Many years ago, Andrea discovered “creamy puffs”. After her first taste she insisted that she wanted to learn how to make them. So, at the age of 9, Andrea learned how to make “French Profiteroles“.
Years later, Andrea still loves cream puffs and insisted that we make them to celebrate National Cream Puff Day (2 Jan).
Fill the puffs with vanilla ice cream for french profiteroles. Filling with whipped cream makes them cream puffs. Either way is wonderful!
Gluten Free Cream Puff
If you want to make these gluten free, substitute the flour with your favorite gluten free flour*. They do not puff up as nicely, and they did not brown the same, but they taste great!
Before getting married, I worked as a third grade paraprofessional. My first year was wonderful. The teachers used me as an under teacher, working with different students and using my strengths to help the classes. Since I am right handed, I learned to write on a chalk board and I taught cursive that year.
Since I interacted with the students so much, they spoiled me often. At Christmas, Brianna brought me a batch of this candy. I liked it so much, I requested a recipe. I have made this recipe almost every year since. Now Andrea makes this recipe also.
We enjoy learning new recipes every winter. Adrian decided that marshmallows sounded good to try this year. He attempted them himself and discovered they were a lot easier to make than he thought.
We used mini chocolate chips, but most of them melted. The next time we make these, we plan to omit the chocolate chips, but cut the squares larger and dunk them in the chocolate.
These taste great alone, but are also wonderful in hot chocolate!
Home made noodles are much better than store bought. They take a little extra time but are easy and very good. We always use a noodle maker since we have one, but rolling the dough by hand does not take a lot of time.
While the recipe says to let the noodles dry, you can cook them right away if you want. They are excellent with butter and garlic, with your favorite sauce or in chicken broth.
For colorful variety, add some pumpkin puree or spinach to the dough. You will need to add extra flour, but the different colors and taste is fun.
Pasties are popular in Calument where Daddy spent a lot of time growing up. He said that Petila’s taxi in Calumet would often take his family to McLain park and then come back at a prearranged time to take them home. His grandmother made them also. There are many recipes for pasties, but all are similar.
Feel free to experiment with the basic recipe. We often make the pasties with cubed meat instead of ground. Be careful not to over stuff the crust, it is much better to have leftover filling! If you can find it, replace part–or all– of the carrots with rutabaga for a more traditional taste.
When serving, I like them best with a little extra butter. Some people serve them with gravy. My mom eats them with ketchup.
My girl friend Heather and I would often make these at her house. We almost always doubled the crust and would eat one batch of it as the second batch baked.
Now Adrian loves lemon desserts and this is one of his favorites.
I discovered some date sugar at a discount store and really wanted to try it. I had read that you could interchange it with brown sugar, but it did not mix in as well as regular sugar did.
We decided to start with our favorite cookies and experiment. The cookies are soft and cake like, but very good! I thought they were a little to sweet, so next time I will reduce the sugars. But everyone else thought they were perfect.
These cookies work well with regular flour if you do not want them gluten free.
I asked Mark what he wanted for dinner when he was home for Spring break. He really wanted a good stew. He gets it at school, but it is often salty and served with noodles.
Stew is a very flexible meal. Add more or less vegetables or add other favorites. Serve with a lettuce salad and maybe some bread, and you have an easy meal.
If you have frozen stew meat, you can still cook it in the crock pot. Skip browning the meat. Start cooking the stew on high in the morning and cook for 8 hours. We prefer to cook the frozen meat for 3 or 4 hours with pepper, garlic and onions, then add the remaining vegetables and spices for the last few hours of cooking.
A simple dish we learned in Swaziland. It is a little tricky to master the perfect cooking time, but once made a few times, you can tell if it is done by how it smells. Great served with vegetable stew.
If you have leftovers, reheat the next day for breakfast. We enjoy it with butter and maple syrup.
My Great Grandma Zetsell shared the “recipe” for these dumplings, though my father thinks the recipe was brought from England with my great great Grandma Heighes. He said that they were a very inexpensive way to fill up hungry tummies when times were tight.
Dumplings are wonderful in chicken broth, with veggies, or with sausage, fried onions, mushrooms, garlic and butter. My favorite way though, is warm with some good butter and salt and garlic.
They do not reheat very well, so only make enough for one night.
(What fun, I learned that they are also called Kluski Kładzione and they are a polish drop noodle. Some recipes use milk in place of the water!)
