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.
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.
I never had ginger beer until we lived in Swaziland. It was a great drink for hot days, but we did not make it often. The recipe our friend gave us was very good but required the mix to ferment a few days before drinking. We rarely planned far enough ahead, or we let it sit too long, so enjoying ginger beer was rare.
Then we discovered this recipe. We often make extra base to freeze. It defrosts quickly and is a nice beverage to enjoy on lazy summer days.
We prefer this with sugar, but it also tastes good with raw honey.
Another version that we enjoy is replace the water with very strong peppermint tea that has been cooled and strained.
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!)
When Andrea was nine years old, she discovered cream puffs. She wanted to learn to bake them and would keep asking for me to teach her. Finally, I gave her a recipe for French Profiteroles and let her make a batch. Was she surprised to learn they were cream puffs.
While we usually eat these with whipped cream and homemade nutella or chocolate sauce, they are also very good with vanilla ice cream.
