Traditional Sugar Cookies

It's been a busy few weeks of reusing recipes and eating leftovers as we clean out the fridge for the mass of company coming this holiday season. But one of the joys (and curses) of the season is cooking and baking those special goodies. As I've been getting older, the good traditional family recipes are being passed down to me.

My family got this recipe, I believe, from a Betty Crocker cookbook some years back. Every year, Grandma would make these cookies for Christmas, and this year I continued the tradition. It takes a lot of work, but is very good.

Traditional Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup shortening (we use margarine)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups Flour (do not use self-rising flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Thoroughly mix shortening, sugar, eggs and flavouring.
Blend in flour, baking powder and salt.

Cover, and chill for at least 1 hour.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Roll dough 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured cloth-covered board. (or, as we do, on our flour-covered counter with a floured rolling pin)
Using cookie cutters, cut into desired shapes, and then place on an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake 6 to 8 minutes, or until very light brown.


We usually ice our cookies too, using this Vanilla Buttercream Frosting recipe from Betty Crocker

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 to 2 tbsp milk

In a medium bowl, mix the powdered sugar and butter (either with a spoon or an electric mixer on low)
Stir in vanilla and 1 tbsp of milk.

Gradually beat in remaining milk until the frosting is smooth and spreadable. If too thick, beat in more milk. If too thin, beat in more powdered sugar.



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Coconut-Custard Pie

Coconut-Custard Pie, or as we call it in our family, Magic Coconut Custard Pie. Why? Because it makes it's own crust. It's also really easy to make. Just need a blender :D

Recipe taken from the More-with-Less Cookbook, by Doris Janzen Longacre, 25th Anniversary ed., Waterloo, Ontario: Herald Press. pp 279

Coconut-Custard Pie

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine in blender:
4 eggs
6 Tbsp margarine
1/2 cups flour
2 cups milk
3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla

add:
1 cup shredded coconut

Blend for several seconds. Pour into a greased and floured 10" pie pan, or two 8" pans.

Bake 50-60 minutes.

Pie forms it's own crust, so serve!!!

:D
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Becker Family Scalloped Potatoes with Ham

I'm using a recipe, yay!!! and not a slow cooker either, double yay!!!

But this is a family favorite, as well as a personal favorite of mine, so I have to remember to make it more often.

My mom combined two recipes to make this one, to accommodate food sensitivities and make prep work as quick as possible.

Ham

Please note, the ham is optional. I use Snider's No Fat Smoked Ham, which is pretty much microwavable to cook. I take a half-ham, cut it into six slices (since I'm cooking for three people here) and set those aside for future meals. The rest of the ham I cut into cubes and add to this as I'm layering the potatoes.

Becker's Short-cut Version of Scalloped Potatoes

Takes 2 hours start to finish
Feeds 4-6


Preheat oven to 350 F.

Wash and peel 6-8 medium sized potatoes. (I just scrub them, since the skin is good for you. I also use white potatoes). Let stand in cold water so they do not turn black.

In a 3 quart/litre casserole dish, combine/mix together:

• 3 Tbsp margarine
• 3 Tbsp flour
• 1 tsp salt
• a dash or so of pepper
• 1 Tbsp of dried onion

Microwave for 30 seconds

Add: 2 1/2 cups milk

Stir with wire whisk. Microwave for 2 minutes. Stir. Microwave for another 2 minutes. Stir.

Scallop (cut into thin slices) the potatoes into the hot mixture. If adding ham to this, after putting down a layer of potatoes, sprinkle with ham.

Now, the recipe says to stir. However, that's pretty hard to do with potatoes. So, make sure to wash your hands and then mix the potatoes, sauce (and ham), as well as pressing down and arranging the potatoes so that they are covered and at least partially submerged in the sauce.

Yeah, you'll want to wash your hands again after doing this.

Cover dish and bake in 350 oven for 30 minutes.

Uncover and bake for another 60 minutes.

Serve :D

Apple Curried Chicken

I got this recipe from VH Sauces, of course using VH brand sauces. Eh, it's good. And look! I'm following a recipe!! Sort of.

anyways, I believe that this can also be found on VHSauces.com

The Recipe

2 tsp (10 mL) vegetable oil
8 to 10 chicken thighs
1 cup VH Yellow Curry Sauce
2 apples, thinly sliced
2 tbsp (30 mL) butter
2 tbsp (30 mL) brown sugar
1 tbsp (15 mL) cider or white wine vinegar
2 tbsp (30 mL) fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped (optional)

Heat vegetable oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Place chicken in pan and brown well for about 3-5 minutes each side.
Remove chicken and pour off excess oil. Return to pan with the Yellow Curry sauce and 1/4 cup of water. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Remove lid and simmer sauce to thicken if needed.
While chicken is cooking, heat butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Sauté apples for 3 minutes, add brown sugar and vinegar. Continue to cook until softened and golden brown.
Serve chicken with sauce and topped with apples and cilantro.


Well, I didn't follow the recipe. I did it my style, which is a bit easier.

Corina's style Apple Curried Chicken

(using list above, minus oil)

In my large slow cooker, I mixed together the Yellow Curry sauce, butter, brown sugar, vinegar and some cilantro from the spice rack (definitely not fresh) and added the sliced apples and 4 chicken breasts. In hindsight, I probably could have added another two chicken breasts.
I put the slow cooker on high and walked away for three hours, stirring occasionally once per hour. After three hours, I switched the heat to low for another two hours.

On the side, I made rice and mixed green, yellow and long carrots. Together, it was a bit spicy, and sweet, so be careful how much sauce you take, but very very good. mmmmmm, yummy.


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Cheddar Corn Chowder

Please forgive my absence: I've been busy with schoolwork and haven't been cooking very much. Also, I've been re-using previously posted recipes, and don't want to double-post the same things.

But it is with much pleasure that I pull out this recipe. I have made this recipe so many times in the past, I have it memorized. I made it last night.

Cheddar Corn Chowder
- Corina Becker style.

In a big soup pot on the stove, add two cups of water to a couple of fist-sized potatoes that have been washed and chopped up, and a few chopped up carrots. Sprinkle with onion salt.
Turn stove on to medium heat (or whatever is boiling-heat), and boil until potatoes are done.
(potatoes are done when you poke them with a fork and they are soft and easy to break apart)

Add 2 can of Cream of Cheddar Cheese soup, OR 1 can of Cream of Cheddar Cheese soup and 1 can of Broccoli and Cheddar Cheese Soup.
Add 1 Large can of Cream Style Corn.
Add 1 cup of milk.

At this point, I also put in some garlic, but that's a personal preference.

Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the cheese soup is all mixed in (and there's no cheesy-lumps).

Remove from heat, let cool a little and serve!!

yum yum. My favorite soup.

5-Minute Chocolate Cake

or, as I call it, cake in a mug. A friend on Second Life passed this on to me, and I just tried it out and am passing it along as well.

5-Minute Chocolate Cake

Take a coffee cup.
Put in 4 Tbsp white flour, 4 Tbsp sugar and 2 Tbsp cocoa.
Stir really really well.
Add 1 egg.
Stir really really well.
Add 3 Tbsp water and 3 Tbsp oil.
Stir really really well.
Add a splash of vanilla.
Add 3 Tbsp chocolate chips (optional)
Microwave for 3 minutes in a 1000 watt microwave.
Let cool for 2 minutes.
Eat.

Since I didn't have chocolate chips, I added chocolate milk sauce (you know, the sauce to make chocolate milk) on top and let it smother the sides. Really good.

I emphasize the stirring. It's really hard to stir well in a coffee cup. Also, the cake rises out of the cup while cooking; it looks pretty cool. And lastly, it makes a bit of a mess in your cup, but no more than, say, hot chocolate.

Acadian Fish Dinner - short cut method

Gasp! I'm posting a recipe that isn't a slow cooker recipe!! Although, I'm pretty sure that this can be modified to be a slow cooker recipe. I did this last night.

Acadian Fish Dinner - Becker Short Cut Method

I should have probably set out the fish to defrost sooner, instead of at 12pm. Their frozen-ness added more moisture to the casserole, which was good since we ended up leaving it in a little too long....

But at 12pm-ish, I set out some sole fillets to defrost. Not the skinny fillets either, but the thick ones from M&M's meat shop (we don't believe in getting all of our groceries in one store; some places have better vegetables, one place has better bread, etc).

At 3:00pm, I preheated the oven to 350º.

In a microwaveable casserole dish, I melt 2 Tbsp of butter/margarine.
Then I added 1 Tbsp of flour and stirred to coat well. Heated in microwave for 2 minutes.
added 3/4 cups of milk and 1 tsp of salt. Microwaved for 1 minute.

Added 1 pressed garlic clove, 2 Tbsp of dried onion, 3 cups of thinly slice potatoes and 1 1/2 cups of thinly sliced carrots.

Covered dish and cooked in oven for 30 minutes.
Since there was not a lot of liquid, I kept the lid on and cooked for another 30 minutes.
Then I lay the fish on top and cooked until the fish was done. If the fish had been fully defrosted, I would have covered with 1 Tbsp of oil.

It was pretty good. I think that the fish should have been in with the sauce, as to get some of the flavour, but it was still pretty good.

Apple Sauce Chicken

I made this yesterday, and it turned out very well. Once again, it's a slow cooker recipe. I suppose for those who know what they're doing, they can adjust it for an oven. But I'm one of those who wanders off and forgets that the oven or stove is on, thus burning supper. So, slow cooker.

At 12:00pm
In my giant slow cooker, I put three chicken breasts (skinless, boneless from M&M's), washed and sliced an apple and tossed it in, and added 4 tablespoons of sweetened apple sauce per chicken breast. Then I put in frozen baby carrots and a hand full of pineapple. Set the cooker to "low" cook and walked away.

3 or 4 pm
I changed "low" cook to warm.

5:00pm
I made couscous by adding one cup of hot water to one cup of uncooked couscous. I let it sit covered while I set the table and got the salad out.

Ate. It was DELICIOUS!!!! I especially liked to mix the pineapple and carrots into the couscous and eat it together.

Cider Salmon

I should probably rename this blog to Aspie Cooking Adventures, because not all of my recipes turn out. Like the one from Monday.

And er, just a warning, this is one of those cooking with alcohol.

So I washed and cut up a couple of potatoes and put them in the slow cooker with three salmon fillets and about 250ml of Rekorderlig, wild berries flavour. It's a Swedish pear cider from Vimmerby, with 7% alcohol. I also drizzled the salmon with honey garlic sauce. Set the slow cooker for manual low and walked away.

A couple hours later, I returned and turned it up to high because the potatoes might not have been ready in time.

final verdict: the potatoes were okay. I think I needed to add some spice to it though.

Chicken Korma and Coconut Rice

My belly is so full from this one! Once again, this is a slow cooker recipe. I like slow cookers.


The Coconut Rice was done following the advice from kiminari on LiveJournal: I soaked coconut meat in water over night (and even throughout the day) before using the water to cook balsamic rice. Some of the coconut got into the rice, but was just extra coconuty-ness. 1 cup dry rice, plus 2 cups coconut-soaked water, oven at 250 for a little over half an hour.

This morning, I put together the Chicken Korma, which was a pre-made curry mix, yet again, which I added a can of light coconut milk and six chicken breasts (skinless, boneless, from M&Ms) in the huge slow cooker. I set it for 5 hours on Low heat, and then walked away.

Well, I came back every once in a while to stir it, and at the end of the 5 hour cooking, when the cooker switched to "warming" (it maintains the food's warmth, but not cooking), I put in about 2 cups of frozen peaches and cream corn.

Now that I think about it, potatoes and broccoli would have been interesting to try in this too. Especially because it turned out to be a little watery. If not adding those, then I think next time I'll try to put in only half a can of coconut milk, since apparently the korma sauce does water-out from it's sticky paste.

It was very good. The chicken was very soft and it was a sweet, mild curry. We have a left overs of three chicken breasts, rice and sauce, so what we have planned for Sunday is that we're going to put it together to make a "Chicken Korma Soup".

We finished the meal with ginger snaps.

Slow Cooker Curry Chicken

I made this on Thursday, Sept 3. Reposted from my LJ.



I WAS going to do a modified recipe for cheese and broccoli drumsticks, since I don't eat drumsticks, using a cream of broccoli and cheddar cheese soup. However, when Mom picked up the can, someone had put Cream of Celery in the wrong spot, so we have a can of that.

We also had a couple jars of curry sauces, store/home brand, since it's cheaper and just as good. I had requested those curries, since it's pretty simple and foolproof to do.

Recipe
In the slow cooker, I tossed in the can of Cream of Celery soup, a jar of Thai Green Curry sauce, sprinkled with some sweetened coconut, rosemary and a teaspoon of maple syrup.
Played with the settings so that it would be done at 5:30 (when Dad gets home) and set the heat on low.

It was soooooooo good! I should have put in more chicken breasts so that we could have leftovers. Like, a total of six chicken breasts would fit in that slow cooker. It was a tad spicy, but I think it would work with a milder curry sauce.

yuuuuuuuuum, I wanna make it again!

Blueberry Sole

This is kind of reposted from the forum entry I made on AWA.

Warning: Sole turns purple. It looks a little weird.

Blueberry Sole.

Heat up pan on stove until water crackles and dances.
With a small amount of butter/margarine, coat pan.
Place frozen sole fillets (boneless, skinless) into pan.

Add a dash of lime juice and a dash of lemon juice.
Add a handful of fresh blueberries.

Add a dash each of paprika, coriander powder and oregano.
lightly drizzle with honey garlic sauce.

Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and sugar.

Let cook, turning fish over to cook on both sides.

YUM!

I usually have rice cook before I start up the fish, or else during the weekend, make this HUGE batch of rice to have throughout the week. When I was living at school, I made a sticky-ish oven-steamed rice, and pressed it into half-cup balls, so all I had to do was grab 1 ball for each person I was cooking for.

The outcome: it was really really good!

Introduction to Aspie Cooking

This is my introduction post, simply posting what I'm doing with this blog.

It's simple: as part of my current living arrangements, twice a week I cook dinner, and this is where I'm going to put my recipes and how they turn out.

You know, a cooking blog.

A little about me, then, for those who don't know. I'm an autistic adult woman in SouthEast Ontario, currently taking courses in a Library and Information Technician Program after getting my B.A. in English. I write and draw fantasy comics and novels, paint and work on promoting neurodiversity.

In terms of cooking, well, my mother has been off and on teaching me since I was knee-high. A good place to start, especially when my mother teaches home economics. I've taken summer day camp classes in cooking, and I've sort of done three years of cooking on my own before this.

I tend to make little adjustments in recipes on account of food and texture sensitivities, and lately, I haven't really been following recipes. We'll see how it goes :D

Anyways, enjoy!