November 2003 Archives

The best home made cookies ever... I used to babysit her kid and she made these delish cookies and I FINALLY got the recipe for them. She insists on Blue Bonnet margarine. Really.

Ingredients:

• BLUE BONNET Margarine
• Brown sugar
• White sugar
• 2 eggs
• Vanilla extract
• All-purpose flour
• Baking soda
• Any ol' choc chips (1 pkg. 350 g. size)

Method:

1. Cream 1 c. BLUE BONNET margarine together with 1 c. brown sugar & 1/2 c. white sugar
2. Beat in 2 eggs & 2 tsp. vanilla extract
3. In a separate bowl, lightly mix together: 2 c. flour & 1 tsp. baking soda
4.Gradually add and blend flour mixture to margarine/sugar mixture
5.Gradually add (ie. 1/2 c. at a time) 1 pkg. (350 g.) of any ol' choc chips
6.Use teaspoon to scoop generous blobs of mixture & place blobs on UNgreased cookie sheet
7.Bake at 375 F for approx EIGHT minutes (Most recipes say bake 10-12 mins., but then the cookies harden in the oven. 8 mins. keeps 'em soft)
8.Cool awhile & then...ENJOY!

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 medium carrot, sliced
• 1 celery stalk (including leaves), sliced
• 4 medium potatoes peeled, cut into chunks
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley (if you don't have this, don't worry)
• salt and pepper

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, carrot and celery; cook 5 minutes until slightly softened. Add potatoes, stock, thyme and bay leaf. bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer partially covered 20-25 minutes until potatoes are very tender. Discard bay leaf.

Puree potato mixture until smooth (I use the Braun hand-mixer...you may use something else). Stir in milk, parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Serves 4.

Mmmmmm!

The one thing about this recipe...you will want to eat the brownies when they're hot and fresh, but don't! They are better the next day. Honestly!

- 1 cup butter (or margarine if you must, though I've never used margarine)
- 4 squares unsweetened chocolate
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- (optional... 2 cups coarsely chopped nuts...I never do this)

Step 1 Preheat oven to 350† F. Grease 13' by 9' baking pan. In 3-quart saucepan over very low heat, melt butter (marg) and chocolate, stirring the mixture constantly.

Step 2 Remove pan from heat and with a spoon, stir the sugar into the chocolate. Allow mixture to cool slightly.

Step 3 Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well blended after the addition of each egg.

Step 4 Add the flour, vanilla and salt to the mixture and stir in well.

Step 5 - optional Add the nuts to the mixture and stir in well.

Step 6 Pour mixture into greased baking pan and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes (just a note, I usually check at about 20-25 minutes... sometimes I like them a little underdone). Brownies are done when toothpick or knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Mmmmmm!

Thought I'd post the shortbread recipe here so that it's always on record. Let me know if this is different from your recipe.

• 1 lb butter (2 cups - one entire brick!)
• 1 cup fruit sugar
• 1 cup rice flour
• 5 - 6 cups of cake and pastry flour (as much as you can put in...crumbly)

This little gem had disappeared from the internet, but I found it and brought it back to Thornton Pages. Ain't I a stinker? Just click the picture or here and if you have Flash on your computer and your sound turned up, you will start to giggle.

1lb. broccoli cooked with 3 onions, quartered
Put in greased casserole
Cover with sauce of 2 T. flour, 1 cup of milk, 2T. margarine and 1/2 package of cream cheese
Layer with slices of cheese.

Bake at 300 F. for 30 min. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and 2T Parmesan cheese and bake another 30 min.

• 1 cup soya sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 lbs. ground beef
• 2T. ginger
• 2 cloves garlic (crushed)

Form into tiny balls, about 1" across. Place in large roasting pan, uncovered in 275 degree oven for 1 hour.
Or do in frying pan on top of the stove

• 2 T butter
• 5 heaping T cocoa
• 2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup boiling water
• 1T butter
• 4T corn syrup
• salt
• vanilla

Hey Lois, I'm gonna be making your killer brownies for myself and my house, and I had a question about the recipe. When I do the cake mix part, you say to use 1/3 of a cup of evaporated milk. Then later, you say to melt the caramels with the remaining 1/3 cup. That's only 2/3 of a cup of evaporated milk, and there's more than a cup in a can. So am I just using those 2/3 cups, or what? It's probably a stupid question, but I want to make sure I get this right, it's pretty important. Oh, and I bought milk-chocolate chips instead of semi sweet by accident, will those make much of a difference? Thanks in advance.