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.
Chocolate Chip Cookies with Date Sugar
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.
Rhubarb Pie
Growing up, I can only remember eating strawberry rhubarb pie. I was happy to learn that plain rhubarb pie is so much better than strawberry rhubarb!
Allan and I were given this recipe many years ago when we were first married. This is the pie we make most often and will eat it often while the rhubarb lasts. We also try to freeze some rhubarb for a special treat later.
Old Fashioned Saltine Cracker Toffee
Andrea loves Saltine crackers. She was very happy to discover this easy candy recipe that uses the crackers to add a nice crunch.
These double easily, but Andrea recommends not making more than you want for the day because they are very addictive and you will easily eat more than you plan.
Venison Stew
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.
Maple Candy
Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
Simple, but very good!
While any asparagus works, the thinner, less woody stalks taste the best.
Luphuftu (Mealie Pap)
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.
Dumplings
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!)
Great Grandma’s Pizzelles
Grandma Bea would make pizzelles and store them in tin coffee containers. After she died, my parents bought a pizzelle maker and passed the recipe on to Andrea.