Merry Christmas!

This is the second Christmas without my Mom. I miss my parents very much. This morning Kevin and I went to Mass as the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame. We sang all of my dad's favorite Christmas hymns. It was very hard keeping back the tears.

Kevin and I are going to spend time today with family in Ft. Wayne. My Aunt Kathy is hosting Christmas this year. For the meat, she is serving ham. My mom always made Grandma's Creamed Potatoes with ham. My mom put the recipe in her "Good Stuff, Vol 1" cookbook so I thought it was her's. I did not realize the recipe was Grandma's until I read the recipe card from my mom's recipe box and it was written in Grandma's handwriting. You can tell by the spots on the card that the recipe was made often.

Since we are traveling, I cooked them in the Crock Pot instead of baking them. They look great!

Enjoy them as much as our family has over the many years!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I found over the time I have spent with my Mom's family in Ft. Wayne is Mom developed different food traditions than her mother, brother and sister. She cooked more Pennsylvania Dutch recipes from my Dad's side of the family. My sisters and I did not get up to Ft. Wayne to spend holidays with Grandma very often so our family recipes are different than my cousins.

Today, Kevin and I are going to spend Thanksgiving with family in Ft. Wayne. I wanted to take something that was very unique that my Mom made that her brother and sister would not have had. She always made Pennsylvania Dutch potato stuffing for every holiday. I think I did it some justice. Of course it will not be as good as Mom's, but I tried. I hope everyone likes it as much as my sisters and I do.

Happy Thanksgiving Mom and Dad!

Graham Cracker Cake

While I was down in FL visiting Nancy at the beginning of August, we decided to make the Graham Cracker Cake. The recipe intrigued us. We added our own touch to it by making it into a somore cake. We added chocolate fudge and marshmallow to the top. We did not know the size pan needed. We used a square pan.

Graham Cracker Cake
2/3 cup sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 teas. baking powder
1/2 teas. salt
2 2/3 cup fine graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup shortening (butter0
3/4 cup milk
1 teas. vanilla
2 eggs (unbeaten)
Sift first 4 ingredients and stir in crumbs. Drop shortening and pour in milk and vanilla, with electric
mixer at low speed, beat until dry ingredients are barely dampened. Then at low speed to medium beat
2 mins. Add egg and beat one min. Turn into pan and bake 25 min at 375 or until done.

Happy Birthday Mom, I miss you!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today would have been Mom's 72nd birthday. Nancy is going to make a cake in honor of her.

Too Hot to Cook!

There have been no new posts this week due to the heat wave here in northern Indiana. Highs of 99 with heat indexes of 115 degrees means no stove or oven for me. Eat out!

I do have a recipe from Kevin that his mom, Jenny Spivey, made for hot, don't want to cook days. Tuna salad on a bed of lettuce. Easy and cool! Thanks Kevin!

Aunt Kathy's Sloppy Joes

Today Kevin and I spent the afternoon painting our deck in the backyard. I wanted to make something easy for dinner and ready whenever we were done painting. Sloppy Joes fit the bill.

My Mom got this recipe from her sister Kathy. I remember when she first made them for us. I thought they were so delicious that I did not want to eat any other kind of Sloppy Joes. I did not have this recipe until I got Mom's recipe box. Now I can make them whenever I want. This recipe is a sweet BBQ sauce so don't expect the spicy bold taste.

This card was written by my Aunt Kathy. This recipe was made often!

Sloppy Joes
1 1/2 lb. ground beef
1 can corned beef
2 onions
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 T. worchestershire
1 1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4-1/2 cup water
1 T. flour
Brown hamburger & onion. Put in crock pot. Add all other ingredients. Cook about 4-5 hrs on low.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Susan, Aunt Kathy and Bobby McDonald

For the 4th of July party at Aunt Louise and Uncle Steve's lake house, Aunt Kathy made Mom's Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies. Mom has a note in her cookbook above the recipe saying "Cindy and I LOVE these cookies!" The quote said it all. Everyone loved the cookies!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teas. vanilla
2 cups flour
2/3 cup cocoa
3/4 teas. baking soda
1/2 teas. salt
12 oz. peanut butter chips

Cream butter or margarine, sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine flour, cocoa, soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture. Stir in peanut butter chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake 350 for 8-10 minutes. Cool 1 minute before removing to rack. Makes about 5 doz. if you only make them small size.

Chicken and Waffles

Tonight we are having Chicken and Waffles. Christal and Brian always request I make this for their friends to try. Christal just got married and is moving to Alaska next week. Therefore, I have to make them one more time for her and so her new husband Sean and try them. And everyone usually makes a funny face when the kids mention to their friends chicken and waffles for dinner, but so far all their friends have LOVED it.

Pastel Pound Cake for the Fourth of July

Kevin and I are invited to Aunt Louise and Uncle Steve's lake house on Sunday, July 3rd for a Fourth of July celebration. Today I made a Pastel Pound Cake to take with us. I don't remember this cake. It was very easy to make. It calls for any flavor of jello. I used a yellow cake mix and cherry jello to make a red cake for the Fourth of July. I also added red, white and blue sprinkles in the cake then decorated it with the same sprinkles.

Here is the recipe card

Pastel Pound Cake
1 package white or yellow cake mix
1 box jello-any flavor
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup salad oil
4 eggs
Put cake mix in bowl and add rest of ingredients. Beat 3 min. Bake in 10" tube pan 59-55 min at 350 degrees. Cool for 15 min before turning out. Sprinkle with powder sugar.

Introduction

Welcome to Carol Ann's Recipe Box. My Mom passed away a year ago at the age of 70. As I was cleaning out the kitchen, I saw her recipe box in the cupboard. This was the box she would open regularly to create wonderful meals and treats for us. The box had changed over the years. At one time, it was a metal green box. Now it is a gray plastic box. I took the box home with me because I did not want the many years of recipes to be lost.

I recently scanned each recipe card. My intention of the scanning project was to put a book together for my two sisters. In scanning the process, I found many of the recipe cards were written in my Grandmother's and Aunt's handwriting. Some of the recipe cards were typed. Other recipes were clippings from newspapers, boxes, magazines, mimeograph copies, and handwritten slips of scrap paper. As I was scanning the recipes, I would look them over. Some of the recipes I did not understand the ingredients or the name. I called on friends to help decipher the recipe and we would end up in a long discussion about similar recipes, memories of the recipe, and family. This led me to start a blog about my Mom's, Carol Ann's recipe box.

As I make the recipes from the box, I'll put the recipe on the blog with a thought about it. Feel free to add your comments about the recipes. Happy cooking and enjoy Carol Ann's recipes!

Susan