Country Cookin' in my Kitchen

Best Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
3 eggs
3 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs until light and fluffy. Mix in flour, baking soda and salt by hand until well blended. Stir in oatmeal and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for ~ 10 minutes.

I forgot to take a picture! I will try to remember to do that with my recipes.
 
Soft Bran Muffins

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup oil
2 eggs
2 cups natural bran
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sour cream
2 tsp vanilla
raisins dates or choc chips

Mix together in mixer the sugar, oil, eggs and bran. Add flour, soda and salt alternately with sour cream to bran mixture. Add vanilla and raisins, dates or choc chips. Bake in greased muffin tins at 350 for 25 min. (mine never take that long...) Freezes well and makes about 2 dozen muffins.

Oatmeal Muffins

1 cup quick oats
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
Chocolate chips

Makes 1 dozen muffins. Mix all ingredients and spoon batter into greased muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake at 400 for 15-20 min. (I put my oven at 350 for 13 min and they were done...use your discretion)

Chocolate Oatmeal No Bake Cookies


1/2 C butter
2 C sugar
1/2 C milk
4 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 C peanut butter
3- 3 1/2 C quick cooking oats
2 tsp. vanilla


Add the first 4 ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil, and boil for 1 minute. Stir in the next 3 ingredients and drop onto wax/foil paper. Let cool until set. 


Mom's Pizza Dough

I believe this recipe came from my Aunt Judy and Mom always used it. I love it bc it is ever so simple and does not involve yeast and waiting for it to rise.

2 cups flour
1/3 cup margarine (I use a half cup)
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk

Mix all together and press into pan. So simple and no waiting for it to rise.  

Fluffy Biscuits

This recipe from my Mother-in-law. I have tried many biscuit recipes and still didn't really have a favorite. This one is really good. I just hate the fact that they hate being mixed by a machine. I am lazy and do not like to mix things by hand. I am spoiled, I have a Kitchen-aid as well as a Braun mixer.

2 cups flour 
4 tsp baking powder 
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup 7-UP
1-2 tsp sugar

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Cut in shortening until it resembles coarse meal. Add 7-UP all at once. Stir briskly with a fork until evenly moistened. Turn onto floured surface. Knead 8-10 min.

Roll to 3/4 inch thick, allow dough to rest a few minutes. Cut and place onto sheet. Brush with butter. Bake at 400 for 12-20 min. Depending on your oven. Check often. When light brown they are done.

Bit 'N Bites

This recipe is also from my Mother-in-law which I believe she got from a co-worker. We really like it. If you don't like dill then it might not be something you like. Great recipe for the holidays.

4 cups cheerios
4 cups crispix cereal
2.5 cups pretzels
2.5 cups small ritz crackers or shreddies
2.5 cups Goldfish
1 bag peanuts
3 tbsp oil
1 tsp dill (I do almost 2)
1 tsp garlic powder
1 pkg Dry Ranch dressing

Mix all in a big roaster. Bake slow at 250 for half to three quarters of an hour.  


Beef Vegetable Soup

2 lb ground beef
1 medium sized onion (chopped)
1 cup chopped celery (2-3 stalks)
2 cups chopped carrots
2 large potatoes cubed (OR 2 cups elbow macaroni - I do not usually do the macaroni bc I find when I have soup left over and I usually do with this big recipe the macaroni gets very big and mushy and I don't like that)
1 qt canned tomatoes (OR 2 cans tomato soup - this is what I use just bc it's what I keep on hand)
3-6 tbsp beef bouillon (depends how flavorful you like it)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
10-12 cups water

Fry ground beef, onion and celery in a large saucepan until hamburger is no longer pink. (I usually don't add the onion and celery until the burger is almost cooked through) Add tomatoes, water, salt, pepper, bouillon, carrots and potatoes (if you are adding them). Bring to a boiland simmer until carrots are tender. Add the macaroni is cooked, stirring often. Ingredient amounts can vary according to taste. This is a great soup for a stormy day like today! We had it for lunch. I make this soup at least twice a month we like it so much and there is no shortage of burger here!

Baked Potatoes in the Crockpot

Enough potatoes to cover the bottom of your crockpot (mine is the largest size)
tinfoil

Wash off your potatoes, poke holes in them, wrap in tinfoil. Turn the crockpot on for 8 hours on low or 2-4 hours on high. Mine were done in 2.5 hours, I turned them on warm till lunchtime. (Next time I would put a little bit of water in bottom while they are on warm...just a little) Next time I want to try filling the crockpot right up. It will take longer, so I will adjust the time frame accordingly. They were so delicious and moist. I will always do them this way for harvest meals and whenever I'm feeding a big crew. Plus if you ever need to take them somewhere, you just pick up your crockpot and away you go! Enjoy.

Pizza Muffins

1.5 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
.5 tsp italian herb seasoning
.5 tsp salt
.5 cup milk
.5 cup oil
2 eggs

Mix dry. Mix wet. Mix altogether. Then add:
.5 cup shredded cheese
.5 cup diced red sweet pepper
1/3 cup diced pepperoni

Topping:
Shredded cheese
diced pepperoni
diced tomato

Bake at 375 for 25 min. (I think I only did mine for 20 min.)
Freeze well. Super lunch idea.


Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

1 cup old fashioned oats (not instant)
1 cup nonfat milk
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 egg whites
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. white sugar
Raisins or nuts optional 

Soak oats in milk for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 400. Spray muffins tins. Combine oat mixture with applesauce and egg whites. In seperate bowl mix dry ingredients (except the cinn. and sugar). Add wet to dry. Do not overmix. Combine cinn and sugar and sprinkle on top of muffins. Bake for 20-25 mins.

Crockpot Chicken Broth

In crockpot put:

Leftovers from a roast chicken; bones, skin, etc. (I usually do my chicken in the crockpot so I just take all the meat off and put it all back in to make broth)

1 onion, quartered

1 tomato, quartered

2 carrots, cut up in chunks

2 cloves garlic

2 celery stalks, cut up in chunks

2-3 sprigs thyme (I just add a couple or three pinches of dry thyme)

3 bay leaves

Parsley

whole peppercorns or star anise

salt

Low for 4 hours or high for 8 hours. I just made a batch today and I got and icecream pail and then some. It's nice for making soup or putting in freezer to pull out for recipes that call for it.

 Perogy & Farmer Sausage Casserole (crockpot)

1 large bag (1 kg) frozen perogies (you can do it with any type, but I prefer the potato and cheddar cheese)
Farmer sausage (however much you want, fried and in bite-sized pieces)
500 mL sour cream (I usually use the light sour cream 5%)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk
1 diced onion (I left this out bc it bother's my husband's stomach, still tasted fine)

Grated cheese

Grease crockpot. Dump perogies and fried farmer sausage into crockpot, mix remaining ingredients, dump on top. Mix so everything is coated. 1/2 hour or so before you are ready to eat, sprinkle grated cheese on top. Turn crockpot on high for 3 hours or low for 6-8 hours. I think in my crockpot 8 hours would be too long but adjust accordingly. This was so delicious because it tasted like cream gravy coated everything. I also stirred with a spoon about halfway through cooking so because the perogies tend to stick to the crock otherwise.

Mmmmmmmmm. Enjoy!


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