It’s not Thanksgiving if we don’t eat sweet potato casserole! I’ll be preparing this dish today and baking it tomorrow. It tends to get thrown in with other sides and I now wonder if it’s ever been baked at the right temp for the proper length of time. Clearly, it’s a forgiving dish. And it tastes amazing. Credit to Diane Downing via the old Zion Cookbook (the green one).

3 C sweet potatoes, mashed
1 1/3 C sugar
1/2 t salt
2 eggs
1/2 stick butter, melted
1/2 C milk
1 t vanilla

Mix ingredients together. Spoon into a 9×13 buttered casserole dish.

Topping:
1 1/3 C brown sugar
1/3 C flour
1 C coconut
1/2 stick butter, softened
1 C nuts, chopped

Mix topping together until crumbly. Spread over sweet potato mixture. Bake for 45 minutes in 325 oven.

**I reduce the sugar in the potatoes (probably to one cup) and omit coconut from the topping.

Jason’s office has a Thanksgiving dinner each year, and for whatever reason I got kind of obsessed with sending something made with bourbon. My first thought was some sort of bourbon sweet potatoes, but this recipe was a lot easier to pull off (and also it’s easier to keep things cold until lunchtime than it is to keep them warm). In any case, the results were really yummy. (Via The Kitchen Sink)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds cranberries (2 bags)
• 3 cups sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup  + 2 tablespoons bourbon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Combine all ingredients in a buttered 9×13-inch baking dish.
3. Cover tightly with foil and bake until cranberries are tender and sugar is dissolved, stirring once, about 1 hour.
4. Remove from the oven, carefully remove the foil and allow the cranberry sauce to cool completely.
5. Refrigerate cranberry sauce until well chilled. (Can be prepared 1 week ahead.)
6. Transfer to bowl and serve.

I’ve wanted to make fingerpaint for quite a while now. Friday was the end of a looooong week, and painting was just the thing we needed to push through to the end. This was super easy. At it dries, it does crack a bit if it’s thick (and what kid doesn’t use LOTS of paint?). I’ve never actually tried storebought fingerpaint, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I think we got great results and will be doing this again (and again).

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups cold water
• food coloring

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, cook cornstarch, sugar, salt, and water over medium heat until smooth and thick (15-20 minutes), stirring frequently.
2. Allow mixture to cool and divide into storage containers.
3. Add a few drops of food coloring to each container and stir.
4. Cover tightly when storing.

Check out my blog for photos and more information about making detergent.

1/2 C washing soda
1/2 C Borax
1/3 bar of Ivory soap, grated

In a large pot, heat 6 cups of water; add grated soap and stir until dissolved. Add washing soda and Borax and stir until dissolved. Remove pot from heat.

In a clean 2 gallon pail, pour 4 cups of hot water and add heated soap mixture. Top pail with one gallon + 6 cups of cold water; stir well.

Use 1/2 cup per load, stirring detergent before use.

We’ve been having a lot (a lot) of breakfast for dinner over the last several months. This recipe is from Indra Brockman in the NZC, and it has become one of our favorites. I often make a half batch, but a full batch makes 8 pancakes, and the breakdown lately has been 2 1/2 each for the adults and 3 for Simon.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup small-curd cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted (plus more for greasing skillet)

Directions:

1. Beat eggs in a medium bowl; stir in cottage cheese.
2. Add flour and mix until just blended but still lumpy.
3. Add melted butter and stir gently to combine.
4. Melt a pat of butter in a large nonstick skillet or on a griddle over medium heat.
5. Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto the skillet, spacing the pancakes apart.
6. Cook until edges are light golden brown and bubbles form on top.
7. Turn pancakes over and cook until the bottoms are light golden brown. Pancakes should be crispy outside but creamy inside.

I love making this loaf of bread. Few ingredients. Little time requirement. Great flavor (especially when you make it with the additional seasonings and butter/garlic salt for topping). Thanks to Diane Downing & Kristie Strahm for this addition to the NZC (New Zion Cookbook).

3 1/2 C flour
1 T sugar
1 t salt
1 1/4 C water, lukewarm
2 1/4 t yeast

Place ingredients in a breadmaker or mixer and knead. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning dough to coat all sides with oil. Let dough rise for 30-45 minutes. Punch down and roll out dough into rectangle shape, then roll dough in a jelly roll shape. Place dough on a baking sheet. Cut slits in top with a knife and let dough rise for 1 hour. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, then reduce oven to 375 and bake for 4-8 minutes.

Note: This recipe is often used as communion bread. For a special treat, Kristie adds 1 T Italian seasoning and 1 T rosemary to the lukewarm water. Mix the dough the same way. After it is baked, she brushes melted butter on top and sprinkles lightly with Lawry’s garlic salt.

I find that lately I don’t like to leave baking recipes untweaked.  I altered this one from epicurious.com.  They call is “Spiced Pumpkin Bread”.  I call it “not good enough.”  The way the spices and the chocolate chips combine is like having Mexican hot chocolate.  They’re so good.  Below is my version of the recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup unsweetened applesauce (or you could use oil)

3 large eggs

1 16-ounce can solid pack pumpkin

3 cups all purpose flour (1 1/2 c. whole wheat, 1 1/2 c. white)

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

all the chocolate chips I had left in the bag

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9×5x3-inch loaf pans or 24 muffin tins. Beat sugar and oil in large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs and pumpkin. Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Add chocolate chips.

Divide batter equally between prepared pans. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes for bread, 25-30 minutes for muffins. Transfer to racks and cool 10 minutes. Using sharp knife, cut around edge of loaves. Turn loaves out onto racks and cool completely.

God bless the Rempels and their meatloaf. This stuff hits the spot on a chilly fall night! Double the recipe and deliver half as a mercy meal to a family who could use some extra help and loving.

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1/2 cup crushed buttery round crackers
3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons steak sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Stir the ground beef, crushed crackers, Cheddar cheese, and onion soup mix in a large bowl until well combined. Whisk the eggs, ketchup, and steak sauce in a separate bowl until smooth. Mix the eggs into the meat until evenly combined, if the mixture seems too dry, add a little water. Press into a 9×5 inch loaf pan.

Bake in preheated oven until the meatloaf reaches 160 degrees F (71 degrees C) and is no longer pink in the center, 45 to 60 minutes.

I love potatoes more than makes rational sense. This isn’t a lowfat menu option, but I think you could cut some corners and make it a bit healthier. I paired it with meatloaf and wasn’t worried about calories at the time. A few days later I reheated some casserole alongside scrambled eggs… oh my goodness, delicious. Enjoy!

1 (30 ounce) package frozen hash brown potatoes
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 onion, chopped
1 cup butter
3 cups crushed corn flakes

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

Pour the hash browns into a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking dish. In a large bowl, combine the cheese, sour cream and soup.

In a large skillet over medium heat, combine the onion with 1 stick butter and saute for 5 minutes. Add this to the soup mixture and spread this over the potatoes in the dish.

Next, arrange the crushed corn flakes over all in the dish. Melt the remaining stick of butter and pour this evenly over the corn flakes.
Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 1 hour.

Ahhhh, my house smells like fall this morning! I altered this recipe from Allrecipes.com and came up with a delicious cookie. No need for icing, in my opinion—the apples, craisins and spices provide the perfect amount of sweetness.

Interestingly enough, I left out milk in the first round of baking. I think I may like the no-milk cookies a little better than the ones with milk.

1/4 C butter
1/4 C shortening
1.5 C brown sugar
2 C flour, sifted
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1 C apples, cored and finely diced
1 C craisins
1/4 C milk

Heat oven to 350. Then beat together butter, shortening and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg until thoroughly blended.

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Stir half of dry mixture into creamed mixture. Stir in apples and craisins, Stir in remaining dry mixture and milk; mix well.

Drop tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes.