Ingredient: milk

Andrea’s Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

These are a nice, soft cupcake. Many who taste them say they are the “best” cupcakes they have ever had. She has also had a few people who do not like cupcakes compliment them and eat more than one.

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

This is basically the inside of a pot pie. Instead of a crust, either serve with fresh biscuits or, like Audrey recommended, cheese crackers! While this is good the first day, leftovers for lunch was even better.

Fish Fillets Baked with Cheese

An excellent way to eat fish! This recipe is from Mom McGuire many years ago. I am assuming she gave it to us when we were first married, because it is in my printed cookbook and not hand written.

Surprise Lemon Bars

I am not sure where I originally found this recipe. I know that we made it a few times in our travels for potlucks so I have had it for all -most?- of the time I have been married. I never tell what the secret ingredient is until people have tried this recipe and say they like it. Most think it is coconut, so why ruin it for them?

The recipe says it makes 2 pies, but we usually bake it in a 9×13 casserole dish and cut it into squares. For a gluten free crust, see notes.

Corn Meal Yeast Bread

This is a good bread to have with chili or soup when you do not want plain cornbread. You can use yellow corn meal if you want, but we prefer to use white. It tastes great toasted and is a good base for BLT’s and other favorite sandwiches.

Muffins

Carol Ragsdale gave me this favorite muffin recipe in South Africa around 23 years ago. It is a great, basic recipe that can be changed in so many ways. Leave plain, add chocolate chips or blueberries, or reduce the milk slightly and make banana muffins. Experiment and see how many combinations you can come up with, but to get you started, check out the options at the end of the recipe.

Saffron Bread

Saffron bread is one of my favorite holiday breads. I think it is best warm with Thimbleberry jam, but raspberry is a good second choice.

This recipe calls for mixing the dough then letting it rise before kneading. We were not sure why, so we did an experiment. We made both dough “exactly” the same (used weights and did at same time) and we kneaded before rising on the one, and after kneading on the other. There is a difference in taste, but it was minimal. However, most everyone voted that kneading after the dough rose tasted better.

This bread drys out quickly. Be sure to cool it and wrap in an airtight bag or tin foil. It freezes well and tastes great toasted.

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 🙂

Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup

Years ago, Allan owned a coffee shop. He enjoyed the people he worked with and got to know many of his guests. It was a simple shop, but the foods were good and he worked hard. This was our children’s favorite soup and often requested it when we went to visit Daddy.