Pinto Beans .

Yeah. All my Texas friends know how to cook Pintos. I think Texans are born knowing how. I was born in Florida and my Indiana-born mother did not cook Pinto beans. In fact, I don't think I ate them until I started hanging out with Texans. My first husband told me once to call his mother and find out how to cook 'em! So I did,.

1 pound dried pinto beans
1/4 pound salt pork
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
salt
1 tablespoon chili powder

First, rinse the dried beans and pick out any twigs, stones or dirt.
Cut the pork into strips and rinse.
Cover the beans with water, add the pork and garlic. Boil until tender over medium heat (a really slow boil). Beans should be covered with water throughout the cooking. Add more hot water if needed. How long it takes depends on the beans—plan on hours—in fact, cook the day before. Once the beans are tender, but not before, add salt to taste. Adding the salt before the beans are tender will make them tough. Add the chili powder and let the beans sit for "a while" to absorb the flavor.

Beef Tenderloin .

Company fare, definitely. This version came from Texas Cowboy Cooking, recipes from the Perini Ranch.

5 pound beef tenderloin, trimmed of fat and silver skin.
Olive oil
Steak rub (mix together the following)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons salt
4 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
4 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon granulated beef stock base

Take the tenderloin out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before cooking and let it rest on the kitchen counter to come toward room temperature. Preheat the oven to 475°F. Make the rub while the tenderloin is resting.

Brush the meat with the oil and completely coat the tenderloin with the dry rub. Insert a meat thermometer. Place in an oven for 10 minutes at 475°F; lower the oven temperature to 425°F and continue cooking for about 20-25 minutes or until the thermometer ready 130°F for medium rare.

Remove the tenderloin from the oven and let it stand for 10 minutes before slicing. The temperature will continue to rise during this time.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies .

I am a lucky woman. I have one daughter, one daughter-in-law, and one neice and they are all beautiful, smart, and truly remarkable young women! I have one regret where these three are concerned: I just don't get to spend enough time with any of them. Distances are so great and visits are all too infrequent. This recipe if from my namesake neice. Love ya, girl!

2 cups flour
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350°F. Sift together flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder and salt.
Cream the butter and sugar.
Add egg, vanilla and pumpkin to the butter-sugar mix.
Fold in the flour mixture. Then fold in the chocolate chips.
Drop by teaspoonfuls on ungreased sheet.
Bake 13 – 15 minutes.

Peach Cobbler .

Sunday mornings in my part of Texas there is a TV show worth taping. I'm in church when Texas Country Reporter airs, so I don't get to see if "first-hand." I'm sure Bob Phillips, the reporter, would understand and approve. The premise of the show was that big cities get plenty of news coverage, so he takes to the Texas highways and reports from small towns. He also eats and shares the best that Texas cafes and cooks have to offer. With the great variety of cultures that have contributed to the menus in this big state, the offerings are amazingly varied. With my southern roots, fruit cobblers have a special appeal. This recipe is from one of Bob Phillips's trips to Fredericksburg, Texas.

2 - 2.5 cups sugar
1/2 cups cornstarch
8 cups sliced FRESH peaches
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup melted buter
Pie crust

Combine sugar, cornstarch and toss with the peaches. Add almond extract and butter. Set aside.
Butter a 9 x 13-inch pan. Put peaches in pan.
Roll out pie crust and cut into strips. Crisscross strips of dough over the filling.
Brush pastry with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake at 400°F for 30 minutes or until crust is brown.

Chicken Enchilladas .

It has been a cold day and I wish I had taken the opportunity to make chicken enchilladas. Alas, I did not. And I have a good recipe for them. Chicken Enchiladas. When I lived in Fairfax County, Virginia, in the 1970s, the Extension Service held adult cooking lessons in the high schools in the evening. I got some good recipes there. This is one. Now that I am a Texan, those chilies don't have to come from a can!

1 chopped onion
2 Tablespoons oil
1 clove garlic
2 cups tomato puree
2 cans chopped green chilies
1/2 teaspoon organo
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 cup sour cream
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
3 cups half and half
6 Tablespoons chicken bullion granules
1 dozen corn tortillas
lard
1/2 pound grated Monterey Jack Cheese
avocado slices (optional)
olives (optional)
Sauté onions in oil until soft. Add mashed garlic, tomato puree, 1 can of green chilies, oregano and cumin. Simmer 10 minutes. (There will be more sauce than needed; freeze for another use.)
To 1 cup of the above sauce, add sour cream, 1 can green chilies and chicken.
Heat the half and half with the bullion granules until they dissolve.
Soften tortillas in hot lard. Do not let them crisp. Drain.
Dip each tortilla in hot cream sauce. Fill each tortilla with chicken filling and roll up. Arrange in single layer in large pan. Pour remaining cream sauce over them and top with cheese.
Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F. Garnish with avocado slices or olives.

Finger Jell-o .

Now that I have the major house cleaning done before the grandkids come, I am turning my efforts toward filling the freezer with meals so I don't have to cook while they are here. I don't want to miss a minute with them. I had to dig out this recipe. This makes gelatin squares that kids can eat with their fingers. My kids loved them in their school lunches and they were a staple for long automobile trips.

1 (6 ounce) package or 2 (3 ounce) packages Jell-O
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
2 1/2 cups water
Dissolve unflavored gelatin in 1 cup cold water. Set aside.
In a saucepan bring 1 cup water to a boil and add Jell-o. Bring to a boil and remove from heat.
Add gelatin mixture. Stir and add 1/2 cup cold water.
Pour into lightly greased pan and set in refrigerator for 2 hours.
Cut into chunks. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

Angel biscuits .

My mother grew up on a farm and cooked good, basic food. There were no exotic recipes in her repertoire and the closest we came to classic French cooking was an occasional "pearly maude." Daddy would make milk shakes in the blender and sing while the ice cream and milk whirled around, "Parlez moi de l'amour..." so of course, parlez moi meant the blender and the blender meant milk shake, so a milk shake had to be a "pearly maude."

This was one of my mother's recipes. These biscuits are a lot more trouble than popping open a can of Hungry Jacks, but they're worth it.

Ingredients:
1 package dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup buttermilk
Dissolve the yeast in warm water, setting aside.
Mix the dry ingredients in the order give, cutting in the shortening as you normally do for biscuits or pie dough.
Stir in the buttermilk and the yeast mixture. Blend thoroughly and the dough is ready to refrigerate or roll out into biscuits.
When you’re ready to make the biscuits, turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead lightly as for regular biscuits. Roll out and cut with a biscuit cutter, placing them in a greased pan.
Let the dough rise slightly before baking in a 400°F oven for about 12 to 15 minutes until lightly browned and done. (If the dough is cold, you’ll need to let it sit a little longer to rise.

Note: You can mix the biscuits up one day and cook them the next. The dough will keep up to three days in the refrigerator in a covered bowl.

Meat Loaf . .

This has been such a mild winter. I've missed the cold and snowy weather. Everything has been extremely dry. Thursday I thought we might get a taste of winter. When I left the office I heard such a racket in the sky, I looked up, and I saw hundreds of geese with their wings windmilling as they headed from a nearby pond toward the southwest. Maybe they were foretelling something.

The next morning I had forgotten the geese. I entered the main hall outside my office. It is a long hall crowned by a domed skylight. If there had been fowl play the night before and the flock had been asked to provide proof of their whereabouts, the inquisitors had only to look up. Their alibi was splattered all over the skylight. I wondered who was going to have to clean it.

This weekend God took care of the mess. We had fierce wind and rain but the skylights were cleaned. The winds flattened two of the outbuildings of a co-worker, sailed their trampoline to who knows where, and in exchange left her a pig barn from two properties to the west. The winds were gusting up to 68 miles an hour and I wondered if were moving without a winter into an awesome west Texas spring.

Meat loaf? Yeah. Before all that wind and rain hit we had leaden skies and a really gloomy afternoon. I talked to one of my friends and told her I had made a meat loaf. So had she. And just before we chatted, she talked with a mutual friend who also made meat loaf. It was just that kind of day.

There are a million ways to make meat loaf and I'm not going to say mine's any better than yours or your mama's. It is just one of those comfort foods that seems so right when there is a dismal day outside the windows. (Mustard, not ketchup in the meat; ketchup on top; soft bread in the milk and eggs instead of breadcrumbs. Other than that, nothing extraordinary. Meat loaf doesn't need to be gussied up!)

Almond Roca .

Judi, Judi, Judi. Back before microwaves, back before I did a lot of cooking, way back, the first person I knew who made candy in her kitchen was Judi T. There wasn't much Judi couldn't do, as I remember. She made this every year at Christmas time and it was eagerly awaited. It's almost as sweet as she is.

1 cup slivered or whole blanched almonds, diced (reserve 1/4 cup for topping and crust)
6 Hershey bars (package of 6)
2 sticks butter (1 cup) use only butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon light Karo
1 Tablespoon warm water
1/8 teaspoon salt
Grease a jelly roll pan with Pam or Crisco.
Place butter, sugar, syrup, water and salt in a heavy pan and bring to a boil on medium high heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Boil about 7 – 9 minutes until the color of light brown sugar is reached.
Immediately add diced almonds and pour out into pan, spreading with a wooden spoon.
Place the Hershey bars on top of the hot candy. Wait a little until they start to melt then spread over the entire surface. Sprinkle with reserved 1/4 cup of crushed nuts.
Cool for 1 hour.
Refrigerate until hardened and break into pieces. (Hint: turn large pieces over and tap with a knife handle to break into uniform pieces.)

Chilies Rellenos (Stuffed Green Chilies) .

Texas tested. One thing I have learned since living in Texas...the success of any recipe with chilies in it depends on the chiles. Once you get good chilies, you're hooked! This recipe came from my friends Deb and Susie. I have to tell you about the best Rellenos I ever ate. I got them in a restaurant in Toronto, Canada! The restaurant was new and I was there during opening week. I visited with the owner and discovered he was a transplant from El Paso. I think Canada got the best of that culture exchange! These are equally good!

10 green chilies, roasted and peeled (canned chilies may be used)
10 ounces Longhorn cheese or Monterey Jack cheese
Batter
Hot oil or lard

Batter:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 cup milk
2 eggs, slightly beaten

Cut cheese into slices 1/2 inch thick and the length of the chili. Make a small slit in chili just big enough to insert cheese.
Make batter by combining flour, baking powder, salt and cornmeal. Blend milk with egg; then combine milk and egg mixture with dry ingredients. Add more milk if necessary for smooth batter.
Use a spoon to dip chilies in batter and fry in hot oil or lard until golden brown. Drain and serve.

Good-n-Gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies .
I'm excited about a visit coming up. I will get to see my daughter and her husband and their two kids. They live in New York. At the same time my son and his wife will be here from Waco, Texas. I am so blessed. I love the people my children grew up to be! Can anyone ask for more?
This is my daughter's recipe, approved by her husband and kids and ME.

1 stick softened butter
1 large egg
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon water
1 cup + 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate morsels
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Mix butter, egg, and brown sugar until smooth and uniform consistency.
Stir in baking soda, salt, vanilla and water.
Mix in flour until just blended.
Stir in chocolate pieces.
Drop rounded Tablespoonfuls onto a metal non-stick cookie sheet and bake at 375° for 7 minutes (or desired doneness).

Spinach-Piñon Risotto .

This recipe gives consistently good results. It is, to me, really filling and I have to be in the mood for risotto, but when I am, this is a good one to turn to.

1/2 cup onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 Tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper
32 ounces “No-Chicken” broth (health foods section of supermarket)
2 cups chopped fresh spinach
1 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 to 1 cup piñon nuts

In a small sauce pan, heat broth to simmer.
In medium sauce pan, add butter, onions, garlic, salt & pepper. Sauté until onion is soft.
Add 2 to 3 cups of broth and Arborio rice to onions. Cook at medium-low heat, stirring often. As broth is absorbed, continue to add additional broth so as not to allow rice to stick to the saucepan.
Approximately 5-10 minutes before rice is completely soft, add spinach and piñon nuts. Continue to stir, adding broth as needed. If remaining broth has been used, end cooking process with additional simmering water.
Add grated Parmesan cheese. Stir to blend cheese into Risotto.

(Total cooking time will be approximately 25 – 30 minutes.)

Broccoli Salad .

I had some good broccoli salad and asked for the recipe. It wasn't given to me, so I played with the ingredients until I came up with one I like. Here it is.

1 large broccoli crown
1 bag broccoli slaw
1/2 red onion, chopped
8 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
1 cup raisins
½ c nuts (pine nuts, sunflower seeds, chopped walnuts or a combination)
1 cup Mayonnaise
2 Tablespoons vinegar
6 Tablespoons Splenda (or sugar if the calories don’t matter)

OPTIONAL
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1 can water chestnuts, drained and cut chopped
1 1/2 cup green grapes, halved
1 cup chopped celery

Fry bacon until crisp. Chop.
Separate broccoli crown into flowerets. Chop the broccoli slaw a bit.
Mix broccoli, onion, bacon, raisins and nuts. Add from the optional ingredients, if desired.
In a separate bowl, make dressing by mixing mayonnaise, vinegar and Splenda. Add desired optional ingredients—I use red grapes if I have them.
Pour dressing over broccoli mix.
Chill for 1 hour.

Cranberry Pear Relish .

Before you think the only thing I cook is dessert, here is a relish that is wonderful. I don't like cranberries and I love this stuff! The head of the IT department where I work shared this with us.

4 cups (approximately 1 pound) fresh cranberries
2 cups sugar
1 cup fresh orange juice
1 Tablespoon finely grated orange zest
2 slightly underripe pears, cored, peeled and cut into 1/3-inch dice

Combine all ingredients in a heavy sauce pan and stir well. Place pan over medium heat and boil until berries pop open, about 10 minutes.
Skim foam off the surface with a metal spoon. Let relish cool to room temperature.
Relish tastes best if refrigerated overnight and reheated before serving.

Deviled Eggs . .

I love eggs almost as much as I love corn. My 1961 1st Edition Betty Crocker New Picture Cook Book plops open to the page with this Deviled Eggs recipe. I know the recipe lists lots of options, but look what's in the list—bacon! It is great with bacon, and there's a benefit to using bacon beyond taste: if there is a lump left in the yolks when you mash them, it will be hard to detect hiding out with the chunks of bacon. I have never tried any of the other ingredients. Bacon is perfect, thank you.

Deviled Eggs de Luxe

6 hard-cooked eggs, halved lengthwise
2 teaspoons prepared mustard
1½ teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons lemon juice
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
¼ cup mayonnaise

Mash yolks and mix with rest of ingredients. Add one of the following:
1 can (6½ ounces) flaked tuna
Use sour cream in place of the mayonnaise
1 can (4 ½ ounces) shrimp, chopped
8 slices crisp, cooked bacon, crumbled
1 can (2 ¼ ounces) deviled ham
2/3 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese; increase mayonnaise by 2 Tablespoons

Better Than Sex Cake .

I got word from Sharon in Minnesota that Elaine's Chocolate Caramel Euphoria Cake is in her recipe box with the title "Better Than Sex Cake." I had to laugh, because when I posted the Euphoria Cake recipe I debated whether to post it or the recipe I have for "Better Than Sex Cake"—completely different recipes. That inspired me to look online. I went first to Cooks.Com and ther found 320 recipes for Better Than Sex Cake and 5 recipes for Almost Better Than Sex Cake (well, forget those 5...) Just think, at one cake a week, from Cooks.Com alone, one could celebrate 6 years of celibacy and never feel deprived! Here's the BTS Cake from my files.

1 box cake mix (yellow cake with pudding in the mix)
1 large can crushed pineapple, juice included
1 cup sugar
2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding
bananas
1 small can coconut
1 large tub Cool Whip
1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to temperature shown on the box. Bake cake as directed.
While the cake is baking, mix pineapple and sugar in a saucepan. Boil 5 minutes.
Remove cake from oven, and while it is still hot, poke large holes in the cake. Pour the pineapple over it. Set aside to cool.
When the cake has cooled, mix 2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding as directed. Spread 1/2 of the pudding over the cake.
Once that is spread, sprinkle a small can of coconut over the pudding. Top the coconut with 1 layer of sliced bananas.
Spread the rest of the vanilla pudding over the banana layer.
Frost with Cool Whip. Garnish with chopped nuts.
Refrigerate until serving. Store any unserved cake in the refrigerator.

Southwestern Quiche .

I've been looking through recipes to see what might be good to serve the family when the kids and grandkids come for a visit in March. I haven't made Southwestern Quiche for several months. It is a good lunch dish. I may just have to add it to the menu.

Make your favorite pie crust, adding 1 Tablespoon chili powder to the dry ingredients. Use the following quiche filling.

3/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup half-and-half
1 can (4 ounces) diced green chilies
1 can (2¼ ounces) sliced ripe olives
2 Tablespoons finely chopped green onions

Preheat oven to 350°F.
In medium bowl, mix eggs, salt, pepper, cream, chilies, olives and green onions.
In bottom of lined pie dish, mix grated cheeses. Pour egg mix over cheese-covered pastry.
Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.

Homemade Slice & Bake Cookies .

I love recipes that can be mixed up days, weeks ahead and then finished off at the last minute. Slice and bake cookies have come to my rescue more than once when I've needed a dessert and have been at work all day. Paired with a bowl of ice cream and some fruit toppings, these cookies are just fine!

2 cups butter or margarine
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
6 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
chopped nuts

Cut four 14″ x 12″ pieces of waxed paper or plastic wrap. Set aside.

In a bowl, cream butter or margarine with the sugar. Beat in vanilla and lemon extracts and eggs until light and fluffy.

In a bowl, combine flour and baking soda. Stir flour mixture into egg and butter mixture; blend well. Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Shape each piece into an 8″ - 10″ roll (cylinder, not a ball!). Wrap rolls in waxed paper. Place the rolls in a rectangular freezer container with a tight fitting lid, or into a large freezer zip-lock bag, or wrap well in a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil. Label with date and contents. Store in freezer. Use within 6 months.

To prepare cookies: Slightly thaw one roll of sugar cookie dough. Preheat oven to 350°. Cut the dough into 1/4″ thick slices. Arrange cut pieces on lightly greased cookie sheets, placing about 1/2″ apart. Bake for about 8-10 minutes, or until the edges just begin to brown. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.

Each roll of dough will make about 3 dozen cookies. The total recipe makes about 12 dozen cookies.

Chocolate Caramel Euphoria Cake .

I am walking on a cloud. My kids and grandkids will be coming for a visit in about 6 weeks! Sarah has health eating habits, so I may make Elaine Jordan's cake for a girl's get-together before Sarah comes. It is decadent.

1 pkg Devil’s Food cake mix
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
3 (1.4 oz) chocolate covered toffee bars, coarsely chopped
1 (8 oz) container frozen whipped topping, thawed (optional)
Bake the cake in a 9 x 13” pan according to package directions. Cool on a rack for 5 minutes.
Make slits across the top of the cake, making sure not to go through the bottom of the pan.
In a saucepan, over low heat, combine sweetened condensed milk and caramel topping, stirring until smooth and blended. Slowly pour the warm topping mixture over the warm cake, letting it sink into the slits. Sprinkle the crushed chocolate bars liberally across the entire cake while still warm.
Let the cake cool in the pan completely. Top each slice with whipped topping, more chocolate toffee bar chunks, and a swirl of caramel topping.

French Onion Soup .

Yesterday I got the cell phone replaced. The corporate store was a more pleasant place than it normally is. I am big supporter of women, but I wonder if there isn't some friction there between the guys who work there and the women, or one of the women. The young man who helped me had to call for approval to give me a new phone instead of a reconditioned one and when he was on the phone with the override manager he mentioned that it was an unusually pleasant day and rare because the store was staffed entirely by guys. He was able to retrieve the phone contacts from my old phone, but the calendar with all my appointments was lost. So I have to make a few phone calls Monday to reconstruct my calendar. I came home and intended to start a load of laundry and the washer is not working! How much more? Hey, I have some very good recipes that don't cost much, so as I go onto austerity living to pay for all the repairs, I expect I'll be using them.

4 cups sliced onions
4 cans beef broth or bullion
1/2 cups unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons red wine (optional)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
1 loaf French bread, sliced
sliced provolone cheese
3/4 cup diced Swiss cheese
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Melt butter in an 8 quart stock pot on medium heat. Add olive oil and stir. Add onions and continually stir until tender and translucent. Do not brown the onions.
Add beef stock, wine and thyme. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes.
Ladle soup into individual, oven safe, serving bowls. Place one slice of bread on top. Layer cheese on top of bread, placing a slice of provolone, 1/2 slice diced Swiss and then Parmesan cheese.
Place bowls on cookie sheet and broil until cheese bubbles and browns slightly.