Sandy Combs' Journal

Yesterday was my birthday. I celebrated with Hubby, a nice meal out, and a movie. Today I celebrated with my extended family. My mother, sister and brother-in-law were here for a few hours. And, somehow I got roped into baking my own birthday cake. 😱 This was okay, because I knew exactly which cake I wanted.

A while back I nicknamed myself the sheet cake queen. Of course, no one actually calls me that, but I love to collect and bake sheet cake recipes. Among the ones I currently have are vanilla, strawberry, peanut butter, cinnamon roll, lemon, coconut, and my personal favorite, chocolate. I've been baking this basic Texas chocolate sheet cake for at least 35 years. I've never experimented with the recipe because it's perfect just the way it is -- dense and moist and oh so chocolaty. If you want a light fluffy cake this is not the recipe for you.


Cake:
4 rounded tbsp. cocoa
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Icing:
1 stick butter
4 rounded tbsp. cocoa
6 tbsp. milk
1 lb. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Melt cocoa, butter, shortening, and water together in a large saucepan. Bring slowly to a boil, stirring gently. Allow to cool slightly. Stir in remaining cake ingredients and beat until smooth. Spray a 13x9x2 cake pan with non-stick cooking spray and pour batter into pan. Bake at 400^oF 20-30 minutes, or until cake springs back when touched and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool.

For icing, melt butter, cocoa, and milk together in a large saucepan, stirring gently. Stir in vanilla and powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Stir in pecans and pour over cooled cake.

I've seen recipes that call for this cake to be baked in a jelly roll pan. Never tried it myself.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Okay, technically Cinco de Mayo was yesterday, but we celebrated again today. I mean, you can't get to much Tex-Mex. Am I right?

Yesterday I made a taco/burrito bar with all the trimmings: taco shells, flour tortillas, taco meat, refried beans, cheese, lettuce, tomato, black olives, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, etc... It was delicious, but around here it's a common meal and Mom wasn't here to celebrate with us. So, today I made King Ranch Chicken.


If you aren't familiar with it, King Ranch Chicken is a layered Tex-Mex chicken casserole named after the famous King Ranch in South Texas. No one is sure of the exact origins of the casserole, but King Ranch is very real. It's the largest ranch in Texas at 825,000 acres, or 1,289 square miles. That also makes it one of the largest ranches in the world.

There are as many recipes out there for King Ranch Chicken as there are cooks. Most involve many ingredients and lots of layers. I'm all about the shortcuts, so my dish takes about 10 minutes to put together and uses only six ingredients, if you don't count seasonings. It's one of my favorite quick and easy Tex-Mex dinners. Serve with salsa and sour cream on the table. Sour cream will help cut the fire if you find it too spicy.

1 to 1 1/2 lb. chicken, cubed
Salt, pepper, and garlic powder, to taste
1 can tomatoes with green chilies (like Rotel)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can sliced black olives, drained (optional)
Tortilla chips, broken (I like Nacho Cheese Doritos)
Shredded cheese

Spray a 9x7 or 8x8 casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Cover the bottom of the dish with broken tortilla chips. In a skillet, cook the chicken and spices until the chicken is no longer pink. In a medium bowl, stir together tomatoes, soup, and olives (set a few aside for garnish). Add chicken and stir until well blended. Spread mixture over the top of the tortilla chips. Sprinkle cheese over the top and add the reserved black olives. Bake at 350^oF for 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly and the cheese has browned slightly. Makes 4-6 servings.

To double the recipe, use a 13x9 dish, increase the amount of chicken to two pounds, use two cans each of tomatoes and soup, but do not double the black olives.

A simple Friday night dinner.

I haven't bought a can of Sloppy Joe sauce since I found this recipe. It tastes so much better than canned, and is just as easy to prepare. The ingredients are things most everyone always has on hand, too. I started serving them on hot dog buns instead of hamburger buns quite a while back. They just seem less messy that way. (I eat mine open-faced) Tonight I served them with frozen french fries and balsamic slaw. The slaw is simply packaged cole slaw mix tossed with balsamic vinaigrette.



1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup chopped celery (optional)
1 small onion, chopped or 1 tbsp. dried minced onion
8 oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 cup catsup
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp. vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Brown ground beef, celery and onion. Drain fat. Place in a 1.5 quart slow cooker. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Serve on buns with your choice of fixings. (I like mustard. Hubby likes relish.)

I decided to go ahead and share more of my hot drink recipes. Tis the season after all!



Hot Cocoa Mix

5 1/4 cups dry milk
3 oz. powered coffee creamer
1 cup cocoa
1 box powdered sugar

Stir all ingredients together. Store in tightly covered jar. To prepare, stir 1/4 cup mix into mug of steaming water. Adjust to taste.

Fireside Coffee

1 cup instant hot cocoa mix
1 cup non-dairy creamer
1 cup instant coffee
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

Combine all ingredients; mix well. Store in an airtight container. To prepare, stir desired amount (3-5 tsp) into mug of steaming water.

Wassail

1 gallon sweet apple cider
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup sugar
Stick cinnamon
1 tsp. whole cloves

Mix, simmer & serve hot. You can use a slow cooker to heat or just to keep hot.

This is the best soup ever! I've been making it for nearly twenty years and we never get tired of it. Guaranteed to warm you up on the coldest of winter days. Hubby prefers meatballs, but I like to brown a pound of ground beef instead. Serve it up with some buttery cornbread for a hearty, filling meal. Although I've never done it, I imagine you could substitute shredded chicken for the beef and use chicken broth to make Chicken Vegetable Soup. That actually sounds really good! I'm going to try it next time.



1 lb. frozen meatballs or 1 lb. browned ground beef
28 oz. diced tomatoes, undrained
1 medium onion, diced
2 cans beef broth
Garlic powder and black pepper, to taste (I use about 1/4 tsp. each)
Italian seasoning, to taste (I use about 1 tsp.)
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
1 can diced new potatoes, drained

Spray inside of 4-6 quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Add meat, tomatoes, onion, seasonings and broth. Cook on low 6-7 hours. Stir in vegetables and potatoes and cook on high for 1 more hour.

The original recipe called for 1 medium potato, cubed, added at the beginning. You can certainly do that if you have a potato on hand, but I find the texture is better when I use canned.

Thanksgiving is 2 days away and I'm not in the mood to cook. To that end, I made one of our favorites for dinner tonight: biscuits and gravy. I have a bad habit of using a supermarket shortcut when making gravy. I just can't resist the siren song of those little packets! There are several variations on this recipe, depending on my mood. Sometimes I crumble and cook ground beef. Sometimes I use breakfast sausage. Tonight I used 2 drained and flaked cans of tuna. For my gravy averse Yankee hubby I call this meal creamed "whatever," substituting the name of the meat used. 😃


I forgot to take a picture, so this picture courtesy of the Internet

1 lb. ground beef or 1 lb. ground sausage or 2 cans drained and flaked tuna
2 (2 cup size) packets of country gravy mix
4 cups water
1-2 cans large biscuits (like Grands)

Bake biscuits according to package directions. Crumble and brown ground beef or sausage in a skillet and drain off any fat. If using tuna, drain and flake. Set meat aside. Stir gravy mix into water and whisk thoroughly. Stir in meat. Cook and stir constantly over medium heat until gravy thickens. Split biscuits and ladle gravy over the top.

Note: I like lots of gravy left over for another day. If you don't want leftovers, half the amount will feed 2-3 hearty appetites.


If you chop and use this stuff, it's creamed chipped beef, or SOS!

Wow, two food posts in one day!

Last week I decided every Monday during the fall and winter was going to be "soup" day at our house. This week's soup is actually a stew. I was introduced to this stew when Hubby worked at the Texas Instruments plant in Midland. When the plant cafeteria served it, Hubby would call me and if I could get there in time, I would eat lunch with him. If I wasn't fast enough the stew would be gone. It was that popular. 20 years ago, when TI closed the plant and transferred the employees here, the cafeteria shared the recipe with everyone who requested a copy. I always cut the ingredients in half and make it in my 6 quart crockpot. I also omit the jalapenos since Hubby and Mom don't like their food too spicy. Please forgive my poor quality photo. We were so anxious to get to the stew that I forgot to take a picture until after we ate.



2 1/2 lb. ground beef
3 medium onions, chopped
4 medium potatoes, diced
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. basil
1 tbsp. cumin
2 16 oz. cans diced tomatoes
2 7 oz. cans diced green chilies
1/4 lb. jalapenos, deveined, seeded and chopped
2 cups water
4 cans pinto beans

Drain juice from beans. Save juice and set beans aside. Brown meat, onion, and spices in a large Dutch oven. Add remaining ingredients, except beans, and simmer uncovered for 1 hour 10 minutes. Add beans and simmer for an additional 20 minutes. Serve with tortillas. Makes 15 servings.

Half recipe in Crockpot: Drain juice from beans. Save juice and set beans aside. Brown meat, onion, and spices in a large skillet or stock pot. Add all ingredients, except beans, to a 6 quart crock pot. Cook on low 6 hours. Add beans and cook an additional 1-3 hours. Makes 7-8 servings.

Note: If you find the stew too spicy, a dollop of sour cream will help cut the heat. Mom always uses some, even though I omit the jalapenos.

My mother belongs to a group of church ladies who meet every Wednesday night. The first Wednesday of the month they have a pot luck. Since Mom is 90 years old and doesn't cook for herself any more, it usually falls to me to prepare her pot luck dish. This month she wanted carrot raisin salad. I didn't have the ingredients I needed to make a proper dressing, so I improvised with what I had on hand and it turned out really good. I'm going to do it this way from now on. It's easier and delicious! Also, I don't measure, so I'm going to make an educated guess. You should use the quantities you want. 😊


Not my picture, but I was pleasantly surprised to find an image that looks almost exactly like what I made.

Carrot Raisin Salad

4 cups Shredded carrots
1 cup Raisins
1 small can Pineapple tidbits, drained
Vanilla yogurt

Stir first three ingredients together. If you are using pineapple chunks instead of tidbits you might want to cut the pieces a little smaller. Spoon in a little less yogurt than you think you'll need to properly dress the salad. Stir to combine. Add more yogurt, if needed. Refrigerate overnight to allow the flavors to mature.

I made something new for dinner tonight. I love chicken piccata and hubby loves spaghetti, so when I found this recipe, I knew I had to give it a try.

I didn't follow the directions exactly. I used leftovers from a rotisserie chicken instead of sautéing chicken breasts and sprinkled it with my go-to all purpose seasoning (recipe below) instead of using the salt, pepper, and fresh garlic. I also used lemon juice out of a bottle instead of zesting and squeezing a lemon.

It was delicious! I suggest giving it a good stir at the dinner table before serving to redistribute the sauce.



1 tbsp. olive oil
20 oz. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1/4 tsp.salt
1/4 tsp.pepper
2 tsp. minced garlic
3 cups chicken broth
2 tsp. grated lemon peel + 2 tbsp. lemon juice
8 oz. uncooked spaghetti, broken in half
1/4 cup capers, drained
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Chopped Italian (flat-leaf) parsley, if desired

In 4-quart Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper; cook 5 to 7 minutes, stirring frequently, until chicken is no longer pink. Add garlic; cook 30 to 60 seconds, stirring constantly, until fragrant. Add chicken broth, lemon juice, spaghetti and capers; heat to boiling. Reduce heat to medium; simmer 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until most of liquid is absorbed and pasta is al dente. Stir in whipping cream; cook just until heated through. Stir in grated lemon peel; serve warm. Garnish with parsley.

All Purpose Seasoning

1 cup salt
1/4 cup ground black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder

Stir together and store tightly covered.

Another dinner post. I rarely make this macaroni and cheese because it's so much easier to just open a box and boil some water. But, this is a family favorite and Hubby asked. 👩‍🍳 Please ignore my sad little salad, it needed to be used up. As always, recipe follows:



2 cups macaroni
1/2 stick butter
2 1/2 cups shredded cheese, divided
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp. ground mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 cup milk

Cook macaroni and drain. Melt butter and 2 cups cheese in a saucepan over low heat. Stir remaining ingredients into melted cheese. Stir macaroni and cheese sauce together in crock pot sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Cook on low 2 1/2 hours, stirring once about halfway through cooking time. Top with remaining 1/2 cup cheese and cook 30 more minutes.
Note: Use whatever cheese you like. I used 1/2 sharp cheddar and 1/2 Monterrey Jack.