Steaks with Carmel-Brandy Sauce

Steaks with Carmel-Brandy Sauce
4 (6 oz) beef tenderloin fillets
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
3 Tbsp butter, divided
3 Tbsp Brandy
1 Tbsp light brown sugar
¼ cup whipping cream
Garnish: fresh chives

Sprinkle steaks evenly with salt and pepper.

Melt 1 Tbsp butter in medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add steaks, and cook 3 minutes on each side or to desired degree of doneness. Remove steaks from skillet, and keep warm.

Add brandy to skillet, stirring to loosen particles from bottom of skillet. Add remaining 2 Tbsp butter and sugar; cook, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves and browns.

Remove skillet from heat; whisk in cream until blended. Return to heat, and bring to a boil; cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute or until thickened. Serve immediately over steaks. Garnish, if desired.

Makes 4 servings. Prep: 5 minutes. Cook: 10 minutes.

Southern Living



Scalloped Potatoes (Betty Crocker)
3 Tbsp butter
1 small onion, finely chopped (1/4 cup)
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
2 ½ cups milk
6 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (6 cups)
1 Tbsp butter

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom and side of 2 quart casserole with shortening.
2. Melt 3 Tbsp butter in 2 quart saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion in butter about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly; remove from heat.
3. Stir in milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute.
4. Spread potatoes in casserole. Pour sauce over potatoes. Cut 1 Tbsp butter into small pieces; sprinkle over potatoes. Cover and bake 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes longer or until potatoes are tender. Let stand 5-10 minutes before serving (sauce thickens as it stands).


Ham and Scalloped Potatoes: Stir 1 ½ cups cubed fully cooked ham into potatoes before pouring sauce over potatoes in step 4.

Morning Glory Muffins

Morning Glory Muffins (Sheila)

3 ½ cups white flour
½ cups whole wheat flour
1 cup sugar
¾ cup honey
4 tsp soda
4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup chopped nuts
4 cups peeled and grated apples
6 eggs
1 cup oil
1 cup applesauce
4 tsp vanilla


Mix flour, sugar, honey, soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir in carrots, nuts and apples. Beat eggs, oil, applesauce and vanilla; stir into flour mixture. Spoon into greased tins or paper lined muffin pans. Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes. Makes 4 dozen.

Kim's Favorite Muffins

My neighbor gave me this recipe. She made them for us once and I just LOVED them! Occasionally when she makes them now she'll bring over a couple for me because she knows how much I like them. I finally asked her for the recipe and had to share it because they are so yummy!

Kim’s Favorite Muffins (Katie Yaeger)

1 – 8oz can crushed pineapple in its own juice
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 egg white
½ cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups shredded carrots
½ cup applesauce

Heat oven to 350°.

Drain Pineapple, reserve juice.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking pwder, salt and cinnamon. Make a well in the center of the mixture and drop in the eggs, egg white, oil, vanilla and reserved pineapple juice. Beat at medium speed until blended. Stir in pineapple, carrots and applesauce.

Bake about 22 minutes.

This recipe was given to me by my neighbor Katie.

Chicken & Dumplings

Mom used to make this for us all the time growing up. I was always daunted by how long it took and seemingly all the steps involved. Apparently I've evolved from my Hamburger Helper days cause tonight when I made it, I realized that it really wasn't all that bad (how long it took). Anyhow, I don't know where she got the recipe - but it is my favorite and I thought I'd share it in case anyone needed some inspiration for some yummy autumn dinners!

Chicken Base Ingredients:
Quartered chicken
3 Stalks Celery
1 Onion
5 Carrots
2 C. Peas (frozen is my preference)
Chicken broth/stock or boulion cubes
corn starch or flour for thickening the sauce

Boil the chicken, celery, onion, carrots and peas in the broth. Cook for 20-30 minutes - until the carrots are done. Thicken with a cornstarch/water mixture. (Use your favorite gravy thickening method - there's a lot of soup stuff so don't be surprised that you use a lot. I am still in shock over how long this step took me. I don't make gravy very often and was a little out of practice.)

Dumpling ingredients:
Mix together:
1 C. flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 beaten egg

add 1/2 C. milk and 2 Tbls. melted butter.
Beat with a fork but be careful to not overwork!
Drop spoonfuls of dumpling batter into the stew being sure to dip your spoon into gravy each time you add a dumpling. Cover and cook for 15 minutes without lifting the cover.

mmmmmm!

Barbeque Beef Brisket

I got this recipe from Justin's aunt and grandma... It is so good! so the names you see are from their families. They emailed me the recipe and notes and I just copied and pasted it here to share with everyone else because it is so good.

Barbeque Beef Brisket (Beryl)

4-6 lb beef brisket
Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
Worcestershire Sauce
Onion
Brown sugar
Barbeque sauce (boughten or home made)

3-5 lb Beef Brisket-fat side up, coat with Lawry’s season salt and rub in. Sprinkle Worcestershire sauce on top. Slice onion and place onion slices on top. Then wrap in aluminum foil (double wrap) and place in 9x13 pan. Bake at 250°F all night (8-12 hours). Cool. Drain meat juice into Measuring cup or bowl, because you need it. Slice the fat off the top, then slice Brisket. Place in new aluminum foil (double) and pour the following mixture over sliced brisket: ¾ cup meat juice, ¾ cup brown sugar, ¾ cup barbeque sauce. Wrap up brisket with aluminum foil, place in 9x13 pan and return to oven for 30 min- 1 hour at 350°

Serve on buns for sandwhiches.

NOTE: The original recipe calls for a brisket 4-6 lbs—(but you can use recipe for 3-6 lbs) the only difference with a smaller piece of meat is to cut down the amount of juice mixture--it doesn't matter how much as long as it is equal quantities of brown sugar, juice and barbeque sauce. I have also done it without barbeque sauce for Pete--he liked it without --just juice--so that's an option too-----the reheating with the juice is supposed to be 350 degrees for 1/2 hour but that really isn't important either as long as the tin foil is really sealed up.


Robyn’s homemade barbecue sauce:
barbeque sauce
1 lb. brown sugar
1 small bottle(14 oz.) ketchup
1/2 ketchup bottle of water
1 (10oz.) bottle 57 sauce
1 (5oz.) bottle A-1 sauce
1 (5oz.) bottle worchetershire sauce
1 TBSP liquid smoke
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp garlic powder
dash tobasco
Mix together and store in fridge for up to 3 months-(actually, everything should be sterile and I store it in a covered jar, so it could stay longer)
(enough for 10 lbs. of ribs)

Tortilla Soup

Chicken Tortilla Soup
(feel free to change this how you want or cut itdown, it turns out different every time) first time I made this, it took 1 ½ hours start to finish to make, that included chopping the veggies, and frying the chicken

Bring 5-6 qts of water to a boil in a large kettle (really large). (I used 5 qts)
Add 2c. chopped celery,
2 c. chopped carrots, and (I used 3 cups)
1 small-medium chopped onion(can add more or less depending on your love of veggies). (chop them small)
Boil for 20 minutes

On the side fry up
2 lbs of chopped chicken with a (chop chicken small)
small to medium onion chopped.
When almost done, season the chicken very strongly (almost black) with chili powder and ground cumin. You can add a little bit of black pepper if you like.
(I used: 1 Tbsp+ chili powder, 1 tsp+ cumin. It wasn’t too spicey, so if you want it spicey, add more.)

In a bowl mix:
3/4c. butter,
1 3/4 c. flour,
5 oz of instant chicken buillon (can add more or less to taste), (I used 1-2 Tbsp Wylers chicken granules)
Add 1c. water to thin to a paste.

Add this paste to the water and veggies. Let boil for 1 minute while stirring with a whisk.

Add 1 jar of cheeze whiz, and
1 block of velveeta cheese (or enough to suit your need for cheese flavoring).
Keep stirring with a whisk until cheese is melted into soup.

Add the chicken mixture with all the spices. Mix together and serve with tortilla chips. (or crush tortilla chips into your bowl of soup)

Remember, when you add cheese, make sure you are using low heat, otherwise the cheese will burn!

Next time I think I’m going to double the veggies I put in, or I’ll cut the entire recipe in half, except for the veggies.

I might also add more/different veggies next time. (potatoes? Or maybe a tiny bit of cauliflower?)

I got this recipe from Bethany who got it from a friend of hers. Recipe from her in black, with my notes in red.

Gemüse

for 18 qt roaster:
5# potatoes (cubed) [I prefer red]
1 gal Great Northern beans (drained & rinsed)
2 gal sauerkraut (slightly drained)
3.5# sausage (sliced) [usually country]
3.5# pork (cubed)
3 big onions (diced) [usually yellow]
1/2# butter
seasonings to taste

Boil potatoes for about 5 min. Brown meat & onion.
Put beans, potatoes, meat, kraut, butter & seasonings in roaster.
Cook @ 325 for about 3 hrs. Stir once or twice. (Make sure it doesn't get dry. May add some water if needed and/or decrease temp. )

This is my dad's recipe, which is sold abundantly at Oktoberfest each year. To make a smaller batch, say 6 qt roaster, just use 1/3 the ingredients. Sometimes I get crazy & add some butter beans!