April Recipes

1½ lbs. hamburger (broken into small chunks)

1 or 2 onion cubes ~or~ Onion powder to taste

1 tsp. salt / garlic and pepper to taste / 1 cup oatmeal

1 large or 2 small eggs / 2 tbsp. catsup or B-B-Q sauce

Mix all ingredients together with fork. Press mixture into glass loaf pan (metal burns more easily; so bake at a lower temperature if using metal). Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. We like baked potatoes with this, so put in the number needed for your family. I wash the potatoes first, then wrap each one in a small piece of foil. Put them in the oven when you put the meatloaf in so they'll be done at the same time.

Beef-Barley-Vegetable Soup

12 cups water (to start with; you'll add more as the soup cooks)

1 cup (1/2 bag?) soup legume mix (or your favorite soup legume)

2 cups barley / 1/2 cup lentils / 2 tsp. onion powder

garlic powder to taste / 6 heaping tsp. beef bouillon

pepper to taste / 4 carrots grated / 1 stalk celery, chopped

1/4 head cabbage, grated (optional, but I love it!)

1 lb. hamburger, browned and chopped fine

3 tbsp. (real) butter (margarine's OK)

2 tbsp. parsley flakes

Put water in large kettle on the stove and bring to a boil. Add remaining ingredients (in order given to give legumes maximum cooking time) as water heats.

From the time I start the soup to the time it's ready is about 3 hours. I cook it at

medium-high for the first 1/2 hour, then lower it to simmer or low.

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SLOW METHOD:

Or you can cook it in your crock-pot for 4 to 8 hours.

(4 hours on HIGH; 8 hours on LOW)

FAST METHOD:

You CAN have it ready in 1-1/2 hours if you cook it on high

heat, stirring often. The barley must cook for a full hour.

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(Increase, decrease, omit, or add ingredients

according to your own taste preferences.)

Porcupine Meatballs

1-1/2 lbs. hamburger / 1 cup regular or Minute Rice

1 can cream of celery (or chicken or mushroom, depending on preference) soup

1 soup-can of water

1 onion cube thawed / pepper and garlic powder to taste

1/2 tsp. salt

1) Break hamburger into smaller pieces (easier to mix), add rice, thawed onion cube, and spices. Mix well.

2) Form into a-little-larger-than-walnut-sized meatballs and arrange in casserole dish with a lid (or use aluminum foil to cover).

3) In the same bowl in which you mixed the hamburger and rice (now empty because all the little buggers are safe-n-snug in the casserole dish), mix the can of soup with the can of hot water. Pour over the meatballs.

4) Cover. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. (Serve with rice.)

Tory's Toffee

1 cup butter / 1 cup sugar

2 tbsp. water / 1 tbsp. light corn syrup

1 6-ounce pkg. semisweet chocolate pieces

3/4 cup finely chopped nuts

1) Butter baking (cookie) sheet. (It's not necessary to have one with sides as the toffee will not flow to the edges.)

2) Melt butter in 2-quart saucepan over low heat. Add sugar and heat to boiling, stirring constantly.

3) Stir in water and corn syrup, and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, to 290° on candy thermometer (or until small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water separates into threads which are hard but not brittle. (See Candy Test page for specific directions for candy testing.)

4) Immediately and quickly pour onto buttered cookie sheet and spread to desired thickness. (Some like it thick; some like it thin.)

5) Allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Then sprinkle chocolate chips over it and allow to sit (melt) for about 5 minutes. Chop nuts during this time.

6) Spread the melted chocolate to cover the toffee, and then immediately sprinkle the chopped nuts over the melted chocolate. Press down a bit so that they are imbedded in the chocolate.

7) Cool in the fridge for an hour or so. Break into pieces the size you like. (An assortment is nice.)

Grandma Shelton's

Re-Brined Pickles

1 46-ounce jar of dill pickles (w/o garlic)

1 cup vinegar / 3 cups sugar

1) Mix the vinegar and sugar in a saucepan and heat to boiling. As it is heating...

2) Drain the pickles and rinse in a colander.

3) Cut pickles into cross-wise slices. (We like to have some of them thin and some thick.) Put back into the jar.

4) As soon as mixture comes to a boil, pour it over the jar of pickles and close the jar.

5) For the first 2 hours you might want to turn the jar over every 15 minutes or so so that all the pickles get exposed to the syrup.

6) After one day, put the jar into the fridge and allow to set for at least one week so that the flavor seeps into the pickles.

7) Enjoy!!!

(You may ask, as I did my mother-in-law (Grandma Shelton herself): "Why go to all this trouble? Why not just buy a jar of sweet pickles?" For one thing, these are cheaper, but the main reason is that they are much better than any store-bought sweet pickle I have ever tasted!!! I "sort of like" store-bought sweet pickles; I absolutely love these!!!)

Apple, Cherry, or

Peach Crisp

Topping:

1/3 cup brown sugar / 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt / 1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup oatmeal

Mix the above ingredients

and then add:

1/4 cup melted margarine

Bottom Crust:

(OPTIONAL; this is something I added in later

years, and I don't always use it as it's great without it;

my mom always made it "as above" (without the bottom

crust) and it was delicious! So why did I add it? I got it from my sister-in-law Denise's "Cherry Cheese Pie"

recipe and loved it so much, thought I'd try adding

it to this one! And I liked it!)

1 cube margarine or butter

1 cup flour

Melt the butter and then mix in the flour.

Press evenly into bottom of 8 X 8 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Fruit Filling:

3 to 5 apples, peeled and sliced

~OR~

1 jar/can of sliced peaches ~or~ pie cherries, drained

Spread evenly over the crust (or just the bottom of the pan if not doing a bottom crust) and then sprinkle the topping over this. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes. (Apples may take the longer time since they're fresh.)

Important note from Barb/Mom:

I really like the oatmeal topping, so if I'm not doing a bottom crust, I like

to do 1-1/2 times the topping! Mmmmm good! ;-)