Cabbie’s Cooking

My mother (Ruthlace) has had this play dough recipe for as long as I can remember.  When my kids were little, we’d make it together.  It really produces some good play dough, and it’s something you can make when your kids have a last minute project to do for school or when they are just in the mood to play with play dough - and you don’t want to drive to the store to buy it.

Home Made Play Dough

1 cup salt

1/2 cup corn starch

1/2 cup boiling water

Mix ingredients well and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until dough is too stiff to stir.  Let cool and knead until pliable.  As you knead the dough, add food coloring to make the desired color.

This is a recipe I’ve had for almost forty years.  It is the quintessential, absolutely perfect combination of chocolately deliciousness.  I first got this recipe back in 1969 shortly after RT and I were married.  The recipe came from his mother, Lillian, and I asked her for the recipe after tasting the pie for the first time after that Thanksgiving dinner many many years ago.  It is my absolute top favorite pie. Give it a try.

Chocolate Meringue Pie

1 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

2 Tablespoons flour

4 Tablespoons cocoa

2 egg yolks (save whites for meringue)

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cooked pie shell

Place dry ingredients, milk and eggs into a small saucepan.  Mix well and cook on medium heat until thick, stirring constantly.  Pour into a cooked pie shell.  Cool.

Meringue:  Beat the two egg whies until stiff.  Fold in 1/4 cup sugar and mix until dissolved.  Spread the meringue on top of the cooled pie.  Pop into a 350 oven for about ten minutes to brown the meringue.

Most people like mashed potatoes, and I’m no exception.  Here is my recipe for ”Heavenly Mashed Potatoes.”  They really are divine! 

Heavenly Mashed Potatoes

5-6 medium white potatoes

4 Tablespoons butter

1 can evaporated milk

salt and pepper to taste

Wash and peel the potatoes.  Quarter the potatoes and place in a saucepan.  Cover with water.  Boil gently until a fork inserted in the potatoes goes in easily.  Drain the potatoes and place in a mixing bowl.  Add the butter and salt and papper.  Add approximately 1/4 cup evaporated milk and mix using a potato masher.  I previously used an electric hand mixer, but that sometimes made them gluey.   So use a little arm strength to mash them.  Mash vigorously with the potato masher to make them as fluffy as possible.  You can add more or less evaporated milk - depending on the consistency you like best.  Enjoy!

One day last fall I wasn’t feeling well, and so I took the day off work.  Maybe it was the time of year or maybe it was because I was looking out the window and seeing all the autumn colors in the leaves, but I wanted some chili.  It took less than fifteen minutes to put it together.  Then I let it simmer on the stove. The chili smelled so good simmering on the stove that I didn’t wait for lunch. I went ahead and had a bowl of it around ten o’clock that morning. It was absolutely wonderful! The navy beans (instead of kidney beans) make it easy on the digestive system. What a great recipe - even if I do say so myself! So here is how I made it:

Home-made Chili

1 lb. ground beef

2 medium onions, diced

bell peppers (green, red, yellow), diced - about 1 cup altogether

3 stalks celery - including leaves, diced finely

2 tablespoons olive oil (needed only if the ground beef is very lean)

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce (or 1 small can tomato paste)

2 cans navy beans (or whatever kind of beans you like in chili.  I just prefer the mildness of the navy beans)

chili powder (to taste - probably a couple tablespoons)

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a large pot.  Add the ground beef, onions, peppers and celery.  Saute until the ground beef is browned and the veggies are tender.  Add the diced tomatoes (juice and all), tomato sauce/paste, the navy beans, chili powder, salt and pepper.  Add enough water to cover everything - make it a good consistency for chili.  Stir well and simmer for a couple hours.  It’ll be ready after about thirty minutes, but it tastes much better if the flavors simmer together for a long time.  And it’ll be even better the second day.

Serve with crackers or corn bread.  RT likes to sprinkle diced onions, a dollop of sour cream and some shredded cheese on top before serving.

My mother, Ruthlace, makes the best dressing I’ve ever eaten.  I’ve always loved my mother’s cornbread dressing at Thanksgiving and Christmas. There just isn’t any other dressing that can compare to it.   Here’s her recipe.

 Cornbread Dressing

2 1/2 cups crumbled cornbread

1 cup dry bread crumbs (use stale rolls or loaf bread)

4 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup drippings (from cooking the turkey) or margarine

1 small onion, chopped fine

2 stalks celery, chopped fine

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground sage

1/4 tsp. pepper

4 eggs, slightly beaten

Combine ingredients.  Add a little more broth or water to make a thin mixture.  Bake 30 minutes at 400 degrees or until it is set.

Not long after RT and I first got married in 1969, someone gave me a recipe for Angel Biscuits.  I used to make them all the time because once you make the dough, you can keep it in the refrigerator for up to two weeks - using some of the dough to make fresh biscuits whenever you’d like.  They’re really closer to rolls than biscuits, and they’re delicious.  They’re so good that my mother, Ruthlace, included the recipe in her book titled Recipes, Rhymes and Reflections.  Here it is:

ANGEL BISCUITS

5 cups self-rising flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup shortening

3 pkgs. yeast (dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water)

2 cups buttermilk

Combine dry ingredients.  Cut in shortening. Stir in yeast and buttermilk.  Roll out and cut, as desired.  Bake in a hot oven (400 degrees)  Dough may be covered tightly and kept in the refrigerator for two weeks.

This is another of my mother’s (Ruthlace) recipes.  She got it from her mother.  And maybe her mother got it from her mother.  My earliest memories include making these cookies at Christmas.  We’d cut out wreaths, Christmas trees and stars, and then we’d decorate them with frosting and sprinkles.  However, they taste best, in my opinion, warm from the oven - with no frosting- and with a glass of cold milk.  What I like most about them is that they’re not overly sweet.  Here’s the recipe:

Old Fashioned Tea Cakes

1 cup shortening

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

3 cups self-rising flour

Mix all ingredients together well.  Add enough flour to make a stiff dough.  Roll out thin and cut with cookie cutters.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees until lightly browned - about 5-6 minutes.