Verna's Bean Casserole

Every month our church has a potluck lunch.  The one dish that always leaves empty is Verna's Bean Casserole.  It is delicious!  I have the church cookbook, and discovered the recipe is in there.  I was so excited!  I wanted to can this little bit of heaven and be able to have it for lunch at work, just like I have my homemade soups.  Then I realized several of the ingredients were from a can or frozen bag.  Dang.
This post is going to be my adventure of altering the original recipe from it's current form to a from scratch version that I can put through the pressure canner.  This morning I'll post the original recipe.  As I figure out how I want to change things, and find recipes to use, I'll come back and edit.  Hopefully, by the end, I'll have a lovely version of Verna's Bean Casserole from scratch.

Verna's Bean Casserole
from The Fruit of Our Labor Raymond First Baptist Cookbook 2003

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup catsup
1 tsp salt
1 (1lb) can red kidney beans
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
2 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp prepared mustard
1 (No.2) can pork and beans
1 (12oz) package frozen lima beans

Saute beef and onions in large skillet.  Add sugar, catsup, salt, chili powder, vinegar and prepared mustard.  Stir well.  Add pork and beans, red kidney beans and lima beans.  Pour all ingredients in greased casserole and bake at 350* for 1 1/2 hours.

Spicy Dill Carrot Pickle Slices

Recently, I purchased a 25 pound bag of carrots.  I just couldn't turn down the great price.  It was $2 for a 5 pound bag of carrots, or $7 for 25 pounds!  Of course, after I got home with my ginormous bag of carrots I realized I needed to figure out how to USE 25 pounds of carrots.  On my list of todo's was to pickle some.
Now, I love nice crisp dill pickles.  I have made pickled green beans and pickled asparagus in the past.  I used a recipe a friend gave me, but it was a sweeter recipe.  No one in my family likes sweet pickles.  I still have 2 jars of pickled green beans up in my cupboard 5 years later because no one will eat them.  I wasn't going to make that mistake again!

Here is the recipe that I was inspired by.  A nice sounding spicy dill with NO sweetener.  Of course, I can't leave well enough alone and I had to increase the garlic, reduce the hot peppers, and change all the proportions and instructions.

Here is my recipe.  I'll let you know in a couple of weeks how they turned out!

Spicy Dill Carrot Pickle Slices

Makes 5 quarts

1 9x13 baking dish full of sliced carrots
30 cloves garlic
8 cups vinegar
8 teaspoons dried dill
3 cups water
½ cup salt
3 teaspoons red pepper flakes

Put vinegar, water, dill, salt, and pepper flakes in nonreactive pan and bring to a boil.

In the bottom of each (hot and sterilized) quart jar, slice 3 cloves of garlic.  Fill jars packed with carrot slices up to one inch from the top.  Slice remaining garlic on top of carrots (3 cloves in each jar). 

Fill with pickling fluid, leaving 1 inch headspace.  Put on the lids and rings.

Process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes. 

After jars have cooled, check to make sure they sealed correctly.

Let jars sit for at least a week to let the carrots really pickle.

Okay, I let them sit for two weeks. Oh My Goodness!  These were a hit.  Nice dill flavor, a little spice  but not too much, and a great garlic undertone.  So yummy!  I'll definitely make these again.

Ginger Cream Cookies

One of my favorite cookies is Ginger Creams.  They are so mild and lovely!  Not too sweet, but enough that they still taste like a treat.  They have a very cake like texture.  I’ve always thought they would be delicious made into a sandwich with cream cheese frosting in the middle.  We have always eaten them too quickly for me to find out though!

Ginger Creams

¼ butter melted
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup molasses
2 cups sifted flour
½ tsp soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cloves
½ cup water

Cream together butter and sugar; beat in egg.  Stir in molasses.  Sift dry ingredients; add alternately with water.  Drop by spoonful onto greased cookie sheet. (I often forget to grease the cookie sheet, they will stick!) Bake at 400*f for about 8 minutes.

These would be great with frosting, but I never take the time.

Inspired by the Better Homes and Gardens Dessert Cookbook 1960.

Salsa Chicken

This is one of my favorite go to recipes.  It makes a nice filling for tacos, enchiladas, or topping on a taco salad.  You can increase everything and cook in a slow cooker all day while you are at work, or you can put it together in an evening on the stovetop.  Leftovers freeze well if you make a larger batch.  This recipe is just enough for my family for a dinner.  There might be one or two servings of meat leftover for lunch the next day.

Salsa Chicken
2 chicken breast halves (boneless and skinless)
2 cups of your favorite salsa
1 cup fresh cilantro chopped
1 baby lime, juiced

Put the chicken breast and salsa into a sauce pan.  Simmer until chicken is done, approximately 1 hour.
Once the chicken is cooked through, put the chicken into a bowl to cool a bit.
Chop the cilantro finely.  Add cilantro and lime juice to the remaining salsa in pan.
Shred the chicken breasts.  I use two forks and break the breasts up so they will cool faster.  Then I just use my hands to pull them apart into the shreds.
Stir your chicken breast shreds back into the salsa sauce.

Serve as a taco filling.  Use in enchiladas.  Top a taco salad.

Here are my salsa chicken taco truck style tacos.  It's just the Salsa Chicken filling, homemade corn tortillas, some shredded cheese and a couple of slices of avacado.  AMAZING!!

Fantastic Mashed Potatoes!

My family loves mashed potatoes.  The majority of the time, we don't even use gravy because the potatoes are so good by themselves.  A bit of salt and pepper, maybe a bit of extra butter, that is all these need for great flavor.

The other bonus to these is the price.  If I get a bag of potatoes for $0.99, I can make at least 5 batches of potatoes to go with dinner for my large family.  That is a side dish for five, that costs me less than a quarter!

Mashed Potatoes for 5
4-5 medium potatoes (I usually use one potato per person eating)
3 cloves of garlic peeled
1/4 stick of butter
1/3 cup milk (approximately)
salt and pepper to taste

Peel and chop the potatoes into chunks.  Put the chunks of potato and the garlic cloves into a sauce pan and just cover with water.  Bring to a boil and set the timer for 10 minutes.  Once the timer goes off, drain your potatoes and put them back into the pan.  Add in the butter and milk.  Mash the potatoes using a potato masher.

Salt and pepper to taste when served.  We also like to add a little extra butter when the potatoes are served.  You could also top with gravy if you like.