It is the day after a beautiful Easter. It snowed!
Adrian decided to play with our “Rotten” tea recipe so we did not need to use Tang and also to use less sugar. This is what he came up with.
Russian (Friendship) Tea Update
Instant Mocha Mix
Mark and Katie gave us this recipe. Everyone likes as is, but I prefer it with whipping cream to make it creamer and thicker.
Experiment with different powdered creamers and omitting or swapping the spices.
Empanadas
This is very similar to what our Spanish tutor said her mom made when Señora Swart was growing up in Argentina. Since 8 April is National Empanada Day, we decided to surprise her with some during our lesson.
Chocolate chip, brown butter, pecan cookies
Molasses Cookies
A favorite, special cookie our neighbor, Marilyn shares with us over the holidays. The recipe is slightly vague, but if you have made cookies before, adjusting the amount of flour to your preference is easy. I kept the recipe mostly as written, because that is part of its charm.
Salted Caramel Popcorn Topping
We keep searching for inexpensive but fun toppings for our popcorn. This one is really sweet, but it is a great stand in when you want caramel corn without all the work.
Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffin
These muffins are a wonderful fall treat. My mom was given this recipe years ago when she spent the day with her cousin Kathy. They made a few muffin recipes and other fun fall treats. This is probably my favorite. Not only do these freeze well, they are also good for a few days after baking and toast nicely.
You can use all purpose flour, but these are also great as a 50/50 mix with AP flour and 50% white whole wheat. We rarely use the full amount of sugar. They are good with or without the steusel. If you chose not to add the streusel, they are even less sweet, which is a nice change sometimes.
If you prefer to make a loaf of bread, pour into a greased and lightly floured pan and bake for about an hour.
Chunky Apple Muffins
I am not exactly sure when I was given this recipe, but I know it is from my mom. These muffins are a great when you went apple picking and picked a lot more apples than you thought.
Grandma Mabel’s Fruit Cake
This is Grandma Mable’s recipe that she sent to Uncle Tim with some modifications and comments that he and Oma made. While the recipe calls for an angel food cake pan, Uncle Tim only remembers Grandma making in loaf pans. So, that is the way I will make it too 🙂
Instead of using candy fruitcake mix, mix and match your favorite combination of dried fruits; such as apricots, cranberries, currants, golden raisins, candied ginger, orange peel and a few candied cherries.
Wishing Cookies
Aunt Bonnie made us these cookies for the first time nine years ago. She told us that “if you break them into three pieces without talking, your wish comes true”. It has never been proven, since my kids can’t stop talking long enough to break a cookie into three pieces 🙂