Fruit Cocktail Pie

Another recipe from way back in the past. I think my mother used to make this, but I bet if I ask her she'll say "I don't know". But anyway, I think it is really yummy! Though perhaps a bit sweet for this day and age.

1 can of fruit cocktail, undrained
1 cup flour
1/2 - 1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg

topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and butter a pie plate.
Combine the non-topping ingredients and put the mixture into the buttered pie plate.
Mix the brown sugar and nuts and sprinkle on top.
Bake for about 40 minutes.
Cool.
Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

note: if you drain the fruit cocktail and don't use the liquid you will have a much more cake like  product and you might want to put it into a cake pan or a bundt pan or a loaf pan.

Fruit Cocktail Cookies

This is a very unusual recipe from out of my past.

1/2 cup buter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 can fruit cocktail, drained (probably a 16 oz can)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream the butter, sugar, and eggs.
Combine the dry ingredients and add to the creamed mixture.
Stir in the pecans and then drained fruit cocktail.
Put dollops onto a cookie sheet and bake for 8 - 10 minutes.

Spritzferdunkinginyournognwasail or Christmans Spritz

This is a cookie Riley and I came up with, I think I did the recipe and he did the name

2 cups butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs

1 Tbl vanilla
1 tsp almond extract

2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sale
4 cups flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cream butter, sugar, and eggs.
Add the vanilla and almond extracts.
Combine the dry ingredients and add to the creamed mixture.

These, of course, go into the spritz machine, which doesn't always work as well as one would like. Maybe chilling the dough might help, maybe not. Do the best you can.

Bake the cookies until done, but not browned at all. This is about 7 minutes.
Can make about 8 dozen cookies.

Morning Cake

I used to make this all the time when my girls were little. It's funny how one stops making things. This is a picture of me and my young girls on our front steps.

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup milk


topping:
2 Tbls butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease and flour a 9 inch square pan.
Cream the butter and sugar and eggs.
Combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
Add the dry ingredients alternately to the creamed mixture with the milk.
Spoon into the pan, sprinkle the topping on, and bake for 30 minutes.

Toffee Shortbread

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I believe this recipe came to me inside a Christmas card. Well I've altered it some what, as I am always wont to do.


2 sticks of butter
1 cup brown sugar or organic raw sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar.
Add the egg yolk and vanilla.
Then add the flour.
Spread on a parchment lined jelly roll pan or 9x13 baking pan.
The reason for the parchment is so you can easily lift out the cooked bar to place on a cutting board to cut into squares.

As a second method I would put all the ingredients into a food processor and give it some good blitzes, until the mixture looked like a homogenous mixture and then spread out evenly in the jelly roll pan and press evenly in the pan.

Bake for 20-30 minutes. The reason for the big range of time is because of the big range in the size of pans people might choose. Not all jelly roll pans are the same size. Don't over-bake. When mostly done take from oven and sprinkle with 4-6 ounces of chocolate chips and put back into the oven for a minute to melt the chips. Gently spread the melted chocolate around, then sprinkle about a 1/2 cup of chopped nuts - walnuts or pecans or filberts, whatever you like.

When cool, lift out onto a cutting board and cut up however you like.

Sarah's Black Bean Salsa

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This is made by my daughter Sarah, and there's no exact quantities, but any good approximation is really really yummy. I can eat this until someone puts it away.

1 - 2 can of black beans
frozen corn
diced tomatoes, at least 2 big tomatoes
red onion, finely diced
avocado, diced
jalapeno, finely diced, 1 should do
cilantro, chopped up
lime juice, 1 or 2 limes
olive oil, just a little bit

Put the black beans and the frozen corn into a strainer and run warm water over them. This is to rinse the beans and help thaw the corn. Put into an appropriate sized bowl and add the remaining ingredients and mix gently. You've noticed that there are almost no quantities given. Sarah doesn't have any. She just puts these things together and there you have it. Serve just as it is, or with chips of any kind.

This type of recipe is very popular on the Food Network. Paula Deen, Emeril Legasse, and Rachael Ray all have a good looking recipe for this. And I saw a recipe that used mango, and that sounded pretty darn good also.