Grandma Werner's Fill-a-bits

 Fill-a-bits

4 bags bugles

1 box corn Chex

1 box Crispix

1 cup shelled walnuts

1 cups shelled pecans

4 cups Cheerios

6 cups pretzel sticks

1 bag Fritos

1 1/2 lb. butter, melted

2 tsp. Garlic salt/powder

2 Tbsp. seasoned salt

10 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Mix all dry ingredients together and put in pans. Stir together butter, garlic salt/powder, seasoned salt, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over cereal mixture and stir until coated evenly. Place in oven at 225° for 2–3 hours, stirring about every 30 minutes. (Can leave low and leave overnight.)

This makes two large pans. 

(I cut this in half and had 3 cookie sheets ... so I’m not sure what size pan grandma used or if she used cookie sheets. That’s just want I do.)

Beef Stew

 This is THE BEST beef stew ever! (Photo to come.) After Gideon was born, a friend brought us this stew, and it has been my go-to recipe for stew and for roast. I make the roast the same way, only browning the roast instead of stew meat and then pour the sauce on top, then cook it in the crockpot.

WHAT YOU NEED:

2 lb. beef stew meat
1 pkg. onion soup mix
1 medium bag baby carrots
1 large white onion
1 quart beef stock
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 pkg. sliced baby Bella mushrooms
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup milk
5 lbs. red potatoes, cut up
1 pint sour cream
1 stick butter
dash of milk
chives, to taste

WHAT YOU DO:

In soup pot brown beef with oil (salt and pepper are optional), then set aside. In she pot sauce onions and mushrooms until onions are clear and mushrooms are cooked (3–5 minutes). Add Worcestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar; sauce for an additional 2 minutes then add beef stock, beef, onion soup mix, and carrots. Bring to boil, add lid, reduce heart and simmer for 1 1/2–2 hours (to tenderize beef). Meanwhile, cut potatoes and bring another pot of water to boil to make mashed potatoes. Add potatoes to pot of water  and boil until tender and able to be mashed. Remove potatoes from water and place in large bowl with sour cream, butter, milk, and chives. Mash. When stew is finished, remove lid, turn off heat and mix cornstarch and milk together, then add to stew and stir well to thicken sauce. Serve over mashed potatoes

NOTES:

• I use whole carrots and peel and cut them on the diagonal.
• The beef stock that I prefer is the brand Kitchen Basics; it has a really good flavor.
• I use my Bosch with the whisk attachments to mash the potatoes. I dump in the potatoes, sour cream, butter, milk, and chives and mix it for just about 45 seconds to 1 minute. Any longer than that and the starch releases and the potatoes get sticky.

Grandma Campbell’s Devils Food Cake

One year when we were visiting family in Utah, we happened to visit Jon’s aunt and uncle when they were celebrating his uncle’s birthday. His aunt Marla had made the most delicious chocolate cake I’ve ever eaten. Jon even ate it and raves about it, which surprised me because he HATES chocolate cake. But, this chocolate cake is moist with just the right amount of richness. (I think he’s also biased because this is his great-grandmother’s recipe.)

I’ve made this cake into cupcakes and they are actually the best cupcakes I’ve ever made. The picture below is not the best representation.

GRANDMA CAMPBELL’S DEVILS FOOD CAKE

1/2 cup oil, or melted shortening
2 cups sugar
4 heaping Tbsp cocoa (serving spoon size)
4 eggs
1 cup sour milk (add 1 Tbsp vinegar to 1 cup milk)
3 cups flour
1 cup boiling water
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Cream together oil, sugar and cocoa. Mix in eggs. Add milk, flour, water with baking soda, salt, and vanilla in that order. (Mix after each addition; stir baking soda into water before pouring into the batter.) Bake at 300° for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. (Bake cupcakes for about 18 minutes.) Frost with Cooked Chocolate Frosting (below).

COOKED CHOCOLATE FROSTING

2 1/2 Tbsp milk
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 Tbsp cocoa
1 cup powdered sugar

Shake together (or whisk together) milk and flour until no lumps remain. Cook in small saucepan until very thick, but do not scorch. Put in bowl and cover with plastic wrap (push plastic wrap down onto the surface of the paste so air does not get in). Cool. Cream together butter, sugar, salt, and cocoa. Add to cool paste. Beat well then add powdered sugar and beat well until smooth.

My Favorite Texas Sheet Cake

Texas Sheet Cake is pretty much a staple in every home, right?  And, there aren't very many variations to the recipe, that I found at least.  But, the one ingredient that I love paired with any kind of chocolate baked good is in this recipe ... and I love it (hence the title of this post ... "my favorite").  That one ingredient is: Cinnamon!  I just love the little spice it give to normal chocolate.  This recipe is actually a few recipes that I combined to make it just right.

TEXAS SHEET CAKE

What you need:

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 sticks butter
6 Tbsp. unsweetened baking cocoa
1 cup water
1 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk (I didn't have buttermilk, so I added 1 tsp. lemon juice to 1/2 cup milk and let it sit for a while ... turned into buttermilk in no time!)
1 tsp. vanilla
Chocolate Glaze

How you do it:

Sift together flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon.  Set aside.  Bring to a boil butter, cocoa and water.  Add to dry mixture and beat well.  Mix together baking soda, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla; add to chocolate-flour mixture.  Pour into a greased 10x15 jelly roll pan (cookie sheet).  Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.  While it is baking, make the glaze.

Chocolate Glaze

What you need:

1 1/2 sticks butter
4 Tbsp. unsweetened baking cocoa
6 Tbsp. milk
2 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 - 4 cups powdered sugar

Blend together butter, cocoa, milk, and vanilla in saucepan.  Beat in powdered sugar until smooth.  (If there are clumps of powdered sugar, you can add a few pecan pieces to break them up.)

Sour Cream Waffles

These are THE BEST waffles I've ever made.  I will never go back to using Bisquick or Krusteaz pancake mix for waffles.


SOUR CREAM WAFFLES


What you need:


1 3/4 cup flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
8 Tbsp butter, melted
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
3 eggs
waffle iron


How you do it:


Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt; make a well in the center and set aside.  Whisk together butter, milk, sour cream, and eggs; pour into well.  (Don't worry if the butter sets again ... and don't mix it too much.  The butter and sour cream should look like little clumps in the mixture.)  Whisk just until wet; do not over mix.  Pour a scant 1/4 cup of batter onto bottom of waffle iron and close.  Cook until no steam escapes, about 3 minutes.


(The waffles in the photo have peanut butter syrup on them.  Just heat in the microwave 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1 cup maple syrup.  Yummy, but I still prefer buttermilk syrup.)