Sweet Potato Biscuits

It is the time of year for hot soup and hot breads--together is possible.



This recipe was given to me by one of the beauticians who used to do mother's hair.
Sweet Potato Biscuits

2 c. flour
4 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
2/3 c. sugar
1/2 c. melted butter or margarine
2 c. mashed sweet potatoes
1/4 c. milk

Mix the dry ingrediants, work in the melted butter and sweet potatoes, turn out on a floured board, knead a few times, pat or roll out and cut into biscuits. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 12-15 min.

Note: I used canned sweet potatoes, and drain them WELL. This makes a wet dough, and you will have to work what may seem like a goodly amount of flour into it as you knead it, work only what you must to make it manageable. They will hit the spot, and as far as a perfect taste combination, you can't get any better than these with Cheesy Ham Chowder

By the handful......Grandma Wolf's homemade bread

I have written earlier on this blog about my Grandmother Wolf, the one that in her life time by feeding a family of 7 children and the hired hands that always helped with harvest, fed an entire army.

As she got older and she didn’t feel as good as she wanted and she would get an occasional vitamin B12 shot. That is when Dr’s did that sort of thing. It would help, and she would feel better…..for awhile.

Discussing it with Mother, and I’m sure the other Aunts and Uncles she decided she needed to start making her own bread again. “Bakers bread” just didn’t have what she needed as the quintessential source of the Vitamin B she obviously needed.

Grandma had made homemade bread all of my mother’s life, but she didn’t have a recipe. Something as common and everyday as bread was something you just……did. When asked about a recipe, Grandma would smile, and shrug her shoulders, she just made it. But when pressed, “HOW do you know Grandma?” She measured the flour and other dry ingredients by handfuls, liquids with a coffee cup, poured the salt into her hand………there was no written evidence of Grandma Wolfs homemade bread.

She began, once again, making her bread. Living by herself, she began giving that “extra loaf” away. Mother and I received a loaf every week. Warm and buttered it was…….beyond description……..and not even close to anything you could buy anywhere. This was back before the “artisan bread” craze and bread machines etc.

We relished it. Mother would freeze it, and get it out for company dinners and people would rave about the taste, the texture……..the memories it would conjure up for each and every one, of days when bread was the staff of life……….literally.

It was becoming obvious that a day of bread making, and “writing it down” was in someone’s future. I don’t remember exactly when it happened but I do know that Mother made a day when she went up to Grandma’s and as they made the bread, they took what was in the hand and the coffee cups, put it in measuring cups, writing it down and a recipe was born.

Mother then tried it, over and over; always saying “It isn’t as good as Mama’s”. I never saw or tasted any differences. It was good, always good. Full of texture, rich in flavor and melt in your mouth delicious.

My niece ask if I had the recipe the other day, and of all the things that SHOULD appear on this blog, this is one of them. Thank you DeLynne for reminding me of this, a staple of our family heritage.

Grandma Wolf’s Homemade Bread

1 pkg. of dry yeast
1/3 c. warm water
1 tsp. sugar
2 1/2 c. warm water
1/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. salt
1/3 stick margarine
5 c. white flour
1 c. whole wheat flour (for white bread use 6 c. white flour only)
1 c. wheat germ
Melted shorting for top

Mix water and sugar. Add yeast. Let stand 10 minutes. Add 2 ½ c. water, 1/3 c. sugar, salt and margarine. Mix well. Add white flour, wheat flour, and what germ. Mix and knead until springy, about 5 minutes. Brush top with shortening and let rise until double: work down and let rise again. Make into loaves, and let rise. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Makes 2 regular or 3 small loaves.

Cold and Flu Season

Since we share recipes on this blog, I found a couple that I thought would be great for this time of year particularly.

My sister called me the other evening asking for a recipe. I dug out Mothers recipe boxes to see if perhaps she had a copy, and although I didn’t find the particular cookie recipe Alane wanted, I did, find some “recipes” for some helpful cures or at least to lessen the suffering from the winter cold and flu season. (Disclaimer—Use at your own risk--if you dare to use at all :)

*Home Made Liniment—

1 pt. cider vinegar
½ pt. turpentine
Beat 3 eggs thoroughly. Mix all together, shake well in bottle before using.

Really. This was on a recipe card in my mother’s recipe box under misc.


The next, I copied straight from “Frank Good’s Homemade—(the rest of the title was cut off)

For Bad Cold

“Mix equal parts of honey, cider vinegar and whiskey; take ½ to one ounce, as mixed.
(Contributed by Vera Berner of Newton)

Our note: Hmmm, Very, you don’t say how often to partake of the elixir….but upon further reflection; it’s all organic so it must be good for you taken as oft as you wish. (Pert night tantalizing enough to make one want to stand dripping wet in front of the air conditioner, or barefoot in the snow.)”

Between the first remedy and this one I’m confident you would get to feeling better. After all you would smell so bad that no one would come near you to either expose you again, or for you to get anything in the first place. Or you would be feeling no pain from the afore mentioned elixir to the point that you simply wouldn’t care.

Now before you think that my family was frequently into libations, not at all! Liquor was strictly used for medicinal purposes. You had to be pretty sick before the whiskey or homemade wine was pulled out of the back of the cupboard.

In the day before modern medicine, pharmacies, and over the counter remedies and pills, homemade remedies were the housewife and mothers only hope when a family member became ill. Dr’s were called as a last resort, and often times, before penicillin, the sulfa drugs didn’t work well either.

My Grandmother Wolf swore by her home remedies and when cold and flu season rolled around, she smelled like liniment, and wore an onion poultice around her neck; greasing herself with Musterole (which I’m sure took the place of a mustard plaster), and before you scoff and laugh…………she lived to be 96 years old.

Where’s the vinegar and turpentine?








*Not to be ingested

A perfect combo.......

Well, I apologized for being away so long, and I DO intend to change that and post here with more regularity, BUT I have been very busy sewing, sewing sewing, projects that I won't post for fear the wrong people see them ;)

In the mean time, the chill in the air always makes me want soup with some sort of hot bread. Crock pots were invented for people like me who have projects going and babies to rock, so you can fix dinner and forget it.

Here is a new one--oh so easy and with the Sweet Corn Muffins is the perfect combo....

Winter Veggie Soup

1 lb. hamburger, browned and drained
2 cans of stewed tomatoes
2 cans of tomato sauce
1 package of dry onion soup mix
1 can of beef broth & 1 can of water
1 small package of frozen corn
1 small package of frozen carrots and peas
1 bay leaf
2 tsp of minced garlic
2 tsp salt

After browning the meat, place all the ingrediants in the crock pot (it makes a full pot) stir, set on high and cook for 7-8 hours.

Serve with:

Golden Sweet Corn Muffins
1 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 c. frozen thawed whole-kernal corn
2 eggs
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. butter, melted

In a large bowl mix flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add corn; toss to coat. In a small bowl beat eggs with fork; beat in milk and butter. Add to corn mixture; stir just until blended. Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full (I use cupcake paper liners) Bake in preheated 400 degree oven until pick inserted in center comes out clean--15-25 min. for muffins, 30-35 min. for a 9 in. square corn bread.

These stir up really quick, but I will warn you to watch them, as they can not be done, and then get too brown. A green salad would be good too, but not necessary as there are plenty of veggies.
Enjoy!

The signs of Autumn

One of the first signs of autumn is the beautiful Pumpkins that start appearing in the stores next to those colorful mums.
It gets you to thinking of pumpkin pie baking, the smell of cinnamon and nutmeg, and....YUMMMMM!!!

I made a new recipe today, and tested it on three hungry guys at noon. It made three dozen, and they ate a dozen and a half—what does that tell you?

This are a recipe I got off the internet, and it is so simple it is almost silly.

I hope you’ll try them.


1 boxed yellow cake mix
1 can of canned pumpkin
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg

Mix the spices and dry cake mix together and stir. Add the canned pumpkin and mix till just mixed; might be a little lumpy. Spoon into muffin cups, or greased and floured muffin tins and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 min.


That is it!
No eggs, oil, water—na dah!
Warm with butter, they are melt in your mouth good or as my step dad used to say
“These will set you free!” :)
(Oh and the princess baking cups--on sale for 25 cents for 100-cha-ching!)

Family, Freedom and a Future....

This is the year that several of my friend’s oldest childen are moving out of the house and going to college. This is usually considered an opportunity by some for the freedom to pursue the future they have always dreamed of in one form or another.

I spoke with one young woman who is actually opting to live in the dorm while residing in the same town she grew up in so that (in her own words) “I will be close enough to watch and participate in my younger sisters growing up” (she has four younger sisters and her youngest sister is 7).

I couldn’t help but be struck by this as I remember my older sisters looking at going off to college as almost as much of an escape from home and mother as they did the adventure it afforded. I never got the impression they ever looked back, but if they did it was with a sense of relief they were leaving.

I remember being the one left behind………..more than once actually, the perils of being youngest I guess, but as I got older, I was almost as anxious for them to go as they were. You see we were four girls living in the upstairs of a small house and shared two bedrooms. When someone left, everyone sort of spread out, with you eventually getting your own room. That was considered a perk. In a one bathroom house, it was also considered a perk to have one less person to try to fit in front of the mirror in the mornings.

Things have changed so much now a day. Just about the time our kids were old enough to care we moved into a big beautiful new house where they each had their own bathroom—no sharing, no waiting—something their Dad was adamant about when the plans were drawn up (he grew up in a family of 9—one bath).

One of the homeschooling blogs I read has a family of 9 children, one boy, and eight girls. The girls decided that they wanted a home library bad enough that they sacrificed one of the bedrooms for it, turning the one bedroom all the girls now share into something akin to an army barracks with bunks stacked 3 high.

I found all this interesting because obviously the joy found by some at sharing a room, bathroom, and smaller house is different than that of others. Separation is something that is loathed, and decidedly avoided if possible. Perhaps it is the individuals, perhaps it is the parents, perhaps it is the times, or a little of all three.

Whatever it is, it gave me pause at this young woman’s attachment to her younger siblings to the point that she would alter her opportunities (she got a full ride to a university 8 hours away) just to remain close to her siblings and their activities. Somewhere along the line she got the message that you can have it all—family, freedom, and a future.

Good for her!

I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCKKKKKK!!!!!!

First,
I need to apologize to those who might actually follow this blog, to my sisters, and many others who at one time expressed an interest in things “homey”.

The past year has been shall we just say—eventful—but now that things have sort of leveled out, many things that would be appropriate to post here have come to mind so I am going to get up and running again.

Prepare yourselves…………………….