Pineapple Upside Down Cake

This was my Father in Laws favorite cake. He requested it for his birthday every year. He died in February of 1989, but I'm sure if he were here he would LOVE this cake. Today is his birthday, so the kids & I made this cake in memory of him.

ingredients
	11/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled) 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus 3 tablespoons (cut into small pieces) for preparing the top 1 cup sugar, plus 2/3 cup for preparing the top 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup milk 7 thin rounds cored pineapple

1. Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
2. With an electric mixer, cream 6 tablespoons butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined. Add flour mixture in three additions alternately with the milk in two, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix just until combined.
3. In a 10-inch cast-iron (or ovenproof nonstick) skillet, pour the remaining 2/3 cup sugar into skillet, and place over medium heat.
4. Let sugar begin to liquefy, then stir with a wooden spoon until sugar is fully melted and golden, 2 to 3 minutes. The sugar may smoke, but if it browns too quickly, remove pan from heat briefly before continuing.
5. Remove pan from heat; add 3 tablespoons butter (cut into small pieces), stirring to incorporate. The butter will help cool the caramel and stop it from darkening; it also thins out the caramel to make a syrupy sauce.
6. Begin by placing one pineapple round in the center of the pan. Arrange the remaining rounds in a circle around center slice, overlapping slightly if necessary to fit.
7. Carefully spoon batter over pineapples in skillet. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cake cool in pan 5 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake, then carefully invert onto a platter. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cranberry Nut Bread

This is my absolute favorite nutbread! Last year I discovered a sweetened cranberry relish in the deli section of the local grocery store. It has whole cranberries, pineapple & walnuts. It was too sweet to eat as a side dish, but when used instead of the fresh cranberries in my nutbread it was AMAZING!

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 t baking powder
3/4 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 cup softened butter
3/4 cup water
1 egg
1 cup sweetened cranberry relish

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray two 8X4 loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda, stir in butter until crumbly. Add water and egg. Fold in cranberry relish. Fill loaf pans half full.

Cook @ 350 for one hour or until wooden tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool in pans for 10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. When it is completely cool, wrap nutbread in foil to store. This recipe also works great for mini loaves to give as gifts.

FUDGE

One of my favorite Christmas treats is homemade Fudge. I've made the kind with marshmallows or marshmallow cream in the past, but this type with condensed milk is my absolute favorite. I've tweaked this recipe a little bit. It originally called for 3 cups of semi sweet chips, but the package I usually buy is only 12 oz. Instead of opening two bags of semi sweet, I used one bag of semi-sweet & 1/2 a bag of milk chocolate. This recipe can also be made in a double boiler on the stove top, but I find using the microwave to be much faster & easier.

• 2 cups (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup (6 oz) milk chocolate chips
  
• 1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk
  
• (I used store brand condensed milk & it came out fine)
  
• Dash salt
• 1/2 to 1 cups chopped nuts (optional)(I leave out the nuts)
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

LINE 8- or 9-inch square pan with foil, extending foil over edges of pan.

• MICROWAVE METHOD
• COMBINE chocolate chips with sweetened condensed milk and salt in 1-quart glass bowl. Cook on HIGH (100% power) 3 minutes or until chips are melted, stirring after 1 1/2 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients.
• Spread evenly into prepared pan.
• CHILL 2 hours or until firm. Remove from pan by lifting edges of foil. Cut into squares.

Flour Tortillas

My friend Kim posted this link to a flour tortilla recipe. I've been wanting to try making my own flour tortillas for a while. We eat at least 4 dozen flour tortillas a week, probably more.

3 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
4-6 Tbsp. vegetable shortening or lard
about 1 1/4 cups warm water

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Add vegetable shortening or lard. Or use a combination of half lard, half shortening.
Use a fork or a pastry cutter to cut in the shortening or just do it the old fashioned way and use your hands.

Next add warm water a little at a time until your dough is soft and not sticky. You do not need very hot water.

Knead the dough for a few minutes.

Now you will pull off pieces of dough to form about 12 small dough balls. Let them
rest for at least 10 minutes, longer if you like.
Now you can roll out the dough It is a good idea to dust each ball with a little flour just before you roll them out. roll up, center and roll down. It is good to lift the dough and turn it. Again, rolling pin in the center and roll. Roll them out fairly thin.
Lay your tortilla on the hot pan. It takes just a few seconds to cook. Flip to the other side. When they are done it should have lots of nice brown speckles. Place them in a towel. They are ready to be served!

Sweet & Sour Greenbeans

This is a family recipe. I think it may be Pennsylvania Dutch.

Ingredients
4 cans French Cut Green Beans
1/2 lb bacon cooked and crumbled
1/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup white or apple cider vinegar


cook 4 cans french cut green beans in the juice from the cans, add 1/2 lb crumbled cooked bacon, add 1 T bacon grease, sugar and vinegar....increase sugar or vinegar to taste to create sweet and sour flavor. Refrigerate in serving dish until just before dinner, reheat in microwave.

This will feed 15 to 20 people, it can be halved or doubled depending on how many servings are needed.

Cornbread Stuffing with Sausage, Apples & Cranberries

I have always LOVED cornbread stuffing, but until recently I didn't know how to make it. I've tried several recipes, but this year decided to develop one of my own.

Ingredients

1 package fresh cranberries (rinsed & chopped)
2 apples, peeled, cored, and diced (I used one Gala & 1 Granny Smith)
1 cup cider
1 8X8 pan of cornbread, cooled & crumbled
1 pound pork breakfast sausage
1 stick butter
3 cups water

Directions

1. Soak cranberries & apples in cider for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
   
2. Cook sausage in a skillet, stirring frequently and crumbling the meat with a spoon, until it is well browned and no longer pink. Add sausage to the stuffing bowl and stir everything together. Add apples, cranberries with their liquid. Mix thoroughly. In a small saucepan, melt stick of butter. Add 3 cups water and stir. Pour this liquid into the stuffing mixture and combine thoroughly.
3. Store in the refrigerator for up to two days before cooking, or freeze up to a month in advance. I don't like to stuff my turkey. I bake the stuffing at 350, in a covered casserole dish, for 40 minutes. If you like your stuffing browned, cook it uncovered.

Doctored Macaroni & Cheese

We eat a LOT of Kraft macaroni & cheese....well, the kids do, Hubby won't touch it. Recently Morgan & I have been experimenting with adding things to make it more like baked macaroni & cheese. Today, we added extra cheddar cheese, then put it in a baking dish added Italian bread crumbs & baked it to a golden brown. It is FABULOUS....even better than the baked mac & cheese we were trying to imitate. It's so good we are considering adding it to our Thanksgiving menu.

2 boxes Kraft Mac & Cheese prepared according to package directions.
Stir in 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Add enough milk to make creamy (1/4 to 1/2 cup depending on how creamy you want it)
pour into baking dish
sprinkle with bread crumbs (Progresso Italian bread crumbs are DELICIOUS)

Bake at 400 approximately 15 minutes or until golden brown & bubbly.