource page of where to order quality lard without chemical additives.
Perfect Pastry: Recipe for 3 crusts
1 tsp. salt
2 cups flour
3/4 cup lard, chopped
1/4 cup cold milk
Use pastry blender or fork to cut the lard into the salt and flour till coarsely mixed. Add milk gradually till it can stick and form a ball. Roll it out on a floured surface (1/3 makes 1 crust for 9 inch pie)and place in pan -prick with fork. Bake @450 for approximately 15 min.
It has been a long time since I made a pie crust, but my grandmother’s pastry chef told me the secret is to get it done quick - less handling the more tender and flaky the crust. (She gave me some lessons right after I got married and was getting ready to move away from my hometown).
MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone. God Bless.
Keep it very cold, too.
Has anyone tried using Vodka in pie crust, in place of some of the luquid? It’s supposed to make it very flaky.
Vodka - That’s a new one on me. My most frequent pie that I have made over the years has been “Poor Man’s Pecan Pie”. It uses oatmeal instead of pecans, and is surprisingly nutty tasting and crunchy. The crust is an oil crust mixed in the pan and pressed out with fingers. So easier and less dishes.
I’ll have to see if I can find the recipe and post it sometime.
Those are the ones ... love their recipes. I have one of their books.
I ended up with “Home Cookin”. I always wanted ‘Living Cookbook’, but the more I looked at it, there were too many bells/whistles I didn’t need & it appears their customer service has gone downhill. I needed a pretty simple database format, I didn’t need to get my recipes on a smart phone, & I didn’t want cloud storage or any recipes included, just something where I could organize my recipes. Home Cookin was 8th on the list of those reviewed for 2016.
There are recipes I can download from HC, but I’m not interested - got too many of my own. Unlike Living Cookbook that had a field for everything, I can copy/past my recipes into the database on a blank page ... you can also “import” and designate what is the title, ingredients, etc. & it will format for you. The customer service (”Anthony”) evidently answers emails pretty quickly with good help. This reminds me of the guy who runs EZ Address Book - love that software & the owner! This program will be too simple for a lot of folks, but it’s perfect for me. I read the reviews for it on Amazon while researching it & most are saying what I would say if I wrote a review.
Anyway, I am very pleased so far. My biggest issue was recipes that belong in more than one “chapter”, but I figured out a way to ‘tag’ them using the title line & the search function is SO good, that it works well for me. I might drop ‘Anthony’ a line as to what I’m doing - might give him some good ideas for upgrades. It is very easy to navigate between the index/recipe (one click) & you can easily categorize a recipe into a different ‘chapter’ - use pull down menu, select the new spot where you want it & it’s done. The recipes print beautifully and of course, are all in one place. I have two notebooks, a recipe file on the laptop, plus several other piles of printed off pages & clipped articles .... the clutter will definitely be reduced significantly!
I think I first heard about using Vodka on the America’s Test Kitchen show.
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-review-vodka-pie-crust-68851
Thanks! I will look into it. I don’t need a lot of ‘bells and whistles’ either.
Thanks for the link. That reminds me of the quick little trick I saw on the food network. Secrets of a Restaurant Chef IIRC: Mix a little white wine and flour to make a quick batter for dipping and frying anything - onion rings, etc.
I usually have a batch of single serve wine bottles leftover from vacation get togethers, so it was a perfect way to use them up.
http://www.mountainsoftware.com/
http://www.toptenreviews.com/software/home/best-cookbook-and-recipe-software/
Thanks very much for the link. We looked at yours, and realized it’s for Windows, and we’re running Linux.
Husband downloaded something which I’ll try. Right now everything is just in folders, and it would be nice to have something like a quick ingredient match.
I am huge fan of the Sutter Home Build a Better burger site.
Here is a great burger recipe. I have made a lot of their winner recipes over the years.
Wow! That looks amazing! Thank you, pugmama!
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