Chocolate, Cherry, Walnut, No Knead Bread

This easy, no knead bread recipe can be varied in many ways. This is one of our favorites.

This recipe does make a huge loaf of bread. If desired, use all unbleached flour or experiment with your favorite ratio of white and wheat. The finished bread freezes well once completely cooled, but if you prefer to make a smaller loaf, see measurements at the end of the recipe.

Easy No Knead Bread

This is a super easy no knead bread. It needs to sit over night, so plan accordingly.

Snowball Cookies

It has not snowed much this winter, so we have not had much chance to play in the snow. Andrea decided it was the perfect day to make snowball cookies when it started to snow for a short while today.

The original recipe called for 1 1/2 cups finely chopped walnuts (or pecans). We adapted our recipe to use chocolate chips in place of some of the nuts because that is Andrea’s favorite way.

While these are great cookies, they do not stay fresh long. Plan to enjoy them in a day or two, or enjoy them with your favorite hot winter drink.

Home Made Butterfingers

I do not remember where we found this recipe, but it was one of the first candy recipes we learned how to make.

While the recipe is very easy to make, it is also easy to let the temperature get to high. Because of this, I changed our recipe to a slightly lower temperature so that the candy is pulled off the heat earlier and has less chance of being overcooked.

Use your favorite recipe for the dipping chocolate. While confectionery coating is okay, a good milk chocolate or dark chocolate makes the candy taste the best.

Sea Foam Candy

We discovered this candy a few years ago while browsing a candy store. Mark quickly declared it was his favorite candy ever. When looking for “sea foam”, we realized this candy comes with many different names; honeycomb candy, sponge candy, or fairy food.

For fun, we decided we needed to learn how to make his favorite treat. At first, we could not find any recipes or information about it, except in an old cookbook. However, now we can find different recipes for it in cookbooks or looking on line.

This is not a super hard recipe to make, but sometimes it turns out wonderfully and other times it is a little finicky. We have not learned why, but it is a great reason to make more.

We prefer the candy with a touch of molasses (or dark corn syrup) but it is just as good either way. However, the candy lasts longer coated in chocolate, so we highly recommend that if you want to save for longer.

Caramel Popcorn with Pretzels and M&M’s

Allan first tried this popcorn when his mom made them for a trip he took with his father. He enjoyed it so much that he made sure that we got the recipe. The recipe called for pressing the warm mixture into a pan and letting cool before cutting into bars.

I have never made this into bars. I much prefer to bake it little to get rid of some of the stickiness and enjoy it as caramel corn. To make it just a little different, add 2.5 tsp cinnamon to the caramel just before pouring over the corn.

Turmeric Chicken Soup

As the weather cools down, hot soup is a very easy and filling meal. This recipe has been adapted from a recipe that Mom M. gave to Angie who passed it on to me.

The turmeric is very subtle and more could be added easily without overpowering the other flavors. If you like ginger and garlic, go sparingly at first. They are not super strong, but will quickly overpower the chicken.

Serve as is with some fresh bread.

Grandma Reble’s Cornbread

Cornbread goes with so many meals, but it is especially good with chili! This recipe makes a very small batch, but you can double it and bake in larger pan if desired.

Quick Chili

Needing a quick meal, we threw this together one night. If you have time, this is best if you prepare it a day ahead and then reduce to desired thickness while reheating the next day.

Serve with a green salad on the side and corn bread.

We use our homemade chili powder, but feel free to use your own special blend.

Potatoes, Onions and Peppers

While these are not exactly like the potatoes at my favorite food vendor at the fair, they are inspired by them. Serve them with sausage or grilled beef.