Amish Friendship Bread

Granny gave me a starter and I made 2 loaves tonight. ....for those who don't have a starter and wish to start their own Friendship Bread here is the recipe:

**now I have made this bread for years, and ALWAYS put it in a Tupperware dish....Granny gave it to me in a ziplock bag....it was very easy this way!!



Bread:
1 package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups white sugar
3 cups milk


DIRECTIONS
In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand 10 minutes. In a 2 quart container glass, plastic or ceramic container, combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or flour will lump when milk is added. Slowly stir in 1 cup milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Cover loosely and let stand until bubbly. Consider this day 1 of the 10 day cycle. Leave loosely covered at room temperature.

On days 2 thru 4; stir starter with a spoon.
Day 5; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk.
Days 6 thru 9; stir only.
Day 10; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk.

Remove 1 cup to make your first bread, give 2 cups to friends along with this recipe, and your favorite Amish Bread recipe. Store the remaining 1 cup starter in a container in the refrigerator, or begin the 10 day process over again (beginning with step 2).

Once you have made the starter, you will consider it Day One, and thus ignore step 1 in this recipe and proceed with step 2. You can also freeze this starter in 1 cup measures for later use. Frozen starter will take at least 3 hours at room temperature to thaw before using.

Tater Tot Casserole

My mom always said that Wes fell in love with her cooking when he fell in love with me. When we were dating, he ate dinner at our house nearly EVERY NIGHT. His office was about 5 miles from where I lived, plus he worked with my brother, so they both came home to the farm to eat dinner each night...

...and his favorite was...

TATER TOT CASSEROLE

My mom loves hamburger, and casseroles. We first had this dish at a family cookout when I was 13. After trying it, this casserole became a weekly occurance at my house growing up.

Here it is:


1 pound ground beef
2 cans cream of chicken soup---you can use mushroom too... We like chicken better
few sprinkles of Mrs. Dash
1 package tater tots


Brown the ground beef and drain. Stir in soup. Pour the mixture into a medium-sized casserole dish and layer tater tots on top.


Bake 375 for 1/2 hour to 1 hour....depending on how crispy you want your tots.

Now I use a whole bag of tots and a good sized glass baking dish...9 x 13, The littlest kids like their tots without the 'gravy' on them...so using the whole bag assures you a few extra crispy tots on top with no sauce on them!!

New week, New recipes...

It has been a fun week with all of the food we have had in our house!! Thanks to PaPa's garden, we have had some great meals!!

We have had 2 nights of what I call "Vegetarian Vegetable Night"...which consists of veggies and garden goodies. Here is what we have had:

Corn on the Cob

Green Beans

Coleslaw

Cucumbers

Broccoli

Carrots

Mashed Potatoes

Fried Green Tomatoes

Squash--both fried and in a casserole

Rolls/homemade Garlic Bread

Rice

Mac n Cheese


Now I did not make all of these at one time....it was spread out between 2 meals.

Wes did eat leftover Porkchops off the grill one night, but the kids and I eat everything else. I love having so much to choose from.

A NEW FAVORITE!! GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE

Now this one is super easy!! Just use things already in your pantry!!

This is an old Paula Deen Classic:


1 can cooked chicken
2 cans green beans, drained
1 can water chestnuts, drained
1 can condensed cream of celery or chicken soup
1 cup mayonnaise
1 6 ounce box long-grain wild rice, cooked according to package directions


Top with slivered almonds

Mix all, spread in a casserole dish, freeze or bake 30 min or until golden and bubbly.

Now I have only made this 2 times, it is a LARGE amount, so plan on leftovers. The kids aren't so crazy about the almonds, but it gives it a nice crunch!! You can also top with cheese, or even stuffing mix. I left out the mayo and the rice on this last batch. I will let you know how it turns out!

SPAGHETTI PIE

HERE IS A NEW ONE...WE HAVE MADE THIS A FEW TIMES. THE KIDS EAT THIS BETTER THAN LASAGNA!!

1 package spaghetti--try to sneak in whole wheat!! The kids won't know!!
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs, beaten
ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tsp oregano
1 container cottage cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

You gotta cook the spaghetti on this one; al dente, then it will still freeze and cook up good.

**I always toss a bit of Olive Oil in the pot while the noodles are boiling, then they won't stick!!

**I have frozen this recipe at least 4 times, and I have never had the noodles be smooshy.

Rinse the noodles in cold water and let stand. Mix the eggs with the cottage cheese and the parm. Spoon this over the noodles and put into the casserole dish.

* I always spray my casseroles with Pam, not the cheap stuff...

Mix all else with the spag. sauce and spoon over the noodles. Top with the Mozz.

Freeze or bake 1 hour at 375


If you are concerned about the kids finding out their noodles are different, you can try mixing 1/2 whole wheat with the regular noodles. I'll bet they won't even notice!!

CHICKEN CASSEROLE *Elaine's Fave*

This is so simple, and one of our favorites!! We serve this at least every other week. Makes great leftovers too!!


skinless boneless chicken breast meat
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1/2 container sour cream
1 package seasoned cornbread stuffing mix

Mix the cream of chicken soup and the sour cream together. (you can save time by mixing in the same casserole dish) Put a layer of frozen chicken breasts on top. Mix up stuffing and sprinkle on top. Now I have tried this two ways, cooking the stuffing first, and not cooking the stuffing. My family likes fluffier stuffing, so we cook it first. Try to cut out the fat, but just mixing the stuffing with water and leave out the butter. Tastes just as good, and better for your heart!!

You can either: freeze until ready to use or bake it off 375 for an hour. We serve with mashed potatoes, corn or green beans and rolls.

**If you are using a large casserole dish, you can use 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, and the whole container of sour cream. We use this liquid as the 'gravy' for our potatoes. You can also use 2 packages of stuffing mix.

CHILLI RECIPE

With homeschooling and our craft business, I have developed a way to cook that makes it easy to provide nice meals for my family, without me being stuck in the kitchen for 2 hours every night.

For example: This last Saturday I spent about 3 hours (including cooking and clean up time) and I made 8 dishes for the freezer that I plan to serve later this week.

Here they are!

Chilli==2 meals worth
Chicken Casserole--large sized (Elaine's Favorite!!)
Chicken with rice--small sized
Spaghetti Pie--2 meals worth
Green Bean Casserole--my new favorite!!

Here are the ingredients that I use for each. I am not a 'measurer' so if you need a specific measurement, please email me and I will let you know.


The easiest way that I have found to make more than one meal at a time is: doubling up. It is easy to divide the meat in between the casseroles and sauces...I don't eat much red meat anyway, so it helps me stay as close to being a vegetarian as possible Hee Hee

We buy our meat at Kroger, and use about 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef, brown it up with a bit of water and Mrs. Dash (love that stuff) then drain. That one package of meat is enough for us to put into the large pan of chilli sauce and also the spaghetti sauce.

GRANDMA'S CHILLI
seasoned ground beef
1 package of chilli seasoning
or
1 TB of chilli powder
2 cans of beans
1 large can of Tomato Juice
1 can crushed tomatoes

simmer for 1 hour, pour into 2 tupperware containers and freeze.